MLB

God, I can see where that was going and it would've been epic.

Interesting surprises from WCW, @SirEdger. Keeping PE, Riggs, Psychosis alongside the A List stars. Obviously, I am running a W*ING show and Kevin Sullivan was going to be a top, if not my first draft pick.

@jeff5819 Awesome, you got Vince on commentary! Whatta maneuver! I had Jannetty and Cassidy on my draft board.

Ok, please add "Terrible" Ted the Bear and Victor Quinones to the official W*ING USA roster.

Bizarre question @Perfectly Straightedge but I am planning on booking "Terrible" Ted the Bear from BJW. Since it is a wild creature and not human do I have to draft him? I am ok with giving up a roster slot to use him. I do intend to draft a wrestler (I have someone in mind) to portray a bear handler gimmick.

For real, I was ready to pounce on any of those 20 names you exempted. I haven't figured out what I'm doing yet for PBP because I only hear Joey Styles in my head for the American audience. Very intrigued by the late Louie Spicolli (aka Rad Radford) getting tagged. A lot of possibilities with his death quickly approaching in 1998. I absolutely would've taken him at some point in the draft. I will be reading your shows closely, and it will definitely influence some of W*ING's creative direction. I was almost tempted to just say eff it and exempt only Hayabusa and Funk...shoot for some bigger fish assuming I could get my exempts back in the deep rounds since I didn't think there would be interest in them. However, I realized the names I had targeted would likely be "franchised" anyway (Foley, Jericho, Goldust, Sabu, all of the top ECW talent). Better to keep the crew that I originally wanted intact rather than chase a couple big names that *might* slip through the cracks and then go through the hassle and risk of selecting them later on.

Official W*ING USA Roster Exemption List: Crypt Keeper/Freddie Kruger/Boogie Man/Jason the Terrible Funaki Gladiator (Mike Awesome) Hayabusa Headhunter A Headhunter B Mr. Pogo Masato Tanaka Megumi Kudo Mitsuhiro Matsunaga Shark Tsuchiya Super Leather (Cpl. Kirshner) TAKA Michinoku "Terrible" Ted the Bear* Terry Funk Wing Kanemura Manager: Victor Quinones *Wildlife exemption and not counted toward draft.

Bucks are bragging their new deals with AEW are "NBA level" worth. Jaylen Brown resigned with the Celtics this summer for 5 years/$305 million, so Tony needs to seriously be careful there.

Mongo McMichael is currently in intensive care being treated for pneumonia.

I really like balance of this project with two major, two hardcore and two shoot promotions active. Since you're running ECW, @Perfectly Straightedge, we will have something of a "rivalry" but I am open to talent exchanges/invasions down the road!

Please add Victor Quinones to managers for W*ING USA.

Triple H throws all the "flavors of ice cream" into a blender until you can't taste any flavor at all. There is no danger, no shock, no surprises. NXT, bottom line, was a *MASSIVE* failure and Hunter almost got fired over it. I'm sick of him, honestly. I bring it up because it is exactly as Bret described Triple H's in ring career, only in terms of creative. "What has he ever really done?" Hunter always makes the same corny joke about getting into pro wrestling because he didn't want to wear a suit (how ironic!), yet Bret told it like it was that Hunter was a Shawn asskisser and never one of the boys, an office stooge. Watching the Cody doc and Hunter was so boring as usual. I understand he is the corporate "face" of the company due to circumstances. To that extent, he has performed well. But standing around like he's Dana White doesn't add much value in my eyes. No one has gotten a rub off Triple H pointing at them in a photo while holding a belt. Again, he's good as Vince's press agent. "Jolly Old Saint" Nick Khan deserves more of the credit getting Knoxville, Bad Bunny, and Logan Paul into the mix.

The empire is strong, yet how much credit can we give Hunter's creative? Trips is a logical booker. They say it is Business 101 when you are in WWE's position: Better to remain conservative and purchase innovation from outside (that is, raid risk taking indies). Like Bret's famous burial, the Hitman did not view HHH as an innovator in the ring at all. But very, very smart politically. Terrific working with the talent. Reads modern trends better than Vince. But what has he come up with? Nothing. HHH doesn't have a style. His only booking philosophy is "flavors of ice cream" and "harnessing talent". You want to give him the Judgment Day, that feels like a HHH project (Edge felt like he had a big hand in it as well). Sure, Dom has surprised a lot of us, but I think Rhea should be more over and I'm blaming Trips for that. The Bloodline and Cody is clearly VKM/Heyman as executive producers. I think Tony Khan is more creative than Hunter. A lot of Hunter's projects have yielded dismal returns: Dexter Lumis, Karrion Kross, Bronson Reed, No Way Jose, Johnny Gargano to name a few. A reminder that Triple H lost around $80 million in two years on NXT.

It's another cliffhanger with the next pick of the promotional draft: W*ING USA.

Is there a claim order for free agents proceeding the draft?

Good point, I already have Shark and Crusher

Thanks for putting these together @Perfectly Straightedge, they look good to me. Some questions: *Since Onita is the owner can he wrestle on a card or would I have to drop someone to use him as a wrestler? Onita might switch roles depending on what's happening. I am also contemplating using Terry Funk part-time but also on commentary and I want to know if I'd have to release anybody to put him on an actual card. *I want Boogie Man/Jason/Freddy/Crypt Keeper (please add Crypt Keeper) as separate gimmicks that occasionally face and team together. Do I need to draft other wrestlers and put them under those masks? *Can I have Aja Kong? She only had one match in FMW in 1996 but she was active a lot in 1997. Kong might be used as a manager for Mr. Pogo or she might wrestle, I haven't decided what to do yet. *One idea I think could be rad since we're doing shoot promotions like RINGS and Battlarts is to include UFC/Pride 1997 into the free agent pool.

I am in a similar boat as @Control21 with RINGS. I intend to start a promotion called W*ING USA that is a continuation of FMW/W*ING/IWA Japan into the United States to compete with ECW for the hardcore audience. The promotion would be co-owned by Kiyoshi Ibaragi and Atsushi Onita. I am requesting FMW to be my base roster under the W*ING USA banner.

YEAH

Ok, I'll join. Reassuring to know at least if it fizzles out the talent will be redistributed fairly or somebody else can take over the book. What are the default rosters? I saw SmackDownHotel has a filter by specific month and Cagematch has the entire 1996 rosters collectively. For example, Foley worked in WWF, IWA Japan and ECW in 1996.

All those names are egocentric weirdos to a degree (Punk, Omega, Bucks, Cody). It is conspicuous that Omega's footage is absent from the doc (I plan to watch this at some point today). I remember when Cody was shooting in AEW that he made it seem like money was the sole issue with TK. Cody also called out Punk in that promo (before Punk was there), he said something to the effect that Punk lit the match but Cody carried the torch.

Cool @Dav'oh. You have a unique voice here. I wondered what an "Aussie Rules" promotion might've looked like in '96. I haven't done anything like an e-fed in, I don't know...25 years?! However, I'm NEETing right now and have a lot of free time on my hands. I'm worried once I start working again the project will go to the back burner. Do we get to pick the promotion or it's randomly generated? I'd want to run an outlaw mudshow like ECW or W*ING (they ran two shows in '96). I wouldn't be aiming for top guys aside maybe one or two for short term angles.

Could be fun, I have some ideas. I'll play if @Dav'oh signs up.

Given WWE's ties with Mattel that might not have been a coincidence.

They thought Steveson was going to march right in as the All-American Wheaties Hero and that's out of the window already. They wrongly assumed Baron's heat would transfer into that situation. Corbin wouldn't be the guy to showcase Gable's abilities on the mat, y'know what I'm saying? Dragunov got absolutely *zero pop* for his entrance...at least Steveson got a reaction, a big one. They wanted Steveson to wrestle underneath and play the underdog, which @sek69 astutely mocked in the quote above. It feels like they messed up, but the heat was so nuclear maybe he can play the big man on campus 5 star recruit where the office is constantly looking the other way and making excuses for him because of his gold medal.