What is the best available talent out there?

[Grimmas]

If you were to start a promotion with money as no issue (you can have as much as you need) what would be the 16 wrestlers you would pick to start.

Let's say available talent, so no WWE, NJPW, or ROH contracts, because those people seem stuck.

 

Who would you build around and why?

 

This is basically an excuse to talk about all the great talent out there that is not signed up.

[Grimmas]

I would do something like (assuming TNA is dead).

 

Matt Riddle

Chris Hero

Zack Sabre Jr.

Anthony Henry

Fred Yehi

Jonathan Gresham

Jimmy Rave

Mike Bailey

Tyson Dux

David Hart Smith

Brent Banks

Josh Alexander

 

Allie

Kimber Lee

Rosemary

Gail Kim

KC Spinelli

LuFisto

Jade

Heidi Lovelace

Veda Scott

Leva Bates

Mercedes Martinez

Tessa Blanchard

 

It's crazy how much talent is out there. Limiting men wrestlers is very very hard.

[WingedEagle]

What are the goals of your promotion?

[soup23]

What are we doing with Lucha Underground talent like Mantanza, Puma, etc?

[Grimmas]

What are the goals of your promotion?

 

Be the wrestling version of CFL to NFL (WWE).

 

Half Canadian roster, equal men and women, have a Women's & Men's main title and tag titles. Work tours and be run more like AJPW in the 90's (ie hierarchy, everyone has a tag partner but works' singles, etc...) A less dangerous style though, less head drops.

 

That kind of stuff.

 

 

 

What are we doing with Lucha Underground talent like Mantanza, Puma, etc?

Can WWE sign them? I think they have some valid contracts.

 

If they are available you got to take Pentagon Jr. and maybe Mantanza and Puma as well.

[superkix]

I was thinking about this the other day in terms of Japanese promotions, with the idea of re-building AJPW by scraping what's left of NOAH and W-1 and picking up some freelancers floating around Japan.

[Grimmas]

I was thinking about this the other day in terms of Japanese promotions, with the idea of re-building AJPW by scraping what's left of NOAH and W-1 and picking up some freelancers floating around Japan.

Who would you take?

[superkix]

I was thinking somewhere around 30 guys to compare with NJ.

 

Heavyweights:

 

 

Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH)

 

Go Shiozaki (NOAH)

 

Masa Kitamiya (NOAH)

 

Davey Boy Smith Jr. (NOAH)

 

Lance Archer (NOAH)

 

Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH)

 

Manabu Soya (W-1)

 

Jun Akiyama (AJPW)

 

Kento Miyahara (AJPW)

 

Zeus (AJPW)

 

Suwama (AJPW)

 

Joe Doering (AJPW – if he returns)

 

Naoya Nomura (AJPW)

 

Yuma Aoyagi (AJPW)

 

Hideki Suzuki (Free)

 

Minoru Suzuki (Free)

 

 

Jr. Heavyweights

 

 

Hajime Ohara (NOAH)

 

Daisuke Harada (NOAH)

 

Kenoh (NOAH)

 

Taiji Ishimori (NOAH)

 

Hiroshi Yamato (W-1)

 

Kotaro Suzuki (W-1)

Seika Yoshiaka (W-1)

Jiro Kuroshio (W-1)

 

Atsushi Aoki (AJPW)

 

Hikaru Sato (AJPW)

 

Tatsuhiko Yoshino (Free)

 

Kazuhiro Tamura (Free)

 

Koji Iwamoto (Free)

 

This is also assuming AJPW keeps their open working relationships with BJW/DDT/K-DOJO to bring in some of those guys for shows.

[Coffey]

If you were to start a promotion with money as no issue, who would be the 16 wrestlers you would pick to start?

 

Sweet this is going to be fun!

 

 

 

Let's say available talent, so no WWE, NJPW, or ROH contracts, because those people seem stuck.

 

 

Oh... *crickets*

 

Woof. Alright, this might ruffle some feathers but hopefully start some conversation:

 

I'll be honest - one of the biggest things that matters to me is physical presence. It's why I like Braun Strowman. And dudes on the Indies? They don't have that. I need wrestlers that don't just look like normal, everyday people. I actually think that's one of the biggest things hurting current WWE. Everyday people do not want to watch guys like Kevin Owens in the main event. That's for hardcore wrestling fans that only care about match quality. But match quality doesn't really sell tickets or merchandise. We, here, on this forum, care about match quality of course, but if we were trying to make a wrestling company that turned a profit? You gotta appeal to the most number of people. You're not going to draw them in by just having good matches with normal looking people. It's different in legitimate sports, like MMA, because if you're a bad dude you'll still get fans from winning. Everyone knows wrestling is a work though, so it's a different beast. How do you even get heat nowadays? Everything is so politically correct & everyone is on social media & everyone has a cell phone that can take pictures/record video 24/7, it seems impossible. The wrestlers themselves are walking on eggshells. They break character constantly. They don't want to piss people off because then they'll sell less T-shirts.

 

Plus, like with ROH in the past, if you just have everyone going out there all the time having MOTYC matches all up and down the card at every event, the matches start to blend together & then none of them really matter anymore or stand out.

 

Even in 2016, I'm still a firm believer that the main event sells the card & the wrestlers themselves, not the promotion, sells the main event. The wrestlers themselves, as characters, telling stories, matters a lot more than the match content. By the time the match is happening, the people have already paid. Your goal is to make them care about the outcome & want to continue to watch the story progress.

 

There's not sixteen guys on the Indies I think I would take. If I include TNA & Lucha Underground, there's a few more people that I would be interested in but I still don't think I can get anywhere close to sixteen. I still think Drew Galloway is really good. I liked Paul Burchill but I just looked him up & he has seemingly retired. Matt Morgan is also retired. I would take Mike Knox, he still seems to be working. I don't know, man, it's hard.

[Grimmas]

What about someone like Keith Lee or Moose or Brian Cage, Coffey?

[joeg]

I think Matt Riddle has some serious box office in him. Like I see him as being potentially the babyface in WWE to replace Cena and Bryan or the biggest top ganjin heel in Japan since Vader. Or anything in between, but i'd be shocked if he didn't make somebody in a major promotion a whole lot of money some day. I see Riddle having that level of box office in him. Other than him... there are guys that I personally enjoy for what they are, but I don't see main eventing any major show, anywhere, in any country, and drawing money. Mechanics like Thatcher, Davey Boy Smith Jr., or Cobb, or brawlers like Los Traumas, or guys that just never worked out like Chris Masters. There are also guys who were huge draws back 10-15 years that are still going strong that are available. Guys like Mysterio or Akiyama. Even then, even if you pick up the 10 to 15 available guys who are good and push Riddle to the moon, you are still going to need to steal another 10 to 20 guys from NJPW, WWE, ROH, CMLL, and you are going to have to do it Vince style. So you better have some good lawyers.

[Coffey]

What about someone like Keith Lee or Moose or Brian Cage, Coffey?

 

I like Brian Cage. Moose is still green but I think he'll improve. He has thus far. Keith Lee, I've not seen a lot but he's fun. I also like Hanson but I'm not sure which ROH guys are under contract & which aren't.

 

That's not to say there's not room on a roster for other wrestlers too, of course. But I was operating under the idea of working from the top down, so starting with the main event.

 

I also didn't mind your pick of D.H. Smith.

 

I know if contracts were ignored my #1 overall pick would be Rusev.