Thoughts about a 1991 game.

[Autistic Dragon]

I've played three different games on this site, I'm currently in Dawn of War, I was in the 1981 game before it shut down and I'm kinda in the Battle of the Ages but that one's mostly dead. In addition to the ones I've played personally, I've seen several other games set in various periods, 2019, 93, 95 and another in 83. But one year that I think would serve as a good starting point that I haven't seen used is 1991. I feel this is something of a missed opportunity as looking back the wrestling landscape at this time looks quite interesting in hindsight. Here's a rundown of the various companies that operated at various points in the year.

WWF and WCW: established as the business leaders. The latter would have a rough year in 91 admittedly but that seems down to backstage drama instead of a lack of in-ring talent.

USWA: the latest iteration of Jerry Jerrett's legendary Memphis territory, the United States Wrestling Association represents a territory that has likely missed its chance at the big time but still had some good times ahead, such as producing the PWI's feud of the year in 92.

Smokey Mountain Wrestling: Widely considered a hidden gem of early to mid 90s wrestling, SMW was a throwback territory guided by Jim Cornette's traditionalist sensibilities. While you could argue such a promotion always had a limited shelflife, many agree it made excellent use of what time it did have.

Global Wrestling Federation: Long ridiculed for its infamous "Moon rock" angle, the GWF actually has a fascinating place in wrestling history, launching the careers of men like Raven, Cactus Jack, Marcus Bagwell (as the Handsome Stranger), The Patriot & Harlem Heat. It also enacted several innovations like acknowledging a wrestler's previous history or when a wrestler would leave for another promotion.

Universal Wrestling Federation: Herb Abraham's UWF was a shit show of epic proportion, but their was an undeniable level of talent and there's a sense that under more stable leadership it could have amounted to something special.

AWA: I know the American Wrestling Association was technically defunct but Verne Gagne ran two shows in Minnesota during the year as well as releasing a tape of Hulk Hogan highlights so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for a writer to revive it.

I may be overlooking some promotion or another but I think you get the point. 91 was an eventful year in pro wrestling history and would be a natural setting for any future game. Though to be clear i'm not proposing we start such a game at this exact time.

[Control21]

I would definitely be interested if one ever starts.

[jeff5819]

i am currently apart of the Battle of the ages but as it was said in the other post it seems all but dead and id love to take part in something as life is good again, whether that be part of '91 or Battle or both. So i will be keeping an eye on things.

[SirEdger]

As I said in the previous post, might be interested if that ever comes to fruition.

[Perfectly Straightedge]

I still think 1995 would be a great jumping off point. 

WCW

WWF

ECW

SMW

NWA 

I mean the possibilities there would outweigh the 1991 and you get some superstars established like Foley, Bret, Owen, Taker, Austin, Flair, Hogan, Savage, Shane Douglas and many others. 

[Control21]

I like the 1995 concept as well, but anything in the 90s would be interesting if you ask me.

[jeff5819]

anything in the 90's is good with me

[SirEdger]

I'd be fine with 95 myself if that's the path chosen.

[Perfectly Straightedge]

Well, I guess if nobody wants to spearhead it. I guess I will throw some ideas out for what I envision and if people are done. We can start in the Battle for Ages where I will erase everything from there. If nobody likes my ideas, you are welcome to start it, and I will still join to participate.

So this is my pitch I was thinking and looking at things in some research. I would say the perfect year for everything is 1996. Here is the PWI 500 for 1996 to give an idea of some talent that was at the top of the list

http://www.profightdb.com/pwi-500/1996.html

It gives 7 years difference from Dawn of War. So It gives enough time away from Dawn of War that there isn't an interest in fairness with it. Especially if you did August of '96 as the starting point. It would be on the heels of the birth of the nWo for WCW, ECW was gaining traction, and The WWF is in the midst of finding its footing going into SummerSlam with HBK vs Vader as the Main Event. You have WCW going right into the inception of the start of the nWo. I just think it's the perfect leaping point. Plus, it's right where my fandom started. So it's a little bias behind it as well.

Now, if this game was to start or anything. I would think it would need some ground rules just on the importance of talent to a brand. I know most people like to keep up with the realisim which I mean I am all for but it has to have common sense with it. I am not a fan of death in these games. I know it's a hot button issue with project pieces but I think fantasy wrestling shouldn't have death just cause the real world is sad enough and who really wants to write the death of one of their favorites or something along those lines. I know I don't and I wouldn't want anyone of you guys to either. So I would say death doesn't happen. You can retire guys sure, but death I am not going to have happen. Plus I don't want to research the day all these guys passed away. As for when guys retire. I mean we have the benefit of hindsight. So it would be similar to what Dawn of War does. If they worked so many matches in the year. Let's say 10 matches in a year that can be considered active and good to compete for your promotion but you have to have proof. You can't just say well that happen. It has to be clear and with the internet as your disposal there has to be something out there.

Other stuff can be looked at once we figure out who sign up.

1996 Project Roll Call
1. Perfectly Straightedge

2. Control21
 

[Control21]

1996 would be perfect! I can jump right into RINGS when it is starting to reach its peak years with Kohsaka, Tamura, Volk Han, and Yamamoto. 

As for the rules, the initial ideas sound good. I may have my own ideas if I think of any, but I don't have anything to add at this point.

[Autistic Dragon]

A suggestion for roster cap, instead of setting a fixed number for every roster to use each promotion could use the same number of talent used irl. Each promoter could then decide how big or little their roster is.

[Control21]

I'm fine with that. Do we plan on starting with set historical rosters or is there going to be a draft? How will rookies be handled? Will there be a draft for that like in Dawn of War? I know in DoW the consensus is that only North American promotions participate in rookie drafts, which is fine. Although if more than one Japanese promotion is in the game at the start (controlled by a user), we may have to figure out how exactly that will work for this game. 

[Perfectly Straightedge]

Something that sorta plays into the using historical rosters. 
 

why don’t each promotion have a set number of guys that come with the promotion. So if August 96 was the starting point. We could have something like this be the guys that promotion would start with and then the draft for the rest. Historical draft could work as well but I just don’t want people to feel shafted on talent which usually is an issue. 

WCW starts with Hogan, Nash, Hall, Flair and Sting

WWF starts with Austin, Bret, HBK, Taker

ECW starts with Heyman, Dreamer, Douglas, RVD, Sabu

SMW starts with Jim Cornette, Candido, Rock n Roll Express, Dirty White Boy 

As for rookies. I mean just bring the rookies that started each year. In January of each year. As for Japan not partaking in the draft. I don’t know how DoW does it but I wouldn’t mind if Japan competed in the draft. It’s not like guys wouldn’t go to Japan in the 90s. So I would welcome it. Like I said I’m not looking to go so realistic that it becomes a chore to keep up with. Just keeping it simple is alright with me.

As for roster cap. That’s always a tricky subject I guess it all depends on what everyone wants. I’ve done 40,50,60. So whatever consensus is I’m alright with. 

I’ve never actually done a project with preset rosters. I mean maybe that’s the way to go and avoid a draft that could take forever to plan out. We could use references to make each roster set for August of 96 then if anyone wanted to trade, release, sign free agents they could but I just don’t want people to not get WWF or WCW and then have no desire to write because of it. I mean something that could work if we did pre set rosters would be whoever gets those promotions only get like 20 keepers and the rest goes into a draft for the other rosters to pick and choose. So that way it evens out talent. Maybe that could work. Just throwing out ideas. 

[Control21]

I'm fine with any of those options. 

[jeff5819]

I'm down for '96 if we do preset rosters could cap those at say August 1st 1996 Champions plus 10 to 15 others then draft the rest. 

An idea could be start August 1995 an then build go 1996 as the calendar turns for both but either is fine with me

[MLB]

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

[Dav'oh]

Its not often I get mentioned in the despatches, and I certainly wasn't expecting one here, but thank-you, brother @MLB!

If I shift my four o'clock bongs to four-thirty and bring my three o'clock bongs forward to say, two-thirty, that would clear up a couple of hours a day. However.

I have no idea what is going on. Normally, that's par for the course and it's great, but I've haven't armchair-booked since I made a poster for a WWF vs NWA Supercard in 1987 (I think Savage fought Koloff. Or Sting). Does "game" mean there's points to be had? I do stick my beak in on occasion and enjoy what I read, but I think all I'm good for is already being done - the Apter-style recaps of what's going down.

Any "Australasian scene" would have been in its infancy back then, and my only knowledge of the territories came from the aforementioned Apter. I'm happy to join in if there's peripheral roles, or as a special, nay, executive consultant. 

[Perfectly Straightedge]

Well, either of you guys are always welcome to join.

As for the rosters, I thought about this morning, and I feel the fairest and best way to distribute talent is to do the pre-made rosters. This brings the reality that people wanted because the rosters will mirror what was in August of 1996 in the wrestling world, and for those that want to create let's say the AWA or something they will be allowed access to talent because the kicker with doing pre-made is that I am going to allow the promotion owners the opportunity to exempt talent from the draft. The number of talents I haven't decided on. Maybe 10 to 15 can be exempt, and the rest get thrown into the draft. So let's say I got WCW, and I wanted to exempt Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sting, Lex Luger, The Giant, Rey Mysterio, and Dean Malenko; then those would come out of my draft rounds. So I would be skipped because in that round's place would be Hogan, then when the next round comes if I exempted Nash, Nash would be taken off the board and in the spot of my Round 2. 

Round 1 Draft
WWF - Whoever
WCW - Hulk Hogan
ECW - Whoever
NWA - Whoever

Round 2 Draft 
WWF - Whoever
WCW - Kevin Nash
ECW - Whoever
NWA - Whoever


So on and so forth. I believe this is the best way to distribute the talent because it makes the guys who weren't exempt able to go to owners who don't have the star power compared to other promotions, but it will also help the promotions like WWF and WCW keep their top talent and stay true to 1996. I base this on it the expansion drafts. If a new team was to join the NBA, the current teams could exempt certain players from that draft, but the expansion team could pick whoever else they wanted that wasn't included in the expansion draft. This will also make for a fast draft process because fewer talents must be picked and fewer people will be actively drafting. It also makes the owners of the WWF, WCW, and ECW owners more cautious and strategic about who they select as for how Foreign talent goes and would work. I know Control was the only one who wanted to do that style. He could have free reign over his talent. He could do it if he wanted to keep all of his talent. I will not put restraints on foreign talent just because I am not going to lie. I am not that familiar with it, but with having that power, they also lose out on American Talent. So if you want to run a foreign territory. You have your pick of a roster and talent to go along with it, but when you make your exemptions from the draft, you lose out on rounds and American Talent. That's fair because it gives the foreign territory owners free reign over their talent for Japanese, Mexican, or whatever region you select. So you can get a dream roster of foreign talent and then whoever you choose not to keep gets thrown into the draft, and you can use those spots for American talent. 

Before it gets asked, every active wrestler counts as a spot on your roster. So Tag Teams will count as two spots on your roster. This will ensure that rosters are not ballooning to crazy heights and talent is evenly distributed among all owners. The only people who will not count towards your roster would be the following.

Those who don't cost a roster spot.
Your Owner - They come with whatever territory you select
Your Ring Announcer
Your Backstage Announcer
Your Play by Play Commentator
Your Color Commentator
You also get 3 Manager Spots free of charge.

Now if you go over three manager spots, it will cost you space on your roster cap, as for roster caps. I say for the time being all roster caps are set at 45. Now I want to make something clear about that. You can get an increase of 5 talents to your cap on your 1-year anniversary. Now with that being said. I want to be very clear about the activity. I know we all have lives and everything, but for this to be successful, we all have to post shows. So all owners myself included will be under activity rules. You can't go more than 30 days without posting a show. If something comes up and you need an extended LOA that you know will make it to where you can't post for longer than that. Let everyone know; it will be up to review on a case-by-case basis. What happens if you miss the 30 days and never let anyone know? Then another current owner can move up and take over your roster. So let's say I am ECW, and someone else is WWF. Well if the WWF never posts for 30 days and their roster is taken away then I as the owner of ECW will have priority to take that spot. If I want to stay as ECW and not move up to WWF, the WWF roster including the exempts will be eligible for a supplemental draft. If rosters are at the cap, then they will have to cut talent to draft WWF roster members to their roster. So this means if you are a current owner, you have priority over those who want to join that are newer. We are making a seniority rule. So whoever signs up first gets priority on the date they joined the game if this situation occurs.

Free agency would start after the roster exemptions and after the draft. 

So before we get too far into the weeds, let's get a roll call to see who wants to sign up, and then we can go from there.

1996 Project Roll Call

1. Perfectly Straightedge
2. Control
3. Jeff
4. SirEdgar

Who else wants in? 

[jeff5819]

Everything seems fine with me. Would it be a draft for the promotions? 

 

Also I'm on my mobile for a few days as I'm on a business trip and for some reason the mobile version doesn't show me dm's/personal messages so if anyone can post me a link to the page it would be greatly appreciated 

[Perfectly Straightedge]

Promotions would be held in a draft for sure—random generator.

[jeff5819]

Cool. Just need to get the dms sorted now lol

[Perfectly Straightedge]

Yeah, I haven't started anything till I get a sure number of people first, and then I will start everything in the Battle of the Ages Thread. I am currently getting it all updated now.

[Control21]

1 hour ago, Perfectly Straightedge said:

Well, either of you guys are always welcome to join.

As for the rosters, I thought about this morning, and I feel the fairest and best way to distribute talent is to do the pre-made rosters. This brings the reality that people wanted because the rosters will mirror what was in August of 1996 in the wrestling world, and for those that want to create let's say the AWA or something they will be allowed access to talent because the kicker with doing pre-made is that I am going to allow the promotion owners the opportunity to exempt talent from the draft. The number of talents I haven't decided on. Maybe 10 to 15 can be exempt, and the rest get thrown into the draft. So let's say I got WCW, and I wanted to exempt Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sting, Lex Luger, The Giant, Rey Mysterio, and Dean Malenko; then those would come out of my draft rounds. So I would be skipped because in that round's place would be Hogan, then when the next round comes if I exempted Nash, Nash would be taken off the board and in the spot of my Round 2. 

Round 1 Draft
WWF - Whoever
WCW - Hulk Hogan
ECW - Whoever
NWA - Whoever

Round 2 Draft 
WWF - Whoever
WCW - Kevin Nash
ECW - Whoever
NWA - Whoever


So on and so forth. I believe this is the best way to distribute the talent because it makes the guys who weren't exempt able to go to owners who don't have the star power compared to other promotions, but it will also help the promotions like WWF and WCW keep their top talent and stay true to 1996. I base this on it the expansion drafts. If a new team was to join the NBA, the current teams could exempt certain players from that draft, but the expansion team could pick whoever else they wanted that wasn't included in the expansion draft. This will also make for a fast draft process because fewer talents must be picked and fewer people will be actively drafting. It also makes the owners of the WWF, WCW, and ECW owners more cautious and strategic about who they select as for how Foreign talent goes and would work. I know Control was the only one who wanted to do that style. He could have free reign over his talent. He could do it if he wanted to keep all of his talent. I will not put restraints on foreign talent just because I am not going to lie. I am not that familiar with it, but with having that power, they also lose out on American Talent. So if you want to run a foreign territory. You have your pick of a roster and talent to go along with it, but when you make your exemptions from the draft, you lose out on rounds and American Talent. That's fair because it gives the foreign territory owners free reign over their talent for Japanese, Mexican, or whatever region you select. So you can get a dream roster of foreign talent and then whoever you choose not to keep gets thrown into the draft, and you can use those spots for American talent. 

Before it gets asked, every active wrestler counts as a spot on your roster. So Tag Teams will count as two spots on your roster. This will ensure that rosters are not ballooning to crazy heights and talent is evenly distributed among all owners. The only people who will not count towards your roster would be the following.

Those who don't cost a roster spot.
Your Owner - They come with whatever territory you select
Your Ring Announcer
Your Backstage Announcer
Your Play by Play Commentator
Your Color Commentator
You also get 3 Manager Spots free of charge.

Now if you go over three manager spots, it will cost you space on your roster cap, as for roster caps. I say for the time being all roster caps are set at 45. Now I want to make something clear about that. You can get an increase of 5 talents to your cap on your 1-year anniversary. Now with that being said. I want to be very clear about the activity. I know we all have lives and everything, but for this to be successful, we all have to post shows. So all owners myself included will be under activity rules. You can't go more than 30 days without posting a show. If something comes up and you need an extended LOA that you know will make it to where you can't post for longer than that. Let everyone know; it will be up to review on a case-by-case basis. What happens if you miss the 30 days and never let anyone know? Then another current owner can move up and take over your roster. So let's say I am ECW, and someone else is WWF. Well if the WWF never posts for 30 days and their roster is taken away then I as the owner of ECW will have priority to take that spot. If I want to stay as ECW and not move up to WWF, the WWF roster including the exempts will be eligible for a supplemental draft. If rosters are at the cap, then they will have to cut talent to draft WWF roster members to their roster. So this means if you are a current owner, you have priority over those who want to join that are newer. We are making a seniority rule. So whoever signs up first gets priority on the date they joined the game if this situation occurs.

Free agency would start after the roster exemptions and after the draft. 

So before we get too far into the weeds, let's get a roll call to see who wants to sign up, and then we can go from there.

1996 Project Roll Call

1. Perfectly Straightedge
2. Control
3. Jeff
4. SirEdgar

Who else wants in? 

This is fine with me. RINGS was a bit different from the other promotions people will probably select, so it might be best that I set my own roster while allowing others to benefit from the draft.

[MLB]

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. 

[Perfectly Straightedge]

So to make sure the promotions are fairly given out. Once we get a list of people in. I’ll open the sign up for another 24 hours.
 

So that way it gives enough time for whoever wants to sign up can.

So after that I will do a random generator for a promotion draft order where we will go in order of that list, Then from there whoever gets whatever promotion they can do their exempt list so we can start the talent draft after that. Where I will take the promotion draft order and reverse it. So if you got last pick of promotion then you get first pick of talent. It’s the fairest way I could think of distributing talent and promotions.

Well we are glad to have you.