What If...?

[TMM]

(Joke) Hey, he posts once and gets replied yet I post a response to every show in length and nothin' this time. *Cries foul* (End Joke)

Yeah, sarcasm is hard over the interwebs.

On a completely different topic-

WHOO! TV Deal! Taking down the Dubya Dubya Eff piece by piece! WHOO!

...whoo.

As I pretty much end all my posts in the Diary Do-err- The Pythagorus Theorum- good luck. WHOO!

Ha. The reason I replied to dailyxplanet is because I'm at work and it's easy to type like a few lines, rather than a longer responce

Hopefully I can get some things done tonight. Hoping to get into June diary-wise. I'm *hoping* I can get up to date (game and diary wise) by the weekend maybe.

Edited January 16, 2007 by TMM

[TMM]

RICK STEINER SUFFERS NECK INJURY

Monday 28th May 2001

Rick Steiner has suffered a neck injury over the weekend. The injury is believed to be either a slipped disk or at worst, a broken neck.

It’s unknown how Steiner suffered the injury, but what is known is that it wasn’t sustained in the ring. Steiner could be away from the ring for anytime between three months and a year.

GOLDBERG IN CONTACT WITH WWF?

Monday 5th June 2001

We’ve received word that Goldberg had a meeting with WWF officials over the weekend over his possible signing.

Goldberg is currently believed to be sitting out his old WCW/AOL Time Warner contract, which is set to expire in early 2003, and the WWF would have to shell out the full value to terminate his contract. At the moment Goldberg is still keeping himself in shape by working out at home and in the Sting and Lex Luger owned gym in Atlanta.

Goldberg has said on many occasions that he had no interest in signing with the WWF, but with WCW dark at the moment, and without a TV deal, some believe Goldberg could be willing to make the change. Although with guaranteed money for over a year, Goldberg is said to be perfectly happy sitting at home until it expires and then signing with whoever is on top at the time.

FCW TALENT SIGN WCW DEVELOPMENT DEALS

Wednesday 13th June 2001

Several of the superstars under contract to Florida Championship Wrestling have signed WCW development contracts. The Hotshots (Chase Stevens and Cassidy O’Reilly) and FCW champion Scoot Andrews have both signed with the company.

WCW road agent and writer Terry Taylor trained Cassidy O’Reilly, and Taylor was instrumental in signing him, and O’Reilly recommended signing Chase Stevens as well.

Scoot Andrews was signed after a very impressive match with Buck Quartermain on the first joint show between WCW and FCW back in April when he won the FCW title. WCW officials were at a recent NWA: Wildside event where Andrews was defeated by WCW contracted wrestler Chris Harris in a match where Arn Anderson in particular was ‘very impressed’.

[Guest Makegamesnotwar]

UPDATESY! Ooh- let's go at it.

Aw, shuckages with Rick Steiner, though I don't know his stats in your game he was a good wrestler... once upon a time.

Goldberg doing exactly the same thing he did in real life=chuckles.

So I guess FCW isn't your dev. if you are signing guys from it to dev. Hotshots and Scoot are good will provide a boost to(take your pick) cruiser,cruiser tag(BRING IT BACK!), tag, and midcard title divisions. BRING BACK THE CRUISER TAG CHAMPIONSHIP! I WILL MARK!

Small update, but at least it keeps my morale up. Hoping for a bigger one next time but hey- it's more TMM-ness. More of the Trio(we need a better name for them, how about the Triumvirate? Worked for Mark Anthony ), more WCW 2001.

As usual, keep it coming and good luck.

[TMM]

FIT FINLAY JOINS WCW

Wednesday 20th June 2001

Fit Finlay has signed a new contract with WCW today. Finlay left WCW early this year after the return of Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff to power last year.

Finlay has apparently been brought in to be a trainer and road agent, as well as an experienced head in a mostly very young locker room. With guys like Bigelow, Douglas, Hart, Animal and Sid choosing not to re-sign, the vast majority of the active roster are in their 20’s or early-to-mid 30’s.

Finlay was last seen on American TV as a part of the Hardcore Soldiers last year, along with Brian Knobbs and Al Green. Finlay is scheduled to work down in FCW as well as at the Power Plant.

FORMER NBT’S ASKED TO RETURN TO POWER PLANT

Monday 25th June 2001

We understand that several former Power Plant graduates have been asked to return there for a few weeks to ‘retrain’ under Paul Orndorff, Fit Finlay, Arn Anderson and Mike Rotunda. These include the former members of the Natural Born Thrillers (Stasiak, Palumbo, O’Haire, Johnny The Bull, Reno, Jindrak, Sanders) as well as several others in order to brush up their skills in time for the re-launch. It is not officially compulsory, but apparently they’ve been ‘advised’ to go.

While they have been asked, everyone on the roster is free to go down and brush up if they wanted to.

This hasn’t gone down very well with many of those asked, but apparently it’s been explained that it isn’t a punishment of any sorts, but just extra training. It’s been compared to how people who work within offices go on ‘refresher’ courses.

LASH LEROUX BREAKS LEG

Wednesday 27th June 2001

Another WCW wrestler has suffered a long-term injury as Lash LeRoux has fractured the fibula in his left leg recently, WCW.com reports. It’s not known at this point how he managed suffer the injury, but Lash is the fourth WCW wrestler to suffer a long term injury over the past few months.

Another shorty, but hopefully the next few will be longer as I get closer to a TV deal. They've been short because I've been quite busy, so I figured I'd might as well get something in here anyway.

[Guest Makegamesnotwar]

I was very tempted to use my(most important milestone ) 100th post to give a big thumbs up to one of my favorite diaries. I didn't. This is 101, and I see an UPDATESY! Let's go at it-

Hey, Finlay! Not in a wrestling role yet good to have him on board. At least you aren't using a scenario that gives him awful stats like the 2000 one I'm using now. He's sub 50 on each three wrestling attributes. Would be nice to hear his rather unique opinion during some backstage meetings. Hint, hint.

*Not so subtle wink*

Nice to see you getting closer to actually EWRing this baby.

NOOOOO! Do not stick The One To Be Worshiped aka. Sean O'Haire. I mark for O'Haire and I mark hard and long. That didn't come out so well. But the message is- O'Haire is the future of WCW. DO NOT forget that.

Have Sanders manage him, he's a very good manager in EWR, at least. Eventually have O'Haire break from The NBT's and go on a solo run, ending with him getting the big gold belt before 2005, at least. I'd shoot for '03.

Oh, and nice sugarcoating on your severe and most horrible deathly demotions of The One To Be Worshiped and Those Guys Who Hang Around With Him. Just kidding.

Dang, guys are just dropping with injuries here. Lash is a good comedy mid-carder/ manger type ala. Disco Inferno, and the suggested course would be wrestling-minor wrestling-final match-interview segment-short colour commentary gig- manager. At least, that's what I use for Lash and Disco. Did he suffer the injury in a tragic lawnmower accident?

TV deal ahead, doubters! WHOO!

I don't care if it's short. It's more of this goodness. Good luck.

[TMM]

TV DEAL…?

Monday 2nd July 2001

Ric Flair had just come out of a meeting with Fit Finlay, Paul Orndorff and Arn Anderson about the recent progress with some of the wrestlers at the Power Plant. Sending guys like Sean O’Haire, Chuck Palumbo and Mark Jindrak back here was Flair’s idea. He liked them all, they were good guys, but they hadn’t totally grasped everything they needed to be quite there within the company. They needed some more experienced tutelage, which was why Double A, Orndorff and Finlay had been assigned to give them a couple of tough sessions over the week. However, Orndorff reported that their heads weren’t really into it when they turned up, as they were obviously feeling pissed off for being asked to even go after they had already completed a course at the Power Plant and had, what they had seen as, earned their stripes within the company. Flair had told the trainers to push them all their limits and beyond, just to teach them a lesson. Arn Anderson in particular felt disrespected at the attitudes at some of the guys, and Flair promised he’d do something about it.

Flair was leaving the building when his phone started ringing.

Flair: Hello?

Bischoff: Hi Ric, it’s Eric.

Eric Bischoff had been spending nearly all his time trying to put together a viable package offer to present to various TV companies, but his efforts had failed with ABC, the USA Network, CBS and a few others to date. Bischoff had a meeting scheduled today with Fox.

Flair: Hi Eric, how’s things going?

Bischoff: Well I’ve met a few representatives so far, and things seem to be going well. I think that there are people here who are very interested in us.

A few weeks ago Flair would’ve been excited by Bischoff saying this, but he’d said it every time. Bischoff seemed to get overconfident when it came to these meetings recently. Overconfident or over exaggerating, whichever one. Flair figured it was over exaggerating, and Flair lost any enthusiasm whenever Bischoff talked about them being “very interested”.

Flair: Oh really? What’ve they said?

Bischoff: Well, I mean nothing specific, but they sound interested in what I’ve had to say to them. Anyway they want to continue things tomorrow. I think they’re gonna talk about things, so I think you and Steve should come up for the meeting.

Well, they hadn’t had a second meeting with anyone before, so maybe there was something in Bischoff’s enthusiasm this time. Flair picked it up as well. Flair was excited about the possibility about being on Fox. Fox is a big network, bigger than TNT perhaps, bigger than TNN, which the WWF are on, so Fox would be fantastic.

Flair: Ok then, well I’ll book get us a flight organised…

Bischoff: No don’t worry it’s all been sorted out on this side, I’ll fax you over the details.

Flair: Well, ok, we’ll see you tomorrow then.

Flair hung up the phone and put the key in the ignition and headed home. Tomorrow Ric Flair and Steve Borden would be heading to New York.

[Guest Makegamesnotwar]

UPDATESY! Let's go and hit it-

Just mention the words "TV deal" and I'm hooked. See, you mention a meeting between Flair, Finlay, Orndoff and Anderson yet don't write it. Which makes me sad. But still, it's an update so that's good. DAMN YOU FLAIR! Sending The One To Be Worshiped to development. And don't you try to sugarcoat it! Yeah, I'd be pissed off too once I paid my dues and "earned my stripes." Of course Arn gets pissed. Isn't that pretty much his only mode of action? Double A...

Darn, when I saw the word Bischoff I was expecting Bischoff to punk Flair out over sending the future of WCW down to dev. But a TV deal is just as good. Fox seems like a network that might pick up WCW. WHOO! Interested, things seem to be going well. I like that you insinuate that Flair thinks Eric is just a lying bastard. Good to see that you(maybe) read my complaint about Eric's dwindling status in the TV industry and how the Triumvirate(yeah, that's a cool-ass name) would be better off hitting the triple team move- The TV Device. Ok, that wasn't funny. Darn. I try.

Well, anyway, did I mention WHOO! Flair, Sting and Bischoff are going to wheel and deal those Fox guys brains out of their heads! WHOO!

As usual, good luck.

[pokerfreak]

Still loveng the updates. Damn your wrestlers are dropping like flies. Hopefully that sputter of injuries ends soon. I'm very glad to see that your almost a the point of doing shows as I want to see what one of your authentic shows are going to be like. Keep it up.

[TMM]

TV DEAL WITH FOX…OR IS IT?

Tuesday 3rd July 2001

Ric Flair and Steve Borden arrived in New York early that morning, and had met up with Eric Bischoff at the airport. Bischoff filled them in on the progress he’d been making with them, and explained that things seemed to be going very well. The three of them arrived at Fox headquarters and met up with the men who they would be entering into negotiations with. Bischoff did the introductions, and they got started.

Both Flair and Sting had a basic understanding about how these sorts of negotiations worked, but this was clearly Bischoff’s arena. Bischoff was selling WCW to Fox like it was something they needed, forget something they might want, Bischoff was trying to convince them that they NEEDED them. At the moment, the Fox suits weren’t overly impressed with what Bischoff seemed to be offering. One of the men, seemingly the one in charge, however, seemed very intrigued. He spoke up and explained that one he was actually a very big wrestling fan. He brought up stuff like Hogan vs. Andre at WrestleMania III and the popularity of the Ultimate Warrior. He said that WCW tried and failed to recreate the success that the WWF had had in the late 80’s numerous times over the years. He did say mention that it was an honour to meet both Ric Flair and Sting, which impressed both men, and gave them hope because they seemed to have a possible supporter at Fox. However, that seemed to crumble down when he said that what he had seen over the past couple of years from WCW embarrassed him. In the preceding years, the WWF was clearly the best and yet during that time WCW seemingly did nothing to even attempt to compete. This grated Bischoff, who quickly explained that Time Warner disliked wrestling and wanted nothing to do with it. This didn’t particularly wash with the Fox representative, who said that blaming the network is not an excuse for bad TV. The trio all knew he was right there, they knew the last few years of WCW TV had been, at worst, diabolical. It seemed as though there were reluctant thoughts of failure, but they wouldn’t give in. It seemed that the one in charge would like to give them a shot, but needed a good reason, and Bischoff was going to give them one.

[Later]

WCW will be back on TV. The words ran through the trio’s heads and they could scarcely believe it. Bischoff had managed to sell the idea of WCW onto the Fox representatives, and neither Flair nor Sting were quite sure just how that was, but quite frankly they couldn’t care less. WCW will be back on TV…better than that; WCW would be on FOX!!!

After a while of ironing out the details, the Fox representatives explained that a contract was being drawn up for them to sign, and as all parties concerned would like to get this finalised as soon as possible it would be ready tonight, and Bischoff, Flair and Sting were welcome to stay here or leave and be contacted to return soon.

[That evening…]

Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff and Steve Borden returned to the offices to see a TV contract sitting on the table. They quickly read through it, and were ready to sign when they saw which channel they would actually be airing on…it wasn’t Fox itself…it was FX.

Might add a further update tonight, but hopefully by the weekend I can get started on the first show!!!

Edited January 23, 2007 by TMM

[pokerfreak]

Nice little scam to have pulled on the trio, I wonder if there will be any aftermath since they thought they were actually going to be going on Fox and not FX.

[Vunsev]

Have just spent my dinner hour readin this.

Was annoyed to come to the end of it.

Please post more soon.

PS Push Booker, Johnny Stamboli, Mike Awesome and Lance Storm, Sean O Haire, Vampiro, Animal

Also try to sign Kane, Rob Van Dam, Rhino and Tajiri.

Just some thoughts from a 2001 diary I'm doing myself.

[TMM]

WCW OFFICIALS MEET WITH FOX

Tuesday 3rd July 2001

Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair and Sting were in New York today meeting with Fox officials over a TV deal, and it’s expected that something may have been wrapped up in regards to getting a television show. Bischoff was there yesterday as well, and it’s believed that Flair and Sting have come up to finalise things.

More details as we get them…

JIMMY HART OPENS XWF

Wednesday 4th July 2001

At the same time WCW are seemingly on the verge of signing a TV deal, former WCW and WWF manager Jimmy Hart has announced, along with his friend Brian Knobbs have opened up a new wrestling company called the XWF. Apparently “infomercial guru” Kevin Harrington is providing the financial backing for the company.

Hart and Knobbs left WCW earlier this year, and they have been working on this project for a while and decided that now was the time to start it up.

On the XWF website, Jimmy Hart has made a statement regarding the company. Below is an excerpt from the site.

“Finally there is an alternative! Not a fan of the WWF? Bored waiting for WCW? Well the XWF is your solution! The very best of the wrestling legends, as well as the stars of tomorrow thrown together in a product for the whole family! No more prima donnas, no more politics, in your face!”

The rest of the statement can be found on the XWF website, found here:

www.xwfwrestling.com.

WCW NITRO TO AIR ON FX

Thursday 5th July 2001

WCW.com have confirmed that WCW have agreed a television deal with the Fox-owned FX channel, and will start airing Nitro on the week starting July 16th.

But will not go head-to-head with WWF Raw as Nitro will start airing Wednesday the 18th at 9/8 CT and is two hours. Apparently Fox themselves don’t believe that Nitro can compete with Raw at this point, despite Eric Bischoff actually pushing for it.

From what we understand, WCW believed they would be airing on Fox actual, but a TV deal is a TV deal, but apparently Flair was upset with this deal, but it’s been signed, and work is going into constructing the set in preparation for the TV debut.

WCW.com has also announced that tickets for the first few Nitro shows will go on sale over the weekend for a special cut-down price to get fans back into the swing of things.

[Toasterovenmakingtoast]

Nice twist with th FX thing. I should go into my 2001 game and see what the FX channel's ratings are. I am so excited that they are finally getting a TV deal!

[TMM]

Nice twist with th FX thing. I should go into my 2001 game and see what the FX channel's ratings are. I am so excited that they are finally getting a TV deal!

I actually made my own scenario using Anthony's and put FX in myself because I've read in a few places that had WCW been bought by Fuscient, FX were interested in putting them on TV, so...

Thanks for the replies everyone. Should get an update or two done tonight, and should begin work on the first show over the weekend, and hopefully get it up before next weekend. That is my schedule!

[TMM]

PREPARING FOR FX

Monday 9th July 2001

It had been a hectic couple of days for Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair and Sting, what with WCW signing a deal with Fox networks to air WCW Nitro on their FX channel, and overseeing set designs as well as working on booking the upcoming programs for the first few weeks of WCW TV amongst many other things. Flair had been calling around arenas in an attempt to book the buildings for future Nitro’s, while Sting had been meeting with various members of the roster for a variety of reasons.

One thing they had agreed on was the need to bring in some new talent early on so any new WCW fans could get to know them quickly, as well as letting established fans get use to seeing new guys in the ring with guys who have been around in WCW for a while. They planned to bring in at least four guys, with all of them probably coming in from FCW, and they had already laid out plans for two of them in specific. A big point of contention between the three of them was about Monty Brown; they had all agreed that if handled right, he could be what Goldberg was for them back in 1998, but better. The problem was, Bischoff wanted to bring him in and introduce him immediately, but both Flair and Sting were agreed that he belonged nowhere near a WCW ring at this point in his career. Bischoff pointed to Goldberg being untrained when he came in, but Flair and Sting’s argument was that Goldberg was exposed a lot, and his early exposure definitely got to his head; a point that Bischoff reluctantly agreed with.

Booker T, Scott Steiner, Torrie Wilson, Lex Luger, Stacy Keibler and Sting had filmed a couple of commercials over the weekend that, once the touch-ups and editing had been done would start airing on FX tonight, and would be pushed heavily. The WCW owners had been given assurances that Nitro would be advertised hard before it’s debut, and the Fox officials had even said the commercials would air on Fox every so often as well, so the trio were definitely hoping for solid ratings going into the first Nitro.

Bischoff had spoken to Jeremy Borash, and his job in pushing WCW was to have a new interview every day with a WCW contracted worker about the re-launch and about their careers. Bischoff’s idea was to try and transfer some of the wrestlers excitement to the internet fans who, if Bischoff was honest, he didn’t particularly care for, but Sting, and in particular Flair were convinced they were important to the product. The first man interviewed was Eric Bischoff himself, as he believed he’d be the perfect person to go first, what with him being one of the owners.

All in all, things were very hectic for the three owners, but they were just happy to be doing it because it meant WCW was back.

[KingofKings24]

Yes! WCW is back on air! I cannot wait for the first new TV show! And good idea with Brown, that is a very sound business move.

[pokerfreak]

Yes, finanly we are going to see a show. I hope its up soon.

[TMM]

WCW SIGNS ONE, RELEASES FOUR

Friday 13th 2001

WCW.com has today announced the releases of the Harris Twins as well as Air Raid (AJ Styles and Air Paris). The website gives no reasons for the releases, but ends with "we wish them all the best in their future endeavors." Ron and Don Harris were apparently released due to lack of ideas, as well as the fact WCW is looking to debut a couple of new young teams over the coming months, and the Harris' are seem as surplus to requirements. Air Raid however are seen to have been a solid team, but WCW management only really saw a future for Styles, but decided to let them both go to allow them to work more regularly than they would for WCW. They will continue to use them in dark matches if they're in their in the same area. All four releases were said to be amicable.

While WCW have gone and released four, they've also signed former ECW Tag Team champion Johnny Swinger. They haven't signed Simon Diamond, but are apparently going to but him in a tag team to join the Cruiserweight Tag Team ranks, and may team with either another former ECW alumni in either Cash (Kid Kash) or Jason Jett (EZ Money). Swinger teamed with Jason Lee and was defeated by Rey Mysterio Jr. and Billy Kidman in the tournament to crown the first Cruiserweight Tag Team champions.

There may be several more releases to come over the next few weeks. WCW superstars were apparently told that signing the initial contract to transfer over the WCW contracts from AOL-Time Warner contracts didn't necessarily mean they would be be given job security because if they wanted that, they could've stayed with AOL-Time Warner.

Not much, but a little update. Been scarce recently because the internet on my comp has gone down for the time-being, and I'm doing this from work.

I've started work on Nitro and I'm about half way through, and to warn you, I'm not writing up promos at the moment, and am attempting a 'Scott Keith-esque' style, which is the best way I can think to describe it. It's what suits me right now, but we'll see how I feel down the line.

Edited January 30, 2007 by TMM

[pokerfreak]

AJ Styles fired! What gives? I figured he'd be one of your future stars for sure.

[ChrisO]

Yeah, when I saw you had AJ Styles on your roster I was hoping you would make him into a big time star pretty quick, but, I guess not, but, I really don't think that's a very sound business move, he's not very over, but, he can be pretty quick.