Recreating the NWA today...

[FitFinlay4Life]

Simple premise, you are the 2011 version of Ted Turner and you have decided that you are going to return the NWA to the heights it was once at.

You have an unlimited bank balance and you are going to go out and buy the best that you believe is about today.

Your roster will consist of 50 full time wrestlers.

Like the classic days, there will be 5 titles for these guys to compete for:
World Title
US Title
TV Title
World Tag Team
US Tag Team

You have 2 television programs per week a la WCW circa late 90s, a live 3hour show on a Monday and a pre-recorded (on the Wednesday) 2hour show on a Thursday. On top of this you will operate 12 monthly PPVs, 9 of which will be 3 hours, 2 'major' shows of 4 hours and a 5 hour (have to one up Vince) extravaganza.

So here is your task:
1: Which 50 current wrestlers do you purchase? What criteria - wrestling ability, look, charisma, all rounder?
2: Are you going to balance your roster into a hierarchy or use 'pay per appearance' guys for jobbers / special guest appearances and try to make the full roster look as strong as possible? Are you going to hire managers / valets / GMs (who) et cetera?
3: What direction do you want to follow - ex: SmackDown wrestling rich, RAW promo rich, combination, new direction. Which commentators do you get to accentuate this? Who will be your creative? Do you care about the IWC?


This is just for fun, I'm not looking to take on the WZCW or the Annual WZ tournament (although if someone wants to do more with NWA2.0, I'll not sue). Have fun creating your dream promotion and arguing over schematics.

If this thread is popular (and it doesn't count as a duplicate topic) then I may put up a sister thread were the criteria is opened up to all wrestlers and wrestling personalities throughout history. Just pop in a comment if you'd like to see it and if the force is strong, I'll PM a mod to see if it would be okay.

 

[Dream Machine]

first thing I would do is knock my roster down to about 30 wrestlers, make my Monday show 2 hours, since 3 hours every weeks burns out the crowd and move the show to Tuesday night, take my Thursday show and move to Saturday nights and knock my PPV's down to about 6 at the most

 

[Dream Machine]

I forgot to knock my U.S. tag titles out of the picture

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

first thing I would do is knock my roster down to about 30 wrestlers, make my Monday show 2 hours, since 3 hours every weeks burns out the crowd and move the show to Tuesday night, take my Thursday show and move to Saturday nights and knock my PPV's down to about 6 at the most

I forgot to knock my U.S. tag titles out of the picture

Your the billionaire, the adaptations are yours to make.

However, the reasoning behind my initial concept is that you are, basically, a combination of Turner and Bischoff and you are determined to one up the biggest dog in the pound, the WWe. It wasn't the length of Nitro that was the issue in the day, at it's zenith it contained very little fat. Both NFL and MLB games are 3+ hours of viewing, so it is not an unusual length for a sports themed product. I'm not sure about Saturday nights, in Britain this is the night to go out and post 9pm programming usually reflects this. 6 PPVs however could be an excellent idea, I think many people feel that WWe have over saturated this area of their product.

 

[michael5771]

I would also have a women's title, hopefully limited to those women that can
actually wrestle.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

I would also have a women's title, hopefully limited to those women that can
actually wrestle.

Your dollars, your choice Only reason I didn't include one to kickoff is that the NWA didn't have one back when I started viewing. However I was a big fan of the early days of the Knockouts and I think the talent is out their for a compulsive division.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I have just read your initial post, and you say you have unlimited finances and have a roster of 50 wrestlers. Within that 50 are you able to include any current WWE main eventers, or TNA main eventers, or are you limited to those not currently under contract to a major US promotion?

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

I have just read your initial post, and you say you have unlimited finances and have a roster of 50 wrestlers. Within that 50 are you able to include any current WWE main eventers, or TNA main eventers, or are you limited to those not currently under contract to a major US promotion?

Think of it this way, your Ted DiBiase circa WM3 - everyone has a price. If you want Sting, Cena and Triple H, you get them. But the thing to remember is you get TODAY'S Sting, Cena & Triple H; so Sting is 52, Trips is 42 next month and you'd have to decide if you'd 'nWo' Cena.

Basic idea; we all like to armchair coach WWe, IMPACT and 'Monday morning' WCW & ECW - if we were in the ideal starting position, what would we do. I think it would be interesting to see how you'd set up as opposed to, for example, KB or LitasRevenge78 or the Lariat.

 

[steinerscrewdriver]

Excellent thread, right of the top first thing I do is aquire CM Punk and Y2J, and have them go best of 7 for the World Title, ending with the final match at my biggest PPV. But other then the best of 7 I would keep all my main eventers out of one on one matches with each other making the matches at PPV's more special. 6 PPV's a year, even numbered months (idk why).

Try to pick up 7 to 8 of the best tag teams in the world like the Kings of Wrestling, Americans Wolves and the Motor City Machine Guns. Make the TV title almost like the old WCW Cruiserweight title, make it focused on smaller guys or bigger guys who are able to work that style. And lastly I would raid alot of FCW and ROH talent and working on buliding younger guys up using my veterans to help put them over and show them the ropes.

 

[Trill Co$by]

Interesting thread even though the NWA isn't dead... so instead, I'll just go off by saying this is how I would bring NWA BACK to the lime light.

---

Ok so first off, I would start off by picking a region to set up shop in... WCW started out from a lot of Southeastern Jim Crockette owned NWA branches, and WWF started with a majority of Northeastern NWA branches. I would probably go back to the original "region of wrestling" and set up shop in the Midwest area, with St. Louis being my main home.

Next, I would keep all of the current main NWA guys like The Sheik, Cult Cabana, Adam Pearce, Syxx Pac, Brent Albright and I would push them as my main guys. Also, I'd definitely keep Blue Demon Jr. around the World title picture and maybe sign Homicide as well. Blue Demon Jr. is huge in Mexico and can bring a lot of attention to my region. And then, I'd establish some sort of connection with AAA and some promotions in Europe, Japan, and Australia so we can host cross-promotional events... You know, wrestling unity.

I'd make MsChif the NWA Women's champion again and bring up a few open contracted women wrestlers like Del Rey, Cheerleader Melissa, and maybe even locate Ivory to put the women's wrestling back on the map.

I'd bring up DCFC and Nu Wave's rivalry down in Anarchy to the prime time television while also trying to win back the NWA Showcase originals, the Young Bucks. Bring in Team MACKTION and also I would find the Maximo Brothers. I'd build the Tag title scene around DCFC for a long while before bringing in a Southeastern indie scene favorite, Team Ego to feud with DCFC. The two big man teams would work wonders. And also, I'd bring in Triple X with all three original members... Daniels, Skipper, and Low-Ki.

I'd hire a manager named Joey Nuggs and put him with someone like Kimo or Jacoby Boykins from Anarchy and I'd have him be the mouth piece for them as they reign over the Heritage title... because there wouldn't be a US title in my version. And if possible, maybe I would find a way to sneak Kenny King into a quick title reign.

For "big names" I would try to get someone like Charlie Haas or even Monty Brown to come in for a few appearances. Ask Raven to do a few months with the company to bring in guys like Lodi and the rest of the original Flock as a nice heel stable to start up the "company".

Head up to NWA-ECCW in Canada and see what they have to offer. I hear they've got some good mid-carders so it could be worth the trip. Sign a few and maybe turn the "TV title" division into a regional title, depending on where my dominant location would be. Cause that's what made NWA so amazing was the fact that there were territories. Maybe something like NWA Midwest Championship and have it as the top territory title with the Heritage, World, and World tag as divisional or world titles.

I'd probably turn the US Tag belts into the Midwest Tag Titles while I'm at it and give the titles to Nu Wave. They're not exactly world title material, but they would make territory champions that can draw local crowds. And to help rival them, I'd probably go with Dylan Kage and Lumbee Warrior as the heel "Native Americans"... maybe find Tatanka to manage them. A few more teams I DEFINITELY would bring in to the company would be BLKOUT with Sabian and Ruckus as well as F.I.S.T. And maybe ANX from ROH... wouldn't be a bad idea.

As for PPVs, I don't think I'd do that. Instead, I'd go back to the original style of "Supershows". Maybe every other month, have a big supershow on a Saturday Night with my main show being on Wednesday nights... cause it's not a busy night and easy to monopolize off of. The total amount of "supershows' would be between 4 to 6.

With that said, I'd push my main source of income through DVDs, Merchandise sales, and local investors. It sounds cheap, but it works when you need it to. Maybe I could even find a low budget game company to make a quick NWA game similar to TNA or the Lucha Libre games.

---

Now I can see that a lot of you now will be looking at me like "What the fuck? Where's the big stars, and who the hell are most of these people?" and honestly... that's all fair, I wouldn't expect a lot of the WWE/TNA guys to know who these guys are... considering a lot of people don't even go out to local indie shows. But either way, these are my choices in a promotion. Unlike TNA and WCW, I wouldn't try to bring in big names to give my promotion some attention while losing a lot of money... I'd stick to the younger and hungrier men and women as my workers. Sure, I'd sign guys like Jim Duggan, Robert Gibson, and other legends to creative writing and maybe get Bill Behrens and Matt Classic to help as road agents, but the in ring work would be left up to the young ones..

Besides, being realistic, I can have all the money in the world to try and bribe someone to come from WWE to my promotion, but it would take an idiot to go from WWE's FCW grooming staff to a starting up promoter's company that hasn't even been acknowledged. This is mainly why I would stick to NOT going for big names.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Interesting thread even though the NWA isn't dead... so instead, I'll just go off by saying this is how I would bring NWA BACK to the lime light.

In fairness, I didn't say they were dead I said that "you have decided that you are going to return the NWA to the heights it was once at." Basically, making them a major promotion again, not an organisation lagging behind WWe, Impact, RoH and possibly DGUSA.

Now I can see that a lot of you now will be looking at me like "What the fuck? Where's the big stars, and who the hell are most of these people?" and honestly... that's all fair, I wouldn't expect a lot of the WWE/TNA guys to know who these guys are... considering a lot of people don't even go out to local indie shows. But either way, these are my choices in a promotion. Unlike TNA and WCW, I wouldn't try to bring in big names to give my promotion some attention while losing a lot of money... I'd stick to the younger and hungrier men and women as my workers. Sure, I'd sign guys like Jim Duggan, Robert Gibson, and other legends to creative writing and maybe get Bill Behrens and Matt Classic to help as road agents, but the in ring work would be left up to the young ones..

Besides, being realistic, I can have all the money in the world to try and bribe someone to come from WWE to my promotion, but it would take an idiot to go from WWE's FCW grooming staff to a starting up promoter's company that hasn't even been acknowledged. This is mainly why I would stick to NOT going for big names.

Actually, attempting to build new names is as good a policy as any other, although I am slightly surprised given the names you have mentioned that you mightn't try to bring back some of the Indie alumni like AJ, Joe, Punk, Bourne etc as possibly the public faces to attract the casual fans.

 

[Trill Co$by]

In fairness, I didn't say they were dead I said that "you have decided that you are going to return the NWA to the heights it was once at." Basically, making them a major promotion again, not an organisation lagging behind WWe, Impact, RoH and possibly DGUSA.

Fair enough

Actually, attempting to build new names is as good a policy as any other, although I am slightly surprised given the names you have mentioned that you mightn't try to bring back some of the Indie alumni like AJ, Joe, Punk, Bourne etc as possibly the public faces to attract the casual fans.

Actually, I have listed a few people that a casual fan might know. Someone like Low-Ki, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, The Bucks (Gen Me) and Syxx Pac... maybe I could even bring in MVP... I wouldn't want to try and bring in too many bigger names or bigger names that will take away from the focus of my originals.

Besides, with Adam Pearce running as my front heel, I'll be safe for a while in my opinion.

 

[Calderownz]

Simple premise, you are the 2011 version of Ted Turner and you have decided that you are going to return the NWA to the heights it was once at.

You have an unlimited bank balance and you are going to go out and buy the best that you believe is about today.

Your roster will consist of 50 full time wrestlers.

Like the classic days, there will be 5 titles for these guys to compete for:
World Title
US Title
TV Title
World Tag Team
US Tag Team

You have 2 television programs per week a la WCW circa late 90s, a live 3hour show on a Monday and a pre-recorded (on the Wednesday) 2hour show on a Thursday. On top of this you will operate 12 monthly PPVs, 9 of which will be 3 hours, 2 'major' shows of 4 hours and a 5 hour (have to one up Vince) extravaganza.

So here is your task:
1: Which 50 current wrestlers do you purchase? What criteria - wrestling ability, look, charisma, all rounder?
2: Are you going to balance your roster into a hierarchy or use 'pay per appearance' guys for jobbers / special guest appearances and try to make the full roster look as strong as possible? Are you going to hire managers / valets / GMs (who) et cetera?
3: What direction do you want to follow - ex: SmackDown wrestling rich, RAW promo rich, combination, new direction. Which commentators do you get to accentuate this? Who will be your creative? Do you care about the IWC?

WRESTLERS: 2 wrestlers would essentially be jobbers I paid on a per use basis. However, I would only want about 30 constant wrestlers. Those wrestlers would be...

1. CM Punk.
2. Chris Jericho.
3. Christian.
4. Randy Orton.
5. John Cena.
6. Sin Cara.
7. AJ Styles.
8. Crimson.
9. Matt Morgan.
10. Aberto del Rio.
11. Kurt Angle.
12. Mr. Anderson.
13. The Miz.
14. Christopher Daniels.
15. Mickie James.
16. Gail Kim.
17. Melina.
18. Tara.
19. Awesome Kong.
20. Layla El.
21. Serena.
22. Sarita.
23. Wade Barrett.
24. Dolph Ziggler.
25. Daniel Bryan.
26. Evan Bourne.
27. Kazarian.
28. Austin Aries.
29. John Morrison.
30. The Undertaker.

My last pick is mainly for backstage reasons. Keep the boys in line.Managers and agents and what have you will be used when needed. Ricardo Rodriguez, for example, could be apart of the show with del Rio is needed. However, this is the in-ring talent.

The direction would be simple. Do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. The creative would follow those guidelines. If we needed more wrestling to get the point across in angles, we'd have it. Vice versa. However, the majority of the show would involve action, not talking. Talking would DEFINITELY be in there, however.

The internet would be used to our advantage. I would have only three writers. Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman and myself. I would let them handle the majority and simply give my input. However, only we would know what was going to happen in the long and short term until others needed to know. However, we'd feed the internet false stories and scoops in hopes of throwing off the IWC.

We'd also try to get more interactive on the internet. Perhaps like the old WWF hot lines, except via the net and for free. All in character, of course. There would also be no online interviews allowed and the interviews we would allow would at least in part be kayfabed.

World Heavyweight Championship.
United States Championship.
Cruiserweight Championship.
World Tag Team CHampionship.

Who would go for what titles would depend on who was selling, who was over and what made sense. However, with my roster, I have a Cruiserweight division and would thus have a Crusierweight division that replaces my TV title. I would scrap the US Tag Titles all together.

I would have three teams to start out with for the Tag Titles.

Crimson & Morgan.
Ziggler & Morrison.
Aries & Bourne.

They would/could also compete in singles competition once the division expanded and angles finished up.

My Cruiserweights, I believe, are fairly obvious.

I would have only 10 PPVs a year, with only two weekly shows that were two hours long.

December and January wouldn't have PPV. People spend enough money during those months. No need to make them spend more.

FEBRUARY - Back With A Vengeance.

This would be our PPV to come back into homes in a major way. Let the feuds finally end that have been brewing for months now without that big match feel.

MARCH - Regular PPV.

APRIL - Regular PPV.

MAY - World War 3.

JUNE - Regular PPV.

JULY - Starrcade.

Our big PPV. It's around WrestleMania, but it would give fans enough time to feel comfortable spending money on it.

AUGUST - Rebillion.

The Backlash style PPV. In the sense that it deals with any potential hang-over after Starrcade.

SEPTEMBER - Clash Of The Champions.

One, it's a cool name. Two, it's a traditional PPV. Fans seemed to love it.

OCTOBER - Regular PPV.

NOVEMBER - WAR GAMES.

This would end our PPV year in a big way. We'd have it a BIT different than WCW/NWA had it in the past. We'd take the top 5 feuds and have them all settled with almost make-shift teams. For two reasons. One, you'd get a good reason to have a very popular match style. Two, when you did go to legit stables against each other, it'd make the match mean even more.

Monday Nitro would remain the same. However, we'd rename and change Thunder. It would be on Saturdays and I would call it Saturday Night Adrenaline or something. Anything other than Thunder, really.

That's pretty much what I would do.