[Lucky]

I like Showdowns. We all do. But we've been doing them for awhile and in general there's been a lot of burn out it seems. So I thought to myself, "what can we do different?" And while I like Showdowns there's something we do on this board that I love. Drafts. So I said, why not a giant wrestler draft where we make our own rosters?

Ok, that's all a lie. Another board I visit is having some kind of weird crazy where they're doing Super Hero drafts and music drafts and all sorts of stuff. And I kinda like the idea and reading the Wrestler Draft has actually been a lot of fun as I see people explain how they'd book these guys and see rosters take shape with different styles and ideas. So I want to do one. And in truth I was going to do a Hot Chicks Draft and even have little cute graphics made up for it this afternoon. But I was doing some mildly complicated thing for what amounted to "list hot chicks." So I figure wrestling works better, and we're all kind of in that mindset at the moment anyway. So I'll try this.

So here's the basic idea. We get 12-20 of us to draft. 8 hour draft clocks, any wrestler all time. 25 singles wrestlers, 5 tag teams (or something like that). You explain why you're adding him and what you're thinking for your company. Maybe when we're done we can have the board members vote on the best promotions or something. I don't know.

Just throwing it out there. If it doesn't sound like fun, it doesn't sound like fun. No biggie. But its a big hit at this other board so I figured I'd mention it. And I don't think it steps on the Showdowns because they're really a once a week kinda thing. You vote when the polls open, maybe you debate a little.

Unless you rather do the Hot Chicks or Heroes or something. Both of which would, at the very least, be shorter but which strike me as less engaging or inclusive.

[Batman]

The first half--the drafting--sounds like it might be fun. But the second half--what we do with the rosters once we have them--seems a bit more problematic.

I mean, people are going to vote for their buddies over who they think has the best roster; let's be realistic.

Maybe we could do something along the lines of the X-Tournament using one of those wrestling simulators?

[Lucky]

I don't even think the 2nd part is all that important. It seems like a 2nd project entirely. Doing that is one idea. What the folks at the other board are doing is that each promoter will have to book 1 supercard and that supercard will be voted on. Perhaps the answer is a showdown of the promotions/supercards that just plays off like a tournament. I don't know.

But honestly, I don't personally care. The draft is the fun for me, the 2nd half is just to give it some structure so people are thinking "I drafted Bret Hart in the 1st round so I needed a huge foil to go against him and there is no better for drama and workrate than Shawn Michaels" or stuff like that. And then just a way to declare a "winner" to reward the guy who does the best job thinking it out instead of the guy who ends up with a random assortment of dudes who don't fit and 17 heels to 8 faces.

But I mean, simulators. Showdowns. Supercards. Polls. I don't know. I'm open to ideas because really, its the draft I think I'll have fun with.

To the point where I really was going to introduce the idea of a Hot Chicks Draft at first. But realizing that there's no real logic to assembling a "team" of women except for a brothel... and that any kind of vote or showdown would end up way less inclusive and interesting than wrestlers or heroes or something like that... I figured I'd try with something that would be more likely to produce a 2nd half so as to appeal to people who aren't crazy draft geeks like me. (I also passed on superheroes because I wasn't sure we'd have enough players to do it justice.)

So I'm really just throwing the idea out there and gauging interest.

[Byrntrigan]

Sounds pretty cool. How would we do the draft order past random number generator?

I'd second salmon's idea of plugging the teams in to that TEW game that gets pimped every year at OO.

That might be fun. Almost like a cross fed X Cup.

For me, that would be the fun. We could do all sorts of gimmick matches, ect. Make wrestlers from different feds work each other, team up, ect.

Sorta like OOWF but with many feds.

[DevSop]

I'm in of course.

Now to stop myself from picking ROH and ECW's rosters.

[Lucky]

For what its worth, I really have no interest in booking a company. Like writing up long term plans and fantasy cards and all that. I mean if people do, awesome. But like I said, my fun is the draft. Sometimes I turn on baseball games and just draft because its fun. I secretly join like 6-8 fantasy leagues each season because I love drafting. So that's why the 2nd half is kinda "meh" to me and the idea of a long term "OOWF" type situation is something I most likely would not participate in (depending on how involved you're talking).

As far as the draft order, random number generator seems fine with serpentine draft rules. So the guy who picks last in the 1st Round picks 1st in the 2nd Round, and the guy who got the 1st Overall Pick is going to have to wait until the end of the 2nd Rd.

[Batman]

I don't think the second half need to necessarily be anything super involved.

But it makes a big difference to our drafting strategy what kind of a second half we're talking about.

Are we drafting teams that will compete each other in some kind of cross-promotional tournament? Or are we drafting rosters that need to compete within the roster to put on the best show?

Either could be fun, which does everyone prefer?

[Lucky]

No, you're right. Its why I introduced the idea in the first place. A draft strategy as opposed to taking the most popular guy available or the guy you like the most even if your promotion couldn't draw 1000 people.

I think booking 1 SuperCard for every promotion makes sense. Sending companies against each other might be fun but it doesn't involve you actually booking a company. And whether we toss them in simulators or put them in polls... it shifts your interest to like "who would win this match?" Which kind of comes back to "most popular" or things like that. Instead you set up your own company and lay out what your "WrestleMania" is going to look like and what all these feuds and matches will be. And which point you're trying to create the company that could consistently put on the best shows.

As if we were entering a world with 20 promotions. You'd draft for how you think you could grab the money and rise up.

But if people like the other things, that's cool.

[jetskid48]

I'd obviously be apart of this too, although without a fantasy-type criteria to grade the roster/card, I wonder how we're going to judge this in a fair way.

[Lucky]

If there is a practical solution, I'm all for it. I'm an avid EWR user and as best as I can tell there's no way to do anything with this there. I don't know if TEW or another simulator would work better.

Again, I'd prefer you building your own promotion for success rather than to beat another promotion. Thus if Skids wanted a bunch of big money drawing '80s guys he could do that. If Dev wanted a workrate and edgey roster of recent guys he could do that. If Moose wanted an old southern brawling fed, he could do that. How to evaluate who "won" I have no idea. But personally I never even seriously thought we needed a winner. Just a waste of time making our promotions and then setting up a card. Call it a day. If we really wanted to we could do a poll or a showdown to see if you rather watch Skid's Wrestlemania or Dev's Final Battle or my Bound for Glory or Moose's Starrcade... but that would just be some epilogue for the real game. Skids and Dev wouldn't have to worry that the board doesn't love their roster, as long as they put on a show that they thing could compete with the others.

But maybe that's the problem with this. I was thinking that the problem would be that people wouldn't want to waste the time and energy on the draft. I never really considered that people might really want a winner and the inability to have a true competition would be what kills this. I figured this had a good chance of dying anyway.

[jetskid48]

I'd do any sort of draft of anything ever. So no matter what I like the idea. And we don't really need a winner. I think it should be more that we all draft, then we try to put together good cards. Each person gets a certain thread in a given section and people comment on their cards, seeing what they did well with the roster, what could have been better. This way, we don't have to worry about winners and we can have conversations on how people did with the roster's available to them. It would give us interesting things to talk about when discussing how to most efficiently work a roster and maximize talent.

[Lucky]

Just as an example I thought I'd swipe a couple of the picks and their explanations, motivations, to show you guys what has inspired me.

forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=90903&view=findpost&p=2693014

My two picks:



The Fantastics
- One of the most underrated teams of all-time. Their matches with the Midnight Express were legendary and I firmly believe had they been given more of a chance, Rogers and Fulton could've been huge draws. They were solid on the mic, great in the ring and both good looking enough to draw in the teen female demographic that the Rockers, Rock & Roll Express and Hardy Boyz capitalized on. They will most certainly feud with Arn and Tully.


Pedro Morales
- The first WWF triple crown champion and one of their biggest pre-Hogan draws not named Bruno. He was huge in New York and especially among the Latino community which, now more than ever, is a very viable demographic to market to. As a hard working, visible minority yet still proudly American he'll be my #2 face after Bret and will help my company expand into Latin America. With him and Bret both being 'worldwide' figures, I can easily run shows overseas with headlining faces who would already be popular and/or respected.

For my 7th pick and the 110th pick of the draft, I choose:

Trish Stratus. The 7 time women's champion and arguably the most over female wrestler ever. Whilst maybe not the best woker ever, certainly very enjoyable to watch. Trish will be the corner stone of my women's divison.

Again, I'm approaching my picks with a "Who is going to draw me money approach?" and not who will match up perfectly with my first pick. That being said, however, this individual would match up well with Andre in a program, and it would do monster business. He'd also be able to work with pretty much anyone else I draft, which is key. It was down to him and one other person who also fits the bill, but I have a feeling I might be able to get him later on.

My next selection is none other than one of the baddest men to ever step in the ring:



The multi-time World Heavyweight Champion...

Harley Race

Just some examples of the kind of picks and thought process that have made this so interesting for me to read and interested in doing it myself.

[The Canadian Content]

I'm in. I like the idea of the draft, and I think card vs. card in showdown form might work, depending on participation.

But seriously, be prepared for Rock 'n Wrestling to rule this thing.

[Mikey]

If we can draft anybody from ANY era, I'm in. If it's limited to current workers, no way.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

I'm in just so Moose can bust out the

[Jack Quinn]

sure what the hell I'll do it

[Tommy]

I'm in.

[Lucky]

Absolutely, Mike. Wide open feel. Any one. Pluck him from any point of his life, any gimmick. Rules as best as I can figure would be:

- Everyone is eligible but can only be taken once.
- Only legit tag teams may be drafted (no Mega Powers, Rock 'n' Sock, Brothers of Destruction that just gives you 2 singles for 1 pick).
- Tag teams must be used as tag teams (so you can't draft Edge & Christian and break them up to do separate feuds, no cheating)

[punk/core]

I'll play.

[Batman]

OK, I think I'm digging the concept a bit more now.

So you draft your roster and then you book your supercard. This can be as simple as a list of matches and results or a long explanation of the feuds and storylines leading up to it. Depending on how much time and effort you want to put into it.

Then we can say "that was fun" and be done with it, or we can figure out a way to pick a "winner." Picking a winner is unnecessary and extraneous, but it could be fun, if we pick a method that everybody thinks is cool.

Here's my proposal:

A showdown would make sense if the promotions were going to fight each other, but they aren't. They're going to be competing for business, and that's different.

I think we should go with a method that is analogous with what we're simulating. Assign everybody a certain amount of money they can spend as a wrestling fan. You're not allowed to spend it on yourself. People who didn't draft can play in this part, too. Let's say everybody gets $400 to spend on their wrestling hobby. And they can buy the PPV for $50 or go see it live for $100 or get front-row seats for $200. Or some kind of tiers like that.

Whoever makes the most money wins.

Of course, we could also make everybody think hard about who they draft by making them pay their talent, with bigger draws being more expensive. But figuring out who should be paid how much sounds too complicated to me....

[Lucky]

Yeah, way too expensive. Making budgets just adds even more complication than I'd want.

I think you have it right. Do the straight and easy draft now, do our supercards, and then see what develops. We'll have weeks of drafting to get the feel of what if anything we want to do.

[iamdoug]

This sounds like a fun way to kill a couple of weeks, I'm in.

[Jobber Blitz]

I'm in.

[Lucky]

Ok

Lucky
Serg
Demko
Dev
Fishy
Solly
Mike
Tommy
Moose
Punker
iamdoug
needsmorecowbell

That's 12 interested parties which is enough for a good draft. I think 14-16 would be more fun and I think there's an appeal to having 20 because really, we're talking every wrestler ever so even with 20 you could be drafting main eventers in the 8th Rd. But that also extends the thing a bit so we'll see. I figure I'll leave this until Monday night to let the work people see it and jump in if interested and then get it going sometime next week.

Simple rule format good with people?
- Serpentine rules; 2nd round goes in reverse order of 1st.
- 30 rounds in which you can pick a singles or tag. Tag takes up one slot but you will have to book them as a tag team. So you can't draft the Outsiders and then have Nash and Hall wrestle singles matches. You can wrestle singles in tags.
- Only legit tags with extended runs count. In other words no Mega Powers, DX, Rock 'n' Sock, or other short term teams of big guys that cheat them onto your roster in 1 pick.
- If you wish to pick an established trio you can but at the cost of your next pick and they must be booked as a unit and cannot be broken. An example would be drafting the Freebirds of Hayes, Gordy, and Garvin in the 8th Rd and losing your 9th Round pick, where you would have to book all 3 together and be unable to have 1 wrestle a singles while 2 wrestle a tag. You are free to pick 2 of a trio if you don't wish to do that (So you can draft Hayes & Gordy as the Freebirds and leave Garvin out there). This only applies for groups that tagged together, so stables do not apply.
- Feel free to ask me about any uncertainty as to the legitimacy of a tag or trio. If you object to a pick question it and we'll make a judgment.
- 8 hour clock for pick, if you miss pick it moves to the next guy and you can pick whenever you get the chance. (Its a short clock and I know its going to screw people with work, sleep, and life... but it will keep the draft moving and since there's no actually contest on the line it doesn't strike me as a big deal. But if people want a 12 hour clock that seems fine.)


Those rules are basically swiped straight from the other draft. If you want to change the clock let me know. The one other thing I'd consider is eliminating the ability to draft a tag team except at the expense of 2 picks. That could make it interesting to judge what teams are worth it or to try and score both halves separately. It also would avoid someone drafting 20 tag teams and hoarding talent.

So in other words, lets say 36 rounds of only singles. If you draft a tag you lose your next pick, a trio you lose your next 2. Too hard? Interesting?

[Fire-Babe]

okay, i'm in