With the first pick in the Draft, PWO selects...

[Coffey]

So a couple friends and I have been talking about trying to figure out a way to do a Fantasy Sports style pro-wrestling draft. With the idea being that it's like Fantasy Football in that you have a pool of talent, you pick wrestlers from the designated era (for us it's 1988-1994 United States) and then you compare lists/ideas.

 

There's a few different ways to approach it. You can take the big stars, like Hogan, and use the idea of drawing money. You can take the best workers, and just try to have great matches. Or you can take perhaps underutilized guys with the idea of doing better with them or guys that you know later became bigger stars (like Austin). Or you could just pick your favorites, of course.

 

We're still working out the details. I don't really want it to just turn into a fantasy booking post-draft and I don't really know how to avoid that. Maybe some sort of peer review for best draft or something. This idea actually spawned from a road trip from Indiana to Georgia. We stopped at an Antique mall & found some old TOPPS WCW trading cards from 1992-1993. We each opened a couple of packs & tried to draft them & make a main event. Yes, we're all full grown men.

 

Anyway, it gave me a pretty good idea for a thread though (at least I think so). If you had the top three picks in something like this, which people are you selecting & why? There's a lot of talent in that era. You have guys like Ric Flair, where we know they can work, draw & promo - plus he can pretty much work with anyone. Guys like Barry Windham, that were young, handsome & showed ridiculous promise & fire. Or do you go for a big heel that stands out because of how different they are in look/size, something like that? Does someone not draft Flair because he was 39-years-old in 1988?

 

What about in a different era, like the modern era? What about if we open it up to areas outside of the United States to include Japan, Mexico & other promotions?

 

There might be some sort of project here I try to do later. It would probably work pretty well on a message forum if you had participants, a selection order & an actual pool of names to choose from.

 

In the 1988-1994 era, my first pick has to be Ric Flair. But I have no idea on second & third pick. It's too hard to decide what I would want. I'm leaning toward Rick Rude & Ricky Steamboat. I'm a fan of a more sports/athletic contest style of wrestling. Maybe Ted DiBiase would be a better pick than Ricky Steamboat. Sometimes I wish DiBiase went to WCW in the early 90's instead of staying in WWF and doing the Money Inc. stuff. I've always been really high on Dustin Rhodes too but I figure I could get him a little later on in the draft.

 

In the modern era, from the current landscape, I can't imagine not picking A.J. Styles first. Not a great promo, not a great look, but a helluva talent so I guess that speaks to me valuing in-ring work above most else. My second pick is Roman Reigns. He's really good. Not much else to say there, I think he works as a top guy even with the backlash he gets in WWE. He's a good worker with a great look. Third pick would probably be Rusev but that might just be because I'm a mark. But I think he's a good worker, decent promo & a good heel. He's also only 31-years-old. If you open it up to non-WWE promotions as well, A.J. Styles is still in the running at the top but there's a lot of other talent elsewhere that would be interesting to me, like Pentagon, Jr. & Tetsuya Naito. I'm not as high on Okada as some but hard to deny the year he's having.

 

So, who you picking in 1988-1994 & present day with your top three picks? Who do you think will be the most popular picks from each era? Is anyone not picking Ric Flair or A.J. Styles? I'm curious how the selections of picks from a fantasy draft would compare to final order rankings in the GWE list.

 

'88-'94 (U.S.):

 

1. Ric Flair

 

 

2. Rick Rude

 

 

3. Ricky Steamboat

 

 

Present (WWE):

1. A.J. Styles

2. Roman Reigns

3. Rusev

 

Present (World):

1. A.J. Styles

2. Tetsuya Naito

3. Pentagon, Jr.

[LowBlowPodcast]

If this was more formal, I would definitely jump in. It would be a fun little thing to do over a specific time period and not having to worry about the big post draft booking... maybe just do one big show kind of thing?

[Grimmas]

Really depends on the year. Early enough Kerry Von Erich, Steamboat, Hennig, or Magnum may be number 1. Later on you an add a Bret or Warrior.

[LowBlowPodcast]

If I were going straight 1988-1994...

 

1. Hogan as my draw... I think it's been shown that he was possibly the only major draw in professional wrestling during that time period.

2. Sting as my up and comer... He was a better worker than Warrior and with the right setting he could have had a different career trajectory.

3. I really tossed it up for the 3rd pick... I mean Flair is the obvious choice... but the other part of me wants to pick someone off the cuff... given his 1988-94 are very strong... I would look at Rick Rude to be that 3rd pick...

 

Alternates for that pick... Vader is up there and so is Ted Dibiase... Randy Savage is next in line but you'd have to factor in his 1993 - 94 announcing but that early run would be amazing.

[joeg]

88-94

1- Hogan

2- Hansen

3- Sting

 

Now-

1- Kenny Omega

2- Braun Strowman

3- Matt Riddle

[peachchaos]

Objectively Hogan should be the #1 pick until 1999. Obviously there was money in a heel turn which hadn't been approached in 1988. He just came off the widely successful Andre feud and was headed for Savage. If you stayed the course with the Savage feud but threw Flair in the mix I think we'd have a very compelling end of the decade.

[Cap]

My buddy and I did little All Time draft a few years back, just the two of us. We were filling out rosters of 100 wrestlers/managers/announcers/personalities and each day one of us had a pick. It was a lot of fun. The first 40 picks or so were especially fun because that is where we were stealing from each other. there was no real game, but it was just drafting our all time dream rosters. A blast.

 

Anyway....

 

88-94 (US)

1. Flair

2. Rude

3. Savage

 

88-84 (World)

1. Flair

2. El Dandy

3. Hansen

 

Present (U.S)

1. Styles

2. Trevor Lee

3. Owens (I know.... i know....)

 

Present (World)

1. Walter

2. Styles

3. Naito or Okada

[SmartMark15]

Love games/exercises like this. One of my favorite versions of it was YouTuber mickeybabylon's Who Ya Got? project. It would be interesting to see people's choices for that template.

 

88-94 (US)

1. Hogan

2. Flair

3. Vader

 

88-94 (World)

1. Hogan

2. Hansen

3. Flair

 

Present (US)

1. Styles (Original, right?)

2. Strowman

3. Reigns

 

Present (World)

1. Styles

2. Ishikawa

3. Naito

[LowBlowPodcast]

Love games/exercises like this. One of my favorite versions of it was YouTuber mickeybabylon's Who Ya Got? project. It would be interesting to see people's choices for that template.

 

88-94 (US)

1. Hogan

2. Flair

3. Vader

 

88-94 (World)

1. Hogan

2. Hansen

3. Flair

 

Present (US)

1. Styles (Original, right?)

2. Strowman

3. Reigns

 

Present (World)

1. Styles

2. Ishikawa

3. Naito

 

What was the template?

[SmartMark15]

He separated it into divisions: heavyweights, light heavyweights (or juniors/cruisers), tag teams, and personalities/non-workers. There was a set number for each division as well. You could pick any wrestler in history and specify which era of theirs you wanted too.

 

https://youtu.be/Vachogbq2w8

[LowBlowPodcast]

He separated it into divisions: heavyweights, light heavyweights (or juniors/cruisers), tag teams, and personalities/non-workers. There was a set number for each division as well. You could pick any wrestler in history and specify which era of theirs you wanted too.

 

https://youtu.be/Vachogbq2w8

 

Nice... would be a fun undertaking here with enough people involved. I'd be in and willing to put together a list with someone else if interested. Even if we used the PWO Greatest Wrester List as a starting point.

[SmartMark15]

 

He separated it into divisions: heavyweights, light heavyweights (or juniors/cruisers), tag teams, and personalities/non-workers. There was a set number for each division as well. You could pick any wrestler in history and specify which era of theirs you wanted too.

 

Nice... would be a fun undertaking here with enough people involved. I'd be in and willing to put together a list with someone else if interested. Even if we used the PWO Greatest Wrester List as a starting point.

Definitely would be interested to try that again. It was a fun project when it first came out.

[LowBlowPodcast]

I think we get a list of people interested think of a couple little guidelines and maybe put together a full list with the greatest wrestler of all time names and some outliers. Then we do the draft and maybe you can showcase your roster with one major show.

[joeg]

I would take Omega over Styles. Not that I even really like Omega. I think Styles is a better worker and a better athlete. Styles works better as a heel and as a babyface. However Omega has the bigger personality, is the better promo, and is the physically larger person. And most importantly Omega has proven to be a better draw. You look at the numbers NJPW did in any building with with Omega on top vs Styles on top they did better with Omega.

[superkix]

I think we get a list of people interested think of a couple little guidelines and maybe put together a full list with the greatest wrestler of all time names and some outliers. Then we do the draft and maybe you can showcase your roster with one major show.

 

I'm down for this.

[Grimmas]

Rules depending, I'd be in.

[LowBlowPodcast]

What kind of rules are you thinking? If we just do a simple huge draft with 10 people per se and then with your roster of maybe 25 to 30 rounds you create one big show I think that would be pretty simple right? I think if we use the parameter 1988 to 1994. Perhaps make a list of qualified tag teams and just like other drafts if you draft a tag team they take up two rounds. We could always add in the idea of Japanese Talent along with Mexican Talent along with North American talent in a real hodgepodge if people wanted. If you wanted to make more than one show that would be up to you but it would be just a simple project with the draft being the biggest part of it. Perhaps when you draft somebody you kind of put the year of them that you want. For instance if I were to draft Vader I would have a 1992 behind it saying that is the year in which I would want him in his prime. What do you guys think?

[LowBlowPodcast]

I also think it would be fun instead of using real promotions or anything like that if you made up your promotions name. Just as kind of a fun little fantasy type deal

[dkookypunk43]

I'm down definitely if you were to do this

[Beast]

I'm in

[Blehschmidt]

I love drafts. I'd like to be part of this if it's being done.

[LowBlowPodcast]

Okay fellas... I think we have some momentum with this... should we move this over to fantasy booking?

 

I have got 5 of us now... should we go to 10 or 15 so it is actually manageable?

1. Low Blow
2. Superkix
3. dkookyPunk
4. Beast
5. Blehschmidt
6. SmartMark15

 

Also, talent wise... are we just doing North America or do we open up Mexico and Japan?

 

Can we split up some work on the list?

 

Good parameters for 1988 - 1994?

[SmartMark15]

I'd like in please.

[LowBlowPodcast]

I'd like in please.

 

 

In.

[Grimmas]

I thought I was in?

 

Rules as in, year. 88-92 seems broad, but if that is the plan. 88 and 92 are vastly different for many talents.

 

Also, tag teams, areas, etc...