With our first pick we were choosing between DiBiase, Piper, and Lawler. They're all elite heel mic talents, but we liked the package that DiBiase brought the best. Certainly it seems all three are huge talents you can build a promotion around.

I think it's a little crazy that 8 years into his career people think Cena is a better bet than the completed 20+ year careers of those men. For the same reason, The Rock is even a worse reach since you know his career ends after 10 years, at least Cena seems pretty likely to wrestle a fullish career.

Agreed but I don't think that makes him sick value here. There's one guy in particular that I think is, Untouchable was talking about him in the first round

If I don't focus too much on the "you get his popularity from whatever era he was in" line and just try to work with who could be the biggest successes from scratch, my top 5 would be:

1. Rock
2. Flair
3. Austin
4. Hogan
5. HBK

with Sting, Angle, and Undertaker all close behind.

rock is one of the few guys that someone could get away with picking because his high was massively huge. He alone would be able to make some guys in putting them over for your fed that his ten year career would be tolerable. There's also the fact that he could come back to your fed sporadically for feuds to draw some big houses and PPV buys

Woah... you guys need to put who you already drafted at the bottom of your picks. Jake becomes so much better when you match him up with Savage.

The Rock is a solid pick. He owned the **** out of WWE when he was around, every little kid wanted to be him (including me ldo)

hell, I practiced the eyebrow raise to do it like him. I remember not being able to do it, so I used my finger to lift my brow. Strangely enough, I guess it built it up and now I can do it no problem.

<3 Rock

Because the had a feud before?

I'm not sure that's important because generational feuds like Terry Funk vs. Eddie Guerrero or Ted Dibiase vs. Lou Thesz seem more interesting to me.

I would also have Rock as my very first pick. He brings just so much on every level that if I was really starting a promotion he would be the guy that would leave every other company in the dust. I think there's a big gap between Rock and everyone else imo. As great as Flair, Austin, Hogan and HBK are, they were never able to cross into the mainstream conscious to the level the Rock has.

I mean he has a ton of value, and to an organization with a lot of stars like the WWE it's even more, which is why HBK and Undertaker are worth a lot to them even though they don't work house shows and basically only wrestle a few times a month. But the WWE can still throw out main events with combinations of HHH/Punk/Jericho/Orton/Cena. If you had to choose the last ten years of Undertaker or HBK versus ten years of good workrate from Orton or Cena, your organization needs a lot of other stars to justify passing up the guys that can work a lot of matches.

Basically, for the WWE, their replacement level, the guy they're going to slot in the main event when HBK or Undertaker can't go is a lot higher than it's going to be for a federation of all-time greats where the talent is fairly evenly divided 21 ways.

I don't want to just assume what people who are drafting are thinking. But it seems that a lot of the guys around in the last 10 years are very underrated in this draft purely on the basis that they arent 50 years old.

Are there really examples in wrestling history of guys who have been indisputable top draws in their organisation for 5 or so years and then their careers have tanked? It's not unfair at all to assume that Cena and his equivalents from the last 10-15 years end up with a legacy that can be placed alongside the very best of todays older generation.

Funk vs Guerrero is another I would love to see. I just think Savage/Roberts is one of the best feuds of all time so meh lots of bias probably clouding my mind.

Cena was #2 on my list when he was taken. Very good pick by him.

Is dnkyhunter31 around? Somebody said they were talking to him online.

I PM'd him about 45 minutes ago.

this is true, but with the smaller feds that we will inevitably have, someone like Rock who can put over a guy becomes more important for the same reason that he works with a big fed like the WWF. Vince will have more guys to draw from to put into that spot, but what Rock can bring will be of a massive value to a small fed like all of ours will be. Think of all of these feds like the old territories in a way, and the Rock's absences can be worked around.

Plus, because we will be having small feds, while the talent level will be generally high, there will be an inevitable drop off towards the later rounds as each fed will have approx 20 guys. There aren't that many guys over the course of their careers that are at the level that we are drafting at right now. There are a whole lot of Brooklyn Brawlers, Vampiros, and Jake the Milkman Millimans out there then guys who will be the best for all of our feds

it also comes down to how those who pick the rock envision their fed to be

IMO Roberts and Lawler are better picks than Cena, but I guess I underrate Cena a lot?

Roberts is fantastic, btw. He might not have the marquee name draw, but the dude was a master of ring psychology and fantastic on the mic.

my issue with Cena doesn't have to do whether or not he'll have longevity (he most likely will due to how he treats his body and wrestling a style that shouldn't bring about any catostrophic injuries), but more with the fact that he just isn't that good. He's great on the Mic, but isn't good in the ring and quite frankly, his biggest feuds have been with guys who can cover him in the ring and talk just as well as him (if not maybe better) on the mic. Cena is a guy who needs to be carried, and isn't as charismatic as other champions in the past that have needed to be carried.

I can certainly name guys who have held the top belt for a Federation and that the federation has had plans to do things with that haven't done all that well later on in their careers

Like I think Terry Funk slipped so far relative to Mick Foley solely because of Foley's additional visibility in the last ten years.

I had Foley ranked significantly higher due to his ability to play a very funny face.

I have my next pick narrowed down to 2 guys....anyone not in the draft wanna gimme advice on who to take?

Terry Funk is a perfect case of people not knowing too much about the past. A lot of people nowadays only know of him as chainsaw charlie or doing horrible moonsaults in hardcore matches. When he first retired, he was one of the better technical wrestlers out there, he just also knew how to put together bloody matches along with the technical ones too, which is why he lasted as long as he did/has

Depends on who the two guys are!

Right and the point is, the whole lot of Brooklyn Brawlers, Vampiros, and the Jake the Milkmen don't draw. So if you get 8 years of regular schedule and 7 years out of sporadic appearances and maybe two matches a year out of The Rock, you're going to have a lot of trouble drawing for two thirds of the fed's duration. If your plan is to grow as quickly as possible, sell to some sucker businessman after six years that doesn't realize how much of your success if predicated on The Rock then it's an alright plan.

Really curious to see what dnky does here.

that'd be my plan

Plus, with that plan, you can then go into a lot of other federations after staying out of it awhile and be known as the guy who put together a white hot promotion. Worked for Jim Barnett for decades


edit: with these being smaller feds, his absence would obviously hurt after a long time, but we would have to figure a natural progression of things and if one was able to get a white hot promotion, then they'd theoretically be able to recruit and train guys who should be able to step in and make the promotion grow. I know that if I were drafting rock, getting someone like CM Punk would then be a necessity as you would need to elevate someone after a while and you'd have to plan for that in this draft right away

+1

He will probably have the best wrestlers, but they will be guys we never heard of.

QUIET STORMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


watch it be a guy from PWG that just won some juniors tourney