Hansen/Kobashi from July 1993 is my favorite match of all-time.

Quick comments on the last 6 picks:

Best pick: Brock Lesnar. He obviously has huge issues with longevity, but when he was in the WWE, he was probably the best monster heel of all time. 10/10 for look, 10/10 for credibility, and as far as big guys go, he was probably the best in terms of in-ring skills too. That triple threat with Angle and UNDRAFTED at Vengeance was one of the best big spot type matches I've ever seen even though UNDRAFTED wasn't really known as a great worker and Brock worked great matches with several of the other top Smackdown guys as well. Not to mention that he was ridiculously over. I was actually considering him for my 1st round pick, but didn't take him due to the longevity issue and the fact that I knew I'd get ripped for it, and I definitely would have taken him in Round 2 if Cena hadn't still been on the board.

One thing to remember too is that if this is anything like real-life, half of these feds won't even last 5 years as they'll go broke, get bought up, or just slowly get cannibalized by the more popular feds so it definitely makes sense to focus on a high peak/short career guy.


Worst pick: Jim Ross. Saying he's far and away the best announcer in wrestling history is drinking the WWE kool-aid pretty hard. Usually, the color commentator is the more important of the 2 announcers anyway. Just about anyone can do the play-by-play since you really just have to play it straight up like a normal sporting event. This is the equivalent of taking a kicker in the 3rd round of a fantasy football draft. Even if he's far and away the best kicker of all-time (highly debatable wrt Ross), he's still nowhere near as valuable as the #12 RB or the #8 WR.

Not enough love for Mysterio ITT. He's insanely popular among the kids and will sell a lot of stupid mask merchandise and t-shirts. Also has a pretty unique skillset and has been one of the most popular faces for like 15 years. A great pairing with Eddie too.

I'm not wild about Rey. He's great for merch and stuff, but he also benefits a ton from being the only luchajumpyflippy guy that the WWE will ever push. In a promotion not run by ingrates, where you can draft a whole bunch of UNDRAFTED, Rey isn't nearly so impressive or unique.

Mysterio's definitely not a bad pick. He's on the list of 5 or 6 guys I was considering at #49 although there were still definitely at least a couple ahead of him. Aside from the merchandising thing, he's also someone who's shown the ability to perform really, really well in-ring when he's allowed to let loose. He's kind of a forgotten member of the Smackdown Six but he really did have some tremendous matches in late 2003 when he was teaming with Edge.

Mysterio is very over, draws, and works good matches for a long time. He's a way better pick than Lesnar and a very good pick.

That may be true but I don't think that's how this draft is ultimately supposed to be judged.

I admit I'm surprised at just how bad people think the Ross pick is. Oh well, I'll fall on that sword.

Complete list of advantages Mysterio has over Lesnar:
Longevity

I won't even give him merchandising. You can't tell me that Brock didn't sell an insane amount of T-shirts during his WWE run. They actually never really even put out much effort to market really cool shirts for him, but he's one of the very few people out there that the 14-20 crowd won't be embarrassed to wear a T-shirt for. And on in-ring skill, as much as I love Rey Rey, Brock has a clear and decisive edge.

I was thinking the same thing Re: Lesnar vs. Mysterio.

k, will make pick very soon

Rey will be positioned as a main event type guy, but more be a sort of uber-face and will be put up against guys who should work well with him so as to showcase why he is unique wrestler. Rey drew huge in AAA and was treated like crap by WCW(his "win" over nash was a reason I was very against Nash with one of our first picks).

He isn't just lucha, he can do more then just flips and wild flying moves and can craft a really good match. He can also talk and can easily get himself over to a crowd. He'd also fully open up the possibility of a Eddie/Rey feud that could do big business in the southwest and so cal with the possibility of doing a big match in Mexico City or one of the big northern mexico wrestling cities like Guadalajara or Tijuana

with the 48th draft pick, me and b123 have chosen to take the first colored person in this draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LKikbkOT8s

Loved Booker in WCW, didn't like him all that much in WWE. I don't have a strong opinion about this pick one way or another, really.

booker is a good solid pick right here IMO. Can challenge for the top belt, even hold it for a bit, can go both face and heel and can also jump into a tag team with someone and they'd likely be one of the top tag teams in the fed

Booker T's a huge reach IMO. Possibly the least talented in-ring guy under 250 pounds that I've ever seen get a big main event push. And I'm not too crazy about his mic skills either. Talking really fast in a somewhat unintelligible fashion =/= good IMO. I wouldn't have taken him in the first 6 rounds.

I always hated watching Mysterio fight anyone bigger than a LW. It's like, oh yeah, that move is supposed to hurt Undertaker (or whoever)? GTFO!

racist ban

well, are either of deezy and mine's first two picks anything like undertaker?

Peak WCW Booker could work a pretty good match.

yup, and he was saddled with a lot of dumb gimmick matches in wcw from 99-01

Strong dislike for Booker T. Boring in ring, one of the worst finishers ever, stupid kayfabe killing dance move. Hate hate hate.

To me, the benefit of drafting, booking, etc your own fed is that you don't have to deal with ****ty workers like Booker T, and instead can push people with talent. I don't see pre built in "overness" (which imo is the only thing he has going for him) as much of a plus, because in theory I'm getting him over with my booking.

Kinda surprised that the draft is now looking more at the WWE midcard than say the top of TNA and ROH.

He's not really a reach, given Booker T's proximity to the spotlight the past 15 years and his popularity, if you wanted him for your fed you'd have to take him in the first 75 picks I'm guessing. He was 4th on my board when he was taken. That's not to say he was anywhere near the 4th best available, but that's just how it is.

Speaking of Mysterio, I think this is the time to vent about annoying promos from Latino wrestlers where they randomly throw in Spanish phrases.

"This is about my family... mi familia!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6qXMEvOoMQ

With the 7th pick of the 3rd round and the 49th pick overall, I take:

Bob Backlund





One of the biggest stars of the late 70s and early 80s, Bob Backlund went from an amateur wrestling background to become the 2nd longest reigning WWF champion of all time. Given the clause that his popularity from his prime is still going to come along with him, as well as the fact that he apparently had pretty good ability in the ring as well, I think he's an excellent choice to be a main eventer in my program. He also had great longevity as he was still a main event player all the way into the 90s, famously losing the WWF Title to Diesel (Kevin Nash) in 8 seconds after previously winning it from Bret Hart.

Career highlights:

- World Wide Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Federation
o WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Pedro Morales
o WWWF/WWF Championship (2 times)

- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
o PWI Match of the Year (1978) vs. Billy Graham on February 20
o PWI Match of the Year (1982) vs. Jimmy Snuka in a cage match on June 28
o PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1994)
o PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (1977)
o PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (1981)
o PWI Rookie of the Year (1976)
o PWI Wrestler of the Year (1980)
o PWI Wrestler of the Year (1982)
o PWI ranked him # 7 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003.

- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
o Best Technical Wrestler (1980)
o Match of the Year (1980) vs. Ken Patera in a Texas Death match on May 19 in New York City, New York

Roster so far:
Rob Van Dam
John Cena
Bob Backlund