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Post by Joey on Dec 30, 2015 21:33:14 GMT -5
Chapter 6: Housekeeping (July 2001)
In a move that surprised absolutely no one, WCW owner Mark Cuban gave Eric Bischoff complete control of WCW and told him to do whatever it took to get WCW back to being able to compete once again and told him that if he needed to fire anyone to do it and if he needed to hire someone, do it. Bischoff took this quite literally as Tony Schiavone was immediately fired and Eric Bischoff sat at the announce desk with Scott Hudson the Wednesday following the Great American Bash and claimed that this move represented WCW moving into the future and ended up firing Scott Hudson soon afterwards before hiring Kevin Kelly as the new lead announcer and Bischoff hoped that he'd become the voice of WCW much like Jim Ross was the voice of the WWF. He also managed the huge signing of Roddy Piper who would be the color commentator of Wednesday Night Nitro.
Furthermore, Bischoff decided that he was going to do some housekeeping of the roster as well and started with terminating Buff Bagwell's contract. Following this, a list of wrestlers having their contracts terminated surfaced and they included Diamond Dallas Page, Konnan, Mike Awesome, Kid Romeo and Evan Karagias. The creative team wasn't very pleased with the releases but Bischoff promised that there would be many hirings to come as well.
Bischoff made good on his promise and a large list of new stars and little known names were signed to the WCW roster and they are as follows: Masato Tanaka, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Juventud, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Bryan Danielson, Brian Kendrick and Nuufolau Seanoa (he would wrestle under the name Joe Seanoa). The creative team members were more than happy with the new faces that they had to work with and Tanaka and Tajiri were teamed up as The Dark Empire.
While these changes were occuring within WCW, Wednesday Night Nitro was still on air of course and was consistently pulling 1.1-1.5 ratings which was extremely well considering that just 2 months ago they had a 0.4 rating. Things were certainly looking up for WCW but a lot more work would have to be done before they could challenge anything again.
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Post by Yannic on Dec 31, 2015 2:34:55 GMT -5
Looking forward to Masato Tanaka in WCW, shame you just released Mike Awesome, they could have had some epic rematches.
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Post by Joey on Jan 4, 2016 16:56:38 GMT -5
Chapter 7: The Road to Fall Brawl (August - September 2001)
The next announced pay-per-view event was slated to be Fall Brawl and Eric Bischoff and Mark Cuban were elated that they would actually have time to have a proper build. The first match they would begin building towards was for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and the match was slated to be between defending champion Booker T and Goldberg. The two would have a war of words for several weeks until Goldberg put Booker through a table during the contract signing the Wednesday before the pay-per-view.
Next up was Mark Jindrak who would put out an open challenge for his WCW United States Championship which would be accepted by the debuting Joe Seanoa. Seanoa would demolish all the other mid-carders on the roster before Ric Flair granted him a match for the title at Fall Brawl.
Next up was the WCW Cruiserweight Championship which would see Shane Helms claim to be the greatest Cruiserweight in the history of all wrestling which famed Japanese star Jushin "Thunder" Liger would take exception to it and challenged Helms to a match for the title which would be interrupted by AJ Styles and Ric Flair would book a triple threat match for the title at Fall Brawl.
The Dark Empire would make their debut in early August and take the tag team division by storm but The Pitbulls had a firm grasp on the tag team gold and would promise to not give up their titles. The Dark Empire would continue tormenting them and Ric Flair would put a stop to it by scheduling a tag team championship match for Fall Brawl.
Meanwhile, Curt Hennig would become embroiled in a feud with the debuting Bryan Danielson and the two would put on 2 time limit draw classics on Nitro in consecutive weeks and would challenge one another to a 2 out of 3 falls match at Fall Brawl which both would accept!
Sting was not pleased with losing at The Great American Bash and was on the warpath but was put in his place with a well-timed guitar shot to the head by Jeff Jarrett. The two would engage in a war of words and violence and would be booked in a Street Fight at Fall Brawl.
Wednesday Night Nitro was quickly turning into a juggernaut for Fox Sports consistently pulling 1.7-2.0 ratings each Wednesday night and they were even given a new timeslot of 9pm-11pm each Wednesday meaning they would be once again in primetime.
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Post by Joey on Jan 4, 2016 16:59:13 GMT -5
Fall Brawl, The Matches
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Booker T (c) vs. Goldberg
WCW United States Championship Mark Jindrak (c) vs. Joe Seanoa
Triple Threat Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship Shane Helms (c) vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. AJ Styles
WCW World Tag Team Championship The Pitbulls (c) vs. The Dark Empire
2-out-of-3 Falls Match Curt Hennig vs. Bryan Danielson
Street Fight Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett
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Post by Gʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Jan 4, 2016 17:08:00 GMT -5
Fall Brawl, The Matches
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Booker T (c) vs. Goldberg
WCW United States Championship Mark Jindrak (c) vs. Joe Seanoa
Triple Threat Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship Shane Helms (c) vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. AJ Styles
WCW World Tag Team Championship The Pitbulls (c) vs. The Dark Empire
2-out-of-3 Falls Match Curt Hennig vs. Bryan Danielson
Street Fight Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2016 17:10:12 GMT -5
Fall Brawl, The Matches
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Booker T (c) vs. Goldberg
WCW United States Championship Mark Jindrak (c) vs. Joe Seanoa
Triple Threat Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship Shane Helms (c) vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. AJ Styles
WCW World Tag Team Championship The Pitbulls (c) vs. The Dark Empire
2-out-of-3 Falls Match Curt Hennig vs. Bryan Danielson
Street Fight Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett My predictions: Goldberg Mark Jindrak AJ Styles The Pitbulls Bryan Danielson Jeff Jarrett Finally, I get to predict!!
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Post by SP on Jan 4, 2016 23:06:30 GMT -5
Fall Brawl, The Matches
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Booker T (c) vs. Goldberg
WCW United States Championship Mark Jindrak (c) vs. Joe Seanoa
Triple Threat Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship Shane Helms (c) vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. AJ Styles
WCW World Tag Team Championship The Pitbulls (c) vs. The Dark Empire
2-out-of-3 Falls Match Curt Hennig vs. Bryan Danielson
Street Fight Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett
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Post by Yannic on Jan 5, 2016 3:45:11 GMT -5
Fall Brawl, The Matches
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Booker T (c) vs. Goldberg
WCW United States Championship Mark Jindrak (c) vs. Joe Seanoa
Triple Threat Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship Shane Helms (c) vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. AJ Styles
WCW World Tag Team Championship The Pitbulls (c) vs. The Dark Empire
2-out-of-3 Falls Match Curt Hennig vs. Bryan Danielson
Street Fight Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett
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Post by Joey on Jan 5, 2016 10:28:21 GMT -5
Fall Brawl will be up sometime this evening, thanks for the predictions boyos
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Post by Joey on Jan 5, 2016 19:47:06 GMT -5
Chapter 8: Fall Brawl (September 2001)
The September 23rd Fall Brawl pay-per-view kicked off with Curt Hennig and Bryan Danielson going toe-to-toe in a 2-out-of-3 falls match which was rated by Dave Meltzer as the first five star match in WCW since 1992. Danielson scored the first fall after forcing Hennig to tap to Cattle Mutilation. Hennig scored the second fall after pinning Danielson following the Perfect-Plex and the third fall was scored by Hennig after he hit Danielson with the Perfect-Plex for a second time thus giving Curt Hennig the victory 2 falls to 1!
The second match of the evening featured Mark Jindrak defending his WCW United States Championship against newcomer Joe Seanoa. Seanoa dominated the opening moments of the bout but Jindrak used his power and experience to fight back against Seanoa before hitting him with the Mark of Excellence for the pinfall to retain the WCW United States Championship.
The third bout of the evening was for the WCW World Tag Team Championships featuring The Pitbulls defending their titles against The Dark Empire. The two teams put on a fantastic bout that continued the momentum of a great pay-per-view thus far and saw the end come when Noble hit Tajiri with Noble Last Words to get the pinfall and retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
The next match of the evening was the Street Fight between Sting and Jeff Jarrett and was an extremely bloody affair which was some critics compared to ECW when it was in it's heyday. Jarrett broke two guitars over Sting's head but he wasn't finished and hit Jarrett with the Scorpion Death Drop onto a steel chair for the pinfall victory.
The triple threat match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship featuring Shane Helms defending against Jushin "Thunder" Liger and AJ Styles was up next and the three put on an extremely great match that unfortunately saw Liger suffer some sort of injury but Styles and Helms carried the bout and the ending saw Styles hit Helms with the Styles Clash to claim the pinfall and become the NEW WCW Cruiserweight Champion!
Next up was the main event of the evening featuring Booker T defending his WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Goldberg. The two put on a solid bout but it was nothing compared to previous bouts of the evening but the ending saw Goldberg hit Booker T with the Jackhammer to become the NEW WCW World Heavyweight Champion!
The event received a 309,442 buyrate which was a huge increase from The Great American Bash's buyrate.
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Post by Joey on Jan 5, 2016 19:51:02 GMT -5
Following Fall Brawl, we have a three-way tie for first in the prediction contest between @theironjaw, Yannic and SP. This prediction contest will run until the end of 2001 booker time meaning 3 more events to predict. The winner will get to select one bright talent from the time period (not currently on WWF television, but possible in OVW or whatever the developmental territory of the time was) to get involved with my project. StandingsT1. Yannic (4-2) T1. Mikel (4-2) T1. SP (4-2) 2. Granger (2-4)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2016 20:04:43 GMT -5
Following Fall Brawl, we have a three-way tie for first in the prediction contest between @theironjaw, Yannic and SP. This prediction contest will run until the end of 2001 booker time meaning 3 more events to predict. The winner will get to select one bright talent from the time period (not currently on WWF television, but possible in OVW or whatever the developmental territory of the time was) to get involved with my project. StandingsT1. Yannic (4-2) T1. Mikel (4-2) T1. SP (4-2) 2. Granger (2-4) YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!! Brightest idea EVER!!
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