Diamonddust

Quick reasoning on my picks: These guys will act as good low-card to lower-mid card utility hands. I plan on running Roberts as a face but with the Freebirds gimmick. Embry will probably be a face but I can see him going with Landell and the Midnight Express as well. The Assassins will be a good set-up tag-team. The Spoiler will be a good, generic masked bad-guy to set up a face before he goes to the upper-card heels. Finally, Ox Baker is well, Ox Baker and he should fit in nicely with the Pringle Dynasty's cast of characters.

For the scramble round, I'm taking: THE ASSASSINS (Jody Hamilton and Tom Renesto) ERIC EMBRY THE SPOILER OX BAKER "FREEBIRD" BUDDY ROBERTS

Hawk34 has acquired The Minnesota Wrecking Crew Diamonddust has acquired The Crusher and The Bruiser Getting The Crusher and The Bruiser gives me an even better team to beat the hell out of The Rock and Roll Express. I'll also be able to play up the "grizzled old veterans" against the "fresh-faced fan favorites" even more so than with the Andersons. Bruiser and Crusher will also be a better fit for Sherri to manage as well.

The WWE would have been screwed big time if Austin couldn't wrestle again. By not hot-shotting the World Title on him when he really got popular, it was obvious they were doing the slow build to a Wrestlemania title win. Without Austin on the roster, I think McMahon would have probably been forced to have kept Bret Hart, regardless the cost. The Rock and Foley's careers are also altered because their star got to shine as a result of the ratings Raw was getting due to Austin being white hot. Basically, the WWE avoided a doomsday situation of epic proportions.

King Kamala and I have worked out a trade: I have sent him: JIMMY SNUKA IN EXCHANGE FOR "THE BIG CAT" ERNIE LADD This will allow me to do my much wanted Ladd/Andre match and allow Kamala to do Snuka/Muraco

So would the winner of this get the winner of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira/Frank Mir to finally clear up the heavyweight title mess?

Yeah, he was released and then he did a shoot interview stating how they pretty much screwed over the entire DSW operation.

That was the problem with Dusty booking. It had nothing to do with power plays or heels refusing to job. It was simply that Dusty was booking a national promotion with a regional mindset. Dusty was big on keeping the heels strong, with the theory that it makes the babyfaces playing off them even stronger. The problem with doing that on a national level, at least on top for any length of time, is that you send too many fan bases home unhappy. Compare the WWF and the NWA during the 80s. While the NWA had the better wrestling and had better angles for the most part, with the WWF, the fans were always sent home happy because they had a babyface on top who always won. In the NWA, you had a combination of the heel world champions always walking out of the shows with the belt and the immense dissatisfaction of nonstop screwjobs to get there. Plus, they have very few strong main event caliber faces to carry the promotion (Something Dusty did intentionally to get more heat on him and the top tier of faces). After him, Magnum, and the Rock and Roll Express, there was a huge gap. When Magnum got injured, this came back to bite them big time.

I think Nikita's flirtations with the WWF on more than one occasion kind of sent warning signs not to put the belt on him as well.

Same here. I'll listen to any trade proposal someone might have. Just for clarification - We are waiting to send out the proposals until after the scavenger round or can we go ahead and do them now?

I like this idea. There are still a number of talents that haven't been mentioned at all. I just figured that everybody was fine from where they sat. If more people are interested, then sure. I shall fix... I do think at least one more round would be best since it would be 42 picks, an even number. A scramble or however it may be doesn't matter to me. I'm game for anything.

Depends how many people really want to trade. I wouldn't be objected to trading depending on who I get matched up with... some people have better rosters to trade with based on style of promotion than others. As for number of trades, it really doesn't matter to me as long as it's "Up to that number" and not a required number.

There was the other guy I really wanted.

Here's one to consider: Lex Luger at GAB '88: Was he ready to take the belt, or was the NWA/Flair justified in not putting it on him?

That is a good point and something I considered. I probably am going to rewrite an extensive amount of my card based completely off of what Lawler brings me. To keep an even number of singles (28), I'm basically taking Watts out of a competitive match and putting him as my figurehead/commentator.

Alright, with the first selection in the bonus round, I'm going to go ahead and take... THE HEARTBREAK... Nah... Just kidding Seriously, though, as mentioned earlier, a particular individual up for grabs does not fit my roster, regardless of his talent. Two individuals, though, do fit my roster like a glove, and it was very hard to pick one from the other. Both were major draws and both could work heel and face (Again, something I value a great deal). Still, this particular wrestler outweighs the other in terms of longevity and ability to work major programs with the top faces and heels on my roster. Having his "home base" as a venue doesn't hurt either. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to have the opportunity to snatch up... JERRY "THE KING" LAWLER I'd imagine you can guess the other person I was thinking of. BPS, Christmas has possibly come early for you...

Can we go ahead and pick or are we waiting till Raw? And yeah, to let the cat kind of out of the bag... Merry Christmas to all those after me.

That just opened things up tremendously for several people. He's got quite a top heavy roster, and several people are going to get a very good wrestler out of it.

I was wondering about that. With 23 picks and 18 people participating, it'll be nice to get one extra selection.

As much as I liked Vader and all, and regardless what the WWE did with him during his initial run, his credibility and mystique was forever damaged by the feud with Hogan. When Hogan no-sold basically every freaking move Vader had, including a power bomb that could break a back, nothing was going to get him back to the point of being an unstoppable monster.

Didn't they just recently do "football players turned pro-wrestlers" theme?

Actually, I think they were pretty high on Mero initially. But yeah, with Vader, Hogan absolutely destroyed his mystique and usefulness as a monster/bully. In my opinion, he never really got that credibility back.

He's right up there with the Fink in terms of delivering a CLASSIC match winner/introductions.

Got to love the bizarre world of wrestling. The silliest things get you heat. One other thing I forgot to mention but this show features the return of Krusher Krusnov (Barry Darsow). He blames his knee injury on the Road Warriors distracting him. We get footage of his TBS match with Sam Houston several months earlier and we see him jump off the top ropes and legitimately not being able to move his leg. I don't think they showed that clip when the match originally aired in 86 because it's clear he couldn't do anything. The Road Warriors are nowhere to be found and don't come out till the end to cost him the match. Really poor editing job done here by the NWA. From what I also recall, Dusty had eyes for Baby Doll as well, which lead to the outrage that she'd go slumming with Sam Houston.

Wrestling would haven't entered its third golden age without Hall and Nash leaving for WCW since the Monday Night War would have been nothing without the jump. Both companies would have been mired in the staleness that was present at the time, however, something would have come along eventually.