Diamonddust

Another selection I thought people would sleep on and allow me to take in a later round.

Magnum's wreck definitely screwed up the long term plans for the NWA. Magnum was supposed to face Flair at Starrcade '86, and Magnum would have probably walked out of that event the NWA World Champion. Instead, they had to turn Nikita Koloff, one of their monster heels, face with the whole "I cry for Magnum TA" reasoning, and Koloff wrestled Flair to a double DQ. The lack of faces really came back to bite the NWA the next year when they wanted a face to take the belt off of Flair, and they were left with Ronnie Garvin, who the fans did not buy as World Champion. The same situation came up in 1990 when Sting got injured. They had to quickly turn Lex Luger face, even though he was doing a great job in that particular heel run, and use him as a place-holder challenger until Sting recovered. As a result, things in WCW at the time got very stagnant as everyone knew Luger wasn't going to win the title.

I was kind of hoping people would sleep on Kamala... he's someone that could have worked with Andre.

Jim Cornette explained Dusty's reasoning for all the heels in one of his shoot interviews: The basic principle is that Dusty was the top face and Magnum was right behind him while the second level of faces (With the exception of the Rock and Roll Express) were far away from ever being a threat. Having all those strong heels at the time thus gave Dusty and Magnum that much more heat as faces. It's also why they kept Magnum involved in short TV matches so that he could be built as a monster to stop the likes of the Horsemen, Midnight Express, and the Russians. Magnum was destined for the World Title before the crash, and he probably would have had a decent reign... until one of the heels screwed him out of the belt and they built up a "Magnum trying to reclaim his title" angle... which would have been gold as well. To take it a step further, it's been said many times, but Dusty Rhodes was a character the "common person" could relate to. He looked, talked, and acted like the core fan-base of the NWA at the time. Regardless what he did, the fans were going to get behind him. They were going to get behind him even more if he kept getting his ass kicked by a group like the Horsemen, who were complete opposites of Rhodes in every way, and they would pay good money for a chance to possibly see Dusty get his revenge.

About time Boss Man went...

Rats... Larry Z was someone I had on the radar and could have easily worked with a number of people on my roster. The same goes with Tajiri... he doesn't fit with my roster, but he was such a personal favorite of mine... I was going to use him as my "Mysterious Japanese mist blowing heel", much like Muta was in 1989.

With the next selection in the draft, I'm going to finish out my tag-team ranks with a rough, tough, and well respected duo that caused nothing but mayhem and broken body parts to occur all throughout the NWA. They can feud with both the Rock and Roll Express and Johnson/Atlas quite easily, and they are nothing but pure heels. Ladies and gentlemen... Gene and Ole Anderson... THE MINNESOTA WRECKING CREW

Bastard!!!! Oh well, my back-up team is still in play.

(Side note - is it just me, or are there other people having connection issues with the site?) Anyways, because I'm making this on a dial-up... I'll be brief and too the point. My next selection will be my third tag-team, and my other face team. They are a groundbreaking team, and both members are in the WWE Hall of Fame. They can easily carry the tag-team titles in my promotion, and they have a ready made feud with the Samoans and hopefully my next selection after them. Ladies and gentlemen... Tony Atlas and "Soul Man" Rocky Johnson!

AWESOME pick there. I was hoping people would sleep on them so they'd eventually fall my direction... or at least allow me to take Earthquake, a personal favorite, as a singles wrestler.

The Crockett Cup montage was nice as we got to see clips of Jim Ross, Dr. Death, and some other UWF guys that would eventually find their way over to Crockett.

Awesome pick with Eddie Gilbert. The way this draft is going, I figured he wouldn't be off the board for quite some time.

About time someone took the Freebirds, even the Hayes/Garvin incarnation.

The weekend has definitely put a snag on this one...

With my next selection, I'm going to continue the trend of top draws/old school guys and select a former N.W.A. Champion that is still on the board. He has a couple of ready made feuds waiting for him with the talent I've already selected as I can put him up against The Sheik, Jesse Ventura, and especially Harley Race. He's as baby-face as they come, and he was one of the most popular wrestlers in the Southeast during the early 1980's. He was engaged in some serious wars throughout Georgia, and his blonde hair will make for some very good visuals once The Sheik and company start to go after him. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... "Wildfire" Tommy Rich

You don't know how highly I coveted Dick Murdoch.

It's good to see that Big Bubba will be appearing soon...

Excellent pick with the Magnificent One... I was kind of hoping people would forget about him so he could slip to me, and I could redo Snuka/Muraco.

My mistake on not seeing The Crusher and The Bruiser already selected... With that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and get one of the biggest heels of all time off the board... He's the grandfather of Hardcore, and that's all I need to say... Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... THE ORIGINAL SHEIK

We still got a lot of great tag-teams across the board left in this draft... some real hidden gems apparently.

I must give props to 909 for Wahoo... a very awesome pick that gives him someone who worked great as both a heel and a face. He also gets one of the most respected men in the business. With that being said, however, I'm going to take someone who I'm absolutely shocked hasn't been selected. While he might not be the best worker in the world, he is easily one of the most recognizable and colorful figures in this industry, and he was a major national star right before Hulkamania hit. If it wasn't for a career ending injury, this man could have gotten the Hulk Hogan push or at least been one of Hogan's top heels (Granted, they hated each other but you get the point). I'm also getting guy who could talk the fans into the arena about as good as anyone could. So, since I've pretty much given it away... my next selection is: Jesse "The Body" Ventura I'm actually going to put him against Andre because Jesse's character would actually get people to believe he could put The Giant in the Body-Breaker. He could also insult Snuka into a feud, and a feud with JYD would be pure gold as well.

Awesome pick with Gino. He was someone I was hoping would slip under the radar.

Gulp...

Trish or the Rougeaus don't bother me one bit... neither were anywhere on my radar.

I thought about Nikita for a little bit, but I still have someone valued much higher.