The C Man

Kronik. Sorry.

I've decided to do a Smackdown! diary to see how hard it is to book the damn thing. Surely it can't be that hard. I'm going to use EWR and it's going to start on the first Smackdown after the Great American Bash. And the Bash didn't happen as you might remember, here's what actually happened: Here's the roster (faces in blue, heels in red, tweeners in green): I'm undecided when I'm going to post the shows. I may do it real-time (i.e. Thursdays & Saturdays) or I may just post whenever I feel like. Anyway the Smackdown! preview will be along quite soon, follwed by the show.

Ok as you may have guessed this is pretty much dead. The main reason is I've been impressed by the WWE recently(yes I did say that). JBL has (eventually) managed to become a credible and acceptable champion and Cena is the closest thing to a megastar they have had in a while. Plus I think some of my ideas are too drawn-out compared to even the longest storylines in the WWE. There's that, plus the fact I'm lazy and couldn't be bothered anymore. But I did put a lot of effort into it, especially planning ahead, so here's what I had planned: - Aaron Aguilera - stereotypical blue-chipper. Wants Hardcore Holly to mentor him. Holly initially refuses. Wants to shake everyone's hand after matches. Booked as face but fans don't like his 'too nice' attitude. Scotty Too Hotty - he and Rikishi have problems. Mis-communication, etc. Rikishi gets suspended for losing a match by pissed-off GM Kurt Angle. Returns, wants to put problems behind them, says sorry. (Scotty: "Ye, I'm sorry too"). Scotty turns on Rikishi, aligns with Chavo. Call themselves the New Originals. Renames himself Scott Taylor. The Hurricane - returns to SmackDown to face The Blue Nova. He, Kidman & London get beaten up by Nova, Akio, Noble, Chavo & Scotty. Rey Mysterio helps but the faces are still outnumbered. The heels challenge faces to a cruiserweight classic SurSeries match. Beat up rest of the cruisers so faces don't have a partner. Rey says he knows someone who can help. Ultimo Dragon returns to even up the sides. Mark Jindrak - complains to manager Teddy Long that he isn't getting him the 'big' matches he deserves. Long promises him a superstar for SurSeries. Turns out to be the returning John Cena back from injury (filming a movie). - Elimination Chamber - Angle and Bischoff are seen having a meeting at the Survivor Series. Angle announces that Bischoff has allowed the Elimination Chamber to be used so that Eddie Guerrero loses the WWE title, so Angle will fire him. Therefore Bischoff can sign him for RAW. Rey vs Ultimo - Rey thanks Ultimo for coming back for Survivor Series and says he wants to thank him by the two having a match at Armageddon. Ultimo accepts Dudleyz vs Spike - Spike loses a match and afterwards The Dudleyz threaten him because they say he is a disgrace to the family name. Spike gets beaten down, picks a partner. I was undecided on who it was going to be. Holly vs Aguilera - Holly continues to mentor Aguilera and says he was impressed with his showing at Survivor Series, so he has got him a match at Armageddon against...Hardcore Holly. Aguilera seems happy. The match starts off friendly but Holly loses his temper when Aguilera keeps kicking out. Holly eventually wins, but doesn't shake Aguilera's hand. In the back Holly tells Aguilera that they're still friends but when he's in the ring he's not a nice person, so don't bother trying to shake his hand. - Eddie/Big Show/Angle - after Eddie Guerrero retained his title at Armageddon GM Kurt Angle went on a mass firing spree (the stroyline excuse for the mass firings the WWE had around about that time), which almost resulted in Angle being fired. A number of segments played showing Angle talking to himself, seemingly having a breakdown. Angle booked Eddie in a lumberjack match against John Cena, for the WWE title. Eddie retained again. Angle appeared on the stage and started saying that he didn't want to do it, he tried everything else, but Eddie left him no choice. Suddenly The Big Show ran into the ring and took out almost the entire roster. A sick smile crept onto Angle's face as the show ended with Show standing tall. The next week Angle reiterated that bringing back Big Show was the only option left, he couldn't let Eddie tarnish the image of the WWE title and SmackDown any longer. Because of what he did to Angle, nobody would sign Show but Angle brought him back and Show was grateful. In two weeks Angle booked Show against Eddie in a WWE title match. Later on in the night Show chokeslammed Eddie from the top rope to the floor leaving him laying in a heap, much like he had done to Angle months ago. The camera switched to Kurt Angle in the back, looking shocked. The following week a sad Kurt Angle apologised for bringing back The Big Show and quit as General Manager. The last thing he had done as GM was to book a title match which couldn't be changed, even though he had quit as General Manager, and he was sorry for that. He looked into the camera and apologised to Eddie Guerrero, who was at home nursing his injuries, and then left the arena. John Cena - after returning to SmackDown again (he was away shooting more stuff for his movie) Cena blamed the fans for his lack of success. He said as soon as he started pandering to the fans he lost his 'edge', but now the only person he wanted to make happy was John Cena, and the way he was going to do that was to win the WWE title. He then announced his entry into the Royal Rumble. GM Angle then appeared and booked him in a WWE title match against Eddie (info about the match can be found above ^^). But if Cena lost he would be no.2 in the Royal Rumble (RAW had no.1). Booker T - Booker said that he had been complaining about being on SmackDown when there was only one person to blame for that, Kurt Angle. He somehow got into it with JBL which led to their match. I hadn't thought of the reason yet. Hurricane vs Nova - Hurricane hadn't been able to rid the world of the evil-doer The Blue Nova, and Nova refused The Hurricane another title shot. Hurricane hired Detective Matt Cappotelli (a big Hurricane fan and protoge of Gregory Helms, mild-mannered reporter) to find Nova's hideout. Detective Cappotelli couldn't find the hideout but did find out who Nova really was. Hurricane threatened Nova with this information and got him to agree to one last match, a ladder match. Nova won again. Hurricane was dejected and on the following SmackDown a segment played showing Hurricane binning his superhero costume and walking away (like Spiderman). Detective Cappotelli tried to get Hurricane to come back - personal plees, etc. He even invented a HurriSign, but still Hurricane was nowhere to be seen. Nova beat up Cappotelli. - Angle/Eddie - After defeating the Big Show at the Rumble, Eddie said that he had forgave Kurt Angle for everything he had put him through because it had brought the best out of Eddie and had gave him even more motivaton to surpass anyone's expectations, he was now one of the longest-reigning WWE champions in history. For that, he wanted to thank Angle. But he wanted to thank him to his face, so next week Eddie guarenteed that Kurt Angle would be appearing on SmackDown for a Kurt Angle celebraton ceremony. At the celebration ceremony Angle did appear, but so did The Big Show. After brawling with Eddie, Show turned his attention to a frightened Angle, who must've been having flashbacks to the last time he went against Show. Show beat up Angle - reinjuring his leg - and challenged Eddie to a WWE title match for the following SmackDown. Eddie accepted. When Eddie made his entrance for the title match he wasn't alone in his low-rider, he was accompanied by Kurt Angle - who was on crutches. Eddie entered the ring and the bell rung. Eddie called Angle into the ring, and he had a staredown with Show. Then Eddie had a staredown with Show. Suddenly Eddie was hit with something. It was a crutch, Kurt Angle's crutch. Angle had pulled a Sandman. Angle and Show then beat up Eddie as Cole screamed that it was a SET-UP ALL ALONG~! **The Eddie/Show 'match' was just used to get Eddie's mandatory defense out of the way** The next week Angle announced that the final title shot he had made as GM was not The Big Show's at the Rumble, it was in fact a match for Wrestlemania. Eddie vs Angle, for the title. Angle won the match at Wrestlemania clean, no run-ins, no ref-bumps, just wrestling. Haas/JBL - JBL had held the U.S for a long time but his reign was littered with cheap victories and cheating. Haas, being the straight-laced wrestler, took offense to JBL's method of winning, saying that he had no respect for the rules of wrestling and wrestling itself. At Wrestlemania Haas won the title after the match was restarted because of Orlando Jordan interference. Having scouted JBL Haas asked the 'head officials of SmackDown' if he could use the Big Screen to show the referee the footage if/when JBL cheated. He was told that on SmackDown the referee's decision was final, and if the ref didn't see it then there was nothing anyone could do about it. So Haas decided to take out an 'insurance policy', Miss Jackie brought her own camera and filmed the match. When Haas was cheated Miss Jackie showed the ref the footage and he restarted the match, which Haas won, clean. New Originals/Shooting Stars/Rey/Dragon - Chavo & Scotty and London & Kidman had been trading the Tag Titles between them over the previous month's. I hadn't thought up a good enough reason, I would've thought of one closer to the time. Rey and Dragon had been teaming together since their respect match at Armageddon. Rey said that Ultimo was a legend and had achieved everyone, except one thing. He had never wrestled at Werstlemania. Helms/Nova - The Nova/Hurricane feud is recapped in more detail above. Hurricane hadn't been seen since the SmackDown following the Royal Rumble when he binned his superhero costume. Detective Matt Cappotelli had been campaining for The Hurricane's return, to no evail. But while The Hurricane didn't, Suga Shane Helms did. Cena/Rock - Cena's heel turn is documented above. After a few weeks of running down the fans and basically just talking trash Cena was interrupted by The Rock, making his return to SmackDown. Rock says he was sitting at home listening to Cena run down the Rock's show and the millions...and millions of The Rock's fans and he got sick and tired of it, so he wanted to give Cena a nice big glass of shut-up juice. The two jawed back-and-forth on the mic for a few weeks, which would've provided some good segments. Plus you've got both of them being in movies to bring up. Just seemed like a logical thing seeing as I never had much for Cena. Spike/Snitsky/Dudleys - The reasoning behind Spike vs Dudleys feud #942 is highlighted elsewhere. Having tried to take out both Bubba and D-Von by himself Spike realised that he needed a partner, and just any partner, he needed another Dudley. But because Bubba and D-Von had turned the rest of the family against him he had to look a little harder. But then he remembered the perfect person. Cousin Snitsky. I dare anyone to say that Snitsky wouldn't be a perfect Dudley. From my storyline perspective the wrestler Spike brought in would have to be big and menacing, which Snitsky is. Plus to be an authentic Dudley he had to have a certain goofiness to him, which Snitsky obviously has. I was going to make him a bit accident-prone. He'd bump into things, do stupid things, or generally just fuck-up, and then cry that 'it wasn't my fault'. Tell me you wouldn't mark out for that, go on, I dare you. RVD/Holly/Hardkore - Holly becomes annoyed with his 'student' Aaron Aguilera (Hardkore) and takes every opportunity to belittle him. After winning a match Aguilera is booed out of the building by the fans and goes to the back, where he finds Holly making fun of him to 'the boys'. He gets sad and leaves the arena. Weeks later Holly gets involved with The Basham Brothers - who are now members of JBL's Cabinet. Holly finds himself outnumbered and beaten, until Aaron Aguilera returns to mae the save, brandishing a Singapore Cane. He scares off the Bashams, and then turns on Holly. He rains the shots in on Holly, while screaming 'I'm hardcore, I'm hardcore'. He leaves Holly a bloody mess, and everyone is surprised with the aggressiveness of the beating. Explaining his actions Aguilera wonders why everyone booed him. What did he do wrong? He had finally got to the 'big leagues', he had made it, and everyone booed him for smiling, they booed him for shaking hands. No one knew him, what he had to sacrifice to get there, they just acted like sheep and booed him. And the one person he thought actually understood him, actually liked him, was just using him to keep himself amused. He said that now everyone was going to get to see the person he thought he had left behind, the real him. He renamed himself Aaron Hardkore. He and Holly got into a few times and had a few bloody matches. It was then announced that at Wrestlemania they would have a match to settle it, to see who was the most hardcore. That was when RVD interrupted, saying that if anyone was hardcore then it was him. After RVD managed to make the Wrestlemania match a three-way his manager Paul Heyman said that he didn't want RVD to do it, it was a bad idea. RVD had grown disillusioned under Paul Heyman's management. After main-eventing for a while RVD felt that he had been caught up in the mix, and Heyman was to blame. Eventually RVD sacked Heyman. The Undertaker - I didn't really have anything planned for him. I would've probably just went with the Randy Orton match. ----- While I didn't create two new main-eventers like the WWE did with JBL and Cena I feel that Eddie's looooooong title reign would've really established him as a main-event player. There wouldn't have been a Angle/HBK match but I did like the idea of the drawn-out Angle/Eddie feud, and by postponing Kurt's in-ring comeback until Wrestlemania it would have added some time onto Kurt's career, which looks to be in its latter stages. I have planned beyond Wrestlemania - in fact I've got a few matches booked for the following Wrestlemania - but I don't know if I'll post it or not. I'll see how this is perceived first. Opinions are welcome.

You could always download the TEW trial. It allows you to play a month in game-time. I think that EWR is more of a simulator and is better for all the fantasy booking stuff; whereas TEW is more of a 'game'.

Surely if kids were following Sesame Street's example they'd live with a male 'friend' and be living in trashcans. Fuck these new-age hippies. Fuck fat people.

They should have went with Jannetty. Sure, it's Hulk Hogan but Jannetty would've made more sense. If they went that route they could have had Hassan & Daivari win the tag titles, which The Rockers would ultimately win from them for their 1st tag title reign. Just seems a better story to me.

Did you not see the Katie Vick fiasco? How can anything get lower than that? Plus they already have a 'special' wrestler on RAW. Personally I think it would be a great idea. The WWE seemed to touch on it last year when Angle became the SD General Manager. There's no doubt it could work.

Why is it that split-heat seems like a bad thing? Why does every match have to be face/heel? I can understand why there are very few heel/heel matches, but what's so wrong with face/face?

I wasn't saying it was a certainty, just that with Jarrett being a McMahon allay they could possibly feud.

Back to the Jarrett subject for a moment, but does anyone else think he could have got over as Vince McMahon's 'Chosen One'. I think after he lost the hair-vs-hair match with X-Pac they could have kept him off TV for a while and then brought him back with his changed look, and as a McMahon allay. And that could've easily let to a Jarrett/Austin feud.

Nova invented memory loss.

But who has Cena had to work with? I'm not saying he's the best in the ring but compare him to Randy Orton, the other 'golden boy', who's had the likes of Benoit and Triple H to carry him on TV and on the road. The Rock wasn't the best in the ring either when he first ascended to main-event status but he had Austin and Foley to work with.

But what about Impact Players vs The Dudleys?

What?

That is one of the best angles I have heard in a long time, maybe ever. Bravo SmartMarks, you've excelled yourselves. However it does seem a bit too comedic for the 'big' belt though.

I like Thrashist's Chrisitan idea and I absolutely love Shadow's Edge idea. There's a case for every guy to win I suppose although I'm ruling out Kane & Shelton. Shelton may get decent reaction's and be good in the ring but he has nowhere near the character-depth to be a main-eventer.

Clowns

Didn't Cornette tool him up with some sort of pompous rich kid gimmick, who was coincidentally French rather than playing up the fact. I seem to remember him having a butler as well.

Wasn't the whole point of the Brawl For All to establish Dr. Death as a legitimate tough guy? And after he won he was going to be pushed against Austin. Why McMahon would attempt something so risky to get someone like Dr. Death over is beyond me.

Am I the only one who thinks the Seven gimmick is so much cooler than the Mordecai one? I seem to remember lots of people creaming themselves when Raven was going to do the gimmick, so why not give the Hoss a break and tool him up with a decent gimmick. Think back to how minor-league Mordecai looked and then go check out the OVW pics of Fertig as Seven, and see how much cooler he looked.

Come on, give them a little bit of credit for once. If they didn't tease Batista going to SmackDown I'm sure there would be a lot of bitching. It's pretty obvious Batista isn't going to SmackDown but at least they're making it seem like he is. And it seems like a pretty hot storyline.

I wonder what that feels like.

Hey, it's Sloth from The Goonies.

Sure, why not. I've got most of the recent things planned out but it would help having someone to bounce ideas off.

WWE Velocity 11th September 2004 Commentary: Josh Matthews & Bill DeMott Shannon Moore beat Akio with the Halo in a decent spotfest. We took a look back at Kurt Angle announcing the Eddie/RVD/Taker match for Unforgiven. Kidman & London beat two local wrestlers with a 450 Splash followed by a Shooting Star Press. Another video recap played, this time highlighting the announcement that on SmackDown The Dudley Boyz would take on The FBI with the winners meeting Kidman & London at Unforgiven. The Dudley Boyz met half-brother Spike while he was walking to the ring and branded him a failure. They called him a disgrace to the Dudley name and wondered where the Spike they used to know went. Hardcore Holly & Spike Dudley beat Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree when Holly hit Suzuki with the Alabama Slam. Holly caught Dupree trying to cheat again and went after him, but Dupree ran away.