Need some help on a project here

[Guest Daredevil21]

Well as most of you who posted at the old board know, I am but a high school student and I have a chance to do something that I may actually enjoy for the first time since starting school. I just got in a creative writing class and I had the choice of writing an assload of poems or non-fiction. So anyway I chose to go with non-fiction and choose the history of the WWF as my topic. Now the thing here is that this is a major thing and will be what I work on for most of the semester. As a matter a fact, I need to make it into a book for reading. It needs to be more than 60 pages typed, which is no big deal really, but I do need some help from some of the better writers/idea people in the board.

 

     I'm gonna do a history of the WWF simply because it IS wrestling when you think about it. I need some input on what to cover in detail and what to just touch down on. I was thinking about doing something like what SK did in his first book and doing sections on guys who had an impact in the WWF. I was then thinking of breaking the eras into sections/chapters and going over them. Any good? And should I start from the beginning of the WWWF or just touch upon it briefly before moving onto the early 80's when it started to take off? What things should I for sure look at and what should just be mentioned? Input from all of you would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Guest Eraser2K2]

I dont even think you should touch on the WWWF.  That may sound dumb, but just start off with Vince Sr.'s death, and go from there.  As for chapters, a combination of the two ideas you had would be good.  Go with chapters about certain areas, but in between make a chapter about say, Hogan.  Or Savage.  Whatever.  Kinda like Foley did in his book, at least his first one.  Be sure to write about the WWF's bad era (kinda vague, but oh well), as that led to the whole "Attitude" thing more than anything in my opinion.  Also the steroid trial.  Can't think of anything else right now.  I'll be sure to hit Mr. Fish up for the book.

[Guest Choken One]

I did a similar project a few years ago only on Baseball, I started with the most recent World Series (96) and spun it around to the late 1890's with about 15 pages on the Reds and then I talked about the development of the game and how it grew in popularity and had a few background chapters on Yankee History, Reds History and the history of Boston. Then I did some stuff on the Strike, and how Televison changed the game and free agency. I only talked about 5 players in detail (Ruth, Cobb, Dimaggio, Mantle and Rose)

 

You could do the same for Wrestling, start with WMX8 Main event and spin to The death of Vince Sr's into The contract buyings and the PPV and the rise of Wrestling to the mainstream. Hogan, after Vince, has to be covered alot.

 

The topics you must adress

 

-Steroid Trials

-Turner Buys WCW

-Monday Night Wars

-Montreal

-Death of Owen Hart (stray from personal feelings)

-Attitude

-Public Stock

 

the wrestlers you should have a few bio/large coverage

-Hogan

-Bret Hart

-Shawn Micheals

-Steve Austin

-The Rock

[Guest Banky]

I'd start with the beginning on the WWF moderm era at Wrestlemania 1.  Explain the singificance of it and such.  The talk about all of the other important wrestlers and events

WRESTLERS

Hogan

Savage

Andre

Dibiase

Steamboat

Warrior

Rude

Perfect

Undertaker

Flair

Ramon

Michaels

Bret Hart

Yokozuna

Owen Hart

Diesel

Austin

Pillman

Rocky

Triple H

Angle

Benoit

Jericho

EVENTS

Wrestlemania 1

Wrestlemania 3

No Holds Barred (The Movie...mainstream appeal)

Undertaker's Debut

Royal Rumble 92

WWF circa 93 (Life without company's biggest star)

Steriod Trial

WWF 95-97 downward spiral

Jump of Hall and Nash {nWo} (leading to WCW's 80+ weeks lead)

Steve Austin's rise to the top

Brian Pillman's death (WWF becomes serious about substance abuse)

Montreal Incident

dX (nWo imitation, beginning of WWf Attitude)

Mike Tyson

Austin defeats Michaels (Passing of the guard, Austin now #1 man)

Rock's rise

Owen Hart's death (the controversy)

Radicalz arrival (kills WCW)

Vince buys WCW, Wins the War

nWo invades WWF

 

Thats what I'd dp, keep it mainstream.  If people don't understand anything about it, then try to stay away from it.  Most of the people mentioned above have mainstream success.  The WWWF would simply bore the reader because of their lack of knowledge.

[Guest Choken One]

Don't talk about the Wrestlers, it seems to kayfabe...it needs to stick to the big 6 and you can tie the other not needed wrestlers in there like

 

Many of those events like RR92 should not be focused on because they were not signifiant in the long run.

[Guest Galactic Gigolo]

A couple years ago before I discovered the joys of screenwriting, pot, cigarettes (I smoke and I still can't spell it right), and alcohol, I used to write one of those fantasy leagues.  Mine was called the MEW.  In school we had a creative writing project where we just had to write a story that was ten pages long.  No restrictions really.  I wish I had the paper still, because it ended up being twenty pages, and had all this crazy Vince Russo like booking in it.  I got an A+ on it, but then again, myself getting an A on papers isn't that big of a surprise to me.

 

And to the guy who said that the 1992 Royal Rumble wasn't signifigant.  It really was, as that was pretty much Ric Flair's hey-day (or however you type that) in the WWF.  Most people refer to the 1992 Royal Rumble as the power struggle between the WWF and WCW, as the WWF decided to screw them over even more and take away their best wrestler, leaving them with no choice but to have shit for main events like Sting vs. The Barbarian.

 

I'd really love to help out/read this project when you're finished.  Definetly keep us updated on this as it goes along.

[Guest Choken One]

I'd second that, I'd be interested in that project as well, after you turn it in, ask your teacher for permisson to put it up here and maybe Scott will be nice for a day and put it on the front page.

[Guest Maurizio C... Version 2]

analyze the 2 booms. the one in the '80s and the one in '98.

 

better, wite a biography on jake Roberts, that will put some asses on the seats.

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

As somebody said, focus on the events and figures which provided the catalyst for significant changes in the business.

such as vince taking control, wrestlemania, hulkamania, hogan leaving, steroids, montreal, attitude, etc

[Guest Daredevil21]

Thanks for all of the input thus far. My plans at the moment is to devote a section to wrestlers who have played a big role in the WWF in the past 18 years. Then I'm probably gonna devote a section to each era and have a chapter for each year. Now as far as the era thing goes, what are your thoughts about the titles of them? There is the route of talking about the Rock 'N' Wrestling, New generation, Attitude and Desire eras or an go with L4W's idea and name each era after a wrestler. Example would be the Hogan era which went from 1984-1993. So input on that idea would be appreciated as well. Thanks guys.

[Guest Big Poppa Popick]

sounds interesting, good luck to you

 

Wrestling is, by and large, a storytelling experience, but one that uses physical action along with acting to tell it (mix of football and shakespeare so to speak)

 

One way to make your segues into each era i feel would be to talk about the basic aspects of the storytelling, and how it evolved while the product evolved around the players and actors

 

remember, even moves have meaning, at least they are meant to

[Guest alexcc79]

I would do it in Grapes of Wrath format.  Steinbeck would write two or three action chapters.  There's your history.  And then he would pick a theme and randomly stick it in there and describe it abstractly.  This is where you insert biography.  You start talking about the early days and go up to WM 1 and then you do a history, vaguely about Vince MacMahon.  Next you start a diatribe on how the wwf gave birth to PPV.  Go event by event between WM 2 and WM 6.  DO a bio on Hogan.  Then you write about WM 7-13, and everything in between.  Your next bio should be a parallel of HBK and Hart.  Then you move onto WM 14-present.  You do bios on Stone Cold and the Rock.  You will have to mention the nWo and talk about DX, gang wars....blah blah.  But I think that this topic kind of lends itself to a Steinbeck format.

[Guest Kaoz]

do a sixty page biography on the Bossman

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Well one time I had the option of writing about anything I wanted, it only needed to be 5 pages long. I got the bright idea that I should write about the WWF.  My teacher was about 65 years old, so I knew she probably had no clue what in the heck was going on in the WWF was outside of it being some sort of wrestling.  I think I had something about Al Snow winning the heavyweight title or something and then Jerry Lawler challenged him to a match in Memphis or something.  I basically bsed the whole paper using the bare legitimate facts that I could get away with (because I had to cite 5 sources, most of which were wwf.com and sadly SK's first book..) I got a 95% on the paper, but anyway..

 

60 pages might be harder to bs, and you might want to actually learn about the history of the WWF, but I was in a rush, as I only had a day to write the paper.

[Guest Lil Naitch]

Do chapters on all of the major eras, and chapters on all of the major wrestlers. Talk about the Steroid Trials, Monday Night Wars, and even the impact of the nWo on the WWF (ratings wise.)

[Guest Haku]

u should include the Wrestling deaths