March Madness

[humanoid92 0]

I'm bored and I've been watching way too much college basketball, so I got to thinking what it would be like if the WWE had a 64 team tournament like the NCAA does.

 

My question for you is this: What would the seedings look like according to how the WWE has been booking everybody recently?

 

I actually made my list without considering potential matchups at all (with the exception of my 16 seeds) and it worked out surprisingly well.

 

Here's what I came up with:

 

My Seeds:

 

#1 Seeds

Kurt Angle

John Cena

Triple H

Undertaker

 

#2 Seeds

Randy Orton

Rey Mysterio

Edge

Shawn Michaels

 

#3 Seeds

Big Show

Kane

Shelton Benjamin

Chris Benoit

 

#4 Seeds

Chris Masters

Carlito

Mark Henry

Booker T

 

#5 Seeds

Ric Flair

Rob Van Dam

JBL

Lashley

 

#6 Seeds

Fit Finlay

Chavo Guerrero

Johnny Nitro

Joey Mercury

 

#7 Seeds

Boogeyman

Eugene

Matt Hardy

Gregory Helms

 

#8 Seeds

Orlando Jordan

Goldust

Tatanka

Animal

 

#9 Seeds

Trevor Murdoch

Gene Snitsky

Val Venis

Viscera

 

#10 Seeds

Tyson Tomko

Kid Kash

William Regal

Hardcore Holly

 

#11 Seeds

Sylvian

Rob Conway

Paul Burchill

Psychosis

 

#12 Seeds

Stevie Richards

Simon Dean

Nunzio

Rene Dupree

 

#13 Seeds

Jamie Noble

Rosey

Scotty Too Hotty

Super Crazy

 

#14 Seeds

Paul London

Brian Kendrick

Funaki

Matt Striker

 

#15 Seeds

The Spirit Squad:

Nicky

Kenny

Johnny

Mikey

 

#16 Seeds

Daivari

Jonathan Coachman

Jerry Lawler

Shane McMahon

 

Comments and Justifications:

 

- The #1 seeds: In the interest of fairness, there are 2 from Smackdown and 2 from Raw. As the Champs, Cena and Angle are no-brainers at #1. HHH is always viewed as #1 in the company and is currently the top contender. And the Undertaker is a legend that just came inches away from winning the Title twice. Besides, it would be unfair to put either Orton or Mysterio over the other considering they're both getting a Title shot at Wrestlemania. Yes, Orton beat Rey, but Rey did win the Royal Rumble.

 

- The #2 seeds: Rey and Orton are in as the top contenders on Smackdown. On the Raw side, Edge was the Champion recently and Shawn Michaels will always be highly regarded. Even though the storyline is terrible, he's in a major program leading up to Wrestlemania.

 

- The #3 seeds: This slot goes to the secondary champions. US Champ Benoit and IC Champ Benjamin. Then there's Show (fresh off a feud with HHH) and Kane, the unstoppable Tag Champs that are still booked individually as monsters.

 

- The #4 Seeds: Mark Henry has been booked very strongly and is feuding with the Undertaker. Carlito and Masters have flirted with main events and have been consistently been in the upper mid-card. After going with 3 Raw guys and 1 Smackdown guy as the #3 seeds, I can't do that again (as easily as Flair or RVD could fit here), so the fourth slot goes to Smackdown. Booker is coming off a best of 7 series for the US Title with Benoit, so he gets it over JBL, Lashley and Finlay.

 

- The #5 Seeds: Flair and RVD are clearly the top remaining stars from Raw, as both will be in the upcoming Money in the Bank match. From Smackdown, it's JBL and then Lashley just edges out Finlay.

 

- The #6 Seeds: MNM are the Tag Champs so they belong next, and Finlay finally gets in. This makes up for the #3 seeds where Raw had 3 representatives and Smackdown only had one. The lone Raw guy here is Chavo, which is debatable, but he gets the nod for the Eddie sympathy the WWE seems to be so obsessed with.

 

- The #7 Seeds: Boogeyman arguably could have been higher, but I wouldn't put him above anyone already listed because of the wacky nature of the gimmick. Helms lands here only because he has the Cruiserweight Title. Matt Hardy has fallen off the charts but he's still less of a joke than any of the 8 seeds. Same for the once-popular Eugene.

 

- The #8 Seeds: The returning Goldust and Tatanka get the nod on name value alone, and Animal and Jordan have at least been somewhat involved with Smackdown recently (Animal with the Matt Hardy storyline and the MNM feud before that, and Jordan's involvement with the US Title).

 

- The #9-14 Seeds: This was pretty much ranking the leftovers and I'll admit I didn't put a ton of thought into the 11-14 seeds. I'm not positive of the status of a few guys like Dupree and Holly. Obviously if they're injured, they'll have to be replaced. I know Holly and Regal haven't wrestled on TV in awhile, but their name value still gets them a #10 seed over virtual unknowns.

 

- The #15 Seeds: The Spirit Squad gets more TV time than a lot of the 10-14 seeds, but they've barely wrestled so I didn't want to put them any higher. Besides, I think it would be nice to showcase them against guys like Rey, HBK, and Edge.

 

- The #16 Seeds: These four were carefully picked. Instead of total squashes against the likes of Funaki, the #1 seeds should at least face people that are interesting without being legitimate threats. Coach and Lawler are obviously novelty acts but there's more interest in one of their matches than someone like Super Crazy. Coach fits into a match with Cena, and Lawler gets HHH. Daivari is there only because he fits as a natural opponent for Angle. I'd rather have not included Shane, but he is back on TV wrestling now. By process of elimination, he gets the Undertaker in Round 1.

 

Alternates:

Guys like Batista and Ken Kennedy are, of course, injured so that's why they weren't included. Possible alternates for other injured people that I didn't include are:

 

The fifth Spirit Squad member (There's no need for more than four.)

Lance Cade (What happened to him?)

Big Vito (What happened to him?)

Parisi (I don't know who this is.)

Doug & Danny Basham (Where are they?)

Gymini (I don't know who this is.)

 

I was against using "legends" but these are the guys most likely to be available:

 

Hulk Hogan

Mick Foley

Steve Austin

The Rock

Sgt. Slaughter

Jim Duggan

Marty Jannetty (if his probation officer allows him to participate)

 

Guys that may or may not be coming back:

 

Jamal

Charlie Haas

 

And if they're desperate, there's always:

 

Vince McMahon

 

The beauty of the brackets:

 

To me, the cool thing is that the #1 and #2 seeds work out perfectly. In the NCAA Tournament, the committee tries to rank the top 8 and then pair them up accordingly (1 vs. 8, 4 vs. 5, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6). Well, my rankings look like this: 1) Angle, 2) Cena, 3) HHH, 4) Undertaker, 5) Orton, 6) Mysterio, 7) Edge, 8) Michaels. This is perfect because the one and two seeds in each bracket have a history with each other. Taker and Orton have feuded at length, as have Cena and Edge, and Angle and Michaels. Then there's HHH and Rey who battled in the Royal Rumble and are rumored to feud at some point down the line. Even if some of the top two seeds get knocked off before the Elite Eight, those are all still solid teases.

 

Disclaimer:

 

I know some people don't like fantasy booking-type threads like this, but notice I didn't come in here and book the entire tournament. I'm just interested to see how other people would seed the roster based on the current booking, because it's an interesting way to evaluate the current state of the roster and it ties into what's going on in college hoops right now. So, if you were on the WWE selection committee, how would you seed the field of 64?

[Only The Strong Survive 0]

Bad idea.