Post by Deleted on May 20, 2020 11:07:06 GMT -5
So yeah, I haven't posted a sim on here in like...12 years? I'd been kicking this idea around on Discord with DTP recently and decided screw it, let's see if I have another HOF worthy sim in me. I've always liked the idea of toying around with a long-form alternate timeline and as you can see, that's what I'm doing right here. Now, with that said...
THE STORY SO FAR
1990
Following a big year for the World Wrestling Federation in 1989, and seeing a more evident slide in popularity, ratings and attendance across the board, as well as recognizing an incredible surge in popularity of its Intercontinental Champion, the WWF decided to put the World Championship on The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI. Warrior defeated Hogan cleanly, an almost unthinkable conclusion, in the middle of the ring to not only capture Hogan's WWF Championship, but to also remain the Intercontinental Championship. The post-match saw Hogan hand over the title to the new Champion and leave Warrior in the ring to celebrate, the sun seemingly setting on the era of Hulkamania as it was also rising on the era of the Ultimate Warrior. A month after WrestleMania, an angle would be run on WWF's Superstars of Wrestling program, seeing the 450 pound monster Earthquake take Hogan out with a series of Earthquake splashes. The angle was two-fold; one, it establishes Earthquake as a top heel and gives him much-needed credibility and two, it allows Hogan to take time off to film Suburban Commando and contemplate his future in the World Wrestling Federation.
The newly-crowned Champion would see no rest, immediately defending the championship on the April edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, defeating Haku in a back-and-forth battle. From there, the rest of the Heenan Family took aim at the Champion throughout the summer. Next was Barbarian, followed by Rick Rude. No matter what the "Weasel" threw at Warrior, the Champion prevailed...until late July. Following the conclusion of Warrior's successful Championship defense against "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Warrior was attacked by Earthquake. As Earthquake prepared to drop his weight on Warrior the same way he did to Hogan, Warrior spring back to life and fought the gargantuan attacker off, signaling that SummerSlam 1990 had just found its main event. In a wild, violent brawl, Warrior defeated Earthquake by disqualification when Earthquake's manager, Jimmy Hart, interfered. The story, however, really began in the post-match.
As Quake, Bravo and Hart continued the onslaught on Warrior, the familiar sound of "Real American" blared through the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Hulk Hogan, who had not been seen on television in three months, darted to the ring with a steel chair in hand to fight off Hart and his men. A staredown took place between Warrior and Hogan, with the crowd buzzing around them. As much as the fans had been thrilled by Hogan coming to the rescue, it seemed there was equal interest in a potential rematch. There was no time, however, to focus on such a proposition. Immediately following SummerSlam, Earthquake and Bravo prodded Hogan and Warrior, repeatedly challenging them to a match. They would get their wish at the Oktoberfest-themed Saturday Night's Main Event in October 1990 and that match would see Hogan and Warrior win a disqualification victory when Earthquake hit Hogan with Hart's megaphone. It was clear that Hogan, in his first match back, was still feeling the aftershocks, pardon the expression, of what had happened to him five months earlier.
This brings us to the conclusion of 1990, at least the main event portion of it, which took place at the Survivor Series. On that night, Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior co-captained a team known as the Ultimate Maniacs, joined by the Legion of Doom to take on Earthquake and all three members of Demolition. The bout eventually came down to Hogan and Earthquake, each man their respective team's hope for ultimate survival. Hogan would best Earthquake, hitting him with a bodyslam and a leg drop that clearly took everything out of Hogan. As Hogan attempted to do his post match routine, just as the Pay-Per-View was winding down, Earthquake would strike. Earthquake dropped Hogan with a shot from behind, followed by a powerslam and an Earthquake splash before being run off by Ultimate Warrior. At the start of 1990, it appeared that Hulkamania was winding down and as the year came to a close, Hogan swore that he would not only gain revenge on Earthquake, but that Hulkamania would live forever.
But that's not all that happened in 1990. In the wake of Ultimate Warrior becoming WWF Champion, the Intercontinental Championship had to be vacated which lead to a tournament with eight of the finest athletes in the WWF competing for the honor of being the undisputed Intercontinental Champion. The tournament included Mr. Perfect, who on the final night of the tournament announced his new manager as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Bad News Brown, Tito Santana, Rick Martel, Koko B. Ware, The Warlord, Dino Bravo and from the Hart Foundation, Bret "Hitman" Hart. The tournament came down to Perfect and Hart, the latter of whom defeated Martel in a thrilling semifinal match but emerged with a rib injury. Only having a week between matches to heal the injury, Hart fought as hard as he could against Perfect, only to fall to the Perfectplex in an 8 minute bout on Wrestling Challenge. Despite the loss, commentator Vince McMahon noted that Bret Hart showcased how tough he was and had earned the respect of the fans who had maybe only seen Hart's potential as being a tag team wrestler. It was an interesting way of McMahon, who actually owns the company, to let the fans know that this was the beginning of Hart's ascent up the card.
Perfect, however, would immediately be thrown into a feud with new signee Kerry von Erich, wrestling under the "Texas Tornado" moniker. Despite being a major star and one of the top workers in the United States a half-decade prior, von Erich had let his substance abuse issues consume him and was a mere shell of the wrestler that McMahon lusted to have on his roster in the mid-80s. The matches were a testament to the talent of Perfect in particular, and we would see the WWF try to make a star out of von Erich, as he won the title from Perfect at SummerSlam 1990. The reign would be short lived, as Perfect would win the title back on an untelevised show three weeks later. The pair continued their feud until Survivor Series 1990, where Perfect's team, which also included Power and Glory and The Warlord, swept Kerry's team which also included The Bushwackers and Koko B. Ware.
The tag team scene in the WWF, unbeknownst to anyone watching the live broadcast of WrestleMania VI, would undergo a massive shift throughout 1990. In June 1990, the World Wrestling Federation signed the most popular tag team in wrestling, The Road Warriors, and repackaged them as The Legion of Doom. The immediate reaction from fans was that they would finally find out what would happen if the Road Warriors tangled with their WWF-created dopplegangers, Demolition. Demolition themselves had just become three time WWF Tag Team Champions and had virtually run through the entire WWF tag team roster on both the babyface and heel side of the equation. Their 1989 saw them finish off the feud with the Powers of Pain and move into a successful feud with the Brain Busters, but the end of the year found them wrestling Haku and Andre the Giant in matches that were well below the quality of their previous feud. The hope, going into the summer of 1990, was that the WWF could find a way to get Demolition and the newly-christened Legion of Doom into the same ring for a major match.
As mentioned, the two teams were involved in the main event of Survivor Series 1990 against one another, but this was their first in-ring interaction. The Road Warriors were not on SummerSlam 1990, where Demolition retained the Tag Team Championship against the Hart Foundation, and the Oktoberfest Saturday Night's Main Event saw The Rockers fall to Crush and Smash. The Road Warriors, in the meantime, were plowing through every team put in front of them on TV, the WWF clearly content to make them the new top babyface team and as 1990 ended, it was more than clear what was on the horizon for Hawk, Animal, and their seemingly out-of-reach antagonists in Demolition.
"Macho King" Randy Savage started 1990 off in a feud with "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, which was blown off at WrestleMania VI as Dusty and Sapphire defeated Savage and "Sensational" Queen Sherri. Following that defeat, Savage took up a war with Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who himself had just finished a long-running feud with Ted DiBiase. Savage and Roberts waged a war that lasted through the 1990 Survivor Series, with a Savage-captained team that included Greg Valentine, Rick Martel and Dino Bravo disposed of Jake Roberts' team that also included Jim Neidhart, Bret Hart and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Following the Survivor Series, Savage began to zero in on the title he'd lost to Hulk Hogan nearly two years prior, attacking Ultimate Warrior backstage and laying waste to the champion, the footage being shown exclusively on Prime Time Wrestling the following week. Savage began to slowly unravel in his interviews, clearly spiraling into insanity due to his inability to recapture the title. In early 1991, he would finally go over the edge...
TO BE CONTINUED...
THE STORY SO FAR
1990
Following a big year for the World Wrestling Federation in 1989, and seeing a more evident slide in popularity, ratings and attendance across the board, as well as recognizing an incredible surge in popularity of its Intercontinental Champion, the WWF decided to put the World Championship on The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI. Warrior defeated Hogan cleanly, an almost unthinkable conclusion, in the middle of the ring to not only capture Hogan's WWF Championship, but to also remain the Intercontinental Championship. The post-match saw Hogan hand over the title to the new Champion and leave Warrior in the ring to celebrate, the sun seemingly setting on the era of Hulkamania as it was also rising on the era of the Ultimate Warrior. A month after WrestleMania, an angle would be run on WWF's Superstars of Wrestling program, seeing the 450 pound monster Earthquake take Hogan out with a series of Earthquake splashes. The angle was two-fold; one, it establishes Earthquake as a top heel and gives him much-needed credibility and two, it allows Hogan to take time off to film Suburban Commando and contemplate his future in the World Wrestling Federation.
The newly-crowned Champion would see no rest, immediately defending the championship on the April edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, defeating Haku in a back-and-forth battle. From there, the rest of the Heenan Family took aim at the Champion throughout the summer. Next was Barbarian, followed by Rick Rude. No matter what the "Weasel" threw at Warrior, the Champion prevailed...until late July. Following the conclusion of Warrior's successful Championship defense against "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Warrior was attacked by Earthquake. As Earthquake prepared to drop his weight on Warrior the same way he did to Hogan, Warrior spring back to life and fought the gargantuan attacker off, signaling that SummerSlam 1990 had just found its main event. In a wild, violent brawl, Warrior defeated Earthquake by disqualification when Earthquake's manager, Jimmy Hart, interfered. The story, however, really began in the post-match.
As Quake, Bravo and Hart continued the onslaught on Warrior, the familiar sound of "Real American" blared through the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Hulk Hogan, who had not been seen on television in three months, darted to the ring with a steel chair in hand to fight off Hart and his men. A staredown took place between Warrior and Hogan, with the crowd buzzing around them. As much as the fans had been thrilled by Hogan coming to the rescue, it seemed there was equal interest in a potential rematch. There was no time, however, to focus on such a proposition. Immediately following SummerSlam, Earthquake and Bravo prodded Hogan and Warrior, repeatedly challenging them to a match. They would get their wish at the Oktoberfest-themed Saturday Night's Main Event in October 1990 and that match would see Hogan and Warrior win a disqualification victory when Earthquake hit Hogan with Hart's megaphone. It was clear that Hogan, in his first match back, was still feeling the aftershocks, pardon the expression, of what had happened to him five months earlier.
This brings us to the conclusion of 1990, at least the main event portion of it, which took place at the Survivor Series. On that night, Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior co-captained a team known as the Ultimate Maniacs, joined by the Legion of Doom to take on Earthquake and all three members of Demolition. The bout eventually came down to Hogan and Earthquake, each man their respective team's hope for ultimate survival. Hogan would best Earthquake, hitting him with a bodyslam and a leg drop that clearly took everything out of Hogan. As Hogan attempted to do his post match routine, just as the Pay-Per-View was winding down, Earthquake would strike. Earthquake dropped Hogan with a shot from behind, followed by a powerslam and an Earthquake splash before being run off by Ultimate Warrior. At the start of 1990, it appeared that Hulkamania was winding down and as the year came to a close, Hogan swore that he would not only gain revenge on Earthquake, but that Hulkamania would live forever.
But that's not all that happened in 1990. In the wake of Ultimate Warrior becoming WWF Champion, the Intercontinental Championship had to be vacated which lead to a tournament with eight of the finest athletes in the WWF competing for the honor of being the undisputed Intercontinental Champion. The tournament included Mr. Perfect, who on the final night of the tournament announced his new manager as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Bad News Brown, Tito Santana, Rick Martel, Koko B. Ware, The Warlord, Dino Bravo and from the Hart Foundation, Bret "Hitman" Hart. The tournament came down to Perfect and Hart, the latter of whom defeated Martel in a thrilling semifinal match but emerged with a rib injury. Only having a week between matches to heal the injury, Hart fought as hard as he could against Perfect, only to fall to the Perfectplex in an 8 minute bout on Wrestling Challenge. Despite the loss, commentator Vince McMahon noted that Bret Hart showcased how tough he was and had earned the respect of the fans who had maybe only seen Hart's potential as being a tag team wrestler. It was an interesting way of McMahon, who actually owns the company, to let the fans know that this was the beginning of Hart's ascent up the card.
Perfect, however, would immediately be thrown into a feud with new signee Kerry von Erich, wrestling under the "Texas Tornado" moniker. Despite being a major star and one of the top workers in the United States a half-decade prior, von Erich had let his substance abuse issues consume him and was a mere shell of the wrestler that McMahon lusted to have on his roster in the mid-80s. The matches were a testament to the talent of Perfect in particular, and we would see the WWF try to make a star out of von Erich, as he won the title from Perfect at SummerSlam 1990. The reign would be short lived, as Perfect would win the title back on an untelevised show three weeks later. The pair continued their feud until Survivor Series 1990, where Perfect's team, which also included Power and Glory and The Warlord, swept Kerry's team which also included The Bushwackers and Koko B. Ware.
The tag team scene in the WWF, unbeknownst to anyone watching the live broadcast of WrestleMania VI, would undergo a massive shift throughout 1990. In June 1990, the World Wrestling Federation signed the most popular tag team in wrestling, The Road Warriors, and repackaged them as The Legion of Doom. The immediate reaction from fans was that they would finally find out what would happen if the Road Warriors tangled with their WWF-created dopplegangers, Demolition. Demolition themselves had just become three time WWF Tag Team Champions and had virtually run through the entire WWF tag team roster on both the babyface and heel side of the equation. Their 1989 saw them finish off the feud with the Powers of Pain and move into a successful feud with the Brain Busters, but the end of the year found them wrestling Haku and Andre the Giant in matches that were well below the quality of their previous feud. The hope, going into the summer of 1990, was that the WWF could find a way to get Demolition and the newly-christened Legion of Doom into the same ring for a major match.
As mentioned, the two teams were involved in the main event of Survivor Series 1990 against one another, but this was their first in-ring interaction. The Road Warriors were not on SummerSlam 1990, where Demolition retained the Tag Team Championship against the Hart Foundation, and the Oktoberfest Saturday Night's Main Event saw The Rockers fall to Crush and Smash. The Road Warriors, in the meantime, were plowing through every team put in front of them on TV, the WWF clearly content to make them the new top babyface team and as 1990 ended, it was more than clear what was on the horizon for Hawk, Animal, and their seemingly out-of-reach antagonists in Demolition.
"Macho King" Randy Savage started 1990 off in a feud with "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, which was blown off at WrestleMania VI as Dusty and Sapphire defeated Savage and "Sensational" Queen Sherri. Following that defeat, Savage took up a war with Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who himself had just finished a long-running feud with Ted DiBiase. Savage and Roberts waged a war that lasted through the 1990 Survivor Series, with a Savage-captained team that included Greg Valentine, Rick Martel and Dino Bravo disposed of Jake Roberts' team that also included Jim Neidhart, Bret Hart and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Following the Survivor Series, Savage began to zero in on the title he'd lost to Hulk Hogan nearly two years prior, attacking Ultimate Warrior backstage and laying waste to the champion, the footage being shown exclusively on Prime Time Wrestling the following week. Savage began to slowly unravel in his interviews, clearly spiraling into insanity due to his inability to recapture the title. In early 1991, he would finally go over the edge...
TO BE CONTINUED...