How would you feel about a WWE World Cup?

[XL]

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I know TNA have done a similar thing in the past with their X Cup (most recently on one of their "One Night Only" specials) but obviously this would be much better because, well, because it's WWE.The period between Survivor Series and Royal Rumble is traditionally regarded as a "down period" for wrestling so this idea works on two levels;

1) It might create some interest
2) We might as well as nobody is watching anyway.Vickie Guerrero would come up with the idea in order to distance it from the on-going Authority angle. The teams compete in a number of matches between Hell In A Cell and Royal Rumble winning points for their team (3 for a win, 1 if a match is drawn, 0 for the losing team) with the winning team being guaranteed spots in the last 10 of the Rumble.

You can use any match type across any of the weekly shows. At Survior Series you can have big traditional Survivor Series matches pitting full teams against each other. At TLC you could do a Ladder Match featuring all the captains vying for a 10 point win. The options are pretty limitless.


Team Mexico

Rey Mysterio would be named the Captain of Team Mexico. He would draft in his on-off Tag Partner, Sin Cara and Diego &Fernando of Los Matadores. Working on the assumption that Mysterio is injured (because he usually is) his participation is short-lived. Alberto Del Rio, playing up his Mexican Hero delusion, takes exception to not being picked to represent Mexico and with Mysterio being named Captain. He "re-injures" Mysterio, takes his spot as Captain (and sets up a feud for when Mysterio is actually ready to return). As for Sin Cara, he participates if he's healthy, if not, have him take exception to ADR's actions, challenging him to a match. Enter Hunico who helps ADR beatdown Cara and takes his spot on the team.

Alberto Del Rio (Captan)
Diego
Fernando
Sin Cara/Hunico


Team Canada

Looking through the roster I don't think there's ever been so few Canadians employed by WWE so this became tricky. As the only Canadian on the main roster, Christian would be named Captain (Charisma). He enlists Tyson Kidd in order to give him some exposure outside of Total Divas. For his second pick, Christian drafts from NXT bringing "The Canadian Sensation" Sami Zayn to the main roster. To round out the team - and give it some much needed credibility - Christian calls in his best frenemy in Chris Jericho.

Christian (Captain)
Chris Jericho
Tyson Kidd
Sami Zayn


The United Kingdom

Wade Barrett is given the captaincy. He gets into William Regal's head telling him that "He never won 'The Big One' and the only way he'll even get a chance now is if he wins the Rumble and the best way to do that is get a prime spot by winning the World Cup". Barrett also raids NXT for his next pick, bringing Mason Ryan back to the main roster to represent Wales. Barrett also talks Drew McIntyre into joining the UK team to represent the Scottish contingent. Heath Slater is very much against the idea, Drew simply explains that it's "bigger than the band".

Wade Barrett (Captain)
William Regal
Drew McIntyre
Mason Ryan



The United Nations

As the most relevant and over member of the team, Santino (Italy) is given the position as captain. He picks up Justin Gabriel (South Africa), Jinder Mahal (India) and Yoshi Tatsu (Japan) as his team. Or, drop Tatsu in favour of The Great Khali if you want to add a bit of brawn to the team.

Santino (Captain)
The Great Khali/Yoshi Tatsu
Jinder Mahal
Justin Gabriel


Team USA/Real Americans

Zeb Colter hijacks "Team USA" installing Jack Swagger as it's Captain and signing up fellow Real American Antonio Cesaro to the team. As for the other members of the US team you have a massive pool of under-utilized talent to choose from. With guys like Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins and Alex Riley all doing nothing Zeb could dangle the carrot of opportunity in front of them in order to recruit them. Alternatively, you have Zeb approach Heyman to form a partnership between their guys. As things progress, you can have friction build between Cesaro and Swagger. With his teammates plucked by other teams, Heath Slater spends weeks trying to ingratiate himself to Zeb in order to get a place on the team.

Jack Swagger (Captain)
Antonio Cesaro
Curtis Axel
Ryback


The idea would

1) Give some under-utilized guys some exposure/something to do. If they catch on with the crowd during the few months of exposure you can continue to use them beyond the Royal Rumble.

2) Gives meaning to a lot of TV matches over the course of the competition.

3) Create storylines/feuds going forward. The likes of Del Rio/Mysterio, Swagger/Cesaro, Barrett/Regal could all be decent programmes through/beyond the Rumble if given the right build.

4) You could have some of the former members of the teams band together after the tournament to provide a nice low/mid card stable. Imagine a "European Union" of Barrett, McIntyre and Cesaro. Or a "Commonwealth" with the addition of Justin Gabriel, for example.

5) Excludes most Main Event talent so they can continue with their on-going storylines. This is a concept to give the lower-card something to do after all.



Thoughts?</marquee

[whiteyford]

You wouldn't disrupt the regular TV feuds, god knows Raw could do with something other than repeating what happened 10mins ago to kill time, so it makes perfect sense.

[Maluco]

Really like this idea, endless skits and matches giving guys exposure and personality. This could easily create a few stars. The lazy writing at the moment has made things so boring, this gives an easy focus to so many guys and would definately keep me interested...

[XL]

Dunno if the writers just give up when we by this "down period". Seems to me the mentality is "what's the point if no one is watching" rather than "what can we do to get people watching"?

Also solves the problem of TV matches meaning nothing.

For all the bad that TNA does I think the Bound For Series is a really good idea for filling TV time and getting people hooked into something.

[Theo Dious]

Just bring back the King of the Ring.

[Rollermacka]

Well I like the idea of a World Cup, but I'd rather see talent from actual other countries federations as opposed to guys from the same.

[Emperor Smeat]

4 teams might be a better idea like how TNA did it but the idea does sound great. Having an all-heel Team USA does sound really interesting considering its almost always the opposite with team based stuff.

[Rollermacka]

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I mean, come on. Wouldn't you like to see these guys representing Turkey in the WWE?

[XL]

4 teams might be a better idea like how TNA did it but the idea does sound great. Having an all-heel Team USA does sound really interesting considering its almost always the opposite with team based stuff.
Yeah, I found that dynamic quite interesting.

[XL]

I get where you're coming from Rollermacka and it would be interesting, however, the point of the concept is to give TV time to the under-used talent already under contract. Bringing in guys from around the world kinda flies in the face of that.

[#1-norm-fan]

I'd like the idea if it didn't take up TOO much of the show and if the story was Zeb Colter came up with the idea to show America's dominance in the sport. Then it's actually a viable storyline as opposed to a generic way to avoid writing compelling storylines. And any sign of effort to actually get more than 6 or so guys involved in a story is a good step forward in my book.

[Rollermacka]

I get where you're coming from Rollermacka and it would be interesting, however, the point of the concept is to give TV time to the under-used talent already under contract. Bringing in guys from around the world kinda flies in the face of that.

That is true, and if you watch either of the matches from TPW (I got one of those matches from YANGB) pro wrestling in other countries may not be up to the same standards as we are accustom to in America. If it was going to be just from one company, I would have to agree with Tedious then and just do a King of the Ring. If not that, they should start utilizing tournaments for the IC, US or even tag titles then. Having an 8 man tournament over a span of a month for either belt and having the title shot at the next PPV would possibly generate interest in the belt and give it back some of the prestige that the belts use to have.

[HunterSK]

-Team Canada
-Team India (ginder and khali, maybe find some jobbers to be eliminated in palimenary(sp?) competition)... sean davari and his brother, or are they pakistani?
-Team Japan(don't know if yoshi is still on the roster but im sure it would be easy to get a few over, even use Tensai maybe)
-Team UK (as mentioned above)
-Team EU (santino,Sheamus,ceasaro I'm sure there are others)
-Team UN
-Team Mexico(use guys from Triple A)
-Team Caribbean/Porto rico/the colon family(get guys from CCW)
-Team Samoa

edit: I forgot:
Team America
Team Real Americans (Zeb's Team maybe with the confederate flag)

maybe get some jobbers to make a team iran/turkey or something that are just throw aways in eliminated in qualifying bouts, so they can actually make it seem more international.

[Corporate CockSnogger]

The Germans will win on penalties.

[#1-norm-fan]

I'd be rooting for Team Turkey.

[#1-norm-fan]

AWW! He edited out Team Turkey!

[HunterSK]

there

[HunterSK]

they should just make up a fake country and say these jobers are from their, have everyone just squash them, Fuckastan.... get JBL to do the hammer to the back of one of their heads when they dont expect it.

[#1-norm-fan]

Team Parts Unknown

[Bad News Gertner]

Cesaro and Swagger/Coulter should do something like a "Real American Challenge" and face foreigners every week. Have maybe someone like Neville debut and be the one to beat one of them.

[XL]

That is true, and if you watch either of the matches from TPW (I got one of those matches from YANGB) pro wrestling in other countries may not be up to the same standards as we are accustom to in America. If it was going to be just from one company, I would have to agree with Tedious then and just do a King of the Ring. If not that, they should start utilizing tournaments for the IC, US or even tag titles then. Having an 8 man tournament over a span of a month for either belt and having the title shot at the next PPV would possibly generate interest in the belt and give it back some of the prestige that the belts use to have.

Yeah, think I mentioned a company-wide tournament between Survivor Series/Rumble in the thread about somebody missing tournaments. There's definitely a number of ideas to fill that gap/spread a bit of focus/add some depth to the TV time.

[James Steele]

I think it would be kinda neat, but I never really got all that excited about these sort of "competitions". I'd rather they use this lull period to push Wade Barrett back to the main event. I'd do a Punk/Barrett feud where Barrett announces that just like there was a "Summer of Punk" that there will be a harsh and bitter "Winter of Wade Barrett". They could easily have Barrett go from beating Punk to becoming the new golden boy for HHH/Stephanie. Daniel Bryan/Wade Barrett has a lot of history with it, so it'd be a great WWE Championship feud to have with Daniel Bryan at TLC and Royal Rumble. He can be in the Elimination Chamber and get eliminated by whoever he'll feud with going into Mania. WWE needs to have the entire roster involved in this power struggle storyline. Yes, there some feuds not involved with it but most of the roster needs to pick a side. Have some heels show some balls and stand up to HHH while still being heels and have some boring babyfaces turn tweener by bending to HHH's will while not directly kissing his ass. It makes sense for HHH to do "what is best for business" for the entire card/roster and not just the main eventers and occasional asshole move to midcarders. It should be an all-consuming war that ends in an epic final battle where Daniel Bryan makes Triple H tap out in the main event of WrestleMania 31. There is no reason this big of a storyline should be finished in 7 months.


Also XL, fuck you for making me agree with #1-wwf-fan.

I'd like the idea if it didn't take up TOO much of the show and if the story was Zeb Colter came up with the idea to show America's dominance in the sport. Then it's actually a viable storyline as opposed to a generic way to avoid writing compelling storylines. And any sign of effort to actually get more than 6 or so guys involved in a story is a good step forward in my book.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'd like the idea if it didn't take up TOO much of the show and if the story was Zeb Colter came up with the idea to show America's dominance in the sport. Then it's actually a viable storyline as opposed to a generic way to avoid writing compelling storylines. And any sign of effort to actually get more than 6 or so guys involved in a story is a good step forward in my book.

Pretty much exactly this. :y:

I like the teams you've set out, XL. I think an Alberto Del Rio/Rey Mysterio power struggle could be quite interesting. I wouldn't have Los Matadores in the team, however, since they are meant to be Spanish, not Mexican aren't they? Have Hunico and Sin Cara round out the team.

Team Canada is pretty much perfect. I'd swap out Mason Ryan for Adrian Neville in Team UK, but I guess you could have William Regal move down as a coach or manager and get Ryan in there as well.

Santino Marella leading a miscellaneous team featuring Justin Gabriel, The Great Khali and maybe Yoshi Tatsu (a great worker with nothing to do) could work out great. You could also have Alexander Rusev make his main roster debut, even if just for this series as a face in Marella's team.

The Real American team is interesting, and I like the idea of Colter extending an offer to Heyman, but I think you could fill up there side with a few other choices. Maybe a returning Mark Henry, who represented the United States in the Olympics? Heath Slater or Bo Dallas in the group would be tremendous too. Or Colter could call up Antonio Cesaro's old tag team partner, Kassius Ohno to help out.

[XL]

I think it would be kinda neat, but I never really got all that excited about these sort of "competitions". I'd rather they use this lull period to push Wade Barrett back to the main event. I'd do a Punk/Barrett feud where Barrett announces that just like there was a "Summer of Punk" that there will be a harsh and bitter "Winter of Wade Barrett". They could easily have Barrett go from beating Punk to becoming the new golden boy for HHH/Stephanie. Daniel Bryan/Wade Barrett has a lot of history with it, so it'd be a great WWE Championship feud to have with Daniel Bryan at TLC and Royal Rumble. He can be in the Elimination Chamber and get eliminated by whoever he'll feud with going into Mania. WWE needs to have the entire roster involved in this power struggle storyline. Yes, there some feuds not involved with it but most of the roster needs to pick a side. Have some heels show some balls and stand up to HHH while still being heels and have some boring babyfaces turn tweener by bending to HHH's will while not directly kissing his ass. It makes sense for HHH to do "what is best for business" for the entire card/roster and not just the main eventers and occasional asshole move to midcarders. It should be an all-consuming war that ends in an epic final battle where Daniel Bryan makes Triple H tap out in the main event of WrestleMania 31. There is no reason this big of a storyline should be finished in 7 months.


Also XL, fuck you for making me agree with #1-wwf-fan.
Rumours are that Barrett will be getting a new gimmick, a Games Of Thrones-themed one could be interesting.

[Corporate CockSnogger]

Has Wade Barrett read the books?

[Hanso Amore]

People get excited with the idea of a bad ass twin lannister gimmick or a stark like winter is coming gimmick, but Barrett is just going to get a sister character that he fucks.

The burchills were ahead of their time, they needed hbo to make incest popular.

[Curtis]

I would love to watch WWE stars play soccer.

[XL]

Has Wade Barrett read the books?
Man, I hope not. Nothing worse than book snobs.

[Curd]

Well I like the idea of a World Cup, but I'd rather see talent from actual other countries federations as opposed to guys from the same.

It might become too obvious who's going to job, much like how not even the casual fan thought Pieroth, Cibernetico, Latin Lover, Heavy Metal, or Mil Mascaras would win the 1997 Royal Rumble.

[Nicky Fives]

works for me.... you could even add a Shield team to compete as well if they are out of the "main event" feud by then..... them competing short-handed could also add another wrinkle to the team dynamic.....

[XL]

I did consider a Team Authority but - imagining the series to take place immediately after Hell In A Cell this year - I didn't want to involve the Main Event angle, as HHH havning a team would mean Bryan/Cody/Goldy would need an opposing team. Then the series which is designed to give the low/mid card guys something to do becomes a vehicle to help get the main event feud over instead.

[XL]

Pretty much exactly this. :y:

I like the teams you've set out, XL. I think an Alberto Del Rio/Rey Mysterio power struggle could be quite interesting. I wouldn't have Los Matadores in the team, however, since they are meant to be Spanish, not Mexican aren't they? Have Hunico and Sin Cara round out the team.
Heh, gues that went overt my head. Thing is, Rey/Cara are never gonna be healthy at the same time/for long enough.

Team Canada is pretty much perfect. I'd swap out Mason Ryan for Adrian Neville in Team UK, but I guess you could have William Regal move down as a coach or manager and get Ryan in there as well.
I did cnsider Neville but I wanted the "drafted from NXT" thing to put some real focus on Sami Zayn. Having 2 or 3 guys get drafted doesn't make Zayn special. Yes, I know Ryan would be coming in from NXT also, but he has been on the main roster before. Plus, it gives you representation from Wales. Alos, considered Regal in a managerial/coaching role but the "One Last Chance"/post series feud with Barrett seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.

Santino Marella leading a miscellaneous team featuring Justin Gabriel, The Great Khali and maybe Yoshi Tatsu (a great worker with nothing to do) could work out great. You could also have Alexander Rusev make his main roster debut, even if just for this series as a face in Marella's team.

The Real American team is interesting, and I like the idea of Colter extending an offer to Heyman, but I think you could fill up there side with a few other choices. Maybe a returning Mark Henry, who represented the United States in the Olympics? Heath Slater or Bo Dallas in the group would be tremendous too. Or Colter could call up Antonio Cesaro's old tag team partner, Kassius Ohno to help out.
I went for Jinder over Khali purely to create the skits of Slater trying to brown-nose Colter. Imagine Slater in full Uncle Sam regalia trying to prove how much of an American he is.

[parkmania]

I went for Jinder over Khali purely to create the skits of Slater trying to brown-nose Colter. Imagine Slater in full Uncle Sam regalia trying to prove how much of an American he is.

Forgive my ass Photoshop skills (I actually used Paint) but I would pay money to see this:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/Parkmania/apollo-slater.jpg (http://s272.photobucket.com/user/Parkmania/media/apollo-slater.jpg.html)

[XL]

Nice.

It's all about the skits for me. Slater trying to get himself into the Real Americans/freaking out about the Band splitting up. Everything Santino and team would be getting up to. Christian trying to prove somebody's Canadian heritage/getting someone to re-nationalise/trying to talk Edge, Bret, Lance Storm out of retirement before Jericho comes back. An uneasy alliance between Barrett and his guys.

[XL]

Just bring back the King of the Ring.

That is true, and if you watch either of the matches from TPW (I got one of those matches from YANGB) pro wrestling in other countries may not be up to the same standards as we are accustom to in America. If it was going to be just from one company, I would have to agree with Tedious then and just do a King of the Ring. If not that, they should start utilizing tournaments for the IC, US or even tag titles then. Having an 8 man tournament over a span of a month for either belt and having the title shot at the next PPV would possibly generate interest in the belt and give it back some of the prestige that the belts use to have.
I'm a big fan of tournaments, however, a month's worth of exposure for 8 guys/teams with one eventual winner taking the glory/focus doesn't achieve what I was aiming for.

Cesaro and Swagger/Coulter should do something like a "Real American Challenge" and face foreigners every week. Have maybe someone like Neville debut and be the one to beat one of them.

Another good idea but the pay off gets one guy over (Neville being the example) whilst a bunch of people get fed to the already established Real Americans.

An ongoing, "Round Robin" style competition should create a platform for any number of matches/interactions/skits that should help build underdeveloped personalities.

[Curd]

An ongoing, "Round Robin" style competition should create a platform for any number of matches/interactions/skits that should help build underdeveloped personalities.

I agree that Round Robin format would be best because it allows losers to save face against comparable guys or to even have most guys' W/L ratio in that tournament be 1:1 except for the winner and maybe a few bottom-of-the-card wrestlers.

[XL]

You wouldn't even need to keep everything so even. You could have a guy like Santino lose consistently only to pick up a big win against a dominant Wade Barrett. You have tag guys prosper in tag matches but falter in singles matches, whereas two singles guys thrown together in a tag match would struggle.

The main point though is that the format keeps these guys on screen longer than losing in the first 2 rounds of a tournament. Use that time to push a personality/character and it shouldn't really matter what their win/loss ratio is.

[James Steele]

I thought people didn't like it that wins/losses don't matter.

[XL]

If by "people" you mean "#1-wwf-fan", then yeah.

The whole concept of the competition is that wins matter.

What I'm saying is that creating a personality/character/gimmick by giving these guys consistent exposure is more important that the individual winning every match. Santino is a great example of a guy who remains over despite losing most of his matches, Heath Slater too.

[#1-norm-fan]

I'm pretty sure I'm nowhere near the only one who thinks the concept of wins and losses being meaningless is fucking stupid.

[XL]

Hyperbole, my dear boy.

Tbf, do wins/losses matter if the matches they come from are meaningless?

[#1-norm-fan]

Hmm. I'm not sure how to answer that. lol

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

World Cups in wrestling are usually a long jerk off sessions to America.

[#1-norm-fan]

Which would work well with Zeb's gimmick. Which is why I'd like it if the focal point was Zeb came up with the idea to show America's superiority. Or, to make it nice and heelish and go with his gimmick, he came up with the idea to single handedly regain the superiority that America has given up.

[Theo Dious]

It might become too obvious who's going to job, much like how not even the casual fan thought Pieroth, Cibernetico, Latin Lover, Heavy Metal, or Mil Mascaras would win the 1997 Royal Rumble.

Hey. Mascaras would have gone all the way if he hadn't eliminated himself.

[XL]

World Cups in wrestling are usually a long jerk off sessions to America.

But the heel US team turns that on its head. Especially with fan's idea of having Zeb instigate it.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Heh, gues that went overt my head. Thing is, Rey/Cara are never gonna be healthy at the same time/for long enough.


I did cnsider Neville but I wanted the "drafted from NXT" thing to put some real focus on Sami Zayn. Having 2 or 3 guys get drafted doesn't make Zayn special. Yes, I know Ryan would be coming in from NXT also, but he has been on the main roster before. Plus, it gives you representation from Wales. Alos, considered Regal in a managerial/coaching role but the "One Last Chance"/post series feud with Barrett seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.


I went for Jinder over Khali purely to create the skits of Slater trying to brown-nose Colter. Imagine Slater in full Uncle Sam regalia trying to prove how much of an American he is.

Good point about Rey/Cara.

I was imagining Zayn and Neville having some matches against each other as part of the series. A sort of "which NXT guy is going to make the bigger splash?" rivalry.

Anything that gets Heath Slater doing anything is fine by me. WOOOOOO!