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Though WCW would become a very bipolar company in that the many years of excellent action from some of the best wrestlers on the planet was balanced by an equal number of years of mind-bogglingly stupid booking and political games, there was no doubt that the Turner buyout kept it alive many years longer that it would have survived on its own. Wrestling had been a major part of the initial success of the Turner networks, and for better or worse, Ted Turner's loyalty had him pumping money into it well beyond the point most people with any business sense would consider rational.
But what if Turner didn't buy Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988? The obvious answer is that they would have either needed to find another buyer or go out of business, so what if Vince McMahon decided to make a grab for the assets and buy WCW thirteen years before he actually did in real life? How would JCP and its wrestlers be integrated into WWF storylines? And what if Vince McMahon decided to hire some chump named Mark E. Mark to book it? I'll do my best to answer all those questions right now as I take the WWF in November of 1988, add in a few NWA wrestlers, and rebook the build to Wrestlemania 5.
When trying to decide how to approach this, I decided to forego any kind of invasion angle or even any announcement on TV. My feeling was that since the REAL heat between the two sides wouldn't come until the beginning of the Monday Night Wars, JCP would just quietly go away and I'd simply hire the wrestlers I wanted and make them WWF characters. I wouldn't necessarily pretend that nobody existed before they came to the WWF, but I'm not going to mention JCP or go out of my way to talk about anyone's pasts, and none of the NWA titles are going to make the jump with the champions.
In fact, since all I'm doing is integrating NWA wrestlers into the WWF, I'm going to leave most of the existing WWF storylines alone. Rick Rude is still going to beat the Ultimate Warrior for the Intercontinental Title, Jake Roberts and Andre will still have their feud and Andre will still be petrified of snakes, the Red Rooster's still going to wind up at odds with Bobby Heenan, and Rick Martel is still going to turn on Tito Santana. In fact, I'm really only going to change two programs in any major way.
Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair
In November of 1988, Macho Man Randy Savage was the WWF Champion and they were starting to plant the seeds of a split with Hulk Hogan that would lead to them facing off in the main event of Wrestlemania 5. Hogan's still going to Wrestlemania, but the Mega Powers aren't going to explode just yet in my world. Instead, Ric Flair is going to beat Savage for the title, then we're building to Flair vs Hogan at Wrestlemania instead.
As an aside, I know I do a lot of Flair vs Savage and Flair vs Hogan matches in Bookerman's Corner, but they're such natural matches to do and, on a personal note, it's fun figuring out how many different ways I can put these matches together in completely different scenarios given the timeframe and circumstances. It's like that show Sliders, except in professional wrestling.
Anyway, I'm going to debut Ric Flair at the Survivor Series as a mystery partner on the Andre/Dino Bravo/Perfect/Rude/Race team that ended up coming down to a 4-on-1 against Jake Roberts. Since the official purchase happened on November 21st (if we're using the exact timeline as the Turner buyout), that's three days before Survivor Series and I simply wouldn't have had time to book an angle to bring Flair in.
Instead, I'll have Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura make an announcement at the top of Survivor Series that one of the members of that team, let's say Harley Race, is injured and won't be able to compete, but the team has announced that they do have a replacement who will be revealed at match time. That will be Ric Flair, and just to put an exclamation point on his debut, he's going to be the one getting the winning pinfall on Jake Roberts instead of Mr Perfect.
So now Flair is here and he's going to target Savage and the WWF Title, and I think I'd book this similarly to the Flair-Hogan confrontations in 1991 where Flair calls Savage as an inferior paper champion without explicitly referring to his own stints as the NWA World Champion. Savage is an extremely easy person to book, because all you need to do is find a reason for him to want to kill someone, usually involving his family, and watch him go nuts. This time around we're going to go the Elizabeth route, not full on "I had her first" mode like their Wrestlemania 8 feud, but just have Flair put the moves on her and maybe sneak a kiss while Savage is laid out or tied in the ropes or something.
Regardless of the specifics, Savage will want to tear Flair apart, but Flair will refuse to wrestle him unless the title's on the line. Savage, being the clearminded guy that he is, gladly gives Flair a title match to get him in the ring. The match will happen at the Royal Rumble and Savage will have the advantage until Mr Perfect runs out and hits Savage with a chair when the referee's not looking. Flair quickly swoops in and pins Savage to win the WWF Title, putting the first half of my Wrestlemania main event in place.
The second half will come together a bit later in the Rumble match itself, but before we get to Hogan doing what Hogan does, we're going to set up Savage vs Perfect for Wrestlemania as well. Perfect makes his entrance for the Rumble match and gets jumped in the aisle by Savage, and the two of them brawl until referees manage to drag Savage off of him and let Perfect get to the ring. Savage comes back out maybe ten minutes later, this time through the crowd so he can evade security, and eliminates Perfect before attacking him again on the floor.
Then, as I said earlier, Hogan wins the Royal Rumble and is declared the #1 contender, so now we've got two new marquee matches for Wrestlemania 5: Savage vs Perfect, and Hogan challenging Flair for the WWF Title.
Demolition vs Powers of Pain vs Road Warriors
Survivor Series 88 saw a pretty cool little double turn where the Powers of Pain turned heel and Demolition turned babyface after Demolition's manager, Mr Fuji, left them and went with the Powers of Pain. Now that I know I have the NWA guys coming in, I change my plans three days before the event and keep everyone where they are, because now I'm going to bring in the Road Warriors (or Legion of Doom, whatever Vince tells me to call them) as heels to make it a three way feud.
I still have the PoP win the match, but this time it'll be by pinning Demolition clean, setting up a title match that I'll put on WWF Superstars. The Road Warriors will come out during the match and attack Demolition, costing them the match and making the Powers of Pain the new champions. It's important to note that the PoP aren't involved with the Road Warriors and the match will be laid out so they have their backs to them and don't even see the interference, but they're the new champions and Demolition (who are now babyfaces) are so mad at the Road Warriors that they decide to get revenge on them before trying to win the title back.
The Road Warriors will do an interview saying that they've walked the meanest streets and been in some of the toughest fights (again, without referencing anywhere else they've wrestled), but no matter how many people they beat up, all they kept hearing about was how tough Demolition was. Demolition doesn't look so tough now that they left them laying and cost them their title, and if Demolition wants a fight, they'd better prepare to get their butts kicked again.
We do Demolition vs Road Warriors now, and the Warriors win by cheating somehow, probably knocking one of Demolition out with some kind of foreign object. However I do it, the idea is that Demolition wanted revenge instead of concentrating on winning their title back, so now they lost and are out of title contention. The Road Warriors are the new #1 contenders to the Powers of Pain and end up winning the title at the Royal Rumble. I know that's two title changes on a show that's already got the Rumble match, but a)I have to fit all this stuff in somewhere people are going to be watching, and b)this was the first Rumble PPV and I want people who didn't order it to think they really missed out and give that feeling that you really do need to order every single PPV to see the important stuff.
We're hitting the home stretch now, and I have the Road Warriors beat the PoP again on Saturday Night's Main Event just to wrap up that series, and now I can announce the Road Warriors-Demolition rematch for Wrestlemania, which will now be for the title.
Wrestlemania 5
So then, here's your new and improved, NWAified Wrestlemania 5 card:
-WWF Title Match: Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan -Intercontinental Title Match: Ultimate Warrior vs Rick Rude -Tag Team Title Match: Road Warriors vs Demolition -Jake Roberts vs Andre The Giant (w/ special referee Big John Studd) -Mr Perfect vs Randy Savage -Lex Luger vs Brutus Beefcake -Ted Dibiase vs Sting -Hart Foundation vs Midnight Express -Strike Force vs Brain Busters -Red Rooster vs Bobby Heenan -Twin Towers vs Powers of Pain -Fabulous Rougeau Brothers vs Fantastics -Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs Steve "Dr Death" Williams -King Haku vs Hercules
That might look like a lot of matches, but the real Wrestlemania 5 had just as many, so I feel okay with doing this and then chopping it down for home video if I need to.
Anyway, there's some matches on there that are the same as the real Wrestlemania 5, I'm not going to cover those because there's no real need, but there are some matches I did make minor changes to that I want to touch on. Instead of Dibiase vs Beefcake, I split that match up and put Beefcake with Lex Luger. I'll have debuted him in early 1989 and had him go on a winning streak over lower level guys, and I'm going to have him beat Beefcake here so he has a win over someone who matters since I'm planning to build to Luger and Hogan at Summerslam. Dibiase's going to get Sting instead, and he'll also have gotten a solid push as a plucky young midcarder. They're going to do the same double countout finish that Dibiase and Beefcake did in the real world.
The Powers of Pain are going to face the Twin Towers instead of the Rockers, mostly because I still want them at the top of my division and they need a strong win to get some momentum back after losing to Demolition and the Road Warriors. The Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine are out, and now the Hart Foundation is going to face the Midnight Express, Hacksaw Jim Duggan takes on Dr Death, and the Fantastics will face the Rougeaus just because I think they would all be terrific matches, albeit of completely different styles.
Okay, now let's get to the stuff I completely rebooked above, starting with Savage vs Perfect. I want to keep Perfect undefeated, but I'm not sure I want him to pin Savage here. Instead, we're going to do a DQ finish where the referee gets bumped, and Perfect goes out to ringside and grabs his new favorite weapon, the chair. Savage is able to avoid taking a chairshot and nails Perfect and then grabs the chair, but then the referee's going to wake up and see Perfect down and Savage holding a chair, and will call for the bell. Yeah, a cheap finish, but it plays into something later on and it lets me stretch the program out until Summerslam.
Tag team title match between the Road Warriors and Demolition is going to be pretty straightforward: the Road Warriors came onto their turf and have been the pretenders to Demolition's throne for six months, so Demolition has to go over clean here. I'm thinking a finish where all four men are fighting in the ring and Hawk goes for the top rope clothesline, but whoever he's going after moves and he takes out Animal instead, then Demolition dumps Hawk out of the ring and hits Animal with the Decapitator for the win. Then when Demolition is celebrating in the ring, the Powers of Pain come out and stand by the entryway making mean faces at Demolition to let them know that their issue hasn't been settled and they'll be coming for the titles again.
We finally come to the main event as Hulk Hogan challenges Ric Flair for the WWF Title. This is going to be your pretty standard match, and the finish is going to be Hulk going through his motions until Mr Perfect runs out to the ring with a chair like he did when Flair won the title. This time, Macho Man is waiting for Perfect and heads him off at the pass, and Hogan hits the legdrop to become a two-time WWF Champion.
* * *
So there you go, a somewhat different Wrestlemania 5 than the one we got in real life. Like usual, I put storylines in place to keep us going past the PPV and give me something to build to for Summerslam.
The Savage vs Perfect feud is obviously far from over, and the endgame here is to do the two of them in a cage at Summerslam. I think I'd build to it by having Perfect win a rematch on Saturday Night's Main Event, and this time he'll use some kind of cheap means to pin him, and probably have Savage end the streak at Summerslam and do a finish where he's about to escape the cage, but then changes his mind and hits the elbow off the top of the cage and pins Perfect so there's no question that he beat him.
As I touched on earlier, Lex Luger's my next big challenger for Hogan, and they're going to face off for the title at Summerslam, and I'm probably going to promote it as a double main event with Savage vs Perfect. We'll build heat by having Luger injure Hogan with the torture rack so Hogan comes into Summerslam at less than 100%, kind of like he did against Earthquake at Summerslam 90. My "thinking way down the line" plan is to have Hogan go over there and then do either Hogan vs Perfect or Hogan vs Savage past that depending on what else I have planned at the time.
The Powers of Pain and Demolition are going to face off for the tag title at Summerslam since they never had another match after the Road Warriors helped the PoP beat Demolition for the title. I might have them swap the title back and forth sometime during that long five month stretch between Wrestlemania and Summerslam so I can book the blowoff as 2 out of 3 falls.
Also, I'm going to start building Sting as an Intercontinental Title-level guy so he can challenge someone at some point in the next year and a half, I'm going to try and put more focus on the tag division since now. In addition to the three teams I had fighting over the title, I've also got the Harts, the Fantastics, the Rougeaus, the Bushwhackers, the Midnights, the Twin Towers, the Rockers, Arn & Tully, and I'm even thinking of bringing Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo back to reform their team since they'd have credibility as former champions. That's a STACKED tag roster, and I think I can get a lot out of it.
Other than that, I'm going to leave most of the other existing storylines like Warrior vs Rude, Jake vs Dibiase, and Tito vs Martel in place since they were all fine the way they were.
So that's it for this edition of Bookerman's Corner! If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it, and you can reach me at markemark316@gmail.com. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time on Bookerman's Corner!
