Post by allpowerfulgarth on Jun 1, 2012 10:20:24 GMT -5
This is a bizarre concept that I've had bouncing around my head for a while now, and it just recently occurred to me that it might work as a circuit idea.
The basic idea is this: You pick a title that exists or existed in the real world, probably a world title as that works best for the concept. You follow the path that the league in which that title existed followed in the real world with one major exception: Every time the title changes hands, it goes to the person who was next in line. Then you have to book around the fallout and the landscape changes as you move toward the next runner-up title victory.
That sounds like an abstract concept, so let me give some examples.
Wrestlemania 4
REAL WORLD: Randy Savage defeats Ted DiBiase in a tournament final to win the vacant WWF Title.
CIRCUIT WORLD: Ted DiBiase defeats Randy Savage in a tournament final to win the vacant WWF Title.
SO...: Now you have a year of mega-heel DiBiase as champion, rather than a slowly-turning Savage.
Wrestlemania 12
REAL WORLD: Shawn Michaels (who won the Royal Rumble to earn his shot) defeats Bret Hart to win the WWF Title.
CIRCUIT WORLD: Diesel (who was the last man eliminated by Shawn Michaels in the Royal Rumble, so in this universe he wins the Rumble and gets the title shot instead) defeats Bret Hart to win the WWF Title.
SO...: Shawn doesn't get his major Wrestlemania moment, there's probably never a heated offscreen Bret-Shawn rivalry and Diesel doesn't leave for WCW for about another year.
Vengeance 2003
REAL WORLD: Kurt Angle defeats WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and The Big Show in a triple threat match to win the WWE Title.
CIRCUIT WORLD: The Big Show defeats the WWE Champion (which would actually be The Undertaker, under the circuit rules) and Kurt Angle in a triple threat match to win the WWE Title.
SO...: Well, it doesn't make a huge difference because Lesnar is going to win the title in a couple months either way, but it illustrates my point with regard to triple threats, so shut up.
Obviously, the writer will have to make judgment calls on some qualifications that are more subjective. What constitutes a runner-up in a match like Money in the Bank or Championship Scramble? How do you decide who wins when the runner-up in a match like the Elimination Chamber is the person who was champion going in? Does the alternate-universe champion face the same challengers the real-world champion faced between title changes, or do you adjust the storylines so they better fit the players?
Some of the changes would be really challenging to work with, you'd have to devise a way to make things move really fast (PPV-only circuit, like Oliver's WWF?), you probably have to run in Email Mode and turn off injuries and no-shows, and you'd need to do some research to find out just how so-and-so got his title shot when he did. And sometimes, even the champions would be the same, just because there's no logical runner-up; Hulk Hogan got a lot of title shots just because he was Hulk Hogan, so there's really no one else to face, say, Sgt. Slaughter at Wrestlemania 7. But you'd get to rewrite a lot of history really quickly, and you'd likely get to put the world title on a good number of guys who never got the chance in real life; I've run through a bit of this in my head with WWE, and DiBiase with the WWF Title is only the tip of the iceberg.
Thoughts?
The basic idea is this: You pick a title that exists or existed in the real world, probably a world title as that works best for the concept. You follow the path that the league in which that title existed followed in the real world with one major exception: Every time the title changes hands, it goes to the person who was next in line. Then you have to book around the fallout and the landscape changes as you move toward the next runner-up title victory.
That sounds like an abstract concept, so let me give some examples.
Wrestlemania 4
REAL WORLD: Randy Savage defeats Ted DiBiase in a tournament final to win the vacant WWF Title.
CIRCUIT WORLD: Ted DiBiase defeats Randy Savage in a tournament final to win the vacant WWF Title.
SO...: Now you have a year of mega-heel DiBiase as champion, rather than a slowly-turning Savage.
Wrestlemania 12
REAL WORLD: Shawn Michaels (who won the Royal Rumble to earn his shot) defeats Bret Hart to win the WWF Title.
CIRCUIT WORLD: Diesel (who was the last man eliminated by Shawn Michaels in the Royal Rumble, so in this universe he wins the Rumble and gets the title shot instead) defeats Bret Hart to win the WWF Title.
SO...: Shawn doesn't get his major Wrestlemania moment, there's probably never a heated offscreen Bret-Shawn rivalry and Diesel doesn't leave for WCW for about another year.
Vengeance 2003
REAL WORLD: Kurt Angle defeats WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and The Big Show in a triple threat match to win the WWE Title.
CIRCUIT WORLD: The Big Show defeats the WWE Champion (which would actually be The Undertaker, under the circuit rules) and Kurt Angle in a triple threat match to win the WWE Title.
SO...: Well, it doesn't make a huge difference because Lesnar is going to win the title in a couple months either way, but it illustrates my point with regard to triple threats, so shut up.
Obviously, the writer will have to make judgment calls on some qualifications that are more subjective. What constitutes a runner-up in a match like Money in the Bank or Championship Scramble? How do you decide who wins when the runner-up in a match like the Elimination Chamber is the person who was champion going in? Does the alternate-universe champion face the same challengers the real-world champion faced between title changes, or do you adjust the storylines so they better fit the players?
Some of the changes would be really challenging to work with, you'd have to devise a way to make things move really fast (PPV-only circuit, like Oliver's WWF?), you probably have to run in Email Mode and turn off injuries and no-shows, and you'd need to do some research to find out just how so-and-so got his title shot when he did. And sometimes, even the champions would be the same, just because there's no logical runner-up; Hulk Hogan got a lot of title shots just because he was Hulk Hogan, so there's really no one else to face, say, Sgt. Slaughter at Wrestlemania 7. But you'd get to rewrite a lot of history really quickly, and you'd likely get to put the world title on a good number of guys who never got the chance in real life; I've run through a bit of this in my head with WWE, and DiBiase with the WWF Title is only the tip of the iceberg.
Thoughts?