(Derek wrote these rules and continues to write them. Additional credit goes to the late PWW, Tim and Rick Garrard) The votes are in! We are ready to begin our TNM circuits. Before I let you know which wrestlers we will be starting with, I want to first thank Graeme for setting up the voting booth up for us. I also want to thank everyone that voted. There were more than 100 votes sent in. From these 20 wrestlers, we have a real good mix. 7 are WCW/NWO wrestlers, 7 from WWF and 6 from ECW. That seems to be very evenly divided. Here are the 20 wrestlers you should use to start your circuit: Bret Hart Chris Benoit Bam Bam Bigelow Vader Shawn Michaels Randy Savage Raven Sandman Steve Austin Hunter H Helmsley Shane Douglas Tommy Dreamer Hawk Sting Taz Sabu Animal Hollywood Hogan Owen Hart Scott Hall The 2 managers you can use are: Eric Bischoff and Sunny You may use your wrestlers in any gimmick(s) you want. They can be their current gimmick, one from the past or even a brand new one. Even multiple gimmicks can be used. Changes can be made to wrestler’s pushes, workrate, stamina, finishers, etc. Setup the wrestlers how you want to use them including contract length. The two managers can be assigned to any of your wrestlers. As with wrestlers, more managers will be added to your roster in the coming months. You now want to setup your TNM circuit and hire the above wrestlers. If you are going to use e-mail mode, you don’t need to hire wrestlers unless you want. There should be no addition hiring. Just use the 20 wrestlers to run all cards for the first month. In February, I have selected 4 wrestlers for you to hire based on the voting. You can either offer them contracts and let them decide if they want to join (circuit mode) or add them to your roster (e-mail mode). In hiring wrestlers, you are allowed to offer contracts to the 4 wrestlers more than once during that month. If they do not sign the first time, you can ask again later. Once February ends, another list of wrestlers or hiring instructions will be given to you. Instructions for January and February have been setup for you to follow. These instructions are based on nothing more than my own ideas. Remember, this is your circuit and if my instructions do not quite fit your league, change them so they do. During the voting many people said they don’t want to use managers. Fine by me. I can’t force you to do anything. These instructions are for you to use as you see fit. For the months following, I need your ideas. Please e-mail me what you any instructions you feel we should use. I will do my best to include them. Each month I am hoping to use a different theme. The first supercard, as well as every January, will be based on the Royal Rumble. A Battle Royal should be held to determine a top contender or new title holder. March will be similar to Uncensored, where all matches will have stipulations (No-DQ, Cage, Ladder, Gimmick, etc.). For June, a tournament will be held where the winner(s) receive a trophy, a title shot, a crown, etc. as is done at the King of the Ring. In September, FallBrawl’s Wargames will be the focus. Running some type of cage match should be your main event. And for November, Survivor Series or various team matches will take place. The other 7 months will use IYH or Clash type cards. The themes for these cards will vary. This gives you an idea where I am headed with this. I want this to be a little different from your normal circuits you run on TNM. You should try and stay within the instructions as best you feel fits your league. I’m not saying my ideas are perfect, I know they are not. But by following them, you should be able to develop a circuit which everyone can follow and compare ideas. How many times have you said if I were Vince, I’d book, hire, etc. the WWF this way.... That’s all we are doing here. Once you have ran all of January’s cards, make your report in text format. Again, this can just be the results from your last card or as much as a full report for the month. Graeme will be setting up the PWW homepage for us to upload our reports to. If you want to create your own homepage, provide Graeme with the URL address so he may post it for everyone to check out. For now, I suggest not running too many cards for February until we have a chance to post instructions for March. You may need to know what is to come before booking February. JANUARY 1998 1} Your new promotion needs to create a tag team division. To begin with, create a brand new tag team made up of 2 singles wrestlers. You will need to give them either a nickname or develop a gimmick for them to help get them over with the fans. Assigning a manager to this team wouldn’t hurt. 2} This new tag team needs immediate promotion. For your first major card, find opponents for them so to help get them established as a team in your league. The match could be a squash to help get them going or even against a team that could start a feud. 3} Speaking of the first major card, you should run a Battle Royal to determine your first major singles champion. This match can either be in Royal Rumble fashion or a normal Battle Royal. You need to work the Battle Royal so you can put the belt on a wrestler you feel can help promote your organization the best. The number of participates is up to you. If you feel only 4 wrestlers on the roster are worthy of the title, run a 4 man Battle Royal. If giving all 20 wrestlers a shot at carrying the torch for you is what you want, I’m all for it. 4} More promotional work is needed to help get your circuit on its feet. To help bring in fans, find a celebrity that can referee a match at your supercard. This should be a non-wrestler to help draw in fans. 5} You need to showcase your talent. With two of your best workers, run one of the follow types of matches: - 2 out of 3 Falls - Submission/I Quit - Iron Man - Ladder - Falls Count Anywhere FEBRUARY 1998 NEW WRESTLERS - Kevin Nash, Cactus Jack, and Harlem Heat 1} With your singles champion determined, you now need to find tag team champs. A tournament needs to take place in the month of February. This doesn’t mean that the whole tournament needs to run at your major card, but the finals do. You could run a round robin tournament throughout the month or just an eight team single elimination tournament at your PPV. The only thing required is to have the finals on your major card with the winner receiving the titles. Number of teams, type of tournament and when matches are to run are up to you. 2} The winner of your Battle Royal in January walked out with the title. This didn’t sit well with the last two wrestlers eliminated in the match. One of them deserves a title shot at the next major card. At the February PPV, your main event should be the Champ vs. one of the two guys last eliminated from the January Battle Royal. 3} Also coming out of the Battle Royal, a feud between two wrestlers in which one was eliminated by the other. This happened in the first 20 minutes of the match. Look at your Battle Royal results to determine this feud. This month’s PPV should have a match between these two. 4} Wrestlers are beginning to sign with you. What you need now is to start bringing in more non-wrestlers. A manager, valet or bodyguard should be brought in. You don’t want to spend a lot of money so you need to look for someone that will work cheap. Find an individual working in an indy circuit or even an old wrestling face that would work cheap. If that doesn’t work, go find your own (create a manager) to add to your roster. 5} The other day I received a call from a wrestler looking for work. I told him that you were looking to bring in more workers, but couldn’t promise him a long contract. He agreed to come in and work a few cards for you. I can’t remember his name, but I’m sure you’ll recognize him when he shows up. Use the ‘M’ystery option to find this wrestler. You may want to run this match on one of your house/tv cards to see if he is PPV material. This will help you decide what needs to be done with him. 6} On your March card an opponent will need to be determined for your singles champ. At the February PPV why not run a Top Contender match with the winner receiving the title shot in March. MARCH 1998 WRESTLERS TO HIRE - See Instructions 1) An international promoter has been in contact with me. He wants to start sending over some of his talent to you. Give him a call and let him know who you want him to send over first. Offer this international star a contract. 2) More tag teams are needed for your league. Go out and find a team that will look good in your circuit. This can be an established team or you can bring in two wrestlers to form a brand new team. 3) Speaking of new wrestlers, we need to start building for the future. With all the superstars already signed, young talent is needed. Offer a contract to one of the young talents making his way around the promotions. 4) With several more wrestlers coming on board, another manager should be brought in. With the first two PPVs in the books, money is available for a more high profile manager. Find someone that will bring you some attention, someone the fans know. 5) Looking at the rates, some of your wrestlers can’t be too happy. Take a look at the rankings yourself. One of them needs a push before they decide to quit on you. With one of the wrestlers with zero wins and/or one of the last three wrestlers listed in the rankings, start pushing him for some kind of title shot in May. This title shot could be a singles or tag team title or even a title not determined yet. 6) The supercard in March should be unique. Schedule most of your matches with stipulations. These stipulations can be No DQ, No Countouts, Cage, Ladder, Strap, Gimmick, 2/3 Falls, Managers Banned, etc. type matches. 7) On the February cards, you should have had a Top Contender match. Begin a feud between the winner of this match with your current champ. 8) With the lose in the Top Contender match in February, your wrestler needs to regroup. He will need to take time off in March so he can come out strong in April. Once he returns, this wrestler will be ready to feud with one or more of the main eventers from the supercard in March. This feud should carry them until after the June PPV. APRIL 1998 1) With the positive feedback from the fans, I suggest you give a call to an international promoter again to bring in another international star. 2) Looking at the 30 participants in this year’s WWF Royal Rumble, your roster contains a few of the wrestlers. Choose another wrestler from the Royal Rumble not on your roster and offer him a contract to join your league. 3) The tag team division is coming together nicely. Look for a new team the fans are familiar with. Find a tag team that is no longer together and reunite them. Some teams you may want to look at are: The Freebirds, Midnight Express, Doom, British Bulldogs and even the Eliminators. Bring in their former manager if you wish. 4) Most of the wrestlers have had their opportunity to show you what they can do. The rankings are coming together nicely. Looking at your rankings, take 2 wrestlers ranked #5-10 and do one of the following: - Begin a feud between the two. - Using their current tag team partner, feud the two teams. - Find them a partner for this feud. 5) Set to debut in May will be a former partner of one of your wrestlers currently on the roster. This debut should be booked as a mystery partner (not the ‘M’ key). In April you need to start preparing for this. Begin a feud where a mystery partner can come in and have an impact on the feud. This can be a 2 on 1 situation, 3 on 2, or however you want to make the feud work with the mystery partner match taking place on your May PPV. 6) You just reunited a tag team. Since they are a well known team, they should go to the top of the tag team rankings. Found them a team to feud with and schedule a match for your April PPV. The winner should then go on in May to take on the champs for the titles. 7) One of your wrestlers has been missing for a month now, ever since he lost that Top Contender’s match. He is coming back with a vengence. Your main event PPV match last month featured a few wrestlers he could begin a big feud with. Use one of these wrestlers and start this feud to last through June. MAY 1998 1) For April you started a feud which requires a mystery partner. This should be a former partner of one of your current wrestlers. Bring in this wrestler to compete in this match. 2) Find 2 wrestlers not well-known. Offer them contracts to come in and help job for your current stars. 3) Between May and August, find a retired wrestler to come in for a few appearances. Sign him for up to 5 appearances (not cards). The first appearance should be in a non-wrestling role. This could be as a special referee, a manager/corner man role or even an announcer. In this role, a feud should develope with one or more of your wrestlers, leading up to a match at the PPV in August. Other than his August match, the former wrestler can only wrestle on one other card. The other appearances would have to be in either non-wrestling roles or for live interviews to help build and promote his upcoming match in August. After August, he is either gone from your league or becomes a manager. 4) The young star you hired back in March has given your roster a little more to work with. He needs to have a push to help his future. Use one of the following for this young star to feud with: - an international star from your roster - a title holder other than your World Champion 5) One of your wrestlers is not drawing a lot of heat as a face/heel. Help him out by turning him. See if that helps this wrestler. 6) Back in March you had a wrestler not very happy jobbing all the time. You needed to give him a push leading up to a title shot. This is the month to give him his due. Give him a chance to prove his worth to your league by giving him some kind of title match at the PPV. JUNE 1998 1) Young stars are needed. Find two more up-and-coming wrestlers and offer them contracts. 2) Look for a wrestler that needs a change in gimmicks. Do one of the following: - If this wrestler has a gimmick (i.e. Undertaker), take his gimmick personna away and make him wrestle under his real name or a more genuine name. - Change his gimmick or ring name and give him a new gimmick that will get him over with the fans. - Find an unknown wrestler (create a new wrestler) and see if you can make him in to a star. 3) Your June PPV needs to follow a King of the Ring format. This doesn’t have to be a full tournament at the PPV. You can have just the finals if you’d like. The winner of the tournament should be given some time of award. A crown, trophy, money, prize or a title shot could be the winner’s reward. It doesn’t even have to be a singles tournament. A tag tournament, six-man tag team tournament or Battle Bowl can be used. Whatever rules you wish to put in place (like hardcore matches) is up to you. Make the tournament as unique as possible. 4) You just hired a wrestler with a brand new gimmick. Immediate promotion is needed. You want to make him a star as quickly as possible. Find him an opponent that will get him over with the fans. 5) After giving you five months of wrestling, one of the original 20 wrestlers from your roster wants to move on. He wants to try working for another promotion. He has agreed to work June for you but wants out of his contract as of July. You can job him out of the circuit or not even use him for June if you want. This is the last month he will work for you. Allow him to move on and release this wrestler that was a part of your 20-man roster. 6) Coming up for your August PPV a match in which stipulations where the winner received something or the loser is punished will take place. This match could be Title vs. Title, Hair vs. Hair, Career vs. Mask, etc. are the type of stipulations that will need to be determined. For June, start building this feud between 2 wrestlers that will lead to this match for your August PPV. JULY 1998 1) June you brought in a wrestler (or created) giving him a new gimmick,trying to create a superstar of your own. You should have begun to introduce him to the fans. Continue his push to a PPV match in October. This match should have some sort of stipulation or gimmick type of match versus any other wrestler. 2) Offer a contract to a wrestler who is currently part of the nWo. 3) Another wrestler should be hired. Look at ECW's current roster and offer a contract to one of their wrestlers. 4) Find a former ECW wrestler and offer him a contract as well. 5) At your June PPV, you should have had some kind of a tournament similar to the King of the Ring. The winner(s) of the tournament should start a feud based on him/them winning. The feud should be with one of the follow: - A wrestler or team which lost to the winner(s) during the tournament. - A wrestler or team which lost in the first two matches of the tournament. - A wrestler or team which was upset for not being allowed to participate in the tournament. 6) In June you offered contracts to 2 young stars. This month, begin to push one or both wrestlers. AUGUST 1998 1) Back in May, a former wrestler was brought in as a non-wrestler. A feud should have developed between him and one of your wrestlers, ending in a match at a PPV. This is the month to present your fans with the match. 2) WCW has been adding several members to Raven's Flock. Offer a contract to one of these wrestlers currently not on your roster. Give him a new gimmick if needed. 3) Back stage problems have been building between you and one of your managers. Things are beyond mendable. It is time to part ways with this manager. Fire him or her. 4) Offer a contract to a wrestler who has been managed by Ted DiBiase in the WWF as part of his Corporation. 5) Back in June you began to book for a August PPV match where both wrestlers had something on the line (Title vs. Title, Hair vs. Hair, Career vs. Title). Book a match for the PPV with such stipulations. 6) For July, a current and former ECW wrestlers were offered contracts. A feud should develop using them, - against one another - together, against other wrestlers from or formerly of ECW - either wrestler against another from or formerly of ECW SEPTEMBER 1998 1) One of your tag teams isn't currently seeing eye-to-eye. Split them up, setting up a match at the September PPV. 2) Over the past several months you have been looking all over to find new stars. It is time to bring in a big name. For your September PPV, offer a contract to a well known wrestler. During one of the PPV matches, have this new wrestler interfere against any or all of the combatants in this match to announce his arrival in to your league. 3) Another jobber is needed. Offer a contract to a wrestler that is willing to help put over your other talent. 4) Speaking of jobbing, one of your current wrestlers is unhappy at his position within your organization. Since he is not wanting to do any more jobbing, fire him. This wrestler is currently one of the bottom 10 wrestlers listed in your rankings. 5) I have been contacted by different organizations about talent swapping. If you are interested in doing so, use your "m" key to bring in one of these new wrestlers. I'm not sure who will be sent over, but in return a wrestler of the same value must be sent back to them. (In other words, you can not use a wrestler of equal value for the same period of time that you will be using the "m" wrestler). This wrestler will be available to you for 2 - 6 months, depending on how long you want him. Remember, you wouldn't be able to use your own wrestler for the same amount of time. You can swap wrestlers as many times as you want through out the month of September. 6) For your September PPV a cage match should be featured. This match could be a singles, tag team or even an event like WarGames. Develop an angle that will justify this type of a match. OCTOBER 1998 1) Develop a feud between 2 wrestlers that will end in a "Loser-Leaves-Town" or "Career vs. Career" type match. Following the match, release the loser from his contract. 2) WCW runs Halloween Havoc in October. In the past we have seen them use "Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal" as a gimmick match for the main event. For your league, create a special main event that uses a Halloween theme. You could just simply run a singles match, giving it a special name. Or go as far as creating a gimmick match. 3) Over the past 12 years plus there have been several wrestlers privileged enough to be a Horsemen. Hire one of these men that isn't currently work for you. 4) For June you started your attempt in creating your own star, giving a new gimmick to a wrestler or creating one from stratch. For the past several months you have been building him up for a chance to make it big. For October, run any type of gimmick match using your new star. 5) Last month you split a tag team, starting a feud with the two. October will bring the end to one of them. In a multiple falls match, these two former partners should meet. The winner should go on to a singles career while the loser should be shown his walking papers. NOVEMBER 1998 1) Bring in a former wrestling star to help boost your ratings. Have him begin a feud with a wrestler that will result in a PPV match in December. 2) In the tradition of the WWF's Survivor Series, present the fans 2 or more elimination tag team matches for your PPV. 3) With elimination matches on your PPV card, a current wrestler is promising the fans he will have on his team a former stable or tag team member from his past. With all the past stables and tag teams over the years, reunite your current wrestler's ally with him for the tag team elimination match. 4) For the November PPV, a title shot should go to a wrestler ranked #2 - 5 according to the ratings in your circuit. 5) Hire a former WWF King of the Ring winner or Royal Rumble winner. DECEMBER 1998 1) In November a former star was hired to feud with a current star. The feud was to be build up for a December PPV. For the last PPV of the year, run this match. 2) With more than 1 elimination matches in November, you should have at least 2 wrestlers that would be considered "survivors". Building up to the December PPV, using all of the survivors do one of the following to determine who will face your heavyweight champion at the December PPV: - Have a battle royal with all survivors - Run a tournament to determine who will wrestle the champ - Have a 3-Way Dance or 4-Corners Match 3) Using 2 of your current wrestlers, create a brand new tag team. Give them a gimmick that fits their styles. 4) From the original 20 wrestlers, release one of them from their contract to make room for young talent coming in. 5) Looking at the current rosters of WCW and WWF, find a wrestler that has used more than one gimmick. Hire one of them and use his previous gimmick from what it is today. 6) Hire a manager that is not currently work in either the WCW, WWF or ECW.