I have been playing 80s Mania Wrestling Returns, which is a mobile game that puts you in charge of booking wrestling match with a strong homage to 80s and 90s wrestlers and pop culture. The game rewards you when you book better matches, so the events tend to be a little top heavy where the Main Eventers reap the highest rewards, which leaves wrestlers further down on the card underutilized. To combat this, I decided to de-emphasize the Main Event wrestlers in the March Madness singles tournament. I created arbitrary rules for my federation that would only allow Upper Mid Carders or lower to compete in the tournament. I also disallow current title holders. These new rules made the MM tournament more competitive.
Overall, the Tag Team division had its own set of problems. First of all, there were teams that would dominate. Teams like Lazer/Flex, Blade Blasters, The Scoundrels, Big Money, were no longer allowed to team up due to their dominance of winning the Tag Team titles and keep them for months. For reference, Toxic Terror, Daredevils, and the Van Winkles were the better tag teams following this adjustment, which worked since each team could be beaten. The next problem was that I had collected a high number of Tag Team cards. Unfortunately, the weekly events rarely have tag team matches, unless its for the Tag Team title. This leaves the Tag Team division with 3-4 teams completing, while 15+ teams never get a chance. The Tag Team division was stagnant.
Due to the March Madness success following new rules, I decided to apply new rules to the Tag Team Invitational as well. I had high expectations, but the same teams kept winning the Tag Team Invitational. It became obvious that the Tag Team Invitational tournament would need more severe rules. I decided that the next Tag Team Invitational would have the following rules:
- No Legendary or Main Eventers
- No teams already with a Tag Team card (most cards were for low end teams that had no chance)
- Average draw rating per team must be below 45 (this prevented Upper Mids from teaming up and dominating)
- No current title holders
- Infrequently used wrestlers are encouraged. This rule was created to give opportunities to wrestlers that had been mostly forgotten or underutilized. I removed wrestlers that wrestled in most current events.
I won't bog down this already long blog post with a list of every eligible wrestler. Below is the list of the 8 teams that were created for the Tag Team Invitational with these new rules. I wanted to pair up the Goods/Bads/Tweeners. I wanted the team to "make sense" by matching similar wrestlers. Then finally, I decided to come up with team names for each team. (For reference, my Fed is in 1992)
Bearded Brutes: Troglo - Big Thugee. Big, bad, bearded brutes. Big Thugee was one of the few overachievers invited, since he was doing well as an opener. Troglo was a recent addition, who still had his default stats and was being mishandled by management (me).
Balls of Anger: Cabb - Fireball. They made sense to match up due to their ECW ties. I liked the team name although it doesn't make much sense.
Masked Glory: Freedom Fighter - Magnifico. FF is under used because of how much I use his alter ego, Hammerhead. Magnifico has taken a run at the Cruiserweight title a couple times, but his low Draw rating and use of a mask balanced nicely with FF.
Intestinal Fortitude: Dicky Thunderbird - Ronny Believer. Dicky had fallen off most cards of late and never had a tag team. Ronny is fairly new and needed a push. I liked how both wrestlers work long, difficult matches. The team name fits them both.
Fantastic Frenzy: Orion Northstar - Beastheart. Sword swinging heroes. While they made sense to team up, the team name still needs some work. Maybe just call them "The Sword"? They can't all be winners.
The Quest: Zen - Red Pirate Rogers. RPR hadn't wrestled in my Fed for several years. He had a good run with Arizona Chance as The Adventures, but that was along time ago. Arizona was replaced by Chance Solo, so RPR disappeared. Zen has a similar problem once 8-Bit and High Score disbanded in the 90s. Named "The Quest", since the pop culture equivalents to each wrestler was on a quest to rescue a princess.
Los Arrogantes: El Presidente - Ricardo Suave. Originally this was going to be Suave and Strongarm, but Strongarm won the TV title just before the TTI PPV. The last minute substitution was pure serendipity since this is my favorite team/team name now. The team name is a nod to The Model's fragrance, "Arrogance".
The Kliq: Big Rig - VTC. Obvious team name, but I couldn't top it. VTC might get ignored because he's last in almost every alphabetical listing. Big Rig is a true underachiever, who was been given plenty of opportunities but has a terrible win/loss record. Originally was going to team Big Rig with Chicano, but their team rating was too high.
Here is how the tournament played out...
1st Round:
Bearded Brutes defeats Balls Of Anger
Masked Glory defeats Intestinal Fortitude
Fantastic Frenzy defeats The Quest
Los Arrogantes defeats The Kliq
2nd Round:
Los Arrogantes defeats Fantastic Frenzy
Masked Glory beats Bearded Brutes
Finals:
Masked Glory defeats Los Arrogantes to win the Tag Team Invitational.
Final thoughts:
This was an excellent way to dust off some forgotten/underachieving wrestlers. While I will probably not do this for every TTI, it was a great way to mix things up. Both teams that made it to the finals have earned a push for the Tag Team title.
Bonus: Coming up with team names was more fun than I could have imagined.
