For going on 5 years now, my friends and I have been participants in a “Fantasy Wrestling League.” Now obviously some thoughts are going to be running through your head when the words “fantasy” and “wrestling” are used together, so let me clarify. If you’re a fan of sports, especially football, you’re probably familiar with Fantasy Football on some level. Whether you’ve tried it or not, there’s no question that Fantasy Football has grabbed the interest of most red-blooded American males (no, not the tag team). In fact, it’s one of the reasons why the NFL is so overwhelmingly popular despite so many well documented issues with their league. The concept of Fantasy Wrestling is really quite simple. In fact, I’m almost certain I’m not the first person to have created a Fantasy Wrestling League, however, in the format that my league runs, I can be credited as the creator of this particular type of Fantasy Wrestling.
This article is not meant to plug my Fantasy League, nor is it meant to give myself a pat on the back as the inventor of the same (I’ve won 2 out of 5, never coming in anything worse than second place by the way). No, this piece is actually meant to help you revitalize your interest in professional wrestling. I know it sounds like a weird idea, but hear me out. When I created or at least ran with the idea of Fantasy Wrestling 5 years ago, my interest in wrestling was dead in the water. I didn’t watch WWE. I couldn’t stand TNA. I followed ROH, but I had completely stopped buying their DVDs. The indies were a casual interest, at best.
Sitting at work, during one of those long Summer days where I wished I was anywhere but at my desk, a little idea popped into my head. What if wrestling had something like what the NFL has? Well, if they did, how would it work? How would the participants get points? Wrestling doesn’t have seasons, so how long would the Fantasy Season actually last? I started to draw up plans for something that, even now, is ever changing and improving.
First, I had to consider the length of the season. Summerslam seemed like the perfect starting point as it has always usually been a good time to actually tune into the WWE, on top of the fact that it’s pretty close to when football season kicks off. When the season’s beginning was decided, my friends and I got together for a Summerslam draft party where we drafted 20 wrestlers each to fill out our fantasy rosters for the upcoming season. I would assume the point at which a season would end would be obvious. In wrestling history, what pay per view was most often used as the blow off to feuds, title chases, etc…? Wrestlemania of course! So now that we had the season nailed down, what about scoring?
Figuring out the scoring system was actually pretty simple. 5 points for when a wrestler wins a World Title from one of the Big 3: WWE, TNA, or ROH. 4 points for when a wrestler wins the Intercontinental, X Division, or TV Title (that actually came later for ROH). 3 points for when a wrestler wins a tag team title in the Big 3. We then added two points for each additional month that a World Title was retained and one point for any other title that was retained. The indies were a source of great debate because of the fact that a great deal of indy titles are not defended regulary. Because of that fact, we did not even count points from the indy scene in our first season. That has since evolved into a scoring system that I won’t try to go into great detail about, but I will say that the current system has points being derived from title wins on the indy scene and actual defenses of said title as opposed to months retained.
At the end of the Season the player/participant with the most points wins the trophy for the year. Gaining points in order to win the trophy is all about title wins, accomplishments, and title defenses. Oddly enough, that’s very close to the criteria we use to vote on the Indy Power Rankings each week. The system certainly isn’t flawless, but some of its inherent flaws can create fun scenarios. Our first Season we had to go to Overtime (one extra month) in order to break a tie and crown a champion after Wrestlemania. Did I mention I won that year? Because I did.
If this sounds complicated, it’s really not. If my friends (who aren’t exactly geniuses) can figure it out, then I’m quite sure my intelligent readers can! If you ever get the feeling that wrestling is just wearing you out, try joining a Fantasy Wrestling League (or starting one) with these standards and rules that I’ve created or come up with your own. It’s amazing who you become a fan of just because you have them on your fantasy team. Case in point: I was never a huge fan of Mike Bennett, but every time he had a title match last season, I was zealously rooting for a “Prodigy” title win. He let me down every time, by the way. Zero points all season from Bennett. On the flip side, I picked “The F’N Machine” Brian Cage, who I thought had a chance to win the PWG Title, but instead, he ended up winning most of the other major titles on the West Coast. He was a big reason why I won last year (thanks Brian). When you watch Summerslam on August 18th, just remember that someone will inevitably be rooting for John Cena over Daniel Bryan for no other reason than because they picked Cena with their first or second pick in the Fantasy Draft (it happens every year). Situations like that are what Fantasy Wrestling has really done to help reinvest my time into professional wrestling again.
If you’ve ever seen the show “The League” on FX, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say our Fantasy Wrestling League becomes much like that show…and hilarity ensues on a monthly basis. We’ve even setup a Facebook Group and Twitter Account (@FantasyRasslin) for a better experience. This is professional wrestling and as much as we treat it as serious business sometimes, just take a step back, and have some fun with it!
For your reference (or use) below, I’ve posted the rules I’ve sent out to the participants in our 2013 Fantasy Season. Enjoy!
Fantasy Wrestling 2013 Season Rules
- The season starts at Summerslam (8/18/13 this year) and ends at Wrestlemania (4/6/14)
- From Summerslam to the end of August counts as a full month. From the start of April until Wrestlemania counts as a full month.
- The draft takes place just before Summerslam. For those unable to attend the draft, we’ll be live tweeting or posting in the group each pick that takes place. This will allow someone who isn’t local to know who has already been drafted so they can tweet their next pick. If you can’t make it to the draft, get me a list, in order, of the wrestlers you’d like to draft. You’ll need a LARGE list in order to make sure no one is picking your guy, so be prepared. If you run out of wrestlers in the list, you grant authority to those present to fill in your remaining picks with the next wrestler available in the PWI 500 rankings for the most recent year.
- There will be 20 draft picks this year unless people drop out. With 8 of us so far confirmed to be drafting this year, that should amount to 160 wrestlers being picked.
- The way to get points is simple. You draft wrestlers who either have titles already or will win titles/tournaments/other similar things. For example, last year I drafted Kevin Steen as my first pick. He held the ROH World Title the entire season. That title is worth 2 points for every month that it’s held. Steen got me 16 points from nothing but carry over points by the time the season was over. We’ll get into what titles are worth what below:
5 points for a title win/2 points for each month the title is held after the month the title is won
-ROH World Title
-WWE Title
-WWE World Heavyweight Title
-TNA World Heavyweight Title
4 points for a title win/1 point for each month the title is held after the month the title is won
-WWE Intercontinental Title
-DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Title
-TNA X Division Title
-ROH World Television Title
3 points for a title win/1 point for each month the title is held after the month the title is won
-DGUSA Open the United Gate Titles
-WWE Tag Team Titles
-ROH World Tag Team Titles
-TNA Tag Team Titles
-TNA TV Title
-WWE United States Title
4 points for a title win/1 point for each successful title defense
-PWG World Title
3 points for a title win/1 point for each successful title defense
-CZW World Title
-All Japan Triple Crown
-IWGP Heavyweight Title (New Japan)
-GHC Heavyweight Title (NOAH)
-Dragon Gate Open the Dream Gate Title
-EVOLVE Title
2 points for a title win/1 point for each successful title defense
-All Indy Titles not listed in the three point category
2 points for a major accomplishment
-PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles Tournament
-PWG’s DDT4 Tournament
-Royal Rumble
-Money in the Bank
1 point for a major accomplishment
There are multiple examples on the indies, but to name a few:
-AIW Gauntlet for the Gold
-The Shamrock Cup in St. Louis
-IWA Deep South’s Carnage Cup
-CZW’s Tournament of Death
- We do not have points for things like Slammy Awards, Wrestling Observer Awards, PWI 500 rankings, PWI Awards, etc…
- We will allow trades if approved by majority vote in the Fantasy Wrestling Group on Facebook.
- No free agency. If you draft someone who is injury prone, near retirement, or just a head case, in general, that’s on you.
- Rule changes should be proposed in the Fantasy Wrestling Group on Facebook and then voted upon.
- There is a trophy that is held by the current champion until they must relinquish it to the new winner at Summerslam (example, John won Fantasy Wrestling 2011 and I won 2012, so he’ll be giving me the trophy at Summerslam).
- The player with the lowest amount of points has to pay for the “sticker” that goes on the trophy for the winner of that year’s season (example, Tyler would pay for my sticker for 2012 since he was in last place and I won the season).
- NO HIDING POINTS. WE WILL DISQUALIFY ANYONE WHO FINDS OUT THAT THERE ARE POINTS OUT THERE FOR ANOTHER PLAYER AND DOESN’T INFORM THEM OR THE GROUP OF THE POINTS. Keep it clean. No bull****.
- If you do find out about points for yourself, try to provide a source for your points. Don’t just say “Hey I got points” unless it’s easily found like a WWE show, TNA show, etc…A link, a tweet, anything to prove your points. This happens a lot with indies with no real websites like Pro Wrestling Bushida in California.
- Travis is the league commissioner but we all run this together. Any questions or anything we’re missing? Let us know.
Want to discuss this article? Tweet me @PhenomenalTLD or email me at PhenomenalTLD@gmail.com
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