Booking Challenge: ROH Faction Wars, Take 2!

[The Tank]

I think that we can all agree that Faction Wars had the pontential to be truly great. Age of the Fall, Sweet 'n Sour Inc, No Remorse Corps, The Resilience, Hangm3n, Vulture Squad, and there's probably a few I'm missing, given that seemingly everyone had to be part of a group.

I think that we can ALSO agree that what we got out of Faction Wars more or less.........completely sucked ass. And that, my fellow 'Crappers, is where you come in:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to rewrite the tenuous period that was the ROH Faction Wars in a manner to make it.....you know......good. I'm gonna allow a lot of creative freedom here; if you wanna bring in guys from outside ROH, go ahead. Just try and keep it limited.

Aaaaand......ACTION!

[chotliwala]

Yes! Something to occupy my time so I don't have to work. God bless you.

[Stab Sword]

I'll start this off at This Means War II

This Means War II: The Resilience and NRC fight the six man elimination match with Erick Stevens fighting back from 2-1 to pin Rocky Romero and Roderick Strong. Stevens challenges Strong for the FIP World Title

Fighting Spirit: Stevens takes Strong to the limit for the FIP title, but the NRC gets involved until the Resilience comes out and a brawl insues. A mystery man comes out and nails Roddy with a chair shot and Stevens pins Strong to become FIP champion.

Battle of St. Paul: Strong vs. Stevens rematch is made and is a lumberjack match. Tensions build and another brawl ensues. The mystery man comes back out but from the entrance and blasts Austin Aries in the back of the head with a chair and quickly runs away. Stevens gets the pin on Strong

Good Times, Great Memories Strong faces his former GenNext partner Jack Evans and during the match, the mystery man appears again, this time a bit heavier and nails Roddy with a chair and Jack gets the win. The NRC tries to get the mystery man but he gets away.

Reborn Again The NRC face The Resilience and Danielson and two mystery men appear and attack Davey Richards and Matt Cross. Strong beats Stevens and gets a rematch for the FIP title. This is also when the Project 161 vignettes start appearing

Respect is Earned Strong faces Delirious and gets destroyed by the NRC until The Resilience arrives only to get beaten down. Three mystery men arrive and take out the NRC and Resilience.

Domination Hero and Claudio beat the Briscoes for the Tag Team titles and Claudio turns heel and joins Sweet N' Sour and Sweeny plans his hostile takeover and guns for the best talent and the ROH and FIP titles. Roddy faces Morishima only to lose. Afterwards the now called "Black Hood Gang" attack Strong and try to break his leg only for the NRC to rescue their leader.

United We Stand NRC challenges the Black Hood Gang to a fight. Nobody comes out but Delirious challenges Roderick only to get beaten down again. The Resilience comes out but the numbers are too much. After the NRC dominates, The Black Hood Gang arrives to Pearl Harbor the NRC with pipes and leave.

Driven Strong vs. Stevens for the FIP title takes place and Stevens retains after Delirious hit Shadows Over Hel on Strong. The Black Hood Gang returns but Aries hits the ring to run them out and sign his ROH contract.

Nothing happens at the Japan and Race to the Top shows...lets move on

Death Before Dishonor V Night 1 Strong and Richards beat Aries and Stevens after the Black Hood Gang nail Stevens with the FIP belt. Matt Sydal joins Sweet N' Sour

Death Before Dishonor V Night 2 Resilience and Delirious face the NRC and Matt Sydal. Resilience win the match after Sydal turns on the NRC and Sweet N Sour join in and beatdown everyone as the Black Hood Gang watch in the back.

Caged Rage Aries faces Hero and loses, Strong faces Claudio and loses. Black Hood Gang appear and a message says they will reveal themselves the next night in New York.

Manhattan Mayhem 2 Aries and Strong come to the ring challenging a member of Sweet N' Sour and the Black Hood Gang. Hero comes out and when the BHG appear, Jack Evans music hits and reveals himself as the mastermind of the BHG. 4 Corner Survival ensues and Jack wins after Julius Smokes reveals to be a member. When the NRC, Resilience and SNS come out, Ruckus, Eddie Kingston and Sabian come out and beat everyone down. BLK OUT officially joins the Faction Wars

Motor City Madness BLK OUT(Evans and Ruckus) defeat Hero and Sydal, Aries and Cross and Richards and Romero in a wild four corner survival. Afterwards the lights go out and a voice comes on promoting Project 161.

Man Up: A four team ladder match is held. BLK OUT (Ruckus and Sabian) win the tag team titles over Hero and Claudio, Richards and Romero and Aries and Stevens. Afterwards Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black and Necro Butcher arrive and destroy everybody and hang Erick Stevens upside down.

Honor Nation A bloody brawl ensues from a Jimmy Jacobs vs. Erick Stevens match where everybody except SNS destroy each other as Sweeny and his troops laugh. Many "plants" are planned to get "injured"

Undeniable BLK OUT faces The NRC for the tag belts and retain after Jack Evans interferes. Another bloody brawl between Age of the Fall and Resilience ensues the other factions get into it

Survival of the Fittest doesn't have anything.

Chaos at the Cow Palace It's announced that Faction Warfare has gone too far for what happend at Honor Nation and Undeniable. The first order is the the Tag Team titles will be on the line at Glory by Honor in Ultimate Endurance. and at Final Battle a 4 team Steel Cage Warfare with the NRC vs. The Resilience vs. AOTF vs. BLK OUT. Sweet N' Sour pulls out of Faction Warfare seeing the chance of getting hurt and lowering their prices.

Glory by Honor VI Night 1 NRC win an elimination tag match over BLK OUT and AOTF beat the Resilience after interferes

Glory by Honor VI Night 2 Jacobs and Black win Ultimate Endurance over Ruckus and Sabian, Aries and Cross and Richards and Romero. 1st fall was scramble, 2nd was no holds barred and 3rd was for tag titles. Strong beats Stevens to win the FIP title. ROH Offices says that the Resilience and NRC must have a 4th member and that it'll be a 16 man 4 team SCW and that the first team eliminated must break up, the 2nd team eliminated are gone from ROH for 90 days and the final team eliminated cannot face any of the factions.

Reckless Abandon Evans and Ruckus face Jacobs and Black for the Tag titles only to lose in a hard fought match. Aries faces Strong to a 30 minute time limit draw. AOTF say they have a new member thats perfect for AOTF and he'll be the 4th man. Brent Albright is picked as the NRC's hired gun. BJ Whitmer is picked as the Resilience's 4th man

Unscripted III NRC faces the Erick Stevens and BJ Whitmer and Aries faces Black. NRC and Aries win.

Rising Above Jacobs and Black defeat BLK OUT to retain the tag titles and the NRC defeat The Resilience in a tag match.

Final Battle 2007 Steel Cage Warfare arrives. Aries, Stevens, Cross and Whitmer represent the Resilience. Strong, Romero, Richards and Albright represent the No Remorse Corps. Evans, Ruckus, Sabian and Kingston represent BLK OUT and Jacobs, Black and Necro come out but the 4th man doesn't come out.

Aries, Strong, Evans and Black start out. NRC wins the coin toss and Romero comes in. The Resilience win the next coin toss and Cross enters the match. AOTF wins and Necro enters. Ruckus then joins in. Afterwards the following go in order: Albright, Whitmer, Jacobs, Kingston, then Richards, Stevens, the AOTF member doesn't show so Sabian enters. The cage is filled as Romero, Evans and Whitmer have been eliminated. Necro gets a barbed wire chair and AOTF clears house. Jacobs gets the mic and introduces their 4th member.....VIN GERARD!

Gerard comes through the crowd and embraces Jacobs and goes to town on everyone. Jacobs eliminates Aries with the End Time. Black hits God's Last Gift on Sabian to eliminate him. Necro hits a Tiger Driver on Roderick to eliminate him and Gerard hits a moonsault off the top of the cage on Stevens to eliminate him.

The remaining factions with Cross of the Resilience, Albright and Richards of the NRC, and Ruckus and Kingston of BLK OUT work together to stop AOTF. They are able to eliminate Necro with a combo Back Fist to the Future, DR Driver and a splash by Cross. With it being 5 on 3, Richards double crosses Cross and hits him with the DR Driver on a chair and eliminates him and forcing the Resilience to break up. In the confusion, AOTF triple team Albright and hit a Super Contra Code Bomb and Splash to eliminate him and Jacobs quickly slaps on the End Time on Kingston to eliminate him. Ruckus and Richards put up a fight only for Ruckus to be eliminated next forcing BLK OUT out of ROH for 90 days. Richards tries one final comeback including getting a quick pin on Jacobs to eliminate him only for Black to hit God's Last Gift and thus ending Faction Warfare.

Whew. well thats it from a 1st draft and my brain is fried.

[The Tank]

Damn, man. That's pretty good.

[The Tank]

Man, Booking Challenges just ain't gettin' the results they used to.

Speaking of which, did MGH ever finish that one with Punk and AmDrag? I honestly can't remember. (Hoping he reads this thread and answers the question.)

[H-Fist]

You know, as much as I'd love to devote the time and energy, I think the main thing to look at is the end results it did produce:

Tyler Black as main-eventer
Jimmy Jacobs as rejuvenated heel
Necro Butcher as roster regular (and babyface)
Delirious as complex, human character
Erick Stevens and Brent Albright as credible brawlers
Steenerico as top tag team
Chris Hero as generic midcard heel
Larry Sweeney as clearinghouse for directionless low-to-mid-carders.
Nothing at all for the Vulture Squad, 3/4 of the Hangm3n, M-Dogg-20, and Rocky Romero
Go Shiozaki as roster regular and FIP Champ

I think the main issue was that it encompassed too much and took too much time. Resilience, Vulture Squad, and Hangm3n were basically abject failures. The first two were screwed from the get-go because of the absence of the top stars in each.

Everything went bad the moment Aries left because of TNA, especially with Delirious suffering the concussion at the same time. Add in the loss of main-event talent to TNA and WWE, and you have a situation that was going to be bad no matter what. Maybe I'll try later on, but suffice to say, Morishima and the resulting lack of title defenses saved ROH for months.

[Jay Carroll]

Jan 1, 2009 23:12:24 GMT -5 The Tank said:

Man, Booking Challenges just ain't gettin' the results they used to.

Speaking of which, did MGH ever finish that one with Punk and AmDrag? I honestly can't remember. (Hoping he reads this thread and answers the question.)

IIRC nope, he hasn't.

[T Vang is a HO-DADDY~!]

I think the two things that hampered it were Jack Evans never being around and Aries getting tied up in litigation.

Also is Gerard that big of a star on the national indy scene to be the mystery partner for AOTF? Without the buildup of the Equinox thing I just don't know.

But overall good job especially with I think you working with the Evans thing there

[chotliwala]

Jan 1, 2009 23:12:24 GMT -5 The Tank said:

Man, Booking Challenges just ain't gettin' the results they used to.

Formulated an idea in my head last night so when I finally get some time to write it out you will be blown away. And hopefully by how good it is.

[Marky Mark...Mark]

I'll do my part here in a day or so.

[hollywood]

Here's my thoughts, and my attempt...

I think the problem with the whole faction warfare was the lack of balance. Most the factions were heels. In fact, only two were true babyfaces (The Resilience and the Vulture Squad). So one of the heel teams would've had to turn face. Were I given the book, I think I would've done something like this...

Leave Age of the Fall in the background for the time being, trying to recruit new people and, basically, just making life a living hell for the Briscoe Bros. I wouldn't build it to a full-blown feud, because I'd ultimately want to sacrifice the Briscoes to give AotF some credibility. Some sort of bloody beatdown or something that leaves the Briscoes off a few shows in the coming months.

Meanwhile, I'd try to resolve the feud between the No Remorse Corps. and the Resilience quickly. Because, one faction needs to turn face, and the one that just likes beating people up is really the best choice--in my eyes. Bring the whole thing to some boiling point and have a faction VS faction tag match and then, maybe, Aires VS Strong to close the whole thing down. Immediately after, Sweeney could approach Strong & crew in the ring looking for additions to Sweet & Sour, Inc. And, of course, when Strong & Co. refuse, they get attacked, leading to a rivalry between those two factions.

As for the Resilience, I'd want to somehow set them up to finally be the ones taking the fight to AotF. The Resilience were really the most "white meat babyfaces" of the whole thing, so they'd likely be the best candidates to take on Jacobs and his pals.

Which leaves Hangmen 3 and Vulture Squad. I know, I left them for last, which means I'm doing pretty much the same thing that ROH did with them...that is, hardly pay them any attention.

These guys, to me, were the toughest to figure out. What exactly was the Hangmen 3's goal, anyway? And was the Vulture Squad really trying to accomplish anything more than just be a group of buddies who party and wrestle together?

My first order of business would be to finally make it clear what these guys are after. I'd establish Adam Pearce as a guy who likes playing mind games. Unlike Jacobs and AotF, though, Pearce is doing it all for himself. He wants success, he wants the gold, and he doesn't care who he has to manipulate to get it. The VS, meantime are just partyers, and they form a common bond through their common enemy in Pearce, who they feel is just an indy version of HHH, utilizing politics and such BS to keep his position and prevent others from taking it.

So, we'd have the six factions all feuding with one another...Age of the Fall VS the Resilience, the No Remorse Corp. VS Sweet & Sour, Inc., and the Hangmen 3 VS the Vulture Squad. It'd be cool to find ways for all those rivalries to spill over into various tournaments and annual events. For example, there could be a tag team tournament for a shot at the belts, and almost every competing team could be members of a faction--each faction trying to solidify itself with ROH belts. Same goes for competitions seeking the World Title, FIP, and the like.

Ultimately, those rivalries could spill over onto one another. With Hangmen 3 and S&S joining forces because they both represent all that's bad about pro wrestling...money, corruption, politics, and so on. And NRC could start fighting with Hangmen 3, while the VS ends up feuding with S&S. It all keeps spilling over back and forth until finally--preferably at Final Battle, if possible--with some sort of 6-way tag match in a steel cage. No DQs.

The match would really need to end with some sort of hot, unexpected angle that gives AotF the win and establishes them as the Number 1 heel faction in ROH. The tricky part is doing something big without using a big name (like, say, Raven) that would overshadow Jacobs as the leader of ROH's top group.

Best idea I can come up with right now is having the former CZW Invaders yet to appear in ROH--Eddie Kingston, Super Dragon, Messiah, and so on--charge the ring and lay everyone out using the plunder they're famous for. Jacobs gets the pin (doesn't matter who he pins really, just that it's a babyface faction). And the CZW guys take their shirts off, revealing AotF shirts underneath.

From there, the other factions pretty much fizzle out. With AotF and Jacobs now everyone's common enemy, most everyone can band together to take out ROH's biggest threat. I'd split Hangmen 3 down the middle, with Pearce and Hagadorn joining AotF, and Whitmer and the others going their own way. S & S would remain together, though, preparing for their hostile takeover whenever AotF is eliminated.

I suppose I can try to figure out how I'd do THAT part if people cared much for THIS attempt...