The PW Boards Fantasy League Tournament

Cheese Wagstaff

Mr.Nice Guy

Okay folks, now it is time to assess how things stand after Smackdown as we come to the end of Gameweek 1.

*Note - Smackdown info lies below. Do not read further if you do not want news of Smackdown.*

Gameweek 1 Standings


1. Cheese Wagstaff ...............................................................32 points

2. Mr.Nice Guy......................................................................24 points

3. Scavenger XIII..................................................................18 points

4. LeeJM...............................................................................17 points

= thebostoncrab.....................................................................17 points

5. DM_7................................................................................16 points

= Bounty Hunter.....................................................................16 points

6. beakerjoe..........................................................................12 points

= linvoysblues.......................................................................12 points

7. Hashtag_Heel.....................................................................11 points

= Zemuppet..........................................................................11 points

8. Stereomaniac.....................................................................10 points

9. A Brad Maddox Guy..............................................................9 points

Congratulations once again to Cheese Wagstaff who retains his 8 point lead at the top. His score for Smackdown was the second-highest of the lot, helped especially by his mid-tier pick Titus O'Neill, who bagged 4 points due to a victory for the PTP over The Ascension.

The best score for Smackdown was by yours truly, with 11 points helping me climb up to second place. All of my top tier guys featured, including my captain Reigns, which proved very helpful.

I think the upcoming show in Japan hurt a lot of squads on Smackdown. No Ziggler, New Day, Owens, or Neville, to name but a popular few. To score any points was a plus, frankly.

Smackdown results

Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose

R Truth defeated Adam Rose

Ryback defeated Mark Henry

Brie Bella defeated Naomi

Prime Time Players defeated The Ascension

Roman Reigns defeated Seth Rollins via D.Q.

On to Gameweek 2...



Transfers

It is now time to think about the make-up of your squad ahead of next week. As the rules stated, you have the option of making 3 transfers to your squad if you so choose.

Please outline who you are transferring out and transferring in when posting your squads to to make it easier for me to follow (I will show what I mean when I declare my own squad below).

NOTE - If you make a transfer, you can only transfer a performer for another in the same tier. In other words, if you want to transfer out a a mid-tier performer, then you have to replace them with another mid-tier performer. You cannot for instance transfer out a mid-tier performer and bring in a top-tier performer.

The basic structure must remain the same: 4 top tier performers, 2 mid-tier ones, and a final bottom tier performer.

The tiers in full are on the first post of the thread.

Note #2 - Transfers won't be carried over; so if you only make 2 changes, you won't be given an extra transfer the following week. It's 3 transfers each week and it's up to you to decide how many, if any, to make.

Deadline

Once again, squads must be in before the commencement of Monday Night Raw. So you have all weekend plus Monday to make your minds up.

You will once again be selecting a squad for Raw and Smackdown. (Note - the show in Japan is NOT part of the gameweek so bear that in mind when selecting your squads.)

Captain

Don't forget to select your squad captain who will earn you double points for any scored.

New Players

If you aren't involved but would like to be, you are welcome to join in. New players will start off on the same number of points as the current lowest points holder. There's a lot of points still to play for and plenty of time for new entrants to make an impact. If you want to play, post up a squad.

Alrighty then...

Now that the formalities are out of the way, best of luck to all participants!

---

My squad selection:

Transfers:

Out:

MID-TIER - Dolph Ziggler
MID-TIER - Kane
BOTTOM-TIER - Macho Mandow

In:

MID-TIER - Cesaro
MID-TIER - The Miz
BOTTOM-TIER - Adam Rose

Full Squad for Gameweek 2:

TOP TIER - Roman Reigns
TOP TIER - Dean Ambrose
TOP TIER - Seth Rollins
TOP TIER - Ryback

MID-TIER - Cesaro
MID-TIER - The Miz

BOTTOM TIER - Adam Rose

My captain: The Miz

DM_7

No changes to my team so:

Top Tier:
Seth Rollins
Roman Reigns
Sheamus - Captain
Kevin Owens

Mid Tier:
Dolph
Neville

Bottom Tier:
Bo Dallas

Mr.Nice Guy

Raw starts at 1 am our time so that will be the deadline for squad submissions.

A Brad Maddox Guy

Transfers
Randy Orton OUT - John Cena IN
Kevin Owens OUT - Seth Rollins IN

Top Tier
Sheamus
John Cena
Roman Reigns
Seth Rollins

Mid Tier
Big E
Dolph Ziggler

Bottom Tier
Sin Cara

Captain
Seth Rollins

beakerjoe

No transfers for me.

Scavenger XIII

Yeah, just leaving mine as-is for now.

thebostoncrab

No changes to mine

linvoysblues

Barrett out - Stardust in.
Nikki out - Paige in.
Ryder out - Dallas in.

And a captain change to Orton

Ambrose
Reigns
Orton (C)
Paige

Stardust
Neville

Bo Dallas

Cheese Wagstaff

Kevin Owens out, John Cena in.

Seth Rollins
Roman Reigns
John Cena
Sheamus

Neville
Titus O'Neil

Kalisto - (Captain)

Stereomaniac

So Sheamus appeared in a match and defeated Roman Reigns, have I now gained 3 points? I'm enjoying this game. I only caught up with the thread now as I was working every day since last Wednesday. The Big Show also appeared in a match against Ryback, so that's another point I have gained. However, no winner was declared. I assume we only count wins when they are actually announced by the ring announcer. So many matches end with nothing really being said after run ins and the bell being rung. Anyway, cheers for keeping this up Mr. Nice Guy. It's a nice way of becoming a little bit more invested in the matches that are actually taking place on both of the main shows weekly.

Mr.Nice Guy

Stereomaniac wrote: »

So Sheamus appeared in a match and defeated Roman Reigns, have I now gained 3 points? I'm enjoying this game. I only caught up with the thread now as I was working every day since last Wednesday. The Big Show also appeared in a match against Ryback, so that's another point I have gained. However, no winner was declared. I assume we only count wins when they are actually announced by the ring announcer. So many matches end with nothing really being said after run ins and the bell being rung. Anyway, cheers for keeping this up Mr. Nice Guy. It's a nice way of becoming a little bit more invested in the matches that are actually taking place on both of the main shows weekly.

Yeah Sheamus gets 3 points for this week.

I wondered about the Big Show/Ryback match myself. I'm basing the match results on WWE's own website and they have recorded that match as a victory for Big Show via disqualification, so that gets you another 3 points.

I'll have up the post-Raw standings in a little bit.

Mr.Nice Guy

So Raw has come and gone and for us that means the halfway point of Gameweek 2. And I can reveal that there has been plenty of change in the table - except for the one position that matters most.


*Note - Raw spoilers below. Do not read further if you do not want news of Raw.*

Gameweek 2 Standings (Post-Raw)


1. Cheese Wagstaff ...............................................................41 points

2. LeeJM..............................................................................34 points

3. Mr.Nice Guy......................................................................30 points

= Stereomaniac.....................................................................30 points

4. Bounty Hunter....................................................................28 points

5. DM_7................................................................................24 points

6. Scavenger XIII...................................................................23 points

7. A Brad Maddox Guy..............................................................21 points

= thebostoncrab......................................................................21 points

8. Hashtag_Heel......................................................................20 points

9. Zemuppet...........................................................................19 points

10. linvoysblues......................................................................18 points

11. beakerjoe.........................................................................17 points

Well done yet again to Cheese Wagstaff who retains his hold on the top. He has been leading the table since the start.

The biggest points haul from Raw went to Stereomaniac who bagged a hefty 20 points; Big E and Kofi scored points for him, as well as many of his top tier guys such as his captain John Cena. This huge haul lifts him from second-last to joint third place.

LeeJM is also in a lovely position with a tasty 17 points acquired this round that lifts him two places to second on the leaderboard.

The best captaincy calls thus far appear to be either John Cena or Sheamus. Of course there is still Smackdown to come.

On a negative note, Dolph Ziggler continues his surprising in-ring absence, while Neville and Owens being given a night off hurt a lot of teams. We wait to see whether they will lace up their boots before the end of the round.

That concludes the Raw update. On to Smackdown to see whether Cheese Wagstaff is sitting pretty yet again at the end of the gameweek!

Raw results

Big Show defeated Ryback via D.Q.

Brie Bella defeated Paige

Sheamus defeated Roman Reigns via count-out

Dean Ambrose defeated Bo Dallas

King Barrett defeated R-Truth

The New Day defeated The Lucha Dragons

John Cena defeated Cesaro

Obligatory plug

If you like what you see and think this looks a good bit of craic, we are still accepting new entrants. Any new entrant will be assigned the same number of points as the lowest participant. As this week shows, it's very possible to move up or down the board significantly depending on your choices. Enter a squad now and you can be involved for gameweek 3.

Have you got what it takes? I don't think you do!

Stereomaniac

This has been really enjoyable. It's making the matches more "real" when watching them. I'm always looking for ways to do that when I watch wrestling, same way that I throw a few cents on every match on each pay per view so that I'm genuinely concerned with what the outcome is going to be. Looks like myself and yourself are both vying for the bronze medal at the moment. I was surprised I jumped up so far.

Mr.Nice Guy

Stereomaniac wrote: »

This has been really enjoyable. It's making the matches more "real" when watching them. I'm always looking for ways to do that when I watch wrestling, same way that I throw a few cents on every match on each pay per view so that I'm genuinely concerned with what the outcome is going to be. Looks like myself and yourself are both vying for the bronze medal at the moment. I was surprised I jumped up so far.

That's what I was going for. I wanted to find a way to care more about the match results because most of the time I find I don't care what happens either way.

I'm planning on uploading the post-Smackdown table shortly. There's only one result which I'm concerned about:

Reigns vs Big Show which ends when Bray Wyatt attacks Reigns. I'm going to go with this as a Reigns win by D.Q. as I can't see how it could be otherwise. If, however, it turns out WWE's site rules it a no-contest or something then I'll amend it accordingly. I would be shocked if they do, though.

In other news, it looks like Rusev is officially back in action so from now on Rusev will be available as a mid-tier pick. See below.

The Tiers in full

Top Tier

Men

1. Big Show
2. Bray Wyatt
3. Dean Ambrose
4. John Cena
5. Kevin Owens
6. Randy Orton
7. Roman Reigns
8. Ryback
9. Seth Rollins
10. Sheamus

Women

1. Nikki Bella
2. Paige




Middle Tier

Men

1. Big E
2. Cesaro
3. Darren Young
4. Dolph Ziggler
5. Jack Swagger
6. Joey Mercury
7. Kane
8. King Barrett
9. Kofi Kingston
10. Luke Harper
11. Mark Henry
12. The Miz
13. Neville
14. Rusev (new addition)
15. R-Truth
16. Stardust
17. Titus O'Neill
18. Xavier Woods

Women

1. Brie Bella
2. Naomi
3. Natalya
4. Summer Rae
5. Tamina
6. Alicia Fox





Bottom Tier

Men

1. Adam Rose
2. Bo Dallas
3. Curtis Axel
4. Diego
5. Fandango
6. Fernando
7. Heath Slater
8. Kalisto
9. Konnor
10. Victor
11. Macho Mandow
12. Sin Cara
13. Zack Ryder

Women

1. Cameron
2. Emma
3. Layla
4. Rosa

Note: I have omitted non-regular performers such as Brock Lesnar, The Rock and Triple H, as well as those on the injury list.

Note #2: If you feel someone belongs in a different tier, feel free to suggest as much.


Once again, here is a quick reminder of the system:

Choose 4 performers from the top tier: each win = 2 pts
Choose 2 performers from the middle tier: each win = 3 pts
Choose 1 performer from the bottom tier: each win = 5 pts
Each match appearance earns 1 point
Your captaincy selection earns double points.

DM_7

I have changes to my team so:

Top Tier: Out Kevin Owens, In John Cena.
Mid tier Out: Dolph, In Rusev

Top Tier:
John Cena
Roman Reigns
Sheamus - Captain
Seth Rollins

Mid Tier:
Rusev
Neville

Bottom Tier:
Bo Dallas

Mr.Nice Guy

Smackdown is in the record books which means Gameweek 2 has come and gone. Here are how things shape up now.

*Note - Smackdown info lies below. Do not read further if you do not want news of Smackdown.*

Gameweek 2 Standings


1. Cheese Wagstaff...............................................................49 points

2. Mr.Nice Guy.....................................................................40 points

3. LeeJM.............................................................................37 points

4. Bounty Hunter..................................................................33 points

5. Stereomaniac...................................................................32 points

6. Scavenger XIII.................................................................31 points

7. DM_7..............................................................................29 points

8. A Brad Maddox Guy...........................................................27 points

9. linvoysblues.....................................................................25 points

10. thebostoncrab.................................................................22 points

11. Hashtag_Heel..................................................................21 points

= Zemuppet ........................................................................21 points

12. beakerjoe ......................................................................20 points

Once again kudos to the king of the mountain Cheese Wagstaff whose score of 8 points (the joint second-highest for Smackdown) moves him to a lead at the top of 9 points. A win for Titus O'Neill proved very helpful to him.

The biggest haul for Smackdown went to yours truly, with a score of 10 points taking me from third place to second. All of my top tier guys scored points which pushed me on.

The second-highest scorer for Smackdown - along with Cheese Wagstaff - was Scavenger XIII, with Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns being a particular help as he secured 8 points.

The average overall points score for Smackdown was 4.7 so if you got above that you did well.

Smackdown results

Dean Ambrose defeated Bo Dallas.

Rusev defeated Fandango.

Roman Reigns defeated Big Show via D.Q.

Titus O’Neil defeated Big E.

Brie Bella and Alicia Fox defeated Naomi and Tamina Snuka.

Ryback defeated Seth Rollins by count out.

On to Gameweek 3...


Transfers

You have the option of making 3 transfers to your squad each week, if you wish. These must be from the same tier. For example, a top tier guy for a top tier guy; a mid-tier guy for a mid-tier guy.

Please outline who you are transferring out and transferring in when posting your squads to make it easier for me to follow.

As noted in my earlier post, Rusev is now available for selection as a mid-tier performer.

Deadline

The deadline for submitted squads is the start of Monday Night Raw. You will be selecting a squad for Raw and Smackdown.

Captain

Don't forget to choose a captain who will score you double points.

Not playing, but interested?

New entrants are welcome. Just select a 7-person squad based on the rules mentioned at the start of the thread. We will provide you with points equal to that of the lowest participant's score.

Good luck

That's about it for now. Best of luck to participants.

Also, I'm curious to see how many people will back Rusev for the week ahead. I note DM_7 has transferred him in. Will you be backing the Bulgarian brute? Or perhaps you think someone else is worthy of a punt? (Dolph Ziggler's got to be in action this week, surely?) Who are you going to trust in?

A Brad Maddox Guy

I'll be getting rid of Dolph anyway. Really he should be kept off TV for a month to strengthen the impact of Rusev's assault & the eventual return & revenge of Ziggler. Of course this is wwe so I'm probably going to be completely wrong.

Bounty Hunter

2 changes, after Cesaros 2 Cena matches hopefully they let him have some singles wins (wishful thinkng maybe) and maybe Rusev will destroy a few people on Raw leading to a Summerslam bout with Ziggler.

Top Tier
Sheamus
Seth Rollins
Roman Reigns
Nikki Bella

Mid Tier
Kofi KingstonRusev
Dolph ZigglerCesaro

Bottom Tier
Bo Dallas

Captain
Sheamus

Scavenger XIII

Bo seems like such an obvious pick for bottom tier he should probably get promoted to mid the way things are going.

Hashtag_HEEL

WEEK 3 TRANSFERS

Top Tier John Cena Roman Reigns
Top Tier Seth Rollins
Top Tier Kevin Owens
Top Tier Sheamus

Mid-Tier Dolph Ziggler Neville
Mid-Tier The Miz

Bottom Tier Adam Rose Bo Dallas

Team Captain John Cena Sheamus

Mr.Nice Guy

Scavenger XIII wrote: »

Bo seems like such an obvious pick for bottom tier he should probably get promoted to mid the way things are going.

I'm looking at transferring him in, or else one of The Ascension guys. I have a funny feeling Konnor and Victor will feature in some capacity this week. Then again, I could be way off.

Mr.Nice Guy

I was gonna wait until Monday to make changes but I might as well do it now.

Transfers Out:

TOP TIER: Seth Rollins
MID TIER: The Miz
BOTTOM TIER: Adam Rose

Transfers In:

TOP TIER: Randy Orton
MID TIER: Brie Bella
BOTTOM TIER: Konnor


Full Squad for Gameweek 3:

TOP TIER - Roman Reigns
TOP TIER - Dean Ambrose
TOP TIER - Randy Orton
TOP TIER - Ryback

MID-TIER - Cesaro
MID-TIER - Brie Bella

BOTTOM TIER - Konnor

My captain: Randy Orton

Stereomaniac

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

That's what I was going for. I wanted to find a way to care more about the match results because most of the time I find I don't care what happens either way.

I'm planning on uploading the post-Smackdown table shortly. There's only one result which I'm concerned about:

Reigns vs Big Show which ends when Bray Wyatt attacks Reigns. I'm going to go with this as a Reigns win by D.Q. as I can't see how it could be otherwise. If, however, it turns out WWE's site rules it a no-contest or something then I'll amend it accordingly. I would be shocked if they do, though.

In other news, it looks like Rusev is officially back in action so from now on Rusev will be available as a mid-tier pick. See below.

The Tiers in full

Top Tier
Captain John Cena
The Big Show
Kevin Owens Paige
Sheamus


Middle Tier
Kofi Kingston
Big E. Langston

Lower Tier
Curtis Axel Konnor O'Brian

Cheese Wagstaff

Neville out, Rusev in. I'll make the Bulgarian Brute my captain this week also.

Seth Rollins
Roman Reigns
John Cena
Sheamus

Rusev - (Captain)
Titus O'Neil

Kalisto

Scavenger XIII

Swapping Ziggler out for Cesaro.

Switching captain to Reigns.

Rest the same for now.

A Brad Maddox Guy

Ziggler OUT The Miz IN
Reigns OUT Ryback IN

Top Tier
Sheamus
John Cena
Ryback
Seth Rollins

Mid Tier
The Miz
Big E

Bottom Tier
Sin Cara

Captain
Ryback

Mr.Nice Guy

1 am deadline tonight (as tends to be the case).

linvoysblues

Paige out - Wyatt in
Bo Dallas out - Sin Cara in
Ambrose out - Ryback in

New Captain - Stardust.

Current Line Up:

Ryback
Reigns
Orton
Wyatt

Stardust (C)
Neville

Sin Cara

Mr.Nice Guy

Okay, I know I said I would abide by WWE's website for the decisions - and I intend to for the most part - but I feel obliged to overrule the writer of the Raw report this week regarding the Rusev/Cena match as for some baffling reason it's being recorded as a win for Cena by D.Q.

It's quite clear Owens attacks Rusev with a kick to the head while he has Cena in the Accolade, and then the ref calls for the bell. Here is Michael Cole's commentary: "Kevin Owens! Kevin Owens ambushing Rusev! And a pop-up powerbomb!"

Even in the report itself it seems to acknowledge that Rusev was the one assaulted:

Perhaps the WWE Universe, ironically enough, owes Kevin Owens a thank-you card: If not for the interference of the former NXT Champion, Rusev’s reign of terror might have begun anew as a result of his U.S. Title Match with John Cena on Raw.

Owens, who had abdicated the Triple Threat that got Rusev to the title bout in the first place, made a furious return by storming the ring and obliterating The Bulgarian Brute with a Pop-up Powerbomb. He then reiterated his mantra: If it’s gonna be anyone, it’s gonna be him.

With that being the case I'm going to just assume that the heading which records it as a D.Q. win for Cena is just a mistake on the writer's part. I wouldn't be surprised if it's corrected later as a few people in the comments section have pointed out that it's a mistake.

So to review: Rusev will be recorded as having two wins and he will also pick up two appearance points from having had two matches.

I'll have the post-Raw table up in a bit.