ATH First Round Match #6 BrianRegan v BountyHunter

beakerjoe

In the sixth match of this years ATH, we see Boards Draft regular, Brian Regan take on TheIron Sheik of Boards, Bounty Hunter. Both guys know each other well and this match will be for the chance to face Myself or Moneymaker in the next round. Heres Your Question......

Q6 :The last question saw contestants picking on guy from this era and throwing him into the era of Hulk Hogan. This question is a little different but along the same lines.

If you could take one World Champ from the last 4 years and throw him into a feud with anyone from the attitude era, who would you choose and why.

For the purposes of the question, The attitude era will be from SURVIVOR SERIES 97 UNTIL SURVIVOR SERIES 01.

Good luck

brianregan09

What a hell of a question I had an initial idea that someone better than I might have been able to get to work but anyway I tried to work it it came off wrong so with that I set off thinking of something else so

Transport you're selves back to Survivor Series 99 to where our instigating incident kicked off this monster feud in the real world this feud started off amazingly and tailed off terribly because of the weak ass ending of it so allow me to present you with my version as I parachute this man into the WWF of 1999




So Survivor Series 99 Steve Austin is in the main event for the title in a triple threat match for the WWE title , after a brawl backstage with Triple H austin runs into a garage and is run over by a car there is outrage backstage from the mcmahons , Everything else goes on for the next few months as it did in the real storyline

Come Royal Rumble January 2000 CM Punk debuts as a face promising to be the 1st of a new milenium of new stars , After a great showing in the rumble making it down to the last 6 Punk eventually thrown over by eventual winner the Rock Punk earns a lot of plaudits but the fans are 50/50 over him,

Punk continues to impress on raw and other shows but the fans continue to reject the happy smiling CM Punk, Punk goes to wrestlemania and puts his name in for the Hardcore Battle Royal battered bloodied and bruised Punk gives it everything but ultimately fails , this earns him some much needed credit with the fans, Punk continues to smile all the time

The night after wrestle mania the 1st of many strange vignettes which would come on every couple of weeks of someone watching the still out Stone Cold Steve Austin rehabing at home JR and King don't know what to make of them as the footage is grainy and amateur as hell

The summer of Punk keeps going as Punk continues to stake his claim as a great wrestler beating the likes Albert, Test, Mankind and Kane amongst others , Also Punk has slowly started to turn on the crowd that have been still booing him

August comes and the announcement everyone has been waiting for drops Stone Cold comes back at No Mercy and he has promised a hellacious ass whooping for the person responsible for putting him out and finding out who's been stalking him, a monitor in the back shows Triple H laughing off the threats

September comes and Punk has now gone full heel and has started abusing the audience calling them addicts and fat slobs who don't look after themselves , Saying a generation of idiots has been allowed to grow and fester and he's the savior of the generation

October comes and Punk has wrangled himself into a number 1 contendership match with Kurt Angle for the WWE Title which after an absolute war he loses, meanwhile some clues have began to leak about the supposed hit and runner in that he's definitely a wrestler with brown hair

No Mercy Arrives and backstage Steve Austin arrives in his pickup but as he's about to get out of it a car comes careering past his door knocking the mirror of his door Austin in a fit of anger and fright starts the truck and tears off after the car , nothing more is heard from Austin that night

Next Night on Raw it has been announced that if the attacker doesn't show up he'll be fired and handed over to the police, Austin makes his way to the ring and calls him out when all of a sudden a camera man man standing behind him in a baseball cap knocks austin out with the camera, The man removes the cap and shows himself to be CM Punk, Punk lays into austin leaving him in a bloody mess on the ground security comes and drags Punk out of the ring to nuclear heat from the crowd

Austin is out of next weeks Raw and Punk comes out to address the crowd he tells everyone he ran over Austin because Austin failed his fans by being a terrible role model Punk rants on about how now austin has created a whole generation of alcoholics because of him kids think its cool to be disrespectful and drink beer and beat up you're boss , he goes on to blame austin for being the face of the attitude era and ruining the pure sport of wrestling in general he said he was being the fans saviour taking Austin out , He then challenged Austin to a match at Survivor Series where he promised to end his career

Punk would then no show every raw choosing instead to appear in vignettes of him on the street preaching straight edge to random people on the street , Austin came back two weeks later and started to tear through the roster in search of punk believing him to be in the building

The night of survivor series arrived and Punk sheepishly made his way to the ring and about half way down the ramp austin jump the crowd barrier atop of him and began to beat Punk sinceless eventually dragging Punk backstage to fight this would not be as one sided as the rikishi match in the real timeline Punk is much more clever using his ju jitsu on a number of occasions to take a rabid austin , Austin soon got the better of Punk and knocked him to the ground austin then attempted to run over Punk missing him and crashing into a wall giving him an opening

Punk used this to drag austin back ringside they battle for a good half hour with Austin finally getting the better of Punk nailing him with the stunner , Austin picks him up one more time and gives him the middle finger before hitting another stunner picking up the win and sending the fans into a frenzy , austin then call for a couple of steveweisers and gets a six pack which he busts and throws back the hatch while standing over the body of punk all the bear spilling down on him the fans chant one more time and austin agrees dragging punk slowly to his feet austin takes a swig of beer and spits it into Punks face before hitting a final stunner to close out the night

Thats my story you've got a good arc there I think where you create a new star slowly , Austin is protected while raising the level of punk

Bounty Hunter

CM Punk is off the board so instead I will choose someone someone who doesn't call themselves "The Best in The World" but "The Best Wrestler in The World"

Daniel Bryan

The monikers above are actually an important distinction as my feud will be all about Wrestling. Why? because of the person I choose to put up against Bryan and because of the fact that the Daniel Bryan I am choosing was not just called the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) but he had the awards to back it up such as being the observers Best Technical Wrestler from 2005–2013 and Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Decade.

So now I will throw him into a feud with a wrestler from the time period known as the attitude era which for the purposes of this game and as stated in the question means from November 8, 1997 to Nov 18, 2001 however the question never says that feud has to take place in the WWF! Therefore without further adieu I give you the man who will be feuding with Bryan and the man who left the federation on the before mentioned Nov 8, 1997...

Bret "The Hitman" Hart

This feud will achieve the following things

* Make WCW capitalize on the the Montreal screwjob
* Fix their terrible booking of Bret when he first arrived
* In doing so give him proper momentum and make him the big deal he should have been
* Provide great technical wrestling across numerous matches

I could make that list much longer but let me explain the idea first:

Bret Hart made his debut on the Dec 15th edition of Nitro a full 5 weeks after the Montreal screwjob. I would not wait that long after the fact to try and capitalize on the event however instead the very next night on WCW Nitro I would have Daniel Bryan debut.

Bryan would be a 4 time world champion from the World Wrestling Federation and therefore an immediate heel with the WCW crowd but perhaps more importantly he would play up the fact that he was trained by Shawn Michaels and that thanks to that training he and not Bret Hart was the best technical wrestler in the world and that he had the awards to prove it. This would raise the ire of the NWO who in reality kicked off the show saying Bret would be a new member of their organization (even though he wasn't to appear for a few weeks) and until Bret does arrive Bryan could face off each week against a different NWO underling.

He would Yes to the ring etc to get heel heat but in the same way Mick Foley did with WCW/Bischoff when in ECW just mentioning WWF/HBK in a positive light every chance he got would make him a huge heel with the WCW audience and he would use that to attack Hart at every opportunity saying that Hart was a fraud and that thanks to HBK training he was now able to prove each and every week by beating NWO members how he was the best in ring technician the industry had every seen. As a result he would be booked to face the best in ring technician the NWO had in Mr Perfect (for his United States title) at the next PPV Starrcade.

It was 2 weeks before this PPV that Bret Hart finally appeared and in reality that lead to him being announced as the special guest referee for the match between Bischoff and Larry Zbyszko but I think everyone would agree it'd be far better for him to make his appearance and interrupt a Daniel Bryan promo about how he was the best in ring techician, so much better than Perfect & Hart and that he would prove it at Starrcade by winning the gold. Bret would get a great reaction shutting him up and announcing himself as the special guest ref for the Bryan v Perfect match instead of Bischoff/Zbyszko.

Why Bret was just a special Ref in the first place was cos he was an honorable guy and despite everything that happened with the WWF he was going to honor his 60 day no compete clause. I would also have this play into his reffing the match and have him say that he will call the match fairly because even if that leads to Bryan somehow winning it would just lead to him winning the title when he puts Bryan in his place and proves who is the best technical wrestler in the world. This is actually how it would play out as after all the title was really dropped to DDP at the same PPV (and then a few months later to Raven) so instead I would have Bryan win it here and then it could be used as part of this feud because WCW also did not want Hart near the World title picture at that moment with Sting/Hogan the main thing happening at the time. This honorable reffing could also plant the seeds for Bret to dis-associate himself from the NWO who would no doubt be unhappy that the man they claimed would be their newest member didn't help out their guy (Perfect also got injured shortly after this).


Then Boom! the feud is off and running and you could get a couple of months worth of Bret/Bryan technical masterpieces with the heel (arrogant WWF/HBK loving) Bryan vs The Face (Canadian Icon, newest WCW star, best there is, was and ever would be) Bret going up against each other in a feud that would not only give Bret the proper intro he deserved to the company (His second match on Nitro was on June 22nd FFS! more than 7 months after Montreal) but also really showcase what he was best at... Wrestling! and how better to do that than against The American Dragon Bryan Danielson. In real life the WWF started to catch up in the ratings at around this time but tbh if WCW had Hogan/Sting in the main event and Hart/Bryan putting on classics for the mid card title I would have found it pretty damn hard to change the channel at that time.

For example another moniker of Daniel Bryan's which I would have him play up (although maybe not at first as he would be doing the rest of the shtick highlighted above) would be his "The Submission Specialist" tag cos who wouldn't wanna see the blow off of the feud be a submission or I quit match!

on another note, good answer Brian and I look forward to our back and forward

brianregan09

*on a sidenote before I start to attempt to ruin this let me 1st say that Hitman was my favourite when I was growing up and would have loved to have seen this match

Now before I start I find abit of a time paradox straight off the bat here with HBK still an active wrestler in WWF how would he have trained Bryan but then again this is a fantasy thing so just found that a little bit hard to get my head around, Maybe if you dropped the Montreal Screwjob aspect of this it'd be a tighter fit

Now my 1st arguement against this is a fairly simple one , Look at the trouble Daniel Bryan encountered in modern day WWE with getting chances off management because of his size look etc, He would have gotten it much harsher in WCW where you had Bischoff Hogan and Nash running most shows , Chris Benoit who would have been the equivalent of Daniel Bryan back in those days had to leave WCW along with other technically fantastic guys in Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero to get there proper chance I fear Bryan would run into the very same problems if not even worse

There is no way Bryan would have been allowed near the top of the card ahead of the nWo factions Sting Luger and Flair and Goldberg , This is why Bret never got a proper chance either

On the technical wrestling thing again this doesn't really mean much in terms of drawing power, Look at Hogan , Austin ,Cena , none of them are massively technical but there some of the biggest well known wrestlers in history every body on the street has heard of them in some form or another , Even now in modern day outside of wrestling fans themselves you'd find it hard to find a randomer on the street who'd know Daniel Bryan is

Whereas in my feud you've got Austin who was the face of the attitude era turned the tide for WWF in the ratings war and I've got basically given him his polar opposite a nemesis if you will an Anti Austin its the natural progression from kicking the bosse's ass and winning titles to have someone who knows just wants to beat you because he hates everything you stand for a cerebral villian its something that would outshine the main title picture good or bad it would be box office main event gold and i know I outlined one match but this feud would continue on for ages Punk is absolutley gold on the mic and with the straight gimmick behind which no one would have heard about back then it would be fresh and new and in front of an Attitude era crowd he would get nuclear heat , Can you picture Punk sitting in the middle of the ring talking down to the crowd about drink and drugs and the whole crowd willing for austin to come out and kick his ass it would eclipse so many things

Looking at you're feud it would be amazing but we had stuff like in WWF Kurt Angle vs Jericho vs Benoit absolute clinics ! but there mostly forgotten because they opened the card and were'nt the main event

I do like the idea of using the montreal screwjob in Brets debut but i'd go much much further with it with a different guy , Come on you know Bicshoff who unveiled Mick foley winning the WWF title if they decided to use that they'd have went full on with it , it seems to me they never had confidence in Bret from the get go over there

In my story I dropped Punk into the WWF as a newcomer and built him up much like Kurt Angles 1st year and turned him heel and made him a legit main eventer with an amazing storyline of an attack on the face of the company and made a poor storyline in real life amazing in fantasy terms which is what WWE failed miserablely with Rikishi and then Triple H who didn't need the rub in the 1st place you took the lazy route and just dropped Bryan former world champion into WCW

over to you buddy

Bounty Hunter

Once again a good answer and yeah Punk/Austin is obviously good but.... :pac:
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In the question we are asked to throw a guy from now into the attitude era not debut a guy from now for the first time ever in the attitude era. This is why Daniel Bryan would arrive as a 4 time world champ and someone people already know, luckily for my storyline they would know him as a WWF guy and know that yes he was trained by HBK so he would get the heel heat desired once he started heeling it up.

There is no way Bryan would have been allowed near the top of the card ahead of the NWO factions Sting Luger and Flair and Goldberg , This is why Bret never got a proper chance either

I actually referenced this. How WCW didn't want Bret at the top of the card because it was Sting/Hogan at the time so I instead gave him a great midcard feud and at no point did I mention Bryan at the top of the card but if they did have an awesome mid-card feud and got themselves over it would be a lot easier for someone like Bret to move up the card than it was after how WCW actually used him.

Actually before I go too far from the point and it is an important point I believe I should highlight this

as I believe we are asked to drop current champions into the attitude era for dream feuds I would have to think that they are going in already having name recognition with the crowd. With that being the case CM Punk appearing just after the Austin hit and run given what we all know about him (straight edge complete opposite of Austin character wise) would eliminate all mystery in that angle. Everyone would think it is who you eventually reveal it to be, CM Punk.

according to your timeline:
Nov 14, 1999 Austin is "knocked down"
January 2000 CM Punk debuts
Oct 22, 2000 (NO Mercy Austin returns)

CM Punk has had 10 months build here when the question asked you to throw him into a feud with anyone from the attitude era.... that is one long throw, and an unnecessary one if everyone would know Punk was the man responsible from the get go.

You claim that technical wrestling was never really a draw and I suppose that this should be a negative against this feud of mine but tbh I never talked it up as a draw and Nitro was drawing pretty damn well at the time anyway. The big draw of the show would be Hogan/Sting etc but the great wrestling and awesome undercard they had now including a brilliant feud like Bret & Bryan might keep those viewers there long term or turn casual fans into wrestling fans. Plus this feud could actually draw in comparison to what actually happened at the time as people wanted to see what would happen with Bret and the WCW failed to capitalize on it at the time but my WCW would not fail to do so thanks to this feud.

In fact if anything the presence of a hugely popular former world champ in Bryan showing up on WCW to feud against Bret who would be red hot coming off the screwjob if anything could take fans away from the WWF.

but maybe I shouldn't focus so much on my idea... switching back to yours for a moment

You use technical wrestling against my feud but honestly despite potentially having good promos / storyline I doubt your feud with be all that great in the ring. Punk is good but he isn't at the top of the pile (can be sloppy at times) and Austin would have been very rusty and only learning how to change his style to allow him to keep wrestling.

Now there are ways to mask that after all many of SCSAs return matches were multi-man affairs or No DQ / ended in no contest or very short but those don't sound like the type of matches you want to be booking for your once off dream now vs then booking when you could book so much more in this question.

I guess it is interesting to note that we both used this opportunity to go back and fix poorly booked times in wrestling history and turn those into potential dream matches. However I feel there is a lot more to gain from fixing how WCW booked Bret than there is who ran down Stone Cold.

WWF did not make Austin less of a star because of their storyline, nor did they kill the momentum of his return. They just failed to make someone else a bigger star by giving them Rikishi's role. WCW meanwhile took Bret after one of the biggest moments in PW history, a far bigger moment than Austin's kayfabe hit and run and much closer in terms of his return to wrestling, and misused him badly not only failing to make failing to make someone facing off against him (like I have with Bryan) a bigger star but failing to capitalize on their huge acquisition by giving him something worthwhile to do and for fans to tune in / switch over to see him doing.

As much as I would have loved to see Austin vs Punk (actually one of the only things I would have liked Austn to return for a few years back) I honestly prefer Bryan vs Bret here especially given how it works within the constraints of the question given adn the impact it would have upon the time frame being discussed.

brianregan09

I'm loving this contest and I'm going to have my final go at winning now as you said you're self I don't like taking apart someone's arguements either but its the name of the game so here we go

Something I should have said in my last reply and it totally bypassed me but something you said in you're last reply alerted it to me straight away so you pick Daniel Bryan probably the most over face of all the last ten years and you said you're including his 4 titles etc and you instantly turn him heel in you're feud , Now by all means Daniel Bryan is a good heel no problem with that at all but you're talking about a guy who has a natural likeability like no other and straight off the bat you booking him to be booed , I think this could fly for maybe a few weeks but I think his personality (like it has done everywhere) from Ring of Honour to Japan would shine through Bryan is a natural face and turning him heel against Bret would be wrong and Bret is my opinion is a much better heel (even though he said himself he doesn't enjoy it) he is a very boring face the whole team canada screw america stuff was the most interesting bret ever was

Also the midcard thing you're making a dream feud one that people around the world would want to see and you pick something that's gonna be outshone by Hogan/Goldberg Sting etc in WCW let alone anywhere else we've had matches like this in the past Savage/Steamboat, Bret/Perfect the constant battles between jericho/angle/benoit/guerrero but have any of them ever headlined a Wrestlemania or Starrcade ? no they haven't and there is a place for midcard feuds of course there is but we're tasked with making a feud with an attitude era star and a modern world champ , Maybe its just me but I wanted to go for something that would be box office that would surpass anything else on any card not something to prop up the real stars of the show the headliners the money makers, but then i suppose that has been the story of both these guys careers

also I don't how you maintain the CM Punk would instantly be picked out as the culprit ,CM Punk stopped doing the SES gimmick a long time ago and done a number of gimmicks since then the nexus leader, the pipebomb guy, the Best in the World , Heyman guy so having CM Punk former world champion could still easily work and the reason I took such a long punt because I was trying to keep it realistic , Lets look at AJ Styles for a second multiple world champion around the world , a lot of different gimmicks but when he debuts in WWE its not straight at the top of the card no one is allowed do that in WWE or WWF as it was know they had to earn there crust, and the gimmick thing at this point no one would even think of that because its only one of a number of things he's done, plus the fact that i start him off as a clean cut babyface eliminates any possibility of being a suspect straight off the bat

My other reason for picking CM Punk is after Austin was done beating up his boss he had a number of rivals Rock/Triple H/ Mick Foley/ Undertaker but never someone who was the complete opposite of him I actually thought this years ago when watching it and the closest thing to that we had was Right To Censor and they got massive heat and they were led by Stevie Richards a perriniel jobber back then and they never got near Austin to the best of my knowledge

But my feud you have CM Punk a former champion elsewhere coming in earning his spot and slowly building him and turning him heel and you have a perfect foil for the poster boy of Attitude yes Austin would have beat him in the intial squabbles but this could have gone on for a while , also you point out that my bout won't be technical either ....and yes if you had read my 1st post I mentioned that it would have been a knockdown drag out brawl backstage and eventually finishing in the ring ,and the fans finally getting to see Austin get retribution on Punk would lift the arena off the roof, For me Punk was competing in the wrong era he'd have been a perfect fit for the Attitude era you had a lot of debauchery and beer and even nods to drugs back then Punk would have been amazing and not half as leashed as he was in WWE , We saw the best of him when he outlined Jeff Hardy's drug problems can you imagine him tearing into Austin for his drinking and wife beating it would tow the line between reality and kayfabe and would be immense viewing

CM Punk vs Stone Cold Steve Austin is the only match for this question for me Bryan vs Bret would be great too but my match screams Wrestlemania Dream Match and Main Event too

Bounty Hunter

Have very much enjoyed this duel with you good sir, and it really is a pity it has to end but alas, now to finish it...

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I find it very interesting that whilst defending your selection in your last response you say

Lets look at AJ Styles for a second multiple world champion around the world , a lot of different gimmicks but when he debuts in WWE its not straight at the top of the card no one is allowed do that in WWE or WWF as it was know they had to earn there crust,

Yet you find it strange that I don't go for a Main event storyline when I am debuting Daniel Bryan in WCW. We were asked to (and I quote) " throw him into a feud with" someone from the attitude era, not build for 10months before he feuds with someone from the attitude era therefore I debuted him as part of that feud and followed your own logic of not doing so (and I quote :pac: ) "straight at the top of the card" as "no one is allowed do that".


I could defend Bryan playing a heel here and point out how it would make perfect sense given the feud is taking place in WCW and he would be the HBK trained WWF guy running down the WCWs newest star, the NWO and I guess the company as a whole and that hell you could even turn Bryan down the line ( I even set the seeds for it in some ways by saying how the NWO would not be happy with Bret not helping their guy as Bryan defeats Perfect for the US title. They eventually turn on him but low and behold who helps Bret but Daniel Bryan - turning face - Bryan has come to respect Bret after their hard fought battles over the past few months / PPVs and afterall he too is feuding with the NWO and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

but if I did that (and I'll admit I just did that) then I would be straying away from the crux of the issue here

I threw Daniel Bryan straight into a feud with someone from the attitude era you didn't. You built yours over a year.

The reason that these 2 guys were supposed to go straight into feuding was one of the reasons I choose Bret & Bryan. There really aren't too many feuds you could do with people from different eras that would work straight off the bat but this one would work and considering the massive deal that was The Montreal Screwjob between Bret and the man Bryan will be using at every opportunity in anti WCW / Bret promos HBK this would move the needle.

People would tune in to see the continuation of the Bret story and this storyline would provide that. It would do what WCW never properly did and capitalize on that whole situation for their advantage. They were the one who just signed a world class talent in Bret but in reality they did nothing to use that to their advantage while Vince created the Mr McMahon character. This feud of mine would rectify one of WCWs biggest missed opportunities. It would fix the terrible booking of Bret "The Hitman" Hart when he first arrived in the company, give him some real momentum while positioning him as the really big deal he should be and actually showcase that in the ring while building him towards the main event seen with numerous great technical matches.


I can understand why you went for the "dream feud" of Austin/Punk but I guess your approach to it not fully fitting the question is one downfall but also if I bring ratings into it in many ways I honestly think as much as we might think Punk/Austin would be great to see I honestly don't think it could have had the same impact as Bret/Bryan as I have outlined above. Okay Rikishi didn't become a massive star as a result of his playing the Punk role but the WWF were already getting more than double WCWs rating at that time and that only increased further in WWFs favor during and after the feud you re-wrote.

Meanwhile if WCW had not squandered the star that was Bret Hart who knows how big an impact that might have had at the time, if they didn't durp on the chance to build upon how hot he would be entering into WCW maybe the WWF would not have even been about when your feud was set to happen.

So remember a vote for BH is a vote for a feud that not only fits the question asked but would be a technical masterclass in wrestling, capitalize on arguably the most talked about moment in wrestling and a feud that could definitely have had a much bigger affect on the wrestling industry.

Vote BH :cool:

beakerjoe

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beakerjoe

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