If you’re reading this, I assume that means you’ve decided to play Fantasy Wrestling in the Azalea City Fantasy Wrestling League. Dumb decision. Let me tell you, that commissioner has absolutely no idea what he’s doing, and you should run away while you still can. Of course, since I am the commissioner, I have to also thank you for playing. Welcome to this bizarre idea that I came up with in 2013; I hope you enjoy it.
Since I have no idea what amount of knowledge or experience that you have playing this game or even watching wrestling at all, I’m going to assume that you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing. Wrestling is just that fake sport that you’ve heard mentioned once or twice and you may or may not know that The Rock used to be a wrestler. By the way, if you didn’t know he was a wrestler, you should read this like twelve times instead of one.
First things first, your team is going to be a handful of wrestlers from the television shows Raw and Smackdown. These shows air on Monday and Tuesday night every week at 7pm on USA in case you were unaware. So, you’ll need to make sure your team is ready before Monday at 7pm every single week. And the WWE also has a special, longer, pay-per-view show about once a month which is on Sunday night at 6pm exclusively on the WWE Network. You’ll need to manage your team for these shows, so they score more points than other people. Do that and you’ll have a wonderful season. Just like fantasy football. But, I have no idea who you are, so I’m assuming you’ve never heard of fantasy football either, so… I’m just going to start at the very beginning… the draft.
The draft is a party, so first piece of advice is to have fun! Play in the video game tournament, even if you don’t know what you’re doing. You probably won’t win, but it’ll be fun anyway.
At the draft, you’ll get a number which determines which order you’ll choose your wrestlers in. For example, if you get #2, then you get to pick your wrestler second. I’m going to pretend there are eight players there. There might be more or less, but you can figure out what to do if there are. Each participant will get a number 1-8. Then, the draft starts. #1 picks a wrestler, then #2, then #3, and so on. Each wrestler can only get picked once.
To keep everything fair, the second round of the draft is reversed. So, after #8 picks last in round one, they get to pick first in round two. This order is reversed again after the second round. And it keeps going like that for the whole draft until every team is full. Usually, we pick around 5 or 6 total wrestlers.
Now, you know how the draft works. But, you probably still have one major question: Who are all these wrestlers, and which one should I pick when it’s my turn?
If you have truly never played before at all, feel free to contact me and I’ll put together a list of who’s good and who’s not for you. Be aware, I’ve only won 3 seasons. I’ve lost in 10. So, I am not responsible if you use that list and end up as one of the 10. Of course, I won’t give you my actual list that I use for myself, but I’ll be helpful as much as I can.
To find out who you should draft, look at the draft sheets that will be provided at the draft. They will list wrestlers who are injured and tell you who the current champions are. Since your wrestlers score the most points when they show up often, wrestle often, win often, and win championships, the obvious picks are going to be champions that win often. The Universal champion, WWE champion, and the two Women’s champions are generally the best picks because those four championships are worth the most points.
Do yourself a favor and look up the matches at the next pay per view event. Perhaps try to find some predictions experts are making. It’s not a bad idea to pick wrestlers who are expected to win soon, so those predictions are probably good indicators of which wrestlers are the best.
Combining both methods, if you see that the Universal champion is expected to win his next big match, that means they are an excellent pick. A quick way to order your mental list of who to pick is simple:
1: Major Champions expected to win
2: Wrestlers expected to beat major champions
3: Minor champions expected to win (This is any champion other than the four I already talked about)
4: Wrestlers expected to beat minor champions
5: Other expected winners
6: Anyone else who is wrestling at the next pay-per-view
7: After all the others are gone, then it becomes more of a guessing game. If you are interested in making a good last pick or two in the draft, feel free to look up the results of the last few weeks shows and see who’s been winning, look up the betting favorites for upcoming shows, or just call me. I’ll be glad to help but I won’t help at the actual draft since I’m competing against you. (I like to win, so no help at the draft.)
8: If the Money in the Bank or Royal Rumble pay-per-view are in the current season, drafting the wrestler expected to win that is also a great pick. I’d suggest putting them between 1 and 2 on the above list.
Doing just fifteen minutes of research before the draft or calling me for help could go a long way toward helping you draft a successful starting team. Good luck!
Okay, so you’ve drafted an awesome team (maybe), you had fun at the draft (hopefully), and you’re excited to start playing (hopefully/maybe). Now, you’re thinking, what is all this stuff about team changes and starters and bench players and such?
To make the game more strategy based, some of your wrestlers are on the bench. This means they score no points. That is, until you decide to put someone else on the bench. This can be done simply by sending a text to the group saying you’d like to bench random wrestler #1 to start random wrestler #2.
Another way to change your team is to drop someone. That means you remove them from your team and get to add someone else. You can choose any wrestler who is not currently on someone else’s team to fill the spot. You might want to do this if one of your wrestlers isn’t doing well or if someone that is unowned is doing great.
The last way to change your team is through trading. If you want someone else’s wrestler, offer them a trade. You can make trades any time up until the halfway point of the season when there’s a trade deadline. No trades can be made after that. Another way to trade is to offer up one of your wrestlers and see what anyone else might offer you for them. If you’re lucky, you’ll get multiple offers and can pick which, if any, you’d like to accept. All of this is also done in the group chat but don’t get your hopes up about trades. Most people in the league are quite reluctant to trade at all.
Whatever changes you’d like to make to your team, make sure you make them before rosters lock. Rosters lock fifteen minutes before the next show. When they’re locked, you can’t make any changes for any reason. During a regular week that has no pay-per-view, rosters lock at 6:45pm on Monday and unlock at noon on Wednesday. So, be ready on Wednesday if you plan to pick up any new members for your team. It’s best to do that early so no one beats you to them.
So, now you know how to change your team, but how do you know when to change your team and what changes to make? Simple. Scoresheets.
Every week and after pay-per-views, I upload the scoresheets onto the website. These list the amount of points every wrestler on everyone’s team scored. If someone on your team did poorly several shows in a row, it might be time to bench or drop them.
To find new wrestlers to add to your team, look up the results of the shows. Wrestlers who wrestled or won and who aren’t on anyone’s team are probably good choices. Especially if they’re doing well consistently.
Also, the internet is your friend. On wwe.com, you can click on ‘tickets and events’ then click on any upcoming show. It will show you a list of advertised wrestlers. This is subject to change, so it may not be helpful but sometimes, it works well for me. Other sites like wrestlinginc.com and bleacher report offer predictions on upcoming shows and occasionally a spoiler or two. (It is a scripted show after all)
Internet spoilers are not cheating, so you should look at them as a way to gain an advantage on people who don’t bother to pay attention to things like that.
Finally, for pay-per-views, your starters should be wrestlers on your team who are in matches and expected to win. Figure out who those are the same way you did for the draft as I explained earlier in this.
As for the team captain and boost rules that are new to Season 14, I suggest you assign your team captain as whoever you expect to score the most points that week. For example, if you’re browsing the internet and see that someone on your team is announced to be in a big match on Smackdown and you think they’ll win, that’s probably a great wrestler to set as your captain. For boosts, use them when you think your team will have a big week. The Bench Boost should probably be used on one of those weeks where you think everyone on your team is going to be good.
To summarize:
Check the internet
Look up the results of Raw, Smackdown, and Pay Per Views (or watch the shows)
Make sure your team is set before rosters lock
That’s it. Takes about 5-10 minutes a week. Use these tips and you should at least play competitively. And over time, you’ll start to get better at predicting what is going to happen in the WWE and get better at this game.
Before you actually show up to the draft, make sure you read up on the Rules on the Rules page to familiarize yourself with them and read the blog post about Season 14’s rules to make sure you understand everything. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or text the group.
Most importantly, have fun!
