Push Fantasy Wrestling

If you are a wrestling fan I’m sure you have thought about it. Why isn’t there fantasy wrestling? I mean if fantasy golf and Nascar can exist in this world, surely there can be fantasy wrestling as well. Alas, no major company has thought to include the “staged” sport although there is clearly millions of wrestling fans prime for the marketing picking in society.

As recently as the Royal Rumble, I pondered how I could, on my own, create a fantasy wrestling forum. While I work for a web company, I cannot code a website to save my life. So creating a weekly or monthly roster of wrestlers, drafting said wrestlers, and then awarding points, was completely out of the question. However, I did have a model that I thought could work for pay per views.

Since you would be aware of who was on the select pay per view way beforehand, participants could choose which wrestler in each match they thought would win. Based on these picks we would then award points for, impact moves (body slams, drop-kicks, back-breakers), high impact moves (anything off the top rope or happening outside the ring), and finishers. Of course each wrestler would be given 2 extra points for a win or lose 2 points for a loss. It was the perfect model for someone at home, working with pen and paper. I thought it was pure genius and was quite excited to break out it out at the next pay per view I would be watching with lots of people.

However, the creators of realfantasywrestling.com beat me to it. With that being said, I could not be happier that they did. Just because wrestling results are “pre-determined” does not mean that wrestling is not fantasy relevant. As I mentioned, you can award points for move sets, wins/losses, which is really all you need. RFW (so much easier to type) takes the fantasy wrestling spectrum even further then I could have imagined.

RFW bases their fantasy games on daily (Monday Night Raw) and weekly (Raw and Smackdown) rosters. While the website does not have leagues yet, your roster is going up against the rest of the fantasy wrestling world (mainly because this is the only site that is adequate period). You pick your roster based on a salary cap. You are given $100,000 to start and each wrestler has different values. Clearly Dolph Ziggler will cost more to put in your line up then Heath Slater. However, the best part about the salary cap is it is only a daily or weekly cap and you start each week with a clean slate.

You have a 10-wrestler roster, including non-wrestling talent (JBL, Michael Cole, the Smackdown referee), female wrestlers, and flex options. Besides taking into account every single wrestling move that occurs in matches, from punching and kicking strikes, to losing points for attacking another superstar, ala The Shield rule, RFW also credits points for camera time, opening the show, being in the main event, and even talk time.  The best part, and by far this was the selling point for me personally, live updated scoring. Sure they may be a few minutes slower than normal fantasy sports sites, but they get the job done and I tip my hat to them.

Now fantasy wrestling, as I’m sure you can expect, is not like any other fantasy sport. In other fantasy sports (IE: football, baseball, basketball, hockey, the list goes on) you generally know before game time if one of your players is going to play or not. If the player is not going to play you then have the opportunity to bench him and select another player. This is so you do not end up with the dreaded 0 in your line up. You do not have this luxury when playing fantasy wrestling. While the matches during the show are “pre-determined” the people watching at home (the people playing fantasy wrestling) do not know 100% for sure who will be on the show that night. A main event may be advertised throughout the week, however besides that one match, the rest of the show is up in the air. So if you decide you want to pick Sheamus for your Raw roster and then he does not wrestle until Smackdown that week, you my friend get a big goose egg in that roster spot.

This is a dimension that really is not a factor in any other fantasy sport. I know for a fact that starting pitchers in the MLB go on a 5 game rotation. Therefore, I have a great idea when I should start each of my pitchers. Plus, even if they do not start I can check the morning before the game and change my line-up accordingly.  This cannot happen in fantasy wrestling. It is not only frustrating, but adds a whole other level of intrigue other fantasy sports do not have.

A great example comes from Raw 2 weeks ago. I decided to shell out the $12,000 to put Ryback in my line up, I figured he would squash someone, say Ryback Rules, and get me an easy 10-12 points. Then I found out Ryback was going to be in the main event. Hell yea! Extra points for not only being in the main event, but no way the WWE ends the show in a squash match so I thought Ryback would be wrestling big minutes and get me more points. Oh but wait, one big swerve, and Ryback decides he does not want to wrestle that night, and only earns me 6 points that week. Stupid, Ryback.

However, while fantasy wrestling can throw you some not-so-nice curveballs, it makes picking the sleepers even more fun and challenging. Anyone who had Zeb Coulter, Ricardo Rodriguez, or Big E Langston in their line-up for Raw that same week got huge points. I mean who expected them to be in a Triple Threat to open Raw, which as I mentioned, opening the show is extra points!  I cashed in on a great fantasy sleeper while the WWE was doing the European Tour. I made sure William Regal was in my weekly roster and sure enough he wrestled on both Raw and Smackdown, plus he cost me less than $9,000 to put in as a Flex.

Personally, I am an avid fantasy sports fan and have always felt that fantasy wrestling could thrive if given the chance. I could not be more excited about the forum realfantasywrestling.com has created. I truly feel this is a pioneering effort that is only going to grow the more people find out about it.  With that in mind, I have 3 questions for you lovely readers.

1.)    Are you a fantasy sports fan?

2.)    Are you a fan of professional wrestling?

3.)    Are you for enhancing your wrestling viewing experience?

If you answered yes to any or all of these 3 questions then your next step should be to head over to www.realfantasywrestling.com and sign up.

To conclude, all I have left to say is --- Your Welcome.