The 40th UFWL draft pick: Hulk Hogan

The 40th UFWL draft pick and final member of our inaugural World Title division is none other than Hulk Hogan. We went round and round on this one, since Hogan has been a part of every major wrestling promotion that we can think of, but in the end his icon status made him a must have for our fantasy promotion.

We want the Hogan of the 1980's. While we firmly believe that reality based wrestling has a place, we also strongly feel that pro wrestling can be over the top and no one was more over the top than the 80's version of the Hulkster.

We want to book Hogan into a long program with Ric Flair since we feel both the WWE and WCW failed to take clear advantage of the match up most of us old school fans waited an entire decade for. Sure they had some matched but never a really long, intense feud and that is ultimately why we drafted not only Hogan but Flair as well.

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The 39th UFWL Draft Pick: Jake "the snake" Roberts

The 39th UFWL draft pick is none other than the master of promo and in ring psychology Jake "the snake" Roberts. Jake is best known for his 1980's run with the old WWF, and the inventor of the DDT. Without a doubt he is one of the best mid card wrestlers ever, and by now way is that a knock on what this guy could do in the ring or on a mike.

We drafted into the UFWL to do a lot of cool things with him. The first angle we plan to use him in is to reignite his brief WCW feud with Sting. For all of us old school wrestling fans we never thought that feud played out right, and that match at 1992 Halloween Havoc was not a great way for a feud between two great grapplers to end.

Of course Jake, like many others in his profession, often let his personal demons get the better of him. Our creative team decided that by drafting the Jake of the 1980's we hope to book him into major angles not only with Sting, but eventually we see him seeking some revenge on one Stone Cold Steve Austin. Since it was Jake that gave Austin that match at the 1996 King of the Ring that really made the career of Stone Cold.

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The 38th UFWL draft pick: Ric Flair

The 38th UFWL draft pick is Nature Boy Rick Flair. Our executive committee actually debated this one for a long, long time. There is no doubt that Rick Flair is a wrestling legend, but every other wrestling promotion in history seems to have had Flair on the roster. That made us take pause before ultimately deciding to bring Flair in.

We plan to sue Flair in a way that both WWF and WCW really failed to use him. As a heel to the other most popular wrestling Icon of the 1980's, and in a long term program. We are not drafting the Ric Flair from the 1990's WCW, or the recent TNA version. Nope, we want the Ric Flair of the 1980's when he was the NWA Champion.

We have one angle in mind for Flair, and that will be instantly known (if it is not already) when we announce the 10th and final member of our inaugural World Title division. Ric Flair was and always will be a main eventer and we sincerly hope he brings that reputation to the UFWL.

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The 35th UFWL draft pick: William Regal

The 35th UFWL draft pick is none other that William Regal. Sure Regal has never really burned up the card, and his life has been hampered by his personal demons, but a lot of us here at the UFWL always were entertained by him. On top of that he is one of those guys who can have a great match with anyone on the card.

We bring him to the UFWL to revive his blue blood gimmick that was so very entertaining back in the days of the old WCW under his WCW name Lord Steven Regal. He was a pompous ass, who often had that stereotypical WWE English "something smells" look on his face and he really was the best at it.

However make no mistake about it we brought Regal to the UFWL for what he can do in the ring. He has it all from bell to bell and he has a great flair for the comedic (as evident with his run with Tajiri in the WWE). Regal is one of the hardest workers, and he should do nothing but elevate the competition in the UFWL.

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The 33rd UFWL Draft Pick: Scott Hall

The 33rd UFWL draft pick is none other than Scott Hall. The Board of Governors wants to clear up something now, our former Head of Talent Relations was all set to make the UFWL a gang war zone, and we will not be reuniting the nWo. Even though many former nWo members will be on our roster.

We liked Hall more in his old Razor Ramon gimmick back at in the old WWF. He can have a great match with anyone and his Ladder Match with Shawn Michaels made him a star and may still be one of the best matches ever.

Scott's personal problems never allowed him to rise above mid car status, but he did have an excellent run in the WCW as a tag team guy. We want to return him to being a singles wrestler and plan to place him in the North American division.

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The 32nd UFWL Draft Pick: The Ultimate Warrior

The 32nd UFWL Draft pick is none other that the Ultimate Warrior. The UFWL Board of Governors debated this one for a long time, and he may be the only wrestle we draft that is severely lacking in actual wrestling skill. However his character was large enough for us to go ahead and bring him in.

Given the fact that he beat Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 6 we feel confident that we can place the Warrior in our main event, World Title division, but we will have to pair him with guys who can get the most out of him.

Thankfully this is fantasy wrestling so we will not have to deal with the personality of the man behind the Warrior. Hulk Hogan told us that he took direction well in their buildup to Six and we are hoping our roster can get teh best out of him in the ring.

Of course this creates a unique challenge for our creative department, as they will have to do a lot of extra stuff with him, as we can not always depend on him to give it to our fans bell to bell. The first idea that we had was to put him into a feud with the Undertaker.

This is a booking designed from a long ago angle in the WWF where 'Taker assaulted Warrior and locked him in a coffin. Warrior never got his revenge on 'Taker and we think that The Undertaker can help guide Warrior through a successful program.

We are not going to lie, this is a huge gamble but we hope there are enough wrestling fans out there that remember the impact Warrior made on his initial WWF debut.

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The 31st UFWL Draft Pick: Madusa

Madusa is almost the perfect UFWL draft pick. She quit the business because the WWE was turning women's wrestling into just bar and panties matches and that is a sentiment we share here at teh UFWL. We wanted a women's division chopped full of women who were not only attractive, but could handle themselves in the ring.

Madusa, or her less famous Alundra Blaze WWF moniker, fits the bill on every level. She is attractive, she can wrestle, and we love her in her monster truck. Madusa is exactly the kind of talent we need to round out our women's division.

It's kind of hard to determine where she might fit, since two major wrestling promotions have failed to adequate story line for her, but we see here as a heel. We see her as an arrogant heel that should do well with our top baby face women.

Of course should she win the UFWL championship we will have her pay a bond to have our belt since we don't want to see anyone throw it in the garbage on national TV.

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The 30th UFWL draft pick: Harlem Heat

The 30th UFWL Draft pick is none other than the tag team of Harlem Heat. Booker T and Stevie Ray who were the ten time WCW tag champions. One of the best tag teams ever, and certainly one of the better tag teams to ever compete in WCW.

Of course Booker would go on to singles success with the WWF/WWE starting as a member of the invading alliance, but Stevie Ray was out of wrestling after losing a retirement match to Scott Steiner in 2000.

Since we drafted a few tag tams that had guys who could also compete in our singles divisions, we really wanted to draft the last team who was more of a cohesive unit. Even though Booker would go on to achieve a lot on his own, Harlem Heat were far better together than they were apart. We look for them to be a force in our tag team division.

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The 28th UFWL Draft Pick: Big Van Vader

Its Vader time in the UFWL, but we hope Leon White leaves that ridiculous Darth Vader like black helmet at home. In fact we had to write that into his contract. No stupid Star Wars inspired helmets. Alas a final homage to teh Shock Master who made the worst wrestling debut ever.

Anyway back to the man they call Vader. Never have we seen a big man be able to pull off the kind of aerial maneuvers hat Vader could. He was a mad man, and we think he will add a certain level of excitement to our Super heavyweight division.

In part we drafted Vader because he is a big man on our roster who can really more and wrestle. We tried to stay away from one dimensional guys because they put on boring matches. We see Vader being able to have a great match with any of the people on our roster.

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The 27th UFWL Draft Pick: Dean Malenko

The 26th UFWL draft pick is the man of a thousand holds, one Dean Malenko. I am not talking about the WWE version of Dean, since that promotion never really figured out how to use him. I am talking about the Dean Malenko from the old WCW, the Ice man, one of the best all time members of the Four Horsemen.

We want Dean to come in and help sell our cruiserweight division. He may have been labeled a mid carder is his real career but we think he can be an effective part of our promotion. The key will be for our creative team to craft storylines for all of our wrestlers. Yes we call them wrestlers because that is what they are going to do wrestle. By wrestling they will entertain, but wrestling is what this promotion is all about.

So we get Dean to compete in our cruiserweight division and we hope we can build a better light heavy weight division that what was featured in the old WCW.

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The 25th UFWL Draft Pick: Kevin Nash

Ted Dibase, the UFWL commish, has decided that the drafting of Andre the Giant was not a respectable act and he is replacing Andre on the roster with one Kevin Nash. We are not talking about the broken down NWO failure of a booker WCW Kevin Nash, but the Kevin Nash for his glory days as Diesel and the second part of the outsiders.

We are drafting Kevin Nash from his prime, not the broken down, injury prone guy who came back to the WWE with the lamest version of the NWO to date in 2002. We expect Kevin to be a force in our Super Heavyweight division. He will not be involved in the booking, and in fact he is not even allowed in or near our offices.

It is not that we dislike Kevin, but we need to keep his ego in check and insure that he gains no political power within our promotion. I mean this is the guy who ran WCW out of business, that might not be fair but he was the worst booker ever.

In fact we could argue that most of his career was about gaining political power, even way back to his days as Diesel. He was a member of the Clique, and we will not have that kind of maneuvering behind the scenes here.

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UFWL draft pick #21 Rey Mysterio

The 21st UFWL Draft pick in none other that n the master of the 619, Mr. West Coast Pop himself Rey Mysterio. We need a guy like Rey to add some excitement to our matches, and we fully expect him to be a force in our Cruiser Weight division.

Sure Rey may have moved on from his Light Heavy Weight days into a main event status with the WWE, but we view that as a promotion out of need. The WWE is lacking legit talent these days and while Rey is a great talent I do not credibly think he could beat guys like the Undertaker or Kane. He is small and fast and has a unique offensive attack but in all reality that would not make up teh difference in size and strength when fighting the bigger men of professional wrestling.

That is not a knock on Rey, Rey is amazing and he will be a central figure in the UFWL, but pro wrestling is all about the suspension of disbelief and I don’t see that suspension coming in a match up between Rey and say the Big Show.

We see Rey has being able to hold his own against Chris Jericho, the Ultimo Dragon, and the other competitors of the cruiserweight division quite well, and look forward to him dominating said division.

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The next UFWL Draft Pick: Ivory

Many people remember Ivory as the three time WWE Women's Champion, but her history goes back a lot further. In fact it goes all the way back to G.L.O.W. where she was a champion and a tag team champion. Many of us wrestling old timers remember watching GLOW as young men and really enjoying not only the females, but the wrestling skills on display.

Without a doubt Ivory is one of the best women technical wrestlers that has ever entered the squared circle. She had a number of pushes with the WWE, including a run with Right to Censor, and of course her career was ruined by the disastrous Invasion storyline. She would go on to be a trainer on Tough Enough 2.

We bring Ivory to the UFWL to be a legit threat for teh UFWL Women's title, and to compete as a heel against the likes of Lita and Chyna.

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18th UFWL draft pick: Stone Cold Steve Austin

The 18th UFWL draft pick is the toughest SOB around, none other that Stone Cold Steve Austin. Stone Cold was the reason the WWF was able to overtake the WCW in the famed Monday Night Wars, and the UFWL needs him to come in and be the main eventer he turned into while at the WWF.

Sure he was once a part of the Hollywood Blondes with Brian Pillman, sure he was a forgettable Ringmaster and second holder of the Million Dollar belt, but once Ted Dibase left the WWF Steve Austin became Stone Cold and a lot of his trademark sayings and phrases were his own creation.

The UFWL needs a guy like that not only to legitimize out World title division but help our creative team find new gimmicks and catch phrases to help sell merchandise. Stone Cold is force and we hope he has a long and successful run in the UFWL.

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16th UFWL Draft Pick: Raven

This might be something of a surprise to folks out there. Taking Raven with the 16th pick, but UFWL is going to have a certain gang wars mentality to it, and no one out there has assembled a gang quite like the boy Raven.

We are toying with a new idea for the UFWL. Stables have always been a part of pro wrestling, and in the UFWL we have stipulated that for a stable to be a legitimate part of our promotion they must field at least eight members and have a person designated for each singles division in the UFWL.

The new idea comes in the form of an Ultimate Stable belt. A Stable Championship to add heat to the war between the different groups in the UFWL.

Sure we are setting up a gang war, and in a gang war we will need Raven and his flock. We do not yet know who will be in his flock, but we can be assured that his stable will be one of the more dominate ones around.

As a singles wrestler Raven will compete in the hardcore division where he can use his Raven's Rules gimmick much more effectively.

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15th UFWL Draft pick: Ultimo Dragon

The 15th UFWL draft is probably the best cruiser weight the world over. We are drafting none other than the Ultimo Dragon. He is the only wrestler to hold 10 cruiser weight titles at one time twice. He is a high flying Lucha Libre style wrestler who learned his craft in Mexico and will be a featured star of our Cruiser Weight Division.

Ultimo Dragon has been severely mismanaged by U.S. based wrestling promotions. He got his best push at the old WCW, even going on to win the WCW TV belt, but in 2003 he came to the WWE, and like most stars made by other promotions the WWE creative team failed to turn him into a big asset. It is a mistake the UFWL does not plan on repeating.

This guy is a special talent, and we plan to use him in a special way.

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13th UFWL Draft Pick: DDP Diamond Dallas Page

Self High Five, the 13th UFWL fantasy draft pick is none other than DDP, Diamond Dallas Page. To be clear I am not talking about the creepy stalker DDP that had a disastrous run in the WWE, but the DDP who was the one guy to stand up to the NWO, and kick ass all over the old WCW.

Even though DDP would win the WCW World Championship on three separate occasions, I don' think he ever made it to main event status. Sure he is a great talent, and his pretty good on the mike, but in the UFWL we will sue DDP as a heel in our TV Title division.

We need guys to help carry our TV shows, House shows, and give us great matches on the under card of our PPV's. Page is all of that in one package, and we made him a high draft pick because of it.

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11th UFWL Draft Pick: Macho Man Randy Savage

Oh YEAH!!!!!! The 11th UFWL draft pick is none other than Macho Man Randy Savage. We shall bring Macho Man to the UFWL to headline our TV Title division, not because he is not a main eventer, but because we need entertaining guys to help carry our TV shows.

Randy is an excellent in ring talent, and he is pretty good on the Mike. The one issue I have is he tends to go off the deep end doing promos, and the main message tends to get lost a bit. I want to put him in a division where he will get to face wrestlers he hasn't faced a lot in his career.

The 8th UFWL draft pick: Sting

No, I am not talking about the Crow Sting, or the red and black NWO: Wolf pack Sting, I am talking about the classic Sting that was teh backbone of WCW in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Sting was the man, and I bring him to the UFWL to be the main competition to one Bret Hart.

It is really too bad two other wrestling promotions failed to develop a feud between these two men, as both at one time were considered the franchise of their respective companies. They are both pretty similar wrestlers and it is the match up many hardcore Old School wrestling fans would love to see.

We will place Sting in the North American division, and he has to be considered a favorite to win the ten man Battle Royale to determine the first UFWL North American Champion.

UFWL Draft pick #5: Chris Jericho

We get to the fifth draft pick and the time to start filling out the UFWL's Crusier Weight divison. Sure Chris Jericho may now be a headliner, and a World Title winner, but on this roster his role will be to anchor the Crusier Weight divison. Basically I am going ot use Y2J the way the WCW should have used so many years ago.

I think to start he will be a face, even though he is a great heel. I think he will be over with our crowds, and the definite favorite to start his run with us as the Crusier Weight Champion. All of our titles will be decided by a 10 man battle royal to be held at our first pay per view.