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1) Defunct - Each player will make 10 draft picks (snake draft format) at the start of each season. Each season will last for 6 months. There will be no add/drops or trades during the season.
2) Defunct - Players may draft no more than 1 singles wrestler or team from each of 11 different categories. This means you would make 10 draft selections from a list of eligible wrestlers / teams in 10 different categories and one category will be left blank.
- WWE Male Tier 1
- Non-WWE Male Tier 1
- WWE Singles Female
- Non-WWE Singles Female
- WWE Male Tag Team
- Non-WWE Male Tag Team
- WWE Male Tier 2
- Non-WWE Male Tier 2
- Cruiserweights
- Female Tag Team
- Legends / Wildcard
(Obviously legends / wildcards might be less valuable for the real life portion, but may be a solid play in the HWL / E-Fed portion. I would recommend this likely being your blank category but if all the valuable female tag teams or cruiserweights are already gone late in the draft, a legend might by a more valuable pickup. - Or maybe you just want to use your first round pick to make sure you get to play as CM Punk or David Arquette. Up to you.)
3) Defunct - Tournaments will be held to determine HWL's inaugural champions for the first season. In subsequent seasons, HWL titles will carry over attached to the wrestler who ended the previous season with that title. However, all wrestlers will be up for grabs in a brand new draft and current HWL champions can potentially be stolen by another player.
4) How you finish in the previous season will determine the draft order in the subsequent season. Thus, the winner will get to pick first, the runner-up second and so on. Drafts will still be under the snake format, meaning the person with the last pick in Round 1 will pick first in Round 2. The person who picks first in Round 1 will pick first in Round 2 and the order will alternate each round in that fashion. New players in subsequent seasons will be added to the tail end of Round 1 in randomly drawn order.
5) Players will gain points in the form of HWL currency for both their real-world victories and their HWL victories. (This is not real money, but only a fake monetary marker to denote player progress.) The player with the most earned currency for the season will be the champion. Currency also has a dual use in that it can be used to purchase title opportunities at a major show in a closed bidding process.Currency spent will be subtracted from the active purse of each wrestler, but will not be subtracted from the player's overall score.
The points score the same for both HWL events and sanctioned events in real life.
- A win on a non-major show - $1,000
- Title win or defense on a non-major show - $5,000
- Win on major show - $10,000
- Title win or defense on major show - $50,000
- A character winning the Royal Rumble Match or Money in the Bank Ladder Match, King of the Ring Tournament or G1 Climax (and potentially any other significant specialty match at the discretion of the boss, i.e. me) in real life will result in a $100,000 scoring bonus.
- Defunct - Hold World Heavyweight or Top Tier Women's Singles Championship at end of season - $250,000 (This currently includes the WWE Championship, Universal Championship, Raw Women’s Championship, Smackdown Women’s Championship, ROH World Championship, ROH Women’s World Championship, AEW Championship, NWA Championship, IWGP Heavyweight Championship, AAA Mega Championship and AAA Reinas Championship. All NXT titles fall in the other category.)
- Defunct - Hold any other sanctioned championship at the end of season - $150,000 (titles belonging to minor companies will not count. titles belonging to major foreign companies like NJPW and AAA will depend on accessibility of that company's shows for viewing or at least accessibility of the results of its shows. Lucha Underground will not be scored unless the show is currently in an active season, which may not happen again if there is no Season 5.)
6) I will endeavor to make sure that each player (not each character) has at least one match on each HWL weekly show (depending on how large the game gets, I may be unable to guarantee 30 players each a spot on every show). Players contending for multiple titles may have multiple matches on the same night.
7) HWL Champions must defend their title at all major shows.
- Defunct - HWL Champions must also defend their title at a minumum of every four weeks on the weekly shows. The champion shall give notice to the boss (me) by Friday that they intend to defend their title that following Wednesday. Three potential challengers will be drawn at random. The champion may then choose one of those three to defend the title against one-on-one, any two of the three to defend against in a Triple Threat or all three in a Fatal 4-Way Match. If the champion successfully retains, they will receive a $5,000 bonus for each additional challenger defeated in the match. (i.e. $5,000 for a successful one-on-one defense, $10,000 for a successful Triple Threat defense and $15,000 for a successful Fatal 4-Way defense.) A champion may defend the title every week if they so choose.
- If a champion has not defended a title for three consecutive weekly shows, a #1 Contender's Match will be arranged for the third show with the winner receiving a one-on-one title opportunity on the subsequent show.
- Defunct - The additional opponent bonus applies to the optional title defense on HWL weekly shows only. It does not apply to assigned HWL title defenses or to Triple Threat, Fatal 4-Way or other such multiple opponent matches on real shows.
8) Players will write promos in character for each HWL match. Other players and the boss (me) will each cast a vote for the wrestler / team they think should win that match. Players will receive one dice roll (performed by the boss) for each vote they receive and for each suitable promo written for the match (maximum of three). The highest combined total of the resulting dice rolls will win the match.- All votes must be submitted the evening before the show is scheduled to take place. Players will ideally have a 3-4 day period in which to write and judge promos from the time matches are announced to the time votes are due.
9) No automatic rematches / rematch clauses will exist in HWL.
10) If a champion is booked for a major show and opts to also defend their title on the immediately preceding weekly show and loses, the new champion will assume their position in the title defense at the major show.
11) Any character can contend for any title for which they are eligible. This means:
- A character designated Tier 1 male can still contend for a midcard title (or the cruiserweight title if they are below 205 pounds).
- A character designated as part of a tag team can still win any singles title for which they qualify, meaning a male tag team participant can win the World Heavyweight Title or a midcard title and a character designated as part of a female tag team can still win the Women's Championship.
- Events may occur that create random tag team pairing from among the singles roster. In such occurrences, singles wrestlers can potentially win the tag titles. (Winnings for those matches would be split evenly between both members of the improvised team).
- The World Heavyweight, World Tag Team and Cruiserweight Championships are male-only titles.
- The Women's World Championship is a female-only title.
12) You may not use characters belonging to another player or that were not drafted in your promos, i.e. you cannot write something where you attack them backstage or write dialogue for them that makes them sound stupid or pee their pants or whatever, etc. Be more creative than that.
13) In the event that a position in a title match comes up for bid, players can make a bid from one of their wrestler's active purse. Funds cannot be transferred from one wrestler to another. Funds used in the winning bid will be subtracted from that wrestler's active purse, but those monies will remain visible in the player's season earnings in the standings.
14) All points / HWL currency will be reset at the end of each season. Monies in both the active purse of each wrestler and in the total earnings of each player will reset to 0 at the start of each new season.
15) In real-life scoring, non-major events will inclde (Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK, Worlds Collide and other minor WWE Network broadcasts such as Mixed Match Challenge, AEW's as yet unspecified weekly show on TNT and other weekly shows they may produce, AEW special shows like Fyter Fest and Fight For the Fallen if they air on TV or online, Impact Wrestling's weekly show on Pursuit, Impact Plus exclusives like A Night You Can’t Mist and One Night Only, ROH's weekly TV tapings and ROH tour shows on Honor Club, NJPW shows that air live in the U.S. and regular episdoes of Lucha Underground should they be renewed.)
- Major events will include WWE Pay Per Views, WWE Super Showdown level broadcasts, NXT Takeover, AEW Pay Per Views, ROH Pay Per Views, ROH Supercard Events, Impact Wrestling Pay Per Views, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom (Jan. 4), NJPW Dominion (June 9) (other NJPW PPVs depending on accessibility), AAA Triplemania and Lucha Underground's Ultima Lucha.
16) Sanctioned major titles will include the WWE Championship, WWE Universal Championship, ROH World Championship, AEW World Championship, Impact Wrestling World Championship, IWGP Heavyweight Championship, NWA World Heavyweight Championship, AAA Mega Championship, Lucha Underground Championship (only if the show is airing during the current season), Raw Women's Championship, Smackdown Women's Championship, ROH Women's World Championship, Impact Women's Championship, AAA Reinas Championship and AEW Women's Championship.
- Sanctioned minor titles will include the Raw Tag Team Championship, Smackdown Tag Team Championship, WWE Intercontinental Championship, WWE United States Championship, WWE Women's Tag Team Championships, WWE 24/7 Championship, WWE Cruiserweight Championship, NXT Championship, NXT Tag Team Championships, NXT Women's Championship, NXT North American Championship, NXT UK Championship, NXT UK Women's Championship, NXT UK Tag Team Championships, AEW Tag Team Championships, AEW TNT Championship, AAA Tag Team Championships, Impact Wrestling Tag Team Championships, Impact X-Division Championship, IWGP Tag Team Championships, IWGP Intercontinental Championship, IWGP United States Championship, NEVER Openweight Championship, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, ROH World Television Championship, ROH World Tag Team Championship, ROH 6-Man Tag Team Championship, NWA National Championship, NWA World Tag Team Championship, Gift of the Gods Champoinship (only if Lucha Underground is airing during the current season) and Lucha Underground Trios Championship (only if Lucha Underground is airing during the current season).
- Additional titles may be sanctioned if introduced during the season. Titles that existed before the start of the season and were not added to the above list prior to the draft will not be sanctioned during that season, but may be sanctioned for a future season depending on the boss's judgment of whether it meets the necessary criteria.
17) In the event a title match ends with the challenger or challengers winning by DQ or countout and not winning the title, the challenger will receive the equivalent points to winning a non-title match on that show. The champion, though retaining the title, will receive no points. A draw will result in no points for either party.
- Pertaining to the 24/7 Championship, the champion escaping the challengers shall not result in points awarded for a successful title win. To receive such points, the champion must physically defeat a challenger by pin or submission. However, each broadcasted 24/7 title change resulting from a pin or submission will be scored as a title win. If it happens physically at a major show, it will be scored as a title win or defense at a major show. All other broadcasted instances will be scored as a title win or defense at a minor show.
18) Defunct - Any active player can vote for the winner in any match they are not a part of.
19) A match (or title bonus) where a win is shared by more than one entity will have the corresponding points allotted for a win divided between all sharing parties. I.e. Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan holding the Smackdown tag titles will result in them each getting half of the title defense monies and year end bonus whereas a single wrestler holding a single title gets the full amount and a full tag team gets the full amount. I.e. if The Usos held the titles, Jimmy and Jey would each get half a share, amounting to one full share for the team. I.e. in a Survivor Series elimination match, the winning team would get a 5-way split of the amount for a win and not a full amount each.
20) Purely for math purposes, the available prize money for a 6-man tag match or 6-man Tag team title bonus will be rounded up by 20% to make the total easily divisible by 3.
21) A non-title match outside of a tournament or other major booking (for example War Games) with no promos from either side will be scratched, regardless of votes. Points will not be awarded for a match that is scratched due to lack of viable promos, regardless of who had the most votes. (Effective immediately as of 08/21/19)
22) Thou shalt check back in case any rules changes are necessary or additions need to be made to this list.
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Updates for Season Two
1) The rules shall be amended so that players may vote for a winner in their own matches provided they vote for a clear winner in every other match on that same card. The same dice roll and credit for up to three promos per match rules will otherwise apply.
2) Overdrive cards will now be posted on Thursdays rather than Fridays. Thus, champions will have to notify me by Thursday in order to schedule a title defense for the following Friday. The requirement to defend the title at least once every four weeks remains. And it remains in effect that if you do not make a defense in three weeks, you will have no say in who you defend the title against in the fourth week.
3) Trades will be in effect this season. A team may trade up to three times each season. Once that limit is reached, a team will be unable to make any more trades that season. Trades will take effect the following Monday morning after they are both announced and confirmed. For example, if you agreed to a trade on Wednesday, you keep the same wrestlers you had before through the end of the week and the exchange will not be reflected in your scoring until the trade is effective on Monday. After the trade is effective, you will begin receiving points for the wrestler you traded for instead of the wrestler you had before. A trade wrestler's active purse travels with him or her. The points they earned for your team will remain in your season to date earnings. The points they earned for your team prior to the trade will not be taken out of your team total on the main leaderboard. However, if Wrestler X has $5,000 in their active purse, Wrestler X will continue to have $5,000 in their active purse for their new team owner and conversely, Wrestler Y, who was traded for Wrestler X, will continue to have whatever funds they already had in their active purse when they come over to your team. Trades must consist of either one wrestler / team for one wrestler / team or two wrestlers / teams for two wrestlers / teams. The rosters of both participating team must remain in bounds at the end of the trade, meaning the team must meet the same position requirements as applied in the draft.
4) You will be able to add free agent wrestlers / teams and make a corresponding drop from one of the wrestlers / teams at the end of each month. This will work through a waiver priority process. The waiver order at the start of the season will be the same as that season's draft order, i.e. the finishing order of the previous season. Any new players will be added to the bottom of the draft order and waiver priority list. If you make a waiver move in a given month, you lose your position in the waiver priority line and go to the back of the list. This compounds with each additional move, meaning if Team 1 is at the top of the waiver priority list and Team 2 is second and each make one move that month, they will both go to the bottom of the list with Team 1 now having the seventh place in line and Team 2 having the eighth place. However, if Team 1 makes two moves and Team 2 only makes one move, Team 1 will drop to eighth place in the waiver priority line and Team 2 will drop to seventh place in line.
5) Dropping a wrestler empties their active purse. Likewise, free agent wrestlers do not accrue an active purse. So, if Wrestler Z scores $10,000 one week and you pick them up the final week their active purse will remain at $0. They will not gain points in their active purse for wins they earned prior to being on a team. Thus, once a wrestler is dropped, if somebody else picks them up, they will have $0 in active purse when they join their new team regardless of what their active purse value was when they were dropped.
6) Hearing no objections as of writing, a FLEX position will be added to rosters for Season Two. This means that you can essentially "double dip" in any one category by having two wrestlers in the same category on your roster at the same time. This can only be used for one category at a time. Once you have two wrestlers from the same category, you will be limited to no more than one wrestler per category for every other position on your roster.
7) A wrestler's category / position will not change in the middle of a season, regardless of what happens. If a free agent WWE Male Tier 2 for example wins the Royal Rumble, he will not be elevated to WWE Male Tier 1. Whoever were to add that wrestler would get the advantage of having a new Main Event player in their Tier 2 roster slot. Tiers will only be altered in between seasons. This holds if a wrestler changes companies. If Wrestler X leaves AEW to sign with WWE, they will continue to hold a Non-WWE roster designation until the end of the season.
8) The NXT and NXT Women's Championships are elevated to the same status as the WWE, Universal, Raw Women's and Smackdown Women's Championships. This does not apply to the NXT North American, NXT UK or NXT UK Women's Championships.
9) NWA Powerrr and any NWA Pay Per Views shall be added to the list of scoring events. The NWA Television Championship shall be added to the list of recognized championships. The AEW TNT Championship shall be added to the list of recognized championships.
10) Defunct - Every team will have 10 roster spots, as in Season One. That means you will have at least one empty category / position on your roster.
11) If Worlds Collide is presented live and in place of a Takeover event, it shall be scored as a major show rather than a minor show.
12) Players who join a season after the draft can select a team through the add / drop process by submitting waiver claims for free agents. They will be added to end of the waiver priority list at the time they join the season.
13) The Television championship is a co-ed championship and can be held by anyone on the roster. It will be defended every week on Overdrive, but will not be defended on Pay Per View events. The first two finishers from Season One will compete for the right to be the inaugural champion. After that, the next challenger will be determined moving down the list in the order everyone finished in Season One. Once the bottom of the list is reached, it will start again at the top. New players who join in the middle of the season will be added to the bottom of that list. If a player already holds the championship, the cycle will skip over that team in the order and the title will not be defended by one player against another member of their roster. The title will carry the same season-end bonus weight as the tag team and cruiserweight championships.
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Rule Changes for Season 3
1) Rosters shall be realigned so that a team will consist of 4 Heavyweights, 4 Women/Women's Tag Teams, 3 Male Tag Teams, 2 Cruiserweights, 1 Wildcard / FLEX and 1 Team Manager. The Wildcard / FLEX spot can be used to add one of the former wrestlers / free agents available in the Wildcard category OR can instead be used to select an additional wrestler or team from one of the other categories excepting the Team Manager. All teams will draft one and only one team manager. The team manager will not wrestle in HWL, at least not commonly, and the characters available will be given that assignment due to a high probability that they will not wrestle in reality either. However, should a team manager wrestle in a match in reality or in the HWL, they will be subject to the same scoring system as any other wrestler.
2) There will be a pick 'em for each Pay Per View event that occurs in reality for the duration of the season. Each correct match pick will earn $2,000 in points for that team. Those points will not be assigned to any wrestler's purse and will thus not be eligible to be spent, but will be added to the team's total point earnings for the season. Any form of a draw is not a valid prediction and will not score any points, even if that is the outcome. Thus, it behooves you to make one clear prediction for a winner. If a match ends in any form of a draw or if it is won by a wrestler not previously announced as a part of the match (save for the Royal Rumble or other such battle royal were surprise entrants are common enough to be anticipated). Any mystery entrant picks need to be specified by the name of the anticipated entrant. All predictions will need to be posted prior to the start of any preshow or they will not be counted. Attempts to alter picks after the deadline has past will lead to all picks for that player for that PPV being disqualified.
3) Pertaining to promos - Matches are between the characters involved. They are not between the players behind those characters. That fact should be reflected in promos. Any promo going outside the bounds of a character vs. character WILL NOT COUNT. A promo considered out of bounds for this reason can include but is not wholly limited to instances involving the personal lives of other players or their families, undue references to the region where they live that do not directly pertain to the storyline between the characters, etc. Additionally, promos should not include any hyperlinks to websites such as YouTube. Rather than attempting to link to a video, simply explain the video with words within the promo.
4) Pertaining to Overdrive title matches - Title defenses on the weekly program Overdrive will no longer be left up to the champion to decide when to defend the title and against their choice(s) from a list of three random challengers. Instead, these title matches will be tied into a wrestler's individual purse. Each player may purchase up to one match for each title for any of their wrestlers in the correspoding division where that wrestler is eligible (men vs. men, women vs. women, etc.) per month. A player cannot purchase multiple opportunities for the same or another wrestler for the same title in the same calendar month. Once the calender changes over, the floor is once again open to all challengers, even one that may have challenged in the final week of the previous calendar month. Such title matches will have an assigned cost of $20,000 for a shot at the World Heavyweight or Women's World Championship in the first month of the season and $10,000 for a shot at the Tag Team or Cruiserweight Championship in the first month of the season. That cost will increase by $5,000 each month. A purchase of these title matches must come directly from the active purse of one wrestler or team unit and cannot be shared from any other wrestler's purse. These title matches cannot be purchased for a Pay Per View or for the Overdrive immediately proceeding a Pay Per View. (The Television Championship will not be defended according to this system, but will continue to be defended on Overdrive against a challenger put forth by a new team each week on a rotating basis.) Pay Per View title matches will have no cost and can be earned in a #1 Contender's Match or awarded by management to any wrestler(s) regardless of the contents of that wrestler's active purse.
5) If the reigning Television Champion completes a full circuit of all teams in a season, that champion can choose to vacate the title in exchange for an opportunity at the World Championship that corresponds to their division (World Heavyweight Championship for the men and Women's World Championship for the women). This option will remain open so long as the champion who completes the circuit retains the title. If the circuit is completed, but the title is lost, the opportunity goes away. To exchange the title for a championship match, the champion must notify management of the choice prior to the Overdrive card being posted for the coming week, the deadline for which shall remain Thursdays at noon (U.S. Central time).
6) Defunct
7) Should a real life organization (WWE, AEW, Impact, ROH, NJPW, NWA or any other) not have a live show during the full scope of a season, then that organization's champions will not be eligible for season end title bonuses. This also applies to the NXT UK brand, excepting if the champion in question moves to NXT stateside or if the NXT UK brand resumes.
8) To receive a bonus for a character holding a title at the end of the season, a team must have held that character for a minimum of the final two months of the season. This applies only to titles occuring in reality and does not apply to HWL titles.
9) Point bonuses for holding a title at the end of the season will remain in effect, but will be lowered to $100,000 for a men's or women's singles world title and $50,000 for any other title.