The Wrestling Estate Fantasy Draft: Round 9

What if all the top wrestling companies in the world got together and said, “let’s blow the whole thing up and start from scratch?”

Eleven companies will then rise from the ashes, having a draft to determine how the best talent in the world will be divided up for the foreseeable future.

The draft will be conducted through email – 12 rounds. As far as the talent pool goes, all active wrestlers are available. Part-timers are usable, semi-retired wrestlers are not. (So Brock Lesnar and John Cena are fair game, Triple H, Undertaker and HBK are not.) For the purposes of this simulation, we will assume Roman Reigns does NOT have leukemia and Joey Janela’s leg is NOT broken. Some wrestlers can be taken as tag teams, but the caveat is that you have to use them in the same match.

At the end of the draft, we will also have a bonus 13th “legends” round, where you can draft one legend to appear on your show in any way you see fit. The only rule here is that the legend has to be in their present-day form, so you can’t get, for instance, Shawn Michaels from 1997. You won’t be able to draft Chris Jericho, though, as he will be able to appear on any of your shows without having to use a draft pick on him, kind of like as he does in real life, almost like a free space in bingo.

At the end of the draft, you will then submit a “2-3 hour” pay-per-view card to show how your talent would work together in your fictional wrestling company. We’ll run Twitter polls to let readers vote on who has the best roster and who created the most entertaining PPV.

The first-round picks can be found here.
The second-round picks can be found here.
The third-round picks can be found here.
The fourth-round picks can be found here.
The fifth-round picks can be found here.
The sixth-round picks can be found here.

The seventh-round picks can be found here.

The eighth-round picks can be found here.

Anthony Mahalis
World Wrestling Syndicate
Draft Pick #89: Authors of Pain
This makes my tag division absolutely stacked. The Undisputed Era, The Revival and now AoP? We are going to put on a show for our fans. I would have liked to snag The New Day, but I waited too long and that was a big mistake. However, these two teams are hardly a consolation prize. Our tag division will not be brushed to the side.

Calvin Gibbon
Champagne Championship Wrestling
Draft Pick #90: Nia Jax
Nia Jax has a great upside that has yet to be explored fully. As a monster heel, she could light the wrestling world on fire. Although much has been made of her occasional botches, the crowd response to her kayfabe lack of remorse in the Becky incident captured lightning in a bottle. I think in Champagne we could push her to her full potential.

Juan Bautista
Global Championship Wrestling
Draft Pick #91: Session Moth Martina
Honestly, who doesn’t fancy Martina? She’s more than a gimmick. She’s a solid wrestler that will get down and dirty if necessary.

Sam Gladen
Deep South Wrestling
Draft Pick #92: Millie McKenzie
One of the youngest active signees in WWE. Plus, her front flip suplex is a thing of beauty.

Steven Jackson
International Association Wrestling
Draft Pick #93: Jonah Rock
IAW has just gotten interesting!
A throwback to the giants of old, Jonah Rock is one of the best talents from Australia, with a great move set to match.

Neal Wagner
Anarchy Wrestling
Draft Pick #94: “Switchblade” Jay White
Since returning to NJPW, Jay White has done nothing but cause chaos to the Chaos faction, positioning himself into a major role going into Wrestle Kingdom. For Anarchy, he will be that silent killer hunting for the World Title!

Chad Gelfand
Professional Wrestling Association (PWA)
Draft Pick #95: Mustafa Ali
How can you not be impressed with Mustafa Ali? Over the past year, he’s really proven himself as the cream of the crop of 205 Live, consistently putting on great matches. Ali has also shown that he can convincingly make the transition to the heavyweight division, as evidenced by his recent match with Daniel Bryan on SmackDown. One more tidbit that has been impressive about Ali is his slickly produced vignettes that he’s made numerous times for his feuds. We need that creativity at PWA and we need Mustafa Ali.

Team LeftJab
Gotham Championship Wrestling
Draft Pick #96: Abyss
Another monster to level out the athletic wrestlers on the roster.

Jack Goodwillie
World Series of Wrestling
Draft Pick #97: “Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii
So I finally went ahead and drafted a Japanese talent after toiling over it for several rounds. So why Ishii when there’s a talent who I will not mention that is probably among the top-10 or so wrestlers in the world today still on the board? It’s all about fit. Ishii is 42 years old and who knows how much time he has left? I also know that I have never seen a bad Ishii match, or one I wasn’t even the least bit excited for. He brings to wrestling what Mark Hunt brought to mixed martial arts and while I’m not crazy about the stiffness of his matches, I’m willing to take a chance that he can give me one or two more great years, even if it means adjusting his style a little. He’s also a wrestler’s wrestler. I love guys who, on the surface, may be undersized but wrestle much bigger than how they actually are. Tommaso Ciampa is just one example. And while he’s only 5’7, just imagine that kind of match he can have with say…a Braun Strowman or a McIntyre? I want to give the fans a show and Ishii should be able to provide that, especially with a new talent pool he’s new to working with.

Jenna Leigh
Sparkle Female Superstars
Draft Pick #98: Naomi
Naomi epitomizes “empowered woman” to me. She started out as a “dancer”, a pom pom girl…eye candy. Her incredible athleticism was apparent even then, and ever since, she has improved and grown and evolved. Her quickness, agility, grace and strength are beyond impressive and deserve to be spotlighted more. With several years under her belt, she’s a bit of a veteran as well, and will hold her own in a promotion full of all-stars.

John Corrigan
SHOOT
Draft Pick #99: Minoru Suzuki
Whatever Goodwillie can do, SHOOT can do better. I was going to pick Shinsuke Nakamura, but Calvin “Molasses” Gibbon stole him in the second round. That’s fine, though, because why have a mediocre MMA-based wrestler when you can have the greatest? The legendary Minoru Suzuki holds a 31-20-1 record in mixed martial arts, having dominated Pancrase for nearly a decade. Now he comes to the United States, where we roll out the red carpet for the toughest senior citizen in the world.

The 10th round begins Monday.