The $tart of $omething $pecial: A WWE2k22 Universe.

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Chapter 1: The Boss & The Background.

Money was never a problem for young Ricky Wayne Jr., his father was extremely wealthy, but a side affect of the wealth, his dad was never able to be around for him, constantly on the road with work it was just Ricky and his mother. His mother, a stay at home mother with 3 kids needed to somehow get the kids to simmer down by turning wrestling on the tv. Superstars of Wrestling with the WWF and WCW Saturday Night were the main forms of wrestling consumed by the children, but Ricky was the one who fell in a deep love with professional wrestling and wanting to be the most popular wrestler of all time.....

Dreams are not always reality though, Ricky was a small kid, 5'9 155 pounds, in a world of 6'7, 6'8, 2-300 pounds of pure muscle men juiced to the gills, that wasn't what Ricky was, so Ricky naturally did the one thing he knew how to do, went to college, got his degree in business management, married his high school sweetheart Shyanne, a real estate agent, and he went and got a job in construction following in his fathers footsteps, but Ricky wasn't doing this for the rest of his life he knew he wasnt. He had bigger and better dreams for himself.

The mid to late 90's were the biggest era in the history of wrestling up until this point, no longer was it about cartoony characters, your Hulk Hogans, Macho Man Randy Savages, it was about the story, the grit. Western America had three major promotions, the WWF, WCW, and ECW. by April 4, 2001, there was no more ECW, Booker Paul Heyman bouncing checks, stars jumping to WCW and WWF to be paid their worth, the writing was on the wall for Paul E.

The same could be said about Ted Turner and Atlanta based promotion WCW. The booking by the infamous Vince Russo, overpopulation of the NWO, it all boiled up and on March 26, 2001, Ted Turner sold every aspect of the WCW to Vince McMahon for 4.2 million dollars and the WWF had single handedly, not without help from their rivals, ended all competiton in the West when it came to pro wrestling.

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Chapter 2: Laying the Groundwork.

October 5, 2003.
A phone conversation between Ricky Jr and Ricky Sr. is going on, a kind of heated argument heard from the living room as a loud slam can be heard, the junior Wayne looks over at his wife, sitting on the couch anticipating the news heavily and Ricky turns towards his wife with the slighest grin.

Ricky: We got the loan Shy.

A loud yell of excitement is heard as the couple embrace in the living room, the wrestling dream was back alive, not as a wrestler, but as an owner, a three hundred thousand dollar loan that is expected to be paid off by New Years Eve of 2006. It's not expected to be easy to break into the wacky world of Professional Wrestling, a 26 year old owner starting everything from the ground up, possible to do, but not easy to do. As the hug is let go, looking down at his shoes rubbing the tears out of his eyes, he sits down beginning to write out the two weeks notice, if he is going to do this his wife is going to have to support them for the time being while he makes this dream come true.



October 6, 2003.
Notepad pages are littered all over the floor of Rickys office, he's been brainstorming for hours, he has spent so long being enthralled with wrestling and every aspect of it, but he never actually stopped to think of a name. The scribbles keep coming and going, it clicks though. Ricky doesn't want to mimic or replicate the wrestling that he grew up with, he wants something new and fresh for people to enjoy, the new big names in professional wrestling. People were enthralled with the blood, and violence of ECW's main event scene, the upper to lower middle cards wrestling ability, crowds despised the NWO, the most infamous image in the history of Wrestling is the crowd throwing trash at Hulk, Nash, and Hall when the NWO was formed at Bash At The Beach 1996, when the two latters helped Hogan defeat Macho Man, and the next night on Nitro Hogan donned the Black and White and Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child would be an anthem for children and teenagers all over America for the next 4 years. Thats when it clicked with the newly made owner of an unnamed Wrestling Promotion.

Paul E. Dangerous messed up with a lot of his decisions, checks bouncing on talent, using licensed music without permission or payments, ECW wasn't perfect, but it was perfect to the fans, the violence mixed with great technical wrestling was a sight to see for the ECW Faithful, it may of not been perfect but it was perfect to them, they went too far, High Incident 1996 for example, but the fans ate up almost everything ECW did and fell in love with this new version of wrestling, no longer the cartoons, now it was people who you genuinely could believe hated each other.

October 9, 2003.
The 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA.
The door of a 2001 Toyota Camry shuts as Ricky walks up to the doors of the Arena, the front gate is opened, shows don't really run outta the 2300 Arena anymore, not since it was known as the ECW Arena. Walking up to the office of one Roger Artigiani, he operates the 2300 Arena, signs off on people using it for a certain amount of money.
Ricky: Nice to meet you sir, thank you for agreeing to meet with me and responding to my email!

Roger: Of course son, so I hear you want to bring Wrestling back to the 2300 arena?

Ricky: Yes sir, I feel like wrestling fanatics would love the idea of wrestling coming back to the 2300 and making it into the attraction it was less then 3 years ago.

Roger: Okay, well how do I know its gonna be a legit ran company?

Ricky: I'm unable to prove it any sense of the way truthfully, all I can give you is my word and a promise sir.

Roger: You're a dude whos been doing this less than a week and probably has nothing at the moment how do I expect to believe in this idea?

Ricky: Because you know the idea of wrestling back in this arena, even with monthly shows to start, is as good of an idea as I do.

Roger stares down at the contract and reads it over once before looking back up at the young Ricky with an intrigued expression.

Roger: Lets do it then, All I ask is 15% of the cut from ticket sales and we got a deal.

Ricky: Done.

The two men write their names on the contract and Ricky has now laid the groundwork to starting his new professional wrestling company.

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Chapter 3: Building The Roster

October 24, 2003,
The Wayne Residence

Phone call after phone call goes in and out, some responses good, some.. not so good per say, Rickys not dumb, he’s been planning this for years before ever getting the loan, he was smart enough to build connections, local indy shows meeting guys that in 2001 weren’t much of a star but had the potential to be great, in late 2003 these same people were leading the underground of pro wrestling. Obviously your not gonna be able to get your Jeff Jarretts, Stings, DDP’s to come to a start up company, but you go look inside the big company’s with wrestlers signed to open contracts and build your stars with the talents most people don’t expect to be great, Ring of Honor is doing a fantastic job with making these stars, they’ve only been around a year and a half and are probably the third biggest promotion in North America.

November 25, 2003

Ricky sits in the office of his house looking at every contract he’s written, sent out to performers. The wages, expectations, the boring stuff nobody wants to look at as well of course. This part of the job honestly sucks, 4 walls everyday from sunrise to dawn but being able to realize it’s gonna come to fruition when this show comes to be. The roster is built, news sent to the dirt sheet to promote the show, online advertisements, posters all around Philly, this show is gonna be big as can be. Now all that’s left is to slowly peel out the roster on the new University of Fight website before the early january show.

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Chapter 4: The First Show & Roster Reveal


1/16/04: 1 Day before the first show.

Wayne sits in his office, still, the one in his house, no lavishing headquarters yet, still the same 4 walls he's spent 15+ hours a day in since October. The realization that this show is less than 24 hours is beginning to hit him, the show appropriately named, 'University of Fight: The Beginning'. Truthfully was the beginning of the next stage of Ricky's life.

Surprisingly, a lot of these dudes weren't expensive at all, even the dudes who are pretty big stars, not that expensive at all, the goal for the company is very simple, help lead the new generation of young professional wrestlers. Not a new concept, not necessarily in the slightest, all anybody wants is to see pro wrestling succeed and get bigger, but Ricky genuinely does have a very good feeling about UOF, maybe it's personal bias, maybe its hope, hope that this eye of talent hes had going to indie wrestling shows for the past 2-3 years is real and not just a thought in his head.

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Chapter 5: Show #1

1/17/04

Ricky sits in the gorilla area, he's about to go out and open the show thanking the fans for coming out and announcing his first ideas and nerves are going crazy, it's not a very big crowd, but its a very rowdy crowd who is ready to eat up this card, the card isn't known to the public, but sent out to the public were the wrestlers on the card, a good mix of young indie wrestlers, indie stars, and even some ECW alumni.

Kevin Kelly: Please welcome, owner of UOF, Ricky Wayne Jr!!!!!!!!

Ricky comes out to a small reception walking into the ring, shaking Kevin Kellys hand and grabbing the microphone.
"So how are we doing tonight Philly?" The crowd cheers, the classic cheap pop, good way to start the show. "That is what I like to hear! So, a new company needs a title right? Next month at UOF: Reckoning in this same arena, we will have a tournament to determine the first ever UOF Champion! The only rule is that whoever appears on this show? They're in the tournament, except for a couple wrestlers that cannot appear due to scheduling conflicts, I have surprises for everyone, even the wrestlers next month I really think y'all will love." Another big pop of cheers from the crowd, they're actually really into this, the amazement is mindblowing for Ricky. "I'm not going to take up much more of your time, but tonight, in the main event of tonights show, we're going to have 'The Phenomenal' A....J..STYLES! versus... 'The Second City Saint' C...M... PUNK!" The crowd goes ballistic in cheers.

Brodie Lee vs Fergal Devitt -

Lee defeats Devitt in a short match with a running big boot.

Scorpio Sky v Eddie Edwards

Edwards defeats Sky with a calf lock in 10:23

Jerry Lynn vs Steve Corino : ECW Tribute Match

Steve Corino wins with a lowblow followed up with a Old School Expulsion in 15:34

Backstage cuts to a vignette where CM Punk talks about who he is, showing highlights from the past 2 years of his wrestling career, and begins to dissect AJ Styles and his lifestyle, explaining why he can, and will defeat Styles in tonights main event, and then at Reckoning become the first UOF Champion.

Americas Most Wanted vs Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin
AMW win as Sabin and Shelley have communication issues, leading to Shelley being alone as Sabin is knocked to the floor, and Storm and Harris hit Death Sentence to win in 14:43

Jack Evans v Matt Sydal: Showcase The Newbies.

Sydal defeats Evans after Evans misses a 450 splash to the outside onto Sydal, effectively knocking himself out as Sydal throws him back into the ring and hits Evans with a Shooting Star Press for the victory.

CM Punk vs AJ Styles - Main Event

AFI's Miseria Cantare hits as CM Punk walks out, the Second City Siant is met with jeers from the crowd, giving smug looks to the crowd as he crawls into the ring, kneeling waiting for Styles.
I Am, the theme that carries NWATNA's hero to the ring every time he comes out, no matter where he is, hits as Styles walks out, throws the hood over his head and begins his march to the ring, before he can get in though, Punk hits a Suicide Dive to the unexpecting AJ and begins to beat down AJ before the refs can get involved and get Punk to let off so the two can get into the ring to start the match.
In the middle of the match, both men are beginning to feel the wear and tear of the match, Styles having already had his Styles Clash finisher countered with a back drop from inside of the ring to the floor, and Styles, countering Punk's Pepsi Plunge with a 450 splash after throwing Punk off the top rope.
The 20 minute mark hits and Punk is beginning to get desperate, Punk had the andaconda vice locked in but Styles was able to get out of it, barely getting his feet onto the bottom rope, and Punk held it in as tight as he could for the 5 seconds he is given to break the hold. Punk and Styles lay both exhausted, as they begin to rise to their feet, Styles using the ropes to help him self up, Punk charges at him with a hard lariat dialed in to take AJ's head clean off, but AJ drops the rope sending Punk crashing to the floor, giving AJ more time to figure out where he is, as Punk gets up and turns around back towards the ring the first thing he sees is Styles flying through the air connecting with his Fosbury Flop. Throwing Punk back into the ring, Styles looks for his spiral tap finishing manuever that hasn't ever been kicked out of. Punk out of desperation, pushes the referee into the ropes, knocking AJ off his perch leaving him in a tree of woe and Punk attacks, driving knees into AJ's kidneys before finally releasing him from the awful position, as Punk points down to AJ to tell the crowd hes done, as he goes to lock in the andaconda vice and make AJ tap, Styles catches him in a small package and the ref counts 1-2-3! Styles defeats Punk with a sneaky rollup and rolls out of the ring as Punk gets up in complete shock and anger. The lights go out to end the show as Punk is arguing with the crowds about how AJ got a fluke and that won't happen the next time they face.