The Best and Worst of Invasion 2088

[bigd4241115]

This was the sequel, the 2nd edition of Tom's futuristic wrestling experiment. GWF Invasion 2088 saw some new stars that would end up being some of the GWF's greatest stars ever.

Bishop Hell- Here was another of Thantos' recruits with robotic parts like Exo-King and Killer Queen. Despite getting DQ'ed a lot due to the HELLFIRE and not having a manager in 2088, Bishop Hell was wreaking havoc long before his famous feud with Pulsar.

Mesmer- This was a weird FDF newcomer, a guy who didn't fit in with the rest of his team, in my opinion. He is called the Master of the Occult, yet wants to wipe out all evil? Sounds like a hypocrite to me. All in all, he's just a mediocre wrestler who can barely compete with Killer Queen and gets destroyed by Thantos. He did manage to win the tag belts with Massif, despite being nothing alike. They were called Loyalty.

Adam Blast- before U.S. Patriot or U.S. Traitor, before Sweet Thing/Ms. Liberty, there was just Adam Blast, not to be confused with the former WWE wrestler Adam Bomb. Blast was a decent singles wrestler for me, but was terrible with Commander Sam in the Bomb Squad team. Had a decent feud with Executioner.

Incredible Badger- This was the leader of a great new supergroup, the Animen of Andromeda. Badger was very good in singles action, but he and Battering Ram were 4-time tag champs for me as rookies! They were the Rookies of the Year and were great competition to the Gladiators. They also had the GWF's first tag team finisher, the awesome ANDROMEDA DROP! But, I feel that his defense is a little weak, not believable for a badger. Shouldn't he be able to fight harder when cornered or down? Isn't that a badger's nature? Also on a 2124 sidenote, I think Tauran should be referred to as the "Incredible Bager"

Battering Ram- This was the start of a great career for Ram, he was the muscle and brawn of the Animen, and was a singles stud as well. I'm in November of 2088 right now and Battering Ram has the next shot at Thantos' World title. He pinned him in a non-title match recently.

Reptillo- The opposite of Animal Pack, Reptillo is on the Vanity, Death Knight, Pulsar, Creeper, and Omega level in 2088. This is the first sad look at a pathetic creature of the GWF.

Spike- Reptillo's enemy! Are you kidding me? This guy eats lizards for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He puts the Gladiators over the top in their feud with the Animen and his finisher is the SUPER DESTROYER, an awesome finisher! Quite possibly the greatest of the Gladiators ever!

Splatter- This is one of my all-time favorite characters ever. Before the Arsenal and his famous random attacks, before Ergon Effs in the CPC, and before being a manager loved by fans, he was one of the most hated wrestlers in the GWF, fitting in well with the Society of Death, and provided much excitement mainly with extra curricular activities such as attacks on the Titans.

Billy Jo Boxer- Another great tag-team starts in 2088, Titan Power, Boxer and Lord Nexus. Boxer is one of my favorite wrestlers ever, and doesn't wrestle much, just throws solid Rocky Balboa-esque punches! His defense is very weak, on the level of Mutant, but his offense is one of the best of 2088.

Man-Mountain- Before opening his own restaurant as Cycle Hog, this lost "Norse God" was a joke of a wrestler. He and Lightening were decent at best in tag action, but in singles MM was not good. His pin is way too high. He fights back a lot, but can't do anything on offense. Kind of a weak character.

Lightening- Before the Gladiators had Thunder, the Greeks feuded with Lightening. Along with Man-Mountain, he's decent, but I believe is better in singles bouts.

Creeper- Walt Disney presents "Beauty and the Beast" starring Vanity and Creeper? Yep. That's what the tag team was called, they were terrible but provided a great storyline and I could do all kinds of things with their characters. I actually enjoy using Creeper, though he stinks!

2088 is a phenomenal set and Tom did a wonderful job with it.

Best New Wrestler- Spike, just a dominant stud in the ring.
Worst New Wrestler- Reptillo, makes Vanity look good at times! That is not a good thing.
Best New Feud- Animal Pack vs. the Gladiators. Badger and Ram gave Brute and Massacre fits, they had some really great battles.
Worst New Feud- Spike vs. Reptillo. Reptillo is 230 lbs. and is terrible, Spike is 340 lbs. and a nightmare for the reptile!
Best New Tag Team- Animal Pack, 4-time champs in 2088
Worst New Tag Team- Bomb Squad. Sam and Blast are better in singles, but can't do much on the tag scene
Best Finisher- Animal Pack's ANDROMEDA DROP and Spike's SUPER DESTROYER get a tie, see GWF FILES for descriptions.
Worst Finisher- Reptillo's LIZARD CLUTCH, a pathetically weak claw hold, no Von Erich blood in him with a (0)finisher and he only does it once as opposed to Lightening's NORSE SLEEPER GRIP, done twice.
My Favorite 2088 Wrestler- Spike. Always one of my all-time favorite's even though I loved Boxer and the Animen as well.
My Least Favorite 2088 Wrestler- Mesmer, back in 2088, couldn't do much with his character, but once becoming a villain, the character came to life.
Best storyline of 2088- Vanity stealing Creeper from Beast-Rider's Cosmic Zoo, the Savage Kingdom. Once I brought that story in, it made for much more interesting battles on the undercard.
Worst storyline of 2088- Mesmer's entire character's reason for coming to the GWF, was kind of lame, but at least we find out years later that it was because of Phantast, made for a neat story then, but in 2088, was a dud character.
Best card art of 2088- Incredible Badger had great art and Chuck Carter's definition on the card was great, made for a much cooler character.
Worst Card art of 2088- Lightening hands-down had a bad drawing. What is in his hair or his supposed to be running so fast that his hair looks crazy? Either way, looks stupid, pretty fitting for the character though.
GWF Firsts in 2088- Animal Pack has the first tag finisher, Man-Mountain has the first dazed-1 on level 3 Defense, Lightening has the first 1-move on Level 2 Offense, Bishop Hell has the first DQ Finisher
I challenge you to find more GWF firsts for 2088 or card mistakes because I couldn't find any. Great job on the set by all who were involved. 2088 is one of the great sets of all time.

[TTX]

Well as Tom hadn't fleshed out all the rules yet, there's some incosistenices that would be later corrected. (Bishop Hell for instance can not throw anyone out of the ring which is just so strange. That wouldn't be corrected till his color card)

While I admit the Lizard Clutch was weak, I have a special disgust that Creeper was given the Tombstone as a finisher and it's s till just a (0) move.

Lightening (what was with the extra e there?) definitely was bad...I thought that he was wearing some sort of head dress like a Native American, but I'm not too fond of Creeper's artwork either...I think it's the lack of a neck.

[Hawk]

When I think of 2088, I don't think of Bishop Hell like most people do. I think of Mesmer. I loved Mesmer. He came along at an interesting time, in that in 2088 he could very well take out anyone if the dice rolled right, but his card got progressively weaker as the game evolved.

For me, he held the IP title three times, a good feat for my promotion.

When 2096 (I believe) came around, and he got his second card, I was so disappointed when I saw it. I had visions in my mind for set upon set of Mesmer finally getting a big upgrade to compete, and instead he was relegated to undercarder status and soon turfed from wrestling entirely. I believe in later sets Mesmer would use his magic to influence the game, but it raises the question as to why Mesmer never used his magic in the ring?

To me, he's one of the sad characters that just never got their shot. I've thought about making a bootleg that could be used at a certain point in the GWF Timeline with Mesmer unleashing his "full power" as a wrestler. Never made it though. Always one of the frustrating things about COTG though. You'll love a character who's been designated at a certain level, and you watch them never really get past that level. Yet every set there was a 39 overall or higher on Rahl's rating debuting.

See Count Necros. Another favorite of mine that never got any love.

The rest of 2088 is a mixed bag. Out of all of them, I had the most success with Incredible Badger. He held every single title I had by the point he retired except the GWF title itself. He could never seem to win it despite multiple shots. One of the sadder notes from my history.

[doublea]

I thought it was a letdown for the Greek Gods to go from the Gladiators to the almost jobber like Norse Gods

[Hawk]

I always had reasonable success with the Norse Gods. Not great, but pretty decent. Lightening always had to carry the team though.

When they got their second cards, now those sucked. Bad. The entire idea wasn't very good, and I don't think the intention was to downgrade them but it just happened. Those cards never did a thing for me at all.

[Steef]

Yeah, the whole "Supreme Gods" thing with Warrior and the Norse/Greek Gods was probably Warrior's weakest team. Norse Gods were supposed to be a main event team with an exaggerated power/speed combo in the mold of Brute/Massacre but that extreme was a huge failure of an experiment.

[bigd4241115]

Troy...Thantos also didn't have an out of the ring on his card. I also don't like Creeper having the Tombstone as a finisher, he's too weak to have that! I do like his drawing though.
Rawk Gracie...I also liked Count Necros, he actually won my World title once! I really loved his Necros drawing, it was awesome, one of the best drawings in GWF history, in my opinion!
Double A...The Greeks were no competition for the Gladiators for me, so I think the Norsemen are right on their level.

[Phoenix]

i liked Mesmer, he was actually very sucessful in my Fed, till 2096. When Bishop Hell came in i immediately sent him after Star Warrior.

[holland227]

Mesmer was a fun character and had good success for me. I think currently he is one time IP Champ and still going strong!

[Wraith]

Mesmer was a very fun character, very strong run in my fed as Lightweight champion