https://gyazo.com/d71d466a124c572e4c10635c729b2417

Just a screenshot of my current splits(with notes) for reference, since i'll probably be referencing it a lot.

Alright, first of all, i'm fairly certain choosing what character you play as is the most important thing, as it changes how the game books you, if you get title shots, if you trigger certain storylines, and all that good stuff, so, logically, the fastest way to beat the game would be to choose a "bad" character, as it gets less matches, title shots, storylines(i mean, you'll be refusing them anyway unless you must play through it), and well, on a lesser extent, you'll be beaten up quicker.

Who i think(this may require testing though) is the best choice, and i'm not kidding, is Steven Richards, as i believe he's not considered a cruiser, so he's not eligible for title shots of that kind, and the Cruiserweight title is the one that requires the lesser SP to compete for, i think, he's also extremely average on every stat there is, and low on SP(it's also hilarious seeing Vince come out and call out a Jobber Steven Richards as the possible future of the company). I did consider picking someone with higher speed stats, but from the bottom of the barrel you only have people .5 more speed than him, so i wasn't sold on that. I'm not sure how the run would change if someone from Raw was picked though, a cruiser from Raw might work, since there's no Cruiserweight title there.

So you get into the run, and i probably should've talked about the (N/Y/N/Y) thing, it's just a simple way for me to remember what i have to choose at the very beginning of the game, when it asks you to reset the season, use default stables and all that jazz, i should probably use a save with no CAWs, since it does require me a few seconds to press more buttons to disable them, but i'm not sure if i should use a completely fresh save, with absolutely nothing unlocked, and well, unlocking all the legends again requires work...(Probably something that should be talked about at some point). Everything on the parenthesis is a note about every decision you're gonna take during the run, i'm probably gonna get rid of those once i'm actually familiar with the run though.

How do you go through the matches if you're not skipping them entirely? There's two methods, and i've actually only used the first one, since i'm not sure how the second one would be any different from skipping: -The first method is to simply get DQ'd, now, i've done some testing about what would be faster between the sledgehammer and the chair, but it wasn't very conclusive, fact is, you're probably not gonna be able to run towards the ropes to your left(to get a chair), without getting that annoying running the ropes animation, while you would easily be able to do so if you ran downwards(to get a sledgehammer), and the sledgehammer animations seem to be faster(especially the X+right/left one), but easily countered(two runs of mine died to someone like Rico reversing me five times in a row), while the chair seems a bit slower, but safer. -The second method would be to simply quit the match, that immediately loses you the match, but it's kinda like skipping the match, but sitting through the cutscenes, isn't it? Both methods do involve you losing, because that is faster, cheesy, maybe, but faster.

Gimmick matches are interesting, and probably the ones that will require the most testing, because they're really bound to how the AI acts, in this route, for example in a tables match: You simply grab the table, wait for the opponent to grapple you, and then get beaten to death with it until your opponent decides to grapple you while holding the table, and wins the match, this doesn't work when your limbs are still completely fine, not sure where the limit is, probably somewhere between yellow and orange(i think it's either red or orange, if you're trying to put him through the table). Another gimmick match in this route is a Lumberjack match, which, to me, is the funniest strat in the route. You're gonna be one of the lumberjacks, and the first few times i simply tried to see if i could catch the ones inside, with a weapon from outside, then i accidentally hit one of the lumberjacks, and someone got DQ'd, so that works, and it's really fast since lumberjacks stand mostly still. Tag matches aren't really gimmick matches, but there's a little bit of a trick in here too, you can hit your teammates to get DQ'd, probably doesn't save much time, but every little bit helps. I also got into Steel Cages, and....i really have nothing for those, i get beat up until my opponent decides to climb up, i tried staying as far away as possible, but it didn't seem to work, so that requires some testing. Anything that is kind of a hardcore match, in the sense that there's no DQs, but pins and submissions, you grab a sledgehammer and do the table strat(well, kind of, you just get beat up), and that seems to work. I don't remember anymore gimmick matches(might get more from the SD!/Raw roulette, i'm still not sure how random that is though).

Alright, i think i'm done with the strats, well there's little things, that seem to work on PS2(well, mine), that i'm not sure would work on Emu, like pressing left 3-4 times while trying to go to the match card(from no, to left, if that wasn't very clear).

Route itself(this meaning the decisions you're gonna take) is fairly simple if you understand the words in parenthesis. -Keep progress (No) -Reset Season mode (Yes) -Keep created stables (No) -Play with default stables (Yes)

-Don't participate in the UK tour (Skips you a show) -Refuse to get a manager (Skips you a storyline)

-Give JR the cold shoulder (Uh, yeah, i gotta go) -Refuse to get a manager

-Refuse to get a manager (They really want you to get a manager, huh?)

And here come the important choices, since these determine whether or not you'll be in the Elimination Chamber, which wastes about 15-20 minutes i believe. -Tell him you want to be a singles superstar (Triggers the Vince tree, and stops the faction tree)

-Ignore whoever wants to undermine your beautiful car (Skips you a storyline)

-Knock Vince out (And you have successfully skipped the Elimination Chamber) -Don't participate in the UK tour

-Leave him alone(To be honest, i don't remember which choice this is, i think this is where Jerry Lawler asks you to help him though, if it is, you just....skip a match by not helping him)

-You choose the Handicap match(I haven't actually tested this, but the other option is Special Referee, which i'm fairly sure implies YOU would be the referee, so this skips you another match) -You choose the Table match(I don't remember what the other option is, but table matches with good RnG aren't slow at all, so i think this is faster)

-Don't take part in the Royal Rumble (This would probably take about as much time as the Elimination Chamber, it's the last chance you have to get a chance at the World Title though, so if it was decided that finishing the game with a "success" is required, either this or the part where you knock Vince out would be changed) -Refuse to get a manager

-And you get good ole Coach to cheer you up because you "failed" Season Mode, the end, i believe i split once the credits start rolling.

Hopefully i haven't forgotten anything, and yes, this is a damn long post, but then again, this community is just starting, so this can probably be used as future reference for a guide too, and hopefully it sparks some discussion. And i'd like to point out, this isn't necessarily how the run should be done, but it's a basis to base discussion off of, we might even decide that this route shouldn't be allowed, and that's completely fine.

Thanks for the post very informative! This is very similar to the route I used to get a 1:05 if not the same. Actually i'm pretty certain I used the same route. In my run I used Rico because like you suggested, using a bad character is better due to lack of matches/storylines/title shots and that he's only 3 scrolls up from the Rock. I could go down 1 scroll to use rodney mack, but he's on Raw and from my experience, Raw a bit more tedious with match types, and for the fact that Rico is the worst Character you can choose from. The only problems I run into using this route is the triple threat matches, they're very annoying because the only way to finish it quickly is to pin/get pinned. What I like to do is get a chair and beat the hell out of one character whilst keeping the other character at a distance, and hope that once I hit a finisher with the chair, that the cpu pins the cpu just so I lose incase i get any title shots or matches from winning. Another "strat" I use is when in Cage matches, I just let the cpu attack me and attack me until they climb the cell and I let them win because it's quicker. For TLC matches, I grab a steel chair, let the cpu grab it and beat me up with the chair and let them win (again incase I get any more matches or title shots) For lumberjack matches, should go without saying, hit an opposing lumberjack with a steel chair. When choosing between Table and Ladder, I will now choose Ladder from now on due t losing a minute plus in my PB due to not being able to break the table. I will just beat up Old Man Steroids with a steel chair, set up the ladder, throw him outside, hit him with a chair finisher outside, then climb the ladder. Also Is it definitely better to lose rather than win when you can win? I just dont want to be getting extra matches or title shots. Also should go without saying, but in the game options before starting, I turn entrances off and set the game difficulty to easy. Also i didnt know about being able to hit your partner with a Chair to get DQ'd that shall save me a bit of time!

Winning a match here and there shouldn't make any difference, your SP is gonna be incredibly low anyway, and i don't believe winning a specific match triggers more storyline trees, so if winning is faster than losing in a specific match, it's probably just that, faster.

The ladder idea does indeed seem pretty good, you might also just be able to irish whip him towards the stage and maybe climb up and win? Could work, you can always just put a table in the middle of the "beginning" of the ramp and get another couple of seconds from that, if needed.

Turning entrances off was not something i have done in my runs, it's probably gonna save a couple of minutes, and a lot of mashing, therefore, that's a really good one.

I'm not sure if the difficulty has an impact on the run, it really depends on how the AI deals with higher difficulties, if its simply reversing more, than yes, easy is the way, if they're also more aggressive, and tend to give you better moves, higher difficulties are probably better.

Also, reading the post again, Triple Threat matches are tough, yeah, what i usually do is getting a sledgehammer, and, if they're targeting each other, get a couple of hits on someone, if they're not, i let them beat me up until i'm to a point where i can get pinned, and then try to get rid of the guy who's not been targeting me, allowing the other to pin me freely.

Now that i think about it, we're both using the European version, i suppose, but is there any way to know what the differences between US and EU version are?