consortium11

Despite writing as much as I have above, it may be apparent that I'm actually struggling to find that much that excites me about 21CW this go around. That doesn't mean that my points above aren't correct; 21CW is still a great promotion for people new to the C-Verse or running a larger company to cut their teeth on and with the varied roster (both if terms of skills and characters) there should be something that catches your interest. It's very much a "me" problem; put simply 21CW hasn't changed a vast amount since the 2016 and because I play 21CW so much and so often do long-term saves with them I seem to have basically done almost everything already. Take the starting storylines for example. While the context for it might have been slightly different I've run a face Tommy Cornell against a heel Edward Cornell a bunch of times already. I've had Faust leading a stable of monster heels in almost all my saves and while I tended to have them slightly higher up the card I have run storylines pitting them against rising stars. I've elevated Leigh Burton to the main event scene repeatedly (although I've normally used Hot Stuff rather than Luke Cool as his foil) and with Muckletruck and War Machine in the Three Man Army storyline I can't help but have my mind go back to the Muckletruck vs Jeff Nova storyline I ran last time, even if the supporting cast is different. The only fairly new storyline is Apollo vs DBF but the description of it is so vague and generic that I'm struggling to generate much excitement. That feeling extends beyond the storylines to the state of the roster as well. Everyone's basically where they were previously; Hot Stuff, Wade Orson and the aforementioned Burton on the verge of the main event, a strong tag team division where despite bio's talking about how well certain members will do if given a solo push I don't feel a huge inclination to do it at this point, lots of talented but somewhat raw prospects to develop etc etc. Speaking of raw prospects, the new signings don't do a huge amount for me, simply because I've seen almost all of them before during those long games I played previously. In some cases that's literal; the NSW graduates are the same NSW graduates that were in the database last time and even a new character like Ruin... who does have a cool backstory... seems to be a retread: he's a young, monster heel who you can either fully develop (like I've done with the host of other young, monster heels 21CW has had over the years, notably Gravedigger who is still basically in the same role) or use his elevated popularity and ability to get it back to get other workers over by having him be a monster-of-the-month who they defeat (see Nightmare and to some extent Danny Patterson). Sebastian Koller being really close to the main event is nice but hardly exciting and honestly, the only things that do get my mind working when I look at 21CW itself are Harry Wilson becoming Antithesis and Leigh Burton... who I'd always had as a pretty white meat babyface... becoming a sociopathic heel without a clear explanation which does make my mind fill in the gaps in a good way. Unfortunately because the upper part of the card is pretty heel heavy (and the Burton vs Cool feud is already heel vs heel which kinda sucks) he likely has to become a face pretty quickly just to even the numbers up. 21CW's position in the wrestling world is also basically the same which leaves me struggling for motivation somewhat. In 2016 21CW were dominant in the UK with no legitimate challengers and primed for European expansion and in 2020 they're dominant in the UK with no legitimate challengers (I don't think USPW simply being on Reverie counts) and primed for European expansion. I've done European expansion already, I've built my stars popularity in Europe, I've done angles introducing the big European stars as I borrowed and/or stole them from other promotions... it's hard to get excited about doing it again, especially when 21CW are less popular in Europe then they were four years ago, meaning more of a grind. But what has excited me? Australia Does it feel somewhat like cheating to look at RAW's roster, realise everyone but Swoop is on handshake deals, realise that their biggest stars can be signed for around $6,000 a month (a tiny amount you normally pay to your openers) on a written deal, realise that no-one has yet said "no" to me asking them to work in the British Isles and thus basically signing RAW's entire main event and upper midcard scene? Yes. Do they all start with popularity 0 in the British Isles and thus I'll have to spend some time building them up? Absolutely. But an Aussie invasion (complete of course with wrestling's take on the Ashes and backed by decades of sporting rivalry) is probably the only thing that's really made my imagination get going so far and expanding to Australia is an interesting challenge even if I am handicapping the main opposition by taking their stars. Is it going to be a slow burn process considering you start at 15 popularity over there and your current broadcasting deal only has tiny coverage? Yes. But the three years I have left on the UKB Prime deal (or less if I make enough money to justify a buyout) not only gives me something to aim towards, it also allows Reverie alternative CommPlanet to come into being or, alternatively, me to build up enough of a warchest to setup my own subscription service.

SWF is a pretty clear WWE stand-in; rose to prominence while buying out all the old territories to become the dominant force in American wrestling, adopted a sports entertainment product that brought it to a wider fanbase and Richard Essien is a Vince McMahon analogue except he didn't appear on-screen. SWF can essentially be seen as WWE with competition. I've mentioned this before but for me both TCW and USPW are stand ins for WCW but in different ways: USPW today are WCW if the Turner takeover had happened a couple of decades later; Turner bought WCW to secure cheap programming for his network much as Allen Packer bought USPW to get content for Reverie which in both cases gave them huge financial backing and exposure. The current USPW product is pretty similar to the early 1990's WCW product of Turner's time as well; think Dungeon of Doom, monster of the week for Hulk Hogan to slay etc etc. Speaking of Hogan, Sam Strong can be seen as the C-verse's version of him and his arrival in USPW similar to Hogan arriving (complete with some fairly untalented friends of his getting jobs and pushes). TCW are WCW in reverse. WCW started out as JCP, a more traditional, wrestling focused company and alternative to WWF's more cartoony, childish product where "the boys" had a lot of say/influence but didn't manage its money well and was eventually bought out by a big money company. That money allowed it to bring in a number of WWF's stars and try to beat them at their own game, becoming more sports entertainment focused themselves but despite some success they never quite managed it and lost support from their parent company. TCW started as HGC, a promotion owned by big money backers which allowed it to hire a number of SWF's stars and try to beat them at their own game but could never break through. This led to one of "the boys" fronting a takeover and turning them into a more traditional, wrestling focused alternative to SWF's sports entertainment product... but it struggled for money and eventually had to be sold off again.

It's worth remembering that the show reports flavour text is mechanically generated depending on how their show rating compared to their popularity with you basically only having to match it to get some form of positive flavour text. Considering how many companies start with a popularity less than 40 (and often far less than that) it's actually extremely hard for them not to get a positive flavour text for their shows just because it's hard for say MAW with a highest popularity of 25 to book a show that doesn't get a 30+ rating. Much like how for a player booked company it's almost impossible not to get positive results in smaller companies because your popularity is so low but more challenging the bigger you get, from what I've seen in the demo the AI isn't excelling at the top level. It's seemingly not making some of the silly mistakes it did previously but for example in my saves where I've done the entire two months it seems like USPW struggles to get ratings above the mid-80's... which does mean it often gets positive flavour text considering its size but has actually resulted in it dropping a point of popularity in the US and Canada.

While I agree with most of your points here (especially with the cap on matches which go less than a certain time... it's a cap, not a penalty) I'm not sure this is a good example to use to support it. If nothing else having a look at what I think would be closest to Chikara's product in the database (Comic Book Lucha Libre) there's nothing there that suggests the match would get a penalty; the match wasn't dangerous, controversial or bloody, it went over the 10 minutes required so wouldn't even be capped, all the workers had gimmicks etc etc. So there wouldn't be any penalties to begin with. Let's say for the sake of argument that there were penalities. As you say, in real life the crowd ate that match up (and went even crazier for the main event if I recall correctly) despite the fact the in-ring action was, shall we say, a touch lacking... in TEW's mechanical terms the overness of the wrestlers involved would have made up for the relatively poor wrestling on display. But also by TEW's mechanical terms, the penalties represent the fans being upset or put off by a match... which simply didn't happen. What you're presenting as the issue with the match (the low technical quality of it on an "objective" level) isn't what the penalties to matches in TEW represent (the fanbase turning on it). As it's currently presented in TW poor in-ring action is covered by (a lack of) skills, fans caring or not is covered by overness/popularity and the fans actively disliking what they see is covered by penalties; if that match scored a low rating it should be because of the in-ring action, not the fans actively disliking the very nature of it. That does lead to a further point, albeit one that's somewhat off-topic and goes into the can of worms that is the immutable nature of the set products. Chikara's a pretty classic real-world example of the Comic Book Lucha Libre product and let's say for the sake of argument that in TEW such a product would carry some level of penalty for slow, old, miles past their best (and often not that great to begin with) workers plodding around the ring for 12 minutes. Yet in the real world you semi-frequently saw guys who established their name in the mid-1990's WWF/WCW make appearances and get big cheers in Chikara; they built their fanbase and their product to be one that went crazy when One Man Gang put on the Akeem the African Dream hat and strutted around the ring. That sort of tweaking could be achieved when we had more direct control over the product... now, far less so. Honestly, thinking back on it I sort of regret typing out this post because it is a bit nitpicky and I do agree with your overall point. Think back to every wrestling event any of us has ever watched. How often has every match on the show been the absolute best it can be? How often have promotions put on matches that have a purpose other than getting the crowd as happy as they can be, whether it's training someone up, testing something out or simply for the personal enjoyment of the booker? This may apply more to companies with TV shows then those that put on monthly events but how often have we seen say WWE put on a match that was clearly more about a solid veteran training up a relative rookie who they think has potential then putting on a classic match? How often have their TV show main events been a solid match but not particularly special and often with some booking that arguably detracts from the overall rating because they're building to the PPV where they will go for the best match they could? And some of the complaints I have seen seem to be from people unfamiliar with the product they're trying to book; I seem to recall people talking about their 20 minute (or longer) USPW main event got penalised while if you look at a real world equivalent to that product (late 80's/early 90's WWF) someone like Hulk Hogan generally went 10-15 minutes (and often closer to 10). Is it really the end of the world if a match or angle in the middle of a show gets a modest penalty if the rest of your show, especially the main event, more than make up for it?

Not so much this year; while in 2016 you had multiple graduation classes waiting to debut a glance at the editor suggests this time around it looks like there's only four more specific workers to come out (and only three wrestlers) of which only one seems to really be someone you'd pick out; arguably the two most interesting yet to debut workers who can be used in the British Isles (outside of Cornell Jr) are non-NSW graduates... although obviously considering 21CW's market position, they can still lock them down easily. That doesn't include regens and generic characters but for specific, named character the tap at NSW is close to being turned off.

So what are everyone's ideas and thoughts going forward? Your starting storylines are: The War Of The Cornells: Top of the card storyline between the Cornell cousins. Tommy is obviously still arguably the best all-around worker in the world while Edward isn't that but has improved to the point where he can have a damn fine match on his own and be helped by Tommy to a classic one. Throw in Edwards stable to provide muscle (and give Tommy and Edward a chance to build up the stats of guys like BW Eddie and Viktor Beskov) and you've got a lot to play with. Even if you officially end it at some point I imagine Cornell vs Cornell is going to simmer along for some time. Cool vs Burton: On the face of it a fairly generic "two upper-midcarders face off with the winner becoming a main eventer" type feud considering he's younger, has better stats and more over I think most people will have Burton go over. I think this is the sort of storyline that you need to find your own "hook" to really engage with rather than have something handed to you. One thing to note: both guys start the game as heels (an oversight?) which will almost certainly hurt in a promotion where the heel/face divide is strictly enforced. Apollo vs DBF: Another seemingly by-the-numbers storyline using a popular veteran to elevate a younger contender. Nothing really leaps out at me here and I guess you primarily use it as a way to establish Apollo. HellBound vs The Rising Stars: Giving Jonathan Faust a stable of monsters is something I pretty much always do in 21CW and having them try to abduct and "convert" others is right up my alley. It's a classic "monster heels go after seemingly weak babyfaces but they unite together to fight back" style story and it works well; if nothing else Darin Flynn has such great performance stats that he'll help train up everyone involved. There's a whole host of ways this can go; the leader of the faces Evan Alpass losing a match and joining Hellbound (which means he could get away from being a generic white meat babyface), a veteran or two getting involved to help out the rookies etc etc. Bedlem holds the TV title but I'm not entirely sure any of the rookies are ready for it yet... although it does give you three built in challengers to set up matches with. Three Man Army Takeover: Another classic story that appears to be "big, muscular heels bully smaller faces only for even bigger, stronger face to get involved and even the odds". Adonis will carry this on the mic (which helps War Machine and Hulk build their charisma), Muckletruck probably looks like a star while Sifu and Ricky Storm keep the match ratings high (and improve everyone else). Also allows me to somewhat rerun one of the my favourite storylines from 2016, with Muckletruck doing repeated feats of strength in awesomely cheesy skits. The Men of Steel vs Crouching Storm, Hidden Sifu is a great tag title feud while Muckletruck vs War Machine one on one won't be a match for the purists but certainly should be a spectacle. Matravers vs one or both of Hot Stuff seems like a decent story to run with considering they're at a loose end right now and might be a good way to help bring Buff Martinez up to the main event. You're probably a touch too heavy on upper-card heels as things stand but that there's an abundance of potential opponents for Koller and Orson, two guys you'll likely want to build up. In fact you're probably a bit heel heavy in general, especially as many of your more established faces are in tag teams; it may be hard to find viable opponents for all of Antithesis (who should be fun to book), Bantom, Brickhouse Balder, Jones, Cooper and Stones at once and there's not even many faces lower down the card who are available. Some thrown together tag teams may be the order of the day (a Bantom/Brickhouse monster heel team vs the Underdogs seems pretty fun to me while Kevin Jones/Johnny Stones not only rhymes, it also gives you an excellent team of veterans to build and elevate others) or some face turns; I really like the idea of Leigh Burton as a sociopathic heel but if needs must he's equally good as a face while Antithesis' anarchist gimmick can be adapted to have him turn as well.

<p><strong><span style="font-size:24px;">Why play 21CW?</span></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Freedom<br /></li><li>Variety<br /></li><li>Challenge<br /></li><li>Learning Experience<br /></li></ul><p></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Freedom</strong></p><p> </p><p> Four years on from our last update 21CW remains by far the biggest dog in the yard of British and European wrestling. Looked at purely in terms of size it may appear that USPW may be hot on your heels because of the size of their broadcaster Reverie but without the AI deciding to go for a British expansion that's simply not an issue. Likewise while a player controlled British or European company could eventually complete (notably using SNP considering the money they have) left to their own devices the AI is unlikely to be snapping at your heels for years (if at all). You also have deep, deep pockets, starting with $7,500,000 (screw doing a conversion to pounds...) in the bank and, unlike 2016 where it was easy to start badly losing money, seem to make around a cool $1,000,000 a month assuming you don't do anything silly.</p><p> </p><p> Without any real competition or distinct financial pressure 21CW therefore gives you the freedom to play almost however you like. You're not desperate for money and so have to find every cost-cutting measure you can while accepting your stars may well leave. You're not in a life-and-death battle with another company and so have to squeeze every point of ratings out you can. You're free to experiment, to play the way you want, to take risks and to be largely consequences free. No other company of equivalent size seems to have such freedom to be whatever you want it to be.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Variety</strong></p><p> </p><p> 21CW's sports entertainment style product is fairly forgiving and open; yes, people are expected to have characters, storylines are required and the more risky and controversial matches, angles and characters will be penalised but that still leaves a lot of space for you to play around in. That's reflected in your roster as well which covers a lot of bases. While there's an emphasis on brawlers, lots of monster heels and some flashy face high-fliers you do have a bit of everything and the opportunity to go out and sign almost anyone you want to fill in the gaps. You've got arguably the best all-around wrestler in the world at the top of your card, a number of people who seem on the verge of a jump to the main event, some great prospects to develop and, as mentioned, probably the biggest (and arguably best) collection of monster heels in the C-Verse. As one would expect from a sports entertainment company you've got a wide range of interesting, vivid and distinct characters as well which cover pretty much every aspect and cliche one can think of in pro-wrestling; there's almost certainly a few guys who you'll find the ability to connect with.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Challenge</strong></p><p> </p><p> While it may not be a vast challenge to stay where you are, growing can be. Your immediate mechanical aim is to grow to large by continuing the European expansion and once you manage that it's time to start thinking about true international expansion; can 21CW get to the point where it turns the big three of US wrestling into a big 4? In the wake of the Modern Japan Movement falling apart and a return to more traditional formats can a foreign sports entertainment company break through there? Doesn't Canada need some competition and isn't it about time RAW and EILL had to face off with someone who could play their own game as well as them? Look, India just opened up... I'll avoid politically incorrect and juvenile comments here.</p><p> </p><p> There's also obviously the challenges you set for yourself. Can you develop your host of talented prospects and contenders into the stars they seem to have the potential to be? 21CW may not have really been a company noted for workrate before but with Tommy Cornell and Adam Matravers at the top of the card that should change... is an 100 rating and Match of the Year on the cards? Rather than take advantage of your size and ability to sweet-talk almost anyone into working for you can you take over the world only using British (and perhaps European) workers?</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Learning Experience</strong></p><p> </p><p> For the last few editions 21CW has worked really well as a "tutorial" company for people who want to play around with all the features and positives from being one of the big boys without many of the drawbacks and once again, little has changed. You get written contracts, lots of money, the ability to sign almost whoever you want, TV deals, international expansion, the chance to score those really high ratings but outside of a fairly large roster you don't have the risks other companies do; serious competition, financial difficulties etc etc. A playthrough of 21CW, even if only for a few months, sets a player up well to jump into any of the big US promotions without feeling overwhelmed or under massive pressure. It's a great entry to the C-Verse for anyone who wants to play with a WWE style company (both in terms of size and product) while learning the ropes.</p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="font-size:24px;">What's changed in 2020?</span></strong></p><p> </p><p> Honestly... not a lot.</p><p> </p><p> If you went back to when I wrote the equivalent to this last time round you'll see it's basically the exact same thing just rewritten. There's been no truly dramatic changes and there should be a real sense of familiarity to anyone who played 21CW previously.</p><p> </p><p> Looking at your roster, Dark Angel/Cliff Wilson has retired and turned into a road agent which does rob you of a main eventer and exceptional ring general but he was almost always in the depths of time decline in 2016 and normally retired fairly early on. You've lost the Ivanov Brothers, a constant presence in the tag team division over the years, but in some ways that just freshens things up and opens those ranks to be a real place to highlight developing talent and put on great matches while you've gained Roly Muckletruck, SNP's former main star and a pretty fun strongman monster to play around with. A couple of your older upper midcard and main event stars have either retired or slowed down somewhat but to contrast that you've has the next few sets of NSW graduates come in and your existing prospects have improved. Tommy Cornell is now face, Jonathan Faust has a stable and you've got some seemingly interesting but somewhat by the book storylines to kick things off.</p><p> </p><p> In terms of size/scale you're basically exactly where you were in 2016; massive in the British Isles, small but with somewhere to start from in the US, Canada and Australia while basically nowhere in Japan, Mexico and the new India. The only real change is that 21CW are actually considerably smaller in Europe then they were four years ago. There's no direct reason given for this I can see so it may well be a gameplay related change but if you do want to give a lore based explanation the lack of Euorpean talent being signed between this edition and the last (where they picked up Beast Bantom and Sebastian Koller) may suggest they stopped putting as much emphasis on it.</p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="font-size:24px;">Roster Highlights?</span></strong></p><p> </p><p> Considering that little has really changed I'm actually just going to directly quote my section on this from last time with a few bolded changes and the removal of the retired Dark Angel. Basically, add four years to everyone and some improved stats to the younger workers.</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="consortium11" data-cite="consortium11" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="48006" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> </p><p> <strong>Tommy Cornell</strong> - Arguably the most dramatic change from 2013 to 2016 in the C-verse was Cornell selling off TCW and coming back home. What that means is that 21CW gets arguably the best all-round worker in the game... there may be better in-ring performers (although not many) and there may be better entertainers (although not many)... but there's few people (if any at all) who can combine the two like Cornell does. Already disgustingly over, chances are Cornell is going to be at the heart of every major storyline you run. <strong>While at 41 time decline is something you have to consider, considering how good he is it'll be a while before it really bites even when it does happen.</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Adam Matravers</strong> - A damn solid, well-rounded but flashy worker, <strong>he's normally the main babyface of the company... at least until Tommy became one</strong>. Outside of his entertainment skills being merely good rather than excellent there aren't really any flaws with him and his in-ring skills have improved to the point he's an elite worker. <strong>At 40 age is an issue but much like Tommy Cornell he's good enough that it won't matter for a while</strong>.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Jonathan Faust</strong> - A good rather than great worker, but with fine entertainment skills Faust is just a fun character to plan things out with... in my mind he's basically the ultra-heel of 21CW, always trying to find ways to corrupt and destroy the company. <strong>He's now officially got a team of henchmen supporting him and while his bio mentions an injury that only really appears to have badly hurt his resilience rather than hurt his other stats</strong>.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Buff Martinez</strong> - At <strong>35</strong> the charismatic brawler is probably one of the first in line to be the next wave of superstars for the company. He's over and <strong>his stats have gone up enough that he can more than hold his own in the main event</strong>. In any game which you intend to last a couple of years, chances are he'll be (and stay) involved at the top of the card.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Wade Orson/Leigh Burton/War Machine</strong> - I'm combining these three together as they each sit in roughly the same position within the game, being upper midcarders on the verge of breaking into the main event. All three have good in-ring/performance stats, start pretty over and have the entertainment/On Camera ability to push on. <strong>While they haven't improved dramatically they have improved in four years and are still young enough to get better</strong>.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Beast Bantom</strong> - In 2013 one of the first moves almost all British/European companies would at least consider was bringing in the powerful monster. Now tied down to a written contract 21CW are the ones to take advantage of that. In fluff terms he was brought in to help their European expansion and with a menace in the 90's, star quality in the 70's and decent charisma... to go with reasonable in-ring and performance skills... it's easy to get him even more over. <strong>His performance skills have gone up enough that he's ready for a big push although you may want to try and build his charisma</strong> but it shouldn't be too much of a challenge to build him into a credible main event wrestler in a pop over performance company like 21CW <strong>if menace remains the near-cheat button to high ratings and popularity gains it was in 2016</strong>.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Sebastian Koller</strong> - The second half of 21CW's European expansion plans, the former VWA ace is another solid all-round worker you can take to the main event in time. Decent top row stats which <strong>have had some reasonable growth</strong>, performance skills that <strong>have likewise gone up (especially psychology)</strong> and good entertainment skills. At <strong>32</strong> he's got a fair amount of room to grow and 21CW has the wrestlers to help him do that. He's likely going to be a solid part of your main event <strong>as soon as you want him to be</strong>.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Andrew Lee/Grave Digger/Mark Adonis/Mass Hulk</strong> - Much like the Orson/Burton/Machine triumvirate mentioned above I've combined these four together as they are, on paper, your top four young prospects. Grave Digger is a near perfect monster... 95 menace, 85 SQ, starting with 62 charisma and for a <strong>25</strong> year old big man pretty good performance and in-ring stats. Lee is a good workhorse prospect; acceptable top row stats for a <strong>25</strong> year old and good starting performance skills that can built, all combined with good starting charisma and a star quality of 82 <strong>but frequent injuries mean his stats haven't grown and his resilience has fallen so he may be a challenge to develop as effectively</strong>. Mark Adonis is arguably the best young talker in the game with microphone <strong>74</strong>, charisma 82 and acting <strong>68 and also having made a big leap in his in-ring abilities</strong> while his partner Mass Hulk is an overness dream; SQ in the 90's, menace 86 and charisma 68. His in-ring skills haven't grown much but are getting closer to acceptable and <strong>a player can normally get them up quickly enough for a 23 year old prospect.</strong></p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Outside of those <strong>Apollo Prince</strong> has had a pretty big boost to his stats in comparison to most and as his bio says looks to be easy to move up the card. A similar logic applies to <strong>Viktor Beskov</strong> and <strong>Sifu</strong> who look to be the breakout stars when their tag teams split (and it's not as if their partners are bad). NSW graduate <strong>Darin Flynn</strong> looks to be an absolute monster workhorse prospect; his lack of charisma and star power might stop him ever being the man in a company like 21CW but he'll make sure the man has great matches. Fellow NSW graduate <strong>Phil Harmonic</strong> is a somewhat typical 21CW wrestler; good enough in the ring but a great talker out of it and at 18 you have a vast amount of time to develop him. <strong>Ruin</strong> looks to be yet another monster heel prospect... and 21CW have more than enough of those, including some that are seemingly better... but an entertaining backstory has resulted in him having a much higher overness then you'd expect (and he seemingly deserves). You can either leach that away to someone else you want to get over or use it as an opportunity to have Ruin develop quickly by being in the ring with your bigger stars and still seem to belong (and in a company like 21CW also not massively tank the rating).</p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="font-size:24px;">New signings to consider</span></strong></p><p> </p><p> I'm actually going to leave this one blank for the moment. You've got a large roster already and there's enough depth to it that there's no real <em>need</em> for anyone to fill any gaps.</p><p> </p><p> If you do want to sign anyone then it's easy enough to talk people into working the British Isles if they normally don't so, in short, anyone not under an ironclad written contract is basically yours if you want them. You can obviously raid Europe for all their talent but if you want a <em>really</em> interesting storyline idea, look at how many of RAW's workers are under exclusive handshake deals and thus only a conversation and contract negotiation away from being yours. They may have literally no popularity in the UK at the moment but an Aussie invasion storyline could well work. And how about that Australian expansion opportunity I mentioned...</p>

But they're part of the game now, part of an official release, part of a product people are paying money towards and as such have to be viewed in that context. People will obviously be more forgiving about something that's free compared to something they paid for and less likely to comment in general on something that's not only optional but that you actually have to go out of your way to get rather than something that's not only default but official. Let's say there was a re-render I truly hated; something that basically ruins a character for me for whatever reason. When that's something that's simply posted on the forums I'm just not going not download it to begin with and I'm less likely to post my critique of it at all. If that re-render ends up in the game on the other hand and I have to go out of my way to replace it then I'm far more likely to comment and critique. I'd also have to accept that the render is now official; whatever my personal head-canon says, that render is now officially what that worker looks like in C-verse lore.

From what people have said about Ryder's mindset he may not be the best example because his ambition was never to be a wrestling star but a WWE star; he loves the WWE so much that it's all he cares about in the business, regardless of how he's used; he'd rather be a jobber in the WWE then a player somewhere else. Things may have been different if he was in the C-verse simply because there'd be more major promotions around during his formative years and still around when he broke into the business but he's exactly the sort of person who would be happy stuck in the midcard or lower of whatever promotion he fell in love with.

This is silly. If a render is in the base game then it's part of the game... a game people will pay for... and, whether the renderer is paid or not, are therefore as open to comment and criticism as any other part of the game. If someone doesn't like a render that's in the game then expressing that should be no different to talking about not liking the interface or a mechanical aspect of the game. If we were talking about re-renders posted in the forum then you may have a point (although I'd hardly call BHK1978's post "dunking" on anyone regardless of context) but he's talking about official renders that are part of a game. The idea that we shouldn't complain about or express a dislike towards part of something we've paid for because someone worked hard on it is just silly. Personally I have no issue with the renders in the game; yes, they're inconsistent and like everyone else there's some I like more than others but the only ones that really stand out to me stand out for good reasons and honestly I'm not even sure if I'll feel the need to switch over to any re-renders even for the older and more out of place ones. But if I did have an issue then I have every right to talk about that a product that I paid for.

I wouldn't say that surprising; Jenkins was and is a solid and reliable technical worker but not outstanding in the ring (one of the reasons he never really stood out in MAW), in any way charismatic nor does he come across as a star. 21CW in contrast are a sports entertainment company who focus on larger-than-life characters, connecting with the crowd and soap-opera style storylines; while good wrestling (and Jenkins is at best good) is appreciated it's not the focus. He's just not the sort of worker 21CW would be interested in (they've turned down a number of National School of Wrestling graduates with a similar style) and his time in MAW didn't give him any real name value with the sort of fans 21CW really cares about.

I'm not the poster who originally brought up workers stuck in the midcard; I simply pointed out that using real world examples of workers who are seemingly being held back and not getting the opportunities they deserve in the WWE isn't the best comparison to the C-verse due the vastly higher number of major companies there. That said, to give some examples I am familiar with, guys like Beast Bantom, Grave Digger, Leigh Burton and Wade Orson haven't progressed as much as I'd probably expect in either skills, popularity or place on the card considering the time gap and the lack of biography based explanation (unlike say Andrew Lee where his lack of skill development can be explained by his biography mentioning injuries. That's actually my point; in the real world (until recently) workers in a "midcard for life" position in the WWE didn't really have any other options available to them which would pay as well (and as reliably) and give them any sort of visibility/platform. As such you can understand why they choose to remain "stuck" rather than go somewhere else. In the C-verse that's not the case; there are enough alternative companies who pay well (enough) and are big (enough) that workers are less likely to simply stay if they don't feel they're being used to their full potential or given a chance. Not as much as between companies in one area or even the more traditional places for workers to go (and the UK can be seen in a somewhat similar but less dramatic way) but looking at this from a lore rather than gameplay perspective in seems unrealistic that workers who think they can be more than midcarders (or lower) but no real chance of progressing in one of the big US promotions wouldn't think about having a go with RAW... or that RAW wouldn't be interested in the more charismatic and good looking in turn. Matt Bloom only ended up with NJPW after the WWE released him because they didn't want him any more (and after a brief stay in AJPW). When the WWE wanted him back he signed pretty much immediately. Brock Lesnar had a grand total of 7 matches in a year for NJPW largely because he needed a payday and something to do when his attempt at getting into football didn't quite work out and before he'd decided to take up MMA. Nakamura's talked about how during his match with Brock he got the sense that Brock really didn't care, didn't like pro-wrestling and was purely there for the payday and nothing else. He's also not an example of someone who was stuck in the midcard and went out to find new opportunities for themselves; he was someone at the top who was burned out and needed a break. NJPW has been an alternative at various times; I mentioned the 90's as one example. But NJPW also spent about a decade from the mid 2000's either in the grip in or recovering from Inokism with plummeting attendances, ratings and revenue; it wasn't a real alternative and frankly at times even looked like it might not survive (at least in a meaningful way). Again, that's basically my point. In the real world until recently the smaller ponds available were so much smaller that it simply wasn't a realistic option for someone making WWE money (even as a mid or lower card guy) to give that up to go to them. In contrast in the C-verse the ponds might be somewhat smaller and a bit more distant but they're close enough in size and monetary reward that it's a reasonable choice to bet on yourself and try to go to one if it isn't working where you currently are. You mention Drew McIntyre and he's a perfect example of someone who was going nowhere but down in the biggest promotion, left, rediscovered his fire, improved himself, built an aura and returned in a much better position. But McIntyre didn't leave the WWE by choice. He didn't say "I'm better than being part of a comedy job squad, I'm going to go somewhere else and prove it". He was perfectly content to be part of 3MB, lose every match (when he even got one) and collect his pay. If the WWE hadn't released him then he likely wouldn't have ever changed and would be in a similar role today. In contrast if there was a USPW equivalent, a TCW equivalent, a 21CW equivalent back in the UK etc then I think that back in 2011 when it was apparent that the WWE had lost interest in him and weren't going to really push him any more he'd have been a lot more tempted to leave and try his luck with one of them.

I think the difference here is that in real life there's only been one real show in town for going on 15 years and it's only extremely recently that AEW (and to an extent NJPW) have really offered an alternative. Yes, I guess there was TNA which would pay well if you already had significant name value but they were infamously cheap with their contracts for anyone who wasn't already a big name. Put simply, if you wanted to get paid (and get paid reliably) you needed to be in the WWE. In contrast the C-Verse has three major US based promotions (even if TCW have been struggling for money in the build up to 2020), a powerhouse in Mexico, a now combined Canadian organisation, a wealthy UK based promotion, the Japanese market (although they're probably not going to be spending much) and a major Australian company. While real world wrestlers basically had to choose between good (and just as importantly, stable) pay combined with the platform that WWE provides even if they're stuck in the midcard vs personal satisfaction and glory of being a headliner on a much (much...) smaller promotion with very limited exposure, C-verse workers have more options. Honestly it's hard to think of any time wrestlers in the real world have had as many opportunities or options as the C-verse ones do, at least post-territory days... I guess the closest you could come is the 1990's where wrestlers could (and did) regularly move between the major US and Japanese promotions.

I haven't done any detailed testing but when advancing a day my RAM usage remains stable but by CPU does go up so an improved CPU is probably the better of those two options. Without more testing I can't really check if the game favours higher clock speed (i.e. a CPU that's very fast at doing one thing) or more cores (i.e a CPU that can do more stuff at once) so actual recommendations are hard to make but I can't imagine TEW is going to be too taxing on most modern processors. The other thing to consider is switching to an SSD rather than a traditional hard drive if you're currently using one. SSD's don't really improve the actual gameplay performance of most games but do (at least for half-decent ones) significantly improve start-up and load times. Again, without more detailed testing I can't really say how that might impact on TEW but it does strike me as the sort of game that might be loading a lot of information frequently which would probably make an SSD the best value improvement you can make.

It's always hard to make direct comparisons between the C-verse and real world as while they did start off with some obvious homages as time's gone by they've moved further and further apart. There's a wiki that has some background information you can read through and if you're really dedicated you can download the old demos for TEW games and go through the promotions and workers there, seeing how they've changed over time. SWF's the clear WWE stand in, with them being the dominant force in wrestling for a long time having bought out the classic regional promotions and their (now former) owner Richard Essien being a Vince McMahon-like businessman (albeit not appearing on camera) and their recent success having come from a roughly Attitude era approach to wrestling. Different people will have different takes on this but to me the WCW equivalent is in some ways both TCW and USPW. TCW is sort of WCW in reverse; they started off with a rich backer pouring tons of money in so they could poach a lot of SWF's stars while doing a similar product but couldn't really break though. Losing money and needing a change they moved to a more traditional Jim Crockett Promotions type product with a focus on serious, athletic wrestling and the wrestlers having more control and say. Despite that they nearly went bust and had a lot of their stars taken which leads them into this edition; my take is that you can think of them being in a similar position to a WCW that got some financial support in 2001 and so survived but was clearly in need of a rebuild. USPW on the other hand can be seen as if that mid 90's WCW product not only continued, it thrived. Allen Packer buying them as a way to fill his subscription-based entertainment channel with programming has some distinct similarities to Ted Turner buying Jim Crockett Promotions to fill his network programming with the product USPW put out is pretty similar to the mid-90's, pre-NWO WCW product. An alternate but similar way of looking at it is viewing it as the AOL-Time Warner merger actually working out for WCW; big name wrestling promotion suddenly gets even more financial support and new broadcasting opportunities that could massively raise its profile. As I said to begin with, most people will have their own unique takes on not only promotions but the workers as well as; some may heavily disagree with what I've put out above. Certain workers carry a distinct hint of real world equivalents but these days it often is only really a hint; it's often best to find one aspect of a character that speaks to you and see if you can build from there rather than trying to find a real world person to strictly base them on.

Going through it as someone who plays nearly exclusively in the British Isles it's all felt a little underwhelming. Perhaps because last edition brought us both an interesting and fun new promotion along with some big changes in 21CW (Cornell arriving and Joss Thompson leaving) which made it feel fairly new and exciting this one seems to suffer in comparison. It doesn't help that CWW seems like a pretty straight homage to RoF while with the McPeterson's returning there's a distinct MOSC vibe about SNP these days; all we need is a new promotion to having a cutting edge, short angle style as a homage to 21CW's original product and we've basically got the classic British scene from 2005 back again. In terms of what has actually changed there's not too much that excites me (although obviously that's a personal thing). 21CW seems to have progressed basically as if you'd just simmed 4 years without anything too radical changing; Dark Angel has retired, Tommy has turned face and feuded with his cousin (which I think almost everyone who ran a longish term 21CW save probably did), the older veteran workers have either retired or moved down the card as age caught up with them, most of the NSW graduates have been signed, most people are basically in the position they were before just with either slightly increased or decreased stats. Muckletruck coming in is nice (and I had some fun doing a story around that last time out) but for a promotion that already has so many monster heels with high menace (including some younger and better workers) it's not a radical change. Arguably the biggest one is the Ivanov's leaving which freshens up the tag division but it's not a world shattering one. SNP has had more changes with the aforementioned Muckletruck leaving combined with the Ivanov's and McPeterson coming in which does freshen up the card a lot. McPeterson vs Carnie is a nice stable-based feud to tell some stories around but partly because SNP was new last time and has only just established itself, nothing feels too dramatic. CWW basically feels like what I've done if I'd ever created a "RoF reborn" company with perhaps a touch less min-maxing. On the workers themselves it seems like the average level of them has increased considerably; outside of 21CW you could basically split workers into the prospects full of potential but in need of a lot of training and the veterans who were needed to train them up without much in-between while this year the extra four years have turned a lot of those prospects into solid-to-good wrestlers. Some of the new additions look fun; as well as the ones others have mentioned Stuart Wilson looks like someone you can do interesting stuff with, Quake seems to be a nice monster heel prospect, Govan Monty a charismatic brawler and the Black Country Boys fit nicely into the Northern Lights mould of years gone by; and athletic, brawling tag team with some breakout potential. There's still a lot of potential here for really crafting a roster; you may not be able to go to the old standbys of Hugh de Aske and Greg Gauge now but you can still complement existing rosters with some international workhorses like Gram Gorman, Ray Snow and Weaver and you've obviously got the European market available to you... notably with 21CW no longer immediately hiring half a dozen workers to written contracts immediately you can actually use Landon Mallory now. So overall? As I started by saying, a bit underwhelmed (although I may well have missed a few things that shoot up my excitement levels) but not really disappointed; more trying to find the lay of the land.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Koholos" data-cite="Koholos" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41194" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>If I have them go over higher pop wrestlers, that seems like a zero sum game.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Yes and no.</p><p> </p><p> In the short term it's undoubtedly true and in some ways arguably a negative sum gain; yes, the lower pop worker will get more over but that's likely outmatched by the loss from the higher pop worker and then you have to factor in the moral issues you'll face.</p><p> </p><p> But in the medium-to-long term it doesn't have to be depending on who the higher pop wrestler is. For example workers with high entertainment stats (charisma, menace etc) can essentially generate popularity for themselves (and others) out of nowhere so they can afford to eat a few pop draining losses because all it will take is a short angle a week for a month to get them back to where they were.</p><p> </p><p> Take 21CW and a worker like Nightmare. He's your prototypical limited monster heel with pretty poor top row stats, mediocre performance stats (outside of poor selling) and poor entertainment stats outside of his 90+ menace and while he's not old by any means he's not a young prospect any more. In a smaller promotion you may build him up as a monster heel but in a promotion like 21CW which had multiple monster heels, most of which are far better than Nightmare, the chances of you doing anything significant with him are limited.</p><p> </p><p> So for me he becomes a pop generating machine for my other workers... generally the good-in-ring, limited-on-mic types. A month or two long storyline with Nighmare doing menace based angles and then losing the pay off match(es) normally helps elevate the guy I want to develop while not really hurting Nightmare's overness in the medium term.</p>

In the options menu, on the sidebar to the left is a tab called "edit data" which takes you to a stripped down version of the full, pre-game editor.

I'm putting the final touches to a 21CW diary. I've got a video trailer and everything (everything meaning badly done photoshops and even dodgier prose)

Logos, banners and the like aren't really the biggest concern for me; they'd be a nice convenience, but I think I've got enough photoshop skills to create ones that at least look reasonable and seem to follow the theme of the original ones. The bigger issue is the renders for workers and unfortunately few (if any) of the full sized ones I've been able to find (primarily in the full-sized section of the dropbox) are of people I wish to use (the plan would be to do 21CW). I'll have a crack at doing some stuff with the existing renders and see how (terrible) they look when blown up and some stuff to obscure how pixilated they are is done. Other than that, I guess I'd better send out some PM's.

Are there larger versions of the various C-Verse media (i.e. worker pictures, banners, logos etc) out there? I'm contemplating starting a diary and would love to do some media editing to go with it but with things like the available worker pictures seemingly being 150x150px it's almost impossible to do that without losing so much quality that it basically becomes none-viable. I had a quick glance at the various re-render projects and threads in the mods forum so may well have missed something but most there appear to still be 150x150px (for obvious reasons).

Two part answer: 1) The short answer is yes; it doesn't matter what Person B is rated on, if Person A is rated on say entertainment then Person B's entertainment can increase, regardless of if it's a freestyle or pre-written angle. 2) But "on camera" stats (i.e menace, sex appeal etc) can't be increased by angles. Primarily it's the entertainment stats that can (charisma, microphone, acting) although from time to time you may get a note saying that a worker's performance skills have increased due to being in an angle.

Has anyone else noticed the AI be financially self-destructive if left to its own devices? In one of my games I'm doing the whole "local to as large as I can make them..." style games and, being me, it's in the UK. I'm about a year and a half in. 21CW have been struggling for a while and drowning in debt. Wanting them to stay around (and not wanting their workers who are too over to sign with either my company or the SNP to end up sitting out once they go under) I've used the editor to give them more money multiple times but eventually I lost the will and have been leaving them to get on with it without my assistance. They're currently about $2.2 million in debt, have been in debt in a while, the debt is going up every month and the bank's annoyance score must be rising. Unless something dramatic changes they're clearly on their way to bankruptcy. But they're still re-signing their workers to written contracts. And increasing their wages (likely in line with their popularity growth); J-B Cash just re-signed, increasing his contract from $20k to around $24k (and that's just one example... lots of others have re-signed without me thinking to check how much it cost 21CW) This is a company where some cost cutting is clearly needed and the most obvious way to do it is when expensive written contracts end to either not bother re-signing workers or signing them to cheap(er) PPA's. Yet the AI doesn't. It keeps going on as if they were making a profit and had a huge bank balance. It's not as if the company is struggling in other ways; the popularity has remained at 79/80 (so basically where they started) throughout, their TV shows are all sold out and getting the ratings you'd expect, their PPV's are getting around 30k people in the arena each time and the PPV numbers are actually increasing slightly from a year ago. But they're still losing money which as far as I can see is mainly down to the expensive written contracts... yet when those contracts come up they compound the issue rather than alleviate it. Is it just this game/just me? Are other people seeing an AI 21CW lose a bunch of money and still keep their workers on expensive written contracts without releasing anyone (21CW have released a grand total of three people in my game, all minor undercard guys on relatively cheap contracts and replaced them with guys who end up costing almost as much)? And other than micromanaging through the in-game editor is there anything I can do to make 21CW act in a more realistic way? Would changing the firing style of their booker (Pitbull Brown, at least to begin with) to "with wallet" rather than "with heart" help? Or is that closing the stable door after the horse has bolted?

It's an old and tired refrain but my biggest issue with the main event wasn't Roman going over or even really the match itself... it's was the logic of the whole thing. Roman's always been booked as being highly resilient and they stressed that early in the match itself with JBL recalling the beating he took against Brock in their Wrestlemania match before coming back. But there's a point where the resilience just becomes stupidly over the top. Over the course of the match Reigns took the calf-crusher and got out pretty quickly (and never massively sold the effect of it), he took the Phenomenal Elbow to the outside through a table, he took Gallows and Anderson's finisher (I'm not going to start calling it the Boot of Doom...) and another Phenomenal Elbow shortly after, he took yet another Phenomenal Elbow (this time off the barrier) and then a springboard 450... and each time he kicked out. Reigns took pretty much every one of Styles finishers and got up each time. Styles? He took one spear when presented as being fairly fresh and then he was done. That leads into the second point which is focused even more on the lack of logic. Why does Styles deserve a rematch? Yes, he was "screwed" twice by the count out and the DQ... but the match was restarted twice so that doesn't matter. Gallows and Anderson attacked Roman, not him, so that's not a consideration. There was nothing dodgy or controversial about the finish... his foot wasn't under the rope and Reigns didn't grab his tights. Instead what you had was Styles give Roman everything he had (and that his friends had) and it still not be enough... hardly the stuff rematches are made of. More logic issues; Steph and Shane come out to say that in this new era finishes like DQ's and count outs won't be allowed to decide title matches. I'm sure Natalia is very happy to hear that after both the "screwjob" finish and her DQ win in previous weeks. The only real kayfabe explanation for that is that the powers that be in the WWE care about the world title but don't about the woman's title... which is an awkward fit considering the way the woman's title has been rebranded and the fact that Stephanie literally called out Shane for misogyny during their "debate". Further logic issue: Not so very long ago a big deal was made out of the fact rope breaks don't matter in NoDQ matches (for either submissions or pinfalls) by the commentators. Then Roman grabs the ropes to break up a pinfall in a NoDQ match. Are these minor and somewhat wrestling nerd points? Sure. And if the WWE has taught us anything over the past few years it's that internal consistency isn't really a big consideration of theirs and expecting it is only asking for disappointment... look how many times Reigns was put into title matches despite the Authority trying to keep him away from the title for example. But that doesn't mean it doesn't bother me or take away from my enjoyment to an extent.

I don't think he'd really work as an underdog in somewhere like ECW... at that time he'd have been coming pretty much straight off his brief stint in the CFL and, even with pro-wrestling's tendency to exaggerate height and weight he'd have been what... 6'3'' at the shortest and 240lbs+ of pretty much pure muscle. He'd have towered over pretty much everyone in ECW, let alone Whipwreck. Couple of options that spring to mind: 1) Basically replicate the way Tommy Dreamer was introduced a few years earlier but ramp it up even more; might be worth having him as a heel who think he's a face (think Bo Dallas in NXT but probably with less comedy). Rocky can be presented as the prototypical "WWF style" wrestler, have him keep beating the undercard while getting heat etc etc. Foley was doing his anti-hardcore, pro WWF/WCW thing at this point so you could well have them work that angle together... Foley takes Rocky under his wing, tells him not to listen to the ECW fans, cuts promos telling Rocky to only stay here until one of the big buys comes calling, tells him to not do anything hardcore etc etc. 2) The Dudley's had an extended family at this point, so as well as D'Von, Bubba, Spike, Big Dick and Sign Guy there was also the lesser known Chubby Dudley, Dances with Dudley, Dudley Dudley and, while I think he'd left by 1996 after an injury, Snot Dudley. Adding "Rocky Dudley", the result of Daddy Dudley's vacation to the Pacific Islands, is an easy way to introduce Rocky and gives him a chance to develop. When you want to break him away from the Dudley's and change gimmick, a paternity test revealing he wasn't actually Daddy Dudley's son but instead Rocky Johnson's is a pretty ECW way of doing things. 3) In 1996 the The Samoan Gangster Party (Samu and the future Rosey) were in ECW weren't they? Rocky could be a third member of that group, playing up his maternal heritage. 4) At that point in ECW if you wanted guys who actually looked like they were in shape then either the Pitbulls or the Eliminators were your go to guys. Have Rocky be the third man for one of those teams, which gives him a great chance to learn by being involved with some of the top wrestlers in the promotion.