What are the advantages of different promotion types?

[hulkamaniac]

This is kind of a question that came out of a thread on how to make money as a small fed. I'm curious what the pros and cons are of all the different fed types. I found that with my product setting I shocked my fans with a segment where a heel put a face through a table with a piledriver. I know with mainstream you get more sponsorship money, but your segments and matches are rated very heavily based on overness. A guy who's very over and is wrestling a guy who's very over has a much better chance of an A* match, than two talented guys with chemistry who no one knows. The two guys no one knows will never be able to put on an A* match. The same thing goes for promos. No one cares about the kick ass promo cut by a jobber no one's heard of. I also know that if your guy is over he can practically do no wrong and it's hard to book him in bad segments. My current product settings: Traditional: medium Mainstream: key Comedy: low Cult: very low Risque: low Modern: medium Realism: none Hyper realism: none Hardcore: low Lucha: none Pure : very low Daredevil : very low Match intensity: 20% Match danter : 40% (I'm not entirely sure what these mean) I keep playing with these settings, but can't quite get what I want. I'm aiming for a WWE type product which features guys with good entertainment skills, but also focuses on actual wrestling as well. I want to feature guys who are good entertainers and can also work a number of styles. I don't want guys who are entertaining, but can't work. Nor do I want guys who are great workers, but have the charisma of a sponge. I want some T&A, but don't want it to be a big feature of the fed. And I want to be able to pull off the piledriver through a table thing and have people gasp, but not be totally shocked. I don't want them to yawn because it's an every day event.

[Derek B]

For the settings you are looking for, I recommend the default SWF product settings from the Cornellverse. If Adam says that's what typical Sports Entertainment is to be, then dagnammit that's what they should be! Also, having played SWF a lot (with a few minor tweaks to the product but nothing major) you can still have high overness guys doing well based on overness and high talent guys putting on great matches with good results. Runaway As long as you book people to their strengths then you should find yourself being successful. As for match danger and intensity.... intensity is how hard the match is fought and basically drains a workers fatigue level (worker profile -> physical) more, leaving them more prone to injury if they are suffering from your schedule. At 20% it would take a LOT to ever make someone be to worn down from your schedule. Danger on the other hand is a base for what your fans expect in terms of.. danger. The higher it is, the more chance your workers have of picking up an injury simply from working a match. 40% isn't bad for that and I've only suffered a few minor injuries from 18 months at 25%. It's when you're pushing your workers with a 80% intensity, 80% danger schedule with 2 matches a week that you need to really worry about your roster. Derek B [b]EDIT: My SWF Product, mildly tweaked from original[/b] KEY: Mainstream HEAVY: Traditional, Comedy, Cult, Risque MEDIUM: LOW: Modern, Hardcore, Daredevil V. LOW: Realism NONE: Hyper Realism, Lucha Libre, Pure Match Ratio: 70% Match Lengths: 6/12/22 Face/Heel Divide: Strong Intensity: 20% Danger: 25%

[hulkamaniac]

What I'm looking for ideally is a product where the main eventers are guys who can work any style of match and be entertaining as well (i.e. someone like HBK who can brawl, fly, mat wrestle and cut a great promo). My upper mid carders would be guys who excell in one area, and are somewhat entertaining (I.E. Kane - can brawl, can't fly, can't mat wrestle, is entertaining). My mid carders and lower mid card guys would be guys who excell in some are, but aren't entertaining, or who are entertaining, but can't really wrestle. Someone like Lashley who can work, but can't cut a promo would be in the mid-card or lower mid card. Someone who is entertaining, but can't work to save his life would be in the same category. There would be a women's division, but women would be featured as legit competitors more than eye candy. Eye candy would still be there, but not nearly as much as the WWE does. A diva in my fed would be hot and able to work (think Trish Stratus) though there would be roles for chicks who were just hot and those who could just work.

[Derek B]

The product I listed seems to manage what you hope for rather nicely, although it would depend on your booking style. My World champ has been Remo for almost 10 months (B level brawler) with guys like Runaway Train (C level brawler, B- entertainment), Steve Frehley (C+ brawler, B ent.), Rich Money (B tech/brawl, B+ ent), Squeeky McClean (B- tech, B+ ent.) and Jack Bruce (B-/C+ all rounder, A ent) as his main challengers. Guys like Marc DuBois (B/B+ all rounder, A ent) Lobster Warrior (B- all rounder/ent) and the Bumfhole Brothers (B all rounders, B+ ent) have been rising up to the top to challenge too. Sam Keith retired a while back with C+ tech and B- ent, and he was still capable of pulling A* matches out against a lot of my upper card, especially DuBois. :) Key stats IMO for this style are psychology (for 1 worker in a match, they can carry the other), charisma (when working the crowd) and any in-ring stat (when going "all out"). Anyone with a two out of three of those should succeed in the ring pretty well. And overness is gained nicely through long segments, especially from good promos/attacks from the likes of Jack Bruce and Runaway Train for some reason. They rule! :) For your women's division... set up an official women's division and set the T&A to high. That should bring in talented wrestlers (to wrestle) and hot chicks (for any purpose) for you to play with. Personally.... I don't have the women's division, just the hot chicks. :) Derek B

[hulkamaniac]

I might have to play with that later tonight when I have time. If I make the change currently will I lose a lot of my fan base?

[Derek B]

You might, only way to know for sure is to try it out for yourself. You shouldn't have to tweak it to be exact, a similar style of product should work fine for you. They're kinda similar to start with so I imagine if you just tinker with it to get it a little closer you should do fine. Just remember that long angles can be your friend and that your super entertaining guys can get over just by being in regular angles... and since angles take less time than matches, this can be used to your benefit in the long run. Thanks to Jack Bruce and Squeeky McClean, I've managed to accidentally get Dermot O'Logical up to C overness... the group just have such great promos and Dermot has great chemistry with Persephone (the group's manager) that he doesn't drag them down at all. Derek B

[hulkamaniac]

I've found with my current settings that my angles all suck. My matches tend to be in the C- to B+ range, but my I'm lucky to get a C- for an angle. My idea for the Women's division is to have a change of pace from the "big guy's in spandex" thing. I know the WWE tends to go the "these chicks are hot, plus they can wrestle" route. I want to go the "these chicks can wrestle, plus they're hot" route.