Anti-Entertainment Feds

[Bunglerana]

Hi. I want to run a promotion that is the antithesis of WWE. Even promotions that employ a high standard of technical wrestlers like ROH or PWG still have entertainment set at Medium. I've found this reduces the intensity of matches and I'm having to employ wrestlers who as well as being technically proficient (my preferred worker) have good entertainment skills as well. Even workers who don't high levels of in ring talent fare better if they know which end to hold a microphone by. As a result I want to eliminate all aspects of sports entertainment and just have the workers get by the old fashioned way: putting on great matches. Now here's the tricky bit. Getting rid of the entertainment means no screwy finishes, no run ins, nothing really to help set up or prolong a feud. There's only so much I can do with matches ending in clean win for the face, clean win for the heel or 30 min draw. So, how do people on here book feuds outside of entertainment feds? Do interviews come into it at a later point when workers are sufficiently over or is anything other than straight wrestling a no-no? And whilst I'm asking questions, how does Cult affect a product? Cheers for patience and any response(s) this gets. Apologies for anything staggeringly obvious or just general stupidity. :D

[Michael Wayne]

there is no such thing as "anti-entertainment" as the sole purpose of wrestling is to put on an "entertaining" product for the fans.

[sheepy]

[url]http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24760[/url] This is a dynasty about a company with the same product settings that you talked about. He's managed to keep things interesting even without the use of angles. I know there's a hell of a lot to get through but browse through that and you'll see how he's set up feuds. Have a look through the other ROF (C-verse) dynasties and you'll get an idea how people book feuds and in such promotions. And another one for you... [url]http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26471[/url]

[Marcel Fromage]

Seeing as Sheepy has graciously brought my diary up (thanks for the mention, mate!), I'll add my tuppence worth to this... First, it depends on what size of promotion you're planning to run. I tend to try and keep my game realistic. If you actually can face reading the 60 odd pages of my dynasty, you'll see that for the first year or so I didn't run any kind of feuds. I simply had short shows, with matches only, and I just tried to keep my roster happy. The thinking behind that was that I wanted to build up the company, develop their skills, and the shows were all separate entities without TV or PPV meaning they needed to link together too much. They were simply shows that contained decent wrestling matches. As my ROF expanded, I started to hold monthly events which eventually turned into PPV events and TV, and then I did try to link my shows together much more. That said, I've never run many feuds or storylines. If you go through my diary you'll find the odd one (e.g. Dark Angel vs Jack Giedroyc, Billy Robinson vs Don Henderson) but they're certainly not a massive part of the product. Even now, my TV shows are more just about regular wrestling, while the PPVs are more focused. You'll find that I try to give matches and wrestlers a purpose rather than a feud and I like to try and keep each title picture reasonably fresh. So I use a rankings system now, which immediately gives wrestlers reasons to try and beat each other - they really have to earn title shots. I try to give the impression that most wrestlers have at least a modicum of respect for each other, as that's the kind of promotion it is, but then I can always make use of a couple of guys that work against that idea and are more arrogant. Just bouncing those guys off the other workers is a storyline in itself. Something I don't really do, but is a good idea in skill-based promotions, is use best of 7 series between workers who have good chemistry. Another thing I've found beneficial is running certain events within the year that are different from the norm. So I now run a trios tournaments in February, a special battle royal in September and a special 4-way elimination event in December where all titles are defended in that type of match. These events can help give me some more purpose - qualifiers, tournament matches etc. and often you can get a feud coming out of a match like a battle royal. Bring in newcomers every so often to freshen things up - that's a storyline in itself. At various points in my near 6-year game I've brought in a major UK C-verse player, but I don't do them all at once because it would somehow dilute the effect. Of course, I do use other methods within my diary to keep things interesting - I make some things up for the monthly newsletter to give a sense of realism. I sometimes put in interviews to develop how I see the characters being, but they aren't a part of the shows. However it (hopefully) helps my readers see what the wrestlers are like. Of course, if I was running it just as my own game and not as a diary, I might be tempted to do that less. One last thing (congrats if you read this far!)... Screwy finishes are indeed frowned upon, but you can get around it a little. If you set the match to draw but don't specify the finish to the road agent, it sometimes does a double count-out or the ref throwing the match out, without negatively affecting your rating. Similarly you can have something do a run-in during the match without it going belly-up. I often say in my diary that they only came down to ringside to watch rather than actually get involved, but it still helps move things along sometimes. Best of luck!

[Irish Wolf]

I can still run an entertainment like fed without that much entertainment when I run CZCWs base product. And here's an example of two matches from my first show. James Prudence (aka Jimmy P) vs Donnie J Rating D+ Both men have decent entertainment skills and the highest overness on my rosters (C+ across the board for both I think). The match was 16 minutes long so I didn't get any tiring message and they didn't have a bad or good chemistry note. Donnie J I believe has a C Psychology and decent flying skills while James has D+ Psych and also decent flying skills Steve Flash vs Ultimate Phoenix rating B- Flash has an A psychology and good all around skills but is a black hole when it comes to entertainment skills. His overness is something like E+ or D- across the board. Phoenix may have better entertainment skills but not great and a B- to B psych with great flying skills. Phoenix has barely better entertainment skills than Flash. I didn't get any chemistry note either way for these two either. As you can see the better athletes got the better rating and with the base CZCW product I can do cheap and tainted finishes and run ins no problem. I think they have entertainment set at low or medium but I don't have TEW on my work computer. I personally like to use a product that a mix between CZCW, 4C and the Product Rem has posted a few times. Again I don't have it on me but I'll be able to check my laptop after work for it. Suffice to say I like character so I set it to 90% match ratio (so my top workers can do interviews and get away with it.) and a Strong Face/Heel divide. I can usually get both my Danger and Intensity above 80% as well.

[Phantom Stranger]

[QUOTE=sheepy;371599] And another one for you... [url]http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26471[/url][/QUOTE] Worth noting that promos start to come in a few years into this one and a second brand becomes an experiment in booking sports entertainment in the ROF product settings - but by and large the ROF brand itself stays about sport and skill with a couple of mostly-in-ring feuds - the El Critico/El Bandito mask vs. mask feud is still one of my favourites. As Marcel notes, typically it's about respect.

[Sartagis]

Also I personally think that ya can't be afraid of Tag Team matches at the top of the card. Great to prolong a feud.

[Bunglerana]

Hey. Thanks loads for the replies. There's some really good advice and I'm especially going to be checking out those dynasties. Thanks again.