Let the cull begin!

[James Casey]

So, MAW have just hit Cult (go me! :D) and I'm getting a bit sick of booking to satisfy all my roster, as it inevitably means at least one D grade match on my show, if not more, which is hindering my growth. (Last month I booked a match that got an E+. Oh the shame.) I've decided to cull my roster of people who, for whatever reason, I can't be bothered to keep on. Some of this is using my brain (47 year old Steve Flash who can't work a 15 minute match anymore, unlike the rest of my Main Event) while some is heart (Al Coleman who's been suspended more than he's been active since signing with us). In total, that means 13 or 14 workers hitting the bricks. Which is when it hit me - except when I've started a new game, I've never had to can that many people before. Some of them have just served their time (Flash, Rafael Ruiz, Mr. Lucha II), some have had more chances than hot dinners (Coleman, Irwin Guttman) but some of them... Some of them are failures on my part. I've tried really hard to get Natural Storm over, both as a team and individuals, and they can't get out of the D range. Morgoth has had two teams go bad on him - but his backstage attitude doesn't help. Omar Brown is expensive, has gone nowhere despite being booked strongly, and can't carry weaker opponents to good matches. Have I been doing something wrong? I kinda feel guilty... Fortunately, as none of them have downsides, I can just stick them in an unused brand and let their contracts run down. But it does mean no paycheques, and lots of virtual families going hungry :( Anyone else feel bad for trimming their rosters? Or does everyone just go on a massive firing spree and to blazes with Mrs. Steve Flash? Oh, and on a side note... have workers unhappy/very unhappy with the backstage atmosphere. I've got 92(!) workers, of whom 14 are locker room leaders... Is that too few? I always thought that about a 1:8 to 1:10 ratio was sufficient. The unhappy guys don't have any negative relationships with anyone backstage, which was my other guess.

[Marcel Fromage]

God...92 workers! I thought I had worker overkill with about 50 active wrestlers on my books. I manage to keep them all happy by having a lot of dark match tags and battle royals while trying to develop the youngsters, but I can see why you'd want to can a load of them!! And I don't think it's anything you're doing. Some wrestlers are just disappointments. I've got workers on my ROF roster who should be doing better than they are. Adam Matravers, for example, has better stats than Don Henderson - he's the equal in performance, he's better at technical and flying, he's just as popular...yet his match ratings are far worse. I can't figure it out either. I guess some guys just randomly don't bring the goods!

[Self]

I never have anywhere near that amount of guys on my roster. I usually have a dozen no-name, never-gonna-use jobbers there just to fill the spaces. I feel guilty about firing certain guys too. I kinda wish the game would make you 'feel it' more.

[Actarus]

I know it's just a game, but I'll admit it: I TOTALLY feel guilty whenever I fire somebody. Hell, I feel guilty whenever I leave a worker off a show. How else will they get better? However, I've learned with young promotions with limited amounts of $ that booking your entire roster just doesn't work. The number of times I've bankrupted promotions like these is...well, you can imagine. But I'm off topic; I don't believe you're doing anything wrong. Sometimes, people just don't live up to their potential, like in real life. So, start trimming the fat.

[Derek B]

I frequently sign more workers than I really need but booking a Sports Entertainment style product means I can cram more workers in through angles and squash matches. I've always had some bad graded matches but I don't find they hurt me much cos my top guys are the ones who carry the show.... As for firing people, I try to do so as rarely as possible. Unless a worker just isn't working very well for me (Murderous Mikey), keeps failing at their gimmicks (Joey Poison and Jack Giedroyc) or I've really got no plans for them and never will (Raphael, Brendan Idol, Mark Smart though they are all of the above) then I try to avoid firing them. I've not renewed some contracts but generally I keep people around and use them in dark matches occasionally. Although I think I might've fired either Enforcer Roberts or Skull DeBones around the time TCW rose back to National. I wasn't using them much and figured TCW could use the star power... but the stupid fools never even tried to sign DeBones despite him being B/B+ over across the US!!

[Dragonmack]

The ratio for lockeroom leaders is 1 for every 10 wrestlers. You only need around 26 wrestlers for a cult sized traditional fed. 92 is massive overkill. Even Global only needs around 36-40. :D As for who to cut loose anyone who doesn't average a B or better in performance stats should get the heave ho. Coleman, Natural Storm, Easter Bunny etc. If they don't average at least a b or B- in the performance area, they can't carry anyone else. OH, and keep Flash as even if he can only go 10-12 min, he can still train up midcarders and give main eventers a win.

[Self]

Use Flash in dark matches. His kids are probably wanting to go to college. Don't fire him now.

[James Casey]

[QUOTE=derek_b;374178] Unless a worker just isn't working very well for me (Murderous Mikey), keeps failing at their gimmicks ([B]Joey Poison[/B] and Jack Giedroyc) or I've really got no plans for them and never will (Raphael, Brendan Idol, Mark Smart though they are all of the above) then I try to avoid firing them. [/QUOTE] :eek: Poison has been my one post-rise signing - although Sam Keith, Scout and a couple of others have turned me down for various reasons. Incidentally, I've tried signing a couple of workers with three contracts. I know that normally they'll turn me down as not wanting to join a fourth fed, and fair enough, but I've had at least one guy leave me when he had three contracts to join a larger company. Now I'm number 2 in the States (:D) I was hoping to get the same, but... It may be that he has contracts with very prestigious companies, but is it just a situation that only the AI can exploit? Oh, and if I ditch my Non-Agression agreement with SWF, I expect Eisen to go to war with me. I'm pretty sure I can beat him in the long run, but will he try and steal workers from me while I do the same to him? I'm more prestigious, but less over in the States (more over worldwide, though). Which one affects workers choosing between two companies? (Can you tell I've never got this far before?)

[James Casey]

[QUOTE=Self;374202]Use Flash in dark matches. His kids are probably wanting to go to college. Don't fire him now.[/QUOTE] Flash, alas, is an easy choice - $1500 PPA, making him my sixth most expensive worker, but in terms of talent he's only about 10th or 12th. Even with Shane Nelson ditching us (treacherous swine) he's too expensive to keep. But I do think he's fantastic. I have a dream that in '08 he'll have retired and married Joanne Rodriguez. Imagine the children ;)

[dse81]

[quote=James Casey;374214]It may be that he has contracts with very prestigious companies, but is it just a situation that only the AI can exploit?[/quote] I've noticed this too. In T-zone, a worker with more than 3 contracts will never extend his contract with me, claiming he has enough work, but the next day he extends his contract with a much smaller company. I smell shenanigans...

[Mtm2k6]

92?! How? Did you hire every avaliable US worker??

[praguepride]

And I thought I booked large when I'd be about 10 workers over. 92!?!? What were you thinking?

[Michael Wayne]

he must have brands... Either that or he's pulling a Vince and talent hoarding...

[James Casey]

I ended up with 14 tag teams at one point. And I did have 17 shows a month to run... I always made a profit, though, and generally most workers were happy with how things are going. I'm down to 69 active wrestlers, which is more manageable. There's still a few to go, but I do want to develop some young guys - workers like Josh Jones, Sean Holmes and Lenny Brown have jumped up the ranks in the last twelve months or so. Kiemon Yoshimsatu, Wendy Anderson and Ultra Fly may be hopeless causes, but Pirata Malvado has got my hopes up by jumping to the midcard in just a few matches after a long spell in the opener/ET slot. I hire with my heart, and only fire those I'm certain are lost causes (thank you, Al Coleman, for showing up late [I]ten days[/I] after returning from suspension. That was an easy release...)

[sabataged]

What are your 17 shows a month at Cult level?

[Marcel Fromage]

Do you not find that attendance takes a huge hit with that many shows? I always figured that if i ran more than 5 in a month it hurt my attendances. To be honest, I can see why James would have so many workers. I'm always tempted with ROF to sign up as many guys as possible, simply because the only way they're going to improve is by having matches with half-decent workers, and the only way they're going to get that on even a semi-regular basis is in my own promotion. So I can certainly see the merit of trying to employ all these guys, but I think there's definitely a point where it becomes unmanageable. In my roster of about 50-55 workers, I have 20-22 singles workers, 10 tag teams, and then about 10 workers who I'm trying to develop off camera.

[eayragt]

[QUOTE=James Casey;374214] Incidentally, I've tried signing a couple of workers with three contracts. I know that normally they'll turn me down as not wanting to join a fourth fed, and fair enough, but I've had at least one guy leave me when he had three contracts to join a larger company. Now I'm number 2 in the States (:D) I was hoping to get the same, but... It may be that he has contracts with very prestigious companies, but is it just a situation that only the AI can exploit?[/QUOTE] I think to sign a worker to a fourth contract you need to be bigger than all the other feds he works for, which can make it real hard to sign those guys some of the time. Fortunately, if they've got a regional contract they should hopefully outgrow that fed, and you'll be ready to swoop in (assuming you're making best use of your shortlist).

[James Casey]

I run three two hour shows a week which focus on my 'cheap' workers - that is, anyone earning less than 1500 a month. I have a 90 minute TV show which showcases my main event scene, the likes of Frankie Perez and Joey Poison who are the big earners. I also run a 3 or 4 hour month-end event which, generally, showcases the matches that I know have good/great chemistry - so far, Amazing Fire Fly and Jean Cattley have pulled in two A* matches, for example. A good show for me will get an A rating. A bad show drops down to C if I have no luck with chemistry. Most of my shows pull a B or B+ rating, at least in part because I have had pretty good luck with chemistry among my cheaper main eventers, so even a sucky undercard of matches only put together to stop people moaning can be rescued by a Steven Parker/Jonny Stones or an Amazing Fire Fly/El Heroe Mexicano main event. Thanks to Internet exposure, I have a base of 30% overness worldwide, which is enough to fill a 1k arena. Touring the US at Regional allowed me to build up to the point where I can now bring in around 2k pretty much nationwide. I also benefit from the Mid Atlantic giving me a monthly boost with my new PPV deal meaning that around 8.5k showed up for my last monthly show. Also, in the South East and Great Lakes I'm on the cusp of moving up to the 5k stadiums. They're visited twice a month for TV tapings. Everywhere else, once a month. I've not noticed any significant problems with attendance, but my rise has coincided with an upswing in the business and US economy. My attendance has risen as I've gone from five to nine to thirteen to seventeen shows a month over the last eighteen months. It seems from my experiences in the SE and GL regions that I can hit most arenas twice a month without killing attendance at the moment. I may need to do this depending on finances - this is my first month running TV and PPV, and while I only made a 3k loss (on 450k in the bank) last month thanks to the PPV attendance/money, this month looks to be costly - but my contracts for TV shows are only for one season in Puerto Rico, Quebec and Mexico. I can take three months of medium/heavy losses as an experiment. I'm considering adding a second monthly PPV to run from the Mid Atlantic, but that might well be overkill. We'll see how the finances play out. I've made inroads into Canada and Mexico as well, but Mexico is covered by TV and Canada's in a recession so I'm not presently holding shows there. The UK may get some shows as it's at A/A* and rising. Now, if only I could get my tag division to not suck...

[lordprimeau25]

I rarely go on a firing spree like you did with MAW, but I find that at times my roster will bulge slightly and as my fed grows, naturally guys want more money and I just can't afford it. This of course means roster casualties. So every 2-3 years I watch 10 guys leave (some of them top dogs) and I just sit back and enjoy the refreshing new look to my roster. Thats just one perspective...