Momentum

[Rawisericho]

Okay okay sounds good. So I'm going to start going mainstream for a little bit (which is good because that suits Stantz, Swoop, McKenzie and Jackson which are my main stars.) And you say I should start running shows in the UK as well?

[Remianen]

And you say I should start running shows in the UK as well?

 

No, what he's saying is that Australia is similar to the UK in that you need to get ridiculously high show grades in order to hit National due to the way the regions are situated. By no means should you run any shows outside of Australia/New Zealand right now (you think your money problems are bad now, imagine flying your entire promotion and production staff to Britain).

[Rawisericho]

Good call. I hear ya, I guess it's just going to take patience and some luck.

 

You guys seem to know quite a bit so I might as well ask one more question if you don't mind. I mostly use just my top guys on my shows (Swoop McCarthy, Rick Stantz, McKenzie, Maurice Jackson and Harry Simonson) as they are the only guys over enough and good enough in the ring to get me the ratings I need to improve. The problem with that of course is that younger guys like Jimmy Stratosphere, Nighthawk and Dingo Devine aren't being given exposure on TV, and thus not being over for pay-per-view matches. So for me it's a catch 22: Either I use the newer guys on TV and try to get them over at the expense of the show and possibly lowering my popularity in regions or I don't use them on the show which raises my popularity in the area but leaves them weaker for all of it and gives them less drawing power on PPVs and just makes sure that they won't be at the level I need them to be when I go national.

 

Any ideas?

[Remianen]

Sidekicks.

 

Think about it.

 

How did Randy Orton and Batista get over?

 

How did Robin "get over"?

 

How did Hawkgirl, Supergirl, and Power Girl get over?

 

Okay, forget Power Girl, she doesn't apply. She's over because she has the most common superpower.

 

 

Here's the singular challenge of booking: turning non-stars into stars when you already have stars to turn to. The way around that? Turn those non-stars into stars-in-waiting. Remember, a worker doesn't have to main event to be valuable. You NEED people lower on the card who can produce for you too. Giving away main event matches on TV is foolish. There's a reason wrestling promotions don't do that (TNA notwithstanding) as a matter of course.

 

How do you do it? You could go the stable route. You could go the tag team route. Heck, you could go the 'hanging with the BMOC makes you cool by proxy' ("People will judge you by the company you keep") route. Which way you choose to go is your decision. That's why you're being paid the big bucks.

 

At this point, you should already have several workers pressed hard against the main event glass ceiling. If not, why not? What happens when Swoop refuses to re-sign with you because you're not big enough for him? You'd be in a world of hurt, wouldn't you? You'd have to try to "make" someone from scratch in the month before Swoop leaves. Why put yourself through that? Since TEW05, I've always operated under the 'everyone is expendable, no one is irreplaceable' credo. I have workers sliding from main eventer to upper midcarder to pave the way for new(-er) talent to get a chance to shine in all games since. In my opinion, at Cult level, you should be able to produce C- ratings from Midcarder vs opener (at best) or lower midcarder (at worst) matchups in your home region. That's what'll keep your cards from collapsing if you can't give away a PPV match on free TV.

 

Bottom line is, the only way your people will get better is if you use them. Cult isn't really the time to figure out how to do that (Small is, ideally, and Regional is where you finetune things). As you know, you've got way too many things to worry about by then. Pick someone of the same disposition as your top guys, have their 'mentor' hype them and their matches (in angles that are no more than 5 mins in length) and use them. Heck, do it in dark time if you have to (not recommended as it just lengthens the process), but make sure you do it.

[Rawisericho]

Okay so what I did was create a heel stable called The Breed with my top heel (and top overness wrestler) Rick Stantz as the leader. I put in Cole Taylor and Nighthawk as his heel henchmen. So far I've been doing ambush angles where Taylor and Hawk help Stantz take out enemies like Swoop or McKenzie. Under 5 minutes of course.

 

You mentioned hype angles. Should I jut have Stantz come up and hype them up or are the types of angles I'm doing sufficient?

[Remianen]

Okay so what I did was create a heel stable called The Breed with my top heel (and top overness wrestler) Rick Stantz as the leader. I put in Cole Taylor and Nighthawk as his heel henchmen. So far I've been doing ambush angles where Taylor and Hawk help Stantz take out enemies like Swoop or McKenzie. Under 5 minutes of course.

 

You mentioned hype angles. Should I jut have Stantz come up and hype them up or are the types of angles I'm doing sufficient?

 

There's no such thing as 'sufficient'. Seriously, think about it.

 

During the Evolution era, how often did you see them on a typical Raw broadcast? Arriving to the arena, walking backstage, promos, coming to the ring for matches together, look at what has worked in the past.

 

During the Four Horsemen's heyday, it was the same thing. You want specifics? Simple.

 

1v1 hype angle

 

Catalyst - Cole Taylor (or whoever the protege is)

Support - Stantz

Subject - the opponent

 

I'm assuming by your name that you're a WWE fan. Look at how they book their shows. Do you see Ricky Ortiz onscreen for half the show? Now, do you see Jericho or Punk or Hardy seen or referred to for half the show? How do you make Dolph Ziggler relevant? You let him share the same space as someone who is relevant (in this case, Jericho). Has MVP ever feuded with Chris Benoit? WHY? Think of Edge and Hawkins & Ryder. Why pair them up? How often did you see the three of them together onscreen (or referred to by the announcers)?

 

Wrestling is all formula. You see these things happen all the time. Look at it, copy it, twist it to work with what you want to do.

[Rawisericho]

I appreciate the help Remi. Hopefully I can survive cult, I'll let you know if I make it to national.

[lazorbeak]

Who is under 5 minute angles helping though? Hasn't it been established that to gain overness or skills out of an angle it needs to be at least 5 minutes? And don't feel like you just need them waiting in the wings: when Orton was on the way up (and Batista was hurt, as usual), he was repeatedly given main event matches with a top babyface (HBK), that simultaneously helped train him to work WWE's main event style and got him over (even though he lost all of those matches) because he was competitive for 15 minutes with one of the biggest stars on Raw. Once your young guy isn't green, start giving him wins over other members of the roster (usually guys that are at or near the top but aren't necessarily your top guys).

 

I've been playing a cult game for awhile now, and I've made Joss Thompson a main eventer in the US, though when I first signed him he was at about E- popularity across the country. How did I do it? First, I put him on TV. He's good enough that with the occasional job on TV his overness will improve. Then, I started using him as the third chair in the announce table. This boosted him from around E/E+ to about a D. At this point he defaulted to midcarder and I gave him some big matches against my top guys on my TV show. This got him up to around D+ or so. Then I put him in a storyline over my #2 title which brought his overness up to around C/C- (even though he lost every match in the feud to Davis Wayne Newton). Finally I put him over a guy that was over but couldn't produce top matches in the main event (Hell's Bouncer), and just like that, he's a main eventer and my #2 franchise player. I didn't have to completely re-work my main event scene or bury a single guy (maybe Hell's Bouncer, but he can easily make up the overness with a menace angle), but I turned a guy from an opener into a main eventer.

 

If you look at guys like Edge, Orton, Jeff Hardy (was a jobber for almost five years), or any other "home-grown" main eventer, you see a pretty similar pattern: they start by just being on TV occasionally, then get a gimmick and otherwise make it onto the regular TV roster, then start getting shots at more established talent to boost their overness, then start being central figures in their own storylines, and finally end up being main eventers who are seen as being on the same level as the top talent.

[Rawisericho]

Actually on the way up Orton beat Michaels at Unforgiven 03. Just thought I'd point that out.

 

It might be pretty simple in the US but in Austrailia none of the guys are that good to push that fast, you have to worry about your product and maybe that was something I didn't do in Local, Small and Regional and now I'm having to pay for it and slightly cheat in Cult.