Calling Puro Fans for Help

[Sudo_Nym]

So I like playing massively performance based companies. However, I have little idea how to run them beyond "throw guys together more or less randomly based on what I think will make a good match". Which is fine for sandbox play, but isn't especially coherent from show to show. Which leads me to wonder, how do promotions that don't use angles and can't use interference or non-clean finishes set up storylines? How do you decide who deserves title shots and which matches should have special stipulations? And how do you make it interesting to read as a diary?

[bretter_person]

So I like playing massively performance based companies. However, I have little idea how to run them beyond "throw guys together more or less randomly based on what I think will make a good match". Which is fine for sandbox play, but isn't especially coherent from show to show. Which leads me to wonder, how do promotions that don't use angles and can't use interference or non-clean finishes set up storylines? How do you decide who deserves title shots and which matches should have special stipulations? And how do you make it interesting to read as a diary?

 

I tend to run whole divisions as storylines and go from there. I also tend to go with in ring stroyline progression, such as bringing in someone from WEXXV and having them use weapons in their boots and shizz during matches to win and going on a streak, eventually someone will figure it out and get the win over the WEXXV'er. Little additions like that in my head help promotions in Japan become more fun. You'll find most of the stoyline progression will have to happen in your head, as putting down cheating road agent notes will completely bomb in a performance based Japanese promotion.

[FINisher]

Check out Tigerkinney's awesome BHOTWG diary

[Blackman]

Like he says.

 

I made a 'performance-based' TCW back in TEW 2008 ('97 mod) and kept storylines running between the top 6 contender for the title. I don't know if it actually has some use, but still... The storyline could happen in your head somewhere. You always make up some promo's and stuff. You just include them in the match segment. Just make the 'work the crowd' note if they have any charisma.

 

Indeed, it's a bit random how you put your cards together. But bring in new people to make the booking less stale. So high roster turnover imo is the message.

[FINisher]

I'd say that there are many different storylines for performance biased promotions, such as: Evenly matched series, outsiders storylines, mask storylines, tournament, turning on a partner, cheating/doing something shocking during the matches and/or just plain competitive storylines where each one tries to prove that he's the better man.

 

Many of the best storylines have been the basic #1 contender, rising to the championship match storylines. The story is told within the matches how one can just keep getting up and show his fighting spirit. I'd suggest that you defend your main title once a month or so, to make it special and have every title match mean something.

[TEWFan]

Before I quit that game based on my inability to make money, I was running and having fun with GCG. I guess that performance based companies can be turned into sucessful diaries, but you need to invest more time into writing the matches in order to be sucessful and tell a story through the match. A good example would be to have a young and talented worker wrestle a veteran multiple times (in real life, they do this for years) and find new ways in which the young worker comes short/is outsmarted by the veteran until one day, BAM! he pulls out the win and gets over because of it. The stories are usually told inside the match itself, for example, one worker finding ways to counter the moves that led to his defeat in a previous match and forcing the opponent to come out with new stuff....little details like that.

[Karl_Kitsch]

Before I quit that game based on my inability to make money, I was running and having fun with GCG. I guess that performance based companies can be turned into sucessful diaries, but you need to invest more time into writing the matches in order to be sucessful and tell a story through the match. A good example would be to have a young and talented worker wrestle a veteran multiple times (in real life, they do this for years) and find new ways in which the young worker comes short/is outsmarted by the veteran until one day, BAM! he pulls out the win and gets over because of it. The stories are usually told inside the match itself, for example, one worker finding ways to counter the moves that led to his defeat in a previous match and forcing the opponent to come out with new stuff....little details like that.

 

Or the revitalized veteran with a new finisher that he keeps trying to hit, but it never works out.

[atomzero]

I actually have a logical system that I follow when I book every card. It usually results in good momentum for the best performers, and helps them move up the card. I don't get many unexpected negative dirt sheet comments, so I think it works alright.

It might sound silly to use a logical system, but I find I have more fun if I take the result it gives me, then imagine the story that took us there, a backwards approach. I've never written a diary, but that's how I would do it. I rarely deviate from my system, and its fun for me. I imagine my show being presented as a boxing card. No angles, just good matches, with announcers detailing the emerging, sports-like, story lines.

If you think matching your workers up again and again is getting monotonous, then make some special cards. I run a yearly All-Star match, where the best US wrestlers take on the best wrestlers from the rest of the world in a 6-man tag match for a tournament title. I also run a world wrestling tournament every year, and a few other tournament titles, some of which are just single matches between many competitors. Tournament titles are your friend.

If you'd like me to post my system, just say the word.

[Nightshadeex]

I like doing leagues. I'll split up my roster into blocks and run one on one matches between them all. Then the winners from each block make a championship block. The winner then faces the Champion.

 

During the time of the block, the champ will either compete in tag matches, or wrestle against talent trades.

 

Using a ladder is also possible, but I prefer the league format.

[Bigpapa42]

I like using stables. Plenty of puro promotions have used this approach. You have a star be the leader. If you're lucky, they have a regular tag team partner. Then throw in a couple of younger workers. Use an unchained storyline between two of the stables and you have yourself a feud that can run for months. Endless options for matches between the two stables - 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4.... Build up to a blow-off match between the two leaders at a major event.

[Jaded]

I actually have a logical system that I follow when I book every card. It usually results in good momentum for the best performers, and helps them move up the card. I don't get many unexpected negative dirt sheet comments, so I think it works alright.

It might sound silly to use a logical system, but I find I have more fun if I take the result it gives me, then imagine the story that took us there, a backwards approach. I've never written a diary, but that's how I would do it. I rarely deviate from my system, and its fun for me. I imagine my show being presented as a boxing card. No angles, just good matches, with announcers detailing the emerging, sports-like, story lines.

If you think matching your workers up again and again is getting monotonous, then make some special cards. I run a yearly All-Star match, where the best US wrestlers take on the best wrestlers from the rest of the world in a 6-man tag match for a tournament title. I also run a world wrestling tournament every year, and a few other tournament titles, some of which are just single matches between many competitors. Tournament titles are your friend.

If you'd like me to post my system, just say the word.

 

I'd love to see that.

[Sudo_Nym]

I'd love to see that.

 

As would I.

 

The gist I'm getting (and I hope it's the right one, because it seems like a good gist), is that setting up the framework first is important. Setting up good recurring events every year can give a good framework for the promotion. Then let the wrestlers do their thing, and the storylines about heart, desire, and talent will largely write itself. I don't have to worry about big, glitzy storylines, because that's just not my game.

 

It's times like this I wish I spent more time watching real puro. Stupid WWE, being the only company to broadcast shows on channels I get...

[Bigpapa42]

As would I.

 

The gist I'm getting (and I hope it's the right one, because it seems like a good gist), is that setting up the framework first is important. Setting up good recurring events every year can give a good framework for the promotion. Then let the wrestlers do their thing, and the storylines about heart, desire, and talent will largely write itself. I don't have to worry about big, glitzy storylines, because that's just not my game.

 

It's times like this I wish I spent more time watching real puro. Stupid WWE, being the only company to broadcast shows on channels I get...

 

Download. It doesn't matter what channels you get, you're not likely to find much puro. But there is a lot out there available for download.

[Sudo_Nym]

Download. It doesn't matter what channels you get, you're not likely to find much puro. But there is a lot out there available for download.

 

Any suggestion on where I should look, or should I just load up google randomly?

[Bigpapa42]

Any suggestion on where I should look, or should I just load up google randomly?

 

Sent a PM with some suggestions...

[Sigilistic]

Any suggestion on where I should look, or should I just load up google randomly?

 

Without even getting into torrents and such, YouTube is SERIOUSLY your best friend. There are TONS of great puro matches on there.

[atomzero]

As would I.

 

The gist I'm getting (and I hope it's the right one, because it seems like a good gist), is that setting up the framework first is important. Setting up good recurring events every year can give a good framework for the promotion. Then let the wrestlers do their thing, and the storylines about heart, desire, and talent will largely write itself. I don't have to worry about big, glitzy storylines, because that's just not my game.

 

It's times like this I wish I spent more time watching real puro. Stupid WWE, being the only company to broadcast shows on channels I get...

 

 

Amen on all counts. I'll post my method when I get some time, but you've already nailed the most important part.

[thatoneguy]

ivpvideos.com has some great stuff, not only for Puro but old Territories as well. Stuff not owned by the WWE.

[TEWFan]

Yeah, youtube is your friend. My favorite is probably the match between Liger and Muta when we see Kishin Liger for the first time. I marked out in a Dragon Ball Z kinda way. Granted, I don't watch much puro, but I have enjoyed what I have seen.

 

Also there are some awesome Owen Hart matches in there, when he was in Japan with the full Canada bodysuit. Oh yeah, and if you don't think Hogan can work, watch him in Japan. His workrate is like +75% when compared to the WWF. I think there is an early 80's match between him and Abdullah that was pretty sweet.

[Sudo_Nym]

Holy crap. I just watched Hogan vs Inoki... was Hogan actually wrestling? I didn't know he knew how to do that.

[Marcel Fromage]

All good suggestions so far in this thread.

 

A framework of shows is definitely the way I try to run a performance based fed. I know you were a reader of my XWA diary - having a touring promotion was useful too. There were 5 main shows per tour and I could map out the major events at the start of the tour - I signed most people to touring deals too so I knew they wouldn't be stolen away mid-tour. Certain events were interspersed into the year that would determine future title contenders - King of the Ring battle royal, Trailblazer tournament, Devil's Dance elimination tag and Xtreme Challenge 4-way being examples.

 

I also used a ranking system to give folks reasons to fight each other and step up towards a title shot. Matches like the afore-mentioned King of the Ring battle royal and the Devil's Dance elimination 6-man with randomly selected teams gave me chances to have people wanting to challenge one another based on who might have eliminated them. Not in a sports-entertainment kind of way, but in a 'I'm honestly going to prove myself to be tougher and a better wrestler' kind of way.

 

The difficulty with performance based feds to me is the long-term issue of the main event becoming stale. You've got to make sure you build up those lower card guys so that they can move up the card later on and stop the monotony. That's one positive of doing a diary - real-life readers are less forgiving that the TEW in-game fans, so it keeps you on your booking toes!

[Derek B]

Holy crap. I just watched Hogan vs Inoki... was Hogan actually wrestling? I didn't know he knew how to do that.

 

Hogan wasn't wrestling, he was demonstrating puro-tainment.

 

On topic, I have to agree with everyone else here. I don't know a lot about real puro but when I ran GCG in 08 I had a strong system in place from the start that provided me with all I needed in terms of excuses to build matches. The system I've started using in my TEW10 diary is very similar in style but with some tweaks to suit a smaller company and to overcome some of the pitfalls I found in the old system. Basically, it's a ladder with a few spaces at the top for people to challenge for the main belt... though the champ can face whoever he wants even if they don't meet the criteria for a title shot, which applies across each division too.

 

Got some tournaments too, with Blind Faith's random tag pairings being not only a good excuse to keep matches fresh but also a way of testing for chemistry in entirely random ways too.

 

Basically, once you work out HOW you are going to run things it becomes quite easy to follow your own structure. Then it's about developing rivalries, creating contenders and generally mixing things up whenever you need to. Touring contracts are good for building up a variety of workers, varying who you bring in will also ensure that you have a good lowercard to pick from in the event of losing your top guys. But having loyal youngsters can also be a HUGE boost as you know you can count on them to stick with you and you can build the company around them. If you have the cash, invest in a dojo and hope the worker (re)generation throws you some favours.

[atomzero]

The difficulty with performance based feds to me is the long-term issue of the main event becoming stale. You've got to make sure you build up those lower card guys so that they can move up the card later on and stop the monotony. That's one positive of doing a diary - real-life readers are less forgiving that the TEW in-game fans, so it keeps you on your booking toes!

 

I never have this problem in my regional promotion. My roster is evershifting as my top guys are stolen away. Also, in a performance promotion, it seems like you can still get a good main event out of a main eventer vs. an upper midcarder.

[Sudo_Nym]

A framework of shows is definitely the way I try to run a performance based fed. I know you were a reader of my XWA diary - having a touring promotion was useful too. There were 5 main shows per tour and I could map out the major events at the start of the tour - I signed most people to touring deals too so I knew they wouldn't be stolen away mid-tour. Certain events were interspersed into the year that would determine future title contenders - King of the Ring battle royal, Trailblazer tournament, Devil's Dance elimination tag and Xtreme Challenge 4-way being examples.

 

Your diary is one of the big reasons I decided to give this a try at all. The problem is, I'm having trouble thinking up any events to use that aren't just copying yours. So far, I've got "Regular Tournament" and "Regular Tournament for Juniors."

[Derek B]

Your diary is one of the big reasons I decided to give this a try at all. The problem is, I'm having trouble thinking up any events to use that aren't just copying yours. So far, I've got "Regular Tournament" and "Regular Tournament for Juniors."

 

Try a World Cup. Bring in people from various different countries/promotions around the world and have them go at it in tournament format until there is a winner. Don't forget to bring in Hell Monkey to represent Hell, that always went over well in my GCG game.