How do you keep your top stars?

[DreamGoddessLindsey]

I need my people in the A and A* range popularity to even have a chance of putting on decent shows that maintain my popularity. The problem now is that they ask for ludicrous amounts of money ($55,000+ a month) and there's no way to offer such contracts because they are always blocked automatically. How can I keep my top stars? These money amounts are impossible to offer. I don't know what to do.

[Greg McNeish]

You won't like this answer, but there isn't very much you can do to lower stars of that calibur's expectations. Of course, you have extras like Merchandise & PPV bonuses to negate some of it, but those only do so much.

 

What it takes to keep your stars, is to manage their popularity carefully. When someone is approaching negotiation time, try to bleed off some of their popularity to people that have a bunch of time on their contract. Once they've re-signed, they can grab that popularity back from the next person that's got their contract coming up. Cycle like that forever and ever, and you'll always be in the best position possible.

 

Also, as much as it sucks, and always will suck, sometimes people just get so big that they want you to give them your first-born, as well as your left arm, the shirt off your back, and various other cliches. Egos in wrestling are as much a sure thing as you can find.

 

Good luck with your main eventers. We all go through it.

[LoganRodzen]

You won't like this answer, but there isn't very much you can do to lower stars of that calibur's expectations. Of course, you have extras like Merchandise & PPV bonuses to negate some of it, but those only do so much.

 

What it takes to keep your stars, is to manage their popularity carefully. When someone is approaching negotiation time, try to bleed off some of their popularity to people that have a bunch of time on their contract. Once they've re-signed, they can grab that popularity back from the next person that's got their contract coming up. Cycle like that forever and ever, and you'll always be in the best position possible.

 

Also, as much as it sucks, and always will suck, sometimes people just get so big that they want you to give them your first-born, as well as your left arm, the shirt off your back, and various other cliches. Egos in wrestling are as much a sure thing as you can find.

 

Good luck with your main eventers. We all go through it.

 

Very well said, Greg. Managing top stars popularity is a huge part of running a National and bigger promotion. And if you have an owner that isn't a flashy spender it can be a pain in the ass. My main eventers and upper-midcarders are always changing because sometimes a worker gets bigger than the promotion and needs to be brought back down to reality. The only way to avoid huge contract payouts is to limit how popular a worker is around the time negotiations happen.

 

Quick example: Why did I take the World title off Spencer Spade when he was one month away from a 1-year reign? Because he was also one month away from getting a new contract.

[Sons of Kohral]

Very well said, Greg. Managing top stars popularity is a huge part of running a National and bigger promotion. And if you have an owner that isn't a flashy spender it can be a pain in the ass. My main eventers and upper-midcarders are always changing because sometimes a worker gets bigger than the promotion and needs to be brought back down to reality. The only way to avoid huge contract payouts is to limit how popular a worker is around the time negotiations happen.

 

Quick example: Why did I take the World title off Spencer Spade when he was one month away from a 1-year reign? Because he was also one month away from getting a new contract.

 

Exactly. You answered it.

[bookerman]

So roughly when should the jobbing begin? No can negotiate until there are 30 days left. I would think you would want to start around the 90 day mark in order to give yourself enough time to pull them back down. Sound about right?

[eayragt]

So roughly when should the jobbing begin? No can negotiate until there are 30 days left. I would think you would want to start around the 90 day mark in order to give yourself enough time to pull them back down. Sound about right?

 

You don't want to leave it too late, otherwise you're going to risk their morale by jobbing them to midcarders. You should certainly have a plan of action by the 90 day mark.

 

It also doesn't have to be jobbing - regularly teaming with a young rookie talent can damage the Main Eventers popularity, but be more than balanced out by the increase in the rookies popularity.

[Greg McNeish]

Yeah, the idea isn't to job them out. The idea is just to ease their popularity down a bit, so they'll be more reasonable. This is where your gatekeepers come in handy. Their primary role is to help get your midcarders and up into the main event, while simply maintaining themselves. Because they're still highish in popularity, these types become ideal candidates for loaning a bit of popularity to. After the signing is complete, just have them return the favour, and you'll be pretty much back where you started, but with your main eventer now on a renewed contract.

 

So, to answer the question of when to do this, you're looking at a fairly small timeframe. In a lot of cases, a single loss can bring them down enough that negotiations can proceed. This is why it's important to discover what your thresholds are. You want the worker to get just below that threshold, as you're able to start negotiating. That way, if you are unable to resign them, you still have some time to job the crap out of them. Just remember, we're talking about your top guys. The less time they spend with lowered popularity, the better.

 

 

As another point, which I'd forgotten to mention earlier, if you see that worker expectations are beyond what you'll be able to meet, you can sometimes get them to agree to Short Term deals, which will buy you some time to get their popularity more in-line with what you need. Just be sure to offer a Short Term deal before you erode their patience.

[Remianen]

In a lot of cases, a single loss can bring them down enough that negotiations can proceed.

 

This is where knowing the full game helps tons. There are certain gimmick categories that are extremely sensitive to wins and losses. There are also some gimmick categories that take major popularity hits for losing to other gimmick categories. Using these to your advantage makes managing worker popularity leading up to contract negotiations a breeze.

 

To answer bookerman's question, I only need 6 shows to bring a worker's popularity down low enough to re-sign for a reasonable wage without triggering the worker's 'you're jobbing me!' sense. That's 3 weeks (unless a pay per view falls in there, then it's less). From A* to B+/B. Then again, most of the time, I'm owner and there are some people on every roster I have that I will sell the farm to retain (because they're worth every penny to me). That doesn't mean I don't take the edge off their pop beforehand but I wouldn't lay them low (maybe from A* to A or high B+).