Running a new promotion, questions... (Warning: This is LONG.)

[dormammu]

Rather than continually spam the "small questions" thread with these, I figured I'd dump them all in one post and see what advice I can get.

 

I started a new promotion in game at Regional level. It's been a long time since I've played a Regional level promotion as I usually pick a promotion that's at Cult or above if I use an already existing promotion. I'm having some problems here.

 

I'm using a real world mod set in 2001. My big problem is really that I just cannot get anyone over. Everyone started off with absolutely no momentum since it was a new promotion, and the "Who's Hot" section under Creative is remaining completely empty, even 7 months into running the promotion. Fit Finlay appeared there briefly, I gave him a big win to keep it going but he was gone after that, regardless of the win. Then, figuring he's still probably the most over guy in the promotion, I dropped the Heavyweight title on him (off a popular Rey Mysterio, Jr, pulling off a C+ match, which is phenomenal for a Regional promotion, I've discovered.) Despite a second big win in probably the overall best match the promotion has ever had still hasn't put either of them on the Who's Hot list. What in the hell do I have to do to actually get someone momentum? If I talk with workers, they all want the midcard title and no one is interested in the Main Event title. The main eventers say they need more momentum before they get involved with a title picture. I'm seriously out of ideas here. This is getting really frustrating.

 

Also, a while ago I enabled Dirt Sheet to see what's happening and I noticed every single single wrestler is getting pinged for 'poor gimmick' in every match. If I check the roster screen, just about everyone's gimmick is rated in the mid-60s. I switched a few gimmicks around (to ones that look like they really fit) and the wrestlers are still getting knocked for poor gimmick. Every other negative in the dirt sheet I've been able to work on and improve to some degree, but not this. It's just stubbornly persistent. Any ideas on what to do about this? I thought about changing the product so fans don't care about gimmicks, but that didn't work out so well. Other aspects of the product were not to my liking when I tried. Besides, I like gimmicks.

 

This is more of a question of opinion, but for anyone else who runs a Regional size fed, how many shows do you tend to run a month? I have 1 TV show and a Huge ranked show once every 3 months. I tried running a second Medium sized show per week (so, one TV taping and one non-TV show) and that tore my finances into shreds, and I lost a huge amount of money for the one month I tried it, due to practically non-existent ticket sales in New England. I tended to run the non-TV shows in New England to push me towards Cult. (As my popularity in my home region of Tri State is 39 and my second highest is New England. Only about 13 or so, but I only ran a few shows there before stopping.) Is it worth it to shred my finances to push towards cult? Would it be a better idea to run my TV tapings in Tri State and maybe have one monthly show in New England? That way I could stay profitable and still work towards cult. As I said, this is more a matter of opinion and I'm just curious how everyone else does it.

 

Finally, Developmental territories are new to TEW 2010 and I haven't used one yet. Is it worth making one when I hit cult or should I wait until I'm national? I understand there's a 25k set up fee (which I could afford), but I was figuring it'd be useful as a minor league system. If done correctly, should make me more money in the long run since they'd be running shows as well. I've heard stories of people with larger promotions (International/Global) running 6 or 7 developmental territories. Seems like that practically recreates the NWA in it's glory days (and especially after Jim Crockett bought out CWG and a few other territories, essentially making Mid-Atlantic THE territory to be in), and is something I'd be interested in doing myself eventually once I get large enough for it. Right now, I only intend to have a single developmental territory.

 

If you read this far, thanks! I didn't intend for this to be so long when I started it, but sometimes it happens with me. I'm really good at rambling on about stuff.

[Tom Bombadil]

I'm no expert, but I do know a couple things.

 

Momentum is kinda finite. I'd try bringing in some new guys, maybe just on short-term or talent trade. Have them cut a good solo angle to hopefully give them good initial momentum, then job 'em out. From my understanding of momentum, it's gonna be hard to create something from the nothing that is your current roster.

 

As for Dev feds....I really doubt they'd be useful before National when you can get written contracts and properly utilize them. I haven't paid attention to the financial side, but I can't imagine it'd be that helpful.

[Eidenhoek]

Developmental feds are useless until you have written workers. That happens at Cult (with some restrictions; 7mil, high backstage morale, 7 in negotiation or so).

 

Honestly, I suggest editing the gimmicks in the editor so that they're more highly rated. Yes, that's "cheating", and it doesn't fix the problem. What I suggest for that, then, is to...look at your promotion. If comedy is low, probably don't want a comedy gimmick. Realism present? Legitimate might be okay, especially with hyperrealism. Tune gimmicks to your workers' strengths; make a custom gimmick to take advantage of their menace or brawling ability, for example.

 

The gimmick thing is...somewhat of a crapshoot, I guess. Even with 10 in creativity (btw, do *not* put 0 into leadership. Ever. It's easily a 10% drop in backstage morale), I got some gimmicks in the 60s. To break that barrier, you need to be lucky and just find what type of gimmicks fit with your promotion. The..."data" or whatever of the product section can nudge you in the right direction.

 

Momentum: I have a similar problem in one of my games; BradyPrince, a guy I never intended to use much, is the only guy with any momentum (68). I...*think* you need to show them a lot (to build it quickly), and have them be the attacker, never the victim. Or a catalyst...and yes, have them dominate in matches. Dominate. Give them jobbers to buff up their standing.

 

Oh, and if you have a guy with strong menace, run a *ton* of menace angles. Like...custom make a 10 minute, single-person menace angle if you have to, and have him run it every show until he's fairly over. Then make it go longer. Kudos if he actually can go in the ring.

 

Running matches:

You got TV? Awesome. That's a show/week in your hometown. Do that. I don't *think* 5 shows/month in one area is enough to burn it out; if so, run one of them in your second-most-popular area. Or third-most; more on this in a second.

 

By the way, I doubt you're actually running a huge event. It might be set to that in the details, but it's likely being re-sized to...Medium? when the date rolls around. And I think it's good to have an event every so often. Once/three months is good; if you can do them more often, once/month would be great.

 

Cult:

Do not. Do NOT. Burn your money to get to Cult. Cult will kill your finances. What's your current...uh...legal fees or whatever? I think they multiply by ten. I never checked (I always forgot), but...yeah, I went from $1k profit to -$30k when I got to Cult. Get money at Regional. Get MILLIONS at regional. If your second area is getting a bit popular, time to build up a third (since you're likely swimming in your home area by then).

[dormammu]

Momentum is kinda finite. I'd try bringing in some new guys, maybe just on short-term or talent trade. Have them cut a good solo angle to hopefully give them good initial momentum, then job 'em out.

 

Yeah, I set up some pacts with AAA, ECWA and I think a Japanese promotion. I've never done much talent trading (other than bringing Low Ki in for a few shows) but I should probably do that a bit more. I'd imagine AAA would be happy to get Rey Mysterio for a few shows, or one of the other luchas on my roster. Good idea, though. Build up some momentum for the trade and bury him on his way out.

 

Oh, and if you have a guy with strong menace, run a *ton* of menace angles. Like...custom make a 10 minute, single-person menace angle if you have to, and have him run it every show until he's fairly over. Then make it go longer. Kudos if he actually can go in the ring.

 

Though I run mainly luchas/Japanese juniors in my Fed, I do have a few brawlers and technicians... and Samoa Joe. He has huge menace. Though I'm thinking I want to bring in another guy with high fighting stats similar to Joe's so they can really go at it. This is set in 2001, so Joe isn't quite the wrestler he was during (for instance) Joe vs Punk 2, but he'll be there soon enough.

 

But good advice from both you of. Thanks!

[cappyboy]

Another thing to keep in mind. You said you're playing a fed that's lower in stature than what you typically choose. As a result, you need to temper your expectations about things like overness to a degree. Some questions for you.

 

Who are your main eventers?

What is their overness in your home area?

Are they exclusive to you or do they work in other places?

 

and

 

Are you trying to expand out of your home base yet?

[smartman]

Okay, the first thing about momentum is winning. Do that, and the wrestler will gain a little momemtum. How much is due to how much the loser has. The second and third things are what is killing you. You gain by putting on good matches and good angles which are really, really hard to do unless you are running a performance fed at Regional due to your low overness wrestlers as all angles are rated somewhat on overness.

 

The gimmick thing is perfectly summed up as a crap-shoot. All you can do is see what your product likes (simple, not subtle, etc) and what your wrestler is best at, then pick one in that category that fits and pray. I have re-run a show 4 times with a new gimmick. He got a 99, 92, 87, and 83 with the same gimmick so again, crap-shoot. Don't worry about the gimmick issue as I don't think it hammers your matches that much or angles either. Over wrestlers will produce no matter how bad their gimmicks are. At least that has been my experience. However, DO NOT hire anyone who has ever touched alcohol or drugs (okay, I exaggerate a little). If they are a known user, they will drag everything down, and if they're bad enough (30% of more as viewed in the editor), they will hereby be toxic in any angle. Adam evidently adopted CM Punk's philosophy when he made the game.

 

Be extremely happy at Regional. Extremely happy. Once you hit Cult you will need all that built up happiness to counter-act the rage you will experience when you see your expenses. You need to only run in your local area until you are forced to go out due to hitting Cult. NEVER go before then unless you have $10 million in the bank. Since you are on TV (and I hope you are getting something out of the deal as otherwise it is a waste), just run those 4 shows plus a Medium show. You'll hit it eventually.

[Eidenhoek]

Uh...getting low 80s still gives a bonus. I would kill for guaranteed 80s for all my gimmicks.

 

And I've seen more variance than that, though it was all below 60. Like...22 once, then 53...I think I managed, same show re-run, to pull it above a 60.

 

So...yeah, Creativity possibly helps, but...whatever. Motivation or leadership are more valuable.

[Remianen]

Are you trying to expand out of your home base yet?

 

God I hope not. Otherwise, Cult is going to be like a prison shower scene.

 

Momentum: Book better segments. But don't expect A* segments or momentum at Regional aside from a strong debut.

 

Gimmicks: Your product has significant amounts of something (Modern, Pure, Realism) that doesn't like gimmicks. Gimmicks ARE NOT a crapshoot. They're heavily steeped in product elements. Some fans don't like gimmicks so if you bring them in (by adding their preference to your product), expect there to be some downside to doing so. If I set up a vanilla mainstream promotion, most gimmicks would rate out high enough to warrant a bonus (so 67+) assuming the gimmick fits the worker's strengths (and was so simple, a caveman could understand it).

 

Dev promotions: Would be like Darfur buying cell phones. Okay, you have a cell phone. Where's your cell towers at? Likewise, opening a dev promotion at Cult without the underlying requirements (as previously stated), would be a complete waste of money. Srsly.

[James Casey]

I don't know which mod you're running, but essentially to build momentum you can run one of two scenarios:

 

1. Spam menace based angles with your biggest, scariest workers. Hire someone otherwise useless (e.g. 911) and put them in Menace-based angles to build their momentum (and overness) quickly. Then have them beaten by whoever needs the boost.

 

This works especially well in the CV, which has a rack of high-Menace, low-Talent workers who live for this role. In RW games, you may find the following tip works better:

 

2. Find people with no popualrity but good stats. Put them in matches. Resist the urge to bring in new faces unless they'll go in at the top (or you need to replace someone). By using the same guys all the time (weekly, in your case) their stats will improve and your fans will come to love them - as much as fans will love anyone at regional level. RW databases are notorious for having elevated stats, although I understand it's getting better. However, when I last played a game back on 2008 I was able to sign Teddy Hart for $100 a show or something, and within a few months he was cranking out C grade matches despite being in my undercard.

 

And DON'T RACE TO CULT!

 

Seriously.

 

I'd stick with your TV show and one Medium Event in your region (don't think you can go above Medium at Regional). Drop the event if you see your crowds dipping - it did ECW no harm to run on weekly shows alone during their rapid rise (well, it did, but figuratively speaking...).

 

Possibly risk running a monthly show in your second region to give you a little bit of a buffer when you push to Cult, but be careful. You need - bare minimum - $1,000,000 in the bank when you hit Cult or you'll be in the red before you start turning a profit. It's doable, and you can certainly survive some time in the red, but we've all done it, and we've all seen promising feds crumble because we grew too big, too fast.

[smartman]

Wow, you must be killer in Vegas Remi. 16 points with the exact same gimmick IS a crap-shoot to this person, and I've had them hit in the low 80's then re-run the show and hit 66. Of course, you would have a Ryland-blessed game so everything works out for you.

[dormammu]

Wow, didn't expect so much advice. Thanks, everyone.

 

I was racing to cult. I had (mainly through being 'very favorable' to sponsors) about 200,000 built up (from the starting 10k I got) and then started burning through that money in an effort to force my promotion to cult. (Running expensive shows in places with an F popularity, for instance.) I think I'll stop doing that now.

 

As for the gimmick thing, I'm thinking it might be because I have Modern at Medium, Pure at low. One of the posts said those fans tend to not like gimmicks. (Also, Lucha at medium because I have a fairly large number of luchas in my promotion and tend to do talent trades with the Mexican promotions often. While none of them can speak English well enough to do promos, they can put on awesome matches. I put any two luchas in my main event and it's almost certainly going to be C- or better, which is great at Regional. The point is, Lucha fans like gimmicks and I was hoping they'd sort of counteract the others. Apparently not.)

 

I've also been talked out of a developmental territory until I hit National. Gonna focus more on my home territory and stop running shows in my secondary for a bit. I need to rebuild my finances. (I'm not in the red or anything, but I spent a ton of money on it, as mentioned earlier.)

 

Anyway, thanks again for all the great advice.