Booking TV Shows

[Jumbo24up]

How would booking a TV show be different from booking an event? Do you use the same basic premise?

[James Casey]

Yes - Best match last, try not to burn out the crowd, so on and so forth.

 

And...

 

No - Your workload just increased by anything up to five times as much per month, perhaps more if you're not running monthly shows. Trying to avoid that repetitive booking penalty means that you need to get inventive with your roster, including booking a few squash matches where your undercard get flattened by your uppercard. You may also find that the TV show isn't the same length as your events... but your workers will all still expect to appear on it. Tag matches can be good ways of avoiding booking penalties, as you can throw together four random guys without a storyline to keep them on TV. Bear in mind, though, that if you're using PPA contracts that you can quickly burn through money that way. Better, perhaps, to brand split your roster as that gives you various ways to manage worker unhappiness.

 

Getting TV can make your company grow incredibly quickly, especially if you have a decent deal, but you have to be clever about it. In the real world, no-one would come to see a PPV when the big matches are given away free on TV. In the game, the need to avoid repeat booking penalties means you can't just spam Sting/Flair, Savage/Steamboat and Rock/Austin week in, week out. Try out random combinations of opponents and teams to see if anything clicks. Even if you don't move forward with that Al Snow/HHH feud now, who knows where you might be in six months time?

[smartman]

Booking a TV show requires a lot of creativity. Much more than your monthly show as you can't spam ME vs ME matches all of the time. If you're running a much more pop fed, you have to run ME vs Upper Midcarder main event matches as those are the only ones that are going to get good grades. Since that's basically your whole show grade (it's 70% minus angles), you have to have a good main event match each week.

 

If you're running an equal or performance>pop fed, things can be done differently. I've had squash matches as the main event match because I put two guys who can go with the ME being very, very over. Oh and don't use the squash note as that hurts the match rating. Squash meaning 6 minute match vs Opener or ET without the open match note. I'd highly recommend turning auto-save off the day of the show (at least) to give you a chance to figure things out.

 

The best way to go about booking a TV show is to have at least 2 things you want to accomplish on that show. It could be simply gaining popularity for 2 of your wrestlers or pushing a feud with an angle and a run-in during the main event. The biggest thing is that the wrestlers you decided to be pushable should be gaining popularity from the show every single time they appear on it. That means that they never lose or if they do, it is a cheap finish (though they'll still lose way more pop than you would think they would). Have draws if necessary.

 

Here's a rough draft of how I book my TV shows (and if you think I'm copying and pasting this in my diary when I get a TV show, you'd be right;))

 

Main Event angle

Midcarder vs Lower Mid

Different Main Event/Very Popular Upper Midcarder angle

Midcarder vs Midcarder

Another Main Event angle (usually a brawl angle)

One of those three main eventers squashes someone

Upper Midcarder vs Upper Mid/Midcard Tag Team Match as next to last match as tag matches score better than singles matches

Main Eventer vs Upper Midcarder main event match

 

You can throw dark matches in to get some people work as well. Then you cycle the losers down a spot or two for a win against your non-pushable people on your next show. My rule of thumb is that if you have to stop and ask yourself who is going to win the match, you're doing it wrong. Those questions should be for PPV matches only!

 

The show before my PPV tend to be lots of multi-man matches (3v3 or 4v4 if you can afford it and those all are draws) to close the show then end with a 6-8 man brawl. I would also strongly suggest that you run a brand split unless everyone of your Upper Mid and Main Eventers are super cheap as they demand to be on every show (also if you have real jerks at midcard, they want to be used too). You have to have more people on your roster with a brand split though.

 

Don't worry if you aren't putting on the greatest shows right out of the gate. Shoot for right where your pop is across the country/home areas as you'll only lose pop if your show is 10 or more points below that pop. Once you start upping everyone's popularity, the show grades will improve. The big thing is to have a plan for each show. Once you have that, you've got about 90% of it licked right then.

[lazorbeak]

Booking a TV show requires a lot of creativity. Much more than your monthly show as you can't spam ME vs ME matches all of the time. If you're running a much more pop fed, you have to run ME vs Upper Midcarder main event matches as those are the only ones that are going to get good grades. Since that's basically your whole show grade (it's 70% minus angles), you have to have a good main event match each week.

 

I've said this repeatedly and I'll keep saying it until people stop giving incorrect, limiting advice. The bolded text is false, or at least, misleading. You don't have to do anything but put a main eventer on at the end of the show to get a strong match rating and accompanying show rating. In SWF, Christian Faith and Rich Money can pull strong ratings wrestling pretty much anyone, and can get B and better ratings out of the starting midcard heels like Garcia, Huntington, DuBois, etc. You absolutely don't need 16 minute, open match, slow build, and all the rest every show, either. I had one save where Rich Money vs. Garcia pulled an A* in a 7 minute match where I think I just picked a winner. That was probably chemistry assisted, as in my current game they only managed a B+ in the main event spot. But no, ME vs. UMC and above are not the "only ones to get good grades."

 

That's not to say that formulas aren't helpful, they are, but every once in awhile you should break the formula, if only to avoid the tedium of doing the same thing in the same spot in a game that doesn't force you to do that the way EWR did.

[Condors]

hopefully this is easy to understand.

 

i give my guys spots. #1 heel #1 face #2 heel #2 face etc

now for you 6 big events in those 6 months you can have 1 vs 1 3 times then 1 v 2 for 3 times

 

I usually try to think of guys in pairs so my top 2 heels can fight my top 2 faces at the monthly big events and my 3rd and 4th face and heels can fight each other and 5 and 6 etc

 

you have 24 tv matches I will have my best guys beat the lower guys

1 v 3 is a great main event on TV if you have 10 heels and 10 faces you don't

even need any tag matches but i would recommand having at least 12 due to injury and workers getting stolen etc.

[Devilb0y]

I've said this repeatedly and I'll keep saying it until people stop giving incorrect, limiting advice. The bolded text is false, or at least, misleading. You don't have to do anything but put a main eventer on at the end of the show to get a strong match rating and accompanying show rating. In SWF, Christian Faith and Rich Money can pull strong ratings wrestling pretty much anyone, and can get B and better ratings out of the starting midcard heels like Garcia, Huntington, DuBois, etc. You absolutely don't need 16 minute, open match, slow build, and all the rest every show, either. I had one save where Rich Money vs. Garcia pulled an A* in a 7 minute match where I think I just picked a winner. That was probably chemistry assisted, as in my current game they only managed a B+ in the main event spot. But no, ME vs. UMC and above are not the "only ones to get good grades."

 

That's not to say that formulas aren't helpful, they are, but every once in awhile you should break the formula, if only to avoid the tedium of doing the same thing in the same spot in a game that doesn't force you to do that the way EWR did.

 

Yeah I tend to find that if you've got a talented main eventer then they can pull great ratings out of decent midcarders most of the time.

 

In my SWF game Money vs Garcia is a guaranteed B+ rating every time and is a frequent 'go to' main event if I don't really have anything else going on.

 

I'll also even go so far as to put young upstarts in the main if they're talented enough. Get Davis Wayne Newton to around a C- in popularity and then stick him in a main event with Christian Faith and see what happens. You don't have to do this frequently but it's a formula that works if both guys are talented and only one of them needs to be super popular. This also has the added benefit of giving the midcarders a rub that they wouldn't usually get. Just seeing DWN hang with Faith for 12 minutes (even in a losing effort) does wonders for his overness.

 

My general rule: as long as you've got one of your most popular guys in the main event you can generally get away with having just about anyone else in it with him, so long as they're not terrible in the ring or completely unknown.

[Self]

I occasionally do struggle to find TV main events. The constant battle between wanting good show ratings, and following a 'TV should be worse' mentality. Typically the stories dictate the matches. If I've got a heel champion, he'll usually have flunkies for the babyface challenger to battle through. The two teams battling over the tag belts (Main Event straps in my games) can often put on a few singles matches between members. Faction warfare throws up many 3v3 ideas. Number one contenders have to be decided somehow, so there's a main event there. Sometimes, my 'mechanical' matches warrant main event status. Whether it's a main eventer I need to job down the card before his contract comes up, or a new challenger needed an added boost.

 

TV Week 1 - Number One Contender match (singles, triple threat, whatever)

TV Week 2 - Tag Team Singles match

TV Week 3 - Faction Warfare

TV Week 4 - No.1 Contender beats strongest flunky.

 

The rest of the card is unimportant to me. My formula is a good, perhaps even great main event, with a garbage undercard. Squash matches. Tag team experience matches. Testing chemistry. Stuff to get guys on the card. Not trying for grades. Sometimes just rolling dice.