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I figured I'd make a new thread to prevent going too far offtopic in the TEW16 thread.

 

This comes from this:

 

I've developed a system that lets me book shows, and especially PPVs, in advance with no fuss. About the only thing that isn't prebooked are my post-show angles and maybe a few angles per TV show (to account for possible additions needing to be debuted). Once I hit Cult and most of my workers are exclusive (except the ones I share with 5 Star), I can book an entire year's worth of PPV matches all in one fell swoop. With the exception of one worker (Saori Nakadan who is 5 Star's booker), all of my shared workers prioritize me over 5SSW so it's easy to know who's available (barring injury).

 

It's even easier in real world games since I don't share talent with anyone. At least not talent I'd actually use regularly.

 

Rem, you need to share the system.

 

Ditto. I tend to play Regional level companies, so I do maybe 2 shows a month, and I get through maybe 2 years before I decide the company is doing too well and I need to start over with a different product.

 

My system is simple and something everyone already does, though maybe not to the same degree. Every savegame I start has a goal. That might be getting a worker (or a group of workers) over, it might be to get to a certain size, or it might be to topple a giant, but it always has a goal. Now, if your goal is to get someone (or several someones) over, you just plan it out.

 

Take the 'Man Under Pressure' storyline on the C-Verse site. That storyline ran from March to December and resulted in Jack Bruce being catapulted to megastardom. If you knew the desired result (and you should, being the brains behind it), it's easy to book the steps you want at the pace you want. In TEW, the only thing that would be even slightly difficult or annoying would be booking the angles on TV (since you can't book TV shows more than a week out). But the matches, you can plot for the whole thing, right at game start. You'll find that sometimes, your major plan gives you ideas for other storylines that will get your major plan to the point you want it to be. Think of it like a spider web emanating from the center. An example from my current game:

 

I wanted to elevate Zoe Ammis to be my world champion but it had to look organic. I knew I wanted her to beat Jillian Jarvis for the title and I knew that would be in the first PPV of the following year. Now, she'd have to go through some things (and some people) to rise to that level. She started as an autopushed midcarder in a high Regional sized promotion. So she started in a program with Concepcion Gomez. Just basic 'bitter vet jealous of highly touted young talent' stuff. Four TV shows and a PPV later, both Gomez and Ammis autopush to upper midcarder. During that month, we hit Cult and I lock up everybody except the workers shared with 5 Star, CILL, and OLLIE. Then Zoe enters a program with Lioness Mushashibo which gets blown off early when I land Lauren Easter (who starts as a heel). Zoe gets beat down by Lioness & Lauren on the go-home show before the PPV where they'd be in a fatal 4-way (with Wendy Anderson, a secondary person I'm working on raising up) for the X-Division-esque title. Lauren goes over (pinning Wendy) and Zoe gains popularity from the quality of the match. By August, she's autopushing to main eventer after a program where she teams with Wendy against Dark Forces (Madame Bat and Raquel Alvarado). Notice, she's working with people who have good to great performance skills and she's learning SO much. When she gets to the main event, she's got 86 basics, 78 psychology, 95 consistency, 75 selling, and 85 safety. She also has entertainment skills in the 80s due to being managed by Dharma Gregg who herself was in a different storyline with Emma Chase (who manages Lauren Easter). The angles boosted everyone involved.

 

But I've found that by plotting out the main storyline, I got ideas for a multitude of other storylines that support the main one (or just cross paths with it at some point). Those matches can all be booked well in advance (sometimes at the start of the save).

 

Granted, this works primarily for Cult and above since it assumes your workers are either exclusive to you or prioritize you over their other contracts. But it might be a good jumping off point for others. TEW13 can be a bit overwhelming if you're booking each show entirely from scratch. So if you can get the core of the show prebooked in advance, the rest is just filler (the assistant booker can fill that stuff in). TV shows should be used to feed events/PPVs so deciding what steps you want to take in each of your major storylines can be made easier if you know what those steps are. As soon as I've run a TV show, I can prebook the next one for that very reason (I know what I want to do to move things forward). I have a 50% ratio for TV because I know sometimes a show will need to be angle heavy and sometimes it'll need to be match heavy ('heavy' being 60% of the show).

 

Easy way to get into it is to start with one storyline, the main one. This is the storyline your company will focus on to drive business. Usually it involves your top title but sometimes it doesn't (like if you're trying to keep the title off of your most over worker since it'll be hard to get it off him/her). From there, you'll find that storylines present themselves to you over time whether due to worker chemistry or just landing a worker you never thought you would (like me with Lauren Easter and Brooke Tyler). Go with it and see where it takes you.

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Nice explanation and great approach, Remi. That kind of planning might help some pull together games in a more concise and focused manner.

 

I do something relatively similar. I leaned it from writing diaries, where I thought it was pretty necessary to have things unfold in a logical manner. I still do it, and I use a spreadsheet to track the plans. I have one sheet that is plans for PPV events, card by card, and usually runs at least 3 years.

 

I see it as figuring out the goal - and the end result, whatever you want to call it - and working backward to fill in the steps to get there. Since I tend to use bigger companies, I will often have several goals. Typically, I will look at the next major annual show - WrestleMania, The Supreme Challenge, Starrcade, etc - and fill that in on the spreadsheet. At the least the key matches. Then I can work backward to fill in the steps to get there. I can even start to plot in key matches for the following major event. So its quiet similar to what you do.

 

Given that I am a child of the TV age of professional wrestling, and I tend to run bigger companies that have TV, I often look for what I think of as "defining moments". They don't have to be on TV - they can be from a pay per view event just as easily - but they are the kind of big moments that create the drama that drives pro wrestling. Those moments that make up a highlight reel for the company. They can be the babyface finally achieving his "childhood dream" of becoming world champion, a partner turning on his/her long-time friend and tag team partner, someone finally gaining that long-sought revenge, a betrayal, a reveal.... They don't have to be shocking swerve moments, but rather I think of them as a payoff of something I've been building toward, whether it would be obvious to the audience or not. I keep track of these moments in a separate sheet and they are just as much something I build toward in each game.

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I like the idea, but I like to book smaller companies. I like the regional companies, where I can focus on a smaller roster. The problem is that it means I can't really set long-term goals for myself, because I don't always know who is going to be available.

 

Like, in my last game, I really wanted to build Phillipe LeGrenier as a snobby heel, and have him carry the belt until some clean-cut babyface can go over him. But that means I have to build LeGrenier to have enough popularity in my area to main event in my home area, and I have to build Ant-Man until he has enough pop to main event in my home area, and by the time I'm ready to go ahead with it, neither is working for me because they were on non-written contracts and my popularity building means they got exclusive contracts. So I spend a lot of time thinking "Okay, here's what I want to do long term, but I have to prioritize the short term because I don't know who'll still be here."

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Given that I am a child of the TV age of professional wrestling, and I tend to run bigger companies that have TV, I often look for what I think of as "defining moments". They don't have to be on TV - they can be from a pay per view event just as easily - but they are the kind of big moments that create the drama that drives pro wrestling. Those moments that make up a highlight reel for the company. They can be the babyface finally achieving his "childhood dream" of becoming world champion, a partner turning on his/her long-time friend and tag team partner, someone finally gaining that long-sought revenge, a betrayal, a reveal.... They don't have to be shocking swerve moments, but rather I think of them as a payoff of something I've been building toward, whether it would be obvious to the audience or not. I keep track of these moments in a separate sheet and they are just as much something I build toward in each game.

 

I can see that. My problem is, I always look for multiple ways to get to the goal so I wind up changing a lot. In the case of developing workers, those changes can be brought on by skill advancement (or lack thereof) or say a matchup that disappoints (usually due to bad chemistry). For Zoe, on day one of the save, I filtered my roster to find the heels with the best performance skills. Then I plotted a path through that list. When I got Lauren, she catapulted almost to the top of the list so I slotted her in. My plan was to have her and Zoe fight over the Generation XX title until Zoe autopushed to main eventer (literally right after the go-home TV show before their first PPV title match!).

 

But now I'm working on Brooke Tyler. I want a main event of the future with Brooke, Lauren, Zoe, and Teresa Perez as its cornerstones. I need to get Brooke some in-ring skill so I brought in Yuma Maruya, Gemmei Oonishi, and Kiko Sakakibara to work against her and DEVIL and Yu Hashimoto to team with her.

 

Sudo, admittedly one of the benefits of working with women is not having to worry about that. The only time NOTBPW or USPW (or, in my game, CGC with managers) hire people is after they've lost someone or grow in size. The only promotion they can lose someone to is me so I know what to expect when that happens. Since most of 5SSW's roster is loyal to the promotion, I don't have to worry about losing them. Also, since AAA still exists, that's the first choice for those larger promotions so again, nothing I have to worry about. Like, I stole Kristabel Plum from NOTBPW and they signed Suzue Katayama (AAA). I stole Lauren Easter, they signed Steph Blake. I stole Brooke Tyler, they signed....Ellie May Walton?!? I would suggest working at Cult level though. It's basically Regional with some fringe benefits. Roster size isn't that large (ideal at Cult is 43) and you can stabilize your roster to a large extent.

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I use a similar approach that is far less detailed. I always know what my top 2 to 3 matches are at my big show so I spend my entire year making those 6 look as strong as I possibly can. Where I differ is I plan out nothing except my title program. Even then it's very lose. I know who I want as champ and who's going to take it off and at what point, but that's about it.

 

What I really love about your example story is attention to detail you paid in developing a worker. That's certainly something I'll take away and use. Generally I'll just give a guy wins over random lower card guys until he's popular enough to feud with the upper card. His stats usually suck though and I sour on the worker because I botched his in ring development up.

 

I think I'll start keeping a notepad handy and write out the stories and progressions for different characters.

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@CQI, I can do that, but that tends to defeat the point. I plan short term and generally have a solid idea of what I want to happen at my next show, and what I want to set up for the show after that. But beyond that, people getting signed away or going on tour or what have you makes it difficult to plan. Which becomes exhausting after about 18 months into a game, and I've had to adapt plans to account for talent leaving or big names suddenly becoming available. Which is ironic, because that sort of thing is one of the reasons why playing a lower level fed is so much fun in the first place.

 

@Remianen, I always feel awkward playing a Cult level fed, though, because it feels like I'm at a level where I need to be running frequent shows, but the free talent available doesn't really have the overness to make that profitable- Akuma Brave isn't going to fill an arena. Maybe I'm too picky about what overness level I want in my main eventers on that level, but I feel like I want to start at Regional and get a run up, so that I'll have somebody who has overness in my home area to main event at that level.

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My system is simple and something everyone already does, though maybe not to the same degree. Every savegame I start has a goal. That might be getting a worker (or a group of workers) over, it might be to get to a certain size, or it might be to topple a giant, but it always has a goal. Now, if your goal is to get someone (or several someones) over, you just plan it out.

 

This is so vital and the first thing I do also. Global or Local company, the big storyline that will last a year is planned. Everything else kind of falls into place after that, like planning the ending of your book before starting to write. I used to just build around certain guys but since I started building around a major storyline my booking and enjoyment have increased ten fold. There's something special about a pay off match that has culminated from a 12 month long storyline planned from the very beginning.

 

Remi you've given me a very interesting idea for a diary, not that I have the time write one.... An insiders diary of sorts, in complete TEW mode where you just post results and brief explanations of the booking reasoning, game mechanics etc. Probably wouldn't be much fun for any role players but it would be a great concept for someone like myself who loves reading about how others book and why.

 

TEW is one of the few games where I'm still learning something new every month.

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What I really love about your example story is attention to detail you paid in developing a worker. That's certainly something I'll take away and use. Generally I'll just give a guy wins over random lower card guys until he's popular enough to feud with the upper card. His stats usually suck though and I sour on the worker because I botched his in ring development up.

 

Yeah, that's where I get the most enjoyment so it's where I've focused much of my attention. I often sign workers specifically for their performance skills, since those have the greatest impact overall. So my workers with good to great performance skills are treated like gold (even if they tend to be transitional champions).

 

Remi you've given me a very interesting idea for a diary, not that I have the time write one.... An insiders diary of sorts, in complete TEW mode where you just post results and brief explanations of the booking reasoning, game mechanics etc. Probably wouldn't be much fun for any role players but it would be a great concept for someone like myself who loves reading about how others book and why.

 

Kinda like this one? :)

 

TEW is one of the few games where I'm still learning something new every month.

 

Absolutely! Like, I just figured out that using my main eventers in matches on my TV show spikes the rating like crazy. Didn't realize the game accounted for that. If that happened in reality, TNA would be nipping on WWE's heels. :p

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In adopting this style of booking I've managed to plan out about 8 months of my main storyline, which effectively leads to my champ, Bulldozer Brandon Smith, leaving the company (time decline started hitting him last year).

 

I've actually, as a result, gone from 1 champ to a secondary champ and tag titles as well, where I now have a tournament mapped out through multiple shows. I've ultimately created a stable out of thin air to help propel the main storyline, and I've given a guy (Hell's Bouncer) a manager (who may or may not have needed it) with the intent of my planned secondary champ (Babau) temporarily joining them, and ultimately feuding.

 

My tag champs are transitional as I found a team with excellent chemistry who are being groomed while the tournament is playing out. Ultimately I need to set and end date for their "feud" and then I'm probably going to break them up and send one, or both, of them after the secondary title.

 

I can't vouch for how much my match ratings and show ratings have benefited, but I will say the enjoyment for that save has grown substantially. The only negative I can really say, at this point, is that I'm not getting through the game as quickly as I was as each show is taking more time to plan out. That said, I have a show about 4 months out nearly 100% booked already...so maybe this is just an issue that will get easier with time.

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In adopting this style of booking I've managed to plan out about 8 months of my main storyline, which effectively leads to my champ, Bulldozer Brandon Smith, leaving the company (time decline started hitting him last year).

 

I've actually, as a result, gone from 1 champ to a secondary champ and tag titles as well, where I now have a tournament mapped out through multiple shows. I've ultimately created a stable out of thin air to help propel the main storyline, and I've given a guy (Hell's Bouncer) a manager (who may or may not have needed it) with the intent of my planned secondary champ (Babau) temporarily joining them, and ultimately feuding.

 

My tag champs are transitional as I found a team with excellent chemistry who are being groomed while the tournament is playing out. Ultimately I need to set and end date for their "feud" and then I'm probably going to break them up and send one, or both, of them after the secondary title.

 

I can't vouch for how much my match ratings and show ratings have benefited, but I will say the enjoyment for that save has grown substantially. The only negative I can really say, at this point, is that I'm not getting through the game as quickly as I was as each show is taking more time to plan out. That said, I have a show about 4 months out nearly 100% booked already...so maybe this is just an issue that will get easier with time.

 

Here's the greatest benefit to this that I've found. While you're away from TEW, ideas may pop into your head and you can hash them out almost completely. So when you're back in front of the game again, you might have 2 or more completely planned storylines and/or match plans that you can just plug into the game. It allows you to engage that creative side anytime and anywhere so you're not sitting in front of the game wondering what to do next.

 

It does get easier with time, especially once you've personalized the approach to fit you better. I didn't post it as a 'DO THIS' type of thing but more as a 'this is what works for me, maybe it'll be helpful to someone else'. You take what works for you and toss the rest.

 

I've also noticed titles popping up out of ideas but sometimes I can go too far. :p Like, in my current game, I have 10 titles (yes, ten): the normal main event, tag team, and midcard titles, a B show exclusive title, then a full set of geographical titles (All-Pacific (main event), All-Japan, and All-Japan tag which are only defended in Japan and also Reina de Reinas (main event), Campeonas de Parejas (floating), and Campeona de Mexico (midcard) that are only defended in Mexico and under lucha libre rules). I use the geographical titles for when I'm breaking into those areas. I used to do it with Canada too but spillover makes that unnecessary now. But once I have a good foothold into these areas, I'll unify the belts with their mainline counterparts.....and then create another set for Europe, Australia, and/or the British Isles.

 

The whole point of the system was to make it easier to translate 'in your head' ideas to 'in TEW' shows with as little wasted time as possible. The problem I often have though is having too much for each show's time (like booking 3 hrs worth of matches for a 2 hour show). So I wind up having a fully booked preshow (since it's match ratio agnostic) AND a fully booked main show. Prohibitively expensive below Cult (or even National) but since these folks are gonna get paid anyway, I figure I might as well use 'em!

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Here's the greatest benefit to this that I've found. While you're away from TEW, ideas may pop into your head and you can hash them out almost completely. So when you're back in front of the game again, you might have 2 or more completely planned storylines and/or match plans that you can just plug into the game. It allows you to engage that creative side anytime and anywhere so you're not sitting in front of the game wondering what to do next.

 

This is why it was so vital to me to get a Google doc going, and at the very top I've got a "to do" list, so when I'm back in front of the game I know what things I need to do immediately.

 

For instance, since the fed I'm running has 12 shows a year, I've got a Show 1 through Show 12 in the doc, and my first note in the Doc is to go through and rename every show accordingly so I can more easily identify, when I'm not at home, which shows are gimmicked, and which show is my big blowoff show.

 

I also have documented when my older guys are leaving (I generally stick with the default 3 year contracts, so when time decline hits I phase them out)

 

It sounds really anal retentive, but it really helps me plan out everything in advance on paper before I'm in front of the game (and helps me kill time during my lunch break, or take a quick break at work).

 

Heck, just today I decided to give one of my up and comers a Jason Jordan style "pair-em up with random guys until somebody clicks" quasi-storyline, where before I didn't even have a tag division.

 

This has really spiced my game up, Rem, and I'm almost sad that I have to leave all of these dudes behind in about 2 weeks.

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I often spend more time planning than playing TEW. Over the last ten years of playing the game I have developed a spreadsheet with the following tabs:

 

- Roster (A list of roster and their skills sorted by pop in my main area)

- Matches (Split into three sections; main events, semi mains and tag matches. This allows me to see what my best matches are and which matches I can't do for a while to avoid the penalty)

- Details (A tab containing details of my wrestlers e.g. attire, entrance music, wrestling style etc)

- Majors (A list of who has won my big tournaments)

- Schedule (This is the schedule for the whole year. I have a tournament in December which is my season finale so I generally know who I want to be in the final from about August. In this tab I can decide PPV main events for any time in the year. Every two months I put everyone on the roster in a storyline, I usually have six or seven running at once, and decide the PPV matches. At the start of every month I book the TV matches. When it comes to running the shows I can blitz through the month because I have it all planned.)

- Tag Chemistry (A simple table to track the chemistry of any worker who is not in an active tag team)

 

This system may sound like a lot of work but I have been doing it for so long that it's second nature. The great thing is that I can take my spreadsheet with me and book matches whenever I am at a loose end.

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I'm interested to know how you fill out consistent 12 month feuds.

 

like in 1 v 1 feud? how many times would they face? how would you fill in 12 PPS?

 

I have done it where as CZCW My User is feuding with Mikey James. with both spinning off into different feuds where Mikey would fight to get back to No 1 contender whilst my user tries to keep a hold of the title, with them eventually facing 4 months later?

 

My imagination isn't very good :p

 

Would it be something liking promising midcarder proves himself for a year where they eventually earn the title shot and claim the time and in the mean time they have confrontations/ angles/ tag team matches with and against the champion?

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I'm interested to know how you fill out consistent 12 month feuds.

 

like in 1 v 1 feud? how many times would they face? how would you fill in 12 PPS?

 

Well, it really depends on what you're trying to do. Technically, I have 3 people involved in a storyline...and 2 of them aren't actually feuding.

 

It's booked to end at the 10th show, so still not 12, but the current champion and the future champion only meet up twice in singles competition.

 

What I effectively did was have another Main Event status guy form a stable and outnumber/attack the champion. After this happened twice, my 3rd guy entered the picture with a partner, which led to a 6-man between all 3 of them. The future champ (3rd guy) is slated to get the pin on the antagonist (2nd guy). Guy 2 is rewarded for his efforts with a title shot, they draw. Then they have a couple of singles matches independent of each other, but still against the original attackers, just to keep the storyline going. Then they have a tag match against 2 other guys. The following show is a big 8 man match with all of the promotion's champions (main, tag and secondary title) featuring 2 of the attackers and the future champ...THEN the champ faces the future champ again, this time the title changes.

 

As Rem said, it's easier to plot out things in reverse. Know where you want to end up, and figure out how to get there. It's a lot easier than trying to figure it out exactly where you're going at the start. If you have a planned title change, set a date for it far, far out...and then fill in the holes. If someone gets signed away or injured, adapt! You can always shuffle things around. I just had a guy who wasn't involved in any major storylines get signed away, but since I already had plans for him I just replaced him with another guy on the roster, and then him with a new hire.

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I think I've figured out the secret to not getting your plans scuttled by a worker leaving: just put everybody in a mask! Worker leaves? Sure, but I own the mask, put it on a new guy, it's like he never left! Nobody can tell the difference once the mask is on.
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I'm interested to know how you fill out consistent 12 month feuds.

 

like in 1 v 1 feud? how many times would they face? how would you fill in 12 PPS?

 

I have done it where as CZCW My User is feuding with Mikey James. with both spinning off into different feuds where Mikey would fight to get back to No 1 contender whilst my user tries to keep a hold of the title, with them eventually facing 4 months later?

 

My imagination isn't very good :p

 

Would it be something liking promising midcarder proves himself for a year where they eventually earn the title shot and claim the time and in the mean time they have confrontations/ angles/ tag team matches with and against the champion?

 

Depends on your goals. If your goal is only to book 12 PPVs, then it's easy since you can put random people together in matches. My goal is strictly talent development. Not POPULARITY development (that's easy), but complete skill development. Thus, my way of doing things is generally focused on what's likely to get me the best return on the time invested. I'll give an example:

 

The Taming of the Shrew - Shaul Guerrero

Key: A = Angle, M = Match

My user character announces the signing of one of the most polarizing figures in modern wrestling, Vickie Guerrero (A - Vickie's debut). Vickie cuts a promo detailing how she's going to do what she wasn't allowed to do in her previous job and revolutionize women's wrestling. She states she's going to do that by staying close to home and close to her heart with the scion of El Legado Guerrero (The Guerrero Legacy), her daughter, Shaul Guerrero! (A - Shaul's debut). Backstage, Vickie is talking with Remi about 'our deal' and he says to just let him know when she's ready to cash in. (A) Shaul v Angela Fong, clean win (M - improved performance skills). Vickie cuts a promo introducing Shaul's bodyguard, La Hechicera (A) Shaul v Tsukasa Fujimoto, clean win (M - improved performance skills). Backstage, Vickie tells Remi she's ready to 'cash in' at the next pay per view. (A) Shaul v. Miyako Matsumoto, clean win (M - improved technical, aerial, performance skills). Remi announces that at The Big Bang, Jessie Kaye will defend the QoC North American title against....Shaul Guerrero. (A) Shaul v. Rina Yamashita (with Jessie Kaye on commentary), clean win (M - improved technical, performance skills). Post-match staredown (A).

 

It goes on and on from there. Basically, one or two angles between Shaul's matches. But she's not fighting top people or the champion repeatedly. She's fighting people who are better in the ring than she is (and she's in angles with people who are better on the mic than she is, like her mother). By the time she fights for the title, her skills have improved a lot and she wins that match in tainted fashion (her mother's interference). She wins the rematch when two more members of her stable debut (Sexy Star and Estrellita) and interfere. It's later revealed that Vickie would only agree to sign with the promotion if Shaul was also signed and given a title shot. By the end of it all, there's a full stable created solely to keep Shaul on top (composed almost entirely of luchadors or workers with a direct connection to the Guerrero family). The people she faces in matches are primarily joshi who are better than her in some way. The people she defends the title against don't get 3 shots at it. They get one, lose (usually in tainted fashion due to helicopter parent Vickie), maybe get a rematch and then go to the back of the line. Eventually Shaul faces someone who gets into her head and tells her she's essentially a jobber with better genes who can't win a match without mommy's help. But the whole purpose of the storyline is to elevate Shaul's in-ring skills. The entertainment skill bumps are gravy since she'll almost always have her mother managing her (except for her face run).

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