How do you book WWE?

[chaz4594]

Hi guys, big WMMA fan who's been trying to get into TEW.

 

Been a wrestling fan since the 90's but as I got older I stopped watching and have recently started watching again and trying to get back into it.

 

Love TEW but I am completely clueless on how to book in regards to "Openers", "Enhancement Talents" etc. How do you book those guys, do you put the pre show or main card? Every time I put a show on with an "opener" or "enhancement talent" it gets an E rating due to having "2 jobbers on the show".

 

Can anyone explain typically how they book WWE? I've tried to base it off some real life shows but still struggle. What does your typical WWE TV show layout look like in regards to how many midcarders and main eventers etc?

 

How many storylines do you run?

 

Sorry for the relatively newbie questions but any advise or explanation would be great.

[batsnumbereleven]

Love TEW but I am completely clueless on how to book in regards to "Openers", "Enhancement Talents" etc. How do you book those guys, do you put the pre show or main card? Every time I put a show on with an "opener" or "enhancement talent" it gets an E rating due to having "2 jobbers on the show".

 

Your Enhancement Talents and Openers are essentially there to lose to your higher guys - if you put on a match between two guys nobody cares about then the crowd won't be interested.

[creepshow]

More to the point of your question, it doesn't matter where you use them...main card or pre-show, just don't use them against each other.

[chaz4594]

Okay thanks guys.

 

How many matches do you usually have on a TV show like RAW? I find it hard to get the ratio right with angles etc.

[Bigpapa42]

First things first, the dynamics will vary a bit based on the mod and the time-period. But one consistent should be that the WWF/WWE is always going to be Entertainment based. That means matches are rated moreso on how popular the workers involved are, and less on how talented they are. In ring skill matters, but simply not as much.

 

The nice thing about an Entertainment company is that strong angles can carry a show. And the WWE will invariable have people who are popular and good on the mic, meaning they pull easy grades if you put them in talking segments rated on Entertainment. Cena, Orton, and the like will get easy B+ and often A grades on those segments.

 

Trying to run too many storylines tends to be overwhelming, so I usually run 3 or 4. I may have other feuds going on, but if its between two lower card workers, the angles aren't going to grade well so they will probably be on a B show. You don't need to have things going on for everyone, especially with a massive roster.

 

How to get your match-angle ratio right depends on the mod. its a product setting and if you are too far out from what your fans expect, it will give the show a penalty. but exactly what the right one is depends on the mod. Some have it as low as 40%, which means you are going to have a lot more angles on the show than wrestling matches.

[Captain2]

"How do you book WWE"

 

Oddly. If my diary was any indicator.

[Alucidus]

Okay thanks guys.

 

How many matches do you usually have on a TV show like RAW? I find it hard to get the ratio right with angles etc.

 

The information about the product is present under the 'product' tab in the main hub. The information includes Match/angle ratio for both television and PPV and the expected length of matches relative to the importance of the match.

 

The only thing I've never been perfectly clear on is what constitutes a main/major/minor match. Obviously 2 main eventers wrestling is a main match and a match consisting of nothing but lower midcarders is minor, it's what's in between that can be confusing. But it's not that big of a deal.

[brat99]

The information about the product is present under the 'product' tab in the main hub. The information includes Match/angle ratio for both television and PPV and the expected length of matches relative to the importance of the match.

 

The only thing I've never been perfectly clear on is what constitutes a main/major/minor match. Obviously 2 main eventers wrestling is a main match and a match consisting of nothing but lower midcarders is minor, it's what's in between that can be confusing. But it's not that big of a deal.

 

I can't remember which thread I found this in (may have just been a google search), but this is the major/medium/minor match guide I have been using and it seemed to be fairly accurate and not ding me for using lower carders too much......

 

Major Match: Main Event vs Main Event or Main Event vs Upper Midcard

 

Medium Match: Main Event vs Midcard, Upper Mid vs Upper Mid, or Upper Mid vs Mid

 

Minor Match: all other combinations

 

Note: for tag matches use the top 2 workers (regardless of which team) in the match to determine what level the match should be.

 

As I said, not sure if this is set in stone, but it has served me well.

[Mattywood]

Chaz, not sure if you plan on getting the 2016 edition when it comes out in a few weeks, but in the next edition of TEW, you'll be able to pit openers and enhancement talents against each other in the pre-show, but not anywhere else on the card. However, as others above have mentioned, currently, you can't book them against each other anywhere on the card or else it'll get heavily penalized.

[Dawn]

I think long term before starting the game, with a plan for one huge long term storyline that branches with several smaller ones (For example, the huge Authority storyline that is related to Cena vs. Orton, Swagger vs. Rusev, Christian vs. Jericho and Wyatt vs. Reigns, but not to Goldust vs. Stardust, Young vs. O'Neil, Miz vs. Kofi, etcetera), or several huge long term storylines unrelated to the smaller ones, or...you get what I mean.

 

I always try to find a place for everybody, because they all MUST have a place in my universe. They are all characters, for better or worse. I try to make it look more like a series like Game of Thrones than a ''Sports Entertainment universe'' like Vince loves to name the WWE. In drastic situations, I either job out the people who I have no plans for, or I fire them, after a realistic, logical farewell or explanation. I tend to end up with more than 100 people in my roster, so there you have it. The jobbers and openers get TV time as well, with segments alongside the more important names to get them over, team match wins with allies that are bigger than them or singles match wins against floating oafs that, push-wise, are bigger than them. If I must book a Opener vs. Jobber, Opener vs. Opener or Jobber vs. Jobber match, I always change the winner's push to Lower Midcarder beforehand to prevent a penalty (Sometimes I do forget, though >_>).

[Sons of Kohral]

I go old school with WWE and WWE-type promotions, which basically means I book them like modern day NXT. Weekly shows are for squash matches and angles to sell the pay per views.

 

I have a "soft" brand split which means I use lesser workers who don't necessarily have a PPV program on Smackdown and give them short storylines.

 

That's all. Simple, yet effective. If my shows grade B, I condier them successes. For PPV I try to have B+ or above.

[Genadi]

I let my daughter do most of the booking nowadays. I just show up for Mania and decide the winners based on names in a hat

 

Seriously though... Chaz what WWE are you talking? Current day? If so I don't book much current day WWE but when I have brand split has been essential. Knowing how to use popular workers paired with WWE's product (if not changed) is vital and utilising workers with high entertainment skills in angles will help boost shows in a big way.

[lr10540]

I go old school with WWE and WWE-type promotions, which basically means I book them like modern day NXT. Weekly shows are for squash matches and angles to sell the pay per views.

 

Boom. I go like this. Say if my top feud is face champion Roman vs heel Bray, there only interaction on tv is in angles and an occasional tag match. They'll both get booked in matches most every week because they're valuable to ratings, but it won't be against each other.

 

Find your workhorses. These are your guys who are your best in ring guys. Guys like Ziggler, Rollins, AJ Styles, Cesaro and Daniel Bryan (if you choose to use him in ring) are invaluable to your match grades. These guys, whether in a story or not, should be working a match practically every single week. They can eat up plenty of minutes on your broadcast, and give you extremely solid ratings while doing it. On top of that, they're so damn good in ring they'll improve the work rate of your roster.

Your angles are going to be what drive your stories forward, and will eat up over half your show if you stick with default settings. This will also allow you to utilize your top guys where they're best at. A guy like Bray Wyatt is money in entertainment segments, and not so great in the ring. Give him a long talking segment just like real life, and put him in matches only when you need to give him a momentum boost or to move a story forward. Your top 3 angles are the only ones that really matter as far as show grades are concerned so make sure you have 3 absolute money angles. The rest can be whatever you need them to be. I usually go long talking segment with Bray on entertainment, Cena open challenge rated on entertainment, and a HHH show opening promo rated on entertainment. The rest varies from show to show.

 

I would also recommend shortening Raw to 2 hours. It's incredibly difficult to book 3 hours of tv. I also cancel Main Event and Superstars. Networks won't let you so you can book 1 match for 30 or 60 minutes to expedite the process. I also try to get rid of Smackdown. I don't believe in running more than 2 hours of tv a week. Less is always more with wrestling.