Help with booking Tag Teams

[Macca316]

Hi,

 

Looking for advice on booking tag teams that aren't your Champions or the no.1 contenders chasing the titles, what do you the wider TEW community do?

 

Its the one thing I always struggle with, they often lose to my champs or the contenders, then I end up with a bunch of teams that have no momentum when it comes to finding the next challengers.

 

any tips?

[Luchador Canadiense]

I treat tag teams like individual wrestlers, only they are in pairs.

I never have less than 6 tag teams... 3 face and 3 heels, at least. And in each group, there is the top tier (the main eventers, so to speak), the middle tier (the up-and-comers, who are going to win and lose some), and the bottom tier (jobber tag teams... not likely to win much). And once top two tag teams stop feuding, then I bump down whomever lost, and elevate one of the middle tier tag teams.

All that being said, I generally play small promotions. That may not work nearly as well at high Regional or above where the spread in popularity may be larger between your tiers of teams, and may be even more difficult in pop>perf promotions where it is harder to elevate workers.

[Winter8905]

With CZCW I struggle with tag teams but with WWF in 1987 ibook them pretty well I have 3 or 4 over teams, a couple in them mide with 70 momentum and a few jober or young teams who job to the others.

 

I also have a US Tag title for the midcarder teams to get them ready and over for the big one. That was getting two micard teams over.

 

The Key is to have a lot of teams and designated jobbers. jobbers loose t the midcard teams who in turn lose to the higher teams on the card. Of course my US Tag champions an the no 1 contenders don't get joed out to the higher teams

[lr10540]

I try to keep between 8 to 12 tag teams at a time. You run 2 programs at a time, one between champ and challenger and the other between contenders. Your title storyline you have the workers wrestle one another with angles to push the story. Your secondary story you can add 2 lower tier teams as supporting acts to do the job for the other teams in the story in order to build up storyline success, and momentum. If you want to build the pop, you gotta win on ppvs.

Also, don't be afraid to book your teams as singles to help build their pop. You don't have to go current day WWE style where teams are locked as teams. Give your tag members wins in singles matches on tv and ppv and build their pop like you would singles workers.

 

A third suggestion, look at how NXT does their tag teams. Recently Dash & Dawson were in a program with Enzo and Cass. That story was pushed forward with promos from Enzo & Cass while The Revival beat them down a couple of times. The Revival got wins periodically on tv to showcase their strengths, while Enzo and Cass got "wins" with their talking. The Revival won on back to back specials to end the story.

Meanwhile you had American Alpha building momentum by tearing through the division beating basically every team on the roster. They cut promos on occasion calling out the next (or old) great thing and outclassed everyone at every turn until their momentum was through the roof. They then challenged for the titles and won.

 

Tags are really fun to book because of all the extra booking scenarios you can use.

[Kijar]

Make sure you have jobber teams, that's very important.

Also, well established teams need to stay established until the rising teams can handle the pressure. Try giving the teams you like that maybe aren't necessarily ready for prime time yet a couple big matches against your top teams, and have them lose. Then we it comes to other teams, they shouldn't have a problem, and eventually they'll be such a well-oiled machine that they can contend with your heavy hitters.

 

Tag teams are just awesome, loads more fun to book than singles competitors.

[Remianen]

This is all just my opinion but it's how I book my voluminous tag team division.

 

Established tag teams (with my games, the ones with actual tag names) go over pairs thrown together to look for chemistry. For example:

 

Lilly & Rose (established tag team) d. Kijmuta & Takasu (two workers thrown together to look for chemistry)

MEXiCAN Connection (Alina America & Tamara McFly) d. Mexi & Lee but in their first match (as America & McFly) they lost to The A-List.

 

This keeps my established teams active while I actively try to create more. I also try to keep the matchups fresh by having a fatal four-way tag team elimination match to crown #1 contenders. The key caveat is that at least two of the teams in that match must be different from the previous one. That keeps me constantly churning the roster, though after a while it gets to be easy once you have a large amount of teams. But that's a luxury almost no other promotion ingame has.

 

Also, use your tag teams to help develop your up & comers. A team that isn't actively in the title picture can still be useful simply by working matches and essentially training your next generation.

[Macca316]

All really useful tips which I very much appreciate guys.

 

I think part of my problem is not actively expanding my division, normally I'll tend to stagnate with only the teams there at the start of the game.

 

I need to focus on as Remi said, finding chemistry, but not at the expense of established teams.

 

If i've got some singles guys kicking around not doing anything, they tend to not get used, instead It would be better to throw them in a tag match, even a dark match and who knows.

 

Again thanks, some very good tips.

[bookerman]

I think step #1 is deciding if you want your tag division to be teams that are mainly teams (like the Rockers, Brainbusters, Killer Bees, Natural Disasters, Bulldogs, etc) that don't do a lot of singles matches OR singles stars that team together to go after the tag titles (kinda like AJPW where you had teams like Misawa/Akiyama, Kawada/Taue, Kobashi/Ace, Hansen/Vader, etc).

 

The benefit of the first is that it allows you to utilize a large roster better. Your singles are in singles matches and your tag teams are in tag matches. Not to say you can't have people going back and forth from divisions, but for the most part everyone has their role.

 

The second type is more useful in smaller promotions. It keeps your main guys active and near the top of the card when they aren't chasing a singles title. With the new tag features in 2016, you can use tag matches to "heat up" someone for a big singles match.

 

Both types are useful in improving workers and moving them up the roster when needed.

[dubb93]

A couple of time a year you need to bring in new teams and can the ones you have ruined their momentum. This keeps your matchups fresh and your top 4-6 teams strong. The 4-6 teams you are building around should only lose to your champs and occasionally one of the other top teams in a #1 contenders match.

[Remianen]

A couple of time a year you need to bring in new teams and can the ones you have ruined their momentum. This keeps your matchups fresh and your top 4-6 teams strong. The 4-6 teams you are building around should only lose to your champs and occasionally one of the other top teams in a #1 contenders match.

 

Yeah, I don't believe in this at all. Momentum is not hard to generate (especially at Cult and above and in entertainment oriented products) so firing someone because they have low momentum is short-sighted. Besides, every team you fire, you have to replace and preferably with a better team. The AI doesn't create good to great tag teams so you'll quickly get to a point where you run out of viable options to bring in. Also, depending on how you create your teams, you could be shooting yourself in the junk (not the foot since this is far worse).

 

For example, I often create teams consisting of a skilled veteran with a young up & comer who needs some skill advancement. In the C-Verse, Lioness Mushashibo & Ashley Grover or Concepcion Gomez & Lily Snyder or Candy Floss & Charity Sweet. In real world, Dynamite Kansai & Goya Kong or AKINO & Hikaru Shida or (Freebird style) Ayako Hamada & Tessa Blanchard & Santana Garrett. Fire the team and you lose both a valuable skilled in-ring veteran AND a young talent who could have headlined at some point. That seems ill-advised to me, especially when a simple win streak would solve the momentum problem (not even mentioning a few hype angles).

[creepshow]

Yeah, I don't believe in this at all. Momentum is not hard to generate (especially at Cult and above and in entertainment oriented products) so firing someone because they have low momentum is short-sighted. Besides, every team you fire, you have to replace and preferably with a better team. The AI doesn't create good to great tag teams so you'll quickly get to a point where you run out of viable options to bring in. Also, depending on how you create your teams, you could be shooting yourself in the junk (not the foot since this is far worse).

 

For example, I often create teams consisting of a skilled veteran with a young up & comer who needs some skill advancement. In the C-Verse, Lioness Mushashibo & Ashley Grover or Concepcion Gomez & Lily Snyder or Candy Floss & Charity Sweet. In real world, Dynamite Kansai & Goya Kong or AKINO & Hikaru Shida or (Freebird style) Ayako Hamada & Tessa Blanchard & Santana Garrett. Fire the team and you lose both a valuable skilled in-ring veteran AND a young talent who could have headlined at some point. That seems ill-advised to me, especially when a simple win streak would solve the momentum problem (not even mentioning a few hype angles).

 

I am not generally one to play the game in such a way, but your strategy is exactly the approach I'm taking for building my tag division.

 

I had two guys who I decided to put together and run as the tag champs to start, then in my tag tournament to crown the champions I put together a hybrid of random guys to see if anyone had good chemistry. One of my favorite approaches was to pair a younger guy with a more over veteran. None of those combinations took off, but the benefit on a younger wrestler of having good chemistry with an older veteran is almost immeasurable. Not only will they constantly be learning, but their popularity will grow much more rapidly.

 

I also can't advocate firing anyone unless they're a general pain in the butt or their skills are in decline.

[dubb93]

Don't fire them. Just rotate in teams of lower level guys/jobbers to lose to guys you do care about. It would be insane to pair up guys you care about just to fire them.

 

You can probably tell I'm playing mostly as a touring company right now, but it works in any smaller/non entertainment company as well.

 

I almost always rotate guys through my roster churn a few times before I sign them long term and push them.

[creepshow]

I guess there was a miscommunication, I read "can the ones you have ruined their momentum" as "fire".

 

Momentum can turn around, but if they don't have a natural chemistry together I'd say just feel free to try out new partners until something clicks.

[Remianen]

Don't fire them. Just rotate in teams of lower level guys/jobbers to lose to guys you do care about. It would be insane to pair up guys you care about just to fire them.

 

You can probably tell I'm playing mostly as a touring company right now, but it works in any smaller/non entertainment company as well.

 

I almost always rotate guys through my roster churn a few times before I sign them long term and push them.

 

Ah, now it makes sense. As a touring company, you can bring people in (and let them go) every few months with no negative repercussions. I was thinking along the lines of a regular schedule with the six month "don't even ASK me" period after releasing.

 

I guess there was a miscommunication, I read "can the ones you have ruined their momentum" as "fire".

 

Yeah, I thought the same thing.