How to Build New Stars?

[kn23m]

I had never seen Owens before NXT. Not once. And that first "match" he had cemented him for me. Looking at him and Zayn, I would take Owens every day.

You just proved my point, because there is sizeable Raw audience that have no idea what WWE Network is (from WWE own surveys in first part of 2016) just like you didn't have a clue what Kevin Steen was before NXT, let alone what NXT is or some former indy darling or development "talent" that performs in it!

[CQI13]

<p>I see your point, but I think I'm in agreement with BP - I don't get bogged down on the actual rating.</p><p> </p><p>

But he was thrust into a program with the top guy, and successfully debuted in a segment with him. 2/3 of the audience not knowing the fat guy goes out the window when he did what he did (even forgetting about his stint in NXT).</p><p> </p><p>

Back in the days of the territories, guys cycled in and out of companies. Someone who had been in Florida wouldn't have been seen someone in Texas. But if that guy shows up and gets in the champ's face, is anyone going to say "I don't know this guy. What a goober!" I would think, in the suspension of disbelief, they would think "This guy must be a big deal."</p><p> </p><p>

Maybe it's just a case of pop needs to be X in order to replicate what happened in real life.</p>

[tizzyt]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="acthechamp" data-cite="acthechamp" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="42380" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Right, I guess that's the point I was hoping would be different, and unfortunately, it seems that you're right. It would be next-to-impossible to replicate what WWE did with Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, Finn Balor etc. in this game. Disappointing, but it seems like that's true.<p> </p><p> I will do more build, but it's just a little frustrating, if you get me. I see WWE doing it with little-to-no problem, but I can't do the same exact thing without suffering major issues and turning off major stars.</p><p> </p><p> Thanks anyways, though.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> They're all right, but building someone up doesn't have to be a bad thing. Take for instance, Roderick Strong, I signed him to WWE in the game that I'm playing and used him in the first step in the story of "Chris Jericho vs the Stupid Idiots of the World" storyline. WWE were in Tampa, Jericho cuts his usual "Best in the World at What I Do" promo and offers anyone in the back a chance to "Drink it in, man" and out comes Roderick Strong who accepts, not a very strong angle grade wise (C-, I think) and then I booked he and Jericho to go 12 minutes in an attempt to steal the show and booked Jericho over him, and they got a B rating and the booking itself worked. </p><p> </p><p> The next few shows, Strong has put over Del Rio, Seth Rollins (another B rated match), AJ Styles, Rusev and then went over Baron Corbin on PPV. In a matter of 4 weeks of game time usage (I wasn't sure how to start him off the first couple weeks of having him) his popularity has risen from E+ to a D+ and he's already autopushed as a Midcarder (which didn't seem right, but maybe momentum plays in that a little bit), rather than an opener where he was when I signed him. </p><p> </p><p> Building can be fun and honestly, you can use him against your top stars to build him up. Let him get wins on Main Event and Superstars or Pre-Shows of PPVs against talent below him and if you need to, stick him with a manager who can also elevate him. </p><p> </p><p> Another building that I'm doing now is Paul Heyman's war on the Women's Division, where he has enlisted the services of MsChif, MsAri (Cheerleader Melissa) and MsAnnThrope (Hailey Hatred) and they are hell bent on destroying the former Divas, who have AWFUL matches every show (Alicia Fox, Summer Rae, Rosa Mendes, etc.) In the end it's going to come down at Survivor Series with the one pulling the strings from the back stepping in and facing the former Divas who will enlist the help of a former Diva, but that's been doing nothing other than improving the Divas that they're targeting and either they get it together or they'll either be in NXT or maybe unemployed. </p><p> </p><p> My advice? Bring in Lethal, let him tangle with the big dogs, like an annoying gnat who keeps getting swatted. Even if he keeps losing, his popularity is going to grow against the bigger stars and utilize your Occasional Wrestlers like Big Show, Kane and Mark Henry, they've all put over one of the newer guys that I'm building without a complaint at all.</p>

[Bigpapa42]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="kn23m" data-cite="kn23m" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="42380" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I wonder how you come up with this number/grade?<p> WWE Raw is watched by 3+ million people each week in USA, while NXT are shown only on WWE Network which at best has a little bit more than a million subscribers from USA, so at best is watched by a million, which is 1/3 of Raw weekly audience or in other words more than 2/3 of people who watch WWE Raw weekly didn't have a clue what was that "fat guy" when he first showed up on Raw!</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Well, in TEW terms, a Regional Star is someone with popularity in the D range. So when Steen was a headliner for ROH, a regional sized company (even with pretty wide TV coverage), it would make sense that he was somewhere in the D range of popularity. I haven't read anything indicating he was a poor headliner for ROH or hurt their business, but he also wasn't a monster draw for them. So popularity commensurate to his role would make sense (at least in my mind). </p><p> </p><p> How much did he gain in a year in NXT? He was a headliner and main star for NXT in that time. It would seem odd to argue that his popularity stayed exactly on the same level thru that period, despite reaching audience than what ROH has. If he had stayed with NXT for that year, then get released, he would go back to the indy scene as a bigger draw than he had been before his WWE tenure. </p><p> </p><p> Again, in purely TEW terms, replicating the NXT set up with a child company and a company-owned broadcaster will easily see workers get into the C range of popularity. The best I saw in some experiments was several hitting C+ popularity across the US, and that's with a broadcaster that is smaller than the WWE Network is. </p><p> </p><p> Popularity is not simply how many people know the given worker, but how much they care. You can look at the numbers and viewership in any number of different ways, but the debuts of talent that was popular in NXT has generally gained a significant reaction with live audiences when they moved onto the main roster. </p><p> </p><p> All that said, I didn't offer up those numbers as "absolutes". I did say "probably" in those areas of popularity. Translating real world popularity into TEW is always going to be somewhat subjective.</p>

[The Grand Avatar]

<p>Depends on the company.</p><p> </p><p>

In my current game (C-Verse), I'm running ZEN. Hired Brodie Lachlan (E popularity, recommended mid-card push) in December 2016 and gave him a monster push, plenty of segments and a win against progressively tougher on every monthly show to build him up. By the time my big blow-off show rolled around in July 2017, he was over enough to challenge for the top title, which he won. Fast-forward about a year and a half, and he's my company's figurehead and over as hell.</p><p> </p><p>

Storylines help, though. Generate some heat and momentum to help get a guy over.</p>

[jordanmason17]

<p>I build up new stars differently depending on who they are. For example; If I sign a big wrestler I will normally give them a manager to talk for them whilst this monster picks up win after win to help build up his in-ring skills. I will then drastically give them a couple of minutes of mic time as I just imagine them interrupting there manager to shout a few things (Think The Giant in WCW 1995)</p><p> </p><p>

Some workers I just job them out for awhile with no real gimmick and a generic name for awhile to increase there skills. Once I believe the skills for the worker are looking good and the popularity raising ever so slightly I'll re-package them with a real gimmick and a new name and place them in a storyline and gain them some momentum-- This is if I think of suitable plans for them.</p><p> </p><p>

Sometimes I also place new workers in a team together and help them build-up together, I done this with JT Southern and JJ Southern who were both openers when I first signed them for AWA but now in 1992 they are both in the main event scene, have held the tag team belts twice and both held the world title <strong>anddd</strong> won my December tournament 'Lord Of The Ring' <strong>(JT Southern in 89/90 and JJ Southern in 91)</strong></p><p> </p><p>

Finally, I place some new workers in tag teams with established stars or place them in a stable. Examples of this is I placed Savio Vega in a tag team with Carlos Colon as the 'Puerto Rican Connection' Savio is now up to midcard due to being associated with Colon in storylines as both members get good screen time and mic time. The example of the stable is when DDP debuted in the game I placed him with The Diamond Studd in his Diamond Mine stable, this helped DDP gain exposure because he was working closely with a main eventer and another veteran star, Claude T.B. Patterson. Same goes with Ice Train, his alignment with The Diamond Mine and learning from his mentor T.B. Patterson allowed him to gain exposure being seen with the stable on TV & PPV then gained skills from the incidents that would pop-up with his mentor and him teaming with T.B. Patterson on the B-Show.</p>