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What do you do about a bloated Roster?


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<p>I generally have the same problem. I try and limit myself to the "minimum required" to keep from getting out of hand. However, eventually I always end up with double the roster I need and a bunch of talented guys basically sitting on the bench because I have them locked down to contracts but no plans. </p><p>

If I can afford it I will sometimes do a brand split but I Hate doing things just for the sake of it so I have to figure out why I'm having a brand split as well or I can't go along with it. </p><p>

Other than that I will wait till after my biggest show of the year and then start chipping away at the roster. Start with time decline list, see who is circling the drain. Then the whose not list to see who just doesn't have anything going. The I'll go through my lower Midcard to enhancement talents and see who is way to old or talented to be that low on the roster and basically set them free to be used by someone who could actually use them. </p><p>

It's a vicious cycle though as I can't resist hiring some guys when they become available.</p>

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<p>I've always had the same issue. I always like to get to the point where I can do a brand split after couple years because I usually either sign or build up a bunch of guys and then have no room for any movement. Lately I've had a bunch of guys ready to come up from development that I've had no room to do anything with though. I'm starting to get to the point where I'm phasing out older vets who can't go anymore to make some room, so after some of those contracts end in a year or 2 it should be pretty interesting to see how my roster looks after that.</p><p> </p><p>

I've considered cutting a few midcard guys that I've had nothing for in a long time and letting them go work in SWF, SOTBPW, or USPW for a bit now and sign them back later if they improve, but I also don't know if I want to spot them the guys, especially when I'm in two national battles with SOTBPW, and USPW and SWF are in desperate need of young guys to push.</p>

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I like to sign most guys midcard or lower to pay per appearance contracts if I'm playing with a big company. If they are over 26-28 depending on skill I won't sign them for developmental deals, they can hang around the lower midcard and get matches with me here or there. If they start getting over, I sign them to a written deal. Or if someone tries to poach them. I generally don't put any titles on any PPA talent, used to do it but they kept getting hurt. Still allows them to work other places but if I want to use them I can. I may have nothing for them for 6 months but might end up finding some great tag chemistry and then they get long term deals and featured spots.
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<p>No matter the size of the company I like to have a bunch of jobber so that even my midcard isn't losing all the time. So what I do is have my main roster be about the minimum roster size, and then I hire a few teams (at national I'd probably do 8) who's only job it is, is to lose so other people can keep their momentum up. I hire these teams on six month stints.</p><p> </p><p>

Sometimes the owner of the company will auto rehire one or two of these workers. And then I will look at my main roster see who's under performing and replace them with the new workers that the owner liked.</p><p> </p><p>

This allows me to cycle through a lot of new talent to give them a shot even if I have no plans to use them in any of my major stories.</p>

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I tend to hire way too many. In my NJPW game, I have over 130 (after creating a women's division) I feel it's way too many and am making plans to release several people and place some in developmental just to work down there, and that's only to get the numbers down to around 100, which is still too many, but I just like the guys I have too much! So I'm in the same boat as you are and should try set myself some hard rules to follow so I don't have such a large roster.
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What I do is have a checklist. If I can't find a use for someone I would send them on vacation. If they come back from a vacation and I still don't have a use for them I job them out and either use them as a dev trainer or throw them back to the indies. In 16 if I ever run a big company I see myself having plenty of dev companies because I would probably send a ton of people down to just work there until I have uses for them.
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<p>If I'm big enough to have a bunch of people on written deals, then folks on written deals that I don't have plans for get sent down to development "To Work There". If I'm too small for written deals, then I just fire people when I think the roster is too ginormous. Also, I like having a B-Show.</p><p> </p><p>

Most of the time, my roster starts out pretty good but gets bloated from stealing people away from other companies, so it feels like less of an issue.</p>

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I only sign workers to longtime contracts if I have a plan for them. For example, if I sign someone who is supposed to challenge my world champion at a major event in 6 months, I only sign him to a 6 months contract. If I have more ideas for him for the next 6 months after that, I sign him to another 6 months contract and so on.

 

This is what I do with all my workers, only sign them as long as I have plans for them. If some plans don't work, I job them out, but I know that I won't have them on the roster for too long so they won't tank the backstage moral.

 

If I just want to sign a worker because he becomes available and I want to see if he fits into my roster and current storylines or he's too big of a star to not sign him but I don't really have plans for him I sign him to a ppa or excl. ppa, so I can test him, see if I can work him into a storyline or, if I don't have plans for him after a few months, I can just release him.

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Because I use real world mods and i don't think it's easy to get the finances right (i usually play the big companies too) I always have enough money to keep everyone.

 

So I end up trying to send as many down to dev as possible who I haven't got plans for.

 

I find it hard to release people, especially if there's another company that could sign them to a 3 year deal and I can't sign them back. Also if they're a bit older I worry they will retire and I can't use them again.

 

Other option is to send on holiday

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If "like" a guy, but I'm not sure he's a good fit, I'll try to sign him to an Exclusive PPA deal. This gives me a little room to see if he's gonna work out. If not...it's easy enough to cut him so I dont bloat the roster and eat up too much of the budget.
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<p>I've consistently had rosters many would consider "bloated", since at least TEW07 (if not 05). If you have an overarching plan, having "too many" workers doesn't have to be a problem. For example, my goal in this edition is to elevate women's wrestling around the world but to do it organically. If anyone is familiar with Football Manager, it's like the Gibraltar or San Marino challenge in that game or (to a lesser extent) running a team in a non-big five country (so anywhere outside of Spain, England, France, Italy, and Germany). So I share talent with AAA and 5SSW and I use that talent to improve the fortunes of their "home" promotions. Now that Cat Quine owns AAA, I don't despise them so I'm glad to help them out whenever I can. Like overpaying for alliance loans, booking their workers strongly on my TV shows and pay per views, and sending my stars to work shows for them.</p><p> </p><p>

I probably have 70% of the female workers in the C-Verse on my roster (including several non-wrestlers), either in development or with the parent promotion. Having a large roster allows me to avoid WWE's current problem (repetitive matches week after week). I rotate people in and out of major programs and ship them out to 5 Star or AAA (who don't have TV) when I need them "offscreen" for extended periods. It means if J.Ro and Jillian Jarvis work a program now, they won't face each other again for at least 15 months (not even in a multi-person tag team match on TV). Roster depth allows you to do that. I'm sure you've had times when you've noticed someone on your roster and thought, "Hey, I should do something with them". I also space my storylines out (or stagger them) so they don't all have to have matches or action segments on every TV show. Promo or hype video or skit can move it along nicely and create room for those seemingly random matchups that could turn into storylines.</p><p> </p><p>

I don't really think there's a such thing as a bloated roster. It's like a painter saying "I have too many colors". If they're not costing massive financial trauma or I'm not saving up for a big purchase (a broadcaster, for example), carrying extra people has never been a worry for me. Beatdown angles let me take folks off TV and surgery/rehab angles let me keep them relevant even if they're not doing anything specific. Some folks use preshow battle royals to keep excess workers active. Use your pre and post show. I tend to do a Talkin' Smack type show in my post-show, using workers who weren't booked on the actual show. This way, those people you signed and couldn't immediately find an idea for, can at least get some TV time (post-show is better than no show at all) and further their development.</p><p> </p><p>

Here's an idea I used for a while. Schedule a show (weekly, monthly, whatever) specifically for the people you don't typically use. Non-televised and in an area you want to build up (UK/Europe for US based promotions, as an example). You could make it a separate brand (which would allow you to use the auto-booker with less human input required) but that's not really necessary. You can use this show to test for chemistry and to run alternate storylines to see what might work at home. It also allows you to use those people you like and avoid having to cut 'em.</p><p> </p><p>

Just a few thoughts.</p>

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<p>I always have a bloated roster. I too am trying to elevate womens wrestling and gave them a dedicated brand in addition to RAW and Smackdown. It got to be a lot of work to make sure no one was left out. This doesn't mean everyone was getting a push, but everyone made at least one weekly appearance. </p><p> </p><p>

I made use of squash matches and B shows. I knew some guys were going to be job guys, but they could always work out of it should they "pay their dues." I also utilized a big tag team division for those mid carders that aren't doing anything in the near future. </p><p> </p><p>

Ultimately, I wanted to downgrade to two brands and so I weeded out some of my older guys and mid carders with no direction. I sent a lot of them down to NXT, which makes NXT SIGNIFICANTLY better. There, they have a place to shine, and should I find something for them I can always call them back up. </p><p> </p><p>

I also created a womens developmental in order to prevent either developmental league from getting too bloated.</p>

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Talent trades are your friends. Even if it's sending someone talented on your end to another promotion for a bum or two. Think of it like loans in football. You're allowing your talent to work and grow until you have a spot for them. I've done this quite a bit with NOTBPW. Signed someone who was over in Mexico and then loaned them back to the same promotion. It's a win for everyone.

 

Continuing with the football line of thinking, setup divisions within your promotion or even for your belts. Top 10 are one division, then 11-20, then 21, etc. Have a dual round robin in each division over a few months. Move the top 2-3 and bottom 2-3 between divisions. If you're finding someone staying in the bottom rungs consistently then maybe they can be cut as they haven't moved up the card.

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I inevitably hire up all the prospects I love and then outside of the guys I strap a rocket to I job them up the card. I eventually drain the popularity of the vets and don't re-sign many of them. I eventually get back down to a reasonable size but the roster turnover is pretty large.
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<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="mitsukaikira" data-cite="mitsukaikira" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43839" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Unrelated but I remember your roster screenshot from '07 that had some ridiculous amount of workers. 100+ IIRC.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Yup! Been the same in every TEW. I typically have to keep a spreadsheet on who is getting pushed and when as well as who's going to get every title (and I typically have a bunch of titles), when, and for how long (as well as who they're going to drop it to and how). Heck, it's not unusual for me to have 20+ people who autopush to main eventer once I get to Cult and above. But it got MUCH worse when we got the preshow expanded to a full hour. That let me have almost an entire show devoted to my lower midcard and below workers (with a fair sprinkling of midcarders). It's two shows in one!</p>
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<p>The way I see it, you can't have too many workers (if you're using a company that can afford it) because you need jobbers. Nothing is more annoying than wanting to book someone to win a random match and not having anyone you're willing to sacrifice for them. I even try to keep everyone happy by giving them bonuses when they start complaining even if I'm literally doing nothing with them, just in case I need them one day.</p><p> </p><p>

In a way, playing TEW has made me understand WWE a lot more. Not everyone can be pushed and not everyone can be a champion, but some people are kept around just in case.</p>

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