Booking WWE exactly as real life... FOR SCIENCE!

Derek B · July 5, 2017

So... something I've wanted to do for a long time is to try to run a real world dataset while booking the shows as close to real life as possible. After putting in a lot of time adding to Fleisch's excellent mod I think it's time to test out just how close to real life it really is. Obviously, not everything is going to be perfect but if we're close then this test should point us in the direction of what needs tweaked while also showing us things that the real life WWE could do better.

I'm planning to run this game for between one and three months of real time (depending on how much work it becomes), using only the WWE. I'll be running Raw and Smackdown as close to reality as possible, while also running 205 Live exclusively on the WWE Network. I watch all of those shows so they should be easy enough for me to book. The game has Main Event set as a show too... I may read a recap to book that, but honestly, I think so few people watch that show that it's almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Though for the sake of this test, I may just have to give it a look and find out what I'm missing out on.

One downside to not watching live is that I may misplace commercials a bit due to watching an edited version without them, but things should work out pretty accurately to real life if I pay enough attention. Before I even get to properly booking the first show, there are some angles where it's hard to define where one segment ends and the next begins, particularly in a section where one worker changes. I've timed it as best I can in order to find the line... you'll see what I mean soon enough.

The first editions of RAW and Smackdown are on their way in the next day or two, I'm going to assume for the purposes of this dynasty that you have watched the show. If you get spoilered in here, I'm not taking responsibility.

AceCodey · July 6, 2017

Really interesting idea, I'll be following.

Derek B · July 7, 2017

Day 1 in the creative meeting, it looks like we've gotten a somewhat rough hand. The main roster has 3 people listed at Next Big Things, with Ariya Daivari, Sasha Banks and Gran Metalik filling the top spots in that order. They are joined in the Hot Prospects List by Baylet and Bo Dallas. Obviously this is randomly generated, but is all based on stats as we have them so far... in real life I feel that all of these performers could go on to become far more prominent with the company than they currently are, with Sasha and Bayley in particular showing their skills in NXT in the past. So overall, those are some decent list. We do have one unfortunate victim of randomness as Austin Aries is "three or four years past his best" in the Time Decline section, which may affect him in this test run. But otherwise, no major issues at this point.

Next comes setting up storylines, since the WWE needs to have 2 of those with B heat or higher to avoid penalties, and also to advance at least 2 storylines per show. A common criticism of the WWE is that they regularly don't seem to have enough hot storylines to keep us going, which is something I expect us to be on the border line of after RAW. With the data only having Brock Lesnar vs Samoa Joe as a starting storyline, we may fall short here or on Smackdown. Workers in parantheses are grouped together in storylines.

One thing this game may also help to set up is starting storylines for the next version of Fleisch's mod, based on the in game ratings we generate with this test. Which would be a nice little bonus.

Our storylines for RAW based on what we saw last week and what is coming this week are....

#1: Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe, Paul Heyman.

#2: Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman.

#3: Enzo Amore, Big Cass.

#4: Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Nia Jax, Mickie James (minor), Emma (minor), Dana Brooke (minor),

#5: Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt.

#6: Goldust, R-Truth.

#7: (Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy), (Sheamus, Cesaro). Finn Balor, Elias Samson.

#8: Dean Ambrose, (The Miz, Maryse, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas)

For the Cruiseweight division over RAW/205 Live

#1: Neville, (Akira Tozawa, Titus O'Neill (minor)),

#2: Cedric Alexander, Noam Dar, Alicia Fox

#3: Drew Gulak, Mustafa Ali.

#4: Jack Gallagher, Ariya Daivari, Rich Swann, TJP, The Brian Kendrick, Tony Nese, Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik

As you can see, the Women's and Cruiserweight divisions are kinda clustered together. While some of the characters have some direction, they don't really have their own stories playing out just now. Perhaps something for the WWE to work on in the coming months,

As previously mentioned, I don't have access to a live version of the show with commercials so there's a little guesswork applied as to where commericials are and how long they last. But other than that, here comes the first edition of RAW!

WWE Raw (July 3rd)

From: Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona

Capacity is 16,210

13,043 fans expected (without figurehead, John Cena is on Smackdown)

11, 448 actual

Announce Team: Michael Cole, Corey Graves and Booker T

Minor Angle: Recap of Enzo Amore and Big Cass bust up. Rated on overness,(Enzo Amore and Big Cass). Both off screen. 3 minutes.

RATING: C

Angle: Enzo Amore entrance and talking at Big Cass. Rated on Entertainment (Enzo Amore), Overness (Big Cass). Enzo Amore gains Minor Positive to Recent Fortunes for it being a major step in his character arc. 9 minutes.

RATING: C

Angle: Big Cass responds Enzo Amore attacks. Rated on Entertainment (Big Cass), Overness (Enzo Amore). 2 minutes.

RATING: C

Minor Angle: Recap of women's match from last week featuring Sasha Banks, Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss. All rated overness, off screen. 2 minutes.

RATING: E+

Match: Sasha Banks and Bayley vs Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss. Entrances last 2 minutes. COMMERCIALS

Limited Involvement: Bayley

Dominate: Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax

Winner: Sasha Banks

Alexa Bliss (Loser)

Submission Win

Match Aim: Story Telling

9 minutes?

RATING: E+

Minor Angle: Kurt Angle and Braun Strowman talking about Roman Reigns. Rated on Entertainment (Kurt Angle), Menace (Braun Strowman), Overness (Roman Reigns, off screen). 1 minute.

RATING: B

Minor Angle: WWE advertising nothing. 1 minute.

RATING: C-

Minor Angle: Video package hyping Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe. Since this video has aired before I'm rating it on overness since that is a measure of things we already know about a worker. No new content means it can only be overness for me, Heyman is a minor factor so doesn't add but is still relevant. Rated on Overness (Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe), Not Rated (Paul Heyman). 5 minutes

RATING: B-

COMMERCIAL

Angle: Video recap of Cedric vs Ariya, with Noam Dar's attack too and Alicia Fox referred to. Cedric Alexander promo. Rated entertainment (Cedric Alexander) and Overness (Noam Dar, Alicia Fox, Ariya Daivari). 2 minutes.

RATING: E+

Match: Cedric Alexander vs Noam Dar. 1 minute of entrances. 3 minute match.

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Cedric Alexander

Distraction: Alicia Fox on Cedric Alexander.

Pinfall Finish

RATING: D-

Minor Angle: Video recap of The Miz and celebrity. (1 minute)

RATING: B-

Minor Angle: WWE merchandise video (1 minute)

RATING: C-

COMMERCIAL?

Angle: Miz TV. The Miz with Maryse, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas going back and forth on Dean Ambrose. Rated on Entertainment (The Miz), Overness (Dean Ambrose, off screen), Sex Appeal (Maryse), Not Rated (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel). 4 minutes.

RATING: B+

HOUR 2

Angle: Ambrose comes out to address The Miz and make challenge. Heath Slater and Rhyno join Ambrose. Kurt Angle comes out to make match. Rated on Entertainment (Dean Ambrose, Heath Slater, The Miz, Kurt Angle), Sex Appeal (Maryse), Not Rated (Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas, Rhyno). 9 minutes

RATING: B-

COMMERCIALS

Minor Angle: Hype for Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman. 1 minute

RATING: B-

Match: The Miz vs Heath Slater for the WWE Intercontinental championship.

Dean Ambrose added to commentary team (in place of Booker T)

COMMERCIALS

Victor: The Miz

Open Match (very even match between competitors at different card levels)

Distractions Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas on Heath Slater, Rhyno on The Miz.

Match Aim: Regular

13 minutes

RATING: C+

Angle: Post match mean-ness as Ambrose tries to interfere with The Miz's beatdown building towards PPV match. Rated on Selling (Dean Ambrose, negative to storyline success), overness (The Miz, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel.. each with minor positives), Sex Appeal (Maryse). 2 minutes.

RATING: C+

Angle: Brock Lesnar vs Samoa Joe hype (20 seconds, ignored). Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman recap. Rated Overness (Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman). 2 minutes

RATING: B-

Angle: Apollo Crews, Titus O'Neill backstage talking about Braun Strowman. Rated Entertainment (Apollo Crews, Titus O'Neill), Overness (Braun Strowman, off screen). 2 minutes

RATING: C-

Angle: Goldust presents The Shattered Truth, talking about R-Truth.. Rated Entertainment (Goldust, minor negative), Overness (R-Truth, minor positive). 5 minutes

RATING: D

Angle: Sheamus and Cesaro talk with Kurt Angle to make 30 minute match with Hardys. Cesaro wants Finn Balor. Braun Strowman mentioned. Rated Entertainment (Sheamus, Cesaro, Kurt Angle), Overnes (Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Finn, both off screen). 2 minutes

RATING: B-

Minor Angle: Seth Rollins walking 10 seconds, (turned to 1 minute)

RATING: B-

COMMERCIAL

Angle: Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt match hyped. Rated Overness (Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt). 1 minute

RATING: B-

Angle: Curt Hawkins and Seth Rollins banter. Rated entertainment (Curt Hawkins, Seth Rollins). 2 minutes.

RATING: C

Match: Seth Rollins vs Curt Hawkins. 1 minute.

Winner: Seth Rollings

Dominate: Seth Rollins

Decisive Victory.

Match Aim: Regular

RATING: C-

Angle: Seth Rollins addresses Bray Wyatt. Rated on Entertainment (Set Rollins), Overness (Bray Wyatt, off screen). 2 minutes

RATING: B-

Angle: Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar interview. Rated Entertainment (Samoa Joe, Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman). 5 minutes

RATING: B

COMMERCIAL

HOUR 3

Match: Neville © vs Mustafa Ali – non-title

Winner: Neville

Decisive Win

Match Aim: Regular

8 minutes

RATING: C-

Minor Angle: hype for Neville vs Akira Tozawa. Rated Overness (both, off screen) (1 minute)

RATING: D-

Minor Angle: Hype for Braun Strowman tonight, rated overness (15 seconds, upped to 1 minute)

RATING: C

Angle: Bray Wyatt in the desert. Rated on Entertainment (Bray Wyatt), Overness (Seth Rollins, off screen). 4 minutes

RATING: B

Angle: Alexa Bliss interview with Charly Caruso about Sasha Banks. Rated on Entertainment (Alexa Bliss, Charly), overness (Sasha Banks, off screen). 1 minute

RATING: D

COMMERCIAL

Match: Finn Balor vs Cesaro

Finn 2 minute entrance, 2 minute entrance for Sheamus Cesaro, Hardys take a minute to get to commentary (Matt replaces Booker T)

COMMERCIAL (factored into match time already)

Interference: Elias Sampson on Finn Balor

Distraction: Hardys on Cesaro, Sheamus on Finn Balor

Slow Build

Winner: Finn Balor

16 minutes

RATING: B-

Angle: Hype for PPV on Sunday featuring Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe. Rated overness (everyone, off screen). 2 minutes.

RATING: B

Angle: Recap of Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns fighting. Rated on overness (both, off screen). 2 minutes

RATING: C+

Angle: Braun Strowman loves beating up Roman Reigns. Titus O'Neill accepts Braun's challenge for Apollo Crews. Rated entertainment (Braun Strowman, Titus O'Neill), overness (Roman Reigns, off screen. Apollo Crews). 4 minutes

RATING: C+

Match: Braun Strowman vs Apollo Crews

Victor: Braun Strowman

Match Aim: Regular

Domination: Braun Strowman.

All Out Match

Decisive Win

6 minutes

RATING: C-

Angle: Braun and Titus face off, rated Menace (Strowman), Overness (Titus O'Neill) Selling (Apollo Crews). 3 minutes

RATING: C+

Angle: Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns brawl. Rated on Menace (Braun Strowman), Overness (Roman Reigns). 4 mintues

RATING: B

SHOW RATING: C+

SHOW NOTES (in-game): The general feeling is that WWE don't have enough interesting storylines going on. This show lost us popularity in 18 regions (all of the US and Canada).

So... some general thoughts. First of all... breaking down the show like this makes me realise just how little original content each edition of RAW actually has. It breaks down to roughly...

55 minutes of actual wrestling/entrances

20 minutes of recaps, merchandise commercials and bumpers

30 to 40 minutes of regular commercials (some of which are in match time)

65 to 75 minutes of angles

Match ratio of about 45%, so the angles really carried the show.

It seems so weird to try to book this in-game when so much of the show feels like it's adding so very little. While I know some of it works better in reality than in game for building audience anticipation. It also makes me realise why I enjoy Lucha Underground so much... they have actual content and it makes me want to pay attention, while RAW seems to be designed to remind people of the things they have tuned out and try to remind you to come back next week for another round. Not only that, this show has 38 segments, averaging just 4 minutes per segment adn with commercials all over the place. TV for the ADHD generation.

Anywho.... the lack of strong storylines seems to reflect my general feeling on this week's RAW... it's the go home for the PPV, so it's always going to suffer a little on the match quality side of things to help us get excited to watch that. The angles really carried the show as Braun vs Roman, Brock vs Joe and Seth vs Bray all pulled some decent ratings... if the game had some starting storylines we might have been able to meet the storyline requirements. We ended up with Brock vs Joe at B heat, and Ambrose vs Miz and Hardys, Finn, Sheamus/Cesaro, Elias at B-... due to the number of minor angles (literally just videos) some storylines weren't advanced well and graded low. By the PPV we should be doing a little better there.

As for the angles themselves, on this particular show they didn't generally play to the workers' strengths. Brock talked and didn't get into any direct conflict... using his entertainment skills in his main angle instead of his menace or overness for a particuarly strong angle likely cost them an entire show grade. Braun and Roman did well though.

Ultimately, I think this show did about as well as could be expected for a go home show that had a couple of things missing going into it (like storylines). I think it also highlights that the WWE is struggling with star power a little... they have the talent, but without the overness to back them up things aren't quite grading as highly as they perhaps should. That said, I'm interested to see where things are going to go next with this game... Smackdown should grade fairly well and bring the company up to it's storyline requirements.

Stay tuned for more WWE, exactly as it happened in real life!

nymetfan · July 7, 2017

Im really interested in seeing how this turns out

Greylocke · July 7, 2017

Haven't read the show yet, because I always watch my wrestling late during the weekend (and often 1-2 weeks behind real-time) so it'll be spoilers for me, but definitely tagging this to check out later.

FOR SCIENCE!

Derek B · July 8, 2017

Time for a quick double dose of Smackdown and 205 Live... had to make sure I was organised for both shows at once, as I almost forgot they were recorded together... I tend to watch 205 and NXT together, and some dodgy sleep lately threw my brain out a little.

So.... I made a tweak to the 205 Live Storylines. Here is the updated ones to reflect what will be on the show and what I may have overlooked a little bit. Nothing too dramatic, it just splits the major one a bit to give more focus to some emerging rivalries. For such a small division, there are some definite stories being woven here.

For the Cruiserweight division over RAW/205 Live

#1: Neville, (Akira Tozawa, Titus O'Neill (minor)),

#2: Cedric Alexander, Noam Dar, Alicia Fox

#3: Drew Gulak, Mustafa Ali.

#4: Jack Gallagher, The Brian Kendrick, Tony Nese,

#5: Rich Swann, TJP,

I've also set TJP to prepare for a turn, though I don't think his hinted face turn is going to happen. But the set up is there, so I will make it look like he might turn face here.

And our storylines are Smackdown are.

#1: Randy Orton, (Jinder Mahal, Samir Singh (minor), Sunil Singh (minor))

#2: Kevin Owns, AJ Styles

#3: John Cena, Rusev

#4: Big E, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso

#5: Becky Lynch, Carmella, Charlotte Flair, Lana, Naomi, Natalya, Tamina, James Ellsworth.

#6: Sami Zayn, Mike Kanelis, Maria Kanelis.

#7: (Fandango, Tyler Breeze), (Mojo Rawley, Zack Ryder), (Konnor, Viktor), (Primo, Epico)

#8: Baron Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura.

WWE Smackdown (July 4th)

From: Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. (capacity 16,210)

Announce Team: Tom Phillips, JBL, Byron Saxton

Expected attendance 14,481 (with figurehead John Cena)

Actual attendance of 11,144

Minor Angle: Then, now, forever into... 4th of July video featuring various Smackdown stars. 2 minutes

RATING: B-

Angle: John Cena addresses the WWE Universe, inconsequentially name drops a bunch of people.. Rate on Entertainment (John Cena, unscripted). 7 minutes

RATING: A*

Angle: Rusev disses America, Cena stands up for America and challenges him to a Flag match. Rated on Entertainment (Rusev, John Cena, both unscripted). 7 minutes

RATING: A

Minor Angle: Lana/Naomi match announced. Usos vs New Day rap battle annunced. All rated overness and off screen. 30 seconds bumped up to 1 minute.

RATING: C-

Angle: Daniel Bryan with AJ Styles and Chad Gable, talking about Kevin Owens, leading to match. Rated on Entertainment (Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Chad Gable), Overness (Kevin Owens, off screen). 2 minutes.

RATING: B-

COMMERCIAL?

Match: AJ Styles vs Chad Gable

2 minutes for entrances/post match

Early match commercial.

Winner: AJ Styles

Open Match

Decisive Win

10 minutes

RATING: B

Angle: Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder backstage. Rated Entertainment (both). 1 minutes

RATING: D+

COMMERCIAL

Angle: Carmella and James Ellsworth celebrating Carmella's Money In The Bank win. Naomi interupts with some disses. Rated Entertainment (James Ellsworth, Carmella, Naomi). 6 minutes.

RATING: D+

Angle: Out comes Daniel Bryan to eject, fine and suspend James Ellsworth. Rated Overness (Carmella, Naomi), Entertainment (Daniel Bryan, James Ellsworth). 3 minutes.

RATING: D

COMMERCIAL

Match: Naomi © vs Lana for the Smackdown Women's Championship

2 minutes entrances/introductions

1 minute

Winner: Naomi

Dominate: Naomi

Submission Victory

RATING: D-

Angle: Tamina comes out to take Lana away. Naomi celebrates. 2 minutes.

RATING: E+

Angle: Shinsuke attacked by Baron Corbin. Rated Overness (Shinsuke), Overness (Baron Corbin). 30 seconds.

RATING: C-

COMMERCIAL?

Minor Angle: Rusev vs John Cena announce for PPV match in a Flag Match. 30 seconds, rounded up to 1 minute.

RATING: B

HOUR 2

Angle: Wale (pronounce Wah-lay, not Wall-E) hosts a rap battle between Usos and New Day. Usos disqualified for starting fight. Rated on Entertainment (Big E, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods). 13 minutes.

RATING: C+

Minor Angle: Randy Orton Walking. 5 seconds ignored

RATING: C+

COMMERCIAL

Minor Angle: Titus O'Neill hyping 205 Live: 40 seconds

RATING: D

Angle: Aiden English interupted by Randy Orton again. 20 seconds

RATING: B-

Match: Aiden English vs Randy Orton

Entrances maybe covered by angles, so 3 minutes

COMMERCIALS

Victor: Aiden English

Rage DQ finish

Match Aim: Story Telling

6 minutes

RATING: B-

Angle: Orton RKO's Aiden English to get heat back. Jinder Mahal cuts promo at Orton along with minions. Rated Entertainment (Orton, Storyline Success, Jinder Mahal), Selling (Aiden English, storyline Defeat) Not Rated (The Sihra Brothers). 4 minutes

RATING: C

Minor Angle: Announcers literally hype RAW and the WWE Network. Folded into announcers hyping battle royale main event, with various members of roster. 2 minutes.

RATING: C

Angle: Tye Dillinger interviewed by Breezango. Rated Entertainment (Tye Dillinger, Tyler Breeze, Fandango). 2 minutes.

RATING: D+

Angle: Renee Young interview Maria and Mike Kanelis, disturbed by Sami Zayn. Rated Entertainment (Renee Young, Maria Kanelis, Mike Kanelis, Sami Zayn). 2 minutes.

RATING: D+

Match: Battle Royale

AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, Epico, Erick Rowan, Fandango, Jason Jordan, Konnor, Luke Harper, Mojo Rawley, Sami Zayn, Sin Cara, Tye Dillinger, Tyler Breeze, Viktor, Zack Ryder,

Entrances + COMMERCIAL about 7 minutes

Kevin Owens on commentary (replace Byron Saxton)

Match Aim: Regular

Most Eliminations: Erick Rowan

Runner Up: Sami Zayn

Finalist: Tye Dillinger, Mojo Rawley

12 minutes

RATING: B-

Eliminations

Luke Harper eliminates Dolph Ziggler

COMMERCIAL

Erick Rowan eliminates Fandango

Erick Rowan (2) eliminates Tyler Breeze

Erick Rowan (3) eliminates Sin Cara

Luke Harper (2) eliminates Erick Rowan

Mojo Rawley eliminates Luke Harper

Mojo Rawley (2) eliminates Zack Ryder

Sami Zayn eliminates Mojo Rawley

Sami Zayn (2) eliminates Tye Dillinger

AJ Styles eliminates Sami Zayn

Don't know who got Konnor, Viktor, Epico and Jason Jordan.

Primo may have been in this match, but battle royales can only have so manyparticpants and I don't remember seeing him.

Angle: Kevin Owens tries to attack AJ Styles, ends up with stalemate. Rated Overness (AJ Styles and Kevin Owens). 2 minutes.

RATING: B-

TALKING SMACK: Renee Young, Daniel Bryan and Naomi. Rated Entertainment, 8 minutes.

RATING: C-

TALKING SMACK: Renee Young, Daniel Bryan, Maria Kanelis and Maria Kanelis. All rated Enterainment, 7 minutes.

RATING: C-

TALKING SMACK: Renee Young, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles. All rated Entertainmen. 8 minutes.

RATING: C+

SHOW RATING: B+

SHOW NOTES (in game): This sbow increased our popularity in 37 regions.

THOUGHTS: 23 segments..... Talking Smack counted only the segments in which people were doing something useful as it's post show and doesn't effect the show rating. I also didn't want them to affect storylines at all, so these segments are just there to be rated on entertainment and help develop the individuals, which seems to be the main aim of the show anyways. As for the main show...

42 minutes of matches/entrances

6-8 minutes of recaps, merchandise and bumpers (WAY less than RAW)

25-30 minutes of actual commercials (some of which is part of matches)

56 minutes of agles, for about half the show

This show was more angle heavy than your typical Smackdown, in part due to the returns of John Cena AND Rusev, and also the very lengthy (and mostly entertaining) rap battle segment, which was almost half of the angles for this show. Personally, I enjoyed this show a lot more than RAW, probably because there was a lot less filler... it just makes for a tighter show in general. Plus, John Cena on a microphone clearly equals ratings... but I think we already knew that, even if we aren't all his biggest fans.

As for the actual grades here.... the matches ended up being pretty great. Orton vs English had positive chemistry, though Orton was angry at being forced to lose. For the purposes of this diary I think I may give him enough bonuses to make him happy as I doubt he's that unhappy in real life knowing that is was just a minor loss as part of a storyline. Heck, maybe he is and any day now we'll see Orton go back to his old ways before getting released and winning the GFW World title on his first night with the companby.

-----------------------------------

205 Live (July 4th)

Announcers: Corey Graves, Vic Joseph

Angle: Then, Now Forever.... leading to Titus O'Neill talking to Tozawa over the phone. Bumps into Ariya Daivari, Mustafa Ali. Entertainment (Titus), overness (Tozawa, off screen. Daivari, Mustafa Ali). 2 minutes

RATING: E+

Minor Angle: Show intro, annoucers run down card. Gallagher vs Nese. Swann vs TJP. (competitors rated on overness, off screen) 2 minutes.

RATING: E

Angle: Titus O'Neill hyping Neville vs Tozawa, interupted by Neville to diss Titus Worldwide. Rated Entertainment (Titus O'Neill, Neville), Overness (Tozawa, Apollo Crews, Braun Strowman all off screen). 7 minutes.

RATING: C-

Match: Neville © vs Lince Dorado (non-title)

Titus O'Neill on commentary

Winner: Neville

Decisive Victory

6 minutes (+2 for pre and post match stuff)

RATING: C

Angle: TJP and Rish Swann talking backstage. Rated Entertainment (both). 1 minute

RATING: D

Minor Angle: Video for Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar PPV match. Rate Overness (Brock and Joe, both off screen). 1 minute

RATING: B

Minor Angle: Video recaps of Jack Gallagher vs Tony Nese and vs The Brian Kendrick (all rated overness and off screen). 3 minutes.

RATING: E+

Match: Tony Nese vs Jack Gallagher

Winner: Jack Gallagher

Open Match

Decisive Win

Match Aim: Story Telling

9 minutes

RATING: D-

Angle: The Brian Kendrick performing "A History Of Great Britain" at Jack Gallagher. Rated on Entertainment (Kendrick), Overness (Jack). 3 minutes

RATING: D

Minor Angle: Daniel Bryan, Renee, AJ, Naomi, Kanelis on Talking Smack. 1 minute.

RATING: D+

Angle: Noam Dar and Alicia talk Cedric Alexander. Rated Entertainment (Noam, Alicia), Overness (Cedric, off screen). 3 minutes.

RATING: D-

Minor Angle: NXT hype for Roderick Strong vs Bobby Roode. 30 seconds (ignoring).

Match: TJP vs Rich Swann

3 minutes for pre/post match stuff

Winner: Rich Swann

Steal The Show

Open Match

Flash Pinfall Finish

12 minutes (+3 minutes for pre match entrances)

RATING: D-

Angle: Swann and TJP shake hands. Both rated overness. 2 minutes

RATING: E+

SHOW RATING: C-

SHOW NOTES (in-game): There are no specific comments to be made about this show.

THOUGHTS: In real life, this was a pretty good edition of the show and I think the C- ratnig it gets in the game is fair for a division that has far less popularity than C- for the most part. Admittedly the angles brought things up a bit but the entire cruiserweight division is known for being more in-ring talented than it is on-mic talented. Even Neville, who has been sensational since making his return and joining the division, is still better in-ring than on the mic. I'm also liking the addition of Titus O'Neill as a male manager... his work on the mic was always the best part of his game in the Prime Time Players so it's good to see him using his strengths to help Tozawa and Apollo Crews cover some weaknesses in their game. As for the show breakdown...

13 segments in one hour

34 minutes is matches (including entrances and regular post match highlights)

3-5 minutes of fluff filler for things like PPV and NXT

With the commercials being basically for all in-house things, this show seems to be the most focused on the actual talent... that said beyond Neville there is no-one with with any real momentum or strong gimmicks on the show just now to pop ratings. It's a B show though, so ratings are non essential. I remember being super excited for 205 Live when it was announced... coming off the back of the Cruiserweight Classic and remembering when the WCW cruisweight division was awesome and later remembering some awesome times in TNA's X division, I saw a lot of potential. It's a shame that 205 often feels like a lightweight version of everything else the WWE does...

That said, the booking sheet doesn't lie... there is more of a focus on matches here than on the main shows. There are also several rivalries being developed, and with it all being focused on one division instead of having World, midcard, women's and tag divisions to worry about... well, it's a solid hour of wrestling where Neville has been reigning supreme for a while now as one of the company's hottest acts. He really is the anchor here.... given how talented he has been, it can only be a matter of time before he get a reward and moves up the card elsewhere. Maybe a UK Championship run down the line to help bring that championship and the talents linked to that into more mainstream prominence?

----------------------------------------

Anywho, that's almost all of the first week of shows complete, with Great Balls Of Fire still to come on Sunday. Predictions for the show are welcomed since you will be guessing at grades and how well it will work out in TEW terms. So here's a quick run down of the show with relevant storyline heat attached since we know that plays a factor, even though hype videos will no doubt change things as the show progresses. WWE hype videos can always make things look better than we remember them being.

WWE UNIVERSAL TITLE

Brock Lesnar © vs Samoa Joe

Heat: B

Predicted Rating:

Ambulance Match

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

Heat: C

Predicted Rating:

NOTE: There has been lots of minor hype but not enough substance to get this in game where I feel it is in reality just now.

Raw Women’s Championship Match

Alexa Bliss © vs. Sasha Banks

Heat: D-

Predicted Rating:

Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt

Heat: C+

Predicted Rating:

30-Minute WWE Iron Man Raw Tag Team Championship Match

Cesaro & Sheamus © vs. The Hardy Boyz

Heat: B-

Predicted Rating:

Intercontinental Championship Match

The Miz © vs. Dean Ambrose

Heat: B-

Predicted Rating:

Enzo Amore vs. Big Cass

Heat: C

Predicted Rating:

WWE Great Balls of Fire Kickoff Match for the Cruiserweight Championship

Neville © vs. Akira Tozawa

Heat: D+

Predicted Rating:

Predicted Show Rating:

--------------------------

I wasn't planning to do a predictions thing, but with the PPV right there it just feels wrong not to. No points or anything for guessing right, just the chance to show off your TEW knowledge. I do find it interesting that the Kick Off show match is one of the lowest heat matches in-game... the women's match has the lowest heat (which sounds right) but with the increased focys on women's wrestling, even if the booking has been lacklustre, there's just no way they could get away with bumping that to the pre show.

So have fun guys, if you have nay questions fire them my way and be sure to check out Fleisch's awesome mod for the data this is based on.

LigerLiger · July 8, 2017

Enzo talking for 9 minutes? Christ.

Also, I want to praise you for trying to book WWE exactly as real-life in TEW. Their style just doesn't work here, specially with storylines. For example, you have the Reigns vs. Strowman and Brock vs. Joe storyline, but right after the PPV it will become Reigns vs. Universal Champion, which in TEW terms would be a new storyline but IRL it is a continuation of both feuds. WWE's storylines are mostly a mess IRL.

Anyway, here are some predictions

WWE UNIVERSAL TITLE

Brock Lesnar © vs Samoa Joe

Heat: B

Predicted Rating:B+

Ambulance Match

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

Heat: C

Predicted Rating:B-

NOTE: There has been lots of minor hype but not enough substance to get this in game where I feel it is in reality just now.

Raw Women’s Championship Match

Alexa Bliss © vs. Sasha Banks

Heat: D-

Predicted Rating:D

Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt

Heat: C+

Predicted Rating:B

30-Minute WWE Iron Man Raw Tag Team Championship Match

Cesaro & Sheamus © vs. The Hardy Boyz

Heat: B-

Predicted Rating:C

Intercontinental Championship Match

The Miz © vs. Dean Ambrose

Heat: B-

Predicted Rating:B-

Enzo Amore vs. Big Cass

Heat: C

Predicted Rating:C-

WWE Great Balls of Fire Kickoff Match for the Cruiserweight Championship

Neville © vs. Akira Tozawa

Heat: D+

Predicted Rating:D

Predicted Show Rating:B-

KnowYourEnemy · July 8, 2017

WWE UNIVERSAL TITLE

Brock Lesnar © vs Samoa Joe

Heat: B

Predicted Rating: B

Ambulance Match

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

Heat: C

Predicted Rating: C

NOTE: There has been lots of minor hype but not enough substance to get this in game where I feel it is in reality just now.

Raw Women’s Championship Match

Alexa Bliss © vs. Sasha Banks

Heat: D-

Predicted Rating: D

Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt

Heat: C+

Predicted Rating: B-

30-Minute WWE Iron Man Raw Tag Team Championship Match

Cesaro & Sheamus © vs. The Hardy Boyz

Heat: B-

Predicted Rating: C+

Intercontinental Championship Match

The Miz © vs. Dean Ambrose

Heat: B-

Predicted Rating: C

Enzo Amore vs. Big Cass

Heat: C

Predicted Rating: D

WWE Great Balls of Fire Kickoff Match for the Cruiserweight Championship

Neville © vs. Akira Tozawa

Heat: D+

Predicted Rating: C-

Predicted Show Rating: B-

The Lloyd · July 9, 2017

Apologies if you've mentioned it somewhere, but I was just interested... For Science... How you would handle a **Spoiler in white: Title Change at a House Show?!?!

Derek B · July 9, 2017

I think the name of this thread means you can put spoilers galore in here. That said, I'm going to be sending Austin Aries on vacation rather than outright releasing him just in case the situation is a work. I don't think it is, but it's better to be safe for the purposes of this diary.

As for AJ Styles winning the US title from Kevin Owens on a house show, I'll simply use the replace champion feature to give AJ Styles the title. The game is still sitting on Wednesday after Smackdown and 205 Live.... Dean Ambrose and Renee Young divorced in the save, so I'll be editing that in-game again so they are still married. It's going to be a tough one trying to keep things close to reality here, but I'm game for it.

I've realised that I didn't put up my own Great Balls Of Fire predictions too, so I'm going to do that now before the show.... FOR SCIENCE!!

------------------------

WWE UNIVERSAL TITLE

Brock Lesnar © vs Samoa Joe

Heat: B

Predicted Rating: B

I'm guessing this match goes about 10 to 12 minutes of intense action. The short match time and the face that Joe is still in the process of getting over will likely stop this rating much higher. I also expect Brock to win despite Joe kicking his ass for muchc of the match.

Ambulance Match

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

Heat: C

Predicted Rating: B

In real life, I think this will be my favourite match of the night. I love Braun and I appreciate Roman, even if he's not booked well. Should be solid if given enough time,

and I expect Roman wins to set up a Summerslam main event with Brock.

Raw Women’s Championship Match

Alexa Bliss © vs. Sasha Banks

Heat: D-

Predicted Rating: C-

This is one of the hardest ones to predict... it's still early in their storyline, there isn't much hype behind it and there's no guarantee of the match getting much time given the other major matches on the show. If it's short, this could be as low as D... if it's longer,

it could hit a C+. I expect Alexa to win for now via underhanded methods.

Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt

Heat: C+

Predicted Rating: B

I don't care about this in real life at all... it feels so forced and bland. That said, the game doesn't know that and they are pretty talented guys so I would expect this to do quite well. I hope Rollins wins but I think Wyatt will win to stretch this one out a bit longer.

30-Minute WWE Iron Man Raw Tag Team Championship Match

Cesaro & Sheamus © vs. The Hardy Boyz

Heat: B-

Predicted Rating: B

I expect this match to be a very good match between a group of very talented performers. If I was fantasy booking, this is where Matt Hardy would get broken again... in-game, tag experience combined with some strong psychology could make this a great match.

Intercontinental Championship Match

The Miz © vs. Dean Ambrose

Heat: B-

Predicted Rating: B-

I'm expecting this to be something of an overbooked mess that may be great or could be terrible. Either way, I want this to be the end of this rivalry at last. I'm going to go with Miz retaining.

Enzo Amore vs. Big Cass

Heat: C

Predicted Rating: D+

I expect this to be the worst match of the night, and I hope Cass destroys Enzo and looks like a million bucks doing so. Should be fun even if it's not good.

WWE Great Balls of Fire Kickoff Match for the Cruiserweight Championship

Neville © vs. Akira Tozawa

Heat: D+

Predicted Rating: C

This should be a great match as Neville has been amazing this year and Tozawa can clearly keep up with him in-ring. I'm looking forward to this one. and I hope that Neville retains/I]

Predicted Show Rating: B+

Based on the angles being strong (mostly hype) and the matches being pretty good, this should end up being a very good show in the game. It may not be quite as good in real life, but I'm hoping it's going to be a good show.

Crossface · July 9, 2017

Not following the current product closely enough to give predictions that are really worth a damn (that said, I am looking forward to Brock/Joe so I will tune in tonight), but I just wanted to say that I'm fascinated by this idea Derek! What a great way to both test the mod and the game engine as a whole. I'll be tuning in.

Greylocke · July 10, 2017

In the game, Brock vs Joe might also get dinged for being heel vs heel, even though that has obviously not been an issue in real life.......

Derek B · July 13, 2017

Before this show we find out that Jeff Hardy is going to go tour with his band in a few months... just as well we won't be playing or that long, that would be super annoying. I also made sure to include AJ Styles' title win over Kevin Owens by replacing him as champion. It's a handy feature that one. I also gave Randy Orton a bonus to make him for him being upset at his Rage DQ loss to Aiden English... $20,000 and he's still annoyed about it. Harsh. So now, on with the show before I start to fall behind real life with the bookings. And the only reason that's even happening is because there has been an extra PPV thrown in while I'm working a silly number of days at work for this week and next week.

Before the show we have a couple of incidents

Finlay lightens up the atmosphere with some funny drawings of his colleagues

Jeff Hardy takes Rich Swann under his wing as a protege... I guess the Swannton Bomb is going to have to debut soon.

So......

Being shown on Bell TV, Dish Mexico, Dish Network, Sky Box Office and SKY Perfect.... (3 of which expect B+ ratings in order to be happy)

http://stillrealtous.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WWE-Great-Balls-Of-Fire-logo-356x200.jpg

From American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

Expected Attendance (game): 31,896 (due to figurehead not being present)

Actual Attendance (game): 19,000 sell-out

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Booker T

PRE SHOW

Match: Neville © vs Akira Tozawa for the WWE Cruiserweight championship

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Neville

Open Match

13 minutes (and 2 minutes entrances)

(announcers: Corey Graves and Vic Joseph)

Rating: C-

MAIN SHOW

Angle: Then, Now, Forever... opening video. Featuring all the major matches. Rated Overness (Roman, Braun, Sasha, Alexa, Joe, Brock). 3 minutes.

Rating: C

Match: Bray Wyatt vs Seth Rollins

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Bray Wyatt

Tainted Win

13 minutes match time (plus 5 minutes for entrances/other)

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: WWE guys doing good things. 1 minute.

Rating: C

Angle: Hardys talk with Charly Caruso. Rated Entertainment (Hardys), Not Rated (Charly), Overness (Sheamus and Cesaro, off screen). 2 minutes.

Rating: B-

Angle: Big Cass and Enzo video. Rated Overness (Enzo, Cass). 4 minutes.

Rating: D+

Angle: Enzo... That's Life. Rated Entertainment (Enzo), Overness (Big Cass). 5 minutes

Rating: C

Match: Enzo Amore vs Big Cass

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Big Cass

Dominate: Big Cass

Decisive Win

5 minutes.

Rating: D+

Angle: 2 minutes hyping Kurt Angle DVD

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: the Miz backstage. Rated overness. (1 minute)

Rating: B-

Match: The Hardys vs Cesaro and Sheamus © in a 30 Minute Iron Man match for the WWE Raw Tag Team championships

Match Aim: Regular

Winners: Cesaro and Sheamus

Open Match

Slow Build

Decisive Win

30 minutes. (plus 6 minutes for entrances/celebrations)

Rating: B

Minor Angle: Xavier Woods plays Rocket League. Rated Entertainment (Xavier Woods). 1 minute.

Rating: C+

Minor Angle: John Cena and Rusev hype for Battleground. Rated overness (Cena, Rusev. Both off screen). 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Dean Ambrose backstage. Rated overness (Ambrose) 15 seconds.

Rating: B

Angle: Hype for Alexa Bliss vs Sasha. Rated overness (Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks. Both off screen). 4 minutes.

Rating: D

Match: Sasha Banks vs Alexa Bliss © for the WWE Raw Women's championship

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Sasha Banks

Intentional Count Out

13 minutes (plus 3 minutes for entrances and post match stuff)

Rating: D+

Angle: Sasha post match attack on Alexa. Rated on Overness (Sasha Banks, positive storyline success), Selling (Alexa Bliss, negative Storyline Success.) 2 minutes.

Rating: C-

Minor Angle: Rocket League commercial (30 seconds, ignored)

Angle: Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal in a Punjabi Prison match hype. Rated overness (both, off screen). 1 minute.

Rating: C+

Angle: Announcers talk about AJ Styles beating Kevin Owens for the US title at house show. Rated Overness (AJ Styles, minor positive storyline success. Kevin Owens, minor negative storyline success). 1 minute.

Rating: B

Angle: Titus O'Neill going to get Tozawa a rematch. Tozawa (selling), Titus O'Neill (entertainment), Neville (overness, off screen). 2 minutes.

Rating: C-

Match: The Miz © vs Dean Ambrose for the WWE Intercontinental championship

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: The Miz

Open Match

Interference: Maryse, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas on Dean Ambrose.

Outside Interference Finish.

12 minutes (plus 3 minutes for entrances and stuff)

Rating: B

Minor Angle: Hype for WWE Network (ignored)

Angle: Hype video for Roman vs Braun. Rated Overness (both, off screen). 4 minutes.

Rating: B-

Match: Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman in an Ambulance Match (clone the Casket Match and renamed it)

Winner: Braun Strowman

Open Match

Trapping Finish

16 minutes (plus 4 minutes for entrances)

Rating: B-

Angle: Roman attacks and commits crimes on Braun after fight. Rated Overness (Roman, storyline Major Success. Braun, storyline Major Defeat). 4 minutes.

Rating: B

Match: Heath Slater vs Curt Hawkins

Match Aim: Work The Crowd

Winner: Heath Slater

2 minutes.

Rating: D (poorly placed match for Work the Crowd, just like reality)

Angle: Braun trapped in ambulance, walks away bloodied and awesome. Rated on Menace (Braun, storyline success. This was special), Acting (Kurt Angle). 7 minutes.

Rating: A

Angle: Hype for Samoa Joe vs Brock Lesnar. Rated Overness (both, off screen). 5 minutes.

Rating: B

Angle: Samoa Joe jumps Brock pre-match and puts him through announce table. Rated Menace (Samoa Joe, storyline success), Selling (Lesnar, storyline defeat). 6 minutes

Rating: B

Match: Samoa Joe vs Brock Lesnar © for the WWE Universal Championship

Match Aim: Wild Brawl

Winner: Brock Lesnar

Keep Strong: Samoa Joe

Decisive Win

8 minutes (plus 3 minutes for entrances and stuff)

Rating: B-

SHOW RATING:

http://stillrealtous.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WWE-Great-Balls-Of-Fire-logo-356x200.jpg

After watching this show, I had a feeling it wasn't going to do as well in game as it did in real life... the main event being so short was a good spectacle in real life due to Brock Lesnar being hard to define as a heel/face character... he did his job of making Joe generally look great, but I didn't think that would be good for the overall PPV rating in TEW. The attempted murder on Braun Strowman was an AMAZING segment that I would give an A* rating to if I could too, and that I suspected the game would not.

That said, this show in particular highlighted one issue that I know several people have with the game, and that's people getting unhappy about losing matches. With Orton losing by deliberate DQ earlier in the week being the first instance.. but in this Seth had a complain about losing, Ambrose complained a little about losing and Roman Reigns complained in a MAJOR way... Roman might have complained less if he had a positive relationship with Braun, so that's something that might need to be added since they do seem to be friends. The rest of the complaints feel pretty lame... and so may warrant a look at the levels of tolerance for workers taking a loss, particularly in a mainstream company where stories have to have a bit of give and take in order for the stories to work. Needing to have two workers on a similar enough level in order to keep them happy makes it more limiting in-game than in reality, especially given that we have minimal tools with which to overcome such obstacles beyond direct bribes.

That said... in real life I felt like this event probably hit about the B+ mark as it was filled with good action and had some truly memorable highlights with the Braun/Roman stuff and a great showing from Joe/Lesnar that was only ruined by the finish being a bit weak. The game says it was a B rating overall, which I'm impressed with. I thought the penalty for the heel vs heel main event would have been stronger, but it played to the strengths of the workers (wild brawl for brawlers) and having Heyman around with his chemistry with Brock also helped push the rating up a little more too. I think it also proves that you can have perfectly good ratings for a heel vs heel match if booked well, which is nice to see for anyone who worries overly much about this sort of thing. If the Roman vs Braun angle had been rated as high as I would have liked it to have been, this show could have hit the B+ rating I would have given it (and that our PPV providers want). So good job TEW on being pretty close to reality. There really wasn't much to fault the game with when comparing it to real life, which means good job to Fleisch for all his hard work on the mod too.

As for show structure...

177 minutes of run time in game (plus 15 in the pre show for stuff that actually mattered)

99 minutes of that is match time (including entrances)

8 actual matches

28 total segments

10-14 minutes of filler depending on the timings, some of which is hype for Smackdown based stuff.

And the show was within the target percentage for events, which is 80% by default (giving us 65% to 95% target). Another victory there, though we were really cutting it fine this time and it might be worth changing that to 70% depending on how the Smackdown PPV looks in a couple of weeks. I also realise now that I didn't set Neville's title defence number pre-game, so that should be changed if he is still champion in future. This matters (a little), as the game books title lengths in terms of defences rather than length of time with the title, so not setting this means that anyone not playing TEW might see Neville with an unrealistically long title reign. Though to be fair, if he stays as good as he is now he could keep that belt for a long time and one day leave the division with enough momentum to shoot himself straight to a major main event match.

Up next... more WWE Raw, booked just like real life.. FOR SCIENCE!!

Kingster · July 13, 2017

Just to understand game mechanics: Was Slater/Hawkins really a "Work the crowd" match? To me, it was a textbook storytelling match. What happened in the ring didn't matter at all, the wrestling was real basic, the announcers talked about what happened to Braun and they distracted the crowd in the arena with the sirens going off. We didn't even get to see the finish of the match.

Am I misunderstanding that match aim completely?

Derek B · July 14, 2017

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Kingster" data-cite="Kingster" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43895" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Just to understand game mechanics: Was Slater/Hawkins really a "Work the crowd" match? To me, it was a textbook storytelling match. What happened in the ring didn't matter at all, the wrestling was real basic, the announcers talked about what happened to Braun and they distracted the crowd in the arena with the sirens going off. We didn't even get to see the finish of the match. Am I misunderstanding that match aim completely?</div></blockquote> With a bit more thought, I probably should have set that one to Calm The Crowd... it was clearly a minor segment being used to give the crowd a little bit of a breather after a bunch of higher rated segments, while also giving people time to do whatever make up stuff was required with Braun. I wouldn't set it as Story Telling due to it not being about the story in the ring at all.... but it's a tough one to deal with in general since we didn't even get to see the finish and it was barely on screen. I considered putting it as an angle since it was so nondescript... Work The Crowd was probably the wrong choice though, but with it just being a weird kind of segment to have there really wasn't any good way to book that one. <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> <div style="text-align:center"><img alt="latest?cb=20130716023228" data-src="https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/5/56/WWERaw.png/revision/latest?cb=20130716023228" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> July 10th</div> After the moaning at the PPV, and in order to hopefully keep things going well in future I've given the following bonuses out to workers: Randy Orton: $30,000 (now at happy) Roman Reigns: $30,000 (still at annoyed) followed by $50,000 (now at happy) Seth Rollins: $30,000 (now at happy) In all cases I ended up making them happier than intended but it seems wrong for them to be unhappy based on the cause of those unhappiness. I also added a Strong Friendship relationship between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman as it doesn't look like they are going to be finished with each other yet. <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> I elected not to give Dean Ambrose a bonus as he only had a minor hit and there have been enough rumours of him being unhappy at various points anyway so that isn't an unrealistic level of unhappiness. One thing I'm somewhat disappointed about is that I don't feel the need to change the storylines at all. I added Kurt Angle and Corey Graves to a storyline of their own for that whole mystery but everything else I left the same. You would think that coming out of a PPV level event that there would be some new stories branching off, but as of this show that is not the case for the main RAW roster or the 205 Live/Cruiserweight division. That's kinda sad... but with that said, the 205 Live stories do look to be on the path to changing soon and with Brock likely heading away for at least a few weeks on the road to Summerslam, I guess Samoa Joe might get folded into the Roman and Braun storyline too as that entire thing seems to contain the #1 contender stuff. Anyway, time for RAW, which in real life I felt was a very good episode again. It's like someone finally went "People might tune in next week if we have some mysteries going on"... and they're right. It's leaving us with a reason to tune in and find out what is going to happen next. The Enzo/Cass break up... the Kurt Angle mystery storyline (personally, it should be him talking to Karen Jarrett leading to a WWE vs GFW thing, for funsies <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"> ) and the......................... <div style="text-align:center"><img alt="latest?cb=20130716023228" data-src="https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/5/56/WWERaw.png/revision/latest?cb=20130716023228" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"></div> From the American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas. Expected Crowd (game): 12,760 (figurehead not present) Actual Crowd: 11,116 Angle: Then, now, forever.... Raw intro and Great Balls Of Fire recap. Rated Overness (Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns Both Off screen). 3 minutes Rating: B- Angle: Big Cass promo at Enzo Amore. Rated Entertainment (Big Cass), Overness (Enzo, off screen). 7 minutes Rating: C- Angle: Big Show interupts Big Cass, time for a brawl. Rated Overness (Big Cass, storyline defeat. Big Show, storyline success). 3 minutes. Rating: C Minor Angle: Announcers hype Braun Strowman and Roman from last night, Brock Lesnar also here. Rated overness (all, off screen). 1 minute. Rating: B- COMMERCIAL Angle: Elias Sampson sings for Finn Balor. Rated Entertainment (Elias Sampson), Overness (Finn Balor). 4 minutes Rating: C Match: Elias Sampson vs Finn Balor COMMERCIAL Match Aim: Regular Winner: Finn Balor Open Match Decisive Win 11 minutes (plus 2 for entrances) Rating: C+ Angle: Finn Balor/Hardy Boys together... All rated overness. 4 minutes (over COMMERCIALS) Rating: B- Angle: Hardys confirm they are still around. Interupted by The Club leading to match. Rated Entertainment (Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows). 4 minutes Rating: C Match: The Hardy Boys vs The Club Match Aim: Story Telling Winner: Luke Gallows Loser: Jeff Hardy Decisive Win COMMERCIAL 7 minutes (plus 2 minutes entrances) Rating: B- Angle: The Revival attack The Hardy Boys. Rated Overness (Dash Wilder, Scott Dawson. Story minor success both), Selling (Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy. Story minor defeat both). 2 minutes Rating: C- COMMERCIAL Angle: The Mizzies, Ambrose interupts, Rollins makes save. Rated Entertainment (The Miz, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel), Sex Appeal (Maryse), Overness (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins). 9 minutes. Rating: B- Minor Angle: Strowman, Roman, Brock hype after last night (Rated overness, off screen). 1 minute. Rating: B- Minor Angle: Bayley/Sasha hype for Alexa/Nia. 15 seconds, ignore? Condense? Rating: D Angle: Seth/Dean. Both rated Entertainment. 1 minute. Rating: B- Angle: Recaps of Bayley, Sasha, Alexa and Nia (all rated overness, off screen). 2 minutes. Rating: D Match: Sasha Banks/Bayley vs Nia Jax/Alexa Bliss COMMERCIAL Match Aim: Regular Winner: Bayley Loser: Alexa Bliss Open Match Flash Pinfall 12 minutes.(plus 2 minutes for pre and post show) Rating: D+ Angle: Goldust hype for R-Truth. 2 minutes Rating: D+ Angle: Recap for Roman vs Braun (again). 4 minutes, Rating: B- Match: R-Truth vs Goldust Match Aim: Regular Winner: Goldust Decisive Win 9 minutes (plus 2 minutes for entrances) Rating: C- Minor Angle: Hype for Brock Lesnar (1 minute) Rating: B- Angle: Kurt Angle talks about Roman and Braun. Intros Brock. Talks about Summerslam title match. Rated Entertainment (Kurt Angle, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns). Rated Overness (Brock Lesnar. Braun Strowman, off screen). 8 minutes. Rating: B+ Angle: Samoa Joe interupts. All rated entertainment, 5 minutes. Rating: B+ Angle: Kurt Angle and Corey Graves with whatever is going on there. Rated Entertainment (both). 2 minutes. Rating: B- Match: Akira Tozawa/Cedric Alexander vs Noam Dar/Neville Match Aim: Regular Winner: Akira Tozawa Loser: Neville 8 minutes (+4 minutes of entrances) Rating: C- Angle: Recap of Mizzies from earlier. Rated Overness (The Miz, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, Maryse, Dean Ambrose). 2 minutes. Rating: C- Angle: Charly Caruso asking Seth Rollins about tonight. Rated Entertainment (Seth Rollins), Not Rated (Charly Caruso), Overness (Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, The Miz. All off screen). 2 minutes. Rating: B- Angle: Bray Wyatt talks at Seth. Rated Entertainment (Bray Wyatt), Overness (Seth Rollins, off screen). 2 minutes. Rating: B- COMMERCIALS Match: Bray Wyatt vs Seth Rollins Match Aim: Regular Winner: Bray Wyatt COMMERCIALS Decisive Win 16 minutes (+3 for entrances) Rating: B+ Angle: Miztourage attack Seth Rollins, saved by Dean Ambrose. Rated Selling (Seth Rollins, minor defeat. The Miz, minor defeat). Overness (Dean Ambrose, success. Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas). 4 minutes Rating: C+ Angle: Kurt Angle on the phone, says "I love you" to whoever it is. Rated Entertainment (Kurt). 1 minute. Rating: B- SHOW RATING: B <div style="text-align:center"><img alt="latest?cb=20130716023228" data-src="https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/5/56/WWERaw.png/revision/latest?cb=20130716023228" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"></div> Up first, a quick show breakdown. 30 segments tonight, and once again we are properly in the target zone with angles so a 50% match ratio for TV seems perfect for WWE 151 minutes on the show 77 minutes of matches (6 matches), leading to exactly 50% match ratio. 15-20 or so minutes of angles that are recaps and filler, which is better than last week In real life this show was far above the average fare given to us from RAW, wtih far less filler and a lot more actual story progression. In game terms... This show increased our popularity in 26 regions and with the B rating, it seems to sit exactly where I'd put it too. RAW has enough hot storylines on it's own to fulfil that critera too, which is good to see given that I would say that it does in real life, and that last week was only a strugglle due to not having the stories set up already. So, good work game, good work data and good work WWE. I don't really have much else to say, except to stay tuned to for Smackdown and 205 Live being booked exactly as real life... FOR SCIENCE!

Blodyxe · July 14, 2017

I once tried doing a similar thing in TEW 2005, only lasted one in-game month though. Good luck with this!

Derek B · July 14, 2017

From the American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas.

Expected Attendance (game): 14,544 (with figurehead present)

Actual Attendance: 12,142

Angle: Then, now, forever... into recap of battle royale from last week and KO vs Styles house show. Rate Overness (Aj Styles, Chad Gable, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn. All off screen). 3 minutes

Rating: C+

Angle: AJ Styles talks Kevin Owens and John Cena. Brings back US title open challenge, starting now! Rated Entertainment (AJ styles), Overness (John Cena. Kevin Owens, off screen). 5 minutes.

Rating: B

Angle: John Cena accepts challenge! Rated Entertainment (John Cena, AJ Styles). 4 minutes.

Rating: B+

Angle: Kevin Owens interupts... Rusev attacks Cena, KO attacks AJ. Rate Entertainment (Kevin Owens, story success. John Cena, story defeat), Menace (Rusev, story success), Selling (AJ Styles, story defeat). 4 minutes

Rating: B+

Minor Angle: Hype for Corbin vs Nakamura, Tye Dillinger vs Jinder tonight. Also Cena and Styles vs Rusev and Owens.

Rating: C+

COMMERCIAL

Minor Angle: Hype for PPV match between Orton and Jinder, in like... 2 weeks. (1 minute)

Rating: B-

Match: Jinder Mahal vs Tye Dillinger

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Jinder

COMERCIAL

Decisive Win

7 minutes. (3 minutes for entrances)

Rating: C-

Angle: Jinder hypes for Randy Orton. Rated Entertainment (Jinder Mahal), Not Rated (Samir singh, Sunil Singh), Overness (Randy Orton). 3 minutes.

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: New Day walking. 15 seconds.

Rating: C

COMMERCIAL

Angle: New and Usos recap (all rated overness, off screen). 2 minutes

Rating: C

Match: Xavier Woods vs Jey Uso

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Xavier Woods

5 minutes. (plus 2 minutes for pre and post show stuff)

Rating: C

Angle: Shane McMahon on phone to Daniel Bryan, Naomi joins and talks Carmella. Becky, Carmella, Charlote, Tamina, Natalya and Lana. Tag match made for later. Rated Entertainment (girls and Shane). 5 minutes.

Rating: C-

Angle: Renee Young talks with Baron Corbin about Shinsuke Nakamura, recap with Baron Corbin attack last week. Rated Entertainment (Renee, Corbin), Overness (Shinsuke, off screen). 2 minutes

Rating: C-

Minor Angle: Battleground hype, no wrestlers involved. 15 seconds (skipped)

HOUR 2

Angle: Shinsuke Nakamura and Baron Corbin match turns ito brawl. Rated Overness (Nakamura and Corbin). 5 minutes.

Rating: C-

Angle: AJ Styles and John Cena backstage talking. 1 minute

Rating: B

Angle: Hype for women's tag match, 15 seconds.

Rating: D-

Angle: Cedric Alexander talks Noam Dar and Alicia Fox for 205 Live. 1 minute.

Rating: D

Match: Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair vs Natalya & Tamina

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Tamina

Loser: Charlotte

COMMERCIAL

Keep Strong: Charlotte

Distraction Finish: Lana distracts Charlotte

8 minutes. (plus 3 minutes of entrances)

Rating: D+

Minor Angle: hype for main event. 1 minute.

Rating: B

Angle: Maria looking for Sami Zayn, finds Chad Gable. 1 minute

Rating: D+

COMMERCIAL

Angle: Maria and Mike Kanelis with Sami, Mike clobbers Sami with vase of flowers! Rated Entertainment (Maria. Mike, storyline success. Sami, storyline defeat). 2 minutes

Rating: C-

Angle: Fashion Files. Tyler Breeze and Fandango approach Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley looking to find out if they attacked their office. All rated Entertainment. 4 minutes

Rating: D+

Angle: Hype for main event. All rated Overness and off screen. 2 minutes.

Rating: B-

Match: Kevin Owens and Rusev vs AJ Styles and John Cena

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: John Cena

Loser: Kevin Owens

12 minutes. (plus 5 minutes for entrances/post match)

Rating: B+ (excellent chemistry between Owens and Rusev gave this a fairly large boost)

TALKING SMACK: Shane McMahon, Renee Young, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso. All rated Entertainment. 7 minutes.

Rating: C

TALKING SMACK: Shane McMahon, Renee Young, Sami Zayn. All rated Entertainment. 5 minutes

Rating: C

TALKING SMACK: Shane McMahon, Renee Young, John Cena. All rated Entertainment. 7 minutes.

Rating: B-

SHOW RATING: B

This show raised our popularity in 26 regions... good tag chemistry in the main event probably stopped this show from giving us an overall neutral result, which would have been a fair result for this show. Smackdown wasn't much to write home about but it also wasn't bad, so this seems like a fair result.

I forgot to do my show analysis before hand.. but the show was once again within the right percentages, sitting at around 50% again. There was more filler in this show then the previos week, which seems to have brought the show rating down a bit from the previous week, where Smackdown scored a B+.

Oh well, on to 205 Live! Booked exactly like real life... FOR SCIENCE!

http://network.wwe.com/assets/images/5/1/6/241757516/cuts/205LiveLogo_Ntwk_s0j5xcwc_z03ffue7.jpg

205 LIVE

From San Antonio, Texas.

Commentators: Vic Joseph, Corey Graves.

Angle: Then, now, forever and intro. Titus O'Neill and Tozawa getting hyped. Interupted by Daivari. Rated Entertainment (Titus, Daivari), Overness (Neville, Off screen. Tozawa). 3 minutes.

Rating: D

Minor Angle: Hype for Cedric Alexander vs Noam Dar later. Rated Overness (both, off screen). 1 minute.

Rating: E+

Match: Akira Tozawa vs Ariya Daivari

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Akira Tozawa

DQ Finish

Outside Interference: Neville on Tozawa

3 minutes (plus 3 minutes for entrances, )

Rating: D+

Angle: Neville attacks Tozawa. Rated Overness (Neville, storyline success), Selling (Tozawa, storyline defeat). 3 minutes.

Rating: C

Angle: Drew Gulak and Mustafa Ali recap and challenge for 2 out of 3 falls match next week. Rated Entertainment (Drew Gulak), Overness (Mustafa Ali, off screen). 2 minutes

Rating: E

Minor Angle: Recap of Jinder vs Orton feud. Rated Oveness (both, off screen). 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Hype for talking smack with Shane McMahon, Renee Young, John Cena, Usos and Sami Zayn. All rated overness, off screen. 15 seconds

Rating: C

Angle: Video recap of Rich Swann and TJP. Rated Overness (both, off screen). 2 minutes.

Rating: D-

Match: Rich Swann vs Mario Connors (I couldn't find info on who this was, so I used the Hire Local and signed Mitch Carter for this role)

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Swann

TJP at ringside (distraction?)

Decisive Win

4 minutes (plus 3 minutes for pre and post match stuff)

Rating: D

Angle: TJP talks at Swann. Rated Entertainment (TJP), Overness (Swann). 2 minutes

Rating: D

Match: TJP v Mario Connors (still Mitch Carter)

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: TJP

Dominate: TJP

Decisive Win

Swann at ringside

1 minute. (plus 2 minutes for post match stuff)

Rating: D-

Minor Angle: Hype for Cedric vs Noam. 15 seconds, rounded up to 1 minute due to next segment.

Rating: E+

Angle: Hype for NXT return of Johnny Gargano. 1 minute (skipped)

Angle: The Brian Kendrick doing his Jack Gallagher impression. Rated Entertainment (Kendrick, storyline success. Gallagher, storyline defeat). 6 minutes.

Rating: D+

Minor Angle: Kurt Angle show video. Rated Overness, off screen. 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Angle: Hype for Noam Dar, Alicia Fox and Cedric Alexander. 4 minutes

Rating: E+

Match: Noam Dar vs Cedric Alexander in an I Quit match (I made an alternate version of the match to change it from being Brawl Based to Normal)

Match Aim: Steal The Show

Winner: Cedric Alexander

Open Match

Decisive Win

11 minutes (plus 2 minutes for entrances)

Rating: D

Angle: Noam Dar breaks up with Alicia Fox. Rated Entertainment (Noam Dar, storyline minor success), Overness (Alicia Fox, storyline minor defeat). (4 minutes).

Rating: D-

SHOW RATING: C

http://network.wwe.com/assets/images/5/1/6/241757516/cuts/205LiveLogo_Ntwk_s0j5xcwc_z03ffue7.jpg

59 minutes of show here

28 minutes counting towards matches

4 matches

5 -8 minutes of filler, give or take

Overall, a decent edition of the show and the main event was really fun in real life but not really reflected here in the game. The minor angles, despite being marked as minor, still poppe the show ratings far higher than it should be, which would have otherwise been in the D or D+ region. The brand looks like it's about to shake some storylines up a little, with Cedric Alexander the next logical contender for the Cruiserweight title, meaning that I would assume Tozawa loses to Neville again sometime soon before possibly heading into the tag ranks with Apollo Crews.

In the game, Renee Young was also caught by our drug testing as a Soft Drug User... I fined her, which made her unhappy and had the knock on effect of making Dean Ambrose a bit unhappy too. It seems that these two are destined to not do well in this particular save. I will have to consider giving them both bonuses now to make sure they aren't too unhappy in the game, though this will mosly apply to Dean Ambrose and I will take his future booking into consideration before I do that.

That's all for this week from the WWE, next week we go back to the regular RAW, Smackdown and 205 Live stuff before we get to Battleground at the weekend. Hopefully there is some more good stuff and the follow up to some of the interesting storylines goes somewhere good. Time will tell, I guess.

Derek B · July 22, 2017

Aaaand I'm back, it's been a ridiculously busy week with work so things are coming out a little later than intended but I'm back on track and things should go smoothly from here on out. Soooo.... Heading into this show I've tweaked a few storylines and cancelled the TJP face turn as he is clearly not going to be doing that any time soon. Our storylines for now are as follows....

Raw Storylines

#1: Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman,

#2: Kurt Angle, Corey Graves, Jason Jordan

#3: Enzo Amore, Big Cass.

#4: Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Nia Jax, Mickie James (minor), Emma (minor), Dana Brooke (minor),*

#5: Bray Wyatt.Finn Balor, Elias Sampson,

#6: Goldust, R-Truth.

#7: (Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy), (Sheamus, Cesaro). Finn Balor, Elias Samson, (Scott Dawson, Dash Wilder)

#8: Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, (The Miz, Maryse, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas)

205 Live/Cruiserweight Division Storylines

#1: Neville, (Akira Tozawa, Titus O'Neill (minor)), Ariya Daivari,

#2: Cedric Alexander, Noam Dar, Alicia Fox

#3: Drew Gulak, Mustafa Ali.

#4: Jack Gallagher, The Brian Kendrick, Tony Nese,

#5: Rich Swann, TJP,

Going in to booking this show, I reckon it will score a B or B+ rating... the stronger angles should score well and I would expect the main event of Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns to do very well too even with the Sports Entertainment finish. I feel like the rating for the Kurt Angle and Jason Jordan reveal should do better than it probably will... not necessarily because it was a highly rated segment, but because it was a very important segment that will be huge for Jason Jordan's career (for better or worse). I'm working on an idea for how to reflect that in TEW terms, which is one of the things I am generally trying to achieve with this diary. As good as the game is for so many things, there are always areas that can be expanded, refined, tweaked and created to make it even better.

Oh... and in-game, Sasha Banks got Ripped... it has slightly boosted her sex appeal and star quality a little but not enough to make a huge difference. I'm tempted to do a Wellness Policy test on her.

But without further ado, let's get on with RAW.

From Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee.

Predicted Attendance (game): 12,760

Actual Attendance (game): 12,978

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Booker T

Minor Angle: Then, now, forever. Hype for Angle's reveal. Rated Overness (Kut Angle, off screen). 1 minute

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Hype for Roman vs Joe, #1 contender for Brock Lesnar. Rated Overness, all off screen. 1 minute.

Rating: B

Angle: Dean Ambrose ready to fight Miztourage. Rollins comes out instead, Seth challengs Ambrose to hit him with chair... rebuilding Shield trust. Rated Entertainment (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins), Overness (The Miz, off screen). 9 minutes

Rating: B

Angle: The Miztourage finally comes out, attack Ambrose and Rollins with chairs. Rated Entertainment (The Miz, Story Success), Overness (Bo Dallas, Story Success, Curtis Axel, Story Success), Selling (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins. Both Storyline defeats). 5 minutes.

Rating: B-

Mnor Angle: Hype for Roman vs Joe for Lesnar. And Kurt Angle reveal. Bayley vs Alexa Bliss. 1 minute.

Rating: C

COMMERCiAL

Angle: Miztourage looking smug. Rated Entertainment (The Miz), Sex Appeal (Maryse), Overness (Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel. Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose off screen). 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Match: Bayley vs Alexa Bliss – non-title

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Bayley

Open Match

COMMERCIAL

Distraction: Nix Jax on Balyey, Sasha Banks on Alexa Bliss

Pinfall Finish

11 minutes (3 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: D

Minor Angle: Hype for Kurt Angle reveal, plus Hardys vs Revival match hype. 1 minute.

Rating: C-

Minor Angle: Espys footage. With John Cena, The Miz, Maryse, Nikki Bella, Stephanie McMahon. 3 minutes.

Rating: B

Minor Angle: Roman Reigns hype, for Samoa Joe and Lesnar. All overness and off screen. 2 minutes

Rating: B

Angle: Kurt Angle and Corey Graves hyping Kurt's reveal. 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Neville and Tozawa hype. Both rated Overness and off screen. 1 minute

Rating: D

Angle: Apollo Crews, Titus O'Neill and Tozawa hyping towards Neville, Ariya Daivari challenges Tozawa. 2 minutes.

Rating: D

Match: The Brian Kendrick and Drew Gulak vs Mustafa Ali and Jack Gallagher

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Mustafa Ali

Loser: Brian Kendrick

COMMERCIAL

Decisive Win

5 minutes (plus 2 minutes for pre/post match stuff)

Rating: D

Minor Angle: Hype for Mustafa Ali vs Drew Gulak tomorrow night. 1 minute.

Rating: E

Minor Angle: Enzo walking. 5 seconds, (skipped).

Angle: Enzo talking.... Rated Entertainment (Enzo Amore), Overness (Big Cass, Big Show). 9 minutes.

Rating: C

Angle: Big Cass finally interupts... introduces Big Show. Rated Entertainment (Enzo Amore, story minor defeat), Overness (Big Cass, story major success, Big Show, story defeat). 7 minutes....

Rating: B-

Angle: Roman Reigns interview with Charly Caruso about Samoa Joe. Rated Entertainment (Roman), Overness (Samoa Joe, off screen), Not Rated (Charly). 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Kurt Angle reveal hype. Finn Balor vs Elias Sampson hype. All off screen, rated overness. 1 minute.

Rating: C-

Angle: Seth and Dean arguing, Angle makes match vs Miztourage next week. Rated Entertainment (Seth, Dean, Angle). Overness/off screen (The Miz, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas). 1 minute.

Rating: C

Angle: Ellias Sampson hype for Finn Balor. Rated Entertainment (Elias Sampson), Overness (Finn Balor). 3 minutes

Rating: C-

COMMERCIAL

Match: Elias Sampson vs Finn Balor

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Finn Balor

Intentional DQ finish

Open Match

6 minutes (plus 2 minutes pre/post match)

Rating: C

Angle: Bray Wyatt promos at Finn Balor. Rated Entertainment (Bray), Selling (Finn Balor). 2 minutes.

Rating: B-

Angle: Samoa Joe hype for Roman Reigns, and Brock Lesnar. All rated overness, 1 minute.

Rating: B

Angle: Kurt Angle with Bayley and Sasha Banks arguing over #1 contendership. Books Sasha vs Bayley for next week. Rated Entertainment (Kurt, Sasha, Bayley), Overness (Alexa Bliss, off screen). 2 minutes.

Rating: D+

Minor Angle: Raw announce team hype Smackdown PPV Battleground this weekend. 1 minute

Rating: C+

Angle: Recap of Hardys vs Anderson/Gallows and Revival. Rated Entertainment (Scott Dawson, Dash Wilder), Overness (Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, all off screen), Not Rated (Charly Caruso). 3 minutes,

Rating: C-

COMMERCIAL

Match: Akira Tozawa vs Ariya Daivari

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Ariya Daivari

Stoppage Finish (Titus O'Neill submitting for Tozawa)

5 minutes

Rating: C-

Angle: Tozawa angry at Titus. Rated Entertainment (both). 1 minute.

Rating: C-

Angle: Kurt Angle reveals Jason Jordan is his son! Rated Entertainment (Kurt Angle), Overness (Jason Jordan, Storyline Success for being a major character point). 6 minutes.

Rating: C+

Minor Angle: Hype for Joe vs Roman, Hardys vs Revival. 1 minute.

Rating: C

COMMERCIAL

Minor Angle: Recap Kurt Angle and Jason Jordan. (rated overness, off screen). 1 minute.

Rating: C-

Match: The Hardys vs The Revival

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Scott Dawson

Loser: Jeff Hardy

COMMERCIAL

Open Match

17 minutes

Rating: B

Angle: Samoa Joe interview with Charly Caruso. Rated Entertainment (Samoa Joe), Overness (Roman Reigns), Not Rated (Charly Caruso). 2 minutes.

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Charity stuff. (2 minutes) (skipped due to no relevance)

COMMERCIAL

Angle: Tozawa and Titus O'Neill arguing about earlier, Tozawa wants match with Daivari next week. Rated Entertainment (both). 1 minute

Rating: D+

Minor Angle: Finn vs Elias announced for next week, along with hype for Bayley vs Sasha (for Alexa), and Dean/Seth vs Miztourage. 1 minute.

Rating: C-

Match: Roman Reigns vs Samoa Joe

Match Aim: Regular

Draw

Sports Entertainment Finish

Interference: Braun Strowman on both

COMMERCIAL

18 minutes (plus 3 minutes of pre and post match)

Rating: B

Angle: Braun Storwman, Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns fight. Rated Menace (Braun, story major success), Selling (Roman, story defeat. Joe, story minor defeat).

6 minutes

Rating: B+

SHOW RATING: B

This show increased our popularity in 26 regions.

First up, the show breakdown.

38 segments, about half of which are 1 minute hype segments for stuff later in the show.

6 matches, for a total of about 76 minutes of wrestling and 154 minutes of show (most commercials seemed to be between segments this week)

49% matches tonight, sticking close to the 50% ratio we've come to know and... know.

12-18 minutes of needless recaps and hype for reveals and matches.

So once again, there's a fair amount of filler on RAW... the matches that were given time (Bayley vs Alexa ; Hardys vs Revival ; Roman vs Samoa Joe) were good but two of those were in the last hour, along with the Kurt Angle reveal and that made this show drag in the first couple of hours where there was a lot of needless shilling for Angle's reveal and the Joe vs Roman match... if people don't already know that these things are coming telling them about it every 20 minutes isn't going to help keep people interested. A 3 hour show is a major investment and I understand that having some breathing room is necessary, but with so many commercial breaks already built into the show, having so many filler segments just kills the flow and can lose the crowd....

But as I said, the quality of the show in the last hour was good and I do like that the WWE is getting better at giving us things to tune in for next week. Between the various mysteries we've been given in recent months and what is quite frankly a legendary rivalry between Roman and Braun things are going well for some on RAW. The Miztourage is a fun addition too, particularly with the Dean and Seth Shield reunion tease giving both some direction that they sorely needed. How can you NOT get cheered when you are against someone so easy to hate, while also having been part of something so cool that it launched their momentum into the stratusphere in the past? I'm hoping for good things from this....

In-game, there were a bunch of opinions on this show but most notably we had THREE different opinions about one of the major topics to come out of this show, Jason Jordan. Matt Hardy criticised his psychology, while Seth Rollins and The Miz both believe he's going to be a star. Bo Dallas got praise from Kevin Owens for his charisma, Roman Reigns (who moaned a LOT about the finish in the main event) had good things to say about Apollo Crews, while Randy Orton doesn't think Drew Gulak doesn't get "it" and should be released. Good times, especially if you are Roman Reigns and getting another $30,000 bribe to keep you happy. It might be worth looking at his personality within the mod... even though he is clearly more popular than many of the people he's moaned about not beating, he shouldn't be complaining quite that much.

Anywho... Smackdown and 205 Live coming tomorrow sometime, it depends on just how much Pokemon Go I decide to play. Yeah, that's still a thing. Stay tuned for more WWE, booked exactly as real life... FOR SCIENCE!

Derek B · July 23, 2017

No changes to storylines here since we're heading into a PPV and this is the go home show for that. I wasn't impressed with this in real life at all, with some of the matches just being thrown out there and the women's division still lacking in focus for what has seemed like almost six months now. If I were rating this, it would get around a C+ rating from me due to it generally lacking in depth and quality. That said, there were some fun bits in this show and I reckon the game will probably score a B rating in the game mainly to the popularity involved in the main event and a strong John Cena angle. Here are our storylines for Smackdown at this time....

#1: Randy Orton, (Jinder Mahal, Samir Singh (minor), Sunil Singh (minor))

#2: Kevin Owns, AJ Styles

#3: John Cena, Rusev

#4: Big E, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso

#5: Becky Lynch, Carmella, Charlotte Flair, Lana, Naomi, Natalya, Tamina, James Ellsworth.

#6: Sami Zayn, Mike Kanelis, Maria Kanelis.

#7: (Fandango, Tyler Breeze), (Mojo Rawley, Zack Ryder), (Konnor, Viktor), (Primo, Epico)

#8: Baron Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura.

So, let's get on with the show.

From Birmingham, Alabama. (I didn't catch the real arena, so I'm using the BJCC Arena)

Expected Attendance (in-game): 14,926

Actul Attendance (in-game): 11,399

Announcers: Tom Phillips, JBL, Byron Saxton

Minor Angle: Then, now, forever... hype for Orton vs Mahal confrontation tonight inside Punjabi Prison. Rated Overness (Orton and Jinder Mahal, off screen). 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Angle: Rules for Punjabi Prison match explained by Jinder and Singh Brothers. Rated Entertainment (Jinder Mahal, Samir Singh, Sunil Singh), Overness (Randy Orton, off screen), 7 minutes.

Rating: C

Angle: Randy Orton finally makes appearance. Rated Entertainment (Randy Orton), Overness (Jinder Mahal), Not Rated (Samir Singh, Sunil Singh). 6 minutes

Rating: B+

Minor Angle: Hype for tonight's matches. AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Baron Corbin. Usos and New Day. 1 minute.

Rating: C

COMMERCIAL

Minor Angle: Recap of New Day vs Usos rap battle and hype for Battleground tag match. 1 minute.

Rating: C

Match: Jimmy Uso vs Kofi Kingston

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Jimmy Uso

Distractionns: Jey Uso on Kofi, New Day on Jimmy

9 minutes (plus 3 minutes for entrances)

Flash Pinfall

Rating: C+

Angle: Shane McMahon with Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Natalya, Tamina, Lana. Becky vs Charlotte made for tonight. Rated Entertainment (Shane, Charlotte, Natalya, Tamina, Becky). Sex Appeal (Lana). 2 minutes.

Rating: C-

Angle: Recap of Angle's reveal that Jason Jordan is his kid. Rated Overness and off screen. (Kurt Angle, Jason Jordan. 3 minutes.

Rating: C

Angle: Renee Young interview Chad Gable. Rated Entertainment (Chad Gable, Renee Young), Overness (Jason Jordan, Kurt Angle). 4 minutes.

Rating: C-

COMMERCIAL

Angle: Recap of Zayn and Kanelis feud. Mike, Maria and Sami all rated overness/off screen. 1 minute.

Rating: C

Match: Mike Kanelis vs Sami Zayn

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Mike Kanelis

Dominate: Sami Zayn

Distraction: Maria on Sami

Tainted Win

4 minutes(3 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: C-

COMMERCIAL

Angle: John Cena patriotism. Rated Entertainment (John Cena), Overness (Rusev, off screen). 7 minutes.

Rating: A

Angle: Rusev attacks Cena. Rated Menace (Rusev, story success), Selling (John Cena, story defeat). 4 minutes.

Rating: A

Minor Angle: Hype for Becky vs Charlotte. Rated overness, both off screen. 1 minute.

Rating: D+

Angle: AJ and Shinsuke talking backstage... Shinsuke says he'll answer US open challenge one day... rated Entertainment (AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura). 1 minute

Rating: B-

Match: Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Becky Lynh

Natalya on commentary

Open Match

Submission Finish

Decisive Win

9 minutes (2 minutes pre/post match stuff)

Rating: C

Angle: Tamina and Lana distract Becky/Charlotte, Natalya sneak attacks! Rated Selling (Charlotte, Becky. Both story defeat), Overness (Natalya, story success), Menace (Tamina, story success), Sex Appeal (Lana). 2 minutes.

Rating: C-

Minor Angle: Hype for PPV. Rated Overness and off screen (Cena, Rusev, Jinder, Orton, KO, AJ, Baron, Shinsuke). 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Angle: Renee Young with Naomi, hyping women's division. Carmella interupts with Money In The Bank Briefcase. 2 minutes.

Rating: D+

Angle: Fashion X-Files. Rated Entertainment (Tyler Breeze, Fandango), Not Rated (Aiden English). 3 minutes.

Rating: D+

Minor Angle: Hype for main event. Rated Overness and off screen (AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Baron Corbin, Kevin Owens). 1 miunte.

Rating: C

Angle: Drew Gulak hypes 2 out of 3 falls mach with Mustafa Ali on 205 Live. Rated Entertainment (Drew Gulak), Overness/off screen (Mustafa Ali). 1 minute

Rating: E+

Angle: Pre-match brawl for main event. Rated Overness (Aj Styles, Kevin Owens, Shuinsuke Nakamura and Baron Corbin). 4 minutes

Rating: B-

COMMERCIAL

Match: AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kevin Owens and Baron Corbin.

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Kevin Owens

Loser: AJ Styles

COMMERCIAL

Decisive Win

13 (plus 2 minutes for entrances)

Rating: B

SHOW RATING: B+

This show increased our popularity in 37 regions.

23 segments tonight

95 minutes in this show, with commercials seeming to fall between segments

7-11 minutes spent generically hyping things

4 matches, taking around 45 minutes

So once again, this show falls nicely into the 50% match ratio. If any current real world mod isn't using a 50% match ratio then they have ben scientifically proven wrong now. But I think most of them do, so that isn't really an issue. The show got a far stronger rating than I would say it deserved, with the real one being a lot of filler and throwaway matches leading up to the Battleground PPV on Sunday. Nothing much to say here really... the high value placed on the main event and the best angle in the show dragged this up from a mediocre at best show to actually being a strongly rated show. We'll see how 205 Live does next....

205 Live

http://network.wwe.com/assets/images/5/1/6/241757516/cuts/205LiveLogo_Ntwk_s0j5xcwc_z03ffue7.jpg

Commentators: Vic Joseph and Corey Graves

Angle: Recap of Drew Gulak and Mustafa Ali. Rated Overness/off screen (both). 4 minutes.

Rating: E+

Minor Angle: Hype for tonight's matches. Rated Overness/off screen (Drew Gulak, Mustafa Ali, Akira Tozawa, Ariya Daivari). 1 minute

Rating: E+

Match: Mustafa Ali vs Drew Gulak in a 2 out of 3 falls match

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Mustafa Ali

Open Match

Slow Build

Decisive Win

16 minutes (plus 4 minutes for pre/post match)

First Fall: Mustafa Ali (pinfall)

Second Fall: Drew Gulak (submission)

Rating: D

Angle: Recap of Ariya Daivari and Akira Tozawa, and chat with Apollo Crews. Rated Entertainment (Akira, Apollo), Overness /off screen (Ariya, Titus). 4 minutes

Rating: D

Minor Angle: Hype for Jinder vs Orton in Punjabi Prison. 1 minute

Rating: B-

Angle: The Brian Kendrick berates jobber and Jack Gallagher. Rated Entertainment (Kendrick), Overness (Gallagher), Not Raated (Devin Bennett). 3 minutes

Rating: D+

Match: The Brian Kendrick vs Devin Bennett (I hired Corey Hollis on a 1 night deal for this)

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: The Brian Kendrick

Dominate: Kendrick

Decisive Win

2 minutes (plus 2 for pre/post)

Rating: D

Angle: Recap of Cedric Alexander vs Noam Dar. Rated Overness (Cedric, Noam. Off screen). 2 minutes

Rating: D-

Angle: Recap of TJP and Rich Swann beating up jobber last week. Rated Entertainment (TJP), Overness (Swann, off screen). 3 minutes.

Rating: D-

Angle: Hype for Tozawa vs Daivari. (also hype for NXT Dain vs McIntyre). Rated Overness (Tozawa annd Daivari). 1 minute

Rating: E+

Angle: Daivari hypes match with historical references to real wrestling. Rated Entertainment (Ariya Daivari), Overness (Akira Tozawa). 3 minutes

Rating: D-

Match: Ariya Daivari vs Akira Tozawa

Match Aim: Story Tellling

Winner: Akira Tozawa

Keep Strong: Ariya Daivari

Flash Pinfall

8 minutes (plus 2 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: D-

Angle: Daivari beats up Tozawa. Rated Overness (Daivari, story success), Selling (Tozawa, story defeat). 2 minutes.

Rating: D

SHOW RATING: D+

http://network.wwe.com/assets/images/5/1/6/241757516/cuts/205LiveLogo_Ntwk_s0j5xcwc_z03ffue7.jpg

The show rating was penalised because there were not enough attractive women on the roster... 0 women, 14 men. I guess that's what happens when Alicia Fox isn't around.

I have no earthly idea why they put the match with the gimmick on it as the first match of the night... this show was a bad one, not because the talents involved are bad but because the booking of 205 Live combined with the enforced safety code the workers have to follow make it just a smaller version of the WWE instead of an exciting extension of the Cruiserweight Classic. So much filler and reminders for things happening soon instead of actual content. I really won't be surprised is 205 Live gets cancelled in the future, particularly as the far cheaper to produce 205 Live has been cancelled. I just don't know what they expect 205 Live to actually accomplish... same with the WWE United Kingdom championship, which is also just kinda sitting out in the cold doing nothing following an amazing tournament. There's no focus, no spotlight, no shine for any of these divisions. They feel like filler. Filler is bad.

That said, it feels weird to criticise them for trying something different... at least they are trying. And some of the high points of the shows just now are genuinely good to great stuff. I just can't help but feel like the WWE cater for people with attention spans of less than 15 minutes by always having to remind people of what just happened and what is about to happen... if they put the focus on giving us things we want to see (like Lucha Underground do) then we wouldn't be mentally tuning out all the time and need these reminders. I wonder how long RAW would be if we got an edited version that contained match highlights and angles that only have new material? I'm reckoning less than 30 minutes, with about half of that being Enzo talking.

Anywho, another PPV is coming tonight.... as before, here is the card for that and some predictions of how it will fare in TEW.

WWE BATTLEGROUND

Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton (WWE Championship, Punjabi Prison)

Storyline Heat: C+

Predicted Rating:

AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens (United States Championship)

Storyline Heat: B

Predicted Rating:

John Cena vs. Rusev (Flag)

Storyline Heat: B+

Predicted Rating:

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin

Storyline Heat: C

Predicted Rating:

Charlotte Flair vs. Lana vs. Tamina vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya (Women's Championship No. 1 Contender; Elimination)

Storyline Heat: C-

Predicted Rating:

Sami Zayn vs. Mike Kanellis

Storyline Heat: D+

Predicted Rating:

The Usos vs. The New Day (Tag Team Championships)

Storyline Heat: C

Predicted Rating:

Aiden English vs. Tye Dillinger

Storyline Heat: n/a

Predicted Rating:

As always, this is WWE being booked exactly as real life... FOR SCIENCE!

K-Nection · July 23, 2017

You know Derek I'm super glad you are doing this dynasty....(for science) I don't have no where near the time to watch anything outside of NXT. I can just read this along and it makes me glad that I'm not watching the main shows lol. I do very occasionally catch Smackdown because that always feels like the more in ring heavier show but RAW has been in-digestible to me.

2Sweet · July 23, 2017

This is a enjoyable dynasty and I like the concept of what you're doing with it. AJ Styles/Kevin Owens is my pick for MOTN but then you have some other good matches so it'll make for a good pay-per-view.

Derek B · July 26, 2017

So I've watched Smackdown and 205 Live... means I'm going to have to bring in The Great Khali and Chris Jericho to make their WWE returns. With Jericho listed as being away on tour woth his band in the game I've used the editor to change that Jericho to Chris Jericho X, while importing a new Chris Jericho to replace him. Negotiations with Khali were slow too, so I've imported a second one of him to use on a one night deal.... it would have worked okay if it weren't for me advancing while not paying enough attention, and since I don't have a back up I had to do things the work around way.

In real life, the show had some good matches but wasn't anything special. I enjoyed it from the wrestling side of things and for the Fashion X Files

And with that out of the way, here comes the show.

From Consol Energy Centre, Phillidelphia (19,760 capacity)

Expected Attendance: 34,155 (figurehead being used)

Actual Attendance: 19,760 SELL OUT

Pre Show Match: Tye Dillinger vs Aiden English

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Aiden English

COMMERCIAL (seriously, a Cena/Rusev commercial in the middle of a pre-show match between guys who never get enough screen time)

11 minutes (plus 2 for pre/post match)

Rating: D

Angle: Then, now, forever... into PPV hype. Rated Overness/off screen (AJ Styles, Kevin Owen, Baron Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura, John Cena, Rusev, Randy Orton, Jinder Mahal). 4 minutes

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Recap of Usos and New Day rivalry. Rated overness (Xavier Woods, Big E, Kofi Kingston, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso). 2 minutes.

Rating: C+

Match Aim: Steal The Show

Winner: Xavier Woods

Open Match

Decisive Win

14 minutes (plus 3 minutes for pre match)

Rating: C+

Angle: Generic WWE Network hype. 1 minute

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: AJ Styles and Kevin Owens hype. Rated Overness (AJ. Kevin Owens, off screen). 1 minute

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Baron Corbin and Shinsuke Nakamura hype. Rated overness, off screen (Shinsuke, Baron). 1 minute

Rating: C-

Match: Shinsuke Nakamura vs Baron Corbin

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura

Open Match

Intentional DQ

13 minutes (4 minunte pre/post match)

Rating: C+

Angle: Corbin post match attack on Shinsuke. Rated Overness (Corbin, story success), Selling (Shinsuke, story defeat). 2 minutes.

Rating: C+

Angle: Hype for Sleight. 1 minute. (SKIPPED, nothing to rate)

Minor Angle: Summerslam hype. Rated Overness. Lesnar, Braun, Roman, Alexa, Cena, Joe, Nakamura, Orton. 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Kevin Owens preparing for AJ Styles. Rated Overness (Kevin Ownes. AJ Styles, off screen). 1 minute.

Rating: B

Angle: Hype for Charlotte, Becky, Lana, Tamina, Natalya match and Naomi, the champion. All rated Overness/off screen. 4 minutes

Rating: D

Match: Becky Lynch vs Tamina vs Natalya Neidhart vs Lana vs Charlotte Flair in an elmination match

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Natalya

Naomi on commentary (replacing Byron Saxton)

11 minutes (5 minutes pre match)

Rating: C-

#1: Tamina eliminated by Becky Lynch

#2: Lana eliminated by Becky Lynch

#3: Becky Lynch eliminated by Natalya

#4: Charlotte eliminated by Natalya

Angle: Natalya refuses handshake from Naomi. Rated overness. 2 minutes.

Rating: D

Angle: Merchandise promo followed by charity work promo. 2 minutes. (SKIPPED)

Angle: Recap of AJ Styles and Kevin Owens rivalry. Both rated overness, off screen. 3 minutes.

Rating: B-

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Kevin Owens

Open Match

Flash Pinfall

19 minutes (4 minutes pre match)

Rating: B

Angle: Jinder with Singh brothers, they can't be in Punjabi Prison vs Randy Orton. Rated Entertainment (Jinder, Sunil, Samir), Overness (Randy Orton, off screen). 2 minutes

Rating: C

Angle: John Cena and Rusev recap. Rated overness/off screen. (John Cena Rusev). 4 minutes,

Rating: B+

Match: John Cena vs Rusev in a Flag Match

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: John Cena

Open Match

Decisive Win

24 minutes (5 minute for pre match)

Rating: B-

Angle: Summersam hype video (same as earlier). 1 minute

Rating: B-

Angle: Fashion X Files. Ascension falsely claim they attacked, Breezango attacked by unknown assailants. Rated Entertainment (Fandango, Tyler Breeze, Konnor, Viktor). 4 minutes.

Rating: D+

Angle: Recap of Sami Zayn, Mike Kanelis and Maria. Rated Overness/off screen (all). 2 minutes.

Rating: D

Match: Mike Kanelis vs Sami Zayn

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Sami Zayn

Decisive Win

9 minutes (2 minutes pre/post match)

Rating: C

Angle: Hype for HBK movie. 1 minute (SKIPPED, as HBK is forced to be road agent)

Minor Angle: 1 minute. Orton, Jinder, KO, Natalya with Renee Young and Jerry Lawler for Talking Smack, all rated Overness/off screen. 1 minute.

Rating: C

Angle: Hype for Orton vs Mahal as they organise the Punjabi Prison. Rated overness/off screen (Orton, Jinder). 4 minutes.

Rating: B-

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Jinder Mahal

Interference: Randy Orton attacked by Samir, Sunil, The Great Khali.

30 minutes (8 minutes of pre/post match)

Rating: B

SHOW RATING: B

This show increased our popularity in 15 regions.

25 segments, for 192 minutes on the main show.

152 minutes count towards in-ring, though this has more entrances/non-wrestling time than usual due to match set ups

Within the 70% match ratio set for events

7-10 minutes of filler (not bad for a show this size)

Orton unhappy again at losing.... to be fair to him, he's been trying to make Jinder look like a star for 3 months now while being on the losing end. It can't be easy work and as always, it's going to be John Cena who probably ends up picking up the ultimate reward for it. As said above, this show had a LOT of match set up time and time for entrance... bell to bell the match times are still about right for the ratio but we almost went out of range due to the non-wrestling times. Shocking! As also said, this was a solid show from a wrestling point of view... I liked the extra stage added to the Cena vs Rusev flag match (putting the flag in a stand), which helpe to add more drama to an otherwise usually boring match. I still don't like flag matches though... anything resembling an "X on a pole match" gets a thumbs down from me.

AJ and KO have bad chemistry in the game, they still got a B rated match but we can pretend that chemistry is why the finish was so weird. Randy Orton also took time to tell me that Samir Singh can't sell... not sure if he's the one that took the massive bump in real life, but that's just mean... especially when Cena says the same guy is charismatic in the same post show emails! Randy Orton got another $30,000 bonus to keep him happy, taking him back to annoyed. If the game mimics real life pretty well, then Orton is going to seriously need to start picking up some wins again soon to not keep him happy. I also remembered to give Matt Hardy a bonus too as he was upset about taking a loss last time that I don't believe he would have been in real life.

As for Jinder, his in-ring performance was C rated in the Punjabi Prison while at C popularity, he is now up to C+ popularity and the lowest popularity main eventer. He's growing into his championship reign but I'm mostly highlighting this to highlight that growth is slow, even when in a prominent position within the company. Some peope have said that Jinder should have more popularity because he's a world champion, but I think this highlights exactly where he is in real life... he's been a lower card guy who was a lower midcard push at best (only really ahead of the Crusierweights and Curt Hawkins) who was then pushed hard and fast. His gimmick change wiped clear his negative momentum, and his subsequent push has increased that momentum further. His popularity has grown through his rivalry with Randy Orton but still not up to the point where even Orton believes that Jinder is a legit main event talent woth losing to... he's getting there but if he loses to Cena at Summerslam (for example) then he will become as much of footnote in world title history as The Great Khali is. If he keeps pushing through, perhaps beating Cena, Nakamura and whoever else is around then he might establish himself as a real main event guy and not just someone who can fall down the card again for someone like Baron Corbin to replace him.

Anywho, enough of that for now. Time for a break and then I might do this week's TV shows after I eat. More WWE Booked Exactly As Real Life... FOR SCIENCE!!

Derek B · July 26, 2017

So... I enjoyed RAW. Seeing it without commercials is always a plus and there was some good wrestling on there, as there usually is. There were two heel vs heel matches on the show, which is odd though it does feel like they may be trying to move The Club more towards the face side of things. We'll see how that goes in future. Also a face vs face match in the women's division, but we are definitely moving towards Sasha turning heel.... I've set her to be getting ready to turn, though we'll see how that goes with the game mechanics. Overall, I think this will score a high B grade, maybe a B+ if some segments do better than I'd expect. Storylines have been tweaked a little to reflect some changes in the Cruiserweight division (where new stories should be getting ready to start) and on the main show too, with the build towards Summerslam becoming somewhat clearer now.

Raw Storylines

#1: Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman,

#2: Kurt Angle, Corey Graves, Jason Jordan,

#3: Enzo Amore, Big Cass, Big Show,

#4: Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Nia Jax, Mickie James (minor), Emma (minor), Dana Brooke (minor),*

#5: Bray Wyatt, Finn Balor, Elias Sampson,

#6: Goldust, R-Truth.

#7: (Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy), (Sheamus, Cesaro), (Scott Dawson, Dash Wilder), (Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson)

#8: Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, (The Miz, Maryse, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas)

205 Live/Cruiserweight Division Storylines

#1: Neville, (Akira Tozawa, Titus O'Neill (minor)), Ariya Daivari,

#2: Rich Swann, TJP, Tony Nese, Cedric Alexander

#3: Drew Gulak, Mustafa Ali.

#4: Jack Gallagher, The Brian Kendrick,

And now, on with the show!

From Houston H&P Arena, Texas (10,000 capcity)

Expected Attendance (game): 11,678 (no figurehead)

Actual Attendance (game): 10,000 SELLOUT

Angle: Then, now, forever.... recap of last week with Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman and kinda Brock Lesnar. Rated overness/off screen (all). 3 minutes

Rating: B-

Angle: Kurt Angle talks. Rated Entertainment (Kurt Angle), Overness/off screen (Jason Jordan, Roman, Braun, Samoa Joe). 3 minutes.

Rating: B-

Angle: Braun interupts and demands to be named #1 contender. Here comes Joe, and Roman... Kurt makes 4 way match for Summerslam! Rated Menace (Braun), Entertaiment (Samoa Joe, Roman, Kurt Angle), Overness (Brock Lesnar, off screen). 7 minutes.

Rating: B+

Angle: Roman, Braun and Joe brawl. Menace (Strowman, minor success), Oveness (Roman, story minor defeat. Samoa Joe). 5 minutes.

Rating: B+

Minor Angle: Tonight's card. Hype for Seth/Dean vs Miztourage. Hype for Sasha vs Bayley for Alexa at Summerslam. Enzo vs Cass. 2 minutes

Rating: C-

COMMERCIAL

Angle: Elias hyping for Finn. 2 minutes

Rating: C-

Match: Elias Sampson vs Finn Balor in a No DQ match

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Elias Sampson

COMMERCIAL

Keep Strong: Finn Balor

Interference Finish: Bray Wyatt on Finn Balor

16 minutes (plus 3 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: C

Angle: Summerslam music hype (IGNORED).

Angle: Jason Jordan's debut coming tonight. Rated entertainment (Jason Jordan and Kurt Angle). 4 minutes

Rating: C+

Angle: Kurt Angle interupted by Emma. Rated Entertainment (Kurt Angle, Emma). Overness/off screen (Jason Jordan, Nia Jax, Curt Hawkins). 1 minute.

Rating: D

Angle: Enzo getting ready for fight with Big Cass. Rated Entertainment (Big Show, Enzo), Overness (Big Cass, off screen). 1 minute

Rating: C

Angle: Enzo pre match hype for Cass. Rated Entertainment (Enzo), Big Cass (Overness). 2 minutes

Rating: C

Match: Enzo Amore vs Big Cass

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Big Cass

Decisive Win

4 minutes (2 minutes for pre and post match)

Rating: C-

Angle: Cass starts beatdown on Enzo and threatens to snap Enzo's neck, Big Show tries to make save... Rated Menace (Big Cass, story success), Selling (Enzo, Big Show, story defeat). 4 minutes.

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Hype for Seth/Dean vs Miztourage. Sasha/Bayley for Alexa. 1 minute.

Rating: C

Angle: Renee interviews Alexa about Sasha/Bayley (called Team Gag Reflex!) . Rated Entertainment (Alexa Bliss), Not Rated (Renee), Overness/off screen (Sasha and Bayley). 2 minutes.

Rating: D+

COMMERCIAL

Match: Emma vs Nia Jax

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Nia Jax

DominateL Nia Jax

Decisive Win

3 minutes (2 miniutes for pre/post match)

Rating: E+

Angle: Charly Caruso interview with Akira Tozawa and recap. Titus gets match cancelled, Akira angry at Titus, leads to shove... Rated Entertainment (Titus O'Neill, Akira), Not Rated (Charly), Overness/off screen (Ariya Daivari). 5 minutes.

Rating: D+

COMMERCIAL

Angle: Akira wants Daivari to come out and face him like a man, Akira lays out Neville... Daivari lays out Akira. Here comes Neville! Rated Entertainment (Neville, story major defeat), Overness (Akira, story minor success. Daivari, story success). 5 minutes.

Rating: D

Angle: Bayley and Sasha talk pre-match, some disses at Alexa. Rated Entertainment (Sasha and Bayley), Overness/off screen (Alexa) 2 minutes.

Rating: D

Angle: Recap of start of show. Rated Overness/off screen (Braun, Roman, Kurt, Joe, Lesnar). 3 minutes.

Rating: B-

Angle: Renee Young interviews Jason Jordan for Curt Hawkins match. Rated Entertainment (Renee and Jason Jordan, Overness/off screen (Kurt Angle, Curt Hawkins). 2 minutes.

Rating: C-

Angle: Seth and Dean hyping tag match, still not on same page. Rated Entertainment (Seth/Dean), Overness (The Miz, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas). 1 minute

Rating: C

Match: Bayley vs Sasha Banks

Match Aim: Regular

Alexa Bliss on commentary

Winner: Bayley

Flash Pinfall

Open Match

COMMERCIAL

13 minutes (plus 4 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: D

Angle: Hype for Seth/Dean vs Miztourage AGAIN. Overness/off screen. 1 minute.

Rating: C

Angle: Curt Hawkins hypes Jason Jordan. Rated Entertainment (Curt Hawkins), Overness/off screen (Jason Jordan). 1 minute.

Rating: D-

Angle: Charity stuff again. 2 minutes. (SKIPPED)

Match: Jason Jordan vs Curt Hawkins

Matfch Aim: Regular

Winner: Jason Jordan

Decisive Win

Dominate: Jason Jordan

3 minutes (plus 2 minutes pre/post match)

Rating: D

Angle: Recap of Hardys, Revival and Anderson/Gallows. Rated overness/off screen. 2 minutes.

Rating: C-

COMMERCIAL

Angle: 205 Live will see Daivari vs Neville. Overness/off screen. 1 minute

Rating: D

Angle: Charly Caruso with The Revival, interupted by Anderson/Gallows. Rated Entertainment (Dash, Scott, Karl, Luke), Not Rated (Charly), Overness (Matt, Jeff). 3 minutes

Rating: C-

Match: The Revival vs The Club

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Scott Dawson

Loser: Karl Anderson

Distraction: Hardys on Anderson/Gallows

5 minutes (plus 1 minute for pre/post)

Rating: C

Angle: Hardys attack Revival. Rated Overness (Matt and Jeff, minor success), Selling (Dash and Dawson, minor defeat). 1 minute

Rating: C

Angle: Miz getting Miztourage psyched up. Rated Entertainment (Miz, Maryse), Overness (Bo, Curtis. Seth, Dean, off screen). 2 minutes

Rating: C+

Angle: Repeat of Summerslam hype video. 1 minute

Rating: B

Match: Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins vs The Miz, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Dean Ambrose

Loser: The Miz

Open Match

Decisive Win

18 minutes (3 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: B-

Angle: Dean Ambrose doesn't fist bump Seth, Shield reunion not quite there yet. Rated overness. 1 minute.

Rating: B-

SHOW RATING: B-

This show gained us popularity in 18 regions. This show lost us popularity in 18 regions (USA/Canada).

I know I missed loads of commercials but once again, the show fell nicely into the 50% match ratio.

35 segments

147 minutes

79 minutes of matches (with 7 matches!)

10ish minutes of filler

My personal biggest issue with this show was the number of segments hyping the main event... I get it, it's meant to feel like a big deal. If you watched the show in recent weeks you already knew it was coming... but then we had no less than 3 reminders via announcers and graphics about it... a promo from Seth and Dean... and a promo from The Miz. It was excessive and just made me want them to get on with it. The WWE seems to cater to a crowd they don't expect to be able to keep the attention of for more than 15 minutes at a time. If they put content into each 15 minute block instead of telling us what we're going to see 2 hours from now, maybe people would care. RAW, at it's peak, was 2 hours of TV you couldn't miss, where the only time you'd go pee was during a commercial. Now you can go pee at almost any point in the show because there are about 15 minutes of content necessary to see for storyline things, most of which will be repeated again. It's no wonder that viewership is dropping... which is annoying in and of itself, because the actual matches are great. And the angles that get all the focus tend to be pretty good too. It was said that Vince McMahon used to act as an editor/filter for all of Vince Russo's ideas in a distant past... WWE could do with someone to do an edit job on the show now, a tighter show (even a 3 hour one) could be consistently great again instead of consistently decent, with flashes of great.

Anywho... I should focus on the in-game stuff instead of my rants. Finn Balor was furious at his booking, so he's going to get a bribe to stay happy. He's helping to cement Elias Sampson on the main roster, which could be okay but I'm not sure the character has much of a long term pay off in it's current form. Poor Corey Graves "clashes horribly" with Alexa Bliss on commentary, putting an end to his on screen chances with her if ever there were any. Bayley and Sasha with great chemistry too. And it was nice to see Booker T get dinged in most matches for being a bad commentator... he was particularly bad in real life this week, he's one of those guys who just doesn't do well as an announcer despite generally being good on the mic. And it's characters like that who were the literal reason why the colour commentator stat was added in the first place.

In terms of grade, this was a bad show for RAW. But then... it had Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel in the main event... where Dean Ambrose was way off his game too. The opening angle with Braun Strowman killing security and the Summerslam main event also didn't rate as highly as I thought it would, certainly not as high as I thought it deserved. It's almost a shame that RAW's mysteries are over with for now, but I'm looking forward to seeing the Summerslam main event (Brock vs Roman vs Braun vs Samoa Joe? YES PLEASE!), the possible return of the Broken Hardys in future (that looks like it's about sorted?), a Sasha Banks heel turn (AT LAST), a variety of Shield Reunion/re-iimplosion scenarios with a maybe heel Roman Reigns and all the potentially fun directions for Kurt Angle and Jason Jordan (if EC3 was anything to show how it could go, Jason Jordan could go far with a WWE version of that scenario). RAW has the potential to be great and all the divisions outside of the cruiserweights are getting some attention. Neville is killing it over there and he has some big money matches to have with Kalisto and Cedric Alexander at some point too. So much potential, but thats what WWE usually give us.. potential and hype...

Anywho, stay tuned for more of Booking WWE exactly like real life... FOR SCIENCE!

Probably tomorrow.

Derek B · July 27, 2017

Just a few tweaks to our Smackdown storylines, bringing an end to Orton vs Jinder and Cena vs Rusev to create Cena vs Jinder (and minions). Jericho added to AJ vs KO. Aiden English vs Tye Dillinger made official... expect to see Orton vs Ziggler or Orton vs Rusev some time soon too, given that they are the biggest names on Smackdown without a storyline, along with Luke Harper and Erick Rowan who could potentially be the attackers of Breezango.

Smackdown Storylines

#1: John Cena, (Jinder Mahal, Samir Singh (minor), Sunil Singh (minor))

#2: Kevin Owns, AJ Styles, Chris Jericho

#3: Tye Dillinger, Aiden English

#4: Big E, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso

#5: Becky Lynch, Carmella, Charlotte Flair, Lana, Naomi, Natalya, Tamina, James Ellsworth.

#6: Sami Zayn, Mike Kanelis, Maria Kanelis.

#7: (Fandango, Tyler Breeze), (Mojo Rawley, Zack Ryder), (Konnor, Viktor), (Primo, Epico)

#8: Baron Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura.

And now, on with the show!

From the Richmond Coliseum, Richmond, Virginia (capacity 13,353)

Predicted Attendance: 13,600

Actual Attendance: 11,006

Angle: Then, now, forever.... Kevin Owens is US champion again. Rated Entertainment (Kevin Owens), Overness/off screen (AJ Styles). 4 minutes.

Rating: B+

Angle: AJ Styles comes out... CHRIS JERICHO returns!! Rated Entertainment (AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho). 7 minutes

Rating: B+

Angle: Shane McMahon makes main event of Owens vs Styles vs Jericho. Rated Entertainment (Shane), Overness (everyone else). 2 minutes

Rating: B-

Minor Angle: Shinsuke Nakamura and Baron Corbin walking for their match, next. Rated Overness. 1 minute.

Rating: C

Angle: Generic merchandise promo. SKIPPED

Match: Shinsuke Nakamura vs Baron Corbin

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura

COMMERCIAL

Decisive Win

10 minutes (3 minutes pre/post match)

Rating: C+

Minor Angle: Hype for main event and Jinder Mahal looking for a challenger at Summerslam. 1 minute

Rating: B

Angle: Dasha interviewing Naomi and Natalya. Carmella also around with MitB. Rated Entertainment (Naomi, Natalya, Carmella), Not Rated (Dasha). 2 minutes

Rating: D+

COMMERCIAL

Match: Charlotte Flair/Becky Lynch vs Lana/Tamina

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: Charlotte

Loser: Lana

Decisive Win

8 minutes (2 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: D+

Angle: Tamina angry at Lana. Rated Menace (Tamina), Selling (Lana). 2 minutes.

Rating: D

Minor Angle: Recap of Jinder vs Orton. Rated Overness/off screen (Orton, Jinder, Samir, Sunil, Khali). 3 minutes.

Rating: C-

Angle: Jinder looking for a new challenger for Summerslam. Rated Entertainment (Jinder), Overness (Orton, off screen). 4 minutes

Rating: B+

Angle: Oh look.. it's John Cena. What a shock. Rated Entertainment (Cena, Jinder). 5 minutes.

Rating: B+

Angle: Here comes Daniel Bryan! YES! YES! YES! Makes John Cena vs Shinsuke Nakamura for #1 contendership next week!! Rated Entertainment (Daniel Bryan), Overness (Cena, Jinder. Shinsuke (off screen)). 2 minutes

Rating: B-

Angle: Hype for min event again and Sami/Tye vs Aided/Mike. 1 minute.

Rating: C

Angle: KO approaches Shane McMahon, doesn't like the match. Rated Entertainment (Shane, KO), Overness/off screen (AJ, Jericho). 2 mnutes.

Rating: B-

Angle: Aiden English singing again to intro Mike. Rated Entertainment (Aiden), Overness (Mike, Maria). 2 minutes

Rating: D

Match: Aiden English and Mike Kanelis vs Sami Zayn and Tye Dillinger

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Sami Zayn

Loser: Mike Kanelis

Decisive Win

6 minutes (3 minutes pre/post match)

Rating: C-

Angle: New Day to celebrate.. Usos attack!! Rated Overness (Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso. Story Major Success), Selling (Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, Big E. Story defeats). 3 minutes.

Rating: B-

Angle: Renee Young with Shinsuke to hype match vs Cena. Rated Entertainment (Renee, Shinsuke), Overness/off screen (John Cena). 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: AJ Styles

Loser: Kevin Owens

Open Match

Decisive Win

15 minutes (4 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: B

Angle: Kevin Owens wrecking the place. Rated Entertainment (Kevin Owens), Overness (AJ Styles, Chris Jericho. Shane McMahon, off screen). 2 minutes

Rating: B-

SHOW RATING: B

This show increased our popularity in 26 regions.

Not a lot to say about this show in real life. It was nothing special, but had some decent wrestling and propelry began Smackdown's build towards Summerslam. Cena vs Shinsuke next week is a stupidly big match to give away on free TV so look for some kind of swervey thing to happen so that we don't get a proper answer to who is better between them. Presumably Jinder and his minions doing something to influence things.

In-game, the show performed about as well as would be expected. Shinsuke carried Baron in their match that was far shorter and less good than their previous one. AJ vs Owens vs Jericho was fun and everyone played a part. The women had a match that continues to really prevent anyone from truly shining and that division just has no momentum in it at all just now. At least the Cruiserweight division has Neville with a lot of momentum to anchor their division... the women on Smackdown do not. Notable by their continued absences are Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper, with Randy Orton also not on this show following his defeat on PPV.

Smackdown has a good main event scene, capable of putting on a great match whenever asked of it... with Nakamura, Corbin and Zayn somewhere between the top guys and the midcard. The tag division is alright, anchored as it is by Usos and New Day but it could do with more teams actively competing. Breezango are the only other team doing anything at all mand even they are just doing entertaining Fashioin Police things while the rest of the teams float in and out of that. Smackdown's depth isn't as good as RAW's and sometimes it shows.. in TEW they can rely on a good main event and some John Cena angles to deliver deceptively good ratings, but in reality this show was just... there. Not bad, not good either. Just there.

Anywho on to 205 Live

http://network.wwe.com/assets/images/5/1/6/241757516/cuts/205LiveLogo_Ntwk_s0j5xcwc_z03ffue7.jpg

Angle: Dasha interviews Neville about Tozawa. Rated Entertainment (Neville), Overness (Akira Tozawa, Ariya Daivari), Not Rated (Dasha). 4 minutes.

Rating: D

Angle: Akira Tozawa joins commentary team, Ariya Daivari cuts promo. Rated Entertainment (Ariya, Akira), Overness/off screen (Neville). 3 minutes.

Rating: D

Match: Ariya Daivari vs Neville in a non-title match

Match Aim: Story Telling

Winner: Ariya Daivari

Akira Tozawa on announce team

Count Out Finish

Distraction: Tozawa on both

5 minutes (2 minute for pre/post match)

Rating: D+

Angle: Neville and Tozawa almost brawl. Rated Overness (both). 1 minute.

Rating: D

Angle: Recap of Drew Gulak and Mustafa Ali rivalry. Rated Overness//off screen (both). 3 minutes.

Rating: E+

Angle: The Brian Kendrick talks at Jack Gallagher with silly pictures. Rate Entertainment (Kendrick), Overness/off screen (Jack Gallagher). 5 mintues.

Rating: D+

Angle: Jack finally interupts Kendrick. Rated Entertainment (Jack Gallagher), Overness (The Brian Kendrick). 2 minutes.

Rating: D+

Minor Angle: Hype for RAW... Braun vs Roman vs Samoa Joe. 1 minute.

Rating: B-

Angle: Dasha with Rich Swann and Cedric Alexander, hyping tag vs TJP and Tony Nese. Rated Entertainment (Swann, Cedric, TJP, Nese), Not Rated (Dasha). 2 minutes.

Rating: D+

Match: TJP/Tony Nese vs Rich Swann/Cedric Alexander

Match Aim: Regular

Winner: TJP

Loser: Cedric Alexander

Open Match

Tainted Win

12 minutes (plus 3 minutes for pre/post match)

Rating: D+

SHOW RATING: C-

Once again, not enough attractive women on the show here... I only realised during Smackdown that Dasha doesn't exist in the game and that's the role she would probably be filling though you can make your own assumptions on whether she fills the criteria or not.

I think I need to make a couple of bug reports to Adam... minor angles are clearly being factored into the overall show rating with the 1 minute B- rating for RAW next week bumping the show grade up a lot... the game specifies that they don't, so that needs mentioned. I've also noticed that Smackdown is consistently not hitting it's expected attendance numbers and I suspect that's because we've got a RAW brand B show on too, so we're getting the attendance for not having the figurehead present.

As for this show... it was short, to the point and had literally nothing worth writing home about. I will keep doing 205 Live for the duration of this experiment but nothing of note is happening here. It was always a B show, but now it's as important as Main Event. Instead of being a talent showcase, it's where careers at 205 pounds or less go to stagnate. No wonder Austin Aries quit.

I'm planning to keep this going up to Summerslam, at which point I may post the file to show just how things went in this game. I guess I'll see what the interest is in that closer to the time, but for now, stay tuned for more WWE being booked exaclty as real life... FOR SCIENCE!

Greylocke · August 1, 2017

Looking at the segment ratings, it's clear that game-wise, RAW main problem is that they lack the one guy that can consistently pull a B+ to A segment rating. Smackdown has that guy, and his name is John Cena. Every angle he's in delivers at least a B+ or better, and it always boosts the overall show even if their main event wasn't spectacular.

Theoretically, the guy that can do the same on RAW should have been Brock Lesnar, and RAW is basically hurt by the fact that he only appears rarely and none of the other guys can fill that void while he's away.

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Booking WWE exactly as real life... FOR SCIENCE!

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