Booking Historical Mods

[kito333]

So I like to try to play the late '80's but I struggle with booking. Back in the day they didn't have A shows like Raw today. WWF TV was all B shows, so how do you book that in TEW? Do you guys ignore the real life norm and just make an A show? How do you advance story lines? I find myself just doing promos and and post match attacks. I cant seem to get any substance in my stories. I guess I am just looking for some motivation to play.

[Winter8905]

<p>It's easier to book it like an A and a B show. </p><p>

For the A show Main event I normally book a ME v UMC tho.. The ME v ME is kept for PPV's. </p><p> </p><p>

I use the B shows for giving the guys that lose on the A show.. wins</p>

[cappyboy]

<p>Question, Brother Kito. Do you have this?</p><p> </p><p>

<a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538239" rel="external nofollow">http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538239</a></p><p> </p><p>

If not, I would heartily suggest you get it. Amongst the storylines in the pool are the stories from the classic Death Of The Territories mod which would give you a feel for 80's style booking it sounds like you lack. You get events like buildup to the original WrestleMania matches. The Freebird/Von Erich war. The birth of the Steamboat/Flair feud. Should be plenty of material there to help you get your head around pre Monday Night booking.</p><p> </p><p>

Also, if you have WWE Network or a good historical streaming site, watch a lot of WCW Saturday Night from the early 90's. It was kind of the advent of the A show. It'll feel a lot like a B by today's standards but it was "the mothership" of their broadcast week to use the late, great Dusty Rhodes' phrase. I would also look to the broadcast shows feds like RoH, OVW, and Championship Wrestling From Hollywood currently put on. They do quite well at capturing the flavor of what a late 80's wrestling show would be like.</p>

[The_Monk]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="kito333" data-cite="kito333" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44594" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>So I like to try to play the late '80's but I struggle with booking. Back in the day they didn't have A shows like Raw today. WWF TV was all B shows, so how do you book that in TEW? Do you guys ignore the real life norm and just make an A show? How do you advance story lines? I find myself just doing promos and and post match attacks. I cant seem to get any substance in my stories. I guess I am just looking for some motivation to play.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> So I love the classic mods, The Golden Age 87 being my favourite.</p><p> </p><p> I play as WWF and I do the following:</p><p> * I create an event scheduled weekly that is on free to air TV I get a deal with USA Network,in my head this starts building a relationship with them for the years ahead and I get a deal with SevenSport (I think that's the name but basically its the small network for Britain and Europe if memory serves me right. USA Network is also small, so the coverage I'm getting isn't massive.</p><p> </p><p> * The show I create is named Tuesday Night at MSG, and is held every Tuesday, go figure, and at Madison Square Garden. this Is week in week out.</p><p> </p><p> * THe basis of the show is then like how RAW started out, it has mainly star v star matches and is really used for my stories. The two B shows I have remain B shows with squash matches etc and they tour USA</p><p> </p><p> * Because the mod starts just before Wrestlemania III I keep my PPVs as the Saturday Night Main Event ones but with tag lines like In Your House used to, so example it might be Saturday Night Main Event:Payback</p><p> </p><p> *Once I get to 1988 I introduce the Royal Rumble and Summslam (true to life) while still keeping my SNME format....my 87 one for the summer was SNME:Slamming Summer, after a creative meeting we decide Summer Slam had a better ring to it <img alt=";)" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/wink.png.686f06e511ee1fbf6bdc7d82f6831e53.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> * Like this it allows me to build to when Raw eventually gets released and I begin the Monday night wars and introducing PPV names etc dropping the SNME</p><p> </p><p> * for build-ups the 80s/90s was often mostly interviews etc with the odd one of two Big attacks from the heel possibly putting the face "out of Action" before the face comes back and chases off the heel on a show leading to the PPV</p><p> </p><p> Hope this helps.</p><p> </p><p> But remember one key thing.....its your world if you want to go into the editor and create RAW or bring RAW out in 87 etc you can do. </p><p> My preference is I never alter the mod so all the above for me is done in game live as I play it. The only exception to not editing the MOD is that I managed to get a version where by JCP gets brought out and becomes WCW with a massive import of money making them serious competition just like it did in real life. I got his as otherwise you had to do some trickery to get WCW working probably and one of the MODs was kinda enough to share it with me.</p>

[Danny_H22]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="cappyboy" data-cite="cappyboy" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44594" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Question, Brother Kito. Do you have this?<p> </p><p> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538239" rel="external nofollow">http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538239</a></p><p> </p><p> If not, I would heartily suggest you get it. Amongst the storylines in the pool are the stories from the classic Death Of The Territories mod which would give you a feel for 80's style booking it sounds like you lack. You get events like buildup to the original WrestleMania matches. The Freebird/Von Erich war. The birth of the Steamboat/Flair feud. Should be plenty of material there to help you get your head around pre Monday Night booking.</p><p> </p><p> Also, if you have WWE Network or a good historical streaming site, watch a lot of WCW Saturday Night from the early 90's. It was kind of the advent of the A show. It'll feel a lot like a B by today's standards but it was "the mothership" of their broadcast week to use the late, great Dusty Rhodes' phrase. I would also look to the broadcast shows feds like RoH, OVW, and Championship Wrestling From Hollywood currently put on. They do quite well at capturing the flavor of what a late 80's wrestling show would be like.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Thank you for this. It is the first time seeing it and it will definitely help going forward. Hopefully 600+ storylines will be enough...</p>

[Lucky707]

<p>I do something different from everyone else but similar to what NJPW does in real life:</p><p> </p><p>

I have a weekly event (not just TV) that is tag matches and angles ONLY (unless I get poached in which case emergency title changes are acceptable). I save Singles matches for the monthly events, of which I only run 5 monthly events per year. </p><p> </p><p>

I'm not playing WWF/WCW in this scenario though but rather a Canadian company that has been created for the purposes of playing this game (If you don't want to grind, I would start it out at about 40 popularity across the board in the country you are in)</p>

[James Casey]

<p>With a twist.</p><p> </p><p>

Yes, you do kind of need to book main event talent regularly, there's no way around that. You can't pad shows outs with recaps and adverts and all the other tat that filled up shows back then, and no-one wants to have to book a half dozen local guys every week to fill up the undercard.</p><p> </p><p>

But, you can use those main eventers to elevate your undercard. An open match between Hulk Hogan and Jim Brunzell, for example, will do Hogan no harm but probably add 2-3% to Brunzell's overness even in defeat. If Brunzell loses clean, competitive matches to main event guys every 2-3 weeks then he'll quickly jump from undercard to midcard, maybe even upper midcard. I find it's best to do this on a rotational basis, as trying to push (or at least elevate) everyone at once means no-one stands out.</p><p> </p><p>

By all means have rivals cross paths - occasionally. The announcers do an often-forgotten job of selling feuds; For those watching on TV, every Rockers match features the announcers discussing their issues with Demolition. Live in the arena? The Rockers are chewing through local prelim guys and getting a little more over.</p><p> </p><p>

You only <em>have</em> to advance one storyline per show (at least, that's in my game; I assume it's not any different for others). So if you have one big event every 8 weeks, and 6 matches on the show, each storyline might be built off a variation of one tag match, one interview on each side and one angle where the rivals cross paths. That's 24 segments (perhaps slightly less if you have tag matches featuring two storylines crossing paths) spread across 8 weeks of shows - which might be 8, 16 or 24 shows, depending on your schedule!</p><p> </p><p>

No harm in using hype videos to maintain storyline heat if you have a spare slot in the show, of course.</p>

[Beejus]

<p>Something else to keep in mind is that you don't <em>have</em> to use every main eventer on every show. A main eventer who has no special clauses saying he'll be used more will only start getting irritated at being left off shows on every other A show, but if you use them during a B show, that will keep them feeling well used.</p><p> </p><p>

So let's look at this from the 1991 mod. You have Hulk Hogan on week 1's Superstars. That means he won't get upset until you don't use him after week 3's Superstars. Everyone will be totally fine with it if you make week 2's episode about Warrior. BUT, if you instead use Hulk on week 2's All-American Wrestling, he'll be fine about not being on week 3's Superstars, meaning you can make that episode's main eventer Jake Roberts. As it pertains to feuds, if you have Hogan cut a promo on Earthquake on week one's Superstars and then save Earthquake's reply until week 2's Superstars, your feud's heat won't drop from inactivity from not being mentioned on All-American or Wrestling Challenge because feud heat doesn't degrade on B shows at all. However, feuds that are continued on a B show also won't see a degrade for not being used on an A show. So if you use your Hart Foundation vs. Nasty Boys feud only on All-American, you can leave it alone for Superstars and you won't see it suffer.</p><p> </p><p>

A lot of what made the 80s and 90s wrestlers still so iconic is that their characters didn't get overused and overexposed like how everyone is now. Limiting how much everyone is seen will help with that goal and helps you to rotate out feuds per shows. As far as I see, the fun of booking the 80s and early 90s is not so much in booking huge, exciting television as much as it is a test in your forward planning skills. "Seat of your pants" bookers can easily become frustrated as their main eventers either get too much use for realism or not enough use which leads to upset workers.</p><p> </p><p>

Also, interviewers. Lots and lots of interviewers. The person seen on-screen the most in any given week should be Gene Okerlund. When I book these time periods, I also use a lot of the announcers just talking between segments. I'll do minor segments featuring (for example) Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan rated on microphone and entertainment talking about an off-screen Randy Savage and Warrior, who are rated on overness.</p><p> </p><p>

A good place to look for inspiration on how it should be done is Asaemon's WCW 1994 diary, as he has the old style TV format done fairly perfectly.</p>

[The_Monk]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Beejus" data-cite="Beejus" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44594" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Something else to keep in mind is that you don't <em>have</em> to use every main eventer on every show. A main eventer who has no special clauses saying he'll be used more will only start getting irritated at being left off shows on every other A show, but if you use them during a B show, that will keep them feeling well used.<p> </p><p> So let's look at this from the 1991 mod. You have Hulk Hogan on week 1's Superstars. That means he won't get upset until you don't use him after week 3's Superstars. Everyone will be totally fine with it if you make week 2's episode about Warrior. BUT, if you instead use Hulk on week 2's All-American Wrestling, he'll be fine about not being on week 3's Superstars, meaning you can make that episode's main eventer Jake Roberts. As it pertains to feuds, if you have Hogan cut a promo on Earthquake on week one's Superstars and then save Earthquake's reply until week 2's Superstars, your feud's heat won't drop from inactivity from not being mentioned on All-American or Wrestling Challenge because feud heat doesn't degrade on B shows at all. However, feuds that are continued on a B show also won't see a degrade for not being used on an A show. So if you use your Hart Foundation vs. Nasty Boys feud only on All-American, you can leave it alone for Superstars and you won't see it suffer.</p><p> </p><p> A lot of what made the 80s and 90s wrestlers still so iconic is that their characters didn't get overused and overexposed like how everyone is now. Limiting how much everyone is seen will help with that goal and helps you to rotate out feuds per shows. As far as I see, the fun of booking the 80s and early 90s is not so much in booking huge, exciting television as much as it is a test in your forward planning skills. "Seat of your pants" bookers can easily become frustrated as their main eventers either get too much use for realism or not enough use which leads to upset workers.</p><p> </p><p> Also, interviewers. Lots and lots of interviewers. The person seen on-screen the most in any given week should be Gene Okerlund. When I book these time periods, I also use a lot of the announcers just talking between segments. I'll do minor segments featuring (for example) Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan rated on microphone and entertainment talking about an off-screen Randy Savage and Warrior, who are rated on overness.</p><p> </p><p> A good place to look for inspiration on how it should be done is Asaemon's WCW 1994 diary, as he has the old style TV format done fairly perfectly.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> So you basically don't need an A show is what you're saying?</p><p> </p><p> Also how does it work if you have a worker who is contracted not to work B shows, ie in the 87 golden age mod Andre is contracted not to work B shows, this is why I always create my MSG show?</p>

[smartman]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="The_Monk" data-cite="The_Monk" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44594" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>So you basically don't need an A show is what you're saying?<p> </p><p> Also how does it work if you have a worker who is contracted not to work B shows, ie in the 87 golden age mod Andre is contracted not to work B shows, this is why I always create my MSG show?</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> The only issue with not having an A show is that you're going to have only your big monthly show gaining your fed any pop, which probably doesn't matter to most people but will to some. And yeah, having older workers that aren't willing to work B shows will mess up your storylines because the other person is going to have to carry it. You can use them if they're off-screen, I think.</p><p> </p><p> It really isn't that hard to do an A show. Run a 90-minute show with a ME vs Midcard 20-min (so you don't get time capped), an upper-mid vs lower-mid, and flood the show with angles with other ME's that will score super-high to carry the show. You could even shoot for a 40-50% match ratio. Probably should as that's what WWF was. JCP was a little higher.</p>

[The_Monk]

The only issue with not having an A show is that you're going to have only your big monthly show gaining your fed any pop, which probably doesn't matter to most people but will to some. And yeah, having older workers that aren't willing to work B shows will mess up your storylines because the other person is going to have to carry it. You can use them if they're off-screen, I think.

 

 

Id be fine with that to be honest as it would keep it closer to being real for that period as WWF tv pretty much sucked but it gained its pop from the PPVs, and it would also make it quite competitive since the other companies would be running A Shows (JCP, AWA etc)

[lazorbeak]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="kito333" data-cite="kito333" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44594" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>So I like to try to play the late '80's but I struggle with booking. Back in the day they didn't have A shows like Raw today. WWF TV was all B shows, so how do you book that in TEW? Do you guys ignore the real life norm and just make an A show? How do you advance story lines? I find myself just doing promos and and post match attacks. I cant seem to get any substance in my stories. I guess I am just looking for some motivation to play.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> "Back in the day they didn't have A shows." That's not really true. Back before WWE became a TV-oriented business, the focus was on live events. WWF ran around 2-3 "stadium" shows a week, and also ran daily "house show" type events in smaller markets, and then took a double or triple taping of squashes from the house show and taped them, and cut them in with "hosts." Since TEW is focused on live show tapings, not production, you really don't need to sweat realistic squashes (it'd be nice if TEW allowed double-taping the same show, but that's a separate issue).</p><p> </p><p> In TEW terms, a show like this, from 30 years ago, would be an A show: <a href="https://www.cagematch.net//?id=1&nr=45229" rel="external nofollow">https://www.cagematch.net//?id=1&nr=45229</a></p><p> </p><p> Earlier in the week, they triple-taped Challenge and Superstars in tapings in small cities in Kansas, full of jobber squashes that aired weeks later.</p><p> </p><p> Stories did develop much slower, but you can book a more or less accurate card without worrying too much about jobber squashes if your mindset is you're selling stadium shows to live markets.</p>

[Gungner]

I know a lot wants to play the early mods as realistic as possible, but I just have 12 PPV's a year, plus Saturday Night's Main Event 2 or 3 times a year as a special event. Then 1 A-show (Superstars of Wrestling) and 1 B-show (Wrestling Challenge).

[jgriff3029]

To simulate the WWF 80's I usually make a weekly A show called WWF Live and rotate weekly between the Philadelphia Spectrum, Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden and the Maple Leaf Garden. This simulates the big shows I remember seeing on channels like NESN on my parents big ole satellite dish back in the day. I know it isn't exactly true to life, but it feels truer to the time period of the mod. The other shows remain B shows. I usually put "Live" on a national channel like USA as well.