What kind of storylines do you always go back to?

[codey_v2]

With the game coming out soon, I figured it would be a good time to talk about storylines that we always go back to. Maybe give someone a good booking idea!

 

For me, one of my favorites to book is the midcard champ being forced to vacate his belt to challenge for the main event belt. It's just a really versatile storyline to book. My favorite variation is to have a cocky heel champ vacate his belt, lose the world title match, and lose to the new midcard champ when he retreats back down the card.

[Jomosensual]

In my last save I found myself coming back to a lot of Old Era vs. New Era or Old Worker vs. Rookie storylines. Not sure why but it really played as a central theme to the 8 years of booking I did there. It would have continued with the main resistor to the Vet movement, Sammy Bach, realizing that he too was about to be replaced like the others have told him and turning on a younger tag partner after losing a few in a row. Feel like it would have been a great way to end his in ring career after helping the younger guys battle off the old for so long

[Spirophore]

Faction Warfare. I always end up putting together a ton of stables. Eventually it gets to the point where I’m booking year long storylines where one faction gains control until they are overthrown or implode. In my 4C game this happened first with Hands of Stone (Johnny Bloodstone, Jared Johnson and David Stone), who were supplanted by Edward Cornell and his Coalition (Hugh Ancrie, Gram Gorman, Logan Wolfsbaine and later Chris Flynn) until they fractured after a year and a half. Things were chaotic until about when I stopped playing, where the new alliance of Mimic, Davis Wayne Newton and Thrill Seeker, also known as The New Black, gained control with Mimic winning the title and a resurgent Cornell Coalition got on his heels. It gives you a lot of options to work with for long term booking, so I fall back on it a lot.

[1NJ Tigers]

I tend to really fall back on overdoing the amount of tournaments I have. I start off with maybe 1 tournament to set up a #1 contender. Before I know it I have a tournament for about every gimmick in wrestling. Especially when the company has such great in ring workers.

[Cyhort]

I used to book the main event scene around a strong heel faction that rarely lost. I'd build up a bunch of babyfaces, and the one that ended up getting the most over (see: getting the best match rating) would eventually beat the leader for the world title and set up one of those career long feuds that I keep coming back to every now and then.

 

These days, I try to snatch up as much young talent off the indies as I can and have them all struggle to get to the top. I like to focus my shows half on young, semi-to-unknown talent and the rest on established, yet still youngish, stars fighting for the various belts. On the last show of the year, I always book a one night Wrestler Of The Year tournament between all the best wrestlers in the company (decided by popularity and win loss records) and whoever wins that is set up for a big push through the next year. I've always wanted to sign a young, super talented but very green and unknown guy and have him sneak into the tournament and have him win it all in a shock upset then push him to the moon, but the game mechanics don't really let me do that without editing and by the time my new promotions (because I always do this with my own custom promotion) got the tournament established enough to where this would be a Big Deal I've usually already lost interest in the save. I'm hoping with the way 2020 tracks tournaments that something like this is easier to do, because I really love the idea of one night tournaments and surprise winners who use the momentum to springboard to superstardom.

[mjmiller2010]

I always tend to fall towards the heel attacks face champion until the face is forced to accept the challenge.

I also love running tournaments so any time a title is vacated or I've just ran out of ideas for a new contender I run one.

[markish]

I will always, always, ALWAYS build towards a big WarGames match, often with one of the faces turning during the match itself Bryan Danielson/Dakota Kai-style.

[Slim Jim]

I did a Classics degree so I often try to adapt Greek/Roman literature/history into storylines. One I do frequently is form a stable called The Triumvirate with one veteran (Crassus), one established Main Event guy (Pompey) and one newer Main Event guy with a lot of upside and potential (Caesar) who have an unsteady alliance held together by the veteran and run roughshod over the top of the card, which generally leads to the veteran retiring in some way (either retired by someone they are feuding with or one of the other two turning) and the remaining two imploding and feuding for supremacy. The bigger version has the Caesar character taking on a new stable broadly representing Mark Anthony, Cassius, Brutus and Augustus, which ends up in Caesar getting betrayed then a tag feud between Cassius/Brutus and Anthony/Augustus before finally Augustus (who starts the whole thing as a rookie) turning on Anthony to get his first world title and start his own era.

 

Most complete version I did of that adaptation was an almost four year arc, pretty satisfying.

 

My other favourite was a three year arc inspired by the Odyssey but that involved a year-long kayfabe injury so unlikely to do that one the same way again.

[durgertime]

I'm a real sucker for two major storylines:

 

1) A Dark Cult:

 

It's just too damn fun. You got a charismatic leader, dark prophecies, maybe black magic, and you never know who can get brainwashed, turned or even be secret members.

 

2) Authority Angles:

 

It kinda was played out in 2015-2016, but man, there's something so great and versatile about authority storylines. Again, like a dark cult, it can come in so many different forms and directions, and just makes such a natural foil to your top babyfaces. In my NWA save on my YT channel, I've been utilizing a nebulous "Board of Directors" that wants the NWA to just be stripped apart for intellectual property and commercialized. Its a great adversary to the babyfaces, and because the authority has so much control, you can believably have them screw over wrestlers, hire new enforcers, or bribe people.

[DatIsraeliGuy]

Stable Wars.

 

It's just really fun and could branch into a bunch of other storylines within each stable.

I also love to name things so stables are a great chance for that.

[Csorrel18]

1.) Aldeous Blackfriar Cult

 

One of my favorite charcters in the game and I always have him constantly evolving with his own cult.

 

2.) Face Authority Figures

Usually Big Magic, but I like having a good guy as my on screen GM vs an up and coming heel.

[Bad Collin]

Invasion angles. When I buy out a company I usually have the new guys come in as heels. I give the best person coming over the bought out companies belt and a big push and build towards a title v title match.

[StayRudeStayRebel]

<p>One that I have used countless times goes about like this: I have a lower card babyface who I want to get more popular, so I have them going over a upper card heel by a flash pinfall or another "fluky" way, on a weekly or lesser show. Then the heel obviously gets furious, so they'll try to get some of their heat back by sending a lackey or a partner to beat the face, but the face manages another win. After that I set up a rematch between the original face and heel on a PPV or a larger show, and have the heel go over with a tainted win with interference from the lackey/partner. After that I do a angle on the weekly show where the heels try to add insult to injury by attacking the babyface, but have a (usually) more established face come in for a save, creating an opportunity for some tag matches whilst I build up to the blow off final match between the original face and original heel at a major show. At the final match the end result will usually depend on how over I've gotten the face. If everything has gone like it's supposed to they'll have moved up from lower midcard or whatever, to something around a upper mid status, and I can give them the win in the feud.</p><p> </p><p>

I also tend to have almost all my debuting wrestlers go through at least a bit of a winning streak, so there is almost always at least one undefeated wrestler on my roster. More often then not I'll have a face and a heel doing the streak simultaneously, so that when I'm ready I can have them face each other in a big streak vs. streak match.</p>

[Sco xY2Jx]

<p>I almost always end up booking a heel faction. One Main Event player, one workhouse, a strong tag-team (usually a hoss) and if I've got a women's division, a female talent in there.</p><p>

Then programmes run from there as people look to take out the notorious heel faction. That's one storyline I always play because it usually writes itself.</p>

[djthefunkchris]

Yeah, heel faction. The bad guys come in and beat up everyone until finally, the hero comes and chases the bad guys away. In one form or another, it's really the only storyline to use.

[mginer2]

First thing I did with TEW 206, the first TEW i got, was to see the tag teams, and triying to see wich one in my company would make the best rivalrie. And after that waiting till the moments of the breakup

 

Also i like to book heel champion, for a long time, then they loose the world title, and begin a losing streak on several monthes, to get them babyface later

[FINisher]

Faction leaders backstabbing their faction, making the hero of the faces a major heel at a tipping point in the story.

[kanegan]

My favorite is the Faction Warfare. In fact, my final 2016 diary based in Thunder Verse was around this Faction Warfare only. I am a sucker for them.

 

Also, i do a lot of tag team booking and then break it up when one man is ready for the spotlight. This is one storyline which i keep coming back to

[arwink]

Plucky young rookies engaged in a year-long chase as they try to get a win over a monster heel.

 

Jobber tagteams who haven’t realised they’re the undercard guys, and make challenges way above their level.

 

And a good 40% of the angles Paul Heyman booked in OVW.

[RatedRKO16]

One storyline nobody has mentioned that I do fairly often is injury angles. A wrestler will kayfabe injure another for 2 or 3 months, usually to help get the injurer over and give the other who I don't have a story for a break.

 

Then when he returns, you have a hot feud for a few months.

[HG Morrison]

The tag team split leading to a Heel forming a faction and the Face having to try and get through the faction to get to their former partner.

[EdawgTheMighty]

Since Kana debuts a month or so before Portia Perez in the 2001 RW I play the hell out of. I always have Kana go on a long win streak as a face while building up Portia as the over-the-top heel she was. Kicking Allison Danger in the stomach when she was pregnant. Spitting on people. Just being the good heel she can until I have built them up enough to fight over the top title. Since I always do perf > pop feds. It usually lets me pull between 88 - 97 matches on the average. One of those career-long feuds I can fall back on when either one doesn't have a decent program. And since Portia already starts with good skills all the time spent with Kana makes her world-caliber.

[Soft]

I did a Classics degree so I often try to adapt Greek/Roman literature/history into storylines. One I do frequently is form a stable called The Triumvirate with one veteran (Crassus), one established Main Event guy (Pompey) and one newer Main Event guy with a lot of upside and potential (Caesar) who have an unsteady alliance held together by the veteran and run roughshod over the top of the card, which generally leads to the veteran retiring in some way (either retired by someone they are feuding with or one of the other two turning) and the remaining two imploding and feuding for supremacy. The bigger version has the Caesar character taking on a new stable broadly representing Mark Anthony, Cassius, Brutus and Augustus, which ends up in Caesar getting betrayed then a tag feud between Cassius/Brutus and Anthony/Augustus before finally Augustus (who starts the whole thing as a rookie) turning on Anthony to get his first world title and start his own era.

 

Most complete version I did of that adaptation was an almost four year arc, pretty satisfying.

 

My other favourite was a three year arc inspired by the Odyssey but that involved a year-long kayfabe injury so unlikely to do that one the same way again.

 

Oh, wow I actually did the exact same storyline before. I don't have a classics degree, but 9 years of Latin and 4 years of Ancient Greek will do that to ya, I guess. My bigger version saw also kind of Caesar getting a new faction afterwards, but then with a more broader outline. I did it in a early 90s mod with WWF:

 

Crassus: Hogan

Pompey: Randy Savage

Caesar: Lex Luger (who I stole from WCW ^^)

[Larrikin]

I have been jotting down story lines for a year now. Whenever I watch something, hear something I will added it to my list on an app.

[Halo]

Always do a rise to power for one worker which takes about 2-3 years before they win the top title in the company. While that is going on I have another worker doing the same but as a heel. They eventually fight and I do a double heel turn.