TCW Discussion Thread

[dbritton987]

Also, I've been pondering the main event for the next Total Mayhem.  The top answer for awhile was Mr. Lucha to challenge Wolf Hawkins for the World Title.  Maybe even Randy Unleashed now that he's signed with TCW.

But, there's one thing different than my two previous TCW games.  Sammy Bach didn't start in decline, and still isn't in decline (KNOCK ON WOOD lol).  In fact, he's my most popular wrestler and by far my top merchandise seller.  So...I think I might pull the trigger if everything goes well.  I mean, if anyone deserves to main event Total Mayhem...and MAYBE become World Champion?  It's Sammy Bach!  

[MikeSc]

I started a game a few months back and took a fresh look at everything.

First, I took out any of the bad personality types not involved in a feud right off the bat.  I wrapped up the tag titles storyline and the Elite storyline to I could get rid of Nate and Daryl Devine.  I signed a bunch of the "standard" signing guys and started running 6-man tags up and down most of the TV cards with a B-show to help push the new hires up the card faster starting in March.

Fro Sure is heading off to tour in a few months (I am currently starting August).  Not sure teaming him with Joffy is a solid idea long-term if that keeps up.  Joffy may end up with Bradford Preverell long-term.

Tommy Cornell became available to sign (250K per month!) in July and I got him.  He came in as a babyface to shore up that side of the main event and will be feuding with Wolf over the world title come October.  Wolf wins the title off of Aaron after Aaron defends it against Jay in August, taking advantage of the tired champ.  Tommy cements the top of the card well enough to really take my time developing hte next geeration, so long as I can hang onto Sammy Bach.

I moved the tournament up to February because I don't love 6 months of one feud.  Sure I could have title defenses in between, but that is just silly.  Unless of course every year you either did the ol' switcheroo either via a title change, turn or combination between that 6 months is way too long to have in there every year.  I like the idea of a locked-in 3 month feud much better.

Killer Shark was noted as one of those hot prospect types.  He is improving and Titan is really good as a starter big man.  My issue is that neither is really easy to book.  You can't make guys that size into "midcarders" and neither is right for the main event if you grow fast.  Also, those two guys hanging onto the tag titles makes for very uninteresting booking for similar reasons.

A lot of the aging midcard really can still go, contrary to my earlier belief.  Doc brings it on big shows, DDD, OMA, Arsenal, Benny & the Foxx are all really good options and bring something to a main event on TV so I have a guy to do the job.

Edd Stone and Matt Hocking feuded right away with a handshake at the end and they are slated to get the tag titles off of the big man team in August as the Can Am Rockers.  DDD took the TV title from Greg as momentum break # 3 in 2020 for Greg.  I figure if he sticks on the Well Known section for the second half of 2020 and has to work to get to Star against OMA, then loses a feud to Sammy (provided I keep USPW away on him in a month) I can then strap the rockets to his boots.  He will have faced sufficient challenges along the way to make his rise not meteoric enough to cause personality flaws.

Mo and Freddy are both Major Stars right now with Freddy coming up to a loss to Sammy to end that feud in August or September (re-signing determines the date).  If Sammy did nothing else, he made Freddy and Jay.  And cut some killer promos.

T-Bone got a working injury and ended up becoming addicted to painkillers.  He is in rehab for 3 months and was actually taking more than a few losses to kill his momentum while he leraned Psych.  He had not made Well-Known yet by the time of rehab. 

Ernest Youngman & Ant-Man are fixing to be a major part of the tag team division for a few years and then part of Wolf's new group.  Davis Wayne Newton and Nelson Callum are going to feud (Nelson came in babyface) with Nelson turning on some poor partner (not sure who) to make that obvious heel turn in 2022.

I've signed a few of SWF's midcarders away to help shore up my midcard and added Akima Brave on the heel side.  Josh Jacobs and Tennessee are working their way up.  Cobra and a few other indy brawler types are on the radar.

All-in-all it has been a good start with the first 6 weeks or so a struggle to get the show ratings then everything falling into place.

[MikeSc]

In July of 2021.

I just opened up a child promotion and sent all of the "shouldn't be in a match called in the ring" guys down except for one.  Doc Hammond took Hawkeye Calhoun under his wing as a protege.  Doc didn't want to go to the Developmental place, which is sad because he's going to have to put over every up-and-coming babyface on his way down on the main roster.

Joffy Laine made it to Well-Known maybe a little too fast.  I'm thinking of jobbing him to a Recognizable guy to slow him down.

I signed Joss Thompson away from USPW to shore up my heel main event, then lucked into Atom Smasher (now Adam Samson) and won a bidding war for Mikey Lau.  That will give me 10 bona fide Major Stars.  Kinda scary actually.

I found a use for Titan.  He's feuding with Atom Smasher after attacking him the night he came in.  Titan loses the blowoff and then I think stays strong enough to put Joffy and his cohorts on the babyface side over on their way up.  No renewal tho.

So far, Aaron Andrews has the lowest pop cap of all the main event guys.  I see three options.

1. Get rid of him

2. Let him fall to 5th tier babyface

3. Let him have a slow fall, then turn him into a bitter heel who torments all of the babyfaces who surpassed him.  I like this one.

Sammy Bach (who I am convinced is 85% Macho Man) is capping out at 94 pop so far.  He's easily my most over babyface.  For the next 2 years he'll do in that role.  After that USPW and SWF can have him.

I also signed Spencer Spade.  He came in as a heel along with Huey Cannonball as Team Supreme.  They will have a good run with some bumps on the road before Huey turns on Spencer by bringing Joss in to beat him up.  Two ready made feuds for the new top babyface.

I'm #2 in the world with my B-shows as the only shows not hitting 94 or above ratings (97 pop across the U.S.).  Just a matter of time on that #1.

On the undercard, a bunch of the new hires are now Recognisable and feuding.

Roderick Remus is turning into superworker on the midcard.  His psych is to main event levels and he's the new American Champ (I made another belt for the Well-Known guys).  Roderick will be turning babyface and teaming with Elliot Thomas for my second babyface team on the midcard.  The TV belt seems like it's Recognisable and shouldn't be in the major feuds above there.

Ant Man/Ernest, DWN/Nelson Callum, Josh Jacobs/Lenny Brown will probably be some of the heel tag teams after they get established.  Until at least half of those teams is too big for that.

If I'm truly honest I think I hired too many high Star Power/Charismatic young guys.  There's going to be a crowded main event and small by comparison midcard.

Honestly,  all that is awesome.  But at the end of the day it's hard and really time-consuming to personally craft each storyline and angle without making the thing drag.

I did start focusing on certain guys to make it more fun.  I've been following Roderick Remus and Edd Stone a lot!  Joffy for me is this weird combo of a Texas brawler with a Japanese style guy.  His finisher name makes me think of a spiral brainbuster or powerbomb.

Not only that, but who are these guys.  I can look at all the gimmicks they play well and don't and find a personalized gimmick for each that makes total sense, but read above.  And who are they as workers?  What is Wolf's finisher?  How does he build to it?

I think I'll carry that game into IX and use it as a litmus test on how all the new features work at a high level for a bit, then integrate that knowledge into building a company I build into the database with a few plants and a style I like with 15-20 workers on the original roster.  Make every worker and storyline into something that would make sense in a RL wrestling company.

I doubt I'll stop playing thaat one, but I'll probably take time to flesh out all of the details I didn't take time to really cement before getting into the "need to progress" phase.

Take it from me when I tell you that immersion is better than progress!

 

[Crym]

As we approach Saturday and we'll finally get a glimpse at 2022 Cornellverse, I thought I'd take a look back at my long term TCW save. Funnily enough, I just finished booking King of Kings 2021, so it seems like a fun stopping point

The current TCW World champion is Greg Gauge, having beaten Jay Chord at Total Mayhem 2021. The current Tag champions are Alexander Banks and Spiffy Stan Standish representing The Syndicate, having beaten El Jaguar and Tigre Salvage Jr at Destructive Energy 2021. The current Television champion is Sammy Bach's protege Elliot Thomas, beating Ernest Youngman at an October TV show. The revived International champion isowned by Logan Wolfsbaine who won it at Summer Showdown 2021.

For the first year, there were two major storylines. King of Kings champion Wolf Hawkins and his constant taunts over World champion Aaron Andrews in the build up to his title challenge at Total Mayhem. Following Aaron's successful defenses against both Sammy Bach and Jay Chord in Malice at Wonderland, Joshua Taylor at TWTSTS, and Freddy Huggins at Battleground, Wolf took matters into his own hands and interfered in the #1 contender match for Where Angels Fear to Tread, making the #1 contender Doc Hammond. If Hammond won, he'd then lie down for Wolf.
After Aaron retained, the entirety of the Syndicate jumped Aaron, taking him out of action for the next 2 weeks. When he returned, the Syndicate immediately attacked him again, leaving a battered and bruised champion for their match at Total Mayhem.
At Total Mayhem, however, a couple of different circumstances sidelined the Syndicate. Chris Flynn won the revived International championship, and got drunk during his celebration. Nate Johnson got crushed and taken out by Giant Tana during the TLC match for the Tag Team championship. Doc Hammond got taken out by One Man Army. This meant Wolf had only Eddie Chandler on his corner. During the match, the referee got taken out and Eddie tried to hit Aaron with his own World championship belt, but was speared out of the match by Mighty Mo. With no more interference left, Aaron Andrews closed out their feud, defeating his nemesis and retaining the World championship at Total Mayhem.

The next main storyline featured Jay Chord. Jay drew with Sammy Bach twice for the #1 contender at Malice in Wonderland, causing the match to be made a three way. During Malice in Wonderland, Greg Gauge and Roderick Remus teamed up, managed by none other than Sam Keith, against Flying Jimmy Foxx and Benny Benson. After their victory, they bumped into Jay Chord preparing for the triple threat main event. Sam told his former student they had his back for anything. Afterwards, Sam became Greg and Roderick's manager on regular basis, and would still meet and councel Jay. This led up to the formation of Sam's stable, The Greatness, made up of Jay, Greg, Roderick, as well as recently called up tag team of Harvey Robbinfield and Seth Whitehead. They'd make their name, dispatching opponents such as One Man Army and Joshua Taylor. This culminated in Jay demanding his 1 on 1 match he didn't get against Aaron, which was granted at that year's Summer Showdown. 
Jay won clean, without interference, to finally become the TCW champion. Despite Greg losing his Television title to T-Bone Bright, Roderick would recapture it, as well as Greg winning the International title off of Chris Flynn in a four way match. Finally, Seth Whitehead and Harvey Robbinfield would win the Tag Team championship off of Marvel Malloy and Storm Spillane in October, meaning The Greatness now held all titles in TCW. That November, Greg would then fulfill his destiny by winning King of Kings, beating Aaron Andrews in the finals. Jay, however, was knocked out by Sammy Bach in the quarter finals, meaning Sammy earned a title shot at Psycho Circus. And then, on the last day of the year, Sammy would pin Jay, becoming the new TCW champion heading into 2021.

Other championship moves were Greg Gauge > T-Bone Bright > Roderick Remus for the Television championship, as mentioned above; The Behemoths > Mighty Meaty > Rich and Famous > Storm Spillane and Marvel Malloy > Harvey Robbinfield for the Tag Team championships, and then Chris Flynn > Greg Gauge for the revived International championship.