The "Booking Committee" Thread, 2020 Edition

[liontamer]

2 questions regarding current decisions

 

Choice #1 is my TV deal

I'm currently a (rather large) small promotion

US: 54 in great lakes, 49 everywhere else

Canada: 21-29 throughout

Mexico: 18-21 throughout

India: 19

Everywhere else: 14

 

My company owned Broadcaster is small in all of North America tiny everywhere else

 

I also have a pair of deals with La Red De La Lucha (LRDLL) who is medium in Mexico and tiny to small in the southern US

 

I have two shows: Breaking Point (2.5 hours, I'd like to move it to 3 hours, but LRDLL blocks it) and Explosion (2 hours, debating keeping it at 2 hours vs also going to 3hrs as I run a huge roster of 124 and can't fit everyone in).

 

The explosion deal with LRDLL is up in a week. Is it worth keeping for the added exposure? (money is not an issue, though I don't like wasting it as I'm losing a lot in allin/crash and burn type game. I can't tell exact costs/benefits of keeping LRDLL from finances, the handbook, or the development thread and my rating from them is 0.02-0.03 out of 0.20-0.23 overall)

 

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Choice #2

My planned story arc for the next several months was to push the Elite (Doc Hammond, DWN, and the Philly Blondes), using Doc (58 pop) to raise the profile of the other 3, and having a nWo Hoganesque hold on the main singles title (APW All-American).

 

He dropped it to Chris Flynn (52) as a short term loss (now at 4 weeks). I was going to pass it back to Doc at the PPV I'm currently booking.

 

I was building up Primus Allen (65) to be a Sting/Goldberg like unstoppable disruptor to that reign after several months

 

Separate story arc. A while back, I signed Bash Street to a one month deal to job. Kept getting messages to push him because he's a future star, so I locked him down on a 10 year exclusive written for 1500/show, no downside. I got him to 40 pop, but had him lose a feud with Greg Rayne (rayne man) to pass some pop to him (now 40), and Bash came down to 38. Clark Alexander (49 pop) (current tag champ), offered to lose to him 3 times in three months, and gave him one already (boosting Bash to 41 pop). I have the PPV booked for Bash to interfere and cost Clark Alexander the match/titles, setting up the feud for the other 2 matches

 

I advance to the ppv, now and Doc, and Art Reed (the champ prior to Doc, and the tag champ with Clark, varied pop, mostly 30s) both want to job to Bash over the next 2 months.

 

Reed's offer works perfectly with the arc of Bash costing them the titles, but is less impactful as Bash is already more over than he is in most regions.

 

Would you ignore the offer from Doc and proceed as planned, or delay Doc's return to the title hunt to have him put over the 23 year old future star twice to build him up? Should I scrap my plans and make Bash the champ after he beats Doc twice if I go that route (my only other major star heel that is currently ready hold the title in the next 2-3 years is Spencer Spade (57))?

 

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edited to add that a made a few backups and ran the next show as is a few time and with the LRDLL deal cancelled. Aside from the fine for cancelling early, I can't tell if there is any difference. ratings appear similar as do finances. Of note on the sims, on 2 instances Pablo Rodriguez also offered to put over Bash street. Everybody seems to love this guy. It isn't being carried with the saved game, but I'm guessing it'll come up again if it came up 2x in 6 runs.

[The Dynamite Sid]

Committee, give me some ideas for what to do with Jackpot Jordan & Logan Wolfsbaine.

 

Jake Idol & Ernest Youngman have left my PSW, effectively ending the Steel Circle which has left JJ and Logan a bit directionless as previously Jordan was ruling the tag division and Wolfsbaine was acting as Ernest's lieutenant, slowing building to a turn on him. Now I know that I want to continue pushing and featuring them but I don't have any plans for them in the immediate future.

 

I think long term I wanna keep them associated on screen, loosely at least before building to a Wolfsbaine turn and having them feud. Just need to think what they do in the meantime.

 

I've thought about pairing them up in the tag ranks but my tag division is a little heel-heavy right now and it feels like a sideways move so I'm not in love with the idea.

 

I was gonna do a run with Ernest where he's issuing open challenges but now I'm thinking maybe Jordan can do it? Have it be a "Jackpot" thing, $10,000 challenge that type of deal? Bring in indie guys and one offs and what have you as a way to build Jordan and feature him as a single?

 

It's Logan that I'm really stumped with. Just pair him off with the other upper/midcard faces? Vendetta, Philly Blondes, Samoan Destruction Inc are the featured babyface acts really but that's retreading old ground for him in a lot of cases. Buck Winchester would have been the ideal opponent but he's out injured.

 

Do I hotshot the babyface turn for him and have him feud with Jordan right away?

[The Dynamite Sid]

Your $10,000 Open Challenge idea for Jackpot sounds great, do that. As for Logan, have him win the main singles title at your next show. What?, you ask. I recall you saying that you recently put the belt on Brandon James and hired Grandmaster Phunk. Based on the dates you gave, those two must be in time decline by now. So instead of running James/Phunk as your top feud when they will get worse grades the longer it goes, have Logan squash James when no one sees it coming. Have Logan decisively win a battle royal earlier in the show to earn the match. The point is to get across that Logan is an animal now that Youngman isn’t holding him back anymore. Let Logan keep the belt for around a year and go over everybody. Keep him heel at first, but turn babyface and have him feud with the newly heel Philly Blondes. I have always preferred the Blondes as weasely, sniveling heels, and Logan is a great foil to that act. This booking should make him a big star for the rest of his run.

 

As for the Steel Circle connection, drop it. Jackpot is a career midcarder without Idol to team with him. Logan will look weaker by their association.

 

At first I wasn't into it but that was a hell of a pitch. I feel like I was gonna rely on Brandon's huge star power to just carry the main event but yeah why not the pull the trigger. I'll see if Brandon is willing to do the job for him yet

[The Dynamite Sid]

Thanks for the compliment! I suggest you really twist Brandon’s arm to get him to do the job here. It’ll help you more in the long run than relying on Big Money at 45 years old. And if he gets upset, let him quit! If he’s in decline, none of the AI will pick him up.

 

Alright. So neither Phunk nor Brandon were willing to take the L to Logan just yet. What I did was have a number one contender's match at the start of the show which Logan won decisively over Caulfield, Sayeed Ali & Vendetta. Then before the main event between Phunk & Brandon I had him come out and demand that he be allowed into the match (I got the idea from how Mike Awesome ended up getting into his match in which he won the ECW title from Taz), booking Brandon to pin Phunk rather than Logan. Logan is now perceived as a star, the match got the highest rating of any match I've yet booked and it gives me a reason to get one more match out of Phunk vs Brandon one on one before hopefully switching the belt to Logan at the following show now that he is regarded as a star. Worked out pretty great tbh

[Aura]

Hey everyone! I'm looking for some opinions on my current plans for my midcard title in my European promotion.

 

A couple of months ago, Aleksander Knyazev won the Scandinavian title from Maisie Laurels. After that, I started a storyline revolving around Maisie's quest for another title shot so that she can get the belt back. In the meantime, Knyazev will dismiss her claims because she lost, and continue being a no-frills fighting machine. The angle is already paying dividends, as Maisie's natural charisma is making for some rather high-rated segments by my company's standards.

 

My main question is, how long do you think I should run this storyline for? Naturally, the longer it goes, the longer Knyazev holds onto the belt. He's putting on good matches, not too far below the scores that my main eventers are pulling. But Maisie, while by no means bad, is much less polished in the ring, and thrives off her her entertainment and promo skills. However, I do want her to ultimately win the feud, since I'm pretty much building Knyazev up like a boss fight, and he's heading to the upper levels of the roster once his reign is over.

 

However, my concern with keeping the belt on him too long is that he might run out of opponents, and I don't want his matches to get stale during the wait for his rematch with Maisie.

 

If anyone has any thoughts to offer, I'd be happy to hear them!

[Hashasheen]

I'd say pick your opponents for the next three to five shows, consider whether or not you can have them ready and realistic as challengers to Kynaezv, and whether or not you can get Maisie ready in the mean time. If you think you can do more than three or five shows before taking the belt off him, do so.

[The Dynamite Sid]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="James The Animator" data-cite="James The Animator" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="47898" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>The Coast Guard</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Haha that is top notch. I love that</p>

[Scott Zodiac]

Booking a baby face champion

 

I’m having consistent problems with booking storylines where I have a baby face champion. With a heel champion I can at least have outside interference or a DQ finish to prolong the feud to the next PPV, and I always tend to favour a baby face chasing the title.

 

My question is, what are some good ways to prolong a feud when you have a baby face champion retaining a title?

[stiffkick80]

I’m having consistent problems with booking storylines where I have a baby face champion. With a heel champion I can at least have outside interference or a DQ finish to prolong the feud to the next PPV, and I always tend to favour a baby face chasing the title.

 

My question is, what are some good ways to prolong a feud when you have a baby face champion retaining a title?

 

 

I'm going to give away the match finish I'm most proud of coming up with, hope you enjoy it.

 

 

Babyface Champion Alina America is defending against the winner of the QotR Tournament, Heel Foxxy Larue.

 

Long, competitive match, ref bump, Foxxy's sidekick Toni Parissi grabs the belt and slides it in to Foxxy. Foxxy swings it at America, who ducks, kicks Foxxy in the gut, Foxxy drops the belt right in front of her and America hits a DDT right on the belt as the ref wakes up and sees it, calling for the DQ! Foxxy is busted open and lays there bleeding and knocked out, America looks guilty but like it was an accident. Refs and road agents come out and check on her, looking concerned as the show goes off the air.

 

Next show Foxxy comes out with a big bandage on her forehead claiming that she is not medically cleared because of stitches/staples, accuses America of taking the easy way out and getting herself intentionally disqualified because she was too afraid to face her heads up and lose her title.

 

Depending on your schedule, this buys you a couple of shows where your heel challenger has an excuse for not wrestling but can still cut promos while the face defends herself by insisting it was an accident. Take it from there.

[DrRDuke]

I’m having consistent problems with booking storylines where I have a baby face champion. With a heel champion I can at least have outside interference or a DQ finish to prolong the feud to the next PPV, and I always tend to favour a baby face chasing the title.

 

My question is, what are some good ways to prolong a feud when you have a baby face champion retaining a title?

 

stiffkick80 had a great one, but I will just typically have the heel come back after the loss either demanding another shot and putting something on the line (I Quit Match, No DQ) to raise the stakes...or have the heel sort of stick his nose in the 'next' feud right away with a run in attack or something, interjecting himself into the proceedings. Then you can have him jump the 'new' guy backstage and he 'takes his spot' and gets another shot at the babyface champ.

[Scott Zodiac]

Sounds so god damn obvious when you say it now.

[The Dynamite Sid]

I’m having consistent problems with booking storylines where I have a baby face champion. With a heel champion I can at least have outside interference or a DQ finish to prolong the feud to the next PPV, and I always tend to favour a baby face chasing the title.

 

My question is, what are some good ways to prolong a feud when you have a baby face champion retaining a title?

 

Any time a heel tries to cheat and has the tables turned on them it gives them a reason to gripe that they weren't beaten fairly while also keeping them super heel because they're being a hypocrite. Maybe it's an exposed turnbuckle that they get smacked into, a weapon that they bring into the ring but gets used on them, they lay the ref out and get a visible three but then go on to lose the match. Any of those scenarios gives the heel a reason to complain and sets up a no DQ rematch because the face wants to prove that they can beat them again

 

Of course the thing with heels is they can get away with anything. If a heel gets beat clean in the middle there's nothing to stop them coming out on the next show, saying it was a fluke and attacking the babyface. As long as there's an escalation in terms of the violence that can set up a gimmick match. An assault with a weapon or a brutal submission hold can set up a ladder match, an I Quit match or similar.

 

The absolute best thing is a justified heel. My favourite finish is a ref bump that's a total accident with the heel getting a visible three before going on to lose the match after the ref recovers / is replaced.

 

Something else that works is if the heel has something to bargain with. If they lose clean they might not have justifiable rights to a rematch but if they can offer the babyface something to put up against the title that sets up a rematch and also raises the stakes. A mask, hair, their career, being forced to fire their manager or disband a stable. Anything like that. Even just being forced to go into a brutal match type against the babyface works. Think of Mankind saying he'd only give the Rock his rematch if it's an I Quit match or any time Undertaker has forced his opponent into the Hell In A Cell. A babyface champion just wanting the chance to get his hands on the heel one more time is a fine way of getting another match out of a feud

[CQI13]

Will be running a tournament with workers from other promotions (and mine). Since they're all on handshake contracts, will it cause issues once I "fire" the workers from the other feds I have no long term plans for/that don't impress in the tournament?

 

Thoughts being that if they get fired/walk out of their other job after my tournament ends I would still be interested in signing them.

 

I have plans for one of my up and comers to win the whole thing (getting him a title shot good for a year - like Money in the Bank). Should I have him beat someone else from my fed? Or someone from one of the other promotions?

 

Plan B would be for one of the outsiders to win and have my champ beat him.

 

As a new fed, what do you guys think would make the more compelling story? I have ideas for all 3 scenarios.

[liontamer]

you could just sign them to contracts limited to 1 or 3 months, or to a number of appearances and not worry about it.

[liontamer]

I'm looking to eventually bring in my Universal grand championship belt that I made for TEW2016, but am not sure I ever made it to crowning anyone before my system crashed. The point was to have a once a year interpromotional tourney to crown the champion, but to also defend the belt as opposed to something like king of the ring where you win and it's over. It's also got a nice end of year feel to make it feel more like a sports season.

 

I'm debating the rules and thinking of taking a few things from the rules of ADCC to give it an even bigger feel. I think I had laid out 128 or 256 worker brackets before.

 

I'm still fleshing it out, but looking for feedback and input as it'll probably be a while before I get there (not sure it'll happen in the present game year, may not happen in the next)

 

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Part 1 the first tourney set up

Option A:

A huge seeded tournament with all workers welcome, with title holders getting preferential seeding, based largely on the prestige of the title they hold. No other titles are on the line. The winner is the 1st holder.

 

Option B: Very similar to A, except that the overall bracket is broken into weight classes to allow smaller workers more matches. The winners of the tournament for each class get some kind of trophy/medal, and go into a new bracket for the grand championship with the winner being the first holder.

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Part 2: The follow up

Option A: The winner keeps the title for a year, no defenses, and then defends against the winner of the next year's tournament in a superfight

 

Option B: The winner defends the title quarterly against the championship committee's choice in the 1st 2 quarters and the fans' choice in the 3rd quarter. If they win all three fights, they bypass the next year's tournament and face the winner of the next tournament in a superfight for the title. If they lose, then, the new holder does have to compete, but gets a 2 round by for every quarter they held the title and the get 1 seed.

 

Option C: The champ defends quarterly as above, whoever holds the title skips and faces the winner of the next year's tourney in a superfight as the Q4 defense

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

I'm presently leaning towards 1A and 2B

 

thoughts?

[mmaaddict]

Running my first game and playing as TCW. I rolled with the built in storyline of Wolf Hawkins and Aaron Andrews slow build to Total Mayhem. I’m now in the month leading up to the event, but I’m worried...

 

Wolf sustained a shoulder injury last month which he can perform through, but it is affecting his performance. I put him on the last PPV against Edd Stone and just did a tag match with him on the main TV show. He is pulling mid 70’s in the ring still which is good, but just disappointing when I was banking on this being a match of the year kind of thing.

 

Do I keep rolling at this point cause there is no turning back or swerve and play it out a bit longer? I hate to have my Total Mayhem main event be a makeshift angle, but I’m just not sure...

[Ben_Ditch05]

Running my first game and playing as TCW. I rolled with the built in storyline of Wolf Hawkins and Aaron Andrews slow build to Total Mayhem. I’m now in the month leading up to the event, but I’m worried...

 

Wolf sustained a shoulder injury last month which he can perform through, but it is affecting his performance. I put him on the last PPV against Edd Stone and just did a tag match with him on the main TV show. He is pulling mid 70’s in the ring still which is good, but just disappointing when I was banking on this being a match of the year kind of thing.

 

Do I keep rolling at this point cause there is no turning back or swerve and play it out a bit longer? I hate to have my Total Mayhem main event be a makeshift angle, but I’m just not sure...

 

I'm in my own TCW game right now leading up to Total Mayhem as well, I'd probably still do Wolf vs Andrews but that's really because of my plans for after it. Ace is good enough in my game that he was pulling 80+ matches against people like Matt Hocking with a mid 50s performance so I'd say him vs Wolf with Wolf in the mid 70's it should still be a really great main event. Andrews has been great for me so I'd probably trust him against any of my stars to pull out a great match as long as you have proper heat behind the storyline

[Jack Avatar Fan]

Wolf sustained a shoulder injury last month which he can perform through, but it is affecting his performance.

 

This is the big takeaway for me. If you can get away with it, I would cancel the prebooking, run an injury and title forfeiture angle, and then let Wolf recover fully.

 

If this is a strained rotator cuff, I'd put him on the couch (and he may not mind you sending him away on paid vacation and could be more likely to not have his morale tank if you need him to put someone over later). Too often have I worked guys through that injury in older iterations of TEW and wound up with them suffering from painkiller addictions.

[The Dynamite Sid]

I'd roll with it. Aaron and Wolf are good enough to work around it. It won't win MOTY but I'd rather not short change the main event or throw out all my plans

[a0161613]

A triple threat or four way could be a solution.

[mjmiller2010]

Playing as WWE on the Ruthless Aggression mod. Week 4 of May 2004, Chavo was cruiserweight champion but sustained a torn rotator cuff in a match, an audible was called and Billy Kidman won the title.

I have no problems pushing Kidman, I was a real life big fan of his, especially in WCW. Any ideas of others to push and/or hire?

[liontamer]

I'm going to be moving the X title and want to have a match where Frankie Perez© and masked cougar are in the ring competing for the belt, Perez is winning and then a seperate feud with a fight that has been on going throughout the show between Youngman and Keith spills into the ringside area and the distraction ends up changing the complexion of the match and cougar wins.

 

Perez is well above cougar's pop. I want to minimize popularity and momentum losses by giving him the excuse because I'm only taking the title off of him because Perez has offered to lose to Youngman 3x in 2 months and it will help catapult Youngman up the card. Youngman already has a title and I don't want him to win the X title

 

Would you guys book it is as

 

Winner : masked cougar

Keep Perez strong

Tainted win

Pinfall

Distraction for both Keith and Youngman against Perez even though they aren't interacting with him directly?

 

is keep strong enough to keep Perez from taking a penalty for losing to a cartoon gimmick?

 

I've noted with other tainted finishes the in-game comments often have the victor doing something underhanded even when that's not my intention. Not sure if that's purely cosmetic or if that affects anything (maybe lower momentum/gimmick since they are cheating as a face sometimes? - in this case they are all heels except cougar)

[w4lru5]

Playing as WWE on the Ruthless Aggression mod. Week 4 of May 2004, Chavo was cruiserweight champion but sustained a torn rotator cuff in a match, an audible was called and Billy Kidman won the title.

I have no problems pushing Kidman, I was a real life big fan of his, especially in WCW. Any ideas of others to push and/or hire?

 

I mean, AJ Styles probably doesn’t yet have the pop but definitely has the potential if you want to steal him from TNA. Otherwise, you could sign Bryan Danielson as American Dragon if you want to err young again. Jamie Noble could work if you want someone a little older.

[mjmiller2010]

I mean, AJ Styles probably doesn’t yet have the pop but definitely has the potential if you want to steal him from TNA. Otherwise, you could sign Bryan Danielson as American Dragon if you want to err young again. Jamie Noble could work if you want someone a little older.

 

AJ was my first choice too, the entire X-Division from TNA actually. But one of the owner goals is that I can't hire anybody who is already working for a medium sized and up company so it really limited my choices.

[w4lru5]

AJ was my first choice too, the entire X-Division from TNA actually. But one of the owner goals is that I can't hire anybody who is already working for a medium sized and up company so it really limited my choices.

 

Do you have Jamie Noble on your roster? I'm a huge fan of his work.