21CW Discussion Thread

[The Nickman]

I think I’m going to start the planning of it today. I don’t book particularly quickly. So I won’t need to worry about it only being a demo at the moment. I also need to get my head around then new game a bit more so I don’t totally tank the ratings!

Sounds good man, and just remember... when you DO start a new game, make sure you start it with the newest possible version of the game!

 

I’m seeing too many people stung on YouTube right now kicking off new games in the last day or two and still using Patch #1, meaning they have a broken momentum system from the word go.

[Dave E Mac]

Sounds good man, and just remember... when you DO start a new game, make sure you start it with the newest possible version of the game!

 

I’m seeing too many people stung on YouTube right now kicking off new games in the last day or two and still using Patch #1, meaning they have a broken momentum system from the word go.

 

Cheers for the heads up. THey seem to be pumping out so many patches its hard to keep up with it.

[consortium11]

So, is anyone doing anything about Leigh Burton vs Luke Cool?

 

On the face of it it's a decent enough, if somewhat by the numbers, storyline about elevating one of the pair to the main event which with Burton being the younger, better and already more over guy I imagine most people will have him win. With 63 heat it's one of your stronger starting storylines and considering the two guys in question and their skills (both in and out of the ring) on paper you'd think it's an easy banker to at least keep heat above 65 to avoid penalties and then grow it. The one issue...

 

They're both heel. And in a promotion with a strictly enforced face and heel divide that's going to kill your ratings if you run it as a "normal" storyline as things are.

 

I haven't really settled on what I'll do once my first "proper" game starts post demo (and me getting the hang of all the ins-and-outs of the new systems) but these are the options I can think of off the top of my head.

 

1) Assume it's an oversight/database error (although I note it hasn't been corrected in any of the updated database releases) and do some pre-game editing to correct it, either by turning one of them face or changing who's in the feud. I'll talk about some of the issues I have with just changing one of them face below but I'll also add that I'm always somewhat reluctant to change the database too much for what is meant to be a "vanilla" experience but this doesn't obviously correct the problem straight away.

 

2) End the storyline immediately and create a new one. If you want to keep one or both of them in the story then you've got enough spare faces around to do that (Matravers for an immediate main event level storyline, Koller to keep the "elevating to the main event" aspect or perhaps team them up to face off with say Absolutely Flawless) while getting the required heat. But just like I dislike changing a database too much pre-game I also tend to dislike ending default storylines immediately rather than letting them play out.

 

3) Turn one face. In many ways the obvious solution and one that helps overall; as things stand your upper-midcard is very heel heavy anyway and another face or two really doesn't hurt. My issue here is that mechanically it makes more sense to turn Burton as Cool is better as a heel but Burton as a sociopath suplexing and choking people out without a hint of remorse is one of the relatively few in-universe changes that excites me about 21CW in 2020 considering he's always been a pretty white meat babyface for me before. Perhaps I just need to bite the bullet and take the fact Cool will underperform as a face on the chin.

 

4) Book around it. A storyline in wrestling doesn't have to be two people facing off and mechanically TEW allows you to keep heat high and progress a story without the two having to have matches against each other. "Rivals being made to team up and ally together" is a trope in wrestling but it's a trope for a reason and I guess I can imagine something fairly fun along those lines. If you do want the story to end with a match then you can always do a slow-burn face turn for one of them and use the time they're rivals but teaming up to build it up rather than hotshotting that turn.

 

5) Add someone to the storyline. Sebastian Koller for example is a face and in a position (upper mid-card on the verge of the main event) that makes him seem like a natural fit for the storyline as described. Adding him in gets around the heel vs heel issue and will probably actually help out the storyline mechanically considering how good he is.

 

Has anyone decided what they're going to do (or done it already)? Any ideas I've missed out on that seem like they'll really work?

[goldendragon]

<p>Text wall post so apologies:</p><p> </p><p>

I've played as 21CW in every version since 2005 and this is probably one of the hardest ones so far because the roster has a very WCW feel to it. It's seems to have lost a lot of top guys due to age and not replaced them despite the depth of quality talent below.</p><p> </p><p>

A couple of the storylines have killed me with booking as I'm having to feature so many "unimportant" workers but I didn't want to cheat and end any early so I'm running with all of them until World War which I'm still a couple of weeks away from. I tried not to burn through the demo as I'm furloughed and need something to keep me sane for the rest of the month.</p><p> </p><p>

I've tried to pad out the roster with a couple of younger guys, Lynton Minehead who I'm trying to push as high up the card as I can, Jermiane Grainer and Dangermouth (dropped the name and using his real one) due to their passable mic stats and they've been put into the tag division working an unofficial program (not set a storyline as I have enough to fit into every show) with Hot Stuff mostly with verbal angles using Kathleen Lee and the 2 rookies to carry it.</p><p> </p><p>

I'm toying with keeping the Cornells storyline going until next years World War so I've added Matravers and the Martins to it to counter the House of Business. Matravers is probably going to come out after World War though and team with Andrew Lee for a tag title run. He's offered to put Lee over, the best way I can think of doing that without wasting it is Lee going over him in a #1 contenders match, tag champs ambushing Lee in his title match costing him, Matravers making the save out of respect and running from there.</p><p> </p><p>

The Hellbound storyline has pretty much devolved into just Alpass against them, at one point I wanted to find a way to put Alpass over Faust at WW but now I'm probably just going to put Faust over and release Alpass, he just doesn't seem to be working out and his stats don't exactly scream out they're worth the extra investment it'd take.</p><p> </p><p>

The other stables storyline was just ticking along. I don't have major plans for Roly and Mass Hulk ended up at rehab so it's going to end with Adonis/War Machine retaining the titles over Sifu/Storm.</p><p> </p><p>

I'm thinking Burton will end up beating Cool and go onto a feud with Faust but I'm not too sure what I'd do with Cool after and I don't want him to go to waste. One idea was to turn Kevin Jones for a feud there but Jones is now out for a year. I have a similar problem with DBF and Apollo, I want to put Apollo over, but I could use more faces up the card and I'm not sure right now what I do with Apollo from there.</p>

[Dave E Mac]

<p>Consortium11</p><p>

For me I'll never run a heel vs heel programme. But I'm the same. I don't like to delete all the existing storylines in place. For me the easiest solution is adding a face to the mix. Theres nothing to say a heel can't hate another heel, but trying to make that work with a blow off match is hard and penalties seem pointless taking when you can work round it. I still think its ultimately worth while trying to turn one of them face coming out of the feud. What I would try and do is have two faces added to the mix and have the two heels the main focus of the storyline, but you can have a face in there to help prevent all of those penalties.</p>

[consortium11]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="goldendragon" data-cite="goldendragon" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="48006" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>It's seems to have lost a lot of top guys due to age and not replaced them despite the depth of quality talent below.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I can't say I'm seeing this. If you go back to 2016 and look at your top guys then yes, Dark Angel and DJ Reason have retired while Kevin Jones has lost a slight step (although nowhere near as much as his bio hints at, pretty similar to Faust) and yes, I'm somewhat disappointed there's not been more movement to the main event for some of the younger workers but the likes of Leigh Burton, Wade Orson, Sebastian Koller and Buff Martinez are only really one decent push away from getting there while guys like the aforementioned Faust, Jones and JB Cash can all still do a job at that level. If you're willing to split teams then any member of the Red Devils, Crouching Storm, Hidden Sifu and Absolutely Flawless aren't that far away, I struggle to think of him as more than a midcarder but DBF has the stats to be a decent main eventer if you get him a bit more over and it shouldn't be that difficult to get one of your monsters (likely Beast Bantom for his relatively complete skillset but Balder, War Machine and Muckletruck could all be used) to main event level. Yes, if you get terrible time decline roles for Tommy and Matravers things could be hard to begin with but even then it's probably only a couple of months at worst before you can have younger guys in the main event scene (especially if you're willing to sacrifice some of the older guy's overness.)</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="goldendragon" data-cite="goldendragon" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="48006" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>... Mass Hulk ended up at rehab... </div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Just slip Assassin in there and pretend nothing has happened; no-one will notice the difference and Assasin's bio even notes how similar they are.</p><p> </p><p> I may not be entirely serious with that suggestion...</p>

[consortium11]

So, just finished my first "proper" run through of the demo period, with the stories, angles, events etc here probably pretty close to what I'll do when the game is released and I do a long-term save.

 

One thing I will note is while that "Aussie Rules" invasion still excites me and is something I still intend to do, I didn't bother for this run. In my mind that's very much a long term project, both because it involves getting a bunch of people who start at zero popularity to the upper midcard and because I'll use it as a way to establish a bunch of guys who I can then base the show around when I start trying to directly expand into Australia... and that's a while off yet.

 

So, what did I do?

 

Steel Cage Challenge

 

Main Event level

 

Honestly, I've run Cornell vs Cornell so many times in 2016 that I'm just bored of it and the addition of the rest of the House of Business doesn't really help. It's probably a story I'll come back to in a longer game (likely as a way to build Beskov up to his solo run) but for now I let it play out for a month and then ended it. I know World War is meant to be the season finale and thus should be where stories end rather than Steel Cage Challenge but with only two months to play with I wanted to try out my new ideas rather than be stuck with the existing ones; in a full game I'll probably stretch things by a month to accommodate that. Anyway, the storyline was pretty by the numbers stuff with Tommy running through a gauntlet of HoB members, defeating Doomsday week 1, BE Eddie week 2 and winning a six man tag week three where he defeated Edward and the Red Devils with the help of Absolutely Flawless (who had been doing an unofficial program with the Red Devils) to set up his one-on-one steel cage match with Edward. Edward wins to retain the title with enough interference/distraction from HoB to give Tommy an excuse but no so much that the win is really cheap. End the storyline, both move on.

 

Adam Matravers had a similar gauntlet type series with Hot Stuff in another unofficial program; he beat Buff Martinez week 1, JB Cash week 2, had a gauntlet against them both week 3 where he beat JB Cash but lost to Martinez (with interference) later in the night and then had a promo where he said he could take them on at the same time and won the eventual handicap match at SCC due to some miscommunication.

 

Tag Scene

 

With the tag titles being held by the Men of Steel and them being in the Three Man Army Takeover storyline it's simply enough to put them against Sifu and Ricky Storm which also has the advantage of being a pretty great way to train up Adonis and Hulk. When the rest of Three Man Army interfered in a match between Adonis and Muckletruck Crouching Storm, Hidden Sifu ran in to help out and chase the heels off. I'm borrowing heavily from a story I ran in 2016 which had Muckletruck and Jeff Nova compete in tests of strength just with the roles reversed; the faces earned a tag title shot when the lightweight Storm was able to beat the heavyweight Hulk in an arm wrestling contest due to Muckletruck helping out, a contest between Muckletruck and War Machine to see who could do more reps pressing Sifu and Adonis over their head respectively ended with the Three Man Army just beating up the faces but then at SCC Storm and Sifu won the titles in another cage match when War Machine was unable to pull the door open to help his peers while Muckletruck was able to rip it open (smashing War Machine in the face) and giving the faces the opportunity to escape by climbing over (with Adonis too intimidated to go for the open door with Muckletruck standing there).

 

As mentioned, I ran an unofficial program between the Red Devils and Absolutely flawless largely as a way to get them briefly involved in the Cornell storyline. Pretty simple stuff with the Red Devils winning matches in the build up to SCC with some help from the rest of HoB and then winning the eventual match.

 

Upper Midcard

 

I got around the heel vs heel nature of Cool vs Burton by adding Koller to the mix; he had a 1 v 1 match with Cool but got DQ'd when Burton interfered and attacked Cool, had a 1 v 1 match with Burton but lost when Cool interfered and attacked Burton and then a three-way match between the three just descended into a brawl setting up a rematch for SCC. Burton won after Koller hit his Hamburg Rock City shooting star press on Cool, Burton tossed him out of the ring and stole the pinfall. Burton leaves the storyline to go on to other plans and Cool and Koller continue on.

 

Apollo vs DBF isn't a story I'm really invested in but there's also been no real reason to end it early. I've got Prince as a Velveteen Dream type character, utterly aghast that the fans would take to such a boring, mundane man as DBF rather than one as stylish and fabulous as him. Not a huge amount of direct interaction between the two but lots of interviews with Prince giving regular "critiques" of DBF's matches. DBF won the match as SCC but Prince beat him down post-match and the story continues.

 

Kevin Jones has formed the "Franchise Players" heel stable with Phillip Cooper and Rolling Johnny Stones, essentially a group of upper midcard veterans who have been around 21CW for a decade+ and are complaining about all these new arrivals being the focus rather than them. While 21CW are far too family friendly a company to ever make a thing out of it there's a distinct unspoken subtext of "these people coming over here and taking our jobs!" going on. They haven't really done much other than try to recruit faces to join (which they obviously say no to) with their attempts to bring in Wade Orson leading to a match at SCC where if Jones won Orson would have to join; Orson won.

 

Simply due to the number of heels vs faces in the upper mid-card (especially as a lot of your faces are in tag teams) I've turned Harry Wilson face while keeping the Antithesis gimmick, albeit now as a bit more a prankster than a full-blown anarchist (think Dean Ambrose when he feuded with Seth and kept pulling tricks on him). He's got an unofficial story going on with Beast Bantom as he provokes the monster.

 

Midcard and lower

 

Hellbound vs The Rising Stars has consisted of each of the stars getting a match against Bedlam for the UK title and losing before being beaten down by the rest of Hellbound and Faust cutting promos against them. Andrew Lee stepped in to help the Rising Stars, using his own history of being put on the shelf as his reasoning for not wanting it seen done to other young talent and this led to a four-on-four match at SCC which Hellbound won.

 

Outside of that I haven't really done a vast amount with my undercard so far. Often they've just been fodder for when I need a match featuring one of my higher ranked guys, involved in dark matches where the likes of Mark Misery and Smiling John Smithie train up the more raw talent, throwaway tag matches for the Demolishers when they need to regain momentum having lost to my better face tag teams and Phil Harmonic having dark angles where he tries to whoo Phoebe Pulmridge and gets nowhere.

 

World War

 

Main Event level

 

With Edward having seen off Tommy and Matravers beating Hotstuff, the pair are facing off in a fairly standard "fan favourite faces takes on arrogant heel and his stable" stuff reminiscent of The Rock vs the McMahon-Helmsley Era. Nothing too exciting here, more fairly generic "heel champion puts unfair obstacles in face's way but face overcomes them". Because I think a company like 21CW would always have a face win the main event of their biggest show of the year, Matravers beat Cornell to win the title at World War but the storyline will/would continue as Edward does all in his power to take it back.

 

The reason Edward can claim to have seen off Tommy is that when Tommy came out to cut a promo about his loss at Steel Cage Challenge he was attacked by Leigh Burton and choked unconscious by Burton's sleeper. I hope my memory of moves is correct because otherwise this feud may not make that much sense, but if I recall correctly Tommy's "Guilt Trip" finisher is the Tazzmission and the story of this feud is that Tommy can't get out of Burton's sleeper but Burton is always able to escape the Guilt Trip, frequently by turning it into a Back Suplex (one of his other finishers). Basically every interaction up to World War ends with Tommy getting put to sleep by a smiling sociopathic Burton and even at World War while Tommy wins he does so via a roll-up prior to the sleeper being put on and then post-match gets choked out again. I intend to run this feud for a fairly long time once the game does release with Tommy finally locking on the Guilt Trip being a big moment for the fans to cheer for.

 

Tag Scene

 

The titles are still a big part of the Three Man Army Takeover storyline and so are being contested between the MoS and CS,HS. More feat of strength challenges between Mucketruck and War Machine, more sneak attacks by the Three Man Army and promos by Adonis etc etc. The storyline comes to an end with CS,HS successfully beating MoS to retain the titles (because I want to move them up the card a bit) but War Machien defeating Muckletruck. The TMA will continue to be the terror of the midcard (and a way to develop both War Machine and Hulk as wrestlers and entertainers), CS,HS will move onto a program with Hot Stuff and Muckletruck will basically be 21CW's version of Big Daddy, squashing a lot of low level heels to big cheers from the crowd.

 

Hot Stuff got the above mentioned title shot off the back of winning a three-way match with the Underdogs and The Demolishers which in all honesty doesn't have much more to it then giving them something to do and building the next challengers for the title. On one level Hotstuff are too good and too over to be in a feud for the secondary tag titles but the same could be said for CS, HS and while I do want Buff Martinez in particular to get involved in the singles main event picture sooner rather than later there's just not really a "space" for him at the moment.

 

Upper Midcard

 

Koller and Cool's feud continued with Cool claiming that rockstars aren't cool any more and that the teenage girls who scream for Koller once screamed for him but now he knows better. Again, pretty standard stuff. Koller wins, proves a rockstar is always cool and begins his transition to the main event while Cool drops back somewhat and may well end up joining the Franchise Players.

 

Speaking of them, their attempts to recruit Absolutely Flawless went as well as their attempts to recruit Wade Orson and led to a six man match between them that the faces again won. Orson is also destined for the main event while Flawless are basically marking time; I just don't really "get" them as faces at the moment but the roster is too heel heavy already to turn them. With their skills and overness they can be plugged in pretty much anywhere and do well so in the near future they're basically just going to be around, beating lesser teams, losing to the top ones and making up the numbers when I need extra faces around. As for the Franchise Players while I wouldn't go so far as to call them a joke stable I don't really intend them to be dominant and they're largely there to be a challenge to get overcome. Going forward they're either going to be dropping down the card to help train up the newer workers and/or have Jones in a storyline with Koller to really help cement Koller in the main event. While the upper midcard is heel loaded, the main event scene is more balanced (especially with Koller coming up) so Orson may well turn; the "reality star/Instagram influencer" storyline I ran back in 2016 may get dusted off and brought out again.

 

Bantom and Antithesis ended their unofficial story with a cinematic match largely because I wanted to see what they were like, with Bantom raiding Antithesis' lair and setting off a sort of Home Alone series of traps, pranks and hi-jinks... although the bad guy won. Bantom needs a bit more work to truly be main event ready but is by far the most prepared of your monsters so he'll be moving up the card eventually while Antithesis is a mechanically a solid hand and little more but with his gimmick is quite fun to plot things out for and is useful to just put into storylines (official or not) with the multitude of upper midcard heels.

 

Apollo vs DBF ended with a clean Prince win. Prince will likely move into the UK title picture while DBF ends up with a similar role to Antithesis, being a good foil and opponent for my heels as needed.

 

Midcard and lower

 

In the HellBound storyline, Andrew Lee defeated Bedlam for the TV title and left the storyline; he'll likely feud with Prince going forward as the contrast between the wild man Lee and the flamboyant Prince seems to work pretty well for me. On the other side the rest of Hellbound (including Faust) beat the Rising Stars in a six-man tag with Faust pinning Alpass. This will eventually lead to Alpass challenging Faust to a one-on-one match with the stipulation that if he wins Faust has to free his monsters from his control and disband his stable. Faust accepts but warns Alpass that he's "bound for hell", will win the eventual match and forcibly recruit Alpass into his stable leading to him getting repackaged. Mechanically it's not the best move to focus on Alpass because while he's not awful there's just nothing special about him and there's far better candidates out there but it fits the story. Hellbound will start to move up the card somewhat as Faust begins to pick fights with my upper-midcard and main eventers while Boulder and Flynn will develop in the tag ranks.

 

Other than that, there's still not a huge amount going on lower in the card. I may bring the Phil Harmonic wooing Phoebe storyline onto TV leading to an incredibly brief and one-sided "feud" with Matravers (probably with Edward egging him on) while I'm making a concerted effort to develop Ruin and Assassin as, all being well in a long term game the pair look like people you can do a lot with. I've also dreamed up an "Edison Silva: Martial Arts Master" storyline which features him having "exhibition bouts" with a variety of martial arts masters (Glen Ward, Vernon Gage, Dwayne Dark etc) which he wins (albeit with some cheating/sneak attacks at times) before proclaiming himself the ultimate fighter but I really need a face to pair him with for it to work; I may end up teaming him with someone like Nightmare or Badberry (as his corner man or bodyguard... although as Silva makes clear that's not to protect him of course but to protect everyone else from him) and putting him up against Storm and Sifu at some point.

 

I didn't really want to hire anyone new for this game; the roster is large already and most of the people you hire will need to be developed (either in skills or at least overness) which can be a challenge in a two month game. When I start playing properly in a full game there'll likely be some new additions; mechanically it makes basically no sense not to hire Landon Mallory and Konrad Makinen, although I may only do it to a handshake deals so I don't ruin their current employers, the Northern Lights are old favourites and now developed to the point where they just need a chance to show themselves off, Billy Robinson with either Nigel Svenson or Don Henderson can make an excellent "training team" to help develop your stars in ring, while they don't really fit 21CW's style the likes of Gram Gorman and Reaver (although beware time decline) are such good talents that they can be good mid-card workhorses for you, Michael Gregory fits 21CW's style perfectly (and his father already works for you) and Melanie Florence can be a great colour commentator for a B-show (and pretty damn good manager). On the more prospect-based side of things, Dangermouth obviously stands out due to his excellent entertainment skills, Bret Heartbreak looks to be a great prospect with excellent star quality, good brawling and reasonable enough entertainment and fundamental skills (although you'll want to build his consistency), Dylan Drama is a solid, well rounded and entertaining prospect as is Magnus Cage, you've got so many monster heels already that Quake would be superfluous but he does have a good base to work from, at 37 Stuart Wilson is a lot older than your typical prospect but is an excellent athlete, decent entertainer and reasonable worker already... and actually I could go on. There's a lot of workers out there who I think "you know, I could really make something of them..." but without wanting to bloat my roster even more while I may hire a couple for my proper game, I'll try to limit myself to a couple.

[goldendragon]

Anyone else's backstage an absolute disaster area?

 

Every show I get 4-6 incidents. Each one seeming to backfire on me. I have simmering tension with about 75% of my roster. I have repeat offenders causing physical fights, so I suspend them, they hate me for it and the guy they were fighting with hates me for being too harsh.

 

One guy pulled a rip so I gave him a warning, and the victim thought I was too soft.

 

The only one that reacted positive was when I fired a Gulliver from the dojo for his 3rd strike in 2 weeks (I have a b show) for fighting with Brickhouse, it made Brickhouse happy but then I got a wrongful termination lawsuit. I think I'm officially more hated than Mark Carnie in Britwres circles.

[Boltinho]

Hi everyone. With TEW20 out I’ve been fiddling around with my beloved 21CW.

There’s some great notes and ideas in this thread already but I thought I’d add my thoughts to the mix.

 

How I think 21CW works best:

 

With the new popularity/push system this is even more true than it used to be – 21CW is a company built around a handful of stars.

 

This is not the USA or Japan or Mexico where you can find a new star somewhere else to add some pull. In the UK, the biggest stars are the ones you make and maintain. So, you’ve got an odd dynamic where you have all the talent – but it’s a bit of a closed shop.

 

You need to maintain popularity through show grades [because normally Jeff asks you to not shrink] but you can’t really get in new workers to help you do that because there’s no one bigger than the guys you already have. Which means you need to keep your stars. And you can’t just elevate everyone, because that leads to spiralling costs.

 

Because you need good grades you need to make sure most of your shows are built around your top stars [at least in the beginning].

You’ll need matches featuring Eddy Cornell, Tommy Cornell and Adam Matravers. Probably 2 on most shows.

 

You’ll also need to feature angles with those same guys and your other big star – Jeff Nova.

 

All of which means you need at least 2 hot storylines built around your top guys – and preferably find a way to get 3 or 4.

 

Those storylines need to be on every show. Or you’ll probably shrink in the UK.

 

So: you’ve got a handful of stars and they need to be front and centre of everything you do. At the same time you need to be building to help take the pressure of those guys. Because if one of them leaves, or gets hurt you’re in trouble.

 

Things I think [or that need sorting out] in no particular order:

Luke Cool vs Leigh Burton is heel/heel

As has been mentioned before there are several ways to sort this out. I lean towards keeping it going as a heel rivalry – but rotating in faces to avoid the Heel vs Heel issue.

Let’s be honest – Leigh Burton is always going to win this feud – you just need to find a good way to do that without tanking your grades [because you need the storyline to be good].

 

Jeff Nova is wasted

You’ve got 4 real star names. And one of them is the colour commentary guy. You can leave him there if you want but he’s a star name who is fantastic in angles. Finding a way to make Jeff more useful is very tempting.

There are a few ways to do this. Have him as commissioner, a manager, or representing the soul of the company. But getting him out from behind the desk is a good way to take advantage of one of your best assets.

 

Hot Stuff and Kathleen Lee just don’t need each other

They’ve been together for a long time but this relationship just isn’t helping anyone. Buff and J-B can both talk. And Kathleen is another potential star for you – having 3 people who can all drive success for you tied together at the top of the card is limiting.

Splitting the group up is way more profitable than keeping them together.

 

Blackheart and Grave Digger

These two are both members of Jonathan Faust’s Hellbound stable [along with Bedlam]. That will definitely help them grow and improve but adding them as a tag team [even an occasional one] is a bit of a no-brainer.

 

The roster is heel-heavy.

You’ve got 17 Heel wrestlers who are well-known or above. Compared to just 12 faces.

This isn’t a disaster in 21CW because the basic sports entertainment template is “face overcomes insurmountable odds” but it will limit your ability to keep providing sensible matches. You need to improve the ratio.

 

You’ve got waaaay too many bald guys and monster heels

Now personally I like sticking those guys in a mask or a silly costume and turning them into more vivid characters. There are alternatives of course. But you need some more distinction otherwise you may just treat a lot of them the same. Your issue is already a limited number of stars facing a rotating crowd of obstacles. Do yourself a favour and at least make those obstacles distinctive.

 

The UK title

It’s a nice, midcard title. Bedlam is a lot of fun. But it doesn’t really fit. Bedlam is a key member of the Hellbound. But the Hellbound are in a storyline that doesn’t revolve around the title. It’s a bit weird.

 

Pitbull needs a job

Pitbull Brown is a 21CW legend. The Man Who Never Gives Up. He’s a man without a job right now though [unless he’s your avatar].

He can be a road agent easily enough. But it seems a waste and that would give you 5 different road agents. Cliff Wilson [Dark Angel] is obviously amazing at it. Then The Steamroller, K’Lee Hawkins and DJ Reason can all do the job better than Pitbull.

 

Child company / B Show

One of the problems with the UK is the lack of other development opportunities. There are only two other companies and nether of them are likely to train workers up that fast.

Given you need to have one eye on replacing your ageing stars you need more opportunities for young talent to work. You can just spam dark matches but a development territory makes much more sense and Is less hard work.

Similarly a B show is a distinct possibility as you have a lot of talent you’ll struggle to regularly use on 21st century Wrestling. Using the B show to indulge in niche divisions [women’s, megaweight, tag, high-fliers] would also be a lot of fun.

 

Jonathan Faust needs more to do

Faust is just outside your group of stars. His popularity is only a few points below your top guys and given his entertainment skills he can get that high pretty fast.

As leader of the Hellbound there’s a clear role for him to elevate your lower talent – but he can also be so much more. Faust needs to be the lynchpin of one of your storylines. Using him on Evan Alpass and Flynn and Boulder is not the best use of him.

 

Phase out the dead wood

You’ve got a lot of ageing workers in the midcard who are useful but expensive assets. Kevin Jones, Luke Cool, Philip Cooper, Antithesis, Rolling Johnny Stones… Even Daniel Black Francis and Mark Misery are in their mid 30s.

These guys are useful but you just don’t need them all on written contracts. Feel free to keep around any of your favourites but when their contracts come up most should be let go. You can always bring them back on short-term deals later.

Nightmare is in a category of his own. Bye bye Nightmare.

Reduce the roster size

The thing about not having any real competition is that you have no one to worry about stealing your talent.

This goes back to the structure of 21CW. There are 3 types of wrestler you need on your roster:

- Stars. The handful of guys that will carry your company.

- Plausible opponents for your stars. The guys your stars can look good beating.

- Future talent you’re training up. There are a limit number of these guys you can use.

The middle category are really easy to find in the UK. You can hire them easily. But they lose momentum and you don’t have room on your cards to keep building them all up. The solution is simple – just employ the ones you need right now.

There is no point in having 50 wrestlers on your roster. You can easily get by with 10-15 fewer and just rotate anyone who is not a star or a future star.

 

 

Storyline ideas:

 

The War of the Cornells

This is great fun obviously – and Cornell vs Cornell is always good to go back to – but you’ve only got limited stars and having them in a program together reduces your options a lot. I’d much rather each Cornell cousin can hold up his own storyline to give me more strong ones.

There’s a couple of fun matches here but I want to move on from this storyline relatively soon without really giving either a damaging loss. If Tommy has a long contract it’s tough to not stick the strap on him and make him your figurehead, with Ed taking his frustrations out on some other poor sap.

 

Next up for Tommy

If he takes the belt from Ed you can use Tommy to elevate so much about 21CW. Short feuds with all the heels you have are good for everyone. They get to train in the ring and ‘keep strong’ against Tommy Cornell is worth a lot. The likes of Beast Bantom, Leigh Burton, J-B Cash and Buff Martinez having 4-8 week programs with Tommy is great.

1 promo with Tommy in it and you've got heat.

 

Next up for Ed

Ed can simmer malevolently about his hatred for his cousin whilst building up his stable – the House of Business.

BW Eddie, the Red Devils and Doomsday all get some airtime whilst Ed takes his frustrations out on people.

Long-term I think this stable is too big and you’ll want to thin it out a bit.

 

Adam Matravers and the fall of Hot Stuff

Matravers needs something juicy to do.

Hot Stuff and Kathleen Lee need a reason to split. You need more faces high on the card.

Stick them all together and you’ve got a nice solution.

Hot Stuff think Matravers is overrated and they can beat him. They try and fail, and Buff and J-B fall out over it. It all leads to a big blow-off match at World War where one of them turns and Kathleen walks away from them both.

 

Pick a new star. Or two.

You could do with another two stars at the top. More than 5 is asking for trouble. And one of them can easily be Jeff Nova or Kathleen Lee. But just 3 [in the ring] is a bit light.

Your options are:

Jonathan Faust

Leigh Burton

Wade Orson

Or a few others.

Pick one or two of these and raise them up the card.

 

Cool vs Burton

Either turn one [which will be rushed because you need this match at Steel Cage Challenge in 3 weeks] or add in another face.

You could use Adam Matravers but someone a bit lower down makes more sense. The Underdogs, Absolutely Flawless, Sebastian Koller or Wade Orson all make sense.

Cool and Burton trying to prove how great they are against the Underdogs [who don’t lie down] seems fun.

 

DBF vs Apollo

DBF is ageing but he’s super useful. And you’re heel-heavy at the top. Apollo Prince will have his day. I’ll avoid the temptation to give Prince the big win over the beloved vet.

 

The Hellbound

Great stable and Faust needs more spotlight. They just need better opposition.

I’d finish off Alpass and his chums fast then move onto a feud around the UK title.

Th Hellbound target a midcard face [Koller maybe?] as a potential recruit. He wants to take the title from Bedlam. Mayhem ensues.

 

The Three Man Army

The Three Man Army are a fun little unit to run amok over your lower-card faces but you’ll probably run out of them fairly fast.

I’d end this storyline fairly fast so that the 3 man army can fight weekly tag title challengers [get some teams in on short term contracts] to build them up as midcard monsters. Mark Adonis does a prom with Mass Hulk standing behind him. Mystery tag team accepts the challenge. The Men of Steel win. War Machine either interferes. Or attacks post-match. Or they have a 3 vs 3 match.

Keep in that holding pattern.

For the faces – Sifu/Storm can do much more than this. And Muckletruck needs to be freed up…

 

The Squashasaurus

Roly Muckletruck’s usage writes itself. Weekly 5 minute squash matches again whichever local worker you fancy him fighting that week. It’s entertaining and he has the potential to be a star.

 

Upcoming events and phasing:

 

Steel Cage Challenge

Your January PPV.

If there are any starting feuds you want to end this is the time to do it.

You don’t have much time before it so you’ll likely want to feature a match from all your existing storylines on it.

Notably it’s probably your first opportunity for a Cornell vs Cornell match.

You’ll need to have come up with a solution for Cool vs Burton by now. Either adding in a 3rd-man face or turning one of them already.

 

World War

This is your real opportunity to change the landscape of 21CW.

I’ll be building to a huge Cornell vs Cornell match here before I split them up and keep them apart.

There’s likely also a big win here for Leigh Burton over Luke Cool somehow.

Matravers vs Hot Stuff will be a nice match leading to a turn for J-B or Buff.

Apollo vs DBF will likely end here.

If you’re elevating Wade Orson he can have a nice win here [beast Bantom, Kevin Jones, Rolling Johnny Stones, etc]

You can fill in the card with some matches from your other feuds.

 

Head to head

This is an event for 1 vs 1 matches. Given you’ll likely have started some new feuds in the last 4 weeks avoid the temptation to give anyone a huge decisive win.

I’d strongly expect a nice win for Tommy, Edward and Adam to be my top 3 matches. Over good opponents but no-one important.

 

The Cornell Cup

This is a fun one!

Remember you can only have one team win [duh] so don’t try and load the tournament with dream teams.

This is however a good place for Tommy to lose a match. As well as keeping the Cornell vs Cornell [which will no longer be an official storyline here] going.

Adam and Ed beating Tommy and Beast Bantom in the final sounds about right.

[Boltinho]

Michael Gregory came in on a short term contract. I thought I'd stick him in a mask. Beat him up a bit. Maybe bring him back down the road.

 

First show he was in a thrown together team with Kelvin Badberry getting squashed in pre show.

 

Great chemistry.

 

The two are now a comedy/evil tag team of baddies in border costumes.

[Boltinho]

I'm being frustrated by the Hellbound guys.

 

Faust angles with the others standing around looking scary/mean are only getting 55/60 ratings.

 

This seems very low.

 

Am I doing something silly?

[a0161613]

I'm being frustrated by the Hellbound guys.

 

Faust angles with the others standing around looking scary/mean are only getting 55/60 ratings.

 

This seems very low.

 

Am I doing something silly?

 

Sounds like your only mistake is playing by 2016 rules. Menace was nerfed so that kind of angle is less than effective.

[Boltinho]

Sounds like your only mistake is playing by 2016 rules. Menace was nerfed so that kind of angle is less than effective.

 

Yeah that's what I thought.

 

So I tried again with Faust on entertainment, Grave digger on menace and noone else rated.

 

Still disappointing.

 

If menace has been killed to the point where it doesn't help someone like Grave digger that's a problem isn't it?

 

 

 

Either way... the Hellbound need a proper opponent.

[a0161613]

The starting stories aren't great for the company unfortunately.

[Dave E Mac]

The starting stories aren't great for the company unfortunately.

 

21cw is my go to company and agree the starting stories are a meh. Overall not much seems to have gone on. The whole Cornell v Cornell is something we’ve all done to death isn’t it.

[a0161613]

The roster is probably just good enough to get storylines to that level, but only just. One thing I don't like is the decrease (by 50%) of the European pop. Seems a strange call.

[Boltinho]

Im mostly OK with the starting storylines.

 

Cornell vs Cornell was a 2016 staple - but because it's money. 2 fantastic workers who happen to be relatives... I see it as something 21CW will always keep coming back to over and over again.

 

I'm just keeping it short. Run it until World War in Feb then end it ]for now].

 

The one I worry about is Hellbound vs the Rising Stars. It's tough to run because the crowd just don't care about most of the people in the feud. I got a 71 out of a Faust promo with none of the others rated but it's hard slogging. I'll be ending it after Steel Cage Challenge.

 

3 man Army is another toughy. I like the idea of the group. But I think they need different opposition. I like the 3 of them chasing after a star. Instead of a thrown-together rival trio.

 

I'm going into SCC now.

 

Cornell vs Cornell is hot. Obviously.

 

DBF vs Apollo P surprisingly fun. DBF is trying to get a fair fight. Apollo glitterbombing him and stuff like that.

 

Leigh B vs Luke Cool is fun too. Basically I running it as a series of attempts to one-up each other by trying to be more impressive against the same opponents. I'll run a heel/heel match at some point but no rush.

 

Adam M in a minifeud with Hot Stuff is going well. Buff will fail to beat Adam at SCC leading to J-B flipping out and attacking him and a Buff turn.

 

RJS and Wade O [who dont get on for real] are having a minifeud too. I love Wade

[Boltinho]

Who ever thought "let's put the tag belts on the Men of Steel!"?

 

Fun team for sure. And super talented.

 

But in a company with Hot Stuff, Absolutely Flawless, the Red Devils and Crouching Storm, Hidden Sifu...

 

Nope.

[Boltinho]

Also - I figured out a flaw in the PPV schedule.

 

At the moment the Cornell Cup [a tag team tournament] is in April.

 

With Partners in Crime [AI instruction is all tag matches] in May.

 

One of them needs to move surely?

 

I'll probably move PiC back to July and bring London Calling forward. I don't want to move PiC further back because you've also got Dangerous Alliances [all 3 vs 3 matches] in September.

 

So it'll be:

Cornell Cup - tag - April

London Calling - May

War Drums - June

Partners in Crime - tag - July

We Will Rock You - Aug

Dangerous Alliances - trios - Sept

[Doctor Crunch]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Boltinho" data-cite="Boltinho" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="48006" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Also - I figured out a flaw in the PPV schedule.<p> </p><p> At the moment the Cornell Cup [a tag team tournament] is in April. </p><p> </p><p> With Partners in Crime [AI instruction is all tag matches] in May.</p><p> </p><p> One of them needs to move surely?</p><p> </p><p> I'll probably move PiC back to July and bring London Calling forward. I don't want to move PiC further back because you've also got Dangerous Alliances [all 3 vs 3 matches] in September.</p><p> </p><p> So it'll be:</p><p> Cornell Cup - tag - April</p><p> London Calling - May</p><p> War Drums - June</p><p> Partners in Crime - tag - July</p><p> We Will Rock You - Aug</p><p> Dangerous Alliances - trios - Sept</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I moved Partners in Crime to early April and made it a warm up/qualifier for the Cornell Cup and brought back Wicked as the May event.</p>

[Boltinho]

Giving serious thought to bringing in Chris Caulfield for a mini run...

[The Lloyd]

Don't know if any of these are of use to anyone...

 

 

 

Any one wanting to help try and fix 21CW problem with too many generic Bald guys. Anything at all, masks, face paint, any thing to help spice things up.

 

Fancied a challenge, so put a few bits on some of them for you:

 

'The Furious Bi-Curious' Alfonso D'Angelo

 

Assassin

 

Bedlam

 

Gorilla Lee

 

Edison Silva

 

Langton Herring and Compton Valence

 

Blackheart

 

Couple of options for Lone Wolf

 

Kelvin Badberry

 

Beau Boulder and Darin Flynn

[goldendragon]

Giving serious thought to bringing in Chris Caulfield for a mini run...

 

I actually did that and Tribal Warrior too. I stopped playing this save though before they really got anywhere (although Warrior was doing a great job helping get Orson to main event because of their chemistry).

 

I started a developmental save game for 21CW while waiting for the full release and I'm enjoying it more because of the toxic backstage atmosphere so stuck with that for now.

[Boltinho]

Don't know if any of these are of use to anyone...

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Im going back and collecting old renders and alts at the moment. Some awesome ones here.

 

Lone Wolf is a fave.

 

Thanks for sharing

[Boltinho]

I actually did that and Tribal Warrior too. I stopped playing this save though before they really got anywhere (although Warrior was doing a great job helping get Orson to main event because of their chemistry).

 

I started a developmental save game for 21CW while waiting for the full release and I'm enjoying it more because of the toxic backstage atmosphere so stuck with that for now.

 

Nice. Tribal Warrior makes a ton of sense.

 

Any old ex-US big boy workers really.

 

I'm struggling a little bit with mid-range heels so things like this are perfect as short-term fixes.

 

These guys, Stevie Stoat, Nigel Svensson and Merle... All perfect for bringing in for a month or two.