A "newbie diary" for TEW 2020

[jcw163]

So I’ve seen some people talking about whether it’s easy to get started with this game, or whether it’s very newbie friendly. As someone who has never played the TEW games, but has some experience with older wrestling sims and with various sports management games, I thought I would write a recap of my two months in game with TEW 2020 which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I am hopeful that new players might take something from this as, like I said, I am completely new to the series, and also I am willing to hear from experienced players what they would have done differently or even if they just want to laugh as I torpedo the popularity of my upper midcard.

 

The first thing I did was decide to play in the fictional C-Verse, I thought this would make it more of a “game”, rather than trying to book a WWE or AEW game based on real life knowledge or preference. I also didn’t pay much attention to the Avatar selection, I picked one with a USA base and picked the user talents as “jack of all trades” and moved on.

 

So the next question – Which promotion? I decided to go with Total Championship Wrestling, this was because they’re a big-ish US promotion, with a weekly TV show, so something I’m more familiar with than a touring Japanese company or a Scottish hardcore indie or similar. Also their roster isn’t overwhelmingly huge and they have a bit of money so we should be able to not go bust for a few months even if I’m incompetent. I also selected to just play as the booker, not the owner, as I thought this might give me slightly less to worry about straight away.

 

I got into the main game and was a bit overwhelmed by buttons, so I had a bit of a click through without really touching anything. I then had a look at the existing title holders and the existing storylines on the screen. From this I was able to learn the basics of my roster, notably that Aaron Andrews is the champ and number 1 babyface, feuding with the leader of The Syndicate, our top heel (and all round pro-wrestling gun) Wolf Hawkins. We also have Jay Chord as a young star and he’s in a feud with Sammy Bach, a very good and over older wrestler who can put him over. Lastly I learnt that Greg Gauge, the TV champ, is one for the future, and that we have hardly any quality tag teams and no women wrestlers at all. These basics should allow us to book a few shows without worrying too much, stick to the existing feuds and go from there, ok cool.

 

We’ll get to the shows in the next post (I am away from my home PC at the moment) but the other steps I took were to get a TV show and PPV broadcast deal in Canada for more revenue, to activate a B TV show (Saturday Night Showcase) once I realised I was barely using some of the lower card members of my roster and to sign 8 women in order to run a women’s title tournament (something that would absolutely tank my show ratings but we’ll get to that).

 

I also took a moment to sketch some rough plans at this stage for where we’re going in the slightly longer term (although can’t look too far ahead obviously). The rough plans were therefore as follows:-

 

1. Wolf vs Andrews at the first PPV, Malice in Wonderland, I want Wolf to take the belt as I like a heel champ, moving through to Andrews getting it back at the big Total Mayhem main event down the line

 

2. Chord and Bach to feud for at least the first two PPVs, with Chord to go over in the end. Idea is to then have him work with Andrews ahead of Total Mayhem for the no 1 contendor’s spot and then *after* Total Mayhem as Andrews first major title feud

 

3. Greg Gauge to go over every midcard babyface we have in TV title matches in order to try and put him over as a star.

 

4. Hot shot the tag belts, I like the idea of The Syndicate as the heel stable holding the titles, so we’ll move the belts from The Behemoths to Mo and Tana in line with the existing storyline, and then again onto The Elite (Syndicate members) as heel tag champs. We then need to sign some people to form a decent tag division, especially a top end babyface tag team (suggestions welcome here from those familiar with the C-Verse)

 

5. Introduce a Women’s title and run a tournament to crown the inaugural champion with the final at Malice in Wonderland.

 

Let’s see how this goes

[D-Lyrium]

Love that you've taken the time to do this, and that you've chosen TCW. Looking forward to seeing how you did!

 

Women's wrestling in TCW is going to be hard to set up, because not only are most women going to be less over than the guys (unless you raid big companies) but your product doesn't really fit what most North American women's companies are doing, do you can't really just raid QAW, you need to develop your own talent. The B show will help tremendously with that.

 

We then need to sign some people to form a decent tag division, especially a top end babyface tag team (suggestions welcome here from those familiar with the C-Verse)

 

My usual go-to are current COTT Tag Champions Storm Spillane and... Damnit... The other one. Marvel Mallory? They're kind of an American Wolves style team, which is my bag.

[The Rock]

...

 

My usual go-to are current COTT Tag Champions Storm Spillane and... Damnit... The other one. Marvel Mallory? They're kind of an American Wolves style team, which is my bag.

 

Marvel Malloy

 

I always sign The Ring Generals (Dean Waldorf & Marv Statler), a natural fit in my opinion.

 

Going Costal (California Love Machine & Frankie Boy Fernandes) should also be good for TCW.

Long Beach Crew (Aces High & Cali Slick) is another team worth looking at.

 

That´s all off the top of my head, but there are more of course.

[FlightlessGypsy]

Marvel Malloy

 

I always sign The Ring Generals (Dean Waldorf & Marv Statler), a natural fit in my opinion.

 

Going Costal (California Love Machine & Frankie Boy Fernandes) should also be good for TCW.

Long Beach Crew (Aces High & Cali Slick) is another team worth looking at.

 

That´s all off the top of my head, but there are more of course.

 

Always reminded me of early 90s Steiners. I can't not hire them - their renders are awesome and they're great workers. Never split them up before but 2020 could be the year...

[Jaded]

We then need to sign some people to form a decent tag division, especially a top end babyface tag team (suggestions welcome here from those familiar with the C-Verse)

 

 

This is awesome, good luck with it!

 

A couple of tag recs to add to the ones people above have made - Puerto Rican Boys (Island Boy Apollo and Kid San Juan) are a good team with high experience and Apollo has v good star quality.

 

I'd also be tempted to reunite The Fighting Irish (Connor Threepwood and Crockett Tubbs); high experience, a tag specialist bonus and good psychology.

 

Finally, indie darlings The Wild Cats (El Jaguar and Tigre Salvaje Jr) are a flashy pairing who've gotten really over in the South West and have phenomenal experience. TSJ, in particular, is a complete stud with incredible athleticism and excellent psychology.

[The Rock]

Always reminded me of early 90s Steiners. I can't not hire them - their renders are awesome and they're great workers. Never split them up before but 2020 could be the year...

 

Yeah, they were my favorite team back in 2016, can produce a good to great match with everyone.

 

I´m really happy that they are so successful in Japan, but I´ll bring them definitely back to the US, to be the backbone of my Division.

 

 

...

 

Finally, indie darlings The Wild Cats (El Jaguar and Tigre Salvaje Jr) are a flashy pairing who've gotten really over in the South West and have phenomenal experience. TSJ, in particular, is a complete stud with incredible athleticism and excellent psychology.

 

Of course, The Wild Cats, how could I forget them?? Great call.

[D-Lyrium]

Marvel Malloy

 

That's the one. Very much the Eddie Edwards of the pair.

[FlightlessGypsy]

Yeah, they were my favorite team back in 2016, can produce a good to great match with everyone.

 

I´m really happy that they are so successful in Japan, but I´ll bring them definitely back to the US, to be the backbone of my Division.

 

 

 

 

Of course, The Wild Cats, how could I forget them?? Great call.

 

Do you think a Dean Waldorf vs. Marv Statler feud in a big American promotion would go over well? I hate to break up hardcoded C-Verse tag teams but Dean Waldorf has a superstar look about him and there's only so many variations of booking a tag team I can try each save!

[jcw163]

Part 2:- Booking some shows

 

With the ideas from the first post in mind, I went to book my first TV show, and to be honest the booking screen was again a bit overwhelming. I didn't touch the venue options to begin with (although a bit happier with them now, really just going by attendance and staying in my home region for the moment) and booked....a pretty successful card. Progressed some feuds, put Matt Hocking and Freddie Huggins together for RP purposes since Laura Huggins is dating Hocking so they're a new (but heel) team for the weak division mentioned. Otherwise the card looked like this:-

 

Laura Huggins introduces Matt Hocking as her new client:- 57

Hocking and Huggins over Devine Fortune:- 60

Hawkins taunts Andrews:- 78

Gauge over T-Bone Bright:- 59

Behemoths Open Challenge:- 65

Behemoths over Benny & The Foxx:- 45

Andrews, goaded by Hawkins, challenges him for a PPV match:- 83

One Man Army over Doc Hammond in a filler match:- 63

Hype segments for Joshua Taylor, Mighty Mo, Jay Chord and Sammy Bach:- 73,70,65 and 84 respectively

A 4 way main event with the above guys won by Chord:- 76

 

A reasonable show for an overall 75. I think this shows that I wanted to progress my storylines and my booking ideas, but also that I wasn't entirely sure how this stuff worked properly yet! It should also be obvious that apart from Chord, Bach, Andrews, Hawkins and Gauge I wasn't really sure who everyone else was.

 

After this card I had a bit more of a look at the product screen. I checked how the match focus and angle focus work and realised we had no women's wrestling, so I changed that to "small division" and hired the following wrestlers:-

 

Alexis Lee Littlefeather

Ava Anderson

Christy Higgins

Danielle Sweetheart

Foxxy LaRue

Juana Hurricane

Lily Snyder

Paige Croft

 

And then set up a new women's title, using a generic belt picture, from the titles screen and set up a tournament from the office page. This all seemed quite easy to do, and I've seen some veterans on here saying tournaments used to be very difficult to keep track of so that's a definite bonus I think.

 

Unfortunately I didn't really understand the impact of the popularity of workers at this point and this caused some issues in the upcoming shows

[jcw163]

<p>Thanks for the tag team recommendations by the way. As mentioned I'm at the end of my trial time but have put some offers in and will see what happens when the full game comes out.</p><p> </p><p>

But....Waldorf and Statler? They're good wrestlers but...those names? Really?</p>

[FlightlessGypsy]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="jcw163" data-cite="jcw163" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="48828" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Thanks for the tag team recommendations by the way. As mentioned I'm at the end of my trial time but have put some offers in and will see what happens when the full game comes out.<p> </p><p> But....Waldorf and Statler? They're good wrestlers but...those names? Really?</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Compared to some of the poor souls roaming the C-Verse with ridiculously unassuming names, I'd say they're far from the short end of the stick <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

[The Rock]

Do you think a Dean Waldorf vs. Marv Statler feud in a big American promotion would go over well? I hate to break up hardcoded C-Verse tag teams but Dean Waldorf has a superstar look about him and there's only so many variations of booking a tag team I can try each save!

 

I would bring them in as a team and run with it for quite some time, while also share their history in Angles/Hype Videos, to introduce them to a wider audience, because most casual fans or fans of the big Promotions have no idea who the Ring Generals are.

 

After gaining some pop, winning a title or two, making the audience care about them, about them as a team with a long history together, then yeah, I see a decent Midcard/Upper Midcard feud that would work well.

 

And in a promotion like TCW, I could see them being in the Upper Midcard as Singles Wrestlers, or atleast Midcard, but they may lack Star Quality for more.

 

 

...

One Man Army over Doc Hammond in a filler match:- 63

...

 

Damn, it´s sad that One Man Army vs. Doc Hammond has become a "filler" match.

These two together were an All-Time Great Tag Team, future Hall of Famers in TCW. But they split in 2017, so I guess yeah, this is a filler match by now.

 

 

And then set up a new women's title, using a generic belt picture, from the titles screen and set up a tournament from the office page. This all seemed quite easy to do, and I've seen some veterans on here saying tournaments used to be very difficult to keep track of so that's a definite bonus I think.

 

As for the belt picture:

Christian_Shane has created a wonderful Women´s Title for TCW.

You can find it here: http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=545645

[jcw163]

Damn, it´s sad that One Man Army vs. Doc Hammond has become a "filler" match.

These two together were an All-Time Great Tag Team, future Hall of Famers in TCW. But they split in 2017, so I guess yeah, this is a filler match by now.

 

 

 

 

As for the belt picture:

Christian_Shane has created a wonderful Women´s Title for TCW.

You can find it here: http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=545645

 

See this is what's interesting to me coming completely new to this stuff. They're only filler anyway cos when I first ran through the roster they didn't leap out at me and then I needed some sort of upper midcard guys to have a match for time lmao.

 

Thanks for the belt graphic link, this stuff is new to me so being pointed to this stuff is a great help

[The Rock]

See this is what's interesting to me coming completely new to this stuff. They're only filler anyway cos when I first ran through the roster they didn't leap out at me and then I needed some sort of upper midcard guys to have a match for time lmao.

 

Thanks for the belt graphic link, this stuff is new to me so being pointed to this stuff is a great help

 

It´s your game of course, so I won´t tell you what to do and what not.

And I understand your intention being a "newbie" and jumping quickly in a game without overthinking things, just to learn how things work (and if it´s newbie friendly).

 

But I highly recommend you, to read some Bios (both Company & Workers) and some background about the CornellVerse. It will make your game much more fun, trust me.

 

Take Jay Chord for example. For you, currently he´s just a young star, but that last name "Chord" he carries has some weight in the CV.

Same for Greg Gauge by the way (but in his case it´s a bit trickier with the last name ).

[jcw163]

TV Shows 2 and 3

 

Our first show went fairly well, but this is where the mechanics of the game maybe not being entirely clear to a newcomer are exposed. Also bad booking plans but let's not get too into that.

 

I mentioned wanting to run a Women's Title Tournament, what I hadn't realised was that a) if I wanted the final at the PPV I needed to run the whole tournament in 2 shows and b) nobody cares about the women I hired.

 

The second show I booked featured one or two angles to push forward the storyline, a reasonable opener as Hocking and Huggins went over Benny and the Foxx for a 59 as we try to establish them as a tag team, a solid TV Title defence for Greg Gauge over Human Arsenal and a 63 rated main event as Andrews beat Doc Hammond since he so badly wants to get to Wolf.

 

BUT

 

I also booked *four* women's matches on the show as the tournament quarter finals, and they rated...deep breath...37, 37, 22 and 34. And noone cared about any of them. The show as a whole was rated at 49 and....that's not ideal.

 

I had a look at how things worked in the handbook etc afterwards and it's clear what my mistakes are here, I've booked workers noone is interested in, and not only that but they've taken over the show, I thought maybe some ok matches could come of it and that would carry them through but the fans were extremely put off by these matches and it hurt the whole show.

 

Undeterred I moved onto my Malice in Wonderland go-home show. This time I booked the two women's semi finals as the opening two matches, and we got...a 30 and a 37. Ok fine.

 

Those out the way we worked to set up the PPV card, and progress the Andrews\Hawkins and Mighty Meaty\Behemoths feuds. This went a lot better and as this time the card built nicely and wasn't overloaded with matches the fans cared about we came away with a respectable 68. It's not as good as show 1, but an improvement on show 2.

 

Next up a first PPV and again a lesson in how to upset most of your roster.