Ice cold momentum for unimportant workers

[adhodges94]

I'm finding it impossible to get unimportant workers to not get negative momentum. If I put them in high rated segments with established workers on main shows I'm told they've been used "too much". If I put them with lower workers on dark/b shows segments are usually rated lower.

 

Their performance skills are good (actually much higher than their popularity) but their momentum still gets worse.

 

At the moment I have wrestlers who haven't lost all year but they still have ice cold momentum.

 

What is the best way people have found to get them out of this?

 

(I've tried resetting using a gimmick change but they quickly sink back into negative momentum, even though I let them win against more established guys)

 

FYI my company popularity is 72.

Most unimportant guys have 50s pop in my home region but 30s or 20s pop in all other regions

 

I only hold shows in my home regions but have a TV deal so they get exposure in every region. Their pop in these regions is slowly rising but my problem is their momentum.

 

With established stars this isn't an issue and I can get them up to white hot fairly easily.

 

Am I doing something wrong?

[RocheBag]

The two options that make absolutely no sense whatsoever and should always be turned off in every game. Worker overuse penalties and match aim requirements. Absolute nonsense.

[Self]

The best way to get out of negative momentum is to never go into it. Once you're in Ice Cold is exceptionally difficult to get back out of it.

 

What product are you using? Some people are report good segment grades helping momentum, but that hasn't been my experience at all. I mostly play popularity over performance, and for me Wins and Losses are what matters.

 

The best way to fix Ice Cold momentum? Turn them. It should reset momentum to neutral. Gimmick changes can work too, but they have to go well.

[a0161613]

Generally I want everyone on neutral or warmer if they have any part in my plans. Those in time decline will not be part of my plans so I don't care about their momentum. I don't need that section of the creative screen to make that decision 😂

 

So if I have to recruit a three appearance jobber to boost someone from neutral, then I will. Or I'll bring someone from a dev co.

 

Being in negative momentum is tough so I find that a win streak plus a gimmick change is a good place to start. It's not an immediate impact but it will correct itself.

[bigtplaystew]

I've definitely jobbed guys out for like a year who ended up with toilet bowl cold momentum then turned things around but it took a solid several months of them winning. I generally booked them to dominate a short match, usually a tag team match with a much more popular tag team partner (who usually also dominated unless he absolutely didnt need it at all which is rare) and crappy opponents. I also made sure I had them on TV every week if the weren't wrestling they were in a promo. Several months of this give or take I start seeing changes in their long term momentum.

 

It sounds like you've been going even beyond that having them win out for a year. Something is definitely not right about that. I wish I could help more but I can tell you that is not my experience so whatever is going on in your game is probably abnormal for whatever reason.

 

It IS a struggle for me to keep my unimportant guys from tanking momentum. I usually dont worry about it but there were a few who developed nicely and I turned things around for them. Like I said it took months of TV and a few big wins not a full year of the beating way more popular opponents like you are describing.

 

You should note that the "momentum" you see in the roster section or when booking is the "long term momentum" and not the "Current momentum". It says it in the handbook somewhere if you look it up. Its an overall picture of how theyve been doing over a period of time. How long does it take to start seeing logn term momentum changes? I dont know exactly? A few months? Why does it do it this way? I dont know. How do you see current momentum? I think you dont. You can check your creative meetings section of your office and go to "whos not" to see if your guys are on there. I never have anyone on that list though and i have several guys who show up as "ice cold momentum" and i generally job them out. But theyre on TV a lot so maybe theyre not as bad as their long term momentum suggests? Dont know.

 

In short what I think happens sometimes is your guys may actually BE hot... which is why youre seeing the pop gains, but the booking screen isnt picking it up yet. If thats the case though it wouldnt take a YEAR i usually start seeing those changes over maybe several months or so not a whole year. Maybe you'll start seeing changes soon?

[d12345]

Hmm. In my save my unimportant jobbers have stayed at Neutral despite never winning. I only had 1 jobber who Cooled their momentum because they temporarily rose above Unimportant and took a loss.

 

The best way to get people out of Ice Cold momentum are turning them, giving them the same amount of wins against the same quality of opponents that they racked up losses against, or time (send them away for 3-6 months or something).

[Spirophore]

I have been having this exact issue. Fuyuko Higa is by and large my most talented in ring worker and one of my best on the mic as well, but the fans just haven't accepted her and no matter how strong I book her she can't get out of this ice cold momentum hole. I know that for a while I was overusing her a ton and that's probably what led to the drop in momentum, but since then I've been careful to book her strong without overusing her and it just won't work. Her performance in matches has tanked too and I don't understand how that worked. I have many other Japanese workers that started as complete unknowns that I booked strong and the fans accepted and are now legit stars, but they just will. Not. Accept. Higa.

 

Any advice? I'm willing to adjust my preferences even though that was something I didn't want to do with this playthrough, but she's my best worker and I want to use her in big storylines.

[Peter.1986]

I'm pretty sure momentum goes back towards and eventually hits neutral when off tv for a while. Think about 'x-pac heat' he could have won all the matches in the world but the fans still didn't take to him. take them off screen, reset momentum, re package them.

 

Alternatively if you don't want to play realistically turn it all off and share you 100 rated matches/shows

[adhodges94]

I'm using czcw so my company is performance based primarily. I've eventually just sent most of my ice colders down to the developmental company I have created for 6 months or so. Hopefully this will allow them to return with their momentum refreshed as they are mostly major stars down there

[njmcfreak]

I have been having this exact issue. Fuyuko Higa is by and large my most talented in ring worker and one of my best on the mic as well, but the fans just haven't accepted her and no matter how strong I book her she can't get out of this ice cold momentum hole. I know that for a while I was overusing her a ton and that's probably what led to the drop in momentum, but since then I've been careful to book her strong without overusing her and it just won't work. Her performance in matches has tanked too and I don't understand how that worked. I have many other Japanese workers that started as complete unknowns that I booked strong and the fans accepted and are now legit stars, but they just will. Not. Accept. Higa.

 

Any advice? I'm willing to adjust my preferences even though that was something I didn't want to do with this playthrough, but she's my best worker and I want to use her in big storylines.

 

Change her gimmick and then give her wins. Slowly they will crawl out of the hole.

 

 

 

One penalty that I don't mind is "X was used too much in the show" I still pull out high 80s low 90s cards easily. I shove someone whose unimportant down the audience's throat until they just accept that he's gonna be there anyway.

[Seanzie]

You can't push everyone at the same time. You need to identify the workers who have a future in your company and give them wins against people of similar stature, put them in angles and storylines with more popular workers who make up for their deficiencies (such as pairing them with someone with strong mic skills if theirs are weak, or vice versa), and then build them over time.

 

Some workers are just going to end up as jobbers, and there's not much you can do about it. You have to book someone with purpose to get them over and increase their momentum, and that's not possible with everyone on the roster.

[Ding Dong 3]

Overall this makes sense. As people have said, you can revitalise their momentum with a good turn or new gimmick. But if you suddenly started pushing say, Brooklyn Brawler as a viable star with no explanation the fans aren't going to get behind it. He was too ingrained as a total jobber so how can you dig yourself out of that hole? To be fair they tried a couple of times, and that was with new gimmicks, but they didn't work. Still though, that's a real life example.

[thadian]

Barry Horrowitz - of course, he was the exception, not the rule. His victory over Chris Candido (Skip) was a perfect moment in the making. In addition to his victory, he was given a gimmick change, some time on a few mainstream television talk shows, and was teamed up with Hakushi (who was more over than himself, and transitioned from main event feuds with Bret and Undertaker to jobbing to the jobbers).

 

So, in C-Verse - take someone who's an otherwise good worker for a partner, who may have recently come down. Give them some hot angles, preferably with a few standard win/loss involved. Then, give an opponent in the same area of the roster who has some momentum - Skip had real momentum, and the Bodydonna gimmick was on fire at the time. So, you're kinda sharing Skip's heat with Barry and Hakushi.

 

1. Every week, Barry/Hakushi gets a 6 minute something that will carry well and give them a "win". Skip takes the loss. Also, Skip wins a match. He must be kept strong in the ring.

 

2. Every other week, Barry/Hakushi win a match against Skip and a random partner who takes the pin. Barry can be given something like the Underdog note? Or give Skip "keep strong" and Barry "win with flash rollup"? This protects Skip from losing too much heat.

 

3. Don't forget to make a Storyline. You might add in someone "Unaligned" who actually matters on the roster who's not busy - or give an important person on the roster a "Minor Role" as Barry's ally. Then that person's feud rival as a "Minor Role" as Skip's ally.

 

The idea is that you can put them in angles that, even if they aren't Rated 90 or anything, will still be above the popularity of the lower workers - and within range of the more popular ones (who can do their own angle later with 90+ heat).

 

Another good thing is remember to "Hire Local" to bring in talents for 1-3 appearances just to lose to one of your jobbers. Overall, a win here and there can help them remain "Neutral" to "Warm" if paired with the occasional guest appearance in someone else's angle.

 

But you don't want them having hot momentum and gaining popularity, this actually protects you! Because if they're underskilled, they will rise to the main event, but perform low quality matches, demand titles, and demand pay raises. So it's okay to cool down someone's momentum, or work to keep someone's momentum in a specific range (say, from Warm to Very Warm for most of my midcard, and Hot or better for anyone above.) I don't often get "white hot" for very long because I book in a way that when someone gets white hot, they do a few jobs for "hot" people to get them in the red hot range, while working angles to prevent them from slipping below red hot.

 

If you have a developmental, I wonder if sending someone there for a few months would help? Then they come back like new, with a new gimmick, and some redebut vignettes before their first on-screen appearance?

[Ding Dong 3]

Barry Horrowitz - of course, he was the exception, not the rule. His victory over Chris Candido (Skip) was a perfect moment in the making. In addition to his victory, he was given a gimmick change, some time on a few mainstream television talk shows, and was teamed up with Hakushi (who was more over than himself, and transitioned from main event feuds with Bret and Undertaker to jobbing to the jobbers).

 

Horowitz worked (sort of, briefly) because he had a sudden victory over a hated obnoxious heel and as you said, it was a perfect moment in the making. You could argue though that the moment he got that win, he had his gimmick change in TEW-terms. The moment the 3 was counted, he was viewed as something different to a colourless jobber, so the best way to emulate that in TEW would be to give Horowitz a gimmick called "Unlikely Hero" or something along those lines, maybe with a high degree of risk of failure as there's no guarantee the fans would take to it, then change it at the end of the match. Then if the gimmick is successful and the fans get behind him, his momentum would rise.