The DSPW Thread

[Kjarvs]

The C-Verse's first Indian promotion has finally arrived, let's talk about it!

 

Advantages

*Money - A starting balance of $7,500,000 means you can be liberal with investments; whether you want to launch your own broadcaster, splash out on big name free agents (presuming you can convince them to come) or just enjoy the breathing room of being able to bleed a few thousand dollars a month for the foreseeable whilst you build up your base, DSPW's immense budget means money should be no object to your creative vision.

*Young, Home Grown Talent - I've always loved a MAW save in the C-verse and the challenge of developing promising youngsters into bona-fide stars, ready for the big leagues. DSPW has a dozen young prospects right off the bat, plus whomever you decide to pick up from the independent scene to fill out your undercard. DSPW owner Kashmir Singh starts the game with 6 mentees, including the "Four Pillars" of DSPW: Parvin Kishan, Sensational Sarja, Bollywood Bhat and Prince Rupy - all in their early 20s with solid fundamentals and decent to good entertainment skills. These boys will be fundamental to the early days of any DSPW save and booking their respective rises without totally sacrificing any of the others looks to be a fun challenge.

*Workhorses - Half of your starting roster have 60+ Basics & Stamina, so you should never struggle to fill out a card with at least competent matches, even if you're not setting the world on fire right away. The healthy sprinkling of veteran European performers, such as Thor & Kalu Owusu, on the roster gives your young, inexperienced homegrown talent a good range of foils to play off and learn from.

*Tag Team Division - DSPW has a really strong tag division for such a young company. Young teams The Ali Brothers, Big Time Inc & The Mumbai Express are joined by veterans Brecher & Grimm and The Nigerian Hit Squad along with the globetrotting South African duo, "The Wild Springboks". More than enough teams to keep your tag title storylines fresh without resorting to thrown-together teams.

*Backstage Staff - DSPW starts with good backstage morale and a solid supporting crew, with competent announcers, two decent refs, a charismatic manager, a hoss bodyguard character - really all your bases are covered. Owner Kashmir Singh is your only starting road agent, but any of the aforementioned European veterans can step into that role to help him out. 

 

Disadvantages

* Size & Location - There's no way around it, DSPW's insignificant size and remote starting location means that growth & expansion will be a slow journey. Whilst this does give you license to experiment whilst you nurture your young home-grown starlets, it does mean that you won't be selling out any big stadiums anytime soon

*Local Independent Scene - As could probably be expected from a new region sustaining just one company, the local independent scene is pretty barren. Just 7 unsigned wrestlers based in the region, none of whom have any significant pop or great talent means you'll be filling out your roster from the bottom if you choose to hire locally. A women's division is a total no-go, with not a single Indian lady willing to pull on a pair of boots in January 2022

 

So that's my view on DSPW. Personally, I'm very excited to jump into a save with them and take on the challenge of building up India's first company. I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts!

 

[TheDeep5ix]

I remember back in TEW 2020, there was a neat little Indian expansion mod for the C-Verse. I thought it was pretty well done, so it's a shame that it's not canon here since the Indian scene could really use some extra names (especially when it comes to female wrestlers).

[GodOfGibberish]

I’m having a lot of fun with these guys. Created my own broadcaster and I’m running a product which is half soap-opera, half wrestling. Lots of interconnected relationships and dramatics. Got a feud between Bollywood Bhat and Superstar Sharma which happened when Superstar slapped Bhat’s valet. The money this company starts with really let’s you make what you want out of it.

[Captain Kayfabe]

I'm torn. It's cool to see DSPW and all the new Indian talent. However, I always play as created companies, and some of my favorite long-term saves in TEW 2020 were literally building the Indian wrestling scene from the ground up.

[Kjarvs]

2 hours ago, Captain Kayfabe said:

some of my favorite long-term saves in TEW 2020 were literally building the Indian wrestling scene from the ground up.

That actually sounds like a really fun challenge for TEW IX; DSPW would only have a 6 month headstart on a created company and none of their workers are exclusive, so starting a new company with a totally different product and fighting from slightly underneath for "the soul" of Indian wrestling could be a really engaging save!

[Captain Kayfabe]

2 hours ago, Kjarvs said:

That actually sounds like a really fun challenge for TEW IX; DSPW would only have a 6 month headstart on a created company and none of their workers are exclusive, so starting a new company with a totally different product and fighting from slightly underneath for "the soul" of Indian wrestling could be a really engaging save!

Exactly my thoughts! I was thinking of starting a new company with only unemployed Indian wrestlers, but there are only a few - 8 or 9 if I recall.

[Matt_Black]

On 8/1/2024 at 4:18 PM, TheDeep5ix said:

I remember back in TEW 2020, there was a neat little Indian expansion mod for the C-Verse. I thought it was pretty well done, so it's a shame that it's not canon here since the Indian scene could really use some extra names (especially when it comes to female wrestlers).

If it's the one I'm thinking of (I think there may have been two Indian worker mods), then YES. My goodness, yes. I didn't even play in India that much, and I got a helluva lot of mileage out of it. I would use it in conjunction @willr0ck's Women's Revolution Mod and boost up the general women's scene. Mighty Girl in particular was always a fun hire.

[The Inquisition]

I believe it was @brat99's expansion pack that really breathed life into the India scene. Hopefully it gets converted or someone picks up the mantle.

[Veenetor]

Hello everyone,

 

I'd like some help with booking / managing DSPW , please! 

Also, long post, sorry! 

 

 

I got the game yesterday, and seems to be a little overwhelming. I picked DSPW because it is the *smallest* promotion and seems to be very thematic to play (it is literally the last page of the lore recap at the start of the game).

I took a lot of time reading the help menu and going over everything, but I feel I got a grasp of what to do next:

 

 

My figurehead should be Parvin Kishan - I understand I don't *have* to have one, but he is young, seems to be good inside and outside the ring, and by attributes easily the best and most marketable babyface (hero) I'll get my hands on, so might as well. He even looks like an Indian Tom Welling so he was born to be the superman of the show. He is not perfect right away because he's not over enough, but since the effects will only trigger past a year, we can set him straight from the get go.

 

Booking this promotion, in concept, will feel a lot like a comic book pyramid. The show will focus on Kishan for the foreseeable future so we got to keep him hot. That means we need a nice rogue gallery of villains to challenge our hero. Luckily there's quite a few. The Witch Doctor and Prince Ruby seem like they will be his biggest archrivals. Then we have other villains such as Thor, Sensational Sarja and heck, even the current promotion's hero Jai who seems to work better as a heel. Then to keep this rogue gallery hot, we will need quite a few helpful hands to selflessly loose day-to-day to keep them relevant and a meaningful threat to our hero. Again, this feels in line with my perception of bollywood drama and gives me a big feel of traditional old school wrestling where a hero would reign supreme with heels working only as transitional champions. 

 

One of the major concerns seems to be the roster's inexperience. I was able to talk Duane Stone (I marked for this) to come work in Indian for a very reasonable price of 480 a show plus travels expenses (so 680 total, if my understanding is correct) and be the senior road agent. I'm not sure whether he or Lars are better suited for head trainer as they excel in different skills, but either way I'm happy with the training team. 

 

The season finale is in July – this is where I'd like to have Kishan's crowning moment. The rough idea would be to try and have Jai and Thor feud up to this point ala Rocky V. Jai is fighting a loosing battle against the massive nord god until he eventually falls and loses the title. When Thor is about to seriously injure/sideline Jai Kishan will come in for the rescue and will be the one to challenge Thor in Jai's stead, overcoming the odds and becoming the third DSPW World champion. When Jai returns, he will then turn on Kishan feeling his protegee stole his destiny and become a bitter, resentful veteran, ence joining the rogues gallery.

 

 

With this in mind, I booked my first show/month which seemed to be fairly good (almost 40ish, considering the talent and overness they have, I was happy with it), however, it did not bump my popularity from 16 to 17 and and cost me around 6k.  

 

The game starts me off with 7.500.000 which is an obsence ammount of money. I am confident there is no way I could possibly burn through all this money before breaking even and even starting to make money. We're talking about 1250 shows at this rate to burn all this cash, just to put things in perspective. What's haunting me is that my boss (Mr. Singh) has the goal of having 8.500.000 by December of the following year. That means he expects me to make 1.000.000 profit in the next 24 months. That's ~41K profit a month from the *start of the game* when I am currently investing 6k a month trying to grow the business.

 

This is the challenge I am struggling with and would really appreciate help... I can't see how I can possibly *meet* this goal.

 

I understand the more shows I'll book, the more over my promotion will be, and I'll reduce expenses and eventually start making a profit – but I don't really see myself making 41k a month profit within the next year and the longer it takesme to get to these numbers the higher they will be to meet the given quota. The margin of profit this guy is looking for just seems to be too big! And the goal is critical, so I'm assuming I am fired if I don't meet it... 

 

What am I missing? 

 

Should I start booking shows every day like a lunatic to try and cover that gap? Should I just reset the game and pray for dif owner goals which are more manageable? 

 

Thanks in advance for anyone who sat through this post and is willing to share some tips with me! 🙏

Edited August 12 by Veenetor

[elmiticomark]

7 hours ago, Veenetor said:

Hello everyone,

 

I'd like some help with booking / managing DSPW , please! 

Also, long post, sorry! 

 

 

I got the game yesterday, and seems to be a little overwhelming. I picked DSPW because it is the *smallest* promotion and seems to be very thematic to play (it is literally the last page of the lore recap at the start of the game).

I took a lot of time reading the help menu and going over everything, but I feel I got a grasp of what to do next:

 

 

My figurehead should be Parvin Kishan - I understand I don't *have* to have one, but he is young, seems to be good inside and outside the ring, and by attributes easily the best and most marketable babyface (hero) I'll get my hands on, so might as well. He even looks like an Indian Tom Welling so he was born to be the superman of the show. He is not perfect right away because he's not over enough, but since the effects will only trigger past a year, we can set him straight from the get go.

 

Booking this promotion, in concept, will feel a lot like a comic book pyramid. The show will focus on Kishan for the foreseeable future so we got to keep him hot. That means we need a nice rogue gallery of villains to challenge our hero. Luckily there's quite a few. The Witch Doctor and Prince Ruby seem like they will be his biggest archrivals. Then we have other villains such as Thor, Sensational Sarja and heck, even the current promotion's hero Jai who seems to work better as a heel. Then to keep this rogue gallery hot, we will need quite a few helpful hands to selflessly loose day-to-day to keep them relevant and a meaningful threat to our hero. Again, this feels in line with my perception of bollywood drama and gives me a big feel of traditional old school wrestling where a hero would reign supreme with heels working only as transitional champions. 

 

One of the major concerns seems to be the roster's inexperience. I was able to talk Duane Stone (I marked for this) to come work in Indian for a very reasonable price of 480 a show plus travels expenses (so 680 total, if my understanding is correct) and be the senior road agent. I'm not sure whether he or Lars are better suited for head trainer as they excel in different skills, but either way I'm happy with the training team. 

 

The season finale is in July – this is where I'd like to have Kishan's crowning moment. The rough idea would be to try and have Jai and Thor feud up to this point ala Rocky V. Jai is fighting a loosing battle against the massive nord god until he eventually falls and loses the title. When Thor is about to seriously injure/sideline Jai Kishan will come in for the rescue and will be the one to challenge Thor in Jai's stead, overcoming the odds and becoming the third DSPW World champion. When Jai returns, he will then turn on Kishan feeling his protegee stole his destiny and become a bitter, resentful veteran, ence joining the rogues gallery.

 

 

With this in mind, I booked my first show/month which seemed to be fairly good (almost 40ish, considering the talent and overness they have, I was happy with it), however, it did not bump my popularity from 16 to 17 and and cost me around 6k.  

 

The game starts me off with 7.500.000 which is an obsence ammount of money. I am confident there is no way I could possibly burn through all this money before breaking even and even starting to make money. We're talking about 1250 shows at this rate to burn all this cash, just to put things in perspective. What's haunting me is that my boss (Mr. Singh) has the goal of having 8.500.000 by December of the following year. That means he expects me to make 1.000.000 profit in the next 24 months. That's ~41K profit a month from the *start of the game* when I am currently investing 6k a month trying to grow the business.

 

This is the challenge I am struggling with and would really appreciate help... I can't see how I can possibly *meet* this goal.

 

I understand the more shows I'll book, the more over my promotion will be, and I'll reduce expenses and eventually start making a profit – but I don't really see myself making 41k a month profit within the next year and the longer it takesme to get to these numbers the higher they will be to meet the given quota. The margin of profit this guy is looking for just seems to be too big! And the goal is critical, so I'm assuming I am fired if I don't meet it... 

 

What am I missing? 

 

Should I start booking shows every day like a lunatic to try and cover that gap? Should I just reset the game and pray for dif owner goals which are more manageable? 

 

Thanks in advance for anyone who sat through this post and is willing to share some tips with me! 🙏

 

I haven't played with DSPW yet, but after seeing this post... (there are some differences) but I have a similar situation with a usercreated fed... I started with 0 pop, 0 momentum, and a bunch of workers below 20 in my home region.  I had 5 M USD budget at the start... (one thing is I preset my own streaming service; however, that's part of a tip I think might work) and lost that real quick and have been recouperating now.

 

So I have the benefit of my company having it's own broadcaster, however I set all production levels fairly high, so i was leaking money... Turned a profit by these two things:

Focus on 3/4 key guys, not just a figurehead... you want at least one 60's-70's drawing angle machine by your first year (also if you run more than one angle, switch up purposes "serious" "storyline" "character dev", etc and locations "backstage" "in ring" etc, on tv and shows if the product is Classic Balanced or similar, you'll get a "show looked better with the different angle types" bonus)... if you have a commentator or backstage personality with good mic skills, run interview segments at first before getting into working the crowd or character development... videos (if you have the production levels to do videos) and fighting angles at low pop can kill storylines, in my experience.

 

With that much in the bank, the second suggestion is to launch an Internet Commercial broadcaster.  From there it'd be your choice of trying to play the gambling game of running weekly shows and hoping the revenue comes in and your shows get enough views to increase your pop +2 every month or other month or running monthly events and taking the guaranteed 1 pt (idk if you can get +2 from monthly in IX)... with their funding and the fact it'd be probably 6 mo's before you'd really have to pay anyone a big amount per show, I'd bet on weekly shows leading to monthly events.  

 

Like I said, I haven't played with the company yet but the financial is something similar to what I've got going on, plus you don't need to have your production levels set very high, I'd assume, since there's no competition.  That may help out, broadcast revenue @ 100% is a pretty thing.

 

one more edit... since I think DSPW runs an American style, that means charisma, star quality, stick work are about as important if not more than workrate/in-ring skill... there's a few unemployed characters who can immediately be dropped in and within a year pull major ratings or be very useful for angles if used correctly, most notably:  Surfer Dude Lucas (he's a beast, if you push him as a face and let him work crowd, character development, or anything "entertainment" based, he starts pumping out highly rated segments), as well as Mustang Blanco Jr.  There's a few RAW guys floating out there like The Brat Pack (I believe)... DeAnna Desire is a new, unsigned manager, her stats are for real.  Just as far as bringing in a small group of foreign workers to boost your segment ratings,etc.

Edited August 12 by elmiticomark

[Veenetor]

Thank you so much, I thought it'd be way too soon to get/start broadcasting, I will try this out! 

[Kjarvs]

9 hours ago, Veenetor said:

Hello everyone,

 

I'd like some help with booking / managing DSPW , please! 

Also, long post, sorry! 

 

 

I got the game yesterday, and seems to be a little overwhelming. I picked DSPW because it is the *smallest* promotion and seems to be very thematic to play (it is literally the last page of the lore recap at the start of the game).

I took a lot of time reading the help menu and going over everything, but I feel I got a grasp of what to do next:

 

 

My figurehead should be Parvin Kishan - I understand I don't *have* to have one, but he is young, seems to be good inside and outside the ring, and by attributes easily the best and most marketable babyface (hero) I'll get my hands on, so might as well. He even looks like an Indian Tom Welling so he was born to be the superman of the show. He is not perfect right away because he's not over enough, but since the effects will only trigger past a year, we can set him straight from the get go.

 

Booking this promotion, in concept, will feel a lot like a comic book pyramid. The show will focus on Kishan for the foreseeable future so we got to keep him hot. That means we need a nice rogue gallery of villains to challenge our hero. Luckily there's quite a few. The Witch Doctor and Prince Ruby seem like they will be his biggest archrivals. Then we have other villains such as Thor, Sensational Sarja and heck, even the current promotion's hero Jai who seems to work better as a heel. Then to keep this rogue gallery hot, we will need quite a few helpful hands to selflessly loose day-to-day to keep them relevant and a meaningful threat to our hero. Again, this feels in line with my perception of bollywood drama and gives me a big feel of traditional old school wrestling where a hero would reign supreme with heels working only as transitional champions. 

 

One of the major concerns seems to be the roster's inexperience. I was able to talk Duane Stone (I marked for this) to come work in Indian for a very reasonable price of 480 a show plus travels expenses (so 680 total, if my understanding is correct) and be the senior road agent. I'm not sure whether he or Lars are better suited for head trainer as they excel in different skills, but either way I'm happy with the training team. 

 

The season finale is in July – this is where I'd like to have Kishan's crowning moment. The rough idea would be to try and have Jai and Thor feud up to this point ala Rocky V. Jai is fighting a loosing battle against the massive nord god until he eventually falls and loses the title. When Thor is about to seriously injure/sideline Jai Kishan will come in for the rescue and will be the one to challenge Thor in Jai's stead, overcoming the odds and becoming the third DSPW World champion. When Jai returns, he will then turn on Kishan feeling his protegee stole his destiny and become a bitter, resentful veteran, ence joining the rogues gallery.

 

 

With this in mind, I booked my first show/month which seemed to be fairly good (almost 40ish, considering the talent and overness they have, I was happy with it), however, it did not bump my popularity from 16 to 17 and and cost me around 6k.  

 

The game starts me off with 7.500.000 which is an obsence ammount of money. I am confident there is no way I could possibly burn through all this money before breaking even and even starting to make money. We're talking about 1250 shows at this rate to burn all this cash, just to put things in perspective. What's haunting me is that my boss (Mr. Singh) has the goal of having 8.500.000 by December of the following year. That means he expects me to make 1.000.000 profit in the next 24 months. That's ~41K profit a month from the *start of the game* when I am currently investing 6k a month trying to grow the business.

 

This is the challenge I am struggling with and would really appreciate help... I can't see how I can possibly *meet* this goal.

 

I understand the more shows I'll book, the more over my promotion will be, and I'll reduce expenses and eventually start making a profit – but I don't really see myself making 41k a month profit within the next year and the longer it takesme to get to these numbers the higher they will be to meet the given quota. The margin of profit this guy is looking for just seems to be too big! And the goal is critical, so I'm assuming I am fired if I don't meet it... 

 

What am I missing? 

 

Should I start booking shows every day like a lunatic to try and cover that gap? Should I just reset the game and pray for dif owner goals which are more manageable? 

 

Thanks in advance for anyone who sat through this post and is willing to share some tips with me! 🙏

£1,000,000.00 profit in a year is a tough owner goal, but @elmiticomark is bang on the banana: You've got to spend money to make money! Early investments in your own broadcaster & merchandise will have you turning a very healthy profit by the six month mark.

 

Parvin Kishan is a great choice to build your main event scene around: he can go in the ring and on the mic and he can lead DSPW for a decade, maybe 15 years before he starts to slow down. I again agree with @elmiticomark here though, you need depth at the top of the card. DSPW's default product has a "three ring circus" match focus so you need three good matches per show to get the best ratings and upper midcard feuds are just as important as the main event picture.

 Other important pieces in your starting roster are Sensational Sarja, Bollywood Bhat, Prince Rupy, The Witch Doctor, Brecher & Grimm, The Ali Brothers and The Wild Springboks: They can all pull good ratings in the ring and Sarja, Bhat & Witch Doctor can carry feuds on the mic too. I think with early investment and a commitment to building 5 or 6 top young stars, that goal is achievable - BEST OF LUCK!

[elmiticomark]

Ohhhh.... Asif Allam.  Asif Allam.  Asif Allam.  He's a stud at the desk and can work alone or in tandem, even in 2020 I didn't get many "negative" chemistry with him (he's always unemployed, young, but usually strong starting stats and improves fairly rapidly in almost every save I've ran.  He's 71 announce 66 color commentary rn in my game).

[elmiticomark]

Decided to delete my previous run with this, going to go an opposite direction and sign all foreign/non-indian workers on the og roster to one month/one appearance deals.  Asif Allam is in, added Dark Eagle & Biff The Bruiser for backstage, and Yasuyuki as ref (exclusive monthly for him, he's 81-89 refereeing).  So, after Open Warfare sees Thor loss to Jai and The Young Springboks get defeated by The Ali Brothers, it's only workers from the region; signed up all unemployed workers, though I personally just dislike looking at Mean Streets Mohan.

Edited August 17 by elmiticomark

[Veenetor]

Just booked SuperstarMania II and wanted to drop by and share my game run so far as a follow up of my previous post.

I chickened out and booted a new game, as the 1 million profit still seemed daunting to me, even with the good advice on this thread (sorry!).  

The new goals are much more manageable:

• Not let the promotion fall bellow #34  (currently at #030)
• Not hire any Psychopath or Brawler style wrestlers 

With that in mind, I started spending the cash, by: 

• Creating a Internet Commercial with Very Small coverage in India
• Bringing Duane Stone to be both my Senior Road Agent as well as Head Men’s Trainer
• Hired Asif Allam to join my commentary team (and run interview angles, he does pretty well)

The game starts with the running story of Prince Rupy and Parvin Kishan - who I plan on making the figurehead for the company - so I figured this would be the main event of SuperstarMania II. This turned out to be a large post so I’m breaking it out in “chapters” so it’s easier to follow through if anyone’s interested:

 

#1 - DSPW World Tag Team
Starting off with the tag division, The Ali Brothers won the feud against The Wild Springboks, mostly because I really wanted to push the younger native workers. They then moved on to a feud with Brecher & Grimm, who had been an MVP at pulling good matches with very little to work with. I decided to give Brecher & Grimm a run with the titles at TitanSlam (march) due to the great ratings they were getting (consistently hitting 40 where few others in the roster would).  Brecher & Grimm kept the belts until SuperstarMania II where they dropped the belts back to the fan favorite Ali Brothers in a triple threat match with The Wild Springboks involved . This match got rated 42 which is tied for first place with the main event!

I have not yet decided what to do with the tag team division moving forward. I’d like to (for fluff reasons) promote actual Indian workers on top but Sansay Ali seems to be weighted down by his brother (also, he started dating Rathi Rani in game) and yet is not quite good enough to go solo. Bodhi also seems to be better than Jagan but not good enough to break the Mumbai Express over it. Brecher & Grimm are solid veterans to have around, but I struggle to book them interestingly as brawling and attacking seems to be what they do best. I’ve had people mail me about Ben Markam being charismatic and a future star, so I might circle around to give The Wild Springboks. Right now, I will likely have the Ali Brothers feud with the new team of Aesir’s Wrath (Thor and Loki - a rebranded Quake. You might say he looks nothing like depictions of Loki, which I agree, but when I looked up who was the norse god responsible for earthquakes Loki came up, and well… I just had to, didn’t I?). 

 

#2 - DSPW Indian
Bollywood Bhat feuded with Sensational Sarja for the DSPW Indian championship and eventually managed to win cleanly to the fans' delight at TitanSlam. As luck would have it, as soon as Sharma won the #1 contender slot, Bhat got injured. To work around this I pulled in Rathi Rani in a supporting role and had Sharma try to seduce her and ask her to make entrances for him in the same style as she did for Bhat. Eventually she caved in and started to appear at ringside for his matches. She scored a role in a movie and will be leaving at the end of July, which was honestly impeccable timing for me. The love triangle came to an end at SuperstarMania II where Rathi inadvertently caused a distraction which allowed Sharma to win the belt.

This “division” has been interesting to book. Bhat got the title because Sarja is getting easily over just “existing”. He has a match, or is involved in an angle, and boom, he’s getting over. I wanted to free him from the midcard title and Bhat was by far the best face I had in the undercard - or was. Much like Sarja, Bhat started to get really over with a hot valet and hot catchphrase he could do no wrong. Ravishing Ravi Ray and Sharma had negative team chemistry, so I broke them up and decided to give Sharma the push. He’s been putting great angles consistently and pretty good matches. He’s also a heel, which is convenient because 21CW has given me a handful of young prospects which are currently working as faces and who can job out to him during the next couple of months. Sharma can pretty much carry the midcard feud by himself.

The only real face I have that might take the belt off him - or trade it maybe - is Murugan, who has been a solid hand in putting on good matches but is overshadowed by other choices in the roster for a serious push.

 

 #3 - DSPW World
The focus of the show! I absolutely love Kolkata Jai’s picture, I only wish he was just a tad better (or younger) so I could book him better. He main evented the first Open Warfare against Thor who DQed himself in frustration, trying to keep our hero down. Then Brecher & Grimm  interfered at Master Challenge to try and get Thor the win (I was playing around with making a European faction at this point) but the Ali Brothers ran them off and Jai managed to win. TitanSlam would be the definitive bout between the towering titans and Jai finally proved to be the better man.

While this was happening, I was prepping Prince Rupy to get the title. 

The Prince’s Revenge storyline goes over how Rupy suffered his first loss to Parvin Kishan, so I had them booked at Open Warfare to rematch, but, despite Krusher’s interface, Parvin managed to walk out the victor! 

Fearing he might lose his spot, Rupy came out with a plan, and the last show before Master Challenger he and the rest of the Royal Court came out to run a serious beatdown and (kayfabe) injure Parvin Kishan. This would set him up to win the Main Event Battle Royal (I’m trying to book all matches the AI would if I were not the booker). The winner of the Battle Royal would win a World Title shot at the All-Indian Festival, where I planned to give Rupy the gold and let him carry it all the way to SuperstarMania II. Ironically, during the show Rupy actually got injured! 

I had to look at my roster and see who, if anyone, would be the best person to step in.Storyline wise, I’d have loved for Krusher to step in but he’s not ready. His matches are poor, his stamina super low, and his body positive trait means I can’t talk him into getting in shape for the role. I went back and forth between Sensational Sarja and The Witch Doctor, but ended up deciding to go with the Witch because Serja still had at that time the DSPW Indian championship. 

I added The Witch Doctor as a major role into the storyline (Krusher was already added in a supporting role, FYI). Storywise I played it out by having Krusher run in the battle royal and help the Witch get the win. Rupy then had a series of angles with The Witch Doctor where he tried to persuade him to join The Royal Court, and the world could be his. The rumble was a preview, but at the All-Indian Festival he could become the world champion! He had but to promise that, after they ensure he wins the title, he will accept Rupy’s challenge for gold. Of course, Rupy is planning on betraying him, and the Witch knows this, but having the Royal Court on his corner as he faces off Kolkata Jai is simply too tempting and he ends up making a deal with the devil. Come All-Indian Festival, Krusher and Rupy both step in to help The Witch Doctor win his title shot and crown a new DSPW World Champion!

All eyes turn to Survival of the Fittest 2022 – a 8 man tournament is made to crown the DSPW Survivor. Whoever wins this tournament, will go on to headlight SuperstarMania II  (I know… bit of a repeat gimmick, winning the Survivor tournament will likely be enough moving forward, or maybe not, feels like a legit way to determine #1 contender, we’ll see). The quarter finals took place on the last Bollywood Wrestling before Survival of the Fittest. The Royal Court and their uneasy ally the Witch decide they need to “pick the winner” as they did during the Master Challenger. They endorse Krusher Khan, of course, but he is eliminated by Parvin Kishan during the quarter finals despite their interference. Sharma beat Thunder Kayr to move forward, Jai beat Thor to move over and Sarja defeated Murugan.  During the show, they bring in Sharma and Sarja and try to bring them into the Royal Court, helping them win the tournament, but in exchange they have to concede their title shot to Prince Rupy so it’s The Witch Doctor vs. Prince Rupy at SuperstarMania II, and they would get their title shot next. Again, the weight of the Royal Court sways them. Later that night, Krusher runs in Sarja vs. Jai but fails to make a difference, meaning Rupy himself had to come in and cost Jai the match. The Witch Doctor then came in and a 4 on 1 beatdown as the Royal Court wants to sideline the former champion, and in comes Parvin for the save. Parvin managed to defeat Sharma and then Sarja to win the tournament and become the first DSPW Survivor. The purpose of the beatdown was to pan out Jai from the conquering hero he had been into a supporting role for Kishan. 

At this point I was trying to figure out if I still wanted to do Rupy vs. Kishan, as The Witch Doctor, had been consistently getting better performances in the ring than his “ally”. Did I want to have Rupy betray him at Powerslam on the last stop to SuperstarMania II? Or was Kishan vs. The Witch Doctor the bigger match right now? 

Then The Force announced his retirement in three months' time. 

I had seriously considered hiring The Force starting out the game because the guy’s overness’ on the 40’s which was almost double that of my main stars who were on their 20’s, plus the guy was an amazing hero and a marketing dream (and look, if you’re going to paint your face in that many colors you will fit right in with the product description, isn’t it?). Ultimately I decided against it due to his age plus his unpredictable trade felt like they would be troublesome for me to deal with. Alas, when he announced he would be retiring I thought it would be a shame not to capitalize on it and have him put my main workers over. 700 bucks a show and a decent cut of his merchandise and we shook hands. With the deal signed, he basically replaced Jai on the card. He dove right into the main feud by saving Kishan from the Royal Court. He teamed up with Kishan on a few shows and acted as a mentor. 

The Force revealed that he had a #1 contender’s clause when signing his contract, and that meant he would be facing The Witch Doctor at Powerslam for the title. Kishan challenged Rupy, hoping by goading him earlier on the show he would save his friend from any interference later on the show. Kishan’s plan for all intents and purposes worked, as Rupy accepted and when the Royal Court came to run in on the match they were kicked out of the building. However, to everyone’s shock, The Witch Doctor actually managed to defeat The Force and retain the championship by himself. Frustrated, The Force challenged Kishan, his friend, for his title shot. Kishan, being the hero, accepted. He went over to The Force who shook hands and said he’d return the favor for him at SuperstarMania II.

Finally, the big show. The Force delivered on his word, sacrificing himself to the Royal Court where Rupy managed to win with his manager’s Mr. Yadav and Krushers assistance. He took the fight out of them, however, which meant Kishan had a clear shot at the Witch Doctor. They were booked for an epic match and they delivered. A 42 rating (tied for best in the show) to close out the show as Parvin Kishan finally wins the big one.

 #3 - Closing thoughts
I am loving booking this promotion. The product is “beginner friendly” to book, by which I mean most shows can have a large (40% percentage) of angels to carry them to a good grade. Also, a lot of surprisingly good workers albeit most of them are unknown at the start of the game. The matches don’t need to be overly gimmicky, nor overly long nor short. 

I feel like the roster is really complete. It helps that when trainees from Mumbai Academy pop up you can sign them directly. I have not signed any so far for a couple of reasons. One, maybe it’s just me but for the promotion size DSPW feels like it has a bloated roster already. Secondly, the best workers to come out of the academy so far have had negative traits which, at least for the moment, don’t seem to compensate for what they bring to the table.

It also helps that every once in a while 21CW proposes to send workers your way. They agreed to call up Vance Atlas who I was not using, but refused to accept Harlan Deathcastle who I seldom use. However, the poor guy actually made the commitment of moving to India so I genuinely feel bad for him and am trying to include him more on the show… they also agreed to call up Spicy Gary Masala, who looked like a promising candidate but soon started to mess around backstage and I was happy to get rid of him. Currently I have Alex Fullington, Angel Hogan, Calvin Evanovich, Hal Sweeney, and Harlan. Other than Harlan, they all punch above their weight, and I’d actually consider getting behind Fullington and Hogan if not for the fact they can be called up at any moment. 

I also hired Yamini Jaiswal. She has very positive backstage attributes and I was hoping to pair her up with someone because Rathi was doing wonders for Bhat. I paired her up on a show with Kishan and they had great chemistry so now they are an on-screen pair.

I still haven’t quite figured out the role for Kolkata Jai yet. I tried to add my user character (Professor Adler, rebranded as Rajguru Adler) but they had negative chemistry. I want to turn him heel - a disgruntled and resentful hero who feels cheated out of his title by Kishan and The Force. He plays better as a heel and I’m hoping that helps him out. I’m also considering offering Sheik Ali a one-night contract to see if they match up well. 

I also want to re-invent the Royal Court. Krusher Khan just doesn’t cut it as heir apparent, and I feel the Nigerian Hit Squad would be better paired with Kalu Owosu as fading veterans putting newcomers over. Superstar Sharma could potentially be a better heir to the throne. Or I can add heel Jai eventually to the stable to add some more muscle (and tension between Krusher and Jai, as they’d be essentially filling the same role). I’d like to keep a team here in place, unsure whether to turn on the Mumbai Express, but if I do, I have very few face teams to work with. Might go for one of those academy graduates and pair them up with Ravishing Ray as I really don’t have a plan for him either.
 
I am also considering turning Sensational Sarja to a face. My top workers seem to have a preference for villainous roles and Sarja seems able to play both. Thinking of maybe booking a Kishan vs. Sarja feuds where by the end, Kishan is able to “save” Sarja from his evil ways and bring him back to the light. He can then keep other top heels hot and over while they cicle feuds with Kishan. 

The biggest surprise I believe I have had while booking is Loki/Quake. Dude consistently gets good grades. He’s also the most menacing worker I have on the roster which makes me want to book him on a monster run. I’ve been slightly peeved that he was prioritizing VWA which means he was missing all my PPVs but for some reason he is now prioritizing DSPW (they are ahead of us in Power ranking, is this solely prestige based?) so maybe 2023 will be his year. 

 I am glad I started out a new save though, because I am *still* bleeding money monthly and I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to make that million. Certainly it isn’t helping the industry in India is very weak and falling and the economy is weak and falling. Has been falling all year so far. I’ve managed to slug it out and am still slowly gaining pop  ( 16 » 21 ,  4 » 8 , 3 » 7 and 4 » 8 ) but I’m sure this is slowing down the progress. Here’s hoping this trend turns around sometime soon and that I’ll manage to break even before I bust the piggy bank or before new owner goals are issued! 

Sorry for the long, long post, but if you’re still reading this, hope you liked it! 

 

Edited August 18 by Veenetor

[Kjarvs]

Approaching July 2024 in my DSPW save, about to hit Superstar Mania IV, I've been having an absolute ball with this promotion. Launched my own commercial broadcaster using the nest egg I started the game with and I'm up to 40 popularity in Northern India and expanding slowly into Europe thanks to twice yearly "DSPW Road Trip" shows held on the continent and a talent sharing "Indo-European Alliance" with UEW and Kalu Owusu's new Netherlands-based promotion ELPF. Making a solid 5 figure sum every month and starting to think about when I'm going to launch a weekly TV show, possibly after Superstar Mania V next year, that being said...

 

The six match main card for Superstar Mania IV is as follows:

DSPW World Heavyweight Title  - Ben Markram (C) vs Parvin Kishan vs Prince Rupy

Prince Rupy won the belt at All-Indian Festival 2022 and reigned for over 700 days before Ben Markram "cashed in" his Sultan's Gift (Mitb) for a shock victory. Parvin Kishan won the 2024 Survival of the Fittest tournament to earn his shot at the world title, so the main event has become a triple threat. I put the belt on Markram to reward his crazy good match ratings, but he hasn't gained the popularity I need from a World Champion, so the belt will be going to Kishan for his first reign and a programme with Rupy & the Royal Court over the summer. 

DSPW Indian Title - Magnificent Mukesh (C) vs Sensational Sarja

Magnificent Mukesh came through the academy in late 2023 and has received a massive push due to his high SQ & Charisma, winning the "Future Star" battle royal in his first match, the Indian Title (from Bollywood Bhat) in his second match and being installed as Prince Rupy's heir in the Royal Court. He's closing in on Sarja's record reign length, so "the sensational one" (now a face) has thrown down the challenge to defend his record. Complicating matters is Bollywood Bhat, who has become increasingly obsessed with winning back the Indian title after repeated failed attempts. His slow burn heel turn has been really fun to book, but I haven't decided yet when best to pull the trigger.

DSPW Tag Team Titles - Brecher & Grimm (c) vs The Mumbai Express

The Tag Division in DSPW has been a reliable source of excellent matches and I've "hot-shotted" the belt a fair amount. Big Time Inc, Ali Brothers, The Wild Springboks, Generation One (Kishan & Sarja) and Brecher & Grimm have all had reigns with it, but Mumbai Express have never captured the gold. As the last of the established teams from the initial DSPW roster not to have won the tag titles, Mumbai Express are determined to get the monkey off their back and finally win the gold from the experienced Germans, now in their 3rd reign and on the verge of breaking he record for combined days as champions.

Brother vs Brother - Akshay Ali vs Sanjay Ali

A match that's been building for an entire calendar year, The Witch Doctor and his "Cult of Doom" stable defeated the Ali Brothers at Superstar Mania III in a "Souls vs Dreams" match, where The Witch Doctor promised the Ali Brothers anything they wanted had they have won. Akshay Ali fell under the Witch Doctor's spell, but Sanjay resisted the hypnosis and has fought his way through the entire Cult to earn a one on one match with his brother, to try and "bring him home". 

General Managership vs DSPW Career - Boomer Singh vs Kalu Owusu

Boomer Singh (my player character) has been general manager of DSPW since the start, but turned heel late last year to a Xenophobic character who only wants to push the home-grown Indian Talent. Kalu Owusu, as a respected veteran and locker room leader within DSPW has taken exception to this and has put his DSPW career on the line in order to goad Boomer into potentially losing the general managership. (Note: I tried to talk Kashmir Singh out of retirement to play the Owusu's role in this storyline but he wasn't having any of it)

IEA Intercontinental Title Six Pack Challenge - Buffalo Bill Rothschild vs Konrad Makinen (c) vs Murugan vs The Witch Doctor vs Thor vs Walker van Cleer

The "Main Title" of the Indo-European Alliance (DSPW, UEW & ELPF), the IEA Intercontinental Title has sparked a division full of great matches, even despite the lack of overness that stars like Makinen & Van Cleer have in India, relative to the DSPW guys. This match is here largely as a "get the best workers on the card so they can have a banger" match, but it should be a fun way to give my upper-midcarders a run out and size them up for a programme with Kishan or Rupy towards the end of the year.

 

Thanks for reading if you got this far, hopefully it gives you some inspiration for DSPW saves of your own. I've ordinarily booked larger C-verse companies, specifically 21CW or TCW but I've I often feel like I'm running out of fresh match-ups by the 6 month point in a save. Keeping a large-ish roster of around 40 guys and focussing on developing my home-grown stars and planning long-term story arcs has been a joy and I'd thoroughly recommend giving DSPW a spin if you're looking for something new in the C-verse

[TakumiIrohamarvelous]

Really like DSPW so far the roster is pretty set but there's enough moves you can make to keep the game fresh. I immediately opened two training schools and set up a broadcaster to help solidify the future of the company. I also thought it'd be nice to bring in The Force as a big foreign babyface who can help bump ratings while I get the other homegrown babyfaces to main event level.

 

First big idea is definitely to turn Kolkata heel, he can do babyface but a plodding tall guy will always scream heel to me