Promoting TBA

[Rick Savant]

Not sure if I'm just doing it wrong, but I'm unable to prebook matches that have a mystery competitor in them.

It would be nice to book "X/Y vs Z/Mystery partner", or "X will be in action!" but the biggest thing is if you're having a Royal Rumble type match.  Naming all thirty competitors is both time consuming and unrealistic. The uncertainty of who might come out is frequently a part of the appeal.

I could just PRETEND I didn't promote that X outsider will be making a surprise appearance, but there can be edge cases where I don't hire them until right before the show, and that would mean that I couldn't promote my other six main events who will be in the battle royal. Obviously with thirty people promoted for a match, the likelyhood that plans have to change because of injury, or no show, etc, mean my shows with a Battle Royal are unwarrentedly prone to penalty. The Royal Rumble wouldn't be received poorly because JD McDonagh wasn't in the match as advertised.

If the concern is that it's game-able, in that it would be tempting to just always book Main Eventer vs TBA over and over to get your attendance up, there could be some kind of penalty for TBA, so it doesn't just count for 0 but is a negative. Ideally a static negative, so Main Eventer vs TBA has a negligible promotional effect, but a six way match of Main Eventers with 1 TBA would only be dinged by 1/6th or whatever.
 

[thadian]

I favor booking TBA for Rumble style matches and other Multi-Man matches of the sort, such as War Games.

I believe the best way to handle TBA is this:

1. TBA's hype/popularity/etv will correlate to that of the new signing if making their debut.

2. Fans will "expect" that TBA will have equal or greater importance/popularity as the Named Participant. If this is true, a small bump for the surprise. If false, a small penalty for disappointing the fans. This means there is a risk of debuting someone new.

3. A worker can be set to TBA in the Storyline section - if a worker is set to TBA, they remain such until "Revealed" during a Match or Angle.

4. The "reveal" gives them a small bump prior to calculating - this should help Tazz debut against Angle at WrestleMania be a success, without also making Evil Uno debuting as TBA against Roman Reigns be a success.

So - when the reveal happens, if you're Roman Reigns and the TBA (mystery opponent or royal rumble entrant, etc) is Evil Uno, the penalty punishes you. But if you are Solo Sikoa against Cody and Roman Reigns is the TBA, that will be a hot success.

Edited August 17 by thadian

[Rick Savant]

Obviously, a thought through, complex interaction would be awesome. But I'd totally settle for a quick and dirty "no effect" option so I can roleplay.

[cps_1908]

On 8/17/2024 at 6:19 PM, Rick Savant said:

Not sure if I'm just doing it wrong, but I'm unable to prebook matches that have a mystery competitor in them.

It would be nice to book "X/Y vs Z/Mystery partner", or "X will be in action!" but the biggest thing is if you're having a Royal Rumble type match.  Naming all thirty competitors is both time consuming and unrealistic. The uncertainty of who might come out is frequently a part of the appeal.

I could just PRETEND I didn't promote that X outsider will be making a surprise appearance, but there can be edge cases where I don't hire them until right before the show, and that would mean that I couldn't promote my other six main events who will be in the battle royal. Obviously with thirty people promoted for a match, the likelyhood that plans have to change because of injury, or no show, etc, mean my shows with a Battle Royal are unwarrentedly prone to penalty. The Royal Rumble wouldn't be received poorly because JD McDonagh wasn't in the match as advertised.

If the concern is that it's game-able, in that it would be tempting to just always book Main Eventer vs TBA over and over to get your attendance up, there could be some kind of penalty for TBA, so it doesn't just count for 0 but is a negative. Ideally a static negative, so Main Eventer vs TBA has a negligible promotional effect, but a six way match of Main Eventers with 1 TBA would only be dinged by 1/6th or whatever.
 

I posted a similar idea here and @benjirino posted a good workaround in reply.  Would still prefer something added but its a very good workaround - 

 

Edited August 19 by cps_1908