Post by The BombTrax on Apr 15, 2016 22:37:10 GMT
BOOKING 101
(Side Note: I've been thinking about doing some of these for awhile for my own personal page, and decided I'd give it a try here on the OOC board to give people some perspective from the staff side of things. I also plan on doing some stuff from the handler point of view, like a how-to-guide to efedding, or an efedder's blog.)
Professional Wrestling, at it's core, is both a business and a product. The wrestler themselves are packages, housed under one box or brand, and then sold as a way to generate revenue. The consumer wants to see this package presented in every way possible, thus the business is charged with the task of conceiving of different plots that will force these combinations to happen. These concepts can happen one of two ways.
1) Character(Handler) Suggestion/Direction
2) Staff generated story lines(feuds)
The only way for story lines to move forward is if both Staff and Handler push those events. Not every story is meant to go on forever, or lead to a huge deciding factor. Matter of fact, it's often, not only acceptable, but preferred that there be multiple angles going on at one time involving different characters. There's no reason that a character can't focus on multiple situations involving different individuals, even if not involved with those individuals directly at that time. It is the job of the promoter/booker to put matches together that he thinks the crowd would like to see, and move forward with characters that already have a history, or are just beginning one. It is the job of the character/handler to promote that story inside and outside of the ring, through their own story, from their own unique perspective. These bookings can be met with animosity or fanfare, appreciation or scoff. The thing to remember is that no matter how you decide to approach it as a character, it doesn't change the fact that is the booking for that show.
In E-fedding, ultimately the handler holds all the cards when it comes to how he is represented on the show. Without their participation, the match writers is limited on what he is able to do with that wrestler. After all, who wants to write a match where the person has flaked or no showed? Actions and Reactions are key in a handler's Roleplay, as they set the tone for his attitude going into the match, which can't be determined by the match writer without it.
it is the match writers responsibility to look over the bio's of the characters he is assigned to write for, and try and represent them to the best of their ability. I've heard a lot of people use the term Ring Psychology, but I'm not 100% sure they even know exactly what this means. Coming from a pro-wrestling background, and having been trained by Multiple NWA Titles winner, former WWE Tag Champion, WWE Hall of Famer, and original member of the Four Horsemen, Tully Blanchard, I have a unique perspective into the eye of ring psychology. At it's core, it's crowd management. When performing in the ring, you are telling a story through mannerisms, character development, and maneuvers. Tully used to say that before you put a spot together, or call something in the ring, make sure to think about it before doing it. You have to make it make sense, and you don't want a lot of wasted motion. The maneuvers have to fit the scenario, or it becomes just a jumbling of high spots. You have to have ups and downs, and in between. There's a time and a place for everything. If you do it right, the crowd will react like the pistons in an engine. You start slowly, lifting them up out of the seat, then putting them back down. You have hope spots to dictate the pace of that. When the face works his way back up on the heel, the people come up. When the heel stops the momentum, and puts the face back down, the people sit down. Up, down, up, down, the action getting faster and more desperate, and hitting harder, until finally you take it home. Wrestle Speak for the finish. Obviously skill in the ring along with character presentation factor into this equation quite a bit, but at the end of the day, it can be taught, and can be executed by just about anyone. That's why you can have phenomenal wrestlers and technicians in the ring that people like to see compete, but don't really get behind otherwise, because they have no mic skills or character talent. If Brock Lesnar didn't have Paul Heyman, I don't care how big or good he can be in the ring, people wouldn't connect to him the way they do. Thus he wouldn't have gone very far.
When booking a show you have to consider the style of the wrestlers, and how it will mesh together in a match. You also have to select the match for the occasion. I'll use PAW as an example, specifically Stevie Harris and Press.
Now, usually, tournaments get in the way of story telling from a handler perspective, but can be great from a fed perspective. As the tournament starts out, everyone is fresh, with no winners and losers. Moving to the second round, you have some people that have been eliminated, creating the opportunity to not only have matches already booked with fresh story potentials, but now a crop of wrestlers who have the potential of holding a grudge. By the next round you've repeated the process, but now the playing field of the tournament has narrowed down. Before it was anyone's game, but now you have a select few who have moved forward, while the others are left to build new opportunities, but still have the chance for resentment. By the time you get to the semi's, there are four people left in the tourney, and the majority of the roster has been eliminated. How they were eliminated is important, as that is an opportunity to drive home a story for after the tournament is over. (Example: Stevie and Raike, WICKED#4) By the time you get to the finals, the reaction is two fold. 1) Thank god this tournament is over so we can get down to business. 2) Hype for this showdown is already established by the fact that two guys went from the beginning all the way to this ending. Add in the multiplier of a Championship, and the fact that the results weren't paper thin, but heavy with controversy, and a true established feud is born, with lattice work that goes all the way back to the beginning of the tournament. So what do you do? Book a rematch the very next show? No, you give it a breather. You don't book either man for that first show back to 'normal'. You let them have an on air spot with no physical animosity, which fuels the fire. By the time you get to see them again, things have reached a fever pitch, with most everyone anticipating something special.
But even though all of this was going on, other handlers, their reactions to things, have shaped the story even further. Add in CJ O'Donnell, #1 Contender, stirring things up. Add in Johnny Raike, Titan of the Midway, biding his time, but voicing his concerns. Add in Calvin Harris, who literally made my job easy by just writing himself into the angle. Suddenly, the booking opportunities are endless among any of these guys, because everyone has a place at the table.
That's just one example, as there is a lot of stuff going on around PAW, but it gives you a basic idea of how it works.
Just like in real wrestling, the Super Shows are our PPV's, and a certain amount of planning goes into how they are going to shape up. This is where booking can get tricky, and where the line between real life wrestling and efedding really stands out. In WWE, quite frankly, they know who's going to win, so they can book accordingly. Here, in Efedding, unless you're in an angle fed, which PAW is not, the winners can jump up and surprise you, creating new situations you have to adapt to. It doesn't change the overall design of what needs to be accomplished, as you can still book someone outside of their feud while using segments and promos to keep the feud alive, but that's more up to the handler than it is to staff. You don't mention it, it gets shuffled. You don't do something on card to keep it going, then it fizzles out. It's really that simple.
Card placement is another big thing. We all know that in WWE there's a low card, mid card, and Main Event, with belts that reflect this. Just like we all know that in Efedding, usually the low card/mid card is going to end up being the new recruits, or those that just joined. I think this is the part that gets under a lot of people's skin, as most of us in PAW have been doing this for a long time, and might come from some pretty awesome places where we had long storied careers with our characters. Then we start somewhere fresh, and end up feeling like we've lost our history and have to start over. Now I personally try to dissuade this by heavily promoting the crap out of each and every one of you through the match descriptions, the news and rumors, and even on card through commentary. But at the end of the day, when it comes to booking, yeah, that's probably the way it has to translate. Of coarse, I will throw this out there. What you do on the cards can set the direction of where you're going. The more impact and waves you create, the more likely you'll force a booking. I know plenty of fed people out there who want everything just so, but I'm not one of them. I enjoy chaos, and quite frankly, find it to be better TV than this cookie cutter crap that's being currently shoveled by WWE. Unpredictability and Spontaneity are the spice of life.
With that being said, I'm going to be shuffling some perceptions around about card placement. Most people expect for the opening bout to be the low bracket on the totem pole, but I'm breaking that assumption right now. When I took over booking in real life for a friend of mine who just wanted to focus on the business side of things, I made the opening bout one of my highest spots on the show. It literally sets the tone of the rest of the night. If i had a legend booked for the show, of coarse he was the Main Event. You don't want people leaving in the middle show cause you played your trump card to early, but if you could set a match opener that would really get them going, you could ensure that the matches that might be a little shaky would be received by a crowd that was already partially satisfied, thus making it look better than it probably was. So from now on, these are the hot spots on the show.
MAIN EVENT
OPENING BOUT
SEMI-MAIN
THE BOX OFFICE
Also, if for some reason you aren't booked, don't just decide not to do anything. Send in segments. Interfere in matches. Force people to remember your name.
I include The Box Office in that list because it is becoming a main fixture of the show, and if you are assigned it one week, even if you didn't ask to be, consider that my way of giving your character a bump. A chance to do something different, and advance our character's story/career in PAW not in a wrestling match. If you remember, they didn't put just anyone one on Piper's Pit or the Barber Shop. That was usually reserved to push a major angle or story for a set of individuals. If you see someone involved in The Box Office, and want to interfere, be my guest to get with me to discuss it, as that's a great way to start something up or keep something going.
That's about all the time I have for today. Let me know what you think, and add your on input if you like in the comments below.
PEACE!
(Side Note: I've been thinking about doing some of these for awhile for my own personal page, and decided I'd give it a try here on the OOC board to give people some perspective from the staff side of things. I also plan on doing some stuff from the handler point of view, like a how-to-guide to efedding, or an efedder's blog.)
Professional Wrestling, at it's core, is both a business and a product. The wrestler themselves are packages, housed under one box or brand, and then sold as a way to generate revenue. The consumer wants to see this package presented in every way possible, thus the business is charged with the task of conceiving of different plots that will force these combinations to happen. These concepts can happen one of two ways.
1) Character(Handler) Suggestion/Direction
2) Staff generated story lines(feuds)
The only way for story lines to move forward is if both Staff and Handler push those events. Not every story is meant to go on forever, or lead to a huge deciding factor. Matter of fact, it's often, not only acceptable, but preferred that there be multiple angles going on at one time involving different characters. There's no reason that a character can't focus on multiple situations involving different individuals, even if not involved with those individuals directly at that time. It is the job of the promoter/booker to put matches together that he thinks the crowd would like to see, and move forward with characters that already have a history, or are just beginning one. It is the job of the character/handler to promote that story inside and outside of the ring, through their own story, from their own unique perspective. These bookings can be met with animosity or fanfare, appreciation or scoff. The thing to remember is that no matter how you decide to approach it as a character, it doesn't change the fact that is the booking for that show.
In E-fedding, ultimately the handler holds all the cards when it comes to how he is represented on the show. Without their participation, the match writers is limited on what he is able to do with that wrestler. After all, who wants to write a match where the person has flaked or no showed? Actions and Reactions are key in a handler's Roleplay, as they set the tone for his attitude going into the match, which can't be determined by the match writer without it.
it is the match writers responsibility to look over the bio's of the characters he is assigned to write for, and try and represent them to the best of their ability. I've heard a lot of people use the term Ring Psychology, but I'm not 100% sure they even know exactly what this means. Coming from a pro-wrestling background, and having been trained by Multiple NWA Titles winner, former WWE Tag Champion, WWE Hall of Famer, and original member of the Four Horsemen, Tully Blanchard, I have a unique perspective into the eye of ring psychology. At it's core, it's crowd management. When performing in the ring, you are telling a story through mannerisms, character development, and maneuvers. Tully used to say that before you put a spot together, or call something in the ring, make sure to think about it before doing it. You have to make it make sense, and you don't want a lot of wasted motion. The maneuvers have to fit the scenario, or it becomes just a jumbling of high spots. You have to have ups and downs, and in between. There's a time and a place for everything. If you do it right, the crowd will react like the pistons in an engine. You start slowly, lifting them up out of the seat, then putting them back down. You have hope spots to dictate the pace of that. When the face works his way back up on the heel, the people come up. When the heel stops the momentum, and puts the face back down, the people sit down. Up, down, up, down, the action getting faster and more desperate, and hitting harder, until finally you take it home. Wrestle Speak for the finish. Obviously skill in the ring along with character presentation factor into this equation quite a bit, but at the end of the day, it can be taught, and can be executed by just about anyone. That's why you can have phenomenal wrestlers and technicians in the ring that people like to see compete, but don't really get behind otherwise, because they have no mic skills or character talent. If Brock Lesnar didn't have Paul Heyman, I don't care how big or good he can be in the ring, people wouldn't connect to him the way they do. Thus he wouldn't have gone very far.
When booking a show you have to consider the style of the wrestlers, and how it will mesh together in a match. You also have to select the match for the occasion. I'll use PAW as an example, specifically Stevie Harris and Press.
Now, usually, tournaments get in the way of story telling from a handler perspective, but can be great from a fed perspective. As the tournament starts out, everyone is fresh, with no winners and losers. Moving to the second round, you have some people that have been eliminated, creating the opportunity to not only have matches already booked with fresh story potentials, but now a crop of wrestlers who have the potential of holding a grudge. By the next round you've repeated the process, but now the playing field of the tournament has narrowed down. Before it was anyone's game, but now you have a select few who have moved forward, while the others are left to build new opportunities, but still have the chance for resentment. By the time you get to the semi's, there are four people left in the tourney, and the majority of the roster has been eliminated. How they were eliminated is important, as that is an opportunity to drive home a story for after the tournament is over. (Example: Stevie and Raike, WICKED#4) By the time you get to the finals, the reaction is two fold. 1) Thank god this tournament is over so we can get down to business. 2) Hype for this showdown is already established by the fact that two guys went from the beginning all the way to this ending. Add in the multiplier of a Championship, and the fact that the results weren't paper thin, but heavy with controversy, and a true established feud is born, with lattice work that goes all the way back to the beginning of the tournament. So what do you do? Book a rematch the very next show? No, you give it a breather. You don't book either man for that first show back to 'normal'. You let them have an on air spot with no physical animosity, which fuels the fire. By the time you get to see them again, things have reached a fever pitch, with most everyone anticipating something special.
But even though all of this was going on, other handlers, their reactions to things, have shaped the story even further. Add in CJ O'Donnell, #1 Contender, stirring things up. Add in Johnny Raike, Titan of the Midway, biding his time, but voicing his concerns. Add in Calvin Harris, who literally made my job easy by just writing himself into the angle. Suddenly, the booking opportunities are endless among any of these guys, because everyone has a place at the table.
That's just one example, as there is a lot of stuff going on around PAW, but it gives you a basic idea of how it works.
Just like in real wrestling, the Super Shows are our PPV's, and a certain amount of planning goes into how they are going to shape up. This is where booking can get tricky, and where the line between real life wrestling and efedding really stands out. In WWE, quite frankly, they know who's going to win, so they can book accordingly. Here, in Efedding, unless you're in an angle fed, which PAW is not, the winners can jump up and surprise you, creating new situations you have to adapt to. It doesn't change the overall design of what needs to be accomplished, as you can still book someone outside of their feud while using segments and promos to keep the feud alive, but that's more up to the handler than it is to staff. You don't mention it, it gets shuffled. You don't do something on card to keep it going, then it fizzles out. It's really that simple.
Card placement is another big thing. We all know that in WWE there's a low card, mid card, and Main Event, with belts that reflect this. Just like we all know that in Efedding, usually the low card/mid card is going to end up being the new recruits, or those that just joined. I think this is the part that gets under a lot of people's skin, as most of us in PAW have been doing this for a long time, and might come from some pretty awesome places where we had long storied careers with our characters. Then we start somewhere fresh, and end up feeling like we've lost our history and have to start over. Now I personally try to dissuade this by heavily promoting the crap out of each and every one of you through the match descriptions, the news and rumors, and even on card through commentary. But at the end of the day, when it comes to booking, yeah, that's probably the way it has to translate. Of coarse, I will throw this out there. What you do on the cards can set the direction of where you're going. The more impact and waves you create, the more likely you'll force a booking. I know plenty of fed people out there who want everything just so, but I'm not one of them. I enjoy chaos, and quite frankly, find it to be better TV than this cookie cutter crap that's being currently shoveled by WWE. Unpredictability and Spontaneity are the spice of life.
With that being said, I'm going to be shuffling some perceptions around about card placement. Most people expect for the opening bout to be the low bracket on the totem pole, but I'm breaking that assumption right now. When I took over booking in real life for a friend of mine who just wanted to focus on the business side of things, I made the opening bout one of my highest spots on the show. It literally sets the tone of the rest of the night. If i had a legend booked for the show, of coarse he was the Main Event. You don't want people leaving in the middle show cause you played your trump card to early, but if you could set a match opener that would really get them going, you could ensure that the matches that might be a little shaky would be received by a crowd that was already partially satisfied, thus making it look better than it probably was. So from now on, these are the hot spots on the show.
MAIN EVENT
OPENING BOUT
SEMI-MAIN
THE BOX OFFICE
Also, if for some reason you aren't booked, don't just decide not to do anything. Send in segments. Interfere in matches. Force people to remember your name.
I include The Box Office in that list because it is becoming a main fixture of the show, and if you are assigned it one week, even if you didn't ask to be, consider that my way of giving your character a bump. A chance to do something different, and advance our character's story/career in PAW not in a wrestling match. If you remember, they didn't put just anyone one on Piper's Pit or the Barber Shop. That was usually reserved to push a major angle or story for a set of individuals. If you see someone involved in The Box Office, and want to interfere, be my guest to get with me to discuss it, as that's a great way to start something up or keep something going.
That's about all the time I have for today. Let me know what you think, and add your on input if you like in the comments below.
PEACE!