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Post by bluelantern on Jul 29, 2008 0:15:59 GMT -5
I mostly book on the fly. It's pretty much a loose outline of where I see things going, but dictated by how the matches turn out. I never have much more than an idea of where the next month or so of shows is headed in most situations. Although I have a few things on the backburner that I plan on giving the slow build over several months, those things aren't contingent on the actual match results. They're just fun things to write.
As far as booking the titles, I don't do any "easy win" defenses for the GWF champ anymore. The secondary belts can be won or lost at any time, and storylines can come from it. But I don't want someone with no build coming in and knocking off the GWF champ....again (hasn't happened in a while, but Tauran nearly beat Monolith for the belt in 2122, and that's when I decided to make all of the title bouts count). If a guy wins the big belt and his natural feud isn't up to par as a challenger, then the guy has a new feud....whoever the top contender is at the time. In my mind the champ should always be concerned with defending the belt as a top priority (unless it can play into a killer storyline).
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Post by traviz on Jul 29, 2008 7:51:05 GMT -5
If I have a certain match in mind that I want to do for a pay-per-view(for instance, Endgame vs. Monolith), I may work towards it for as much as 5 cards in advance with Endgame facing another member of Monolith's team or maybe have them meet in a tag match or something.
But for the most part, I book it show-by-show because of the unpredictability of the little red and blue devils. I try and set things up in my head so that no matter who wins a match, I'm not surprised to the point where it will kill one of my storylines.
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Post by TDalton on Jul 29, 2008 9:36:01 GMT -5
Booking with LOW is a little different than COTG. On one hand, if you run a smaller fed, you can plan who leaves and comes in easier since you have all the cards at your disposal. In COTG, you're never really sure who will be in the next set. On the other hand, if you follow the GWF, POW or aCe storylines, a portion of the work is done for you.
Since I'm almost exclusively a LOW player, it does allow for some long-range planning as far as which people debut or leave and when.
While a portion of my booking is done show to show, sometimes there is a "master plan" behind the scenes. Often, if I want to build to a major match on, say card #50, I'll work backwards from that point and set up the building blocks on cards 40-49. There have been times when I knew 6-9 months ahead of time what I wanted my supercard main event to be. It's getting there that can be difficult.
As I've always said, the dice have no regard for your storylines, and will go bad at the most inconvenient time. That's when you need some creative storytelling to keep things going. While I do lay out feuds way in advance, I use that only as a loose guideline and change it on the fly depending on what happens.
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Post by Trent Lawless on Jul 29, 2008 12:26:49 GMT -5
If I have a certain match in mind that I want to do for a pay-per-view(for instance, Endgame vs. Monolith), I may work towards it for as much as 5 cards in advance with Endgame facing another member of Monolith's team or maybe have them meet in a tag match or something. I do this, too, and it worked out great when U.S. Male beat Sly Drury to earn a shot at Monolith (the champ) and then won that match, too. He didn't hold the belt for long, but that was one case where the dice cooperated! |
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Post by jasonjaconetti on Jul 29, 2008 13:29:44 GMT -5
It depends on which league I am booking. Since Cove is my wife's league, we often talk about the booking of each show as we go walking at night. It helps pass the time and it allows me to get that out of the way, because otherwise we would have Austin Aries vs. Nigel McGuinness every freaking week, Nattie Neidhart would beat some one up, and Samoa Joe, Samoa Joe, Samoa Joe! She has her favorites, but she is still pretty new at the idea of building an angle up. It's been fun b/c she is getting into the idea of building heat on a guy.
In the GWF, I have loose ideas and I do a month at a time - I run 3 shows a month- and work from there. Ex: The Old Guard (Sam & Omega) are going after any "evil-doers" they can, but Sam and Terror have had some crazy singles bouts. This allows me team anyone with Terror and we have an instant tag war! Wolf and Star Warrior as a tag team works b/c they are hard to beat, but that sets up the idea that Warrior doesn't trust Wolf. It works pretty good that way. The tag belts have lead to the Gladiators and Titans having huge wars...so you break them into singles on non-title match cards or do 6-Mans with them. The World title comes out once a month, because if it is so important, you wouldn't just show it off all the time. You should hid it from people and only show them once in a while.
As for WWF '85, there are built in feuds and some new ones I am working on. I go a week at a time, but already planning out the PPV. I also believe that you should not give away the whole card rundown before the show, because that allows for last minute changes. That is totally an old school take on bigger cards, and early PPV. I also look at how the card is laid out more carefully here. No tag team bouts back to back. After a big angle match, a lesser match goes on. Now, I book the World title last, not in the middle of the show, but I like to have a big bout early to get the "fans" going.
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Post by wildfire on Jul 29, 2008 15:19:11 GMT -5
That's an interesting bit... how the card is organized.
I do that too... I try to make space out the tag matches, make the angles happen at a logic time, etc, much like Jason described.
Another thing I do (more with my EC fed than anything else) is try to make the opener a good match, thinking to 'hook' the crowd... anyone else do that.
I also do what I think it proper and always have World Title matches last, even if a non-title feud is a 'bigger' match.
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Post by graymar on Jul 29, 2008 15:27:46 GMT -5
I think one of the key aspects for all of us in booking COTG feds...is the random (potentially fatal) effect of the die. One bad roll can potentially ruin a feud/angle/match.
But the art in booking in this style is having the creativity and imagination (that many of you have demonstrated) to (paraphrasing Cornette) take chicken $hit and make chicken salad!
;D
Graymar
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Post by traviz on Jul 29, 2008 20:37:01 GMT -5
I also do what I think it proper and always have World Title matches last, even if a non-title feud is a 'bigger' match. Amen. |
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Post by lwffantrav on Jul 29, 2008 21:12:58 GMT -5
I also do what I think it proper and always have World Title matches last, even if a non-title feud is a 'bigger' match. Amen. I think about the only time I won't is if there is a steel/cosmic cage match scheduled. The reasoning is that the time it would take to construct the cage, etc. But I always try to make sure the GWF/LWF Title is always the main event |
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Post by TDalton on Jul 29, 2008 21:52:47 GMT -5
But the art in booking in this style is having the creativity and imagination (that many of you have demonstrated) to (paraphrasing Cornette) take chicken $hit and make chicken salad! Which is why you should never have the chicken salad sandwich for lunch at Cornette's house. ;D |
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