Booking And Running Shows

Booking Overview
Every show is divided into segments which can either be matches or angles; 'angles' is actually a catch-all term as it covers everything that isn't a match, including interviews, video packages, special intros, etc. Segments assigned to the pre- and post-show can be useful for testing out workers, developing them, or just to give people ring time, but have no bearing on the show's rating.

When booking matches, your strategy will depend on what the purpose of the match is. If it's your main event then you're generally going to want to try and book in a way that will maximize the rating because this will have the biggest impact on your show's overall rating. This will depend on your product, but you're almost certainly going to be wanting to use your Major Stars and Stars in these matches and book in a way that either maximizes their skills or avoids as many major penalties as you can.

It's important to note that you don't need to book similar styles together. There's no advantage to booking brawlers against brawlers or technicians vs technicians. You do need to pay attention to the basics of match construction though: for example, you want want least one person with enough Psychology to keep the match together, you don't want to put guys with low stamina in long matches, etc.

For angles, you are looking to have people rated on skills that play to each worker's strengths. As the game doesn't 'know' what is happening in angles (it is after all just text) there's no real need for the angle to make sense, although obviously that is nice for immersion purposes. It is a good rule of thumb to follow real world booking conventions, so the bigger the star, the more angles and more time they'll get. Note that angle placement is not particularly important - whether an angle opens the show or is midway through it is irrelevant from the point of view of ratings.

Placement Mode
When on the booking screen, Placement Mode allows you to quickly re-order your segments by using Move Here and Swap commands. You can only do this to segments that have not yet been run, and you must have at least two segments available for it to be useful.

When in Placement Mode, as it says on-screen, you right-click a segment to highlight it and can then move or swap it by clicking on the Move Here or Swap text next to the segment you have in mind.

You can toggle Placement Mode via the button in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, if you're not in the mode you can quickly activate it by right-clicking on a (valid) segment name. Likewise, you can quickly deactivate it by right-clicking on the segment that is currently highlighted.

Cost Per Live Show
Whenever a company runs a live show (whether that be an event, TV show, or house show) it must pay a standard amount to cover general expenses; that is, the cost of physically putting on the event. This is separate to anything in the Production section and does not include the costs mentioned in the Show Lengths section of this handbook.

The cost depends entirely on the size of the company. Running from Insignificant up to Titanic, the cost per live show is: $100, $250, $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000. For house shows, due to their simplicity, you only pay 20% of the normal value.

This cost is automatically taken off when you run a show, you do not have to do anything nor can you avoid it.

Segment Ratings
The rating that each segment gets shows how good it way; it is a key value as not only will it be used in calculating the show's overall rating, but it is also used when calculating the effects on each worker's popularity and other stats.

There are a huge number of factors that impact a segment's rating (potentially over a hundred in some cases), but there are two that are especially important as they form the 'base' rating; the popularity of each worker involved and their performance. The popularity of the worker is from the region the show is being held in. His performance is based on his talents; in a match this will be his in-ring skills, while in an angle this is more likely to be his charisma, microphone skills, etc. How the popularity and performance are combined depends on your company's product; some products 'weigh' popularity as being much more important than performance, some do the opposite.

Almost every segment will incur a variety of bonuses and penalties; the Road Agent Report and Dirt Sheet (if enabled via the options menu) will help you find out what specific bonuses and penalties were applied.

When looking at your ratings, it is important to remember that they should be taken in respect to your company's popularity and size; a 60 would be a woeful score for a main event in a large company running in a region in which they had 90 popularity, but would be fantastic for a small-sized company in a region with 10 popularity!

The Order Shows Run In
Each night the shows run in an order based on the company that is running them; each company runs all their shows, then it moves to the next company in the sequence.

The order is determined by going in descending order of size, then prestige, then money. i.e. all the Titanic companies go first, and if there's more than one then the one with the most prestige goes first, and if they have the same prestige then money is used. Then all the Large companies go, and so forth. If they have the same size, prestige and money then they go in alphabetical order.

The advantage of going first is primarily that you get access to any shared workers before your competitors do.

Company Popularity Growth
The factors that affect a company's popularity growth (or decline) are the final rating of the show, the number of people watching (see Popularity Growth And Viewers below), the ticket price (cheap / free tickets boost popularity gains), whether the product is 'trend', and the level of the industry (if it's particularly high or low). Audience boredom or a recent size fall can block positive growth.

As a rule of thumb, you are looking at the final rating of the show vs. the company's popularity in that region. If the rating is 6 points or more higher than the current popularity level, the company will gain popularity there (with the higher the difference, the greater the gain). If the final rating is less or equal to the popularity level then the company will lose popularity, and again the greater the difference, the higher the value.

There are exceptions to this. If the popularity level is 80 or above then the company will usually only lose popularity if they score below 80, not the actual popularity level (this stops giant companies being penalized despite running objectively good shows). In addition, for shows that are Lesser, Throwaway, or Tour, it is harder to gain or lose popularity as the target levels are widened (i.e. for a Throwaway show you would need to score far more than just '6 above' to trigger a popularity gain.

Worker Popularity Growth
The factors that affect a worker's popularity changes are the ratings of the segments they are involved in, their booking (i.e. whether they won or lost, in what context, the match type, etc), the level of the show, the number of people watching (see Popularity Growth And Viewers below), their momentum, and the company size. For non-wrestlers such as managers, they can be rated on their relevant skills to calculate a performance value and that is used as well (or instead, depending on context) as segment ratings.

A worker's potential for popularity growth is limited by the size of the company that they are in. For example, if the company is barely pulling in a crowd 100 people then that will severely limit how high a worker's popularity can rise in that environment; they're certainly not going to become a world renowned superstar no matter how hard they are pushed.

Workers can automatically get some degree of popularity growth just for being on a big stage. The way this works is that a minimum popularity level is created by looking at the size of the company and the number of people watching. If the worker's popularity level is less than this, they will continue to get a small popularity boost ever time they appear until they reach the minimum level. This simulates a nobody 'getting a rub' just by being on a bigger stage than usual.

Popularity Growth And Viewers
All popularity growth is amplified if lots of people are watching in that region. By 'people watching,' this is the total number of viewers regardless of method; so this is the sum of the people in the arena and anyone watching via any type of broadcaster. If less than 5000 people in a region are watching then there is no extra boost. Over 5000 then there is a slight boost, which gets greater and greater as the number of watchers increase. THe maximum boost is to have 1,000,000 or more watchers in a region.

Audience Boredom
Audience boredom is a hidden stat that sees the fan base lose interest if the company is just maintaining the status quo.

If a big show (an event with Regular intent or an 'A' TV show) is held that is either located or broadcast within the company's home area and not a single region in the company's home area experiences a popularity change then the hidden boredom counter goes up by one (up to a maximum of ten). If any of those regions experience a gain then the counter goes down by one. If there are no gains but some losses then the counter neither goes up nor down. Regions with 85 or more popularity are considered special cases - because popularity is so high, as long as they don't lose popularity that counts as a gain for the purposes of this calculation.

If the hidden boredom counter gets too high, the audience is said to be bored and negative effects happen; merchandise sales, sponsorship, and attendances will start to decline. The higher the boredom level, the greater the decline.

This system therefore simulates the audience losing interest when a company is just going through the motions and maintaining the status quo.

Pre-Booking
You can pre-book matches or angles in advance for any event or TV show. The effects can be turned on or off via your Preferences. Note that if you have it turned on and have multiple shows on the same night, it is only the pre-booking of the most important of those shows that affects your attendance.

If turned on, your attendance is reduced if you do not pre-book enough attractive segments to entice the audience. The game will look at the Perception levels of the workers you have booked - Major Stars contribute a large number of points, Stars slightly less, and Well Known just a few points ( a worker booked in multiple segments only contributes once, and only on-screen workers are eligible). These are added up and compared to a minimum threshold. The further below the threshold you are, the bigger the penalty. Events have a higher threshold than TV shows. For TV shows and weekly events, you must book segments at least 1 day in advance for them to count, for all other situations it's one week or more. You never have to pre-book for Lesser, Tour, Throwaway, or 'B' shows because the audience expectation levels are already low. If you have Bonuses turned on then, assuming you are not getting any penalties, your attendance can gain a boost if you provide extremely attractive matches. If Bonuses are off then your attendance can never go up as a result of pre-booking: this is because the attendance figure is already based on the assumption that you're booking your strongest card. It is recommend you do not turn bonuses on in a multiplayer game unless everyone is using it, otherwise some players are handicapped.

If you pre-book a segment and then fail to deliver it, the fans can be annoyed and this may result in a penalty to your final show grade (the more star power, the bigger the penalty). This does not apply if pre-booking is turned off.

If turned off, the pre-booking section becomes purely an organizational tool; it means that you don't have to remember what you had planned and also allows for quicker booking of events ( as you can add your segment to the booking sheet with a few clicks). It does not impact attendance and you are not penalized if you fail to deliver something you pre-booked.

When pre-booking, not all road agent notes will be available to you (notably, you cannot set up crazy bumps and stunt bumps). This is because they are context specific to the show on that night and so much be booked 'live.' Furthermore, when adding notes on winners and losers for matches, this does not mean the workers agree to those terms - they will consider whether they agree to lose on the night.

Please note that you MUST use the special 'Add To Booking Shee' button (in the Pre-Booking Screen) if you want the game to know that it is a pre-booked segment. If you simply create the match or angle yourself it will not be registered as being a pre-booking, even if the details match exactly.

Pre-Booking Expectations
Companies which are Insignificant, Tiny, or Small are exempt from pre-booking penalties due to their small fan bases. They can however still get the attendance boost from pre-booking extremely attractive matches.

Note that companies of these sizes would still be penalized for pre-booking a segment and then not delivering it.

Attendance Levels
Attendance levels are calculated as follows. First, a base attendance is created. This is based entirely on two factors: the company's popularity in the region the show is being held, and the type of shows (even, TV show, house show, tour show). Note that if a company is running a very high volume of shows then the fans will recognize this and attendances will be based on the events being weekly, even if they're not set that way. This figure forms the base for every subsequent calculation.

The base attendance is then modified by many different factors. These are: the presence of a figurehead, the size of the region, the company's current momentum, the show intent, the important level of the event, whether it is a season finale, the effect of the current economy and industry levels, whether a scandal is affecting the company, the number of regional draws on the roster (see next paragraph), audience boredom, whether the company has run many shows in this region in a short space of time (if they're Medium or larger), and the ticket price.

The attendance will fall (by up to 25%) if the company does not have many (or any) regional draws working the show, and can rise (up to 50%) if there are regional draws present. Regional draws are workers whose popularity in the region is close to or greater than the company's. For example, if a company has 25 popularity in New England and the have a worker who has 80 popularity there, they will get a considerable boost in attendance due to his presence. A worker only has to be booked on the show to count, they do not necessarily need to actually wrestle.

Before a show you will be given an estimated popularity. This is the game's 'best guess' as to what you will achieve, based on your available roster. You should note that your actually attendance therefore could be quite different (such as if you choose not to use any of your stars).

Mid-Show Booking
The player may return to the booking sheet at any point during the show. There are no penalties or other drawbacks for doing this. This can be useful for making on-the-fly changes to address injuries or other unexpected events, or to make alterations to workers. Segments that have already been completed cannot be edited or moved.

Final Rating
A show's final grading is primarily made up of two elements: the overall match rating and the overall angle rating. These two values are calculated depending on the Match Focus and Angle Focus of a company's product.

The show's rating is then calculated by combining the two ratings. They are weighted according to the ration of matches to angles that were on the the show. For example, if a show lasts 60 minutes and only 6 minutes were angles, then the show has a 90%-10% match ration; therefor the show's rating is made up of 90% of the overall match rating plus 10% of the overall angle rating. If there were no angles, the entire show's rating is 100% based on the matches. Once the show's rating has been calculated using this method, it can then be altered further by bonuses and penalties

The final rating is what is used when dealing with the impact of the show on the company. The rating is compared to company's popularity in each region that is seeing the show; roughly speaking if the show's rating is 5 greater than the popularity then the company will gain popularity, and if the rating is less than the popularity then it will go down.

Note the pre-show and post-show segments have no impact on a show's rating.

Match Lengths
A match can run for between 1 and 90 minutes, although it must meet the specific match's minimum and maximum limits. You should select a length that is appropriate for the workers (i.e. not putting unfit workers in long matches nor limited talented wrestlers with little time) and execution (i.e. not using a slow-build in a 3 minute match). It may take some trial and error to understand what lengths suit which workers and which situations, but this is a natural part of getting to know how best to use your talent effectively.

There are no explicit penalties for requiring certain matches to go to certain lengths; for example, there is no requirement for your main event to be the longest bout on the card, nor will there be a penalty specifically because your main event was short.

All the bonuses and penalties that you can get from match lengths are entirely contextual to the match itself, not its placement on the card; for example, running a 5 minute main event would incur penalties, but those are the same penalties that you'd get for any 5 minutes match. You always book the length to the workers and execution, not to card position.

It is important to note that short matches automatically cap how high the in-ring action rating can go. The tolerance levels for this depends on the product being used. For example, the product note 'Matches less than 20 minutes have caps on how high of a rating they can achieve' means that a 19 minute will get its in-ring rating capped at 90, a 14 minutes match at 80, etc. Different products can be more or less severe.

Assigning Titles
All active titles are eligible to be assigned to be defended in a match, although their type must correspond to the match type - for example, you cannot put trios titles on the line in a 1 vs 1 bout.

The exception to this rule is that singles titles may be defended in certain one-fall tag team contests. In these situations the title can only change hands if the current champion is pinned and it would only count as a successful defense if the champion's team wins.

A match which is held for a high prestige title may receive a ratings boost of up to an extra 3%. Whether the title is defended or lost does not impact the rating.

Assigning Announcers
You may have up to three people calling the match. If the show is not being broadcast anywhere then you do not have to have any announcers and will not get any bonuses or penalties (even if you choose to have some, although anyone you do choose can still improve their skills and increase their experience level), but having no announcers for a show that is broadcast will always result in a severe penalty (a whopping 20%).

A worker at the announcing desk will contribute both an Announcing score and a Color score (either their Color value or 70% of their Microphone skill if that is higher). If both scores are 20 points or more less than the match rating (at that point in the calculation) and the show is being broadcast then they will receive a penalty (per person who is penalized).

The highest Announcing and Color value contributed are the ones used to decide bonuses and penalties. There is therefore no direct benefit to having two good announcers or two good color commentators as only the highest score of the two would count, although you may wish to have 'extra' people so that they can improve their skills or experience.

Penalties are taken for an Announcing or Color score that is 15 or more below the match rating, bonuses are received for them being 20 or higher above the match rating.

Assigning A Road Agent
The road agent is the worker who is in charge of putting together the segment with the involved workers. A road agent's ability is calculated by taking the average of his or her Psychology and Experience to form an overall rating, then modifying that slightly with regard to their Respect level.

For matches, a poor road agent will result in an automatic penalty to the final match rating, with up to 20% lost for a truly abysmal road agent. A very good road agent can give a slight boost to the rating.

For angles, the road agent has a much smaller role and so although their performance will impact the final rating, it's a significantly smaller amount than in matches.

Giving a road agent too much to do on a single show will lead to them under performing. The amount that a road agent can handle depends on their skill level, but also the content - a long, scripted, epic match adds significantly more to their workload than a short squash match, and angles generally require more effort for them than a match of a similar length. Dark matches require far less effort. The smaller the company, the less stress a road agent is under for each segment. You can find whether a road agent is being overworked via the booking analysis page.

Assigning A Referee
Every match must have a referee to be in charge of the contest. This worker is rated on his or her Refereeing skill, with a score below 40 hurting the rating (the lower the score, the harsher the penalty) and scores over 75 boosting the rating.

If the worker assigned to be referee does not have the referee role enabled then they are considered to be a special guest referee rather than a normal one. In this case, they have no impact on the match rating at all. However, the fans will get turned off (and give a penalty) if more than two matches feature a special guest referee on any one show.

Giving a referee too much to do on a single show will lead to them under performing. The amount that a referee can handle depends on their skill level, but also the content - long matches are more effort than short ones, and dark matches are far less trouble than matches on the main show. The smaller the company, the less stress a referee is under for each match. You can find whether a referee is being overworked via the booking analysis page.

Intensity And Danger Levels
Users who also played previous games in the TEW series may notice that the Match Intensity and Match Danger settings have been removed from the booking process. The reason for this is that the vast majority of players (wisely) just left them at their default levels, and those that did change them generally had calculated the 'perfect' numbers to use. As such, this was not a good feature as it did not require any skill or judgement and just took up screen space for no reason.

Both Intensity and Danger still exist in TEW2020 and have an affect on matches, but they are automatically calculated by the AI, based on the product and the workers in the match, to the ideal level - therefore you are always getting the best possible impact. This also allows the values to be changed by context (such as lowering the intensity to help a worker who is hurt or unable to work at that level) and also to incorporate the pros and cons of products in a more realistic fashion (for example, but having wear and tear be an issue for particularly intensive products).

Not Specifying A Winner
If you do not specify a winner of a match then the decision will be taken by the road agent who is in charge of that segment. His or her decision is based primarily on the popularity of the workers in the match, which is then modified by the other road agent notes (for example, if someone has been set to dominate then they will be more likely to be chosen as the winner), the various worker situations (for example, someone who is declining will be less likely to be chosen), and the road agent's relationship with each competitor.

Note that in title matches the road agent does NOT take into account the reign length or how many defenses have been made thus far; you are not advised to leave title match winners to a road agent's discretion.

Leaving Workers Off Shows
Leaving a worker off a show may result in them complaining and taking a hit to their morale. This can either be because they missed multiple shows in a row or because they were left off an important show. Workers are only eligible to complain about either if they could have been on the show (i.e. they weren't working elsewhere or out hurt) and if the intent of the show was Normal. Every time they miss a valid show a hidden counter keeping track of how many times in a row they have missed is increased by one, resetting to zero once they are used.

Whether a worker complains about being off multiple shows in a row depends on several factors. The main two are their perception level and whether the show is an event or a TV show; the higher their perception, the less you can leave them off, and workers are more prepared to be left off TV than major events. Generally you can leave a Major Star or Star off one or two shows in a row, four or five for someone who is Well Known, and five or six for a Recognizable worker. Unknowns have to be left off at least six successive shows to consider complaining. Their contract intention (for example, Special Attractions and Nostalgia Acts have a far higher tolerance for being left off shows than normal) also affect their thinking. Note that none of this matters whether the person is a wrestler or not.

Whether a worker complains about being left off a specific show depends entirely on their perception level vs the importance level of the event. The bigger the event, the more people will want to be on it and the higher the damage to their morale if they're not. For example, virtually everyone on the roster will feel slighted if they're completely left off a Legendary event or season finale.

There are a couple of further special factors in these decisions. If a worker is earning a comfortable downside they may be more relaxed about missing shows depending on their personality (as they're not losing out a great deal financially and may prefer to sit at home). Workers with strong egos will be particularly annoyed about being left off shows (for either reason).

Borrowing Workers
When booking a show you may 'borrow' a developmental worker by using the Borrow button from the control bar beneath the booking screen.

'Borrowing' in this context means bring them on to the main roster on a special one night deal; as they never leave the developmental territory they are therefore not required to vacate any titles that they hold, nor does their appearance count as a full debut. Once borrowed, they become available to book for all shows the player is holding that night.

Hiring Local Workers
When booking a show you may hire a local worker by using the Hire Local button from the control bar beneath the booking screen.

Local workers are those who happen to be in the nearby area (because they are based in this region and are unemployed) and are potentially interested in working for you on short notice. You may hire them for a special 'one night only' deal. Even workers who would normally be unavailable to your company can be hired this way. Workers hired this way are available for all shows that the player holds that night.

Holding Back
You will be told on-screen if a wrestler is holding back. This means that they are not wrestling to the fullest of their ability.

This can happen for several reasons. For some match aims, holding back is a natural consequence of the fact that the bout isn't designed to be a top quality wrestling match. Also, wrestlers will take into account the intent of the show, so they may put in less effort on a Throwaway show, for example.

It is important to note that different wrestlers will hold back in different ways or amounts. For example, when it comes to tour shows an elite-level wrestler may put in relatively little effort because he knows that he'll still be able to put on an acceptable match for that level of show, while a very poor or inexperience wrestler may actually not hold back at all because they know that they're yet good enough to coast.

Burning Out The Crowd
When you run multiple shows on a single night you are performing them to the same set of fans. No matter how good the shows are, the fans will start to get burned out if you force them to sit through a lot of content; when this happens your segment ratings will start to get penalized for audience apathy.

Generally speaking, fans can comfortably sit through three and a half hours of wrestling (including pre-show and post-show content). Once you star going longer than this then penalties will begin happening. At first these penalties are quite small, but they gradually increase in severity. Going past the five hour mark triggers the wort penalties.

Audience Apathy
Audience apathy towards a worker happens if they go a long time (in terms of the number of shows run) in a company without doing anything interesting. Unimportant workers and non-wrestlers are exempt from this.

By 'interesting,' this means anything that catches the audience's attention: this can include big victories, title wins or defenses, particularly exciting matches, being repackaged, etc. The time since something interesting last happened to a worker is not visible to the player and is reset back to zero whenever something interesting happens.

If the audience becomes apathetic towards a worker then his or her momentum will decline with every show until something interesting does happen or they become exempt (for example, by falling to Unimportant).

Match Descriptions
When viewing a match you will see that the report usually starts with comments about the crowd reaction and quality of wrestling, such as 'didn't have much heat,' 'terrible wrestling,' 'fantastic heat,' etc. These are generated by looking at the crowd reaction value and the in-ring action value, both of which are hidden stats but which are used to calculate the final segment rating. This text is included to give you a visual guide to how well the segment did.

It is important to note that this part of the report is always done in relation to the size of your company. So if you are an Insignificant company, you need far less of a crowd reaction to get 'great heat' than if you were a Titanic company.

Generally speaking, you shouldn't expect too much from the matches lower down on the card - as they (usually) feature workers who either aren't particularly over or aren't very skilled (or both!), it's only natural that they will not have much heat or not feature great action.

Copy And Paste Segment Text
If you want to copy and paste the text from a segment's output (for example, to include in a diary), you can right click the text area to switch to a version that can be highlighted and copied.