Post by TIA Promotions on Jul 1, 2022 14:32:17 GMT -5
Booking EFED Wrestling Shows (For Dummies)
Based on youtube videos found here:
youtu.be/EedYaPZsi6Q
youtu.be/sJLctJVKMXU
COMMUNICATION
You want to make sure you communicate with everyone involved in your show. That includes your audience, affiliates, and especially to the talent. You can’t communicate too much. It’s better to be annoying and give too much information then have somebody no-show your card because you failed to explain yourself correctly. When the audience comes to read your results, they might be just coming to see a specific wrestler. If you failed to get that wrestler on the show because of lack of communication, that’s a huge problem. After you booked your talent, follow up with them. Make sure they know where to post their roleplays and when they are due. If there are any changes to the show, make sure your audience, especially your affected talent is informed of the changes. Keep in mind that communication is double important when you are handling top talent. They usually have multiple bookings so make sure that you are posting show information on a regular basis, in the same spot, every time. Make sure that your forums are up to date, your Discord channel isn’t too cluttered, and your Twitter page consistently posts about show updates.
SCHEDULE
When you first talk about doing a show you need to look at a calendar to determine what other events may be happening at the same time. If it's a holiday weeke or there is a major event occurring at the time of your card, you may struggle to get great participation. Scheduling your events to run on the same day of the week will help your handlers consistently have time to produce their RP’s. You may want to consider what days of the week the biggest promotions are running and schedule your shows on a different day. Competing with other feds, is not something that will help your exposure. Once you pick which day of the week your shows will be, make sure you stay consistent and follow through on your word to deliver results on time. Keep your ego out of scheduling and just focus on delivering a constant product.
LENGTH
Look at your card and your lineup and ask yourself if you were a handler, how much of the results would you read? If the answer is not much, you might want to consider shortening your results and focusing on building for the next card. Efedding is free, so the cost to the reader is measured in their time. If you don’t have a huge amount of interesting content in your card, keep it short and simple. If you have a lot of exciting matches, consider intermissions to break up the excitement. If you have a lot of talent that needs to be booked, consider more tag and trio matches. However, booking a battle royale every card is a bad idea. Try to stay away from that unless it is to set up a future storyline.
PROMOTIONS
Everything leading up to the show is promotional content. This can be posters, videos, match graphics, social media posts, podcasts, etc. Promotional content is an effective way of explaining to your audience, what they should expect at your show. It’s a sales pitch and it’s a recap of what’s been going on with your fed. Many handlers will tell you that the little extra promotional content are the things that set apart one fed from another. So you may want to consider hiring one staff member who is responsible for creating and posting promotional content on a regular basis.
PACING
If you have more than eight matches, you have a problem on your hands. Most wrestling shows can only run for two and a half to three hours before your fans start looking at the exit sign. In terms of actual page length for full-length results, we’re talking about 4-5 pages per match. 30-40 pages per card for a house show. Maybe more for a pay-per-view. Even though your fans are probably wrestling fans, they still have a point where they hit match fatigue. Once you’ve been your audience, all they will care about is the winners and losers. So, when you are posting results, jump right the meat of the content. Entrances can add to your word count, so if you’re going to have an entrance on your card, it should have some sort of special importance. Otherwise, just keep entrances on profiles and embedding videos. If your card is light on matches, consider adding non-wrestling segments to fill out the show and space them in between big matches. Changing pace can help the audience recuperate and be ready for more action. However, you don’t want a marathon show. So, if you have 10 matches, consider cutting those segments, or turning matches in squashes with a post-match segment. Your goal is to keep the reader interested enough to read the entire card and not just the finishes. You want them to come back and read again.
OVERBROOKING
Ten matches is too much. If it’s just singles matches, which would be a boring event, that's already 20 guys right there. Odds are that you have a couple tag or trios matches so you're looking at a roster of 25-30 people for one night of wrestling. That’s a lot of roleplays and a lot of matches to write and read. Consider keeping your shows at 8 matches. Allow handlers to take shows off. Offer handlers a chance to be featured in segments rather than in matches. You do not want to create extra work and burn yourself out.
DAY OF THE EVENT
Think about writing your card way in advance of the due date. Little things like assigning matches to match writers and talking to handlers about segments/angles early, can bring a show into focus much earlier than the day of the show. Just like your handlers, you’re going to be up against a deadline. Pre-write your matches. Create a storyboard with matches, segments, and other content, and get your rough draft established early. You do not want to be unprepared or scrambling around the day of the show. Schedule yourself extra time and resources before the day your expect results to be completed. You never know what kind of unpleasant surprises will arise when you’re counting on someone else to get something done, or worse, you have an unexpected personal problem that demands your attention.
Keep in mind, if you scheduled someone on your card, and they posted an RP, they deserve to be featured on your show. The audience expects to see them on the show. If they do not appear, you need to acknowledge why they are missing. For the sake of keeping things organized with multiple match writers, maintaining a google doc is probably the best way to allow multiple people to work on a dynamic document at the same time. But only 1 of you, can post the final card when done.
THE OPENING MATCH
I like to start off the match or the show with an exciting match. In fact, the first match or segment of the card should be the second-best match/seg of the entire show. The opening act sets the tone for the rest of the show.
MATCH NUMBER TWO
Match number two is usually one of your weakest matches of the show. A squash, or a low card qualifier fit in well here. It should drop off from the excitement of the opening match. Allow the audience to catch their breath. In comparison, it should make the opening seem that much more interesting.
MATCH NUMBER THREE
Match number three should be strong. Mix it up and make it a tag or trios match.
MATCH NUMBER FOUR
Match number four can be a bit of a mini-main event. Now is a time to drop in a gimmick match or match with significant storylines. This may be a good time to have a secondary championship match. As an added bonus, let your handlers know that this is a coveted match slot for the work-horses and rising stars of your fed.
INTERMISSION
Time to squeeze in an intermission. Drop in a commercial break. Promote an affiliate. Tease an upcoming pay-per-view. Use this to mark the mid-way point of the card.
MATCH NUMBER FIVE
Match number five doesn’t necessarily have to be a barn burner. Fans are still coming back from the bathroom and can be eased back into the flow. A mid-card qualifying match fits well here. Ideally you want to match up two veteran mid-carders that are on a similar trajectory. Winner gets the juice.
MATCH NUMBER SIX
Match number six should be a candidate for a show stealing match. A tag or trios match fits well at this time.
MATCH NUMBER SEVEN
Match number six is a good opportunity to debut a new wrestler. A debut can pull in a lot of new viewers and if you slot them in the bottom of the card, they aren’t likely to read the entire results. There probably isn’t much of a feud for this match, but the excitement of the unknown is often enough to keep the attention of the reader. The grizzled veterans won’t like that more tenured wrestlers are featured in this spot, but the change of pace should set up excitement for the main event. Running your main event right after a banger of a match can ruin the main event. Putting a new, mysterious, or recently changed wrestling in at number seven can work really well.
THE MAIN EVENT
You most excited match should be the main event. It’s the reason people are coming to watch the show. It’s supposed to keep the audience around until the end. And the end result needs to be both important and unpredictable. It’s what the audience should remember about the show after they walk away from it. If it’s a lopsided matchup, consider some post-match antics so that the crowd isn’t sent how without an anti-climactic finish.
THE AFTERMATH
When the results are in and they are posted, it’s important to put the entire event into perspective. It’s the culmination of hundreds of hours of work and is only a chapter of your fed’s story. It should serve as a reminder of why you run this fed and why you got into this hobby to begin with. An efed card is a love letter to wrestling entertainment. It won’t make you any money, but it should make you feel something real. If your audience remembers one thing from the card, your event is a success. Try to give them that one nugget of fed history each card. Even though it’s a ton of work and you may feel unappreciated, when you look back on the final product, you’re going to be proud of it and will have real nostalgic feelings about the entire experience. Let’s not stress about the small stuff. Delay the card as long as you need to. Just get it right. Quality is the most important part of the recipe. There are lots of people looking forward to the posting of the card. You’re doing something that is brining joy into the lives of others. Just keep in mind, every card will not go perfectly, somebody will probably take offense to something that happened, nothing will go exactly like you wanted. You just have to make the best of every situation. Get feedback. Take advice. Collaborate with other writers. And ask for help. This hobby is what you make it. Keep up the good work.
Based on youtube videos found here:
youtu.be/EedYaPZsi6Q
youtu.be/sJLctJVKMXU
COMMUNICATION
You want to make sure you communicate with everyone involved in your show. That includes your audience, affiliates, and especially to the talent. You can’t communicate too much. It’s better to be annoying and give too much information then have somebody no-show your card because you failed to explain yourself correctly. When the audience comes to read your results, they might be just coming to see a specific wrestler. If you failed to get that wrestler on the show because of lack of communication, that’s a huge problem. After you booked your talent, follow up with them. Make sure they know where to post their roleplays and when they are due. If there are any changes to the show, make sure your audience, especially your affected talent is informed of the changes. Keep in mind that communication is double important when you are handling top talent. They usually have multiple bookings so make sure that you are posting show information on a regular basis, in the same spot, every time. Make sure that your forums are up to date, your Discord channel isn’t too cluttered, and your Twitter page consistently posts about show updates.
SCHEDULE
When you first talk about doing a show you need to look at a calendar to determine what other events may be happening at the same time. If it's a holiday weeke or there is a major event occurring at the time of your card, you may struggle to get great participation. Scheduling your events to run on the same day of the week will help your handlers consistently have time to produce their RP’s. You may want to consider what days of the week the biggest promotions are running and schedule your shows on a different day. Competing with other feds, is not something that will help your exposure. Once you pick which day of the week your shows will be, make sure you stay consistent and follow through on your word to deliver results on time. Keep your ego out of scheduling and just focus on delivering a constant product.
LENGTH
Look at your card and your lineup and ask yourself if you were a handler, how much of the results would you read? If the answer is not much, you might want to consider shortening your results and focusing on building for the next card. Efedding is free, so the cost to the reader is measured in their time. If you don’t have a huge amount of interesting content in your card, keep it short and simple. If you have a lot of exciting matches, consider intermissions to break up the excitement. If you have a lot of talent that needs to be booked, consider more tag and trio matches. However, booking a battle royale every card is a bad idea. Try to stay away from that unless it is to set up a future storyline.
PROMOTIONS
Everything leading up to the show is promotional content. This can be posters, videos, match graphics, social media posts, podcasts, etc. Promotional content is an effective way of explaining to your audience, what they should expect at your show. It’s a sales pitch and it’s a recap of what’s been going on with your fed. Many handlers will tell you that the little extra promotional content are the things that set apart one fed from another. So you may want to consider hiring one staff member who is responsible for creating and posting promotional content on a regular basis.
PACING
If you have more than eight matches, you have a problem on your hands. Most wrestling shows can only run for two and a half to three hours before your fans start looking at the exit sign. In terms of actual page length for full-length results, we’re talking about 4-5 pages per match. 30-40 pages per card for a house show. Maybe more for a pay-per-view. Even though your fans are probably wrestling fans, they still have a point where they hit match fatigue. Once you’ve been your audience, all they will care about is the winners and losers. So, when you are posting results, jump right the meat of the content. Entrances can add to your word count, so if you’re going to have an entrance on your card, it should have some sort of special importance. Otherwise, just keep entrances on profiles and embedding videos. If your card is light on matches, consider adding non-wrestling segments to fill out the show and space them in between big matches. Changing pace can help the audience recuperate and be ready for more action. However, you don’t want a marathon show. So, if you have 10 matches, consider cutting those segments, or turning matches in squashes with a post-match segment. Your goal is to keep the reader interested enough to read the entire card and not just the finishes. You want them to come back and read again.
OVERBROOKING
Ten matches is too much. If it’s just singles matches, which would be a boring event, that's already 20 guys right there. Odds are that you have a couple tag or trios matches so you're looking at a roster of 25-30 people for one night of wrestling. That’s a lot of roleplays and a lot of matches to write and read. Consider keeping your shows at 8 matches. Allow handlers to take shows off. Offer handlers a chance to be featured in segments rather than in matches. You do not want to create extra work and burn yourself out.
DAY OF THE EVENT
Think about writing your card way in advance of the due date. Little things like assigning matches to match writers and talking to handlers about segments/angles early, can bring a show into focus much earlier than the day of the show. Just like your handlers, you’re going to be up against a deadline. Pre-write your matches. Create a storyboard with matches, segments, and other content, and get your rough draft established early. You do not want to be unprepared or scrambling around the day of the show. Schedule yourself extra time and resources before the day your expect results to be completed. You never know what kind of unpleasant surprises will arise when you’re counting on someone else to get something done, or worse, you have an unexpected personal problem that demands your attention.
Keep in mind, if you scheduled someone on your card, and they posted an RP, they deserve to be featured on your show. The audience expects to see them on the show. If they do not appear, you need to acknowledge why they are missing. For the sake of keeping things organized with multiple match writers, maintaining a google doc is probably the best way to allow multiple people to work on a dynamic document at the same time. But only 1 of you, can post the final card when done.
THE OPENING MATCH
I like to start off the match or the show with an exciting match. In fact, the first match or segment of the card should be the second-best match/seg of the entire show. The opening act sets the tone for the rest of the show.
MATCH NUMBER TWO
Match number two is usually one of your weakest matches of the show. A squash, or a low card qualifier fit in well here. It should drop off from the excitement of the opening match. Allow the audience to catch their breath. In comparison, it should make the opening seem that much more interesting.
MATCH NUMBER THREE
Match number three should be strong. Mix it up and make it a tag or trios match.
MATCH NUMBER FOUR
Match number four can be a bit of a mini-main event. Now is a time to drop in a gimmick match or match with significant storylines. This may be a good time to have a secondary championship match. As an added bonus, let your handlers know that this is a coveted match slot for the work-horses and rising stars of your fed.
INTERMISSION
Time to squeeze in an intermission. Drop in a commercial break. Promote an affiliate. Tease an upcoming pay-per-view. Use this to mark the mid-way point of the card.
MATCH NUMBER FIVE
Match number five doesn’t necessarily have to be a barn burner. Fans are still coming back from the bathroom and can be eased back into the flow. A mid-card qualifying match fits well here. Ideally you want to match up two veteran mid-carders that are on a similar trajectory. Winner gets the juice.
MATCH NUMBER SIX
Match number six should be a candidate for a show stealing match. A tag or trios match fits well at this time.
MATCH NUMBER SEVEN
Match number six is a good opportunity to debut a new wrestler. A debut can pull in a lot of new viewers and if you slot them in the bottom of the card, they aren’t likely to read the entire results. There probably isn’t much of a feud for this match, but the excitement of the unknown is often enough to keep the attention of the reader. The grizzled veterans won’t like that more tenured wrestlers are featured in this spot, but the change of pace should set up excitement for the main event. Running your main event right after a banger of a match can ruin the main event. Putting a new, mysterious, or recently changed wrestling in at number seven can work really well.
THE MAIN EVENT
You most excited match should be the main event. It’s the reason people are coming to watch the show. It’s supposed to keep the audience around until the end. And the end result needs to be both important and unpredictable. It’s what the audience should remember about the show after they walk away from it. If it’s a lopsided matchup, consider some post-match antics so that the crowd isn’t sent how without an anti-climactic finish.
THE AFTERMATH
When the results are in and they are posted, it’s important to put the entire event into perspective. It’s the culmination of hundreds of hours of work and is only a chapter of your fed’s story. It should serve as a reminder of why you run this fed and why you got into this hobby to begin with. An efed card is a love letter to wrestling entertainment. It won’t make you any money, but it should make you feel something real. If your audience remembers one thing from the card, your event is a success. Try to give them that one nugget of fed history each card. Even though it’s a ton of work and you may feel unappreciated, when you look back on the final product, you’re going to be proud of it and will have real nostalgic feelings about the entire experience. Let’s not stress about the small stuff. Delay the card as long as you need to. Just get it right. Quality is the most important part of the recipe. There are lots of people looking forward to the posting of the card. You’re doing something that is brining joy into the lives of others. Just keep in mind, every card will not go perfectly, somebody will probably take offense to something that happened, nothing will go exactly like you wanted. You just have to make the best of every situation. Get feedback. Take advice. Collaborate with other writers. And ask for help. This hobby is what you make it. Keep up the good work.