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So you want to book some wrestling matches? Okay; however, you should consider that good wrestling booking is a skill set that is both rare and extremely difficult to implement. [[Vince Russo|More have]] [[Hulk Hogan|failed at it]] [[ECW|than succeeded]]. However, there are some basic rules to consider when working as a booker.
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== Business Ethics ==
# Never let your own ego get in the way of business. This is seemingly the hardest thing for bookers to do, and it is the thing which damages wrestling most of all. [[Vince McMahon]] [[Pride|squandered millions and millions of dollars]] on the [[
# '''Never''' punish wrestlers for [[Real Life]] misdemeanours by depushing, burying, or otherwise harming their [[Kayfabe]] characters. Your wrestlers '''are''' your business. If you damage their credibility through a series of protracted losses, you aren't harming them - you're harming your own business, because you have just told the fans that this wrestler cannot be taken seriously. To harm a wrestler's aura is to harm the business. Be a professional; do what '''actual''' businesses do; have a disciplinary process. Take the wrestler off-television, dock their pay. Have a legally airtight code of conduct that states in black and white what is expected of your employees so they know. Have a set of clearly defined boundaries that you will not allow to be crossed. You know, like a real business. Wrestling needs to leave its carnival days behind it, and march into the modern era.
# Celebrities should be used carefully; never pay more than they can bring, and remember your core business. This is the difference between William Shatner and Bob Barker producing two of the best guest-host gigs of 2009, and countless other "celebs" using the show simply to shill their latest project. It's all in how they relate to the ''wrestling''.
# Wrestlers should be treated well, and should have a solid say about matters relating to their health, jobs and well-being (but ''never'' booking decisions; see Employee Relations, rule #3). Whether or not you should let them unionize is chiefly a political issue that doesn't need to take place here, but still, their health should be your highest priority. A wrestling manager who is disinclined to consider the well-being of his or her workers (they are usually only aligned with them for storyline reasons, not out of true personal loyalty) is like a factory manager uninterested in the maintenance and depreciation value of his or her machinery. If your machines don't work, you can't make your product. Yes, unions are a pain in the ass, but they will help morale, and help keep your product competitive.
# Wrestling leads to horrible injuries as limbs and bodies wear out. Give your wrestlers ample injury time off; let them return to their position on the card when they come back. Creating this kind of a positive working environment is good for the wrestlers’ performances and the fans. See The Golden Rule.
# [[Drugs Are Bad|Steroids and drugs are bad.]] This really cannot be stressed enough in a business where entire locker rooms could probably fail a drug test at any given time. It's gotten so bad that a cursory glance at the list of wrestlers who've died in the last twenty years or so shows that a wrestler who began his career after 1995 has a life expectancy of about '''39'''. Drugs are the single biggest threat to the wrestling business and need to be taken seriously. Anyone caught using is a liability at best, and a danger at worst. People will always want to see steroidal physiques, but superior in-ring action and mic work will compensate. To [[Vince McMahon|the claim that audiences
== The Product ==
# The majority of wrestling should be simple, one-on-one or tag-team matches with no interference; [[Face]] vs. [[Heel]]. This is the basic product you are selling, and it’s what the audience wants. One stipulation can be a good thing -- a steel cage match instead of a regular match can drum up business -- and the capper to a truly well-crafted feud. But when you have a Contract-On-a-Pole, Two Out of Three Falls, lumberjack match contested in a steel cage under a time limit, it gets ridiculous. The more [[Shocking Swerve|swerves]], [[Gimmick Matches|gimmicks]], run-ins, etc. you add to a match, [[Gambit Pileup|the more confusing it becomes]]. A confused audience is a bored audience, and a bored audience does not come back. Therefore, you lose fans, and more than that, you lose money.
# Clearly observe your wrestlers, and make a note of their strengths and weaknesses. Play to your wrestlers’ strengths, and hide their [[Five Moves of Doom|weaknesses]]. Learn who you've got working for you and don't just throw opponents together. This was something that was done particularly well in ECW. Playing to your wrestlers' strengths can be the difference between Malenko vs. Guerrero and Big Show vs. Batista.
# Let the fans' reaction be your guide. The crowd decides who is a face or heel better than any booker. If they cheer a wrestler, he’s a face. If they boo him, he’s a heel. It is almost impossible to make a crowd like a heel (''not'' [[Love to Hate]], there is a difference) or boo a face ([[X-Pac Heat]] nonwithstanding). Bookings should be made according to crowd reactions.
# All belts are equally valid. All belts are important. They are your main [[MacGuffin]] for angles and plots. As a result, a belt is as important as the champ who carries it says it is. Never forget this. Therefore, no wrestler should ever insult a belt; a belt brings characters prestige and respect. Insulting a belt insults your organization. Remember this if you choose to pursue stories where a heel insults a belt; that heel must be publicly destroyed — booked into oblivion — or else you have admitted that the belt (and by extension your company) is worthless.
# All storylines and feuds must be logical; wrestlers must have a simple, clear and easily understood reason to be fighting. The reason must be one over which members of the audience would fight, since there is only so far their [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] can be stretched.
# All inter-character relationships must be logical, and established inter-character relationships must be maintained. If characters are friends, they must stay friends, unless a story event witnessed by fans clearly denotes that the nature of the relationship has changed. Likewise for enemies. Unless there is a plot event that makes wrestlers friends, or turns them enemies, they remain simply indifferent rivals. The [[Heel Face Revolving Door]], in this business, is a disaster. It confuses casual fans and irritates long-time fans.
# Match stipulations should always be honored. If a wrestler or the company can’t keep the stipulation, then it simply shouldn’t be made in the first place. Every match stipulation you ignore insults your audience on a very personal level, and proves your company to be untrustworthy -- as well as to prove those employees involved are liars. People (and therefore fans) resent being lied to. As a result, stipulations should only be broken [[Real Life Writes the Plot|due to exceptional outside circumstances (that is, something happens in the Real World that means the stipulation cannot be honored)]]. There should NEVER, EVER be a broken stipulation otherwise. Clearly demarcated boundaries help sustain your integrity without letting the stipulation ruin the possibility of future business.
# Character relationships exist to further angles. Angles exist to give the fans emotional investment in matches. Matches exist to make the promotion money. Therefore, character relationships should never be ignored, and should always be logical. Illogical relationships and foolish stories drive fans and therefore business, away.
# Heels vs. Faces.
# [[Squash Match|Squash matches]] are perfectly acceptable. Someone has to look at the lights. Be wary of using squash matches too often, though; they're predictable. Use them as the tool they are -– they elevate those wrestlers you want to be main-eventers or mid-carders.
# [[Garbage Wrestler|Hardcore matches]] should be used sparingly. Beyond overplaying a gimmick, hardcore matches can destroy the bodies of those involved; just ask [[Mick Foley]], or look at the gravestones of [[Chris Benoit]] and his wife and son. Another danger is the [[Lensman Arms Race|increasingly dangerous stunts]] people will pull to get reactions out of a desensitized crowd. Use them as a blow-off to a bloody feud and promote the hell out of them so your wrestlers won't feel like they're sacrificing a lot for nothing. More harmless stunts like table bumps or blading can be used more frequently. But unprotected hits to the head and New Jack-esque falls should never, ever be used, fans care about the wrestlers, and watching them get crippled will shock and scare away all but the most <s> bloodthirsty</s> extreme fans.
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# Wrestling and circuses have a lot in common. Some people go to the circus to see the acrobats; some go to see the animal acts; some to see the freakshows; and some for the clowns. Similarly, some people watch wrestling for the high-flyers; some for the technical wrestlers; some for the giants and bodybuilders; some for the talkers; some for the comedy acts; and some for the storylines. Every single wrestler is somebody's favorite. Make sure that somebody gets their money's worth by making them seem as important as possible. Give them ample mic time to get their characters over, and storylines to rope people in. Stories outside the main event may need to be kept simple in the name of efficiency, but never let this be an excuse to neglect them completely.
# In regards to wrestler input into the booking process:
# Related to the above topic, [[Small Name, Big Ego|backstage politickers]] [[wikipedia:Fingerpoke of Doom|are the death of your business]]. Nothing will destroy morale and work ethic like politics backstage. Find out who the politickers are, and then find reasons to fire them. If you cannot fire them for legal reasons, then book them into oblivion; if they have no marquee value, then they have no power over you at all. If the wrestler is a drawing name and they leave you for the competition, fair enough: let them eat your ''opponent'' up from the inside. As the booker, you have personal responsibility for defining how much politics exists. Make it as low as possible, preferably zero. Good locker room morale means wrestlers who are happy to work for you, which lead to better performances, pleased fans, and more money.
# In regards to your non-main-eventers, who are usually the first to be mistreated:
== Public Relations ==
# Don't have wrestlers break [[Kayfabe]] under any circumstances. The same goes for you; don't ever create a storyline based on [[Inspired By|real-life events]] if that story would contradict a previously established narrative. This is for the same reason that halfway through ''[[Blade]]'', Wesley Snipes doesn't stop using his silly rusty voice. It breaks the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] a story needs to work! [[Worked Shoot|Worked shoots]] have almost never made big money. Nobody wants to see it; the casual fans will be horribly confused, and the [[Smark|smarks]], the only guys who would actually be able to follow what is going on, would really rather you drop the nonsense and just put people in the ring anyway. It makes no money, and serves no purpose other than damaging your credibility with the fans. This is wrestling, not [[Mixed Martial Arts|UFC]].
# [[Ruined FOREVER|The Internet Wrestling Community will complain about everything you do.]] [[Fan Dumb|This is acceptable]] and [[GIFT|their complaints are to be largely ignored.]] After all, it is impossible to please everybody, and unless ratings, buyrates, and live attendance plummet then there is no reason to believe you are doing a lousy job. There are a lot of people writing about wrestling in the internet, and each of them has completely different tastes -- the only things they share in common are that they are loud and opinionated. You will piss ''somebody'' off. Accept this.
# If the crowd reacts to a rivalry, it should be milked further. Failure to do so loses fan interest. If the fans are not interested in a rivalry, it must be dropped. Failure to do so will bore fans and lose fan interest, besides the fact that there's nothing fans hate more than being force-fed a rivalry they don't care about week after week. It's generally a cue for changing the channel.
# [[Amazon Brigade|Women can wrestle]], so take advantage of this. Lingerie matches and their ilk insult 51% of the population, which are also 51% of your sales. [[There Are No Girls on the Internet|Don't make the mistake of thinking your demographic is entirely men]]. And remember rule one -- you're here to sell a product to the ''fans''. If you hire good female wrestlers, and then book them like proper wrestlers, the fans will treat them like proper wrestlers. More than that, most fans ''want'' to see good female wrestlers and support them. Sexism and misogyny limits your audience. If you want to throw that money away, you have no business booking matches at all.
# Finally, a booker should cultivate interests outside of wrestling, specifically mainstream interests that have nothing to do with wrestling or other [[Rated "M" for Manly]] pursuits. If you become too obsessive about wrestling, you will be unable to see the forest for the trees, and your booking skills will decline. [[Vince McMahon|You will become convinced that certain actions are completely the right ones to take, simply because you lack the perspective]]. In the same way that you must be ruthlessly honest about your workers' abilities, you must be honest with yourself about your own. Both arrogance and excessive humility lead to errors of judgment. Just try to see the truth (and don't rely on others to provide it; have trusted advisors -- preferably ones with no conflicts of interest regarding storylines -- but always follow your own vision). It is your job to be enthusiastic, but not blinkered, and it's very easy to get lost in the minutiae of a thing. Ultimately, and as with so much in life, everything in moderation.
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[[Category:Be A Booker]]
[[Category:So You Want To]]
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