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So You Want To/Be a Booker: Difference between revisions
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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''.
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# 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.
#* A notable example of this being done right is the Honky Tonk Man. He had an [[Elvis Impersonator]] gimmick that was originally supposed to get him over as a face. But the fans hated it and booed him. Rather than keep booking him as a face and trying to force the fans to accept him as such, the [[
# 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.
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