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In regards to Realism


LowBlowPodcast

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I saw that there was some talk of realism in the promotions board. I wanted to say that I am on board with some of the "unrealistic" realism that we are doing.

 

I know we have toyed with some three way and four way matches and some fun gimmicks which I think are good.

 

I guess I would just encourage everyone to "use their best judgment" when it comes to realism.

 

Now let me also say no one in any way is stretching the realism here... it is a game and we are having a lot of fun.

 

I wanted to propose this thread as some ideas in relation to realism and see what others thought...

 

For instance... I am REALLY wanting to hold a survivor series and royal rumble. Now I don't know the shelf life of this game if we will make it to 1987 in 2 years and then add on another 8 months to survivor series and then add in 2 more months for a rumble, but would it be too bold to hold one for a special house show? I have recently retired Pat Patterson and Vince in my "creative." Would it be too bold to hold a 20-30 man timed battle royal during this time on a house show?

 

Just wanted to throw it out there and see what people thought... I obviously wouldn't do it on a ppv yet... but rather as a special attraction to see if it would be a "draw" to then make it bigger down the line...

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Honestly, the only thing I'm really, really gonna be rigorous in my game will be about wrestler's retirements (at least those I know of lol) & deaths (for instance, I'm losing Mad Dog Lefebvre on Christmas Eve this year due to a car crash). Other than that, we can definitely stretch it a bit. Look at Patrick with Mid-Atlantic for instance. He held his first Clash of Champions a few weeks ago and the first actual Clash happened in 1988. And if you also look at Kevin with the UWF, I think this happened only around 1986 or 1987 so to me, that's not really a big deal if events aren't historically accurate. (Need I remind you that the Johnny Rougeau Memorial Cup is a pure figment of my imagination! :P )

 

So, personally, if you wanna go ahead with Survivor Series and Royal Rumble in some capacity earlier than historically, have a blast. I don't think anyone will object to that.

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I find that, as we go on in this project, the temptation becomes greater to move things up sooner in the timeline. I find that , as keep going through various combinations of events and matchups, I start looking more to later events for inspiration (after all, I have the Varsity Club as world tag champs in 1985). That being said, if you implement events like you suggested gradually (as you said, starting with house shows), I'm all for putting in future elements like Survivor Series matches etc. After all, that makes them fair game for other promoters to steal :)

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I have said it before in another context... but if I want to read what really happened in 1985, I can. It's already on the Internet. I think it's not unreasonable to argue that breaking from reality is what makes this project fun and interesting.

I am about to embark on a long story line where Giant Baba unites all of the major wrestling talent in Japan under one umbrella and runs shows with mostly clean finishes in 1985. It's a little unrealistic, but hopefully it will be plenty entertaining.

I think that almost all of us are running things with a higher percentage of clean finishes and more complete matches and non-squash match-ups than was common in the mid-1980s... but I think that's realistic in the world where this project is taking place. The break with realism happened whenever the first promoter started doing that. Once it had been done, I'd argue that it would be unrealistic to have a world where other promoters *didn't* follow suit. Pro Wrestling has long been a "monkey see, monkey do" business.

 

Or, as rainmaker puts it "...that makes them fair game for other promoters to steal." I agree!

It's the same with using more modern gimmick matches like 3-way and 4-way matches, the real leap in logic is having somebody do it once. After the seal has been broken, I think it's more realistic to have other promoters do it as well. Same for, say, the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, War Games... In our world the various promoters and promotions mostly co-operate, communicate, and get along better than they did "in the real world" so it makes sense that new and innovative ideas could develop and spread more quickly in that atmosphere.

Also, almost all of us are working with well-put-together rosters that are loaded with talent, so it makes sense to have more big matches and to run more gimmicks (3-ways, 4-ways, battle royals, 6-man tags, ciberneticos...) that let us fit more workers on a card.

Not saying it's *necessary* for anyone to do any of those things. Straight squashes, lots of DQs and DCORs, and TV time limit main event finishes and so on... that's realistic 80s TV booking... but in the 1985 of this project I think that more big matches, more clean finishes and more gimmick matches is fairly realistic, too.

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The one area where I personally am a bit more of a stickler (and it seems everyone in this project takes a similar approach) is in the temperament, skills and development of the individual workers on my roster.

I have Sting, Bam Bam Bigelow, Hashimoto, Chono, Mutoh, Misawa, Kawada, Liger, and many other young future stars on my roster or on loan. Those guys are all among my favourites, and it's tempting to give them all huge pushes *right now* but I think that kind of break from reality would not be fair or reasonable. They are still developing at this time and should be treated as such.

Speaking of Sting, Bigelow, and Mutoh... Those are three big guys who can pull off exciting athletic moves. That's something eye-opening and exciting in the 1980s, and it's also fair and reasonable to write about those guys that way.

And... I have guys like Fujiwara and Dos Caras on my main roster and I think that it would not be unreasonable for me to write that working alongside Fujiwara might help some of my young wrestlers develop better mat work, or that having Dos Caras around every day might help some guys to,pick up a bit of Lucha Libre style... That seems right to me. Wrestlers do sometimes improve and grow by working with, watching, training with, and talking to other highly skilled pro,wrestlers.

On the other hand... I don't think it would be fair or reasonable to sign, say, Plowboy Frasier and Silo Sam off the free agents list and then claim that after being around Mutoh and Bigelow they have formed a team that uses a Double Moonsault as a finisher. That kind of break with realism seems a little too much, in my opinion.

I'm also not going to bring Bruiser Brody or Hulk Hogan in and have him bump around and sell like crazy to get my young lions over. That just isn't how those guys worked. Some guys are generous in the ring, some guys are more selfish, some guys are marks for themselves and/or genuinely hate to lose, some guys can be kind of dicks in the ring or backstage...

For me personally (and from what I can see, for pretty much all of us participating in this project) *that*'is an area where breaking from reality would not be OK.

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Personally, I have pushed the envelope when it comes to TV shows in the 1980's where I use it to push feuds towards a major card. Therefore I have many big time matches on TV which is unrealistic for 1985 but it fits my schedule.

 

I would love to see the Royal Rumble and Survivor Series! Again, we are the promoters and who is to say that we could not have come up with some of these ideas in the 1980's.

 

I also agree with others in that we should be as realistic as possible as to when wrestlers are in their prime versus when they are just getting started or are over the hill. I also think we should stay somewhat realistic as to retirement dates and dates of deaths.

 

We all have our own style and that is what makes this fun and I think we are in a good place right now. I also think we are very honest with each other which helps guide us in the right direction. When something seems off, we talk it out.

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I think theirs always going to be issues with this and its hard to get around, for example, Jerry Lawler is only booked for 16 dates and the Rok N Roll Express even less in April, thats unrealistic that their not wrestling every night.

 

For match types, i think we had matches like the ones Low Bow talks about, but events on TV just weren't built around them, but the Cow Palace did build shows around Rumbles in this time period, Mid Atlantic would have 8 man tags, it just wasn't something you'd have on TV yet, none of these were original ideas, hell Stampede were having ladder matches and Memphis were having empty arena matches, so nothing is out of the question. All I would say is take time to introduce these as so they don't loose there aura.

 

As for TV shows, Houston, WCCW and WWF would be putting on these mega shows before the PPV era but just in the local markets. Kevin if you want to book big shows for television but your feeling as if its not 'real' for the time, then just label them as supershows for that specific market and clip the matches for TV.

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