BTB Discussion Thread

[Time For Change]

MM

It may be better to just give us an update when you have everything locked in and a few shows posted.

People posting here will know. At this point, it's almost like you are copying and pasting this post and just reposting it every couple of weeks.

Mate you are 100% right I hadn't realized I had done it so many times many apologies I won't be doing that again.
Thank you for bringing it to my intention

 

[Tommy Shelby]

MM

It may be better to just give us an update when you have everything locked in and a few shows posted.

People posting here will know. At this point, it's almost like you are copying and pasting this post and just reposting it every couple of weeks.

Rhyno why did I get put in there bro?

 

[White Rhyno]

I don't know, Jay

I think I just quoted too much and you got caught up in the button mashing.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

I don't know, Jay

I think I just quoted too much and you got caught up in the button mashing.

No worries my man.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

Seems some malfunction on the sites behalf

 

[Tommy Shelby]

Don't know why it posted that three times lol

 

[The Gipper]

No worries my man.

 

[Qui-Gon Bren]

Question for those who frequent this BTB space. I have a project I've been thinking on for a couple weeks now and have even started writing for the first time in over a decade. My question is about MATCH WRITING. When you guys are reading a BTB, do you prefer longer more detailed matches? Do you just want a brief summary or important story beats and keep it movin? Situations are situational, but in general what's your preference? How do you read thru a project? Are you more likely to skip a long match and just read the final stretch and winner? Does a short match summary kill the vibe because you need to visualize a full match to get into the story? THE REASON I'm asking, is on WZ back in the day, the active readers/reviewers of that forum put a lot of stock into the matches themselves. You could have an episode full of well written promos, great character work... and the reviews would mostly be about not getting enough from the matches. To get eyeballs on my projects and reviews/conversation around them, I really went in on matches. Mapping them out step by step to the point where I could read them and visualize the entire thing bell to bell. So now my shows were longer with very detailed matches... but those seemed to get LESS interactions (I assume because people weren't reading thru all of that). It was unsustainable as episodes started taking way too much time. Then for the first PPV I went even harder. The project died soon after. So as I dip my toes back into these BTB waters, I wanna get to know you guys more and keep the conversations going on all of our projects. But I gotta know how you like it! Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[Dubb]

Question for those who frequent this BTB space. I have a project I've been thinking on for a couple weeks now and have even started writing for the first time in over a decade. My question is about MATCH WRITING. When you guys are reading a BTB, do you prefer longer more detailed matches? Do you just want a brief summary or important story beats and keep it movin? Situations are situational, but in general what's your preference? How do you read thru a project? Are you more likely to skip a long match and just read the final stretch and winner? Does a short match summary kill the vibe because you need to visualize a full match to get into the story? THE REASON I'm asking, is on WZ back in the day, the active readers/reviewers of that forum put a lot of stock into the matches themselves. You could have an episode full of well written promos, great character work... and the reviews would mostly be about not getting enough from the matches. To get eyeballs on my projects and reviews/conversation around them, I really went in on matches. Mapping them out step by step to the point where I could read them and visualize the entire thing bell to bell. So now my shows were longer with very detailed matches... but those seemed to get LESS interactions (I assume because people weren't reading thru all of that). It was unsustainable as episodes started taking way too much time. Then for the first PPV I went even harder. The project died soon after. So as I dip my toes back into these BTB waters, I wanna get to know you guys more and keep the conversations going on all of our projects. But I gotta know how you like it! Any feedback is appreciated.

Well first and foremost, I'd say write the way you feel comfortable or is most sustainable for your own enjoyment. It may be cliché, but the BTB should be for you first, not for the potential reader. This needs to be something you personally enjoy writing or it won't last long anyway.

Now as for my own personal preference, I can go either way but I'd say I like a summary for any weekly shows when it comes to matches. Maybe if its a "bigger" match happening on a weekly show, it can get more detailed. Then perhaps more detailed matches on the big shows/PPVs. I also tend to like a promo that is either written out or somewhat written out with some dialogue as I find that characters can shine more when there's dialogue versus just a summary of the promo. But if it's just like a quick backstage segment or something, a summary can be effective.

That said, one of my favorite BTBs of all time by the legendary Keefmoon was very summarized in its format. I think in the end it comes down to how well the booking is done, what story is being told, and how well is it told. Summaries can be just as effective and are more than accepted around here.

And hey this is my 1000th post on WS.

 

[Qui-Gon Bren]

Well first and foremost, I'd say write the way you feel comfortable or is most sustainable for your own enjoyment. It may be cliché, but the BTB should be for you first, not for the potential reader. This needs to be something you personally enjoy writing or it won't last long anyway.

Now as for my own personal preference, I can go either way but I'd say I like a summary for any weekly shows when it comes to matches. Maybe if its a "bigger" match happening on a weekly show, it can get more detailed. Then perhaps more detailed matches on the big shows/PPVs. I also tend to like a promo that is either written out or somewhat written out with some dialogue as I find that characters can shine more when there's dialogue versus just a summary of the promo. But if it's just like a quick backstage segment or something, a summary can be effective.

That said, one of my favorite BTBs of all time by the legendary Keefmoon was very summarized in its format. I think in the end it comes down to how well the booking is done, what story is being told, and how well is it told. Summaries can be just as effective and are more than accepted around here.

And hey this is my 1000th post on WS.

On this day in obscure sports trivia: A relative unknown on a 10 day contract gets the assist on LeBron's 1,000th bucket haha.

Thanks for reply tho Dubb. I agree that it should be for me. And it would be! I won't spend any time writing a story if I'm not excited about the idea. We align pretty closely on this topic. I'm definitely a story guy first. If the promos work, and the characters shine thru in the words, then I'll read anything.

 

[Gambit]

As I said in the thread, I'm looking for people that a Hogan-less TNA could realistically take in around Spring 2010

Bro, you need Vince Russo, bro. TNA in 2010, bro would be a success with Russo, bro.

 

[Gambit]

This popped up in my feed so it got me wondering… what if a BTB was centered around WCW winning the war? What year would you do it? I think late 98. But with a few moments changing. For example, Austin breaking his neck forced him to miss WrestleMania and we don’t get the epic Tyson and Austin moment.

 

[Samoa Looch]

This popped up in my feed so it got me wondering… what if a BTB was centered around WCW winning the war? What year would you do it? I think late 98. But with a few moments changing. For example, Austin breaking his neck forced him to miss WrestleMania and we don’t get the epic Tyson and Austin moment.

Yea, if you wanna go mostly realistically, you would have to change quite a few past moments, if you wanna go with late 98 and WCW being on the winning path. I think the big two obvious moments to go from would be Bash at the Beach 96 and the fallout of the Montreal Screwjob.

I personally would find it way more interesting to take a somewhat wilder approach to it and make it that WCW didn't fall apart as much as they did from 99 onwards and then probably come up with a short summary of what WWE and WCW were doing through 99 and 2000, with WWE being as strong as they were in real life, but WCW also being a very strong #2.
Starting point would be early 2001 then, with ECW joining the now way younger, still fresh talent pool of the WCW and would book it in a way that WCW slowly gains on WWE again after a strong 2001 and 2002, due to them doing things like putting a way bigger spotlight on their Cruiserweights etc as well as Austin and Rock both leaving and WWE starting to struggle with that ...so I probably wouldn't flat out let WCW win the war (at least immediately), but rather try to continue the war and find a later moment in time (mid to late 00s), where they finally pass the WWE once again.

 

[Gambit]

That sounds interesting, too. I just think it would be interesting to see a late 90s WCW winning and how Bischoff would have handled it.

I could totally envision Bischoff, along with the nWo, showing up on the last ever Raw to brag.

 

[Samoa Looch]

Oh yea, that would be a fun segment to write