IWF BTB Magazine
November 15, 2008
November 15, 2008
Welcome
Hola for yet another edition of the IWF BTB Magazine. And yet again an other truly awesome article from spiralshock. Enjoy and remember to leave your valued feedback.
Hola for yet another edition of the IWF BTB Magazine. And yet again an other truly awesome article from spiralshock. Enjoy and remember to leave your valued feedback.
LC
The Art of Match Writing
My name is spiziralshock. Wizelcome tizo mizy cizolumn. *snaps out of it* Sorry I fell asleep watching a Kizarney promo. Anyway this is my second column. First of all I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who read my first column on the advantages of being underrated. Ok now that that’s out of the way, deciding on a topic for my second article was difficult at first but then I remembered what an English teacher told me a long time ago-write about what you know.
I’ve had a lot of people say my match writing is great. And I’ve seen some pretty awesome match writers on here as well. Even though a lot of people have praised my match writing I still am constantly looking for ways to improve. In that same tone I’m sure all the other great match writers are also looking for ways in which they can improve. I’m sure everyone out there is wondering what the secret to good match writing is. Well I am, for the first time, going to give you an inside look into the process I use for match writing. So fasten your seatbelts, put your trays in the locked and upright position, and prepare for take off. Because I am about to reveal the secrets of pro wrestling…match writing.
Before starting I should make it clear that this is not going to be about grammar or proper English skills. I’ll leave that to the teachers (and WCW Rules). The first secret to writing great matches is don’t plan anything except for the finish. My favorite matches to watch are the ones where it feels like things are called on the fly because that feels the most real to me. When you’re writing a match and you plan out “ok we’re gonna do this, this, this, this, this and this you pigeonhole yourself into doing the match a certain way. Plus if this was a real match and you planned out ok “spot 1 spot 2 spot 3 spot 12 spot 20 and so on†and you screwed up spot 3 it could throw everything else in the match after that completely off. So first thing to remember is don’t plan anything except for the finish and maybe one or two high spots but everything else just type on the fly.
The second thing to remember is that most matches follow a certain pattern. And that pattern is-back and forth action to start, baby face shines, heel cuts off the momentum and builds heat, a few false hope comebacks, more heel heat, the real baby face comeback, and the finish. This is nothing new; this is how a lot of matches have been structured forever. It’s the same way a fight scene in a movie is. The bad guy beats the good guy until the good guy is close to giving up but somehow manages to find that little extra bit in the tank to stage the comeback and save the day. Also when it pertains to tag team matches a good tag team match follows much the same pattern-face team shines, heel team isolates one member of the other team for the majority of the match, the beaten up face gets in a last ditch offensive effort, hot tag, clean house, finish.
Thirdly, if you introduce an injury in paragraph 2 make sure it plays a factor in the rest of the match. Let’s say in paragraph 2 you have a wrestler injure their back and the other wrestler works over that back for awhile. If that same person that had their back worked over does a powerbomb in paragraph 5 with no effort at all that’s not realistic. Everything in a match should have consequences. If someone dives through the ropes and bounces their head off a guardrail they shouldn’t be the same for the rest of the match. If someone has their leg worked over in a match they shouldn’t be able to run 40 miles an hour around the ring during their comeback.
The fourth thing to remember about good match writing is not to do the big stuff too early. A great match should be like a roller coaster. Bring the fans up, take them all the way down, bring them up a little, take them back down, take them up really high, bring it down a little bit, take it all the way up to the point that the fans are just going crazy. Plus if you do a big move early it doesn’t make sense. If a match has a scoop slam, a suplex, and a powerbomb in it the powerbomb should be the last spot of those three. Another thing to remember is have a series of spots that make sense. Don’t just stick random moves in the match for the sake of sticking them in there. If a match doesn’t need a superplex don’t include a superplex. Also it is ok to have matches that aren’t as lengthy or exciting as others. If you have a match and it’s hot and the next match is even hotter and the match after that is even hotter eventually you’re going to have nowhere to go and you’ll run out of ideas to raise the bar. You have to give everybody a chance to catch their breath after hot matches.
Well, I think that about wraps it up. Just remember to keep these tips in mind and you’ll see an improvement in your matches. I’m SpiralShock and I approve this column.
My name is spiziralshock. Wizelcome tizo mizy cizolumn. *snaps out of it* Sorry I fell asleep watching a Kizarney promo. Anyway this is my second column. First of all I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who read my first column on the advantages of being underrated. Ok now that that’s out of the way, deciding on a topic for my second article was difficult at first but then I remembered what an English teacher told me a long time ago-write about what you know.
I’ve had a lot of people say my match writing is great. And I’ve seen some pretty awesome match writers on here as well. Even though a lot of people have praised my match writing I still am constantly looking for ways to improve. In that same tone I’m sure all the other great match writers are also looking for ways in which they can improve. I’m sure everyone out there is wondering what the secret to good match writing is. Well I am, for the first time, going to give you an inside look into the process I use for match writing. So fasten your seatbelts, put your trays in the locked and upright position, and prepare for take off. Because I am about to reveal the secrets of pro wrestling…match writing.
Before starting I should make it clear that this is not going to be about grammar or proper English skills. I’ll leave that to the teachers (and WCW Rules). The first secret to writing great matches is don’t plan anything except for the finish. My favorite matches to watch are the ones where it feels like things are called on the fly because that feels the most real to me. When you’re writing a match and you plan out “ok we’re gonna do this, this, this, this, this and this you pigeonhole yourself into doing the match a certain way. Plus if this was a real match and you planned out ok “spot 1 spot 2 spot 3 spot 12 spot 20 and so on†and you screwed up spot 3 it could throw everything else in the match after that completely off. So first thing to remember is don’t plan anything except for the finish and maybe one or two high spots but everything else just type on the fly.
The second thing to remember is that most matches follow a certain pattern. And that pattern is-back and forth action to start, baby face shines, heel cuts off the momentum and builds heat, a few false hope comebacks, more heel heat, the real baby face comeback, and the finish. This is nothing new; this is how a lot of matches have been structured forever. It’s the same way a fight scene in a movie is. The bad guy beats the good guy until the good guy is close to giving up but somehow manages to find that little extra bit in the tank to stage the comeback and save the day. Also when it pertains to tag team matches a good tag team match follows much the same pattern-face team shines, heel team isolates one member of the other team for the majority of the match, the beaten up face gets in a last ditch offensive effort, hot tag, clean house, finish.
Thirdly, if you introduce an injury in paragraph 2 make sure it plays a factor in the rest of the match. Let’s say in paragraph 2 you have a wrestler injure their back and the other wrestler works over that back for awhile. If that same person that had their back worked over does a powerbomb in paragraph 5 with no effort at all that’s not realistic. Everything in a match should have consequences. If someone dives through the ropes and bounces their head off a guardrail they shouldn’t be the same for the rest of the match. If someone has their leg worked over in a match they shouldn’t be able to run 40 miles an hour around the ring during their comeback.
The fourth thing to remember about good match writing is not to do the big stuff too early. A great match should be like a roller coaster. Bring the fans up, take them all the way down, bring them up a little, take them back down, take them up really high, bring it down a little bit, take it all the way up to the point that the fans are just going crazy. Plus if you do a big move early it doesn’t make sense. If a match has a scoop slam, a suplex, and a powerbomb in it the powerbomb should be the last spot of those three. Another thing to remember is have a series of spots that make sense. Don’t just stick random moves in the match for the sake of sticking them in there. If a match doesn’t need a superplex don’t include a superplex. Also it is ok to have matches that aren’t as lengthy or exciting as others. If you have a match and it’s hot and the next match is even hotter and the match after that is even hotter eventually you’re going to have nowhere to go and you’ll run out of ideas to raise the bar. You have to give everybody a chance to catch their breath after hot matches.
Well, I think that about wraps it up. Just remember to keep these tips in mind and you’ll see an improvement in your matches. I’m SpiralShock and I approve this column.
spiralshock
Cheerio
Its time to close the dorrs again for another 2 weeks. If you wanna have a slice of the pie then PM me. For me, enjoy UFC 91 tonight. Come on Lesnar.
Its time to close the dorrs again for another 2 weeks. If you wanna have a slice of the pie then PM me. For me, enjoy UFC 91 tonight. Come on Lesnar.
LC
