Companies

## Company Sizes

Companies can be rated as one of seven sizes, which in ascending order are Insignificant, Tiny, Small, Medium, Big, Large, and Titanic. (These are mostly comparable to the direct equivalent in previous games: so Medium equates to Cult, Big to National, etc.) The criteria to reach each size is unique to the company's home region and can be found by looking at the Size section of the office or a company's profile. In all cases size is increased by gaining popularity in more and more key regions, which is chiefly done through putting on good shows. The bigger a company gets the more advantages will open up to it, such as being able to hire better workers and offer more powerful contracts. On the flip side, costs and worker demands will rise at the same time. If a company falls from Big size it will automatically enter a 'cooling down' period; during this phase, which lasts six months, the company cannot rise back up to Big even if they achieve the necessary criteria. Companies can be set to have a maximum size, either via the editor or via the office Size screen. This can be useful for role-playing purposes, to stop a child company from rising too far, or to temporarily 'freeze' a company so that it can properly prepare itself for a rise In size.

View Full Size Criteria

## Company Popularity

A company has a popularity rating in each of the game world's regions. These will go up and down as the game progresses. This is effectively a measure of how many people in that region know about the company and would be willing to watch their shows or spend money on merchandise. In terms of how to set popularity, this should be done in relation to the company size criteria (see previous entry) with regard to what size the database maker thinks is appropriate for the company to get realistic results. Popularity 'spills over' naturally. Please see the Game World section for a description of how this process works.

## Al Hiring

When Al controlled, a company will always try to hire enough people so that they have a certain minimum number of workers in each role. You can see an estimate of what figures are being used via the Estimated Roster button in the company editor. These minimum numbers are primarily affected by the company's size, product settings, and the owner's roster size preference. Certain situations, such as a company being in serious financal trouble and wanting to run a skeleton crew, can cause the Al to change these numbers. How often the company checks its roster and makes offers depends on its size; the bigger the company, the more often they check. Who the company tries to negotiate with depends on literally hundreds of factors; to give just a handful of examples, these include the owner and booker's relationships with the worker, whether they've been on the roster before, their stats, and the worker's location.

## Al Firing

When Al controlled, a company will be mindful of the upper limits on the number of workers they'll have in each role. You can see an estimate of what figures are being used via the Estimated Roster button in the company editor. If the number of workers exceeds the max limit, the company may choose to do a round of firings to get the number back down to where it should be. Unlike with hirings, the company does not check their roster limits regularly - usually it is only once every six to nine months. However, if a new owner takes over then they may 'clear the decks'; this is a special one-off action where the company jettisons a lot of dead wood to make room for new talent. 'Clearing the decks' aside, a company will rarely make firings when in good financial health, even if massively above the limits. Generally speaking, a company will either have to have lost money for at least three months in succession OR be in debt to contemplate making a round of firings. In addition, for every ten million that the company has in the bank it will raise its upper limits for each role by a small amount, simulating the level of financial comfort they have. Please note that letting a contract expire or granting a worker's release request is NOT the same as firing and those have nothing to do with the upper limits. The workers chosen to be fired depends on many factors, including how long they've been in the company, their popularity, their relationships, and the owner's preferences. Title holders will only ever be fired in exceptional circumstances.

## Company Web Site

You can give a company a web site address via the editor. This has no effect in the game, it is purely for mod makers to make a note of good web sites to get information about specific rosters.

## Closed Date

You can set a closed date via the editor to indicate that a company has already ceased trading. This is filled in automatically during gameplay if a company is shut down for any reason. Please note that you should not give a date in the future. This does not mean the company will be closed on that date and will simply be ignored. The date is strictly to set companies who have already closed.

## Companies

As Properties If the 'Property Of field of the company editor is filled in then it means that the company is owned by the Broadcaster or Media Group specified. The benefits of this are that the company gets much easier minimum quality demands on broadcast deals when dealing with related Broadcasters, but it does mean that should the Broadcaster I Media Group ever close then the company will automatically be shut down too. This option is primarily to simulate situations where a company has been formed specifically for a broadcaster's benefit.

## Home Arena

A company may be set to have a home arena (although this is a slight misnomer: it can be any location or venue, it does not need to literally be an arena). If set, this means that when the company is holding a show in the region that contains the home arena then it will always try and use it (unless it's financially inappropriate to do so). This is designed to be used for companies that have a 'spiritual home' that they tend to gravitate towards.

## Prestige And Momentum

Prestige is a measure of how important or respected a company is within the game world. It rises over time with good shows and falls with poor shows or when something happens that reflects badly on the organisation (such as a scandal or failed dirty trick). This rating is primarily used so that the game knows how important stories about this company should be considered. Momentum works in a similar way to prestige, except that it only reflects a company's success or failure in terms of popularity changes and is much more sensitive to change. It is purely used as a visual measure of a company's current direction.

## Finances

Your current financial position can be seen via the Finance screen in your office. The same information can be found for any company by clicking on their current funds text (for example, in their profile or the Companies screen.) Hovering your mouse over a term in the financial screen will give a brief explanation. Most are self explanatory. Misc is a catch-all section that is generally related to your current size but may go up or down quite rapidly - it's often used as a balancing agent (for example, companies making huge monthly profits will get hit with large misc costs to rein them in a little). Tax is only due in months that you make a profit and ranges from 5% to 4()% depending on the amount of profit. Bankruptcy will happen if a company is in debt for many consecutive months. The amount of debt is not relevant, all that matters is how many months in a row the company has a negative bank balance. The amount of months a company can last depends primarily on their current size (ranging from 6 months to three years) but that can be extended if the company has been in business for more than a decade (with the older they are, the bigger the leeway). All companies get a grace period of one year when they first open in which their financial performance does not count towards any bankruptcy calculation. Note that it is impossible for child companies to go bankrupt as their bank balance returns to zero every month (because their parent absorbs their bank balance) and so it is completely unnecessary to try and cheat by giving them money in the editor. A company's financial performance is also key in whether they will accept a takeover attempt. As with bankruptcy, the amount of debt is not relevant, all that matter is how many consecutive times they have ended the month with a negative bank balance. Please bear in mind that finances are only part of the takeover process, some companies will refuse to be taken over even if they're in bad financial shape because of their owner's personality, their relationship with the aggressor, etc.

## Fix Belts

You can set a company to have fixed belts via the editor. If you do, it means that the Al will never create new belts or retire old belts for that company; they will permanently only have the titles (if any) that the company starts with. This can be useful for creating specific scenarios.

## Pre Alliance Membership

A company can be given pre alliance membership via the editor. This means that when the company debuts into the game world it will automatically join that alliance (regardless of whether it meets the membership criteria). This would have no effect if the company is already active when the game begins or the alliance isn't active at the time of their founding.

## Figureheads

The company figurehead, also known as the 'ace' in Japan, is the worker who is positioned as the face of the company; not only do shows generally revolve around them, but they are also the primary focus of all the marketing and merchandising that the company does. A strong figurehead can massively boost business and help a company prosper. Once a figurehead has been selected the game will keep track of how long he has been in the position; it takes exactly one year for the worker to become established and for the advantages and disadvantages to kick in. The longer someone is established, the stronger the bonuses become. If the worker is removed from the position or replaced the time is broken and the one year period begins again. Once established, the figurehead process is automatic and you do not need to do anything specific other than book the worker on shows as normal. The effectiveness of the figurehead is recalculated every time you run a show and so it is possible (and likely) that workers can become more or less suited to the role over time. Only active full-time wrestlers currently perceived as being Major Stars or Stars are eligible for selection. You may keep a figurehead in place who was eligible but is not now, but as they no longer they will be a liability in the role. Removing or replacing a figurehead will almost always cause a major morale hit and so you should choose your figurehead carefully and keep in mind that it's a long-term position.

### Figurehead Pros & Cons

A good figurehead can significantly boost the attendance (up to a 20% gain) and merchandise sales (up to a 75% gain) of a company; in essence making a huge amount of money for you and them. The figurehead will only affect the attendance of shows that he appears on in some capacity however. He will affect merchandise as long as he has appeared on at least one show in the previous two months, otherwise he has no impact. The other advantage is that figureheads who are having a positive effect on business will also generally have high morale. There are very few disadvantages to having a figurehead; the hard part is finding a good one! The main disadvantage is the pressure on the figurehead, as if he struggles to make an impact on business then his morale will be hurt. A bad figurehead is also a disavantage as he can actually hurt attendances and merchandise sales. A figurehead who is boosting business may want significantly more money in his contract than normal to reward him for his success. Almost all workers will be very upset if you remove them as the figurehead, seeing it as a major demotion as well as a big hit to their financial position, so you can find yourself in a very tricky position if you want to replace them as figurehead with someone else due to the potential morale hit. The final disadvantage is that you are almost forced to book the figurehead extremely strongly as you cannot afford to allow him to be overshadowed by others otherwise his ability to boost business is dented.

## Announcers

Each company can have up to three people at the commentary desk for any segment. You do not need to include any announcers if a show is not being broadcast, but you will incur penalties for running a segment without announcers if a show is being aired. The default teams for events, brands, and each TV show can be set via the Announcers section of the office. Announcers are rated on their Announcing skill while colour commentators are rated on their Colour skill. The highest score in each category amongst all of the announcing team is counted and the same person may provide both high scores, meaning one person commentary teams are perfectly viable. Having a weak announcer on the team does not hurt the scores of better announcers. You are also able to use guest commentators to simulate people sitting in on the broadcast team. 'Guest Commentary' is rated as 70% of their Microphone Skill. If the Guest Commentary value is greater than the worker's Colour skill, he can use that instead. This helps prevent a worker getting penalised for his performance when he is only with the broadcast team temporarily and isn't really there as a 'proper' announcer. If you have more than one person on your commentary team then they are rated on experience; this is always the highest experience level that can be found for a pairing within the three possible announcers. With Very Low or Low experience, the team will not reach their full potential. An Adequate level gives neither bonuses nor penalties. An Excellent rating gives a small bonus. It is therefore beneficial to find a good team and stick with it rather than constantly swapping.

## Show Priority And Order

A company's Show Priority setting gives the choice of either having all TV shows booked first or having all events booked first. In addition, the Event Order and TV Order settings allow control over which order the two types are booked. For Event Order, if in Ascending Order then the event with the lowest Importance rating goes first and the highest Importance rating last; Descending Order reverses this. With TV Order, if in Ascending Order, the TV show with the lowest Prestige rating goes first and the highest Prestige rating last; all 'B' shows are run in order before moving on to the 'A' shows. Descending Order reverses this, with the 'A' shows going first, starting with the highest Prestige rating and working downwards, then the 'B' shows.

## Company Loyalty

Every company has a loyalty setting of either Off, Normal or True Born. This tells the game the type of loyalty that a worker will get if the company uses its 'first refusal' to sign them upon graduation. It is designed to be used by Japanese companies to reflect reality. With Off, graduates don't feel special loyalty to the company. With Normal, they get regular loyalty. With True Born, they get the more powerful type of loyalty.

## Young Lion System

Each company may either have the young lion system turned on or off. If it is on, it means that the fans have been trained to expect young lion workers to always lose (unless against another young lion) and will be annoyed if this is not followed. This is designed to simulate how many real life Japanese companies run. A young lion is defined as being any active wrestler who has less than 25 Experience and debuted into the game world less than 3 years ago. A worker ceases to be considered a young lion the moment either of those things are not true. There is no advantage to having the young lion system active, it is purely for simulation purposes.

## Merchandising

Each company has a merchandising level from 1 to 10; the higher the level, the more money the company can make off its fans. You can access your company's level via the Merchandising section of the office. Here you will find the various income and expenditure values. Merchandising falls into two categories, live event and mail order. Live event is selling directly to the people who attend a show. For example, Level 5 gives you around $3 per fan, so if your attendance is 100 then you can expect to make $300 that night. Mail order is selling to your wider fan base and is done on your popularity points in each region. For example, level 5 gives you $10 per popularity point, so if you have 30 popularity in London then you can expect to make E300 each month regardless of whether you hold a show there (or anywhere) that month. Values are approximate because the economy can affect revenue (both for good and bad) and so can audience boredom. Upgrading from one level to the next requires a certain amount of time and money, with both increasing as the level gets higher. It intentionally takes a long time to go from level 1 to 10 to simulate having to put together a complex infrastructure. It should be noted that, for ease of use, your merchandise profit is net, not gross; i.e. the costs are taken into consideration. Your merchandise expenditure each month is therefore limited just to the running costs (if any) described in the Merchandise section. Also, merchandising automatically includes the distribution of events via home video, DVD, and VOD - this was formerly a separate section in previous games. The type of distribution will depend on the time you are playing in, so you will not see DVDs if you're playing in 1975, for example.

## Backstage Rating

A company's backstage rating is an indication of how good or bad the atmosphere in their locker room is. You can find your rating in the Backstage section of your office, or when viewing the opening screen during PM mode. The rating is created by looking at three sections - notable personalities, relationships, and other factors - with each element within those three sections increasing or decreasing the overall percentage. Different elements contribute different amounts. The relationship elements are the only ones that are limited - they can only contribute plus or minus 25% at most, whereas the other two sections have no limits. Please note that the greater a worker's perception rating, the more he impacts the backstage area; i.e. a bad-tempered main eventer is significantly worse than a bad-tempered midcarder! Ideally you should try and keep your backstage rating about 70%. Anything below that is considered a bad atmosphere and will affect the morale and performances of your workers. The lower the rating gets, the more negative incidents you will have to deal with, while a higher rating does the opposite. It is important to note that the rating you get in your office is what would happen if everyone on your roster was present; when you actually get to a show the rating may change, even drastically so, because some wrestlers may be absent and therefore are no longer able to contribute to the rating.

### Lifetime owner

The most common, which is someone who either created or inherited the company. They will not resign, cannot be sacked, can eventually pass on ownership to family members, and will stay in the business longer than usual as the company is their life's work.

### Purchased

A Purchased owner means they bought the company outright. This has the same effect as being a lifetime owner, except that they can resign and do not stay in the business extra long (as they are not as emotionally attached). A CEO means the owner is employed to run the company rather than actually owning it, and therefore reports to a board. They can be fired, can resign, and cannot pass on ownership to family members.

### Founders

Via the editor, Founders can be filled in for each company, although it is only effective for companies that haven't yet opened. The founders are the workers who own the company. If available, the founders you set have a vastly increased chance of being made owner when the company first opens. If they are made mandatory and none of the owners are available (i.e. not dead, out of the business, locked down to a contract with another company, or already in a position of power elsewhere), then the company cannot open.

## Owner Goals

Your boss (assuming you're not the owner) can give you up to eight goals; these can be things you need to achieve or blocks on what you can do. You can see these at any time via the Owner Goals section of the office. The owner can add new goals at any time. If you do something that would break a goal, such as signing a wrestler who has known substance abuse problems when been told to avoid users, then you will get an on-screen warning. You can choose to ignore the goal and do it anyway, but every time you do so you will find the owner's patience with you has lowered; once it reaches a certain point he will become so annoyed that he will not let you break any more. The owner's current patience is shown as 'Approval Rating' near the top of the Office screen. The only ways for the patience level to change are through passing or failing goals or if the owner changes (in which case you return to having full patience.)

Each goal has an Importance level attached to it; this indicates how much it means to the owner. The higher the Importance, the happier the owner will be when you succeed at it but the unhappier he will be if you fail. If you fail enough goals to completely exhaust the owner's patience with you then you will be fired.

Please note that 'blocking' goals only apply to negotiations that take place from that point onward; existing offers are exempt. It is also important to note that 'blocking' goals do not apply to 'first refusal' offers to graduates; as they have come through your own training facility, they are exempt.

## Hiring Rules

Hiring rules can be set for companies to restrict who can possibly be hired. These have absolutely no impact on player-run companies but the Al may never break them. They are designed to be used to help keep hirings as realistic as possible. It is recommended that database makers do not overload a company with hiring rules, as if a company is too restricted they may find it difficult to assemble a full roster.

## Brands

A brand split is an artificial roster division used for organisational purposes or to promote a sense of inter-company rivalry. There are no explicit pros or cons to having a brand split in game. A brand split may have between two and five brands involved, with each brand being defined by its level and focus.

There are six levels.

### Major

the brand has no upper limit in terms of size and is for any perception level, from Major Star to Unimportant. Showcase are brands that allow any perception level but are small in size, featuring only around 20 wrestlers.

### Niche

These brands are even smaller, with only around 15 wrestlers, and allow all perception levels except Major Stars.

### Minor

These brands have around 20 wrestlers but don't have Major Stars or Stars.

### Reserve

These brands are specifically designed to be used with the Development focus and have no upper limit to their size but can only contain Recognisable and Unimportant wrestlers.

### Throwaway

These brands have only 15 wrestlers and only use Unimportant wrestlers.

There are multiple different focuses available for a brand and these tell the game what wrestlers are likely to appear on that brand. For example, a Hardcore focus will attract wrestlers who use a Brawler or Psychopath style, whereas a Veterans focus would be for older competitors. It is important to note that the brand focuses do not affect who a company hires; for example, putting a Female Wrestlers focused brand in a company that is set to only hire male wrestlers will simply result in an unusable brand existing. The brand level and focus are used to filter which wrestlers can appear on which brands, but there are exceptions: title holders will generally be put on the same brand as their title, even if they wouldn't normally be eligible, and tag team partners will usually 'follow' their partner to a brand even if they wouldn't normally go there.

## Al Use Of Brands

The Al will never start a new brand split or add new brands to an existing split. When given a brand split, either via the main editor or because a player has left a company, it will attempt to maintain it for as long as it can. An Al company will close down a brand if it cannot assign enough wrestlers to it to realistically keep it running, and will end the brand split entirely if the number of brands falls below two.

An Al company will check its brand split before every show. It will use a modified version of the Sweep Draft that the player has access to, with the difference being that it will also check for workers who are on a brand that they don't fit and unbrand them as necessary - this means that workers will not remain on a Development brand indefinitely, for example. The Al can also use the Complete Draft option that the player has. It will use this in two circumstances. The first is if more than 10% of the roster is unbranded; this will rarely happen once the game is underway, and is specifically designed to 'fix' a situation where the mod maker hasn't assigned brands properly. The second circumstance is a near-annual brand refresh that all branded Al companies will use. This helps the brands from becoming stale. It is usually one year from the last time the company did a Complete Draft.

## Storylines

Storylines involve two or more workers who are considered to have an ongoing narrative. Whether a company needs storylines is decided by their current product, while the number and minimum heat level are decided by the company's size. Any number of workers can be in a storyline as long as there is never less than two. Each person involved can either be in a Major role or a Supporting role, which defines how crucial they are to the story - a worker cannot change roles, but can be removed from the story and re-added under a different role. Each person can also be either unaligned or aligned with one of up to four sides. This lets the game know where the conflict (if any) lies. Each worker also has a success level; this is how they are doing in kayfabe terms. This is just for the player's benefit to understand who is doing well, and has no other impact on the game.

A segment is considered part of a storyline if the match or angle contains at least two workers from the storyline, at least one being a Major role, where they are not all aligned with each other. A segment that counts will affect the storyline's heat as long as its rating is 5 points higher or lower than the current heat of the storyline. The one exception to this is if it's the very first segment of the storyline, in which case that will determine the opening heat.

A storyline's heat can affect match and angles ratings if it is significantly higher or lower. To for this effect, the segment must be part of the storyline and have two Major roles present, but only workers who have been in at least four segments of the storyline count towards this; this stops workers gaining bonuses without having earned it. Some products gives the note 'Major matches will be penalised if they don't have an associated storyline'; if this is the case, if the top two perceptions in the match are both Recognisable or greater then the match requires an associated storyline to avoid being penalised.

A storyline will naturally lose heat if it is not advanced for more than two shows in a row, if nothing major (i.e. the heat is not altered at all) happens for five or more shows, or if a show has three or more participants on it and they don't advance the storyline at all. 'B' shows and Lesser, Throwaway, and Tour events do not count towards these three penalties.

## House Shows

House shows are small untelevised live events. A company must be of at least Medium size to use house shows and must have at least twelve available wrestlers available for a show to take place. The player does not book any matches, nor are any results recorded, as the shows are not considered important. House shows do not take place on days that the company held a show, regardless of scheduling. The player can set up house shows via the House Shows section of the office. Here, a house show duty roster can be set - these are the workers who will take part in house shows. Only wrestlers on exclusive contracts that are paid monthly are eligible to take part.

Wrestlers who are injured or away can still be set to work house shows, they will simply be automatically ignored until they return. The attendance of the house shows is severely affected if there aren't many big names included on house shows. The advantages of running house shows are primarily financial; extra money can be made from ticket sales and merchandise with relatively little in the way of expenditure. Workers can also improve their skills on house shows, although the rate is slower than if they were working on actual bookable events, and get better at speaking the local language. The player can also use house shows to look for chemistry between workers, using the booking section of the House Show screen. Finally, house shows are a good way to

keep from losing popularity for not visiting I being seen in a specific region. The disadvantages of running house shows, particularly a lot of them, are that workers have less time off for rest and recovery and so they will have higher levels of wear and tear over time. Injuries can also occur, although the chance of getting hurt is less than on regular events as the wrestlers are not working as hard.

## Hall Of Fame

Each company can have a Hall Of Fame, which is a list of those wrestlers and staff who had the biggest impact on the company. Unlike the Hall Of Immortals, the requirements to get into a Hall Of Fame are much lower and therefore allow even successful midcarders to get in.

A worker gains points towards induction when they complete certain 'tasks', with the points dependent on what the task was and how many times they have achieved it (some tasks can only provide a limited number of points regardless of how often they are completed). You can see the criteria via the editor. These criteria and a worker's current progress are not visible during gameplay.

Any player can any Hall Of Fame whenever they want because they're primarily cosmetic. When choosing to manually add a worker or team the user will have the option of 'induction' or 'future induction'; the difference is that the former is an immediate addition whereas the latter means the worker(s) will definitely get added upon retirement.

In the criteria 'Has won primary titles' floating titles of 70 or greater prestige also count. Some tasks require the worker to win a secondary or 'equivalent floating' title - this means that the floating title must be at least as prestigious as the lowest secondary level title in the company. Some tasks will refer to 'big events' - these are defined as events that are of Normal intent and that are not weekly.