24/7 GM Mode FAQ - Guide for WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008

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			   WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008

				24/7 GM Mode FAQ
				      v1.00
				by Phil Mattingly


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-[ Contents ]-

1. Overall Strategy

2. Easy Goal Strategy
3. Achievable Goal Strategy
4. Difficult Goals

5. Choosing Your Brand
    a. The Match Card
    b. Draft Picks
    c. Clean / dirty and the championships

6. Setting Up the Season
    a. Starting Rivalries
    b. The First Match Card

7. Playing Week to Week
    a. Increase the Popularity of Superstars
    b. Keep Rivalries Alive
    c. Manipulate the Championship Picture
    d. Keep the match card varied
    e. Manage fatigue / avoid injury
    f. Manage morale
    g. Using promos
    h. Increasing ratings
    i. PPVs
    j. Starting the cycle over again

8. Finance and Trading
9. Final Notes


---

-[ 1. Overall Strategy ]-

The objective of 24/7 GM mode is simple - raise your GM of the Year score to 
100%.

It is worth noting that the game tells you that 'GM of the Year' will be 
awarded to the brand manager with the highest ratings at the end of 12 months. 
In fact, nothing happens at this time and you only get the award animation and 
the Hall of Fame completion when your score reaches 100%.

Raising your score is also simple. A number of percentage points are awarded 
for achieving various goals as GM.

Top 5 Brand Supremacy	     - 3%
Top 10 Brand Supremacy	     - 2%
Top 15 Brand Supremacy	     - 1%
5-Star Rating PPV Match	     - 2%
5-Star Rating Normal Match   - 1%
5-Star Rating PPV Show	     - 2%
5-Star Rating Streak	     - 5%
#1 Superstar		     - 1%
Joint PPV Wins		     - 2%
Defeat Other Shows' Champion - 2%
Survivor Series Win	     - 1%
$10 Million Cash	     - 3%
3 Thumbs-up Rivalry Rating   - 2%
13 Week Rivalry		     - 3%
15 Match Win Streak	     - 2%
No injuries for a month	     - 1%
1 Million Fans		     - 2%
Royal Rumble Win	     - 3%
5-Star WrestleMania Match    - 5%
WrestleMania Win	     - 5%

It is worth splitting these goals down into those that are easily achieved, 
those that are achievable and those that are difficult to achieve.

Easy to achieve
---------------

5-Star Rating PPV Match	     - 2%
5-Star Rating Normal Match   - 1%
5-Star Rating PPV Show	     - 2%
3 Thumbs-up Rivalry Rating   - 2%
13 Week Rivalry		     - 3%
No injuries for a month	     - 1%

Achievable
----------
Joint PPV Wins		     - 2%
Survivor Series Win	     - 1%
Defeat Other Shows' Champion - 2%
1 Million Fans		     - 2%
Royal Rumble Win	     - 3%
5-Star WrestleMania Match    - 5%
WrestleMania Win	     - 5%
5-Star Rating Streak	     - 5%


Difficult to achieve
--------------------

Top 5 Brand Supremacy	     - 3%
Top 10 Brand Supremacy	     - 2%
Top 15 Brand Supremacy	     - 1%
#1 Superstar		     - 1%
$10 Million Cash	     - 3%
15 Match Win Streak	     - 2%

In general you will naturally want to concentrate on picking up the easy points 
week-to-week and ensuring that you're ready when the opportunity to pick up 
points at PPVs rolls around.

-[ 2. Easy Goal Strategy ]-

Achieving the easy goals breaks down into three categories - stars, rivalries 
and injuries.

Stars
-----

5-Star Rating PPV Match	     - 2%
5-Star Rating Normal Match   - 1%
5-Star Rating PPV Show	     - 2%

The star rating of each of your shows is a major key to winning points. In the 
calendar view you can select a completed show to see the individual five-star 
rating of each match and the show as a whole. In this way you can keep a close 
eye on the quality of both your shows and those of rival GMs.

The star rating of a show as a whole is determined by the rating of the 
individual matches.

The star rating of an individual match is determined by:

1. The popularity of the stars involved.
2. Whether those stars are involved in a rivalry, and how many thumbs that 
rivalry has.
3. Whether the match is for a championship title.
4. Whether the match is special - a ladder match, cage match etc.

Basically, the more popular the stars and the more thumbs on the rivalry the 
higher the match rating. Championship and special matches also score more stars 
than normal matches.

Fortunately you can easily manipulate all four of these factors to consistently 
turn out four and five star matches and gain points accordingly. How to do this 
is described in the next section.

Rivalries
---------

3 Thumbs-up Rivalry Rating   - 2%
13 Week Rivalry		     - 3%

Again, rivalries are simple to manipulate. They are based on storylines, and 
the higher-rated the storyline the better the rivalry. I personally only use 
four and five star storylines in rivalries. They start at one thumb, rise to 
two thumbs if they last five weeks and three thumbs if they last ten weeks.

Organising and maintaining rivalries is described in the next section.

Injuries
--------

No injuries for a month	     - 1%

This goal should come as a by-product of good roster management. You can't 
completely control it but most of the time you should be able to pick it up as 
a convenient bonus. Roster management is described in the next section.

-[ 3. Achievable Goal Strategy ]-

Achievable goals are more difficult to accomplish than easy goals primarily 
because they take longer. You get at least four opportunities a month to put on 
a 5-star normal match but only one per year to put on a 5-star Wrestlemania 
match. Luckily, collecting these goals when you arrive at the big PPVs will be 
easy if you've been following the easy goal strategy.

Achievable goals break down into fans, PPVs and the other shows' champion.

Fans
----

1 Million Fans		     - 2%

This goal will come as a natural by-product of chasing the 5-star normal 
matches and shows from the easily achievable goals. If your shows have higher 
star ratings than rival brands then the number of your fans will increase while 
theirs decreases. So you will naturally find that your ratings tick upwards and 
you'll slowly collect this goal as you pass 4 million and then 5 million fans.

PPVs
----

Joint PPV Wins		     - 2%
Survivor Series Win	     - 1%
Royal Rumble Win	     - 3%
5-Star WrestleMania Match    - 5%
WrestleMania Win	     - 5%
5-Star Rating Streak	     - 5%

The wins are pretty simple. When the PPV rolls around, opt to play rather than 
simulate the match and beat hell out of the other shows' contenders to win.

The 5-star rating streak will also naturally arise from working toward putting 
on 5-star PPVs.

Champions
---------

Defeat Other Shows' Champion - 2%

This goal comes from the Power 25 which I never bothered to manipulate. I think 
it is quicker and easier to concentrate on building 5-star matches and let the 
Power 25 do more or less what it wants. However, this one does seem to pay off 
more frequently than the others.

-[ 4. Difficult Goals ]-

I consider most of these goals difficult because they involve manipulation of 

Top 5 Brand Supremacy	     - 3%
Top 10 Brand Supremacy	     - 2%
Top 15 Brand Supremacy	     - 1%
#1 Superstar		     - 1%
$10 Million Cash	     - 3%
15 Match Win Streak	     - 2%


-[ 5. Choosing your brand ]-

This is pretty simple.

Don't choose ECW - having only one championship means you can only run one 
championship match per show, as compared to the four per show you can do with 
Smackdown or RAW. As a result, ECW shows are generally lower-rated and their 
ratings decline steadily throughout the year.

Whether you choose RAW or Smackdown doesn't make a great deal of difference to 
your chances of success, although the strategy you must pursue will be slightly 
different. This is because the two brands have different types of title.

The A-title: World Heavyweight Champion (Smackdown) / WWE Champion (RAW)
The B-Title: US Champion / Intercontinental Champion
The C-Title: Cruiserweight Champion / Womens' Champion
The D-Title: The Tag Team title

Because the C-Title for each brand can only be held by certain superstars you 
will have to draft accordingly as covered below.

-[ 5. Drafting ]-

Drafting is straightforward if you understand your brand and what you are 
trying to accomplish.

5.a. Match Cards
----------------

Whoever you draft you will need to use them to fill your match card at normal 
shows and PPVs. A match card has five blank match slots and two blank promo 
slots.

Remember that your goal is a 5-star rated show, and that that will come from 
lots of 5-star rated matches. Remember that five-star rated matches are created 
by four things:

a. Popular superstars
b. Rivalries between dirty and clean superstars
c. Championship matches
d. Special matches

So your ideal match card will look like this:

Match 1 - A number of high-popularity superstars in an interesting match.
Match 2 - Two rival tag teams competing in a special match for the Tag Team 
Championship.
Match 3 - Two rival superstars competing in a special match for the C-Title 
Championship.
Match 4 - Two rival superstars competing in a special match for the B-Title 
Championship.
Main Event - Two rival superstars competing in a special match for the A-Title 
Championship.

With a little care and attention to detail a card like this will pretty soon be 
cranking out four and five star rated shows for you.

5.b. Draft Picks
----------------

The card above is naturally going to dictate your draft picks. At a minimum, 
you will need:

One clean and one dirty superstar who can contest the A-title.
One clean and one dirty superstar who can contest the B-title.
One clean and one dirty superstar who can contest the C-title (cruiserweights 
or divas).
Two clean and two dirty superstars who can contest the D-title (tag titles).
One clean and one dirty superstar who can fill out the final match.

Making a minimum roster of 12 stars.

It is worth taking the characteristics of the various superstars into 
consideration too.

Legends - legends are valuable because several of the five-star rated 
storylines need legends to participate in them. I would look to draft at least 
one clean and one dirty legend, and ideally more if you can get them. Note that 
you will need to have unlocked and purchased the legends from the WWE shop 
before starting.

Cruiserweights / Divas - again, you'll need at least one clean and one dirty 
Diva/Cruiserweight according to your brand.

Foreign stars - I like to have my Tag Team title contested by four American 
superstars so I can run the Patriotism storyline. It's not a necessity though - 
you can run a fine rivalry between one member of each tag-team if needs be.

Clean / dirty - looking at the above it's clear that you're going to need a 
roughly equal number of clean and dirty superstars on the roster. Fortunately, 
this is decided once you've drafted. So, for example, if you pick Stone Cold 
you will decide if he will be clean or dirty for the season. The same with 
Roddy Piper and anyone else you pick. I personally like to pick people and run 
them as they are or were in reality because it makes it easier to keep track, 
but it's not a necessity. Either do this or make a note as you draft so you 
know who to set clean and who to set dirty when you start.

When the draft starts sort the roster list by popularity. When you pick, take 
the most popular superstar available unless...

 * A Legend or Diva / Cruiserweight is available and you still haven't picked 
 at least one clean and one dirty superstar in this category.
 * The second star in a stable is immediately available. I don't know if it 
 makes a huge amount of difference to run your tag-title rivalry between two 
 stables, but it probably doesn't hurt.

Ideally, your picks will be:

1. A clean / dirty legend to contest your A-title.
2. A dirty / clean legend to contest your A-title (choose clean if pick 1 was 
dirty and vice versa)
3. A clean / dirty legend to contest your B-title.
4. A clean / dirty superstar to contest your C-title (a Cruiserweight or Diva).
5. A dirty / clean superstar to contest your C-title (choose clean if pick 4 
was dirty and vice versa.
6. A dirty / clean superstar to contest your B-title.
7. A clean / dirty superstar as one half of a tag-team.
8. A clean / dirty superstar as the other half of that tag-team.
9. A dirty / clean superstar as one half of a tag-team.
10. A dirty / clean superstar as the other half of that tag-team.

Note that if you've chosen RAW, you can probably leave picks 4 and 5 until 
later. The other brands don't seem too interested in the divas, so pick your 
tag-team first and scoop up the divas later in the draft.

Also note that three legends is just a minimum - if you can get more then do 
so.

The remaining picks beyond ten should be roughly balanced between clean and 
dirty superstars as best you can.

Typically, I would sign the first five stars you pick to 6-month contracts, the 
next 5 to 3-month contracts and the rest to 5 week contracts. With everyone on 
the roster including all the Legends, you should get around seventeen picks. 
That will leave you with around two-million dollars in cash.

Your first ten superstars are the ones you're going to heavily invest in. They 
will carry your rivalries and fill your match card week to week. The rest 
beyond that are a floating pool to manipulate as you see fit (see the section 
on trading).

5.c. Clean/dirty and the championships
--------------------------------------

The next thing to do is decide who will be clean and who will be dirty. I like 
to decide this at the start of the season and keep it that way. The promo slots 
are too valuable to waste on switching a superstar. Be sure to get this right - 
either from your notes or the superstar's natural inclination.

The first ten on your roster should be perfectly balanced - a clean tag-team, 
cruiserweight or diva and two others along with their five dirty counterparts. 
Whatever you have beyond ten should also be divided as evenly as you can.

With that done, assign the championships to the five clean stars you have 
chosen and you're done.

-[ 6. Setting Up the Season ]-

6.a. Starting Rivalries
-----------------------

Your next job is to get on and start the rivalries. Go to the storyline writers 
and purchase every available five-star storyline. Then go to the rivalries 
menu.

Making sure that each rivalry is set to last at least ten weeks...

Create a five-star rivalry between the clean holder of your A-title and his 
dirty counterpart. This is your A-title rivalry and will be your main event 
each week.

Create a five-star rivalry between the clean holder of your B-title and his 
dirty counterpart. This is your B-title rivalry and will be your Match 4 each 
week.

Create the highest starred rivalry you can between the clean holder of your 
C-title and his/her dirty counterpart. This is your C-title rivalry and will be 
your Match 3 each week.

Create the highest starred rivalry you can between the clean holders of your 
tag titles and their dirty counterparts. This is your D-title rivalry and will 
be your Match 2 each week.

Note that the last rivalry could be the 4-star Patriotism story or you can 
choose another, better storyline between two individuals, one from each team.

Rivalries add value to matches as previously discussed. The longer they last, 
the more value they add. A rivalry lasts as long as all the participants are 
involved in a match. If a week goes by in which they are not involved, the 
rivalry ends. It also ends when it reaches the length set when it is created.

Your job therefore is to set the rivalries to last as close to 13 weeks as you 
can. Longer rivalries have little or no value. To keep the rivalry alive, 
you'll have your stars feuding week in and week out with each other on the 
card.

6.b. The First Match Card
-------------------------

First of all, select the phone and choose options. In play options, set the 
match card to 'Re-Run'. This means that each new show will automatically copy 
the last. This is good news because it keeps your rivalries alive and means you 
only have to make a few adjustments to keep things interesting.

Now proceed to the calendar. You will either go straight to your match card 
(RAW) or have a few training days before it (Smackdown). If you have training 
days, use them as detailed in the next section. When you get to your first 
card, set it up like this:

Main Event - Make an A-title championship match between your two rival 
superstars.
Match 4 - Make a B-title championship match between your two rival superstars.
Match 3 - Make a C-title championship match between your two rival superstars.
Match 2 - Make a D-title championship match between your two rival tag-teams.
Match 1 - Make a special match involving as many of your unused stars as you 
can.

Initially, you'll want to vary the special match types a little bit. Ladder 
matches, cage matches etc. are good for star-ratings but fatigue your 
superstars. For now, start with normal matches apart from match 1. Make match 1 
as interesting as you can - a six-man tag, four-man tornado tag or TLC tornado 
tag are all good options.

-[ 7. Playing Week to Week ]-

A lot of what you do as a GM will concern managing your roster and putting on 
the weekly shows between PPVs. You have some major tasks that correspond to the 
elements of successful matches...

1. Increase the popularity of your superstars.
2. Keep your rivalries alive.
3. Manipulate the championship picture.
4. Keep the match card varied with special matches.

Your other duties are also vital...

5. Manage superstars' fatigue and avoid injury.
6. Manage superstars' morale.

Taking these tasks one by one...

7.a. Increase the popularity of your superstars
-----------------------------------------------

As you can see on the calendar, you have a number of training days each week 
between shows that are available to improve your stars. Although you can do 
many things - raise attributes, raise skills, raise popularity - I think that 
only one of them is really relevant: popularity.

Popular superstars mean high-rated shows, so you want to get everyone on your 
card as high as you can. A superstars popularity increases when he or she wins 
and decreases when he or she loses, but it can also be raised on training days.

One important point to note is that when a superstar's popularity hits 100, it 
seems to lock and will no longer go down if the superstar loses. Instead, it 
only decreases if the superstar is assigned to R&R (see 7.e. Managing Fatigue). 
So you will do well to raise your superstars' popularity to 100 as quickly as 
possible.

To do this, you want to start with the superstars you are using most frequently 
- those involved in your rivalries. Go to the magazines and choose 'View 
Roster'. Sort the roster by popularity and work out who you need to train this 
week. Then consider the options below...

Popularity for men
------------------

Trophy Date - +5%/+8%

I personally find the best value popularity raiser to be the trophy date. It 
gives +5/+8 popularity for 10% fatigue and $500. Unfortunately, it is only 
available to men. It's a good choice for a superstar on 3 bars of fatigue or 
less (see 7.e.)

Charity Work - +2%/+4%

The other staple of popularity raising is Charity Work. Choose this for 
fatigued superstars who need a boost in popularity.

Popularity for women
--------------------

Other Brand Invasion - +5%/+8%

I reckon the best choice for Divas - who cannot trophy date - is the Brand 
Invasion. It costs 20% fatigue and so needs to be used sparingly but is still 
useful.

Website Interview - +3%/+5%

Another good choice for Divas, costing slightly less fatigue at 10%.

Charity Work - +2%/4%

As for the men, a great fatigue-free booster.

Each week, pick a superstar and use the boosters above to raise their 
popularity to 100. If their fatigue is 3 bars or less, use the more costly 
boosters. If it is higher, use Charity work. When you hit 100, move to the next 
superstar and repeat. Start with the A-title clean superstar, then the A-title 
dirty superstar and then on to the B,C and D titles followed by the rest of the 
roster.

7.b. Keep Rivalries Alive
-------------------------

All you do here is ensure that your rivalry participants are involved in a 
match each week.

Now, when I say 'involved', I don't necessarily mean that they fight, only that 
they appear together in a match. Let's say you have Stone Cold and Piper 
feuding. Any of these will keep the rivalry going...

Singles match - Stone Cold vs Piper

Tag match - Stone Cold and Foley vs Piper and Rude

Tag match - Stone Cold and Piper vs The Rock and Foley

Two on one - Stone Cold w/ Piper vs Rude

Yes, that's right, the rival superstars DO NOT have to be on opposite sides of 
the match. This can be very valuable as we will see in 7.c. and 7.f.

7.c. Manipulate the Championship Picture
----------------------------------------

As time wears on and your superstars get more popular, more and more of them 
will want a title shot. However, you will be favouring the two participants in 
your A-title rivalry to fight the championship matches.

What it comes down to is this: a superstar can only have a title shot if he is 
in the top 10 of the Power 25. The best way to put him or her there is to 
ensure that in a given week, he wins and most, if not all, of those above him 
lose. By the next week, he'll be in the top 10 and available for a championship 
shot. However, this can create two problems...

1. If your champion fights the contender rather than the rival he is feuding 
with, your valuable rivalry will be lost.
2. If your champion drops the belt to the contender, he and his rival cannot 
contest it.

So how can you allow the champion to fight the contender and avoid these 
problems?

Simple. Let's say that in the scenario above Stone Cold (the champion) and 
Piper are your rivals and Undertaker wants a title shot.

Instead of your normal Stone Cold vs Piper submission match, make a two-on-one 
no manager vs with manger match. Make it Undertaker vs Austin w/ Piper. 
Referring to the previous section, we can see that this will keep the rivalry 
alive.

So how to ensure Undertake doesn't grab the belt? Two ways...

a. If the match type is one in which you can get disqualified and weapons are 
available (submission, normal etc etc.), choose to play the match as 
Undertaker. Get straight out of the ring, pick up a weapon and hit Austin with 
it. Instant DQ for Undertaker and the belt remains with Austin.

b. In a match where DQs are legal or weapons unavailable (cage, hardcore etc.) 
just play the match as Austin and beat the contender. Set the difficulty to 
easy if you have to.

7.d. Keep the match card varied
-------------------------------

To keep ratings high you need each show to be different from the last. So each 
week, go to your match card and change the match type.

I often alternate between normal matches and special matches. The reason is 
that a superstar's fatigue goes up in special matches but stays the same or 
goes down in normal matches. So for a two-man match, I might have:

Week 1 - Stone Cold vs Piper - normal match
Week 2 - Stone Cold vs Piper - submission match
Week 3 - Stone Cold vs Piper - normal match
Week 4 - Stone Cold vs Piper - ladder match

Similarly, four men can alternate comfortable between tag, tornado tag, single 
w/ manager vs single w/ manager and so on while picking up little fatigue. 
There are even more options for six men.

7.e. Manage fatigue / avoid injury
----------------------------------

Basically as described above. My rule of thumb is...

If a superstar has four or more bars of fatigue, keep him in normal matches and 
raise his popularity with charity work.
If he has three or less, go for special matches and trophy dates.

I typically find that almost everyone needs to rest after PPVs, so most matches 
on the card are normal at that time. Following this cycle of normal/special 
matches seem to keep most stars fairly comfortable.

If you have to, you can always use a training day to give a superstar some R&R, 
drop his fatigue by 3 and then rebuild his popularity with Charity Work.

In the event that a superstar becomes so seriously injured that they are out of
action, pump and dump them as described in section 8. It can also be useful to
give them some time off occasionally as described in section 7.j.

7.f. Manage morale
------------------

Morale is important. Superstars can be happy, content, unsatisfied, upset or 
furious. If they get furious, there is a chance they'll just walk off your 
show. At the start of the week, go to the roster and sort it by morale. See who 
is less than happy and then select them. Their comments on their card will tell 
you why they aren't happy. The possibilities are:

a. The superstar is losing every week

Solve this by ensuring that the superstar wins his match. Use the method 
described for keeping the championship belt in 7.c.

b. The superstar wants a title shot

Get him or her one, as described in 7.c. This becomes a more frequent problem 
as your superstars' popularity rises.

c. The superstars wants a match

Rotate him or her in. If you have a big roster, you may not be able to use 
everyone every week so be sure to vary who is fighting in Match 1 to keep 
everyone happy.

7.g. Using Promos
-----------------

I really only found three uses for the promo slots - bumping matches, raising 
cash and keeping rivalries going.

Bumping matches
---------------

Promos can make the difference between a 4 and 5 star match. A championship 
match between two 100 popularity stars in a two-thumb rivalry is probably good 
for 4 to 4.5 stars. Add in two promos - either Interview Space with one of the 
stars or Title Match Hype - and you should get a 5-star match and an extra 
point toward your goal.

Raising cash
------------

Keep an eye on your contracts as mentioned in section 8. You shouldn't really 
need to run advertising or merchandising promos but if you see a lot of 
contract renewals coming up and cash is tight, run a couple of these.

Keeping rivalries going
-----------------------

In an emergency, such as an injured star, or if you just want to string a 
rivalry out to the next PPV, put in a rivalry promo. The stars can then take a 
rest and the week won't count toward the rivalry's length.

7.h. Increasing Ratings
-----------------------

If you check off each of this six factors before confirming each show, all four 
of the contributors to high star ratings will steadily improve. Your superstars 
will become more popular, your rivalries will lengthen, there will be regular 
championship matches and the match types will vary. In addition you will also 
have happy, injury free superstars.

For the first few weeks, all of this will probably mean 3.5 star shows but as 
time goes by, you'll begin to creep up to 4 and then to 4.5. As you do, you'll 
notice that ECW typically tops out at 3 stars and Smackdown at 4. Once you pass 
them, the ratings will begin to climb.

7.i. PPVs
---------

When PPVs come around, treat them as you would any other weekly card, save for 
two major aspects.

PPV speciality matches
----------------------

When setting the match type, abandon normal matches in favour of the delights 
available only at PPVs. Hell in a Cell, for example, is always a good draw. 
Look carefully at the match types available and choose those not normally 
present.

PPV fixed matches
-----------------

Some PPVs, particularly cross-brand PPVs, have a different match card. Instead 
of the normal slots, you may be obliged to fill a six-man elimination chamber, 
participate in a cross-brand Battle Royal and so on. If so, just remember to 
put in your most important rivalries first and then fill the unusual slots in 
the card with the remaining rivalry participants.

Again, refer to section 3 for tips on picking up points at PPVs.

7.j. Starting the cycle over again
----------------------------------

Once your rivalries have run 13 weeks, end them and simply start the whole 
cycle over again as described in the setting up section. Keep this farming 
process going and you should reach 100% fairly swiftly. If a rivalry 
accidentally ends before that point, again, start it again. It appears to make 
no difference if you run Stone Cold vs Piper in 'The Greatest of All Time' for 
13 weeks and then proceed to restart exactly the same rivalry with exactly the 
same participants the following week. It may be boring but it does the job.

If you reach the end of a cycle and find that many of your stars are heavily
fatigued, give them a couple of weeks off. First, delete any outstanding
rivalries. Then run a bare minimum match using your ten least fatigued stars
in normal singles matches. Use the promo slots to apply 'Inactive Superstar'
to your most fatigued superstars. Soon fatigue levels will be back to an
acceptable level and you can begin the cycle again.

-[ 8. Finance and Trading ]-

In general, if you follow the formula above then your finances will look after 
themselves and you shouldn't need to do much trading. However, some bargains 
are available.

Pumping and dumping
-------------------

Beyond your core roster of 10-12 stars, you'll likely have a floating pool of 
extras on 5 week contracts. These guys can be useful to slowly expand your core 
roster of 100 popularity stars giving you more options for the future. They can 
also save you a good deal of money.

Consider the following situation. I have The Great Khali on my books. He has a 
popularity of 57, has 1 week left on his contract and is unsatisfied because he 
has been losing every week.

I could pay to renew his contract, but I would prefer to pump and dump him.

To do this, I consider what the maximum I can reasonably expect to raise his 
popularity by will be. In this case, it's four training days for four trophy 
dates and somewhere between +20% and +32%.

So now I go to the 'propose trades' option. I take a look at the RAW and ECW 
rosters, sorting them by contract length. I'm looking for anyone with a 
popularity of 76 (57% + 20% -1%) or less, the same alignment (clean/dirty) as 
Khali and a decent contract length.

RAW has Johnny Nitro, 76 popularity, dirty and with 14 weeks left on his 
contract. Perfect.

Back to the calendar. I send Khali on 4 consecutive trophy dates, pumping his 
popularity to at least 77%. Back to the trade menu, I offer Khali to Coach in 
exchange for Nitro.

The computerised Coach conveniently ignores the fact that Khali has 4 fatigue 
while Nitro has none. He ignores the fact that Khali has a week left on his 
contract while Nitro has 14. He cares only that I am offering him a superstar 
at least a point in popularity higher than his. He makes the trade and I 
cheerfully dump Khali onto RAW.

I've now saved all the cash I would have spent on renewing Khali and have 
another star who is potentially worth investing in to make popularity 100. Even 
if I only get someone with 6 weeks on their contract, I can run them for 5 
weeks and then pump and dump them just the same. If I get lucky with the 
pumping, I could raise Khali's popularity as far as 89%. In that case, I would 
look beyond Nitro for anyone of popularity 88 or less who would be useful. 
However, by checking beforehand I know that I'm always going to be able to dump 
Khali off in a trade.

Two for one
-----------

In the same vein, I may offer Dreamer one of my high-popularity stars with only 
1 week left on his contract for two of his guys in the 50s and 60s with 24 
weeks left on each of their contracts. He may well take it, and that could 
prove very advantageous to me in the long term. Even if I don't like what I 
get, I can always pump and dump one or more of these guys. Furthermore, my guy 
may well not get his contract renewed by Dreamer and could be available as a 
free agent next week. In this way, it's fairly easy to build a roster of 20 
high-popularity superstars. There seems to be no limit to how many trades you 
can offer, so start ambitious and work your way down.

-[ 9. Final Notes ]-

This FAQ is a work in progress. If you spot any errors or have anything to add, 
please let me know at [email protected] and you will be credited in 
the next version. I would be particularly interested to hear about any good 
strategies for manipulating the Power 25 and achieving the difficult goals.



Copyright 2007 Phil Mattingly

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