What is best to do with a bad angle?

[Mozenrath]

You're a booker. The popular team of Johnny Kickpads and Beef Stockwell have been going strong for half a year now. Still, you think it might be even more electric if they feud. Beef walks out on Johnny in a backstage segment, citing Johnny's propensity for eating doritos, not reattaching the chip clip, and so all the chips get stale. There's no reconciling things, it must come to blows!

It goes over like a damp squib. The crowds hate it, the internet's mocking it, and the wrestlers, even, don't seem happy with your decision to split them up. You could keep plowing ahead, hoping the pieces will fall into place, or you can have the duo put aside their differences and continue on with a new lease on life. Still, though, you won't know if you should have stayed the course.

Generally speaking, as a company, is it better to try to trudge ahead in the face of fan negativity in order to keep to your vision and maybe have some big pay off in the future? Or do you fold when the fans hate it, either rejecting your new pushed wrestler, or refusing to accept your big feud you thought would do gangbusters? After all, it's important to keep them happy, but they also do not always know what you are building towards, and you as a booker HAVE to keep a few balls in the air when juggling your roster and angles, or you risk burning the crowd. Sometimes, a popular act does need to turn, or a disliked wrestler needs their day in the sun to keep the talent happy or to try to cultivate them into reaching their potential. Then again, is it just being bull-headed?

What's better? Being bold, but also potentially stubborn and alienating? Or being flexible, but potentially flaky or complacent?

[Mozenrath]

I should add, I know the ideal solution is probably a compromise where you pivot a bad angle into something that gives the audience something that they are satisfied with, and which doesn't f*** you out of what you wanted to build to, but I'm talking about the extreme positions. We see both done by wrestling companies, big and small, historically and modern, so I want to know the preference people have.

[Deleted]

I say try to either spin it into something that works or to rush it to a quick but reasonable conclusion. If neither of those is a possibility then abort it; it's bad writing certainly but if no one cares about it why keep it going?

[SmashTV]

Cut your losses and nip it in the bud, and never speak of it again.

[Deleted]

I would just rush it. Like, have them wrestle at the next show, shake hands, and then be a team again.

[Deleted]

Doritos on a Pole match on Monday night followed by a handshake and both wrestlers sharing the chips with Johnny producing a chip clip just to demonstrate the authenticity of his remorse.

[Tiger Millionaire]

Marry her, slappy!

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

Feb 19, 2019 12:07:05 GMT -5 @therealoblivion said:

I would just rush it. Like, have them wrestle at the next show, shake hands, and then be a team again.

Yup. How many times did WWE try to break up the Hardy’s and quietly abort it? I wanna say at least 3 and they all went over like a fart in church.

[Hit Girl]

I'd have Johnny and Beef go online and tell the fans they are idiots who have never booked a promotion before so their opinion doesn't matter.

[Mozenrath]

Feb 19, 2019 15:25:39 GMT -5 The Summer of Muskrat XVII said:

Feb 19, 2019 12:07:05 GMT -5 @therealoblivion said:

I would just rush it. Like, have them wrestle at the next show, shake hands, and then be a team again.

Yup. How many times did WWE try to break up the Hardy’s and quietly abort it? I wanna say at least 3 and they all went over like a fart in church.

I loved when they explained one of the times of just having them say, "We're brothers, we worked it out off-camera", pretty much.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

Feb 19, 2019 16:21:30 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Feb 19, 2019 15:25:39 GMT -5 The Summer of Muskrat XVII said:

Yup. How many times did WWE try to break up the Hardy’s and quietly abort it? I wanna say at least 3 and they all went over like a fart in church.

I loved when they explained one of the times of just having them say, "We're brothers, we worked it out off-camera", pretty much.

I wanna say that was like December 2000. They teased it for a few weeks, and then all of a sudden they were cool and back to chasing the tag belts.

I think they actually tried it again in December 2001 again with the exact same results

[Mozenrath]

Feb 19, 2019 16:26:42 GMT -5 The Summer of Muskrat XVII said:

Feb 19, 2019 16:21:30 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I loved when they explained one of the times of just having them say, "We're brothers, we worked it out off-camera", pretty much.

I wanna say that was like December 2000. They teased it for a few weeks, and then all of a sudden they were cool and back to chasing the tag belts.

I think they actually tried it again in December 2001 again with the exact same results

The one I am thinking of was even later, since it was after the feud that'd come with the whole setting the house on fire bit.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

Feb 19, 2019 16:30:43 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Feb 19, 2019 16:26:42 GMT -5 The Summer of Muskrat XVII said:

I wanna say that was like December 2000. They teased it for a few weeks, and then all of a sudden they were cool and back to chasing the tag belts.

I think they actually tried it again in December 2001 again with the exact same results

The one I am thinking of was even later, since it was after the feud that'd come with the whole setting the house on fire bit.

Oh, when Jeff was champ. I couldn’t remember how they explained that one away.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

...what flavor of Doritos are we talking about? If it's the spicy nacho or sweet chili Doritos, then yeah I can see them fighting during a backstage interview. But if it's those gross ass ketchup chips, then of course the feud is gonna bomb.

Seriously, if the angle has no heat and low crowd reactions, or it's so offensive to where it causes public relation issues with your company, take it behind the barn.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

Find a way to end it as soon as possible and correct any mistakes made in the process. For example, if someone turned heel and it wasn’t working out turn them back. People get upset over misunderstandings all the time. They don’t have to be a heel from now on because of it. Resolve it and have it make sense. Fans don’t forget. It’s best to give the angle a blow off and move on. Dropping things out of the blue without any explanation shows you don’t care and when you stop caring so will your fans.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

There has to be some kind of resolution that the fans can see... no matter how stupid, it shouldn't be an off-screen 'we talked it out' hand-wave. Even an in-ring talk and shaking of hands would work.

You start something, you gotta finish it, even if it doesn't go where you wanted it to go.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Pull the plug and never talk about it again. See Claire Lynch.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

If I don't have the option of having them acknowledge in kayfabe that it was all bullshit and they're sticking together, I would definitely drop it without mentioning it again.

[johnnyk9]

it depends on who it involves