six man titles

[seanh529]

I probably have asked about this before, but has anyone had any luck with a federation with a 6 man tag championship?

I've been thinking about putting them in my federation, but I want to really establish some consistency with the guys in the "division."

Any stories or ideas are welcome!

Sean

[wickedrex]

It sounds like a decent idea, but I've never really given it any thought for my circuits. I don't think I'd have the ability to keep it going for very long. But I look forward to seeing what you can come up with.

[snabbit888]

I've never really had much luck with them. I lose interest too fast. It's too similar to the tag team division for my liking. It comes off a bit redundant to me, but that's merely personal preference.

[theimpalertmx]

If you are going to do it I would suggest not having tag team titles. Regular tag matches can be used to build towards the six man titles. It eliminates the problem of being to similar to the tag team division. I would also suggest having factions play a role - not necessarily just having stables of three, but having teams within stables. Most tag team angles can still be applied and they can even add an extra dynamic.

For example, Two members of the team have become fed up with each other... what does the third guy do? Does he side with one of them? Does he work hard to solve their differences? Does he dump the both entirely in favor of new partners? It's a more intriguing way to run the typical Partner 1 turns on Partner 2 angle. Another easy one is to have one member of the team start to struggle - keeps being the one getting pinned in matches, makes miscues, etc. You are left with the same decisions above.

What is even better is what can shoot off it if. Because the promotion I used in them was all about guys having factions when a threesome split it would sometimes form a whole new faction. Sometimes the three members all becomes leaders of new factions and start picking from the other factions or bringing new guys in. It is what Dragon Gate has always done when they've reshuffled the deck and I think looking at how that promotion does things is a good model for how you can run such a promotion.

My current TNM project has me doing this - it is all about factions. I have 4 or 5 stables to start with and run it very much like a traditional sports league. There is a World Title, but it still revolves around the idea of using these teams. And I don't have to worry about making a secondary singles title because every match has importance to one wrestler's team. I end up using a lot of options that TNM 7 has always had that most people probably don't use. For example, having elimination matches where guys have to be pinned more than once to be eliminated.

I wish I had the time to make my circuit one I could post publicly, but I dont have the time to put enough detail into such an effort that would make me satisfied. I mean, I keep little notes about angles and such for myself, but most of the drama plays out in my head. If I put something up I feel it has to be compelling enough for people to want to follow it because otherwise what is the point of posting it? It's secondary to the personal enjoyment I get out of it, but that's exactly it - I don't have to post a circuit to do that.

Any way, I hope this helped some.

[seanh529]

That is an interesting concept. I just finished having multiple factions in my circuit when I had "The New Church" then I had "New Europe" and the MexiCANS and it turned me off from doing large factions until I can come up with something I like.

Currently the only real stable I'm working on is Steve Corino's Corino family, but in my head I want him to manage wrestlers kind of like Bobby Hennan's Hennan Family. Corino being the manager means he has their best interest at heart. He currently is managing AJ Styles and Bobby Fish, but AJ isn't involved in anything Bobby Fish is doing and vice versa. Corino is managing them individually, not as a stable.

With my large roster (49 currently) I am really into divisions. I have my Heavyweight, Tag Team, X-Division. My thought process was to open up another division that is a six man division. The idea would be that a tag team and one singles competitor must compete as a team.

In my head the way my fed is set up is a person gets hired and they must announce what division they will compete in. Heavy, X, or Tag Team. Once they commit to that division they can only go after those titles. (The brand mapping is awesome to keep good win loss records on this.) Wrestlers can change divisions at any time, but I've noticed in the past when I looked at my circuit history that I had so many teams that literally only wrestled as a team one time. It was annoying and so I'm trying to put an end to that.

I might try to bring in six man titles in a few months. (currently I'm in February 2003, and am thinking of adding them around the summer of 03.) I think I can keep it interesting with the concept of a tag team and one partner has to team together to be a six man tag team. This will keep me from adding too many random three person teams to the mix.

Maybe I'll even hold a King of Trios 2004 tournament once I get the division established.

I have decided that I am going to run a "Real World Tag League" Round Robin tournament in the winter of 03 circuit time, with the Finals being the standard main event for Christmas Chaos.

We will see how it all plays out.

[LillaThrilla]

Perhaps look at lucha libre and see how they do things? I think many Mexican wrestling organizations have both Tag Titles AND Trios Titles.

[gentlemanjeff]

Lucha libre is mostly Trios matches, the tag titles are the relative afterthoughts there.

I like six-man titles as special, irregular belts defended in stable fight situations. Like, have a six man belt, sure, but don't feel like it has to be defended on every pay per view--instead, view it as the icing on top of an angle between two sides. Faces get mad at heels, heels get mad at faces, they fight for the six man titles, later they all fight individually. Just a step in the story.

[JoshiQ]

I could never make this work. I have enough of a hard time making tag teams interesting. Not to mention it's really hard to get the members of a tag team to have different personalities. I usually end up writing them like they are both just one person until they split. I can't imagine the difficulties of trying to make three different characters but only one team. Way too time consuming.

[JoshiQ]

Kind of like when you're trying to write a promo or a summary of a promo for a tag team. It's hard enough to get both men to speak and have different things to say but still focusing in on a main point. Neither man ends up getting much air time. A three man team would just make it harder.

[rey619]

I think it depends on the circuit model. I mean, it works in Dragon Gate and in Mexico, and it would have worked in Chikara too. As others have said, you need to build your promotion around stables and have the 6-man tag belt be something special.

[theimpalertmx]

Indeed and I think that is the problem most people have with pulling it off - they try to fit them into a style of promotion where it just doesn't fit. You most likely can't run a "traditional" American style promotion with 6-Man Titles unless you have a giant roster... and even then does that really work? Think about WCW - how many nobodies were in each World War 3 Match? Or geez, remember the Thunder video game that had frickin' Rick Fuller as a character? (Nothing against Rick Fuller - I've met him, he's a nice enough guy, and is a wrestling god in comparison to the rest of the guys you typically see at a gym/armory indy show.)

It works the places it does because of the importance that is placed on teams. Hell, it can even be done just with one stable. Think of how Michinoku Pro was booked during the height of K-DX. It was the rest of the promotion vs. the super heel group. No one on the Michinoku side really had a regular tag partner outside of Delfin/Naniwa. Of course, Michinoku Pro really didn't have any titles that were defended regularly, but that is again where the atmosphere of your promotion comes in. In their case, and in the case of most lucha-style promotions, one's honor is more important than a title belt.

So really the key to success is establishing the your promotion's culture (as in the feel, not necessarily the nationality.) It makes you go to the really basic things about building characters and angles, things that you might overlook once you've had a circuit running for a while and it feels like you are booking on auto-pilot. What is important to each character? What are their goals? Is there someone who makes a natural enemy because of these principles? Likewise are there people whose motivations will make them an ally? Taking this approach will give you a solid foundation to build your first angles on. After that it is all about how those angles affect the dynamics of the team.

Example

Wrestler X, Y, & Z decide to form a stable because they all believe that demonstrating good sportsmanship is important. They respect the traditions of the business and believe in clean competition. XYZ eventually finds itself against Wrestlers A, B, and C who are simply guys that don't care about how they are viewed and will do anything to win (lie, cheat, steal...) XYZ feuds with ABC, ABC ends up the decisive winner of the feud after several months. As a result, Wrestler Z feels like the approach he was taking just will not work and comes into conflict with X & Y. Wrestler Z decides turns on his partners and established his own team. X & Y respond by recruiting a new member of their team and carry on in the same tradition.

See, easy. That right there could get you through a whole year involving at least nine members of your roster with the right booking.

[rebelins313]

I think it only works if you put some effort into it. I've ran lucha style feds with 2/3 falls matches for Trios titles and it's worked out fine but you just have to have a big enough roster to bring an influx of differing wrestlers for it to work.