Be the Booker with Wrestling Empire
The sim lets you take over the world as a wrestling promoter
It was at the start of 2021 when I first wrote about Wrestling Empire for SUPERJUMP Magazine. At the time the focus was on the game’s wrestler career mode as you took your avatar through the ranks and won championships belts. Since then, the game itself has almost tripled in size with regular updates continuing still. Perhaps the most significant and anticipated addition was a brand new game mode to take players out of the ring and into the “office”.
In professional wrestling jargon, the term “office” refers to all the powers who work behind the scenes, the individuals responsible for not just putting on the show, but also quite literally writing the very fate of the wrestlers involved. The pencil has long served as the symbol of the pro wrestling “booker”, the person in charge of the creative direction of the wrestling product.
More than big muscles and athleticism, it is the pencil of the wrestling promoter and booker which seals the fate of the spandex warrior. The late Brian Pillman (1962–1997) famously shattered the illusion when he uttered the words “I respect you, booker man” on live television before going on to wrestle, quite literally, a giant pencil while in the buff. Be sure to check out Season 3, Episodes 1&2 of Dark Side of the Ring if you wish to learn more about this infamous performer who broke barriers.
The booking career mode of Wrestling Empire was added for free during the middle of 2021 as part of a major update. It puts players behind the desk as the booker in charge of running the wrestling show and, quite literally, building a wrestling empire (hence the title of the game)! Video game fans are probably familiar with the subgenre of sports management, with games like Championship Manager being notorious for their addictive loop, and even just the general culture surrounding fantasy sports teams for leagues like NFL and NBA.
Fantasy booking in pro wrestling is a completely different beast, and if you look at the fandom today, most aspire to write a pro wrestling narrative rather than ever take a bump in the ring. Go on Twitter or YouTube following a major wrestling pay-per-view, and you will find numerous fans presenting how they would have done things differently. To an outsider, it would be like if the audience controlled the direction and narrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The audience is the lifeblood of the show, and so their opinion and involvement matter. It takes the notion of “audience participation” as fan feedback and input that can shape the narrative. If fans are not buying someone as the world champion, then it just doesn’t work, and more often than not the wrestling promoter needs to deliver what the paying customers want. If the live audience are rooting for their hero to overcome the odds and win the big one, then any other conclusion would likely incite a riot. If this sounds like an exaggeration, then just look up the WWE Championship match between John Cena and Rob Van Dam, which took place in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on June 11, 2006.
The role of the wrestling booker is far more hectic than that of any ring performer. If the wrestling career mode of Wrestling Empire sounded dramatic enough when I first wrote about it, then the booking career mode takes the drama and politics to a whole other level. When you’re the one in charge, every wrestler’s problem becomes yours. In the game, you have to focus on maintaining the morale and health of your wrestling locker room, all while competing against rival wrestling companies as you build your audience all over the globe.
You literally scour the world map here, everywhere from the United States, to Japan, to Australia, and even Greenland. It’s about figuring out where you want to build your audience, and you don’t want to spread yourself too thin, nor do you want to go on a conquering spree as the taxes start to add up quickly.
As a booker, your true enemy is the budget, on top of which the company owner constantly breathes down your neck by setting unreasonable deadlines. Sometimes these intrusions can even be regarding your creative plans, where the owner may ask you to do the uncomfortable task of firing someone, or even decide that the world champion you carefully built up needs to be replaced immediately by someone else. Anyone who follows the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the wrestling business will find this all too familiar.
With budgets come wrestler contracts, and this requires careful negotiation with each talent in the roster. Everything from appearance fees, to upfront payments, and additional clauses such as downside guarantees, health insurance, and even creative control. The contract negotiation can be quite the back and forth chess match, and things get especially tricky if the wrestler also happens to hold one of your championship titles, giving them the upper hand in the bargaining process.
If all the backstage logistics weren’t demanding enough, there’s also a show to put on. As the booker, your job is to produce and direct compelling in-ring competition that can win over the fans and depending on where you are on the map, the audience expectations will be different. It’s all about reacting to the audience, everything from the type of match and even the style of performers who perform on the show.
Wrestling can be quite diverse, and the numerous wrestling promotions which exist today are a testament to how there’s something for everyone. Whether you are after the grandiose entertainment style of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the almost sumo-like discipline of New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), or even something really out-there like the “Death Match” shock value of Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), it’s all available.
The ring is where the real magic happens, and as the booker you want your talent to put on the best show possible for the live audience. This isn’t just to draw big crowds to earn that gate revenue but also with the aim of getting high TV ratings. In Wrestling Empire each contest is scored on a 5-star rating system, adapted from the conventional rating system popularised by the long-running publication Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and there are several ingredients that go into making a wrestling match.
Firstly, there needs to be chemistry between the competitors, preferably a longstanding feud, and a little microphone drama helps too. Then the action needs to be paced to keep the audience engaged, making sure each competitor gets sufficient ring time with a variety of wrestling maneuvers. It also helps to plan out a few key sections where the violence is turned up a notch (mostly involving steel chairs!), and finally making sure that the match doesn’t overstay its welcome.
The way this all translates into gameplay is where Wrestling Empire succeeds in creating the most immersive and involving pro wrestling experience on a virtual canvas. The game lets you take control of all the participants, including the referee of the match, and as you switch between the performers and build a compelling contest to a satisfying crescendo. It’s both challenging and satisfying as you watch the 5-star scale fluctuate in real-time, and it’s especially heartbreaking when the rating takes a dive just when you thought the crowd was in the palm of your hand.
Hitting the fifth star and breaking the scale is where it all pays off, but if you’re struggling then it’s worth calling it home early while the match is still hot. There’s a little risk and reward involved here: do you play it safe with a reasonably engaging match, or do you take chances to hit the highest rating even if the effort could backfire.
As you go up against rival wrestling companies, it is a battle of ratings, crowd attendance, and territories. As part of the vicious nature of the business, it’s also about stealing top talent from other companies with an offer too good for them to refuse. It’s certainly difficult to succeed in all of these areas at the same time, and sometimes the price of being the #1 company can be quite high, as production costs get out of control and wrestlers demand higher salaries. And yes, should you fail to meet expectations, you can indeed get fired from your managerial role. If you want a real-life case study, look no further than the turbulent history of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as retold in the bestseller Death of WCW (ECW Press).
Wrestling Empire succeeds at providing the most involved and hands-on video game experience as a wrestling promoter, with all of the ins and outs. For wrestling fans, this is the sort of experience they can lose hours into. It is a completely different gaming experience to the wrestler career mode, and to have this as a free update is a resounding tip of the hat to the game’s sole creator, Mat Dickie. With regular updates still coming, it’s only a matter of time before the much anticipated and fabled “free roam” mode comes to fruition.
Wrestling Empire by Mat Dickie @MatDickieDotCom is available now on Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, and PC (via Steam).
