Post by Mongo the Destroyer on Aug 7, 2020 21:04:42 GMT -5
Showrunning can be one of the most intimidating staff roles that a fed has. For clarification, when I say “showrunning” I mean the job of putting the show together so that it’s ready to post come show time. Generally, this task is done by a senior admin or the fed owner (because you don’t want a junior admin to screw everything up and cause you to lose the show or something). But it doesn’t have to be particularly scary or even all that difficult. Today I’m going to try to pull back the curtain and show you some of my secrets to help streamline the process as well as just some practical tips on how to do it better. I hope that in giving you some advice it’ll help inexperienced admins be able to take the reins when needed without worry and maybe help current showrunners to not see it as such a stressful aspect of the production process.
So the first step actually comes before the rp-period even starts and it’s a trick I’m only recently getting the hang of. What I’m getting at is that I recommend you pre-code your cards. Later when we build the show itself, this will save us a ton of time because we’ll be able to use the card as it’s presented but with extra crap filled in. Let’s take a look at the All that Glitters card as you see it (but with smaller pics):
The XHF Network Proudly Presents: All That Glitters
Date: August 30th, 2020
The Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
Capacity: 34,500
Attendance: 10,000 (Masks required)
Interfed Challenge
Wellington Dunne vs Kono
Interfed Challenge
Adam Sanders vs Nico
Man, I use a lot of horizontal lines, right? There’s a reason for that. Let’s flip this bad boy over and see what’s on the backend:
As you can see, I’ve split each match into individual units, the center justification is a part of each match and all of the match parts- picture, match title, and compeditors are contained within a set of horizontal rules. That’s because later we can just copy and paste these without having any coding issues messing up the show or causing us to waste time as we track down errant [/whatever]s.
The upper part looks clean right? I mean, you can stylize your header and your match sections however you’d like- but the main idea here is that you want something that’s easy to work with on the back end because if you’ve got a clean look you can just copy and paste that for the next card….and the next card…..and the next card. Literally. I don’t usually make the cards these days but when I do that’s how I do it. I just copy the old card’s code and change the information in the individual sections. It saves a crap ton of time compared to doing each card individually and coding them specifically. So now you have a card that’ll be easier to work with when it comes time to build the show. Next up you need to….
By this I mean that you should have a standardized coding style that your fed uses for shows. This will be presumably be whatever the owner does when he codes matches/segments but many owners (guilty on my part too) aren’t real good at communicating that to their staff and it can lead to some confusion. So it’s important that the staff discuss the coding style so that the show looks clean when you post it. I didn’t used to care about standardization (the old XHF shows were lucky if they had any coding at all- but we were also posting two shows a week, lol) but after an outsider looked at a Supremacy (maybe 2018?) and concluded it looked like a mess of different styles I realized that yeah, actually a uniform look is better.
I recommend that when your owner lays down the standardization notes for his or her staff, their goal should be a simple but clean look that can be easily duplicated even with different writing styles. As an example I’m going to (for the first time actually, lol) give you all of the coding notes I use myself when organizing a global show.
Justifications:
I don’t like centered shows, I think it looks weird having the commentator lines being uneven- that’s the reason I do it. But obviously if the match headers are left-aligned it also looks weird. This is why up above our coding for the card featured these “pods” of code per match. Because now you can copy and paste that pod into the show and whatever is between the pods isn’t centered. If you like everything centered that’s fine- your card only needs the centering code once:
…and the individual pods can just be fonts and whatnot.
Colors:
Not every fedder is a fan of colors and I can dig that. I think on a global level they’re somewhat needed just because things can get overwhelming- at the same time I also think that too much color is distracting. To this end I heavily restrict what is and what isn’t colored. On the card (and match headers) I generally only want title matches to have a splash of color to denote the title. Some yellow, any yellow is probably fine for the match title:
XHF X*Crown Championship Match
Some Homeless Guy vs Rob Arnold ©
I might suggest some other playful colors in the header like if your show is MERICA themed you could use some red and blue (and white just in case we change the background) or if there’s no banner a splash of color in the show title might make it pop a little more.
Beyond that though, the only other place I allow colors are for when people speak- usually the commentary team (and the ring announcer). In the secret inter-fed show board I have information about and the color codes for the XHF Network staff cleanly set up so it’s easy to grab (if you have access to that board which you usually don’t). I’d suggest that somewhere in your secret forums you also have your staff information posted so that staff (and Network Admin) match writers can better do their part, which makes your job easier. This is the information for Hawke, King, and Bonnie:
One of my big sticking points, and I note this to people (and repeatedly to Dylan) is that I only color the names BEFORE the colon, not including it. This is problematic for people who use an automated system because I think that includes the colon. “Well Mongo, why don’t you include it?” Because I don’t use an automated system, lol.
When I go through a show (or more often a match after it’s been posted in a specific thread for matches [you’ll save a ton of time coding as matches are coming in rather than doing it one-shot at the end]) what I do is one person at a time I…
1. Double-click the name
2. Click the color wheel on the posting options
3. Type (or copy-paste) the desired color in
4. Bold that name
THEN, proboards automatically remembers that color so the next time I click on that person’s name the process is a little smoother because the color is already there, you just have to click the color wheel and say ok. I do it one person at a time for that reason, then I “save changes” after I finish with a guy and start the process over for the next character.
The reason all the coding is BEFORE the colon is that when I double click a name it automatically doesn’t include the colon. So to include the colon I’d have to manually highlight the name each time which oddly takes way more effort.
Generally I like commentary after each wrestler’s entrance (LOOKING AT YOU DYLAN) and to break up the action during a match.
Other Codes:
So as you saw above, I also bold each name. I noticed this makes it pop a little more and can draw a skimmer to the commentary at least if they’re buzzing through matches without reading. [Aside: As a staff member, just accept some folks won’t read everything, we’re not all interested in the same things- some folks love reading whole shows, some don’t (or don’t have time) and it’s not a sin either way]. There’s only a few other things I usually give special coding to. Obviously as you saw above there’s often some coding in match titles but here’s the full rundown:
Bold: Show title, match title, sound effects (though there might be extra card-based ones depending on who made the card, I just copy and paste if it’s clean)
Italics: Lyrics or anything spoken that is piped through the PA system in which the speaker hasn’t been revealed yet- these are also all centered because I want music or mysteries to feel separate from the rest of the show.
As a note I also usually limit intros to one verse of the lyrics. So like Rat Bastard’s insane Undertaker entrance gets cut WAY down- I don’t think intros need to be too long. I also usually combine small paragraphs that have no commentary break in the match just for a more uniform look of commentary being the paragraph breaks. No need to send me spaced out action just because you think a line break every two sentences adds more intensity to the match.
That’s…..it. I like to keep things simple because I do it all manually (in the preview window no less) so I just add in the coding as I edit matches/segments. This is why I usually ask for matches/segments to be without any code since a lot of people code things in ways I don’t like and it takes WAY more time to fix “wrong” code than it does to code something without any code. THE ONE EXCEPTION is that I want to know people’s color codes. Not having to hunt down your commentator’s colors saves me a lot of time.
BUT WAIT, NOW YOU KNOW HOW I LIKE THINGS CODED. So you can send me matches/segments fully coded- see how I did that? I just tricked you.
If you’re on the discord you might sometimes see me say something like “I’ve got the skeleton for the show set up and am already plugging in matches.” What that means is that I’ve posted a building station for the show in our secret forum and have set it up so that it’s easy to put matches into the show. Later we can just copy and paste what I’ve done there into a new post when we put the show up publically- this is important because if you just move the skeleton/building station to the results forum, the date will be wrong and you might need to do that “we are live” reply post to make it register as new for people. That looks weird and is sort of a bizarre way to end your show.
Anyway, let’s make a smaller version of All That Glitters as an example. So I set up a post in our secret forum, probably titled “All that Glitters building post (DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING)” and the first step is to copy the card over- see this is why we made those “ match pods” when we posted the card. The header is probably fine so there’s no need to change that, but between the pods let’s put some more divisions- oh and also toss the XHF Network logo after the main event to end the show with:
The XHF Network Proudly Presents: All That Glitters
Date: August 30th, 2020
The Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
Capacity: 34,500
Attendance: 10,000 (Masks required)
SHOW INTRO
MATCH INTRO
Interfed Challenge
Guillotina vs Lynx
MATCH
MATCH INTRO
XHF X*Crown Championship Match
Some Homeless Guy vs Rob Arnold ©
MATCH
Obviously, if there’s known segments you figure out places for them too. Anyway, our small card looks like this on the back side:
As you finish editing matches in the other post for turned-in matches and segments (that’ll be your backup in case you screw everything up in the skeleton) you can just copy and paste each part of that (BBCode version) into the skeleton (also BBCode window). Plug and play, bro.
Alright, let’s combine all these elements and see how the main event of All That Glitters looks- oh uh….spoilers I guess.
Bonnie Jenkins: Our main event tonight is scheduled for one fall and is for the X*Crown Championship! Making his way to the ring first- from whatever he’s from…..DYLAN BLACK!
No music plays because nobody gives a crap about Dylan. The crowd neither cheers nor boos because he’s not interesting enough, you can hear the sounds of his metal limbs clanking like pins dropping in the silent arena.
King: Wow! Dylan still works here!?
Hawke: I know right? Man does he suck
King: Just like, so much!
The lights dim down as the echoing intro to "St Patrick" by PVRIS begins to fill the arena and a single spotlight hits the entrance.
Bonnie Jenkins: And his opponent… from Bristol, England- he is the X*Crown Champion….ROB ARNOLD!
The song bursts into life, and Rob Arnold slowly enters the arena. Dressed in ring gear and an all black hoodie which restricts the view of his face, he surveys his surroundings, nodding as he can feel the crowd cheering as he steps towards the top of the ramp. Staring ahead of him, offering little but a trademark smirk he places his right foot forward and takes to a knee and then flings back his hood with his right hand. Arnold stares straight ahead towards the ring once more, before slowly standing up and making his way to the ring
Rob approaches the ring and runs his hand along the apron before approaching and walking up the steps, and then through the ropes and into the ring. Arnold heads straight for the opposite corner and climbs the second turnbuckle and smirks, before slowly raising his arms out wide, feeding from the crowd's energy in the process. Another smirk, and he hops back down, removing his hoodie, ready for action.
Hawke: And here comes our illustrious X*Crown Champion!
King: I bet he’s going to beat Dylan’s face in!
Hawke: Then he’ll have to get that replaced too
XHF X*Crown Championship Match
Dylan Black vs Rob Arnold ©
The bell rings and before anyone can even get their wits about them Dylan runs straight into Rob Arnold’s fist. Like literally, Rob was getting his fist up and Dylan ran into it assuming he wasn’t ready. He was. Dylan grabs his face and rolls out of the ring.
Hawke: Well this isn’t a good start!
Rob follows Dylan outside the ring, but he can’t find the young Mr. Black. Suddenly…
WHAM!
Rob is nailed from an up-swinging chair that Dylan, who had been hiding near the apron, grabbed under the ring.
Rob: WHAT THE HECK MATE!?
The ref is not down with this and calls for the bell.
Bonnie Jenkins: Your winner by disqualification and STILL X*Crown champion….Rob Arnold!
King: Well that was anti-climactic
Hawke: Dumb move on Dylan’s part
Rob shrugs and walks to the back as Dylan throws a temper tantrum. Also Big Drag appears with a dinosaur or something and commands the dino to eat Dylan. As the former Dylan Viper screams for mercy we fade out.
And that’s what the final product looks like. Notice that the match writer (often Vastrix) added some “dynamic dialogue” to the match. Since Vastrix doesn’t code I had to track down Rob’s color code from his most recent rp- it’s #ff0000 in case you’re curious.
Show-running can be intimidating even if you know the tricks to streamline things as much as possible and your match writers are coding their stuff. This post probably didn’t make you less freaked out- but I swear if you do some of this yourself it’ll get easier the more and more practice you get. I suck at writing so aside from other areas (like public relations and booking) I consider showrunning to be one of my major ways of contributing. I code so that the other admins don’t have to (unless somebody turned in the match ON FRIGGIN SHOW DAY while I was sleeping because of timezones)
I encourage feds with multiple administrators to let their admins give it a shot- and I strongly suggest that all fed owners figure out what style you want to use for shows and maybe make a post about it in your secret forums so that you or anyone else can quickly reference all the specific coding elements needed.
Thank you for reading and I’m more than happy to answer any questions from would-be showrunners!
Setting Yourself Up for Success
So the first step actually comes before the rp-period even starts and it’s a trick I’m only recently getting the hang of. What I’m getting at is that I recommend you pre-code your cards. Later when we build the show itself, this will save us a ton of time because we’ll be able to use the card as it’s presented but with extra crap filled in. Let’s take a look at the All that Glitters card as you see it (but with smaller pics):
The XHF Network Proudly Presents: All That Glitters
Date: August 30th, 2020
The Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
Capacity: 34,500
Attendance: 10,000 (Masks required)
Interfed Challenge
Wellington Dunne vs Kono
Interfed Challenge
Adam Sanders vs Nico
Man, I use a lot of horizontal lines, right? There’s a reason for that. Let’s flip this bad boy over and see what’s on the backend:
[div style="text-align:center;"][img alt="" style="font-size:10pt;max-width:30%;" src="https://i.imgur.com/7r4m8xg.jpeg"]
[b][u][font size="5"]The XHF Network Proudly Presents: All That Glitters[/font][/u][/b]
[font size="4"]Date: August 30th, 2020[/font]
[font size="4"]The Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand[/font]
[i][font size="4"]Capacity: 34,500[/font][/i]
[i][font size="4"]Attendance: 10,000 (Masks required)[/font][/i][/div][hr]
[hr][div style="text-align:center;"][img src="https://i.imgur.com/VvT4tE9.jpeg" alt=" " style="max-width:30%;"]
[b][font size="3"]Interfed Challenge[/font][/b]
[font size="3"]Wellington Dunne vs Kono[/font][/div][hr]
[hr][div style="text-align:center;"][img style="max-width:30%;" alt=" " src="https://i.imgur.com/uaZ5eJp.jpeg"]
[b][font size="3"]Interfed Challenge[/font][/b]
[font size="3"]Adam Sanders vs Nico[/font][/div][hr]As you can see, I’ve split each match into individual units, the center justification is a part of each match and all of the match parts- picture, match title, and compeditors are contained within a set of horizontal rules. That’s because later we can just copy and paste these without having any coding issues messing up the show or causing us to waste time as we track down errant [/whatever]s.
The upper part looks clean right? I mean, you can stylize your header and your match sections however you’d like- but the main idea here is that you want something that’s easy to work with on the back end because if you’ve got a clean look you can just copy and paste that for the next card….and the next card…..and the next card. Literally. I don’t usually make the cards these days but when I do that’s how I do it. I just copy the old card’s code and change the information in the individual sections. It saves a crap ton of time compared to doing each card individually and coding them specifically. So now you have a card that’ll be easier to work with when it comes time to build the show. Next up you need to….
Know Your Fed’s Code
By this I mean that you should have a standardized coding style that your fed uses for shows. This will be presumably be whatever the owner does when he codes matches/segments but many owners (guilty on my part too) aren’t real good at communicating that to their staff and it can lead to some confusion. So it’s important that the staff discuss the coding style so that the show looks clean when you post it. I didn’t used to care about standardization (the old XHF shows were lucky if they had any coding at all- but we were also posting two shows a week, lol) but after an outsider looked at a Supremacy (maybe 2018?) and concluded it looked like a mess of different styles I realized that yeah, actually a uniform look is better.
I recommend that when your owner lays down the standardization notes for his or her staff, their goal should be a simple but clean look that can be easily duplicated even with different writing styles. As an example I’m going to (for the first time actually, lol) give you all of the coding notes I use myself when organizing a global show.
Justifications:
I don’t like centered shows, I think it looks weird having the commentator lines being uneven- that’s the reason I do it. But obviously if the match headers are left-aligned it also looks weird. This is why up above our coding for the card featured these “pods” of code per match. Because now you can copy and paste that pod into the show and whatever is between the pods isn’t centered. If you like everything centered that’s fine- your card only needs the centering code once:
[div style="text-align:center;"]
ALL
OF
YOUR
CARD[/div]…and the individual pods can just be fonts and whatnot.
Colors:
Not every fedder is a fan of colors and I can dig that. I think on a global level they’re somewhat needed just because things can get overwhelming- at the same time I also think that too much color is distracting. To this end I heavily restrict what is and what isn’t colored. On the card (and match headers) I generally only want title matches to have a splash of color to denote the title. Some yellow, any yellow is probably fine for the match title:
XHF X*Crown Championship Match
Some Homeless Guy vs Rob Arnold ©
I might suggest some other playful colors in the header like if your show is MERICA themed you could use some red and blue (and white just in case we change the background) or if there’s no banner a splash of color in the show title might make it pop a little more.
Beyond that though, the only other place I allow colors are for when people speak- usually the commentary team (and the ring announcer). In the secret inter-fed show board I have information about and the color codes for the XHF Network staff cleanly set up so it’s easy to grab (if you have access to that board which you usually don’t). I’d suggest that somewhere in your secret forums you also have your staff information posted so that staff (and Network Admin) match writers can better do their part, which makes your job easier. This is the information for Hawke, King, and Bonnie:
Commentators:
Randy is Randy Angel. He's XHF legend Nelly Angel's alcoholic hanger-on older brother. He wrestles too but he really doesn't know wrestling too much and is usually pretty drunk even mid-show. He likes being there though!
Hawke is Joey Hawke (but use Hawke when writing his stuff). He's Mongo's right hand man now and has a lifetime's worth of experience working around wrestling. He's very knowledgeable and direct. He'll usually side with more skilled wrestlers, or ones that are particularly cunning. Pic base is Mike Tenay, so you can sort of work off of that when writing him
Ring Announcer:
Bonnie Jenkins. Just think Lilian Garcia, that's even her pic base. Let's call her by her full name when she's announcing.
Color Codes:
Randy:ff3535
Hawke:ffa505
Bonnie Jenkins:fa4eff
Randy is Randy Angel. He's XHF legend Nelly Angel's alcoholic hanger-on older brother. He wrestles too but he really doesn't know wrestling too much and is usually pretty drunk even mid-show. He likes being there though!
Hawke is Joey Hawke (but use Hawke when writing his stuff). He's Mongo's right hand man now and has a lifetime's worth of experience working around wrestling. He's very knowledgeable and direct. He'll usually side with more skilled wrestlers, or ones that are particularly cunning. Pic base is Mike Tenay, so you can sort of work off of that when writing him
Ring Announcer:
Bonnie Jenkins. Just think Lilian Garcia, that's even her pic base. Let's call her by her full name when she's announcing.
Color Codes:
Randy:ff3535
Hawke:ffa505
Bonnie Jenkins:fa4eff
One of my big sticking points, and I note this to people (and repeatedly to Dylan) is that I only color the names BEFORE the colon, not including it. This is problematic for people who use an automated system because I think that includes the colon. “Well Mongo, why don’t you include it?” Because I don’t use an automated system, lol.
When I go through a show (or more often a match after it’s been posted in a specific thread for matches [you’ll save a ton of time coding as matches are coming in rather than doing it one-shot at the end]) what I do is one person at a time I…
1. Double-click the name
2. Click the color wheel on the posting options
3. Type (or copy-paste) the desired color in
4. Bold that name
THEN, proboards automatically remembers that color so the next time I click on that person’s name the process is a little smoother because the color is already there, you just have to click the color wheel and say ok. I do it one person at a time for that reason, then I “save changes” after I finish with a guy and start the process over for the next character.
The reason all the coding is BEFORE the colon is that when I double click a name it automatically doesn’t include the colon. So to include the colon I’d have to manually highlight the name each time which oddly takes way more effort.
Generally I like commentary after each wrestler’s entrance (LOOKING AT YOU DYLAN) and to break up the action during a match.
Other Codes:
So as you saw above, I also bold each name. I noticed this makes it pop a little more and can draw a skimmer to the commentary at least if they’re buzzing through matches without reading. [Aside: As a staff member, just accept some folks won’t read everything, we’re not all interested in the same things- some folks love reading whole shows, some don’t (or don’t have time) and it’s not a sin either way]. There’s only a few other things I usually give special coding to. Obviously as you saw above there’s often some coding in match titles but here’s the full rundown:
Bold: Show title, match title, sound effects (though there might be extra card-based ones depending on who made the card, I just copy and paste if it’s clean)
Italics: Lyrics or anything spoken that is piped through the PA system in which the speaker hasn’t been revealed yet- these are also all centered because I want music or mysteries to feel separate from the rest of the show.
As a note I also usually limit intros to one verse of the lyrics. So like Rat Bastard’s insane Undertaker entrance gets cut WAY down- I don’t think intros need to be too long. I also usually combine small paragraphs that have no commentary break in the match just for a more uniform look of commentary being the paragraph breaks. No need to send me spaced out action just because you think a line break every two sentences adds more intensity to the match.
That’s…..it. I like to keep things simple because I do it all manually (in the preview window no less) so I just add in the coding as I edit matches/segments. This is why I usually ask for matches/segments to be without any code since a lot of people code things in ways I don’t like and it takes WAY more time to fix “wrong” code than it does to code something without any code. THE ONE EXCEPTION is that I want to know people’s color codes. Not having to hunt down your commentator’s colors saves me a lot of time.
BUT WAIT, NOW YOU KNOW HOW I LIKE THINGS CODED. So you can send me matches/segments fully coded- see how I did that? I just tricked you.
“The Skeleton”
If you’re on the discord you might sometimes see me say something like “I’ve got the skeleton for the show set up and am already plugging in matches.” What that means is that I’ve posted a building station for the show in our secret forum and have set it up so that it’s easy to put matches into the show. Later we can just copy and paste what I’ve done there into a new post when we put the show up publically- this is important because if you just move the skeleton/building station to the results forum, the date will be wrong and you might need to do that “we are live” reply post to make it register as new for people. That looks weird and is sort of a bizarre way to end your show.
Anyway, let’s make a smaller version of All That Glitters as an example. So I set up a post in our secret forum, probably titled “All that Glitters building post (DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING)” and the first step is to copy the card over- see this is why we made those “ match pods” when we posted the card. The header is probably fine so there’s no need to change that, but between the pods let’s put some more divisions- oh and also toss the XHF Network logo after the main event to end the show with:
The XHF Network Proudly Presents: All That Glitters
Date: August 30th, 2020
The Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
Capacity: 34,500
Attendance: 10,000 (Masks required)
SHOW INTRO
MATCH INTRO
Interfed Challenge
Guillotina vs Lynx
MATCH
MATCH INTRO
XHF X*Crown Championship Match
Some Homeless Guy vs Rob Arnold ©
MATCH
Obviously, if there’s known segments you figure out places for them too. Anyway, our small card looks like this on the back side:
[div style="text-align:center;"][img style="font-size:10pt;max-width:30%;" alt="" src="https://i.imgur.com/7r4m8xg.jpeg"]
[b][u][font size="5"]The XHF Network Proudly Presents: All That Glitters[/font][/u][/b]
[font size="4"]Date: August 30th, 2020[/font]
[font size="4"]The Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand[/font]
[i][font size="4"]Capacity: 34,500[/font][/i]
[i][font size="4"]Attendance: 10,000 (Masks required)[/font][/i][/div][hr]
SHOW INTRO
MATCH INTRO
[hr][div style="text-align:center;"][img alt=" " src="https://i.imgur.com/9ow3BO6.jpeg" style="max-width:30%;"]
[b][font size="3"]Interfed Challenge[/font][/b]
[font size="3"]Guillotina vs Lynx[/font][/div][hr]
MATCH
[hr]
MATCH INTRO
[hr][div style="text-align:center;"][img style="font-size:10pt;max-width:30%;" src="https://i.imgur.com/9QWbxGE.jpeg" alt=""]
[font color="f3fc2a"][b][font size="3"]XHF X*Crown Championship Match[/font][/b][/font]
[font size="3"]Some Homeless Guy vs Rob Arnold ©[/font][/div][hr]
MATCH
[div align="center"][img alt=" " src="https://i.imgur.com/q4YXaSY.jpg" style="max-width:20%;"][/div]As you finish editing matches in the other post for turned-in matches and segments (that’ll be your backup in case you screw everything up in the skeleton) you can just copy and paste each part of that (BBCode version) into the skeleton (also BBCode window). Plug and play, bro.
Example
Alright, let’s combine all these elements and see how the main event of All That Glitters looks- oh uh….spoilers I guess.
Bonnie Jenkins: Our main event tonight is scheduled for one fall and is for the X*Crown Championship! Making his way to the ring first- from whatever he’s from…..DYLAN BLACK!
No music plays because nobody gives a crap about Dylan. The crowd neither cheers nor boos because he’s not interesting enough, you can hear the sounds of his metal limbs clanking like pins dropping in the silent arena.
King: Wow! Dylan still works here!?
Hawke: I know right? Man does he suck
King: Just like, so much!
The lights dim down as the echoing intro to "St Patrick" by PVRIS begins to fill the arena and a single spotlight hits the entrance.
Bonnie Jenkins: And his opponent… from Bristol, England- he is the X*Crown Champion….ROB ARNOLD!
“You give me something to talk about (something to talk about), HEY."
The song bursts into life, and Rob Arnold slowly enters the arena. Dressed in ring gear and an all black hoodie which restricts the view of his face, he surveys his surroundings, nodding as he can feel the crowd cheering as he steps towards the top of the ramp. Staring ahead of him, offering little but a trademark smirk he places his right foot forward and takes to a knee and then flings back his hood with his right hand. Arnold stares straight ahead towards the ring once more, before slowly standing up and making his way to the ring
"I know it's chemicals, that make me cling to you (cling to you)
Oh and I need a miracle, to get away from you (way from you)
I know it's chemicals (that make me cling to you, cling to you)
And I need a miracle (to make me stay with you, stay with you)
And I'm not spiritual (but please stay)
'Cause I think you're a saint, and I think you're an angel."
Oh and I need a miracle, to get away from you (way from you)
I know it's chemicals (that make me cling to you, cling to you)
And I need a miracle (to make me stay with you, stay with you)
And I'm not spiritual (but please stay)
'Cause I think you're a saint, and I think you're an angel."
Rob approaches the ring and runs his hand along the apron before approaching and walking up the steps, and then through the ropes and into the ring. Arnold heads straight for the opposite corner and climbs the second turnbuckle and smirks, before slowly raising his arms out wide, feeding from the crowd's energy in the process. Another smirk, and he hops back down, removing his hoodie, ready for action.
Hawke: And here comes our illustrious X*Crown Champion!
King: I bet he’s going to beat Dylan’s face in!
Hawke: Then he’ll have to get that replaced too
XHF X*Crown Championship Match
Dylan Black vs Rob Arnold ©
The bell rings and before anyone can even get their wits about them Dylan runs straight into Rob Arnold’s fist. Like literally, Rob was getting his fist up and Dylan ran into it assuming he wasn’t ready. He was. Dylan grabs his face and rolls out of the ring.
Hawke: Well this isn’t a good start!
Rob follows Dylan outside the ring, but he can’t find the young Mr. Black. Suddenly…
WHAM!
Rob is nailed from an up-swinging chair that Dylan, who had been hiding near the apron, grabbed under the ring.
Rob: WHAT THE HECK MATE!?
The ref is not down with this and calls for the bell.
Bonnie Jenkins: Your winner by disqualification and STILL X*Crown champion….Rob Arnold!
King: Well that was anti-climactic
Hawke: Dumb move on Dylan’s part
Rob shrugs and walks to the back as Dylan throws a temper tantrum. Also Big Drag appears with a dinosaur or something and commands the dino to eat Dylan. As the former Dylan Viper screams for mercy we fade out.
And that’s what the final product looks like. Notice that the match writer (often Vastrix) added some “dynamic dialogue” to the match. Since Vastrix doesn’t code I had to track down Rob’s color code from his most recent rp- it’s #ff0000 in case you’re curious.
Final Thoughts
Show-running can be intimidating even if you know the tricks to streamline things as much as possible and your match writers are coding their stuff. This post probably didn’t make you less freaked out- but I swear if you do some of this yourself it’ll get easier the more and more practice you get. I suck at writing so aside from other areas (like public relations and booking) I consider showrunning to be one of my major ways of contributing. I code so that the other admins don’t have to (unless somebody turned in the match ON FRIGGIN SHOW DAY while I was sleeping because of timezones)
I encourage feds with multiple administrators to let their admins give it a shot- and I strongly suggest that all fed owners figure out what style you want to use for shows and maybe make a post about it in your secret forums so that you or anyone else can quickly reference all the specific coding elements needed.
Thank you for reading and I’m more than happy to answer any questions from would-be showrunners!
