MAW is Heel heavy

[GDE71]

I'm thinking about starting a MAW game and have noticed they are VERY heel heavy. 12 Heels 4 Faces.

They do have the minimum roster (16) for their size/product. Would you bring in a couple of faces and turn 2 heels to get to 10-8. Would u bring in 8 faces?

In your opinion, what is the best way to bring some balance to the roster?

[hrdcoresidebrns]

I usually turn Antonio pretty early on, as his babyface performance is pretty high. Same with Ricky Turner, who I usually have kicked out of The Firm in favor of Cameron Vessey in a storyline. That swings the balance to 6:10. Plus I usually sign Ace Youngblood just due to my unnatural love for the guy, which brings the total to 7:10.

I usually like to keep more heels than faces on the roster myself, just because it makes it easier to push the babyfaces by giving them more varied wins. Look at it this way: MAW has an overabundance of heels, but are you really planning on pushing Curtis Jenkins? Think of the lower guys like Jenkins and even O'Farraday to a lesser extent (just because I think he has more potential) as job fodder for your up-and-coming faces.

[mr_accipitres]

When I play as MAW, I usually turn Antonio and depending on momentum and contract expirations, I'll turn Ricky Douglas and/or The Canadian Blondes. It usually ends up with a slight tilt towards the heels for me no matter what due to signings and storylines I have in my head.

Depending on who is a Hot Prospect or Next Big Thing, I may create more for a lower card heel than I normally would, but otherwise I try to improve them through losses.

I have found that in the short term, talent trades can bring balance to the roster as well as provide opportunities to test workers before signing them. I think I booked half of a card using faces from FCW once.

[James Casey]

I went down the signing route: Kirk Jameson, Joe Benning, Fumihiro Ota, Frankie Perez, Trent Shaffer, Thomas Morgan and Shane Nelson all got picked up in the early going, and I brought Davis Wayne Newton in as a heel as I love that kid.

I like having a big roster, and MAW are near enough to Regional from the start that you need to expand to survive the jump - and the inevitable talent raids. I believe I made it to May before I had two guys taken from me, and more went before the end of the year.

I also turned Huey Cannonball as the only gimmick I could find for him to use was as a Ninja, and the chance to have him make bad Bruce Lee jokes in a tag team with Ota was one I couldn't resist - even if I never really followed through on it.

[Bigpapa42]

I also turned Huey Cannonball as the only gimmick I could find for him to use was as a Ninja, and the chance to have him make bad Bruce Lee jokes in a tag team with Ota was one I couldn't resist - even if I never really followed through on it.

That's too bad. That could've been gold.

[Oregano Jensen]

As another guy said, I wouldn't be too worried about balancing the bottom of the card... these guys are just going to be in dark matches and squashes anyway. Many of them won't be on the roster more than a few more months unless you choose to bring them back. You may even fire a couple right off the bat. Just don't fire the faces, and you're set.

If you're like me (or, let's face it, anyone), you're probably bringing in half a dozen workers anyway -- just focus on faces then. It's not too difficult, as the styles of wrestlers with the biggest heel bias (super-heavyweights and hardcore guys) aren't a real focus of MAW. You may want one giant (if you feel like that's a thing; myself, I don't feel right running a roster without at least one or two large/super HWs) and maybe a brawler, but not a psychopath weapons guy. Most of the guys you'll probably want to sign are at least capable of playing faces. If they're better off as heels, well, you can always turn them later.

(I don't think I've ever seen an Ace Youngblood mark before.)

[crownsy]

As another guy said, I wouldn't be too worried about balancing the bottom of the card... these guys are just going to be in dark matches and squashes anyway. Many of them won't be on the roster more than a few more months unless you choose to bring them back. You may even fire a couple right off the bat. Just don't fire the faces, and you're set.

If you're like me (or, let's face it, anyone), you're probably bringing in half a dozen workers anyway -- just focus on faces then. It's not too difficult, as the styles of wrestlers with the biggest heel bias (super-heavyweights and hardcore guys) aren't a real focus of MAW. You may want one giant (if you feel like that's a thing; myself, I don't feel right running a roster without at least one or two large/super HWs) and maybe a brawler, but not a psychopath weapons guy. Most of the guys you'll probably want to sign are at least capable of playing faces. If they're better off as heels, well, you can always turn them later.

(I don't think I've ever seen an Ace Youngblood mark before.)


I signed ace to be an upper mid carder on my start from scratch fed, he's been very disapointing.

now kentucky bill on the other hand..

[Nedew]

Ace may always flop, but he's just too damn loveable not to push!

[hrdcoresidebrns]

(I don't think I've ever seen an Ace Youngblood mark before.)

I'm just a very old-school wrestling fan, and I simply love the idea of the Native American babyface. There's just so many storyline ideas for them, albeit somewhat cliche ones. I tend to team him up with Alexis Lee Littlefeather as his manager for an extra kick, and also team him up occasionally with Bulldozer Brandon Smith running "The Masked Patriot" gimmick for some ultra-Americana good times.

On a side note, I also enjoy Kentucky Bill. I think the main reason I mark out for fairly untalented young guys is that I almost always run my own small promotions in the game, and I have my own owner bias for youth. :D I very much like developing my own stars, and thus most of my rosters tend to be unemployed or only working for one other small promotion at the start.

[James Casey]

One storyline I never found time to run was for The Masked Patriot to start getting worked up over Jefferson Stardust's music/appearance/everything. TMP is such an old school gimmick, in an old school fed, that I just had a really good feeling about having Patriot slowly turning heel and Stardust slowly turning face as TMP finally realised that his stance ("Your music rots the kids' brains, son!") was contrary to the First Amendment.

Okay, I stole the idea from a Quantum Leap episode, but it would have been awesome. Shame Stardust sucks in-ring, but he and Patriot had great chemistry in my game, so I figured that it was worth considering. I just never found time for it :(

[GDE71]

Well I've held the RCI and what I did was 2 talent trades and signed some guys.

If the game goes well then there will be a diary from it. If it flops, at least I will have everyones opinion on how to handle MAW being heel heavy

[Thomnipotent]

Rip wanted me to get Antonio's momentum up above B-, so turning him only seemed right. Strangely enough, I also turned Ricky Turner... get out of my head, Sideburns! :P

[Bigpapa42]

One storyline I never found time to run was for The Masked Patriot to start getting worked up over Jefferson Stardust's music/appearance/everything. TMP is such an old school gimmick, in an old school fed, that I just had a really good feeling about having Patriot slowly turning heel and Stardust slowly turning face as TMP finally realised that his stance ("Your music rots the kids' brains, son!") was contrary to the First Amendment.

Okay, I stole the idea from a Quantum Leap episode, but it would have been awesome. Shame Stardust sucks in-ring, but he and Patriot had great chemistry in my game, so I figured that it was worth considering. I just never found time for it :(

That would've been a fun one. Great idea for a old school storyline and a gradual double turn. And I don't think it matters too much where you got the idea from - when it comes to diaries, looking for ideas anywhere is a good move.

I've been wanting to use some more old school style storylines for the Legends brand in my SWF diary. I hope to slowly move in that direction. A truly old school character like The masked Patriot would certainly help matters.

[hrdcoresidebrns]

Rip wanted me to get Antonio's momentum up above B-, so turning him only seemed right. Strangely enough, I also turned Ricky Turner... get out of my head, Sideburns! :P

I think a lot of people tend to turn both of them. Antonio is turned either to break up the heel/face divide or to get his momentum up. With Turner, he just doesn't seem to fit in The Firm, especially when you consider that it's a three man group with half a tag team in it. Vessey just fits better than Turner, and so the logical thing to do is to have the other members kick him out in favor of Vessey, turning Turner into a babyface.

I do have low-range telepathy though. That could be it too. :p

[Condors]

I usually make the firm cv2, antonio, mean jean and rip that way. Seem to be able to keep the owner goals with some custom "pep talk" angles. I normally make the candian blondes and rickey turner faces. Also will take a look under hidden gems and try to bring in some faces that way (or talent trades to keep giving the firm fresh meat).