🎬 Movie

The most crucial aspect of pro wrestling’s salability, its television, is explored. The man who wrote WWE television beside Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson for years, JJ Dillon, joins us to explore the art and science of writing wrestling television. We gave JJ a fictional pay-per-view supercard from the early 90s era and gave him one month of TV with which to advance the angles. See how JJ uses the weekly A and B shows, as well as a Saturday Night Network Special to build up to the pay-per-view at month’s end. He then books the results of that big card. When should a run-in be employed? How to use promos and packages? How does one choose a TV arena? What does it mean politically if Wrestler A makes the save for Wrestler B on TV? JJ shows us how to use just the right amount of exposure fangles for a most effective build-up. The booker’s job doesn’t end there, as we hear about the very delicate practice of employing diplomacy in dealing with the “big egos/TV time” equation.