Booking 101: When the top guys are gone

I think independent wrestling is difficult to book.  It provides challenges you don’t have in the WWE.  Smoky Mtn. Wrestling run by Tony Givins just pulled off an amazing card overcoming the biggest problem in independent wrestling, traveling talent.

Smoky Mtn. was facing booking and promoting an event where their top stars were gone.  Jason Kincaid, the Heavyweight champ and top face was gone.  Chase Owens, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight champ and companies top heel, was touring Canada.  And then just to make matters worse Sigsmund, a second tier heel and one half of the Tag champs, was touring Europe.  So how do you build a show without your top heel, top face, no heavyweight champion or tag team champions? 

You can start with the easy stuff.  You have a secondary title and a tertiary title.  Both need to be on the line, but that really only gets you some opening act stuff.  That is not what you put on a poster.  Smoky Mtn. happens to be in the midst of an invasion angle, so that angle needs to move forward.  Yet, how do you really move it forward when the top face is missing?  Tony answered that with a four man tag event.  Apparently you take your second best face and team him with your top face tag team and another face from the company and let the guys go at it.  The outcome is a little predictable.  Your invading force cannot lose to a second tier face group without destroying the angle, but it does serve to continue the threat, it is something you can advertise, and gets an important match on the card.  However, since the outcome is predictable, it cannot be the main event. 

In the NWA then the answer is book the NWA World Heavyweight champion.  This match had a little bit of build up too as before Conway won the title, he lost to Chris Richards, a second level monster heel in SMW.  There is the main event.  It has a little build up, it is a major belt, and with Conway a man who can draw.  But there is more!  Givins also booked the NWA National Title in an open challenge format.  So now you can advertise the NWA World Champ, a proven draw, the National champ, an up and coming draw, and the big four man tag promoting the invasion story line.  There is your poster and with the two minor belts on the line the card is good. 

Givins fleshed it out even more with a battle royal to determine who would get a shot at one of the secondary titles.  People love battle royals.  And then he also added in Jax Dane, a traveling buddy of the NWA World Champ and former NWA World Tag Team champ, and put him in a match and set up future involvement with his help at the end in warding off the Invasion.  One thing is for sure, Smoky Mtn. put on a great show without its best local talent.  No easy task, but it was well done Saturday night.