By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Pro wrestling doesn't have to be complicated. Yes, cool new camera angles, entrance music, gimmicks, nicknames, pyro, etc. all adds to a successful core product. Without those ancillary aspects, a good core product can be dragged down. None of that will make a difference, though, unless some core basic tenets of wrestling promoting followed. Here is my list of ten suggested guidelines that any promoting and booking team follow. Insert skilled, charismatic wrestlers into a promotion that adheres to the following ten rules, and the greatest possible chance at success will follow:

-Build virtually everything around the ABC Wide World of Sports iconic motto: The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat. Make sure that any segment on any show - be it a match, an angle, a promo, or a video - can be boiled down to someone wanting to attain the thrill of victory or avoid the agony of defeat. To some it sounds like a given, to others it might sound quant and outdated. I believe it's the core of any successful wrestling angle and ongoing wrestling promotion. Don't get sidetracked with wrestlers talking about ratings, popularity, front office politics, "spots," crowd pops, great matches, or anything else. If everything is built around wrestlers seeking a thrill of victory and dreading the agony of defeat, most everything else falls into place without getting in the way.

-If you do something, go all the way and be consistent and simple in pushing it. Don't do something half way. The best example is the Kurt Angle retirement stip. TNA isn't committed to it. It's a ridiculous notion that every time Angle wrestles his career is on the line, but it's made worse by the fact that WWE can build WrestleMania around someone of similar stature putting his career on the line (Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels) while the same stip with a similar star (Angle) barely gets a mention before or during his matches. Another way to put this is: Don't start something that you can't finish in a satisfactory manner. That was a problem with Samoa Joe's kidnapping angle. That could be a problem with the mystery G.M. It is an ongoing problem with Kurt Angle. You can probably think of many other recent examples that gnawed at you as a fan.

-Have a good answer for every question a fan might ask regarding a storyline, and be sure everything makes sense in retrospect. In other words, don't get sloppy or lazy and, instead, reward fans for paying attention. So often it seems wrestling bookers get excited about an idea in general, but don't want to do the gritty work of all of the details making sense. When the mystery G.M. is revealed, will every decision he announced, in retrospective, make sense? When "They" is revealed, will everything Abyss said about "They" make sense?

-Know the difference between what always works in wrestling and what is context-based, and promote accordingly. I would argue that building storylines around titles and wrestlers seeking the thrill of victory and agony of defeat works in virtually all circumstances. I would argue that doing rapid-fire title changes or turns to try to "pop a rating" has diminishing returns and only works if it's been five to ten years since that approach was utilized regularly. Obviously if a title changes hands 10 times a year for 10 straight years, each successive title change means less than if the title had changed hands just once a year on average for 10 years.

-Referees and promoters should never be portrayed as imbeciles. This takes away a lot of sloppy storylines and lazy match planning, but you can't expect fans to invest in the outcome of a wrestling match if they feel the system in place to reward the best wrestler with a victory is a complete mess. If the referee turns and argues with someone standing on the ring apron for 25 seconds while ignoring a ton of commotion behind him, it makes a mockery out of the entire concept of a match. If a ref gets grazed by a wrestler and collapses like he's been shot and only rises after the heels have interfered and made the cover, it looks absurdly orchestrated. There are better ways, more sophisticated ways, more believable ways to tell the same stories. Use those.

-Use statistics more. Today's promoters and bookers are so hung up on not wanting to "insult" viewers by pretending what they do is real that they decide nobody watching takes any of it seriously. However, the wrestling product that is presented with the straightest face is going to get the viewers maximum emotional investment. One way to do that is to present statistics that make everything that happens part of a larger picture that has historical significance. A title match means more when the champion is about to defend it on PPV for the 15th successful time if the previous time a champion had 15 successful title defenses was 26 years ago. Citing stats gives announcers more to talk about and fans more to think about. Fantasy Football is hugely popular because fans like to dig into stats. TNA seemed to be on the verge of doing it with the Top Ten Rankings, but they lost interest quickly once they realized people were going to see if what happened on TV and house shows correlated with movement up and down the rankings of wrestlers. There'd be a long line outside of WWE or TNA headquarters for an internship that involved a job consisting of compiling interesting, accurate stats. WWE does this around Royal Rumble time, and it's a blast. They should do it more often and find creative ways to implement stats every week in more ways.

-Pro wrestling isn't a high-brow pay-cable drama; keep it simple and make sure characters give you a reason to like or dislike them. Every good TV drama or movie draws nuanced characters, but in the end, almost always, viewers are nudged to either like or dislike each character, to root for or against one character compared to another on the show. Pro wrestling has to do that, and keep it simpler than an HBO, FX, Showtime, or AMC drama would. WWE has a challenge right now to get Randy Orton over as a centerpiece babyface when he's saying he'd be willing to RKO his own grandmother to save his title. It's great that he's conveyed how much that title means to him, but it makes him out to be a horrible person if he'd really beat up his grandmother to keep it. TNA has gone through stretches where major feuds revolved around two unlikable characters, and they seemed to think they were being sophisticated by "letting us decide." In the end, someone who has integrity, fights for a just cause, and doesn't have to cheat to win is more admirable than someone who lies and cheats, fights for purely selfish reasons, and is willing to step on others to get there. Pro wrestling promoters should 95 percent of the time match up one type against the other type - i.e. good guy vs. bad guy, babyface vs. heel. I have more interest in an NFL game when I have a reason to like one team and dislike the other. I can enjoy a game between two teams I like or between two teams I don't like, but emotions aren't as intense. Pro wrestling sells tickets, merchandise, and PPVs based on intense emotions. There's no reason to have most matches and most characters drawn ambiguously, without a central core constitution that guides their actions. Turns should be based on an accumulation of new career experiences that changes who they are at the core, such as age, a losing streak, a winning streak, a friend achieving more success, etc. There's a way to create interesting characters who are internally conflicted and morally challenged by certain circumstances while keeping true to their core constitution as someone with integrity or without.

-Don't underestimate viewers' desire to see great athletes do dazzling things. WWE often gets hung up on featuring a certain size and bodytype of wrestler putting on a certain lumbering "WWE main event style" of match. There's merit to pushing wrestlers who are in the body type and wrestling style category of John Cena, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Jack Swagger, and Edge, among others in that top tier. However, there's no reason to fill out the rest of the show with wrestlers who aren't as over or as established or as well-known with the same star-power as those wrestlers, but who are the same size and wrestle the same style (i.e. Vladimir Kozlov, William Regal, Goldust, etc.). Instead, fill that TV time with supporting players who are smaller and more athletic. The best way is within a deep, vibrant tag team division with a mix of "tag team specialists" (a euphemism designed to explain why two smaller wrestlers who fans don't perceive as having great upsides as singles title contenders can do well against bigger wrestlers including teams made up of two heavyweights with histories of title contention). WWE and TNA should scour the indy scene for smaller wrestlers who could form great tag teams. Evan Bourne would make more money for WWE as a perennial tag team contender with a long-time partner than he does doing two minutes jobs to bigger wrestlers while fitting in a couple dazzling moves before losing. Fans want to see a mix of wrestling styles, and on a two hour show, while the more lumbering heavy-hitting main eventers serve a purpose, and while promos and video packages should also be an integral part of the show, so should one or two matches featuring more athletic undercard wrestlers, ideally fighting over something of value (i.e. a tag team title or lower-weight-division title).

-Fans should be given reason to trust that the wrestling promoter and wrestling announcer at least try to do the right thing and be honest. This formula was blown up when Vince McMahon became the lead heel on-air promoter. The heel G.M. era followed. It's played out now. It worked back in the late-'90s because (a) fans had really never seen that before so it was novel; and (b) Vince McMahon had decades on the air of having been the trusted face and voice of WWE so seeing him turn heel and let loose was shocking. The world has changed, and now it's time to go back to building a relationship of trust with viewers. Heels are more effective when playing up against a structure with a semblance of order and competent people enforcing it. A wrestling fan is more likely to invest in the WWE or TNA brand when the voice they hear during matches is a trusted voice, and they're more likely to buy an angle or a PPV when that voice seems to consistently match their values and have their best interests as a fan in mind.

-Save gimmick matches for when circumstances call for them, not for when an annual themed PPV comes around. There are exceptions to this. The Royal Rumble serves a purpose, which is determining the no. 1 contender at WrestleMania. Money in the Bank is a way to put a half dozen wrestlers who might be overlooked for a title chance a wildcard shot at earning a future title shot o the biggest show of the year. Those are fine, but should be used sparingly and not overexposed (i.e. each annually, and not too many of them each year). But a Hell in a Cell, or even a simple cage match, or a no-DQ match, or a No Holds Barred match, or a Something on a Pole match, or a Lumberjack Match should occur based on the circumstances of an ongoing feud calling for it. The cage match originally was set up to settle a feud between two wrestlers who couldn't find a way to settle their feud in a regular match, perhaps due to outside interference. The cage was meant to prevent people from interfering and add a little promise of blood and gore to the mix. Hell in a Cell should be something that is presented whenever a feud gets hot enough to call for it, not because September rolls around and whoever happens to feuding at that point gets thrown into it.

With diminishing PPV buys and teetering cable ratings, and ridiculousness like this season's NXT replacing the basics that make pro wrestling such an entertaining if not sometimes odd and outlandish form of athletic and personality-based entertainment, it's time to get back to establishing the basic structure that makes everything else in pro wrestling work. The above ten rules would do that.

KELLER BIO: PWTorch editor Wade Keller has been a leading wrestling reporter and analyst since launching the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter in 1987. He has covered pro wrestling full time via the newsletter, a pro wrestling radio show on KFAN in the 1990s, a successful 900 wrestling news hotline in the 1990s, the PWTorch.com website, and the PWTorch iPhone App and Android App in the 2000s.

He has interviewed dozens of pro wrestling's biggest names in their longest insider interviews, most often ranging from 2 to 7 hours in length. He has interviewed for the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter top wrestlers ("Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Bill Goldberg, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, among many others), top promoters and executives (Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, Eric Bischoff, Jerry Jarrett, Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman, Bill Watts, Jerry Lawler, several WCW vice presidents, and others), legends (Lou Thesz, Roy Shires, Nick Bockwinkel, Verne Gagne, and others), and dozens of other wrestlers in long-form historical interviews.

He hosted the "Ultimate Insiders DVD" series in the mid-2000s which was nationally distributed at major chain stores including expansive interviews with Matt & Jeff Hardy and Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara.

He has been quoted as an expert wrestling analyst by dozens of major newspapers, national cable channels, radio stations, and magazines over the last 23 years including MPR, Fox News, the Washington Post, ESPN Magazine, and many others.

PWTorch VIP members currently hear his analysis on a daily basis with the daily Wade Keller Hotline, featuring a 10-20 minute overview of the news, breaking news, and analysis of TV shows (and more-than-occasional rants).

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