We'll assume that you've already set up your federation. You would have already established the wrestlers you want to use as "regulars," and also made some basic decisions about managers, valets and "gangs." It's easy and fun, and completely explained in the rules. If you're using real wrestlers, you can set up your fed just like it is on TV--or, change things around the way YOU want it!

You'll need to decide on your "card" for the evening. Usually, this involves a series of five to ten individual matches. You'll also decide which celebrities are in the crowd...realizing that they could get involved at any moment!

Once your "event" is set, you place the wrestling ring playing board, markers and dice on your table, and proceed with your first match. For our demonstration, we'll choose a couple of wrestlers from the fictional "Wrestling America Federation," Randy "Super" Cooper and Ray Edd Hargus.

Before the action begins, you'll need to see if there are any story-line developments that might affect the match. (You do this before and after every match in FACE-TO-THE-MAT.)

Rolling the dice and checking the "story-line" section of the wrestling ring game board, you find that there's something simmering between these two guys! Checking the pre-match chart, we find out that "Super Cooper" has opened the TV broadcast with a blistering ridicule of Hargus, "This guy doesn't belong in a wrestling ring, he belongs in a pig farm, slopping HOGS!," you imagine he says. THAT doesn't set well with the big ol' country boy--his "grudge grade" is increased two points. (The effect of the grudge grade is fully explained in the rules, but--essentially--the higher the grudge grade, the madder and more dangerous he gets!)

The next card is a "TV MOVE" card. Here's where the wrestler's TV Grades come into play, which is designed to reflect each wrestler's "fan appeal." This grade changes over the course of the wrestling season, depending on a wide variety of factors such as grudge match results, celebrity involvement, and between-match interaction. In this case, we'll say Cooper has the higher TV Grade--a grade of "C," meaning that he'd score one point with this particular card, a chin lock. (A more popular wrestler might have scored as many as four points on the same card.)

Your next card is a "Grudge Grade" card. You remember that Cooper's pre-match tirade gave Hargus the bigger axe to grind, and as a result, he blasts Cooper to the mat with one of his personal repertoire moves. OUCH! Three points for the country boy!

We'll leave the match here, with Ray Edd Hargus hovering over a dazed Super Cooper, holding a slight advantage and moving closer to a decision--although that could change in a hurry in FACE-TO-THE-MAT! You continue to flip cards in the fast action deck until one of the wrestlers' marker is all the way into the "win" area of the match track, at which point he is considered to have won the match! Often, a wrestler will have the opportunity to use his "finisher" to end the match, and, as in real pro wrestling, the more effective the "finisher," the more likely it is he'll put out his opponent. And, of course, sometimes a wild event will end the match in a TOTALLY unexpected way!

AFTER the match, you'll go again to the story line table to find out any further "plot wrinkles" for your federation. Complaints, protests, gloating, challenges, fights, chairs broken over heads, WHO KNOWS what action might break out!

Matches can be one-sided, or close...over in a hurry, or a tense, back-and-forth, drawn out WAR! And there's plenty of action BEFORE and AFTER the matches too! Best of all, a match usually takes just three to five minutes to complete in "real time," so you can finish a sull wrestling "show" in under an hour! FACE-TO-THE-MAT TV Pro Wrestling Game is a fast, simple, fun-filled, action-packed, re-creation of real pro wrestling!