Of course, this being a wrestling simulator, wrestlers are pretty important! Each game starts with whatever wrestlers were in the database to begin with (the ones you can edit in the File Editor), but EWR will also create up to 600 random wrestlers to make sure that the game world is full enough to make it fair for all promotions (otherwise you could end up with one promotion controlling every wrestler!). 

In terms of employment, workers can be divided into three groups. Those under written contract work exclusively for one company. They get paid a set amount each month, regardless of whether they actually did anything. Independent workers have 'open' contracts, which means they work for up to three promotions at once, and get paid a set amount for each appearance they make. Finally, there are the unemployed workers, who are currently out of work.

Signing workers is easy. You go to the Other Workers section, select the wrestler you want to hire, and hit the button to start contract negotiations (if they are under a written contract then you can only make an advance bid - if accepted, this means they join you when their current contract expires). By default, the first time you go into Other Workers, only independent and unemployed wrestlers will be shown. By going into the Search Criteria screen, you can narrow down the search, for example, to just wrestlers who have over 80 speed. 

Each worker is made up of numerous statistics that give him \ her a unique personality. Let’s take a look at them (for any rating that is out of 100, 0 is the worst, 100 is the best):

Name \ Shortened Name: Obviously the wrestlers name is the ring name that they are known by. The shortened name is used in the play-by-play commentary. The full name must be unique.

Employer\Contract Type: This is who employs them, and on what sort of deal they are working (written or open). 

Other Commitments: Some workers have ongoing deals with Japanese promotions. When they are away on tour, they cannot be used by any US promotions.

Gender: This effects what angles they can be involved in, and what belts they can fight for.

Age: Effects what deals they are likely to accept, how quick they can bounce back from injury, and when they retire. 

Birth Month: A wrestler’s age increases by one on the last day of the month you specify as their birth month. If you set it as unknown, EWR will pick a month for them.

Weight Class: Lightweights can fight for all belts, heavyweights can’t fight for lightweight belts.

Position: This is what position the wrestler holds on the roster. Active wrestlers can either be Main Event, Upper Midcarder, Midcarder, Lower Midcarder, Opener, or Jobber. This effects who they will agree to lose to, and how the fans see them. If their position is development deal, they are in their employer’s development territory. If they are a manager, they are eligible to manage another wrestler (which mainly means they can handle interviews for them), but are still able to wrestle. Finally there are Non-Wrestlers; these are generally semi-retired \ older wrestlers or anomalies. They can still wrestle, but limit themselves to only wrestling at big eventa (i.e. they won’t fight on free TV). They are still available to use in angles and interviews. Non-wrestlers and managers are the only people who can be selected as Authority Figures during angles.

Gimmick: A gimmick is the wrestler's character. For example, in real life, Kane's gimmick is that of a guy who was severely burned, was in an asylum, and came to wrestling to get back at his brother. In EWR, there are lots of gimmicks to choose from. You can find a list of what each gimmick means by going to the Meeting screen and talking to the writers. The principle behind gimmicks in EWR is that wrestling fans do not want to see two guys with no personality rolling around on the mat, otherwise they'd be watching amateur wrestling. Low-level workers (those who are working for regional promotions for example) don't really need gimmicks, as they aren't seen by the same fans on a regular enough basis to build a character. However, stars who are working for larger promotions need to develop personalities, otherwise fans won't care about them and their overness will suffer. Therefore you need to assign gimmicks to them. Each gimmick can last for a random amount of time (usually between 1 and 3 years) before it becomes stale and the worker needs to be re-packaged with a new gimmick. The success of a gimmick depends on how well the worker is suited to it, and sometimes, how willing your company is to back it up. For example, if you try to promote Shannon Moore as a Monster, it will bomb; Moore doesn't look menancing, and doesn't have the brawling skills to take anyone on. Similarly, trying to get Jerry Lynn over as a comedian may backfire, as he doesn't have the charisma to back it up. Giving a babyface an Evil gimmick would also fail, for obvious reasons. Please note that changing gimmicks too often will hurt a worker's overness. You can change people's gimmicks by going to your roster screen and clicking the gimmick button. You can find out what gimmicks are working by going to the Meeting screen and asking the writers.

Wage: This how much they are paid. The maximum value is $300,000. 

Morale: The higher the morale, the happier they are. A happy wrestler will want to remain working for you, and will put on good matches. An unhappy wrestler will be sloppy in the ring and want to leave.

Condition: This is how they are physically. A wrestler in good health will be able to put on his best matches, while a physically wrecked worker will not be able to compete to his best ability, and will be more prone to injuries.

Brawling: This is how good they are at producing good brawling-style matches. Good brawlers would be Steve Austin and The Rock.

Speed: This is how good they are at producing good speed-style matches. Good speed wrestlers would be Rey Misterio Jr and Billy Kidman.

Technical: This is how good they are at producing good technical-style matches. Good technical wrestlers would be Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit.

Stiffness: This is how stiff (i.e. how hard their blows are) they are in the ring. If it is too high, you run the risk of hurting someone. Too low, and the crowd will see if is fake. A very stiff wrestler would be someone like Bradshaw.

Selling: This is how well a wrestler sells the opponent’s offence (i.e. makes it look like it hurts). A wrestler who doesn’t sell hurts the match as well as his opponent’s credibility. A wrestler who sells well would be Kurt Angle or Lance Storm.

Over: This is how much the crowd react to a worker. 0 means the person is totally unknown, 100 means a worker is known worldwide (such as The Rock). Generally wrestlers below 10 will be working for backyard federations, wrestlers around 60 will be working for Cult promotions, and workers over 80 will be working for Global promotions.

Charisma: A worker's charisma is an innate skill that covers his microphone skills, his facial expressions, his body language, his mannerisms, etc. Therefore, a wrestler with good charisma will be able to produce great interviews, and make memorable angles, and generally get the crowd going. Examples of charismatic wrestlers would be Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle or Al Snow.

Attitude: This is the wrestler’s in-ring attitude. Someone with a good attitude will put people over, lose when necessary, and generally try their best. People with low attitude will be hard to work with. Also, women with good attitudes may refuse to participate in degrading matches.

Behaviour: This is the wrestler’s out-of-the-ring behaviour. This is how troublesome they are backstage, how likely they are to be involved in police incidents, and how likely they are to end up a raging alcoholic sitting outside their house with a shotgun muttering about how those darn kids have no respect.

Speaks: Wrestler’s who can’t speak can’t do interviews.

Disposition: Wrestlers can either be face (good guy), heel (bad guy), or tweener (neither good nor bad). This effects how the crowd respond to them and what angles they can appear in. Tweeners will default to heel behaviour if you do not make it clear what they are supposed to do.

Finishers: Each wrestler can have a primary and secondary finisher, which can be done from one of six positions: impact (a move that generally involves one wrestler striking \ driving another wrestler down, such as a Stunner, a Choke Slam, or a superplex); ground (with the opponent lying on the mat, the attacker strikes, such as with a Lion Sault, a People’s Elbow or a Big Splash); top rope (the attacker leaps off top rope onto the downed opponent, such as with a moonsault or a frog splash); corner (the attacker uses the turnbuckles as part of the move, such as a superplex, avalance, or super bomb); top rope standing (the attacker leaps off the top rope on to a standing opponent, such as a missile dropkick or high cross body); or submission (the attacker locks in a hold that causes the opponent to submit, such as a Tazmission, a sharpshooter, or an arm lock).

Manager: Who is managing this wrestler.

Stable: Which stables they belong to.

Team: This is a list of all the active teams they belong to, and who their partner is in each case.

Unsackable: This generally applies to workers who either are, or are rlated to, the owner (such as Steph McMahon in WWE or Jeff Jarrett in NWA). They cannot be stolen by other promotions, and cannot be fired by the promotion.

Nationality: This gives the worker's nationality. This effects how well certain gimmicks suit the person, and also what promotions hire them (Canadian promotions are more likely to hire Canadian workers)

Trainer: If this is set to true, when the worker retires they might decide to become a trainer member of staff.

Superstar Look: If this is set to true, the worker has more of a chance of getting over, as they have the look of a superstar (such as The Rock or Chris Jericho).

Diva: This is only eligible for women, and means they have are photogenic if set to true.

Announcer: If this is set to true, the worker can work as colour commentator on events, and when they retire, might decide to become a full-time announcer.

Shooting Ability: If this is true, the workers has shoot fighting experience.

Menacing: If this is true, the worker has a menacing, intimidating look. This stat mainly effects gimmicks.

Fonz Factor: If this is true, the worker has a natural charisma. It is named that because the worker would make The Fonz (from Happy Days) look uncool.

Booker: If this is set to true, when they retire, the worker might decide to become either an owner or a road agent.

High Spots: If this is set to true, the wrestler will be willing to take crazy bumps (like Mick Foley), and generally do crazy things.

About To Turn: if you want a wrestler to turn (change from one disposition to another, for example changing from a face to a heel), you must specifically set him to turn from the Roster screen. 

Roster Split: If the employer currently has a roster split implemented, this value tells you which part of the split this wrestler is under.

The most important values are generally their fighting skills (brawling, etc) and how over they are. These are the values that mainly effect their match ratings. Obviously it is better to have a wrestler who is over, talented and cheap than one who is not over, can’t work and costs a fortune. Kevin Nash fans may disagree. Wrestlers tend to work better when their opponent has a similar style, and likewise, two mismatched opponents can result in a poorer match than expected.

Different wrestler behave differently to things. Suspending one wrestler for being late may make them more responsible in future, while others may just get angrier. It’s up to you to judge what is the best way to handle each wrestler. 

How to wrestlers get more over? There are many ways; by competing in memorable matches, beating people who are more over than themselves, cutting great interviews, being in popular angles, making a memorable turn, being part of a legendary feud, etc. You should always keep an eye on the wrestler’s over value; if it starts falling dramatically you know you are doing something wrong, and if it’s going up, make sure you keep doing what you are doing!

A new feature to EWR 4.0 is relationships. Each worker can have a defined relationship with any other worker. How do these effect the game? Friends will be less likely to complain about losing to each other, and generally their morale will be higher if they are working with people they like. They will also get upset if you start firing their friends. The opposite is true for enemies - they will be more likely to refuse to lose, and will actively complain if you start hiring their enemies. The bottom line is that your man-management skills need to be good if you're going to survive the political, back-stabbing world of wrestling!