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Who is the worst booker ever?


JerryvonKramer

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The Nitro style of gunning for ratings and running big matches every week on free TV was definitely good for wrestling fans, but I'm not so sure it was good for the long-term health of wrestling.

The TV rights fees make it a good thing. They can afford the drop in PPV buys. I don't think a TV show full of squash matches would survive in today's entertainment world where everyone demands instant gratification.

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Hogan winning in 91 was the right call (send the fans home happy with USA triumphant on a night Slaughter won the belt), 90 maybe less so (could've ended the match with Perfect eliminating a brawling and distracted Hogan and Warrior), but you can't argue it wasn't what most fans wanted.

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Is Perfect being booked to win the Rumble actually true or is that Scott Keith horseshit again? I mean, they already seemed committed to a Perfect/Beefcake feud (and that's beforehand--no other reason to book Beefcake vs. Genius otherwise), so why work a Rumble victory into that?

 

I do sometimes wonder if they might not have been better off switching Hogan and Warrior's roles after the big face-off (where it's Warrior who accidentally-or-does-he eliminates Hogan instead of vice versa). The live crowd have seen at as a Warrior heel turn which wasn't what they wanted to get across, but give him a long enough fight and comeback with Rude and Perfect and I think that would have been forgotten/forgiven by the end of the match.

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How about dividing this up between eras? Booking a live 2-3 hour television show every single week is a far different animal from booking a regional territory. I could see the former format eating up a good booker alive because there's a ton of stuff to worry about beyond the in-ring product. But who would be the worst booker of the regional days, or pre-1995 or so?

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How about dividing this up between eras? Booking a live 2-3 hour television show every single week is a far different animal from booking a regional territory. I could see the former format eating up a good booker alive because there's a ton of stuff to worry about beyond the in-ring product. But who would be the worst booker of the regional days, or pre-1995 or so?

I cast my vote for Al Tomko, who booked Gene Kiniski's old Vancouver territory into the toilet by relentlessly pushing first himself and then his two sons, and by absolutely losing track of every single story-line he ever started. He was a nice enough guy, though, by wrestling promoter standards... and his kids were not bad in the ring... That being said: I doubt that there was a worse-booked wrestling show on TV in the 1980s than good old UWA All Star Wrestling out of BCTV studios.

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Whilst Austin should have definatley been elevated. I'm not sure if it would have happened even if Hogan never came in. Everyone knows about his problems with Bischoff and Hogan. But he also took alot of shots at Flair and Dusty too when he left. Which has kind of been downplayed or forgotten over the years.

 

I think Austin would have found himself in pretty much the same position Luger was in, in 89-90.

In late 93 / early 94 he, along with Dustin Rhodes, was still being talking about as "the wrestler of the 90s" and as a big future star. I mean Austin wasn't just there on the upper midcard, he was properly hyped.

 

I've got no reason to believe that they wouldn't have kept pushing him.

 

I don't see why they couldn't have had Austin in a new Horsemen in 94/5. Flair (world), Austin (US), Arn and Pillman (Tag). That's not a bad stable. At some point Austin is sick of being in the Tully role and wants a shot at the World title. Instant feud.

 

If Hogan doesn't come in, I see literally no reason for this not to happen.

 

Sting / Austin would have been great. Austin (face) vs. Flair (heel) backed by Arn and Pillman and possibly a turned Dustin Rhodes as the 4th Horseman.

 

By 96, he's a main eventer and a draw in his own right.

 

There's no reason either why Lex Luger and people like Savage wouldn't have come into WCW - and those would have been main event angles too. Maybe Luger / Austin as part of a wider Sting feud, while Flair / Savage is happening, then switch to Austin / Savage dream feud as we have Sting vs. Flair part 986.

 

Theoretically, Vader is still around too as a constant alternative main event heel.

 

Why wouldn't something like this have played out?

 

Could something like this have played out? Absolutley. But its all a big what if?

 

Luger was properly hyped back in the day and look how it turned out for him.

 

Austin/Sting would have been great. Austin even pitched that feud to management. And they shot him down.

 

Austin had a ton of potential, but for reason or another WCW management didn't want to capitalize on it. The only people who seemed keen on making Austin a star where Ricky Steamboat, Paul Heyman and Bret Hart.

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Catching up on topics...

 

* Regarding Russo: I think the best way to describe him is Homer Simpson in the episode "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" in which Herb lets Homer design a car his own way, with the end result being an embarrassment. In other words, Russo is fine to contribute some ideas but you don't want him overseeing the entire process.

 

* Regarding Hogan: It's been detailed in the thread about Dave Meltzer writings that Hogan's creative control only applied to the finishes of his matches, but then Dave goes on to basically say, "Stars have power." So it wouldn't have mattered what creative control was in Hogan's contract... because he's a star, and given Bischoff not being a proper "boss," Hogan would have gained power anyway. Stars have power and that's the nature of the business.

 

* I don't think Vince McMahon being involved with the IPO or anything else had anything to do with Russo gaining power. I think it had everything to do with Vince McMahon being a mark for the entertainment side of the business. So when Russo kept giving him that, he gained influence and Pat Patterson lost some of it. Once Russo left, you could tell Patterson's influence was returning -- it wasn't simply "more time for matches" but "matches flowed better." Plus the writers who took over generally did a better job with storylines being built instead of the "short-attention span theater" Russo was notorious for.

 

* Kevin Sullivan actually did a good job with booking the midcard early on. One thing people need to remember is that, while guys like Benoit, Malenko and Eddy were familiar to hardcore wrestling fans, the average WCW fan who started tuning it wasn't as familiar with them. They each got over at some point, but it wasn't immediately upon arrival. The problem with Sullivan was, after all his work with Brian Pillman just led to Pillman getting his release and going elsewhere, he was desperate to recreate the magic and everything backfired on him, from Nancy and Chris truly becoming romantically involved to the whole Sullivan/Benoit angle just taking too long to wrap up. I agree that the Radicalz were likely just using Sullivan's appointment as the main booker as their reason to get out of WCW because they were just tired of the backstage issues.

 

And, yes, much of the Sullivan stuff in 2000 was pretty dull, but that's in part because of those talent defections, in part because Sullivan really wasn't in touch with what the audience wanted, and in part because I think Sullivan was one of many in WCW who truly didn't care any more.

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Re: Hogan. One thing I fully believe is that Hogan in WCW would have been coaxed into agreeing to something in advance and then the day of come in and say, "hey brother, that's not going to work." leading to last minute rewrites.

 

Yes, wrestlers/bookers/whatever said that, and they're never the best sources, but I completely believe it.

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My guess is that ratings were up. Summerslam pulled a monster buyrate and Russo had played a part in some of that. Vince delegating some power makes sense, especially if he's distracted with the IPO stuff and being a full time onscreen character.

 

It wouldn't be the first or last time that Vince has let the wrong person grab his ear.

I agree with this. At the time, the WWF was riding a rocket ship of mainstream publicity and huge success and McMahon just put his trust in him.

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Hogan winning in 91 was the right call (send the fans home happy with USA triumphant on a night Slaughter won the belt), 90 maybe less so (could've ended the match with Perfect eliminating a brawling and distracted Hogan and Warrior), but you can't argue it wasn't what most fans wanted.

I think Hulk winning in 90 made him look stronger going into Toronto. I wasn't watching it at the time but I'm guessing they tried to make both of them as equally invincible as possible, as to hype the "Clash Of The Titans" feel to the build-up (including that awesomely bad but effective intro to the show itself).

 

Another thing is that Hogan winning twice in a row probably helped make the end of the 92 match as stunning as it was with Sid eliminating him and setting up their feud.

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  • 2 years later...

I am dying to say russo but he played his part in the rise of wwf 1997=1999 and that era is one of the most successful in wrestling history.

 

I loathe russo and all the damage he has done to wrestling. However i am counting this even though it was not a national company Greg Gagne and his spell as OVW booker will always be the worst for me. the man put the OVW title on the chet the jet.

 

 

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Russo, easily. No argument.

 

Any success he had was Rock/Austin/McMahon related. A monkey could book those guys and make money.

 

I feel like slapping myself for defending him but quite a few attitude era guys have given russo credit for helping with their characters.

 

His wcw run was a stain on wrestling but i was a massive ovw fan at the time (use to get the tapes shipped) and greg gagne killed it dead.

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As probably by far the biggest Attitude Era fan on PWO, I'd expect myself to not pick Russo.

 

But his "Goldberg won't listen to the script" storyline is far and away the worst angle in wrestling history and nothing is even in the same universe. And his defense of it is almost as bad.

 

He wrote some shit in WWF. He wrote a lot of shit in TNA. He wrote the absolute worst shit in wrestling history with WCW. It's Russo.

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Russo, easily. No argument.

 

Any success he had was Rock/Austin/McMahon related. A monkey could book those guys and make money.

 

I feel like slapping myself for defending him but quite a few attitude era guys have given russo credit for helping with their characters.

 

His wcw run was a stain on wrestling but i was a massive ovw fan at the time (use to get the tapes shipped) and greg gagne killed it dead.

 

He helped some characters, but also produced the worst TV in the history of wrestling. Even if you discount WCW, his TNA stuff is hideous. Not to mention that for all the money '99 WWF made, it is unbearable to watch. I still believe most people with that talent would had done better.

 

Greg Gagne killed a small development territory, Russo produced the worst wrestling ever in WCW and TNA and some of the worst ever for the WWF. It's a no contest.

 

If you don't think its Russo, then you need to go re-watch stuff because its almost unbelievably bad. From fake shoots, to him winning the world title, to miscarriages and incest, to VKM to fat oily guy, etc...

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Russo is just beyond horrible. He's publicly admitted to the fact that he and Ed Ferrara booked TV based on what they saw while watching Jerry Springer on weekday afternoons.

 

Also, anyone remember when he tried to start his own indy promotion called Ring of Glory? Talk about awful. I saw the one DVD they put out and there was a four-man ladder match for the "Sword of Spirit", which was a real, legit sword hanging from the ceiling. Need I say more?

 

Surprisingly Jim Herd hasn't been mentioned yet. For all the crap in early 90s WCW (think Big Josh, Blackblood, York Foundation, etc) I think he at least deserves a nomination.

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Also, anyone remember when he tried to start his own indy promotion called Ring of Glory? Talk about awful. I saw the one DVD they put out and there was a four-man ladder match for the "Sword of Spirit", which was a real, legit sword hanging from the ceiling. Need I say more?

 

Wait!? What the hell!? TNA had a bigger budget than Ring of Glory and the hanging X and hanging title in Ultimate X felt down on a number of occasions. What would have happened if a sword feel down? I need to track down this match just to see how the fuck they are hanging the sword.

 

 

He never booked anywhere for real, but listening to Kevin Kelly and his ideas I think it's clear he would have been the worst booker ever, as even in his fantasy dream booking he manages to find ways to inevitably leave all kinds of money on the table.

 

Examples?

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Paco should get at least a mention for being in charge of the oldest promotion located in one of the biggest cities, but has spent most of the last decade losing TV and not being able to get more than a quarter house in Arena Mexico unless it was a once-a-generation mask match.

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