The Bad Booking Diaries

[jsnsince89]

Kicking off my thread adventures to bring up on the topic on bad booking. I know it's been an issue that's been discussed widely all week about how bad the Rumble was...

So with that in mind, What does the WZForum believe is the SINGLE BADDEST BOOKING OF ALL TIME?

To start the wheel in motion, here are a few I've noted:

I) The Invasion Angle that saw WCW & ECW form an alliance to take down the WWE led by Shane & Stephanie McMahon between June - November 2001

II) Giving Kane his one night of Championship Glory for the 1st time at the KOTR 98' only for him to lose it the very next night on RAW

III) Hogan & Nash's backstage power in WCW resulting in them constantly putting themselves over to others during nWo's glory days; exp. ending Goldberg's Undefeated Streak

Post box is open...


Universe to WWE

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MODERATORS NOTE:

LISTING THINGS IS AS EASY AS THE ALPHABET. EXPLAIN YOUR CHOICES AS THE RULES ASK OR YOUR POST WILL BE CONSIDERED SPAM AND YOU WILL BE INFRACTED.
​

 

[Best in the World]

In my opinion...HHH beating Booker T with the title on the line at WrestleMania 19. They built it up all that time, how Booker T had to "redeem" himself, how HHH constantly had to judge Booker T for past mistakes, and then it ends with Booker T losing, making the entire feud and match pointless.

The Fingerpoke of Doom...'nuff said.

David Arquette winning the WCW title...once again 'nuff said.

Booking Hollywood Hulk Hogan/Sting on LIVE T.V. rather than on a PPV, on about 4-days of build-up.






....Katie Vick.........

 

[Gibby]

I had heard, possibly apocryphal, that Kane only got the title because Austin bust accidentally in a First Blood match and it was unignorable and they hadn't an audible to call.

Generally find much of the booking around HHH and up-and-comers mystifying, usually buries his opponent and they get a cheap and meaningless win back on a PPV down the line.

 

[capnwillie]

David Arquette as WCW World Champion is definitely tops in my book. That was a perfect example of poor booking and of Vince Russo shitting all over the prestige of a title he vocally considered nothing more than a prop. Also, it was a great example of how awful David Arquette is and always has been.

Seriously. Some people would use a time machine to go back and kill Hitler. I would go back and kill David Arquette.

 

[boywithbluehanger]

Alberto Del Rio.

He was given the world to succeed and couldn't get over due to bad booking at the worst time possible - Wrestlemania. They built up his path to greatness almost a year prior to the big event by having him win over various guys using sly tactics and eventually outsmarting them by applying an armbar submission. He won the Royal Rumble and continued onward to his "destiny". Finally he had a strong feud with Edge. Unbeknownst to us at the time, Edge was suffering from a sever neck injury and was advised by his doctor not to wrestle anymore. So after being informed that Edge was going to retire after the WM match between he and ADR, Creative decided to let Edge (one of if not THE most decorated guy in the industry) retire with the title instead of putting it on the guy who needed it the most. Even in the most humble of speculative scenarios where ADR might have suggested it, the creative team should have known better. Due to their decision, they wasted a year of programming and a central character for nothing by giving a title to a man who had no business or need winning yet another one. (And this is coming from someone who LIKES The Rated R Superstar!)

To make matters worse, they try to make up for the mistake by giving ADR the Money in the Bank briefcase well after he lost steam. Afterwards they give him the WWE championship, when it was clear that he was no longer even the top 3 heels in the company. You want dreadfully awful booking? Look no further than WWE's use of ADR in 2011.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

David Arquette as WCW World Champion is definitely tops in my book. That was a perfect example of poor booking and of Vince Russo shitting all over the prestige of a title he vocally considered nothing more than a prop. Also, it was a great example of how awful David Arquette is and always has been.

Seriously. Some people would use a time machine to go back and kill Hitler. I would go back and kill David Arquette.

Don't put any of that on Arquette. He was just doing what he was told to do. He even says that he thought it was a horrible idea and was shot down by Russo when he voiced that opinion. It was part of his movie contract to work with WCW to promote that movie, and he had to do what he was told to do. Don't forget too, that he donated everything he made from that to the families of Brian Pillman and Owen Hart, which is a beyond classy move in my book.

The blame for that fiasco falls 100% on Russo.

 

[Gibby]

There is a little confusion here between 'booking' and 'writing' in parts. The Katie Vick storyline was idiotic writing, the booking was to lead to a match between Kane and HHH with Michaels assisting Kane so he could feud with HHH down the line. If you'd have said Kane v HHH in a stepping stone feud I'd have gone for it (reluctantly as I'm indifferent to either) but the writing was what made that hurtle past the realms of stinking and into genuinely insensitive art.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Most Attitude Era undercard feuds honestly. Go back and watch that shit, it's difficult. I'm convinced it only worked because it made people react. Like "watch this crazy vulgar, crude, half nude, weird shit".

As far as something in particular, HHH vs Booker T WMXIX. the worst part was how he won. He took so long to make the cover that you expected Booker to kick out. Then he didn't and looked even more like shit.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Don't put any of that on Arquette. He was just doing what he was told to do. He even says that he thought it was a horrible idea and was shot down by Russo when he voiced that opinion. It was part of his movie contract to work with WCW to promote that movie, and he had to do what he was told to do. Don't forget too, that he donated everything he made from that to the families of Brian Pillman and Owen Hart, which is a beyond classy move in my book.

The blame for that fiasco falls 100% on Russo.

Well said. David Arquette didn't want them to put the belt on him, he was just doing what he was told to do, and donating the money he was paid to charity shows what kind of man he is, and how embarassed he was by the whole storyline. Fair play to him I say, it's Russo's fault, not Arquette's.

I know that Russo was thinking that putting the title on a Hollywood actor to promote "Ready To Rumble" would get WCW alot of mainstream publicity and hopefully make them alot of money, but doing so permanantly damaged the prestige of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Everyone knows wrestling is predetermined and while watching it you suspend reality, but putting a movie star as the champion made that impossible. It just emphasised wrestling as fake and made the company, title and wrestlers look stupid.

There are alot of people who take wrestling very seriously, and booking David Arquette to win the World Title drove alot of them away, and pissed even more off. It had long term negative effects on WCW, and I blame Vince Russo entirely for this massive fuck up. No wonder that company ended up going out of business with moronic decisions like this one.

 

[Wolf Pac]

New Blood Rising 2000

[youtube]R3S48HdUHd0[/youtube]

5.25

Yeah, that's right people, it's Goldberg breaking kayfabe and refusing to take a Powerbomb from Kevin Nash. Say what you want about David Arquette winning the WCW Championship, at least that was to promote a WCW movie and he pinned a non-wrestler to win the belt in a tag team match, so his title win made some sense, but the New Blood Rising incident truly is the most ridiculous angle ever. Seriously what was Vince Russo trying to accomplish by showing & admitting in front of 6,614 people during a match that wrestling is scripted? After the match was over, they had Tony Schiavone on commentary thank Scott Steiner for taking the Powerbomb from Nash instead. This was completely pointless and made the wrestling business look so stupid.

To make it even more laughable, check out this Fall Brawl advert for 'Goldberg refusing to follow script'.

[youtube]2cZtuwjdPJU[/youtube]

So all the matches at Fall Brawl were fake except for Steiner/Goldberg.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

[YOUTUBE]DVKuVN4WHKQ[/YOUTUBE]

Punk retains after The Shield interference, and we get rid of the "if someone interferes on Punk's behalf, he loses the title" stipulation. Rock gets his rematch at Elimination Chamber, someone else bails Punk out again.

Not too sure about using The Shield again, because I think we already knew Heyman and Punk hired the Shield to do their dirty work for them, so they couldn't lie about it anymore. I'm thinking about that promo with the hidden camera footage featuring Heyman (unknowingly) confessing about using The Shield before Brock returned to F5 Vince.

Anyway, we get Punk VS Cena for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania. Cena gets his triumphant moment of dethroning Punk, and regaining the WWE Championship, and we all know Punk and Cena are more than capable of delivering a five star classic. Think about the match they had on Raw, where Punk goaded Cena into risking his Royal Rumble win, you save that match for Mania.

On the Wrestlemania 29 card, we still get Brock VS Triple H II, but now you can have The Rock VS The Undertaker and Cena VS Punk for the strap. It's a more enticing card, and you don't have to worry about the WWE Champion (Rock) disappearing and disrupting the continuity during the build for a championship match.

The Rock of all people doesn't need the rub of being WWE Champion going into Wrestlemania, Rock VS Taker for the streak sells itself, and Cena VS Rock at Wrestlemania 28 is still "Once In A Lifetime."

[YOUTUBE]Qpf03gMqbc0[/YOUTUBE]

I'm someone, who will defend Triple H 95% of the time on here, but Orton should've won the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania.

The "If Triple H gets disqualified, he loses the title" stipulation was silly. Throw that out the window, and make Triple H VS Orton a no DQ, or Last Man Standing (Orton and HHH had a pretty good LMS match at No Mercy 2007) match.

The build going into Mania 25 was almost perfect. Triple H was the last line of defense to protect the McMahon family. It was an intense and personal feud, and people WANTED to see this two tear each other apart at Mania. Instead, we got an awkward (the RKO and the Pedigree at the beginning) and underwhelming Mania main event.

 

[FlairFan2003]

I didn't have a problem with Booker losing to HHH, Booker was a mid carder best known previously for his time in Harlem Heat, he had a brief singles run at the very end of WCW, the WCW where there was No Hogan, Flair, Savage, Hart, Sting, Nash, Goldberg, not exactly the highlight that makes him worthy of beating HHH, the company's top heel and biggest star, at WrestleMania. HHH definitely should have won, if they wanted to give a tag team win or non title grudge match to Booker that's fine, but he didn't deserve to beat HHH at Mania back then, he wasn't big enough.

The Finger Poker of Doom itself was brilliant...it reformed the original NWO, ending the silly Black & White vs Wolf Pac nonsense and set about purging all the second teamers that filled the ranks like Norton, Henning, Disco (the NWO Intern), Horace Hogan, Virgil, guys who never belonged the No. 1 Heel group to begin with. Also, WCW needed a strong heel, Flair & Goldberg were WAY over as faces and presumably so would Sting have been when he returned (he was injured). DDP was extremely popular too. What they didn't have was an equal heel faction to oppose. The fact WCW twice topped 5.0 ratings AFTER the F-Poke and drew a big buyrate for SuperBrawl PPV shows the Finger Poke Of Doom itself wasn't an audience killer. if you want to argue about the nonsense that came after (pushing Goldberg into the mid card, taking him out of the title picture, never having a full fledged with Nash after he screw jobbed to take his title and end the streak, never having a re match with Hogan - Screw jobbing Flair at SuperBrawl with the whole David Flair-Torrie Wison ridiculousness, burying him right after and then turning him heel - turning Hogan face and breaking up the NWO right when they were hitting their stride as legit mega heels again for the first time in a year, completely wasting Savage's return by ignoring the fact he turned on the NWO and cost Bischoff the WCW Presidency in the first place, never finishing his feud with the group) then by all means go ahead, that was some real wasted opportunity there, and a lot of it, not just one un popular or nonsensical thing but several. The Finger Poke itself was a total shock and initially a great catalyst for the program.