Dusty Rhodes = WORST BOOKER EVER!!!

[Novakane487]

If you didn't know, Dusty Rhodes is the head booker for ECW. He is in my mind, without a doubt, the worst booker in the history of pro wrestling. It doesn't seem like he even tries to put any thought into what happens on ECW. He just seems to pull names out of a hat to decide who is gonna wrestle. ECW has talented guys that are pretty much wasted because Dusty can't book to save his life. I honestly think I could book a better show than he does with the same wrestlers and most people in this chat room could probably do better than Rhodes too. I'm just wondering if anyone agrees with me on this one. I don't see why they don't just try out a lot of new shit on ECW that you probably couldn't do on Raw or Smackdown. THey really have nothing to lose by at least trying to make ECW entertaining. Its not like the ratings are gonna get any lower so why not just let loose? A group of people like the ones in this chatroom could probably do just as good if not better than this guy I think.

 

[Lil Wes]

Meh, it would be hard for anyone to book a show like ECW with all of that talentless garbage, back in 97 and now. Jesus, This is the same show that has CM Punk as champion, Punk is like the show, bland, boring, booked idiotically etc.. But the bullshit of having the same matches weekly are starting to piss me off, first we had to see CP Munk and Jim Morrison it seemed like every other week, then Miz and now Chavo.

I usually just stay away from watching the show, it has no hope of being anything intereesting with the lack of talent on the brand. Hell, Burke wasn't even used tonight, instead they give us a fucking Mikey Whipwreck wanna-be in a squash. I thought that adding SD! wrestlers to appear on the brand would work and make it halfway decent, I thought wrong I guess. ECW is like watching OVW except in a bigger arena with a dead crowd.

I honestly don't see why they just don't go away with the whole brand, it's turning into a joke and it isn't like Edge needs 2 shows weekly to stay over, or any of these guys are going anywhere. The ones with potential, *cough* Burke, Benjamin,*cough* aren't even used. All in all though, Yes I think he's a terrible booker, ECW is a one hour show filled with squashes and a 10 minute main event to hype boring feuds the people could care less about, Do I think he's the worst ever? No, because there is zero talent to work with.

 

[rKo0019]

I agree with Novakane, there is a lot of talent waiting to be tapped on ECW...it is confusing to me why someone who is known to have an "old-school" mentality is appointed to book EXTREME Championship Wrestling...
Back in the days when he was booker for the NWA, he brought the Bunkhouse Stampede PPV to WWE's backyard, and it failed miserably...Ric Flair states in his book that Dusty would contantly put himself over, and plus some matches would have the same ending each week (hmmm...)...
Dusty is one of the greatest legends ever, but IMO, he is not a great booker...So far, he has proven inadequate at that task. I think McMahon should have him help the young guys out at their promo skills, as many of them are lacking in that department....
Overall, without getting off topic too much, yes, he is a crappy booker.

 

[nomonksinmyband]

Gotta disagree, Dusty is far from the Worst Booker in history. He has had plenty of good idea's and has had some bad idea's but so does every booker.

And ECW now isn't the ECW of old its a new ECW so if your tuning in to see the old style then your gonna dissapoint yourself and not enjoy what is a best a mildly solid show and there is always only so much you can do in an hour.

But in the end. Steph and Vince are the two that decide all the storylines and who the want push. All Dusty does is put it on TV.

So if you wanna blame someone maybe blame the top of the food chain

 

[majestic-marcus]

gotta say that for all the respect i have for Dusty, he is the worst booker in the WWE today. i think its more than just "some bad idea's" - everyone makes mistakes (like the douche that put a belt on cody rhodes!!) but dusty is consistantly poor. the reason why people dont watch or enjoy ECW is definately not because the talent is poor - they have some of the most criminally underused athletes in pro wrestling (Burke, Benjamin, Morrison, the "originals") - it is because the booking is consistantly poor, repetitive and predictible.

i am quite sure that any sincere wrestling fan could book the show better, for a fraction of what Vince is paying Dusty. I am convinced that with better booking the talent and potential of the ECW roster would be on show for all to see and we wouldnt have Big Daddy V as the sole ECW rep in the elimination chamber (we could have had Benjamin and Kane in there instead of BDV and Khali).

with Dusty booking there is little flow between storylines (where did chavo come from?) and we have traditional no-dq gimmick matches (steel cage, "extreme rules", falls-count-anywhere etc) replaced with russo-esque gimmicks like the "gulf of mexico match".

but i gotta agree with nomonksinmyband - in the end the blame has ultimately gotta lay with Vince and Steph. saying that, it does not excuse Dusty as he could certainly do more than what he has with the talent these guys have to offer.

i say Shane - O - Mac for president!!

This guy is nothing short of a wrestling forums genius!

For my opinions read this post, their exactly the same except for 1 thing;
I personally enjoyed the gulf-of-mexico match and though he came from nowhere I beleive the booking in the Chavo/CM Punk rivalry has been enjoyable even though its basically been used to promote the Edge/Vickie storyline

Almost forgot, the whole New-Breed thing was one of the worst storylines ever!

 

[Audioslave]

Dear freakin' Lord. You are WAY too hard on Dusty. Everything pretty much makes sense and we've gotten two really good weeks of ECW out of it:

- Promo time for Chavo.
- Promo time for CM Punk finally.
- Promo time for Miz & Morrison.
- Stevie Richards awesome interview with Styles.
- Richards return and, from what it looks like, a potential push for him too.
- Development on the Colin Delaney storyline, where they team him with Dreamer.
- Kofi Kingston being put in some very fun enhancement matches.

with Dusty booking there is little flow between storylines (where did chavo come from?) and we have traditional no-dq gimmick matches (steel cage, "extreme rules", falls-count-anywhere etc) replaced with russo-esque gimmicks like the "gulf of mexico match".

The "Gulf Of Mexico" match wasn't "Russo-esque" for the plain and simple reason that it was a basic gimmick concept that didn't have so much complicated bullshit involved. It was absolutely nothing like that rat trap match, the mouse on a pole thing (or whatever it was), Reverse Battle Royal, etc. It was simple. He utilized the area where the arena was to his advantage and put on a simple concept of how to win (throw the guy into the gulf).

Chavo also didn't just "come out of nowhere". He returned on ECW to make a statement and he went for the champ. Vicki and Edge helped him to keep him occupied away from their whole relationship thing that's going on. So ever since Chavo won the belt with an assist from Edge - he's been on his own. Now Punk's after him and has been getting one up on the dude for the past few weeks.

Dusty's perfectly fine and WWE giving him an improved say so over the direction of ECW's storylines has improved the shows that have been produced over the past few weeks. Punk and Chavo have gotten mic time to develop as characters, Kofi's had the showcase matches in the bag, Richards is given an interview so that the fans can give him sympathy in his return match and some direction was finally taken with the Colin Delaney storyline in that he got some help from Dreamer and now they're in a feud with the Smackdown tag champs.

It's competent booking that happens to make for an interesting and fun hour of wrestling television.

 

[Audioslave]

i take your point but still, it was a bit silly!!

It was pretty logically done and it wasn't overly complicated, so it really isn't Russo-esque. When I heard about the match, I thought it might've been a bit weird.. but it was executed perfectly by Chavo and CM Punk and made for a fun match.

yes he did. he was a smackdown superstar and then suddenly no1 contender for the ECW title - thats coming out of nowhere, i didnt mean he literally materialised in the ring having not been there moments before. they could have pushed Benjamin into that role or maybe, and this is just crazy, kept the morrison feud going instead of one day deciding "lets not finish this storyline, lets stick him with that douche the miz and give them the tagbelts".

Chavo had not been on Smackdown in months and he had nothing else to do there at all. So they have him come out and target a champion. That's not really "out of nowhere" in a bad sense of the word at all, I don't think.

The deal with Morrison ran it's course and carrying it out that long would've been dumb. Sticking him in with another good heel in Miz is a perfect way to utilize the both of them. They've had some pretty good matches as tag champs since winning the belts, so I see no room to complain.

Benjamin isn't ready for a title run or a program, because he just got done being a supreme jobber on Raw to pretty much anyone he was opposed against. I suppose that the same could be said about Chavo not being ready, but he was excellent in his programs with Rey and has had a higher profile than Benjamin throughout his WWE career. Shelton's been put in the feud he has right now with Kane as a way of getting him over and hopefully giving him a meaningful win. At least that's how I see it.

The only complaint I have with ECW is the lack of Elijah Burke, who is one of those guys that they use so stupidly that it boggles my mind. The guy has all the talent in the world and he definitely has that "it" quality to him where he could be a future superstar. Hopefully this changes and they start using him more.

it is fun and it is interesting but that is not necessarily down to Dusty's booking. the wrestlers on ECW at the minute are massively talented, certainly the future of sports entertainment, if Vince lets them. with better booking the show could be excellent rather than good.

He's perfectly acceptable and he's done a lot better job in the past few weeks with his increased influence than Dave Lagana did during his whole tenure. I couldn't connect to Punk, because all he did is have matches and nothing else. Dusty's given him some segments (guitar smash & beating the shit out of Chavo after the Henry match) and mic time to develop him as a character so you know who you're cheering for.

 

[klunderbunker]

I think Rhodes does the best he can with what he has. Outside of Punk, what face is supposed to challenge Chavo for the belt? Kofi Kingston? Stevie Richards? There are no faces that aren't already involved in an angle who could be able to put on a feud with Chavo. The problem with ECW isn't the writers its the lack of proven talent on the roster. There's one major face and everyone else is either midcard or a heel. Rhodes does a very good job with what he has to work with.

 

[D-Squared]

I have seen a great improvment on ECW since Rhodes took over

how you lot can say he is a bad booker is beyond me, look at who he has to answer to - Vince McMahon,

Any decent ideas or pushes will immediatly nixed by Vince!

I personally see one problem with ECW - Elijah Burke is not the ECW Champ!
This guy is seriously underused and has recently been a jobber for the likes of CM Punk and Shelton benjamin!

I hope if there is a draft at WM24 then he moves to RAW and give him the IC title - something else that is under utilised at the moment.