Worst Booking Decisions In Professional Wrestling History

[therockiswwf]

Let's see:

1) Not giving Lex Luger the title at WM X: I don't care if he blabbed about the booking the night before. This man was the hottest wrestler in America from Summerslam 1993 to WM X. Furthermore, Luger was both a great babyface and a great heel. He wouldn't have affected Austin's rise to stardom in a few years' time and they would have had a great rivalry as well.

Luger said this rumor isn't true and that Vince had told him months before he wasn't going to win.

Finger poke of Doom is my vote. Anything after doesn't mean much as the company was pretty much dead.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

Invasion, the whole thing. Just all kinds of nonsense with that angle. Considering how much money they threw away with that angle it HAS to be #1.

 

[#tamale]

On four days of build-up. Dont forget that.

Ratings, man. Buy-rates mean nothing when Bischoff was able to beat them that one night.

Goldberg had terrible booking after winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Most of his opponents were not even credible threats and they exploited him so much to the audience to the point where they felt indifferent about him. His drawing potential was wasted by horrible booking and nasty politics, yet he is painted by everyone as being bitter and difficult to work with at that time.

And of course at that time, nothing can be bigger than Hogan and the nWo.

 

[ScreaminNormanSmiley]

Making HBK a Main Event wrestler.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

Talking of huge matches we saw only on TV: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5tmwp_the-rock-vs-ric-flair_sport

Don't know how to link daily motions.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Hogan v 'Berg on Nitro instead of Starrcade was such a short sighted decision. A win for 1 week in the ratings instead of making millions from PPV revenue. Nice work Eric!

Whoever booked the Mar Young getting naked or having a hand baby and Katie Vick should be banned from the wrestling business for life.

Russo/Arquette as champion was a disgrace and an insult to the business

 

[Poop Master Flex]

This thread has shown me one thing:

Picking on WCW is like picking on a kid with a mental disability, its just way too easy.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Triple H as champion for what felt like eternity.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Luger said this rumor isn't true and that Vince had told him months before he wasn't going to win.

Finger poke of Doom is my vote. Anything after doesn't mean much as the company was pretty much dead.

Thanks for the info, man. This makes Luger not winning the championship even more of an "WTF were they thinking?" booking decision.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Booker not going over Triple H at WrestleMania X8 is one of the few genuine examples of Triple H holding somebody back. No reason he should have retained the World title there, Booker was ready and that loss did hurt him going forward, had he won he'd have probably been much more relevant as a singles performer, instead he wound up in silly scenarios and tag teams.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

Luger not going over at Summerslam '93 was a WTF moment for sure although by WM10 Bret was clearly the better guy to go with.

Anything about Triple H after his 1st quad surgery was just bad. That guy had the greatest ability to suck the life out of any show he was ever on.

Jim Cornette put it best:

[YOUTUBE]vHhk65h-zsw[/YOUTUBE]

That's pretty much my opinion on Triple H.

Although I would call them the worst booking decisions Booker T and RVD not getting title runs in '02-'03 was a pretty bad call, especially since both were clearly over enough to warrant some kind of title run.

 

[#tamale]

Hulk Hogan putting over Yokozuna instead of Bret Hart.

 

[BaconBits]

Kevin Nash booking himself as the guy to end Goldberg's streak, which led to the Fingerpoke of Doom.

I understand the streak had to end, but instead of the screwy bullshit with Nash, they should have just had Hogan end the streak after a proper feud/build between the two.

 

[Nate DaMac]

On four days of build-up. Dont forget that.

The announcers failing to sell the fact that Goldberg kicked out of the leg drop like 3 times was also mind boggling.

I hated Edge dropping the title right back to Cena at the Rumble 3 weeks after he cashed in MitB. They could have rode that to Mania.

 

[The Brain]

The Rock going over John Cena at WrestleMania 28. I get it. It set up WrestleMania 29. Still didn't like it. Cena should have won that match.

 

[lowandmighty]

Dolph Ziggler. Just every match he's ever had. Apart from the ones he loses of course.

 

[Miko]

Anything in 2003 (ish?) involving Booker T, RVD and Kane not taking the title from the attitude hanger on Triple H

 

[Coco]

Booker T challenging for the title at WM19 was moronic to begin with. That spot should have been Van Dam's. Instead, RVD was on Sunday Night Heat before WrestleMania that year. Disgusting.

 

[Miko]

The constant racism would've fallen a bit flat with RVD though. I hate to say a guy got that position because he's black, but Booker T got that position because he's black.

EDIT - Still should've fucking won though... Someone fucking should've. Horrendous year/years. I've intentionally blocked large portions of it from my memory, it doesn't really start again til' JBL became JBL.

EDIT EDIT - Oh yeah, I stopped watching, that's why, fuck that "its a habit" shit.

 

[Coco]

After getting behind Cena and Punk in a big way, I've turned a corner on Triple H and accepted some of what comes with being a top guy.

I feel so dirty admitting that. Like tweenaged me grew up and turned heel.

 

[Барбоса]

There is a heel Coco?

Gods help us...

 

[Miko]

Was Triple H ever really a top guy though? Top tier perhaps, below Stone Cold, Rock, Foley, Undertaker and Vince McMahon in the attitude era (hate that name) probably on a par with Kane, Angle and Big Show. Below Cena and Batista when they hit the big time, the reason for that is all those guys were more popular and bigger stars than him. RVD is the prime example, but Booker and Kane were mega popular as well, instead of being crushed by Triple H and thrown in random tag teams, WWE could've made something of them and had more reliable star power in the Lesnar/post Lesnar era. Triple H had no business being top dog.

Apart from those few years on top I got no real problem with him though, his needing to get two or three consecutive wins over anybody promising could be tiresome, he did help Batista and he is deserving of being in and around the Main Event as he's a good foil for anybody, he just seems like that guy who never knew his place was below the real stars and as the focal point of the show? Fuck right off! But as long as other people were being heavily invested in (Stone Cold, Rock, Cena, Batista) then Triple H was bearable.

Gotta bear in mind that I don't HHH entertaining at all, but then I pretty much despise Undertaker and don't begrudge him any of his success.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I'd say Triple H was the top guy when Austin left in 1999 to get his neck fixed. I think Rock became more prominent than Triple H around WrestleMania 16. After that, I would say he became the top guy in 2003 when all the big stars left.

But yes, much like his mentor, HBK, he was only the top guy in the transistional eras.