Really bad booking that baffled you

[Neo: "The One" who CLAPS]

Sept 13, 2014 20:43:54 GMT -5 RI Richmark said:

The mess before WrestleMania this year.

Let me get this straight, you screw Daniel Bryan out of the title at Summerslam and screw him over for months afterwards. You have him overcome everything The Authority throws at him and build him up to be the biggest babyface in years. So naturally the man who will topple Orton at WrestleMania is.....Batista? While Bryan fights Sheamus in a meanless match?

That would be like if in The Dark Knight Rises having Batman go through all this struggle to fight Bane, overcome his broken back, escape the prison on the other side of the world and make it back to Gotham just to have Superman show up and save the day in five minutes while Batman has to settle for just some random henchman.

It would have ruined WrestleMania if the fans hadn't made thier feeling loud & clear. The reason many people belive it was all a work is that they can't belive the WWE could be THAT stupid.

This. It was such a textbook example of horrendous storytelling. Bryan would've ended looking absolutely dreadful, losing to The Authority and Bray, and hell, they might've had him lose at WM to Sheamu, so they could continue the feud that nobody at that point wanted.

And we all know that the Batista/Orton storyline would've been an incredible display of verbal oral pleasure to Triple H, with Orton and Batista probably putting HHH over at every opportunity. 

And Triple H, per rumors, would've faced Punk, and considering that Punk would've left anyway in July or so, HHH probably would've won.

The fantastic WMXXX we got would've been an absolute dreadful and depressing show if WWE had their way, with Batista over Orton, Lesnar over Taker, HHH over Punk, and Cena over Wyatt. My lord.

So overall, I nominate WMXXX's initial booking and plans for this thread topic.

[schma]

Cena's stabbing or basically any story where there is video evidence of a crime and no one is arrested or if they are arrested they're somehow released for the next show.

Rey Mysterio's World Title Run, Rey Mysterio's WWE title run. Also, the fact that JBL was world champ for something like a year and after putting Rey Mysterio through a month of being squashed by monsters still can't beat the guy? I get that it led to JBL's 'retirement' but honestly they basically buried someone who'd been a world champ for what in this era is an incredibly long time (regardless of whether we were fans of it or not).

[BigJerichool222]

[berlynwright]

Kennedy/Edge feud.

Edge beats Kennedy via cheating for mitb. Kennedy comes back from injury after being drafted to RAW to massive reaction, no reference to Edge and continues to be heel.

I knew Kennedy was done after losing mitb

[xxshoyuweeniexx]

Sept 13, 2014 20:38:58 GMT -5 @akeem said:

Nothing can compare to 98.4% of the Bryan/Authority saga. The insertion of the Big Show was a real treat. Just the perfect storm of bad WWE booking.

I've seen people try to explain that this was some big master plan dating back to last year's Summerslam. Like...do people realize how many variables would have to happen for this "big master plan" to happen? CM Punk has to walk out and Batista has to be booed the Rumble and the second Raw of his come back and he has to be gassed as shit for that work. And besides Bats being gassed (you could just look at a picture of him in August and tell his cardio was shit), no one could have predicted WWE's crazy January/February.

[JTG Fan]

Sept 13, 2014 10:57:42 GMT -5 Heartbreaker said:

You have CM Punk cutting a massive promo that became one of the most exciting and hot angles in years that lead to WWE being talked about in the media (in a good way) and bringing interest to new or old wrestling fans. What do you do? Bring in f***ing Kevin Nash.

The funny thing is Nash isn't even close to being the worst part of that angle. The idea that Triple H, like the man he replaced (Vince), didn't like Punk and told an old buddy to do his bidding was at least semi-intriguing. But then they just went in so many stupid f***ing directions. There was the "I'm sorry pop" promo, Alberto Del Rio as the 'handpicked' WWE Champion that apparently nobody in particular handpicked, Nash was announced as facing Punk early on RAW and then that was changed by the end of the show, R-Truth and Miz doing their Conspiracy thing, the roster walking out, Big Johnny texting, Vince returns and fires Triple H which may make some degree of sense in the convoluted corporate structure but made no f***ing sense to wrestling fans, Triple H and Punk having a tag team match together on PPV, Triple H continuing to act like a babyface even though the obvious payoff was to show Triple H was indeed the mastermind, the Cerebral Assassin, and not just some dumb jackoff who didn't understand that Beth and the divas were girls who could get hurt.

And the payoff was Kevin Nash in a Ladder Match.

[Dub H]

MVP after his face turn.
Swagger As Champion losing no stop to Big Show and Rey.(Swagger losing to Rusev four times in a row)

Nexus after the first month.(And as an extra; Feeding the Corre to EZEKIEL F' JACKSON.)

Zack Ryder,i think everyone knows what part of it..

Jesse and Festus not getting the tag titles and getting split,but i guess that could apply for a lo of talents,but Festus was very talented.(Insert Cryme Tyme and PTP here too).

Ryback...once again,basically everything once he got to main event.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Nash texting himself.

Whenever a tag team is needlessly split and both members fade into obscurity.

Cena joining the Nexus and not doing anything heelish. He continued to wear his usual attire, shirts and hats.

The corre existing to put ovr the least talented member.

The soon to happen inserting of the bellas in the AJ Paige feud.

Turning Sheamus into a bad comedian.

Big Zeke being the last ECW champ rather than Regal.

Londrick moving to Raw and becoming jobbers.

Cesaro and his losing streak.

Mitb winners getting "pushed" by losing constantly.

The Wyatts becoming Show and Henry's bitches.

Christian dropping the belt in 3 days to Orton.

[Mid-Carder]

Sept 13, 2014 20:22:24 GMT -5 Bob Schlapowitz said:

The Raw after Survivor Series 2001 where they basically hit the reset button. Austin is face again, and is back to being the old Stone Cold...Angle is heel again for some unknown reason....and everything since WM 17 NEVER HAPPENED!!!!!!!!

This one bothers me so much. Why is Kurt the heel after literally saving the WWF? Why is Austin the hero after the last few months of being the top heel? It shocked me even still relatively mark-ish that anybody involved thought this was logical booking.

On that note, re-turning him heel at Invasion was madness after the response he got for saving Team WWF the SmackDown before. The second they heard that crowd response, they should have changed their minds about turning him again. People wanted to cheer Austin, end of story.

[The Legend of Groose]

Every kind of booking that had to do with Hornswoggle... No really just pick a moment.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Every single PPV squash match aside from Honky Tonk Man.

And Lawler/Cole, the only thing that should have been a PPV squash match, not being one.

[Hit Girl]

The insistence on referring to Daniel Bryan as a B+, goat faced, garden troll.

None of it has got over. It's an insane way to build a star.

[Sephiroth]

I'll throw AJ Lee vs Total Divas into this conversation. There were so many things wrong with it that its not even amusing. Starting with the fact that AJ was supposed to be the heel-except her stated motivation for targeting the Total Divas was that she wanted the emphasis to be in wrestling not looks, a longstanding complaint of fans. Added to this there was only one AJ and a dozen Total Divas and you get AJ looking less like a mean girl heel and more like a sympathetic face overcoming the odds. Not helping things was the fact that AJ had already beaten all of the Total Divas multiple times and proceeded to beat all if them again, so what was the point?

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

Sept 12, 2014 16:54:56 GMT -5 CH Punk said:

- Booker T/Triple H at WrestleMania XIX, if Booker wasn't winning they should have never brought up the race card.

This is the one that is just inexcusable. The second race was brought into it (and yes, it became a race issue the second HHH start talking about how people like Booker shouldn't be champion regardless of whether or not WWE intended it to be that way), the babyface had to win. What harm could have possibly come from Booker holding the belt for a couple of months before dropping it back to HHH?

[schma]

Finlay not getting a short run as World Champ around the King Booker time. He was getting great props and looked more threatening than ever. I actually remember a Vince interview where he basically said flat out that a guy like Finlay would never be world champ because of the style he wrestled. Vince loved the style but felt it wouldn't work in the age they were now in.

Rikishi hitting Stone Cold with a car.

[Sephiroth]

Sept 14, 2014 13:03:19 GMT -5 Magic knows Black Lives Matter said:

Sept 12, 2014 16:54:56 GMT -5 CH Punk said:

- Booker T/Triple H at WrestleMania XIX, if Booker wasn't winning they should have never brought up the race card.

This is the one that is just inexcusable. The second race was brought into it (and yes, it became a race issue the second HHH start talking about how people like Booker shouldn't be champion regardless of whether or not WWE intended it to be that way), the babyface had to win. What harm could have possibly come from Booker holding the belt for a couple of months before dropping it back to HHH?

To say nothing of the fact that on the same show it took Hogan and Audtin multiple finishers to put their opponents away but only one Triple H finisher to do Booker in, and Booker didn't even get his heat back after. Definite burial whether it was intended or not.

[H-Virus]

Sept 14, 2014 11:13:55 GMT -5 Mid-Carder said:

Sept 13, 2014 20:22:24 GMT -5 Bob Schlapowitz said:

The Raw after Survivor Series 2001 where they basically hit the reset button. Austin is face again, and is back to being the old Stone Cold...Angle is heel again for some unknown reason....and everything since WM 17 NEVER HAPPENED!!!!!!!!

This one bothers me so much. Why is Kurt the heel after literally saving the WWF? Why is Austin the hero after the last few months of being the top heel? It shocked me even still relatively mark-ish that anybody involved thought this was logical booking.

In regards to Kurt at least, they did make some sense out of it with Edge's promo the next night on Raw about Angle putting himself in a no-lose situation. Either he could let the Alliance win and be seen as the guy who turned the tides of the war by defecting to the team at the last second, keeping his job in the process; or he could be the 'mole' who returns as a hero after saving the WWF from their imminent demise, still keeping his job in the process. Either way, Kurt would save himself.


Austin still being employed and immediately turning face, though? I got nothing on that one.

[Pipe_Bomb2k13]

Sept 14, 2014 6:48:23 GMT -5 Ryback on a Pole! said:

Nash texting himself.
Cena joining the Nexus and not doing anything heelish. He continued to wear his usual attire, shirts and hats.

That is annoyed me so much plus anything involving Nexus post Summerslam right up to TLC, the stand out point for me being that Cena get's fired for helping Orton retain the title only for him to turn up the following week making all the Nexus guys run scared and get hired back the same night.

Speaking of running scared The Alliance/Nexus has the whole WWE roster stand up and fight for who they work for blah blah blah etc but as soon as Miz and Truth turn up everybody walks out? Seriously WTF?

Big Show/Authority, Current Bella Twins angle, this year's Rumble so so many to pick from.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

I still believe that the booking of Orton for his first face run was just atrocious. Sure, he might not have been the most sympathetic face, but having him lose the title to Hunter after just one month blew my mind. Then they vacated the title several months afterwards only to have him lose again to Hunter. And in their final match for this feud, he suffers a "concussion", which leads to this finish. HHH has the sledgehammer ready behind the ref's back. But he decides he doesn't even need it and uses the pedigree for the easy victory. That feud made you think Orton just did not belong and regardless of your opinion on Randy, that certainly was not the best choice for a guy they wanted to be a top star.

[kingoftheindies]

Sept 14, 2014 13:00:13 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

I'll throw AJ Lee vs Total Divas into this conversation. There were so many things wrong with it that its not even amusing. Starting with the fact that AJ was supposed to be the heel-except her stated motivation for targeting the Total Divas was that she wanted the emphasis to be in wrestling not looks, a longstanding complaint of fans. Added to this there was only one AJ and a dozen Total Divas and you get AJ looking less like a mean girl heel and more like a sympathetic face overcoming the odds. Not helping things was the fact that AJ had already beaten all of the Total Divas multiple times and proceeded to beat all if them again, so what was the point?

That and at the time nobody was given a reason to Like any of the Total Divas. Didnt help than when any of them interacted with AJ all they said was "She's just jealous". So bitchy characters at the time stayed bitchy.