Really bad booking that baffled you

[Renslayer]

Sept 14, 2014 17:04:20 GMT -5 H-Virus said:

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

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.

The turning face part I got nothing, but IIRC, champions were exempt from being fired.

[Ben Wyatt]

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. Everything about what you mentioned makes me stabby. I also loved Vince being buddy buddy with the heel Alliance members....After THEY SPENT MONTHS TRYING TO RUN HIM OUT OF BUSINESS.

[Bob Schlapowitz]

Sept 14, 2014 19:00:02 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt 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. Everything about what you mentioned makes me stabby. I also loved Vince being buddy buddy with the heel Alliance members....After THEY SPENT MONTHS TRYING TO RUN HIM OUT OF BUSINESS.

I now several people who quit watching wrestling because of the stupidity contained in that one single episode of Raw and haven't watched since.

[Ben Wyatt]

Sept 14, 2014 19:02:25 GMT -5 Bob Schlapowitz said:

Sept 14, 2014 19:00:02 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

This. Everything about what you mentioned makes me stabby. I also loved Vince being buddy buddy with the heel Alliance members....After THEY SPENT MONTHS TRYING TO RUN HIM OUT OF BUSINESS.

I now several people who quit watching wrestling because of the stupidity contained in that one single episode of Raw and haven't watched since.

I weep when I think about how different Angle's career would have turned out had they not screwed up his face run

[H-Virus]

Sept 14, 2014 18:36:48 GMT -5 Renslayer said:

Sept 14, 2014 17:04:20 GMT -5 H-Virus said:

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.

The turning face part I got nothing, but IIRC, champions were exempt from being fired.

I completely forgot that Austin was a champion at the time.

[Sephiroth]

Rikishi as the guy who ran over Austin. Seriously, this made NO sense to me. Of all the possible people, him??? Even if they revealed Triple H as putting him up to it, him??? To me the better plan woukd have been Jericho being the driver and he did it to get Audtin out of the way do there would be a chance for him to climb the ladder.

[EoE: Workin On My Night Cheese]

Sept 14, 2014 12:41:46 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

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.

I'd say it's mostly annoying as opposed to damaging. If the casual fan are as casual as we say they are, they'd know it's only the heels saying this and that Bryan has well and truly proven them wrong results-wise whenever he hasn't been directly f***ed over by them in the process.

But this is kind of where WWE need stronger face announcers than Cole and Lawler to defend Bryan in this regard to the heels saying this, because they do seem to let them "get away" with it more often than not.

[Neo: "The One" who CLAPS]

Sept 14, 2014 20:27:12 GMT -5 EoE: Workin On My Night Cheese said:

Sept 14, 2014 12:41:46 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

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.

I'd say it's mostly annoying as opposed to damaging. If the casual fan are as casual as we say they are, they'd know it's only the heels saying this and that Bryan has well and truly proven them wrong results-wise whenever he hasn't been directly f***ed over by them in the process.

But this is kind of where WWE need stronger face announcers than Cole and Lawler to defend Bryan in this regard to the heels saying this, because they do seem to let them "get away" with it more often than not.

Great point. When I was growing up, even though both were way past their prime, JR never let Lawler insult a face and get away with it.

[Main Eventer]

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.

For like a month after the Invasion ended I had almost everybody wrong it terms if they were a face or a heel. I thought Austin was still heel and Angle and Vince were still faces. I thought Flair was heel for taking half of Vince's power thanks to Shane and Stephanie. I thought Jericho turned heel at Survivor Series (the only part I got right.) Then turned face when he aligned with Vince. I thought The Rock turned heel for not aligning with Vince, and I thought Regal, Christian, Test, and those damn Dudleyz turned face for aligning with Vince. I took me almost 2 months to figure everything out.

Anyway back on topic. Orton vs. Batista for the WWE title in a cage match. Batista is hurt and has to get surgery soon, so what do they do? Give Batista the title only for him to have to drop it the next night then Orton wins it again.  

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

Sept 14, 2014 20:09:47 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Rikishi as the guy who ran over Austin. Seriously, this made NO sense to me. Of all the possible people, him??? Even if they revealed Triple H as putting him up to it, him??? To me the better plan woukd have been Jericho being the driver and he did it to get Audtin out of the way do there would be a chance for him to climb the ladder.

I still think they chose Rikishi because they needed a lame duck to feed to Austin when he came back and didn't want to damage the credibility of anyone who would've actually been interesting.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Jericho won the WHC from Batista two weeks after dropping it iirc.

[Deleted]

Ryback losing to Mark Henry because he couldn't give him the shell shock only to give him a Shell Shock after the match and then turning heel against Cena the next night. That's how you kill a guys career in 24 hours.

[benstudd]

It's been mentioned before but Wyatts vs the Shield. I mean how can you f*** that up? Well they did. They faced each other way too soon, it should have been at least a year-long build and then you blow off at Mania. Instead they had a match at Elimination Chamber and that's it.

[Deleted]

Sept 13, 2014 16:06:56 GMT -5 Kiaraa said:

Sept 13, 2014 12:22:52 GMT -5 Been burned too many times said:

Cesaro yodeling and Natalya farting.

Natalya farting has to be the best gimmick they can give give to their diva ever. I mean a woman farting is just so cool, it made her sexy & a complete woman IMO.

Post of the year?

[Tony Schiavontay]

Sept 14, 2014 20:09:47 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Rikishi as the guy who ran over Austin. Seriously, this made NO sense to me. Of all the possible people, him??? Even if they revealed Triple H as putting him up to it, him??? To me the better plan woukd have been Jericho being the driver and he did it to get Audtin out of the way do there would be a chance for him to climb the ladder.

I always thought it should have been Angle. In the time Austin was gone, he won the IC and European titles (at the same time), the King of the Ring and, right as Austin returned, the World title. He gained the most while Austin was gone by a long shot and, to give it even more logic, he wrestled his first match the night Austin got run over.

Rikishi was just plain stupid. He hadn't even debuted yet when it happened and, even when he switched to the leather tracksuits and started coming out to a rap song about what a bad motherf***er he was, continued to wrestle in a thong and shoving his ass in people's faces. As a bad ass heel. One of the shittiest reveals in wrestling history.

[madness50]

The main event of SummerSlam 2010. Just an absolute idiotic finish in which Cena got planted with a DDT on the outside and won the damn match less than two minutes later. An absolutely shitty way to end that match and it killed the Nexus in my opinion.

[nate5054]

R Truth turning face after his glorious, amazing heel run. That was flat out horrid.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

HHH vs Stephanie and her dog (oh yeah, and Undisputed WWF Champion Chris Jericho).

[Nic Nemeth]

Ryback.

Seriously you had a guy who topped everyone else in terms of crowd reactions, was credible enough to beat tag teams single-handedly while squashing champions and uppercards clean, and legit made you think Punk's reign was coming to an end. So what do you do?

Have him lose by screwy finish at HiaC which made sense at the time, give him a reason to challenge again. Then have him get Triple Powerbombed by debuting wrestlers at his next shot, which was fine since he wasn't pinned at least. Then let them beat him and his friends in their debut, which is okay cause he didn't get pinned. But after that things went downhill. He got screwed out of the title again by The Shield. He almost won the Royal Rumble but a month later, gets pinned clean to a Spear. Then jobs to Mark Henry and turned heel for no reason. After that he gets squashed and becomes a midcard joke that gave up when Miz kicked him.

[repomark]

Sept 14, 2014 20:09:47 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Rikishi as the guy who ran over Austin. Seriously, this made NO sense to me. Of all the possible people, him??? Even if they revealed Triple H as putting him up to it, him??? To me the better plan woukd have been Jericho being the driver and he did it to get Audtin out of the way do there would be a chance for him to climb the ladder.

Good call! Jericho would have been a better choice, but I still theorise that they planned on it being Shawn Michaels but he was not ready/did not want to comeback at that time.

One minor one that always confused me (most of the major ones have already been mentioned) was after Vince won the Rumble he waivered his number 1 contendership status the following night, which was then given to Austin instantly. This rendered the Rumble match completely pointless. It led to the St Valentine's Day Massacre cage match, but surely the logical booking would have been Austin challenging McMahon for the number 1 contendership instead of the other way around?

Whilst we are on McMahon, I have a similar issue with him surrendering the belt shortly after winning it. Him becoming WWE champion in itself probably never should have happened, but I could accept it given he was one of the most over characters in the company, had a wrestler's physique and had won the Rumble that year. However, just surrendering the belt with out dropping it back to Triple H I thought was pointless.