Five Least Popular Booking Decisions of All Time
In theory, wrestling companies should not struggle to be successful. Unlike the UFC or other legitimate sporting competitions, WWE and others can book their most popular talent to be their most successful superstars. They can book results that are guaranteed to find favour with their audience, encouraging their fans to part with their hard earned cash to see what they want from their favourite wrestling promotions.
Wrestling promoters can also book storylines and matches to be as entertaining as possible. Therefore, in a sense, it is baffling that the last wrestling boom period ended way back in 2001 and hasn't come close to recapturing that early millennium magic. The Invasion storyline of summer 2001 should have been the greatest wrestling storyline of them all. See part 1 of my nine-part series of articles to see what that storyline could have been if booked correctly.
Had WWE focussed on delivering fantasy matches with top line WCW talent (of which names like Scott Steiner, Sting and Ric Flair remained, even if Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall, etc... were long gone), and booked them on a par with the WWE's main event level talent, then WWE would have had a license to print money. As it turned out ego got in the way and the best potential storyline of all time was over four months after it began with WCW and ECW's names well and truly dead and buried.
This is where the political climate of wrestling booking comes into play which can inevitably lead to booking blunders in a way that does not plague legitimate sporting competitions. There have been many booking errors that have caused almost irreparable damage to the company's that have written them. This article looks at the five least successful booking decisions ever made in wrestling.
#5 David Arquette becomes WCW World Champion
What? Why? How?
That was the reaction of all wrestling fans back in April 2000, when actor, David Arquette was crowned WCW World Champion.
It is cited as one of the final nails in the coffin for an ailing WCW, which had been unprofitable for the previous 18 months, after numerous booking blunders that had alienated it's own audience.
While WCW was an entertaining product in spring 2000, this was a bad decision and resulted in many fans vowing never to watch their programming again.
It was a shame, as the new booking team of Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff had been getting rave reviews after "resetting" WCW on April 10, 2000 and initiating a New Blood (of young or underutilised WCW talent) versus Millionnaire's Club (WCW's veteran main event crew of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair etc...) feud and had been producing a dynamic, must see product.
However, the booking call of April 25 to crown Arquette champion put paid to any progress made.
The title winning bout had WCW Champion, Diamond Dallas Page teaming with Arquette versus Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. The stipulation called for the man who earned the pin to win the belt. So when Arquette pinned Bischoff, he won his tag team partner's title. It was booking that defied all logic and regrettably it was a booking call from which WCW would never recover.