Chris Kreski was the 2nd most successful writer in wrestling history following Vince Russo, as he continued Russo’s character and storyline universe while expanding it and continuing to use Russo’s formula of short matches and focus on storyline & skits.
There is some revisionist history surrounding him, let’s get to it.
#1: The revisionist idea of WWF starting to focus more on workrate in 2000
The idea is that the WWF started to focus on in ring and “balance” story and ring work under Kreski after Russo.
This is a completely false narrative perpetuated by niche workrate fanatics who attempt to justify a show focusing on in ring as if it drew a dime and exposes whoever makes this argument of never watching Chris Kreski era of the WWF.
The WWF did not in anyway start focusing on workrate/in ring following Russo under Kreski, and in fact under Chris Kreski they moved even further from in ring workrate and introduced more skits.
Kreski retained the same exact Russo formula of 5-8 minute max matches on TV with no matches going into commercial(something Russo invented) with mostly no clean winners.
Kreski added more skits than Russo and far more focus away from the ring than Russo ever did. Kreski went even more of the direction of pop culture at the time, made the WWF more like Jerry Springer, more like MTV TRL with hints of Austin Powers style tongue in cheek comedy.
How this myth perpetuated is because under Kreski the WWF roster gained more workrate guys like the Radicalz and the in ring product improved. Not because Kreski wrote it to or focused on it but because the roster had better in ring workers. Kreski was a storyline writer, not ring agent.
The focus moved further away from workrate under Kreski, despite the in ring improvement,
#2 Brian Gewirtz was head writer and not Chris Kreski
Bruce Pritchard has attempted to revise history and paint Brian Gewirtz who was in charge of writing Rock promos(even when Russo was there) as head writer of the WWF because according to him Chris Kreski was quiet during creative meetings and Brian pitched the completed script.
This is completely false and easily refuted by a couple of facts.
A.The WWF product in 2000 is radically different than when Brian Gewritz was head writer from June 2002-2012
You could tell Brian was head writer from 2002-2012 because despite a change in rating, the show had the exact same pace and formula during the entirety of Brian’s run from 2002-2012 and changed immediately upon Gewritz departure(WWE becomes more serious, Formula changes Shield debut, etc)
The WWF from 2000-early 2002 prior to Brian Gewirtz becoming head writer was radically different than when Brian was head writer from mid 2002-2012.
B. The Blatant use of storyboards on WWF TV.
Chris Kreski, even admitted by Bruce Pritchard used storyboards for the entire roster for his scripts, this was heavily mocked by those out of touch in the wrestling bubble who never drew a dime writing, while respected and applauded by Kreski’s successful contemporaries(Russo, Ferrara, Blancha)
In December 1999 Kurt Angle started flirting with Stephanie McMahon, with her telling Triple H she thought he was cute.
While Kurt Angle never feuded until more than half a year later in the summer of 2000, during the entire period in the background a relationship is brewing between Kurt and Stephanie.
This could only be done via storyboards to keep track of it, hence why it started in December 1999 and then came to fruition 9 entire months later in August of 2000 for the Summerslam build. And again with having the person who ran over Austin use The Rock’s rental car in November of 1999, then bringing it up and entire 10 months later in September of 2000.
The show was completely storyboarded until the brand split of April 2002.
Chris Kreski was clearly irrefutably the head writer of the WWF during that time.
This was never ever done again after March 2002/Brand Split, it was never ever done when Brian Gewirtz was the head writer, so that immediately refuted Bruce Pritchard’s lies that Brian wrote the show and Kreski didn’t.
Not only was the show radically different when Kreski was head writer to when Gewritz was, but the use of storyboards used when Kreski was head writer and not when Gewritz was head writer proves irrefutably that Kreski was head writer of WWF 2000.
C. Russo formula used under Kreski, Russo formula discontinued under Gewritz
Chris Kreski as head writer kept Vince Russo’s exact formula of short matches that never go into commercial, 8 mins max, fast pace crash TV style focus on storyline and character. Kreski further expanded and added to Vince Russo’s storyline and character universe while heading more the direction that Russo was going even further focusing less on in ring and more on skits, keeping Russo’s sense of urgency and copying pop culture(TRL/MTV, Crash TV, Springer)
Brian Gewirtz as head writer completely discontinued Vince Russo’s formula. matches started becoming the focus and matches started being longer going into commercials. Less to zero backstage segments, less to zero storyline and characters that made zero sense, out of touch, no sense of urgency, no more crash TV.
There’s no way the writer of 2000 is the same writer of mid 2002-2012, thus zero way it was Gewritz writing 2000.
Bruce Pritchard doesn’t like when those outside the wrestling bubble succeed, hence why he shits on Russo and Kreski despite their success. The only reason Bruce puts over Gewirtz so much despite Gewirtz utterly failing as head writer is because Gewritz was responsible for Bruce Pritchard returning to the creative team.
Whereas Bruce was nowhere near the creative team when Russo and Kreski were head writers, hence his dislike for him.
It’s the same reason Cornette hates Russo, because Russo took Cornette’s job twice and succeeded whereas Cornette failed every single time he’s booked.
