Worst Booking Decisions in Pro Wrestling History

[WarMachine1]

There are a whole lot of booking decisions in the professional wrestling industry that just fail to show any logic or reason behind it, especially if booked by somebody with the surname of McMahon, Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, Flair, Rhodes and more recently, Levesque. Just watch his WM XIX and Survivor Series 2005 matches and you will know what I am talking about. Anyway, this thread is for the discussions of the worst of the worst regarding booking pro wrestling whether it comes for WCW, ECW, (yes, even they had some horrible booking) WWE and more recently, TNA. If there are any horrible booking decisions that come to mind from any promotion, please feel free to post about it. That's what the thread is designed for.

 

[seabs]

The invasion will get a lot of mentions here I'm speculating, especially putting Austin on team WCW.

 

[Lockard 23]

-Turning Austin heel in 2001. Austin was still a red-hot babyface and turning him heel at the time (especially in his own home state of Texas) wasn't the brightest of moves. It also contributed to a drop-off (not a massive one, but a noticeable one) in business at the time, if you really want objective proof that it wasn't the most splendid of ideas. The turn itself was Austin's idea because he felt he was getting stale after returning in late 2000, but even he looks back on it now and regrets that it happened.

-The Nexus losing at Summerslam 2010. This would be akin to if The Alliance had lost at the 2001 Invasion PPV. This big, bad stable that just ran through and destroyed several superstars gets defeated in their first real chance to prove they're a threat? That's pretty much the antithesis on how to get a dominant heel stable over.

-Speaking of the Invasion angle... um, yeah, where to even begin. Not acquiring more WCW talent (Sting, Goldberg, Mysterio, Flair, Bischoff, etc... although I realize a couple of these were out of their hands), making Shane the owner of WCW and (especially) Stephanie the owner of ECW and turning the whole angle into a McMahon Family storyline, having Team WWF destroy most of the Alliance on a constant basis, having Austin constantly berate his own guys for losing a match, having Austin as the leader of Team WCW, etc. Look no further than Survivor Series, where the angle met it's conclusion, for the kind of logic this whole thing encompassed - The Rock, leader of Team WWF, is the WCW World Champion, and Steve Austin, leader of Team WCW, is the WWF Champion.

-The Hogan/Sting debacle at Starrcade 1997. Nick Patrick was supposed to give Sting a fast-count and make it appear that he had been screwed in Hogan's favor, but instead, he fucked up and gave a regular three count instead (or rather, as according to some, was bribed by Hogan to make a normal count) and it just made it appear as if Sting had been soundly defeated by Hogan... which is among the biggest fuck-ups in history. Fuck all the attempted screw jobs, just have Sting go in and defeat Hogan to win the championship to give WCW their big moment. No shenanigans needed.

-Not following up on the Fingerpoke Of Doom. I thought, unlike most, that this was a great angle, and it would have been perfect if only they had followed through with Goldberg tearing through the NWO and eventually making his way back up to Hogan and reclaiming the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Unfortunately, it never happened and they then proceeded to do jack shit with Goldberg for the remainder of his WCW career.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Fandango going over Ziggler cleanly. I died a little inside.

 

[Snowman1]

The main TNA one I can think of (we know there's been plenty) was giving Sting the title shot at Slammiversary last year. TNA just got done doing the impossible with the reboot of the Aces and Eights and not only turning them into a relevant faction for a little while, but even a dominant one with numerous babyfaces off the show selling injuries from the biker gang. So, Hogan needs someone to step up and be in the main event, and unless he wanted to put the future in the company in the hands of a tag-division guy, he only had 2 options: either quickly make amends with the pissed-off AJ in what was a hot storyline, or make a deal with the devil in Matt Morgan. Both of which would lead to compelling TV, but then Sting descends from the rafters and became #1 contender and all three storylines never recovered (Morgan even asked for his release).

Over the past few years in the big 'E, the main two that spring to mind are the Ryback heel turn and Cena beating Brock at Extreme Rules 2012.

 

[Aids Johnson]

The main TNA one I can think of (we know there's been plenty) was giving Sting the title shot at Slammiversary last year. TNA just got done doing the impossible with the reboot of the Aces and Eights and not only turning them into a relevant faction for a little while, but even a dominant one with numerous babyfaces off the show selling injuries from the biker gang. So, Hogan needs someone to step up and be in the main event, and unless he wanted to put the future in the company in the hands of a tag-division guy, he only had 2 options: either quickly make amends with the pissed-off AJ in what was a hot storyline, or make a deal with the devil in Matt Morgan. Both of which would lead to compelling TV, but then Sting descends from the rafters and became #1 contender and all three storylines never recovered (Morgan even asked for his release).

Over the past few years in the big 'E, the main two that spring to mind are the Ryback heel turn and Cena beating Brock at Extreme Rules 2012.

That was so incredibly stupid. Morgan built up perfectly for that spot and then just ignored until he was gone.

 

[Nero_x3]

Booker T losing to Triple H at WM 19. A perfect chance for Booker T to have a great face run ruined by Triple H, and the ending to it made it even worse.

 

[WarMachine1]

Booker T losing to Triple H at WM 19. A perfect chance for Booker T to have a great face run ruined by Triple H, and the ending to it made it even worse.

As you should all know, I am very anti HHH. This Booker T-HHH angle sucked, no question but Booker didn't deserve the strap at this point. If they wanted to push Booker, they could have given him more victories, but the right man won at WM19. Booker T back then was the same as Swagger last year. Didn't deserve the title match, and definitely not the title. Problem back then was Hs had no one else to face.

 

[WarMachine1]

I didn't like how they booked Big Show in his debut year with WWE.

- He's brought in to stop Austin from winning at WrestleMania yet at every turn he's punked out including losing to Austin in around 4 minutes in a highly advertised match.
- Turns on the Corporation, faces Foley in a gritty Boiler Room brawl and loses
- Then teams up with Foley to take on the Corporation on the next PPV
- Eventually teams up with Taker around Fully Loaded and is basically treated like a rookie being shown the ropes
- Instead of having Show stand up for himself against Taker, Taker drops the whole 'New Ministry' angle and just disappears into the night just because he doesn't want to work a match on SmackDown.
- He's then put into this really groan worthy sympathy angle where it's announced his kayfabe father, who we've never known, is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
- Then out of the blue, he's thrown into a massive bait and switch where he somehow ends up with the WWE Championship.
- Instead of putting him into a big name feud, they continue with the Bossman feud which is now for the WWE Championship.
- He then loses it to HHH eventually on Raw and gets his ass kicked by HHH

Just ugh.

 

[Nero_x3]

As you should all know, I am very anti HHH. This Booker T-HHH angle sucked, no question but Booker didn't deserve the strap at this point. If they wanted to push Booker, they could have given him more victories, but the right man won at WM19. Booker T back then was the same as Swagger last year. Didn't deserve the title match, and definitely not the title. Problem back then was Hs had no one else to face.

It still pretty much buried Booker for the next few years. He was going into WM 19 as a hot babyface, and giving him the strap would've put him into a perfect position.

 

[ShaRpY HaRdY]

Soooo many horrid booking decisions, one that's not too obvious that I remember was: Brodus Clay & Hornswoggle vs Ziggler & Swagger (Ziggler had wrestled CM Punk at RR for the WWE Championship a few months prior and Swagger had been the US Champ around a month or two before)

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

I didn't like how they booked Big Show in his debut year with WWE.

- He's brought in to stop Austin from winning at WrestleMania yet at every turn he's punked out including losing to Austin in around 4 minutes in a highly advertised match.
- Turns on the Corporation, faces Foley in a gritty Boiler Room brawl and loses
- Then teams up with Foley to take on the Corporation on the next PPV
- Eventually teams up with Taker around Fully Loaded and is basically treated like a rookie being shown the ropes
- Instead of having Show stand up for himself against Taker, Taker drops the whole 'New Ministry' angle and just disappears into the night just because he doesn't want to work a match on SmackDown.
- He's then put into this really groan worthy sympathy angle where it's announced his kayfabe father, who we've never known, is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
- Then out of the blue, he's thrown into a massive bait and switch where he somehow ends up with the WWE Championship.
- Instead of putting him into a big name feud, they continue with the Bossman feud which is now for the WWE Championship.
- He then loses it to HHH eventually on Raw and gets his ass kicked by HHH

Just ugh.

Definitely agree here.