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Fantasy Booking

Five days now with no resolution of the Blogger post-by-email problem in sight.  Now I’m starting to wonder if they’ve just decided to phase out the feature completely and pretend like it can’t be fixed.  Either way, it’s messing with my mojo.

On with the questions…

Scott,

I know of bookers and the way WWE handles booking in terms of agents/producers and creative.  What I was wondering was, who would you have in a booking role if you had a company that needed booking (and you couldn't use yourself)?  Example, for marketing and sheer spectacle I'd have Vince McMahon at the helm.  From a storyline standpoint, I'd put Paul Heyman and Jim Cornette.  The agent I'd have who would build the matches with the wrestlers I'd put Pat Patterson.  So in my company, my booking team would consist of McMahon, Heyman, Cornette, and Patterson.  Now that is in a perfect world where no one is bigger than another and trying to throw their weight around (as hard as it would seem for Vince not to do).  Who would you have book the various aspects of your company or would you give the entire book to  specific person to run with? Who would you want handling your promos or would you leave that up to the wrestlers as long as they got some specific points across?

I’d probably let Pat Patterson do most of the booking work, because he did most of the heavy lifting during the Attitude Era, regardless of what Vince Russo says.  He was generally the guy who would edit Russo’s stuff into something watchable, plus he’s awesome at finishes and used to choreograph the Rumble every year.  And with the promos, I’d just do it NWA TV style, where you give them a talking point and 60 seconds and let them run with it.  Survival of the fittest. 

Comments

  1. I'd also throw Dusty Rhodes and Bill Watts in there too. A five man team with McMahon in charge.

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  2. Paul Heyman and Gabe Sapolsky with finance people making sure money isn't pissed away.  

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  3. Scott brings up an excellent point with the promos. There is no sink or swim environment anymore. Imagine what the Austin 3:16 promo would have actually been if creative scripted it?

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  4. I wish Bret Hart had the chance to book WWE. It's possible he might not have been right for the time, but I would have loved to see what he would have come up with as a booker.
     

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  5. Vince Russo, Ed Ferrara, Jim Herd, Herb Abrams, Angelo Poffo and Kevin Nash...

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  6. That's pretty interesting. In his book, he mentions how he had a short tenure booking Stampede and was very precise with how he recorded everything down and how not to do certain angles/finishes, etc.

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  7. Exactly. Give Kofi Kingston a CHANCE to get over on his own promo-wise. The fans in the crowd like him and even the IWC is generally positive towards him.

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  8. I wonder how Mick Foley would do. He's definitely a creative guy and has an eye for talent as he helped Jericho, Punk and Samoa Joe early on in their careers.

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  9. I loved the NXT segment on giving a person a random topic and make a promo for 30-60 seconds. In that short time, we knew that Wade Barrett would be a star and that Eli Cottonwood flat out sucks.
    Also if the WWE started doing these non-scripted promos, people would see that Ziggler would be a star (and doesn't need Vickie) as evidenced by Ryder's Youtube show. Ziggler was especially great in this past week's episode.

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  10. I'd always split the roster up by division and give each one a dedicated booker with one guy overseeing everything. For example.

    X Division: Heyman
    Tag Division: Cornette
    KO Division: Finley
    TV Title: Raven
    World: Pritchard
    Main Booker: Patterson

    And I agree with the promo stuff. I feel like too much emphasis is put on telling people there's a PPV that getting the mach/feud over.

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  11. that promotion would last a month but my god it be a glorious wreak to watch. 

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  12. After watching Guest Booker with Gary Hart, that man was a genius and very under appreciated today.

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  13. If Vince was in charge, you probably wouldn't hold Dusty and Watts there too long, they'd quit.  Things would revert to what we have today with Vince at the helm.

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  14. since this is fantasy booking, I would say why not bring in really good accomplished TV/movie writers to help the bookers? who says that someone like Christopher Nolan wouldn't make a great addition to a wrestling booking team?

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  15. And people thought clique-ish booking in wrestling was bad before! 

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  16. Maybe you can make Jim Herd the President.

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  17. Oh man... Heroes of Wrestling quality stuff here.

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  18. He WAS given that chance, in late 2009. Sadly, Orton politics had to derail that somewhat.

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  19. Except Christopher Nolan isn't a good director, good cinematographer, strong at visual direction, great at casting, but at actual directing?  Yeah no.

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  20. I like this topic.

    Let me get back to yall on this.

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  21. Yeah, but that was nearly 3 years ago and Orton is in the shit right now. Give him ANOTHER chance!

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  22. Jack Pfefer? Drawin a blank.

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  23. damn Jef... its like AE or current TNA with all those titles.

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  24. Him and Ken Mantell were good.

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  25. Umm, ok.  I'm sure Nolan is crying because "Phrederic" thinks he stinks.

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  26. I didn't think he said he "stinks." Wow, this site loves its hyperbole. Nolan has many problems with his work. But what he does well tends to make his films better than most.

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  27. I'd definitely watch that. 

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  28. Since we're going fantasy here, I'd want Chris Kreski with Heyman and Sapolsky. My agent would be Mike Quackenbush. 

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  29. Jack Pfefer (also commonly spelled as “Pfeffer”) (December 10, 1894 - September 13, 1974) was anprofessional wrestling promoter during the early-to-mid 1900's. He pioneered an earlier form of sports entertainment, as he was one of the first promoters to visualize the pro wrestling business in the mold of theater. However, he developed an infamous reputation when he exposed the sport’s inner secrets to the mainstream press in a spiteful attack that nearly destroyed the entire industry.

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  30. I'll throw this out there since nobody else will: Scott Hall if he ever got sober would be an awesome person to have on the creative team. He came up with the Sting "crow" gimmick, his own Razor Ramon character, and some of the classic NWO stuff. 

    Bischoff Heyman and McMahon all share some of the credit for the attitude era and taking wrestling to the next level, but I'm not sure how effective any of them are or would be in 2012. 

    And I like Cornette but I'm not sure he has his finger on the pulse of what people want, either. 

    I personally would love to see things go back to 80's NWA style shit, but I would still rather see someone with the creativity and balls to go in a completely new direction. The attitude era worked because it was new and different. They didn't say "this 80's superhero character stuff isn't really working anymore, how about we go back to what worked in the 70's?".

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  31. Hey, if sobriety could help get a person on the booking team, why not Jake Roberts?

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  32.  This doesn't describe someone who stinks at their job?

    "Except Christopher Nolan isn't a good director"

    Hmmm, if you're job is a movie director and someone says they stink, I don't think I'm using hyperbole.

    Care to refute that?

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  33. I'd get some Chikara people in there, with someone else at the top (Sapolsky?) to reign in the cartoonish stuff. It seems like Chikara has some massive long-term storyline chops, but it's based around magic pendants and stuff.

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  34. No. There are degrees. And unless I misread, he stated that he's a good cinematographer, is strong at visual direction, works to get the best out of his actors...but he has flaws. I don't see that as "stinks." I see that as human.

    Nolan's films have poor action sequences, tend to have plot holes and he sometimes likes to talk down to his audience. But that's ok...that's not why I like his films. Stinks? How about has flaws? Don't we all?

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  35. Broa seriously ? Castin is thee only thing you rate NOlan high itn? IMO tha'ts his worst trait, or at least at times. he leans too much on his onensamboles and is willing o to settle for less too often. Mementoa had to be the woarst cast movie I've ahever seen. Guy Pearce should not abe getting actaing work. 

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  36. Gabe sapolsky as TAlent relations.

    Paul Heyman as Character development

    Dave Lagana as executive producser (not that him & sapolsky would work together)

    Pat Patterson as overall creative producer.

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  37. You're misreading it.

    Unless my english comprehension skills suck or he mistyped, that sentence reads how it reads.  The verb "isn't" applies to everything after the comma.

    Don't over analyze it, by his definition, Nolan stinks.  Now, everyone is entitled to their opinion and all that shit, but personally, saying Nolan stinks (my way of paraphrasing what he said) is short of ludicrous.

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  38. Quick question for you, Ryan. I'm watching ROH right now, and the ANX just cut a promo calling themselves the new champs, and then got jumped by the WGTT. How far behind is my network compared to what you're watching?

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  39. No flair...see, his syntax sucks, but the clue to the sentence is his "but" after listing attributes. He says Nolan does x, y, z - BUT he doesn't do a. Again, unless this guy can't write...

    And whatever, I want my money back for The Prestige. Maybe even Memento. Inception is horribly over-rated. (The story is incredibly simple...there is literally no need, even within the rules of the film, that they had to go three levels deep into dream. But, Nolan likes to indulge himself and show off. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.)

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  40. Quackenbush can book, man. He's got crazy storyline chops. And the magic pendant stuff is silly, but it fills a cool niche. The set-up to and the execution of the BDK angle was awesome.

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  41. Fine, Nolan is Uwe Boll.

    Now, THAT is hyperbole, lol. ;-)

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  42. That is hyperbole!

    I like Nolan...I like his ideas, if I don't always like the execution. But what I don't like is people pretending he's the second coming of Stanley Kubrick.

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  43. ...I think you're faking...but is that supposed to be part of the joke?

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  44.  Fair enough.

    Funny thing about Kubrick, if the internet was around 30 years ago, you might've said the same things about him.  Mr. Kubrick defined pretentious for a whole generaion.

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  45. True enough. But the guy deftly layered subtext upon subtext, created numerous innovations that we now take for granted (steadi-cam?) though he did have an emotional coldness to his work.

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  46. Final post before I head to bed.  I recently saw a doc about the making of Rocky and the cinematographer claimed to have invented the steadi-cam which was used during the famous Rocky jogging scene.  Take that for what it's worth.

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  47.  Guy Pearce is incredible in "Ravenous" and "The Proposition".  Maybe he has more misses than hits based on some shitty material he seems to always pick, but he's a darn good actor.

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  48. THANK YOU ABOUT INCEPTION!

    I think its balls terrible, but i can deal with overrated.

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  49. [insert Kenny King joke here.]

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  50. I would do a commitee.

    Chris Kreski- overall storyline (weaving them all together)
    Heyman/Russo- character development
    Cornette- promo structuring (giving bullet points.)
    Pretty Pat/Finlay- Match layout + finishes
    Vince- Promotion ONLY.

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  51. By letting them have their own "mini organizations" to run with adequate TV time to book the competitive nature (and is some cases, hatred) between each other would make for good TV. Patterson would oversee all and make sure no one gets out of pocket.

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  52. I wasn't talking about him less as a director but as more a writer.

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  53. That's kind of my point,

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  54. Television Production: Kevin Dunn
    Talent Relations: Jim Cornette
    Head Booker: Paul Heyman
    Agent (matches and finishes): Bret Hart
    Agent (promos): Mick Foley
    Agent (gimmicks/characters): Vince Russo

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  55.  it's not behind at all, that's this weeks episode for all of us, these shows were all taped within a week of Best in the world, the first tapping scheduled for after King left are not until August 3rd and it will be even longer before they air

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  56.  I like they Idea and think Cornette is definitely the guy for the Tag division, Heyman getting the crazy flying guys/X-Division is a good idea too cause that is, in my opinion, the tittle one should be most willing to hotshot around and lord knows Heyman loves to Hotshot lol

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  57. I really don't think he cares that you like him.  But this is a blog where we discuss things, and part of discussion is criticism.  I'm sorry if you can't handle that.

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  58.  To me Kingston was SUCCEEDING in his chance

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  59. He hires good actors so he doesn't have to do any work.

    Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Heath Ledger, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Liam Neeson, hell, even Leonardo DiCaprio.  These are all acceptable to good actors.

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  60. Heyman whines about developing young talent..well here is his chance.

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  61. Keep dropping those truth bombs dude. He makes kids movies. Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like inception.

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  62. Hhh , kevin nash, and the hulkster. It would be the first company to have no guys get over.

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  63. Steadi-cam was actually invented for WW2. But it was for military applications. 

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  64. You're right about steadi-cams, it was the moving cam without the "shakes" that you get from movement.

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  65. lol, i'm sorry dude, but that statement is so dumb I have to reply.  He should hire bad actors?  Really?  lmao.  Do you understand what makes a good sports team or a good company or a good movie production? 

    A leader at the top should hire the best possible people below him in every spot and let these folks do their thing.  You can be there to make sure deadlines are met and add your input and work with these folks.  However, you are basically saying that a leader hires good people to do less work.  How moronic is that?  Is that what President Obama should do, hire shitty people?  Because someone hires good people, it means they're lazy?

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  66. No kidding.  Jake is a genius.  At the very least I'd use him as a promo coach.

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  67. I dunno man.  I read The Hardcore Diaries and the whole thing is about how he was trying to make Melina into this Sable level star.  

    Plus he doesn't seem to have the passion for it that he used to.  Really seems like he's really into charity work more than anything.

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  68. I hear ya. I remember in one of his books, he was mentioning how he thought the angle teaming him with Edge against Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer was supposed to be huge, which it would never be.

    Still, he's a creative guy. And hey, fixing RAW up IS charity work! 8 P

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  69. ...of the entire country!!!

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  70.  Fair enough, certainly Bale, JGL, Ledger, and even Leo are favorites of mine. In some of his lesser roles I just wonder what he sees in some of his actors (Hugh Jackman? Ellen Page? Gary Oldman playing someone who's not creepy and deranged?). Mainly Memento is where I would have liked the movie better if it had been cast with decent actors, but I can't fault him too bad for being an unknown director at the time and having nothing to work with.

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  71. Yeah apparently they're gonna have Kenny King all over their show for the next month or so. Funnily enough, the next tapings they're supposed to have Rashad Cameron appearing, so that will probably fuel more ROH/TNA crossover rumors.

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  72. Inception was a great action movie, nothing else.

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  73. ...did...did that go completely over your head?

    I'm not saying he should hire bad actors, but good directors can get memorable performances out of bad actors, Nolan can't do that.  Is that really a difficult concept to understand?  People think he's a brilliant director because his movies are well acted, when the reason they're well acted is because they have good actors that could entertain in any shit movie.

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  74. I was really trying that time, dammit! That A key just kept going rogue. I don't fucking understand why everyone thinks I'm faking all the time. I'd stop doing it just to fucking get everyone off my back, but since I only do it when I'm actually drunk, I tend to make bad decisions and just get on there anyway. People will notice, it only tends to happen on Sundays, which is me & my wife's drinking day.

    I also hate to stigmatize smark board posters but it seems like every time someone says "I've been really drunk before and I can still type normal!" I'm just envisioning someone going "I've drank six whole Twisted Teas and I never typed like that! FAKE!"

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  75. It's the completely random letters. Letters that seem that you'd have to seek them out, rather than punching them in accidentally. Plus, I've always been a scotch/bourbon man myself.

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  76. Rocky did beat the Shining though. Supposedly Kubrick was working on it for a while, but who knows.

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  77.  You're welcome

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