Scott’s Blog of Doom

The Invasion has to be right outside of that top 3. Also, not booking Hogan vs. Flair on a major ppv back in the early 90’s.

I don’t think asking Owen to rappel was the fuck up, since I believed they had done that before and Sting did it for a whole year. The fuck up was with the safety and not having it 100% in place. Not excusing them in any way, just saying.

I also think that putting the belt on Hogan in 2002 was a tremendous fuck up. If you look at the ratings, even though the end of the Golden Age was WrestleMania 17, they were still doing well and doing pretty good numbers. They also had the next guy in Brock all lined up and ready to go, they just needed to get from WrestleMania to SummerSlam. By putting the title on the senior citizen, the ratings dropped very, very quickly and there were fewer people around for the beginning of the Brock era. I think a lot of things would have been very different if they had some momentum and ratings going into SummerSlam 2002.

This would be like #9 or #10 on the list but the Slaughter/Iraqi angle was a bomb. If they had done Warrior/Hogan II, which Scott and others have alluded to, at WrestleMania VII, they would have gotten their 100,000 in L.A. and possibly rebuilt Hogan into the face he was. The whole stuff with Slaughter was just so lame that even Hogan was hurt by it.

#1 on my list just for what it robbed us of was bringing Steamboat in as a joke instead of a threat in ‘91 and ‘92, robbing us of Bret/Steamboat, HBK/Steamboat, hell even Perfect/Steamboat matches that could have owned the world.

That 3 hour tribute to a mrderer they showed monda will e very hihon the lst of WE fuck upa somdy fr sure. Probably right between the XFL and Owen Hart.

Damn wireless key boards.

A huge fuckup in my opinion was making Jericho a lame duck champion instead of a serious one in 2001/2002 after seeing what him and Rock could do together.

I don’t think people mention this enough, but turning Austin heel at Wrestlemania 17 really was a huge fuckup. They obviously wanted their own “Hogan Heel Turn ‘96″, except they forgot that Hogan was desperately needed a character facelift, while Austin was still selling tickets as the rebel champion who kicked Mr. McMahon’s ass. By alligning Austin with McMahon, they spoiled the potential of a true shocking Austin turn, since fans were still cheering like nuts when Austin came to the ring. Don’t forget that Austin was only like four years removed from the last time he was a true heel, while Hogan’s gap time between heel and face in 1996 was more than a decade old (which made the angle all the more surprising). I think this is what killed off the late 90s boom of wrestling for good.

By the way, anyone else read the somethingawful article this morning concerning the Benoit tribute?
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/feature-articles/great-moments-wrestling.php

Sounds like you’ve got a wireless brain.

Something Awful is living up to its name with this tripe.

I don’t see how hindsight should be considered one of Vince McMahon’s biggest mistakes. No one knew the details. Of course they were gonna do a tribute show.

Putting the WWE on Hogan was a mistake, but I understand they needed to ride with the moment, but yeah it was a mistake giving the belt to him. Triple H should have hold the belt until Summer Slam then having Brock take it from there. Or maybe have Triple H dropt the title to The Undertaker, then Taker dropt it to Kurt Angle around Survivor Series or Armageddon, and have Brock Lesnar win his first WWE Title at WrestleMania, instead of having all those title changes.

Althought, it probably was a mistake, but I actually liked Austin’s heel run.

Not only that but another problem was the place they executed it at. Babyface pops when you’re alligning yourself with McMahon doesn’t work especially when you’re in Texas and the crowd is cheering like nuts for Austin.

Some f-ups that should get consideration on the list:

The fake Diesel and Razor Ramon with JR’s heel turn
Giving Hogan the belt at WM IX
The Lex Express
The Terry Garvin-Mel Phillips scandal
Underfaker and the resurrection at the Royal Rumble ‘94

Having more than 12 PPVs a year is ridiculous. Biggest title match ever~!! 2 weeks later, his final chance to win the title!! 3 weeks from now, an epic battle between two teams that have only met on RAW 6 times! That’s practically 0! When they keep giving it away for free just to pop a rating with NO competition afoot, it’s silly. Concentrate on the build to a lower number of PPVs. And while they’re at it, fill the time on them, too. With all that broadcast time left at WM 23, why did they need to rush everything? We already discussed how the rematches to practically every match was better than the original. Why are they worried all of the sudden of running long?

For me, the biggest one is the draft solit - especially now that they have 3 World Champions. The WWE champion was always a prestigious position, but now there are 3 of them with the result being that there is no longer 1 true champion. All the belts have been devalued, and the secondary belts like the Intercontinental Title and Tag Titles have become completely meaningless.
I’d love to see a smaller roster with more emphasis on quality than quantity, removal of the draft, restore the championship belt to its former status and then go about making the IC and Tag belts worthwhile again. And while they’re at it, please go back to a maximum of 12 PPV’s a year.

Er, that should say draft ’split’ not ’solit’!

I’m surprised no one’s said the WBF. It laid the ground work for people counting on the XFL to bomb.

Good catch. Haha, I used to remember thinking to myself how retarded it was for these big guys to talk shit to each other and settle things with….a posedown. It’s a good thing that never happened in the WWE…

If they had booked Hogan the way he should have been booked, instead of a pussy — there would not have been a drop in ratings. Hogan should have won the belt clean, then squashed Jericho like the little midget he was, and then have him destroy . . . well I won’t go there and hold the belt until SummerSlam where he then does the match he did with Brock, jobs and leaves. But you let him destroy Benoit, Jericho, Flair, Eddie, and even Austin and then after you built Hogan as the immortal that he should be — he loses to Brock.

I don’t think turning Austin heel was the f-up as much as the execution. First off, if they needed to turn him heel, they needed to eliminate most of the Stone Cold persona. I assumed the night of WrestleMania 17 that he was going to morph back into ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin, even without the hair but that sort of gimmick.

Secondly, it’s tough to say that it was an f-up because you got the feeling that they were planning a Triple H face turn (which would have worked in spades) for Austin. In retrospect, Triple H should have been turned the next night on Raw. Even with heel Austin, the feud with Angle was really good for a point until Sept. 11th happened that made the WWF rightly go with the USA title victory and the slow fade of the Invasion angle. “Stunning” Steve Austin leading the WCW guys would have made sense, at least in my view.

The WBF was a bomb but nowhere near the level of the XFL because there was less money involved and they got Lex Luger out of the deal for trying it. Now, you can argue about if that’s a good thing or not. It’s also attracted far less public attention that a pro football league on NBC that was an insult to football fans, who are almost literally 30-40% of this country.

The mis-use of Goldberg and really, any time they don’t take advantage of someone because they were not a WWE-raised guy.

The tradition continuing today with CM Punk.

N…W…O

The one staring us in the face is the Mr. McMahon death angle. I remember thinking to myself a couple of weeks ago that this is gonna blow up in their face if another Eddie or Owen happens and sure enough it did, ten fold. They played with fire and got burned and Vince and the WWE look like jokes and fools to the mainstream, once again.

bwah-ba-ba-but-buum, bwah-ba-ba-but-buum, bwah-ba-ba-but-buum, bwah-ba-ba-ba-TOOT! TOOT! ne…ne..ne…NEW WORLD ORDER

Except when Triple H and Scott Steiner did it, of course. Then again, given the quality of their actual matches, it may have been preferable.

I agree, I’ve been saying this for years, the Austin turn was great and would have been better if it didn’t coincide with the Invasion angle…but these things happen. To me, the story was Austin’s increasing paranoia of losing his spot as the top star in the WWF at the time (If you watch some of the story leading up to the WMX7 match, you’ll hear Austin talk about how much he needs that belt in the interview between him and the Rock). Also, the extremes he would go to, like…oh, I don’t know, beating the living shit out of a man with a chair while he’s down to KEEP him down (which became his early heel turn calling card. Remember when Lita covered up Matt Hardy and Austin beat her down too? Sick stuff). My favorite was when he became a full fledged redneck millionaire hugging Vince McMahon on a regular basis to stay in his good graces. The only real drawback was the constant Debra bits about her shitty cooking and the Invasion turn. Other than that, I could see Triple H ripping off this heel style should he turn again. But one of the WWE’s Top 10 Biggest Mistakes? No, ‘fraid not. Now, going on with a show after they KNEW good and damn well that a man had died in their ring just minutes before…okay, yeah, no argument here.

I take a shot at this…

I’d say one of the bigger screw-ups was See No Evil. I personally would have premiered SNE around October 31(considering it was a slasher movie). It ended up setting the stage for The Marine and The Condemned to tank at the BO(although personally I liked The COndemned when it was called Series 7:The Contenders)

I think the dumbest thing they did was jobbing out The Giant when they brought him over from WCW. Set the stage for Vince to shit on all the WCW guys, which showed his ego trumped solid business decisions.

The biggest mistake of Austin heel run was him joint the Alliance, and then having WWE superstars joining the Alliance like Christian and Test that doesn’t have any history with either WCW or ECW. That killed the credibility of the Invasion angle.

May 19, May 19, May 19!!!

I remember around WrestleMania 15 when the WWE brought the Big Show to the WWE that they were trying to build a Stone Cold-Big Show main event for WrestleMania 16, ala Hulk Hogan-Andre The Giant. Well, with Austin’s injury that didn’t happen and The Big Show went from a Big Nasty Bastard to a Big Comedic Impersonator.

In no particular order, (Not So) Brilliant Ideas of Vince and Co:

1) Bringing in multi time NWA champion Dusty Rhodes as a polka dot wearing non contender to anything except credibility and common sense.

2)The Billionaire Ted skits, with nacho man, scheme gene and the huckster

3) Choosing jerry lawler years after he was a force in the ring to be the one to fight against ECW in the original invasion angle ca 97

4) Pushing months of storyline potential into one show with the creation of the ecw/wcw alliance

5) Putting Jericho as Unified World Champ as the backdrop to HHH and Steph’s soap opera BS

6) Booker T not beating HHH at wrestlemania 19 after weeks of HHH’s “your kind aren’t champions” racist crap

7) the gobbledly gooker

King of the Ring winner: Mabel

9) Hiring solid wrestlers like 2 cold scorpio and not doing anything with them

10) hiring great wrestlers and then telling them not to wrestle as well so they won’t outclass the top stars

11)the homogenized and incredibly boring “wwe main event” style

12) never realizing there’s enough space at the top for multiple stars and that the business requires the constant creation of new ones

13) having jamie noble, jimmy yang, chavo jr, shannon moore, gregory helms, ultimo dragon, funaki, and countless other great cruiserweights signed and refusing to let them have curiserweight style matches

14) rehiring joey matthews, watching him bust his face apart in a match which essentially would drive anyone back to painkillers, and then firing him for using said painkillers

15) the higher power angle

16) never allowing any face to win in their own home town

17) 4 mcmahons fighting in the main event of wrestlemania

18) lack of attention to major continuity issues

19) Not running with Curt Hennig as a challenger to Hogan

20) The Katie Vick storyline

Its not so much a list of fuck ups but over the years thats some of things that have stuck out as either dumb, annoying, irrational, offensive, or just not interesting to me.

The BIGGEST fuck up was RIKISHI as the culprit!!! Are you freaking kidding me??
The BIGGEST fuck up in WCW, was the Freaking BLACK SCORPION… Are you freaking kidding me again??

I think the mistake was not going with the heel run. I thought it was great and Austin could have made it damn entertaining. Hell, I still laugh when I remember Paul E. at ringside reading his faxes from Evil Austin.

See No Evil it was made for $8 million and made $15 million. Not a hit, but not a failure either. Marine also (barely) made it’s budget back in the box office– factor in the attention it got Cena, and I don’t think WWE was too disappointed.

Secondly, I don’t think running See No Evil against Saw III at Halloween would’ve helped it make more money.

#1 on my list just for what it robbed us of was bringing Steamboat in as a joke instead of a threat in ‘91 and ‘92, robbing us of Bret/Steamboat, HBK/Steamboat, hell even Perfect/Steamboat matches that could have owned the world.
—————————–

I love you, sir. It’s the reason I gave up on wrasslin’ for the better part of 5-6 years. That was a joke. Also there is a DAMN good chance that he would have stuck around longer had he had some real feuds… which means we might have seen him and Flair together in WWE.

Screw Vince!
The BIGGEST fuck up in WCW, was the Freaking BLACK SCORPION… Are you freaking kidding me again??

Top 10 posting fuckups list PLZ.

Just to play Lucifer’s barrister, several of the bodybuilders involved with the WBF have gone on record, basically saying, “Yeah, it tanked, but Vince brought a LOT of visibility to pro bodybuilding, you have to give him that.”

So it wasn’t a complete failure.

I’ll play, hiring Chris Benoit?

Buying him the matching pillows and weight set? Too soon?

I do want to tell Scott that I really feel bad for him. I can’t imagine if Hogan or Rock (who I am a huge fan of) would have done this back in the day, how I would take it. I’m glad you have been handling it as well as you have. Also, I’ve been glad to see you handling the web stuff a lot more diplomatically. Maybe this marriage stuff was good for ya?

The dumbest thing they’ve done is promote bodybuilding freaks instead of wrestlers like Jericho or Lance Storm.

I think that not giving Ted DiBiase a run with the belt through ‘88 was a mistake. They’d built him up big time, and he would have been a good heel foil for the faces to chase for a few months.

I got 2 for you….
1. Not realizing Jeff Jarrett’s contract was about to expire before a PPV even though he still had the IC Title.

2. Back in 87 Vince being a dick to Steamboat about time off and taking the IC title off him…had he kept him as IC champ and had a heel Savage win the WWF Title and put them in a Title vs. Title match at WM IV it would been a license to print money not the boring bloated debacle it was.

Is the Goobledygooker the WWF’s fuck up, or mine for paying $19.95 to see it? YES!….I’m still bitter about it 17 years later

The Brawl for All was a pretty bad idea. The idea was to have Dr. Death win the whole thing and shore up his credibility as a bad ass, only for him to lose in the first rounde and get injured. It also ended Savio Vega’s career. Plus the matches sucked.

- “Boring” Lance Storm. Fucking STEVE AUSTIN was used to build up this gimmick only for absolutely nothing useful to end up coming out of it. Nobody gained credibility, no money was made, there was nothing entertaining about it in a positive manner. The only reason I laugh about it is because of the time that was wasted on it.

- the gay week in 2002. SMELL THE RATINGS! Fucking terrible segments that didn’t make a damn bit of profit at the merchandise stands.

- the Red Rooster. If you don’t know the history of this one, just look it up elsewhere.

“Except when Triple H and Scott Steiner did it, of course.”

I was being sarcastic. The posedown b/t them was actually about half a star higher than their actual match.

You hit the nail on the head with #6. I remember watching that match and thinking, “there’s no way they pay this off with the racist guy actually winning…right?” I understand keeping heels strong yadda yadda but sometimes you have to send the fans home happy and the heel has to get what’s coming to them.

I suppose it’s a question of what you define as a “fuck up”. Scott’s 1st pick was a financial one that continues to resonate when people look at the WWE as a company.

Owen’s death was *fucked up* but, looking back on it now, probably did more good for the company than bad - by the attention it garnered and the safety regulations it put in place. It also wasn’t long after this that we started seeing segments following wrestlers through their surgeries.

I’d argue that Owen’s death was probably one of the most important events in professional wrestling.

As for Scott’s 3rd pick the jury’s still out but I think PPV is WWE codeword for DVD sales and rentals. Just because they get a low buyrate for a PPV doesn’t mean they won’t recoup expenses from DVD sales. The pay-per-view market is a dinosaur what with On-Demand, Tivo, Internet TV, etc. My guess is as soon as every 10-25 yr old male has a computer with broadband Internet access they’ll move away from the PPV, hell maybe even cable all together.

As for my 10…

1) Brand Extension - because it’s not an extension. It’s just three shows with different names.

2) Not changing titles during house shows.

3) In light of Owen’s death (but especially with current events), fake death angles. [They had to know they were playing russian roulette with that RIP VKM angle. Even with Sherri’s passing, the odds favored that a real person would die.]

4) Steroid/Drug Policy. WHAT?!

5) Canceling the Tough Enough series - Love it or hate it, this show gave fans (casual and die-hard) a WWE-ified look into the world of Professional Wrestling. It could have been a very useful tool to explain its drug policy, life on the road, etc.

6) McMahonamania - what outofstep81 said. McMahons should not be main eventing.

7) Poor color commentary - this is the ONE way that the WWE can aggressively market wrestling’s rich history and its technicality. Not to mention keeping the angles straight. They should bring back the 3 man team - an excited voice guy, a colorful fan/former pro, and an aficionado.

Lack of Identity - Ever since buying WCW & ECW the WWE hasn’t defined itself other than being the only game in town. They’re still sort of stuck in the Attitude era and that’s old news. The Brand Extension is an example of this. The different shows don’t compete with each other because they all do the same things.

9) That I care this much to write about this.

10) MMA. If WWE tries to compete with it or if McMahon tries to create one of his own (see XFL, WBA)

What isn’t fucked-up?

1) WWE is probably one of the most ethnically diverse shows on TV.

2) Loyalty - I may not agree with who he likes but McMahon can be a loyal sonuvabitch to particular people. And deep down you know he loves what he does. Same goes for us as fans.

3) Doing more shows overseas.

4) The shows for the troops. Should have had a title change over there though.

And don’t forget Warrior-Rude, where Jesse Ventura, God love him, actually rated the posing.

But they got to see someone break the Masterlock! That’s JUST LIKE a title change!! A’hem.

Speaking of contracts, don’t forget about Vince trusting Lex Luger at his word and nothing more, and allowing Madusa to drop the Women’s Title in the trash.

lashley did it

This is pathetic, everyone debating this bullshit stuff.

The reason these wrestlers die is because we are so ho-hum about keeping the status quo so we can watch our wrestling.

We could atleast attempt set the WWE on a path that could start to set things straight if we simply took a long break as fans. They would have no choice but to alter the “product” to bring people back, especially in light of what happend this week.

Things won’t change aslong as McMahon, the top stars, the promoters and even the up and coming guys know that we will keep coming back and shelling out money no matter what.

As far as I’m concerned this is the matter that changed that for me. I won’t buy anything the WWE puts out, I’m canceling 24/7 (the only place I spend money on them) and I’m avoiding all their Television and their website until I feel like they give a shit and guess what…they never will because we don’t give a shit.

So continue your fucking DVD reviews and star ratings, your stupid blogs but don’t you dare shed a tear for these juiced up freaks that you created.

One day I hope enough will be enough and this pitiful form of wrestling will die, probably taking the whole form with it. We’ll all wonder who should take responsbility but we won’t have to look any further then the mirror.

Save yourselves some time and stop pretending like you give a shit about these guys as people, or the longevity of wrestling.

Agreed. I refuse to watch any more of this bullshit until it is clear that substantive change has taken place. If it takes Congress to get involved, so be it. These people are fucking destroying their bodies for our entertainment, and we keep throwing Vince McMahon money hand over fist. This “business” (I hate that term) needs an overhaul. The wellness policy ought to be far more stringently enforced. It should have taken more than a wrestler, probably under the influence of steroids (possibly under depression from withdrawl) and god knows what else, murdering his family to make us realize this. Change can only be enacted if we allow it. These guys need more time off. If they test positive for substances, they need help; they don’t need to be thrown to the wolves, out of WWE’s hair where they will languish. I don’t care if every wrestler in the future has the physique of Trevor Murdoch, so long as they are healthy, and they can healthily maintain their livelihoods and continue to entertain us. Tell Vince you don’t want any more Eddies or Bulldogs or Pillmans and quit watching and buying his bullshit.

i don’t care about these guys. I watch these shows because it’s like a live action comic book. They’re a bunch of jocks and manly-men, John Cena being the perfect example. I would never hang out with that guy. It’s a fucking TV SHOW. Get off your high horse.

besides, i already said they should promote guys who can wrestle, not the bodybuilding freaks. the sport NEEDS to evolve past what Lawerence called “pitiful form of wrestling”, and I agree with you there. But I don’t build these guys up or give a shit about them. They’re mostly a bunch of douches who are in it for the money. I just watch TV, and isn’t this a TV BLOG?

biggest fuck up was dropping the vince is dead storyline. they should start it up again, tonight. who cares.

Don’t know if you were making a joke there, 4 but I had high hopes for that storyline.

One of which was introducing a masked wrestler that wore pink and black and had a similar moveset to the Hitman. He’d gain the love of the fans, partner with Cena and at Wrestlemania shock the world revealing himself to be Mr. McMahon and cost Cena the championship.

Oh well.

WWE’s biggest fuck up - how about buying out ECW and WCW, so that you monopolise the industry and, without any semblance of REAL competition, become stale, bloated and lethargic, content to pump out any old crap, because you know that there is nowhere else for the average wrestling punter (the guy who doesn’t know about TNA or ROH, or whatever) to go for their fix.

Seriosuly, it may have been a sound business move, if only because it gave Vince the majority of North American wrestling history on a silver platter for his highly profitable restrospective DVDs (which is a Good Thing) but whilst the WWE’s history may have been well served, its future became bleak and all the Brand Extensions and ECW resurrections in the world can’t change that.

If a creative medium has no real competition, it is doomed to wallow in complacency.

No, i liked the Vince is Dead storyline. I see no reason they can’t pick it back up. Honestly, besides the Benoit murder spree, its the only thing Ive found interesting in WWE in like 5 years.

They should have McMahon get blown up again and have them act like this time “IT’S FOR REAL!”

Benoit…roid freak and GBH user. Niiiiiiice.