Booking questions
Saturday, September 15th, 2007“Hi there, hope you are well. Just a couple of quick questions for the blog (I’m still unsure how to do this directly through the blog). First off, I was recently thumbing through Bill Watts’ book, and it got me to wondering just how much influence/credit he deserves for the Attitude era, which is quite comical considering who he is. It’s quite obvious that Vince clearly had no clue what he was doing with the promotion when he brought the Cowboy in during the summer/fall of 95. And its also clear that Watts was able to show Vince that there were other ways of doing things, which Vince eventually got into his head. Curious about your thoughts on the matter.
Also wondered how you think Hunter will do with the booking/creative duties (as it seems to be heading to from all that I’ve heard) as a non-wrestler. I think we can all agree that his booking while still active is bad news all around, but after his 5th or 6th quad blow-out, and he has to retire, do you think he has the acumen to book beyond his own programs? Do you think he will do good, decent, horrid or something else entirely? Curious about your thoughts on the matter? ”
Answer #1: I love Bill Watts to death, but he was totally out of touch with wrestling by the time 1995 rolled around and to say that he could teach Vince anything other than occasionally putting the heel over stronger would be giving him far too much credit at that point. The Attitude era was pretty much 100% Vince & Vince trying to sleaze it up ala ECW, and reading anything more into it is just asking for trouble, sez I.
Answer #2: Hunter’s a big-time student of the game who has long been championing a return to the old style of working. He was a big reason why we got the transition from 90 second RAW matches back to actual beginning-middle-end stories being told in the ring, as painful as it was from 2001-2005 for fans to have to relearn it. How he will do booking an entire promotion remains to be seen, but it seems like it would be a flashback to the NWA days if he ever does get 100% control of the book. I am cautiously optimistic about it.
