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Guest Booker w/ Terry Taylor


MikeCampbell

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The latest in Kayfabe Commentaries' Guest Booker Library comes features the Red Rooster himself and contains, what I think, is some solid and compelling booking ideas. Some of the better ones include:

 

Jim Crockett coming out on TV, something that was very rarely done, and announcing the purchase of the UWF and the additions to the roster. Which brings out some of the NWA's boys to complain since they're the ones who'd been busting their humps for all those years (I can totally see this coming from the Horsemen, specifically Flair or Arn) to make Crockett a millionare.

 

UWF Champion Steve Williams calling out Flair and wanting the NWA Title, and then going through top contenders like Barry and Nikita to get a title shot. Doc wins the title to set up an easy rematch, as well as potentially cause of internal strife with the NWA by who exactly gets the next crack at Doc.

 

NWA TV Champion Tully Blanchard and UWF TV Champion Eddie Gilbert having a match to decide the undisputed TV Champion. Along with Nickla Roberts joining up with Tully again, so that Nickla and Missy could get involved too.

 

Clean cut babyface Terry Taylor just being happy to be there and wanting to wrestle, which makes Manny Fernandez sick, leading to a singles match between them.

 

With such a big roster, people would have to be cut loose. This is accomplished by a series of loser leaves town matches, which is explained by the NWA declaring the the UWF boys have to win matches to keep their jobs, and that the same goes for the NWA wrestlers. It's a quick and easy way to cleara out dead weight like Vladmir Pietrov, Thunderfoots 1 and 2, Baron Von Rashke, Mike Boyette, The Viking, Savanah Jack, etc.

 

All things considered, I can't imagine that it's marginally worse than what Dusty was actually booking at the time in Crockett land.

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I do think UWF/NWA was a missed opportunity. At the same time, I think one thing that gets overlooked is that there were a lot of wrestling fans who didn't know the UWF existed. They had only been national for a year, and they hadn't been very successful at it. Even in their attempt to go national, it was still mostly a regional promotion. Even my parents, who attended live UWF shows, always thought they were seeing live NWA shows and didn't know the difference between the two companies. I think this is because of stuff like Flair appearing on Mid South TV sometimes, Ivan and Nikita being part of the Russian flag angle, etc.

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The way I would've went with this angle was at the start have the UWF heels invade JCP and the JCP heels fire back on UWF TV eventually leading to a Best of 7 series at Starrcade to determine who is the best. Also they had the chance to keep DiBiase but didn't offer him enough money which was a big mistake as a babyface DiBiase vs. Flair for the NWA title would've been fantastic.

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Can someone explain to me what Taylor's off-camera roles were at WCW?

 

I'll leave some comments here after I watch this.

Calling him Assistant Booker is probably understating what he did. Calling him Head Booker is probably overstating what he did. He probably had a more undercard/B-show/cruiserweight focus than Kevin Sullivan, but he contributed ideas at all levels. He can be credited for things like putting Eddy and Dean at the U.S. title level in '97, Jericho's initial heel push, longer cruiser matches on PPV, etc. Sullivan was the head booker, but Taylor played a big role.

 

The way I would've went with this angle was at the start have the UWF heels invade JCP and the JCP heels fire back on UWF TV eventually leading to a Best of 7 series at Starrcade to determine who is the best. Also they had the chance to keep DiBiase but didn't offer him enough money which was a big mistake as a babyface DiBiase vs. Flair for the NWA title would've been fantastic.

Another factor was that DiBiase felt no matter how over he got, JCP had a clique of guys who controlled the top of the card, and an outsider was going to be limited in how much they could do in the promotion. At least that's what he said when he was asked about it in a newspaper interview he did in '88. Theer's probably some truth in that. I think DiBiase said had they offered him a Lex Luger deal (Luger got a HUGE deal coming in despite being unproven because they thought he was the next Hogan), he would have considered coming in.

 

He won't get called on the carpet for it so much, but Flair was a big part of the problem with it not working. He did not want Steve Williams billed as champ on NWA TV, which Crockett agreed with, and he also took something Eddie Gilbert said in a promo personally and started throwing shoot comments at him in some TV interview during that time. (At least that's the story ...)

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I absolutely HATE DiBiase as a face. He's really one of the most boring babyfaces ever -- not that far above Terry Taylor to be honest.

 

The more interesting idea would be to bring him in as his heel Mid-South character and either join the Horsemen double-crossing the UWF guys or at least form an alliance with them.

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He won't get called on the carpet for it so much, but Flair was a big part of the problem with it not working. He did not want Steve Williams billed as champ on NWA TV, which Crockett agreed with, and he also took something Eddie Gilbert said in a promo personally and started throwing shoot comments at him in some TV interview during that time. (At least that's the story ...)

Yeah, this kills the angle dead, which is ironic when Flair a few years later was more than happy to play the "real World champion" gimmick on WWF TV. Of course, that angle wasn't as successful as it should have been, as the WWF portrayed that to be a phony moniker, which I guess is karma.

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When the deal went down was also the time that Duggan had just got popped for drugs and was fired so he was looking to get in with JCP but they felt his drug deal got too much mainstream coverage and they declined him.

 

I dug DiBiase the babyface personally in that time period because he was still an aggressive worker and there was always the threat he would break out the black glove when needed. Compare DiBiase the babyface in 1986 to DiBiase the babyface in 1981 and then you will see boring.

 

Also regarding Flair and his insecurity of course he and I'm sure all the major players in JCP didn't want UWF to be perceived as their equals.

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I'm watching the Mike Graham CWF/ JCP one from 2009 in prep for this. Been putting it off because Graham really really annoyed me on the 24/7 Legends of Wrestling shows.

 

However, so far this is GREAT. His stuff about his father is pretty good - couple of bitter moments (he suggests that Magnum TA's crash was karma) - but on the whole he comes across as a reasonable chap. The bit when he goes through the roster is awesome. I love that part of the Guest Booker shows. Who he takes and who not and why.

 

About 1 hr 30 mins in.

 

EDIT: Oh, it's just finished. Well, he didn't do a lot of actual booking.

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I think the Nikita/Taylor feud played out really well. But I recently saw the promo that teed Flair off. Gilbert said something about UWF being a real wrestling promotion. Flair comes out later and goes off on Gilbert and Taylor. He did it in a way that fit the storyline and he did not bury them. But it was odd seeing him put over Nikita in a feud that did not involve him.

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Because after his they made him a star in Florida he took a £175,000 a year deal with Crockett.

 

I don't really understand why he makes that comment, because he said himself it was crazy money in the 80s.

 

I think it's the way Eddie felt like the boys, even the ones he'd helped to make, were deserting him. And the manner in which Magnum left. But it struck me as an odd thing for Mike Graham to say.

 

He also mentions that his father predicted the death of the territories and going national etc. at least 20 years before it happened. And suggests that his suicide was as much down to him being a former athlete in his 50s and being unable to deal with the changes in his life as it was to do with wrestling or losing all his talent.

 

He doesn't get emotional. But you do get the impression that his father was his hero.

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Graham's DVD is chock full of BS. Besides his obvious ignorance re: Magnum, there's his claim that he gave Vince the idea about starting a developmental league, and that most of the WWE 2009 roster came up from Florida (Cena, Orton, Miz, and a host of others came up through OVW). He also says that the Luger/Brody cage match was simply that Lex got blown up and was too inexperienced to know what to do, and that Brody was just trying to give him time to rest and Lex freaked out and it all got blown out of proportion.

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