What are the hallmarks of Vince McMahon's booking style?

[fakeplastictrees]

He also seems to have a propensity for bringing guys in hot, but then booking them into a lull at some point later before trying to re-push them up the card. My understanding is that he feels the need to humble guys lest they get it in their head that THEY are the draw and not the "company".

 

But isn't that more post 2000 than anything else. I am sure Vince felt burned when Hogan, Macho, The Outsiders, and Lesnar left. I honestly think Lesnar was the last straw and since then (I cannot pinpoint when), but the even-steven-treadmill shit started soon after.

[SomethingSavage]

Sending the fans home happy. That was a staple of the WWE through the Hulkamnia era from 1984-1991.

 

 

I'm glad someone mentioned this, since I recently brought it up elsewhere - specifically back around SummerSlam weekend.

 

The current WWE scene needs more of this, basically.

 

The almost universally praised NXT Takeover event in Brooklyn didn't have a single heel win on the show. Not one. Each and every babyface act got to triumph. The crowd got to celebrate time & time again. Not only did the fans GO HOME happy, but the entire event itself was like a momentous payoff. It was essentially set up, seemingly by design, as this huge feel-good spectacle.

 

Then you look at SummerSlam. I thought it was a fun show overall - with some damn decent matches on the card - but yeah. The flat finishes, non-finishes, lack of finishes, etc. really hurt the atmosphere. There's a glaringly noticeable difference in how those things are handled AND ESPECIALLY the type of crowd reaction and participation it generates as the show progresses.

 

Not only was the order of matches structured better with the NXT show, but there was a building of hope and anticipation with the outcomes. The heels continually got their comeuppance. The heroes were triumphing in succession.

 

And, even though I absolutely understand that you can't do that each and every month, you can still CERTAINLY find creative enough ways to send the fans home happy at the end of the night. I realize people sometimes shit on the idea of the way they'd always find a way to end a show with Hogan posing or whatever back in the day, but it's really a smart strategy & wise decision overall.

 

I'm not calling for every WWE "special event" to end on a positive note, but it's DEFINITELY something that should be occurring more often. I mean, Christ. We have to go back to, what? Maybe Survivor Series last year was the most recent time it felt like the show ended with a feel-good moment? Everything else feels underwhelming, indifferent, or the Authority & Rollins squirming away for the sake of retaining "heat" on them.

 

I don't think we need the babyfaces to dominate the championship scene like it's the World Wide Wrestling Federation or anything. But I do think it'd be better to return to a formula that sees more & more occurrences of Austin beer-guzzling celebrations or Hulk pose-downs to close out the shows.

[Log]

Wrestlers who have another occupation is another Vince staple. (TL Hopper, The Goon, Val Venis, The Godfather, Isaac Yankem, etc.)

[Parties]

• Asexual aces (Hogan. Bret, Austin, Cena, Reigns). Exception to the rule is Rock making out with Trish that one time, but even that was the exception to the rule.
• Nothing with time limits, or any illusion that this is an athletic competition that could possibly go more or less than exactly 3 hours and 5 minutes.
• Black guys with funk gimmicks (Brodus, Scorpio, Godfather to a degree).
• Tag teams don’t draw / Teams are a means toward getting 1-2 singles stars ASAP.
• Complete apathy toward Latin/Spanish speaking workers and audience.
• Love/hate relationship with Toronto: Tunney as fake prez, Skydome held up as legendary show, Hogan/Rock, but burgeoning resentment of crowd since ~2002.
• I would echo OJ’s note about finishers: guys almost never win a match with anything but their signature move, regardless of how elaborate said move is or how inappropriate it is to the moment.
• Those with deep southern drawls often given poverty/low-rent gimmicks (Hillbilly Jim, Freddy Joe Floyd, Godwinns, Brother Love, Jim Ross) in pathological resentment of his own upbringing.
• Madonnas forced into whore situations, and vice versa. Could be a sub-category of a larger category of “Women are liars and hypocrites”.
• Food issues/body dysmorphia: everything from Ryback to lots of vomit to presenting fat guys as vile pigs who are constantly eating.
• Distraction finishes are something we’ve noticed more of late, but they’ve really been a hallmark going back to the 80s.
• Guys who aren’t brothers are presented as brothers, while guys who are brothers are not acknowledged as such.
• “I don’t ask workers to do anything I wouldn’t do myself” = any and all bumps are fair game.
• Tons of situations where somebody gets locked in a room / helplessly tied to something / handcuffed.
• All foreigners (non-Americans) are weird subjects of ridicule.
• Constant acronyms (MNM, APA, DX, BAD, PCB, RKO).
• Grunting, snarling, animalistic screaming in an effort to pump one's self up.

[Jingus]

• Black guys with funk gimmicks (Brodus, Scorpio, Godfather to a degree).

Over time, they've actually been pretty skittish about that one. They've been just as likely to cast white guys into minstrel-ish funk gimmicks: Akeem, PG-13 as the Nation's rappers, Too Cool, rapping Cena (plus Albert and Buchanan as his hip-hoppity sidekicks), so forth and so on. And, Brodus is black?

[funkdoc]

i thought brodus was dominican