Booking philosophies and disciplines discussion

[Guest Dangerous A]

Figured I start up a booking philosophies and disciplines discussion here. I'll come in here from time to time and throw out booking discipline/philosophy questions and statements to see what you guys are thinking. (I was originally going to keep this topic exclusive to here, but this site wasn't working when I typed it up so this is also in my blog spot on TSM. No one reads my blog there anyways)

 

To start out, I was reading Pat McNeill's take on Low Ki and ROH parting ways again and something stood out for me in McNeill's last paragraph.

 

Less than two years ago, ROH was in even worse shape when TNA pulls its wrestlers from ROH events. The good news for Ring of Honor is that it's a promotion built around a concept, not around a specific wrestler or group of wrestlers. As long as ROH is using top-notch talent and putting on top-notch shows, they will survive, and probably thrive.

 

People will say that Sapolsky does this as a disciple of Paul Heyman, who did a similar deal when he booked ECW. However, since reading "Wrestling at the Chase" I have learned this was also a huge point of Sam Mushnick's when he booked St Louis. Sam wanted interchangeable guys on top so that one individual would not be able to derail things.

 

Now, that seems fine for St Louis, which was a territory back in the day and fine for ROH which has a niche group of fans that they can sell their concept to. The WWE (and to a way lesser extent, TNA) is pretty much all about the star system. Now, could a national promotion run efficiently built around a concept and not a specific group of wrestlers or is that day dead and gone? I'm not saying they have to run WWE level, but at least be national and profitable.

 

 

Changing gears, in recent weeks it has come out that a lot of TNA's new audience are actually UFC fans. Thing is, TNA hasn't convinced any of the new UFC fans to buy their ppv's since the buyrates are the same from the FSN days. That said, should TNA book a more legit sport-like, realistic way? TNA is still more sport and less entertainment oriented than WWE, but they still have their fair share of wanna be WWE like segments and vignettes. Should TNA change gears a little and book more realistic like cleaner finishes, no outside interference or ref bumps, etc? I am of the opinion that as long as Jeff Jarrett is lead booker, this won't change because it appears he can't book matches (especially his own) without the above mentioned shortcuts and tricks. Would it even help TNA to do this or are UFC fans just kind of there for the ride and probrably not going to pay for the shows, so TNA should just try to stick to a more even steven sports and entertainment style show?

[Guest teke184]

I think it's possible to run a national company based on the "concept" system, but that depends on the presentation and the level of available talent.

 

If the athletes involved all get signed away, like they did in ECW, or one of the big companies pulls the rug out from their TV show, like what happened in St. Louis, they'll still be in deep shit.

 

 

 

As for TNA, I think that eliminating gimmicky finishes and run-ins will greatly help the product, as it's that kind of overbooked bullshit that's helped sour me on the WWE. (Poor TV writing / time allotment didn't help either.)

 

I also agree that Jeff Jarrett is a big part of the problem, both in that his Memphis background lends itself to a LOT of that stuff, which used to be referred to as "Tennessee Bullshit" by some in the business, and that he needs that kind of booking to even position himself as over. He's certainly not able to bring the ring-work to get over in the ring and his heel schtick has aged VERY badly.

 

 

While cleaning up the booking may not directly affect the UFC fans, it'll at least make the true wrestling fans watching the show happier and may actually bring back former WWE fans like myself who are tired of the "Watch for the 10 run-ins" bullshit finishes.

[sek69]

I think TNA would benefit from going back to a more 80s NWA style, I know when I was younger I used to think WWF was fake and NWA was real just because of the difference in styles.

 

*edit*

 

Just to expand on what I mean by that, they already do a lot of what I consider 80s NWA style. Stuff like making title belts important, which I think is something every group should do. Nothing has bothered me more about "WWE style" than the belts becoming meaningless props.

[Loss]

I think great booking tailors itself to the talent instead of expecting the talent to tailor itself to a style. That's obviously a big problem in WWE, and really, it's often been a problem in a lot of US promotions. I also think the belts should be pushed harder than any of the wrestlers.

[Guest Dangerous A]

Reading "Wrestling at the Chase" Matysik explains that one Mushnick booking discipline was to protect the championship more than protecting the wrestler. Probrably thinking the championship will always be there and it's standing will always effect the company, while wrestlers come and go.

 

You know, if the IC and Tag titles were protected better, perhaps WWE would be able to run better drawing house shows with those title matches on top like they used to in the 80's through the early 90's.

 

For the audience TNA draws, you could make an argument that their secondary title, the X Division title, is their best drawing title. I know from the TNA fans I know, none of them are gettting the shows because of Jeff Jarrett as champ.

[Coffey]

I don't really know how well this all ties in but the last two TNA PPV's one of my friends named Bobby wanted to watch the shows with us just because Sting might be there and then because Sting was going to be there (in the tag main event). Admittedly, he's a mark but after Sting wasn't there the first time and announced his "retirement" on iMPACT! Bobby no longer cares about TNA. That's sad to me. TNA sucked him in with Sting. He got to see the Canadian Destroyer and a good PPV Samoa Joe match and he was impressed. Now he's been run off by "bad" booking. Maybe not bad but certainly not the outcome he was looking for.

 

I'm curious how many wrestling fans, in this day and age, are like Bobby. I don't mean just fans that aren't smart to the business or fans that just watch WWE Raw like it's Cheers, just another show on TV. I'm talking about the people that have certain expectations, not from a workrate perspective or a "hey, his promo has improved" way...but like how angles play out and shit. I can hear The Boogeyman and Shelton's mama getting cheered whenever they show up camera. Boogeyman is the shits and Shelton's mom is a terrible gimmick and certainly not going to wrestle anytime soon.

 

There was a poster on an old message forum that I used to post at. Sek knows him. His name was artDDP. He used to always talk about how the downfall of WWF started when Stephanie stayed with HHH instead of going with Kurt Angle in their "love triangle" storyline. In fact, the blowoff upset him so much that quit watching WWF and starting writing fantasy booking stuff instead.

 

The wrestling really doesn't matter. It doesn't. People don't want to hear that but it's true. People weren't watching Hogan/Andre to see a five-star classic match full of workrate. They wanted to see if Hogan could beat Andre. They wanted to see if Andre would win the title. They wanted to see if Hogan could slam Andre. People didn't watch Austin/McMahon because McMahon was a young lion on his way up the ladder of success and was putting on great matches during his climb. Great wrestling with great storylines is just a bonus...but it's not the promise of a good match that'll sell a show. At least not to the majority. That's why ROH is still an Indy fed. That's why Paul London is a jobber in WWE. Even in NWA where the wrestling was better (when compared to WWF) people were tuning in because they wanted to see the Freebirds get their asses kicked or they wanted to see someone be able to fend off the rest of the Horsemen and take out Flair. It wasn't about the matches so much as the outcome of the matches and the story surrounding the matches.

 

It's all about the booking. The booking is everything. WWE is bad because the booking is bad. TNA is bad because the booking is bad. Good booking makes good characters and then the fans take notice and start to care. Good booking makes the belts mean more so that title changes actually matter and the fans can actually remember who has each belt.