"He's ambitiously stupid" - Why Scott Keith's new book is scary bad

[Ricky Jackson]

It seemed like most families had it by 1986 when we first got it but I could be remembering wrong. It definitely wasn't part of the most exclusive cable package, like the movie channels and others

[Champagne]

TSN was a premium cable channel until September 1989, when it was added to the basic cable package. I can't remember if the station was showing AWA at that point. It was definitely still airing on TSN earlier in the year.

[Migs]

He's also talked about watching some Vancouver as a kid.

[Ricky Jackson]

TSN was a premium cable channel until September 1989, when it was added to the basic cable package. I can't remember if the station was showing AWA at that point. It was definitely still airing on TSN earlier in the year.

It was on TSN until the very end of the territory

[NintendoLogic]

On the Austin heel turn:

 

They just got it into their head that Austin was stale as a babyface and he needed to be turned. Hindsight says he wasn’t, but believe me, at the time EVERYONE thought it was the right play. ​

 

This strikes me as revisionist history.

[WingedEagle]

On the Austin heel turn:

 

They just got it into their head that Austin was stale as a babyface and he needed to be turned. Hindsight says he wasn’t, but believe me, at the time EVERYONE thought it was the right play. ​

 

This strikes me as revisionist history.

 

Its been a while, but I don't recall anyone clamoring for it or even speculating it would light a fire under business.

[sek69]

Dave mentioned he repeatedly told people in the company that turning Austin heel (especially in Texas) would be a bad idea for weeks leading up to it.

 

You can make the argument that he was getting stale, and *maybe* a turn was needed, but no one thought siding him with Vince after years of being the biggest blood feud in history was the right play.

[Ricky Jackson]

All I know is my immediate reaction a second after it happened was "that's stupid and doesn't make any sense"

[PeteF3]

I don't get how Austin suddenly got stale in 8 months of being back on TV.

 

And on top of trying to execute the turn in Texas, he turned at a time when there were no top babyfaces to oppose him. I daresay Kane and Undertaker as top challengers did almost as much damage to the WWF's bottom line, though in the end turning Austin was sort of like trying to turn Bruno in 1980. If you couldn't trust Bruno, what babyface *could* you trust?

[peachchaos]

Should I just state the obvious? DTA!

[BruiserBrody]

 

 

Back in with the legdrop to finish at 18:11 as Hogan has apparently won the AWA title. The crowd goes INSANE for this. However, Stanley Blackburn immediately overturns the decision because saw Hogan throw Bockwinkel over the top, and the ring is immediately drenched in garbage as a result. Once in a while is OK, but Verne started doing this finish over and OVER all year until Hulk just left. And then he kept advertising the match well after Hogan was gone! *1/2

Keith's Super Sunday review he just released...

 

---

Clawmaster's record has the two facing off only sporadically before Super Sunday, and then afterwards Hogan went away until Aug. He then spent most of his time with Saito and Schultz, then in November he won a bunch of number one contender battle royals to set up matches that never came to pass.

[SomethingSavage]

Except that DTA doesn't exactly work when you're required to believe Austin suddenly trusts McMahon anyway. The better route would have been to just book Austin as this unpredictable, wild renegade.

 

At all costs, he should have shown that he was willing to do ANYTHING to recapture the WWF Championship - which is where the nasty assault on Rocky would have come into play. From there, they could have had him do the usual heinous stuff - dropping Lita with a Stunner or whatever to kickoff a program with the Hardys, etc. Heck, even "using" McMahon (and then quickly betraying him right there at Mania) could have worked under that umbrella. It should have just been a story about Austin being desperate and hellbent on regaining "his spot" on top. Nothing else.

 

Instead, they were way too worried and concerned about generating the "right" response from the fans. They needed a reason to force fans to bo Austin. And they felt like the alliance with McMahon would get them there. One MAJOR problem with that...

 

It just absolutely undermines the integrity of Austin's character to align with McMahon. The people bought into that program. They embraced it. They witnessed it, loved it, and tuned in for every twist & turn. It was an experience - an event unto itself. Undoing everything that came before Mania 17 - between Austin and McMahon - just killed the credibility they had built. Nobody wanted to see that.

Austin going heel wasn't a terrible move, but Austin aligning with McMahon - because they wanted to control the outcome and reaction of the fans - WAS trash. Hardcore fans didn't like it, but they kept watching and playing along anyhow. Casuals seemed to outright reject the move and eventually tuned out over time. I'm not sure if there's any way to deny that the turn damaged Austin's appeal to a number of those casual viewers.

 

Also, to be fair, Austin has stated several times that he requested to go heel. He wanted to work another heel run. So people shouldn't place all the blame on "creative" as far as the decision itself goes. When one of your top draws requests something, you at least TRY to work with them on the notion. I honestly feel like this was a case of Austin maybe just getting in his own head too much. I mean, nah. Following the return, he wasn't as hot as he was in '98, but come on. That was an unrealistic goal anyhow. Trends grow tired. Acts age. It's only natural. But what the hell do I know? Maybe Austin was just plain tired of the babyface deal & simply felt restricted from a creative standpoint.

Logistically, yeah. It came at a bad time. Rocky was leaving. No other babyfaces were being built to replace him or even step up directly beneath that. It was just a gigantic, obvious void. They wouldn't even ATTEMPT to elevate anyone until that early summer with Benoit and Jericho, which really hurt things as well.

[Loss]

Austin should have said he had been plotting with Vince McMahon to make millions of dollars off of a gullible population for the last three years, if he absolutely had to turn.

[BruiserBrody]

I don't really like the following from the perception of Mania being the big show of the year and all, but I felt at the time that the angle should have gone like this: Rock kicks out of the stunner and ultimately beats Austin at Mania, proving to be the better man and denying Austin his goal of being champ post neck surgery. The next night Vince opens the show with Rock and announces an instant rematch, which Rock and JR both point out is odd since Vince hates Austin. Then the desperate Austin beats Rock at the end of the night due to Vince's interference. HHH then comes out on stage as a closing shot to start the build to the Two man power trip.

[Grimmas]

Kind of wish Austin just gave McMahon a stunner afterwards anyway.

[PeteF3]

Austin should have said he had been plotting with Vince McMahon to make millions of dollars off of a gullible population for the last three years, if he absolutely had to turn.

 

This reads too much like that entire season of Dallas being a dream--"sorry folks, everything you watched for the past 3 years has been a lie!" it takes It Was a Plan All Along, which was being played to death in late '98 already--to a new level. Of course I realize the implication here is that Austin probably shouldn't have turned, period.

[Strummer]

to me Austin's babyface character had become incredibly stale and borderline unwatchable so I was welcoming the turn. In retrospect it was a disaster business wise. Interesting that Dave on the Lapsed Fan about WM 17 said he warned the company that turning Austin would be a debacle and that if they were going to do a turn it should be Rock. He said people were booing the Rock in the buildup which I don't recall happening much but in retrospect I don't know if that would have been the answer either because Rock was basically part time from that point on so doing a big turn seemed like a mute point

[Hawkeye12]

to me Austin's babyface character had become incredibly stale and borderline unwatchable so I was welcoming the turn. In retrospect it was a disaster business wise. Interesting that Dave on the Lapsed Fan about WM 17 said he warned the company that turning Austin would be a debacle and that if they were going to do a turn it should be Rock. He said people were booing the Rock in the buildup which I don't recall happening much but in retrospect I don't know if that would have been the answer either because Rock was basically part time from that point on so doing a big turn seemed like a mute point

 

Booing the Rock in the buildup? Seemed Rock generally had the crowd support more often than not from what I remember, only problem was WM was in Texas so what came before wasn't going to matter for the actual show.

[Loss]

Their best shot was to turn the clock back to 2000 and groom Chris Jericho as their new top star. It's semi-forgotten now because a lot of people are sick of him, but in Jericho, they really had something special in 2000 that they sort of squandered. He was already the #3 merchandise seller in the company without a full-fledged main event push, so the foundation was there.

[SteveJRogers]

 

 

to me Austin's babyface character had become incredibly stale and borderline unwatchable so I was welcoming the turn. In retrospect it was a disaster business wise. Interesting that Dave on the Lapsed Fan about WM 17 said he warned the company that turning Austin would be a debacle and that if they were going to do a turn it should be Rock. He said people were booing the Rock in the buildup which I don't recall happening much but in retrospect I don't know if that would have been the answer either because Rock was basically part time from that point on so doing a big turn seemed like a mute point

Booing the Rock in the buildup? Seemed Rock generally had the crowd support more often than not from what I remember, only problem was WM was in Texas so what came before wasn't going to matter for the actual show.

Was it common knowledge that The Rock was Scorpion King shooting bound after Raw the next night? In hindsight I could see Rock pulling a Batista like quitting promo (both times) on the fans, and still come back a conquering hero in late summer.

[MikeCampbell]

I think part of the problem with the Austin heel turn was that the first full fledged program for the new Austin/HHH alliance was with Undertaker and Kane. They just took an already stale program and flipped it so that it would seem fresh again, it failed miserably and the matches were awful. There was really no reason that they couldn't have kept on going with them against the Hardys, even if only for a month. Based on the heat Austin got for going apeshit with the chair on Lita, and Jeff's IC Title win over HHH, there seemed to be genuine interest in it.

[NintendoLogic]

In response to a reader suggesting that he check out the Dolph/Miz segment from Smackdown:

 

What is the obsession with making me love Miz? He’s fine at that midcard level, but it’s just not going to happen as a top guy.

 

My mind is made up! Don't confuse me with the facts!

[Grimmas]

In response to a reader suggesting that he check out the Dolph/Miz segment from Smackdown:

 

What is the obsession with making me love Miz? He’s fine at that midcard level, but it’s just not going to happen as a top guy.

 

My mind is made up! Don't confuse me with the facts!

If someone is not going to be main event, I will never like them! Sorry TJ Perkins.

[BruiserBrody]

Have we mentioned Keith is teasing doing a full book on JCP and it's demise?

[...TG]

Have we mentioned Keith is teasing doing a full book on JCP and it's demise?

 

I hope and pray that he writes it, solely so we can see Meltzer's angry Observer feature correcting all the mistakes.