10 Unthinkable Masterminds Behind Legendary Wrestling Ideas
Vince McMahon came up with fewer legendary WWE ideas than you'd think - but #6 WILL surprise you...
The booker usually comes up with the ideas.
In a functional wrestling promotion that recognises the "talent" is called that for a reason, a booker will devise a framework for a storyline, arrive at the destination, determine who needs to get the heat or the comeback and when, and then allow the wrestlers to articulate their motivations. More often than not - unless a wrestler has played a devious political game - the person you see getting their hand raised has won because the booker said so.
The polluted landscape of the 21st century is shifting.
In WWE, Sami Zayn has made significant contributions to the acclaimed Bloodline saga. This is the norm in AEW, where wrestlers frequently pitch ideas and Tony Khan is receptive to them. He has his quirks, and is unable to comprehend that some of them have drawn earnest good-faith criticism - gloating about record ROH PPV buys means little when those shows benefitted from national cable TV exposure - but he values his talents. He has the self-awareness to realise that they have better ideas than he does sometimes.
Vince McMahon was derided for years for refusing to relinquish control - but he wasn't a daft awld tw*t all of the time...
10. Kevin Kelly Came Up With The Triple H & Stephanie McMahon Marriage Angle
A development that changed the course of Triple H's career and pro wrestling history as you know it.
In late 1999, Vince Russo left the then-WWF for WCW. His departure was sudden - he was not bound to a non-compete clause - and the WWF were left to tie up various in-motion plot threads. One such storyline was the relationship between Test and Stephanie McMahon; since wrestling is a never-ending soap opera with no happily ever after, a new twist was required. To buy time to think of it, the British Bulldog threw a trash can at Stephanie McMahon at Rebellion (presumably a different one in which Russo and Ed Ferrara's belongings were kept).
Russo's original idea, based on precedent, was probably "Stephanie, being a woman, was leading him on and she was going to leave him for someone in a better spot."
A company-wide email, unusually, was distributed to all staff. Kevin Kelly responded by suggesting (alongside his wife) that Steph, experiencing memory issues resulting from her head injury, actually forgot to whom she was betrothed, and it would be revealed that Triple H took advantage by wedding her in a backstage "quickie".
This idea was taken on, only made more rancid, as was the style at the time: the WWF actually went the "What would Russo do?" route, although it was Kelly's shoot idea.