10 Precise Moments Wrestling Bookers Lost Their Minds
Vince McMahon took years to lose the plot. Others took...less time to prove their incompetence.
Is Tony Khan in the process of losing control over his product, or...?
No, is the short answer, but there are certain troubling noises emanating from the backstage area and indeed the television screen that things have been better. MJF has expressed unhappiness, which has dominated much of the discourse, and this is suboptimal, since his feud with Wardlow is the sole ongoing programme at present that reaches AEW's gold standard.
Elsewhere, the World Title picture is not as hot as it could be, and the bloated roster is creating problems from what seemed to be a luxury. Between the Blackpool Combat Club, Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz Vs. Jericho Appreciation Society and Tag Team Title programmes, AEW's storytelling feels like an excuse to get several excellent talents on the PPV to the detriment of focused, emotional storytelling. Three-way matches booked by a talent previewed with another three-way match between a representative of each team: not only is that a lame WWE-style development, it is unfolding at the exact same as a storyline in which AEW is burying sports entertainment. This is a big self-own. Isn't this company self-aware?
No wrestling booker is great forever. The same is almost universally true of artists and creators in general.
The maxim is especially true of pro wrestling, an industry that never takes a break - but when precisely did it all go wrong?
10. Triple H
This is conspiratorial, but isn't it funny how NXT declined in quality when other promotions and movements rose to prominence?
New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2018 broke into a new stratosphere of critical acclaim on the back of the seminal Kenny Omega Vs. Kazuchika Okada series; in parallel, the promotion further expanded into the U.S. on the back of a classic Young Bucks Vs. Golden Lovers tag at Strong Style Evolved, which was an instant sell-out. Ring Of Honor smashed its previous gate record on the back of the gripping Elite melodrama with which the stable sauntered into the 10,000-seat arena.
To the detriment of the old NXT soul, did Triple H chase the elixir of critical acclaim in a bid to thwart these new competitors?
It is surely no coincidence that, over the next year, NXT TakeOver match lengths expanded to a noticeable level. The brand experienced two, debated peaks: the warmth of 2015's feel-good storytelling or, depending upon where you sit, the outrageous workrate that highlighted 2018.
Finn Bálor's headline matches hovered around the 20 minute mark, but by the time Adam Cole, Johnnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa were anointed as the key members of the main event club, the headline attractions almost doubled in length on average. New Orleans went 37:06, Chicago II 35:29, New York 38:25.
Not necessarily a bad thing automatically, and those individual matches were great in and of themselves, but Jesus Christ, the Toronto II "sinster structure" debacle brought this excess into brutal focus. This is where HHH lost it.
Triple H replaced emotion with devices and tropes, the all-important feeling was lost, and by the time NXT made it to TV, people were evidently exhausted by the indulgence.