10 Ridiculous Wrestling Booking Decisions Nobody Can Explain
Bullet holes in the Swiss.
Explaining certain inexplicable booking decisions is ironically easy, with the most cynical of mindsets: Vince McMahon is absolutely mental, or least incredibly erratic, and is as set in his ways as your racist grandfather. He is a racist grandfather.
This bizarre mentality explains why, for example, McMahon refused to push the insanely popular Daniel Bryan ahead of WrestleMania XXX - and why, upon finally relenting to the pressure, he outright informed Bryan that Roman Reigns was The Guy going forward. Bryan = short, pale, scraggly. Reigns = tall, sculpted, handsome. You needed only a visual cue irrespective of how deafening the sentiment was. McMahon was deaf to it, and not without some justification, or at least explanation: the man has monopolised pro wrestling so thoroughly that certain Network television stations in North America are toying with the idea of purchasing the company's TV rights.
This, in turn, explains decisions more depressing than mystifying. John Cena dominated the Nexus because he sold metric f*cktonnes of merch; Randy Orton won the 2017 Royal Rumble because he was established and popular among the casual audience; Finn Bálor doesn't get to break the wheel because he is but a spoke in it.
These decisions...these are legitimately inexplicable...
10. Cooling Wrestling's Hottest Commodity
It's easy to explain the vast majority, if not all, of WCW's various disasters. You can explain them with a meme: LOLWCW. But such a ridiculous wrestling organisation warrants an entry on this list, and perhaps the absolute most inexplicable booking decision concerns the debut of one Bret Hart.
The most controversial wrestler on the planet, and arguably still the best, Hart had departed the WWF in the most acrimonious, shocking, sensational, industry-shaking manner in the history of modern professional wrestling. Eric Bischoff's stock in trade was controversy. He'd courted Hart's signature for months and months, and must surely have done so for a reason, usually manifesting in the form of a "plan". This was a perfect storm for a moment iconic, momentous, or, at the very least, of major intrigue.
Instead, WCW installed him as the special guest referee in a comedy match between Eric Bischoff and Larry Zbysko, the stupefying subplot of which teased Bret Hart's defection to the nWo. If there was ever a pro wrestler with absolutely no reason whatsoever to join a stable of anti-WCW WWF sympathisers, it was Bret bloody Hart.
Brainless; mundane; wasteful - this was a telling symptom of the terminal disease infiltrating the organisation.