10 Ridiculous Wrestling Booking Decisions Nobody Can Explain

9. Rob Van Dumb

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Impact Wrestling

It's easy to explain the vast majority, if not all, of TNA's various disasters. You can explain them with a meme: LOLTNA. 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 Rob Van Dam.

Van Dam represented a good get for TNA - nowhere near a needle-mover, he nonetheless was popular enough for his many fans to keep up with. Those fans, if they had bothered to tune in, must have tuned immediately back out: their guy, once the coolest in all of wrestling, entered a showreel performance displaying cowardice, weakness and, ultimately, instant irrelevance. Van Dam never amounted to much in TNA. Few did - but this was something unspeakably stupid.

Debuting as a babyface - we think - Van Dam attacked a heel Sting from behind, because Vince Russo is all about classic wrestling psychology. Then, after the most opportunistic pin imaginable, a millisecond after which Sting kicked out, Sting beat the sh*t out of Van Dam with a baseball bat, which drew little sympathy. Van Dam deserved it.

And then - and then - Hulk Hogan made the save, stealing Van Dam's stretcher spot. And then - and then - it was all retconned, revealing Hogan as the heel, and Sting as the face all along.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!