10 Wrestling Bookers Who Damaged Their Own Promotions

Despite being well past his prime, head booker Al Tomko decided to push himself to the moon in this Vancouver territory. The result was dwindling ticket sales, locker room frustration and ultimately the complete folding of this once profitable promotion.

A career midcarder, Al Tomko decided it was high time he got pushed to the moon when he bought a majority stake in the Vancouver-based NWA All Star. Despite being well into his 40s and far past any semblance of an athletic prime, Tomko racked up pretty every accolade on offer in the promotion. He was essentially the Thanos of Vancouver wrestling.

Had the reborn Master Sergeant Tomko been a big hit with crowds, maybe this ludicrous ego trip would've been a little more forgivable. Unfortunately, audiences lost interest even quicker than his fellow wrestlers lost their patience.

The result of the Tomko mega push was the complete and utter annihilation of a once profitable territory. Co-owner Gene Kiniski, a considerably more talented, less egotistical, more famous wrestler in his own right, sold his share in the promotion in 1985, sadly bailing from a sinking ship that so easily could've avoided its iceberg.

NWA All Star officially became a thing of the past in 1989. Had literally anyone else taken over the booking in the late '70s, perhaps this unfortunate bit of history could've been different.