10 Wrestling Bookers Who Damaged Their Own Promotions

When it comes to booking, there's slow-burn storytelling and then there's just plain slow. For Delirious, it was nearly always the latter during his unfortunate, ultimately fatal, run as Ring of Honor's number one script guy.

Taking the reins from Adam Pearce in 2010, Delirious worked in tandem with Jim Cornette initially and the results were not good. Despite being the most over wrestler in the promotion, Kevin Steen was sent packing at the end of the year. Worse still, Davey Richards, arguably the most outstanding talent on the roster, was denied a title win when he was at his hottest with fans.

The alienation of top talent, coupled with an odd refusal to put the ROH strap on wrestlers when they were at their most over, became a recurring theme under Delirious' lead. While he did improve the product somewhat once Jim Cornette hit the bricks in 2012, it fast became even more clear that the real-life Hunter Johnston had little grasp of character development.

The mid-2010s call to push Cody Rhodes and The Elite to the forefront was a decent decision business-wise. However, it fast proved catastrophic when the crew left to form their own considerably bigger promotion in 2019. Given ROH revolutionised indie wrestling in the noughties and had a solid TV deal, it's safe to say it could've been so much more than it was in the 2010s with better creative.

Hopefully, the promotion can return and reach its former glory someday. For now, however, its reputation as a plodding, humdrum affair sadly lives on.