10 Wrestling Decision-Makers (And Their Biggest Mistakes)

4. Vince Russo

Biggest Mistake: Booking David Arquette (and himself) as WCW Champion Vince Russo is one of the most polarizing figures in wrestling. On one hand, he played an instrumental role in the creation of the Attitude Era, helping create legends out of such stars as €˜Stone Cold€™ Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Triple H, and many others. On the other hand, in WCW, his decisions left a lot to be desired. Many of the storylines and creative decisions he made while there were among the worst in recent wrestling history. But his worst decision without a doubt was devaluing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. For many observers, the WCW was the real €˜Big Gold Belt€™, and its lineage could be traced back to the original World Championship belt worn by the earliest of world champions. Though their numbers were decreasing, there were still a lot of diehard fans of WCW who held this belt in high regard. Unfortunately, Russo fell victim to the mentality of the belt being €˜nothing more than a prop€™, based off of how often titles would change, and how some other influential parties in WCW would book themselves to win it. By the end of 1999, the belt had lost a lot of credibility, due in part to multiple title changes over recent years. But the death knell for WCW, Vince Russo, and the WCW Title, was having David Arquette, a self-professed wrestling fan, win the belt, despite his refusal to go along with the idea, and the constant debates he had with Russo over the decision. Even worse, while it could be argued that the idea for Arquette€™s win could be salvaged by his movie star status, there was no redeeming quality in Vince Russo himself becoming WCW Champion. Title belts are meant to signify something important; they represent that someone is the best in their division. So it made little sense for a movie star to win one, and even less for a non-athletic booker to win one either. Out of all of Russo€™s questionable decisions, these two booking choices were the absolute worst.