12 WWE Booking Mistakes Vince McMahon Made Personally
8. Vladimir Kozlov
"I LOVE DOUBLE DOUBLE E." In 2005, Vince McMahon's near fetishistic love of the film Rocky IV as a constant source of booking tropes introduced us to Vladimir Kozlov, aka sambo karate champion Oleg Prudius turned into a modern-day Ivan Drago. In 2008, Kozlov was finally unleashed on the main roster, promoted as an undefeated monster on the Smackdown brand and was pushed for the better part of six months at the top of the roster alongside the likes of The Undertaker, Triple H, Edge and Shawn Michaels. It was in clearly not having the level of professional wrestling expertise as the aforementioned quartet that eventually doomed Kozlov and stalled his push. Intriguingly enough, if watching WWE in 2015, seeing Rusev as being credible in largely the same role as Vladimir Kozlov is entertaining, as it's obvious that once Vince McMahon has an idea he loves, he's not likely to ever let go.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
