The 8 Ball: Top 8 People Who Should Run WWE Creative

Welcome to another edition of the 8 Ball for the Wrestling Section of 411. I am David McGregor and I once kissed a girl, beat that internet!

I have managed to pull myself away from Supernatural for a short time to write this column, so here’s hoping it’s a quickie because Sam Winchester is back from the dead (again!) and there is a civil war going on in heaven. I seriously need a better hobby than watching TV shows continuously.

So last week was an article I have wanted to write for a long time, hence why it was hella long! And thanks for all the comments and those who said they liked it; I haven’t written that much since I finished my dissertation.

This week we are looking at the WWE, and more importantly their creative team. I think the WWE of the last few years has been seriously lacking in great storylines. Take Jericho v HBK a few years ago, that was a good feud but the storyline was hardly legendary and yet it was hailed as one of the best the WWE had ever done. That’s because we have grown accustomed to mediocrity.

Everyone blames Stephanie McMahon and Vince McMahon for the poor writing, so what would happen if they were booted from creative? And more importantly who should replace them?

Top 8 People Who Should Head WWE Creative

8th – Triple H

This one would be a hell of a lot higher if he weren’t already knee deep in the creative process. Sure we could say that Triple H is already leading creative, but until he takes over Stephanie’s role he will be on this list. Every decision Triple H has made seems to be for the better of the WWE product, ok maybe not Sin Cara but every man needs to fail once! He has mended bridges with Sammartino, actually let’s stop and realize how insane the thought of Bruno Sammartino being affiliated with WWE really is. Triple H has managed to mend a bridge that burned down decades ago. The idea would be unthinkable only a year ago, and now we saw Bruno at WrestleMania 29.

He has also introduced part time contracts, something Vince has been dead against for years, which has resulted in some major names coming back to boost stagnant ratings. Rock, Brock and even Rob Van Dam have Triple H to thank for that one. Some of the biggest buyrates of the last few years have been due to part time workers and the allure of the “dream matches.” Brock v Cena or Rock v Cena would have been non-existent if it weren’t for Triple H introducing a more lenient schedule for some of the big names of the past. Whether or not it is a good idea in the long run is irrelevant Triple H is keeping the boat afloat for the time being.

Then we get to the development of new talent. Triple H has realized that the WWE needs new faces, and while Rock and Cena are great they will soon be too old to main event WrestleMania. According to reports Triple H completely ripped apart the management of developmental, and made sure that no one comes to the main show without a plan in mind for their character. That sounds simple, but as we have seen for the past decade many came up without a clue of what to do with them. Look at John Cena, he came in all ruthless aggression and when that failed he floated for a few months before the Halloween episode where he dressed as Vanilla Ice. Nowadays you have guys like The Shield, Fandango, Big E Langston and the soon to debut Wyatt Family all coming in with set storylines and plans for their character. Sure, not all of them have worked and some are floating along but at least they arrived with a goal in mind.

Triple H looks set to take over the WWE in the next few years, and many would have freaked at that choice a decade ago but now that seems like the best idea possible. I’m looking to a new WWE under the eye of Triple H.

7th – Jim Ross

Good old JR has been wasted at the announcers table, which is a pretty big statement seen as he is the greatest announcer of all time. But from reading his thoughts on the WWE, when he doesn’t toe the company line, he seems to have a real grasp of the business. And boy is there a lot of opinion! Jim Ross has a blog that is updated a lot, and so you really get an understanding of what JR feels about the business and the way in which he would do things. I don’t know if JR would be great in the WWE of today, which is mostly glamour and glitz and a severe lack of tits. That’s a joke from a movie; I really don’t think the WWE needs any more tits! But the basics of wrestling have always been the same, evil heel v popular babyface.

But JR has been responsible for hiring some of the biggest names in the WWE, Austin, Rock, Edge, Lesnar, Big Show and every other big name of the Attitude Era signed on the dotted line with JR watching. He may not have cultivated the talent in development but he did see them before anyone else did, and from that moment realized that they could be something in the WWE. Being head of creative isn’t like development, but you do need a keen eye for who could be the next big thing.

Jim Ross is one of those picks that are right out there, mostly because he has never been tested in a writing environment. But I believe that when you truly love a business like Ross loves wrestling, you pick up on things and realize how things work and why they work. If you have passion and a talent at getting people over, then you already have at least part of the job in the bag.

6th – Mick Foley

There aren’t a lot of wrestlers who can get past their ego to be great bookers, which has been the problem for a lot of wrestlers turned bookers. But Mick Foley has never been one of those men; in fact he always comes across as completely willing and open to putting any WWE star over. Every since Foley came into the WWE and became successful he began putting people over, from The Rock and Triple H to Edge and Randy Orton a lot of people are in the position they are thanks to Foley. I believe that is the kind of mind-set you need to have before you begin booking a show, if you don’t then all you get is the same guys getting pushed and an impossible to smash glass ceiling. So basically you get WCW.

Another reason I put Foley here was because he is extraordinarily smart, his books are brilliant and well written and he does seem to have a knack for the creative arts. And it isn’t as if he hasn’t come up with a few good ideas in his time, a lot of the Edge and Foley feud and then tag team came from the mind of Mick. In fact nowadays Foley doesn’t come back unless he has a great idea that he can put onto TV, some of them have cultivated the new WWE superstars and created great moments for some that are already there.

Mick Foley is the right mix of passion, talent and selflessness to be a fantastic booker in the WWE or any company. He may not understand the “business” like Vince McMahon, but Foley knows what talent is and he knows who has the balls to make it in the wrestling industry. He also will do absolutely anything to make something work, look at the Hell in a Cell for example number 1!

5th – Dana White

Dana White is more a promoter than a creative guy, but he has borrowed enough from wrestling over the years I believe he could change WWE creative to become a more realistic and entertaining product. Dana White did to MMA what Vince did to wrestling; he made it mainstream and in the process made himself extremely wealthy. Also it is routinely mentioned that UFC stole WWE’s Attitude Era audience, that coveted 18-24 year old demographic that decide what is “cool.” Ok, so Dana White didn’t exactly write storylines for the UFC guys or anything but he did embellish and promote that larger than life aspect of UFC that made it into a global phenomenon. UFC is now on one of the biggest American TV national networks and is in the process of becoming one of those accepted forms of entertainment, something the WWE has been for many years.

I am not that big a fan of MMA in general, I will openly admit that I like WWE and wrestling because of the soap opera nature of it. But UFC is now very feud based, and telling a story before the fight. There are large characters that are arrogant and full of their selves, and then there are the guys who the crowd loves. This is all being embellished and hyped up by Dana White and his team at UFC. UFC has taken what WWE and wrestling in general perfected decades ago, and put it into a new sport.

I would like to see what White would do with WWE. He would be doing the opposite of what he did to UFC, creating a more realistic and less soap opera driven form of TV, but I think with enough ingenuity he could do it. This is just a complete guess, and it would probably go horribly wrong, but the WWE needs a new energetic dose of creativity to change things. I think if someone was to ever take over from Vince that wasn’t a McMahon I would like to it be someone like Dana White, someone who has that ruthless competitive streak that Vince lost the moment he bought WCW.

4th – Jim Cornette

Jim Cornette is one of those minds that are just fully focused on wrestling, and understands the ins and outs of what makes a show great. The only problem is that because he is so centered on wrestling he gets very emotional with it, and has been known to raise his hands to talent and that’s why he isn’t with the WWE anymore. But if he can control himself Cornette could be one of the best minds any company could ever utilize, and it’s been proven more than a few times.

Cornette was with the WWE for 12 years, and during his time there he was in charge of booking at the developmental territory. So you have Cornette to thank, in part, for Cena, Batista, Lesnar, Kane and a whole host of other guys who were put through the ringer and crafted into proper WWE superstars. Much like other guys on this list, Cornette realizes the importance of making new superstars and that is what the WWE is lacking right now. Put someone like Cornette in the head position and you completely change the product, moving into a more youth orientated product that aims to promote new talent.

If you want to realize how much of a great mind Cornette is, you only have to watch his segments on Raw during 1997 in which he decimates WCW for their reliance on old WWE superstars.

3rd – Paul Heyman

One of the greatest promoters of all time, and yet just couldn’t handle the business side of wrestling. The stories are plentiful of Paul Heyman being a terrible businessman, and had he been able to balance the books on ECW it may not have went under as soon as it did. By 2001 ECW owed several of its top names significant sums of money, if I remember correct RVD still had to be paid up to $50,000 in unpaid wages when WWE bought ECW.

But whether the sums added up or not, Heyman was amazing when it came to the creative of the company. It is quite insane to think such a small company like ECW is remembered so much, and some of the moments and feuds that took place in ECW are considered legendary now. But a lot of that came from the mind of Paul Heyman, and allowing certain guys the opportunity to make it when most would have said no. Guys like Tazz and Sabu would never have gotten on WWE or WCW TV without Heyman and their time at ECW, and that’s what makes him so brilliant. Heyman is one of the few guys who have the balls to push people that don’t come out of the cookie cutter mould. A lot of bookers say they listen to the audience, but unless they are literally screaming at them they rarely do. But Heyman analyses the audience so incredibly, he realizes what they want before they are demanding it and then picks the perfect moment to give it to them.

Heyman would be perfect for a job in creative; it is ridiculous that they haven’t given him the Smackdown head writer’s job back. His time in 2002 until 2004 was some of the best TV the WWE have produced, and led to the popular “Smackdown Six” which had some of the best matches of that decade. Heyman knows what talent to push, and how best to push them. Look at Austin, RVD, Lesnar and Punk, all of them would have been lost without Heyman pushing for them or giving them a platform to show the world what they were all about.

I still find it weird that it has been nearly 7 years since Vince let Heyman have some kind of writing role in the WWE. The man knows wrestling and creating and nurturing talent better than anyone else, even better than Vince McMahon who has gotten lucky more times than he would care to count.

2nd – Pat Patterson

I adore the ground that Pat Patterson walks on; the man has been responsible for so many great aspects of WWE TV over the years. For over 30 years Patterson has been the right hand man to Vince McMahon, and was a constant voice of guidance until he retired in 2004. He wasn’t gone long as he came back as a consultant in 2005, and since then has always been at hand if the WWE needed help with anything. But if Patterson were 20 years younger I would have had him leading that creative team, and dictating the direction of the company for the next couple of decades.

As everyone knows Patterson was behind the idea of the Royal Rumble, which over 20 years later is still the biggest WWE PPV outside of WrestleMania. But Patterson has been a part of everything the WWE has touched in the last 30 years, from WrestleMania 1 to the Iron Man Match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. Hart and Michaels actually have a lot to thank Patterson for, as he was extremely influential in pushing for both of the guys to be the centerpiece of the company, not such a bad idea in hindsight.

The guy is clearly a wrestling genius, and while Vince gets all the credit for the popularity of the 80’s and 90’s he certainly wouldn’t be where he is now if weren’t for Pat Patterson. So if we are kicking out Vince and Stephanie from the WWE creative, who better than the guy who was Number 2 during the entire successful reign the WWE had? I’m sure a lot of the better looking wrestlers may get a push, thank god a Cody Rhodes WWE Title run, but I’m sure that’s what would be best for business. Patterson is a legend and if you could clone a mind, Patterson’s would be invaluable.

1st – Shane McMahon

I feel that Shane McMahon understood the WWE better than any other person, except Vince of course. Shane understood what was needed for the WWE to compete in the changing market, they were no longer the cool brand they were in 1999 and there were reports that Shane wanted to change the company into a more realistic and sport-like company. This is similar to the approach Dana White took to UFC, and that worked out pretty damn well.

And while Shane kept himself to the financial side of the WWE, any time he did enter the creative office he created something great. His shining moment was the Big Show v Floyd Mayweather feud he spearheaded himself. Even the beginning of that feud was played perfectly; the legit bloody nose Big Show got was an image that will be remembered for years to come. That one match was the reason WrestleMania did more the 1,000,000 buys for the show that year; sure there were Flair and HBK but we all knew the ending to that one.

According to reports online there was a plan in motion around 2004 in which the WWE would expand throughout the world. Shane McMahon was the brain behind this move, seeing North America as a stagnant area for wrestling. The WWE would be split up and have offices in the UK, Japan, Mexico and Australia if I remember correctly. They would have a rotating cast of wrestlers who would go to each of these territories and be the face of that brand, like the old territory days although on a massive scale. It didn’t work out and was never put past the planning stage, but had it been implemented and worked it could have made the WWE billions and created talent to continue the company for the next few decades. That’s the kind of radical thinking the WWE is missing these days, Vince has gotten rather cautious in his old age and Shane should have been given the reigns of the company as soon as that happened.

I still believe that Shane McMahon would be a massive asset to the WWE, and it is suffering from his loss. Shane had an eye for the business, and realized what would work on the biggest and most profitable scale. Stephanie is a brilliant businesswoman, but she has Vince’s arrogance and has never really been let loose on the product without Vince watching over her. Maybe Stephanie would be great without Vince, but I think Shane was the one who inherited Vince’s creative genius for wrestling.

Choose Next Week’s Topic
1. The Worst Moments of WWE History
2. The Most Overrated Matches of All Time
3. Wrestlers Who Should Retire Immediately