Finks Payload 12.29.05: 2005 Bookie Awards
Posted by Clarke-Rossi on 12.29.2005
This week, the first annual Bookie Awards are handed it out!
Greetings one and all to the final edition of the Fink's Payload for the calendar year 2005. It's been an interesting year in McMahonland, and we've taken it upon ourselves to come up with the best and worst in the world of booking, and let you, the reader decide on who gets the coveted Bookie Award.
Thanks to all you who took the time to vote, and all the votes have been counted!
Without any further B.S., I give you the results of the 2005 Bookie Awards.
Below is the top 5 in each category, and thoughts from Chris and Mark. Enjoy!
Reminder: selections received 1 pt for a 3rd place vote, 2 pts for a 2nd place vote, and 3 pts for a first place vote!
Best Written Push
The push for a performer judged to have accomplished the goal of either drawing money, or putting a performer into a position to draw money in the future
5th Mr. Kennedy Ring Announcer 13 points
3rd Edge Mr. Money in the Bank 15 points
3rd Eddie Guerrero the ultimate evil Papi 15 points
2nd Shawn Michaels brief heel turn 23 points 1st Batista's Mania Build 51 points
Mark: The votes came in pretty much bang on what I would've thought. Batista's build led to the biggest buyrate of the year at Wrestlemania, and went on the headline 2 other cards to decent numbers. Shawn's heel turn drew the second biggest buyrate of the year at Summerslam. Solid choices all around.
Chris: The fact that most people don't criticize Batista's run on SD nearly to the level of Cena's on Raw is a testament to the job that Hunter did in putting Batista over. No one would have believed that he'd job three straight, but he did! All clean too! We all know he'll get a win back someday (just like he's beaten Benoit a number of occasions) but Batista is still thriving because of this build. That's a testament to its construction!
Worst Written Push
The push for a performer judged to have done the most the inhibit the goal of drawing money, or putting a performer into a position to draw money in the future
5th Kerwin White 12 points
4th Gene Snitsky 13 points
3rd Matt Hardy's Major jobbing to Edge 18 points
2nd John Cena's goody-goody title run 29 points 1st - Shelton Benjamin's plummet down the card 44 points
Mark: There's a lot of love for Shelton in the IWC, there's no doubt about that. And this result more or less proves that point. Shelton has been more or less buried since he dropped the IC title, and no one has any explanation as to why. I do disagree with this choice slightly, because I feel the way they've handled Cena's title run from the moment he won the title has been botched and will probably cost them money down the line.
Chris: Well, as far as what is noticeable right now, Shelton is the pick I'd say. With the impending arrival of his mom (ugh), teaming with Tatanka on house shows, or jobbing to Gene Snitsky in-front of the troops, you have to wonder what the writing team's problem is with him. I guess Dusty just doesn't like Shelton's tone
Most Innovative Finish
The finish to a match or angle judged to be most original in nature, therefore giving the audience something new
5th Matt Striker's Success against Kurt Angle 8 points
4th Batista Bomb on the stairs 11 points
3rd JBL escaping the barbed wire cage through the bottom 25 points
2nd Eddie Guerrero cheating like he can 43 points 1st Shawn Michaels superkick of Shelton off the top 51 points
Mark: A great finish to a great match gets the top honours this year. Arguably the best TV match of the year and certainly one of the best overall matches. If I had to pick my personal favorite finish, it was definite JBL escaping through the bottom. Even though the show drew dick as far as buyrate goes, I enjoyed the finish to that match.
Chris: I think it's a sign that people liked this finish is that Angle/Michaels ripped it off within weeks of its original appearance. I liked JBL's antics to escape to keep his title, including his streetfight with Cena after losing the title. To think, the most innovative finish came on a throw-away TV match with no build. A real shame.
Most Overused Finish
The finish to a match or angle judged to be most unoriginal to the point that it becomes ineffective
5th The Main Event Interview 16 points
4th The nWo beatdown to finish a show 22 points
3rd Triple H's Sledgehammer 25 points
2nd The rollup out of nowhere 34 points 1st The jobbing of champions in other weight divisions/tag divisions to put over main event 40 points
Mark: No doubt, 2005 will be remembered as the year they buried all other belts in an effort to get the big belts over, with little success. All they really succeeded in doing is creating a gap in the roster between the midcard and the main event. Great idea. My personal favorite, the rollup finished in second place, a good showing for a match finish that needs to be retired now, it makes me groan every time they do it.
Chris: The roll up used to be Maven's finish! Remember that??? Now its Carlito's! Ugh ugh ugh. But the destruction of other divisions is really harmful to the product. The roster is not strong enough to sell PPVs on one-match 99% of the year (Mania excluded) they need the other belts. I think they are trying to turn the I-C and US belts into something NOW, but when OJ and Shelton had them, they did NOTHING with them. Tag champs are long buried (with any team that gets steam getting broken up immediately, like TNT), and don't get me started on the cruiserweights. A lot of damage has gone on this year!
Most Effective Finish
The finish to a match or angle judged to do the most for one or all the performers involved in it
5th Randy Orton sole survivor 15 points
4th Jericho's job-out to Cena at Summerslam 16 points
2nd Eddie Guerrero putting over Rey a million times 21 points
2nd Kurt Angle killing Eugene to reestablish himself 21 points 1st Triple H three straight jobs to Batista 69 points
Mark: No doubt that this was the most effective finish of the year. Triple H, for the first time in his career, nutted up and made a star on his watch. Something that, to date, you could not give him credit for, which is awful considering he's been at the top of the card for almost six years. That is absolutely disgusting that it's taken this long. My personal favorite in this category was Jericho putting over Cena. Only because it was the only time in Cena's whole run that he looked like a real star. And now Jericho is gone, don't get me started about that.
Chris: I think I got my point across before this was huge and it still helps Batista to this day. Heck, I think the fans would pay for Part 4, which shows that it really didn't damage Hunter either. That's the sign of a good feud. I really do think that the way Eugene was used to make Angle look like a killer was great. It's a shame they used to retard to make Angle look like a killer, only to end up making Kurt the stupid retard in the end. Outsmarted by a ref? Fuck the hell off. Props to the Jericho program to Jericho proved he is and will be seen as one of the best ever.
Biggest Booking Crutch
An angle which Creative relies on way too often, to the point that they end up booking it into the ground.
5th Crush title holders to establish main eventers 10 points
4th The DQ finish on PPV to stretch out dead feuds 23 points
3rd Having interbrand feuds to surprise the audience 24 points
2nd The Evil GM feud (Rehashing Austin/McMahon) 29 points 1st Ref Bumps (typically in Triple H matches) 35 points
Mark: Ref bumps need to go and die as far as I'm concerned. I'm so goddamn sick of them it makes me want to scream every time I see one. Enough, maybe once or twice a year, but every week is so hackneyed it's like watching Lettermen, it's all been done too many times. I'm glad that the top four were close, because they all deserved to be on top in my view.
Chris: I am really surprised that the "qualifying" Raw didn't make this list. That's one that really irks me. Who cares about "beat the clock" and elimination matches? They always end up stupid (Victoria vs. Carlito? Who thought up that winner) and predictable. Why not, I don't know, make it a surprise? Or, do a draw on PPV like they do for the Rumble? Everyone loves that. It's just lazy that they do Masters vs. Vis for a title shot. What crap. I agree with Mark, though. Those top four all have to go too.
Best Booking Decision
The choice by Creative judged to be the best for either short or long-term viability of the product
5th Making Randy Orton the Legend Killer again 13 points
3rd Hiring Joey Styles to replace J.R. 19 points
3rd Triple H jobs three-straight to Batista 19 points
2nd Doing an ECW PPV 22 points 1st Letting Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle work together 29 points
Mark: For smart fans, it was a dream match up that we finally got to see. And it delivered better then anyone could've hoped for, and for that reason it's a great booking decision. However, I do believe two others deserver to be higher one the list. Triple H putting over Batista was easily the best thing they did this year. Why? It drew huge money and made Batista into a legit draw. We can debate how long he'll last considering his age, but that aside, he made big money and pushed his way through to the main event. The second best decision was putting together an ECW PPV. Great show aside (my personal favorite PPV this year), it drew more buys then any other single brand PPV this year (Vengeance doesn't count because it was essentially a dual brand show due to brand extension shenanigans). It revitalized a brand and style of wrestling in one night, and gave the WWE opportunities in the future (of course, we all know what they've done with opportunity)
Chris: I guess it's a testament to how much the ECW brand has once again been pushed off that it didn't make the top of the list. It easily was the coolest thing this year in WWE land everyone marked out for it. Angle/Michaels was great, but it wasn't a whole show. This was.
Worst booking decision
The choice by the Creative team judged to be the worst for either short or long-term viability of the product
5th Turning Mohammed Hassan into Osama Bin Laden 12 points
4th Disregarding there own logic in regards to the Brand Extension. Having trades and interpromotional match seemingly every week 14 points
3rd Blowing up Eddie's car within weeks of his death 15 points
2nd Giving people titles, then not pushing them 17 points 1st Putting Christian in a position to get over in a big way then cutting him off at the knees by jobbing him out to half the roster 41 points
Mark: This was the shocker to end all shockers. Almost everyone who voted had Christian down as the worst booking decision of the year. Not that I disagree, but the Worst' decision of the year? It's definitely bad, considering it led to in part his decision to leave the company. There's a lot bad decisions that made the list, but my personal worst decision was advertising Steve Austin on a PPV without clearing the finish with him. This, to me, was the worst decision of the year for a number of reasons. For one, they pissed away any good will they had with the casual audience, which Vince desperately wants to get back watching the show. Also, the stymied the build up of the eventual Austin/Hogan match, whether or not that happens at this point is anyone's guess. If I were Austin, with the state of the company, I'd stay home, brother. Other then that, I just wanted to mention that there were seemingly a lot more choices for the Worst of, rather then the Best of categories. This was an accident. But it goes to show you how poor the product was this year when we had this much to choose from as far as bad decisions go, and decisions that would probably have been the worst of the year, in any other year (the whole J.R./Vince debacle) didn't even MAKE THE TOP 5. Think about that.
Chris: I can't believe that Hassan barely made the top 5 that was brainless stuff. (implied terrorist beheadings, Muslim funeral for Daivari? Anyone remember this stuff?) But, I guess props to Christian, eh? The IWC are behind him for sure, and we're all pissed that Cena vs. Christian never happened. Hell, it could have been 10 minutes or less, people would have been happy to see it. But let me get this straight they'll go through with a Bob Holly vs. Brock Lesnar main event, but they won't pull the trigger with someone who is ACTUALLY over? Oh right. No roids, no sucky sucky. Sorry.
That's it folks!
Your homework for next week:
Here's a simple one. Book the finish the Elimination Chamber at New Years Revolution and give good reasons for this finish.
