Kayfabe! Guest Booker with Robert Fuller

KAFABE!
GUEST BOOKER WITH ROBERT FULLER

The night that KC announced on their Facebook page that this had wrapped filming, I was excited for it. Guest Booker has always been my favorite KC release, and the one that I feel has the most rewatch value. And, as a big fan of old school southern rasslin, I’m a big fan of the Tennessee Stud, so this was right up my alley. Despite being obscenely good at times, as a whole, the finished product didn’t live up to the hope that I’d had for it.

The best thing here is the interview portion between Fuller and Sean. I’m usually not a big fan of this part, but this is a case where it’s a necessity. A lot of younger fans probably have no idea who Robert Fuller is, and if they do, it’s probably only his WWF run as Tennessee Lee. Or, they might remember the name from reading “Have A Nice Day” because of Foley fond memories of working with him in Memphis. Hell, I feel old when I remember that it was almost twenty years ago, when I first saw him in WCW as Colonel Parker, managing Bunkhouse Buck and feuding with Dusty and Dustin Rhodes. Fuller gives a quick overview of his career and how he became a booker, which actually was more or less a fluke. He was working for Eddie Graham in Florida, and was supposed to move over to San Francisco to work for Roy Shire, he didn’t want to go, so he called his uncle, Billy Golden and asked if needed a booker, Billy did and Robert got the job, despite still being basically a kid in the business. Fuller took what he learned from Eddie in FL and turned out Golden’s little Alabama territory around. There’s also some talk of Continental Wrestling, and a list of all the major stars in the business that took a swing through the territory before making it big in New York.

Fuller also tells some funny stories about being in WCW, and general chaos that happened on a regular basis. His first shot in, Dusty (who he’d known for years) gave him a scripted promo, and he was in shock. Dusty told him that was how they did things now. Fuller told him that he didn’t like the script and he has something else in mind. Dusty asked him what had, and when Fuller told him, Dusty told him to throw the script in the garbage. The same thing happened in the WWF with Russo, Jarrett told Russo that Tennessee Lee could say his own stuff and Russo said “Good!” And, there’s the classic story of how he quit the booking committee. They were hoping to be done by 2:00, and after two hours and nothing accomplished, they were figuring to be done by 7:00, and Fuller told him that “Baby’s got a pot roast on.” and just got up and left. Being WCW, he still got paid for being on the booking committee for another four years.

Things go downhill when the topic turns to the actual booking exercise, which is Shawn Michaels jumping to WCW in 1996 and joining the nWo. There are a few good ideas to the exercise, such as little side angles like Sting earning Meng’s respect, which in turn leads to some of the babyfaces and heels putting their differences asides to stand up to the nWo. Things with Shawn boil over and he quits the group, and some of those same guys back him up. But, there’s quite a few things that just don’t sound very appealing. First off, Shawn joins WCW as Colonel Parker’s “Boy Toy” gift to Sherri. That might go over OK if it’s some low to mid card WWF nobody making the jump to WCW, like Rick Martel continuing his model gimmick, but this is one of the top babyfaces and former WWF Champion. Look at the way Hall and Nash debuted and made waves. Shawn would have been an even bigger coup for WCW. In fact, just putting Parker and the Stable in the angle actually hinders it. As much as I’m a fan of his, Fuller and the Stud Stable were pretty much afterthoughts by 1996, compared to 1993 when Fuller managed Sid, and 1994 where the Stable/Rhodes feud was hot. It’s actually a prime example of why an active talent *shouldn’t* be the booker, because it looks like Rob just wants to get himself inserted.

How he actually uses Shawn isn’t too bad. Shawn makes an impact off the bat by winning matches, and titles, from big WCW names, and the nWo actually courts him to join, and eventually Sherri and Shawn do. But, things with Sherri eventually start causing dissension in the group and when things boil over, Shawn chooses Sherri and starts feuding with the nWo, and teaming up with big WCW names like Sting to wrestle against various nWo members.

As a whole, I’d put this Guest Booker edition somewhere in the middle. The booking isn’t an afterthought like the Mike Graham edition, and it’s not insulting or offensive to the viewer like Al Snow’s, but it’s far from the level of the better editions of the series.

The 411: The first third of the DVD, where Fuller and Sean simply talk about booking and his background in the business, is definitely the best thing here. In fact, it made me want to get Fuller's shoot interview. The booking itself isn't horrible or anything, but it's definitely not what you'd expect from someone with Fuller's years of experience.
Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]