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I'm not a big football fan but my brother is a Raiders fan so I hear about it a lot. Once one of the best owners in the league, many people believe he has been the reason for the team's failures since he's gotten older. I tend to see Vince somewhat the same way. There are a few decisions that specifically come to mind. Bringing back ECW and not letting Heyman run it was probably his worst decision. You knew it was gonna fail. I always thought Heyman did a good job considering what he was up against so it would have been nice to see what he could have done with more financial support. The second mistake is not pushing Jack Swagger, then all of a sudden giving him the title. When Bret and the British Bulldogs were young in their WWF careers they weren't good on the mic so they were given managers. I don't see Swagger as being much better, but he's allowed to speak every week lately. I haven't been following the ratings lately but if Smackdown's ratings take a nose-dive this is likely the reason. Swagger has talent but the way he has all of a sudden been pushed has a lot of risks. Giving Sheamus the title is another mistake, but as far as I know it hasn't hurt the company much. There have been a few others but they're more minor ones to me. The question is are you happy with Vince? If not, would you be happy with his family members having the say? Or someone not in his immediate family?

The WWE has done some messed up things. The thing about it is that its not all Vince, of course he gets the last say but you have creative coming up with stuff and he just mostly give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. I think Vince is at his all time best when he had WCW breathing down his neck. Thats why I support TNA so much, or at least try to. Hopefully when they become real players that can compete, then WWE will have to up there game. In the meantime this is what were stuck with.

I think they've made a lot of mistakes over the past few years, but I wouldn't even put Swagger in the top 50, in fact I think the jury is still out on whether it was a mistake. He may not be great on the mic, but boy does he get heat. Perhaps, he's getting X-Pac heat I don't know. What I do know, is that I don't think you can say it was or wasn't a mistake until its played itself out fully.

Putting certain wrestler over instead of other wrestlers is one thing, but how about stupid storylines that the company as a whole has come up with. Hornswoggle as Vince's kid and as a member of DX were dumb. Trying to think of more...

The Hornswoggle thing brought up something interesting to me which is that some of the biggest mistakes WWE has made have been when they deviated from there original script, sometimes they had to and other times they didn't. Two examples come to mind.

Hornswoggle which was mentioned, its not a well kept secret that the storyline was supposed to be Mr. Kennedy being Vince's son which would lead to a McMahon civil war with Kennedy and Vince on one side, HHH Stephanie and maybe Shane on the other. I don't know how good that storyline would've been, it had potential, but it definitely would've been better than the pile of crap Hornswoggle segments we got.

The other was Matt Hardy turning on Jeff. Matt is just not a good heel and Jeff is not a good actor at all as he did a terrible job of portraying the distraught brother. Apparently the initial storyline was supposed to be Christian revealed as Jeff's attacker but once that got onto the internet they changed course. All 3 would have been better off had they chosen that route.

minor storyline decisions aren't a big deal in the long run, his biggest mistake has been all the heat surrounding steroids and pills, and even then he gets off the hook so no biggie. His biggest mistake will be leaving the business to Stephanie instead of Shane IMO.

I wouldn't charachterize it as minor. That positive drug test killed Mr. Kennedy's WWE career. He really never gained solid footing in the company after that.

That storyline killed Matt Hardy's career. He'd just come off a solid ECW title run and he was one of the most over guys in the company. That was the perfect time to pull the trigger on a main event feud for him. Now he's destined to toil in the mid-card for the remainder of his career. Christian has also yet to fully find his niche since he got back.

Shane left the WWE, so at this point theres no other choice but to leave it to Steph and Triple H. With Christian, I think that he will get a good main event push on Smackdown and hopefully win the title.

It seems like Shane has a bit more of a wandering eye as he's taken interest in UFC, he's doing some stuff with his mom's campaign while Stephanie seems to have complete tunnel vision. She's not perfect, but I don't think there's any questioning of her priorities which isn't the case with Shane.

Cape, I hope you're right about Christian although I'm not all that optimistic since its well known Vinnie Mac isn't his biggest fan. That doesn't change the fact that returning as Jeff Hardy's attacker would've been a better return feud than feuding with Jack Swagger over the ECW title. Similarly, Booker T was able to eventually get over in WWE despite the fact that he was booked and made to look like a complete jobber against The Rock. Just because he was able to eventually get himself back over doesn't mean that feud was booked properly.

I understand Vince's/creatives motives to try to swerve us like they did with Christian on ECW and with Batista and Cena's match at Mania being for the title instead of Sheamus and Triple H's match.

But at the same time swerving us for two seconds compared to a storyline that will last a month or two instead worth it in my mind. Vince is all about money and ratings...and I honestly think that like you said about Christian being the original planed attacker, that not only would that of brought on a crazy feud between the Hardyz and E&C which equals prob one of the highest ratings for Smackdown but merchandise sales would go up as well.

I'm not sure if it's true, but there was a claim that Stephanie fired Bruce Pritchard simply because she didn't like him. He was furious over it, and I don't blame him. If true, I wouldn't want to see her run the company. To answer my own question, I'd prefer somebody new not named a McMahon.

safi wrote:I think they've made a lot of mistakes over the past few years, but I wouldn't even put Swagger in the top 50, in fact I think the jury is still out on whether it was a mistake. He may not be great on the mic, but boy does he get heat. Perhaps, he's getting X-Pac heat I don't know. What I do know, is that I don't think you can say it was or wasn't a mistake until its played itself out fully.

Shawn would be a great example. His solo career started in 1992 and he won the title in 1996. You push a wrestler gradually, and Swagger basically came out of nowhere. Even if it doesn't hurt business, it's not a smart business decision.

Celtsfan1980 wrote:

safi wrote:I think they've made a lot of mistakes over the past few years, but I wouldn't even put Swagger in the top 50, in fact I think the jury is still out on whether it was a mistake. He may not be great on the mic, but boy does he get heat. Perhaps, he's getting X-Pac heat I don't know. What I do know, is that I don't think you can say it was or wasn't a mistake until its played itself out fully.

Shawn would be a great example. His solo career started in 1992 and he won the title in 1996. You push a wrestler gradually, and Swagger basically came out of nowhere. Even if it doesn't hurt business, it's not a smart business decision.

Were comparing different eras. Were not going to see a guy slowly built up over 4 years until he gets his shot if he is over and he can work. Whether or not he's good on the mic, Swagger is extremely over and he's probably better than all but 4-5 guys in the company in the ring even at this nascent stage in his career. In today's day and age, a guy like that isn't going to get to slowly build himself up. I don't think the problem with Swagger is that he wasn't built up slowly enough, its that he became a jobber on Raw and then won MITB and won the title. In two months, he went from jobbing to Santino to winning the title. If after his ECW run he'd had a solid upper mid-card stint in Raw, I don't think there'd be the complaints. If they'd given his spot to Drew McIntyre, I don't think there'd be the complaints.

As to whether it was a smart business decision, I'm not comparing the two, but would Brock Lesnar really have been helped toiling in the mid-card for a couple years? He wasn't great on the mic, but he had every other tool you'd want and it would've served no purpose having him in the mid-card for a couple years.

safi wrote:As to whether it was a smart business decision, I'm not comparing the two, but would Brock Lesnar really have been helped toiling in the mid-card for a couple years? He wasn't great on the mic, but he had every other tool you'd want and it would've served no purpose having him in the mid-card for a couple years.

I agree with most of what you said, but Lesnar did have Heyman doing his talking and he did have a great look that made you believe he could have been Champion. Swagger has had nothing going for him like that. When Swagger speaks, I almost want to turn the station. It's only because I'm a loyal fan that I continue watching. He's just that bad on the mic. Somebody like Heyman could do wonders for him. The biggest issue is what other wrestlers feel. If I was a Rey Misterio and I'd been wrestling as long as he has to finally win the belt and Swagger comes in after maybe two years and already wins the belt, I don't think I'd be too happy at the company. It is the kind of decision that could cause some wrestlers to leave. Sheamus winning the belt is even more ridiculous. The league would be better off without Vince running it IMO.

Only 3 months after he won the title and just 8 months after he debuted Brock was on his own, as a face none the less. Like I said, I'm not saying Swagger or especially Sheamus are as good as he is but there are certain guys who just have it and they don't need much seasoning. I just don't think Swagger is that bad on the mic and boy does he get heat.

As far as the boys in the back, he doesn't and shouldn't care what they think. You can't let them dictate how you run your company. Also, this isn't 1998 and TNA's brief foray into Monday Nights just solidified to me how inferior they truly are. Guys like Rey may think differently, but I'm convinced that if Rey and Cena showed up on Impact the needle would move up only marginally and very briefly.