What would be the best creative team possible?

[Downhome 0]

So far, we know that it wouldn't include Vince, Steph, soap writers, and people from Nickelodeon.

 

I don't really know too much about all of this, but I'm really interested to see who you would put together. Could Vince Russo ever be useful if he had a filter to work through?

 

I'm not talking about a team that could just be able to put together fantastic matches either. I'm talking about a team that could do both that, as well as put together great storylines, involving both the obviously talented people like Benoit and Angle, along with even some of the people that you may not be huge fans of.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

I think Heyman as one of the people would be good. (To me anyway) His ECW stuff was compelling and entertaining.

[Downhome 0]

I really don't understand why Heyman isn't a part of the team right now. Did they ever give a valid reason for removing him in the first place?

[ChrisMWaters 0]

I really don't understand why Heyman isn't a part of the team right now. Did they ever give a valid reason for removing him in the first place?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Besides Stephanie not liking him?

 

No.

[Dandy 0]

I would have Vince McMahon overseeing both shows (I am trying to be realistic, and Vince not being involved wouldn't be).

 

 

Raw: Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson, Mick Foley, and Jim Cornette (bring him back)

 

Smackdown: Dean Malenko (for the cruisers), Fit Finlay, Ted Dibiase, and Paul Heyman

 

 

 

The only problem with this is Foley needing lots of time to write his books. But, if he could write his first book while keeping up a full wrestling schedule, he should be able to do this.

[TheBostonStrangler 0]

I think you'd need to include the following people (in a world without egos, etc):

 

- Vince McMahon

- Stephanie McMahon

- Paul Heyman

- Jim Cornette

- Tommy Dreamer

- Arn Anderson

- Dean Malenko

- Al Snow

- Eric Bischoff

- Vince Russo

 

In addition to this, I'd choose a random member from each brand, rotating on a monthly basis, to represent the views of the locker room. One month it's HHH, next it's Rene Dupree. Make it a way for the people in the locker room to make their voices heard and allow the writers to hear the wrestlers' perspective on the storylines they're coming up with. Beats the hell out of some phony "open door" policy.

[Insane Bump Machine 0]

Heyman should of course be a part of it, but he's difficult to work with if he has to answer to other people. He could be fully in charge of bringing new talent into the WWE and finding stuff to do for stale existing guys. Developing characters, creating feuds, everything. He'd also be an important consultant for all other areas.

 

Mick Foley as head writer. He has tremendous wrestling experience and he can actually 'write'. How about that. He's also still young enough to connect with their target demographic better than anyone I can think of for this position.

 

I know that many people hate Johnny Ace, but he's great at match planning and should be in charge of that along with Pat Patterson.

 

All the wrestlers should have input concerning their own character.

 

You could still have one or two 'hollywood' writers who know wrestling and can help scripting segments and developing storylines.

 

Their long list of agents like Arn Anderson, Malenko, Steamboat, DiBiase etc. should of course have input as well.

 

But the main responsibility should be on Foley and Heyman.

[Just John 0]

Russo would be fine as a member of the creative team, but certainly not as a lead writer. He did have some good ideas, but he needs some people who can (A) filter out his bad ideas and (B) come up with decent conclusions to his good ones.

 

I think Russo, Heyman, Foley, Cornette, and other various road agents would be great. The in-ring product would improve tremendously as would the story lines. Russo could come up with enough crazy ideas to keep Vince happy, while the other guys keep those angles from getting out of hand.

[Guest JericholicEdgeHead]

Put this group of guys in a room and I can guarentee they could turn WWE around in a matter of 2-3 weeks.

 

Jim Cornette

Arn Anderson

Roddy Piper

George Scott

Mick Foley

A clean and sober Jake Roberts

[Guest JMA]

My List (for both brands):

 

- Paul Heyman (head writer)

- Bret Hart

- Mick Foley

- Arn Anderson

- Jim Cornette

- Ricky Steamboat

 

There also shouldn't be any active WRESTLERS (non-wrestling, on-screen characters are okay) on the team.

[razazteca 0]

Who was responsible for the Flair vs Angle match from Raw 2 weeks ago?

[Guest wildpegasus]

Bret Hart, myself, Mick Foley and RavishingRickRudo.

[Guest JMA]

Bret Hart, myself, Mick Foley and RavishingRickRudo.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wonder what that would be like...

[justcoz 0]

Russo would be fine as a member of the creative team, but certainly not as a lead writer. He did have some good ideas, but he needs some people who can (A) filter out his bad ideas and (B) come up with decent conclusions to his good ones.

 

I think Russo, Heyman, Foley, Cornette, and other various road agents would be great. The in-ring product would improve tremendously as would the story lines. Russo could come up with enough crazy ideas to keep Vince happy, while the other guys keep those angles from getting out of hand.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I do think there needs to be a few "Hollywood/TV" writers on staff but they must have some knowledge of the business. I'd have them work closely with someone like Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman or even HHH and watch videos of legendary angles/storylines from the past. They can almost cover any territory with their tape collection. I think tv writers are fine, especially if they are fans of the business, but they need to be educated as to the pacing of storylines, what has drawn money in the past, how to play off of someone's strengths, hide their weakness, etc. There has to be a wrestling mind leading them and this is what's lacking right now.

 

 

Smackdown: Paul Heyman, Court Bauer, Vince Russo, Tommy Dreamer, Mick Foley Hollywood/TV writer

 

Raw: HHH, Kevin Nash, Eric Bischoff, Jim Cornette, Ric Flair and Hollywood/TV writer

 

Put an end to scripted promos. Just have creative outline points that they must address. I think they have some good agents right now and although they are part of creative, I'm not including them here. The guys that I listed are scripting the weekly shows and booking the next few months of business.

 

The Smackdown team is of interest. Russo may be the odd man out in this scenario but really... is he? He loved the shoot elements, just as Heyman did and much of Attitude was lifted from ECW, whether either of the Vince's acknowledge watching or paying attention to ECW at the time.

 

The Raw team is even more intriguing as you would think Kevin Nash, Cornette, Bischoff and Flair just wouldn't mix. HHH is the common thread here however. Nash is his buddy. Flair is his idol. Cornette is old school. Bischoff and Nash had to work closely together with the NWO.

 

Cornette should really just be assigned to the development territory since he doesn't like to fly, etc. They need his input and old school philosophies though.

[iliketurtles 0]

My List (for both brands):

 

- Paul Heyman (head writer)

- Bret Hart

- Mick Foley

- Arn Anderson

- Jim Cornette

- Ricky Steamboat

 

There also shouldn't be any active WRESTLERS (non-wrestling, on-screen characters are okay) on the team.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'd probably replace Anderson for JJ Dillion, and I'd say that's as good as you can get.

[Guest JMA]

My List (for both brands):

 

- Paul Heyman (head writer)

- Bret Hart

- Mick Foley

- Arn Anderson

- Jim Cornette

- Ricky Steamboat

 

There also shouldn't be any active WRESTLERS (non-wrestling, on-screen characters are okay) on the team.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'd probably replace Anderson for JJ Dillion, and I'd say that's as good as you can get.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That might be cool, and thanks for the compliment.

[Placebo Effect 0]

I really don't understand why Heyman isn't a part of the team right now. Did they ever give a valid reason for removing him in the first place?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

He was pussyhurt at being left out of a conference call, and decided to listen in anyway. That's a big no-no.

[Guest J0bber]

I'd have:

 

-Shane McMahon (Taking over his Dad's job as supervisor)

-Mick Foley (With his creative writing skills)

-Kevin Nash (For humor)

-Ric Flair (With his knowledge of the business)

-Ted DiBease (For making sure Diva Search esque gimmicks don't happen)

-Bill Watts (For his old school approach and so we get to see his son get pushed again, just kidding)

[Darthtiki 0]

First off merge the brands.

Then as writing team goes:

Heyman

Foley

Barry Blaustein

Steamboat

DiBiase

Dreamer

Shawn Ryan (once the shield is finished)

RD Reynolds

 

and for fun Dangerous A

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I wouldn't want old wrestlers and old bookers on my creative team. It just means old thinking, which is good, but it won't take you to another level. That's what Vince did in the mid-90's, with Bill Watts and Jim Cornette. Fans want something fresh, something new. Back in the mid-90's, the NWO was a fresh (at least to the majority of wrestling fans) concept and Bischoff took it to places that you just didn't see in wrestling at the point in time; ECW was a "ground breaking" (cough) company and Paul was looking at wrestling from a more adult perspective which was fresh for those fans in Philly; WWE in the late 90's did something similar and Vince Russos more adult gimmicks was fresh for the WWE. But that was 8-10 years ago. Heyman isn't fresh. Russo isn't fresh. Bischoff isn't fresh. I haven't really heard anything from Heyman that would indicate that he knows where to go with wrestling and I certainly haven't seen in it in his booking.

 

I like the Shawn Ryan idea. You take the writing, the twists, the characters and character development of the Shield and put it in a wrestling context - it would be amazing. Vic Mackey is a perfect pro wrestling character, and the way he is written on the shield - he's a helluva lot better than Stone Cold's one dimensional performances. Now, I don't like that the WWE is hiring c-level hollywood script writers because of 2 reasons: 1, they don't use them properly, and 2, the scripts they wrote and the shows they wrote for sucked. You get Deadwood-level drama, dialogue, storytelling and that's something totally different than fucking Big Wolf on Campus. You can take almost any character from a well-written show and you can put them in a wrestling setting.

 

But you know what? No one is thinking like that. Not Paul Heyman, not Ricky Steamboat, not Ric Flair, certainly not Jim Cornette, not Arn Anderson, and not Vince Russo. Why? Because it's a fresh idea for wrestling, and they are nowhere near the pulse of current television standards, or even what wrestling could be. In the 90's there was a paradigm shift, even in the 80's there was a paradigm shift. In this decade, there needs to be a change in the way wrestling is seen - and that's not going to happen with guys who want to "go back to the way it was".

[humongous2002 0]

I'll have Paul Heyman be the head of creative for both brands and then have 2 booking teams:

RAW: Foley, Dreamer, Steamboat and Dibiase.

SD: Cornette, Finlay, AA and the guy that's booking Velocity.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I'd take anyone that would storyboard angles and that would have this cool concept of making a chart of people who are allowed to interact and who aren't. Like Chris Kreski, if he wasn't dead ( ). I also agree with Rudo that they would need fresh writers who would bring something new to the table. We are in a decline period and if history teaches us anything, each boom period began with a new and fresh idea. In 1983 it was Vince McMahon with a "roided up Californian surfer dude" who went on knocking off all the big fat heels. In 1996 it was Eric Bischoff with an incredibly lucky storyline of two men from "up North" invading WCW and making it their personal playground, as well as the heel turn of the aforementioned surfer dude that reflected his selfish personality. It also was because of a heel turn by a Canadian national hero where in America, the heart of the promotion, he was disillusioned by this new attitude of the promotion with a band of degenerates led by an egotistical man named Shawn Michaels. And well, it goes on and you get the idea. In short, a new idea goes a long way in repairing the image of wrestling.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

Paul Heyman and Vince Russo, with Heyman having the power to veto Russo's ideas.

 

Whoever said Triple H and Kevin Nash is a botched lobotomy patient.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Paul Heyman and Vince Russo, with Heyman having the power to veto Russo's ideas.

 

Whoever said Triple H and Kevin Nash is a botched lobotomy patient.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

And yet the people naming Vince Russo aren't?

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

Paul Heyman and Vince Russo, with Heyman having the power to veto Russo's ideas.

 

Whoever said Triple H and Kevin Nash is a botched lobotomy patient.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

And yet the people naming Vince Russo aren't?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh sorry, I forgot that he had absolutely nothing to do with WWE's success during the Attitude era and everything to do with the death of WCW, my bad.

 

But seriously, the last time he was booking was TNA in early 2003, where he had someone to reel him back in, and he booked excellent shows, and it was TNA's best period creatively(although that's not saying much). It definitely blew away WWE's booking of the past three, and possibly four, years.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Paul Heyman and Vince Russo, with Heyman having the power to veto Russo's ideas.

 

Whoever said Triple H and Kevin Nash is a botched lobotomy patient.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

And yet the people naming Vince Russo aren't?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh sorry, I forgot that he had absolutely nothing to do with WWE's success during the Attitude era and everything to do with the death of WCW, my bad.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's a honest mistake

[Fökai 0]

Where is the Steamboat love coming from?

 

He had considerable input with his direction in NWA, yet Steamboat's character was terrible, especially since he never evolved over the years or added a twist with a heel turn. Hell, I think that's the problem with a lot of WWE characters right now.

 

EDIT: Of all of the WWE talent that could be used, Al Snow seems to be one of the few that wouldn't drag the brands down with old-school booking. He'd make use of the workers and characters worth using, then probably junk the others. With him, I'd add:

 

--Vince McMahon (top guy)

--Triple H

--Court Bauer

--Mick Foley (mostly promos, works with road agent and workers to refine them)

--Paul Heyman (in a small, defined role)

 

...and any combination of new writers. Of the talent already under contract, all of them would defy Vince's ideas if it meant that was good for business. What does Heyman, Foley, Snow, and HHH have to lose by arguing with Vince? All of them would stick up for Bauer, especially if you just put him on the wrestling side of things. Problem with this list is, I don't think you have a ratio of good wrestling angles to good wrestling (which you can't help but have now).

 

Any ideas?

[Si82 0]

I'm with RavishingRickRudo. The company need fresh, new ideas. The idea of having a guy like Shawn Ryan writing good storylines with great, well developed characters is something WWE needs write now. So, I'd say you need a professional writer, possibly from a well known/well written show that appeals to adults not some Nick hack, who is also a wrestling fan with a real knowledge and passion of it. The question then is, who could this mystery writer be?

 

However, thinking within the box of guys who are currently around. I would like to see Vince McMahon at the top to filter things, get rid of the brand split and have Paul Heyman, Tommy Dreamer, Jim Cornette, Vince Russo and the guy who books Velocity. I'd also have guys like Arn Anderson, Jake Roberts, Mick Foley and Ted Dibiase working with talent with promos and other things as well as the other agents they have.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Too many cooks would spoil the food. The less, the better. And Vince Russo should be nowhere near a creative team.

[caboose 0]

If you can get him off the smack, crack and whack. Jake as an outside advisor for a creative team would be amazing.

 

Of course you cant though.