'
"Which concept is closer to what makes money in 2006?
Russo's or Sapolsky's.
Sapolsky books a company with no television exposure that is profitable, which isn't easy in the modern wrestling business.
Russo's lone success came 1997-99, with a Hall of Fame talent crew that ended up being more successful in 2000, and peaked in the spring of 2001, long after he left.
Times change. Hanging onto crash TV would be like saying Pat O'Connor should be exhumed and worshipped because he booked St. Louis successfully, not recognizing he had a Hall of Fame talent crew and one of the best promoters ever who was truly steering the ship. Sound familiar, by the way.
I have no doubt Russo made very positive contributions by shaking things up. But they didn't stand the test of time. You can go through history and see hundreds of bookers who had great two year runs and burned out and never had success again. Plus, while Russo was a big part of WWF's success, he was far from the only part. Jim Cornette was a major part of the booking team through the early part of 1998, and 1997 was the year that set the stage for the comeback. The Hart Foundation-Austin feud that set the stage for the comeback was largely the brainchild of Bret Hart, with Vince and everyone thinking the idea of a Canadian heel being a babyface in Canada and the Americans being heels week-to-week was insane. The Rock was going to be a superstar no matter what, and Rock gives far more credit to Brian Gerwitz and Chris Kreski as writers than he does Russo. Austin was already running before Russo got there, and Austin has no respect for Russo. HHH and Undertaker were strongly negative when Vince McMahon considered bringing Russo back, and basically got him nixed. If the guys who he supposedly made stars don't have a high opinion of his work, what does that tell you? All of those guys will praise Vince McMahon, and will praise the other wrestlers on top in the mix when it got hot.
He didn't learn new tricks and to this day doesn't even realize that nothing works forever, and is just trying to recreate basically a short hotshot period. Every booker does this. Watts had so much success with JYD that in every booking run, he tried to find a new one. But in the end, today, he'll admit with the benefit of hindight it was JYD that was what worked, and not the concept of JYD. Just as The Rock worked, but not Buff Bagwell, Sonny Siaki or Booker T playing The Rock, all of which Russo tried and failed with.
Russo failed in 1999 with WCW
He failed worse in 2000 with WCW
TNA was a money pit in his multiple booking runs before this one
Not all of this was his fault. However, Sapolsky was put in a position, starting out an ambitious indie group, where 99.9% of people, including Russo, in the same position with the same money to work with, would have failed within three months.
Russo then tried Ring of Glory, which is a direct comparison with ROH. Different style, but an indie group with a specific theme. He lasted a handful of shows and went nowhere and created zero new stars. Sapolsky during the same time period with the same or less access to name talent lasted almost five years and basically handed TNA every star it has that wasn't created in the major leagues.
For booking in 2007, do I want someone whose booking was successful in 2006, or in 1999 and flopped five times, some of them among the worst flops in recorded history (WCW in 2000 was the worst flop year I can ever recall and he wasn't the only reason for it, but he was in power for several months with business falling consistently)?
Besides, if you know guys who work for both TNA & ROH, and I talk to a few pretty regularly, not one isn't begging for Sapolsky to get the TNA job.
There is a reason Joe showed up at a house show with his knee injury a few weeks back and said, "Sorry for not being able to wrestle. On the way here I tripped over some bad booking."
This isn't about match quality or what you prefer. This is about proven results in this decade."
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Meltzer ethers Vince Russo
