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VIRK ON RAW, THE BEHIND THE SCENES MOUNT RUSHMORE, VINCE OPEN TO SUGGESTION AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2021-04-27 10:00:00

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This is a hindsight being 2020 booking question brought on by something Mike Johnson answered.  For Summerslam 93, should Lex Luger have beaten Yokozuna and won the WWF championship and then the decision could be reversed on Raw?  He “illegally” hit Yoko with the metal plate behind the refs back, it was a perfect out for Lex.  And it would’ve been better the than the confetti ending from a count out victory.

I don’t think it really is that big of a deal.  They were trying to see if he could get over.  He didn’t.

Adnan Virk is a fine baseball and college football host but so far his lack of wrestling knowledge is making raw even worse to watch. Why did they (Vince) replace Tom Phillips with him?

It was more of a Nick Khan call.  Khan wants to take WWE more mainstream and believes that by bringing in people from the sports world he can do that.  I am with you, I much prefer Phillips but we are wrestling fans and Khan is looking to expand to non-wrestling fans.  I don't think this is a great way to do it, but he doesn't care what I think!

I don't know if you have already answered what I'm going to ask but i'll ask anyways. Who are the behind-the-scenes guys that would be on your Mount Rushmore (producer, booker, writer, etc.)?

Hmm, tough call.  Obviously Vince McMahon.  Pat Patterson for sure. Jim Johnston for his music.  And as much as hardcores will hate it, I have to say Kevin Dunn.  It is hard to leave off Eric Bischoff because he did a lot to morph the business.

Ok so follow up to your “optimal” booking answer.  We’ve all seen how absolutely horrible the booking can be in WWE.  Especially on Raw.  We’ve heard the talk of last minute changes Vince makes that seem to make things worse.  So in the one person being the final say scenario, do they have to be able to listen and respond to criticism?  Is Vince’s problem that he’s incapable of those things?  After watching all of The Broken Skull Sessions, it certainly seems like at certain points in time he listened.

Should Vince listen?  Absolutely.  Does he?  Mostly no.  He did listen back in the day but remember, he was in a war with WCW.  He left his comfort zone with the WWE product.  Once he won the war, he went back to booking his vision.  If I were in his position, I would listen to everyone.  He’s almost 76 years old and hardly identifies with the common man the way that he did when he was making his company.

Between Tyson and Anthony Agogo, boxers on AEW seem to be able to easily dominate wrestlers. Now I respect Tyson's legacy but he's almost fifty five years old. He's still a badass, but wrestlers should be able to put up a fight. And Anthony Agogo is top tier talent but his boxing notoriety is nil. I have no concept of why he should have one punch knockout ability. There are no highlights from his boxing career from him being a dominant puncher and feared striker. I 100 percent get that AEW wants to get the boxers over but doesn't having it happen so often on their programs make it look like wrestlers are much less dangerous than other fighters?

In the case of Agogo, if they are going to push him as a wrestler with a striking gimmick, I am fine with that.  Characters are always exaggerated in the business.  As long as Agogo is committed to wrestling, I am OK with him using the quick strike to establish his gimmick.  As for Tyson, I hear what you are saying and all but if you bring in Mike Tyson, you don’t bring him in to get beat up (and he probably wouldn’t come if you did).  So yep, some people will have to sell for him.

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