Russo-Era Booking Question

A couple of questions following up on your recent posts about the booking style (from someone who owns all your books, which I’ll mention for your readers are all still available purchase!):

1. Can you point to a specific time when the short matches/crash-booking really started in earnest? Was there a week when it all changed was it more gradual? And then when it really stop? Was there a week Vince said there would be five long matches instead of 15 short ones?

​I’d say Crash TV really started in earnest after Survivor Series 97, with Bret gone and the Vinces free to do whatever they wanted with the top of the card. And although it sputtered after Russo departed, the Radicalz and Kurt Angle coming into the midcard in 2000 was what killed it off for good. ​

2. I, for one, never really got re-trained to appreciate the longer matches and haven’t watched as closely since the early-2000’s. And my other favorite era was in the 80’s when I was watching nothing but squashes on Superstars and Challenge. Were the house shows in either of these eras running longer matches with better workrate?

​Sure, we’ve been doing the WON flashbacks and typically you’d get either a 20:00 Savage v. Dibiase match on top or a Bret Hart v. Bad News Brown match in 1988, and then a lot of other junk. Basically a two hour showcase of the characters so people can have fun and maybe one good match to cap off the night. ​

​The 2000 era had some killer house shows with Rock and D-X and the Radicalz all in their primes. ​The Crash TV era was mostly short matches and Austin destroying some goof like Big Bossman on top.

3. Though it may be short-sighted, would a return, at least in part, to the 90’s-style booking help freshen up the current product?

​In small doses, sure. Any change can be good change.​