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"Created a huge problem by fixing a problem that didn't exist" may be the best single sentence summary I've heard for WWE's creative decisions of the past ~15 years.
So here is an idea: A two part fantasy booking, in the middle of which the audience votes on what goes wrong (ie. a key wrestler get's injured in a dark match, the audience turns on the babyface from an unrelated tweet etc.). In part two Adam has to continue the booking in a way that tries to salvage the story line. All with a limited time frame of course. It would be a fun, different type of challenge with added viewer interaction (which we all know the algorithm loves).
I agree, but maybe the next fantasy booking warefare? Like maybe Adam hosts again, and as host he also gives each contestant a MAJOR issue they have to deal with (can be voted on by fans for interaction purposes). Different issues means every story must be different, which wasn’t a problem really in season 1 but is something that’s worrisome
Living in the Adam Multiverse is a lot of fun. It was a... what you'd call pants decision to turn him heel. Yet somehow in this booking he turned heel, it was done cohesively and with good reason, and it leads right into a WhatCulture booking from 5+ years ago. Chef's kiss to you, sir.
Tbf, if WWE booked a story all at one time and stuck to it, their stories would be 10x better. Doing things week by week and constantly changing things makes for a less cohesive story.
"fired him via fax machine" Thank you for telling it correctly, nobody talks about how Eric Bischoff threw a fax machine through Steve Austins living room window with the pink slip attached.
Well its not actually true that austin was fired via fax it was a phone call by what some people have said but it was also due to him being injury prone and having a bad attitude too which Stone Cold has admitted Bischoff was right in firing him.
I will say this. Stone Cold in early 2001 made the WWF Championship feel like it was the biggest thing in the whole world. He said to The Rock “I need to beat you Rock, more then anything in the world” and joined forces with Vince McMahon and “sold his sole to satan himself” just so he could become WWF Champion. That is the levels he wanted to go to just so he could be world champion one more time. Say what you want about the run after that but the actual initial stuff leading up to it was genuinely fantastic. I just wish they kept that character consistent afterwards because it got confusing as in why is Stone Cold now friends with Vince and sucking up to him after initially hating him and wanting to ruin his life? It didn’t add up honestly
@@lostalone9320 I agree, I think Austin shaking hands with Vince is the greatest image in WWE history. And it’s setup so well. Does he hate Vince? Yes. However, he wants that title more than he hates Vince and that’s what makes it work.
@MicoMedia Universe i think the way wwe portrayed austin's character was not good..the same guy who passed out without submitting few years ago is now tapping and giving up even before the submission is perfectly locked in.. following vince orders was also something ironic for me.. apart from that the biggest blunder was that they teamed him up with hhh with whom austin had a 3 stages of hell match few months back..
@@lostalone9320 I say lean into it. Go deeper into what it means for Austin to “sell his sole”. He is more successful and on top at a high level and having the longest title run of his career but at what cost? I love the segment with Jim Ross in his hometown but make that more conflicted. Austin screaming at Jim that he needs to do this as he destroys him as he can’t let JR get in his way because he needs to lead the company and hold the world title, if you don’t like Austin’s vision as world champion. You get hurt. Vince likes the vision so he is safe. Then when the Invasion comes around bring in Eric and he leads WCW and bring up the history of him firing Austin and everything which leads to us answering the cheesy question of what is Steve Austin’s “sole”. The WWF, the company that gave him the opportunity to become STONE COLD. He initially stays out of the Invasion more focused on his world title but then he looks at the ring from a monitor backstage and sees the WCW guys beating down team WWF and they bring JR in the ring to make it more “chaotic” and they are about to attack him and the glass shatters and Austin walks down with a chair and destroys team WCW and turns face. Then after Survivor Series Austin turns on Vince because he is sick of his manipulative ways and he sees through what Vince is trying to do and that’s keep Steve Austin under his thumb.
To be honest, the heel turn probably doesn’t get talked about that much because the lackluster Invasion angle overshadowed it and Austin played a background role in the second half of the angle. That and it’s just impossible for wrestling fans to boo Stone Cold.
@@mikepagebrand That's down to Austin himself claiming it was terrible. In fact: it was brilliantly creative (eventually), I'm sure he's just soured on the whole "sent the company into a spiral" outcome.
Huh? It gets talked about religiously lol like people literally say it’s the root beginning of the fall off of the wrestling industry especially in the United States the numbers legit show they’ve never recovered from this decision it’s been all downhill since
I liked the turn with Austin shaking McMahon's hand. People tend to forget that the Stone Cold character is an unscrupulous asshole and that he's only a face because fans cheer for him. It's totally in character for him to use McMahon to get his way. It would've also been in character for him to stun McMahon the next night, remind everyone that he doesn't trust anybody, and state that nobody should trust him. They should've turned him into a tweener and have him feud with the Rock.
Love the fact that all your “fantasy booking” videos that take place from 2001-2003 always have bischoff as the ultimate heel figure. Giving props to dad always.
This was some pretty damn good booking! I particularly like that the reasons for Austin turning heel are so close to Bret Hart's reason for turning heel in '97, a turn that helped cement Austin as a star
I personally would have debuted Booker T to feud with Austin after The Rock left. Instant massive babyface, feuding for the belt that he never rightfully lost, and you could have built a Booker/Bischoff secondary rivalry out of it if the goal was to turn Austin face later. It also would have made for a good prelude to the Invasion, you could slowly start debuting the WCW guys avaliable over the course of 2001, then in 02 turn it into a full blown proper Invasion angle with Flair, Steiner, the nWo, etc.
Wouldn’t have worked or mattered would have ran to the same issue WCW folks ran into in WWE that audience had been conditioned WCW people are the enemy it would have resulted in Austin just getting cheered
@@jaywilliams4770 If WWE actually did it, yeah. Because they wouldn't book it well. You could easily frame Booker T as being anti-WCW BECAUSE of Bischoff and Shane, the on-screen avatars of the company, essentially stripping him of the title he earned. Maybe even make it a part of the angle that he's signed with the WWF because Vince promised him his title back if he would help him defeat Austin. There are a lot of ways you could make it work.
Video idea: How Adam would book Chris Jericho’s WWF debut run. Apart from the actual debut itself, I feel like they massively dropped the ball on Jericho during the year 2000, he was insanely over, close to Rock Austin levels, but they never really capitalised on this and it just kinda fizzled out by 2001.
I disagree, by late 2000 to 2001 he was back on top I’d argue. He was putting on belter matches with Benoit, Regal, Angle and others. Hell, by the end of 2001 he was Undisputed Champion.
@@KingKhanate1997 Oh yeah don’t get me wrong he was definitely still over in early to mid 2001 and was putting on great matches, ladder match at the Rumble against Benoit comes to mind. However, instead of capitalising on his popularity, they decided to turn him heel mid 2001, randomly put the Undisputed title on him, booked him awfully as champion- having one of worst title reigns, it was pretty much Triple H vs Stephanie in the main event of Mania with Jericho acting as the vehicle to wrestle Triple H and get the title on him. It was so poor it took years for Jericho to be properly considered as a maineventer again. Jericho never won a world title as a babyface despite being one of the most popular wrestlers of the early 2000’s. I’d say they didn’t capitalise…
I'll always say: The ease with which Adam re-books these by adding "psychological realism" and "a little bit of planning" really does expose how much better WWE could have been across the years. It's incredibly sad that the lesson they learnt from turning Austin heel is: "NEVER EVER TURN THE TOP BABYFACE HEEL! EVER!" as opposed to "maybe have a plan" or "build your roster from the midcard up" or even "have a top 4 built up rather than 1."
Its partially because booking wrestling is complicated but also super easy, just give us matches we want to see with a fun storyline along the ways. The rebookings are easier because you have hindsight and can see exactly what went wrong in order to fix it but idk why WWE is so obsessed with their being A guy like you look nowadays and sure they could build up someone to beat Roman but who could beat him right now? The only answers I could see would be Seth and NXT UK Walter, maybe Mcintyre
@@lostalone9320 It's just like SRS says: "Isn't it funny how there's ALWAYS something else to blame besides Vince, despite Vince being the ONLY constant across the decades?" He is pathologically INCAPABLE from learning from his mistakes, because "HE" never "makes mistakes," someone ELSE does. Often by following his instructions exactly.
if WWE booked a story all at one time and stuck to every beat, like Adam does, then their stories would be much better. Instead, they fly by the seat of their pants booking week to week and even day to day all while having a senile dementia patient poking holes and creating problems along the way lol
Biggest problem with the Austin heel turn was The Rock immediately leaving for Hollywood, they suddenly had neither of their uber-ratings winners. I always felt the turn did make broad storyline sense; after nearly having his career ended, a year off with neck surgery and falling short in one title match after another, for the first time Austin was insecure about his abilities, especially if it came to beating Rock for the title.
I think the babyface vacuum could have served a purpose: a good opportunity for the Alliance to take over. Then when all seems lost... Stone Cold snaps and turns face to defend the Federation!
A'lot of wrestling journalists and historians peg Austin's heel turn as one of, if not THE moment that turned off thousands of fans in waves and brought forth the end of the Attitude Era. (The other two being Austin's SECOND heel turn during the Invasion storyline for obvious reasons and the Chris Benoit incident because things got 'too real') Looking back on it though, Austin's heel turn was actually pretty entertaining and a great character arc. You just see Austin losing it more and more and becoming more psychotic as he loses his grip on his identity through the Invasion. There's times where he comes off legitimately frightening.
He saved it by going comedy heel. That was a lot better than the desperate attempts to get heat by attacking Lita and JR. It was like he realised he’d have to compromise.
Something I've never quite understood when it comes to discussions about the heel turn is that Kane (or anyone else) was a midcarder at the time. Practically every main eventer was a midcarder before they got pushed. I can understand that maybe there wasn't enough time before the Invasion, but I haven't heard that.
This is a fantastic booking. It might actually have made business sense too since this might have been able to win over more WCW viewers into becoming WWF regulars.
@@nextgreatmedia3552 I didn't get to see DDP when he was hot in WCW (too young), but after I got older and came to the realization he was the first person to turn down a recruitment to the NWO...JESUS! They dropped the ball so hard on him.
@@nextgreatmedia3552 I've read the story and seeing RU-vidrs who told about it, and I was like: "WHY DO THAT?! ESPECIALLY TO ONE OF THE GUYS WHO IS OVER AS A HERO IN WCW?!!!"
@@JaimeD. I think it was an ego thing. Nobody in WWF in that time wanted to give a spot to WCW guys. There's interviews out there where this moment taught DDP not to negotiate.
@@nextgreatmedia3552 I saw the buildup by Brian Zane and I thought the "Make Me Famous" thing worked. IMO they should have kept that storyline, then when DDP debuted, he shoots down the whole gimmick, saying he only did it to get air time and insults the WWE fans for eating up trashy soap opera SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT storylines, because in WCW it's all about the wrasslin'. Boo, shout the audience!
Pretty excellent telling of what should've happened way back. Would like to see how a 'How Adam Would Book' on Ted DiBiase and what his planned run with the WWF Championship would look like.
I know how much Adam loves to book tournament's so maybe he could rebook one of WWE's biggest tournament blunders, the WWE World Cup. After all he does have experience with world cups, in fact if I recall correctly, he booked one just a year earlier before WWE's.
Idea, a redux of the invasion angle videos, but this time in the Adam Blampied Extended Universe, based on this booking of Austin's Heel Turn. And have Brian Zayne, Grimm, and...... well He Who Must Not Be Named In Adam's Comment Section, could possibly be interested in a cameo as well.
I think Raw going to 3 hours would actually qualify as a cumulative negative. If Raw was generally 2 hours and then we occasionally got a 3 hour show I think that would actually rock.
Again, a cumulative decision. While it caused so many careers to stumble and in some cases never recover. While it gave us Katy Vick and...sigh "People like you don't get to be champion, Booker". The ending of the reign of terror at the hands of Batista ALMOST made it worth it.
The problem with the Steve Austin heal turn, and it sounds cliche at this point, but the WWF/WWE didn’t listen to their audience when they made the decision to turn Steve Austin heal.
To be faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair, they were listening to Austin himself. He knew he only had a few years left and had never been a "top heel," their problem was, as Adam said: they did it the most bass-ackwards way possible, having NO face to stand up to him. Rocky was gone, Triple H was stapled to Austin, Foley wasn't there either, Undertaker has always been overrated, and probably would've actively stopped Kane from leaving his lazy ass to get a push. They had NO ONE except Steve Austin.
@@munchenonyou3774 And I think that makes him incredibly overrated. He has excellent matches with people who generally have excellent matches (HBK, Triple H, Mich Foley, Steve Austin), but his bouts against Kane, Kronik (WHO HE INSISTED BE HIRED), everything pre-1998 was a joke, the Ministry is an amazing storyline with not a single great match to show for it...I'm sorry, but if you can point to massive swaths where he was the drizzling shits, that's "overrated" to me. He has the pomp and swagger and "ga-ga" down pat, but show me a great match that HE led before 2003.
I liked it. It fills that awkward space where the invasion was and kinda allows the fun kumbaya stuff to happen. I'd also have a running story where we see Booker T in the crowd glaring at Austin and then at Summerslam he slides in after Austin loses and grabs the big gold belt. He attacks Shane on RAW and says he's the WCW champ, and he never lost the belt. Shane bought the company and sold him a lot of bull, took his belt and paraded it on Austins shoulder with Bischoff. Now he's got it back and he's got something to prove.
I feel like Stone Cold's heel turn could work had Vince turned face as Mania 17 would have a double turn alongwith TripleH turningface due to Stone Cold being heel. Which would continue the Vince vs Stone Cold storyline but instead the sides would be switched. I get they probably didn't want to do Vince vs Stone Cold as a major storyline anymore but due to the popularity of the feud they had to do the double turn.
I feel like the one who would’ve been the catalyst for Austin turning heel was either Debra or Paul Heyman. Paul Heyman especially. Have him be the one who reminded Austin of who he used to be.
@@coolinwithq2405 Austin and Heyman would be incredible! But I don’t think it would’ve worked having Vince turn face, he was way too far gone as a heel by that point and it would be very difficult to build babyface sympathy for the egotistical billionaire owner of WWF.
Keep in mind that leading up to Mania, Vince publicly asked for a divorce that put Linda in a state of catatonic shock, while having an affair with Trish Stratus (also making her bark like a dog), so Vince was basically speedrunning the “scumbag heel” gimmick there.
Adam, you do such a great job. I listen to your booking again and again often. You are a master of story telling. I loved your booking, I missed you and your bookings, and I continue to enjoy you and your bookings. THANK YOU
20:45 It really wasn't as easy as "just buying out their contracts" because they would've had to agree to come to work instead of being paid to stay at home (I doubt any of them, let alone all of them would've agreed to that). Amazing video though. I'm working on my own and you were a huge inspiration.
Any chance you could do The League of Nations next? I always thought that group had wasted potential. Obviously you can replace Del Rio cause f--- that guy.
Idk about that cuz That group was a bad idea from the start, literally the ONLY reason it was created was to give Roman Reigns heels to knock over. Also it was a poor carbon copy of the United Kingdom from WWE'12
@@MazeDaGr8 The thing is the group could've been good. WWE is basic like a porridge breakfast so an evil foreigner stable's their bread and butter, a must have. The trick is how you book it; WWE went with heels for the Big Dog to knock over, there's a lot of ways Adam could take it.
As Frost 757 in the comment section once said, League of Nations are basically what the United Kingdom from WWE 12 would be like, except that they’re jobbers for Roman Reigns to destroy instead of winning every championship in WWE.
This was a solid booking Adam... I remember watching all these Attitude Era story lines and hearing different and (granted with hindsight) many times much better versions. This one was excellent!
The heel turn during the match itself at WX7 with the Rock I will defend to my dying dies. The match was amazing and the story they weaved was amazing with Austin essentially going through a slideshow of his career with Rock and his mind breaking as he was unable to put away the Great One with only so many stunners…
People always seem to forget that Austin was getting major heel heat during his feuds with the Hardys, Undertaker and Kane. People started to cheer for him again once he began doing the comedic segments with Angle while he was injured. Then they teased his face then prior to Invasion, so it was a major letdown when he immediately turned heel again.
I really badly want to see How Adam Would Book WCW 2000. Basically, if Adam took over Nitro/Thunder when Vince Russo entered the company and had to steer it back to a healthier point, post-Fingerpoke Of Doom.
For all it's flaws there was some great stuff about Austin's heel run. The Vince and Angle skits were fantastic and his brief friendship with Tajiri was top stuff.
This is the most inspiring rebooking yet. Now I *_HAVE_* to see what, if anything, you could do with the video game storylines. SvR 2009-2011, WWE '12, 2K19/20 MyCareer, just please do at least one game rebooking!
I have a weird question: In this video you say that you can't ignore certain real life injuries and things, but in the Keith Lee Video you straight up just opted to ignore his COVID and subsequent health issues. I'm wondering what drives the decision to ignore one but not the other? is it the severity of the injury? Is it that Lee's was much more recent and we'd all rather COVID never happened? Or just whimsy? I'd love to get that little insight.
I have a lot to say about this subject. The Heel turn at the moment was done well and could have been Hogan level. The problem with it was that it wasn't the right time to do it. Austin was still on his comeback from injury, the fans weren't ready to boo him yet. His teaming with HHH so soon after their blood feud made no sense, I know in wrestling those things happen but it was a month after. Controversial opinion- Austin/HHH should have main -evented that Mania.
It’s kind of amazing that ego really played a hand in a lot of WWE’s worst storylines. Vince wanting to basically take his competition that almost destroyed his company and have it brought out and told to say it’s not as good as wwe before being executed but like, you own both companies Vince you didn’t have to go on a one man power trip out of spite once you absorbed your competition. To be fair with the benefit of time it’s quite clear that it’s something Vince loves to do
Another problem with doing the Austin heel turn is the WCW purchase. Your main story for the next 6-12 months was either going to be a WWF Vs WCW storyline or Austin as top heel in WWF. The two really don't mix. They're both just such huge ideas that they deserve to be the focus of the show. The pieces weren't there tor Austin, but there was enough (with maybe 1-2 signings) to work an Invasion. Yes, there were plans to relaunch WCW as its own brand, but with no TV deal and a limited roster that could only really happen through WWF programming. They should have cancelled the heel turn the second Vince bought WCW.
YOOOO!!! This man Adam is a genius!!! He just presented a dream match i didn't know existed...the NWO(R.I.P Scott Hall) vs The Rock/Austin/Triple H!?!?! Take my money now!
How Adam Would Book…WWE introducing World Heavyweight Title as their second World Title It was just given to Triple H, his Reign of Terror, it was unified with the IC title, etc. Does Triple H still become the first champ? Does he win it in a standard match? A tournament? Does the first Elimination Chamber determine the first World champ? Does Eric Bischoff look to put it on a WCW guy like Booker T? Would love to hear Adam’s thoughts
Wow this was awesome. Adam's booking videos are spectacular. This and the combination of the Invasion video would have been the greatest year in wrestling had it happened.
