Wrestling Forum banner

In defense of Kevin Dunn. (I have a family. Don't shoot me.)

2K views 21 replies 16 participants last post by  -Sambo Italiano- 
#1 · (Edited)
I notice a lot of people on here blaming Kevin Dunn for anything and everything that is wrong in the WWE Universe.
While enough talent and insiders have stated that he is a bigoted, vindictive, Vince ass kissing, yes man who hates indie stars and pushes the entertainment over sport that it's pretty close to fact that these statements are at least somewhat true, he has done an awful lot of good for the product as well.

His true job, which is not meddling in creative, is head of production. Even most of the people who hate him have stated in books and shoot interviews that he is a genius and the best in the world at his official job.

He has made some terrific innovations to the industry that people never bother to look at when they are trashing the devil Dunn.

He is credited with coming up with and producing the logistics to make the Titantron possible.

He produces and coordinates all the lights and pyro for the shows.

Wrestlemania and all other shows' set designs and layouts are his craft work.

All the grand entrances are his collaborations with the talent, staff and Vince.

The tribute videos(Flair, Dusty, Piper, Eddie, etc.) that often times have to be thrown together on the fly when a wrestler retires or passes on the weekend and they need to show it on Raw are Dunn's handy work.

He produces all the elaborate vignettes(Taker, Wyatts, Mankind, Goldust, etc.).

All the mostly tasteful and comprehensive documentaries and biographies on various wrestlers, titles and promotions are his orchestrations as well.

While Dunn deservedly gets shit on for his aforementioned offenses he does contribute quite a few aspects of the business that we as fans love and enjoy.
While he should take a few steps back and realize he should be collaborating with the creative team and talent to help make their visions a reality rather than try to control and alter the visions, I believe there would be a steep decline in the overall presentation of the entire WWE product if he was to leave as many people in the business and fanbase have wished.

What do you folks think? Am I just defending a monster or does Dunn have a productive place in the company that he doesn't get credit for?
 
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: SpaceVolcano1
#4 ·
Can't argue there, but then again that's coming from a hugely successful Hollywood production team. If Vince hired Tarentino or Scorcese to replace Dunn it would be a marked improvement. Their salaries would suck the company dry though.
 
#6 ·
People have no idea what they're even blaming him for. HHH is apart of the same circle as Dunn, and his job actually IS related to creative, yet every time something stupid happens the Internet is on fire with "omg Vince and Dunn are so stupid, save us HHH!"

Dunn is a voice in Vince's ear, nothing more. He isn't going to stop Vince from doing something that will earn him money, you can count on that.

I get why former employees or current ones hate his guts. Because there's a Kevin Dunn in everybody's workplace, and those kind of people are terrible to work with. But the Internet trying to lay blame to him for everything when they have absolutely no info to make those accusations is moronic.
 
#10 ·
Isn't that what I did? Please excuse me now while I go through my daily morning rituals of sacrificing farm animals in the name of His Satanic Majesty Master Dunn.
 
#8 ·
From reports, and our own eyes the dude is complacent. Raw and wwe tv has looked the same for over a decade. He found a look for the show and has stuck with it.

How many of us would like to design something at work and then live off that accomplishment for the rest of our careers while basically punching the clock?

Fair play to him
 
#12 ·
Dunn may have his faults -- God knows there's no single source of crap out of that place. But I'm hearing that Bray Wyatt comes up with his own promo material and then gets booked like crap -- can't blame Dunn for that. New Day supposedly pulls those unicorns out of their own asses, not creative's -- can't blame Dunn for that. We like to find someone, anyone to point the finger at; and while we're all pretty sure Vince has the final say on most things, I really have to wonder if everything wrong with the product is just a confluence of negative factors all coming into play at once, kind of the opposite of what brought about the Attitude Era. You know, the difference between the right personnel and chemistry that make a championship team vs the perpetual cellar-dwellers. And Vince being a senile old fool.
 
#14 ·
Word is that no one is satified with the current product and they are scrambling, so far unsuccessfully, to fix it.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Dunn's job is production. He does it well.

Dunn's role gives him the old man's ear for decisions. As the guy who makes the packages, camera angles, etc... Dunn naturally has a voice in what he thinks will film best - and that involves some creative input. Nevermind how closely Dunn works with micro-managing Vince to make each show happen.

It's a role that allows the man to poison the product. Even stuff as small as not giving a new guy pyro or using camera angles to emphasize a performer's weight, their height, etc... can make a huge negative impact.Dunn gets to play politics even when it doesn't seem like he is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kowalski's Killer
#19 ·
Disregarding the blatant sabotage of countless amounts of wrestlers over the last two decades, if Dunn deserves credit for the successful production of previos eras, then he deserves blame for the boring sets of the last 3 years. Everything looks the same. The white ropes SUCK. What happened to red ropes for RAW, blue ropes for Smackdown, and black ropes for PPVs? Besides the awful and generic booking of endless rematches, a big reason the show feels stale is due to the lazy presentation. There's nothing that aesthetically differentiates one production from another.
 
#21 ·
He's obviously really talented when it comes to producing video/hype packages, tribute videos, as well as documentaries and set designs back in the day when WWE cared about them.
BUT....
He should have absolutely FUCK ALL say in the storylines, who gets pushed and the creative process as a whole if he has no interest in wrestling at all. That's my problem with him. I don't get how someone who has no interest in pro-wrestling/sports entertainment has such a big say in things like storyline and talent development.
This is not where his strengths are it would seem so I'd keep him well away.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top