Why? That's all that needs to be asked. Also what would you grade her? Especially in comparison to her predecessors. Cornette and I share similar views on this situation.
Stephanie McMahon's promotion to head writer after Kreski
KingLobos
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Nobody? Ok as I said Cornette and I share similar views and here's his from his website.
http://jimcornette.com/cornettes-commentary/write-stuff
"For years, the head of the creative team has been Stephanie McMahon, the boss' daughter. While an intelligent, college-educated woman, her credentials qualifying her to be the head "writer" of a wrestling promotion remain the three words "the boss' daughter." Her knowledge of wrestling history, especially of how her father put the territories out of business, is nil, as evidenced by her testimony before Congress. Her experience as a performer has been limited to what she wrote for herself. It's not her fault entirely, as until she came to work at the WWE after college, she attended the matches sporadically, and certainly no one was going to teach the boss' daughter anything that might be politically imprudent. Her husband, Triple H, a student of the game, is certainly not going to rock his marriage boat, and much more important to him, his position as the heir to the throne, by telling her any of the negative effects her father has had on the pro wrestling industry in general while building his personal empire."
I also heard a recent podcast of his talking about how nepotism is ruining the business and I agree. Stephanie McMahon had zero credentials for anything. At the height of WWF power in late 00 she takes over for a well respected REAL PROFESSIONAL WRITER, because she was the daughter.
Kreski was A+, And before him Russo/Ferrara. And before that you had Prichard/Cornette who weren't great themselves but KNEW the business.
And so Stephanie comes in, she's the big dog now. And here's what Cornette says happened.
"So Stephanie, as head of creative, hires people like her.Young people with college degrees in writing, many with experience writing scripted television, comedy shows in particular, with little or no respect for wrestling, and little if any experience performing ANYTHING. As a matter of fact, being a fan of wrestling is not even a requirement for the job, and God forbid if you DO admit to being a wrestling fan, and having watched any other wrestling besides WWE, you will at best be viewed as a "mark" and your days numbered."
Gee, I wonder how we got to the current state of professional wrestling creative. Stephanie in the back of her mind knew she couldn't cut it. She started the trend of hiring more and more writers, consultants and all of this fluff. Into the state of what we see today with over 20 writers, a woman who doesn't know what she's doing. And Vince McMahon who would never admit that his own pride and joy isn't cut out for the job. I think I heard she stepped down a few years ago, and I say what took so long? Really. But I also think I heard Vince was now in charge, and I say, HAHA.
And we wonder why Shane left. And so, when the McMahon's are long gone, we will be in this albatross state of 20+ writers, writing a show they know nothing about, for people who know nothing about the business, for a product that doesn't know who the target audience is anymore.
Stephanie, you aren't cut out for the wrestling business. But at least you are a McMahon, and that's worth everything.
So KingLobos, I'm going to talk to myself and answer my own question. Stephanie had no business being head writer. As it turns out was a detriment to the creative process and bastardizing a once key position into a paper pushing occupation of 20+ people. And now are in the current state that we are in. I'd give her a failing grade, and compared to past head writers, she doesn't cut it. But she did play a good on screen girlfriend/wife/ to Triple H.......sometimes.
With a lack of response/interest I assume everyone thinks she was a great choice as writer / head of creative? You learn something new everyday.
http://jimcornette.com/cornettes-commentary/write-stuff
"For years, the head of the creative team has been Stephanie McMahon, the boss' daughter. While an intelligent, college-educated woman, her credentials qualifying her to be the head "writer" of a wrestling promotion remain the three words "the boss' daughter." Her knowledge of wrestling history, especially of how her father put the territories out of business, is nil, as evidenced by her testimony before Congress. Her experience as a performer has been limited to what she wrote for herself. It's not her fault entirely, as until she came to work at the WWE after college, she attended the matches sporadically, and certainly no one was going to teach the boss' daughter anything that might be politically imprudent. Her husband, Triple H, a student of the game, is certainly not going to rock his marriage boat, and much more important to him, his position as the heir to the throne, by telling her any of the negative effects her father has had on the pro wrestling industry in general while building his personal empire."
I also heard a recent podcast of his talking about how nepotism is ruining the business and I agree. Stephanie McMahon had zero credentials for anything. At the height of WWF power in late 00 she takes over for a well respected REAL PROFESSIONAL WRITER, because she was the daughter.
Kreski was A+, And before him Russo/Ferrara. And before that you had Prichard/Cornette who weren't great themselves but KNEW the business.
And so Stephanie comes in, she's the big dog now. And here's what Cornette says happened.
"So Stephanie, as head of creative, hires people like her.Young people with college degrees in writing, many with experience writing scripted television, comedy shows in particular, with little or no respect for wrestling, and little if any experience performing ANYTHING. As a matter of fact, being a fan of wrestling is not even a requirement for the job, and God forbid if you DO admit to being a wrestling fan, and having watched any other wrestling besides WWE, you will at best be viewed as a "mark" and your days numbered."
Gee, I wonder how we got to the current state of professional wrestling creative. Stephanie in the back of her mind knew she couldn't cut it. She started the trend of hiring more and more writers, consultants and all of this fluff. Into the state of what we see today with over 20 writers, a woman who doesn't know what she's doing. And Vince McMahon who would never admit that his own pride and joy isn't cut out for the job. I think I heard she stepped down a few years ago, and I say what took so long? Really. But I also think I heard Vince was now in charge, and I say, HAHA.
And we wonder why Shane left. And so, when the McMahon's are long gone, we will be in this albatross state of 20+ writers, writing a show they know nothing about, for people who know nothing about the business, for a product that doesn't know who the target audience is anymore.
Stephanie, you aren't cut out for the wrestling business. But at least you are a McMahon, and that's worth everything.
So KingLobos, I'm going to talk to myself and answer my own question. Stephanie had no business being head writer. As it turns out was a detriment to the creative process and bastardizing a once key position into a paper pushing occupation of 20+ people. And now are in the current state that we are in. I'd give her a failing grade, and compared to past head writers, she doesn't cut it. But she did play a good on screen girlfriend/wife/ to Triple H.......sometimes.
With a lack of response/interest I assume everyone thinks she was a great choice as writer / head of creative? You learn something new everyday.
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To be honest, I'm not sure why Stephanie McMahon is writing the show when we have Paul Heyman and Dutch Mantel - two guys who have genuine success in the business sitting on the sidelines.
Too many writers just ends up muddying the waters, when you only really need two or three. Take NXT for instance they just have Dusty booking and it's one of the best television shows out there. It's not the same but New Japan just have two bookers and there show is a massive success.
It is bewildering why people are hired for the job who have never seen a match in their life.
However, I'm not too sure how much blame can be placed on creative, given that Vince obviously has the final say on everything. Top guys like Cena and Punk can just turn down their script from what I've seen and read. I've even heard Wyatt say in an interview that all his promos are unscripted.
Too many writers just ends up muddying the waters, when you only really need two or three. Take NXT for instance they just have Dusty booking and it's one of the best television shows out there. It's not the same but New Japan just have two bookers and there show is a massive success.
It is bewildering why people are hired for the job who have never seen a match in their life.
However, I'm not too sure how much blame can be placed on creative, given that Vince obviously has the final say on everything. Top guys like Cena and Punk can just turn down their script from what I've seen and read. I've even heard Wyatt say in an interview that all his promos are unscripted.
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It's funny because Heyman became a writer years later on Smackdown. Dutch probably was a part of something as well. But the changing of the position for the worse was already done. There was no genius of a mind, because they all were dealing with more and more people like Stephanie, who she hired who had no idea what they were doing and this isn't a recent thing either, it's been a part of her way of business since she was hired.
I remember a story where Russo said he came back to the WWE in like 2002 or something apparently with the intent of Vince McMahon hiring him as "head consultant", and he walked into the room and there were "bright eyed, bushy tailed" kids looking back at him and they didn't do a damn thing while he proposed ideas and looked lost. Russo is an idiot as everyone knows, but it just shows the difference between the former head and ONLY writer of the Attitude Era, and him working with 10-15 other hacks, who have input and final say. It's a mess.
As for Vince having final say, definitely. But Vince has always cared and only cared about the top guy/guys for his entire career. That's his monkey maker, he rarely inputs midcarders or storylines outside of the main event. That's not technically a bad thing, as it's not his job to be "writer". And we see the results of that every week these days.
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There's a reason why the ratings steadily dropped as Stephanie McMahon gradually took over while Triple H became the top guy after Austin and The Rock left. The numbers speak for themselves, and they speak of major failure.
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In fairness to Russo, he is a lot of things but I wouldn't say he's an idiot. He was key in bringing the Attitude Era to WWE and was pretty important in the careers of Rock & Austin. He's not the genius that he seems to think he is. Was he the head writer, or did he share writing duties with Ed Ferrara?
McMahon should care about midcarders. They can also be used to generate money. It's part of why the AE was so successful, everyone from Al Snow to Steve Austin had a storyline.
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now they have these big creative teams with all these "hollywood writers" that suck mad dick
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Wasn't Dusty the worst booker ever in WCW back in 1990 or 1991?
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Oddly the guy booking the best weekly television show in the world is also behind this gimmick. Maybe he just changed with age.
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Nice Freudian slip there
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And only having to worry about an hr a week plus having wrestlers that you know are going to have a good match no matter who you use has to make NXT 10 times more easier than the mess that was WCWOddly the guy booking the best television show in the world is also behind this gimmick. Maybe he just changed with age.
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After the Crocket buy-out in the early 90's WCW's roster was pretty damn good, even then in history it's hard to think of a promotion in any time period that didn't have at least 5 potential stars. Even then, that gimmick is INEXCUSABLE. A storm trooper helmet covered in glitter with a leather waistcoat and a robot voice, a 6 year old could come up with something better.
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I'm not saying they didn't have talented workers but producing 1 hour a week with a smaller roster has to be easier to handle than WCW with Saturday Night, Main Event on Sunday & The Power Hour and whatever else they had going at the time along with the occasional Clash plus all the house shows and touring. Plus him or his son aren't actively wrestling for NXT while he books like in WCW where he made them both look like Superman on multiple occasions.
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But only if it was all Dusty and in WCW, it wasn't.
He had around 6-8 other people booking with him. So, responsibilities could be portioned, for example:
Dusty & Barry Windham book the Clash & PPV's
Sullivan books Saturday Night
Mike Graham books Worldwide
Grizzly Smith books Power Hour
Ron West books WCW Pro
Magnum TA books Main Event
Jody Hamilton books house shows
I'm not saying that's actually how it happened but it increases the possibility of lessening responsibility and in WCW's final year(s), was how booking was handled with even less shows to run.
The only thing about it is Dusty oversees the other 7. But in regards to the bulk of the work, Dusty only did as much as he wanted to. He had other people to fall back on but of course, since he's head of booking, if things go bad, it's somewhat his fault.
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I'm just going to add to this. It is said that when Kreski left he had the storyboard all laid out backwards from WM 17. I totally believe it because the product is like night and day once we get past post RAW Mania and beyond. That is where everything started to fall apart regardless of the fact Rock and HHH disappeared.
Look at the build to WM 17 compared to the build of WM 18. I have always said Hogan vs. Rock almost got ruined with that semi truck nonsense. I remember Patterson stating around the time the company was doing too much Hollywood stunts unnecessarily. Imagine if Austin vs. Rock was done a year later? We would have never got that legendary build with promos and back and forth. They would be doing stupid stunts like Austin catching the NWO in a net lol.
It's just been so many years of this type of writing that everyone has got use to it now. Even Russo laid out things that made sense until we got to WM 15 where he started going overboard too with nonsense. I guess Stephanie felt she had to compete with that crap in 1999 despite ignoring 2000 had better wrestling and storytelling that made the company break records.
Look at the build to WM 17 compared to the build of WM 18. I have always said Hogan vs. Rock almost got ruined with that semi truck nonsense. I remember Patterson stating around the time the company was doing too much Hollywood stunts unnecessarily. Imagine if Austin vs. Rock was done a year later? We would have never got that legendary build with promos and back and forth. They would be doing stupid stunts like Austin catching the NWO in a net lol.
It's just been so many years of this type of writing that everyone has got use to it now. Even Russo laid out things that made sense until we got to WM 15 where he started going overboard too with nonsense. I guess Stephanie felt she had to compete with that crap in 1999 despite ignoring 2000 had better wrestling and storytelling that made the company break records.
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Agree 100% about the difference between WM 17 & 18....I've never looked forward to a Wrestlemania more than I did for 17, every match had a story behind it and the buildup between Rock and Austin was legendary. Even if 18 was more loaded in star power, the anticipation was nothing close to 17 and there hasn't been one close after.
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Stephanie McMahon is an untalented writer. She should shift over to strictly business/talent relations.
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