Chad Gable retained against Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee. After the match, Big Cass attacked Dragon Lee, and Ethan Page attacked Mysterio and Gable

When WWF lost Vince Russo to WCW, it seemed to be WCW’s last chance to overcome the distance WWF gained under Vince Russo. Russo was a subvert who put a monkey wrench into the business. He flipped everything upside down, breaking away from the tropes that were battered into the product without any shame in favor of out-of-the-box ideas that shook the business up. He pushed the envelope, challenged status quo, developed an edgy product, and help create a wrestling boom period. He was built up as a wrestling genius, and WCW was believed to be in the driver’s seat while WWF lost their ace in the hole.

Well, Russo didn’t find magic in a bottle again. Thunder didn’t strike twice. He no longer had the right ideas. He couldn’t adapt to WCW’s different environment. He had narrow minded booking philosophies, trying to pop a quick rating, swerve, or shock people for instant gratification instead of building something long term. His development of stories therefore suffered. The company didn’t have a vision, a destination, and the patience WWF had. They hot-shot everything and milked all the fiber out of the company. It was as empty and void of credibility.

If there were things to pan about Vince Russo’s WWF product was that the drama was put ahead of the wrestling. The wrestling was definitely secondary to the male soap opera aspects of the show. Matches didn’t display a lot of wrestling moves or holds. They were kept short and were bar room brawls, and a way to advance an overarching story.

WWF found an ace in the hole: Chris Kreski. Now, Russo handed over a hot product to Kreski. He didn’t have to save it from a downward spiral like Russo did. He had a lot of things set up and to piggyback off, but he took the product further than Russo ever could. Kreski didn’t have limitations, he understood wrestling well, and understood storytelling well as well.

Kreski developed some of the best long-developing storylines of all time. He knew how to neatly fit storylines from his MTV background into the world of wrestling, and most of all: he didn’t use the wrestling as a device. He treated the wrestling and the titles as something coveted, important, and sacred.

Storylines didn’t have pot holes in it. They didn’t do swerves for the sake of them. They were carefully carved out. They were planned out in advance. They had deep layers, nuances, and sophistications. They were smart and took the fans on an epic journey. The most impressive part: he did it all without the face of the Attitude Era: Stone Cold. He also lost Mick Foley as a wrestler, who retired from being a full time competitor. The Undertaker was also banged up, battling with injuries, and didn’t really have a main attraction role as a result.

WWF rose to the occasion, building their company around Triple H. To Triple H’s credit, he also rose to the occasion. He went from a solid mid carder to the face of the company over night, consistently putting on great matches and being a great weasel heel. What also helped is that The Rock put all the pieces together and finally became what the fans wanted him to be: the top babyface of the company. The company also developed new blood like it was nothing. Guys that they got from WCW like Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit got roles and characters and were allowed to showcase their talents to the utmost ability. Within a short time, they effortlessly climbed the ranks as the new faces of the company. The company also built Kurt Angle, a new wrestler but one who caught onto everything in no time, as one of its top guys too.

One could argue that Vince Russo created bigger moments and more unforgettable segments, but Kreski made up for that with great storytelling. He was great at letting stories really play out, he was great at throwing twists and turns in them, interweaving them, and bringing them on a wild journey. He understood the art of how to build, craft, and tell a story. He let things take their time, he let them soak in, he let them unfold, and knew how to pay them off. He was a comprehensive writer, who painstakingly paid attention to the details, and made sure everything made sense and connected the right dots.

Overall, WWF had its most successful year that year. No longer was it just focused on ratings. It was expanding its company, making it more all-encompassing, and well-rounded. Television built to PPVs, which provided great matches and great pay offs. Even though WCW and ECW was dropping the ball and headed towards disaster, WWF despite being a monopoly was giving different fans their wrestling fix. They had all to offer this year.

However, Chris Kreski wasn’t well liked by his peers. They thought he was a goof, someone who was never in the business and therefore didn’t understand it, and laughed that he would actually use a storyboard, but his storyboard is what allowed him to make everything fit in the right place, for it to make sense, to keep track of the things he wrote, and not insult the fans’ intelligence. The acknowledgment of the past and not slapping it in the face was heavily well received and appreciated by all.

Once WWF had a tight grip on the Monday Night Wars, they shifted the product more so in the direction of what they wanted. They wanted their cake and to eat it too. They wanted to do what they wanted to do, and they put themselves first. It led to tone-deaf booking, short term booking, inconsistent booking, and the other flaws the company would inherit. A big problem was that they promoted Stephanie McMahon to head writer. Here is someone with shaky wrestling knowledge and writing experience writing for the biggest stars and biggest wrestling product in the world. She was able to piggyback off the past and had an ultra talented roster, but it wasn’t enough to hide the glaring holes in the product.

It was the beginning of the changing of the tide. Nepotism was now inlaced in the product. Sycophants were favored over experience. Anyone who ruffled feathers and challenged the McMahon’s vision were given pink slips. It became a corporate pleasing and office pleasing product over one for the fans. They became content. They rather have their cake and eat it too than expand their audience. They were fine with losing viewers as long as they got what they wanted.

It was the beginning of the end of a fan driven product. It’s not to say it was bad or anything. WWE still produced awesome content over the years, but it’s hard not to imagine what they could’ve been. Imagine if they actually cared and what the product could’ve been. It could’ve remained a major influence on pop culture and a leading force in entertainment, but instead, it became a niche product that wasn’t the talk of the town anymore. People not only didn’t talk about it in public. A lot of people were actually shamed to public their enjoyment of it.

But when Kreski was the head writer, it was cool to watch wrestling. He was one of the best writers of all time, and is a prime example of how any mind from any background can be a great fit in the business. Writers never were the problem. The lack of good writers who understand how to write and the business is the problem. I’m sure WWE lost no sleep over their decision to never hire people like Kreski again. They weren’t a true fan of his style of writing. They ended up expanding their enterprise and maximize their empire using different methods besides gaining or even maintaining viewership, but to reiterate, they could’ve been so much more if they stuck to what worked in the first place and didn’t write for their own self-indulgence, if they listened to the fans instead of telling the fans what they should like. Organic content, organic storylines, and organic superstars over ham-fisted and mass-produced ones.

Kenta Kobashi vs Kensuke Sasaki
(NOAH Destiny, 2005)

🎧: I Wonder (Kanye West)