Random booking questions

Hi Scott,

Can you say when the booking decision was made and why for the following matches?

-HHH wins Wrestlemania 16 Main Event.

​Fairly close to the show. The dynamic of the main event had changed a couple of times (like the famous substitution of Mick Foley for Chris Jericho) and they didn’t really grasp how super-hot the HHH v. Rock feud was getting until the buildup for this show, at which point they came up with the idea to stretch it out for a month. ​

-New Age Outlaws beat LOD for Tag titles on Raw 2 weeks before scheduled title match at IYH DX. Was this just because Monday Night Wars?

​Yeah, the whole Outlaws deal was basically just "fuck it, the Road Warriors are flopping, let’s try something new" as far as I understand it. ​

-Kane over Austin for the title on Raw

You mean Austin over Kane. Kane won the title at King of the Ring. Regardless, they wanted to draw a monster rating for a title change, and did so. Mission accomplished! ​

-Taker over Hogan in 2002. If Hogan doesn’t get the God pop in Canada and the nostalgia win doesn’t happen, would HHH retain thru the Summer until putting over Brock at Summerslam? Was Taker always supposed to get the belt, even without Hogan? And when was the decision made to go to Rock then Brock?

​HHH was absolutely supposed to be a long term champion through to Summerslam, although I don’t think they quite knew that Brock was going to be the guy to get the belt at that point. As far as going with Rock, it made sense because they wanted to do a Brock-UT feud afterwards and needed someone who was a big star to put over Brock strongly, and Rock had no problem doing that and never has. Everything was booked nearly week-to-week at that point it seems like, so I imagine the decision came around King of the Ring, once they knew how big Brock was going to be. ​