Replacing Dusty as The Booker Man

Hey Scott,


I’m loving your Observer recaps. One of the thing Dave talks about (and really discussed a lot in 1988) was that Dusty’s booking was less than great. My question is, and while it’s clear things were on the downturn, who should have replaced him? Guys like Paul Heyman and Jim Cornette alone weren’t really established enough to get the book. Do you do what they wound up doing in 1989 and just have Ric Flair head a booking team?

​If only they had just purchased another promotion with a perfectly cromulent booker/owner that could have stepped in and run things better than Dusty! Although to be fair, Watts wanted out of the business, so taking over the Crockett circus probably wasn’t high on his list at that point, but he’d be my #1 choice.

#2, given a time machine and unlimited funds, would be to raid Memphis and bring in Jerry Lawler and/or Bill Dundee to book, and I’d make Lawler top challenger to Flair at that point. Memphis was in the ZONE for goofy awesomeness, and Crockett wanted a foothold in Tenneesee anyway. Lawler could have pulled it off. ​