Wrestling Needs An Architect Booker

Back in 2008 Marvel Studios changed Hollywood with the release of Iron Man and subsequently the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). A carefully planned series of films all interconnected leading to one overall arc. While I personally think the MCU machine will eventually begin to lose steam, despite a couple of missteps (Black Widow & Eternals) it is still going pretty strong as phase 4 kicks off (Far From Home was amazing btw). 

Since the MCU's inception, rival studios have tried to copy their success with their own movie universes most notably the DC comics universe from Warner Bros and the Monsterverse from Universal. Those efforts have failed for one reason or another.

Now a hugeeee part of the MCU's success is studio head and architect Kevin Feige. One of Kevin's most important roles in his job, is to work with the content creators of the films (screenwriters, directors, etc.). To make sure the long-term storylines make sense and connect properly to one another in order to tell the complete story.

Which got me thinking...why doesn't modern pro wrestling promotions have architects on their writing staff? Wrestling traditionally has Bookers, which are the equivalent to screenwriters. I've never heard of an "architect" per say to flesh out how to get through the year with major events etc.

 WWE reportedly has over 40 writers on their staff led by Dave Kapoor (fka Ranjin Singh) . AEW has Tony Khan who is the CEO of  company and apparently does most of the show layout himself, with various agents and wrestlers pitching in ideas. I think he's stretching himself thin, but what do I know?

Impact and MLW have Scott D'amore and Court Bauer respectively doing the same and I'm sure they follow the same M.O. of getting different wrestlers and agents input on angles and characters. I believe Billy Corgan does the same for NWA.

WWE especially promotes themselves as sports entertainment and to an lesser extent a male soap opera. They also love employing former Hollywood writers to the staff...my only guess is to have a pop culture pulse and they fail at that.

So, I don't understand why they don't have someone who's primary job is to look at the current roster. Formulate long term major angles for the top tier of talent. Develop a roadmap for the mid and lower card, then assign tasks to fellow writers to get the wrestlers and storylines from point A to point B. 

With forty writers, they then could have certain writers who primary job is to develop characters and help the current roster tweak their characters.

Both WWE and AEW could also use it as an opportunity to bring their secondary programs into the main "universe" so to speak. Something may occur on Main Event or Dark  that pays off on an episode of Raw or Dynamite. Thus making those shows must see TV. Same goes for NXT 2.0 and 205 live. With so much content out there people need to be enticed to spend time watching programs, no matter how big of fans they are of certain promotions.

Now I've heard Being The Elite has storylines that pay off on AEW programming. I honestly don't watch BTE so if it does it goes over my head. If the show does in fact create storylines that pay off on Dynamite, kudos to AEW for being forward thinking. On the flip side they could possibly do a better job of making it known on Dynamite to entice the non-faithfuls to tune into BTE.

Some of the biggest criticism against today's product especially WWE. There aren't many wrestlers you feel a connection to, the storylines aren't coherent and alot of ideas are outdated. Think about that poor Dirty Dawgz joke about the movie Twins on Raw a few weeks back. Half of today's audience weren't even born when that movie was released, so why bring it up?

In my opinion if there are mid to long term plans thought out for certain wrestlers. The talent roster can be better utilized, giving them more opportunity to flesh out and refine their personas and it'll be easier to make new stars.

It also makes it easier for fans to get invested in the characters. Some folks may say this method wouldn't work, because at the end of the day the writers are trying to appease a audience of one (Vinnie Mac).

Some may say an architect and long-term stories may not work because of the nature of the business you need to be flexible. I call bullshit on that, if it's planned out and a major player unfortunately gets injured. It'll be easier to pivot and create a new roadmap, because ideas were already formulated for the opponet.

In my opinion long-term booking is the key to building storylines that fans become invested in. Which leads to more engagement across all platforms and just a happier fanbase. Creating an "universe" within these promotions or just maybe better angles and the ecosystem of wrestling as a whole will be better for it.