Examining the Pros and Cons of Booking in the Reality Era

WWE has to do its job with the curtains pulled back now that the Reality Era has sprouted out of kayfabe's grave.

Bookers may be working with the same principles and crafting the same art as those in wrestling's past, but the job description has transformed. Gone are the days when the audience accepted what happened in the ring at face value. No longer does obscurity protect the business' inner workings. 

Triple H understands that. When asked about crafting wrestling stories in a post-kayfabe period, The Game told Steve Austin on the latter's live podcast, wearing a smile tinged with exasperation, "It's tough." 

It's certainly not impossible, though.

In fact, the industry's openness is advantageous in some ways. Pro wrestling doesn't have to pretend that it's something it's not. And in today's climate, any moment that appears to be a deviation from the script has added potency.  

Pros

The Power of Breaking the Fourth Wall

There is never a point during a horror film when audience members turn to each other and ask, "Wait, is this real?" That medium is strictly fiction. Wrestling, on the other hand, has always had its fiction and non-fiction overlap.

When Paul Heyman went off on Vince McMahon on SmackDown in 2001, his speech had plenty of real-life elements. He talked about McMahon's turning WWE into a global entity, echoing many of the criticisms folks had about that process.

This rant forced fans to pay attention. It appeared that Heyman was replacing the standard wrestling promo for some real-life verbal jabs. But while he worked plenty of truth into what he said, it was all part of the plan.

It was a setup for the Team WWE vs. Team Alliance battle at Survivor Series, not brazen defiance from Heyman. 

This idea of a "worked shoot" didn't exist when kayfabe was still around. Everything was accepted as real. Only now can bookers create the illusion that someone is hijacking a show, rebelling against the script.

That's part of why CM Punk's famous rant on Raw in 2011 was so powerful. WWE even played up the idea that what he said wasn't scripted by cutting off his microphone. 

Bookers can now toy with the audience. Dress up a work like a shoot, and buzz is sure to follow.

No Longer Needing to Deal with "Is it Fake?" Questions 

Some fans and performers from the past certainly lament the fact that wrestling's legitimacy as a sport is gone. It was once a tightly clutched secret that matches were predetermined. Anyone saying otherwise was liable to get their arm twisted in a hammerlock.

The secret is out, which is freeing.

WWE doesn't have to face the same distrust that folks had about the business in the past. Wrestling's status as physical fiction is well-known.

That creates new avenues for bookers to tell stories. If the audience still bought wrestling as pure competition, WWE would never have been able to play up Undertaker's supernatural side so much. Throughout the years, he has drawn power from an urn, survived being buried alive and commanded lightning.

Those are options that weren't available when Paul Boesch was in control of Houston Wrestling beginning in the '60s.

Today's bookers can be more outlandish and color outside the lines. Should WWE want to make Bray Wyatt's rocking chair a talisman that gives him strength or have Bad News Barrett execute a takeover of the company, it's free to do so.

The Ability to Outsource Ideas 

In addition to griping and negativity, the Internet is flush with great booking ideas.

Fans offer up ways for rivals to collide or where to take a wrestler going forward. Diehard wrestling fans fantasy-book on message boards, Reddit and in discussions as to where they believe WWE and other companies should head.

In the past, fans dreamed up matches they would like to see, but they didn't understand the industry's structure the way they do now.

That allows WWE writers to scan Twitter or online conversations to see what folks have come up with. Take this idea from Wrestle Rant and Bleacher Report's Graham Matthews for Roman Reigns, for example:

This kind of idea wasn't getting tossed around years ago. A member of WWE Creative might not have brought this up, adding it to the options already on the table.

Bookers working in the Reality Era can seek out assistance at any point. They just need to open the Internet and see what fans have cooked up.

Cons

Fans Don't Just Accept What's On the Screen

The added knowledge that fans have comes with added roadblocks for bookers.

When Bruno Sammartino steamrolled over Buddy Rogers in just seconds in 1963 for the world title, fans marveled. They didn't bemoan the fact that Rogers was "buried" or demand that Killer Kowalski should be champion instead.

Wrestling was presented as a real sport. Winners earned their victories, or so we thought. Today, the crowd knows about the strings that are pulling the puppets. 

That opens the door for fans to pay more attention to the booking than the performances, to go into a match with their own preconceived ideas of how things should play out. When matches don't play out that way, even if the stories are successful, even if the wrestlers put on fantastic shows, some fans will leave unhappy.

In that way, wrestling is a beast like no other. 

Too few fans live by the "just sit back and enjoy the show" philosophy. Pleasing the entirety of the crowd is next to impossible, as someone will always feel that his guy is being passed over. 

When Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns face off at Fast Lane, for example, WWE will be faced with one of two kinds of angry responses. If Bryan wins, some Reigns fans will feel cheated, their hopes raised at the Royal Rumble for nothing. If Reigns wins, some Bryan fans will shout that he is not getting the WrestleMania match he deserves.

That forces behind-the-scenes decision-makers to accept that any choice they make will have its critics.

Heel Heat is Far More Difficult to Obtain

During "Classy" Freddie Blassie's career, fans believed that every dastardly act a heel did was genuine. It's no wonder a skilled showman like him got fans so worked up.

As Keith Elliot Greenberg writes in The Legends of Wrestling: "Classy" Freddie Blassie, "Death threats were frequent, enraged fans stabbed him 21 times and he was even doused with acid."  

As great as Seth Rollins is at his job, no one is trying to stab him. The crowd knows that every sneak attack, betrayal or cheap shot that Rollins issues comes from a script. He didn't really turn his back on The Shield or put Dean Ambrose in the hospital.

In order for a heel to get heat, then, it takes a lot more work.

Bookers trying to tell stories of good versus evil or friends turning into enemies don't have the advantage that men like Blassie had. WWE's writing staff has to create something so compelling that fans forget momentarily that what they're watching is all part of a show.

That extra step didn't exist in the past. It's one more hurdle for today's bookers to jump. 

Fans See Things Coming

The mechanisms of wrestling sit out in the open now. Fans know what a push looks like. They can see a tag team's breakup coming. 

The audience knows what path a typical narrative trajectory takes and thus can see what's ahead. Stories in the ring often become more predictable in result.

It was clear that WWE planned on having Roman Reigns win the Royal Rumble. John Cena's redemption against The Rock at WrestleMania 29 was clearly going to happen. 

Watch enough detective shows, and guessing who the killer is becomes an easy task. That's become the case for wrestling.

Bookers are then forced to come up with the unexpected, keep surprises tight to the vest and create shocking moments in an era where shocks are harder to pull off. 

Brock Lesnar's return in 2012 and Sting's debut on Raw are successful examples of that. The company, though, doesn't have a lot of bullets like that in its chamber. WWE Creative has to find ways to create surprise in other situations as well.

A booker's goal is the same this era as it was in any other: to entertain. The path to that goal has evolved, presenting new challenges and new opportunities. 

Wrestling is a more open business now, one that asks more of those driving the narrative wheel. One can't just head down that same well-worn road that folks did in the past. Today, one needs to navigate fresh paths.