Vince McMahon | D
Vince is responsible for overseeing all booking in WWE, and the first half of 2002 has been below expectations. While it has been better than the disasterous Invasion booking of mid-2001, there is still too much inconsistency from week to week and far too much hot-shotting, yielding too little short term gain while creating a good amount of long term damage. It's unclear as to how much day to day booking input Vince has at this point, but it is assumed that most matters surrounding Steve Austin and ownership angles were at least partially written by McMahon. When the going is good, overall booking credit goes to McMahon, so the same should be true when the times are tough. Hopefully the booking of late June (slower paced, more emphasis on long term planning) will carry over throughout the rest of 2002 and this grade can be higher by the end of the year. .::.Widro

Stephanie McMahon | F
Just below Vince on the booking team pecking order is Stephanie. Stephanie is also responsible for the overall booking of the promotion, and since it has been subpar, she is graded as such. Since Stephanie's ascention to the top of WWE's booking committee, ratings and PPV buyrates have plummeted. Unlike Vince, she has no track record of prolonged success, and cannot be expected to work the "McMahon genius" as Vince might be able to. With the spectre of Vince Russo hanging over her in the second half of 2002, it might be put up or shut up time for Daddy's Little Girl. While Stephanie will never be fully out of the WWE management hierarchy, her influence and power to write creative will certainly be reduced in the coming months if revenue doesn't pick up. .::.Widro

Brian Gewirtz | C-
Gewirtz gets a lot of flack from internet fans because of his light-handed booking and emphasis on comedy. However, some of the most popular WWE acts are written by Gewirtz, including many of the Rock's promos, and more recently, Booker T and Goldust. Gewirtz has only been in charge of Raw for about a month, but his comedy spots have been among the highlights of Raw, even though they could detract from the long-term viability of Booker T as a legitimate draw. Gewirtz seems to know how to make a stale character fresh with some comedy, but the jury is still out on his ability to create new stars (Brock Lesnar), and that will be his real test as 2002 continues. .::.Widro

Paul Heyman | B
Heyman remains the lone 'old school' booking presence in WWE, and when he is given more control, the impact is immediately seen on WWE programming. He likes to rely on the in-ring talents of the best workers in WWE to tell stories in the ring, and also has more of an edge to his stories. However, it is unclear how much power he has as a booker, and if he can be relied upon to book an entire large promotion with money making tasks in mind. Heyman seems continually at odds with the rest of the booking team to create compelling wrestling TV vs. compelling sports entertainment. .::.Widro

Shane McMahon | A
Gotta respect Shane O Mac's decision to distance himself from the creative aspects of WWE and return to his area of expertise, which is the New Media Divistion. Shane is essentially in charge of WWE.com and all its sub-sites, which for WWE is quite a large number. Shane is in a better position that Stephanie to run the booking committee longterm, because he has stepped away from the declinining product for now, and could easily re-insert himself down the line as a fresh voice with new ideas. Shane is one to watch from a booking standpoint in 2003 and beyond. .::.Widro

Vince Russo | INC
The wildcard of the WWE booking committee is Russo, who has yet to contribute anything, but will almost certainly be some kind of power player as the year comes to a close. Russo's major idea - to recreate another invasion - is weak, but he could inject some much needed energy into the booking. In addition, Russo, no matter what you say about him, always was well planned and gave gimmicks and purposes to everyone on the card- something sorely missing from WWE today. He gets an Incomplete because of his lack of input in the first half of 2002, but is listed because he has already created a sense of urgency and the notion that the current team's time may be limited. .::.Widro