Roughly 75% of it is preplanned by "creative", run by Vince for approval, "story boarded" via discussion with retired wrestlers on the payroll who mediate with the active talent who make it televised. Some talent, like Hulk Hogan, wield contract clauses that enable them to appear superhuman while putting in little actual work - based on how much increased gate and buy-rate Vince or any other promoter believes such a prima dona might garner compared to the likely lesser profits without them. It's a business first and foremost.
Chris Benoit was sent to the red-headed stepchild of Vince's empire, ECW, with the mission of reviving it's strength after losing much of it's talent and all of it's appeal to the hardcore-style audience that built it to an independent juggernaut under Paul E. Dangerously. Benoit helped Paul E. gain that legitimacy while he was there in ECW's formative stage - probably wondering where his checks were like most of the other wrestlers there.
In the early 1990s Chris got good checks from Ted Turner in WCW while he mastered his art (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Dean Melenko, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho and more were unaminously behind him). Benoit got the rarified honor of filling the Tully Blanchard position of a revived version of the Four Horsemen.
Chris, Dean and Eddie smelled horse crap when Turner sold his company to people who considered their trade a freak show. They followed Jericho's lead to Vince's WWF/WWE nearly a year before Vince bought out WCW, avoiding the "take it or leave it" deals the wrestlers lucky enough to get offered had to accept. Chris "Ben-Oyt's" (as actual great friend Jericho humorously pronounced) rocket was unstoppable after that. Chris put the better interests of the business, the safety/welfare of his coworkers and mindful training of the newbies above his own concerns without hesitation. I truly hope a decent explanation comes of this. There was a disgruntled ex-husband in the mix...or was the Dungeon Master merely a character. That fight through the bathroom had some really acidic comments between gasps.
At the age of 20, in 1984, chance and luck landed her into wrestling. While modeling and doing some apartment wrestling, she met photographer Bill Otten. Otten freelanced for New York wrestling magazine editor George Napolitano, often photographing matches for Florida Championship Wrestling. It was through Napolitano and Otten that Daus was introduced to Florida booker Kevin Sullivan. Sullivan and she started a real-life romance. She would be introduced as the Fallen Angel, a name derived from a Led Zeppelin song reference, in July 1984.
She was part of Kevin Sullivan’s “Satanists” which also included Luna Vachon and Sir Oliver Humperdink. Snakes, blood and anti-Christian overtones were seen as controversial for the time. The group drew strange parallels to Charles Manson and Judas Priest.
The two would marry in 1985. She continued to work Florida off and on until Jim Crockett bought the Florida promotion in 1987. Kevin began to work for Crockett (eventually WCW), based out of North Carolina.
In 1989, Kevin brought Nancy into WCW as a geeky Robin Green, a “fan” who had a crush on wrestler Rick Steiner. Green was always shown ringside during Steiner’s matches, cheering her hero on, or so he believed. Eventually, Steiner allowed her to stand ringside with him. It was at this point she revealed herself as Woman, backstabbing Steiner during a televised match.
Her glasses and geeky looks were dropped, and she began managing the masked team of Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed). When Doom broke up, she was placed in a short-lived angle with Ric Flair. She was pushing the idea of buying the Horsemen, which Flair turned down on numerous occasions, but the angle hit a dead-end when the Sullivans left WCW in 1990.
The two would show up on independent dates where she was always portrayed as Woman, the persona that she got her biggest name from.
She and Sullivan would team up again in Jim Cornette’s Smokey Mountain Wrestling, where Kevin had earned a booking position in 1992. She took on the name Devil Angel, drawing close to her original persona of Fallen Angel. Her time in Smokey Mountain was short and uneventful.
The two would eventually find their way to ECW in 1993. But when Kevin left for a return to WCW in 1994, Nancy stayed behind where she gained fame as the manager of the beer-drinking Sandman. The two were a perfect pair. She would help light the cigarettes and open the beer cans for the Sandman. The ECW style allowed her to get involved in matches like she never had to do before during her career. Kevin was able to get Nancy a position in WCW, and she left ECW where she last managed 2 Cold Scorpio.
When Nancy joined her husband in 1995, their marriage was hitting the skids. She was put into the role as a manager for the Four Horsemen, who at the time consisted of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman. When Pillman left the group, he would be replaced by Steve “Mongo” McMichael. She accompanied the Horsemen alongside famed manager Elizabeth and later Debra McMichael, wife of McMichael.
Her role was small and quiet until Kevin, who was booking for WCW, began a feud with Chris Benoit. In an angle that only insiders understood, Benoit was shown dining with Woman, who Benoit would refer as “Nancy.” It was to play off the marriage problems that Kevin and Nancy Sullivan were suffering in real life.
In a weird scene of where the show became reality, Nancy asked Kevin for a divorce and would begin dating Benoit, mirroring what was being booked for television. Meanwhile Kevin and Benoit still had to wrestle in the ring. The tension with Kevin as booker always haunted Benoit, who believed Sullivan had it out for him for stealing his wife. It would lead, in part, to Benoit leaving WCW in 2000 for the WWE.
Nancy would be taken off television following Benoit defeating Sullivan in a retirement match in 1997.
Nancy would give birth to Daniel Christopher on February 23, 2000. Nancy would marry the father, Benoit, two days later on February 25. She would take the name Nancy Benoit.
I agree with your observations on balance but don’t have any idea where you come up with that 75% figure - almost all of wrestling is preplanned and staged in terms of storyline direction, wins & losses, championships, etc, though wrestlers do have some latitude in actually filling out the match with their craft. What is real are the extremely rare genuine ‘shoot.’ Genuine shoots have been very rare in wrestling in the last few decades, though stuff like the WWE’e experiment with a ‘tough guy’ type tournament a while back wasn’t booked in the traditional sense.
Sullivan is old history, I’m sure he is clear. Now, does Purple Haze have an alibi? Suspicious character,