Russo Says Sami Zayn Is Not A Star, That Fans Only Enjoyed Raw Because They Marked Out

[Prince Bálor]

Vince Russo posted a new blog today, trashing WWE's edition of Monday Night Raw this week. He went on to say that the only reason fans enjoyed the show was because they wanted to "mark out" for former NXT Champion Sami Zayn. Here is a part of the blog.

"Everybody is running to the defense of the WWE, claiming that RAW was a great show on Monday night. WHY was it great in their opinion? Simply because an NXT wrestler that they all mark out for, Sami Zayn, made his surprise appearance on the WWE's premiere show. I can only imagine when Sami got introduced by Bret Hart and came out as a surprise through the RAW entrance—to the Internet Wrestling Community is was the equivalent of Jesus himself showing up unannounced at the Sea of Galilee. But to the casual wrestling fan—nobody cared—to them this was a jobber and nothing more–so they indeed turned back to hoops.
RAW is a television show and Sami Zayn is NOT a television star—nor—will he be anytime soon. Sami is an exceptional wrestler on a wrestling show, and the only people who care about him are those die hard wrestling fans who are looking for 5-star matches that the massive don't give a !@#$% about."

Source

 

[Leo C]

Vintage Russo. He really doesn't have a point though, people can call a show great for whatever reason they like lol. If he wants to talk about how Sami's a geek, well, he's made ONE appearance, lol. Not sure what the hell else could the case be. It was an amazing debut to create a future star and a very entertaining segment for the IWC, which, yes, does give them the right of calling it great.

 

[CM Punk]

Russo isn't wrong, but lol.
Just because someone likes a show, doesn't mean everyone has to. Let them enjoy whatever they liked, it's none of your concern to tell people what they have to like.
Also, of course he isn't a TV Star. It was his fucking debut!

 

[Stopspot]

Hey Vince, know who else had the exact same debut? The guy he faced for the US title.

 

[C.M. Shaddix]

He's right... damn... no arguement here

 

[Snowman1]

Russo is a bigger attention whore than a chick doing shoots for pop-up ads.

Anyway, Dear Vince Russo: You almost killed a wrestling promotion just by being involved with them after it was leaked that the owner desparately clinged to any amount of secrecy to keep your sorry ass employed, which you then ruined by accidentally forwarding an email to the wrong person. Your opinions on business or professional wrestling are completely invalid, and may we never hear from your irrelevant ass again.

 

[Majour]

Two words: David Arquette.

 

[WarMachine1]

The illegal streams are killing the ratings and the idiots doing it are the reason no one cares what the fans think

 

[Snowman1]

Reading this blog lol, this should be fun

Spoiler

SAMI ZAYN DOES NOT=RATINGS

Spoiler

by VINCE RUSSO

Please allow me to introduce myself—I’m Vince Russo.

‘”If the show is good . . . they will watch it.”

– Vince McMahon, sometime during the Attitude Era[/quote]


Five lines in and I'm not sure if I can go on. The stupid is too strong.

In FIVE lines, he wound up doing the ultimate douchey move of introducing himself TWICE before making a quote of Vince that completely contradicts his point. AND he hasn't even written anything yet!

Those were Vince McMahon’s exact words to me one day at his dining room table while we were working on the next episode of RAW. The conversation came about when the previous show’s rating came in, and it faired extremely well against tough competition. Vince’s point was that no matter what else is on TV at the time—it doesn’t matter—if your show is good—it will be the one of choice.

Last night RAW experienced its lowest rating of the year, and of course out came the excuses that it was up against the second round of the NBA playoffs. Now, while that is indeed a fact, it had nothing to do with the rating bottoming out. The numbers sunk to new 2015 lows because the casual television fans for that night chose the NBA over RAW because the NBA was indeed the better show of the evening. However, had it been another time, another era, say Austin vs. Rock circa 1997—-it wouldn’t have mattered if LeBron James was matching up with Julius freaking’ Erving—the television viewer was watching wrestling that night.

But of course it's about the Attitude Era since that's the only thing you ever did, Vincente. First of all, this has nothing to do with Sami. Second: Random people don't watch wrestling. Third... I may tag D'Z but surely he'll see this: Raw isn't DVR-proof. If there's a basketball game you want to see going up against Raw, you watch the basketball game that's only good live and save Raw, or just go on the internet or (preferably) Hulu whenever you have the time. Fourth: So why doesn't Vince still have that philosophy as they give in to MNF every year?

However, everybody is running to the defense of the WWE, claiming that RAW was a great show on Monday night. WHY was it great in their opinion? Simply because an NXT wrestler that they all mark out for, Sami Zayn, made his surprise appearance on the WWE’s premiere show.

Nope.

I can only imagine when Sami got introduced by Bret Hart and came out as a surprise through the RAW entrance—to the Internet Wrestling Community is was the equivalent of Jesus himself showing up unannounced at the Sea of Galilee. But to the casual wrestling fan—nobody cared—to them this was a jobber and nothing more–so they indeed turned back to hoops.

Who was turning on that segment? Seriously, name the people you are talking about, dude. If they did exist, they would know it's their FIRST APPEARANCE (besides that tag match on Raw). Feel free to say fans need to warm up to him. Go ahead, but most people who care about wrestling would have seen Zayn's name trending on Twitter many times by now anyway. Vince Russo, you, yourself did a bunch of worked-shoot bullshit back in 1998, when there was some semblance of kayfabe left, claiming "The Internet exposed the business anyway so this is how you get viewers, yeah!" And even though that was incredibly stupid then and a problem now, you can't talk about how everyone knows the insides of the business in 1998 and appealing to casuals in 201... oh, right, you're Vince Russo. Carry on.

Also, I still fail to see how this proves Sami can't draw

RAW is a television show and Sami Zayn is NOT a television star—nor—will he be anytime soon. Sami is an exceptional wrestler on a wrestling show, and the only people who care about him are those die hard wrestling fans who are looking for 5-star matches that the massive don’t give a !@#$% about.

Oy, I'll need a whole bottle of asprin to get through this... WOW THIS IS SO DUMB IT'S UNREAL. Anyone think Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens was a technical masterpiece? Fuck no. That match got over because of the story as with SO MANY OF SAMI'S MATCHES. He's over because he's an incredibly likable guy, something you'd know nothing about, you jackass. He got over through his character and promo segments that you keep raving is the most important thing in wrestling. But yeah, keep ignoring that.

That’s why as champion Seth Rollins isn’t drawing no matter how hard they push him. Seth Rollins is a great wrestler, who only appeals to those purists who watch RAW for quality matches. The casual masses don’t care about that. What they care about are characters and storylines that ENTERTAIN them like the other TELEVISION shows they watch.

You mean the "corporate champion" character that's been done to death ever since I believe YOU wrote the Rock being in that same spot?

RAW wasn’t a GREAT show because Sami Zayn was on it—and the numbers clearly back that up. As Vince stated to me—there was better programming on television and that’s what the masses decided to watch. At some point in time, right around the Royal Rumble in Philly, the WWE started listening to their small, niche audience—the ones with the loudest voice—the ones who will watch as long as the word WRESTLING is somewhere in the show’s title.

First of all, we called it a good show because it entertained us. Entertaining your fans is a GOOD IDEA. Due to this show being entertaining and not watching it, that makes me want to watch next week. But as much as you've obsessed over ratings since 1997, you still don't get that. Fuck your numbers.

Second: So the fact that nobody turned on a show that had a guy nobody knew would be on it didn't have anyone turn it on? SHOCKER. But of course Russo, mister "Lets make everything unpredictable!" wouldn't get that

Third: It's not just Sami you jackhole.

Fourth: Were you not watching in 2013? When they took the fans' rabid complaining and turned it into a massive storyline that's still (sadly) going on, based off the shit that you wrote?

They have completely made a statement that they no longer care about the masses watching television—the masses that stopped watching their product a very long time ago.

So they don't cater to a fanbase that doesn't watch their show?

I fully understand that Sami Zayn is one of the best wrestlers employed by the WWE, there is ZERO DOUBT that he is a “great worker”, but as my friend the Disco Inferno so eloquently puts it . . . “Wrestling Doesn’t Draw”, and that was once again proven this past Monday night.

So you're trying to judge something you haven't watched... probably par for the course

Hate mail welcomed and accepted. Nothing personal, I’d just REALLY like the casual television viewers to start watching RAW again. Unfortunately, that will never happen if there is absolutely no reason to.

As much as we mock Vince for saying it, wrestling really is a dirty word. Go ask 100 random non-fans if they'll tune into Raw this Monday. Most of them will probably smack your hobo-looking ass in the face while the rest laugh in it.

So, in conclusion: Apparently Sami Zayn doesn't draw ratings because people decided to not watch a show that they didn't know he'd be on and put on a good match. Man, I weep for whatever wrestling company you're writing fo... oh, wait

AND I'M THE GUY WHO DEFENDS YOUR ASS

 

[The GOAT]

So according to him, it's wrong of fans to mark out over something (or someone) that legitimately gets them excited? News to me.

This might be a shock to Russo, but not everything is about "da ratingz." They're very instrumental and important to the people who work within the company, but a fan's personal enjoyment of someone or something shouldn't be affected by how much they draw. (In truth, ratings can be a very tricky metric to judge someone's worth by since they tend to fluctuate quite a bit if you observe their patterns over a long period of time. Plus, as weird as it sounds, it's very often the case that ratings and buyrates don't perfectly correlate with one another. Television ratings are only one measurement of drawing.)

Everyone has to start somewhere, and Zayn getting his start by wrestling the biggest star the company has to offer (even though he isn't actually an official member of the full-time roster just yet) is a damn good start.

 

[Stopspot]

Fans seem to take the ratings, especially the RAW ones like they are indicators of life or death. Which we honestly shouldn't. Like Lock pointed out they are there for the guys in the office to handle. We as fans should care about quality and being entertained.

 

[Farooq]

Oh Russo, don't you know you shouldn't try so hard to be relevant :bischoff: