Vince Russo

[Roadster]

Watched New Blood Rising, and I can confirm there should be a warrant for Vince Russo's arrest.

Thoughts on Russo bro

 

[Geese]

New Blood Rising was a bad pay-per-view but WCW did a lot of terrible ppv's which had nothing to do with Vince Russo. WCW Uncensored 1995 is panned as one of its worst pay-per-views. Russo needed Vince McMahon as a filter, to filter out the good ideas from his terrible ones and there were a lot of terrible ones. Bischoff can blame Russo in his 83 Weeks podcast but he was the head exec in charge and shouldn't have given Russo the green light on those ideas. Russo should've booked Psycho Sid as a strong Champion instead of stripping him of the title and starting all over again. Sid defeated Kevin Nash and it looked like WCW was going to get the ball rolling with him as the face of the company.

 

[Jacob Fox]

My thoughts on Russo. How can I put this...

Okay, this is the most indirect way I can tell what I think. Jim Cornette says he will leave his wife out of his will if she does not take his crippled old body to the cemetery to pee on Russo's grave after he is buried.

I hold no ill will against Cornette for feeling that way.

Okay, that was really a joke in poor taste. But Russo is not someone I care for at all. He is not the worst creative mind in wrestling, but he ranks among them.

 

[Roadster]

New Blood Rising was a bad pay-per-view but WCW did a lot of terrible ppv's which had nothing to do with Vince Russo. WCW Uncensored 1995 is panned as one of its worst pay-per-views.

WCW Uncensored 1995 was panned for bad wrestling and goofy gimmick matches. New Blood Rising and basically every Russo-era WCW PPV is panned for incoherent and nonsensical booking, awful wrestling, really bad gimmicks and even worse gimmick matches, constant 'insider' references and terminology, and incoherent flow. Mid-90s WCW and WWE look like gold compared to Russo-era WCW. Basically every era of wrestling is better than Russo-era WCW.

Bischoff can blame Russo in his 83 Weeks podcast but he was the head exec in charge and shouldn't have given Russo the green light on those ideas.

Bischoff was never the head exec in charge of Russo. Russo came in three weeks after Bischoff got fired in 1999. Bischoff came back in the spring of 2000 as a creative consultant, essentially being a member of the creative team under Russo. Russo came back as the head of creative, and had already packed the creative team with his guys (i.e Ed Ferrara) and was the head of creative under Brad Siegel and Bill Busch so it meant nothing anyways and Bischoff was essentially canned with Hogan at Bash at the Beach 2000.

 

[IndyWrestler1]

There is no other business in the world that would employ Russo for 12 FUCKING YEARS and that is what makes wrestling both epic and unepic

 

[Roadster]

There is no other business in the world that would employ Russo for 12 FUCKING YEARS and that is what makes wrestling both epic and unepic

It's no wonder why the two companies that employed him with free reign are either dead or on life support. Vince Russo getting work has more to do with desperate people making desperate decisions than the wrestling ecosystem genuinely needing him.

To give him some props, he utilized more talent. That's not to say he used them better, as I wonder if Mosh exactly loved being Beaver Cleavage, but he used his talent. He gave the lower midcard and midcard stories and angles, which is always nice to see. The stories, I will say again, were not always that great, but it's better than what WWE does now.

 

[The Fiend]

This guy needs to take instruction to filter his one good idea from the 49 other bad ones , give him the helm and he will screw up every time
For instance
Paper handed to Russo from McMahon

To do list :
Severe ties between Hogan and WCW
Down grade all matches to something on a pole match
Down grade the world title so no one thinks it’s worth anything anymore(maybe give it to one of those celebs WCW love to bring in all the time)

from now on you are on your own
This paper will self ignite in ten seconds ?

 

[InsaneAlphaBeta]

The scary thing about russo is he has people who believe anything he says like some kind of cult, same with cornnette honestly.

I thought cornette was better then russo, and in truth he is to a large extent, but he too has some serious issues, espacially with regards to modern wrestling. Hes the "all the old shit was great the new shit is trash" kinda guy. Except he also thinks this isnt just an opinion, wrestling is at its core an art form, and just becaus eyou dont like some of it, that doesnt make it bad. And if thats what you think he will block you.

I know this because i said that to him on twitter and he blocked me :emoji_slight_smile:

Not surprising honestly.

All in all in regards to russo i think hes baught into his own hype, he believes whatever comes outta his mouth regardless of the evidence against it, worst part is hes got a cult following who believes all of it.

Truth be told though this happens with any decently populer person these days, just look at the paul brothers, they have done some questionable shit, espacially jake paul yet people still follow him, then again ive not kept up, perhaps they both ahve turned a new leaf, and if so good for them but i couldnt be bothered to find out.

Kind of a ramble but those are my...messy put together thoughts.

 

[Zany Clowny]

Will never really understand the hate Russo gets. Every company he's been apart of was worse off without him. Even in WCW, at least he tried something with the Arquette angle, and when he booked himself into the main event the majority of it was spent getting brain damage from Goldberg. Over time I've grown to appreciate his take on wrestling, it's weird but I think he actually protected the wrestlers and the matches more. Matches were like 6-7 minutes long on RAW, not many 14 minute commercial break ridden slog matches between two guys with no character. Made the PPVs feel special. I'm much more of a promo/angle > workrate guy, which is primarily why I stopped watching.

The vitriol against this guy who was key in creating the most popular era in wrestling history is unwarranted imo. In his shoot interviews, if he takes credit for something it's an exaggeration and if he denies his involvement in a bad angle it was his brainchild and he's seething. He can't win with smarks and it's been this way since 1999. I like listening to Cornette sometimes, but his fanbase are a cringe factory. Telling Stone Cold not to have Russo on as a guest and shit, just petty.

 

[The Fiend]

Wrestling is all about paying ones dues to earn a spot on the upper mid card to see if they can get you over with the fans to go on a title run. So to see someone like David Arquette win the world title just to promote a movie WCW where doing at the time was just bad business.

I can remember watching the first hour of Nitro until Raw started on Friday nights but was still keeping up to date with what wcw was doing and found some of it mildly interesting enough so to keep watching until Russo arrived.
WCW became a product with nothing left to sell shortly after and while he had to deal with guys like hogan
Promoters and bookers have had to deal with guys like that for years and found ways to make it work but since Russo held no traction in the wrestling world , Hogan was always going to dominate any negotiation regarding which direction his creative was taking.
All Russo did was tear down any kind of credibility WCW had left

 

[Roadster]

Will never really understand the hate Russo gets. Every company he's been apart of was worse off without him. Even in WCW, at least he tried something with the Arquette angle, and when he booked himself into the main event the majority of it was spent getting brain damage from Goldberg. Over time I've grown to appreciate his take on wrestling, it's weird but I think he actually protected the wrestlers and the matches more. Matches were like 6-7 minutes long on RAW, not many 14 minute commercial break ridden slog matches between two guys with no character. Made the PPVs feel special. I'm much more of a promo/angle > workrate guy, which is primarily why I stopped watching.

The vitriol against this guy who was key in creating the most popular era in wrestling history is unwarranted imo. In his shoot interviews, if he takes credit for something it's an exaggeration and if he denies his involvement in a bad angle it was his brainchild and he's seething. He can't win with smarks and it's been this way since 1999. I like listening to Cornette sometimes, but his fanbase are a cringe factory. Telling Stone Cold not to have Russo on as a guest and shit, just petty.

Companies are worse off without him because when he leaves, the company has to clean up his shit, and that can bury a company (i.e WCW, i.e TNA).

You can't promote an entertainment-based style, but suck at it. Wrestling is still wrestling regardless of what the emphasis is, and he could not book a wrestling show. He can build nice undercard feuds and gimmicks because those are easier to work with, nobody cares if Shark Boy is bed-ridden or beating up Curry Man or whatever the fuck. They do care if one of the top stars is doing dumb shit. He deserves some credit for helping popularize a certain style of wrestling, but I think his stints at TNA and WCW prove that his time at WWE was probably the anomaly and not the case study. It should also be noted that the thing that actually saved the WWE was Vince McMahon, The Rock and Steve Austin and Russo had no part in either of them becoming the top stars in the industry, at the time.

 

[IndyWrestler1]

Wrestling is all about paying ones dues to earn a spot on the upper mid card to see if they can get you over with the fans to go on a title run. So to see someone like David Arquette win the world title just to promote a movie WCW where doing at the time was just bad business.

I can remember watching the first hour of Nitro until Raw started on Friday nights but was still keeping up to date with what wcw was doing and found some of it mildly interesting enough so to keep watching until Russo arrived.
WCW became a product with nothing left to sell shortly after and while he had to deal with guys like hogan
Promoters and bookers have had to deal with guys like that for years and found ways to make it work but since Russo held no traction in the wrestling world , Hogan was always going to dominate any negotiation regarding which direction his creative was taking.
All Russo did was tear down any kind of credibility WCW had left

Should be noted that the average PPV buys went down by 75-80% from the moment Russo joined in his larger spell to when he got kicked out in February of 2012.

Favorites aside, the numbers speak for themselves

 

[Zany Clowny]

You can't promote an entertainment-based style, but suck at it.

He didn't. WCW was in the shitter before he arrived, and after he showed up they used his presence to retcon any wrongdoing by Eric and the booking committee. He had good ideas for the most part, pushing Booker T and getting on the cover of magazines, but the entire company was about to be sold and Ted was sick of this shit. Don't blame him for WCW at all. In TNA he got the show to higher ratings than current AEW. Pushed Abyss and the Main Event Mafia, which were both bright spots imo.

Wrestling is still wrestling regardless of what the emphasis is, and he could not book a wrestling show

He booked the greatest wrestling shows ever produced. Obviously didn't do it alone, but neither did they without him.

The Rock and Steve Austin and Russo had no part in either of them becoming the top stars in the industry, at the time.

 

[IndyWrestler1]

He didn't. WCW was in the shitter before he arrived, and after he showed up they used his presence to retcon any wrongdoing by Eric and the booking committee. He had good ideas for the most part, pushing Booker T and getting on the cover of magazines, but the entire company was about to be sold and Ted was sick of this shit. Don't blame him for WCW at all. In TNA he got the show to higher ratings than current AEW. Pushed Abyss and the Main Event Mafia, which were both bright spots imo.

He booked the greatest wrestling shows ever produced. Obviously didn't do it alone, but neither did they without him.

I will admit Russo got them to higher ratings. This was in a time where ratings really didn't matter much - There was no significant TV revenue yet. The truth is, every business-related measuring stick beyond ratings was down or didn't improve when Russo was there. Ticket sales were getting worse for PPVs, PPV sales were down like I pointed out before, they never turned a profit with Russo around. (Then again, they never turned a profit)

The ratings can be explained as well: Prime-time airing, bigger promotion, more money pumped into the promotion by getting big house names like Hogan, Flair and Jeff Hardy. Comparing it with AEW 9 years later; TV ratings are a completely different beast. 800k now is more valuable than 1.5m back then, how weird it might sound. It's the truth. AEW is a healthier company right now than TNA was in their prime and every business measurement supports that.

It's not that he only did bad things, obviously some people appreciated him a great bit and he had plenty of good ideas as well. The numbers speak for themselves, though.

 

[Roadster]

I will admit Russo got them to higher ratings. This was in a time where ratings really didn't matter much - There was no significant TV revenue yet. The truth is, every business-related measuring stick beyond ratings was down or didn't improve when Russo was there. Ticket sales were getting worse for PPVs, PPV sales were down like I pointed out before, they never turned a profit with Russo around. (Then again, they never turned a profit)

The ratings can be explained as well: Prime-time airing, bigger promotion, more money pumped into the promotion by getting big house names like Hogan, Flair and Jeff Hardy. Comparing it with AEW 9 years later; TV ratings are a completely different beast. 800k now is more valuable than 1.5m back then, how weird it might sound. It's the truth. AEW is a healthier company right now than TNA was in their prime and every business measurement supports that.

It's not that he only did bad things, obviously some people appreciated him a great bit and he had plenty of good ideas as well. The numbers speak for themselves, though.

It's not that he's never had a good idea or that he hasn't done something good, but to disregard his many shortfalls because of some of his successes is a bit redundant. The fact is, he booked some really bad wrestling overall. They weren't all his ideas, but he was the head of creative for WCW and TNA, and all that shit happened under his watch. His whole philosophy is one that just doesn't work with wrestling anymore. He's the opposite of Jim Cornette in that regard, but at least Cornette's ideas aren't cringey (for the most part).