Vince Russo, A change of opinion

[Dave Youell]

After years of hearing conflicting reports from many different sources regarding Vince Russo I sat down last night a watch a 2 hour shoot, which changed my opinion about the guy, here are a few of the things which stuck out in mind and also something's that surprised me, here are some of my highlights:

On the subject of David Arquette winning the title:

This wasn't even mentioned until a few hours before the show started, and It wasn't even his idea Tony Schavonie (SP?) suggested it and then Russo went to the board with the idea. It was again another shock tactic which Russo recognised, but it worked, the next day David was in USA Today with the belt and the next week there was a promo with Courtney Cox and Kevin Costner, they couldn't in their wildest dreams got that kind of publicity if DDP had won the belt that night, plus he didn't beat a wrestler for that belt, he beat Eric Bischoff so it wasn't like he even beat a wreslter for the title.

Russo's work ethic never evolved around the wrestling itself, he never booked the actual match, he may when needed suggest what the finish should be for storyline development, but didn't deal with the 'nuts and bolts' of the actual match. Meaning Russo's aim was on getting in viewers to look at the storyline and characters rather than the wrestling itself, as the average fan In his opinion was only interested in the finish of the match once it had started, once a wreslter hit that rest hold you would lose 50% of your audience because today's casual wrestling fans have a very short attention span.

On WCW as a whole:

He knew within the first week of working there that he was in the shit, but to his credit in the first 3 months when he was booking he got the ratings up from a 2.5 to a 3.5 a pretty impressive figure all things considered, it was then at this point they got someone else in for 3 months and then asked Russo back when the ratings were again back at a 2.5. Although many people on the net may not agree with Russo's methods, they were effective, the ratings speak for themselves, this is why he did the David Arquette thing and why he put the belt on himself, to get the people to sit up and listen and watch the show and try to give it that unpredictability that kept the viewers guessing and keep them watching.

On Vince:

Russo did really kiss Vince's ass throughout the shoot, that may be because he wants to work back with Vince or it could be because he has a genuine respect for him, I got the feeling that it was a but of both. From the comments he made it does sound like he devoted 3 years of his life to Vince and was his right hand man, he said that booking back then was alot simpler and that's what made it work. Himself and Ed Ferrera would spend 8 hours on 1 day talking about the entire roster and then come up with storylines for all of them, every single guy. Then the following day they would present them to Vince, He would them change things and Tweek things, then give it back to Russo and Russo would write the script for the next weeks Raw, very simple, but the whole process did become very time consuming and Russo was realising that he was becoming burnt out.

It was then around this time that Vince announced Smackdown, Russo said he didn't feel this was a good idea, he didn't like WCW's Thunder and he felt 2 shows would hurt the company as a whole, mainly because it would water down Raw, as it was still the same booking team doing both shows, meaning the time taking on each show was split in half. Russo continued to book both shows until his departure.

After WCW folded and he had a meeting with Vince about coming back, he wanted to do it to help the company as he no longer enjoyed the product he was watching anymore and he was watching character that he helped mould in a show that he helped build and all he wanted to do was help out. He was offered a consultant role which he turned down and left from what I can gather with no hard feelings

On TNA:

From the sound of his shoot he really doesn't like TNA all that much! He was promised a booking role by Jarret, but it never emerged for a long time he was only an on screen character and nothing more.

He doesn't feel that TNA is what it should or could be. He was expecting something with a bit more edge, when you can get away with nudity and swearing, but that never happened, to be honest he didn't talk to much about TNA.

On the Internet and Dirtsheets:

The only problem that he seems to have with everyone on the internet and every dirt sheet stating everything as fact and not using the phrase In my Opinion. if someone says that this happened or states what they think of a match it must be that way because it was stated as fact. He just wishes that more people emphasized that it's opinion

So overall all, I don't think Russo is as big of a dick as we have been lead to believe, as always there are 2 sides to every story and somewhere between those stories lies the truth, take it for what you will, But after watching all that I must say I respect him more than I used to