Booking the Invasion : Vince Russo vs. Jim Cornette.

[Shadow of Darkness]

Hell yeah,

Its old enough, but I found it ever-interesting. Its strange that its still not posted in this forum.

Kayfabe Commentaries turned to Vince Russo and Jim Cornette to rebook the Invasion. What would they have done? And whose version is better?

Cornette’s philosophy of wrestling was that the fans wanted to see a good in-ring product with stories and characters that are believable, that build toward big matches. Russo believed fans wanted to see edgy storylines filled with mature content, unexpected turns from good to bad, and “shocking” moments with little in the way of actual wrestling matches. For most of 1997, they were able to work together with Vince McMahon balancing out their ideas to build momentum toward the legendary “Attitude Era.” During this time, Russo would force Vince too choose either him or Cornette as Head Writer. Vince chose Russo.

The two did not cross each others paths until they worked together at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from 2006-2009. Russo would once again, make the owners choose between him and Cornette. They chose Russo again.

Okay now to the main topic,

Jim Cornette starts his version of the Invasion off with a bang. The first week, he has Vince McMahon standing in the middle of the ring and taunting Ted Turner about how he’d won the wrestling war. However, Vince is not satisfied with his victory. He wants to embarrass and punish Turner for competing with and nearly putting him out of business and since he can’t punish Ted, he’s going to take out his frustrations on someone he can punish: the WCW roster. Vince gives the WCW roster an ultimatum; either quit and never work in the business again or have your career destroyed by being jobbed out to every WWE wrestler. This prompts the WCW roster, led by Ric Flair, to come out of the audience and surround the ring. Ric tells Vince that if the WCW wrestlers are going down, they’re taking his Superstars with them, warning Vince that things will get rough whenever a WWE wrestler gets in the ring with a WCW one. This prompts Steve Austin to lead the WWE roster out onto the stage ending the show with a standoff. From there Cornette plots out a year long story with each company treated as a separate entity, much like the way Brand Extension worked previously.

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YnVF2tYCx0Y


But Russo gives us the creative twist. Vince Russo’s Invasion starts off slow. He begins by having the final edition Nitro be the final episode of WCW. After the final Nitro, Scott Hall shows up the next week wanting his old job back. Over the next two weeks, Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan, both seeking their old jobs, join Hall. Vince not only doesn't give them back their jobs he tears them down publically, prompting the three of them to start attacking WWE’s top talent as the NWO. Russo lays out a plan that involves no one other than the nWo coming in through SummerSlam. When Oliver asks when they're going to bring in more people, Russo tells him to stay patient. He turns the sheets over with the names on them, giving his catchphrase, which is says will be on his tombstone, "We have 52 weeks." To get rid of the NWO, Vince makes a deal with Eric Bischoff and lets him bring in WCW wrestlers to handle the problem, thus opening the gates of Troy.

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bs0klRilQ8I


Both bookers have their own angles and philosophies but I feel Russo has the edge here. He had that innovative feeling within him. My vote goes to Russo.
Moreover This is a rather unfair playing field considering that Cornette spent the majority of his career as a BOOKER and Russo spent his as a WRITER...
Russo wrote a lot of really nonsensical and dumb storylines in 2000 that ended up going nowhere and being terrible.
But Russo was the head writer of Raw during their peak period from 1997 up until 1999. He was writing Raw and the monthly PPVs. So taking a writer and hiring him on in WCW to BOOK your product...well of course it didn't work out. Writing wrestling and booking wrestling are two very different things, although their duties sometimes overlap.

Hell yeah...

 

[Miko]

Didn't watch the videos. However Russo wins because Cornette's started with Vince saying "quit or lose a bunch of fake matches" thereby destroying the illusion and making me feel like a cunt for watching wrestling.

 

[Dirk]

Cornette ftw, because wrestling > promos

 

[braveh]

When WWF/E purchased WCW they signed a bunch of contracts. Chances are there is a clause somewhere that prohibit them from making fun of Ted Turner or Time Warner.

In any case, say one word too much and you have a lawsuit hanging over your head.

Is Cornette's version possible?

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

Cornette started by saying that you have to make the people believe it, and then stated an idea that basically shitted on kayfabe. Russo also seems to be going on the slant that you need to make it real, but he seemed to have a better grip on how it should have gone to make it work better. When it comes to Russo and Cornette, polar opposites, I take a very conservative middle ground.

Cornette is a typical wrestling booker of old, but I don't think a lot of his ideas float in this day and age because they are just too recycled. Russo is a progressive thinker in a lot of ways and has an imagination and a grasp for how to bring in NEW viewers more than some of the older bookers. But he loses sight of sense sometimes just for the sake of the swerve and doesn't maintain some of the sanctity of wrestling that you need as a fundamental base to build his big ideas on, things such as having clean matches from time to time.

Between the two of them, if the two of them could have worked together, you've got a more grounded Vince Russo which I think is the best booker, at least in the current age.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I gotta go with cornette because he at least understands wrestling where russo understands shocks and swerves. Russo is good in 10 minute intervals but he is very weak when it comes to mapping out a storyline. Its not so much a knock, Russo was behind some awesome segments but without someone who knows wrestling to map out his ideas and make them part of a storyline he's pretty useless. That was the biggest issue with WCW in its dying days. Interesting stuff often happened but it was all over the place and not streamlined, I'm just saying what's the point of Sting laying down for Hogan if nothing comes of it. Russo is shock for the sake of shock not shock for the sake of story.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I love this!! I loved the Invasion idea and I wish it would have happened either a little differently, or, at least, lasted longer than 5 months. It should have been 12 months minimum, 12 years maximum (yes, that would mean it would end in July 2013, HAHA!!). I must say, I like both versions, but that’s probably because I just didn’t like the way it actually happened, and any alternative would potentially be better.

I like Cornette’s vision because of the Brand Extension taking place a year earlier with WWE / WCW / ECW, instead of when it did happen with Raw / Smackdown / (WW)ECW.

I like Russo’s vision because of the New World Order coming in first and then WWE and WCW trying to remove them.

I like both visions because of the slow builds they have incorporated into their storylines. I think merging both ideas would be better for everyone involved. My version of the Invasion angle has an 8 sided war. WWE vs. WCW vs. ECW vs. NWO vs. DX vs. BWO vs. NWA vs. the Radicalz (a Stable for those who worked at all 3 major companies and either can’t decide which side to join or is disgruntled enough not to join one of the Big 3). I could picture an episode of Raw where one or two feuds are Inter – Company / Inter – Brand feuds, while the remaining four or five feuds are show exclusive. This would have changed the landscape of Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainment forever. TNA might not have been if this were to take place.