Vince Russo's The Brand Podcast

[Low_Ki]

So, out of curiosity I listened to one of Russo's podcasts.

This episode happened to be called 'Castrating The Marks' and it was basically him for an hour going through things that the likes of Meltzer, Alvarez and Wade Keller had said, and basically ratting on them for not knowing the business and trashes their lack of knowledge within it.

Interestingly, some of the time I could see what he was trying to say, but it ended up making him sound...well...like a mark. The one thing he was accusing these other guys of being.

Russo has contributed to wrestling, good and bad no doubt, but my question is, for those who have listened to his podcast, firstly what do you think of it, and how much should we really take on board?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I've listened to a few of his podcasts in the past and his aren't all that different from any other disgruntled person in the business who sees themselves as some great visionary while the majority of fans and insiders disagree with such a self assessment.

Vince Russo and Jim Cornette are opposite sides of the same coin: they both feel that their vision and visions similar to theirs are the only ones that can make for great wrestling, anyone who disagrees is a stupid mark and/or is the reason why wrestling has changed and neither will accept the remote possibility that they're not the genius that they believe themselves to be. They're both passionate and both have left their mark on the industry, but both have shown themselves to be failures when they have the sort of control they want. Russo believes pro wrestling should be all about crash TV, that things such as great matches & championships don't really matter all that much and that unpredictability is king even if it's just for something that sake of being able to say "I bet you didn't see that coming." Cornette, on the other hand, believes wrestling companies should still operate like it's still 1980, that wrestlers stay completely in character while out in the world, that wrestling companies should only hold shows in specific geographic areas and that keeping someone in a reverse chinlock for 5 minutes at a time is entertaining. They're both sort of extremists when you get right down to it.

As for Russo's comments on guys like Meltzer, Alvarez and Keller, I agree to a certain extent. They do have knowledge of what goes on, but not as much as they seem to believe. I can't count the number of times they've gotten wrong information or in which they'll sometimes "report" something without really even providing any facts about it. Also they do sometimes take their own personal views and try to pass them off as rock solid fact. Meltzer is the forefather of modern day smarks and guys like Alvarez and Keller are really sort of disciples who have views very similar to his. As far as labeling them as marks goes, it's true that they're absolutely massive marks for Japanese wrestling and often really overrate it; I enjoy it myself but I've yet to see it as the end all, be all that they jerk off to all the time.

At the end of the day, Russo, Cornette, Meltzer, Keller, etc. are really similar when it's all said and done: they view themselves as authorities on what wrestling should be and anyone else is wrong.

 

[Bagpipes]

I listen to the Castrating the Marks show every Friday, I find it pretty entertaining if for no other reason than that Alvarez, Meltzer, etc. are basically the bubblegum on the bottom of my boot when it comes to pro wrestling commentary. I'd rather listen to a fan podcast done by marks who knowingly admit they're marks than a "professional" podcast done by marks that think they're actually valuable to the wrestling business in some way.

Getting back on topic though, I used to listen to Russo's podcast before he was on PodcastOne when he interviewed more people in the business, but it seems now that most of his shows are just him talking about stuff, wrestling related and non, which doesn't peak my interest as much so I usually stick to Friday shows only.