Blaming Russo, seriously?

[shattered dreams]

The first time I saw someone say that Russo was to blame for TNA's ratings on here I laughed it off as someone who had too much kool-aid back in the day to the point they had lost touch with reality. Now I see a few a day saying that. What is going on people?

Russo is still writing a lot of the show, probably, but he most assuredly does not have full creative control. Hogan has made it pretty clear Bischoff has final say when it comes down to it. So for those obsessed with the "filter Russo" concept, they clearly have something along those lines in place. In fact we recently had an extended period of unfiltered Russo after the Jarrett incident. The ratings then were as high as they had ever been to my knowledge.

Then Hogan/Bischoff came in and had one month of record ratings and then one month of falling back to normal and then went to monday nights and bombed. I highly doubt Russo had anything to do with company moving to mondays. I will also go out on a limb and say if when he was unfiltered he focused on building new stars, he was not the driving force behind bringing in people like the nastys. To make any comment that suggests Russo has anything close to full creative control at the moment is the height of ignorance IMO.

 

[jaxx]

My friend, Russo is a huge part of why TNA's ratings suck, but don't get me wrong he doesn't shoulder all of the blame. Dixie is 75% to blame for keeping him around and not surrounding herself with actual wrestling minds who know the business in and out. (Before Hogan/Bischoff) Russo has no idea and IMO doesn't care about the business or the fans, because if he did, he wouldn't treat the fans like there idiots. On top of that he wouldn't write the crap that he does and expect people to tune in and watch. Yes its true he doesn't have the stroke he once had with hogan there, but he still has Dixie Carter's ear.

Impact has been hit or miss for weeks now and I truly believe that's because everyone is trying to play nice and compremise. Until russo is relieved of his duties impact's ratings will continue to stay at 0.9-1.0 at best. I also wanna run a theory that i have by all of you. What if Bischoff/Hogan are allowing this to go on, the ratings to fluctuate and fall. Perhaps they are trying to show Dixie and Spike tv that Russo has no idea what he is doing and if they give them (Hogan/Bischoff) complete control, they will turn TNA around.

Now someone else may have already mentioned this, but I cant believe that Bischoff would allow such foolishness to be put on live tv. I truly believe that there is a bigger agenda going on here, and that is to get rid of Russo without Hogan pulling a power play.

 

[Schizophrenic]

I think that many people get on Russo's ass because he does have a tendancy to do some very out there things. He has a track record int he WWE as being great but he also had many others working with him and Vince had the final say so and say what you will about Vince, the guy knows what he is doing (98% of the time) or else he wouldn't have a company like the WWE. Vince showed just how out there he can get in WCW when he had everything from a "pinata on a pole match" to the whole judy Bagwell fiasco to the repulsive Oklahoma character which made fun of JR and his Bells Paulsy (sp?) and why Dr. Death went along with it I'll never know. He had some pretty good ideas in the early days of TNA with Sports Entertainment Xtreme (S.E.X. get it? aww forget it) He has had some good ones recently in TNA (The Mafia being one) and some that were not nearly as bad as people would lik eyou to believe (The Roxxi head shave was nowhere near as bad as people claim it was. It got Roxxi & The Beautiful People over much better than standard weekly matches would have).

He also tends to write for his enjoyment which is a big no no in entertainment. You write for the mass not the minority.

 

[Mr. Wrestling XIII]

Russo had alot more stroke with creative during his first run with TNA way back in the Weekly PPV days. A lot of you probably never got to see brillant angles like S.E.X. with Russo as the on air leader and The Dupp Cup. Now Russo is working with Bishoff and Hogan, they make most if not all decisions when it comes to creative.

 

[Gerald Brisco]

Who Knows?

I can Certainly tell you, Nobody on this damn Forum

Judging by when Hogan./Bishoff came to the company full time a lot of the angles were fairly quickly finished and quite a few new ones started

Now no writer is this bad, Not even Russo, Its obviously someone who's come in and Disliked the direction and overhauled the stories, I wouldnt be suprised if Russo has hardly any say nowdays,

While you can Call Russo Bad/Brilliant, Its pretty clear he has much less control then he did about 3 months ago.

 

[wushady]

Russo has always been hit or miss in a lot of his writing. Personally I don't think it's entirely his fault that TNA is getting awful ratings recently. It has more to do with Hogan and Biscoff since they have final say on creative decisions, and moving to Mondays. Which was way to soon to do imo. I don't see how Russo could get any blame for this. Ratings were descent and slowly getting better when he was in charge.

Hogan and Bischoff come in ratings went up slightly. Then dropped back down quickly. Then they have dropped lower every week they've been on Mondays. We all know all they want to do is compete with WWE. They have been saying their going after WWE since they signed with TNA. We all know they are far from ready to be competing with WWE. That's why the ratings suck not because of Russo.

 

[jaxx]

I disagree. Judging by the nonsense that is on impact at times, I would bet money that Russo still writes a lot of the nonsense that is on impact. And once again I'm not throwing all of the blame on Russo, but its pretty clear that he still has more of an influence than he should.

 

[snowdogg438]

Until the Russo is the whole problem people can come out with true proof that all the bad angles and rating have been provided solely by Russo this argument will always just be juvenile. You can keep saying Russo wrote this, or Russo made this happen, prove it, give me conformation from someone in tna that this was solely a Russo idea. It would be one thing if Russo was the only writing team member and there was no one above him to have final say, but thats not the case, and I don't believe that has ever been the case. Hogan and Bischoff and Dixie have final say, in the earlier days Jarrett's owned the company so of course they have finally say. If you wanna blame anyone for why things are the way they are blame Bischoff, Hogan, Dixie, and Jarrett for letting things get on tv that should never make it to tv.

 

[Greenlight13]

I swear Russo hating was like the original Cena hating, only there's even less of a case to make as nobody outside of the creative room knows what stories he is and isn't responsible for. But the moment something bad happens in TNA people go directly to Russo. Nobody praises him when they do well I notice.

I don't think the booking for anyone but Hogan, Abyss and to an extent The Wolfpac is bad. Hogan controls Hogan. Hogan was the one that demanded a mega-push for Abyss. The Wolfpac are Hogan's friends. Notice a pattern? Can we blindly blame Hogan instead please? Because I'm sick of Russo being TNA's martyr.

The reason for TNA's bad ratings is they weren't ready to make the jump to Mondays. They just weren't. I'm a big TNA supporter to I'm not trying to bury them, and it's not to say they won't be ready one day, but in 2010 they aren't there. I stated in another thread that they would have been better off gathering their troops and shoring themselves up for the future for a year or two before trying to start this war. But I'm sure the immediacy of Kurt Angle's limited remaining years and the acquisition of Hulk and his millions pushed the envelope to the point they had to take a shot.

Starting the war now might have given them a better shot, because WWE is known for entering into a massive dull period from about April to August. Trying to go head to head with them during the run up to Wrestlemania was just not wise. What wrestling fan wasn't going to watch the final appearance of Shawn Michaels?

The problem in my opinion is too much pride. Hogan is too proud to admit he isn't as big of a deal as he once was, so he won't step away from all his screen time or stop doing the same tired stuff he's been doing for decades. Dixie is too proud to admit that TNA doesn't have the name power of the WWE. The higher ups collectively will be too proud to admit that moving to Mondays was a bad move so they won't move back to Thursday for fear they're admitting defeat. I think everybody on this site would go crazy laughing at them if they did that, but I also think it would be the wisest move if they want to continue to grow, because they're unopposed on that night. Heck, trying to compete with NXT or Smackdown would be wiser than stepping up against Raw.

I get the message they're trying to send, but they don't have enough bullets in the chamber to take down a monster that big. Move back to Thursdays, continue to grow your talent-base, invest in your future, and just make sure that you are self-sustaining and built to last. Their best hope right now is to get fans of WWE to watch Raw AND Impact, and pray that some of them prefer what they see on Thursdays so that one day way down the line if they try to move again they bring some of that audience with them. Right now some people may be interested, but not enough to stop watching Raw.

 

[gydion]

tna's problem isn't russo or hogan it is simply that the move to mondays came to soon. the idea to go live was good but doing on mondays was a big mistake. i've been a wrestling fan for more years then i would like to admit and i have seen this all play out over and over again.
like it or not people will take whatever wwe shoves at them because that is all they know. it was the same in the old days. crockett pushed to compete, spent more money then he had and lost his ass. the awa was stuck in limbo because no one in the company would catch up with the times. both companies put on better matches then vince, had better wrestlers for a time, and had a good fan base. then they went for the throat of vince and failed. not because they didn't have a product that people wanted to see but because people wanted to see wwe's product more.
tna has a strong fan base, good writing from time to time, and superior wrestling. yes the storylines are confusing at times but take into consideration the company is only 8 years old. i remember the crap vince put out in the 80's. it took mania 3 to get it all over to a point that everyone wanted to watch. the tide turned because he had what people wanted and the others couldn't get their heads out of their asses.
tna needs a hook that will catch everyones attention. what that is who knows. damn near everything that can be done in wrestling has been.
so i pose a question, what happens when vince hangs it up? sooner or later he will step down then what?

 

[BWEEZY2009]

I agree that there is no excuse for .05 rating. That is awful

There is a lot of blame to go around, first of all you release creed but you keep Jordan and give him a Lady Gaga gimmick? WTF.... At least they ended the Team 3D Dudleys Feud

 

[Seritonin]

TNA didn't build a big enough audience on Thursday's to warrant a move to Monday's. A consistent 1.2 is not enough to make such a drastic move.

It doesn't matter if Russo is writing the show, if Hogan/Bischoff are making the decisions or if Shane McMahon came in and took over, when you're competing with a huge fan base like Raw's and don't have one of your own, you're basically shooting yourself in the foot.

I do think it shows lack of understanding of the business by Dixie Carter, Hogan, Bischoff and Spike TV. Dixie basically let Hogan/Bischoff do what they wanted, Hogan/Bischoff are way too impatient and just had to take on Raw way too early and SpikeTV allowed such a disaster to happen.

I think if anything it's a slap to the face of Russo whose busted his ass for the company for years just to get pushed down by some morons that hit gold ONCE with the nWo gimmick and then faded off into the sun...

I DO enjoy TNA right now, I was a nWo fan, I enjoy the nostalgia of the wolfpac, would love to see Hogan turn heel too, BUT, they also need to introduce new ground-breaking idea's, right now we're seeing WCW 1998 meets WWF 1999 = TNA 2010.

But again, ground breaking idea's or not will go unappreciated when you go against Raw so quickly. At least go to 8pm eastern and have a free hour to build an audience.

 

[WWE Manster03]

tna's problem isn't russo or hogan it is simply that the move to mondays came to soon. the idea to go live was good but doing on mondays was a big mistake. i've been a wrestling fan for more years then i would like to admit and i have seen this all play out over and over again.
like it or not people will take whatever wwe shoves at them because that is all they know. it was the same in the old days. crockett pushed to compete, spent more money then he had and lost his ass. the awa was stuck in limbo because no one in the company would catch up with the times. both companies put on better matches then vince, had better wrestlers for a time, and had a good fan base. then they went for the throat of vince and failed. not because they didn't have a product that people wanted to see but because people wanted to see wwe's product more.
tna has a strong fan base, good writing from time to time, and superior wrestling. yes the storylines are confusing at times but take into consideration the company is only 8 years old. i remember the crap vince put out in the 80's. it took mania 3 to get it all over to a point that everyone wanted to watch. the tide turned because he had what people wanted and the others couldn't get their heads out of their asses.
tna needs a hook that will catch everyones attention. what that is who knows. damn near everything that can be done in wrestling has been.
so i pose a question, what happens when vince hangs it up? sooner or later he will step down then what?

I do agree with you that TNA needs a hook that can get them into the minds of the masses. The problem with that is this: what do they do when they get that fanbase? They have maybe 3 shots to reach out to the masses, get their product to take a foothold, and move up the proverbial ladder towards the perch that WWE has made for themselves at the top.
Shot 1 was fired on January 4 with Hulk Hogan coming to TNA. They had a giant billboard in Times Square with Hogan on it. Who else in the world has the name in wrestling Hogan has? Nobody. They had a very nice live show debut all things considering and what happened? Instead of featuring what the company had to offer, what they did was put on an abortion of an opening match, terrible promo segments, and a show that was booked akin to picking lottery numbers by throwing wet spaghetti against the wall and guessing what numbers that spaghetti represents.
Shot 2 comes now. Wrestlemania is over. WWE typically runs into a rut creatively because of the draft that is coming in the end of April. They don't really book alot of newer fueds(although Monday was a nice exception and suprise) and that is TNA's oppourtunity to lure fans in with a creative landscape that is refreshing and new. They can recycle angles, that is fine.
Pro wrestling has recycled angles since it became popular. What they need to do is have creative sit down with their talent and get a feel for their individual personality and come up with a way to have them us THAT to get them over. If they are able to make characters from their current talent that aren't gimmicky or convoluted, then the average fan can relate and will tune in to watch that. That is why Stone Cold got over. He related to the average fan. Same with Mick Foley(not to be confused with Mankind, who I thought struggled to get over without help). Make Eric Young the every man's man. Have Hernandez/Morgan fued continue when he comes back(I like the way that they are shaping that fued, with the injury angle and such).
Shot 3 is yet to come. Honestly, if they get to Shot 3 and don't deliever, then the old adage 3 strikes and your out will come into play. Not out of business, but off of Monday nights. If they can't gain momentum the next step definately is to scale back to Thursdays. They could still go live if they wanted, which I would support. Maybe even move to Friday and go live against a taped Smackdown although I don't know how well they would do on Friday's which isn't a typical wrestling day.

Now to the real topic, I think Russo gets the brunt of the blame because of what he historically has put forward to us as viewers. He in my opinion, doesn't care at all about the business. I'm gonna paraphrase him from an interview he did responding the the Jan. 4 show which had 16 minutes of wrestling on the 2 hour show. He said how pathetic their lives must be that they sit down with a stopwatch and count how many in ring segments are in a FAKE wrestling show. As a fan, that is a GIANT slap in the face. I know it's fake, that isn't the point. I watch it for the entertainment that it brings to me. I don't give a shit if its real. Major League Baseball is real and it bores the shit out of me half the time. Wrestling is like a good sitcom, in that if you don't entertain the fans then you don't keep your show very long. That's the reason why people shit on Russo, because he doesn't have a record of entertaining the fans with HIS ideas. Not ideas that were used by a TEAM when he was in WWE. When he is fully in charge of creative, he goes off on unfunny tangents. He is the Carrot Top of creative. I place the blame not only on Russo, but also Hogan, Bischoff, and most importantly Dixie. She is a mark for her own company and can't sit down and constructively look at it and realize that she needs to have a group of wresling minded people who can take control of the product. Not Hogan and Bischoff stroking each others' egos or Russo and Ed Ferrarra telling dirty jokes and snickering to each other. That is why they take all the flack from people.

 

[jaxx]

Well stated Manster03, well stated. I'm sure all of the Russo fans on here will have an excuse for your argument as well, but the fact remains, Russo has no respect for the business or what these guys put there body through to entertain us.

 

[shattered dreams]

As far as I know that was from a blog post, not an interview and your interpretation of what he said is about as convoluted as it could be. In spite of that he apologized anyway for the fake part of the comment since that is a hot button word among wrestlers. I did not see you cover that. People say Russo does not know anything about the wrestling business. Is that a serious statement? He has been working in the industry for at least 18 years, many of those spent in high positions. People say he does not have respect for what the wrestlers put their bodies through. I say that seems quite unlikely to be the case since he has first hand experience with a Goldberg spear through a cage into a barricade that left him with serious concussion issues. I would like to post the relevant part of that blog so people see the real point he was making, he even throws in a baseball reference for manster.


Why am I so highly entertained by "reality" TV? "Teen Moms", "Dr. Drew Drug Rehab", "Bad Girls Club", and of course "Jersey Shore". Man, I would just love to be slapped around by J-WOW even if it was for one stinkin' night. That is my kind of girl. What's odd, is that I guess somebody like me, a professional writer because I get paid to do what I do, should watch these shows and just rip them to shreds. I mean, "Bill & Gulliana", is a "reality" show that is so badly scripted, that I should start my own on-line newsletter and rip it to shreds every week. The only reason I don't is because I WATCH IT, and I AM ENTERTAINED BY IT.

Which brings me to "IMPACT!". I'd like to thank all of you for giving us a 1.3 rating for three weeks in a row. I don't think we've ever done that before. I can't believe that we have reached that height for the first time–and yet–as somebody watched the show with a stop-watch–there was only 16 minutes of wrestling on the show!!!"

I've got to be honest with you, for the last month I haven't really been myself because I've been dealing with a health issue. A health issue serious enough that I was forced to go to a doctor for the first time in a decade. Now grant it, as I stated in "Forgiven", I am a hypochondriac, but believe me–this time there was something to worry about. As the days grew long, and the symptoms persisted, I just couldn't help but to think every day about my life. The things that got me here, the things that really made me tick, the things that I've done, the things that I still want to do. But, the one vision that just keep itself burned in my mind no matter what I did was my family. If anything happen to me–I can't even describe into words how much I'd miss them. I couldn't stop thinking about that. Almost 50 years on this planet, and what it came down to was a hand full of people. Then Matt told me that somebody actually posted on line the minutes we had of wrestling on Thursday's show. I couldn't help but ask myself, "How can something so trivial mean so much to somebody that they would actually sit there and count how many minutes of fake wrestling were on a fake wrestling show in the course of two hours?" That just put everything in perspective for me.

Point: Enjoy wrestling, we all do, just don't let it consume your life because there are just so many things in life that are far more important.


I wonder how many minutes during a baseball game, the ball is actually in-play? Bet you it's not even 16. HMMMM.

If anyone is interested in explaining why this is such a horrible thing to say there is a discussion on it already http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?t=94952