Everybody's so quick to shit on Bischoff, Hogan and Russo, and you all forget who has the final say.
Dixie..
Unfortunatetly, we all know the sad reality of the matter is, Dixie is absolutely clueless to what makes a "good" product in professional wrestling. It's almost akin to Ted Turner's hand in WCW; what you'd be asking for here is that, a decade ago, Ted Turner would have been responsible for the demise of WCW, and would have been responsible for the product's turn to shit years earlier. Dixie's has final say in the same way that the letter Y is a vowel; she does, but at the same time, you know that's utter horseshit. Yes, Dixie has final say on letting Vince's product get out there, but because she doesn't know what makes a good wrestling product, her opinion is just kind of there, and doesn't hold any real authority.
In all fairness, though, Russo's inability to develop long, developed storylines isn't just a weakness that is A. New, or B. Unique to him. The truth is, even at the height of his writing ability, Russo rarely was able to develop a succesful long term storyline. Yes, yes, Austin and McMahon, but if you look at it, that program was built on simple concept, and would just really recycle itself month after month after month. McMahon puts unlikely odds, Austin is in trouble, Austin can't win, Austin finds a way to win. I suppose one could say Taker-Kane is proof of his ability to develop "long storylines". That said, the actual interaction between Kane and Taker lastedjust about three months before the storyline got old. When one of the members of the feud wasn't around, the other character received plenty of development, and the feud could last. When Russo was forced to develop both characters on screen towards their feud, it got old and played out. By June of that year, Taker needed to work with Mankind, to get him away from Kane. The point is, this isn't exactly new for Russo. This is his work, and it's always been based on the instant gratification.
Which, by the way, is exactly how the WWE has been set up, as well. WWE has become a monthly take of recycled storylines, with different faces thrown in, to spice it up. That has been, since the beginning of time, the nature of 95% of wrestling "writing". Wrestling isn't meant to be a long, developed story played out over months anymore. It may have been before, but it isn't now, at all. In that way, Russo's writing gets too much blame. Russo's writing is indicitive of the times, rather than an indictment on his own creation.
That said, change seems to be inevitable at this point. If we're to believe the sheets, there's been too much unrest backstage for anything else to happen. If it means Russo is to go, it's a natural evolution for a company that, internally, seems to need it. That said, if you bring him out of TNA, who are you putting in? Recycling an older name won't work, and most the other good candidates are signed to the WWE. Really, where else can you go but Russo?
