watz apnin, this my first post really, so ere we go.
first of all thunder dave you can go f urself, if it waznt for russo there wud b no wwe rite now as he saved their asses by making dx, stone cold and the rock, even kane- undertaker story, so u can kiss my ass.
john cena is a shitbag, he iz the same pg bullshit fed to those fifteen and under, tna is a choice for older people. cena sux ass, 5 move jonathan, then waving his hand around like a disabled monkey. he has no stock, wwe just wanting to sell them orang shirtz off the punk.
undertaker'z orite, actually hez very good, but anyone with half a brain must admit he gettin very predictable as-well from a storyline point of view. it's like what russo said, before wcw challenged the wwe, wwe fed whatever they wanted to the audience, i mean u can picture stephanie and triple h just lyin in bed, sayin and in the end 'cena does an attitude adjustment, and dx do all the suckkkkit with the little bastardo, show over'
they just feedin cena and dx, i mean sure now and then orton will come around in the main event, only to be crushed by john cena in 5 minutes, or weasling to hhh.
it dont make any f'in sense, if tna get bigger arenas, then trust me the likes of orton will jump, trust me, not yet. but soon,hogan wants to move to bigger arenas, hopefully they do, coz itz the atmosphere that makes all the difference.
by the way hbk needs to whip hhh's ass, i mean this dx shit gettin very boring rite now, and cena needs to stop being superman please, if not all the viewers over a certain age will gradually go to tna.
Funnily enough I agree with most of this! You're gonna start me on another Vince Russo rant haha...
It's my belief that 'WWE' fans truly don't know the full extent of Vinnie Ru did for the WWF. It's funny how Russo will give credit to people who deserve it and he doesn't get shit in return. To be fair, you can't form an opinion on the guy based on biased WWE DVD's.
The creative set-up in the WWF during Russo's tenure was much different than today. Vince Russo was Vince McMahon's right hand man from May of 1996 right up until he left for WCW in October '99.
Unlike now, where the creative team is made of a committee, from '96 and through til '98 the creative was handled by Vinnie Mac and Russo. Of course guys like Kevin Dunn and Pat Paterson had a little influence, But Russo was writing the shows. Keep in mind, starting in '95, he was writing all the promos for the guys as well as editing the WWF magazine.
Anyway, as the WWF's on screen 'attitude' began to change in late '96, that direction is credited to Russo. Since WCW was so superstar heavy at the time, McMahon knew he had to get with the times and can the 1980's style wrestling and modernise his product to stay in the ballpark with WCW.
By 1999, Ed Ferarra was brought in to assist Russo with the writing duties for Raw and later Smackdown! which debuted in August '99.
Russo is also credited as the architect behind the original DX, The 'Greater Power' storyline in '99, The Corporation/DX feud, The Undertaker/Kane angle and the Austin/McMahon feud to name a few.
It was even Russo's idea to change the look of the bland Raw to 'Raw Is War' and make the show more aggressive and feature more reality based storylines and angles in '97. Due to the popularity of TV shows at the time like Jerry Springer etc...Ratings steadily increased until Raw drew 5's and 6's in the Nielson's. It's also interesting to note that Vince Russo booked the all time highest-rated segment in the history of wrestling on cable TV, The This Is Your Life skit with Foley and The Rock from the September 27th 1999 Raw. Which drew an incredible 8.1 rating!
Russo would write for each talent in depth individually and would have a story for everyone on TV, which kept the under card healthy and interesting. Totally unlike WWE for the past 9 years. Each character would react differently when put in different situations. Again, unlike today.
Onto WCW, I challenge anyone to look up the ratings for Nitro during Russo and Ferarra's first stint from October '99 to early January 2000. The September 27th 1999 Nitro was the last one before Russo and Ferarra took over the booking. It scored a final and consistent for the time 2.9 rating. Ratings steadily increased and the October 18th '99 Nitro finished up with a 3.3 compared to Raw's monstrous 5.4 final rating. The WCW product in my opinion had a bit of life in it again, younger and or underutilised talents saw more TV time. Other guys such as Kidman and Rey Misterio Jr. got a push alongside super worker Eddie Guererro forming the Filthy Animals and so on. The product also adopted a more aggressive style and became much less predictable. This as I mentioned before was reflected in the TV ratings for Nitro which instead of 2's, started pulling 3.5's and 4's each week.
The reason why Russo was canned the first time in January 2000 was because he proposed to put the belt on Tank Abbott at the Souled Out event. It was a scrambled plan due to Heavyweight champ Bret Hart vacating the belt as a result of Goldberg stiffing him with the head kick in the main event at Starrcade the previous month. Hart informed everyone that he was out injured the day before the PPV. With Hart out of the picture, the 'new' nWo angle took a huge blow as Hart was the centrepiece as heel world champ. Other similar situations took place that week too which fucked up the advertised card.
An 'over the top rope' Battle Royal Royal was proposed by Russo, in which Sid was going to be booked to outlast all these other guys, one by one, then the last entrant would be Tank Abbott. Vinnie Ru's argument was that realistically from an in-ring standpoint, If you're Sid, you're tired and battered, then after you've ousted all these guys then suddnely you have to go up against a fresh, former UFC combatant, in the real world, he could hit ya once and knock you over the ropes. Tank was only going to have a transitional reign anyway until they figured out who to put the belt on. The old guard, led by J.J Dillon actively fought against the more mature direction the show took with Russo at the helm, and the Tank Abbott proposal gave them enough ammo to have Russo demoted and placed in a committee. Russo had no wish to do so, therefore he was able to get out of his WCW deal.
WCW was in such disarray at this time, Benoit won the WCW Heavyweight title in match against Sid in which Arn 'The Enforcer of Kayfabe' Anderson refereed. Then right after the match, Benoit as the holder of the World title, Guererro, Malenko, Shane Douglas and Konnan all asked for a release from WCW. They couldn't bare the thought of working under Kevin Sullivan again as he got the pencil after Russo. Benoit, Eddie, Malenko and Perry Saturn incredibly got a full release from WCW and debuted 2 weeks later on Raw.
April 2000 saw the return of Russo, this time working alongside Eric Bischoff. The two never found common ground in which to 'relaunch' WCW which resulted in the bungled Millionaires Club/New Blood angle. By late June 2000, Bischoff bailed. I'll probably never agree with the Arquette title reign, but to be fair, it was Tony Schiavone's idea! Tony had a lot of input in creative in WCW. In the production meeting, after Schiavone proposed the Arquette title win, not one single person objected. Guys such as Johnny Ace (WWE's current Talent boss) and Terry Taylor all kept their mouths shut and agreed to go with it. It is what it is, it certainly got WCW mainstream publicity at a time when they had zero. If Page had won the title that night, It's pretty safe to guess that his picture wouldn't have been on the cover of Entertainment Weekly or whatever the hell it was. But overall, the angle failed miserably and caused more harm than good.
WCW was a sinking ship long before any of this, none of the guys were over anymore and there really wasn't any 'money matches' that could have been booked at that point.
Now onto topic, Russo has mentioned that he believes Orton is the best overall talent in wrestling today. I don't necessarily agree with that, but no question, He would be a huge coup for TNA now at a time when they need name talent. Although promos remain the weakest part of Randy's repertoire, he can still talk and is confident in what he does. Obviously, when motivated, he can go in the ring too.
I don't think it's impossible for Randy to 'Cross The Line', but I don't see it in the short term. Focus more on Ken 'Don't call me Kennedy' Anderson! As Hogan is bringing in all of his boys that took part in his Australian Hulkamania Tour late last year.
So you're telling me that Randy is a better heel than Edge? Edge is much better than Orton and when he makes his return you will see how much the WWE have missed Edge! He basically carried Smackdown for a year when he was "married" to Vickie!