Russo Sucks, However...

[Poop Master Flex]

I feel Russo gets a lot of crap for things that aren't his fault and beyond his control.

One thing that drives me nuts is how many fans tear Russo apart for storylines and incidents' he didn't even create. One I often hear is the finger poke of doom. I can't count how many people shit all over Russo for this and HE DIDN'T EVEN WORK FOR WCW THEN! Same with Goldbergs streak ending, how can he be at fault when he wasn't even there?

Another big incident that people accuse him for is the death of WCW when the truth is he (once again) had nothing to do with it. The death of WCW was caused by the AOL/Time Warner merger. The only reason WCW went as long as it did was because Ted Turner wanted wrestling on his network, he didn't care it lost money because his billions and network were built on wrestling. Ted owed a lot of his success to Jim Crockett Promotions and Georgia Championship Wrestling therefore he kept it around. Ted was the only one that wanted wrestling on his networks so when the merger happened and he wasn't the boss anymore the powers that be decided to get rid of it. NONE OF IT had to do with Russo, none whatsoever!

I'll admit WCW lost a lot of money with Russo at the helm but it lost millions of dollars for years before Bischoff came in and finally turned a profit. The whole company structure of WCW showed the company would eventually fail because there were few that wanted it to suceed. When you think about it its amazing it lasted as long as it did.

Kevin Nash once said "Blaming Russo for the death of WCW is like blaming the cellist for the sinking of the Titanic" and that is 100% fact.

Now this isn't a "Death of WCW" thread, that's just an example to show you how Russo is often getting hammered for stuff he didn't do.

Believe me, I'm no Russo fan, this is the man who is the most responsible for Owen Harts death because a wrestling moment meant more than his safety. He is also a man who made himself champion but Russo was also a big factor for WWF's success in the late 90's. Sure, he had Vince filtering his good ideas from his bad ideas but even so he still created A LOT of good ideas and memorable moments (like Austin riding the Zamboni and Beer Truck, those moments were classic).

I have no issues with people trashing Russo, it just bothers me when he is getting trashed for things he didn't do. If you're gonna bad mouth the guy fine, but at least do your homework and get your facts straight first.

There are so many threads I've read in the past that are dedicated to making this guy look like Hitler but he deserves a lot of credit for a lot of things. He isn't a good booker by no means but in fairness he has created a lot of moments that were memorable and he gets a lot more crap than he should.

 

[wrestler36]

Good post. There were several things that Russo did that cheapened the prestige of titles and insulted the intelligence of wrestling fans, but this does give insight into how he could be labeled a scapegoat for the downfall. There were several factors leading to the diminished WCW product and Russo was a piece to that puzzle. Blaming him for the whole downfall, though, would be misleading.

 

[AttitudeAJM]

Russo is no different from any other writer. He needs a filter to better trim his writing. His work didn't kill WCW. By the time he got there they were already on a terrible downward spiral. Not only did Turner brass want wrestling off of its networks but the AOL/Time Warner merger did major damage to its chances at survival.

The Russo hate is predominately a byproduct of the internet fan looking for someone to blame and not understanding the circumstance behind WCW. I won't say that he didn't play a part in the downfall but it most certainly wasn't the biggest factor.

 

[aaronmb]

Russo and Arquette were both in a wrestling ring and former champions. Those were both Russo's ideas and enough for me to blame him.

 

[RicoLen]

Russo was the savior of the WWF. Plain and simple.

HE set loose Austin and worked on "Pillman's Got A Gun" he was the primary writer in the WWF when the WWF went from utter crap in 1996 to the dominant force it became with the attitude era. It was Russo that set everything in motion and got the ball rolling. All those early storylines of the attitude era in the WWF were Russo's doing.

Then phase 2 of Russo putting the WWF on top forever came when he left the WWF to join WCW and ruined everything.

The Conspiracy Theorist in me can't help but think that Russo was sent to WCW by McMahon to destroy WCW. I mean he was golden in the WWF and then utter destructive crap in WCW? How do the hell do you do that unintentionally?

 

[AttitudeAJM]

Russo and Arquette were both in a wrestling ring and former champions. Those were both Russo's ideas and enough for me to blame him.

Don't take wrestling all that serious. Arquette didn't beat anyone clean. He won the belt and then helped screw over a babyface so that another wrestler could win it. Fans who say that Arquette winning was somehow a nail in the coffin are diluting themselves.

 

[UFOcalling]

Man, I love this post! You're right on the money, everyone's so quick to hate on Russo for everything he's "fucked up" in the past. I don't think anyone gives him any credit for the things he's done right, either (although they may be few and far between).

One thing you didn't touch on, is how the IWC loves to jump on Russo for calling the belts "props". IMHO, the title belts are props. I mean, think about it: it's a "Championship Title Belt", that's earned by winning a fixed fight (usually on television). That sounds like the definition of a prop to me. If Professional Wrestling is primarily a TV show (more of a soap opera than a sport, IMHO), then the title belts are props. If the competition isn't "real", then why are the titles so sacred that we can't call them "props"? A prop is something that helps an actor (on TV, or whatever) to further their character. That sounds exactly what the title belts do for wrestling, what's the problem?

The point of all this is that I think that Russo takes waaaaay too much heat for calling the titles props.

 

[RATED R CHAMPION]

Vince Russo doesn't know how to book, he thinks you gotta have the shocking booking all the time, and you cant do it all the time, he didn't kill wcw, it was a compilation of factors but he indeed made it sink quicker from 1999 on.

Vince McMahon was who controlled russo, RUsso had ideas, Vince was the real booker, as he's always been, he makes the decisions, so Vince Russo as booker, not so good.

 

[satchmokilnt]

so happy to see this thread has been made. the op gets it spot on. theres alot to hate about russo. but as you say, many of the iwc (still irks me, saying that. dont know why.) just lazily throw their tuppence against russo without even doing the homework. i dont have a great deal to add, as the op and most other people have said my thoughts exactly. cant wait for the blind vinny mac fanboys to chime in, with the "it was all mcmahon, russo did nothing apart from beaver cleavage." oh, hang on. i see one now.

 

[Steve001]

It's refreshing to see Vinnie Ru finally receive some deserved praise here on the forums...Vince Russo has always given credit to those who aided his success over the years, it's about time he received some in return!

I've always found it frustrating to read posts bashing Vince Russo, especially when invalid arguments are presented against the guy.
Usually, I chalk up the ignorance on display to many fans having been influenced heavily by biased and inaccurate WWE DVD and book releases.

Vinnie Mac and Kevin Dunn's blatant re-writing of history featured on many offficial WWE DVD's (dating back as far as 2002's nWo Back in Black and 2004's Monday Night War releases) is enough to make any Vince Russo mark pissed!
The factual errors alone contained within 2009's Rise and Fall of WCW DVD do nothing to boost Russo's credibility rating among the WWE marks and IWC members alike.

Deliberate factual errors such as Russo getting panned for the heavily hyped but ultimately and predictably calamitous KISS lip-synch mini concert on the August 30th, 1999 broadcast. At the time, Russo was firmly entrenched in camp WWF, booking Raw and Smackdown!

Oh, and a month after the infamous KISS show, The hysterical and well executed Foley/Rock 'This Is Your Life' skit featured on the September 27th '99 edition of Raw, entirely devised by Russo was a major hit! The quarter-hour breakdown saw the skit garner Raw's highest ever rating.

Fans who's opinions have been formed by the previously mentioned biased WWE releases and weren't actually watching Pro Wrestling at the time will never understand or accept the fact that Vince Russo, almost single-handedly saved Titan Sports from sinking like Titanic Sports in 1996. For example, records show that the WWF posted a loss of US$5 Million in 1995. At the time, the forecast for 1996 wasn't looking any better, as McMahon's pockets weren't as deep as they are today.

Vince Russo was the driving force behind and the leader of the WWF's 'Attitude' campaign in '97 through '99. I still fondly recall an article, that I believe appeared in the December 1996 issue of WWF Magazine. The article, penned by Russo under his 'Vic Venom' guise, was all about "Attitude" and went into detail about the new direction the company would begin to take in the upcoming year.

What a lot of Russo haters need to realize too is that the WWF of 1996-1999 wasn't scripted by a "creative team" the likes we see today in WWE, back then, primarily from March '97-April '99 it was Russo penning the shows with McMahon proof reading. With Ed Ferarra replacing McMahon in the spot in April 1999.

On a side note, I find it puzzling how Promoter's past and present feel a booking "committee" or team of people is the way to go creatively. "Committees" have never worked when it comes to booking Pro Wrestling effectively and they never will.

Vince Russo was behind the push of Austin in '96, He also did ALL of the groundwork on the Austin/McMahon feud, penned the fantastic 7 month long build-up to Kane's WWF debut and subsequent feud with 'Taker and he gave us Degeneration-X amongst many other things. Overall, Russo deserves a ton of credit for helping the WWF overthrow the superstar heavy WCW and supplanting it as #1.

Vince McMahon himself stated at the time that when Vinnie Ru informed him that he was splitting the WWF and heading for WCW, that it was the most "Devastating phone call I've ever received...".
As a fan who watched Nitro every week at the time, I thoroughly enjoyed Russo and Ferarra's initial run with WCW beginning on the October 18th '99 show through to January 2000.

It seems many fans agreed with me as their arrival and fun booking jumped Nitro's ratings slightly over a whole point in 3 months! Raw's numbers dropped by a point which indicates Russo drew in fans from the WWF. Until the Tank Abbott debacle at Souled Out 2000 and Russo got shit-canned anyway...

In WCW, clearly Russo had more misses than hits. Some he was to blame, other times, many of the boys would work their own angles on TV and thus screw-up the "bigger picture". Also, I'd like to point out that Arquette's title win was Tony Schiavone's idea! As Russo stated, nobody in that room at the pre-show booking meeting spoke up and offered any kind of resistance or negative opinion on the idea. Interestingly, one of those people in that meeting was our good friend Johnny Ace! Regardless, Russo was right. At the time, WCW was unable to draw flies to a shit factory and they really needed some mainstream publicity. Arquette achieved that. If DDP had of walked out of that Thunder taping with the strap would it have made the front cover of USA Today? No, but Arquette did, thus giving WCW a ton of free publicity!

Overall, I think a major factor in WCW's demise was the sheer popularity of the WWF itself...On a final note, Vince Russo didn't "kill" WCW, Time Warner suit Jamie Kellner did the moment he issued the directive to cut all WCW programming from Turner/AOL Networks.

 

[TheBWO]

I understand that Russo is under a lot of pressure, but it comes with the territory, and the job. Now with that being said, I know that during the WWE tenure, he was the first to really cross the line on a lot of story's, promo's, --and basically---no pun intended but--attitude. I give him that. I've always given credit where it's due. The fact that he help bury WCW during his stint in WWE shows that there was a flair of genius to some degree (WCW not being able to book properly, and over inflated egos and checks didn't help, but I digress).

NOW, ....first, Russo should be used to playing catch up. He's done it in the WWE, in WCW and now TNA (Impact...whatever). The one thing that needs to be remembered is,--if anyone were to ask him, he would more than likely say he left the E to join the WCW because he could have "artistic and creative freedom"....which apparently, is his downfall because like everyone has stated, he had the filter of VKM to say yay or nay to his ideas (although....I sometimes wonder how the Katie Vick angle got through ). I shudder to think that he would have to filter things through ol' Dix---but ....I honestly thing with Terry Taylor leaving TNA, Russo doesn't have anyone to bounce stuff off of, and you can look at a pile of shit, rearrange it, change it a little bit, and it's still a pile of shit. Not saying that TNA is that way, but let's face it....you can really only have just SO many angles in wrestling before they're being repeated. Either the fans won't like it if you branch out to something entirely new (the Kurt Angle cooking show....never been done..but you think the fans would go for it during the middle of Impact? Doubt it), or the fans will change "bor-ing" because they've seen it all before. "Why did the chicken cross the road"--that sort of thing. People know the outcome, the punchline, whatever.

I don't blame Russo entirely for the low ratings of TNA. I sometimes blame the talent (or lack there of, or that it's 15 years older now and can't move like it used to). TNA---very unfortunately, is in that middle of ....the veterans they have, no one wants to really see anymore, or trying to live off of a "once glory" *cough*hogan*rvd*cough...and newer guys that they just won't use as much as they should. I think if you look at the fans actual reaction in the Impact zone, you'll see that when those newer younger guys were fighting for an X division contract---I actually heard "This is awesome" being chanted.
When was the last time someone who has been in this business at least 10 years---Daniels and Styles exceptions--you heard that from? Bully? Ken? Sting?

I don't blame Russo as much as I'd like to. I give him credit for trying to keep it together, under the tootledge of Bishoff and Hogan and Carter, and give him credit of storylines that I can kind of somewhat follow....but let's face it...the man needs another head or two to make some imputs on--which means, HIRE SOMEONE TOO.

By the way...when Arquette won the title?....He held it for 3 days, or 6 days, or something and donated his winnings (not sure what that means) but donated his winnings to charity. Did I like the idea? Fuck no!! It's almost like giving Michael Cole a belt...and I understand the strive to get mainstream culture (I.e. rodman, malone, etc) a kick in the ass but....you make one mistake that's this notable, no one ever lets you forget it.

 

[a0161613]

No one outside of WCW and TNA can say what influence Russo has over their creative product. Even those on the inside like Nash etc have worked their own agendas when talking about it.

So I feel not one of us can state that Russo is killing TNA. Or killed WCW. Now the guy cannot be free of blame but he should not have all the fault attributed to him.

Hindsight is 20/20.

 

[Headman]

The things that Russo says and takes credit for by in large is the reason most fans are even aware of how off base this man is. He devalues championships by claiming openly that they never had any value to begin with, which is a flat out lie. He calls them props, well Godzilla is a prop but without the guy in the rubber dinosaur suit there's no movie so I'd say that's pretty important. Russo without Vince Mcmahon has never amounted to anything, and in my opinion his claim to fame (His part in the attitude era) was highly overrated and in all likelyhood were not his ideas to begin with. He was a scrub writer for the WWF magazine going by the name Vic Venom who eventually worked his way onto the creative team and announce table by default. It's true that he didn't single handedly kill WCW but he sure as hell didn't help. And poorly researched knee-jerk reactions that led to his hiring were more responsible for WCW's demise than anything Mr Russo ever put on paper. With that said, I've never met anyone in the business who's had anything positive to say about him. So I'm left with the conclusion that he really is as bad as people say he is.

 

[jerseyguy1004]

While Vince Russo didn't single handedly kill WCW (Hi Kevin Nash!) and lessen interest from the peak levels of the late nineties, his "crash" style booking and scripting of frequent title changes certainly contributed to wrestling's overall demise. Furthermore, he has now had several years to prove the skeptics wrong by turning out a quality product in Disn...I mean TNA, and it's been proven time and time again that he doesn't book angles with a long term perspective in mind...constantly changing things mid stream. If you don't want to blame him for the Kiss fiasco, Master P, Arquette, etc. at a minimum you CAN blame him for the WCW "reset". When they killed off every angle mid-stream, had champions vacate their belts, and announced on television that they were starting over the next week.

 

[s3machine]

Russo is not responsible for Owen's death... hes gone on record many times and said that if Owen had ANY objection to the stunt then it would have been canceled immediately.. Owen never objected to it.. and this has been verified.

 

[He's Phenomenal]

I originally thought this thread was going to say "Russo sucks, however...He's a lot better at writing a wrestling show than me or anyone else who posts on these forums." It didn't quite go down like that but at least it's not your usual Russo bashing thread. And I agree with a lot of what you've said.

The thing that gets me is everytime something is bad, it's all Russo's fault. But when something is good, it's because he has a filter. Weren't his roles in WWF, WCW and TNA all the same? Head of creative? So I really don't get that argument. If you're not going to give him credit for his good work, then don't criticise the stuff you might not like.

The making up of stuff by "fans" about Russo is also pretty annoying, as you've mentioned. For example the amount of times you'll get some idiot saying "TNA has been dreadful since Hogan, Bischoff and Russo arrived but it was awesome in 2009." Do they not realise Russo was writing TNA's shows way before Hogan and Bischoff signed, so guess what, when TNA was "awesome" Russo was writing that!

Vince Russo definately deserves more credit than he gets from the internet fans, but while you've got those "fans" with their heads soo far up their own arse that the don't even know the truth behind what they're saying, I guess we'll always have the "it's all Russo's fault" clan mouthing off.

Vince Russo has seen and knows a hell of a lot about the world of pro wrestling. And to me he's the one of the most interesting guys in the business. I own one wrestling related book and it's not Hulk Hogan's, Undertaker's, Mick Foley's or Sting's - it's Vince Russo's book.

 

[s3machine]

The thing that gets me is everytime something is bad, it's all Russo's fault. But when something is good, it's because he has a filter. Weren't his roles in WWF, WCW and TNA all the same? Head of creative? So I really don't get that argument. If you're not going to give him credit for his good work, then don't criticise the stuff you might not like.

There is one big difference between Russo in the WWE(F) and WCW.. and that is Vince McMahon.. McMahon was honestly Russo's filter in the WWE.. and thats not being critical of Russo in anyway.. im actually a huge Vinny Ru fan.. its to show that Vinny Ru and Vinny Mac, together, built an amazing product. Russo didnt have that 'filter' in WCW and thats why I honestly think that his best work was in WWE and not WCW.. Ive seen interviews with Russo where he says he would come up with 10 ideas and McMahon would maybe use 2.. I dont look at this in a bad way at all.. Even if Vinny Mac rejected 80% of the ideas Russo came up with.. the 20% that did get used was still from the mind of Vinny Ru and them together made those ideas even better by adding and subtracting various elements.

..This was definitely not the case in WCW.. If there was a filter with Russo in WCW you can rest assured the World Title wouldn't have changed hands 20+ times in the year 2000 alone.. with Russo and David Arquette holding the title themselves nontheless.. but regardless.. Im not mad at Vinny Ru for it.. he was trying to do something, anything he could to fix the nose dive the company was in at the time.. and he thought that shock television would do it..

...it might have not worked out well.. or as well as it did in the WWE.. but its not all Russo's fault.. he tried his best to fix what those came before him ruined.. Some like to say that Russo ruined WCW.. or killed WCW.. thats complete bullshit. Vince Russo is not even 1% responsible for the death of WCW... and thats a fact.

 

[GrandSword]

I have never, ever read anywhere on any board that anyone has blamed the finger poke of doom on Russo. Yes everyone knows he wasn't there when this happened.. I think you're smoking something OP.

As for Russo, he hasn't come up with an original idea in years. Stone Cold was big time.. let's make aAnderosn our own Austiin. nWo was big time let's make MEM, Styles/Daniels/Joe the best feud ever in TNA, let's do that again... same for Styles and Daniels, let's turn our top face heel, it worked for Hogan in 1996... let's do it to AJ.. oh it didn't work, let's try Sting, nope, how about Hardy... oh he's a screw up, let's try Anderson, nope lasted a week...

Russo is a brain storming man who throws shit a the wall and hopes it sticks, but unfortuately it's just stuff he steals from the past. Ever since he returned to TNA at the edn of 2006 he hs done the absolute opposite of what a prowerstling company is meant to do...

... are you ready for this guys...

to push your talent, make them marketable, so your company can put asses in seats and make money.

Now when Russo came on board, Samoa Joe was the most ruthless wrestling machine in the world. AJ Styles could beat anyone at anytime. Christopher Daniels was the best X Diviosn wrestler in the world and was taking people to school. Chris Sabin was so strong he was a hair away from defeating Kevin Nash. Steiner was a former World Champion and a beast. The X Division was the most exciting thing in pro wrestling. James Storm and Chris Harris had such a bitter abnd violent blood feud both were heading towards the world title. Christian Cage was undefeated and Abyss was this unfeeling, killing machine thanks to the direction of the evil James Mitchell.

As soon as he returned, Abyss had shot his Dad or some shit. Joe was turned inot a whiny bitch, Styles was carrying Cage's bags, Daniels basically disappeared and with him the X Division, Sabin and Shelley were never on the show. Harris was jobbed out and left, while Storm was forced back into the tag team ranks...

He depushed talent?! What the hell? Why? Why the hell would you do that? Why would you make a guy who main evented with Kurt Angle and brought you the best buyrates ever in Joe and just turn him into a joke? Why? And Dixie was obviously too stupid to see this. Russo could be blamed for costing the company a tonne of cash, the wrestlers themselves a tonne of cash and the growth of TNA as awhole. It was if he has sabotaged the comapny with his "creativity".

Please people stop kidding yourself that Russo is some sort of genius.. he's not, he's a hack that is the best friend of TNA Founder Jeff Jarrett who ensures they both have steady incomes and Jarrett keeps beating Kurt Angle for a year on ppv even though he stole his friggin wife.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I have never, ever read anywhere on any board that anyone has blamed the finger poke of doom on Russo. Yes everyone knows he wasn't there when this happened.. I think you're smoking something OP.

As for Russo, he hasn't come up with an original idea in years. Stone Cold was big time.. let's make aAnderosn our own Austiin. nWo was big time let's make MEM, Styles/Daniels/Joe the best feud ever in TNA, let's do that again... same for Styles and Daniels, let's turn our top face heel, it worked for Hogan in 1996... let's do it to AJ.. oh it didn't work, let's try Sting, nope, how about Hardy... oh he's a screw up, let's try Anderson, nope lasted a week...

Russo is a brain storming man who throws shit a the wall and hopes it sticks, but unfortuately it's just stuff he steals from the past. Ever since he returned to TNA at the edn of 2006 he hs done the absolute opposite of what a prowerstling company is meant to do...

... are you ready for this guys...

to push your talent, make them marketable, so your company can put asses in seats and make money.

Now when Russo came on board, Samoa Joe was the most ruthless wrestling machine in the world. AJ Styles could beat anyone at anytime. Christopher Daniels was the best X Diviosn wrestler in the world and was taking people to school. Chris Sabin was so strong he was a hair away from defeating Kevin Nash. Steiner was a former World Champion and a beast. The X Division was the most exciting thing in pro wrestling. James Storm and Chris Harris had such a bitter abnd violent blood feud both were heading towards the world title. Christian Cage was undefeated and Abyss was this unfeeling, killing machine thanks to the direction of the evil James Mitchell.

As soon as he returned, Abyss had shot his Dad or some shit. Joe was turned inot a whiny bitch, Styles was carrying Cage's bags, Daniels basically disappeared and with him the X Division, Sabin and Shelley were never on the show. Harris was jobbed out and left, while Storm was forced back into the tag team ranks...

He depushed talent?! What the hell? Why? Why the hell would you do that? Why would you make a guy who main evented with Kurt Angle and brought you the best buyrates ever in Joe and just turn him into a joke? Why? And Dixie was obviously too stupid to see this. Russo could be blamed for costing the company a tonne of cash, the wrestlers themselves a tonne of cash and the growth of TNA as awhole. It was if he has sabotaged the comapny with his "creativity".

Please people stop kidding yourself that Russo is some sort of genius.. he's not, he's a hack that is the best friend of TNA Founder Jeff Jarrett who ensures they both have steady incomes and Jarrett keeps beating Kurt Angle for a year on ppv even though he stole his friggin wife.

First off I can see you haven't been on this forum as long as I have, so I'm not going to rip you arart for having the memory of a raisinette.

Secondly I NEVER said he was a genius so who is the one smoking it up grandsword. I said he came up with some original ideas which translated into some good television, that's a fact that cannot be disputed.

Thirdly I also said he's only good with a filter (aka Vinnie Mac) he hasn't had a filter so any good idea he has had was buried under a lot of bad ones which make it seem so bad (btw, he did work there during that angle vs joe match that gave tna its highest buyrites). The title fo the thread is called "russo sucks, however...." Which implies Russo does in fact suck so your constant ramblings about his mess ups have no merit WHATSOEVER. Everyone knows he isn't great but that shouldn't suggest he has made some memorable moment which have made for captivating television that pulled in a shit ton of money, which is the bottom line. I know he has lost tons as well but I never disputed that.

The point is simple, even though the majority of his storylines were bad in the right position he can be a valuable asset to the company. He deserves credit for stuff he has done in the past and often gets crucified for stuff he never did (like the death of WCW). He deserves a lot of crap, but also deserves a lot of credit.

 

[MisterRob]

Vince Russo killed WCW about as much as he saved WWF. It's as simple as that. There were so many other factors in the death of WCW, just as there were so many other factors then JUST Russo in the success of the WWF during the Attitude era.

Vince Russo has some great ideas, but when he's left to his own devices and left to book those ideas in a wrestling landscape he is a complete flop. Vince Russo had great ideas back in the WWF, but it was Vince McMahon who took those ideas, fine tuned them, and booked things. Vince has and always will be in control. When Russo didn't have someone who was smart to the business and knew what he was doing, and instead was left to his own devices to write, book, and do all of it on his own? His time in WCW and his time in TNA are all proof of what happens. Its not good by any standards.

 

[GrandSword]

When did Russo ever have any great ideas? He stole the whole Attitude era from ECW. A beer swilling renegade= Sandman. The Cerebral World Champion that leads his own stable to tag titles etc. = The Franchise Shane Douglas. Risque storylines, heavy violence, scantily clad women, profanity = hardcore tv.

Everyone seems to come up with this excuse of the filter Vince McMahon. Damn right because as we have seen without one he is a plight on the industry. The title of thread is that he sucks, which is correct.

 

[Carpathian Florist]

The weird thing is, if Russo never came along and helped to save the WWF, the company could have died, WCW would have dominated for awhile until the Bischoff/Hogan show drove away millions of fans, Turner would have dumped WCW when AOL merged with them after losing most of it's fanbase, Bischoff would have probably bought the remains of WCW from Turner and we'd have ended up with "Bischoff and Hervey Entertainment presents: Hulk Hogan's Championship Wrestling" in place of TNA, where the old remnants of WCW would be running over the top indy fed talent Bischoff had lured away and drawing 1.1s and 1.2s on a a network like Spike.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Russo deserves credit for his creativity and ability to write. He may not have much respect for tradition and he has had countless bad ideas but he is part of a team along with the producers, directors, bookers, owners and the wrestlers. You can't blame everything that fails simply on Russo.

He failed at turning around a struggling WCW, but there is a reason he has lasted this long in professional wrestling as something as disposable as a writer, he has talent.