Vince Russo -- Creative Genius or Complete Jackass?

[D-x 4evr]

This Thread Is To Let Everyone Speak Out Their Opinions On The Man Who Made Pro Wrestling Storylines More Edgier Than Ever!

Speak Out Please!

 

[Shadowmancer]

I would have to say that Russo is neither but yet is both, He was involved in the start of the Attitude Era. But he has no idea what to do with Cruisers and the like so he is terrible for the X division. But he did create Crash TV which to a degree really sucks and it sunk WWE into a hole that it is now just getting of in regards to match length on RAW and Smackdown. He pretty much booked WCW into the ground but some of his ideas have been good. So in all Vince Russo is a Creative Jackass.

 

[D-x 4evr]

id have to say he is just a complete jackass mainly because of the hogan incident at Bash At The Beach '00 . that was just a complete f**k up! and as hogan said "its BS like this that drivin this company into the hole its it now"( meaning wcw )

 

[Uncle Sam]

Well, quite frankly, he takes credit for things that probably aren't his to take credit for, but doesn't take the blame for the screw-ups he orchestrates. Possibly. With a guy like that, there's very little you can actually pin on him. But if he's been even partly responsible for the destruction of TNA's signature Tag Team and X Divisions, then the man is a COMPLETE JACKASS.

 

[Dj Martyn]

Both, plain and simple he has worked some of the best storylines in wrestling and helped to bring wrestling out of its snore period of the late 80's early 90's, but then struggling to deal with his own limitations went too far and ruined the sanctity of wrestling and broke barriers that had no reason to be broken and therefore in a way could be blamed for the way vince does buissness nowadays.

So its a big scale and he sits at both ends...i cant give a deffinitive answer to it.

 

[Mad Metal]

I think he is both. Look all he did for the WWE in the 90's. It took the WWE to a completely new direction. Even though people disagree having him being a co-writer in TNA, I'm sure he would be more accepted by the general fans if he were to return to the WWE, which he was suppose to make a return in 2002 or 2003 but I don't know what ever happened.

On the other hand, all what he did to WCW, that's the only part to make me say he is a jackass.

Currently in TNA, he's doing well. Everyone [including myself] says how good the old NWA-TNA days were. Back then Vince Russo was the head writer and an on-air talent... and this was when TNA was at it's best. Now look at TNA. I don't get the big deal with having little more promos and some "E" stuff because professional wrestling (especially the major leagues) must contain extras to fill in the one or two hour time slot with more than just wrestling because indeed pro wrestling IS sports entertainment! It's not completely a sport and it is entertainment so there you go.

But like I was saying, Russo helped to make TNA successful when it first launched, yet no one is praising him for that. Now look at Vince Russo that has little power of what gets shown on television, yet people speaks as if they been backstage and know everything and ignore the fact/s that he doesn't have much power at all. I don't get what is so bad about a couple extra skits on the show or else how can characters develop and besides, those are essential when it comes to pro wrestling, unlike real sports.

 

[Slyfox696]

First, people who say anything about Russo's work in TNA, good or bad, need to know that Vince Russo does NOT book and it has been insinuated that he is a minor player with regards to creative. There was a report a couple months ago that what Vince Russo basically does is write up a show based on what Mantell and Jarrett book and create. Basically, the report said Russo was a secretary, in so many words.

Second, Russo is neither a creative genius nor a creative jackass. He deserves little credit for the Attitude era, and doesn't deserve half the blame he is given for WCW.

The WWF was going to boom regardless of Russo. Steve Austin was already badass, and the Rock was the greatest mic worker of all time. Russo played little into that success. WCW was a complete mess and in shambles when Russo got there. TV ratings were in the pits, PPV buyrates were piss poor, and the company had an over the hill crop of wrestlers with creative control clauses...thanks Eric Bischoff. Way to run WCW into the ground. Vince Russo's job was to come in and hit a home run immediately. He was asked to turn WCW upside down and use shock therapy to get WCW back. He did a lot of far fetched ideas and, as history will tell you, pretty stupid ideas, but it was all in the name of shock therapy. He was asked to turn a miracle overnight, and he failed. He failed hard. But, WCW was completely unstable at the time, and thus not a good indication of his abilities.

The reason people label him a genius is because of the shameless self-promotion he and WCW did for Russo to get the job and to turn fans to Nitro. The reason people label him a jackass is because he inherited a WCW company that had been run into the ground by Eric Bischoff, and was asked to immediately turn things around, which just is not a reasonable request given WCW's current situation at the time.

But if he's been even partly responsible for the destruction of TNA's signature Tag Team and X Divisions, then the man is a COMPLETE JACKASS.

He's not. The X-Division was in shambles before October 23rd, 2006. The X-Division was piss poor before Russo officially came on board. The tag division wasn't any better. There were three tag teams worth a damn and that was Styles/Daniels, LAX and AMW. AMW had been teasing a break-up for months, and Daniels/Styles had accomplished all they could accomplish. Since Russo has been on board, they've tried to spice up the tag division, and X-Division has been made relevant again.

 

[The_Natural]

He is a Jackass and has nothing left to offer except for crappy TV. I blame Jarrett more than Russo however for the crap TNA shows being Jarrett was the one who hired him.

 

[peazy420]

I think he is both. Look all he did for the WWE in the 90's. It took the WWE to a completely new direction. Even though people disagree having him being a co-writer in TNA, I'm sure he would be more accepted by the general fans if he were to return to the WWE, which he was suppose to make a return in 2002 or 2003 but I don't know what ever happened.

He wanted nothing to do with the WWE because their creative team is a huge "cluster f**k" of people. BAck in the day it was him and Ed Farrera doing all the writing with Vince, now they have three diffrent teams for each show and its pure insanity.

Vince Russo gets too much crap about everything. He has a good mind but he needs people to keep him in check and help him fill in the empty spaces. And for the WCW thing, (if you have never seen the ULTIMATE INSIDERS shoot interview you would know) WCW was done by the time he got there, and the BASH AT THE BEACH thing was one of the best things i have ever seen simply because it was ture, HOGAN is washed up, he has been for years and he needs to just collect a pay check for his nostalgic crap and start fishing with the rest of his washed up buddies. What Russo did to him he had coming for all of the crap he had pulled in the past. Russo was good for wrestling and that should be respected. He is the man behind the best era of Pro wrestling, yea he had the talent around him, but he was the one pulling the strings and putting together all of the awesome shows that defined the late 90's has the golden era of pro wrestling.

In TNA he has no control, blam Jarret and MAntel for that.

Eric Bishoff ruined WCW by trying to take down the Titan and well that just can't be done. the WWE will always be the dominate force in pro wrestling and Bishoff thought he had the giant in his cross hairs (which it seemed like he did for a second) then Russo came along and kicked his ass with edgier story lines and characters.

give him his respect. he isn't a complete jackass

and if you can find it wath the Insiders shoot interview, it'll shed some light on how things were done back then

 

[Hdog684]

He's a creative genius when there's somebody there to veto his bad ideas and build on his good ones, like he had with Vince in the WWE. He doesn't look so good when he doesn't have that filter, but then again, nobody would.

He probably gets too much credit for what happened in the WWE (McMahon and others, mostly the actual wrestlers themselves like Austin and Rock, had a lot to do with it too), but he gets WAY too much blame for WCW and now TNA. Eric Bischoff destroyed WCW, there was nothing and nobody that was going to turn that ship around. It was the Titantic after hitting the iceberg, it was just a matter of time before it sank. He gave it a strong effort, it just failed like anybody else would have. And Russo doesn't have any power in TNA. Jarrett's responsible for that mess.

Basically, closer to creative genius, but neither really.

 

[CoreyDavis]

I like Russo bookings, and let me tell you all a interesting tidbits about his alleged failure at WCW. When Russo joined WCW in late 99, early 2K...WCW Nitro was somewhere in the ballpark of 2.5 - 2.8, and a month into Russo booking the ratings jumped into 3.2+ on the average. Here is the bad part, Raw was pulling crazy numbers at around 5 & 6 on the scale, but looking at wrestling now Raw is pulling what was considered bad on Nitro.

My favorite era of wrestling had to be in April 2000 when Russo/Bischoff changed WCW, and a lot of things didn't go in favor of them as they planned such as NWO 2000 (injuries to Bret Hart, Goldberg, and Sting's lack of interest). He had crazy moments as we all know, but I will tell you now that had Russo came in or not WCW's end result was inevitable.

I will just never get over the fact that a product worth so much sold for so little. WCW in 2001 was sad, but it was being booked by turner home fries (yawn) and ran so far into the ground that the talent pool that was once so heavy became so shallow.

Don't blame Russo, blame things such as Standards and Practices of Turner Broadcasting or lack of leadership in WCW as all the booking was unprotected as opposed to the WWE where Vince M. always back his writers.

 

[ImpactPlayer27]

I just can't help but link Russo's arrival to TNA's value decreasing. It was that time when AMW split up (though Storm and Harris wanted to), Sabin turned heel and so did Styles. Pacman Jones being signed, the blindfold match, last rites match, the electrified cage match, etc. And what's resulted from all this? A main player in AJ Styles being buried and Samoa Joe's push diminished and possibly leaving. How did TNA, which I had once said was the future of pro wrestling, fall so hard as it has. I'm not saying it's dead, but it's clearly lost it's focus and I can't help but link this whole chain reaction as resulting from the hiring of Vince Russo

 

[CoreyDavis]

I just can't help but link Russo's arrival to TNA's value decreasing. It was that time when AMW split up (though Storm and Harris wanted to), Sabin turned heel and so did Styles. Pacman Jones being signed, the blindfold match, last rites match, the electrified cage match, etc. And what's resulted from all this? A main player in AJ Styles being buried and Samoa Joe's push diminished and possibly leaving. How did TNA, which I had once said was the future of pro wrestling, fall so hard as it has. I'm not saying it's dead, but it's clearly lost it's focus and I can't help but link this whole chain reaction as resulting from the hiring of Vince Russo

I think people put to much into the power of Russo in TNA. He isn't the head writer, if anything I've read that he is more of a secretary around TNA. Russo has said himself he burned out of the wrestling industry in 99 (about the time Smackdown was first introduced in the WWF). I'm not saying he isn't making a impact, but I can assume that he isn't holding half the clout he was.