Vince Russo was one of the biggest names in the world of professional wrestling during the late 90s. He mostly became famous as a WWE Creative and we can definitely consider him as one of the biggest architects of the Attitude Era of WWE. He is also a big reason behind the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin.
In October 1999 he joined WCW which was the biggest rival promotion of WWE during the time. But Russo could not be a big success in WCW and a lot of fans still believe that he was one of the reasons behind the death of WCW. Russo recently spoke to Chris Van Vliet where he discussed the transformation of modern day wrestling. He said;
Nostalgia and New Horizons: Vince Russo Reflects on Wrestling’s Transformation
“It’s all about the fake match and has nothing to do with the characters and the story. I mean, that’s it bro, you know, back in the day going all the way back to Bruno man. It was all about characters and story. That’s what draws the casual fan.” Said the WCW and WWE writer.
“Wrestling matches don’t draw a casual fan, that’s why I did crash TV. Five to eight minutes, the matches are over, boom, boom, what’s next, boom. You turn it on today then the main event of Raw starts at 10:30. Bro, if I’m not a wrestling fan [of] in-ring action, I’m not watching it, because the reality of the situation is whether we want to believe it or not, fans of the in-ring action, that’s a very niche audience. That is a very niche audience.
Vince Russo Worked In Both WWE And WCW
“That’s why I knew when I started writing it WWE, bro, I had to open that up. Because if you didn’t like wrestling, you weren’t watching the show. So, how was I going to get people to watch the show? Real simple, create characters that they fell in love with and they were emotionally tied to, and then give those characters story, because now you gotta you got them hooked now they gotta tune in every week.
“All that is gone, it is non-existent, and my thing is Chris, I don’t think I would have such a problem if they just changed the name, don’t call it wrestling, call it performance art, or call it something else.” Concluded the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion who also was a top WWE writer.
Vince Russo might have been one of the most criticized names in the wrestling world but he made some excellent decisions as a writer too. Some of his ideas were not executed like he proposed Chyna to win the WWE World Championship. It never happened but it could have been revolutionary.
H/T – Wrestling Headlines