I wouldn't miss one flagship show from WCW and the then WWF. I'd ever have them set for record, or I'd stay up to catch them. Unfortunately I live in the UK, so the WWF and WCW would be shown at odd hours, ECW was evening worse, I believe it was 12am on a Sunday, being a school night it was pretty much a no-no, but thanks to the wonders of the VCR, I managed to keep up with them all.
Anyway, back to the point and that is Vince Russo. So, if you want to read my ramblings, head on down below.
I can't remember exactly when I started watching pro-wrestling, but it was definitely in the 90s and the Monday Night Wars was just kicking off I believe. I must warn you, I'm relying on my memory here throughout all of this, so I may recollect things a little different or miss out something, so I ask you to bear with me.
So, Vince Russo. Without this very man, the Monday Night Wars would have meant NOTHING. Nothing! WWF RAW was in bad shape by 1996 thanks to WCW's newly launched flagship show WCW Monday Nitro, Eric Bischoff and his crew was giving the audience something a little different and as such, WWF RAW was struggling to keep up in the ratings. Enter Vince Russo. Russo had recently been promoted to the creative team of RAW and gradually began to make changes. In 1997 is when things started to really take shape.
The Attitude Era was pretty much upon us. Russo completely changed the landscape, in comes edgier story-lines, profanity, sexuality, and various heel turns. The WWF was beginning to become a whole new beast altogether thanks to Russo's "Crash TV" style of writing. Soon, younger talent was being pushed, molded and being able to inject their own styles into their persona. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the PERFECT example, we already seen the foundations of the character in ECW, but know it was on a much more grand scale and he took it, ran with and delivered Stunners left, right and centre! But the icing on the cake was helped by Russo and that was the Austin vs. McMahon feud, it was nothing short of perfection.
I mean, there's this blue-collar guy and this multi-millionaire, the latter being the boss, and Austin threw out all the rules and they tore the house down, it was brilliant. This guy was fighting the boss! Everyone in the arenas or sat at home were all fantasizing at the prospect of being able to do such a thing. We bought it, and we bought it in freakin' droves. At this time I was watching WCW, and I have to say, even though WCW was still ahead or just being beaten finally, I had more interest in the WWF. I did not know what they were going to do next week. With WCW, I knew that next week and every week Hogan would be in the main event some way or another.
But the WWF, damn, I didn't know what Austin was going to do next, or what McMahon was going to do for that matter, it was insane. So then while all this is going on, we begin watching the rise of The Rock as he is slowly moving away from the Nation of Domination, and every week you see a little more of his personality shine through, and thus, such catch phrases and eye-brow movements became a weekly treat, he was smug, cocky, and he owned it! Thanks to Russo for letting him run with it.
But WCW still had the nWo, the WWF's and Russo's answer? Degeneration-X (D-X), a more edgier version of the nWo with younger, hungrier talent that did pretty much what ever they wanted. Now, I'm just a fan, I wasn't there so I don't know if Russo gave them story-lines to run with or just let them loose, but he was head of creative, so what ever he did worked and D-X exploded! Chants of "Suck it!" along with Austin's "Hell Yeah!" became chants wherever they went. D-X was a different breed, filled with sexual innuendos who looked like there were having the time of their lives. this in turn reflected on us, the fans, we were having the time of out lives, too. It was simply awesome.
But how about Mick Foley? Russo helped with his rise and it was awesome. Here was Mick Foley, a guy with three personalities and he became world freakin' champion! His skits were legendary, his in-ring performance was phenomenal, due to him just taking huge amounts of pain to please us fans. He was something else and the competition didn't have ANYTHING close to this guy, thanks to Foley the Hardcore championship was born and that went on to have some of the best stuff on TV.
Russo gave these young guys a chance to shine, and they nailed it! But there are some that say well, Russo also gave us Val Venis and The Godfather", yes, and? Val Venis was hilarious! Leading up to his arrival we had these video skits, and it was just gold. Then came The Godfather who added another slice of comedy. Like I've said above, I just never knew what was going to happen, there was ALWAYS something new and different going on. And as such, with Russo as head of creative, WWF finally became the highest rated wrestling show on cable, and WCW was playing catch up.
Now, like I've said, I wasn't there, I don't know what happened, but for what ever reason, Russo left the WWF and jumped ship to WCW along with Ed Ferrara, and decided to utilise their skills in WCW, that has made the WWF so entertaining. At this point, I think it was about 1999 I believe, WCW was trying to keep up and to be fair, they weren't looking too hot.
So, in comes edgier story-lines, or at least as edgier as they could, as unlike the WWF where you had just Vince McMahon, you had a lot of higher-ups, I think this was about the time that the AOL/Time Warner merger was being discussed or maybe the ball was already rolling, either way, Russo was hired to do a job and he knew he had to do something, and do it fast.
So, he integrated edgier story-lines, increased the sexuality factor and began given the mid-card wrestler's more exposure. WCW also featured more scenarios treated as "shoots" to give the impression that what was going on was real, and I'll tell you, as a teenage, I bought it, much like I bought what was happening in the WWF with Austin and McMahon. I thought, "Well, what's going to happen next week on Nitro?". Many didn't feel that way, I'm not going to go into that, you can find their opinions plastered all over the Internet, but I was hooked on WCW more than ever.
Something was happening, it was different, but with the rise of The Rock, Triple H and Steve Austin etc., WCW needed more exposure, they needed to be seen by more eyes, so what better way than have the star of Ready to Rumble be involved in actual WCW story-lines? Man, I would have done the exact same thing as Russo did. It made sense, you certainly had more eyes on the product. Look, you had David Arquette win the World Heavyweight Championship, but he beat Eric Bischoff for the title and well, the rest is history. When this happened, this is all I heard and read, even to this day people are still upset about it, so that just goes to show how much of an impact Russo had.
A little later we had "The Millionaire's Club" feud with the "The New Blood", the latter gave the younger talent a time to shine and come through and it was a good angle I thought. Now one of the most entertaining segments was the infamous Bash at the Beach 2000 segment between Russo and Hogan, as a fan, I thought this was real, in fact MANY to this very day still feel it was real, and still talk about it, which again goes to show just how much of an impact Russo had. As someone that was tired of seeing Hogan in the spotlight, it was a breath of fresh-air to see him leave and, well, never be seen again in WCW. Finally we had Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner and Booker T get the chance to main event, they had something going for them, but too little too late.
During this time, Russo and Bischoff reportedly didn't get along. I don't know if that's true or not but soon both parties parted ways with the company and Kevin Sullivan was promoted as Booker and soon after, in 2001, WCW was bought out.
But, Vince Russo did whatever he could to bring WCW back up, and he did. I was hooked. It was crazy, I didn't know what was going to happen next, they had Viagra on a pole, Judy Bagwell suspended from a forklift, even a taser was used at one point. They had me entertained and I have to thank Russo for that. If I was brought in to help a failing company, I'd do whatever I could, and Russo definitely threw what ever he could to try and help make it succeed, but alas, those in power didn't want it and they didn't want it for a few years.
Now, looking at the product today. I even miss a few WWE RAW's on occasion. And, when I do watch I skim through the broadcast. WWE needs Russo more than Russo needs the WWE, sorry, but it's true. They need something to have us talking, they need to have us glued to the show, it has to be "can't miss" TV. Sadly, it appears as if they're just going through the notions.
Anyway Vince, thank you for the memories, I appreciate what you did, and I thank you for making me a life-long fan of sports-entertainment. You can still catch Vince Russo over at the Relm Network.
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