Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, Big Vito, and Kenny & Chris Bolin. On today’s show they’re going to share their thoughts on this past week’s episode of RAW & Smackdown Live.
Russo says that he was very dissapointed that WWE’s creative team ignored the fact that someone had to let The New Day into the building during last week’s episode of RAW. On this week’s show, he would have written the entire episode around the fact that there’s a mole on the inside who let those guys into the building the prior week. He thinks that would have been very captivating television, but WWE simply ignored it.
Russo saw no point of the in-ring promo segment between Miz, Sheamus and Cesaro on RAW. Lane agrees, saying that this was a filler segment. Bolin points out that he basically falls asleep anytime Sheamus speaks so he wasn’t captivated by this promo.
Bolin says that Jason Jordan has ‘Rocky Maivia’ heat right now, and the Atlanta fans were even thanking Bray Wyatt for hurting Jordan’s leg on RAW this week. It’s one thing for a Northeast crowd to act that way, but when a Southern crowd begins to turn on a babyface that heavily, you’re in real trouble.
Russo says that Paul Heyman is, “…the most unappealing, unattractive person on television today”. He adds that other than Vince McMahon, nobody would put Heyman on television today. Heyman cuts the same generic promo week after week, and he wishes that WWE would just turn Heyman into a cartoon character at this point.
Big Vito says he was glad to see A.J. Styles defeat Jinder Mahal for the WWE Title on Smackdown Live last week, because he thinks Styles vs. Lesnar is a more exciting matchup for Survivor Series. However, he thinks Styles will be a transitional Champion, and Mahal will regain his WWE Title during WWE’s upcoming tour of India.
Russo says that if WWE stuck with Mahal versus Lesnar at Survivor Series, he would have booked Mahal to defeat Lesnar clean. He feels that if WWE doesn’t put their Title on Mahal again in the near future, they would have basically wasted the last six months they spent building Mahal as a credible Champion.
Lane says he had a huge issue with WWE booking Triple H to Pedigree Jason Jordan right in front of Kurt Angle on RAW. Vito and Bolin agree, saying that an able-bodied wrestler like Angle should have been furious at the sight of his son being attacked, and he should have retaliated against Triple H. Russo agrees with all of that and adds that Jordan actually did a great job in this spot, especially since he was battling a hostile crowd.
Big Vito feels that WWE has no idea how to book Samoa Joe effectively. Bolin informs that Al Snow labeled Joe as ‘fat and lazy’ during his time in OVW, and that’s why he never really got a shot with WWE back in the day. Fast forward to today, and Bolin feels that Joe is one of WWE’s top five stars right now, if only they’d book him effectively. He’s obviously great in the ring, and his promo work is better than Bolin thought.
Russo didn’t understand WWE’s camera angle choice to end RAW. When Strowman powerslammed Kane at the end of the show, WWE shot the spot even with the ring mat and Russo thinks that was a mistake. He feels that they should have had a crane shot for that spot, as well as multiple other camera angles. Lane thinks WWE shot the spot like that on purpose, so fans at home wouldn’t see Strowman and Kane just lying in the hole.
Russo points out that he’d simply rather watch Teen Mom on a Monday night instead of RAW. He says there was more drama in one hour of Teen Mom this week than there has been on RAW in the last month. Some people might say that it’s strange for a grown man to watch Teen Mom, but Russo says it’s definitely strange for a grown man to watch professional wrestling.
Speaking about the upcoming Styles/Lesnar bout, Bolin says that WWE should have focused more on the size difference between both men in the promotion for the match. It truly is a David versus Goliath scenario, and he thinks WWE missed the mark by not speaking more about that.
He also points out that Lesnar rarely has long matches in WWE, so Styles’ plan could have been to drag the match out in order to test Lesnar’s cardio. Unfortunately, WWE didn’t take that direction either. In the end, Lane feels that WWE simply failed to leave themselves enough time to promote this match properly.
Russo would have preferred if Charlotte would have announced her father, Ric, before he came out instead of pretending to be surprised when he came out, because that didn’t turn out very believable. Bolin thought Natalya looked sloppy in this match, and he’s sure she wasn’t happy about dropping the Title just days before Survivor Series. He says that he worked with Natalya in OVW, and she can be the ‘drama Queen from Hell’ when she wants to be.
Russo says that after RAW invaded Smackdown Live, he felt that the show should have went off air with Kurt Angle applying the ankle lock to Shane McMahon. He also thought it was bad that WWE failed to play up the fact that Triple H will be squaring off with his brother in law, Shane, at Survivor Series because that’s a huge story.
That sums up today’s episode of Vince Russo’s The Brand. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya tomorrow for another recap!
