Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, Big Vito and Kenny Bolin.
Russo says that while watching RAW this week he was amazed because against all odds, Jason Jordan is getting himself over. Jordan has been cutting great promos with lacklustre material and his work in the ring has always been steady, so in spite of the way he’s been positioned by WWE, Jordan is starting to make this storyline work.
He also says that all the marks out there who continue to criticize Roman Reigns need to stop because Reigns has proven himself to be a very valuable commodity to WWE over the last couple of years. His work on the mic and in the ring has continued to steadily improve, and in the last two weeks Reigns has almost single-handidly made two new Superstars in Elias and Jason Jordan.
Vito asks Russo if he wrote The Rock’s iconic catch phrase, “It doesn’t matter what you think!” Russo informs that he didn’t write that line, and it was actually The Rock who came up with that.
Lane says he absolutely loved the backstage interaction between Enzo Amore and Nia Jax and Russo agrees, pointing out that WWE can do a lot of creative things with that pairing. On the other hand, Russo didn’t like the Cruiserweight Fatal 4-way match because he thinks all the cruiserweight matches are way too choreographed.
He says that all the cruiserweights must spend their entire day together, planning how their match is going to unfold and scripting out every move right down to the finest detail. He adds that maybe we should just start grading cruiserweight matches like judges grade gymnastics in the Olympics.
Russo says his biggest issue with RAW this week was Elias being utilized as cannon fodder for Braun Strowman just one week after having a terrific, competitive match with Roman Reigns. This is why WWE continues to struggle with getting new stars over, and he has no idea why they booked Elias this way.
The best thing on this show in Russo’s opinion was the Bray Wyatt/Matt Hardy segment. He gives a lot of credit to whoever produced that and put it together, saying that it was terrific entertainment. Vito agrees, calling it one of the best segments in RAW history, and Bolin says that while he wasn’t initially a fan of the entire ‘Broken’ Hardy character, he submits to the fans who obviously love this gimmick.
Russo wasn’t happy with how the main event of the Raw ended and he clearly wasn’t alone since RAW dropped over 700,000 viewers as it went into the third hour of the show. Russo thinks this drop in viewership occurred because guys like Rollins and Ambrose simply aren’t over. He also mentions that a run-in from Samoa Joe in your main event isn’t going to captivate any mainstream audiences.
Russo mentions that there was a point when Joe was working in NJPW that he looked terrific, but his weight was always an issue in TNA. Joe would often get lazy and Russo, along with other TNA officials would have to kick him into gear. Vito knew that he needed to have a good body when transitionting from WCW to WWE, and he worked very hard to make that happen. He points out that you can’t teach heart, and maybe Joe is lacking that internal drive to get himself into shape.
Transitioning over to Smackdown Live, Russo says there’s simply nothing to talk about on this show. As long as Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are opening and closing the show, we all know that the entirety of Smackdown Live is going to be a waste of time in his opinion.
Bolin suggests that WWE should switch Zayn from an in-ring worker to a Manager because he’s a decent talker, but there’s not really anything interesting happening with Zayn from an in-ring perspective right now.
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!
