Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – WWE Underutilizing Ziggler, Impact Talents Underpaid, Sting Vs. Undertaker at ‘Mania? More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).

Russo opens today’s show by speaking about Dave Meltzer’s rumoured wealth. Apparently Meltzer’s worth is $17 Million, and Russo can’t believe that Meltzer is still writing about wrestling if he’s actually worth that much money. Gilbertti points out that Meltzer has a lot of subscribers and has worked very hard for decades to build his company.

Gilbertti also points out that when you work as much as Meltzer does, you probably don’t have any time to spend the money you make which makes it easy to save money. He adds that Meltzer continues to write because he has a passion for it, and he probably wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he were to retire, despite his wealth.

Lane mentions that Don Callis and Scott D’Amore have been hired as co-Exectutive Directors of Impact Wrestling. Gilbertti thinks that Impact is basically setting up shop in Toronto, Canada now, so hiring Canadians to work there makes a lot of sense. Russo is intrigued to see whether these two men can turn Impact Wrestling around because it’s been a steady rotation of people at the head of that company as of late.

Russo points out that Monday Night RAW saw a huge decline in viewership from hour 1 to hour 3 last week, and Gilbertti thinks that was due in large part to the compelling game that was taking place on Monday Night Football. He points out that there was more heat and drama in that game than there was in any of the matches on RAW.

Lane mentions that former Impact referee, Earl Hebner went on the record this past week talking about the financial difficulties that are facing the troubled promotion right now. Hebner asked for his release because he had taken multiple pay cuts and he had finally had enough. He mentioned that most wrestlers were only getting paid $100 per day when he left.

Russo mentions that if the wrestlers will continue to work for $100 per day, people can’t seriously blame Anthem for not paying them more because that’s just good business. He points out that the wrestlers need to make a stand at some point and if they do, the company would have to either pay them more or be left without any wrestlers on their roster.

Lane mentions that Dolph Ziggler had some very interesting comments about his position in WWE on Edge and Christian’s podcast a couple of weeks ago. Gilbertti thinks that WWE is completely underutilizing Ziggler right now, and he doesn’t understand what Ziggler is missing in the eyes of WWE officials.

Russo says he was shocked to hear that Ziggler made those comments publicly, but Gilbertti mentions that that Ziggler can be critical of his current role in WWE because his contract is soon up, and Ziggler knows he can make a living outside of WWE if he has to. Gilbertti believes that Ziggler could work for NJPW and instantly be a top guy there, where good in-ring workers are always in high demand. Ziggler could also make a fortune on the indies in Gilbertti’s opinion.

“Woken” MattHardy debuted in WWE this past week, and rumour has it that Vince McMahon has granted Matt Hardy full creative control over this character. Gilbertti can’t trust that this character will be a success in WWE because he thinks that Impact’s Jeremy Borash played a pivotal role in developing and shooting the Broken Hardy vignettes, which were crucial to the character’s rise in TNA.

Russo has a very hard time believing that McMahon is actually going to give Matt Hardy full creative control over this character, because McMahon has basically been involved in the development of every character in WWE’s history. He also points out that if McMahon didn’t come up with a certain character, he’s proven to be reluctant to position them strongly on his programming.

Lane informs that Sting has apparently been putting off his neck surgery in the hopes of having one last match. Russo questions why Sting would even want to return for one more match at this point in his career, but Gilbertti points out that Undertaker returns for one month of the year and makes $1 Million. If Sting has that type of an opportunity, who can really blame him for saying yes?

Gilbertti adds that it wouldn’t surprise him if Undertaker and Sting occurred at WrestleMania this year because apart from Roman Reigns versus Brock Lesnar, this year’s card isn’t looking very appealing 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!