Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Origins of WWE’s 1998 “NWA” Angle, Matt Hardy Staying Relevant, Sami Zayn an ‘Incredible’ Heel? More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.

On one of his radio shows last week Bryan Alvarez from Wrestling Observer was adamant in thinking that the current angle with Kenny Omega is going to make Chris Jericho a bigger star than anything he could have done in WWE. Jericho apparently said this himself as an explanation for why he did this match.

Russo points out that Jericho and Alvarez are right in this case because nobody is watching Monday Night RAW. In Russo’s opinion, this was Jericho’s way of saying “Nobody’s watching WWE” without getting in trouble with Vince McMahon and other WWE officials.

At another point this week Alvarez tweeted out that Sami Zayn is an incredible heel. Russo says that Alvarez clearly hasn’t seen a good heel before because Jake Roberts was an incredible heel. Contrarily, Zayn is a cab driver look-alike that comes off like Woody Allen. Russo says that Alvarez needs to get his head out of his ass.

Russo says that incredible heels should give kids nightmares and they should always be a credible threat to win matches. In Russo’s opinion, Zayn can’t accomplish either of those things right now.

Dave Meltzer answered a fan’s question this past week about WWE’s NWA angle in 1998. Russo says that Meltzer’s explanation was completely wrong, and this angle was actually done to prove to Jim Cornette that the old NWA style of professional wrestling would never work in 1998. Just as Russo expected, the NWA style of wrestling failed miserably and Russo proved his point to Cornette.

Russo discusses Elias’ booking on RAW over the last few weeks. He mentions that after Elias had a terrific match against Roman Reigns on RAW two weeks ago but since then he’s been beaten to a pulp by Braun Strowman and then left off the show entirely this past week. This is a prime example of why WWE can’t build new stars in Russo’s opinion.

Russo says he can’t believe that people are still paying to see RAW or Smackdown live. He says that WWE would have to pay him to go to a show at this point, and he’d contemplate leaving his house and driving to the arena for $500 minimum.

On one of his radio shows this past week Wade Keller of Pro Wrestling Torch said that Hardy’s development of the ‘Broken’ gimmick was a great way for him to extend his career even given the fact that he can no longer work main event calibre matches. Russo points out that while Keller might be right in the sense that Hardy can’t work main event calibre matches anymore, he’s more over now than he’s ever been.

This should be a lesson to young wrestlers, because if you come up with a good character and gimmick you don’t have to go out and kill yourself on a nightly basis. He goes on to say that Hardy gave his body to the business and the fans for over two decades, so it’s great that he can stay relevant and entertaining all these years later without having to destroy himself further in the ring.

A fan asked Meltzer this week if he considers Vince McMahon to be the smartest person in the history of the wrestling business. Meltzer said that McMahon is definitely high on that list, but he mightn’t necessarily be the smartest. Russo believes that McMahon is more balls than brains, and his willingness to take risks led to his incredible success more-so than his intelligence.

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!