Russo welcomes his 87-year old father to the show to ask him for some advice concerning his inability to enjoy RAW and Smackdown lately.

Russo mentions that RAW and Smackdown has been nearly unwatchable lately, and ‘marks’ are the only people watching. Before proceeding, Russo wants to ensure that his father knows the correct definition of ‘mark’. His father thinks that a mark is defined as someone who is easily fooled, and Russo says that’s pretty close. Russo adds that a mark is someone who will defend something even if it’s terrible.

Russo asks his father for some advice, because he’s not sure he can continue to watch RAW and Smackdown, even though it’s part of his job. His father tells him that he has to suck it up and watch the shows because it’s part of his job. It affects Russo’s business negatively if he doesn’t watch the shows and cover them, so his father thinks he just has to man up and do the work.

If Russo can’t accept that his business requires him to watch and talk about wrestling, then he needs to consider getting out of the business and find another way to make money according to his father.

Russo understands that opinion, but he points out that after he critiques these shows the marks attack him online and he has to deal with the constant social media backlash of what he says. His father says that’s all just part of it, and he needs to either argue with them or just ignore them and move forward.

Russo’s father enjoyed watching Miss Elizabeth and Macho Man back in the day when “…the shows were good”, but he was not a fan of attending WWE/WCW shows when Vince wrote during the attitude era. His mother would want to attend as many shows as possible because she enjoyed seeing her son working in that position.

Russo’s father does agree with him in the sense that today’s product is not very good. He says the marks are idiots if they keep watching these ‘stupid’ shows because they’re boring.

Vince says that he can’t just ‘suck it up’ and watch the shows because he gets so riled up while watching that his blood pressure sores through the roof. His father suggests that he go see a doctor and get some anxiety or blood pressure pills, because it’s either he finds a way to get through these shows or his business is going to suffer. He suggests that Russo watch the show and take a pill after it’s over to calm himself down.

His father offers up another alternative, pointing out that if Russo wants to quit watching and covering wrestling he can move back in with him, or start selling insurance or appliances like he did over two decades ago.

Russo’s father informs that he got very drunk at a party when he was 20, and he spent the entire night throwing up. That was such a miserable experience that he hasn’t had one drink since. His father compares how miserable he was that night to how Russo must feel when he’s watching wrestling, and he suddenly understands where Russo’s coming from.

Russo thanks his father for the advice. He’s unsure which alternative he will choose yet, but he either has to suck it up, take pills to get through it, or give it up altogether and move back in with his father and sell insurance. He’s not really fond of any of these choices.

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!