Russo is joined on today’s show by former OVW wrestler Bin Hamin, former ECW & WWE Superstar Stevie Richards, and his co-host, Jeff Lane. They will discuss this week’s episodes of RAW and Smackdown Live.
Russo says the one highlight of WWE’s 5 hours of programming this week was Jason Jordan’s performance. Russo feels that Jordan is taking the “steaming pile of crap” that the creative team is giving him, and he’s somehow finding a way to make it entertaining.
Richards points out that there are rumours circulating online that Vince McMahon knew fans would react negatively to the way Jordan was being booked, and that was WWE’s plan all along. These rumours are complete “bull” in Russo’s opinion, and Richards agrees. Hamin points out that it’s easy to claim you knew how fans were going to react to something in hindsight.
Richards doesn’t understand where the heat is supposed to be for Jordan as a heel. Was he supposed to get heat for celebrating a victory on RAW? If so, that’s foolish because he should be celebrating victories in Richards’ opinion. Richards still has no idea what Rollins was thinking during Jordan’s match on RAW because he was a cheerleader one minute, and looking angered or dissapointed the next. Russo agrees, saying he has no idea what story WWE is supposed to be telling here.
Hamin believes that Bray Wyatt needs to lose some weight. Richards says Wyatt should have been the “new Undertaker” by now, but the character has lost fans’ trust. WWE has their work cut out for them now to rebuilt Wyatt’s character, because you can never make a second first impression.
Russo points out that in decades past, the WWE Champion would never wrestle on TV. Nowadays, not only are all the Champions wrestling on television, they’re getting pinned every week. This week on RAW, Alexa Bliss was scared to get in ring with Asuka, which should never be the case for a Champion. Russo points out that all “Vince McMahon heels” are wimps.
According to Hamin, the highlight of WWE’s programming this week was Samoa Joe’s backstage promo with Renee Young. It had a work/shoot feel, and everything he said was true. Hamin feels that Ambrose is damaged goods right now, and considers him to be the worst WWE Champion in history. On the other hand, Hamin loves Joe’s fire, while admitting that he could use some new ring gear.
Russo points out that Rhyno still looks like a beast and people know him from years gone by, so he couldn’t understand why WWE couldn’t book Rhyno to have a more competitive match with Strowman. If anyone should be able to compete with Strowman, it’s someone who looks like Rhyno.
Richards feels that Strowman is over right now, but he could be at an even higher level if WWE didn’t jeopardize his status by having him dress up in elf costumes like we saw on social media last week. This really angered Hamin and Russo as well, as all men feel that someone like Strowman should never be put in those situations.
WWE paired Finn Balor up with Anderson and Gallows this week, and Hamin thinks this was WWE’s way of trying to save Balor by any means possible. Unfortunately, Russo doesn’t think pairing Balor with a jobber team like Anderson and Gallows will help. Richards feels it’s too little too late for this partnership in WWE, and Lane points out that most of WWE’s mainstream fans don’t know the history between these guys so WWE should have explained that.
Russo can’t believe that WWE’s creative team doesn’t know what to do with a guy like Elias, who looks and acts like a star. If WWE’s writers can’t give a talent like Elias good material to sink his teeth into, they don’t deserve to write for a wrestling company in Russo’s opinion.
After severely injuring Brian Kendrick with the ‘GTS’ last week, Richards feels that Hideo Itami is completely careless in the ring. He says that Itami seemed nice enough when he met in person, but he’d never trust Itami with his body. Richards has friends who worked with Itami in Japan, and Itami was known as a dangerous worker there at that time.
Russo feels that something is terribly wrong in the wrestling business when Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are in the main event storyline on Smackdown Live. Richards has worked with Owens in the past and feels that he could be a huge star if WWE allowed him to act and speak freely. However, he agrees with Russo in the sense that Zayn is a mid-card talent at best.
Hamin jokes that WWE must have hit the ‘random’ button on a video game in order to determine the brackets for he U.S. Title tournament. Russo agrees and can’t understand how Aiden English gets a shot at the Title when Rusev doesn’t.
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!
