Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane.
Russo addresses a tweet sent out by Kevin Gill this past week. Gill implied in the tweet that Russo attracts sexist and racist followers. Russo says that anytime someone says things like this it becomes a personal matter.
Russo’s been married to the same woman for 34 years so he has no idea how he can he be sexist. He says it’s fine to critique his work in the wrestling business, but don’t throw allegations like this around, especially when you don’t know the person you’re talking about. Russo says he hasn’t done a racist or sexist thing in his life.
Lane plays a clip of Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer from this past week, when Meltzer said that nobody goes as far back with the UFC as him and former referee John McCarthy. In the same sentence, Meltzer admitted that he doesn’t work for UFC. Russo laughs hysterically, pointing out that this is classic Meltzer, trying to take credit for things that he has nothing to do with.
Russo couldn’t believe how many “marks” were in the crowd in Philadelphia for the Royal Rumble, RAW and Smackdown this past week. If he was still booking for WWE, he’d have John Cena or Roman Reigns start a gimmick where they just rip on the crowd each week, making fun of people’s appearance. He points out that those fans will keep coming back anyways because they’re marks.
Dave Melzter sent out a tweet this weekend, saying he watched 14 hours of wrestling on Saturday, but at least it was all good. Russo can’t imagine watching 14 hours of anything, especially wrestling. He goes on to say that Meltzer is a mark because he’s neglecting his family to watch wrestling all day long, when he has employees that he can pay to do this.
He thinks Meltzer should be more concerned with taking care of his family than watching wrestling, because it’s not normal to be acting like this at 60 years old.
Meltzer’s colleague, Bryan Alvarez tweeted out Saturday night that the NXT Takeover show was so awesome that he almost shed a tear at the end of the main event between Cien Almas and Johnny Gargano. Russo can’t believe it, but these guys are actually admitting to crying over fake wrestling matches.
In another tweet, Meltzer said that The Miz can’t be compared to Randy Savage or Shawn Michaels because he has no credibility, his in-ring work is not believable, and he comes off as an actor playing a wrestler.
Russo agrees with Meltzer in the sense that Miz can’t be compared to Savage or Michaels, because those guys are in a class of their own. However, he doesn’t agree that Miz has no credibility. All Meltzer cares about is in-ring work, and this leads to him making some very stupid comments about certain performers from time to time.
Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin pointed out in a tweet during the Royal Rumble on Sunday night that Kairi Sane and Lita are in a match together in 2018 adding, “What a time to be alive”. Russo says that if The Rock and Steve Austin had a year-long build to a WrestleMania match next year maybe he’d get this excited, but Sane & Lita simply aren’t going to make him react this way.
A listener calls into the show and asks Russo who contacted Motley Crue to get them to appear on WWE programming during the attitude era. Russo informs that Motley Crue were promoting a new album at that time, and WWE was so hot back then that Crue’s representatives actually contacted WWE. Russo remembers X-Pac being so excited backstage all day because he was a big Crue fan.
Russo points out that Ryan Satin sent out several tweets last Sunday leading up to the Rumble, saying that Ronda Rousey was on a movie set in Columbia, basically informing that Rousey wouldn’t be at the Rumble. Russo points out that this is the quality journalism you can expect from Satin.
PWTorch’s Wade Keller spoke about Rousey’s signing in WWE this week, saying this signing has tremendous potential, but it could also be a train-wreck if she doesn’t take the wrestling culture seriously. Russo thinks Keller and the other marks have convinced themselves that Rousey and Asuka are going to have a shoot fight at WrestleMania. He adds that it’ll be hard for Rousey to take WWE seriously if they keep booking her in hilariously bad situations like they did this past Sunday.
Keller went on to say that Roman Reigns’ vest is one of the reasons fans resent him. He noted that perhaps WWE continues to have him wear a vest because his tattoos doesn’t project the image WWE wants from him, or they’re worried about how his body will hold up over the years. Russo thinks these dirt sheet writers are just looking for things to say at some points, because this just doesn’t make any sense.
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!