Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, and former WWE Superstars Stevie Richards and Bin Hamin.

Russo was very dissapointed with RAW this week, specifically because John Cena didn’t address the beatdown he received from Braun Strowman on last week’s RAW. After WWE announced that Cena would be opening this week’s show Russo had some hope that Cena would actually address last week’s events, but he was let down yet again.

He goes on to say that if he was booking this show, Cena would have been waiting for Strowman in the parking lot with a baseball bat this week. Unfortunately, they made Cena look terrible by having him ignore the beatdown he took last week. Hamin points out that WWE made all their big stars look terrible this week as they made Strowman look like a big fool as well, booking him in a singing segment with Elias.

Russo thought it was hilarious that after falling into the mid-card for years, Seth Rollins came out of nowhere this week and demanded to be back in the main event picture. After hearing Rollins’ demands, the GM of RAW, Kurt Angle decided to let the marks decide whether Rollins should be promoted to the main event picture or not. He thought this was ridiculous storytelling.

Hamin points out that Kurt Angle only has one job each week, and that’s to deliver solid promos. Unfortunately, Angle had multiple botches during his promo this past week and this is becoming a trend. Richards points out that this continues to happen because WWE is over-scripting Angle’s promos.

Russo thinks WWE’s Women’s revolution is hypocritical. Viewers aren’t allowed to call the women sexy because they’re supposed to be viewed as equal competitors to the men, but yet they wear makeup and dress in skimpy clothes in order to look sexy. Russo gives credit to “Outback Jack” (Sarah Logan) because at least she doesn’t wear makeup.

Russo couldn’t pick an ounce of sense out of Strowman singing with Elias this week. Hamin and Richards think that the creative team wrote this to make Vince McMahon laugh because they know he loves that kind of stuff. Lane points out that singing doesn’t fit Strowman’s gimmick at all. It was hilarious when The Rock sang because it fit his gimmick, but Strowman should never be presented in foolish segments like this.

Russo points out that all five competitors who competed in the main event of RAW are on the same level due to 50/50 booking, and Richards adds that wins and losses simply don’t matter anymore. Hamin adds that Balor’s offence in this match was some of the worst he’s seen.

Moving on to Smackdown Live, Russo was confused by Ziggler’s return to WWE. Ziggler vacated the United States Title several weeks ago and ran off, only to return last night with his entrance music reinstated, failing to cut a promo to explain his actions.

Russo points out that this show lost him right out of the gate with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn attacking Ziggler and Baron Corbin. He doesn’t think it’s believable to have those two guys beating people up. They’re “Fatty” and “Dopey” to him, and he’ll never be able to take them seriously.

Richards thought there was one very reckless spot in the Charlotte/Sarah Logan match. Just a few weeks after Paige’s career was ended by a blind blow to the back, Logan speared Charlotte blindly from behind. He points out that these blind blows to the spine need to stop because they are very dangerous and the smallest error can have catastrophic results.

Russo says that he loves Daniel Bryan and he’s sure Bryan has a great heart, but he really thinks Bryan needs to do something about his hair. Bryan’s on National television every week and the least he can do is get his hair styled.

Russo singles out one specifically terrible line from the New Day/Gable & Benjamin segment. At one point, Benjamin and Gable said, “We don’t like pancakes, we like waffles”. He thought this was absolutely pathetic writing and says, “..let’s all just kill ourselves at that point”.

Hamin points out that Ziggler has the work rate of Shawn Michaels and a body like Mr. Perfect, yet due to WWE’s incompetent booking, he can’t be taken seriously in the main event Title picture anymore. Russo adds that Ziggler is already flipping from heel to babyface and back again in the same show, and that’s no way to get over in the main event scene.

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!