Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane.
Lane opens today’s show by playing a clip of Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez talking about Asuka’s recent promos. Alvarez says that he could understand most of her promo but others might not due to the language barrier. Russo jokes that as long as Alvarez understands then apparently that’s all that matters. Russo finds it strange that Alvarez admitted that some people mightn’t understand her promos, but yet he still refused to admit that WWE shouldn’t have given her a live mic on live television.
Podcasting Kevin Gill tweeted out this past week that he’s become a fan of Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio. Russo wonders what would make someone a fan of Bryan Alvarez, suggesting that maybe it’s Alvarez’s backyard wrestling prowess. Russo points out that you can’t be a fan of Alvarez’s knowledge because he has none.
Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin finally got back to posting stories on his website recently after being “tired of posting scoops on Twitter”. Russo says Satin wants to be credited with the scoop on these stories, and that’s why he’s been posting it on Twitter instead of making money by posting it on his website. Russo also points out that Satin’s sources have been lying to him, so he’d rather get credit for these inaccurate scoops on Twitter than monetize it on his website.
Alvarez also spoke this week about a Roman Reigns and Elias match from a recent house show. He said that fans were chanting the entire time even though Reigns and Elias didn’t do anything in the match. He went on to say that the Elias character is so good until the bell rings.
Russo tells Alvarez, “Shut up you clueless dweeb”. He points out that it doesn’t matter what happens when the bell rings because Elias and Reigns already put those asses in the seats. These guys sold tickets and managed to get an entire area to chant without doing anything in the ring – that’s what makes them stars. It drives him crazy that these “imbeciles” don’t even understand the business that they cover on a daily basis.
Satin spoke on his audio show this past week, saying that the original plans for WrestleMania last year might have called for Reigns to turn heel at the end of the main event, beating up Undertaker with a chair. Apparently Vince McMahon was on board with this but then Undertaker thought he wanted to retire, so they went that way instead.
Russo says that when you hear these guys talk about wrestling it’s like a bunch of 6th graders getting together in homeroom. He just can’t wrap his head around it. He also points out that McMahon has been on the babyface Reigns train for years now. Comments like these from Satin just show that these guys don’t even understand what they’re watching.
Pro Wrestling’s Torch’s Wade Keller spoke out this past week, saying that RAW’s ratings have been continuously declining, but they’ve steadied as of late. He added that this could be because WWE drove away the casual viewers but their base audience has stuck around. Russo points out that steadying at 3 million viewers is not really something to brag about. WWE is the only game in town, so they should be drawing far more viewers than that.
Keller went on to fantasy book how WWE should try to get Reigns over with hardcore audience. He suggested that WWE book a really good back and forth 8-minute battle between Reigns and Seth Rollins. Reigns would win in the end, but Rollins would then get up and raise Reigns’ hand and hug him. They’d then both point to the WrestleMania sign.
Russo laughs and points out that nobody is going to care if Rollins raises Reigns’ hand and points to the sign. In fact, the hardcore audience would probably boo him more for that. Lane points out that The Rock did this for Reigns a couple of years ago and it didn’t work. Russo adds that he can’t believe people are paying money for this kind of “wisdom” from Keller.
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!
