Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – RAW & Smackdown Analysis, Heyman to Turn on Lesnar? Hardy in the Battle Royal? More!

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

Russo opens the show by admitting that he enjoyed Paul Heyman’s promo from RAW this past week because Heyman finally brought up some new points and had some fresh content. However, he doesn’t like the “Roman Reigns isn’t a man” buildup to the Lesnar/Reigns WrestleMania main event. He thinks WWE should be putting Lesnar over as an MMA Champion, so then when Reigns wins at WrestleMania WWE can brag that their professional wrestler defeated the former UFC Champion.

Richards points out that he’s been thinking about the possibility of Heyman finally turning on Lesnar at WrestleMania and teaming up with Reigns. Lesnar’s WWE contract will soon expire and there are rumours that he might return to UFC, so Richards thinks this would be a prime time to have Heyman turn on Lesnar.

Alternatively, Richards points out that it might be cool to have Lesnar retain the Universal Title at WrestleMania, and have him carry that around with him when he returns to UFC. He points out that Vince McMahon and Dana White have a rapport with each other, and this would be a fresh storyline for WWE.

Lane doesn’t think the interaction between Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss did anything to further their storyline this week. Richards points out that Jax and Mickie James might end up having a better match than Bliss and Jax, because James looks terrific right now. Russo agrees entirely, calling James a “Wrestler’s Wrestler”.

Russo thought RAW’s training montage featuring Triple H and Stephanie McMahon was the best thing on all of WWE programming this past week. He admits that he’s not a fan of Triple H or McMahon, but there’s no denying that this was a good feature. However, he thought Triple H calling Angle an “idiot” was immature and it took him out of the moment.

Hamin and Richards point out that Ronda Rousey had a rough time with her promotion for WrestleMania this past week. After texting with some people who told him that Rousey is going to give WWE a lot of trouble, Richards is concerned that this Rousey experiment might not go exactly as WWE has planned. Lane agrees, pointing out that Rousey has a tough time cutting promos, and her inexperience in the ring is showing already.

Hamin loved The Miz claiming to be a better Intercontinental Champion than Mr. Perfect while his son, Curtis Axel was in the ring right next to him. He points out that this was great heat, and it was terrible timing by Finn Balor to jump in and interrupt that. 

Russo is very confused by the fact that Matt Hardy is entering the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He points out that the Hardy/Bray Wyatt feud has gone on for months, and he can’t believe that WWE couldn’t save something for WrestleMania. He gives WWE the benefit of the doubt, noting that maybe Wyatt will return next week and challenge Hardy to a singles match at WrestleMania.

Russo is also shocked that neither Braun Strowman or Elias have a scheduled match for WrestleMania at this point. Hamin points out that WWE is only concerned about Rousey and Stephanie McMahon/Triple H. Russo adds that WWE has invested a lot of time and money in both Strowman and Elias, and it’s a shame that they don’t have a bigger role at WrestleMania.

Russo couldn’t believe that RAW went off the air this week without an appearance from The Undertaker. Hamin notes that maybe WWE will wait until WrestleMania now to have Undertaker come out in surprising fashion. Russo says that’s not a bad idea because having him come out next week (the week before ‘Mania) does little for WWE in his opinion.

Russo points out that he called the Daniel Bryan/Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn match a long time ago. Lane wonders what happened to the feud between Bryan and Shane McMahon since they’ve had issues with each other for months. Hopefully WWE addresses this plot hole on Smackdown next week.

Russo points out that this isn’t a great storyline for the return of Bryan. If WWE knew, or even thought it was possible that Bryan would be cleared to return they should have had a better storyline planned. Other than the marks, he doesn’t think a lot of casual fans will be interested in this match. Lane says if he was booking, he would have had A.J. Styles vs. Bryan at WrestleMania.

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!