Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane, and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).
Russo opens today’s show by mentioning that WWE’s concussion lawsuits have been thrown out of court. Gilbertti points out that from a legal standpoint, it’s very tough to prove that WWE is liable for all of the concussions that were suffered over the span of these lengthy careers.
Russo agrees with Gilbertti for the most part, but he believes that WWE puts themselves in bad spots sometimes because of the way they’ve handled certain situations over the years. He points out that in the NFL retired players have a pension, so if they suffer from health issues and are unable to work a regular job at least they have their pension to fall back on. WWE does not have anything of that nature for their retired performers.
Gilbertti points out that NFL players are employees, but WWE performers are independent contractors. When a performer signs a WWE contract they need to understand that they’re playing by WWE’s rules and WWE will pay them for abiding by those rules. Russo understands that logic, but he doesn’t understand why WWE can’t just do the right thing here.
Gilbertti points out that they do help out a lot of people, and in a huge lawsuit like this the company had to try to save some money. Russo thinks that WWE picking and choosing who they help is probably what gets under some people’s skin, but at the end of the day these performers are their own worst enemies because they signed the contract. Russo points out that guys like Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks have proven that you don’t have to sign that contract.
Gilbertti speaks about WWE’s presentation of Ronda Rousey thus far. He thinks Rousey is a natural heel and an unlikeable person. WWE has positioned her as a babyface and are writing babyface promos for her, but it’s very evident that she’s uncomfortable delivering the lines. When she’s unscripted in a real-life situation, she comes off as an unlikeable person.
Gilbertti admits that Rousey might be bringing more publicity to WWE, but the publicity has sucked. Her promotional appearances on ESPN this past week were not very good, as it was evident that she has no interest in talking about her MMA career. He adds that WWE wanted to bring her in as a killer, but she “marked out” her first night on RAW and it simply hasn’t been going well at all since then.
He points out that it seems like her fans left her after she lost two UFC fights; partly due to the losses, and partly due to the way she carried herself after the losses. He notes that Conor McGregor lost a fight but was all class after the fact, and he retained his popularity. Gilbertti fears that fans will turn on Rousey if she’s not a good worker, especially if WWE is saving Asuka and her streak for Rousey.
Russo asks Gilbertti why WWE paired Rousey up with Stephanie McMahon for her first match if there were concerns about her ability to work. Gilbertti doesn’t know what WWE’s thinking or what their logic is. If he was booking Rousey, he would have booked her completely different than how WWE has booked her thus far.
The only really likeable person in that match is Kurt Angle, so Gilbertti thinks Rousey has to break Stephanie’s arm and Stephanie needs to sell that more than she’s ever sold anything in her life. If they do anything other than that, this whole thing will be a waste in his opinion.
Lane points out that since WWE changed the name of the Fabulous Moolah Battle Royal several of Moolah’s former colleagues have come to her support, claiming that she never pimped out women or anything of that nature. Gilbertti points out that professional wrestling culture was very different 40-50 years ago. Russo agrees, adding that Moolah started her wrestling career in 1949, and you can’t take stuff from 70 years ago and try to analyze it in 2018.
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 next week for another recap!
