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

Russo opens today’s show by talking about the opening segment of RAW this week. He points out that he’s not a fan of Stephanie McMahon in real life so it’s very hard for him to say nice things about her, but he thought she did a good job at WrestleMania. However, on Monday night he thought her over-acting was so bad, and this brought the segment down big time.

Russo and Hamin are concerned with Stephanie’s apparent refusal to make herself look foolish in order to get Ronda Rousey over. Hamin thought Rousey should have attacked Stephanie’s good arm on RAW, resulting in Stephanie wearing two casts for multiple months. This could have lead to some great comedy segments, with Triple H having to tend to Stephanie’s every need. Russo points out that Vince McMahon was always willing to make himself look silly in order to get Steve Austin over, and he’s not so sure that Stephanie is willing to do the same for Rousey.

Richards thinks that WWE had a plan for Strowman’s tag team partner at WrestleMania but it fell through at the last minute. That’s why they had him tag with a 10-year old on the show. Russo agrees with Richards, saying that he needs to give WWE the benefit of the doubt here.

Richards says that he’s sick of performers crying when they win Championships. It seems like every time a talent wins a Title now they’re crying in the ring and he’s seen enough of that. Hamin agrees, and also points out that he hated Cedric Alexander embracing Mustafa Ali after the end of their match at WrestleMania. He compared that to Shawn Michaels embracing Ric Flair at the end of their WrestleMania match, and he thought Alexander and Ali were out of place by doing that during a random match on the Kickoff show.

Hamin speaks about the RAW debut of No Way Jose. He doesn’t think this gimmick is going to work well at all and he says that WWE needs to change him quick, perhaps by having him cut a work/shoot promo where he acknowledges the similarities between himself and Rose. No Way Jose could then claim that he won’t let WWE turn him into the next Adam Rose, and this might give him an opportunity to succeed.

Lane questions why WWE hasn’t gone all in with Finn Balor as a gay character yet. They appear to be teasing it, and Balor’s new merchandise and ring gear embraces the LGBT community. Hamin agrees, pointing out that those headlines would really benefit WWE.

Russo says that Paige’s retirement promo was very sad and he’s hoping for a Daniel Bryan miracle for Paige. He thinks it’d be a travesty if her career is over at 23 or 24 years old because she had such a bright future and would have made a lot of money in this business.

Russo mentions that hearing these crowds for three days straight made him embarrassed to be associated with the wrestling business. The worst part about it in his opinion is that the performers are catering to these types of fans now. He thinks these fans are making fun of the business with their quirky chants all in an effort to get themselves over, and he’s embarrassed by it.

Russo wonders how many times WWE are going to bury Elias, who he considers to be one of the most talented guys on the roster. He suspects that Elias must have pissed someone off in the back because there’s no other explanation for the way they’ve been booking him lately.

Russo says he was beginning to enjoy Roman Reigns’ half-shoot promo on RAW, but then WWE had to switch back to wrestling mode with Joe interrupting him. He points out that Joe said nothing to put Reigns over, instead he completely buried him. He adds that WWE is not going to get Reigns over by having someone call him a failure over and over again.

Russo couldn’t believe that a random 6-man tag team match was the main event of RAW the night after WrestleMania, because that match meant absolutely nothing. Hamin adds that the end of RAW looked like “house show 101” with all the babyfaces hitting their finishing moves at the end, and that’s not a good thing.

Speaking about the debut of Paige as Smackdown’s GM, Hamin thinks Paige is a liability and he thinks she should have been let go a long time ago. He suspects that Paige would test positive for one or two substances if she was given a drug test tomorrow, and he just thinks this is going to end badly for WWE.

Russo says he didn’t agree with the idea of Daniel Bryan wrestling A.J. Styles on Smackdown just to satisfy the marks. He says that these shows should write themselves, and since the WWE Title match ended with a low blow at WrestleMania, Smackdown should have opened with Styles looking for revenge.

Russo is confused as to why WWE ended Asuka’s streak only to have Charlotte get beat up by NXT call-ups the next night, then lose her Championship to Carmella. Richards agrees, pointing out that after all of this not one person got over.

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!