Russo opens today’s show by discussing last night’s episode of RAW. He points out that after suffering through just over 2 hours of RAW, he turned off the show. He couldn’t take any more, especially after watching over 3 hours of programming during the Backlash show the night before, when zero effort was put into the creative direction.
He points out that the guys and girls are working their butts off, because that’s what professionals do. Sami Zayn works just as hard today as Steve Austin did during the attitude era, and he’ll never discredit the effort of the performers. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the effort from the creative team because it’s just abysmal right now.
There’s no doubt in his mind that RAW and Smackdown are the worst two shows on television right now, and he’d never watch them if it wasn’t for all of his fans who love to hear his reaction to the shows. His fans know that he’s going to tell it like it is, and they pay to hear these opinions. He wants to give his fans everything they expect and more.
He points out that when he doesn’t enjoy something he stops watching it, and most people do the same. He watched first few episodes of Netflix’s GLOW and enjoyed them, but the show lost him after that. He stopped watching because that’s what people do when they stop being entertained by shows. This is exactly what’s happening to WWE’s viewership today.
Russo says he can’t remember how many years ago he stopped enjoying WWE’s product, but it was an awfully long time ago. He managed to suffer through the first two hours of last night’s show but just after the 2-hour mark, as WWE was hyping Seth Rollins versus Mojo Rawley he had seen enough and he turned it off.
Russo talks about the last time he saw Vince McMahon. He recalls that WWE’s ratings were going in the toilet around the 2002, and they even dipped below 3.0 at one point. He called McMahon who quickly took his call, and they had secret meetings at McMahon’s house. They soon agreed on the financial side of a new contract.
Russo asked how he was going to be brought back in, and McMahon told him to just show up at the next PPV (King of the Ring) and he’d be introduced to all the writers then. Russo wasn’t comfortable with that, and wanted to be introduced to the writers beforehand. McMahon agreed and Russo was soon brought into a meeting with the writers, who were simply a bunch of kids.
When Russo left WWE just a couple of years prior it was only him and Ed Ferrara writing the shows, and he had no idea how WWE’s writing team devolved into a team of kids that quickly. He proceeded to tell them that the show sucked, and he knew they’d all be talking behind his back the minute he walked out.
Soon after this meeting he spoke to Stephanie McMahon, who talked down to him as if he was a child. He knew this new tenure with WWE was never going to work when he found out that Vince hired him without Stephanie knowing. He flew back home that day knowing it wasn’t going to work and McMahon soon called him, confirming that notion. He and McMahon proceeded to get into a small dispute, and the last thing he said to McMahon 16 years ago was, “Vince, where’s your bravado?”
Russo says that WWE and McMahon is lacking someone like him today; someone who’d knock on McMahon’s office and tell him straight up that the show absolutely sucks. He points out that the show was suffering in 2002, but it was still a much better show then than it is nowadays.
He goes on to say that not all is lost for WWE. Rocky 4 and Rocky 5 were terrible movies, but Sylvester Stallone came back years later with Rocky Balboa, which was a fantastic movie. Russo wonders when McMahon and WWE will come back.
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!
