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PWInsider.com has confirmed Vince Russo will be returning on a creative level to TNA. Where that leaves the rest of the creative team at this point is undetermined. A number of TNA personalities were informed this morning about the decision. I believe an official announcement to the crew will take place prior to the No Surrender PPV. There is already frustration among several in the company fearing morale is going to crash with Russo's re-emergence as his track record has always been to put everything else before wrestling creatively and the company's calling card in it's best days has been it's in-ring performances.
It's been well documented in recent weeks that the company has needed to do something, but given the past track record of those involved here, I don't know that this was the move to make. Still, it's unfair to judge anything until they get through the first PPV and TV taping this week. If this is meant to be the surprise at No Surrender, TNA are already going to be running uphill since (unless there's a second announcement as well and this is all a planned major swerve on TNA's part, which would be genius, but I doubt it), the hope and hype for the announcement would have built to a major letdown, which to many long-time fans, constitutes something Russo has always done in the past. But, the team has to be judged on what they do now, not what they did in WCW or even in TNA in the past.
Nearly every email I've gotten in the past two hours circles around the status of Jim Cornette in TNA. At this point, he's still with the company, who want to make sure he remains as his segments do well on television. When Russo and Cornette cross paths, I'm sure everyone will be waiting to see what transpires. There's a long history of dislike on Cornette's end for what Russo booked in WCW to mock Jim Ross, including Cornette once challenging and spitting on Russo's old writing partner Ed Ferrara. Cornette has made it publicly clear in just about every interview he's done in recent years that he felt Russo was a big part of the disintegration of the business in general and the two were political enemies when both worked for WWE. The feeling right now is that the two have to be kept far apart from each other or Cornette's run could quickly become a short one.
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