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Vince Russo did an 80 minute interview. The interview can be heard here:
http://insidetheropes.podbean.com
They talked about many of history of Russo getting a job with WwF and talked
about how he got to write WWF. Later, Russo said that he thought the JR promo
shooting on McMahon in 96 was pretty cool, but he thought the Fake Razor /
Diesel was lame.
Russo said when writing, he was driven to write the best show out there and to
have the latest show better than the previous one. He praised McMahon by calling
him a genius by saying that McMahon would be able to take Russo's scripts and
make something good and make it better.
They talked about the Montreal Screwjob. Russo said he suggested the finish to
McMahon but didn't tell Russo what he was going to do and Russo didn't know what
was going to happen on that day, but when it happened, Russo said he was pretty
shocked to see that McMahon went through with the finish he initially pitched.
Bret was unwilling to drop the title in Montreal, and Russo said that McMahon
was trying to protect the company and that McMahon was afraid that Bret would
show up in WCW with the WWF world title.
Was Russo surprised to see Bret Hart came back to the WWE in 2010 to do the
storyline with McMahon? Russo says "Not really". He says time heals all wounds
and over time, you get over things and get older/wiser and start looking at
things at why people do things they do and it may make sense over time. Russo
says he respects Bret a lot and enjoyed working with him.
Talk moves to SummerSlam 1998 (Undertaker vs Austin) and the heated discussions
McMahon and Russo had about the heel/face aspect of the match. Russo wanted heel
vs face and McMahon wanted face vs face. Russo asked the host "How do you guys
know all this?" [editor note: this was from Ultimate Insiders Volume 1 DVD where
Russo explains the story]. Russo said in New York, fans want to cheer one guy
and boo the other.
Russo said the original story for WrestleMania 15 was Austin vs Rock vs Foley,
but somebody got into Austin and McMahon's ear and it was changed. So the change
was made. The host asks if it was Shawn Michaels who requested the change. Russo
said "Could have been, could have been"
Russo says the internet has changed things a lot as everybody knows what is
going on in front and behind the scenes. He said that is sort of how the
Attitude Era started as that was about the time the internet really took off.
They talk about his WCW tenure. He admitted that the "Oklahoma" (JR parody
gimmick) went too far and since then he has had the chance to talk to Jim Ross
and apologize. He said it was wrong.
Russo said that the shoot promos he did in 2002 were probably "the most fun I've
ever had in the business", when asked about the Sports Entertainment Xtreme era.
He said it was a fun and exciting time because it was a time when they could
have invented the wheel again. He said they could have gone one step further
with the reality in the wrestling business and he felt that they were onto
something. He said he doesn't like looking back now at the person he was back
then, but that was probably the last time when he really felt in his heart that
the wrestling business was exciting and fun.
Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan together again as of October 2009. He
said you can't have these strong different personalities working together. He
worked very peacefully with Hogan and Bischoff but a part of that is in working
together like that where everybody is trying hard to get along and wanting to,
what each person is doing is compromising their ideas and beliefs so that
everybody gets along. Russo said that's not a good way of doing business. There
needs to be one boss, one creative leading the direction. If it's working, you
go with it. If it's not, you get rid of the guy and bring the next guy in.
This was the reason he left. There were no fights. He said it was him, Eric, and
Hulk. Then Bruce Prichard came in. He said he got to a point where it's too
much. He said it got to a point of it wasting his time and wasting their time,
because he couldn't be the true Vince Russo and that he can't do what he could
do because there's too many levels to try and get it by. He said they weren't
getting what they paid for. Once another chef was added to the kitchen, Russo
took a step back and thought it was too much. He said for the good of the
company, somebody had to bail out of it and he decided it had to be him.
If there was one big idea he wanted to do, what would Russo have done? It would
have been to do everything he wanted to do. Not compromising anything. The only
time in his career that he was successful was when he was with the WWE and the
reason was McMahon gave him the ball and let him run with it. There were no
committees, no six other people opinions. McMahon trusted him, gave him the ball
and work with Ed, no ulterior motives. He knows what environment he needs to be
put in to be successful. He said committees in wrestling does not work. He asked
for a committee in the past 15 years that worked. There's too many opinions,
egos, hidden agendas, and too much time wasted.
He said anything else will be vanilla and a "so-so product" and that's what
you're seeing in the wrestling business and in TNA.
Russo said he has a lot of ideas and he has said it before, he's not going to
give them away for free! The host said he has a credit card with him so if Russo
wants to give ideas to him off-air that would work.
The hosts asked if Cena could turn heel, how would he do it. Russo said he
doesn't watch the product on a weekly basis. He was aware of Cena/Rock at
WrestleMania and Brock coming in afterwards, but that's difficult to say because
he doesn't watch their show. He does say that small changes won't do anything.
The changes Russo talks about are big in the way the business is looked at and
presented. That's what he thinks about, not individual characters/storylines.
Russo said Undertaker shouldn't be beaten with that WrestleMania streak and
that's just him. A question about Macho Man. He said there was a six month
crossover in the WWF after he came in and almost right before Macho Man left.
Russo was asked about whether Macho Man should be in the Hall of Fame, and Russo
says "Absolutely".
What Russo thinks makes him so controversial? He said just being him. He's not
forced to go out there and act. He was from New York and had a tendency to have
a big moutn and say what was on his mind. So it wasn't a reach for him to go out
and "act". He said that's what you can do with believable characters; just take
what they are in essense and magnify it.
Quick Fire:
- Hulk Hogan: Legend. Russo says "he is the guy"
- Ric Flair: Russo says he thinks of "Wrestling" when you hear Ric Flair.
- Sting: Russo had a close relationship with him. More on a personal level, he
thinks of Sting as a gentleman; one of the nice guys in the wrestling business;
a true stand-up guy. A guy Russo is proud to work with all those years at TNA.
- Dixie Carter: confused.
- Jim Cornette: "Great wrestling mind"
- Vince McMahon: Creative. Russo says he created it all. Without him, none of
them would be employed. He is the creator when it comes to the wrestling
business.
- Mantaur: his head was too big.
Have we seen the last of Vince Russo in pro wrestling? Would he consider going
back to TNA/WWE under the right circumstances? Russo says if he's done, he's
done and that's okay. He has no problem with that. The only way he would go back
if he had the opportunity to be him and do what he knows he can do; to be
handcuffed and to be kept inside a box, he's not going to do that. He's too old
to do that. That's not fun for him and that's not who he is. If the situation
arose where it was the right situation and he was allowed to be him, he would be
interested. If that situation never arises again, then it never was meant to be
and that's good too.
Russo will be at the Crown Plaza in Monroe, New Jersey on June 1st "YouShoot
Live" where fans will be able to ask him questions live.
http://www.YouShootLive.com
His Facebook fan page is http://www.facebook.com/Russo
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