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I saw Vince Russo wrote on his website that you hate him because he pulled out of an interview with you years ago and said he did it because "where [Mike] already seemed to know all the answers to the questions before even speaking to me. I told Mike that if he already had the answers—then there was no need in him interviewing me. So I canceled the interview." He also knocked Dave Scherer, so, what happened here?
This is hardly news to PWInsider Elite subscribers at the time of the cancellation, and Russo's version is skewed. As far as what was said about Dave, I'll leave it to him to respond in his own time.
Regarding Russo's comments about me, however - let's review: Russo, after leaving TNA, made a comment online that no one ever contacts him for his side of the story. I emailed him and told him, "I'll take the bait and bite" and offered to do an interview with no restrictions at all. He agreed and we had a back and forth email exchange and honestly, it was a friendly one. It was so friendly, that I closed an email with what turned out to be the cardinal mistake of writing, something along the lines of, "Even if we don't agree on everything, this discourse will be good."
When I wrote it, I was truly looking forward to the interview but the second Russo heard that, he clammed up, decided he didn't want to do the interview (despite his comments that no one tries to get his side of the story) and instead decided he "only wanted to issue a statement" about his side of the exit from TNA. He sent me a statement and we ran it, while noting that he pulled out of the interview.
My belief is that Russo more or less wanted a forum where we would parrot whatever he wanted put out there. Based on the way he reacted when I told him that we didn't have to agree on everything, my feeling is and remains that Russo was afraid to place himself in a situation where he would potentially be challenged to give deeper insight beyond easy answers. So, he ran the other way at the first sign of what he apparently perceived as danger.
At the time, that was a shame and it remains a shame. What Russo failed to realize is that he had a chance to actually have an intelligent discourse and let people hear, in his own words, his side of different topics and given that he had just left TNA, it was his chance to do so in a timely manner. I might add that while he didn't know this, I intended to make the complete audio free, so anyone and everyone could hear it, which would have provided him a massive forum given our daily traffic.
Russo chose not to accept that forum and and this day, unless he's getting paid money to do a DVD interview, has yet to do any interview where he's open and free and willing to discuss any topic beyond answers like, "I don't remember that far back" or "ask Christian Cage" (both of which were responses to questions fans asked him on his own website) regarding why something oddball or goofy happened when he was steering the creative ship of different wrestling companies.
Honestly, I blame myself for attempting to actually have a conversation with him before he was on the air because perhaps I alerted him to the idea that I wasn't going to be a fluff interviewer, and that's on me. I had heard the stories of how Russo shuts down at the slightest sign of criticism and takes every perceived slight personally. I didn't take heed to them and that was absolutely my fault. I should have realized what he was gunning for and I failed to see the forest from the trees. At the end of the day, it falls upon me for not realizing that Russo never wanted to put himself in a situation where his answers might be challenged or that I might ask follow-ups that weren't to his liking. My mistake was assuming he was actually willing to be as fair and open as Russo wanted others to be towards him.
As far as me "having the answers" before the interview, that would require me knowing what questions I was going to ask. As anyone who has ever heard any interview I've conducted, my goal is for them to be more of a free flowing conversation with the subject. I don't come prepared with a check-list of questions. I sit down, I speak to them, listen to them and let their answers dictate the flow of the interview. Again, Russo chose not to do that, for the reasons stated above.
As far as Russo telling me that if I had all the answers, there was no need to do the interview - that NEVER, EVER happened. What he told me is that he was out of the wrestling business and really only wanted to clear the air on his TNA exit, so there was no reason to contact him again - although since then he's done paid DVD interviews for Kayfabe Commentaries, consulted for TNA's creative team and now opened a blog site where he writes about - wrestling! So, he lied to me in that regard, just as he lied about what he said to me on his website.
At the end of the day, Russo missed on a chance to have an intelligent conversation that would have allowed people to understand him better and perhaps have readers who blame him for things (that are both fair and unfair) to listen and go, "Oh, I see that point of view now." In many ways, that was his loss far more than anyone else's. He's the one who complains he gets blamed and villified by people but when he had a chance to explain himself in an intelligent setting and a deep conversation, he chose to shut down. He also fails to see why that might come off as cowardly to some, based on his website writing.
Now, the idea I hate or dislike him is silly. You wrote hate. He said dislike. I don't know the man personally. I don't care for what he said about me, because that's a lie but that doesn't mean I hate the man. It seems to me that Russo fails to realize that a normal, rational person separates business from personal feelings.
On a business side of things, I might not have liked his TNA creative approach at times and I may not have liked that he turned WCW into a carbon-copy of WWE, but even after reading both of his books, I really don't have any true insight into why he made the decisions he's made over the years beyond a belief that "Crash TV" is what works and he quit WWE because he was afraid of the workload going forward and the idea that Vince McMahon suggested he get a nanny to help his wife out. Of course, Vince admitted on his website that he was close to having a nervous breakdown during that time period as well, which could explain a lot of his actions during that time period.
However, for anyone to say I dislike him is remarkably dumb since I've often, in other interviews, brought up whether it's fair he's been so vilified to subjects and allowed them to respond and defend him. If I hated the guy, I certainly wouldn't provide a forum for someone to defend him. As I said, a rational person can see things for what they are. I don't dislike him. I dislike some of the things he's done in the business, but that's no different than Vince Russo writing about what he liked and didn't like in wrestling back when he was writing for John Arezzi's Newsletter in the early 1990s (a fact he conveniently forgets all the time) or no different than Russo wanting to write about what he likes and dislikes about pop culture now on his website.
To close this out, let's make this clear as well: for the record, in the ten years of PWInsider, Russo is the ONLY person who's agreed to do an interview and then pulled out, and I've interviewed everyone from Triple H to Eric Bischoff.
It's up to Russo to change his mind, not me, but that doesn't mean I dislike him. He obviously knows where to find me, since he routinely writes me asking for website plugs, which blows my mind. Why he would write someone he thinks "dislikes him" asking for help is a question someone else would have to ask him. Just don't dare let him know you might disagree with him.
Have TNA ever toured Canada?
They've had a few random live events up there, but nothing major in terms of touring.
Who is the Freak in the TNA Menagerie?
Rob Terry.
I haven't been able to find the motivation to watch TNA in month, other than a few minutes here and there. I do keep tabs on them thanks to PWinsider.com. Now that they've let all the great wrestlers who built the company go, Kurt Angle is out 4-6 months, their champ is a career comedy act, their new top face has already turned heel, Jeff Hardy plays some ridiculous goof character and Steph McMahon wannabe Dixie Carter is still a top heel, can you give me three good reasons to invest my limited free time watching TNA?
I can give you FIVE, easily. One, the wrestlers still do work their asses off and you can never take away from their work ethic. Two, Bully Ray is one of the best talkers going right now. Three, Brooke Tessmacher is back and she's awesome. Four, EC3 is really entertaining as a character. Five, Rockstar Spud is hilarious and hey here's six as a bonus answer - the company is obviously in a state of flux right now but if you don't watch, you'll never see whether it gets any better.
My question is in regards to TNA’s One Night Only PPV. What is the purpose of them? They have nothing to do with current TNA storylines. I haven’t seen one myself (and don’t plan to) but it seems like the matches are just thrown together without much thought or after though. Why would anyone spend money on these shows vs their traditional PVVs which barely get any buys? Is TNA actually making money off of these shows?
The purpose of the shows is that TNA, when they cut back on live PPV events, still had hours of programming to fill for their international TV deals to replace those shows. So, they created the One Night Only PPVs to fill those voids. The shows were originally pitched to Spike as free specials here in the United States but weren't picked up, so TNA opted to make them cheaper, paid PPVs. As far as why someone would order them, more often than not, there usually are 1-2 really fun matches on the shows. The shows haven't been tied in with the weekly TNA continuity, but based on recent ONO results, that may change.
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