Former Creative Writer Vince Russo Defends His Work
Former WWE, WCW and TNA writer Vince Russo, was interviewed by PWTorch Livecast last Friday primarily to speak
on his time writing material for WWE's Wrestlemania shows. The interview quickly
dissolved as host, Wade Keller, bombarded Russo with questions about his time in
TNA and his controversial booking style. Below is a quick recap of the
show.
"This is why I'm hated by the internet community and I completely
understand it but there's nothing I could have or would have done differently.
When I started writing at the beginning of the 'Attitude Era' -- I'll never
forget it -- the Raw show that broke the camel's back did a 1.9. The next
morning, I got called into Vince's office (and) the rest is history. A 1.9. At
some point, that 1.9 turned into a 7.0. Now, that 7.0 is once again at a
3.0.
"You have to understand something; I don't have a wrestling
philosophy. The way I've always written a show is, 'Whatever is hot and whatever
is drawing eye balls, we're going to go with it. And if something wasn't hot and
if something wasn't drawing, we're going to get this off the show.' So, at WWE,
we literally looked at the minute-by-minute ratings. We knew -- every minute --
what the people were watching (and) what the people were turning off. We just
kept going with what they were watching. What they were watching. What they were
watching.
"That 1.9 fan-base they had was the wrestling fan. When we grew
it to a 7.0, that was really the non-wrestling, casual fan that was now tuning
into the show because the show was now cool and hip. They could talk about Steve
Austin and The Rock. You know, the blue collar workers with Austin and McMahon.
It became hip to the non-traditional wrestling crowd. "Well, they're
non-traditional and they're not the wrestling crowd because they weren't
watching it for the wrestling. They were watching it for the stories, the
characters, the soap opera. That's what drew the casual fans in.
"Now, my
job is based on bringing in the highest rating to the company. That type of
wrestling was not the type of wrestling that the internet community was into.
The internet community wants to see wrestling and I understood that. I knew
that. But I also knew that I was getting paid to draw the highest number. That's
my job.
"I had this conversation with someone the other day. If an A.J.
Styles and Christopher Daniels 20 minute match drew a high rating, wouldn't
Vince put it on every show? If the casual fan -- and I mean the masses -- really
loved the wrestling aspect of the show -- 20-30 minute matches -- and that's
what they were watching for, do you know how easy that would have made my job?
To just book matches on the show? My job would have been a piece of
cake.
"But, the reality is that the difference between that 1.9 and that
7.0 -- they're not technical, wrestling-on-the-mat fans. They're casual fans
that like the entertainment aspect. So, my job was to feed those fans and not
cater to that internet crowd that really liked those 30 minute, 5 star matches.
The frustrating thing is that I'm a wrestling fan. As a wrestling fan, at the
end of the day, I want as many people as possible to watch the product. Because
the more people that watch it, the more that everybody related to the business
thrives. That's all I tried to do."
Ik ben Boon Kenneth, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Sting.
Ik ben een man en woon in Dworp (Belgie) en mijn beroep is .
Ik ben geboren op 05/06/1989 en ben nu dus 36 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Worstelen en films.
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