Vince Russo: Right and Wrong

When you talk about Vince Russo's tenure and contribution to WCW, many will state that it was nothing but bad with very little redeemable factors, and I'd be the first one to agree.

However, one thing that they complain about that I feel was not a bad decision, was the fact that he listened to the internet very closely about certain aspects.

Now some would say "oh, the net fans are a very small contingent of pro wrestling entertainment as a whole".

But what they fail to realize that the fans who post replies on the net about aspects of the company, the "smarks", represent a much larger group who don't bother to get to know what goes on behind the scenes.

You don't have to be a net fan to know that Vader is old, overweight and slow in the ring, or that Hogan is broken down and barely mobile, and you don't have to know about "workrate" to enjoy great cruiserweight matches and those of other well rounded wrestlers like Jericho, Angle and such.

Fans of the net mentality and those who like to see younger, talented wrestlers get a chance to shine isn't just related to those who can click a mouse.

After all, if it wasn't for these type of fans, ECW, an organization credited to the rise of more mature programming and intense, hard fought contests which would eventually be incorporated into the big leagues and thus give rise to a bigger wrestling fanbase than ever before, wouldn't have been anymore than a gleam in Paul Heyman's eye.

So Russo catering to this particular fanbase was not a bad idea in theory, in fact it could have been brilliant. But while the thought was one thing, execution was another.

When Russo would execute one thing that the smarks asked for and liked as a result, he would do a dozen others that the fans didn't ask for and hated, even when they flat out said was stupid.

Russo: We're gonna push Benoit, Booker T and Bret Hart.
Fans: YEAH!!!

Russo: We're gonna fire Hogan.
Fans: YEAH!!!

Russo: We're gonna fire 95% of the cruiserweights.
Fans: YE...uh?

Russo: and anyone else who can't speak English.
Fans: ...wait, What?

Russo: Every match will have no less than one run-in screwjob.
Fans: But wait...

Russo: marriage, pregnancy and sex angles out the wazoo.
Fans: Wait a minute...

Russo: Kayfabe is gone, everything is fake, except for this moment, then this will be fake when the next thing happens.
Fans: WAIT a minute!

Russo: Ed Ferrera will constantly impersonate JR and be cruiserweight champ.
Fans: WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!!!

Russo: David Arquette will be World champ!
fans: WHAT THE *beep*

And so on...

Good in theory, but in Russo's case, bad in execution.


So while you may scoff at the internet for being a very small fraction of the business, don't forget that approx 3 million fans (over half of WCW's fanbase at one point) who were asking for the same things the smarks did, turned their backs on the company b/c they were getting ignored and tuned into a program that actually listened to what they wanted at the time.