10 Biggest Promotion Killers In Wrestling History
7. Vince Russo
Vince Russo killed two wrestling companies - WCW and TNA.
WCW fans were a different breed to their WWF counterparts. Tellingly, it was only when Hulk Hogan detached himself from his Titan Towers persona that the company truly overtook the great northern foe. When the WWF bought out Georgia Championship Wrestling's Superstation WTBS time slot in 1984, the southern set were so dismayed that they lobbied, successfully, for its demise. They loathed the cartoonish WWF style to such an extent that the takeover day itself became known as Black Saturday.
Russo did not heed the lesson; he Transposed his lowbrow, lightning-paced, illogical brand of sports entertainment to WCW, a brand in dire need of its own identity. Fans wanted an alternative to the WWF; they instead received a version both more diluted and more moronic. Title changes, heel turns, matches themselves, all happened so quickly and with such frequency that none had meaning. Entire books have been written on the subject.
In TNA, he used the same baffling approach. TNA isn't quite dead - but surely, it's not far off. The brand is so damaged, anyway, that it will never fulfil its early promise.
What's more depressing than the death of these companies is that both had significant money behind them. Russo had in his hands the chance to compete - but he was one-tricky pony.