10 Bold Predictions For Wrestling In 2021
9. Vince Russo Will Come Back To WWE, Bro!
WWE does not do fundamental change even when fundamental change is needed.
Those demos should terrify WWE, particularly on Wednesday nights, which function to build the company's future. NXT at times draws four-figure numbers among pockets of the teenage base. But instead of hiring young multi-cultural writers, or abandoning a scripted creative model that has never once worked, measured against other periods of growth in the industry, WWE will chase its tail in circles like a dog enamoured by the smell of its own sh*t.
Vince McMahon is still in charge. They brought back Bruce Prichard. They brought back Paul Heyman. They brought back Eric Bischoff. Every year, they bring back the megastars of the 1990s because WWE is stuck there in perpetuity.
There's an old saying in this business, and it's nevah say nevah.
It's almost shocking that WWE hasn't brought Vince Russo back already. They're still after all these years using his TV format: opening verbal segments, impromptu matches, invisible cameras. Why not bring him back outright?
He was - 21 years ago, mind you, not that that matters to them - the king of ratings. And it's an industry driven almost entirely by the Nielsens in 2020: the new trend of PPV-on-TV - Halloween Havoc, Winter Is Coming, New Year's Evil - is belated acknowledgement of that.
It's no great stretch. Eric Bischoff was plucked from the carny podcast circuit under similar circumstances in 2019.
How will Russo fare?