10 Dumbest Decisions In Wrestling History

5. WCW Hires Vince Russo

RIC FLAIR SPARTACUS
WWE.com

WCW was already in deep and perhaps irreversible decline, but it degenerated from competitor to copycat with relentless speed from late 1999 onwards, and Russo is chiefly to blame.

That narrative has shifted, since Guy Evans' Nitro has fleshed out Bryan Alvarez and RD Reynolds' Death of WCW, but those texts are complementary. Jamie Kellner didn't so much kill WCW as declare the time of death; were it not a totally f*cked parody of professional wrestling, it might, if removal from the Turner conglomerate was in fact inevitable, have remained a saleable asset.

Vince Russo made it a totally f*cked parody of pro wrestling for so many reasons that they literally filled a book.

Swerve!

Two books, bro!

Titles meant nothing, because the top title changed hands on a twice-per-month basis in 2000. It was claimed by a guy who had absolutely no business stepping foot in a wrestling ring, and David Arquette. On no less than four occasions, the WCW World Heavyweight Title was vacated because the winner didn't even want it. The winner didn't want the very, manifest reason they willingly entered a life of pain. Wrestling was sprinted-through pretext to asinine bullsh*t. Everything meant nothing, because everything was presented as fake, apart from the angles that were really real.

Russo does or did, who the hell cares, a podcast called Castrating The Marks. His whole vision for WCW in 2000 was to cater to the "marks" with insider storylines only they could possibly understand, and even they were mystified.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!