10 Most Despised Men In Wrestling History
1. Vince Russo
Vince Russo emerged as a trusted confidante of Vince McMahon's after destroying the March 3, 1997 RAW broadcast from Berlin, Germany - after the fact - and implementing his undeniably successful car crash TV vision of sports entertainment. It worked - big - for a while, under McMahon's strict filter. But Russo was unearthed as one tricky pony when he put WCW out to stud with his inane and insane stints with the booking pencil.
Booking isn't the correct term; Russo was the godfather of the wrestling writer revolution. That writing was among the most lowbrow garbage ever witnessed, even in an industry as unseemly as professional wrestling. Women were treated at once as sexual objects and victims of miscarriages and physical abuse - before they were revealed as calculating, heartless, lying shrews.
Yes, Russo loved a swerve. His WCW product was a relentless headache of turns, title switches and tone deaf worked shoot posturing. Russo is also oblivious to his failings and his audience. To this day, to maintain his "brand", he criticises Kevin Owens and Finn Bálor for being favourites of the diehards. And yet, those diehards were the intended audience of his shoot-heavy WCW booking.
It's not surprising that Russo changes narratives like they're bed sheets. The man evidently had no clue what he was doing from one week to the next, alienating hundreds of tjousands of viewers with his impossible to follow storylines.
The (fleeting) success went to his head, by several accounts. Russo was perceived as detached and arrogant by many of the wrestlers he worked alongside, behaviour underlined by the smug aura he transmits in shoot interviews. He was hated then, and he's hated now. His recent spate homophobia - and his total obliviousness to it - underscores his perception as a rancid, egotistical hanger-on.
Most people had sympathy for the monster and blasted Frankenstein for creating him. It speaks to Russo's sheer loathsomeness that he was recently voted as the absolute most despised man in the history of the business.