10 Things That Would Happen If Vince Russo Returned To WWE Today
4. Bankers
Vince Russo was a television ratings guy. He built his short-lived credibility off of some incredible week-to-week storytelling that saw WWE Monday Night Raw overturn a famous 83-week winning streak by rival show WCW Monday Nitro that stretched from mid-1996 to early-1998.
Alongside some of the cutting edge content in his pet project 'Raw Magazine' that was lightyears in front of WWE's actual television output in 1996 and 1997, he openly lambasted an April '97 episode of the flagship show, gaining him favour with Vince McMahon for showing both guts to speak up and evidence that maybe he could do better.
By 1999, he had the closest anybody to could have to creative autonomy underneath the boss, which is presumably how he was able to get away with inexplicably switching Road Dogg and Billy Gunn's individual title feuds two weeks before their long-awaited WrestleMania 15 title shots just for the sake of surprise.
Set to tackle Hardcore Holly and Al Snow for the Hardcore Title, Road Dogg shocked the world with an Intercontinental Title victory over his New Age Outlaws partner's rivals on Monday Night Raw. Gunn did the same with Dogg's Hardcore foes on the same night. The WrestleMania matches were subsequently knackered, but went ahead anyway because...ratings?
With the announcement of the first ever women's Money In The Bank match for the June pay-per-view, Russo could take the tactic one further. Switching the briefcases in a shocking swerve, the prize won by perhaps Carmella or Charlotte will in fact be a shot at Jinder Mahal's title. Meanwhile, Kevin Owens or Sami Zayn can expect a tough night in their clash with Naomi. TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE.