10 Things That Would Have Happened If Vince Russo Booked Every WWE Era
1. It Would Probably Have Ceased To Exist
Vince Russo has divided the wrestling fandom for nearly two decades. One thing that is difficult to objectively argue is Russo's inability to craft something, over the long haul, that has resonated throughout history.
Russo, even in TNA, far removed from the ratings war, worked on a strictly week to week basis with no forethought as to how his audience might bond with his characters. AJ Styles played both Ric Flair impersonator and creepy best friend to Karen Angle. He was meant to be the man TNA fans could embrace as their hero. Instead, his credibility was shot as he meandered from one ridiculous and counterintuitive persona to the next. Heel, face, sex pest, tribute act, MMA impersonator: he was ultimately just a plot device in a patently phoney TV show. While there is so much to criticise about WWE in 2017, their handling of AJ Styles is Gedo-like in comparison to Russo's.
WWE needs to push performers with some degree of consistency. You can't just throw two performers into a match and expect it to fly. The best matches need a long term build to crystallise the moments within them.
Russo treated his first stab at WCW Starrcade not as the company's biggest show of the year, but a glorified version of Monday Nitro. Company legends Sting and Lex Luger went to a six minute disqualification finish. Just one rising star, Chris Benoit, was portrayed in a positive light. The main event rehashed the Montreal Screwjob finish for the cheapest variety of heat.
You can't help but shudder to think how WrestleMania would have turned out in Russo's care. He wouldn't have had the nous, certainly not the patience, to maintain the Undertaker's Streak. He doesn't care enough about wrestling matches to have cemented Shawn Michaels as the lucrative "Mr. WrestleMania".
Bluntly, he'd have ruined it - and by extension, possibly the company itself.