10 Things That Would Have Happened If Vince Russo Booked Every WWE Era
9. The Royal Rumble Would Look Markedly Different
Pat Patterson's Royal Rumble baby is the greatest gimmick match in the history of professional wrestling.
His update on the stalwart battle royal was ingenious. Instead of a swirling mass of flesh, which practically guaranteed indistinguishable tedium in the first few minutes or so, Patterson hit on the idea of having two men start the match with opponents following at regular intervals. This created pandemonium through the simple act of counting, and an infinite combination of sequences and groupings that promises something intriguing to this day. It's lasted far longer than Vinny has.
Vince Russo's update on the battle royal was altogether different - i.e., the drizzling f*cking shits. The Royal Rumble just isn't opposite enough for Russo, bro. He hit upon the idea of the reverse battle royal, which saw a huge number of guys fight on the outside when, logically, it should have been a running race to get in the ring, since that was the objective of the match. Dafter still, many guys had to make themselves look like total idiots by wandering around and looking for somebody to tussle with because they weren't scripted to get in there. If one match defined Russo at his brain-melting worst, this was it.
Only, there were two matches. Russo was dumb enough to book the debacle twice.