10 Times WWE Was Literally As Stupid As WCW
3. Rehiring Vince Russo
WCW: so stupid they hired Vince Russo twice.
After further battering an already bloodied and unresponsive product, Vince Russo was effectively relieved of his duties as booker in January 2000. After suggesting that Tank Abbott be installed to rectify the issue of Bret Hart vacating the World Title, Russo was gently asked if he needed a bit of help. His response was fabulous patter, incidentally - he was only going to strap up Tank for a day, it wasn't going to mean anything! Who cares?
His ego couldn't sanction the idea of working within a committee, so he bailed. This was helpful to WCW, if anything. They'd temporarily solved the Russo problem at minimal expense.
So what was the permanent solution to the Vince Russo problem?
You pieces of sh*t, it's Vince Russo!
WWE needed something by 2002. Business was way down, Steve Austin and the Rock weren't there or weren't there for much longer, and they'd f*cked the Invasion which - and this is key - they never really wanted to do. This was obvious. They resented the idea of a competitive fictional organisation.
That year, despite everything, WWE entertained the idea of rehiring Russo, who in a meeting with the tippy-top brass pitched...
...a second invasion angle, in which he would hire Bischoff as a mole who would convince Vince to sign Booker T to a one-year deal as the first phase of a plot to secretly reform WCW under his nose.
Booker T, of course, was already signed.
Did Russo get his fantasy booking and his actual pitch mixed up in his head on his Truth With Consequences pod, or is he just that thick?