10 Uncredited Architects Behind WWE’s Gigantic Success
2. Vince Russo
Chris Kreski didn't just assume the blueprints drafted by a lesser talent and build them into something better and more successful. Vince Russo's vision for the WWF was brilliant. I agonised over the superlative. Russo has spent a lifetime undoing his own work. But it's impossible to disregard his success, his influence - even his entertainment factor.
He first rose to prominence by retrospectively burying the dimly-lit production disaster that was the March 3, 1997 episode of RAW. When he bent McMahon's ear, the changes swept through the company at a more rapid canter.
The WWF product of 1998 and 1999, steered by Russo as the lead creative bod, was an orgy of t*ts, ass, blood, p*ss, chair shots, furniture wreckages, penectomies, satanic rituals, transgender bed-swapping, funeral crashing, canicides, mutant hand births - all with the fast-forward button glued down by a Val Venis money shot. At its best, it was riveting; at its worst, at least, it was never boring. Puerile and totally offensive, yes, but never boring.
Russo was a one hit wonder - but that hit was insanely profitable.