Russo is joined on today’s show by “Starmaker” Kenny Bolin.

Bolin speaks about his rocky friendship with Jim Cornette. He informs that he’s been friends with Cornette for many years, but they’ve had their disagreements during that time as well. Just recently they had a huge fight which led to Bolin leaving Cornette’s podcast, and joining Russo here on The Brand. Luckily the two old friends were able to make up and thinks were looking fine again.

Just last week, Cornette called Bolin while he was recording a podcast with Russo and Bolin answered. This led to Cornette’s voice being heard on Russo’s podcast, and Bolin immediately felt bad about this given the history between Cornette and Russo. He called Cornette and told him what had happened; Cornette hung up on him and he hasn’t heard from him since.

Bolin says that sometimes Cornette acts like a 5-year old bipolar kid who refuses to take his medicine. He’s sick of Cornette bullying him emotionally because this type of thing has happened many times in the past. They’ve actually had physical disputes in the past as well and Bolin always came out on top in those, but Cornette’s emotional games have really taken a toll on him.

Russo points out that he, Cornette and Bolin are all in their mid to late 50s, and none of this childish crap should matter to any of them. Bolin agrees and says he’s done with Cornette because he refuses to be a part of this nonsense moving forward. He adds that Cornette should “…get some help because normal people don’t act like you.”

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Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane.

Lane mentions that Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer spoke out this past week, criticizing WWE fans who’ve attended recent shows for being quiet and “dead”. Russo says it’s hard to blame the crowd when they’re just going to see a good show, and it’s not their fault if WWE isn’t providing them that.

Alvarez went on to say that Ric Flair had a great career, but Okada has broke the “Observer scale” with 5 and 6-star ratings several times this past year. He says that we’re living through history right now, and there’s no denying that Okada is “the best”. Russo has no idea what history Alvarez is talking about, and he thinks it’s a joke that Alvarez compared Okada to Ric Flair. Russo adds that he wouldn’t be able to pick Okada out in a lineup.

Lastly, Alvarez spoke about Samoa Joe’s promo work, saying Joe is a much better promo than The Miz. Meltzer then agreed, saying Joe constantly cuts great promos and he delivers the goods whether the material is good or bad. Russo disagrees, saying Joe has no range and he cuts the same one-dimensional promo over and over again. Russo worked with Joe in TNA and can speak first hand about this.

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Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane, and Glenn Gilbertti.

Russo opens today’s show speaking about the ongoing controversy surrounding the severity of Paige’s neck/back injury. He points out that PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Paige’s in-ring career was definitely over, and then all the other dirt sheets ran with that news.

WWE failed to announce Paige’s in-ring retirement last week and Russo thinks Johnson should have been 100% certain before running with this news. Johnson needed to have sources and evidence proving that Paige’s career was over before he published that story in Russo’s opinion.

Speaking about Dave Meltzer’s 5-star rating system, Gilbertti says the one ingredient that can be found in every 5-star match is that the two competitors look like they’re actually fighting. Gilbertti thinks there’s a misconception out there that being a good worker means you can do all kinds of crazy offensive moves. In reality, being a good worker means you can make your opponent’s offence look good.

He urges all young wrestlers today to watch Bret Hart versus Steve Austin from WrestleMania 12 because that was the best match of all time in his opinion, and both guys looked like they were actually fighting each other.

Given the way wrestlers work today, Gilbertti isn’t even sure how writers are supposed to write good promos for them. Promos can only work if the in-ring action looks like a fight, and when wrestlers go in the ring and work choreographed flip-flop matches, it’s impossible to take any of their promos seriously.

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Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane.

Speaking about the current steroid allegations facing Roman Reigns, Russo says he doesn’t consider this to be a big deal at all. He actually has no issue with grown men choosing to use steroids, and he compares it to some people choosing to smoke cigarettes. If you’re an adult and you’re aware of what you’re doing, why is this a big deal? He points out that actors like Sylvester Stallone have used steroids to prepare for movie roles in the past, so he doesn’t see why professional wrestling is so against this.

Lane mentions that PWTorch’s Wade Keller spoke about Johnny Gargano this past week, saying he’s a star who could really help turn 205 Live’s dropping viewership numbers around. Along with other stars such as Finn Balor and Hideo Itami, Gargano could make 205 Live entertaining programming according to Keller. Russo doesn’t agree with that statement at all, but he does give Keller credit for finally realizing that Balor needs to be moved from RAW to 205 Live.

In another audio clip, Keller said that Elias is only going to rise up and meet his potential when he stops playing his guitar in the ring eery week. Russo points out that if Keller had his way, he’d strip every character of their gimmicks. In this case, RAW’s roster would consist of 100 identical wrestlers with no character development or interesting gimmicks, and that’s not good.

Continuing with his thoughts on Elias, Russo thinks WWE’s booking of him has been brutal as of late. He can’t understand why they’d book Elias to be the opening act for The Miztourage every week when there are millions of other creative things they could be doing with him.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Reigns’ Steroid Allegations, Balor Moving to 205 Live? Meltzer Claims to be Stronger Than Strowman, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo is joined on today’s show by Big Vito.

Russo mentions that rumours are circulating regarding the status of Paige’s in-ring career. Apparently she has been forced to retire after taking a kick to the back area from Sasha Banks at a recent live event, and Russo thinks this entire thing could have been avoided.

He doesn’t want to criticize Sasha Banks too heavily because she probably already feels terrible about this situation. However, over the last couple years he’s seen Sting and now Paige forced into retirement due to reckless in-ring work that should have never happened.

Russo recalls watching Seth Rollins throwing Sting around like a rag doll during their match a couple of years ago. He’s sure Sting agreed to do whatever Rollins wanted during the match, but Rollins should have been smarter and protected Sting, given that Sting was in his mid-50s at the time.

Fast-forwarding to today, it was known that Paige has had issues with her neck and spine for the last little while. Instead of protecting her opponent as her job description outlines, Banks kicked Paige right in the back from behind. Russo points out that part of working in the wrestling business is protecting your opponent, and much like Rollins with Sting, Banks failed to protect Paige during this match.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Thoughts on Paige Situation, New Generation of Dangerous Workers, Shane McMahon Setting A Poor Example? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane, and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).

Russo opens today’s show speaking about the rumours that The Undertaker will be returning to the ring at WrestleMania 34 to face John Cena. Russo hopes these rumours are untrue, and he hopes that The Undertaker remains retired, especially after the huge retirement display that we saw at the end of WrestleMania 33.

He adds that Undertaker needs to think about his legacy in the business at this point, because his worst mistake would be returning for more matches when he’s clearly not the same competitor that fans remember from the prime of his career. Russo goes out on a limb and predicts that Undertaker will not be returning to face John Cena at WrestleMania this year.

Gilbertti doesn’t have any issue with Undertaker returning for one more match at all. He thinks Undertaker carried himself pretty well during his last couple of matches, and he still has the best entrance in the business. As long as Undertaker can sell tickets for WWE and cash a big WrestleMania paycheque, Gilbertti has no issue with him returning to the ring.

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Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane, Bin Hamin, and former WWE Superstar, Stevie Richards.

Russo wonders just how much heat he must have with everyone at WWE for him not to receive an invitation to RAW’s 25h anniversary show at the end of the month. Russo points out that even Bruce Prichard has been invited back for that show and he hasn’t, so he must really be hated at WWE.

Hamin points out that Russo’s name is forever etched in history for the work he did during the attitude era, and he doesn’t need to go back to WWE at this point to prove anything. Russo mentions that WWE loves “yes men”, and he’ll never be one of those. He assumes that the people in power there realize this, and that’s why he hasn’t been invited back.

Getting into their thoughts on this week’s episode of Smackdown Live, Richards says he has no idea what WWE is trying to do with the main event angle featuring Owens, Zayn, Orton, Nakamura, Bryan and McMahon. It all feels very confusing and convoluted to Richards and Russo agrees, pointing out that WWE is trying to force these 6 guys into a 6-man tag team match at WrestleMania in order to satisfy Bryan’s urge to wrestle.

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Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).

Russo and Gilbertti open today’s show by discussing WWE’s decision to run RAW live on Christmas Day. Russo is still angry over the fact that WWE made their employees leave their families at Christmas in order to work a wrestling show, but Gilbertti doesn’t have a problem with it at all. Russo points out that if Gilbertti had a wife and kids he might think differently.

Lane points out that the live attendance for the show was great and ratings for the show were roughly the same as the week prior, with around 2.7 Million people tuning in. This doesn’t surprise Russo because he mentions that those 2.7 million people are the marks who watch every single week, whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, or Halloween.

Gilbertti speaks about Hideo Itami kneeing Brin Kendrick in the face this past week, resulting in severe injuries. He doesn’t think it’s necessary to utilize moves like this in the business anymore, and he thinks the wrestling world is turning a bling eye to how reckless the in-ring action has become. He adds that a move like Itami’s ‘GTS’ has to be executed perfectly every single time or it can have disastrous results.

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Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.

Lane mentions that Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer spoke about WWE’s Universal Title picture this past week, saying WWE would be stupid to put the Title on Kane, even though that wouldn’t affect revenue. Russo says he disagrees completely, pointing out that the television product absolutely does affect revenue in regards to merchandise sales and live event ticket sales.

Meltzer was also critical of WWE’s usage of Paul Heyman recently, saying WWE should use Heyman for more than just an introduction when he’s live at RAW because he’s one of the best promo guys in the business. Russo says he can’t remember the last time Heyman cut a good promo, pointing out that Heyman says the exact same thing week after week.

Meltzer and his co-host Bryan Alvarez went on to speak about John Cena’s match with Elias from this week’s RAW. They both agreed that for all the people who praise Cena’s wrestling ability, he didn’t look good at all during this week’s match. Russo can’t believe the nerve of Meltzer and Alvarez who criticized Cena for his work in this match when in reality, Cena was simply doing WWE a favour by appearing live on Christmas Day when he should have been home with his family.

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Russo is joined on today’s show by Big Vito and his co-host, Jeff Lane.

Russo opens today’s show by saying that Renee Young looked like she “…just came in from out of the freakin’ rain” on this past Tuesday’s episode of Smackdown. He doesn’t understand why WWE is trying to take these beautiful women and make them ugly for television, especially when they have world class hair and makeup people at their disposal.

Speaking about the current state of the United States Championship on Smackdown, Vito suggests that Dolph Ziggler return in a few weeks with a new gimmick, wearing a mask. He’d book Ziggler to win the Title and then he could take the mask off, proving that he’s indeed the greatest in-ring worker in WWE. Russo doesn’t like that idea at all.

Russo isn’t sure what WWE is doing with the ‘Rusev Day’ gimmick right now. WWE probably thinks it’s over because one town started to chant it, but they still haven’t told their audience what ‘Rusev Day’ is. They haven’t explained anything about this to us at all, and all we know is that Rusev wears a shirt with the words on it.

Lane mentions that Smackdown was filmed in Chicago this past week, and those audiences are always louder than the average audience. If we start hearing ‘Rusev Day’ chants all around the United States, then WWE might be on to something. Lane also thinks that this entire thing revolves around Rusev’s ability to entertain people.

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