Tag: russo

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Money in the Bank Analysis, Formatting Issues, Corbin’s Big Win, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Rue from ‘Rue TV’. On today’s show, Russo will discuss Sunday night’s Money in the Bank PPV.

Speaking about the opening match on the card, Russo mentions that he was very concerned going into the match for the safety of all five women involved. This was the first ladder match for most of these women, and he was afraid that they would try to do too much. Luckily, he thought WWE did a good job of protecting the women, and he was happy to see that.

Russo says he didn’t have a problem with Ellsworth climbing the ladder and retrieving the briefcase for Carmella, but he did have a problem with how the entire segment closed. The three referees were arguing about the finish on the outside of the ring, when Ellsworth picked up the mic and announced Carmella as the winner and all of a sudden the finish was official. Russo couldn’t believe that they closed the segment like that.

He also didn’t like the fact that Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon were tweeting about this afterwards, because he believes at least one of them should have been present at the show. They could have done something as simple as a quick backstage interview with McMahon, where he mentioned how disgusted he was by the finish of the match.

Speaking about the Tag Team Championship match between The Usos and The New Day, he thought there were several sloppy parts in this match, and he particularly hated the finish. After the controversial finish to the Women’s Money in the Bank match, he thought this match deserved to have a legitimate finish. He says that the finish of this match was another prime example of why Titles shouldn’t change hands on a count-out.

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Vince Russo Issues Apology to Eric Bischoff

Vince Russo published another video to his YouTube channel where he issues an apology to Eric Bischoff. Here is a transcript of what was said in the video:

Hello, my name is Vince Russo, and we are summoned here tonight in what is a serious manner. Because, as you know I just offered an apology to Jim Cornette, and now suddenly an apology feels necessary to one Eric Bischoff. Let me apologize up front if I break down during this apology because as we all know, Vince Russo is a cryer, especially in meetings, so I’m going to apologize beforehand.

But Eric, I’ve said it all along, when Vince Russo is wrong he is not afraid to say that he is wrong, and I was wrong about you Eric, so I’m going to apologize. I’m going to go all the way back Eric, because there’s a lot to apologize to you for—even in your childhood. As the story goes, your teeth rotted and your hair turned prematurely gray at a very early age, and by the time you went into the 6th grade you had to have your teeth capped and you were dying your hair jet black. I can only imagine those kids on the playground during recess that were laughing at the kid with the chicklet teeth and the shoe polish in his hair.

Eric, you overcame that, which leads me to my next apology. I want to apologize that your former boss, Verne Gagne, Mr. Gagne kept sending you back to that same Deli time and time and time again because his coffee just wasn’t hot enough. I apologize for that Eric. I also want to apologize that a man had to have his lips sewn to another man for the better part of 20 years. It sounds like a bad centipede movie to me Eric, but that was the case—the case between you and Hulk Hogan, wasn’t it, Eric? How do I know this was the case? Here’s how I know it was the case, because I want to apologize that when Dixie Carter wanted to hire Hulk Hogan you rode in on the Hulkster’s coattails and you told Dixie Carter, “Hulkster ain’t comin without me, brother. This is a two for one deal.” Which you ended up milking Dixie for an exuberant amount of money when she never wanted you in TNA in the first place.

But Eric, once you got there, I really need to apologize for a couple of things that you did. I want to apologize for you convincing Dixie Carter that we had to go head to head with Monday Night Raw—it’s time Dixie, we are ready, we got the Hulkster, we can defeat them Dixie. Yes Eric, I believe it was you and the Hulkster, who were the big cheerleaders, why? It wasn’t your money, and what did you do? You embarrassed TNA. You ashamed TNA, and you scarred TNA for life.

You weren’t done there now were you? This leads me to my next apology. “Dixie, the Monday night thing didn’t work, but I got it this time! Screw this Universal Studios. Screw where you’ve been doing the shows for decades, we’re going to take the show live on the road every week. A different venue, a different arena, live! That’ll get the ratings up.” Eric, you know what that got up? That got up TNA’s debt. A debt that they haven’t been able to overcome to this day. This is what great ideas are made of I guess.

Now Eric, I want to apologize on the topic of balls. First of all, I want to apologize that going back to DX, driving that tank up to the doors of WCW, a script written by Vince Russo by the way. When you saw them coming, you screamed backstage like a little biatch, “Shut the doors! Shut the doors! Shut the doors!” You know what Eric? You didn’t have balls then. Anybody with a pair of balls would have let them in. It would have been great for live TV, but Eric let the big steel door come down right before DX can enter the building. That was when I first realized that Eric Bischoff has no balls. Here it is confirmed 20 years later when I apologized because Eric Bischoff does not have the balls to talk to me man to man, face to face, when he has been challenged. I gladly welcome the invite on Eric’s little show on WrestleZone, but no, he’d rather talk behind my back every chance he gets, reminiscent of that steel door coming down on DX.

Now Eric, I also want to apologize that you are now involved in a lawsuit with TNA attempting to milk them for even more money despite the fact that when you were under contract with them and they paid you millions and millions of dollars of the BS that you sold them, you delivered zero. You stole from TNA. You did nothing, but that wasn’t enough, and some would call you a greedy little bastard, but I’m not going to do that, I’m a gentleman. Now, we are going to sue them for even more money because the money that I stole from them just wasn’t enough, and I apologize for that.

Eric, I apologize that you had to bury me to SpikeTV every single chance that you got because that was the only way that you can even the playing field. You had to tear Vince Russo down to build your little self up; that is how politicians do it. That is how Car Salesman do it because they are not good enough to do it the All-American way. They are not good enough to take the challenge head to head and win the game. Why wouldn’t you take that challenge, Eric? Because on that creative playing field you knew you couldn’t touch Vince Russo so the only way to bring Vince Russo down is to bury him to the Television Executives, Eric, just like how you are trying to bury me in your little podcast now; same thing.

I apologize for that Eric, I really do. I also apologize Eric for telling Vince McMahon to hire you in 2002. I did that; despite the way I felt about you, because let’s face it Eric, everyone that worked with you all thought of you as an arrogant wussy, everybody. Despite that, with business being business, I said, “Vince, you have to hire this guy. He is a great performer. You can tell great stories with him.” I did that Eric, me, Vince Russo. Even though you were my arch enemy because it was right for business. You think Vince McMahon would have ever brought you in on his own? He heard the same stories about you that everybody else knew, but it was me that put you over to him that got you the job at the WWE.

How ungrateful can you be? Let’s get to the matter at hand becuase I have two big apologies that I saved until the end. First and foremost Eric—I want to apologize for you for being the reason for being fired by WCW in the first place. You see Eric, you had such a huge astronomical lead in WCW. You were kicking our a** in the ratings week after week after week. Then Vince McMahon brings in somebody by the name of Vince Russo and outside of crying at meetings, this guy had never done anything, but what he was about to do Eric, was going to be historical. Because what he was about to do was school you. What Vince Russo was about to do was beat your a**.

It was like a magic show, Eric. WCW here [showing hand gesture aiming high], and WWE here [showing hand gesture aiming low], and within a matter of months, WCW here [showing hand gesture aiming low] and WWE here [showing hand gesture aiming high] . Eric, it wasn’t all my doing—a lot of it was your doing, so I’m going to apologize for yourself because Eric, at the end of the day, you were the kid with the chicklets; the kid with the black shoe polish in his hair; and the man with one good idea. A whole career—but one good idea.

Eric, there are many that say you stole the nWo angle from Japan; I’m going to give it to you, I’m going to give you the full credit because Eric, you were a one-trick pony. You drove that idea into the ground and you opened the door for me and you allowed me to kick it in and beat your a** and get you fired.

Isn’t that what this is all about bro? How 20 years later you still can’t get over that? Sounds very familiar doesn’t it? The last guy I apologized to had an ax to grind because two employers chose me over him. I beat you bro. A New York Italian beat you and you got fired.

Eric—I really want to apologize to you for this one; I really didn’t mean for this to happen; but you talk about adding insult to injury; not only were you fired, but Brad Siegel replaced you with me. Can you believe that, bro? Not only did I put you out of a job, he gave me your job! Here you are 20 years later whining and crying about—-who is the cry baby Eric? Who is the cry baby?

I didn’t cry at any meeting; you and I both know it, but you cried when I kicked your a**. You cried when you got fired, and you cried when I replaced you.

For all that, I apologize from the bottom of my heart, I apologize. So Eric, going forward, I hope we can turn the page and I hope this is a new beginning. Relax; maybe take some time off. I know you like some night club, stripper club, strip joint in Atlanta, maybe you go down there a couple of days, whatever you have to do.

As I told Jimmy C [Jim Cornette], when a man apologizes, there is not too much more he can do. Eric—I’m sorry for being better than you.

If I had a mic now, I would drop it.

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Extreme Rules Review, Heels Get Heat & Go Over, Retiring Undertaker in 2002? More!

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

Russo says that he’s absolutely sick of the millennials in this world, who are completely stuck up and can’t take a joke. During the Alexa Bliss/Bayley match on Sunday night, Russo tweeted out joking that he’d let Bliss hit him with that pole. For the next few hours he was shelled with backlash online. He says that these people just take the fun out of life, and the world is going to be a scary place when these people have to run it in 10-20 years time.

Speaking about the Intercontinental match between The Miz and Dean Ambrose, Russo thought these two guys did a poor job of making the match feel realistic. Most fans look right past these subtleties, but there were a couple occasions during the match where one of them stood still and let the other attack them when it was obvious they could have moved (Daniel Bryan kick spot for example).

He says that with the rise of MMA and legitimate fights, it’s almost as if wrestling has gone the opposite direction and has become less believable. Russo also says that the finish of this match was poorly executed, with the referee taking an awfully long time before making a decision to disqualify Ambrose. This allowed Miz to attack Ambrose from behind and pick up the pin-fall win.

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Returning to WWE, Meltzer Argues with Stephanie, Bischoff & Cornette Scared? More!

Russo opens today’s show by saying that some people within the wrestling business have reached out to him and said that he really needs to start sucking up to Vince McMahon because WWE needs Russo more than Russo needs WWE. Russo refuses to kiss McMahon’s ass in order to get re-hired by WWE so that he can help them. If McMahon wants his help fine, if not that’s fine too.

The scary situation is that for five weeks now WWE has drawn less than three million viewers. There are no more excuses for McMahon and WWE, and they need to do something to combat their plummeting viewership. For a while they’ve been saying that their viewership drops are as a result of new ways to watch programming (social media, DVR), but these things have been around for years, not just the last few weeks.

Russo says that he will never suck up to WWE like Jim Cornette and Eric Bischoff did recently. Speaking of those two men, he says that both of them need to man up and have a face-to-face conversation with him because he’s sick of both of them talking behind his back. He assumes that they’re both afraid to have a discussion with him because he will expose all of their lies.

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Responding to Eric Bischoff, Mahal Ignored on Smackdown Live, Backstage Heat for Bliss? More!

Russo comments on the recent criticism he has received from Eric Bischoff and Jim Cornette. He says that there’s an open invitation to both of them to come on this show and discuss their issues, but he knows that neither of them are man enough to accept that offer.

Bischoff sent out a tweet this week calling Russo a con man, and Russo says if he conned anyone it must have been the 8 million people who were watching RAW every Monday night. That comment doesn’t even bother him because it’s an asinine comment.

Russo says the biggest con of all time is when Bischoff weaseled his way into TNA on the coattails of Hulk Hogan. Dixie Carter wanted to bring in Hogan but Bischoff wasn’t going to allow that to happen without finding a way to get himself involved as well. Russo says if he was Dixie Carter he would have told both of them to go ‘scratch their ass’.

He says that Bischoff had one good idea during his entire career (NWO), and somehow he even managed to ruin that and drive it into the ground until he got fired.

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Analyzing Bash at the Beach 2000, Getting ‘Screwed’ by Bischoff & Hogan, Shoot or Work? More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane. On this episode, Russo will discuss the events leading up to and during WCW’s Bash at the Beach PPV on July 9th, 2000.

Lane says that he was 21 years old at the time and he watched this PPV live. He thought the entire thing was a shoot and even the dirt sheets reported that it was a shoot at that time. It wasn’t until years later when he was smartened up by a friend, who Russo had told that the whole thing was a work. Russo says that even to this day, people ask him if that angle was a work or not.

Russo says that he never watches his old shows because it really hurts him to do so. For so long people have criticized him for ‘killing WCW’ and while it never made any sense to him, he allowed it to get to him. After watching this show, he thinks that premise is hilarious. This PPV occurred three months before he left the company, and the audience is insanely hot and 100% into the product for the entire duration of the show.

He says that the more he thinks about it, he was completely set up by Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. The things that he’s about to say regarding Bischoff on his show today are not new, and he’d say it to Bischoff’s face if Bischoff were to come on the show to discuss it.

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap w/ Shawn Hernandez – Dixie Carter’s Crush, Legal Issues, Russo Sucking up to WWE? More!

Russo welcomes Shawn Hernandez to the show.

Russo says he doesn’t understand what happened with Hernandez during his most recent run with TNA, but there’s no denying that LAX is not the same without Hernandez. Hernandez informs that there was a contract situation between Lucha Underground and TNA that has left him in a world of trouble and legal problems. Unfortunately, he’s not at liberty to discuss any of the details at this moment.

Russo says that there’s no doubt in his mind that Dixie Carter had a crush on Hernandez during their time working together in TNA. Hernandez says that in 2007 and 2008 Carter started to communicate and converse with him more regularly, but in 2009 after he broke his neck things got really strange.

Carter flew him to Nashville and had $2000 worth of clothes laid out for him to try on. She told Hernandez that they were going to do a photoshoot and the photos would be utilized for an upcoming push when he returned from injury. Hernandez tried on all the different clothes and took the pictures, but those shots were never used on TNA programming. Russo laughs and says there’s no doubt Carter had an obsession with Hernandez.

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Meltzer’s Strange Obsession, Owen Hart’s Mindset After the Montreal Screwjob, Bray Wyatt’s Promos, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by Jeff Lane.

Earlier this week, Dave Meltzer tweeted out that RAW’s rating last week was low due to the fact that the show wasn’t taped live since they were overseas. Russo doesn’t understand why these guys can never admit that a show sucks. The ratings are going down every week, and this week’s ratings weren’t an anomaly. Meltzer needs to stop making excuses for WWE.

Lane also points out that a fan asked Meltzer if WWE had given any thought to the Tag Team Title match main eventing the Extreme Rules PPV. Meltzer answered by saying that those meetings haven’t taken place yet. Russo says that it must be nice for Meltzer to be invited to all of WWE’s meetings. Russo says that Meltzer doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.

Russo points out that this is the same guy who said that A.J. Styles would be moving to RAW in the latest Superstar Shakeup and that obviously didn’t happen. Meltzer didn’t issue an apologize to his error, and for the fact that he’s ripping off all of his subscribers. He says that all these dirt sheet writers just talk out of their asses.

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Triple H Working Vince McMahon, Safety Concerns in Wrestling, Booker T’s Commentary, More!

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

Russo comments on the dynamic at the top of WWE between Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Russo says a fan wrote him a letter this past week suggesting that Triple H is ‘working’ his father-in-law, Vince McMahon, in an attempt to ascend to the top of the mountain that is WWE.

Russo truly believes that Triple H is working Vince McMahon, and although he had a lot of pleasurable experiences with Triple H in the past, he also remembers times when he wasn’t as easy to deal with. He recalls one time when Triple H refused to do the job for D-Lo Brown, who had put Triple H over for months upon months. This really aggravated Russo because the creative team wanted to keep D-Lo Brown strong and the one time they asked Triple H to return the favour, he refused to do so.

The fan who wrote Russo suggested that Triple H has convinced McMahon that social media is WWE’s most important statistic at this point, ahead of television ratings and things of the sort. Since social media is compiled mostly of hardcore fans, WWE’s product has skewed towards a niche fanbase in an attempt to get positive reinforcement from their social media target base.

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Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Dave Meltzer in the Guinness Book of World Records, Asuka Compared to Goldberg, How Much Did Russo Make Writing…

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

Russo points out the Meltzer reported this past week that Alberto Del Rio and Paige had an argument somewhere in Florida. Russo says that this is not news, and it’s just another example of a wrestling ‘journalist’ who is making up a story when there’s no story to be told.

Lane points out that someone tweeted Dave Meltzer this past week, asking him for his opinion on Russo. Meltzer’s response was, “Life’s too short to worry about people desperate for attention”. Russo says that Meltzer’s responses to these fans are so lame. Russo adds that for someone who’s starving for attention, he’s doing a poor job because he just moved into a cabin in the woods.

Lane reads some comments from a recent Reddit thread, where fans discuss the differences between the attitude era and the today’s product.

One fan says that this era’s product is superior to the attitude era because there are better stories, promos, and matches. In addition, the attitude era was a racist, sexist product which was overly aggressive in an attempt to appeal to the ECW fanbase.

Russo says that he can’t even name one storyline that’s occurring on RAW at the moment. RAW was drawing a 6.0-7.0 rating back during the attitude era, and the notion that they were trying to copy ECW which was drawing a 0.8 rating doesn’t make any sense to him.