“Shouldn’t they be kissing? TRY HARDER WWE.”
So, this Bellas storyline has been…not great. I’ll admit I have kind of a sick fascination with bad girl NIKKI Bella, but objectively the dissolution of the Bellas has been terrible, terrible stuff. Hell, with all its lengthy, pointless talky segments, massive lapses in logic and emphasis on women hollering BITCH in each other’s faces, you’d think Vince Russo was back writing for the company. Thankfully that’s not the case, and in fact Russo has spent the last few days ranting about the storyline to anyone who will listen.
Here’s what Russo had to say about the storyline on a recent video podcast…
“When they first started doing those backstage segments tonight, my first thought is, ‘good!’ They’re protecting Nikki Bella. They know she’s not a good actress. They’re putting her in a pre-taped situation where, if it’s bad, they can shut it down and do it over again. Then what do they do? They put her out there in the ring, in front of the people, on a live show where there is no net, no protection, and she’s not a good actress. Something like that makes absolutely no sense!
Look at the time we spent on that in-ring segment and at the end of the segment all we got was a shove. If the idea of that segment was for Stephanie McMahon to give Nikki Bella a Diva’s title shot, well then when she’s in the back with Triple H, call Nikki into the office and do your business back there in 30 seconds. It doesn’t warrant a 12-minute in-ring segment where nothing happened and you made your Divas Champion Paige, the most valuable person in that ring, a supporting actress in the background. There was no point to that. At the end of the day, it was a waste of time!”
That was Vince Russo criticizing WWE for allowing a talking segment to go over 12-minutes and devaluing their championships. Yuuup. Although, to be fair, it seems like his biggest issue was that the segment ended in a mere shove instead of everybody simultaneously hair-tossing everybody else into a kiddie pool full of pudding.
Russo followed up his critique with an open letter to Vince, Stephanie and Triple H. You can read the full thing, in all it’s un-self-aware glory right here. A few choice excerpts…
“The question I have to ask is: ‘Is what we see every Monday Night honestly and truly your best effort?’ I just know that having worked with all three of you in the past, I don’t think any of us would have been satisfied, or even ALLOWED last night’s show to air in its final form. Are we seriously not better than that? What happened to our mantra during the Attitude Era when this week’s show was going to be better than last weeks? Remember that, Vince?”
“I mean, there were multiple Mark Henry segments on the show and he wasn’t having sex with an old woman in even one of them! How’d that slip by quality control?!”
“Right now, you have an UNBELIEVABLE talent roster, up and down from first match to main event, but the writing and producing of the show is just not serving them justice. You have to know that. What happened to the work ethic and the commitment that we all shared during the Attitude Era? What happened to that passion, when we literally used to leave our own BLOOD, SWEAT and TEARS on the script that we wrote. If something didn’t exceed our expectations we were sick over it for days—I know I was.”
I’m pretty sure those weren’t the most common fluids found on an Attitude Era script.
“Vince, Stephanie, Triple H, YES we will always be here no matter what. We support you, and we support the WWE, but the truth is…we deserve better. And, deep down inside I know that you know that.
With 1,000% sincerity.
Peace,
Your Former Head Writer”
“And future? Please? Please, please, please?”
“Vince Russo”
[Clap, clap, clap]. Never change, buddy.
