Perhaps you’re not familiar with Vince Russo. (I mean, you’re on With Spandex, so you almost certainly are.) The mastermind behind a whole lot of WWF’s “crash TV” Attitude Era storylines (especially the edgier ones) was poached by WCW in 1999 to turn the company around, and the little a-hole promptly torpedoed the promotion to such an extent that people still believe he was a sleeper agent for WWE. In recent years, Russo has been maybe-secretly working for Impact, hosting a podcast, and getting rejected by companies for which he offered to work for free.
At this point, the mere name “Vince Russo” is a very, very dirty word to a whole lot of wrestling fans, but Russo is like two decades deep in getting enormous enjoyment from haters. Anyway, as you might expect, Russo has not been a fan of the way WWE has been conducting business for the past few years, and he finally got so fed up with the current product that he decided to bury the hatchet and give Vince McMahon a call.
He told Fightful.com that he’s been in contact with McMahon in the past week, and he very magnanimously offered to help WWE out.
“I’ve reached out to Vince McMahon in the past week. He got back to me.
“I am still a wrestling fan at heart, going back to when I was 10, 11 years old. I hate today’s product. To me, it’s not professional wrestling. I don’t want to be the guy critiquing the problem without saying ‘Here’s my olive branch, I think I can help you as the numbers go down every week.’ I didn’t use the word help. You don’t tell Vince McMahon he needs help. I said ‘if you want me to contribute, I’d love to once again contribute.’
” … Vince never seems receptive. His response is always a couple of words. He’s not that guy. He’s the same guy that told me I could get a nanny [to raise] your kids.”
There probably isn’t going to be anything that will come out of that conversation, but it’s still worth noting that Vince Russo is talking to WWE. That hasn’t happened in a long, long time. Wherever you fall on the side of the Vince Russo conversation, it might be time to start praying to your specific shrine.
