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Road Dogg (aka Brian James) shared his thoughts on the current state of WWE programming.
The former Intercontinental Champion worked as a producer and writer with the Stamford-based promotion after retiring from in-ring competition in 2015. He also worked as a coach at WWE's Performance Center before parting ways with the company earlier this year.
Vince Russo and Brian James recently appeared on Sportskeeda Wrestling's The Wrestling Outlaws, where they talked about the company's TV presentation. Russo noted that he sees no difference between house shows and TV shows:
"I'm watching a televised house show. There's a difference between a TV show and a house show. I mean, we're watching a house show, this is not a television show." (From 6:27 to 6:38)
Road Dogg added that the company caters too much to the fans in attendance instead of working for those watching from home:
"I feel like at some point they mixed it together and went, 'Oh, but we got a live crowd out there, so we've got to give them a show and it's like, 'Ah.' I don't really care about the 63% utilization, I care about the people watching at home by way of television, that's who I'm trying as the writer of an episodic television show. That's who I'm trying to hook, and that's who I'm trying to keep. You're right, there's a lot of cookie-cutter stuff." (From 6:41 to 7:11)
Vince Russo believes WWE is guilty of "playing to the house"
The former WWE writer continued to talk about the current state of the company's TV programming. Russo stated that one of the first things he was taught as a writer was to never design your show according to the live audience, a mistake which WWE keeps repeating:
"It's so funny because one of the first things I was taught on the first day of the job, how many times did we hear this Brian [Road Dogg], that never play to the house? And that's exactly what they're doing, they are playing to the house though, and for years and years and years." (From 7:22 to 7:38)
Russo worked with the Stamford-based promotion for nearly seven years. His second stint with the company lasted a little over two weeks. He left after stating there was "no way in the world that this thing would work out."
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