What’s the Story?
On a recent episode of Vince Russo’s “The Brand,” Russo did not hold back on his frustration regarding the Monday Night Wars docu-series that has seen several wrestlers and wrestling personalities take their shots at him.
One that stuck out was current WWE Superstar and former WCW Superstar, Chris Jericho. In the Monday Night Wars docu-series, Jericho talks about how Vince Russo had Vince McMahon as a filter, which means that Vince McMahon, not Vince Russo had the final say on some of the famous storylines that took place during the Attitude Era.
Vince Russo did not hold back on his podcast in response to Chris Jericho’s comments:
“Chris, I will always be a fan of yours. You’re super talented but I’ve got to be honest with you; the Filter [Vince McMahon] didn’t even know who you were. No disrespect to you, but the filter didn’t watch Nitro. He had no idea who guys like you were, or Dean Malenko or [Chris] Benoit were. He knew guys who were getting over from the WWE. He knew the [Kevin] Nash’s and the Hulk Hogan’s, but he wasn’t sitting there watching Nitro every Monday Night. He did not know anything about Chris Jericho.”
He went on to say that he was responsible for Y2J being signed:
“It was Vince Russo who went to Vince, and said, bro, you have to sign this kid, Chris Jericho. This Chris Jericho is the future of the business. You and I had those conversations while you were working for WCW. We had them. Not you and the Filter, but you and me. The Filter didn’t even know who you were.”
In case you didn’t know...
The docu-series, which takes you into the heart of the Monday Night Wars between the two companies, saw a personal war of one trying to battle the other each week to reign as king of the Monday Nights.
Vince Russo was a major influence during the Monday Night Wars, as he was the person responsible for a lot of the writing that went on to help create, the Attitude Era. He left WWE, along with his co-writer, Ed Ferrara, to go through the challenge of trying to fix WCW and also cited wanting to spend more time with their families as another reason.
After the way Vince Russo left the WWE, he has seen his share of criticism and debates about whether he was responsible for the success of the WWE. There isn’t a clear indication of whether the talent is told to make sure that Vince Russo doesn’t receive any credit for what he helped accomplish, but many would argue he definitely was instrumental in shaping the WWE.
The Heart of the Matter:
According to Vince Russo, he was responsible for bringing Chris Jericho into the WWE.
The idea was to put Chris Jericho over as the top guy of the company and before leaving for WCW, Russo had written a storyline where Jericho would beat The Rock to give him an extra nudge but the script was changed and The Rock ended up beating Jericho.
This caused Jericho to take a little bit longer to be the face of the company than originally anticipated.
What’s Next?
On his podcast show called, “The Brand,” Vince has made it clear to those who listen to his show that he no longer is not a fan of today’s product on Monday Night Raw.
Sportskeeda’s Take:
If you look at today’s wrestling product, the same guy who was supposedly the filter of the company, is still there today, where one can argue, it is not as entertaining to watch as it used to be. World Wrestling Entertainment is going through a transitional phase.
It may not be as entertaining but is gearing more toward the sports part of the industry. If you look at the lack of characters in today’s product, it is my belief that they want to be more like New Japan.
No one can deny what Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara, Russo’s right-hand man and co-creative writer, have meant to professional wrestling during the Attitude Era. If they really needed filters then why would they have the careers that they did for not only the WWE, but WCW and TNA as well?
There is no denying who Vince McMahon is. If you are that successful, and you owned a Network, you too would say anything and make sure your staff says anything to put yourself at the forefront of a successful business.
While the Monday Night Wars docu-series has stirred up a lot of controversy regarding Vince Russo, there are other interviews that you can see on YouTube from WWE stars who were around during the time of the Attitude Era, praising him.
One, in particular, was Road Dog from the New Age Outlaws:
I give a lot of credit that we got over, but we have to give credit to Vince Russo, who was writing a lot of the Attitude Era stuff. Even though we didn’t always get a long with him, and didn’t always agree with what he was writing, he was writing that Attitude Era stuff, and it was good stuff.
Whatever you would like to think of Vince Russo, no one can deny his impact and longevity on the industry.
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