Yo! Here’s a quick write-up about last night’s NXT event at the 3 Arena. Thanks to James at MCD who comp’d our tickets! I’m no good at numbers but probably 4,000 were at it — not being full was great as in general you could get in and out in a few minutes. WWE have a deal with Three so they had to use this arena (as a WWE Network-only Developmental Show, a smaller one would’ve been preferable) so they closed off the entrance way side — but only the top section of seats were empty. More importantly, the crowd were rabid! The audience were into everything and everyone (except No Way Jose’s stop-match-to-dance spot) and sustained loud chanting throughout. Show kicked off about 7.30pm and finished at 9.45, including a 15m intermission. T-shirt-wise there were a TON of red Nakamura shirts and Balor Club shirts, a healthy dose of retro shirts (mostly nWo and Austin 3:16) and darest I say OSW shirts (which is so freakin’ awesome!). Shinsuke’s tees sold out immediately, and then Bálor’s (although half of the entire merch there was his!)
• Tye Dillinger v Hugo Knox
Tye cut a heel promo insulting Ireland’s draw against Sweden which drew heat, I was really impressed (Americans insulting Europeans about sports usually gets derisively dismissed). He shouted “you’re Ireland!” when beating up Hugo Knox. Who is Hugo Knox? Not Mike’s brother, that’s who. He got “who are ya?” chants. He’s an English Brakkus, a former Port Vale goalkeeper, and is ripped to the gills, congrats on the Roidy Magoo award! Still pretty green but moved well despite being absolutely huge. Perfect 10 has go-away heat from V1 but the crowd absolutely loved him. Sadly I’ll report it sounded like maybe 50/50 smarks and marks — I reckon a lot of smarks don’t do house shows. Silly to have Tye as a heel. Peeps brought 10 signs! Knox won with a split-legged moonsault, which the crowd didn’t appreciate.
• Wesley Blake v Andrade Cien Almas
Gosh it’s like a “great value” version of Trent Baretta and Sin Cara. Blake got (tag partner) “Murphy’s better” chants. His outfit was like a refresher bar and tassles – in the 80s he’d be face but is a heel in 2016. Thought the star on his arse said “BLAM!” but I think it was Blake, lol. Andrade (CMLL’s La Sombra) played a white-meat babyface Mexican who gets fired up from the crowd. His offence looked good but nobody cares about his character (and so his matches) yet. Andrade won after double knees in the corner. That move was done multiple times throughout the night, dammit d’lo!
• Sawyer Fulton & Alexander Wolfe v American Alpha
WHO? Two Mad Max scruffy-looking fellas. Wolfe (the blonde one) is German so the crowd heckled them about it. So that’s three matches in a row with at least one nobody/new guy that’s not over in it – i.e. people that need to be doing house shows. We’d great seats (on the ‘hard camera’ side) with only one tiered row in front of us but whenever stars started coming out (ie American Alpha) the 7 foot dude in front of me started standing for the entrances. And then the 7 foot guy beside Steve started doing the same!
Jordan and Gable were CRAZY OVER. They just stopped for a while to let the crowd chant the There’s No Limit song as well as the Kurt Angle song to their names. Gable looked so smooth and technical and sold a lot so Jordan could run wild, everyone lapped it up. Mad Maxes had some dodgy offense – the best/worst bit was Alexander Wolfe did these running fall-down splashes, and the crowd were agast at such a shit move – “WHAT WAS THAT?” chants! AA won with the Grand Amplitude and everyone was happy. Dash & Dawson showed up and talked smack, tried to ambush the faces but Dash was put in a double single ankle lock (Gable and Jordan with one ankle each) and they scarper.
• No Way Jose v Austin Aries
V1 said he’d be at the bar but after hearing No Way Jose’s theme but stayed for Austin Aries. Jose is supposed to be face but as soon as his entrance is done the crowd are solidly for Aries. Jose stops the match for a dance spot (he needs a definitive dance move if it’s to get over, like Fandango’ing had the pointy arms thing) and the crowd entertained it but gave massive cheers to Aries for attacking him to end the spot. I imagine Aries takes his craft seriously, I wonder if he was pissed to have do this Punch & Judy house-show shit. Aries looked extremely crisp (as he should, he’s amazing) and Jose didn’t have much, Aries lead this match. Someone gave Aries a “you can’t wrestle” chant, Aries shot him daggers after chain-wrestling Jose. Hilarious. A Double misses his discus elbow and Jose pins him with a schoolboy, fuck that.
• NXT Women’s Champion Asuka v Peyton Royce
Asuka got a great reaction but not as loud/sustained as I’d hoped. She’s gorgeous and a bad-ass. That she used to work for Xbox and Nintendo only sweetens the deal! Peyton really needs work, they did the ‘repeat the spot’ bit more than once as she loses the run of herself. As an Aussie, Peyton got “Knifey-Spoony!” chants, which was amazing. The champ got “Fuck ’em up Asuka, Fuck ’em up!” which is a popular one here. Casual swearing this side of the pond 🙂 Asuka won with her crossface chicken wing submission.
• Bobby Roode v Shinsuke Nakamura
Kinda devastated, we missed both of their entrances, we were out getting drinks and in the smoking area. But we met fans ther which was way better! After the show one of our brahs showed us his video of the entrance and you couldn’t see anything amonst the sea of marking out, lol. We switched seats on the way back in, thank God! Crowd LOVE Bobby Roode (Fuck TNA chants), Nakamura’s reaction was maybe louder than Finn’s reaction. He’s a superstar. Massive treat getting to see the two. OOC marked out seeing Roode, one of his favourite wrestlers. Unique chant, “Shinsuke’s on fire, Bobby Roode is terrified!”. Too busy marking out, but Nakamura won with the Kinshasa. He did his entrance deal for us and left to a sea of cheers. Awesome.
• Alexa Bliss & Nia Jax v Bayley & Carmella
Alexa Bliss, wow she is gorgeous. Plays “Row Z can see I’m a heel” well. Nia Jax has no physical charisma/presence, she looks awkward and unsure of herself (well, she is new!) Amazing chant of “your cousin sucks!”). Carmella was pretty over and enjoyed that, and Bayley was super popular (third behind Finn & Nakamura). She looked so happily embarrassed stopping to let us get our chants in. She also did her entrance mostly towards us which I appreciate! Alexa still has her Iron Man style outfit and had a nice blind tag. Bayley did her guillotine spots on Nia, did a Perfect 10 corner move/cartwheel spot, and won with a Bayley-to-Bayley suplex on Jax (who was very kind to jump).
• NXT Champion Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor
There was an extra bit of build-up music for Finn’s theme, which had a Balor Worldwide and Irish flag, crowd went mental for him. He is super-ripped, he mustn’t have had a carb in 6 years! You can see the individual muscles in his quads. People were into Samoa Joe but as soon as it started, the crowd stood up and clapped and cheered for Finn whilst he was in wear-down spots (“Stand Up, If you love Ba-lor”!) it was crazy awesome. They’re very smooth together, blocking each other’s finishers; in the end Finn missed the Coup de Grace and Joe rolled him up for the win. Crowd were really disappointed, got Joe back into the ring so Finn could do his finish and his theme played.
Other notes:
• The ring announcer intonated just like Lillian Garcia but is some woman I’ve never seen before. Looked a bit like Eden Styles and Nia Jax put together.
• When she had signed photos in her hand, the guy behind me shouted “BUT WHERE CAN WE GET THESE SIGNED PHOTOS?!” as she shilled the merch stand. Hilarious.
• A couple of knobs started chanting “we are awesome” and was IMMEDIATELY SHUT DOWN by the crowd. Ha!
• There were adults wearing *child-sized* replica belts which I find SO FUNNY! On grown-ups they almost look like massive watches.
— NathanTheCampionOfTheWorld (@campion95) June 14, 2016
Meeting you guys!
Before the event, during the intermission and afterwards we got to meet maybe 2 dozen fans which was so awesome. They’re so lovely and funny dudes. I just know there was a good few more that we didn’t get to say hi to! Also was able to give away all of my Virgil Dollars. Also think taking a picture and wearing a waistcoat helped finding us. So I started accosting people I saw wearing OSW shirts! We found a group of fans and went for pints in the first place we could find.
Overall: Lots of house show/”needs work” wrestlers clogging up the first half but was fantastic seeing Aries, Nakamura/Roode, Balor/Joe and Asuka/Bayley. Crowd were WAY up for it which was great, and getting to meet you guys was brilliant! Sláinte!
If u went to the show or any NXT event on the tour, lemme know what you thought/if it differed from NXT Dublin! Tweet me any pics you have of the event!
Yo! Myself and the lads were at ICW’s first Dublin show last night! We had a great time, never saw ICW live before. I wasn’t sure what to expect, thought it might’ve been all hardcore wrestling/bloodfests but it was similar to a WWE house show, pretty straight forward wrestling bouts (apart from Jack Jester using a chair and blood) with some spots out in the crowd.
Pic taken as soon as we got in the door – doesn’t do the crowd justice. Loved how it was standing room only, everyone just came up to the barricades. Without general seating (only at the edges) you could get in and out for a pint really easy.
• My favourite parts were when the wrestlers would give quick comments after a stiff shot (like “ooh ya bastard!”).
• There was a tron to show video packages/music videos and such which I was impressed with. There was an ad for Inside The Ropes’ Scott Steiner Q&A – I was devastated that OSW wasn’t promoted underneath the Belfast show. Must be an old ad 😛
• Billy Kirkwood did a great job of warming up the crowd – hilarious – lots of really funny jokes. (“Shawn Michaels is what I call my penis, because it doesn’t work and has a squinty eye!”)
• There was definitely a good chunk of travelling Scottish fans (which I think is pretty incredible) and big pockets of fans knowing all the chants for each wrestler.
• It wasn’t a wild atmosphere – it was hurt by being on a Sunday night, but sure they were in Belfast the night before; so you wouldn’t be drinking as much or going crazy.
• Pleasantly surprised at the amount of women at the show, probably 5%, which is loads for wrestling!
• My favourites include Sha Samuels (the East-End Butcher/lout!) and wow, Grado is absolutely bursting with charisma. He acted blown up doing his entrance and said “Grado’s fucked, lads!”. Just relentless funny spots.
• Was cool to see Drew Galloway, Noam Dar and Marty Scurll live in action for the first time.
• Wolfgang has an amazing Edge-style long brown goth jacket.
• I wonder if someone stole Davey Boy (Zero G champion)’s jocks as he was wearing plain adidas shorts!
• I would’ve liked at least one (if not both) wrestlers to cut a quick promo to get their characters over, worked a treat with those who did ala Sha Samuels.
• Was nice to see Mark Dallas out at the end to thank the crowd and swig some Jack!
• After the show the fans kept chanting for more whilst the crew tried in vain to tell people it had finished. It was pretty funny. Billy shouting “fuck off!” eventually got people moving, ha!
Overall it was a fun show, it wasn’t anything crazy – I think going to see them live for a bigger event would be a truer slice of what ICW is really about. They mentioned doing the SSE Hydro (a 13k arena!) for Fear & Loathing IX sounds amazing!
[vc_row][vc_column][bquote prk_in=”I couldn’t pass up Mick’s return to the scene of the crime – in 2012, Mick bombed on stage on his last visit – the main problems being he’s not a comedian (anecdotes don’t have punchlines), he can’t deal with overly enthusiastic fans (shouting ‘talk about Undertaker!’) etc – stopping mid-sentence to chastise ~2 audience members, and having an extended meet and greet beforehand (so people would’ve been drinking for ~5 hours). Mick Foley had mentioned in several interviews since (including earlier this week) his disappointment at the first Dublin gig, and wanted to return to avenge his failure. Why would I pay to see Mick again? Either it’s a great show, and it’s worth seeing, or it’s a terrible show, and it’ll be very worthwhile seening! It’s win-win!”][vc_column_text]
You can view pics of the gig by Shaun Neary at Pure Rawk.com
• The event was split into three parts: The stand up, Q&A and meet and greet. He used all-new material (well, material not used in the 2012 gig), apart from recounting Hell in a Cell with the Undertaker, which he told from a different point of view. He focused on Terry Funk – Taker telling him “see if he’s dead”, being chokeslammed out of his boots, and Mick regaining consciousness and just seeing Funk’s sneakers in the ring. • DUBLIN: Foley kicked off with talking about the first Dublin show. “Anyone from the first gig?” (I cheered!) “Let’s get you out just in case”. Mickster took almost no blame for how badly the gig went – “I didn’t have the Foley mojo back” was the extent of it; instead blaming the long meet & greet. He also mentioned a Dubliner vomiting in his seat – which wasn’t true – and then started to recount other horrible Stand-Up moments as if they happened in Dublin, which was pretty weird. He talked about being irritated by a fan holding up “Xbox 360” (a game) with The Rock on it, repeatedly hollering “The Rock”. He said he got the fan up on stage and flung his game onto the ground, only afterwards realising he was a man with special needs. I’m certain that was a lie but it was a fun bit. • Q&A: He also limited his act to the first half of the show – leaving the second 45 minutes to an open Q&A. This was a bit of a mess – people in the crowd just put their hands up and shouted to get Mick’s attention, and 2 guys with mics would go through the crowd and hand them the mic. It was pretty disorganised, they should’ve made a queue for the mic. The Mickster made sure to pick questions from the 3 girls in the crowd! (2 of which were Irish wrestlers btw!) The quality of the Qs were pretty ass (which isn’t Mick’s fault). Lots of fantasy booking and “what you do think of X on the current roster”. My buddy Luke noted only one of the questions was self-centred (i.e. lemme tell you about me rather than ask a question) so that’s a win! Not as a knock, but he didn’t really answer most of the Qs, rather he just heard a keyword (like “Triple H”, “Montreal” etc) and had a short anecdote about it. • Meet & Greet: The Q&A finished about 10:30pm and when we found the Meet & Greet queue, it looked like it’d be at least 30-45 minutes before seeing him, so fuck that and we left. Plus getting him to sign a Virgil Dollar might be cunty! Perhaps start earlier in the day to accomodate the meet & greet, Boards.ie’s BeakerJoe told me he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.
Quotable Notables:
• Opening Act: Ross Browne did quite well, getting quite a big crowd response for pretty stock wrestling fodder (wrestling fans tell your girlfriend, what girlfriend etc) – he sounded genuinely ecstatic and hyper to be on stage and introducing Mick. • Right here: He also had a fun schtick with the “RIGHT HERE! In….”, repeatedly not doing the bit, like “RIGHT HERE *waits for crowd response* “…You know where you are”. Hilarious. • Knock Knock: Great bit “I don’t do knock knock jokes! Knock knock.” *crowd – Who’s there?* What did I just say? That’s an example of jokes I do not do… Actually, knock knock. *who’s there?* Al Snow. *Al Snow who?* Exactly.” (huge laugh). He used Al as a punchline another 2-3 times, talking about the WWF superstars and also Al Snow.
• The only real groaner of the was Mick pressing the “John Cena issue” for a crowd response, saying you should respect his work ethic etc. He’s been a booed babyface for almost a decade now, please just talk about something else! • Survivor Series: Don’t put Fergal Devitt in the team as it’d accentuate how (relatively) small he is.
• Very fond of “Becky Smith”, immediately corrected himself with “Becky Lynch”
• Almost no TNA talk. There was one anecdote where Kurt Angle got upset that Mark Coleman (iirc) got the dates wrong and said he beat Angle in 94. This was meeting him & Mick the day after a night of fighting/drinking. Angle wouldn’t let it go “he knew what he said” and Jarrett came up to Angle the next day asking if Coleman beat him in 94. That sounds like shit but his impression of Angle being annoyed was actually quite funny.
• He’s not interested in seeing Sting v Taker, as you need someone young who can bump and bring the best out of an old guy.
• He barely moved around the stage (his hips must be done), mostly sitting down and just pacing a little bit. He just had a few swigs of water, and whipped out his iPhone from his sweatpants a few times.
• Denigrated the excellence that was his original Mankind gimmick (which I my favourite Foley incarnation). Said Vince was never a fan of his, surmised WCW Cactus Jack as “seedy” (hilarious), thought he was ugly so that’s why Mankind got a mask. “A journey of one man’s goal to cover up another man’s face”. Ha!
• However he recounted his 97 sit-down promos with JR as when he was “made” with Vince. He tried to do a bit as original Mankind but his false teeth fell out, hilarious. He said he was hit in the groin during lacrosse without wearing a cup and his testicle swelled to the size of a grapefruit, then Vince started using the term.
• Cheap pops, he described hurling as “like American football but with less compassion” and noted a previous Dublin gig-goer looked like “one of the lads from the flats”!
• After his WM21 match tagging with The Rock vs Evolution, Austin asked him if he considered him a straight shooter, and told him he stunk up the joint. (It was a disappointment but hey) Foley said it was his wish not to completely suck that night, let alone steal the show.
• He’s extremely proud of his matches with Orton and Edge at WrestleMania, wanting to showcase their vicious edge that was perceived to be lacking. Couldn’t agree more, especially with Orton at Backlash. I don’t think it’s half as famous as Foley’s match with Edge, it’s a shame they didn’t just do that Foley/Orton match at Mania. Also a shame we never saw Orton vs Rock. Would’ve been an amazing Legend to Kill for the Legend Killer.
• Mick (who said he allowed himself to drop one F-bomb per show) finished with an anecdote of being shown the RAW ramp and a massive dent in it – that he made – being told the metal ramp that doesn’t dent. How? Because he’s Mick Fucking Foley!
Overall: I’d equate Thursday’s show to George Miller and Mad Max: Having seen the 80s trilogy, I know what Miller’s capable of, and seeing Fury Road (his 4th installment in 2015), he’s improved in every aspect. Sure, by other movies’ standards, it lacks character depth and non-hammy dialogue, but Fury Road is way beyond what I thought the ceiling of Miller’s talent was. Mick knew he must be on his A-game, and it showed he was out to overturn his first outing (a second would cross the city off his map) – so all of his anecdotes were tighter, had a beginning, middle and end, finishing with a punchline for the crowd to react. Sure his delivery, impressions, anecdotes isn’t as sharp as other comedians, he rambled a bit, and a large portion of his act was name-dropping a wrestler and listening to the crowd’s response, but this was 400% the quality of his previous outing – a MASSIVE improvement. Cheap-pops are his gimmick, he had a much firmer command of the audience this time, with less whispering into the mic and some funny quick one-liners. I won’t recommend the show as it’s just decent, but he set out to avenge his horrific last outing, so mission accomplished.
p.s. It was very cool meeting some of you at half-time and after the show! Virgil dollars for everyone 🙂 So would you go see Mick Foley live?
[vc_row][vc_column][bquote prk_in=”So we went to see Vince Russo tonight! Here’s the skinny: There were about 70 at the event, free seating in a function room at a hotel, which was perfect as it was a more intimate venue. The host was a super-nice guy with mad hair, looks like Pat the NES Punk. It was Eamon D’arcy, the announcer from Irish whip wrestling! Russo loved his gimmick of putting his finger against his ear like an earpiece for questions. It was quite informal; Eamon had a few questions to kick off and then took Q&A for the rest of the panel (I think he should talk about the big milestones first and then take questions rather than straight into Q&A). They were serving drinks but it was an older crowd and respectful towards him. The event started about 8:15 with an intermission (for photos etc) and a second half ending about 11. Everyone who wanted a question asked was given the opportunity and it wasn’t rushed. He talked as if everyone was a long time hardcore wrestling fan, which they were, so good!” type=”plain”]tricker[/bquote][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]So we went to see Vince Russo tonight! Here’s the skinny – Two things are clear about Russo:
1) He is a nice guy. He sounded very relaxed and up front, great at captivating the crowd. Not arrogant at all, very humble and grateful-sounding.
2) He does not like Eric Bischoff. It’s clear he’s up to date reading newsletters/dirtsheets and is aware of what people say about him – he mentioned and went back to Bischoff/JBL’s comments about him from their WWE Network interview recently; that he was called a “liar” (re: bash at the beach); Bischoff also said Russo had horrible writing but was personable and said the right things. Russo retorted with Bischoff has an open invitation to ask anything on his podcast (nice plug Russo!).
Here’s a run down of topics and his opinions [my thoughts in bold]:
• Montreal Screwjob: Still can’t believe some people think it’s a work; was on the phone listening in when Vince pitched and Bret dismissed all other booking scenarios and would’ve done the same thing to Bret if in McMahon’s position.
• Pint of the black stuff, Guinness: Doesn’t drink, and Ireland don’t have Yoohoo. [What is it and is it good?]
• Booking in WWF: The correct number of writers is 2; to bounce ideas off of and not let things fall by the wayside, and handing it off to Vince, who would find little nuaces to tweak and make it that much better. Himself and Ed Ferrara wrote the entire show top to bottom back in the day. [Fine for just one 2-hour RAW in the 90s, but not with current WWE’s ridiculous amount of content e.g. 3 hour RAWs, Smackdown, PPV, NXT, Main Event, Superstars, web shows, YouTube content, Network exclusive content… That said, WWE’s over-saturated product is a far weaker pitch than the uber-sharp focus it was in the 90s.]
• I asked as a writer, how difficult it is working with wrestlers to do what you’ve planned: It’s a large unspoken part of the business, you have to know what to expect from each wrestler. They can’t see the forest from the trees – you may know the entire storyline but wrestlers only see what’s in front of them, that all they’d see is this week they’re losing and not how that helps the over-arching story.
• Foley/Rock This Is Your Life Segment: Notes McMahon furious with how long it went, Russo loved it; and the next day, Mick paced outside the office for over half an hour waiting to tell Vince the quarter hour numbers. Vince completely no-sold it saying “Good Job, Mick”, and not much else, not giving Mick the satisfaction.
• Decision to jump to WCW in ’99: Russo was away from his family for long stretches and asked to relocate closer to his wife’s parents to help out. McMahon replied he’s paid enough to hire a nanny; and Russo knew McMahon didn’t care about his family and would quit. [Adding Smackdown to his plate (and essentially doubling his work load) was a major factor. He of course doesn’t mention he is the only writer to be snatched from WWF and managed to talk himself and Ed Ferrara up enough to get a job.]
• Ratings in WCW: He threw out his schpiel about how ratings went up when he was first brought in [which is a lie]
[/vc_column_text][vc_accordion active_tab=”false”][vc_accordion_tab title=”Click for the actual WCW Ratings breakdown!”][vc_column_text]Ratings before Russo
Aug 1999 Nitro average – 3.27
Sep 1999 Nitro average – 3.38 (slightly higher as there were Raw pre-emptions)
Ratings under Russo:
Nov 1999 Nitro average – 3.23
Dec 1999 Nitro average – 2.98
– There was an initial spike in Nitro ratings when Russo arrived (a curiousity factor I reckon) that declined with each passing week
– Live attendance steadily declined from 5,392 in August to 3,593 in December.
– PPV buyrates declined from AugusRusso’s first PPV was Halloween Havoc 99 which did 190,000 buys; and by the end of the year, Starrcade (WCW’s WrestleMania) did 120,000 with Goldberg vs Bret in the main event.
– Worth noting September (pre-Russo) was a horrific month for WCW, Fall Brawl doing 110,000 buys with Sting vs Hogan.
The take-home message is that Russo’s arrival did cause an initial interest but his being there absolutely smashed their TV, attendance and PPV buys, but alternatives to Russo weren’t much (if any) better.[/vc_column_text][/vc_accordion_tab][/vc_accordion][vc_column_text]• Vince Russo Detractors: One thing that annoyed me was a few times he’d parrot negative statements about himself and dismissing them as they’re from “Vince Russo detractors”, as if it’s a magical wand illigitimising any accurate complaints. He does admit blame for a few things but not others (e.g. blames Bischoff over Spike/TNA’s problems, not Spike being furious over Dixie hiring Russo behind their back)
• I asked about David Arquette: “I don’t know if he’s considered a celebrity” but he was extremely respectful towards the business, as opposed to many celebrities backstage. Russo or Arquette as a better champion? Russo is a big chap and could probably take him (laughs).
• Bash at the Beach 2000 (Jarrett lays down for Hogan, shoot promo on Hogan) : The night was all pre-planned; he told and Hogan agreed he’d cut a scathing promo about him after he left. The point of contention was Hogan and Russo didn’t know the specifics of the promo. Hogan read the dirtsheets the next day saying Russo got one over on him and his ego is now hurt, and files a lawsuit.
• Silly gimmicks: Doesn’t regret or would take back doing anything (besides Oklahoma – whom he apologised and made peace with JR years ago) and says his goal was to have you see something new, that you’d remember (the Popemobile, anything on a pole, Viagra, Judy Bagwell on a Forklift, Arquette) (this all got huge laughs) [That’s awesome and all, but you were brought into WCW and TNA to improve their TV, not lose them tens of millions!]
• Wishes: He wanted to go to a more reality TV style where wrestlers would have to react to whatever Russo was doing, which was unscripted.
• New Blood: Working with Bischoff was immediately never going to work. They’re very different people; Bischoff is an excellent businessman whilst Russo is a creative writer.
• Voodoo Kin Mafia: To get attention. If you’re #2, always gun for #1, if you’re #1, ignore everyone else. [Trashing your more-successful competition, where the angle will lead nowhere because you don’t have a working contract, comes off as really bush-league. This angle ended with VKM declaring victory via no-show (obviously!) which is really lame. To me, mentioning/trashing the competition sends out warning bells that your company isn’t doing great.] • Failures: The Last Rites match was all his fault, the electrified steel cage wasn’t. • Success of angles/writing: Largely hinges on budget of the company. WWF had no limitations (McMahon’s car with cement, the jeep with a rocket launcher) but TNA was severely hampered – noted Tara’s having a tarantoolah was cut because TNA wouldn’t pay $200 for the spider’s handler each week. [$200 or even $10,000 on a spider gimmick wouldn’t help! Whilst I imagine stunts like Kane’s Inferno match look better with more money thrown at it, successful angles don’t require a budget: think Batista’s split from Evolution and face turn against Triple H. It was all crafted in-ring/backstage over months with a perfect execution, no smashing cars required.] • Hogan/Bischoff in TNA: They worked Dixie Carter for all they could and doesn’t blame them one bit. Dixie brokered the deal with them behind his back and didn’t know until they were hired. Bischoff’s main goal was to become Executive Producer and was the go-between with Spike and TNA, so he could broker a deal with Spike and his production company. [Yep.] • The Death of TNA: After 2 weeks of Bischoff (to go-between) being replaced. When TNA die, Russo’s been gone for about 18 months, asks not to blame him! [Dixie lying to Spike about hiring Russo is her fault, but Russo as head writer caused the tailspin in paid attendance and PPV buys. Despite this, TNA kept paying him a salary to book the way he’s always booked, so they got what they paid for!]
• Benoit: Lashley worked with him shortly before the incident, saw him making contorted faces by himself, was freaked out. • McMahon’s biggest failure: Putting Stephanie in charge of creative in 2002. She was in way over her head but being a family member supersedes business sense so that’s why RAW has been declining in ratings for 15 years. Joining WWE for a matter of hours in 2002 wouldn’t work immediately as Stephanie, his would-be new boss, treated him like a child. [Worth noting Steph left creative 2 years ago, she’s WWE’s Chief Brand Officer now, there hasn’t been any kind of drastic improvement…although now she’s on TV for 30 minutes each week – more Stephanie than ever!] 🙁
• V1 asked about McMahon pinning God back in 2006 but Russo hadn’t seen it. • WWE Hall of Fame: They knew about this stuff (eg Snuka) beforehand and was gonna bite them in the ass, and there’s more to come. Scoff’s at H’s reasoning for leaving Chyna out of the HoF (because a kid might google her and her porno career would come up) despite having dodgy people in there already (rapists, wife-beaters, murderers etc). Says Brooklyn Brawler should be in the HoF because of his decades of service and not for his win/loss record. • The Streak: Should’ve ended especially if it was Taker’s call, as he majorly respects Brock. • Cena: His #1 guy he’d loved to have worked with; can’t be replaced, spends the first 2 minutes feeling out the crowd to adjust his promo; there’s no-one to take his place, but says he’d turn Cena heel (with no-one to take his place?!). #2 is Bray Wyatt, who they can’t write for. • What WWE need to do to improve: UFC ‘took’ their PPV market (?!) and WWE responded by being more wrestling-heavy. Need to cater to the casual audience with more characters and storylines. [Poor creative is WWE’s main problem: Promos, characters and storylines are the most important factors in PPV success – the promise of an excellent match appeals to only hardcores. It doesn’t help that WWE churn out far too much content; so anything that could become hot is immediately beaten to death.] • How would you have booked Sting in WWE: *He holds his head in his hands* (Got a big laugh) Says he should’ve won at Mania to add into the Rollins storylines and eventual Rollins/Aitch match. • People he keeps in contact with: NY guys, Tommy Dreamer; Taz (who has the most New Yorker accent he’s heard). Downplays any animosity between him and Piper saying they did a podcast and were able to maintain a friendship afterwards.
• He plugs VinceRussoBrand.com a lot and also his DVDs on KayfabeCommentaries. He asked if anyone was a member of the brand, saw one hand go up! • WWE Network: They’re not getting his $10. He gets someone else’s password if he needs to watch something!
• He stayed afterwards if anyone wanted more autographs etc, most people got ’em at halftime, so just shook his hand and thanked him for coming.
Overall: It was a very enjoyable listen, he’s a nice guy even if his facts are dodgy and comes across well. Worth the €25.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
