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WrestleTalk TV in the UK hosted the second of their three-part interview with OSR member Vince Russo. This time, the focus was on CM Punk, MMA and the Hogan-Bischoff Era in WCW.
* Russo has never met CM Punk, but he really respects him for leaving the WWE on his own terms if he was unhappy there.
* Russo didn’t like wrestlers who complained backstage when they were unhappy. This causes the entire locker room to become unhappy. He also disliked it when wrestlers bad-mouth their former employers after they have been released. He thinks that if they have issues, then they should take them to management first.
* He respects Punk because Punk did take his complaints directly to Triple H and Vince McMahon. When things didn’t get better, Punk was right to walk out. He acknowledged that Punk did not have any future plans lined up and he had given up a lot of money, but that made Russo respect him more.
* He said that people should not stick with jobs that make them unhappy, so he appreciated Punk leaving a job that made him unhappy to try things he wanted to do.
* Russo believes that MMA will overtake WWE and TNA in popularity. He feels that the WWE doesn’t have anything going on right now, so MMA is able to catch them up. If WWE do not get something going before Punk debuts in MMA, then WWE will not stay on top.
* Russo does not think that Punk will do well in MMA. Punk is in his late 30’s, while much of his competition will be 26-year-olds who are in their peak, having trained for about a decade. He referred to Punk’s interview on Colt Cabana’s ‘Art Of Wrestling’ podcast. Punk admitted to the numerous injuries he has had. Russo reckons his health and his age will hold him back.
* An interviewer asked Russo to clarify what Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff’s jobs actually were in TNA. He said that it seemed like there was a lot of confusion about who was actually in charge. Russo agreed, and said that was all (TNA President) Dixie Carter’s fault.
* Russo said that he was on Jeff Jarrett’s writing team in 2009. He was on a rare holiday when Dixie phoned him to say that Jarrett was sent home. He did not go into details, but confirmed it was because of the Angle-Karen-Jarrett situation (Kurt Angle found out that his ex-wife Karen had moved in with her new boyfriend, the recently widowed Jeff Jarrett. Angle threatened to quit if Jarrett was not fired).
* Dixie asked Russo to take charge of the writing team for a while. The only other member at that time was Matt Conway (Ed Ferrera joined a few months later, just before Hogan and Bishcoff did).
* Russo and Conway started a new direction which focused on putting over younger talents, specifically naming A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Eric Young and Bobby Roode. He didn’t like Dixie’s obsession of hiring big names because TNA didn’t have much money.
* Russo did not know that Dixie was in talks with Hogan or Bischoff until the deals were done. She had kept it a secret from most people, so nobody with first-hand experience were able to advise her on this decision. He acknowledged that it was her company, so it was her right to make such decisions. He just didn’t like how she went about doing this deal.
* Before they came in, Russo made a series of specific predictions about things that Hogan and Bischoff would do. Among those predictions was pushing the company in a different direction, bringing in certain people and putting TNA originals in the back. All of the predictions came true within 10 weeks.
* In the very first creative meeting, Eric Bischoff told the entire creative team; “TNA did not exist before we came here. Everything you done never even happened before we came here. TNA starts today.â€
* Dixie told Russo that would still be the Head of Creative. Bischoff would only be in charge of story lines involving Hogan. He had to sit in on meetings when plans involving Hulk was being discussed, but that would be it. In reality, Bischoff and Hogan were put in charge of the entire creative team.
* He didn’t think that Bischoff held a superior position, but described it like he had. He said the big issue was that he and Bischoff wanted to take two different creative directions.
* Russo doesn’t want to say that Hogan and Bischoff in TNA was a bad thing. Russo had taken the blame for WCW going under. If he blamed Hogan and Bischoff for hurting TNA, it may look like he was saying it out of pettiness.
* Russo tried to explain to Bischoff that a lot of the things he wanted to do would not be possible in TNA. WCW had a seemingly unlimited budget, while TNA had very little money.
* Russo brought up comments about how he helped WWE but hurt WCW and TNA. He said that you cannot compare the WWE to TNA as they are so different financially.
* He admitted to writing the Degeneration-X invading WCW on a rocket launcher story line as a complete joke. It was just one line scribbled on the side of a script. His intention was to play a joke on the prop guys. He never seriously thought that the WWE would fund this until someone told him it was presently being filmed.
* Russo reminded the interviewer that WWE once bought an expensive sports car just to fill it with cement. TNA could never afford to do something like this.
* He acknowledged that both Hogan and Bischoff were big names that drew more attention to the company. However, they were being paid a lot too. TNA didn’t have a lot of money, so much of their marketing and advertising budget was being used for their paycheques.
Preview of next interview
WrestleTalk TV promised that the third and final chapter will be more aggressive. The preview showed Russo becoming very agitated.
• The interviewer asked him to address the devaluation of titles. Russo agreed to answer the question, but didn’t understand what was meant by that. The interviewer gave the example that Russo himself was WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Russo implied that it didn’t matter because it was for only two days. He then suggested that Vince McMahon devalued the WWE Championship because he held that title for six days, and he did that first. The interviewer said that Russo didn’t have nearly the star power that McMahon did back then.
• He was accused of losing $63 million (not clear where or when). Russo said that Hogan had not been on television in years but was still being paid $5 million. Russo said that he should not be expected to account for that. The interviewer then asked about the other $58 million.
• Russo shouted at the interviewer that he had to be only making these comments for the sake of the show. He said that there was “no possible way†that the interviewer could believe this.
Hogan was not available for comment as he was watching the Superbowl from his cell. A spokesman said that he wanted to help the Seahawks and Patriots make peace and get out of their negative head spaces. He also added that Hogan was a bigger Patriot because he is a real American.
* Russo has never met CM Punk, but he really respects him for leaving the WWE on his own terms if he was unhappy there.
* Russo didn’t like wrestlers who complained backstage when they were unhappy. This causes the entire locker room to become unhappy. He also disliked it when wrestlers bad-mouth their former employers after they have been released. He thinks that if they have issues, then they should take them to management first.
* He respects Punk because Punk did take his complaints directly to Triple H and Vince McMahon. When things didn’t get better, Punk was right to walk out. He acknowledged that Punk did not have any future plans lined up and he had given up a lot of money, but that made Russo respect him more.
* He said that people should not stick with jobs that make them unhappy, so he appreciated Punk leaving a job that made him unhappy to try things he wanted to do.
* Russo believes that MMA will overtake WWE and TNA in popularity. He feels that the WWE doesn’t have anything going on right now, so MMA is able to catch them up. If WWE do not get something going before Punk debuts in MMA, then WWE will not stay on top.
* Russo does not think that Punk will do well in MMA. Punk is in his late 30’s, while much of his competition will be 26-year-olds who are in their peak, having trained for about a decade. He referred to Punk’s interview on Colt Cabana’s ‘Art Of Wrestling’ podcast. Punk admitted to the numerous injuries he has had. Russo reckons his health and his age will hold him back.
* An interviewer asked Russo to clarify what Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff’s jobs actually were in TNA. He said that it seemed like there was a lot of confusion about who was actually in charge. Russo agreed, and said that was all (TNA President) Dixie Carter’s fault.
* Russo said that he was on Jeff Jarrett’s writing team in 2009. He was on a rare holiday when Dixie phoned him to say that Jarrett was sent home. He did not go into details, but confirmed it was because of the Angle-Karen-Jarrett situation (Kurt Angle found out that his ex-wife Karen had moved in with her new boyfriend, the recently widowed Jeff Jarrett. Angle threatened to quit if Jarrett was not fired).
* Dixie asked Russo to take charge of the writing team for a while. The only other member at that time was Matt Conway (Ed Ferrera joined a few months later, just before Hogan and Bishcoff did).
* Russo and Conway started a new direction which focused on putting over younger talents, specifically naming A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Eric Young and Bobby Roode. He didn’t like Dixie’s obsession of hiring big names because TNA didn’t have much money.
* Russo did not know that Dixie was in talks with Hogan or Bischoff until the deals were done. She had kept it a secret from most people, so nobody with first-hand experience were able to advise her on this decision. He acknowledged that it was her company, so it was her right to make such decisions. He just didn’t like how she went about doing this deal.
* Before they came in, Russo made a series of specific predictions about things that Hogan and Bischoff would do. Among those predictions was pushing the company in a different direction, bringing in certain people and putting TNA originals in the back. All of the predictions came true within 10 weeks.
* In the very first creative meeting, Eric Bischoff told the entire creative team; “TNA did not exist before we came here. Everything you done never even happened before we came here. TNA starts today.â€
* Dixie told Russo that would still be the Head of Creative. Bischoff would only be in charge of story lines involving Hogan. He had to sit in on meetings when plans involving Hulk was being discussed, but that would be it. In reality, Bischoff and Hogan were put in charge of the entire creative team.
* He didn’t think that Bischoff held a superior position, but described it like he had. He said the big issue was that he and Bischoff wanted to take two different creative directions.
* Russo doesn’t want to say that Hogan and Bischoff in TNA was a bad thing. Russo had taken the blame for WCW going under. If he blamed Hogan and Bischoff for hurting TNA, it may look like he was saying it out of pettiness.
* Russo tried to explain to Bischoff that a lot of the things he wanted to do would not be possible in TNA. WCW had a seemingly unlimited budget, while TNA had very little money.
* Russo brought up comments about how he helped WWE but hurt WCW and TNA. He said that you cannot compare the WWE to TNA as they are so different financially.
* He admitted to writing the Degeneration-X invading WCW on a rocket launcher story line as a complete joke. It was just one line scribbled on the side of a script. His intention was to play a joke on the prop guys. He never seriously thought that the WWE would fund this until someone told him it was presently being filmed.
* Russo reminded the interviewer that WWE once bought an expensive sports car just to fill it with cement. TNA could never afford to do something like this.
* He acknowledged that both Hogan and Bischoff were big names that drew more attention to the company. However, they were being paid a lot too. TNA didn’t have a lot of money, so much of their marketing and advertising budget was being used for their paycheques.
Preview of next interview
WrestleTalk TV promised that the third and final chapter will be more aggressive. The preview showed Russo becoming very agitated.
• The interviewer asked him to address the devaluation of titles. Russo agreed to answer the question, but didn’t understand what was meant by that. The interviewer gave the example that Russo himself was WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Russo implied that it didn’t matter because it was for only two days. He then suggested that Vince McMahon devalued the WWE Championship because he held that title for six days, and he did that first. The interviewer said that Russo didn’t have nearly the star power that McMahon did back then.
• He was accused of losing $63 million (not clear where or when). Russo said that Hogan had not been on television in years but was still being paid $5 million. Russo said that he should not be expected to account for that. The interviewer then asked about the other $58 million.
• Russo shouted at the interviewer that he had to be only making these comments for the sake of the show. He said that there was “no possible way†that the interviewer could believe this.
Hogan was not available for comment as he was watching the Superbowl from his cell. A spokesman said that he wanted to help the Seahawks and Patriots make peace and get out of their negative head spaces. He also added that Hogan was a bigger Patriot because he is a real American.
