Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
The ‘If Factor’ are a series of articles that takes a look at real scenarios in pro wrestling that at one point or another were suggested, planned, considered…but did not get the green light to continue. What would the landscape of professional wrestling look like if these ideas came to fruition?
The If: Vince Russo Returns to WWE in 2022
Some love him, some hate him…but there is no question that Vince Russo has been a lightning rod for controversy in all the years he has been involved in professional wrestling/sports entertainment. Russo was one of the people instrumental in bringing the WWF’s ‘Attitude Era’ to life in the mid 1990’s. His crash TV style of creative writing helped the company’s ratings skyrocket upward. Granted, it was Vince McMahon who oversaw everything that helped weed out some of the garbage storylines and gimmicks Russo would try to push through…but Russo and his writing sidekick Ed Ferrara were the ones reaping most of the credit during that time period.
Vince Russo would eventually leave the WWF and join the company’s top rive WCW and become the head of creative for them with much less success. Old school WCW fans could not and would not accept his vision of pro wrestling and fans tuned out in droves. After WCW folded and was sold to the WWF, Russo had a brief fling returning to the company for a couple of weeks in 2002. When that didn’t pan out, Russo became head of creative for the upstart TNA Wrestling promotion. Vince Russo believed in quick matches, never understood the appeal of foreign talent and was heavily based in sexual storylines. Some of it worked and a lot of it did not….regardless….Russo made a long career for himself in the wrestling business.
Fast forward to 2022 and WWE is struggling creatively, especially with the emergence of All Elite Wrestling. Russo says he reached out to Vince McMahon looking to offer his advice on how to improve WWE’s stagnant product. A series of phone texts go back and forth and McMahon offers Russo a job as a creative consultant. Russo said he made it known to McMahon that he was no longer interested in going back on the road with the company, but would be more than happy to sit and watch WWE Raw and Smackdown and offer his opinions on what is working and what is flatlining with fans. McMahon agreed to the offer and when Russo asked how much the job paid…McMahon allegedly told Russo that he wasn’t going to pay him anything.
Russo claims that is when he turned down McMahon’s offer, to which McMahon allegedly threw a fit and sent Russo a very angry email. Russo said he didn’t even bother to reply to McMahon’s email and just ignored it. What if Vince Russo agreed to return to WWE as a consultant in 2022? Would anything be different? Better? Worse?