Vince Russo

Early life

Russo grew up in Farmingville, New York and graduated from the University of Southern Indiana (then known as Indiana State University Evansville) in 1983 with a degree in journalism. He worked for the school newspaper The Shield as an assistant sports editor and later as editor-in-chief.

Russo got his start in the wrestling business when he began training under the tutelage of Johnny Rodz at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn. He owned two video stores on Long Island, New York,. Russo also hosted his own local radio show from 1992 to 1993 called Vicious Vincent's World of Wrestling which aired on Sunday nights on WGBB in Freeport, New York. The program ran for exactly one year, the final show being the one-year anniversary.

World Wrestling Federation (1992–1999)

In 1992, Russo was hired as a freelance writer for WWF Magazine following a letter that he had written to Linda McMahon, and would later become an editor in 1994 under the pseudonym of Vic Venom. He was eventually promoted to the WWF Creative Team in 1996. In that same year, Monday Night Raw hit an all-time ratings low of 1.8, as Monday Nitro (Raw's chief competition), was in the midst of an 84-week winning-streak against Raw head-to-head (see Monday Night Wars). With the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) eclipsing the WWF, McMahon called upon Russo to make changes to the televised product. Russo contributed edgy, controversial storylines involving sexual content, profanity, swerves or unexpected heel turns, and worked shoots in the storylines. Russo's style of writing came to be known as "Crash TV".

In early 1997, Russo became head writer for the WWF and wrote their flagship show Raw Is War as well as their monthly pay-per-views. With the angles that he created, Russo was instrumental in putting WWF ahead of WCW in the Monday night rating wars during the Attitude Era. Notable storylines and characters during Russo's run as head writer include the Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon feud, The Undertaker vs. Kane feud, D-Generation X, the rise of The Rock, and the Mick Foley saga. Some of the more controversial characters during this time, often cited by critics of Russo, include Sable, Val Venis and The Godfather.

Within two years of Russo becoming the WWF's head writer, it had passed Nitro to the biggest wrestling show on cable.

On October 5, 1999, Russo and Ed Ferrara signed with WCW; Russo contends that his reason for leaving the WWF was the result of a dispute with Vince McMahon over the increased workload caused by the introduction of the new SmackDown! broadcast and McMahon's disregard of Russo's family.

World Championship Wrestling

Russo and Ferrara attempted to make the same "Crash TV" style on Monday Nitro which was similar to Raw Is War, only at an accelerated pace, including edgier storylines, more lengthy non-wrestling segments, constant heel/face turns, an increased amount of sexuality on the show, fake retirements, more backstage vignettes, expanded storyline depth, title changes, and the utilization of midcard talent in a more effective manner. Russo and Ferrara often focused on poking fun at the WWF.

Russo's writing style created a large turnover in title changes, reflective of his "crash TV" writing philosophy. His booking of Jushin Thunder Liger losing and regaining the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on Nitro in late 1999 was not recognized by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) in the title lineage until 2007; Liger lost the title to Juventud Guerrera, a luchador, after being hit over the head with a tequila bottle. Swerves and scenarios treated as "shoots" were heavily emphasized, as wrestlers supposedly gave unscripted interviews using "insider" terms that were only recognized by the Internet smarks; chaotic broadcasts became the norm.

Russo booked actor David Arquette to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and at one point toward the end of his WCW stay even booked himself to be champion. Russo justifies Arquette winning the title with the fact that Arquette didn't pin a wrestler (he pinned Eric Bischoff) and that it was a realistic event with the intent to gain publicity. Moreover, Russo claims that his own title win was a result of a fluke (Goldberg speared him through the cage during a cage match against Booker T, resulting in Russo unintentionally winning the match) and that he willingly forfeited the title on the next Nitro.

Firing and rehiring

In 2000, Russo received two phone calls, one from Bret Hart (then WCW World Heavyweight Champion) and another from Jeff Jarrett (then WCW United States Heavyweight Champion), both saying that they were injured, thus couldn't wrestle and forced to vacate their respective championships. This required Russo to alter the plans he had in mind for Hart and the New World Order. Russo and his booking committee sat down to determine what would now happen at Souled Out. One of the ideas included putting the now vacated WCW Title on the shoot fighter Tank Abbott, a former UFC fighter. In an attempt to do something believable, the idea was originally to have a "rumble match" in which Sid Vicious would be an early entrant in the match and would last all the way to the end when Abbott would come into the match and eliminate him with one punch. Russo claims that Abbott may not have held the belt for more than 24 hours if this title change had actually occurred. However, the day after he and his committee came up with the idea, he was removed from the position of head writer and told to start working with something else. Russo declined the offer and left the company, with his immediate replacement being Kevin Sullivan.

Three months after Russo's departure, Kevin Sullivan was ultimately relieved of his duties and Russo was reinstated as booker, alongside the returning Eric Bischoff. The idea was that Russo and Bischoff would reboot WCW into a more modern, streamlined company that would allow the younger talent to work with the established stars. On the April 10, 2000 edition of WCW Monday Nitro, Vince Russo was introduced as an on-screen antagonist authority figure. Notable storyline points his character was involved with include "The New Blood vs. The Millionaire's Club"; his feud with Ric Flair where he and David Flair were involved with shaving Ric Flair's hair as well as Reid Flair's hair; his feud with Goldberg; and his short reign as world champion.

Bash at the Beach 2000

Russo was involved in an incident with Hulk Hogan; Hogan was booked to lose a match against reigning world champion Jeff Jarrett at Bash at the Beach in 2000, but Hogan refused to lose the match (invoking his contract's "creative control" clause to override Russo), due to Russo's apparent lack of direction for Hogan's character following the planned loss. In the end, Jarrett literally "laid down" for Hogan, which resulted in Hogan doing a worked shoot on Russo saying "That's why this company is in the damn shape it's in; because of bullshit like this" and scoring the pinfall victory by placing his foot on Jarrett's chest. Russo would come out later in the broadcast to nullify the result of the match, as he publicly fired Hogan. This action restored the title to Jarrett, which set up a new title match between Jarrett and Booker T, with the latter winning the match and the title.

As Russo promised, Hogan never resurfaced in WCW and even filed a lawsuit against Russo for defamation of character (which was dismissed in 2003 stating that the charges filed against Russo were "groundless" and "were just part of a wrestling storyline"). That would also be Eric Bischoff's last on-screen appearance with WCW. Hogan claims (in his autobiography, Hollywood Hulk Hogan) that Russo made it a shoot, and Hogan was double-crossed by Turner executive Brad Siegel, who did not want to use Hogan any more due to how much Hogan cost per appearance; and Bischoff, in his autobiography, Controversy Creates Ca$h, contends that Hogan winning and leaving with the title was a work which would result in his return several months later – the plan was to crown a new champion at Halloween Havoc, only for Hogan to come out afterwards and ultimately win a champion vs. champion match – but Russo (who no longer had faith in Hogan or his drawing power and wanted him out of WCW completely) coming out to fire him was a shoot which led to the lawsuit filed by Hogan. Bischoff claims that he and Hogan celebrated after the event over the angle, but were distraught to get a phone call saying that Russo interfered unplanned after Hogan left the arena.

In September 2000, In an angle where Stacy Keibler and David Flair were getting married, Russo sent cops to the ring to (kayfabe) arrest Ric Flair because Russo took out a restraining order against Flair.

In October 2000, Russo's run as head writer came to a halt after a string of injuries primarily resulting from a match he was in with Goldberg where he was speared through a cage and where his head landed on the ringside barrier. Russo's contract was bought out by Time Warner shortly after the WCW buyout.

Return to WWE (2002)

Russo later returned to WWE in mid-2002, but quickly left after saying that there was "no way in the world that this thing would work out". The major storyline idea he proposed was an entire restart of the WCW Invasion, featuring previously unsigned talent such as Bill Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Eric Bischoff and Bret Hart, but his idea was so poorly received that Russo was immediately demoted from the position of 'Head Creative Director' to that of a "consultant". As a result, Russo then left of his own accord (turning down a $125,000 per year stay-at-home 'advisory' role with WWE in favor of a $100,000 per year full-time position with TNA).

Writing and power struggle (2002–2004)

In July 2002, Russo joined Jeff and Jerry Jarrett's NWA-TNA promotion as a creative writer and would assist in the writing and production of the shows. Russo claims that the name "Total Nonstop Action" came from him and that the original concept was, as they were exclusive to pay-per-view, to be an edgier product than WWE; the initials of the company "TNA" being a play on "T&A", short for "Tits and Ass". Throughout the first few years, there were numerous reports of creative power struggle over the direction of the programming. Russo left the company after the 2004 Victory Road pay-per-view. In a November 2005 interview, Russo states that he never wrote a single show on his own during this period at TNA and described his time there as a "total nightmare."

On-screen character (2002–2004)

During the time when these rumors circulated, Russo eventually debuted as an on-screen character when the mysterious masked wrestler "Mr. Wrestling III" helped Jeff Jarrett win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and eventually unveiled as him. In the on-screen story, Jarrett did not want Russo's help which led to the two becoming involved in a feud. Russo created his own faction of wrestlers he dubbed Sports Entertainment Xtreme (S.E.X.), recruiting the likes of Glenn Gilbertti, Sonny Siaki, B.G. James, Raven, Trinity, and others. S.E.X. faced the more traditional TNA wrestlers led by Jeff Jarrett. Eventually, Russo would leave his on-screen role and Gilbertti would become the leader of S.E.X. instead.

After leaving for a brief period, Russo returned as an on-screen character on the May 28, 2003 pay-per-view where he would hit Raven with a baseball bat helping Gilbertti become the number one contender for the world championship. The next week on June 4, 2003, when Gilbertti fought Jarrett for the world championship, Russo would hit Gilbertti with a baseball bat which in turn helped Jarrett retain his belt. On the following week's pay-per-view (June 11, 2003), when A.J. Styles and Raven fought Jarrett for the world title in a triple threat match, Russo teased hitting Styles with Jarrett's trademark guitar, but eventually hit Jarrett leading Styles to win the world championship belt.

Russo would then manage NWA World Heavyweight Champion A.J. Styles for the remainder of his 2003 run and S.E.X. were quietly written out of the storylines. On the October 15, 2003 pay-per-view, Russo made his final appearance of that year in a street-fight with Jarrett. It was reported that Russo was written out of the company as a result of Hulk Hogan's signing and because Hogan reportedly said that he would not work for TNA as long as Russo was involved with the company. In February 2004, shortly after Hogan was not able to commit with TNA, Russo would eventually return but strictly as an on-air character, becoming the "Director of Authority" in the storylines. This time, he was a face, claiming to have changed his ways (which was likely inspired by Russo's real-life conversion to Christianity). However, he would leave again in late 2004 when Dusty Rhodes was "voted" the new D.O.A. over himself at the three-hour November 2004 pay-per-view Victory Road in an interactive "election" on TNA's website.

Rehired as creative writer (2006–2012)

On September 21, 2006, TNA president Dixie Carter re-signed Russo as a writer on the TNA creative team.

During the March 2007 TNA pay-per-view Destination X on the "Last Rites" match with Abyss and Sting, "Fire Russo!" chants erupted from the crowd in the arena at Orlando indicating the fans' frustration with the incidents that occurred during the match.

Another time the "Fire Russo!" chants were heard was at the following month's pay-per-view Lockdown that was held in St. Louis on April 15, 2007. The chants were heard during the electrified steel cage match with Team 3D and The LAX where the lights would flicker on-and-off whenever a wrestler touched the cage giving the impression of electrocution. Dixie Carter has since noted that gimmick was created by writer Dutch Mantell. However, in a 2011 interview, Mantell denied this.

Russo became head of creative for TNA some time during July 2009. On addressing the "Fire Russo!" chants, Russo said he was not head of creative during that time and when the idea of the electrified steel cage was presented to him, he said that there was no way that the concept could have been done in a believable manner and that he was often blamed for ideas that he never even came up with. At the September No Surrender pay-per-view, Ed Ferrara joined TNA and began working on the creative team with Vince Russo and junior contributor Matt Conway.

On October 27, 2009, it was announced that Hulk Hogan signed with TNA. In 2010, when asked about his relationship with Russo at TNA, Hogan said he came to TNA in peace, that the writing staff of Russo, Ed Ferrara, Matt Conway, and Jeremy Borash have really "stepped it up", and that Hogan loved Russo "from a distance". While working with Russo, Bischoff stated in a February 2010 interview that it is a "very positive experience", that their collaborations are productive and said, "If I see red and [Russo] sees green, we've been able to come as close as possible to resolving it every time".

On October 6, 2011, it was reported that Russo had stepped down to the role of a contributing writer, with Bruce Prichard taking over the role of the head writer. On February 14, 2012, TNA president Dixie Carter announced that TNA and Russo had mutually parted ways during the week.

Secret return (2013–2014)

In April 2014, the PWInsider website claimed that Russo was working as a consultant for TNA Wrestling. Russo denied the reports, but on July 15, PWInsider reported that Russo had accidentally sent an email to them with instructions on how TNA's commentators should announce a future episode of Impact. As a result, and after trying to state that he wasn't involved with TNA, Russo admitted through a statement on his website that he was already working as a consultant for TNA Wrestling to work with TNA's announcers, and that one of TNA's conditions was that Russo was to keep his involvement as confidential. Within two days or less, Russo's statement on his website was apparently removed as it became a dead link.

On July 30, 2014, Russo claimed that he was "officially done" with TNA. Not long after, Russo revealed that he had been working for TNA since October 24, 2013, claiming that he had been involved in creative meetings and also critiqued the weekly episodes of Impact Wrestling. Russo stated that he was getting paid about $3,000 a month, averaging to $36,000 a year, to be consultant with TNA.

International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom (2015–present)

In early 2015, Russo joined UK promotion, International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom (IPW:UK).

All Action Wrestling: Perth, Australia (2015–present)

In January 2015, Vince Russo announced he was signed to Australian promotion All Action Wrestling (AAW) to take on the role as head of creative.

Legacy

Vince Russo is one of the most controversial figures in professional wrestling history. Russo is often opinionated about his stance that the story, reality, and characters of the show are what draws the viewers. He is also outspoken about his belief about emphasizing entertainment over the in-ring aspect of professional wrestling. On the back cover of his book Forgiven, the summary notes that when asked about Vince Russo, wrestling fans' opinions often vary, but are always passionate: "the guy's a genius; or he single-handedly ruined the sport". On the back cover of his book Rope Opera, it notes that Russo has "been known as both the savior of Vince McMahon's WWF and the man who destroyed WCW".

Online work

In May 2014, Russo started a website called Pyro and Ballyhoo, where he gave his opinions and other content about the at-the-time ongoings in the professional wrestling industry as well as a variety of other topics in entertainment. He also offered a VIP section on the website where a subscription fee of $5.95 a month had to be paid to view certain content, with occasional discount codes being offered.

In July 2014, Russo started a weekly podcast entitled The Swerve. The theme song for the podcast, entitled 'Baddest Man on The Planet' wrote and sung by an English band called The Breakfast Club, alludes some of Russo's more famous storylines decisions, and also includes some additional exaggerated match stipulations for comic effect, such as a "Royal Rumble-on-a-pole match".

As of February 2015, Russo is no long affiliated in any way with Pyro and Ballyhoo due to "issues with the website".

Following his departure from Pyro and Ballyhoo, Russo began hosting Vince Russo's The Brand for The RELM Network on April 20, 2015.

As of October 2015, Russo has been hosting his weekly podcast, named Nucler Heat, in collaboration with one of the prominent professional wrestling news websites, Wrestling Inc., in which he mainly reviews each episode of Raw, but also covers hot issues trending in pro wrestling today.

Author

Russo is also an author. He has written Forgiven: One Man's Journey from Self-Glorification to Sanctification, a 2005 autobiography documenting his early life, his WWF run, as well as his Christian faith. Highlights of the book include his involvement with the infamous Montreal Screwjob and the accidental tragic death of Owen Hart. The book was written in 2000, originally titled Welcome To Bizarroland and was a book that negatively portrayed people in the wrestling business. After being a born again Christian, the title and content of the book was revised to correspond with his newly found faith.

Russo's second book Rope Opera: How WCW Killed Vince Russo was released in early 2010 and chronicles his tenure with WCW and TNA. The title Rope Opera stems from the title of a television series idea that he pitched to networks at the time of his WWF tenure.

Personal life

Russo is an American of Italian origin. He is married to his wife Amy, has three kids, and currently resides in Broomfield, Colorado. In October 2003, Russo became a Born Again Christian. In 2004, he formed a short-lived online Christian ministry titled Forgiven. In late 2005, he produced two shows for his evangelical Ring of Glory independent promotion.

Championships and accomplishments