Product Code Database
Vincent James Russo (born January 24, 1961) is an American professional wrestling writer, booker and pundit. He is notable for his tenures with the WWE (WWF, now WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in Creative writing roles. He also occasionally made appearances as an on-screen authority figure, and professional wrestler, in WCW and TNA.
Russo's writing style often blurred the lines between reality and fiction, while also favoring elements such as shock twists, grand moments and larger-than-life characters over in-ring action, which made him a controversial figure amongst certain wrestling fans. Russo was part of the WWF's creative department during the widely acclaimed Attitude Era, during which the company achieved record high television ratings.
During a self-booked in-ring career in WCW, Russo became a one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, and scored televised singles victories over future WWE Hall of Famers Ric Flair and Booker T (the latter to win his world title).
Russo got his start in professional wrestling when he began training under the tutelage of Johnny Rodz at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn. He owned two video stores on Long Island. Russo also hosted his own local radio show from 1992 to 1993 called Vicious Vincent's World of Wrestling, which aired Sunday nights on WGBB in Freeport. The program ran for exactly one year, the final show being the one-year anniversary.
In 1997, Russo became head writer for the WWF and wrote their flagship show Raw Is War as well as their monthly . With the angles that he created, Russo had a large hand in putting WWF ahead of WCW in the Monday night rating war during the Attitude Era. In an interview with Jeff Lane in 2015, Russo acknowledged that the first thing he wrote as WWF head writer was the episode of Raw that aired on December 15, 1997. At the King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1998, Ed Ferrara joined the WWF creative team and was paired with Russo. Some of the more controversial characters during this time, often cited by critics of Russo, include Sable, Sean Morley and The Godfather. Russo devised the infamous Brawl for All tournament. Russo also contributed to the formation of D-Generation X (DX), The Undertaker vs. Glenn Jacobs feud, the Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon feud, the rise of Dwayne Johnson, and Mick Foley's three-face pushes. (2025). 9781465431233, Penguin Random House. ISBN 9781465431233
In the two years following Russo's promotion to head writer, Raw surpassed WCW's Nitro in head-to-head ratings.
In October 1999, Russo was replaced by Chris Kreski as WWF head writer, after Russo departed the company.
Russo's writing style created a large turnover in title changes, reflecting 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.
Three months after Russo's departure, Sullivan was ultimately relieved of his duties in March 2000 and Russo returned as lead writer, 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 April 10, 2000's, WCW Monday Nitro episode, 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 Bill Goldberg; and his short reign as world champion. On May 8, 2000, Russo booked Miss Elizabeth in her first official wrestling match against Daffney. Elizabeth left the company shortly thereafter.
On the September 18, 2000 episode of Nitro, Russo was in a tag match alongside Sting and Booker T versus Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett, with the wrestler getting the pin receiving a shot at Booker T's WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Russo won after Booker T dragged an unconscious Russo onto Steiner for the three count. The following week, Russo faced Booker T in a steel cage match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The match did not appear to have a clear winner as Russo was speared by Goldberg through the side of the cage at the same time Booker T exited the cage. Two days later on WCW Thunder, Russo was announced as the winner and new champion.
Thunder - Wednesday, September 27, 2000
However, the reign was short lived as Russo announced he was vacating the title immediately after, as he was not a wrestler. Russo suffered a severe concussion from the spear spot, and took time off because of post-concussion syndrome.
Russo's run as head writer and fledgling in-ring career came to a halt after the concussion and other injuries. AOL Time Warner bought out Russo's contract shortly after the WCW buyout in May 2001.
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 was eventually unveiled as him. In the on-screen story, Jarrett did not want Russo's help which led to the two become 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, Road Dogg, 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. was quietly written out of the storylines. On October 1, 2003, Russo suffered the first loss of his in-ring career in a tag team match against Dusty Rhodes and Jeff Jarrett, although his partner, Styles, yielded the pin. 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 disappear 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. 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."
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 Cage match with Dudley Boyz 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 and the two proceeded to argue over Twitter for several months after this.
Russo became head of creative for TNA sometime 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 2009 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, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff signed with TNA and were paired with Russo, whom they had conflicted with in WCW and had not worked with since they departed the company after Bash at the Beach 2000. 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". According to Russo, the three met together and worked out their differences. While working with Russo, Bischoff also stated in a February 2010 interview that it was a "very positive experience" and that their collaborations were productive.
By October 6, 2011, Russo had stepped down to the role of a contributing writer, with Bruce Prichard taking over the head writer's role. On February 14, 2012, TNA president Dixie Carter explained that TNA and Russo had mutually parted ways during the week.
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 a consultant with TNA.
Since 2015, Russo hosted numerous daily podcasts for his podcast network Vince Russo's The Brand, formerly The RELM Network. Russo also briefly hosted a podcast on website Fightful Wrestling in 2016.
Russo now discusses professional wrestling, entertainment and more on his podcasting network called "Channel Attitude" which features wrestling personalities including the "Disco Inferno" Glenn Gilbertti, Justin Credible, EC3, Stevie Richards, Al Snow and Stevie Ray. He also does podcasts reviewing Raw and discussing wrestling news on Sportskeeda.
Russo's second book Rope Opera: How WCW Killed Vince Russo was released on March 1, 2010 and chronicles his tenure with WCW and TNA Wrestling. 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. (2025). 9781550227048, ECW Press. ISBN 9781550227048
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 Christian Ring of Glory independent promotion.
Russo was close friends with Joanie Laurer, professionally known as Chyna before her death in 2016.
Russo worked with Jim Cornette in the WWF during the 1990s and in TNA Wrestling during the early 2000s. They regularly conflicted over their opposing views on the wrestling business. In April 2010, a law firm contacted and accused Cornette of making a "terroristic threat" after writing a letter saying, "I want Vince Russo to die. If I could figure out a way to murder him without going to prison, I would consider it the greatest accomplishment of my life." In June 2017, Russo filed a restraining order against Cornette after repeated verbal threats of physical harm towards Russo and his family - Cornette, in return, has sold copies of the order in order to raise money for charity. Their real life rivalry has been featured in two episodes of Vice TV's Dark Side of the Ring documentary series covering the Montreal Screwjob and the other covering the WWF Brawl for All, which aired in 2019 and 2020, including a promise by Cornette to urinate on Russo's gravestone.
WWE credits Russo with being responsible for many of the Attitude Era's storylines. Likewise, Bob Kapur of Slam! Wrestling gives Russo credit for the company turning away from the cartoonish style of the early-mid 1990s and instead bringing more mature storylines and characters to the promotion. WWF's Dwayne Johnson spoke fondly of working with Russo, praising his "crazy out of box ideas".
Gene Okerlund claimed in 2004 that Russo's ideas were successful in the WWF because Vince McMahon was able to control them, while Ric Flair doubted Russo's WWF influence during their time together in WCW, later blaming Russo for the disorganization of WCW. Eric Bischoff has said that Russo was hired at WCW by overstating his influence in WWF, which Bischoff called "fraudulent." Wrestling promoters Tony Khan and Jody Hamilton have criticized Russo's role in the downfall of WCW, and TNA co-founder Jerry Jarrett expressed regret at the decision of bringing Russo in.
Russo's decision to have David Arquette win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was viewed as highly controversial, though Russo defended his decision, citing that mainstream American newspapers covered the story. WrestleCrap named Arquette the worst wrestling champion of all time and called Russo's decision a "monumentally damaging blow to a company that was already at death's door." WWE's Rise and Fall of WCW documentary also largely blamed Russo for the decline of WCW, prompting DVD Talk critic Nick Hartel to write that "while Russo deserves a lot of blame, he was not the only one in charge." R. D. Reynolds was also critical of many of Russo's booking decisions but stated that Turner Broadcasting executive Jamie Kellner's decision to cancel WCW programs from Turner Networks was ultimately responsible for WCW's death. Regarding his time in WCW, Russo personally said, "WCW and I were never on the same page; it was just that simple".
Booker T credits Vince Russo for his rise to main event status, citing "... if it weren't for Vince Russo, perhaps I would have never been the world champion... at all, ever!" Russo thanked Booker for the compliment and has since called Booker's coronation as WCW Champion at Bash at the Beach 2000 "the proudest moment of my career, and the greatest contribution I was able to make to the business."
Former TNA President Dixie Carter praised Russo as "incredibly talented" in 2014, but admitted his presence "proved to be too distracting to continue a working relationship"; when asked if Russo could return to the promotion she said "never say never". Various wrestlers who worked with Russo in TNA have spoken fondly of him, including Hernandez, Kurt Angle, and AJ Styles. Velvet Sky and Angelina Love credit Russo for being supportive of TNA's Impact Knockouts division.
|
|
