A controversial figure in wrestling, Vince Russo started his career writing for WWE Magazine in 1992 before becoming a head writer for WWE later in the decade during the Attitude Era. After earning a ton of notoriety for spearheading a lot of the edgy content and style that would define WWE in the era, he’d jump ship over to rival World Championship Wrestling in 1999.
While his run in WWE could be deemed successful, his WCW run is a different story. Unencumbered by seemingly anyone who would tell him “no,” it seemed like Russo’s worst excesses were on display. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the ways that Russo is considered to have failed WCW during his time with the company.
10 Working The Smarks
While Russo’s edgy, provocative approach to wrestling television was a weird fit for WCW, a much worse indulgence was his tendency to write directly toward the “smart marks” watching. As the rise of the Internet resulted in more fans who read up on backstage rumors and knew all the insider jargon, increasingly the show catered to that narrow subset of fans instead of the wider audience. Suddenly, industry lingo was everywhere and promos made reference to incidents that only made sense to the most die-hard of internet wrestling fans.
9 Not Valuing International Talent
Vince Russo famously doesn’t believe that fans are interested in international wrestlers, which essentially meant WCW’s Cruiserweight Division, which at its peak in the pre-Russo era was loaded with incredible luchadores and Japanese talent. You can see Russo’s disregard for international talent come into play early on as Juventud Guerrera won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on Nitro after hitting champion Jushin Thunder Liger in the head with a tequila bottle. New Japan Pro-Wrestling was not happy about this and didn’t even recognize the title change until years later.
8 On a Pole Matches
The “object on a pole” match wasn’t an uncommon match type, but during Vince Russo’s time in WCW, the gimmick was about as common as an Irish whip. If anyone had the slightest dispute that could be exploited with a prop, that thing was going to end up on a pole.
As a result, there is now a wealth of ridiculous “on a pole” stips that include a leather jacket, a pinata, Viagra, and Buff Bagwell’s mom. It’s never been the most exciting match type, but it’s gone down in history as a Vince Russo signature.
7 Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett is a bit of a weird figure in wrestling, a perennial mid-carder in both WCW and WWE who ended up having an entire promotion built around him in TNA. The stage was set for that during Jarrett’s last run in WCW, where he returned in 1999 and quickly became Vince Russo’s pet character, occupying the main event scene despite his last run amounting to Jarrett being a weird fit in The Four Horsemen. It was so blatant that Jarrett being Russo’s guy was even referenced on television.
6 Too Many Title Changes
A title change is certainly a good way to surprise and reinvigorate fans, but if it’s done too often, it just seems like a gimmick. This is especially true of the World Title, which should generally be a difficult title to win. In WCW, from 1991 to 1998, there were only 25 champions. But under Russo, by the time Scott Steiner won the title in late November of 2000, he was the 57th champion. Having over 20 title changes over such a short period seriously devalues the belt, not to mention everyone fighting for it.
5 David Arquette
Numerous factors, missteps, and blunders contributed to the downfall of WCW, so any incident being given full responsibility is a vast overstatement. Russo booking comedic actor David Arquette to win the World Title in 2000 is one of those incidents, albeit one so outrageous that it tends to overshadow the rest. Even though Arquette won the title by pinning a non-wrestler, it’s one of those infamous moments where the hunger for publicity took precedence over delivering a quality product and proved to be an unfortunate part of WCW’s legacy.
4 The New Blood
The year 2000 saw Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff stage a reboot of WCW, wherein all titles were vacated and the roster was divided in two. On one side were the Millionaire’s Club, all the established stars determined to keep their spot at the company, and opposing them were the younger wrestlers and up-and-comers, organized as The New Blood.
Unfortunately, this big storyline was poorly conceived from the get-go, as the young wrestlers were heels that were managed by the extremely hateable Russo and Bischoff. As a result, the younger wrestlers were at a disadvantage against the popular heroes.
3 Booking Himself as World Champion
Vince Russo’s tendency to burn through all of his ideas as quickly as possible because something outrageous needed to happen all the time meant that it was only a matter of time before he booked himself to win the World Title. It finally happened on the 9/25/2000 episode of Nitro as he was tackled through a wall of a steel cage, thus winning the belt on a technicality. A championship belt is just a prop, but it’s never good when the show strives to remind fans of that fact.
2 Bash at the Beach 2000
Vince Russo’s love for working the smarks also meant frequently resorting to worked shoots, which served to escalate things by telling fans that wrestling was fake, but THIS part of the show was real. Bash at the Beach 2000 had one of the most bizarre instances of this, where Russo came out to tell World Champion Jeff Jarrett to lie down for challenger Hollywood Hogan. Hogan took the microphone to trash WCW’s poor creative decisions and was kayfabe fired by Russo in the aftermath. It turned out to be Hogan’s final appearance for WCW, as he sued Russo over the incident, thus keeping one of wrestling’s biggest stars off of the show.
1 Burying Mike Awesome
The Bash at the Beach incident not only kept Hollywood Hogan out of WCW -- it also affected some wrestlers still on the roster. Mike Awesome came to WCW in 2000 where he was initially presented as a fierce, intense competitor akin to a Samoa Joe. Unfortunately, Awesome was also a distant relative of Hogan, which led Russo to take out his post-Bash lawsuit frustrations on the former ECW star. As a result, Mike Awesome was suddenly saddled with demeaning gimmicks like “The Fat Chick Thrilla” and “That ‘70s Guy” instead of being a potentially marketable star.