The run of Vince Russo in WCW completely ruined his reputation following a successful stint in WWE as a writer. Russo didn’t have someone filtering his ideas like Vince McMahon did in WWE which many wrestlers claimed was the reason he failed so badly in WCW. The hiring of Russo was WCW hoping to completely turn their sinking ship around.
Russo did make some positive moves like building up new main event stars like Booker T and Scott Steiner. However, there were many more instances of the talents who were pushed by the new boss flopping in terrible fashion. Throughout the years, Russo has been involved in many wild backstage stories. Some stories involving Russo are just hard to believe.
10 Roddy Piper Upset About Lack of Introduction at WCW
"Rowdy" Roddy Piper disliked many things about what Vince Russo represented in the wrestling industry from his crash booking style to edgier content. The time working together in WCW was what caused the biggest problem.
Piper hosted a podcast with Russo as his guest a few years before passing to discuss their history together. Russo sent Ed Ferrera to give Piper his creative for Nitro and Piper took it personally that Russo didn’t approach him. The two had more issues in TNA based on the hostility when Piper broke character, threatening Russo in the ring.
9 Wanted WWE To Have OJ Simpson Wrestle
Vince Russo was known for wanting to break all the unwritten rules of wrestling if he felt his ideas could get a big rating. One of the oddest ideas pitched by Russo featured him wanting to have OJ Simpson wrestle for WWE after the infamous murder trial.
The hope of Russo was for Vince McMahon to pay enough for Simpson and the father of his alleged victim Fred Goldman to have a match in WWE. No one else in management supported the idea, but Russo remained on the creative team.
8 Sting Helped Him During Tough TNA Day
The long career of Vince Russo had some low moments that he’s shared since becoming a media personality. Russo revealed that he once felt low after burying his friend Jeff Jarrett to Dixie Carter when having to provide an honest answer about the product.
This sparked Russo to apologize to Jarrett, but he was still sinking towards rock bottom. Sting took notice of this and provided a great conversation with Russo to help his mental health at the time. Both guys shared the same story of religion turning their lives around and the bond allowed Sting to help Russo here.
7 Created Brawl for All After JBL Bragged About Fighting Skills
JBL was known for being a bully in WWE during his time as Bradshaw. Despite not having much importance in WWE by 1998, Bradshaw talked big and claimed he could have knocked out anyone in the locker room in a real fight.
Vince Russo used this as the inspiration to come up with the Brawl for All concept of the wrestlers with fighting backgrounds having unscripted fights. Bradshaw was knocked out in the tournament as the top goal of Russo when coming up with this idea was to humble him.
6 Booked New Japan Title Change on WCW Show Without Informing NJPW
WCW working with New Japan was a great relationship that lasted for over a decade. Eric Bischoff always tried to respect NJPW and made the deal worth it on both ends. Vince Russo didn’t have the same approach when taking over.
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Jushin Liger lost the title to Juventud Guerrera during an episode of Nitro. Russo did the title change without informing NJPW and it caused huge issues. NJPW never recognized the title change as Liger won it back one week later.
5 Intense Argument with Jim Cornette About Eric Young
The hatred between Jim Cornette and Vince Russo played a big role in both of their careers when working together in WWE and TNA. Cornette finally lost it when Russo was pitching the idea of Eric Young getting a world title program during his time in the World Elite faction.
The years of disdain came out with Cornette cursing out Russo in front of all the creative team members leading to his firing. This was just one of many instances of Cornette having huge problems with Russo’s ideas. A later chapter to their TNA drama saw Cornette getting in trouble for sending an email to another TNA employee talking about how he’d love to murder Russo.
4 Tried to Bury Triple H for Shawn Michaels Changing WM 15 Main Event
Shawn Michaels appearing on Vince Russo’s podcast provided a wild story about the backstage environment during the Attitude Era. Russo originally wanted Mankind added to Steve Austin and The Rock’s WrestleMania 15 main event for the WWE Championship.
Michaels was retired, but he still appeared regularly with the role of an authority figure. Both men revealed that Michaels talked Austin into changing the match, and Russo was forced to inform Mick Foley.
The aftermath saw Russo admitting he tried to take it out on Triple H, but Michaels cursed him out backstage since he was aware of the political game and used it to his advantage.
3 Had to Talk David Arquette Into Winning WCW Championship
Many diehard WCW fans still look back to David Arquette winning the WCW Championship as the point where the company had no chance to survive. Arquette was a diehard wrestling fan and surprisingly was against the idea at first.
Vince Russo had to sell Arquette on doing it by claiming WCW would benefit from the press coverage and media attention they badly needed at the time. Arquette hesitantly agreed and regretted the backlash that came from the failed experiment.
2 Pitching Disco Inferno Ended His WWE Return Plans
Disco Inferno became one of Vince Russo’s closest friends in wrestling when the two worked together in WCW. Russo trusted Disco enough to become part of the creative team in 2000. The end of WCW came shortly after, but Russo had a chance to return to WWE in 2002.
Reports indicated Vince McMahon was getting ready to offer the contract until Russo suggested hiring Inferno as well to join the team. Other WWE personnel revealed that Disco pitched ideas like Lance Storm leading an alien invasion. McMahon decided against bringing back Russo and he’s never worked for WWE since.
1 Brock Lesnar Was Livid at Him Calling Sable for TNA Role
Vince Russo was the biggest supporter of Sable in WWE and even tried to get her hired in TNA. The story came from Russo himself when revealing he called the home phone of Sable to pitch the idea of becoming TNA’s authority figure and she was excited about the idea.
Kurt Angle called Russo hours later to inform him that Brock Lesnar wanted to rip his head off. Russo apparently didn’t realize Brock answered the phone and didn’t introduce himself as he was calling for Sable. Lesnar took it personally, making Russo an enemy of his and Sable never worked for TNA.