Line #27 Wrestling/VinceRusso


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6syvxz9sfbp51.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Pictured: A one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion.]]
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4	->''"Do you know how many copies of the book ''Literature/TheDeathOfWCW'' I've autographed ''[...]'' and when the people come up to me with the book, they're ''scared to death''! And I'm like, 'are you kidding me, gimme the book, I'll sign it!'"''
5	-->--'''Vince Russo''', being a good sport (2006).
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7	'''OH,''' '''''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbeLpwdIsck SHIT!]]''''' '''IT'S VINCE RUSSO!'''
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9	Vincent James Russo (born January 24, 1961) is a {{professional wrestling}} booker and writer who was a former head writer for Wrestling/{{WWE}}, Wrestling/{{WCW}}, and [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]].
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11	Russo's biggest success came during the Wrestling/MondayNightWars in WWE (then the WWF) with the Wrestling/AttitudeEra branding, resulting in the WWF's biggest period of success since Wrestling/HulkHogan and a resurgence in popularity for pro wrestling in the U.S. He has been credited with popular feuds in the WWF such as Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin vs. [[Wrestling/VinceMcMahon Mr. McMahon]], Wrestling/TheUndertaker vs. Wrestling/{{Kane}}, [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] vs. Wrestling/MickFoley; having a hand in the rise of Wrestling/DGenerationX, and he was the one who came up with [[Wrestling/DavidHeath the Brood]]. When Russo and Wrestling/JimCornette were booking ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Raw]]'', it pulled some of its highest ratings.
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13	Russo would depart from the WWF to WCW in October 1999, but his booking in the promotion would become subject to controversy, to the point that he is blamed for WCW going under a few years later. The consensus after the fact seems to be that at worst he was just one of many factors on it but that nonetheless, without the editing and input he received in the WWF, the results of his booking in WCW were variable in quality. (Plus ''[[Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro Nitro]]''[='s=] audience had different expectations from ''Raw''[='=]s audience.)
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15	As a result of this, he is also one of the few ''non''-wrestlers in the business who generates controversy: When it was announced that he had been re-hired by WWE in 2002, the writing staff threatened a walk-out. He is also the primary reason why TNA was dropped from Creator/SpikeTV after it was revealed that TNA re-hired him in secret after a previous stint there, based purely on his reputation.
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17	Nowadays, he hosts his own podcast, ''The Brand'', where he shares his thoughts on modern wrestling. Vince has posted the highlights on his Website/YouTube channel. He also writes a weekly column on Website/WrestleCrap talking about some of the things he booked (and allegedly booked).
18	----
19	!!Vince Russo's work provides examples of
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22	[[folder:A-F]]
23	* AbortedArc:
24	** When Russo first crossed over to WCW, he came up with the New Blood angle. It was supposed to help new talent get over the established stars, who formed the Millionaires' Club in response. Wrestling/BillyKidman was part of the New Blood faction who set out to kill Hulkamania. While WCW's website was rigged to give the "match of night" votes Billy Kidman might have won to Hogan, Wrestling/EricBischoff and Russo ''did'' book Kidman to pin Hogan (after Bischoff hit him with a chair) in a 2-on-1 handicap match. Unfortunately, none of the wins were clean, so it really didn't help Kidman. Hogan, of course, went on to beat Kidman in two straight PPV matches. This angle failed for a few other reasons:
25	### It was a company-wide feud, which is actually something which doesn't work too well, since everyone on the roster will be involved in something similar to everyone else.
26	### The crowd didn't take the New Blood seriously. They were viewed as rip-offs of the men they were trying to replace rather than people who were trying to make a name for themselves.
27	### Members of the Millionaires' Club were reluctant to job cleanly. The history books will show that Billy Kidman is the only man in history to have 3 consecutive pinfall victories over Hogan, but no one remembers that, because in reality they were all screwjob finishes where Hogan dominated 99% of the time. {{Wrestling/Sting}} didn't do many favors for Vampiro, either.
28	** At one point, Wrestling/StacyKeibler (billed as "Miss Hancock") was a regular on ''Nitro'', and her gimmick according to Wikipedia was to "stand on top of the announcers' table and dance sensually." She was later linked to David Flair, inside and outside the ring, so Russo thought it would be a good idea to promote this with a pregnancy angle. The original plan was that the child was gonna be Vince Russo's; furthermore, it was supposed be revealed that Miss Hancock was actually Wrestling/RicFlair's illegitimate daughter, so technically David had been trying to marry his half-sister. (If you think that's bad, Plan B was for the kid to actually be Ric's.) AOL-Time Warner pulled the plug on it before it could be revealed. Instead, Hancock feuded with the [[https://imgur.com/xOHaLqd always-classy]] Major Gunns. It ended in a mud wrestling match, during which Ms. Gunns kicked Ms. Hancock in the stomach. A few weeks later it was revealed that she made the entire pregnancy thing up, and it was never mentioned again. Instead, she became Shawn Stasiak's valet for a brief feud with Wrestling/BamBamBigelow until the company folded.
29	* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: There was a video of him invading Ric Flair's home alongside David Flair (Russo and David were aligned at the time) and Russo creeping at a young Wrestling/{{Charlotte\|Flair}}. Russo also stole one of Ric's robes, before Ric's wife and his other children arrived home and kicked Russo out.
30	* AlliterativeName: Vic Venom, a penname he used when writing articles for the WWF Magazine and WWF on America Online in the early-mid 90s.
31	* AnswersToTheNameOfGod: Pretty much the only explanation that could be found as to why Russo decided that the best way to stay safe from Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} was to build his own Popemobile, driven by Jeremy Borash. One has to wonder if that car wasn't swerving enough for Russo's liking.
32	* AscendedExtra:
33	** Russo got his start operating and hosting an AM Radio show called ''Vicious Vincent's World of Wrestling''. From there he got hired as a writer for ''WWE Magazine'' under the pen name "Vic Venom", had his own segment on the show ''Livewire'', and commentated for a handful of episodes of ''Shotgun Saturday Night''. Russo already appeared on several WWF programs during the Attitude Era under his Vic Venom moniker, like in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF6HwD-pjU4 this]] commercial for ''WWF Magazine''.
34	** Russo always tried to push young talent. It didn't always work, but an effort was made, at least. For example, when Russo booked himself into angles, it was always to put younger guys over at his expense.
35	* AscendedMeme:
36	** That infamous WorkedShoot in which Russo bellowed, "You want [[MaskedLuchador Lucha Libres]] [sic]? GO TO JAPAN!" The term "Lucha Libres" would actually be taken up by the Rudos in Mexico.
37	** "SWERVE" and "FIRE RUSSO!", both of which were acknowledged on ''Impact'' and in his podcast. He's also worn a "FIRE RUSSO" T-shirt.
38	** And for ''{{Website/Botchamania}}'' #300, he accepted their offer to do the introduction:
39	--->'''Vince Russo''': Well I'm gonna give ya ''Botchamania'' another day, I'm here to swerve ya. I'm gonna give you old reruns of ''{{Series/Roseanne}}'', how's that? [the intro of ''Roseanne'' is played instead of the intro to ''Botchamania'']
40	* AuthorAppeal:
41	** Russo ''loves'' pole matches. For some bizarre reason he believes it's impossible for any one non-gimmick singles match to be different from all other non-gimmick singles matches, but putting different objects on poles makes the pole matches completely distinct from each other. He put different objects on poles to make the matches distinct from each other. Sometimes he'd make a match with two separate gimmick matches stacked on top of one another, usually with ridiculous stipulations attached. He later attempted to defend this by claiming that, out of hundreds' of matches he'd booked in WCW, only ''seven'' of them had featured a weapon on a pole which could be taken down and used against the retriever's opponent. Well, yes, nobody ever called Judy Bagwell a ''weapon...''
42	** Vince Russo probably loves angles involving vehicles probably more than his pole matches.
43	** Wrestlers jumping off high things. At ''Slamboree 2000'', Russo had Wrestling/MikeAwesome launch Wrestling/{{Kanyon}} off the top of a cage onto the ramp. The PPV ended with everyone acting like Kanyon was dead and being ambulanced out. It was exactly one year after the Wrestling/OwenHart incident and in the same arena (Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO). There was also the time that Hawk threatened to jump off the [=TitanTron=] in an alcoholic stupor, only to have Droz shove him off. This was around the time Russo was still writing for WWF.
44	** Vince has gone on to say that the only reason [[Radio/TheHowardSternShow Beetlejuice]] made an appearance on Nitro was because Vince himself was a huge Howard Stern fan.
45	* BastardlySpeech. Russo finding God and confessing his past sins to the Impact Zone, claiming that he "sold his soul for ratings."
46	* BitingTheHandHumor: Galen Chandler, Standards and Practices liaison. To quote ''Website/{{WrestleCrap}}'', WCW creative would often run afoul of the actual Turner Standards and Practices division, with the folks in charge of making sure the network didn’t get complaints asking those in charge of wrestling to pull back on some of the company’s more outlandish stunts. And yes, there was in fact a man working there actually named Galen Chandler. Thus we got an on-screen character named the same.
47	* BodyguardBabes: He actually deployed a pair of porn stars against Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/ScottHall in an October 1999 episode of ''Nitro''. Yes, the porn stars won.
48	* TheBoxingEpisode: He was the one responsible for the infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_Brawl_for_All "Brawl For All."]] Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams was one of the greatest athletes to ever step foot into a wrestling ring, and legitimately one of the toughest. A two-time All-American in high school and college, if he had focused on either football or wrestling he probably would have been able to rise to the professional level. (He was an Olympic-caliber wrestler and an NFL-caliber football player.) He'd had a long, successful run through the territories, [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA]]/WCW, and Japan. He was brought into WWE to be a challenger to then-champ Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin. Then came the "Brawl For All", a non-scripted boxing/wrestling hybrid conceived by Russo with the expectation that Doc would plow through it based on his reputation. Cornette pointed out all the pitfalls, chief among them that anything can happen in a "shoot" fight, including Doc losing. He protested that guys were going to get hurt and it would foster resentment in the locker room. Lo and behold, Doc lost to Bart Gunn and tore his hamstring. He left the WWF and fled to Japan shortly thereafter, spoiling any chance he had of a match with Austin. When it was over, Cornette "congratulated" Russo "on costing the company five million in pay-per-view revenue because all he did was get Doc injured and blow what would have been a big money match with Austin."
49	-->'''''[=WrestleCrap=]:''''' This is your chance to watch the complete ''Brawl For All'' boxing tournament from the “exciting” start to the stunning finish where Butterbean nearly knocks poor Bart Gunn’s head off.
50	* BrooklynRage: Russo is never seen without his NY sports paraphernalia, and in WCW, he seemed to prefer bellowing out his promos.
51	* {{Catchphrase}}:
52	** "I sweah to gawd!", a phrase he is more and more associated with on the internet.
53	** "Can I be honest witchu for a second...?"
54	** "Bro..."
55	** "What's next, [[Wrestling/JeffJarrett Jeff]]?"
56	** "We gotta put this to it's proper perspective"
57	** "And bro, I hate to sound like a broken record..."
58	* CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown: In the November 2002 [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA]]-TNA pay-per-view, "Mr. Wrestling III" was revealed to be Russo in disguise.
59	* CreatorsPet: In universe as well as out of it, Jeff Jarrett. Russo gave Jarrett his new "The Chosen One" gimmick because he had chosen to make Jarrett his top heel. Jarrett's reverse Russian legsweep finisher was also renamed The Stroke, which has several interpretations, one of which being a reference to Jarrett having "stroke" (a large amount of backstage influence) because of his friendship with the booker.
60	* DenserAndWackier:
61	** WCW from about 1999-2001. Every show felt like a fever dream, and the booking was all over the place. (Cornette tells a couple anecdotes that imply Russo had no idea what pushing was and would only focus on comedy segments.)
62	** Mike Awesome being billed as the [[ChubbyChaser "Fat Chick Thriller"]]. This [[TheGimmick gimmick]] originated on the July 3, 2000 ''Nitro'' when Jarrett brought three opera singers dressed as Viking wenches to the ring as a means of bragging that "the fat lady will sing" for Hulk Hogan at ''Bash at the Beach''. Awesome was seen backstage hitting on one of them, and Pamela Paulshock tried to rope him in for an interview. Awesome got really mad when [[MomentKiller the larger woman walked away.]] After that, he started hiring heavyset women as his valets and feeding them cheeseburgers.
63	** From its first PPV till its jump to Fox Sports Net, ''TNA Impact'' became gradually less Russo-like; by 2003, one could argue that most of the angles made sense (the occasional Monty Brown joining "Planet Jarrett" aside). Then, in late 2006, well, the prints started to become visible again after Russo was seen in the audience.
64	* DiabolicalMastermind: The Dr. Claw-like booker of ''Nitro'' around 1999. At first, they didn't show Russo or mention him by name (although months earlier, WWF's head writer jumping ship made a fair amount of noise), but you could tell it was him by his accent and peppering his lines with insider terms. For instance, Russo's hand would gesture furiously at his "midcarders" to go "book it!" His heel stable was also named "Creative Control".
65	* DiscontinuityNod: When Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr won the 2006 ''Royal Rumble'', WWE said it was the first time that someone won the Rumble as the #2 entry. This was a reference to the widely-hated 1999 edition where Vince [=McMahon=] won the ''Royal Rumble''. The booker for the 1999 ''Rumble'' was Vince Russo.
66	* EvilMentor: Russo tried to corrupt David Flair and become his "father figure". Ric accused him of living vicariously through David because, as a "skinny kid from the Bronx", he didn't have what it takes be The Man.
67	* FleetingDemographicRule: Ultimately, Russo's playbook (or trope book, if you prefer) is the size of a religious pamphlet, one he's relied for the entirety of his career in professional wrestling, rehashing the same concepts and ideas from multiple companies with multiple (and sometimes, the very same) characters:
68	## The New Blood copying the WWF's blood-falling-from-the-ceiling spot, which most fans recognized as being The Brood's gimmick.
69	## The Filthy Animals as D-Generation X, using a hidden "Kid-cam" (G-TV) to catch the Nitro Girls in a compromising position.
70	## The Misfits in Action dressing up as the members of Team Canada to mock them v. D-X doing it to The Nation.
71	## {{Wrestling/Madusa}} v. Spice as {{Wrestling/Chyna}} v. Miss Kitty. (And "Asya" in a similar role).
72	## Ed Ferrera as [[Wrestling/JimRoss a barbecue sauce-shilling announcer.]]
73	## Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage briefly imitated [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] for a while, doing the poses and rapping about how Flair likes to "spank it, whack it and jack it!"
74	## Shawn Stasiak as [[Wrestling/CurtHennig Mr. Perfect.]] (Okay, so Perfect was late 80's-early 90's, but still, let's be original.)
75	## Referees going "on strike".
76	## At one point, Russo seemingly showed up with a giant file folder labeled "Rejected {{Wrestling/Kane}} ideas." He scratched out Kane and wrote Vampiro.
77	## David Arquette wasn't the first non-wrestler to win a world title on the B-Show. Shortly before he left the WWF, he booked Wrestling/VinceMcMahon winning the WWF Championship on ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown SmackDown]]''. The reason why the former is remembered and bagged on far more than the latter is the execution: Vince won the title from Wrestling/TripleH (a heel) with the aid of Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin (a face), and spent most of the match getting the crap beaten out of him. Furthermore, the "Mr. [=McMahon=]" character is probably one of the most famous heels in wrestling, and certainly the best non-wrestler heel character (though [=McMahon=] was already associated with body-building and had worked several matches during the Attitude Era). In both instances, it was to give his character heat and furthered the story of WWE. That's very different from putting the title on a celebrity or on Russo, who had no reason to be on TV other than the fact that he was writing the storylines.
78	* FunWithAcronyms:
79	** Russo always had an obsession with acronyms. Does the WWF's Terri Invitational Tournament, WCW's Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title, or TNA's Sports Entertainment Xtreme and Voodoo Kin Mafia[[note]]Vincent Kennedy [=McMahon=][[/note]] ring a bell to anyone?
80	** Just Over Broke. [[{{Jobber}} Best of luck, fellas.]]
81	** The "Pretty Mean Sisters". Wrestling/TerriRunnels HATED the pun and lobbied for [=McMachon=] and Russo to change it, to no avail.
82	** [[SexSells Sports Entertainment Xtreme]] in TNA. He's also credited with the name for TNA: he chose the acronym to help differentiate the company from WWE as a more adult-oriented product, since the company originally broadcast shows strictly on pay-per-view.
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85	[[folder:G-Z]]
86	* GimmickMatches:
87	-->'''''[=WrestleCrap=]''''': After all, this was the man who would go on to create the Reverse Battle Royal and would probably have invented the Upside-Down Battle Royal if he had figured out how to cram cameras and lighting rigs under the ring.
88	** He doesn't just book pole matches for titles, but for the strangest things: a pet rat, a pinata, Viagra, Judy Bagwell (that was on a forklift, no pole was big enough for Mrs. Bagwell), and the keys to Mick Foley's office are just a few of the things that have been at stake. One particularly strange storyline from towards the end of Russo's time with the WWF revolved around the Wrestling/BigBossman kidnapping and cooking Wrestling/AlSnow's dog Pepper. This inevitably culminated in a "Pepper on a Pole" match, with the leftovers in a Styrofoam container on top of a pole. Interestingly enough, the "Pink Slip on a Pole" match between Mankind and The Rock was part of an excellent storyline, and it took place after Russo was shown the door.
89	** TNA actually did a variant on this, inspired by ''Wrestling/MoneyInTheBank'': the "Feast or Fired" match. It starts with a bunch of guys in the ring and four briefcases on poles. You leave the match if you get a case, and they're opened after the match. Three cases had contracts for a world, X Division, or tag title shot and the fourth had a pink slip.
90	* GreyAndGreyMorality: Russo believes that all characters should be shades of gray, with no purely-heroic faces or purely-villainous heels. The problem with this potentially intriguing idea is that the characters he crafts tend to just seem wildly inconsistent in their behavior rather than morally complex.
91	* HeManWomanHater:
92	** He didn't sound too different from how Andy Kaufman wrestled: the cowardly Hollywood heel. His writing partner, Ed Ferrera, also wrestled Madusa and others under the ring name "Oklahoma".
93	** When Wrestling/MissElizabeth returned from her sabbatical, she insisted on a clause in her contract allowing her to abstain from matches. (She was then forty years old.) Russo still managed to book her into some brawls with the Nitro Girls and, later, Hogan and Wrestling/LexLuger. Russo himself had a short-lived feud with the stable Elizabeth managed, Team Package, and he fought her twice in May 2000: once in a cage match, and again in a tables match. Both ended with Liz [[GroinAttack kicking him in the nuts]].
94	* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor:
95	** Russo believes that all characters should be shades of gray, with no purely heroic faces or purely villainous heels. Wrestling/JeffHardy wasn't immune to turning heel eventually, and by the time he did, he hadn't played a heel for almost a decade.
96	** Peak Russo was when he made himself a key character in the TNA Title storyline and turned literally once a week until the PPV:
97	--->'''Wikipedia''': 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 {{Wrestling/Raven}} with a baseball bat''' helping [Glenn] 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 Wrestling/AJStyles 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.
98	* TheMenInBlack: Creative Control dressed in all-black suits.
99	* NerdInEvilsHelmet:
100	** The man knows his pro wrestling history--including your old ring names, past gimmicks, and any embarrassing angle you were ever involved in. Also, his entrance theme was clearly an instrumental version of Music/BlackSabbath's "Iron Man", with a note tweaked here and there.
101	** At ''Spring Stampede 2000'', Russo cut a promo calling himself "Batman" because he had hit Ric Flair with a bat.
102	* NegativeContinuity: You could watch ''Nitro'' to see a storyline start, and by ''Thunder'' it was forgotten.
103	* NoFourthWall: Russo came about in the [=90s=], when the Hulkamanics from the 80s began to get smart to the idea of wrestling being pre-determined. Cornette is on the other end of the spectrum, wishing every audience was like Louisville, Kentucky in the 70s. It's the same argument, though: Russo's outlook was it's all fake, and Cornette's was you've got to make the "[[SmartMark marks]]" think it's all a "[[WorkedShoot shoot]]." The thing to take from both of them is that they think wrestling is dead--and maybe for them, it is:
104	-->'''Russo''': "I guess [[ThisIsThePartWhere dis is da paht]] where I'm supposed da play da chickenshit {{heel}}, right?"
105	** Russo liked to use pro wrestling meta phases in WCW. A lot. For instance, he had the commentators and wrestlers make mention of the "creative team", or the "two idiots in the back [[WhoWritesThisCrap writing this crap.]]"
106	** Russo's influence could be seen with Jeff Jarrett weeks into his WCW debut. Jarrett declared himself the "Chosen One" and renamed his finisher "The Stroke." The word "stroke" has a number of secondary meanings, like an act of hitting or striking someone. Also, when he adopted the name during his WCW run, people would use it as a slang term for clout (influence or power). Interestingly enough, clout also has a secondary meaning of "a heavy blow". It's also a guitar reference. When you strum a guitar, you alternate up strokes and down strokes, and it fit with his country singer gimmick. Jeff also gets hated on by fans who believe he got more TV time than what was earned, most likely due to his relation to Jerry Jarrett, one of the biggest promoters at the time.
107	** Buff Bagwell vs. La Parka, ''Nitro'', 1999. Bagwell, glancing at an invisible watch, stood there like a mannequin and refused to sell anything, before finally signaling La Parka to hit him and [[ThrowingTheFight lying down for the pin]], complete with a {{shrug take}}. After the bell rang, Bagwell borrowed a headset mic to ask, "Russo, did I do a good ''job'' for you? Who else do you want to beat me?"
108	** There was also the infamous San Francisco [=49ers=] Match, in which Wrestling/BookerT won the World Heavyweight Championship out of a box.[[note]]The other boxes contained a sex doll and a framed, autographed painting of Scott Hall. Well, at least everyone's a winner.[[/note]] You can [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/classic-induction-the-san-francisco-49er-match/ read]] about that one at ''[=WrestleCrap=]''.
109	** ''Halloween Havoc'' '99. Madusa comes out in a bikini. She's carrying WCW Nitro Cologne. This was a real product. Wrestling/BobbyHeenan immediately buries it for smelling horrible. Madusa grabs a mic and screams that her role on this show is "BULLSHIT", before dumping the cologne all over Heenan.
110	** At ''The Great American Bash'' 2000, Vampiro set a "Fake Sting" stuntman on fire, sending him tumbling head-over-heels from the top of the [=TitanTron=] to the ramp below. The commentary started referring to Sting by his real name. "Steve Borden...he's a father, man..."
111	** David Arquette (''{{Film/Scream}}'') was a total outsider who won the title in a tag team match, with the stipulation was that whoever got the pin was the champion. This is relevant because the man Arquette won the title from was his tag team partner: Arquette passed out from exhaustion and pinned Eric Bischoff (who, like him, was a non-wrestler), by accident. That alone ensured that no one was going to forget that moment for a while. The fact that it was for the World Heavyweight Championship meant it was going to be immortalized for all time.
112	** ''New Blood Rising'' is quintessential Vince Russo. There were multiple worked shoots, everyone broke character, the announcers talked about the script and used real names. The entire build was Nash, Steiner, and Goldberg fighting about who was gonna "go over", using that exact phrase more than once. The announcers completely dropped {{kayfabe}} at the start of the match to talk about booking decisions and who would agree to be the one to job. They floated in and out for the rest of the match, with the smarkiest commentary this side of Matt Striker. ("Goldberg was supposed to go up for the Jacknife, but he swerved Kevin Nash!") Goldberg froze in place and refused to be powerbombed by Nash; Vince Russo stormed in and demanded that Goldberg finish the match, to little effect. Wrestling/TonySchiavone wondered aloud on commentary, "If that Jacknife was supposed to be the end of the match, what will they do now? ''Improvise?''", and the remaining wrestlers proceeded to do just that. To be clear, the given excuse for Goldberg no-showing was that he was injured; the announcers said that is awfully convenient, and implied it was a fake injury to get him out of having to "job." They literally had a line about Goldberg refusing to follow the script and lose a match.
113	** Also from NBR: There was the 4-team tag team match. It ended because someone put on a referee shirt, which apparently automatically makes him a ref, and counted three.
114	* PetTheDog: Shortly after taking charge of WCW, Russo found out of a plot by the booking committee to oust Tony Schiavone from the broadcast team behind his back. He immediately let Tony know and assured him that as long as he had a say in it, Tony would always be "The Voice" of WCW.
115	* {{Postmodernism}}: Russo has defended himself from accusations that he just hates pro wrestling by insisting that he only hates "fake wrestling", believing his audience was composed of people who 'figured out' pro wrestling. Other, smaller promotions, like {{Wrestling/Chikara}}, have experimented with post-modernism with much more critical success.
116	* PowerStable: In WCW, he was leader of The Powers That Be and the New Blood. In TNA, he led Sports Entertainment Xtreme.
117	* PutOnABus:
118	** Jim Cornette wasn't in Creative at the time, but he heard Wrestling/DanSevern was coming in. He didn't trust Russo and took time out of his own life to write down Severn's strengths and weaknesses. Jim's plan was to build up to "Dan Severn vs Wrestling/KenShamrock III". (The first two bouts having been in [[UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship UFC]], where Dan and Ken were 1-1.) Either Russo didn't see the notes or didn't care: he booked Wrestling/OwenHart to kayfabe break Severn's neck/spine with a piledriver, and then Severn faded away.
119	** The riotously-funny Wrestling/SamoaJoe "kidnapping" angle. After being ambushed and thrown into the back of a speeding van, he just came back a few months later with no explanation of who kidnapped him and we never found out.
120	--->'''Joe''' [2014 interview]: So I asked him, how is it that you are going to bring me back? He said, "I don't know how just yet, but we need to bring you in." So the dude couldn't write his way out of a kidnapping. The only reason why I bring this up is because he has the audacity to blame all of his silliness on other people.
121	* RandomEventsPlot: What made Russo so notorious as booker was his stubborn refusal to suspend disbelief and write logical extensions for his characters. Any wrestler under his guidance was a walking time bomb, capable of spouting complete nonsense at the drop of a hat, and switching allegiances for no reason other than it suited Creative's fancy.
122	* RedBaron: "The Powers That Be," "Vic Venom."
123	* RefugeInAudacity:
124	** In his book, Wrestling/BobHolly claimed that Russo wanted to rename his finisher the Hollycaust. It was definitely called on-air by J.R. once--and never again. It's also used in one of the ''[=SmackDown=]'' video games as his Falcon Arrow finisher. Then he changed his finish to the Alabama Slam full-time. Holly says he wouldn't have been surprised if Russo wanted him to use it on Kidman, Goldberg, Wrestling/PaulHeyman, and all the Jews in WWE. (Russo did not see a problem with this and believed it was a [[CrossesTheLineTwice final solution]] to the ratings slump.)
125	** It's possible that Vince Russo's self-confessed beliefs about Latino wrestlers had a relation to his booking of their matches. The Piñata on a Pole Match which aired on the November 15, 1999 episode of ''Nitro'' is the nearest example of this, but Russo also booked stereotypical behavior such as Juventud Guerrera carrying around a bottle of tequila.
126	* UnexplainedRecovery: [[Wrestling/SidEudy Sid Vicious]] returning to work, completely healthy, after being run over by a monster truck by Wrestling/BretHart.
127	* VerbalTic: He likes to punctuate his sentences with the word "bro", bro.
128	* ViewersAreGeniuses: Russo's belief when he was booking WCW...except that he believed they can be easily fooled and swerved.
129	* ViewersAreGoldfish: Instead of doing it in a traditional way, with big matches or angles, he would always resort to title changes or a gimmick match every week. There were 23 world title changes in 2000. At first it was a winning formula: They had that big [[ContinuityReboot reboot]] angle in 2000, followed by a tournament to find out who would challenge Jarrett at ''[=SuperBrawl=]''. But his ideas got weirder as time went on, proving you can't really book "big TV" from week-to-week. If Russo limited himself to one big blowoff per month and one PPV a month, his legacy would be a lot better.
130	* WorkedShoot:
131	** His public firing of Hogan at Daytona Beach (''Bash at the Beach'' 2000) is considered by some to be his finest hour. According to Bischoff's book, Russo firing Hogan was a shoot. However, in ''The Death of WCW'', it is claimed that Daytona was a worked shoot-turned-real shoot: Russo's shoot was far more biting than they previously agreed on, and it was topped with Russo calling Hogan a "big, bald son of a bitch"—and Hulk is notoriously touchy about bald jokes. It resulted in Hogan suing WCW. Later, on an 2004 episode of ''Impact'', Jeff Jarrett attacked Hulk Hogan at a press conference. The attack was supposed to lead into TNA's first-ever $30 supercard PPV, with a main event of Jarrett vs. Hogan, but Hogan pulled out of the deal and later re-signed with WWE. He didn't appear in a TNA ring until 2010. Part of the issue with Hogan coming in went back to his defamation suit, which prevented him and Russo from working together; it was still in effect four years later.
132	** His reputation is such that, in response to a series of (very real) backstage incidents between Jeff Jarrett and Wrestling/KurtAngle over the latter's ex-wife, many observers claimed initially that it was all an angle devised by Russo and refused to believe it was real.
133	* WriterOnBoard:
134	** Throughout his run in WCW, and his 2002-04 run in TNA. He only lost one match in his entire career, a TNA tag team match from 2002. He also went over 16-time champion Ric Flair three times in either singles or tag matches. Goldberg murdered Wrestling/ScottSteiner and somehow [[https://gfycat.com/coordinatedprestigiousisabellineshrike some nerd in a hockey jersey laid him out with a single swing of his bat.]] (Don’t care if Russo has a gun, there’s no way he would put down Goldberg in real life.) He went so far as to award himself the WCW Heavyweight Title belt.
135	** Russo agrees that WCW's cruiserweight division was seriously mismanaged: He cut a promo on the Three Live Crew in TNA saying as much. He didn't mention that putting the belt on Oklahoma and letting him retain it against any halfway-credible wrestler is a glaring example of that.
136	[[/folder]]

Context Wrestling / VinceRusso