Bring Russo/Ferrera back?

[The Ichi]

I suggest that anyone that wants Russo in charge should be forced to watch 2000 WCW Clockwork Orange style from now on until they change their mind.

[Reflecto]

Nov 25, 2015 8:28:05 GMT -5 Mighty Attack Tribble said:

Russo had his finger on the pulse of society in '97, and helped create some extremely entertaining TV. The problem is, like McMahon, his finger is nowhere near the pulse these days.

The problem there, though, is that following "the pulse" may be something that leaves wrestling irreparably broken right now, and we're beginning to see it.

If you had to determine who or what, exactly, is the pulse of current popular culture, in all forms: That answer is "You. You are the most important and coolest person on the planet. Whatever you like is the pulse of pop culture that everyone in the world loves. Whatever is important to you or personally benefits you is important to the whole world and is the utopia everyone's searching for. You are the center of the universe, and the biggest reason that the world is broken right now is that the world hasn't accepted you are the center of the universe, and spends too much time caring about themselves or other people and not enough time talking about how awesome YOU are."

That, in itself, is the biggest reason you can't follow the pulse of society. When you try translating that into a pro wrestling world, you end up with...well, a world where everyone has to look important, but the only way to truly BE important is to be the WWE World Champion and be the center of all the shows, and all the fans want everyone on the roster to get a turn as champion and center of the WWE Universe (while also having WWE take time to notice how cool and awesome they are personally, too. Who cares about these 'rasslers, *YOU* are there and you're more important than them!).

[Deleted]

The fact that we're willing to even table this idea is why we get what we deserve as wrestling fans.

[MrElijah]

Nov 25, 2015 7:09:55 GMT -5 Feargus McReddit said:

'Hey guys, our ideas aren't connecting to today's audiences and ratings are down. I KNOW! Let's get people in whose ideas are FURTHER in the past! That'll connect to the audiences of 2015!'

Like, seriously, are the only people seen as capable of booking a show in 2015 in the pool of Russo, Ferrera, Heyman, Cornette and McMahon? The film industry doesn't just rely on a directing pool of Spielberg, Scorsese, Scott, Cameron and Burton.

I think Heyman would be a much better choice all things considered.


But honestly I would try the following:
-Stop the Main event or nothing attitude.
-Midcard gets built up. If say, Roman is the guy, okay! But let's not make a show a chore to get to that point. "Come for Roman, stay for Cesaro/Owens/New Day/Kalisto"
-EVERY belt matters, the WHC is the prize but that doesn't mean Owens won't kill a man for his Intercontinental Championship. Or Charlotte won't break Paige's leg over the Divas belt.
-Honest to god character. Less scripted crap, more off the cuff promos.
-Show, don't tell.
-Commentary gets a complete overhaul. Lawler goes to the performance center because Jerry has ton of experience to pass on. No more buzzwords, insulting the fans. No more verbal putdowns on the talent. JBL goes full heel. Call the action, sell the story. Play to strengths, cover weaknesses.
-Matches are more naturally structured, big spots for big shows.
-Champions do not lose on free TV UNLESS it's a title match. Or if the WHC faces the Tag Team Champions the Tag champs beat his ass.
-Tag matches now mix it up, not just the babyface in peril/hot tag formula anymore.

[Deleted]

Nov 25, 2015 9:18:30 GMT -5 Ruthless Pessimism said:

You know what? I'll agree with the OP.

Throw a monkey wrench into the whole damn works, just to see what happens! People aren't happy with the show anyways now, right? The RAW thread's nothing but negativity, even though it's not enough to keep people from watching. Throw Russo back in the mix and see what happens.

It's just going to make the negativity worse. I remember people in here bitched non stop about TNA during 2005-2006 and bitched even more after Russo was hired. The funny thing now those are hailed as the golden years of TNA but you couldn't tell at the time during this board.

Anyways the thing that bugs me about bring back Russo threads is they only talk about his success in the 90's and seem to ignore any stuff he wrote in the 2000's and 2010's. Like people seem to think he only wrote WWE and WCW even though he was writing TNA just last year.

It's like if you were a Hollywood executive holding the greatest script ever written and keep suggesting M Night Shamalyn should direct it based on his work from The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and ignore any of his other work from the past decade.

[darkjourney]

Vince already would have brought Russo/Ferrera back if he had direct competition these days. Just like he did in 1995-1996 when he had no choice but to change it up. Imagine if things kept going the way they did in 1995. There wouldn't be a Raw thread or WWE thread.

While I agree, Heyman is probably the best choice, he can't work with the Mcmahons as he already stated. Russo/Ferrera had some questionable ideas sure but they also had great ideas. I'll take that over a current crop of writers who have NO IDEA and never did

If they don't shake some things up, WWE is going to be in a worst state than 1995/1996 when they were in severe danger.


Solutions need to be offered, not just keep going with the status quo.. Or there will be no WWE within a few years at this rate.

[chazraps]

Vince Russo is a dumb, out-of-touch racist.

[machomuta]

What a horrible idea.

The in ring quality would go down a lot, if they hired those two morons back.

[Drillbit Taylor]

Nov 25, 2015 12:29:34 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Vince Russo is a dumb, out-of-touch racist.

He may be dumb, and he may be an out of touch racist but hes not...whats the third thing you said?

[jagilki]

Nov 24, 2015 23:54:13 GMT -5 Richard said:

Nov 24, 2015 23:52:26 GMT -5 The Heartbreak TWERK said:

You're not going to convince anyone that paying Vince Russo to write is a good idea. It won't help, it'll only hurt. And it's ridiculous to imply anything different. That's why this "idea" is being mocked.

Exactly, this isn't a "Things don't need to change" response, this a "No, you don't set your dick on fire because your head itches" argument.

*Puts down matches and lighter fluid*

[Hit Girl]

Nov 25, 2015 12:27:59 GMT -5 darkjourney said:

Vince already would have brought Russo/Ferrera back if he had direct competition these days. Just like he did in 1995-1996 when he had no choice but to change it up. Imagine if things kept going the way they did in 1995. There wouldn't be a Raw thread or WWE thread.

While I agree, Heyman is probably the best choice, he can't work with the Mcmahons as he already stated. Russo/Ferrera had some questionable ideas sure but they also had great ideas. I'll take that over a current crop of writers who have NO IDEA and never did

If they don't shake some things up, WWE is going to be in a worst state than 1995/1996 when they were in severe danger.


Solutions need to be offered, not just keep going with the status quo.. Or there will be no WWE within a few years at this rate.

The writers aren't necessarily the problem. Vince is.

They could have the best idea in the business. If Vince says "no", the idea is dead.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Nov 25, 2015 12:27:59 GMT -5 darkjourney said:

While I agree, Heyman is probably the best choice, he can't work with the Mcmahons as he already stated. Russo/Ferrera had some questionable ideas sure but they also had great ideas. I'll take that over a current crop of writers who have NO IDEA and never did

Calling bullshit on this. Heyman walked because Vince constantly overlooked, overruled, or interfered with his ideas. I think it's safe to assume that the same happens with the current writers too - EVERYTHING that is presented on-screen outside of NXT has to be to McMahon's satisfaction first and foremost before it even reaches the arena. The buck stops with him, period.

For all we know there could be a guy on the writing staff who blows the combined talents of Heyman, Dutch, Gabe, Cornette, Sullivan, and Russo out of the water, but we'll never know because in the end he has to write to cater to the whims of a 70 year-old man with a muscle fetish.

[Deleted]

Nov 25, 2015 10:55:49 GMT -5 Reflecto said:

Nov 25, 2015 8:28:05 GMT -5 Mighty Attack Tribble said:

Russo had his finger on the pulse of society in '97, and helped create some extremely entertaining TV. The problem is, like McMahon, his finger is nowhere near the pulse these days.

The problem there, though, is that following "the pulse" may be something that leaves wrestling irreparably broken right now, and we're beginning to see it.

If you had to determine who or what, exactly, is the pulse of current popular culture, in all forms: That answer is "You. You are the most important and coolest person on the planet. Whatever you like is the pulse of pop culture that everyone in the world loves. Whatever is important to you or personally benefits you is important to the whole world and is the utopia everyone's searching for. You are the center of the universe, and the biggest reason that the world is broken right now is that the world hasn't accepted you are the center of the universe, and spends too much time caring about themselves or other people and not enough time talking about how awesome YOU are."

That, in itself, is the biggest reason you can't follow the pulse of society. When you try translating that into a pro wrestling world, you end up with...well, a world where everyone has to look important, but the only way to truly BE important is to be the WWE World Champion and be the center of all the shows, and all the fans want everyone on the roster to get a turn as champion and center of the WWE Universe (while also having WWE take time to notice how cool and awesome they are personally, too. Who cares about these 'rasslers, *YOU* are there and you're more important than them!).

I know your gimmick lately is, "The Internet is nothing but people who are self-centered to the point of being evil," so this is really wasted effort, but isn't hard to see what is really the popular trend in entertainment these days and why WWE fails to capture that. The move in entertainment in recent years, in terms of what gets people really talking, is toward compelling, well-written stories with intricate continuity, a lot of foreshadowing and with plans in place well in advance, and an increased focus on three-dimensional characters. A lot of stuff that's gotten huge over the past few years - the rise of cartoons like Adventure Time and Avatar / Korra, TV shows like Breaking Bad, the web that is the Marvel cinematic universe - has done so by way of playing to that, raising the standard of what's really come to be expected out of the quality of writing in things, and making things as "can't miss" as possible so that people are always eagerly awaiting that next episode to see what you're going to do next. But the reason WWE doesn't do that is having compelling, fleshed out stories and characters takes effort, and they're a lot more eager to do the easy thing of, "Neville and Stardust face each other twice a week for two months, then Neville faces Barrett for awhile."

And note a good bit of that stuff I mentioned I don't even like so that's not just talking about my own personal interests. I think Adventure Time's well past its prime, have pretty much completely stopped following the Marvel stuff, and hated everything after the first season of Korra, but the general point remains, these sorts of things are what capture the popular consciousness now, and WWE doesn't come anywhere close to that.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Russo actually gave everyone something to do, regardless of where they were on the card. During Russo's, everyone didn't need to be hotshotted to the world title or into a feud with the top faces JUST to get people to care about them. There are a lot of guys on the current WWE roster whose careers might be a lot better off if there was a writer like Russo at the helm.

[Hit Girl]

Russo gave everyone something to do, and usually it was shit.

[Deleted]

Vince Russo is terrible. Straight up.

[Malcolm]

Nov 25, 2015 13:27:04 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Russo actually gave everyone something to do, regardless of where they were on the card. During Russo's, everyone didn't need to be hotshotted to the world title or into a feud with the top faces JUST to get people to care about them. There are a lot of guys on the current WWE roster whose careers might be a lot better off if there was a writer like Russo at the helm.

I'm sure the likes of Zack Ryder and Alex Riley would be very grateful to be part of a gay-lovers-turned-long-lost-brothers storyline or a selfie-on-a-pole match.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

Nov 25, 2015 13:31:00 GMT -5 Malcolm said:

Nov 25, 2015 13:27:04 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Russo actually gave everyone something to do, regardless of where they were on the card. During Russo's, everyone didn't need to be hotshotted to the world title or into a feud with the top faces JUST to get people to care about them. There are a lot of guys on the current WWE roster whose careers might be a lot better off if there was a writer like Russo at the helm.

I'm sure the likes of Zack Ryder and Alex Riley would be very grateful to be part of a gay-lovers-turned-long-lost-brothers storyline or a selfie-on-a-pole match.

that will just kinda peter out because Russo forgot to write an ending

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Nov 25, 2015 13:31:00 GMT -5 Malcolm said:

Nov 25, 2015 13:27:04 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Russo actually gave everyone something to do, regardless of where they were on the card. During Russo's, everyone didn't need to be hotshotted to the world title or into a feud with the top faces JUST to get people to care about them. There are a lot of guys on the current WWE roster whose careers might be a lot better off if there was a writer like Russo at the helm.

I'm sure the likes of Zack Ryder and Alex Riley would be very grateful to be part of a gay-lovers-turned-long-lost-brothers storyline or a selfie-on-a-pole match.

They be grateful for storylines and regular TV time. During Russo's time, even the lower midcarders were over and had something to do, and today's midcard/lower card roster pretty much leaves the Attitude Era midcard/lower card in the dust in terms of pure athletic ability and in ring talent, so at least you'd get a better quality "selfie on a pole match".

If late 90s WWF was written like today's WWE, then Crash Holly would've debuted by squashing everyone en route to a feud with Austin before becoming just another guy.

[markymark]

Nov 25, 2015 2:57:04 GMT -5 The Unconquered Sun said:

let me put it to you this way, how much did Russo help TNA a few years back?

Late 2009, the product was being praised.

AJ was champion, TT division being in good shape with the MCMG, BM, BI. The X-division mattered more than in 2015.

The KO was very strong(Hamada was on the rise IIRC).

If Russo handles the product as TNA late 2009, then the ratings should improve imo .