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Josh Frank

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THE VINCE RUSSO DISSENTION: AN UNBIASED VIEW

If you are a serious enough wrestling fan to be reading this, then you know that WWF creative honcho Vince Russo has quit his position within that company and moved onto WCW. This is my first little thing for this site, so I am going to try to make it decent. Bear with me and give me feedback please.

First of all, how this little change transpired is not known. While Russo claims that he called Vince McMahon and quit on friendly terms, there are rumors to the contrary on the Internet. The rumors basically say that Russo called to quit unless McMahon could match the offer, and McMahon responded "F*ck you" and hung up. What do I believe actually happened? Well, I can't personally say I agree with either of these recollections. It probably went somewhere in the middle. While it wasn't friendly terms, likely, McMahon is not that stupid as to create enemies by responding so curtly.

What will the payoff be for the WCW, and what will be come of the WWF? I don't feel that the visible impact will be seen for at least another month. The WCW will steadily improve, although it was easily said that they were on this path at now. Russo will likely have problems with the Turner censors, and he might at first struggle to fill three hours of television competently. However, as time goes by, Russo will gain more control of the booking committee and his creativity will be tapped more as he can't get by so explicitly with T & A and shock value. I think the WCW product will continue to improve.

The WWF product will not suffer as much as it is commonly believed. With a booking crew consisting of the Jims, Ross and Cornette, as well as Vince McMahon the product should not suffer immensely. He is not the "Booking God" that many people feel he is, and some of the recent angles have gone unexplained (The NAO reunion, etc.). The quality will suffer somewhat, but the current team will do a credible job until they find a new leader. So while the WCW product will not rise to supreme heights, neither will the WWF sink to new lows, like those in 1994-1996 (See Scott Keith, King Lear Rant).

So who is the winner in this case? Simply the wrestling fan. I do not feel we will see another 82 week run by Nitro or a huge margin of victory by RAW every week for a year. The ratings will be close, with the winner varying and overall wrestling audiences around nine or ten consistently, even in the face of Monday Night Football. New creativity will come to WCW, and we will see newer, younger wrestlers getting pushes as the older guys get filtered out. WWF will stay forever the same, with cutting edge stories and characters and pop culture itself. In a new age with even talent in all departments for both promotions, we are the winners."

Josh Frank
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