Vince Russo Blasts Conspiracy Theory About Him As “Insanity”
Vince Russo says there’s no merit to a bizarre conspiracy theory about his time in WCW.
In 1999, both Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara left WWE to join the rival WCW in an attempt to boost the Atlanta-based promotion’s ratings. In the end, Russo’s time there was fraught with controversy, and he initially left the promotion after just three months.
One year later, Russo returned, and made the controversial decisions to put the company’s World Heavyweight Championship on actor David Arquette as well as on Russo himself. He was removed from the position in 2000 after being unable to curb falling ratings and amidst conflicts with management backstage.
Russo’s tenure in WCW is largely seen as disastrous, and gave rise to the conspiracy theory that Vince McMahon himself sent Russo to WCW in order to intentionally tank the rival promotion.
When asked about this conspiracy theory in a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Russo dismissed the theory outright, claiming that his initial time with the company did help boost ratings. He claims the downfall was actually the result of backstage politics.
“Here’s the insanity. Anybody, and obviously, I would not be saying this, if I were not telling the truth. Anybody can look at WCW ratings, and they can look at the first three months before Vince Russo got there. Then they can look at the first three months when Ed Ferrara and myself started tearing down the building and building a new foundation.
“When you look at those first three months, bro, the ratings are going up. The ratings were working, our plan was going according to exactly what Ed and I discussed. We gotta erase everything they’re doing. We’ve got to build new people, we got to build new stars. It was working perfectly. Then of course, bro, politics played its ugly head. I went home, you know, they brought in different people.
“In the three months that we had built, after three months, bro, they had brought it right back down to where it was before we got there. Thus they called me back. Vince, we need you to get back here. Honest to God. At that point, when I went back, I knew we lost the audience. I knew there’s no way that there’s no way we’re gonna get the audience back.
“We had them, we were building for three months, then they went backwards three months to the same crap they were doing. It’s done, it’s over. Obviously, I had to go back because I was contractually obligated. But I knew at that point, bro, we’re not going to get these people back again.”
During the same interview, Russo explained why he felt watching AEW was a complete waste of his time.
h/t Inside the Ropes