>We in the WWF, think that you, the audience, are quite frankly, tired of having your "intelligence insulted"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjBeCwz2fXg
ridiculous timing for him to make that comment btw.he said that during the time he was delivering the least intelligence insulting product he'd ever produced in his career, then or since. imagine after the best year of wrestling you've ever promoted, the glorious WWF of 1997, you basically apologize to the fans and say "never again". and then each year after was worse than the year before it, quality wise.
>>20560280>he said that during the time he was delivering the least intelligence insulting product he'd ever produced in his career
>>20560297exactly. that goofy angle was the year after Vince told you he was going to stop insulting your intelligence. not before. after.
He's going to stop insulting our intelligence by giving the book to Vince Russo. Brilliant.
1997 was the last year there wasn't any braindead stuff in the WWF. that's the last year you can say that about. 1998, countless examples of retardation1999, even more insaneevery year after, wrestlecrap galore.yet never again did Vince pledge to stop insulting our intelligence, just that one time when he wasn't insulting our intelligence. he's the biggest contrarian of all time.
>>20560280>>20560305>>20560311>>20560321Highest ratings for any wrestling product on television in the past 30+ years, ya marks
>>20560311Its not like Russo tanked the ratings when he was writing for WWF not even close
>>20560346>>20560606high ratings, yeah. also dumb and badly written tv.
>>20560607>dumb and badly written tvAnd yet somehow was still smashing ratings out. Doesn't seem that dumb or even badly written in reality.
>>20560311>>20560346Russo was never the booker in the WWF. McMahon made all the creative decisions that mattered. He deserves the blame/credit for what was on TV. Russo deserves the blame for WCW, obviously. No excuses there.
>>20560266russo probably scripted this for mcmahon to say. it's pretty much like one of russo's typical rants he'd write in the magazines at this time. this would've been when or just slightly after russo took over the head writer position too.
>>20560611that promo is word for word Russo, down to moaning about good guy vs bad guy wrestling which russo hates more than anything.
the thing is, unlike all the bottom of the barrel comedy and soap writers that they hire now on the cheap, vince russo was in fact an actual wrestling fan for years and years long before he got hired by the WWF. that's the biggest difference of all, really. and it's reflected in the shows.
>>20560611>Russo was never the booker in the WWFCorrect. He and Ferrara were writers not bookers. McMahon did not write the storyline, only gave the directions on where to go and they handled how to get there. Pic related alone blows your entire narrative out of the waterhttps://youtu.be/dsCgNXA4CgI?si=3AOF_i_rUp_aOFZu Here is Vince himself stating @3:20 that the entire rmsole reason for their success in 1999 was the creative direction they started to head in two years prior, when Russo was brought on board and then Ed a year later in 1998I'm not the biggest Russo fan either but to say he contributed nothing to the success of the Attitude Era is absurd. https://youtu.be/_Ax-eiYcJ60?si=jY1aer_5AGyKMkPA Here he is working closely with Mick Foley on the creation of the Dude Love character and even going out into the crowd to gauge their live reaction. You'd never see one of their endless slopbrained writers putting this much effort into their job today
>>20560639>Pic related alone blows the entire "McMahon was the filter" narrative out of the waterIt's not a narrative, it's a fact. McMahon was the booker. He decided who would get pushed, who would feud with who, who turned heel/face, who won titles etc. And everything Russo/Ferrera/anyone else wrote was filtered by McMahon. That's just how it worked there. McMahon is a notorious control freak. The idea that he just handed over his entire company to a magazine writer is obviously silly. If Russo was so important, you'd think McMahon probably wouldn't have let him walk to the competition in the middle of a wrestling war. He knew that Russo would fail without him and Russo's total failure outside of the WWF machine simply proved him right.
WWF's creative direction changed before Russo joined the writing team. The Austin 3:16 promo was a year earlier, for example.
they hire lamebrained women now who don't know anything about wrestling and you wonder why we'd rather just watch the same old shows from the 90s again over the rancid backwash they're serving up today
>>20560662>The Austin 3:16 promowhich wasn't written nor part of any sort of direction. that was 100% purely Austin on the fly.
>>20560657>He knew that Russo would fail without himnot really. he had no way of knowing that. truth be told, McMahon got too cocky and arrogant and just didn't care anymore. McMahon anytime he's successful, he always gets to that point where he doesn't think he needs ANYONE anymore and he's always eventually proven wrong
>>20560670McMahon had worked with Russo, seen how many terrible ideas he had and thought that, without somebody to filter them, it'd be a shitshow. He was right.
>>20560674I might believe this if he didn't keep his daughter on as head writer for all those years
>>20560657>If Russo was so important, you'd think McMahon probably wouldn't have let him walk to the competition in the middle of a wrestling warThis is the biggest problem with Russo narrative about how he wasn't being filtered by Vince and he was in charge of everything.
>>20560657>>20560681wasn't really in the middle of the war, was it? more like the tail end of it. wcw was pretty much waving the white flag at that point
>>20560683Not really. Nobody thought WCW would be out of business any time soon. Russo went there in 1999 and a year earlier they had been the most profitable company in wrestling history. And they were still bankrolled by a billionaire. It was still salvageable at that point.
>>20560662They had Goldust in 95
>>205602801997 is definitely the best year once the faction war slop comes to an end, it's a ridiculous statement
>>20561587Imagine him shitting on you
>>20561587I may have thought this was a chick with gigantic titties until I clicked. Fml.
>>20562485well you were half right
>>20563635that be one nasty ass stale oreo, yo
