Vince Russo Interview (Vince McMahon, Triple H/Stephanie, Roman Reigns and Much More)
I like to keep things as positive as possible.
I like WWE.
I like AEW.
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Our good buddy Andy from Wrestlebuddy got the opportunity to sit down with Vince Russo again this past week and the timing of it couldn’t have been better with the Vince McMahon news saga dominating headlines.
Here are just a few of the hot topics from the sit down with the whole interview available at the bottom of the page for you to check out!
On Vince McMahon situation:
Russo believes Vince is taking the whole situation too lightly. You usually want to lay low in times of being investigated for allegations that the public takes seriously. Even if the relationship was consensual, there is hush money to keep her quiet. That money could be from anything ranging from having a small “schmeckle” that he doesn’t want people to know about to Vince not being able to “perform” and not wanting that kind of information getting out.
What the real problem with this whole situation is, it opens up pandora’s box. When multiple NDA’s show up, you’re going to have people coming out of the wood works and past issues might be brought back to light, like the Ashley Massaro story.
Russo believes that McMahon going out on tv and not taking things seriously could potentially blow up in his face with how serious he is NOT taking this. Russo also doesn’t believe the appearances on Raw and Smackdown are goodbyes. Points to the mic flip from Smackdown and Vince hopping off the steel steps as signals that Vince is carefree about this whole dilemma.
Speaks on the wage increase for the woman that was involved with Vince and states that he could easily just state she was given a job as a producer and creative to warrant the pay increase. Uses his own experience from working in WWE as an example, stating he got pay increases all the time as he moved up the ladder and it is not uncommon within WWE.
We know it wasn’t to hide an affair from Linda, because they haven’t been together in years. (More on Linda below)
On whether or not he saw any behavior backstage during his time:
Vince Russo always found it strange that Mr. McMahon would always book himself in on screen in angles with the divas. With the kisses and sexual over tones and Trish Stratus angles, he always thought it came across as creepy and that it almost seemed like Vince was getting off on it.
With other companies he worked for and even with himself, he never saw or had the idea to book himself in similar situations.
On Linda McMahon:
When Russo brought Bruce Pritchard into TNA around 2011, Bruce had told him that Vince and Linda hadn’t been together for years at that point. Pritchard is one of the very close people to Vince McMahon and there is no reason for him to lie about that sort of thing.
Points to the fact that we haven’t seen Vince and Linda together in public or even a picture of them together hasn’t circulated in a very long time.
Believes that had this not been a secret and was public knowledge, the current situation McMahon finds himself in might be looked at differently due to people not thinking they are still together, and Vince was cheating on his wife.
On Stephanie McMahon as interim CEO:
Believes Linda would have been the perfect person for the job as a way to show she is standing by her man because he did nothing wrong and would have looked good. Stephanie was the second-best option due to her not only being his daughter and she is standing by her father but also because she is a woman, and it will look good on the public. Also states she is definitely a puppet in this role.
Russo reminds people that last time Bruce Pritchard was around, it was Stephanie that fired him and the fact that Bruce has taken over as Head of Talent Relations is an indicator that Vince is still running things and believes things will blow over quickly.
Stephanie McMahon and Triple H relationship status:
Russo talks about hearing from reliable sources that there was “trouble in paradise” as it came to their marriage that Triple H had cheated on Stephanie. Points to pictures from the past few months where she is not wearing her wedding band, and specifically points to a picture of Stephanie from Mother’s Day with her daughters where she doesn’t have the wedding ring as well.
He then goes on to speculate that that might be the reason Triple H’s role and tenure in NXT was changed and why Stephanie decided to take a leave of absence upon Triple H’s return, to take care of her family. Believes there is much more meat on the bone than people are talking about.
On the Forbidden Door show:
NJPW used to be on television in the states a long time ago and nobody watched it, the show drew absolutely nothing. Making a show with something that has proven to not draw in the states is proof that he is booking for a niche crowd and that audience will never grow.
When asked about 5 talents he would build around, these are the performers that he said “get it”:
- Bray Wyatt at the top of the list.
- Alexa Bliss knows what she’s doing.
- Elias when he was Elias.
- Rhea Ripley is a killer and is used wrong.
- Bianca Belair and Riddle are both stars that are miscast.
You can check out the interview in its entirety below where Russo speaks on Roman’s title reign, babyfaces in WWE, networks not being happy with the product but being terrified of Vince McMahon, reaching out to Vince about being a consultant and much, MUCH more.
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