25 biggest pro wrestling ‘what ifs’ of the past 25 years
By Luke Norris
6. What if Vince Russo never goes to WCW?
Vince Russo’s rise to fame is actually quite a great story. After writing a letter to WWE in the 1990s, he became a freelance writer for the company magazine and was later promoted to editor and then went on to a position with the creative team when things were going really badly for WWE. WCW had introduced the nWo and was bashing WWE in the ratings each and every week and Russo was one of the people that helped bring things back with his edgy style that helped bring the Attitude Era in.
He became the head writer in 1997 and outside of a few bad ideas (yes, Brawl For All was his creation), he was a driving force behind WWE finally surpassing WCW in the ratings and once again becoming the biggest wrestling company in the world. However, creative differences led to Russo leaving WWE and in October of 1999, Russo was hired to right the sinking ship that was WCW. The Fingerpoke of Doom had happened earlier in the year but there was still plenty of talent in WCW for Russo to work with and all seemed that it was going to be okay. Or not.
The following year turned out to be one of the worst in wrestling history. This was the year that David Arquette won the World Heavyweight Championship in order to promote a movie. Title changes happened way too much and after a lot of bad ideas, Russo was offered a demotion, which he turned down before leaving the company. He would return and work alongside Eric Bischoff in one last attempt to turn things around and for a moment, it seemed like they might have. The Bash at the Beach incident with Hulk Hogan actually did open the door for young talent like Booker T to win titles but then he would just take it right off of him and give it back to a veteran like Kevin Nash. All of a sudden, it was just too late and the company was bought by Vince McMahon in March of 2001.
So what would have happened if Vince Russo would never have come to WCW? Well, I think we can all agree that we would have never seen David Arquette (or Russo himself) as a world champion and I’m just fine with that. But would have WCW have made it had Russo never come in? Again, the pieces were there but the direction was just way off and it’s just another classic case of what might have been.