Vince Russo Shoots On WWE and AEW’s Empty Arena Shows, Talks On Sami Zayn Situation

Vince Russo was recently interviewed by AfterBuzz TV and discussed several professional wrestling topics. Here are the highlights:

What he thinks of WWE and AEW’s empty arena shows: It’s perhaps the worst thing I’ve ever seen, it’s God awful. The sad thing is, there are things that they could do that they are not doing. Get the frig out of that building. Shoot some character pieces. Shoot some story pieces. Everybody in the company has an iPhone, they can all shoot stuff on their own and send it in.

How the biggest flaw is they aren’t showing how the wrestlers and staff deal with the virus: The biggest flaw with both of these companies, because it’s the wrestling bubble, the biggest flaw is them not dealing with the issue at hand. That’s the biggest flaw. The shows should be about wrestling companies’ people, human beings that are trying to deal with this virus like everybody else. That should be the backdrop of the shows. The fact that they’re trying to put on these shows and we are supposed to ignore what’s going on around us, it just shows how ingrained they are in the wrestling bubble.

How talent doesn’t get over by what they do in wrestling matches: You don’t get anybody over by what they do in the ring. Especially when they’re doing it in a ring in front of nobody. Bro, you’re going to sit there and tell me that you’re going to get Angel Garza and Theory and Andrade over by just putting them out there to wrestle every week? That’s not how you get people over. The only people who care about the wrestling matches are the people that are watching now. That’s the only people that care. Last week, WWE did 1.6 million people. You’re never going to grow your audience with wrestling alone. Vince [McMahon] knows that.

An example of how WWE could create a real storyline around Sami Zayn not wanting to work in these conditions: Now we’re heard stories that Sami Zayn is one of those guys that doesn’t want to go work in these conditions. OK, can we interview Sami Zayn? Are you kidding me? If they’re talking to Sami Zayn, and we’re talking about, bro, you’re gonna be forced now to give up this title, you’ve made a statement, you don’t want to go to the arena, bro, I’m interested in what Sami Zayn has to say.

He’s a human being. He has a family. Now he’s being stripped of something which, he doesn’t know if he’s going to return to a job. I want to hear that. That’s interesting to me. But you’re going to put on an 18 minute fake fight where we already know who is going to win the match and that’s supposed to be more interesting to me then something that’s real? Common man.