Kayfabe! – Guest Booker w/ Vince Russo

KAYFABE!
GUEST BOOKER w/ VINCE RUSSO

One thing I always praise the folks at Kayfabe Commentaries for is being ahead of the curve, and yes, they’ve done it again. Rather than DVD format, I watched this via their streaming channel on the World Wrestling Network. It’s akin to watching something on YouTube or watching one of those new iPPV events from a wrestling company not named “Ring of Honor.”

As is the standard for this series, before we get to the booking writing, Sean and Vince have a brief discussion concerning Russo’s background and philosophy. Russo’s background actually explains quite a bit about Russo. He became a fan of the 1970’s WWWF, which was comprised entirely of short squashes and the occasional big angle, which explains why his booking writing features two minute matches and mostly angles and promos and such. It’s too bad he didn’t grow up on Bill Watts-era Mid South or Eddie Graham’s Championship Wrestling from Florida. He knew it was fake from the moment he saw it, but loved the larger than life characters like Ernie Ladd, Captain Lou, Bruno, etc. Even though he knew it was fake, he still freaked out when Arion turned on Strongbow and tore up the headdress.

He feels that today’s product can’t do that nowadays because the boys don’t have compelling characters anymore. He compares it to channel surfing and finding nothing on in 200 channels except a forty year old episode of All in the Family on TV Land. Russo feels that Madison Rayne was so over in TNA because she never broke character, even in the ring. A TNA wrestler he doesn’t name recently complained to Russo that it’s so much harder now because he gets three bullet points and is expected to cut a twelve minute promo.

Vince glosses his over his history in the business, starting with the WWF Magazine, and then helping write promos. The first real hands-on experience he had was helping Vince McMahon with the Goldust character. He’s a little details guy, while Vince McMahon was a big picture guy. Vince would go to Russo and tell him he wanted to finish with Shawn with the belt and Russo just had to get there. He makes a point that I can agree with, saying that writers do their best when they’re not being micromanaged with someone over their shoulder asking them why they’re doing something every two seconds.

Vince and Sean start talking about the actual invasion angle and Russo starts going on about how the important thing in any big angle is logic. Yes, the man who booked just about every non-sensical turn and made the swerve so common that it was a swerve to not have a swerve is trying to be the champion of logic. He thinks that DDP was chosen for the stalker angle because he loved the business and wasn’t just about the money.What does Russo want to do with the WCW Invasion? Make it logical and make sure everything makes sense. Yes, this is definitely fantasy booki. . . . er . . . . . writing from Russo. Sean asks about the titles, and Russo says that titles don’t matter, and they’ll just make it into another fake wrestling storyline.

I really hate giving him credit, but Russo’s actual booking winds up being a lot more compelling than anything done during the actual invasion. Russo treats it like a quasi-shoot, just like the initial nWo angle, rather than basing everything around the WWF stroking its own ego. Instead of announcing on Nitro that Vince bought it, it’s just announced that it’s the last episode because Time Warner doesn’t want wrestling on their networks anymore. Flair vs. Sting is the last match, and it ends with a tribute video for all the years of wrestling on the Turner networks. The WWF just goes on being the WWF. The invasion starts the same way that the nWo did, with Scott Hall unexpectedly showing up to get his job back, this allows Vince McMahon to chew him out and deny his request. Nash comes out next week and gets the same, and then Hogan gets the same. There’s even a few nice touches for promos like Nash talking about his horrible gimmicks in his early WCW days, and how this is all they know how to do. This naturally leads to them reforming the nWo and wrecking havoc on the WWF. It’s only a brief summary here, but Russo lays it out week by week and it’s some pretty great stuff.

It loses steam afterwards, which has always been one of Russo’s weak points. He writes one hell of a first chapter but can’t maintain momentum. Bischoff gets hired to deal with the nWo, and brings in some of WCW’s big names and to help deal with the nWo. Cue the SWERVE, where they turn on the WWF to set up the dream matches like Rock vs. Sting. This is where the booking pretty much ends. So we don’t find out if WrestleMania will be headlined by Austin vs. Hall in a six pack on a pole match. Sean asks at one point when he’s going to use some of WCW’s more mid level talent like Chris Kanyon, and or their announce team like Mike Tenay or Arn Anderson, and Russo says they don’t need them. So he’s got Vince buying their contracts out to do nothing with them.

How does this compare to Cornette’s GB edition? I’d say they cancel each other out. Cornette’s invasion was more of an ROH/CZW type of angle, where both feds had their own shit going on, and only a few angles at a time were done for the WWF/WCW stuff. So Russo’s is much more exciting and dynamic. Of course, Jim tried to use a lot more characters since he had so many to work with, whereas Russo only uses a handful of WCW’s names, even though he’s got Vince picking up everyone and doing nothing with 90% of them. As far as the overall interview goes, it’s no surprise that Cornette is eons ahead in that department, since Jim can read a phone book and sound interesting, and Russo’s Brooklyn accent where “ask” sounds like “axe” gets on my nerves to no end. So overall, Cornette had a better interview, but Russo lays out a better storyline, although I find Cornette’s more realistic from a business perspective (Vince bought all these contracts, he may as well use them).

The 411: Even though I liked his booking better, I wouldn't rate this as high as the Cornette GB, since Jim is so much better an interview. But, and this is coming from a big Russo hater, he does lay out some very good ideas.
Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]