Violent J Reveals How Vince Russo Joined JCW Writing Team

On the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, Violent J talked about the decision to bring controversial former WWE and WCW writer Vince Russo into Juggalo Championship Wrestling.

Violent J explained that the promotion needed a “hook” to attract viewers beyond their established fanbase, and he believed Russo was the right person to generate that attention. You can check out some highlights below:

On Knowing It Was a Long Shot:

“I didn’t think we’d ever be able to get Vince Russo. But when I go for something like that, I like to try for the biggest guys first. I just thought, ‘Why not try? Worst that could happen is he’ll say no, or he’ll be way out of our price range,’ or something like that. I don’t really know what he would cost, or if he would even be interested in coming to a small independent, trying to get noticed. But I hit him up and we started communicating.”

On Russo’s Reaction:

“At first he’s like, ‘I’m retired. I don’t do this no more.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, watch the show. Please watch the show. Watch this episode, watch this episode.’ And he genuinely started to get interest. So then when he really started getting interest, we were in the middle of a storyline of JCW versus GCW. And that was a year-long storyline that ended at the Gathering. And John, that’s what you and Ron came to, the two-day war it was called, and it was JCW versus GCW.

“So we were in the middle of that storyline, so we couldn’t bring Vince in because it would have been bad timing. We’re too focused on this main storyline taking up all our TV. So we told them ‘All right, well now we got to wait for this to end,’ which was like four more months. So when that four months ended, we ended up calling him back. And I thought he might have changed his mind. But he was right there, he’s ready to go, you know? And we were like, ‘Hell, yeah.’”

On Russo Writing the Shows:

“So then he started writing the shows. And man, I’ve never given up writing. I always write the shows. And at first, seeing what he wrote just looked crazy to me. And I was like, ‘No way, no way! That’s not going to work. Oh, this is a disaster. It’s not going to work.’ But then when I really concentrated on it, I was like, ‘This ain’t bad. It’s just not what I would have done. But it’s not bad, it’s still really entertaining.’ And I wondered why when I read it, I would look at the guys and be like, ‘Ain’t that terrible?’ And they’d be looking at me like, ‘Nah, that’s actually kind of good.’ And I realized it just was me having a hard time looking at something that wasn’t my own. Because that’s all I’ve done for 26 years, is write the storylines.

“So I started looking at it from another person’s perspective, and I realized it was really good what he was writing. And the ideas he has that are crazy? Let’s take for example, the Judy Bagwell on a pole [match]? That’s something I would have done, I’ll admit it. JCW has always done outrageous, crazy s**t like that. So when he has a thought out idea, it may sound ridiculous, but we do a lot of crazy s**t.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something To Wrestle With an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.