Has Vince Russo been ousted from TNA's creative team?

by Keith Harris on Feb 13, 2012 12:40 PM EST in TNA

Vince Russo may have plenty of time on his hands to write a third autobiography soon.

Yesterday, f4wonline.com reported that Vince Russo was out as head writer of TNA. In a breaking news audio show, Dave Meltzer confirmed that Russo was not at the Against All Odds PPV and that though nothing has been announced officially everyone was speculating that Russo was gone from the company.

Russo's power has been significantly reduced over the past six months. First, Bruce Prichard overtook his role as TNA's creative head and he was demoted to a senior writing position. Soon after, former WWE writer Dave Lagana was hired by TNA to work on their Ring Ka King Indian wrestling project with an eye towards him being a possible long term replacement for Russo, given his experience of filling out format sheets as the head writer of Smackdown and ECW in the past. Meltzer believes that Russo left the promotion of his own accord, fed up of losing his creative influence, as Dixie Carter was known to be ultra protective of his spot within the company and swore that she would never fire him.

However, Wade Keller of PWTorch.com and Mike Johnson of that spyware wrestling site have yet to fully confirm the story, so Meltzer's report may have been premature. For some reason Eric Bischoff is unhappy at Johnson's recent reporting leading to this Facebook status update:

As much as I try not to call out specific dirt-site marks/bloggers as not to inadvertently promote them, Mike Johnson is a complete tool (obviously being fed false, mis-leading info from another tool "close to the source". Johnson couldn't be more wrong when he posts his "insight" as to the behind the scenes.

Which may be a sign that Russo is indeed out.

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Wade Keller is kind of all over the place in his latest report on Russo. I won’t summarize it, but what stuck out to me is that Bischoff seems to be behind pushing out Russo. Maybe this has been his long lost plan from the beginning to get Russo back for being the one to replace him in WCW. This move plus the Garrett push makes me think its back to politics as usual for TNA-Hogan-Bischoff. Someone should tell Dixie that there’s a precedence for giving Hogan-Bischoff that much political power. (And it doesn’t end with loads of new, young talent getting over.)

by wildcat110 on Feb 13, 2012 12:53 PM EST reply actions

Like I said, this is the best decision pro wrestling has made since the last time anybody in the world fired Russo from anything.

But TNA has made so many bad decisions in the past that they just might not recover fan interest in time to regain profitability.

I wouldn’t wish Vince Russo on anybody, may he never find a job anywhere again.

by *Asterisk* on Feb 13, 2012 12:53 PM EST reply actions

The last time Russo was strictly a head writer, not a booker, the product (WWF) was excellent. It was working just fine in TNA as well once Pritchard took over as booker. Now, you have no head writer and Bischoff just gained more power. That equals a positive to you?

by wildcat110 on Feb 13, 2012 12:59 PM EST up reply actions

Garrett Bischoff says yes

Players who should be in the Hall of Fame: Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Greg Lloyd, Andy Russell, Cris Carter, Kevin Greene, Andre Reed and Jerry Kramer
"Clemson should've stopped turning the ball over" Dana Holgorsen when asked about running up the score in the Orange Bowl

by WVPiratesfan on Feb 13, 2012 1:05 PM EST up reply actions

sounds good to Goldberg.

Garrett vs Goldy for the Championship. LOL Bischoffs dream.

Respectfully raping people with my words, since 1993.

by marsexxxy23 on Feb 13, 2012 2:08 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

The WWF was horribly booked starting from late 1998 until Russo's exit in late 1999.

PPV’s like Wrestlemania XV, Survivor Series ’98, Royal Rumble ’99, and especially King of the Ring ’99 were worse than any PPV any company in the U.S. has aired since Victory Road 2011, but the WWF built up enough good will from ’97 to mid ’98, and had enough great talent in general to make up for the insanely retarded programming they were airing.

by *Asterisk* on Feb 13, 2012 1:06 PM EST up reply actions

Aren't you forgetting?

This guy murdered Owen Hart!

/Jim Cornette

by cheames on Feb 13, 2012 2:00 PM EST up reply actions

I thought it was Roddy Piper who said that?

by Scott Whitt on Feb 13, 2012 2:24 PM EST up reply actions

A lot of people said it

Cornette says it with the most conviction though.

by cheames on Feb 13, 2012 2:55 PM EST up reply actions

The other Vince did that.

by MVP Raiders on Feb 14, 2012 2:01 PM EST via Android app up reply actions

This may be beside the point but

Aren’t the dirt sheets by definition smarks? They are people that are more involved with the going ons behind the scenes than the actual product. I don’t understand the use of mark as an insult at all, particularly in this case. Unless we are so beyond the looking glass that being a 90’s smark is today’s mark, and being a mark today means you are a smark. Which could make sense, but I am unsure if Bischoff is making that point.

I'm big, I'm white, I'm Irish, and G*d damnit people like me!

by C. J. Bradford on Feb 13, 2012 1:06 PM EST reply actions

Eric Bischoff's brain was cobbled together with silly putty.

He doesn’t have a point to make.

by *Asterisk* on Feb 13, 2012 1:07 PM EST up reply actions

It is the wrestling equivalent of saying

Liberal Media. It translates to dirt sheets, or smarks in rassle talk.

by Anthony Steven Lewis on Feb 13, 2012 3:14 PM EST up reply actions

I get that

But if you say liberal media and point at NYT or Wash Post, that makes sense. If you say liberal media and point to Wall Street Journal or Economist, that’s the opposite of true. You can’t just change the meaning of a word to suit your insult. If mark=smark within the industry, what are marks? Just fans? I think there is some type of truth there if you wanted to expand on it. But it makes no sense as a throwaway insult.

I'm big, I'm white, I'm Irish, and G*d damnit people like me!

by C. J. Bradford on Feb 13, 2012 3:19 PM EST up reply actions

Did anyone else read a tweet from Mark Madden? he said that this is all part of a plan for Hogan to get his own company with Spike’s branding. TNA contract e4nds in the fall the same time Hogan’s deal with TNA.
Either way, Russo being gone is a good thing and BP has done a good job in slowing down TNA storylines. I just wish they would have a roster purge

by Scott Whitt on Feb 13, 2012 2:26 PM EST reply actions

Mark Madden is a notoroius blowhard

but does have his moments of brilliance, much like Vince Russo. But I doubt this is one of them

by WVPiratesfan on Feb 13, 2012 2:31 PM EST up reply actions

Either way, if Spike dumps TNA

Then the company is as good as dead. It would be one final F-U from Hogan

Follow me on twitter

by Jonathan Loesche on Feb 13, 2012 2:37 PM EST up reply actions

Well

TNA is already kind of like a zombie. It might not be dead but there isn’t much keeping it going. It just mindlessly goes about its business.

by Anthony Steven Lewis on Feb 13, 2012 3:16 PM EST up reply actions

The WWE needs to just buy the entire X division

And make a new 1 hour show with it. Call it neo-Cruiserwieght, keep the X moniker, or do something compleatly different. But these guys are too damn good to be curtain jerkers to Bischoff Jr.

I'm big, I'm white, I'm Irish, and G*d damnit people like me!

by C. J. Bradford on Feb 13, 2012 3:22 PM EST up reply actions

So true

The X Division is the best thing going in pro wrestling today, IMO. Too bad it’ll go down with the sinking ship that is TNA.

by joliemadchen on Feb 13, 2012 3:24 PM EST up reply actions

It's just like the Cruiserweights in WCW

Back in the late 90’s the WWF never had anything like the Cruiserweights in WCW…5-star matches every time…X-division is kind of like that, but not as good…WWE had Taka Michinoku and Brian Christopher (pathetic)

Conewalker
www.lordyuanshu.com

by WolvesDenHoops on Feb 13, 2012 5:30 PM EST up reply actions

Writer (and a handsome one at that),
And the Valley Shook

by Billy Gomila on Feb 13, 2012 5:35 PM EST up reply actions

Dave Meltzer made a cryptic comment on his message board about how things might get interesting when TNA’s TV contract comes up for renewal, so there may be something to this.