Vince Russo has spoken with WWE, reminding us things could always be worse

We publish a whole lot of content here at Cageside Seats. We’re also [looks around and whispers so the bosses can’t hear] not the only place producing wrestling content on the internet. So, as a service to you on the weekdays, we’ll be producing a wrestling newsletter, "Rude Awakening." Well, it will be a newsletter eventually: for now, it’ll just be part of your experience here at Cageside, collecting the news, recaps, and social moments from the greater wrestling universe daily so you won’t fall behind, with a newsletter format to come.

Vince Russo sure has opinions. They’re generally homophobic, misogynistic, nonsensical opinions based on rage and arrested development, but hey, not everyone can be creatively functional. So, when you see that Russo has recently reached out to Vince McMahon offering to help them with a product that he thinks has a lot of problems, and that McMahon reached back out to Russo, you shouldn’t feel bad about the widening of your eyes and holding of your breath.

Russo sucks, and any moment he enters Vince McMahon’s consciousness as anything other than someone to be laughed at in a Monday Night Wars retrospective is a concerning one.

Luckily, for all the things we might criticize McMahon for, a reunion with Russo doesn’t sound like something we have to worry about. Russo’s response to how McMahon received his pitch was basically “uh well he’s a man of few words” which sure sounds like Vinny Mac shut down Russo or at least showed complete, concise disinterest in the offer for assistance. This is good news!

So, yeah, there are lots of ways the current WWE landscape could improve. They still lack depth in the women’s divisions and haven’t leveraged the talent they do have often enough, with women’s screen time still paltry compared to the men’s. They still lean on the same setups and tropes far too often — [challenger] has pinned the champion! These feuding wrestlers will wrestle four weeks in a row before finally wrestling on a Sunday night! — but man, Vince Russo emerging from his man cave every now and again reminds us of how far WWE and wrestling in general has managed to come, and that feels good.

It feels even better when you remember that Russo’s idea of utilizing the women more often would involve skimpier outfits and focusing almost entirely on their looks to get back that sweet 18-34 manchild demographic. So, yeah, thanks for not indulging Russo too much, Vince.

• SmackDown had a couple of slow moments this week, but overall, it was a solid show that helped inch us towards June’s Money in the Bank event.
• The latest episode of the Fashion Files went a little noir, and even though that was great on its own, we also got the bonus of Fandango wrestling in a trench coat.
• SmackDown’s women’s division is getting a Money in the Bank ladder match, the first in women’s history. It doesn’t feel like they’ll go the briefcase route like they do with the men, and instead will use it to determine the number one contender, but hey, things could change in the coming weeks.
• The New Day had an easier time of getting a title shot, as they finally debuted on SmackDown after getting a match against the Usos for Money in the Bank by talking to Shane McMahon.
• Did you hate the “This is your life” segment on this week’s RAW? Don’t worry, because as Wednesday’s Rumor Roundup shows, it sounds like WWE hated it, too.
• Tommaso Ciampa is undergoing surgery this week for a different injury than the one that could have kept him out of TakeOver: Chicago.
• Kevin Owens remains undefeated on Twitter.
• Meanwhile, this fan who criticized Goldust on Twitter took a big ole L from brother Cody.
• When Scott Hall showed up in WCW in late-May of 1996, it changed everything in wrestling.
• Wrestling fans throwing RKOs at friends and family in pools has come full circle, as now Randy Orton himself has done it.
• Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella’s daughter Birdie made her Instagram debut.
• So, who attacked Enzo Amore these past two weeks? Something tells me you can’t teach these attacks, but I’m still open to suggestions.
• Austin Aries has a memoir, and he thinks it just might change your life.
• Need to catch up on Lucha Underground before its return tonight? Paste wrote about the 10 best matches of season three so far.
• Canadian Olympic weightlighter Isabel Lahela looked set to sign with WWE, but before officially moving to Orlando and the Performance Center, she has reportedly backed out.