Kayfabe! Timeline The History of WCW 2000 As Told By Vince Russo

KAYFABE!
Timeline The History of WCW 2000 as told by by Vince Russo

As Russo tells us about 100 times during the course of the interview, this will be his last ever interview about wrestling. Sean even specifically asks if he’d come back to do Timeline WWE 1998, but he says he won’t. As far as interviews go, Russo comes across as more genuine and humble than he has before, but it’s still the same old Vince Russo interview. Everything that went wrong was somebody else’s fault, and those who criticise and bash him are idiots who don’t understand anything. All of the things people love to bash him about, like Oklahoma, shaving Flair’s head, David Arquette, etc. was somebody else’s idea. Poor Vince Russo just wanted to be a company man and make WCW successful. Oh, and by the way, he also brings up about 100 times that he was finished with WCW and only wanted the paycheck. In addition to that, he specifically says that he was done with wrestling after WCW shut down, and that he only went back to wrestling when Jeff Jarrett started up TNA. This completely ignores his brief WWE return in 2002.

Russo does go on one great tangent, that’s almost Cornette-like (I’m sorry, Jim, I know you’ll hate that comparison). He goes off about the young generation of wrestlers in the business, and how they don’t undestand characters. He specifically singles out Generation Me (the Young Bucks) and Christopher Daniels. Russo says he would talk until he was blue in the face about them needing to slow down and worry more about their characters, but their main concern was having Meltzer give their match a four star rating. I can understand that about the ‘Bucks, since they got huge heat with WWE for a disrespectful attitude (and their tweets following only made matters worse), but saying that about Daniels is almost laughable, considering how great Daniels and Kazarian are as Bad Influence.

Sean brings up a few of Vince’s staples, like anything on a pole, which Vince says that he thinks that it’s a funny concept with endless varieties. Sean also brings up the David/Stacy wedding, and Vince says that did a monster rating, as did the Jeff and Karen wedding in TNA, because weddings in wrestling are always huge ratings draws. Russo brings up some of his detractors in the business and how wrong it is that they knock him. Vince says that he gave Lance Storm the biggest push of his career, winning three titles (the same guy who’s said for years that titles are meaningless, btw) so he feels like Storm has no reason to do that. Bobby Heenan apparently blames Russo for him getting fired, when he was the only person trying to keep him. This directly contradicts Bobby’s book and story of when Bobby first met Russo and asked what he’d be doing, and Vince said he’d let him know and then never heard anything. Vince also brings up Jim Duggan as someone who he feels has no right to knock him, because he found a way to keep Jim Duggan on TV and feeding his family, without taking bumps at his age.

Why did WCW lost $62 Million in the year 2000? Because Time Warner merged with AOL and AOL didn’t want to be associated with wrestling. In the end, who killed WCW? It was the corporate suits, not anyone that had anything to do with wrestling. More accurately, and accuracy has always been a problem with Russo, the suits didn’t want to be involved with a company losing $62 Million. Vince also goes on a rant about how it’s BS that people say that Vince McMahon was his filter and editor, because it wasn’t true. VKM would look at Russo’s writing and make changes and tweaks to improve it. Of course, being 2000, you can’t ignore Bash at the Beach and the whole Hogan ordeal. The short version: It was a shoot with Hogan refusing to lose to Jarrett, and then Hogan and Russo came up with the whole angle together, but then Hogan double crossed Russo by walking out and filing the lawsuit. Why did he book himself to win the WCW Title? Because “It’s a story, you idiots!”

The 411: As an actual interview, it's not bad. Russo seems to be on a mission to clear his good name, and he does come across as genuine and passionate. But, this isn't all that different from the Zybyszko Timeline, where I can appreciate the interview itself, while thinking that Russo is full of it.
Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]