La Zona Muerta

“I would do the same thing bro, I would do the same exact thing today without blinking an eye.” – Vince Russo on David Arquette becoming WCW champion, despite decades’ worth of history explaining why it was bad

“I’m just gonna be one thousand percent honest with you. As far as an on air character, I felt I was better than eighty percent of that roster.” – Vince Russo revealing what he really thinks of wrestlers

“Like to this day, that’s who people think I am. That’s why so many people dislike me, hate me who don’t know me; because they think I’m my character.” – Vince Russo bemoaning people hating him because of his heel work despite the quote above

I mean… those three quotes alone could be my review of the show. Vince Russo was given open court to speak AND NO ONE PUSHED BACK AGAINST ANY OF HIS CLAIMS.

Instead, in my inimitable manner, let me instead go back to when I was an avid WCW fan and this guy came in.

I wasn’t a “smart” fan. Well, I guess that there are degrees to that. I knew the deal with wrestling from the beginning; my parents wanted me to understand the violence wasn’t real (little did they know) so I never had any question about that sort of thing. I was only a little bit online; the Observer was not yet part of my life, so I didn’t know the true ins and outs yet. I guess I was better informed than some of my friends who watched with me.

I had NO CLUE who Vince Russo was. I didn’t watch WWF, didn’t watch Livewire, didn’t read WWF Magazine. All I knew was that suddenly the show was a LOT more like RAW, people WALKING constantly, people talking about “the script,” and “doing jobs.” Suddenly, the Nitro Girls were all TV characters, constantly carping at each other and fighting. Suddenly, the luchadores were a joke. The show started to unravel, my favorite two wrestlers in the world left, along with their friends and then WCW legitimately had to be RESET in April of 2000. I was rapidly running out of reasons to watch.

I will cop to a couple of things I liked during the Russo regime. La Parka starts getting a ridiculous overdub during promos and sometimes matches, one he doesn’t want. The ridiculous “voice of god” spoke for him and gets him in trouble with the other wrestlers, putting over Skeletor, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. God help me, I loved that (altho’ I believe that was actually a Ed Ferrara thing). I apparently didn’t realize how brutal it was that Parka was apparently a dummy because he only spoke Spanish.

Another thing I loved, even though it was incredibly mean spirited and cruel, was OKLAHOMA, Ed Ferrara’s borderline evil parody of Jim Ross. I was SO HAPPY for someone to attack WWF that I bought in, hook, line and sinker, not realizing that

1. Jim Ross has a lot of faults but did not deserve to be mocked for his medical condition
2. The segments themselves were awful with Dr. Death killing all of the luchadores on his own or were brutal and misogynistic featuring the absolute nadir of Madusa’s career
3. No one, and I mean NO ONE watching WCW gave a singular FUCK about Jerry Only and the Misfits being wrestlers, wrestling characters, adjacent to wrestling or anything else

Of course, I’d be completely remiss if I also didn’t cop to loving Russo’s Bash at the Beach promo. I’ll give Russo one thing; he’s pretty consistent on how he tells this story, even if it sort of undermines himself (he’s good at that). He always points out that the promo itself was a work, but that it came from a real place, with real emotions.

At what point does a work become a shoot?

THERE WAS A TIME, dear reader, a lawless, broken, desperate time where my then girlfriend (one day to be Mrs. Convoy) and I purposely bought, consumed, enjoyed and AGREED WITH a DVD entitled “Ultimate Insiders: Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara,” a three plus hour shoot interview where Russo blames everyone under the sun about the issues in WCW and, for awhile, I genuinely thought the dude got the shaft while working there.

I told you earlier I was no smart fan. There was also a time where a shoot interview from ERIC BISCHOFF convinced me that he, too had been screwed. Obviously my opinion changed, and that was one hundred percent (ONE THOUSAND PERCENT, BRO) from watching TNA, getting access to the Observer and figuring out exactly the kind of schnorrer Russo was, a money grubber, a scam artist blaming everyone within earshot but never taking a lick of responsibility for himself. That DIRECT, VERBATIM quote about thinking he was better than 80% of the roster as a performer? That’s a new one on me; I hadn’t heard him say that before. DISGUSTING, AND ANYONE WHO WATCHES WRESTLING AND KNOWS THE SACRIFICES WRESTLERS MAKE SHOULD FEEL THE SAME.

Nothing has changed, in the year of our LORD Two Thousand and Twenty Four, not a damned thing.

Bro.

“No, bro, my concussion, bro, I’m better than eighty percent of you, bro, I’m on the internet, bro, nooooooooooooo”

A couple of positives before I say more mean stuff. Booker T on this program is fantastic, very much the man I remember him to be and not the sycophantic WWE bootlicker, brutally below average commentator and anti-AEW grift lord that all his other modern appearances paint him to be. Here, he’s a humble man who was proud of what he accomplished in WCW and was very frank about the realities of being Black in a white-dominated field. Booker on this show is great. Also, I do appreciate the producers speaking to the Brad Siegels and Dick Cheathams of the world.

Almost everything else about this show frustrates me to no end. KEVIN NASH, HIGH OUT OF HIS BRAIN BY HIS OWN ADMISSION, THINKS THE FAILED BLOODBATH WAS MORE DETRIMENTAL TO THE COMPANY THAN THE FINGER POKE OF DOOM. Eric Bischoff is still allowed to hold court, free from rebuttal. The “Radicalz” leaving is glossed over, no mention of Mike Graham threatening to kill Chris Benoit and the others leading to the legal leverage for them to leave. Nothing about the Millionaire’s Club being cast as the BABYFACES against the dastardly New Blood. NO PUSH BACK on the ratings under Russo’s unsteady hand.

It STINKS that this rotten show is going to become the definitive depiction of the death of my favorite wrestling company. Evan Husney and Jason Eisener should be absolutely ASHAMED of themselves.