Vince Russo Says Last Night Wrestling Became “Real”
Vince Russo has posted a new Facebook blog, and below is an excerpt:
I GUESS LAST NIGHT WRESTLING FINALLY BECAME REAL
Main article: History of professional wrestling
Originating as a popular form of entertainment in 19th-century Europe[3] and later as a sideshow exhibition in North American traveling carnivals and vaudeville halls, professional wrestling grew into a standalone genre of entertainment with many diverse variations in cultures around the globe, and is now considered a multi-million dollar entertainment industry. While it has greatly declined in Europe, in North America, it has experienced several different periods of prominent cultural popularity during its century and a half of existence. The advent of television gave professional wrestling a new outlet, and wrestling (along with boxing) was instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery.
I came across this description of professional wrestling when I was doing my research for this column this morning. The first sentence is something that I’ve always suspected; wrestling originated as a popular form of entertainment. You can even fast forward to about 1973, around the time I first started watching the genre. Immediately as a 12 year-old kid, I knew that it was a magnificent form of entertainment. I also knew that on May 1st, 1987 when my son Will was born and I was disappointed that I had to forfeit the tickets I had bought previously, to see Steamboat/Savage go at it in a steel cage at the Nassau Coliseum. Years later, I was again reminded of the wonderful entertainment factor when I had the absolute privilege of being a part of the highest rated segment in the history of professional wrestling, “This is your life, Rock”, a segment that in fact caused the standard bearer of dirt sheet writers to say that he was never watching wrestling again.
As they say in Hollywood, “THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!”
“Vince, if they’re going to be stars, they have to look like stars!”
That is something that Vince McMahon told me early on in my working relationship with him. Vince made me understand that the presentation of a wrestler, was the very first step in making him/her a star. I used that wisdom bestowed upon me directly from Vince, when I wrote in a series of articles that neither Sami Zayn, or Kevin Owens were being presented as stars. And, even though I made it absolutely clear in all my columns that AS TALENTED AS ZAYN AND OWENS WERE IN THE RING, the WWE machine had let them down, and fallen short in “presenting” them as stars—my words were mangled and taken out of context to the point of them meaning something else entirely different. . My original message was clear to anyone who had the ability to understand the words they were reading. It couldn’t have been any more clear.
NXT Stars Talk What Tough Enough Talents Can Expect From Billy Gunn
In the following video, NXT star talk what Tough Enough contestants can expect from NXT trainer Billy Gunn:
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
