Chris Yandek sent along the following:
You can read and listen to the full interview at http://www.cyinterview.com
With professional wrestling’s Super Bowl set to air this weekend in WrestleMania, wrestling’s most controversial personality from behind the camera from a creative standpoint and in front of the camera as an on air personality is speaking out about a long running controversy he wants to put to an end. Vince Russo who was a big part of the highest ratings for Vince McMahon in the late 90s when wrestling was at its peak was involved in one of the industry’s most controversial incidents involving Hulk Hogan back in 2000 at a pay perview event with the now defunct WCW.
Many of the industry’s fans and even insiders believed that the angle between Hogan and Vince Russo possibly was a shoot when Russo recently revealed it really was all work. That didn’t stop Hulk Hogan from filing a defamation lawsuit vs. Vince Russo that was thrown out in court in 2003.
A decade later, Vince Russo is currently writing the television in creative at the WWE’s main competition TNA where Hogan is currently working. Russo would like to end the rumors once and for all telling Chris Yandek of CYInterview.com, “I’ll be honest. People, it doesn’t matter what I say and it seems like every single word out of my mouth gets twisted by the wrestling media. They just need a story. The story is I’m getting along great with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff [Hogan’s right hand man] and that’s the story and the story is that I’m thrilled to death that they both made the decision to join TNA. They have pumped such energy into the product. I know they have pumped energy into me personally.”
Russo goes on to note that the new environment has helped him put it all behind him compared to the time he worked at WCW where the incident went down, “And having the experience to work with both of these individuals in a different environment than the negativity in WCW that was happening at the time it just sheds a whole new perspective on it and now I can really appreciate what Hulk and what Eric bring to the table. Individually I can really appreciate that when 10 years ago I couldn’t do that because of the mindset that I had because of WCW. It’s been great for me. It’s been great for TNA and if you ask them I think it’s been great for them as well.”
Russo also noted with all the lows he’s been through the reason he’s still in the business and has never walked away is because he feels professional wrestling has limited other employment opportunities, "As soon as I got in the wrestling business, the downfall was that I knew I was painting myself in the corner because I knew that once I was choosing this as what I did for a living there just weren’t many options for me. Wrestling isn’t a computer company. There’s not a hundred other companies to go out there and get employed. At the time it was WWF and WCW. So like I knew early on that if I succeeded in the wrestling business I really didn’t have too many options and that really has rang true throughout my entire career. There’s not many places to take the background I have in professional wrestling."
Finally, Russo says it could take many years for TNA to be competitive with the WWE, "Obviously now it’s the Monday night war. I’d be lying to you if I told you I wouldn’t have the greatest satisfaction in the world to overtake Vince McMahon even if it’s two, three, four years. That would give me great, great satisfaction just on a personal level looking back on some of the issues that I’ve had with him, but there’s always new challenges."
