On the recent edition of Vince Russo’s ‘The Brand,’ former WWE Head Creative Writer, Vince Russo, offered his thoughts on the WWE Royal Rumble and how he would have booked the Rumble match differently. To listen to the entire podcast click here. Below are a few of the highlights:
On the AJ vs. John Cena World Title Match:
I thought AJ and Cena had a great match. They are two real wrestlers. They are great wrestlers. People asked me if I cared that there was that many false finishes–no, because they kicked out of wrestling moves. They didn’t kick out of someone going through seven tables. They kicked out of wrestling moves, and I was okay with that. I really didn’t have any problem with that, the way the match was laid out was very believable. I thought the right guy won; it was time for Cena to go over so I didn’t have a problem with him winning. They had a terrific match and am big fan of both of those guys.
On the Royal Rumble Match:
With that being said, I want to talk about the Rumble itself. I want to bring you into the steps when I was booking the Rumble with Ed Fererra. This is what the mindset is when you go into a Royal Rumble. These are the things you look at when WrestleMania is next in line, and the Royal Rumble is next in line. Now, I’m going to look at these rules and I’m going to look at these regulations, and I’m going to tell you by this equation how the WWE did in my opinion with the Royal Rumble. Now, when you look at the Royal Rumble there are a couple of things to look at. You want to maintain angles, which basically what that means is you want to keep angles going. I thought WWE did a good job in maintaining the angle with Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton, and Luke Harper. They did a good job maintaining that. Luke Harper laid out Bray Wyatt, and I assume they are going to keep that going. They kind of had Cesaro and Sheamus go at it again, and I hope they are not going back there. We did that, we’ve been there and done that, I hope that was a spur of the moment thing and hopefully it isn’t going anywhere, but you like to maintain angles obviously, and they maintained Lesnar and Goldberg. You want to maintain current angles, you want to get people over in the Royal Rumble. Who are the people who are going to stand out, who are the people you are trying to get over? Who are you going to protect? What players aren’t going to win the Rumble, but will protect them, make them look good and not hurt them in any way, and who do you want to make? Who were these guys in the Rumble that you wanted to make? These are the things you look at–and the rest of these guys didn’t matter. There was a lot of fodder in this match. I have to be honest, with Ty Dillinger, if I don’t watch NXT, I have no idea who this guy is, and I had no idea who Ty Dillinger is. Not everybody watches NXT. I don’t know why you wouldn’t put a Bobby Roode in this match. Some people know Roode from TNA all those years. I had no idea who Ty Dillinger is. Putting James Ellsworth in the Rumble was a joke. There was this other guy, Jack Gallagher, or New Day. We didn’t care about anyone from New Day that was going to win, or Mojo Rawley, Kalisto.
Half of these guys we didn’t care about. It’s more like 20 out of the 30 we don’t care about so it doesn’t matter. We get down to the people you want to get over and protect, and people you want to make. I thought they did a very good job in having Big Cass open up the match because this was a way to protect Cass and basically give him the excuse where it’s like, well, this guy was first, so they did a very good job in protecting Cass in the Royal Rumble. Another guy they really wanted to make, and we’ve seen this in the past with Show and Nash, and the guy they wanted to make was Braun Strowman, and I thought they did a good job in making him look good. He took out 7 guys, made him look strong and did a real good job in building Strowman. For me, I would have had Strowman win the thing, but I know there are reasons why that didn’t happen, and a lot of reasons are that Braun Strowman is not ready, or if he were to have a match with Owens or Cena is not marquee, but my point is, if he is not ready then why is he even there? If he’s not ready then why put him in the spot to begin with? Once you get put in that spot be ready, so if that were me, Strowman would have been the guy I would have put over. If you are putting Strowman over in a match with Lesnar, Goldberg and Taker, he is now somebody. I promise you Strowman did not go over because in their opinions he was not ready. If he’s not ready don’t put him in that spot to begin with. He was that guy they wanted to protect and did a good job. Another guy they did a good job protecting is Baron Corbin. I think Corbin has promise. I thought by eliminating Strowman you protected Corbin and you made Corbin. Maybe that is some place they are going to go. Strowman and Corbin, but you can argue that both men aren’t ready, so what will that match look like? Again, here’s my point, if they are not ready they shouldn’t be on the WWE roster. Then, you look down the NXT roster and you see guys like Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode, guys like Eric Young who have been there and done that, but they’re not on the roster, so it doesn’t make sense to me. They aren’t putting Wyatt over. There’s a lot of guys here that are on 50-50 booking that you don’t have to worry about protecting them. You beat them so many times, they no longer mean anything. Dean Ambrose doesn’t mean anything. Dolph Ziggler doesn’t mean anything. Bray Wyatt doesn’t mean anything. They should all mean something, but they don’t because of the way they have been booked in the past. With 50-50 booking nobody is going to get over. With however Ambrose gets eliminated, who cares. The way Dolph gets eliminated, who cares. It’s too late, you dropped the ball with these talents.
On What He Saw WWE Do Right During the Rumble Match:
Things they did right. They did Lesnar right. When Lesnar hit the ring, coming off of the Goldberg elimination, he looks strong, he laid everybody out, and wiped everybody out, they did a beautiful job. They did an unbelievable job in setting up Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar, unbelievable job. Now, you might say they didn’t protect Lesnar because Goldberg did the same thing he did to Lesnar at Survivor Series; no, they did protect Lesnar because I promise you, they have to be going to Goldberg and Lesnar at some kind of match at WrestleMania, and that is what they have to give Lesnar his come-ups or else he won’t be worth anything. So, the reason they had to do that to begin with is because they have their sites on WrestleMania. Does Lesnar put his career on the line? Whatever the case may be, but setting up that Goldberg and Lesnar showdown they did a good job. They also did a great job with Goldberg and Taker, and setting that up. They did a good job in protecting Goldberg by having Taker eliminate him from the match. Having Taker eliminate Goldberg is not going to hurt Goldberg. Reigns eliminating Undertaker is not going to hurt Taker, and again, these could be setting up matches for WrestleMania. Now you can have Triple H and Seth Rollins, Jericho and Rollins, Strowman and Corbin, Reigns and Undertaker, a lot of things they are setting up for WrestleMania, so the structure of the match, who they wanted to protect and make they did a fairly good job. I missed the surprises like DDP, Bubba Ray Dudley or Kevin Nash’s, I miss the surprises. I would have liked to see some surprises.
My question is, why was Randy Orton the choice? They had it set up where Roman Reigns was going to win, and Vince was going to continue to shove Reigns down our throats. They did the spot where nobody really cares because we have already done Orton and Cena, so I have to look at, why Randy Orton? You know Orton and Cena will have a great match. They always have great matches, but like I said, we’ve been there and done that. Also, is there a possibility of Orton losing that spot before we get to Wrestlemania? Yes, there is that possibility, but obviously WWE had reasons for Orton winning the match. Do I agree with them? No. Would I have had Strowman go over? Yes, do I care about Orton won? No, is Orton winning going to change my life? Absolutely not.
