- Vince Russo has posted a blog entry over at csrwrestling.com, discussing Monday’s Raw and Sami Zayn. Here is an excerpt…
“Last night RAW experienced its lowest rating of the year, and of course out came the excuses that it was up against the second round of the NBA playoffs. Now, while that is indeed a fact, it had nothing to do with the rating bottoming out. The numbers sunk to new 2015 lows because the casual television fans for that night chose the NBA over RAW because the NBA was indeed the better show of the evening. However, had it been another time, another era, say Austin vs. Rock circa 1997—-it wouldn’t have mattered if LeBron James was matching up with Julius freaking’ Erving—the television viewer was watching wrestling that night.
However, everybody is running to the defense of the WWE, claiming that RAW was a great show on Monday night. WHY was it great in their opinion? Simply because an NXT wrestler that they all mark out for, Sami Zayn, made his surprise appearance on the WWE’s premiere show. I can only imagine when Sami got introduced by Bret Hart and came out as a surprise through the RAW entrance—to the Internet Wrestling Community is was the equivalent of Jesus himself showing up unannounced at the Sea of Galilee. But to the casual wrestling fan—nobody cared—to them this was a jobber and nothing more–so they indeed turned back to hoops.
RAW is a television show and Sami Zayn is NOT a television star—nor—will he be anytime soon. Sami is an exceptional wrestler on a wrestling show, and the only people who care about him are those die hard wrestling fans who are looking for 5-star matches that the massive don’t give a !@#$% about.”
LOL here we go with the usual comments in Russo threads, if people disagree with him then it's "He's a dumbass but we all knew that already for 20 years" and if you agree with him it's "I don't like Russo because, ehm, well, someone wrote on the internet that he sucks so he must suck, but he's spot on with this one. I wish he would work for the current WWE because I like that idea". Shows only the hypocrisy of the IWC
Yep, a monkey wrote for The Rock and Austin pre-Russo and gave us many memorable moments with Rocky Maivia and The Ringmaster. It's easier to write for Austin and The Rock because they are talented but if the storylines suck you can have the most talented guys on the roster and it would suck. Austin's and Rock's talent paired with Russo's talent = the hottest era in pro wrestling. Ironically when The Rock and Austin were on top during the AE the fans tuned in to see mostly skits and speeches so you just ruined your own argument. Austin vs McMahon was not Flair vs Steamboat just like Rock's greatest moments were promos, staredowns and skits and not actual wrestling matches.
Tell my why were most Rock's moments in 2011 and 2012 cringeworthy? Because he was a talented guy limited by PG, bad storylines, soft opponents ruined by creative and a terrible writing team. Shows how great Russo was doing his job in WWE
Russo was responsible for The Rock speaking in 3rd person, Russo was responsible for The Rock talking slow (compare the 98/99 promos with his 2000 promos), Russo's idea was to make Rocky Maivia turn heel, the Deadly Game tournament that made The Rock the Corporate Champion where he finally became a world champion and a main eventer was all Russo's creation so whoever told you that with Gerwitz has no idea about the pro wrestling history
I'm not a lover of the typical IWCer or a huge fan of NXT but Zayn was hugely popular on Raw...I know, it was Montreal and that's Zayn's home state and all that but his underdog antics and kid friendly character is going to get him over with everyone, not just the smarks.
He's wrong. He probably would've said the same thing about DB when he first came out of NXT.
The reason RAW drew shit ratings is probably because the show has been crappy since WrestleMania. No one expected that they would suddenly decide to put in the effort to have a good show.
Besides, no one said the show was great just because Sami Zayn was on it. It was a good show from top to bottom, IMO.
Aww classic Russo...nobody was tuning into your brand of sports entertainment during wcw 2000 and that was filled with 2 minutes matches and over the top storylines...
Aside from the moronic premise of Russo's entire blog entry, the only in-ring wrestling I've ever gotten my friends to care about/mark out for was Sami Zayn's, so :shrug
He is right about everything but that. RAW was good/great with or without Sami Zayn. His debut did add to the show though, that's why I popped for him too even though I generally don't care for him.
He will still never be a television star. He's just really, really bland with nothing being exceptionally good about him but his ring ability.
He can be an NXT star who comes out occasionally on the main show to pop a smark crowd and might even get a nice little tag reign for when they tour Arab countries. He should be happy, that's a nice role.
He's right, and that's sad. It was good Raw because it featured "IWC" favorites and wrestling. But it wasn't hte WWE "sports entertainment" product WWE usually gives.
This dumb fucker is talking like NXT is one of the most independent wrestling shows. Every fan that follows RAW acknowleges NXT and I'm willing to say that at least 3 outta 5 WWE fans (smarks or casuals) watch NXT. Also Sami Zayn debut match on RAW was one of the good things on the show last night, not the only good thing. What a retard.
Well your 3 outta 5 WWE fans stat doesn't really hold up when you look at the subscription numbers for the WWE Network. That would also be assuming that every single subscriber to the Network watches NXT.
but he's so blunt it sounds like trolling for click bait.
Casuals who watch on tv, like my neighbor he's a casual, he loved the 80's moreso than me cause he's 10 years older than me. he's in his 50's ill be turning 40 this september.
every now and then when im outside working my veggie garden we may mention wwe, he don't have network hell he don't even have internet, he has it on phone but doesn't use it.
so he's never seen nxt, he only thinks nxt is where newbies train. From what he knows from watching Raw/Smackdown. So for him Sami really wasn't anything. He'd never heard of him, only reason he knew he was halfway important was Bret Hart and crowd reaction. Otherwise he had never heard of him.
I told him about nxt and how it was becoming more it's own thing really. And it's a lot more "wrestling" than Raw/Smackdown.
So that was my little insight from an old mark that watched 70's through today's product but is not really internet savvy
People still care about what this guy says, he's as out of touch as Vince and Jim Cornette, I guarantee Sami Zayn will not only get over, but he could be close to being as over as Daniel Bryan
The main event of RAW was orton/Reigns. Russo should concentrate on that if he wants to complain. Sami was an unannounced opponent for Cena. He was presented as a star and should help him to become one. How could anyone expect Zayn to be a star to tv viewers when the majority had never seen him up until then. I hope he was misquoted because it's a rather stupid opinion.
I think WWE did a fairly decent job of building up Zayn as someone of importance to casual viewers when they dug up Bret fucking Hart to introduce him, in Canada.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Wrestling Forum
23.4M posts
266.5K members
Since 2002
A forum community dedicated to all Wrestling enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about WWE, AEW, Ring of Honor, Impact and all forms of professional and amateur wrestling.