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Vince Russo on the lack of pyschology hurting the business

2K views 26 replies 21 participants last post by  BigDaveBatista 
#1 ·
Vince Russo on the lack of Psychology in wrestling

When I officially started the business it was 1991 and literally around that time, I remember we did our first chat with AOL. I remember it back in like 1993, and around that time it got exposed to the world that wrestling is a work, it’s a television show, none of this is real but like I said, bro, I don’t know what happened in the last 5 years, but you have a crew of young talent that have somehow convinced themselves that it is all about the match and we have to go out there and have to do crazy stuff and put ourselves at risk to get the crowd to chant, ‘this is awesome.’ It is the most preposterous thing I have ever heard in my life. Here is what any wrestlers’ agenda should be and Sam you can appreciate this: these wrestlers have a shelf life, from a business standpoint they are only going to be able to make money for so long, so what they want to do is they want to try and extend that wrestling life and shelf life as long as they can, because the time is going to come where they are not going to be able to perform anymore in the ring, but yet you have guys in their 20’s and early 30’s that are performing these ridiculous moves that require no psychology and in an instant somebody can break a neck, and I am telling you right now, somebody is going to get paralyzed in the ring doing one of these crazy, unnecessary things where somebody is going to be saying, wait a minute, hold on, we better look at the way these guys are wrestling nowadays.


I totally agree with Russo on this being one of the biggest problems hurting wrestling. Now a days you have everyone doing crazy spot after spot on free tv that has took away the psychology and realism. I keep stressing that ring work and crazy spots do not and has never been a draw in wrestling. Larger than life character has always drawn in viewers. The Hogans, The Pipers, Savage, Flair, Rhodes, Horsemen, Rock, Stone Cold and others are some of the biggest Superstars ever in the business who had the character and personality something these spot after spot let's wrestle like a cruiser weight by doing spots for the sake of it wrestlers are lacking.
 
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#8 · (Edited)
The fuck does he care about the lack of psychology in wrestling? According to him, wrestling isn't even the draw.

Not to mention, he's complaining about the absence of something that Jim Cornette has largely attributed to his existence in the business, as Russo never understood that aspect of the business. He never comprehended the art of storytelling within a match. He felt it was the least important part of a wrestling show. And now, he's trying to convince us (or himself) that's the problem with wrestling today?

Motherfucker preaching about the business missing something he didn't even attempt to keep alive when he was in it. Now, he's just repeating shit that other people with a leg to stand on have said, in order to make it looks like he knows what the fuck he's talking about. If I'm a wrestler, he's the last person I want advice from.
 
#5 ·
I agree with him up to a certain point. I used to love the snappy, high risk, high impact style of WCW's cruiserweight division as an entertaining carwreck, but it's far from the type of style that lends itself well for maintaining a sense of realism in a pseudo sport. At the end of the day, it's an exhibition of well-timed choreographed move sequences, and it's hard to properly sell or create slowburn drama that way. I'm fine with the style in small doses because it creates variety on the card.

As for injuries. Seems like the wear and tear of being on the road and not training property does far more damage than being flexible in the ring. ANY style has risks involved. The key I think is allowing the performers to get sufficient amounts of rest. He does have a point, tho. One wrong move can paralyze someone, but that's the tisk they're willing to take.
 
#27 ·
the obsession with stealing the show, without the little nuances that made the previous generations actually steal the show, has been cancerous imo

they push the boat out with more ambitious and over the top moves that have destroyed the psychological aspect of matches, finishers are near enough dead, heel tactics are dead

lesnar vs Goldberg at ss and wrestlemania showed more psychology than the rest of wwe has for years because they both put their characters over. what about seths wrestling shows hes an architect? what about Ambrose is actually a lunatic?

its a fucking joke

another point, not sure were i heard this but it makes total sense. these top rope finishers these days dont make sense in that the person doing the move doesn't rush to the top rope
at times it takes as long as 20 seconds to get to the top rope and steady themselves for the move, all the while the opponent just lays there. why not fucking pin him.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I was going to post something similar. Vince Russo's a fucking cancer in life.
 
#4 ·
Isn't Vince Russo the guy who used to say that chinlocks would lose viewers and every match needed to have a different ending instead of the old pinfall or submission finish? Yeah, pass on his "wisdom." Booking needs psychology too, mate.

A lack of steroids probably doesn't help with the injuries. I wonder if guys are stretching properly too?

I agree that the ring product is not its best, but Russo has proven consistently over his entire stint in wrestling that he has no awareness of what makes a good in-ring product, nor does he genuinely care about what makes a good in-ring product. If Finn Balor called himself "The Pussy Patroller," Vince Russo would have a hard-on for him the size of the Rocky Mountains.
 
#11 ·
Why do people separate workrate from psychology. In my opinion if you don't have psychology you can't really work. Anybody can learn to do moves that's not special or a talent. The real talent id making what you do matter to the audience to engage them in the match. You can take all the ridiculous masturbatory spots and flips and stick them where the sun doesn't shine, because if you can't give me a reason to care it isn't worth my time in watching it. The people who are truly great make you invested emotionally. You don't need to have 100,000 moves just make the moves you do matter. The biggest part of a wrestling match is what happens between the moves. It's not often that Russo is wholly right in his opinions(I like the guy because he admits who he is and his views on the business and holds fast to them unapologetically.). This however is one of those times where he is right. The guys today don't give a damn about putting on show where people are actually invested in what goes on they just want the crowds to cheer for them and say "this is awesome" and "you deserve it" even though they are all mostly shells of past talents. Many of the guys in WWE and other places today wouldn't be worthy of shining the boots of guys like Michaels, Hennig, Hart, Flair, Savage, Steamboat, Roberts, Rude, Guerrero etc. They are all marks for themselves.
 
#14 ·
Problem is, its really hard to get emotionally invested in a match when you're not invested in the character. Like really hard. Theres plenty of people(the cruiserweights in particular) who have awesome work rate and psychology but the crowd don't give a fuck about them because they haven't been given a reason to. This leads to people thinking these guys are only spot monkey who can't get emotional investment in their matches when in reality, its due to the booking of their characters and the storylines they are put in.


Psychology isn't noticeable to casuals most of the time. Try watching a brilliant action scene from a movie or show you have never watched before. You won't appreciate the small quirks, the nuances, their dialogue which creates the psychology in the scene. You know what you will appreciate, the action. I think you can see how this works in a match.

In short, too many wrestlers are relying on high risk moves because they don't have the emotional investment for the psychology to work. Its not on them, its creative's fault for not giving a reason for fans to care. Its just people think inputting paychology in matches is just this easy fix when in reality, there are plenty of psychology in some matches but they get overlooked because the emotional investment in the characters and the story isn't there to truly appreciate it.
 
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#13 ·
I get what he's saying, but he's making it sound like every single match is solely dedicated to just popping the crowd and making them chant, while making zero effort to actually give them a match that builds properly and isn't just a spotfest.

In reality, having spotfests isn't a bad thing. The main problem I have is there is too little variety in the WWE style, where every match seems somewhat similar with the case of only a few guys.

Also, if they wrote better storylines, they could have those carry the matches and feuds more and guys would have to rely less on dangerous moves to get themselves over. Same goes with general promo ability and storytelling ability, which some guys do have (to say nobody has it is like the old man talking about how everything sucks these days).
 
#22 ·
The truth with the WWE is that you need to make yourself big enough to not need them. You got to either be able to crossover to mainstream to make real money. There is only a couple of wrestlers in history that have made a fortune just wrestling in the WWE. Most wrestlers best bet is to be liked enough for the WWE to keep you around backstage after your career is over. Every wrestler should have that as their goal not to have the match of the night and be risky doing it
 
#24 ·
This makes me think of a bit from an Al Snow interview I read recently where he said that in ECW they were letting the crowds dictate how they were working their matches. He felt that was bad at the time and feels that mentality is still affecting wrestlers today and the performers relationship with the audience. Half people in attendance at TV shows and most of them at PPVs are so busy trying to become the show they can't pay attention to the matches, they only care about the big spots because they can start a chant to them. They don't care about match psychology because they don't care about the stories the wrestlers are trying to tell. Things are much different at house shows.
 
#10 · (Edited)
All together now,



I'M NOT LYING, NO HIGH FLYING. I'M NOT LYING, NO HIGH FLYING I'M NOT LYING, NO HIGH FLYING I'M NOT LYING, NO HIGH FLYING, I'M NOT LYING, NO HIGH FLYING

All he needs is a megaphone, a suit, a sign and a weird hatred for people of Pakistani descent and his Drew Gulak.

Kek 205 live jokes
 
#12 ·
He's right. How many suicide dives do we see every week just on Raw alone? At least 2 or 3.

Charlotte almost broke her freakin neck doing a moonsault to Nia Jax a few weeks ago. Yes, Nia was mostly at fault by not catching her properly, but it still shouldn't have been done in the first place in a throwaway match nobody will remember.

Save the high spots for PPV.
 
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