Yeah, Booker/Nash caused it but some of the best stuff in wrestling history happened on accident. Bret Hart, not Hulk Hogan, was supposed to be the 3rd guy in the nWo. The nWo wouldnt have been the trendsetting, gamechanging, industry revolutionizing thing it was had Hulk Hogan not shocked the world by turning heel and joining Nash & Hall in the nWo as their leader.
Stone Cold Steve Austin should have never happened, why in the world did WCW release this guy? Would be like TNA releasing Robert Roode for no real reason. Or WWE releasing Randy Orton when he was in Evolution. Stunning Steve should have never left WCW and been in a position to lead the WWF out of bankruptcy and WCW into its grave.
There are a ton of examples.
As for Russo, he has had many great moments. His ideas were unique to the industry in 1997. Giving babyfaces heel like personas was unique. Before Russo, it was good guy vs bad guy. Russo changed that and between 1997-99 guys like Stone Cold & The Rock were born from his formula. No one had ever seen a babyface flip people off and beat his bosses ass. No one had ever seen anything like a cocky, self absorbed, egomaniac like The Rock be cheered by the millions and millions of The Rocks fans. It was unique. Hogan was the biggest babyface ever up to that point and he was just like John Cena, he catered to the kids, told them to eat their vitamins and say their prayers.
Rock & Austin were different. Russo pushed that type of stuff when he was in the WWF and it worked because:
A. No one had ever seen it before
B. The production values of the WWF were superior. Would Stone Cold had been 1/2 as big had he not had his theme song? Would DX be DX without their entrance? I mean, this stuff is huge. When The Miz walks out you think for half a second that the guy is a megastar due to his entrance.
That is where TNA fails. They dont make people feel larger than life. The WWF mastered this. The WWF isnt nearly as good at it as it used to be, the days of having 15 great themes on a CD, all current stars in the federation, those days are gone. Im not sure why the WWF doesnt have the music it had in the late 90s/early 00s but half the reason Evolution was so badass was their theme song. Sounds stupid but fans dig that shit. Kurt Angles theme was classic in the WWF. The music in TNA that he has seems so damn generic but in the WWF it was crazy how over his theme was. Fans chanting "you suck" througout his song, that shit was awesome.