Friday podcaster, insider and analyst Vince Russo is on the shelf indefinitely, so Fightful.com wanted to continue to give you your dose of the former WCW Champion. During our most recent podcast with Russo, he spoke about his well-documented issues with TNA's John Gaburick.
Russo told Fightful.com that Spike TV knew he was consulting all along, according to Gaburick,
"Gaburick told Spike I was consulting," Russo said. "Gaburick told me they were cool with it. Even if Gaburick was lying to me and he never told them, when the email leaked if Spike would have found out that way don’t you think they would have told TNA cut off all communication with Vince Russo right now or else we’re not renewing the show? They knew they were not renewing that show long long before that."
Per Russo, the relationship between himself and Gaburick was fine until Russos infamous snafu in regards to an e-mail sent to wrestling writer Mike Johnson. Russo had intended to send the message to TNA announcer Mike Tenay. Gaburick accusing Russo of leaking the e-mail intentionally soured their rapport.
"Everything was great. I was covering this up for them for so long," said Russo. I didn’t care if people knew if I was consulting for TNA, I couldn’t have cared less. It wasn’t my secret, it was my employer saying, 'Vince we don’t want you to tell anybody. We don’t want this out.' Everything was fine, I covered it up for almost a year but what happened was they kept increasing my role. It got to the point where they wanted me to work with the announcers. So for the very first time I had to send an email to Mike Tanay and Taz. When I wrote in my computer 'Mike' -- and I wasn’t paying attention -- you know how the email address is automatic…Mike Johnson was on there and without looking or realizing anything I sent it to Mike Johnson. I was covering this up or covering for them or keeping their secret for almost a year. John Gaburick accused me of sending it to Mike Johnson on purpose. That’s when the fireworks really started because I’m like 'what would be the logic of me keeping your secret for 10 months and then sending an email to a guy I absolutely loathe?' When he accused me of that, that’s when things really turned for the worse between me and them."
In response to criticism that the situation led to TNA being booted off of Spike TV, Russo denied those claims.
"I was not consulting for TNA when Gaburick sent Bischoff home. I was at home like everybody else. I knew how Spike felt about Eric Bischoff. When I read that and I wasn’t even employed or working for them in any way…right then and there I said, 'Holy shit. That is a huge huge frickIn' mistake. They don’t want to work with Dixie. They don’t respect Dixie.' It was John’s way of flexing his muscles and I was like that is going to come back to haunt them. That is when Spike decided not to renew their contract. I can’t believe nobody talks about that. It is the elephant in the room and the reason why that relationship fell apart," said Russo.
We'll have more on Vince's thoughts in regards to Bischoff-TNA soon. You can see our full, most recent podcast with Vince Russo above.
