Vince Russo says he tried to work with ECW before acquiring some of their roster.
In the late nineties, Vince Russo was working as a writer for WWE. At the time, there were two major competitors Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling. On Fightful Wrestling's podcast The List and Ya Boy, Russo was asked about his opinions on ECW at the time.
"I know it was a Friday night, I think. I just happen to come across it on a Friday night on TNN," said Russo. "So many people like to say that it (motivated me). Bro, I was motivated by the NWO. When I saw what Eric (Bischoff) was doing with the NWO, I was like 'Bro, We need to be doing that.' When I saw ECW, what blew me away was that these guys are freaking killing themselves. I honestly felt like I was going to be watching that show one week and I was going to witness somebody break their neck or back. That's what captivated me about ECW," he continued.
Even though Russo denies taking inspiration from ECW, he did help WWE acquire some of their talent. He shared how that developed out of a "working relationship" with ECW.
"We were supposed to have a working relationship with ECW. That's what Vince McMahon said to me. Vince McMahon said "Vince, whatever talent you want from there we can get and in turn, we can send some of our talent over there," said Russo. "Every time I told (McMahon) we wanted a talent, he would go to Paul E. (Heyman) and Paul E. would tell Vince 'oh they don't want to come here.' I sit there and I'm like 'are you out of your freaking mind, Paul? Don't give me they don't wanna come here, anybody wants to come here to make their money,'" he continued.
Russo helped sign ECW talents like Tazz, The Dudley Boys, and Al Snow to WWE. He said he was the person some of the wrestlers would call to set up a meeting. He also revealed he was the one trying to recruit Heyman to TNA in the early 2000s.
The List and Ya Boy regularly features segments with Vince Russo and other wrestling personalities. The podcast airs live on Wednesdays with hosts Sean Ross Sapp and Jimmy Van.
The podcast can be found at FightfulPods.com.
