RECAP AND REVIEW: Truth With Consequences – what drove the final wedge between Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff, the differences in their booking philosophies, why Eric may have quashed Bret Hart coming to TNA, who had the most watched segments in the company?

Truth With Consequences

Release Date: November 11, 2018

Running time: 2:17

Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo

DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD

Intro:

• Recently, Bryan Alvarez said something about Russo that upset him and Bischoff said something about Russo that upset him.
• Sometimes, it feels like the world is against Vince and it’s a lot to bear. Vince says he lived a life and since finding Jesus, he feels his purpose is to use his life as a model to show peaks and valleys he’s gone through and feels he’s supposed to talk about his journey and help people.
• Vince says if you want to have a conversation with him about things, let’s have a conversation. He gets frustrated when people throw negativity his way then refuse to have a conversation. It frustrates him because he knows it will never stop.
• This show will be the be all and end all of the Eric Bischoff discussion as far as Vince is concerned.

83 Weeks Live Show

• Vince talks about what drove the final wedge between he and Eric Bischoff. He would still deal with Eric professionally but from personal standpoint Vince was done.
• At an 83 Weeks Live show, Eric said Vince was trying to drive a wedge between him and Dixie over Dixie being on TV. A meeting happened where Vince was ‘called out’ and was reduced to a pile of tears. This is a complete fabrication. The only meeting Vince was in like that was the Bret Hart meeting.

• Vince got a call from Andy Barton (one of Dixie’s closest associates) about Dixie being on TV. Vince felt the request from Dixie through Andy.
• Vince felt that she owned the company so they would put her on TV. His only concern, was that she may be a high maintenance talent.
• Vince doesn’t remember having a conversation with Eric about Dixie as a TV character but says it would have been about his concerns that she was going to request too much attention and time.
• Vince says after the so-called meeting Eric talked about on his live show, there were no ramifications. Vince also left the company on his own while Dixie and Eric sued each other. He wasn’t worried about his job because he had already decided he would leave if he wasn’t happy with the situation.
• Vince thinks that Eric tears people down to build himself up.
• At TNA, Vince says Eric wanted to be the boss and wouldn’t be the guy who would get in the trenches. He got off on being in charge.

Vince Working The Numbers

• Matt says he has emails/documentation that show Vince was trying to work with Eric on scripts but also show Eric wouldn’t get into the trenches to help. Vince also paid attention to the TV ratings but Eric would wave that away.
• The ratings showed matches were ranked the lowest and after match segments were the highest rated segments. For in-ring promos, Kevin Nash was number one and Dixie was number two. Vince also discovered from the numbers, the TNA Knockouts were out drawing the guys.

Vince Remembers a Human Eric

• Vince says maybe Eric’s first week at TNA, the two of them were together and Eric started telling him the story of getting fired from WCW. When Eric told the story, he seemed humble and Vince said he thought maybe Eric wasn’t all that bad. In 18 years, this is the only time Vince remembers Eric being a human being.
• While working at TNA, Vince knew Eric hated him.
• Vince says there are two guys that hate him, Cornette and Bischoff. And you have to look at how similar the stories are.

Russo Calls Eric at WCW

• Eric Bischoff in charge of creative was killing the WWE. Russo called Eric and wanted to work for Bischoff but never heard back.
• Eric’s lack of creativity (which is not his forte) is what opened the door for the WWE. WCW drove the NWO angle into the ground until it meant nothing. This allowed the WWE to write good, consistent TV. That along with no movement in WCW’s creative turned the tables. In the process Eric lost his job and Vince goes to WCW and to take over creative.
  

Russo’s Philosophy vs. Eric’s Philosophy

• Vince says the difference between his and Eric’s philosophy is that Eric is more concerned about wrestling while Vince is more concerned about reality
• Matt says Eric uses SARSA – Story, Anticipation, Reality, Surprise, Action which doesn’t sound different than what Vince does. Vince questions where was that formula when the WCW ratings started taking a downward turn?
• Vince says you need to know your characters well enough to be able to put yourself in their shoes and know how they would react to every situation.
• Guys like Eric and Bruce have rules and boundaries because that’s the way they’ve been trained. Vince wrote without rules and says characters are going to react how they react. It needed to be organic.

Does Vince take any accountability for the toxic relationship he has with Bischoff?

• Vince knows he was trying with Eric on many occasions. His first impression was that Eric was arrogant and cocky. Vince knows there were times when both tried but they just couldn’t get along.
• Vince says in the situation with Cornette and Bischoff, he doesn’t know what he’s done. He has offered to have a conversation with both to put it behind them. He is also willing to apologize if he did something he’s not aware of. Vince says the issues Bischoff and Cornette seem to be around jealousy. Vince feels he was better creatively than both of them and the numbers prove that.
• Vince says when he knows he’s right about something he can come across with an ‘I’m right you’re wrong’ attitude which could rub people (Eric) the wrong way.

Why Eric Quashed The Bret Hart Deal In TNA

• Matt says two things that bother Vince about Eric are his unfettered ambition and that he’s weasley. Eric initially liked the Bret Hart idea but when Hogan said it was a bad idea, Bischoff postured that position as his own and that he was going with what worked for his ambition.
• Vince says the reason Eric quashed the Bret deal is because of his loyalty with Hogan. Eric knew that Hogan would use his creative control to quash the Bret deal which would have upset Dixie. Eric decided to protect his friend instead of the company. Vince is pissed off that Eric wasn’t honest about that.

Vince’s Contract

• The creative structure got to a point where Vince asked his lawyer to write a letter to Dixie Carter reminding them that Vince had a contract and that an arbitrator should be called in to look at the situation
• Dixie’s lawyer (who was the same as Eric’s) wrote a letter back saying that Russo was the biggest piece of sh*t on the face of the planet. Vince called his lawyer back to tell Dixie that Vince was done and get him out of that contract. That was the end of the working relationship with TNA.
• Vince was head of creative at TNA but had to go through Bruce, Eric and Hogan to finish the creative, which was not in his contract. He was under contract as head of creative.
• Vince’s reaction to Dixie’s lawyer was maybe not the greatest reaction. That was his Italian temper.

People In the Wrestling Business

• Vince says in the wrestling business, everything is a work, everything is a lie and a con. Vince doesn’t see the benefit in lying about anything, however, because people who have been in the business lie, work and con people. They will say everything Vince Russo does is a lie and that he’s always working.
• Vince has done some things he’s not proud of and that he wants to be liked but isn’t going to lie to be liked.

Samoa Joe Story

• Vince tells a story where Samoa Joe said some derogatory things about Vince. Vince wrote an email to Joe asking where that came from and Joe responded that a storyline he was in killed Joe’s career.
• Joe assumed it was Russo that wrote the storyline but the story was actually from Eric Bischoff. However, at that time, Vince did not throw Bischoff under the bus.

Show Close

• To close out, Vince says this show was for his fans who wanted to know about Eric Bischoff. He hopes he addressed everything he could address. He is at the same spot with Eric Bischoff that he is with Jim Cornette. They are two grown men who hate his guts and while Vince has offered to have a face to face discussion they will not.

Late Breaking News

• Eric went on a tweet storm that Vince felt he needed to address
• Eric posted a statement from Spike about how good their relationship was and says that Vince never meant anything to Spike TV.
• When Spike and TNA didn’t renew their deal, Vince did an interview saying it wasn’t horrible for TNA because Spike didn’t promote TNA as much as they could. The email Eric posted could have been in response to Vince’s interview and it was not very professionally done.
• In 83 weeks, Eric said he was burned by Russo once in WCW and once in TNA. Vince has no idea about this. Specifically in TNA, Vince left two years prior to Eric being fired. Vince seems to think this hatred is an obsession with Eric.
• After this how, Vince is done with Eric

Rating – 8/10

This was an interesting podcast. I’ll be honest, I’m still not entirely sure what to make of Vince Russo, especially since he gets a lot of venom thrown his way by a ton of people, but at the same time, it’s always good to hear different perspectives about the same stories. I don’t know if I agree with everything Vince says but a lot of this sounds like a ‘he said he said’ and there is spin on both Vince and Eric’s side. That said, I do tend to side with Vince about the face to face. Bischoff and Cornette have said some strong things against Vince but if they are as tough and as straightforward as they say, I don’t see the reason why they wouldn’t want to at least tell Vince to his face he’s an idiot. But then again, I don’t know the whole story so maybe there’s a good reason. Or not. Regardless of which side you’re on though, this was a good listen and I definitely recommend it just to get a different perspective on the matter.

About Joe:

Joe is a long time wrestling fan from Toronto. He is a co-host on the Pull Apart Podcast with Jeff Rush and Caitlin Lavelle as well as a contributor to www.pwpodcasts.com. One of his life goals is to be a guest host on one of Wade Keller’s post-show podcasts. He doesn’t consider himself any sort of expert, he just likes wrestling. Check him out on Twitter and Instagram @ja113.