Vince Russo has to be honest with himself about his worst idea in pro wrestling.
Former WWE writer Vince Russo was a recent guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about his worst idea in wrestling, Russo pointed to the Kennel from Hell match, which took place back at Unforgiven 1999.
“I’d rather try something new than repeat a match we’ve seen a billion times before,” Vince Russo began. That’s how I am. I’d rather try something new than just go back to the well a million times. The Dog Kennel from Hell is probably number one, and I’ll tell you why, Chris. I swear this is the God-honest truth. I think of the concept because The Boss Man, our story revolved around the little dog Pepper.
“Okay, so I thought of the concept, but in my head, they are attack dogs, you know, they’re police dogs, the teeth are out, and saliva is coming out, and they’re circling the ring, that’s the picture in my head. So now bro, I’m at the building, and they bring the dogs in, and [someone says] Vince, here are the dogs for the match. I walk over to look at the dogs. Bro, the first dog licked my hand.
“And I’m like, bro, I never thought of what if they’re not attack dogs? What if they are pets? You know what I’m saying? Like that’s exactly what happened, bro; these were the lamest, laziest [dogs]. I swear to God, and like I said, I 1,000% blame myself for that because I never took that into consideration. I’m literally convinced these are going to be attack dogs. So since they weren’t, that actually sucked.”
It’s Folklore, Bro
When asked about his obsession with booking pole matches throughout his career, Russo insisted that he only came up with less than ten pole matches in the 16 years he’s booked professional wrestling.
“That’s folklore, bro,” Vince Russo insisted. “I was in the business; I started writing about, I’ve roughly say, 96. I went to 2012, that’s 16 years. A lot of that 16 years bro were two shows a week, plus pay-per-views. Okay, I dare anybody in those 16 years with all those shows I wrote. I dare you to come up with ten pole matches. I dare you, bro.
“You can come up with about three because that’s what I remember, bro. I remember green slip on a pole match. I remember Viagra on a pole match. Mrs. Bagwell, Judy Bagwell technically was not on a pole; she was on a forklift. Okay, bro and what was after that, go ahead. Maybe it is more than three. I just said three to me immediately come to mind, but come on, bro.
“Again, bro, they love creating the folklore. We’re going to create folklore, but here’s the problem, bro. When you go to anybody that really cares enough and goes back and does the history, it’s all there, bro. You will find out what is truth and what is false. Bro, if I booked all these pole matches, I have no problem saying that. Why would I [care]? I don’t give a crap, bro. I’d have no problem saying it. But what I’m saying is bro, it’s not what you’ve created over the years.”
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