Vince Russo and Steve Austin Discuss Modern Wrestling Killing Character Development

Vince Russo recently appeared on Steve Austin’s podcast to discuss the lack of character development within WWE and there being too many wrestlers and not enough characters for the casual viewer. Below are the highlights courtesy of Wrestling Inc.

Russo On Modern Wrestling Killing Characters:

“I saw this 10 years ago.” Russo argued, “the style of matches is what [has] killed the character and I can tell you why, Steve. 10 years ago, when I was in TNA all these young guys started to come up. The Young Bucks were in TNA, The Motor City Machine Guns, [Chris] Sabin and [Alex] Shelley. The young guys were coming up and what I would notice, Steve, I would sit in the back and here’s what I’m seeing all day. They’re walking around by themselves, they’ve laid out the match and everything, but they’re walking around by themselves all day. This is what I’m saying and here’s the problem. Again, bro, where are the agents? Where are the producers? Here’s the problem: because of the style of the match today, they are so consumed with memorizing the spots. Bro, they are so consumed with memorizing the spots the character goes out the window. Every character would sell differently. Every character would go on offense differently. That was all part of the character. When you are memorizing spot for spot for spot, the first thing that goes out the window is the character.”

Russo On There Being Too many Wrestlers & Not Characters:

“Now, all-of-a-sudden, you have a roster full of wrestlers and the only people that are going to tune in to your show are 100% pure wrestling fans.” Russo averred, “you’re not going to expand your business because they don’t like wrestling. All the people that we got to buy in because of the characters and the story, the casual television fans.”

Austin on Character Development Taking a Backseat to match Quality:

“At the end of the day, going back to [Russo’s] match analyzation, it almost turns into a video game where it’s the red guy versus the blue guy and it’s just movement, this way and that way. And the emotion is gone and if you don’t have emotion… Yeah, the audience has been conditioned to say, ‘this is awesome! This is awesome! This is awesome!’ Man, I don’t know. Is it awesome? Is it really?”

Austin on WWE Talent Being Overwhelmed:

”I think they are so overloaded with work that that’s all they can do, the three hours of RAW, the two hours of SmackDown, and everything else that they’re doing within the [WWE] Network.” Austin continued, “dude, those guys are shooting so much content it’s unbelievable. The amount of work that goes into it is countless hours. So I know the passion’s still there. I just think it’s so much content and because there’s not WCW banging on the door. Dude, the stakes aren’t as high. I mean, you want the ratings to be there. I’m not crapping on the guys. I ain’t crapping on the office. But the sense of urgency has changed and it’s a little flatlined when it should always be like you’re watching an [atrial electrogram] monitor on someone’s heart that should have spikes and ups and downs. A straight line? Come on, man. I think it’s too much content.”

Click here to listen to the full show.