Vince Russo Ranks Best And Worst Wrestling Television Shows In The U.S.
Vince Russo has never made his penchant for watching wrestling for the out of the ring action a secret. A former WWF, WCW and TNA writer, Russo released his latest episode of Nuclear Heat here on Wrestling Inc, and ranked today's wrestling programs.
It's worth noting that Russo only ranked the shows as it pertains to a straight entertainment wrestling program. One that develops characters, has continuing story lines and the like. In what isn't likely a surprise to those who follow the program, El Rey's Lucha Underground was ranked at the top of the list.
"A little bit of everything for the entire television viewing audience to get into," Russo said of the show before giving a quick recap. "We have three females on the show. All beautiful, exotic, strong, powerful women. Now non-wrestling women viewers are going to be drawn to their roles. The guys are going to be drawn to these women. They play just as an important role in the show as the men. You can't say the same about the WWE. At Lucha, there's a strong female presence."
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Russo also said that he advocated the inter-gender matches, something Chavo Guerrero spoke about in our exclusive interview last week.
"If I'm flipping through this channel and see this woman taking on this monster. I'm stopping. It's going to be a car crash. The wrestling business needs to dare to be different. If you're safe, you're stale," Russo said.
One show that didn't get much praise was Ring of Honor, which airs on Comet TV and is syndicated nationally. Russo said that the heavy dose of in-ring action turns him off from the show.
"I am not interested in watching fake fights, no matter how good they are. As a casual television viewer, if I'm going to watch a fight, I'll watch an MMA fight that is real, looks real, and are acting like it's real," says Russo. "Ring of Honor knows that they're a niche wrestling product. None of the characters have personality, none of the characters have gimmicks, none of the characters have flamboyant ring entrances or ring attires. Very few backstage segments. It's a 100 percent wrestling show. I can't even tell you what channel Ring of Honor is on. With their budget and overhead, I guess they're okay having that niche wrestling audience."
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