Vince Russo Comments On Email "Leak," Kevin Owens' Victory At Elimination Chamber, And More

The events of this weekend lend Vince Russo to post a screed on Facebook, which we've embedded below:

I GUESS LAST NIGHT WRESTLING FINALLY BECAME REALMain article: History of professional wrestlingOriginating as a...

Posted by Vince Russo on Monday, June 1, 2015

Some notes on the topics he covers here:

* Mankind hosting "The Rock, This is Your Life," which did an 8.4 quarter hour rating, is not by any stretch of the imagination the highest rated segment in the history of professional wrestling. One of the highest rated and most watched segments in the history of Monday Night Raw and pro wrestling on cable television, yes.

The actual biggest segment in the history of Raw is Steve Austin's WWF Championship win over The Undertaker the night after King of the Ring '99, which did a 9.5 rating (10.72 million viewers and 1/6th of cable homes watching TV at that moment were watching that match). Other segments beat "This is Your Life" during the '98-'99 period, too, and no, Dave Meltzer did not say he'd never watch wrestling again when reviewing that episode of Raw.

Going by Russo's wording makes the claim even less true. Not specifying an era makes room for the WWF MTV specials, which drew 9.0 ratings or higher for the entire hour. Not specifying cable allows the WWF specials on NBC, especially the first prime time special, which drew a 15.2 rating on network television. Specific national television, opening up the literal hundreds (if not more) of weekly episodes of territories' TV shows that drew much higher ratings, like Memphis, which routinely topped a 20 rating. Not specifying that he means in the United States opens up Rikidozan's matches in Japan that basically the whole country watched. And so on.

* As noted a few days ago, the Russo email to Dixie Carter effectively became a public document in 2008, when it was filed as an exhibit in the lawsuits between TNA and Konnan. It was not leaked in any fashion.

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