Vince Russo Talks His Emails To Vince McMahon, McMahon's Response, Jim Cornette's Recent Claims
On Wednesday's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Podcast, former WWE and WCW Head Writer Vince Russo joined Wrestling Inc. owner Raj Giri, Glenn Rubenstein and Chris Callicutt. During the episode, Raj asked Vince about Jim Cornette's claim on the WWE Network's Table For 3 episode entitled 'Creative Committee' that Russo writes Vince McMahon every week about wanting to go back.
"That's absolutely untrue, Raj," Vince said about Cornette's claim. "You know what the funny thing is and bro anybody with half a brain would understand this. Cornette obviously doesn't have half a brain. Raj, I go on my podcast, OK, and I publicly read my personal emails with Vince McMahon."
Russo continued, "Ok bro, I did that on my show. I read his response to me when I did reach out one time and I also, on Konnan's show on Podcast One this week, I read Vince's response to me when I called him out for the Table for 3 Show. I wrote him an email; I called him out. And he wrote me back and I read that response."
"Raj, I've got to ask you question," Russo stated. "If I'm dying and begging the WWE for a freaking job, am I really going to go on my freaking show and read Vince McMahon's personal email," Vince asked. "I mean, let's just be logical bro. Like, is that the way I would get a job if I was dying and begging for a job? It's so freaking ridiculous."
Later in the show, Raj asked Russo for more details on Vince McMahon's response. Before Vince got into it, he explained some of the history the last time he wrote McMahon, which was a personal email, around 14 months ago when Shane McMahon returned to WWE. Russo said that he, Vince, Shane and Ed Ferrara used to ride together, revealing that seeing Shane back brought a tear to his eye. Russo stated that he simply told McMahon it was great seeing them back together again.
As for emailing Vince about work, Russo provided some background. He had his podcast on Podcast One every week where he was reviewing RAW. It got to the point where he found he wasn't saying anything nice about the show so he decided to stop watching and stop reviewing. But his listener numbers "went down the toilet" so he decided to start reviewing RAW again. He found he was doing the same thing, burying the show every week.
Vince explained he didn't want to be that guy but wanted to be part of the solution. Therefore, Russo revealed that one time he wrote Vince McMahon an email, something he said on his show he was going to do, where he told McMahon he would be open to contributing to the WWE in anyway he saw fit. McMahon responded by writing, "Vince, there is nothing available at this time."
Russo stated he was cool with the response and that was the extent of it. He emphatically stated it was one email and one email only. After some further questioning, Russo provided further background about writing to Vince.
"Raj, can I tell you this," Vince said. "I didn't just write to Vince. I wrote to Vince because I spoke to somebody at a very high level at the WWE and basically the person relied to me, like, 'Vince, you know they need you here' and the person also suggested that I need to kiss Vince's ass in order to work there. And I'm like you don't understand; I don't want to work there. If I can help and contribute, I will."
Russo stated the person he spoke with in WWE explained it is 100% Vince McMahon writing the material. Russo said if McMahon wanted to go back to working with him where he could be honest with him, he could. However, Russo believes Vince has a big ego and he's having an inner struggle where the ratings are in the crapper and [WWE's] popularity is very low and he himself is going to dig the company out of it. But, Russo believes, at 72-years-old it's just impossible for McMahon to do that because he doesn't have his finger on the pulse of pop culture. Russo stated he believes a lot of what's happening right now is due to ego.
You can watch Russo's appearance on the podcast in the video above. His comments regarding the emails with McMahon start at the 5:35 mark.
The Wrestling Inc. Podcast airs post-WWE pay-per-view Sundays and on Mondays immediately following WWE RAW with Matt Morgan, Glenn Rubenstein and Raj Giri. It airs Wednesdays at Noon ET with Chris Callicutt and Glenn Rubenstein. The archive of episodes is available by clicking here.