“When I sat down to write that book; everything just poured out of me,” former WWF, WCW and TNA Head Writer Vince Russo exclusively tells Wrestling Headlines, “which meant so much was vented up inside me that I never released and never let out.”
On 14th July, ECW Press will release the third and final entry of what Russo himself refers to as his trilogy of books covering his time in the world of professional wrestling. Total Nonstop Agony documents his time within TNA and his life post-TNA. How can you not be intrigued by a book where the first bitesize chapter is titled ‘Hogan, You Big, Bald, Son-of-a-Bitch’. ‘Eric Bischoff Is Not Creative’ another chapter is entitled.
Even if you’re not a fan of him, you might finish the book believing he’s not the antagonist that many have portrayed him to be. You can feel writing the book is a form of therapy for the man referred to in the blurb as ‘one of the most influential men in the industry’.
Battles with Bischoff
“I know without a shadow of a doubt, I’m going to deal with the wrath of Eric Bischoff,” Russo tells me. A large chunk of the book is about former WCW head honcho Bischoff, a man who often labelled our author as a pathological liar. It’s a term that Russo takes great issue with, proclaiming himself to be quite the opposite. ‘Eric never had my respect’, he writes. He even pens a disclaimer mid-book:
I want this to go on the record, and I want to be clear about this. I have been as apologetic as I possibly can be as I’ve been cutting now 18 chapters of promos on Eric. This was not my intention going in, but by the same token—I refuse to edit myself. You are reading 25 years of built up anger, animosity, frustration, and at times even borderline hate. That is all my truth. I am not trying to convince you of anything. If you’re reading this and you believe Eric is wearing the white hat and villain Vince is full of shit—that is your right and prerogative.
There isn’t anyone I hated working with more than Eric Bischoff. Not Cornette, not Goldberg, no one even came close. Looking back, even though I’m sure there were some good days, it now feels like every day I was in Eric’s presence was miserable. And the sad thing is . . . it didn’t have to be that way.
Hogan and Bischoff’s lack of effort and desire to help TNA is apparent according to Russo. It’s something that deeply riled a man who was obviously passionate and dedicated to his work. We read a story in the book of Hulk and Eric not allowing a certain talent to become TNA world champion after the four creative team members had decided it should happen, and had informed said talent of their impending championship coronation.
“Same way I had to break the news to Bobby Roode. Eric would agree but the minute he went to Hulk and Hulk didn’t want to do it, then his tune changed,” Russo explained.
“Every company I’ve worked for in my life, my loyalty is to the person who signs the check. His loyalty was to Hulk Hogan. His loyalty was never to TNA.”
“I didn’t realise the ill will and animosity I had towards Eric,” he continued. “I didn’t realise until I sat down and started to write that book. Getting it all out was something I really needed to do.”
TNA Turmoil
Often it was former TNA owner Dixie Carter who was lead astray by others that didn’t have her best interests at heart. Russo did, and tried his utmost to steer Carter in the right direction, away from the carnies taking advantage of her good nature, deficiencies of being a leader, and naivety, like putting Impact head-to-head with Monday Night Raw.
“It was really, really tough, bro. I was the only guy who would try to smarten Dixie up,” he said. “Every time I tried to smarten her up, she would get hot at me, because she would take it as an insult like I thought she was stupid. That wasn’t the case at all. She’d just never been around professional wrestlers before and professional wrestlers are the best ‘workers’ in the world. If you’re not smart to them, you’re going to get worked. That was an ongoing thing.”
Russo is an emotional human with genuinely good intentions – I don’t think there’s any denying that – in a business of cutthroats and carnies, and he always did right by Dixie Carter during his TNA tenure. This is a man shunned by so many, seemingly for reasons beyond his control or dishonest motives of others. Even his son, Will, was caught in the crossfire of Vince’s TNA exit.
“The people that have heat with me are the people that were on my level and in competition with me, like Bischoff or Jim Cornette.”
“Vince Russo wrote a brand of wrestling that they did not like. I’m a sports-entertainment guy to this very day.”
The bizarre story of Cornette, Kenny Bolin and a restraining order is a mind-boggling one. Jim Cornette is quite the eccentric character and has said vile things about Russo on multiple occasions. Forget Austin vs. McMahon and Punk vs. Rollins; Russo vs. Cornette is the interminable forever-feud. Cornette’s name appears within three pages of the first chapter.
Post-TNA
Creating Russo’s Brand after his TNA spell ended, the deeply religious Russo has forged his own path doing his own thing, his way. Despite his love/hate relationship with the business, he shows a passion for broadcasting now akin to the passion he showed for wrestling in the 1990s.
“I was going to put all my eggs into the Vince Russo basket and that’s exactly what I’ve done. Russo’s Brand is me,” he explained. “It’s my life, it’s what I think, it’s what I feel, it’s what I like. You’re going to get me. There are a lot of people that like that and appreciate that. I’m very grateful to be doing it for over ten years now.”
“Wrestling became a job for me a long time ago. I would say, when I went to WCW in 1999, at that time it was a job. Even working for JCW (Juggalo Championship Wrestling), it’s a job. The love for wrestling is no longer there.”
Joining JCW last year, Russo declared the locker room to be the best he’s ever worked with, full of respect for the veteran writer. JCW Lunacy shows on Youtube regularly attract 35-45,000 views per episode. It did rekindle his love of writing rather than wrestling.
“I’m writing and producing a television show, there are characters and storylines. A television show is much, much different from a wrestling show.”
Probably already knowing what his answer would be, I decided to ask Russo what he would do differently if he had his time again in the wrestling business, and if he even would want to do it again?
“Absolutely not. Never in a million years.”
“The fun compared to the drama and the heartache and the ugliness and the disappointment is about 5%.”
Throughout the book between paragraphs, Russo writes Stream Of Consciousness paragraphs detailing things he needs to write down immediately, or he’ll forget them forever. One of these covers a dark and deeply depressing story about the demise of former WCW & TNA star, Daffney. It’s a gut-puncher. He reveals exchange of texts and e-mails in 2021 with Vince McMahon, his hatred of the modern cancer this is ‘cancel culture’, his hilarious list of reasons for people being wrestling marks and how TNA earned two million viewers under his pencil – a high bar that today’s No.2 pro wrestling promotion, AEW, would kill for.
I anticipated a very entertaining read beforehand, unlike other pro wrestling tomes I’ve consumed and the self-confessed workaholic delivers, telling a story that I thoroughly enjoyed.
“I’m not going to edit myself. This is how I felt deep down in my core, and here it is,” Russo concluded.
