Vince Russo knows JCW has something different, but he also knows there is a massive problem standing in the way.
During a live stream for his new book Total Non-Stop Agony: The Rise and Fall of TNA, Russo was asked by Violent Jay to name JCW’s two biggest strengths and two biggest weaknesses. After praising Violent Jay’s creative mind and calling JCW different from everything else in wrestling, Russo admitted the biggest issue is trying to bring back fans who gave up on wrestling a long time ago. Russo said the wrestling business has taken so much damage over the years that simply getting people to give the product a shot is the hardest part.
“The biggest weakness is guys and again I got into it before trying to figure out because of the damage that has been done over the years trying to figure out how to bring people back to wrestling. And Violent Jay has said it himself in numerous um interviews.”
Russo then said JCW is not begging anyone to watch. They just want lapsed fans to check it out and decide for themselves whether the show pulls them back in.
“Bro, all we’re asking you to do is check it out. Just check it out. If we hook you, we hook you. If we don’t, then we didn’t do our job. We’re not begging you to watch the show. We’re We’re asking you to check it out.”
Earlier in the same stream, Russo explained why he believes so many fans walked away from wrestling in the first place. He said wrestling used to draw around 10 million viewers on Monday nights between WWE and WCW, but that audience disappeared because wrestling stopped focusing on characters and stories.
“People have stopped watching wrestling. And they have stopped watching wrestling for a very, very long time. Wrestling on Monday nights used to draw 10 million people. That’s WW wcwe WWE combined. 10 million people. Raw on Netflix draws 1.5 million people worldwide over a week. We did 10 million people in one night.”
Russo said those missing fans did not vanish by accident. In his mind, they left because wrestling became too focused on matches and not enough on characters, storylines, cliffhangers, and reasons to come back the next week.
“So, literally, there’s 8.5 million people out there that are no longer watching wrestling. And guys, I got to tell you, I don’t blame you. You know, I you know, when I watch WWE, it’s it it’s not what it was. It’s all about wrestling, bro. It’s all about wrestling. And guess what? The wrestling is fake, bro. These matches are not real. Those 8.5 million people walked away because there are no longer characters and there are no longer story lines. That’s why they walked away.”
Russo said once wrestling is no longer part of someone’s weekly routine, it gets replaced by something else. That makes JCW’s job even harder, because they are trying to win back people who may not even think about watching wrestling anymore.
“And I knew, bro, I knew the biggest challenge would be getting these people back. getting the 8.5 million people to watch wrestling again because what happens is they stop watching it. It’s not in their routine anymore. Bro, once it’s out of the routine, guess what? It gets replaced by something else.”
Russo believes JCW is built for those fans who miss what wrestling used to be. Now the challenge is getting them to notice it exists.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
Do you think JCW can bring back fans who stopped watching wrestling years ago? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
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