Vince Russo was reportedly considered for a return to WWE’s creative team this year, more than two decades after he last worked for the company.
Conrad Thompson revealed the news in his debut column for Uncrowned on Tuesday.
Thompson reported that Russo had a series of conversations with Nick Khan over the summer about a potential return to the creative team.
Thompson explained why he believes hiring Russo would meet resistance backstage. He sees Russo’s reputation as an obstacle.
“There are two generations of wrestlers and WWE personnel who have strong, negative opinions of him.”
He thinks Russo’s past could get even his creative pitches rejected. Thompson believes WWE could instead bring Russo in as “a work-from-home creative consultant” with no direct role in creative meetings.
But the talks did not go any further. When Thompson checked back with his sources a few weeks ago, he was told the idea “died on the vine.”
Thompson said he took Russo’s departure from Juggalo Championship Wrestling in September as a sign of a deal with WWE. He later found out the exit had nothing to do with WWE. Russo has said he was unhappy with his work with JCW and decided to end his partnership with Violent J on good terms.
Fightful Select reported new details on Wednesday. The report said sources at WWE headquarters heard about Khan’s conversations with Russo but couldn’t say how far the talks went.
Fightful also reported that Russo may have visited the company’s headquarters, or that a visit was considered.
Russo ran WWF creative from 1997 to 1999, during the Attitude Era, before he left the company for WCW. He had a brief stint as a WWE consultant in 2002 before he moved on to TNA.
The idea of a Russo return is at odds with his recent comments about Triple H. In July, Russo sharply criticized WWE’s current creative team on Talk Is Jericho and said Triple H would never agree to talk with him about ideas for the company’s shows.