Russo opens today’s show by sending his prayers and best wishes to Ric Flair and his family after Flair was hospitalized over the weekend. Russo says that he doesn’t deal well with sickness and death, and he was absolutely distraught when he heard of Flair’s hospitalization over the weekend.
He says that when he initially left WWE to head to WCW, he was very nervous about the situation he was walking into. WCW was always a traditional Southern promotion, and Russo was concerned with how well he’d fit in there. He was also consumed with the fear of having to work with legends like Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.
Once Russo got to WCW, he knew he was going to have to make some changes to the roster. Flair, Hogan and the other veterans were all getting up in age, and Russo began to set the table to get them off of television full time in order to make room for younger talents. He wanted to repackage them and transition them into part-time wrestling roles where they could be respected as the legends they were, but he’s pretty sure that the older generation of talent were not happy to hear this.
