Steve Carrier on December 12, 2017
Big Vito is joined on today’s show by Jeff Lane.
Lane opens today’s show by mentioning that WWE’s Rich Swann has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and battery after a weekend conflict with his wife. There are conflicting statements from Swann, his wife and the witnesses, but apparently Swann and his wife were returning home from one of his wife’s wrestling shows and Swann was critiquing her match.
From there the details get blurry but several witnesses said they saw Swann’s wife exit the car followed by Swann, and the car actually rolled slowly into a nearby light pole. Swann argued that he was just trying to get his wife to return to the car so they could get home because she had their only GPS on her phone and he wouldn’t be able to get home without it.
Swann has been suspended indefinitely by WWE due to their zero tolerance policy regarding domestic violence, and Vito points out that while Swann hasn’t actually been proven guilty of anything yet, the public’s perception of him has already taken a huge hit. Whether Swann is guilty of the alleged crimes he’s charged with or not, he’s already been proven guilty in the public eye.
Vito informs that he was living with a girl many years ago and they were having issues. He was leaving to work overseas for 6 months so he decided to end things with her. The girl didn’t take things well, threw a wine bottle at him and drew a machete on him. He ran out of the house and called the police and when they arrived he said that he didn’t want to press charges, he just wanted to get his stuff and leave.
When the police entered the house and questioned her she said that Vito pushed her and the police were forced to arrest him because of her accusation, even though it didn’t happen. While in court, the Judge read between the lines and released him and his ex-girlfriend eventually admitted to lying. She was facing 5 years in prison but he dropped the charges.
Vito informs that he’s still friends with her to this day and she has spoken to Vito’s current wife on multiple occasions, confirming to her that Vito never laid a hand on her once. Vito shared this story to prove that just because someone is accused of something, that doesn’t automatically mean they’re guilty. He believes that people should wait before passing judgement in these cases.
Lane asks Vito if he thinks WWE did the right thing by suspending Swann immediately before anything has been proven. Vito thinks that with all that’s going on in the world today WWE probably had to suspend Swann immediately in order to save face.
Lane wonders if Swann will ever be able to get his wrestling career back on track, but Vito assumes that Swann is more concerned with his personal life at the moment. If he’s facing jail time that’ll put his priorities in focus very quickly, so Vito doubts wrestling is on his mind right now.
He points out that WWE has to suspend talents when these types of situations occur because if the talent is actually guilty of some crime that puts the company and its other employees at risk, they can’t be allowed back into the locker room. However, until Swann is proven guilty in this case, Vito thinks we need to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Vito points out that the public’s perception of people often dictates how they’re viewed by their employers and peers. For example, Vito questions whether John Laurinaitis was actually a nice person when he was in a powerful position in WWE. Vito says that the answer depends on the public’s perception of Laurinaitis because although Vito has his own opinion, that’s just one opinion in a sea of millions.
That sums up today’s episode of Vince Russo’s The Brand. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya tomorrow for another recap!
December 12, 2017 9:01 pm
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