Vince Russo thinks wrestling is chasing the audience it already has while ignoring the millions of people it actually needs back. His problem isn’t that hardcore wrestling fans are watching every week—it’s that promotions keep building shows around people he believes are going to watch no matter what.
While speaking to No Bones About Wrestling, Russo divided wrestling viewers into two completely different groups. On one side is the internet wrestling community that watches consistently, follows everything and spends plenty of time dissecting the product afterwards.
“There are two different audiences, and that’s what they’re not getting, in my opinion. There is the hardcore audience, the internet wrestling community, that are going to watch the show no matter what. So it doesn’t matter. Why would I cater to somebody that’s going to watch the show no matter what?”
Russo’s criticism of that audience didn’t stop there. He went after the weekly online analysis surrounding wrestling and claimed some hardcore fans have become so consumed with the business that they’ve essentially convinced themselves what they’re watching is real.
“They are the ones watching every week, critiquing the show. They know more than Triple H. And quite frankly, man, I believe that they’ve convinced themselves that wrestling is real. And that’s who wrestling is catering to today.”
Those aren’t the viewers Russo would be worrying about. He’d rather go after everyone who used to watch wrestling but eventually found something else to do with their time.
“Meanwhile, you’ve got millions and millions and millions of people that are casual fans, casual television viewers who stopped watching wrestling. Those are the people I’m going after.”
Russo believes the way to reach them isn’t by giving hardcore fans more of what they already enjoy. His answer is to make wrestling television about characters and stories strong enough that somebody who isn’t obsessed with match quality or the business itself still feels compelled to come back the following week.
“The only thing that’s going to bring those people back are characters and storylines, bro. That’s the only thing that’s going to bring them back.”
Russo has never exactly hidden what he believes wrestling television should be, and his position hasn’t changed here. Hardcore fans are already watching. He wants wrestling to stop worrying so much about keeping them happy and start figuring out why millions of everyone else stopped watching in the first place.\
Do you agree with Vince Russo that modern wrestling caters too heavily to hardcore fans instead of trying to win casual viewers back? Let us know in the comments below.
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