Vince Russo has been noticeably less visible around Juggalo Championship Wrestling lately, and that was enough to get fans wondering if something went sideways behind the scenes. Russo has now addressed the speculation himself after Ringside News went straight to him during The Coach & Bro Show.
The chatter started when JCW fan David D. Dowler posted in a Facebook fan group questioning Russo’s status with the company. He pointed to Russo making fewer appearances, not posting much about JCW, allegedly removing the promotion from his Twitter bio and only appearing by video call on Lunacy following Bloodymania. The post quickly got fans talking about whether Russo could be heading for the door.
Ringside News wasn’t interested in guessing, so we sent Russo the question directly during The Coach & Bro Show: “Vince, a JCW fan page is speculating you may be leaving because you’ve made fewer appearances, stopped promoting JCW, and removed it from your bio. Any truth to that?” Russo didn’t announce an exit. Instead, he explained exactly why fans haven’t seen him at some recent JCW events — starting with the Gathering of the Juggalos.
“Well, first of all, Coach, and you know this, I stopped making appearances because a 65-year-old man should not have been at the Gathering. Okay, bro, that was not a place for the 65-year-old man. And coming off of that, guess what, Coach? Everybody got COVID. Everybody. The Gathering. So I didn’t go to the next TV taping because I didn’t care to get COVID. So maybe that explains a little bit of that.”
That’s certainly a different explanation than some giant JCW blowup. Russo says he skipped the Gathering because he simply didn’t think it was the place for him at 65, then stayed away from the following taping because he didn’t want to risk getting COVID.
Jonathan Coachman also jumped into the social media side of the speculation, explaining that both he and Russo have other people helping control their accounts. Coach said fans shouldn’t automatically assume every change or response on social media came directly from them.
“Just so both of you know, me and Vince both have people that control our social medias. So I have a person named Nicole. If any of you ever tried to get to me, you got to go through Nicole first. And there have been times where Nicole has taken it upon herself to do and respond for me.”
So the wildest version of the rumor just took a hit, because Russo has a pretty straightforward explanation for why he hasn’t been around as much.
Do you think Vince Russo’s answer kills the speculation that he’s leaving JCW, or did he leave enough unanswered to keep the rumors alive? Let us know what you think in the comments.
