Vince Russo gave AEW a shot, but he says the product lost him for one simple reason — there was just too much wrestling.
During an interview on Interactive Wrestling Radio, Russo talked about his current work with JCW Lunacy and why he believes modern wrestling has pushed away casual fans. The conversation turned to how his style is very different from AEW Dynamite, where matches often take up huge chunks of the show.
Russo made it clear that he believes wrestling has become too focused on in-ring action and not enough on characters, stories, comedy, drama, and the kind of television hooks that used to pull in a much larger audience. When the host brought up how modern wrestling often leans on long matches instead of quick storytelling, Russo said that is exactly why so many viewers checked out.
“And that’s why we’ve gone from 10 million people watching wrestling on a Monday night to two million people watching wrestling. That is exactly why the wrestling, the inring action, that is a niche market. You you are only going to watch that if you if if you love that aspect of the business. The casual fans, the fans that have disappeared, they have disappeared because there are no longer characters. There are there’s no longer storylines. There’s no drama, comedy, thrills, uh you know, you name it. Nothing that they get on regular television. All there is is wrestling. And that’s what we are down to. We are down to a core wrestling audience.”
That was Russo’s bigger point. He does not think the issue is that wrestlers are not talented. He thinks the business has trained itself to serve only the hardest of hardcore fans, while everyone else moved on.
The host then brought up AEW directly and noted that Tony Khan has said he likes what Russo is doing with JCW Lunacy, even though the two products look nothing alike. Russo agreed they are completely different, then admitted he has not kept up with AEW in years. That is when Russo explained why AEW lost him.
“Yeah. No, absolutely not. And you know, again, man, I haven’t watched AEW in a very, very, very long time. I watched the first 15 months of AEW and it was just there was just way too much wrestling on the show for me. And you know, after after 15 months, I lost interest and I really haven’t watched it since.”
That is a pretty blunt review from someone who has always pushed for wrestling to be more than just bell-to-bell action. Russo watched AEW early on, gave it more than a year, and then bailed because the show was not giving him the kind of entertainment-first product he wanted.
AEW fans may not agree with him, especially since the company built its identity around strong matches and a more sports-style presentation. Still, Russo’s point is clear. He believes AEW is built for wrestling fans who already love long matches, not casual viewers flipping around looking for characters and chaos.
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Do you agree with Vince Russo that AEW has too much wrestling, or is that exactly what makes the company work? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
