After Vito lost an important match in which he lost a Title he spoke to his father on the phone. Vito ensured him that he’d get his Title back but his father said, “No you won’t!”, and hung up on him. His father didn’t speak to him for the next three months. Even though his father reacted like this, Vito let him continue to believe in the business of professional wrestling right up until his death at the age of 72.
Russo recalls walking into a wrestling locker room and seeing the heels and babyfaces playing cards together for the first time. Even though he knew it was a work, it was so engrained in the business back then to keep heels and babyfaces separate. Because of this, Russo was caught off guard by seeing the good guys and bad guys socializing together.
Russo points out that as kayfabe began to diminish, the business took a turn for the worse in the early to mid 1990’s. With the arrival of the attitude era, Russo believes the introduction of believable characters led to people revisiting their love for the business. Although people might have known it was fake, Russo’s goal as a writer and producer was to make sure these fans didn’t have their intelligence insulted.
He goes on to say that he was legitimately frightened when he first met The Undertaker, and again when he first met Scott Steiner. Wrestlers during that era felt threatening and that made the business believable, even though fans knew the difference. Today, Russo thinks he could legitimately stand his ground in a fight against half the WWE roster.
