He points out that WWE is never going to get new fans if they continue to book like this. Rule #1 in the wrestling business is to not book for the casual fans. WWE has those people already, and they need to be focusing on appealing to people who aren’t watching wrestling. Putting Nakamura and Asuka over in the Royal Rumble matches isn’t going to draw any new, mainstream eyes to WWE’s product.
Russo thought it was embarrassing that the Philadelphia crowd chanted, “You both suck!” when Reigns and John Cena had a stare-down during the Rumble match. He points out that these two guys don’t script the shows; they just show up each day and bust their ass to entertain the fans. He adds that Cena carried WWE on his back for the past decade, and Reigns draws more money right now than Nakamura ever will.
He says that he if was booking the show, he would have put The Miz over. Russo says The Miz can appeal to people on a mainstream level, and he doesn’t understand what Miz is lacking in the eyes of WWE officials.
Speaking about the Universal Title match, Big Vito points out that Brock Lesnar failed to show up in great shape yet again. He’d like to see Lesnar re-dedicate himself to training because he hasn’t represented himself well these last few appearances. Russo also thought the match was very predictable in the sense that Kane was just there to take the pinfall.
Russo admits that the Women’s Rumble was much better than he anticipated. WWE had 11 surprise entrants for this match and he really didn’t think they’d be able to find that many former talents to return. He also liked that they protected the women and gave them breaks throughout the match on the outside of the ring.
