Forgiven: One Man's Journey from Self-Glorification to Sanctification (23 page)

• • •

It’s 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night. As my 12-hour monster day winds down, I’m sitting in my office watching a basketball game as I write.

I have but one question for you: how ugly is tbs basketball commentator Hubie Brown? Is this man the ugliest human being on the boob tube, or what? How do you put a guy this hideous on television? I mean, I don’t care about his knowledge of the game — who cares?

I have to look at him for two-and-a-half hours! I’m begging you —

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give me a hot broad. What ever happened to Jayne Kennedy? Do you remember Jayne Kennedy — one of the first women to actually break into the male-dominated world of professional sports? But don’t kid yourself — Jayne broke in because she was drop-dead gorgeous. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know a nickelback from a humpback, what mattered was she was hot. And, that’s what it’s all about today, though tbs has yet to get it. Hubie Brown? You’ve got to be kidding me.

It’s no different with the news. When are the networks going to understand that if they put hot broads out there to read the news ratings will go up? Hot broads are money in the bank. There’s no way you’re not watching
The Today Show
on nbc in the morning in hopes that little Katie Couric’s skirt hikes up over those sweet little thighs. But noooooo — abc still gives us Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer.

Please!
What are these women, 80? Do you know how many more young people would be tuned into the news if they just gave them something to look at? How about Carmen Electra doing the weather?

She doesn’t need to know about the Doppler Radar System — just tell her what to say. Better yet — how about Cindy Margolis doing the sports in a teddy? What, are young adult males not going to watch that?

Wake up people, it’s what the normal person wants. Why in God’s name am I watching abc’s Sam Donaldson at 7 p.m., when there might be a
Three’s Company
rerun on Nickelodeon?

Give me T, give me A, give me the whole enchilada! Regis gets it.

You think we’re watching
Live with Regis & Kelly
for Regis? The tighter Kelly’s sweater, the longer I’m tuning in. That’s why
The View
is such a let down. Here’s the opportunity to give us something totally hot. Give me five scantily clad models in a very cold studio and I’m yours for the hour. But noooooo — they give us Star Jones. They dumped the only good-looking broad they had on there because the rest were all jealous of her. I mean, why — in the good name of God

— would I want to roll out of bed in the morning and have Barbara Walters be the first thing I see?

Sorry, Barbara, I just can’t believe I wrote that stuff. I can’t believe where 161

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Vince Russo

my head was at. Today, my favorite tv personality is Joyce Myer, a mid-to-late 50-something, female television evangelist who has taught me more about God and the Bible in the past year than I had previously learned in my entire lifetime. Joyce takes the hands-on approach, by taking the word of God and teaching us how to implement it in our everyday lives. She represents precisely everything I was against only two short years ago.

• • •

Let me give you another perfect example of why Vince McMahon needed someone like me. Here’s one of my favorite stories from my magazine days. . . . I was backstage at King of the Ring the year Stone Cold Steve Austin won it in 1996. Moments before making his acceptance speech, he ran it by me. I must admit I wasn’t paying much attention at the time. Man, I suffer greatly from tunnel vision — I have my whole life. When something is on my mind, I focus on it 100 percent — I don’t let anything else get in the way. I just don’t believe in wasting brainpower. I deal solely with the matter at hand, when the matter’s at hand. So Steve ran this promo by me, and I honestly wasn’t paying much attention because I was preoccupied with something else.

Then he went out and gave it.

holy !@#$!!!! Right then, right there, it hit me with the impact of a Catherine Zeta-Jones lap dance.

“Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!” I don’t know . . . it was just magic. As the words sprayed out of his mouth, I just knew that that phrase was going to make Steve a star. It was just one of those things. Maybe I have a good instinct for the business, but I just knew — kind of like the first time I met Rena. . . .

The following day I couldn’t wait to get back to the office. “Austin 3:16” was going to be the cover line for the new edition of
Raw
Magazine
. Along with the photo editor, I searched for a picture that would best fit the phrase. We agreed on a black-and-white, up-close shot of Austin immediately after winning the event. We would then add a grainy texture to the picture, and use red as a third color on the 162

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cover to highlight the blood that dripped from his lip and nose.

Excited that I was on to something, I took a mock-up of the cover over to the television studio to show Vince. I remember this like it was yesterday. . . .

Vinny Mac: “What does Austin 3:16 mean?” Me: “Austin said it during his King of the Ring promo. It’s going to be
huge
, Vince!”

Vinny Mac: “I don’t get it. Change it.”

Do you understand how much money that short phrase, “Austin 3:16,” has made Steve Austin, Vince McMahon and Titan Sports over the years? More money than you and I will ever see in our lifetimes.

Yet at the time Vince McMahon couldn’t see it.

I’ve got to say this — I respect and admire Vince. But while he
is
creative, I don’t necessarily agree that he is the “creative genius” everybody thinks he is. Vince’s true genius is that he surrounds himself with geniuses. And no, I’m not referring to myself. Have you ever heard the name Kevin Dunn in association with the World Wrestling Federation?

Kevin is the executive producer of
Raw
, and has worked for Vince for well over a decade. As a matter of fact, Kevin’s father worked for Vince Sr. Now let me be the first to break the news to you . . . without Kevin Dunn you would not see anything
near
the production quality that you see every Monday night. Forget Vince — without Kevin Dunn the show probably would not go on,
period!
Kevin is by far the mvp of Titan Sports, more valuable than anyone on the roster — and yet you never hear of him. Much like I was, Kevin was, and still is, one of Vince’s best-kept secrets. I guess Vince may think that if he went public with what Kevin brought to the table, then every network out there would be looking to woo him. And he’s right — they would.

But Vince has to give credit where credit is due. Think about it. Why aren’t there any credits at the end of
Raw?
It’s a television show, isn’t it? Why isn’t anyone else being given credit?

For a long time, it didn’t bother me that Vince kept me under 163

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Vince Russo

wraps (after I worked my way up the ranks). As long as he paid me, I really didn’t care who knew what I did. But I’ll never forget, as ratings grew and the company became bigger and bigger, there was Vince, on television and in print, taking credit for everything, and never once putting his people over. I mean, following a championship have you ever heard Phil Jackson say, “Yeah — it was all me — all my coach-ing, all that Zen nonsense. Forget Kobe and Shaq — it was me.” Well, Kevin Dunn and I were Vince’s Kobe and Shaq and we, along with many,
many
other all-stars, made up that team.

Man, it just started to get to me towards the end, especially when I picked up the copy of
Cigar Aficionado
with Vince on the cover. I have to admit — this time he did give creative props to somebody . . . his son Shane. Vince referred to Shane as a creative force behind the scenes at the wwf. Not to take anything away from Shane, but where was Shane when I was spending eight to ten hours writing the shows every Friday?

Man, not only did that trigger me at the time, but later in my career it would hurt me, because many people didn’t understand my contribution to the days of the 7 ratings. I’m talking about people in Hollywood, where I might have had a real opportunity, if only they’d known.

But I don’t want to sound bitter — what’s done is done. In my opinion, Vince just should have done the right thing, that’s all. Give credit where credit is due — not just privately, but publicly.

Another favorite magazine story concerns Tammy Sytch, a.k.a.

Sunny. The competition between the women of the wwf was vicious.

Sunny hated Sable, Sable hated Sunny, Luna hated Sable, Chyna hated Sable, Luna hated Sunny — it was a soap opera. A television show depicting that side of the business would make Rachel, Monica and Phoebe’s Thursday night
Friends
look about as lame as the goody-good plain-Jane sisters of
Little Women!
And the girls were so open about it, too. Unlike the guys, who would quietly and methodically stab each other in the back, the “divas” would scream at each other, curse each other out, physically attack each other — it was, as Regis would say, “Out of control!”

Yes, the girls were quite public with their spats. I’ll never forget the 164

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time when I stood in front of Sunny to protect her from a charging Luna. Now I was considered “office,” hands-off, but that didn’t stop Luna.

She came at me like a bull seeing red — dumping me butt-first in a laundry cart. I swear to you, Luna Vachon could kill you. I don’t care how big and tough you are, she’ll rip out your eyes and eat them in front of you. So when it came to the swimsuit editions of
Raw
Magazine
you’ve got to know where I’m coming from.

We were planning on doing a Sable and Sunny bikini bonanza in
Raw Magazine
. Sable would be on half the covers, Sunny on the other half. I believe we were promoting them as “collector’s editions,” but what a crock that was. It was basically a marketing ploy to make readers buy two copies of the magazine instead of one —

which they did.

Now while we’re on the topic, what’s the deal with magazine companies putting hot chicks on the cover of their pubs, and then shrink-wrapping the book so we can’t look at it on the newsstand?

What is that?
Stuff
just had Leah Remini from
King of Queens
on the cover, scantily clad and teasing us about the other photos inside.

!@#$% you, teasing me like this! I want to look at this magazine right here, right now — and not buy it. Yeah, I ripped open the thing. Man, this Leah Remini is hot — and the real deal I might add, straight from the streets of New York. Do these newsstand geniuses think we don’t rip open the freaking bag? Come up with a better gimmick. Like those pill jars that
nobody
can open.

Vince Russo: Bad Boy! It’s hard to believe how juvenile I was only two years ago. I don’t know, I just felt this need to impress you. To come across as cool, to go against the grain, to be the “bad boy.” Why? I have no idea, to be honest with you. Today all of those things mean nothing to me. I swear to you, I can’t even pick up a magazine like
Stuff
any more. Realize, I didn’t make a conscious effort to stop looking at magazines like that, I just no longer want to. That is what I mean about the

“change.” Everything in your life changes when God takes over —

everything.

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So, we shot Sable first. Man, I can’t tell you how many times I looked at those pictures. Just one glimpse of something I wasn’t supposed to see, that’s all I was asking for — one nip-slip, that’s all. God, the pictures were gorgeous — you knew then that she was
Playboy
material.

What can I say? She was, and still is, the perfect woman.

So now it was Sunny’s turn. Now remember, Sunny was no idiot.

Somehow she got a hold of Sable’s pictures so that she could see exactly what she was competing against. Now, though beautiful in her own right, if I were Sunny I wouldn’t have wanted to see those pictures, because the truth was, I wasn’t going to win. So we proceeded to shoot Sunny — and the pictures were indeed hot in their own right. Though Sunny had a different kind of beauty than Sable, any way you look at it, you’re not turning away either one.

I chose a shot of Sunny for the cover that was hot — very exotic.

I think she had her hair thrown back, her mouth open, a look of ecstasy in her eyes — and she was on her knees. Now, I’ve got to tell you — if I’m a guy, I’m buying the magazine. Well, on the second floor of Titan Sports, Sunny sees this cover shot and she’s not happy.

So, she starts throwing a hissy fit. . . .

“I’ll sue for sexual discrimination! I’ll sue for sexual discrimination! That’s not me on the cover! That’s not me!” I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask Sunny, “If it’s not you —

then who is it?”

• • •

Let’s talk about sexual harassment in the workplace (I think I’m looking at pet peeve number whatever now). This is the biggest injustice known to us men. Constantly dealing with women in both the wwf and wcw, I was always scared to death of being hit with the sexual harassment deal. Basically, it’s the easy way to get what you want.

Whether it be money, a promotion, a buy-out — you cry sexual harassment and your boss is shaking in his corporate loafers. The whole idea of this is insane. Being in the power position I was in both 166

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wwf and wcw, do you know how many women came on to me in an effort to further their careers. It was frightening! You see me claiming sexual harassment? If women want to be our equals and stand tall with us in the workplace, no problem — then treat
us
as equals. Don’t assume we’re looking at you as anything other than our workmates.