"Do you believe any of this is real? " - Vince Russo explains why casual fans don't tune into AEW Rampage [Exclusive]
Former WWE head writer Vince Russo recently shared his thoughts on why casual viewers don't watch AEW Rampage on Friday nights.
The one-hour show has received tons of criticism, primarily because of the show's languishing around half a million viewers on TNT. Last week's live edition of Rampage garnered 482,000 viewers, which marked a 19.66% decline from the April 8th episode.
Speaking with Dr. Chris Featherstone on Writing With Russo, Vince Russo slammed the entire show for being phony. The former WWE head writer asserted that the one-hour show always spins around four action-packed matches with no psychology.
Here's what Russo had to say about why Rampage has failed to draw casual fans' attention:
"I'm gonna give you a very basic takeaway for casual viewers and why they won't go anywhere near this show [AEW Rampage]," said Russo. "Chris, I watch Rampage. I'm gonna stop watching Rampage and Chris, I would sit there and watch this show for an hour. Bro during that hour, at no time, do you believe any of this is real?," said Russo. "You do not believe these are real fights and real. At no time. There's just zero reality the way these things are laid out the psychology, the Strong Style. You hit me, I hit you. You watch an hour of wrestling, and bro you don't believe any of it. Zero." [0:18-1:04]
You can check out the entire Writing With Russo podcast below:
Vince Russo believes AEW Rampage could get canceled soon
Vince Russo has also shared his belief that AEW Rampage could soon get canceled by the TNT network.
The veteran explained that the Friday night show is struggling to get past the half-a-million mark, and there's been no growth since its inception:
"I can't see Rampage staying on TNT on Friday nights with 500,000 people watching," Russo continued. "I can't see it. So if they decide to do away with Rampage, bro, it's really hard to make an excuse when a show gets canceled because the bottom line is, bro, you could say whatever you want. The show's getting canceled because of low numbers, and not enough people are watching it."
Hangman is a damn maniac
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It's worth noting that AEW Rampage has only registered over a million viewers once; the August 19th edition met the mark last year. The show became a mega-hit, courtesy of the shocking arrival of CM Punk.
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