Vince Russo uses one word to sum up why WWE created SmackDown (Exclusive)
Vince Russo has given an insight into why WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon introduced SmackDown as a weekly show.
SmackDown debuted on August 26, 1999, after a successful pilot episode aired on April 29, 1999. At the time, Russo was WWE's head writer alongside Ed Ferrara. The two joined WCW on October 3, 1999, meaning they only wrote television for the first seven SmackDown episodes.
On Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Outlaws show, Russo explained the blue brand's creation with one word:
"Same reason why RAW's three hours: greed. Greed. The WWE literally bastardized their property, their program, for money, and that was the concern of myself and Ed Ferrara. The concern was we knew the time we were putting into RAW, and we took great pride in that show. If you add another show, now it's impossible to have the same quality that you're having weekly with RAW because there just aren't enough hours in the day." [2:59 – 3:42]
Watch the video above to hear Vince Russo give more details on WWE launching SmackDown as an alternative to WCW's rival show Thunder.
Why Vince Russo disliked writing WWE SmackDown
The current SmackDown brand has a separate roster from RAW, but that was not the case when the show began in 1999.
Fun fact #SmackDown pilot episode Mr @TheJimCornette was on colour with legend @MichaelCole https://t.co/79uzZ3lndm
Vince Russo found it difficult writing two high-quality shows every week, especially when the entire roster was often available for both RAW and SmackDown:
"We wanted to make sure SmackDown was gonna be just as good as RAW. Bro, how was that even going to be possible? Everyone knows they bastardized RAW to get that third hour, and they've been paying for it ever since, and in the process, they lost millions and millions of fans because the product really suffered." [3:45 – 4:09]
RAW and SmackDown each ran for two hours during Russo's time as a WWE writer. While SmackDown remains a two-hour show, RAW became a three-hour show in 2012.
Do you prefer RAW or SmackDown? Let us know in the comments section below.
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