World Wrestling Federation (1992–1999) In 1992, Russo was hired as a freelance writer for
WWF Magazine after writing
Linda McMahon a letter, and he became an editor "Crash TV" centered on Russo's philosophy that every character on WWF television should be involved in a storyline (feud). This contrasted conventional wrestling booking, which typically saw a number of matches between wrestlers who were not necessarily in feuds. Russo believed that if storyline material were constantly on screen, the audience would be more reluctant to change the channel for fear of missing something. In 1997, Russo became head writer for the WWF At the
King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1998,
Ed Ferrara joined the WWF creative team and was paired with Russo. Some of the more controversial characters during this time, often cited by Russo's critics, include
Sable,
Val Venis, and
The Godfather. Russo devised the
Brawl for All tournament, and contributed to the formation of
D-Generation X (DX),
The Undertaker vs.
Kane feud, the
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs.
Mr. McMahon feud, the rise of
The Rock, and
Mick Foley's three-face pushes. In the two years after Russo's promotion to head writer,
Raw surpassed WCW's
Nitro in head-to-head ratings.
World Championship Wrestling (1999–2000) Hiring and arrival On October 3, 1999, Russo and
Ed Ferrara signed with WCW; Russo and Ferrara attempted to use the same "Crash TV" style on
Monday Nitro, which was similar to
Raw Is War but at an accelerated pace, including soapier storylines, lengthier non-wrestling segments, constant heel/face turns, more female representation, fake retirements, more backstage vignettes, expanded storyline depth, constant title changes, and using midcard talent more effectively. Russo and Ferrara often poked fun at the WWF. Liger lost the title to
Juventud Guerrera, a
luchador, after being hit on the head with a tequila bottle. Swerves and scenarios treated as "
shoots" were heavily emphasized, as wrestlers supposedly gave unscripted interviews using "insider" terms recognized only by the Internet
smarks; chaotic broadcasts became the norm.
Walkout and return In January 2000, Russo received two phone calls, one from
Bret Hart (then WCW World Heavyweight Champion) and one from
Jeff Jarrett (then WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion), both saying they were injured, could not wrestle, and had to vacate their championships. This required Russo to alter his plans for Hart and the
New World Order. Russo and his booking committee sat down to determine what would now happen at
Souled Out. One of the ideas included putting the now-vacated WCW Title on the shoot fighter
Tank Abbott, a former
UFC fighter. In an attempt to do something believable, the idea was originally to have a "rumble match" in which
Sid Vicious would be an early entrant in the match and would last all the way to the end, when Abbott would come into the match and eliminate him with one punch. Russo said that Abbott might not have held the belt for more than 24 hours if this title change had actually occurred. But the day after he and his committee came up with the idea, he was asked to work in a committee and no longer be head writer. Russo declined the offer and left the company, with his immediate replacement being
Kevin Sullivan, who along with other bookers chose
Chris Benoit to win the title from Vicious in a singles bout with
Arn Anderson as referee. Sullivan was relieved of his duties in March 2000 and Russo returned as lead writer, alongside the returning Eric Bischoff. The idea was that Russo and Bischoff would
reboot WCW into a more modern, streamlined company that would allow younger talent to work with established stars. On the April 10, 2000,
WCW Monday Nitro episode, Russo was introduced as an on-screen antagonist authority figure. Notable storyline points for his character include "
The New Blood vs.
The Millionaire's Club"; his feud with
Ric Flair, in which he and
David Flair shaved Ric's hair and
Reid Flair's hair; his feud with
Goldberg; and his short reign as world champion. On May 8, 2000, Russo booked
Miss Elizabeth in her first official wrestling match against
Daffney. Elizabeth left the company shortly thereafter.
Bash at the Beach 2000 incident At
Bash at the Beach 2000, Russo was involved in an incident with
Hulk Hogan where Hogan was booked to lose a match against reigning WCW World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett. Hogan refused to lose the match (invoking his contract's "creative control" clause to override Russo), due to Russo's apparent lack of direction for Hogan's character following the planned loss. In the end, Russo booked Jarrett to literally lie down for Hogan, which resulted in Hogan doing a
worked shoot on Russo saying, "That's why this company is in the damn shape it's in; because of bullshit like this" and scoring the pinfall victory by placing his foot on Jarrett's chest. Russo came out later in the broadcast to nullify the match's result, as he publicly fired Hogan. This action restored the title to Jarrett, which set up a new title match between Jarrett and
Booker T, with Booker T winning the match and the title. As Russo promised, Hogan never resurfaced in WCW and even sued Russo for
defamation. The suit was dismissed in 2003 as "groundless". Hogan claims in his autobiography
Hollywood Hulk Hogan that Russo turned the angle into a shoot, and that he was double-crossed by Turner executive Brad Siegel, who did not want to use him anymore due to his costs per appearance. Bischoff wrote in his autobiography,
Controversy Creates Ca$h, that Hogan winning and leaving with the title was a work that would result in his return several months later and that the plan was to crown a new champion at
Halloween Havoc, where Hogan would come out at the end of the show and win a champion vs. champion match—but that Russo coming out to fire him was in fact a shoot which led to Hogan's lawsuit. Bischoff says he and Hogan celebrated after the event over the angle, but were distraught to hear of Russo's in-ring shoot after Hogan left the arena.
Mike Awesome, cousin to Hogan's nephew
Horace Hogan (who also left WCW after the incident) also alleged in a shoot interview published by Highspots that the disputes and the incident affected his WCW run, as Russo allegedly took out his problems with Hulk Hogan on Awesome, saying he was "too close of kin" to Hogan, by portraying several poorly received gimmicks.
World Heavyweight Champion, injury, and departure In mid-2000, Russo entered into an angle with
Ric Flair. The angle notably included Russo sending cops to the ring to arrest Flair during the wedding of
Stacy Keibler and Flair's son
David. In August 2000 at
New Blood Rising, Russo entered into a feud with
Goldberg after confronting Goldberg when the wrestler left a match and "refused to follow the script." The next PPV,
Fall Brawl, saw Russo interfere in Goldberg's match against
Scott Steiner, costing Goldberg the match. On the September 18, 2000, episode of
Nitro, Russo was in a tag match alongside Sting and Booker T versus Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett, with the wrestler getting the pin receiving a shot at Booker T's
WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Russo won after Booker T dragged an unconscious Russo onto Steiner for the three count. The following week, Russo faced Booker T in a
steel cage match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The match did not appear to have a clear winner as Russo was speared by Goldberg through the side of the cage at the same time Booker T exited the cage. Two days later on
Thunder, Russo was announced as the winner and new champion. Russo's reign was short lived, and Russo announced he was vacating the title immediately after, as he was not a wrestler. Russo suffered a severe concussion from the spear spot, and took time off because of
post-concussion syndrome. Russo's run as head writer and fledgling in-ring career came to a halt after the concussion and other injuries.
AOL Time Warner bought out Russo's contract shortly after the WCW buyout in May 2001. The major storyline idea he proposed was an entire restart of the
WCW Invasion, featuring previously unsigned talent such as
Bill Goldberg,
Scott Steiner,
Eric Bischoff and
Bret Hart. After feeling disrespected during a phone call with
Stephanie McMahon, Russo then left of his own accord (turning down a $125,000 per year stay-at-home 'advisory' role with WWE in favor of a $100,000 per year full-time position with TNA).
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002–2014) Writing and on-screen character In July 2002, Russo joined
Jeff and
Jerry Jarrett's
NWA-
TNA promotion as a creative writer and would assist in the writing and production of the shows. Russo claims that the name "Total Nonstop Action" came from him and that the original concept was, as they were exclusive to pay-per-view, to be an edgier product than WWE; the initials of the company "TNA" being a play on "T&A", short for "Tits and Ass". Throughout the first few years, there were numerous reports of a creative power struggle over the direction of the programming. During the time when these rumors circulated, Russo eventually debuted as an on-screen character when the mysterious
masked wrestler "Mr. Wrestling III" helped Jeff Jarrett win the
NWA World Heavyweight Championship and was eventually unveiled as him. The next week on June 4, 2003, when Gilbertti fought Jarrett for the world championship, Russo would hit Gilbertti with a baseball bat which in turn helped Jarrett retain his belt. On the following week's pay-per-view (June 11, 2003), when
A.J. Styles and Raven fought Jarrett for the world title in a
triple threat match, Russo teased hitting Styles with Jarrett's trademark guitar, but eventually hit Jarrett leading Styles to win the world championship belt. Russo would then manage NWA World Heavyweight Champion A.J. Styles for the remainder of his 2003 run and S.E.X. was quietly written out of the storylines. On October 1, 2003, Russo suffered the first loss of his in-ring career in a tag team match against Dusty Rhodes and Jeff Jarrett, although his partner, Styles, yielded the pin. On the October 15, 2003 pay-per-view, Russo made his final appearance of that year in a street-fight with Jarrett. It was reported that Russo was written out of the company as a result of
Hulk Hogan's signing and because Hogan reportedly said that he would not work for TNA as long as Russo was involved with the company. In February 2004, shortly after Hogan was not able to commit with TNA, Russo would eventually return but strictly as an on-air character, becoming the "Director of Authority" in the storylines. This time, he was a
face, claiming to have changed his ways (which was likely inspired by Russo's real-life conversion to Christianity). However, he would disappear again in late 2004 when
Dusty Rhodes was "voted" the new D.O.A. over himself at the three-hour November 2004 pay-per-view
Victory Road in an interactive "election" on TNA's website.
Return as a creative writer On September 21, 2006, TNA president
Dixie Carter re-signed Russo as a writer on the TNA creative team. Russo was paired with
Dutch Mantell and
Jeff Jarrett on the TNA creative team. During the March 2007 TNA pay-per-view
Destination X on the "Last Rites" match with
Abyss and
Sting, "Fire Russo!" chants erupted from the crowd in the arena at Orlando indicating the fans' frustration with the incidents that occurred during the match. Another time the "Fire Russo!" chants were heard was at the following month's pay-per-view
Lockdown that was held in
St. Louis on April 15, 2007. The chants were heard during the electrified
steel cage match with
Team 3D and
The LAX where the lights would flicker on-and-off whenever a wrestler touched the cage giving the impression of electrocution. On October 27, 2009,
Hulk Hogan and
Eric Bischoff signed with TNA and were paired with Russo, whom they had conflicted with in WCW and had not worked with since they departed the company after
Bash at the Beach 2000. In 2010, when asked about his relationship with Russo at TNA, Hogan said he came to TNA in peace, that the writing staff of Russo,
Ed Ferrara, Matt Conway, and
Jeremy Borash have really "stepped it up", and that Hogan loved Russo "from a distance". According to Russo, the three met together and worked out their differences. While working with Russo, Bischoff also stated in a February 2010 interview that it was a "very positive experience" and that their collaborations were productive. By October 6, 2011, Russo had stepped down to the role of a contributing writer, with
Bruce Prichard taking over the head writer's role. On February 14, 2012, TNA president Dixie Carter explained that TNA and Russo had mutually parted ways during the week.
Secret return In April 2014, the
PWInsider website claimed that Russo was working as a consultant for TNA Wrestling. Russo denied the reports. On July 15,
PWInsider reported that Russo had accidentally sent an email to them with instructions on how TNA's commentators work. As a result, and after trying to state that he was not involved with TNA, Russo admitted on his website that he was already working as a consultant for TNA Wrestling to work with TNA's commentators and that one of TNA's conditions was that Russo was to keep his involvement confidential. In less than two days, Russo's statement was removed from his website. On July 30, 2014, Russo claimed that he was "officially done" with TNA. Not long after, Russo revealed that he had been working for TNA since October 24, 2013, claiming that he had been involved in creative meetings and also critiqued the weekly episodes of
Impact Wrestling. Russo stated that he was getting paid about $3,000 a month, averaging to $36,000 a year, to be a consultant with TNA.
Aro Lucha (2017–2018) On December 8, 2017, Russo signed with the
Nashville, Tennessee-based Aro Lucha promotion as a script consultant. On April 5, 2018, Aro Lucha's CEO, Jason Brown, explained via a question and answer session on
WeFunder (a crowd-funding website), that Russo had been hired as an independent contractor, not as an employee. As of April 2018, Russo is no longer with the promotion.
Juggalo Championship Wrestling (2025–present) On October 26, 2025, it was announced that Russo was an investor for
Juggalo Championship Wrestling, an independent wrestling promotion owned by the Michigan-based hip hop duo
Insane Clown Posse. == Other media ==