From the 1990s all the way into the 2010s, writer Vince Russo was involved with WWE, WCW, and TNA at various points. Over that time, and especially once his initial success died down, he developed a controversial reputation for chaotic storytelling. Because of that, at one point, TNA hired Russo to write without letting many people know about it. AEW star MVP recalled this fact while speaking on his podcast, “Marking Out.”
“I still did not know that one Mr. Russo was still secretly writing for Impact television,” he stated, sitting alongside his former TNA tag team partner Kenny King. Looking back at that time, King recalled being puzzled at an instruction to bob his head and say the words “tooted and booted” during a promo, leading them to personally speak to a member of the TNA creative team to better understand the direction.
“I said, ‘Did you write this? Did you write this?’ And he said, ‘No, I didn’t write it.’ I said, ‘Well, then, who wrote it?'” MVP added, noting that there were supposedly only two men in the department and neither was taking accountability for the line. MVP said it later came out that TNA kept Russo’s involvement under wraps because Spike TV didn’t want to be involved with him. “He was still writing, but it was a secret!”
Years later, MVP would have a conversation with Nick Aldis, boldly stating he never worked with Russo only to be corrected. “And [Aldis] goes: ‘Yes, you have.’ And I said ‘Nah, I would know if I had.’ He said, ‘If you worked here, you worked with Russo,'” he recalled. “And then later on, it all came [out], and I’m like, ‘Ah! So that’s where that tooted and booted, bobblehead [came from]!'”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Marking Out with MVP & Dwayne Swayze,” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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