In his latest blog entry, Vince Russo revealed a story where he pitched an “Invasion” storyline in TNA while working secretly with the TNA Creative team. Below is what he wrote:
“It was less than a year ago this time when I was on “secret assignment” working as a consultant for TNA. At the time, Spike TV had yet to make the decision on whether, or not, they were going to offer the company another contract, as the existing one was about to expire. As the Hulkster would say, speculation was “running wild”, throughout the Internet Wrestling Community, as to the future of TNA on Spike TV.
I remember it was at this exact time, that I called TNA exec, John Gaburick, and pitched him a major storyline based on the reality of the situation. What I pitched was that due to the uncertainties of TNA continuing on Spike, other wrestling organizations would take advantage of the opportunity by showing up on IMPACT, in an effort to prove to the Network, that they were the ones that were worthy for the spot instead. My pitch was that ROH, Japan’s Wrestle 1 (who TNA was already working with at the time) and Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling invade TNA’s time slot in an effort to take it for themselves.
I can vividly remember John hearing me out and saying, “Let me think on that and get back to you.” It almost goes without saying that John never got back to me.
Not hearing from “Big”, I pitched it to one of the two TNA writers who said to me that while the idea sounded interesting, there was nobody worthy in ROH at the time that would have had any impact. I tried my best to explain that it wasn’t about who we used from ROH, that was secondary to the angle, it was more about the company as a whole trying to pull the carpet out from under TNA.
At that point, as I had done many times before when others knew more than me—I just waved the white flag.”
