3. Vince Russo Responds To Michael Hayes’ Claim Of Him Wanting To Retire The Undertaker 15 Years Ago

Michael Hayes recently posted on Twitter about Vince Russo wanting to retire The Undertaker 15 years ago (when Taker was 37 years old). Below is what Hayes posted:

“So, I have NO heat with Vince Russo, treated me good with Hardy’s, just did not tell the truth when he came back, didn’t know the product. If U don’t believe me, ask Heyman and Gerwirtz!!! I’m not lying. Russo wanted to retire Taker, I made more money with Taker after that! True.”

Below is what Vince Russo had to say about this:

“Even an idiot would know Taker “retiring” at 37 was an angle.”

During an appearance on the WrestlingInc podcast, below is what Russo said when he was asked if he remembers giving the idea for Taker’s retirement:

“No bro I don’t remember it at all. And I’ll tell you why I don’t remember it all. Because, here’s what people have to understand. Back in 2002, I was meeting with Vince McMahon secretly for about three days. Nobody knew I was meeting with him. Bro, I went through the roster A through Z of what I would do with every single person on the roster. That’s why it was like a two or three day session. Vince McMahon hired me. We agreed to money, he hired me,” Russo revealed. “Where the deal fell apart bro was, I said to Vince, ‘OK, how do you want to let people know about this now?’ And it was right before King of the Ring of 2002 and Vince said to me, ‘just show up at TV.’

At the meeting, Vince introduced me and left. OK, I laid out the same creative to that room that I did to Vince McMahon that he hired me on. And I got to tell you bro, Michael Hayes was in the room, Paul Heyman was in the room and keep in mind, the ratings at that time had gone down the crapper. And when I laid out my creative, I could see jaws drop. Because quite frankly, had Vince McMahon re-hired me, there was no need for any of those people in that room.”

Russo pointed out the following three things he believes that Hayes doesn’t understand:

– If he pitched The Undertaker’s retirement storyline during that meeting, then he already pitched it to Vince McMahon and he was hired on the basis of that.

– The Undertaker was only 37 years old at that time so he wasn’t really looking for “The Deadman” to retire and it was just a storyline idea.

– Writers don’t have the power to retire wrestlers.