Rope Opera

It’s been over a decade since The Monday Night War waged between the WWF and WCW generated unprecedented and astronomical ratings, and the landscape of “the sport of kings” has changed radically. But one thing remains constant: the fans chanting“Fire Russo!” can still be heard at TV tapings and pay-per-view events acrossNorth America. And Vince Russo, the man who has at times been called “the mosthated man in professional wrestling” wouldn’t have it any other way.

In his firstbook, Forgiven, Vince Russo delivered a modern-day parable about the price of success. In heartbreaking detail, he showed how a “godforsakenbusiness” and the desire for acclaim in his career as a writer for Vince McMahon’s WWF led him into a spiritual wasteland.

Today, achanged Russo has returned to prominence in wrestling — a world he both loves and that has, he acknowledges, broken his heart — as one of the writers andmasterminds behind TNA, the world’s fastest-growing and most cutting-edgewrestling promotion. For two hours every Thursday, Russo’s ideas and wordsrevolutionize wrestling on Spike TV; but what he achieves on Impact! ona weekly basis has been many years in the making. He’s been known as both thesaviour of the WWF and the man who destroyed WCW, and Rope Opera: How WCWKilled Vince Russo is the true, behind-the-scenes story of, quite simply,the rise and fall and rebirth of professional wrestling.

Many have tried to explain the inner workings of wrestling’s most turbulent era — but this is the first time someone in the center of the maelstrom has ever laid everything bare. In returning to the pageto take readers from the death of WCW to the rise of TNA, Vince Russo hascrafted his most remarkable storyline: that a grown man can come to terms with,and find peace within, the insanity of the squared circle.