Evansville has shaped no shortage of successful sports figures. One behind-the-scenes name is writer Vince Russo.
Professional wrestling fans will recall Russo as one of the industryโs most significant figures, having served as head writer for the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment)ย during the 1990s.
He helped transform a company whose product grew stale in the mid-1990s, stuck in the cartoonish mode it adopted during the 1980s. Russoโs pen redrew the โ yes, scripted โ shows as something edgier and more episodic, anticipating the rise of reality television in the 2000s. During that time, his scripts shaped such memorable characters as Dwayne โThe Rockโ Johnson, โStone Coldโ Steve Austin, and Dustin โGoldustโ Rhodes.
Originally from Long Island, New York, Russo moved to Evansville to attend Indiana State University-Evansville, known since 1985 as the University of Southern Indiana.
โI had a friend who was a journalism student there and he helped me get a scholarship to go there as the assistant sports editor [for the student newspaper, The Shield],โ says Russo, who matriculated at ISU-E in fall 1979.
โVinnieโ gained invaluable experience at The Shield, starting as assistant sports editor and working his way up to becoming the paperโs head editor as a senior. He credits newspaper advisors Ann Humphrey and Sherrianne Standley for their mentorship.
โI learned my work ethic working at The Shield at ISU-E,โ Russo says.
While Russo found the pace of life in the Midwest much slower than his native New York, he hustled tirelessly during his time in Evansville. While working at the student newspaper, Russo held two jobs and a work-study. He served as the vice president of his fraternity, Sigma Tau Gamma, was a member of the Student Union Board, and worked with Amigos, the campus welcoming committee. During his time at ISU-E, he lived briefly in Mount Vernon, Indiana, before relocating to the campus apartments.
Amid the bustle, Russo felt great comfort among his neighbors in Evansville.
โThe people were a million times kinder than the people in New York,โ Russo says.
While at ISU-E, he met his wife, Amy Gartner, a fellow student and Evansville native who attended William Henry Harrison High School. After graduating from college in 1983 with a journalism degree, Russo married Amy, started a family that eventually grew to include three children, and moved back to New York, working several jobs before breaking into the wrestling business as a freelance writer for WWF Magazine.
Russoโs time with WWF wasnโt without controversy, earning some criticism for his emphasis on dramatic storylines and stunts over the act of wrestling itself. Fans were split, but viewers still tuned in; the industryโs โAttitude Eraโ earned WWF record television ratings.
He later served as head writer for two of the WWFโs competitors: the Ted Turner-founded World Championship Wrestling in a brief-but-eventful tenure from 1999 to 2000; and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from 2002 to 2014. In between, he did another two-year stint back at WWF, which rebranded to WWE in 2002.
Today, he lives in Colorado and hosts a network of popular wrestling podcasts at www.russosbrand.com.
Writer Clayton Trutor has authored โLoserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlantaโand How Atlanta Remade Professional Sportsโ and โBoston Ball: Jim Calhoun, Rick Pitino, Gary Williams, and College Basketballโs Forgotten Cradle of Coaches.โ For Tucker Publishing Group, he has contributed articles about Division II March Madness and Major League Baseball players with ties to Evansville.
