Vince Russo's The Brand

Tough night at Mercury Pro Wrestling Academy.

Worked a couple of hours with a talent by the name of Bruce Rogers tonight, who is an unbelievably good wrestler, but has yet to establish his promo ability. As we were doing take, after take, after take, I started to get the feeling that Bruce had somewhere along the line CONVINCED himself that he COULDN’T cut a decent wrestling promo. Upon further review, I got a 3rd party in the room to reveal that Bruce had recently attended a ROH Tryout, where an announcer laid on him pretty heavy for his inability to cut a good promo. Honestly—this made me IRATE. I was IRATE because now Bruce’s confident was so shot, that he had ZERO confidence in himself whatsoever.

Listen, man, I’ve worked with HUNDREDS of talents who had trouble in the promo department, and you don’t make them better by telling them how much their promos suck. It’s called BUILDING confidence, not TEARING it down. I guess that’s why this announcer is exactly that—an announcer. There’s a certain way to work with talent, and if you don’t know that way—you can do some severe damage. Bruce WILL MAKE IT, why–because I won’t quit until he does.

The current grind is starting to drain me. I never thought that I would one day be starting to feel my age—always thought I was invincible. But—I’m starting to feel it now. Just feels like I’m on a runaway train with no stops in sight. I know there are many of you out there feeling exactly the same way I do. Just working non-stop, many of you just trying to support yourselves, and your families. But you know what—as much as you may feel like just dropping on the spot—just pick yourself up and keep going. Hard work will always pay off in the end. And, most importantly—be proud of your work ethic, and your commitment. That is a gift that many don’t have. You are one of the lucky ones! Would you rather work hard—or—BS your way to success? Because, if it’s the latter—that ain’t success at all—that’s BS.