Vince Russo torches WWE’s go-home SmackDown - "Who's getting the last laugh?" (Exclusive)

Former WWE head writer Vince Russo expressed his disappointment with the latest episode of SmackDown. The veteran writer went off on the presentation after an uneventful show this Friday.

This week's SmackDown marked the go-home show ahead of Saturday Night's Main Event XL and Evolution 2025. Russo felt it was a maintenance show just to pass another week of television tapings without bothering to advance any storylines.

On Sportskeeda's BroDown with host Mac Davis, Vince Russo detailed that the company was just putting on content.

"If I'm the WWE, here's my philosophy. They're paying for content; give them content. Nobody says that content has to be good. Just give them content; that's what they're paying for," he said.

The veteran writer pointed out that viewership on Netflix and the USA Network for RAW and SmackDown, respectively, had taken a dip. He felt WWE was getting paid for creating weekly content, and the creative team was no longer bothered about putting up good storylines.

"Netflix numbers continue to go down, and YouTube numbers continue to go up. What does that tell you? It's clear what that tells you. This show does not warrant two hours of your time. RAW does not warrant two and a half hours of your time. So what are they doing? They're going to YouTube and seeing an eight-minute clip. Seriously, from a business point of view, who's getting the last laugh? We're getting paid by USA Network, we're getting paid by Netflix, then we go put the same footage on YouTube, and we're getting paid by YouTube. It's comical." [From 11:50 onwards]

WWE is gearing up for a huge weekend. Saturday Night's Main Event is scheduled for July 12, and it will be followed by the historic all-women's Evolution Premium Live Event on July 13.

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Edited by Prityush Haldar