Nitro: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW

by Guy Evans

“Vince Russo takes that idea, and he starts interfering with people’s ability to suspend their disbelief. He did it in ways that seemed fun - for a second - like ‘oh wow!’ But then you think, well, ‘if I’m not suspending my disbelief, and we’re openly talking during the performance about the fact that this is a performance...how does the narrative continue? Because [that discussion] is happening within the realm of the show itself. And if I’m ironically distanced from everything, how do I play my role as fan? “Previous versions of [this concept] in WCW had been really successful, because they had drawn on more realism, but kept it fictional. The earlier WCW stuff with the nWo, or even what McMahon did, was pretending to give people a glimpse behind the curtain. They were listening to what the fans were finding out, and then fictionalizing a representation of it that made it feel more real. But, of course, it was always part of the script.”