Vince Russo Stands By Statement About Effect Of His Arrival In WCW

"Dark Side of the Ring" Season 4's penultimate episode covered the conflicting events of WCW Bash at the Beach 2000 involving Vince Russo, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and others. Russo claimed that WCW's viewership went up during the first three months he was on the writing team, and he's not backing down from that statement despite Dave Meltzer refuting it.

"The controversy with me was I made a statement... what I said was when you crunch the numbers, the first three months I was at WCW, the numbers actually went up," Russo said during a recent appearance on "K100." "Now, of course, Glenn, you know, we're all about numbers. I've looked at those numbers a million times. I would not make a statement like that if it wasn't true because anybody can look at those numbers. The first three months I was there, the ratings were going up."

Russo continued, "So after I made that statement, Meltzer comes on and Meltzer says, 'Well, he will tell you that the ratings went up his first three months when he was there, but they didn't.' They did, bro. I put the numbers out online to show you with the numbers, they went up. I just believe, Konnan, if I'm going to say one thing and Dave Meltzer's going to say something totally different, one of us is lying. Make no bones about it, one of us is lying. I just think that on the 'Dark Side of the Ring,' the numbers are out there, so they can say and verify who's telling the truth."

Russo previously declared that Booker T winning the world title at Bash at the Beach was his proudest moment despite the fallout and subsequent lawsuit from Hogan.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "K100" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.