"It's extremely disrespectful" - WWE and AEW fans get heavily criticized by 62-year-old veteran (Exclusive)

It might be tough to determine a heel or a babyface in WWE and AEW based on the crowd reactions. The villains get cheered while babyfaces get booed, and Vince Russo felt fans were being disrespectful to the talents by not knowing their roles.

The latest Writing with Russo episode revolved around the problems with how the current fanbase looks at the wrestling product. Co-host Dr. Chris Featherstone brought up the recent MJF and Adam Cole match and noted how the AEW World Champion was getting babyface reactions despite trying his best to get some heat.

Vince Russo felt that fans were more interested in being a part of the "cool kids" and overdo trends like singing Seth Rollins' WWE entrance theme song instead of following actual storylines.

The former WWE writer said wrestling viewers were not respecting the performers enough. He highlighted it was a far cry from how fans conducted themselves at other sporting events and musical concerts:

"It's extremely disrespectful on the part of the crowd because any other event you go to, you know, any other big four sports, whether it's a music concert, whatever it is you're going to, as a member of the audience, you know your role, bro. You know why you're there. If you go to an Ohio State game, my role is to support Ohio State. If you go to see your favorite artist in the world, you know, Jay Z, I'm here to support Jay Z. You have a role as an audience. Here's their role. I'm going to get myself over tonight. That's their role, and that is so disrespectful to the performers, bro, and it ain't even fun anymore." [4:44 - 5:44]

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"It has become a participation event" - Vince Russo on the reactions of WWE and AEW fans

Russo certainly didn't like where the professional wrestling industry was heading and said fans were focusing on the art form's wrong aspects. Historically, viewers have loved watching high-quality matches and storylines, but Vince believed that isn't the case anymore.

The 62-year-old WWE veteran said that the audience these days are more concerned about unwanted things, such as the perfect time to chant "this is awesome" and to participate in activities that are in fashion:

"Like, who do we cheer for, who do we boo, who do we sing with, when do we do this, when do we chant 'this is awesome.' It has become a participation event. Those are the people going to wrestling shows, bro, and that's what they want. They don't want storylines, bro." [1:39 - 2:02]

Vince Russo also spoke about a legendary movie to explain what has happened to professional wrestling, and you can read more on that here.

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