January 31, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WCW departures, WWF Royal Rumble review, more

The soap opera surrounding WCW and the group of wrestlers who vowed to stick together got even stranger over the past week, with the company mired in even more uncertainty and friends who stuck together breaking apart.

WCW sent unconditional release letters to Chris Benoit, Dean Simon (Malenko), Carlos Ashenoff (Konnan), Troy Martin (Shane Douglas), Eddy Guerrero and Perry Satullo (Perry Saturn) on 1/19, thus cancelling the planned meeting Bill Busch had agreed two days later to have with the group that same day, and allowing all of them to start with Titan Sports on 2/1 provided they agreed not to say anything publicly disparaging about WCW and agreed not to sue WCW. After both sides signed the releases and they were executed on 1/25, it is believed Benoit, Simon, Guerrero and Satullo are free to start with Titan as soon as this coming week.

Instead, Vince Russo came to the office and had his own meeting with Busch, making demands of his own, either wanting a release from his contract, which had 21 months remaining, agreeing to stay on as a writer for the show but not working underneath Kevin Sullivan, Gary Juster or J.J. Dillon, or demanding to be put back in his head writing (ie booking) position for nine months without any interruption or interference. At press time, no decision was made regarding Russo, but he was not at the WCW television tapings this week.

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