If there's one thing that I think sums up Russo's fundamental incompetence, it's that he made the Royal Rumble suck. The Rumble is pretty much the most idiot-proof gimmick imaginable. Booking one is like Mr. Burns telling Darryl Strawberry to hit a home run. It isn't always great, but you have to go out of your way to make it actively shitty. Yet Russo managed to do it.
Royal Rumble 1999 is what killed the WWF fan in me. I was raised on WWF. I discovered westling with WWF in the late 80's. The Royal Rumble was always the most exciting event of my mark days. Russo killed it. After Royal Rumble 1999, I was done with being a WWF fan, for ever. I remember it like it was yesterday. All of a sudden, that was it, I was done with something I followed religiously for 10 years. Sad day.