As a 14-year old at the time, I was experiencing serious burnout watching the WWF, and mostly stopped for a good chunk of the Summer and Fall of '99, focusing instead on WCW for a bit (and we all know how well that turned out). I didn't know who Vince Russo was at the time, as I didn't get into the online community until a couple of years later. Even to this day, I haven't watched much of the content, even with it readily available on the WWE Network/Peacock for 8 years now. I've finally given Fully Loaded '99 a chance, and if this isn't the most over-booked Russo show I've ever seen…
Almost every match is either a title match and/or features a gimmick stipulation, including…
A last-minute IC Title Match added where the defending Champion won the belt the night before at a house show (Edge) and is mostly presented as a fluke Champion.
Tag Titles where it's a 2-on-3 handicap rule (where the Champs, the Hardy's, are acknowledged as flukes as well)
The Iron Circle Match between Shamrock and Blackman with vague rules of how to win (you win when you leave the circle, but the bell rings when it feels like it after Shamrock delivers enough punishment).
Special Referee (Hardcore Holly) who is clearly calling things unevenly and gets involved in the finish (a favorite for fans of the original Smackdown games on PlayStation)
A Strap Match that's Falls Count Anywhere for a title shot at SummerSlam.
A WWF Title Match that's First Blood Rules, with Vince McMahon's WWF career is on the line (HA).
Also can't forget a European Title defense with a defending Champion who “won” the belt by going through the luggage of Shane McMahon, and a pre-PPV match on Heat where Meat is fatigued from having too much sex (and isn't good at it), loses, and gets embarrassed by Terri at the end by having ice water poured down his trunks.
Maybe there's a Raw I don't remember, but wow, what a spectacle, and to make things worse, the PPV numbers weren't that great considering all the stips and the promise of this being the end of the Austin/McMahon era. With that long-winded run down, what was the online reputation of Russo at the time? Was the audience as burnt out as I was (without knowing who was responsible), or was WCW so much worse that it wasn't something everyone was looking at so closely?
By that point we knew OF Russo and it was mostly just “LOL Vic Venom is one of the writers” type of humor, but the full extent of his powers at that point didn't become known to the online fanbase until the infamous “booking on a napkin” interview where he revealed his role as head writer on the way out of the door. That being said, yes, there was absolutely a sense of burnout on the product at that point, although we couldn't nail down exactly WHY until some hindsight was applied a few months later. For me personally, Owen's death obviously put a damper on my enjoyment for a long time, but the other signs were there as well with the period from WM15 until Russo's departure.