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PWINSIDER Q & A: BOOKING KURT ANGLE, WHY RUN HOUSE SHOWS, NO LOVE FOR SABU, WWE TEASERS, RAW VS. NITRO AND MORE

Regarding Sabu, I had never really seen him perform as ECW was not available where I was and for the few stints he was on Raw, I had been on hiatus from wrestling at that time. From what I have seen, why didn't Vince scoop him up long time ago?  Sabu is in his 40s now so not much time left and I think Vince missed out on a true superstar. 

There wasn't ever a whole lot of interest on either side back then.  In Vince's case, Sabu was "too hardcore" in his work, wasn't the biggest guy in the world and didn't do promos, which always worked against you in WWE.  For his part, Sabu was very protective of his gimmick and his style, given that he was taught by his uncle, The Sheik, who he respected greatly and wanted to honor.  There were things he would and wouldn't do where his character were concerned and he liked the freedom that working for ECW gave him.  So, it just wasn't a good mix back then.

If you were to book Kurt Angle's first program on his debut into TNA who would you put him against? I know that if the booking gets straightened out (and that's a big IF) that a Kurt Angle-Samoa Joe program would draw huge money, but I would imagine that they would save that for later once Kurt shakes off the stigma of being a "WWE guy". 

I wouldn't put him in with anyone of merit for the first few months.  I would have TNA lower card guys "call him out to see how tough he really was" early on before I would program him with anyone near the top.  It would serve two purposes.  One, it would build up Angle's character in TNA but more importantly, it would give him time to get his banged up body back in shape.  Then, down the road, when Angle is in better shape, they could say that Jeff Jarrett sent those guys after Kurt to keep him away from the belt, which I would then book him to beat Jarrett for.

By the time you get to this, we may already know the answer, but do you guys know what was behind the "don't miss the first ten minutes of Raw" promos (9-25)? Was it just a ploy to get us to tune in from the beginning, or was their something they scrapped because of the power outage? About the only thing I can think of is that the Bischoff thing was supposed to open the show, because that was the only thing that could be deemed as a "surprise" or something along those lines.

It was an attempt by WWE to get people to tune in to Raw from the beginning, since the start of the show has been sluggish lately (and affected by the aforementioned Monday Night Football).  All it was going to be was what it was, the women going at it.  The only thing that was unplanned was the loss of power.

How important are house shows to WWE's profits?  Might not cutting back on house show dates be a good way to keep talent healthy?

House shows used to be a very part of WWE's business but now they are now a smaller contributor to the bottom line, at least domestically. But, they are still profitable.  Overseas, they bring in more money than they do at home and those tours are money-makers.  Beyond that, the reason that they are so important now is twofold.  One is that they provide bonus money for the talent that adds to their pay (at least in most cases).  The other reason is that they have so much young talent that they need to work and learn "the WWE way".  They do that on house shows.  It's a great learning experience, even for the vets.  

I know that Nitro beat Raw in the ratings for 80-some-odd weeks, but did WCW experience similar success over the WWF in pay-per-view buys?

WCW beat Raw like a drum in the ratings, but that wasn't the case in PPV buys.  The battle was much closer there and WrestleMania always was the biggest wrestling show of the year on pay TV.  WCW got people to watch their TV but didn't sell as many of them on buying the PPVs, percentage-wise, as WWE did with their viewers.

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