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PWINSIDER Q&A: HOGAN'S LEGAL NAME, BRAND EXTENSION ENDING, WCW WARRIOR-HOGAN GOT OFF TO A BAD START IN WCW & MORE

Is Hogan's legal name Hogan or Bollea? Does that also apply to his family?

His legal name is Terry Bollea. His family uses the Hogan name professionally to avoid confusion. Brooke Hogan once noted in an interview that it was a double-edged sword because if she uses it, it's assumed she is playing off her father but if she doesn't, then the scuttlebutt is she has a problem with it.

With an ever-increasing demand for the end to the brand extension, and falling ratings for WWE PPVs vs. UFC PPVs in 2006, do you think this could be the beginning of the end of the brand extension, or at least a start to something like we used to see on ECW every week with different wrestlers going to ECW to challenge a top ECW wrestler? I know the ECW thing is only to hold interest until they can work to a PPV build, but it could easily be worked into a feud for any of those wrestlers and could be a way to get some exposure for the mid to low card talent since there may not be enough time on their respective brand.

At no point (yet) has there been any indication they intend to shut down the brand extension. I am in the minority here, but I don't think they should. WWE has tried with varying success to give each brand its own identity and I am not of the opinion that it should be abandoned. At this point, everyone they want to pop up on different brands do, so it's not like the extension isn't over to an extent anyway. In the 1980s, you had A,B,and C house shows. Now you have Raw and Smackdown/ECW.

I've seen a lot of the crazy matches Sabu has been in, especially in Japan, but I don't recall ever seeing or hearing about him being in a King of the Deathmatches Tournament. Has Sabu ever competed in any kind of Deathmatch Tournament?

To the best of my knowledge, Sabu has never competed in a Death Match tournament, although he's had his share of barbed wire and fire matches in both ECW and FMW. In fact, one bout in FMW saw the ring go up in flames and everyone involved had to escape.

I've just watched the Burial of the Ultimate Warrior DVD, and have a question about when Ultimate Warrior came into WCW. I couldn't watch WCW in those days as I live in the UK and my cable company didn't carry the channel WCW was on but why was Hulk Hogan ready to hit Warrior and why did he say Warrior talking about he'd beaten him was a no-no in the business? WM6 was Warrior's finest hour, it would create conflict and could have been used to build nicely to the PPV match. Obviously, I gather giving Hogan a mic and cutting the Warrior off would have helped even more.

It was a "No No" as you wrote, because Hulk Hogan didn't want it acknowledged. In a company that was fueled by egos like WCW during that time period, something as simple as Warrior going off the script could cause all kinds of frenzy.

What happened to Zach Gowen? After a random match in Smackdown, he seems to have disappeared from WWE forever. Was he released? What happened?

Gowen was released in February 2004 and continues to work independents as well as pursue his education. He is still working independents in Michigan and popped up in Ring of Honor when they ran there awhile back as well.

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