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PWINSIDER Q & A: WHEN WILL CREATIVE GET THE MESSAGE, MAKING NEW STARS, KEIBLER'S WWE FAREWELL, HOGAN-AUSTIN, TNA ON THURSDAY AND MORE

I can't seem to understand why TNA would be placed at 9PM on Thursdays. Thursday seems to be one of the biggest television nights of the week w/top TV shows. I would think putting it on Monday at 8-10 or 9-10, etc. would benefit them the most as there already is a crowd expecting wrestling. I believe heavy advertising would definitely pull viewers from Raw back and forth, just like Nitro did. What do you think... should TNA wait until they produce over a 1.0 rating to move to Mondays, or move to Mondays relatively soon and try to create more competition?

You forget that Smackdown did very well on Thursday nights.  In the TV business, Thursday has the largest audience of the week so while there is more competition, there are also more people watching so it's a great night to be on.  Plus, it's better to be on Thursday than Monday because there is no other show that would take the audience away from them the way that Raw would on Monday.  TNA scored their best rating ever last week, so the move to Thursday has been a success.  But, they are still not ready to take on WWE on Monday night's yet.  If they could get to a 2.0 or higher, maybe then, but not now.

Why didn't Stacey Keibler get any kind of send off or farewell like Trish Stratus or Lita did? Now I won't try and claim she was anywhere near as talented when it comes to wrestling but she really did a lot for the company. Even after gaining a lot of media attention during 'Dancing With The Stars' WWE seemed to pretty much ignore her.

Basically, she didn't want it.  While she was doing "Dancing With The Stars", she had conversations with her cast mates on the show and found out how poorly WWE divas were compensated compared to other entertainment industries.  When she told some of the people on the show how they had to pay for their own cars, meals and hotels when they were on the road, the other stars were shocked.  That helped her make her decision to get out of WWE (well that and the fact that she wasn't really being paid that much and was booked to take bumps to boot).  He downside salary was said to be $125,000 a year.

In addition to that, she became a star on the show and decided to take her chances in the entertainment industry and leave wrestling behind.  She made the decision to not re-sign with WWE when her contract expired this past summer and really wanted no part of coming back to WWE after Dancing With The Stars ended.

Do you think the recent departures of talent from the WWE will result in Vince McMahon forcing UnCreative to more critically assess their talent’s potential instead of the old “We don’t have anything for them.” or relying on the strange disdain that Stephanie McMahon has for perfectly capable talent, such as CM Punk (If it’s true, I seem to keep hearing about it)). And do you think as well, it will result in older talents putting over the younger talents to protect the company’s future? 

If the falling US buyrates and overall decline in the business over the last five years can't make them take a hard look inward, I doubt talent defections will either.  It's sad really.  Sometimes it hurts to take a hard look at yourself, but the really successful businesses have people that do that.  As long as WWE doesn't face much competition, they won't change the process.  If they ever do however, they will have to address the problem, much like they did when WCW began dusting them with the nWo.

I would hope that the older workers would put over the younger guys because that is one way to make new stars.  In some cases, like Undertaker, they do.  In some cases, like DX, they bury the young guys.  The business needs new stars and the old guys should do the time honored tradition and help make them.

Does the Internet have something against Hogan? I rarely read any report or news item which don't completely savage the guy for a variety of reasons. Most all of his matches get dismissed as 'Duds' despite the fact that the vast majority of the time they have by far and away more crowd heat than any other match on the card. I really don't know what it is that makes Internet reporters so out of line with the fans when it comes to Hogan. Most of the fans are 'clued-up' about things these days and will be aware of the workrate and backstage politicking quarrels the Internet has with Hogan, yet they ignore it, why? 

Because most of the fan base isn't up to date on all of that!  The majority of the fans don't pay that much attention to wrestling.  They watch it and enjoy it for what it is.  The more discerning fan will be the one who wants to find out more about the business.  They are usually the kind of fans that like more athletic, higher quality matches and Hogan was never about that.  I think anyone who is fair will cede Hogan his place in history, but that doesn't mean that they will put over his formulaic matches or backstage politicking.  But to the masses, who remember Hogan from their childhood or just like the simpler aspects of the business, the man will always be their legend.

A simple question, will Hogan-Austin ever happen in your opinion and why?

No, for two reasons.  One, both men would want to win if they faced off.  As we already know, Hogan always wants to win and since Austin feels he was held down by Hogan in WCW, he would want to be the victor as well and wouldn't do Hogan any favors.  Two, after Hogan went public with the challenge before doing business the right way and talking to Austin, having both men agree to the match and then agree to a finish, he turned Austin off to any possibility of doing the bout.  Internally, WWE realizes the face off won't happen and they are working to get Austin involved in Mania in another way.  To go back to the last question, stunts like Hogan pulled by making a grandstand challenge and doing business the wrong way are partially why the smart fans don't like him as much as the casual fans do. 

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