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PWINSIDER Q & A: HOGAN'S NEW COMPANY, THE NUMBERS PROVE THAT VINCE HAS FAILED WITH ECW, WELLNESS AND MORE

Hey guys, I was wondering with Hogan's removal from the WWE. It seems like to me, Vince and Hogan's love and hate relationship is more of a business relationship more so than anything. I remember back around 99-2000 Hogan used to go around saying he couldn't see himself going back to Vince anytime soon. Now, with Bubba and Hogan always talking about Hogan starting up his own company. What are the chances Hogan becomes a viable part owner of TNA? This way he has an actual reason to put over younger talent, as he'd make money with TNA.

Oh yeah, at this point Vince and Hogan are all about business, first and foremost.  They have been working together for so long that sometimes I wonder what their relationship truly is at this point.  I take everything Hogan says about pretty much everything as a means to get to an end.  He's a masterful worker, no doubt.  As a master, he is very smart about making money by getting others to pay him.  His deal with WCW was a thing of beauty from his point as he was paid a ridiculous amount of money from day one there.  Because of that, I don't see himself going to TNA as a partner, even if he didn't put in a penny, because for him the idea is to make money, not spend it.

How come Shawn Michaels still comes out to the DX music now that DX is defunct? I mean, Rated RKO is an active unit, but Edge enters to his own theme when in singles competition. 

DX isn't defunct!  They are only in the current state because of Triple H's injury.  They are still technically a WWE act, and a profitable one given the amount of merchandise that they sell.  That could change when Triple H comes back but for right now they are still a top WWE act, even if it's only one guy.

So, the burates for ECW December to Dismember are in and it was bad. How do they compare to the first One Night Only show? And, this is mostly rhetorical, does it show ECW had more appeal and better financial prospects as a "niche product" than being made into a "proper brand" by Vince McMahon?

According to WWE's own numbers, the first One Night Stand, from 2005, did about 333,000 buys, which was over four times what the December to Dismember did.  Even the second show from June 2006 did 304,000 buys.  That was just based off of a little promotion on Raw and Smackdown and no TV show to "support" the product.  With ECW TV theoretically giving fans a reason to buy PPVs the opposite happened as their third attempt did a pathetic 90,000 buys and without a doubt shows that Vince McMahon has totally botched and destroyed the ECW brand thus far.  To add further insult to injury, this is the first time that Vince has failed at the one business he is supposed to be able to make a success out of, wrestling.  ECW has been a huge embarrassment to him thus far and clearly the decisions he has made with the product are the exact reasons why it has failed so he has no one to blame but himself.

I listened to Dave's hotline recently where he said we shouldn't expect WrestleMania main eventers to be tested this close to the PPV, because WWE don't want to suspend wrestlers in major angles. Isn't that a bit of a moot point? I mean, didn't WWE change the policy so that the wrestlers would continue to appear on TV to see out their storylines before serving suspensions?

Honestly, who knows.  It seems like the terms of the Wellness policy change by day.  I had heard that WWE was going to make the talents work without pay when they failed a test, but since Test failed, I haven't seen him on TV.  Maybe it's just WWE's choice to not use him right now since he isn't a very important player on their least-watched brand.  But I agree that if a top guy did fail their test, I doubt we would ever hear about it and they would continue to work.

Since Michael Cole lost his voice last Sunday at the No Way Out PPV do you see WWE now having maybe a standby announcer just in case another announcer loses their voice during a PPV or televised event?

I would hope so.  Frankly, they should always have had a guy to do that.  Todd Grisham should be at every show as the back up guy in my opinion. 

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