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PWINSIDER Q & A: TAKER, GREEN TALENT, WELLNESS EFFECTS, HOLLY MANIA, BATISTA AND MORE

I've been replaying my archives, and noticed that your criticism towards Batista is very justified. His performance is a mere shadow of what he used to be. But, watching his moves in some of the older clips, they seem rather harsh. Is there any chance he might have been ordered not to hit and slam people quite so hard? Was he risking injuries to people, as he used to be very intense. Or, is he just backing off in his moves, fearing that he might injure himself again? 

From everyone I have talked to, no one has told Big Dave to tone it down in any way.  There are definitely people in the company who feel that, given his injury history, he does think too much when he's out in the ring about potential injuries and it makes him tentative, but I can't say that it's a fact.  Only he would know that.  Still others think that given how high up the card Batista has gotten, he has taken an "I am a star" attitude and doesn't bust it the way he did on the way up.  Honestly, I don't know what the reason is but I certainly think that far too often of late, he has been lacking the fire that he has in the past.

The WWE wellness policy. Is it me or do some wrestlers hardly look intimidating anymore?  Of course health comes first, but as a wrestler you need some sort of look. 

I mentioned something about this last week where Edge is concerned.  In response to the Sports Illustrated article that we have been reporting on for a few weeks now, Edge stated that after taking HGH after his neck surgery, he isn't taking anything at all now.  Frankly, he doesn't need to.  I don't think that guys have to look ridiculously jacked up to be seen as legit.  Now, I am not saying they can be tiny, but if a guy has a good, solid build and is a strong worker and a good interview, he doesn't need to rely on an overly big body.  If he isn't a good worker and/or a good interview, sometimes a jacked up body is all he has going for him.  To me, that is when things are wrong and frankly fans expecting guys to be overly huge does contribute to the problem.  And yes, health absolutely comes first, or at least it should.

Hardcore Holly actually "complained" about not having a Mania spot. I pretty much always thought that he had been misused since he was one of the few who always put over young talent and gave us a decent to good match. So him being in ECW has been good for me. What are your thoughts on Holly in general?

I agree with you.  He's a solid veteran who can help younger talents.  But, he has never been an "it" guy to me.  By that I mean that while he does have some charisma and comes across as a tough guy, he's not a great promo man and doesn't really keep the fans in the palm of his hand.  He doesn't do the super big spots that will get you in a Ladder match when you are not a top of the card guy either.  I guess my general critique is that he is a sixth man type who brings something to the table and is valuable to have around but doesn't do any one thing well enough or have an over-the-top characteristic to put him above the crowd.  Does that mean he should have never been on a Mania?  No, but it doesn't mean that he should have been either.

On the last edition (3/16) of Smackdown, MVP did a promo, And it was the worst thing I've seen since they let Lashley talk for longer than 10 seconds. Yes, it had a point, but with Lashley, I at least enjoy his wrestling, while with MVP, I just need him off my screen. What did you think of that promo?

I think MVP is a young, green guy and when you have those kinds of guys in prominent roles, bad things can happen.  

This regards Undertaker's shape. It appears to me that he is in the best shape he has been in, in years. Do you think this is a sign of what will happen at Mania or just Taker being the consummate professional that he is?

I think it's the latter.  Taker has definitely realized that as he aged, he had to mix up the way that he trains and take notice of the kind of shape that he keeps himself in.  He has been as lean as he is currently for a while now.  He has just done a good job of changing his workout program as he has gotten older and it's been a change for the better.

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