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PWINSIDER Q&A: MOST SHOCKING HEEL TURN, CENA'S TOP RIVAL, CONTRACTS IN RING OF HONOR AND MORE

I was just wondering, who would you pick to be Cena's rival for the WWE Title? I keep saying Randy Orton cause he's been without a single's title for 3 years, which is how long Cena's had the title (minus those two little periods of Edge and RVD holding it). My friend says Umaga should be the front runner, and my dad says there's no one good enough right now aside from Shawn Michaels and Triple H.

It's a subjective answer, but to me, no one has done a better job at being a main event level heel in the last several years than Edge, so that's my pick.  He brings the best out of Cena in my opinion and is Roddy Piper to his Hulk Hogan.

There are way too many great wrestlers in ROH that could easily be quality assets to WWE. Are ROH wrestlers contractually bound, or are they free to sign with any company they choose? I always wondered why Brian Danielson or the Briscoes never made it to WWE. Was it because they are loyal to ROH, or because they have contracts holding them back?

Ring of Honor's talent isn't under any contract.  If they are signed by a larger organization, it means that either the larger company hasn't taken interest in them (yet) or the talents haven't wanted to move on.

With a possible split between TNA and the NWA name, Do you see any promoters trying to pick up the NWA name and making it a wrestling league again on its own or is the end of the NWA once and for all?

The split is coming and if you ask those involved in the National Wrestling Alliance, they will tell you that they are already a league of promoters running nationally, with varying degrees of success.  The problem, in my opinion, is that the consensus among the average fan is that nationally, the true NWA became WCW, and that was purchased by WWE.  The NWA letters still exist but don't have the power or prestige that they once did to most wrestling fans and while things can always change, I don't know how that could be turned around in the current environment.

Travis Hafner of the Clevland Indians claims to have over 80 wresting t-shirts. Whats your favorite wrestling Tee? My personal favorite was Taz's.. ooops I mean Tazz'ss first one after jumping to WWF.

I was always partial to the the first ECW logo T-shirt.  I am always intrigued by a lot of the nicer designs that are produced, particularly the ones that don't look like wrestling shirts.  I thought the Eddie Guerrero shirt that was a takeoff of Scarface a few years ago was a nice idea.

One of the things that I think is missing these days is shocking heel turns.  Maybe it's because there are too many of them and guys seem to go from heel to face every other month or maybe it's just because I am older now but a lot of the time when I see a heel turn it just isn't surprising at all (an example would be around WM 20 when Christian turned on Jericho).  I remember in 1995 when the British Bulldog turned heel by attacking Diesel from behind in a tag match in which Diesel was his partner and how shocked I was.  Or, of course, when Hogan joined Hall and Nash at WCW BATB 96.  I have 2 questions:  What in your personal opinion was the most unexpected, shocking heel turn you ever witnessed?  And: It might be hard since you are an industry "insider" and thus getting the scoop on heel turns is part of your job, but would you agree with me that most heel turns these days seem obvious and telegraphed.

The most shocking heel turn I can recall took place in April 1988, so I was probably 14 at the time.  Lex Luger and Barry Windham were the NWA Tag champions and according to storyline, had been best friends.  Windham had tried to keep Luger from joining the Four Horsemen when he first came to Jim Crockett Promotions, but failed.  When Luger finally turned babyface, he and Windham reunited and defeated Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson for the NWA Tag Team championships.  During a title rematch, Luger was busted open after being thrown into a ringpost.  He fought and finally made his way to Windham, who tagged in and proceeded to beat the hell out of Luger, then walk off, joining the Four Horsemen.  I remember being totally amazed because I never saw it coming, although part of that was my age and understanding of the business.  I think today there are a lot of decent turns, but many fans are older so they have a skewed way of looking at things and in many cases, the current product, no matter the quality, will never be "as good as when I grew up" because those younger memories are often the most romanticized.

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