PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

PWINSIDER Q & A: KEEPING TOP NAMES OFF OF SHOWS, THE WRESTLING OFF SEASON, USING ECW TO TRAIN, WASTING ARMANDO, ANNOUNCING CHANGES AND MORE

With WWE getting away from branded PPVs, at what point should they pick one PPV announce team and stick with them? Let’s face it, when Fox does the Super Bowl next February, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will do the game. It won’t be Buck and Aikman in the first quarter, Dick Stockton and Daryl Johnston in the second, and Kenny Albert and Brian Baldinger in the third, with two random announcers doing the fourth. Wouldn’t one set of PPV announcers allow for easier storytelling?

I don't think WWE should do that.  If they are trying to sell three different brands, it's important to have three announce teams.  Football is different since the announcers don't call the same teams' games every week.  In WWE, the same announcers do call the respective products every week, and that is a good thing.  It only makes sense to me to have the brand's voices call their matches on PPVs.  Also, just because the PPVs aren't branded any longer doesn't mean that the matches don't come from Raw, Smackdown or ECW.  As long as they have brand specific matches, they should have the different announce teams.

With the recent significant injuries taking place in the past month or so in the WWE, the one common trait that I usually notice is the talent gets injured during house shows. Kennedy most recently injuring his biceps and it ultimately costing himself the MITB title shot. In past years, Carlito getting injured by Bob Holly of all people while he was the US Champion. And Kid Kash was injured during a DSW show while he was the Cruiserweight Champion. I know it will never happen because WWE looks to make major revenue by including all the major name talent on the shows. However, wouldn't be wiser to keep major titleholders or like Kennedy, who had a major push and angle going to sit out of these house shows? This way they can remain healthier for the next major show. It would be different if they got injured during a TV taping or PPV, but house shows are usually the same predictable outcomes for match results. Your thoughts?

Here's the problem as I see it.  If you keep the top guys off of shows, it has two detrimental effects.  For one thing, you rip off the fans that pay top dollar to attend the house shows.  More importantly, the wrestling business is one that requires younger guys to actually work to learn.  You can practice all you want, but putting on a live performance is where a talent gets better because experience is a great teacher.  It's also a place where guys can do dry runs of their matches before the PPVs, which is another great benefit.  So, other than maybe giving the the weekend off before a big show, it just isn't feasible to do that. 

What would you think of an overall off-season in Pro Wrestling (maybe 4 weeks)? It would not only give the wrestlers the chance to spent quality time with their families, but also creative team members would have more time to create interesting storylines and match ups.

I thin it would be a great idea. The perfect time to do it would be at the end of the year.  They already take off for a week or so anyway in December.  I would like to see them make it a month.  They could fill TV time by moving the draft to the end of the year.  They could get at least a week of TV out of that.  They could also tape a few house shows to fill the void for a few weeks then run the traditional year end shows. Then, they could come back in January with the Royal Rumble and start the run to WrestleMania.  I think it would be a great move for all involved as creative could spend the month planning out the next year while the talent would get a month off to let nagging injuries heal.  

Do you think that since both Vince and Shane McMahon have been more or less the mouthpieces for Umaga lately that means Armando Alejandro Estrada's days are numbered? He initially started off cutting great promos and people were enjoying him saying his full name (I was at least) and now his legs have been cut off beneath him now that he serves no prominent role. I know you have said in the past that managers do not matter as much as they once did, but he could at least serve as a manager for either another up and comer or help elevate someone who's not getting the push currently. Unfortunately, his last known appearance will go down in history as having his wheelchair rolled down a hill and crashing at the hands of Bobby Lashley. We wish you well in your future endeavors, Mr. Estrada (sarcarm).

I don't know if his days are numbered but the Macs have certainly glommed all of his heat.  It's so funny that they don't push managers any more because they don't wrestle, but they make themselves focal parts of a storyline.  Hell, if they asked Estrada, he would have wrestled every single match that Vince has since he took Umaga away from him.  But of course, there are two sets of rules in WWE, as we all know.  With that said, it's ridiculous to me that they are wasting talents like Estrada.  The manager has always had a role in the business.  Look at the list of all-timer greats we would have never gotten to enjoy, due to the fact that they weren't wrestlers, had this dopey policy been in place years ago.  And, just imagine how much better off we all would be if we didn't have to hear people like Chris Masters do another promo.

If ECW is becoming the place where new talent can be trained why not have a place to train creative talent to book creatively?

In theory, that is great idea.  Unfortunately, WWE isn't looking for any outside of the box thinkers.  Instead, they want people to write TV in the manner that Vince and Stephanie McMahon have set up.  So, everyone works under them and learns their "way" of doing things.  

You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q&A by clicking here.

We also have a new Q and A up today on PWInsiderXtra.com titled:

PWINSIDERXTRA Q & A: COUPLES ON THE ROAD, LESNAR, VINNY MAC, THE WEAKEST FINISHER, "SMART" FANS AND MORE

If you are an Elite member of the new site, you can read it by clicking here.

If you are not an Elite member, you can read it by clicking here.

If you are an PWInsider.com Elite member and you want to find out how to join the new site (which is bargain priced at a dollar a month or less, depending on the subscription you choose), click here.

If you would like to become an Elite member to one or both of the sites, you can do so by clicking here.

For PWInsider.com Elite members who are not members of PWInsiderXtra.com, the questions from PWInsiderXtra.com will be archived in our weekly Elite newsletter.

 

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet