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PWINSIDER Q & A: WHEN CREATIVE WENT SOUTH, RUSSO'S REIGN, PROBLEMS WITH ECW, FINLAY AS THE NEW TRAINER AND MORE

With all of the steroids in wrestling talk going around these days, what is it like in Japan and Mexico? Are steroids (and drugs in general) an issue and how are they dealt with? I know that in Mexico it is as easy as walking into a pharmacy and asking for whatever you want, with no prescription, so I would imagine if Lucha wrestlers wanted to, they could have no problem getting some juice.

Luckily for luchadors, the business in Mexico is not based on size but rather being able to fly and having an interesting character.  That doesn't mean that that they aren't used and as you said, it certainly is easy enough to get them there.  But luckily, the business isn't predicated on big physiques so it's not a major issue.  As for Japan, I can't really say.  When I was a big fan of Japanese wrestling in the mid-90s, huge physiques were not prevalent.  The business there was built off of being able to work good matches.  I really can't say for certain how things are there today. 

I know WWECW only has 1 hour of TV and 1 title, but how can this brand be taken seriously with only 4 guys on the roster who could hold the strap? Outside of Nitro, Punk, Burke and CorVon (and even the latter two have no heat whatsoever) there is nobody else who could be conceived as a World Champ. Why won't they move some more young talent over? Carlito and Shelton Benjamin come to mind. 

You are correct sir.  The brand has a reputation as a C show, with low ratings, for a reason.  The viewers see exactly what you do there.  WWE knows it too, which is why they wanted to move Chris Benoit over to make him the on-site trainer/top guy.  At this point, it's something that has to be addressed but the company isn't exactly overly flush with guys to move there that mean anything.  If you move a mid-card guy over and he wins the belt after being a jobber on Raw, it doesn't say much about the brand so moving your Carlitos and Benjamins wouldn't do much good.  At this point, I wonder if WWE will even bother trying to improve ECW.  After all, they only have a TV contract for show with Sci Fi until the end of the year with no guarantee it will continue.  When ECW was doing 2.5s, it was worth airing to Sci Fi, even though it upset some of their core audience.  At a 1.2, it may become expendable.

So talk was Benoit was going to be ECW Champ and be the vet of the brand bringing up younger stars and this and that. Nitro was a replacement champ and thus far as been doing well (or as well as can be expected) as a guy who gets better because he has the belt. I've read the general feeling is that Finlay would be a good replacement for the "vet" spot in ECW of the current WWE roster. I can't agree with that. First off the majority of fans know Fit as an older wrestler who got his (WWE) start at a late age. Two: At best he's held the US Title. Lashley got away with going from US to ECW champ because he's young and huge. I digress. I'm not sure, of the current WWE roster, who would be the best to fill the "vet" spot but a recent QnA about Jericho's potential return and what brand he would be on got me to thinking Jericho would be PERFECT to fill that roll as he's (a) an "ECW Original" and (b) a former WWE Champion. I think if he came back and did the "2nd person (or 1st under 7 feet tall knowing his humor) to win the WWE, WCW, and ECW World titles," he would be believable as a vet and then do the "I've done it all and no one can beat me," heel turn. Your thoughts??

I totally disagree.  With a threadbare overall roster it would be a complete waste of a top tier returning guy like Jericho to place him on ECW.  If he were to return, he should be used to revitalize and refresh Smackdown.  At worst, he should be on Raw where people will actually see him.  As I mentioned above, ECW is the clear number three brand with an uncertain future so you don't want waste an A list talent there.  In Benoit's case, he was mired in the mid-card on Smackdown and was going nowhere so he was a good choice to go to ECW.  That is exactly why I think Finlay would be perfect to move to a teaching role on Tuesday nights.

I was just watching [an unnamed older] PPV and every match (except for the Taker match) had great stories and history which made this feel big like WM3 and WM17. Also at that time, the roster was loaded and balanced as Smackdown had some thoroughbreds (Angle, Benoit, Guerrero, Lesnar, Mysterio, Undertaker. Hogan). But I guess too much of a good thing took over once they added Goldberg, Steiner, etc. Who was writing WWE TV around the time of WM 19? And what happened as the year rolled on and they started to misuse talent and generally screw things up?

Wrestlemania 17 was the end of the Chris Kreski era at WWE creative.  Actually, Stephanie McMahon took over control of the department in late 2000 if memory serves and slowly implemented the current creative team process of writing TV.  Mania 17 had pretty much already been set up by the time Stephanie came into power and Kreski was still writing TV early in her reign.  If I remember correctly, he finally left the company in 2002 and by WrestleMania 19, Steph and her people were in total control.  The rest, unfortunately, is history and frankly it amazes me on almost a daily basis how the McMahons do not realize how much better, in every facet, their product was before Stephanie assumed control.

Long time reader of your sites. I plan on getting Elite for both sites next week. I would like to know when Vince Russo actually became a part of the creative team. I am asking because I have always wondered what exactly he contributed to the product that was so good in ' 97 and '98. In my opinion, the WWF really became great around Wrestlemania 13 with the Hart Foundation angles. 

He was hired for creative in some time in 1996 after doing booking pieces under the pseudonym Vic Venom for WWF magazine.  At the time Vince McMahon was not a happy man since WCW, on the strength of the nWo angle, was kicking the WWF's butt in every aspect of the business.  Vince read Russo's columns and told his creative team that it was good stuff and that is what they should be doing on TV.  The fact that Vince was losing to WCW made him more open to suggestions than he usually was and made him open to try things that were outside of his own booking ideas.  Russo was brought in to implement the ideas that he voiced in the magazine on to the TV shows.  While he says that he never watched ECW TV from that time, it has always been my opinion (and many people in WWF at the time as well) that Russo watched what ECW was doing on a regional basis and took many of those concepts national.  He helped increase the role of women in wrestling as well as pushing the lines of what was shown on TV with bawdy, adult-edged storylines that hadn't been seen on WWE TV before.  It worked because along with a commitment to improve their in-ring product and implement a much improved TV visual, WWE hit its stride and began to deliver a much better product.

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