PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

PWINSIDER Q&A: RAW ROSTER NOT BEING USED, DREAMER, ALBERT AND MORE

Answered: 8/1

I keep reading where people are asking who is going to step into the role Benoit was supposed to be in, that being a trainer for the young talent on ECW. But, why is Tommy Dreamer over looked? Can't he do a very effective job training the younger talent? That leads me to my other question. If you look at the talent on the three brands RAW, Smackdown, and ECW who would you put into positions of "teacher" for the brand? For example, I'd put Flair and Finlay in the teaching role on Smackdown because Flair has great ability on the mic and as a showman, and Finlay can really still go in the ring with the young talent and show them some classic wrestling. How about two people from each brand and what could they teach the other guys?

I think Dreamer does help with the younger talent he works with.  However, more than just being a teacher to younger talent, Benoit was also going to be the top star for the brand.  His name value was going to very important, since he is an established WWE star, being a former World Champion and Wrestlemania headliner.  Dreamer, while a huge favorite amongst original ECW fans, has never been pushed as a headliner for WWE, so he can't fill that role.  As for the "teaching role" on other brands, I don't think a wrestler needs to be designated for the role.  It should simply be a case where the veterans (Regal, Finlay, Flair, Michaels, etc.) should help the younger wrestlers when they work together.  At the same time, the younger stars should go to the veterans for advice.  Rather than designating a teacher, I think WWE should encourage veterans and newcomers to have more open communication. 

What gives with all the jobbers on WWE TV? On Raw July 30, plenty of guys were not used (plenty of tag teams, Highlanders, World's Greatest Tag Team, Cade/Murdoch, Kendrick/London) yet Cryme Tyme just had to wrestle some jobbers. And ECW???? Please, a year ago, ECW was not the ECW everybody remembered but at least it was watchable and had a decent roster. Today, the show revolves around like 5 guys and jobbers have been on the show the last few weeks. Why does WWE do this during a time when they need their ratings up?

This week, WWE ran into a few problems with Raw, as Dave Scherer discussed on his Elite hotline, so I won't give them too much flak over using Cryme Tyme to fill the show out a bit.  I do agree that it is ridiculous how many Raw stars are left off the show every week, when they certainly could be adding to the program.  ECW, because of the roster size, practically has no choice but to use enhancement talent, otherwise they'd go through every possible match within six months.  I think the answer might be to move some of the unused Raw talent to ECW. However, since WWE always prefers to have more than enough talent on Raw, I don't see that happening. 

Why does so many people dog on Albert's Intercontinental title reign? I think A-Train was actually a decent wrestler for his size and it isn't like he is Nathan Jones. The same thing with Test who can also have a good match when he wants to, Ex: Test vs Shane at Summerslam 1999.

I didn't know people dogged Albert's title reign.  Heck, I don't think many remember it at all!  Seriously, I think A-Train, who now works in New Japan Pro Wrestling as Giant Bernard is a very good "big man worker" and probably could have become more in WWE, but he never seemed to really click with the fans as a heel, and never had a breakout performance.  As for Test, I think he's always been wishy-washy in her performances.  He'll have a good bout now and then, but mostly he just seems to go through the motions, and the crowd doesn't care for it. 

I remember the match between Hardcore Holly and Brock Lesnar in Lenar's rookie year in 2002 and I was wondering what was Holly thinking working a stiff match with someone as big and powerful as Brock and then it came back and bit him in the behind when Brock dropped him on his neck and put him out for a year. My question is when Holly came back and had matches with Lesnar did he still work the stiff style?

I don't know what he was thinking, and after the fact, I imagine he regretted it a bit.  Holly has always worked stiff, but when he came back to work with Lesnar, I doubt he tried to take any liberties in the ring with him. 

I noticed that in the next three or so Impact tapings, there was not one women's match? Why? TNA has Tracy Brooks, Christy Hemme, Jackie Moore, Gail Kim & the newest member Roxxi Lavaeux. Why no women's match? Will there be one scheduled for the Hard Justice PPV?

At the time I write this, there is no women's match set for the PPV, but obviously that could change.  TNA definitely seems to be sending some mixed messages lately in regards to women in the company.  On the one hand, we keep hearing about them wanting to bring in more women and having a regular division.  On the other hand, we barely see them using the women now.  My thinking is that once TNA moves to a two-hour show, we will see the women featured in a more prominent role. 

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. 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 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, all Q&A's are archived in the Elite Newsletter every Sunday.

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