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PWINSIDER Q&A: SAMOA JOE'S DANCING, WWE OPENING MMA BRAND, JOHN MORRISON GETTING THE ECW BELT BACK QUICKLY, BRET RETURNING AND MORE

I know that Bret Hart will never return to the WWE as a wrestler. But what do you think the chances are that Vince could get Bret back in a non-wrestling role? The New Hart Foundation could be managed by Bret and feud against a reformed DX.

Bret has said many, many times that he'll never work for WWE again.  Beyond that, he's now married splitting time between Canada and Italy (where his wife is from) and it's really hard to see what he could get out of it.  Throwing out the entire Montreal incident, I just don't see Hart ever wanting to be a regular character in the wrestling world ever again, particularly since he's said that doing anything but wrestling would demean his legacy as he wants to be remembered for what he accomplished as a performer.

With all of the heat they've got on them from Congress, the media, and the court of public opinion, how can the WWE possibly think it's a good idea to put the ECW title back on John Morrison immediately upon his return?  The champion is the face of the brand and that face shouldn't be Morrison's, as he was one of the biggest offenders of the Signature scandal (at least in terms of the number of substances he purchased).  For that matter, the WWE shouldn't be putting any belts on any of the men who were suspended for several months.  What are your thoughts on the subject?

If WWE keeps up with plans to put the belt right back on Morrison, I agree with you.  The titles at this point are props and don't mean anything in the scheme of drawing power or ratings, but should a performer be immediately rewarded upon his return from a suspension for breaking company policy by being handed a more lucrative, money earning position?  In my opinion, no.  However, as we recently saw with Jeff Hardy getting the IC title, WWE feels differently.  Whether they follow up with initial plans to put the ECW belt back on Morrison, we'll have to see, but I think it sends a bad message and could even hurt Punk's momentum if done wrong.

In another Q&A, a question was answered regarding WWE  bringing back Brawl-For-All. I loved the concept and would like to see it as an annual thing, but I know it just wasn't received very well. Add in Butterbean's quick knockout of Bart Gunn at WrestleMania XV and it made B4A look weak. HOWEVER, rumor is WWE has been looking at starting an MMA league. I had this very thought after SummerSlam '98 after the Shamrock-Owen Hart Lions Den match. If they expanded out the Lions Den, as it seemed a bit small, they very well could have used it as their enclosure for MMA. Any chance this will happen when/if they start an MMA league or will they go with a traditional ring ala IFL?

WWE had so many injuries during the initial Brawl For All concept, it was scrapped and never brought back.  WWEE has never had any plans to launch a MMA group although in 2001, they did look at buying UFC (and boy, I bet they wish they had) as an entity for Shane McMahon, who is a huge MMA fan, to promote.  However, the company has always balked at doing it, because they feel that it's harder to build and create personas (which is their main job) when you can't control the outcomes, plus it's felt that MMA is oversaturated on TV currently.

This is one I've wondered for a while. Recently theQ&A answered a question regarding new sets for RAW and Smackdown. Maybe this is rhetorical... but how is it that Rhyno spearing Jericho through the oval SmackDown set caused enough damage to the set to require a new set yet when Randy Orton drives a low-rider with Undertaker on it through the set and the car, and set, explode the set is exactly the same???

They simply wanted to change the sets, that's all.  Looking for logic beyond that will only give you a headache, so stop looking!

Don't you believe by having fire dancers come out for every Samoa Joe entrance kind've takes away from his "Joe's Gonna Kill You" mentality?  It looks cheesy and makes me laugh every time I see those dancers come out first.

The first time TNA did it, those were actual members of Samoa Joe's family's dance troupe and he brought them in to add to the pomp and circumstance of his match with Jushin Liger to give it a big time feel, particularly (I am guessing) for the Japanese media.  Since then, the dance troupe has been a TNA idea.  I think it totally goes against what Joe's persona is all about but TNA sees it as making him something larger than life.  To me, Joe is about being a killer wrestler and that's what should be presented as larger than life.

 

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