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PWINSIDER Q & A: CENA AS A HEEL, WWE DVDS, TNA FANS BEING OVERLY CRITICAL, FIXING ECW AND MORE

I was wondering about the current poll on WWE.com about who the fans want to see as WWE Champion. As for 11pm on 10/3 Val Venis has 50.55% of the votes. Is it possible that WWE are messing with the results? I find it hard to believe that more people are voting for Val, who has been on Raw all of what 5 times in 2007, is ahead of people like Jeff Hardy and Triple H. I think it says something when 2nd place is Triple H, third is Trevor Murdoch and fourth is Snitsky! Is it wwe.com or is it possible that the fans messing with WWE.com?

As I mentioned in Monday's column, I don't know what the problem is with polls on WWE.com but I have often found the results to be questionable.  I do know that they allow multiple voting so it could be that someone was just having fun by voting for Val or that spontaneously, a lot of people thought it would be funny and did so.  I don't think in this situation WWE would rig the poll since it wasn't exactly going in a direction that they would want it to.

Due to the unfortunate injury of John Cena and given that he will be off of television for quite awhile, do you think it's possible when he comes back he'll be a heel? I know creative was reluctant to turn Cena heel because of the merchandise revenue he generates, but with no TV exposure his merchandise sales will drop. So I wonder when Cena returns, do you think they will bring him back as a character with an axe to grind with the fans?

Honestly, at this point in time it's impossible to say what they will do with him when he returns.  Creative in WWE, quite literally, changes on a daily basis so whatever plan they have right now could change tomorrow.  I think there is a possibility that he could be used as a heel in the future, but right now I would think he would have to at least return as a face.  If it ends up they are heavy on faces in six months, I could absolutely see them bringing him back as a heel.

Who decides what matches go onto a DVD? I live here in AWA country, and my friends all agree that what is on the AWA disc is nowhere close to the best of the AWA. I also note in other DVD collections that some matches of note are not always included, and other times I wonder why a match is included. What goes into that thought process and who makes the decision?

I would think in that case Greg Gagne, when he was still with the company, would have had some input but the final decision runs through production and creative.  They do put thought into the listings but they are much more effective at putting together DVDs of their own product than something like the AWA.  Many of the people in the company never even watched AWA so they don't exactly know it's history or what matches are important to it. 

My question is regarding TNA. Do you feel that wrestling fans hold TNA to a double standard sometimes more so than WWE? Every time I read feedback on their programs or PPVs by other wrestling fans some things that are said are justified like the way things are booked among other things, but other complaints seem like nitpicking and overanalyzing.

My take on this is that a lot of "wrestling" fans (and by that I mean people who like watching more traditional pro wrestling as opposed to the sports entertainment of WWE) are very emotionally invested in TNA, feeling that it's their last option of a national company for them to follow.  If Ring of Honor had weekly TV, I think it would be different. Since they do not, I think that the fans who have tired of WWE have a very vested interest in TNA, so they are overly passionate and critical about it, in part because they want it to be the high end product that they like and they know that they won't ever get that out of WWE.  They want to watch a weekly wrestling show and TNA is their brand, so they vent about what they like and don't like.

I was thinking how ECW really needs somebody with some star power on its show. When the brand was first launched I thought it was great that guys like Kurt Angle, Big Show, and Rob Van Dam were part of its show because they have all had a history of huge success. Within six months Angle and Show were gone and Van Dam was moved down the card. I thought that it was great when they added Chris Benoit to the show because he was one of the most over wrestlers in the company. He would make fans tune into ECW to watch his matches. Even watching the few matches he had on ECW you could just feel his presence on the show. I was looking at the current WWE roster and of the former World Champions I really don't see anybody that would fit into ECW. Of everybody the only guy I see that could make that roster stronger would be if Carlito moved to the brand. I doubt Carlito would like the move but I think he can be a great opponent for CM Punk. What do you guys think and who else on the WWE roster do you see as somebody who could help and fit into that brand?

A major problem in WWE right now is a lack of top workers.  They just don't have enough of them for Raw and Smackdown, let alone ECW.  So, there really isn't any top guy that they can move to the brand, especially when it's clearly the number three priority in the company right now.  So, don't expect to see an influx of any top talent to the brand.  With that said, I would like to see them move Finlay over there and put him in the Chris Benoit/teacher role.  I think the young guys could learn a lot from him.

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