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PWINSIDER Q&A: A FLAIR TITLE WIN, WWE CHANGING WRESTLERS' NAMES, KATIE LEA, TNA KNOCKOUTS & MORE

It was reported that Paul Burchill premiered on RAW recently. Did Katie Lea appear as well? Are there plans for Katie Lea to be wrestling the likes of Mickie James or Maria anytime soon?

As they familiarize viewers with the characters, Katie Lea will likely just second Paul Burchill, but in due time, I would expect she would mix it up with the other Divas.  Having seen her work in WWE developmental, I can assure you that Lea is a really talented in-ring performer.

On the recent TNA Impact! I was very impressed by the womens tag team match that took place between Roxxi Laveaux and Jackie Moore against Gail Kim and ODB. The action was real good. All four women really did great. I was especially awed when, after the match was over, a confrontation between ODB and Gail Kim happened resulting in both women being separated by security. The highlight was when Gail Kim leaped off the top turnbuckle onto ODB and security. Incredible. The women of TNA have really been impressive while the men seem to going through mindless storylines and hard to understand situations.  Would you agree with that assessment?

All I can say is, so far, so good with the TNA Knockouts division.  I think if TNA gave the X-Division as much attention and care, the complaints about the main event picture and overall booking would quickly dissipate.

Why is it that Toots Mondt isn't in the WWE Hall of Fame?  From what I've read, Mondt is just as important to the evolution of Capitol into the World Wide Wrestling Federation.

It's probably just something Vince McMahon, who has the final say in the Hall, hasn't considered doing, likely because the Hall is as much a live event as it is anything else, any 99% of the audience in attendance wouldn't know or care who Mondt is, since he was more of a backstage broker than anything else.

With Ric Flair's in-ring career likely ending at Wrestlemania, and some people (Stone Cold for example), clamoring for The Nature Boy to go out on top, would you find a scenario where Flair wins the strap appealing?  I think a situation where Vince sticks Flair in MITB with the idea being he must beat all other competitors or be forced to retire could lay the seeds for the greatest Wrestlemania moment ever.  Flair could miraculously win MITB and then to end the show, after Orton steals a victory, Ric could cash in his title shot and tap Orton out to the figure four.  The next night on Raw he could cut a promo saying he said he would never retire, but after consideration he decided to go out on top.  This could vacate the title setting up a tournament style pay-per-view (King of the Ring?) where Jeff Hardy could beat Cena and HHH to win the belt and give automatic legitimacy to his initial title reign.  Thoughts?

Honestly, and it pains me to say this, Ric Flair should not be even considered for a championship given the level of his current performances.  I think it's best to go the route that WWE is going with him, building to Flair working against the best in-ring performer in the company, Shawn Michaels, with the idea of giving Flair one last great Wrestlemania performance.  I think Flair is one of the best ever, probably the best with the exception of Terry Funk, but I don't think putting a top title on him at this point would be productive for the company.

How come some wrestlers get to keep their real names when coming to the WWE (or have their real names changed so inconsequentially that, were they to leave the WWE, they could still wrestle under their real names and have basically no change, e.g. Batista/Bautista), while some wrestlers are forced to take on new gimmicks so that the WWE ensures that they own their name (e.g. Marcus Cor Von, Kenny Dykstra)? I assume bigger stars have more pull when they first sign with WWE, but  it's not only big names that get to keep their names. Why didn't the WWE rename someone like Snitsky into something else, so that if he ever did get over, they would own his name and he wouldn't be able to take it somewhere else, which would be good leverage to get him to stay with the WWE? (Of course, maybe they knew he would never get over so they didn't have to worry about it.)

It really depends on the performer and what WWE wants from them.  In the case of some, WWE wants to maintain ownership of the name while in the case of others, like the recently debuting Katie Lea, they opt to use their real names because creative and management feel it fits them.  There's no real rhyme or reason - it's all a case by case basis.

 

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