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PWINSIDER Q & A: 20 MILLION DOLLAR RUSE, CENA VS. ROCK, BURIED SMITH, OVW FOOTAGE, BUNNYMANIA AND MORE

Has DH Smith been buried? Should he move on, or is he taking his lumps for the previous suspension? Your thoughts?

I may be a cynic (OK, I AM a cynic) but I can't help but think that the only reason Smith that he was even brought up to the roster was so he could be a top roster suspendee when WWE made their first announced suspensions.  That way, they could suspend one guy and fire another (Chris Masters).  Now, I am not saying that is what WWE did, but it sure does seem convenient.  As for Smith, I think he's still raw and needs more work before he is ready for a real push.  But, WWE does have him working house shows so perhaps he is in line for a re-debut on TV after Mania.

Now that OVW has separated from WWE, would OVW be able to show any of their previous footage? If I remember right WWE bought their library and have used it on some of their DVDs.

Yes, WWE owns all the footage from the time that they were affiliated with OVW.  That was part of their deal with the company.

You probably will get a few of the same questions, but what is your thought on the Women's match at Wrestlemania, a tag-team BunnyMania? I think, as most readers might, that there should of been a Women's Title Match at Wrestlemania, in addition maybe to this one, so why do you think they put the Glamazon in a match such as this instead of a title match?

Well, when you consider that they have to push the Playboy diva very hard and make her an integral part of Mania, I think they made a good call to not subject us to a Maria-Beth Phoenix match.  Maria tries and is great to look at, but she's not much of a wrestler.  So, I have no problem with what they booked.  What I do think stinks is that Mickie James is the odd lady out.  She deserves to be on Mania.

Given John Cena's recent comments and the fact that the Rock will be at the Hall of Fame the night before, could we be seeing the beginnings of a Cena vs. Rock match at Wrestlemania?

In Cena and Vince McMahon's dreams!  Rock is nowhere near wrestling shape.  He is leaner now because that is what Hollywood wants.  He hasn't trained to work and even if he was in wrestling shape, his supporters in Hollywood don't want to see him wrestle.  Vince and Cena would love it, obviously, but I think it's a pipe dream right now.

$20 million, are you kidding me?! I live outside of the UK and I can pretty much guarantee that Floyd Mayweather is largely unknown outside of America. How can WWE justify him being worth $20 million when he isn't even an international star, he is no where near worth that much! A-list movie stars like Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts can command that much for a picture which takes 6-9 months to shoot and WWE is going to throw away this amount of cash on Floyd Mayweather?! For $20 million they could have an A-list celebrity who is likely known worldwide unlike Mayweather, appear on a few Raws and Wrestlemania. Honestly, what is WWE thinking?

As I said above, I am a cynic and as such, there is NO WAY I believe that figure is legit.  If they sell 1 million buys of Mania on PPV, when you factor in less money from outside of the US, their cut from PPV would be maybe 20 million dollars.  There is no way they are giving that much to a boxer who won't add many buys to the bottom line.  Now, if they could have gotten Oscar De la Hoya, I could see them spending in the 8 figures (if not 20 mil) but for Mayweather?  No way.  This is like a "one million dollar battle royal".  The money is being spent in name only.  But, it makes a big splash and it gives Mayweather something to fall back on when people outside of wrestling ask why he is doing this.  "Hey, I got 20 million bucks, you'd do it too!" 

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