PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

PWINSIDER Q & A: ROCK AND AUSTIN IN HOF, VINCE-HOGAN, FLAIR-ARN, ME LEAVING PWINSIDER.COM AND MORE

Hi guys, I have a few questions regarding next year's Hall of Fame ceremony. Since it is going to be Wrestlemania XXV, do you think they will load up the ceremony with perhaps The Rock and Steve Austin being inducted? Do you think they should hurry up and induct The Rock? If they do not induct him soon and he ends up becoming a HUGE and perhaps Oscar winning actor, do you think he may elect to never return to be inducted?

Honestly, each one of those guys deserves to be the top guy of their class since the both accomplished so much in their careers.  There is no way I would put them both in at the same time.  Plus, WWE needs headliners for the ceremony in upcoming years so it makes no sense to waste two of them in one night.  I think in Rock's case he would take an induction no matter how big of a movie star he becomes.  I just don't think he will actually wrestle.  So next year, I would have no problem with either one of them leading the class since both of their careers in the ring are done.

Seeing that Hulk Hogan is starting is own wrestling show, and where is popularity came from the WWE, do you think that Vince McMahon will or does have a problem with this?

If he does, it's kind of ridiculous.  Sure, Hogan got his fame from his run in the WWF but he brought them notoriety as well.  Theirs is a relationship where they go hand in hand with each other.  I could see Vince maybe not liking the show or wishing he thought of it first, but if he has a legitimate problem with it I would find that to be a joke.

O.K. 40 year wrestling fan here and long time Elite subscriber and want to throw my hat in to the "What do you think of this scenario" for Nature Boy's retirement match outcome.... What do you think if one of Flair's long time associates such as Dusty Rhodes, Steamboat or Double A interferes and causes Flair to retire stating all along the jealousy and hatred he had for Flair (for shock value Arn would be my choice). Flair stays out for a while then comes back with a protégé' like a Goldberg or Lesnar character and runs roughshod through the WWE roster until met with his adversaries protégé' and have a big build until next years WrestleMania when the protégés battle? 

I think it would make for some great TV, especially if Arn and Flair were dueling on interviews for the next year.  Arn would be my choice in that scenario since they were always so close on camera and Dusty was usually a Flair rival.  The shock value would be a lot greater with Arn.

Have you ever become so disenfranchised with WWE and the wrestling business that you've actually considered leaving the wrestling world behind (meaning just becoming a fan rather then a news reporter)? I love the site, but I've been reading for a long time now and you just seem to keep getting more and more negative and down on everything that the "major" promotions are doing. The last two or three months I've listened to the audio and read the articles and felt like you just don't LIKE wrestling anymore. Any thought to passing the torch, so to speak, and moving on from wrestling? Who would take over PWInsider if the current owners/operators left?

First off, the only reason I am negative is because I do love the business.  It would be a lot easier to just say "everything is great" and lie to the readers, but that is not what I am about.  When I watch something done right (such as Ric Flair's amazing promo on Monday), I love it as much as I ever did.  Of course I like wrestling still!  I always have and I always will.  

There are still a lot of good to great matches to enjoy but when I see repetitive, uninspired booking, it hurts the show overall because good booking is an integral part of having a strong product.  It's hard to get excited about a product that isn't exciting, so of course that will come across in what I say and/or write.  Part of the difference in how you and I see things may be in the fact that I have been around so long and have a large base to form my opinions on.  Newer fans, who have only been around for a few years and not seen any of the stuff from the glory years, may not understand that since they only know the recent product.  Basically, it's a "you don't know what you are missing" scenario.  But if someone has a deeper frame of reference, it's easy to see why today's product is inferior to that of years past.  And, most of the reason for that comes down to the creative end. 

With that said, I love my job.  It's a lot of fun (bad shows notwithstanding) and I have no plans on leaving any time soon.  Even if I did want to leave, we have a large number of Elite subscribers who have grown disenchanted with the business, yet they still love the site.  That makes me feel good and as long as there are people out there who care what I have to say, I will be here to say it.  I have always felt I owe my best efforts to those who have supported us financially and that will never change.

So in closing, you misread the situation here.  I still love the wrestling business.  I just get very frustrated by poor and/uninspired booking.

Love the work! Big time fan from New Zealand, read everything on your site. Anyway - as I have been reading from the net and watching on TV - it would seem that not many people are excited about the Mania this year, you yourselves have mentioned that the build has been a bit boring. Which got to me thinking, what would spice it up a bit. The HHH/Cena/Orton main event does seem a bit lackluster but it'll be better then Cena/HHH again, so with the current WWE Roster watch match ups could spice up Mania? I've always thought Taker/Michaels could have a Mania showing but time for that one is running out.  I don't really see any potential Main Events or big time feel matches between Rosters except one - Edge vs. Triple H - that'd be an awesome Main Event.  Maybe next year. 

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I think the major problem is in the booking.  There are only so many top talents so there will be some repetitiveness after a while, and that is understandable.  Where they can make things more interesting falls in with the stories they tell and the promos that are cut on TV.  If they would have stepped up their booking, the show would have had a better feel.  For you Elite members, I talked about this in-depth on my hotline yesterday. 

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 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