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PWINSIDER Q & A: VINCE-TAKER, FLAIR-STEVENS, HARDY-PUNK, PWINSIDER-WWE.COM AND MORE

Have you seen an increase in traffic on your site as a result of WWE putting some of your reports on their industry news section of wwe.com? If so then have you sent a thank you note to the WWE.

Funny you should ask. When I first was told that they added us to their Industry News section, I went back and compared stats and we have no bump at all in traffic since they added us to their site.  So, no thank yous are in order.  I am guessing that almost anyone who found our site in that section probably already knows about.  Now, if they linked people back to our site for the whole story, that may lead to some new traffic but that isn't what they are doing.

I have seen plugs on other sites where the site owner says that so and so is looking for a tape of a PPV.  My question is simple, isn't that illegal and can't the site owner get into hot water for running such a listing?

To answer your first question yes, it's copyright infringement to solicit copies of pay-per-views.  That is why WWE can shut people down on Ebay from selling their copies of shows that they record themselves.  WWE and TNA sell the shows for a person's viewing at the time of the event so someone asking for a copy of them is illegal.  And yes, running such items on your website can get the owner in hot water.  Frankly, anyone who does it is an idiot in my view.  It makes them a party to an illegal act.

I kept waiting for Vince to come out on the farewell to Flair on Raw, and the Undertaker, too. Why did they wait until the show went off the air before they honored him?

Undertaker did it because he is almost anal about never breaking kayfabe on TV or in public.  He feels it helps his character to always stay in it.  So, for him to do what he did was actually a huge testament to Flair.  As for Vince, since he was the storyline reason that Flair was "forced to retire", they decided to not totally expose the business by having him come out on TV during the ceremony.  I respect that.  Even though Edge and Randy Orton were in the first wave of people to come to the ring, they never broke character and just "showed respect".  Vince would have had to totally go against the storyline to appear.

Do you think that WWE's decision to give the MITB ladder match win to CM Punk was in direct reference to Jeff Hardy? By that I mean, do you think CM Punk got the win because of his straight edge lifestyle being a response to Hardy's suspension.

Well, I have been told that Hardy was supposed to win the match before his suspension so in that vein yes, Punk's win was a direct result of Hardy's Wellness suspension.  I can't say for sure as to whether they chose Punk to win directly in response to Hardy's failure but it certainly made sense from a planning point of view as given Punk's lifestyle, a Wellness violation should certainly not be a problem over the course of the next year for him. 

During Ric Flair's acceptance speech at the Hall of Fame. He mentioned Ray Stevens, being an influence, early in his career. Any additional information about this?

Stevens was an established vet when Flair was breaking in to the business back in the 70s.  He was a mentor to Flair, who was a sponge in picking up all of the knowledge that he could from Stevens.  Given that Flair was in the early, learning years of his career, having a veteran take him under his wing, especially one as gifted and talented as The Crippler, was greatly appreciated by Flair.

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