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PWINSIDER Q & A: GREGORY HELMS, HALL IN ECW PUSHING NEW PEOPLE, HARDY OVER PUNK AND MORE

I was wondering if you knew when Gregory Helms is scheduled to return to the ring. He is greatly missed!!

Helms is still recovering from a serious neck injury and I have not heard of any return date yet.  With the kind of injury he has, he just can't come back too soon.  He has to make sure all of the possible healing has been attained before he tries to work again.  I expect he will return later this year but only when he feels he's ready.

I just recently watched the footage on YouTube of one of Scott Hall's appearances in ECW. I'm not sure exactly where it took place at, but the crowd gave him a pretty good reaction. My question is if he showed up at the ECW Arena do you believe he still would have gotten the same reaction?

I think he would have gotten a good reaction if he worked the ECW Arena.  Him appearing would have been a big surprise, which the crowd always popped for.  Plus, since Hall was seen as a good worker, I don't see any reason the fans wouldn't have popped for him had he showed up there.

WWE has pushed Jeff Hardy and he was suspended, then they pushed Regal and he dropped his ball too, so will the WWE be frightened to push new faces and back to the same old same old?

It's a valid question.  With the currently low ratings (and possibly buyrates to follow), I can't see them thinking that doing the same old, same old is a good idea however.  While they did get burned pushing Hardy and Regal it's not like they didn't know that both men had past issues and whenever anyone has that kind of baggage it's not as if a relapse takes anyone by surprise.  They knew the risks involved with pushing those guys.  They chose to do it anyway.  With that said, they have also pushed guys like MVP and Matt Hardy, who have given them no problems so they can't just stop elevating talent.  That would be suicidal to their business and they know it.

Do you think with the current ratings trend and the seeming slump in the creative process that it's time for the brand extension to end. I know that their would be some releases but I think it's time to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight titles. New feuds would definitely get me interested again in the product. What are your thoughts.

I definitely agree that the company needs new feuds.  As I type this on Sunday, we are just hours away from a forty dollar PPV that is filled with rematches.  It hardly gets you excited to pay to watch a show you have already pretty much seen before.  With that said, my fear with ending the brand extension is that we will get the same stuff on two two-hour shows that we now have on Raw.  With the draft and the eased up brand rules, they can move talents from show to show, if they want to.  They can create fresh match ups, if they want to.  And of course they could also realize that their way of doing things has gotten stale and change up how they present the product, if they want to.

At the end of the day, I think ending the extension won't have any positive effect if they don't change the way that they write TV.  The wrestling business was built on what happens in the ring and people fighting because they have issues with each other.  The backstage stuff should be left for entertaining bits, not boring promos.  If they don't have anything legitimately entertaining to show us backstage or in the ring, go back to the violence.  That is what people want to see from wrestling.

In the old days, guys wouldn't be able to stand together and do promos because they would end up attacking each other.  Now, it's just the opposite.  In addition to interesting storylines, the violence factor is also missing from the business.  I think more than anything else they need to get back to that.  If they don't, more people will keep tuning out altogether or switch to MMA to see the violence that they used to get from wrestling.

This is a bit of a tie in to the final 2 questions in the most recent Q&A (at time of sending this email) With Punk being booked weak and with Jeff still being booked strong despite the suspension and not forgetting that ECW and RAW will be taped together from June, do you see a Hardy-Punk feud (or at very least a match) that results in Jeff winning the briefcase that had his name on it prior to his suspension?

They way they are booking Punk right now that wouldn't shock me in the least.

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