PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

PWINSIDER Q&A: CM PUNK'S ANACONDA VICE, LAWRENCE TAYLOR IN WCW, INTERNATIONAL WWE DEVELOPMENTAL TERRITORIES AND MORE

Although I like the GTS, I was curious as to why C.M. Punk no longer uses
the Anaconda Vice?

I believe it was simply a case of WWE wanting him to have a more "high impact" type of finisher, thus the GTS.

With  WWE wanting to open up  South America to their brand of wrestling, do you think the WWE may eventually have developmental territories in S. America, or Africa, or  Australia, and/or the far east? Or any outside the United States at all?

There's been discussion of running full-time touring groups in other countries, but that talk died down after a few months.  As far as a developmental territory, I don't think it would be cost-productive for WWE since they could simply sign whoever they saw something in and then bring them to the United States to train once they got visa issues sorted out.  So, developmental territories overseas - no, I don't see it.

I was just wondering what happened to Mike Sanders after WWE purchased WCW and took on his contract??  Did he get lost in the WWE shuffle??  It is a shame as I admired his work in WCW in pretty tough circumstances under their leadership at the time.  I think he could have go onto big things in the WWE as he was a great speaker, something I think a lot of wrestlers really lack.

Sanders worked in WWE developmental for the HWA promotion in Ohio during the time period where they had a WWE developmental territory, but never made it to the main roster.  I heard he was doing stand up comedy after he was released, but haven't heard his name in a long time.

Paul Heyman's latest article in The Sun where he talks about Jim Ross' move to
Smackdown, there is a picture near the bottom of the page of Ross, Heyman & Lawrence Taylor from WCW.  My question to you is, when did Taylor appear in WCW?  And what was his role?  Did he go there after his Wrestlemania 11 match with Bam Bam Bigelow?

Lawrence Taylor made a non-wrestling appearance at a WCW house show at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ in 1991 in Lex Luger's corner in a "football match" against The Big Cat (Curtis Hughes), who was managed by Paul Heyman. His sports bar was a regular stop for WCW wrestlers when they were in the area at the time, so the photo may have been taken there as well.

With Triple H still using the spinner belt, I am starting to get really discouraged about the belt ever going back to looking like an honorable trophy like it should be.  It seriously looks like a toy, a world championship shouldn't look like a toy.  Your thoughts?

I'd like to see WWE go back to using a more traditional championship belt, but not for the reasons you mentioned.  If John Cena is no longer in contention for that title belt, as a result of the draft, there's no need to keep the spinner belt active.  Retire it for the same reasons the Smoking Skull belt quietly disappeared after Steve Austin left the title picture.  As far as the belt looking like a toy and not a trophy, let's call a spade a spade - it's a prop and one that WWE uses to push it's talent to make the most money with them, as well as a prop they license replicas to sell, no different than Star Trek licenses phasers.  That's what it should be seen as - another source of revenue.

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