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PWINSIDER Q & A: AOL AND WCW, THE START OF ECW, WWE BLURRINESS, TONY HALME AND MORE

Obviously the quality of WCW programming went down the toilet following the merger of AOL/Time Warner. There are probably other factors that contribute to that but I could see the change when AOL had say so in the programming. My question is do you guys miss WCW? I mean don't you miss having a second brand around that would challenge WWF/E? No matter how bad it got, I liked having it there in case WWF/E was doing something I didn't like.

When AOL and Time Warner announced their merger in 2000, the writing was on the wall for WCW.  AOL had a history of not keeping companies that were losing money and by that time, WCW was hemorrhaging it.  It became very clear that WCW would need to be sold because achieving profitability was a pipedream and it was put on the block.  But, the quality of WCW programming had already gone into the toilet long before then.  They had dealt with two Vince Russo regimes and at the end, the whole thing was a mess.  I don't miss the company that we had to watch for the last few years but I certainly miss WWE having real competition.  The only reason the Attitude era ever happened was because WCW beat the then-WWF in the ratings.  The business is much better off when there are two big boys in the game.

I never expected the Rise and Fall of ECW or Forever Hardcore productions to go deeper than Tod Gordon. I would like to hear your opinion, however, on just how important you feel that Joel Goodhart's Tri-State Wrestling Alliance was to Philadelphia being tapped as the home turf for ECW. Goodhart's McGonigle Hall shows featured wrestling, brawling, and performers that most locals only knew through magazines and tape trading. To some it may be a stretch, but I'm not sure, so I will just ask outright: Does ECWA/ECW find a home here without Joel Goodhart planting the seed with TWA?

I think ECW would have happened with or without Goodhart.  Yes, he put on some great shows (I went to them so I know) but it's not like he ran a successful territory every few weeks.  It was more like every few months and he lost money, hence him closing down.  Tod Gordon was one of Goodhart's investors because he wanted to see a good wrestling product and was willing to invest in it.  I think he would have done so if Goodhart had never come along.

I've recently watched a few WWE DVDs and I was just amazed with how the WWE dealt with the whole WWF lawsuit. Those blurs are just awful, and they're not even done properly. On the Rock DVD, the Rock is blurred most of the time, they didn't even take time to make "masks" on the wrestler so they're not blurred (the rock's arm is blurred most of the time, if not a part of his face when a mic with a logo is there, which in a promo, happens often). I know, for working in production, that those kind of things are hard to make, you basically need to mask on every images (29 images per seconds, just imagine the work). But I honestly think those new DVDs are rip offs, how can the WWE even produce such things?! I know the whole lawsuit prevents them from using anything that refers to "WWF" but this is seriously going too far. I am almost sure that the WWE didn't put too much of the promos in the DVD, BECAUSE of that. The work it requires, and all the hassle that comes with it. Do you think the content of the new DVDs will be influenced by the whole WWF blur thing ? In terms of content, at least. ? I'm starting to think my old collection of WWF tapes are going to be worth something in the next few years. What's your thought on that??? Can they really sell such cr*p ???

It absolutely will continue because their footage from that period is branded with that logo and they can't use it due to the lawsuit settlement with The World Wildlife Fund.  There is no way they are going to stop producing DVDs and it's just too difficult to get rid of all of the logos that are all over the footage.  So, it's something they just have to accept if they want to keep producing DVDs (and they do, trust me).  As for your old tapes, just remember that it's illegal to sell anything you taped off of TV.  If you have commercial releases from the time, you can sell those.  As to their worth, I don't think most people will care enough about the blurring to pay a premium to not see it.

In the mid 90's WWE debuted a wrestler named Ludvig Borga. I remember he was undefeated for a while then broke his arm and was never heard from again. What ever happened to him?

After leaving the WWF, he went back home to his native Finland and was elected to the Parliament under his real name of Tony Halme.  He traded one political arena for another one!

The wedding..lol I wonder what Vickie's name will be now. And isn't it amazing that even though we all knew she could always walk, and even tho she raged at him only a week or so ago that because of him she would be confined to a chair for the rest of her life...here she is not only walking...but dancing too! And has anyone noticed that at the beginning of this storyline, Kristal was the wedding planner. And now, and the end of it, they have another black woman as the wedding planner! I wish I was stupid enough to not notice such things and think creative was doing a good job..lol Isn't creative wonderful? lol

Yes, creative is wonderful.  

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