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PWINSIDER Q&A: UNDERTAKER, ANDRE THE GIANT, WWE DVD RELEASES AND MORE

I'm watching Royal Rumble 1996 on WWE 24/7 and I'm wondering why was Undertaker wearing a mask?

The reason for the mask was that Undertaker had suffered a broken eye socket at the hands of Mabel during an edition of Monday Night Raw that sidelined him for two months, and when he returned he wore the mask to protect the eye.

I'm hoping you can tell me what was the story behind the infamous Andre the Giant shoot match that took place in Japan sometime in the 1980's, I think I've recently seen a video of it, and besides looking extremely out of shape, the Giant looked bored as hell with thee whole thing. Was the match indeed a shoot and was it meant to be or did something happen during the match that caused it?

It occurred in 1986, and was basically rooted in the fact that Maeda had a real ego problem when it came to wrestling (he hardly ever did jobs) and had an even bigger problem with foreign stars. On top of that, Andre was never one to suffer fools lightly.  Well, Andre apparently knew of Maeda's rep, and there was very little cooperation between the two. Andre took Maeda down a few times, making it hard for Maeda to do anything. Maeda did manage to take Andre down with a single leg at one point, and Andre grabbed Maeda's face, freaking out Maeda. Maeda then went to kicking at Andre's legs with stiff shots and then backing away, but Andre wasn't selling any of it. Antonio Inoki came out, and there was a lot of confusion. Andre, finally tiring of Maeda kicking his legs and then backing off, lied down in the ring and basically dared Maeda to get on him. Maeda, probably realizing if Andre grabbed him on the mat, he'd kill him, backed off. Inoki was also yelling at Maeda to not try it.  The match was ruled a no-contest, with a fight almost breaking out between Inoki and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. To be honest, the legend of the story has grown to ridiculous proportions over the years. It wasn't nearly as interesting as some people make it sound.

What is up with all of these WWE errors? I first noticed on the History of the WWE Title DVD that they listed Johnny Valentine as a commentator, but it was actually Johnny Valiant. Then on the AWA DVD, Rod Trongard is listed as Ron Trongard. Now, on the Survivor Series DVD, in the extras, Michael Cole says the One Man Gang is dead! Why doesn't WWE hire people who know wrestling and the history of the business??????

You'd think they could hire at least one.  I've often said on Elite Hotlines that it would be worth WWE's time to bring in one "super fan" on the payroll just to work as a fact-checker and be on the lookout for errors like the ones you described.  In the case of One Man Gang, I think Michael Cole and everyone who was involved in the production of that segment should be embarrassed and ashamed, since not one of them thought enough of their work to actually go and check to see if he was really deceased. I'm sure they wouldn't like it if someone put out a DVD and mentioned that a member of their family was dead that really wasn't. 

What do you think of wrestlers who disparage fans? There seems to be quite a bit of the attitude going around amongst wrestlers these days that goes along the lines of "if a fan has never written a book then he/she doesn't know a good book if he/she read one." But there are also wrestlers who, for God only knows what reason, seem to go out of their way to belittle fans in general. Aren't these the same fans who (at least on the indy) are basically the ones who are paying the paychecks?  I think I'm wrong but what's your opinion? 

I can understand why some wrestlers get annoyed at "know-it-all" fans who they feel criticize without knowing what they are talking about, but at the same time, I don't think any wrestler should disparage a fan publicly.  You might be annoyed at some of them, but at the same time, they are the ones buying tickets and paying your wages.  If there are no fans, then there is no show, and there is no money.  Wrestling in an empty building doesn't give you a career, so wrestlers should always have respect for the people that make it possible for them to do what they love and get paid for it. 

I have been reading lately of the WWE working on their videos/DVDs for the purpose of blurring their trademarked name. With the state of technology as it is today, why doesn't the WWE simply remove the offending site altogether, instead of blurring it? 

Well the technology is there to do something like that, the cost for WWE would be astronomical.  WWE isn't about to hire Industrial Light & Magic (and that's pretty much who they would need to do it) and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have the logos digitally removed from every moment of an event.  It is, as they say "cost prohibitive" to do it for WWE at this point, so they go with the cheaper methods of blurring the logo out. 

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