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PWINSIDER Q & A: TAKER IN WCW, BRET HART'S MOVE, JERICHO'S MESSAGE, KIZARNY AND MORE

Are there any rumors of Nigel McGuiness making the move to TNA or WWE? To me he seems to be the most legitimate ROH star to have a shot in the big leagues since Samoa Joe, at least to go beyond a light heavyweight type status. 

I don't know of any but I agree, he could be a player in either group.  I think you are selling Brian Danielson short by saying that however.  The guy is a working machine and I think he could get over in a Chris Benoit type of way if he went to WWE.

With all the fat contracts WCW gave out in the mid 1990s to any WWF wrestler who was ever halfway over, I can't imagine Bischoff didn't try to sign The Undertaker. Was Taker really loyal to Vince or did he have a resentment towards WCW during his first stay that no amount would have made him sign, or was Taker one of the lucky Vince decided to competitively pay in order to keep? What's the story?

I think it's fair to say that both things played a part in Taker's decision to never leave WWE.  While I am sure he remembered his run in WCW, the bigger factor here was that he realized that Vince McMahon created a great character for him and he was very appreciative of that.  It didn't hurt that Vince considered The Undertaker his greatest character invention and protected it, and Mark Calaway, in a big way.  Plus, if he had left WWE he would not have been able to take the Dead Man gimmick with him.  So, there was really no reason for Taker to make the move, other than maybe more money. He was smart enough to realize what he had in WWE was very most probably better than anything he would have gotten out of WCW, when you consider all of the factors involved, over the long term.

Chris Jericho's entrance on the TitanTron displays shows the text "SAVE ME" but sometimes it also shows "SAVE XP". Is this a reference to the SaveXP campaign against Microsoft for those that don't like Windows Vista?

My guess is that it was a reference to Vista.  The writers and Jericho had a lot of fun putting different things in his Tron videos and often mixed things like that in them.

I am actually looking forward to the Kizarny debut. Not necessarily the character, but the wrestler, as I enjoyed him in Florida and especially when he was part of the New Church in TNA. I would think that his goofy carny gimmick is going to bomb.  What if he were to alter his character to be a true evil heel. They could bring in the Sinister Minister, who is an outstanding performer, who could be an evil carnival/sideshow barker/ringmaster. Maybe add in Khali as a true monster heel who could be used as a body guard type character for Mitchell, or occasionally tag with Kizarny. I could also see them adding Scott Goldman doing a carny version of Matt Classic. Your thoughts? It couldn't be any worse than the Oddities.

I too think that there's a great chance of failure for the new gimmick.  I also agree that what you proposed could be a fun stable.  The problem is that WWE could have had Jim Mitchell for years now and never signed him.  Plus, they aren't exactly big on using managers, so I don't see it happening.

Besides making some ridiculous jack by going to WCW, and I know you can't totally just dismiss that, but do you think Bret Hart's run in WCW was a step up or down from the position he was and would probably have been in WWF/WWE?

Well, it is hard to say because his career ended so quickly there but I think overall, he would have gotten a bigger push in WCW than he would have in the WWF for the time that he worked there.  It had become clear by that point that Steve Austin was riding the rocket, causing former Bret fans to turn on him.  Also, given his wrestling character and personality, I don't think he would have done that well in WWF/E during the Attitude era.  Plus, Vince McMahon told him to leave and take the money from WCW because he couldn't afford his contract, so I have to think that if he stayed up north, there would have been at least some resentment from the boss towards having to pay out a salary that he felt was too steep.  That couldn't have been a good situation, especially when you consider that Vince screwed Bret after Bret did what Vince asked and went to WCW.

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