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PWINSIDER Q&A: SHANE VS. STEPHANIE, LAWLER VS. FLAIR, WHY THE WCW INVASION FAILED AND MORE

How different would WWE be with Shane in charge instead of Stephanie?  I think it would have to be better.

Any talk of the creative direction being different with Shane in charge instead of Stephanie is all just speculation.  I will say that if Shane had been in charge instead of Stephanie, the ECW re-launch would have been VERY different, as Shane was a proponent of keeping ECW a smaller "niche product" as opposed to a full-scale WWE brand.  At the end of the day though, it is still Vince that determines the direction.

When did Jerry Lawler wrestle Ric Flair?

Back in the days of the traveling NWA World Champion, and when the Memphis territory was part of the NWA in the earl 80's, Ric Flair would travel through Memphis regularly and face the top contenders in the territory, which obviously included Lawler.

Why is the WCW Invasion angle in WWE considered such a failure?

WWE took a storyline that should have lasted for, at worst, a year and, at best, five years, and flushed it all away in a few months.  They took a huge audience at the start of the storyline and alienated almost half of it away by the end.  Just look at the buyrates for that period.  At the start of the storyline, Invasion did a 1.43 buyrate.  Summerslam did a 1.05.  Unforgiven did a 0.82.  No Mercy did a 0.80.  It all ended at Survivor Series with a 1.13 buyrate.  A "big four" PPV at the end of the storyline did less buys than the Invasion show did at the start of it. When you are losing your audience, it isn't a success.  WWE didn't even begin to scratch the surface of the potential that storyline had. 

How much money is TNA pulling in at this point?

TNA is a privately owned company, so they don't have to issue their numbers to the public, the way WWE does.  I highly doubt the company is making a lot of money, but those within the company say it is profitable at this point in time.  There just isn't enough revenue streams versus expenses to make me think they are making a ton of money though.  Still, TNA deserves credit for staying around and showing some growth during a tough time for any entertainment business to do so.

I was wondering if you guys knew what the payoffs were for the main event talent that appeared in the first three or four Wrestlemanias. Is that information listed anywhere on the Internet?

If you see that information anywhere on the Internet, it is probably wrong.  In fact, during a recent legends roundtable on WWE 24/7, Michael Hayes admitted to not knowing how much Hogan and Andre got for Wrestlemania III, and Pat Patterson, who handled the payoff that night, refused to say what it was, only commenting that it was huge. 

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