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PWINSIDER Q & A: THE GOAL OF WWE CREATIVE, WHAT'S UP WITH TAZ, WHAT MOVING TO ECW MEANS, LOSING THE MASK, THE DRAW OF MANIA AND MORE

Goldust, William Regal and Shelton Benjamin were recently, traded to ECW. I know that ECW is used as a training ground by WWE for young wrestlers to hone their skills and work up to Smackdown or Raw. However, These three wrestlers are veterans!! Goldust was a big name back in the mid 1990's till 2003. Shelton Benjamin was one of WWF/E's top talents until recently and William Regal has held just about every title the WWF/E had to offer except the World Heavyweight Championship. He still has two strikes against him as well in the wellness policy. Since Regal and Benjamin have already appeared on ECW and Goldust has yet to be seen, Do you believe that the WWE will fire Goldust? I would hate to see that since Goldust did a lot for the WWF/E. Also, is this the last stop for Benjamin and Regal or will one of them actually have a chance at making it back to Smackdown or Raw or even be ECW Champion?

In the case of Goldust and Regal, they were largely sent to ECW to work with the young guys.  WWE has done that since ECW started, which is evident if you look at the roster over the years.  Benjamin was sent there to help young guys and also to bring some name value to the brand after it was decimated by last week's "trades".  I don't think moving to Tuesdays means that they are planning on firing Goldust.  I just think he is there to help with the young talent.  I could see Benjamin making his way back to Raw or Smackdown but I think Regal's days near the top of the card are done.  He is now the "experienced hand" type of guy, as is Dust.

I was watching the Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio "Title vs. Mask match", and wondered, was there ever a luchador that lost his mask and put it back on, portraying the same character?

In Mexico, where the mask is everything to a luchador, that is never supposed to happen.  It would not be accepted by the fans.  In the US, it doesn't matter anywhere near as much.  As for guys who have lost their mask and put it back on later, look no farther than Rey himself.  Back in WCW, he lost his and he put it back on when he came in to WWE.

Ok, after cringing through the train wreck that was Santina/o and JR, it brought to mind a question. Your first answer will be creative can't figure out how to flush a toilet without instructions, but in all seriousness... cruisers are gone, tags are gone, ECW is on life support, JR is kicked to the curb, Divas are.... I dunno, PG13 bikini models? What do you really think the creative minds of WWE are working towards? They are business people and I only see a handful of current characters that will make money in 2009 and the rest of the roster has been destroyed.

I think that they are working towards giving Vince McMahon what he wants.  I know it sounds flip, but it's also true.  Thinking outside of the box isn't exactly a great career move to make when you work in WWE creative.

One question: What happened to TAZ? Did he leave the WWE?

His contract expired at the end of March and he chose to move on from WWE.  He basically was just looking for a change after spending a decade in WWE.  We fully expect him to debut later this month with TNA.  He talked more in-depth about why he left WWE in the three part interview that we did with him on the PWInsiderElite.com site.  You can join the site by clicking here.

I did not purchase Backlash but read the recap on your site. Sounds like it was a more eventful show than Wrestlemania was as it relates to the titles. Do you think WWE "sold" Mania as being Mania instead of worrying about putting together the best possible event (HBK - Taker excluded, of course)? Again, I didn't watch it, but it almost seems as if Mania established the feuds that are leading to SummerSlam instead of being the conclusion of the previous year's feuds. It sounds like it was a good show, no argument there, but I just tend to think that fans who pay big for Mania deserve conclusions (for the most part) instead of set up to the next few PPVs. Do you think this might be working against them in terms of PPV buys? I remember WCW's terrible mishandling of Sting - Hogan at Starcade, trying to extend to feud, and it made the event come off as a standard PPV.

WrestleMania is the one PPV WWE can count on selling itself every year.  I agree that it definitely seems as though WWE knows that they can count on getting buys for it based on the name and don't go out of their way to have the show build to program conclusions the way that they used to.  Where buys are concerned, I think they know that the big three will do good numbers.  The Survivor Series will do OK and the rest of the shows all depend on what they have going on at the time.  It's just up to them to make them hard for people to turn down. 

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