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During the Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka match at ECW's One Night Stand, Joey Styles kept bashing Mike Awesome for him departing ECW the way he did. While we know that to be the truth, who's direction was it to bash Awesome? Was it WWE, Paul Heyman, or Styles himself? I just seemed odd for Styles to do that, considering the show was built around the idea that ECW was superior and uprising toward the WWE. As with the case in other matches, Styles commentary was neutral, not even trying to paint some as a heel. But he did so for this one match to Mike Awesome. So I'm curious if there was a reason.
The reason was that Awesome signed with WCW while still ECW champion back in 2000, so unlike everyone else who was there as a respected member of the ECW fraternity, he was a heel who had turned his back on the company. Plus, Styles went all antagonistic on him so that fans who had no knowledge of the Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome storyline had a clear story as to who the babyface in the match was. It was just a way to get heat on Awesome, who amazingly, somehow didn't come out of the match with a job offer (he goal going into that PPV). As it turned out, it was his final wrestling match.
Why are WWE's part-timers such as Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Triple H and Undertaker almost always appearing on RAW and never on SmackDown? Is it because the WWE views RAW as the A-show?
Raw is a larger show and generates more income for WWE, so in that regard, you could see it that way.
Do you think with the WWE Brand Extension in effect, see the Money in the Bank ladder match return to WrestleMania 33 while replacing the Money in the Bank PPV on Sunday, June 18, 2017 in St. Louis with something like either Cyber Sunday or The Bash? That way, both RAW and SmackDown talents can compete in the match.
No, they are not going to replace or cancel the MITB PPV. They could always do a MITB match at Wrestlemania for one brand and have the PPV stand for the othe, but they aren't going to scratch the PPV.
What are your thoughts on Paul Heyman basically reenacting the infamous Chris Benoit in ECW "I Disagree" promo on RAW? And do you think Vince or anyone in the WWE hierarchy knew that's what he was doing?
I don't know whether that was the plan, but given that Heyman wrote and produced that Benoit promo for the original ECW, I can see why it would have a similar feel. That said, I didn't think for a second watching that segment on Raw that it was a takeoff of the Benoit promo from 1995. I think it may be a case of you looking for something that isn't there. The delivery and tone by Benoit there was very different from what Heyman and Brock Lesnar did this past Monday.
Does WWE have no interest in putting up old WCW Thunder shows on their Network? It's been around for 3 years now and there is not a single episode of Thunder on the Network.
I was told they are bringing Thunder to the Network, but only old episode of Thundercats. I kid, I kid. You have to be patient. WWE is not going to rush every piece of material they own onto the network. They have a specific strategy for how and what they roll out and when they do it, they have to go ahead and clear everything on those shows with their legal department, from the music to the content. Then they have to add closed captioning and some of this material didn't have closed captioning when it originally aired (I can't say whether Thunder did or not off the top of my head) and in some cases, the content needs to be cleaned up and digitized, then uploaded. They don't just flip a switch and put the material up. They also aren't going to rush because if they put every thing up immediately, there's no reason for people to keep paying. They can watch what they want and be done. WWE's job here is to continuously refresh fan interest by putting up new content and additional archived content. Three years ago they didn't have every Raw, Saturday Night's Main Event, WCW Monday Nitro and ECW TV episode up. Now they do. Three years from now, there will be additional material that is available in its entirety, including Smackdown, which they are close to completing. Just have some patience. You'll get your Thunder. Unless you really were hoping for Thundercats, at which point, I have some bad news for you Lion-O. Snark Snarf.
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