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HOW THE CENA-ORTON FEUD COULD HAVE BEEN HANDLED DIFFERENTLY, TNA SWITZERLAND INCIDENT, WWE CHANGING PERFORMER NAMES AND MORE

In the pre or early TV days, a feud like Hulk Hogan/Andre the Giant could drag on for 2 years, and most long time fans will comment that feuds were built and received a lot more effort, care, and logic back then. Now, when John Cena and Randy Orton are going to work together on the fourth consecutive PPV, it seems to be universally disliked by a lot of fans and most analysts of the business. What do you think WWE could have done better with this feud?  Is there just far too many PPV's and TV shows in between for a feud to last this long in this day and age?

Well, there are far too many television shows and PPV events but that is the nature of the beast in 2009.  I think what they could have done is had far less PPV matches between the two and done them in a more logical procession.  I can't imagine any other time in WWE history where a Hell in A Cell match left both competitors unscathed and was used to set up an Iron Man match.  It just seems so backwards to me.  In a lot of ways, Cena and Orton are like video game characters, going through the motions but not really connecting emotionally with a portion of the audience.  A more straight-forward, less scripted promo style would have benefited each of them as well.

In the 9/29 Q&A, you said that WWE changes performers' ring names so that they can own the name and persona, but then how did people like John Cena get (lucky enough to) use their own name?  For Cena, it wasn't like he had a built-in fan base when he debuted who would want to see him with his real name (as opposed to, say, CM Punk).  Shouldn't WWE have put a fake name on him, even if it was real-sounding (e.g., Evan Bourne) so it could own Cena's ring name and keep that leverage in case he ever wanted to jump ship down the road?  (Also, why does WWE change names like Dave Bautista to Dave Batista?  It's not like that the missing "u" would stop Big Dave from using the name "Bautista" anywhere else.)

When WWE does names changes, even with slight spelling differences, it's so they can trademark and copyright those names for their own protection and marketing purposes.  Sometimes, nothing fits the performer so they end up with their real name, as Cena ended up doing.  Remember, Cena was simply sent out there as someone to challenge Kurt Angle when he debuted - he wasn't planned to become the monster attraction he became.  In CM Punk's case, no one was more surprised than I that they didn't change the name or the gimmick, but I think a big piece of that had to do with Paul Heyman championing him at the time.

In the days before wrestling was 'exposed' and everything was still kayfabed, how did wrestlers with fake names and gimmicks do simple things that would require ID, like book hotel rooms, rent cars, fly on airplanes, etc. When someone recognizable like an Abdullah the Butcher, who never spoke and was supposed to be from the Sudan, needed a car or a room, what did they do? Obviously it would be hard to deny being Abby to anyone who is a wrestling fan, but seeing an ID that said Larry Shreve would've exposed the business in a time when they did all they could not to expose the business.

It was a lot easier in those days to just check into hotels and flights, so he might have used assumed aliases or had someone else check him in.  It's also not like he was walking around in his turban and curled boots in the airport, so in the event he was recognized, he could either kayfabe the fans or choose to just ignore them.

Was the incident involving Scott Steiner ripping the flag planned? Why did Booker T not come back out for the match? Was he angry of the situation or did he not feel safe? I can not imagine someone even thinking that up and telling him to do that just for a house show. Regardless of what countries flag it was I found it very disrespectful and in very poor taste of Scott Steiner & TNA. As you see in the video you can tell Scott Steiner was planning that and it was just not a spur of the moment type thing.

I was told it was something Steiner decided to do based on the crowd reaction and not something he cleared with TNA ahead of time.  They weren't thrilled with the incident, I can assure you.  Booker felt the area was unsafe and didn't want to be around the crowd, so he opted to leave, but part of that decision may have stemmed from the fact he and TNA had been at odds with their contractual discussions.  Unless something changes, most feel Booker is on the way out shortly.

Whatever happened to the Mean Street Posse?

Well, WWE recently ran a feature on them on their website, but Joey Abs lives in North Carolina while Rodney and Pete Gas, who were and are friends with Shane McMahon, live in Connecticut.  Gas still regularly visits at WWE events and was at Wrestlemania earlier this year.  The Legends of the Ring convention in May 2010 will feature a reunion of all three.

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