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HOW THE CM PUNK DVD SOLD FOR WWE, THE DESTRUCTION OF BRAD MADDOX, VINCE VS. HEYMAN AND MORE

So let me get this straight. WWE brings up Brad Maddox, a guy who can wrestle, can talk, and has movie star good looks. They invest a couple months of having him referee so he can turn heel in the main event at Hell in a Cell. Then they spend a couple weeks teasing an alliance with CM Punk and Paul Heyman. He even does a promo with Vince McMahon. Then on last nights Raw, we seem him talking privately with Paul Heyman before his match. The Whats-Gonna-Happen anticipation is high as he heads to the ring to face Ryback. And then.... he gets squashed... badly. No one else gets involved. He doesn't get any offence in. Ryback just destroys him. So now I can't really see WWE using him on the roster. It will be hard to build him up as a "legit" wrestler after being beaten so badly. Was this their plan all along? It sure seems like a huge miscalculation to me. They could've put him in an alliance with CM Punk and Paul Heyman, maybe even Brock Lesnar. They could've had a pretty big heel on their hands... but they just wasted it. So any idea what the plans are now?

I don't think we've seen the end of Maddox as a WWE character, although WWE does want you to believe so.

What is the latest on Kelly Kelly returning to WWE?

She was released from her contract as she wasn't happy there and wanted to explore new things. It's possible she will return down the line but having lived most of her adult life on the road for them, I can see why she wanted to stop and have control over her own destiny, so to speak.

Hi. I was just wondering if Mike Johnson will be running a bus trip to the ECW show in Canada? Thank you for your time.

No, crossing the border is too complicated.

Two part question – I legitimately can’t remember WWE promoting Punk’s DVD on Raw or Smackdown… did they, and I totally missed it? Also, have there been any sales numbers released for it yet? If so, how have sales compared to other similar, superstar-centric sets? BTW, to follow up on your story about Punk being upset at the lack of support from WWE for his ventures, he also noted on Colt Cabana’s podcast a couple of weeks ago that WWE didn’t even want him on the cover of the new video game, they wanted some other unnamed wrestler, and it was THQ who insisted on Punk.

WWE did indeed promote the DVD. According to someone I spoke to within the company, currently the Punk DVD is the fourth best selling title of the year, behind Wrestlemania (which is always #1 annually), an Undertaker DVD and a Rock DVD. That means Punk's DVD outsold every PPV DVD release and every other DVD released this year, including ECW and WCW compilations...and the year isn't over yet, so it's possible it could get to second or third.

Who do you think is/was a better evaluator of wrestling talent – Vince McMahon or Paul Heyman?

Well, Heyman saw money in CM Punk years before Vince McMahon did, so I will go with Heyman.

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