PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

 
 

JR TALKS, KOFI ON THE ATTITUDE ERA, THE GENIUS OF ZACK RYDER AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2013-01-11 11:38:40

Jim Ross posted his latest blog this morning.  You can read it by clicking here.

Devin Cutting reporting. ...WWE returns to the Oceanfront Arena at the Wildwoods Convention Center in Wildwood, New Jersey on Friday, July 5th, 2013. Also, WWE will be holding an event at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia on March 23rd, 2013. Bell time is 7:30 PM. Tickets go on sale January 26th, 2013 at 10 AM.

Brian Fritz sent this item.

Brian Fritz talks with WWE superstar Kofi Kingston talks about the 20th anniversary of Raw, his favorite memory from the show, who he would like to see come back for the show next Monday, comparing the Attitude Era to now, his recent matches with Wade Barrett, bringing out the wildcat in him, the road to WrestleMania and more.

Here are some quotes from the interview:

On whether or not he misses the Attitude Era and if some of that could be worked into today's product:

I think what we have now is it's own thing. Even before the Attitude Era, you had a lot of character based 80's wrestling. Wrestling goes in different time periods. I think if we were still doing the stuff that we were doing back then it probably wouldn't be as interesting. You can only see so much of the same stuff ... so much. I think you have to constantly be evolving and that is what has kept us on TV for so long. We just always have to keep finding different ways to entertain fans.

On whether or not current WWE superstars are as hungry as the guys during the Attitude Era:

I wouldn't say that at all. I think in a lot of ways it's a lot harder now. Back then, you could go to WCW. What made the Attitude Era so great was competition. You had WWE trying to be better than WCW and vice versa to the point. If you thought about someone jumping from one to another it was a huge move. It was a rivalry. Now all you have is WWE really. There really is no other competition. So for people trying to break into the industry, this is the only place you can go. There's only so many spots and there's only so many spots in developemental. It's a lot less than what is was before. it might have been different back then but in a lot of ways it's definitely harder to break through and get noticed.

You can check the whole thing out by clicking here.

Arda Ocal reporting. ... I spoke with WWE Superstar Kofi Kingston. Here are some highlights:

How his Jamaican character came about and how he was able to keep the same character through the indies and in WWE, even keeping his legit first name:

"I trained up in Boston. At the time, the rumor was, 'if you want to get signed by WWE you have to be a character, they are looking for characters right now.' I didn't really know what that meant at the time, then one of the guys, (ROH referee) Todd Sinclair said to come up with a name and character otherwise I'd get stuck with a silly name."

You can listen to the whole thing by clicking here.

Here is episode 100 of Zack Ryder's show. Man, he has had some great bits on the show.

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!