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A few days ago in the recap of the WWE's conference call, I read that Linda McMahon confirmed a WWE 24/7 deal with Cablevision but have heard nothing about this since. Can you confirm this or maybe do you have some follow up info? I am starting to worry it was a typo or something and I have been waiting so long for this.
According to a WWE source, WWE 24/7 will begin on Cablevision in a few months, likely around the same time as the promotion for Wrestlemania kicks into gear as a way to tie it into the company synergy for their biggest show of the year.
Why did the original ECW never put the world title on RVD?
The plan was always to give Van Dam a big chase for the ECW World title, but ECW held out waiting for the company to get a national timeslot, hoping it would spark their product. Unfortunately, right after ECW shot a big angle between RVD and then-World champion Mike Awesome, Van Dam went down with an injury and Awesome quickly departed the company. By the time Van Dam returned, he and ECW had squabbles over financial issues and he was gone until the promotion's final PPV. By then, finances and time had ruined any chance of doing the chase.
I am curious, has anyone on the PWInsider staff ever fantasized about having the Iron Sheik make them humble?
I think it's a safe bet that the answer you would receive is a resounding "No."
I've been hearing a lot about Michael Cole's recent decline in his commentary. I do agree with you that his spark has been lost, but I feel that the reasoning behind it is more a focal point. To me, I think that it all started when JBL joined him and took the place of Tazz. Even though they had a falling out in the end, both Tazz and Cole still worked together professionally, and had good chemistry. With JBL however, I feel there is no chemistry and when Cole tried to work with him, JBL looks out for himself and not as a "team", and at the expense of Cole. I know how it is to work with someone that irritates me, and it can effect your A game. Therefore, I feel that it's JBL bringing Cole down, and thus, Cole gets blamed for being bad on commentary. I think if Cole had someone better to work with and wasn't constantly being barraged with a lack of "color" to work with, he could be great again. What are your thoughts on this?
I do believe the loss of Tazz as his partner has had a negative effect on Michael Cole's work at times, but it could also be the added responsibilities of his WWE.com overseeing duties. I don't think Cole has fallen as hard and as fast as many people point out, but his work with someone other than Tazz is taking a lot to get used to since they pretty much had the perfect chemistry on the air and now Cole is fighting to find that with JBL.
I was just listening to the 12/7 Q and A and there was a question about tape libraries and which ones WWE does or does not own. My question is this: Who exactly owns the old Memphis/USWA footage? Some of it has been out on the Wrestling Gold DVDs, yet there are occasional bits of Memphis footage on other DVDs (Lawler's leg being broken by La Duc on the Wrestling Stars of the 1980s DVD, as well as Lawler's win over Henning on the AWA DVD). Who owns this footage? I can't see it being Vince McMahon, since if that were the case WWE would likely put out a Lawler DVD or at least feature old Memphis stuff on WWE 24/7.
The mystery of the Memphis Wrestling library ownership is one that likely has several answers. WMC in Memphis is likely the owner of much of the library that ran on their channel, although whether that footage was even archived is unknown. It wasn't customary for a lot of older tapes to be kept; in fact, they were often re-used during that time period due to financial costcutting. Some of the library may have been lost in the red tape that saw the company sold to investors named "The Selkers" which ended up as a major mess in court. There likely has never been an attempt to track down exactly what is out there and unite it under one owner, so when you see footage popping up under WWE auspices, they either made a deal for that specific footage or it's footage that ended up in another library that they acquired, like the Lawler-Hennig AWA title switch.
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