You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q and A at pwinsider@gmail.com.
I know you aren’t a fan of blood and guts in AEW but is there any time you are OK with them doing it?
First off, I don’t have to be OK with it. Tony Khan has a right to run his company as he sees fit. I have a right to comment on what I think about how he does it. That’s all my role is. With that said, I think a great compromise would be to save the blood and guts for PPVs, for a free reasons. One, it won’t create issues with sponsors like the Nick Gage-Chris Jericho match did. Two, on PPV people make the conscious decision to pay for the show with their hard earned money. If they pay for an event with a Death Match, they can’t be upset when they get one.
Are you expecting Sasha Banks to win back the SD Women's Championship at SummerSlam?
To me, the smart booking is to have Bianca Belair win a hard fought match and continue her push up the card. What do I expect? Well with WWE booking, I keep my expectations very, very low.
Will Summer Rae ever return to WWE?
I could see a cameo appearance or two down the line. I don’t think she will be brought back in a full time mode give the company’s current direction looking to younger talent.
Thought experiment - After the past 6 months, what are you thinking if you're Triple H right now? NXT is all of a sudden some sort of broken product, with bad "Superstars", and guys who need the "NXT beaten out of them" before success can be determined on Raw/Smackdown. I almost chuckle when I hear - all these people Triple H recruited can't possibly be draws on the main roster. (He doesn't know what Vince likes now?)
Here’s the deal, Triple H does two things with NXT. He brings in talent he thinks he can develop into main roster players, and he also brings in talents that appeal to hardcore fans on HIS product. He knows what Vince McMahon wants and he has given him a ton of great talent that Vince has then used badly. He can’t change Vince. The flip side is, he also signs guys for NXT to draw houses and I would be he wonders why some of them get called up since Vince clearly won’t like them once they get there. So how do I think he feels? I think he feels like he has done all he can to help the company and create a brand, and the one thing he can’t overcome is his father-in-law.
I see some people complaining that Vince must be losing it because he doesn't see AEW as competition...yet isn't he right? Vince has always viewed his competition as Hollywood, not other wrestling. I mean that awful Alexa Bliss thing where the doll blinked and caused Duodrop to lose a match...nobody who seriously believes they are putting on a wrestling show would air that. Vince is putting on an action adventure show, a terrible one, no doubt, but an action adventure show with mystery elements and spooky happenings. Tony Khan is putting on the spiritual revival of WCW to the point of copying their strategy of hiring as many former WWE wrestlers as they possibly can (I will be shocked out of my wits if there isn't some sort of WWE heel faction a la the NWO in the next year or so). Vince has movie and TV stars associated with his product (Rock, Austin, Batista, Cena), Vince has a network, Vince has WWE merchandise in stores worldwide- we're talking Halloween costumes, birthday party supplies, home decor, electronics, etc. all that adds up to instant name recognition. Tony Khan has wrestling and a product that may eventually surpass WWE in ratings, but nowhere near the star power and recognition- the average person is not gonna know CM Punk or Daniel Bryan, despite their WWE lineage because they weren't the ones who made the WWE famous or noteworthy in the last twenty years. When WCW was surging they genuinely had the chance to cause the death knell for WWE. I don't think AEW can do anything like that at this point. So isn't Vince right at least partially that given what WWE really is, much more of a product that generates content for Peacock and merchandise, that AEW and their focus on "wrasslin' " isn't really competition?
Well, you sure do see it like Vince does. I do not. Everything that airs is competition. Even Nick Khan quickly added that after Vince’s bizarre statement. The best way to get knocked out is to underestimate your opponent. AEW isn’t even two years into this thing yet. And frankly some of the people you would call “ex WWE guys” are talents that only went there because it was the one place where they could earn a significant paycheck. So we shall see how it goes.
You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q and A at pwinsider@gmail.com.
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!