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What do you attribute to AEW's ratings being up lately?
Who's the person they are pushing as the centerpiece of the storylines? Who's everyone fighting to get to? MJF. I have to give him a big part of that credit.
Do you see Trick Williams being a WWE Champion soon rather than later? Or at least at some point? As I'm a big fan of his Gimmick. What's your thoughts about his future?
I think Williams is great. He's done a great job perfecting his persona in NXT and TNA and I can see WWE pushing him down the line. I don't think they should rush him (or anyone) to the top immediately, because then where to do you go from there? I can see him in the top tier of the promotion, for sure, because they are built around personalities first and foremost, and he's got tons of charisma and personality. The sky is the limit as far as I am concerned.
I saw that Dean Malenko was ranked #1 for the Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 in 1997, which normally went out to top guys like Hogan, Bret Hart and Steve Austin. I personally think it's well deserved, considering how great he was in ECW and WCW; but he never seems to be mentioned in the same breath as other all-time greats as much as he should be. Do you think that his less-than-stellar booking in WWF contributed to Malenko's underrated status? The guy is a first-ballot Hall of Famer in my mind.
My recollection is that when the magazine did the rankings for that year, Malenko getting the rating he received was in large part due to top names having injuries and being out for large periods of time. I remember being happy, because as you wrote, Malenko was amazing in both WCW and ECW before that. I think among fans who love great professional wrestling matches, certainly Malenko is remembered as an all-time great but he was never a larger than life star at the level of Austin, Hogan, etc. I don't think the WWE booking contributes to that as much as the fact that Dean was never a bonafide main event player in terms of being a top of card star. But, none of that erases the incredible level of performances he had in those promotions and in Japan as well.
There are people that ponder that had Eddie Guerrero not passed away, perhaps the Chris Benoit situation wouldn't have happened. Do you think that's a viable theory?
I am not blaming you for asking this, but I want to say that I hate this question. I think there's way too many variables in play to respectfully comment on whether a pair of murders would have happened or not, so I'm going to say this, because I wish to be respectful to the families who lost loved ones - no matter who was or wasn't in Benoit's life, his brain was found to have been suffering greatly from CTE. Whether Guerrero was in his life or not, Benoit was still going to have suffered from CTE. We don't know what could have happened (nor should we speculate) but the major factors still would have been in play. Again, I hate even discussing this situation and I send my deepest respect and sympathies to the families who lost their loved ones.
Any update on Acme vs. Coyote?
Yes, the film has been saved and will be released theatrically this August, so I'd expect a trailer to be released anytime now.
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