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NARAKU LOSING MATCHES, EDGE'S NEXT BOOK, 'BEYOND THE MAT' AND MORE

Whatever happened to the new book from Edge?

It is slated for an October 2027 release.

I read Naraku lost a match vs NXT champion Tony D' Angelo at a house show.  Why would the WWE make Naraku lose already, even though he faced the champion?

Not to demean anything, but it was a house show.  It has no bearing on the push or storyline of any talent 99% of the time.  It's just a way for the two to get to work and prep for their eventual televised bouts.  There's no reason to protect Naraku from losing.

With the recent passing of Barry Blaustein, it got me thinking and I was wondering, with how unfavorable Vince was portrayed on the excellent “Wrestling with Shadows” documentary, have you ever heard as to why he (Vince) agreed to give an unaffiliated camera crew unrestricted access (again) for “Beyond the Mat” without any say so on the project?

Vince McMahon was introduced to Barry Blaustein through Ron Howard, who was Vince's neighbor.  My feeling is that McMahon felt that with Blaustein's pedigree, he likely thought the film would be something that would spotlight the company in a positive light and open more doors for Hollywood for the company.  When McMahon saw the documentary, he didn't like it and never made any moves to promote it.  I think it was a case of McMahon assuming one thing but then reality was something else.

Are there any matches that lasted less than one minute that would qualify as a "classic"? I would say that Beulah McGillicutty vs. Luna Vachon from ECW certainly.

I don't know about classic in terms of must see bouts, but in terms of impact in the moment, I'd say Ultimate Warriors vs. Honkytonk Man at Summerslam 1989 and Goldberg beating Brock Lesnar at the 2016 Survivor Series.

Masato Tanaka is still wrestling?  Is he still taking beatings like he did almost 30 years ago?  Physically how is he holding up? 

Tanaka is still wrestling regularly and appeared at Wrestlecon for several major matches over Wrestlemania weekend.  He wrestles lighter than he used to in terms of how much weight he carries and doesn't do as much of the mayhem as he used to on a consistent basis.  He seems to be fine physically.

Can you please explain to me why WWE uses Peter Rosenberg, David Shoemaker, Sam Roberts, etc. when they obviously know who you are given you were in the Steve Austin documentary?

WWE didn't directly produce the Austin Biography I was in.  That was an outside company.  No one connected to any of the shows have asked me to appear since.  As far as why they use the names you mentioned, Sam and Peter are connected to the company and it's probably easier to grab someone in-house then reach out to someone the company doesn't really want in their productions.  Shoemaker is connected to the Ringer, which is a company they have been in bed with as it was founded by Bill Simmons, who they have worked with on documentary projects.  Remember, they had to come to me to find Vladimir the Superfan so they could do the doc on him - and then didn't want me in the doc when someone internally brought my name up.  They want their people they are in business with.  That makes sense to me. 

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