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I saw CM Punk trending on Twitter for blowing off a family but then I saw the video doesn't feature him actually doing that and it's just a family complaining he didn't stop. Obviously, you've written a lot about the safety of wrestlers, but when should wrestlers stop for fans so there aren't videos like this?
OK, a lot to unpack here. First, we don't know whatever happened (or if anything really happened at all), so unless you are making assumptions, you can't say anyone was in the right or wrong. Was the family sitting in the lobby waiting for pro wrestlers? Did they have a stack of merchandise with them? If so, that would probably set off someone's spider-sense to avoid them. If it was a random crossing, there's no guarantee anyone is going to stop. Maybe Punk was about to eat, perhaps he was having a bad day, perhaps he was tired, perhaps he was banged up from his match, perhaps he just avoided a bunch of other fans who were jerks, maybe there was a concern about security, perhaps he didn't want fans to know what room he was in, there's an infinite amount of possibilities and there's NO WAY to know.
To me, the fact the family posted it online makes you wonder what they were looking for - sympathy? clout? free merchandise? An apology? Again, we don't know. I don't like the idea of pro wrestlers blowing off little kids, but I'm sure it does happen. However, I also don't like the idea of publicly shaming someone because that certainly isn't fair - and if you think that sort of thing is going to inspire a pro wrestler to instead stop and sign, well, it's likely to inspire the exact opposite reaction and make them ignore other fans because who wants to be bothered in their private time especially by someone using their phone to film them. Would you want someone standing there filming you in the street? Probably not.
As far as when wrestlers should stop? When they feel it's the right thing to do and it's not going to cause them to spend an hour of their lives signing away and screwing up their schedule - and they feel safe. In a perfect world, I'd always want to see little kids get taken care of, but we also live in a world where Ebay sellers bring their kids to airports at 5 AM trying to use them to get WWE talents to stop.
Let's also not forget that since WWE has licensed away autographs to Fanatics, it could be some talents have been instructed to not sign publicly for free, because it's a violation of that licensing agreement. We don't know.
There's no right answer here beyond talents shouldn't stop if they feel they are going to be exploited for being kind to the fan in question. It's always nice if someone does it, but no one is entitled to a photo or an autograph, because they are a fan of someone they run into publicy.
I see photos of Dean Malenko and he always seems to be in a scooter. How come?
Malenko is dealing with the effects of Parkinson's Disease, sadly.
Is there any word on Adam Cole returning?
I have not heard anything regarding a potential return. I think all one can do is hope his health is as great as possible and that he's living the best life he can lead. I'd love to see him work as a commentator for AEW if he's able to travel and the company wanted him in that role.
Obviously we'll never know what would have happened if Eric Bischoff & Fusient had bought WCW, but let's say they did, do you think, TNA, AEW & ROH would have been born?
There would have been no TNA because many of the staffers were former WCW employees. Ring of Honor would have been born just the same, only they would have seen their talent raided much like ECW did. I don't see a world where AEW would have been created if WCW had remained on Turner Broadcasting, but I believe Tony Khan would have wanted to enter the space.
Do you think WCW would have been successful w/out Ted Turner's $?
I can't say whether WCW would have lasted or not because we didn't know what their true battle plan was nor do we know how the audience would have reacted. They had a lot of digging out to do and intended to just run Las Vegas to begin that process. If AOL/Time Warner hadn't canceled WCW programming, there would have been a completely different trajectory for professional wrestling from 2001 on.
Would ECW have survived if they could have had the WCW roster that weren't picked up by WCW?
No, they wouldn't have had the money to hire them. Financially, ECW was tapped out and without a TV home paying them for the rights, that wouldn't have changed.
I've seen it stated ECW was paying TNN to be on the air in 1999 on. Is that correct?
I have never heard anything that leads me to believe ECW was paying to be on the network.
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