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HOW VINCE MCMAHON FELT ABOUT ECW, WHY THE TALENT LEVEL IN THE BUSINESS IS WHAT IT IS, CREATIVE CHANGES IN WWE AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2012-12-09 09:59:00

You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q&A by clicking here.

To what extent do you think WWE's over-reliance on its developmental system has contributed to the lack of roster depth? Back in the day, they'd routinely bring in guys who were already known commodities in the smaller promotions, and build on that recognition value to create top stars. Now we've got a bunch of guys who are still relatively green populating the mid-card, with no frame of reference for their work other than the WWE "style" they've been molded in. I don't think it's a coincidence that the guys who've broken out as main event stars in the last couple years (Punk, Bryan, ADR, etc) are journeyman longtime pros who first established themselves elsewhere.

If WWE didn't have their developmental system they would be in worse shape than they are now.  I am not saying that the system has been good.  In fact, under John Laurinaitis' watch it wasn't good at all.  But to me the bigger issue is the fact that there are far less places to learn and work for talents than there were ten years ago.  When WCW and ECW shut their doors, it hurt the business overall.  A lot.  WWE hasn't done itself any favors with the way they have used newer talent either.  It's a situation that has to change or it will affect the long term health of the company.

Is the Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine still around? I ask because I haven't seen it lately. I enjoyed the magazine greatly; the use of black and white photos and newsprint paper made it feel like when wrestling events would be covered by local newspapers years ago. I was also wondering if they still exist, was there any sort of dispute between their letters and the letters of the letters on your site?

It's still around but it's a hard time for magazines in the year 2012.  With the immediacy of the internet, many publications have found themselves in dire health.  Heck, Newsweek, a venerable industry veteran, is going all digital next month.  Most people just don't buy magazines and newsletters any more. They don't want to wait to read old news when they can get it as it happens online.  As for PWI, when we opened the site I had a nice talk with editor Stu Saks.  The magazine asked that we not market ourselves as PWI and we had no intentions of that so there weren't any problems.

Watching Raw this week I was compelled to write in and ask- Vince's bad suits are they part of his character or does he actually wear them day to day?

To paraphrase Sir Mixalot, "Vince likes bad suits and I will not lie, other brothers can't deny".  Yep, he actually wears those things in public.

With the TV ratings down on WWE will we see different and better story lines and different matches or will it continue to be the boring recycled stories forever? Also will we ever see another Attitude Era?

I don't think we will see an Attitude Era any time soon because WWE has deals with companies that don't want them to be that racy.  But I do think we will see some form of overhaul of the product.  They know that less people are watching the show and that people are tuning Raw off as the shows go on most weeks.  Whether Vince McMahon wants to change things up or not, if that pattern continues he won't have a choice.  January through WrestleMania is their busiest time of the year so I am very curious to see what the viewing patterns are starting next month.  No matter what happens, most people in the company realize that there is a staleness to the product.  All it will take at this point is for Vince McMahon to realize it too and do something substantial to fix it.

Did any of you guys attend the first ECW One Night Stand? If so, what was the atmosphere like being there live? Also, What was the internal reaction too the PPV, including Vince McMahon's attitude towards it.

Mike Johnson was there.  It was a wild, true ECW-like atmosphere.  Vince was impressed enough to give ECW a rebirth.  His plan was let people have "their ECW" for a few months and then slowly turn it to a WWE-like product. He thought once they got exposed to WWE greatness they would realize how much better Vince's product was.  He would never book a product like the original ECW on a regular basis.  It didn't fit his vision of the business.  What he didn't understand was that those fans already knew what WWE's product was and they had tuned it out.  Instead of months Vince turned the product to his vision in weeks and the rebirth died.

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