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JAPANESE TALENTS COMING TO THE UNITED STATES, WHAT DOES TNA DO NOW WITH THE DESTINATION X TNA TITLE SHOT CASH-IN AND MORE

With TNA going to 4 pay per views a year, what does this do to the storyline of the X division champion cashing in their title for a shot at the world title since Destination X got the Axe? If they were planning on reducing pay per views for quite some time why put that stipulation in place?

That is a hell of a question. My gut feeling is they will do a Destination X-themed episode of Impact with the TNA champ vs. the X-Champ, which, if they only do that once a year, can be a nice attraction. New Japan used to do that and I always enjoyed it. As far as why they announced the stip only to can the PPV, well, they hadn't decided to can the PPVs at that point and the stip made for a great Austin Aries storyline.

With the Mantei Te'o controversy all over the news, is it possible that mainstream media has blown the lid off the identity of RAW's Anonymous GM?

WOW. Well, that was better than revealing it was Hornswoggle!

I was watching an old SNME from November of 1992 and at the end, Bobby Heenan announced that he had it on good authority that the Warrior was not going to be Savage's partner at the Survivor Series against Ric Flair and Razor Ramon. Warrior appeared on the same show, tagging with Savage. Was Warrior already on his way out and finishing commitments or was Heenan's announcement taped post-event?

No, the original plan was for Savage to team with Warrior, then Warrior had a falling out with WWF. The Bobby Heenan comments at the end of the SNME were shot after that and inserted into the footage using green screen technology, so Heenan appeared at the event. Then, WWF ran an angle to bring Mr. Perfect back to the ring and they were off to the races with the new direction.

Regarding Brian Cage and TNA, Is there any story here? I am shocked he did not get a contract with TNA. I was really excited to see him come in because he seems ready for national TV. Sort of like Aries came and seemed like a veteran Cage is on a similar level, albeit to a lesser degree.

I was told there wasn't any major story and not to be shocked to see him back in the mix at some point.

We see a lot more Japanese wrestlers coming to the United States than ever before. Did it get cheaper? It was so rare in the 80s and 90s to see that.

It's not cheaper, but what I believe happened is that as the economy changed and the Japanese wrestling scene became less stable, more time became available for those talents. The potential money was there, but wrestlers couldn't earn it because of their schedules in Japan. As the touring change, it became more feasible. Part of it as well is you can make a case for a specific Japanese talent coming in being a draw thanks to decades of tape trading, the Internet, etc. where before that wasn't the case. I think that the way the business has evolved in that wrestlers for one promotion are more likely to work for another, as opposed of never crossing those borders, made it easier as well. Before, politics would have prevented a lot of these style of appearances.

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