PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

DEFENDING ORTON AS A WORKER, WHY FORMER KNOCKOUTS TURNED DOWN TNA PPV BOOKINGS AND MORE

Ivelisse was used as an Aces & Eights competitor in the World X Cup PPV that was taped, although Jeff Jarrett described those PPVs to me in an interview for PWInsiderTV as "non-episodic" so whether she is added to the group or not officially, I can't say. The angle isn't a bad idea.

It was reported that WWE tried to sign former WWE Divas in an attempt to have them take part in a ten Divas battle royal against current Divas such as champion Kaitlyn. I understand the effort had failed. With that now history any chance of Kaitlyn defending her title at Wrestlemania? Why don't they simply do that? Its a championship match after all.

Obviously, they could go with Kaitlyn against AJ at Wrestlemania, but my guess is we will see them in opposite corners during the WWE Tag Team title bout. We'll see.

In a recent Q&A, you said . "Orton's work in the ring is obviously great but the company can't chance the political fallout or stress of building around him and having it all fall apart." How is his work great? His 'Five moves of doom" are as predictable as Cena's: stiff-looking clothesline, ducks the guy charging at him (you'd think they'd learn by now), scoop slam, DDT off the ropes, fists on the mat, eventual RKO. Even when the order is disrupted, he goes right back to the move in the order it was supposed to be. I just don't understand what is so great about him, so please explain!

In the ring, Orton shows a lot of finesse and technical ability. If you look at his work, he is a lot closer to the great workers of the 80s and 90s than most of the current WWE roster. He has awesome timing and has improved every single year in just about every regard. He almost always has good to great matches from an athletic, technical point of view. He certainly has his signature moves, but WWE is often like Dr. Seuss books - they want repetition in their presentations so the audience gets conditioned for certain moments. But as a worker, Orton is top notch.

Any word on whether or not WWE has reached out to Rico or Kwiwi in regards to a possible match with Fandango at Wrestlemania?

I can officially confirm that is never, ever going to happen.

What do you take away from the fact that most of the former TNA Knockouts reportedly declined the offer to come in for the Knockout-themed PPV? Were they just not interested in only coming in for one shot, or is there some bad blood?

A mix of both. Some of them had bad experiences where they weren't paid a lot of money at the same time they were generating a lot of fan support and ratings for the company. Some don't want to be sucked back into a system where they were working part-time at menial jobs in order to support wrestling for a national company. There were talents who were told that just being on TV was "like a payday" by TNA officials and that left a bitter taste in their mouths. Some just don't like how the Knockouts division evolved because they were proud of what they built there in the early days. Some just don't want to ruin a chance to go to WWE. Some just don't want to take off from their regular life for a small payday where they had to cover their own hotel expenses, which is what a lot of people who worked those shows were being offered. At the end of the day, they didn't want to take a step backwards for one or two paydays and I can respect them for that.

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!