Wanted to thank everyone for the oodles of feedback I’ve received regarding my most recent Induction, The Death of WWF LiveWire. I think I received more emails on that one than anything I’ve done in a couple years. It was somewhat difficult to write that one, as I had been wanting to cover it for years; it truly was a fascinating show to watch live during that time as there was nothing else like it. I kept trying to come up with a way to tie it all together, and had totally forgotten folks were so ticked with Russo “giving away” the Royal Rumble finish even though he didn’t actually know it. Ridiculous how Vince McMahon, one guy, one guy, has been the linchpin for the vast majority of the wrestling business for so many years, and things just change in a heartbeat based on whatever he wants to do on any given day. And it’s only going to get crazier from here. To the mailbag…
Eric K wants to know…”There’s lots of rumors about so many AEW talents’ contracts being up this year. Who stays and who goes over to WWE? Who do you WANT to stay and who do you want to go?”
I think that all depends on the deals that both companies are working on now, with the WWE sale and AEW’s next TV deal. With the craziness going on at the moment at Warner, my guess is the big increase Tony was hoping to get probably won’t be there so he may decide to scale back instead of offering huge contracts and that will simply lead to a lot of big names leaving. If you were around during the last days of ECW, that’s my biggest fear for them. With all that said, my guess is that FTR, Bucks, and Kenny all go to WWE. It would absolutely gut the company from an outside world prospective and they’d look really dumb to be called All ELITE Wrestling with no Elite on the roster, so I hope that doesn’t happen. That said, there is one giant carrot WWE will always have that AEW doesn’t – WrestleMania. As kids, you know that all these folks dreamed of headlining that show and that can never happen in AEW. The one person I think will wind up staying may surprise you – MJF. I just have this feeling that he is with Tony for the long haul. Could totally see Punk back as well if the Bucks are gone.
Bob J writes in…”If Disney were to buy WWE, do you think we’d get rides at Disneyland based on wrestlers?”
Aside from the fact that I think there’s 0.0000000001% chance Disney would wind up with it, just imagine the fun if they did. Maybe we wouldn’t get rides, but I could see meet & greets where Hall of Famers are wheeled out into the hot Florida sun to meet folks for hours on end. That would make sense, although I don’t know what the actual shelf life on such a thing would be. While I don’t see actual rides based on wrestling stars, what a joy it would be to sneak audio animatronics as cameos within current rides. Undertaker is a gimme at the Haunted Mansion, and why not sneak Bob Backlund into the Hall of Presidents? He could talk about eating marijuana and fornicating with wild women after all!
Mike M asks…”Favorite late period WCW gimmick? Mine was 3-Count”
That was such a crazy time, as the company was seemingly let folks do whatever they want. In fact, I just discovered on the WCW Saturday Night shows Barry Darsow was doing a bit where he had some kind of brain issue and he was rolling through all his old gimmicks lie Mr. Hole in One and the Blacktop Bully. If anyone has information on when that madness went down, I’d sure appreciate it as that smells of a grade-A induction.
Charles B tells us…”It was jarring to see Russo be on this site as a writer. It honestly pissed me off. What do you say to folks who hate seeing him as part of WrestleCrap?”
I say they are entitled to their opinions. If you don’t like the guy, I totally get it. His view of wrestling and mine are radically different. But if you watched the video that was part of the LiveWire induction and can’t see this is just a human being like the rest of us, I…I don’t know quite what to tell you. He’s flawed, I’m flawed, you’re flawed. Ain’t none of us perfect and we all have very different experiences in life. His is just more different than most.
Chris E wants to know…”What surprises from the past do you want to see in the Royal Rumble this year?”
I really, REALLY want to see Max Moon complete with the booster pack. The streamers come out will completely convince everyone that it’s one of the Young Bucks inside the costume and that alone would be worth the price of admission.
Meghan K asks…”Has Saraya been the biggest bust yet in AEW?”
If she was supposed to come in as a babyface, and I think she was, her run hasn’t been a winner by any stretch. With that said, her turning heel and going all super star could be a lot of fun. It won’t take much to get the AEW fanbase to go nuclear heel on her. My guess is she will have far more fun being a heel anyway. Who wants to pander to folks in the crowd? Where’s the fun in that? As a performer, seeing folks get all ratcheted up with outlandish antics is always the way to go.
With all that said, time for me to hop off here. But keep those questions coming in!