Q and A

October 20, 2008

Q: How bad of an idea was it for Jim Duggan to join Team Canada?

A: I don’t think it was so much that it was a bad idea, as much as it was a poorly executed one. Had there been a long build to get there it might have been good but when it is just an out of the blue swerve it makes no sense and draws no real heat. Angles were so poorly though out in WCW that everything came off bad.

Q: Samoa Joe had been build as being a unstoppable non caring wrestler. Now TNA appears to have made him "soft". Do you believe Joe should have always remained the unstoppable version?

A: I think remaining “unstoppable” might be a bit strong, but if you want the dude to draw money (which we assume a company would want) he needs to be kept a strong bad ass type character, yes.

Q: Out of the following men, who do you think could have been a major player in WCW. Lash LeRoux, Kanyon, Lenny Lane or Sean O'Haire?

A: I guess it all depends on what you classify as a Major Player. Kanyon had a pretty good run there for a while as it was. O’Haire had the look and size to be a big player but was too out of control to likely last long term as was evident in WWE. I don’t think Lash or Lenny had a hope of becoming Major Players in WCW.

Q: Are in favor of quick baby face/heel turns?

A: I don’t like quick anything. If we are to go from loving to hating someone there needs to be a gradual build so that a persons change in behavior is believable.

Q: Overall, how do you believe your run in WCW went?

A: I was only there for 10 months so on the whole it went great.

Q: Was just looking over some of your matches on Youtube and caught one I had forgotten (for obvious reasons). It was after you had tried to run Goldberg down with your car, a squash match that took all of one minute and thirteen seconds. I know it's Goldberg and it's his thing... but I wanted to know, how did you feel about working a match like that? Did you have to just take it in stride? To your credit, you were great without even landing a single offensive - you sold wonderfully.

A: I was disappointed with the little time we were given because I thought I could have had a good short match with Bill, but you have to do what you have to do. I remember both Bill and the agent thinking that since it was going to be so short that it might bury me less if he jumped me while I was stepping through the ropes and never let me recover and just get beat rather than letting me start out even and mount meaningless offense that he would pretty much have to no sell and beat me anyway.

Q: Would you be willing to appear for a one time only Rockers vs Thrillseekers match on RAW to hype the HBK vs Y2J feud? I think you and Marty Jannetty would add great value to that feud!

A: That I would jump at. I’d love to get to work with Shawn and since The Rockers were a huge influence on Jericho and I as a Team especially in our early “Sudden Impact” days, it would be extremely cool to work with them.

Q: Do you get royalties for Vladimir Kozlov's face?

A: Absolutely, I get 5 cent every time he scowls.

Q: Thoughts on Chris Jericho as super liger, did u get to see the match, and do you know if he still has the outfit.

A: I’ve never seen the match, and I know they took the costume back right after the match. I believe he does have the Liger Mask that was to be worn for public appearances. It has a bigger mouth opening so you can eat with it on.

Q: I read a few of these wrestling websites and no matter what the raw rating is, there is always some excuse as to why it's not higher, a football game, basketball game holiday etc. It's almost as if they are making an excuse for Raw instead of acknowledging how bad the show really is. When you were there did you ever hear anyone ever use an excuse as to why the rating was low? Seems like such a cop out to blame football or a season premiere all the time.

A: They never discussed the ratings with me but this is standard fair for wrestling and likely other entertainment businesses. Indy shows always have an excuse for a bad gate: a local football game, bad weather, you name it. Tracey Smoothers had the best excuse, which he jokingly used in SMW. “McDonalds is open, you can’t compete with that!” There is a great Stu Hart quote that I prefer to use, “If you give them what they want, they’ll come out.” Even the best excuse in the world only says fans would rather do something else than see your show.

Q: There have been rumors that Eric Bischoff wants to start another wrestling company, if this is true, do you think having 3 major companies is a good idea?

A: If they can fid a niche and succeed at it, it’s a wonderful idea. The more options out there for fans and the boys the better.

Q: What are your thoughts on Gail departing from TNA and possibly going back to WWE?

A: Her leaving is a huge loss to TNA. If she manages to make a better living in WWE it is a great move for her. I doubt she will be featured as well in WWE but sometimes you have to just focus on making a living.

Q: Do you think, all things considered, that if you started out in the business today your career would have turned out better or worse? There is much more acceptance now for wrestlers with slightly smaller (read: natural) physiques but obviously at the same time there are far fewer promotions where one can get the opportunity to make a real living.

A: There is really no way to tell. I may have progressed faster in today’s environment if I managed to get a developmental deal, but I certainly wouldn’t have gathered the diverse experience that made me the worker I am, going the developmental route. I loved the journey that my career took, I certainly wouldn’t want to change that.

Q: I read your recent commentary about big men and particularly working with big men. What are your thoughts on working with Kane? I know you and Kane worked together a lot during the Un-Americans storyline and in feuding over the tag titles. Also, Have you ever worked with The Undertaker? Thoughts?

A: I really enjoyed working with Kane, although it is easier working with big men in a tag situation. Because I had a partner it became much easier to logically have the big man sell. Kane was very easy to work with and always a pleasure to work with, and the fact that we got along so well outside the ring likely helped. Apart from a bunch of Invasion run-ins I only ever worked with Taker once I believe. Taker is amazing but because of his gimmick and my place on the card there were a lot of limitations on what we could do together. Taker is one of the lightest and safest workers I’ve ever worked with.

Q: What views do you have on the kind of "MMA" style finish to the Big Show-Taker match at No Mercy?

A: I didn’t see the match, but I’ve heard about it. I think you can educate fans so finishes like that can work, but you need to change the whole sport to make it work. Kahli used to use a head butt to the back of the head as a finish and less was made of that than Show’s punch to the back of the head. To get stuff like this over no you have to make sure no one else does moves to the back of the head.

Q: As a friend of his, do you know if Christian will be returning to WWE? His peeps want him back!

A: I purposely don’t ask him because I don’t want to have to lie or avoid questions like this. I’d like to see him back too, but the road schedule in TNA is awful nice when you live in Tampa. I guess time will tell.

Q: If this is not too personal a question, what did you wife think about you working with as beautiful a woman as Dawn Marie so often?

A: She was always fine with it, it’s not like we were going to do anything on TV. This is something people seem to miss. Even if I wasn’t working with Dawn, we would have still be on the road at the same time, so whether or not I cheated on my wife had nothing to do with who I was working with on TV. I didn’t work with any of the girls in WWE, but we were still all on the road together so the opportunities would still be there.

Q: Will you be doing Cyber Sunday predictions as last year?

A: I doubt it I’ve been really busy lately and doubt I will have the time.

Q: Will any of your earlier commentaries be returning? I enjoyed reading all the ones that are up.

A: Likely not. This is just a time issue and getting all the old ones up is just a time luxury I don’t have, at least not right now.

Q: In your experience, who had the knife-edge chop that was the worst to take? I know you like to get semantic with the messages you get, so I'll elaborate. By worst, I mean, which wrestler's knife-edge chop did you dread the most? Who had the hardest one?

A: Kid Kash. I never let him chop me more that once. I don’t know if it was because he taped his fingers or what but I bled every time he chopped me. When chops are done properly they aren’t too bad and if you take enough of them you can bleed but you certainly should not be bleeding from one.

Q: I was reading where you said heel/heel matches were hard to book… it got me to thinking- how do you do face/face matches? Isn’t it the same problem, only the flipside?

A: Baby Face matches aren’t as bad because you can just go back and forth and entertain with good wrestling. Fans can still cheer the moves and spots etc. In a heel match no one should be cheered, which pretty much takes the fun out of it.

Q: Is there a gimmick that you thought would never go over in a million years, but the performer surprised you and pulled it off?

A: I thought Doink the Clown was about the stupidest thing ever, yet was quite over for a while.

Q: At New Blood Rising how did you feel when the crowd was going nuts thinking you were introducing Bret Hart and had to introduce Jacques Rougeau?

A: I knew that was a bad situation. The crowd expected and wanted Bret so announcing Jacques (or anyone else) would be a let down. If you watch the tape I was actually shaking my head when the crowd started chanting for Bret. I was hoping to get across that it wasn’t Bret so they wouldn’t be expecting him and thus pop for Jacques.

Q: Right before NBR Mike Awesome's fat chick Mighty Heidi turned on Mike and was never seen again. Why did she turn on him if never used again?

A: There were plans to use Rhonda Singh and do mix tag matches with us, but both Mike and I wanted to put the “Fat Chick” angle behind us as quickly as possible and got that nixed.

Q: You've done a lot of commentaries on the best and worst of a lot of things from your career. What about a commentary about the best and worst refs you've ever worked matches with? What made a ref easier or harder to work with than others?

A: I don’t think I could do an entire commentary on this. Good refs are ones you never see unless you need them, and most of the guys I’ve worked with were quite good. Nick Patrick was one of my favourites; we gelled real well together and I used him a lot to relay messages for me during matches. If Nick were smaller he would have been perfect. Mick McMichael was a Scottish ref I worked with in Europe for CWA who I really liked. I was much greener then and he really helped me read the crowd and pace my matches. I wish I got to work with Tim White more in WWE he was great. The Hebners were great unless you were in Canada, because they stole all your heat on Canadian shows.

Lance Storm