Ask the Editor
Ask the Torch: Michaels's schedule, Undertaker's health, TNA frustrations, McMahon ages
May 11, 2006 - 3:12:00 PM |
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By Wade Keller, Torch editor
PWTorch.com reader Jim Murray asks: In your recent Ask The Torch you mentioned the Undertaker needs a hip replacement. That I've read on your site before, but you also mentioned he has "other serious health issues." What are those other serious health issues?
WK: I've heard frequently in the past couple years from people who are around Taker that he feels tremendous wear and tear on his body and joints from his years in the ring. It's just a case of a body breaking down from years of travel, bumps, and the grind of being a wrestler. I've been told, though, that his hips are the major issue he has to deal with after his career.
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PWTorch.com reader C. Wallace asks: How old are Triple and Stephanie McMahon? Is Vince McMahon really 60? He looks older. And how about Shane?
WK: Stephanie McMahon is 29 years old. Triple H is 36. Vince McMahon is actually 60. Shane McMahon is 36 (just over a year older than I am, so it's easy for to remember that one).
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PWTorch.com reader Bale Bates asks: Why do you think it is that the problems and issues that hinder TNA can be so obvious to all of us, but the people who can actually do something about it seem completely oblivious?
WK: Because the booking crew doesn't include one single power with a vision for a direction to take TNA. Everybody fears Jeff Jarrett's wrath, and the booking crew books to make sure he's treated like a centerpiece star attraction, around which everything else revolves. Everything else is secondary, and since Jarrett cares primarily about his own presentation and is hardly considered a strong booker by anybody who I know who's ever had chats about wrestling philosophy with him over the years, the rest of the booking crew are out to protect their positions, feature their friends, or promote pet ideas (be it Team Canada, World X Cup, the latest import from Puerto Rico) for the time they are in power. Dixie Carter is by all accounts sharp as a whip and a nice person, but she's being completely insulated from the reality of the glaring mistakes and lame booking schemes being promoted on her shows. You can't learn this industry overnight, or even in a few years, even though an outsider might think it's simple as pie. Good Guy. Bad Guy. Colorful Gimmicks and Personalities. Trash Talking. Fight. But the nuances that can make or break a promotion are difficult to pick up on as someone who wasn't a fan growing up and isn't spending at least 20 hours a week watching other wrestling shows (in chronological order from start to finish) of today and yesterday and then studying what works and doesn't work with the fickle public. I could go on, but to say watching TNA is frustrating is an understatement, not because there aren't aspects that are well done, super-talented athletes showcasing years of mastering their craft, and entertaining moments. It's that the bad is weaved in often enough to offset a lot of good, the mistakes are a result of politics, a lack of having a unified vision, and a reliance on a dumbed down derivative repetition of old ideas that are past their time.
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PWTorch.com reader Angela Robinson asks: Is Shawn really going to start being part time? If so then when is he starting this and how many times a year do you think we will see him? Is he maybe just not going to do house shows anymore?
WK: Michaels had said in an interview overseas he was planning to cut back his schedule this summer. We reported in the Torch Newsletter that part of the reason he was "threatening" to cut back his schedule was that he was unhappy with being treated like a rookie or mid-card wrestler was (several specific examples and details were published in our newsletter's WWE Newswire report in detail), while other wrestlers with his tenure over the years had been given certain perks and benefits. He may have worked that out with management, since as of last word, he's working a full schedule this summer after all.
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Background on Torch editor Wade Keller: Torch editor Wade Keller founded Pro Wrestling Torch in September 1987. He has been interviewed as a wrestling expert by dozens of TV and radio stations across the country; he has also been quoted in dozens of major newspapers and magazines across the world. Media entities that have featured Keller in stories covering wrestling include National Public Radio, Fox News Channel, ESPN Magazine, the New York Post, Entertainment Weekly, the All-News Channel, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post. He also hosted his own weekly two hour wrestling talk show on KFAN sport radio in the '90s. Over the past 17 years Keller has also interviewed, one-on-one, wrestling's top names for in-depth "Torch Talks" and feature articles including powerbrokers such as Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Jerry Jarrett, Bill Watts, Jim Cornette, Jim Crockett, Jim Herd, Paul Heyman, Ed Ferrara, Terry Taylor, Kevin Sullivan, Jim Ross, and Vince Russo; top wrestling stars such as The Rock, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Mick Foley, Matt & Jeff Hardy, Rick Steamboat, Jerry Lawler, Bill Goldberg, British Bulldog, Road Warrior Hawk, Jesse Ventura, and Hulk Hogan; and legends such as Lou Thesz, Gordon Solie, Bruno Sammartino, Roy Shires, Terry Funk, and Verne Gagne. He is also host of the nationally distributed Ultimate Insiders DVD series.
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