Welcome to a new website-exclusive PWTorch feature! I am PWTorch founder and editor, Wade Keller. I've been covering pro wrestling since 1987 when I started the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter while still in high school. Over 25 years later, PWTorch reaches more wrestling fans every week than any other independent brand. When we launched PWTorch.com in 1999, one of the features I enjoyed doing the most was "Ask PWTorch," a feature we had previously run in the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter in the previous dozen years. I haven't done it recently on the website, but did revive it in recent years in an audio format for PWTorch VIP members on my Keller Hotline a couple times a week. We reintroduced it to the website audience last month. We have posted it every mid-day since the beginning of May.

If you have a question you'd like me to respond to, send your question to askpwtorch@gmail.com. I, along with the Torch staff, will address you questions.

PWTorch reader Andrew Corley asks: I was wondering what you think about wrestlers blurring the lines between their real lives and their characters on Twitter and other social media? For example, right before Bully Ray's recent incident with a fan, Dixie Carter was tweeting about Aces & Eights as a part of the story and then suddenly made "real" Tweet about him being punished for his actions. It's hard to know when she's speaking as the real life president of the company and when she's a character on a TV show. Similarly, anyone with a computer could tell you where Phil Brooks has been for the last few months while "C.M. Punk" has supposedly been MIA and Chris Jericho loves to post things about how great/fun his recent matches are and then expects the audience to buy in to his having real emotions behind his feuds. Given how much WWE in particular pushes social media, do you think more needs to be done to distinguish the real people from the characters they portray?

PWTorch senior columnist Bruce Mitchell answers: For guys who play characters where some mystique is involved they should stay off social media entirely. If they, like Chris Jericho, are trying to build their own brand to market themselves in ways beyond wrestling and they're more "regular guy" characters, I think it's fine. I think, though. if they're Tweeting, they should be consistent - either all storyline or all straight forward. Executives should use Twitter to ether thank fans or market upcoming shows in various ways and save the serious stuff for more formal forums.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: Yeah, consistency. It's a new format and all, but I totally agree that a wrestler should choose to be either in character or out of character. If both are the same, he can get away with that, but bouncing from "had a great match with my opponent, much respect for him" just a day after playing up the storyline aspects of the feud on Twitter is sloppy and confusing. I'm with Bruce on this regarding actual executives posting on Twitter.


PWTorch reader Liam Nolan asks: I was just wondering why you guys think Crimson's push and streak didn't work out. He was a guy I thought who was not an ex-WWE guy and had a great look that could have been pushed by TNA.

PWTorch columnist Greg Parks answers: A: Crimson was pushed and given the winning streak really before he was ready. He was not good on the mic and just didn't have the connection with the crowd to get over via this streak. I liked his look upon his return last week and thought he cut a nice promo, but it was all in a losing effort. I haven't written him off, and I like that TNA is giving him another shot. We'll see how it turns out this time.

PWTorch senior columnist Bruce Mitchell answers: Crimson's streak didn't work out because for a number of reasons: Creative ineptitude, they really didn't want him over with the audience, his own limitations, he really didn't get pushed strongly despite having a winning streak. No matter what TNA claimed about Crimson's streak, if he didn't beat his opponents cleanly and decisively and it didn't send him on the way to to the top of the card, he was just a space-filler on the show.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller adds: Crimson's streak was TNA's half-hearted, amateurish attempt to strike gold with someone with a cool unique look without really getting behind him enough to make it catch on. He didn't get over not because he was too green, necessarily, but because his streak was clearly a mid-card thing and the focus continues to remain on a different core of wrestlers. It was probably a mistake to even give him a streak when he was so green, but they didn't really give him a chance as it was.


PWTorch reader David D. asks: Who do you predict will be some of the names we will be seeing on "wrestler of the year" award nominations at the end of the year? I'm going to go ahead and guess that when it is all said and done, A.J. Styles will be the standout name of 2013 - because of the stellar series of matches he has coming up in the BFG series, along with his fresh new image and character direction.

PWTorch columnist Greg Parks answers: I'm sure the list will be very similar to what we've seen in past years. Daniel Bryan should head the class along with The Shield as a group, given their successful TV matches of late. Dolph Ziggler could make it on there as well. A.J. Styles is a good guess, but I'm wondering if his new style to go along with his new attitude will turn some people off to him because it's not the high-flying stuff they are used to. In TNA, Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy could appear on the list, depending on how often they wrestle.

PWTorch columnist Sean Radican answers: For "Wrestler of the Year," the names I see being in the mix are Daniel Bryan and C.M. Punk. Right now it's a two horse race and if you want to throw some independent names into the mix Johnny Gargano and Michael Elgin are both having excellent in-ring years right now. I don't see A.J. Styles being given the platform to perform up to his capabilities to get consideration for wrestler of the year. He has been part of many great matches in the past, but I think of him as more of a spectacular performer at times than a great in-ring hand.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: I have Jericho, Punk, and Daniel Bryan way ahead of Styles on my list of likely Wrestlers of the Year candidates. Bryan is hot the last couple months. We'll see if Dean Ambrose can make a case for himself. TNA needs to make sure their top workers (Angle, Hardy, Styles, Samoa Joe, Austin Aries, etc.) are featured in matches that really seem to count for something and aren't forgotten three or four weeks later or aren't part of building something that matters. If it all goes right back to Hulk Hogan and Brooke Hogan in their soap opera with Bully Ray, the matches lose some luster no matter how good they are.

(I'll now be adding a segment exclusively for VIP members to this article as a bonus for VIP members. I will select questions sent by VIP members to my VIP Ask the Editor email box that I usually answer on my VIP Keller Hotline during the week and writing a text answer. Today's question follows. To go VIP and get all PWTorch VIP content on our app and our website and our Audio RSS feed, www.PWTorch.com/govip)

PWTorch VIP member Eric Denton asks: Do you think the pattern of Doctors discretion with Triple H, Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan is just WWE establishing a new more realistic match end? MMA & boxing fights end like that all the time. Randy Orton's reaction to Bryan's injury was realistic and honorable. Ricardo Rodriguez & Alberto Del Rio's reaction to an injured Ziggler was that of a scavenger picking apart wounded prey. If they are going to use this for match finishes, WWE has to establish an unspoken code that they try to wear down & hurt an opponent to win, but their goal is not to permanently injure. It's what made Randy Savage's attack on Ricky Steamboat so uh… savage. Thoughts?

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: (This is part of the VIP-exclusive portion of Ask PWTorch. am now adding a segment exclusively for VIP members to this article as a bonus for VIP members. I will select questions sent by VIP members to my VIP Ask the Editor email box that I usually answer on my VIP Keller Hotline during the week and writing a text answer. To go VIP and get all PWTorch VIP content on our app and our website and our Audio RSS feed, www.PWTorch.com/govip)



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(Send your question for PWTorch editor Wade Keller and the PWTorch staff exclusively to pwtorch@gmail.com for consideration! You can hear expanded conversation on the above topics from Wade Keller by becoming a VIP member and gaining access to the daily Wade Keller Hotline, posted every day for VIP members for over 1,000 days straight. Sign up at www.PWTorch.com/govip)

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