The PWTorch All-Star Panel features an array of contributors answering your questions who have worked in various facets of the pro wrestling industry, plus PWTorch contributors join in. You get an unmatched mix of perspectives including first-hand insights from people who have worked in the ring and behind the curtain.

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PWTorch reader Derek S. asks: Currently listening to the J.R. podcast with A.J. Styles. A.J. would clearly love to work for WWE. My question is this: Can anyone not currently under contract to WWE make it relatively straight to TV without re-tooling/re-training at the Performance Center? And if not A.J. Styles, who? Can't blame him for working in Japan, ROH, and the indies, but man, what a shame if he never plays on the main stage.

PWTorch columnist Greg Parks answers: I don't see anyone, save for Sting or guys who have already been in WWE, bypassing developmental upon signing in the future. That includes Styles. I think WWE learned their lesson from Sin Cara.

PWTorch columnist Sean Radican answers: Styles is the best American wrestler in the world right now given what he's doing in NJPW and he's making a lot of money over there doing it. Most likely it would take him awhile to make the same money he is now in WWE. If Styles keeps on performing like this in Japan, he could go right to TV without going to Developmental.

I'm a big fan of Davey Boy Smith Jr.'s work right now in Japan and I believe he could go right to the main roster. He carries himself like a legit tough guy and, watching him in the G1 Climax this year, he carries himself with way more of a presence than he ever did in his career.

I know he's been in WWE before and didn't have a good run there, but he's someone that could go right to the main roster. Lance Archer isn't far behind either.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: I think stopping by WWE Developmental for 2-3 weeks just to get oriented toward some WWE-specific ways of working in terms of playing to the camera and other intangibles isn’t anything to be ashamed of. Drew McIntyre told me on the PWTorch Livecast earlier this month that there are some very specific WWE-centric details that he learned that helped him to acclimate smoothly when he arrived in WWE. Booker T told me last Friday on the PWTorch Livecast that he didn’t see much difference between WCW and the WWF when he arrived. He had a lot of experience at a World Title level and his transition was many years before Drew’s. So every wrestler’s experience level might make him feel a few weeks in WWE Developmental is more or less useful. If WWE-D was seen as “orientation to WWE” rather than “developing basic beginner skills,” I don’t think there would be a stigma. Someone at Styles’s level of experience, though, should have a set main roster date and not have to spent more than 2 or 3 weeks in WWE-D.

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PWTorch reader Leander Beatty Jr. asks: Like so many others, I am enjoying your "Ask PWTorch" segments. I really appreciate the inside wisdom and insight that all of you offer. I would like to ask about (John Cena look-alike) Darren Young. Since he made his "announcement” that he is gay, we have seen very little of him. However, I don't remember him actually being cut. Is he injured or perhaps in the proverbial doghouse?

Also, many have said that Darren Young was the first openly gay professional wrestler. However, I remember the "gimmick" of Adrian Adonis and his "Relaxing With Trudy" (which I think ruined his career). Further, I remember a very popular wrestler named Chris Kanyon and I could swear that he was openly gay. Can you please tell me if this is correct? If so, that would have made Kanyon the first to come out, not Young.

Keep up the good work gentleman and thank you for a great segment.

PWTorch columnist Pat McNeill answers: (A) Darren Young suffered a torn ACL back in April. The last update I heard is that it'll be two or three more months before he returns to action

(B) Chris Kanyon came out before he died, yes.

(C) Pat Patterson came out of the closet to his fellow wrestlers about 40 years ago, although I don't think he ever mentioned on WWE television until earlier this year.

(D) There were (and are) several wrestlers whose orientation was an open secret inside the wrestling business. The late Terry Garvin (for example) was openly gay while working for the World Wrestling Federation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In that era, pro wrestlers didn't have their private lives scrutinized the way they are today.

PWTorch columnist Greg Parks answers: Darren Young tore his ACL in April and will be out for some time. Kanyon came out after his WWE run, and I'm not sure how much he even wrestled on the independents after coming out. It's semantics, but Young is therefore billed as the first active, openly gay wrestler in a major company.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: Darren Young is the first active member of the WWE roster to acknowledge he is gay publicly. Kanyon didn’t come out when he was active as a full time wrestler.


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PWTorch reader Wouter G. asks: We all have heard/seen the Golden Era, The Attitude Era, and now the PG Era. I just want to know what do you guys think the new era will be all about and when do you think the new era will start?

PWTorch columnist Pat McNeill answers: If you heard the Livecast with writer David Shoemaker, you'd know that we are currently in the "Reality Era" of professional wrestling, which began in July 2011. I have argued that we're in the "WWE drowns fans in wrestling with three hour episodes of Raw" era, but that's not nearly as pithy.

PWTorch columnist Sean Radican answers: The new era is The Reality Era and it has already started.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: Okay, for the record, we are NOT in the “reality era.” We are in the opposite of “reality.” Pro wrestling used to be portrayed, proudly and consistently, as being realistic competitive sport. Today it’s the very opposite of reality, and I cannot think of less appropriate more opposite and utterly stupid name for this era (sorry David, Triple H, etc.). Sean Waltman said on his podcast with Jonny Fairplay (listen at this link) that Triple H just threw that line out there but doesn’t intend to use it again or officially title this era the “Reality Era.” As Waltman said, it’s an insulting name to bygone eras because it insinuates that past eras were “less real” or “fake.”

I cannot even fathom why this era would be called the “Reality Era” other than it coincides with a boom in reality TV, which has zero to do with pro wrestling other than “Total Divas.” Or there are people who think one promo from C.M. Punk where he echoed some feelings his fans had about his push and top management makes everything else that happens on pro wrestling these days somehow more tied to reality than past eras, when it hasn’t I’m totally serious in that I cannot think of a less appropriate name for this era. Memphis Wrestling in the 1980s often brought real-life issues behind the scenes onto TV shows, probably more often than WWE does.

The next era won’t be named until we’re immersed in it. Predicting what it should be called is pointless because we’re not in it yet. We’re still in the Cena/PG era, and really the name of the Cena/PG era isn’t even set in stone yet because you have have some perspective on it after it ends to really know what about the last era stands out from the current era enough to name it. It’s like, World War I wasn’t World War I until World War II. Before World War II, it was called The Great War. So let’s get deep into the post-Cena years before we settle on a name for even the era we’re in, and then we can begin discussing what that era should be called. Eras didn’t even have names until the Attitude Era.

It’s possible the next era will be called the Network Era or, in light of TNA’s tenuous status and ROH’s lack of growth, perhaps the Monopoly Era. If Vince McMahon dies next week, and Cena retires, the next era could be simply called the Post-VKM Era. So we really shouldn’t be working hard to name the current era or even try to determine where it began or will end until we’re a few years past Cena as the centerpiece and there’s an obvious shift to something else. I will say 2014 is not different enough from 2009 to be calling this time we’re in a different era from 2009, just to grab a random recent year.

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PWTorch reader Jeremy Z. asks: The Money in the Bank ladder matches focused on two people in the ring for the most part while everyone else rested outside. Do you think that wrestling will ever evolve to the point where these matches have a more complex story of multiple fights going on at once in the ring so that we don't see six out of eight guys down and out a few minutes into the match?

PWTorch senior columnist Bruce Mitchell answers: No, because it's very difficult to keep an intense focus on four fights going on at once.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: I think they should find a happy medium where at times there are wrestlers fighting at ringside while others are fighting inside the ring. It’s just so fake looking that everyone takes turns, as if it’s a musical chairs and when the music stops, whoever is in the ring fights and the rest just hang out on the floor wincing and struggling to stand for ridiculously extended periods of time that would never happen in any other situation. There’s a way to make sure the focus is on two or three key guys at that moment in the spotlight while others are still fighting, but in a way where it’s clear they’re not the primary focus. Part of the “fun” or novelty aspect of MITB is that there is “too much action to keep track of” at once.

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