Pro Wrestling Torch was established in 1987 by Wade Keller. One of the primary traits PWTorch has been credited with over the years is assembling the best and most diverse staff of columnists with broad knowledge, but also areas of specialty where they have a particularly strong grasp of history. Every day PWTorch.com presents that team of writers answering your questions, some of which are fact-based and others of which are opinion-based. Either way, we've got you covered with Bruce Mitchell, Pat McNeill, Sean Radican, Greg Parks, James Caldwell, and Wade Keller. Collectively they have over 80 years working for the Torch, writing about wrestling and studying industry history and trends.

If you have a question you'd like us to respond to, send your question to askpwtorch@gmail.com. I, along with the Torch staff, will address you questions in this feature and also the “Ask PWTorch: All-Star Panel” edition which is also published most days here at PWTorch.

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PWTorch reader Adam A. asks: How did Bradshaw go from boring muscle guy in the 1998 era-Acolytes to JBL, one of the most charismatic and entertaining wrestlers/commentators of the 2005-on era? Did anyone see that coming?

PWTorch columnist Sean Radican answers: I certainly didn't see it coming. His role in the APA certainly didn't let him show off his promo skills and I was really surprised when he took off as JBL. At the time, WWE needed a top heel and JBL certainly fit the bill. He showcased his promo skills and, like I said, he really surprised me. I'm not as high on JBL as a commentator as you are. I think he's good, but lately his heel schtick has felt forced. JBL is certainly a good example of someone that got a gimmick overhaul and went from a mid-carder to a top-tier guy. You just never know what some people are capable of until they get the right opportunity.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: I’ve enjoyed listening back to the 2004 PWTorch VIP Audio Shows (we post our “ten years ago” VIP Audio shows for our VIP members every week) where Bruce Mitchell, Pat McNeill, and I are just dumbfounded that JBL of all people has been moved toward the top of the card. When Brock Lesnar left, WWE needed a top Smackdown heel and JBL’s relationship with Vince McMahon really grew behind the scenes around that time. Nobody saw it coming, but JBL turned into a surprisingly serviceable top heel for the Smackdown brand for a while.

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PWTorch reader Blaine S. asks: Why doesn't WWE make any references to JBL being the NXT Commissioner when former NXT standouts show up on Raw or Smackdown?

PWTorch columnist Greg Parks answers: Michael Cole sometimes alludes to this, usually when JBL professes not to know much about a wrestler that is coming up from NXT. As I wrote in my column in the Pro Wrestling Torch Weekly Newsletter a few weeks ago, there seems to be a disconnect in how the NXT Universe is viewed and presented on WWE TV. There needs to be some consistency in how NXT is discussed - either don't mention it at all, or treat it seriously as if what happens on NXT matters to the WWE Universe.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: I think the lack of promoting NXT harder on Raw and Smackdown is a real lost opportunity for WWE Network subscriptions. Vince McMahon may hesitate to expose his national audience to wrestlers during their formative stages, but I think if they’re going to offer NXT’s weekly show and quarterly live specials at all, they should really get behind it and not keep it “WWE Network’s best kept secret.” Triple H must be frustrated because the feedback to the two NXT live specials has been so strong, but it’s pretty clear based on his media conference calls that Vince McMahon is throttling the exposure and push of the brand. So that is probably why JBL’s role on NXT is not discussed much.

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PWTorch reader Kevin Hensley of Ellijay, Ga. asks: Thank you for answering two of my questions! Loving this feature and the insight. This question concerns the fans at WWE Raw "hijacking" shows within the last year. If the fans are bored and want to entertain themselves, then how did the WWF keep the fans interested in four to five hours of squash matches during the Superstars/Wrestling Challenge TV tapings in the late-1980s-mid-1990s? Were the shows structured differently than they are now? If so, how were they structured? Or did the shows have any memorable incidents where the fans took over?

PWTorch columnist Pat McNeill answers: Back in the 1980s, people were happy to see their favorite wrestlers. The tapings weren't live, so any crowd reactions that went against the grain were edited out. On June 1, 1993, there was an incident where fans at Center Stage in Atlanta "hijacked" a "WCW Saturday Night" TV Taping. WCW regularly taped "Saturday Night" at Center Stage, and the regular fans had their own favorites. One of those favorites was preliminary wrestler Tex Slazenger. (Dennis Knight, who later wrestled as Phineas Godwinn and Mideon in WWE.) The regulars finally printed out six hundred "Tex" signs and handed them out to the fans. Naturally, WCW security confiscated all the signs before the tapings started. Then the cameras rolled and the taping kicked off with six hundred fans chanting "We Want Tex" while Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko were trying to open the broadcast. (This, of course, never made it to air.)

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: Back before the Monday Night War, wrestling fans were interested in seeing ring entrances and finishing moves and occasional mid-card-level star vs. star matches. They were’t accustomed to the house show main event level matches on a weekly basis on TV. That was part of the Monday Night Wars, and a format that Vince McMahon adapted to after much kicking and screaming.

Vince called me back during the early Monday Night War period pretty much to just complain about Ted Turner and WCW trying to put him out of business by giving away main event matches on TV instead of saving them for PPV and house shows. He felt they were using profits from other divisions to subsidize bad wrestling policy in the sense that they were going after ratings at the expense of profitability of the division by saving big matches for PPV and house shows only. Of course after WCW went under, WWE stuck with the same Raw and Smackdown format of giving away marquee match ups on every show. So fans who started watching wrestling in 1995 or later never knew another way, but it used to be that squash matches were plenty entertaining for wrestling fans at TV tapings.

That said, some of the marathon Raw and syndicated tapings got long and tried fans’ patience. The WWF would tease fans with a main event dark match at the end of the tapings to try to entice fans to stick around for three or four hours for the tapings. It’s worth nothing, though, that the multi-show tapings moved really quickly - quicker than Raw today with all of the video packages and pauses for commercial breaks. Back then, it was cool ring entrance, two minute match with signature spots and a finisher, and exit the ring followed immediately by another. So there was no time to be bored. It was just the repetition or the second time you saw a star come out an hour or two later that things started to drag.

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PWTorch reader Laurence L. of London, U.K. asks: I’m very interested to hear opinions about the future of Rusev’s gimmick in WWE. In recent week’s he has won me over with his in-ring style growing from squash matches to now five minute matches where he does a little selling. I know WWE loves real life heat for generating publicity in the mainstream, but do you think in light of the Malaysian commercial airplane shot down by the Ukraine killing over 200 civilians, do you think WWE will now have to rethink the whole Putin sympathizer gimmick as it is in bad taste?

PWTorch columnist Greg Parks answers: The heat from Lana's comments has pretty much already blown over, so I don't see WWE making any wholesale changes to the gimmick.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: We learned WWE was more than happy to use the death of 200 civilians while the broken plane parts were still smoking on a field and body parts were still being gathered to try to add head to Lana’s gimmick. Then, as I wrote about in more detail in my “Page 2 Radar” column in the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter last month, they denied Lana’s comment was a reference to the plane going down. So they wanted to get the heat from the reference, but then wanted to avoid the obvious disgust some people would feel in response because of the timing of it all with a ridiculous denial. They’d have been better off just having Lana get cut off on every show that week so she didn’t have time to praise Putin, and then reassess the updated info the next week and go back to her doing what she was doing before, minus the reference to Putin being “falsely blamed” for the plane being shot down.

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