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 your 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 Jeff asks: Would it be good for business for John Cena to join the Wyatt Family for an extended period?

PWTorch assistant editor James Caldwell replies: I do not think so. WWE is already playing with fire by how John Cena is being presented in this program with the Wyatts. I believe the right move is Cena going back to the basics of being a fired-up, fight-for-his-fans, morally-centered babyface, which Cena went for last week on WWE Main Event.

PWTorch columnist Pat McNeill replies: It would be fun to see Cena in a full beard, but no, it would not be good for business.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: Who would headline house shows and pay-per-views? WWE is, more than anything else, in the business of selling tickets to people who want to see a top babyface attraction in a main event match. Especially with Daniel Bryan out with an injury, there aren’t enough babyfaces to fill the gaping hole left if Cena weren’t a lead babyface. WWE runs two house shows per nights on weekends, I cannot imagine a worse time with fewer top babyfaces where they could afford to turn Cena or even create ambiguity by having him become a “follower” of a heel cult hero (despite the crowd’s cheers, he’s still cast as a heel).

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PWTorch reader Michael J. asks: When you've got characters in a trio like the Shield, each member seems to stand out as an individual whilst still being a trio. However, in the Wyatt Family, other than Bray, Rowen and Harper don't seem to have that much character depth (although they have been booked to be strong). What do you see as an upside/future for Rowen and Harper?

PWTorch columnist Greg Parks answers: I think they're a viable option to eventually unseat The Usos as tag champions. That's really their ceiling as far as being a tag team. Individually, I see Harper as having more potential, though Rowan could carve out a nice career as a big man who already, because of his association with Bray Wyatt, has name value and experience in big matches that fans will recognize and respond to.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: With so much TV time each week, it’s disappointing WWE hasn’t given us more of an idea what makes Rowan and Harper tick. That said, it’s not so much laziness as I think probably a deliberate decision because they want to focus on Bray and Cena and not complicate the message by establishing more dimensions to Rowan and Harper at this time, especially since Bray’s gimmick is he’s a cult leader and his followers aren’t necessarily expected to come across as distinct personalities. That said, I’d like to see some backstory given to both Rowan and Harper so fans get a sense of where they came from and how long they’ve been with Bray and why they are his followers.

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PWTorch reader Jeff from Michigan asks: When will WWE introduce a counter to the lopsided booking of the Authority? Will this be Vince McMahon or someone else?

PWTorch columnist Greg Parks answers: Many have been waiting for Vince to come back for some time. There was a time in this storyline when it made sense for him to come back, but I think that time has passed, at least for now. Other than that, I think WWE sees Daniel Bryan as the counter to The Authority, even though he has no booking power. The Authority storyline will run its course at some point, but who knows if it will end when a counter to their lopsided booking shows up, or if they just slowly drift away, or if Triple H loses a match in which he has to give up control. All options seem to be on the table at this point.

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PWTorch reader Geordie asks:Ask the Torch seems to be a very popular feature here and I was curious about what goes on behind the scenes. How many emails do you receive on a daily basis for Ask the Torch questions? Who determines which questions are chosen? What percentage of all the inquiries you receive can be dismissed outright, and how many make it to the final pool of selection?

PWTorch editor Wade Keller answers: Ah, an “inside baseball” question, as they say. A few times a week, generally, I go through the questions sent in and forward them to the PWTorch staff members and All-Star Panelists whom I believe would have an interest in answering the question or addressing the topic. I send every more questions than I expect they will take time to answer, but they have a good selection to choose from when they have time to answer them.

Then when it’s time to put an Ask article together, I go through the email account the PWTorch Staff respond to and the email account for the PWTorch All-Stars respond to, depending on which format I’m putting together. And I try to grab questions that have more than one answer first, because I like a variety of answers, and I also grab answers that I have marked as “urgent” (in that their relevance will “expire” soon). I also try to mix in “timeless” subjects to keep the Ask articles from being 100 percent “current events” oriented only. I also look for questions at least one other staff member has answered that I have previously flagged as a question I have a particular interest in answering. That way, again, I can add to what a staff member has written and give a different perspective or back their answer with other details or reasoning.

I have not computed how many questions don’t get answered that I send out to the Staff or All-Stars, but I’d say fewer 25 percent get answered, probably closer to 15 percent. Sometimes topical questions are discarded because that week we got a bunch of questions that were similar but stated slightly differently because it’s a “hot topic.” Other times there are historical questions I discard because we answered that topic previously. Other times questions are just too damn long and are more of an essay than a question, and those - for time-constrain reasons, if nothing else - get set aside. Oh, if someone sends a booking idea and wants us to tell what we think of it, those are the easiest to discard as that really belongs on a message board or somewhere else. I try to give the Staff and All-Stars a ton to choose from so they answer topics they feel most qualified to answer or passionate about answering.

We received 16 questions on May 12, zero on May 13 (that doesn’t happen often), and then 14 on May 15. So the number of questions that comes in varies from day to day quite a bit. I have a pretty elaborate colored tagging system set up in Gmail to keep some sense of order to which questions have been sent to contributors, replied to with answers, and ultimately used in an actual article, plus a system to indicate which ones are urgent or timeless. I also mark questions that need research and when I have time, I will research those. It would get unruly without the labeling system and so many people on the team replying at different times to various questions.

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