ASK-A-WAI: Questions Thread

Matthew from Down Under

What is the likelyhood of a Rampage / Dynamite brand split? Floating world, tag and womens champion, quarterly dual-brand PPVs, brand-exclusive TV specials. Many pros and cons, of course, but I truly believe it is very doable; especially with the hindsight of the now 19 year history of the WWE Brand Extension. Creates exclusive matchups, drafts can be a rating drawer, and can also be a good storytelling device.

John,

Play any Baseball Mogul lately?

Erin from Brampton

I hope you guys are doing well!

I never kept up with WWE ratings in the past, but were demos always as heavily discussed? I felt like in the past Iā€™d hear about Raw doing however many million, but never followed up by the demo the way it is today.

Is it just something we started to discuss when AEW hit the scene? If so, why do you think that is?

Tenese from GA

Early this week was listening to the Between The Sheets and of it was covering some of 1985 Memphis. Bix and Kris gave heavy praise of how Jerry Lawler and did excellent booking on the fly. It got me wondering if you ever knew if Lawler had any creative input during his time in WWE? Hope all is well and take care John and Wai.

While the lack of foreign talent in the G1 is understandable, I think NJPW still deserves criticism for not reaching out to more top-tier talent within Japan. It was only three years ago that they picked up Shingo from Dragon Gate, and he is already a fan favourite who has become champion and still feels very fresh.

If NJPW is the peak of wrestling, shouldnā€™t they be able to attract the top talent? I know CyberAgent can afford to compete with them, but NJPW should be able to make enticing offers to wrestlers in promotions like Dragon Gate and AJPW. Regardless of contract status, do you think there is anyone in a Dragon Gate or AJPW that could come in and freshen things up or reach the heights Shingo has reached in just three years? Is there another ā€˜Shingoā€™ in those companies, someone who is one of the best in the world already that many of us simply donā€™t know about because they donā€™t have the easy-access English platform?

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Given Waiā€™s interest in reality TV - most recently ā€œBachelor in Paradiseā€ - I wondered if, for the next Ask A Wai I could ask ā€œwhat lessons could pro wrestling shows learn from reality tv?ā€

Carl from Tockwith UK

Given how good a heel MJF is and how much heat he generates, could you ever see him turning face, would it even be possible for such a ā€œheelā€ character?

Keep up the great work.

Carl

Hello to you both,

I apologize if it has already been asked, but Iā€™m just wondering if either of you will be continuing on your respective jiu jitsu journeys? Or if you have been all along and Iā€™ve somehow missed that fact.
I enjoyed hearing you share your progression.

Thanks :pray:

Rod from England

If you had to choose between having legs the length of your fingers or fingers the length of your legs which one would you pick?

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If Warner Bros was willing to do cross promotion with AEW for Space Jam, is it possible that they will want John Cena to promote the Peacemaker series on Dynamite as well?

The WM19 Ask-A-Wai inspired this question - do you think thereā€™s an amount of Saudi money that could tempt Steve Austin to come out of retirement for one more match, in whatever form that may take?

Brian from New Jersey

What would you consider the worst heel turn you have ever seen in wrestling? Use any criteria you wish, be it how it was executed, how it faired financially, or just personal preference.

Hey guys, Stu from Liverpool.

If these sports had a featured event in a place very close to you, which would you go and see?

Formula 1
Australian Rules Football
Baseball (with Japanese teams)
Soccer (with top-level European teams)
Cricket
Rugby

Also, what events would you want to go and see if Toronto hosted the Olympics?

John, as I write this itā€™s the day after the latest WWE releases (Lee, Cross, ect.) and I was wondering how you try to handle a major news story. News can break at any time, not many of which are convenient for someone with a young family. How do you approach a major breaking new story?

Brandon from Oshawa

If POST Wrestling had a collaboration with Tim Hortons to have 2 exclusive flavors of ā€œTing Bitsā€, with a flavor chosen by each of you, what would each of you choose to be your flavor?

When will there be a spotlight on the actual site in say a newsletter fashion? I donā€™t have time to always view the site but I enjoy some of the specialized posts that I get via email of topics and would love to start my day with a newsletter of say 1-3 stories with links to them so I can read in full at my leisure. I currently get most of my news from Reddit and thatā€™s unfortunately in the form of twitter discussions that are postedā€¦which I hope you two then speak about.

No idea how much additional work that may be nor do I want to pin it on anyone - just stating thereā€™s hardly focus on the website.

Hey John & Wai, hope you are both well and thank you for all the hard work you are doing, especially now with the audio daily news updates which are really enjoyable

After the recent releases from WWE, who on the full time roster would you consider ā€œUntouchableā€ in that they will likely never be released by WWE?

In my opinion, right now I would consider Orton, Reigns, Rollins, AJ, Becky & Sasha as within that category. Everyone else seems, at least from the number of higher profile releases recently, seem to be moveable pieces unfortunately

Also would there be a person that is currently on the roster that if they were to get unfortunately released that would make you shocked?

Thanks
David from Scotland

Hey guys, great job as always, loving the news updates daily, hope itā€™s not too taxing cuz itā€™s been fantastic so far.

Just a quick one this month, wondering if you know why ufc gets a pass to run the garden when itā€™s such a sacred place for wweā€¦ is it so simple that itā€™s technically a different sport? For a time there they seemed like wweā€™s most direct competition. Thanks and keep up the awesome work.

Maxx Payne/Man Mountain Rock recently came out of exile for an interview with Hannibal TV and when asked about his mid 90s ā€œthe Real Maxx Payneā€ documentary which was supposedly threatened with lawsuits by the then WWF over illegally filming wrestlers in altered states without permission, he now states that the documentary is still in his possession and will be released eventually. Would you both be willing to watch this if it came out given the nature of the topic (supposed substance abuse from multiple wrestlers who have since passed away since the recording in 1995).

Hi! How would you grade Kenny Omegaā€™s title run? Did it live up to your expectations? I loved the matches, but wasnā€™t a fan of his goofy gimmick.