SEScoops Mailbag for November 21st
(please submit YOUR questions to sescoops@gmail.com) or follow @solomonster on Twitter and submit them that way!
Q: Do you think Randy Orton’s willingness to put people over for the last year or so (Dolph, Christian, Henry) is because he doesn’t care about his current face persona? Could you see him having more of an issue with losing if he was a heel? – Oliver Davis
A: Fact is, Orton may well be OK with putting people over and deserves credit for it, but how do we know he isn’t forced into doing it kicking and screaming? At the end of the day, you do what you’re told to do. And he is really in no position to raise hell given the two Wellness strikes he has against him.
Q: With the WWE debuting groups of wrestlers together the last couple of years, does that tend to dilute each guy more? – Cory Kraus
A: It can, but the key is in the follow-up. If WWE goes out of its way to make sure each guy has their own identity and an opportunity to speak, they can get them over. But typically, with groups like this, it’s one or two key people who end up breaking out from the pack.
Q: Always wanted to ask you your opinion on how long [Chris] Jericho’s push in 2001 would have been held off had Triple H not been injured? – Nick Jackson
A: I don’t think Triple H’s injury impacted Jericho’s push all that much in 2001. He and Benoit got a shot at Austin’s title the following month when the original plan (pitched by Paul Heyman if I recall correctly) was for the Two Man Power Trip to feud with one another, so I suppose that was a small plus for Jericho. If anything, you could argue it *really* helped him in ’02 as they needed someone HHH could beat for the title at WrestleMania and Jericho was that guy. While he ended up doing the job, he still got to work his first and only Mania main event.
Q: Do you think John Cena vs. The Undertaker is still possible for WrestleMania 30? – @1987cordellmitc
A: Sure, if Taker wrestles in 2014, Cena would be a fine (and safe) opponent for him, especially if that is his last match.
Q: What do you think of the new JoMo & Masters tag team? Do you think this could work in WWE or will they never return? – @Wreds_de
A: I wasn’t even aware they had formed a team. I think both could return at some point, but Morrison would definitely be as a single.
Q: Do you think it would be a great boost for Daniel Bryan to hold or just get an opportunity for the World title while being the Tag Team champion at the same time? Like the late, great Eddie [Guerrero] had done before when he was with Chavo. I think it’s a great story if Kane helps him win a World title and [then they] argue about it, or Kane [wins some other] title besides the tag belt. – Bryan V.
A: Comedy with the tag titles is fine. Comedy with your World title is not. There’s enough talent where one man does not need to hold two titles.
Q: Do you think Hulk Hogan/Hollywood Hogan is the greatest face/heel ever? Considering he brought in two different eras in wrestling, from the 80’s and early 90’s in his red and yellow babyface persona, to the late 90’s during the Monday Night Wars where he reinvented himself as a complete heel, which he was very successful at as well. I really dont see anybody else in the same breath. – Cordell Mitchell
A: I think that’s a fair statement. The only other person that comes to mind would be Ric Flair, who was quite good in both roles, but he never did nearly the kind of business Hogan did at the peak of his popularity both as a heel and a face.
Q: On a recent edition of the Sound Off, you mentioned something about Duke “The Dumpster” Droese and date rape drugs. This prompted me to do a little digging via Google search and I found several [sites] stating that Duke used to date rape women at bars and brag about it. Eventually, this got around to JBL who raped, or pretended to rape, Duke in the locker room to teach him a lesson. Is there any credibility to this story? What’s your take on it and what do you believe is true/false? – Matt I.
A: As I understand it, the allegations are true. To make up something like this that wasn’t true, Duke could have gone to court to sue if he knew who started it and that never happened, so read into that what you will. Did he “drop the soap” with JBL? I wasn’t there to see it, and for that I clasp my hands together and thank the lord every day. But these are the stories told by people in the WWF at that time.
Keep those questions coming to sescoops@gmail.com and remember to include your name!
