MAILBAG: Should Mick Foley Challenge Undertaker At WM28?

SEScoops Mailbag for November 4th

(please submit YOUR questions to sescoops@gmail.com)

Q: I’ve been curious over the years what happened to The Patriot (Del Wilkes), and what caused him to leave WWE in 1997? He was basically a lower mid-card talent in WCW in the early ’90’s, then was pushed right into the main event scene in WWE on RAW with Bret Hart and the Hart Foundation. Bret Hart wrestled The Patriot at Ground Zero in September 1997 for the WWE Championship, and then in a tag match at Bad Blood in October. After that, he was rarely seen. Did he only sign a short term contract with WWE at the time? Did he have some sort of dispute with anyone causing his departure? – Vinny in Connecticut

A: It is rather amazing that Wilkes started with the company in July and was headlining for the title two months later. After Badd Blood, he was scheduled to be part of Team USA in a Survivor Series elimination match, but suffered a torn triceps and was unable to compete. WWE released him a few months later. No animosity or angst between the two sides that I’m aware of, just a bad injury and they lost interest in him.

Q: We all know that Jim Ross gets no respect from Vince McMahon. Even though J.R. has proven to be a company man and is known as THE Best Announcer in wrestling, he is constantly humiliated and disrespected by Vince. What did J.R. do to deserve this kind of treatment? Or is it just Vince being a bully? – Adrian Ramlochan, Trinidad, West Indies

A: Vince McMahon is a man child. That is why he behaves the way he does. The best way to deal with someone like that is by standing up to them, but I don’t know that Ross has ever done that. At the end of the day, he still makes VERY good money and is working less, plus WWEShop is now the sole distributor of JR’s BBQ products, so I wouldn’t go crying for the man. But simply as a matter of respect, I find it repulsive.

Q: With Mick Foley returning to WWE, what would you think about Mankind vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania? No one has a win/loss record against Taker like Mankind did. WWE could bill him as possibly the only man that could end the streak. – Stephen D.

A: When was the last time Mick Foley even won a match? Foley poses less than a zero percent threat to Undertaker’s streak. He’s more famous for putting other people over than himself. For nostalgia, it might be nice to see him and Taker in the ring together, but they’re both so old and broken down at this point, I just don’t see the value. On your point of his win/loss record against the dead man, is it REALLY all that impressive? If we’re just talking PPV battles, I’m pretty sure Foley only took their first two matches back in 1996 (KOTR and Summerslam), both of which were not 100% clean wins. I’d hardly call that dominant.

Q: I know wrestling is staged, but what finishing move, excluding the Tombstone, do you think would cause the most damage and why? – Threen

A: This is an impossible question to answer. I suppose being on the receiving end of CM Punk’s GTS or being Pedigreed by Triple H on concrete could do a great deal of damage, but why not John Cena’s Attitude Adjustment? If he dumped you off the roof of a 20-story building with it, I don’t think you would be getting up. Everything is relative, you see. In terms of damaging one’s pride, I’ll go with the People’s Elbow. At least with Santino’s Cobra, you really could put somebody’s eye out with that move.

Q: This past summer, WWE’s writers and creative staff seemingly had a renaissance moment with the CM PUNK/VINCE/HHH feud, featuring some of the best writing, promos and plot twists the product has had since the height of the “Attitude Era”. So what the hell happened? Why does it seem like we are back to the stale matches, the typical Face/Heel feuds and the stagnant “I’m gonna beat you up” promos? Is there any hope that we will get back to the pre-Summer Slam style writing any time soon? – Seth, Parts Unknown

A: Hindsight is 20/20 and I think it’s safe to say that WWE got lucky. It was never a matter of great writing or plot twists. Punk’s contract was legitimately coming to an end and he was going to leave when they decided to take a real-life situation and let it play itself out on TV until Punk signed a new deal. You’ll notice that once Punk signed his new deal and won the title, we had the great promo at Comic-Con in San Diego and then things went to shit when they brought him back the following week. What great writing did I miss here? Nothing is going to change because nothing ever really changed in the first place.

Q: It appears that WWE is putting all cards on the table and taking a huge gamble with this new WWE Network. Do you think this could be another failure like the XFL or do you think this is a smart way to grow a company and industry that has remained in stagnant water for the last 10 years? If it fails, do you think WWE could be in serious financial trouble? – Glenn Danford

A: Let’s put it this way. If this network is a flop, with the millions that WWE is prepared to pour into it, it could jeopardize the future of the company. I’m not saying they would die within a year or anything, but it would deal a very serious blow to their health. If they’re going to do this, it HAS to be a success. Cable clearances are going to be their biggest obstacle.

Q: Old timers discuss the importance of the territories back in the day when numerous “entertainers” could achieve main event exposure, so when wrestlers joined another territory, they were already developed into a main event talent. I would assume it is not a coincidence that a decade after WWE bought and folded WCW and ECW that there is a real lack of main event talent. Does WWE need TNA and Ring of Honor? Do they need a strong number two to help develop talent? – Cyrus

A: Absolutely, they need a stronger number two, three and four. WWE has done a horrendous job of churning out new talent in recent years, especially talent up to the quality of OVW in the early 2000’s. Right now, they have quality independent workers like Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Antonio Cesaro (and Chris Hero shortly) down in FCW, all of whom were developed elsewhere including ROH. If you figure WWE will actually use only one or two of them correctly and get them over as stars on their TV shows, it doesn’t bode well for the future, but imagine how much worse the future would be without these guys? That’s scary.

Q: If John Cena and Randy Orton were to retire tomorrow, who would you pick if you were Vince McMahon to be the face of your company? – Dakota Maxwell, Killeen, TX

A: CM Punk would be the face, but Michael Cole would still be the ass.

Keep those questions coming to sescoops@gmail.com and remember to include your name!