Earlier today Forbes & Bleacher Report wrestling columnist Alfred Konuwa was featured as a guest on WrestleZone Daily. Alfred was back with the latest installment of his new segment for the Daily called What’s Best For Business? This will be a regular segment on WrestleZone Daily where Alfred and host Nick Hausman talk about financial and business aspects of the WWE.
You can listen to Alfred’s appearance starting at the 38:56 mark in the embedded audio player below. Some of his quotes have been transcribed below it:
On Alberto Del Rio leaving the WWE, becoming more valuable and then returning to the WWE with a better deal (ala Brock Lesnar):
AK: That’s a bad trend for the WWE. That’s not a bad trend for the wrestlers themselves. We just came off that podcast with Brock Lesnar where he talked about how he viewed wrestling as a job. He did not grow up a fan. He is not in love with it. I think that’s the right way to approach it. You get people who love being there and that are just happy to be there. You’ve got that great essay that Bayley wrote when she was eleven years old. That’s great but it puts you in a position to be taken advantage of. Look at the last three big streaks of the modern era that were ended. Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak. We had CM Punk longest reigning champion of the modern era and then we have the US Open Challenge. Who ended those three streaks? Brock Lesnar left, made himself a star, came back and ended the streak. The Rock left, made himself a star, came back and he was the one who got to end CM Punk’s streak. Alberto Del Rio left, made himself a bigger star, had a lot of controversy behind him, he came back and he got to end John Cena’s streak. They aren’t giving that to anyone regular on the roster because they don’t respect them as much.
On Brock Lesnar laying hands on the WWE doctor at Hell in a Cell:
AK: If this is a planned spot then it’s unacceptable to have a doctor in on the act. This is something WWE just recently started doing is stopping matches for wrestler’s safety to stop bleeding. If this wasn’t planned and this was Brock Lesnar going rouge that’s even more concerning. Now you’re putting the doctors in a position where it’s like, “I’m not going to go in there and have this wrestler go crazy on me just for doing my job.” That’s the last thing you should want. I know it’s not very popular to worry about wrestler’s safety. A lot of fans like seeing all this blood and brutality and violence. I, personally, thought it was a great match from an entertainment stand point. As a responsible adult who understands that one of the reasons they do this wrestler safety thing where they have the doctors come in and stop the match. It’s for sponsors. It’s for marketing. Most importantly it’s for the wrestlers and their own safety and to protect them from themselves because they are not supposed to be doing this. To have a wrestler now attack a doctor and throw him to the side is absolutely unacceptable.
On his interview with WWE Superstar Bubba Ray Dudley recently and the chances we see Spike Dudley back in the WWE:
AK: Bubba certainly hinted towards it strongly. He said that Spike was one call away. I didn’t even mention Spike by name. I said, “Is there a chance we get reinforcements?” I could have been talking about Sign Guy Dudley for all we know. Bubba Ray was not shy about mentioning the fact that there is a possibility Spike comes and helps them out. I think just the way the storyline is going with The New Day always having an upper hand that Spike could be the guy to come in there and stop them from always screwing with the Dudleys and cheating the rules. Yeah, I could see Spike Dudley coming in to the WWE. In fact, I would be surprised if this storyline begins and ends without us ever seeing Spike.
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