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WHAT IF WWE HAD BOUGHT TNA FROM DIXIE CARTER?, MIKE BUCCI, WWE NXT COMMENTARY AND MORE

By Mike Johnson on 2017-06-09 10:00:00

SUBMIT QUESTIONS TO THE PWINSIDER Q&A BY CLICKING HERE.

I am watching some old WWF tapes and there's an enhancement guy named Mike Bucci.  Is that the same guy as Simon Dean?

Yes, he did jobs back in the day under that name and Mike Maraldo, the real name of Ace Darling.

I saw a promo Crowbar did on Facebook and he was ripping on Mike Johnson and his "fake news."  Crowbar's been on the site before for interviews, so what happened there?  Was there a falling out.

Yes, he hit me with a barbed wire bat when I wasn't looking!  Nothing happened.  Crowbar was playing a heel and ripping on Philadelphia fans and the old ECW Arena since he is wrestling for Wildkat at their debut in the venue tomorrow.  Since I was a regular there as a fan 20 years ago before I started helping out with ECW's website, he decided to knock me by name.  I saw it and laughed.   If he thinks doing that is going to help him get a heel reaction in the building, more power to him.

For NXT, does WWE handle the commentary live or do they voice that material over later, since the show isn't taped live?

It depends.  In many cases, they will do the material live right there at the venue and then if they need to change something later on, they can have Tom Phillips or Percy Watson, who are regularly in Florida, handle a voiceover.

If WWE was going to purchase TNA from Dixie Carter, what would have happened to the company in terms of the change-over?

As it was explained to me at the time, it would have been on Carter to shut the company down, release everyone and let the staff go.  WWE was only interested in purchasing the assets, not the contracts of the talents or in keeping the company going as an existing promotion.

Was Masato Tanaka ever offered a WWE contract, or considered for one, especially after his performance at the first One Night Stand?  Do you think they might down the line?

Tanaka was never offered a deal to the best of my knowledge in 2005 or 2006.  I don't believe WWE would offer him one now, 12 years later, but I could see the company bring him in as a Guest Coach at the Performance Center.  With Steve Corino there, that could certainly be a possibility.

Do the old ECW DVD releases have the original songs for the wrestlers? For Example, ECW Wrestlepalooza 97' & Heatwave 98'.  I just wondered if they used the real music like they used on the TV shows, such as Metallica, Pantera, and AC/DC etc.?  The WWE Network shows don't, so I thought maybe if I tracked down the old Pioneer Home Videos, I'd get more of an official ECW experience?

With the exception of New Jack's theme song, the Dr. Dre/Ice Cube "Natural Born Killaz" classic, which Pioneer Home Video acquired the rights to, no.  Pioneer did acquire the rights to the Motorhead cover of "Enter Sandman" that appeared on an ECW CD, but beyond that, many of the entrances on the DVDs were either removed or had the music tracks removed due to rights concerns.  It was something they had no choice but to do as the rights fees would have been impossible to deal with if they wanted to actually, you know, try and make a profit on the ECW DVD line.

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