What does the future hold for The Undertaker?
This is actually a summarization from the hundreds if not thousands of emails that I have received about The Undertaker. The Undertaker losing at One Night Stand was a storyline; it was not his retirement match. I am still getting full details as to what WWE has planned for his future in the company but he is not gone from WWE.
I was thinking about Ted DiBiase Jr.'s partner and I thought that JBL would be a good fit. He's over as a heel, is a veteran and has a somewhat similar gimmick as DiBiase (money). What do you think?
That is a very good point and I could see it working, however, I think that the direction that WWE wants to go in is to team DiBiase up with another young superstar. Cody Rhodes would be the obvious name but that might be too predictable. JBL would certainly elevate him and I think that JBL would be better suited in a role like that than trying to be a main event superstar on the Raw brand. A Holly/Rhodes vs. JBL/DiBiase feud could draw well.
I wondered what your thoughts are about having the World and WWE champions tour all three brands much like the world champ did back in the territory days. It would present new storylines and matchups every few months and keep things from getting to stale. It would also make the championships more important. By the way, I really like your site and your insight to wrestling.
I do not think that would work and it would probably be more confusing to causal fans than anything else. As long as WWE has three brands, there has to be three champions. To cross-promote titles would be a marketing nightmare. Thanks for the compliments on the website, they are greatly appreciated!
Hey Richard, my question is when a superstar first signs a developmental contract or any other type of contract what is in a contract itself?
This is a broad question but I will try to explain it the best that I can. Most WWE superstars sign their first contract as a developmental deal. Most developmental deals include downside guarantees (money that you are guaranteed) for an amount of $25,000 a year. The deals include several types of bonuses such as title bonuses, TV bonuses, etc. WWE contracts stipulate that although the worker is an independent contractor they must remain exclusive to them. That, of course, prevents talent under a WWE contract from working with another company. So basically no matter what type of contract a WWE worker is under it includes a downside guarantee, an exclusivity stipulation, and several different bonuses. Most contracts written for main event talent include non-compete clauses which prevents talent from working elsewhere for a specified amount of days after the agreement comes to an end.
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