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Backstage reports have recently suggested that there is a directional conflict between two of WWE's top executives. In one corner, you have the Executive Vice President of Television Production, Kevin Dunn. In the other, former pro wrestler and Executive Vice President of Talent, Creative, & Live Events, Triple H (Paul Levesque). Both are WWE Board members... One guy, Kevin Dunn, has served as Executive Producer or higher with the WWE for over 20 years. The other, Triple H, is family through his marriage to Stephanie McMahon. Both are bidding to win CEO and WWE Board Chairman Vince McMahon's favor. Who will win? First, a word on who Kevin Dunn is and why he matters to the WWE. His title is EVP of Television Production and before the WWE became a corporation, he served as Executive Producer of WWE television. He has been ranked "Executive Producer" or higher since about 1992 or 1993 (dates conflict on various websites, although Reuters suggests Dunn was Executive Producer "11 years before" his EVP promotion in July 2003). By now, I'm sure you heard the story about Kevin's father, Dennis Dunn, saving WWE tapings from a burning car in order to ensure that weeks of tapes wouldn't be lost. Dunn is family, without being a McMahon... He has been with Vince McMahon for many years now and the continued loyalty passed on from his father is appreciated by Vince. Because Dunn is so integral with how the WWE is presented on television, he has been a member of the WWE Creative Team since the 1990's. If you look at the WWE Creative Team between 1993 through now, only ONE member has been there the entire time: Kevin Dunn. He has been with Vince through the thick and thin... When Vince needed RAW tapings to look good even though they were taping 3-4 at a time while keeping costs down, Kevin Dunn got it done. When USA Networks granted WWE an extra hour of television time and to begin airing LIVE every other week during 1997, Kevin Dunn stepped up to the plate and made RAW look amazing. During 1999, when Vince McMahon wanted to create a brand new 2 hour show on UPN called "WWE Smackdown", Dunn didn't flinch. His production truck took care of it... The move to High Definition (HD)? No problem... Video packages? DVD documentaries? Big Pay Per View events? Piece of cake for Kevin Dunn. But why does Kevin Dunn get so much heat by many former WWE employees? If you listen to Jim Cornette, former WWE Creative Team member and manager of the Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental territory, Dunn was awful. He despised hearing the word "wrestling" or "wrasslin'", according to Cornette... Yet, then I hear Steve Austin speak highly about Kevin Dunn about how Dunn made Austin look great in the ring, during promos, and video packages. Steve Austin said that when he first arrived in the WWE, he sought the advice of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig who advised Austin to get to know Kevin Dunn and other members of the WWE production team. How can one former Creative Team member be so critical of Dunn and yet the WWE's top Attitude Era star give so much praise? The big issues about Kevin Dunn, from all that I've heard about him, is (a) he's too close to Vince McMahon and (b) thinks too much about how it looks on television versus how it could draw. Dunn is Vince McMahon's best friend, period. In addition to having some influence over Vince McMahon, Dunn executes Vince's directives on the television product without flinching. Dunn has the ability to produce a television product exactly how Vince McMahon wants it. Because of Dunn's loyalty to Vince while proving to shoulder the workload, that grants Dunn creative powers backstage over the product. Dunn likes to push wrestlers who have a certain look that he believes works well on television. Such as the Miz. I believe that Miz is a "Kevin Dunn Guy" based on his clean look and clear mic skills. Why else would he receive so many pushes? Dunn also loves main eventers, as seen by his ability to connect with Steve Austin. Reportedly, he's a big fan of John Cena and has kept Cena strong at the top along with Vince. On the "television look", Dunn is very picky. Remember John Morrison, former WWE superstar? He was actually up for Tough Enough #2 but upon reviewing the contestants, Kevin Dunn told the rest of the WWE staff that "this guy does nothing for me". That is despite Morrison's ability to display many acrobatic abilities in the ring. Dunn was looking at the guy specifically for his look. Right now, there are reports that Dunn is not too crazy on Kevin Owens citing that Owens appears overweight. It's no coincidence how John Cena dispatched Owens in the 3rd match and how Owens has struggled to win on the WWE roster ever since. I believe guys like Cesaro and Daniel Bryan have been repeatedly shot down because of Dunn's dislike for their looks which goes along any weird quirks that Vince McMahon has about each wrestler. Let's get back to Kevin Owens... That's a Triple H signing and Owens comes from Triple H's developmental show, NXT. NXT, under Triple H's leadership, has a creative team that consists of a few former pro wrestlers with supervision by Triple H. While Kevin Dunn helps with the television product, he has little say on wrestlers themselves. That greatly differs from main WWE roster where Kevin Dunn has a major say on the WWE Creative Team and I could imagine the hires as well. Do you think that it's any coincidence that the WWE has a bunch of former Hollywood writers and Kevin Dunn is a television guy? As Jim Cornette said, Dunn is trying to win an Emmy! Right now, I believe that you're seeing a directional battle between Kevin Dunn and Triple H. Both know that Vince McMahon can't run the WWE forever... Maybe he will, but he'll die trying. There will come a day where Vince won't be in charge any longer. Vince is about to turn 70 years old in 2 weeks (8/24/15). While Vince has been built tough and is highly driven, the mileage is there... He has 6 grandkids and lots of money that has piled up... He has nothing left to prove in wrestling. Vince is king of the mountain and the competition will never catch up as long as it is only Jeff Jarrett inventing promotions to be his competitors. I believe that we're seeing a valid competition between WWE and NXT with Triple H mostly going along with whatever Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn want for RAW/Smackdown. Yes, Triple H is EVP of Creative, but Vince McMahon has final WWE creative say and can veto any script presented to him. Thus, I believe that HHH just goes along with things and puts his full undivided attention on WWE's developmental system. Triple H has been obsessed with developing talent and I think that some recent Independent wrestler signings have been done in spite of Dunn/Vince. Ditto for pushing Kevin Owens hard... Owens, as you can now see by the recent losses, is not a guy that appeals to Vince/Dunn based on his look. However, Triple H signed him, pushed him hard in NXT, and did enough to convince WWE Creative to immediately have him feud with John Cena and beat him in Owens's first match. Now, however, it's payback time for Owens. For the fans, it's a good thing... Triple H is going to put all of his efforts into making the NXT product look strong and he'll also obsess with restocking the developmental system to keep NXT strong. Win, win for the fans! As history shows, competition creates a better product even if it's internal. On the WWE Main Roster, however, Kevin Dunn will remain a strong creative force as long as RAW/Smackdown remain consistent in their ratings and produce content that is approved by the Standards & Practices of Comcast/NBC/Universal. Within that corporation, there are many television executives that probably think exactly as Dunn does and are probably in awe of the Miz (or wrestlers based on "look") as much as Dunn... That corporate and television system in place helps enable Kevin Dunn's influence over the WWE product. The shows are less and less about the actual wrestling product and too much on the production of the show. Unless... And this is a big "unless"... The only way that Triple H can break the iron grip of Kevin Dunn, with Vince McMahon still in charge, is for one of the Developmental Wrestlers (from NXT) to breakout. Why do you think Kevin Owens has been met with such resistance from Kevin Dunn? Dunn FEARS Triple H landing a breakout superstar... If Triple H can deliver the next BIG superstar, in the same vein as John Cena, to Vince McMahon, Vince will give Triple H a larger say in the main roster WWE. It's probably not going to be Kevin Owens because he works better as a heel and the breakout star should be a babyface. Aside from Vince McMahon retiring (or God forbid, another reason), a breakout superstar is the ONLY way Triple H can overcome Dunn's influence over Vince. Otherwise, we'll wait for Vince McMahon to step down... When that happens, Kevin Dunn is DONE. Triple H will terminate him immediately, assuming that HHH or Stephanie become the next CEO of the company... ---------------------------------------------------- PHAT QUESTIONS Question #1: Outside of Lords of Pain, what columnists do you follow or read? This is where I'll sound very conceited... To be honest, nothing online impresses me. Aside from Scott Keith, as I enjoy his show reviews, I don't really follow any writers. Just nothing impresses me... I'm part of the internet wrestling media and I write columns that I would personally want to read. Because I'm part of the internet media for wrestling, the enjoyment of reading other people's opinions on pro wrestling just isn't there. Call it ego or just call it part of my job here at LoP, but nothing impresses me on other websites. Contrast that to the NFL... I'm am NOT a member of the football media and honestly don't know the game as well as I could. Therefore, I have a ton of NFL writers bookmarked on my favorites or followed on Twitter. When the post something, I go out of my way to read it. I'm curious to hear what, for example, Peter King from Sports Illustrated has to say on Mondays. When it comes to NFL football, I'm a consumer... When it comes to pro wrestling, sadly, because of my columns, I'm on the producer side of things. This may sound arrogant of me, but I believe that what I produce is the best out there and that other wrestling columns from other websites don't impress me much. Aside from Mr. Keith, anyway, there aren't many "must read" columnists that are making waves in the industry. Usually, for any reading that I do, I just check out insider news... That's what interests me because I have to remain knowledgeable on current wrestling stories in order to produce these columns. But I do actually enjoy the current crop of LoP Columnists. Usually I check out the columns based on how well the column title interests me. Doc, Chrisssssss, and Maverick are very good and I'll miss Rob's columns. There as good as any columnist online at other websites, in my opinion. ------------------------------- #2 - Could WCW Thunder have been successful? Not from the way WCW booked. As deep as the WCW roster appeared, they had a lot of veteran depth that couldn't handle additional hours of television work. Worse yet for WCW during 1998-1999, they were still workrate based and Nitro was a 3 hour show. They were running out of unique matches to sell to fans. As 1998 wore on, most unique match-ups were burned up on the many hours of Nitro and Pay Per Views that occurred that year. I also thought by 1998, the Cruiserweight Division and midcard seemed to run its course. Many of the breakout stars there were waiting to take the next step but because of the thick glass ceiling of veterans on WCW's roster, they were going no where. It was too clear... When WCW put all their chips on Bill Goldberg and two NWO factions during 1998, they set the conditions to decline through early 1999. --------------------------------- #3 - What wrestler do you believe could have a HUGE superstar but didn't? Most will say Owen Hart (death) or Magnum TA (injury), which I agree... Especially Magnum TA who could have been a major babyface sensation in the NWA/WCW promotion during the 1980's. Ric Flair vs. Magnum could have done amazing business through 1988 but instead, Ric Flair had to feud with a very green Lex Luger at the time. Obviously, Owen Hart's death before the great talent boom of 2000 and with Steve Austin being out with an injury by late 1999, the door could have been opened for Owen to step up. Many might not agree with me, but I thought Stevie Richards could have been a major superstar in the business through 1997. In my opinion, his move to World Championship Wrestling along with Raven and Perry Saturn proved to be bad for his career. Sure, he probably benefited monetarily by joining WCW, but during 1997, the roster was getting crowded. Furthermore, WCW actually returned Richards to being Raven's flunky despite his rise against Raven through early 1997 in ECW. The Raven/Saturn/Richards departures really thinned out the ECW roster in 1997 and Richards could have kept his momentum up by remaining on the roster. Richards reminded me of Shawn Michaels but in my opinion, Richards was a better babyface character than HBK during the 1990's. That bWo stuff and finally standing up to Raven was getting him over... I definitely would have considered making him ECW Champion at ECW Barely Legal 1997 as well... He had "it"... Then, he goes to WCW and that was all lost. By the time he returned to ECW during late 1997, the momentum was gone. In pro wrestling, it's all about timing... ---------------------------------- #4 - Do you believe that wrestling fans are being ridiculous with their "this is awesome" or other chants? No... Not at all. Fans can chant whatever they want. For one, you want "THIS IS AWESOME" chants at your shows. The last thing you want, however, is "YOU CAN'T WRESTLE" which was repeatedly shouted at Roman Reigns matches this year. Fans speak their minds and if wrestlers/promotions are surprised that fans are "marks", then I wonder how long their heads have been in the sand. As I've said repeatedly, if wrestlers or promoters want to dictate what the fans shout, then impress them in the ring. Cut better promos and win fans over with your in-ring ability. When fans are bored or not impressed with what's in the ring, they'll do negative chants. If wrestlers/promoters don't like what the fans are chanting, then make them shut up with a better product. That simple. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2015
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