Former Creative Writer Speaks Of Shawn And Mania

The Following Is From PWinsider.com:

The Pitch.com has an interview online with former WWE Creative Team member Chris Gough, who was with the company from 1999 to 2003, and was involved in writing Wrestlemania 18 (he was fired by Stephanie McMahon two weeks prior to Wrestlemania 19). You can check it out at this link. Some excerpts from the interview:

On when the planning for Wrestlemania begins:

"I would say probably right after Survivor Series [in November] it kicks in. Even after WrestleMania the year prior, Vince is already working on what the main event is going to be the next year. ... When I was there leading up to XIX, it was basically like because WCW was gone, because we have like carte blanche of anybody that's available in terms of big names of the past. You can basically start throwing out names and dream matches that you would like to see. Hogan-Vince obviously that year was one because Vince had obviously been a wrestler for a while so that one came to fruition.

Of course, there's always like matches that a person is either not physically able to do it, such as an ["Stone Cold" Steve] Austin-Hogan ... where Austin's neck was too messed up to come back and work a match with Hogan. But you start off with dream matches, and at this point, there's not a lot left."

On whether Shawn Michaels will retire:

"You know, he's talked about it for a longtime. ... He's my all-time favorite wrestler. It's great that he got his start here in Kansas City. That's always cool to think that he's been going on for 25 years when he first started in KC. But he's still one of the consistently top five box office guys in the company, and if he does retire, I can still see him occasionally coming back for a big match. When he quasi retired before, he came back in the commissioner role, so it didn't seem right that he didn't have any kind of in ring ability. ... I don't know. He's talked about it. It's rumored. I"m assuming that's what's probably going to happen. But as in retirement matches in WWE or wrestling in general don't last very long. I see him retiring like Mick Foley did. Take some time off, come back for some big matches down the road."

On whether Undertaker's streak was discussed during his time with WWE Creative:

"Oh yeah. Gone are the days of the streaks in wrestling. If you went back 20 years, you had Tatanka, Mr. Perfect, still unbeaten. And ... the Goldberg streak was a huge streak as well. But to be able to win for almost two decades ... at WrestleMania is a pretty big deal. But so is Shawn Michaels' career. So I guess if you're going to book that match, I'd assume that you'd have 'Taker go over and Shawn retires because you can always take back retirement. But you can't take back a loss in the streak."

In the interview, Gough talks about the pressure leading into Wrestlemania, Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon and a lot more.

The Link and the full interview here> http://www.pwinsider.com/article/46245/former-wwe-creative-team-member-comments-on-whether-shawn-michaels-will-retire-undertakers-streak-and-more.html?p=1

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