wrestling / Columns

Ask 411 Wrestling 04.21.10: WWE Racism, Vince McMahon vs. God, Hogan vs. Warrior, and more!

April 21, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Byers

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Ask 411 Wrestling. I am Ryan Byers, and this is the third of three weeks during which I have been filling in for Matthew Sforcina as your host of the column. As much as I enjoy writing this little piece whenever the opportunity presents itself, I will say that I am loving the idea of having back the time that it takes to put the damn thing together. Matt can’t get back soon enough, oh no.

BANNER!

And what’s a good BANNER! without a good TWITTER!?

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Yes, 411mania on Twitter. It’s just like the 411mania main page, except I’ve only got 140 characters in which to piss people off.

Backtalking

Andrew wants to talk about Chris Benoit in response to the question that was asked last week about my favorite “first world title” wins:

While I definitely agree with your sentiments over Chris Benoit’s title win at WMXX, he actually won the same belt in WCW at the January “SOULED Out” PPV in 2000, making Sid Vicious tap out. He then promptly told WCW to stick their title and jumped to the WWF with Malenko, Saturn and Eddie Guerrero.

Yeah, I’m aware of the Sid match in WCW. However, I have never really considered a World Title win because a) most fans following online at the time knew the guy was on his way out the door and it wouldn’t last and b) in kayfabe terms, the win was actually overturned the next night on Nitro, so there’s an argument to be made that he was never really champion in the same way that nobody who won the title in a “Dusty finish” during the 80’s was never recognized as champion.

Will H. offers a rebuttal to my statement of last week that today’s indy wrestlers are not as good as the North American wrestlers who were not in WWE a generation ago:

I noticed your paragraph on skill levels of indy wrestlers twenty years ago and now, and thought I’d add my bit. First off, out of the guys you mentioned, I hardly think any of them is a fair comparison. Malenko is probably the most comparable to Hero, Quack (who is not really a good example either), or Danielson, as he worked his way up through the indies and were in similar conditions to the indy guys now than Guerrero or Benoit ever were. Benoit was in NJPW a year after going pro, so calling him a indy guy is like calling a Power Plant grad a wrestling journeyman. Same goes for Guerrero.

After disagreeing with the apples to pears here, all three of these old guys had a huge advantage over these 3 aforementioned “newer” indy guys, and that was training. Malenko was trained by his dad, Guerrero was trained by his brothers, and Benoit was trained in the Hart Dungeon. This is what got these guys bookings in Mexico and Japan. My opinion is that these guys got their chances through their trainers, not through the current scene. Examples currently being the Hart Dynasty (DH Smith and Tyson Kidd). Are opportunities (in Japan, for instance) given solely based on talent, or does that Dungeon/Hart training help just a little bit? Not many guys that go through those acclaimed wrestling schools or are the seed of wrestling greats (Flair being an exception) fail to get some nice opportunities that others may not have.

So, ergo, I believe that the class of Guerrero, Malenko, and Benoit were better than Quack, Hero, and Danielson for the sake of this poster’s argument; however, the schedules were not the only thing that made them better, because the wrestling schools/family trees they ascended from not only provided world class ability but world class opportunity as well. Also, just for fun, and because I think it wont be close, how about we compare Waltman and Lynn to Punk and Joe? Time still may tell (drastic injury/hostage situations notwithstanding), but I doubt for very long.

So, essentially, you agree with my conclusions albeit for different reasons. There you have it.

Your Turn, Smart Guy

Last week’s question was:

I was trained by the same wrestler who trained current WWE star Triple H. Even though I was born and raised in the United States, the fact that I am not Caucasian has lead to be being promoted as a “foreigner” at various points in my career. I have appeared on shows promoted by WWE, WCW, ECW, and TNA. One of my regular opponents in WCW would go on to become a WWE Hardcore Champion. At one point, I was under contract to WWE for approximately one full year even though I only appeared on television once during that period of time. Who am I?

The answer, which many people got, was Malia Hosaka.

This week’s question is: What the hell is wrong with all of you people who tried to answer with Perry Saturn? The question pretty clearly said “not Caucasian.”

Seriously, though, there will be no question this time around since we’re crossing back over to Sforcina writing the column next week.

Questions, Questions, Who’s Got the Questions?

Titles are usually a good source of questions, so let’s kick it off with C. Drama‘s championship query:

Which champion lost to the most first time champs? Meaning the first time they won the belt it was against this champion?

First off, I’m assuming that you’re referring to world heavyweight level championships, which is why I am confining my response to the NWA World Title, the two current WWE World Titles, the WCW World Title, the AWA World Title, the IWGP Heavyweight Title, All Japan’s Triple Crown, and the GHC Heavyweight Title. I was going to include the TNA Title to appease that company’s fans, but then I realized in looking at its history that there is only one first-time world champion who has ever held the belt (Samoa Joe), so including it wouldn’t have any real impact on the answer ot the question.

With that background out of the way, the answer is none other than Verne Gange, who lost his AWA World Heavyweight Championship to seven first-time champions. Those individuals are the recently-deceased Gene Kiniski on July 11, 1961; “Mr. M” Bill Miller on January 9, 1962; Crusher Lisowksi on July 9, 1963; Fritz Von Erich on July 27, 1963; 2010 WWE Hall of Fame inductee Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon on May 2, 1964; Dick “Dr. X” Beyer (also known as the Destroyer) on August 17, 1968; and finally Nick Bockwinkel on May 19, 1981. Of course, Verne would win the title back for the majority of these guys shortly after he lost it to them, but that’s neither here nor there.

Close on Verne’s heels is “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, who lost to six first-timers. The first four were for the NWA World Heavyweight Title, and they were Kerry Von Erich on May 6, 1984; Ronnie Garvin on September 25, 1987; Ricky Steamboat on February 20, 1989; and Sting on July 7, 1990. He also dropped what is now known as the WWE Title to first-time champion Bret Hart on October 12, 1992 and the WCW Title to first-time champion Diamond Dallas Page on April 11, 1999.

Hulk Hogan, the Rock, and Mitsuharu Misawa all lost world titles to four different first-time champions, while Harley Race, the Great Muta, Jeff Jarrett, Triple H, Nick Bockwinkel, and Jumbo Tsuruta have all lost to three different first-timers.

Mike A. reels off several in a row:

1.How long did DDP have his ribs taped for? And how did they explain it storyline wise, because I remember him having them taped for awfully long. Was the sole purpose of the taped ribs to be even more of an underdog thus get cheered more?

Page’s ribs were originally “injured” as a result of a beatdown by the New World Order and therefore taped up as part of the build to the 1997 version of the Great American Bash, where he faced “Macho Man” Randy Savage in a very memorable no disqualification match. The tape looked like it was going to go away around the fall of that year, but then, two weeks prior to the Hallowen Havoc pay per view, the nWo struck again and re-injured DDP’s ribs. Surprisingly, it was at Halloween Havoc that the king of badda-bing was scheduled to wrestle Randy Savage yet again. After that, there was no real explanation as to WHY the rib tape stuck around . . . it just did. In fact, it was present throughout the entirety of Page’s feud with Raven and even stuck around for the memorable match that saw DDP team up with Karl Malone to take on Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman at Bash at the Beach in July 1998. It disappeared somewhere after that battle, though, as the tape did not show up when Page had his next celebrity team-up with Jay Leno in August. So, yes, the rib tape was present for a little over one year, and, yes, the entire purpose of it was to make Page into an underdog and to give his matches a little bit more of a storyline.

2.If Shawn Michaels’ Christian beliefs are as strong as indicated how come he went along with an angle mocking God during the whole McMahon vs God idiocy ?

I’m not Shawn Michaels, so I can’t tell you what his religious beliefs are and how they impact his career. That’s far too personal a topic, so I’m not ever going to pretend to know a man’s religious convictions. However, there is one possibility which a lot of people fail to consider when asking questions like this one. In a few interviews that I’ve heard over the years with Ted DiBiase, he has said that he does not mind playing a heel despite his strong Christian beliefs because wrestling is ultimately a morality play and the whole point is that it builds to the bad guys losing in the end. In other words, wrestling should tell the story of good triumphing over evil, which is in no way inconsistent with Christian principles . . . but, to tell the story, there does actually have to be a bad guy. That’s one interpretation that somebody in Michaels’ position could have made of the Vince McMahon angle involving god. Yes, McMahon spent several promos during the feud making fun of Christianity and god, but the whole payoff was Vince being proven wrong and the people he was mocking being vindicated. Again, I’m not even going to pretend that I have the ability to get in to Michaels’ head on this one, but that’s one way I can see a Christian rationalizing participation in the angle to himself.

3. What was Paul Heyman’s long term goal with the original ECW? I mean if ECW ever hit it big (WWE level big), he would have to cut down on the risk taking and the violence right? He couldn’t afford to have his wrestlers injuring themselves on regular basis and losing him money. Even the crowd dives ECW was famous for would have to be thought about twice since lawsuit possibilities would be huge Another thing all the entrance music would have to be scrapped since that wouldn’t be allowed without royalties which I’m sure he couldn’t afford. Did Paul have a plan for ECW in case it got really big or was he just never thinking that far and having fun with it?

First of all, the original ECW entrance music WAS scrapped at one point. With the rapid expansion of the company’s television, including broad national syndication and eventually a cable deal on TNN, the promotion was risking too much in terms of having to pay royalties and got away from using “real” songs for its performers’ entrances. Cover versions of the themes from the ECW: Extreme Music album, for which the royalties weren’t as high, were substituted for some wrestlers. For example, Rob Van Dam’s music changed from “Walk” by Pantera to the version of “Walk” performed by Kilgore that was included on Extreme Music. Also, wrestlers like Tazz and Sabu were given entrance music that was produced in-house for ECW by Harry Slash and the Slashtones, the same band that put together the iconic theme music that opened up all of ECDub’s shows.

Anyway, regarding Heyman’s plans, they were almost certainly not to just “have fun.” If he was just attempting to have fun, there was no reason for him to grow the company beyond the independent level of running an untelevised show or two every month from the ECW Arena. However, Paul E. actively pursued syndicated television, a larger touring radius, pay per view, television, and numerous other trappings of a national wrestling promotion, so it’s obvious that he was attempting to expand things to the point that he could at least be the number three or number two wrestling company in the nation. You are correct that the product probably would have to have toned down in order for that to happen, and, in the Rise and Fall of ECW documentary produced by WWE, Eric Bischoff blames the company’s failure on the fact that the product was too extreme to appeal to a mainstream audience. Personally, I think that Heyman could very easily have toned down the product and made it in to a viable national alternative if he had the ability to focus on guys like Rob Van Dam, Raven, and Taz, compelling performers who didn’t necessarily need to swear a lot and do hardcore spots in order to capture an audience’s imagination. Unfortunately, the majority of Heyman’s top-shelf performers were plucked away from him during his expansion, and as a result he had nothing to fall back on except for less-talented, less-established performers relying on the more risky, “adult” elements of the product which had always been the promotion’s cornerstone.

So, yes, the plan was always expansion, and you have to believe that Paul E. perceived some problems with the content. However, getting away from them proved to be easier said than done.

4. Taz in WWE. What was the plan? I mean it’s no secret Vince like his wrestlers big and Taz is a little dwarf. Taz came in and got a nice big PPV win over an undefeated at the time Kurt Angle, but surely even he had to know he wasn’t gonna go far? I mean he had good mic skills but he was just too damn short and say 80% of his offense would not fly in the WWE since I don’t see a Steve Austin or The Rock or HHH agreeing to be dumped on their heads with Taz’s suplexes.

Not every wrestler who is signed by a company is signed with the intention that some day they might become a main eventer. Sometimes, a company signs a wrestler to a contract knowing full well that they never expect him to rise past a midcard level. In fact, this practice is necessary, because in a perfect world, a wrestling promotion will have talented performers at all levels of the show, not just in the main events. Taz was probably not signed with the intention that he would go far in the promotion, and I would be surprised to learn that he felt he could do anything more than a popular midcarder.

Josh asks me why WCW did something in the late 1990’s. I’m going to have to fight my natural instinct to just answer “because they were idiots.”

What was the point of WCW introducing the Hardcore Title? It came about after the WWE had already introduced their Hardcore Title. It seems to me that it comes as a blatant rip off. Was it due to WCW signing some ECW talent like Sabu, Whipwreck, and Sandman?

WCW introduced its Hardcore Title when Vince Russo was booking, and it was most likely introduced because Vince Russo has very few original ideas and can only recycle things that worked when he was writing for the WWF. By the time the Hardcore Title was introduced at the November 1999 Mayhem pay per view, the majority of the “hardcore” style wrestlers that WCW had picked up from ECDub were gone. Whipwreck left after a only a few months in the company during ’99, with the same being true for the Sandman. Sabu was actually only in WCW during 1995 and never returned. With the majority of the former ECW crew gone, the title was largely contended for in comedic matches involving the likes of Norman Smiley, Brian Knobs, and Three Count.

Somebody calling himself Steve Austin sticks it in Jack Swagger’s ear:

I have a question regarding The All American American Jack Swagger. There was a nice close up on Raw this week (January 22) and Swagger appeared to have something flesh colored stuck in his ear. I don’t have high def so I can’t be sure but it kinda looked like a hearing aid. Does Swagger suffer from partial deafness do you know? Or was it a link so he could be fed his lines from the gorilla position?

I went ahead and reviewed the tape from the January 18, 2010 edition of Monday Night Raw, in which Jack Swagger lays down an “over the top rope challenge” and is defeated by Mark Henry, who both kicks Swagger’s ass and splits his wig. The All American American cuts a promo before the match, but there’s nothing inserted in to his ear. What you might be seeing and mistaking for a foreign object in Swagger’s auditory canal might be cauliflower ear. Cauliflower ear frequently arises in amateur wrestlers when their ears are struck or ground in a hold similar to a headlock. It results from death of the cartilage in the ear and a resulting build-up of tissue under the skin, which in turn causes the ear to swell. You were most likely seeing some cauliflower ear left over from Swagger’s days as an amateur wrestler at the University of Oklahoma and mistaking it for a man-made substance.

Christian counts on me to answer questions about counts:

1) Has anybody ever lost the count in a match so that they think they are about to kick out at two but it’s actually three already? I often watch matches and wonder what the ref would do if the guy just didn’t kick out. Surely its happened before when somebody just hasn’t heard the first count and therefore doesn’t react at two.

Yes, things like this have happened before and on more than one occasion at that. For an example, take a look at this quote from a commentary that Lance Storm posted on his official website in April 2002:

TV, at least for me, as you’ve likely read on-line, was a disaster. The finish of my match got screwed up and even when the office tries to put me over I end up doing a job. I wrestled Funaki and during one of our near falls something got screwed up and I got pinned. I’m not sure if I just misheard the count or whether the bell ringer miss heard it and rang the bell early but things didn’t go as planned and I got pinned with a sunset flip.

Another notable instance of a finish miscue took place on the August 12, 2008 edition of ECW on SciFi, on which John Morrison & Mike the Miz took on Mark Henry & Matt Hardy in the main event. The match was being officiated by referee Wes Adams, who had been with the company for a little bit over a year at that point. Reportedly, Morrison forgot to kick out of a pinning combination and Adams followed WWE’s company policy by treating his count like a “shoot” and going all of the way to three despite the fact that the planned kickout did not occur. Unfortunately, even though he was following policy, Adams was blamed for the lousy finish and received his release from the company only a few days later.

Also, though it is not exactly the same as a wrestler forgetting to kick out of a pin attempt, one of my favorite botched finish stories of all time revolves around our friends Oscar, Mabel, and Mo, the former WWF tag team of Men on a Mission. They were wrestling the Quebecers for the WWF Tag Team Titles on a house show in London, when Mabel (who would later be known as Viscera and Big Daddy V) landed on top of Pierre Ouellet, with Ouellet being unable to properly kick out due to his opponent’s girth. As a result of Mabel being JUST TOO FAT, Men on a Mission won the match and gained a completely unexpected WWF Tag Team Title reign. Two days later, they lost the titles back to the Quebecers in Sheffield, England.

2) Also – and this one has always bugged me – two out of three fall matches. What’s the point really? Whoever wins the first fall loses the second to take it to a decider every time making the second fall awfully predictable and not particularly entertaining. Has anybody ever in the history of wrestling won one of these 2-0?

Actually, the phenomenon of two out of three falls matches almost always going the distance is a fairly recent one in professional wrestling. Fifty years ago, virtually every championship match was contested under two out of three falls rules, and there were a fair number of them that ended in just two falls. Likewise, lucha libre has consistently featured more matches that are two out of three falls than not, and, when you’re having that many iterations of the bout, you are bound to have several that only go two falls.

In more recent times, there was a 2007 storyline in Ring of Honor in which Tag Team Champions the Briscoe Brothers wrestled a series of two out of three falls matches against a variety of different opponents, the vast majority of which they won 2-0.

People will think I’m just making up questions if I keep saying that they’re from John:

Who was that guy wearing a beret hat around the ring rails during the Attitude Era? I know he was security, but what happened to him?

His name was Jim Dotson, and, you are correct, he was the head of the WWF’s security team for quite some time. There were rumors towards the end of his time with the company that he was going to become a professional wrestler himself, but those never materialized outside of what appeared to be the beginning of an aborted angle with Steve Blackman. There is not much material available about what became of him, but he almost definitely stepped away from professional wrestling for what he perceived as being greener pastures.

Many a question comes from E:

1. My first question relates to wrestlers maintaining kayfabe after retirement. My understanding is that someone like Triple H prefers to be called Hunter in public rather than Paul. If he were to retire, would he maintain that, potentially? Taking it a step further, would the Undertaker ever revert to Mark? Where does it all end?

Every wrestler’s case is different, but, yes, it’s entirely possible that those in the professional wrestling industry will continue to call a wrestler by his stage name well after that wrestler retires. For an example, take a look at Diamond Dallas Page. Aside from one or two isolated indy appearances, he has not had anything to do with professional wrestling for several years now. However, in his non-wrestling enterprises – most notably his YRG yoga program – he is not marketing himself as Page Falkenberg. He’s still marketing himself as good old DDP.

2. Numero dos relates to the Undertaker’s staunch guarding of his character. I get that when he’s in public he’s always in character. But what does he do when he has to fill up his car? Or go bowling? Or to the grocery store? Imagine this: Undertaker walks into a Woolworth’s and all the lights go out, dry ice floats through the door and his theme music comes over the PA. He’s slowly pushing a trolley down the aisle saying, “I always get the one with the wonky wheel.” Someone should film a bunch of sketches – comedy gold!

I think that you’re taking the concept of “always being in character” a little bit too far. When people say that the Undertaker doesn’t like to do things in public that compromise his character, that doesn’t mean that he walks around and acts like an undead zombie with magical powers twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It just means that he’s not going to do anything that is completely contradictory to his established character. For example, he’s not going to appear at his son’s school play wearing a Hawaiian shirt and khakis while talking to the other dads about how his golf game has been developing. If he goes to a function like that at all, he’ll be wearing garb befitting of an American Badass and largely keeping to himself.

3. Here’s one about the hot tag in a tag match. Wrestler A is getting the shit kicked out of him. He then hits a big move on Wrestler B, who is also weary, knocking him out long enough to crawl over and make the tag. A’s partner comes running in and all of a sudden B is up running towards him, full of energy. Now I can see this happening once or twice, adrenalin and whatnot. But this happens in 95% of tag matches. Where does B get all that energy? Maybe Vince should test for that!

Does it make sense if you analyze it as you just did? No, probably not. However, it’s a formula that has worked incredibly well over the years and made wrestling promotions a lot of money in a lot of important matches, so it’s here to stay. It’s like the question somebody asked me a couple of weeks ago regarding why the Undertaker always wins. The Undertaker always wins because the majority of wrestling fans will pay money to see him win all the time. Tag matches almost always follow their set formula because the majority of wrestling fans will pay money to see formula tag team matches.

4. Why does Hulk Hogan look EXACTLY the same now as he did 20 years ago?

He doesn’t. Take a look at this picture of Hogan circa 1993 compared to this picture of Hogan circa 2008:

Don’t get me wrong, the Hulkster looks great for a guy who is approaching his late 50’s, but saying that he’s remained unchanged for two decades is a bitch of a stretch. His skin has loosened up significantly, particularly around his chest. Meanwhile, he’s gotten a bit more of a gut as he ages, which is to be expected . . . and those famous arms, even though they’re bigger than mine have ever been and probably ever will be, are definitely down from their peak.

Of course, he is still in great shape. How does he stay in great shape? Training, saying his prayers, and taking his “vitamins,” brother.

Jake has his wires crossed:

I was watching the 1990 Royal Rumble, and my question comes from the Hogan/Warrior showdown in the Rumble Match: What was up with the criss cross? I have noticed it in other matches, and I guess my most basic question is what is the point of the move? Why was it ever considered a good move and why was it done at all?

I believe that the whole point of the criss-cross spot was that both wrestlers were, at the same time, attempting to come off of a set of ropes and hit their opponent with some sort of offensive move. However, the timing never quite worked out, which lead to the criss-crossing. I’ve seen the spot done several times and always thought that it looked fine in comedy matches but never served any real purpose in serious bouts like Hogan/Warrior aside from making the wrestlers look like goofs who couldn’t realize that they would be better served by not running the ropes and just decking their opponent.

Josh asks a rather hairy question:

This may sound like a stupid question, but does the WWE and TNA tell the wrestlers what to do with their body hair? Like when Angle shaved his head or CM Punk and his bum beard and chest hair or the Hogan mustache? How much say does the WWE have in things like that?

Wrestling promotions have in the past and will continue to sometimes tell wrestlers that they need to alter their appearances in order to fit in with a particular storyline or character. Perhaps the most notorious recent example of this revolved around the WWE stable of Lance Storm, Christian, Test, and William Regal, known collectively as the Unamericans. Christian and Test were asked to cut their long hair in order to give the group a more “militant” look and supposedly stated that they would prefer not to do so, which some claim lead to the wrestlers having a relatively strong push terminated in retaliation.

Of course, that doesn’t mean EVERY change in a wrestler’s appearance is mandated by the promotion they’re working for. For example, some of you may recall Kevin Nash losing a hair versus hair match to Chris Jericho a few years ago during Nash’s last run with WWE. That had nothing to do with WWE’s booking and everything to do with the fact that Big Kev needed to lose his mane for the purposes of a role that he had in the upcoming Punisher movie.

Greenie65 thinks that nothing would be greater than playing a game of golf with a gator:

I had the “privilege” of working with Steve Gatorwolf two years ago. He was running a fight promotion in and out of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. We sat down before the show and he went down memory lane with me. He then proceeded to tell me how Bret Hart was a liar and how he wanted to have a word with him over some column Bret wrote years ago. Any idea what column he’s talking about? I just know there was some ‘Indian Dancing botch’ or something like that.

And since I’m talking about Steve Gatorwolf, how many Native Americans have made it into wrestling (Navajo Warrior is well known in this area by wrestling fans) and did any get away from the ‘hi-how-are-ya-hi-how-are-ya’ stereotype?

Regarding Gatorwolf, Bret Hart used to write a regular column for his hometown Calgary Sun newspaper. There was one edition of the column in which he talked about Native American wrestlers . . . or at least wrestlers who did Native American gimmicks. In the column, Bret claimed that, during the 1980’s, Vince McMahon wanted to introduce a new Native American character since 1970’s WWF star Chief Jay Strongbow was not exactly in top form anymore. Hart went on to state that Gatorwolf wasn’t that great of a wrestler, but he was the only one who could fit the character, so that’s who Vince picked to fill the void. However, after his first television match in which the big push was supposed to begin, Gatorwolf supposedly forgot to do a “war dance” that McMahon wanted to be a part of the gimmick. Bret did not directly state that the one forgotten war dance was what lead to Gatorwolf fading into obscurity, but it was strongly implied.

As far as Native American wrestlers without the stereotypical gimmick is concerned, I can think of two major ones right off the top of my head: Former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jack Brisco and his younger brother (and former Vince McMahon “stooge”) Jerry Brisco. The Briscos’ mother was half-Chickasaw and their father was half-Choctaw, giving them a fair amount of Native American blood running through their veins. In fact, as a former NCAA collegiate wrestling champion, Jack Brisco is recorded in many history books as the first “American Indian” to hold that distinction. Their heritage was, from time-to-time, mentioned in professional wrestling commentary and in professional wrestling magazines, but they never got forced into the stereotypical headdress wearing, rain dancing, war whooping gimmick, most likely because of a desire to emphasize their legitimate wrestling credentials.

In more recent times, there has been a female independent wrestler in the northeast by the name of Alere Little Feather, who, though she will wear garb inspired by Native American culture, really does not fall into the stereotypical gimmick in any other way in the matches of hers that I have seen. She is of Shinnecock extraction.

Ric from England connects four questions together:

1) What happens with vacations/holidays when a wrestler wants to take one. Say he and the family want two weeks off in June . . . how do they go about booking it with work? Also, what happens if someone like Zach Ryder wanted the time off first but then John Cena said he really wanted it off too . . . would they give it to the top guy?

It is my understanding that WWE has no set policy regarding vacation time and that, over the years, “time off” has been very difficult for some guys to get. For example, many people claim that Ricky Steamboat lost his Intercontinental Title, massive push, and eventually his job with the WWF after Wrestlemania III because his request that he get some time away to spend with his newly born son was seen as a lack of dedication to the company. (I should note, though, that some sources dispute that this is what happened.)

If the company has a supposed track record of getting rid of a fairly major player like Steamboat due to a request for time off, I would be willing to bet that somebody on Zach Ryder’s level isn’t curious to see how much vacation he could get.

2) Has a wrestler ever just forgot what they have to do next? I don’t mean missing a spot but totally forgetting what he was doing in the match.

It’s not uncommon at all. For some examples, see the question that I answered earlier in this very column about wrestlers forgetting to kick out of pinfalls.

3) What’s the yardstick for a wrestler getting over? Is there some scientific way they measure like how much merchandise they sell, crowd reaction, how many tickets have sold, or is it just a gut feel? I imagine its all of them but is one most viewed above others?

There is no “scientific” formula. It is a combination of all of the above, plus one key factor that you’re forgetting: television ratings. Television ratings get broken down in to segment by segment and even minute by minute numbers, and some people will attempt to analyze these to see whether segments involving a specific wrestler or wrestlers gained or lost viewers. The theory is that, if a wrestler’s segments consistently gain viewers from the prior segment, he’s more popular with television audiences than others.

However, there wouldn’t be much purpose in trying to come up with a final number regarding how “over” a guy is. It’s much more beneficial to figure out what a wrestler’s individual strengths are and put him in a position in which his strengths can be utilized. Take, for example, the Hurricane in 2001 and 2002. Because of the nature of his gimmick, nobody was going to take the Hurricane seriously and buy a pay per view in which he was slotted in a main event title match. However, he WAS consistently one of the biggest merchandise sellers in the company, regardless of the fact that he wasn’t a main event level star. As a result, the company shouldn’t have attempted to make him in to a world champion despite the fact that he was “over” in a different regard. In order to make money, they just needed to put him in a position in which he could get enough television time to remind fans that his character and therefore his merchandise still existed.

4) Do you think WWE boys actually do read IWC and take notice?

Some absolutely do, and I am assuming that others couldn’t care less. Actually, 411mania itself has popped up on to the radar of at least two major league professional wrestlers. In 2004, a 411 writer named “Asteroid Boy,” who has long since left the site, published a column critical of Matt Hardy. This actually caused Hardy to post a lengthy response to Asteroid Boy on an official Matt Hardy website that was at the time maintained by WWE. WWE ultimately had the Hardy blog post yanked, but it was on their site for a few days. Then, just last year, Mick Foley wrote a MySpace blog about negative comments that he saw in the 411mania comments section regarding the announcement that he is to have a new book published.

A bit of advice for Mick: I’m probably the guy who gets the most venom spewed at him by the 411 comments section, and it’s usually best to just ignore them.

My Damn Opinion

Steve runs on Diesel Power:

1. How would you characterize Nash’s run as Diesel in the WWF? That character a personal favorite of mine, and I would love to see a DVD set of Diesel.

From a business standpoint, it was pretty much a disaster. Diesel and Sid Vicious are generally regarding as being the two worst-drawing WWF Champions of all time in terms of pay per view buyrates and house show attendance. As far as the guy’s performances for the few people who actually were watching the product are concerned, he would periodically have an awesome match with the likes of Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels, but, for the most part, I’ve never had much time for Kevin Nash in between the ropes. Even his wicked sense of humor, which he got to display in WCW and TNA, was pretty well stymied by the Diesel gimmick.

If you enjoyed him, that’s great . . . but a Best of Diesel DVD would be pretty high up on my “never buy” list.

2. Which brings me to my second question: What would you consider the Top 5 Diesel matches?

In no particular order, I would go with Diesel vs. Bret Hart from the 1995 Survivor Series, Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels from Wrestlemania XI, Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels from Wrestlemania XII, Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels from In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies, and Diesel vs. Razor Ramon at Summerslam 1994.

3. And last, is there any video of Diesel beating Backlund for the strap?

Absolutely. Don’t blink:

Brian is getting ready to open up a big ole’ can of worms:

The WWE has always played off of race since its inception; race and international conflicts with anti-American nations. From your own perspective has this helped or hurt the WWE over the years on balance?

In some ways it hasn’t hurt them at all, because I think that history has proven that there is a core group of professional wrestling fans who are always going to watch WWE’s product regardless of how ridiculous or how offensive to mainstream sensibilities it becomes. However, one of Vince McMahon’s biggest goals over the years has been to convert the product his company presents from traditional, southern fried “pro rasslin” into a product that can be consumed and enjoyed by the masses. Yet, every time he promotes a blatantly racist character or runs a storyline which comments on a social issue in a backwater way, he moves his product that much further away from being accepted by the mainstream. So, though it might not hurt the company’s bottom line all too much, the way WWE has handled race, war, politics, and related topics in the past has prevented them from accomplishing one of Vinnie Mac’s big, stated goals for the company.

What are some of the worst and best angles you felt that addressed race issues and/or international conflicts, from any organization?

The best was absolutely the early days of the Mohammed Hassan gimmick. Instead of being a generic foreign heel, he was a three-dimensional character who was a heel not because he hated the United States of America but rather because he had a perfectly reasonable, understandable viewpoint that he took to an extreme and preached an a sanctimonious way. In that regard, he was very similar to CM Punk’s current heel character. Punk’s message is essentially that abuse of drugs and alcohol is a negative thing and can ruin your life. That’s not a bad message. In fact, it’s one that 95% of people would agree with. However, the manner in which he delivers the message causes people to revolt against him. Hassan also had a legitimate message which 95% of people would agree with: Arab-Americans are not necessarily terrorists and it is wrong to profile all of them and treat them as though they are criminals despite the fact that the vast, vast majority had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11. However, because he chose to go about delivering that message in an inappropriate fashion, he became not just a heel but also a multi-faceted, believable character as opposed to a shallow gimmick.

Of course, the Hassan character and storyline also wound up being one of the WORST race and current events-related bits in professional wrestling history because, after a while, WWE’s writing team couldn’t resist the temptation and actually did turn him in to the generic, terrorist heel in his final angle with the Undertaker.

Do you think the WWE is racist by and large? In the 1980’s, 1990’s, and now? Has it gotten more confrontational of these issues or less?

That depends on what exactly you mean by “racist.” I think that in the past, WWE has included on its television numerous characters and storylines which play off of negative racial stereotypes. It’s not just a phenomenon of a bygone era, either. It carries through essentially to present day, whether you’re talking about Saba Simba, Slick, Akeem, Mr. Fuji, Latino Heat, Triple H telling Booker T. to carry his bags, Shelton Benjamin’s momma, King Booker, or Crime Time. Of course, there are still negative racial stereotypes throughout almost all media, so it’s not as though WWE is the only offender on television. (Though that’s not an excuse which should allow the E to get away with it, either.)

However, if you’re asking whether WWE is racist in that it holds back wrestlers who are a part of racial minorities, I don’t think that’s anywhere near true. If it were, you wouldn’t have had the Rock become the face of the company for several years, Eddie Guerrero holding the WWE Title, or numerous other successful racial minorities in the company going as far back as Pedro Morales or Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas. If you’re talented and can make WWE money, your race isn’t going to prevent you from making it to the top of the company. Other completely arbitrary factors which have nothing to do with your ability might keep you from making it to the top of the company, but your race most likely won’t have a single thing to do with it.

And that will do it for the final week of my latest Ask 411 Wrestling guest stint. As always, thanks to Matt Sforcina for the opportunity, and I will be handing the reigns back over to him in seven short days.

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Ryan Byers

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