Ask 411 Wrestling 06.29.11: Next Main Eventers, Prior Life Experiences, Current Booking Plans, More!

Welcome to Ask 411 Wrestling, the only column on 411mania that’s worrying about which fable Punk will use when he wins the WWE title!

Jeremy asks about WCW.

1) The Montreal Screwjob pissed off lots of wrestlers in WWF (Undertaker, Mick Foley, and Rick Rude, I know for sure) but what were the reactions over at WCW? I imagine ex-WWF stars like Flair and the nWo were glad to be in Turner’s camp. How about guys who knew Bret (Benoit, Jericho) or never worked for Vince (Sting, Booker pre-2001, Mysterio)?

At the time reactions are not known, or at the very least unable to be found by me at this time. However, most of the guys who have discussed this who were in WCW at the time seem to side with Vince, in that they mostly seem to feel he should have dropped the belt. This being their true opinion or what they think Vince wants to hear on the other hand…

Although Eric Bischoff was over the moon with it, for the record. But then he viewed it as Vince slipping, which he did about most things.

2) Whatever happened to WCW’s non-wrestling endeavors: Nitro Grill, Power Plant, and that monster truck and racecar they sponsored?

The Power Plant’s not wrestling related?

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Anyway, The Nitro Grill, as seen here:

Was a restaurant in Las Vegas’ Excalibur Hotel Casino, opening in 1999. Serving up such items as the Thunderburger (a half-pound burger with fries), The Gut Buster (a 4 appetizers combo) and the Wooooo! (a frozen fruity Absolut Vodka drink), the venue was set up and run by Sitka Restaurant Group, with DDP being one of the originators of the idea, as well as a minority partner with Goldberg and Kevin Nash. However, WCW itself did not own a share, they were just the licensor, they gave the company the rights for a cash payment.

But the venue was poorly run and poorly attended and closed September 30, 2000.

The Power Plant was WCW’s wrestling school in Atlanta, which had it’s origins in 1995 with a school run by Jody Hamilton (Assassin #1) before becoming the official WCW training school. It wasn’t the greatest school, since it focused more on physical strength than actual talent (any male applicant had to be over 5’9 and 180lbs to get in) and focused more on training their bodies than their actual skills. But it does have some credits to it’s name, Goldberg the main one. The school stopped taking in new applicants in 1999 and closed down when WCW was purchased in 2001 by WWF.

The WCW Nitro monster truck was made from the transferred body of ‘Grave Digger 3′ and was launched in 1999. It continued to be a monster truck for a while, the name changing to ‘Flashfire’ from the end of WCW until 2002, and then ‘Inferno’ from then till it was retired in 2008 due to excessive swaying.

Sadly Madusa never drove it.

The WCW NASCAR car was actually a double agent, as it was both an nWo care driven by Kyle Petty,

And a WCW one driven by Steve Grissom, the two drivers alternated with both nWo and WCW decals, the car switched between races. But I couldn’t find out anything beyond this initial angle in 96, when the Steiners ‘scared off’ the nWo and tore off the nWo decals to make it a WCW one. I presume it only lasted a season, any racing fans out there know the score?

Andrew asks about people lying.

Have there ever been times/events/eras when wrestlers or promoters have outright said, “Pro wrestling is real”, as much as to intentionally imply, “In pro wrestling the wrestlers really do hate each other, really do hit each other, and really do coincidentally finish their matches in less than 30 minutes.” ? The closest thing I’ve come across is Dr. David Schultz slapping that reporter in the face and saying, “Is that fake? That’s an open-hand slap!”

…

Damn good question actually.

People were reporting from the 30’s that it was ‘fake’, which was a neat way to dismiss it as nothing important and it’s fans as idiots, since clearly they must believe it’s real. But although Vince coming out and admitting pro wrestling was pre-determined was front page news when it happened, that was more because it was admitted publicly than a shocking revelation.

Now, certainly many old school wrestlers maintained it was shoot to their friends and family, Jake Roberts talks about this in his DVD, for instance. But the period of time when wrestling was presented as totally real… You have to go back to the 20’s, when Wrestling was still in it’s infancy, at that point it was still evolving, still developing, and thus you were able to keep maintain it was real. It was in the 30’s that it slowly became more and more know that it was ‘rigged’, and began to lose the rising popularity it had been developing. By the end of the 30’s wrestling had gone from a national sport to small local territorial promotions. And during that time, a common reply to the “Is it real?” question was “If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you” and words to that effect.

Once TV hit, in the 50’s, then Wrestling started getting the “Well it’s fixed but these guys are athletes” statements from the media, once Wrestling became a staple of American TV, then the media had to justify it, and so they gained respect. And then WWF and NWA rose and so on.

However, the basic point of wrestlers saying it’s ‘real’… It’s not been common since the early half of the 20th century, but some stalwarts have maintained it long since then. I’m sure some still want to claim it, somewhere…

Andy has a quick question

Hi Matt,

Was there at any time in the WWE/F 3 Man Tag Champions? I remember seeing something about it in some of their 1980’s stuff but not so sure, I know that other promotions had these titles. And if they did who were some of the Champs?

No, there was never a WWF 6 Man Tag Team Title. Never planned or thought of. So, naturally, there are no holders of the belt.

I suppose you have the Demolition Rule when they had the belts, but WWF never had a full title for 6 man matches.

Doyle is all over the place. Which is fine.

First time, long time, et cetera, and so forth…

1.) What makes wrestling boots, wrestling boots? I know they’re special made, and I know many of the shorter guys, and even some of the taller guys, have lifts, but besides that, what makes them unique? Some guys go barefoot, and some wear sneakers, so why even have wrestling boots at all? Is the sole softer, thus making the impact of kicks, and the like, less? Does it protect the ankles? Is it comfort? What gives? Having watched and wondered since I was a little kid in the early 80’s, and even more so when I became aware of it being work, I always wondered about their boots.

I must admit, I have lifts in my boots. Doesn’t hurt to have an extra inch.

Anyway, wrestling boots have a variety of features, they do have soft crepe soles, to lessen the impact, as well as being fairly light for their size, relative to their height they don’t weight that much. But they are strong, and do protect the ankle. That’s one of the main reasons for them, and why they are so high, it’s to try and ensure you don’t roll an ankle or break a foot during your wrestling, the leather or whatever material used is very strong, so that when the boot is tied up it’s very hard to move the foot side to side. Thus severely lessening the odds of rolling the foot and injuring yourself.

Now, I did begin in trainers, just because of my massively oversized feet made it hard to get the boots, so there are some downsides, they are restrictive, they take a while to lace up and can be generally awkward, even when used to them, but they look good, they protect you, and the other guy, and they’re part of the whole package, unless you have a gimmick reason not to wear them, it’s somewhat expected…

2.) Why does it never come up that Sheamus was in a movie? (The Escapist, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0961728/) Seems to me like that’d be a natural thing around which to build a feud with Cena, or Orton, or HHH, or Undertaker, or Big Show, or Dibiase, or whoever. A lot of these guys have also been in movies. That feud could go any number of ways. Is it simply because it happened before he was under the WWE umbrella? That sorta brings me to…

3.) Why are some guy’s pre-WWE credentials on or off limits? They acknowledge that “Daniel Bryan” was an indie darling prior to WWE, but not that Alberto Del Rio was a huge star in Mexico, and even fought MMA prior to WWE. Maybe I’m answering my own question, but all I can think of is that pre-WWE matters only if it suits current WWE’s needs. But I would think that Sheamus having been in a movie, and Del Rio being a Champion in Mexico, would help, not hurt their characters. If they’re trying to make these characters more real, why not recognize their past accomplishments?

You are right, it is because they aren’t what the writers choose to use at this point in time. WWE basically picks and chooses what they do and don’t use from a person’s background, because they want to create the character their way. If WWE wants Drew McIntyre to have a sister called Frannie, it doesn’t matter if he’s an only child or only has brothers, they’ll have that happen. Likewise, if they decide to have Sheamus be afraid of movie cameras, they’ll do that, regardless of what his past is.

Now, the flip side is that they will, on occasion, bring in something if it fits in with the character they want. Bryan is an Indy darling, that’s almost his entire gimmick right now, so they established that since it fit in with what they wanted.

Now, this does tie back in with the problem of one dimensional characters, in that by just saying Del Rio’s a snob, it doesn’t really give him that much to go on. But then again, if they hit upon a major angle with him vs. some shoot fighter gimmick, then if they have already established he has MMA skills, they can’t go in that direction. What helps form a character today limits you tomorrow. Thus, for right or wrong, they limit the backgrounds to whatever they choose to let out. It does make them less fully formed, but then gives them maximum options later on. Double edged sword.

4.) Furthermore, why not mention the wrestlers’ tweets and/or facebook updates? Punk put a picture of his injured leg on Twitter after Elimination Chamber. They mentioned the leg on TV, but didn’t show or mention the pic. Again, wouldn’t this make the wrestlers more human and/or accessible to the fans?

You say that like it’s something WWE wants to happen. I mean, they love the idea of twitter, yes, but the thing about the new media is that they don’t control it. And that’s bad for the writers. I mean, if you’re writing a soap opera, you don’t have to worry that your main villain goes onto Twitter and tweets about how much he loves his dog, or have one of your characters you wrote out talking to one of your new ones like old friends when they should not know each other.

The WWE does not control Twitter and Youtube and the like when it comes to their talent, and that worries the hell out of them. So while they’ll mention that they have the twitter, they won’t push it since they can’t control what will happen.

And, you know, it’s the internet. It doesn’t matter anyway.

My Damn Opinion

APinOz starts us off with Benoit.

I wanted to pick up on a point you made in this week’s column where you compared Michael Jackson and Chris Benoit by saying MJ’s actions were “not proved in a court of law.”

Interested to hear what your opinions on these points are.

Clearly there is some of that in the whole ‘Benoit didn’t exist unless we absolutely have to mention him’ deal, I think they do have to be careful in that if they do use his stuff, there will be ‘You’re responsible!’ in the mixture of outrage it would generate, among the ‘You’re profiting from a murderer!’ and such. It’s part of the whole package of reasons why they can’t really use him in anything outside of full boxed sets.

But to counterpoint your counterpoint, we cannot say he had a ‘seriously impaired mental state’. We don’t know, because he committed suicide. We can look at his brain, but that doesn’t mean we can understand what he was thinking. I’m sure that would be the defence, but we can’t tell either way. I mean, I’ve seen sane, intelligent people step into the ring who can’t throw a clothesline or run the ropes, let alone do what Benoit did in the ring.

It’s a somewhat grey area. But if Benoit was sitting in a jail cell or mental institution or, most likely, Death Row right now, there’d be a lot more closure and less arguments and discussion on the basis that we would know if he was, in the eyes of the law, a murderer or mentally ill.

That’s the problem, we don’t know. And we never will. At least with MJ, and OJ, they had their day in court. Benoit didn’t get that, and thus he left behind a lot of problems.

Michael is back.

4) Lastly, with the whole CM Punk “I’m leaving and taking the title with me” angle happening again, I was wondering: Do you think Vince, and probably Punk, are hoping that WWE fans don’t know that Punk already used this angle in ROH or do you think that it worked so well the first time that they don’t care who remembers it and want to do it again? Or maybe a combo of both?

Thanks for your time and am looking forward to the answers

I think the call backs to Summer Of Punk are totally intended and it’s meant to make the IWC think it’ll happen the same way again. So that when Cena beats him in 5 seconds at MITB we all will be really upset and Vince can laugh at how stupid we are.

Seriously, I think this is a very good angle on the basis that it works if you do or do not know about Summer O’ Punk 1. If you remember Punk signing his WWE Developmental Contract on the title belt and him making Snow Angels and all that, then you’re getting a very nice call back to that and it’s influencing how you view the angle and you’re loving it.

But if the first time you’ve ever heard of ROH is this Monday night on Raw, then it still works as an angle because Punk’s being a total bitch who’s threatening to leave the company with the title belt. His recent ‘shoot’ interview has certainly taken it in a slightly different direction as the first one, but the overtones are deliberate but non-essential. If you know about it, great. If not, it’s ok.

As for who’s idea it is, I would be shocked if this was anyone other than Punk pitching it. I don’t see Vince having this idea. I can see him agreeing to it (given that, you know, it’s happening), but this seems to be Punk’s doing, just with some support in the back.

But hell, it is possible that this is Vince wanting to prove he can do an angle better than anyone else…

A different Michael has a related question.

Hey Matt,

With the main event so thin, which guys do you think will become the next main eventers, (except the obvious answer of Alberto Del Rio)?

I disagree that Christian won’t last, I think he’ll stick just out of necessity. I can’t see them not having him win the title at MITB if he ends up fighting for it, but of course that’s not a given.

Anyway, guys who will make it, there’s no-one who’s going to be on a Cena or Orton level, which is as much due to the company as to the people involved. But if Alex Riley can remain just as over when he wrestles someone not off The Real World, he’ll make it. Dolph’s practically a lock, depending on how they handle him breaking away from Vickie.

Rhodes will probably make it, which I would not have called a while back but here we are, and Sheamus will probably hover where he is now, very upper mid card. As much as they want him to, Mark Henry won’t make it as big as they’d like.

But of course, there’s always Kane and Big Show to plug in when they need someone…)

(I wish I could Chandler that…)

I can’t tell you who in FCW’s going to make it since I don’t know them from a bar of soap for the most part, but Tyler and the Kings Of Wrestling if they get hired will NOT be in the next crop of main eventers. It’ll take them a couple of years…

But that’s just my view. Disagree below if you like.