Ask 411 Wrestling 02.22.12: Striker, Viagra, Daffney, More!

This is Ask 411 Wrestling.

Well, it’s over now, so let’s look back.

Shameless self promotion!

And…

Uh… What was I saying?

Conor has a few questions.

Hey man!Few questions for ya!

1.Did referee Tommy Young ever work in WWE?

Yes, but only in 1998, during the NWA Invasion angle with Jim Cornette. Tommy Young was the NWA ref, and thus technically heel.

He was never there during his heyday.

2.Was the triple threat match at WM20 (HHH vs Benoit vs Michaels) always the plan for the Raw title match?I heard rumours about HHH not wanting to job to Benoit (even though he ended up tapping out to him) is that why Michaels was put in the match in the first place?Or was it a power play by Michaels?Or why did they move Benoit from Smackdown to Raw after he won the Rumble?Was it because Goldberg/Lesnar was always the plan and they have done Benoit/Angle too many times?

HHH V Benoit was the original plan. After all, the two were friends. Hell, Benoit was one of HHH’s groomsmen. Michaels getting added was simply because WWF worried that it wasn’t going to draw. HHH had no issue jobbing (despite everyone online thinking that he did, and that HHHBK was trying to screw over Benoit by convincing people to have him win the title at Backlash instead).

It was just to add star power and ensure that the match drew. Plus, it did build to the next month at Backlash where Michaels tapped out to Benoit. In Canada. Via a Sharpshooter. At the time, that was a huge apology…

3.What was meant to happen to the Kristal/Teddy Long angle after the wedding and Long’s heart attack?If i remember,Kristal was gone shortly after and then it ended up Vickie Guerrero taking control and thus starting her heel run.

Thanks!

Pretty much what happened. Long suffers a heart attack, Vickie Guerrero steps in and takes control of Smackdown and is all heel-like in it. It’s just the details that were different.

See, if you remember, Vickie became the assistant GM because Long wanted to spend more time with Kristal, and so he hired an assistant. Kristal supported Vickie getting the job, and lo and behold she did. And then at the wedding, Long has a heart attack.

Now, had Kristal not left due to the angle, what would have happened is that it would have come out that Long suffered the heart attack due to taking Viagra. And then it would be revealed that Vickie slipped him said drug, with Kristal’s help, to take over. Kristal turns heel, and you go from there. But Kristal didn’t like this angle (or something else happened) and so we got what we got.

Rob talks about Matt Striker.

Still the best column on the site, thanks for all the work that goes into these columns.

But then it seemed like he was dropped like a hot potato. I heard a rumour it was because he mis-called the end of Survivor Series in the Freed or Fired main event, announcing after the match that Cena had been freed. So my question is, why was Striker dropped from the big-time? And did McManagement like him in the first place, or was it just circumstance that got him “promoted”?

That didn’t help, that botch. Plus his style wasn’t exactly what Vince wanted. But the main issue was that he wasn’t getting along with Cole and Lawler. Striker would want to meet up early in the day with Cole and Lawler to go through the night’s show and to work out what to say. Not plan the whole thing, but map out a rough guideline of sorts. This didn’t sit well with Cole and Lawler, and they didn’t like sharing the table with him anyway due to his style and his idiosyncrasies. Like caring about the show and naming moves and explaining stuff rather than just plugging twitter and putting himself over.

I mean, Striker’s not perfect, but to be honest, I’d prefer him over Cole. Hell, I’d prefer Lee Marshall over Cole. And speaking of my opinion…

My Damn Opinion

Olly had other questions.

a) I was a big fan of WCW in the early to mid 90s and was wondering what the long-term plans were before Ric Flair left. It seemed likely he’d drop the WHC to Lex Luger, but what would this mean for the push and monster-heel status of Vader, and the Ron Simmons experiment? If you’ve no idea on the long term plans, what would you suggest (fantasy booking) for WCW 1991-1993 with Ric Flair still in the mix?

The question depends on who’s booking and who wins the backstage fight. Flair left because Herd wanted him to drop the title to Luger, then retire. Or become a manager. Or do anything, but take less pay. So, presumably, if he sticks around, he gets depushed a lot, especially since Dusty was booking. The Ron Simmons experiment only occurs because Watts was booking, and like most bookers he was going with what worked in the past (i.e build around a black champion) for them.

So overall, we don’t know exactly what Flair was to do in WCW after dropping the title, since Herd didn’t really know. But it would make sense that he’d go into managing, and hell, Vader needed a mouthpiece… Seems logical, have Flair join with Vader to go after Luger/Sting… Works for me. Of course, if Flair stays, Herd stays since he has a win under his belt, which does totally mess up the future, such that it’s impossible to call…

So Vader would be fine, Simmons would be screwed.

d) What matches/feuds from the 90s-00s would you have loved to see? I think Rey Mysterio vs Bret Hart could have been an epic contest, and should have happened in WCW. I can never understand why they didn’t do Benoit-Undertaker in an extended feud, or Jericho-Undertaker properly (they kind of half-assed it a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t an epic feud per se). In the 90s, Bret vs Savage for the WWF title, Bret vs Hogan, Bret vs Kane (as you can tell, I’m a bit of a Bret Hart mark). I’m also shocked they never did Rock vs Triple H vs Austin for the WWF title (this almost happened, but they subbed Big Show for Austin. I always thought they’d go back to it.)

I take it from your examples that we’re only going with plausible ideas? So no Sting V HBK, only feuds that could logically have happened. OK, in no real order, I’ll give you one per promotion.

ECW: Raven V Superstar Steve Austin- Mostly for the promos, although the matches would be awesome. Austin as the reluctant hero, forced to Stun Gun his way through the Nest to get the title off Raven, the outsider to the company being the only guy to save it…

WCW: Bret Hart V Steven Regal- Yes, there’s only like a month where they could interact, and it’s a big step down for Hart, but I know the matches would be excellent, plus I’ve always wanted to see Regal tell a story of getting out wrestled and frustrated… I don’t know why, but I’ve always had this vision of him snapping, like he did (sort of) to Storm that one time… But the matches would rock.

WWF: Terry Funk V Kane- Kane is the hot new monster. Terry Funk is an old crazy man who won’t die. Yes, Kane will kill him. But it’ll be a hell of a ride…

TNA: Daffney V Awesome Kong- Yes, they had matches. But a hardcore, anything goes match for the KO title? Yes please. And then a rematch with Tara the next month.

ROH: That guy who kicks against that guy who flips.

A straight up one on one match between Joe and KENTA would do nicely.

Ed is back.

2. Continuing on from this, in the latter half of 2008, Kozlov was being built as the next big thing. I recall him stinking up the joint at Survivor Series and this led to a depush. Let’s say instead of this, he puts on an admirable ** to *** match with HHH. What do you think his career would look like if this had happened? Were there any plans to put him in a high profile match at WM 25?

It doesn’t really matter how good the match was, it depends on how the fans reacted. If the match had sucked as bad as it did and the fans reacted well, he would have got pushed to the moon. It wasn’t that the match sucked, it was that he didn’t get over.

If he had got over, we might well have got Kozlov V Taker at WM, and they would have dragged HBK/JBL out another month. The only other match I found any talk about was Kozlov V Umaga, which would have been… Interesting.

But again, the quality of the match wasn’t the issue, it was the fact that Kozlov wasn’t over. Hardy was added to the match to protect Kozlov without putting the belt on him, before they got the idea of using Edge. But had Kozlov gotten over, he’d have been WWE champ, probably.

Josh brings up a sensitive topic of discussion.

Josh

Why do you think in a industry that’s all about toughness do you think these effeminate characters exist? Are they usually always heels? Do promoters use there, well, gayness to get heat? How well did these characters go over in the ’70’s and ’80’s?

Effeminate characters exist for several reasons, most of which boil down to the fact that it is an industry about toughness. When you’re looking at guy after guy who is big and muscular and manly, a man with make up and who acts effeminate stands out. George Wagner was just another guy, who had to get married several times in the ring to make a name for himself. But Gorgeous George got noticed.

Of course, it’s not enough to stand out. You also have to rile a crowd up, and for many years, considering public opinion and the (supposed) average wrestling crowd, anyone even suspected of effeminacy would get hatred anyway, so why not go full bore?

And yes, it’s only very recently that an openly gay wrestler has been a face, in Orlando Jordan’s run with Eric Young. Until recently, if you acted effeminate, you were a heel, and the fans hated you. The bookers did use this to get heat, but then if a wrestler was openly foreign he’d use that to get heat as well. Gimmicks are gimmicks, be it color, race, creed, sexual orientation, wrestling ability, home town, body shape, anything and everything you can use to get heat will be used to get heat. Getting heat is the whole point after all.

As for if it worked and how it got over… It depends. Wrestlers got over with the gimmick. The gimmick itself… I mean, Gorgeous George was one of the most over wrestlers in history, partly because he was the first to really go there. Adrian Street was over, but then while there was the gimmick he also had the other side of being able to wrestle a vicious style. Adrian Adonis on the other hand was… Well, he was over, but only a little. And while I’m sure there were some other gimmicks floating about at the time, given that they aren’t remembered should tell you how well they went. The gimmick can and did get over (it’s widely considered one of the standby assured heat getters), but long term it’s only as over as any other specific gimmick would, a gimmick to truly work has to be done by someone who committed and is talented.

I remember watching WWE TV when I was 14 and Goldust came in. At first he was just strange. Then he became more sexual with his character. I remember an angle where Goldust sent Razor Ramon a note that said he thought Razor was cute. I remember their Royal Rumble match were Goldust would feel up Razor’s chest. The commentators would say “Oh he’s playing mind games” but never came straight out and said “Goldust is gay”

There was a reason for that. When Goldust debuted, he was just going the same route as others before him, playing up the mind games and being effeminate without saying they were gay (the sign of a classic gay gimmick, after all, is to have a hot female valet, which plays on insecurities of the men in the audience and gets this ticked off that a guy like that has a girl like that). But unlike when George and Street were about, GLAAD existed. And so they took the view that Goldust was ‘a stereotypical, hateful attack on the gay community’ or some such. This, coupled with research and focus group testing from the network, forced WWF to have Goldust tone down the sexual mind games, turn face, and flat out admit on air to being straight.

(In that video, Lawler asks Goldust if he’s queer and Goldust says, and I quote, ‘No.’)

Finally, do you think the WWE would ever have a gay character again? if they did, how would they use him?

Well, short term? As long as Linda McMahon is running or about to run for any political office, WWE will not have a gay character. Yes, the two are separate, nominally. But the fact is, if WWE has a gay character portrayed positively, the Republican party will disown Linda. And if WWE has one portrayed negatively, then the Democrats will go after her on it. So better to just avoid the whole issue. Patterson gets grandfathered in, for the record.

But eventually they will end up back there, since wrestling only has a finite number of characters and storylines. There’s two options. (Well, three, if you include lesbians. But lesbians don’t seem to count in these sorts of discussions since most men seem to enjoy watching lesbian characters.)

One, they go the traditional route, and have an Adrian Street rip off again. Business as usual, someone who acts ‘fruity’ but is an ass kicker in the ring.

But in today’s world, you can have a gay character and get away with it. The way to do it is simple. Introduce a hungry young face wrestler. Have him on NXT, or answer an open challenge or something. Same general look as any new WWE guy, same randomly generated name (Tristan Williams! Leroy Bonemeal! Dirk Dickbutt!), same tattoos and stupid haircut. Have him do nothing much, and then have two divas have an issue backstage. Tristan’s just there with a cup of coffee looking on but not involved. But then the heel diva’s boyfriend/client/whatever picks a fight, and a mixed tag match is signed. Tristian’s side wins win, his diva is impressed and asks out Tristan for ‘drinks’ and he politely refuses. She presses the issue, asking why, since she’s (whatever a popular song by a woman about how sexy said woman is that is popular at the time). He says he’s gay, walks off.

Leave a week, then have him come out during Raw for a match. And then… Depends on how the fans react. I’d like to hope he’d get the same reaction as anyone else, but I fear he’d end up having to go the Mohammad Hassan (Original Plans) route of turning heel over the fans hatred.

But there’s always hope.

And on that hopeful note, see you all next week. Leave a comment below first.