Ask 411 Wrestling 02.13.13: Rude DVD, Chainsaw Charlie, Vince’s Net Worth, More!

Hello, and welcome to the Valentine’s Eve edition of Ask 411 Wrestling! I am your answer guy, Mathew Sforcina. Hope your Valentine Day is filled with love and the like, although as I always say, if you need a special, certain, designated day to tell someone you love them, you aren’t doing it right.

Joe has a few questions.

Hi Matt, thanks a lot for answering my questions a few weeks back.

1) I was watching this match and at about 4:12 Superstar Graham said has a 20 count to return to the ring. Did WWE(WWF/WWWF) ever have this rule? or did Superstar mean to say 10 count and it just came out wrong or did he really think that was the WWF’s rule at the time? Because I’ve watched several thousands hrs of WWE’s (and every other fed’s) entire history and I’ve never heard of WWE having that rule.

Sadly the video is unavailable.

However, even with the video, I can’t say for sure, because while modern WWE uses the 10 count, 20 was the old school standard. 20 was the number in the old days, in the time Graham was breaking in. So he might have slipped up, or it could be legit. Or it could be that the ref was counting fast and so it was a 20 count… Too many variables. I don’t recall WWE ever using 20 counts, but it’s not impossible. Any old school readers remember a 20 count?

2) When Rick Rude unveiled his tights with Jake Roberts wife’s face on the crotch and Jake ripped them off did Rude really run around naked or was it just censored as a TV “trick”? kinda like Ric Flair carrying a tag title. The live audience can tell obviously but not the TV viewer. I just cant imagine WWE letting people run around naked but then again The Kat’s boobs were on a few PPVs. same question for when Brian Kendrick streaked on Smackdown in 2003? thanks a million!

I happen to know that on that occasion, he was wearing a thong. So the censoring wasn’t needed as such, it just made it look wilder than it actually was.

As for Kendrick streaking, a.k.a WWE having zero follow up to Sean O’Haire’s awesome videos (which wasn’t totally their fault)…

It’s safe to say that he wasn’t naked. Dawn Marie when she flashed the audience was wearing pasties, so it’s fairly likely that Kendrick was wearing a thong. After all, people would be more likely to complain about a naked man than a topless girl…

Nightwolf has a few questions.

Hey Matthew, long time reader first time question asker. I have a couple of question for you.

1. With Ric Flair being inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame twice now ( one as singles career, and once with the Horsemen), do you see any other wrestlers being double inducted. Triple H and HBK come to mind( One as singles career and Once as Dx)?

HHH/HBK are both good bets.

Edge might have a good shot with Edge & Christian. In a perfect world Arn, Tully and Windham would get their own individual inductions. I can see Hogan, Hall and Nash maybe getting in as the nWo. Maybe Andre and Heenan as the Heenan Family if they get desperate?

And there’s always the idea that was floated a while back of inducting matches, with Andre/Hogan being the first one. So there could be a lot more doubling up that way. But I suspect they’ll try and avoid it in future, Flair’s probably the only guy who’ll ever get doubled up. Maybe.

2. The WWE has been run by 3 generations of McMahons ( James, Vince Sr, Vince Jr) and passed down from father to son). Can the WWE continue be successful with Triple H running WWE instead of Shane Mcmahon?

Sure it can. WWE is a international business. You don’t have to have McMahon blood to run the damn thing. Provided you gave them a wrestling mind to run the shows, any business person with the right level of experience running a major international media company could run the place. The McMahons have run it since they know both, but Hunter appears to be picking up the business side well enough. But yeah, provided the suit didn’t get involved in booking, anyone could run the company.

3. This question has really been bothering me for years now. Why does TNA copy WWE? Remember when they had Abyss feuding with his brother Judas Mesias? Obviously it’s a cheap rip off of Undertaker?Kane/Paul Bearer saga? Is it because hey know that no organization can touch the WWE?

Now there’s a question with no bottom.

I think that there’s a lot of factors at play here. Russo was a factor, in the sense that while he was booking, he booked how he saw wrestling working, which meant that his angles were similar to ones he did he WWE. Hell, Russo’s did the ‘Millionaire’s Club V New Blood’ war like 3 times.

Part of the reason is that what TNA is ‘ripping off’ WWE is stuff WWE ripped off from itself, some things are just wrestling booking 102, and use them whem appropriate. People just are more likely to claim it’s clearly ripped off now.

And part of it was a desire to beat WWE by copying them, an idea that’s never sat well with me, nor with a lot of people. TNA would never beat WWE by trying to outdo them in what WWE does. TNA should focus on providing an alternative, which they have, at times. And other times they just copy WWE.

And sometimes it’s an attempt at parody that fails.

Overall, it’s all tied into the idea of trying to win a war by doing what WWE does but better, which is never going to work. And TNA, to their credit, have tried to avoid that recently. Sometimes it works.

And sometimes it doesn’t.

But they seem to be at least trying. Good for them.

Stromi asks about sons.

Hello again Mathew,

During the WWF PPV’s of the late 80’s, Jesse Ventura always has something negative to say about referee Joey Marella, who almost always reffed Hogan’s matches. I mean, he really blasts “that idiot Marella” every time he would be in the ring. Imagine my surprise years later, when I found out that Joey Marella is Gorilla Monsoon’s son! Jesse must of known this, so was there ever any uncomfortableness between them in the booth? I feel weird listening to it now, never mind at the time. Did Jesse somehow not know they were related? Gorilla never personally defended him other than as a referee capacity (as opposed to say, Lawler did with Brian Christopher). Always makes me wonder….

It was a long running in-joke, no more, no less. They both knew that Joey was Gorilla’s son, and so Jesse’s ripping on him was a gentle rib on Gorilla, the sort that friends and co-workers would do. Gorilla knew exactly what Jesse was doing, but since he was such a stickler for kayfabe, he would never break character. And he knew Jesse was just being a heel. So no, it was never mean-spirited or anything.

Silly Diaper Rag Fontana Fountain asks about costs.

Just curious as to what the WWE actually brings home in terms of a
gate from live events. Not so much their grand total, but what kind of
a percentage to the people that own sat MSG take per ticket sold. Does
it vary from arena to arena or is there a standard?

It varies from arena to arena. Some places charge a flat fee, others charge a fee + a certain percentage of the tickets, others just straight a percentage. It’s up the arenas, they set the prices, then WWE decides if they are willing to risk a flat fee or if they decide to do a percentage gate and hope for the best. Venues charge what they think they can get away with, WWE pays what it thinks gives it the best deal.

Jez doesn’t actually have a question, as I clearly didn’t read the email properly. But then it’s fairly recent so then, dear readers, if you remember this questions, awesome, if not, feel free to skip to the image.

Ullo ullo Mr Q,

All the best.

Goddess’ birthday was the 10th, by the way. I hope you spent it in worship like I did.

Joshua asks about two title wins.

Typically after a wrestlers (Especially a face) wins the world title at a Wrestlemania or Summer Slam they typically hold on to the belt for a while. And you can bet that their first challengers, while might have good matches, probably won’t beat them for the title.

However, there have been a few big title wins that were followed up by losses. The two in particular I am thinking of is when Austin won the Title at WM14 then quickly lost it to Kane. What was the reasoning behind that? Austin got the belt right back the next night, so what was the point? Did they paint themselves in a corner with Kane having to set himself on fire? Did they do it because, like me, most people didn’t think Kane stood a chance?

The point was that Austin got to win the title back the next night and so they’d get a monster rating. That, and they’d written themselves into a corner with the stipulations and so Kane winning was the only option that was doable. Kane was over enough that he was believable to beat Austin given the situation (First blood match. He wears a mask. What did you think was gonna happen?) but wouldn’t be hurt losing it back to Austin the following night.

It was a way to get a good rating, put over Kane as a guy who could beat Austin and then get the belt back onto Austin, who was also now slightly more underdoggy, since he’d lost the belt once…

The other is Triple H’s title win at WM 18. The big, emotional win after his career threatening injury, only to lose it the next month to Hulk Hogan. Why? I get Hogan was popular again, but why not feud him with Hall and Nash? They did just break up the WWE nWo. He could have feuded with them THEN took the belt of Triple H at Summer Slam. Thoughts? Ideas?

Nostalgia only lasts so long. Hogan was HOT after Wrestlemania, hell leading up to it, he was over like a motherfucker, excuse my language, so the thought was to get him the belt ASAP and cash in. If they waited, they might miss out on all that sweet sweet nostalgia cash. Now, of course in retrospect it is very easy to say they should have waited so that they’d see that the nostalgia wouldn’t last, but at the time, it was a defendable idea, that you strike while the iron is white hot. And they did. But it then cooled down almost immediately.

Rex is all over the place.

dear 411 wrestling i have a couple of questions i was hoping you could answer

1. when cactus jack and chainsaw charlie were feuding the new age outlaws what was the name of their tag team called? i thought it was hardcore legends or something also how did terry funk and wwe come up with the idea of chainsaw charlie?

They had no official name. They were just “Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie”. Any tag team name you see for them is fan made. As for the idea of Chainsaw Charlie, Terry was the guy who came up with it, taking inspiration from FMW’s Leatherface, according to most sources, with the idea of it being an alter-ego, like Foley had Mankind/Dude Love/Cactus Jack. Terry Funk had Chainsaw Charlie. And given that it was obvious who it was, the rub was still given as anyone who knew who Terry Funk was saw through it and those who didn’t know him wouldn’t care, according to Kevin Dunn and the like.

Funk’s quotes on this from his book say that, when Bruce Prichard asked if Terry wanted anything for his debut, where he’d come out from a box, is…

“Before my brain could fully process the question, my lips blurted out, “Chainsaw Charlie! Get me a chainsaw, so I can go out there!” I can’t explain it. It just popped into my mind.”

So yeah, Terry just came up with it on the fly and it didn’t work, clearly.

2.when did the ultimate warrior start wearing the jackets he wore at wrestlemania 7 against macho man randy savage? i seem to remember that being the first time he wore one in his entrance.

Wrestlemania 7 was when he first wore the coat, yes. When he was champ, he just had the belt.

3.where does vince mcmahon rank among the richest men in the world?

Pretty low, comparatively. Vince McMahon as a billionaire lasted only as long as the WWE was riding high, because most of his ‘money’ was derived from him owning so much of the WWE, and so when the WWE was worth $18.64 a share, it was worth over a Billion. Now that it’s down to $8.53, they’ve lost $500 Million worth. Vince himself is now rated at just a few million under $500 Million. So given that there are 1,226 or so billionaires in the world, and a number I’ve read is that there’s maybe 4,650 people worth $500 Million, Vince is certainly in the top 6,000 richest in the world, maybe even 5,000 given the stock price, but he’s nowhere near the top of the list.

4. and do you think that wwe will ever release a ravishing rick rude dvd? there certainly is enough matches for them to make one of him and also was wondering the same about demolition.

I would have said no to both Rude and Demolition a few years ago given their status as guys who pissed Vince off, but while they both are now more accepted into the WWE world, I say no simply because WWE seem to have moved away from the midcarder compilation DVD. Many of the early ones they did for guys like Graham, Pillman and the like didn’t sell. Hell, look at the 2013 list:

WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2012 1/15/13
The Best of Raw & SmackDown 2012 01/29/13
The Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 02/12/13
Royal Rumble 2013 02/26/13
Bret “Hit Man” Hart: The Dungeon Collection 03/05/13
Elimination Chamber 2013 03/19/13
For All Mankind: The Life & Career of Mick Foley 04/16/13
The Best of In Your House 04/30/13
WrestleMania 29 05/14/13
Top 25 Rivalries 05/28/13
Extreme Rules 2013 06/18/13
Best of War Games 06/25/13
TBD PPV 07/16/13
ECW Unreleased Vol. 2 07/30/13
Money In The Bank 2013 08/13/13
Best of MSG 08/27/13
Midsouth 09/10/13
SummerSlam 2013 09/17/13
Triple H (Biography) 09/24/13
Goldberg (Match Comp) 10/08/13
Night of Champions 2013 10/15/13
Money In The Bank Anthology (Match Comp) 10/29/13
Over the Limit 2013 11/05/13
History of WWE 11/19/13
Hell in a Cell 2013 11/26/13
Raw 20th Anniversary Box Set 12/03/13
Survivor Series 2013 12/24/13
Best WWE PPV’s 12/31/13

It’s either match types, gimmick lists, main eventers or promotions. Foley and Goldberg are the lowest single star sets there. Add in the Sammartino DVD… So no, I don’t think Rude and Demolition are gonna get one any time soon.

And on that downer, I bid you all goodbye for now, and I hope, as tomorrow is all about love, that you remember the loving relationship that you should always strive to emulate.