Ask 411 Wrestling 11.01.06: WWE gets the F out, Windham gets no push, Ultimate No-Nos, and more!

Errors, Additions, Etc.

When was the first ladder match? This topic drew some interest from the readers…

“I also remember a ladder match from the early 80’s NWA that involved Tully Blanchard and Dusty Rhodes. I remember it being over money maybe? I want to say the reported amount was $100,000 with Tully putting up 50Gs and Dusty putting up the other 50Gs. I don’t remember them using the ladder offensively like they do today…I think it might have even been a wooden ladder.” – Harry Harris

“About the Bret/Shawn ladder match… I seem to remember it being mentioned a couple times on this site that this ladder match was done as kind of a test to see how the fans would react to it. Both of the competitors had done this kind of match earlier in their careers so they were asked to do it as kind of way to both have a big match and also see whether it would go down well with the audience. When they saw the reaction that it got from the live crowd, it was decided to move it up from the syndicated shows to a big PPV match.” – Richard Davidson

“remember how everyone was talking about who has made hogan submit? well, i went to that website you mentioned, and the first match listed (pre-Hulk Hogan, so it doesnt really count):
Hiro Matsuda beat Terry Bollea by submission

as for HBK being a grand slam champion – i always assumed they were just talking about title belts, not KotR or royal rumble victories.

And HBK doesnt have jack on RVD – the man has won every heavyweight WWE and ECW title except the US Title and World title. he should go to SD and win those real quicklike.” – Manu Bumb

My memory is jogged on the intro of sweet, sweet Sapphire…

A match with Dusty and Boss Man on SNME is the first time Dusty saved her, she was harrassing the Slickster and he was distracted by her when he was suppose to hand the nightstick to BBM. Bossman flipped out at the end of the match, and Dusty went down to save her. I have alot of old SNME on tape, but am to lazy to find it. She was also shown on Superstars several times before all this, just as a major Dusty fan. – Paul

Yeah, one of Dusty’s first feuds was with the Bossman, so that would make sense.

“If you wanted to include the KOTR as a qualification for the Grand Slam then only Kurt Angle and Triple H would hold the honor. Triple H is the former 10 time World Champ, IC, European, Tag with Stone Cold, and 1997 KOTR winner.
Kurt Angle was a 5 X World Champ, Euro-Continental Champ, Tag with Chris Benoit and the 2000 KOTR winner. If you want to be really technical and add Kurt’s Olympic Gold, then he is clearly the Grand Slam Champ.” – Dan from Brooklyn

Who was the scary face painted guy with the claw hold?

“Chris Page is correct about Buzz Sawyer. Buzz did work for the WWF briefly in the 80’s. It lasted maybe a couple of weeks as he only made one tv appearance that I can remember. I don’t think he used the Mad Dog nickname though (I think Mad Dog Vachon may have still been there.)

As far as Brad McLaughlin’s question goes, I’m pretty sure he isn’t referring to the Missing Link. The short hair and face paint could be the Great Muta. Muta did use the claw hold but I don’t remember the bleeding from the mouth (unless he is remembering Muta’s mist as blood).

The bleeding from the mouth sounds like Hiro Matsuda who’s gimmick was a sleeper hold that caused people to bleed from the mouth during his feud with Dusty Rhodes. But I don’t remember him having face paint. So that’s two possiblities.” – Mike Gernand

“I was thinking about the comment from the guy about the scary wrestler who wore face paint in the 80’s with a claw type hold and I think it could have been The Great Kabuki with manager Gary Hart” – Daniel Smith

“if I’m not wrong, The Missing Link never wrestled in the NWA USING the Link moniker, but as Dewey Robertson in the late 70’s. And I never remembered him using any claw holds. Maybe (just maybe), he’s referring to Yoshi Kwan.” – Ariel Cardona

I don’t think Kwan painted his face, and he didn’t show up in WCW until 1993 or so, which would be after the timeline for the question…

“Someone asked about the wave during the DiBiase/Roberts match at ‘mania VI, and you likened it to the dead-in-the-water Undertaker match from a few years back.

I wanted to mention that even though the crowd was doing the wave at one point, I wouldn’t compare the two situations. Specifically not since DiBiase got some of the most massive heel heat I’ve ever heard in my life during that match. He got Jake down, and made some small taunt to the crowd and Toronto booed like he had just slit Pierre Trudeau’s throat in the middle of the ring. I guess they lost the crowd or they were getting restless or something, but they certainly got the fans back by the end of it.” – Matt Jones

Fights!

“In actuality the friday night smackdown after the “incident” Booker t appeared with a black eye and Michael Cole delivered a blurb about his fight with Batista. Your point is still valid though that they didn’t promote it that heavily but they still did mention it on tv.” – Jay Siggins

“First of all, there was NO fight. According to people
close to Goldberg, and people who were THERE, the
fight was a non incident. Jericho got word that
Goldberg had said he wouldn’t wrestle him because he
(Jericho) wasn’t a big enough draw. In reality,
Goldberg never said that, but it got back to Jericho
from Kevin Nash who was a notorious shit stirrer.
Jericho confronted Goldberg who denied having said
anything like that, Jericho pushed up in Goldberg’s
face, Goldberg pushed him back, and at that point, Arn
Anderson and a couple other agents, moved in between
them, stopping any fight from ever happening. Arn
told them that they were professionals, “damn it”, and
they’d damn well better act like it. The two then
shook hands, and the “incident” was over.

The WWE played the whole thing up and anti-Goldberg
fans just LAPPED it up. The “incident” was made even
worse by Bret Hart, who reported HIS take on it in his
column. Bret got HIS info from Jericho and of course,
Bret spun the story so it looked good for his friend,
Jericho.

Just one more case of Goldberg haters blowing up
something that never happened.” – Tass said it

Apparently WM 18 wasn’t Paul London’s first performance as a crowd plant…

“Big London mark, eh? Well, he wasn’t just Flair’s
plant. He was a plant at the last WCW PPV also, Greed.
Scott Steiner Pie-Faces him in the audience.” – Cyrus Krapf-Altomare

Here are some more botched PPV finishes!

“Botched Finish: We cant forget good ol’ Brock Lesnar for messing up the Wrestlemania 19 finish, when he landed on his head attempting a shooting star from WAYYYY too far across the ring.” – Virgil Wade

“I cannot believe you failed to mention the biggest cock up in Wrestling history.

Starrcade 97.

The plan had been for Hogan to hit the legdrop (after squashing Sting
for a while) and Sting to kick out at two. Then, Hogan would hit
another legdrop and the ref would count a fast three. Then Hart would
come out and restart the match since he knew all about being screwed.

Everything in that match was screwed up, Sting forgetting to kick out,
Hart coming out to early, the entire booking of the match…And given
the repercussions… ” – Mathew Sforcina

All right, here’s some fresh newish questions! As always, my answers are in bold. Kazh asks about dual identities…

“Remember back during the first ECW ONS, when the bWo got back together for awhile during
SD? Well what I noticed was that Simon Dean AND Nova were both characters
on SD, and one was a heel and one was a face. Has this happened before,
where one person in the same fed/brand has been two different people (from
a kayfabe standpoint, so Los Conquistadores wouldn’t count, for example,
cuz we all “knew” who they were), especially two people with different
polarities (is that how you say it?). Just wondering, keep up the good
work, long live the Cook Regime!”

Well, the one example I can think of was discussed by Dave Meltzer & Jim Cornette on the Wrestling Gold DVD set…apparently there was an angle in Memphis where Jimmy Hart was a face manager, but he also was secretly managing heels as The Beekeeper. The Beekeeper wore a mask and a big outfit…apparently nobody knew it was Hart until Massao Ito accidentally bowed to Hart one week like he would bow to The Beekeeper. Not one of the better angles in Memphis history. I think most wrestlers that had split personalities would use them in different promotions, like when Ernie Roth worked as The Grand Wizard in the WWWF and as Abdullah Farouk when he managed the Sheik in Detroit. And there were a lot of dual identities that were fairly obvious, way too many to list here.

John Bryant has a couple of questions…

“Anyway I have a question for ya that people for some reason including here at Ask411 and even there at the Fink’s Payload. the question is this: Who should Samoa Joe have his first loss to? personally I think if TNA ever manages to give Joe the NWA heavyweight belt and get Bryan Danielson, then they could have a TNA vs ROH feud about which company has the better heavyweight champion? and besides it wouldn’t be a shock to Indy fans considering Danielson has beaten Joe in the past.”

I like Danielson about as much as anybody, but I don’t think it’d be believable for most wrestling fans to have somebody that doesn’t have a whole lot of recognition outside the indy circuit come in off the street and pin Joe. I think Kurt Angle might be the one to do it at Genesis…it’s not like people could really be all that pissed off that Joe jobbed to Kurt freaking Angle. Angle’s done a little bit in his career.

“Also: which TNA X-division star should be next in line for a DVD. personally I think either Chris Sabin or Petey Williams should get one. but that’s just my thoughts.”

I think the X-Division stars are pretty well covered by the Best of the X Division DVDs. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Paparazzi Productions DVD in the future with all the Nash/Shelley comedic stuff on it and some matches thrown in.

“next question: who should WWE induct in the Hall of Fame this year?”

I’d be surprised if Dusty didn’t go in this year. Ricky Steamboat should too because it’ll be the 20th anniversary of his match with Randy Savage at the Silverdome. Speaking of which, Savage probably should, but he won’t. A bit of a longshot, but not impossible since they did induct Verne Gagne…The Original Sheik. Detroit was his stomping grounds for decades, after all. I’d say these guys for sure, there are certainly a lot that I’m forgetting but this is the top of the list.

Al Fucsko wonders about Barry Windham in the WWF…

“Hi, I was wondering why Vince Mcmahon tried to bury Barry Windham so often later on in his career? Windham was a good youngster wearing the WWF tag belts in the early 80’s, went to NWA and became a main eventer, then came back to Vince’s WWF as horrible gimmicks, like Widow Maker, Blackjack Windham, and The Stalker, absolute crap. Why not a hero’s return like Flair or other big stars? Same goes for Ron Simmons, from WCW champion to wearing a Spartan helmet and looking like a dork. Luger also, from WCW champion to some USA putz, horrible, pandering stuff.

Does Vince do this to former champs to show that the WWE is superior? Like, if AJ Styles came to WWE today, would he be a cheesy car salesman or a mechanic gimmick?”

You know, it seems kinda strange in hindsight, but the WWF actually expected a lot out of the Stalker gimmick. Mick Foley told a story in his first book about how the WWF merchandising department had all of these ideas for merchandise for guys like Mark Henry and Stalker, but had nothing for Steve Austin. Of course that would change in a few months once Austin took off & Henry and Stalker fell by the wayside. The WWF had a lot of bad ideas in the mid-90s. Barry Windham was a great wrestler in the late 80s in the NWA, but around 1994 or so he completely fell apart and there wasn’t anything the WWF could have done with him that would have gotten over. So, in the case of Barry Windham I wouldn’t blame his failures in WWF on the WWF.

Ryan Bissell wonders about theme music…

“First, have you heard any talk of WWE releasing a WCW Anthology CD? They had some great theme songs back in the day and it would be cool to have them released.”

I think most of WCW’s theme music fell into the category of public domain, meaning it’d be very difficult for WWE to release a CD of their music. They prefer to release stuff they made themselves anyway, thrown in with Saliva songs and whatnot.

“Also, I recently purchased the Wrestlemania Anthology DVD set. I was just curious as to why a lot of the theme music was edited out and replaced by either a different version, such as Ric Flair at Wrestlemania 8, or some generic song. I’m sure this has something to do with WWE not getting the rights to use the song. This is understandable with some of the songs, such as “Another One Bites The Dust” for JYD at Wrestlemania 1 and “Eye Of The Tiger” for Hogan also at Wrestlemania 1. But, I don’t understand why some other songs were edited out. Some examples that come to mind are Demolition, Slick, and the NWO. Why do you think they did this?”

I think they edited out the NWO music for other PPVs too, so they must not have the rights to it. You ask a good question about the Demolition & Slick music since it was on Piledriver: The Wrestling Album…anybody know the deal behind that? Maybe whoever made that album for the WWF left on bad terms, I’m really not sure.

Legal Eagle has two questions for us…

“1. At Survivor Series 1993 there was a 8 man elimination match between four hart
brothers and the team of Shawn Michaels (subbing for Jerry Lawler due to a
peadophilia investigation) and his 3 knights. The Red and Blue knights are well
known to be Barry Horowitz & Greg Valentine respectively, but who was the Black
knight? Glen Jacobs & Jeff Gaylord seem to be the most often named but i can’t
find a definate answer”

Obsessed With Wrestling lists Gaylord as the Black Knight. I have not actually seen the match, but if it’s just between Gaylord & Jacobs, it should be easy to tell the difference because Jacobs is at least 6 inches taller than Gaylord, who was 6’3.

“2. WWF have been known to edit matches hugely on old PPV video tapes, but the
only match they ever cut from a show at least in the UK was Haku/Harley Race
from Royal Rumble 1989. Was this match so bad that they had to cut it?”

It might have been due to time constraints, though there’s also the possibility that since Harley had left the WWF right after that match they didn’t want to showcase him on the tape and since the match wasn’t all that important anyway, not too many people would have missed it. It also might have sucked a dick, which would make the decision even easier.

Brian from South Philly has a question for meeeeeeeeeeeeeee…

“Steve, who is your favorite wrestler of all time? Why? And what was his/her best match?”

So many wrestlers to choose from, but I’d have to say that my favorite wrestler of all time is Mick Foley. I’ve followed his career since I started watching WCW in mid-1992, and he always appealed to me because he was willing to take a lot of physical punishment in his matches and he had a really good ability at doing interviews. He had that good run with Vader in WCW, then he went to ECW and had some crazy matches while cutting some of the most amazing promos of all time. Then he went to the WWF and I think most of you guys can take the story from there. He’s like a crazy death match wrestler with superstar level charisma…you’re just not going to find a lot of guys like that.

As far as his best match goes, I’d probably take the easy way out and go with his match against Shawn Michaels at Mind Games. Hell in a Cell 2 was the match that made him a star and people still remember it to this day, but his performance was better at Mind Games.

Speaking of Hell in a Cell 2, Lucas Reynolds wonders about the second fall…

“My question is on the Mankind/Taker Hell in a Cell. Foley has always been pretty open in regards to the reality of his matches, but I have to ask about this one. I’ve read/heard him claim in more than one place that the second big bump (through the cell ceiling) was not planned. There a few reasons why I find this hard to swallow:

1. They climbed back up to the top after the first big bump. What were they planning to do, if it wasn’t the chokeslam through the cell? The sight of the two men climbing opposite sides of the cell after that huge fall and stretcher ride is one of the most incredible moments I’ve ever seen in wrestling, but I can’t help but feel that it would have been a major let down if they just did a few awkward moves on the top and climbed back down.

2. These are two BIG guys. Over 300lbs a piece. The first time they were up there, they almost broke through the cell just stepping on it. What did they think would happen if they attempted a chokeslam?

3. I just FEEL like it’s part of the plan when I watch it. (Yeah, I know, bulletproof evidence…)

So, I’m sure the whole “chair to the face” incident was not part of the plan, but what are your thoughts on the tumble itself?

BTW – Knowing either way, or not knowing at all, could never diminish my love for that match. It finds high drama and suspense in situations where more “hardcore” matches come off as gimmicky and idiotic.”

It amazes me that Foley can actually remember anything about that match. I could see where possibly they thought that they could do a chokeslam without breaking the cage, assuming that the cage would be able to hold their weight, but it obviously wasn’t. I think it was part of the plan, and that somebody should have moved that chair beforehand.

Randy asks about a 1980s tournament.

“Alright, I have asked this question to 411 in the past but never got a response. Your section seems to be the best in a while as far as ask 411 goes. Anyways, I have heard many times that there was a huge tournament in the early to mid 80’s featuring stars like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Kerry Von Erich, Jerry Lawler and so on. I also heard that the winner of this tourney was Jerry Lawler getting the win over Kerry Von Erich in the final. This leads me to believe that it took place in the mid-south, but can find no record of any such tournament. Do you know if this tourney ever took place? If so, was it Lawler with the win?”

I’ve never heard anything about this, and wasn’t able to find any evidence that something like this took place. It wouldn’t surprise me if somebody (Lawler in particular) said it happened and it was accepted as fact by his promotion in order to put him over Hogan & Flair, who were the two biggest stars in wrestling at the time. If anybody can prove this took place, feel free to write in…

Jesse Nelson wonders about animals in the WWF…

“Back in the 80’s, when wrestlers with animals was a
thing, did any animal group attempt to go after the
WWF for their use of animals as wrestler companions?
I’m thinking mostly of Jake and his snakes, Koko B.
Ware and Frankie, and Matilda and the British
Bulldogs. I think there was also Rick Martel, and a
poodle, Fifi (I may have the wrestler mixed up there)?
How well did the wrestler need to know how to handle
the animal, training wise? Any case at a house show or
televised event where one of the animals got a bit out
of control? Any bizarre animal companions for
wrestlers I’m forgetting? I can only remember WWF
animals, and not if other federations used them.
I am also remembering Ricky Steamboat’s kyoto dragon, and a sort
of snake versus dragon stipulation to a match. Again,
any idea how much animal control was needed? Were
animal groups watching this one like a hawk (no pun
inten… uh, it was intended). If so, how ironic that
the WWF would make the WWF get the F out of WWF….
and just as a side note, wouldn’t it have been so much
easier for Vince to tack an extra W onto WWF than to
blur the whole the on DVD’s, which everyone hates?”

Rene Dupree had Fifi with him for a couple of months or so. Jake Roberts talks on his DVD how sometimes the wrestlers wouldn’t like it when he let the snake out of the bag in the locker room. Sometimes Matilda would be in heat. Other than that, I don’t think WWF had very many problems with animal rights advocates back in the 80s. Certainly PETA would be all over some of this stuff today. The backstage people would instruct the wrestlers how to take care of the animals, and usually they’d end up pretty good at it like most people end up really good at taking care of dogs, cats or whatever. I’m sure there were other promotions that had animals, but none of them got as popular as Jake’s snakes or Matilda or Frankie. WCW did have some animals for limited runs, like Dave Sullivan’s pet rabbit, but none of them were especially memorable. The Steiner Brothers had a bulldog they would bring to indy shows that some of their opponents had a tough time dealing with. Ricky Steamboat & Jake Roberts did have a snake vs. dragon match during their feud in the WWF, but neither of them were devoured.

Luke asks about wrestlers currently using different finishing moves…

“i was just wondering why batista is now using the spine buster as hes finishing move instead of the powerbomb and lashley is using the the spear as hes instead of the dominator why are they doing that why dont they just use there finishing moves”

In Batista’s case, the spinebuster is a safer move for him to do to people…since he’s come back he’s had a couple close calls with nearly dropping people on their heads while trying to do the Batista Bomb. He has been using it more often lately though, so he might be back to full strength with it. As for Lashley, I’m really not sure why he’s not using the Dominator now. They don’t need another guy in WWE doing crappy spears to win matches, that’s for sure. I think they’re just trying to give these guys more moves that people can buy as finishers, which is usually a good thing.

Jef Vinson has two questions…

“In the Ultimate Warrior DVD, Hulk Hogan said that Warrior did the ultimate “no-no” in the business by telling everyone that he beat Hogan. But why didn’t get mad at Piper for doing the same thing?”

Because he’s full of shit. A more diplomatic answer? OK…Hogan doesn’t understand that the “appeal” to their feud in WCW was the fact that he had never beaten the Warrior, and his loss to Warrior at WM 6 was considered a pretty big deal in the past. Warrior didn’t committ any “ultimate no-nos” by mentioning that he’d beat Hogan before, they were just looking for more stuff to try to bury him with. Not like there isn’t plenty of other material to use anyway.

“Whatever happened to Eric Embry? I always felt that his feud with Skandar Akbar/Eric Embry feud was the precursor to the Austin/McMahon feud.”

In 1992, Embry’s wrestling career was ended by an automobile accident. He suffered a bruised liver and severe knee damage in the accident, which took place in Kentucky on October 30, 1992. Currently he is enjoying life at home and has no plans on coming back to the wrestling business. This is a message from him back in 2004 sent to another wrestling web site.

Mitchell has a question about championship belts…

“I hope you put this in your questions column as it will help the wrestling fans like me who are confused although its not the typical question you otherwise post.

I, and many other fans are very interested in buying replica wrestling belts, but have found out the hard way they are not always as advertised. I want a replica of the original NWA title from 1986 forward but need to ask you or other fans as to where I can get one that is a true replica. This means real leather and real metal plates THAT ARE REALLY CURVED, and not flat, with a 4mm thickness like the real belt. I know I can get a real belt for about $6000 dollars with real gold plating, but I cant really justify that at the moment, mabey one day. But for now where can a fan get the next best thing? It would be good to hear from fans who have actually got a true replica and where they got it and what price.” – Mitchell

I’ll open this one up to you guys, because the last wrestling title belt I got was a plastic WWF one when I was 6.

Conor O’Boyle wonders why ol’ Hacksaw never jobbed cleanly…

“I was watching some of the older WWE PPVs at the late 80s early 90s and i noticed one common thing.Hacsaw Jim Duggan never job cleanly!!!It was always double DQs or Count-Out’s or Duugan getting DQ’ed for using his 2 x 4.But why?Why Duggan it wasnt like he was a main player in the WWE at the time!The only time i saw him lose cleanly was against Yokozuna and Umaga!!!”

Duggan was in the position of being a top mid-card face that more often than not faced guys that weren’t going to be threats to guys like Hulk Hogan above him. If a guy like Yokozuna could beat Duggan, it was big for his career. I don’t know why he never lost cleanly, but it makes sense that a heel wrestler should have to cheat to beat a face wrestler. This was pretty standard booking for the WWF back in that era. Heels even had to cheat to beat Tito Santana.

“I guess I’m looking for your opinionated answer for a debate I have with a coworker. He feels that Orton and Edge will emerge as the new NWO, since the name has been brought up recently. I believe this won’t happen as for them to have credibility using this moniker they would need to have someone from the original group, like DX has now. DX as HHH and Shawn makes sense as they are not only the originals but the only guys they could use for this. Nash just resigned with TNA, Hall is gone, Hogan, if he ever does retire, will more than likely do it as a face. Who’s left, Bischoff? That would be the obvious choice as it coincides with his book release, but I really don’t see it. What’s your take and who would you use/bring in?” – James Giles

First of all, I wouldn’t bring back the NWO. Let it rest in peace. But, hypothetically speaking, I don’t think you could have a truly legitimate NWO without Hall & Nash. Hogan was also an important part of the group, and Bischoff was also a very important part of the group’s success. God, people just loved to hate that guy, even before he was a heel! I certainly wouldn’t just have two guys who were never part of the NWO originally like Edge & Orton form a new one, though they have gone away from that with the “Rated RKO” name.

Electric Dave doesn’t like some things going on in WWE these days…

“In honour of 411’s top five lists, here’s one I’ve come up with. I wonder what
you think of it and what would your answers be.

Top 5 Worst things in WWE or: Stuff I could well do without on my TV.

Dishonorable Mention:

Regurgitating nostalgia acts.

WWE has been trying to find a new groove since Attitude peaked and the Invasion
bombed. The gap in the market for 80’s relics, like Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Road
Warrior Animal who no longer have WCW to call home, is not the answer. And
affording ‘The Immobile’ Hulk Hogan an ivory backscratcher every year in
exchange for creative control, the chance to put himself over younger
competitors and pursue his own agenda is not a solution to long term booking
problems. This just in: Henry Godwinn has re-signed with WWE. Oh joy.

5. TIE: The Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club & Mae Young
4. Stephanie McMahon
3. The Boogeyman
2. Mark Henry
1. Bob Holly

5. Queasy ‘comedy’ acts that are as entertaining as they are productive. The
shameless displays of wrinkly rude bits makes watching with non-wrestling fan
friends a truly embarrassing experience.

4. Here comes the Migraine. Irritating as a performer, destructive as a writer.
Vince’s daughter is vain and power-mad (as Pat Patterson and Paul Heyman have
paid the price in finding out) but not stupid. Vetoing the planned incest angle
with her daddy shows she’s aware of what would make her look bad. Pity it’s not
a courtesy she extends to anyone who’s not family. Those to suffer under her
poison pencil are numerous; Brian Kendrick, John Cena and Eric Bischoff all
looked exceedingly uncool coming unto her, Undisputed Champion and former
antagonist Chris Jericho became her stooge in a custody battle with Triple H
over a dog and the sight of the Alliance locker room full of big, grown men
being screeched at by a slip of a girl bordered on kitsch. But it doesn’t matter
to her as long as she looks boss.

3. Abysmal worker, abysmal gimmick, injury prone. In a word; Wrestlecrap. The
only reason the big gobshite was rehired two weeks after being fired was because
someone realised halloween was coming up and they had a warehouse full of boogey
masks to shift.

2. See above. To think with ten years of experience, all Mizark can do well is
sweat buckets. Wasn’t his guaranteed ten-year contract supposed to expire last
month?

1. The anti-Shawn Michaels. The most boring, colourless performer on any of the
three rosters. Chris Benoit is a super worker. The Rock was brilliant on the
mic. Randy Orton has pin-up good looks and is a heat magnet. Even Sid Vicious
was at least tall, had a great physique, tons of presence and headlined
successfully. All belligerent Bob has ever brought to the table is a measly
dropkick and the most reckless finisher of all time.

To be fair he deserves respect for his toughness. He soldiered on valiantly
after suffering that grotesque wound in his match with RVD but before arguing
for Holly consider this. Like JBL he has escaped the axe for years because he’s
a McMahon loyalist and a locker room policeman. But while Jables received a
lenghtly title run because if nothing else he’s a great character, even Vince
can see that Holly is neither a good enough worker nor charismatic enough to
warrent a push.

That’s all. Love the column and hope to see my email in it.”

Well, you should be happy that Mark Henry’s been off TV for months. There are plenty of things I don’t like about WWE’s current direction, but I’ve found it easier just to not watch it. With Monday Night Football on, and Friday nights being busy for me, I don’t watch much of Raw or Smackdown these days. Tuesday night is Boston Legal night, so I don’t see much ECW either. As for what I would include, number one would be Kevin Federline, number two would be the fact that the ineptness of much of the roster makes some fans think that Federline is useful, and three, four and five would have something to do with guys that are overrated.

Jude Terror wonders what happened to some past IWC guys…

“Hey man, I was wondering if you will answer questions about the IWC like the last guy. Do you remember the stories from the old website ScoopThis.com called “Adventures of the NWO B-Team?” Those were great, I went looking for them other the day only to find out that ScoopThis is no longer archived, and is instead promoting a new site by the same guy coming soon. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and he told me about an old feature on 411 called “The Triple H Show” or something like that, where Triple H would enter everyday situations with his “big gold belt” and solve everyone’s problems, simlar in premise to “Adventures of the NWO B-Team.” So anyway, do you know anything about these things (where one could find them now, where Robert Berry (guy who wrote NWO) is these days, who wrote the Triple H stuff, where he is now, or where one might find some good new wrestling humor) I have a craving for wrestling humor and didn’t know where else to turn. Thanks. – Jude Terror

Adventures of the NWO B-Team was written by Michael Lamb…I found a link to them here…unfortunately I couldn’t find any information on where he might be these days. I asked Ashish about this “Triple H Show” stuff, and he replied with the following…

“I don’t remember that. It was probably just some one time thing somebody did in their column at some point.”

As far as wrestling humor goes, you can’t really go wrong with WrestleCrap. That would be my first recommendation for wrestling humor for sure.

Christian Hubbard has four questions…

“1) Why was Christy Hemme fired from WWE?”

WWE’s official reasoning for Christy’s firing was budget cuts, which would make sense because her salary was at $250,000 for winning the Raw Diva Search, and they could hire several attractive women for that amount of money. There have been other rumors concerning her departure, but none of those have been confirmed.

“2)Whatever happened to Bill Goldberg?”

Goldberg has been doing some acting, he was on a Spike TV show recently called “Pros vs. Joes”. The last time I saw him, he was doing some announcing for the WFA, a start-up mixed martial arts promotion. There have been talks of bringing him into TNA, but I think he’s going to want too much money for them to go through with it. Don’t expect to see him in WWE anytime soon.

“3)Why did WWE bring back Jeff Hardy? Wasn’t He fired because he was addicted to something?”

Apparently Hardy is clean now, and WWE is very forgiving of these things. Jesus Christ, they’ve brought back Marty Jannetty more times than Terry Funk’s retired from wrestling. As long as a wrestler eventually overcomes their addictions to the point where they can be a valuable member of the WWE roster, WWE will bring them back. Even if they just look like they have overcome them.

“4) and Finally Why is Jeff Hardy, who was fired 3 years ago, the WWE IC Champion, but Matt Hardy Is jobbing to the Cruiserwight champ gregory helms?
Hasn’t matt done everything WWE Has asked of him? he even fought the guy who stole his girlfriend!!! That is not fair at all!!!”

Well, as my good pal Larry Csonka likes to say…in WWE, Punishment = Push. I’m not a big fan of either Hardy, but Jeff has always had a better connection with wrestling fans than Matt, so it’s no surprise to me that he would get a bigger push. Matt hasn’t always been a model citizen within WWE either, you probably remember that he got fired as well, and he has been pretty critical of WWE Creative in the past. Sure, lots of us are pretty critical of WWE Creative, but speaking for myself, I’m not employed by WWE.

Bryce wonders what happened to wrestling video games…

“I have been playing WWF No Mercy for the nintendo 64 liek crazy lately and
realized THQ put out 4 amazing wrestling games in a row. nWo/WCW World
Tour and Revenge, then Wrestlemania 2000 and finally No Mercy.

Looking at wrestling videogames now…WHAT THE CRAP HAPPENED? They do not
even compare. Did another company take over the series or what? I woudl
think with the same amazing engine and the abilities of the next gen.
systems the games could be simply amazing.”

No Mercy was developed by Asmik Ace Entertainment and Aki Corporation, which also developed the WCW games and WrestleMania 2000. The Smackdown series of video games is developed by YUKE’s Future Media Creators. All the games were published by THQ, but the developers making the games now are not the developers that made the classic series of games on the N64 back in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Dan asks about Women Of Wrestling…

“do you remember WOW a womens fed run i think in 2000 had really good talent a great womens ppv and then folded? why did it fold?”

Whether the PPV was an artistic success or not, it certainly wasn’t a financial success. The venture simply did not make enough money for owner David McLaine to continue running shows. Weak attendance didn’t help matters, and lack of good time slots in most TV markets kept their television show from getting much traction. I liked the show ok, it was a little hokey but in a good way. There just wasn’t a market for it at the time, and the financial backers were not patient enough to wait for there to be a market for it. McLaine hinted at WOW coming back in 2004, even issuing a press release announcing it and their website is still up and running, but it hasn’t been updated in ages and the WOW girls have moved on to other things.

Hawk James has a couple TNA questions…

“I was watching The Best of Samoa Joe: Unstoppable dvd the other night, and I noticed in the Unbreakable 3-way match against AJ and Daniels, AJ and Joe were kicking the Fallen Angels back, trying to “prove” who has the better kick, and out of nowhere, The Fallen Angel yells, “Stop It!” I was wondering if the kicking was suppossed to happen, or was it shoot ?”

Daniels was just playing the part of chickenshit heel there. If Styles & Joe were kicking me in the back, I’d be telling them to stop too, no matter whether they were supposed to or not.

“Rhino had so much momentum coming into TNA, then he won the title, and lost the title 3 days later. Was the only reason they give him the title, the fact that Nash bitched up on wrestling Jarret? Or was it still because all of the ECW nostalgia?”

Well, Rhino winning the title didn’t enter their plans until after Nash no-showed. They decided that the best way to make good to the fans that were buying the show was to have a title change. It also had the added bonus of allowing them to book another title change for an upcoming prime time special. Rhino was selected because he was probably the most believable guy to challenge Jarrett at that point in time, and the nostalgia didn’t hurt matters.

Yeager asks about Owen Hart and the WWF…

“I always thought it was very odd that Owen Hart stuck with the WWF after the Montreal Screwjob incident. Do you know any of the background on Owen’s feelings / dealings with the company around this time? Did he want to quit and go to WCW (who surely would have hired him)? Did Bret tell him to stay with WWF? Did he feel more job security (ironically) with WWF for some reason?”

Owen wanted to leave with the rest of the Hart Foundation for WCW at first, but when he found out that he would be faced with breach of contract issues if he left the WWF, he decided to stay with them and avoid the legal hassles. Owen was more valuable to the WWF’s future plans than Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart were, and his contract was for a longer period of time. Bret was not happy with Owen’s decision, but they reconciled before Owen’s death.

Cyrus Krapf-Altomare wonders about Bret Hart’s previous health condition…

“Work or Shoot: Bret Hart’s Fever
when he fought the mountie? How about his strep throat
when he fought Owen in the cage at Summerslam?”

His fever against the Mountie is believed to be a work. Hart was booked to lose the title to him since his contract was about to expire, and since they figured they would be able to come to terms, they came up with something that wouldn’t hurt him too much. I guess you can’t really say anything like that for sure unless you were the man’s doctor, but this seems to be the conventional wisdom. As far as the Owen match goes, I’d think that was a shoot since he wouldn’t need to lie about being sick in a match against his brother.

Mitchell asks about WCW shows on DVD…

“Do you know if WWE plans on releasing any of the NWA/WCW PPVs or Clashes on DVD?”

I haven’t seen anything indicating that they would in the near future…they released a list of the DVDs they’ll be releasing next year, and no WCW shows were on the list. There is a Four Horsemen DVD coming out though, so not all is lost for WCW fans.

Ryan wonders why WWE had to get the F out…

“I’ve been a long time wrestling fan, but I’m still not 100% clear about something.

Why was the WWF forced to change its name to WWE? I know it has something to do with the World Wildlife Fund, but why the sudden uproar? If memory serves me right, the WWF had been around for years without any complaints from the World Wildlife Fund.

Basically, I just want to know why it seemed so sudden after all these years. I also remember reading that the wildlife fund were worried that people would confuse the two companies, which I think is pretty funny.

Anyways, if you could clear this up for me, I’d really appreciate it.”

The short version: The World Wildlife Fund and the World Wrestling Federation had come to a legal agreement in 1994 that the Federation would not use the “WWF” initials outside of North America. In 2000, the Fund had decided that the Federation had violated this agreement by running shows in Europe with their WWF initials all over the place, and sued for unfair trade practices. The British court this suit was filed in agreed with the Fund, and the Federation was ordered to stop using the WWF initials on August 10, 2001. The Federation appealed the ruling, but eventually decided that it wasn’t really worth fighting and changed their name to World Wrestling Entertainment on May 5, 2002. The uproar wasn’t really sudden, but the name change did come as a surprise to anybody not in the know.

Finally, DarkKnightwolf101 asks about submission moves…

“What would you say is the most Dangerous Submission move of all time?”

Tough question. Lots of submission moves are dangerous to get stuck in, but are relatively easy to get out of, especially in this day and age. One submission that I marked for during the limited time that it was used was Brock Lesnar’s Brock Lock. It’s also known as the “Stretch Muffler”, basically it has the effect of bending your opponent in half. The downside with the move is that it’s basically impossible to apply on larger competitors, but when it is applied you can pretty much ring the bell because your opponent’s not going anywhere. Honorable mentions go to the Sharpshooter & the Figure Four Leglock, but those moves are easier to escape.

Well, that wraps up this edition of Ask 411 Wrestling. Tune in next week when I’ll answer even more questions! Of course, in order to do that I’ll need some fresh new questions, and that’s where you guys come in. E-Mail me at [email protected] and ask me anything you want to know about professional wrestling or anything relating to it. The only rule I really have is that since this thing will be posted Wednesdays at 3:00, I won’t be answering anything that shows up…let’s say after Raw on the Monday the week that the column is posted. You can send it, but it won’t be answered here until at least the next week. Oh, and make sure you have something about “Ask 411” in the subject title, so I know you’re not one of my fantasy football opponents blabbering on about how much my team sucks.

And if you have any corrections, feel free to send those in too, but make sure to mention in the subject title that it is a correction so I can be sure to include it in the next edition. I’ve already found a couple that didn’t have “correction” in the subject title that weren’t included because I like to keep all the newer questions unread until I can put them in the column. So if you want it in the column, “correction” in the subject title! Or “error”…I’m not all that picky, but give me something to work with.

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