Ask 411 Wrestling 11.08.06: Starrcade 1997, Patriots, Beverly Hills Lingerie Battle Royals and More!

Errors & Additions to Facts

Ron Gamble checks in with some shocking news…

“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

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

“Fortunately for you, I read your column regularly, and I happen to remember that little bit of writing gold. I also know who wrote it… me! Check out my column from September 18, 2002. I did, and I still like it, even if I know the guy who wrote it personally.”

Mystery solved! I hope Gamble didn’t take it too personally that Ashish didn’t remember him.

“First, I believe the “Scary guy with the claw hold that made people bleed from
the mouth,” is a slightly misremembered Hiro Matsuda, as Mike Gernand suggested
previously. See, a “claw hold to the throat” would be a choke, which would have
invariably led to a DQ for whatever wrestler did it. Matsuda, if I remember
correctly, actually put a referee in the sleeper so that the ref would know the
difference between a dragon sleeper and a chokehold. (They did this as a
vignette in the middle of a program.) I do remember vaguely that people,
particularly jobbers, would bleed after the sleeper had been released.

Second-Specifically to why Demolition’s music is replaced, even though it
appeared on the Piledriver Album: Rick Derringer owns the rights to the song.
Yep, “Mr. Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo” wrote and sang the song. They even had an
angle where Demolition threatened to beat Derringer up if he didn’t write them
a cool theme song. (One would think they’d find someone cooler, but apparently
the Demo’s had rather droll musical tastes.)

As far as Slick’s theme, I really don’t remember it, but if anyone famous had
anything to do with the song, I’m sure the celebrity owns the rights. If not, it
would be Jimmy Hart. Hart has constantly padded his paychecks by writing themes
for various wrestlers for every fed he’s been involved with in the past 25
years. (He also has a #1 single to his name before he ever got involved with the
business.) Now I’m sure that he didn’t write EVERY theme the WWE used, but it’s
entirely possible. With a complete list of all the missing theme songs and a
little detective work, it would be easy enough to figure out.

Well, hope I helped solve a mystery or two” – Chuck Stahlheber

“Hey.Love the site,especially ask411 section. Just to give you a heads up on the Harley Race vs Haku situation. This was at the time that Harley was really sick with his bowel problems that nearly killed him. Harley basically rushed back to the ring to drop the “king” title. This was explained by harley in his book. So that would explain why the match sucked and was thus dropped from the dvds footage.” – Woozerno1

“I just wanted to add something to one of the
questions/responses from this week. I believe it was
someone named Luke who asked about Batista and
Lashley’s “new” finishers and you missed what I think
is the crux of the reasoning for the change in your
answer. WELLNESS! With so many (read: all) of the WWE
wrestlers shrinking due to the wellness program it is
completely logical that these two big bad powerhouses
have been told or even told creative/Vince directly
that they just don’t have the strength to use their
old powermove finishers like they used to. Adding on
to your point, Batista has had issues of nearly
dropping guys square on their heads probably due to
lingering pain in his back but I gotta throw in some
added strength loss to the wellness program. Same goes
for Lashley, yeah he went out for a liver issue but
even so, suddenly he can no longer perform a
lifting-based powermove after the wellness crackdown.
Granted I stopped watching the E a long time ago but
since the last big wellness sweep, when was the last
time you saw anybody using the pre-wellness powermove
finishers like a Powerbomb/Last Ride, Dominator, F5,
or Jackhammer? If you can’t lift your opponent easily
anymore, a botched move like those is gonna equal a
broken neck or worse.

And BTW, I totally agree. The spear is lame as a
finisher, Edge needs to go back to his late-90s move
set and bust out my old favorites, the Impaler DDT and
The Downward Spiral. Hell I always wanted him to feud
with Lesnar back in the day and debut a new move to
taunt him just like a certain hack rapper
did…”Edge-5, shut your mouth!” At least Rhino has
the Rhino Driver as a fallback move…but
Lashley…eh…maybe he has enough upperbody strength
left to bust out a version of the Northern
Lariat…and call it something lame and obvious like
The Whiplash.” – Tenchi Masaki

Jerry Lawler’s tournament drew some recollections…

“hey steve i was born in 87 and this nite happend in 88 and was not a tournament the top brands in the 80s like awa, smoky mountain, wwf, nwa, midouth, wcw had their champions in the events defending their titles like hogan flair n lawler was on the cardand lawler defended the awa title against kerry von erich and retained it and not sure on the rest but yes it did cuz i have archives of recorded classic wwf wcw and nwa ppvs n tv shows. So can dis make me a member of the 411 team?” – Katrina Buckley

Katrina, if you can remember anything that happened when you were one year old, you can certainly be a part of the Cook Regime. I don’t remember anything before…two? Three maybe.

“I have info/insight on the 1980’s tournament (supposedly won by Jerry Lawler) that you were asked about in your latest Ask411 section. The fan asked if there was a 1980’s tourney that featured, Lawler, Hulk, Flair, Von Erich, etc. I believe no such tourney existed (Vince and Crocket would crap!). BUT I do remember a 1988-ish interview in which Jerry Lawler went on and on that his AWA world title was a more valuable belt than Flair’s NWA or Hulk’s WWF titles. His reason was that Flair and Hulk were ‘company champions.’

Lawler professed that Hulk could only defend against WWF guys, and Flair only NWA guys, but the AWA belt was open to any wrestler from any company, all over the globe. Kerry Von Erich was after his AWA belt, so Lawler also devalued Kerry Von Erich as a contender. Lawler then went on to say that he would be willing to defend against Hulk or Flair, but they were dodging him. It was a way to make him, and the AWA belt, look like the top title. In my opinion, the AWA belt was least valuable of the old ‘BIG 3′ but whatever. Hope this helps!” – Al Fucsko

“this is a case of some fact mixed with some fiction. there was indeed a
tournament in Texas at the end of WCCW (GWF) where Lawler defeated Kerry to
merge the AWA title with the WCCW(GWF) titles and form an ‘undisputed’
champion I think Hogan may have appeared on the show but not in the tourney
and Flair was no where near it.” – Wes

“for replica title belts try one of these two resources:
http://www.highspots.com/title-belts.asp
http://www.midwestwrestling.com/entrance_belts.htm

In regards to the 1980’s Tournament that was asked about by Randy, supposedly sometime between 1988-1989, there was suppose to be a Tournament of Champions in an effort to unify all of the major World titles that were floating around the US at the time. The tournament was suppose to have incuded the champions from the WWF – Hulk Hogan, NWA – Ric Flair, AWA – Curt Hennig and the WCWA – Kerry Von Erich. Please note that there may have possbily been a few other smaller feds involved with the supposed tournament at the time. The Tournament essentially led to the creation of the USWA where Jerry Lawler went on to hold 27 world title reigns. Please note that neither the WWF or the NWA title were actually defended in this tournament. I know that the AWA and the WCWA titles were defended though.” – Dan W.

“One guy bashed Bob Holly with the following:

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.

I think these are unfair comparisons. They are true, to a degree, but I find Holly to be with immeasurable value to WWE/ECW. He is not a Chris Benoit-esque worker, nor does he have Randy Orton’s looks, and the good Lord KNOWS he’s not as good on the mic as the Rock(for that matter who is?), but the guy is an invaluable tool to the locker room. While he isn’t in Benoit’s class as a wrestler, I would certainly put him in the top 25% on WWE’s current roster. And while not good on the mic, he’s better than half of ECW’s roster. And to say his dropkick is measly is ludicrous. That guy has trainer/mentor all over him. And yes, I am a FIRM believer that his long-term loyalty should be rewarded with good storylines. Is he a believable champ? No, nor will he ever be. That’s not his role. He knows that. That’s part of what makes him so valuable. He’s much like a Duggan of the ’80s, though not near as over. You aren’t going to beat him for a title, but a win over him is a big notch on the belt for a young up-and-comer as Holly’s toughness is stuff of legend. He can be a mentor to the young’un’s in the locker room. He is proof that a successful career is not measured by titles or T-Shirt sales. He is just so UNBELIEVEABLY important. I hated when he was out with the infection and I am SO glad he is back”. – Bill

I think the truth on Bob Holly is somewhere between these two perspectives. Hell in a Cell 2 also drew some feedback…

“Just thought I’d give you some info regarding Lucas Reynolds question about the HIAC match between the Undertaker and Mankind.

In the match the 2nd chokeslam spot through the cell had always in fact been planned before the match.

In the wrestling doco ”Beyond the Mat” Mick talks about this specific bump in great detail and gives an explanation. When he got chokeslamed the cell panel was supposed to slowly break away under his weight AFTER the move which would have resulted in him ”gently” falling down to the mat as it broke under his weight, obviously Mick and Co. misjudged the strength of the cell panel so when the bump happened the panel completely fell out from under him as soon as his body contacted it.

So Mick was always going to re-enter the ring this way and there was never any intention to have him and Taker climb back down the cell, the ”unplanned” part I guess he is refering to is how massive that bump suddenly became.” – Grant Bundy

“I don’t think that the second bump in the match was planned. In Foley’s retirement match with HHH at No Way Out 2000, he took a similar bump that was clearly planned. The cage flung open like a door and zip ties littered the ring. I think something similar to this would have happened in the King of the Ring match had it been planned. Keep up the great work on the column.” – Charles Deck

“Not so much a correction, but merely an addition…

In this week’s column, Hawk James asked about the spot in the Unbreakable 3-Way where Joe and AJ were kicking Daniels… You mentioned that it was simply a matter of Daniels playing the chickenshit heel (which is true), but actually, the spot has some deeper significance…

If I may refer you to Ring of Honor’s first show, The Era of Honor Begins, in the triple threat main event between Daniels, Bryan Danielson and Low Ki, you will find the exact same spot… In fact, it’s almost a direct lift of the spot, complete with Dragon pushing Low Ki and yelling ‘That’s not how you do it!’…

Just a little insight from a loyal ROHbot…” – Sam Berman

Oh yeah…forgot all about that one. I’m surprised Ari didn’t have my head on a platter for that.

“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.

If I am not mistaken, the REAL reason they edited out the Demolition song (with Rick Derringer… kick-ass tune, that one was) & Jive Soul Bro ties in to who WROTE them, and not wanting to pay that individual royalties each time they are used… that person being one Jimmy Hart… nice of Vince to induct Hart into the HoF and to put Jimmy Hart on the “WWE Legends” payroll, yet find a way to make sure he doesn’t have to pay him anything more than that base salary…

The whole royalty thing is also why Jesse Ventura’s commentary has been deleted from everything but the WrestleMania Anthology set (hope it is intact in the Royal Rumble Anthology slated for next year, as Jesse did commentary for the ’88-’90 Rumbles)… if it wasn’t for the fact that Jesse appears on camera several times in each WrestleMania (which necessitates his audio be intact), they’d probably have deleted him from each WM also! IIRC, Jesse sued WWE over royalties in the past, and that’s probably what they’re trying to avoid by editing out the Jimmy Hart-penned stuff.” – William DeRemer

You might have a point, but they sure are mighty selective of which songs they do edit out. Jimmy wrote “Sexy Boy”, but I doubt that’s been removed from any WWE releases.

“Here is what I wanted to add….when you quoted this – “From what I can tell from reading CRZ’s archives, they didn’t, but Tony Schiavone did say “we’ve been sold out for months and thirty miles up the road they can’t GIVE tickets away!”

I attended RAW that night at the Hampton Coliseum on 4/27/98 while Nitro was being held nearby at the Norfolk Scope the same night. Despite what Schiavone said, RAW was indeed sold out. It sold out quite a few days and possibly weeks before it happened. Nitro was really giving away tickets at the Scope, they didn’t sell out. When DX did ‘invade’ the Scope you can clearly see WCW was giving away free tickets as it stated such on a lighted marquee outside of the Scope. Not to mention a friend of mine attended Nitro (though he paid) and told me they were indeed giving away tickets. Though it must be noted that the Scope holds quite a few more people than the Hampton Coliseum.

Another interesting piece of info is that RAW that night obtained it’s highest ever overall rating (at the time) of a 5.7.” – Jerry B.

Boy, if Raw got a 5.7 today the WWE suits would be dancing in the street. How times have changed.

On to the questions! Since I believe in the doctrine of “ladies first”, Vicki Price gets the first question…

“Hey Cook, I was just wondering, how do the newer wrestlers get their personalized gear? You know, like the designed tights, boots, wristbands, stuff like that. Is there someone at the promotion that makes the gear for everybody, or do the get them at shops for that kind of stuff?”

From what I understand, most of the newer wrestlers have to get them made at shops and tell the designer what they want. Some promotions have people that make wrestling gear working for them, but not all of them, and there are people out there who will do it for the wrestlers…for a price of course. I remember the MTV True Life special where they showed HWA wrestler Rory Fox getting his gear made up by an elderly woman…I believe she had her own shop, but was popular with wrestlers in the area. You don’t find one of these places on every street corner, you know.

Nick Malfitano asks about a long-forgotten tag team…

“I just have one question for you Steve, and it has to do with the Can-Am Connection tag team of Tom Zenk and Rick Martel. In several shoot interviews, wrestlers have alluded to there being another reason for the dissolution of their team other than what either man claims (Zenk alleges that Martel went behind his back to negotiate a new contract, Martel thinks that Zenk couldn’t handle the rigors of the business). Is it possible if you could shed any light on this?”

Zenk left the WWF in mid-1987 due to a dispute with WWF owner Vince McMahon. It’s believed that it had to do with money, Zenk claimed that he only got paid $50 per television appearance in the WWF. I haven’t seen any other reasons for the team splitting up and Z-Man leaving the WWF other than for the money…if anybody else can shine some light on this it would be appreciated.

Shane from Toronto has some questions about some fakers…

“Hi. I have a a few questions concerning the fake Diesel and fake Razor Ramon. When did they start appearing in the WWF? Did they appear immediately after Hall and Nash’s departure to WCW or were they brought in later? We all know Glen (Kane) Jacobs was the fake Diesel, but who was the fake Razor Ramon? Does anyone know the reason why they were brought in to be Diesel and Razor Ramon? Did Vince McMahon think he could pull a fast one on the fans or were they intentionally brought in to make Hall and Nash look bad, because of how they left the WWF? Any help in answering these questions would be appreciated.”

One by one:

1. Fake Razor Ramon & Fake Diesel made their debuts on the September 23, 1996 edition of Raw.
2. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash left the WWF on May 19, 1996 after a house show in Madison Square Garden. So there was a few months between the real Razor & Diesel leaving and the fake Razor & Diesel appearing.
3. The fake Razor Ramon was Rick Bognar, who was known in other wrestling promotions as Big Titan.
4. Out of spite, mostly. Hall & Nash were helping revive the WCW product and WCW had actually become more popular than the WWF after Hall & Nash’s departure. Also, they thought it would be fun to try to trick people into thinking they had re-signed Hall & Nash. Wrestling is a work first and foremost, and people in wrestling love to work the fans. They really, really do.

Gian Paolo Aroldi

“A question; has the WWE ever really used the 1 count
as a story-telling tool to showcase how much
punishment a guy has taken? I feel like there is very
little time spent in a match before a guy is down for
a two count; it seems there isn’t an early time when a
guy is still fresh and kicks out at one. It just
seems like a natural storytelling progression. You
know… like for the first few falls a guy kicks out
after one, as it is earlier in the match and the man
is fresh… and then late in the match he starts
kicking out at two to symbolize that he is getting
more beat up and, more importantly, to extend and
highten the tension as the match progresses. I feel
like this is a wildly underused tactic in wrestling
booking; it seems like in the E guys take just a few
hits and are “down for two” and the one count is never
really introduced. Was it ever, or does any
organization outside of the WWE extensively use a more
progressive count kick-out cycle to extend the storyline?”

I don’t think you’ll see guys kick out at one in the WWE very often unless they’re really really big or they’re in a wristlock or something. My personal favorite “one count” was when Homicide kicked out of a Burning Hammer at one during the ROH show just after Dan Maff’s departure from wrestling. Just to bury him even more. But yeah, you don’t see nearly enough one counts. Or enough zero counts either.

Paul chimes in from Liverpool with some questions about former TNA wrestlers and Colt Cabana…

“Top notch article mate. Just wondered if you could fill in some missing blanks from TNA’s past. Do you know the whereabouts of the following wrestlers and why TNA let them go?

# Mr X

Mr. X is better known as Pierre Ouelett, former member of the Quebecers alongside Jacques Rougeau and also a brief stint as a pirate in the WWF. He is still wrestling up in his home country of Canada, and I believe the reason he didn’t stick around TNA had to do with the same working visa issues that forced him to leave WCW after a brief stint in 2000. Pierre is still connected to TNA though, as he co-hosts the French language version of TNA Impact on the Canadian channel RDS.

# Jason Cross (awesome finisher)

Cross currently wrestles in Georgia independent promotions, including Georgia Championship Wrestling and New Alliance Wrestling. I don’t think TNA saw enough out of Cross to keep him around for much longer than they did.

Plus (and I bet you get asked this all the time) but has any of the big 2 (well big 1st and soon-to -be big 2nd) ever looked at Colt Cabana? as that man is gold.”

Cabana has made several appearances in WWE rings, most recently he dressed up as a fairy for the ECW Halloween show. He’s also jobbed to Umaga on Raw and for Hacksaw Jim Duggan on Heat. So WWE is pretty well aware of Colt Cabana’s existence, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he landed there on a more full-time basis pretty soon. TNA has also seen him work before, as he and CM Punk once had a match on TNA Xplosion that went 5 minutes. Which is pretty long for a TNA TV match when you sit down and think about it.

Ask 411 regular hiphopshuvit asks an MMA vs. wrestling question, which will make half of the IWC’s heads explode…

“If I remember correctly then the UFC owner said that the next time one of WWE’s
wrestlers said that they will face anyone in a 4 sided, 6 sided, or 8 sided ring
that the UFC will send Chuck Liddell over. Well my question is who do you think
from WWE could face Liddell and possibly beat
him?Thanks………………………..Now its time for a little cheap plug like
DX, whoever is reading this then check out my YouTube videos, just put
hiphopshuvit in the search and watch my latest videos…..Thanks”

Hmmmmmmmmm. Well, Sylvester Terkay has some MMA experience and is bigger than Liddell, so he might have a shot. But realistically, most of WWE’s wrestlers wouldn’t stand a chance in hell. That’s not a slight against them, they are top-notch athletes in their own right, but against a guy like Liddell who’s legitimately one of the toughest guys in the world…well, it’s no shame in losing to him, let’s put it that way. Terkay is the one that I can think of.

Bob MonaRock asks about Rhino’s tights…

“I can’t remember not watching wrestling (33 y.o.a. now). It’s embarrassing
for me to say that THIS has been annoying me for a while now:

What the hell does the “D” on Rhyno’s / Rhino’s singlet mean? I first
noticed in in WWE. Now, the “D” shows up in TNA on his singlet from time to
time. I’ve also noticed it on the back of his hoodie. Is it for Detroit?
Is he called
something else in Japan, maybe?” – Bob MonaRock

I’m 99.9% sure that the D logo on Rhino’s tights is pretty much like the Detroit Tigers’ D logo and also stands for Detroit. Considering TNA does have shows in Rhino’s hometown of Detroit sometimes, it’s not a bad idea for him to get more over with his people.

Brandon Ray has 3 questions…

1. I have been a WWE fan since I was 4, but I didn’t start checking out WCW until around 96′ or 97′, and one of the main things that made me watch the show at that time was Sting. I didn’t know much about him but I was intrigued by the Crow look of his and how he was the real thorn in the nWo’s side. Anyways, I was very into his feud with Hogan at the time, and I knew they were suppose to fight for the title at Starrcade 97′, but my question is, what exactly happened there? All I knew at the time was Sting won but now I hear a lot about how there was some fast count and such. What happened in the match and what was the aftermath of it? Who’s exactly to blame for whatever happened in the match?

Casey Johnson also asked about this match, so I’ll just handle it here…the planned finish was supposed to be Nick Patrick making a fast count after Sting got legdropped by Hogan, then Bret Hart comes down, becomes the new ref, and Sting wins the title. Patrick ended up making a regular count instead of a fast count, so it looked like Sting had been beaten fair and squarely. This pretty much killed the crowd since Sting had been built up as the last hope of killing the NWO for over a year, and he had just been pinned cleanly by Hollywood Hogan. Then Bret Hart came down and complained about a fast count, looking like an idiot since there was no fast count. He re-started the match and Sting won, to the confusion of just about everybody watching. The commonly accepted wisdom is that Hogan went to Patrick before the match and told him not to do a fast count. On the tape of the match you can see Hogan & Patrick discussing things before the match, and apparently that was when it went down. Regardless, it was a pretty big fuck-up.

2. This may seem like an odd question, but over the past few years there have been plenty of “Best Of” DVDs about wrestlers such as Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes and Bret Hart. My question is, why hasn’t there been any Best Of’s for the wrestlers who’ve passed away? I mean just recently we had one released for Brian Pillman, but besides Brian, why hasn’t there been DVDs released for some of the great wrestlers who passed away like Owen Hart, or Curt Hennig, or even Rick Rude? Is this just some weird coincidence or is there a real reason behind this?

I think the Owen Hart thing had (or has) a lot to do with the lawsuit that was filed by Owen’s wife Martha after his death. To be fair, WWE did release a Road Warriors DVD that talked at length about the death of Road Warrior Hawk. I think it’s a matter of supply and demand…if the WWE fans want DVDs about Curt Hennig or Rick Rude, WWE will probably make them so they can make some money. I wouldn’t be surprised Rude or Hennig appear later on in something comparable to the Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 80s DVD.

3. This is more of a “in your opinion” question, but why do you think Kane hasn’t won the WWE/World Title again since KOTR 98′? I can probably understand why he didn’t win the title again from the rest of 98 to mid 2003, because he was masked and probably wasn’t big on the promos and didn’t have “the look” and what not, but right after he lost that mask, he just seemed unstoppable and destined to get another title run. A lot of people, even me at first, didn’t like him losing the mask, but with how monstrous he became after losing it, I loved him even more. But maybe that’s just me. Anyways, any thoughts on that? – Brandon Ray

I’m not much of a Kane fan, so I’m probably not the right person to ask. If I had to guess, it’d be that Kane doesn’t need a World title to stay over with most of WWE’s fanbase. I’d also say that Kane’s not much of a political force in the locker room…he probably could have got out of some of those embarassing storylines he’s been in if he really cared about that sort of thing. Kane just goes out there and does his job…I’m not a big fan of his work but I respect him for that.

Daniel Wilcox has three questions…

1) WWE has used the same theme song for the No Mercy PPV for the last 3 years now, but I have done some research and I can’t find out who it’s performed by, but I think it is called ‘No Mercy’ as well. Can you help me out?

The song traditionally used at the No Mercy theme song is an in-house tune written by Jim Johnston called “No Mercy”.

2) Why is Chris Jericho trying to promote his video for the song ‘Enemy’ with TNA now, because I’m sure the song was used as the theme song for WWE No Way Out 2005, and the video was either shown on the PPV itself or was a DVD extra and the song was on one of Fozzy’s previous albums. I haven’t seen the video on TNA, but is it different to the one used at NWO 05?

I believe the song remains the same. As for why TNA also used the song, my guess is that they thought it would best fit what they were going for with that video promoting the Bound For Glory PPV. The song was featured on Fozzy’s most recent album “All That Remains”, which was released in 2005.

3) Being a member of the IWC as I have been for the past 18 months, I think it is fair to say that I find WWE TV a lot less surprising, and therefore sometimes not as enjoyable as I did 2 years ago. This is probably down to the heaps of negativety the E gets from the IWC, as well as the news and spoilers I read daily. So my question is, what things in the WWE have been most surprising, even to the IWC, over recent years, title changes, face/heel turns, tag team break-ups, stuff like that. Eddie Guerrero winning the WWE title in 2004 came as a shock to me, would this be one of those shocking moments? – Daniel Wilcox

Eddie winning the title was a shocking moment to me, and I think most of us were pretty much thinking that Eddie would never get a shot to be WWE Champion, the same way we thought Chris Benoit would never get a shot either. I think you can follow wrestling on the Internet and still be surprised by it, and I don’t think the IWC as a whole is as negative as people give it credit for. Damn stereotypes!

James also has three questions…

1.) Was Andre the Giant really undefeated for 15 years before his Wrestlemania 3 match with Hogan?

No, Andre lost on multiple occasions before that match. One I have actually seen part of was a deathmatch that he lost in Detroit to the Sheik due to receiving a fireball to the face. Not very many people beat the Sheik in Detroit, so that’s nothing to be ashamed of. He also lost to El Canek in Mexico and submitted to Antonio Inoki in Japan. It is said that Harley Race & Nick Bockwinkel both went to hour draws with Andre, but I can’t really imagine how well these matches would have gone.

2.) I was watching Halloween Havoc 1999 on WWE 24/7 and their are a couple of interesting matches there. What was the deal with Hogan simply walking out and letting Sting pin him? Was Hogan already feuding with Russo then?

It was one of Russo’s classic “worked shoots”. Russo was not officially named on the air yet, though his arm and voice appeared on TV like he was Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. It sounds cooler than it actually was. It was one of those things that since they were “shoots”, the announcers never discussed them again after they happened. So unless I missed a Hogan interview on Thunder or something, it was never really properly explained.

3.) Also during that event, during the DDP vs. Ric Flair strap match, DDP has Flair pinned, the referee has counted to two, then looks up and stops the match due to excessive bleeding by Flair. Why not just count to 3? Was someone supposed to come out (David Flair, perhaps?) and stop it but was late ala Hogan/Sid at Wrestlemania 8 and that ending was improvised? Just seemed really weird.

Having not seen this in years and not finding anything in detail on the Internet, I’m not sure. Anybody?

The Three Questions fun continues with mpogo27…

1. In 1993, when Vince was trying to re-create Hulkamania with “Lugermania,” why
didn’t he have Luger walk into Summerslam and destroy Yoko for the belt? Why the
crappy count out win? Wouldn’t having Luger pound the hell out of Yoko created
“Lugermania”?

Theoretically, maybe. This just goes to show that while they wanted to push the living hell out of Lex Luger, they just weren’t really sure that he was the guy. Yokozuna was a good champion for babyfaces to chase after, but maybe they had nothing planned for Luger if he won the title…you never really know about these things. And maybe in Vince’s heart of hearts he knew that he really couldn’t replace the Hulkster. Or maybe Luger just wasn’t all that great.

2. Maybe the ROH website has this, but I’m too lazy to look right now, but is
there a site that has a listing of all the ROH shows, in order, since its
inception?

ROHwrestling.com has a match listing up until last month. ObsessedWithWrestling.com also has a listing of the ROH shows that is up to date.

3. I never liked Stone Cold, and hated the whole “Attitude” area. Ignoring the
fact that it saved the WWF/E, was the Attitude era really that good, or was it
just something new that mainstream WWF fans had never seen before (bascially,
WWF fans that had never seen ECW)?

A little bit of both…whenever something new comes along that’s interesting, it’ll kick people in the pants and make them watch. The Attitude Era had that going for it…while you can say that the Austin vs. McMahon feud had been done before, it hadn’t been done as well. You had Stone Cold, Rocky, DX, Foley, Undertaker & Kane…the list goes on and on. While the wrestling during this era wasn’t always the greatest, there were enough entertaining characters around to make the shows watchable.

Will Bryant asks one of those questions that you never really put too much thought into unless you’re really bored…and he was watching Test vs. Holly, so you can see how that would happen.

“Watching the Test VS Hardcore Holly match from the
10/24 episode of ECW made me wonder something. How is
grabbing a fistful of the opponent’s tights supposed
to help a wrestler secure a pinfall anyway? The way
some people do it, it doesn’t look like it should
present any sort of advantage, unfair or otherwise.”

Well, some wrestlers are really lazy about doing it. Larry Csonka tells me that it’s for added leverage…when some people do it it looks like it helps, but some people don’t do it right and it looks stupid. He says it doesn’t actually do anything, but it’s embarassing if they get pulled down too far.

David asks about something from ECW…

“One follow up on Del Wilkes, He is selling cars in ALABAMA right now.- no word if he is still wearing the mask though

Question for you that I have asked repeatedly.

During the ECW PPV Heat Wave 1999 title match between Tazz and Tajiri toward the end they pulled the camera waaay back and styles kept saying they would get pulled off the air if they showed too much.

Wassupwiddat??”

They were trying to put over the fact that barbed wire to the mouth is pretty hardcore, and Taz was sticking barbed wire in Tajiri’s mouth while applying the Tazzmission on him. Even ECW had their limits, by gawd.

Paul from the UK asks about ECW theme music…

“Does anyone know who performs CM Punk’s ECW ring music. I really want to get hold of it.”

Killswitch Engage is the name of the group, and you can get the song on the WWE Wreckless Intent CD. It’s called “This Fire Burns”. I like KE, they do some good stuff.

Thomas J wonders about Melina’s body…

“My favorite diva in the WWE is Melina. Seeing how she’s smoking hot, can wrestle, good on the mic, and over as a heel, is there any chance she might be the next WWE diva to pose for playboy. Her latest photos in the WWE magazines show she’s not shy when it comes to showing skin. Has there been any rumblings about it. Can we expect it to happen in the near future.”

I’ve not heard anything about it, but WWE always has somebody going in Playboy around WrestleMania time so we’ll know more around then. If Melina stays around long enough and wants to pose, I imagine she will get the opportunity.

Lee has an interesting story that leads to a question…

“Hey, long story short, my wife knows a guy that claims to have “shared” ring duties with Del Wilkes in WCW and WWF/E as the Patriot. His claim is that him and Del Wilkes would take turns wrestling under the mask from one night to the next, even on PPVs and Raw/Nitros even back in the Buff Bagwell days in the early 90s. This guy is a cop and is pretty big, and still wrestles as The Patriot gimmick during local wrestling events. He even has stacks of 8X10 pictures of Stars and Stripes he autographs and hands out even to this day. Do you know if there is any truth to this? Was the Patriot gimmick shared by 2 men?:

To be quite honest, I haven’t seen anything indicating this to be the truth. I would suggest that this guy’s just working it to make some money. As long as Tom Brandi, who currently owns the Patriot gimmick doesn’t find out, he should be fine. I guess I couldn’t rule it out, but it seems highly unlikely.

When was a steel chair first used in wrestling matches and who used it….? its as much a part of the culture as the wrestlers, ring and everything else… – Larry Graham

“In your column about the Patriot being Del Wilkes in both WCW and WWF. I thought the Patriot in WCW was Todd Champion who used to team up with FireBreaker Chip. He didn’t wear a mask he just used the name. Did Del Wilkes take over the Patriot gimmick from him?

I believe Del Wilkes had a run in AWA as The Trooper before all the patriot stuff, he dressed like a state patrolman and was lame.” – Adam Jenner

You’re half-right…Champion & Chip’s tag team was known as “The Patroits”. And Wilkes was The Trooper in the AWA, and it probably sucked.

Johnnyx311wonders about a forgotten ROH title reign…

“Do you have any idea why ROH doesn’t recognize that AJ Styles was the first one to hold the ROH Pure Wrestling title?”

AJ had to forfeit the title after TNA pulled their talent from ROH due to the incident involving original ROH owner Rob Feinstein. ROH decided it was for the best just to sweep the title under the rung for an amount of time and then bring it back with slightly different rules rather than having another Pure Wrestling Title Tournament so soon after AJ had won the first one.

The Infamous Joshy Jammes has questions concerning dead wrestlers…

“I have a question. I just watched the Brian Pillman DVD and it got me wondering…aside from Pillman, Owen, and Eddy, have any other wrestlers died while still employed with the WWE? Also what about ECW and WCW?”

Oddly enough, these three major promotions have managed to avoid having their workers killed on a regular basis. I can’t think of anybody that died while on the ECW roster off the top of my head, and WWE is also pretty much clean except for those three and guys like Fred Blassie that were still connected with WWE when they died in old age.

The one wrestler that I remember dying while working for WCW is Louie Spicolli. He was feuding with announcer Larry Zbysko at the time, and Larry replied to his death by stating on the air that he’d keep his mouth shut about Spicolli out of respect to his family. You stay classy, Larry!

At the AWA Superclash III PPV (Dec. 13, 1988) there is a match with a stipulation I’ve never heard of. I’ve read results for this card and still haven’t figured it out. It says “The Terrorist won a Beverly Hills Lingerie Battle Royal in 8:36”. So I ask, what the hell is a Beverly Hills Lingerie Battle Royal, who is ‘The Terrorist’, and if at all possible can you find out who else was involved in this match? – Jerry B.

Given the participants in this match, one would assume that a Beverly Hills Lingerie Battle Royal involved women wrestling in lingerie. Other participants included Bambi, Peggy Lee Leather, Laurie Lynn, Brandi Mae, Malibu, Nina, Pocohantas and Luna Vachon. The winner was Pali the Syrian Terrorist, who apparently was a member of GLOW. I have not actually seen the match, so I can’t comment on whether the lingerie was sexy or not. With Luna & Peggy Lee Leather involved, I’m thinking not.

Well, that wraps up this edition of Ask 411 Wrestling. Tune in next week when I’ll answer some 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 an unemployed former U.S. Congressman looking for work.

[email protected]