Ask 411 Wrestling 11.29.06: More Machine Stuff, Rock vs. HBK Explained, Raven gets Scalped and More!

Well, this I can’t argue.

It’s time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I am your party host Steve Cook, and we’re changing things up this week! You people have spoken in large numbers to tell me that you want the questions bolded…so that’s how it’s gonna be from now on. I’m making some other changes to try to make the column more coherent and easy to follow, so hopefully you guys will like them. If not, the inbox is always open…

Question E-Mails still in the inbox: 19

We start with your Additions and Corrections…

“Just wanted to share something rather cool I stumbled upon the other day.
Or un-cool, I haven’t really decided yet.

Just outside the office where I work there’s a store that sells mostly pretty
cheap stuff – naturally I’m in there pretty much every day.

Anyhoo, amongst all the other cheap stuff on display on the shelves I
found various packs of scented candles. There were 3 different scents;
Vanilla, strawberry and “wellness”.

Not sure how “wellness” smells, but shouldn’t we all chip in and buy
Chris Masters a lifetime’s supply of this stuff??” – Martin from Sweden

“I recall somebody asking where they could find some Georgia Championship Wrestling. I would ask the man at www.georgemayfieldmayhem.com I know he has some 4 Horseman compilations and other 80’s NWA/JCP stuff.” – Jason

On the topic of a possible Shawn Michaels/Tammy Sytch affair…

“I just wanted to comment back to you regarding one of your questions. This was indeed true as confirmed by Tom Brandi. He did a shoot video either this past year or the year before and he had commented how he used to hear Michaels banging her in the locker room before a match. Just thought that I would let you know.” – Scott

Thank you Scott, you just answered one of the questions in the inbox I was stumped by. Hadn’t seen the Brandi shoot interview…

“I read your latest Ask 411 column and i wanted to give my two cents on the Piper pinning section.
You said: “The first to ever score a pin fall against the hot rod was Bret ‘the hitman’ Hart as he won the Intercontinental title from Piper.”

This is false. Back in the 80’s when I used to rent the old WWF Coliseum videos (and dub them ), I specifically remember seeing Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka in a “Fijian Strap Match”. It wasn’t the kind of Strap Match where you had to drag your opponent to all four corners to win the match. It was just a regular match but a strap tied them together via their wrists.
Anyway, it was a pretty good match with a surprising ending. Surprising because Snuka actually pinned Piper after performing his famous finisher, the Superfly Splash off the top rope. I remember it well because I had never seen Piper pinned in any match during the 80’s except that one.
After doing a little research, I found out the match is featured on the “Best of the WWF Vol. 3”. It took place during their famous feud that began with the Piper’s Pit coconut-to-Snuka’s head incident back in ’84. The match occurred in St. Louis on 7/20/84 (I’m guessing the Joe Louis Arena).

Thanks and keep up the good work!” – Nicolas A.

Did I say that? I guess I might have, since I don’t remember most of what I say anymore. Damn memory. Speaking of memories, here’s a Disco Inferno one…

“I actually remember that match after people talked about it for the past couple of weeks. The match was on Nitro and wasn’t against Meng or Kanyon, but it was actually against Kurosawa, a “Japanese” guy that Col. Rob Parker brought in late ’95. So this was way before Russo’s time in the booking chair. The match was a wierd heel-heel dynamic to begin with and then I remember the ball dropping and Disco using to hit Kurosawa and get the win. I don’t remember who came out at the entrance way but I do remember thinking it was an odd thing to happen and it seemed like nothing was ever mentioned of it again.” – Matt Satarang

“Most watched WWE moment?

While the RAW that garnered an 8.1 rating was an insane rating, I
believe the most watched “moment” in the history of RAW was the “This is
your life, Rock” segment which got an 8.4 rating.

But I don’t know how cable ratings differ from regular TV ratings…
Because let’s not forget that in 1988 the episode of “The Main Event” on
NBC which featured the long awaited rematch of Hogan vs. Andre recieved
a 15.2 rating.” – David

I’d forgotten to go segment by segment…as far as the 80s stuff goes, I don’t really know how the ratings back then compare to now, so I left it out.

“2. I been watching wrestling for 13 yrs now. Anyways, I’ve seen Bobby Lashley use the Dominator as His Finisher. My question is, when was the last time wrestling saw a new Finishing Move Never done before, like the F-5 used by Brock Lesnar – Darknightwolf101

the dominator was also used by faarooq way before lashley, the most bland wrestler to ever get a push, used it. and if you want to see innovative new finishers, watch a few impact episodes.” – Patrick Morone

“In reference to the question about original finishers, Matt Morgan started using
his Mount Morgan Drop (vertical suplex into a rock bottom) briefly on some
smaller guys before switching to the F5 (coincidentally in Minnesota) for his
brief feud with the Big Show.” – Tony Fioretti

Yeah, I liked that move Morgan was using, and was pissed when he changed it to the F-5…but I guess he couldn’t do the Mount Morgan Drop on Big Show.

“sorry to keep beating the dead horse..but I thought that the difference with a clothesline and a lariat is:

clothesline: arm is out and rigid, opponent runs into it, or you run into your opponent

lariat (LARIATTOOOOO!!) : your arm moves forward in a swinging motion.

from a kayfabe perspective, it makes sense because the lariat is technically stronger. (I remember at one point, EVERYONE used it as a finisher in ROH)” – Sergio

Part of the confusion has to have something to do with Tony Schiavone calling every clothesline a lariat for the last 10 years of WCW.

“First off, about Nick Patrick placing his hand under the referee’s shoulders to push them up for a three count… I always dug this move and I remember another WCW referee who had previously done this on occassion. This move actually is somewhat common by certain amateur wrestling referees. My friend and I used to handle our school’s pre-match announcing and I had seen it done there. Placing the hand under the mat is makes sure the shoulder is pinned down flat. Now granted, this is more beneficial in amateur wrestling as there’s only a one count, but I’ve always liked seeing it in the pro’s. Also, I’m pretty sure that Patrick has done it on occassion when people didn’t miss a kickout, at least in WCW, as he’d do it early in matches on occassion and follow up with “the hand on the shoulder gesture” afterwards to show the wrestler wasn’t pinned. I guess it can be confusing, though, since not all referees work the same style.

As for Hakushi’s ‘tattoos’, I always assumed they were done in that far eastern “tattoo” style of painting. I forget the exact term, but it was a “celebrity fad” a few years back and while they weren’t permanent, they didn’t wash off easily. Then again, it could’ve just as easily been a Sharpie marker. I had used permanent markers to “paint” my face for my senior year’s final school spirit day leading to homecoming in the style of Road Warrior Hawk (school colors were black and red). I did this purposely instead of using the face paint, since I didn’t want it to wear off from sweat. It only took about half an hour after the game to completely wash away the marker with a bar of Lava.

Also, as for Lashley going to ECW, I hadn’t heard it was because Michael Hayes disliked him. I had heard they were using up the basics of the angle they had planned for Bob Sapp, after it became obvious that his schedule wouldn’t adapt to WWE’s.” – Jimmy K.

I’m thinking you’re right with that far eastern painting style, especially since that’s where Hakushi is from.

“Wait a minute…Violent J wrote an auto-biography? I must read this.”

Whether you were being sarcastic or not, he really did write a good book about his life and ICP’s career. I’ve read most of the books the wrestlers are putting out and J’s book is up there with Foley’s. He had a writer help him, but its written in a way where it sounds like him talking to you. Even if you think ICP is a joke and the worst band in the world, this book is very entertaining and funny, especially reading about the behind the scenes in wrestling and music. J actually grew up wanting to be a wrestler, not a rapper, and wrestled for a couple years on the indy circuit.” – Leland

Actually, I was not being sarcastic…I’m a pretty big ICP fan from back in the day. I haven’t kept up with them much lately, but the wicked clowns get much respect from me for what they do.

“Could another reason for WWE using the Rosemont Horizon/Allstate Arena be Chicago’s fire-safety regulations? Chicago has some tough regs on using fire inside. For example, when Penn & Teller played in the City of Chicago, Penn couldn’t do his fire-juggling bit with actual fire – the audience had to pretend the batons were on fire which, in all honesty, made the bit even funnier. But that aside, since I wasn’t as rabid a WCW fan, did WCW do flame-heavy pyro a la Kane if they ever played the United Center?” – Christian Long

Good point, and you’re probably right about that being one of the reasons WWE would run their Chicago shows just outside the city limits. WCW used to have fireworks go off at the beginning of their shows, but I don’t specifically remember any shows from the United Center…they could have gone without for that night or used it in a very limited way.

“To answer the question about the end of the NWO, it really just petered out. As I covered in my multi-part feature o the history of the NWO, it was mostly a combination of Hogan, Luger, and Steiner all disappearing with injuries that killed it when it happened in early 99. TThe only top tier members left were Bagwell (who Steiner had already turned on, making Bagwell a babyface), Nash, and Hall, who took another one of his mysterious vacations right around that time. With the way things had worked out, there was really no point in keeping the group together, although they did briefly rejoin in a vastly scaled-down, yet far more star-power heavy Hart/Nash/Hall/Jarrett version in late 99-early 2000 before that was also killed due to injuries to Hart and Jarett, as well as Hall being fired. I always thought that it really sucked that the angle of the 90s (which I absolutely put ahead of anything else in either promotion) just died instead of having a conclusive “WCW beats the NWO” finish.” – Stuart Carapola

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OK, this gets its own special section because it has been one of the hottest topics in this column in recent weeks…The Machines!

“Can’t vouch for it from memory but Wikipedia presents the following list of Machines:
Primary Members

More proof that sometimes I have too much time on my hands.” – David Lawrence

I think that pretty much answers any more Machine questions…Dragon Machine must have been pretty cool to see. To answer one of Dan Montero’s questions, the reason different wrestlers posed as Machines was to get at Bobby Heenan and his Family, who were the main heels in the WWF at the time and feuded with Lou Albano and the Machines during their entire run. And it was fun for the fans in the same way that the Midnight Rider & Mr. America was fun to watch.

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Question time!

Way back when, there was a tag team in Glow made up of Terri Powers (who later became Chyna/Joanie Laurer) and Reggie Bennett. Bennett was used for a brief time as a member of Raven’s new flock (not sure which version, ECW or WCW). Where is she now and why do you think she was never picked up by a major promotion? Even though GLOW was a barrel scraper, I seem to remember she and Laurer actually using decent move sets.” – James Giles

ECW’s wrestler known as The Terrorist was actually Fidel Sierra, most famously known in WCW as the Cuban Assassin.

Reggie Bennett is currently retired from pro wrestling and living in Japan, where she spent most of her career. As for why she never got picked up by a major US promotion, I would say it was a combination of two factors…women’s wrestling not being a factor in the US during her prime, and the fact that she could make a lot more money over in Japan, where women’s wrestling was very popular and taken more seriously. She did appear as part of Raven’s Flock in ECW, but that didn’t last very long. Also, I don’t think Bennett’s look was something that American wrestling promoters were interested in marketing.

To correct one part of your question, Terri Power and Joanie Laurer are not the same person. However, Power would appear in the WWF in the late 90s-early 00s as Tori. She was the blonde that hung out with X-Pac after ditching Kane.

“I’d heard about it, and then saw it through YouTube…
but what was the story with the insane interview
session with the Iron Sheik, where you seemed to be
making odd overtures to a member of the Killer Bees?
Has he just gone around the bend?

On the flip side, I personally loved the Bob Backlund
insanity gimmick. It made you cringe a little, but you
just couldn’t stop watching it. How involved in the
process of his own gimmick was he?” – Jesse Nelson

The story is…well, Sheiky’s pretty much nuts. He has been for most of his career, so it’s not like it’s anything new to most people inside wrestling. He was not a big fan of Killer Bee B. Brian Blair, which is why he wanted to “make him humble.” But hey, just because he’s crazy doesn’t mean we all can’t love him.

I don’t know for sure how involved Backlund was in the creative process behind his gimmick, but he played it as well as it could have possibly been played.

“Do you think it’s more difficult or easier for a wrestler to get over if they’re wearing a mask?” – Dan Montero

American promoters and bookers would tell you that it’s more difficult, but I actually think that wearing a mask makes it easier for a wrestler to get over. Kids love masked wrestlers, and the mask gives you something you can easily be identified with. When Rey Mysterio lost his mask in WCW, his popularity went into the toilet because he became just another short dude that wore cammo. WWE had him return to wearing the mask because they knew it’d get over big with the kids, and it just fit his persona. Some guys don’t need a mask and shouldn’t wear one, but other guys should never take them off.

“Who was the wrestler that demanded a 5 count after his
finisher? It was around the late 80s. And what was
his finisher? I’ve been stumped for months now!!” – Isaac

The master of the 5 count was the man Gorilla Monsoon called the walking condominium, King Kong Bundy. His finish was the Avalanche splash in the corner followed by a standing splash.

1 – Did Johnny Polo ever actually wrestle in the WWF (as Johnny Polo and not as Raven)?
2 – What is CM Punk doing with his hands before a match? (I’m sure it’s some kind of punk related gesture, but I don’t have any clue what.)

And, a quick rhetorical question I’m throwing out there more because I’m hoping somebody will see it and change things than anything else.
1 – Why is it that when two wrestlers “really hate each other” they get into a pull-apart brawl where they just punch each other and roll around on the ground (SEE: Joe, Samoa and Angle, Kurt), yet when they get into the actual match it’s back to suplexes and wrestling moves? – Tim Dennie

1. I don’t think he did, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Johnny Polo did some 6-man matches teaming with the Quebecers on house shows as something special for those fans. I’m pretty sure he never wrestled on TV though.

2. I’m not sure what the name for it is, but I can tell you that PRIDE world middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva has been doing it before his matches ever since I started watching PRIDE, and that’s where Punk picked it up. It’s part of his whole “Ode to MMA” thing he’s got going on. And speaking from experience, it’s good for loosening your hands.

1b. There’s probably not a really good kayfabe explanation for that other than “that’s just how it works”. I think it would be nice if wrestling matches between two guys who absolutely hate each other didn’t have lots of fancy wrestling moves for the sake of having fancy wrestling moves, but the workrate crowd would riot if anything like that happened.

Hey great column, I wanted to ask you if u remember 2
seperate incidents that happened back on a RAW in may
’03 i want to say. The first one was involving a match
between Jackie Gayda and Trish Stratus. They blew two
spots which everyone in the crowd boo’d the hell out
of them. One in particular was when Trish was going to
bulldog Jackie from the 2nd rope and she somehow
missed her or Jackie didnt fall, but she did anyway
after Trish had clearly missed her. She then covered
Jackie for the 1-2-3! JR then made infamous bowling
show ugly comment. I heard both girls cried right
after that match. Do you have any recollection of
this? The other incident was when Kevin Nash tore his
quad right in the middle of a tag team match with the
NWO. That was not a pretty RAW!!! – Dinn Kirk

The Bradshaw/Trish Stratus vs. Chris Nowinski match was not pretty, no sir. Wrestlecrap used to have an article about it on their website, but I don’t think it’s up anymore. Yeah, that Raw was pretty memorable. I’m sure Nash & Gayda talk about it all the time down in TNA now…

“I have a question about the scripts that wrestlers receive. What do the final versions of these scripts physically look like? There are always story about the booking changing right up until show time which I imagine would drive the writers crazy. I picture the writers and the bookers backstage at the arenas typing away at their computers, going back and forth on specific dialog until they ‘get it right’. Is there a cut-off time a few hours before show time where they print off nice and neat official copies and distribute them to the wrestlers giving them time to learn their lines and rehearse, or is it more like the opposite extreme where they hit print, run to the gorilla position and pass out the papers for the wrestlers must memorize moments before going down the ramp? And if there are ‘official script copies’ that are circulated before show time, what happens to these copies? Are they collected and destroyed after the show? Seems like those could be fun collector items.” – Strohl

Occasionally a script will pop up on the Internet and get posted on various wrestling message boards…it doesn’t happen very often and usually somebody finds out about it and has it taken off the Web. I’m not sure when the talent receives the script, but they basically look like a script you’d write for a play or a TV show. It’s funny how some stuff is scripted to a tee and other stuff is just like “so and so talks about yadda yadda yadda”. I don’t know if they let people keep them or not..it’d be an interesting question to ask your favorite WWE wrestler the next time you see him.

“The “Snake Eyes” move — where one wrestler picks up another and drops him
face-first on the turnbuckle — is a favorite of Kevin Nash. Did the move get
its name (which also, of course, refers to rolling ones on a pair of dice) from
Nash’s “Vinnie Vegas” gambler gimmick?

If this is the case, do you think that it’s the most widespread move name born
from the shortest lived gimmick?” – Karlos

Yes, the name does come from Vinnie Vegas. Vegas’s gimmick lasted a bit over a year as far as I can tell, and I can’t think of any other move names that live on from WCW gimmicks that didn’t last very long.

“Why did they pull a Dusty finish on the Rockers’ title win over the Hart Foundation? And what are the Mean Street Posse up to now?” – Electric Dave

There are two important things to remember about the Rockers’ title win…first of all, the original reason for the Rockers winning the belts was the fact that Jim Neidhart was going to be let go by the WWF while Bret Hart pursued a singles career. Plans changed a week after the title change was taped for television, and the match was never aired due to that and the top rope breaking during the match. For kayfabe purposes, it was explained that since the top rope broke during the match, it had to be declared a no-contest and the title change did not happen.

As for the Posse, I can’t find any information on their exploits after being released from MCW. Any help on their whereabouts would be greatly appreciated.

“I was wondering how can i watch xplosion from TNA?

Do you think Monty Brown will be on the TNA game and if the TNA game will have
graphics like the n64 games or the svr2006 type games? Also i have read that
Justin Credile is part of the Kliq or Clique or Cliq or Klique (not sure how to
spell it) Is that true or not? And who else is in it? Thanks” – hiphopshuvit

If you live in America, the only way to check out Xplosion is tuning in Sun Sports, a sports channel in Florida that is carried on satellite TV. It’s on The Fight Network in Canada and other assorted channels worldwide.

As of right now, Monty was pictured on the poster for the upcoming TNA video game, so there’s a good chance that he could be on it despite no longer being with the company. The game is being designed by Midway…they were not involved with any previous wrestling games that I know of, so who knows what their graphics will be like. Word is that they’re really good though.

Justin Credible was part of the Kliq, though the generally accepted wisdom is that he was a junior member/bag carrier. Other members were Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman & Triple H.

“Hey Cooklyn Cooklyn. nah I’m just kidding around. listen holmes I’ve just gotta ask: Is it just me or is the Extreme Elimination Chamber at the ECW PPV December to Dismember being built up alot better than RAW or Smackdown? I mean lately with the WWE you can predict or guess who’s gonna win but now I have no clue since their are 4 guys who have a chance at winning: RVD,CM Punk,Lashley or Big Show. out of the 4 I’ve picked Punk while my friend Mike Lafave picked Lashley and my friend Sean Garmer(of the Triple Threat) picked RVD. I just wanna know your pic. also: When did WWE/WWF switch from the Blue-barred Cage? I’ve watched wrestling since was about 5 or 6 years old and I’ve never really noticed or caught the switched from the Blue Barred Square cage to the Chain Link cage.

oh yeah: this past RAW we had the Survivor Series Captian match. I tried counting it up and on DX’s team they had like 30+ World Championship reigns between them. what’s the exact total if you add in all of the titles that they’ve held on that 1 team?” – John Bryant

Well John, the problem with the ECW show right now is that the Elimination Chamber is the only thing they’ve built up at all. I’d be inclined to break my long-time policy and agree with LaFave on something by picking Bobby Lashley. If I remember correctly, they stopped using the blue barred cage in either 1997 or 1998.

As for the amount of world championships…

Triple H: 10 times
Shawn Michaels: 4 times
Ric Flair: 16 times
John Cena: 3 times

33! If you’re wondering about lesser titles…well, we could be here all day counting those.

“What does the “CM” in CM Punk stand for? I tried google but couldn’t find an answer. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough. Thanks.” – Leland

Originally it came from a tag team that Punk was in very early in his career called the Chick Magnets, which was CM Punk along with CM Venom. Nowadays he claims it doesn’t stand for anything, though some have humorously opined that it stands for “Carry Me”.

“I recently watched the finals of AJPW’s Real World Tag League from 1980-1985. Great stuff. My question is what is the scoring system for this tournament?” – Jonathan

I believe the scoring system is 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. In recent years the system has been tweaked to have teams competing in blocks until the finals, whereas in the past everybody would face everybody. Finals were added in 1995, until then the tournament just ended when every team had faced every other team.

“To begin, I’ve been a fan of the WWE for 16 years and
counting, and I consider myself a very knowledgable fan about the business.
But I do have a question that I don’t think anyone has asked, and it’s about
the 1989 Survivor Series. Now, I know the story of Tully Blanchard. On the
pregame show, Akeem (aka One Man Gang) and The Widowmaker (aka Barry Windham)
were advertised as if they were going to be on the show, but when the PPV
started and Vince McMahon ran down the participants, Earthquake was inserted
into Widowmaker’s place and Bad News Brown was inserted into Akeem’s place.
What happened there?” – Wayne

I’m guessing this was around the time when Windham left the WWF due to outside legal problems, specifically his father and brother being indicted for counterfeiting. As for Akeem, I can’t really find any reasons for him not being there, maybe he suffered an injury sometime before the show and couldn’t perform. Anybody?

“Why did Lashley change his finisher from the dominator to the lame running powerslam? Is the dominator really that dangerous of a move that they dont want him using it?” – Jaime

He used the Dominator last week on ECW, so maybe he got tired of people complaining about it. Or maybe the Dominator is EXTREME~!

“Quick question, I seem to remember stories about somebody being ‘scalped’ during a match. I think it was in TNA and I think Raven was involved. How right am I? What happened, and do any videos or photos exist of it?” – Smiffy

Yes, it was Raven who got scalped after a match with Shane Douglas on the TNA PPV held September 17, 2003. James Mitchell was cutting Raven’s hair after Raven lost a hair vs. hair match to Douglas, and well…he got a little bit over-excited. You can view it on the Nevermore DVD, which chronicles Raven’s TNA career up until 2005, and I believe it’s also on the Best of the Bloodiest Brawls DVD. At least, it was on the original version…not sure if it made the newer version or not.

“I was just playing SvR 2K7, reading through the profiles, and came across in Big Show’s that he has won the WCW, WWE and ECW heavyweight titles. My question is this: is he the only one to achive this feat? off the top of my head, at least in the recent past no one has done it (bout from about 13 years ago to 2001), and if he is the only one, it seems a bit odd that the WWE hasnt put over the fact. (the ‘ignore wcw’ wont work here because they are still putting Booker over as 5x WCW champ).” – Lynx Raven Raide

Actually, Lynx, they have been putting over the fact that he is the only man to ever accomplish this feat, especially when they were building up the Taboo Tuesday Champion of Champions match. He even has a new t-shirt celebrating it.

“I was musing the other day about wrestlers who used the same gimmick/nick name as a wrestler in another fed. I know it happens a lot in the indies, but can you remember it happening in the major feds? The only instances that came to mind for me were “The Natural” Butch Reed in WWF/ “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes in WCW, “The King” Jerry Lawler/ “The King” Harley Race(Haku, Duggan, Savage, etc.), and “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair/Buddy Landel. Can you add to this? – Jamie K.

Well, right now you’ve got the Samoan Submission Machine Samoa Joe and the Samoan Wrecking Mach…err, Samoan Bulldozer Umaga. This probably doesn’t count, but Austin Aries was the “Wrestling Machine” in ROH before Kurt Angle used it in WWE.

“This time I would like to ask about “Bigoted” Wrestlers…notably Col. Debeers and The Harris Brothers. I would like to think that Col. Debeers’ deplorable acts against Superfly and all his other opponents were just part of his “Heel” Schtick. Was he ever known to have reservations or make comments about his “alter-ego” (shoot wise) and did he ever get attacked by fans (a la Sgt. Slaughter during his anti-USA schtick in 1990-1991)?

Have there ever been wrestlers, to your knowledge, that in their real-life personas, EVER having repugnant Bigoted tendencies? ” – Ray

Ed Wiskowski, who played Col. DeBeers in the AWA, by all accounts is a pretty good guy and his beliefs do not coincide with the character he played many years ago. He did face some problems from fans, but was never injured by them to the best of my knowledge.

One of the Harris Brothers (I think it was Don) got TNA in a bit of trouble when he wrestled in a t-shirt with a swastika on it during one of their shows. For what it’s worth, they’re born-again Christians now.

I don’t know for sure about racial beliefs as far as wrestlers go, but the most openly racist wrestler of all time has to be Johnny Lee Clary, who was known as Johnny Angel in the NWA in the 1980s. Clary was a Grand Dragon in the Ku Klux Klan during his time in wrestling, and eventually became the Imperial Wizard of the group in 1989, after he’d left wrestling. He left the Klan in 1990 and is now a born again Christian that preaches against racism and hate groups.

Ray has another topic in his e-mail that I’ll be covering next week after digging through my archives of New Blackjacks footage.

“i have asked questions about harry smith before but i was really excited to hear that wwe had signed him being a bulldog fan. My problem is that i hear he was suppose to be in the randy orton/brooke hogan storyline but it never happenned and so i was disapointed, but seen as i had tickets to raw a week ago in manchester uk i thought what better place to unviel him but it never happened and left me truly pissed off.
Does anyone know what the wwe are planning for him cos i am getting impatient now.” – Chris

I discussed this briefly in the news column (which all of you really should be reading) last week…WWE has decided to have Smith wrestle in dark matches somewhere from 6 months to 1 year before he actually appears on television. That way when he debuts on TV, he’ll be polished and ready to go, much like Kurt Angle was after he wrestled in dark matches and on house shows a full year before appearing on WWF television. So, if I was you or another person looking forward to Harry Smith’s debut, I’d keep my patience. If he’s as good as people are saying he is, he’ll be worth the wait.

The one time I saw Smith was on a tape of a 1PW show where he was facing Jeff Jarrett…I was impressed with Smith and it’s a shame he won’t get to face Jarrett again because they had a really good match.

“First off, I am a huge fan and I have some questions for you. I’ve been watching lately and I’ve noticed Eddies woman on the television and I was wondering. What is WWE’s insurance policy? Did she get some money for Eddie’s death? Same with Owen Harts wife? I was also wondering what kind of benefits wrestlers get and their families. I am guessing Vicki needs some money thats why she is shitting on her Husbands memory. Also what is WWE’s retirement policy? They probably dont have one , which would explain why Flair still wrestles and we get the old timers in for a pay check.” – Steve Stepp

Insurance? Ha ha ha ha ha…WWE wrestlers are independent contractors, which means they don’t get insurance or benefits or anything cool like that. WWE will usually be generous with helping out the families of wrestlers that die on their watch, or make arrangements to help them out. I believe the family of a deceased wrestler at least gets the money that the wrestler signed their contract for. As far as I know there is no retirement policy, especially when it comes to active competitors…they retire when they feel the time is right. In Flair’s case, I honestly think he’ll wrestle until he dies.

“Not really sure if this question will be answered as its more opinion based:
Do you think WWE PPV’s should be a 2 hour show rather than 3? (Excluding the big 4 of RoyRum, WM, Summ and SurSer)
Surely with the rosters so thin a 2 hour ppv would mean better quality all round?” – Alan from Scotland

I don’t think shortening PPVs to 2 hours would be a very good idea…they’re having a tough enough time selling single brand PPVs as it is, if you cut the shows to the length of a regular episode of Raw or Smackdown, why would people want to pay to see what they see for free every week? The shows might get better without so much dead time, but odds are that they’d keep the dead time and stuff that doesn’t matter and get rid of stuff that people might actually want to see. That’s just judging based on WWE’s previous history, though.

“I got a question about the possibility of HBK V Rock, me personally this is the only dream match left out there, forget Goldberg, Austin, Angle, Sting, Samoa Joe etc etc, there is no match out there that can produce what this match can.

1) What is Rocks beef with HBK?
2) Do you think this match will ever happen?” – Savva

Savva, you’re in luck…I got an e-mail last week that further explains the problems between Rocky & HBK…here it is:

“As a little side note on the Heat between The Rock and HHH. their main problem comes from the fact that The Rock really hates Shawn Michaels. I think this stems from when Shawn said something very disrespectful to the Rocks Mother on a show she was booking in the 80’s (The Rocks mum took over booking duties from her father) This was when Shawn was in full on ‘I’m the best mode’. From what I’ve heard this led to a teenage Rock almost beating up Michaels and the two have had troubles since. As far as Wrestlemania 15 goes, Michaels was very vocal about HHH main eventing with Austin and I’ve heard that he tried to keep the Rock down on a number of occasions during his initial run as Rocky Mavia. This, I think led onto the fact that Hunter disliked Rock by proxy.” – Dave Roberts from Wales

“I read somewhere that HBK was an asshole to the Rock’s father at some point. Wish I could remember where. It may have been somewhere on 411.” – Dan DeLappe

So that answers number one, and to answer number two, I don’t think it will ever happen due to Rock not caring for HBK and not really needing to wrestle ever again. If Rock does wrestle, it’s going to be on his own terms, not something that Vince McMahon or anybody else decides for him…and working with HBK is not something that interests him. I hear ya, it could have been quite the dream match…but I wouldn’t count on ever seeing it.

“is that ugly splotch on Jeff Hardy’s arm a bunch of paint, or just the ugliest and most uncreative tattoo ever given?” – Bryan Jones

You can never be too sure with him. After looking at some recent pictures of him on WWE.com, I’m going to have to ask “what splotch?” since he’s wearing those arm band things that cover up most of his arms and I can’t see anything. I do remember he had a bunch of paint all over himself in TNA, and you could tell it was paint because it rubbed off on the other wrestlers. Maybe it was part of his deal to come to WWE that he couldn’t get his opponents messy.

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 Michael Richards trying to apologize to me. And if it’s a correction or addition, be sure to mention that in the subject.

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