Ask 411 Wrestling 02.16.07: Wrestling is Fake, Curtain Calls, What Rock said to Austin, and More!

I’d like to thank my esteemed colleague Ryan Byers for filling in for me during my absence….who knows, maybe you will see him back in this slot someday. You never know what tomorrow will bring. I’d also like to congratulate Jeff Small on stepping into my Thursday news slot and wish him the best of luck in sticking with it longer than I did. Which was…..a little bit over a year. Damn, I don’t know how people like Randle do that shit forever and ever. I guess it’s easier for him because he just does three news items, throws in some injury stuff and reader feedback and calls it a column. But it works for him, so who am I to judge?

As those of you who read the last news column know, I’m not too enthralled with the current state of pro wrestling. That makes it kind of hard to justify spending a lot of time writing about it on the Internet…but there are still some bright spots for me. WSX is fun in a weird kind of way. (Even though it may or may not be on the verge of disappearing from MTV…stay tuned to 411 for the latest news on that development) There’s always the Chikara podcast. But most of the wrestling I’ve been watching lately are old ROH DVDs. And don’t tell Ari I said this, but I actually like CM Punk as a commentator. But I’m really pumped about the ROH show in Dayton on February 23rd…that should help me regain some of that love for wrestling.

Another thing that helps? Watching Jim Cornette & Bill Watts SHOOT~! It’s almost as great as watching Csonka and myself.

All right, let’s get to the questions. I couldn’t find any corrections in the boatloads of e-mails that Byers forwarded to me, so we’re skipping that part this week. Woooooooo!

hiphopshuvit has a bunch of questions that will be answered later, but this one makes the cut this week…

What match do you think were the best televised matchs of 06? I think the cage match between Booker T and Bobby Lashley on Smackdown would be my first choice and then RVD vs Hardcore Holly on ECW ( to tell you the truth at the beginning of that match i thought it was going to suck but then it ended up to be one of my favorites). Thanks!

You know, a big part of my disillusionment with wrestling these days is the lack of good wrestling matches on television. That being said, two that stick out for me as something I remember from 2006 are Edge vs. Ric Flair in a TLC match on Raw and Jeff Jarrett defending the NWA title against Jay Lethal on a July episode of Impact. I’m not saying those were the two best, but those are the ones that stick out in my mind. I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of Finlay matches, but that happens sometimes.

Tanner has lots and lots of questions…

1) RVD’s contract comes to an end soon and tons of IWC guys have been saying that he’s not going to resign, and instead, he will sign on with TNA. Do you see this happening? Why/Why not?

I’ll believe that RVD is going to leave WWE when I see it actually happen. This same rumor starts every time his contract is about to come to an end, and he keeps re-signing with WWE. I think you hear this talk about RVD more than other guys because he’s not afraid to let people know that he isn’t happy with how WWE uses him. But, even if he isn’t completely happy in WWE, that hasn’t been enough to make him leave yet. I guess you can’t rule it out, but I wouldn’t get too excited thinking about RVD vs. Styles or Daniels or Joe or whoever.

2)Was that CM Punk’s real WWE contract that he signed on the ROH title?

I have not seen the tape of that event, but it very well could have been.

3) Why hasn’t Terry Funk ever won the WWE or World Heavyweight titles? I know that he’s won the ECW and NWA titles (once a peice)…

Funk was never in the WWF at a time when the conditions were right for somebody like him to be on top as their champion, and he has spent the vast majority of his career outside the promotion. His father Dory had ownership of the Amarillo territory back in the day and had a lot of power and respect within the NWA, which helped led to him and Dory Jr. being champions for a good period of time. (I’m certainly not taking anything away from the work of both men, as they both undoubtedly deserved to be champions on their own merits, but you know backstage shit always trumps ability in pro wrestling.) I think Terry could have been a WWF Champion if he stuck around long enough, but he never stayed in the Northeast (or most other places) too long. He doesn’t seem to like Vince McMahon all that much, so that would have also hurt his chances.

1. ROH has been attracting more people than ever before. I know that it is televised on special channels in both Canada and the UK. Do you think the US will ever see ROH televised?

I think the best chance ROH has of being televised in the US is a deal similar to the ones they have in Canada and the UK, where they air their shows on a wrestling/fighting channel carried on satellite television. They don’t seem interested in producing a weekly show for cable television, and I’m not sure that the demand is there from the cable channels. If a channel like Canada’s Fight Network and the UK’s Wrestling Channel was to develop in the US, I think ROH could find a home there. The question is if WWE would allow something like that to happen, and if this prospective channel could find enough programming not owned by WWE that would interest American viewers.

2. What’s up with CM Punks de-push?

Internet reports are that Punk is not very popular with some of WWE’s agents..errrrrrrrr…producers. Guys like Arn Anderson & Fit Finlay don’t have the same high opinion of the Punker that most of the Internet fans do, and apparently making out with Maria in Iraq in front of troops and other wrestlers didn’t help his cause either.

4. Are the Hardys ever going to be a full-time thing again or are we going to have to wait until Jeff drops the IC title for that to happen?

Vince McMahon keeps flip-flopping on this topic, but right now it looks like we’ve seen the last of the Hardys as a tag team. For now. Apparently he doesn’t understand the concept of people being more valuable in a tag team than as singles wrestlers, which has also led to the downfall of MNM.

5. Is Claudio Castagnoli likely to go to ECW? – Tanner

No, and I feel sorry for Claudio because not only did he lose his chance to go to WWE, but he doesn’t even get to team with Chris Hero on the indies anymore. Talk about a double whammy.

Craig has a question about bumps…

When a wrestler has huge bump in a match do they do a test run before
hand? maybe with padding? Its hard to believe that mick foley jumped off
the cell a few days before the KOTR 98.

Foley never mentioned anything about doing a test run in his book, so I would say that it depends on the situation. Cheap cop-out answer? You betcha!

John Bryant has some questions…

“What’s this deal about all of this heat between Cornette & Russo, and then
Cornette & Heyman. I’m just eager to find out what happened that was so bad as
to cause these men to despise one another like they do. and I was gonna ask
you what I ended up asking Csonka once. Who do YOU consider a perfect
Mouthpiece for Lashley. I think it was LTC that said The Million Dolla Man Ted
Dibiase. anyway if it wasn’t sorry for the Untrue statements LTC.

Cornette vs. Heyman – Cornette has been against “extreme” wrestling for years, and Heyman helped put it on the map with ECW. Heyman also took the Gangstas from Smoky Mountain Wrestling before they finished their booked dates with the company, refused to pay Cornette for SMW footage of Tammy Sytch that he used on his TV show, screwed over the NWA, and many other things that didn’t sit well with Corny. Cornette isn’t as mad at Heyman as he once was, he says this is because so many people have come along that are worse than Heyman that Heyman gets better in his eyes without actually doing anything.

Cornette vs. Russo – Again, you’ve got two guys with very different opinions on how wrestling should be presented. They clashed when they were on the WWF creative team in the mid to late 90s, Russo won the battle and Cornette went back home to Louisville in order to help run OVW. Cornette really got pissed off at Russo when Russo promoted a character in WCW that imitated Cornette’s friend Jim Ross and mocked Ross’s Bell’s Palsy. Things seem to be ok between them for now.

Lashley’s mouthpiece – I’d go with Theodore Long. Holla Holla Holla, playa!

Anyway, I got other questions for ya. if Pat Paterson was (Kayfabe, btw) the
original IC champ by winning a tournament in RDJ, Brazil, there was no
tournament, Who was the original United States champion? also I did a look up on
Jerry the King Lawler. it seems he won numerous titles. at least 111 and at the
most 117 titles. is there anyone who has more combined title reigns?

Original US Champion – This is a difficult question to answer because there were several different versions of the US title floating around in NWA territories. Versions of the US title were defended in Chicago, the Central States, Hawaii, Toronto, Detroit, San Francisco, Japan’s PWF, and the Mid-Atlantic. The oldest one I could find was the Chicago version, which was first held by Verne Gagne in 1953. The version of the US title that wound up being defended in WCW (the Mid-Atlantic version) was first held by Harley Race in 1975.

Lawler is widely recognized as the wrestler with the most title reigns to his credit, there is nobody I know of with more.

Drew asks a question about the Fallen Angel…

My question is this. Christopher Daniels. He’s one of the best in TNA and is worthy of a world title shot. What I want to know though is about his past. How’d he get the name of Fallen Angel? With the reverand coat and the Anka tattooed, It would seem he was a Christrian Reverand or Catholic turned Pagan. Was he at one time a deep gimmick wrestler and simply grew out of it into himself or a more usual kinda character (ego and I’m the best)? Or was it just a cool name and image and he’s always been the “I’m the whole Show” kinda thing?

The “Fallen Angel” gimmick was something Daniels developed while working in the indies in the mid 90s. Basically, Daniels protrayed a cult leader that claimed he was God’s gift to professional wrestling, and led around other wrestlers in groups like ROH’s Prophecy. He has drifted away from the gimmick a lot in recent years, but still keeps the look and the name. For the record, Daniels is a Roman Catholic.

Rey has a question about wrestling being fake…

I am old enough to remember John Stossel getting the taste slapped out of his mouth by Dave Schultz for asking such a question. It was only ten years ago when Big Van Vader was arrested for attacking a reporter in Kuwait for asking the same question.When exactly did the WWE and other wrestling organizations start acknowledging that wrestling was fake?

The first time that a wrestling promoter admitted in public that wrestling was predetermined was in 1989, when Vince McMahon testified as such to the New Jersey state legislature. He did this in an attempt to get out of paying a tax that was issued to athletic contests held in New Jersey. It didn’t work and the tax on wrestling in New Jersey was not lifted until 1997. But ever since then, the cat’s pretty much been out of the bag.

Eric Whitesides asks abour Donald vs. Rosie…

In regards to the Donald/Rosie cat fight in the media, knowing this is a wrestling column, do you think that this was a work or a shoot, since they both are on TV shows and are looking for a ratings push, something like some publicist got to thinking and created this, for publicity purposes, or do you think they really hate each other.

It’s a work. But would anybody be surprised if somebody didn’t like Rosie O’Donnell? Or Donald Trump? They’re both pretty hateable in my book.

Creyes has a thing for Jeff Jarrett…but then again, who doesn’t?

“I don’t have cable, so I only get to watch Smackdown, which is awesome, and
from what I read the other shows aren’t that good. But my question is, and
I’m sure the answer is easy, but I’m lazy.”sigh”, what happened to Jeff
Jarrett? I know he lost the belt, but why don’t I read about him being on
the show anymore. Is it a kayfab’d storyline or does he not wrestle, what
gives? I think he’s dreamy.”

After losing the title to Sting at Bound For Glory, Jarrett did an interview on the next episode of Impact where he said that he needed to take some time off, citing problems he had to address on a professional and personal level. He has been focusing his attention on the business side of TNA. I haven’t heard anything recently about when he will be returning, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him by Slammiversary in June.

Al Fucsko has a question about DDP…

I have a funny question… What is with DDP’s face? In recent years, his face looks like he’s has a bad botox job or something. Pick up a copy of ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ and you’ll know what I mean. DDP has a cameo in it.

You know, I remember hearing something about this a long time ago…I can’t find anything on it now, but I think he at least had a surgical procedure to have his teeth whitened for the “Positively Page” gimmick he did in the WWF in 2002.

RJEJVH01 wonders if an ex-DX member will return soon…

Do you think that it is the right time for wwe to bring back chyna to wwe to
be in dx or should tna bring her in to join vkm?

After hearing about her appearance on Larry King Live last week, I don’t think she needs to be appearing on any wrestling show anytime soon.

William S. Hibbard asks about Vader vs. Goldberg…

I’m following up on a rumour I’ve heard, and I was hoping you could provide
some clarification. Supposedly, over in Japan Goldberg gave Vader some lip
and Vader knocked Goldberg’s head off for his trouble.

Is there any truth to this or is it just another rumour? I’m not sure of the
timeframe this was supposed to have happened in.

I don’t think Vader & Goldberg were ever in the same promotion at the same time, so I would chalk this one up to rumor.

Steve Lipenta has a question about Konnan’s financial status…

I preface this question by saying I will no disrespect towards Konnan nor do
I wish to make light of his serious condition or potential financial
situation. However, I was surprised to hear that he was in need for
fundraising to pay for his transplant surgery. I was under the impression
that Konnan was considerably well off. I recall hearing that he worked the
contracts for most Mexican wrestlers’ deals with American promoters. On top
of that, he apparantly made a great deal off a series of Spanish language
Luchador DVDs. I could be mistaken about all of this or maybe the exact
amount he made was exagerated.

One would assume that a man who has accomplished as much in the wrestling business as Konnan has would have a good bit of money, but apparently he does not at this point. It’s possible that he spent most of the money he made like most wrestlers (and people in general) tend to do, and without health insurance surgery can be pretty damn expensive. I think Dave Meltzer recently discussed Konnan’s situation in his newsletter, but I am not a subscriber.

Chris Brooks has a question about the death of Eddie Guerrero…

I was wondering if there has ever been a definite answer to what caused
the death of Eddie Guerrero? I have never seen anything about the
autopsy results. Not trying to disgrace his memory or anything, I was a
fan of his and just being curious.

Guerrero’s autopsy revealed that he died of acute heart failure, which was caused by previously undiagnosed arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease and enlargement of the heart as a result of past anabolic steroid abuse.

Brad has three questions for us…

1) I recently saw a video where Manny Fernandez got “revenge” for Bruise Brody’s death but just destroying some guy. My questions are who was the guy he beat badly, and also what ever became of that incident.

Looking at YouTube, I believe the incident you’re talking about took place in 1989 and involved Invader III, who I presume would have been a tag team partner of Invader I, AKA Jose Gonzalez, the man who murdered Bruiser Brody in the shower of a locker room in Puerto Rico one year prior to when this would have taken place. The story is that Fernandez deliberately kneedropped Invader from the top rope right onto the ribs as payback for Gonzalez’s murder of Brody, who was Fernandez’s friend. The announcer on the tape says that Gonzalez refused to wrestle Fernandez, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was telling the truth there. Some have claimed that the incident was staged…check it out for yourself and see what you think. I couldn’t find any information on what happened to Invader III after this match.

2) I have heard alot of Donovan Morgan, how come he has never wrestled in any of the big american feds?

Morgan tried out for WWF & WCW in 1997-98, but did not catch on with either group. This probably had a lot to do with his lack of size & charisma. After spending most of his career wrestling in Japan and the indies, Morgan retired from wrestling and now works as a banker in Mount Dora, Florida.

3) Why did the Bushwackers change to that goofy gimmick? I had heard of the sheephearders being one of the most brutal teams ever, what happened?

When the Sheepherders went to the WWF in 1987, they couldn’t very well work blood matches because WWF didn’t have those. So they were repackaged as the Bushwackers…and people either loved it or hated it. I’ll take a Sheepherder match over a Bushwacker match any day of the week, but Bushwacker vignettes were usually pretty damn hilarious.

Jones has a movie question…

I heard that one of my fav wrestlers DDP was in the
horror film the Devils Rejects. Im not a big Rob
Zombie fan….but Ill be renting it depending on how
big of a role Page has,,,is it just a cameo or how
much was in the movie?

Al Fucsko says it’s just a cameo…I haven’t seen the movie myself but I’ll take his word for it.

Chase M. has several questions…

I was wondering if you think Psycho Sid belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame?
Also do you think they will make a dvd about him. I loved when he came back to
wcw as the millenium man.

Sid was an entertaining guy, but he’s not somebody I’d consider HOF material. He did become WWF & WCW Champion, but was never really a guy that drew lots of money in that position or had outstanding matches. He was also very inconsistent and tended to take long leaves of absence…it seemed like he was more interested in playing softball than he was in wrestling. As for a DVD, I haven’t heard any talk of a Sid DVD, so it wouldn’t happen for a long time if it does.

They made a dvd about wrestling managers, do you think they will do one for
officials?

I don’t think so. Really, what could you do on a DVD about officials? Don’t get me wrong, referees are interesting people and a brief segment on them could be good stuff…but a whole DVD? Not to mention the fact that the extras section would feature exciting matches like Earl Hebner vs. Nick Patrick.

With Bam Bam Bigelow’s passing do you think they will add him to the hall of
fame?

It’s not impossible, but I don’t see it happening this year. Besides, the Beast From The East should be inducted in his home territory, not filthy Detroit that’s not in the East. That being said, I’m not sure Bam Bam kissed enough ass to warrant induction or not. And I’m pretty sure he wasn’t on the list that Hulk Hogan read on the Bubba The Love Sponge radio show.

Will the British Bulldog finally be inducted this year because of his son
Harry wrestling in the WWE?

Well, Harry isn’t doing much wrestling yet. I think they will do that somewhere down the line though, and if they really want to do it right, they should induct the Dynamite Kid along with Davey Boy Smith. They probably won’t, but they should. Whether it will be this year or not…not sure.

NYGroover82 asks about a mid-90s WWF star…

the other day i realized how lashley compares to ahmed johnson in debuts.
When ahmed 1st entered the scene he almost imeadiatly shot up the cards and won
the IC belt from goldust pretty damn quick for a rookie/new guy to the wwf
for that time. Then he was gone in less than a year. He seemed like he had so
much potential. What the hell happened to ahmed?

Ahmed got a little too big for his britches, in more ways than one. He was a sloppy SOB, which didn’t exactly endear him to his co-workers that kept getting injured when wrestling him, he didn’t do a whole lot to improve, and his ego got a little bit bigger than people were willing to tolerate. My personal favorite Ahmed story is the time he refused to sell for Chyna during a match he was going to have with Hunter Hearst Helmsly and allegedly said “Ain’t gonna let no bitch hit me.”

Now, Ahmed could have overcome all these obstacles if he didn’t get injured all the time…but unfortunately it seemed like whenever he was coming back from a big injury he’d suffer another one. This eventually led to his departure from the WWF in 1998…well, that and he refused to put over Kurrgan one night. He popped up a couple of years later in WCW teaming with Stevie Ray as Harlem Heat 2000. The newly named Big T looked like he’d either put on a lot of extra holiday inches or gotten himself pregnant, and his matches were downright awful. He was released just before WCW was purchased by the WWF. He currently lives in Houston, Texas.

Kevin D. has a question all the way from Sydney, Australia…

“I’ve got a question thats been killing me for ages

At the very end of the match where Rock finally wins. Rocky pushes Referee Earl Hebner away (i hope that was kayfabe) and says something to Austin before celebrating – my Question – just what the hell did he say? Kills me every time i watch it.”

This is revealed in “The Mania Behind WrestleMania”, the documentary WWE made about WM XIX that can be found on the WM XX DVD set…Rock thanked Austin and told him that he loved him, and Austin did the same. Hey, if I made as much money as they did with each other alongside some dude, I’d be pretty appreciative too.

Rob Leavy asks about a possible real fight in pro wrestling…

Was reading the ask 411 segment with the question regarding real fights in
Wrestling. There was a Bryan Danielson/Roderick Strong match from the back
end of ’05 which I’ve not been able to work out was the finish real or
worked. During the course of the bout the shots got stiffer and stiffer to
the point where it was actually quite uncomfortable to watch. The end of the
match came as during a heated exchange of blows Strong seemed to
legitimately knock Danielson out. As Strong attempted to roll Danielson over
for the pin Danielson came to, shook it off and proceeded to level Strong
about the head with open hand slaps before rolling him into a beautiful
version of an armbar with the arm locked beneath his knee joint. Given
Strongs shouts of “oh shit” when he realised what was happening and the
ensueing exchange of words after the bout I’m at a loss as to whether there
was legitimate heat or whether this was just another example of excellent
working on the part of ROH. Gimme the 411 as they say.

It was a work. While it might have been well executed on tape and in person, the ROH Newswire’s description of the events was pretty embarassing. Well, as an old school kinda guy I thought it was kind of ridiculous for them to talk about Danielson & Strong working “snug” and “receipts” being given during the match. It’s a nice idea to talk about guys going all OMGSTIFF~! on each other, but the problem with that is it makes the rest of your matches look fake. I’m not a big fan of the whole shoot/work thing, which largely explains my disinterest towards anything Vince Russo books. But that’s another story…

Woozerno1 has a question about what happened after the Invasion…

I’ve also a question regarding face/heel turns. After surviour series 2001,
where Angle saved WWE from the alliance by turning on SCSA. Now to me that
should have automatically made him a super face, considering the alliance was
“evil”.However the next night on Raw, Austin was face and Angle and Mcmahon
were heels from the off. Whats up with that? Surely wasn’t just the fact that
the fans loved SCSA?Was there more to it?

That had a lot to do with it…as well as Austin played the heel role, the fans just never wanted to stop cheering for him. Combine that with the fact that Angle & McMahon are much better and more recognizable as heels, and it was the easy thing to do at that point. It actually made more sense that way, and gave wrestling fans credit for having a memory longer than two weeks that would recognize that Austin was the man and Angle & McMahon were conniving heels at heart.

Finally, Don Rogers wonders why more wrestlers don’t take curtain calls…

“as i’m a life long wrestling fan for 28 years it’s sort bugs me when certain wrestlers just fade away or move on without seeming to give a damn about the fans that made them as wealthy and famous as they are today. don’t get me wrong i don’t beleave they owe us (fans) anything but my case and point is men like the rock, bret hart, ultimate warrior, stone cold, and the list goes on but really would it hurt them to take ten minutes out of there lives to give a curtain call for the fans that cheered or booed them for so many years of there lives.”

Would it hurt them? Probably not. Is it necessary? That, I’m not sure of. It depends on if you consider pro wrestling a sport or a show. If it’s a sport, you think of people like Bret Hart, Rock & the rest like sports fans think of their favorite players. And sometimes teams will hold an appreciation night for a legend, they’ll retire the player’s number, the player will give a speech, the fans will applaud, and everybody feels warm and fuzzy. Wrestling is not really a place for warm and fuzzy…when an old-timer comes out to receive one last curtain call, they usually end up getting punked out by whoever the promotion is trying to push as a heel at the time. There are exceptions to the rule, but 95% of the time that’s what happens.

I dunno, sometimes fading away doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. Make your money, move on. I don’t know about you guys, but I sure wish more of our wrestling legends could move on and be successful and at peace with themselves.