Ask 411 Wrestling 04.11.07: Lost Smiles, Lost Jobs, Lost Wrestlers and More!

A little advice to you alcohol drinkers out there…gin & tonic and tequilla is a combination you want nothing to do with. Of course, if a girl with a stronger tolerance for alcohol than you calls you a pussy and pulls your punk card in front of a crowd of people, you have to do it anyway to prove your manhood. Even if it means puking your guts out about a half hour later and feeling like shit the next day. But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

In other news, my waistline is expanding quite a bit thanks to Easter candy, food and said alcohol. If you don’t want to send me wrestling questions, feel free to send me diet suggestions. I need all the help I can get before I start looking like Dusty Rhodes.

Comments, Corrections and other C words…

The name of the grocery store that Booker and Stone Cold fought in was “Green Frog Market”. It’s located in Bakersfield, California. There’s two stores with that name, located in the northeast and central parts of town, respectively.

He, and several employees, also talked about how cool Steve and Book was during the whole skit. One cat bragged about how he got thier pictures and autographs….. – Dereck

Just wanted to let you in on the whole Terry Funk “Sick horse” note. In Terry Funk’s Book: “More Than Just Hardcore” (great read BTW-even if he tends to bounce from topic to topic and back again!) He talks about how he was going to take Pat Patterson’s booker job in late 1993. Patterson was going to step down, and Funk was going to take his place. in it he says this:

So there ya go. Terry Funk didn’t like NYC so he went home to his “sick horse” – The Outcast Legend The Wolf

I believe the match in question from last week was against Tyson Tomko and it took place on the RAW immediately before Wrestlemania 21. Christian had sent Tomko to soften Boit up for the frst Money in the Bank, and Benoit busted himself open by using a series off stiff headbutts on Tomko. During the MITB match itself they talk about it and mention that it took like 12 stitches to close the cutup afterwards. (Not sure on the number just a guess, haven’t watchd it in a while).

Also concerning the first MITB, according to news reports I read the idea was really pitched by Chhris Jericho and he came up with the match concept. – Taylor

As for what exactly is in the Undertaker’s urn, I
remember the first (and only) Tuesday Night in Texas
PPV. It was the rematch after Taker had won the title
from Hogan at the Survivor Series, and at the end of
the match, Hogan took the urn away from Paul Bearer
and dumped ashes into his hand, and then threw them in
Taker’s face, leading to a roll up and a pin. So at
one time, there WERE ashes in there. – Nykk

Oh yeah, that match with Benoit where he squirts blood out of his eye was with Matt Hardy and I think it took place in 2003 during the US title tournament, but I could be wrong. – Hunter W.

Last week, someone asked about a possible missing NWO member in the NWO vs. WCW brawl that took place on Nitro. Said he looked like a slimmed down Lex Lugar. Well, WWE 24/7 just showed that episode and I believe he was talking about David Sammartino, who wrestled a pretty good (although still a squash match) against one of the members of the Faces of Fear that episode. However, I don’t believe he fought for the NWO. I think he just came down just because the whole lockerroom was in the ring also and just started fighting. In that brawl, Big Bubba did become a NWO member though. – JLAJRC

Bruno’s kid would have been an interesting NWO member…hell, they let David Flair join at one point.

Just a quick comment in response to a question last week. A writer had asked about the grocery store incident between Austin and Booker, and although I have no information to offer on that topic, I do have some info about another time WWE went “on location.”

Anyways, this has to do with the grocery store battle becuase the writer asked if the store knew. Of course they knew, however, if it was anything like the Albany Frat House, then they may not have known the extent of the damage. They really destroyed that grocery store. – Chris

Just caught up on the last couple weeks of Ask411 and thought I’d throw in some thoughts:

4)More personal opinion: I have to disagree with you on Big Show’s ECW Title reign. I think it was the only thing keeping that brand afloat after everyone else who mattered except he and Sabu started dropping like flies. – 411’s Stuart Carapola

You make a good point with the Show, but weren’t ECW’s ratings at their lowest point they’ve been so far during his title reign? That was one of my main reasons for classifying his ECW title reign as “not much”.

Shawn loses his smile

Thanks for everybody who helped me on this one, all the way from Ace in Chile (who thinks John Cena sucks) to Manu Bumb in…wherever the hell he is this week. Seems like he’s always going somewhere…anyway, the following transcript comes from an old wrestling site maintained by Ask 411 reader Nykk.

Vince McMahon: And now would you please welcome… the most flamboyant, the most charismatic, WWF Champion perhaps of all time… ladies and gentlemen, here to forfeit the World Wrestling Federation Championship… ladies and gentlemen, the one and only SHAWN MICHAELS!

(Michaels music plays and he enters the ring, very carefully, taking his time. A limp is visible.)

McMahon: This comes obviously as a shock. It’s a shock to WWF fans all over the world. Maybe it really shouldn’t be, considering what you give. Obviously, Shawn Michaels, what you bring to the World Wrestling Federation has taken its toll on you… specifically your knee. And as you are facing a knee operation, I wonder if you would share, with millions of fans all over the world, what’s going through your head.

Shawn Michaels: (Often stuttering as this is a very sad and nervous moment for him) Well, it seems like we’ve done this before. And this time, unfortunately for me, it’s much more serious than last time. I’ve never had a doctor look at me in the face, and say that I may never be able to wrestle again. And I was… I was told that the other day. Of course, you know I, it’s not something that I believe. But the fact is that it’s something I have to deal with. Time has, has taken its toll on, on my body.

McMahon: I know you’re just as dissapointed… moreso than anyone else, that you’re not defending the title against Sycho Sid, or for that matter, whomever would have been stacked against you. And no one has taken on more challengers– no one in the history, who has won this championship belt, has ever had the schedule, has ever had to endure the kind of schedule that you have so readily taken upon yourself.

Shawn: Well, there’s one thing about me, is that I can’t do anything halfway, and I, and I come here and I hear the people and they chant Sid’s name, they chant Bret’s name, or they chant a lot of other peoples’ names, and one thing’s for sure when you’re going to have all of that in the future, and that’s what I want for the World Wrestling Federation fans. In spite of what people might think about me, what I’ve always wanted for all these people is, is to have a good time and enjoy themselves. I’ve always tried to be the one to provide it, whether it was on the good side or the bad side. But what was always important to me was the performance… was the performance, so that these people… each time they reached in their pocket– they paid to get a WWF ticket– they didn’t regret it because they knew if they saw my name on the card, they could yell, they could come and they could cheer and they could boo, and they could do whatever they wanted… as long as they had a good time. Over the last couple of months, there has been a lot of talk about people having bad attitudes and a lot revolving around this belt. All I know today is one thing that’s not going to revolve around this belt, for a long time, is going to be Shawn Michaels. I don’t know where I’m at right now. I have to, I have to have everything checked. I may have… I may be beyond reconstructive surgery… I may or may not be able to fix it. But if I can’t come back and perform at the level I performed at… before… I can’t… I can’t perform. I can’t come out here and just go half-ass. I have to come out here and I have to romp and stomp and I have to get tossed around… I have to toss people around and I have to have fun. The schedule over the last year I took on because I didn’t feel like I could say no. I wanted to do everything. I wanted to enjoy life as WWF Champion. I wanted to, I wanted to ride in leer jets, in limousines, and I wanted to be on TV shows and I wanted to do autograph sessions and I got to do every bit of that. If nothing else, I have all of that to take with me. Again… and right now, I know we’re in the middle of a time where toughness is real big here in the World Wrestling Federation… and unfortunately, all I’ve got right now for you is a lot of sorrow, a lot of tears, a lot of emotion. I don’t have any toughness for anybody, so I guess… here you go, here’s your belt. (He give the belt to Gorilla Monsoon, and you can hear some of the fans breaking out into tears and booing.)

Shawn: What I’m going to do is go back home and see what’s left for me; whether it will be in this ring, whether it will be out of this ring, I know that over the last several months I’ve lost a lot of things, and one of them has been my smile. And, and I know it doesn’t mean a lot to everybody else, but it means a lot to me. So I have to go back and fix myself… take care of myself, and I have to go back and I have to find my smile because somewher along the line I lost it and I don’t care really… I don’t care if it’s unpopular, and I don’t care if people want to make fun of me because I’m an emotional guy. But, um… this is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and over the last year I got to do it, and whether you like me or not, I just want to tell you that last year was the most wonderful year of my life. (Shawn is now openly weeping, along with the fans) And if I never get to do it again, it’ll be okay because I got to live one full year as being the number one guy in this business and it was the greatest, most wonderful year of my life.

Shawn: And I have you to thank, I have everybody here to thank, and it means a lot me, and uh, I’m gonna go home now, okay? (Shawn and Vince hug)

McMahon: Ladies and gentlemen, Shawn Michaels!

(Shawn exits the ring slowly and with a little trouble, and receive roses from several of the fans at ringside)

There is also a Youtube video as linked to me by Pat. This is what I get for asking the penguin for advice on something…

Questions!

Hey, I just wanted to ask a logical question. Why in the world wouldn’t WWE introduce a triple threat match until somewhere in 1997?! Even then it was in Canada between HBK, Bret and Sid and untelevised. Other multiple wrestler matches like say, a Fatal 4Way didn’t happen until 97 when Bret beat out Austin, Taker and Vader to win the title. In any case, what could have kept the WWE from using these concepts earlier on? WrestleMania X having Hart, Luger, and Yoko in Triple Threat for the title would have made more sense instead of having two completetly different matches. Not just that, but NWA/WCW were using gimmick matches since the freakin’ 80s and WWE didn’t have ’em going until the 90s (at least not on TV). It couldn’t have been that they didn’t need the gimmick matches for ratings because the mid 90s was when the E was down and (almost) out. So yeah, what’s the deal with the Triple Threat? Could a “creative genius” like Vince McMahon really not come up with that idea all these years? Especially when ECW were doing them left and right. – Eric

Fair question. It is kinda hard to believe that nobody thought of the concept of having a three way match until ECW did it in 1994 with Shane Douglas, Terry Funk & Sabu…and I know I’ll get some e-mails about that because somebody probably did one before it. But that was the one that caught the attention of the wrestling world and eventually spawned WWE’s triple threat matches. At any rate, there are still plenty of traditionalists out there that hate triple threats and fatal fourways and six man mayhem and whatever else involves multiple wrestlers going to one pinfall. Vince probably had a few of them working for him.

During the last ECW One Night Stand PPV, was the Sabu/Rey Mysterio match supposed to end with the doctor with a funny voice coming out saying they cant go on anymore after that table spot, or was that a legit injury? – Jaime

I think that was the plan going into the match, to have a crazy spot that would leave both combatants unable to continue. Had it been “legit”, it probably would have been done a different way than with the funny doctor.

Remember the theme smackdown had before the current one by drowning pool? The name of the song is “I Want It All”, but I cannot find who the song is by. Some help would be nice. – Zachariaha Hickman

I remember the theme, but couldn’t find who exactly did it. I think it might have been a WWE in-house song produced by Jim Johnston, but don’t know who sung it. Readers?

Who were the machines in the WWF? i know andre was giant machine but there were 2 others….big machine and super machine i believe were the other names…they wore masks and always swapped andre with one of the others in interviews and it drove one of the announcers( i believe it was bobby heenan) crazy. – Billy

We have discussed The Machines in this column before…the 11.29.06 edition contains a list of all the different guys wearing Machine masks and driving Bobby Heenan nuts. Big was Blackjack Mulligan & Super was Bill Eadie.

Hi. Long time reader, first time writer. I can usually stump just about anyone when it comes to wrestling questions from about the last 15 years or so, but there’s one I can’t find an answer to. There was a WWF guy named Nailz in the late 80’s/early 90’s that feuded with Big Bossman. He wore an orange jail jumpsuit, and had a messed up voice. He claimed Bossman put him in jail and some bad things that happened when he was locked up and Bossman was going to pay for it. My friend said he stumbled on an article that he was fired because Vince wanted oral sex from him and then he hit him in the grapefruits. Help me out here please. – Trevor

There is a lot of “reportedly” going on in the story of Kevin “Nailz” Wacholz, mostly because he’s a known liar that can’t keep his stories straight, and WWE usually doesn’t see fit to clear situations like this up for people. Nailz’s feud with Bossman that was built up as you described ended after Bossman’s victory in a nightstick match at Survivor Series 1992. His next feud built up on television (there were plans for a feud with Nailz & Ultimate Warrior that didn’t go anywhere since Warrior left the company just before SurSer) was with the Undertaker…they had a staredown that was captured on the cover of an issue of WWF Magazine, but by the time the magazine came out Nailz had left the company.

Nailz was fired from the WWF in December 1992 due to a dispute over money that led to Nailz attacking Vince McMahon and choking him. Nailz filed a lawsuit alleging that McMahon had sexually harrassed him on multiple occasions and claimed wrongful termination. Nothing ever came of any of the lawsuits back and forth between Nailz & the WWF, but Nailz did testify against Vince in the steroid trials of 1994. Unfortunately for the prosecution, Nailz’s testimony was inconsistent and unreliable, and helped lead to Vince being acquitted. There is no evidence of Vince wanting any type of sexual relations from Nailz other than the word of Nailz himself…and, well, he’s not the most reliable of sources out there.

i was watching wrestlemania 2003 on wwe 24/7 and during the shawn micheals vs. chris jericho match, the king said something to j.r. about ppl filming for a movie called “wrestlemania”…….what was up with that, did it ever get released?? – The Gimp

“The Mania of WrestleMania” eventually aired on UPN and was included on the WrestleMania XX DVD set. Narrated by Jesse Ventura, it follows several wrestlers in the events leading up to and including WrestleMania XIX. The most notable clips in the movie are probably the ones involving the Austin vs. Rock match and the events leading up to it…it’s good viewing and I’d recommend watching it.

Patrick has four questions…

1. Why did Vince decide to put the title on Kane for 1 day? It makes no sense in hindsight because he never won it again. I know they painted themselves into a corner with the whole setting on fire angle, but I would think they’d plan their angles out a little better than that, especially in 1998 when their booking was on fire.

I think it’s pretty much what you said…they booked themselves into a corner with the First Blood stipulation and they couldn’t figure out a way to make Kane bleed a gusher without taking his mask off, which would have been a major mistake at that point in time.

2. I checked wikipedia, and the Intercontinental Title hasn’t been defended at WrestleMania since WM18. This is their 2nd biggest title (arguably) and it hasn’t been defended at their biggest show. The IC champ has been in the $ITB matches the last 2, but theoretically speaking, the IC champ shouldn’t need a guaranteed world title shot since being the IC champ should give him the credentials for that. Why do you think they’ve ignored the IC title at WM?

They ignore the Intercontinental Title for most of the other 364 days of the year, so why wouldn’t they ignore it at WrestleMania? I think the days of the IC Champ being considered a top contender for the WWE Title have long since passed. OK, I hear you saying “But Steve, Umaga’s the IC Champ right now and he’s had several title shots against John Cena in the past”…well, he hasn’t had any shots at Cena since winning the IC Title, and he’s too busy getting ECW Title shots to actually defend the IC Title. So there you have it…the reason the IC Title gets ignored at WM is because WWE doesn’t care about it that much.

3. Why do you think they selected Umaga to be Vince’s hair vs hair match representative? Obviously Vince is hoping to get a ton of mainstream attention with this angle, so I’d think he would want to involve a more “mainstream” character than Umaga.

I think Umaga was actually a pretty good choice for the angle because he’s a big scary heel that beats the crap out of people. And since he doesn’t talk, he’s the perfect guy for Vince to order around while doing his long speeches and whatnot. Now, whether Lashley was the right choice for the angle or not…the jury’s still out, but I don’t think he’s getting the kind of reaction that WWE was hoping for.

4. Everyone makes fun of Donald Trump’s hair, so this is a good way of him getting his hair cut without making it seem like he willingly cut it. But my question is has a heel ever won a hair vs hair match? Its the type of match that usually the heel loses. This one is tough to call.

It has happened on two occasions that I can think of off the top of my head…on April 27, 1987 Jerry Lawler lost a hair vs. hair match with Austin Idol thanks to the interference of Tommy Rich & Paul E. Dangerously. The fans in the Mid-South Coliseum nearly rioted as their hero got his head shaved inside a steel cage by the dastardly threesome.

Also, Raven lost a hair vs. hair match vs. Shane Douglas on a TNA PPV on September 17, 2003. This led to the infamous “scalping incident” we’ve discussed before where James Mitchell shaved Raven’s head and took a little bit too much off the top.

I had a question about this “Secrets of Wrestling” show I saw, probably ten or so years ago now, on tv. I think it was NBC, and it was done along the same lines as those “Secrets of Magic” shows were they would show you the trick and then how they did it. There was a ring set up in a warehouse type place and all the wrestlers had on generic masks. I was wondering if you could tell me if these guys were indy performers or guys from WCW or the then WWF, and if they were then who exactly it was. – Mappy

I couldn’t find the identities of all the men who were featured on the show, but I can tell you that Harley Race & ECW’s Pitbulls (Gary Wolfe & Anthony Durante) were there. I can also tell you that it was a pretty bad show that somehow got aired on NBC and revealed pretty much nothing except the art of tearing up autograph books and beating up fake grandmothers that was all the rage in pro wrestling circa 1943.

Alex has two questions…

Is Bobby Roode related in any way to the late great Rick Rude? The surname to one side, I see so much resemblence, yet can´t find it mentioned anywhere, and nor have I heard the commentators ever mention it.

Rick Rude’s real last name was Rood, while Bobby Roode’s last name is spelled like he currently spells it. They do have some similarities in their look, and much of Roode’s persona reminds some people of Ravishing Rick. However, I think that if they actually were related, it would be played up like Maverick Matt Michael Martyr Shane Bentley’s relation to Shawn Michaels.

Around 1993 I remember catching a wrestling show on Eurosport in Europe, which featured Hulk Hogan, and I also remember Ax from Demolition tagging with some giant guy forming a new Demolition. I a presuming it was a japanese wrestling organization, but was wondering which, if so. There were never any promos (that I remember) and I have no idea about the commentry (too long ago to remember, plus I only caught it a handful of times).

I’m not really sure what promotion you could be talking about…I can tell you that Ax did in fact form a new Demolition in the early 1990s with Carmine “Demolition Blast” Azzato. The WWF sent a cease and desist letter once they found out, and there are still bad feelings concerning Ax’s departure from the WWF to this day. He still uses the gimmick on the indy circuit on occasion.

NYGroover82 has two questions…

During Mr. Perfect’s initial WWF run before he lost the IC title to Bret Hart. He went through a lot of managers in a short period of time. I am kind of surprised that they did stick him with so many managers as he clearly didn’t need one. First was Bobby Heenan, second was The Genius, and then he finally ended up with The Coach. Could you give us some history on the manager deal at the time? Like, what story lines reason did he have for firing Heenan, the Genius, in exchange for the Coach?

For the record, Genius was Perfect’s manager before Heenan…John “The Coach” Tolos took over managing Perfect after Heenan decided to retire from managing and focus on being a “broadcast journalist”. There was no firing or anything like that, Heenan simply wanted to move on. He also managed the Beverly Brothers for a brief time. Ironically enough, once Tolos left the WWF, the job of managing the Beverlys fell to Genius. It seems that a lot of wrestlers got introudced by one manager and ended up with another pretty soon after…most notably the Undertaker being introduced by Brother Love before being paired with Paul Bearer.

I just saw the old Bloodbath Steel Cage WWE dvd for the first time. On disc two there is a very entertaining cage match with HBK vrs Marty Janetty from Coliseum Home Video. Guerrilla Monsoon and some really annoying guy are on commentary? You could tell Guerilla hated his guts lol Who was that guy? They have a really funny argument about pin falls in cage matches after the stupid ref runs in to make a 3 count attempt… where Guerilla points out that pinfalls don’t matter in cage matches. I happen to side with old Guerilla’s opinion. Pinfalls in cage matches are stupid! ok, side argument over.

That would be a young rich snob by the name of Johnny Polo, who later went on to greater fame under the name of Raven. He and Gorilla did most of the commentary around that period of time for Coliseum Video, and were pretty entertaining at it.

Alan G. has two questions as well…

My initial question is based on a answer you gave re:how much wrestlers got paid.
How do wrestlers not make much money? Surely nearly the whole roster must have at least a toy figure made and released? You see lots of them about.Would the wrestler not make money from this and do any wrestlers on a ppv later sold on dvd not get a cut of the sales?

Well, you have to take a couple of things into consideration…the majority of wrestlers out there don’t work for WWE or TNA and don’t have access to such things. As for the ones that do, as much as they might make in salary, traveling around the world isn’t cheap. I’m pretty sure WWE doesn’t give their wrestlers lunch money. And medical bills…WWE covers theirs (I think), but most promotions don’t. Most WWE guys probably make decent money, but it’s nowhere near what guys in the major sports (some of which get much lower ratings than WWE, and in the case of the NHL lower than TNA) make.

2nd Q-
Could you tell me who you think has the /had the best finisher? In terms of how it looked not how many pins it got (if u know what i mean)
Cop Killa for me.

The coolest looking finisher in the business has to be Petey Williams’ Canadian Destroyer. I know a lot of you hate it because it’s rather contrived, but really, what looks cooler than a flipping piledriver? And goddamn would that have to hurt.

What’s the breakdown of the Japanese promotions? In a better wording I know there is NOAH, All-Japan, and New Japan but is there a dominant promotion(ex WWE and TNA) or are they popular in different areas (ex the old territory system [just on a bigger scale])? – Brian Blaze

Since I really don’t know jack about how the Japanese view their wrestling, I had Csonka ask 411’s new puro guy Matt Adamson about it.

That’s a tough call really… Right now All Japan is a clear #3, but some would argue New Japan is bigger than NOAH because they outdraw their total for the year, but I think that NOAH is currently the most popular because 1. It’s the only one making any headway in popularity, and 2. They would get the biggest crowd in the Tokyo Dome of the 3 no doubt about it.

So there you have it!

I think it was in 1999 in WCW that with Arn Anderson no longer able to compete Ric Flair, Arn, Steve “Mongo” McMicheals, Chris Benoit, and Dean Malenko in tuxedos appeared on Nitro to introduce Malenko as the newest member of the Four Horsemen. Shortly afterwards Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko became a tag team. Steve McMicheals disappeared with no explaination. Ric Flair seemed to become more interested in his son David Flair’s wrestling career. What really happened to “Mongo”? What happened to the new Four Horsemen angle? – David

Steve McMichael left WCW in early 1999 and is currently coaching the Chicago Slaughter of the Continental Indoor Football League. He also hosts a Chicago Bears pregame show with Chet Coppock. After leaving WCW, McMichael retired from wrestling and got really fat. As for the Four Horsemen, they had that great promo in Greenville that you talked about, and then they pretty much got squashed by the NWO because they were old news in the mind of Eric Bischoff.

Frenzal has four questions…

1. I remember a wrestler called ‘Wrath’ who was a god damn monster, but then got beaten by Nash and I can’t recall what happened to him after. Any details?

Wrath later became one half of Kronik working under his real name of Bryan Clarke.

2. Did Scotty Riggs, Sick Boy and Reese go anywhere after the flock disbanded? I just remember them all disappearing as well.

Scotty Riggs – Riggs had a brief run in WCW working a narcisstic gimmick before going to ECW and doing a feud with Rob Van Dam under the name Scotty Anton. He did some work in Dusty Rhodes’s Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling but I don’t think he’s wrestling anywhere right now.

Sick Boy – Scott Vick signed a contract with the WWF in 1999, and spent some time in OVW, but never made it to the big show. Plans for a feud with Val Venis were dropped, as were plans to have him involved in the infamous “Katie Vick” storyline as Katie’s brother. He left the company in 2004 and now runs a fitness consulting company. He did a dark match at a WWE show in March 2005, but hasn’t been seen in wrestling since.

Reese – Ron Reis was released by WCW in 1999, and spent some time in Japan before working for the aformentioned TCW from 2001-2002. He resurfaced in Vince Russo’s shortlived Ring Of Glory promotion working as “Evil” in 2005.

3. I also remember some hippy guy who tried to get into the flock. Raven DDT’d him but got his revenge on some PPV later down the line when Raven fought DDP. Who was this person?

I don’t remember anything about any hippies…anybody?

4. I remember vividly Scott Hall winning World War 3 in ’96 (I think, it was a huge clusterfuck). Whatever happened to his title shot? (btw, I fkn hated the swerve with Sting in that match). – Frenzal

Hall won World War 3 in 1997, and got his title shot against Sting at WCW Uncensored on March 15, 1998. Hall spent his time between WW3 and his title shot feuding with Larry Zbysko.

In PPV matches, when Steve Austin and The Rock faced each other, who had the most wins? (All Pay Per Views?) – Rob from London

In singles matches on PPV, Austin held a 4-1 edge, with Rock only winning their last encounter at WrestleMania XIX. Their matches were at D-Generation X (December 1997), WrestleMania XV, Backlash (April 1999), WrestleMania XVII & WrestleMania XIX.

Is it really chosen because Kennedy is VKM middle name, are you sure it isn’t because his real name is Ken??? – Chris Jacobs

Kennedy cut a promo in OVW saying Vince convinced him to change the name due to the middle name thing…he could be full of it, but I don’t think it has anything to do with his first name.

Basti brings us four questions from Germany…

1. everybody knows, that going into the wrestlemania X-8 match between hollywood
hogan and the rock, hulk was the heel and the peoples champ was the face. then
the toronto crowd refuses to boo the hulkster but instead cheers every heelish
moves he does. after the match hall and nash came out and start to attack hogan.
my question is was it the plan all along to turn hogan face after the match, or
was that the response to the crowd reaction?

I think WWE already knew that Hogan was going to receive a lot of fan support, so the plan was to turn Hogan face all along. It worked out pretty well until they gave him the WWE Title at Backlash and people realized “Hey, this old dude has the title.”

2. i once heard the story that going into wrestlemania VIII the original plan
was to have hogan-flair for the wwf championship as the main event,with flair
going over. so this was changed to the double main event hogan-sid and
flair-savage. if flair was supposed to go over hogan why did he drop the title
to the macho man?

I think Flair pretty much had to lose to Savage at WM VIII to make the feud work the way it did…I don’t remember ever hearing that the plan was for Flair to go over Hogan. Of course, Hogan could have played some politics by getting out of jobbing by “retiring”, which would have led to the Plan B…but I don’t think Flair was ever planned to go over Hogan at WM VIII.

3. then in september the nature boy regained the title from savage only to lose
it one month later (i believe it was on a house show) to bret hart.
why did he have such short title reigns? first i believed that his second reign
only lasted a month, because he was gone from the company shortly afterwards.
but then i realised that he was around till royal rumble 1993. was it an open
secret that flair would go back to wcw or was he fired?

Flair’s second title reign was shortened due to his having an inner ear injury that affected his equilibrium. This problem would resurface in 2000…he went back to WCW due to Vince no longer wanting to use him as one of the top guys.

4. why didn’t the wwf have macho man drop the title to the hitman? would have
been a really good match in my opinion. did bret hart and randy savage ever
wrestled a one on one match?

Hart & Savage had a match on an episode of WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event that received rave reviews on November 28, 1987. I don’t believe they had another televised encounter until WCW Slamboree 1998. They did not like to book face vs. face matches on a regular basis, which is probably why they had Flair put Bret over instead of having Savage do it.

Why do the WWE new stars suck in ring? They train for 2 or 3 years in DSW and OVW and UPW and then come to the WWE and cant bump, sell or execute. So why bring them up and what are they doing for 2 years that they cannot put on a decent match? It happens time and time again. The guys who are good in ring are all in ring verterans. The only exceptions I can think of, of WWE new talent being very good in ring are Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar, aside from them I cannot think of any of the new guys that can put on a decent match. Please do not tell me its about nerves and being in front of a worldwide television audience and thousands of live fans. – Tarek El-Yafi

Well man, that’s gotta be part of it. Jim Cornette once talked about how WWE would ask him to rank all of the wrestlers in OVW and how they would call up more guys towards the bottom of the list than towards the top. There are a lot of young guys in WWE that can put on a decent match…unfortunately they get overshadowed by the guys that can’t. And it should be said that while OVW & DSW are great places to train talent, wrestlers can’t get the same type of seasoning from working in one place than they can by working all over the place like they used to in the old days. But I think you’re neglecting a lot of the young talent in WWE that can put on a good match if given the opportunity to do so.

I have been reading the roundtable reviews of all the Wrestlemanias and one thing has jumped out at me a couple of times. In around wrestlemania 14 and 15, the reviewers mention several times how HHH (and HBK?) messed up, caused himself a push, broke kayfaybe, etc., and they refer to it as the MSG incident. Of course MSG means Madison Square Garden, but im dying to know what happened. Maybe there was an article written on it and i didnt see it, but could you please enlighten me!?!? – P-Kon

Scott Hall & Kevin Nash were leaving the WWF for WCW after working one last show in Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1996. Hall put over a young guy named Hunter Hearst Helmsly while Nash lost a cage match to Shawn Michaels in the main event. After the match was over, Hall & Helmsly joined Michaels & Nash in the ring and the four embraced. Since Helmsly & Nash were heels and Hall & Michaels were babyfaces, this was considered a violation of kayfabe, and people backstage were really, really pissed off about it. Helmsly received the brunt of the punishment for this since Hall & Nash were leaving and Michaels was the WWF Champion…his planned King of the Ring victory was put off until 1997 and he was de-pushed for most of the rest of the year.

Julian Smith has five questions…

1. Where is Albert, of ‘Test & Albert’ fame? Also, if you could, what was Albert up to before being introduced in the WWE?

Albert, real name Matt Bloom, is now working in New Japan Pro Wrestling under the name “Giant Bernard”. He also works as “Rusher Road” in NJPW’s spin-off promotion WRESTLE LAND. Prior to joining the WWF, Bloom played professional football very briefly and worked as a teacher before training to be a wrestler. His first “notable” appearances in wrestling were in Memphis’s Power Pro Wrestling as “Baldo”.

2. Just before his match against the NWO with tag partners The Rock and Hulk Hogan, Kane cut one of the best promos of his life. In a flash he established a flock of ‘Kane-a-nites’. Then, nothing. WTF?!? What happened with this? Just from the crowd reaction you could tell taht the Big Red Machine was HELLUVA over…and then, *poof*. Help me understand!

I remember the promo you’re talking about…it was pretty random and I don’t think anything ever really came of it. I remember a line Jerry Lawler had about how Hogan had Hulkamaniacs and Kane had necrophiliacs, but I don’t think that has anything to do with this promo. The line was funny though.

3. Again with Kane. Just before “See No Evil” there was a fake Kane. Then he was gone. Who was the fake Kane and what happened with this angle…aside from the fact that it sucked.

The fake Kane is a man known as the Freakin Deacon in Deep South Wrestling. He and the real Kane had a match at Vengeance 2006 that was so bad that it resulted in Fake Kane being destroyed and thrown out of the arena by Real Kane on the next night’s episode of Raw. He was never mentioned again.

4. What is ex-Harlem Heat member Stevie Ray up to?

Stevie Ray currently helps his brother King Booker run a wrestling school in Houston, Texas.

5. Finally,the last of the the “where are they now” questions…Lodi from Raven’s Flock. Where is he?

Brad “Lodi” Cain currently works as a personal trainer and is a published author. His book “Perfect” was published in 2005.

I have have noticed in alot of matches that are No DQ, hardcore, etc, when one wrestler has another in a submission hold. Why is it that when the one in the hold grabs the ropes, the ref forces the hold to be broken? If the match is No DQ, it shouldn’t matter if the guy is on the ropes or not. – Rey

Penguin agrees with me in that it’s just one of those wrestling things. I think the referee is just so accustomed for asking for a rope break that he forgets that it’s not necessary in a No DQ match. Of course, if the cheating wrestler is smart, he’ll continue to apply the hold despite the opponent being in the ropes. The ref can’t DQ him, right?