Ask 411 Wrestling 05.16.07: Double Champs, Max Mini, Forgotten WWE Writers and More!

Before we start, it’s been brought to my attention that the wife of 411’s Larry Csonka refused to apologize for her remarks concerning the breasts of one Traci Brooks on the TNA Sacrifice Podcast. The only conclusion I can draw is that she’s jealous. I can’t say that I blame her, but Christi, if that is your real name…you need to calm down and realize that it is what it is. Not everybody can hold a key to my heart, know what I mean? Many women have run into this problem, it’s tough for them to get over, but eventually they realize that things happen for a reason and they’ll find somebody else.

Besides, Larry’s my boy! Dudes don’t go after other dudes’ women.

Comments, Corrections and other C words

I noticed someone was asking for a good site for clips from random raws.
Well I can not guarantee any specific clips, but I want to recommend
Dailymotion.com. It has TONS of raw clips that are not taken down like
Youtube. It seems the WWE raids youtube and closes down a lot vids on a
regular basis, but the issue doesn’t seem to come up too often with
dailymotion. Anyway just trying to help out. Keep up the awesome column. – Bryce

You missed out a bizarre inconsistency in your discussion about holding the rope in tag team matches, which is why (WWE) wrestlers do it in no-DQ matches.

I know it’s a work but this sort of logic gap does my head in. Why book a no-DQ tag match if you then call the match in exactly the same way as an ordinary match – surely the only logical way to book a no-DQ tag match is to use Texas Tornado rules and have all four men fighting at the same time. – Phil Stubington

Regarding last weeks question on where fit finlay is from in Belfast. He’s not actually from Belfast, but a town about 8 miles to the east of Belfast called Carrickfergus. Im assuming he’s announced from Belfast as its the biggest city in Northern Ireland and best known. – Simone

I’ll assume he was born in a hospital in Belfast, The city or the Royal, doesn’t matter. But He grew up in GreenIsland (and estate bout 10 miles north of Belfast) and some of his family still live there. My granny lives there and said she remembers something about him having a wrestling school there at one point, though it s my gran and im not sure how realiable she is lol. – Thomas from Northern Ireland

When he was young, Finlay lived in Whiteabbey. I have heard that he later moved to Carrickfergus. In one of his debut vignettes, he does stand in front of Carrickfergus castle, which may support this fact. Hope it helps, love the column. – Tony

Just a quick note to add to the question about Fit Finlay. I’ve noticed that he is announced as being from ‘Belfast, Ireland’. But Belfast isn’t in Ireland, it’s in Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom. To all intents and purposes he’s a British wrestler, not an Irish wrestler, though some Catholics in Northern Ireland do style themselves as Irish. He will have a British passport. I would bet any money that when he performs in Belfast he is not announced as being from Belfast, Ireland – there would be a riot if that happened. So, your answer to the question about him would be wrong when you say that he’s then only Irish wrestler to make it across the pond – because he isn’t Irish! – Rich

In response to the Hogan vs. Austin dialogue on your latest post:
I remember that the main event on the last Raw before Wrestlemania 18 was a handicap match featuring Austin & Rock vs. Hogan, Hall, & Nash. I don’t remember the details, but if Hogan and Austin ever squared off this would have been the best opportunity.

Also, I don’t agree with your assessment of the Black Scorpion character. Everything that I have read (and I have researched this topic quite a bit) points to WCW management (Ole Anderson) using the Ultimate Warrior to play the Black Scorpion although they didn’t have him signed. Sounds stupid, but that’s the way those guys ran WCW back then.
In addition, Al Perez wrestled as ‘The Black Scorpion’ in the first match against Sting at the Clash of Champions in September of 1990. You remember the finish: Sting wins, takes the ‘Black Scorpion’s’ (Perez’s) mask off only to reveal a second mask, and then while going for the 2nd mask he looks up to see the real Black Scorpion coming down the rampway. – evarga

OK, so maybe I underestimated Ole Anderson’s stupidity and thought that he had to know that Ultimate Warrior wouldn’t be coming to WCW.

A technical point. Undertaker never kicked out of the DDT at Wrestlemania VIII. He sat up after the first DDT, and after the second, Jake went after Paul Bearer giving Taker enough time to recover and tombstone Jake on the outside. Technically, since Jake never tried to pin him, he never kicked out.

As for Terry Taylor being in contention for the Mr. Perfect gimmick, he did get the gimmick in the end. Sort of. When Taylor came back to WWF in ’93, he debuted as “Terrific” Terry Taylor. Exact same gimmick, just a different synonym for “absolute best.” And, yes, it sucked just as much as you would expect. I don’t know if TTT and Mr. Perfect ever had a match during that year, but it would have been interesting. – Matt

Yeah, I’d forgotten that Jake didn’t bother to cover Taker after his DDT. I remember reading about TTT in WWF Magazine, but never actually saw him on television. And I watched Superstars & Wrestling Challenge every week, so that says something for how well his tenure went.

Not true. This rumor got started after Terry Taylor did a shoot interview once where he started describing a hypothetical situation by saying, “Let’s say I had a choice between the Red Rooster gimmick and the Mister Perfect gimmick…” Idiots who watched, but didn’t understand what a hypothetical question was, thought that this really happened, and the rumors snowballed from there. – Adam

You are likely right, but the obvious response to that is “why would they give Terry Taylor that choice?” It’s not like they gave Ted Dibase a choice between being the Million Dollar Man and being a plumber, you know?

Anyway, about the elimanators being ‘gay’ I do know their earliest incarnation/gimmick was way more leather and S & M-ed out then by the time they made barely legal (not that this means gay) – Kurt27bo

In regards to who the other No Limit Soldiers, the blonde guy in the group was Chase Tatum, basically a Saturday Night job guy and this was the closest thing he got to a push. 4 x 4 I thought was a member of Master P’s crew but he showed later as a heavy (named Cash I think) for the new Harlem Heat 2000 team with Stevie Ray and Ahmed “Big T” Johnson so he must’ve been just some big guy that WCW dug up somewhere. – Mark S.

On people kicking out of moves…

I am pretty sure that the Ultimate Warrior kicked out of the perfect plex at one of the Survivor Series. I think it was the Warriors (Road Warriors: Legion of Doom, Modern Day Warrior: Texas Tornado Kerry Von Erich, and Ultimate Warrior) versus Demolition (Ax, Smash, Crush) and Mr Perfect. Warrior I believer jumped into the exposed turnbuckle, turned around and was greeted with a perfect plex. He kicked out at 2 and the announcers couldnt believe it. – Eric Conners

I believe that The Ultimate Warrior kicked out of the perfectplex at the 1990 Survivor Series, and also Masato Tanaka has kicked out of 3D(N2R 98) – Richard

Someone mentioned no one kicking out of Warrior’s gorilla press/splash combination. While Savage did it at WM VII, Hulk Hogan actually did it first at WM VI prior to Hulking up. Undertaker technically didn’t kick out of the DDT. Jake applied the DDT and he sat up. I don’t think anyone ever kicked out of Mr Wonderful’s piledriver or the Hart Foundation’s “Hart Attack”. – Manny from Cincinnati

The first guy I thought of for kicking out of Orndorff’s piledriver was Hogan, but then I remembered that Hogan did not kick out of the piledriver at the Big Event in Toronto, and his title was saved because the referee had taken a bump before said piledriver. As far as the Hart Attack goes, I can’t think of anybody off the top of my head. We’ll enter those two moves into the pool, and maybe one of these days I’ll make the official list of moves not kicked out of.

Nice Q&A column today, I really enjoyed it. And also, people were putting in their feedback about what finishers have not been kicked out of, and I don’t think the Canadian Destroyer has ever been kicked out of. Also I don’t think anyone’s kicked out of Mr. Kennedy’s Green Bay Plunge finisher, I believe that’s what it’s called. Also, people wonder why there are Cena haters, and I don’t hate him, but I am growing tired of him. My reasons being that what made him popular and put him high on popularity, in my opinion, were his great matches, which included him having a bigger moveset back then, and not to mention his hilarious promos with his freestyles and all. But now, he doesn’t ever do the freestyles or any of that stuff. He hasn’t done one of those since about late 2005, maybe earlier, and he barely does anything different in the ring, and because of that, he’s become very boring to me, and overrated at times. I mean now he barely says anything that entertaining on the mic, and he doesn’t do much in the ring. And with that being the case, how he’s huge and Chris Benoit isn’t, I’ll never understand. – Brandon Ray

First off, love the column. I like to read the questions and see if I know the answers already. Frequently I do because my brain is taken up with useless crap like this instead of actual real knowledge. Nice, huh?

So, keep it up. You have the patience of Job to put up with some of these questions. – Matt

I was just reading your Ask 411 column where a reader asked about Homicide pouring Drano down Colt Cabana’s throat and you answered as far as you know it was real Drano. No way—Drano is corrosive. Here’s info from the actual label:

If they were actually stupid enough to use the real thing, then I think Colt would have been screwed as his mouth/throat would have been severely burned with minimal contact, not to mention vomiting makes it worse. – Marty Barrows

IT’S STILL REAL TO ME DAMMIT

In regards to the question about the inaugural rumble match taking place in MSG. I’m assuming they did a try out match at the Garden to see if it would work. I actually have a house show from MSG in 94 where the main event was a 30 man Royal Rumble match (Don’t make me dig it out). The winner was Diesel (last eliminating Owen Hart if i remember correctly). If they ran it at a house show in 94 then I’m guessing it wouldnt be too strange for them to run one in 88. We all know they like to try things out to gage crowd reaction. Hope this helps everyone out! – Eric

On fans running into the ring…

Not to harp on the same subject, but I’ve seen this at live events twice. Once was back in 94/95 at a WWE house show, a fan jumped the rail during a Henry Godwinn match. Godwinn beat the shit out of the guy with a few stomps to the rib cage, then security got a hold of him and carted him off to the back. On another occasion I saw this happen was at a UPW show in Laughlin around 2002. There was no rail, and a guy tried to slide under the ropes during the main event battle royal. Chris Morteski (before he was signed with WWE and given the gimmick of Chris Masters) stomped the dude in the head and knocked him out cold. Al Katrazz got in a few kicks of his own as well as Aaron Aguilera, was pretty brutal. Security literally carried the guy out. So needless to say, fans are fair game when they enter the ring or jump the rail. – Randy O.

On “Red Hat Guy”…

He is not a plant but a real fan who used WWE at the time to get over his wifes cancer and I do belive her death. He does get some comp tickets from WWE but he pays for all his PPVs etc. For more info you can check out his myspace page – Anthony Burris

I would link the MySpace page, but the link didn’t work when I clicked on it. Plus, I don’t use MySpace.

Re: Nelson J. Cupellas letter regarding the super fans.
I was at Raw in Oklahoma City a few months ago and after the show ran into Red Hat Guy. He jokingly said that he worked for WWE but then claimed he was just a fan. I’ve noticed that he appears mainly in the Midwest area while Tye Dye Guy is a staple in the Northeast. Also Tye Dye used to get much better seats but the past few times I’ve seen him he’s 5 rows back or more. Good job on the column. – Clif

On “Paul Heyman Girl”…

Just wanted to let you know that she’s a board member at the OO Forums (www.onlineonslaught.com) and she’s a pretty cool person. She has a decent job, but loves wrestling and meeting wrestlers and all of the sort. Her website is http://www.nikkiheyman.com/ if you want to check out some of the pics she’s gotten with wrestlers. My personal favorite pictures is the one with her and Sabu wearing a polo and drinking a latte. Pretty nice. Anyways, just letting you know that I enjoy your column and if things ever work out, I wouldn’t mind seeing Cook’s Corner in the future- was absolutely my favorite column. Thanks for all you do for wrestling fans. – Eric

Good people. And as far as Cook’s Corner goes, I hate to quote Hulk Hogan, but like he said in his HOF speech…never say never. Brother.

I don’t know if this is what your reader is thinking of, but the September 25, 2000 Raw, the first broadcast on TNN, was replayed immediately after its conclusion.

So I can vouch for the fact that Raw was replayed on at least one occasion. – David Lawrence

Cool story. I also felt awkward when Chyna’s Playboy came out and didn’t want to see it…and I wasn’t even friends with her!

Hey Steve, just thought I’d chime in with some thoughts on recent Ask 411 columns:

BTW, speaking on this whole Manu fans vs Cook fans thing, I’m a Cook fan all the way. Sunday News, represent. – 411’s Stuart Carapola

Much love for Stu, who’s trying to give Csonka a run for his money as far as column output per week goes. His mentioning of Thez in the army reminds me that I found some information regarding wrestlers in WWII that I need to share next week. I’d do it this week, but we’re up against the deadline and Ashish hates it when I’m late. Domingo hates it too because he thinks that means he’s a father.

Questions!

DarkKnightWolf101 starts us off with two of them…

1. What ever happened to the Head bangers (Mosh and Thrasher) they had a pretty good run in the WWE, but then disappeared. Do you know what happened to them?

Charles “Mosh” Warrington currently wrestles in the Florida indies and also works in sales. I’m kinda surprised TNA never brought him in for a squash match or something. Glen “Thrasher” Ruth is a bit harder to find information on, unfortunately. His career ended due to a lingering leg injury that he suffered while working in WWE, and I don’t see any current information on him.

2. Do you think WWE should replace the 30 man Royal Rumble Match with WCW’s World War 3 match. I personally liked that more better then I did the Royal Rumble?

In a word, no. The Royal Rumble is one of the top selling PPVs every year due to the Rumble match, and messing with success just isn’t a good thing. The 60 man 3 ring battle royal was a nice idea in concept, but once you get around to the 40th guy or so, you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as talent goes. You can’t have 20 jobbers in one of the biggest matches of the year, know what I mean?

Andrew has three ROH related questions and a Japan question.

I’m a long time reader, first time writer to your article. I have a couple of questions pertaining to ROH- given that their message boards have the rediculous rule about not discussing non kayfabe issues…

1) Why was there the reluctance for so long to bring Chris Hero in? He worked very good indy matches for years before, then when he did came in it was for a main event match followed by leading CZW. He obviously wasn’t kept away because of a lack of faith in his ability… So I’m guessing there’s a personal issue there?

Nobody on the 411 staff knows Chris Hero better than Column of Honor writer Ari Berenstein, so I asked him if he could shed some light on this issue…

Well, to be honest “Chris Hero” doesn’t communicate such things as this to me…he more or less just tells me to do my job and shut up about it.

I know as much as you do about this, which is to say, not much. There is indeed the word that Sapolsky didn’t like his look, and quite frankly a few years ago, Hero did look a bit doughy. He tightened up his body in recent years. There is also the thought that during 2003-2005, Hero was busy doing a multitude of bookings over a multitude of continents. Hero was big in IWA-MS, he had many bookings in Germany and Europe, he had CZW and the CHIKARA wrestle factory to run. It’s alot of responsibilties. It could have been that Hero had too much on his plate to commit full time to ROH. But that’s just my speculation.

I tend to lean towards the latter option, that Hero simply had too much on his plate to make the kind of commitment that ROH likes to have from their top wrestlers. And honestly, it worked out for the best to have Hero come in the way he did, his pro-CZW stance got him over right away as a top heel and he still gets that reaction to this day…even if he does lose a lot of his matches. I think “look” matters more to ROH fans than it does to ROH management, considering that Bobby Dempsey is still around. But Ari tells me that Tank Toland is getting that guy into shape, so who knows.

2) Why was Super Dragon removed from the CZW fued? My last memory of him in ROH was the sick bump with BJ Whitmer- possibly at the 100th show?

Dragon didn’t stay around too much longer in CZW after the blowoff match with Whitmer at Weekend of Champions: Night Two. He’s stayed out on the West Coast since leaving CZW in May 2006, focusing his attention on Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, a promotion that he owns along with five other wrestlers. CZW’s official reason for letting Dragon go was several altercations he had had with CZW fans…I don’t know if that was actually the reason, but he did have altercations with fans, and they were funny.

3) Where has Alex Shelley been? What forced him to stop working for ROH for nearly a year when he was still working for so many other indies?

A variation of this question was asked on Shelley’s web site a while back, and he responded as such:

There’s a lot to the ROH story, but I’ve really no reason to talk about it publicly. I will not be there for a long time, if ever again.

Shelley left ROH right around the same time that Jay Lethal did, and many assumed it had something to do with them canceling their scheduled appearances on an ROH show in order to make sure that they made it to Orlando in time for a TNA PPV. There was a blizzard hitting the Northeast on February 11, 2006, and TNA wanted their talent to make sure they got to Orlando in time for their show that would take place the next day…Shelley, Lethal & Homicide made the trip down to Orlando on Saturday while Austin Aries & Roderick Strong opted to stay in Long Island until Sunday. They made it to the show on time, but still got lots of heat from TNA management. Many think that Shelley’s no-showing the ROH event, where he was scheduled to get an ROH World Title shot, led to his departure from the promotion for nearly a year.

Homicide didn’t get punished because he was much more important to ROH’s plans than Shelley or Lethal were. Kinda like how Triple H got punished for the MSG incident while HBK was WWF champion and stayed that way.

And a non ROH question

How would you rank the Japanese feds? Are NOAH on top, as ROH would have us believe, or is New Japan still number 1? And is Dragon Gate as awesome as ROH would have us believe? In order, how would you rank NOAH, New Japan, Dragon Gate, All Japan, Zero-One and Hustle? (and any others that I’ve missed?) – Andrew

We discussed the top three Japanese feds briefly back on 04.11.07, as 411’s Matt Adamson asserted that NOAH was number one followed by New Japan at 2 & All Japan at 3. Those would be your main three promotions while the rest could be considered on the same level as American independent promotions. As far as attendance or popularity goes, I would rate the other three in this order: Hustle, Dragon Gate, Zero-One. Though I believe Hustle has gone downhill in popularity recently, so I could be wrong.

I’ve seen a few Dragon Gate shows, and they have pretty solid in-ring action. As far as entertainment goes, anything with the Florida Brothers automatically rules, as does Magnum Tokyo’s entrance. It’s a pretty good show, though their intermissions are wayyyyyy too long.

Paul has two questions…

Just watched the Wrestlemania rematch on Raw and after the match, when I cheered at my Cena supporting friend, he said it wasn’t a big deal cos it wasn’t a title match.
I said it was a big deal because it’s the first time Cena’s been pinned clean in forever.
So my question is when was the last time Cena was pinned clean?

Depends on how you define clean. Cena was pinned in a tag team match by Batista on the March 26 edition of Raw…but that was due to his tag team partner Shawn Michaels superkicking him. He also got pinned cleanly in a handicap match on the April 3, 2006 edition of Raw by Triple H, who was teaming with Edge. Or maybe it was on October 10, 2005, when Kurt Angle cleanly pinned Cena in a 6-man tag team match. In a singles match…how about July 27, 2003? That’s when Undertaker pinned Cena with the Last Ride at WWE Vengeance. It doesn’t happen very often.

My other question is, any idea what show this is from – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVIeI4JmOgA

I think that’s from the Sabu vs. Sandman Tables and Ladders match at November to Remember 1997, but I could be totally wrong.

I was thinking that this could be a cool piece of trivia for you to figure out. Who are all the double champions? It works like this… you have to hold two championship belts simultaneously at the same time to be on the list. Here is what I could think of so far I am sure there are others you know about.

I think Chavo was also cruiser weight champ with Eddie when Los Guerreo’s where smackdown tag champs. But I am not for sure. – Ronism82

Bob Backlund held the WWF title and the tag team title for about a cup of coffee in September 1980, when he and Pedro Morales won the tag team titles from the Samoans. Lance Storm held the WCW U.S., Hardcore & Cruiserweight titles at the same time in July 2000. Rhino was the ECW World & TV Champion when the company folded in 2001. There were all sorts of double champions during the InVasion angle, including Jericho holding the WCW World & Tag Team titles in October 2001 & X-Pac holding the WWF Light Heavyweight & WCW Cruiserweight titles. Verne Gagne had some tag team title reigns with men like Mad Dog Vachon during his never ending runs as AWA World Champion. Nick Bockwinkel did the same thing, having a tag team title reign with Ray Stevens while still AWA World Champion. Jerry Lawler even did the AWA World/Tag Team thing with Bill Dundee. AJ Styles held the X & Tag Team titles at the same time in the early days of TNA. Bryan Danielson held the ROH World & Pure titles until the Pure title was disbanded the show after he won it. During the Two Man Powertrip era in April 2001, Stone Cold & Triple H held the tag team titles while also holding the WWF & Intercontinental titles respectively. In ECW, Too Cold Scorpio held the TV & tag team titles in late 1995..until he lost a match to Mikey Whipwreck where the TV & tag team titles were on the line. Sandman, Too Cold’s partner, was World champion during part of their tag title reign. Ken Shamrock held the Intercontinental title while tag team champion alongside Big Bossman.

I’m sure there are countless others, but that’s a good start for the list.

I have been reading about Hulk Hogan and HBK playing politics backstage through out their careers. I was wondering if The Undertaker done this through out his career? He’s the judge in the wrestlers court and been around just short of 20 years, i’m sure he has some sort of pull. – Ryan

Taker doesn’t get the criticism that Hogan & Michaels have gotten over the years…I think that has to do with the fact that the Undertaker character has pretty much invincible and should have been booked as such. He has gotten some flack in his later years, especially during his “American Badass” run where he squashed Kurt Angle during a feud in 2000 when Angle was an up and coming star. I don’t think people hold it against him because he’s never really been about holding the title belts for long periods of time like guys like Hogan, Michaels & Triple H are. And unlike Michaels, Taker can lose a title belt by getting pinned.

For our next question, I enlisted the help of Hidden Highlights co-author, OnlineWorldOfWrestling.com co-editor, and Vice-President of the Traci Brooks Fan Club, James Thomlison.

Cook: Could actually use your help here, JT, if you don’t mind. [COMMENT]

JT: No problem, what have you got Steve?

Cook: Got an email from John-Peter about the whole WM thing.

JT: Sweet, bring it on.

I’ve always wanted to go to a WrestleMania. The first time I tried to get tickets was for WM XX, and of course those sold out instantly. The second time was for WM 22 since Chicago is only a few hours away from my home town. That time myself and a couple of my friends went to the local college
where my parents work and had no less than 15 computers logged on to ticketmaster.com in an attempt to get tickets. Once again, no luck. I passed on WM this year due to financial reasons. But, WrestleMania 24 is in Orlando, where I now live, and while I have no doubt that I’ll be able to get tickets (as the Citrus Bowl is huge) I still want to know what the best strategy is for getting tickets for WrestleMania and the other events like the Hall of Fame and the brunch. Obviously, the computer hasn’t worked for me so what does 411mania recommend.

– John-Peter

JT: John, have to be honest here. They seemed very more accessible this year, and I would assume it’s the same because you are talking about the Citrus Bowl. I knew WM 23 was in Detroit, and it just so happened that SmackDown! came to Detroit in July.

It was highly advertised that there would be WrestleMania Ticket forms handed out at Joe Louis Arena, so I went, and even though they hyped that everyone would only get “one”, I took home about eight of them, and not only was I able to help my friends out, I saw the same forms on eBay the next day for like $30 a pop. So I suggest find out if those forms will be available at a show close to you in the near future.

Secondly, even if I hadn’t, I was able to purchase tickets much later than the original “on sale” date. Like you said, a ton of people tried for WM 22 and failed; as did I. But there is a BIG difference between 17K in Chicago and 80K at Ford Field and the CB. I bought numerous tickets well into the day of sale. Something like 2 p.m., and even afternoon time three days later.

Look, there are so many more people than can fill Ford Field and the CB, I wouldn’t be concerned. You are going to either get them early through a show, or go on Ticketmaster and be fine. There is no “inside track” or “insider” or anything like that. Just consider yourself lucky that you happen to live in a city that WrestleMania is coming to, and it happens to be in a venue that is five times larger than it usually is. You’ll be fine man.

Cook: About time, he only emailed me four weeks ago.

JT: He’ll be fine fool, he has plenty of time – and more importantly – plenty of room. Enjoy the show John.

I like how JT deals with the voices in his head by having them insert themselves in his writing. Hey, whatever works.

A while ago there was a question about King Kong Bundy and his demanding the 5-count: he would pin the guy, ref counts to 3 to finish the match, but Bundy demands the 5-count to show how completely dominated the guy was. I heard this from a source I trusted strongly at the time, but I’ve never heard any more about it: apparently once in a title match while he was in his monster heel phase & being built as a serious threat to Hogan’s title, Bundy actually beat Hogan with the 3-count, demanded the 5, & Hogan kicked out before the 5 & the match continued & Hogan went on the standard Hulk-up comeback to win & retain the belt. I haven’t heard about this since & can’t find anything – I assume if it happened it would have been a bigger deal, mentioned in a record book or in commentary about Hogan or something. I now think it never happened. Can you or any of the readers confirm? – Oz

I don’t remember this happening, so I’ll turn things over to the readers…

Scott has two questions…

I was just curious if you thought The Nation of Domination could ever return? I mean they have Ron Simmons why not use him to his full potential in a heel/manager role? They have the star power to make this happen. I could see him confronting Cryme Time backstage one night and then proceed to tear into them about enforcing African American stereotypes. Then they could change their attitudes and become the badass tag team they should be. They could even throw Marcus Cor Von and Mark Henry (C’mon what else are they going to do with the guy if they did bring this gimmick back) in the mix, followed by all five of them giving that signature Nation salute. Ron Simmons is definitely a veteran that has the charisma to make this work. He could even wrestle from time to time. In my opinion one way WWE could strengthen their rosters is to establish more stables. Think about it, you have the Nation raising hell not only on RAW but SD and ECW as well (since they are recruiting other superstars from other shows) which would force the superstars from each show to band together. How cool would it be to see DX, The New Breed, CM Punk’s possible faction, The New Hart Foundation not just feuding with the Nation but each other as well? Plus I would really like to hear that NOD music again.

The NOD music was pretty cool, I’ll give you that. It’s not the worst idea in the world, but I don’t see WWE booking it properly without turning it into something that would reinforce even more African-American stereotypes. However, it could be a pretty good way to get Monty Brown over. I don’t think it’ll happen, but I can’t totally hate on the idea.

My next question is regarding the Four Horsemen. After watching the Ric Flair and the Horsemen DVD I was in extremely impressed and would love to see a possible reunion. I know Arn will never wrestle again and I’m not sure about Windham, Tully, or Ole but I think if Barry and Tully were up to it they could throw Benoit in the mix along with Flair and possibly have a final 8 man tag at Survior Series or some PPV. If what their saying is true and this is The Year of Flair then why not go out in style? From the looks of it they never did properly get to end the saga of the Horsemen and it would be fitting to end it properly w/Flair’s final run. Also I was curious as to the chances of the original 4 and JJ Dillion and Barry Windham getting inducted in the HOF?

I was a big Horsemen fan, but I’m also a fan of letting things like this stay dead, lest their legacy be tarnished. And the legacy was pretty well tarnished in the later years of WCW. As for HOF induction…

Flair – Duh.
Arn – Most likely, he was a good wrestler and cut great promos.
Ole – No fucking way.
Tully – Probably not, though he’d deserve it as he was a very good wrestler in singles and tag teams.
JJ – I’d like to see it, and there’s an outside possibility since he served WWE well in the front office for many years.
Windham – Borderline…he had a great career early and was one of the top wrestlers in the business at one point, but he really trailed off later on and never really got over as a singles star in WWE.

I read somewhere that Finlay legitimately punched Josh Matthews at a press conference for Armageddon in 2006. What was that all about? – Stitty

I didn’t see this, but Finlay likes to work pretty stiff. I’m more surprised Mathews was actually doing something than I am that Finlay would punch him.

I was excited to pick up the Royal Rumble box set this past weekend, because for years my holy grail has been the 88 Rumble. My question is, was it ever released on a Coliseum Video? I remember at the end of some old CV tape I’ve got packed away somewhere, they show the usual clips of upcoming releases at the end, and there’s one called “Battle Royal”. I always wondered if it was the 88 Rumble, then when finally watching it I recognized a line from Vince McMahon (“Get down! Get Davis!”), followed immediately by the Warrior being eliminated. However, I can’t find any listing that includes a tape called Battle Royal. – Quint Lange

There is a tape called WWF Battle Royal at the Royal Albert Hall that was only released in the United Kingdom in 1990…this might be what you saw an advertisement for. If so, the 88 Rumble is not the battle royal featured.

Bryan Jones has two questions…

how do promoters tell if a wrestler is booed because he is an effective heel…or if he just sucks?

Tough call. I think heels that are effective get more heat than a heel that just sucks…when somebody comes out that you don’t want to see at all, you won’t have as much of a reaction as you do when somebody you intensely dislike for their actions comes out. At least, that’s my theory.

second…when wrestlers drive heavy equipment to the
ring…like austins beer truck, the big one…do they
need a class 2 drivers license? I drove my
grandfathers tractor at age 8 on his farm..but that
was private property…is that how they get away with it? – Bryan Jones

I don’t think they would go to the trouble of getting that type of a driver’s license…considering there’s always some form of a police presence at a WWE event, I’m guessing that somebody clears it with them first and they make sure that they aren’t doing anything that could cause harm to people not involved with the show.

I have one question, What is feud between ECW and XPW about? – Wei

XPW was basically a low-rent version of ECW that operated on the West Coast and was run by Rob Black. When ECW ran HeatWave 2000 in Los Angeles, some XPW wrestlers decided to show up and make some noise. This resulted in them getting into a fight with the entire ECW locker room just before the main event started. New Jack has suggested in shoot interviews that the ECW & XPW management were in cahoots…while New Jack might not be the best source out there, it isn’t that difficult to believe.

How is World Wrestling Entertainment allowed to deny freedom of expression rights at their shows via confiscating signs and forbidding specific types of clothing? When I last checked, such signs or clothing prohibited included anything vulger or containing profanity, anything TNA related, or anything that plugged or mentioned a website. The vulgar part I can understand due to federal law, but how are the other two allowed? This interests me as one going into the legal field. Normally, an organization must put out a written notice that is available to consumers and clearly specify that by buying a ticket or attending the show you are agreeing to abide by those said rules. I have looked all over every branch of the WWE website and come up empty, and also have not seen any such regulations on their tickets. Therefore, if they are simply doing this without following proper precedure, they could very realistically be sued for freedom of expression violations. If you could shed any light on this it would be most appreciated. – Adam Bauguess

Good question. I am somewhat surprised that nobody’s tried to challenge them on this yet, if in fact there is nothing written in the official rules about it. I would love to hear somebody else with some legal background explain how this would work, as my refusal to go to law school keeps me from going too much into detail without getting something wrong. But the way I see it, WWE could open themselves up to a lawsuit here.

Anyway, I got this compilation tape several years ago
off of E-Bay that had a lot of old WWF stuff on it
(all obscure stuff from the late 80’s, early 90’s that
was never seen on video, like Demolition winning the
tag titles from the Brain Busters, and a load of
squash matches to round things off). Anyway, the tape
ends with a best of five series in WCW between Ric
Flair and Steve (William) Regal with each match being
like a five minute amateur bout with rules to match
(such as when you get an opponent down, you have to
wait for them to get up rather than moving in to do
another move).

Anyway, I’m GUESSING Ric Flair won the series for
obvious reasons but I couldn’t swear by it as the tape
ends after the fifth bout but before the judges have
announced the winner (did I mention the judges?).
Going into that match, both men had won one with two
draws so it was all level with that last match as the
decider. Like I said, I’m assuming Flair won but can
you confirm one way or the other how it finished?
While I’m at it, when exactly did this take place (I
can make an educated guess, but for the sake of
precision…) and was there any backstory behind it or
did anything follow on from it? – Chris Page

Regal challenged Flair to face him in a best of five series fought under Marquis de Queensbury rules, which basically consisted of what you discussed there. I believe each match took place on episodes of WCW Worldwide, and it was in early 1994 during Flair’s babyface run as WCW Champion before Hulk Hogan came in. Flair did win the final match of the series, but it helped get Regal over as a guy that could hang with a guy of high ability like Ric Flair.

I have a question for you this week. Back in 1997 WWE brought back midget wrestlers. One of them was “Max Mini” and I remember him being pretty over with the fans and was kind of their “biggest star” (pun completely intended). Anyway, what happened to him? I think I remember him popping up in a backstage segment once without his mask and then he was gone with the rest of the division. Where is he now? Also, when WWE brought in the “Juniors Division” on SmackDown I was really hoping to see Max…but no luck. Thanks! – Bash

Max Mini is a Mexican midget wrestler (well, duh) known as Tsuki. Recently, Tsuki has gotten himself into hot water by impersonating fellow midget wrestler Mascarita Sagrada on various independent shows in Mexico & the U.S. Mascara Sagrada found out that Tsuki planned on using the Mascarita gimmick at an indy show in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and stole the costume from him. So Max Mini’s greatest fame outside WWE comes from impersonating a fellow midget wrestler.

Hey there, I have a question thats been bothering me for some time now. Right after Louie Spicoli’s death, there was a nitro were Larry Zybsyko is badmouthing him. My question is was that a shoot or was it scripted…either day it was very disrepectful. – Reggie Thomas

Well, Larry didn’t actually badmouth him, but he did say something along the lines of “there are a few things I’d like to say, but I won’t out of respect to his family” while commentating on Nitro the night after Louie’s death. It might seem crass, but Larry’s an old school kind of guy who probably thought that he shouldn’t be praising a guy that he had been feuding with on television just before his demise…they were to have a match at SuperBrawl VIII, which took place a week after Louie’s death. I don’t think he meant to be disrespectful, but I can see how it can be viewed that way.

i was watching wwe 24/7 and i was wondering about a couple things. during a wccw episode michael hayes mentioned something about brian adidas getting in some trouble. what happened with him? also accooring to obsessed with wrestling he doesn’t want anything to do with wrestling. is that because of his getting into trouble with the law? – Robert Collick

Well, this isn’t really the best of sources, but I came across a message board at oldschool-wrestling.com where the topic came up, and one of the posters said that Adias took the rap for Kerry Von Erich and ended up in jail for drugs that weren’t him. Apparently the Von Erichs never appreciated the gesture, which has Adias mad till this day. That could be totally wrong, but it was the only story I came across regarding the issue.

I just read Mick Foley’s Hardcore Diaries and he mentioned about dating a female wrestler in 1988 and I was wandering who it was??? Also, I was wandering whatever happened to Horace Hogan because I was watching an old Nitro episode and was just wandering what is he doing right now. – Brandon

I do not know who the female wrestler was, but Foley said she was older than him, so my guess is Mae Young. Horace is said to still be wrestling on the independent circuit, but I haven’t seen any recent information on that. Any help would be appreciated…

speaking of 2000 era WWf, Russo and Ferrera left in late 99 and things kinda stunk for a while (big show surfing on his dads coffin, anyone?) but by the rumble, Holy crap, it was just as good or better than wwf 98 and stayed that way mostly for the rest of the year. until steph took the book at the survivor series (and had austin dropping 3H’s from a crane) …so question numero 2…who was doing creative between the russo and the stephanie eras? – Capn G

The head writer between the Russo & Stephanie eras was Chris Kreski, who had previously written for shows like Remote Control, Beavis & Butthead & The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. One main thing that separated Kreski from those who had previously written for WWE was his use of storyboards. He had the history of each character written out so they would be able to write storylines that wouldn’t contradict previous events, and possibly even play off of them. They also helped him keep track of what people were doing at the time and who could use something to do. Of course, this didn’t make sense to most within WWE, and the practice was not continued when Stephanie took over. His storylines did have continuity and were widely praised, and he also had the benefit of having an insanely deep roster of talent to work with. Kreski left WWE in 2002, sadly he died of cancer on May 9, 2005 at the age of 42.

my friend has sent my out on a footage finding mission and was wondering if you had any advice on where to look in the 80’s there was what is still billed as the frist summer slam it took place in toronto Ontario Canada and one of the matches was paul orndroff vs hogan any way my question is do you know where to buy or get the footage of that event

also i could give a story that your readers may find interesting about my wife and i camping out infront of the wwe store in the middle of march to meet Mr.kennedy either way please email me about the big event – Don Rogers

If you hurry up, you might be able to obtain a VHS version of the Big Event on ebay. I don’t believe it is currently being sold by other means. And stories are always welcome.