Ask 411 Wrestling 06.27.07: N Bombs, Tiny Tim, Boogeyman’s Worms and more!

My apologies to Vince McMahon for ripping him off, but I thought his words on Tuesday night were very fitting. This is Ask 411 Wrestling, and I am Steve Cook. Today we try to go about business as usual, as I answer questions from twenty of you readers and inject some wit and sarcasm into the proceedings as only I can. Currently there are thirty e-mails sitting in my in-box, I would appreciate it very much if you added to that total…as long as you don’t ask any questions about Chris Benoit. Any information you want will be on the 411 Newswire, and quite frankly I don’t want to talk about the fact that one of my favorite wrestlers killed his wife & son and then hung himself in another instance of what Roddy Piper calls “the sickness” consuming a pro wrestler.

So we’ll go ahead and get this thing started. Thank you very much for reading.

Comments, Corrections, and other “C” words

About McMahon acknowledging he’s the owner, when Jim Ross turned heel and brought in the fake Razor and Diesel in 95, I believe he did that. First JR gave out the big secret, then ranted about McMahon firing him twice and keeping him off PPV because of his Bell’s Palsy. McMahon then appeared on LiveWire (the Saturday morning recap show) that week, openly acknowledged that he was the owner, and answered JR’s allegations by saying that he was fired for unrelated reasons, and the only reason that JR wasn’t doing PPVs was because Vince enjoyed doing them, and since he’s the Chairman, that’s his privilege. They ran a three man booth for a while after that (about as long as Fake Razor and Diesel’s tenure), Vince, King, and JR, and JR constantly brought up that McMahon was the owner and antagonized him over it. Of course, I don’t have any footage of this or anything, and the whole fakes angle didn’t last all that long, so take it for what it’s worth. – Christopher

>

I remember that match..but Brian James “Jesse James/The Road Dogg/The Roadie” Armstrong was in the corner of Jarrett. Shatner was there promoting his new show on USA..”Tek World” – Ronevsorg

Re Diesels winning streak during his title reign, I
can remember him losing a tag match – shortly before
the October In Your House, he was pinned by the
Bulldog in a six man tag (also featuring Shawn
Michaels, Undertaker, Owen Hart and Yokozuna) on Raw.
Right after that, the Bulldog even cost him a singles
match against Waylon Mercy the weekend before the PPV,
and then went as far as to lose to the Bulldog by DQ
when they had the match. So there’s three losses in
the space of one month already. So no winning streak
there I’m afraid. At least Goldberg legitimately
didn’t lose any matches during his streak (although
right before they started keeping count, he did lose a
house show match to the mighty Chad Fortune…
seriously).

Finally, on a non-question, non-correction note,
someone mentioned Scott Hall using the term ‘jabroni’
before The Rock did. Hall didn’t stop there, at the
1993 Royal Rumble, he was the first person (that I
know of) to coin the phrase “The Peoples Champ”. I
never really thought about what a trend-setter that
wacky Hall was… – Chris

Of all the finishers that didn’t finish, the first the comes to mind is Arn Anderson’s spinebuster, or at least the 90s incarnation. I always felt bad for Arn.. poor lil’ fella. – Chad

Deuce may be the Superfly’s son, but he is the adopted son of the Superfly. This may be why you wouldnt have ever have been able to tell watching him on Smackdown, aside form his gimmick with Domino. – Eric

If the guy is looking for the one where Benoit talks about the “disk that ruptured into my spinal column” and Angle’s “I said… I think I broke my tailbone” that has the table breaking prematurely on HHH and Kurt from SummerSlam 2000 and Triple H being helped out of the arena after he tore his quad in May 2001, then they actually play it every week before the Aussie version of SmackDown that I download every week via torrent. The only difference from the American version is that it’s a guy with a gruff voice and a kinda almost Aussie accent. You can get it every Friday morning/afternoon on PWTorrents.net or XtremeWrestlingTorrents.net. – 411’s Nick Marsico

Questions!

So who played Doink the Clown at the most recent SNME? I’ve heard either
Steve Lombardi or a developmental guy. – Adam

Wikipedia claims that the role of Doink was played by Dwaine Henderson, though it should be noted that a citation is needed there. IMDB says it was Lombardi…I think Lombardi is a pretty safe bet unless it’s proven that it was somebody else. I didn’t see SNME, so I couldn’t tell you what kind of shape he was in.

Love ask411 btw is great to hear all these facts about one of the things i love in this world. Anyway was lookin at wikipedia and came across Shane McMahons biography where it says his real name is Shane Brandon Edwards and he took Lindas surname. I was wondering if you had any clue as to why this was ie Shane being illegitimate or having heat with Vince when a boy. – Ross

Wikipedia’s biography on Shane McMahon states nothing like that currently. I’m betting somebody entered some false information on there on purpose to entertain themselves. It happens more often than you’d think.

Ok I’ve got some questions, they are more like urban
myth clarifications and a guy question.

1. Ok I heard or read somewhere that during a Harlem
Heat interview, Booker T dropped the “N” bomb when
referring to Hulk Hogan, true or false, also someone
told me that during Brian Pillmans short lived ECW run
he had a segment or interview where he refferred to
the Gangstas, New Jack and Mustafa, as, well he
dropped the “N” bomb as well, any truth to that one?
I’m a little more skeptical with that one, any links?

Booker T did tell Hulk Hogan that he was coming to get him.

As for Brian Pillman’s N bomb, he apparently referred to the Gangstas with the name that the N.W.A. rap group’s initials stood for. New Jack & Mustafa didn’t take that very well.

2. Yes I expect backlash, yes I’m a guy, but like most
guys, I do have a penus and I do enjoy the
occasionally nudity. Accidentally nudity in wrestling
go together like Beer and Pizza, I know of most from
Sable, Jackie Gayda popped out of her bra more times
during a Rico match than he got wins, Stephanie
Mcmahon Helmsley, Jacky Moore, Kimberly Page aka the
Booty Babe, ECW had alot of it by the boatloads,
Kimona Dancing, Francine, etc. but I heard of one
that, if true is pretty shocking, when the Blue Meanie
dropped a couple of thousand pounds and returned as
the Blue Boy along with who I like to call the Blue
Bitch, pornstar Jasmine St. Claire, how they met and
their relationship would make a hell of a sitcom,
anyways, she actually walked the Blue Boy down to the
ring completely nude. True? No need for a link, who
hasn’t seen her naked? Any flashes I’m forgetting?
Reader input please.

I’ve never heard of that happening, and I’m sure it would have been brought up on the countless history of ECW videos and books that have popped up recently if it did. For future reference for you readers out there, I really don’t need to know if you have a penis. If anybody wants to send in more nudity, feel free to do so, but know that I can’t actually show any of it on this site. I’ll welcome some for my own personal viewing though…

3. Lastly, who is the oldest rookie, I’m debating if
it’s the Boogeyman, I know Rico was 40 but wasn’t the
Boogeyman like 46 when he debuted? – Francisco

Vince McMahon has them both beat, he had his first wrestling match in April 1998 at the age of 52. Yeah, I know he wasn’t a true “rookie”, but it’s gotta count for something, right? Boogeyman is currently 42 years old and made his debut at the age of 40, while Rico debuted in OVW in 1998 at the age of 37.

When did wrestler’s go from ‘submitting’ to ‘tapping out’? Was it in response to the Bret Hart incident or growing popularity of UFC? – JB

The tap-out was pretty commonplace in the very, very old days of wrestling, back in the early 1900s where there was still almost some legitimacy to the matches. It came back in the 1990s due to the emergence of ultimate fighting, and was helped along by noted ultimate fighter Ken Shamrock becoming a WWF Superstar and making people tap out to his ankle lock. I prefer the tap out to the verbal submission because it’s much easier to see somebody tapping on the mat than it is to see them mouth the words “I submit”.

I have a question about the relationship between the Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty). Are they still friends or is there a strained relationship between the two? – Eddie

I believe that Michaels & Jannetty are currently friends. They had a stretch where they weren’t, but recently Jannetty became a born-again Christian due to Michaels sharing his faith with him. I don’t know their current status due to Jannetty flaking out on his attempted comeback to WWE, but I would think that there’s still a friendship there.

Actually, speaking of Owen and Yoko, they had a great run as a little guy-big guy tag team. There have definitely been lots of them (Hurricane/Kane, Rikishi/Scotty, etc). Who was the tag team with the biggest size difference between its members? And if the answer is different, who was the tag team champions with the biggest size difference? – Jones

My guess for your first question is the short-lived tag team of Brian Pillman & El Gigante, which was formed in 1991 in WCW and didn’t last very long. Pillman stood at 5’10, which was just about 19 inches smaller than Gigante. Gigante also had a 237 pound weight advantage over Pillman, which was more than twice Flyin’ Brian’s size. They did not win the WCW tag team titles, so the answer to your second question is different…Kane & Hurricane have to be considered contenders for that title since Kane had a foot and a hundred pounds on Hurricane. Former WWF Tag Team Champions Tony Garea & Haystacks Calhoun were only separated by 3 inches in height, but Haystacks weighed about 350 more pounds than Garea did. I would say they probably had a bigger pure size difference than Kane & Hurricane.

As most people know, Goldust was supposed to be back at Saturday Main Event and no showed and ruined another chance. But i had read that if all things worked out they would use Goldust in a possible fued with Santino Marella over the IC title and, if he got over enough, be one of the bigger heels and feud with Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Could you honestly think of Goldust as a major heel? Im having trouble forgetting of the stuttering Goldust when he teamed with Booker. Could you honestly credit Golust as a legit heel? – Joel

Goldust worked as a pretty major heel when he first came in 1995-96. His feuds with Razor Ramon & Roddy Piper were top-shelf, and Goldust’s promos really helped get them over. Would Goldust work as a major heel in 2007? Probably not. Dustin was a very talented wrestler and Goldust was a great character, but in today’s day and age, I can’t see him coming in and becoming a regular main-eventer. He could have made a solid addition to WWE’s mid-card, but right now he seems to be fighting the demons and not doing so well at it.

I will say that when I read this news item on 411, it seemed pretty bizarre. I wasn’t surprised that WWE would bring Dustin back because he’s had multiple chances there and WWE generally gives people they like several chances, I was surprised that they considered him as a top heel candidate at this point in his career. Most fans would likely remember his stints as “Stuttering Goldust” and his comedy teamings with Booker T & Snitsky, and thus not buy into a evil, serious Goldust.

Just a quick question in regards to a segment I
remember way back in the day. I’m trying to remember
this Jerry the King Lawler segment where he’s
interviewing Tiny Tim (the tiptoe through the tulips
guy) I seem to remember the storyline at the time was
that the fans would chant Burger King at Lawler to
taunt him. Anyway, Tiny Tim calls him a Dairy Queen
and then Lawler proceded to smash his ukelele. What
year did this occur and is there footage of this
anywhere? – Duffy J

Tiny Tim’s appearance in The King’s Court happened on the July 19, 1993 edition of Monday Night Raw. A video of this event is up on Lawler’s personal website. That was pretty funny stuff, even though I had no idea who the hell Tiny Tim was.

Now, I have another 1997 WCW question for you. Namely, the short-lived WCW Women’s Title. I happen to remember an episode of WCW Saturday Night that revealed that Madusa had won the title from champion Akira Hokuto at a GAEA card in Tokyo. She then became set to defend the title against Luna Vachon at Slamboree. However, when Slamboree rolled around, it was Madusa vs. Vachon in a plain old match, with Hokuto still the champion. Adding to that, Madusa would challenge Hokuto the next month at the Great American Bash.

Is there any reason given by WCW as to why the belt was swapped? Madusa’s wikipedia article states that “She claimed to have won it in Japan, but records indicated otherwise.”. So what gives? Did WCW just decide that nobody cared about the Women’s title anyway, so no one would notice if they swapped the belt without a match? – Eric

I can tell you that the title never changed hands, as Hokuto was the only woman to ever hold the WCW Women’s Title, which was only active from December 1996 till June 1997. The title was abandoned after Hokuto decided to return to Japan…the best guess I have regarding your question is that they were planning to have Madusa win the title, but booking plans changed and she didn’t win the title. Booking plans changed a lot in WCW.

Why did Bill Eadie sue the WWF/E? – Stitty

Eadie wanted the rights to the Demolition gimmick so he could use it in independent promotions. He figured he had a right to do it since he was the one that came up with the gimmick…of course, one could question how original Eadie’s idea was since most people considered them Road Warrior rip-offs for most of their run. Eadie still uses the gimmick on the indies when he’s not using his old “Masked Superstar” gimmick. Results of the case vary depending on who you want to believe.

Hey dude, awesome column, probably my favorite on 411. I had
questions about the ECW Originals still in the new ECW. We all know
about the problems WWE has had with Heyman, Sabu, and RVD and all of
them are effectively gone from the WWE more or less. What’s the
standing of the other Originals (Sandman, Balls, Dreamer, Little
Guido, Richards, and even Tazz and Joey Styles) with management? Are
they generally in good standings or are some/all of them having
similar issues as the aforementioned wrestlers? Assuming ECW stays
around, do you see any of these guys still being employed by WWE a
years from now? – Frank

Well, if there’s one of those guys you can count on being around for a long time, it’s probably Tommy Dreamer. He has a pretty cushy job in management to fall back on once he’s done wrestling. Tazz was having some contract issues awhile back, as for Joey Styles, he was having problems adjusting to the WWE style of announcing. But both of those issues seem resolved. Penguin tells me Tazz signed a new contract, and I believe him because why would he lie to me? I’m not sure anybody knows Richards is still employed. Balls did have a problem with the Wellness policy awhile back, I think that’s cleared up and he hasn’t been a problem since. Sandman has done very well since coming to WWE.

If ECW stays around, there’s no reason Dreamer, Styles & Tazz shouldn’t be around with it. Sandman will probably be around as long as he feels like being around. The rest of the guys…well, they’re kinda interchangable, to be honest. Who can say? I don’t think it’ll be due to attitude problems though.

1.) I was watching WWE Bad Blood 2003 and I was
wondering what happened to, or why did he quit(fired)
Rodney Mack(in 03 & 07)?
Scott Steiner?
Test(in 03)?
also vader(not having to do with Bad Blood 03)

Rodney Mack – On both occasions, Mack was released due to creative having nothing for him to do.

Scott Steiner – Steiner was released while injured in 2004, it was a mutual release because Steiner wanted to move on from WWE and WWE had nothing for him to do.

Test – Test was out of action with a neck injury in 2004, when he was released. This wasn’t really a mutual release, and wasn’t looked upon well by most observers because Test was recovering from a pretty serious injury at the time of his release.

Vader – Vader’s contract was not renewed in October 1998, WWF had turned him into a jobber before his departure and Vader wanted to go to Japan instead of spending more time somewhere where he wasn’t going to get over.

2.)y2j’s comments on goldberg on about nobody wanting
him there & having a big ego, legit or scripted?

General rule of thumb: If you hear somebody say something in a promo, it’s usually scripted, especially in WWE. WWE knew Goldberg’s reputation of having a big ego, and it was smart to have Jericho bring it up while feuding with him.

3.)Why was Rodney Macks build up stopped after a few weeks? – shadiest one

I think somebody backstage realized that Rodney Mack just wasn’t all that good in the ring. That happens sometimes…they’ll bring somebody out of developmental with a great idea for them, and push them hard…but sometimes it just doesn’t work for whatever reason. And then Mack got squashed by Goldberg. From what I’ve seen of Mack, he never struck me as a guy who could be a big star on the WWE level.

Why does the WWE still employ Tony Chimmel? All he has to do is talk and he can’t even do that properly. One of the most important words is ‘championship’ and he can never say it right because he always announces it ‘chimpionship’. Also back in the day, he’d also announce Ken Shamrock’s name like Ken Shimrock. Does he have some sort of connections with Vince which is why he’s still employed or is it something else?? Thanks in advance. – Squizzy

I got no problem with Chimel. He’s no Howard Finkel, and I’d much rather look at Lilian Garcia all show than him, but his introduction of John Cena kicks ass. I don’t know if he still does this, but for a long time Chimel was the guy who drove the WWE semi with the ring in it…I don’t know how far that places you up the heiarchy of the ring crew, but it’s gotta be pretty far up. He has also served as a pyrotechnician. So there’s a lot more to Tony Chimel’s job than just ring announcing and occasionally getting made a fool of.

Does the Boogyman eat the worms for real and are they real worms? I think one wrestler that should of been world champ was Paul Orndorff. – RJEVH01

D.I.F.T. says:
“Does the Boogyman eat the worms for real and are they real worms?”
Penguin says:
THANK GOD
Penguin says:
WRESTLING THAT’S NOT BENOIT
Penguin says:
KISS THAT PERSON
D.I.F.T. says:
wanna answer the question? I’m not a worm expert
Penguin says:
he doesnt eat anything…he spits them back out
Penguin says:
and i recall seeing some moving one time
Penguin says:
so…yes?
D.I.F.T. says:
I bet he’s probably accidentally swallowed some before
D.I.F.T. says:
that would suck
Penguin says:
they’re not toxic or anything
Penguin says:
worms are totally edible
Penguin says:
fish eat worms
Penguin says:
we eat fish
Penguin says:
but worms come from land
D.I.F.T. says:
you ever eat one?
Penguin says:
so why do fish eat them?
Penguin says:
these are the questions of the gods
Penguin says:
I’m sure I did as akid
D.I.F.T. says:
doesn’t seem very appetizing to me
D.I.F.T. says:
maybe if you put some salt on it, I dunno
Penguin says:
hot sauce solves all
D.I.F.T. says:
ah, good idea there
D.I.F.T. says:
you wouldn’t know what the heck you were eating
D.I.F.T. says:
because your mind would be like “hot, hot, hot” and not thinking “worm, worm, worm”
Penguin says:
exactly!

In case you’re wondering, “D.I.F.T.” = Do It For Traci.

What?

does the WWE have any plans to offer a contract to
James Laurinitis? He is currently playing for Ohio
State and the best linebacker in America, (I live in
Columbus, Ohio so dont read too much into that
comment), but the fact his father was one of the Road
Warriors and his uncle runs talent relations, do they
want to pursue him before the NFL picks him up? – Bryan

I’m sure it’s entered their minds, but I can’t imagine why he’d want to pass up a chance to make millions and millions of dollars in the pre-eminent sport in the United States to be a pro wrestler. You’d have to be a complete idiot to do something like that. Now, if Laurinitis’s NFL career is short-lived, I could see him pulling a Bill Goldberg and transitioning into wrestling. But honestly, there’s no way he’d choose WWE over the NFL. Of course, the fact that he goes to Ohio State makes me question his mental state.

hey steve ive got an odd question for you i know its a work but doesent anybody care if there was a driver in vinces limo and mabey vince wasent the only one blown up or doesnt that matter to anyone – Michael

Somebody thought of that after about a week, which is why they had the limo driver do an interview on Raw. To be fair, I had the same question and wondered why nobody cared that the limo driver probably met the same fate as Mr. McMahon’s character.

SO IS VINCE MCMAHON DEAD OR ALIVE,OUR CHILDREN CRIED THEIR EYES OUT,IS IT FAIR FOR CHILDREN TO GO THREW THE LIES AND HORROR OF ALL THAT HAPPENED OVER A JOKE ,A STUNT TO BOOST RATEINGS – Pat

Vince is alive. Given what happened earlier this week, that’s all I really have to say regarding this question. I could go off on a rant about how storyline deaths take away from real deaths, but I don’t feel up to it, and I’m sure plenty of other people will address that topic in the days and weeks ahead.

Great work on the Ask 411 article. I have a question on a couple of obscure managers. First one is during Curt Hennig’s run with the WWF, he was briefly managed by a coach type character. Who was he, has he done anything before or since his run with Curt, etc.

We have discussed this once before in this column, but since the site’s down and I can’t access the archives right now…the role of “Coach” was played by John Tolos, who had a lengthy career in the 1960s & 70s. He teamed with his brother Chris for years, and his top singles feud was with “Classy” Freddie Blassie. The Tolos/Blassie feud was pretty notable due to Tolos’ blinding of Blassie, an angle that got over huge and made Blassie a babyface on the West Coast after Blassie had spent years being the top heel in that region. He did not stay in the WWF too long, after Perfect’s back injury he pretty much stepped aside and hasn’t made too much of an impact in wrestling since.

The second one I had a question about was right after the Bodydonnas lost their tag team championships to the Smokin’ Gunns, Sunny went to manage the champs and the Bodydonnas enlisted a man dressed as a woman named Cloudy. Who was Cloudy and has he/she been seen before or since? – Cory

Shockingly, there isn’t much information on Cloudy available that you didn’t mention in your question. I can tell you that OnlineWorldofWrestling.com says that he wrestled before the Cloudy gimmick as “Handsome” Jimmy Shoulders. Real name Jim Heaney, he made his wrestling debut in August 1988 and was trained by the Monster Factory’s Larry Sharpe & Chuck Richards. During his career, which seems to have been spent mostly in the Northeastern U.S. independent wrestling scene, he feuded with guys like Chris Candido, Chris Chetti, Bobby Duncum, Jr. & Marty Jannetty.

who is the guy in the pink shirt? he was at WM 23, and im watching HBK/Razor from summerslam 95 and he’s there too, and I’ve seen him at lots of other wrestling events, always in the front row. he’s not the WWE sign guy, he’s just some random bald guy in a pink shirt. when i watched WM, I said “there’s the guy in the pink shirt!” and all my friends all looked at me like i was crazy, but watching this match from 95, he’s been around forever. he was front row at the TIT (terri invitational tournament) ladder match between edge/christian and the new brood (hardys) also. see? he’s everywhere! btw – the first match was in pitt, the tag team ladder match was in cleveland, and WM this year was in….i dunno, detroit? – Manu Bumb

Oddly enough, this fan was recently mentioned in a thread at the DVDVR, a message board I like to lurk around. Here’s a description from a poster there named colorblindref…

* Chris Kaz is a play off of his real name.
* He used to be a storyline owner of the IWA based out of Columbus, Ohio. (Not affiliated with Ian, Pondo, Victor Quionnes etc)
* He is the storyline uncle of Midwest indy wrestler Carlton Kaz.
* I used to work with him for the State of Ohio, but he also does a TON of charitable work for I believe the Make a Wish Foundation as well as the state’s combined charitable campaigns.
* I know I’ve seen him at past RoH Dayton shows. Never front row, normally in GA.
* Helluva nice guy who loves the biz…. but a terrible terrible fashion sense.

There you have it! I’m assuming this information is accurate.

What brand of shoe does john cena wear? It seems like he’s wearing different shoes than his usual reeboks lately. Do u know why they (the company) wouldn’t advertise this?

I’m guessing Reebok doesn’t have an advertising deal with WWE. And why would they need one if Cena will wear them for free? I have seen pictures of them, they look like Reeboks, but I’m not sure what model they are. Any shoe experts should feel free to chime in…

Is it me, or has randy orton not been getting his raining fireworks during his entry lately? Any idea why? – Renje

He has not…sometimes WWE likes to change the entrances of their wrestlers, and they probably figured that the raining fireworks didn’t really fit Orton anymore for whatever reason. I can’t say I missed it, it wasn’t exactly a highlight of the show or anything. Of course, I dislike Orton’s entrance in general because that damn song of his gets stuck in my head everytime I hear it. HEY! NOTHING YOU CAN SAY! NOTHING’S GONNA TAKE WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO ME! NOW IT’S TIME TO SHINE! GONNA TAKE WHAT’S MINE…..TAKE WHAT’S MINNNNNNNNEEEEEEE!

OK, enough of that.

I’d like to close today’s column by wishing my grandmother a happy 85th birthday. She won’t be reading this because she doesn’t have a computer and I don’t think she’s ever used the Internet in her life, but I wanted to mention it anyway because she’s good people and 85 years is a long time to spend alive.

Send any comments, questions, suggestions or other hoopla to [email protected]…thanks for reading, and I’ll catch ya next week.