Ask 411 Wrestling 08.22.07: Hitmen, Zeus, Bookers (not the King) and more!

“Schmozzes & Screwjobs 08.21.07: The FU TNA Edition”

“Why I Love Hate Wrestling 8.19.07: TNA (Part 1)”

“You’re An Idiot And Here’s Why 8.16.07: Kurt Angle & TNA”

“411 Fact or Fiction 8.17.07: The Horrible Hard Justice Show, The Promotion of SNME, Pacman upsetting the TNA Locker Room and More!”

Combine that with the mainstream media rightly making fun of their signing Pacman Jones…I wonder if they still think any publicity is good publicity. Which, by the way, is the biggest bunch of bullshit ever concocted. But that’s another topic for another time…

Hidden Highlights featured a pretty cool guest-host this week. They should feature that guy more prominently on the 411 website, I bet hits would go through the roof!

29 e-mails sit in the inbox. Yours can join them if you have anything that needs answering. If you don’t, just sit back and enjoy! Or not. It’s all good.

Comments, Corrections & other “C” words

What up man? In the recent Ask 411, you had a question about the Dusty Rhodes “Hard Times” promo, so I thought I’d do a search of YouTube because I figured since the promo was featured on the “Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 80s” and the Dusty Rhodes dvds (as well as the Ric Flair dvd, I think) it just HAD to be there somewhere. Well I didn’t find it, but I did happen upon something I remembered from watching the old Saturday Night NWA program on TBS that I figured you might want to see.

Here is the biggest (and only) win of Bill and Randy Mulkey’s career: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHU0z-RSPwQ

I remember when this first aired. Right before the match, David Crockett and Tony Schiavone show a clip of the Gladiators (any idea who those guys were, by the way?) beating the crap out of some team in Florida and when I saw that they were going to face the Mulkeys, I figured this would be another one-sided ass whooping for poor old Randy and Bill. What a moment! – Jay

The Gladiators were George South & Gary Royal, both of whom were used as mask and bodysuit wearing enhancement talent quite often during the 80s. George South is quite proud.

“So I gotta question for the Ask411 column. Back in the WM12 set-up for Diesel/Undertaker, Taker was playing mind games with Diesel, one of them being that a coffin was wheeled to ringside and what it contained, in essence, was a mirror image of Nash. Any idea how they managed that, cuz the effigy in the casket at ringside was totally lifelike and the literal spitting image. – 411’s Geoff Eubanks

Remember when he did the same thing with randy and bob orton, and the way WWE did that was just filming it beforehand, and when the ortons went to look in the casket, and hence the camera man, they suddenly cut to a tight shot where all you can really see is randy and bob in the casket, but nothing of the arena, audience, or randy and bob looking in? Well, after I saw that, I just assumed thats how they did the taker/diesel thing too, because I remember they zoomed in on it at some point, and yeah, that looked f’n identical to him. As for what we saw in the casket when it wasnt zoomed in (wasnt a deep casket, so you could see the body in it without zooming in) – the camera was far enough away that it couldve been a dummy or an actual person, but I believe in my heart that the zoomed in image of the casket was actually kevin nash. I have no proof, other than how similar it looked to him. maybe if we can find footage of it somewhere? think it was on the pre-match hype at WM 12? can someone with the dvds take a look? I dont want to fast forward through the tape. – Manu Bumb

Wasn’t the deal with Curt Hennig in 1996 that the WWF announced that he would fight Triple H on RAW. Curt’s insurance company got wind of this and asked the WWF if it was true and they replied that he was thinking about getting back in the ring. Thus the insurance company stopped the payments to him.

That’s what I heard anyway. – Matt

That sounds pretty feasible. Whether it’s true or not, I have no idea.

I have the CM Punk action figures and there’s no Pepsi or Cobra tattoo – GinsShy

Hey it’s Dman08 from the forums a reader asked a question about GTV, I thought it was supposed to be Goldust as well but according to Vince Russo on Wrestlecrap radio GTV was supposed to be Tom Green who was pretty damn popular back then, when he pitched the idea to Vince, he (Vince) didn’t know who Tom Green was so that meant no one knew Tom Green was. I don’t know if the idea was scrapped or plans changed to reveal it as someone else. – Dman08

Yeah, I forgot about the Tom Green story…considering GTV started out as “GDTV”, I gotta believe the Goldust concept was their first idea. Green may have been Russo’s second choice.

Questions!

What ever happened to Mohammed Hassan? people say he was let go cause of that angle with the terrorist people. But i then saw a picture of Davari doing the same angle, (Where he was carried out by masked men) and obviously he’s still with the WWE. I thought he was supposed to return with a Italian Mob character like Little Guido (but much better) ? – Wladimir

Mark Copani, the man who played the character of Muhammad Hassan, left WWE after he was “destroyed” by Undertaker at the 2005 Great American Bash. He opted to pursue an acting career…the last I heard he was taking acting lessons, but I haven’t heard anything on this front in a long time. I assume he is done with pro wrestling, which is a shame because I thought Muhammad Hassan had a lot of potential until WWE fucked it up by having him go all terrorist on Undertaker. The character worked fine when Hassan was an asshole that thought everybody hated him just because he was of Arabic descent. Also, he had the greatest entrance music of all time that wasn’t “Freebird”.

something has been bothering me of late; on the bret hart dvd, i noticed that he mentions how he got his ‘hitman’ moniker. he says that he acquired the name from ‘hitman’ herns, boxing great, and that it fit him perfectly. now i may be no expect, but in my estimation a hitman is someone who is cool, calm, calculated, and is given money to take out a target (aka an assassin). bret had the first part down (the demeanor), but as far as being paid regularly to take people out… i’m not so sure. as i was never a big fan of the wwf’s in the mid-late 90’s (during his peak), and my knowledge of bret’s work is limited to the dvd’s that the now wwe put out, i am unsure of this, but can ever remember bret really having a hitman-esque gimmick. am i missing something here? – Akantha Boi

Bret was never paid to take anybody out. Not that I know of, anyway. Bret “Hitman” Hart sounds really catchy, which is why the nickname got over. Hearns never killed anybody either, so I think you might be reading a little too much into this.

Hey, I have a question to ask you. Can I ask you what you think of TNA phasing out the X-Division Title, now this is just a rumor but with all of the recent Muscular Meathead signings they’ve had I can’t help but believe it’s possible.

That ended up being just a rumor. Most rumors have something tying them to reality that makes them somewhat believable. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be heard by enough people to qualify as a rumor. For example, I’ve been trying to start rumors about Traci Brooks and myself for years, but I can never get enough people to buy into it.

John Bryant has two questions for us…

Sorry for the rapid E-mails I’ve just had one question i’m dying to know and it’s about the man who when Heel, is Better Than You, if you’ve watched ROH you know who I mean, anyway my question is this, why doesn’t he do the Pepsi Plunge, I’ve heard it’s because he said the move was bad on his knees, and the other things i’ve heard is that WWE won’t let him do it because it resembles The Pedigree.

I’d say it’s a little bit of both. Punk has suffered from knee problems in the past, so it would behoove him not to use a move where he jumps from the top rope and lands right on his knees. And let’s face it, do you think Triple H would be happy if some other guy did a top rope version of his move? Triple H is not a guy you want to piss off if you want to have a long stay in WWE. I can’t say for sure that they’ve told him not to do it, but they don’t need to tell him not to if he has any common sense.

Why did Roderick Strong leave TNA? I mean he came back for one match and then poof, he was gone faster than a box of steroids in a room filled with Chris Masters,Barry Bonds & Andrew Martin and most of the UFC.

Strong & Austin Aries were suspended by TNA in February 2006 for opting to work an ROH show instead of flying down to Florida and beating a blizzard that hit the Northeast and cancelled many flights. They made it to TNA’s PPV in time, but were still suspended for defying orders and whatnot. He came back for one taping at the end of March, but was released soon afterwards. TNA didn’t really have any plans for Strong since he wasn’t an ex-WWE guy or a non-wrestling celebrity. Well, they didn’t say that, but it’s most likely true.

During the “Deadly Game” tournament at Survivor Series 1998, one of the
first-round matches featured X-pac vs. Steven Regal. The winner would face
Steve Austin, and the result of the match was a double count-out. Vince McMahon
sent Sargeant Slaughter down to the ring to have the match restarted, because he
didn’t want Austin to have a bye to the semi-finals. Now, Regal got in the
ring, the ref rang the bell to restart the match, and X-Pac, who was in the
aisle, just walked to the back with another referee. My question is, was X-Pac
legitemitely hurt? If not, why restart the match? And shouldn’t Regal
(kayfabe) have won the restart, because he was in the ring? JR and Lawler
didn’t say much, and it looked like someone goofed up big time. Any ideas? – Steve

It was a bit confusing, yeah. I think things like this can be explained away with three simple words…

Russo booked it.

It was said in an old Ask 411 column that I was reading over that “Cornette despises Heyman”. Why does he hate him so much? – Stitty

I’m fairly certain I’ve talked about this before, but Jim Cornette rivalries never get old. Cornette’s two main issues with Heyman that don’t have anything to do with their difference of opinion on how pro wrestling should be presented are as follows:

-Cornette called Heyman and recommended that he use The Gangstas after they finished up with Smoky Mountain in 4 weeks. Heyman called New Jack & Mustafa and had them leave SMW for ECW before they were supposed to. This sort of behavior is generally frowned upon by wrestling promoters.

-Heyman wanted to use some SMW footage of Tammy Sytch for a segment he was producing for ECW’s TNN show. Cornette agreed to it at the behest of Chris Candido…as long as he got paid. Much like many other people that dealt with Heyman, Cornette never got paid. He also didn’t think too highly of the segment, which basically tried to capitalize off of Sytch’s real-life problems in order to boost ratings.

There are also their philosophical differences, which is a whole other column in and of itself.

I just finished watching a terrible match on YouTube between Abdullah the Butcher and Zeus and couldn’t help but wonder why. Why did Zeus wrestle? Did he have training or something? I know No Holds Barred was before his Friday film, but didn’t he wrestle in WCW for a short while? Z Gansta or something? What feds has he appeared in and when was the last time he wrestled? – Jake Lee

Zeus wrestled because somebody was willing to pay him to do so. Why they were, I have no earthly idea. Judging from his matches, any training Zeus had wasn’t very effective. His appearance in WCW was during the winter of 1996, when he joined Kevin Sullivan’s Alliance to end Hulkamania under the name Z-Gangsta. As you can guess, the Alliance was unsuccessful. I think that was Zeus’s last appearance in the world of wrestling, and he probably only appeared in WWF, WCW & Puerto Rico.

CL Smooth has several questions…

Now then, question time. It seems obvious that the owners of the major indies (RoH/FIP, PWG, CZW, CHIKARA) are all on fairly decent terms, since they regularly share talent. The only indie that doesn’t really play ball is TNA (well, and IWA:MS, but who cares). With the way TNA struggles, the rabid nature of RoH fans, and the national coverage that could be had, do you think a merger of the above indies would make the resultant fed a player in the wrestling world? If it can happen on EWR…

Trust me, EWR is the only place it could happen. The fact of the matter is that most of these indies don’t have enough assets to be a major player in the wrestling world, even if you throw them all together. And while they may be able to share the same talent, any kind of booking meeting with Gabers, Zandig, Quack and whoever books PWG would be a total clusterfuck. I just don’t see it working out.

Speaking of EWR, the Wikipedia says something about numerous updated versions with improved interfaces, more storylines, and so on. I wish to purchase same. I cannot find it. Help.

I’m not entirely sure what you’re looking for, but here are some links that might help.

Total Extreme Wrestling 2007

Total Extreme Wrestling 2005

Wrestling Spirit

What happened to the Just Joe angle? On a similar note, there’s an interviewer on Raw (I think) now who looks fairly buff. He’s relatively new. I know Josh Matthews is a former Tough Enough guy, where did this other one come from?

Just Joe kinda fizzled out after a few months…after spreading all of those rumors around the WWF locker room, he wrestled mainly on Jakked/Metal. He jobbed for such talent as Al Snow, Essa Rios & Brooklyn Brawler before leaving the company in late 2000 to compete in Japan & Europe.

As for the new announcer guy, I believe you’re thinking of Max Bretos.

More likely to get a WWE contract: Nigel McGuinness, Chris Hero, Erick Stevens, BJ Whitmer, Adam Pearce?

Out of that group, I’d say Nigel. He’s got the most polished ring style and the best look out of the group. Hero’s lacking the look that WWE typically looks for. Whitmer is like Test except half the size. Pearce…I dunno, he could be a possibility because he cuts a good promo, but I wouldn’t dare put him in the same class as a Nigel, or a Hero for that matter. I haven’t seen enough of Stevens to form much of an opinion, but I can’t say I was blown away by anything I have seen from him.

RoH fans chant “Repo Man” at Pearce. Repo was Darsow, no? Is it just the resemblance, or am I missing something?

It’s the resemblance. Adam Pearce was 14 years old when Barry Darsow was running around as the Repo Man. Unless he pulled a William Regal, I don’t see Pearce having been able to put on that black mask and ridiculous ring attire in the WWF.

Do you think wwe will ever put out a Bruno Sammartino dvd? – RJEVH01

Coming off of the success of the Ultimate Warrior DVD, I fully expect WWE to come out with a series of “Self-Destruction” DVDs that will try and bury people that have gone against WWE in the past. They might wanna hurry up and do a Bruno one before everybody that knew him back in the day dies.

On a serious note, I don’t really see it happening. Footage of Bruno’s heyday is limited at best, and he doesn’t seem interested in mending the fences. I’m not saying it’ll never happen, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

I noticed on Raw this week Sandman has a face tattoo’d on his right arm, any idea who’s face it is? I assume not Martin Luther King…. Maybe Paul Heyman!? – Paul

It’s his own face. I think he did it mainly because it would be a cool visual when he did his usual “one arm up in the air holding a cane” pose.

I have seen some ROH, but I am rather interested in how the storylines are created and fueds are made. I know that Gabe Sapolsky is the head booker but how much power does he have? ROH has hade some great booking throughout its existance and i was wondering if this Gabe character is as good as some say. Any other significant bookers there?

On a sidenote, who do you think is the better booker, Gabe Sapolsky or Paul Heyman? – bronbron402

Gabe is the main booker and has final say over all storylines and whatnot. I believe that the talent involved has some input, but can’t speak as to how much input they have. Some have said that Jimmy Jacobs was heavily involved in his angle with Lacey, B.J. Whitmer and a cast of thousands.

To answer the Gabe vs. Paul question, personally I gotta go with Heyman. I might be somewhat biased because Paul Heyman is so much more effective at personally getting his angles over than “Jimmy Bower” is, but generally I think Heyman books a more interesting show than Gabers. Granted, Heyman has had more chances to book in different places and work with a vast array of talent, but the fact is that he’s been pretty successful for at least a period of time anyplace that he’s gone. There’s no doubt that his business skills leave a lot to be desired, but many of his ideas were considered revolutionary at the time that they happened. How many ROH angles can be considered revolutionary?

Of course, Gabe learned most of what he knows from Paul Heyman. He could get to the point where you can mention him in the same breath in Heyman as far as “booking genius” goes, but he’s not there yet. And I don’t think he’d disagree with that unless he’s a total egomaniac.

Don’t you think talent is being wasted on Web Heat that could be better used to fill out the ECW roster? – Alan

Not really. I mean, when the hell would you use them? I guess the one argument you could make is Val Venis, but they seem set on keeping him on the Raw/Heat roster until the end of time. The ECW roster doesn’t need filling out…it’s funny how everybody bitches and moans about the TNA roster being so damn big, then they turn around and whine about there not being enough people in ECW. ECW has half the time to fill that Raw & Smackdown get, therefore they shouldn’t need more than half the talent.

I guess you could complain about the quality of talent, but what’s ECW going to do with Hacksaw Duggan?

In chatting with a couple of friends recently the topic of foreign objects being less and less guaranteed as deciders has come up, and it got me thinking – what was the first time someone took a foreign object shot and won the match without DQ? – Tom

The best guess I have is “during a Sheik match”. Sheik used plenty of weapons and got hit by plenty of weapons that didn’t result in a pinfall. I think the success of a foreign object really depends on what the foreign object is, and it was the same way back in the day.

Joey L. has two questions…

1. Does the WWE ever force wrestlers to get tattoos to make their character look more authentic? I’m referring to Umaga’s SAMOA tattoo on his stomach and CM Punk’s STRAIGHTEDGE tattoo, also on his stomach. I can see CM Punk’s, but Umaga’s seemed a bit unusual to me.

Punk had the tattoo long before entering WWE. I’m not sure when Umaga got his…when he previously wrestled in WWE, Japan and other places as Jamal, he always wore a shirt to cover up the fat. But I feel pretty safe in saying that WWE didn’t tell him (or anybody else) to get something tattooed on their stomach.

And Umaga’s tattoo really isn’t that unusual because Samoans are fiercely proud of their heritage.

2. Do you know what Sabu has been up to after leaving ECW?

Sabu has recently returned to the independent circuit, making some appearances in Hermie Sadler’s UWF. Rumor has it that he might make a TNA return, but there’s nothing definite on that front.

I was watching Nitro one monday and im not sure of the year but if i had to guess it was 1998? Anyway i may be confused with what happened but i remember it was during Rick Steiners feud with Scott and Rick was in the ring giving a promo when Chucky appeared on the screen sayin stuff like “Stay away from Scott” and stuff like that. Do you know what happened with the angle with chucky involved or what? I know it was a stunt to promote Bride of Chucky but what all happened with the angle? Did the have an actual Chucky interfere in a match or what? – Joel

CHUCKY~! Oh, this was glorious Wrestlecrap if there ever was some. To answer your question, Chucky never made any appearances after his interview with Rick Steiner, which you describe well enough. Probably because Rick threatened to beat him up. I know if I happened to be a doll, I probably wouldn’t want to take my chances with a crazy wrestler dude.

Patrick brings up the rear with three questions…

1. I recall a few years ago, while Bret Hart was in WCW cutting a promo, a fan threw an egg and hit him in his neck somewhere. Do you remember this? It was hilarious, but I can’t find it on youtube or anywhere. Do you know where I can see footage of this?

I have no clue what you’re talking about, but some people seem to remember this sort of thing pretty well. Readers?

2. I know how we hate when people say wrestling is fake, but in reality, it’s no faker than anything else on TV. But do you think people would take it more for what it is if at the end of RAW Smackdown and ECW, they rolled some credits to actually give credit to all the pyro guys, cameramen, announcers, etc? I think those guys deserve to have their name shown, even though no one watches the credits, its only fair to them. They bust their asses to make them the shows that they are. Is there a reason wrestling doesn’t roll credits?

WCW used to roll credits after their PPVs, and I think Crockett’s shows ran credits fairly frequently. I don’t think it’d make a bit of difference in the grand scheme of things, but it would be cool to give the backstage guys their props. As for why they don’t, I think it’s because WWE runs their matches right until the end of shows and wouldn’t have enough time to do it. They want to catch people off guard when they go off the air.

3. Maybe not the world anymore, or ever, but do you think Mark Henry really is the WWEs strongest man? If not, who do you think is, pure strength-wise? – Patrick

I believe he is. Great Khali might be bigger, but that doesn’t necessarily make him stronger. That would be the one guy I can think of that might compete with Henry as far as strength goes.