Ask 411 Wrestling 11.07.07: Bulldogs, Lazertron, Retirements and more!

It’s time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I’m Steve Cook, and I hope you remembered to vote yesterday! Unless you voted Republican, in which case I wish you were too busy to vote. Oh well.

I find it amazing how many people I find on MySpace that don’t remember me. Why wouldn’t they remember a socially awkward outcast that was too shy to say anything of value to them? I just don’t get it.

If I didn’t hate Domingo with the fire of a thousand suns before, I’d hate him even more now for picking up Maurice Hicks a split second before I tried to. What the hell was he doing up so early on a Sunday anyway? At least I picked up Priest Holmes…a week too early. Grrr.

Not too much else to talk about…the Bengals suck, my fantasy teams are all heading towards mediocrity, and Louisville basketball doesn’t play again for 10 more days. In case you were wondering, there are currently 55 e-mails in the inbox. It’s starting to pile up again, which is probably a good thing.

On with the madness!

Comments, Corrections & other “C” words

Scott Putski got injured on Pay-Per-View no less,
Ground Zero in 1997 against Brian Christopher. Putski
takes a bump to the outside and gets counted out.
Actually the ref stopped at nine when he realised
Putski really wasn’t going to get up and they ended it
there and then.

Feel free to ignore this bit if you already posted it,
but I saw one of your E-Mails this week continued with
the whole “who has been using their entrance music the
longest” question. I certainly meant to mail you, but
I forget if I did… anyway, Jerry Lawler FTW. – Chris Page

Lawler has the longest running entrance music of anybody currently in the WWE. I know he’s used other stuff outside of WWE, but within that promotion he has used his current theme since he came in.

The only promo I remember vividly of Randy Orton’s involving anything monkey-like would be a promo he cut on Triple H during his (short-lived) 2004 title reign when they were trying to get him over as a face. He was basically imitating Triple H’s mannerisms and sounding like a dumb ape. The only reason I remember this promo is because it came off way too “try hard” to me, basically a bad imitation of a Rock promo. – Shannon

Even though you probably got about 100 replies about this I figured I would help, anyway I want to say the Monkey promo happened a week or two after Orton got kicked out of Evolution. The buzz was how would Orton react and what would be his response to his former stablemates, a lot of people were hoping for a tweener type Orton to cut a nice, smooth cocky promo instead he insulted HHH by saying he looked like a monkey. So Orton cut a promo imitating monkey, imitating HHH he was trying to be funny but it was pretty terrible.– Desean

she gave birth during raw. dont know if there was a ppv the day before or what, but yeah, it happened during raw, HHH, Shane, and Vince were all absent from the show, the birth was announced mid-show.

that’s all i care to know about steph’s cooch….for now. – Manu Bumb

The last part of that statement troubles me.

In regards to where the majority of wrestling revenues come from, I remember reading in Eric Bischoff’s book there are four main streams. When all four are about 25% things are clicking on all cylinders. The four are tv revenue, PPV’s, ticket sales and merchandise. I would think that if your tv programming is good you’re going to have a nice deal. If the shows are good and the PPV’s are good now you’ve got a good buyrate as well and people will see you’re house shows. If people are going to your house shows one has to assume they enjoy the product and will buy merchandise. – Mike G.

Brandon asked about the injuries in WWE, mentioned the lack of them in 2000 even with the cruiserweight action and hardcore matches. I agree with the talent depth and fear of losing spots you mentioned, but I remember noticing it over time as well. A while back, I remember reading an interview with Billy Gunn after he was released from WWE where he mentioned how they had redesigned their rings sometime around 2000. He stated this was the reason for many of the neck injuries that took place from Benoit, Rhyno, Lita, Edge, etc. as the new rings had less give. I believe he said this was done because some(one) were complaining about how it looked too cartoony. Since it’s coming from Gunn, you may want to take this with a grain of salt… but why someone would make up a bogus story about a wrestling ring is beyond me. – Jimmy

regarding damian sarcuni’s question about the road warriors: according to the “shoots” section of the german wrestling homepage www.genickbruch.com, the match took place on april 27, 1985 in the awa. the road warriors no sold larry hennig’s and jerry blackwell’s offense until they decided to teach the arrogant newcomers a lesson. hennig and blackwell stopped cooperating and started to stiff the road warriors and basically exposed them as rookies by wrestling circles around them. the road warriors were clueless how to handle the situation and took quite a beating. towards the end of the match, hennig and blackwell started cooperating again and the match ended as planned. i can’t say were genickbruch.com got this information, but that’s what i know. – Basti

Many people wrote in about this one, I thank all that did.

Well i know (Scott Putski) didnt retire from wrestling, as he ‘;s been known to show up to a local promotion Near dallas (XCW) as part of a tag team called the Cowboys From Hell. Though they havent been around for close to a year i know they spent close to two years in and out of that promotion and others around Texas.

So he is currently on an extended break but he is still wrestling. – Jamil Sneed

In regards to which match the rope broke off involving Jericho, it was
indeed Booker T and Goldust vs. Christian and Jericho but the match
happened at No Mercy 2002 not SummerSlam. SummerSlam saw Booker and
Goldust face the Un-Americans.

Regarding Neuce’s observations on the Montreal screwjob, I’m pretty sure
the general belief is that Earl Hebner had called for the bell not
Vince. Vince evidently needed to direct the timekeeper since he wasn’t
in on it and didn’t know why Hebner was calling for the finish. Bret
himself heard someone call for it and thought it was Vince also but upon
viewing the tape back at his hotel he noticed it was in fact Earl who
called for it first with Vince there to ensure his will got carried out.
And there’s no better way to ensure that than with “Ring the bell, RING
THE F*CKING BELL!!!” Mind you that Vince was out there with a whole lot
of extra staff so he might have been there to help ‘keep the peace’. – Mateo

Referees generally call for the bell. I like to use Vince’s call for the bell because it’s funnier. There was a reason Vince had almost his whole staff down there…he didn’t want Bret to kick his ass in public. To Vince’s credit, he took his medicine from Bret backstage and didn’t run out of the building like Hebner did.

The first two parts of your answer were totally correct. However when it comes to ROH you’re way off. ROH’s main source of revenue is and will always be their massive DVD sales. The PPVs are actually a way for them to grow their DVD sales. ROH’s business model has always been about the DVDs.

And as far as Mark Briscoe’s teeth go, the SSP off the bar roof was just a joke by Gabe/Jimmy Bower to get over how crazy Mark is. And at that particular time Mark was doing SSP’s off the ring entrance and ring truck seemingly every other show. The real deal is that the Briscoes were wrestling some other team at, I believe, a PWU show. Jay reared back with a chair to swing it at someone and caught Mark in the mouth by accident. Bye bye teeth! I think the story was used for a combination of reasons, to make Mark look insane and to not give another fed any press while acknowledging the incident. – Christopher

I was saying that ROH likely hopes that PPV sales will become a big part of their business. DVD sales are one thing ROH hopes will go up because of the PPVs, but that’s not their only goal. If they only focus on DVD sales, what happens when sales go down? You have to have more than one stream of revenue to run a successful business, and PPV is another way for them to make money. How successful that will be remains to be seen.

Just wanted to throw this little bit of information in there that Glacier did disappear into the Georgia independent scene. He wrestled for a company called Spinebuster Championship wrestling out of Valdosta Ga. that went for a couple of years. After that, the company went under,(Bonded with what is now “World 1”) I am not sure if he is still with them, but I did get to hang with him over dinner a couple of nights after the shows and he would tell stories of his travels. Great guy, very open, very cool to hang with. – Scott G. from Tallahassee

Vampiro’s gone down the Lita route and formed a band. Droch Fhoula. http://www.myspace.com/drochfhoula – Jeremy

Hey Steve, thanks for running my questions. Just wanted you to know I live in “Newfoundland”, and NOT “New Foundland” as you spelled it in your column. I spelled it correctly in my email; no need for you to change it in your reply. If Sailor White (a Newfoundlander who won WWF gold as King Moondog) was still alive, he’d big splash your ass into next week! – Steve in Newfoundland

My spelling makes more sense. When I rule the world, you shall hail from New Foundland. Muwhahahahahaha!

It should be noted that I write the majority of these columns either drunk or hung over. It’s amazing I get as much right as I do, really.

Questions!

So yeah… what to do?? – Paul from England

I could be totally wrong, but I believe that Raw is more readily available to the viewing public than Smackdown is. The CW isn’t that strong of a network, and you won’t find it on all cable systems. I think USA is pretty much everywhere, if it isn’t it’s still in more places than the CW. Smackdown also has to deal with local affiliates pre-empting the show due to sporting events, while Raw only has that problem a couple of times a year. Furthermore, Monday night is a much better TV night than Friday is. People are more likely to leave their houses on Friday than on Monday. Of course, this is strange coming from me since I was out at the bar on Monday night instead of writing this column. But I digress…along with being a better TV night Monday night has been a wrestling night since the days of WWF Prime Time Wrestling in the mid-80s. People have grown accustomed to tuning USA in every Monday night to watch their wrestling, while Smackdown has only been around since 1999 and on Fridays since 2005. I think Raw will always be viewed as the “A show” by WWE and most of their fans even if Smackdown is actually the better show. It’s all about perception and tradition.

After the Teddy Hart situation and the whole Hart Foundation 2K7 angle being thrown in the air I was thinking wat if WWE threw Harry w/another English superstar and formed a modern day version of the British Bulldogs instead? They could team him up w/Burchill and possibly have Dave Taylor as a manager. I honestly think this could work, that way he’s not sqrewed out of his legacy and could keep his dad’s namesake going. Doesn’t have to be permanent, just something to get his feet wet and establish his place on the roster. As for the other Hart Foundation members in limbo, maybe Ted Dibiase Jr. and TJ Wilson can become a tag team and Naddie could be their valet/partner(i.e. Lita for Team Extreme). – Bstreak20

With ol’ D.H. on the shelf for a month, it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to repackage him into a tag team upon his return. He needs something to stand out, because the only thing I’ve noticed about him since coming to WWE is how bland he is. Too bad Dynamite Kid would probably have no interest in managing a new British Bulldog team. Thing is, Burchill is a much better heel and I’m not sure how Harry works as a heel. It could happen, but I don’t think it’s something in the works.

Thing is, whenever somebody suggests making a new version of an old tag team, I remember how well the New Blackjacks went over. There’s no guarantee that a new British Bulldog team would get over, hell, there was no guarantee that the new Hart Foundation would have worked out.

Leif has two questions…

1. There have been a couple Tully Blanchard questions within the last couple of weeks that got me to thinking – Why was he never given another good run in one of the big promotions after being fired by the WWF for failing a drug test? It seems that several (less talented) wrestlers over the years have had well known drug and alcohol problems but have received opportunity after opportunity. It just seems odd that Blanchard would not have been given another chance by either WCW or the WWF. I believe the original plan was for him to go back to WCW with Arn and reform the Horsemen with Flair and Ole but instead they used Paul Roma. Was Blanchard disliked or hard to work with? I don’t get it. I would think that a Horsemen reunion would have been a “license to print money” as they say. I know that he later appeared briefly here and there and then was an agent for WWE for a very short time but for a guy that was widely considered to be technically gifted and a great heel it just doesn’t make sense.

Blanchard was disliked by a lot of people within the business that thought he was way too cocky. He left the business after a very brief run in the AWA to become an evangelist, something that he still does to this day. He never had another good run because he wasn’t interested in returning.

2. Guys like Nova and Kanyon are often called great innovators in ring. Are there any others that spring to mind when thinking of wrestlers who have created quite a few original moves in the ring? Anyone that stands out as an all-time great innovator?

As for current guys, Rey Mysterio is considered quite the innovator of aerial offense. Tommy Dreamer called himself the Innovator of Violence, and he did come up with some unique ways to create violence. When you talk about all-time great innovators, names like Dynamite Kid, Tiger Mask I, Ray Stevens, Bob Orton, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, the Midnight Express, the Road Warriors come to mind. The list is probably endless.

The Steiner Brothers also come to mind as guys who made up a lot of suplexes, and Scott popularized the Frankensteiner.

Adam has two questions as well…

1. Is it true that the Great Khali killed someone in the ring in OVW?
If its true how is he not in jail? and who was it?

Great Khali did not kill anybody while in OVW. However, while he was training to become a wrestler at the APW training facility in California, he was unfortunately involved in the death of a fellow trainee, Brian Ong. Ong was on the receiving end of a flapjack from Khali and suffered a concussion. APW’s trainers allowed him to continue training after he shook the cobwebs out a bit, he then took another flapjack from Khali and suffered another severe concussion which led to his death. Ong’s family won a wrongful death lawsuit against APW and was awarded 1.3 million dollars. APW was found to not have done enough to prevent Ong from suffering the fatal injury. While Khali was the person doing the move to Ong, it is believed that the death had more to do with the way Ong took the move and the negligence of the APW training staff that allowed Ong to continue in the ring after suffering the first concussion.

2. Is Pat Patterson really gay? and when did he come out? that would
make a great book.

Patterson is openly homosexual. I don’t know when he came out, but it likely became public knowledge when three men that were fired by the WWF accused him of sexual harassment in 1992. This is a very long story that I’m sure somebody will ask me about at a later time.

Clyde has many questions for us…

Here’s my questions: Why does it seem that appear that the fans at the WWE Hall of Fame are more disruptive and sometimes more “mean” to the people selected to be Hall Of Famers than they seem to be at a regular WWE show?

Also, like with the guy who yelled something to Triple H about “tearing the other quad” during Mrs. Farhats speech–do people like that get thrown out (the semi-disruptive ones) or do they get to stay?

I wanted to ask JT about this, but he was either drunk or mad at me for making fun of his Lions in last week’s Fact or Fiction. That or he was busy phoning Geoff to discuss which Hardy Boy they have a bigger crush on. I think the HOF ceremony draws a more “select” crowd than most WWE events…let’s face it, people who go to these types of ceremonies are more dedicated wrestling fans than your casual fan that’ll check out a live event. Fill them up with alcohol, and they become annoying smart marks that want to yell “inside” stuff to get over.

It’s also a lot more noticeable in an HOF-type setting because it’s a smaller building with a smaller crowd. Fans can be unruly in large arenas too, but unless it’s most of the crowd doing it you usually won’t notice. People do get kicked out, I remember Sherri Martel had somebody kicked out during her speech. I don’t know about the guy that yelled at Triple H, but he probably got kicked out if they figured out who he was.

How much of a markup would you say there is in the HOF tickets compared to a regular wrestling event, or is this part of the AXXESS ticket–does AXXESS even exist any more?

Hall of Fame tickets run from $45-$100, which is comparable to most regular WWE events and less expensive than WrestleMania. Last year there was a WrestleMania Fan Axxess Tour that went to places such as Miami, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other major markets. It ended at WrestleMania and was in Detroit for the last three days.

And lastly, nothing against the Sheik at all (love him!), but I am curious. It is mentioned he did not even drop character around his grandchildren who called him “Grandpa Sheik”. Do you think that he and some of the Vachons (as well as others) get so entrenched in their character that it is hard to separate reality from semi-fantasy?

Without a doubt. Read almost any book written by a wrestler and you’ll see them admit that at times they would get wrapped up in their gimmick. Ed Farhat was the Sheik for so long that I’d be surprised if there weren’t times that he really thought he was a Syrian maniac. Combine wrestlers’ tendency to live double lives with drugs, and you get some guys that can’t separate fantasy from reality. Warrior Warrior, anyone?

Reading (on 411s site, believe it or not) that Stone Cold is the referee for the Batista/Undertaker match, and that he stunned Foley got me thinking something.

If he is in any match, it has happened so many times now, you know what will come up…while I like him and think he is great–is there a reason that all he does now is the Stone Cold Stunner (and is there more to it than just because he cannot physically wrestle anymore)?

Steve Austin is physically broken down to the point where that’s pretty much all he can do. That’s all there is to it, really…the Stunner still gets a big pop so why not let him do that? There are plenty of people around these parts that don’t like Austin’s act…I for one support it.

What ever happened to Lazertron?? I remember seeing this guy ONCE on WCW, I think, appox 20 years ago. It was a title match, cruiserweight I assume, and he won. I was amazed at the way this guy moved, methodical like a robot then he would do flips and rolls and such. His outfit looked like a robot, and he wore a mask. Although nowadays I’m sure it isn’t anything special, but back then I was very impressed. I’ve never seen his name mentioned anywhere so I don’t even know if he wrestled under a different gimmick. Good luck, I know there isn’t much to go on sorry. – $hamrock77

The man under the mask was none other than Hector Guerrero. After the Lazertron gimmick fizzled out, he went to the USWA & then the AWA before popping up in the WWF with an even more ridiculous gimmick than Lazertron…

(The Gobbledygooker, for those of you that can’t or don’t want to use YouTube)

Hi Steve, I have one question for you and that is, after the Montreal Screwjob involving Bret Hart, why did Bret’s brother Owen Hart remain with WWF after this incident? – Adam

Owen was under contract to the WWF and they didn’t want to let him go. Guys like Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart were expendable and the WWF was ok with letting them go elsewhere, but Owen had more value and potential than they did. Owen wanted to leave, but eventually he decided to stay and continue working for the WWF.

Hindsight being 20/20, that probably wasn’t the best decision.

Travis has two questions…

While watching the fall preview for the Fight Network I was treated (and a bit worried) about a new show they are starting up called “Wrestling Reality” which apparently is focusing on the negative aspects as it’s main taglines were about the “Darker side of Wrestling such as Drugs, Booze, and Women” it’s got me worried that it will start up a new whirlwind of negative PR for the industry. So I’m wondering what your thoughts about this are?

I think I have a different stance on this issue than most of my colleagues would, but I don’t see a problem with this type of programming as long as it’s accurate. If it’s a tabloid type show that does nothing more than spread rumors nobody actually believes are true, then it’ll be pretty worthless and nobody will care. If it actually tackles some of the issues pro wrestling has, then that could be a good thing. Sure, there could be some negative PR, but sometimes that’s necessary to force change. I don’t think it’ll have much of an impact it will have here in the United States because we don’t get the Fight Network. Perhaps some of my Canadian readers could tell me how wrestling is doing up there since the death of Chris Benoit…I can’t imagine that would have been good for business, and I don’t see anybody else talking about that aspect of the story.

This is also a bit of a question on nicknames that get transfered from one company to another. Did TNA ever hold the copyright over Jeff Hardy’s “Charismatic Enigma” nickname? The reason I ask is because while watching a video for Smackdown vs Raw 2008, I think it was JBL that used it.

I don’t believe TNA currently has a copyright on the nickname, and am not sure that they ever did.

On Smackdown several years ago, there was a hardcore match between Jeff Hardy and RVD that featured an insane swanton off a ladder by Jeff Hardy. He was aiming for RVD lying prone on a table at ringside, but RVD moved at the last instant and Hardy didn’t just break the table with his impact, he shattered it. There’s a YouTube video of the match here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE1ZZw2IkTQ Hardy appeared too shaken up afterwards to continue, and although this video clip doesn’t show it, I believe the match was for the hardcore championship and that a couple of guys ran out to take advantage of the then-24/7 defense rule after Hardy was helped to the back, thus providing a finish (of sorts). My question is, was this all pre-planned, or was Hardy legitimately unable to continue after his fall? RVD seemed concerned enough and the “finish” was extremely random, but then again, RVD’s good at what he does and oddball finishes aren’t that unusual, then or now. – Jennifer

I’m 99.99% sure that it was pre-planned. Usually a swanton off a ladder through a table is enough to put somebody out of commission, especially when there’s nobody on it. I don’t think they expected the table to break quite like that, and Hardy later said the impact knocked him out for a few seconds. You remember correctly, as CRZ’s recap tells me that Raven ran down to try and capitalize off the 24/7 hardcore title rules. As for why RVD showed concern, while he was a member of the Alliance he was being positioned as a tweener character. Basically he was a good, decent guy that happened to be part of ECW. It’s kind of like how I’m a good, decent guy that happens to be part of the IWC.

Don’t judge us by the company we keep.

Hello good Sir. Enjoying your column like always, Ask411 is a much anticipated “tradition” to me for years and I am always looking forward to it. Keep up the great work. Now to my question. It might be a little strange but like 2 days ago I watched the Rumble match from 92 and I wondered about the following:

Did Macho just want to have a short night and leave the Rumble as soon as he eliminated Jake or was it all planned out in the beginning to show that Macho was even willing to sacrifice his title chance just to get some payback on Roberts? Like I said in the beginning it might be a bit strange but I just had the feeling when I watched it the last time (and I have watched it 10+ times at least) that Savage wanted to leave early and only got pulled back by Taker. I assume that UT, only being like 1,5 years with the WWF at that time, didn’t have much backstage power or power among the other wrestler but somehow I got the feeling that UT pulled Savage back and told him to better stay there. – Schnee

The most likely story is that the angle was supposed to go down like that, and it made sense for Undertaker to be the one dragging him back into the ring because he was aligned with Jake Roberts at the time. I don’t think there was any controversy there, though it kinda went against the rules of the match and Heenan had to stretch the truth a little bit to make it look like something that made sense within the rules of the match. It was believable that Savage would exit the match just to go after the man that had ruined his wedding, slapped his wife, and made a snake bite his arm.

Any idea when Ashley will be back from her “suspension”? Obviously she
took time off to be on Survivor, but she’s been off the show for
several weeks now. Additionally, any idea if she’ll be put back on
Smackdown! or possibly moved to Raw to compete with the team she used
to valet, London and Kendrick? Think she could possibly take up some
face space with Candice Michelle being out for about 2 months? – Stan

Ashley’s brother Ronny recently posted on her MySpace that she is sick but getting better. I’ve found no information on when she will be returning to WWE, but they could use some female talent ASAP.

Pete has three questions…

1. You recently mentioned an incident between JBL and
Steve Blackman, can you elaborate on what happened and
when?

Rumor has it that JBL was giving Blackman a hard time at the airport one day, which led to Blackman beating him up. I don’t really have any information that confirms this urban legend, but it’s a pretty fun story.

2. What happened to Palmer Cannon after he left the
WWE after a run in with JBL backstage?

Cannon returned to the indy scene under his old ring name Brian Black, wrestling in Puerto Rico & the Dominican Republic, as well as his home promotion Chaotic Wrestling. He is currently out of action with a torn bicep, but was scheduled to return in the fall of 2007. Which is now.

3. Rumor has it that ‘Taker recently “made” Chris
Masters sell an arm injury, has this ever happened
before? I know sometimes that vets enforce discipline
and keep order backstage but I’ve never heard of
‘Taker actually needing to do the enforcement.

I don’t know if it’s happened with Undertaker before, but veterans have gone to drastic measures to make young guys do what they’re supposed to do before. This incident was a bit strange because Undertaker yelled “Sell the arm, dumbass” at Masters, who was across the ring at the time. You wouldn’t expect the Deadman to break kayfabe like that, especially since he’s been known to go to great measures to protect his character. Maybe he thought Scottish people couldn’t understand English.

is there a good way, a right way for wrestlers to retire? Mick Foley did one helluva job putting HHH over on his way out, but then kept coming back.

which brings up a second question – is there a right way for a face to retire? if trish had lost, people wouldve been pissed that the face lost her last match, but if trish had been the evil-heel-bitch that we all knew and loved when she turned on Y2J, seeing her lose wouldve been an awesome final match. – Manu Bumb

The right way to retire is probably putting somebody over on the way out. Of course, this conflicts with our inner nature, as all of us want to retire from whatever we do for a living on top. Foley’s first retirement was one of the better ones until it ended three weeks later. Lita’s was pretty good, but what has Mickie James really gained from Lita putting her over? Not a whole hell of a lot.

I think a face that loses on their way out is doing the right thing. Sure, it pisses off the fans, but here’s a secret…wrestling fans love being pissed off. Why do you think we watch this nonsense? It isn’t to get a warm and fuzzy feeling, if we wanted that we’d watch Sesame Street. Honestly, it’s all a moot point because the only retirements that last forever aren’t exactly good ones because they’re due to injury or death.

I have 2 questions. what ever happened to the Gutwrench suplex. or Gutwrench moves in general. I mean we used to see some variation of it done in a match quite regularly but not in every match I mean Test even had a variation that went into a Powerbomb. but now it seems like that move has fallen into Oblivion. and also: Why did Bobby Lashley Discontinue his use of the Dominator he actually made it look pretty damn effective. – John Bryant

Sometimes when everybody does one move, people decide to take it out of their arsenal because everybody else does it. Once everybody stops doing it, nobody does it. That’s probably what happened to gutwrench moves…they’ll pop back up at some point if they haven’t already.

As for the Dominator, I think you or somebody else has asked about that before. I don’t have a great answer for that, but now that Ron Simmons is competing occasionally he might need his finishing move back.

Following on from the one about
how the WWE and TNA arrange it so their PPV’s don’t
clash. Now I figured that the WWE would announce
theirs and then TNA would plan theirs around that, but
back in the days when the WWF and WCW were pretty much
level pegging, how would that work? Sure, WCW would
probably want to avoid clashing with Wrestlemania, you
could likely make reverse point with Starrcade, but
besides that, any idea what would happen there? – Chris Page

I’m fairly certain WCW was the first company to run monthly PPVs, so they probably got the first shot to establish their PPV dates. Back in the day, PPV dates were pretty predictable. Starrcade was at the end of December, Halloween Havoc was at the end of October, Great American Bash was in early July and then moved to mid-June when Bash at the Beach became mostly a mid-July show. WWF also had certain PPV traditions, as the Royal Rumble was almost always towards the end of January, SummerSlam was usually at the end of August with few exceptions, Survior Series moved to the middle of November after previously being a Thanksgiving night show. Of course, it replaced Starrcade in that role, which led to the whole “wrestling PPVs on separate nights” thing.