Ask 411 Wrestling 12.26.07: Heel Title Reigns, Australians, Beef Wellingtons and more!

It’s time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I’m Steve Cook, and I hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas this year. Unfortunately I did not…somehow I ended up with Jimmy Del Ray under my tree wearing some Christmas-themed lingerie. I’m not sure how Santa managed to misread my Christmas list that terribly. He must have been sipping a bit too much of the egg nog this year.

Anyway, it’s a holiday-shortened edition of Ask 411 this week. Look for more of the same next week, then we’ll get back to a somewhat regular schedule the week after that. Before we begin, a big shoutout to my peeps at the Northern Wrestling Federation, who put on a great show at Shimmers Tavern this past Saturday night. Not only was there great wrestling, but there was a bar! Good times. Here’s a tiny recap of the show that I posted in the blog section!

Comments, Corrections & Other “C” Words

Hey, a few years ago in Fayetteville NC, my friend and I snuck backstage after RAW, we got a chance to jump around in the ring and walk the ramp. We floated around backstage and ran into damn near everyone. I pissed off the Big Show by interrupting him macking on an EMT, I stand 5’6 and I came to his belly button, the guy is freakin huge, he shook my hand and it was like a small child holding hands with a parent, he was very cool, we walked past Taker who gave a what’s up head nod, very cool, we literally walked past X-Pac and didn’t even notice, the guy is very, very small, and on the back dock I say some HUGE black guy sitting in a car listening to country music, I asked ” do you really listen to country music” and Mark Henry got out and said ” what’s wrong with country music little dude”, and laughed, very cool, and then THE ROCK CAME OUT, said what up and GAVE US THE PEOPLES EYEBROW, my buddy and I marked out like school girls then he and Henry drove away, the funniest part was watching Big Show trying to get some loving from the groupies!!!! – Otis

Henry’s from Texas, of course he’d be banging it to some Garth Brooks.

i’ve met batista in person when he came to manila to promote the manila leg of the survivor series. and girls like him (for self-explanatory purposes). although he almost courted a local celebrity here (almost, but skeds didnt jive so they never met in person, awwww). – Maria

You know, I don’t see what’s so attractive about Batista. Is it his dreamy eyes?

I’m really enjoying the write-ins from people about wrestlers they have met, so I thought I would chime in. I’ll start with a small show in my town back in 2001, EWF was running a show and the main event was Rico Constantino vs. Mike Henderson, excellent match. After the show, we met both of them, Mike Henderson was a local boy from our town and he was cool as hell and talked with anyone that came up to him, great talent, wish WWE would sign him. Rico was cool, but when we snagged his title belt for a quick picture he was kind of pissed. Another story of meeting wreslters was at the Heat Wave 2000 ECW PPV in Los Angeles at the old Grand Olympic Auditorium, I was parking my car before the show, got out, and The Sandman was casually walking by. I said what’s up to him and asked if I could snap a quick picture. He said “fuck yeah”, we took the picture (piece of crap disposable camera, picture didn’t come out) and he said “hope you guys enjoy the show, we have some cool shit planned.” When he came out and was doing his usual beers in the crowd, he pointed at me, not sure if it was just luck that I was standing there or he actually remembered the moron in the parking lot. Sandman is forever cool in my book. Also met a bunch of old school wrestlers at a local show in 2001, it was the Hall of Fame Wrestling Tour with Honky Tonk Man, Greg The Hammer Valentine, The Bushwackers, Iron Shiek, Nikolai Volkoff, and so on. All these old timers were worried about was hawking $5 poloroids, except for the Bushwackers, who were actually being cool as hell and talking to everyone not giving a shit if they made $5, so I paid for a picture with them just because they weren’t whoring themselves. After that, Honky Tonk Man looked at my girlfriend and said, “Umm, I love these California girls.” Greg Valentine was cool after his match, I told him great match from pretty far away and he came all the way over to shake my hand and said thank you. – Randy O. from California

The more stories I hear from you guys, the more I like Honky Tonk Man.

I know he isn’t a wrestler but since good ‘ol J.R. is a wrestling personality, I’ll include him. This summer we made a trip to Oklahoma City to visit relatives. We made a point to go to J.R.s new BBQ restaurant. I regularly read his blog and followed his own recommendations on how to catch him there. For those that don’t know, he travels to RAW on Sunday/early Monday and PPVs Saturday/early Sunday. Don’t forget the OU games on Saturdays during football season. Thus he has made it clear you stand the best chance of catching him there from Tues-Fri. We got there right at 5pm on a Wednesday before it got busy and sure enough, he was there. After we ordered, he came by and spent a good 10 minutes w/us. I made sure not to use “smart mark” type terminology as he is old school and mentions on his blog he doesn’t really like it. He left when we got our appetizer and came back two more times. He took as many pictures as we wanted, signed menus and answered all our questions, both football and wrestling. On top of all that, the food there is great. I highly recommend it, especially the ribs and smoked turkey. Even if he isn’t there, one should check out his restaurant but if he is there, it is a pleasant bonus. – Paul

Great column as usual. No questions in particular.
As far as experiences with wrestlers, I have a few
“sneak in to events” tales to tell.

Enjoy your holidays ! – Travis

If I booked Abdullah the Butcher, I’d make sure to pay him whatever I promised. I don’t need a 400 pound maniac mad at me.

Hey, about the Raw match up where the main event was messed up and wrestlers and crew filled up the audience. This sounds like the incident on Smackdown a few years back between Kurt Angle and The Undertaker. They botched the timing on the Last Ride/Triangle Choke finish where Taker would get the three count at the same time he tapped out. They didn’t realize how bad the footage was until the audience had started to leave, so they re-taped it with some backstage guys on one side of the arena and basically shot a minute or so’s worth of footage to splice into the match where you didn’t see the crowd. I remember hearing about it so I watched the match out of curiosity. I don’t think I’d even batted much of an eye if for not having been clued in. – Jimmy

There were many people who wrote in with this example, so I tend to believe this is what the reader was thinking about.

just wanted to chime in with a tidbit, about X-pac heat. the first time i remembered witnessing it was at the first inVasion PPV. Every single WWF wrestler who faced an inVasion wrestler was completely and totally over as a face. then a funny thing happened. X-Pac was wrestling Billy Kidman, and Kidman came out to a good pop, which wasn’t really that surprising because he was a pretty decent wrestler who the fans liked. Than Pac came out and was booed out of the building. It was so noticeable that you could even see this great look of befuddlement on X-Pac’s face, as if he were thinking, “Good Lord, these people still hate me. Nothing groundbreaking I know, just a funny little memory of mine. – Dusty from North Carolina

I have been watching wwe for the past 2 years. I was watching all stuff some 7 years ago and has been watching it again for the past two years. Your column is really a very good information gathering place for me. Nice work. I admire for answering questions from all wrestling promotions and asking for help in case you dont have answer. Keep it up. – Senthil Jegadeesan

Thanks Senthil! In the interest of fairness I’ll print an e-mail from somebody who isn’t as impressed…

Steve, Steve, Steve. Guess who happened to read your Raw Ramblings? Oh, the guy who was offended way too easily. You’re always soliciting for readers comments and I’m not allowed to give my opinion if it differs from your viewpoint? OK, I wasn’t offended, I just stated it made you look foolish to take a political stance when writing about wrestling. No, you’re not writing for USA Today or the Wall Street Journal, but what about a little integrity? That’s also typical of a flaming liberal to make a ridiculous statement like Dusty Rhodes would make the current president look competent. You’re obviously educated, I enjoy your columns and we have wrestling in common, but seriously, Bush has a better education that both of us. It must really stink to know that someone so unintelligent is a two term president. Not to get on a political diatribe but, yes, I voted for Bush, I felt he was the lesser of two evils. Am I happy with what he’s done? No. Do I still believe he was the better choice? Yes. I’m a pharmaceutical rep and this is how I provide for my family and pay the mortgage. Do I want a Democrat in the White House? Hell no!

Oh, and we do hate flip floppers, doesn’t everybody? The JBL comment was funny though. – Michael

See, not everybody loves me. I’m controversial!

Great column. A reader asked about the faction of Kurt Angle, Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak and you referred to them as the second Team Angle. I believe they were known as The Honor Roll, though this may have been in addition to the Team Angle moniker. – Doug

Sounds like an ROH ripoff to me. Where’s Ari when you need him?

Heya Steve what´s happening, I´m just reading your column and came across this question:

Thank you very much and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Same goes to the fellow readers of course. 🙂 – Schnee

I think the next response answers your question…

In response to David’s question last column about the editing on Silver Vision’s Tagged Classics range, as far as i know there is none (although i haven’t yet seen evry release). There is no dubbing of the term “WWF” or the much malinged blurring of turnbuckles, t-shirts etc. All in all it makes for a better viewing experience. That and the fact that they have currently released the In Your House Range up to Badd Blood in 97, something I doubt we’ll see the official WWE Home Video dept doing any time soon. I’ve posted Wikipedias formal explanation below. Hope this helps.

It is not known exactly why these discs are exempt from blurring and editing, but many theories have arose. The first is that they are direct re-releases from the past. The second is that they are only available in the UK and Europe, therefore are exempt from legal restraints because of this. The third and probably most credible reason is that Silver Vision is a third party licensee of WWE DVDs in the UK, and technically this is not WWE releasing these discs.” – Gigsy

I live in Orlando and have been to many, many TNA ppvs and Impact tapings. The best way to ensure youll get in is to buy a pass to Universal Studios for the day. In the early afternoon, in front of the gates to go to the studio where its taped, ( theres signs all over the park telling you where to go ), youll get a ticket from a person, the number on the ticket denotes where in line youll stand when the gates open and everyone files thru to the line in front of the Impact Zone. Best to show up early, get a ticket and then enjoy the park until line up time. You can get in without going to the parks, but its no guarantee youll get in. Alot of people in the park go to it. , and if you line up outside the park, by the Hard Rock Cafe, you need to get there no later than 2 pm and you gotta wait there for hours, its a pain in the ass. Well i hope i have been of help. The live shows are a blast, especially the ppvs( Been there for Christians first title win, the AJ, Joe, Daniels Ultimate X, , The AJ, Daniels vs. LAX Ultimate X, and the announcement of the signing of Angle, all great mark out moments in my book ) – maijinj

re: memphis footage – from jerry lawler’s book, they used to tape over the shows each week instead of buying new tapes for each show. not sure how much of their history this covers, but id imagine all the old stuff is lost.

re: impact storylines – i wont say I can follow everything, but i dont watch tna for storylines, i watch it for wrestling, which, more often than not, is better than wwe. – Manu Bumb

Questions!

And what happened to the push for super crazy and
stevie richards? – Allen

Burke is a heel on a show that is full of heels. You’ve got Big Daddy V being pushed at the top along with Mark Henry, who isn’t even on the ECW roster but is still one of their top heels. Below them you’ve got John Morrison & the Miz defending the Smackdown tag team titles on a pretty regular basis. I don’t think Burke’s being held back…there’s just not a spot for him at the top right now. Given time, he could be a top guy on the ECW roster, but it’s not his time yet.

Super Crazy is teaming with Hacksaw Duggan. That’s what happened to his push. Richards recently (early December) had surgery on his throat, and will likely return when he recovers from that. I have no idea if he’ll be pushed or not.

Hi there
Just reading an article about the fingerpoke of doom an came across this:

My question is, what is the Regal incident? – Paul

Lord Steven Regal was booked against Bill Goldberg on the 2/9/98 edition of WCW Monday Nitro. Goldberg had blown through everybody up until this point, but Regal gave him a bit of trouble with some wrestling skills and some stiff shots. He was fired shortly after the match because that wasn’t exactly what the bookers had in mind. You can view the match and judge for yourself here until YouTube takes it down.

Really like the column. Probably my favourite on the site. Just a quick one, I’ve read in numerous places that The Rock doesn’t like Shawn Michaels (neither do I, personality-wise). I’m just wondering why? I hope it’s not just one of those “he just does” ones. That’d anger me no end! Keep up the good work. Your knowledge of all things Wrestling is very impressive! – Simon in Ireland

We have discussed this in the past…here’s a link! I would check out a couple of the ones after that because I think there was more feedback on the topic. Basically, HBK tried to hold Rock down when he was starting out in the WWF, acted like a jerk & disrespected his mother at some point. Michaels was not a very likeable fellow back in the day, even he will admit that.

I just read somewhere on the internet that Mickie James and Melina have legit heat with each other backstage. Any truth to this? If so, why don’t they like each other? – Christopher

I’ve heard information on both sides of the fence here. Some say that Mickie & Melina haven’t liked each other since their OVW days. Melina posted a blog entry when Mickie came up to the WWE going on about how terrible Mickie was and how she was stealing her fashion and typical catty girl stuff. I wish I could find that article, but my search was unsuccessful. Others say that it was all a work and that they are actually friends. Since this is the wrestling business and people act like they hate each other when they don’t all the time, it’s tough to say. I would like to hear the truth from either Mickie or Melina, preferably over a candlelight dinner.

What?

I have a friendly wager going with a friend and we need an expert’s research to solve this problem.

Help us out if you can. – Impaler

Wikipedia is my friend because they give me a list of WWE Championship reigns by length. Here are the three longest WWE title reigns by heels:

1. Superstar Billy Graham (296 days)
2. Yokozuna & JBL (280 days)

Triple H holds the record for the longest World title reign by a heel, also at 280 days.

Chad has two questions…

1) What are the details regarding the Angle-Puder incident? Specifically, did Puder break kayfabe by locking Kurt into the Kimura? It seems unlikely to me that the WWE would just decide to let the two go at it, being aware of the very real possibility that Angle would at least be shown up if not injured. Did the incident have anything to do with Puder being released for “cost-cutting measures”?

Kurt issued the challenge to the Tough Enough contestants, Puder accepted, and nearly got Kurt to tap out. I’m pretty sure Kurt didn’t think any of them would be able to do anything to him, and the people in the back probably felt the same way. It was a pretty embarrassing moment for Angle regardless of the “pinfall” saving him from injury. I don’t know what role it played in Puder’s eventual release, but it probably didn’t help matters.

2) In your opinion, who is the worst wrestler ever to main event a Wrestlemania? While names like Sid & Warrior quickly came to my mind, after a moments reflection I have to go with Andre. His arsenal was about six moves deep, his promos resulted in an unintentional cookie monster impersonation, he was pretty much a giant French turd.. Princess Bride notwithstanding. – Chad

Andre might have been the worst from a workrate perspective, but as far as drawing money goes he was definitely among the best. I’m going to go with Sid because he was in the main event of two of the lesser WMs (VIII & 13) and didn’t exactly set the world on fire either time. You have to remember that there are two things that make somebody a great pro wrestler: the ability to work a good match and the ability to make people care enough to buy a ticket. And the second matters more than the first, no matter how much we “smart” wrestling fans hate to admit it.

I have a question about an old WWF ‘Official,’ one of the guys in suits you’d always see on TV breaking up brawls and whatnot. Do you know the identity of the blonde guy with the glasses during the early ’90’s? So far the most notable thing I’ve seen him do is march to the ring during Summerslam ’90 and tell The Fink that Saphire had 30 seconds to come to the ring or forfeit her match. – 411’s Mike Campbell

I believe that was none other than Rene Goulet, who had a distinguished career in the WWF as a guy who put people over before retiring in 1984 to become a road agent. He remained with the company until 1997, and these days he plays a lot of golf.

Got a question for ya: Does the Beef Wellington that made appearances with Chikara, CZW and IWS have anything do to with Shayne “Biff Wellington” Bower that teamed with Benoit in the late 80’s and early 90’s? I’m pretty sure they’re not the same person since Biff’s wikipedia page claims he died the same weekend as Benoit and had suffered many strokes throughout 2006, meaning wrestling would have most likely been out of the question, and I’ve found match listings on smartmark video for a show Beef made an appearance on on June 16, only 8 days before Benoit died. The thing is, Benoit died June 24, 2007, and I can’t find a single appearance for this “Beef” Wellington on any show after that date. On top of that, an interview with a close friend on SLAM! sports says “I worked with Biff/Beef in Japan…” (here’s the link for the full article), making me think that it might be the same guy that just happened to work under 2 slightly different names for whatever reason (copyrights?). But the article makes no mention of any involvement Chikara, CZW or IWS. They mention “indy” but no specific feds are mentioned. Can you clear this up for me? Does Beef Wellington have anything at all to do with Shayne “Biff Wellington” Bower? Did Bower pass on the name, or is it just a weird coincidence? Thanks! – Matt

Biff Wellington & Beef Wellington are not the same person. Shane “Biff Wellington” Boyer competed in wrestling through the late 80s and 90s, and was most well-known in Stampede Wrestling, where he held the tag team titles on at least one occasion. Neil “Beef Wellington” Felzenstein started wrestling in 2001 and competes in the promotions you mention in the question. Boyer died on June 24, 2007, and Felzenstein is still alive, though I haven’t seen his name pop up in results lately. Now, I don’t know if Boyer knew about Felzenstein’s use of his name or not, but he probably had other things on his mind at that point in time. To answer your question, they’re not the same person.

Thomas has five questions…

1. Vader. WTF?

I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at with this question, to be honest. If it’s the thing where he fell down on that episode of Raw in late 2005…dude’s old and fat. It happens to all of us. Well, not all of us weigh over 400 pounds, but you know what I mean.

2. I was watching the Royal Rumble from earlier this year, and I noticed something hilarious. Just after Gregory Helms got eliminated, the camera on the side where he fell was watching King Booker, and in the corner you could see Helms trying to get back in the ring with the referees holding him back. Was that planned or did they actually have to tell him he couldn’t go back in?

This was obviously planned, but a good acting job on the part of Helms. The guy just got eliminated from the Royal Rumble, losing a shot at the World Title. Of course he wants back in!

3. Have there every been any successful Australian wrestlers that made it big in America?

Outback Jack.

Seriously though, the most successful Australian wrestlers to make it in America were the original Fabulous Kangaroos. Australian Al Costello was part of most of the incarnations of this team, his teaming with fellow Australian Roy Heffernan drew big money all across the United States. They almost caused a riot in Madison Square Garden with their shady tactics. They went across the States from 1957 until 1965, when Heffernan went home and Costello continued the Kangaroo tradition with other wrestlers, none of whom were actually Australian. Honorable mention goes to Bill Dundee, who has been a staple of the Southern U.S. independent wrestling scene for over thirty years.

4. Now that the Diva Search is over (I’m assuming) shouldn’t the chick that won it being doing something on TV?

Eve Torres is on her way to Ohio Valley Wrestling, and once she’s ready to make it in the big time, she’ll be there. This is a good move on WWE’s part…some of the previous Diva Search winners & contestants could have used some seasoning before being thrown out on live TV to sink or swim.

5. And do you know where I can find the Samoa Joe Shoot Promo?

Here (for now).

Sean closes up this edition with three questions…

1) I have a question about the Waylon Mercy gimmick
from 1995. I understand that it was cut short due to
an injury, but my question is that apparently one of
his last matches (if not his very last) match was
against then-WWF champ Diesel, where Mercy won via
countout. Afterward, Diesel then jackknifed Mercy, and
wasn’t heard much about afterward. Did Dan Spivey get
injured as a result of Diesel’s jackknife, or did the
WWF give Spivey the win over the federation’s top guy
at the time as a retirement gift of sorts to the
departing Spivey, knowing he was injured and would be
leaving before hand? Logic would seem to dictate he
was on his way out (due to jobbing at Savio Vega clean
the month before at IYH 3), but I’m not sure. Any
clue?

Spivey did suffer his career-ending back injury in the match against Diesel. I could not find confirmation that it was the power bomb that did it to him, but that seems like the most probable answer. Spivey apparently covers this in a shoot interview, but I have not seen it or a review of it. I don’t think his jobbing to Savio was a sign that he was on his way out, because a lot of people jobbed to Savio that had no business doing so. I don’t care what Steve Austin’s gimmick was at the time…his losing to Savio Vega made no sense at all.

2) Any ideas what WWE had planned for Mr. Perfect
before the infamous “plane ride from hell”? I thought
I read he was about to repackaged into a team with
Shawn Stasiak.

Perfect had done some tag team work with Stasiak on house shows in March/April 2002. He had also teamed with the Big Boss Man on television against the Hardy Boyz. Obviously they wanted Perfect in a tag team, and Stasiak had some experience working with and against him in WCW. So that was the likely possibility until Perfect got fired.

3) Had the concussion & stroke not taken place, do you
think Bret would have wrestled at least one more match
in WWE?

Around the time Bret Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, he said that if he could wrestle one more time, it would be against Kurt Angle. I don’t think the desire to wrestle has escaped Bret, but the ability to has. As long as he didn’t have to work with Shawn Michaels, I think Bret would have liked to wrestle again.