Ask 411 Wrestling 02.06.08: Dream Matches, Doink, Delaney and More!

It’s time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I’m Steve Cook, and I hope you’re having a better week than the New England Patriots. I don’t think that needs any explanation. As for me, I’ve had a pretty darn good week. So good, in fact, that this week’s column is going to be a bit shorter than usual. I know that’ll offend some readers out there who believe that I should spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week in the basement slaving for the craft that is Internet wrestling journalism, but that’s just not how I roll. I did have enough time to bang out a Thursday news column that was pretty well received. Those things are a lot more fun when you don’t have to do one every week, let me tell you.

I had a good time at the NWF show Saturday night, but I don’t think they like it when I try to talk to them after ten beers. I can’t help it…the bartender there has the hots for me and keeps supplying me with alcohol. Can you blame her? I can’t. Sunday was even better, and if this were a sports column I would talk about how it was arguably the greatest upset of all time and what a great run through the playoffs it was for the New York Football Giants. But it’s not a sports column so I’ll move on to the usual shenanigans and tomfoolery.

There are currently 88 e-mails in the inbox. I’m taking the advice of some readers and trying to trim some of the fat so there can be a faster response time. This will probably lead to some people getting offended that their questions aren’t used, so I apologize to those people in advance.

Comments, Corrections & Other “C” Words

Regarding wrestlers who died in the ring, I’m
surprised to see you missed Gary Albright. Perhaps a
lesser known example was an indy guy a few years back
by the name of Tony Nash. It happened to be his debut
and came way too soon, I think he didn’t take a move
properly (powerbomb perhaps?) and landed on his head.

Also, in the aforementioned photo, ’twas quite amusing
as my brother was significantly taller than Jannetty.
Lanky bastard… – Chris Page

It’s sad how many people don’t remember Eaton as anything more than a WCW Saturday Night job guy, if they remember him at all.

Going on from the “met wrestlers” thing, I got one that should beat all of y’all, which I will get to later. I’ve met Heidenrich who was real cool and easy going and Rodney Mack, who was tired backstage after having his match. I’ve actually been in the ring with John Saxon, who is pretty big in the southern indy scene and has worked with TNA and WWE along with his tag partner Steve Anthony. But the creme-de-la-creme was actually meeting and learning from Les Thatcher, who was a real nice guy and was real open. Over a three day weekend seminar he talked about a lot of things wrestling related which I’ll leave out for business reasons, but I did find out he hates soup and likes chicken more than steak. Plus, at 67 his punch is still a thing of beauty. – Thomas

Les had a radio show in the Cincinnati market during the wrestling boom in the late 90s, and it was one of the things that helped me graduate from a mark to a smart mark. I’ll always be grateful to him for that…I think.

Well, I surprise myself by writing in, but I think you guys will enjoy this story.

Anyway, peace. – E

Women should be afraid of X-Pac.

Goldberg wasn’t picked up at the time WCW was bought because, I believe,
his contract was directly with Turner and not WCW.

Hiring IWC guys? The problem with the IWC is that we are the minority.
We’d book based on workrate, moveset, and such. That won’t sell to the
mainstream crowd. So much fantasy booking on the IWC is biased by the
writer’s personal preferences, and that taints it. Good booking is not
hard. Great booking is even easier. Problem is, everyone tries to
over-complicate. – 411’s Chris Landsell

On your discussion of Johnny Devine’s scar you mentioned it was caused to a doctor’s error and you made a remark about American health care. Having come from the land of Government health care (Canada) let me tell you to run very far away from any politician that is proposing universal health care. I will grant you that there are people practicing medicine in this county that shouldn’t, but think about your experience with the Federal Government. DMV? Post Office? IRS? You really want these people in charge of your physical well being.

The problem in this country is not health care, but how it’s paid for. Socializing health care is not a workable answer. How about a 10 month waiting list for maternal care? Just gotta love Canadian health care. – Andrew Hotchkies

I know Christopher will hate me for posting that e-mail, but I think it’s only fair to offer an alternate perspective.

Big fan of 411, I’m on there several times a day for wrestling, movies, and music news. Wanted to make one correction, it was Justice Potter Stewart, not Oliver Wendell Holmes who said, “I know it when I see it” in relation to pornography. The case was Jacobellis v. Ohio and Justice Stewart wrote:

Sorry it’s my law school background coming back to me. – Nick

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I’m driving a truck for a living and not continuing with my studies.

In the 1/30 column somebody asked about Washington DC/NoVa promotions and you could only find KYDA. There’s also Maryland Championship Wrestling. MCW usually hangs out closer to Baltimore but they do come down to the DC area occasionally. They’re probably most well known for their Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup which was briefly adopted by Ring of Honor before RoH decided to rename it Survival of the Fittest and drop the rule where last year’s winner gets a bye to the final. – Kyle

In regards to HBK not being a factor in selling out Wrestlemania in Detroit, I do agree with you by name alone Wrestlemania will draw a big attendance months in advance. But you are forgetting that WM 23 has the highest buyrate for any wrestling PPV. And even though there were two other main events, the HBK-Cena angle was the hottest angle leading up to Wrestlemania.

In regards to the Chris Hero-CM Punk ladder match you posted the link to, what was the date of this match and who was Chris’ manager/valet at the time? – Henry

The match took place on February 9, 2002. As for the valet, her name was Nadia Nyce. Sadly I have no information on where she is now.

There were two things I’d like to add to two questions from the January 30th column. First, from the question about wrestlers having say in their entrance music I remember hearing something about Orton hating his music, saying something along the lines of the lyrics sound like something a kindergarten kid could write. Obviously the superstars have no say in their music. And about the Wrestling Album question, it is correct that Hogan was conspicuous by his absence from the cover but when the album was initially released the Real American theme wasn’t intended for Hogan, but was actually made for the team of Barry Windham & Mike Rotondo. Could you imagine a world where Hogan didn’t have Real American? I’m right there with you in the disdain for the overrated Hogan but that song still gets me pumped. – Jason

Daily hotness isnt exclusivley music when they have TV and movie stars up there too.
On the beer truck spraying, of course the crowd gets sprayed. Didn’t the guy watch the latest one when Austin put the hose in the ring, and taunted for a good five seconds or so as the hose drenched the first five rows atleast. – Chris Jacobs

“At least Alex Shelley didn’t have a say in the music TNA chose for him because he complained about it once in his Live Journal.”

thats all for this week. keep up the good work. let me know if you need a roommate in dublin, cause I could use rebecca knox as a trainer as well. – Manu

I thought they kept their drugs in their fanny packs. Silly me! I believe Shelley was talking about his original TNA music, which was pretty awful.

I don’t understand what “booking” is and don’t think anyone can tell
the wresslers who to wressle but if that were possible I’d like to see Goldberg
fight Stone Cold and have Jake the Snake on a lot – ‘Rasslin Fan

There were a lot of great comments last week, but that one takes the cake for me.

Questions!

I assume commentary might have something to do with it, but would 1 or 2 minutes with no commentary really make a difference? I’d rather have the whole match. – wcwfjojo

Either they were lying and the tape machines weren’t actually rolling, or the footage that wasn’t seen on television got taped over. That was a pretty common occurrence back in the days before people realized that money could be made off of selling tapes of wrestling matches…all sorts of great stuff got taped over and lost to the ages. As for your more recent WWE matches they put on DVD, it’s probably a combination of laziness and lack of action during the commercials.

While it is fairly common knowledge that the fued started with the Kerry/Flair match with the interference of Gordy and Hayes at the Reunion Arena show. What I would like to know is who were the opponents of Hayes, Gordy and David in the earlier bout and what were the other matches from that show? Finally is there video of this show outside of the Kerry/Flair match? – Al Pollard

David & the Freebirds defeated Tom Steele, Mike & Ben Sharpe on the show. As for other footage, I’m not sure if they taped the rest of the show or just taped certain parts of it for usage on their television show. There is no footage of the other matches that I am aware of.

Hey steve I was watchin my favorite wrestling DVD the other day Backyard Wrestling’s “A Passion for Pain; Josh Prohibition and MDogg20”. What happened to these guys they had some great in ring chemistry together. The DVD showed them in I think JPW but where are they now? I saw MDogg20 wrestling for WSX under some weird name but where is he now? And I haven’t seen or heard anything from Josh Prohibition. – Eric

Both men are still active in the independent wrestling scene. Mdogg 20 appears on occasion for Ring of Honor under the name Matt Cross. Prohibition makes most of his appearances in Canada’s UWA. They still cross paths fairly frequently on the indy circuit as both opponents and tag team partners.

did the rock & shawn michaels ever have a meaningful 1-on-1 fued? also, aside from austin-hogan, which we’ll never see, do you think michaels-rock is the last great dream match? – Brad

Rock & Shawn Michaels never had a feud or even a match with each other, for reasons that have been discussed in this column in the past…

“As a little side note on the Heat between The Rock and HHH. their main problem comes from the fact that The Rock really hates Shawn Michaels. I think this stems from when Shawn said something very disrespectful to the Rocks Mother on a show she was booking in the 80’s (The Rocks mum took over booking duties from her father) This was when Shawn was in full on ‘I’m the best mode’. From what I’ve heard this led to a teenage Rock almost beating up Michaels and the two have had troubles since. As far as Wrestlemania 15 goes, Michaels was very vocal about HHH main eventing with Austin and I’ve heard that he tried to keep the Rock down on a number of occasions during his initial run as Rocky Mavia. This, I think led onto the fact that Hunter disliked Rock by proxy.” – Dave Roberts from Wales

Michaels was not a Rocky fan when he came in, probably because of what happened between them in the past, and buried him behind the scenes. Bret Hart encouraged Rock and I’m pretty sure they’re still on good terms today. A match with HBK was offered to Rock for WrestleMania a couple of years back and Rock turned it down because he didn’t want to work with Michaels.

To answer your second question, I would not agree with that at all. There are so many matches out there that haven’t happened yet and will most likely never happen. For Michaels alone there are guys like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles & Bryan Danielson that he’s never faced. I’d like to see ROH Champion Nigel McGuinness against fellow Europeans Finlay & William Regal. How about Sting against John Cena or Shawn Michaels or Undertaker or Chris Jericho? Hell, I was watching some old ROH tonight and wondering what CM Punk vs. Ric Flair would be like, or Flair vs. Samoa Joe. I’m not even scratching the surface here, but if you just think about it there are all sorts of dream matches out there for the taking.

Has Sara Del Rey ever wrestled Traci Brooks? There’s a match I’ve seen a few times in my dreams.

What?

I’ve noticed for a few months now that Sabu hasn’t been on WWE TV for a while. Is he still employed by WWE? Or is he just taking some time off for whatever reason? – Billy in Wichita Falls, Texas

Sabu was fired in May 2007 for arriving several hours late to an ECW taping and not having his ring gear with him. He had made that mistake on a few occasions prior to that, so WWE decided to let him go. He has resurfaced on the independent circuit & Mexico’s AAA.

First time writer to 411, reflecting on all the “Year in Review” stuff I’ve been reading. The 411 writers– God bless ’em– have been doing their darnedest to make 2007 seem like an important year for the WWE, but we all know it was lackluster at best. At the very least, it won’t stand the test of time. Don’t think so? Just compare the WWE of 2007 with the WWF of 1987.

Just a thought… – Birdman

All I can really say in response to your commentary is something along the lines of “different strokes for different folks”. Personally, there weren’t a whole lot of things I liked about WWE 2007 either. But my opinion is hardly universal…you’ll find plenty of people on this very website that think that 2007 was an awesome year for WWE. I’m not the guy to make the argument in favor of it, but I’m sure somebody will try.

Longtime reader, first time caller, only because I already know most things there is to know (I’m that damn good). My quesiton is about Raw Roulette. It seems almost uncanny that they can get the wheel to land where they want for just about every match (where you see the wheel spun). Case in point- the Regal vs Pushkill First Blood Match. To that end, do you know if they pre-tape those segments and just keep taping till they get their result? – Alex

They pre-tape the segments and gimmick the wheel to land where they need it to land. Wrestling promoters learned to always gimmick the wheel when WCW didn’t do it for “Spin The Wheel, Make The Deal” at Halloween Havoc 1992. Due to this, fans were treated to Sting & Jake Roberts taking part in a Coal Miner’s Glove match, which was one of the less attractive stipulations on the wheel. So yes, Raw Roulette is fixed. Shocking, I know.

Derrick has two questions…

1) Raven….. where is he? I know he’s still in TNA (right?), but what’s he been up to since he was last seen on TV? Losing some weight? Being repackaged? What’s his status?

The guy was never GREAT in the ring, but in 98 he had some decent matches with Benoit, Saturn, and Kanyon. So if the guy could get back into ring-shape, I don’t see why he couldn’t get back in there and put on a decent match. And last I saw him on TV, he was mentioning a handful of names he wanted to get in the ring with if he could get back in shape. Abyss is the only one I remember him mentioning. It was a backstage segment and that’s the last I saw of him. So yeah, what’s going on with Raven?

Raven’s status with TNA has been the topic of much discussion lately, and he posted a blog on his website that neither confirmed or denied anything about what happened. The bottom line is that his contract expired, they didn’t offer him a new one, and he is interested in starting a wrestling school. You can read more at his website www.theraveneffect.com.

2) A friend of mine had asked me if I remembered a certain match from years and years ago. Probably circa 1994 or 95. Some guy he works with said that one time the British Bulldog fought Mabel, and Mabel was on top of Bulldog on the mat with Bulldog being face down. And supposedly, from that position, Bulldog hoisted Mabel up on his shoulders, walked around the ring, and then dropped him. Your basic Electric Chair Drop.

It sounds like it may have happened and I’m 25, been watching wrestling for close to 20 years but I don’t seem to recall that happening. I mean I could see it happening, but it’s one of those things where I just wasn’t sure and for once, was actually stumped. I pride myself in having a great memory, but if that did happen, then I can’t seem to remember it. Any truth to it at all? Thanks. – Derrick

I never heard of this. I find it hard to believe that Davey Boy Smith could have done that move…he was a strong cat, but I don’t think you can do that to Mabel without breaking your collarbone or something. If anybody has seen it, prove me wrong!

Isaac has three questions…

1) What does ODB stand for anyway? Have they ever mentioned this? Is it Ol’ Drunk Bitch?

ODB = One Dirty Bitch. Don West likes to make a big deal of saying it when they’re on pay per view, I guess they’re not allowed to say it on Spike TV.

2) Can you give us a quick history on the WWE’s Spanish announce table? Do they still even have one? I know it hasn’t always been around, but I am wondering what time periods and what sort of guys they get to work the booth. Carlos Cabrera is the only one I know.

Carlos works alongside Hugo Savinovich & Marcelo Rodriguez. Carlos & Hugo have been with WWE since 1993, Marcelo joined the team in 2000 and started off as a part-time guy, but nowadays it seems that he is the one that is around most often while Hugo & Carlos split time. I believe Tito Santana was part of the team for a very brief time in the mid to late 1990s. They do their commentary out of the WWE studios in Stamford, Connecticut. They used to appear at the PPVs and on occasional episodes of Raw & Smackdown, but they have not appeared since they started having the Raw, Smackdown & ECW announce teams all be at ringside for the PPVs. Hence, the ECW announce table has become the place for wrestlers to get destroyed.

Recently I read a coffee table-type book about WCW. Neat book BTW, lots of photos and it’s all done 100% kayfabe, which I like. There is a section on Bam Bam Bigelow that says he had been in Sports Illustrated, and some talk show before he even had his first professional match, something about there being so much hype about him breaking in to wrestling. Is this true? I can see him being on TV relating to his LT match, or some football career or whatever that I don’t know about, but not wrestling hype.

There was an article in the September 15, 1986 edition of Sports Illustrated about Bam Bam Bigelow’s training at Larry Sharpe’s Monster Factory. Wrestling was a very big deal at this point in time, and SI decided to do an article on what could be the next big thing in wrestling. There was a lot of indy buzz around Bam Bam at the time because of his unique look and the skills that he had for a man of his size were pretty damn impressive.

What ever happened to the movie HHH was supposed to do? – Chris

I haven’t heard a lot on this lately, so I did some research and if you believe what you see on IMDB, Triple H will be appearing in a movie called Jornada del muerto in 2009 that’s currently in production. John Milius will direct it. Milius met Triple H a few years back and had wanted him to be in a Conan the Barbarian sequel. That fell through, but it helped lead to this project that will be under the WWE Films banner. I’m sure WWE will be providing us with plenty of information on this movie when it’s further along in the process.

I read in an article awhile back that Scott Hall won a undisputed title sometime in 1995. If this is true,then why does Jericho get the credit of first undisputed champion? Any ideas? – Tim S.

I’ve seen this question pop up before, and I believe it refers to Hall winning the “undisputed” Intercontinental championship in the WrestleMania X ladder match. The IC title was disputed because Shawn Michaels was stripped of the title when he took a leave of absence in late 1993 and he never actually lost the title to anybody. It could also be referring to Hall winning the USWA Unified World title from Jerry Lawler in 1995, but nobody really considered that a World title outside of Memphis. Scott Hall never won a singles World championship in either WWF or WCW.

David has three questions…

Hi, it says on wikipedia Men on a Mission won the WWF tag titles from the Quebecers in 1994 accidentally because Mable (now Big Daddy V) fell on top of Pierre. How does that even happen? The ref still has to count a pin doesn’t he? If it wasn’t planned why did he?

Sometimes things happen in the heat of the moment. The referee sees a pinfall and he has to count it or he looks like a complete jackass. The question I have concerning the situation is why Pierre’s partner Jacques didn’t break up the pinfall. Maybe he was outside of the ring due to something and didn’t see it. But whatever the deal was, the pinfall counted. It wasn’t that big of a deal because they just switched the titles back the next night and the fans were happy that they got to see a title change.

Also does Jose Lothario really have a prosthetic leg? According to The Wrestlecrap Book of Lists Sid Vicious once pulled Super Sock’s sock stuffer off and beat Shawn Michaels with it. I do remember Diesel doing that to HBK but it was Maurice Vachon’s fake leg. If it’s made up or just misremembered by the authors then I’m surprised it made it to press considering RD Reynolds critiques other wrestling books’ factual errors on his site.

Jose Lothario still has both legs. I like RD, but if he actually put that in his book I’m kinda embarrassed for him. I’ve made some mistakes in my day, but I don’t think I’ve taken body parts away from people.

Why was René Duprée depushed by WWE? He could have been a major heel. He seemed to have all the goods not to mention tons of heat. First they had him drop the French Tickler when it was getting over, then he was tagged with the useless Kenzo Suzuki, squashed by Taker, went through dark match hell and then he was sent to ECW. A very long way from feuding with John Cena. No wonder he quit. – David

Dupree had a big head. He rubbed some of the people backstage the wrong way, which shouldn’t have been too surprising because he was a young kid that was getting paid and treated well early on in his career. Wrestlers don’t like it when younger wrestlers don’t pay enough respect to them, and we all know people in our workplace that act like they’re too good for everybody else. Some of us are that person, but that’s beside the point.

who is this jobber on ecw (colin delaney) and what are they doing with him? is he the next 1-2-3 kid? i wouldnt mind a story like that on ecw. – Manu Bumb

Colin Delaney is a Northeastern independent wrestler who works under the name Colin Olsen in promotions such as CZW, CHIKARA & NWA Upstate. They’re basically doing the Mikey Whipwreck gimmick with him, which is one of the first cool things they’ve done on ECW in a long time. I have heard that Delaney is not currently under contract, but one has to figure that he will be soon, especially if he gets over with the crowds.

Luke brings four questions from the UK…

1) I don’t know why it annoys me, but why does JR always refer to Mick Foley as “Mrs Foley’s baby boy – thats who it is”

The nickname gives the impression of a childlike character, which Foley is at heart. All of us are somebody’s baby boy…well, except for the women reading this. They are not baby boys. Somebody liked the line, so JR kept using it. If I remember correctly, it started after Mankind did the series of “shoot interviews” with JR on Raw where they talked about his past as Cactus Jack, Dude Love & his childhood where he ate worms.

2) Would WWE think about bringing back K-Fed – he got a great reaction and the Britney topic is always hot.

I’m sure they would consider it if an idea came up for him. I don’t know if Federline has the time to take part in the wrestling between his acting career and protecting his kids from their crazy mother.

3) Do you think Vince will ever retire or will he be one of those guys that never gives it up.

I find it hard to believe that Vince McMahon would ever retire. The man’s a known workaholic. I think he’ll still be running the show at some level when he dies, and would be surprised if he stepped down while still alive.

4) When Austin comes out with his beer truck – what is the liquid being sprayed – I presume it isn’t beer?

One of the commenters to this column said it was water a couple of weeks ago. I don’t remember how it came up, but when you look at the liquid coming out of Austin’s hose it looks pretty clear, much like water.

And yes, I phrased that last sentence the queerest way possible on purpose.

Nick has three questions…

1. Coming up to this year’s wrestlemania, who do you think (Barring any major injuries) will be in the 3 major title matches? WWE, World Heavyweight, ECW

WWE: Randy Orton vs. Triple H vs. John Cena
World: Edge vs. Undertaker
ECW: Chavo Guerrero vs. CM Punk in some gimmick match

The ECW title match I’m really not sure about, but it makes as much sense as anything else I can think of.

2. I’ve always big a big fan of Triple H and many things that I’ve read have said people have a lot of heat with him about booking and “swagger” and things of that nature backstage. From your findings, does he seem to walk around like he’s better or deserving of special treatment more than other wrestlers? If he has so much heat backstage, why is that?

It’s quite simple really…Triple H is in a position that’s bound to get him some heat no matter what. When you’re married into the McMahon family and still working as an active wrestler and still getting a big push, some people are not going to like that. I don’t personally know if he acts stuck up, but there’s always that kind of impression people get from people like Triple H.

3. I remember when Demolition had 3 members and they were going to be having a match with The Hart Foundation i think, but ehy kept it a secret who the two members that would be wrestling were. (I don’t remember who ended up being the two that wrestled cause it’s been so long since I’ve seen it.) Was this because the “odd man out” was injured or was it just part of the angle? Also…any thought of a demolition dvd?

I believe it was part of the angle, but the reason Crush (Brian Adams, not Gina Carano) was brought into Demolition was because of an allergic reaction to shellfish Ax was going through that landed him in the hospital. The third member was added in case Ax was out of commission for an extended period of time. As it was, Smash & Crush were usually the two members of Demolition that wrestled while Ax was in a managerial role. I don’t believe you’ll be seeing a Demolition DVD…Ax is still on not the best of terms with WWE over a lawsuit that he filed in order to use the Demolition gimmick on the independent circuit. He and Smash are still using the gimmick in the indies, and I don’t think WWE cares too much for that.

what’s the story with Booker T’s intro music in TNA ? the first few appearances he made he had basically his WWE theme kinna mixed up a little, now after watching Impact from Thursday last it’s different. – Adrian from Ireland

I’ve noticed this a lot with people just coming into TNA or WWE. Sometimes it takes awhile to come up with the perfect theme song for somebody, so they just throw something together at the beginning. In Booker T’s case it made sense to make something that sounded like his WWE song until they came up with something they liked.

my question is what was the reason for shawn michaels’ ridiculous overselling of hogan moves during summerslam 05? was he trying to mock hogan or make him look dumb because it made hbk look like a total a-hole. – Irvin Castellanos from Dallas, Texas

Actually, I found the whole spectacle pretty hilarious. I’m pretty sure Michaels meant it to mock the Hulkster and it was his way of stealing the show. But I was entertained by it, so it was fine with me. Ridiculous and wrestling go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Whazzup, love your column, lots of cool info in there, and you get mad respect for wading through some terribly written questions (grammatically, that is), and trying to answer them anyways, that has to be frustrating. Anyways, here’s a question I’ve been wondering about:

In 2001, or whatever, they replaced King with Paul Heyman on the announce team. First of all, I didn’t become a big wrestling fam until after this happened (yeah, a little late, but still), so did they have a kayfabe explanation for why King was fired? Furthermore, was there a behind the scenes reason for it? King always comes off as a huge company man, so I would find it hard to believe he got legit fired for anything. Did they just know they were going to do the invasion angle down the road, and wanted someone who would be believed as a heel announcer for the “alliance,” or was there an actual reason for King’s brief hiatus? – Kazh

I recently discussed this in my induction of the King into the 411 Wrestling Hall of Fame…

His WWF career came to an abrupt halt in February 2001. Lawler’s wife Stacy “The Kat” Carter was released by the WWF after some disagreement over her value to the company and future plans for her. Lawler quit the WWF in protest, and popped up in independent promotions all over the place. His most notable appearances were probably as an announcer with the short-lived XWF & WWA promotions. After an emotional breakup with Carter, Lawler was ready to come back home.

That’s why Lawler left. The Invasion was not in the WWF’s plans at the time that Heyman was brought in to replace Lawler. Heyman mentioned the reason for Lawler’s departure when he made his debut on Raw, so there was no kayfabing of the situation.

My question involves the Doink character. I know Matt Borne was the original at WM 9, but who was the guy playing Doink at WM 10 and then WM 17? I know it wasn’t Matt Borne at 10, but was it him at 17 or the other guy or someone totally different? – Michael

Borne was fired just after SummerSlam 1993 due to personal problems. He was replaced by Ray Apollo, who remained in the Doink costume for the rest of the Clown’s original run with the WWF. Apollo was also in the Doink costume for WrestleMania X-Seven. At other times Doink has been portrayed by Steve Lombardi, Dusty Wolfe, Nick Dinsmore & Dwaine Henderson. Please don’t ask how many people have been Doink the Clown in the independent circuit, we’ll be here until September answering that one.