Ask 411 Wrestling 04.08.09: Socks, Jobbing On Your Way Out & Attendance Records!

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 04.08.2009

Why was Andre pulled from the 91 Rumble? How did Wrestling get so fixated on PPV? Did Vader and Muta ever fight? Who has had alternate music? Why do wrestlers look so damn wet? And how do you pronouce my last name anyway? All this and the Ultimate Wrestlemania 2.0! This one's over already thought, relax...

So, after a Wrestlemania that is the very definition of a roller coaster, just instead of emotions it was the quality going up and down a lot, we now begin a new Wrestling Year. Hello all, I am Mathew Sforcina, and I'm back from a trip up to Sunny/Rainy Brisbane to wrestle at a Nerd Convention. Apart from taking 9 or so hours to get there thanks to two cancelled flights, one flight part way and then a bus trip the rest of the way, it was most enjoyable.

Anyway, it's time once again for me to answer your questions. And after playing Saints Row for an hour and getting like 30 requests to join my game by the same five or six users, and trying to get over the whole "Fire Pro HD was a joke" issue, the negative comments no longer get me.

Much…

Backtalking

Ultimate Wrestlemania: Well, for those who enjoyed it, thank you. For those who hated it, thanks for clicking/replying since that bumps the hitcount up. And for the record, sure, you can hate it and you can say so, and I'm 100% OK with you having that opinion. Although, also for the record, I deliberately put it separate so that you didn't have to read it (the day delay between it and the rest wasn't my idea), so if you hated Fantasy Booking, why did you read it? It was fairly obvious that was what it was all about. Eh, anyway, it's done with, and since there's not hordes of people busting down my door demanding more, we'll treat it as a nice one off experiment.

Royal Rumble Accidental Eliminations: I didn't specify Savage since that's so well known, but yes, that's the big one in history. Hardcore Holly in 08 was the one I was thinking of that was pretty obvious but covered up. The 05 Rumble I've heard two different stories. One is the idea that DAVE tripped and fell, which most of you suggested. The other one, which I kinda lean towards myself, is that it was planned. Not the whole Vince injury, but rather they would both tumble out, they'd do the Bret/Lex one winner then the other deal, then the match would restart and DAVE would then win the match. The mess-up was that they were running long and thus the planned several minutes became a few seconds, ala Hulk/Yoko at WMIX. So that might be an accident, might not.

The Str….Grr…The Streak: Yes, The Streak was MENTIONED occasionally before X-7. It would get brought up as a trivia point. "Hey, did you know that Taker's Undefeated at Wrestlemania?" sort of deal, like Earthquake was prior to X-7. It just wasn't used as a selling point until X-7, and wasn't pushed like it was the BESTEST THING EVER till about WMXX or so.

The Two Ronnies: Man, didn't know there was such a following. I'd try and work in "He's Fallen In Da Water" into the column but that might be pushing it.

I'm killing Kayfabe: Yes, yes I am, which is ironic in a way, since I started here on 411 as someone who wrote inside Kayfabe. And no, I'm not going to argue that it's ok for me to say all this because Vince already did it.

My argument is that if you're here on 411, you already understand and accept Kayfabe. You either have the ability to switch off the part of your brain that knows it's a show and enjoy it, or (like me) you're able to enjoy it despite and perhaps even because you know it's ‘fake'. Either way, I'm not taking away the curtain to reveal the magician's wires, you've already done that yourself. I'm merely assisting you by pointing some of the more obscure wires out, and/or giving my opinion on the performance and filling you in on tricks you may have missed earlier. And hopefully being funny while I do it. OK?

HHHate: I never said those three reasons are reasons I have to hate him, or that they are true, I'm just saying that they are the reasons the IWC who hates HHH has.

Cherry picking: The vast majority of my questions are good. I don't print them if I've already answered them and/or they are two specific for the column (like what are good training facilities etc, those sorts of questions). And I feel I owe it to include all questions asked. Some just take a while.

Your Turn, Smart Guy…

Molly Holly is indeed the answer. Kane has held the WWF and Hardcore titles so he's out, and Chavo Guerrero didn't ever win a title at Wrestlemania. Easy one this week.

Who Am I? I've teamed with Paul Roma on PPV. I've teamed with multiple Clique members, winning gold with a couple of them. I've been involved in at least one MOTY, and a couple of memorable moments in Wrestling History. Oh, and thanks to me, an obscure subclause in the WWE Rule Book is known about. Who am I?

Questions, Questions, Who's Got The Questions?

JB starts us off with a series of questions.

How did the wrestling business come to revolve around pay-per-views?

Since these questions are financial in nature, I called on my good friend and very smart cookie JP Prag. JP?

It was a pretty involved process that really began with "The Wrestling Classic" several months after WrestleMania 1 in 1985. You see, back in the early 1980's, cable was just becoming a part of households in America and had not yet come anywhere near the level of penetration today. "The Wrestling Classic" was the first nationwide PPV for a wrestling company. Even WrestleMania 1 was only available on PPV in a few markets while most people had to watch it through Closed Circuit systems at local arenas (hence the inspiration for WrestleMania 2). "The Wrestling Classic" was a test to see if people around the country would buy a nationalized wrestling product, something never yet tried before.

Being such a new technology, it was not until after WrestleMania 3 that the WWE decided to try to expand PPV offerings. At that time, most revenue came from live events (what we call "house shows" today) while a small amount came from merchandising and television syndication rights. So in 1987, the WWE (looking for a way to have Hogan and Andre in the ring again without a one-on-one match) came up with the Survivor Series. By this time, Jim Crockett Promotions also was carrying the NWA Starrcade on PPV. The Survivor Series was booked against that show and Vince McMahon let cable companies know that if they carried the NWA event they would never get a WWE PPV again. All but 3 providers chose to drop the NWA.

This led to a period where the WWE was really the only big game in town. Over the years they added (in order) the Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and finally King of Ring. During this time, the WWE's operating model was slowly changing but the vast majority of their income still came from live events.

When WCW launched Nitro in 1995, things were already changing. Eric Bischoff was looking for ways to make WCW money and began to expand on the lineup that the NWA/WCW had traditionally had: that being SuperBrawl (February), WrestleWar/SuperBrawl/Slamboree (April/May), The Great American Bash (July then), Halloween Havoc (October), and Starrcade (November/December). Between 1993 and 1996 alone was added Uncensored (March), The Great American Bash (moved to June), Bash at the Beach (July), Hog/Road Wild (August), Fall Brawl (September), and World War 3 (November).

With the Monday Night Wars beginning to heat up, suddenly the television program became not a medium to promote live events, but actually became an event unto itself. Ratings mattered, advertising revenue was growing, and WCW was implanting themselves as the market leader in wrestling PPVs.

As WCW took over, the WWE was forced to respond. They did not want to add PPVs due to the added cost of putting them out plus the long delay (6 months) for getting the revenue. WCW had the backing to outlay the cash so far in advance, but the WWE in 1995 did not. Still, they launched the "In Your House" series, eventually changing them over time to individual PPV names.

WCW, too, filled in the missing months, finally adding "Souled Out" in 1997. With that, both companies had 12 months of PPVs. The amazing thing that the WWE discovered was that 12 months of PPVs was profitable and gave them a revenue stream they never intended. The model had completely shifted and live events took a back seat to television and build to PPVs.

How big a percent is it of their profits?

In 2008, WWE PPV revenues were $91.4 million out of $526.5 million in total revenue, or 17.4%. In 2007, WWE PPV revenues were $94.3 million out of $458.7 million, or 20.6%. Profit margins are pretty similar. In Q4 2008 PPV accounted for 15.6% of profit ($8.8 million out of $56.3 million) and Q4 2007 were 20.0% ($11.2 million out of $55.9 million). Overall, the percentages of PPV as a total of revenue and profit have dipped due to a number of factors, most notably increased diversification into consumer products, dropping number of buys, and rising costs of production.

TNA's numbers are unavailable, but in the past they were far less dependent on PPV. In 2008 they had estimated revenue of $45 million and an estimated $8 million in PPV revenue, so that would be 17.7%. That percentage can be expected to shrink because TNA's biggest growth areas are in international television rights fees and live events.

Also, why does it continue if they're worried over continually losing to the UFC?

They aren't just worried about UFC, but all competition for your dollars. Even though PPV is becoming less important, it is still a major stream. The WWE and TNA are taking steps to make PPV less important, but why would they want to lose any revenue stream?

With all of the viewers they can get on their regular broadcast, why don't they just show big events on regular TV and sell adds? Is it because the station would get all the profits?

Both the WWE and TNA do not follow this model anymore. Both get rights fees to air their shows and then the networks sell advertisements to make up for the cost of paying the wrestling companies. Television Rights Fees for the WWE for all of 2008 were $100.7 million. Compare this to the $91.4 million for PPV. Per event, that is $0.4 million for television and $6.1 million for PPV. What television station is going to pay 16 times as much for one event? Even when dropping it to more of a Profit per Event, there is not enough value add for the networks when they are not going to get any additional dollars compared to the other programs they have. Advertisers are just not interested in more wrestling program, but consumers have enough interest to make the model work for now.

JP Prag everybody!

The ever-present Manu Bumb has a simple question.

What was the largest live audience for a nitro or raw? I remember Goldberg/Hogan was huge at the Georgia Dome, but don't know if that was the biggest ever.

The biggest draw in Nitro history was indeed the infamous Georgia Dome Hogan/Goldberg show, July 6, 1998 with 41,412. That was, at the time, the 4th biggest attendance EVER for Wrestling in the US. But Raw would eventually break it (just), with the "Raw Saturday Night" special edition of Raw on February 8th, 1999 in the Skydome, Toronto, Canada. 41,432 was the attendance that night, and that holds the record out of Raw and Nitro (or Smackdown or any other free TV show in the US, for that matter).

NWA88 is next, which is an interesting thing to get a series of questions from, one year in a Wrestling Company's life…

Did Gorilla Monsoon actually have medical credentials? We all know he had a fondness for saying "external occipital protuberance" at any given moment, but upon closer examination he actually busts out a lot of jargon in the way of naming particular parts of the body and possible injuries to them that might effect ones wrestling ability (see Hogan/Warrior). He actually seems quite educated in the matter of the body and I was just wondering if he had any medical or chiropractic background. At WrestleMania IV (I believe) Jessie Ventura exclaimed at one point "well you're the doctor Monsoon!"

No, he did not have any specialised medical training. It's somewhat ironic, that a man whose career took off as a wild, savage man from Manchuria would end up having a trademark for over the top jargon. Gorilla was the WWE prototype for a play-by-play guy, in that he was over the top about calling the moves and explaining the story. The medical terminology was an attempt to put over how dangerous wrestling was, these very important sounding things were getting hit, and so on.

What was the story with the WWF announcing Andre the Giant's entry into the 1991 Royal Rumble, only to have him not appear? They were announcing this up until the week before the event I believe, but I thought by this point it was pretty clear he could barely way (from March 1991 onwards he was always scene with a cane, crutches, or in a wheelchair.) Was this a classic bait-and-switch or did he take a turn for the worse in late 1990?

Health reasons were indeed the reason. Andre was one of three men announced by WWF magazine who didn't make it to the show, Honky Tonk Man and Buddy Rose getting released before the show. It was hoped that he'd be able to work the Rumble (which can be pretty easy if you don't have to bump and can get some help to do a gentle elimination) but his health was such that it just wasn't possible.

Sort of an obvious answer to this one, but how often were the announcers actually at the arena for the weekend syndicated shows (Superstars, Challenge). It usually appears that they are in front of some green screen of the crowd, as the area directly around them is always almost completely black and they are not usually shown on camera aside from the intro/ending. I also have heard that before the shows Mean Gene would have them cheer and boo and chant "Rowdy" before a taping, I assume for the purpose of using the crowd reactions for mixing canned heat and the chanting for a wrestler that is not physically present in the arena.

There have been a few times that I can think of that the announcers were actually there -- when Flair showed up and chaired Piper and Vince, when Savage was bitten by the cobra, and when the Big Bossman dragged Bobby Heenan from the announce position.

There have been a couple of times where they have faked it pretty good too, the major one standing out in my mind when Piper left the announce booth to go and spit on the NWA title.

Come to think of it, they probably saved a lot of money doing it this way. Damn the internet.

I don't have accurate numbers, of course, but in looking over results, I'd say that the majority of the time, it was Green Screened. Only if they were required for an angle, you'd assume, they'd be actually there at the arena. Again, I can't state that with any true degree of certainty, but I'm fairly sure that the announcers actually being there in the arena was the exception, and not the rule.

Laszlo wonders why a match never occurred.

It seems that the Great Muta and Big Van Vader were two of NJPW stars between 1991 and 1993 and they also both competed in WCW. Is there a reason why they never had a big 1 on 1 match? Vader even took on big opponents from AJPW and UWF during this period, why not have a dream match within the promotion?

Well, the match not occurring in WCW is easy to explain since both men were monster heels during their runs thus the match would never take place. As for Japan, the two men did square off in tag matches, Vader teaming with Bam Bam Bigelow (under the team name of "Big, Bad and Dangerous") to fight Keiji Mutoh (not Muta, but Keiji Mutoh) and Hiroshi Hase to win the IWGP Tag Titles, March 1st 1992. Several tag and 6 man tag matches exist with the two on opposing sides But, a one on one match between the two does exist, Vader taking on Keiji Mutoh, August 10th, 1991. Sadly I only have the end of it.



So there you go.

Nicholas begins all right, then gets creepy.

1) Regarding a squash match that occurs a day or so before the wrestlers release (most recently with The Boogeyman and Scotty Goldman).. Does the wrestler know that it's their last match, and they go out professionally? Or do they actually find out afterwards? Just a little thing I'm curious about.

It depends. Scotty Goldman, for instance, was only released because of the match with Umaga going badly. Having never been fired I can't state for sure, but most of the time, a wrestler is probably aware that they are on the outs and while they might not directly tell them "This is your last match", they probably already know.

2) What are some instances of really noticeable referee mistakes? For example, during the Undertaker/Big Show Last Man Standing match at Cyber Sunday 08, the ref seemed to go really, really, really (really) slow as his ten count went on during a late "Double KO" spot.. I'm looking for things like a Referee accidentally counting to three before the kickout, or prematurely breaking up his count while the wrestlers shoulders are still down.

The most recent was poor Wes Adams, who was doing what he was told to do. WWE refs are now under orders to treat all matches as legit contests, in terms of enforcing the rules and such. On the August 12th 2008 edition of ECW, he was the ref in the Miz/Morrison V Matt Hardy/Mark Henry tag match. Matt nailed a Side Effect off the top rope onto Morrison, and then went into the cover. Miz was supposed to come in and break up the pinfall. He didn't. Morrison worked this out and kicked out.

But by then, Wes had performed a 3 count, and thus ended the match.

Despite doing what he was told to do, he was fired for "making the Tag Champs look bad". So I guess, technically, that's not a referee mistake.

But hell, just watch any Botchamania, they got plenty.

Thank you, Congratulations on (accomplishments). I love you. Forever yours, Nicholas.

Uh, OK…

Speaking of Botchamania, here's one of the best non-Maffew Botchamanias out there, this one an Aussie Botchamania. I am not in it, nor is my company, since we never make mistakes.

Cough.

This one is the best thanks to the Awesomeness that is Krackerjak on the mic after the audio messes up. But because of his involvement, this is NSFW.



EDogg051 stumps me.

I was recently watching the Legacy of Stone Cold DVD set to remind me of the good 'ol days of Austin raising hell with anything that moved. When I got to disk 3 of this set, there is a remix of Austin's theme that I have never heard before. I have looked around the internet for this song and have found other people that have asked what this song is on message boards but I haven't been able to find the answer. Do you know what this song is and where I can find a full version of it?

Well, not giving me details about when and where, it's hard to say. And not owning the DVD makes it impossible. Readers?

Patrick keeps it simple.

Do the wrestlers wear socks or something to help protect their feet while wearing the boots?

In most cases yes. Sometimes they wear tape if they need to support their feet/ankles more, and some rare people out of superstition or other obscure reasons may go barefoot, but the vast majority of those people wearing boots have something underneath, although its not normally all the way to the top, it's just ankle high or so.

Jeremiah makes me bring back up a topic I had hoped was buried.

Question: I recently read that SummerSlam '94 in Chicago was held and broadcast on a Monday. Was this a common practice at the time or a one shot deal if you will due to the opening of the United Center?

It was common for PPVs to be held on different days, there was no fixed day yet. Hence, it was possible it could occur on a Monday. It might have been the earliest day the WWF could get at the new place, or it's just they felt Monday was best that year.

Zav has questions on water and repeating. There's a crude joke there, I know it…

Hey matt, love the column, for my questions, im wondering
1.Why is it that alot of wrestlers will come down to the ring soaking wet. They come out of the curtain and look like they poured a bottle of water down their heads.

Because they just have. They've probably just spend a good period of time warming up, and pouring water over themselves cools them down, and also means that sweat, when it begins, isn't as notable, since they're already wet. So it's a comfort thing and an appearance thing.

2. This was inspired by the video you posted in last weeks column. Why do matches sometimes copy spots from other matches. Examples would be the Ebetaroh comedy sequence you showed repeated with Delirious in ROH, and I know I've seen a match that copied the Van Daminator reversed into a leg-drop bulldog from RVD vs. Lynn.

Various reasons. At best, it's because it's a reference to a previous match or feud, wherein the moves in question are being used because they worked before or it's mocking someone else or some such. At worst, it's people blatantly stealing a move that they've seen work and thus want to save themselves having to think.

Most of the time it's somewhere in the middle. A lot of wrestlers pick up moves and spots from other wrestlers, and incorporate them into their own stuff. They take spots that work and, hopefully, adapt them to their own situations. They don't always do so, but that's the argument.

So laziness and/or referencing. Your pick.

Steve will bridge the gap.

I caught the segment before the HHH/Umaga match on Smackdown! this week and they were playing the Motorhead "Bow Down to the King" song in the background during the pre-match promo. It made me start to think about alternate songs.

I know in the past you mentioned regarding wrestlers and getting specific songs or their personal choices, which I think we can definitely see now with people like Edge, Orton, HHH et al., but as for alternate songs? HHH had that song when he came out for Mania dressed as Huntor, I believe, but I'm curious as to wrestlers who have had alternate theme music as (yes I'm going there) "one time deals" or maybe recurring, but not the normal track that everyone associates with the wrestler.

I believe Mankind was the first person to have alternate songs for the same wrestler/persona (I mean, if you want to ignore personas then guys in Japan like Muta and Liger have lots of alternate themes). He had his entrance music which was dark and foreboding then his light, peaceful victory music, designed to get over that he was dark and disturbed but once he got the victory, he was happy.

Beyond him and HHH, Undertaker reverted to an earlier theme at Wrestlemania XIX, coming out to "Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit live despite not having used it for a while. Shawn's recent Mind Games have brought out different pieces of music in the lead up to his match with Taker.

Then you can get bogged down in the question of stable/team music, and if that counts. HHH would sometimes come out to Evolution's theme while in Evolution, does that count?

But Mankind and HHH, to get back to point, are the sole characters to have alternate themes.

I've recently watched some ladder matches, or matches/encounters that involve ladders. I've heard the commentators throw out numbers as to the height and just looking at them, it seems like the current ones are taller than were used several years back (notwithstanding the one that Edge speared Hardy off of, which I believe is the height that Hardy dove off of during one of those crazy Mania matches to put a few guys through some tables). Maybe my question is not completely about ladders, but cages, height differential from turnbuckle to announce table, etc. What are these? Have they changed over time?

The WWE, today, uses a 20 foot by 20 foot ring for TV tapings. The top rope is 5 foot off the mat, which is 4.5 feet off the floor. Hence from the top rope to the floor is 9.5 feet. This is larger than most rings, which tend to be 18 foot square as a rule. I can't tell you the dimensions of the tables, but at a guess, I'd say they were about 3-4 feet high.

I believe the WWE ring has grown over time, but I cannot find any evidence either way on this aspect.

My Damm Opinion

Steve continues.

In your opinion who has had the most appropriate theme music, either lyrically, rhythmically, or otherwise?

My top 5, in no particular order-



Victoria "All The Things She Said": Duh.



Kurt Angle "Medal": Just one of the best themes of all time, fitting the character and audience participation!



New Age Outlaws "Oh, You Didn't Know?": Sometimes simplicity works best.



The Ultimate Warrior "Unstable": High energy, and instantly recognizable.



The Rock "Hollywood": Best. Theme. Ever.

Who do you think was the best (or your favourite... or both) in the WWF/E that never held the big strap with the company? In case clarification is needed, I'm referring to the old WWF/E Championship, Undisputed, and the current SD/Raw belts.

The Best? Mr. Perfect. My favourite? Stevie Richards.

And completely random, but how do you pronounce Sforcina?

4-C-Na. So yes, my name literately pronounces as ‘For Cena'. That's the Anglicised version of the original Italian pronunciation of "Sfortz-Chi-Na". When my great great grandfather Mathew Sforcina (I'm named after him) came out here to Australia, the Anglo-Saxon brain couldn't comprehend an S and an F next to each other, hence the S became silent.

Michael has a bunch of questions for me.

Hey Matt,

Loooong column, but I still make a point to read it all every week---it's great!
I have a couple random questions that don't really relate to each other at all, but here goes:

1. Is there any way to get tapes or download every Raw or Smackdown from a given year or something? (Sub question: how do I get a hold of the Benoit/Jericho vs. HHH/Austin (the quad tear match)?) I'm looking for January to April (at least) of 2001 to watch the build-up of Rock/Austin (your Youtube clip from last week inspired me).

Not legally, no. You might be able to find tape traders who would be willing to sell you a whole year of Raw or SD, and there are certainly people out there diligently posting entire shows on Youtube and the like, or streaming them. There are several illegal torrent sites that specialise in pro wrestling, but I will not link to them in this column for fear of… I'm not sure, just fear in general.

2. In your opinion, do you think even if Angle never comes back to the WWE (which, I'm pretty sure when this TNA contract is up, he's out of there...hopefully), he'll get into the HoF and get a DVD set of his best WWE matches?

Angle/Taker, Angle/Eddie, Angle/HBK, Angle/Kane, Angle/Orton… Yeah, I think WWE might be able to scrape together a few matches for a DVD.

3. Do you think it would be smart for Samoa Joe and AJ Styles to jump to WWE if that opportunity arises?

…

Financially, probably. I don't know how much they still earn on the Indy scene outside of TNA, but from a strictly money based perspective, yes, WWE would be a better deal, even assuming they came in as midcarders.

But in terms of creative freedom, and their peace of mind, that's trickier. WWE is an extremely hard place to work, in terms of travel and pressure, and neither man would get a major push, you would imagine, CM Punk notwithstanding.

It depends on how TNA are using them at the time they could jump ship and just how interested in WWE they are. I'd probably do it, but I'm not them, hence my mileage will vary. I hate to give a wishy-washy answer, but it's not a simple question to answer.

4. (This question may KILL my credibility among everyone else in the IWC, BUT, I'll ask it) Why is Bret Hart seen as a such a GREAT wrestler? He's good, he's had some solid matches, but the guys he was having his best matches against were just as good if not better than he was (Perfect, HBK, Austin, Benoit). I recently found the Best of Bret Hart DVD for only $14 at Wal-Mart, so I picked it up, and I honestly had a hard time not falling asleep during quite a few of his matches. Maybe he was innovative for his time or something, but I'm 20 years old, and have only been really watching wrestling since I was 12 (Wrestlemania X-Seven was the first PPV I ever saw, so...can't have a much better first experience with wrestling than that, however I caught glimpses of Austin/McMahon, The Rock, DX, and the Undertaker when my brother used to watch it when I was a little younger), so maybe I have seen the more exciting (albeit, spotfest-oriented) Hardyz, and then in 2002 and from then on, Shawn Michaels. And while Shawn is easily my favourite, I don't feel any bias in the Bret v. HBK lifelong feud.

Well, I'm not exactly a Bret Hart fan, but I'll try my best here (before one good defence and a half dozen troll ones get posted in the comments section).

There are several reasons why someone might be a fan of Bret Hart. There are the simple ones, if you grew up in Calgary, or were just a proud Canadian you would probably be a fan of his. He's certainly known as a good guy to the fans, very open and such.

But the main reasons tend to be that Bret was a down to earth guy/character, which some people enjoyed, and he was an extremely good storyteller in the ring. Like Shawn, Bret could tell a story in the ring effortlessly (when he was on), but unlike Shawn who was a high flyer technical guy, Bret was a technical guy with occasional flashes of brawling. And if you enjoy technical wrestling, Bret was thus your guy. There are other aspects, long time fans seeing Bret develop and grow feel attached, but that's the main ones, as far as I can tell. I'm sure I'll now be corrected.

5. Is the Montreal Screwjob a good match up until the finish, and is it available on any DVD or tape?

Honestly, no, the match isn't that great, although that might be part of knowing the outcome and background. It's not a bad match, but it's hardly their best. It'll be, I'm sure, in the Survivor Series Anthology when it is released. The only WWE DVD that so far includes the match is the obscure "Best of WWE Confidential Vol 1", which included it along with the first interview Shawn gave admitting he was in on the Screwjob.

Oh, and it's broken into 3 parts, starting here. If you're willing to watch it on Youtube.

6. Is the Rock/HHH Ironman match from Judgment Day 2000 worth watching?

Yes, if only to see a Sleeper and a Piledriver score falls.

Simon Wilson finishes us off with a great interactive question.

Hello,

I have an excellent little question for you. Plus some rules to make it even better.

First thing what is your all time greatest WrestleMania card? The rules are as follows...
1. The card must be made from previous Wrestlemania matches.
2. You cannot have more than one match from one mania.
3. You cannot use the same wrestler or gimmick (i.e.- Owen / Blue Blazer) more than once.
4. The 9 matches must include the following:

-Curtain Jerk
-IC, US, European or ECW title match
-Tag Title match
-Women Title match
-Money in the Bank
-2 x Grudge match
-2 x World, WWE, WWF title

5. One match must include The Undertaker (as no mania would be complete without the streak...and don't wimp out and add Taker-Bundy.

From the top of my head I would have.

-Curtain Jerk: Bret-Owen (wm10)
-IC: Steamboat-Savage (wm3)
-Tag Title: Hardys-Dudleys-Edge&Christian (wm17)
-Womens title: Trish-Micky (wm22)
-Money in the Bank: Punk, Kennedy, MVP, Morrison, Benjamin, Carlito, Jericho (wm24)
-Grudge 1: Stone Cold - Rock (wm19)
-Grudge 2: Orton-Taker (wm21)
-Title: Angle-Brock (wm19).....just loved this match
-Title: Hogan - Warrior (wm6)

Just realised that I have 2 matches from wm 19............ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Have fun.

I held this from last week because I was fairly sure I'd want to use Taker/Shawn. And lo and behold, I have…

Curtain Jerk- Bret/Owen (WMX)
Secondary Title: Savage/Steamboat (WMIII)
Tag Title: Cactus and Charlie V New Age Outlaws (WMXIV)
Women's Title: Victoria/Molly (WMXX)
MITB: Edge/Christian/Jericho/Benoit/Benjamin/Kane (WM21)
Grudge 1: Shawn/Taker (WMXXV)
Grudge 2: Roberts/Andre (WMV)
World Title 1: Savage/Flair (WMVIII)
World Title 2: Rock/Austin (WMX7)

What about you guys?