Ask 411 Wrestling 04.29.09: Dressing Rooms, Gold Medals and… The Ghost Who Walks?

Hello all to the only column worried that Edge and Christian will now not interact in any way shape or form for the next 2 years just to spite us, Ask 411 Wrestling!

This week will be short and sweet in a way. See, I’ve noticed that my question list is somewhat bulging (80+), and more importantly is past the 4 week deadline I set myself. And, what’s worse, I don’t the time or energy to make a serious dent this week.

Next week, however, will be a super-bumper edition, even if I have to call in outside help. Hey, that’s not a bad idea, get everyone on staff to answer one question…

Or maybe not, not sure yet. Suffice to say, most of the questions this week will be ones I can answer easily or like the look of. I hope, I’m writing this intro BEFORE the rest of the column so it might not work out, we’ll see.

Bannery goodness, coming your way now.

Backtalking

Note, if the question is answered to my satisfaction (i.e. I have nothing to add), I won’t address it here (like, for instance, tape on the fingers). Also, if it’s been answered before (how do guys get under the ring), it again will be ignored. If you send a question like that in mail, I should give you a link, if I don’t, bug me about it.

The Draft: It’s not gone as such, it’s just that in a quest for ratings and more money, both RIGHT NOW, it’s being screwed over. Alas.

How do I lose ¾ of a tag team title?: Because I’m an egotistical bastard who claims he has ¾ of the talent of the team, ¾ the brains, and ¾ size. Actually that’s pretty close, I’m 17/27 of the size of the team. But yeah, maybe I need an image for when I’m talking in character…

Best of videos: Some from lurking various boards, some by searching. The Piper Eye Poke was just from searching on Youtube for Piper Eye Poke, so until you try, you’ll never know what you’ll find.

Like try ‘Sforcina’ and you’ll get my distant cousin.

Highest Earner EVER: Michael appreciated my answer, but was after a top 10 list. He suggested some combo of Hogan, Flair, Cena, Undertaker, Michaels, Bret, Andre, HHH, Austin, Savage, Rock, Piper and Thesz.

I can’t say for sure (something he acknowledged), but if I had to pick a 10, Hogan, Austin, Flair, Savage, Rock, Bret, Shawn, Taker, Andre and HHH, maybe.

Of course, that’s just my guess at the top earners, ignoring the McMahons. Now, ask for the top 10 guys to make money out of the business and KEEP it, that’s another matter…

Your Turn, Smart Guy…

Honestly, I didn’t check this one out, assuming that Edge or Booker would nab it. But dang, Ric Flair turns out to remain on the top, thanks to his 6-9 tag reigns (depending on which you count).

For now.

List one today. There are 8 active titles in the WWE right now (9 if you treat the tag belts as sperate entities). Where applicable, give to me the last person/s to win each of these belts by pinning, or making to submit, someone who was NOT the current title holder.

Questions, Questions, Who’s Got The Questions?

Senorfro gets the ball rolling. This week.

Nice job doing the column.

1. There was a match between the Rockers vs. La Resistance on Raw (Rockers reunion). During the match, La Resistance pulled the ‘Hart Attack’ on Shawn Michaels (visable here). Now, I’m positive that La Resistance doesn’t do that move on a normal basis, if at all, especially since it’s the Hart Foundation’s finisher. So I’m wondering why pull the move? Is it supposed to be a jab, or a nod to the Hart Foundation, or what?

A nod to the Hart Foundation. The Rockers and the Hart Foundation had several major battles (including the infamous phantom title switch), and given that they were Canadian and fighting the Rockers, La Rez threw that in as a nod to the Hart Foundation and the olden days for those of us paying attention.

I hope.

2. There are people that say that one big mistake in WCW was the ‘finger poke of Doom’ by Hogan to Nash on Nitro for the World Title. However, I recall when HHH beat Shawn Michaels for the IC title on Raw by simply pushing him and jumping on top for the pin and the joke. DX played everybody and it was all ha ha and what not (can’t find the video). Now, the IC title may not have been as big as a World Title on WCW, but doesn’t the same principle still remain. Wasn’t there some heat for this?

Well, close, it was for the ‘Prestigious’ European Title (which should SO be a Superstars exclusive belt or something. Or a WWE TV title, something, anything to be a modern day third string belt for Grand Slam champs).

But there’s still a lot of difference between this and the Fingerpoke of doom.

It’s all about context. Sure, doing this with a minor title as opposed to a major one can be seen as less of an insult on a basic level, but it’s more about the storylines.

DX did the title change in order to mess with Sgt. Slaughter’s head. Slaughter was the authority figure at the time, and since DX was all about fighting authority, it fit the story. It had a purpose that was somewhat positive, or at the very least, it made sense with the characters and was somewhat logical (they were buddies, and they wanted to mess with Slaughter, plus Shawn was happy to share the gold, in this rare case). The Euro title was good, but not worth destroying their friendship over.

Whereas the Fingerpoke (which had the unfortunate luck to be against the Mick Foley title win/Butts in Seat comment) went against most of the storylines going at the time, brought back the nWo which people didn’t want, and was silly and treated the World title like a joke. Nash, despite trying so hard to get it and beating Goldberg for it, was happy to just give it back to Hogan and reform the nWo? It just didn’t make sense.

3. John Morrison is a heck of an athlete, so is Evan Bourne. So, I don’t understand how Bourne can pull all that he does and Morrison doesn’t. Morrsion can do a standing ‘Shooting Star Press’ and I’ve seen him do a Moonsault from the second middle rope from the outside in. Granted, he has pulled a mean looking Split-legged corkscrew moonsault in the corner on ECW, but is he limited by choice or from the higher ups.

A little from columns A, B and C. Bourne had to pull off a picture perfect SSP like a dozen times in a row on multiple occasions to prove that he could do it and get permission. Morrison, to my knowledge, hasn’t pushed for such a move to be allowed. Now, it may be that he doesn’t feel he can pull them off safely, maybe he was told to be more ground based or, more likely, he/higher ups felt that Heels Shouldn’t Have Cool Movesets.

That might change now, if they turn him face. We’ll have to see.

Will Helm gets special treatment. Sorry.

Mathew (see . . . I pay attention),
1) On a recent episode of ROH on HDNet, I heard “The Husky Bastard” Kevin Steen referred to as “Mr. Wrestling.” Did he buy and/or inherit the moniker or is he like an anti-pope to the true Mr. Wrestling’s rightful pontiff? If Kevin Steen is, indeed, a legitimate “Mr. Wrestling,” what would be his numerical designation?

If he was legit, he’d probably be Mr. Wrestling 4. But he’s almost certainly not.

There have been, to my knowledge, only 3 official, totally legit Mr. Wrestlings. Mr. Wrestling (I) was Tom Woods, he of “Wrestling after plane crash to save Kayfabe” fame. He teamed with, and gave his approval to, Johnny “Rubberman” Walker, Mr. Wrestling II, of “Arguably best wrestler to never win a world title” contention. The two had feuded and teamed prior to II donning the mask, and when Atlanta wanted Mr. Wrestling but couldn’t get him regularly, they went to plan B and Mr. Wrestling II was born.

But, several men have called themselves Mr. Wrestling. Jeff Roth was known as Mr. Wrestling for a period, and Nick Dinsmore has also gone by Mr. Wrestling II. And Raymond Fernandez (Hercules), and Dusty Wolfe AND have called themselves Mr. Wrestling III.

But, there is a legit Mr. Wrestling 3, and his name is Steve Corino. Steve, has claimed that he’s been approved of by Mr. Wrestling II, and I haven’t seen anything to disprove that claim. I also haven’t seen the two in a video with II officially confirming 3, but it’s as far as I can tell legit.

2) Even though they’ve been largely an IWC joke, what was the most successful combination of Villanos?

I always thought the Villanos were an afterthought, not a joke.

The Villanos, I through V, are the five sons of legendary Mexican wrestler Ray Mendoza. All 5 have had some degree of success, but III, IV and V are the true stars, being the three that actually won titles between them. However, the most successful Villano is III, with an Observer Match Of The Year to his credit as well as a list of Mask V Thing wins a mile long. V recently lost a Mask/Mask match and is now wrestling as Ray Mendoza Jr.

3) Have all 50 U.S. states been represented by a wrestler (not counting those who have variable hometowns, e.g. ECW’s Chilly Willy)? If not, which states are not spoken for? If so, can you name at least one wrestler from each of the 50 states?

…

Ok, assuming you mean on a major scale (because I’m fairly sure that every US state has an Indy fed or two) and going with “Hailing From” rather than legit home towns, I’m gonna have to list them all and then work through them. My initial thought is “Of course”, but then states like Rhode Island and Alaska, well, here’s the list, with the first wrestlers to mind/I found, (DC is covered by Batista, Puerto Rico by the Colons)

Alabama: Hardcore Holly (Mobile)
Alaska: The Governor (Unknown Parts Of)
Arizona: Billy Graham (Paradise Valley)
Arkansas: Sid (Marion)
California: Victoria (Los Angeles)
Colorado: Vader (Denver)
Connecticut: Triple H (Greenwich)
Delaware: The Briscoe Brothers (Sandy Fork)
Florida: Terri Runnels (Palatka)
Georgia: Jake Roberts (Stone Mountain)
Hawaii: Ricky Steamboat (Honolulu)
Idaho: Torrie Wilson (Boise)
Illinois: CM Punk (Chicago)
Indiana: Johnny Weaver (Indianapolis)
Iowa: Frank Gotch (Humboldt)
Kansas: Bob Orton Sr. (Kansas City)
Kentucky: Jillian Hall (Louisville)
Louisiana: Jazz (New Orleans)
Maine: Scotty 2 Hotty (Westbrook)
Maryland: Stacy Keibler (Balitmore)
Massachusetts: John Cena (West Newbury)
Michigan: Rob Van Dam (Battle Creek)
Minnesota: Mr. Perfect (Robbinsdale)
Mississippi: Ahmed Johnson (Pearl River)
Missouri: Randy Orton (St. Louis)
Montana: Gary Albright (Billings)
Nebraska: Ted Dibase (Omaha)
Nevada: Val Venis (Las Vegas)
New Hampshire: Ted Arcidi (Manchester)
New Jersey: Balls Mahoney (Nutley)
New Mexico: Cactus Jack (Truth Or Consequences)
New York: Tommy Dreamer (Yonkers)
North Carolina: Ric Flair (Charlotte)
North Dakota: …
Ohio: The Miz (Cleveland)
Oklahoma: Charlie Haas (Edmond)
Oregon: Ken Patera (Portland)
Pennsylvania: Stevie Richards (Philadelphia)
Rhode Island: Chuck Palumbo (Providence)
South Carolina: Shelton Benjamin (Orangeburg)
South Dakota: …
Tennessee: The Honky Tonk Man (Memphis)
Texas: Stone Cold Steve Austin (Victoria)
Utah:…
Vermont: …
Virginia: Mickie James (Richmond)
Washington: Ivory (Seattle)
West Virginia: Jamie Noble (Hanover)
Wisconsin: Ken Kennedy (Green Bay)
Wyoming: …

So, The Dakotas, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming are so far important wrestler free.

I expect to get yelled at now.

Mike goes serious.

Thanks for the column.

A slightly morbid question, Is a part of the WWE’s self-censorship of Benoit due to the fact that WWE went ‘all-in’ with a tribute show as soon as the news of his death hit, and not waiting for details?

That didn’t help, sure, but it’s more the fact that Chris Benoit murdered his wife, son and then himself in something approximating cold blood. If Chris had, say, blown them all up when working on a gas tank or something, or if they’d driven off the side of a bridge and thus there was some doubt as to if it was murder or suicide or an accident or something, they’d be less strict. But Chris Benoit murdered his family, and if WWE appears at any point to make money off him unless it’s unavoidable (PPV pox sets mainly), then they’ll get hounded by the public press.

I’m wondering if, when another popular wrestler dies suddenly [and sadly, it’s a question of when, not if] the WWE will just do the equivalent of a press release and wait, just in case.

Depends on who it is. If it’s someone outside the company, absolutely. If it’s someone inside, they’ll be more careful, yes. They won’t go into full bore Memorial Mode unless they know the facts, but I doubt they’ll treat it like it’s a murder right off the bat.

Unless they are worried…

A different Mike, I think…

Hey there got a couple quick questions for you!

1.Regarding Undertaker/Foley Hell in a Cell. Was the chokeslam through the cage planned or not? If it wasn’t planned and say Foley doesn’t go through the cage and just lands on it, where would they go from there? I mean i find it hard to believe they would just climb down? Was there a different bump planned? Does anybody know?

It was supposed to give way, just not like that. It was meant to be a slow, drawn out moment while the roof gave way, then Foley fell down to the mat. Instead, he went though the roof like a hot knife through butter. Hence the concern, what was meant to be a slow bump when Foley was already in position became a very fast one when he was out of position.

2.Why is it that if a dropkick hits its mark the wrestler executing it is fine and continues on with his offence but when it misses he sells? Isn’t the impact the same?

No, because when you throw a dropkick, you prepare your body to hit the guy and thus land accordingly and appropriately. When you jump, you expect to have a certain movement before and after you hit the guy. When you miss a dropkick, you’re thrown off due to the lack of contact, hence the landing isn’t as smooth as it could be because you were expecting to hit. But some guys are better at adjusting than others.

That’s the logic at least.

3. Why didn’t anybody bust Paul Heyman for using copy righted music on pay per views? It’s one thing to do it on some indy show where nobody even knows but PPV ? How come he got away with it?

Because no-one was paying attention at first. But after a while/when he got the TV deal, that’s when he got cracked down on and switched to covers and new songs. Heyman and ECW just flew under the radar of mainstream society for a while.

Spencer Black goes back to Benoit.

Long time reader, first time sender. Excellent column, read it every week, blah blah..

Anyways, I was looking up Youtube videos of bumps earlier this week and I saw one of Benoit diving off a ladder and hitting the mat. the left side of his face was completely bruised and he was bleeding.. .. I thought it came from his ladder match with Jericho, but I was wrong.. I caught a clip from his match with Kane from wm 21, which kinda looked like it, but I don’t think so.. I’m not 100%..

Can you help me on this? Remember, He dives off the ladder.. misses the headbutt and the side of his face is in the worst shape I’ve ever seen a wrestler’s face in. Maybe you can help.

Again people, if you wanna talk about a video, link me to it!

The only Ladder match I can recall with Benoit missing a headbutt and bleeding because of it was the first Money In The Bank match at WM21. He didn’t bleed in TLC3, nor any Benoit/Jarrett ladder match. So it has to be MITB.

kahall22 asks about Goldberg and motorcycles.

Hey buddy big fan of your article and this is a random question but if anyone would know you would…..anyway me and my wife were talking about Goldberg and his run in WCW…she informed me that he had a motorcycle during his run and that somebody destroyed the motorcycle to get to Goldberg….I am a big wrestling historian so I am puzzled because I cannot for my life remember this….do you remember anything like this during WCW’s run?

Hmm. Well, there’s two options.

One, the misses is confusing his WCW run with his appearance on Punk’d in which a prank was pulled when Goldberg was supposed to think that someone had run over his motorcycle (the guy is quote a motorhead) when it was instead a replica, although the prank didn’t work out as well as it should have since the driver missed the bike.

Or, she’s thinking of the (in)famous Sid V Goldberg feud that saw Sid attempt to crush Goldberg’s car but end up getting his own crushed instead.

Tarek has a bunch of questions.

Dear Matthew,

Great column you’re doing a great job on it.

I have a bunch of questions to ask:

1. What was Buff Bagwell like in WCW? Was he over? Good worker? Ever going to hold the big gold?

He was over, but by the time he was Buff Bagwell and getting a push what little in ring talent he had was gone, replaced with coasting on charisma. And hey, the guy was hated, which is good, but couldn’t really work, which is bad. And while I’m sure WCW would have loved for Buff to catch on enough to warrant a title run, it was never in the cards.

2. It seems that WCW was so disorganised and had so many botched matches and in ring segments like San Francisco 49’ers match, Goldberg’s window incident. With ratings and profits going down why didn’t someone logically reformat the product to avoid these stupid things from happening like just booking normal matches?

Because the guys writing the checks didn’t understand that idea, or any other basic tenants of how Pro Wrestling works. In their eyes, Hulk Hogan drew lots of money as a good guy in the 80’s, so in the late 90’s he should be a good guy so they can draw big money. The Turner suits had no idea how to run the company, and those that the hired to write post Russo had to catered to their wishes, and thus while the shows weren’t quite as bad as what Russo put out, they still sucked. Also, at the time ECW was ‘growing’ and WWF was huge, and thus they felt they had to copy them, rather than provide an alternative.

3. I heard that one of the reasons WCW failed was due to giving wrestlers Creative Control, does this mean effectively they could hold on to the belt until their contract was up?

I don’t think anyone ever tried that, but Creative Control was more about how they had to approve every step their character took, and thus, the claim goes, those with CC never allowed themselves to look ‘bad’.

Although that wasn’t always the case, sometimes the talent wanted to lose but got overruled, Starrcade 97 for example.

4. Hogan seemed to have done so many things that hurt WCW – was it all to massage his ego? Surely he must have loved the paychecks and would have wanted to do the best by the company or didn’t he think long term?

Depends on who you ask. But the generally accepted (somewhat negative portrayal) of Hogan was that he and his buddies were worried that if they allowed themselves to be moved down the card they’d soon be on the scrap heap. Hogan wanted the company built around him, so the story goes, and the long term survival of WCW wasn’t a major concern. Besides, he’d be the guy to kill WWF…

5. Do you anything about Chris Walker – saw him and thought he had a good look but never heard of him.

I know that he’s The Ghost Who Walks, and that his wife’s kinda hot, especially when she put on the purple…

Oh, there’s an English wrestler by that name? Oh, ok.

*looks him up*

I don’t really know him, and for a good look… Not really. Doesn’t look that awesome in stills.

6. I do not understand how come it seems that in the WWE now very few wrestlers look like they train. I know about wellness but I workout on the reg and i can say I have a better body than a lot of the guys. If my job required me to be fit and strong my body would be even better. If they don’t have time the how in the hell does Cena do it???

Ok, try keeping up a training schedule when you’re travelling 4-5 days a week across the globe, sleeping and eating in strange places all the time while nursing a bunch of small injuries. Keeping up a ‘great’ body without resorting to drugs on a wrestler’s schedule is pretty hard. Only guys like Cena and girls like Trish who rolled damm near perfect on their body make up AND take superb care of themselves can look great without illegal chemicals on a WWE roster. That’s not an inditement, just a fact.

Vinson continues with Cena.

Quick question for you about The Rock

Looking back on WWE 24/7, I noticed The Rock. every week calling himself the people’s champion. Doing the People’s Elbow, by the way is absolutely ridiculous without the pop, Doing the millions and millions. Its like he knew all along he will have the crowds eating out of his hands eventually. Can you think of any other wrestlers that had that much foresight.

I am calling it John Cena vs The Rock Wrestlemania 26. The Rock wins with Cena turning heel.

P.S.

Cena sucks

The only way Cena/Rock will happen is if there’s a long SAG strike around that time that’s not a snap one.

And Rock didn’t know he’d have the crowd eventually, he just worked at it, and his hard work + talent + being given the chance = Success. It’s not that hard a formula, but that last part WWE isn’t getting right these days…

Since every man and his dog is posting that Bee-olphin video, here’s a different one. Man, if he’d had this theme, he would have surely beat Sara…

Joshua resorts to begging.

How are wrestlers locker rooms really split up in companies like WWE, TNA, and ROH? Is like we see in the backstage promos with a group of low and midcard guys sharing one crappy high schoolish type locker room, but the upper card and guys like The Rock and Batista getting their own, with leather seats and a manservant? Or did all the upper card guys just travel in groups together too in tiny rooms with shared hotel rooms and carpooling in Nicer cars?

Thanks man, it’s been bugging me.

Can I get at least a half Chandler joke?

Nah, for the most part everyone shares a dressing room/s (often times there’s not enough room in one and people just split up into groups of friends/opponens for the evening). Larger companies will have a separate female locker room, and there is the occasional story of big names demanding separate locker rooms. But for the most part, it’s just one big one.

And friendships tend to ignore card position. I mean, for a while there, there was a group that hung around a lot that had HHH, X-Pac, Albert, Justin Credible and William Regal. Upper guys might well be friends and may, on occasion, travel together, but it’s not that you only hang around with guys on your level. You hang around with your friends.

And no, no you can’t.

Adam asks after Gold.

Why does Kurt Angle always have two medals? He won a gold medal at the Olympics, in the heavyweight division, in 1996 at Atlanta beating Abbas Jadidi. But what is the other one for? Unless its for his World Championship the year previous, I don’t know. Can you enlighten me?

What am I, a lamp?

There we go.

Seriously though, the two medals represent the 96 Olympic gold and, I imagine, his 95 World Championship Win.

I say represent because they aren’t the actual gold medals. The 96 one has a big green strap and after one almost robbery he never used it at a show.

Matthew is all over the shop.

1. Who came up with the Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank gimmicks? And I don’t mean that in a storyline way, I mean that as in backstage in real-life. Was it Vinnie Mac or did someone pitch these ideas to him?

Ugh. The Chamber itself was co-designed by WWE’s production designer Jason Robinson, but the actual idea is unknown. Considering WWE’s current structure, it was probably half a dozen people in a room throwing together matches and seeing what came out.

MITB I’ve heard was a legit Chris Jericho idea, but beyond that, I got nothing.

2. Why doesn’t the WWE do ‘Buried Alive Matches’ or ‘Boiler Room Brawl Matches’ anymore? I know that these are Attitude Era matches but they brought back the ‘Inferno Match’ at Armageddon 2006 so I was just wondering why these two matches don’t these exist anymore?

Well Boiler Room Brawls were designed around Mankind since he ‘lived’ in them. Since he retired, there wasn’t much point, although in the Hell-Freezing-Over chance Raven comes back they might undergo a rename and come back.

Buried Alive matches, on the other hand, were built around The Undertaker, so they could come back. But given how violent/deadly they look, and WWE’s current stance, you’ll probably not see one for a while. I mean, you bury a guy alive, that’s not something you put on TV for kids.

Fariy tales, AOK. TV, not OK.

3. Why did the WWE put the Intercontinental Championship on Chyna in 1999 and 2000? Was there any logical reason for this?

She was over as hell, an acceptable worker, a great role model/selling point, she moved merch, it made history, what more do you want? A full defense can be seen here, but suffice to say, there was logic behind the move.

4. Why did the WWE drop the ‘King of the Ring’ PPV from their ‘Big 5′ line up? It was one of my 3 favourite PPV’s of the year (along with the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania) and I was really disappointed when it didn’t come back in 2003.

Because it’s hard to sell a show when you can’t advertise the main matches. Tournaments don’t draw, was the logic. I too miss the card, but at least we have it back in some form.

Jesse paints a picture about blows to the nuts.

How come the Inverted Atomic Drop is not illegal? Isn’t it a low-blow?
Are there any other moves that blatantly break the rules, but don’t cause a disqualification because they are already a common moveset?

No, the Inverted Atomic Drop is not a low blow, despite Rick Rude always selling it as such. The impact of the move is supposed to be the knee driving into the tailbone, just like a regular atomic drop. Any low blow is unintentional and waved off, like closed fists as a rule.

Technically you can argue that a move on the outside of the ring should be a DQ. A suplex on the floor is using an illegal weapon (the floor), as is the stairs, barricade etc, but again, they get waved off. Wonderful thing, referees’ discretion.

Alex finishes us off in this section with Old School.

Hello, Thanks for writing a great column. I’ve got a question I hope you can answer:

When the Undertaker walks the top rope and jumps down on his opponent, the announcers call it “going old school”. Why is that? Is it a reference to a move the Undertaker performed earlier in his career?

Yep. Taker first did the top rope walk when he debuted back in 1990, then he stopped doing it for a while, due to injuries/opponents etc. Then, during his Biker Taker phase, he brought it back, and would announce his intention to do so by shouting ‘Old School’, since it was Old School Taker. And the name has stuck.

My Damm Opinion

Will Helm gets a second helping to finish us off totally.

4) This isn’t an “OMG~! Which wrestler would win in a bar fight/is a legitimate badass?” question, but forgive me if you’ve already answered this anyway. On an equal playing field, with traditional pro wrestling rules (COs, DQs, rope breaks, highspots legal, etc.), what wrestler — or, if you’re feeling non-committal, type of wrestler — would win a singles tournament comprising all wrestlers working regularly for a North American company, indies included? The catch is that it’s all based on pure talent, ability, and skill-set, with no gimmickry involved (sorry, folks; no zombie sit-up).

Depends on what your asking. If you mean, all normal Pro Wrestling rules are legal but it’s still a shoot, then I have to go with Old school shooters. There’s just too many technically legal moves that can legit break bones and such that the older guys would have a field day with the new guys.

But you want me to pick a guy? Meng. Always pick Meng to win a legit fight.

However, if you mean who would win if the better athlete would win each match… Bob Backlund. An off the wall choice, yes, but in terms of wrestling talent, Bob’s underrated by most guys. But this is one foe the commentators to chew over, which you may do….

Now!