Ask 411 Wrestling 05.13.09: Drunk Scott Hall, Perverted Jerry Lawler, and Anus Explosion Death Match~!

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 05.13.2009

Who's worked a Wrestlemania and died? Who wins in Hogan V Inoki V Santo? Why was Vincent a Jobber? What the heck is a Goozle? Who watches the competition? Where's Harry Smith? And is Larry Csonka... Larry Csonka? All this and... Uh... Anus Explosion Death Match~!~!~!

Hello, this is Ask 411 Wrestling. I'm Mathew Sforcina, and I'm the guy answering the questions. Big shout out to Matt Morgan who reads me, according to Small. Certainly he'd be interested in the interview with me now on some other site I won't link to since I don't really want to promote a competitor. But just search for "Massive Q Interview" if you REALLY want to know a little about me as a Wrestler. Which I'm guessing you don't.

A reminder to read everything on 411. Bookmark us, homepage us, the works here. After all, the more people visit and bookmark and homepage, the stronger we become. And the stronger we become… I'm not sure how the rest of it goes but it leads to the Dark Side.

So, tear yourselves away from the UFC Demo that seems to be widely popular despite me not liking it and let's get on with the show!

Happy birthday to two people related to me who almost certainly aren't reading this.

Oh, and if you need a day to love your Mother you're not doing it right.

Backtalking

Mr. Wrestling: Ok, I spelt the name wrong, it's Tim, not Tom, my bad Dion.

Always A Heel/Face Possibilities: Rey was a heel as a Filthy Animal, Jeff Hardy was a heel as a Brood Member, and Maria… Might do it, actually.

The Steel Cage: *insert head banging here* Curse my faulty memory. Let's go through the list… Breakdown was the blue bars. Austin/McMahon was black bars. Rock/HHH, Raw, broadcast July 5th 1999 was in the Mesh. Bossman/Mideon, the last cage match televised before then was in the bars, so Rock/HHH is the true first appearance of the mesh cage.

Chandler's Not Sarcasm: OK then, if Chandler isn't a somewhat well known symbol of sarcasm, who is? I mean, I could have easily used Rimmer or Adora Belle Dearheart or Elliot Goblet, but hardly anyone would know them. Who is someone just as well known as Chandler and a symbol of sarcasm?

I suck since I came in ‘late': You're entitled to your opinion, of course. But 13 years as a fan is pretty good, considering some of the other people I see writing on other sites. And most of these questions are about an ‘American' company that has broadcast globally for over 20 or so years. Ok, if I lived in Texas, I'd be better at knowing about Texas history. Wouldn't help me a damm with New York, or Canada. Wrestling is global.

But hey, feel free to get a column on 411 then offer to take over.

I know I shouldn't feed trolls, but heck, after the performance in the WOTW column, I'm feeling behind the times.

Your Turn, Smart Guy…

Yes, Vince Russo was the correct answer. Ok, let's mess with some heads.

Who am I? I've been a Stallion and a Horseman, Pretty and Glory. I've teamed with greats like Arn Anderson and Paul Orndorff. But the highlight of my career, truly, was my flushing away of my career by ruining Alex Wright's career for years to come. Who am I?

Questions, Questions, Who's Got The Questions?

Evan forces me to start with a list.

With Wrestlemania this weekend and with the passing of Test, I was wondering how many Superstars have passed away that have been in a Wrestlemania...announcers and WWE Superstars...and a list?

Oh boy. Here it is, with the last WM they appeared in as a wrestler and/or commentator and/or manager (Preshows don't count).

Adrian Adonis (WMIII)
Andre The Giant (WMVII)
Bad News Brown (WMVI)
Bam Bam Bigelow (WMXI)
Big John Studd (WMV)
Chris Benoit (WM23)
Classy Freddie Blassie (WM2)
Crash Holly (WM2000)
Crush (WM13)
Dino Bravo (WMVII)
Earthquake (WMX7)
Eddie Guerrero (WM21)
Ernie Holmes (WM2)
Ernie Ladd (WM2)
Gorilla Monsoon (WMIX)
Haiti Kid (WMIII)
Harvey Martin (WM2)
Hawk (WMXIV)
Hercules (WMVII)
Junkyard Dog (WMIV)
Little Beaver (WMIII)
Lord Alfred Hayes (WMVII)
Miss Elizabeth (WMVIII)
Mr. Perfect (WMX)
Owen Hart (WMXV)
Rick Rude (WMVI)
Sapphire (WMVI)
SD Jones (WMI)
Sensational Sherri (WMIX)
Test (WMX7)
The Big Bossman (WM2000)
The British Bulldog (WM13)
The Executioner (WMI)
The Fabulous Moolah (WM2000)
The Texas Tornado (WMVII)
Uncle Elmer (WM2)
Yokozuna (WMXII)

The ever-present Rob S. asks me to play lip reader.

After Bret spit at Vince after the Montreal Screwjob occurred, Vince is seen on camera saying something to Bret in response. However, I cannot figure out what he said to Bret. Does anyone know what he was saying?

Let's review the tape. The angle isn't good on the original, but hey, any excuse to post this again.



The length isn't that great here either, but Vince is pretty clearly saying something along the lines of "Very Unprofessional". Which makes sense. From Vince's point of view, spitting on him was the final unprofessional act by a selfish man who refused to do the right thing. So of course Vince would call Bret unprofessional. If anyone out there is a better lip reader, by all means, tell us all the exact wording.

Arvind has a few questions for us.

Long time reader of ask411...and been on 411 since the 411wrestling days...keep on keeping the good stuff...

Couple of Questions:

1) What would have happened had Vince Jr. not been able to pay Vince Sr. the required amounts back when he trying to buy the company. Its known that if Vince Jr. missed even one payment that he wouldn't get the company. However, Vince Sr. passed away in 1984 so wouldn't Vince Jr. have inherited it anyway at the time after that ?

Not necessarily. While Vince Sr. did have some respect for his son, he was somewhat hesitant about him taking over, in that he wasn't sure Vince would honor the traditions of the company. And of course he didn't, but Vince Jr. was able to convince his father that he would. But Vince Sr, had Jr. not convinced him to sell, would almost certainly have sold to someone else, the most likely candidate being some combination of Phil Zacko (his long-time business partner), Arnold Skaaland, and Gorilla Monsoon, who already owned 50 percent of the company between them. So Vince would only have inherited half the company, unless he bought everyone out (which is how Gorilla and Arnold got lifetime contracts).

2) How did Vince Jr. manage the backstage happening at events like WrestleManias specially when he was commentating ? I remember a match being canceled during WrestleMania 10 so did he manage such things ?

WWE Announcer headsets feed in lines from backstage, normally from Vince if he's not out there, so backstage can communicate with the announce team. And WWE Announcers have a button they can push to talk to backstage and not be broadcast, similar to the cough button in most sports announce booths. So when Vince was out there, backstage would feed him any info that was relevant, if say someone had just been injured, and if he had to make a change, he'd simply wait for an appropriate time, press the button, and talk to backstage.

And, on occasion, he'd get up and run backstage, like he did at WMX to film the bit, or at Mind Games when you see him rebook HBK/Mankind on the fly by taking to Shawn and Earl Hebner.

3) When did the "Gorilla" position get its name ? Gorilla was a commentator for so long so did it happen only after he became the "President" ?

Exactly. After retiring from the booth, Gorilla became the backstage agent in charge, the head honcho back there. He was stationed at the Gorilla Position as it came to be called, just inside the entrance, there to give out last second instructions as needed. Since he was so well liked and his presence was constant, it became to be known as the Gorilla Position.

He began working as an agent before he became President, but even during that period, he was still there.

4) Is it true that Billy Jack Haynes, once said in a shoot that he was planning to kill Vince and was taking a gun and all that ? I've heard of the story but am not sure if its true.

According to Highspots Advertising it is.

Not owning the DVD in question (and all the videos online long since third party-ed), I cannot tell you the specifics, although clearly if I was currently living in Des Moines I'd instantly know all about it.



Apparently it was many years after he had left/been fired, and he went to a house show, with a gun, intent on killing Vince, but clearly he had second thoughts. Billy Jack is one of those guys that clearly got chewed up and spat out by the business. Who you blame for that is your choice, really.

CourtesyFlush shows how far back these are going.

What's up, man? Nice work on the Ultimate Wrestlemania. Here's some questions for you:

1.Didn't some diva once accuse Jerry Lawler of having a foot fetish, and that he was messing around with her shoes in the locker room? Also, didn't a different diva accuse Tony Atlas (aka Saba Simba) of the same thing? Could this be where they came up with that Snitsky/Lita foot thing?

The somewhat old story goes that ECW/USWA ringrat Diva Miss Patricia caught Jerry, uh, rubbing his crown into her shoes. Tony Atlas also has a similar urban myth surrounding him. Sadly, it's impossible to confirm or deny these things, but I doubt Snitsky's foot fetish was a rib on King. It might have been (never put it past WWE to make a reference that only Vince and maybe a dozen other people get), but it's more likely Steph just trying to make Snitsky even more sick and disgusting.

2. Do wrestlers/gimmicks get created with finishers in mind? (When the Undertaker debuted, he introduced the Tombstone in his first match.) Or is it more common to just create a gimmick and let the wrestler come up with something on his own? Speaking of which, did Owen Hart, as the Blue Blazer, have a finishing move?

Most of the time finishers come second. I don't know of anyone coming up with a gimmick based around a finisher per se. Readers?

And Blue Blazer's finisher was a Moonsault and/or Splash off the top. He used both with the same level of consistency.

Well, he's the shadiest one, the real shadiest one, all the other… Yeah.

1. I heard about some really bat shit crazy matches that took place. The one that stood out is something that was literally called an "Anus Explosion" match, I heard this took place in FMW. How many times did this match take place and what did the match consist of, also how long before TNA starts using this gimmick match as well?

Ah, those wacky Japanese.

The first, last, and hopefully only Anus Explosion Death Match took place on October 29, 1998, for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. Mr. Gannosuke squared off against Hayabusa (although at the time he was going simply as H, being unmasked and with blue hair). The two had been feuding since Mr. Gannosuke had donned the mask and was referring to himself as the new Hayabusa. H took exception to this, and clearly a grudge match would be required.

One in which the winner would have to put a firecracker into his opponent's rectum and have it explode.

Which is novel, I guess.

Gannosuke came out on top, shockingly, when he bound H's hands around a turnbuckle, facing the audience, and proceeded to insert a firework up H's posterior then set it alight.

To be fair, the match was extremely violent even before the rear fireworks, with barebed wire, glass, electric discharges, the works. But still… Wow.

2. What were the plans for Hector Garza in TNA, he seemed to be very over and he was receiving a huge push, this of course was stopped when he was busted with steroids on the way to a TNA show. Any clue?

Well, he was on his way to fight Scott Hall when he got caught and deported, so clearly TNA had some big plans for him. And why wouldn't they? He was over, he could work, he was a 10+ year veteran, TNA would have been crazy to pass him up.

Hell, you still hear the occasional murmur that TNA is trying to bring him back in. But as far as concrete plans go, nothing was ever leaked.

3. Hulk Hogan in the U.S., Antonio Inoki in Japan and El Santo in Mexico, all three the biggest stars in their country. Who was bigger draw, who was better worker and who had a better run?

Oh, this is going to draw ire no matter which way I go.

Hogan has to win the biggest draw, if only because Hogan drew EVERYWHERE. America, Japan, Europe, Australia, wherever Hogan went, he drew. Inoki and El Santo never really drew outside their own country.

Hogan could work but rarely did so. Santo was the consumeate Luchadore. Inoki is kinds the default option though, since he helped invent the Strong Style and was a bit more universal than the other two, in that he was able to work a North American match a little easier than the other two could work the other forms. But Hogan and Santo were both extremely good at what they did (and if you don't like Strong Style/like high flying, then Santo's your answer here).

And Hogan's career is, if you consider it still active, 32 years long. Inoki's was 38. Santo's was, in total, 48 or so years. So Santo wins the run question.

4. I was recently watching the Ric Flair shoot interview from highspots and he mentioned Sonny Onoo sued WCW and received a settlement of about 1 million, any info on what this was about and who were the other wrestlers that took part in that?

Ah, the WCW Racial Discrimination suit. Sonny Onoo, Bobby Walker, Harrison Norris (who was in the news a while back after he was arrested for several crimes revolving around his keeping of 8 women as sex slaves, which he's now serving a life sentence for) and 7 other men, all of whom were African American, sued AOL/Time Warner. The basic tenant of the lawsuit was that Vince Russo fostered a racist environment and was racist in his work practices, forcing the men to portray racist stereotypes, if they ever got on screen, and the men had been paid less and then fired due to their ethnicity. Since they were suing AOL/Time Warner for not dealing with Russo, the lawsuit didn't go over to WWE when they bought WCW. The suit was settled out of court in 2003, and while the details were not published, the general consensus was that the men involved had got a decent payout and Sonny in particular ‘made out like a bandit'.

5. Has there been any conclusive evidence on the cause of death on David Von Erich?, on the WCCW dvd there is a mention of drug problems and also the ruptured stomach story, but I read some where else that that it was drug related and an incident that resulted in Bruiser Brody and another wrestler flushing drugs down the toilet to avoid jail time when the police arrived.

Yes, the rumor has it that he died of a drug overdose and that Bruiser Brody (and only him) flushed away the drugs and went so far as to clean out his nose to ensure that the Von Erich's were not embarrassed by the scandal of their boy dying of a drug overdose.

However, the family has always claimed it was acute enteritis, a severe inflammation of the intestines leading to a heart attack. The autopsy supports this (the family claims), and he was hospitalised a couple of weeks before the trip to Japan with flu like symptoms.

It's quite possible that it's both, he may have been sick and then the drugs didn't help, but yes, there is some evidence to support the official, non-drugs line.

As a wrestling fan, you have to see this particular fight at least once.



xxxxxxxxx PW2.0 Everything Needs A Reboot xxxxxxxxxxx

Ortin is all over the shop.

(1) Is Larry Csonka of 411 Wrestling the same Larry Csonka who co-hosted the original American Gladiators alongside Mike Adamle?

Yes, yes he is. And The Wife is actually Ice. Also, since I'm spilling out all this info, Dunn is actually also Byers AND K-Money, Small and Slimmer are the same guy, Matt Nute = Bayani, and I'm just a figment of Ron Gamble's imagination.

Do I really need to stick a Chandler here?

(3) Why was Vincent given the role of a jobber? Was he not good enough to become a star or did he want to be a jobber ?

He was given the role of a jobber because he was good at it and not much else. What I mean by that is that not everyone is going to be a top level, main event star. You need guys in the midcard who are great at what they do, are at a decent level, and can put on ok matches. Vincent/Virgil/Mike Jones was great at the role of the lackey for Ted DiBiase, and he was equally good at the eventual face turn. But he was never going to be more than Jobber To The Stars. Nothing against him, it's just how it goes. I'm sure he wanted more, but he also seemed content with what he had, like Tito Santana.

Nick wants to buy stuff!

Nick here...great columns every week and I love getting all the wrestling knowledge from every answer. I had a quick questions for you.

My first question is, do you know where I can get the "wrestling with shadows" dvd? I heard or read that they were going to be re-releasing it sometime soon. Is that still the case?

I've seen the banners here on 411 a bit, and the official release website is here. You get the original movie, the Life and Death of Owen Hart, and an interview with Bret and one with the director, both recent.

However, if you just want to watch the thing, here's an official, free stream of it.



My second question is do you know of any instances where I can get some of the old pay-per views on vhs? I look on half.com quite a bit, but sometimes they are outrageously priced and most of the time they are "former rentals" So i was just curious if you could help me find some more of those. Even if they are on dvd, that would be even better.

Well, if you don't mind the bleeping, eventually WWE will release them all on DVD for sale at wwe.com. But I don't have any secret legal purchasing sites for old wrestling PPVs.

*shifty eyes*

And finally, Eric asks a lot of questions, but since he did it by mail and not in the comments section, he gets answered.

Whats up man? Got quite the line up here. Hopefully you can answer all of them. Sorry there's so many, but I thought I'd just get 'em out all at once.

1. So I was reading up on past WrestleMania cards, and came across the Hart/Yoko/Hogan transition. I totally get that the WWE had little to no booking logic back then what so ever, but was this really that necessary? What exactly was keeping the WWE from doing a faces-face-off angle in a Hart vs. Hogan program? Do like a Warrior/Hogan/good friends/better enemies build? That to me would have made more sense and would have made more money, right? And why did Beefcake disappear after this Mania?

Yes, it was necessary, if you take each step in turn and use logic.

Bret has failing as champion. He wasn't drawing. Ergo, he needed to lose the belt.

Yokozuna was over to some degree, and he was a big fat guy, and since everyone loves to hate big fat guys, he's the logical next champion.

But, Hogan brings up a good point, you can't have a heel walk out of Wrestlemania as champion! That's silly!

So, you put the title back on Hogan and everyone's happy. Yay!

Oh, our 7 minute match we had planned can't run due to time constraints. Well, shorten it to 30 seconds, who'll care?

That was the logic in the switch. Now, as for Bret/Hogan, according to Bret, that was the plan, to have Hogan pass the torch at Summerslam to Bret. And I certainly believe that Vince at some point told him that. And no matter if the plans were or were not to have that happen, Vince and Hogan's relationship soured past the point of no return (for a bit) between WM and KOTR. So, since Bret was still not totally trusted to run with the ball, they put the belt back on Yoko, by having him crush, destroy, kill Hulkamania.

That then gave them the perfect way to find the New Hogan (and thus to prove to Hulk that he wasn't special), by having someone come along and do what Hulk couldn't and thus make everyone happy and lead WWF to the promised land of milk and honey.

And then they chose Luger.

*slow clap*

And Beefcake vanishing, if you're kind he probably needed time to properly heal up and if you're not then he saw the winds changing and got out in time to capitalise on his friendship with Hulk down the line.

2. What the hell is a GOOZLE? How did it orginate and where did it come from? Its annoying reading show recaps and every other word is "GOOZLE~!"

Unless it's a Big Show V Undertaker V Kane match, every other word shouldn't be Goozle, but whatever.

Goozle refers to grasping the throat of your opponent in firm, solid grip. Not a choke as such, but more grabbing hold of the neck of your opponent, in order to prepare them for a chokeslam/choke toss/infliction of pain via the neck. Basically before a one handled chokeslam, you grab a goozle, then slam them.

The origin of the term appears to be a corruption of gozzle, a southern US term for the throat in the early 1900's, itself a corruption of guzzle. It's become more popular as a term after Tazz got on commentary, I believe.

3. I remember watching one Nitro where in the middle of a match Scott Hall came out and was stumbling around and puked, then was helped to the back by Bischoff, Nash and Co. (not nWo, like road agents and security and such) Although it isn't much of a stretch to believe that Hall was trashed and made an ass out of himself, I can't help but wonder and ask if this was a work or was Hall really drunk and puked on national TV and if so, why would the Nitro producers exploit that and focus on him while there was still somewhat of a match going on?

Ah yes, the Scott Hall Drunk angle. This was during the period of time when WCW seemed to just be throwing things against the wall and not even caring if they stuck. 1998, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were the tag champs, and Eric Bischoff pulled Scott Hall off the air in a power play. When he returned in May, the nWo had split, with Nash forming the Wolfpac and Hogan with the nWo Hollywood. At Slamboree, he promptly turned on Kevin and cost them the tag titles to Giant (now back in the nWo Hollywood) and Sting, who as WCW, although he would soon join the Wolfpac.

Hall teased leaving the nWo Hollywood, but stayed, winning then losing the tag titles with Giant off Nash and Sting, and then they decided to run a reality angle. Hall was having problems with booze and drugs backstage, so they ran an angle where he was having problems with booze and drugs on stage.

So yes, the spot where he threw up on air was a work. It was eventually ‘paid off' when Hall finally came to the ring one night, poured out the beer, then began to seriously beat down Nash, just prior to his being turfed out of the nWo Hollywood.

4. Does the WWE or any promotion for that matter have people whose job in their respective company is to watch the competition and maybe report on it?

Well it wouldn't be an official job title, "Competition Watcher", but yes, people keep track of the competition. Vince's occasional pot shot at TNA proves that someone is keeping tabs on them. You'd have to, in case they hit paydirt, you'd need to know how to kill it or how to copy it after all.

7. Why wasn't Lex Luger given the ball at SummerSlam 93? The guy seemed to be on fire with the whole All American/Lex Express gimmick. I know he was being packaged as the next Hogan, but a victory over Yoko and a title win I think would have catapulted him to at least scratch that surface. The guy was mad over.

Ah yes, the last minute change. Well, the last day change, Luger was all set to vanquish the foe but on the day it got changed. Which, as you say, is odd, considering Lex got the single biggest hard sell please won't you love him he's really good for the love of good support him push this side of John… No hell, he was pushed HARDER than Superman Cena. Think about that one kids.

But apparently, his overness wasn't at the right level, and thus the booking was changed. On the day, they added in the "One Shot Only" clause, and thus after Luger won by CO, we were meant to be enraged and demand he get another shot and cheer when he won the Rumble blah blah blah.

8. And finally, why were there so many damn count outs and disqualifications in 80s/early 90s WWE? Going over past ppvs, its like every other match ended in those results. Was there logic to this or was everyone and thier mother on an ego trip and refused to do jobs?

It was more a way of thinking. You'd have the heel cheat/sneak out a cheap loss so you'd get angry and when the WWF came to your area you'd pay to see him finally get his comeuppance, dammit! PPV wasn't the main money maker at this point, it was still mostly about the house shows, hence why you'd want to lure the fans there, so you wouldn't give them totally clean finishes all the time, because then you'd lose out on those possible draws.

My Damm Opinion

Here's the rest of Eric's questions.

5. Would you believe the upcoming Savage DVD is Vince's way of seeing if Mach is still a draw and if so, let by-gones be by-gones and negotiate something?

Possibly, but I think it's more just a way for Vince to earn money off Savage without having to actually deal with him. There is something that I think NO-ONE outside the two of them know about, something keeping the two apart. But this way, Vince makes the cash without having to actually both talking to Savage at all. But hey, never say never in this business.

6. Speaking of Savage, he's easily in my Top 5 among HBK, Piper, Austin, and The Rock. What would be your favorite Savage era if you can choose one? 80s Savage, Macho King, 92 face Savage, color commentary Savage, WCW face Savage, nWo Savage or 2000 new age uber "What up Mach?" Savage?

Well, I really liked Savage on commentary, even if he was a bit flighty at times. But if I had to pick an era, 80's Macho. You can't go past the original and the best.

See what I mean about Ortin?

(2) When do you think Harry Smith will come to tv and get a push?

When Vince remembers he exists again.

Radio Edit: Of course, I wrote that before ECW aired, so apparently Vince has been eating lots of fish lately and remembered him. So the answer is this week.

CourtesyFlush is back.

3. Lastly, I enjoyed the Ultimate WM a lot. What I'm wondering is if we should take a crack at the all time WORST Ultimate Wrestlemania. I'm sure people could think of matches that already happened that would qualify as absolute stinkers, but the fantasy booking could make for some interesting choices. You must admit, Andre the Giant vs King Kong Bundy in a 60-minute iron match would be quite an event .....*cough* .

I'm not going to even go there, for fear of my sanity. I'll leave it up to the readers to think up the worst matches they possibly can. Unless people REALLY want to see my card, if so, I'll put it up next week.

Christian wants my opinion.

Great job on the column. Got an opinion based question for you.

Do you think that Bret Hart would have wrestled in the wwf/wwe again if Owen hadn't have died.

He seems to have patch things up with Vince now and if his brother was still alive and wrestling it would maybe have tempted into a return. What do you think?

Well, not after the concussion/stroke, no.

But, if you assume Owen hadn't died and Bret didn't become incapable of wrestling… Not as long as Shawn was still around. MAYBE a one off appearance at a WM, should Shawn be injured, but while he and Vince had made good, Bret and Shawn still have the issue, Owen notwithstanding. The real heat today is Bret/Shawn, not Bret/Vince. And thus Owen doesn't have anything to do with it.

But he might have helped bring him in, if Owen was still in WWE. He'd probably be in the Main Event Mafia to tell the truth.

And on that sobering thought, goodnight for now.