Ask 411 Wrestling 06.24.09: Flair's Pull, Foley's Insanity and HBK Playing Politics? NEVER!

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 06.24.2009

Why did Vince bleed so easily? Who's been pulled before they got started? Why did Al Snow get mad about jobbing? Is 2 out of 3 Falls Intercontinental Rules? Why did Jesse 'The Body' Ventura leave the WWF? And why the casual Racism? All these, plus some questions I beg you, the readers, to help me answer and who knows, maybe even a video or two...

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Hello, and welcome to Ask 411 Wrestling. I'm the host of the column, Mathew Sforcina, or at least I'm the host until I hand the title to my most hated enemy in a situation that does not at all devalue the title at hand by making it seem like something that isn't the most valuable prize in the business.



Ah, it's been a little while.

Anyway, again, I've been requested to request you sign up for Twitter, and then Twit onto 411's many and varied Twitter channels. There's a box on this page that links you to the relevant pages, so I humbly ask you, my loyal reader, to find it, click, and get the bosses off my back.

I wouldn't normally be so insistent, but I finally got a promotion on the ‘The 411' page and I don't want to risk going back to being just a Solider. Thrusting RAB Hamster can only get me so far after all.

Block Of Text Killing Banner Of Doom~!



Yep, still awesome.

Backtalking

Divas matches are only there for T and A: I strongly reject this idea, and distance myself from any such indications. WWE may treat it's women that way since they stopped Dave Finlay from building the division, but SHIMMER and to a lesser extent TNA show some respect to the female athletes.

Not to say that I won't admit that being hot helps, but it's so not the only thing.

Austin Refusing To Job: Austin lost to HHH a couple months later. So if he DID have a problem, he got over it.

WCW Souled Out: 97 Eddy won, 98 Benoit won, 99 Goldberg won, 2000 Kidman won. All faces.

Your Turn, Smart Guy…

Well, this went ok, I guess. The answers:

5 = Members of the Original Four Horsemen
4 = Female WWE Hardcore Champions (Trish Stratus, Mighty Molly, Terri Runnels and Bobcat/Ho)
3 = Faces of Foley (4 with Mick Foley himself)
27 = WWE European Champions (if you count Rob Van Dam)
10 = Harlem Heats's World Tag Titles
6 = Sean Waltman
2 = Wonders of the World that are in Wrestling (Andre The Giant and Chyna)
1 = Multi-Time ROH World Champions (Austin Aries)
1 = Days in Kane's WWE Title Reign.
6 = People in an Elimination Chamber.

So, another list. Name someone who, in their first ‘official' match (i.e. the first televised/official debut) in the relevant company, won the following titles. WWE = WWF here, and TNA=NWA during their affiliation, if applicable.

WWE Hardcore Title
WWE Intercontinental Title
WWE United States Title
WWE Light-Heavyweight Title
WWE Women's Title
WWE World Tag Team Title
WCW World Title
TNA World Title

Notice a distinction there? Although to be fair they are different circumstances.

Questions, Questions, Who's Got The Questions?

Alex has a bunch of questions to start us off.

OK, hi there Mr S.,

Great job you are doing here, and high time I asked you a few questions that have been bugging me recently...

1- Why did Schiavone leave the WWF in 89-90? I remember him there for SummerSlam 89, and then gone. Was there a fall out? And same for Jesse the Body...what was his beef with the WWF?

To answer your second question first, yes, there is fall out with Jesse Ventura leaving in 1990. Jesse Ventura was in the process of making a deal with Sega to use his name and likeness in some capacity (I was unable to find out what the deal was meant to be for, I assume marketing). When Vince found out about it, he fired him due to Vince having a deal with Nintendo at the time. However, this should not be confused with Jesse's absence from WWE DVDs. That stems from the 91 lawsuit.

In 1987, when signing his Commentator's contract, Jesse was lied to and told that only feature performers (i.e. the Main Event guys) got royalties from Video Tape sales. Believing this, Jesse waived his rights. Then, in 91, after he got fired, he found out that this was a lie, and promptly sued, and won. Hence, he now gets a percentage of all videos and, more importantly, DVD sales with his commentary. Hence, WWE cuts costs and cuts him out whenever they can. Only when it's boxed sets or really important do they use him.

(Side Note: Wrestlemania III is apparently the sole event that has special dispensation from this rule. Due to the historical significance, WWE can show "He Slammed Him" on Home Video as much as they damm well like without paying.)

Tony Schiavone on the other hand, had no real fall outs. They hired him as part of the great Talent Gorge of the era, then he left due to WCW offering him a better deal. There was no real animosity between the two sides. He was floated as a possible replacement for JR a few years back, but Kevin Dunn nixed it. So there's a Dunn/Schiavone fued, apparently, but not WWE/Schiavone

I think Fat Tony is somewhat underrated by the fanbase, in that when he didn't have Bischoff in his ear and/or hadn't descended into self-parody, the guy was a pretty damm good announcer. Guy could announce a show pretty damm well, when he was on. But, time and Bischoff make fools of us all.

2- Growing up I remember Perfect always shook his leg before delivering a stomp to an opponent, and noticed other wrestlers also do the same ( like the Rock ). Why?

Dramatic effect. It's a little like winding up a punch, the little added spin is supposed to add a little to the stomp. Although there may be a limbering up kayfabe reason, you make sure your ankle is in tight or something, but there's no real reason to do it other than it looks good/that's how you were trained.

3- This one has bugged me for 20 years...WHY did Ventura ALWAYS refer to Tito Santana as Chico Santana ( at least in the late eighties ) ? Was he known by that name earlier in his career or was Ventura trying to be funny?

That was Ventura's comedy. Same as Heenan referring to the flying forearm as the Flying Jalapeño. Since Tito was Mexican, they engaged in some light Non-PC Racial Profiling. But at least they were heels. But still, Tito never did stand up and tell them off about it…

4- I also remember Monsoon calling 2 out of 3 falls matches "intercontinental rules"...was he just trying to sound clever or is this true? If so, shouldn't the IC title be contested as such?

Well, there's two different things here.

The Intercontinental Championship is so named because it combined the North American title and the South American title. Here's the debut of it.



Now, 2 out of 3 falls rules dates back to the time before Wrestling was fixed, 2 out of 3 falls was the common rules for the real matches between the travelling champions and the suckers in carnivals. In the context, I believe Monsoon was referring to the fact that 2 out of 3 falls was, at the time, still very much en vouge in England and Europe, it being a much more common gimmick, although it worked more like, well, like this.



5- What went wrong for Sid in his early run in the WWF? I remember him being a monster face around 91, and then a heel turn...was he not over as a face? And why did he leave in 92?

No, he was plenty over as a face, but WWF wanted him heel since he was big and all, and after they decided to not go the Hogan/Flair route they gave him to Hogan. Then he was caught cheating on a Drug Test (supposedly) and so after WM he left/was fired. The fact that the heel turn didn't go so well with the impetus (Royal Rumble 92) had most fans cheer for him and boo Hogan was also a factor.

Next up is Jeremy who has a bunch more questions.

Was there ever a plan for Kerwin White to do anything?

Pretty much what he was doing at the time Eddie died, just to continue to be a jobber comedy character played by a guy who could work but was probably never going to amount to much. But then Real Life happened and…

What is the longest consecutive PPV win streak (they would have to appear at consecutive PPVs, so the singular brand PPV era of 2003 to 2007 would not count).

What is the longest consecutive PPV losing streak?

What is the longest consecutive PPV appearance streak (as a wrestler)?

Yeesh.

Well, straight appearances is the easiest, in that AJ Styles has to hold that record with his 54 straight appearances on TNA PPV, from Victory Road 2004 through to Genesis 2009, AJ Styles wrestled on every TNA PPV. Against All Odds 2009 was the first monthly TNA PPV AJ did not wrestle on, and he wasn't injured or anything, which is pretty spectacular.

Win streak I have to give to John Cena, winning 10 straight PPVs between New Year's Revolution through to Summerslam in 2007 inclusive. However, I'm willing to hear counter-arguments from people who have bothered to count every PPV ever.

Losing Streak… Chris Jericho is probably the most recent, with 5 straight losses from Cyber Sunday 2008 through to No Way Out 2009. I KNOW that's not the longest, but I leave it up to the readers to answer this one. I can't do this one alone, both this and the winning streak, please, correct me readers, correct me.

I recently heard an audio version of Al Snow's RF Video Shoot from 1998 (I think). He was in ECW at the time and he said one of the reasons why he was discouraged with the WWF was because they continually jobbed him out, even at one point jobbing him to Bob Holly when they knew Bob was leaving the company the next day. I was under the assumption that Bob Holly was with the WWF/WWE continuously from 1993 until his release a few months ago. What's the story?

Well, a slight clarification here: They didn't job Holly to Snow, they had Holly replace Marty Jannetty in a tag match and Al did the job. That's what he claimed, and they did indeed lose a tag match together on the 18th of November 96 edition of Raw against Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon, LaFon pining Cassidy, sorry, Al.

Now, as for Holly leaving… Well, Al sorta has a point, and he sorta doesn't. Holly was technically continuously under WWF contract for that period of time, and he did actually make a few appearances after that tag match. But then again he did leave for a couple of months after those subsequent appearances, so Al's got the wrong end of the stick slightly, but still has somewhat a valid point.

I remember a vignette on RAW a few years ago for a character named Hirohito, but it seemed to be quickly dropped. Can you help me by reminding me of other characters that were dropped before they debuted?

For the record, the Hirohito gimmick was Kenzo Suzuki playing a character thought up by Dan Madigan, the guy who wrote See No Evil. But he's more infamously known as the guy in 04 who came up with the most insane gimmick ideas ever thought up as a serious concept. This is the guy who was hired due to his initial idea of a bunch of Lucha Libre guys stealing people's souls, the guy who wanted Heidenreich to be a frozen Nazi from the 1940's, Booker T to become a Voodoo God, and most all of the 2004 WWE gimmicks that sucked, and sucked hard (Hello Mordecai!). Hirohito was Kenzo coming in looking for revenge for World War II.

Yeah.

Anyway, gimmicks that have vignettes but never debuted are, naturally, few and far between. Guys like the Gobbeldy Gooker and Se7en at least had in ring appearances. But, a couple do exist.

[b]Hirohito[/b]
[i]No Video Available[/i]

[b]Hade Vansen[/b]


Uh… I thought there were more, but if you have it that an in-ring appearance is a debut, then I can't find any more. I'm sure I will be corrected.

I have read in previous editions of ask 411 that the Black Knight at Survivor Series 1993 was Jeff Gaylord. What else has Gaylord done in his career? I don't know much about him.

Jeff Gaylord, a former defensive lineman for the Missouri Tigers and 1981 All-American had a somewhat unspectacular wrestling career. Debuting in 1985 in Universal Wrestling Federation, a.k.a Mid South, he wrestled mostly tag matches until moving to World Class Championship Wrestling, working in a mask named ‘The Hood', which is pretty self-referential for the period. As the 90's began, he traded time between WCCW, USWA (winning the tag titles with Jeff Jarrett twice) and GWF, before a scuffle with Eddie Gilbert saw him turn to working mostly for USWA and the Americas Wrestling Federation in Puerto Rico, where he won their tag titles once with Sunny Beach, all under his own name.

All this experience in USWA explains why he was chosen to be a Knight, in that originally the Knights were to team with Jerry Lawler, and thus it makes sense he'd pick someone he knew and had worked with.

Here's a match of his against Doug Gilbert.



As for where he is now, he's currently in jail, currently awaiting trial over a bank robbery. Jeff was arrested for bank robbery in 2001, pleaded guilty and served 6 and ½ years. But his finances didn't improve once he got out, apparently, and back to robbing banks he went.

Without getting into the thing about the Kanyon/Sanders/Raven lawsuit against the WWE, do the superstars need to get permission from the WWE do work certain indy shows, like Carlito and Eddie Colon, does they need permission to work shows for Carlos Colon's promotion? Is there a difference between a legends contract and a regular contract are is it just fancy title to make people like Jim Duggan seem important?

Two questions there.

Yes, WWE has to approve of their talent working an Independent show. Basically if the company is small enough, then the talent can work. WWE has to walk a line here, in that they don't want to totally remove any and all options for their guys to make a bit of extra cash, but they can't have their guys wrestle someone in another competing company and they can't look bad. So no bringing in MVP to lose in 30 seconds to a Girl or some such. But with the Colon boys, they'd have special dispensation given the circumstances. But yes, WWE has to give permission.

And a Legends Contract is different to a regular, Performer Contract. A normal competitors contract mandates wrestling appearances and such, whereas a Legends contract is more about appearances, DVD commentaries and other such things as being a legend, it includes the right to market their image in retrospectives and such. It is possible to hold one of each, they don't overlap. (There was a rumor a while back that Dusty Rhodes was trying to get a Wrestler contract as well as his Legends AND his Writer's contract. Khali's translator Mr. Singh and Big Dick, sorry, Big Richard Johnson have also doubled with Writer/Performer contracts in the past/present).

All these videos, I still need some comedy, yah? So, comedy we have!

Kayfabe be dammed!
But only when it's funny.

Next up, we get the ever present Rob S, and his couple of questions.

I have a question about the 2003 Survivor Series buried alive match between Taker and Vince McMahon. What was the logic in having McMahon blade immediately at the very beginning of the match, after taking a punch from Taker? It seems that showing color works best once the wrestler is sweating and his heart rate is up during the course of the match, making it easier to show color. Even though Vince didn't expect to bleed the way he did, was this done for any specific reason that I am unaware of, or was it simply done just to try something different?

It was done to put over that The Undertaker was an ass-kicker of the highest order and that Vince McMahon was so far over his head he was getting crushed just by sheer weight of the water. Vince almost certainly went in too deep, but the timing was very specific, as early as possible to put over how one sided the match was, and thus how much of a bastard both Vince and Kane were for killing Taker at the end.

This is a very general question about wrestlers and the use of baby oil on their upper bodies. Years ago you used to see a ton of wrestlers all covered in baby oil or whatever to show off their physiques. Wouldn't baby oil be hazardous in the ring? A wrestler could easily pick up another wrestler and lose grip if he is all doused in oil. Is the use of baby oil much less common nowadays? If it is less common, does it have to do with the fact that many wrestlers nowadays have more "realistic" looking bodies not aided by steroids, and don't try as hard to show off every bulging muscle and detail of their physique?

Well, Baby Oil was mostly used by guys in the WWF who were all about the big bodies and less the workrate, so it was a lot less likely that they'd be in danger of being tossed about enough that they might slip and break something. And most of the time when you grabs guys to say slam them and such it's by the upper thigh and thus not oiled up.

And yeah, the move away from being all about the bodies played a part in Baby Oil's decline, although the current version is fake tan. I've wrestled guys in fake tan, and that stuff can really be a nuisance, and not just because it smells. And if it's aerosol, it gets in your mouth and… Ugh. So yes, your thinking is basically right.

Laszlo?

Hey There:

I was watching the MVC vs. Giant/Jumbo match from 1990 but unfortunately I don't speak Japanese. Towards the end of the match, Baba collapses in the corner after an Irish Whip. He's virtually immobile for the remainder of the match and is pinned in somewhat short order (in the midst of a Baba rallying chant from the crowd). Did something happen to Baba that night to cause the collapse or was the match intended to come off so awkwardly in the end?

To the tape!





The third video is the important one. Now, I can't speak Japanese either, but it looks like to me that that whip knocked Baba out on his feet. His head snaps back slightly when he takes the corner bump badly, then Gordy's lariat doesn't help matters. I seriously doubt it was booked like that, and Baba didn't wrestle again for a while after this match, so it's in all probability an injury.

C-Wood asks about DX fighting each other.

Matt

Great column! I've only been reading for a few weeks, but its quickly become one of my favorites at 411. I have a question regarding a match on Raw during Shawn Michaels first reign as WWE Champion. I specifically remember a match on a Monday Night Raw where Michaels faced off against Hunter Hearst Helmsley. I remember throughout the entire match Michaels appeared to be visibly upset whenever Helmsley countered a move or got in some sort of offence. I'd never seen Michaels act this way in a match before and lose his cool the way he did throughout this match. There were simple moves that were countered and he would throw a mini-tantrum and make it appear as if there was a good chance Helmsley would beat him that night. Now thirteen years later, I'm much more wise on the business and wonder if I am right in speculating that Michaels was simply putting over Helmsley by overselling drastically as if he were viable threat? The whole match seemed very odd, and as strong of a push Michaels got back then coupled with the fact that Helmsley was a mid-carder at best, there is no reason that Helmsley should have come off as that "strong." Your thoughts?

Well, there's the straight answer, then there's the cynical answer.

The straight answer is that actually, there is some logic in Shawn and Hunter going to a long, hard fought non-title match as they did on the 13th of May edition of Raw. Shawn and Hunter actually worked several matches in Germany leading up to that show, so clearly the front office had an idea for a Shawn/Hunter program, especially given that he was set to be the 1996 King Of The Ring, King Hunter challenging the champ Shawn made sense. So it was merely foreshadowing.

The cynical answer is that Shawn was helping out his buddy, pushing for him to get better matches and doing what he could to help that along. And he would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for the Curtain Call and thus Hunter's career going backwards for a bit and thus in a clear cause and effect chain creating Austin-Mania and thus the rebirth of the WWF.

The truth's a mixture of the two, although with the dial turned mostly to the right.

Manu has to be in this every week, apparently…

"11. Dustin Rhodes or Cody Rhodes

Goldust. Zelda's overrated anyway."

OK, so I just noticed the zelda triangle on his boots this past raw - what's up with that? How long has he had them on there? Any idea if they mean anything? Did he previously have a gimmick where he was Link come to life and just never bought new boots? Does he just really like video games? I mean, I like video games, and almost bought a....$125 hand-made cutting board with that logo on it, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10848680 , and that's a pretty sweet cutting board, but there's no way I'd put the symbol on my car.

For those scoring at home, that was one of the long list of either/or questions I answered a while back. The answer is not that he's due to become Link of the WWE as some have suggested, but instead the more mundane thing that Cody is a HUGE Zelda mark, hence he wears the Triforce on his boots. He's on record as saying that once a year he replays "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past". So it's no different than Cena wearing 1-Up Mushroom sweat bands or Samoa Joe's recent tribute to Kirby.

Next up with have JLAJRC who asks about a very special lady who is actually a man. No, not Santina.

I was watching an old lucha match from WCW and Mike Tenay referred to a move as the "Rita Romero Special." So who is she and why is she so special?

The Rita Romero Special does not exist. At least, not until a woman invents it (which I'm kinda surprised hasn't happened yet) or someone's playing silly buggers in a recap.

The Rito Romero Special, on the other hand, does. It's basically just a surfboard, but it's sometimes referred to as that due to the Innovator of the move, Rito Romero, who innovated the Romero Special, a.k.a The Surfboard. Rito worked in Mexico and in the Texas/LA regions, often holding gold and appearing in several movies during the late 40's and 50's.

Next up... Your Lord and Saviour, apparently. Or perhaps just a man with a Spanish heritage.

Jesus here. I have two questions.

1) Was Mick Foley expected to bounce back quickly from that bump he took against the Undertaker in Hell in a Cell 1998? He gets thrown off the cage towards the beginning of the match, and there was clearly more match to be fought. Was he supposed to and expected to take that bump, lie on the ground a little, then climb the cage again to get choke-slammed through?

Pretty much. That's what he said he'd do, and what he felt he had to. Taker was injured, and Mankind at the time had little heat, so Foley felt he had to go nuts for the match. And it turned out pretty well for him in the long term, even if the short term sucked. But yep, he had bragged about it, he expected to take the bump, then eventually get up and go back up.

2) What is the point of heel vs. face announcers? Doesn't it detract from the action in the ring when the announcers are constantly bickering about who is right or wrong, and who is better? I know West and Tenay are doing it with the Main Event Mafia, and there was a time when The King was heel and J.R. was face; it was really annoying. Is there a deeper purpose behind this that I cannot see because the whole time I'm thinking "God, just shut up"?

Well, different heels and faces have different ideas, but it comes down to one major idea. Comedy and conflict both have a place in it (it's easier to do comedy when someone's an insult comic and the other's a straight man, and conflict is easier if the two guys hate each other), but the main point is for logic and storytelling.

Say, during Bash this Sunday, WWE wants to put over how much Miz is looking forward to beating Cena, and has sworn he's going to "Dropkick Cena's head so hard that it ends up a week ago last Thursday". WWE really wants that message drummed home, so when Cena counters the dropkick is makes sense. Now, the problem is, can you see Michael Cole going up to Miz to ask him questions? More importantly, can you see Miz talking to Cole at all? No, it doesn't make sense from their characters. But you could see King and Miz talking (actually you can't since right now Striker's really the sole Heel announcer but go with me here), and so King can bring that up in a natural way.

Basically, when you have someone who's pro-face and one who's pro-heel, both side's logic and stories can be told. The face announcer can explain why the face wants revenge, and vice versa, both sides can be told by sympathetic people.

That's the idea, at any rate.

Andy has a few questions. Given the nature of the column, he made the right choice to send them to me.

Hey mate,

Really enjoy the column and appreciate the effort you put in. Obviously I have a few questions for you:

1) I'm clearly a big wrestling fan and the amount of cash i've parted ways with over the years is proof, however what's always bugged me is regardless of the fact that i own both Ric Flair DVD's I have no idea the circumstances of his FIRST world title win. Is there a reason why this is not common knowledge, especially considering how the race/flair Starrcade match is such a big deal. Why has this match been, from my perspective at least, been forgotten (anything juicy)?

Not so much juicy as a lack of juice. Flair's first NWA world title win was in Kansas City, a town that was neither loyal to Flair nor that enamoured with Dusty. The vote was 5 to 4 for Flair to win the title, the match itself sucked, and wasn't filmed very well. This, coupled with Flair's less than stellar run first time around, has led to that title reign not being talked about much, beyond clips of his work while holding it. Flair's win over Race is what really started the Ric Flair phenomena. His first reign was more a Beta Test than anything.

2) Is there any bad blood between the two Oz federations (AWF IWA)? I mean IWA had that show on cable a while back but that was a bit of a worry and was pretty disappointing in the end, even though i was there, any reason why there is two companies in an obviously small marketplace?

There's actually something like 4+ companies is Sydney, last time I checked, and many more around the country. As for bad blood, there's politics on every level of the industry. For my own wellbeing I cannot go into too much detail about this (I don't wish to get fired, thank you very much), suffice to say that as far as I'm aware every company currently running in Sydney with one possible exception has been set up by someone splitting away from the AWF, or is from another city moving in. That kinda says it all, really. But yes, most companies have some degree of bad blood, be it personal or business (running shows on the same day is one thing. Pulling down posters and calling the council is quite another).

3) Well I ran out of questions but do enjoy your work good sir and salute the efforts you put in in the ring as well, sorry but just got a copy of the UNSW show with Dragon and Nigel from a few years ago and am reliving a good night being one of many dickheads making a scene. Any news on upcoming shows that are a can't miss prospect?

Every AWF DVD is a can't miss.

But seriously, we have some good DVDs out now/coming soon, an International special one with choice matches from the past years of AWF featuring international talent, the Psychoticslam DVDs out soon as well as "A Decade Of AWF" one coming soon. Just Bookmark and sign up for the mailing list and you'll be right for both DVDs and live events.

Now, off the ads and onto Hogan/Yoko. Again. Joe?

Hi.

I enjoy reading your work. One thing I noticed was your comment that Hogan vs Yoko at Wrestlemania 9 was supposed to go 7 minutes. Wow. I have never heard this! I assumed that the quick switch was what they had planned all along. What else do you know about what happened there? I am very interested.

Thank you.

Not much to tell really. The match was never meant to be that short, it's just that they were worried that the PPV feed was going to go out, so they cut it down to what remained. It was probably going to run similar to the Bret match, with Hogan trying everything, failing, Yoko being unable to put away Hogan, then Fuji tosses the salt, misses Hogan, hits Yoko, kick leg drop new champ. So, it wasn't meant to be that bad, but it was in the end…

My Damm Opinion

First off the ranks of my opinion this week, is Shawno420.

Hey man, long time reader, question asker on occasion. You answered a few questions of mine a couple months ago, one about big sets reducing attendance. I have a few questions I was hoping you could answer.

1) What do you think are the worst gimmicks to actually succeed. By succeed I mean at least a serious push, if not a title reign. If you could make a Top 5 or Top 10 list that would be great.

Ok, top 10. Just not in any order.

The Undertaker (the default #1. He's a fricking ZOMBIE, for goodness sake…)
Kane (I like him, but I had to put my brain through a cheese grater for that ES…)
Mohammed Hassan (until he got killed off, he was set for a title shot at Summerslam. And it showed such promise at the start, until it became Generic Foreign 1970's Heel…)
Sgt Slaughter, Iraqi Sympathiser (No. Just… No)
Justin Credible (I don't care if Paul knew he would never leave, it's still Justin Credible we're talking about here.)
Any gimmick of Billy Gunn's that didn't involve him finishing Road Dogg's sentences… while in WWF. (That covers VKM as well then.)
Jeff Jarrett, Evil Country Music Star (Sentimental Favourite)
Eugene (Similar to Hassan, the initial period was OK, as the Wrestling Wunderkind, then it got mishandled into guy who does bigger star's moves and that sucked, and yet it kept going…)
IRS (I loved the guy, but come on, a Wrestling Tax Man?)
Stephanie McMahon, ECW Owner.

2) Do you think Vince McMahon will ever release an autobiography where he would reveal secrets/say what he thinks about people, like the Bret Hart book? If so, when? Obviously after he hands the company over, but do you think he will do it relatively soon after, or wait until he is about to kick the bucket then bust it out?

Vince McMahon will die on the job. I cannot see him, short of having some sort of medical condition where his brain goes, giving up the reigns of WWE until they pry it from his cold dead hands. And even then, he's probably got the lead up to WM in a vault somewhere.

So as interesting a read as it would be, I for one doubt it'll ever be written if only because he's too busy running the company.

3) When Ric Flair came to WWE (WWF) in 1991, how was he treated backstage? Was he resented for being a WCW/NWA guy? Did he have more pull backstage then the average wrestler for being Ric Flair?

Thanks a lot man, this column rules and 411mania is awesome!

I guess this isn't really an opinion thing, but I'm too lazy to cut and paste it.

Flair didn't have that much pull, but he at least had a solid line of command. He knew who his boss was, and his boss wasn't going to change any time soon. I've heard nothing that says Flair was looked down upon by the boys, most of them knew him from when they worked NWA, or knew of him. He certainly seemed to enjoy it, and no-one resented him. After all, at this point, jumping between territories was the norm, not the exception. Guys did it all the time. Although bringing the belt certainly helped smooth any problems over, what with that giving the NWA a black eye and all.

Now, booking wise is another matter…

Vince (… Nah, couldn't be) asks about derivative moves.

How would you rank the different moves that derived from The Rock's People's Elbow. i.e. The Five Knuckle Shuffle. MVP's Ballin. Scotty's Worm or any other you could think of.

In terms of? How much they suck? How stupid they are? How much I like them? Given that the People's Elbow is arguably derived from the Atomic Leg Drop you can argue that no move comes from it. But, if you insist…

My top 5 favourite stupid moves.

5. MVP's Ballin'.
4. The Stinkface
3. The Worm
2. Anything fancy into a slap.
1. People's Elbow, if only for this version.



I really mark for two wrestler's signature spots interacting like that.

How about you, readers?