Ask 411 Wrestling 07.08.09: Shocking Events, Moving Steps and A Real Man's Man!

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 07.08.2009

Has a woman ever bladed? Why was 89 NWA so good? What would Chyna have done next? How are Ronnie and Jimmy Garvin related? And just when did WWE start caring about people's Future Endeavors? All this, plus more Montreal, more backtalking and more self-plugging!

Hello, welcome to the first Ask 411 of a new era! New, because I'm now using Firefox.

Yes, there are people who are/were still using other programs. I get caught in ruts for periods of time. Anyway, huzzah to newness!

I hope you've all been following the 411 Indy Draft, if only so all my PW2.0 crap I sprinkled through the last several weeks will make sense. I still like what I did, even if Berman appears to have won the other writers over. But still, I enjoyed it, and I'm proud of it.

Even if no-one cares about Ryan Braddock, Day Ruiner.

Another thing before we begin: I've waxed lyrical in the past about The History of the WWE site. Well, they've recently upgraded their NWA/WCW stuff, 1983 onwards of Crockett into WCW is now all there as well. Thus, a great site gets even better. If you want bios, use Online World Of Wrestling. You want results, use History of WWE. You want Chandlers and Hences, use Ask 411.

Backtalking

Lots to get through this week.

Avoiding The Question: Ok, let's get this over with.

Someone recently wrote me a email that was basically an FU for not answering the "Who has the longest PPV win streak" set of questions in full two weeks ago. The fact that I offered it up to the readers he took offence at.

Frankly, it should be clear to everyone that what I and all the other writers here on 411 do on 411 is not our job. I'm not getting paid for this, I'm doing this because I love wrestling, I want to increase my knowledge about Pro Wrestling, I want to increase others knowledge about wrestling, and also, maybe, improve my writing ability.

But it's not my job. And I'm sorry, but slogging through every PPV to work out win/loss ratios and streaks is work. Hell, that'd be a website all to itself, if you sat down and worked it all out, you could have a resource site to be proud of.

But that ain't me, here and now. That's hours and hours of work for a question you'll read in 30 seconds. Now, I hoped that maybe someone out there did have an idea, and some ideas were tossed out there and not corrected (HTM's loss streak, for instance). I thought that it was more honest, after that period of time between posting and reply (which I fully admit is way too long, I'm trying to find a solution here), to offer up what little answer I could and hope someone else already had it.

However, for future reference: I reserve the right to not answer a question if I feel I cannot honestly give it the attention it deserves/it will take FAR too long to answer. But if this occurs, I will reply in person in a mail to avoid this situation in the future.

Thus, it's a good idea to avoid asking questions like this unless you're prepared for a vague answer. I don't have the numbers.

I'm sorry if you feel that this is a cop out, but I gotta draw the line somewhere, apparently. And this is it.

Guys careers if they hadn't of died: Ok, so a lot of people took issue with me over various people and my opinion about their theoretical careers. Ok, defending some of my opinions:

Curt Hennig: Yes, he got fired over the Plan Ride From Hell, I momentarily forgot that due to the whitewash on the DVD. However, the question assumes that they didn't die, ergo they'd have to clean up, thus I would EASILY see him rehired later on for fulfil the role I stated.

Eddie: No, I don't believe Eddie was due to win the title when he died, for two reasons. One, Eddie did NOT want to be World Champ. When he was, it drove him back to the bottle, which is why he pleaded they get the belt off him and onto JBL, which they did. Admittedly, it would make some small degree of sense that this might then further a heart attack, if he was stressed, but with Orton in the match, I don't see Eddie winning. The other reason is that I've been told by a friend in the US wrestling circuit that Eddie wasn't going to win the title. The booking was for him to turn heel at Survivor Series by costing Team Smackdown the match, which would then lead, uncomfortably, to a Casket Match at WM against The Undertaker.

AJ has a hick accent: I'm not saying that, I'm just reporting what WWE is probably thinking. This is the same company that thought Michelle McCool sounded too hick like.

ECW isn't beloved: ECW chants, and the crowd at ECW One Night Stand. I think they bare me out.

Vince doesn't hate WCW guys! Ok, this one sorta took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting anyone reading this to have not heard of the argument before. But basically, if you look at it, anyone who made a name for themselves in another company, rarely did they get into WWE and get a push to the same level or above right away, and certainly not with what brought them to the dance.

Shane Douglas is a hated heel for being arrogant and wanting a spot? Let's turn him into a teacher. Ricky Steamboat's a great wrestler? Have him breath fire. Monty Brown's awesome? Let's take away all of it!

Even guys like Jericho, Mysterio, Booker and so on needed to put in years before Vince was willing to take a chance on them, and/or they had been WWE-ised enough. Vince, for reasons that may be somewhat understandable, rarely pushes a guy based on what they did elsewhere. Now on some level, that's justifiable, but sometimes, like with DDP or Dusty Rhodes, it seems really over the top.

Your Turn, Smart Guy…

Stan Stasiak, Ivan Koloff, Superstar Billy Graham, Sgt. Slaughter, Sycho Sid, Vince McMahon, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, The Great Khali and Jack Swagger. That was the list I was looking for.

And the week before that, for the record, I did state that TNA = NWA:TNA, so there.

Who am I? A man rarely without gold in my career, I wrestled for both WWE and WCW, holding gold in both. Part of two legendary stables and a few notable tag teams (some great, some not so great), I've never been one to shy away from a fight. I never held a World title, but I did pin or make to submit both Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, the first man in North America to do so. A current WWE employee and a man not to be trifled with, I am easily who?

Questions, Questions, Who's Got The Questions?

Jay starts us off proper.

Hi,
Thank you so much for answering the question about the Idol-Rich vs. Lawler feud conclusion. I have another question for you. Do you know of any instance of where a female wrestler bladed? I'm primarily interested in the United States, but any answer from overseas or North America would be sufficient as well.

Well, Joshi wrestling features women bleeding, while not all the time, female athletes in Japan have bleed on many occasions. And I'm sure in North America in some deathmatch feds they've found some women who were willing to blade.

WWE I can't find any case of a woman bleeding in the usual bladed way, from the forehead. Certainly women have bled on occasion, accidentally, and Lita did take Barbed Wire Mr. Socko on one occasion and bleed in the mouth area, but I couldn't find a proper, legit, women's blade job.

When in doubt, go to Shimmer. I believe Allison Danger bladed in Shimmer #13 in the Dog Collar Match with Cindy Rodgers. That was the only high profile occurrence I could find. So it's pretty bloody rare, but it does happen.

Mark wants a short history lesson.

Matt---

1989 has often be considered a watermark year for both the WWF and the NWA/JCP. The WWF was rolling with Hogan and Savage on top and Demolition just destroying the tag team division, plus a wealth of experienced upper card guys like Roberts, DiBiase, Bossman and so many others. And strangely enough the WWF began looking like the NWA more and more each day with guys like Anderson & Blanchard, Rhodes, Terry Taylor and Windham in front of the camera and Tony Schiavone behind the microphone and JJ Dillon backstage. Meanwhile the NWA was considered amazing with Flair and Steamboat on top that transitioned to Flair and Funk with guys like Steamboat, Sting, Luger and Muta underneath.

My question is, as I only grew up with the WWF and only have seen the high points of the NWA from that time period retrospectively, what else made the NWA so good that year? Did they have a really strong undercard too that supplemented Flair and his opponents on top? And what was there a large shift in management in the NWA at the time that caused so many of the NWA's top guys to head "north?" Was this when Herd took over the company? I'm pretty sure Flair was the booker at the time time but other than that I'm kind of at a loss.

Well, in NWA 89 you also had some GREAT tag teams, with Lane/Eaton's Midnight Express, the Road Warriors, The Steiners, Doom, The Freebirds, The Varsity Club… You had Cornette and Dangerously talking a lot, you had Pillman coming in, the talent level was high.

Jim Herd had taken over at the start of the year, Ted Turner bought what would become WCW in Nov 1988, putting Herd in charge. However, Flair was booking. And at first, Herd did good, in that he approved of a talent influx, lots of great talents came in in 89, Herd willing to spend money on young talent on guaranteed contracts, Herd thinking it would pay off in the long run. And with Flair running the book, things were good. But in August, Steamboat left the company after being unable to deal with Herd, which was the first in a series of these losses as Herd took a more active role.

However, probably the real reason for the talent losses that would occur after this high point was due to Ole Anderson taking over the booking. There was some issues with people thinking Flair was booking himself too strong, so Ole took over. Ole didn't like the Guaranteed Contract system, since in his view he could get The Iron Shiek for the same money as Brian Pillman was getting. So he began bringing in ‘his' guys and jobbing out the young guys, which led to many of them leaving. This, coupled with some just terrible booking, is what caused most of the top guys ‘Up North'. If they weren't loyal to Ole, they left.

So it was partly Herd's fault that people were leaving, but then he was the guy who brought them in. Blame Ole, if you must blame anyone.

Frankie has a couple questions for us. Well, for me, since I can answer them.

love your work, it's always interesting to see the Aussie point of view that you bring to things. I have 2 questions that I am hoping you can clear up for me.

1. Back in the 90s the IWC would always run rife with rumours about Taker possibly changing his gimmick whenever he took any length of time off for injury or other reasons. There was always talk that this time would finally be the time that Taker would return and unveil his new "Angel" gimmick. What was this gimmick? Was there ever a serious possibility that this would happen or was it just hype?

This is an example of the IWC, such as it was back then, getting too caught up in itself. I believe this may have begun as an April Fool's Joke started by Scott Keith, of all people. He certainly laid claim to "The Savior" being his idea in one of his Ask 411 entries. It was never an idea that WWE was contemplating, unless, maybe, they REALLY got in trouble with some Watchdog over Devil Worship or something, then it might be a case where a flip would be done, but that's very unlikely. Besides, Shawn Michaels' build to Wrestlemania was pretty much what it would be, so there's no point now.

2. After Hawk went AWOL on the WWF in London after Summerslam 92 Animal partnered with Crush as a faux Road Warriors. Were there even plans to make this team permanent and were they billed as the "New" LOD. At the same time I seem to remember Hawk showing up in Japan working with someone possibly under the name of the Hellraisers. Was this the team's name and who was Hawk partnering with?

First of all, people, don't type in "animal crush" into Google with the filters off. Ugh.

No, Crush and Animal (and Paul Ellering when he teamed with them for 6 man tags) was never meant to be a permanent team, New LOD or not. Crush was still new to the WWF fans and to the world of Facedom, and when the spot opened, it seemed logical to use him to give him a rub and make sure he was ok. Animal was only fulfilling the team's obligations after all, so he didn't care.

And yes, Hawk did go to Japan. He began to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling, as ‘Hawk Warrior'. He teamed up with a young Japanese kid called Kensuke Sasaki, who was then dubbed ‘Power Warrior', and the duo was known as ‘The Hell Raisers'. The duo would win the IWGP Tag belts twice, and the teaming really elevated Sasaki in the eyes of the fans. Teaming with Hawk and later on occasion ‘Animal Warrior' for 6 man tags, when the team broke up in 95, he was a legit player in the main event scene. He still busts out the Power Warrior garb on special occasions, including in 2007 forming ‘The Hell Warriors' with Animal Warrior once again.

Next up is DJ_Convoy who asks about a word all of us have heard, but none know the meaning of…

Hey, Mathew! The old lady and I have been watching a lot of AWA and various classic wrestling of late... and we love the craziness of one Bruiser Brody. He's the man! But we're baffled by "huss." Everyone knows that Brody hollers "huss" constantly thru his matches... Hell, when John Nord is doing his watered down Brody schtick, he bellows "huss," as well! What is it? What does it mean? Is it something completely obvious that we've overlooked? Brody-speak for "I'm gonna shank you?" Unhelpfully, when we've looked up "huss" online, we find answers like "Huss is what Bruiser Brody says" or "Jimmy Jacobs says "huss" because of Bruiser Brody. Please, can you help shed some light on the dreaded "huss?"

Well, if Good Ol' JR doesn't know, I'm in trouble. But like him, I think it was basically a loud, easily identifiable call that didn't mean anything but kinda sounded cool and/or proved how wacky the guy saying it was. After all, it's easy to shout and cuts through noise pretty well for a short meaningless word…

Another Mark has another history question, this time with re-writing.

How come nobody ever mentions George Scott when talking about geniuses in the business? He booked Crockett's promotion in the 70's and early 80's when it was arguably the hottest territory in the country, giving legends like Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat their 1st big breaks. Then he moves to the WWF in 1982, booking for Vince McMahon during the company's rapid expansion until mid-86 when Hulk Hogan "allegedly" got him fired. Do you think Vince McMahon's ego is so fragile that he can't stomach inducting a man who deserves tremendous credit for the WWE's success into the Hall of Fame? Or is McMahon waiting for Scott to pass away, so he can re-write history...again?

Well, to be fair, Vince has gone on record at live events thanking Scott for his contribution. And he's not in the HOF yet because, well, he's not a ‘name', and they can only put in so many guys a year. He'll be a filler guy sooner or later I'm sure, but for now he's just being held back due to numbers.

As for why people don't remember him, combination of WWE's spin on the early days of the Company coupled with the time factor. Most people weren't around then, and things were going well at the time, so there's no need to assign blame. Blame is a powerful tool in getting people remembered. No-one remembers how many bridges you build, just how many people you shoot, to clean up an old saying. He did his job well, and thus, to most fans now, he must be one of the suits that helped Vince McMahon conquer the world. It's sad, I agree, but since he didn't revolutionise the industry like a Heyman or Russo, nor did he kill a company like Heyman or Russo, people don't remember him.

neverAcquiesce is up.

-What was the deal with the Vince McMahon blow-up at Diesel after (I believe) the September In Your House match with Bulldog? Was it simply cos he was dissatisfied with the match, or the culmination of his frustration with Diesel's lackluster title run?

Well, the PPV you are thinking of is "In Your House 4: Great White North" in October, 1995. Although I'm not sure exactly what you mean with blow-up. I guess whatever it was, it was almost certainly just to build up to Diesel's heel turn at Survivor Series. Diesel was still the good guy, so any untoward actions he took with not be appreciated by Vince McMahon since he was a good guy. I mean, unless you mean a backstage altercation…

-Speaking of Bulldog, why did he receive so many title shots in this period? He faced Diesel in September, Bret in December, and Michaels in May and June, then fell to the wayside for Vader. Did Vince just really enjoy his work or not trust anybody else to main event?

Not so much trust as it was a lack of options. Mabel flopped, Yoko was spherical, Sid wasn't ready, and Owen… See now Owen would have been nice, but alas, that wasn't to be. Whereas Bulldog was hugely over in Europe, could ‘work' and was a name, so Vince tried like heck to get him over as a main event guy. But after attempt after attempt, bringing in some awful buyrates, they finally gave it up. But they tried.

-I remember the WWF airing both the Hog Pen match and the aforementioned Bret/Bulldog title match from the December IYH on TV (in full for the most part with a few commercials thrown in) in the weeks after the PPV. Why did they do this?

The Hog Pen was shown on the New Year's Day edition of Raw, the Taker/Mabel Casket match on the 6th Jan episode of WWF Superstars and Bret/Davey on the 8th of Jan Raw, yes. And if you've ever wondered why some people claim Vince has an obsession with Hillbillies…

Arkansas Hog Pen Match HHH vs Henry O. Godwin

Anyway, why replay the matches? Desperate attempt to sell PPVs. Late 1995, WWF was almost bankrupt, buyrates were dropping. Thus, the hope was, by showing the fans what they could expect on PPV, you'd get them hooked and they'd buy them.

Yeah, that match above would really draw in the crowds…

-Is there any explanation for why WWE now puts both sets of ringsteps on the same side of the ring, opposite the hard camera? I know it means absolutely nothing, but the aesthetics of having them on opposite corners always looked "right" to me. For that matter, when did they switch to company-wide silver steps and posts as opposed to black for Raw and silver for SmackDown?

As far as I'm aware, there is no stated reason for the change, expect for, ironically, aesthetics. Perhaps seeing the steps is now uncouth, and perhaps the WWE wants to remove the idea that there's a weapon to be used. The ring looks cleaner, safer.

As for the change over, it's fairly recent but not that recent, March this year was Silver, November last year was silver, Wrestlemania last year was still black, but July was silver. So soon after Wrestlemania last year was the switch.

While the original is longer, I like this re-edited version strictly for the music choice for the final section.



He's a man….

Great placement, from comedy (ending on a dead guy) to B L's question.

I live in the hometown where Miss Elizabeth lived / died. I was in the cemetery just the other day where she is buried and came across her grave site. I just wondered if her burial here was attended by anyone in the business. It's funny but you really don't hear many people talk about her around these parts much, other than her life here.

Any ideas?

No. Miss Elizabeth's mother apparently blamed Wrestling for her death (can't blame her really) and kept the funeral a low key, family only affair. I don't think even Randy Savage was told about it. Sad business really.

411's Own Ben Piper proves I have no bias in waiting so long for his questions to get in.

Longtime reader of the column and a fellow 411 columnist such as yourself. After reading what you wrote about Jimmy Garvin this week it got me thinking how much I thought he was a great performer not only in the ring but on the mic as well. He was awesome as the arrogant heel, but once the NWA turned him face I thought he did great with that as well. I remember watching a televised steel cage match as a teen in the mid-80's against Flair for the big belt that had be wringing my hands and pulling out my hair as I just knew if he hadn't 'tweaked' his knee doing a leapfrog he would have beaten the man for the title. Great in ring psychology.

Anyways, on to my questions.

1. The NWA turned Jimmy face after Jim Cornette threw fire in Ron Garvin's face during a tag match against the Midnight Express. (Don't remember who Ron's partner was, pretty sure it was Wahoo, but that's not my question) As a result, Jimmy Garvin saw this, freaked out, and then kicked in the door to the Midnight's locker room and proceeded to attack Cornette without provocation. Awesome.

Only afterward it was revealed the reason why Jimmy freaked and attacked Cornette was that he was Ron Garvin's brother. Instant face turn. Overnight he went from feuding with Wahoo McDaniel to tagging with the man in his brother's place.

Now, in kayfabe Ron and Jimmy are brothers, but I've always heard a rumor that persisted from way back in the day that Ron was in fact Jimmy's stepfather. Is this true?

Yep. Ronnie Garvin married Jimmy's mother. Jimmy began his career as Beau James, and after Ronnie married his mother he became Jimmy Garvin, and managed Ronnie and Terry as their brother, although Terry was no relation to either man.

2. With regards to Ron getting burned by Cornette. He appeared on TV a week or two later and looked like he had seriously been burned badly on his face, and at this time if memory serves me correctly he basically told the viewing audience that they wouldn't be seeing him for a bit until he healed, but once he got healed up, he and his 'brother' Jimmy would take the Midnights and Cornette down. Was he really burned legitimately by Cornette's fire throw? Because from what I remember, that was either a supremely awesome make-up job or Ron got the shit burned out of half of his face.

Well, let's look at it!



That would be a hell of a make up job, however. A week after his face was burnt, Ronnie was wrestling, in TV tapings no less. So if it was a legit injury, I doubt he'd be in the ring that quickly. So supremely awesome make up for the win.

3. Jimmy and his valet Precious' chemistry was tangible, and they were always inseparable, in that whenever Jimmy moved to a new territory, Precious did as well. (I think she was hot, BTW) This leads me to believe that they were a real life couple. If that's so, are they still together and what are their current whereabouts?

Thanks and cheers. Keep up the good work, my friend.

Yes, Patti Williams, Precious, was indeed Jimmy's wife. Which is a good trade up from your cousin, honestly. The two are combating the usual clichés and are still together, happily married with two daughters, Jimmy (and Ronnie too) now working as pilots, flying cargo about the county, as well as giving flying lessons.

Joshua asks a simple question.

When did the WWE first start using the "WWE wishes ____ the best in all future endeavors" line when releasing a wrestler?

Good question.

Well, WWE's news page has the earliest recorded release being Vito, May 15th, 2007, at the moment. Using the Wayback machine, I found Rico, Nov 4th, 2004.

WWE said when Brock Lesnar left in 2003 "Brock has wrestled his entire professional career in the WWE and we are proud of his accomplishments and wish him the best in his new endeavour." That may be the start of it. Would make sense, they used the term to describe his football goals, then they liked the sound and made it the regular thing. When Jamie Noble left in 2004, he got the Future Endeavours line, so I'm plumping for Brock as the answer.

My Damm Opinion

Doug wants to talk Montreal again. Ok.

Thanks for putting up Wrestling with Shadows! I've got a related question seeking your humble (Chandler) opinion.....(I apologize if you addressed this before and I missed it)

So Vince signed Bret to a $20 million contract in the fall of 1996 and gives Bret the title in August 1997. Only after Summerslam does Vince realize he can no longer afford Bret's salary and tells him to go to WCW. In the meantime Vince to decides to leave the title on Bret until the last possible moment.

I'm of the opinion that Vince had an angle for Survivor Series and he executed just as he planned.....Nothing else makes sense.

Vince had no inkling Bret's huge contract was a problem before Summerslam?...Why didn't he have Bret drop the strap the day after he told him to call Bischoff?...Was Vince unaware Bret had creative control the last 30 days?...He never foresaw losing to Shawn in Canada as being an issue?...The mileage Vince got out of the Mr. McMahon character was all just dumb luck? What's your opinion?

Ok, take each point in turn.

Actually Vince DID have an inkling that the contract was a problem. In June of 97, Vince had, in an informal way, stated that with the company's financial issues, they may have to defer some of the money to a later point. It wasn't happening at that point, but he did warn Bret.

Thus, 3 months later in the beginning September 97, when Vince did come out and say "I can't afford to pay you 30K a week right now, please let me cut you down to 15K a week and I'll pay you back later", he felt justified since he warned Bret before. But Bret refused on the grounds of not wanting to risk not getting paid after the fact (not dissimilar to Jeff Jarrett and his back-pay issue when he left WWF).

Then, at the end of September, Vince then told Bret they would breach the contract, they had ‘no choice', and at that point, Bret had his blessing (and the legal right) to negotiate with WCW. Bret then said he didn't want to do that, and an escape clause was added into the contract, including the now infamous ‘Reasonable Creative Control' sub-clause. Bret could still leave, he just have to give his notice before Nov 1, on a yearly basis.

At the time, Bret was still loyal, and had stated that he didn't want to deal with WCW. Now, you could argue that he still should have taken the belt off him the moment they began to renegotiate, but Bret was loyal at this point, it seemed. And he had till November the 1st, after that he'd have to stay for a year. And, a week before hand, despite Bret and Shawn's continued problems, Vince had told Bret that he'd be able to pay him what he owed. He then sent Bret overseas for a week, and thus, he felt, he had Bret sewn up for another year.

Bret then came back a day early, and was able to talk to Bischoff, and got given a good deal. Bret ummed and ahhed, and during the conversation, Vince told Bret that he wanted him to drop the belt, to Shawn, in Montreal, and win it back later in Springfield. And Bret's complaint with that was that a face turn was too soon for him. Nothing about losing to Shawn.

And then the internet stepped in. And once the rumors of Bret signing on with WCW got out, in Vince's mind, his hand was forced. Bret wouldn't lose in Canada, either on Sunday or Monday, Bret's offer being to lose the belt to Shawn at MSG the week after Survivor Series. But he couldn't risk Bischoff crowing about signing away the WWF World Champ on Nitro, he had to get the belt off him, ASAP. So, the Screwjob happened, much to Vince's annoyance since I believe he believed that Bret would do the ‘right thing' when pressed.

And as for Vince's heat, it was dumb luck that it began, but the genius was in running with it. Most other men would have vanished and let the heat die down. But Vince went the other way, and backdoored his way into huge piles of cash.

Both men made mistakes, both stuck to their guns, although one of them is sticking long after he should have given it up…

And finally, Mysty Glyttyr has some questions, all perfectly spelt. *cough*

Long time reader, first time questioner. This might border on fantasy booking but me and some friends tend to debate what-ifs and these are the main ones we can't come to agreements on, so we agreed to get expert opinions.

1. Lita's being out with a broken neck happened to coincide with the meteoric rise in the women's division of 2002-2003, particularly Trish's leap into the upper echelon and Victoria bursting onto the scene in a big way. Do you think things for the women's division would have been better or worse had Lita still been around for that period of time? (As popular as she was and speaking as a fan of her's even now, she was not what you'd call the neatest wrestler on the roster so far as technique...)

Better. The women's division got great, as much as the women worked hard, because of Fit Finlay. Finlay trained them and worked hard with the women, who trained and worked their butts off. But with his guidance, the division rose. And if Lita was there, she would have (hopefully) improved along with the rest of them. Tighten up her moves, maybe start using kicks… She would have brought the young girls that were her fans before the injury, and the division would have begun with a bigger fanbase than it started with in RL. And that can't be anything but good.

2. Had Chyna not left the WWE when she did, what do you think would have been next for her? She had just finished plowing through the entire women's division without breaking a sweat, but it seemed a return to the men's division was out of the cards. Considering the Invasion was right around the corner, where could she have gone?

I'm not sure Ivory and Lita constitutes the entire division. But they clearly turning her heel. In one of her last appearances, she kept coming back to a mirror and checking herself out. So, probably, they would have had her get more egotistical, since she ruled the women's division, no woman could touch her. She'd probably join the Alliance, beating all the WWF's women, until finally the dragon would be killed by Trish Stratus at Survivor Series in the feel good moment of the greedy, egotistical, brutal bitch getting hers.

3. What was the point in old WCW where you would say was the point of no return? The single event where you would say that WCW could never recover and they might as well have boarded up the offices right then and there?

Jamie Kellner cancelling their timeslot.



I mean, they might have been able to return at that point if they had TV, so it's technically the answer. But losing the Radicals was probably the height of their stupidity, in losing the 4 best mechanics they had in one go was the sort of move companies can't make and live.

4. What would you say could be considered the single most shocking event (good or bad) ever in wrestling history, for both kayfabe and real life?

Kayfabe, Hogan turning heel to join the nWo.

Real Life, WWF buys WCW and ECW within a month.

And with that, I ask for your opinion, and bid you goodnight.