Ask 411 Wrestling 11.25.09: Crapping Pants, Manholes, & Ahmed Johnson!

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 11.25.2009

If ROH dies, does SHIMMER go with it? Have you seen CIMA on TV? Why did Rosey get the S.H.I.T and Jamal the push? What happened to Biker Court? Why was Christy Hemme Fired? Which Hogan will TNA hope turns up? All this, plus an Official WWE Rule Change! You have to click now!

Hello, and welcome to the only column on 411mania that can't decide if it's worth going back a few months to work out if the CHIKARA twist is as awesome as is claimed is worth it, Ask 411 Wrestling!

I'm sure it is awesome, but it's a little bit dry without knowing the backstory. Although I admire and support any evil group that keeps things simple enough by declaring their number equals one more than they currently have.

But hey, how about that Raw huh? Interesting that they decide to strap a rocket to the guy who speaks Gaelic and not the one that speaks… uh… whatever they speak in Ghana.

Although, there is something that must be addressed from Raw, but not before Super Cool Banner!



Ahem, Ladies And Gentlemen, I hearby inform you that they has been one of the following.



Yes indeed, it is rare when we see a long established rule changed in WWE's Rule Book. Although this one has been sorta kinda broken for a while, it's finally been officially proven. To whit, as has been shown on this week's Raw:

The ECW Championship is NOT A World Title.

After all, the whole point of the tournament was that only men who had never been World Champion (and/or any World Champions who bitched enough) could enter.

And yet in one match, you had Chavo Guerrero, Jack Swagger AND Mark Henry all in it. Ergo, the ECW Title is Not A World Title. It's status is either as a Secondary title, on par with the IC/US ones, or it has it's own new designation, Semi-World or some such.

And now onto the rest of the show.

Backta-

Wait, wait. Before that, we have some more Stat Goodness!

Here is the Total Survivor Series Stats. Every Survivor Series Style match is tabulated and calculated, by good friend of the column, Sage Freehaven.

Interesting stuff, especially how Shawn Michaels is the clear winner and yet also the clear loser.

Sage also wants some feedback, in that he's making this sort of stuff into a site, tentaivly called The Pay Window. That's a link to his scoring system and such, and he'd like some feedback from you, loyal readers, as to if you like this and/or have any suggestions. I for one have one: Given that I was the inspiration behind the general idea, where's my credit!?!

Ahem.

Backtalking

Roulette Matches: APinOz informs me that in the 70's down here in Australia, Russian Roulette matches were common, often won by Andre The Giant, and they were simply over the top battle royals. So we'll go with that.

Silly Names: Massive Q is my actual wrestling name. Harley Wonderland actually is my manager. Ronin is a friend on another site, but yes, that's not a wrestling name.

You may start your mocking… Now!

Your Turn, Smart Guy…

Well, OK, this proved popular, so it stays. Although I can't control the comment section, so I guess just don't scroll down there till you guess at it. I don't want this to be a contest, it's more for fun.

I'm a little hesitant to suggest this, given how many people don't read me properly, but in an attempt to improve the quality of these questions, I'll take submissions from you, the readers, IN EMAIL ONLY. Do not put in brain teasers in the comment section, that way madness lies. Submit your who am I's to my email, with answer, and I'll use them and give you full credit and such. Hopefully that works.

As for this week:

Who Am I? A man who's only wrestled twice for WWE, and at most a handful of times for TNA, I'm still somewhat a name in the Wrestling Business. A multi time champion (albeit always in the tag ranks on the big stage), I've appeared on a WWE DVD cover and was a big part of a very famous Raw. I've teamed with Future World Champions, and nearly had my career ended in a match I still won. A man who is somewhat controversial, I am who?

Questions, Questions, Who's Got The Questions?

APinOz gets his questions answered since he helped out.

And now a couple of questions: If Vince McMahon's most spectacularly financial successful period was the Attitude Era (and according to several reliable sources it was), why has he decided to take his product back to a younger market (PG)?

Because the market has changed. The fans he was drawing during Attitude, their modern equivalent are off with MMA. Plus the idea is to hook the kids now, so you'll have them and their kids for life. And besides, JP has shown a lot that technically, WWE is in a better finicial positon than they were during Attitude. Their income was higher then, but their profit margin is now higher.

Which wrestler, in a single year, would have earned the most money for the WWE, in terms of PPV rates, house show draws, merchandise sales etc? Steve Austin? Rock? Hogan? Or someone I'm not thinking of?

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but it is impossible to answer that one. Even ignoring the issue of not having WWE's itemised financial records, you can't divy up house show takings easily. Although Hogan will claim differently, all those shows that drew between him and Orndorff. Do you credit that to Hogan? Or to Orndorff? Or both? Do you split the money or just double it?

It's not possible to determine who is the biggest draw of all time, with or without inflation, from a financial standpoint. Please stop asking everyone. I'm not angry, just I think the point is made.

Kevin, despite being a little pissy about the delay in answering, still gets his many, many questions answered since I'm a nice man and it's the whole point of the column and stuff.

1. I've heard rumours that Sid actually crapped in a wrestling match, is this true? I think I heard it was with The Undertaker.

Ah yes, this myth. Most people claim it happened at Wrestlemania 13, in his World Title match with Taker. Others claim that this is silly, and it was at a house show. Paul Bearer, who you would assume would notice, has stated that this is false. Supposedly Taker at some point confirmed it, but given that the only ‘interview' about it I found was clearly fake, I doubt it. But hey, it's probably on some Canadian TV show like last time…

2. I recently read an old wrestling magazine from years ago and there was an article written by a fan who claimed to have went to a show by the Von Erich family, WCCW and after the main event of the evening, a skirmish ensued between the two opponents with the Heel claiming the only way he would wrestle again is if the fans to pay more money. After that the fans donated roughly around $70 extra, after having already paid, they witness the rematch that lasted 1 MINUTE! Have you ever heard of this story? If so, WTF???? What was with WCCW pulling a stunt like that? Is that/was that common back in the day?

I have not heard that story before, and I'm fairly sure it's not that common if it actually happened. Certainly there's the old heel shtick of getting on the mic, complaining about the fans, then declaring that they, the heel, will never return to the city. Then, when the fans cheer this, he gets back on the mic and says, just for that, he WILL come back!

And instant rematches are also common enough, where a heel would cheat to win, then an authority figure would come out, and declare the rematch would happen… Right now! And the face would win the title back. This has led to a few phantom title reigns, and it's something they never do now given the internet means they'd have to acknoldge every reign.

But to answer your questions, I guess WCCW really wanted to go all out to make out whoever this heel was to be a bastard.

3. What was up with Hogan returning to the WWE on Smackdown in 2003? Was he actually looking to give back to the business by putting the young stars over or looking for a big pay day. I remember both Angle and Brock being put over clean by him and Brock even by Bearhug?

Hogan was looking for the payday, but he also knew that he wasn't able to win every match all the time. At first, it was a matter of those he saw as being on his level, like Angle, he was willing to put over. Then the Brock thing came around. At the time, Hogan felt he needed to leave since he was old and his knees were in trouble. I'm not sure if he wanted to quit or just take time off, probably something like "I might come back eventually, but not for a while". WWE wanted him to put over Brock on his way out. He pushed to have it happen at PPV, but WWE felt it had to be done ASAP, which in the short run worked out great but long term was a waste as we can see. But at the time, Brock was the guy, and Hogan saw that. And once he resigned himself to Brock putting him out on SD, he went all out with it. Even came up with the match stoppage finish.

Really, Hogan in 03 is the Hogan TNA is hoping turns up. One that, while he has an ego, understands that his prime time is over and that he's here to help the new guys.
Getting paid and putting people over isn't mutually exclusive. Hogan in 03 is an example of that. (Although they so should have used him in the tag ranks more. There was a year or two in that, easy.)

4. Was Bam Bam missing before he died? I have heard that he was and recently saw a shoot with Douglas and Funk where they say he is missing and no one has been able to get ahold of him, even with his good friend Chris Candido having died, he never surfaced at the funeral or anything. Was he so far gone with drugs at this point and stopped taking bookings? Also i've heard that Bam got burns in a fire saving children, I've also heard this isnt true, what can you clear up for me?

Second part first: Yes, Bam Bam got burns to 40% of his body saving kids. Well, he said that it happened. To quote the man:

I was coming home from Japan on an ECW trip. It was about 3:30 a.m. and I was turning onto my block and I realized there was a fire. I heard kids crying and I went through the door and the whole upstairs was on fire. I had to run through a wall in the house. I ran through a built wall ... two-by-fours and everything, so I could get to the back way to get up the stairs. I landed right in a ball of fire. It was the best move I made. When I finally made it upstairs, I grabbed the three kids and came back through the same fire and now I was on fire. By the time I came down, the front stairs were down, so we would have died if we went that way. The mom had been out drinking and left the kids alone. She was a single mother. The kids were five, eight, and nine. They started a fire somehow. I did what anybody would have tried to do. I burned 40 percent of my body with second-degree burns and spent almost two months in the hospital.

Although looking at the ECW results, I'm not sure where he could get 2 months out, but I guess if he's exaggerating slightly…

There were periods when he was out of touch with old friends, yes. He opened a restaurant in 2004, but then when it closed he moved to Florida. And at that point, no-one seemed to know where he is. But after some run ins with the law and then a motorcycle accident in 2005, he was back in the spotlight and thus there was some idea of where he was. His girlfriend, who was severely injured in the crash, stayed with him and was the one to find the body when he died.

When he died, yes, drugs were involved. And he had been retired for a few years before that point, not so much due to drugs but more not wanting to bump.

Shame, Bam Bam was an awesome big guy.

5. When Art Barr died, did a wrestler find drugs on the scene and flush them down the toilet? If so, who? Ive also heard he died with his son in his arms, which is true or are both true/lies?

Well, someone might well have flushed drugs, I suppose I can't disprove that. But as a rule, the myth that drugs were flushed after death is not said of Art Barr but of David Von Erich, and Bruiser Brody flushed them. And even, in some stories, actually cleaned out David's nostrils.

However, given that he died at home, with his son in the place, flushing drugs is unlikely. No cause of death has ever been established (drugs and booze were in his system, but they weren't ruled to have killed him). So it's possible he died with hius son in his arms. They were certainly under the same roof.

6. Why was Chrissy Hemme let go by WWE? I've heard many reasons but dont know for sure.

Well, there's many reasons, depending on who you ask.

WWE Creative: Budget cuts and that dreaded phrase "Not having anything for them".
Hemme herself: She chose to leave. To quote her: "I stuck to my guns on my morals and values as a human being. I knew in my gut that it would be the end, but I also knew that carrying guilt for knowingly doing something against what I believed wasn't worth getting ahead. Leaving broke my heart... but doing the right thing is something I will always be proud of."
The Sleazy Rumor Mill: She made a pass at HHH and Batista for a threesome, and HHH then got her fired because of that.

Take your pick.

7. I recently was reading a WOW magazine from 2000 and they mentioned that Jim Duggan was working on a show called Bikers Court, much like Judge Judy with Duggan as the Judge and his Biker buddies as the Jury. Have you ever heard of this and if so whatever became of it? I would have watched that one for sure.

Yes, I've heard of it. A pilot was indeed made, with the case being a midget suing tobacco companies for the NBA career he never had since his mother smoked fags during his incubation.

You can purchase a DVD with this lost pilot here.

8. When WCW started bringing in new talent to WCW we got a tag team of O'Haire and Jindrak. After a couple months they broke up the team and paired O'Haire with Polumbo and Jindrak with Stasiak. All 4 were part of the same group, why were the two split up? I remember hearing rumours back in the day that the two didnt get along. There had to be some reason since they did break up Stasiak and Polumbo's team. Yoou know anything about this?

Bit of variety?

I couldn't find a reason, be it tension or anything. Only think I can think of is that, at the time, Jindrak and O'Haire had somewhat similar styles, both being big high flyers. So after the two had their run with a similar guy, WCW wanted to give them a run with someone who was more power and ground based, hence why they gave them each a partner who was less flying more power.

9. How exactly was the Savage/Roberts snake biting angle done. I know it was heavy editing and the snake was devenomized but WTF? Did Savage get paid more for this, did he have a problem getting bit by the snake? How much editing was done as I remember some genuinely shocked faces in the audience.

Not a lot of editing, apart from what they had to get around censors. That snake was biting the hell out of Savage's arm.



Savage was, and probably still is, crazy. He agreed to get bit by the snake, although it wasn't meant to chew, just bite. I don't think Savage got a bonus, but hey, it's still a memorable moment, so goal achieved. Savage being Savage.

10. In Ring of Hell there is mention that steroids could at times give you uncontrolled orgasms, the book also says that Tazz was wrestling once and took a suplex only to have an orgasm in the ring. Is this true? If so what match?

Yeah, Ring of Hell is, how shall I put this… full of crap a pack of lies more made up than stories about forgiving parking inspectors disputed in it's accuracy. Reviewing the medical literature, amazing what I have to do for this job, there were studies done that showed that there was a link between steroid use and orgasms… But in women, for men there was no link. Women tended to have better, bigger orgasms while on steroids. Assuming I've read this right.

Taz may have come in a match, but it probably wasn't to do with steroids. So it's 99.99999999999% likely false, and thus there is no match.

We will never know the truth for sure but with your vast knowledge of wrestling and all the insider information, what do YOU think is the reason for Savage never having gotten back in the good books with Vince/WWE? Do you believe anything about the rumour of he and Steph hooking up?

My views have not changed on the subject.

What was to happen at IYH: Final Four's main event. Was Austin supposed to win but due to a cut they decided to have Bret win? Ive heard different opinions on this and want the truth.

No, the rumor that Austin's knee injury caused them to change the match result is debunked the moment Austin came back out to try and interfere. Austin winning the match wouldn't work from a short or long term booking plan, and Sid has gone on record as saying he was told he was beating Bret to win the title, and there's no reason to lie about that, hell, he'd be more likely to lie that he was meant to be Austin. That would be an urban myth.

The Farrooq/Ahmed angle, did Ahmed actually have his liver messed up by Farroq when he made his debut or was this an angle?

Best column on the net, seriously I love it and appreciatte the answers.

No, it was angle to cover a badly timed legit medical problem.

For anyone who doesn't care about Ahmed Johnson's medical problems, just move ahead to the videos.

See, back then, Raw was taped in one giant 4 hour block, once a month. So, in one night but in 4 weeks worth of shows, Ahmed, then IC champ, teamed with WWF Champ Shawn Michaels to defeat the tag champs the Smoking Gunns by DQ when Farrooq attacked him. Then, the next week, he won an 11 man battle royal. Luckily, he wasn't in the final show.

But after the Farrooq attack was broadcast, Ahmed was diagnosed with kidney problems. So they were forced to redub the battle royal, and claim that he was wrestling against doctor's orders. Then they had him vacate the belt due to the injury sustained from Farrooq and then worsened by the Battle Royal.

Ahmed did have a knack for injuring and getting injured. If only he could say his name twice, people would have forgiven him…

Reason Chris Jericho Is Awesome #56325.


Reason Chris Jericho Is Awesome #1038.


Reason Chris Jericho Is Awesome #157.

ARM-Bar.

Dom brings us back to non-Jericho matters.

Recently, in the last couple years, Kurt Angle did a shoot interview with RF Video while he was working in tna. It seems that tna doesn't seem to have a problem with their talent doing shoot interviews with companies like rf; however wwe seems to not alow their talent to do so. It is only after a wrestler retires or gets fired from wwe that the wrestler does a shoot interview (from what I remember). Is this accurate? Is so, why? Thanks

Well, TNA used to not have a problem with it. Now they've curtailed it, given how they've grown. But yeah, you have to be out of the WWE before you can do a shoot.

It's just common sense really, as an employer, sorry, ‘contract holder', you want to control what your ‘contractors' say, you don't want it getting out that they hate some other guy or some such. Small interviews for websites are ok, but Shoot Interviews are a whole other kettle of fish.

A while ago TNA wasn't big enough to justify keeping talent away (shoot interviews can get you a big of cash if you're big/interesting enough), but now that they are Hogan-sized they want to control their guys more. Which is understandable. So yes, you had it right, although it's changed now.

Next up is Eric, who had some kind words for me, albeit words that applied a few months ago. I've removed them for fear of messing with your minds.

Quick one here... Samoa Joe, as we all know, is a phenomenal talent. Yet, as we've all read before, people still give him shit about his weight. Being that he is Samoan, (In the words of Julius from Pulp Fiction: "I wouldn't go as far as to call the mother fucker fat, I mean, what's the brother gonna do, he's Samoan?!) he is still I'd say smaller than his Samoan counterparts in Eddie Fatu and even Rosey or the ENTIRE A'noai family.

Alrite, my question is this: Wrestling is a work out, period. Theres extreme cardio involved, lifting, endurance, stamina, etc. especially involving the type of matches that Joe is involved in.. So, after years of working matches like he has, wouldn't one drop a considerable amount of weight over the years? Especially someone as "light" as Joe when compared to real monster faces/heels i.e. Vader, Yoko, Quake, Typhoon who are just genetically/naturally big guys? In addition, are big overweight guys like these encouraged to keep their unhealthy diet up to maintain their size, thus never seeing a difference in size over many years of running around the ring? For example, I've noticed Brother Ray, although maintaining a big size, has fluctuated back and forth in weight/belly size. (Now in TNA and back during his Hardcore title run on RAW, he was lighter. During ECW and 99-2001 he was bigger.)

Well yes, people make fun of Joe due to his size. I myself, in a display of sheer hypocrisy worthy of PETA, have made a joke or two about his ballooning size. But it's part of wrestling in a way, you make fun of everyone for something. Joe's fat, McCool is dabbling with Necrophilia, and of course, the easy targets. It's not so much out of dislike or belittling, it's just shooting the breeze, wrestlers do that, and I guess fans have that right too.

Now, Joe has shown incredible stamina and cardio for anyone, let alone a guy his size. His time limit draws with Punk are legendary, and certainly in TNA in big matches he's gone all out all the time. And his weight still remains. Part of it is genetic (as you say, he's Samoan), but weight in wrestling is a hard thing to control. When you're constantly travelling and staying in unfamiliar places, it's hard to maintain a strict diet. Joe probably has a weight that fluctuates a bit, but some guys just can't get past a certain point. If he was working 60 minute draws every night, yes, he'd probably drop size, but when it's one offs, there's no maintaining the loss.

As for if big guys are encouraged to keep fat, normally not, although it has happened. Yokozuna, at the start of his run as Yoko, was asked to get bigger. However, for the most part, wrestlers tend to be asked to lose weight, not gain or keep it. As a rule, bookers would prefer to have to deal with a formerly huge guy who's now just big rather than a still huge guy who's got bad knees and/or is dead. Back to Yoko, he was on the WWF payroll for months after he was last seen, as the WWF wanted him to lose a lot of the weight, in order to get him approved to wrestle again and due to his health.

I for one have not been asked to lose, gain or maintain weight, I can wrestle, I have doctor's approval, I'm good to go.

Liz asks about a love triangle that was dropped. I for one will not attempt any chauvinist jokes here.

And not just because I can't think of one.

Hey Matt, I don't know if this how I am suppose to submit my question, but here it goes!

I was just wondering, before the whole Matt-Lita-Edge love triangle became public knowledge, what was the original plan for the Matt-Lita-Kane storyline? Was Matt going to return and try and win Lita back from Kane? Was Lita gonna stay face or turn heel and stay with Kane? Also, in more of an opinion question, what do you think would have happened if the Lita/Edge affair never took place? Do you think Edge would have become the mega heel that he did?

Thanks!

Ah yes, the Kane/Lita/Edge/Matt thingy. Not a storyline/incident I enjoyed on any level beyond Paul Heyman's inability to count.

Well, if you accept that the firing was a shoot at the time, and that the angle didn't start until Hardy called into the WWE.com net show, then Hardy's interviews at the time implied that he was pushing for his Punisher gimmick, the ‘scar is the symbol' thing. So apparently he wasn't going to go back after Lita, at least, his plans weren't. He'd become the shadowy do-gooder, punishing the evildoers of the company.

Most of whom outweighed him, had more height and were better talkers than he was.



Regardless, WWE might have gone a different direction, and run the Hardy wins back the girl angle, and/or had Lita turn on both of them to hook up with Masters and Carlito and they would have run Lita's Men vs. The Betrayed. Hard to tell.

And Edge was going to become a huge heel regardless. Lita helped, sure, but he was on the way and they were going to get him there come hell or high water. But sure, he came out looking like 2 and a half million bucks out of the whole thing, so it worked out well for him.

Jack asks about plumbing.

Hello Sir,

I always enjoy the Ask 411 column and look forward to it every week. I was wondering if you could shed some light on a segment that has been bugging me for years.

I don't remember all the details of the actual storyline at the time, but it's probably safe to say that Stone Cold and Kane were involved in some sort of three-way feud with The Undertaker and Paul Bearer. During the course of this feud, there was one particularly memorable segment in which Austin and Kane teamed up, took Bearer outside of the arena and proceeded to dump his portly ass down a manhole. Question is, do you know how this was done? I mean, surely they wouldn't have actually sent Bearer down into the sewer, at least not without going down there first and making it safe or something, which just seems ridiculous.

Any ideas?



That would be the November 30th, 1998 edition of Raw.

Now, I don't live in Baltimore, which is where this edition of Raw was held. But I did find some Baltimore webpages that talked about storm sewers. So it's possible that that sewer was not for human waste but rather excess water, it's for drainage. If this is true, then it's easy enough to clean that and put a crash mat down there. Probably easy enough to do that with a real sewer if you really wanted, but I'm betting it was a storm sewer.

Although if anyone lives there and knows, let us know!

From one appeal to you good readers to another, John?

Hey Matt,

I thought you might be a good person to go to about this, or if not maybe get it out to the IWC and see if anyone else might know the answer. Anyway, my friends and I are going to the 2010 Royal Rumble in Atlanta and I was wondering if you might know any popular hang outs and/or hotels the wrestlers stay at. It would be awesome to see them up close and maybe even buy them a drink or something.

Thanks. I dig your column by the way.

Hmmm. Probably should have posted this much earlier, given that I can't answer this at all.

My bad.

Anyone here live in Atlanta and know where the WWE guys go? The best bet would be to stake out the places close to their hotel, and/or places that serve cheap drinks.

Doug asks about a shoot interview, albeit about stuff raised DURING said interview.

I've got another one for and it has to do with another shoot interview.

I found a Jimmy Hart shoot interview. It was an audio only post (and of course it was taken down before I could finish it...hence no link) but I think it was RF Video (due to the inept conductor...more on that later). Anyway, Hart is asked about his time with the Honky Tonk Man and in his response he suggested that Honky was supposed to drop the IC strap to Jake Roberts almost as soon as he took it off Steamboat, but because of the lingering effects of the guitar shot, Jake was hurt and that plan was scrapped. Of course the interviewer did not follow up to see if that was indeed the case.

Have you ever heard this story before? If it's true, then Honky would never have been able to refuse to drop it to Savage, which means McMahon would not have had to make it up to the Macho Man by giving him the WWF title at Wrestlemania IV...which means The Million Dollar Man would be a former WWF Champion if only they had gimmicked that damn guitar...the Butterfly Effect is a wicked bitch, ain't it?

Well, it's interesting, Honky claims that the guitar was actually gimmicked, and that Roberts was, maybe, exaggerating the impact of the shot. Although looking at the tape it's clearly not as gimmicked as the ones now.

I don't recall hearing that story before (saying that a lot this week, huh?) but I kinda doubt it. Once Honky got the title, the plan was to head towards Savage winning it, Roberts was not in the cards. Especially given that Roberts had a torn shoulder and hadn't had a match in several weeks when Honky won the title.

I'll call BS on this, but then Jimmy Hart's normally pretty straight and narrow, so who knows?

Ah, Manu, how you pop up all the time…

Has CIMA ever appeared on Impact or TNA PPV? I know I've seen him somewhere before, and could've sworn he was in one of the world X cups tournaments as a dragon gate rep, but I can't for the life of me find his name associated with TNA anywhere.

If not, was he on any of the RoH PPVs? that's the only other place I could've seen him in the past, because I know wwe wouldnt shine the spotlight on someone like him.

I've met CIMA. Nice guy, really friendly. He's held our title

But as to your questions, no, CIMA's never wrestled for TNA in any capacity. And while he's wrestled in ROH and PWG often, he's never appeared on ROH PPV. He's appeared on Dragon's Gate PPVs, so you may have seen him on those.

He has wrestled at a WWE event, a Smackdown where he lost to Jamie Noble, but it was a dark match. So you probably didn't see him there.

Or, maybe, perhaps, you saw him on Nitro?



Next up is Brandon

I hope it is easier for you to find because so far I haven't found the answer

the general 4 sided rings range from 16x16 to 20x20. depending on whether you are an Indy fed or the E.
I been watching a lot of AAA online and their 6 sided ring is bigger than TNA's so the question is how big are each?
seems like TNA's is only 15 feet from one side to another but AAA's looks like it is 20 feet one way.

Any official measurements?
Thank You Sir.

Oh geez, this again? Bloody hell…

No, sorry, I have looked (seriously), but I couldn't find AAA dimensions. Anyone out there know?

Steve is up next.

After 3-Minute Warning were split up, Jamal left the WWE for TNA & Japan for 2 years. When he came back, he was given the monster heel push as Umaga, while at the same time Rosey was getting absolutely buried with the ridiculous Superhero gimmick. Since Rosey was the one who remained loyal to WWE, shouldn't the pushes have been the other way around? Why was Jamal rewarded and Rosey buried?

Well, the idea was to do a 3 Minute reunion. When Jamal was rehired back, in Japan, while he had improved, he had still worked almost all tag matches. So the logic was to bring back 3MW, although probably not in that form. Rosey, while being ‘buried', had been a tag champ and was pushed, albeit as a comedy character. That had wound down when they brought Jamal back.

It wasn't till Rosey got fired, due to weight/talent issues, that Jamal got repacked as Umaga and then, once he proved it worked, got pushed to the moon. So it wasn't an issue of them pushing Umaga at the expense of Rosey, it was more "Well, we lost Rosey, so let's take a chance that Jamal might be ok as a single's star with the gimmick we wanted to give to Samoa Joe"…

And just a final note regarding Samoans, given their strong pride & cultural heritage, wasn't the Rosey gimmick an insult to Matt Anoai? And repackaging Rodney as a Japanese Sumo Wrestler (Yokozuna) was an even bigger insult. I know that some wrestlers get input into their gimmick, but most do not. Why were the Samoans treated this way when it came to lame gimmicks?

I think the Anoa'i family gets Wrestling. I mean, really gets it. While they do indeed have a deep respect and love for their culture… They understand that this is a business, and that at times, you gotta act the fool. And/or play the big fat Japanese World Champion. Certainly the family has been so well represented that they can live with the occasional dark patch.

And finally, MissyNEVERWearssocksWithShoes! See, I get there eventually…

1) Why was Paul Roma given a brief push in the WWF in 1990? If Vince really wanted to push one of the Young Stallions, then why not Jim Powers, who at least was a poor man's Tito Santana? Never understood that one.

For the same reason WCW pushed him: The guy looked GREAT. Given this fact, he got ‘pushed', although that is somewhat questionable. The guy did get a few wins, but nothing substantial. But again, he looked GREAT.

2). Many people keep speculating that ROH is in trouble since WWE has signed Danielson and McGuinness and supposedly are looking at others. With that in mind, how is the future looking for its (IMHO superior) sister promotion, SHIMMER? If ROH dies, will SHIMMER follow suit? I hope to God not, as it's nice to see actual honest-to-goodness *wrestling* these days.

No, SHIMMER is not financially tied to ROH. The two are very close, and if ROH dies they'll take a hit for sure, but SHIMMER has it's own school, and really is only connected to ROH due to Prazak. SHIMMER's business model of filming every few months works (they understand that they are somewhat a niche market, alas) and thus they could survive if ROH went down the tube. Maybe they'd cozy up to Dragon's Gate USA instead…

3).What was the deal with Alex Porteau's brief cup of coffee in the WWF in the mid-90s as "The Pug"? His gimmick was that he was an outstanding technical wrestler , but he only was on TV for a few months before disappearing quicker than a kid in a hot air balloon (what? too soon?!).

No, given that the kid was never in the damm balloon.

Well, WWF seems to like it's Amateur/Technical Wrestler gimmicks. There tends to be one at all times, like with Swagger now. As for why Pug didn't work, well he was pretty much a jobber, so they clearly didn't like what they saw I guess. Sometimes the WWF just doesn't click with someone.

Sadly they can't all be drug fuelled satanic orgies with underage relatives of Vince McMahon firings.

My Damm Opinion

Sage Freehaven has the sole question for this section, given the controversy it shall unleash:

Oh! And so I have an actual question for you to answer for next week's column, I'd like to ask for Your Damn Opinion on what'll probably be the most heated argument come January of next year: what do you believe was the best match of the 2000s?

Well, I'm somewhat biased in that HHH/Cactus Jack, Royal Rumble 2000 Street Fight, that's the match that made me want to become a wrestler, so it really holds a special place in my heart. The fact that it's a perfectly legitimate choice is just gravy.

Best match without my emotions attached? Assuming I DQ HHH/Cactus out of an inability to think about it clearly… Styles/Joe/Daniels, the 05 Version. I haven't seen the 09 Version, but I think 05 is probably my ‘unbiased' pick. But by all means, let the gates of hell open up now. Get nice and angry before we do a site feature on it.

And.... GO!