Ask 411 Wrestling 12.02.09: Trampolines, Ribs, and Videos A Plenty!

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 12.02.2009

Why do we all hate HHH? Did Jericho punk out Goldberg? Who trained Trish? Why did WWE hire Gail Kim? What if Austin hadn't needed neck surgery? Who got Sable down his pants? Has anyone injured themselves with their own finisher? All this, plus I retell the histories of Stacy Keibler & The Nation, all wrapped up with more videos that your nearest Black Market DVD shop!

Hello one and all to this, Ask 411 Wrestling!

Uh, bit of a tiny rant coming up, so if you're not Australian and/or you don't give a damm about Australian Politics, just skip ahead to the bannery goodness.

Tony Abbott is now the Federal Opposition Leader. Now, I'm nominally a Labor supporter. I was one of the guys who tossed John Howard out of his own seat in the last election, I live in his former electorate. And I think Labor has done an OK job so far. But the reason I'm nominally Labor is because I tend to go for the opposition, I like checks and balances. I strongly dislike any political group having too much power. So I want two strong parties, with a third small but strong party in the Senate. If that third party could not be the Greens, great, but I'll take what I can get. So up until the last election, I was pro-Labor, and now I want to be pro-Liberal.

But then the Liberals go insane, and now, of all people, Tony Abbott is their leader. A guy I cannot, in any way shape or form, support. Wonderful. But hey, could be worse.

He could be leading a party that could actually WIN the next election…

Backtalking

Hotel In Atlanta: I had a former wrestler (who I want to thank but I'm not sure I should given that I'm about to tell a fan where to bother wrestlers while they are drinking…) tell me that the bar that WCW guys used to go to, and thus a lot of WWE guys now use, in Atlanta, is on Riverdale Road, next to a Waffle House. Used to be a Howard Johnson, then a Ramada, which it may or may not still be. Just get off the 285 at Riverdale Road and it's right there.

Good luck hanging out with the boys. Try not to get too beat up and/or yelled at. And thanks again for the tip, Wrestler I Want To Identify But Won't Out Of Respect.

Wiw Tibwoor. Sounds like Sheamus' new Welsh Tag Partner or something…

My losing to Chewbacca And Fat Momma: Yes, sad to say, the sole match of mine online is a comedy match the day after I turned heel at a Nerd Convention against a cosplayer and a ‘celebrity' that I lost. Believe me, I'm trying to get one of my GOOD matches up online somehow…

Best Match of the Naughties: Lots of good suggestions. I think that it's impossible to say that there is a definitive Bestest Match Ever in any time frame because everyone has different tastes and different opinions on matches, and wrestlers. But to qualify something: Joe/Styles/Daniels 1 does have an emotional connection with me, I fucking love that match. It's just that Cactus/HHH is one of the turning points in my life, hence it's impossible for me to accurately judge its merits. If I try, I can spot one or two flaws in it (Cactus calls a spot or two really loudly, for instance), and thus, my brain tells me that since I love it so much, J/S/D 1 is the ‘better' match. Does that make sense?

I'm not finishing this column match unless you pay me!: Thanks for those who gave the info on the heels wanting more money. Rick saw this in WCCW as an angle that ran for a few weeks, before Kerry Von Erich beat up the heel and tossed him out a side door of the Sportatorium. He also believed that whoever it was turned up in WWF, and asked if anyone knew who it was. So, anyone who discussed it last week, got an idea who this one was?

Your Turn, Smart Guy…

Again, to clarify: Don't send me answers in the mail please. There's no real point. I send the exact same mail if you get it right, so there's no point. If you have a good QUESTION that you want to see here, by all means, send that.

Last week's question:

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?

Now, apparently some people don't like the image/video answer style. So, I'll just say it then. Buff Bagwell was the correct response.

Huzzah.

Who am I? A man with a Wrestlecrap worthy gimmick to my name, I hold a unique distinction of having one televised match with the WWF and one televised match with TNA, with one non-televised WWF match as well completing my ‘big league' record. I've teamed with Brian Christopher, which given my history with USWA isn't surprising. Oh yes, and I was involved in the closest thing Earl Hebner got to a Sex Scandal before he screwed Bret. Who Am I?

Questions, Questions, Who's Got The Questions?

Again, just a reminder: You're looking at maybe a 2 month wait on sending a question and getting an answer. More if it's a really obscure/hard to answer one. Sometimes I get desperate for questions I can answer/really tired/bored and skip some ahead, but that's rare. I apologize for this delay, but given that I have 100+ questions in the backlog, it's unlikely to change much, unless everyone agrees to stop sending questions for a month or two…

Anyway, let's move on from my own inadequacies and focus on other people's! Let's start with JediMaster007, which is a great, albeit confusing name. Oh, and he doesn't have any inadequacies, I'm sure.

Hi, I am a longtime reader but this is my first time posting. I have a few questions, hopefully none of them are too easy to answer.

#1 Trips. Love him or hate him, HHH is forever going to be cemented as one of the top guys in WWE history. He's one of the men with stroke and generally speaking, he doesn't do anything he doesn't want too. There is lots of talk about him being a royal prick and a master backstage politician, but aside from that, what, if anything, has he done to "earn" that reputation as a troublemaker?

…

This sounds like a ‘Who's Buried In Grant's Tomb' sort of question.

It's mainly a lot of small factors. Being seen as the successor to Shawn Michaels (or at least, the old Shawn Michaels), being a part of the Clique, even if he was the most junior member, didn't start him off on a good foot with the IWC. His early work was dull, and then he got exposed as being somewhat one dimensional in his wrestling in his run as the head of DX. Then he turned and got pushed to the moon, which never sits well with the IWC. And then 2000 hit, and suddenly he was ON, having kick-ass matches with everyone from Austin and Foley to TAKA Michinoku.



I really like that match. And not just because HHH says a naughty word during it.

At that point, he could do no wrong. Then he started to have bad matches. And the booking continued to center around him, despite guys like Angle, Jericho, Benoit etc there for the IWC to want to see in the top spots. And after that, he was sunk. Coming back from injury way too overdeveloped in his upper body and then hogging the World Title after the roster split didn't do him any favors.

I'm sure someone in the comments section will defend Hunter, and more will bash him in more detail, and such, but basically a matter of him being the center of attention at a point when the IWC wanted other guys to be the center. Then there's his buddies getting pushes, everyone else having to get his hair cut, how he never loses, the fact that we don't like his kind around here…

#2 Goldberg. I am not a fan of Goldberg and never have been. I likely never will be. I had heard (or read somewhere) that shortly after arriving in the WWE, he had gotten into a backstage fight with Chris Jericho after commenting that Jericho was too small to be champion, and was subsequently choked out. Is this mystery a myth or true?



Yay! Easy Answer is Easy!

#3 Stratusfaction. We all like our Stratusfaction. I was wondering, did Trish Stratus know how to wrestle before she became a WWE valet, and if so, where did she train? If not, who in the WWE is given credit for training her? There are varying reports but the two names I see or hear most often are Finlay and Triple H.

Well, she began as a fitness model-

Quick aside: Note that word before the word model. It's a somewhat nebulous term, but without it, it's amazing the difference you get.

Anyway, Trish was physically fit before she signed with WWF. When she did, she was sent to learn with Ron Hutchison in Toronto, there not being an official WWF Training School at the time. Ron taught her the basics, and she then became a valet, knowing enough to get by but certainly not enough to be a good wrestler.

Finlay's input comes in later, after the WCW buyout in 2001. Finlay was still under contract, despite not wrestling for a while due to his leg, so the WWF turned him into an agent, and he was put in charge of the Divas.

And The Golden Era Began!

That is, under his guidance, all the women worked very hard and learnt a great deal from Finlay, and thus there followed a period where women's wrestling was seen to be quite good in the WWF/WWE, and there were several talented but still beautiful young women in the roster.

So Ron Hutchison trained her in the basics, Finlay trained her into the Superstar she became. Triple H, to my knowledge, never trained her. Unless you mean this segment…



Wow, lots of videos this week already.

#4 The Undertaker. Is Hulk Hogan really the first person in the WWE to defeat him? It seems like anyone and everyone has beaten him these days. Of the "big" stars say... in the last two decades (besides Sting) who hasn't he feuded with?

Technically yes, just not in the match I think you mean. I assume you are talking about Hogan V Taker II at This Tuesday In Texas. The Undertaker's first loss of any sort, however, was the 91 Rumble. Taker entered the match, and was eliminated by The Legion Of Doom, but Hogan won the match, and thus, technically, beat Taker first.

But if you only want to count one on one matches (and thus skip over a battle royal Taker was in that was won by Virgil, and some handicap tag matches that Taker, Slaughter and Adnan lost to Hogan and Warrior), Warrior beat Taker in one on one matches a bunch of times, albeit by DQ or Count Out. So did Davey Boy Smith, a few times by DQ. And then Warrior beat Taker in a few Bodybag matches, where Warrior won by stuffing Taker into a bodybag.

And then, finally, July 9th, 1991, Warrior pinned Taker. So there you go. Hogan technically, but Warrior really holds the record.

#5 Knockouts. Before I get into the question, I have a comment or two. I Have been a fan of Mickie James and Gail Kim both for some time now. I have to say that Gail Kim is not the "sloppy" one when it comes to her ring work. We've seen Gail botch a few spots from her from time to time in the past, but when it comes to her most recent problems with Mickie, it's pretty clear to me that the Diva's champion is the one who can't figure out how to land her own Jumping DDT half of the time and that when pressed to "pick up the pace" she botches a lot of her own spots that other wrestlers are kind enough to sell anyway. Having said that, the WWE does have a solid base for a women's division with Katie Lea, Natalya, Melina Perez, and Beth Phoenix as "real" wrestlers who are all capable of pulling off incredible matches. NWATNA has Roxxi, Victoria, Sarita, ODB, Awesome Kong, and (my personal favorite) Cheerleader Melissa who can all get it done in the ring. For that matter, Melissa Anderson is widely regarded as the top female worker in the country. So having said that, should Gail Kim have stayed in TNA where she was insanely over and had other talent around her who could actually keep up with her workrate or do you think the WWE actually has plans for her besides jobbing her out to women that still need to learn how to wrestle? Are we likely to see Gail back in TNA after her contract with the E is up?

Well, if Gail was making the choice based solely on what she'd be doing, she would have stuck with TNA. I mean, TNA really wanted to keep her, and by all accounts she wanted to stay. Why wouldn't she, she was the babyface center of the division, the face of the division, having kickass matches, she was having a great time.

And then WWE called. And in a move that was clearly about hurting TNA more than helping WWE, they offered her an obscene amount of money. That was what it came down to, TNA would use her well, and she knew that WWE would misuse her. But the amount of money they were offering was too much to turn away.

Of course, now that they hurt TNA, WWE has no real plans for Gail. And in a couple of years, I think WWE will probably offer her a much lower contract and she'll be back in TNA.

Assuming it's still open…

#6 Open Ended Question. I think Katie Lea should make the jump to TNA instead of stick with the E. In TNA should would be a wrestler, (and likely Knockouts Champion) not an underused valet for a glorified jobber (who should also make the jump to TNA so he wouldn't be a jobber anymore). As for who goes to WWE from TNA... I would pin it on either Robert Roode or James Storm, probably Storm though because of his size.

Thanks for all of your time. Even if you don't post the responses on 411wrestling, I'd still like to get your opinion.

I'd give it, but that's not so much a question as a statement of opinion. I personally will hold off on deciding if Katie should head to TNA. See, given what happened on ECW, I want to see how she looks now…

Jimbo asks a popular question. I tend to get clusters for some reason, some news item or video review will prompt a bunch of people to ask similar questions…

Hey man. Great article. Keep up the good work. Now on to my question. Was watching some old 1999 - 2000 WWF Raw and Smackdown and I was thinking about Stone Cold and if there were any plans for him if he didnt need to have the neck surgery. If he was lets say okay to still go out and perform were there any plans set in motion? Was The Big Show always scheduled to win the WWF Title at Survivor Series 99 of was it a last minute booking change? What were the long term plans for Austin if he hadn't "got hit by the car" by Rikishi for "the people"? Would he have won the Rumble and went on to fight Triple H at Wrestlemania? Just a couple quick questions for you. Thanks for the great column.

Well, the major problem with the question is that if you assume that Austin doesn't need the neck surgery, then that means that he wasn't Owen Drivered, which means that there's no long period of time with him not being able to wrestle, which totally throws off the dynamic of everything. He might well have been champ a lot earlier which means that he might have fizzled out….

But let's assume that somewhere in 1999, Austin grew a new neck. Let's make it during his sleep after No Mercy 1999, because that's the real change point.

See, the thing is, Vince and WWF knew, a month before, that Austin wasn't going to make Survivor Series. He probably should have had the surgery after Summerslam, but he stuck around in case the surgery went badly. He put HHH out on his way out in case he'd be unable to step foot in the ring again.

So Vince knew that Austin was off for surgery. He had a choice, and he chose to advertise Austin in the match anyway, in order to tell the story of the mystery car and Big Show being slotted in.

So if Austin isn't going, then they make the match HHH/Rock probably, and then, possibly, Austin teams with Mick Foley to challenge for the Tag Belts, beating the New Age Outlaws at Survivor Series, Foley then retiring. Foley only stayed because Austin left, so he'd go.

Beyond that, it's impossible to say. Vince knew Austin's neck was bad a long time ahead, so Austin wasn't in the booking plans. It looks like a last second switch, but it was planned out a long time prior.

James is up next.

Been reading the column for a while, and this question has always been in the back of my mind. I started watching wrestling in the attitude era, and I remember a segment with Sable - I believe she had a picture spread in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. I know it wasn't playboy yet. Sable was basically a face, but I don't think she'd turned yet. Point is, a wrestler came down to the ring, and was congratulating Sable, and quasi-hitting on her. Then, Marc Mero attached the guy, and ripped the magazine pictures out, and shoved them down his trunks, I believe. Do you know who that wrestler was? It's been bugging me for years.

I found it! I found it!

But I can't embed it dammit.

Suffice to say, it was an edition of WWF Raw Magazine, and Kevin Kelly was the guy who was ‘hitting' on Sable, whereas Tom Brandi was the guy who got the magazine shoved down his trunks.

Things Every Wrestling Fan Must See #254: Lawler V Kaufman on Letterman.


And for those of you are allergic to cuckoo noises…


Next up, Michael gets split up.

Saw a clip on Botchamania of Paul Orndorff giving some dude a piledriver in a 6 man match, and while delivering the piledriver, he seemed to have knocked himself out somehow and got pinned in an obviously confusing and awkward sequence. 1) How did he knock himself out? He didnt appear to do anything out of the ordinary? 2) Do you know of any other wrestlers who knocked themselves unconscious or severly injured themselves while executing their own finishing maneuver? Im not counting high risk moves like the shooting star press but more ground based finishing moves like a DDT, suplex, powerslam, etc.

He didn't knock himself out, he got a stinger. Although that does raise some questions, given that a stinger tends to require the head and neck to be jerked towards or away from the shoulder.

Let's review the tape. Although it's a little hard to watch, given how long he lies there and how long it takes them to stop the match.



However, you have to remember that Orndorff had nerve problems for a long time, if you look at the video, you can see that his right arm is very small, due to atrophy caused by an accident in weightlifting with his right arm, suffered back in the WWF days. He never got the surgery to repair the damage, and he didn't even take time off at the time since he was in the middle of his huge money making run against Hogan, so by the time he took time off to fix it, it was too late.

So, what appears to have happened is that in going to lift Jindrak, his right arm and shoulder got yanked, which caused the already weakened nerves in that side to get stretched and then damaged, causing the Stinger.

As for someone injuring themselves by their own finisher, not that I can think of. A DDT or RKO type move might knock you goofy if you do it wrong, but I couldn't find a record of anyone injuring themselves via their own move, apart from Orndorf. How about you guys?

I've read before that Hulk Hogan was supposed to win the AWA title from Nick Bockwinkle but Verne Gagne changed his mind thus basically forcing Hogan to jump to the WWF. The question is, since 1980 until it's demise, do you know of any other wrestlers who were supposed to win the AWA title and then didn't due to some reason or the other?

Well, it's not so much ‘changed his mind' as ‘pulled the win back after Hogan refused to give him the majority of the money Hogan was making'.

But no, beyond people leaving the company and thus not being able to be champion any more, there wasn't really anyone who was supposed to be Champ but didn't end up getting it. Mostly people got stripped of the title after winning it.

Gozzz (who also asked about Austin at Survivor Series 99) has a couple of short questions with long answers.

Great column as always!

Two short questions with possible lengthy answers:

Can you give a rundown/chronology about the history of (a) Stacy Keibler (from Nitro girl to Ms. Hancock to WWE)
(b) The Nation of Domination (from Farooq to the Rock and beyond)

I have fond memories of both characters, and I am sure that I am forgetting something!

You are the man!

Who do you think I am, the Evolution Schematic guy?

Oh yeah.

Stacy Keibler

WCW held a contest to find a new Nitro Girl in 1999. Stacy Keibler, who was a fan of wrestling via her boyfriend, tried out. Her cheerleading and dancing history gave her an edge, and she beat 300 other women to win the spot. She was dubbed ‘Skye' (all the Nitro Girls had cute names), and was dancing with the Girls while still at school and still being a cheerleader for the Baltimore Ravens.

There it might have ended, but for Vince Russo taking over WCW. Russo didn't like having people under contract and ‘not doing anything with them', especially not hot chicks. So he broke up the Nitro Girls, and gave all the girls an angle. Stacy he turned into Miss Hancock (originally there was to be a D in the name but Stacy noticed and complained), wherein she became a consultant for Lenny and Lodi, as well as for Silver King and El Dandy. However, despite these consulting jobs, she became popular and well known more for this sort of thing.



She then had a relationship with David Flair, which raised the ire of Daffney, leading to their feud. After driving Kimberly Page out of the company, she then began to have problems with Major Gunns, which led to a mud match wherein it was discovered that she was pregnant.

Don't ask, it's late WCW.

But the pregnancy was in fact fake, and/or she gave birth to a stack of Shawn Stasiak 8X10 Glossys. At this point, she began to use her real name. After narrowly avoiding being tattooed on the last Nitro (because you know Shawn would have sacrificed her to avoid it himself), Stacy's contract was transferred in the purchase. She came in during the InVasion, teaming with good friend Torrie Wilson as the Dominate Females of the Alliance, feuding with Trish and Lita mostly.

As the InVasion limped to an end, she transferred her attention to the Dudley Boys, becoming the Dutchess Of Dudleyville, helping them keep their tag titles. She feuded with Torrie Wilson after Torrie left the Alliance, then left the Dudleys after they blamed her for a loss and powerbombed her through a table.

After failed attempts to win the WWF Women's Title, she became Vince McMahon's ‘Personal Assistant', helping him with such tasks as cleaning his mouth with her tongue and testing out his desks with strenuous rhythmic movements.

I mean dancing…

Then Dawn Marie became Vince's Legal Assistant, and the two began to feud over Vince McMahon's attention.

(And people wonder why Vince is thought of as a dirty old man genius.)

She eventually switched to Raw, becoming a good girl in the eyes of most fans by attacking Victoria. She then managed Test and Scott Steiner, having such great ideas as calling fans of Test ‘Testicles'.

Test eventually soured on her ideas to manage both him and Scott Steiner, which caused Scott to stand up for her. Eventually both men ended up hating her, abusing her since she was contractually obligated to Test. But Foley got her out of this by firing both men for a few minutes.

She then teamed up with Miss Jackie, jealous that Sable and Torrie got to do Playboy again and they didn't get to do it once.

She briefly had a relationship with Randy Orton, before he RKOed her to send a message to The Undertaker.

Then came Super Stacy for a brief moment, then a trade to Smackdown, and then she left the company.

The Nation Of Domination.

Begins in USWA, with PG-13, Kareem Olajuwon, Sir Mohammad, Akeem Mohammad, Elijah, Shaquille Ali, Randy X, and Queen Moisha. No-one knows or cares.

Debuts in WWF when Faarooq takes on Clarence Mason as manager. Still stands for Black Power, despite having as their first block of members PG-13, Crush, D'Lo Brown, and Savio Vega. Group feuds with Ahmed Johnson.

All but Brown are fired after King Of The Ring 97 due to them costing Faarooq World Title.

Kama Mustafa and Ahmed Johnson join newer ‘Bigger and Blacker' nation.

Ahmed is injured, fired, replaced by Rocky Maivia. Group fights ‘Gang Wars' against the DOA and Los Boricuas.

Rocky Maivia becomes The Rock, is awarded Intercontinental Championship. Mark Henry joins.

1998, Rock performs coop, forces Faarooq out, drops ‘of Domination' name, and totally cuts out Militant feel. Inspired by The Rock's new attitude (and certainly not because they need characters so DX can parody them), Kama becomes The Godfather, D'Lo Brown becomes a sycophant, and Mark Henry became Fat and Stupid. Group's focus becomes keeping Rock's IC title in tact.

Owen Hart then joins group, begins to wear road signs. Nation then enter into long running and popular feud with DX. Nation is parodied, DX trade European and IC title few times between members.

Owen Hart leaves due to Rock's Ego, Rock leaves due to Rock's Ego, Godfather leaves due to Hos, Brown and Henry form tag team, Nation dies.

I'm sure someone's going to cry racism over the fact that one white girl gets more space then a whole bunch of black guys…

Corpse-Bukkake (ewwwww) has two questions.

So right before MLW folded, they announced an event where they would be putting trampoline / springboard dealies on each turnbuckle for some extra high flying action. However they folded right after I heard about this. Do you know if this ever happened? Or maybe this idea happened somewhere else? I would like to see this.

Well, I heard of something, a ‘Crazy 8 Match'. Some group called Pro Wrestling Unplugged came up with it, the match involving placing a championship belt at the top of a scaffold with the first wrestler to retrieve it being declared the winner. Placed in and around the ring for the wrestlers to utilize during the match are one side of a steel cage, two trampolines, and four rope swings.

But apart from all the idiot kids you can see on youtube who ‘wrestle' on their trampolines, I can't find any real companies being this stupid. Fans?

How much money did Vincent make in WCW he seemed to lurk around forever accomplishing close to nothing. I figure he was Hogan's friend, that may be why he had a job for so long.

Well, he is a somewhat solid hand, and knows a fair bit about the business. As for what he got paid, no idea. Obviously not a huge amount, since he now teaches Math in-between the very occasional Indy show. But I'm sure whatever it was, it was generous.

Tarek gets the final question before my opinion and the first one in it.

Dear Mathew,

Great job on the column.

I have questions about the Monday Night Wars dvd or it might have been on the Ultimate Warriors DVD. The part when they talk about the Warrior'r return to WCW against Hogan who is the guy standing in the ring with Hogan and what was his deal?



That's Eric Bischoff dude.



No, seriously, that's The Disciple, which is Ed Leslie, a.k.a Brutus ‘The Booty Man With No Name' Beefcake's 27th attempt to get over. After getting beaten up at Hog Wild in 96, Beefcake vanished for over a year, eventually returning in 1998 as The Disciple, helping Hogan win various matches and being his bestest buddy. However, during the Warrior run, he was kidnapped and then brainwashed by Warrior into becoming Warrior's Disciple, and the only other member of the One Warrior Nation, which is a paradox right out of the gate.

Second Hogan says that Warrior did a huge wrestling faux-pas in that he said that he had beaten Hogan before and that Hogan had never beaten him. Why is that bad. Surely if the NOW was running rampant as a heel group that nobody could stop the faces needed someone legit to dethrown the big man. Who better than a guy Hogan had never beaten? I really don't see how this would have affected the storyline.

Well, they were looking for stuff to rag on him for in that DVD really. But buried in there, as often is with Hogan, there's something resembling a point.

See, there's a difference between selling the match and killing the match.

If I'm cutting a promo on you, and I go on and on about how you suck, that you're nobody, that the last time we fought, I destroyed you, killed your dog and then made sweet sweet love to your wife, then there's no real desire generated for people to buy the match, the idea goes. If we're trying to sell the match as a close, hard hitting affair, then me going on and on about how you're garbage doesn't help.

Now, in this context, you're right, it does make sense. Every feud nWo Hogan had was about how this was the guy to get the job done. Piper, Hogan had never beat. Giant, Hogan had never beat. Sting, Hogan had never beat, so on and so forth. So while Hogan does kinda sorta have a point, it's not true, really.

My Damm Opinion

Lastly in your opinion if Mohammed Hasan has stayed do you think he would be the biggest heel in the company today?

I would like to think not. He wasn't that great a wrestler, and the character, as it ended up, was pretty one dimensional. I doubt it would have had the legs to be the biggest heel. But stranger things have happened…

Michael returns.

Lastly, and this is an opinion question, who do you think showed the most improvement from the point they hit the wrestling scene until they retired (unless of course they're still currently wrestling)? My top two would be Trish Stratus and DDP. Both came in basically as managers and both retired having multiple world title reigns under their belts. Can you think of some others who had that much success after either floundering for years or entered wrestling in a non-wrestling capacity?

Well, you can argue that The McMahon family have put on some great matches without being true wrestlers. Certainly Shane's desire to try and kill himself for our entertainment was a marked improvement over his first matches.

JBL maybe, if you allow a generous definition of improvement. Certainly from just another Texan Brawler to one of the best Color Commentators in wrestling history is an improvement in my book.

But yeah, Trish and DDP are solid picks. But you never know, Maryse and Miz might have them beat eventually…

Mike. The first isn't really opinion, but I don't know, so here it goes.

Yo my name is Mike..2 questions

1. who was the first to wear the shirt to the ring like Shawn Michaels and Cody always do with the sides cut off???? was it maybe Scott Hall??

Uh, sure, makes sense. The nWo in general would be the most logical choice, I can't think of any before then.

2. What was the greatest rib you have herd a wrestler did?

I'm not a huge fan of ribs, but I think the best one I heard of was when Al Snow, during the Pepper Is Missing angle, used Val Venis' phone number on the show, causing hundreds of calls from people who wanted to help.

But what about you guys? What's your favourite rib story?