Ask 411 Wrestling 12.23.09: Sting and Sting, Christmas Moments, Tribute To The Troops, WWE PPV Sets, More

Posted by Ryan Byers on 12.23.2009

Has there ever been drama between Sting the wrestler and Sting the singer? Who is the oldest guy to win a world title? Does WWE save PPV sets? What is your favorite Christmas wrestling moment? Get the answers to these questions and more in the latest edition of Ask 411!


Welcome, my friends, to Ask 411 Wrestling. I am Ryan Byers, and your regular host, Matthew Sforcina, is out of commission due to the holidays and related issues. Fortunately for him and for all of you, I'm getting to be an old pro at this, so get back and enjoy as I tackle all of your various inquiries about the world of professional wrestling.



Because of the time of year, I am contractually obligated to answer these questions from Father Christmas. Sort of odd one of the few non-Christian 411 writers winds up having to tackle the Christmas questions, eh? Happy Holidays!

1) With "Santa" wrestling for the major promotions in a least one match every year, I was wondering if he has ever won a match. I don't mean where a normal wrestler is just wearing the suit like Bubba Ray as Santa Dudley a few years ago, I mean a guy who is billed as just Santa Claus.

I couldn't think of any off the top of my head, and my subsequent research only turned up one time that this has happened. Of course, the majority of the times that "Santa" has appeared in professional wrestling, he has ultimately been revealed to be some member of the roster of the promotion in which he is appearing. If you think about it, this makes the most sense, as having a guy who is not going to be a regular part of your promotion beat somebody who IS a regular part of your promotion accomplishes nothing, as it takes the regular roster member down a peg without the compensation of moving anybody else up the pecking order. Even in most of the instances in which Santa has lost, he has ultimately been revealed to be a wrestler in disguise, though there was one notable exception to that rule when Kurt Angle made an unidentified Santa tap out to the ankle lock in a twenty-seven second long "match" at WWE's 2004 Armageddon pay per view.

. . . but what about the one instance in which an unidentified Santa has WON an encounter in the squared circle? Per my digging around, it took place on December 4, 1994 in Tokyo, Japan for Genichiro Tenryu's promotion W.A.R. The match involved not just one Santa but rather two of them, as the tag team of Masao Orihara and Nobukazu Harai were defeated by the team of Santa Claus #1 and Santa Claus #2, with Harai eating the pinfall. No, I don't know who he pissed off that particular Christmas season.

2) On the opposite side of things, has anyone wrestling under their normal gimmick ever won a championship whilst wearing a Santa suit?

To the best of my knowledge, no. Again, this makes sense if you think about it for a little while. In recent history, the Christmas season has been notoriously slow for professional wrestling, as major shows and therefore major events like title changes seemingly go on hiatus immediately before and after X-Mas, i.e. the shows on which you are most likely to see a grappler donning the floppy hat and beard of the jolly old elf.

Twenty or thirty years ago, major wrestling events and therefore things like title changes actually DID take place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but, during that period of time, championships were taken much more seriously than they are in the modern era, so the odds of seeing a title match mixed in with something as goofy as a wrestler wearing St. Nick's garb were significantly lower than they are today.

3) I loved Xanta Claus when he was in the WWF in 1996. Was there ever any pay-off to the angle? I can't remember any kind of ending . . . he just seemed to stop turning up.

For those of you who do not know the story behind Father Christmas' question, at the fifth installment of the WWF's "In Your House" pay per view series, which emanated from Hershey, Pennsylvania, babyface wrestler Savio Vega was attacked by Santa Claus. It was revealed that the attack was orchestrated by "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, though the man that he had attacked Vega was not actually Santa Claus. Instead, it was "Xanta Klaus," an evil Santa doppelganger who hailed from the South Pole and took presents away from children instead of giving them out.

Xanta wrestled only a handful of matches on WWF television, including one bout that aired on the December 19, 1995 edition of WWF Superstars in which he wrestled a young Scott Taylor, who would go on to more fame a few years later under the name Scotty II Hotty. There was never a formal end to the character. Xanta Klaus was never written out of storylines, and he never even had the match that everybody figured he would have had against Savio Vega. He just disappeared.

The man who played the Xanta Klaus character was none other than Balls Mahoney, who, after vanishing from the company in early 1996, would not be a contracted WWE wrestler again until 2006, when he signed as a part of the E's full-time relaunch of ECW.

4) Are the "Tribute to the Troops" shows considered canon or non-canon?

I don't think terms like "canon" apply to professional wrestling generally speaking. You're not going to get a bunch of wrestling fans to watch something on television and pretend that it didn't happen the next week when they're watching the exact same group of wrestlers in the exact same promotion. However, even if you disagree and think that these terms do apply to pro graps, I would think that you have to consider the goings on at the WWE Tribute to the Troops shows as canonical. Even though those shows are generally light on angle advancement, in the few instances in which plots have been furthered on a Tribute show, they have been referenced on subsequent programs. Perhaps the most notable example of this was when a U.S. solider became the first victor in Chris Masters' Masterlock challenge on the 2006 version of the show. That incident was referenced on subsequent episodes of Monday Night Raw, and the Masterlock was no longer considered to have never been escaped.

5) Glenn Jacobs (Kane, Fake Diesel, Isaac Yankem) wrestled as the Christmas Creature for a while in Memphis, I believe. How far up the card was he and how long was the character used for?

The Christmas Creature was a very short-lived character, and I believe that it was designed to be that way from the beginning. The Memphis territory in the early 1990's was somewhat infamous for bringing in over the top, "monster" style heels to feud with their top babyfaces, and he was just another name on the long list of creatures that was coming in to torment the do-gooders of the United States Wrestling Alliance.

In total, the Christmas Creature's professional wrestling career lasted less than a month. However, he was fairly high up on the card, as he immediately feuded with Jerry Lawler and went up against him for the USWA Heavyweight Title in the main event of a December 28, 1992 show. The Creature's mask was also in the line in that bout, and Lawler was able to defeat him in order to retain the belt and put the Christmas Creature gimmick to bed forever. Less than a year later, Glen Jacobs would be back in USWA wrestling under the name Doomsday and later Unabomb.

6) There's been loads of Santas and elves (women usually) over the years in wrestling, but I was wondering if there have been any wrestling snowmen (frosty style . . . not abominable) or wrestling reindeer?

I am not aware of anybody dressing up as a snowman in the wrestling ring. There was a wrestler named the Snowman, who primarily competed in the mid-1980's in Bill Watts' Mid-South territory. He was brought into the company to be a replacement for the Junkyard Dog as the company's top African American babyface, but he never caught on with the fans as well as JYD did and quickly faded into relative obscurity, coming back in 1990 to the USWA to feud with Jerry Lawler over that company's heavyweight title. (What is it with all of the USWA tie-ins in this column?) Of course, the Snowman's gimmick was not that he was a snowman . . . he was just a fellow who adopted that nickname.

There have been at least two instances in which wrestling personalities have dressed as reindeer. The more recent of the two was Tony Atlas slapping on the antlers and Rudolph nose on the December 17, 2008 edition of ECW on Sci-Fi, which complimented the Santa suit that his protege Mark Henry was wearing. Going back eleven years, another reindeer suit-donner (Get it?) was none other than Rena "Sable" Mero. On a December 11, 1997 WWF show from Lowell, Massachusetts, Marc Mero was wrestling Scott Taylor. (What is it with all of the Scott Taylor tie-ins in this column?) At the time, Marc was, in storyline, sick of being in his girl's shadow and therefore preventing her from showing off what made her a big star. As a result, he made her dress as a baggy reindeer suit while he valeted her instead of something more revealing. After the match, Mero's then-rival Tom Brandi attacked him, allowing Sable to strip down to her underthings to the delight of the crowd.

7) Finally, what is your favorite Christmas wrestling moment?

My favorite Christmas moment in the history of professional wrestling took place on the December 22, 2000 edition of Monday Night Raw. At the time, Kurt Angle was the WWF Champion, and he was joined by his Team ECK partners Edge and Christian as well as Stephanie McMahon to bring season's greetings to the fans of the Federation. And what would Christmas be without a little bit of family bonding? Kurt quickly brought out all of his male siblings and one cousin, all dressed in identical track suits. Accompanied by E&C on kazoos, they caroled for the crowd until Chris Jericho interrupted and challenged Angle, Edge, and Christian to a match which wound up being a six man tag also involving the Dudley Boys. Heck, let's take a look at a version of the story which is a little bit more YouTubular:



The match would ultimately see Kurt's brother Eric take a bump through a table courtesy of the Dudleys. It made sense at the time, given that Eric was under a WWF developmental contract and training in Ohio Valley Wrestling. He never debuted as a regular member of the WWF television roster, though he reportedly did have a bit of a tryst with Tough Enough winner Nidia Guenard. Can't beat that.

Joshua K.'s questions give us a little bit of a "rock and wrestling connection." Hmm . . . I wonder why nobody's ever tried that before . . .

#1. Other than the Big Boss Man, has any other famous wrestler gotten their name or gimmick from a song?

Absolutely. In fact, one of the most famous names in professional wrestling history comes from a song. Buddy Rogers took his nickname "The Nature Boy" from a 1947 pop ballad, the most famous version of which was recorded by Nat King Cole. Of course, Ric Flair would adopt the Nature Boy moniker in later years, as would various other wrestlers like Buddy Landel and Scoot Andrews.

There were also a couple of wrestlers who wrestled under the name "Bad" Leroy Brown, the most famous of which competed in Mid-South and Championship Wrestling from Florida in the 1980's.

#2. Has there ever been any drama between Sting the wrestler and Sting the singer? Have they ever tried to sue each other or anything?

There have never been any issues that I am aware of. If you're curious as to who used the name first, it was almost definitely the musician, who adopted it very early in his career in the 1970's. Sting the wrestler wasn't even involved in his profession until the 1980's and spent at least a year under the moniker Flash (or "Flash Borden" depending on the source) before switching over to being the Stinger.

Gozzz has a two-fer of completely unrelated questions:

1. I seem to recall in the mid-80's NWA, there was an angle where Rocky King (JTTS) turned on Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant. Do you recall any of that? I seem to remember it stemmed from Jimmy calling Rocky "the best black wrestler he knew." I also seem to recall Rocky King hooking up with Paul Jones and Pez Whatley for a spell. Does any of this ring a bell, or did I imagine all this?

You are absolutely correct . . . except that it was Whatley that turned on Valiant for this reason, not King. The year in question was 1986, and the company in question was Jim Crockett Promotions. You even remember the line that started the feud, as Pez resented being referred to as a "black wrestler" as opposed to being referred to as simply a "wrestler," because he thought that it implied that "black wrestlers" were in a class beneath white wrestlers. Pez took on the name of Shaska Whatley, as well as manager Paul Jones. In one of the brawls between Valiant and Paul Jones' army, Shaska wound up taking away a clump of Jimmy's hair, which lead to a natural stipulation for the matches that would blow off the feud. Those came on July 26, 1986, when Valiant defeated Whatley in a hair versus hair match at the Great American Bash and again on November 27, 1986, when Valiant defeated Paul Jones in a hair versus hair match at the Greensboro leg of Starrcade.

2. This question was brought on by my recalling old Survivor Series team matches. Can you list any and all team member changes (before the match took place), and the reasons, kayfabe or otherwise? I know that Bad News Brown subbed for someone one year, and everyone remembers Mr. Perfect subbing for the Ultimate Warrior in 1992. I know Scott Casey made it to a team in 1989, and he sure as hell wasn't an original member.

Hey, here's a list!

- The first Survivor Series replacement took place at the first Survivor Series in 1987. "Superstar" Billy Graham was supposed to be a part of Hulk Hogan's team in the main event as they wrestled the Heenan family. However, Graham was sidelined when the One Man Gang gave him a big 747 splash on the a concrete floor, opening the door for Don Muraco to join team Hogan. In reality, the splash was a cover for a legitimate hip injury that Graham suffered in a match against "Hacksaw" Butch Reed.

- The next year, 1988, saw a replacement when Don Muraco left the promotion after having been scheduled to team with the Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, Sam Houston, and the Blue Blazer against the Honky Tonk Man, Ron Bass, Danny Davis, Greg Valentine, and Bad News Brown. Muraco's sub was "Jumpin'" Jim Brunzell.

- 1988 was also the year of the Scott Casey replacement referenced by Gozzz. Casey was actually a third-string replacement on Jim Duggan's team. Duggan had originally assembled the group of Jake Roberts, Ken Patera, Junkyard Dog, and Tito Santana to face his opponents, Andre the Giant, Rick Rude, Dino Bravo, Mr. Perfect, and Harley Race. The Dog left the WWF before the pay per view, and he was replaced by B. Brian Blair. Blair bailed on the company shortly thereafter, and his replacement was Casey.

- There were plenty of replacements in 1989. Big Boss Man's team the Enforcers originally consisted of Boss Man, Akeem, Rick Matel, and the Honky Tonk Man. Akeem was cut from the team, though, being replaced by Bad News Brown. Their opponents were Dusty Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, The Red Rooster, and Tito Santana.

- There was also a replacement on Randy Savage's 1989 Survivor Series team. His partners were first set as "Widowmaker" Barry Windham, Dino Bravo, and Greg Valentine, with the opposing team being Jim Duggan, Bret Hart, Ronnie Garvin, and Hecules. Windham was pulled and replaced by the "Canadian Earthquake" John Tenta before the pay per view, though.

- Finally for 1989, the main event pitted the Ultimate Warriors of the Ultimate Warrior (duh), the Rockers, and Jim Neidhart against the Heenan Family of the Colossal Connection and the Brainbusters. A pre-show drug test failure resulted in Brainbuster member Tully Blanchard being fired from the company, so Heenan himself stepped in and wrestled alongside his Family.

- The opening match of the '93 Survivor Series was set to be Mr. Perfect, Razor Ramon, Marty Jannetty, and the 1-2-3 Kid against I.R.S., Diesel, Adam Bomb, and Rick Martel. Perfect had to pull out of the match because his back was essentially being held together by rubber bands and duct tape at this point, and Randy Savage was his replacement.

- Also in 1993, Bret Hart and his brothers Owen, Bruce, and Keith were scheduled to wrestle Jerry Lawler and his three masked Knights. However, Lawler was pulled from the event because of legal difficulties. Specifically, he had been accused of molesting a teenage girl, a charge which later turned out to be false. Lawler was replaced by Shawn Michaels.

- 1993 was apparently the year of "card subject to change." The originally planned main event of that year's Survivor Series pitted the "Foreign Fanatics" of Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga, and the Quebecers against the "All-Americans" of Lex Luger, Tatanka, and the Steiner Brothers. Several weeks before the pay per view, Yoko and Borga assaulted Tatanka, giving him storyline injuries that kept him out of the match. He was replaced by the Undertaker, which would ultimately set up 'Taker's title program with Yokozuna. In retribution, Luger injured Pierre of the Quebecers with a shot from his "loaded" forearm in a singles match that they had as an SS preview. Pierre was replaced by Crush.

- In the 2001 Survivor Series finale to the Invasion angle, Vince McMahon was originally scheduled to be a part of Team WWF along with the Undertaker, Kane, Chris Jericho, and the Rock, who were going up against Team Alliance of Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T., Shane McMahon, and Rob Van Dam. A few weeks before the show, Vince decided that he needed somebody better than a sixty year old man defending the livelihood of his company and replaced himself with the Big Show.

A gentleman whose name was not listed in the batch 'o questions that Sforcina sent to me asks:

Why is the U.K. Smackdown edited? Other regions are edited also. Sky Sports say it's the program they receive from WWE, but I can't see them including a "From the Vault" segment while cutting out storyline advancement.

Different countries have different regulations regarding what is acceptable to show in their television broadcasts. As much as fans in the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia may hate to read this, WWE primarily produces its television shows for the American television market and everybody else is in second place. A show that is considered perfectly acceptable per U.S. broadcast regulations may have some content that foreign networks cannot air due to government standards in that country. Oftentimes, this has to do with the level of violence in a particular angle. Some countries are leery when it comes to airing shots with weapons, and others do not want anything to do with television programs involving violence against women.

In addition to restrictions on violence, certain countries have regulations on the level of advertising that can be contained within the body of a television program. As a result of these regulations, certain segments that are primarily designed to sell a product (for example, a promo in which a wrestler talks a lot about an upcoming DVD) might have to be removed in foreign markets when it is fine to air in the U.S.

A fellow by the name of JLAJRC, who I've seen e-mailing 411 for several years now, has a trio of questions. Since he's a dedicated reader, let's take 'em all on:

1.) I've been a wrestling fan for over 15 years. But something I've always wondered is how much of wrestling is "real" vs. acting. I know that wrestlers frequently get injured and even endure lifelong pain because of it. But how much of it is "real?" I know some tricks like pulling punches an stomping your foot on the mat to make something look more painful. But if wrestling was 100% real we'd be seeing a lot more reports of wrestlers becoming paralyzed and the like. Are there other tricks you use to make something look more painful than it really is?

One of the biggest tricks of the trade that isn't already mentioned in this question is the manner in which wrestlers fall to the mat or "bump." Even though hitting the mat or the arena floor will almost always hurt, wrestlers definitely "know how to fall" and attempt to land in a particular position that distributes the impact of the fall across their bodies and thereby minimizes the pain. If you watch any of the several television programs or movies that have provided a behind the scenes look at wrestling over the last ten years, including Tough Enough or Beyond the Mat, you should get a fairly good idea of how bumping works. What is interesting to note in terms of taking bumps is that Mexican wrestlers play things even safer than their American counterparts, as you'll rarely see them take a flat-back bump. Instead, they "roll" through moves in almost a somersault motion as opposed to flipping over and landing flat on their backsides.

Also, though this may seem obvious, most of the moves that are in theory designed to drop wrestlers on their heads come nowhere near close to doing so. Though some guys have perverted these moves and turned them into ACTUAL head drops, things like piledrivers and DDTs are in reality meant to have the majority of the impact absorbed by the guy delivering the move with the head of the "victim" not touching the mat at all or touching it only after their opponent's back or buttocks have done so.

2.) Who played Phantasio, who had only one match in the WWF? Is he still wrestling today?

Phantasio was played by a wrestler named Harry Del Rios, who made his in-ring debut in 1992. His first real exposure in professional wrestling came in the USWA, where he wrestled under the name Spellbinder and did a version of the same gimmick that he would later do in the WWF as Phantasio. (Again, what is it with all of the USWA connections in this column?) Memphis was his home base for quite some time, and he alternated back and forth between wrestling as Spellbinder and wrestling under the name Del Rios for several years before the WWF came calling for him in '95. His only television match was a quick squash against Tony DeVito, which would air editions of WWF Superstars and Wrestling Challenge broadcast during the week of July 16, 1995. (Phantasio's opponent was the same DeVito who would go on to be one of Da Baldies in ECW and then half of the Carnage Crew in Ring of Honor.) He would continue to wrestle in Memphis for the rest of his career, even winning the USWA Heavyweight Title for a period of time in 1997.

In 2002, several Tennessee-based wrestlers had an opportunity to wrestle for TNA in its early days, and Spellbinder was one of them. By this point, he had gone back to his Del Rios ring name and developed a look that resulted in many viewers mistaking him for Scott Steiner at first glance. Del Rios competed in the gauntlet match held to crown the first NWA Champion of the TNA era on June 19, 2002, though he would never be seen in the promotion again.

Rios has continued to compete in local Memphis promotions since his TNA appearance, briefly working under the name Shock as half of the tag team "Shock and Awe" in 2005 before ultimately moving back to the Spellbinder persona.

3.) If the first Persian Gulf War hadn't happened, do you think Vince would've still put the WWF Title on Sgt. Slaughter? Surely Vince could have waited one more PPV to have a Hogan/Warrior rematch at WM. Or even put it on Savage, since that was who Warrior wrestled next.

Given where Slaughter was in his career in the early 1990's, the only conceivable reason for putting the WWF Title on him was to capitalize on the Gulf War. If there was no war, he most likely wouldn't have gotten the championship, period. However, from what I understand, the Iraqi sympathizer angle was not the only reason that the title was taken off of the Warrior when it was. He was not drawing well on house shows, which at the time were a much larger portion of the WWF's business than they are currently.

Brian Smelser asks a question about one of my areas of expertise:

My question is about SHIMMER. I've been a fan of that company since I purchased volume 1 back in 2006. A few of my favorite wrestlers (Tiana Ringer, Alexa Thatcher, & Cindy Rogers) all seemed like they were in line for big pushes when they stopped appearing for SHIMMER. My questions are why did they stop wrestling for them? Is it possible that they'll ever return? Are they still wrestling today?

I am an avid SHIMMER fan myself, owning all of the DVDs and having been to several of the events in person . . . so I actually had the answers to these ready to go off the top of my head.

Cindy Rogers was last seen in SHIMMER for the taping of Volumes 17 and 18 in April 2008, where she lost to Daizee Haze and Mercedes Martinez, respectively. She broke her collarbone before the next set of tapings for the company could take place and spent the better part of six months recovering. She was able to briefly return to the ring from that injury in the early part of 2009 but then had another stretch where she was forced to take time off and didn't pop up again until August '09. Since then, SHIMMER has only held one set of tapings, which took place in November. Cindy was not there, and I frankly do not know offhand whether this was due to another injury or a scheduling conflict. In short, it doesn't seem like Rogers has been away because she doesn't want to be in SHIMMER or because SHIMMER does not want her there. She just hasn't been healthy for large portions of the last two years, and the times during which she has been able to work have not coincided with the times at which the promotion has been running shows. It's just an unfortunate series of coincidences.

Alexa Thatcher, who TNA may fans may remember as former Knockout jobber Alexa Jade, lost a lot of good will with hardcore followers of SHIMMER when she cancelled a booking for an April 2008 event, claiming that there was a family emergency which would prevent her from appearing . . . only for her to take a booking on a wrestling show for another promotion the same weekend. I have personally not seen Thatcher's name in any wrestling results for over a year now, nor have any of the women's wrestling fans that I correspond with. It appears that, though she never made a formal announcement regarding a "retirement," she is no longer pursuing a wrestling career.

Tiana Ringer has not been actively involved in professional wrestling since 2007. Her grandfather passed away at that time, and his death caused her to reevaluate her priorities. According to a message that was posted on her official website at that time, she decided to focus on completing her bachelors and masters degrees as opposed to focusing on professional wrestling. The tone and wording of the message (which is no longer online) did not lead me to believe that she was completely ruling out a return to the ring at some point in the future, but, almost three years have passed since that message went up, so it is not likely.

Jeremy spoke in class today:

1) How long does it usually take to set up/strike everything for a wrestling show, including the ring, ringside gear, and set?

Well, the smartass answer is that it depends on the wrestling show. Obviously, setting up for something like Wrestlemania would take longer than setting up for a standard episode of Raw, which would take longer than setting things up for TNA Impact, which would take longer than setting things up for Ring of Honor, and so on down the line.

It is my understanding from listening to interviews with wrestlers over the years that, for the average WWE television taping, they are showing up at the arena between 1:00 and 3:00 PM local time. So, if you assume that the crew is getting there at the same time as the wrestlers and beginning their work at that point, you're looking at around five or six hours to get everything put into place.

2) Is there a reason WWE replaced metal barricades with the security wall? I imagine aesthetics on TV play a role but what about safety?

I'm not aware of anybody who has been involved with WWE actually making a comment on this, but you've hit the two most likely reasons for the change in your question. The wall looks more professional when tied into the colors of the rest of the set, and it has an additional layer of padding on it, which makes it safer for wrestlers to slam in to.

3) Botchamania shows fans who hop the ring get an ass-whipping but do they get in trouble with the company/police? Also, if someone interrupts a Matt Morgan match and eats a Carbon Footprint, could that person sue Morgan or TNA since fans don't sign waivers at the door?

People who run into wrestling rings these days probably have it a lot better than people who did it thirty or forty years ago, as I've heard many interviews with old school territorial wrestlers who have noted that, in addition to any intruding fans being beaten up by the wrestlers in the ring, they could expect to be hauled back to what was known as the "kayfabe room," where several more wrestlers would make sure that the idiot who rushed the ring knew never to do it again, all while the local police turned a blind eye.

Given that wrestling is now a much more corporate environment, I would be amazed to learn that the kayfabe rooms still exist, but fans who jump the rail can still expect to be decked by a wrestler or even a referee if they make it into the ring. As far as the ability of those fans to sue the wrestlers involved or the company is concerned, there is no one good answer to that question. Laws involving battery and self-defense vary so much between different countries and even different states within the U.S. and apply so differently to different sets of facts that there is no one rule of thumb.

Yes, there are probably jurisdictions and factual situations in which a wrestler could rough up a fan to the point that the fan would be able to sue successfully. Yes, there are probably also jurisdictions and factual situations in which a fan could attempt to bring a lawsuit for the same behavior and be laughed out of court.

4) Randy Orton is the youngest world champ in WWE history but who is the oldest guy to win his first-time world championship?

Of course, the answer to a question like this always depends on what you consider to be a World Title. For purposes of answering this question, I have considered the two current versions of the WWE Title, the WCW Title, the NWA Title, the TNA Title, the AWA Title, the IWGP Title, the AJPW Triple Crown, and the GHC Title to be "world titles."

Looking at all of those championships, the winner is . . . VINCENT KENNEDY MCMAHON~! That's right, when he captured the WWE Title for the first time, Vince was fifty-six years old, making him the competitor with the most grey behind his temples to win his first world title.

Of course, people are probably going to try to take this question a step beyond McMahon and ask who the oldest real wrestler to capture his first world title is. We actually have a tie for that distinction at the age of forty-three. Sergeant Slaughter was that age when he won the WWF Title from the Ultimate Warrior in the early 1990's, and Diamond Dallas Page was that age when he won the WCW Title in the late 1990's. Also, Ric Flair won his first WWF Title at age forty-three, though obviously he held numerous WCW and NWA Championships in the preceding ten years.

Coming in at second place are Ronnie Garvin, Buddy Rogers, and Andre the Giant, all of whom won their first major championships at the age of forty-two. They held the NWA, WWWF, and WWF titles, respectively. (Rogers may actually be disqualified depending on how you interpret the NWA World Title history, as he had an earlier reign with one of the championships that Lou Thesz unified into the championship which is common considered the first true "world" title.)

In third place is Nick Bockwinkel, who won his first AWA World Title at age forty-one. Raven also won his first World Title at forty-one if you consider the NWA Championship to be a World Title but you do not consider the ECW Championship to be a World Title.

5) Could you tell me more about Prince Iaukea and his family? I'm from Hawaii, as is he, but nobody I know watched WCW back in the day so they don't remember his reverse bald spot haircut, rivalry with Norman Smiley, or the Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea gimmick.

The story of the Iaukea name in professional wrestling goes back to King Curtis Iaukea, a Hawaiian who broke into the wrestling business in the early 1960's. In addition to wrestling in his native Hawaii, Iaukea appeared in territories throughout the world. His star probably shone the brightest in the 1970's Australian territory promoted by Jim Barnett and later Tony Kolonie known as World Championship Wrestling (no relation to the U.S. WCW). In addition to being one of the top heels in Australian wrestling history, King Curtis also had stints in Championship Wrestling from Florida, Don Owens' Oregon territory, and the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where he held the championship which can be traced to the modern day WWE World Tag Team Titles. When his time in the ring came to an end, he popped up as a manager in the WWF in 1985 and 1986 under the name "The Wizard" and appeared in WCW in the mid-1990's as "The Master," who was the mastermind behind the Dungeon of Doom stable.

There were actually two different Prince Iaukeas. The original Prince Iaukea was Curtis Iaukea's legitimate son. Though he was perfectly competent in the ring based on the footage that I have seen, he did not come anywhere close to being the level of star that his father was. He was primarily an opening match and lower card wrestler in Championship Wrestling from Florida, where he had programs with the likes of Hector Guerrero and Tyree Pride. Perhaps the most memorable match of his career was a bout that he had against the Black Ninja in CWF. The match is notable because the Ninja was the Great Muta in one of his very first United States appearances. That match was taped for television and later released on several different DVD compilations of classic Florida footage produced in the first half of this decade before Mike Graham sold the rights to the CWF tape library to WWE.

The second Prince Iaukea is the one that Jeremy is thinking of. Prince #2 was actually not related to Curtis Iaukea in any way, shape, or form. His name was Mike Haynes III (or Haynor, depending on the source), and he had legitimate Polynesian heritage and was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii. As a result of this heritage and as a result of Kevin Sullivan taking a shine to him when he was booking WCW in the mid-1990's, Haynes was given the Prince Iaukea name by Sullivan as a tribute to King Curtis. WCW's announcers at the time did refer to Haynes as a relative of Curtis Iaukea, but, again, there was no legitimate relationship.

Prince #2 held the WCW Television Championship for a period of time, scoring an upset victory over Steven Regal (now William Regal) when Regal was in the middle of a feud with Rey Misterio, Jr. over the title. Iaukea's reign was uneventful, and he was largely portrayed as a champion who retained his title through luck or fluke wins, most often as a result of Misterio or Regal costing each other victories. When he was finally done with the title, WCW loaned him out to New Japan Pro Wrestling for a tour. Upon returning form NJPW, Prince was thrust into the middle of the company's Vince Russo era, where he was renamed the Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea, told to emulate the singer Prince, and given Booker T.'s future wife Sharmell (at the time known as "Paisley") as a valet. Iaukea held the Cruiserweight Title in that gimmick, though that title was treated so badly during the Russo run that it didn't mean much.

Prince Iaukea quietly faded into the background as WCW closed down. His last role in the company, which mainly took place on WCW Worldwide and other syndicated shows, saw him being referred to as simply "The Artist" and doing a gimmick which borrowed heavily from that of Raven, who had recently left the company to return to ECW. Since WCW folded, Haynes has done a fair amount of stunt work in various movies and television shows, and he continues to be active in the independent pro wrestling scene in Florida, mainly for a company called Pro Wrestling Fusion. He has a son who has also gotten into the business and works under the name of Nick Primo.

Here is some video footage of Iaukea wrestling his son just a few months ago:



6) I think you've covered this before but I'll ask just to make sure. What happens to pay-per-view sets after the shows? I could imagine a warehouse being full of old Halloween Havoc props or some such but wanted to ask you if you knew?

Like sets for any movie or television show, they are disassembled, and, to the extent that people believe that they can be stored and reused, they are stored and reused. To the extent that they cannot be reused, they are disposed of.

Jake wants to go downtown with Bruno:

Got a question about the referees: Just got the Survivor Series Anthology (1 and 2) and in the 1996 Survivor Series during the opening match which is a Survivor Series Elimination Match between Owen Hart, British Bulldog and the New Rockers vs. Doug and Phillip LaFon, and the Godwins. Who is the outside official? It looks like Harvey Wippleman, was he ever an official?

You are correct . . . that was most likely Harvey Whippleman. Whippleman's last assignment as a heel manager in the WWF was with Bertha Faye, and, when Bertha split town, Horrible Harvey didn't have that much to do. As a result, the company started an angle in which Whippleman would appear at ringside from week to week with a clipboard, taking notes on matches. Originally it was assumed that Harvey was scouting new talent to manage, but it was ultimately revealed that he was taking notes on the refereeing in the Fed's matches because he thought that he could improve it.

Of course, the story was that all of the babyfaces distrusted Harv at first because of his reputation from his days as a manager, but, over time, it became clear that he was going to call things right down the middle. This came into play at least once in a match, when he reversed his decision in an Owen Hart versus Barry Horowitz match on WWF Superstars as a result of Hart refusing to break the Sharpshooter after he had already been declared the victor.

If there were any bigger plans for Harvey as a referee, they never materialized. He would go on to don the stripes for the WWF again in 1999, as a result of an angle in which the regular WWF zebra crew went on strike and had to be replaced by "scabs" such as Whippleman.

Aram sends to me what I believe are the first questions from Denmark that I have answered:

Back in late 2002, Íve heard rumors and read something about WWE making a one time deal with Lennox Lewis to have a match or confrontation against Brock Lesnar at No Way Out, any truth to that rumor?

The rumors were absolutely correct. Lewis and WWE were in negotiations in 2002 to bring the former boxing champion in to have a shoot fight (not a worked match) with Brock Lesnar. At least one source reported that the offer on the table to Lewis from Vince McMahon was over five million dollars. Ultimately, the negotiations broke down. Though the exact reasons for the failure of the camps to reach a deal are unclear, I recall reading at the time that there were disagreements over what rules would be used in this mixed boxer versus wrestler fight and that there were concerns about whether Vince McMahon could get licensed to promote a show featuring shoot fights given his history in wrestling.

What was the plan for Steve Austin if he had stay around and not left WWE mid 2002?

Immediately before his departure, Ric Flair had lost a match to Austin in which the Nature Boy would have to become Stone Cold's servant if he dropped the fall. Presumably, this would have lead in to some sort of extended feud with Flair.

Why did WWE stop doing UK PPVS? I believe the last one was Rebeillion 2003 with Edge - Lesnar as the headliner, I believe it was a good showcase to pair up new matches and give other a shot at the main event

There is only one reason that WWE stops doing anything that generates revenue for them, UK-only PPVs included: The product that they are not producing is no longer as profitable as they want it to be or they do not believe that it will be as profitable as some new concept that they want to test drive. If the English shows were making the promotion a good chunk of change, we probably never would have seen them abandoned.

What is Vader up to these days?

He is no longer wrestling on a regular basis. According to the Vader tribute site BigVanVader.com, he had hip replacement surgery in 2008 and recently has been training his son, Jesse White, to become a wrestler. (Jesse, of course, is not to be confused with the current Illinois Secretary of State.)

How come Sid was the man to take the title away from HBK back in 96? Was it a sudden change to the plans, since Sid only had returned to the WWF a few months prior?

There were very few individuals to whom Michaels could credibly lose the championship at that point, as Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had just bolted for WCW and Michaels was already making it known that he did not want to lose the championship to Bret Hart. Sid was just the most convenient wrestler to transition the title to without having to do a babyface versus babyface match.

Why did the British Bulldog leave WWF in 92?

The Bulldog and the Ultimate Warrior were both fired from the WWF at the same time in 1992 when they were caught receiving shipments of human growth hormone, a performance enhancing drug. This was during the period of time that Vince McMahon himself was facing federal criminal charges for steroid distribution, so behavior like that was taken much more seriously than it was at any other point prior to the current wellness policy. Despite the fact that there was some pretty damning evidence that he was using illegal drugs, Davey Boy was hired by WCW almost immediately after the WWF let him go. That's one of those things about the wrestling business that just makes me a little bit ill . . .

Íve read a rumor that if brock had stayed in 2004, they wanted to do a HHH - Lesnar match for WM21? and was there anytime at all before he became a MMA Fighter, that he was close to returning to WWE?

Lesnar-Triple H certainly made sense to headline Wrestlemania in 2004 if you stop and think about it. The two wrestlers had, up to that point, not met in a serious program, and they were largely considered to be the top men on their respective "brands."

There were fleeting rumors that Lesnar had been extended offers by the company the entire time that he was away from them, but, actually, the majority of time that Lesnar was in neither WWE nor UFC, he was involved in a fairly nasty legal battle with the 'E regarding what he was and was not allowed to do in the combat sports world in light of a no-compete agreement that he signed in order to obtain his release from WWE. Ultimately, the two sides settled their disputes and Lesnar got the much sweeter end of the deal, as whatever the confidential resolution of the two parties' differences was, it cleared the way for Brock to go to UFC and become a significantly bigger (and wealthier) mainstream star than what WWE had ever made him.

Jaheev also has a series of questions:

1. Why do you think heel factions have always been more successful than face factions? Can you think of any successful face factions?

I would suspect that heel factions have historically done better than babyface factions because a big part of professional wrestling is stacking the deck against the face, only to have him overcome the odds and triumph in the end. That dynamic gets completely screwed up if you create a situation in which a babyface faction feuds with a singles heel, because then the faces are never really at a disadvantage and, as a result, there is no need for the crowd to get behind them or ultimately pay to see them pull off the unthinkable to close out the angle.

Because of the above, if you run with a babyface faction, you almost have to do it as a part of a storyline in which heel and face factions are feuding. It's the only way to make sure that your face stable can be placed "in peril" before ultimately making their comeback. However, though they have worked at certain places and in certain times in wrestling, stable versus stable feuds are very difficult to do properly. The problem is that so many individual wrestlers get involved that, invariably, several of them get lost in the shuffle and become impossible for fans to connect with, killing the whole story dead in its tracks. (For good examples of this, see the WWF's 1990's "Gang Warz" storyline or the more recent abysmal flop of ROH and its "Faction Warfare.")

Despite the above, there is still the occasional babyface faction that breaks out and find success. Perhaps the most popular of the lot is the Triple H-lead version of D-Generation X from the height of the WWF Attitude Era. Another good example would be the babyface version of the nWo Wolfpac, consisting of the likes of Sting, Lex Luger, and Kevin Nash, though they didn't last for nearly as long as DX and didn't have strong opponents to play off of. However, for the short time that they were together, they got some of the loudest crowd reactions of the entire Monday Night War. Also, the Four Horsemen were a babyface unit for the vast majority of the 1990's wrestling boom, but it's hard to call them a "successful" face faction just because they were remembered so much better from their performances as heels just a few years earlier.

2. At Halloween Havoc 1998 Bret Hart defeated Sting. After the match Bret's music played, but it was a completely different theme from his normal theme music at that time and (as far as I remember) also never played afterwards. Why did he enter the match with his normal theme and left with another (unnamed) theme?

Given that it happened only once and was never repeated, the most likely explanation is that it was either a production error or something that was tested out once but didn't go over well enough to bother repeating.

3. Why are triple threat matches in WWE always no DQ and since when did the announcers start to point this out each match?

Triple threat matches in WWE have been no DQ since their very inception. One of the earliest three-way bouts that I recall seeing on WWE TV involved the Godwinns and the New Blackjacks, and there was a point at which one of the hog farmers used his slop bucket to deck one of the cowboys. It was pointed out by the announcers that there COULDN'T be a DQ. Usually when there is a disqualification, the match immediately comes to an end, with the person who violated the rules losing and the person who did not winning. When somebody cheats in a triple threat match, though, you can't immediately end it and declare a winner because there are two innocent parties, and wrestling usually shies away from "co-winners" of matches.

I suppose one possible solution to this would be to remove the disqualified wrestlerfrom the match and allow the other two to continue as though they were having a singles bout, though then the concept gets a little bit screwy because triple threats would be one fall to a finish the majority of the time but elimination matches in some limited circumstances.

4. Why is hanging on to the ropes after a sunset flip from the opponent considered illegal, and even see referees kicking the hands off the ropes?

The way that I have always looked at it is this: The ropes of a professional wrestling ring are like the boundary lines on a basketball court or a football field. If you go out of bounds, the official needs to stop play and get the players back in bounds. The same is true of a wrestling ring. In hanging on to the ropes, the wrestler is technically outside of the "playing field" of the match and needs to be brought in immediately.

6. In many no DQ/no holds barred/streetfight etc. matches from the past and present, there have been rope breaks/counts/DQ's. For example in the recent Beer Money vs. British Invasion cage match from Impact the British Invasion was disqualified in a no DQ cage match! Do the wrestling companies really think the audience will not notice these kind of things?

Yes. That's why they do it in the first place. I am amazed, however, that they continue to believe this despite the fact that these finishes almost never receive anything other than the most negative of crowd reactions.

And that will do it for another week of Ask 411. Sforcina will be back in seven days . . . in the meantime, keep your eye on 411's Twitter feeds to catch all of the great content on the site!

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