Ask 411 Wrestling 08.17.11: Starting Feds, Hated Luchas, Cole Sucks, More!

Welcome to the only column written by someone with a PPV viewable right now for one low low price, Ask 411 Wrestling!

Congrats to Del Rio on finally achieving his ‘Destiny’. Although I should point out where the last guy who said that is now.

Eh, that’s not fair. But I wimped out of using the Alberta Del Rio pic here, so had to fill time.

Speaking of time, mine is limited this week thanks to illness (not mine) and thus, say it with me, it’s an All Opinion Week!

I know how much you love those. But as usual, I’m sure a couple of facts will sneak in there…

Anyway, go listen to the Tom Tom Club and also stay tuned for the return of 411mania’s podcast, as soon as Larry’s back on his feet. Get well soon, bossman.

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And if you like word based comedy revolving around tag team names, then go look at the hashtag #MassiveQTagTeamNames for just such a concept. Some of them are funny…

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Backtalking

Kurt Angle and the WCW title: Damn, and there I was thinking I was so clever in remembering he was champ for a week. Yes, Kurt was US champ and thus does not, in fact, qualify for the issue at hand. Sorry ‘bout that.

Botchamania: I’m a great supporter of Botchamania, I love them, but I have NOTHING to do with making them. The maker, Maffew, is currently nursing some injuries from a dog attack, so Ask 411 wishes him a speedy recovery. And the hope that AWF gets onto a Botchamania at some point.

Your Turn, Smart Guy…

Who am I? One of my theme songs is more associated with someone else, while a later theme got some airplay on Radio, until the company put a stop to that. I’ve won tag titles with a brother-in-law and a normal brother. I was in a ‘New Somethings’ team with a future WWE Champion at one point, while I only ever had one World title reign, and most people don’t even know about it. I was involved with a heel turn on a guy that went very well, although later he turned heel on me and that went horribly. I teamed with a rather famous wrestler in his debut match (that I didn’t survive but he did), and could keep up with Ric Flair, according to Ric. Who am I?

MG knows the score.

Who am I?

You are Barry Windham.

Barry’s theme song when he was part of the US Express was “Real American” which was eventually given to Hulk Hogan.

The later theme song which got airplay was The West Texas Rednecks theme of “Rap is Crap”.

He was tag champs with his brother-in-law Mike Rotanda in the US Express and later tag champs with his real brother, Kendall Windham.

Barry was part of the New Blackjack with future WWE Champ Bradshaw.

Barry was NWA world champ to get the title from the Great Muta to Ric Flair.

Barry turned on Lex Luger to join the Four Horsemen and later Lex turned on Barry after Flair left WCW.

And Barry was playing the Stalker in a Survivor Series match when he teamed with Rocky Maivia, now known as the Rock.

And Barry was an excellent wrestler back in the ’80’s who could keep up in the ring with Flair.

Although that last bit’s from Flair’s first WWE DVD, when he said Barry could keep with him, move for move, drink for drink, woman for woman.

Who am I? I was trained by someone who worked the first ever Wrestlemania. I’ve been a ninja at one point, although I was under a different gimmick in my two video game appearances. I once lost to an unmasked luchador on PPV. I was, at one point, Evil. And I once attacked Hulk Hogan in an infamous spot. Bobby Heenan didn’t like me, I once ripped off Vader, and my final major league appearance saw me Death Valley Driven, surprisingly. Who am I?

Questions, Questions, Who’s Got The Questions?/My Damn Opinion

David has a follow up from last week.

Hi Mathew,

Thanks for looking that bit of info up for me. The amount of
vacations for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship over 3
decades is insane!

Has such a high level of vacations/held up/strippings damaged the
international reputation of the title? I imagine Razor Ramon’s reign
would not have helped it *feel free to insert Chandler*

Thanks,

You don’t get to just assign Chandlers! They have to be given out only when it’s proper.

Anyway, given that the title is somewhat unknown on the major stage (hands up anyone who had heard of it prior to last week), I don’t know that it’s strippings have lessened any credibility internationally. To be fair, most of those ‘vacations’ were in fact times when the belt was held up, which is more forgivable (and most of them were with Carlos Colon, the founder and main stat). It’s only been vacated 12 times, which is still a lot, but not as bad as the numbers might indicate.

And Puerto Rico is an odd case, where it’s a small market, but it has two ‘big’ companies, and people jump ship a lot, so it’s understandable that the title has to be vacated some times. But again, most of them were hold ups, which I probably should have mentioned, but the title WAS vacant, it’s just that most of the time Carlos won the belt back, to bump up his title count (26 time champ!) and to allow him to ‘win’ the title again.

But internationally? It’s not that big a deal. A title is as important as the company that supports it. If a company is on the rise, doesn’t matter how bad the lineage is, it’s important. And vice versa.

A different Carlos asks for my opinion about current angles.

Hey Mathew great job as usual have a couple of questions for you. First one is do you think cashing in the Money in the Bank suitcase while the other wrestler just had a match or was beatin up getting kind of stale? I mean they’ve been doing that since 2006.

True, but then it’s designed to be like that. I mean, you have to be the purest of the pure babyface and/or have a major home field advantage to announce a cash in prior. Yes you can argue that the case in on a beat up guy is ‘stale’, but it’s an instant heat getter, logical, and is going to stick around for a while.

Although there is one way to freshen it up: Have someone cash in and lose. Then you lose the inevitability part. Hell you can have your cake and eat it too, if you want. (I may or may not have said this before…)

Anyway, what you do is you run the angle that Swagger began to, wherein the MITB holder begins to stalk the champ. He’s ringside for matches, he’s backstage in their locker room, he pops up at autograph signings. He’s the champ’s shadow, ready to cash in at a moment’s notice.

Then, after a while of this (a few weeks at a minimum), have the champ really get his ass handed to him in a match, but win in the end. As he lays there, bleeding sweating profusely, the MITB holder slides in with a mic.

“Well Champ… You’re looking mighty beat up there. So… Beg.

Beg me not to cash this in. Come on, you can do it, Champ. Plead with me. Tell me you want just one more day holding that title, surely you can sell your dignity for a chance at a few more weeks with that gold around your waist, right?”

He holds the mic to the champ’s face. And he says something along the lines of…

“Come on if you think you’re hard enough!”

And he spits in MITB’s face. He wipes away the spit.

“Was that a challenge? Well then, I accept!”

And he tosses the briefcase at the ref. You have the ‘match’, wherein he goes to pull up the Champ, small package, 3 count. Or something like that, and just like that, MITB is blown. You run a couple months with ‘Choke! Choke! Choke!’ chants and a losing streak gimmick. Then, after another gruelling match, he runs back out, and gives the ref a piece of paper. The ref is very confused, but calls for the bell. And he wins the match… And the title?!?

Next night on Raw, you have him point out that the champ challenged him, and that wasn’t a cash in. He cashed in last night. So there!

So that way you’ve had someone ‘lose’ MITB but not really.

Also what do you think about the CM Punk storyline now that Nash is involved and it seems like there is some sort of conspiracy against him?

Well it depends on how the match goes. I mean, if Punk plays Diesel here:

I’ll be happy.

Seriously though, a Punk/Nash feud isn’t the worst idea ever (that would be Punk/Hall, for the record), as long as Punk ends up coming out on top and we spend most of the feud with Nash talking, since he’s good at that. Hell, have him play Coach again like he did with the NBT, have him take Otunga and McGillicutty as lackeys, having been betrayed by Punk…

Anthler asks about DDP and Finishers.

Great Column as always Massive Q. The most worthwhile column around. Got some questions about the cutter.

I read somewhere that DDP had 74 ways to hit a diamond cutter. Does he have it documented somewhere, or is it just a ‘Man of 1004 holds’ type of saying?
…I don’t want to be a douche and ask you to list all 74 ways if it isn’t documented anywhere.
Arguably, can Randy Orton hit all 74 variations of the diamond cutter and include into that SSP into cutter and Springboard into cutter?

Yeah, it was a gimmick, ala 1004 holds. He never listed them, it was a case of DDP training and finding 74 ways to transition into the move, to put over just how innovative he was with it. And he was pretty damm good at it.

But I think he can argue he already had the “Flying into Cutter” covered.

Lastly, in your opinion, which finisher type move is the most versatile in all of pro wrestling? In that the move can be reversed into, countered into, can be hit whenever, wherever, and can have a whole slew of variations based on context. I’m thinking the cutter, the ddt, or the lariat. I’m pretty sure someone could totally spinning lariat you mid-air out of your chokeslam.

Cheers,

Sure they could. They’d probably throw up afterwards from the whiplash, but it could be done.

Well the cutter is an early favourite, and is probably the winner out of strikes, but I kinda lean towards something like the Ankle Lock more, myself. Just because it can be locked in so much more easily, done anywhere to anyone (with the possible exception of Zach Gowen) and have plenty of variations in terms of positioning and stuff. But I won’t argue against the cutter too much, since it has at least two major finishers out of it, RKO and the Stunner.

Kip wants to talk about Savage being Blackballed. Because that topic’s rarely been touched.

Hey dude,

Thanks for always putting so much time into the column. I’ll make this REALLY quick for you:

Is perhaps the reason that Macho Man has been blacklisted for so long due to something much more recently offensive? I stumbled upon the following video on Youtube a few days back and was shocked that I had neither seen it, nor heard it particularly referenced:

Given the look of his beard and his build, I’d say this is a much more reasonable story for why Triple H and his wife don’t want Macho around. Your thoughts?

The problem with the theory (which is a good one, don’t get me wrong), is that Savage was blackballed long before HHH and Steph hooked up. This was in 2007, and he was obviously black balled before that. I’m sure that this video (which was intended for people who paid to join his website, I believe) did not help matters, but whatever the issue was, it occurred long before this video.

Which is kinda creepy now, both in terms of the obvious (hadn’t he already taken her around the block?) and the subtle (Haunting Hulk… Yeah.).

But again, whatever it was he did to piss off Vince, it wasn’t about him doing Steph.

Probably.

Michael wants to know what happened.

Hey Matt

What exactly happened with Barrett? I mean he went from being a damn good mouth piece and fairly credible (considering how fresh he was) leader for the most dominate force in WWE at that time to being augurably the least credible Intercontiental Champion ever with a huge losing streak.

Barrett hasn’t done much of anything lately, but it isn’t like he doesn’t lack anything. He is WWE made, he is great on the mic, and solid in the ring for his size. So why his fall from grace?

He did just beat Daniel Bryan, but that was after the question was asked, obviously. What happened was what happens now with almost everyone, the writers lose interest. Unless someone gets super over, the writers will push a guy for a bit, then they’ll forget about him and focus on someone else, and the guy gets dropped like a stone. See, back in the day, sure, you would build a guy up, run him on top against Hogan or Flair, and then he’d move down a bit, but they’d still get some focus and attention, enough that they could be slotted in on short notice and it would make sense. Nowadays they just run through the same cycle of a few ‘names’ and then they’ll toss in one or two midcarders for a bit, then pull them back out and then do nothing with them.

Look, Writers are like Russo… Hell, Russo IS a writer, let me try that again.

Writers in Wrestling can work. WWF 2000 proves that a talented writer can ‘book’ wrestling. But if the writers aren’t going to get to terms and get a handle on how wrestling is booked, then you need someone standing over them with such a handle and a big stick.

Wrestling does share many tropes, traits, clichés, whatever, with soap operas, and normal sports, and dramas, and comedies and so on. But the tempo and style that wrestling tells their stories is unique. No other storytelling medium has quite the same way of making money, with live shows building up to a massive live show everyone can see for a price. Wrestling is storytelling, but it’s not the same storytelling as the rest of Hollywood. It’s a fact a lot of people on both sides can’t grasp, either out of bone headed inability to see that the industry has to evolve or out of a bond headed inability to recognize what you still have to keep.

Yes, you can have it where old rivalries are not simply forgotten because the fans now cheer both men. No, you do not make PPVs just another point in the storytelling road, the PPV IS what you are selling, or at least what you’re trying to sell, in theory.

Wrestling is, deep down, about 2 guys who don’t like each other and a ring to settle their differences. But you can be as creative as you like in the how and why they hate each other…

Light on the videos this week. So have some extra helpings here!

Tom has two questions.

Hey Matthew,

Love your stuff. I don’t know of a more knowledgeable wrestling mind than you. I have a few Wrestlemania related questions. The first two concern WM XIX and the last is more of your opinion about WM 28.

Before Rock expressed his desire to fight Stone Cold for the third time at WM XIX, Bischoff gave him the opportunity to fight Booker T one on one on Raw for a shot at Triple H’s World Heavyweight Championship at the big event. The next week, Rock declined and told Bischoff he wanted to beat Austin at WM and would worry about the World Championship at a later date. Was there ever any intent of a Rock vs Trips match for the title at WM XIX? Seems strange that one week they’d announce a Rock/Booker match for a title shot and the next week simply cancel it the way they did. I also remember reading somewhere that there was talk of doing a triple threat match for the WHC at the same WM involving Rock, Austin and Triple H. Do you know if there’s any truth to that? That certainly would have drawn a big number considering it’s the dream Survivor Series 1999 match we never got.

This sort of question comes up a lot, but the problem is that matches get tossed about all the time. In meetings, especially with a booking staff as big as the WWE’s, they’ll toss about dozens of ideas before settling on one. Does that mean that all those ideas were possible?

The rumors I heard about 19 were mostly focused on Rock/Goldberg, with the idea being that Rock was trying to get Bill in by WM so that their match could take place then, but they didn’t get the deal struck in time, so it happened the following month. The Rock/Austin/HHH match which I’m fairly sure we never actually got might have been on the table before Austin’s body decided to shut down on him.

But Rock V Trips? Nah, both were heels at this point, and both were slated to work Goldberg sooner or later, so neither would turn.

My final question is about the main event of WM 28. Seeing as this is being billed as another “passing of the torch” match, do you see any scenario in which Rock actually wins the match? Maybe they would finally turn Cena heel in “sore loser” fashion after he loses the match or Rock would agree to stick around for a month or two if it really is for the WWE title and he wins? It just seems that it’s a revisiting of the WM X8 Rock vs Hogan match and seeing as Rock has always been good about putting guys over (even if Rocky haters say otherwise – Angle, Jericho, Lesnar all won their first World titles by beating the Rock), I think it might ruin a bit of the big match feel if everyone knows going in that Cena will win and then he does without any swerve.

I really appreciate your time and hard work. You’re column is can’t miss reading.

Thanks,

Well, thank you very much.

Now then, I can see Rock winning, sure, but only if he was coming back either full time or at the very least at regular intervals. If he agreed to turn up to every PPV and every second Raw or something, I can see him winning via 24 guys running in and beating up on Cena to establish The Rock Army that Cena spends a year battling through before finally getting Rock again at WM 29 one on one. Or if they woke up with brain damage and wanted to turn Cena heel, sure.

Or… if they got Rock for one more show, one last one, I could MAYBE see something where Rock wins the match and the WWE title via the cheapest of cheap wins, then ‘vacates’ it, there’s a tourney to finish at… Whatever the hell Backlash is now, and then, as Cena beats Del Rio to win the tourney, Rock pops up, having changed his mind, runs in, AA, STF, he taps like a girl. That would be Attitude Era booking, I could see the argument for that (‘Totally Unpredictable!!!’), even if I think it’s stupid.

But it won’t happen. Cena is winning. Case closed.

Strox has some questions.

Loving the column. It’s one of the few on this site I rub my hands in
glee when i see it show up on the main page.

Anyway… all of the Managers columns that have been on the site
lately got me thinking. I remember a while back in TNA, before all
the Hogan/Bischoff loonacy there was a manager around whom I BELIEVE
was called Father James Mitchell.

One for the Fact, and one for the opinion section.. What ever happened
To James Mitchell?

Yes, his name was Father James Mitchell. Good manager, sadly got used up by TNA in their whole “Let’s make Abyss Kane/Taker 2: Electric Boogaloo” deal, with Mitchell being Abyss’ father and such.

Anyway, he got released by TNA in 2008 after Judas Mesias got injured and they had nothing for him to do, after the Abyss thing ended. There was no real heat, as I understand, although end of last year he came out against overwriting wrestling.

As for what he does now, not sure if he does indy dates but he has a Karaoke Bar in Florida that he runs.

and secondly, if he WERE to return Which Fed (WWE
or TNA) do you think would be best matched with his talents, and who
in BOTH FEDS do you think he could work well with as a manager?

Well honestly neither of the two would use him well, but I suppose WWE is a richer playground, in TNA he’ll always be stuck with Abyss after how they got joined at the hip. So WWE, fresh start, you got a lot more ground to cover.

If you were to bring him to TNA, with the current roster… Well you come down to 3 choices. One, you stick him back with Abyss, have him join Immortal as a way for Immortal to try and get Abyss back on the winning track. Two, he goes against Abyss, you give him a guy like Crimson or maybe even Sting as a man looking to help Abyss see the light.

…

Him and Sting would be kinda cool right now, actually.

Three, you go the ignore route, and give him someone totally away from Abyss, like Winter, say. Then he makes a mention of wanting to distance himself from his ‘erstwhile son’, and focus on what he does best, managing champions. And the so called Knockouts have no idea what he can do to help Winter stay Champion for as long as he deems fit…

And so on.

As for WWE… See, the thing is, he’s a dark guy, Mitchell. He looks like the devil. So with WWE right now, there’s no-one really leaning that way. So, you give him bland guys. I’d give him Mason Ryan. Have him talk while Ryan just stands there and looks big, then he continues to talk in the 90 second matches Ryan has each week while training his ass off to improve.

Secondly, and this is just for the opinions section. Do you believe
Michael Cole contributes ANYTHING of importance to the WWE? His
announcing isn’t even announcing, it’s either cheer leading for the
Miz (who is over enough on his own without Cole as a cheerleader) or
talking about himself.

Cole IMO has never been a great announcer, but considering WWE’s
current PG kick. Is Cole going to be an asset to the broadcast booth?
or should he take his leave and move into the role of a manger because
in small bursts I think his sheer skin crawling annoyance factor may
work quite WELL.

Well, if it wasn’t for the whole COOHHH thing I would assume he would have been revealed as the Anon Raw GM by now.

Anyway, the guy, for better or worse, is hated by the fans now, so I do think making him a manager would be a good way to use said hatred to try and, you know, make some money. But Vince disagrees, apparently, since we keep getting Cole on announcing. Have him manage someone, we don’t need to hear him every 30 seconds, you have King and JR there now, and Booker/Matthews cannot be worse than the three of them now, surely. But yes, I feel he should either tone it down if he’s sticking around, or move into a more useful role.

Which makes me one of a kajillion others…

And your opinions on whether managers should make a reappearance in
the WWE period. A good chunk of what made the previous uber
successful era of a PG rated WWE great was the abundance of managers
(Heenan. Sherry, Jimmy Hart, Fuji, etc) who really helped drive the
story lines. is this what WWE is craving now having noted the success
of Vikki Guererro?

Thanks for taking the time to adrewss these for the column (if you do)

Yes and no. Good managers are a GREAT asset, as it allows you to push and make money off guys who look great and/or can wrestle but who can’t talk. It’s one less skill, so your net is wider, plus managers have a lot more angles to run. The problem is though, that right now with everyone speaking the same way, it doesn’t matter if it’s a manager or a wrestler.

Merely having managers isn’t enough, you need managers who can talk and who are allowed to talk. Give a manager a script, you’ll get a rehearsed performance that fulfils what you wrote and no more. Let a manager talk, and you might get crap, sure. But you might also get magic.

It comes down to the same basic problems, and merely having managers running around does not solve said problems.

Jude asks about career paths.

Hi,

I’ve been reading your brilliant column for a long time and now i need to ask you your opinion on one matter. Been watching some old Raws, Smackdowns and PPVs lately which had both Eddie and Benoit on the card. It made me wonder, had both still been alive today, what direction their career might have gone in?? Eddie would be 44 now, Benoit 43. Do you think they would be still active in the WWE roster, and if so mid-card or main-event material??? Gone to TNA or elsewhere or retired??? With so many of the big names of the late 90s and early 00’s gone, i find it hard to picture them in the current roster. And in some way I see a different line-up for TNAs Main Event Mafia!

Would really appreciate your opinion on this as its a topic thats been stuck in my head!!

Thanks,

I’m sure I’ve done this before…

Huh, can’t find it.

Anyway, this is touchy for both men, for different reasons. But let’s assume Eddie’s heart defect and Benoit’s brain damage were both caught and treated (magic wand style), what happens?

Pretty similar, actually. Both would remain at the upper mid card, always there to main event a show, put on a good match, but never the focus. Benoit would spend pretty much all the life of WWECW either as the champ or fighting for the belt, playing the role Christian did in the end, helping the newer guys gain traction and learning how to work. Eddie would stick around Smackdown’s main event, never champ again (outside of very quick transitional reigns), mostly as a face since every time he turns heel the fans end up cheering him again.

Would either man jump to TNA? Benoit might well, in that if WWE played hardball I can see him jumping ship and getting pushed to the moon. Eddie… Nah, he would stick around.

But again, that’s assuming neither man had any problems.

Nick is all over the place.

COuple questions for you.

1.) With all the DVDs being put out by WWE about wrestlers and various other things, do you ever feel like there would be an interst in a dvd that chronicles WWE Superstar’s injuries, rehabs, and returns? I think it would be interesting to see the raod back to teh ring these guys and girls took, and also to get their thoughts and listen to them tlak about the injuries themselves. Title it “Don’t Try This At Home: Superstar’s Injuries” Just a thought.

Honestly, no, I don’t like that idea. I mean, I can see the logic, the match selection would be easy (match injury occurs. Comeback match. Maybe a match in-between that they interfere in. Repeat), and I’m sure someone out there would buy it. But it’s a little too injury porn for my liking. Segments in DVDs is fine, a whole one… I wouldn’t. But then I’m just one guy, the comments might disagree.

2.) Back in the day, Jeff Jarret was one of the most hated heels in the WWE (especially when he was tagging with Owen Hart). So why exactly did Jeff not get more of a push? Also, how did he end up leaving WWE?

Austin. Austin basically demanded he not get pushed, over long standing animosity between the two stemming from when Austin was starting out. So when Austin was in a position of power and they wanted to do an Austin/Jarrett angle, he refused, and Jarrett ended up on the outs.

As for how he left, it was simple. He was working a program with Chyna. He felt that this proved that the WWE wasn’t serious about using him. So when his contract came up, he chose not to resign. This then led to the infamous ‘Back Pay Gun To The Head’ wherein he demanded all his upcoming money up front before he came back for one day to job to Chyna and drop the IC title.

3.) With WWE bringin in Sin Cara, do you think they will go back and try to sign some of the other lucah libre style wrestlers they used to have? I.e. psycosis, juvi, etc…

I heard there was a lot of heat on juvi though, is this true, and if so what was the reason for it?

Thanks!

Nah, they’ll focus on brining in new guys, so they can own the rights to their masks.

*Anti-Chandler*

And yes, there’s heat on Juvi, on the basis that he’s an arrogant drug taking douchebag who’s up himself.

That’s how he’s viewed by many in the business. So naturally people don’t want anything to do with him.

Nick The Quick has a few questions.

glad to have you back….Byers was shit…uh, I mean great.

I read an interview with John Malkovich where he said that people have called him underrated as an actor for so long that he is overrated now. Do you think the same notion can apply to wrestlers: The IWC thinks a mid card guy was great and should have been pushed higher, so much so that they’ve now become way more esteemed than their actual talent merits? If so, give me your top ten lists of guys who were underrated, but have now become overrated.

Ooooh. That’s gonna lead to arguments.

Hmm.

I’m going to exclude anyone still active (Zack Ryder) on the basis that their legacy is still not set in stone. It has to be people who are, for all purposes, retired. And anyone I name, someone will say that they think that they suck, so like with anything IWC related, it’s the majority view from where I sit, even if you disagree.

Owen Hart: Due to how he died, Owen has been built up as being the single greatest wrestler in the history of existence by some fans. He was good to great, yes, but he’s really overrated now by many.

Terry Taylor: Thanks to the Red Rooster gimmick, many people bemoan the fact that such a superb wrestler was misused. Eh, again, good, not great.

Gangrel: A superb entrance does not mean you’re a superb wrestler.

Hogan In Japan: Getting a bit technical here, but bear with me. Often, people will defend Hogan by saying that he could wrestle, his matches in Japan proved that. Yes and no. Yes, he showed more wrestling moves in Japan. But that doesn’t mean he was a better wrestler, just different. His matches in Japan get vastly overrated.

…

Geez, this is hard.

Stevie Richards: This is mostly on me. I tend to overestimate him, myself. You’ve seen that in the past. I still stand by most of it, but I am a little guilty of it.

…

Yeah, that’s all I got. But I’m sure people below disagree. As long as they don’t say Brad Armstrong we’re cool.

Don’t know if you’ve ever been asked this…but what are your top 10 favorite angles of all time? What do you think were the top ten box office angles of all time?

I’ll do the top ten box office first, since that’s the easiest. In no real order, and taking into account the company involved…

Hulk Turns Heel
Hulk V Andre
Austin V McMahon
Hulk V Orndorff
DX Turns Face
Flair V Savage
Rock Is Corporate Champ
Raven V Dreamer
The InVasion
Raven V Jarrett

(So before anyone complains, from a pure numbers, I know anything involving Raven didn’t do as well as, say, Cena V Orton, but in terms of the business it did for the company, relative…)

My favourite angles of all time, also in no real order.

Stevie & Victoria, Insane Duo
Trish Turns Heel, WMXX
Crazy Bob Backlund
Crash Holly, Houdini Of Hardcore
Cactus Jack Returns, 2000
Summer Of Punk 1
Madusa, Cruiserweight Champion
Over The Edge 98 Main Event
Goldberg, 186-0
Massive Q wins AWF Australasian Heavyweight Title.

I feel like a asshole asking this one, but curiosity has beaten class once again. In Jamie Dundee’s Youshoot he said that Elizabeth was a call girl and Randy Savage met her in Lexington when he was a patron. Everybody knows Dundee is a racist scumbag and completely full of shit…but to your knowledge has anybody else ever coroborated this story?

No, no-one has ever said that. He’s full of shit.

And finally, Nick gives us something to chew over.

love the column. This should be fun. Lets say WWE, TNA, and ROH all go out of business, lets just pretend. If you were to start your own wrestling promotion, assuming money is no object, who would be in your company? Only wrestlers from the Big 3, and ill even let you cheat and add a couple indy guys if you think they deserve a spot. You need a 40 man roster and 12 females for your company. Lets break it down even more. 12 main eventers, 12 midcarders, 4 low carders, 6 tag teams, and 12 women. Ready… GO!

Why 40 and 12? Maybe I want more? Or less? And what about managers and announcers?

All right, all right… Assuming they are in the state they are in now (so no waving a wand and saying Rock is back full time and/or Taker’s 100%)

12 Main Eventers

John Cena
Randy Orton
CM Punk
Kurt Angle
The Miz
Rob Van Dam
Alberto Del Rio
Christian
AJ Styles
Christopher Daniels
Samoa Joe
Rey Mysterio

12 Midcarders

Cody Rhodes
R-Truth
John Morrison
Daniel Bryan
Wade Barrett
Davey Richards
Eddie Edwards (Yes, I know they are ROH main eventers, I’m putting them here)
Jimmy Jacobs
Steve Corino
Kevin Steen (My sole Indy Guy)
Sheamus
Dolph Ziggler

4 Low Carders

Santino Marella
Zack Ryder
William Regal
Doug Williams

6 Tag Teams

The Kings Of Wrestling
Beer Money
The Briscoes
The Motor City Machine Guns
World’s Greatest Tag Team
Bourne/Kofi (Yes, they just formed, but shut up, I’m taking them)

12 Women

Tara
Kharma
Beth Phoenix
Vickie Guerrero
Sara Del Rey
Natalya
ODB
Gail Kim (my sole Indy woman)
Mickie James
Winter
Velvet Sky
Angelina Love

Commentary would be JR, Striker and Tenay, with Matthews and Taz doing the B show, and Hemme as backstage interviewer and Finkel as Ring announcer.

What about you guys?