Ask 411 Wrestling 03.27.13: CM Punk, WrestleMania, Randy Orton, More

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Ask 411 Wrestling. I am your party host, Ryan Byers, and we are back for another week of answering your questions about the wackiest pseudo-sport since roller derby, professional wrestling.

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Backtalking

Kudos to The Ghost of Faffner Hall for pointing out to me that, when I was talking about the Undertaker’s early 1990s feud against Harvey Wippleman and his stable, I omitted one of the monsters that Harvey brought in to take out Taker – none other than Mr. Hughes, who for a period of time even managed to steal the vaunted urn. That’s right, CM Punk. You’re not doing anything that Mr. Hughes didn’t do twenty years ago . . . and Mr. Hughes did it a hell of a lot better.

The Horse With No Name supplemented my answer to a question about which wrestling promotions have been the biggest in Japan over the course of the past forty years. We’ll just give his answer verbatim:

The only time in the last 25 years in which i can recall New Japan surrendering its top spot was between 2004-2007, when NOAH was drawing bigger crowds and unanimous praise for its shows, wheareas NJPW, under the control of Antonio and Simon Inoki was fast becoming a joke of a promotion. However once The Inokis were removed, Gedo and Jedo took over the book, and Tanahashi and Nakamura were pushed as the top stars, NJPW began to recover, and is now the top promotion in the Orient by a country mile. In fact, with the success of its newly-implemented iPPV’s, only WWE is more successful on the International stage.

NOAH sadly began its decline when the great Kenta Kobashi was diagnosed with kidney cancer in mid 2006. Without its biggest drawing card, and the failure of Akiyamas GHC title reign, AND the failure of Naomichi Marufuji to draw as GHC champ either, Mitsuharu Misawa decided that he was the only star that could carry the company as GHC champ. Unfortunately Misawa was so broken down and past his prime that NOAH’s crowds shrank throughout 2007. More importantly, Misawa, the head honcho of NOAH, made the same mistake as Giant Baba in AJPW in the late 90’s, namely he didnt develop and push any new stars (except Morishima, who never formed a major ticket-selling connection with the crowd).

However the biggest blow of them all was the loss of their tv deal in spring 2009, which robbed them of their only major source of exposure, and resulted in practically no new trainees joining the dojos. Takeshi Sugiura, and Shiozaki and Morishima after him, have performed to the best of their abilities as GHC champs since Misawas tragic death, however without tv exposure it was always just a matter of time before NOAH’s popularity declined to a critical level. And after all the negative press surrounding the departure of Shiozaki and Akiyama and co earlier this year, coupled with the shrinking and increasingly broken down roster, the future sadly looks bleak for what was once the best wrestling promotion in the world.

Yup, I’d say that is all pretty much accurate.

The Iron Sheik (no, not the wrestler . . . and I don’t think the rapper either) also followed up on Japan, specifically on the topic of Akira Maeda’s weird shoot on Andre the Giant:

Andre was a pussy. Tried to shoot on Meada but then ended up on his back like a
little puppy.

For what it’s worth, everything that I’ve read (which may or may not be an attempt to save face) indicates that, after getting tired of putting up with Maeda’s legit leg kicks, Andre intentionally laid down for him, basically inviting Maeda to pin him and end the match. So, it’s not as though he was actually taken down, even though that probably would have been the eventual result given the poor condition that the Giant was in at the time.

Don’t forget to add your feedback to this week’s edition of the column down in the Disqus-powered comments section!

Your Turn, Smart Guy

I kept last week’s question short and sweet . . .

I have one of the nastiest looking foreheads in professional wrestling history and I was blackballed from numerous promotions for allegedly molesting a woman. Who am I?

Several people made guesses that matched one of the clues or the other, but not both. Some people tried New Jack, but I don’t recall him ever having been blackballed for inappropriate actions with a woman. Some people tried Dan Maff, but, if you’re going to say he’s got a gross wrestling forehead, your bar for gross wrestling foreheads is set unusually low.

Nobody got the actual answer, the man who hits both of the clues, hardcore wrestler Kintaro “W*ING” Kanemura.

The picture above should answer any questions about his forehead. As far as the other clue is concerned, in early 2008, Kanemura allegedly groped an employee of Big Japan Wrestling, a woman who essentially managed one of their official fan clubs. The story hit the national media in Japan, and Kanemura was forced to stop wrestling for the Apache Pro, a group of which he was formerly a key member, in addition to losing opportunities with several other independent promotions. However, he has continued to find some bookings.

And now on to this week’s question . . .

I have been in main events in major promotions in the United States, but my first break in a big league wrestling promotion involved going down to Mexico and pretending to be a vampire. I have a signature gimmick match that I share with legends like Dusty Rhodes, and I currently live in an island paradise. Who am I?

Drop your answers down below.

Questions, Questions, Who’s Got the Questions?

John C. is here to talk WWF expansion:

I was just watching a match between Hulk Hogan and ”Dr. D” David Schultz from June 17, 1984. The interesting part is that it was being held at the Met Center, Minneapolis, MN. It occurred to me that half a year earlier, Hogan was wrestling Bockwinkel for the AWA title, getting screwed nightly, in the same area, if not the same arena.

It seems that Minnesota was not a popular WWF territory before 1984, almost strictly AWA. So my question is, did Vince schedule this show with Hogan in the main event to capitalize on Hogan’s popularity in the area? Was it to rub Hogan in Gagne’s face? Was it a coincidence?

Second question, was this a common occurrence? Such as scheduling a Steamboat match in Charlotte, for example?

I think you’ve actually got the concept a little bit backwards. They didn’t book a show in Minneapolis and then think, “Hey, we should put Hulk Hogan on top of this one because he used to be popular in this city!” They booked the show in Minneapolis specifically because they knew that they could make money off of it by virtue of the fact that they had Hulk Hogan, a former AWA star, on the roster. This was the point at which the WWF was flexing its muscle and attempting to make itself into a national power, moving from their traditional haunts in New England to previously unexplored regions of the south, the Midwest, and California. They weren’t just running live shows in these areas, but they were also taking tapes of their syndicated television and entering into deals with local stations throughout the country to air them, which obviously gave the company the means to promote the live shows off of which they were making their money.

When selecting locations to tour, chances are good that the popularity of the television in the market was considered just as heavily – if not more so – than the wrestlers’ pre-WWF popularity in the territory. However, that doesn’t mean that the company didn’t occasionally throw fans bones in terms of bringing some of their favorites back for prominent appearances in their old stomping grounds.

For example, former Canadian Football League star Angelo Mosca was a fixture on the company’s house shows in Toronto in 1984 and 1985 despite not being a particularly big star elsewhere within in the WWF, while Pat Patterson would pop up on cards in Montreal despite being essentially retired at that point. One Montreal show even featured Rene Goulet of all people getting a shot at the WWF Championship against Hogan. Similarly, at the WWF’s first house shows in Memphis and Louisville, another undercard wrestler with ties to the area got a championship match, that being Moondog Rex. Also, when the WWF started swinging through the Mid-Atlantic area during this period, Sergeant Slaughter, Greg Valentine, and Rocky Johnson were featured, all of them having been stars in the region previously. However, Valentine in particular was headlining a lot of shows in other areas as well thanks to his hot Intercontinental Title feud with Tito Santana, so it’s hard to say whether they were really trying to cash in on his former popularity or just rolling with the status quo.

So, yes, the WWF did do a few things to take advantage of the fact that they were expanding into parts of the United States where certain members of their roster were former stars, but it wasn’t always quite as overt as you might have thought, and it certainly wasn’t always overt as the Hogan shows in Minneapolis.

Patrick T. has a series of three:

1) In Autumn 2005 when Cena was feuding with RAW GM Eric Bischoff, the two had a match for Cena’s WWE title on RAW. In the week between the RAW on which match was announced and the one it would take place, I remember reading an item on a wrestling news site which claimed that WWE’s plans for the title were somewhat uncertain and they were even considering having Bischoff win the title. I was thinking recently that on many occasions when an extremely ‘unlikely’ competitor is involved in a world title bout (a non-wrestler, manager/authority figure, a woman etc.) this type of rumour usually arises. Obviously there are cases when this actually occurs (Vince in 1999, David Arquette in WCW), but I was wondering, are there any occasions where there has been truth to this type of rumours? A situation where the champ retains against the non-wrestler/authority figure/woman, but the alternative was seriously considered by the promotion?

Honestly, I’ve never heard of any such situation, even the one that you refer to in your question. The David Arquette title reign is so universally panned by both fans and those within the wrestling industry that, aside from Vince Russo putting the WCW Championship on himself later the same year, I doubt anybody has been dumb enough to seriously consider putting a major world championship on a non-wrestler. Yes, relatively unimportant undercard championships have gone that way, but, now that we’re out of the late 1990’s, I think that everybody realizes that world championships are important enough that they don’t need to be put around the waists of guys who aren’t actually professional wrestlers.

2) I was but a wee 11 year old mark in 1999, but recall a period in summer/autumn when Triple H was the most over heel in WWF, he was still associated with Chyna (from a kayfabe standpoint) at the time even though she was beginning to feud with Jeff Jarrett as a face. Most prominently, at Unforgiven ’99 she faces Jarrett as a face and Triple H is a heel in the main event. He is announced as being accompanied by her by Finkel, but she doesn’t appear with him. I was wondering, was there an actual moment when Chyna turned face? Was there in on air break with Triple H? In my clouded memory, she just seems to drift away from him and towards face-hood.

Chyna came into the company as a heel bodyguard for Triple H during the latter portion of his “blueblood” gimmick and followed him to D-Generation X through its original iteration as a group of bad guys and its collective face turn after Wrestlemania XIV. From there, she turned heel on Trips by joining Vince McMahon’s Corporation stable on the January 25, 1999 episode of Monday Night Raw. The two reunited at Wrestlemania XV, and it initially looked like they were going to work together as good guys until they both turned on X-Pac later in the evening.

Chyna’s next face turn really was a product of the Jeff Jarrett feud. Triple H was being moved into a position as the company’s lead heel, and his loyal bodyguard remained by his side, including cornering him during the main event of Summerslam 1999, the match where virtually everybody thought that HHH was going to walk away with his first WWE Championship. The night after Summerslam, Triple H and Chyna were still on the same page, but Chyna couldn’t pass on an opportunity for an Intercontinental Title shot when new champion Jeff Jarrett announced that he was putting out an open contract. From there, Jarrett went into his misogynist schtick, and it was impossible for Chyna to not be the good guy . . . err . . . gal in an angle like that, even if she was associated with HHH elsewhere on the card.

There wasn’t even ever a formal split between Triple H and Chyna on camera. They just drifted apart, which I wouldn’t necessarily consider a bad thing . . . they were both more valuable in their new roles, and that sort of split between two associates mirrors things that happen in real life far more than a world in which every relationship has to end through an actual, antagonistic breakup.

3) Why did WWF change their World title belt design so much in the mid-80s? Hogan wins a generic looking, round belt from the Sheik in ’84, has an odd oval shaped one around WM III and then there’s the ‘eagle’ design (was this first introduced at WM IV?). It just seems odd to me considering that they kept the eagle design for a good ten years and the attitude era design for four years (only changing it when the actual status of the belt changed to Undisputed Title).

It’s because the whole company was in a state of flux at the time. The younger Vince McMahon had just taken control of the WWF in 1982, and, when he acquired Hulk Hogan’s services, he was attempting to remake the company to match his creative vision. There were a lot of things that changed rapidly and frequently during this period, and the design of the championship belt was one of them. Once Vince and his crew found something that worked for them, they kept it for a good long time . . . just like Hogan himself, come to think of it.

Josh hears voices in his head:

With Wade Barrett and Randy Orton squaring off yet again on Raw, how many times have these two fought each other on TV in the past year? Has there ever been a match up that’s had more televised fights than these two?

Based on records maintained online, I have found TWENTY-SIX singles matches between Randy Orton and Wade Barrett on WWE television between the time of Barrett’s NXT debut in February 2010 and the date on which I’m writing this answer, March 24, 2013.

Are there pairings of wrestlers who have had more televised matches? I don’t necessarily have a sure-fire way to check every possible iteration of wrestlers in order to provide a comprehensive answer to that question, but I would imagine that there has to be at least one out there somewhere. The reality of WWE having so many hours of first run television in this era while maintaining a relatively small roster is that guys are going to have to wrestle each other numerous times in order to fill out the cards. I’m not a big fan of the system, because it leads to me getting burnt out on certain matches and not wanting to see them, no matter how good they are (Orton vs. Barrett would be one example, Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston is another). However, that’s the system that we’ve got, and I can’t say as though I see it changing anytime soon.

Joseph from Ireland is a widowmaker:

Why did the NWA turn Barry Windham in 1988? I’ve seen him now in Flair’s DVD set and the rise and fall of WCW and he’s over like grover around this period. The crowd went nuts when he was anywhere near the ring. Was it just to turn on Luger?

First off, a quick correction on language: “The NWA” did not turn Barry Windham. The NWA was a governing body that had several member organizations, with those organizations being independently owned, operated, and booked. Jim Crockett Promotions is the organization that Windham was wrestling for and the organization that decided to turn him heel. JCP was an NWA member – and by that point it was the most prominent NWA member – but it was not the NWA.

Why did the turn occur? It’s because Windham, an incredibly talented performer, had really stalled out as a babyface and needed something different in order to revitalize his career. He had been a good guy in every territory of note that he’d wrestled in, including his WWF Tag Team Title run in which he was a key part of the first Wrestlemania, his series of NWA Title matches against Ric Flair, and a great run teaming with Ron Garvin against the Midnight Express. Particularly given the fact that he had faced Flair so many times and never been able to come out on the winning side of things in the end, he had really accomplished everything that he could as a good guy. In the months prior to the turn, he was mostly defending the meaningless Western States Heritage Title, which has gone down in history as a huge joke.

Yes, he was still beloved as a babyface, but his talent was being wasted, and a spot as the newest member of the Four Horsemen got him exactly what he needed in terms of a return to the top of the card . . . though he jumped back to the WWF before we had an opportunity to see whether he would get back into the NWA Title picture.

For Gregory Link, this . . . is Sportscenter:

I remember as a kid watching World Class, AWA, and Global on ESPN. I was hoping you could give me the history of wrestling on the network. Who was the first company to get on ESPN? How did the deal move between companies? Since it had moved from company to company, why ultimately did ESPN pull the plug on wrestling and have there ever been any rumblings of it resurfacing?

You are correct in that the Von Erichs’ World Class Championship Wrestling, the Gagnes’ American Wrestling Association, and the upstart Global Wrestling Federation all aired on ESPN at some point or another. Of the three, the AWA was the first, beginning its run with the network in 1985 and continuing until 1990. World Class started up just a year later, in 1986, continuing until close to the end in 1989. The GWF was a bit of a Johnny-come-lately, as the promotion only came into existence after the folding of World Class and the withdrawal of the Memphis-based United States Wrestling Alliance from its efforts to run in the Dallas/Fort Worth market. It showed up on ESPN circa 1991, and the last records I can find of its shows airing on the network were in 1993.

Why didn’t ESPN attempt to keep wrestling on the network once Global was done with? There are several factors that likely contributed to the decision. Chief among them is the fact that the popularity of the “sport” had bottomed out in 1993. The territorial era was essentially dead, the Hulkamania-feuled wrestling boom of the 1980s was essentially dead, and wrestling wasn’t “cool” enough to warrant inclusion on the network. Besides, in 1993, there weren’t that many promotions out there that had sufficient production quality and/or financial backing in order to produce a weekly television series, and it wouldn’t exactly make financial sense for ESPN to sink money into its own promotion when wrestling was previously programming that they had been getting without those costs. Wrestling eventually did recover in terms of popularity, and some more prominent companies did come into existence, but, by that point, wrestling wasn’t viewed by the public as nearly of much as a sport as it was a couple of decades earlier, to the point that the public probably wouldn’t have accepted it on ESPN.

Also, as an aside, I should note that some resources I looked at in answering this question indicated that the Herb Abrams-promoted UWF ran on ESPN, and that’s not entirely accurate. The first-run UWF was never on ESPN, but the company purchased the rights to air reruns of the product on subsidiary networks like ESPN 2 and ESPN Classic after the promotion was dead and buried. To my knowledge, not even the reruns popped up on the primary ESPN station.

Nick always makes sure to bring his cat with him to the ring . . . and, fortunately, answering his question also answers one that was posed by another reader, Michael Klein:

I was recently reading The Genesis of TNA and there is a part from Petey Williams describing the night Teddy Hart beat up CM Punk. Petey wasn’t sure what the whole issue was between them, but thought it was some bullshit on the internet with them badmouthing each other. Anyway, I’m curious if you know any specifics on why they had an issue, what, if any, was the fallout from the fight, and did Teddy and Punk ever work together in the ring after the fight?

Essentially, it all goes back to the Ring of Honor Main Event Spectacles show in November 2003. As the majority of people reading this will know, that particular show is infamous because, after the conclusion of a “Scramble Cage” match featuring Hart & Jack Evans, The Backseat Boys, the SAT, the Carnage Crew, and Special K, Teddy started climbing up to the top of the cage and doing several backflips off of it in a completely unplanned spot. That pissed people off for a variety of reasons. Some thought it was disrespectful to the Backseats because it took away from what was supposed to be a major win for them. Others felt that Hart was putting the other wrestlers in the ring at risk by creating the possibility that he could inadvertently injure them. Still others felt that it was a huge breach of kayfabe while the show was ongoing, as it involved Hart no-selling his injuries from what was supposed to be a brutal match. The most vocal critics of Teddy’s behavior lodged all three of the above complaints against him. Among the folks who were none too happy with Mr. Annis were Ring of Honor regulars CM Punk, Samoa Joe, and Homicide, causing a bit of a war of words on the internet.

For what it’s worth, I’ve heard Teddy Hart try to justify his actions after Main Event Spectacles in two different ways. The first is that he was doing the backflips as a tribute to his late uncle, Owen. The second is that he suffered a concussion and really didn’t have any idea of what he was doing. The two explanations are at odds with one another (How do you pay tribute to somebody if you have no idea what you’re doing thanks to a head injury?), which lead me to believe that Teddy is full of it.

That leads us to February 25, 2004, when both Hart and Punk were in Nashville for a TNA pay per view taping. As the two men were passing each other at a local café that essentially served as the catering area for the promotion’s shows, Hart confronted Punk and invited him outside if he had a problem. Not surprisingly if you know anything about his personality, Punk obliged. Interestingly, the account of the fight given by Petey Williams (who is careful to emphasize that he is one of very few eyewitnesses) makes it sound more as though Hart got the upper hand, though other accounts that I have read, including one from TNA exec Bob Ryder (who may not have been an eyewitness) indicates that Hart got one shot in but otherwise makes it sound as though Punk got the better of things, including smacking Teddy across the face and taking him down in a knee bar.

Was there fallout from the fight? Maybe. Neither Hart nor Punk was used by TNA again after the incident, though Punk in interviews has claimed that the altercation had nothing to do with his no longer appearing in the company and some sources attribute it instead to a dispute with TNA regarding whether Punk could continue to appear in Ring of Honor.

To my knowledge, they have not wrestled each other after this incident occurred. In fact, they haven’t really had that many opportunities to do so, as it’s been rare for them to be in the same place at the same time. Punk signed with WWE and went into the developmental program in 2005. Hart signed up for developmental in 2006, around the same time that Punk was being called up to ECW. Of course, Teddy never made it up to the main WWE roster, while Punk has been there ever since his initial call up.

Paul (not the famous one from Connecticut) wants to take us back to one of the greatest years in wrestling history:

I have a couple of questions related to 1997, which is the year I started watching again after a couple of years of largely forgetting about wrestling. I’m going through all the episodes of RAW, so here they are:

1) What exactly was the deal with Sid? After Wrestlemania he came back for a few appearances, and was then scheduled to wrestle again at the April PPV. Supposedly he was hurt, and then was not seen again until popping up to challenge the Undertaker sometime in June. He jobbed pretty cleanly to the Undertaker, beat Owen Hart on Raw, and then lost in a tag match at King of the Ring. He disappears for a couple of weeks, and then pops up for a random appearance on the 7/14 Raw, just standing at the top of the entrance ramp. And then he’s done. So, I guess my question is what were the terms on which Sid left? Did WWF just decide he didn’t fit? Was it mutual? And at what point was it known by both parties that his run was at an end? He’s really not a key player even when he’s on screen through most of the post-Wrestlemania run. It’s very odd.

Word on the street is that he hurt his back, most likely as a result of a single-vehicle automobile accident that he was in during June 1997 while travelling to a show with Doug Furnas, Phil LaFon, and Flash Funk/Too Cold Scorpio. However, there are differing accounts of how exactly this car accident ended his WWF tenure. Some stories play it as a situation in which Sid was simply hurt and the company let him go as a cost-saving measure since he was earning a fair amount but couldn’t work. Others sources claim that the back injuries were overblown by Sid to avoid doing some jobs and that his departure had something to do with his unwillingness to lose those matches. Finally, there are also some versions of the story which play it off as a contractual dispute, with Sid walking out on the company because they refused to pay him despite his injuries. Any one of those explanations seem plausible, but in any event it’s not a situation in which somebody simply decided that they didn’t want Sid around anymore for creative or personal reasons.

2) This might belong in the opinion section. As I said, I started watching again in 1997, right about mid-June. In fact it I happened to stop on TNT one night and saw Randy Savage beating up JJ Dillon. This was a lot different than the kind of stuff I watched growing up, so was intrigued, and watched WCW the next week (6/9). As wowed as I was by the NWO and as hooked as I was by the Sting storyline, even then I would tend to tune into Raw more than Nitro. Looking back on that entire year, I think WWF programming was so much more entertaining. I think it’s acknowledged that at least the main event scene in WWF was far better. At one point did the “smart” community start sensing that the WWF was moving ahead of WCW? On a related note, when did people start souring on the NWO? It was all new to me in the summer of 1997 and therefore fresh, but I can see how people who had been watching alone could have gotten sick of it, especially once they started letting everybody in.

The answer to the first question is 1998. WCW’s business was really strong during that year, but it was also during that period of time that the “smart” commentators on the internet started to claim that the company was making a lot of bad booking and business decisions that would come back to bite them in the end. Those commentators turned out to be correct, as it was 1999 when the company really hit the skids in terms of overall popularity . . . which probably gives you the answer to your second question, i.e. when people started to sour on the nWo as a driving force behind the promotion.

My Damn Opinion

Alan has a question that is a bit different and pretty fun:

As we all know, next year is Wrestlemania 30. Not to say this would ever happen but let’s say the WWE wanted to countdown 30 weeks before Wrestlemania and wanted to have one rematch from every single Wrestlemania each week on Raw. Would such a thing be possible? In your opinion what matches do you think could take place?

It would be technically possible, though not necessarily if you always wanted to have key matches for the first few Wrestlemanias. Here’s a look at what could theoretically take place, assuming that everybody who is currently signed with a different promotion remains with that promotion.

Wrestlemania: I think that the most likely rematch from the original Wrestlemania that could work is, believe it or not, a fairly important undercard match: Brutus Beefcake vs. David Sammartino. Beefcake is still taking the odd independent booking from what I understand, and Sammartino, though he is not actively wrestling, is reportedly working as a personal trainer, so he is likely in some degree of shape. Every other match fails because somebody is dead (e.g. Andre the Giant), in TNA (e.g. Hulk Hogan), or in too poor of shape to perform (e.g. Iron Sheik, Ricky Steamboat).

Wrestlemania II: Mr. T isn’t doing much these days, and neither is Roddy Piper, so you could probably get enough money together to reprise their boxing match, which was actually a pretty big part of the show.

Wrestlemania III: There are a lot of undercard matches on this show that are possibilities, but I think that the one where you’d be able to find the most competitors who are game for it would be the Dream Team against the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.

Wrestlemania IV: You could actually get a fairly significant rematch here, as Ax and Smash of Demolition have done indy dates as recently as last year, as has Tito Santana. Though he hasn’t been around much in wrestling Rick Martel always stayed in good shape, and I’d bet he could go in a pinch.

Wrestlemania V: Again, you could probably do the tag title match, with Ax, Smash, the Warlord, and the Barbarian all being active in limited bursts in recent years. (And Mr. Fuji could, at the very least, stand on the apron.) The Hart Foundation against Rhythm & Blues is technically another possibility, but a star on Bret Hart’s level probably wouldn’t come back for something so insignificant.

Wrestlemania VI: This is a tricky one. You’re probably going to have to go with the unimportant Barbarian vs. Tito Santana match, because there are a LOT of dead guys on this card.

Wrestlemania VII: I hate to constantly be going back to Jacques Rougeau and Tito Santana, but their confrontation as The Mountie and El Matador would probably be the easiest one to recreate. There aren’t as many dead wrestlers on this show as Wresltemania VI, but there are a lot more guys who, though they are currently living, are in physical conditions such that they should absolutely not be competing.

Wrestlemania VIII: Your best bet here is probably Tatanka and Rick Martel, though maybe you could convince the Undertaker and Jake Roberts to do something verrrrry light that wouldn’t kill both of them.

Wrestlemania IX: There is literally only one match on this card where there isn’t at least one competitor who is either dead or physically incapacitated: The Steiner Brothers vs. The Headshrinkers. Actually, given how recently all four of those guys have been active, this is a modern day rematch that has a chance of not being half bad.

Wrestlemania X: You could probably cheat your way through a rematch of the Mania X Tag Title bout, pitting Men on a Mission against the Quebecers. I did also find a record of Leilani Kai wrestling in 2012, so maybe she could also rematch with Madusa (a.k.a. Alundra Blayze) if you could convince Madusa to step out of her monster truck.

Wrestlemania XI: Again, this is a card where the pickings are pretty slim. Your best choice is the Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy.

Wrestlemania XII: This is the first show in a while that has several viable options. Roddy Piper is just crazy enough and Dustin Rhodes is just healthy enough that they could reprise their “epic” Hollywood Backlot Brawl. You could also theoretically rematch the Undertaker and Kevin Nash . . . or, if you want to pay him millions of dollars, you could coax the Ultimate Warrior into facing Triple H again, which would be a political nightmare.

Wrestlemania XIII: We’ve got three possibilities again, with the Rock vs. The Sultan (Rikishi), HHH vs. Goldust, and the main event of the Undertaker and Sid all being on the table.

Wrestlemania XIV: This is where things start to turn around and more matches on the card than not could viably be rematched. If I could pick one, though, I’d be most keen to see TAKA Michinoku and Mr. Aguila go at it again now that they’re both grizzled veterans.

Wrestlemania XV: Of ten televised matches, seven are possibilities. I would pick the four corners Intercontinental Title match that pitted the champion Road Dogg against Goldust, Ken Shamrock, and Val Venis, just because it’s a perfect display of Attitude Era overbooking and over the top gimmicks.

Wrestlemania XVI: Kane & Rikishi vs. X-Pac & The Road Dogg is the most realistic option, though everybody in the four way main event for the WWF Title can also still go to some degree.

Wrestlemania XVII: Your most viable (and entertaining) option is probably Chris Jericho against William Regal, both of whom are still able to go and both of whom are actually still under contract to WWE.

Wrestlemania XVIII: Just to do something different, my vote from this card would be to see Diamond Dallas Page back in the ring against Christian.

Wrestlemania XIX: Here’s another opener that is the best choice for a rematch . . . Rey Misterio, Jr. challenging for the Cruiserweight Title against Matt Hardy.

Wrestlemania XX: What about that epic main event for the World Title between Shawn Michaels and Triple H? Eh? Eh? No? Okay, then. You could easily do John Cena vs. The Big Show, a match that still happens on WWE TV today with some regularity.

Wrestlemania XXI: I’d see if you could convince JBL to step back into the ring for a quick match against John Cena.

Wrestlemania XXII: For the sake of variety of names that are on this list, I’d ask Chris Masters and Carlito to do guest shots on WWE television to reprise their rivalry with the Big Show and Kane.

Wrestlemania XXIII: As much as it pains me to say this, the best option is probably the Great Khali vs. Kane in the See No Evil promotional match.

Wrestlemania XXIV: Hey, how about a women’s match? Beth Phoenix and Melina aren’t that far removed from their wrestling careers, and I doubt that their opponents Ashley Massaro and Maria Kanellis are doing much of anything.

Wrestlemania XXV: Here’s an interesting show because there are very few matches that you could realistically rematch, even though the card wasn’t all that long ago. The Triple H/Randy Orton main event comes closest, but in literally every other match you’ve got somebody who is either incapacitated due to injuries (with the possible exception of JBL) or under contract to TNA.

The three most recent Wrestlemanias really aren’t even worth discussing because there hasn’t been all that much turnover in the roster. Really the only limiting factors on rematching most of the key bouts on those cards are the retirement of Edge and a couple of defections to TNA.

BR has a question that will piss off Dutch Mantel:

I have a question. Not to pull the “WWE should of done this…” card, but when the angle happened where Triple H was trying to figure out who texted Kevin Nash’s phone to attack CM Punk at Summerslam, one thing I’ve asked myself is “Why didn’t they just say Alberto Del Rio did it?” I mean it makes sense, Alberto has money & wanted the title, Kevin Nash wouldn’t say no to money. Really my question is, with how Alberto Del Rio is seen as rich, always coming out with these fancy cars, why haven’t they done things like that, where Alberto would pay people to lose to him or beat up someone for him or whatever? Are they afraid it’ll be too much of a copy of Ted Dibiase?

As to the specific question, they likely didn’t have Del Rio pay off Nash in that particular angle because it would have muddied the issues in the rivalries that they were building up, which were Cena vs. Del Rio and Punk vs. Triple H (and a bit of Punk vs. Kevin Nash). If you align Del Rio and Nash, all of a sudden you’ve got all five guys with reasons to go after one another in a bit of a jumbled mess as opposed to having the more defined feuds.

As to the more general question of why WWE didn’t make paying off wrestlers part of Del Rio’s gimmick, chances are they just didn’t get around to it. You have to keep in mind that it isn’t something that Ted DiBiase was even really doing on a consistent basis. He’d get an actual wrestler to “sell out” to him once every couple of years . . . that was about it. I doubt that the company ever had any concerns at all regarding ADR looking like a DiBiase clone, given that they openly acknowledged on their own television the similarities between the gimmicks of Del Rio and John Bradshaw Layfield.

From the desk of Greg “Hyper” Link:

During the AWA’s dying days, they had ceased doing house shows and were primarily a TV show before going out of business. When Bischoff took over WCW, house shows lost money, so he cut back on them and it helped put WCW business in order (for a little while at least). Given that TNA’s primary source of revenue is TV, why do they even bother running house shows? Do you think losing money on house shows is worthwhile in order to give your roster experience in front of a crowd? If I gave you $10 million to start a company how would you structure the business and revenue streams?

If they’re done right and have the right promotional push behind them, house shows can make money. WWE is living proof of that, alongside numerous other wrestling promotions throughout history. Also, even though television rights fees may be TNA’s primary source of income, I doubt that their house shows are losing too much if anything, just because they’ve been doing them for several years now, to the point that it would be completely nonsensical for them to continue doing them if they weren’t turning some kind of profit. (After all, they’ve finally given up the ghost on their money-losing live pay per view shows.)

Do I think that house shows are worth losing money on? I think that depends on the amount of money that’s being lost on the house shows and the amount that’s being earned by the promotion’s other revenue streams. The problem with not running house shows at all is that, if your wrestlers are under exclusive deals and not getting bookings elsewhere, you can expect the quality of your in-ring product to go down A LOT. As alluded to in the question, modern house shows help guys get in-ring experience that they can then take to television and pay per view and, even more importantly, it helps them essentially practice specific matches that they’re going to do on bigger shows. I can see an argument for taking a minimal financial hit on the house shows themselves in order to provide a quality product when more eyes are on it, but it’s still not an aspect of your business that you want to be losing your ass on.

If you gave me $10 million dollars to start my own wrestling promotion, I would ask for it to be in cash and flee the country immediately.

Seriously, though, I don’t think that cash alone is enough to start a successful wrestling promotion. You need television. Without television, you’re worthless. You need to either start with the television deal and then figure out the money or get backers to pledge money with you so long as you can obtain a good television deal . . . and I mean GOOD television deal, not simply syndication or a slot on one of the higher cable tiers. You’re not going anywhere without that, money or not.

That’s it for this week’s Ask 411. If you can’t get enough of Ryan, follow him on Twitter here.