Ask 411 Wrestling 03.21.07: Sid's Crossface, Kerry's Arm Blading, Pomp, Circumstance and More!

Posted by Steve Cook on 03.21.2007

Hey, we're in the right timeslot this week. Woohoo!

It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I'm Steve Cook, and it's nice to be back after a week where I was too busy dealing with personal matters I discussed in my blog and getting drunk off my ass during the NCAA Tournament to write a column. Surely you all understand. And if not...well, it's not that I don't care because I love each and every one of you, but......well, things happen.

57 items left in the in-box, so be patient if your question doesn't get answered this week...it probably will sometime in the future, unless I lose it.

Comments, Corrections and other C words

Nice coloumn. I just wanted to comment that a question was asked on who was BOTH a good heel and a good face. Don't you think The Undertaker should be that? He is a big face currently and was in the past and we also know how good he can get heel heat in the Austin feud. Though he couldn't sell his opponent's moves, but still he played the perfect part as a big evil. This is just a thought. I would be happy if you comment. - Arnab

Undertaker would be a good example that I forgot about, since he was over as a heel at the beginning and eventually became a beloved babyface.

In response to the question about Piper hosting the Royal Rumble in 95:

Tonight, I was at a friend's house and he had the old VHS version of the Wrestlemania box set (I-XV), and we popped in XI, from 1995. As it turns out, the version on the tape was from the special encore presentation of Wrestlemania (played the Tuesday after), and was hosted by, you guessed it, Roddy Piper.

Having never ordered an encore presentation myself, I can't say for sure, but it seems likely that Piper also hosted the encore of the Rumble that year, and that was what your reader remembered. Having been a Shawn Michaels mark at the time, I rented the tape of that Rumble a few times and I can tell you that Piper definitely didn't host the initial broadcast. It looks like they were trying to throw in a few extras to entice people to order the shows for a second time. Also, having clips of the host to throw in gave them an opportunity to play something to cover up mistakes in the original broadcast. - Matt Jones

Yo, tell whoever asked that question...Yes the Royal Rumble Encore of 1995 was hosted by Roddy Piper in a full arena that just watched it on a big screen. It was very odd but it did indeed happen. I have it on VHS. I was the ripe old age of 10 years old at the time, and I still thought it was weird. - Steve

As O'Dog pointed out to me, Piper served as the special guest referee for the Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund match at WM XI, so he did have some impact in 1995. Thank you O'Dog!

Back in the summer of 1972, WWWF champion Pedro Morales teased turning heel in a possible feud with Bruno Sammartino. At their match in Shea Stadium on September 30, both men teased turning, but in the end, they wrestled to a 75-minute draw.

Also, during his reign as the first WWWF Intercontinental champion, Pat Patterson was a heel when he was given the title, but by the end of his reign, he was a face. The Grand Wizard sold Patterson's contract to Lou Albano, who bloodied him and fired him. Patterson went after Albano's wrestlers, and lost the IC title to Ken Patera on April 21, 1980. - Ron Gamble

Questions!

After Benoit left WCW, Sid used the crossface on a couple of occasions. I think one was when he won the title, and I think one was in a title defense. Was this done as a tribute to Benoit, or was it a knock on him? - Casey Johnson

Good question. I remember Sid using the crossface in a couple of matches right after Benoit left the company, and at the time I thought it was something of a tribute. I don't know if Benoit & Sid were great friends or anything though, so it's likely that WCW could have had him use the move as a slap in the face to Benoit. That doesn't make much sense to me...had they been intending for it to be disrespectful to Benoit, they would have had Sid use the move but have the opponent break out of it in like 3 seconds and no-sell. So it seems like a tribute to me.

Because much of today's wrestling sucks (outside of ROH), I find myself going
back to my video library more and more often. Today, it was Great American Bash
1989, which is considered by many (including me) to be one of the greatest PPVs
of all time. Although the show doesn't have an all time classic like the
Steamboat/Flair series that preceded it, it is about as solid of a top half of
the card as you're going to get, with not a single match from the final five
ranking less than three stars.

My question comes from this: The GAB did a great job of furthering the Ricky
Steamboat v. Lex Luger fued over the US title, as Steamboat got himself DQd
(after Luger had threatened to walk unless the no DQ stip was eliminated. This
seemed to suggest that they would have a No DQ match down the line. However,
shortly thereafter, Steamboat was out of the company, and TOmmy Rich wound up
getting his slot, at least until Brian Pillman was ready to be elevated.
Steamboat would not appear on NWA/WCW TV until late 91, and would do a brief
stint in the WWF from 90-01. So, why did Steamboat leave so abruptly? Was it a
dispute with the NWA, or was it a desire to be with his family more (the same
desire that got him into hot water in 87, costing him the IC title)? - fixxer315

I believe it was the second option you stated there. Steamboat was always a man who attempted to place his family before professional wrestling. Which, oddly enough, wasn't enough to save his marriage...but what can you do.

I was watching the 15 team Battle Royal at Wrestlemania 14, and I noticed that a participant didn't even or couldn't make it into the ring. I think it was Miguel Pérez because Savio Vega helped collect him from the floor and lead him off. What do you think happened? - Andrew Malaidack

I couldn't find anything on an injury Miguel might have had...I did see that Savio Vega got eliminated really quickly from the match. Bueller?

So in the past, I heard about a first blood match involving Kerry Von Erich where he accidentally sliced open his arm before the show because he had a blade taped to his finger, forgot about it, and scratched his arm.

As for what I've seen - Kerry von Erich vs Jerry Lawler in a title unification match, where, before the match, you could see Kerry checking on his arm, and early on in the match, Lawler strikes the post with Kerry's arm, to make it look like that was the cause of the bleeding (I couldn't verify it was bleeding before that, but it seemed kinda suspicious).

Is this a case of a real wrestling incident being exaggerated (ie, no first blood match, just this match, and people ended up making up details which got spread around as wrestling fact), or is that an actual seperate match somewhere?

And how do you walk around with an exposed razor blade taped to your finger somewhere? Dont they usually cover those things pretty well til they need it? Id imagine if they didnt, there'd be a pretty big risk of slicing your opponent up along the way. - Manu Bumb

It very well could be an exaggeration...but with Kerry, you can't really be sure. Let's face facts, the man was a drug addict and prone to unusual behavior like forgetting he had a blade taped to his finger. I haven't seen any evidence of this first blood match though.

And yes, that probably wouldn't be the best way to carry a blade on you...but legend has it that Randy Savage used to carry his blade inside his wrestling trunks. Maybe that's why there won't be any third generation Poffos in wrestling.

Basti Scherer brings us four questions...

1. whatever happend to bull buchanan?
i thought he was a good big guy.
why was he realesed and where is he today?

Buchanan was released in early 2003 because WWE didn't really have anything for him to do. He spent some time in the Southern indies before wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling and joining the RO&D faction alongside other ex-WWE stars like TAKA Michinoku, D'Lo Brown, Jamal, Rico, Matt Morgan and more. Currently he is part of the Voodoo Murders faction in AJPW. He did make a WWE appearance on September 8, 2006, losing to Henry Goddwinn in a dark match at a Smackdown taping, and occasionally appears in places like Hermie Sadler's UWF when he isn't over in Japan. But Japan is where he spends most of his time.

2. in the new "don't try this at home" spot
chris benoit dives through the ropes misses
booker t and crashes into the announce table.
any idea when that match take place and did the rabid
wolverine get hurt? looks pretty sick.

It happened during Benoit & Booker's Best of Seven series for the US Title held in December 2005 on Smackdown. Benoit was a bit shaken up, but did not suffer any serious injuries and was able to continue the match.

3. what is the name of the old wwf entrance theme
from macho man randy savage? he was my favorite
wrestler back in the day and i loved his theme.

"Pomp And Circumstance" by Edward Elgar was the theme Savage walked out to for the majority of his career. It was originally used in pro wrestling by Gorgeous George (the original, not Savage's late 90s-early 00s girlfriend), and is used at every graduation event.

4. i just saw wrestlemania VIII the first time with
the english commentary. is it just me or was bobby
heenan hilarious? in the undertaker - jake roberts
match he says something like "you know monsoon
death never takes a holliday" monsoon gives a
"will you stop?" and then comes the line which
made me spit my beer. "these things just come to me,i
feel like i got two brilliant minds" and monsoon just
says "oh boy" are these two together the best
announce team or what?

I was watching Wrestlemania 15 on 24/7 recently and
was reminded of the "Brawl for All" between Bart Gunn
and Butterbean. Now I realize the logical question
is, "Why wasn't Butterbean charged with
manslaughter?!" But I have a different question.
What was the deal with that "fight"? Was this Vince
and JRs way at getting back at Bart for dropping Dr.
Death during the 'Brawl 4 All' tournament? Did Bart
really think this was his way to stardom? Or was the
payday just that good? Because, as I recall, WWE
dropped him shortly after. Was his contract up and
was he hoping a good showing at Wrestlemania would be
his ticket to a new contract? As I read over the
question(s) I just typed, I guess what I'm really
asking is, "What was Bart Gunn thinking... or was he
just on crack?! - Paul

He was probably dumb enough to think that he had a chance of beating Butterbean, and maybe Vince was dumb enough to think so as well. I'm sure that good ol' JR had a little chuckle to himself backstage during that match.

Jesse has five questions for us...

1. So it seems like you love Hulk Hogan (ha). That
said, have you seen the two different DVD editions,
the most recent and also the older Hulk Still Rules
(discontinued, I'd suppose) release, and if so, which
do you think is better? I'm no huge Hogan fan either,
and I viewed the best value of these DVD's being to
see what heel Hogan was facing (almost the same Batman
movies appeal.. you want to see the villain). I'd
actually go with the older Hulk Still Rules because
first it has a half decent documentary, as opposed to
a cheesy Gene and Jimmy Hart host job (parts of the
documentary were cannibalized for the newer DVD
collection) (and what was with that horrible spacey
music occasionally piped into the newer Anthology?).
Plus, Anthology was full of so many Wrestlemania Main
Event matches, as opposed to Hulk Still Rules, which
had quirkier matches (see Mean Gene wrestle... ha!). I
know Anthology had more discs/matches, but based off
the above observation, these are redundant matches
already on other DVD's (MANY times over).

I own "Hulk Still Rules", mostly because it had a lot of stuff on there that I hadn't seen. The Anthology features more matches, but like you said, for the most part they're matches that we've seen many times before. I did not buy the Anthology for the simple reason that 2 discs of Hulk Hogan in my collection is more than enough. And the feature on Hulk Still Rules is fairly interesting, especially if you didn't read his book. I would think that Hulk Still Rules is better, which makes it unfortunate for poor Hulkamaniacs that can't afford the Anthology that it's been discontinued.

2. Maybe you've already been asked this. Other people
doing Ask 411 have, but as far as DVD's go, given
WWE's hit and miss track record on producing
worthwhile DVD's, which release would you most like to
see? Personally, mine would be The Bobby Heenan
Legacy. You could have two discs of the Heenan Stable
(best matches/feuds) (get to see some great 80's heels
temporarily forgotten), and a third disc of Bobby's
promos and/or assorted material (damn, I'd love to see
the Heenan/Ken Patera debate on a DVD), which to me
rank up there with Roddy Piper's best bits, and
sometimes ever surpasses his stuff (you ham and
eggers). Even his choice commentary moments... some of
the WCW stuff was golden. Damn, the more I draw this
proposal up, the more I need to get Vince on the
phone!

I'd love to see WWE do a DVD on somebody that Heenan managed, "Ravishing" Rick Rude. Rude is really one of the great underrated workers of his era, as he managed to have decent matches with Ultimate Warrior in the WWF, had a very entertaining feud with Jake Roberts, and went to WCW and had great matches and feuds with Sting, Ricky Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes. He had some great matches and was a really good promo guy too. Other guys I'd like to see one on are Ricky Steamboat & Randy Savage...Steamboat will probably happen one of these days, but Savage seems unlikely.

3. So I guess there's an older, but skimpy DX DVD, and
the "New DX" DVD (no thanks). What do you think is
more in line with preventing a definitive,
all-inclusive DX DVD? Vince not wanting to pay Chyna,
Bad Ass, X-Pac, Road Dog, and Rick Rude's estatae, or
Sean's born-again status?

I don't think HBK's Christian status has anything to do with WWE's DVD decisions. It's more likely that WWE doesn't want to feature the other guys that aren't with them anymore, and it's tough to blame them for that.

Speaking of Bobby Heenan and Ken Patera... did Heenan
suffer any legitimate injuries? That belt or strap
yank looked quite brutal. It's been a long time since
I've seen it, though. And what was the real status of
Ken Patera being an ex-con? Any reluctance you've
heard of about him rolling with that angle?

I did not see the incident you're referring to, but I believe Heenan's neck wasn't in any worse shape afterwards than it usually was around that time period. I've seen no evidence that Patera had any problems playing up his two year stint in prison upon his return to the WWF...if anything, he probably realized that it was his best chance to get a push and make some money. However, he does apparently discuss the whole situation in his shoot interview with ROH...if anybody's seen that, feel free to write in and tell us how he felt.

I'm spouting here, but I recently saw an old Andre the
Giant DVD, being a Coliseum VHS reissue. Here's
another great nostalgia DVD that the WWE could
certainly newly produce. Do you think the demand is
just too low, or are there other reasons for not
making a 2-disc Andre the Giant DVD with complete
documentary?

There's already a lot of Andre stuff out there...most notably the A&E Biography on him and the old Coliseum video. You might see a new Andre DVD come out on like the 20th anniversary of his death, or an anniversary of his birth, but right now I don't really see the demand for a 2 disc Andre set. Plus, footage of his best matches back in the 70s is generally hard to come by because people liked to tape other stuff over wrestling back then, and most of his late 80s stuff is unwatchable.

Other than AJ Styles and now Abyss, has TNA ever let anyone else who didnt come from WWE or one of the companies they now own be world champ? - Jaime

Let's take a look....

Ken Shamrock - WWF IC & Tag Team Champ
Ron Killings - WWF Jobber
Jeff Jarrett - WWF IC Champ, WCW World Champ
Raven - ECW World & Tag Team Champ, WWF Hardcore Champ
Rhino - ECW World Champ, WWF Hardcore Champ
Christian Cage - WWF IC, European, Hardcore & Tag Team Champ
Sting - All the WCW Titles

Which reminds me that I forgot to put Christian in the list of guys that were one title short of the WWF Grand Slam. But to answer your question...no.

I read on some dudes profile on youtube that nick mondo got paid 1 billion for
his 40 foot fall. How much did he really get paid? I also dont watch czw i just
came across this and watched the video and thought i would ask. Also i remember
my friend telling me that vader paid the ring guys to do something to the ring
so Steve Austin would get hurt, is this true? I think i read it in a magazine
too. Thanks. - hiphopshuvit

I have no idea how much Mondo got paid, but I'd guess that John Zandig could live 400 years and not be able to pay anybody 1 billion dollars. The Vader/Austin thing...I remember reading a story in one of the Apter magazines in 1994 about how Austin's tricep injury was allegedly caused by Vader paying the ring guys to do something to the apron because Vader was worried that Austin would take his spot as a top contender. Like most stories in the Apter magazines, there was nothing truthful about it.

I lost track of Scott Steiner after he left the WWF in ´93, and didn´t see him again till around ´96 or ´97 when I found a chanel showing WCW (i lived in Spain then, and only WWF was mainstreem via satelite tv), so I was wondering, when did he cut his hair and dye it and start calling himself Big Poppa Pump? And why (both real and angle reasons). - Muppetsoup77

Steiner changed his look once he joined up with the New World Order in February of 1998. I think the Big Poppa Pump stuff started up a bit after that, it was all basically to establish Steiner as a loudmouth who shouldn't be cheered. And it worked pretty well for him...can you imagine him with long brown hair now?

Brandon has four questions...

1. At the 2005 Royal Rumble, HHH had a match against Orton for the World Heavyweight Title. Towards the end of the match, Randy suffered a "concussion" (I'm sure it was fake since JR and King almost immediately started saying he had one), and for the next week or so Randy continued to sell the concussion. I remember on Raw one night he was in a tag match and I believe he hit an RKO on Flair and then it took him about 3 minutes to make a cover b/c he was suffering from that concussion. Anyways, what was the point of the whole concussion deal? Was it just used as an excuse as to why HHH beat Orton at the Royal Rumble, or were they planning something else with it?

They wanted to build up sympathy for Orton, who hadn't really received a lot of sympathy from the fanbase since he turned babyface after Summerslam 2004. So it was partially to give Orton an excuse for losing to Triple H, and partially to get people to feel sorry for him...of course this didn't last long since they decided to turn him heel and have him face Undertaker at WrestleMania 21.

2. I remember looking around wikipedia one day, and I read some wrestling magazine gave "awards" for like most improved wrestler of that year and such, and they had an award section for something along the lines of most disturbing or most shocking moment of the year, and for 1999, the moment that won that "award" was WWE Over the Edge continuing after the death of Owen Hart. I wasn't necessarily offended that they continued, but I can understand how some people were. So my question is, was there anybody backstage during that show that was very upset or offended that the show continued?

I would say so, if you watch the show you can tell that the guys are basically going through the motions in their matches and don't look like they really want to be there. Jeff Jarrett & Debra in particular seemed to be mortified with the situation of going out there and wrestling just minutes after their friend had fallen from the top of the Kemper Arena.

3. I am very happy that Sting is back in wrestling, no matter what organization it is. But why do you think he chose TNA over WWE? WWE could probably pay him more if it's about money. The only real reason I can think that Sting chose TNA over WWE is maybe TNA has less politics.

In an interview with Slam Wrestling, Sting says that the reason he went to TNA is because it reminds him so much of how WCW used to be, and he feels that the TNA brand is more suited to him than the WWE brand would be. He originally came to TNA for a few appearances in 2003 because of his loyalty to Jerry Jarrett, who gave him his first break in the wrestling business. At one point he had resisted going to WWE because of the questionable nature of their programming, but now that he's 47 years old and self-admittedly near the end of the line as far as his wrestling career goes, I think it's just that he's happier working for a company like TNA that gives him more freedom to do what he wants to do and where there's less politics involved.

4. I have a good bit of WWE DVDs, and before you get to the main menu, they always advertise other DVDs that are out or that will come out soon, and one of them being that Dusty Rhodes DVD that came out around June of last year. During the advertisement for it, they said something about how Dusty and his son Dustin, aka Goldust, something happened between the two that made them not speak to each other again for years. Do you know what that is? Most people would say buy the DVD, and while I respect Dusty Rhodes, I'm just not a big fan of his and don't want to buy the DVD just to find out what happened between the two.

Dusty & Dustin's problems centered around Dustin's marriage and relationship with his now ex-wife Terri...basically, Dusty didn't like her and thought she was bad news, and Dustin disagreed. There was also a bit of resentment from Dustin over the fact that Dusty wasn't able to be around him much when he was younger.

Back in the old WCW...I think in mid '99, do you remember the angle where Ric flair was president and got sent to the mental asylum? Nobody believes me on this but I swear on one of the segments Scott Hall was in there with him... Just wondering if this angle ever went anywhere or if it got swept under the rug like so many WCW angles.
Also, has anyone ever CLEANLY pinned Goldberg? Im sure there was one back in Russos wild days, I cant remember who though. - Ben

Unfortunately, I do have a pretty good rememberance of that angle...and yes, Scott Hall did randomly appear in one of the segments. It was never mentioned by the announcers when it happened and it was never brought up again...apparently somebody thought it'd be funny to have him there, so they did it. Nothing ever came of it and Flair was soon released from the mental asylum to return to WCW, which was also a mental asylum by that point.

As for Goldberg...it depends on your definition of "clean". At WCW Sin 2001, he was pinned after receiving a Super Buff Blockbuster from Buff Bagwell & Lex Luger in a no-disqualification match pitting "Totally Buff" against Goldberg and Dwayne Bruce. At WWE Armageddon 2003, he was pinned by Triple H in a triple threat match after being chokeslammed by Kane. He was never cleanly pinned until Sin 2001.

I started watching wrestling the night after the WWF: Final Four pay-per-view in February 1997. I'm a pretty educated fan, but there is one question I've never been able to get a straight answer about.

In the Final Four match, Bret Hart eliminates Steve Austin early, and Austin keeps running back throughout the match to "beat on" Bret who eventually ends up winning the thing....but here is the controversy...

I heard that Austin was originally slated to win, but he injured his knee early on in the match. After being injured, he asked Bret to dump him out first and then kept running back throught the match to not "attack" Bret, but to tell him the new finish. I do know that after this match Austin started wearing the trademark kneebrace so there might be some truth to this story...any info? - Bash Wiley

The knee injury was legitimate, and the rumor was that Austin was supposed to win the title...one would think that they would have a more effective way of telling the other wrestlers in the match the finish than having Austin run down to the ring a couple of times. Referees wear an earpiece for a reason, you know.

Isaac has two questions...

I've been watching a fair bit of Japanese wrestling lately. Mostly WWF and WCW guys doing matches in NJPW and other promotions against the stars there. Anyhoo, I watched a match with the Hulkster taking on Stan Hansen in the Tokyo Dome from the 80s. On the ring apron, you can see the old WWF logo and across the skirt it says Wrestling Summit in huge letters. Any idea what the Wrestling Summit was all about?

The WWF/AJPW Wrestling Summit was held in the Tokyo Dome on April 13, 1990. The match listing I found is as follows:

1. Tito Santana & Jimmy Snuka vs Kenta Kobashi & Masa Fuchi
2. Ultimate Warrior vs Ted DiBiase - WWF Title
3. Jake Roberts vs Big Boss Man
4. Bret Hart vs Tiger Mask II
5. Demolition vs Andre the Giant & Giant Baba
6. Mr. Perfect & Rick Martel vs Haku & Jumbo Tsuruta
7. Hulk Hogan vs Stan Hansen
8. Randy Savage vs Genichiro Tenryu
9. Saito & Hashimoto vs Chono & Choshu

Also, is there a resource for the official rules of a wrestling match? I realize that each promotion has different variations, like tag ropes, 20 counts outside the ring, title changes on DQs and whatnot, but by and large promotions only really talk about the rules when it's convenient for them to do so. My favourite aspect of wrestling is the "sport" part, not the entertainment element and after 20+ years of watching, I'm sure I know the rules, but do you think there is an official WWE Rule Book for instance? That would be a very interesting read.

If there is an official WWE rule book, I haven't seen one anywhere. The closest thing to a pro wrestling rule book I have seen was an unofficial one that came with an issue of one of the Apter magazines in the mid to late 1990s. I don't really feel like looking through all my wrestling magazine boxes right now, so I can't tell you what issue it was in...maybe if I'm asked nicely I'll try and look one of these days. That's a big maybe though because my wrestling magazine boxes are tough to get to these days.

Whenever I am watching sports with my wife. She'll ask me how much a certain player is making. My question is that in this day and age of the internet and non-kayfabe, why aren't a wrestler's contract details made public? We hear about Julia Roberts and Will Smith's $20 million movie paychecks, Tom Cruise's 10% of domestic gross profits and A-rod and Beck's astonishing $250 million deals. Yet we never hear about Wrestler X just signed a 3 year/ $1.5 million deal with an option for the fourth year. - Rey

We only hear about what people are making when they're making loads of money...let's face it, most wrestlers aren't making loads of money. Personally, I don't think people need to know what other people are making...it can only cause jealousy. A major part of the reason A-Rod gets so much heat from New York fans is because of the money he makes...if they didn't know, do you think he'd be as hated as he is? And can you imagine how jealous everybody else in Major League Soccer is gonna be of David Beckham? You know he's going to have a target on his back, and if he doesn't deliver, the fans are going to be all over him too. I dunno, maybe I look at it differently because I really don't care what kind of money people make doing their job, but I don't think we need to know how much wrestlers make. Really, it gets depressing when you find out that your favorite local indy wrestlers make somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 to $50 a night while some slugs on television make about that much for each minute they wrestle.

Well, that's all the time we have for this week. Join me next week when I answer more of your questions...oh, and if you have any, go ahead and send them to [e-mail]. Until then, keep your stick on the ice.