Ask 411 Wrestling 04.18.07: Cena’s Belt, Hogan Breaks Kayfabe, WMs Without Taker and More!

It’s time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I’m Steve Cook, and I hope you all are having a good Wednesday/Thursday/whenever you end up reading this. At a time when there is so much wrong going on in the world, I find that it’s important sometimes to take a breather from real life and focus on things that are less serious in nature. Which is why I have way too many wrestling DVDs and t-shirts and go to way too many wrestling shows.

Speaking of wrestling shows, I will be back in my old stomping grounds of Louisville, KY this Friday for the big TNA house show at the Louisville Gardens. Will I finally achieve my dream of hooking up with Ms. Brooks? Probably not because of the restraining order. But it should still be a good time anyway.

And speaking of wrestling DVDs, I finally received my AWA & Four Horsemen DVDs on Saturday. Once I get around to watching them, I will be able to answer all your AWA & Four Horsemen questions. Since I ordered them from WWE.com, I got awesome t-shirts that came with them. You can see how I’m such a hit with the ladies…

Sigh. Well, at least I have 49 e-mails in the inbox to keep me company. That’s more than a lot of people can say.

Comments, Corrections and other “C” words

In response to Frenzal’s question on the April 11 Ask 411 Wrestling column:

“3. I also remember some hippy guy who tried to get into the flock. Raven DDT’d him but got his revenge on some PPV later down the line when Raven fought DDP. Who was this person?”

As far as I know, Raven faced DDP in a single match on two WCW PPVs, Spring Stampede ’98 and Slamboree ’98. This may have happened at WCW Slamboree 98, during Raven vs DDP in a Bowery Death match. I read Arnold Furious’s “Furious Flashback” report of the event on this site and the guy might have been Van Hammer. According to the report:

“Out comes the Flock. Reese, Riggs, Sick Boy and Riggs cuts the cage open. Van Hammer is out here though and he cleans house on the Flock (he got kicked out for fucking up at Spring Stampede). Reese gets cuffed to the rail. The Riot Squad get rid of Van Hammer.” – Kenny

I had completely forgotten about Van Hammer’s run as a Flock member then getting kicked out and becoming a peace loving hippie. Props to the 57 of you that filled me in on that little nugget of information…way too many to list here, but it’s much appreciated.

In regards to the question concerning Kane’s 1 day reign as champion, it was my feeling that this was done so that Stone Cold could replace the dark-blue belt that he received after beating the BoyToy at WM14, the blue belt was a touch too big, and made no sense considering Austin’s black attire….the belt he received after winning the rematch vs. Kane on Raw was the “smoke and skull” strap that we all came to know and love…just a guess, but it seems to make sense….have a great day! – Matt in Sac

I never thought of that before, but you might be on to something.

Scotty Riggs is actually still active on the indies. He’s worked the last several events for the CWA promotion out of South Carolina and is one of their champions. I also hear that he occasionally reprises the american males with Buff Bagwell. Just a little info if you cared to share it. – Billy

Do they use the American Males theme song?

AMERICAN MALES
AMERICAN MALES
AMERICAN MALES
AMERICAN MALES
AMERICAN MALES
AMERICAN MALES
AMERICAN MALES

Seriously though, “American Males” is about as generic a tag team name as you can get. WWE should call up two guys from OVW and call them “The Tag Team”. Of course, they’d probably end up teaming with the World’s Greatest Tag Team, which is another pretty dull name.

In related news, my favorite tag team name of all time is “Double Trouble Crap On A Stick”, which was Vince McMahon’s suggestion to Billy Gunn & Big Show for their tag team name on an episode of Raw or Smackdown. I thought it was pretty fitting.

I just thought I would let you know that in the early 80’s in the NWA, the Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant VS. Paul Jones & Army, Jimmy lost to Shaska Whatley in a hair versus hair match allowing Shaska & Manny Fernandez to hold Jimmy in the chair while Paul shaved him. I also remember a lot of good guys coming out pleaded to Jimmy to let them help him and he kept pushing them away and screaming “No, I can take it like a man.” I remember being very shocked and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I think I was somewhere between 6 – 8 but still knew enough that the good guys should always win the payoff. – Jim

hair vs hair match, heel wins – didnt vince russo win some sort of hair vs hair match with flair, and shaved his head on nitro?

oh yeah, jericho beat kevin nash when jericho was a heel. sadly, it didnt lead to nash getting his head shaved in the middle of the ring, but rather, a stylish crew cut he would later sport in the movie “the punisher”

re: four horsemen. after flair returned, i think the last time the horsemen were together was for the flair/bischoff match on nitro, where EB tried to escape, but they were waiting for him in the limo, and brought him back to the ring. after that, flair said something along the lines of “thanks guys, but i gotta go at it alone on this one”….or maybe he said that before the match, i dunno.

re: Scotty Riggs – bagwell recently mentioned he’d be reforming the american males with scotty riggs, so i’d imagine riggs is wrestling somewhere still.

re: kane and his kane-a-nites – i think he got injured (bicep tear?) right after that. which sucked, because he wasnt quite the same when he came back.

And im pretty sure lodi still wrestles. he was doing some raven’esque gimmick in LAW a while back. maybe that was too long ago…..dunno. – Manu

Russo shaving Flair’s head was probably one of those moments that caused a lot of WCW fans to just give up on the product. And really, who could blame them?

Comments
1. re: Fake Kane
It’s not entirely true that this foolishness was never mentioned again; it’s included in Kane’s bio on WWE.com.

2. re: rope breaks in no DQ matches.
One of my favorite little moments in wrestling was Steve Austin against (I think) The Rock in a no DQ match. The Rock got Austin in the Sharpshooter, but Austin got to the ropes and the ref made Rock break it. Then Austin got The Rock in the Sharpshooter and Rock made it to the ropes. The ref told Austin to break it, and Austin just stared blankly at the ref for a beat before flipping him the bird and ratcheting back on the hold while Rock screamed bloody murder. Funny.

3. re: Mr. Kennedy
I would imagine that someone also noticed that Kennedy’s silly naming scheme is not without precident, namely noted booker/McMahon stooge Pat Patterson, so perhaps that’s a little homage. – Richard

Austin is actually 5-1 up on Rock. You forgot their title match at Rebellion (the UK PPV) 2001 which Austin won after hitting The Rock with the WWF Title belt. – 411’s Daniel Wilcox

Silly Daniel…we all know things that happen in England don’t count!

And before you Brits start sending the hate mail, I’m joking.

Kinda.

In regards to a question asked by one of your readers concerning triple threats in the WWE in the year 1997:

Hey, I just wanted to ask a logical question. Why in the world wouldn’t WWE introduce a triple threat match until somewhere in 1997?! Even then it was in Canada between HBK, Bret and Sid and untelevised….. – Eric

Actually the first triple threat they ever did was televised on an edition of Monday Night Raw in 1997. Owen Hart defended his Intercontinental Title against Triple H and Goldust. They had shown a segment prior to the match featuring Owen and Brian Pillman complaining about the rules and how it was unfair that someone could walk away the champion without pinning Owen. Just thought it was something worth bringing up. – Mr. Garcia

I don’t remember that, but that’s a pretty good way to get the match type over with the fans, having the heels bitch and moan about it.

Just a side note in addition to a question from last week with regards to Johnny Polo on commentary with Gorilla. I saw that match somewhat recently and the stupid ref who counts in the cage? None other than the Manager of Champions Bill Alphonso. Sans whistle, of course. – Chris

At least Sandman wasn’t there overdosing, or Fonzie would have turned to Polo and said “HEY DADDY, SANDMAN’S LIPS ARE TURNING BLUE!” Ah…tremendous.

A guy from Germany brings up Hogan being cheered even for doing heelish moves at WM 18, now I know back in his day he was the big monster UBER FACE, but what is funny is that his moveset is always the same. For instance, peeling back pads to do moves on concrete, two elbow drops then a face wash with his boot, biting opponents heads, choking, eye rakes, and back rakes, Hogan did all of that even during his super face periods. – Chris Jacobs

See, this is what drove me crazy about Hogan back in the day. He’d be cheating like crazy in matches against Ric Flair, including one instance where he took a fan’s banner and clotheslined Flair with it, and the referee wouldn’t do anything about it. On the other hand, I liked it when the evil Hollywood Hogan did it.

2) Adding to your answer to the question about how much wrestlers are paid, WWE guys do get royalties for merchandise, but not before the ‘E takes out a chunk for themselves, since the company owns the character. Steve Austin was able to make a small fortune in T-shirts alone. By comparison, Shane Helms can’t even fill his gas tank with his royalty check (and he still has some residual revenue coming from Hurricane merchandise!).

3) In resonse to the Kane/Rock/Hogan promo, I believe it came at a time when Kane’s “monster” luster had worn off, and WWE was putting him in different situations to find a new niche. Kane had been over for a while, we’d heard him talk, and we’d seen him give crotch chops. The promo itself was probably meant to put over the idea that he could hang with the moneymakers of the company, as a way to explain his involvement in the six-man tag (after all, why was he there? Kane had no beef with the nWo at that time and certainly wasn’t buddy-buddy with Rock and Hogan). Everything Kane said in that promo was funny as hell, as he spent most of it stealing Rock and Hogan’s lines and inserting himself into them, hence “Kanenites” instead of “Hulkamaniacs.” My thought is, Kane secretly hoped it would catapult him in a new, more charismatic direction, but the company wasn’t interested in expanding on that at all. It’s too bad, because when not trying to sound like an evil dentist or a baby killer, Glenn Jacobs can be gold on the mic. – Greg “Lazy Blazey” Trombley

I’m sure you’ll get a million of these, but to answer the question about the previous Smackdown theme song, it was sung by John Cena, so my guess is Jim Johnson did create it also. – YANKJ1

I did not hear this from anybody else, and from what I can remember of the song, it didn’t sound like Cena. Anybody else have any information that would confirm John Cena singing the old Smackdown theme song?

Questions!

JLAJRC has three questions…

1.) At Wrestlemania 19, Roddy Piper shows up to attack Hogan during his match with Vince McMahon. Of course, this didn’t really do anything since Hogan won about a minute later. Was this supposed to set up a new Hogan/Piper legends feud that didn’t happen or was it simply to have Roddy make a quick cameo?

Actually, Hogan & Piper did end up having a feud in 2003…well, technically it was Piper feuding with Mr. America, but their interaction at WM XIX did lead to that. Hogan was “suspended” by Mr. McMahon shortly after WM, and Piper made a comeback to Smackdown hosting Piper’s Pit and hanging out with Sean O’Haire. In early May, Piper managed to get the debuting Mr. America to make his first TV appearance on Piper’s Pit, only to be mortified when it ended up being Hogan in a mask. Piper & Mr. America had a match at Judgment Day 2003 that was won by Mr. America. It was absolutely outstanding.

2.) Why wasn’t Bobby Heenan used in a managerial role during his time in WCW? They had Miss Elizabeth, Sensational Sherri, and Jimmy Hart doing it, why not Heenan?

Heenan wasn’t interested in managing in the WWF after he became a full-time broadcast journalist in 1991, and his disinterest continued when he went to WCW. It mostly had to do with his neck problems that had gotten worse and worse over the years, and there was also the fact that WCW probably wouldn’t have had anything good for him to do anyway. Heenan will admit that during his time in WCW, he didn’t really care about his work and just showed up for the paycheck.

3.) During one of 411’s Wrestlemania Roundtable reviews, it was mentioned that Mick Foley turned down working with Marc Mero. Why? Mero was a decent wrestler and Mick could work some magic with him.

If I remember correctly from the “Have A Nice Day” book, Foley was skeptical of the idea they had for setting up the feud. He doesn’t seem to be very complimentary towards Mero in the book either, mostly because Mero was always making more money than him in WCW & early on in the WWF despite not bringing as much to the table.

I was wondering is John Cena’s title the new title from now on or will they eventually change back when someone besides him or edge win it, cause lets face it that title is ugly. – Beatju

I don’t see them changing the title belt back to the previous design as long as Cena is champion or in the title hunt. It might be ugly to folks like you and me, but kids and belt marks like JT go to the shows in masses and buy either the replica or the foam version of Cena’s title belt. It’s constantly one of the top sellers on the WWE Shop site…for them to take that away right now would be throwing money away. Granted, it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done that, but I just don’t see it happening.

My question is about Hulk Hogan’s appearance in Rocky III. In the movie, it seems like he breaks kayfabe at the end of his match with Rocky (where he acknowledges wrestling is scripted). Since this performance is credited with being a big part of his rise to superstardom, why wasn’t Hogan penalized for breaking kayfabe during an era when it was so religiously enforced? Was it that his popularity overcame such a transgression? What do you think? Thanks. – Freight Train

Hogan most likely wasn’t penalized because he was making everybody a hell of a lot of money whereever he went. Money can make people forget a lot of things. Hogan’s appearance in Rocky III wasn’t the only thing that got him to the top of the business, but it certainly played a role in his rise to the top of the AWA that led to him going to the WWF, and you know the rest of the story…besides, most of his peers probably would have given their left nut to be in Rocky III, to hell with breaking kayfabe.

1) Why can’t you powerbomb Kidman? Did he have some sort of surgery and needed to avoid taking the bump, or is it just one of those things?

Just one of those things as far as I know. It’s like how you can’t headscissor Austin Aries, he always finds a way out of it. It’s pretty good ring psychology, though you begin to wonder why Kidman’s opponents keep trying to powerbomb him.

2) Who were in Kaientai and Los Boriquas(sp)? I know Savio Vega, Miguel Perez and TAKA and Funaki, but who were the others?

Kaientai – In addition to TAKA & Funaki, the early WWF version of Kaientai included Dick Togo, Mens Teioh & their manager Yamaguchi-San. The Japan version also included Kaz “Shiryu” Hayashi and Hanzo Nakajima.

Los Boricuas consisted of Savio, Miguel, Jose Estrada & Jesus Castillo.

3) What happened to Brakken? I remember him having one match and then he just disappeared. What happened to this guy, cuz he definitely had the right look.

I assume you are referring to Brakkus, a man who made a few WWF appearances and fell off the face of the earth. His last wrestling appearance was at ECW’s Cyberslam 1998, where he got squashed by Tazz. His real name was Achim Albrecht, he was a body builder of some repute, and that is all the people need to know.

4) What happened to Nailz? His debut where he handcuffed and beat the BBM is one of my earliest memories of watching wrestling.

See last week’s column.

5) On a related note, I remember they showed some backstage footage after the attack where BBM puked up all over some EMTs; did that happen, was it real, or is it just a child’s overactive imagination? – smithy84

That happened on television…I’m pretty sure Nailz’s attack didn’t cause the vomiting, but you can make vomit happen pretty easily if you’re a television show.

I was watching a best of Malia Hosaka tape last night and had some questions about the LPWA. 1. Who was La Gata? 2. Who was The Goddess? I’ve always have been wondering who they were. 3.Also, what ever happened to Magnificent Mimi, Misty Blue Simms, Kat Laroux, Linda Dallas, The Beast and Ashley Kennedy? They probably all just retired but if you know where they are, do tell. Thanks – Paul D. from Boston

I never got to watch the LPWA and am woefully uninformed on many things about it, but I will try my best to answer some of your questions. Anybody with more information can feel free to write in…

1. I do not have an identity on La Gata, but apparently she was a luchadora.

2. One site tells me that The Goddess was Candi Devine.

3. Magnificent Mimi – Mimi has a website that tells you that she is still pursuing a career in entertainment. She works as an actor, stunt woman, producer, and writer. She has appeared in many movies and television shows, and raises two twins in California.

Misty Blue Simmes – I’m not sure what Misty does these days, but she apparently has the time to e-mail OWW and help them out with her profile.

Manu Bumb brings us two questions…

just watched nacho libre and now im watching one of the special features. right now, they’re talking about lucha libre, and showing some of the moves they do. they just showed a moonsault, and called it a “Huracan Rana”. was this just a blunder by people that know nothing about wrestling, or something more?

A blunder by people that know nothing about wrestling…a rana and a moonsault have never been the same thing.

so im watching the new hogan dvd (ultimate anthology) and the first match is hogan vs andre. well, hogan rolls out of the ring, and blassie sticks something in his elbow pad, and hogan goes back in, hits andre with it, and then rolls back outside the ring and raises his arms in victory. the ref doesnt count andre down OR hogan out, vince and bruno (on commentary) act like the match is still going on, no bell rings, and then all of a sudden, vince goes up to interview andre, the loser (i think????????????????????).

now, i dont expect you to know wtf happened (unless it was a loaded elbow match, where the first person to stick something in their elbow pad and hit their opponent with it wins…………………), but, can you come up with any wrestling-logical reason for what just happened? im sticking with my loaded-elbow match theory. – Manu Bumb

I’ve noticed while watching old MSG matches that sometimes the finishes of matches didn’t really come off that well back then. Something would happen to end the match, the bell would ring or not ring, the official would take forever to make a decision or the ring announcer would take forever to announce it, and Vince McMahon would wonder aloud on commentary what the hell was going on. This sounds like another one of those situations. I’m just hoping Russo doesn’t read this column and book a “loaded-elbow match” for the next TNA PPV.

If ‘Taker debuted in 1990 and has a WM streak of 14-0, but this upcoming show will be the 17th Wrestlemania since 1990. So my question is: Which Wrestlemanias since his debut has he not taken part in? – Adam Farley

Undertaker was not a part of WrestleMania X or WrestleMania XVI due to him taking leaves of absence at the time of both shows. In 1994 he had disappeared after losing to Yokozuna in a cage match, in 2000 he was healing up from various injuries.

EDIT: Casket match. Lost to Yoko in a casket match is what I meant to say…I was on the same drugs the bookers were on when they booked that nonsense at the 94 Rumble.

Is there a list of moves that wrestlers are not allowed to perform? If so could you list them? – Charles

In WWE, the piledriver is strongly discouraged unless your name is Undertaker and you like to finish people with a tombstone. They have also discouraged use of the 450 splash and other high risk moves that can easily cause injury. I don’t believe many other promotions go to the lengths of outlawing wrestling moves, though we all know that the piledriver and tombstone are banned in Mexico.

Ok, i never
knew anyone who liked wrestling and skating except for Mike Vallely (which i
dont know personally). But why do you think WWE or TNA never had him on their
shows? He could draw in all the skaters to watch. Also, do you know if their are
anyone whole matches of him on the internet? Or music videos of him just
wrestling and not fighting? Im not sure if you know who I am talking about but
if you feel like answering this or looking at his videos, just put in the
youtube search Mike Vallely. Thanks – hiphopshuvit

I couldn’t find any footage of his matches, but my guess as far as an answer goes would be that either WWE or TNA doesn’t think he’s enough of a draw to bring in, or he’s not talented enough at the wrestling aspect, or wrestling full-time isn’t something that interests him enough to try and get signed by a major promotion.

Was watching the DVD The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. While most would agree a lot of its content is pretty biased and unfair, one thing stuck out to me in particular. When Hogan is detailing his and Warrior’s big showdown in WCW he mentions that during their first in ring promo, Warrior commits the ultimate no-no in pro wrestling and Hogan had to stop himself from hitting him. What’s that no-no you ask? Warrior revealed that he had had beaten Hogan already years ago…. Um, what? Maybe I’m missing something, but doesn’t everyone know that Warrior beat Hogan in their only match before this? It was one of the biggest matches of all time, and isn’t that pretty much the entire point of Warrior appearing in WCW? Since it’s common wrestling knowledge and central to the angle they were building in WCW, what exactly was Hulk’s problem? I sure don’t get it. – Isaac

We discussed this in the 11.01.06 edition of Ask 411 Wrestling…here is my answer from the last time:

“In the Ultimate Warrior DVD, Hulk Hogan said that Warrior did the ultimate “no-no” in the business by telling everyone that he beat Hogan. But why didn’t get mad at Piper for doing the same thing?”

Because he’s full of shit. A more diplomatic answer? OK…Hogan doesn’t understand that the “appeal” to their feud in WCW was the fact that he had never beaten the Warrior, and his loss to Warrior at WM 6 was considered a pretty big deal in the past. Warrior didn’t committ any “ultimate no-nos” by mentioning that he’d beat Hogan before, they were just looking for more stuff to try to bury him with. Not like there isn’t plenty of other material to use anyway.

And that pretty much sums that up.

1. Now I don’t ever plan on doing this, but we all saw the attempted streaking at the beginning of the Cena / Michaels match at mania. My question is, what exactly is the punishment for fans who jump the barricades and interfere with the matches. I know they spend the night in jail but what other charges could they get. – Nathan Carter

Nathan wasn’t the only one to ask a question along these lines…

At Wrestlemania, some toolbag leaped the barrier and somehow got into the ring before the Cena/HBK match. The camera crew did a good job of getting him only about two seconds of air time before cutting away, and the ref gets extra props for some quick tackling before he was escorted out.

So my question is, what happens to that guy?

Not even specifically him (though any update I would enjoy), but just in general, what happens to “that guy” who dares to cross the line and get in the ring?

What happens officially? Does this fall under the umbrella of trespassing? Is there a fine? Night in jail? Worse?

And what happens unofficially? A stern talking-to? A solid kidney punch? Do they take him into the back room with the vice?

I’m curious because when it happened and security was hauling him out of the building, my first thought was, “I hope they beat the shit out of that guy.”

I took it personally as a fan. I mean, it’s the main event of Wrestlemania! Don’t do that! If I decided to go streaking through a local church, I would still have enough decency to know not to do it during Christmas Eve mass.

Any info/theories/tales would be appreciated. – Steve from Providence

Fans that run into the ring are generally taken backstage by security and placed in jail for the night. They may or may not be beaten up during this process. I’m not sure how I feel about the comparison between WrestleMania and church…but I was reading through the e-mail this week and I believe somebody called this column a church of sorts. So maybe it’s an apt comparison. I don’t think WWE would press charges unless the person created some sort of harm to the performers by attacking them or something of that nature. If they just run in and don’t really do anything, jail for the night is a fair punishment.

Nathan has one more question for us…

2. Back around 2000-2001 I think there was a guy in the audience who would come to Raw and Smackdown each week and would hold up a signs that said “WWF = World Wide Filth” and “WWF is Immoral” he showed up maybe 3 times, got up in the face of The Godfather once and then never appeared again. I was wondering if you knew anything about this. Was it a work or was this some random protester who was against the WWF at the time.

This was kind of an early version of the Right To Censor…it was a work by the WWF that they quickly lost interest in when they came up with the idea of actually using wrestlers to get at the Parents Television Council. I don’t believe he was ever mentioned again.

i was curious, why would vince continue to make vickie guerrero work for the $ after eddie’s death? is this just another example of vince milking what he can get in terms of money out of the guererro family name? why wouldn’t he just give her a set amount each month, bc she has to take care of her daughters as well. – Sean O’Brien

I see this sentiment a lot on the Internet, but I can’t say for sure that Vince “makes” Vickie work for the money. She has the choice to either do the job or not…now, if Vince would still give the Guerrero family money or not if she didn’t do the job, I honestly can’t say. While I’ll be the first to say that a lot of what WWE has done in an attempt to profit off Eddie Guerrero’s legacy isn’t right, I’m not sure that they know that it isn’t right. Hopefully that makes some sense to you…basically, I think that they think that they’re doing the right thing in letting Vickie do some work and be on television. There are a lot worse things they can do to her than feature her on television.

Now, as a occasional WWE watcher, I wish they could do something with Vickie other than feature her on television. But that’s just my cynical opinion. Also, I wish they could find her some shirts that cover up her cleavage.

Now I have a question regarding the possibility of Owen Hart winning a world championship, which IWC often discusses I’ve noticed. In my opinion he was a great wrestler, and I was always a fan even prior to his untimely death (Perhaps me being Canadian has to do with it). Anyways, my question is do you believe he could have been a believable champion at any point? The one period of time I would think he would have been a believable threat for the championship was when he returned to WWF programming following the Montreal Screwjob. I remember Owen attacking Shawn Michaels from the crowd or something, and the crowd was pumped. They had a believable feud that could have led somewhere and capitalized on the screwjob. Instead they pushed him off against Triple H, eventually into the “nugget”, and the Blue Blazer. I think “The Sole Survivor of the Harts” was a moneymaker. Anyways, what’s your opinion? sorry for the length. – Neuce

Owen was a pretty believable challenger in 1994 when he was feuding with Bret. He didn’t really have the track record of a top contender for a world title, but he knew Bret better than anybody else on the roster, which gave him a significant advantage over other challengers. They did miss an opportunity with him in early 1998…but Steve Austin was the guy that was going to be the next champion at that point, and I don’t think Owen would have gotten over as big as Austin did. Which isn’t an insult towards Owen because very, very few have been as over as Austin was in his prime. Owen had the ability to be a world champion eventually, but we’ll never know how far he could have gotten or where his career would have taken him.

Hey, I was watching Raw on Monday and they showed footage of the hall of fame ceremony. When the promo was ending they showed clips and photos of the inductees. When they got to the Sheik it said Courtesy of Big Time Wrestling, I want to know if the promotion still exist, who ran it, and who were some of the top level wrestlers. – Henry

Big Time Wrestling was based out of Detroit and was promoted by Francis Flescher & a man by the name of Ed Farhat, who was better known to wrestling fans as The Sheik. Big Time Wrestling was part of the NWA and the promotion ran most of their shows in either Detroit or Toronto. They went out of business in 1980. The Sheik was obviously the biggest star there, others included Bobo Brazil, Mark Lewin, Wilbur Snyder, Dick the Bruiser, Johnny Valentine, the Funk brothers, Abdullah the Butcher, Pampero Firpo, Tiger Jeet Singh & Fred Curry. There is still a promotion called “Big Time Wrestling” that runs up in the general area of Northern Ohio and Michigan, but it’s not really the same thing despite the involvement of some of Sheik’s family in the promoting.

CL Smooth has several questions…

Before an Armageddon, one of the ones where we had a Hell in a Cell 6-man, while Kurt Angle was champion, he cut a hilarious promo about having to put his opponents in a shark and pin the shark in his next match. What show was this on, and where can I find a clip of it? While I remember, I’d LOVE a clip of Kaientai’s old “INDEEEEEEEEED” entrance.

I couldn’t find that Angle promo, as for Kaientai…they enter about 1:30 into this clip of their match with Lo Down before the Royal Rumble

My favourite pop ever was the Raw in Montreal where Shawn teased a Bret appearance by having his music piped. Is this the biggest pop you’ve heard?

Hmm…I would have to think about this one for awhile. That one was pretty loud…the loudest I can think of off the top of my head was for Mankind winning the WWF title from the Rock on the first Raw aired in 1999. The pops for him pinning Rock and Stone Cold coming down to hit Rock with a chair were absolutely insane. Off the top of my head, that’s my answer. But I could be wrong.

Speaking of pops, at RoH Unscripted 2, CM Punk makes a surprise appearance, interrupting Julius Smokes I believe. The pop he got for a small arena was insane. Question is, do you see a possibility of Punk doing a guest shot in RoH for the Colt Cabana farewell tour, or possibly a Saints reunion in WWE?

I don’t see Punk making an in-ring appearance for ROH now that he’s on the ECW roster…if he’s not booked on the night of Cabana’s last Chicago match, I would be surprised if he wasn’t in the building for that one. He has attended a few ROH shows since going to WWE, but with the exception of Unscripted 2, he hasn’t officially appeared on any ROH shows or done promos or anything of that nature.

As for a possible Second City Saints reunion…WWE has Punk, Cabana & Ace Steel under contract. But do I expect them to actually do it? No, simply because it wasn’t their idea.

Finally, how is RoH doing, financially? Do you see them ever making it a big 3, getting to the level ECW was at in wrestling’s heyday? They seem to be drawing bigger crowds, in bigger arenas, than before, and their crowds have always been rabidly loyal. There’s no question that their talent in terms of wrestling ability is miles ahead of anything on TV.

I don’t have access to ROH’s financial stats, but from what I can tell they’re doing pretty well. Expansion into Britain and upcoming shows in Japan indicate this, as do increased attendance in the NYC & Philly markets, which along with Chicago are by far the most populous places they run on a regular basis. They run more and more shows each year, and DVD sales of shows, shoot interviews and other wrestling merchandise seem to be going well. I would have to believe that unless their cost for putting on shows and getting merchandise to sell and whatnot are much more than I would imagine them to be, they’re making a profit. Which would put them ahead of TNA as far as finances go. Can they make it a “big 3”? I don’t know…the gap between WWE and everybody else right now as far as worldwide recognition, television ratings and video sales go is vast. I do think they could fall into the ECW slot…but eventually one would think that ROH would have to go the television route if they really want to compete with the big dogs. From what I can tell about Gabe Sapolosky, he’s learned from his mentor Paul Heyman’s mistakes in that area and doesn’t seem concerned with a television product at all because ECW getting a bad TV deal was part of what killed that promotion. Too many chefs in the kitchen. I think ROH can have a long shelf-life continuing to serve as an alternative for more internet smarky wrestling fans that want to watch something that isn’t sports entertainment.

Of course, I may be biased because I go to ROH shows in Dayton and the Column of Hero is my new favorite column on this website. What, Ari took it back? Son of a buck…nah, just kidding, I like Ari too. Even if he no-sells the viciousness of the cravate.

I am trying to find research the history of African Americans in professional wrestling but I haven’t had any luck. Can you help me out? Its for a class that I am taking in college called African-Americans in the Media. Pertaining to the topic who is considered to be the first African-American to hold a world title in the WWE? I keep thinking it was Booker T but I am not sure. I would appreciate the help. – Maximo

We’ve had a discussion about this in the column before…I asserted that King Booker was the first African-American world champion in WWE history, but the majority of the readers believe that it’s The Rock since he is of African-American and Samoan descent. There was nobody before Rock that had any African-American descent, though the first time I saw a picture of Hulk Hogan I thought he was black because he was so tan at the time.

does the term “face” for the “good guy” wrestlers
originate from the A-team character of the same name? – Jones

The term “face” was used in wrestling long before The A-Team was on the air…so the answer is no.

Well, that’s all the time we’ve got this week. Send all questions and comments to [email protected]…until next time, so long and good night!