Ask 411 Wrestling 05.02.07: Macho Men, Misfits, Warriors and more!

Posted by Steve Cook on 05.02.2007

Including me trying to avoid the discussion of Lita's sex life!

It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I'm your party host Steve Cook, and this week I'm rushing to get this column done because I can't disappoint the people. After all, I am the People's Columnist.

There are currently 47 e-mails unopened in the in-box. It should be noted that due to computer difficulties, there is a chance that I might have read your e-mail but did not include it in the column because the comp froze up the first time I tried to save this article to a disk, which was after I'd already copied and pasted the scheduled questions. So hopefully I'll answer your shit. Also, I'm noticing that more of you are getting a bit skimpy with the subject title, which doesn't bother me too much, but also means that there might be a delay on a correction being included in this column. I've never said that I was perfect, so mistakes happen. They happen too often when it comes to my personal life, but that's not really important. Let's get this thing started with some feedback...

The People Respond

My quick take on why Cena is booed - not sure if it's been mentioned before...

My theory is that Cena is popular with two important groups - females and kids. You can tell this from the pitch of the cheers he gets, which are noticeably higher than probably all other wrestlers. A lot of male fans like the rough, tough guys. And, indeed, male fans loved Cena's white rapper stuff, which was edgy and funny. But then kids bought into him and women noticed that he was hot. Now, if you watch wrestling and suddenly your girlfriend is interested because they fancy Cena while at the same time he gets a monster push (which was only right as he was super over when that push started thanks to himself working his ass off to get himself over) you can see why some people might boo him - no one likes their woman lusting after a guy like Cena, do they? I mean, he's good looking, has an amazing physique and, worse still, the guy actually seems like a very decent man.

The argument against this is that girls and kids love the Hardys too, but males have no problem with them.

Just to add, though, I really don't understand people booing him. This guy has been carrying the belt for two years and has never been less than entertaining. He pulled a **** match at Rumble against freaking Umaga and he's had at least three ****+ matches this year already, and it's only April. If people argue that his push was early, it is no earlier than UT's initial push back in 1991 and Cena virtually forced WWE to push him because he got so over. I guess a lot of the people who boo him are the same people who didn't like Rock, which was always baffling. - Dan

Personally, I wasn't as enthralled by Cena vs. Umaga at the Rumble as most of the Internet seemed to be, but it doesn't affect the fact that Cena has become WWE's top guy. He's been around since at least 2002, which is eons in wrestling speak, so I don't think you can say his push came too soon.

Males have plenty of problems with the Hardys. At least, I do. Cena's female fans seem to be more attractive than the Hardy female fans, so I'll cut him a break there.

When the shortest rumble time is discussed there is one that is never mentioned. The warlord was eliminated less than 2 seconds after he entered the ring by a hulk hogan clothesline. This was in 1989. Check it out. It happens right around the time of the "accidental" elimination of Randy Savage also by Hogan. One more tidbit, Savage isnt the only person to no show the rumble...Bastion Booger did it in 1994 but i cant remember why or whether he was replaced. - Chris Bucci

In this column you write that the best use of a tag rope is when the heel chokes his opponent. True, I just wanted to point out a great Eddie Gurrero use, does anyone remember Gurrero taking off his shoelace, tying it to the rope, and trying to get the tag halfway across the ring with the extended rope, and having the referee argue and yell at him until he just kinda shrugged and fixed it? I miss Eddie, he was an awesome talent. - Chris Jacobs

Indeed.

I know you deal mainly with current to a few years old pops here, but the loudest pop Ive ever heard was in 1987 at the UTC arena when the Rock N Roll Express came through the dressing room doors. As soon as the first note of their music hit it started. The building literally shook for about 2 minutes and I COULD NOT hear myself scream as loud as I could just as a test. It was amazing. Some of these younger fans need to go watch a RNR match from that time to see a real pop. - Mitchell Q

Jim Cornette has talked about how during RNR entrances, he and the Midnight Express would literally yell at each other in the ring to communicate, and they still couldn't hear each other. Yeah...Morton & Gibson were over.

loudest and longest sustained pop - remember when hogan came out on SD shortly after WM, and the crowd just wouldnt shut up, they had to go to commercial break, and when they came back, the crowd was still making noise, til hogan finally told them thats enough? thats the longest pop I've ever seen.

granted, something like eddie or benoit winning the title is in a different category since they were at the end of the show and not middle, so the pop gave way to leaving the building. - Manu Bumb

That pop helped lead to Hogan's ill-fated title run in 2002 that didn't do much business with anybody outside of the most ardent Hulkamaniacs. The customer is not always right.

A: The rapper is referring to the use of the word mark as a Carny (person who works the rigged games at the carnival) would. They call prospective clients "Marks" as in "Here comes another Mark for my game". It has been widely used for some time in that context. "There is a sucker born every minute" - J.T. Barnum - Stinkylicious

Since wrestlers are carnies, it's all interconnected and whatnot.

When you were answering the guys question about how much wrestlers make, you said you thought WWE pays for the insurance, I can tell you that at least for one guy that is not true. I live in the Detroit area, and last July Smackdown/ECW came to town, the local sports station that I listen to every day had Tommy Dreamer on as a guest (one of the hosts is a big wrestling fan) and insurance actually got brought up. Tommy said that he has to get his insurance on his own directly from an insurance company, and that he lists his profession as "independant contractor" (which got some laughs). I don't know if that is the norm, or even if its true, but that is what he said on the show. - Jim

Just a quick note on the origins of Ron Simmons' catchphrase. I believe it came out of the way Ron normally speaks off camera. I watched a shoot interview with him (http://youtube.com/watch?v=GMIw95zxoUA) and he really does say damn a lot. In the typical "take the real personality and crank the volume up" way, I think it just morphed from saying damn pretty often to becoming a standalone catchphrase on his own. He certainly doesn't seem to say it with the dramatic pause and as much emphasis when he's normally talking. - Matt

Regarding the wrong props question from last week...

I remember a match like this in USWA here in Evansville, IN years ago. It was PG-13 and another team. They would hit Jamie Dundee with a board and it was obviously cut to split down the middle. They did this twice. Someone apparently forgot to cut the third board though. When Jamie got hit with that one, it produced a very sickening thud and Jamie dropped like he had been shot. A definite screw up on someone's part, but it did produce a lasting "holy shit" moment for me.

I forgot to write down who contributed that one, my apologies.

You said:

'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.'

Please explain yourself.

Do you mean that WWE events that happen in the UK don't matter? In which case,
how do you explain
Bret Hart losing the IC title to Davey Boy Smith at what was probably the event
with the highest
attendance in WWE history, Summerslam 92 (an event I attended in person)? Or
Shawn Michaels'
controversial victory over Smith for the European title in a blinding match
several years later?
Did these title changes not count?

Or are you just being racist?

Maybe you can be a bit clearer in the future. Or leave out any 'Kinda's.

Cheers. - Nick

It was a joke, man. I reckon most of my British audience got that. Those of you who kept up with my news columns probably know that I am a mark for the British/European style of pro wrestling because I used to mention that a lot. I certainly wasn't being racist, unless all you guys are the same race now. I know y'all at least got Lennox Lewis over there.

The People's Questions

The Summerslam (1991) and King of the Ring (1993) matches between Curt Henning and Bret Hart are remarkably similiar, in fact they are almost identical. I can't recall ever seeing any other performers recycle a match, especially from one pay-per-view to another. Is it common practice for participants in a great match to simply repeat the formula, even if it is on a pay-per-view for all to see? - Brian Link

First of all, I think I'd have to disagree with your statement that those matches are "almost identical". The finishes were totally different and Perfect didn't work total heel in the KOTR match. Though he did come closer to working heel than he did during the rest of his 93 run. That being said, all the great matchups have a certain formula they adhere to...you can see all sorts of similarities in series of matches like Flair vs. Steamboat. However, the performers will be sure to add one or two new things, or play off of things that happened in previous matches and change it slightly.

It seems that since 2005, that WWE puts one or two former stars in the Hall of Fame as "headliners.' Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper in '05, Bret Hart and Eddie Guerrero in '06, and Dusty Rhodes and Curt Hennig this year. Do you think we'll see Macho Man Randy Savage, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, or Ted Dibiase in the HOF? I mean these guys paved the way for guys like Austin and the Rock and should get in before them. -Dan H. from Frederick, Maryland

I'll go through them one by one...

Savage - Not anytime soon.

Owen - Most likely, I'd think the year marking the 10th anniversary of his death would be a fitting time for that to happen.

Davey Boy - Probably, in part to help get his son Harry over. Like how Bob Orton got in.

Dibase - It would be more likely if he was still with the company. I don't know on how good of terms he left, if he left on good terms he could still get in. But it's borderline.

Hey, man. I know you're a busy man, so all I have is
one question. How do the WWE Superstars know where
the arena is for the next show? And for that matter,
what about lodgings, food, etc. in that area? Does
WWE give them directions on how to get there or do the
Superstars have to find it on their own? Thank you. - J.R.

I would imagine that like most other companies, WWE has people that take care of that for their employees...writing up directions to the arena, directions to places to eat, hotel rooms, things like that. If not, I imagine they'd ask a veteran who would know, or consult Map Quest. But I'm guessing they get directions because WWE really doesn't like it when people show up late and want to try and make sure that doesn't happen.

John Bryant has three questions this week...

I know the Ref does a 5-count when a Superstar is on the top rope. has anyone ever been DQed for staying up there too long?

I've never seen it myself, and hopefully not because that would be one hell of a crappy way to end a match.

What's the difference between a Triple Crown and a Grand Slam champion?

Triple Crown generally means three, while a Grand Slam generally equals four. In WWE terms, the Triple Crown consisted of the WWE, Intercontinental & Tag Team titles, while the Grand Slam added the European title to the mix. I don't know what you would call someone who has won all of the titles currently active in WWE. Other than extremely overpushed.

Wouldn't Muhammed Hassan of beaten that record (most people to eliminate one wrestler) before Viscera did because of all those people that ganged up on him to eliminate him?

Hassan was eliminated by 6 men (Edge, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Booker T, Shelton Benjamin & Luther Reigns), which puts him one short of Viscera's record set in 1994 and two short of the current record.

I ran across a music video by real accident on you tube called "Kerry Von Erich: Modern Day Warrior". It was him looking 70's Arnold like from the Conan movies, lifting weights, doing work outs, and riding horses. It got me curious, did Ultimate Warrior steal his gimmick from Kerry Von Erich and make his character a spin off of the modern day warrior? or was it reversed and Kerry was trying to capitalize on Warrior's popularity? - NYGroover82

Actually, it was kind of the first option you presented. As was explained in the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD, Vince was looking around at the wrestling scene and seeing a lot of warriors like the Road Warriors and Von Erich. He thought that Helwig could fit a warrior gimmick, and said something along the lines of "he's not just a warrior...he's the ULTIMATE WARRIOR!" The name stuck. The video you saw would most likely have predated Warrior's debut in the WWF.

lets say you were a casual wrestling fan who hasnt really followed wrestling (WWE) since......2002, and you heard all the hype about trump being involved in WM, so you tuned in to raw to see what was going to happen......and then you saw vince's rep - a "savage" samoan who runs around the ring talking nonsense and hitting people with his butt (granted, at high speeds). would that convince you to keep tuning in to raw after wrestlemania? a samoan savage? in this day and age? - Manu Bumb

Umaga wouldn't be the only problem with the whole scenario...I don't think I'd be impressed by Trump's representative, a jacked up steroid abuser that talks like Michael Jackson. I just don't understand what appeals to people most of the time. People are strange.

What's the deal with Lita's promiscuous behavior with other wrestlers and backstage? I always read inside jokes in articles on this site about her. What's the story? - GP

Oh boy. Well, hopefully you're aware of how she went out with Matt Hardy for years until he got injured and she decided to cheat on him with Edge. That's the main basis for it...there's also a lot of rumors about her past relations with guys in the North Carolina indy scene, Mexico & ECW that I don't really feel comfortable stating as fact. Granted, that doesn't stop most people on the Internet, but I'd like to try to keep this column somewhat based on established fact.

It's ANZAC day as I write this (the day on which Australians and New Zealanders remember those killed in war), and I was wondering... have there been any pro wrestlers who died in war? I imagine there would have been a fair number of wrestlers who served in WWI or WW2, and some in Korea or Vietnam. - Andrew Dynon

This is a very good question that I do not know the answer to. If anybody can give us some information on this, it'd greatly be appreciated.

Matt Christensen has two questions...

What has been the reason for the WWE over the past year primarily running their shows out of the East Coast? Was it mainly for ECW?

Partially, yes. But WWE has always had a tendency to book a lot of their shows on the East Coast, which goes back to the days when the WWWF ran all of their shows in the Northeast. Also, most of the media centers and population is concentrated in the eastern part of the U.S., so it makes sense for WWE to run more shows there than in other places.

Second question: Is there more to the WWE having 3 PPV's in Florida over the course of less than a year starting with One Night Stand in June then their attempt to cause damage to TNA?

WWE has a tendency to run a lot of its bigger shows in the same general area. For example, in 2005 I could have easily drove to Backlash in Lexington, KY, the Great American Bash in Indianapolis, IN, and Cyber Sunday in Cincinnati, OH. I'm not entirely sure why they do this, but it seems to be standard operating procedure. It's probably not so much that they're trying to hurt TNA (that's probably part of it too), but they see Florida as a marketplace that will attend bigger shows and spend more money on their product.

Hello good people of 411mania.com ! My name is Serban Ionut Georgescu, I'm 19 years old and I'm from Constanþa, Romania... As a child, I used to watch Cartoon Network all of the time, it was one of the first foreign channels broadcast in my country after the Revolution in '89... Late night (actually not that late, about 10 pm-ish) though, they would bring on TNN instead. And that's how I got my first exposure to the wacky world of wrestling. I caught the WCW era at its finest, witnessed the creation of nWo, Hollywood Hogan's spectacular turn, Sting falling through the ring mat, and of course, marked out like the little boy that I was to all that shit. Unfortunately, good things come to and end, and so did WCW (altough it IS questionable whether or not it was any "good" by the time McMahon bought it).

And so, my forays into wrestling came to an abrupt end for about 7 years or so, until a national TV station started broadcasting not one, not two, but THREE wrestling shows per week! I watch RAW, SmackDown and TNA iMPACT! weekly, albeit a couple of weeks later than you guys. Recently they also started broadcasting ALL WWE and TNA PPV's, free of charge, but again, late. The tv station (dubbed "TV Sport", though at this rate, they might as well call themselves "TV Sports Entertainment") takes pride in being the ONLY tv station in the world that broadcasts both WWE and TNA shows and has promised to take into consideration WWECW too, "if the product starts meeting our standards". Hmm.

Ok, I'll stop boring you all with my story, and I'll cut to the chase. I have a few wrestling-related questions and I would love to have them answered by my favourite site in the whole IWC ( thewrestlingfan.com does come in on a close 2nd, though) :

1. Approximately when did the first occurences of tables, chairs, ladders and such happen in the wrestling world? Was The Original Sheik the actual man that introduced fireballs, ot were all these things older than whatever I can guess?
2. Same question goes for blading- did old school guys like Thesz and Sammartino blade?
3. Who do you think is the most succesful wrestler that used more than one gimmick/character in the ring? You know, in the vein of Foley/Mankind/Cactus Jack/Dude Love.

Umm, that's about it for now, I might remember some stuff, but that's for later. - Serban

1. The first table incident I can remember took place when Randy Savage piledrove Ricky Morton through a table at Memphis' Mid-South Coliseum. This took place in June of 1984. Chairs...good luck on that one, it at least goes back to the days of the Sheik.

2. Blading at least goes back as far as the 1970s to the best of my knowledge.

3. Just about every wrestler has used more than one gimmick or character in the ring. Hulk Hogan has known as Super Destroyer, Sterling Golden, Terry "The Hulk" Boulder, Mr. America, Hollywood Hogan, the list goes on and on. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was completely different from "Stunning" Steve Austin. That all being said, I think you answered your own question because Mick Foley was able to get the most mileage out of all the different gimmicks he used in the ring.

I wanted to ask you about Jay Lethal's new gimmick, acting like the Macho Man. Now, Randy Savage was my very first favorite wrestler and I am happy to see that someone is using the gimmick again but personally I'd much rather see Randy start doing it again as I loved the whole gig. But now that Jay Lethal is using it a few questions have come to my mind?

First, doesn't the WWE own the gimmick. Or does Randy Savage own it? Because I would think we would start hearing some chirping from either source. See I'm confused because if the WWE owned the rights, Savage couldn't of used the gimmick in WCW, therefore Savage should own it. Anyway, I know Jay is calling himself "The Black Machismo" so their's no name copying, but still the gimmick is all still the same? I just don't understand how someone can own the name, but not the gimmick? I mean the name represents the gimmick right? I would think that if I wanted to act like the Macho Man I would ask Randy first before TNA, and get his permission to use his old gimmick rather than just allowing the federation say go ahead, and will deal with Randy if he says something.

Jay mentioned in one of the news articles that it was a sign of tribute and respect to the Macho Man, well I bet Randy doesn't think so considering no one asked him. Being a theatre major, you have to pay royalties to put on a performance by an author of a play, the same thing I believe should be dealt with in wrestling. Regardless, of what you call yourself, your still using a gimmick thats not your own.

Your thoughts? - Glen

Lethal stated on an Internet radio show that he had spoken to Savage since he started doing the Black Machismo gimmick, and Savage had no complaints about it and was really happy for him. Lethal certainly isn't the first wrestler to ape an old gimmick...hell, Ric Flair stole his Nature Boy persona from Buddy Rodgers. I see no problem with the Black Machismo gimmick, and Savage seems to realize that it is meant as a tribute to him and wishes Lethal no harm. It's all good in the hood...oooooooooh yeahhhhh.

What ever happend to David Flair and do you think wwe will ever make a best of georgia championship wrestling dvd? - RJEVH01

David Flair retired from wrestling in December 2006 after spending the last couple of years working Southern indy shows on the weekends. He got a job working at a medical equipment firm in 2004, and spent most of his time doing that. He did have a dark match at the January 27, 2006 Smackdown TV taping in Greenville, S.C., where he lost to William Regal.

I heard somewhere that most of the GCW footage has been lost due to it being taped over. So I don't really see a best of GCW DVD happening anytime soon.

Joshua has two questions...

First, WWE did an "Where are they now" article about Paul Bearer. They had a bunch of old picutres of him, and one was Paul Bearer (as Pecry Pringle) in the ring with Ravishing Rick Rude. When did that happen? Judging from the way Rick Rude looked I'd guess sometime in the '80's. Did he manage Rude or something?

Pringle managed Rude when they were working together in the World Class promotion in the mid 80s. In fact, it was Rude that recommended Pringle to the WWF higher-ups and got him his job there as Paul Bearer.

Second, when Roddy Piper returned to the WWE and was placed on Smackdown with Sean O'hare I remember on RAW Jericho referred to Piper as a "Stomach with a dress", then I remember Piper responding to those comments on the Piper's Pit. Do you know the story? Was there any real beef between Jericho and Piper? Was it a setup for a storyline that they either never did or I just don't remember?

Jericho was hosting the Highlight Reel on Raw while Piper was hosting Piper's Pit on Smackdown. It was a feud between talk-show hosts, basically. They had a couple of discussions on split-brand shows, but no matches ever came from it.

Hey, I asked this question in the old ask411 column and never got an answer. The episode of Raw from 3/22/04 got a replay that Sunday, 3/28/04. I remember because I was there and got to see it on TV that Sunday, which was pretty cool. I can only remember one other episode of Raw that got a replay, though I can not remember specifically which one. My question is why did this episode get a replay? Did it do a good rating or was Spike just hard up for programming that night? - Fab Ric

Good question. I don't really have a good answer for it, other than maybe Spike just had a couple of hours to kill. The Raw on 3/22 did get a 4.5 rating, which was pretty good at that time, and was the second episode of Raw after WrestleMania XX.

This is more of a "what if" type of question rather than the normal questions. I know that Eric Bischoff made attempts to buy the WCW company from Turner/Time Warner with the Fuisent Media Company. I also know the main reason they pulled out of the deal was because the guy Jaime Keller from AOL didn't see WCW profitable and didn't want it on TNT/TBS. My question is if Bischoff were able to secure a TV deal, how long do you think that would have lasted? Would there have been a chance to give Vince a second run for the number one spot? The big question being (not counting guys in Stu Hart's age range) do you believe that the death rate in pro wrestling would be lower or at the same pace? The same question applies to the number of wrestlers involved in big time criminal chargers (i.e. Luger, Disco, ect). Final question being, if they were around under Bischoff's new company, do you think he'd learn the lesson and push new stars or do you think it'd be the same old Hogan/Sting/Flair/Savage/DDP/Nash/Hall/Luger/Piper monopoly at the top of the card? I kind of wanted somebody's opinion of what the state of the business would be (I mean obviously a guy popular as Lesnar would not have been allowed out of his WWE contract as easy as he was). I know it's kind of hard to answer on everyone else's behalf, but it's just speculating. - Clifford

Wow, lots of stuff here. I'll try to cover all your questions the best I can...

-If WCW was able to get a good TV deal, I think Bischoff and his group would have gone as long as they could have with it. I can't think of any reason why it still wouldn't be around today...maybe 10 years or so at the least.

-If the WWF still went into its creative tailspin in 2001-02, they would have had a shot at overtaking them, depending on what channel they were on and how many shows they could run.

-I think the death rate would be the same, or possibly even higher because there would be more pressure for the wrestlers to perform at a top level, leading to more usage of drugs and more dangerous situations.

-Judging from the tone of Bischoff's interview in one of the last issues of WCW Magazine (from when he thought he was taking over the company), he seemed to get the impression that he needed to push new stars, if nothing else for economic reasons since the older stars were making so much money and Bischoff didn't want to spend it if it wasn't somebody else's money. He wanted to keep the older guys around as "brand names", but he seemed high on pushing unproven guys like Sean O'Haire, who many thought would be the centerpiece of the new WCW. And that sounded a lot less crazy back then, believe me.

-All in all, I think the state of the business would be better if WCW had remained around to act as competition for WWE. Except for the whole "wrestlers dying" thing, but there would also be more jobs for wrestlers to make a good living.

How many finishing moves can you think of where the guy getting it done to him has been pinned EVERY time? This is counting PPV matches as well as televised matches. A few I can think of that I have never seen kicked out of are Goldberg's Jackhammer, Undertaker's tombstone, and RVDs Five Star Frog Splash. Have these ever in fact been kicked out of? Can you think of any others? - wrichardshad

The Tombstone has been kicked out of, most notably by Kane a couple of times at WM XIV & Triple H at WM XVII. I'm not 100% sure on RVD's frog splash, but I think that Jerry Lynn did it at one point or another during their series of matches. I don't remember anybody kicking out of the Jackhammer, though.

Without resorting to counting current top guys' finishers (Umaga's Samoan Spike comes to mind), I can't really say what the answer to your question would be. Readers?

I'm somewhat confused when it comes to who actually owns and who actually keeps title belts when they are won. I've kinda gathered from reading things that the wrestler who wins the belt actually gets to keep it during his reign (is that a tradition thing?). I have two questions about that, first do you know of any famous times that a wrestler actually forgot the belt or left it somewhere (if the Stanely Cup can get left at a street corner I'm guessing anything could happen to a title belt), and two, why was there always such a fear of a departing wrestler taking the belt they won to their next employer in order to trash the belt, I mean why couldn't the organization just demand that the wrestler give the belt to an official since they don't actually own it. It really bugs me when reading about the montreal screwjob when I read that Vince was paranoid that Bret would take the belt to WCW, why the hell didnt he just make sure Bret only touched the belt while he was on TV, and he gave it back immediately? - Jim

It is pretty much a tradition thing, and it makes sense that if somebody holds a title, they should keep it like other atheletes keep trophies that they win.

1. After the Nasty Boys won the WWF tag team titles at WrestleMania VII, they partied with Willie Nelson. They gave him one of the tag team title belts, which didn't exactly go over well with the higher-ups when they explained it at the TV tapings the next day. But it's Willie Nelson...what can ya do? That's the most memorable story surrounding title mishaps that I can remember.

2. Well, they can demand whatever they want, but if the wrestler no longer works for the company, there's no guarantee that they'll abide by the demands. And some wrestlers have a tendency to decide that that they're just not going to give the title belt back. One instance of this is when Stan Hansen decided that he wasn't going to give the AWA their heavyweight title belt back in 1986...well, not without running over it with his pickup truck first. Things like this tend to happen when you give big tough guys belts and they get pissed about something or other.

I just recently got the Pillman DVD, and saw the infamous wargames match with Sid powerbombing Pillman and botching it because of the low ceiling. Here's my take...

The first powerbomb does look incredibly ugly, but Sid immedietly goes down to one knee and leans into Pillman, I'm thinking to ask if he's okay. Pillman answers in the affirmative and Sid powerbombs him again, but this time you can clearly see Pillman cooperating, taking care to make his feet clear the cage. By this time Gigante has completed his leisurly jog to ringside to submit on Pillman's behalf, which is generally considered and improvised finish. So...

1. Why did they send in Gonzales? Did the NWA/WCW refs not have the earpieces ans the WWF/E stripers do/did?

2. Did the botched bomb have any health consequences for Pillman, or did it look worse than it was? The documentary on the Pillman DVD talks a lot about his health problems leading to his drug problems, but no mention of neck injuries of any kind.

3. What's the thinking on what the originaly booked finish was?

4. Presumably Vince owns the rights to the Wargames name/concept, and with both Wargames creator Dusty Rhodes and gimmick match savant Pat Patterson working creative these days, the WWE could put on a decent Wargames, and it would be a mark out for old school types like me, so why haven't they ever done one? Is it just Vince's aversion to acknowledging that anything created by/for WCW has any merit? - R

1. I think Gigante was supposed to be part of the finish...if he wasn't, they needed to do something that might somewhat appease the fans, as they'll buy into somebody throwing in the towel for their friend more than the referee just stopping the match. Of course, Gigante wasn't the quickest man in the world, but what can ya do.

2. I think he suffered a concussion from the incident, but there were other problems going on with Pillman later in his life that were far more severe than the botched power bomb.

3. See, I think that was actually the booked finish...I could be entirely wrong on that, but it seems feasible to me.

4. Yeah, though with the Four Horsemen DVD coming out, I think Vince is getting kinder to WCW concepts. We might see it someday under the right circumstances.

michaeljhauer told me that Manu rules. Even 411 readers have fans now...where the hell are my fans?

Now a question - I remember seeing a match where Dean Malenko was fighting ?????? (Pillman?). The stipulations were that the first one out of the ring lost the match. Malenko forgot the stip and bailed to the floor in about 30 seconds and the match was over. Was this intentional? When and where were this match? Can you think of any other memorable screw-ups like this?

The match was at WCW Souled Out 2000 in Cincinnati, OH, and pitted Malenko against Billy Kidman in a Catch as Catch Can Match. Wikipedia explains this match type as such:

"Typically seen in the early 1900s, catch-as-catch-can matches allowed any hold given that hold is not intended to inflict injury. These matches thus typically contained mostly submission or amateur-style wrestling. Sometimes, this match is altered to stipulate that a wrestler may lose by going to or being forced to the arena floor, like in a battle royal."

Malenko lost the match because he forgot that he wasn't allowed to go out of the ring. Considering this is the first and only time that I've ever seen this kind of a match, it's tough to blame him.

My question is simple: Watching 24/7 over the weekend, I saw the 1999 WCW Mayhem PPV. Vampiro had a guy named Jerry Only with him. 1) Who the hell was he? 2) Where did he come from? 3) Did he ever do anything after this (he was horrible in the ring)? 4) Besides Russo's wonderful booking, why were Vampiro and Berlyn feuding in something that could "only be settled in a chain match"? - Kevin

1. Jerry Only is the current lead singer and bassist for the Misfits, who were hanging out with Vampiro in WCW at this point for reasons that I don't really remember. I'm guessing it was another case of WCW hiring musical talent for no real reason, like they did with Master P and the Insane Clown Posse.

2. He hails from Lodi, New Jersey.

3. The Misfits' run in WCW is pretty unmemorable, if he did anything it was probably pretty pointless. I think he had a cage match with Steve Williams at some point...why, I have no earthly idea.

4. You already answered it.

And that's all we've got this week. Send your stuff to [e-mail], and have a nice day!