Ask 411 Wrestling 05.23.07: Vader & HBK go Emo, Gail vs. Louisville, WWE titles in Japan, and More!

Posted by Steve Cook on 05.23.2007

Including Sgt. Slaughter wanting his country back. Give it to him, Dubya!

It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I'm Steve Cook, and I hope you all are having a good Hump Day. Why do they call it Hump Day anyway? I never get humped on Wednesdays, so it makes no sense to me. Anywho, we've got the usual assortment of questions about stuff that the average Joe forgot about years ago. Before we start that though, I just want to point out that my 23rd birthday is coming up this Sunday. As Bobby Heenan likes to say, you won't offend me with cash. That being said, if there's no column next week you can assume that I drank way too much over the Memorial/Birth Day weekend to do anything of value. If I do end up doing something of value, there's 47 e-mails sitting in the inbox waiting for attention.

In case you missed the Csonkas' latest podcast, you missed Csonka's wife "Christy" taking shots at my name. Yes. I don't get it either...what the heck's wrong with my name? Easy to spell, easy to say, it's just a good solid name. Sure, there were no great football players named Steve Cook, but there was a bowler in the 1980s! In an interesting note, he's described on the PBA website as "the biggest physical specimen ever on the PBA Tour." So we have more than just the name in common.

And on that note, on with the show!

Comments, Corrections and Other "C" Words

In the previous Ask 411, one of the questions dealt with Goldberg's jackhammer and that you did not know of anyone kicking out of it. Hogan actually did back in the spring of 1999. This is when he was with the nWo, but for some reason they had him start wrestling like his old Hulk persona. He starting hulking up and beating people fair and square. He was wrestling in a tag match against Goldberg and I remember Goldberg hitting the Jackhammer and Hogan kicking out at 2! He got up and started hulking up! I remember it vividly, because I could not believe my eyes!! - Matt

Enjoy the column as always. I just read the 5/16 report and in it you say that JJ Dillon served the WWF/E well and may be inducted into the HOFsomeday. I heard that Dillon is in fact Shane's Godfather but had a falling out w/ VKM and that is why he left & went to NWA/WCW. My questions are is this true? If so, what was the problem? And have they reconciled? - Jim

The best place to find out about this would be JJ Dillon's autobiography...unfortunately I don't have it and couldn't find any information about JJ & Vince's falling out on the Interweb. If anybody has read the book, their input would be appreciated...

"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."

Quiet man! Russo is webwise, and you're giving him ideas! - Brian

That's exactly why I worry about answering questions about shitty old gimmicks.

Just to comment on the ECW vs. XPW fued, I was at Heatwave 2000. As said, the XPW guys were a west coast ripoff of ECW who somehow got a hold of about 5 or 6 front row tickets to the ECW event. Right before the main even, Krist Mist took off her shirt and showed her "sparkled" bra to the admiring male fans inside the Grand Olympic Auditorium. At that time, Tommy Dreamer stopped what he was doing in the ring and looked over at the XPW guys. Soon after the ECW guys came out of the locker room and jumped the rail after the XPW guys. This led to a brawl in the front of the auditorium, and in my opinion there was no way the 2 were in cahoots, as the ECW guys layed into the XPW guys pretty damn good. We ran out to see Big Sal really laying into one of the XPW guys. Great event, that basically ended in a riot, as guys started fighting, another was trying to get an ECW banner from the top deck and actually hanging from the banner about 20 feet up on the balcony. Damn, I miss the real ECW. - Randy O.

The opinions on John Cena won't stop coming. Maybe we should institute a column here at 411 where various writers & readers give their take on Cena. I mean, if my in-box is any indication, everybody has one...

On the whole booing Cena thing, what I don't understand is why people dont understand why he is hated. To me the answer is very simple he's useless. In the ring he has had to be carried to decent matches, nothing I've seen has been particularly good including his series of matches with Edge.

The best match I've seen him have was probably his Last Man Standing bout against Umaga which would only get about ***1/4 in my book. As for his match against Shawn Michaels at 'Mania? I'd heard people rave about it and was willing to give it a chance, but apart from the last few minutes it bored me to death and would be lucky to reach ***. The only reason I can think of why anyone would give it more is because they are marks for Michaels and think everything he touches turns to gold, and usually I'd agree but not in this case.

Cenas problem in the ring is that everything looks really fake, particularly his punches which for the style of wrestling that WWE employs, really isn't much use. And don't even get me started on the STFU, the worst looking submission move ever, the guy clearly applies no pressure with it, and Benoit submitted to THAT abomination? And people also say he's good on the mic, but all his promos are the same, basically just insinuating that his opponents are gay, yeah good one John! - Graeme

I enjoy Graeme's e-mail address, which starts with "sitanddrinkpennyroyaltea".

In relation to that one guys pondering, yes 'Terrific'
Terry Taylor and Curt Hennig did meet in early 1993,
it was on some Coliseum release. Quite good if I
remember. Hennig won, natch. I also remember it being
in the Manhattan Centre so may well have been aired on
Raw... and a quick check shows it did indeed take
place on the second ever edition of the show.

Also the Mick Foley thing from his book - Mae Young?
Can't see it, he hinted that Adrian Street wrote the
song "Mighty Big Girl" about her and Mae is hardly an
oversized woman. Besides, she would have been in her
sixties or so by then, I can't imagine he'd have gone
for someone THAT old. Someone like Rhonda Singh
perhaps seems far more likely. - Chris Page

Bertha Faye? Possibly...if I was Foley I wouldn't own up to that either.

I was reading that Bundy vs Hogan question and it does ring a bell with me
Im 32 years old so remember that far back
It would of been around 86 i think dont hold me to that
It was around the time Bundy was demanding 5 counts and i think Hogan had the busted ribs
I remember Bundy getting the 3 count and then the ref stopped and Bundy demanded 5
Heenan was going beserk at him but he wanted 5 and Hogan kicked out and Hulked up
It may have been around the time Heenan dumped Bundy from his family
It was along time ago but i remember something like that happening - Peter

I can only recall one specific incident like the one
Oz asked about. It was at a Saturday Night's Main
Event in the mid to late 80's. Bundy had a title
match with Hogan and at one point in the match, Hogan
was laid out with Bundy standing over him.

All of a sudden Bundy demands a five count, much to
the confusion of then announcer Vince McMahon. Jesse
Ventura then said that the toe of Bundy's boot was
touching Hogan and thus, there was a pinfall. - Craig

WWE vs. Freedom of Expression got a bunch of feedback from people, some who cared to go further into the legal profession than I did...

I just have a quick reply for the person who asked "How is World Wrestling Entertainment allowed to deny freedom of expression rights at their shows via confiscating signs and forbidding specific types of clothing?"

I assume that he is referring to constitutionally protected Freedom of Speech. Only the government or a government related entity can be liable for violating these rights. Generally, a private individual or company cannot be said to have violated a person's constitutional rights. As a private company, the WWE can put this type of restriction on customers w/ little recourse. McDonald's would have the same right to exclude a customer wearing a Burger King t-shirt. The customer's only real remedy in this case would be to request a refund on their ticket and leave. I guess the customer could also sue the WWE in small claims court for the destruction of their personal property, but this would hardly be worth the effort for a $20 t-shirt. - MKE

In response to the question regarding WWE violating the freedom of expression, I'll answer with the knowledge of someone who has completed one year of law school (and thus not a ton of knowledge). Basically, there isn't a freedom of expression issue as the First Amendment only applies to state action. This is actually something we covered in Constitutional Law...private actors can deny your freedom of expression all day long as long as the government isn't involved. I think the lack of warning is more going to be a contract issue. I didn't do very good in Contracts, but I'm pretty sure you have an argument if you aren't warned in advance about the signs being part of your contract to go to the show. Unfortunately, best you're probably going to get is a refund for your ticket if you don't get to go into the show. Is it really worth the effort?

Here's hoping you get a response from a real lawyer (or at least someone doing better in school than I)! - Bryant

On the subject of why the WWE can confiscate/censor t-shirts/signs/etc. at their shows, I'm a journalism student and learned the answer to that in a Media Law class.

It's pretty simple once people get over a common misconception. The freedom of expression (and freedom of the press) guaruntee in the First Amendment to the US Constitution only protects from GOVERNMENTAL cencorship.

WWE is entirely whithin its to limit what goes on at its shows, and what people who by tickets are allowed to do. No legal notification is needed, although I'm sure there's some small print on the ticket itself that amounts to "come to our show, play by our rules."

Anyone trying to argue that WWE squashed their rights by taking their sign away would get laughed out of the courtroom, because there's no law that says the WWE can't do that. - R

Just to lend a little insight about this- there's no law in any state that says you have the inalienable right to hold up a sign on television. Even if they don't have the legal right to take it away from you based on content (and at television tapings I'm pretty sure they DO have the legal right to control any message that will be broadcast on their television show) , they can easily take it away from you for any other reason, like saying it's obstructing the view of another fan or any number of other bullshit reason and who are you to say different? Sure, you could try suing them, but for what? the cost of your ticket? You're going to incur the cost of bringing the WWE- a company with nearly limitless financial and legal resources- to court over the cost of a ticket, just because you refused to throw away your sign? That's why I'm sure plenty of people in this situation threaten to call their lawyers over it, but seldom actually do. Ultimately you don't have a legal ground to stand on. I'm pretty sure that by buying a ticket to an arena you agree that the arena staff can eject you for ANY reason. No specific reason needed. Any business can do this. Plenty of people claim they should be allowed in 21 and over establishments simply because it's LEGAL for them to be there at eighteen in most states. Not so. A place can deny you entrance for any reason whatsoever as long as it has nothing to do with your race/sex/religion/etc. If it's a private club it can even deny you entrance (or kick you out) based on your race or sex or religion and that's perfectly legal.

Simply put, you don't have the legal right to be anywhere except public property unless you own the place. You're there at the behest of whomever owns or sets the rules for the establishment.

overly wordy, but that's how I roll. - Billzilla

I'm not surprised he said he was going into the legal field, as opposed to already being in it, because this is a pretty cut and dry issue (and honestly it's kind of a stupid question but maybe you shouldn't print that...). The US Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and a lot of people interpret that to mean that you have the right to say whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, and no one can do anything about it. This isn't the case.

The first amendment protection only means that the US government cannot punish you for expressing yourself - for example if you have a t-shirt that says GEORGE BUSH IS A CHILD MOLESTER, you can't be arrested for wearing it; the government has no right to stop you from saying whatever you want to

But, as you might have noticed, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is not the US government. Neither is the venue they work with. They are a private entity, occupying the private sector. The actual specifics of it are a little complicated but long story short: legally when you enter their establishment, it's a lot like going to someone's house. Since it's their property they have every right to decide what goes on there. If you show up with a vulgar sign, you have choices: you can get rid of the sign or you can go home. The fact that the law allows you to say what you like doesn't mean that the venue has to allow you to say it on their property. There have been some exceptions to this (the Pruneyard case comes to mind) but they tend to involve public gathering places, not ticketed venues.

To put it another way, if you invite a guy over to your house and he starts calling you a dickhead, you can easily and freely kick his ass out. You will not be trampling on his constitutional right to call you a dickhead - you're just under no obligation to allow him to do it in your house. To put it yet another way, if you get fired for telling your boss to eat a bowl of AIDS, your right to free speech remains untouched because the government was not involved and you're suffering no legal repercussions. The legal principles are a little more complex but that's probably the best analogy.

So no, they could not "very realistically be sued," and this kid has no idea what he's talking about.

I hope this helps. - JSP

In the RF Video shoot interview with Ian Rotten, they were discussing Ian's frustration with ROH taking his talent. Chris Hero came up, and Feinstein claimed that he had wanted Hero in Ring of Honor, but Sapolsky didn't like his look. - Rich

Funny how Gabe was more concerned with Hero's look than RF was, isn't it? Maybe they just have different types...not that there's anything wrong with that.

I was just reading the latest Question & Answer article, and in it you stated that current landscape in Japan was as follows: 1. NOAH 2. New Japan 3. All Japan 4. Hustle 5. Dragon Gate 6. Zero One

This is so far off its not even funny. New Japan is and always has been the number one promotion in Japan, You can measure this by attendance, profit, or by tv ratings. NOAH is a close second but it is unlikely that they will ever take the number one spot. All Japan is third and is growing again so you were right there but this is where you went way off course. Hustle is not a big as it might seem, over 80% of their tickets for each show are invites, Which means that they are not paid for, They do this to ensure a full house for their TV Show and PPV, But in reality they are only still around because they are owned by DSE. Dragon Gate would probally rank about 5th but they are sliding now as well, They had a horrible year last year. Zero One is just laughable they have not been taken seriously for a long time, Its only a matter of time before they fold.

I cannot beleive that you did not mention Big Japan Pro-Wrestling as they are the number 4 promotion, They sellout pretty well everywhere they go and are turning a big profit every year. I hope that you research this a little more in the future because the information you gave was so off it wasn't even funny. - Don

Well, I will admit that Japanese wrestling was not my major at 411 Wrestling University.

Roma works on occasion for a small indy named, IAW-International Association of Wrestlers, owned by former WWF/E jobber, Brian Costello, in South Bend, Indiana.
Roma has been and may still be the Champion there. - Jim from Mishawaka, Indiana

On the subject of double champions...

In the 5/16 issue of Ask 411 Wrestling, Ronism82 asked about past double champions in wrestling history. I seem to recall Chris Benoit holding dual titles in the time of his massive push following his World Heavyweight Championship win at WrestleMania XX. I know for sure that at Taboo Tuesday that year (2004, the first Taboo Tuesday PPV, I believe), Benoit and Edge were teamed up to take on La Resistance for the World Tag Team Titles after losing the vote for World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contendership to Shawn Michaels, but Edge walked out on the match, leaving Benoit in a handicap situation against the tag champs. However, Benoit actually won the match, leaving him as the solitary holder of both World Tag Team title belts.

Not sure if that counts as a double champion, considering the individual belts represent half of a "full" title, but they were two seperate belts, nonetheless.

I also seem to remember Benoit actually holding the World Tag Team titles with Edge during Benoit's run as World Heavyweight Champion, but I'm not positive about that one... - Hunter

You are correct. In fact, I saw Benoit defend the tag team titles alongside Edge against La Resistance and also defend the World title against Kane at Bad Blood 2004 in Columbus, OH. That has not happened very many times in WWE history.

About the double champions questions, i would like to point out that Rob Van Dam held the WWE and ECW title simulteanously, as Joey Styles likes to remind us. - Julien

Joey might be the only person inside WWE who remembers that at this point.

first, as far as Cena getting pined clean, doesn't Edge's money in the bank title match count? technically, that was a legit match and he pinned him 1,2,3.

As for guys who've held 2 titles simultaneously,

Owen IC and Tag
Bulldog European and tag
Eddie Guerrero U.S. and Tag (with Chavo)
Taker and Kane held both sets of Tag titles towards the end of the Invasion
RVD with the WWE and ECW titles
There's probably alot more who held the Hardcore title along with something else. I think Crash Holly was Hardcore champ and Tag champs with Hardcore. - Decaf1X

Just wanted to add a couple of double champions:

Goldberg: WCW World and US title (1998)

Midnight Express: NWA World and US tag titles (1988) - Nick

Kevin has some questions resulting from last week's feedback...

1. "Mick Foley has produced many comical shoots during his career, once causing three different wrestlers and the referee to lose all composure and burst out with laughter."

what happened there?

This goes back to a story that was chronicled in "Foley Is Good"...Foley vs. Rock vs. Kane vs. Austin main evented a series of house shows in March 1999, and often featured Foley, Rock & Austin cutting promos on each other before the matches. There was a bit where Foley would accuse the Rock of performing fellatio on men and Rock would deny the act while they simulated the act of performing fellatio using their hands on invisible penises. One night, Foley just burst out laughing in the middle of his promo, which caused Rock, Kane & Earl Hebner to do the same.

2. "In May 2002, on a return flight from the United Kingdom, Brock Lesnar and Mr. Perfect got into a real-life fight against each other. After Perfect confronted Lesnar over who has the better amateur skills. Lesnar went on to take him down and had to be calmed down by Paul Heyman and Dave Finlay. As a result, Perfect was released from WWE. Perfect was reportedly drunk during the incident."

I love hearing about a good punch up. have there been any other good incidents like this recently in WWE excluding the Batista and Booker T 'fight'?

I don't remember hearing about any recent fights other than the fight between Vince McMahon and his sanity.

re: bundy - I remember something similar. but i also remember bundy and hogan facing off and bundy standing next to a fallen hogan and clapping his hands together 3 (or 5) times, and Jesse Ventura swore that bundy's foot was touching hogan's hand, and therefore he shouldve won. But I do remember seeing what the reader referred to, but cant remember when. If I ever get around to cataloging my SNME and Clash of Champions tapes, i'll let you know if i come across this....okay, no i wont, but thats mostly because i have no idea when i'll have enough time to go through all those tapes and transfer them to dvd, might be years from now, and by then, i will have forgotten. one gem i found was Dustin Rhodes vs Terra Ryzin/Paul Levesque from WCW Saturday Night....no clue why i recorded that, but, sweet! and Dustin won. HAHA, Golddust beat HHH....

"JJ - I'd like to see it, and there's an outside possibility since he served WWE well in the front office for many years."

Plus, wasnt he godfather to at least one of Vince's children?

"how do promoters tell if a wrestler is booed because he is an effective heel...or if he just sucks?

Tough call. I think heels that are effective get more heat than a heel that just sucks...when somebody comes out that you don't want to see at all, you won't have as much of a reaction as you do when somebody you intensely dislike for their actions comes out. At least, that's my theory."

another answer would be "simple - if they want to push a guy, any heat he gets will be the good type, because god forbid bookers actually admit that the crowd doesnt think of snitsky or khali as someone to fear". As for your answer - i dunno about that. I mean, the big show got trash thrown at him after winning the ECW title at an ECW stand-alone show in Philly, just like the nWo used to get (and no one since then...well, other than JJ at last years KotM match.......was that before, or after this?) and i seriously doubt that they were throwing stuff because big show was an effective heel......although, they werent doing it because he sucked either, they were doing it because the new ECW sucked, and show winning the title (and heyman turning on rvd) epitomized that....or at least, thats my opinion. I cant speak for the crowd, but I can say I was pissed off when I saw it because of the reasons i mentioned. Oh, and the KotM match where Jarrett stole the title back, im pretty sure people didnt throw trash in because jarrett was an effective heel, i feel it was because they were sick of the JJ show, and, as usual, JJ the person got his belt back. again, my opinion, and how i felt when i saw it.

re: wwe stopping fans from expressing themselves with signs and t-shirts - I dont think anyone that would wear a shirt or have a sign would have the financial resources to fight the WWE in court. It sucks, but, with big companies, often their strategy is to just keep a case going until their opposition just cant keep up the fight. Plus, WWE shows are a product of WWE, so I think they can stop people from advertising non-wwe stuff, such as websites, or the....other wrestling company. When another airline (british airways?) showed Casino Royale, they edited out the part where Branson shows up (Virgin Atlantic), because they didnt want to advertise the opposition (they said it was just a part of the editing process, but, we know better). Of course, that doesnt excuse them from taking signs that say "cena sucks" or something that goes against their storylines, but, if someone attends the taping of a tv show (do they do live audiences anymore for normal tv shows?) and boos when they're supposed to laugh or clap, im sure they'd be taken away too.

Wow, that answer you gave about who was writing between Russo and Steph was pretty awesome. and its a shame that more people like him arent involved in wrestling. my new goal is to get a job with wwe's webpage, move up the ladder to get to know shane, and find some way to get involved with something. of course, they probably pay absolute shit.

And before any of your other readers emails in to say they're a fan of you and not me based on stu's example - there's no feud. I'm a big fan of cook, dating back to his news report. he's a good columnist, and a good guy. I email in not to compete with steve, but rather to contribute what I can, when I can.

Keep up the good work. - Manu Bumb

To clarify my position on the good heel heat vs. bad heel heat debate, I probably should have taken into account that most wrestling fans don't know that the best way to make somebody go away is to not react to them at all. Throwing garbage at Jeff Jarrett can mean the same thing to a booker as when the fans threw garbage at Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III. You gotta be smart about it, you know?

Questions!

I just wondered what happened to that Russian (?) guy that appeared a couple time maybe 2 or 3 months ago. I have forgotten his name. They interviewed him in the crowd a couple times and he said how much he was looking forward to wrestling in the WWE but then has vanished - Is he in OVW or has he been released ??! The reason I ask is I remember the crowd always booed him when he was talking even though he didn't seem to be cutting a heel promo - just good old xenophobic wrestling fans I guess !? - Paul Webb, UK

Vladimir Kozolov (real name Oleg Prudius) is currently competing in Ohio Valley Wrestling as part of Mike Kruel's Team America. Word is that he's pretty crappy in the ring, so expect him to be called up any day now.

I was watching an old tape I have of WWF Over the Edge 1998 (Headlined by Dude Love Vs Austin). There was a mask vs mask match between Kane and Vader, and (Obviously) Kane won.
After the match, Michael Cole interviewed Vader in the aisle and he seemed genuinely upset, practically crying saying "Im just a fat piece of sh*t"
My question is: was he actually upset or was it staged? Im under the impression he left not long after. Michael Cole randomly interviewing him straight after the match would suggest it was staged, but Ive never seen a wrestler seem so upset and take a loss so badly! - Mat Strutt

It was staged...Vader at the time was going through a losing streak, and his character was starting to lose confidence in himself. Which may or may not have been how he was actually feeling at the time, since WWE didn't want to push him because he was fat and had personal hygene issues. In any event, Vader became a glorified jobber when he was on TV for the rest of his stint in WWE, which ended in October 1998.

Adam has three questions...

1. Do know why in the world Ricky Steamboat did not get put into the WWE Hall of Fame this year? I had heard all throughout the last year the he probably would. I attended the ceremony and was really hoiping they would induct him. I was shocked that they had him at Wrestlemania the day after, despite him not being inducted(I know that he is a road agent). What's the deal?

I was thinking he would get inducted in Detroit as well...maybe they're going to wait until Flair retires so they can go in together. If they do that, expect Steamboat to be inducted in about fifteen years. Honestly, I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind who went in the HOF and who didn't.

2. Why is it that WWE is trying to make Cena into a submission wrestler? I actually like Cena, but I did not like the way that Wrestlemania 22 and 23 ended, not because Cena won, but how he won. I was really perturbed that they made Benoit tap out to him the Raw before 'Mania! That is just not right.

I asked our old friend Penguin this question, and he replied with the following:

They aren't making him a submission wrestler. He's still a power wrestler but like most guys he added a new finisher to his arsenal.

What he said. Personally, I think it gives Cena depth to have more than one finisher, one that is a submission move. Not a bad idea from where I sit.

3. How long after WCW closed did Time/Warner finally get all of the guaranteed contracts paid and done with? Who were some of the last guys still getting paid after April 2001?

I'm pretty sure that Scott Steiner & Bill Goldberg were among the last people getting paid, since they waited the longest out of all the top WCW stars to show up in WWE. Sting also had a pretty long contract, I'm pretty sure. I would say those three were at least among the last that still got paid by Time Warner.

I really enjoy your column and was wondering if you know of any websites that would give a "where are they now" type deal. I am curious to see just what type of things former wrestlers tend to get into after they stop wrestling. - James Engel

A lot of the "where are they now" lists I found while googling seemed outdated. For example, did you know Alan Funk currently competes in TNA as "Bruce"? WWE.com has introduced a pretty cool Where Are They Now section, that one seems the most reliable to me and hopefully they'll really build that sucker up.

I'm not a fan of Manu the reader - but of Manu Ginoboli. He is a pro basketball player and I assumed the origin of Manu Bumb's name. I'm sure everyone that sends in questions to you is a fan. I know I appreciate the research and insight.

My question is about an old ECW storyline that was one of my favorites because of how real it appeared. Do you remember when Shane Douglas shook the Halo of Gary Wolfe and the locker room went ballistic (besides Perrt Saturn who seemed amused when Shane ran by in the back)? My question is - was Gary Wolfe's neck really broken? If so, was it still broken at the time of this segment? It seems to me that it would be dangerous for him to be participating in the angle if he was still injured. - MJH

This was discussed some on the Forever Hardcore DVD...his neck was injured, and it was very dangerous for him to participate in the angle. But you know how wrestlers are, they'll take risks like that to put on a good show. He doesn't seem very happy about it, though.

Great job with the column, look forward to it each week. I too used to live in Louisville a few years back so my question is why does Gail Kim not like Louisville? I've seen it mentioned that she doesn't but have never heard why? Thanks in advance. - Flairfan in WV

I don't know why anybody wouldn't like Louisville. My guess is that she might not have liked her time training in Ohio Valley Wrestling, which I suppose wouldn't be that much of a surprise because people like Batista didn't seem to enjoy the OVW experience either. It's kind of ironic because she's currently dating Doug Basham, who happens to be from Louisville.

Maybe she didn't like Louisville because there were a lot of beautiful women there and it was tough for her to compete. You never know.

I saw your reason to explain why cena gets booed...My theory is that obviously
cena appeals to young children and the woman but men dislike him because they
get tired of seeing kick, punch, slam from him... the man is a very terrible
wrestler he has trouble executing a fishermen suplex. my belief is that people
would like to see something different than him doing punches and then coming off
the ropes and shoulder blocking people... i personally cant stand watching cena
wrestle. He has had great matches this year but i think he was being carried in
most of those matches. Im a big HHH mark and my question to you is how many more
championships runs do you think he will have???? I personally would like to
see 3-4 more but i just wanted your thoughts - John

I used to think that the H's would make sure that he ended up with seventeen title reigns so he could break Ric Flair's record. The way the WWE & World title are booked nowadays, it could take him a long time to end up with seven more title reigns. Also, I think he might want to preserve Flair's spot as the most prolific world champion of all time. So I'm going to guess that Triple H ends his career as a fifteen time world heavyweight champion.

Christian Tiben has some questions about the Super J Cup and the J-Crown...

I have a question about WWE and the Super J-Cup. Now (correct me if I'm wrong), the Super-J cup was when 8 light weight champions competed in a tournament. I have 3 questions about this.

1. I know the WWE Light Heavyweight title was one of the belts defended in the tournament, but did WWE ever mention this on TV? I don't ever remember them talking about the tournament on WWE TV.

Because they stopped recognizing that title a long time ago. The title originated in the Universal Wrestling Association, which ran shows in Japan & Mexico. As to why they had a WWF title belt, the UWA & WWF had a working agreement, though WWF had no intention of pushing light heavyweights in 1981, they probably thought it would be cool to have a light heavyweight champion to bring in once in awhile. Maybe. So UWA had a tournament for the title, and Perro Aguayo won the WWF light heavyweight title on March 26, 1981. The title bounced around Mexico & Japan for the next fifteen years until it became part of the J-Crown, and was held by guys like Aguayo, Fishman, Gran Hamada, Villano III, some guy named Pegasus Kid, and many others. After the UWA folded, New Japan Pro Wrestling gained control of the title.

WWF never really did much (if anything) to promote the title, and it was pretty much forgotten about until they decided to have a light heavyweight title tournament in 1997. Once somebody in the office noticed that there was a WWF light heavyweight title belt and it was held by Shinjiro Ohtani as part of the J-Crown, they forced Ohtani to vacate the title.

Oh by the way, there was also a WWF junior heavyweight title that was defended mostly in New Japan from 1967 to 1985. But that's a completely different title that WWE also forgot existed.

And people say WWE doesn't do much to promote their title holders now.

2. What ever happened to all of WWEs light heavyweight talent? I know they had a lot of Japanese and Mexican stars (IE. El Samurai, TAKA Michinoku, Jushin Liger, etc.). Did WWE just realease al of them when they dropped the belt, or did they just keep them as long as they could? Were these guys even under contract? Also, WHEN THE HELL WAS LIGER IN WWE!?! I've heard he was there, but I don't remember seeing him.

I don't remember Samurai appearing in WWE...as for TAKA, he left WWE in early 2002 to rehab a major shoulder injury and compete in his home country of Japan. He currently promotes Kaientai Dojo shows and regularly competes in All Japan Pro Wrestling.

I don't think Liger has ever competed in WWE. What might confuse some people is the fact that Liger held the WWF light heavyweight title while it was part of the J-Crown. He did compete in WCW some in the early 90s, most notably in 1991-92 while feuding with Brian Pillman over the WCW light heavyweight title. He was also in the very first match on the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro in September 1995, against Pillman.

3. I know 8 belts are defended in the Super J-Cup. My question is, what happens to them? Does the winner of the tournament get to keep them all? My guess is that they get sent back to their respective companies and are deemed vacant. I say this because I don't ever remember WWE reconizing Ultimo Dragon as their light heavyweight champ, lol.

The J-Crown was only in existence for a year...it was regularly defended under the jurisdiction of New Japan from August 1996 to August 1997. People who won the J-Crown during that year were Great Sasuke (who won the tournament for it), Ultimo Dragon, Jushin Liger, El Samurai, and Shinjiro Ohtani. After Ohtani vacated the WWF light heavyweight title, he decided to vacate the six other belts that made up the J-Crown at that point as well. WAR had regained control of their junior heavyweight title during Liger's reign, as he lost that belt to Yuuji Yasuraoka. The eight title belts were only defended in the 1996 edition of the Super J Cup.

Kurt has three questions...

1) When and why did the "You Suck" chant start during Kurt Angle's entrance while he was with the WWE?

The first time I can remember hearing it was during Angle's feud with the Rock in either late 2000 or early 2001...he was showing a video on Smackdown of him beating up Rock to the tune of his music. He showed it again, and the restless crowd entertained themselves by chanting "You Suck" along to the music. The rest is history, though it didn't immediately catch on as an every week thing. I believe it stuck during the feud with Edge that resulted in Angle losing his hair.

2) When wrestlers appear from underneath the ring, were they there the entire time or how does that work? I thought at ONS Edge came from under the ring, but he was in a match earlier, so wouldn't someone have seen him?

It kinda varies...the wrestlers usually wait until the lights get dimmed and the attention of the audience is elsewhere (like a backstage promo showed on the Titantron) to make their way under the ring. This reminds me of a pretty good Curt Hennig story...he and another wrestler were sitting under the ring one night waiting to do a run-in. This was during the Ultimate Warrior's run in WCW where he had a trap door that he came out of that caused injuries to wrestlers that took bumps on it. Davey Boy Smith comes to mind as one of those poor souls. Anywho, Hennig got the urge to go to the bathroom and didn't feel like waiting till he did the run-in and went backstage. Needless to say, there was quite a foul stench emenating from under the ring for the rest of the evening.

Now, I don't know if that actually happened or not, but it's a pretty good story.

3) During the 2000 Summerslam, when The Rock, Trips, and Angle fought in a triple threat match, I remember reading that Angle suffered a concussion on that attempted Pedigree on the announce table (it's now a part of the don't try this at home spot). Was the rest of the match altered because of this, or was it all planned out ahead of time?
It's just somethings I've been pondering...

On Triple H's "The Game" DVD, he says that everybody backstage was freaking out when Angle got injured on the botched Pedigree spot. He and Rock were able to hold things together and put on a match until Angle got back out there since they'd had quite a few matches together and knew what they were doing. Luckily, Angle did get back out there so they didn't have to change the finish or anything like that.

Allright Steve I have a question for you that you have probably been asked before. I was playing the old Smackdown video games then went back to the newer ones. I watched Kane's video on SD 1 and 2 then I watched it on Smackdown Vs. Raw. Kane back then was bigger in about every way possible, the arms, the legs, upper body. Now here is the question, I know on every wrestler name website they have for Kane's real name, Glen Jacobs, but Glen Jacobs is Kane now due to the similarites between him and the Issac Yankem character he played way back when, but was Kane then the same Kane as now, or was it Abyss who was Kane then? - metalmike666

Glen Jacobs has been Kane since Kane's debut. He was also Isaac Yankem and Fake Diesel in the WWF. Kane has always been the same guy, except for that one episode of Raw where Undertaker dressed up like Kane for some reason.

I've got a question for you, but also wanted to add my two cents to the "biggest pops" question. Here are the best I've seen on TV, from smallest (realtively) to biggest.

3. RAW Draft Lottery-When Cena came out on RAW as the first pick and was still universally beloved, the pop was crazy.

2. RAW from 2002 (I think)-Stone Cold had walked out on the company and Mr. McMahon was in the ring waiting for "Stone Cold" to come out and explain himself. Out of nowhere, Rock returned early from shooting Scorpion King and the crowd went nuts. Easily the biggest "regular show" pop I've ever heard.

1. WM XVII-Austin+70,000 people+Texas=biggest pop EVER.

I also want to throw in the pop when Batista made a special appearance at last year's No Way Out in Baltimore. I was at that show, and while I don't know how it came across on TV, it was literally deafening for a good 2-3 minutes in the 1st Mariner Arena.

Finally, here's my question. I've only been watching wrestling since late 2003, and had always heard a lot of very negative comments about the "Lost My Smile" speech. Well, I finally saw it a few weeks ago from the link in Ask 411, and I was surprised. Both HBK and the crowd seemed genuniely emotional about it, and I'm somewhat confused as to why people still make fun of this segment. It kinda reminded me of Batista's relinquishing the title speech, and I can't remember anyone really making fun of that. So if you could, please explain to a realtively new fan why this speech has such infamy, because I'm very confused. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work. - Brandon Metheny

The commonly accepted wisdom is that HBK's knee injury wasn't as bad as he was letting on, mostly because he returned to action a few months later instead of retiring. And even if the knee injury was legitimate...come on, the guy was whining about losing his smile. What kind of lame crap is that? It's so emo. I don't remember Batista's speech as well, but the jist of it was that he was going to come back and take the title when he did. That's much more manly than bitching and moaning about not being happy anymore and not knowing if you'll ever come back because you're just soooooooooo sad. Boo hoo. In the words of the Briscoes: MAN UP DOG! MAN UP!

Don't get me wrong, I understand depression and why people get emotional and all of that...but when you're the WWF Champion and have millions of fans and have had an extremely successful career by any standards, you can't go out on television and talk about losing your smile and not being happy anymore. And if you do, you open yourself to ridicule from people that can only imagine how good you actually have things and don't want to hear you complaining about it.

August 12 1996 RAW had a match btwn the Godwins and the team of TL Hopper and Who, a masked man in yellow. Heres the question who was Who? His bady language seems familiar to me but I cant place him for the love of God. - Sean

Who was Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. And no, I'm not going to do the Abbott & Costello routine that everybody else does when talking about this lame-ass gimmick. And people wonder why Raw lost the ratings war 83 weeks in a row to Nitro when Raw was trotting out matches like The Goddwins vs. TL Hopper & Who.

Do you think joey styles is the next announcer for the next generation? And do you think hogan will show up in tna? - RJEVH01

Joey Styles...I used to like him a lot back in the days of ECW, but he's seemed out of place during his time in WWE. That being said, there don't seem to be a lot of fresh young good announcers out there, so he just might be the next announcer for the next generation. He's got a lot of work to do to get there, though.

I don't expect to see Hulk Hogan showing up in TNA anytime soon for one main reason...Vince Russo. Hogan still has heat with Russo from Bash at the Beach 2000, where Russo buried Hogan during an in-ring promo and defamed his character worse than I have in any of my wrestling columns. There was a lawsuit filed over the matter, and I'm not sure if that was ever settled or not. The bottom line is that you won't be seeing Hogan work with Vinnie Ru again if he can help it, and I don't think he's hurting for money.

Jaime has three questions...

1. Is that HBK doing the vocals on his theme song?

Yes it is. There was some sweetening of the vocals, but all in all, not too bad.

2. What the hell does X-Pac's name mean?

It's a play off of 6-Pac, which was a name Sean Waltman liked to use for himself in WCW. 6-Pac was a play off of 2-Pac, who was a famous rapper that got shot.

3. How much money in donations did Konnan end up raising when he opened a paypal account accepting donations to help pay for his Kidney transplant a few months ago?

As of the middle of March, the total stood at $13,000. I have not seen any updated figures since that date, but one assumes it would be at least a little bit higher.

Heres a question for you and maybey you could turn it into a poll for all of the readers. Do you think, in your opinion, that McMahon will ever give Ric Flair one last World Title run? Or maybey give him the win and retire THAT belt with him since he was the wrestler thats most associated with that design of the World Title? After all, he was the one to first carry that design as the World Champion. In my perfect senario, Flair would win the World title and then retire the next night on Raw and also retire that belt with him as the first and last man to hold that particular design....then the WWE could create a new design and move forward. Maybey Im just to old (32) but everytime i see that belt, I cant help but think "thats Flairs title". What are the chances of Flair winning the title one last time before he retires? And also mabey retiring that belt with him. i think it would be of the utmost respect to do just taht for the best wrestler of ALL TIME!. What do you think?....and I wonder what everyone else thinks? Its a sad thought that wrestling will be without Flair in the next year or so, but it will happen. He has meant so much to us older fans over the years. To us Ric Flair IS what wrestling IS. PERIOD!. Thanks - Mitchell Queen

I think at this point, Flair winning a world title and retiring with it would be equivalent to Verne Gagne retiring with the AWA title back in 1981. It was a nice concept, but it didn't put anybody over. I like Flair as much as the next guy, but honestly, can you really think of him as a world championship caliber wrestler in this day and age? Only if he's wrestling at a nursing home. I know that's not a popular opinion, but it's true. I recognize the fact that Ric Flair is wrestling to many wrestling fans, but would it have been right for Willie Mays to be the MVP in the World Series the last year he played for the New York Mets? Probably not, and Flair at this point is approaching that status. Don't get me wrong, he can still have decent matches, but he can't have Ric Flair matches. I'm not the biggest of Edge fans, but would it make sense for him to lose the World title to Ric Flair in 2007? No.

I will open up the question to you folks though, and see what the masses think.

Brad has three questions...

1) I have heard several times that Butch Reed was supposed to beat Steamboat for
the IC strap. Why was it changed to HTM? It doesn't make sense that they would
not give it to Butch Reed, I remember his appearance on WM4 and the fans hated
that guy.

There was a long-running story that Reed was supposed to win the title, but no-showed the tv taping where it was supposed to happen, which led to Honky Tonk winning the title. Reed himself has dismissed the story as total bullshit. The fact that Reed had started feuding with Steamboat shortly before this time has led most to believe that Reed would have been the guy to beat Steamboat. As to why they picked Honky Tonk over Reed...as hated as Reed might have been, HTM was even less popular. I don't think Butch would have had the level of interest in his IC title reign that ol' Honky Tonk did.

2) What ever happend to Sir Oliver Humperdink? I remember he was a part of that
big angle with Bam Bam when he first came in and was being approahced by every
manager. It seems that he disapeared pretty quick.

I believe that Humperdink stayed with Bam Bam for the duration of his WWF run, which wasn't very long. They ended up in WCW in 1989...Humperdink's last run in wrestling was in 1991 with the Freebirds in WCW as "Big Daddy Dink". Not the midget.

3) I am a huge fan of old school tag wrestling, not like now, but back in the
day. I have always tried to get a fantasy tag tournament done up, but whenever I
do I don't get the responses. Personally I would rather watch an old school tag
match than anything else. When I was a kid my favs were always tag teams,
Demolition, RNR Express, Skyscapers etc...Who would you say are the top 5 tag
teams of all time and why?

In no particular order...these teams might not be the "best", but they're my favorites and that's gotta count for something. Right?

Hollywood Blondes - Steve Austin & Brian Pillman are two of my favorite wrestlers of all time, and I loved their tag team in WCW. Great heel work.

Rock & Roll Express - Was there a better babyface tag team? Maybe, but there was never anybody who could play Ricky Morton like Ricky Morton could.

Midnight Express - You can't include one of the Expresses and not mention the other. They're like peanut butter and jelly.

Freebirds - Possibly the most over tag team I've ever seen, and I'm talking about the Hayes/Gordy/Roberts version. They were so far ahead of their time.

Hart Foundation - The perfect combination of finnesse and power.

First off, I just want to say that in my opinion, the Bret vs Perfect matches from summerslam 91 and KOTR 93 are very, very different matches. Not going to go into much detail on that though. My question is a bout Bret Hart in WCW...ive been having a bit of an argument over whether he was actually in the nWo (not talking about nwo 2000, i mean during the wolfpac vs hollywood days) it seems most people think he was just a heel who sided with hogan a few times, but wasnt actually a member. But he did use the nwo theme on a few occasions (look up his match vs benoit on youtube) and he recruited Stevie Ray into the nwo...so my question is, was he actually a member, or just an 'associate'? - Ben Kerr

It's a tough question to answer, mostly because Bret was booked bass-ackwards for most of his tenure in WCW. Bret apparently joined, quit and re-joined the NWO several times, but never officially said he was a member, and apparently never wore an NWO shirt until his membership in NWO 2000. He did wear a Hollywood Hogan shirt several times, so I guess the best way to describe him would be as an associate and on-again off-again friend of Hogan's.

Neil asks about why WWE passed up three of TNA's top wrestlers...

Its no secret to everyone that AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Low Ki and Christopher Daniels all had tryout matches at early points in their careers. My question is,
A) What is your opinion that wwe/f passed on these? (I know Samoa Joe was because of his physique and that AJ turned down the money due to making more on the indy's and so his girlfriend didn't have to re locate)

Well, you answered two of them. I think Daniels lacked the size they were looking for and he didn't really have the charisma they were looking for either. Daniels does have a good amount of charisma, but it's not the type you usually see in WWE.

B) What success would these have had if they had stayed?

At first I was leaning towards saying that the WWE writers wouldn't do very much with them, but I'm so high on the talent of each of these individuals that I figure they'd be able to make something happen there. WWE has a history of using Samoans pretty well, so I think Joe would get an opportunity to do something useful. For Styles & Daniels it would be tougher because they'd be pigeonholed as cruiserweights, but you can't tell me you'd rather see Gregory Helms vs. Jimmy Wang Yang than Styles vs. Daniels. Well, you could tell me that, but I wouldn't understand it.

C) Would these still be with wwe/f now or would they have moved on.

I think they'd still be employed, unless they got into trouble or decided they wanted to move on to other pastures. One thing's for sure, promotions like TNA & ROH wouldn't be where they are now if these three signed with WWE way back when.

Gotta question that I've asked numerous Ask 411 writers and never saw an answer to it...

Who's the guy on the cover of Missy Hyatt's book? He's dressed like a wrestler and looks much younger than her. - mnovak

Good question...I wondered that myself when I read the book several years ago. And looking at the picture now, I'm still not sure. Anybody know?

I was wonder about Sgt. Slaughter's infamous Iraqi supporter gimmick he went through in the 90's, the questions I have are simple. When and what started it (storyline wise) and when and how did it all end and Sgt. Slaughter became the beloved American wrestling hero again? - Kristian

Upon his return to the WWF in the summer of 1990, Slaughter set aside his love for America and claimed that we had become a weak country. We didn't have the fire in our bellies to fight wars, so Slaughter joined up with a country that was strong and war-mongering, Iraq. After Summerslam 1991, where Slaughter, General Adnan & Colonel Mustafa lost to Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior, Slaughter realized the error of his ways, and declared "I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!" in several vignettes. He rescued Hacksaw Jim Duggan from a beatdown by the Nasty Boys, and Duggan led the fans in accepting Slaughter as a hero once again.

Well, that's about all we have time for this week...don't forget to send your questions, comments and naked pictures (no dudes on that last one, k?) to [e-mail]. Have a nice day!