Ask 411 Wrestling 02.27.08: Slams, Soultakers, Spice and More!

Posted by Steve Cook on 02.27.2008

Including more people with the letter S in their name! Probably.

It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I'm Steve Cook, and I hope you're having a fantastic last week of February. In case you missed it, I did a news column on Sunday. Honestly, you didn't miss that much, but you Cook completists out there are gonna wanna check that out.

"Gonna wanna"? Somewhere my college English teacher is rolling over in his grave.

Comments, Corrections & other "C" words

Sup Steve Cookie monster? I'm sorry...

Anyway, I had a few things to throw out there.

First of all, wcwfjojo sent in a question asking why the home video releases of televised matches don't include the action that happened during the commercial break. While I don't know the answer to this, I do know that ECW used to include the commercial break. On the Rise & Fall of ECW (at least I think it was on that, though it could've been one of the old ECW releases) there was a match that originally aired on ECW Hardcore TV. Partways through the match, Joey Styles says something along the lines of "we're going to take a commercial break", but the match keeps rolling. I seem to remember seeing this happen during 2 different matches actually. In one match, Joey continued doing commentary for the home video audience, and in the other one there was no commentary during the break.

"Hey steve I was watchin my favorite wrestling DVD the other day Backyard Wrestling's "A Passion for Pain; Josh Prohibition and MDogg20". What happened to these guys they had some great in ring chemistry together. The DVD showed them in I think JPW but where are they now? I saw MDogg20 wrestling for WSX under some weird name but where is he now? And I haven't seen or heard anything from Josh Prohibition. – Eric"

Matt Cross (MDogg20) and Josh Prohibition also both appear regularly for Pro Wrestling Ohio which can be seen on Sports Time Ohio on DirecTV. The channel is in the 600's I believe. It was a really good indy show, but I stopped getting STO about a month into PWO's debut episode. Damn DirecTV, first they take CW from me, then they keep me from seeing ROH on PPV, and now they take away PWO. I hate them...

While The Rock and Shawn Michaels never had a match or feud, they were on screen together a little bit during the Corporation angle. I vaguely remember the Rock calling Shawn a jabroni after he was kicked out of the Corporation (great segment btw, they found Shawn's bloody face slammed through a car windshield!).

Also have a few meeting wrestler stories for you. One of my best friends went to a church camp for a couple of weeks, and met Finlay. He said Finlay stayed the entire week or two, and that he was right up under his ass the entire time asking him about wrestling. He said that Finlay was really cool about it, despite his total markdom (he was probably 13-14 years old). This was right before Finlay's WCW Hardcore Title reign. One interesting part of that story to me was that he asked Finlay who was his favorite person to wrestle, and Finlay told him Jyushin "Thunder" Lyger, to which my friend responded "What about Goldberg?". Finlay said "Well...Goldberg's alright too". Comparing Goldberg and Lyger is hilarious to me..

The same friend says that he also traded emails with Chris Jericho for a few months before he debuted with WWE. He had apparently found his email address on some website, and Jericho would always respond positively, and would quote a bible verse at the end of each letter. He said Jericho came across as a really positive guy. He also said that Jericho confirmed that the Countdown to the Millennium was for him.

I finally had my first contact with a wrestler just yesterday actually. I found New Jack on myspace, and noticed that he was online at 6:30 in the morning. I sent him a message asking why the original gangsta was on myspace so early, and he responded with "IIIIIIIIIIIIII CCACANNANANNNT SLEEEEEEEEEP" or something equally intelligible. When I suggested that he smoke a blunt or something to fight the insomnia, he informed me that he doesn't smoke! I know he's gotta be lying about that....


Anyway...Sorry for the novel. Love the column, keep it up. Peace. - Scott


Re Father and Sons competing in the Rumble.

I was talking about this not long ago. You had the Colons and the Rhodes but you missed out Jerry Lawler/ Brian Christopher and Vince/Shane/Hornswoggle. – Yoxall

Lawler & Christopher was a good catch on your part, but we're not counting Hornswoggle as a second-generation Royal Rumble competitor no matter who they're claiming is his father this week. Add to that the fact that Shane McMahon has never officially been entered in the Royal Rumble, and you end up with no second-generation Rumble competitors in the McMahon family…that aren't in-laws.

I am a very big fan of the site and especially the column. I usually don't ever find out anything I don't already know in the column but it is fun reading about and looking back on some of the great moments over the years. I have yet to find any mistakes in the column, and trust me I would know one if I saw it, until, that is, today.
You and a reader talk about how Ricky Steamboat won the title from Ric Flair at Chi Town Rumble. Now, I have not seen the match in over 12 years, but I still knew right away you were both wrong! For starters, the chicken wing was NOT even used in that match, you were actually right when you corrected him that it was the move used at Clash of the Champions(though it was not the finishing, or deciding move, as you claimed). A cross body also was NOT how the Chi Town Rumble match ended, though it was used and even resulted in a pinfall had the referee not been bumped at the time. The match actually ended with the old Flair staple ending of the time, him attempting the figure four and Steamboat rolling him into an inside cradle,
I know you probably won't correct yourself in your column, but thats actually how it happened. Keep up the great, (almost)perfect work. – Chris

I re-watched the match on Wednesday night. Maybe I should mess up more match finishes so I can watch them again. Good times.

As soon as I read the question about who has been in the most royal rumble without eliminating anyone, I instantly thought of Coach. He was in 2005 and 2006 and I can't recall him eliminating anyone.

Also, when Cena made the Great Khali tap out at Judgement Day 2007, Khali's foot was under the rope. I know the question was about hand/foot being on the rope but I just thought I'd mention this. – Paul Quinn

Shorter champs than Jeff Hardy that you didn't mention, David Arquette….sorry…Benoit, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle is only 5'11" also.

Sorry one more, on the theme music. When HHH turned himself to the Game all his music was titled with "The Game" in it, ICP made a song for the Oddities, they had a song on a previous album all uneditied and carnival like, then just edited it and changed the lyrics to fit the Oddities style, the orignal song I believe you can find on either The Pendelum, one of the two Bizzare CD's, one has eyeballs one has question marks on it. Snitsky's music when he killed Lita and Kane's baby "It wasn't MY FAULT!" Bob Holly started his song out with "How do ya like me now" which he started using as a catch phrase that he would say after he would just lay someone out for the hell of it, which that phrase came popular at the same time Toby Keith's song "How do you like me now" was all over the radios. Owen Hart with the whole "enough is enough and it's time for a change." – Chris Jacobs

"Women should be afraid of X-Pac."
Why? He boffed Chyna, it would appear he isn't into women…LOL
And I completely agree with you about Bobby Eaton. Simply THE BEST single competitor in any version of the Midnite Express in any form in my opinion. While we are on the subject of Eaton, was there any real purpose or story behind his shaking hands with the jobbers he was about to kill? He always did it with such earnestness, like he simply respected the fact that the jobber was in a ring trying to make a living……And I will always have an image of him wrestling on the old Saturday night shows on TBS. The short roof, combined with the height he got jumping off the turnbuckle (Alabama Jam I believe he called it) basically put him level with the light fixtures in the ceiling. I have one image in my mind where it looked like he had to nearly brush a light fixture to the side so he could complete the move. – Bill Veik

In reference to the question about Davey Boy Smith hitting an Electric Chair on Mabel...I can confirm that it did happen...

I can't really add any other details to what your reader said but I do clearly remember it happening...definitely late 94/early-mid 95ish...Mabel was standing over the Bulldog, who then stood up and had Mabel seated on his shoulders before dropping him backwards. I believe Smith did use the ropes to stand but he did clearly lift Mabel and hold him up momentarily before falling backwards.

According to TV results from 1995...on the Action Zone, 5/14/95, Davey Boy and Lex Luger defeated Men on a Mission...this should be the match...

Hopefully you have a few other readers confirm this but I'm 100% positive that this DID actually happen... – Chris S.

The talk show piece about Bam Bam Bigelow that a reader mentioned is probaly a piece from a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show about the Monster Factory. It's not from before his first match though (it's definitely after WM 2 as there's clips from that show on the show)

Here it is on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fac_1mJNtmE (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAUerYoULy0 (Part 2) – Will Gregory

Hey Cook, Goob here, I've been meaning to send in my wrestler story for a while now but I keep forgetting. In June of 89 I was flying out of Pittsburgh to go to Houston for a trip to the Astrodome. While in Pittsburgh we went to the Eat n Park to grab a bite to eat. As we're leaving my dad taps me on the shoulder and say's look who is over at the bar. I look over and there is Savage and I believe the Ultimate Warrior sitting at the bar eating pie. Warrior was not in his makeup obviously, so the majority of people were just ignoring them. I didn't go up to them though because my parents thought it rude to interrupt their meal. – Goob

"Maybe I'm way off here, but I seem to remember Kane being in DX at one time or another, any truth to that or am I dreaming? If kane was never in DX can you think of any time that they were affiliated, or worked together for any reason at all, besides the Shawn Michaels, Taker hell in the cell?"

There are a couple of possible things this could be. There was a point when X-Pac was teasing a new DX guy as Kane but turned on him, and in during the DX reunion year, Kane came out to help DX suddenly because they told him how Vince said Umaga was the biggest monster in the WWE. So during the match, Vince and Shane are having Umaga kill DX when out of nowhere Kane shows up and kills Umaga. That one wasn't listed in the comments but it's in the *New* DX DVD. That's all. – Nikolai

Talon's theory on Col. Fitts not being gay is SO wrong. In the original script there was a flashback sequence where they revealed the Col. had a gay lover in Nam.

Just thought you'd like to know. – J

I always welcome American Beauty conversation in the feedback section. There were lots of great comments in the comment section last week, but I didn't get around to including them in this week's column. Keep up the good work, guys!

Questions!

How did Tommy Rich manage to gain an NWA World Heavyweight title reign at such a young age? I thought that there needed to be consensus amongst the territory promoters to do a title switch. Why would they agree to a 4 day reign for a twenty-six year old? – Lazlo

It was just a little something to stir up interest and put Tommy Rich over as a legitimate title contender instead of a pretender. Race stated in a shoot interview with RF Video that the title switch was to help promoter Jim Barnett win a power struggle in the Georgia territory. They could do things like that from time to time…Giant Baba got three quickie NWA title reigns in the 1970s from Race & Jack Brisco to help his promotion gain credibility and expand the NWA's presence in Japan. Dusty Rhodes got a brief title reign in 1979 between Harley Race title reigns to help boot the Florida area. Rich has said that the whole thing was Harley's idea, as the champion wanted to give the kid the rub while he was passing through the area.

1. Has Undertaker ever lost his balance or fallen while doing his Old School rope walk?

If you mean by accident, I've never seen that happen. I've seen him get knocked off on purpose, but I haven't seen him slip for no reason. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen it.

2. Why do refs now call for the DQ when a foreign object is simply brought into the ring? I thought it was illegal until the foreign object was utilized.

Do they? I haven't seen this happen, but WWE referees have been more about enforcing the rules lately. It seems pretty lame to me, but I can't comment on what I haven't seen. And you are correct, by standard pro wrestling rules you don't get disqualified until you actually use the foreign object. There's a joke here about pre-emptive strikes, but readers don't like me poking fun at the government in my columns so I'll stop.

3. Do you know where I can find footage of Lex Luger slamming Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid? It's not on youtube...Someone should start up a wrestlingtube!

Viola!

WrestlingTube would last about ten minutes before WWE found out about it and yanked all their footage.

4. Since when was it allowed to just slap your partner anywhere on their body for a legal tag into a match? – Patrick

I think it's always been allowed, but most tag teams prefer to slap hands. Did you know the 1980 Louisville college basketball team popularized the "high five"? True story.

I just finished watching the second volume in Mid-South Wrestling's "Giants, Midgets, Heroes, and Villans" DVD series (which is like manna from Heaven for us old school fans). My question concerns the use of certain footage and licensed songs present on this DVD.

For starters, a lengthy segment is included that shows a young Vince McMahon interviewing Andre the Giant about his (kayfabed) ankle injury at the hands of Killer Khan and Fred Blassie (not to mention a lengthy segment with WCCW footage). As strict as the WWE is when it comes to preventing pirated use of their footage, it boggles my mind to think they would allow such footage to be included (and promoted) on a different organization's nationally marketed product. Also, the DVD includes unedited entrance music featuring the likes of KISS and George Clinton.

Are the producers of this Mid-South Wrestling program taking a huge gamble (legally speaking) by releasing a DVD with possible unlicensed content? – Wes

Depends how much money they make off of it. Independent promotions like to get around licensing issues by staying under the radar…if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it make a noise? Now, WWE has been known to go out of their way to track down people using their footage and telling them to stop, so there is a chance that the producers of this DVD could hear from them.

Now that the wwe has signed apolo, killings and harris, do you think that the wwe could possibly run like a tna invasion angle on ecw or something?

I think that they could probably rehire siaki, monty brown and use cassidy riley and with all those guys run a small tna invasion angle on ecw, I would be in to that:?

What do you think of that idea and do you see that as being a possibility? – Andrew

I don't think that's very viable, to be honest. With all due respect to guys like Chris Harris & Monty Brown, most of the people involved there aren't exactly big names. Think of it this way…remember how badly the WCW Invasion went? WCW in its prime was about 10 times bigger than TNA has ever been. If they could mess that up, a TNA invasion wouldn't have a chance of drawing a dime.

I read your Column on a regular basis actually I think you are at least the 4th or 5th person that has done it. My question is back before the undertaker there was a guy in wccw called the SoulTaker he reminded me a Lot of the Undertaker. I was just wondering if they might be the same person. – Rick

You're close…while the Soultaker was not the man who later became the Undertaker he was another future WWE superstar. You may know him as Papa Shango, Kama Mustafa, or the Godfather. Charles Wright is his real name, and he now runs a number of strip clubs in the Las Vegas area. He and Undertaker have been friends since their Texas USWA days, which is when Wright was portraying the Soultaker character.

Since you mentioned it, here's a list of previous Ask 411 Wrestling writers…

Craig Letawsky: January 2, 2001-November 14, 2002
Scott Keith: February 13, 2003-March 20, 2003
Brian Cole: September 18, 2003-January 3, 2004
Gavin Napier: December 8, 2004-May 10, 2006
Chris Clarke: June 7, 2006-September 27, 2006
Steve Cook: October 11, 2006-January 3, 2007
Ryan Byers: January 17, 2007-February 7, 2007
Steve Cook: February 16, 2007-?

I asked Ashish who wrote the column before Letawsky, but he says he doesn't remember. I can't fault him for that…I don't remember what I did on Saturday night…let alone what I did eight years ago.

I've recently got back into WWE after a few years. I stopped watching shortly after the start of the Invasion angle and started watching again around October - after John Cena became injured.

Is there an over riding reason why WWE is a lot less hardcore these days? A few years back there would be chair shots all over, TLC, last man standing matches & street fights. Guys like Foley, Austin, E&C, Dudleys, HHH & even Steve Blackman would always have access to weapons, ladders & other nice things. I rememer being amazed by some really crazy matches - sometimes even on Raw & Smackdown.

My opinion is that as there is now no competition from WCW & ECW,WWE is able to ease up a bit and can avoid potential lawsuits when spots go wrong. But I guess it could be the fall out from Benoit, Eddie Guerrerro other premature deaths. Or is purely due to a lot of the top guys like Foley, Austin, Rock, Dudleys, Christian- people who would go that little bit further for the audience - retiring/ leaving, along with the other stars like Undertaker, HHH, HBK getting on a bit now and being less crazy. – Peter

The simple answer is lack of viable competition. Back when you had the Monday Night Wars going and ECW taking a lot of attention from "smarter" wrestling fans, everybody had to kick the stupidity up a notch in order to compete. If they didn't do that, wrestling fans would have changed the channel to the other show where the crazier action was going on. Now that WWE has no real competition that doesn't go out of its way to shoot itself in the foot on a regular basis, they can dial things down a notch and not worry about the consequences. Sure, most of the casual fans are gone, but they still have the die hards, and a look at their financial numbers tells you that they're getting plenty of money out of those fans.

Patrick has two questions…

1. Don't you miss the good old days of 1980s WWF
backstage promos such as the Wrestlemania III press
conference with Heenan and Mean Gene acting like 8
year olds fighting over who's supposed to do the
questions and answering?

As Penguin reminded me when I posed this question to him, I was two years old at the time of WrestleMania III. Other than my crib, I can't say I miss very much from that time frame.

2. How come wrestlers back then didnt do any of the
flashier moves like the crossfaces or creative ways
with backbreaks like Carlito and Orton are doing?

First of all, I wouldn't consider the crossface a flashy move. To answer your question, it comes down to a variation of factors…guys back then didn't spend a lot of time thinking of different variations of backbreakers, a good number of them didn't have the flexibility or athletic ability to pull them off, and they didn't need to do such things to get a reaction out of the crowd.

Hello Steve, love the column. I believe that a referee can help make a match better than it is. Watching the way they react and "call the action" can add alot to the match especially when done in a way to not take away from the wrestlers involved in the match. One of the best, if not THE best, I've seen at this is Nick Patrick. A man who was involved twice in storylines as a biased referree for a particular group (the NWO and the Alliance respectively). My question is why has he not been on Smackdown, RAW, PPV's or at least ECW in some time. Will he be showing back up on my television screen anytime soon? I honestly believe that he is one ref that can make a match have a "big feel" and can help put an almost great match into the great category with just his actions and reactions in the ring. Any help or information you could give would be greatly appriciated. – Andy Gossett

Patrick went to work at Deep South Wrestling, which was run by his father Jody "The Assassin" Hamilton. After DSW closed, he ended up going to Florida Championship Wrestling and becoming the head referee there. He appeared on the February 8th edition of Smackdown, refereeing a tag team match, but I don't know if he'll be coming back on a regular basis to national TV or staying in the developmental territory to help with that aspect of WWE. I have to say that he is one of my favorite referees and he does a good job at that big match feel that you talk about.

I was just surfing the net and I wanted to check out some stuff on what all
of the former Nitros Girls are doing. While searching I found this:

http://spice-gj.greatestjournal.com/

This is the Journal for Former Nitro Girl Spice. If you read it it looks
like there was some type of involvement with "he who shall not be name".
Do you have any idea what this could be? More than friends? – The Jap

After clicking on some links there, I've found that you can't really buy into this…

"On my mind...Completly OOC 04 Oct 2004|11:12pm *shrugs* I know what I'm about to say is more or less a lost cause now. But, I've been wanting to say it for a while, so..

I'd like to apologize to a few people for letting this journal die. Mainly because I let it die on purpose. Since the day I've brought Paul in it was nothing but a headache. The only reason why I kept the muse was because of the interactions he had with a few people. (Mainly: Shawn, Trish, Adam and Shannon. There are a few others, but those are the few that really stuck out.)

There's got to be a line between AU and Reality. The last I checked this place was made for us to game as close to their RL counter parts as possible."

That's from "Triple H's" greatest journal. So while it may be interesting to think of affairs between Nitro Girls and wrestlers, this is no evidence that such a thing happened.

There was the Black one, the Blue and Yellow ones of the Ultimate Warrior and the white one of Shawn Michaels. Was there ever a red one? or any other colours? – Stuart (Intercontinental title belts, his girlfriend won't let him buy them)

I know we've talked about this at some point, but I couldn't find it in the archives. The only one I can think off of the top of my head that you don't mention here is Goldust's gold one.

I've noticed that HHH and Ric Flair always have very, very thin rings of tape on their fingers. What is the purpose of this? The rings are almost like the width of a piece of string. It's been puzzling me forever, so I thought I'd write you and see if you can give me a decent night's sleep again! – Darren

There are two main purposes for this: style (which makes no sense to me but whatever) and hiding a blade that you plan on using in your match. You don't want just one ring of tape because then it just looks obvious that you're gonna cut yourself. Triple H likely learned this from Flair and then started doing it himself.

Has the original iron sheik and the iron sheik ever fought each other and if not how could the iron sheik use that name? – Brandon

I have a feeling the Original Sheik never thought about trademarking his name, and it should be noted that he never used the word "iron" in his name. I don't really have a problem with this as it's pretty easy to tell them apart. One's a madman from India, the other's a nationalistic Iranian that hates America. I don't think the Sheik ever expressed an opinion one way or another on America, or anything else for that matter.

Why is it, that in old WWE footage, they can still show the old block style WWF logo, but have to blur the attitude era WWF logo? – Taj

The attitude era logo was the one covered in the lawsuit, while the block style logo was not mentioned. It's a matter of semantics. Had the block logo been mentioned in the lawsuit they would have had to blur that too, but it wasn't so they don't.

Big Ben has two questions…

1. When the Ultimate Warrior had his stint in WCW in 1998, they would make it appear as if he magically got in the ring behind a cloud of smoke, and the WWE does it now with the Undertaker only with the lights going out. How do they do this? I believe with the Warrior there was a trap door put in the ring canvas (which is what Davey Boy Smith hurt his back on) and he came up from under the ring. Is this true and is this what Taker does now? Do they stay under the ring all night until their segment? I thought that's what I heard Taker did back in '96 when he came from under the ring during the Bret Hart/Diesel match, and I guess it's what Judias Mesias does now.

When Warrior did it, there was a trap door built into the ring. I have to admit that I haven't seen Undertaker pull this trick, but it's probably the same for him. And yes, they have to stay under the ring all night, otherwise it doesn't work very well in front of the live audience.

2. I know some matches are scripted and for some wrestlers call them themselves. How do they do this? I mean, I know they talk in the ring, but how can you call all those moves in like a 20-something minute match? I don't see them talk after each move. And for the matches that are scripted, do they have to memorize every move like a dancer at a music concert?

How can you do it? Practice. Lots and lots of practice. There's a reason pro wrestling ain't easy, and that's one of them right there. As far as scripted matches go, you need a really good memory and an opponent that can remember things if you forget them.

I'm new to the site but I'm hooked. Everything's interesting me. Anyway I was just wondering, with Vince's track record of hiding his new signings away, when are we most likely to see Chris Harris & Ron Killings on WWE TV ie Raw, SmackDown or ECW? – Kevin from Scotland

WWE told Killings to keep his independent bookings through March, so I wouldn't expect to see him until after WrestleMania. It may be the same for Harris, as WWE generally likes to bring in new guys after the biggest show of the year to help give things a fresh start. Harris has been working out down at Florida Championship Wrestling to keep himself occupied until his debut.

Vinson has three questions…

With so much riding on the WCW Starcade 1997 PPV. With so much riding
on the outcome. i.e. year worth of buildup, blow off match, Bret Hart
debut, Why did they not edit the botched finish when the replayed it on
Nitro the next night and after. I know thousand of people their live
and those who bought the ppv would know. But that would be a slim
number compared to the millions of people who watched Raw. It could
have been an internet rumor in folklore. Anybody with half a brain
could realize the count was not fast in real speed, so why would they
show the real version. Worse case scenario not show it at all and do
the still photo thing and not mention anything about the count. It could
have been the biggest rumor in wrestling history.

Good question. I guess the easy answer is that WCW was incompetent, but you would have to think that somebody would have thought about that. *Insert stereotypical answer about Hogan holding people down and promoting himself here*

Speaking of video editing, was the video editing. Royal Rumble 2000. Do
you think the plan all along was for the Rocks feet to hit the floor
first as the Big Show claimed. Was the video evidence real. That was
really slick how WWE pulled it off. Other times when you have battle
royals, royal rumble and steel cage matches. the ties are timed really
well.

Yes, that was the plan all along. Without the controversy, they couldn't have had a four-way main event at WrestleMania.

Which tie on battle royals royal, rumbles and steel cage matches do you
think was the most difficult to pull off. I would go with when bret
hart and lex luger in the royal rumble. – Vinson

I don't know if all of you caught it last week or not, but the picture used for my column's spotlight was pretty interesting…it was taken after the 1994 Royal Rumble match and had Bret Hart & Lex Luger both claiming victory. I would have to agree with you in saying that was the toughest to pull off…they were flying over the top rope and onto the floor and doing a move where it's tough enough to control where you're landing, let alone where somebody else lands. The fact that they managed to make it look like they landed at exactly the same time is something you've gotta give them credit for. Of course, it has been repeated since then, the most recent being Batista & John Cena's false finish at the 2005 Royal Rumble.

I know that Kane holds the record for most eliminations in one Royal Rumble, but who holds the total record for all the Rumbles combined?

Is it Kane? Austin? HBK? – Steve

Steve Austin holds this record with 36 eliminations. Shawn Michaels is second with 33, and Undertaker is third with 31. Something tells me that Austin's record might bite the dust in the next couple of years.

Joel has "five" questions…

1. I have always assumed that the "evil undertaker," (remember, that dude that looked just like him, only wore grey gloves and boots, while the original wore purple) was Kane, was he? if not, who?

The Underfaker was none other than Brian Lee, who you may remember from his stints in SMW, ECW & TNA, or from his time as Chainz in the Disciples of Apocalypse in the WWF.

2. How did Hogan get the black eye in Wrestlemania, oh, 9 I think, where he swooped in to take the belt from Yokozuna and hog all the glory once again?

Hogan says in his book that he got it from a jet ski accident. There was a popular rumor that he got it from Randy Savage, who was angry at him for alleged misdeeds with Elizabeth…Hogan says he wishes it came from that, because what actually happened felt a lot worse.

3. Besides Flair, Deisel, and Undertaker, who did Bret Hart beat for the WWE title?

Hart's second title victory was over Yokozuna at WrestleMania X. He won his fourth title in a four-way elimination match at In Your House: Final Four. The other men in that match were Steve Austin, Undertaker & Vader.

4. When you watch the new Shawn Michaels DVD "Triumph and Tragedy," and also there is a DVD called "from the vault-Shawn Michaels" they both talk about how Shawn and Razor "Scott Hall" Ramon were in the first ever ladder match in the WWE, and this is generally given(along with the 1st hell in the cell) as an example of another 1st Michaels was involved with. However, in "best of Ladder Matches" there is a ladder match between Shawn and Bret Hart that I beleive took place before that(maybe Im wrong).If this is true, why isnt that regarded as the 1st? Also, who was in the 1st-1st blood match?

I have no answer for that other than Shawn Michaels doesn't like to give Bret Hart credit for anything. I couldn't find any information on who was in the first "First Blood" match.

5. Sorry for so many questions, but I figured why not get 'em all in on one pop.Here's my last, What the hell happenened to the tag division in the WWE? I dont see any real tag teams anymore, sure, every now and then they put 2 heels against 2 faces for a single match, but what happened to the tag team division, I dont see Smack Down, so I could be missing them there, but it seems like the real tag teams are all gone, everyone is a singles wrestler now.

The tag team division has been struggling for ages in WWE. I don't think it's done well since 2001 or so, when you had the Hardys, Dudleys & Edge/Christian tearing things up and making people take notice. Sure, every once in awhile you have a tag team like MNM come along that actually gets pushed, but it never lasts all that long. And I heard things about the Miz/Morrison vs. Yang/Moore feud on Smackdown/ECW, but that didn't last long either. The simple answer is that WWE sees more money in singles wrestlers than in tag team wrestlers, and that's always going to be the focus of their company's efforts.

I was wondering if you could tell me where if you know what Eric Bischoff plans where for the new WCW? If he had bought it when when it was going under. – Matt

Eric expounded a bit on his plans for WCW in an interview that he did with WCW Magazine in early 2001. His plans involved a lot of scaling things back to make the company more economically viable and rebuilding WCW around younger talent. Sean O'Haire was one guy that I remember Bischoff being especially high on. He wanted to take both Nitro & Thunder off the air for several weeks, and then relaunch with a PPV called "The Big Bang" in May that would have served as the birth of the new WCW. It's a really interesting interview from a historical perspective.

Well, that's all we have time for this week. Questions, comments, corrections & porn can be sent to [e-mail], or you can just comment or correct down in the comment section. Until next time, booooooooooooooohica!