Ask 411 Wrestling 03.05.08: Betrayals, Hankies, Stephanie and more!

Posted by Steve Cook on 03.05.2008

Does John Cena want to be Hulk Hogan? I'd say yes...except for the hair thing.



It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I'm Steve Cook, and quite frankly we've got a packed column this week. Not too much time to talk up here, but there is one piece of business I would like to attend to before getting to the meat and potatoes.

I was talking to my buddy Manu last week and he asked me why I didn't want to mention the name of a particular wrestler. I explained it to him and he accepted it, but the more I thought about it, the more I figured that enough time has passed. The nature of this column dictates that I can not and should not duck any topics that 411 readers wish to discuss, so…

Chris Benoit.

OK...I don't hear thunder crashing or cars running off the road, so I think we're good to go.

Comments, Corrections & other "C" words

Hey Steve! If you want more stories about meeting wrestlers, I'll tell you about the time I got to meet Jake "The Snake" Roberts. This is legit, I am a local indy wrestler out of Huntington, WV. I was wrestling for a company called 304 Wrestling and my boss had Jake and Honky Tonk Man booked. Honky faced our champion and the promoter wasn't sure who to put Jake against. Well, he mentioned me, I'm a fat guy who can work a lil bit and I know how to cut a promo as a heel to the point that I have had people waiting in the parking lit with a knife to attack me and Jake said "let me work him" because I was "one of the only heels actually doing his job in the business" because "these days that's rare."

So, It was booked 2 days before the event. The next 2 days go by and Jake no-showed 2 other bookings before the event, so the rumor was that he wasn't at the show. The night before Jake said have him hit me with this on the mic and have him say that, "Let him research and come up with whatever he wants to say, be it drugs, alcohol, family, or whatever." Jake is bi-polar as hell and apparently changed his mind the day of the show. There was a miscommunication and I don't remember ever being informed but apparently I was, whatever, that's squashed heat.

Since he hadn't made the previous shows we snuck him in to surprise the audience and when I went out to cut my promo on him, I got pelted with twinkies and ice and food and drinks and other stuff, and during my promo I said he wasn't there. Then I called him a "crack smoking S.O.B." to pretend I was shooting on him. He got pissed and made the promoter hit his music and he came out with he biggest indy crowd reaction i had ever heard. He proceeded to get in the ring and smack the hell out of me. At this point I knew something was up. He cussed me out in the ring and pretty much shot on me the rest of the match. After the match we got in the back and i walked up to him to explain what happened and apologize, he slapped me and kicked me out of "his" locker room. 2 hrs later he got kicked out of the bar for being too messed up and smacking a female bartender, oh yeah he tried to buy crack off a friend of the company just cuz he was black. I got to the back after he left and Honky looks around and says "Jake on the crack pipe again?" and said "Ok, coasts clear. Listen, Jake's an asshole. Everything bad you heard about Jake is true, if you don't do your damndest to get internet press out of this I might just slap ya, this controversy is what will lead to more bookings and money."

Kinda lengthy I know, but who gets a story like that to tell?

"Mr. Every Night"
Scott "G-Cute" Haynes
http://myspace.com/nbwgcute

P.S. I would like to add that I am happy for Jake getting in rehab and wish him nothing but the best because regardless of our confrontation I realize that if it weren't for his drug issues we woulda never had heat.

Awesome story, Scott. Not too many of us get to be attacked by people we grew up watching, that's for sure. I also want to add my well wishes for Jake Roberts and hope that the rehab took.

I'm a big fan of your columns, love your insight on wrestling. I've had a couple experiences running into wrestlers. Years ago I worked at Detroit Metro Airport, and ran into Goldberg and Raven. Goldberg was extremely nice, taking pics with people, shaking hands, just a really stand up guy. I could tell he was really appreciative of his fans. Raven was the complete opposite. Raven wouldn't acknowledge anyone, refused to take pics or sign anything. He sat in the gateway, put his headphones on and ignored everyone. When it was time for them to board the flight, Raven was extremely rude to the ticket agent. I don't know the circumstances, but I just remember him yelling at her. My next encounter with some wrestlers was pretty awesome. For my 21st birthday a couple of my friends took me took me to a strip club in Romulus, Michigan. We walk in and I immediately notice Arn Anderson and Hugh Morris sitting at a table. After a few drinks in my system I had the guts to approach them. Arn and Hugh were the coolest guys ever, they actually let me sit with them. After about 10 minutes I got up and went to the bathroom, and freakin Rey Mysterio walked past me. This was before he unmasked, but I sort of could tell it was him. So I actually went and asked Hugh Morris who was totally hammered at this time if that was Rey, and he confirmed to me that it was. I walked up to Rey, and introduced myself. Rey was really nice, but I was surprised how shy of a guy he was. Anyway just wanted to share my experiences…thanks. – Sam from Detroit

Just a comment on people hitting the floor at the same time. Undertaker and Batista had a cage match recently and Undertaker obviously hit the floor first. It made me laugh because on the replays on Smackdown they showed seperate clips side by side of both of them hitting the floor, which were obviously synchronised which proved nothing. I thought seeing as I was going to write in I may aswell look for a clip and found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oySlqGkNCc4&feature=related which actually analyses it to prove the point. Just thought it was funny, relevant and worth sharing. – Yoxall

If you havent seen the ref's DQ when a weapon is brought in, just watch Smackdown. I havent really seen it on Raw yet, but Edge has been DQ-ed a few times by simply sliding in the ring with a chair. You must really not watch Smackdown, Undertaker does his APPEARING OUT OF THE DARKNESS quite a bit. Really just to edge and batista during these last couple months of feuding. There will be a beatdown happening, and lights go out, lights come on, and Taker has Edge by the throat, and Batista spears the crap out of Taker. That is the most common one that has footage shown. – Chris Jacobs

411's Geoff Eubanks called me out for not watching Smackdown as well, and I must plead guilty. I do not watch Smackdown, and quite frankly I think I'm better off for it.

Also, I believe the first first blood match in WWF/E history took place at
King of the Ring 1998 which pitted Kane v. Steve Austin for the World
Title, which Kane won (and then promptly lost the title the next night on
Raw). I could be wrong about this though. – Keith

Just a few comments for this week's column.

Your comments on the lack of flashy moves from "back then" were dead on. They didn't need them, but I think it was largely in part because the audience wasn't geared into finishers finishing all the time. People would pay to see a Roddy Piper and didn't care if he won with a sleeper or if he cheated or even got DQ'ed. They'd tune in or head out to the next show regardless. Over time, pretty much everyone under the sun had a finisher and used it to win 90% of their match. If they didn't have a finisher, they weren't considered that good. Basically I guess it was less about the match and more about the ending.

I believe HHH or Flair mentioned the small pieces of tape were there to protect the bones in their fingers, although that sounds like a kayfabe explanation, personally.

The old WWF block logo wasn't covered in the Wildlife Fund's lawsuit because they had agreed previously to co-exist with the name. However, due to Vince's increasing risk levels and what not, the new logo was used as an excuse for the Fund to distance then some from the Federation. I believe the Fund said they had paperwork that said the new scratch logo went against their previous agreement, which makes some sense I guess. If you're Eazy E and I'm Jim Crockett, Jr. I might try to find some sort of loophole into getting you to stop any "confusion" or lack thereof, if I didn't want any association period between our NWA's. But yeah... some type of agreement had been made between the two WWF's at one point, and it largely had to do with the new logo and global recognition.

I'm not sure how Taker makes his way to the ring. I'd imagine he simply hides under the ring or else WWE might still do the "giant box" or "gang of officials with wrestler hiding between them" that they did for Big Show and Rey Mysterio on occassion. I do know, however, that Midnight from WCW used to have a short time to bolt to the ring from the entrance ramp when the arena went black and her bells tolled. I asked her that question in a chat years ago after she left WCW. She said she ran track in high school so it wasn't a problem and she has good night vision.

Oh, and as a subscriber to WCW Magazine in 2001, I can verify the "The Big Bang" PPV. In fact, it was scheduled for May 6th. – Jimmy

ya know that question about how wrestlers magically appear in the ring, like taker and sabu? ive gotta disagree with your answer. sure, in the old days, they stayed under the ring all night, but i like to think WWE is advanced enough that taker wouldnt have to sit under the ring all night. plus, he's the undertaker, he's not going to sit under the ring all night, he's gonna bang McCool until its his time to show up. my theory (and its pure speculation) is that, when the lights go out, he makes a mad dash to the ring on the floor next to the ramp. he's on SD, so they can leave the lights off long enough for him to show up and just edit it down on tv to make it seem like it was almost instant.

like i said, pure speculation, but given WWE's savvyness when it comes to thing like this, i have to believe theyve come up with something more sophisticated than a wrestler hiding under the ring all night.

as for wrestlers that come up from under the ring, im sure they have a way to get them down there without people noticing before its time for them to come out. i know im usually distracted at all the shows ive been at live. hell, the raw in f'ville a few years back when rvd faced y2j in a cage for the IC title, i didnt even notice the cage til half-way through. - Manu

Shawn Michaels is credited as being part of the first ladder match shown on ppv.
He does credit Bret with bringing the idea of a ladder match to him from
Stampede wrestling in his book "The heartbreak and the triumph" I
think he told Shawn something along the lines of " You're the only guy I
would consider doing this [a ladder match] with". I think the match Hart
and Michaels had was in 1993 but yeah Shawn does give Hart credit for stuff. – Leanne

After actually watching the HBK DVD, I have to change my answer to last week's question. This is why I have left most of the HBK ladder match feedback out of this column. It's not that HBK didn't want to give Bret credit for the ladder match concept…it's that the subject never came up. The WM X ladder match was discussed in the main feature because it was the match that, if I can borrow from the American Dream here, really put Shawn Michaels on the map as a big money ballplayer if you will. Shawn doesn't say that he invented the ladder match or anything like that…the only thing that makes it sound that way is Vince's commentary from the match saying "the first ladder match at WrestleMania!" Which was correct because it was the first ladder match at a WrestleMania. Basically, the reader who posed the question was reading way too much into things when he watched the DVD.

I have to agree with Mrfish. I could never understand that myself. How is it so
hard to make the lesser titles still important like they were back in the day?
I always thought of the same thing as a really good idea to achieve that. Why
not have booking teams each broken up to be dedicated to different parts of the
roster? So, their could be a separate booking team in place for the mid-card,
who would therefore have the IC and US titles to book. Obviously, there would
be somebody (or a group) who had final say just to keep things in perspective
(you wouldn't want the lesser titles to be booked to look better than the main
titles), but this would help because there would be somebody specifically
focusing on the lesser titles. – RavenEffect

As for Undertaker coming out, I'm not sure if they do it like this all the
time, but I've seen it and heard of it being done before. During a commercial
break or something the lights in the arena dim and they show some sort of video
package or something while a "crew" comes out and busies themselves
around the ring. One of those "crew members" is much larger and is
normally wearing a hood or something. Somehow or another this larger
individual winds up under the ring, but most fans don't notice because the
ligthts are out and because they are busy watching the screen. – 411's Andy Clark

Hey Cook, I was watching a program (I believe Pro Wrestling Superstars) and
they had an interview with Kid Kash going about how past wrestlers would give
cues to each other in Carny Speech (And his lack of knowing it, ended up
getting his leg broken).... – Travis

I have a question about the writers of the column. Why does this column seem to
change writers so often? – Todd

Tell ‘em, Eric!

I'm not an official or anything, but I would imagine you could only tolerate questions like "WHo was behind GTV" or "was Kane the first Undertaker?" without your head expolding. I heard that's what happened to Gavin Napier.

Yeah, that pretty much covers it. Don't worry about me though…I enjoy the abuse. I enjoy abuse in general, but that's a topic for a completely different column.

Anna Marie – No
Seth – Yes
Shaun – I believe so
Darth Mortis – Colin Powell

Questions!

Conor O'Boyle starts us off with a couple of questions…

Who has got paid the most for one single match and what match was it?Also who got paid the most for a single match that was at a event besides Wrestlemania or Starrcade?And the macth also please.

Floyd Mayweather at WrestleMania 24.

Man, am I glad this question didn't come up sooner. Your second question is tougher to come by because wrestling companies aren't exactly forthcoming with their salary figures. Dave Meltzer says he will have this information in the next issue of his Wrestling Observer, so if anybody that reads that publication could report it to me I would greatly appreciate it.

Do you think WCW missed the boat not give DDP a title run around 97-98,just before the Goldberg era, rather than Lex Lugar?i felt he was the number 1 babyface at that time, well besides Sting maybe but a shock win over Hogan wouldnt of been too harmful for business i think.

I think DDP would have been received as champion a lot better in the 97-98 time frame than he was when he finally won it. It seemed like one of those cases where a promotion waited too long to put the title on a guy…if you wait too long, the people are going to move on to something else. I have difficulty saying WCW missed the boat because I don't think not putting the belt on Page at that time hurt them all that much. I think Page's career would be more fondly remembered today had he gotten the belt at the apex of his appeal to wrestling crowds, and people wouldn't take Ric Flair's word for it when he says that Page was an undeserving champion.

Chris R. has three questions…

1. What is the Boogeyman's status in the WWE? is he suspended? injured? or is he working the indies?

WWE Creative doesn't really have any ideas for him. Word is he'll be used on a limited basis, but he's a pretty poor in-ring talent and his gimmick gets stale quickly. These two factors keep ol' Boogey from being much of a factor in WWE these days. However, he's still getting paid.

2. Do you think they'll put BIg Show back on ECW to help out with the ratings?

Big Show is being listed as part of the Smackdown roster on WWE's website. Since Smackdown & ECW have been sharing talent lately, I wouldn't be surprised to see Show make an appearance or two in ECDub.

3. personally i thnk the ECW championship is cursed or something. honestly i think they should use this as a gimmick for the brand to possibly push for some more ratings. if you think of it there hasnt been a gimmick or storyline like that in a while with a cursed championship belt. think it would work?

I don't think it'd draw very much attention. From a logic standpoint it would make no sense at all because then nobody would want to win the title. Instead of winning a #1 contender match every few weeks, CM Punk would get himself counted out. On the bright side, Elijah Burke would finally beat CM Punk.

Sean McCartney has three questions…

Whatever happened to Jacob Duncan? Is he at FCW?

Duncan, previously known as Trytan in TNA, was released from his WWE developmental contract in November 2007. I haven't heard anything about his whereabouts since then, but you'd think there's a place in wrestling for a guy standing 6'11 and weighing 305 pounds.

I'm always looking forward to the next stars in the
business.. as I remember Cena and Batista taking the
torch at WM 21.. but 3 yrs later.. and we got
Up-and-coming talent like HHH and Undertaker
challenging for the championship at WM.. my question
is.. I know Lashley could have been, but is there any
prospects now that could eventually be an upandcomer??
I mean HBK/Flair at WM is rumored.. and if HBK beats
Flair.. What the heck good would it do for him? Who
out there would NEED a win over Flair at the biggest
stage of them all? and What happened to Ken Doane, he
at one point looked like a future prospect.. and now
he's Jobber Extrodinaire.. is there any possiblity for
him to eventually break out?

Don't worry about Kenny, he's got plenty of time to make something out of himself. The kid's going to be 22 in a couple weeks…when Ric Flair was 22 he hadn't even had a match yet. I'm not high on Doane yet, but I'm not writing him off.

I think the easy answer to your question (at least from where I sit) is Mr. Kennedy. A 31 year old who's been in the business since December 1999, Kennedy certainly has the charisma to make it big. If he can stay out of trouble and improve his in-ring game just a little bit, the sky's the limit for him. He's the one I would have had beat Flair, though I'm not going to complain about Flair vs. Michaels at WrestleMania.

Whatever happened to someone.. anyone.. just to say..
slapping the champ stating he's the #1 contender?? Why
must we have all these different type matches
(especially the Extra-Lame Beat the Clock matches) to
Determine the #1 contender? I feel like if someone
just became top contender by beating up the champ (I
know it's more difficult for heel champs than face
champs, but still look at some of the recent title
matches at the PPV's and you could see it could be an
Easy storyline without this win #1 contender match bs)
I only state this because it would probably make the
championship matches More important if they put a good
backstory in them and base it Solely on the story as
opposed to just because he won a #1 contender thing.

Actually, I have to disagree with you on this one. While I do appreciate a good backstory, I like the fact that WWE & TNA attempt to make their title matches based off of who the top contenders actually are. This adds a shred of legitimacy to the proceedings, which I don't see as a bad thing. I liked the fact that TNA had all those gauntlets for the gold to determine the pecking order in their various divisions…I just didn't like the idea of doing all of them in the same night.

hey steve love the column and i got a question about
copyrights. does wwe own the copyright to " the
heartbreak kid" if so how is it ben stillers movie is
entitled with it? – Boy

WWE does not own the copyright to "The Heartbreak Kid". Ben Stiller's movie is a remake of the original Heartbreak Kid movie that was released in 1972. I was pretty surprised one day when I saw "The Heartbreak Kid" on the top of Yahoo's search list and had no knowledge of the movie.

I was wondering whatever happened to WWF's Slammy Awards that they did each year in the late 80's to the early 90's? Any chance of they bringing it back? – Daniel

WWE.com has featured a look back at the Slammy Awards recently…conspiracy theorists are free to conclude that this means that WWE is bringing back the Slammy Awards. There were only four editions of the Slammys (1986, 97, 96, 97). I wouldn't be surprised if they came back at some point. You would think that WrestleMania 21 would have been the perfect time to bring back the Slammys because WrestleMania was all about going Hollywood that year. Opportunity lost, I suppose.

I was reading pegasus's reviews of the Raw DVD Anniversary set and he mentioned something about how the invasion story line could've made more money if TNN would've cooperated, what happened? I have been a loyal WWF/E guy other then 2000-2006 (high school and college years wrestling was not on the radar) so I completely missed the invasion angel. I got hooked again when my dad call to me about the reunion of DX and it got me watching on a weekly basis again, so good job vince, HBK, and HHH. – Jayme

WWF wanted to air a WCW show Saturday nights on TNN. TNN/Viacom balked at the idea of a non-WWF show being produced by WWF being put on their airwaves due to the ratings debacle that was the XFL. After that, nobody trusted Vince McMahon with anything other than what he had already created. Plus, they figured that the WCW show would likely be a second-rate product. TNN agreed to give the WWF a two-hour block on Saturday nights, but it had to be WWF programming and nothing else. No WCW. This ended any thoughts of keeping WCW operating as a second promotion for Shane McMahon to play around with, which was the original plan.

Red Ripper has two questions…

I remember a while back in '99 when Jericho was feuding with Chyna. I think there was a time when he tied her up to a chair or something and then broke her thumb with a hammer. She had a cast on after that for a few weeks. I don't think I've ever really seen them repeat that since then so did management not like how it went down, did the audience not respond well, what happened there?

I think the crowd reaction to it wasn't what they were hoping for. They were desperately trying to make Jericho the heel in his feud with Chyna, and they thought a stunt like that would be enough to pull it off. Unfortunately, nobody bought it and Jericho still got cheers from the crowd. It was a pretty lame segment so I'm glad they haven't repeated it lately.

And speaking of casts I vaguely remember The Rock and HHH having a cast vs. cast match a long time ago. The Rock had a broken arm or wrist so they put a cast on HHH's leg. I think before that when Rock had the cast HHH put him in a casket and beat down on it, but did the Rock actually have a broken bone or was it all a set-up to their cast match?

Rock was not actually injured, it was just an angle they were working at the time.

Tony Michaelsen has several questions…

I have quite a few questions for you. First off, I love the column. I used to go to a site called Jimmy Van that had the same ask section. He was a promoter in Ontario. He was quite knowledgeable and since he ran a promotion he had a lot of stories about the wrestlers he had brought in. 1) My first question is where do you get all you're your answers?

All over the place. A lot of them I pull out of my brain, which for much of the last eighteen years has been filled with utterly useless knowledge about pro wrestling. When that doesn't work, I consult various sources depending on the subject. If the subject involves somebody that's written a book that I own, I look back at the book and see if the answer's in there. If it involves somebody in a DVD, I take a look at the DVD. Just last weekend I purchased the Shawn Michaels DVD so I could improve an answer to a question I had in a previous column column. I'm waiting for Larry or Ashish to reimburse me the $19.96 I paid for it.

If all else fails, I turn to the Internet. My favorite Internet resource is historyofwwe.com, which has a boatload of show results that I consult quite frequently when answering questions. The guy who runs it is pretty cool too. I also have to put over onlineworldofwrestling.com because JT will get pissy if I don't. He still hasn't introduced me to that hot chick from New Zealand he works with on that site, so I don't know why I bother trying to keep him happy. There's also Wikipedia, but you need to find a second source to back up what's put on there.

My 2nd question: I am wondering if you could tell me how long I've been watching wrestling. I think my first memory was when Andre turned on Hogan. When was that and what were the circumstances behind the turn? I assume it was around Wrestlemania

Andre turned against Hogan on the February 7, 1987 edition of WWF Superstars. The story behind it was pretty cool, actually. Hogan was presented a trophy for being the WWF Champion for 3 years. Andre came out to congratulate him and there was much rejoicing. Soon after this, Andre was presented a trophy for being undefeated for fifteen years in the WWF. This wasn't exactly true, but hey, I didn't award him the trophy. Anyway, the trophy was a little bit smaller than Hulk's, and then Hulk came out to congratulate Andre and ended up stealing his thunder by becoming the focal point of the interview. Andre walked off in the middle of Hulk's speech. Then on Piper's Pit, Bobby Heenan introduced Hogan to his new protégé…who was none other than Hogan's best friend, Andre the Giant. Andre made the challenge for WM III and ripped Hogan's crucifix off his neck. The rest is history.

My next memory of the WWF was when The Macho man turned on Hogan. It was SNME. Hogan helped Miss Elizabeth to the back during a match. When Hogan got back, macho tag him in by slapping him in the face and left. I remember these two moments clear as day but I don't remember anything in between. How far apart in time were these two incidents.

Savage turned against Hogan on The Main Event II, which aired on NBC on February 3, 1989, which would have been almost two years after Andre turning on Hogan. These were pretty momentous occasions, so it's understandable that you could remember these two incidents and not remember anything in between.

3rd, way before the king of the ring PPVs, I remember at least 3 wrestlers in the WWF that used the King gimmick. King Harley Race, The Macho King and King Haku. How did each man become "King"?

Race became King by winning a King of the Ring tournament on July 14, 1986 at Sullivan Stadium in Foxborough, MA. Haku became King after Race was sidelined with a hernia injury in 1988 and Bobby Heenan crowned him. He lost the King title to Jim Duggan, who then lost it to Randy Savage. There were KOTR tournaments held in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 & 1991. None of them were televised, and Race's victory in 1986 was the only one that was recognized on television. This helps answer a question that Ryan had about whether the early KOTR tournaments were televised or taped…they were not televised and I don't think any video of the events exist.

And lastly, I can only remember one Harley Race Match in WWF. It was an episode of Superstars and He faced Hulk Hogan. Race had Hogan laid out on a table outside of the ring. Race jumped from the top rope, Hogan moved and Race smashed the table. I believe he was taken out by stretcher. The next week on Superstars I remember they had a graphic of Harley Race's head in the clouds. I can't remember what the announcers said but whatever it was lead me to believe that he died from the big splash attempt from the top onto the table. Only recently did I realize that Harley Race is still alive. I think he had something to do with Randy Orton a few years back. Anyway, did I imagine this? How long was Harley Race in the WWF and why did he leave?

We covered this a couple of weeks ago, in case you missed it I'll fill you in here…

I had the pleasure to meet Harley Race when I was a kid (at a Midas, of all places). He showed me a scar on his torso (yes, there was a reaction in the room when a tattoed older man lifted his shirt for a ten year-old boy in a public place) and said that it was the injury that ended his career. Something about a Saturday Night Main Event match with Hulk Hogan involving a botched move on a table. Is there any truth to that, or was he just trying to ruin a kid's imagination?

Harley speaks the truth…the scar that he showed you was from a hernia that he suffered during a match with Hulk Hogan on a 1988 edition of SNME. Race was attempting to do his diving headbutt on Hogan, who was laid out on a table, but Hogan moved and Race went torso first through the table. Back in the old days the tables weren't gimmicked like they are now, and the metal edge of the table jabbed up into Race's abdomen. It caused a hernia, and Race would end up leaving the WWF after a brief comeback attempt where he put over Haku. He did some wrestling in the WWC, NWA & AWA afterwards, but he was never the same after the hernia injury and ended up retiring in 1991.

I was 4 years old when all of this happened, but enough people have mentioned Race's head in the clouds to make me believe that it happened. In fact, Alex sent a nice comment after reading that column…

For 20 years I've been a wrestling fan, and this was my first memory. As time went on WWF/E went more and more extreme, and I've since told what I thought to be an amusing story of how once upon a time the then "king of the ring" jumped off a ring apron onto a table a tiny distance below only to be 'injured'. For 20 years I've thought this was a work and seen it as a glorious example of how the business has changed!

Finally however I know the truth, reading that article was a total revelation. So enjoyable was it that I decided to send this email simply because I felt so excited to know the truth I had to tell someone. It's kinda amazing when your most enduring memory of something you've been so fond of for so long is finally revealed.

Sweet article man, enjoyed that!

Keep em coming!

I'm not gonna lie, the ego stroking feels pretty good. Thanks Alex!

hey, this is more of an opinionated question, but i'll shoot. who do you guys think is better on the stick, piper of flair? then after tha tone, how bout top five of all time? Thanks – The Other Ryan

I'm going to go with Flair. Piper might have been better than Flair in his prime, but it didn't last nearly as long as Flair's did, and most of his later interviews have been pretty embarrassing. My top five, in no particular order…

Ric Flair
Mick Foley
Jerry Lawler
Dusty Rhodes
Jake Roberts

I have a question regarding the WCCW/AWA title unification match between Kerry Von Erich and Jerry Lawler, and the bizarre finish where Von Erich is bleeding, and the ref stops the match due to "too much blood" or something along those lines, while Kerry had the Iron Claw applied. It seems like a bizarre finish that someone could dream up, especially in such a big match. (Was Von Erich perhaps screwed by AWA and the Memphis promoters??) --- I know Lawler has stated on one of the recent WWE produced DVD's that Kerry accidentally cut himself before the match so they "just incorporated that", but it just doesn't make much sense from a booking standpoint. There has to be much better scenarios. Your opinion?? – Neuce

It was a really lame finish that came about because World Class promoters didn't want Von Erich to do a clean job for Lawler. Von Erich wasn't "screwed", that was just the best thing they could come up with to make everybody happy. Which it didn't, and people were even less happy when they didn't get their paychecks.

Ro Ro has three questions…

Why didn't wwe push ultimo dragon? hes like my favorite of all time and is very talented.i hate when wwe does this to good wrestlers.

Dragon didn't get the push because he didn't have the type of charisma that WWE likes out of their performers. Not speaking English didn't exactly help his cause.

Why didn't Booker T ever win the WWE Championship? Instead he won the World Heavyweight Championship(aka WCW World Title) a title he's held.

The WCW title is not the same thing as WWE's World Heavyweight title. Just because they use the same title belt that WCW used for a long time does not make it the same championship. As for why Booker didn't win the WWE Championship, he wasn't on Raw when he got to world championship level in WWE. There wasn't anything sinister behind it.

What happen to the cruiserweight title? It was my favorite title until that leprechaun won it.ever think they'll bring back and maybe defend on ecw?

The Cruiserweight title was disposed of after Vickie Guerrero stripped Hornswoggle of it in fear that he might get hurt. I don't see it coming back anytime soon, there just aren't enough over cruiserweights in the company to make it viable right now. But…never say never.

I was wondering if you can answer this one for me. A while ago, when the Ultimate Warrior first came into the WWF, I was told that Jim Hellwig was not scheduled to originally be the Ultimate Warrior. Basically, it was rumored that the original Ultimate Warrior came out for his debut in a house show and then collapsed running to the ring because he had a heart attack. The WWF rushed him to the back, and then prepared Hellwig as quick as they could and got him to come out and he was the Ultimate Warrior from then on. Can you shed some light on this subject? – Dan

There is no truth to this story whatsoever. Jim Hellwig was the Dingo Warrior in World Class Wrestling, WWF brought him in and made him the Ultimate Warrior. Jim Hellwig has always been the Ultimate Warrior, and at least in his mind, he will always be the Ultimate Warrior.

If WWE has a problem with Ax and Smash using the Demolition gimmick on the indy circuit, why did they bring in Barry Darsow to be Repo Man for Raw's 15th Anniversary? – Dan

The bad blood is more between Bill "Ax" Eadie & WWE than with Darsow. Eadie was the one that left the WWF and continued to use the Demolition gimmick in the independent circuit for years without the consent of the WWF. Darsow stayed out of it and never reprised the Smash gimmick until just recently. WWE must not have that much of a problem with it if they don't mind bringing in the Repo Man for a one shot deal. I wouldn't expect to see Eadie making any appearances though.

Jason Bray has two questions…

I was wondering if you could tell me what happened to the Orient Express (Badd Company) in their WWF run of the early-90's. They started out with (Pat) Tanaka and masked Kato (Paul Diamond) and then there was (I think) Saito added to the mix. Was this Masa Saito? Why was he added or was there a 'New' Orient Express at a certain point, for the life of me I can't remember. I hope this hasn't been covered, I'd love to know.

The Orient Express started out with Tanaka & Akio Sato in early 1990. Late in that year, Sato decided that he wanted to leave the WWF and head back home to Japan. Kato, who was Tanaka's former AWA tag team partner Paul Diamond, replaced him in the tag team.

My other question regards the new World Class DVD and there's one match where Jim Cornette is kept in check by a guy named 'Little John'. Who is this guy? He was one of the tallest guys I've ever seen! Did he ever go anywhere in the business, and why had I never seen him in any Apter mags at the time?
Keep up the good work! – Jason Bray

Little John was a rather tall man by the name of Jon Harris. Harris's most notable appearance outside of this was a bit part in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. I hear that he appeared briefly in the AWA & the WWF after this, but he didn't last long in either area. He is allegedly deceased, but I couldn't find the date that he passed away on. As you can tell, there is a lot of information about him out there. Or not.

Great column...really enjoy it (along with pretty much every other column on the site). This isn't exactly a question but more of a response to a question you got from someone in Dallas about HBK overselling Hogan's moves at Summerslam. Aside from trying to mock Hogan, I read somewhere that HBK was actually originally supposed to go over Hogan, but the Hulkster put up a stink about it and refused to be beat. So in return, HBK decided to oversell pretty much every move of Hogan's to get the last laugh. Which is why, in the words of Kanyon... "Who betta than Hogan?" ::pauses:: "The Heartbreak Kid."

I do have a question for you though, a random one. Who have your favorite wrestlers been since you became a wrestling fan, and why? – Jadd

There are way too many for me to list here, so I'm going to keep it to my top five or so. Mick Foley & Steve Austin were favorites of mine when I started watching WCW in 1992. I saw the potential in them and it was awesome to see them rise through the ranks of WCW & ECW and become top stars in the WWF. Ricky Steamboat was the classic babyface when I was still a mark and mostly rooted for babyfaces. Ric Flair is Ric Flair. Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels were both tremendous wrestlers that put on awesome matches. I liked Brian Pillman because he used to play for the Bengals. Chris Benoit was very technically sound and almost always could be counted on for a great match. Same with Eddie Guerrero, and the one thing he had that Benoit lacked in was promo skills & charisma.

My current favorite wrestlers include folks like Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, Colt Cabana, Nigel McGuinness, Paul London & Brian Kendrick, Finlay, Sara Del Rey, Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson & Necro Butcher.

Chad has two questions…

Please allow me to preface my question by complementing your work and thanking you for the time you put in to the article! Good to hear you're sticking to the walking plan! As for my question.. on the Monday Night Wars DVD.. there is a section perhaps 60-90 minutes in where Vince is discussing the period during which WCW was winning the war handedly. I believe in reference to the infamous revealing of Mick Foley's title win, Vince says something along the lines of "well ok.. if you're going to stoop to that level.. then I'm going to do something really stupid.. but fortunately it didn't come to that". Any ideas as to what Vince had in mind? What his nuclear option would have been at that point in time?

I don't think Vince was referring to anything in particular with that comment. If he did, I have no knowledge of what it would have been. He could have been talking about more Billionaire Ted skits.

Also, I'm wondering if you know of any sites were info is available regarding the approximate income of various wrestlers? A friend and I get into it on this topic almost every week, with me usually saying something along the lines of "[insert wrestler] probably isn't making THAT good of a living, I'd guess he/she is making about $80,000 a year, and they have to cover their own travel expenses." Is this a realistic amount of money for say, the Tommy Dreamers or Dave Taylors of the WWE?

There was a salary listing that became available online sometime last year that I will cut and paste here. I can not say with 100% certainty that all of these figures are accurate, but they're probably a pretty fair representation of what WWE wrestlers make. The time period here is October 2004-February 2006.

- Ashley Massaro: $131,000
- Batista: $813,000 (First class flight tickets paid for every week)
- Big Show: $1,000,000 (Base salary)
- Bob Holly: $217,000
- Booker T: $375,000
- Candice Michelle: $64,000
- Carlito: $319,000
- Chavo Guerrero: $206,000
- Chris Benoit: $488,000 (First class flight tickets paid for every week)
- Chris Masters: $253,000
- Christian - $396,000
- Danny Basham: $130,000
- Doug Basham: $126,000
- Eddie Guerrero: $372,000
- Edge: $704,000
- Eugene: $189,000
- Funaki: $124,000
- Gene Snitsky: $292,000
- Gregory Helms: $277,000
- John Cena: $1,743,000 (First class flight tickets, hotel accommodations, and ground transportation paid for every week)
- John Layfield: $786,000 (Five star hotel accommodations paid for every week)
- Jerry Lawler: $204,000 (First class flight tickets, hotel accommodations, and ground transportation paid for every week)
- Jillian Hall: $52,000
- Joey Mercury: $134,000
- Johnny Nitro: $143,000
- Jonathan Coachman: $175,000
- Kane: $ 851,000 (First class flight tickets paid for every week)
- Ken Kennedy: $133,000
- Kid Kash: $62,000
- Kurt Angle: $1,023,000 (First class flight tickets paid for every week)
- Lance Cade: $118,000
- Lilian Garcia: $90,000
- Lita: $286,000 (Mostly downside paid due to lack of wrestling)
- Maria: $41,000
- Mark Henry: $300,000 (Base pay)
- Matt Hardy: $322,000 (Missed over $70,000 of pay due to firing)
- Matt Striker: $43,000
- Melina: $155,000
- Mickie James: $72,000
- Nunzio: $186,000
- Orlando Jordan: $145,000
- Paul London: $177,000
- Psicosis: $122,000
- Randy Orton: $711,000 (First class flight tickets paid for every week)
- Rene Dupree: $289,000
- Rey Mysterio: $414,000
- Ric Flair: $508,000 (First class flight tickets paid for every week)
- Rob Conway: $186,000
- Rob Van Darn: $220,000 (Only received downside and royalties due to injury)
- Rosie: $105,000
- Shawn Michaels: $1,045,000 (First class flight tickets, hotel accommodations, and ground transportation paid for every week)
- Shelton Benjamin: $366,000
- Simon Dean: $132,000
- Stacy Keibler: $178,000 (Only downside paid during absence)
- Steven Richards: $94,000
- Torrie Wilson: $260,000
- Trevor Murdoch: $48,000
- Triple H: $2,013,000 (Allowed the personal use of company jet (10) times per year. First class flight tickets, hotel accommodations, and ground transportation paid for every week)
- Trish Stratus: $618,000 (Receives 20% of all Trish Stratus merchandise sold)
- Tyson Tomko: $127,000
- Undertaker: $1,811,000 (First class flight tickets, hotel accommodations, and ground transportation paid for every week)
- Val Venis: $210,000
- Victoria: $275,000
- Viscera: $130,000
- William Regal: $225,000

Maria chimes in with two questions and plenty of joshi videos to keep me happy…

in japan, they could manage to mix wrestling and music well. when was the first time that a wrestler was both a recording artist and a wrestler without having to give up either professions?

The first wrestler I know of that produced a record is none other than Jerry "The King" Lawler. Now, I wouldn't consider Lawler a musician, and I'm sure he wouldn't consider himself one either. But he did cut an album that was to be released in 1977 on the date that Elvis Presley ended up passing away. The main thing that resulted from Lawler's musical endeavors was his meeting Jimmy Hart and bringing him into the wrestling business.

2. is it true that when ODB wrestled in the indies, she had less clothing?

From what I've seen, I'd say it's about the same. Mind you, I didn't do much research into this subject because I don't care to see ODB in less clothes than she already wears. There are a couple pictures of ODB in less clothing than she usually wears on OWW, I don't know if she wrestled in those outfits though.

I had a question about who has sold more merchandise, Hogan or Austin. I found through my own research that it seems to be Austin. However is that just in both wrestler's WWE's history or does that include Hogan WCW run as well (including NWO t-shirts). I know the Austin 3:16 t-shirt was huge but was it bigger than hulkamania and the nwo combined? Thanks – Dom

The thing is that it's very difficult to gauge WCW merchandise figures. Their coding was all messed up in a way that favored top stars like Hogan. When fans went to stores and bought a Chris Jericho/Dean Malenko two-pack of action figures, it would ring up as a Hulk Hogan/Sting two-pack and the money would go to Hogan & Sting. Chris Jericho's then-fiancee found that out when she bought the Jericho/Malenko set at the store and saw Hogan/Sting on the receipt. So there's really no way of knowing exactly how much merchandise Hogan sold during his time in WCW. I will say that as big as the Austin 3:16 shirt was, it seemed like everybody had at least one type of New World Order shirt. Hell, I had three!

Do you think John Cena sees himself as a younger version of Hulk Hogan? I mean think about this for a minute.

John Cena- FU's to the Big Show, Big Daddy V (while he was Viscera), The Great Kahli, and Mark Henry.

Hulk Hogan- body slammed Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy , and Andre the Giant.

They both have come up as superman, both were really hated by most fans, and most fans didn't want them to have the World Heavy Weight Title. – DarkNightwolf101

I wouldn't say that most fans didn't want Hogan to have the WWF title. Insider fans didn't like it, but I remember Hogan getting over pretty well with the general fanbase back in the day. That being said (ha!), I think John Cena would love to be the second coming of Hulk Hogan.

Chris has two questions…

I saw in your column that you mentioned the team of
High Voltage. I remember an episode of Nitro back in
1996 where they wrestled the Steiners and Scott
absolutely KILLED one of them with the Screwdriver
suplex thing he used to do.

Whatever happened to High Voltage though?

Robbie Rage & Kenny Kaos are both retired from wrestling at this point. Their tag team was broken up in September 1998…Kaos resurfaced for a brief time as Rick Steiner's tag team championship partner, while Rage went to New Japan Pro Wrestling.

2) I recently saw 2 Cold Scorpio on an indy show back
about a month or so ago, and the man can still wrestle
a damn good match. What other former TNA/WCW/WWE guys
touring the indy circuit do you think can still put on
a great match? – Chris

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong immediately come to mind as former TNA guys. I think Nick Dinsmore & Rob Conway are both capable on putting on good matches if they're in the right situation, as is Doug Basham. Low Ki still does his thing over in Japan when healthy. Japan is full of guys that have left major promotions that can still work well. Some will tell you Giant Bernard (formerly known as A-Train) is one of those fellows.

Kaiza has four questions…

Another week passes by, and a new set of questions arrives into my brain! So alas, I help you keep your job with my submissions. So, you're welcome! anyway off to the questions, This week I am questioning Stephanie McMahon.

1-I was looking into the past Stephanie news articles RIGHT HERE AT 411MANIA.COM! and in early 2002, their were alot of news things saying stephanie was largely disliked. What were the things she did that made her hated?

At that point, most people thought that the storylines coming from the WWE Creative team were pretty darn uncreative. Since Stephanie was and is the head of the creative team, she's going to get heat when the storylines are piss poor. And of course there were also complaints that Triple H was getting pushed way too much due to his involvement with Stephanie.

2-I noticed in one of the reviews for unforgiven '02 that the reviewer said that raw was really pushing HLA during the time. What type of thing were going on during this time? Wasn't this the time period where modern womens wrestling was at its best?

Eric Bischoff promised on the September 9, 2002 edition of Raw that the fans were going to get to see some HLA. The concept was repeatedly pushed by Jerry Lawler all night, but the lesbians ended up getting squashed by 3 Minute Warning before it got too interesting for Spike TV. The blowoff for the angle happened at Unforgiven, where Stephanie was supposed to engage in some HLA after Billy & Chuck lost to 3MW, but Rikishi had some other plans for Bischoff. This could be one of those "quality" storylines that would get the head of WWE Creative some heat.

3-While I was still looking up steph, I noticed she did a howard stern interview. You guys had a brief synopsis of the interview(While reading it, she revealed she likes to be tied up when shes 'hot' FTW~!) Do you know if any of the audio interview itself is available ?

AOL Video is your friend. From that link you should also be able to find parts 2 & 3 of the interview.

4-Can you PLEASE post pictures of Steph!?

I can do you one better, actually. stephaniemcmahonjunkie.com has more pictures of the Billion Dollar Princess than you can shake a stick at. I would do something myself, but Larry Csonka has forbidden me from stealing "his" gimmick of posting random pictures of women in columns for no apparent reason. I can use it when I write the Tuesday news column next week, but otherwise…no sale.

Edward has two questions…

I heard that paul london has wrestled aj styles before.I just wanted to know if this is true and if so when and where?

There were two occasions in Ring of Honor when the two men met…one was a three-way involving them and Low Ki on February 8, 2003. The other was a one on one encounter that took place on June 14, 2003. If you haven't seen that match, I highly recommend going out of your way to see it. Classic stuff right there.

2nd question for you is i've seen the fatal four war ladder match between londrick,MNM,the hardyz and regal and taylor.I noticed that there was something resembling toilet paper hanging out his pocket.do you know what that is?thanks

I assume you're referring to Jeff Hardy here. Hardy has often kept a handkerchief hanging out of his back pocket during his wrestling career. Some say it's for style, others say it's part of something called the "hanky code". Urban Dictionary defines "hanky code" as "a code used by the homosexual community to let others know what they're "into"." Hardy's use of a white handkerchief insinuates that he's into wanking, and since it's in his right pocket, that means he's into being on top. I don't know for sure what he's into, and quite frankly I don't care to know…I just report what these things allegedly mean.

My boss has been bothering me with this question since the first day that I said I was a wrestling fan,
but here it is...

In all of wrestling and every promotion who was the very first title holder in professional wrestling? – Tom

The oldest wrestling title I can find evidence of existing was the American Greco-Roman Heavyweight Title. William Muldoon defeated Thiebaud Bauer on January 19, 1880 to become the first holder of this championship. Even if there was some little-known title before that that I couldn't find, he was the first major star in American pro wrestling.

Scott has two questions…

1. Back in the fall of 1999, Edge was facing Val Venis on Smackdown and the announcers kept mentioning that Edge was engaged to Val's "sister". Val ended up winning the match and afterwards Edge got on the mic and said something "About you being the best man tonight but you won't be the best man at the wedding, Christian will." Val just looked a little pissed at Edge but then sort of shrugged it off like, "ok..." . Then they hugged. My question is, what was the point of this, was it supposed to lead to an angle between the two at some point?

I don't think it was supposed to build to an angle or anything like that, it was just them recognizing a real-life situation. Edge's marriage to Val's sister Alanah lasted from November 2001 to sometime in 2004.

2. Seeing as how Mania is around the corner and a lot of wrestlers tend to debut the night or week after I was curious as to some of the most/least memorable wrestling debuts in your eyes. I was watching the St. Valentines Day Massacre from '99 on WWE 24/7 and gotta say Big Show's debut is still one of my favorites. But when your thinking of past wrestlers being re-introduced I'd have to go with Jericho, The Radicalz, Mysterio, pretty much most of the ECW wrestlers in the 2001(RVD, Dreamer, Spike, Rhyno). I'd say Lesnar, Cena, Maven's wresting debut was pretty memorable. In my opinion least memorable would have to be Muhammad Hassan, Chris Masters, Mordecai, Sean O'Haire's solo debut on SD. Then there are those who's debuts sucked but went on to achieve greatness Batista (Decon Batista? C'mon...), Orton on Smackdown, Umaga (as Jamal).

I think Jericho's first WWF debut certainly has to rank among the most memorable debuts, but his re-debut last year has to rank among the least. Honestly…a sparkly vest? With a white t-shirt underneath? Lame. That combined with the short hair really lowered people's expectations of Jericho saving them from anything.

Honestly, my favorite debut would have to be Big Show's WWF debut at St. Valentine Day's Massacre in 1999. The way he popped out from under the ring during the Austin/McMahon cage match and threw Austin into the cage so hard that it broke was pretty darn awesome. I can't think of any right now that top that as far as impact goes…that and the Jericho debut later that year were pretty tight. John Cena's debut on Smackdown against Kurt Angle was pretty good.

Wikipedia is listing under Lance Storm's ECW signature moves something called the Power-Plex which is described as a suplex powerbomb, better known as Goldberg's Jackhammer. Are the two in fact the same move and if not, what's the difference between the two? Also, is it pronounced using the modern pronounciation of suplex or "Power-play" as Gordon Solie would have? – Stephen

I've seen at least one or two websites claim that it is the same move as Goldberg's Jackhammer. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any evidence of Storm using the move in my DVD collection, and he was smart enough not to use the move once he went to WCW. The Powerplex name also applies to a tag team move where one guy superplexes his opponent and then their tag team partner splashes the opponent immediately afterwards. To answer your last question, it's not pronounced like Gordon Solie would have said it. But by God, it should be. And as Gordon would have said if he was in Kentucky, So long from the Bluegrass State!