Ask 411 Wrestling 04.30.08: Hennig, Hardy, Hooters and more!

Posted by Steve Cook on 04.30.2008

I got your Triple H right here, buddy...



It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I'm Steve Cook, and if my calculations are correct (maybe, maybe not, who the heck knows with 411's database being the way it is sometimes) with this column I have written more Ask 411 Wrestling columns than anybody in the history of the Internet. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, to be honest with you. Hopefully Ashish will reward me with a raise.

*snicker*

I was going to invite people to sing my praises in celebration, but Larry just gave me a blank stare and Penguin disputed most of my claims about myself. What nerve! Instead I shall press on with the usual questions, answers and other assorted nonsense.

Memo to SHIMMER: Just because I haven't mentioned Sara Del Rey in my columns the past few weeks doesn't give you permission to take the title off of her. Bastards!

Comments, Corrections & Other "C" Words

man, austin at wrestlemania X7? while the crowd should have booed him out of the building, being in texas AND something out-of the-ordinary happening was nice for the time (jericho's undisputed title anyone?).
BUT, I don't see HOW that compares to the initial WCW invasion match with Buff Bagwell and Booker T. The crowd, from the very beginning (not sure where the match was) Boo-ed with a veracity I have not heard before or since. I think Angle threw Bagwell out of the arena to end the match (mercifully) and Buff was never seen a-gain. I think they claimed it was because of ol' Bags wearing a hat to the ring and wanting Big Show money, but that match was AWFUL. It might be the worst televised match, if you include fan reaction, that I have ever seen involving actual wrestlers. – Richard

The WCW match was a bit of an oversight on my part, and it's a great example of a crowd completely rejecting an angle or a match. It had great ramifications on the future of wrestling, as it was part of what led to the idea of WCW being kept alive as a separate company being kyboshed. Good catch!

In this week's column, you talked about fan reactions and rejections and decided to share one I experienced first hand.

At the 2002 Summerslam PPV at the Nassau Collesium, the Rock lost the WWE title to Brock Lesnar. Rock did his whol celebration with the belt and the PPV went off the air. Following the match, the Rock remained in the ring to do his catchphrases with the crowd. Unfortunately, everyone knew that this was his last regular match and that he was leaving for Hollywood. Everyone was chanting "You Sold Out" and so forth. This is how the post match went:

"Finally, the Rock, has come back..."
"BOOOOOOOOO!!!"
"....Finally, the Rock, has come back...."
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
"You know what....IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE THE ROCK HAS COME BACK TO!!!"
"BOOOOOO....YOU SOLD OUT"
"If ya Smelll!!!!"
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
"You know what, the people's sing-along is over!"

And he left the ring. – kmgillen

I don't like the fans booing Rock just because he was going to make a movie, but Evil Rock rules everything ever.

wrt the last question in your column this week, the austin heel turn was the biggest rejection by wrestling fans of an angle, but for one particular match, I'd say big show vs batista at Hammerstein. It's one thing for fans to cheer you instead of boo, like they did with austin's heel turn, but its a whole nother thing for them to turn their backs to the match and chant "change the channel". that was f'n unbelievable and I WISH i had that on dvd, or could find that on dvd. that should be in every ECW fan's collection. – Manu Bumb

What's ECW?

Hey there. Just wanted to mention, the first American wrestler, on U.S. TV that I saw perform the F-5 finishing move, was none other than the late "Big" Brian Adams during his KroniK days alongside Bryan "Wrath" Clarke. Adams hit the move several times, and I'm sure Schiavone called the move a "Modified DDT" each time. The F-5, though, was probably invented in Japan like most every other power move.

To hopefully clarify a second question, I recall an interview done with Booker T. during his WCW TV Title run, where he mentioned his scars as well as his brother Stevie's. From what I remember, both brothers received virtually the same scars from a gang fight in Houston, both getting stabbed in the back and shoulders. I could be off, as that whole story could have been kayfabe for all I know, to add to the "Harlem Heat" gimmick. But it seems likely, being that Booker and Stevie had a rough time growing-up. Has anyone mentioned Booker's arrest for robbing a Wendy's recently? Well now someone did... – Ben Gebhart

Hey Cook, I got a correction. The Duke Doherty character wasn't Bruce Prichard,
it was a real guy. Pete Doherty, who apparently was an older. He just appeared
on an episdoe of PrimeTime Wrestling on 24/7, where he took Alfred Hayes spot on
commentary with Gorilla Monsoon. He is the most annoying commenter ever, by the
way. But he wasn't just a voice of Bruce Prichard. – MP

Either way, the guy sucked. That's all I'm saying.

i like the column, BUT:
there's a trend developing that you bring up questions like "in your
opinion...", or "who/what/where/how do you think/see/feel...",
and i'd like to see more questions answered, not statements made – casual Monday mayhem

I don't get to decide what sorts of questions make the column. That responsibility falls on the readers. If they want opinions, they get opinions. If they want answers to obscure questions, they get answers to obscure questions. I'm not here to put handcuffs on people and tell them what to do. That's my ex-girlfriend's job.

What?

Questions!

I was on youtube today looking through some old wrestling content when
I come across Halloween Havoc 1999. Sting Vs Hulk Hogan. Initially I
am like wow, this will be great, but first Hogan is supposed to come
out, then he does not. After a few minutes of Hogan music Sting
finally makes his entrance. Finally Hogan comes out, not ready to
wrestle, however he is in street clothes. He and Sting talk a sec in
the ring and Hogan LAYS down and Sting gets the pin. WTF!! Can you
tell me what the hell happened to lead up to this? As far as I can
tell Hogan was told to lose the match and did not want to put Sting
over. Well that would be nothing new considering Sting would have just
been in a long line of guys that Hogan did not want to put over
(Savage, Piper, Orndorf, Bret Hart). Any information would be
appreciated. - Ryan, West Virginia

This happened during the early days of WCW's Vince Russo Era. Basically, Russo wanted Hogan to take some time off, and he did so from October 1999 to February 2000. As for the Havoc business, it was one of those funky worked shoots that Russo loves so much, except it was a total work but was meant to come off as a shoot even though nothing about it was a shoot. Yeah. Hogan put over Sting at the previous month's PPV (Fall Brawl 1999), so losing to him wasn't something he had a major problem with. But they wanted you to think that he did have a problem with it. My head hurts, so let's move on.

For the record. I understand, and completely agree with, Bret's opinions of Shawn Michaels but despite being Brets biggest mark I've never understood, nor do I agree with his, attitude towards HHH. Why has Bret got such a downer on HHH?. Is it purely he can't bring himself to show appreciation to a friend of Shawns or is it something else we don't know about?. – Paul Stevenson, Scotland

Triple H isn't exactly a huge Bret Hart fan. He was rather vocal in the meetings surrounding the "screwjob" that it had to be done. He also lied about having any involvement or knowledge about it to Bret's then-wife in the Wrestling With Shadows documentary, which became even more hilarious when Michaels wrote in his book about how pro-screwjob Triple H was. I'm not one to speak for Bret, but he probably sees Triple H as a brown-noser that got where he is by buddying up with the Clique and eventually marrying the bosses' daughter.

I also hate it when people sleep their way to the top. But enough about my personal life!

DarkNightwolf101 has two questions…

1. Why wasn't Ricky steamboat inducted this year in the HOF alongside Ric Flair? They both debuted together and one hell of a feud.

Your guess is as good as mine. I think the idea of "one main guy and a bunch of people associated with him" ended with the Hogan & Friends induction in 2005. With Flair you could have easily put in Steamboat, Terry Funk & Arn Anderson, and I'm sure plenty of others. Tully Blanchard? Why not? Now that I think of it, the Funker being inducted would have been fun too because there may have been an induction speech by Mick Foley. Darn our luck.

You won't find too many bigger supporters of Steamboat than me, so I'm the wrong guy to ask why he hasn't been inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame. Heck, I inducted the guy into the 411 Wrestling Hall of Fame.

2. also, why was Greg The Hammer Valentine inducted alongside Ric Flair?

I think you mean "why wasn't", and the reason Valentine wasn't inducted this year was because he was inducted back in 2004.

has bobby heenan ever managed both wrestlers at the same time – ARJUD1

You know, that's a very good question. I'm going to guess not because Heenan never managed babyfaces and there weren't a lot of heel vs. heel matches back in the day. I haven't seen any matches where he did manage wrestlers facing off with each other. And no, the Royal Rumble match wouldn't count.

wasent ole anderson part of the original 4 horsmen and why wasent he on raw that night did he have a falling out with ric or any of the others – Michael

I'm not sure Ole's on good terms with anybody, as he's been a very bitter man for the majority of his life. He has been critical of Flair in the past and has also said he wasn't going to do anything with WWE, including appearing on DVDs. This apparently goes back to the time that they bought Georgia Championship Wrestling and forced him out of the company. I've also heard reports that he's suffering from multiple sclerosis and it's made him very physically weak. So, no, there was no chance of Ole appearing on Raw, even though he was invited by WWE to be there with the rest of the Horsemen. I wonder if Paul Roma & Mongo McMichael were invited too.

From this link on youtube, have the identities of the masked men in the "Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets" ever been revealed? I believe the show was produced by Fox in, I think, the 90's; and the announcer sounds very much like a young Tony Kornheiser, although it probably wasn't him.- McLovin

The host of the program was Nick Bakay, who kind of sounds like Kornheiser, especially when you've had a few too many. People who appeared on this show that I know of:

Mike Modest (All-American Boy)
Anthony "Pitbull 2" Durante (Colossus)
Gary "Pitbull 1" Wolfe (Brute Force)
Harley Race (Booker)

There were four other speaking characters, but I don't know who they were.

I always enjoy your column. My question is with WrestleMania 25 being in Houston. Naturally rumors of Austin appearing/ wrestling are going wild...who would you book Austin against? (HBK?) I also am curious if you think Hogan will be involved who would you square him off against? I Heard jim ross suggest a foley/hogan fued might be interesting . But of course I like many would rather see Hogan/Austin ...but what do you think? – Justin

As far as Austin vs. Hogan goes, I'll refer you to one of the comments on last week's column…

i dont know why fans keep on insisting on seeing austin vs hogan. austin's neck
is as sturdy as a stack of dimes. even a bodysslam from the decrpit hulkster
could possibly result in permanent paralysis for the rattlesnake. then you have
the immortal one who is not getting any younger. the build up would be great but
the match itself would be a trainwreck. – reh629

Indeed. I can't see Austin or Hogan wrestling on the show, but if they did, I'm guessing Austin would take on a brash young heel and Hogan would take on some big useless dude. Foley vs. Hogan would be a classic one-sided feud similar to Hogan vs. Michaels. Foley would cut great promos and Hogan would show up to hit the legdrop. Brother. I hear that Austin is very high on Mr. Kennedy. Those promos would be great…I'm not sure about the wrestling though. But it couldn't be worse than a potential Austin/Hogan match.

Ultimate Warrior vs. Vince McMahon has to happen. SPEAK TO ME WARRIORS!

A couple nights ago I watched the Austin/Owen match from SummerSlam '97. When Owen began working Austin's neck (which was somewhat ironic in and of itself) well before the botched piledriver, JR noted that Austin had had neck problems in the past. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable in all things Austin, but I can't recall learning anything about the supposed "neck trouble" of Steve Austin. What was JR talking about, or was he making it up to add some more psychology to the match? Am I missing something? Thanks! – Brian

I don't remember Austin having serious neck problems until Owen dropped him on his head. Maybe one of the readers can enlighten me.

Rick Landis has two questions…

1. What are the deal with those nose strips MVP wears? I used to see Booker T wear them in WCW, also.

Nasal strips are used to ease the burden of breathing and to keep from snoring. Jerry Rice was the first athlete to use them on a regular basis, and it was quite the trend during the 1990s. They come in handy for people with allergies, or people who have asthma or people who generally have nasal congestion.

2. After watchin' ECW on April 9th I was wondering about contract signings. Since they usually review the contracts earlier, have the general manager (or anyone else) sided with one side (usually it would be the heel in the situation) changed it to a different type of match?

Not that I can think of off the top of my head. Sometimes a wrestler won't read the contract thoroughly enough and they'll overlook a detail that could come back to haunt them later. But I haven't seen an authority figure deliberately change wording in a contract after its been signed.

JLAJRC also has two questions…

1.) The Powers of Pain/Demolition double-turn at the 1988 Survivor Series is probably one of the most famous turns in wrestling history. But why were the PoP chosen to turn heel? They were massively over as faces during that time. Plus, it doesn't help that they pretty much became jobbers, both as a tag team and separately, basically immediately following the turn. Did Vince simply see Demolition as the better of the two Road-Warrior/LOD-looking teams?

Pretty much. The POP were over, but Demolition was more over than them when they were still heels. The teams were too similar for both of them to be successful for a long period of time. Unfortunately for Demolition, they met the same fate when the Legion of Doom showed up and took their rightful place as "top face painted ass kicking tag team".

2.) Near the end of his WWE run, Kurt Angle all of a sudden started wearing decorated mouthguards. Is there a reason he started doing this?

Kurt started wearing a mouthguard after he lost some teeth during a match with John Cena. After having surgery to repair his teeth, Angle wore the mouthguard to protect them from further injury. He still wears it today because it looks cool and has become part of his persona.

When did the man called Leon White become the man
called Vader? Did it happen between AWA and WCW or
when he came to WCW? – Ryan

The Big Van Vader gimmick was created by famed Japanese cartoonist Go Nagai and given to White by Antonio Inoki for usage in New Japan Pro Wrestling. (Nagai is also credited with the creation of the Jushin "Thunder Liger character) Vader made his debut in 1987, and moved on to WCW in July 1990 after success in New Japan.

hey this is justin in san jose was wondering what earl hebner was fired from wwe for? i heard it was for taking merchandise and reselling it was wondering of this is the case – Justin

You are correct, sir. Earl & Dave Hebner were accused of selling company merchandise without permission at a store in St. Louis that Earl had ownership in. They have claimed that the firings were unjust and they did nothing wrong.

Was Missy Hyatt ever in wwe/wwf and if not how come?And do you think she will ever be in the wwe hall of fame? - RJEVH01

Missy was in the WWF long enough to get a cup of coffee. On March 21, 1987, she appeared at a TV taping in Las Vegas and hosted three episodes of "Missy's Manor", which was going to be a wrestling talk segment along the lines of Piper's Pit, the Flower Shop and others. She also hosted the show at the next night's TV tapings in Phoenix and on April 23 in Worcester. These segments never made the air because…well, how do I put this kindly? Apparently they weren't very good. After they decided that wasn't going to work, Missy was asked if she wanted to be a Federette. Don't ask me what that is. Missy said no and headed back to the UWF and eventually ended up in WCW.

I'm going to have to say no to Missy in the HOF. She was an important trendsetter in how women have been utilized in wrestling in the past quarter-century, but she never accomplished anything in the WWF, never managed a world champion, and wasn't in a main event angle anyplace important. Hotness is not a requirement for HOF induction…otherwise Moolah & Mae never would have gotten in. So no, I don't think Missy Hyatt will be appearing in the WWE Hall of Fame.

This has been bugging me for awhile,
Why does the wwe us so many camera angles....I used to be a a huge wrestling fan, I have almost every ppv on vhs if that tells you something....and I cannot watch the current product.

I love wrestling, but when I see a match and wrestler x performs a move on wrestler y and the you get 3-5 different camera positionings during said move it makes me want to get sick.
I do not need to get several camera angles for one wrestling move.
I find myself watching older wrestling matches just so I can see what is happening in the match.

The first time I noticed this was in the 2002 royal rumble ppv.
I enjoyed wrestling alot more when it had less camera repositioning.

I hope i'm not the only one that would perfer the wwe to stop giving so many different camera angles during the match.
I was a die hard fan, now I can barely watch. – Dusty

You're not alone on this…my friend and I complain about this every PPV. My theory is that the directors are so afraid that the wrestlers are going to blow a spot that they over-produce it so it "looks good on TV". TNA's even worse than WWE with this, actually. I don't see it changing anytime soon because wrestling is all about over-production now. Under-producing would be taking a step back, you see.

Sup, Bruddah? Do you think they'lle ever do a Mark Calloway DVD before he retires, or are we going to have to be happy with the current Undertaker Kayfabe set until then? WWE owns all his early stuff and it would be awesome (God I hate that word) to see him narrate a DVD out of character. It would also be cool to hear from The Godfather about backstage early on in Texas and Brian Lee about the "Underfaker" gimmic. And also some memories from Taker about his and Yokozuna's long run back in the early 90's. Man, it would be great to hear about all of it. – BALman

If I were you I would remain content with the current Undertaker DVD selection. Like I've stated in this column before, Undertaker is not the kind of guy to go outside of his on-air persona. I seriously doubt that he would agree to go out of character for the purpose of making a DVD.

Casey has two questions…

I've been watching AWA on ESPN Classic lately, and I have a few questions.

They've been announcing "Curt Henning," but I always thought it was "Hennig." In fact, I'm sure of it. Did he use "Henning" as a ring name, since lots of people say it that way anyway?

Nobody knows how to properly pronounce "Hennig". I think that answers your question. It's pretty sad because Curt's father Larry worked the AWA territory for decades…you would think they would have gotten the name thing straightened out at some point. I guess Larry & Curt just weren't much for complaining. Hey, as long as they spell it right on the paycheck, right?

Are Ron Trongard and Lord James Blears the worst announcers ever? I mean, seriously, they call every move the same way. "Scott Hall has him...watch this...OH! He's taking it to him...OH! And now he takes him...OH!" They don't even really call the match! Can you think of anyone worse than them?

I wouldn't say they're as bad as Bruce Prichard, Mike McGurik & Duke Doherty, but they are pretty abysmal. I like Trongard's voice for some reason, so I give him a bit of a free pass for his less than stellar commentary. Blears I have no use for.

Mike has two questions…

1. Do you think WWE would go for this angle? CM Punk won the MITB and all so he starts coming out on RAW and putting down Jeff Hardy for his drug use and all. Making a point he doesn't do drugs and doesn't need them unlike Jeff and all and how drugs caused Jeff to lose his spot and he took advantage and won it all...Basically do you think they would do a drug angle beight this or steroids or whatever or is it something that strikes a little too close to home?

I don't see WWE running an angle based around the usage of drugs anytime soon. It would definitely help Punk's career (a feud with Raven based around drug usage was what got him over big time in ROH), but WWE doesn't want to further perpetuate the idea that their wrestlers are hooked on drugs. Drugs have been subject for storylines in WWE before…Jake Roberts' battle with alcoholism was the main point of his feud with Jerry Lawler back in 1997. But that ended up backfiring because the babyface that was trying to kick the habit ended up worse off than he was before. The temptation that Roberts faced during the feud was too much for him to overcome. There was also a "drunk" angle with Road Warrior Hawk in the late 90s that didn't really do anything to make any money. Not to mention the WCW angle with Scott Hall that the Hawk angle was based off of. I don't think placing Jeff Hardy in this kind of an angle would be a good idea for Jeff Hardy.

2.What was the whole reasoning behind every wrestler has a full time job era back in the day? I fail to see how that would make anyone watch the product more? Plese explain..Why were we supposed to cheer a garbage man and boo a blue blood? Cuz wrestling fans are more likely to be garbage men then blue bloods?

Business was down at that point, and the wrestlers weren't making enough money wrestling to support their families. OK, I'm kidding. Fortunately most of them didn't have families to support so it didn't matter. To be honest, I have no idea what they were thinking with the whole job thing. Yay, a garbage man! Boo, a plumber! I think it was a case of throwing a bunch of garbage at the wall and seeing what sticks.

There has been one successful story of a wrestler with a full time job…the Undertaker.

What? Dude's an undertaker. That's a job.

I remember back in the summer of 2006 when WWE and the new ECW were at war, Edge was one of the main people involved. Well there was a special head to head show, and there was a battle royal will 10 WWE stars and 10 ECW stars. I remember when Edge was making his entrance, and Tazz on commentary said "Back in the day, Edge wasn't even good enough to get a job in ECW, and that's the Truth!'

What was that about? Did Edge try to get into the real ECW when it was around? - TheMidnightPunk

I haven't found any evidence saying that he did, but before getting into the WWF Edge mainly wrestled in Ontario and the Great Lakes region of the US. This would have been pretty close to where ECW ran their shows, so they may have heard of him. Like I said, I don't know if he ever came in for a tryout or not. His running buddy Rhino ended up doing pretty well in ECW, that's for sure.

You may recall late-80's WCW midcarder Ranger Ross. This African-American patriot seemed to have a bright future of waving Ol' Glory, putting smiles on children's faces, and jobbing to the main event heels. As I recall, he disappeared around the early 90's. The only information I have found hints at Ross having done something pretty dastardly that landed him the slammer. What exactly did he do? – Wes

The Ranger left WCW on less then pleasant terms and became a private investigator & probation officer in Acworth, Georgia. In 1996, Ross served time in prison after being found guilty of multiple counts of armed robbery. Wikipedia says he was known as the Motorcycle Bandit and had robbed several banks over a period of three years He also allegedly attempted to burn down the police station in an attempt to hide the evidence. He apparently got out sometime before 2004, because he started working the indies again around that time.

Back at Syracuse, we used to freeload off WWE PPVs at a local Hooters.
Do you know of any places in the NYC area where I could do the same? – R'

Don't get Manu Bumb or myself started on Hooters. That's all I'm saying about that.

For R' & anybody else who may be wondering about this, I direct you to WWE.com which lists WWE Blast Areas all across the country. Most of them seem to be Hooters or Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants. As for the NYC area…I think Staten Island's close. I have no idea where Chester is.

Speaking of Manu, let's close things up this week with a question from him…

which happened first - virgil runnels wrestling as Dusty Rhodes, or Dustin Runnels being born? if its the former, i gotta say, its weird as shit that Dusty named his kid after his gimmick. and very cool. if its the latter, then I have to wonder if dusty picked his name based on his son.

but im thinking its the former.

Dustin's formal name is Virgil Riley Runnels III, which would be a good name for him if he ever wants to work a pompous manager gimmick. Dusty, of course, is Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. Which begs the question of why two generations would give their sons a name like Virgil. I mean, you would think Dusty would know better, right?

Well, that's all we have time for this week. Send any questions or corrections or porn to [e-mail]. You may also comment down in the comment section, but keep in mind that I will not answer questions posted in the comment section in the column. It's only fair to the 78 e-mails sitting in my inbox. Until next time, booooooooooooooohica!