Ask 411 Wrestling 05.14.08: D'Lo, Hos, Vince and his bros and more!

Posted by Steve Cook on 05.14.2008

Including a question about manning up. MAN UP!

It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I'm your party host Steve Cook, and I hope you all are having a stupendous week. Mine has been pretty average, which is fine by me. The NWF show on Saturday night was good, but the venue switched the bartenders and didn't have any chairs at the bar for me to sit on. That is not how you treat an Internet Wrestling God, no sir. Good wrestling, but not quite as enjoyable as before.

Did you read Buy or Sell last week? If not, you missed ROH guru Ari Berenstein and myself discussing the ROH weekend shows before they happened. I totally called Brent Albright leaving Sweet & Sour Inc., so yay me! On a related note, if anybody has pictures of Sara Del Rey's new Sensational Sherri type look, feel free to e-mail me at [e-mail].

What? It's research.

I finally got around to watching Rocky Balboa yesterday. Excellent movie. My only qualm with it was the lame name of Mason "The Line" Dixon. Yes, I know what it refers to. I'm just saying it was lame. The movie was pretty awesome though. ROCKY ROCKY ROCKY!

Finally, for those of you who have missed Leonard Hayhurst's opinions about pro wrestling ever since he left the Wednesday news, you can check out his blog. Blogs are fun. Someday I hope to be interesting enough to have one.

Comments, Corrections and Other "C" Words

Hey Cook, why don't you do a FAQ's version of the ask 411. That way you wouldn't
have to repost/reanswer the same questions a lot. Then you can lead a post at
the top of every column after that so people won't ask you (that way your inbox
won't be as full).

You can always do updates to FAQ's too (like every 6 months to 1yr.)

What does everyone else think? – David

I think that is an awesome idea. Look for a special FAQ edition of Ask 411 Wrestling on May 28th. If you have any suggestions on what should be included (let's face it, I'm usually not sober while writing these and I can't remember everything), let me know through the e-mail. Expect items on Kane always being Glen Jacobs, Warrior Warrior always being the Ultimate Warrior, tag team wrestling always being on the outs in WWE and Randy Savage always being on Vince McMahon's shit list.

First off about Edge's theme music. I don't know who did it, but I wouldn't bank on it being a WWE employee. I know for Billy & Chuck's theme, a friend of a friend recorded the vocal for the song and got paid like $2000. Granted, WWE did have more steam and cash by then, but $2000 even in '98 was probably chump change to McMahon and I'd sorta guess they'd just bring someone in and pay them some cash who has the sound they're looking for.

As for Edge's "Never Gonna Stop" theme, the closest the theme got to a true release to my knowledge was on the Forceable Entry CD. There was a "Never Gonna Stop" remix entitled "The Black Cat Crossing" theme and wasn't the same theme Edge used and didn't have the "You Think You Know Me" at the beginning, but rather some "Give It To Me"s. Still, it was a cool edition to a CD I was surprisingly glad to purchase as I only bought it since Best Buy advertised a free "Best of WrestleMania" DVD with it (which ended up being lame 3-5 minutes clips/music videos of each 'Mania and screamed of hastily thrown together promo work)

Finally, as for the Misfits, Blade Braxton over at WrestleCrap interviewed Jerry Only about his WCW tenure a while back. Apparently, he was the only in good enough shape at that point as at least one member of the band had a bad back. The only person I can remember him wrestling was Steve Williams (and I think Vampiro was with him in a handicapped match) and I don't recall him getting any offense in on Dr. Death. Although I think at least one of the Misfits did knockout Oklahoma (Ed Ferrara) at one point... or at least they got a hold of him in some fashion. - J. Jimmy Jettison.

Your friend sung the Billy & Chuck song? He has a good voice.

For the set up to BATB '96 that started the nWo Hogan had been suspended some
months before to explain his absence while filming.

All PWI awards have been chosen by the editors. No fan votes actually count.

The Misfits had a falling out with Vampiro over some shirts he took from them
to sell but never gave them any money. Jerry Only said he could never do
anything since Vampiro went to Mexico shortly after. – chuckdawg1999

Good thing I actually never bothered to vote, then.

As for the Flair tribute in 03 after he lost to HHH, there's a video on YT after
that RAW went off the air. I think Nash was actually out to make a save after
the match but before the show went off the air because the vid starts w/ him
checking on Flair. I don't remember seeing Steiner or Goldberg. However, HBK,
Vince, Shane, Austin, Y2J, and a lot of others came out. Nash WAS there though.
Here's the link:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=th0KUJyOQb0 - Bobby

Steve: Actually, the first Clash was as close to a "Night of
Champions" as you can get. Every match on the card was for a title, and
the lone non-title match (Road Warriors/Dusty vs. Powers of Pain/Ivan Koloff)
featured the NWA World Six-Man Champions (PoP/Ivan).

In fact, two matches that were announced for the show should Sting/Flair not go
the time limit were for lesser titles: Larry Zbyszko defending the Western
States Heritage title (vs. Shane Douglas) and Rick Steiner defending the
Florida Heavyweight title (vs. Ricky Santana).

Keep up the great work! – Jason S.

There was a lot of talk about the Montreal Screwjob in the comments section, and I think G-Walla said it best…

Cook, the only thing I would add is that the truth in the Screwjob, is whatever you want it to be. It doesn't matter what anyone says, people will always believe what they want. I know I do.

There you have it!

Questions!

Brandon had four questions. Three will be answered this week, and another will be addressed in two weeks because it epitomizes the term "frequently asked question".

1. I heard about WWE's contract ending with CW in the fall, and Smackdown will be going to some new channel, MyNetworkTV I believe is what it's called. Unfortunately, I don't have that channel. Any idea on where I can watch the show from now on, like maybe there's a online wrestling site that replays westling shows or something? I think wwe.com only shows parts of their shows really.

There are websites out there where you can download episodes of Raw, Smackdown, Impact or other wrestling shows. I don't use any of them because my computer is stuck in the Stone Age, but I'm sure plenty of my readers do. I believe my friend uses something called Rapidshare, but don't quote me on that.

2. I have always been interested in Ring of Honor, people talk about the great wrestling and all. But a few months back, I remember people constantly raving about a certain event Ring of Honor had. I think it was called Man-Up. What was so great about it, and any idea where I could buy it and maybe check it out?

I have not had the opportunity to watch Man Up, but it did get rave reviews from almost everybody who got to see it. The highlight of the show was the main event, which was a brutally awesome ladder war pitting the Briscoes against Kevin Steen & El Generico and also featured the debut of the Age of the Fall. Here is a match listing provided by ROH's website…

ROH Man Up (September 15, 2007, Chicago Ridge, IL)

1. Nigel McGuinness won a Four Corner Survival over Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, & Naomichi Marufuji (PPV)
2. Rocky Romero beat Matt Cross (PPV)
3. Austin Aries beat Davey Richards (PPV)
4. Roderick Strong beat Erick Stevens (PPV)
5. Takeshi Morishima defeated Bryan Danielson to retain the ROH World Title by ref stoppage (PPV)
6. Jay & Mark Briscoe beat Kevin Steen & El Generico to retain the World Tag Team Titles in a Ladder War (PPV)
7. Mitch Franklin beat Alex Payne to retain the Top of the Class Trophy
8. Amazing Kong & Daizee Haze beat Lacey & Sara Del Rey
9. BJ Whitmer & Brent Albright beat Chasyn Rance & Kenny King
10. Jack Evans & Irish Airborne vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black, & Necro Butcher ended in a no contest
11. Delirious defeated Matt Sydal in Sydal's final ROH appearance

Looks like a pretty awesome show except for the student match, but you gotta have something as a popcorn match.

4. Back in the 80s, when it came to the bad guys, Rick Rude in my opinion was in the top 3 of the top bad guys. I think he was the first bad guy I actually liked. Any idea why he never had a run with the WWE Championship? I'm not even sure if he got a shot at the title.

He got shots at the title during Ultimate Warrior's title reign in the middle of 1990, but I would say that Rude might have eventually become WWF Champion had he stayed in the promotion longer. The peak of his career workrate-wise was definitely in WCW from 1991-1994, where he consistently had good to great matches with other solid wrestlers like Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes and others. Had Rude stuck around and WWF didn't come up with the idea of Evil Sgt. Slaughter, Rude could have been a good choice to transition the title from Warrior back to Hulk Hogan. I would have liked it, as I was also a Rick Rude mark back in the day, and still am when I see old matches of his that I haven't seen yet. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's one of the most under-appreciated workers of all time. Had his prime not taken place during wrestling's dark ages of the early 90s, he could have been a mainstream star.

It's a variation on the old cliche...
I went to a fight last night and a hockey match broke out

It seems to me one of the worst things that two wrestlers could do in the ring
would be to get into an actual fight.

Now with big guys (and egos) slugging it out like they do...what are the
documented cases of this happening?

And, if it does happen, what is the protocol for how to handle it?

Does the ref make a signal?

I remember seeing Bob Backlund and Don Muraco slug it out
in a bloodfest at the old Boston Garden when I was a kid.

The finish of the match involved a large number of police running in
the ring and pulling the two of them apart.

I was a kid and a perfect mark at the time. Usually my father was fond of
telling everyone around him, "That was a good show." (wink-wink)
(Way to spoil it for your kid, Dad!) But at this show, I remember my father
saying...wow, I think a fight really broke out there.

Did it...and does it ever happen? – HM

It's tough to tell because usually the wrestlers involved will deny it if it does happen. Kevin Von Erich has claimed that some of the portions in his matches with Chris Adams were shoots. There was a match with Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong in ROH where people claimed that it was a shoot, and it looked like a shoot in certain ways. Honestly, I don't think it was, but it was a pretty awesome ending to a match. I would bet that the finish to Backlund/Muraco was planned that way and it wasn't an actual fight.

I've always wondered if the satanic undertaker character would have continued if he had not suffered an injury that put him out and why bringing back the deadman character doesn't really have any heat on him whatsoever ? his character has this perfect heel element to him don't you think ? – Sachin

Undertaker's reached the point in his career where people are going to cheer him no matter what he does. But in order to fully answer your question we need to go back to 1999. It seemed like they were starting to phase away from the Satanic portions of UT's character before he left…he was still a heel, but he was teaming with Big Show and kind of mentoring him before he left. He didn't seem quite as evil then, though he was still quite the heel. The thing about Undertaker is…even though he seems like the perfect heel character due to the whole "death" thing, he's still a babyface. I can not explain that, and I doubt anybody else can.

How the hell did a rising knee to the gut be called a 'Kitchen Sink'?
I mean, I understand if it's "Hitting a guy with everything INCLUDING
the Kitchen Sink', but who named it? When? How? – 411's Mathew Sforcina

The only time I've ever seen the term used is in video games. I've never heard an announcer say it in real life…maybe I'm wrong on that, but I don't remember it. I would argue that the reason for the term is exactly what you state, but I can't tell you who named it, unless it was the guy who developed the No Mercy video game. Probably a Japanese guy.

Jason has two questions…

1. my first question Regards WCW Halloween Havoc 1999. Hulk Hogan was Scheduled to face Sting for the Heavyweight Ttile. on the Nitro about 2 weeks before the Havoc PPV Hogan was interviewed by Gene Okerlund. Hogan said something along the lines of i will get the last Laugh at Halloween Havoc and you 2 guys in the back know who i am talking about. when the PPV came Hogan came out to face Sting in Street Cloths but ended up Laying down and Letting Sting Pin him. why did that Happen? and was it Suppose to Happen?

I covered this a couple of weeks ago…from the 04.30.08 edition of Ask 411 Wrestling…

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.

Your basic Russo B.S.

2. when Goldberg fought Brock Lesnar at WM20 moslty everyone knew it would be Goldbergs last match. but before Mania when Lesnae announced he was also going to Leave WWE why do u think WWE decided to let Goldberg get the Clean Win over Lesnar?

I think WWE thought they had a better chance of getting Goldberg to come back than Brock. Brock was leaving for "football", and nobody really knew what Goldberg was going to do when he left, so they thought that maybe Goldberg would come back after awhile. Obviously that didn't happen, and judging from Goldberg's comments about WWE since leaving, it probably won't happen in the future. But at the time, they probably thought it was a possibility.

Nick has five questions…

1.) I remember seeing Victoria back in the day as one of the godfather's ho's. I assume this was before she really started wrestling, but my question is, where did they get the "ho's" and did they actually use famale wrestlers in most cases?

The Hos were found at modeling agencies and night clubs in the city where WWF was holding their show that evening. In cases where a Ho would be needed to do something physical like go through a table or win the Hardcore title, they would bring in a female wrestler from the area. Victoria had been training at UPW in Southern California when Bruce Pritchard saw her during a show and was impressed enough to bring her in for the Ho gimmick, which led to her being signed and sent to MCW and then OVW. Another notable female wrestler to appear as a Ho was a lady by the name of Bobcat, who was the one that won the Hardcore title. She was in MCW for a while but was released when WWE stopped sending their developmental talent there. She is currently married to none other than Al Snow.

2.) What is D-Lo Brown up to these days? Any idea?

D-Lo splits his time between wrestling for Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan and working as a backstage agent for TNA. He also works a little bit in the indies and worked a couple of dark matches for WWE in August 2007. Apparently he was offered a deal to come back to WWE, but he opted not to so he could continue to work Japan.

3.) I hope you haven't answered this before, but if you have I apologize. What was the reasoning for having different color belts back in the day? Like the yellow belt, I believe the warrior had it for a while?

You know, we've talked a lot about the different belt colors, but I don't think we've ever talked about why they had different colors. Individuality was the main reason, a guy like Warrior probably enjoyed having a different colored belt because it looked cool and different. It was something else to make him stand out from Hulk Hogan.

4.) When wrestlers are champions, like Cena, HHH, etc...are they required to carry the belts around with them, for publicity reasons when traveling (like in airports and stuff) and why hasn't the WWE brought back the Hardcore title....I used to love seeing the crazy matches they had when the belt was defended "24 hours a day"

Back in the old days the wrestlers always carried the belts around with them because they usually weren't really part of an organized company, but the belt was recognized by a collection of promoters. I don't think that's necessary in this day and age, and I vaguely remember a Disco Inferno interview where he said that he didn't carry a title belt with him when he had one. I think that most of the wrestlers do, especially the ones that are world champions and make public appearances with the belts.

As for the Hardcore title, I think the bad publicity about concussions and whatnot will prevent the return of that title anytime soon.

5.) I just recently bought a book about the life and death of Owen Hart and i'm getting ready to read it and I can't wait. While flipping through i remembered when Owen Hart was in King of the Ring...did Owen ever win King of the Ring and who did he beat during that night? Razor Ramon comes to mind, but I could be wrong. Thanks.

Owen won the 1994 edition of the King of the Ring Tournament, becoming the self-proclaimed King of Harts. He defeated Doink in a qualifying match on Raw, and on the PPV won matches against Tatanka, 1-2-3 Kid & Razor Ramon to become King of the Ring. This built him up even more for his run against Bret during the summer of 1994.

During Mick Foley's run as Cactus Jack in ECW, he at one point addressed Tommy Dreamer in a promo, in which he mentioned the fact that Dreamer just had to make the call to ‘Uncle Eric' (Bischoff), pick up the red suspenders and go to WCW. What's the deal with WCW chasing after Dreamer and even more baffling, what's up with the red suspenders? Is this something I made up? Or did WCW already have plans for Dreamer? – Marc from the Nertherlands

The suspenders I can explain pretty easily, actually. During the early parts of his career, Tommy Dreamer wrestled while wearing suspenders. I don't know what possessed him to do it, but apparently it was part of his pretty-boy gimmick. And no, I can't tell you who thought Dreamer was a pretty-boy. He wore them in ECW for quite sometime until he became more of a garbage wrestler during his feuds with Sandman & Raven and took to wearing ECW t-shirts while wrestling. The WCW talks…I've never heard anybody confirm them, but WCW was talking to everybody that owned a pair of wrestling trunks in the mid-90s so it wouldn't surprise me if they contacted Dreamer about coming in. Cactus was working an anti-hardcore pro-WCW gimmick at the point he did the promo, so it only made sense for him to tell Tommy to go to WCW.

Been reading the column for a long time, but never really felt the need to ask a question until now. I've heard people talk a lot about the Raw segment with The Rock and Mankind doing "This is Your Life". I'm sure I've not seen this (I started watching wrestling in 2002), but I'm also certain I've seen a This Is Your Life with The Rock and Mick Foley (as oppose to Mankind). Am I just confused, or was there actually a second one since 2002? All I can think is that maybe it's been shown on a Best of Raw a couple of years back or something, and that's what I remember it from. Anyway, an answer either way would be great. – Alistair

There was an edition of "This Is Your Life: Mick Foley", and it took place on the March 8, 2004 edition of Raw. This was on the week before WrestleMania XX, and Rock had returned the week before to join Foley in his battle against Randy Orton, Ric Flair & Batista. Rock brought out some of Foley's old friends like his teacher Mrs. Snyder, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, and a book critic that didn't like his book. It was a pretty entertaining segment, not quite as good as "This Is Your Life: Rock", but good nonetheless.

The link below was posted by Will B. on the Steel Cage Blog:

located at http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/specialevent/wrestling/2008/04/wwe_cracks_down_on_racism.html

"You know, in all of this I'm surprised no one has brought up Vince McMahon infamous greeting to John Cena from a ppv a few years back. Complete with Booker T looking on and giving his own reaction to it."
Can you tell me what this "infamous greeting" was and what happened? – Clyde

This took place at Survivor Series 2005. Vince was backstage and he bumped into John Cena after talking to Eric Bischoff. He first asked him what was "good in the hood" and then called him his "nigga", which then led to Booker T & Sharmell being right next to them and Booker saying "Tell me he did not just say that!". I didn't find it offensive, but plenty of other people did.

Marc has three questions…

1. Has a wrestling referee ever done a blade job? If yes then who, when, why?

I remember Abdullah the Butcher cutting up a referee with a fork on JCW Volume 1 for no good reason. I don't remember any other ones off the top of my head, but I'm thinking that Abby probably forked some other refs in the past.

2. Who would win: Beth Phoenix or Amazon Kong.

In a shoot? Kong has the size advantage, that's for sure. I don't know how tough Beth is in real life, but it'd take a lot to overcome the fact that Kong is huge and stuff. See, I could have went with the cheap answer of "who's Amazon Kong?", but I know who you mean.

3. Which product will last longer: TNA Or WWE

I gotta go with WWE. TNA's not on its deathbed or anything like that, but they've got a long way to go to even be equals with WWE. WWE's making plenty of money even though there obviously aren't as many wrestling fans as there were during the late 90s-early 00s. I see no reason why WWE would go out of business before most of us are dead and gone…unless the generation after Vince proves to be incompetent and incapable of running a multi-million dollar worldwide wrestling company. But I don't see that happening.

My question is about Vince Mcmahon and his tv contracts. It seems that every time that Vince's tv contract is up for one of his 3 major shows he has to scramble to get his contract renewed or move to another station.

Vince is a billionaire (or very close to it depending on who you ask), and he has TONS of connections to wealthy businessmen (trump etc). Why doesn't Vince start his own or buy an existing cable station? Is it too much money, even for Vince? Well, he could get an investor very easily in my opinion because the channel would automatically have the number one show (or top 5, whatever raw is right now) on cable if he brought RAW to his new channel (and maybe all his shows together would make it close to the number one channel). If Vince did this he would always be guaranteed all ad money from commercials and never worry about finding a new home for his shows every time a contract runs out. He could have more over-run time, wouldn't be pre-empted, have more control over the censorship of his product, I could go on.

I am willing to guess that Vince has probably already tried/thought of this and hasn't done for one reason or another I was wondering if you knew why. – Dom

Many have postulated that WWE 24/7 is the grand experiment for if a WWE network would be viable. I do think that it very well could come to that someday if technology continues to advance and WWE can't get any good network deals. I'm sure the subject has come up in meetings. I don't know how much it costs to run a network, but I'm sure it isn't cheap. The big question is if they would be able to get enough advertising dollars to make it viable. They have a hard enough time getting advertisers for Raw & Smackdown, how many companies would want to run ads during old episodes of Championship Wrestling from Florida at 3 AM, or even at 3 PM? I think that's the main thing keeping them from pursuing their own network at this time.

how come in the RAW presidental debates they never
mentioned that former Republican candidate Mike
Huckabee was endorsed by Ric Flair? and do you think
Howard Dean would have been a good edition even though
he is not running this year?...especially after
this....http://youtube.com/watch?v=D5FzCeV0ZFc – Jones

Huckabee has ceased to be a relevant figure in the election since John McCain won enough delegates to be the Republican nominee. And I think the segment went long enough as it was without adding any other political figures to it. A Dean impression may have got a chuckle, but there was no need for it.

George has two questions…

Is Vince McMahon a conservative? I noticed John McCain went last and if I recall at WMX there as a Bill Clinton imposter and Vince took a jab at him?

Yes. Which is kind of ironic considering that the religious right would want nothing to do with the product that he promotes. Nevertheless, Vince likes whatever puts more money in his pockets, and Republicans are far less likely to tax rich people than Democrats are. It's really that simple.

Do you think if TNA bought out ROH they could go head to head with RAW or Smackdown?

No. What would TNA get out of buying Ring of Honor? They'd get a nice DVD library that mainly appeals to diehard wrestling fans…which would be nice, but WWE would still have them ridiculously trumped in that department since they own footage of almost every American wrestling promotion not named TNA or ROH. They'd get some really good talent like Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, the Briscoe Brothers and others, but they probably have too much talent on the roster as it is and the TNA booking committee would likely have no idea what to do with most of the ROH talent. I guess you could argue that there would be more people watching TNA with the addition of ROH talent, but I have a feeling that ROH fans have already made a decision about TNA one way or another. Either they watch it to see guys that came up through ROH like Samoa Joe, or they don't watch it because there isn't enough wrestling on the shows and they don't like how TNA uses talent. And as much as I like ROH, I don't think the size of their fanbase would make much of a dent in the ratings. I don't think it'd be worth it for TNA to buy out ROH at this time. Ask me again in ten years.

I have always been curious to what the payoff was in the feud between Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire vs Dibiase and Sherri. The last I saw of the angle was Sapphire being bribed by Dibiase and being driven away in the middle of a PPV (forget which). Can you tell me what happened after that? – Sam the Seed

Sapphire left the company not long after Summerslam 1990, which was when she left Dusty and joined the Million Dollar Man. Sherri Martel was asked about this during a shoot interview, and she said that Sapphire actually broke down crying when she was told that she was going to split up with Dusty. Apparently her admiration for Dusty was real, and after they were split, she had no interest in staying with the company. There were a couple of skits with her filmed after Summerslam, but she didn't stay around very long. Dusty's feud with Dibiase continued until he left the company in January 1991, and Dusty put over the Million Dollar Man on his way out.

Watching the April 28th edition of Raw the Best Actor in Sports Entertainment History award was given out on the Highlight Reel. I've watched wrestling for about 15 years (and I'm only 18, it was tradition) But I can't seem to remember the Heidenreich clip with Michael Cole shown on the April 28th edition of Smackdown. Can you please shed some light on the situation? – Reed

Oh boy. During a match between Rene Dupree, Kenzo Suzuki & the FBI on the September 16, 2004 edition of Smackdown Heidenreich decided to kidnap Michael Cole. Tazz followed them, but apparently he didn't catch them in time, which led to what you saw on the Highlight Reel. I'm not really sure what else I can say that would justify the situation. Honestly…it didn't make sense then and it sure as heck doesn't make sense now. There's really no explaining it.

I didn't really start getting into Ring of Honor till Middle 2006. And know next to nothing, nor had I seen anything earlier then a few dvd's from late 2004 here and there.
I had a friend bring me a few shows he had from early 2003 about a week ago. Very Different.
I'm watching one show called Frontiers of Honor( 17 / 05 / 03 ROH-FWA) and there are no commentators ( I wish TNA would try that right now) so its harder to follow along with the Angle. and theses guys come to the ring with Burning cross's. I think one guy cut a promo or the word flashed I can't remember but it called them "The family"
Can you please help me understand the who they were, what happened with that gimmick.
Was there any real heat with them coming to the ring with Cross's lit ablaze ( no pun intended )
when did ROH start useing commentators ?
and lastly, whats with the FWA part ?in the shows name ? – Tiger

The Family was the main heel faction in the FWA for quite some time. Led by Paul Travell, other members included Scott Parker, Brandon Thomas, Greg Lambert & Raj Ghosh. They were your typical evil wrestling cult that attacked good guys (and girls like Katie Lea) for no good reason. As for the burning crosses thing, I don't have a good explanation for that other than it was part of their gimmick and they were lucky they weren't working in the southern United States, where that sort of thing would most assuredly incite a riot.

ROH has always used announcers, though most of them haven't been very good. I don't know what the deal was with this particular show…perhaps the FWA didn't regularly use announcers at this point.

FWA = Frontier Wrestling Alliance, which was the promotion that co-promoted the show with ROH.

Looking through tapes and DVDs, and some of the current product, I've noticed that some wrestlers wipe their feet like a front door mat during their entrance right before they enter the ring. Some notable examples include Ric Flair, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Benoit. Currently, I do notice the William Regal and Chavo Guerrero do it, too, and I have noticed that they've been doing that particular mannerism throughout their careers. There might be others besides those notable five who do the mannerism, but why? It's a habit/pre match ritual for them, but what exactly prompted them to start doing it and continue to do it? - Johnny Polo

It's a matter of treating the ring like it's your home. Before you enter your house, you wipe your feet, right? Maybe? Hopefully? It's also effective as a heel tactic because it can look like a wrestler is wiping his feet because he had to walk on the same ground as the lowly wrestling fans. That's what I thought Lord Steven Regal was doing the first time I saw him wipe his feet on the apron.

I was on wikipedia and reading up on ECW and it's eventual demise, and was interested in the character of Cyrus the Virus, played by Don Callis.

Now this is also the same name of the character played by John Malkovich in the movie 1997 Con Air. I was just wondering what the inspiration was in naming Callis' character after the movie one, as there doesn't seem to be any similarity between the two (an anti-hardcore commentator and a leader of an inmate rising). – Alvin

The name was fitting for Callis considering his previous gimmick in the WWF…I use Wikipedia to describe what the Jackyl was all about:

On September 20, 1997, Callis debuted in the WWF as "The Jackyl," a member (and eventually leader) of a group of wrestlers known as "The Truth Commission" (a take on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission). An article in WWF Magazine claimed that he was a lower-level WWF employee during the early 1990s, and that he developed a messianic complex when he led a group of WWF superstars out of Kuwait when they were stranded there during the Gulf War. In an effort to play up the Jackyl's gimmick as a charismatic, power-hungry fanatic, commentator Jim Ross often referred to him as the "David Koresh of the World Wrestling Federation."

When Cyrus first appeared in ECW, he appeared alongside the Impact Players and was portrayed as a manipulator type. They also played up how he was in fact very unpopular in the WWF locker room when he was there, and was considered a bit of a locker room cancer. Cyrus was a virus that was injected into ECW. Poor ECW.

Well, that's all we have time for this week! Send any questions, comments or porn to [e-mail]. Believe it or not, some people have sent me porn. Good times. Until next week, boooooooooooooohica!