Ask 411 Wrestling 07.16.08: Byte This, Powers of Pain, the Importance of Sid & More!

Posted by Steve Cook on 07.16.2008

If Terry Funk asked me who the boss was, I have a feeling I'd reply "Alyssa Milano". Surely I'm not the only one...



It's time to Ask 411 Wrestling! My name is Steve Cook, and I hope you're having a wonderful week. I am having a tremendous week, thanks for asking! Let's get right to the questions and whatnot, and at the end of the column I'll have a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT~!

And I promise it'll live up to the ~!.

Comments, Corrections & Other "C" Words

Thanks for answering my questions this week. I asked about The Demon and Ernest "The Cat" Miller.
I just thought I'd throw some knowledge your way in case this question ever comes up again. Ernest Miller was in fact a contestant on the original American Gladiators. I remember a friend telling me they made a big deal about this when he first showed up in WCW. So I looked it up on Imdb, of all places, and they credit him as a contestant.

Great work man, you make sitting in a guard shack all night long a little easier. – Brandon

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I went to IMDB and looked it up and didn't see anything. So if anybody can send a link connecting the Cat to the original American Gladiators show, I'd like to see it.

Just a quick note about the Super Ninja swastika question... The symbol of the swastika originated from a couple early eastern religions, like Buddhism and Hinduism. So, it could be a nod to a religious belief. – Ted

The two main religions in Japan are Buddhism & Shinto, so the religious connection seems plausible. But honestly, they couldn't have found another religious symbol to use? I find that interesting.

Love the column and just wanted to give some info on race track fan invasions. Quite apart from rallying in the 1980's where fans would actively play chicken with competitors as they came through, there have been 2 famous incidents in Formula 1.

German Grand Prix 2000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHBUrScAjOc think that's the right link can't see from work

British Grand Prix 2003

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=1583127

So there you go now you can see something new. – Justin

Wow…Europeans are dumb. Remind me not to do that the next time I attend a NASCAR race.

You didn't have an answer for it, but I do.

The wrestlers in question were John Cena and Chris Benoit, and the authority figure was evil Smackdown GM Paul Heyman. Cena was chafing under Heyman's authority, as he had been ever since he'd refused to join "Team Lesnar" for Survivor Series 2003 in November. In January 2004, either the week before or two weeks before the Royal Rumble, Heyman booked Cena against Rhyno in a "Mouth Washed Out With Soap" Match, in which if Cena lost, he had to eat a bar of soap. If Cena won, however, Heyman would have to eat the soap.

Cena won, of course, and Heyman tried to escape to avoid the stipulation being enforced. Chris Benoit -- who had his own reasons to dislike Heyman, what with all the hoops he'd had to jump through in order to get a spot in the Rumble -- stopped him from doing so and threw him into the ring. He started to put Heyman in the Crossface, but Cena stopped him, and told him to put him in the Sharpshooter instead, so he could feed Heyman the soap. Cena taunted Heyman on the microphone, and said, "All I have to do to get him to increase the pressure is say 'Chris?'" And Benoit would increase the pressure on the Sharpshooter. And so Cena forced Heyman to "admit" to humiliating things, and ended up forcing him to eat an entire bar of soap, while Benoit cranked on the pressure. – Jay 2K Winger

Thanks to Jay and all the others who remembered that segment from a random Smackdown in 2004. I remember it now that I've been reminded of it…still liked the Foley/Shane thing better.

http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/columns/47327/

Don't ask me how I came across that. Not that it's really high on anyone mind, but here's all I know about the whereabouts of the scoopthis.com guys.

* Robert (not Michael) Lamb is still around and actually writing professionally for the website HowStuffWorks.com, with some horror and fantasy tales popping up in publications in the U.S. and the U.K.
* Robert Berry maintains Retrocrush.com
* "Nosoul" Erik Ashley is still a graphic designer and musician in Canada as far as I know. He seems to be relaunching something Scoopthis-related at www.unfaithonline.com, but I have no idea what he's up to. I haven't kept up with any of those guys in years. – RL

Remember when NoSoul wrote for 411 for like a month? Those were good times. I liked ScoopThis in the day, so it's good to hear the guys are still around sorta kinda.

Questions!

I wanted to know if you could fill me in on the details of the demise of the Byte This online program. I remember two incidents, one with Lita as the guest and Matt Hardy called, and another one where Tazz and Cole were on and they said something to the effect of Smackdown being the "B" show. Both incidents were somewhat controversial though I don't remember the details. Was this what led to the show being canned, or was it something else? If it was those incidents, did they get rid of it immediately, or did it last for a while after? – Alex

The first incident you speak of happened on the July 13, 2005 edition of Byte This…this was during the beginnings of the Matt/Lita/Edge story on WWE television, and Matt called in to give Lita a piece of his mind. It was seen as controversial at the time, but evidence indicates that the show had been taped in advance and WWE had already given its stamp of approval before airing it on the website. As for the Cole/Tazz episode, that took place on December 14, 2005 and was absolutely hilarious. However, it did not directly lead to the show getting cancelled. WWE denied the show was cancelled after the Heart Throbs made a controversial appearance on the show in February 2006 which included nearly undressing Todd Grisham, but that's pretty much what happened. Too much crazy stuff and too little control led to Byte This not being around anymore. Apparently there's something called Mobile Byte This that is a little backstage segment with Joey Styles on the WWE Mobile service, but I've never seen it because my computer is stuck in the Stone Age.

My name is Jason and i have 3 questions. 1. Bill Goldberg used to go with this Woman named Lisa Shekter back when he was in WCW. However i heard they borke up sometime ago and now Goldberg is Currently Married to a Woman named Wanda Ferraton. my question is. does anyone ever hear from Lisa anymore? do you know what She is doing now?

Penguin *bgca says:
Lisa called me last tuesday, to borrow my nintendo DS. She paid me with homemade linguini.

Seriously though, I don't have the slightest idea and am not very familiar with Goldberg's personal life. I remember he had a girlfriend that got beat up by Scott Steiner once on WCW Monday Nitro, but that's the extent of my knowledge. I found a picture of a woman named Lisa Shekter here, but I don't know if that's her or not.

2. has Bill Goldberg ever Lost a match Cleanly in his Pro Wrestling Career?

Goldberg took the pin in a triple threat match with Triple H & Kane at Armageddon 2003…Triple H pinned him after a low blow and a chokeslam from Kane. I could be picky and say that the low blow is illegal, but it was a no-DQ match so nothing was illegal. And it's not like Triple H hit him with a sledgehammer or anything.

3. someone told me that Hulk Hogan was the Second longest Reigning WWF World Champion behind Sammartino. but according to Records i have read Online they Claim Bob Backlund held the WWF Title form 1978 untill 1983 making it a 5 Straight Year Ttile Reign which would make it more than Hogans. so was Bob Backlund the Second Longest Reigning WWF World Champion or was it Hogan? – Jason

Well, this is a tricky question. Backlund lost the title in Japan to Antonio Inoki for several days in November 1979 before getting the title back at the end of the tour. However, WWE does not recognize the Inoki title reign and says that Backlund held the title from 1978 to 1983. So by WWE's records, Backlund is the second longest reigning champion behind Bruno. If you count Inoki's reign as having happened, Hogan's first reign would pass Backlund's reigns. I think it's easier for everybody involved to accept WWE's version of history here. Hopefully Inoki won't come to Kentucky and slap the taste out of my mouth.

Hey man, not really a question about wrestling history, but about location. I am a huge HBK mark and have been for years. Add that to my total disdain for Hulk Hogan, and you can probably guess I loved the HBK shootish promos on Hogan during the build up to their SummerSlam match. There's just one problem...I can't find them! I remember the one before their match in a debate-type forum. But the one I really want to see was (I think) the Raw after SummerSlam, where HBK went shoot on Hogan once again about mailing it in while he works night in and night out. Any idea where I can find these videos? – Amado

I think the first promo you're talking about is available on the HBK DVD. As for the Night after Summerslam, that's there until it gets taken down.

Conor O'Boyle has several questions…

Was there plans to have Hulk Hogan vs Zeus at Wrestlemania 6 instead of Hogan/Warrior?

Hogan vs. Zeus was one of the rumored main events for WM VI, and that may have been the original plan when Zeus was brought in after the No Holds Barred movie. However, Zeus was let go at the end of 1989 due to him…well, he sucked. That's all there was to that.

Was Wrestlemania 6 Andre the Gaint last ever match or did he ever wrestle after that? if not,what was his last ever 1 on 1 match?

Andre's last match took place in Mexico in December of 1992, when he teamed with El Canek & Dos Caros against Bam Bam Bigelow, Yokozuna & Bad News Brown. He spent the last years of his career competing in tag team and 6-man matches where he didn't have to do very much work, which was for the best considering the pain he was in at the time. The last Andre singles match I can find record of took place on December 11, 1989 in Cape Giradeau, Missouri (nice town, BTW), where he finished a series of losses to the Ultimate Warrior.

About the Austin getting run over angle?Was Risikihi always slated to be the guy who did it?i know Billy Gunn was rumored a few times,but i doubt it would be him cause after his Rock fued they jut dropped him really.In the end why was Risikihi picked?They did think he honsetly get over as a heel or something?

Rikishi had gotten over pretty good as a babyface during 2000, but there was only so much he could do in that role. The WWF hoped that having Rikishi be the man that took Austin out could get him over as a mega-heel. Unfortunately, nobody bought it and Triple H ended up getting all the heat when he revealed that he had hired Rikishi to do it. My theory (which is not based on anything resembling fact) is that the writers thought that people thought that Triple H did it, so they had somebody nobody was really thinking about do it in a SHOCKING SWERVE~! That makes sense to me, anyway.

When the Warrior was fired and Sid came in to replace in the 6 man tag in a PPV,even before Warrior was fired was Sid already going to come into the WWF or was he just a quick replacement for the PPV before the WWF decided to keep Sid?

Sid was scheduled to come back to the WWF in the summer of 1996 after taking some time off (he did that a lot during his career), so his returning to take Warrior's place made sense.

Speaking of Sid,just wondering whats your opinion on Sid?Kevin Nash said in his shoot interview that he was "money",would you agree?I was always a fan of Sid but didnt think he was as great as other make him out to be

I liked Sid a lot when I was a young kid watching pro wrestling and knowing nothing of what went on behind the scenes. The guy was big, he did cool moves, and he had cool music. He also called himself the man, the master, and the ruler of the world. Who can't support that? Looking back, I can't bring myself to hate the guy like most of the Internet seems to. He had good believability, he had some memorable promos that still bring smiles and laughter to peoples' faces today, and he gave us hilarious behind-the-scenes stories involving squeegees and squirrels. And who can forget the scissor incident or the time he crapped his pants? I think the wrestling world would be a far lesser place than it is today if Sid Vicious had never gotten involved.

Why did Terry Funk make up the Chainsaw Chairle gimmick?Did he not think people would know who he was or somthing?i was like 11 when that happen and even i knew who he was!

I did some research on this and found the following radio interview recap where the Funker discussed Chainsaw Charlie…

Guttman laughs and asks if that ever happened to Terry. Did a promoter ever want to change his gimmick?
"Sure. It wasn't the promoter, but it was the boss. The boss went ahead and changed Terry Funk's gimmick. The boss changed his gimmick to Chainsaw Charlie. The boss changed his gimmick to Dr. Knows-It-All with a mask on. You know who the boss was, right? Who was it? Who was it?"
JG walks right into it and mistakenly says, "Vince McMahon." (JG Note: I had to bite my tongue not to say Tony Danza.)
"No! Terry Funk was the boss! The idiot that was me made both those bad decisions."
Terry and James begin laughing and Funk repeats that it was he who made the decision to change his own gimmick twice. He told Vince, "I want to be Chainsaw Charlie. What an idiot deal that was! But at least I knew that was an idiot after a while and I got away from it."

I realize that doesn't really answer your question. My best guess is that Funk wanted to switch things up and do something that he thought might be fun. Hey, wouldn't you like to wear pantyhose on your head and run around carrying a chainsaw? Maybe Funk wanted some time off from being "the legendary Terry Funk", and thought that maybe he could put on a mask and be something else. I can't blame him for that.

I love this column due to the information and reminising of old time storysa nd characters! But I do have a question, why do you answer opinion questions? Really I mean if I wanted to know your opnion on whether this "guy" will win the title in the future, I'd suggest you do a column on your opnions! I mean the column is called ask 411 wrestling, not get an opinion 411 wrestling! It really is irritating, I read to see questions answered not wheter you think the NOD will come back, just thought you should know, not everyone cares about some internet guys opinions! – Rob

If I didn't answer opinion questions, this would be a very short column each week. Like it or not, the majority of questions that enter my inbox are questions asking my opinion on a certain wrestler and whether they should win a title or be in a hall of fame or get fired or whatever. Ask 411 Wrestling is a column where the people that read it decide what gets discussed. There's really not much I can do to sway the readers other than provide opinions and answers that don't agree with what they choose to believe. Then I get different sorts of questions. :)

I was wondering if perhaps a list existed out there of all the national/Indy prommtions all over the world? – Leon

You'll never be able to list all of the wrestling promotions in the world. I remember when Pro Wrestling Illustrated used to release a magazine that purported to list all of the wrestling promotions in North America…it was a nice try but they missed some. There are lists of wrestling promotions on the Internet. None of them are complete. I know because I know of some wrestling promotions that aren't on their lists. So please don't amuse me by linking me to a list, because it's wrong.

I was watching my copy of "The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" and I noticed something. When they were talking about Warrior pulling no-shows during his 1996 return, they showed a match card with Warrior (WWE champion) vs. Vader. Were there plans for Warrior to win the WWE title that year? If you have already covered this in the past then I must have missed that week. – Justin R.

None that I am aware of. There was a popular rumor that WWE doctored that poster for the video for the purpose of making Warrior look worse for missing advertised appearances, but I can't confirm it. I'm sure somebody will though.

I dunno if you know but on WWE.com they have put up a poll asking what matches you want for the History Of the WWE I-C title set coming out Nov 25th. They did the same for the History of WWE Title.It didnt say how many discs (I hope 3 because with many I-C title matches being shorter than the World Title matches you could have as many as 25-30 matches.The Link is here. http://survey.wwe.com/intercontinental/ Anyways on that list what did you vote for?

I voted for ( I picked matches that are not currently on DVD or not wanting to get the PPV disc for it)

1980s

Pedro Morales vs Don Muraco MSG 12/82
Ricky Steamboat vs Randy Savage Boston Garden 11/86
Ricky Steamboat vs Honky Tonk Man Superstars 6/87

1990s

Mr. Perfect vs Tito Santana SNME 7/90
Bret Hart vs Ted Dibiase MSG 12/91
The Rock vs Triple H 2 out of 3 falls Fully Loaded 98

2000s

Kurt Angle vs Chris Jericho No Way Out 2000
Edge vs Randy Orton Venegence 2004
Jeff Hardy vs Carlito Raw 15h anniversary 12/07

I could have easily picked 5 for the 80s and 90s alone. I am sure though that if its a 3 disc set agood numberof matches will be on it. – Bearcat

Here are my picks, which are based mostly on the fact that I either have never seen them or haven't seen them recently.

1970s/80s

Pat Patterson vs. Ted DiBiase MSG 10/22/79
Randy Savage vs. Tito Santana Boston Garden 2/8/86
Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat Boston Garden 11/1/86

1990s

Bret Hart vs. Ted DiBiase MSG 12/29/91
Steve Austin vs. The Rock IYH: DX 12/7/97
The Rock vs. Triple H IYH: Fully Loaded 7/26/98

2000s

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho vs. X-Pac Smackdown 10/12/00
Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy Raw 7/22/02
Ric Flair vs. Triple H Taboo Tuesday 11/1/05

Yup, there's two Savage matches in my picks. Jude Terror should be pleased. Is he still around?

What do you think of the The Warlord and The Barbarian, The Powers Of Pain?

Why didn't they win the tag-team belts in the WWF? – Ortin

Barbarian was an underrated worker…Warlord was pretty much a big stiff. The thing about them was that they were really nothing more than a rip-off of the Road Warriors. WWF already had their Road Warrior type team in Demolition, so I have to wonder why they brought in another team of that type that wasn't the real deal. The POP lost most of their momentum in the WWF when they did the double-turn with Demolition at Survivor Series 1988. After that, it was down to the bottom of the card and a break-up for them. I became a wrestling fan in 1990, by which point the POP broke up, so I can't speak on how I felt about them as a team as a younger fan. I didn't have much use for either as singles, honestly.

Still watching AWA on ESPN classic, and right now they have "big" Scott Hall sporting a very Magnum looking mustache wrestling as Curt Hennig's partner. I know that sometime later on he debuts as the Diamond Stud, then Razor Ramon, and eventually as NOW's Scott Hall. Question 1: are there any missing parts of his career? Question 2: at which point did he start having his problems with controlled substances? – Patrick

First off, I love the fact that Microsoft doesn't recognize the New World Order's initials as a word. As for the questions…

1. Here's the phases of Hall's career you don't mention in your question:

1984: Debuts in Florida and feuds with Dusty Rhodes
1985: Teams with Dan Spivey in the NWA under the name "Starship Coyote" in the legendary tag team "American Starship"…in the AWA he was brought in as "Magnum" Scott Hall before switching to the "Big" moniker.
Late 80s/Early 90s: Was brought into WCW as "Gator" Scott Hall, which WrestleCrap does a great job of describing.

2. Penguin guessed it happened right around the time he met Shawn Michaels. I would have guessed around the time he met Kevin Nash, but then we remembered his team with Hennig in the AWA and figured it might have happened then too. The problems didn't begin overtaking his wrestling and his life until the late 90s, but one likely believes that he started using long before then. I hope that one day Scott Hall is able to overcome the demons, but it's a very tough thing to do. You don't really know what he goes through unless you've walked a mile in his shoes. I consider myself fortunate that I haven't.

do you think they'll finally get rid of the spinner belt now that the title is on a show without cena? dont get me wrong, its a great belt for cena himself, but for anyone else, its kinda stupid. – Manu Bumb

Now that HHH is still WWE Champion and the title is an entire show away from John Cena, what would you think are the odds of that ridiculous spinner belt being retired and the old WWE title belt being brought back? There's really no point to the belt's design anymore. – Zach

Dear WWE,

First time writer, long time watcher/listener/reader. I would like to submit a humble request to you on behalf of the millions…and millions of my fans. We request that you get rid of the stupid fucking spinning belt. Surely Triple H realizes that he looks like a jackass wearing the thing to the ring. Put Old Yeller to sleep, for the love of Vincent Kennedy McMahon!

Yours truly,

Steve Cook
411mania.com Columnist

There, that should take care of that.

Okay, quick question about Jeff Hardy. I am aware that at this very moment he seems to have disappeared on Smackdown but I got this feeling that come the Royal Rumble they are going to put him over and have him go on to win at Mania. My question is simple...do you think it could happen? – John

Penguin *bgca says:
If he keeps his nose clean and avoids wellness issues, I definately think it could happen. Hardy is insanely over and if they are going to put a title on him it needs to happen in the next couple years before he ends up hurting himself. Add to that that the Rumble is a great place to put over "smaller" talent and get them into the world title picture (HBK, Benoit, Rey Rey) and yeah..sure could!

I agree with the Penguin. I am not a Jeff Hardy fan, but I admit that lately when he's been on he's been really good. He's an over motorscooter, and the only thing holding him back at this point are his personal issues. If he can overcome the demons, he can overcome any mythical glass ceiling put in his way.

As a fan of Husker Du and his solo work, I've always wondered about
Bob Mould's involvement in WCW.

How did it come about?
How long was he writing for them?
What story lines was he involved in?
And of course...how did it end? – HC

Bob Mould wrote for WCW for seven months in 1999, and left due to creative differences with some of the other writers. He did not have differences with Kevin Nash, who it's said he's friends with today. I couldn't find any information on what he actually did, as the articles I found about Mould only mentioned the WCW stuff in passing as something he did while he was out of music. I don't think the writers of those articles were as interested with the topic as we would be.

When are Ron Killings and Chris Harris going to debut in WWE? – texans9nfl

Hell, why should we limit the fun to just Penguin? Let's bring in another of my bestest Internet friends that I made famous!

JT says:
i have it on good insider info they will both debut on September 13th, which is a wednesday... special wwe primetime special just for their debuts

By the way, the wrestler formerly known as Chris Harris debuted on ECW last Tuesday under a horrible name that I will not be typing. Not that I blame anybody for not watching ECW…

Great column. Love the gentle humor. Question about this Hall of Fame nonsense: Why do you think people care so much? It's all fake! I mean, it's cool that guys like Flair and Rhodes are honored for their contributions to the business, but why do people get so bent out of shape when their favorite old-timer or recently-deceased wrestler doesn't make it? It's all just a promotional thing for the WWE in the end. I remember hearing a story about a wrestler who was asked by WWE to be in the Hall of Fame, and he just said, "Nah." And we all know the reason "Mr. Wonderful" showed up was because he got paid to do it (and who can blame him for that?). So, really, how prestigious a feat is it when you figure that they only put in people who are on good terms with the company and who would care enough to show up? At this rate, how long is it before we have to hear Jim Powers' induction speech? – Crow

I agree with you whole-heartedly, but I don't fault fans for getting worked up over this sort of thing. They're fans, right? They want to see their favorites get honored by Vince's HOF so they can watch a DVD with their favorite wrestler's career being honored on it. It might be the last time a fan gets to watch their favorite wrestler appearing in some capacity. I'd be willing to bet it means a lot more to the fans than it does the wrestlers. As you said, Orndorff did it for the money, and Bruno Sammartino is one wrestler I know of that refused to be inducted. I think it's fine to get excited about the HOF induction each year and enjoy the show, but I draw the line at getting pissed off that *fill in the blank* hasn't been chosen. Why get upset over something like that? I don't get it.

The Final Countdown



How does the old saying go? Oh yes…all good things must come to an end. With that, I am announcing my retirement from writing Ask 411 Wrestling. After more than 80 columns and almost two years of (almost) answering all of the questions you ever wanted to know, I have decided that it's time for me to step aside and let Aaron Rodgers take the reins of the Green Bay Packers.

OK, so Aaron Rodgers isn't taking my place. It's actually 411's very own Chris Lansdell, who you may know from such news columns as "Lansdell's Sunday Brunch News Report", or from such columns as "The Way I C It", or maybe even as host of the TNA PPV Roundtables. Chris wears many hats here, and it's my honor to hand him yet another one. I wish him the best of luck in carrying Ask 411 Wrestling into the future, and you can reach him at [e-mail] for all of your question-asking needs.

That's [e-mail] if you're scoring at home...or even if you're alone.

As for me…well, you'll have to keep visiting 411mania.com to see when and where I pop up next. Just because I'm done answering your questions doesn't mean you'll be rid of me just yet. Before I leave, somebody else wants to say goodbye…

My fellow wrestling fans. The end of an era is upon us. For now is the time that Steve Cook has decided to step down from his position writing ask411. In times like this, I think we all need somewhere to place blame.

Frankly that blame lies with many of you. I've seen the questions you've sent in. No one else gives a crap about where some no name in the 60's got his boots. No one cares about the fourth Nitro Girl's bra size. And for the last time, no, we can't convince CM Punk to date you.

So with this farewell address, let me lay some final issues to rest. Bret Hart was boring and overrated. Shawn Micheals is one of the greatest of all time, and did nothing more devious backstage than Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Hulk Hogan or countless others. John Cena is the main reason that wrestling is even on the fringe of popularity today. No one outside the internet gives a flying crap about Ring of Honor. And finally, for the last time, my cat's litter box has more charisma than I've ever seen from CM Punk.

Please feel free to come visit the forums. Our moderating staff is one of the friendliest and fairest around. Also, I hear rumors you might not have seen the last of the two of us on the main page. But only time can tell.

In closing, you should all be ashamed of yourselves. Except Manu. He seems pretty alright.

Love,

Penguin

Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you around the corner.