Ask 411 Wrestling 07.30.08: Crazy People Edition!
Posted by Chris Lansdell on 07.30.2008
Questions about Terry Funk, Ultimate Warrior and Ian Rotten spice up your Wednesday!
Greetings, humanity! Welcome back to Ask 411 Wrestling, the place you turn when for answers to life's burning little mysteries. I'm your still-wet-behind-the-ears host, Chris Lansdell, and I want to thank everyone who left kind words from last week's column. To be told even came close to matching Cook is high praise indeed, and I hope I can continue to impress.
One thing I do NOT hope is to ever again get stuck somewhere due to a canceled flight. 36 hours and several phone calls, fights and airport shuttles later, I am finally home and trying to figure out if anyone got the license plate number of the Mack truck that just hit me. There are well over 40 emails in the inbox, but we're moving through. Banner!
From the peanut gallery...
Yeah, I can't believe I forgot Randy Savage either. As for Shawn Michaels...he would have been far, FAR less of a heel if Survivor Series had been anywhere in the US. Still, I was probably wrong to include him.
About Taker breaking kayfabe in public. After NWO 08 in Vegas I saw him and McCool in the Hardrock Casino and me and two other fellas asked him for a picture which he replied no cause they wanted to eat. But I'm a nice guy and mentioned to him he should go to a local steakhouse if they needed a place and he took up my offer and I gave him directions. Didn't get a godamm picture though. By the way, Ms. McCool has no cabooty. I was disappointed.
Posted By: Willy (Guest) on July 22, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Another poster also questioned this. When I said that Taker never breaks character, I obviously didn't mean that he shows up for his prostate check in a trench coat and makeup, or that he no-sells anesthetic when he gets a root canal done. He just goes to far greater lengths than the average wrestler to make sure that fans always see him in character, if at all. Michelle McCool needs no booty. She has everything else going for her.
How can anyone question if the Rock will get into the Hall of Fame? He is in the top 5 of wrestlers (not IWC idols to masturbate to, but the real list) of all time. I don't see how Rocky Johnson is any more questionable than some of the other people.
Posted By: cpbasil (Guest) on July 23, 2008 at 12:55 AM
No, I think it was a valid question, for several reasons. Rock has sued McMahon for use of the "The Rock" name, he walked away from wrestling leaving many fans feeling jilted, and could only deliver one style of promo, as good as he was at delivering it. Rocky Johnson is as questionable as several other choices, as there are several midcarders in the Hall.
Another superstar who was told he wouldn't make it was the Rock, I cannot remember if it was said by management but Mick Foley in his book that after wrestling the Rock he told Vince that he didn't think the Rock could wrestle or would really amount to anything. He said he was obviously wrong latter
Posted By: Rogue (Guest) on July 23, 2008 at 06:36 PM
Now that you mention it, I remember reading that. Good thing Foley was never the VP for Talent Relations...
Ben has some additional info on a couple of questions from last week, namely about WrestleMania: The Movie and the custom belts:
It did die... kind of. I was working as a production assistant
foe WWE at the time. Sr. Producer Heather Mitchell was tapped to
create a "Wrestlemania" movie. The plan was originally to release it
in theaters under the then-new WWE Films company, but distribution
problems put that to an end (basically, no movie theater company
wanted to carry it b/c they thought it would be a dud). Then it was
supposed to be a Made-for-tv movie special that would run on UPN
before Smackdown, but they also didn't want to run it. Since the
movie was already 95% complete, they finished the project and threw it
on the DVD. For the record, Heather Mitchell is one of the most
talented producers there, and that's saying a lot as all the producers
there at the time were VERY good.
The old WWE belts (at least up until 2004) were stored in a desk
on the 4th floor of the WWE tower in the talent relations department,
including the Million Dollar belt and some of the colored IC straps.
Want proof? I had the opportunity to use the belts for a shoot we
did. A couple of us marked out hard for the belts. Pictures attached.
Ben asked that I not post the pictures, so I have not, but I can confirm they exist. I, too, would have marked hard. From Manu Bumb by email:
The Radicals were actually allowed to leave after Russo was removed from power and Kevin Sullivan got the wheel. I forget the name of the accountant that actually let them go, but it wasn't EB. Granted, he didn't do shit with them above the US title level, but Hogan was there - kinda hard to build people up to main event when Hogan is on top. Goldberg being the exception that proves the rule, or something.
Yes of course, this was in Flair's book. See what happens when you try and answer from memory, kids? Shall we move onto the questions? Yes, let's!
Pete is wondering about WrestleMania, and Taker at WrestleMania:
1.do you think that having matt hardy interfer in the MITB match was a good thing? Because sure it stopped MVP taking the case and brought the feud back to the center of a lot of fans minds but, and this is a pretty damn big but, Matt Hardy basically disrespected the whole idea of MITB by deciding it was better to attack MVP and leave then try to take the case. Saying that he would rather take out MVP then be able to challenge for any belt any time.
I just think that maybe they would have been on to a winner if they had let Matt take the case and be the 'winner' and have every GM dispute it and use this years MITB to elevate 3/4 stars instead of just good ol' CM Punk, where would you stand on that?
Well, with Matt not being in the match, I think had he grabbed the case the Internet would have collapsed from all the IWC posting "BULLSHIT!" to forums everywhere. I don't agree that he disrespected the MitB concept by not grabbing the case. In fact, he would have been disrespecting it more by grabbing the case, since he didn't go through the qualifying process that others did (kayfabe, of course). Besides, hating MVP so much that he would rather hurt MVP than help himself does wonders for their feud.
2. Do you think Undertaker will ever get into the Hall of Fame because as much as I think he would and should be in there theres a tweak of doubt in my mind. After all 'Taker is never seen out of character by fans and is never seen at the hall of fame on tape and I just think it would take away from the character maybe when he was American Badass it would be a possibility but as the 'deadman' I'm just not sure.
Similar to my answer about his book last week, I can only see this happening after his retirement. Once he does retire, though, I'd say that Taker and Austin, along with HBK are the biggest shoe-ins for Hall of Fame status left. And they're all from Texas. And Mania is in Houston next year. Hmmmmmmmm...
3.who would you say was the greatest threat ever to the 'streak' of
the deadman? I have to say that it should be edge as this year he made
everyone think he had a chance but being only 19 and not having seen
every taker wm match I'm not 100% on that
That's a tough one to answer, because the streak has only been called "the streak" since Mania X-7 when he fought Triple H. Before that nobody really gave much thought to "ending the streak". Edge was certainly a credible threat, moreso than Mark Henry, Ric Flair, Randy Orton or anyone else he's faced since HHH. Even Batista never really convinced me, personally, that he was going to do it. Plus Edge had a streak of his own going for him, and combined with Taker's age it certainly seemed a possibility.
A different Pete stumps me. Not a good start...
In a recent column right here on 411mania.com (cheap pop) I saw
mention of the Heavy Metal incident with Chris Benoit. What was that
about? I don't remember anything that was referenced that way.
You got me. I could find no mention of it even on 411mania.com, and as far as I know the wrestler Heavy Metal never faced Benoit. If I could find the column, I could get some context and might be able to give you at least something of an answer. Sorry!
Second, who makes the decision on when to bleed in a match and how
common is eating aspirin beforehand to make it more so? As a supplemental
question what happened with Brock and the Undertaker during their Hell in
Cell match? Was it a planned spot that went bad? 'Taker was bleeding
like a faucet and had a crater of a wound rather than the razor blade
slit most wrestlers seem to favor.
The Taker wound was not meant to go that deep. If I remember, there was some talk that Lesnar messed up and caused Taker to blade too deeply, but more than likely it was just "one of those things".
Bleeding in a match is normally the decision of the bookers. Since it's something that can be overdone and lose its effect, they don't want everyone going out and doing it to try and get over. Of course accidents happen, and there have been several instances (Bret Hart points out at least 2 in his book) of wrestlers blading against the booker's wishes, then calling it an accident. Taking aspirin is not really needed for your everyday bladejob, since there are so many blood vessels in the forehead anyway and the mixing of blood and sweat makes it look even gorier. I can't say how widespread it is, some cards in wrestling are still held very close to the workers' collective chest, but I'm sure it still happens. Brother Devon is one well-known proponent of it, as blood doesn't show up as well on the darker skin.
Luis is trying to save Vince some money:
hey man love ur column but i have a question thats been really
bugging me lately. seeing as how WWE had troubles finding a network to
air SmackDown with the my network the only option, why doesn't WWE just
make their own channel? i mean sure it could be expensive for them but i doubt it would be more expensive than a making a pointless straight to dvd like they plan to start making, movie or any movie for that matter. My point is that they should create their own channel and finally put that huge library they have to good use.
I think this has been discussed before. Starting a TV station is a huge investment, and requires all sorts of regulations and licenses. Of course with WWE 24/7 being a premium on demand channel, they can circumvent a lot of those requirements while still providing the content from their vast library. When you think about it, it wouldn't take long to burn through even Vince's library when you're providing a channel of nothing but wrestling, even if it's only on half the day. 3 Raws and 3 Smackdowns a day without prime time commercials (they can't show as many during the day) would burn through a year's worth of programming in less than 3 months.
My humble apologies to the writer of this question, as I seem to have lost your name. Here's your answer nonetheless:
hey whats up steve.. big fan... this is my second time writing you and
you did a good job with my last question and i hope you could do the
same for these. I seen that you brought up the whole money issue in
wrestling when joe and punk talk about making more money as an indy
compared to the wwe development. here are my questions..
1. How much would a small time indy guy just starting out make? (like a
pelle or mitch franklin)
2.How much for a mid-card indy guy make? (like a Joey Ryan, or a Eric
Stevens)
3.And you guessed it how about a top guy? (Bryan Danielson, Austin Aries)
4. What about international stars? (Nigel, Morishima, KENTA)
There are no hard and fast answers to these questions. As independent contractors, wrestlers will try and charge promoters what they think they can get away with. In turn, promoters try and pay as little as they can. Another variable is the size of the promotion: RoH will pay more than PWG which will pay more than NWA Wildside. International guys are a bit different, as the travel costs are normally covered and a fee is normally paid to the person's home promotion (especially with Japanese talent). People like KENTA, Morishima and Kobashi are going to command top dollar, but younger guys like Kota Ibushi will get less. Nigel isn't really an international star, most of his career has been in North America.
The more popular independent guys, like Bryan Danielson, Austin Aries and Claudio Castagnoli, work for several promotions and earn the highest rates from each. When added up, and combined with the fact that some of their travel is likely reimbursed, it works out to be a better deal than a developmental deal in WWE, where travel is not covered for most, and you start at the bottom of the ladder.
My name is Justin F and I have a few questions. One of my favorite wrestlers right now is Shelton Benjamin and is very underrated. So I was wondering
1. When he got buried after his 2004-05 mega push and ridiculed with that god awful Moma's Boy gimmick and turned heel did he piss someone off in creative or one of the higher ups?
Not that I heard about. Benjamin needed direction and a reason to turn heel, and this provided it. Besides, I loved that gimmick.
2. Why won't they turn him face?
WWE seems to have a set formula in place when they want to push someone: debut them as a clean-cut babyface, have them turn on a beloved veteran, get massive heel heat, then turn them back face. It started with The Rock, they did it with Randy Orton, and right know we have Cody Rhodes, Mr Kennedy, Colin Delaney, Santino Marella and John Cena all at various stages of the process. With Shelton, they are trying it with a guy who's been around for a while. It's not the first time they've tried to get him over, and it might stick this time, but he's got some hate to develop before we see him as a face again.
3 Doe he work better as a face or heel? I think he will gain his momentum back if he turned face because his ring style and lack of promos.
I actually prefer the cocky Shelton to the face Shelton. I think WWE are missing a fairly substantial boat by not pairing him with MVP in a loose alliance similar to what they did with Team Rated RKO. His lack of promos can be fixed easily, if only they would give him a manager (or put him with MVP), and his ring style can be used as a heel style too. Simply have him dance around and show off when he does something athletic.
4. Do you see him winning the WWE title in the near future? I would like to see him champion but the title push will more likely go to one of the Hardy's.
Honestly, no. Being on Smackdown has him WAY down the pecking order, and winning the US Title hasn't helped him. The next first-time champion will likely be a Hardy.
411's own Wrestling Doctor, who doesn't accept Medicare patients, drops by with a dilly of a pickle:
Congrats on picking up Ask411! I've got a question that's been in my craw for a while: I've always heard rumors that Ed Leslie was not supposed to be the masked man who attacked Hulk Hogan during the summer and fall of 1994, culminating in The Butcher's turn on the Hulkster at Halloween Havoc. (It was clearly Arn Anderson at the Aug 94 Clash.) I've only heard that WCW wanted "a big name" but nothing more. I cannot think of any big names who were available at the time, but the sheer poorness of the Hogan-Butcher program leads me to wonder if the rumors have any truth (and it may be the cause of the rumors in first place). Any ideas or wild speculation that you would like to spread? Thanks a bunch. Good luck on the new assignment.
My personal opinion is Savage. He debuted not long after, in late 94 at Starrcade, but they had hoped to bring him in sooner. Savage was humming and hawing about coming to WCW, and it took Flair, Bischoff and some prompting from Hogan to get Randy to agree. Funnily enough, Savage's debut was to SAVE Hogan from The Butcher and his compadres in the Faces of Fear. As an aside, that card also featured Alex Wright beating Jean-Paul Levesque. Ahhh, good times. For some not-so-good times, we move on to DarkNightwolf101, who is asking the same question that hundreds of others have asked:
I remember reading a wrestling magazine that I had several years back, and it talked about how terry funk was still wrestling extreme matches in his late 50's and early 60's. I remember watching him battle Sabu in a barbed wire match( don't remember what year or Place). After the match ( I think he lost), he said that match almost killed him. My question to you is: why was he still wrestling those type of matches? Wasn't he afraid that he might become permanently crippled?
I don't think Terry Funk stopped to think long enough to worry about such things. Simply put, Funk loves wrestling, he loves hardcore wrestling, and up until very recently he felt that he still had something to offer. The fact that he's probably not all there might have contributed. After all, you don't take that many unprotected shots to the head without scrambling a few brain cells.
Kristian provides some mental exercise for me, which is always fun:
I got a few questions for ya that cover a whole variety of subjects.
1st question is just related to 411mania.com. I noticed 2 weeks ago, 411mania panel unanimously voted CM Punk as Wrestler of the week after beating Edge for the World Title on Raw and then defending the title against JBL that same night. As far as my knowledge goes, that is the first time you guys all agreed on who should've taken the top honor of WOTW. Am I right, or was there someone else you guys voted on a while ago that was unanimous?
According to El Jefe Csonka, it is not the first time. Then he made me wade through the archives to find out the answer. The first was Rey Misterio following his Rumble win. Christopher Daniels did it following the Ultimate X in which he won the X-Division title from Samoa Joe. And that's about as far as I got before I couldn't take any more. So yeah, he wasn't first.
2nd question, this is a serious question and I'm not being a smart ass. Why do they call it a wrestling ring when the wrestlers compete in a square or (TNA) hexagon? That has always bugged me for a while.
Oh boy, we're going WAY back here. As you probably know, professional wrestling evolved (some would say devolved) from amateur, Greco-Roman wrestling, which was originally contested in a circle drawn in the dirt. As time progressed, the circle was painted on the wrestling mats, and this is still seen today in amateur wrestling. The use of the "ring" term is one of very few carryovers from that day.
And finally, I saw the Self Destruction of Ultimate Warrior on youtube and in Warrior's debut promo in WCW back in 98, Hulk Hogan said something about Warrior doing something that wrestlers aren't ever supposed to do ever. What was it? If it's talking about accomplishments from a previous company, I don't need to go into details how hypocritical Hogan is on that one. (Bash at the Beach 96, ring any bells?)
Apart from interrupting a Hogan promo? I kid. Well, I re-watched the debut, and a few things seem possible:
- By saying that has arrival was anticipated, he acknowledged the Internet rumours indirectly.
- Referred to the wrestling industry as a whole, particularly attempts to recreate him.
- Outed The Disciple as Ed Leslie, which wasn't readily obvious. Of course, the casual fan might not have got the reference.
- Talked about Bischoff paying his bill for showing up. This is more common now, but back then? Not so much.
- Told Hogan that beating him meant nothing, because everyone already has.
These all seem like long shots, but I can't see anything blatant.
CB wants to know:
What's your opinion on the whole Mike Levy incident?
I think it's a classic case of 2 wrongs making a very, very wrong. Levy is clearly an internet fan, and as such would have or should have known about the Mass Transit incident. You simply do NOT go into matches untrained, ESPECIALLY not hardcore matches, and even more especially not hardcore indy matches. Doing so not only endangers your health and life, but also the health and life of everyone in the ring with you. As such, Ian Rotten and company were right to be pissed off.
However, there's "deserves a whooping" and "attempted murder". If you know a guy is untrained, then you don't start curb-stomping him into barbed wire ladders from the second rope. The reports of Rotten's young son being called into the ring to beat Levy with a kendo stick make this even more disturbing. A definite skid mark on the underwear of wrestling.
I'm out of time, and all I had was four minutes, freaky freaky four minutes. Trust me, I WILL get to your question if you've sent it, and feel free to keep them coming. Until Sunday, when the Brunch returns...
Hogan was upset because Warrior made reference to having already beaten Hogan before. The idea was, why would people pay to see if Warrior could beat Hogan when he already had. He says so on the DVD.
Posted By: Guest#5091 (Guest) on July 29, 2008 at 11:58 PM
Hogan was talking about the fact that Warrior said he already beat Hogan.
Hogan said, on the Warrior DVD, that just made the fans wonder why Warrior would even bother challenging Hogan again since he already beat Hogan in 1990.
Posted By: Guest#7443 (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 12:00 AM
according to hogan's comments on the warrior dvd, he stated that it was a no no for warrior to go on and on about his victory over him at WM. Hogan said something to the effect of, " Well that's great, you keep telling everyone how badly i lost the first time, then why would they pay to see a rematch?" don't know if i agree w/ that logic but that's the jist of what hogan meant
Posted By: Guest#4141 (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 12:02 AM
Great job, once again!
In regards to the first inquisitor: Doubt about the Deadman's chances of being in the hall of fame? That's fucking crazy! Speaking of crazy, I probably am because I actually thought Flair had the best chance of beating him at Wrestlemania, at the time.
Taker was a monster heel and did all kinds of fucked up shit to Flair, his family and his friends and they hadn't been making the kind of big deal they do now about the streak. I was almost surprised when he won. Of course, by the next day I was asking myself, "why were you surprised? You're a moron!"
Posted By: Michael O (Registered) on July 30, 2008 at 01:33 AM
Actually the "no-no" thing that Hogan mentioned was mentioning that he had beaten Hogan in the match thus "killing the new program." Hogan has always been a liar and why not bury Warrior further to an audience he feels is ignorant. Anyone who knew the two of them enough to care knew about that match and who was victorious. Typical Hogan spin is all that it was.
Posted By: Brett (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 02:24 AM
What was the Mike Levy incident? Also, found another example of a champion turning in mid-reign. In 1989, Ric Flair won the NWA (WCW) title from Ricky Steamboat in probably the greatest match of all time. He turned face that night when Terry Funk attacked him and piledrove him on a table. Cut to January 1990, when Flair, still World Champ, turns heel with the rest of the Horsemen at Clash of The Champions X in Corpus Christi, and kick Sting out of the group.
Posted By: APinOz (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 04:44 AM
i've always wondered why vince doesn't get his own channel. he doesnt have to only air wrestling, you know. it could be something like spike tv, caters to the male 18-35 demographic. get some car shows, video game shows etc.
Posted By: pat (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 07:47 AM
Anything that comes out of Hogan's mouth is BS anyway. Roddy Piper came out on WCW TV and said the same thing: "Hogan, you never beat me"... Hogan didn't seem too up in arms about that. This was just another way for him to take a shot at Warrior.
Anyone who knew the Warrior already knew that history, and those that didn't already know it probably needed to. How this supposedly 'killed the heat' on a decade-old feud is beyond me.
Posted By: Alan Kay (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 08:02 AM
Re: Heavy Metal-
Is the person asking the question sure he doesn't mean the Heavy Metal-Nancy Benoit story? It's a well known IWC "Scummiest wrestling story" regarding Woman going on a tour of Mexico, getting "involved" with Heavy Metal, who ended up taking a bite out of her ass and beating her up. Konnan tells the story as apparently Nancy ran to his hotel room for protection after the fact.
The punch line to the whole thing, in the shoot interviews anyway, is Konnan assuming that Kevin Sullivan probably did worse to her.
Posted By: Hawkeye (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 08:21 AM
I was of the impression that it was to be Curt Henning- Mr Perfect, under the mask, of the wrestler who attacked Hogan. But Hennig did not get lured away from WWE. The reason I say that, was that on commentary is Bobby Heenan who slyly makes references to a 'perfect execution' by the masked attacker.
Posted By: Rhett Bartlett (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 09:15 AM
question why r these about wrestlemania. anyway the whole taker being out of character is ridiculous. all fans know whats up. it goes back to the whole bret heart thing about ur character. kinda lame imo.
Posted By: Guest (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 10:43 AM
The Mike Levy Incident.
During the 3rd annual IWA-Mid South Queen of the Deathmatch Tournament that took place on June 21, 2008 in the parking lot of Alley Cats Lanes bowling alley in Sellersburg, Indiana. Mickie Knuckles took on "The White Lion" Mike Levy.
Mike Levy was an untrained wrestler who through the internet made it known that he wanted to be in the deathmatch tourney, the false hype by a few wrestling message boards led Ian Rotten to fly out Levy and add him to the womens tourney as a joke.
Levy was set to take on former champion Mickie Knuckles, as she made her way to the ring, Ian met her on the entrance way and whispered something to her. It is unknown for sure but belived to be something pertaining to the match ahead.
The match started off with Mickie laying on the offence hard with stiff hits and the use of weapons. At one point Levy attempted to block a move and return some offence of his own. However his inexperience caused it to be very awkward leading Mickie to become angry.
Both Knuckles and Levy began to stiff each other with various hits throughout the match.
After Knuckles won the match both Devon Moore and Tank ran into the ring and cut a promo on how Levy needs to learn how to sell. The crowd began chanting for Levy’s finisher The Curb Stomp. So tank held levy’s head over a barbed wire ladder and Devon came off the top rope with a double stomp that drove Levy’s head hard into the ladder.
As if that wasn’t enough, Tank climbed to the second rope and let his much larger size come crashing down from the second rope, wrapping Levy’s head around the ladder in a sickening fashion.
After this Levy tried to escape as Devon, Ian Rotten, and others continued to beat him down. Devon and Rotten took turns insulting him, telling him that he needs to “learn how to sell”
Even Ian Rotten’s young son got into the fight by beating a grounded Levy with a Kendo Stick, and later kicking him. The child can even be seen asking “daddy” if its alright to hit him.
Lastly Ian Rotten got on the mic and explained how Mickie has a national tv deal, but because of his inexperience she now has a giant knot on her head (which may have been caused by her vicious headbutts from earlier in the match).
The extent of Levy’s injuries (if any) are currently unknown.
Posted By: divine comedy (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 10:45 AM
A correction to a correction but that WrestleMania XIX movie DID run on UPN, it was on Friday night. I remember because I was sick, bummed out and saw the show. It was amazing.
Posted By: O'Dog (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Alan -
Piper saying "you never beat me" is different because Hogan never beat Piper either...they always had double DQs or what not, so it was like an unfinished feud. The Warrior thing made no sense. Why would he come into WCW specifically to challenge Hogan if he already beat him? There was no point.
Posted By: O'Dog (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 11:05 AM
Do a google search for "Mike Levy Incident" and you can find video of it. It is fucking sick. The poor kid is trying to work and letting these "professionals" do moves on him and they just beat the kid to a pulp. It makes you sad to be a wrestling fan and it makes you glad Rotten is as fucked up as he is. They all deserve it for what they did to that kid. All because he was an internet mark who wanted to be a wrestler.
Posted By: divine comedy (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 11:05 AM
"Rock has sued McMahon for use of the "The Rock" name, he walked away from wrestling leaving many fans feeling jilted, and could only deliver one style of promo, as good as he was at delivering it."
Ok this line alone means you NOT be doing this column and your 411 posting ablity should be revoked.
Can we find someon with a clue please????? Anyone????
Posted By: Guest#7859 (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 11:06 AM
Doubt about Taker getting into the Hall of Fame? I say thee, nay! Mean Mark has always been a company man, ever since his debut. He puts asses in seats and is one of the few guys non-wrestling fans know about. Backstage he's seen as a leader and at the head of the pecking order, all while using his experience to benefit the company by teaching the younger guys. Vince respects his loyalty and popularity, and there's no doubt in my mind that the Undertaker will be inducted when the time is right.
And I've also wondered why Vince couldn't create his own channel. He could do it and it would make him money, I think. First of all, with a 365-24-7 channel at his disposal, not only could he air the content of the massive tape libraries at his disposal for next to nothing, he could create original programming very cheaply since he already has all the equipment and performers he needs.
The ratings are already there, as wrestling fans will tune in to whatever channel has wrestling. Because of that, ad revenue will be high. And as a bonus to the boys, with all that time to fill, it'll be a lot easier to create and shill merchandise.
I see nothing but wins for Vince McMahon and the WWE if Vince created his own channel.
Posted By: Greg (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 11:45 AM
The Heavy Metal incident with Nancy Sullivan is referred in the Ring of Hell book but I don't remember exact details.
Also, the Mike Levy deal is amusing to me. Not because of what it was, but because it got IWA-MS more publicity than anything they've done in the last couple of days. Too bad they're all still horrible rednecks.
Posted By: Guest#8987 (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 12:07 PM
about the indy payment...when you first start out you are lucky to make 20 bucks a night. if you break even you're doing good. eventually as you get better you can start demanding more as your name gets around and then it's usually about $50 plus gas. Some of the vets eventually get to where they can demand $300 a show and if you've been on tv, even if its wwe job duty, like steve anthony on raw a few weeks back, you can add about another $100 to your price
Posted By: here comes the money (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Regarding Matt Hardy's interference in MiTB this year, here's my take: if Matt was well enough to make it to Wrestlemania and do a Twist of Fate off of a freakin ladder, why couldn't the blowoff match for his feud w/ MVP be booked that night? At that point in time, people were complaining that the feud had been dragging - why not just build up to the blowoff match at the biggest show of the year if your performers are well enough to do high-risk bumps off of ladders rather than drag the storyline out for a few more months? Matt's US title win probably would've meant more that way, y'think?
Posted By: JMAC (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 12:57 PM
""Rock has sued McMahon for use of the "The Rock" name, he walked away from wrestling leaving many fans feeling jilted, and could only deliver one style of promo, as good as he was at delivering it."
Ok this line alone means you NOT be doing this column and your 411 posting ablity should be revoked.
Can we find someon with a clue please????? Anyone????
Posted By: Guest#7859 (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 11:06 AM"
Why? Chris actually hit the nail right on the head. But it's not Dwyane's fault. Pat Patterson could only script one type of promo for Rock to take credit for.
Posted By: Brad B (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 01:01 PM
I just watched the Mike Levy thing. Christ in a bucket that was beyond brutal. These guys must be really pissed about having small dicks. Fucking assholes. I'm sure he knew he would be taking a ass beating but that was too much. Learn how to sell? Learn how to be a man u fucking bitches. Mark or no mark he didnt deserve that. Id rather watch ricky ortiz then that shit again
Posted By: Jboy1307 (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 03:21 PM
I got a laugh out of seeing him get his ass kicked. Maybe if he wasn't so god damned irritating, and actually learned how to fucking work, he wouldn't have gotten beaten down.
Besides, he deserved it for the hair alone. And flabbycles there should have gotten into decent shape before even considering a career in wrestling, or at least wear a fucking shirt.
Posted By: King Nikolai (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 05:12 PM
For more info on the Mike Levy incident, I suggest reading the shoot that Billy Gram posted on the CZW message board.
Posted By: CaveDweller (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 08:51 PM
Why? Chris actually hit the nail right on the head. But it's not Dwyane's fault. Pat Patterson could only script one type of promo for Rock to take credit for.
Posted By: Brad B (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 01:01 PM
Brad B has to be the worst poster since Darth Mortis. You're what, 16? If Pat Patterson was so great at writing promos why isn't anyone else on WWE since then benifiting from his earth shaking verbage. Please Be-GONEEE you indyiot.
Posted By: Gordy (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 08:51 PM
Undertaker is never seen out of character by the fans? Strange....then there is somebody who looks EXACTLY like him at basically every single huge MMA PPV, and he's shown on camera.
Posted By: Dustin James (Registered) on July 30, 2008 at 08:58 PM
Seriously...can we get a real writer for this column?!? One who knows something about wrestling and its history?
If the WWE had 12 hrs a day to fill for a channel do you really think they would run 3 Raws and 3 Smackdowns? Apparently you do, which makes me think you dont even have 24/7. Just from 24/7 you could find could find besindes say 2 Raws/Smackdowns a week, 1 WCW Nitro/Thunder, NWA WCW/WCCW/CWfF, AWA, Stampede, WWF TNT/Prime Time, History of ECW per week. 1 Legends Roundtable, Clash of Champions, SNME, Old School (House Show taped for cable from one of the strongholds), DVD Documentry per month, 2 WWE and 2 Non-WWE PPVS per month, 4 1 hour HoF per month on one HoF'er, turn Shorties into 2 2 hr shows (+ uneven time fillers).
Plus there is still WCW Saturday Night, WWE Superstars, Smokey Mountain, OVW, DSW, FCW, Georgia Championship Wrestling, Mid-Atlantic, all those old Colosseum Home Video Releases and Koch releases.
They might even make/aquire new programs. Maybe Mrs. Baba, Lawler and the Hardys want to sell/license their libraries. Or Inoki or the Funks, or Sasuke or Ultimo. Maybe a Roast every 3 or 4 months.
Just think on that: The Sabu Roast, The Roddy Piper Roast, the Jake Roberts Roast!!!
But no, im sure you are right...if the got a channel they'd just run 3 Raws and 3 Smackdowns a week.
Remember when Scott Keith had this column and not some 15 year old who started watching after seeing The Scorpion King and can only answer questions he can look up on wikipedia?
Posted By: Wooder (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 09:14 PM
Damn, I think that comment from "Wooder" may have been a tad harsh. You did, however, give a great description of what Vince could do if he had a 24 hour wrestling channel. Sure, it would be awesome, and us wrestling geeks would watch it all the time. The problem is that to get a new cable station on cable companies' lineups and satellite dish packages, you have to charge money, and that turns into a big stumbling block, as the cable companies have to recoup that money by charging the customers more. There have been battles ongoing here in the midwest for about the last 2 years over the new Big Ten Network, which shows lots of Big Ten football and basketball. (as well as many other sports, but those are the primary draws) The cable companies wanted to put the channel on a special sports tier of channels so that only customers who pay extra for sports programming have to foot the bill for it. Obviously, the network would much rather be included in the standard package of channels, so that every person who subscribes gets the channel whether they like it or not. I could see the WWE falling into this same battle if they ever wanted to start a full-fledged channel of their own. I think the 24/7 idea was a brilliant move, as now only people who want to watch the channel have to pay for it, it just ends up costing a whole lot more. If you pay around $50 per month for 100 channels or so, that's about 50 cents per channel, but you have to pay 10 bucks a month for just WWE 24/7. It's niche programming, and you have to pay a high price to get it, and I don't see that changing any time in the near future.
Posted By: Jeff (Guest) on July 31, 2008 at 02:53 AM
I subscribe to 24/7. My biggest complaint with the channel is that they advertise (to a small extent)various promotions such as OVW, Mid-Atlantic, Stampede (I think) and a couple others. I have yet to see any of those. Yes they show NWA, older WWE shows, RAW and WCW Monday night war shows and various PVPs. However, they have only scratched the surface of what they could be showing. Plus, what they do feature takes a day for me to watch, then I have to wait weeks for programming to change. I would rather have what I do than not be able to see it, but they could do much more with this channel.
Posted By: jbgs2 (Guest) on July 31, 2008 at 08:43 AM
For more info on the Mike Levy incident, I suggest reading the shoot that Billy Gram posted on the CZW message board.
Posted By: CaveDweller (Guest) on July 30, 2008 at 08:51 PM
Who the fuck is this Billy Gram prick. I couldnt finish it the guy was spouting so much shit.
Bottom line that trailor park bitch went into the match and intentionally tried to hurt him and they legit fucked him up after the match. I hope he sues. I hope they rot.
Posted By: Carl Amari (Guest) on August 01, 2008 at 04:55 PM
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