Ask 411 Wrestling 10.01.08: Going Obscure - Grand Slam, Football Players becoming Wrestlers, The Nitro Girls and More

Posted by Chris Lansdell on 10.01.2008

The US Championship as part of the Grand Slam, wrestlers who were football players, Anoa'i vs Hart, the Nitro Girls, theme music and more, all in the latest edition of Ask 411!

Greetings, humanity! Welcome back to Ask 411 Wrestling with me, Chris Lansdell. It's reassuring to know in this time of economic uncertainty and political posturing that some things remain constant: HHH will always need more airtime, RoH will always be teetering on the brink of major player status, TNA will get a 1.1 rating and Wednesday will be trivia day. This week's assortment is set to the dulcet tones of Evanescence's My Last Breath. Which means it's time for the...

BANNER!


Banner compliments of Benjamin Colon. See more of his work at soulexodus.com.

Cleaning Up

Regarding Dynamite: Several suggestions to read his book Pure Dynamite, which is on my wish list.

Regarding the Shawn Michaels IC Title: Several people pointed out that the white strap belt came later, and also that Shawn being stripped was due to a failed steroid test, which Shawn denied and thus refused to hand in the physical belt.

Regarding Jeff Jarrett's El Kabong: Yes, he was using it in WWF before leaving, and yes, Russo was still in WWF when he left. I got my chronology mixed up, but I'm still fairly sure it was Russo's idea as a tie to his former gimmick. You'd never get away with "Don't Piss Me Off" as a catchphrase now.

Regarding Savage-Steamboat: Popular opinion seems to be that they didn't want to exhaust Savage with a 15 minute match with Steamboat. And I remember the original being longer, but research shows you were all right.

Regarding Brit wrestlers: I was restricting the answer to the US, since the UK indy scene was an OBVIOUS answer. Doug Williams' contract has been called into question recently, what with him showing up precisely 0 times since.

And yes, it IS Terry Goodkind. When you're reading Salvatore, Goodkind, Jordan and Martin at the same time, they all tend to meld into one. Enough from the ringside seats! Let's Get DANGEROUS~!

Question Time!

Starting us off this week is the returning Alvin with 3 questions:

1. In 2007, when Taker got injured, rumours were around that Kennedy was going to cash in his Money in the Bank shot to win the World Heavyweight Title. But then he got injured (which was less severe than they thought) so they went with Edge. So logic would dictate that as soon as Kennedy would come back he would feud with Edge. But then he moved to Raw, kept him as a heel (when he would have made sense for him to be a face) and didn't really do anything of note. Just wondering why this happened?

Well, it was just a rumour, and we may never know how true it is. However, Edge's title run went over well, and Kennedy went and opened his big mouth on national TV about never taking steroids. You know, right before the Signature Pharmacy debacle showed that he ordered steroids. It wasn't his first injury, and when you combine that with the suspension and sheer dumb-assery of his comment, Vince and company got cold feet on his push.

2. According to the wikipedia entry on Wrestlemania 8
'The original plan for the main event was the long awaited bout between Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Title. The two had wrestled against each other in several house show matches and a televised tag match but never in a big money bout. Rumours persist that the 1990s "Steroid Scandal" forced a change in the main event booking. However, this has never been confirmed'. I always got the impression that neither wanted to put the other one over. Any reason why this match didn't occur?

Depends who you believe. From Flair's autobiography:

After the Royal Rumble, the plan had been for me to wrestle Hogan in the setting the match deserved: WrestleMania VII, on April 5, 1992, at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. The original storyline would involve me losing to Hogan and giving him the title back. But Vince's relationship with Hogan had deteriorated by then, and Hogan was aspiring to become a full-time actor, so the WrestleMania VIII line-up was switched around. Hogan would wrestle Sid, then take a long sabbatical. I was booked against Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

Conflicting reports say that Hogan's time off was due to the steroid scandal, and this was the cause of Vince not wanting to take a risk on him.

3. Why hasn't the United States Championship been officially included in the requirements for the Triple Crown and Grand Slam? It seems to be booked better and more credible than the IC Title (more often defended at Wrestlemania and PPV for example). And the WWE Tag Titles count even though they're relatively new.

What official requirements? The Triple Crown and Grand Slam are not official "clubs" or awards, they are just a shorthand way to refer to accomplishments. Both were used before the WWE had a US Championship, and they are rarely used now. Both the US and IC title are equal jokes these days, and I had to think hard to even remember who the US champ IS right now. As for the WWE Tag Titles, they may only have been introduced after the post-Invasion title mergers but the name carries the weight of the old WWF titles.

Matt stretches my mind with an obscure reference:

I remember back in the mid to late 90's WcW showed footage of a body building event, complete with Cheap Celebrity Endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger. They showed a Big Muscular Guy, and Tony and Larry Z I believe started talking about him being the Next Big WCW Signee. Whatever happened to this guy? Did he ever make his Début? It was kind of like how Jerry Jarrett brought Oleg aka Vladamir to the WWE.

They had Arnold talking about him being great and all

You could be thinking of two different people. The most likely is Greg Valentino (not to be confused with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine), also known as The Man With The Largest Biceps and The Man Whose Arms Exploded. Due to the use of the drug syntho, dude's arms made Scott Steiner look like Colin Delaney. They were gross, to be honest. Valentino was signed to a contract by WCW during the time when Eric Bischoff was signing everyone and everything that was even remotely marketable. His signing was based simply on the fact that he had the largest arms in the world. To my knowledge he never set foot in the ring or trained as a wrestler, he just showed up on that one Nitro and it was announced he would be training at the Power Plant. He never did.

The other possibility would be a massive South African guy that Paul Orndorff was "scouting", who went by the name of Jax. He was shown in vignettes doing all sorts of poses, and he spoke with an accent, so you might have been mixing the two up. I couldn't find much more info on Jax, I'm afraid.

Dynamitekid (not THAT one…I presume) has a couple WCW questions for me:

I've got a couple WCW questions for you:

See?

1. What happened to DDP's tattoo's? They look all smeared up.

Age. Loss of muscle tone leads to looser skin, meaning the tattoos end up looking horrible.

2. Do you remember when Lex Lugar won the WCW title from Hogan for a week before Road Wild in '97? Do you think it would have been more beneficial for someone like DDP to have won the title instead? It would have been a different champ and he was WAY over.

I do remember it, very well. It's one of my favourite WCW memories, mainly due to the ridiculous pop and the unusually intelligent booking decision of having Luger stop the interference without taking a shot from them. DDP was not quite ready for the title at this point, he was at the level that people like MVP are at now: just below the main event. Luger was crazy over and therefore a good choice.

3. Were the luchadors under contract to WCW or were they on loan from various companies in Japan?

Everything I was able to find suggests that most of the big names were under contract: both Guerreros, Malenko, Jericho, Psicosis, Juvi...they did manage to score the likes of Jushin Liger and The Great Sasuke from time to time, but they were not under contract. The issue is further complicated by the clause in WCW contracts post-99 that allowed for a company review every 60 or 90 days, with the company having the right to terminate the contract after each one. Talk about job security...

Bob wants to know about a couple of old-school guys:

i was wondering if you know who was the character damien demento in the former wwf, also there was a wrestler by the name of steve strong or steve disalvo that wrestled for the hart promotion, what happened to him.

I love my readers. This is the reaction your question brought about:

Chris says:
Oh wow, a Sadistic Steve question! Result!
Ryan says:
Steve DiSalvo?
Chris says:
Indeed
Chris says:
I remember him as Minotaur I think
Ryan says:
You do.
Chris says:
Not to be confused with Mantaur, who I used to think was Vader
Ryan says:
Word on Mantaur is that he was PN News' cousin.
Chris says:
My God but we're breaking out the gimmicks tonight.
Ryan says:
Former USWA champion, that Mantaur. Albeit under a different name.

Spontaneous nostalgia for the win. DiSalvo was in the WWF for a cup of coffee as Sadistic Steve, then went to WCW as the bizarre Minotaur. Last I heard he was selling real estate somewhere. He is not Real Estate Steve.

Damien Demento WAS his character. Kind of a Missing-Link style guy. He has the dubious distinction of jobbing to The Undertaker in the main event of the very first Raw.

Nelson is throwing one out there for the readers:

Hey man-
Good column. I have been wondering lately, when Rey Mysterio comes to the ring and does his little head touching thing with all of the little kids that have his mask on, what does he say to them? I remember he started doing that with his son during the Eddie Guerrero feud, but figure he is saying something to the kids in the crowd when he does this. Any idea? I figure someone who reads this column has had this done to them, or their kids, etc.

He's actually singing: "Billie Jean is not my lover, HEE!" I've read various reports, ranging from a simple "Thank you", to "Vaya con dios" to nothing at all. Bear in mind that with the music, the normally very loud pop he gets and the two masks in the way of hearing properly, it may be hard to get a concrete answer on this one. Anyone had this happen to their kid that can shed some light?

Ron wants to know about moves:

hey man, good column, I've been reading your stuff since you did the columns about moves

So YOU'RE the one. Thanks!

Just wondering if you can tell me about how the TKO got that name? There's no TKO's in wrestling. Also, who invented the Rock Bottom, Rock or Booker T?

Ahhh, the Fireman's ¾ bulldog. Most people will tell you that it got the name because Marc Mero, who brought it mainstream in WWF, was working a boxer gimmick at the time. He was coming off knee surgery and had to cut down on his high-flying stuff, so the 450 he had been using was shelved for a while. The move was innovated by Hawaiian grappler Taiyo Kea, a big deal in Japan, who called it the Hawaiian Five-Out (if my understanding of the broken English being spoken on the videos is correct). When it came to the US the "TK" part was adopted as a tribute to the innovator, with the O being both the obvious ending and a reference to the hit TV show Hawaii Five-O.

Nova invented the Rock Bottom. Well, not really, but neither of the other two did. Its technical name is the uranage and it's been around for years. CM Punk used a version of it to set up the Anaconda Vise and Roderick Strong does a uranage backbreaker. The Rock started using his version before Booker used the Book End, however.

From one of my favourite topics to another, SpackJarrow wants to know about entrance themes:

How do the themes get given out? I know that one guy writes most of them, but the ones by real bands, how do they get given to wrestlers?

It varies. For example, HHH is an enormous burier of talent Motorhead fan and asked them to do his themes. Maven got his initial Mercy Drive theme as it was used on Tough Enough. Rumour has it that Maven is a fairly big Mercy Drive fan, and asked to keep it as his theme. The same rumour says that Randy Orton was either a fan all along or heard Maven playing some of their stuff, and asked for a theme by them too. Many times when WWE is releasing another theme song album, a wrestler will change their theme to use the new one by the established band. Some of them stick, some don't. WWE sends feelers out through record labels

Jim Johnston is the guy you're thinking of who writes most themes, by the way.


Ortin has 3 questions:

(1) Why were the Nitro Girls taken off the air in WCW? Was is Russo who did that, and why?

They weren't really "taken off the air", they just transitioned into other on-screen roles for the most part. Kimberley (DDP), Whisper (HBK) and Storm (Booker T) all married wrestlers, and of course Skye is Stacy Keibler. Before they all got romantically involved with wrestlers, they all had stints as valets (with the exception of Whisper). As did Siren, Baby, Tygress and Chameleon. Beef was only ever a joke, and the others just moved on.

(2) Who was the dumbass who kicked Scott Steiner in the throat in Puerto Rico?

That would be Apolo, who was the same Apolo from the original LAX. He got fired from TNA for no-showing a PPV, and then less than a year later he injures one of their most marketable names. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

(3) If Vince "gives the fans what they want" then why does he make wrestlers lose in their hometown,
like Rey Mysterio losing a match in San Diego, or Jim Ross being humiliated in his hometown when
Triple H "beat him up" in Oklahoma.

The fans don't want to see that.

No, they don't. However nothing brings the fans in like the possibility of a home town hero getting a big win, even though most "smart" fans know it won't happen. It's become a running joke actually, jobbing in one's home town. The last big win I can recall in a person's home town was Kurt Angle winning the WWF Title in Pittsburgh.

Ozsan has some Hart-felt questions. HA! I make joke!

How many Harts or in-law Harts have been in WWF/E? Is it more than the Anoa'i family?

Well, there was Bret, Owen, Davey Boy, Anvil, Teddy, Natalya and DH Smith for the Harts. Keith and Bruce wrestled at one event but were not under contract. The Samoans had Afa, Sika, Yokozuna, Umaga, Rosey, Rikishi, Manu, The Rock (Peter Maivia and Afa and Sika's father were "blood brothers") and Jimmy Snuka and his son Deuce by marriage…so yeah, Samoa wins.

Was Jimmy Hart related to the Hart family? I heard he was Stu's brother or something

No. Jimmy is from Memphis, the Hart family are from Calgary. No relation at all.

How many different tag teams was Owen in? How many did he win the titles with?

Wow, great question. Owen was in The New Foundation (with Jim ‘The Anvil' Neidhart), High Energy (with Koko B Ware) and teamed with Bret a few times, most notably against the Quebecers for the tag team titles when he turned on Bret. He won the titles with Jeff Jarrett, Yokozuna and the Bulldog.

The Way I C It…

Through the glory that is YouTube I was watching some old matches and happened across some old Scott Norton matches. God, he was huge. Whatever happened to him? If ever there was a man who looked like he could just break anyone in half, it was Scott Norton.

Norton was huge, a legit tough guy who was an arm wrestling champion if memory serves. His arms were the size of most people's legs. He still wrestles occasionally for HUSTLE in Japan, which is quite possibly the most fucked-up promotion on God's green earth. He was running his own promotion as well, Wild West Championship Wrestling, for which he was the booker and a talent, but I haven't heard anything from them in a while. I'd just like to once again point out that Scott Norton is one scary-ass mofo.

It got me thinking, though, that a lot of the old guys seemed to come out of powerlifting or football. Road Warriors, Demolition, Dr. Death, Ken Patera, heck, Goldberg and the Rock both played ball. As much as we talk about Vince's fetish for the big guys, it seems to me that there aren't that many who are that huge except Mark Henry. Do you agree, and why do you think that is?

Things certainly seem to be heading that way. The bigger guys are either just really tall (Kane, Taker, Khali, Show) or naturally large (Umaga, Kozlov, Henry) in a way that does not look to be chemically enhanced. That's also probably the main reason behind the apparent shift: Vince is scared of another steroid scandal. It's a shame that he appears to be more worried about the company's image than he is the health and safety of his talent, but at least we've got the right focus. Anything that means more focus on talent and less on look is a good thing by me, even if that talent is on the mic and not necessarily in the ring.

Oh, and as a bonus question, how many wrestlers in WWF/E or WCW ever played professional football? I'm sure a bunch played ball in college, so I won't give you the headache of figuring that out.

Not being a fan of American football, I ran this one past the Walking Encyclopaedia, Ryan Byers. Funnily enough, he's not a fan either. Between us, we came up with this list:
Chris says:
Apart from JBL, there's nobody left in WWE who played NFL ball right?
Ryan says:
Mike Adamle
Chris says:
Duh. In terms of former guys, there's Pillman, Mongo, Goldberg...
Ryan says:
Monty Brown
Ryan says:
Droz
Ryan says:
Ernie Ladd
Ryan says:
Vader
Ryan says:
I think Ahmed Johnson
Ryan says:
Luger I believe had a cup of tea with the Packers
Chris says:
Ron Simmons, briefly
Chris says:
Anvil
Chris says:
Anvil made a practice squad I think
Chris says:
Kevin Greene, Dale Torborg/KISS Demon?

We then had a discussion of the various merits of each one. You really had to be there. And for now, I am not here. Byers, Bayani, Lansdell and Fact or Fiction are up tomorrow. In the meantime, check out my NBA Live 09 preview. Stay Cool, rock hard.

Lansdellicious – Out.