Ask 411 Wrestling: Why Was Mr. T in WrestleMania 1’s Main Event?

Hello there, welcome to the only column wondering if Tyson Kidd or more accurately Natalya is now going to campaign for a US title shot, Ask 411 Wrestling!

But that was the right move, to put the belt on Rusev, and making it network exclusive like that was a smart move. But I still think they should have done that back on the 4th of July Smackdown. Because Rusev winning there, my goodness…

And yes, Larry thought of that first, but it’s still a good point!

Anyway, before we get into the column proper, a very important bit of self promotion, as I am, ladies and gentlemen, officially in a video game now! Super Wrestling Heroes: Digital Attack is available for Android devices here with the Apple app link coming once it becomes available again. So go and download and enjoy. Cheers!

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Feedback Loop

I picked the first 10 guys to mind: Yes, yes I did. There are better lists in the comments. Go with those. I forgot a lot of people.

Eric Taking Over nWo: Anonymous pointed me to Ted DiBiase’s Wikipedia, which we all know is never wrong, and to whit:

In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW “Eric Bischoff doesn’t know that much about wrestling”, “Eric took credit for the NWO but that wasn’t his idea, the NWO had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouth piece of the NWO and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn’t the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the NWO and I just went to him one day and told him I’m not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogans’ Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that’s not what I’m going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other, because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years

The Trivia Crown

I’m a international wrestling star and former world champion. I’ve feuded with Hall of Famers, managed Hall of Famers and teamed with Hall of Famers. The angle that brought me to stardom was my first heel turn, which was booked almost exactly like one of the most famous heel turns in wrestling, which occurred five years before my heel turn. And speaking of angles, I did something to a rival basically the same thing Bret Hart did 4 months before to a former world champion . I have a connection with Billy Graham, Roddy Piper and Jerry Lawler. A very well known tag team of the 80’s was part of one of my most embarrassing moments as a wrestler. My biggest victory in singles competition was against a former WWE titleholder. I’m probably one of the greatest promo guys in any language in the history of pro wrestling who is still a pop culture icon in my native land and one of my dearest persons have been in Olympic Games more than once. And although my wrestling time in the USA was short I won titles with someone with connections with Buzz Sawyer and beating a man once managed by a Hall of Famer. Oh, and I started a “religious” movement and my wrestling name sounds just exactly like the nickname of a Hall of Famer. Who am I?

No-one got it, so here’s the answer that was given.

I’m a international wrestling star and former world champion (WWC Universal Title). I’ve feuded with Hall of Famers (Carlos Colon), managed Hall of Famers and teamed with Hall of Famers (Abdullah The Butcher). The angle that brought me to stardom was my first heel turn (on Invader 1, in 1985), which was booked almost exactly like one of the most famous heel turns in wrestling , which occurred five years before my heel turn (Larry Zbyszko’s heel turn on Bruno Sammartino, the student turning on the teacher in an exhibition match). And speaking of angles, I did something to a rival basically the same thing Bret Hart did 4 months before to a former world champion (just like Bret did to Goldberg by making Goldberg injure himself while hitting the spear, Chicky made Invader 1 injure his right hand by putting a steel plate on his chest to block Invader’s Heart Punch) . I have a connection with Billy Graham (the evangelist, not the wrestler. I was the head of security during one of Graham’s Crusades), Roddy Piper (Piper had the Piper’s Pit; I had my Sports Club) and Jerry Lawler (both have used crowns and called ourselves “King”). A very well known tag team of the 80’s was part of one of my most embarrassing moments as a wrestler (I lost a hair match against Invader 1 in 1988 and The Fantastics held me to keep me from escaping). My biggest victory in singles competition was against a former WWE titleholder (I beat Carlito to win the WWC Universal Title in 2003). I’m probably one of the greatest promo guys in any language in the history of pro wrestling who is still a pop culture icon in my native land and one of my dearest persons have been in Olympic Games more than once (my oldest son is the head trainer of Puerto Rican Boxing Team). And although my wrestling time in the USA was short I won titles with someone with connections with Buzz Sawyer (his brother Brett) and beating a man once managed by a Hall of Famer (Eric Embry, managed by Percy Pringle/Paul Bearer). Oh, and I started a “religious” movement (Religión Chickystarriana, a fan club composed of my marks who followed me-and still do-wherever I wrestle) and my wrestling name sounds just exactly like the nickname of a Hall of Famer (Iron Sheik; Chicky sounds like Sheiky). Who am I?

CHICKY STARR

I’ll make this one easier.

Who am I? Weird Al once picked me. Although I have two tag partners I’m well remembered for, the first thing I co-won was with a guy I rarely tagged with and who is now retired. My most recent WWE theme is a double negative, while the guy who wrote me off WWE TV is positively double now. I won a big one a week after debuting on a new brand, I won my TV match this week, and I’m a two time Slammy winner, I am who?

Getting Down To All The Business

So we start with a massive doozy, thanks to Quan.

I want not just your opinion about this question, but other readers and other writers as well (Ryan Byers, in particular, to Puroresu): What were the biggest mistakes from every major wrestling organizations in the world? Like, what was the biggest one(s) from WWE, from WCW, from ECW, from NWA, from AJPW & NJPW, from CMLL, etc…?

The readers will, I’m sure, have their takes below. But here’s what the 411 staff picked, as well as my own. Clearly many of the staff didn’t feel comfortable making picks on companies they didn’t know well enough, so the list isn’t complete, sorry bout that.

WWE

Wyatt Beougher: It has to be botching the Invasion angle so horribly and killing plans to continue WCW as a result of assuming that the WCW fans would just automatically switch to WWE.

Jeremy Thomas: Buying WCW. No, really. If they had let Bischoff buy it, WWE would have still had competition of a sort that would have forced them to stay creative and not go down safe roads. There is no scenario where WWE had full ownership of WCW where I don’t see them making the same mistakes.

Alex Crowder: This one is the easiest in the Invasion angle and today the recurring problem of pushing no one for the future. Now, they have to keep relying on stale or past acts because they didn’t have the foresight to build for the future in the early to late 00’s. They only created a few hot acts leaving guys like Kane and Big Show in the main event well into the 2010’s. Hogan winning the world championship from Yokozuna in the early 90’s seems like a mistake too, since he left shortly after anyway and Bret Hart became the man. In hindsight, it was pointless to have him win the title at Wrestlemania.

Michael Weyer: Blowing the Invasion angle. Vince’s refusal to see WCW as an equal and lack of big names turned the dream encounter into a total agonizingly long joke that no one found funny.

Greg DeMarco: The Invasion angle. Their overall list is easily the longest, and this tops it. You had a golden opportunity to finally give wrestling fans the war they wanted, and you screwed it up.

Mike Hammerlock: Obsessively clinging to John Cena as the face of the company while business continues to stagnate is climbing the charts. I mean, they just gave us this brand new and supposedly exciting thing in the form of the WWE Network, but they keep peddling the same old product (the John Cena Show). The future isn’t happening because the WWE is stuck in the past.

Mathew Sforcina:

Wait, sorry, force of habit.

While the InVasion is the single biggest lost opportunity, I think moving from bookers to writers has lead to far bigger issues overall. Yes, you have Chris Kreski and Vince Russo in the positive outcome column, but how many other problems over the past what, 20 years have there been where having soap opera and Daily Show writers crafting your product done?

NWA/JCP

Michael Weyer: Allowing Flair to refuse to job the title to Luger at the height of his popularity. Even a short reign would have been a nice shot in the arm for the company and given Crockett more money in the bank when he needed it. But Flair refused and while some may say he was right given Luger’s standing now, at the time, he was hot as hell and being champ would have been good for the company.

Steve Cook: Assuming they were going to make a ton of money off the Wrestling Network led to all sorts of mistakes moneywise. Running shows in places they had no business running, giving talent crazy salaries among other things.

Mike Hammerlock: Letting Vince Sr. split off and form the WWWF. He took over the northeast U.S. and, while it wasn’t an immediate death knell, inevitably someone was going to figure out how to leverage the biggest market in the country into a national powerhouse.

Mathew Sforcina: Expanding stupidly. Had Crockett focused on where he was going well and then slowly and logically expanded, he might well have been ok. But running big shows in Chicago and New York, not great ideas.

WCW

Shawn S. Lealos: A lot of people will say “fingerpoke of doom” for WCW, but I think the botched finish in the Sting vs. Hogan match was more damning for the future of WCW because the hero came back to save the day and the entire ending of that match made Sting look really bad. It took the biggest angle in wrestling history and screwed up the finish. Then, the nWo just kept going and going and going until nothing could save WCW

Dino Zee: I agree that WCW’s biggest mistake was the mishandling of the Sting/Hogan main event at Starrcade. That’s where the fans finally decided “yes, it’s stupid to trust that WCW will give us proper payoffs.”

Jeremy Thomas: Giving creative control in contracts. If it wasn’t for that, everything that happened after (Fingerpoke of Doom, Sting vs. Hogan, et al) could have been dealt with by forcing their hand.

Alex Crowder: There are a few I could list; I think one that doesn’t get enough merit is Savage and Hogan taking out 8 other wrestlers including highly regarded acts like Flair, Anderson, and Luger who should be above that. I also agree with the booking of the Sting and Hogan match, because even a 10 year old child could have booked that the right way. Another is Goldberg punching through windows, because then he was injured after losing the streak. I think punching through windows being bad should be common sense. Goldberg disappeared at a time when the war was really out of their favor. The last one that really comes to my mind is Sid Vicious breaking his leg. Sid rarely went to the top rope, so I tend to believe him when he says he was told to go up top by agents. I just wonder why anyone thought Sid the high flyer was a good idea.

Michael Weyer: God, so, so SO many but it has to be allowing Hogan and Nash so much creative control to run roughshod, booking the old-timers rather than the new guys and blowing one great payoff after another, Starrcade ’97 just one of the biggest.

Mike Hammerlock: Botching WCW Thunder. It beat the WWF to the punch with the creation of a second weekly primetime show, Thunder, in 1998, but the financial and creative commitment never were there for it. It was always treated like the red-headed stepchild of WCW. Bret Hart supposedly was going to carry the show. Yet they failed to book it as Bret leading an exodus of talent over to Thunder and using that to establish Thunder as an equal but separate entity from Nitro. Instead, the WWE eventually put Smackdown on the air and it trounced Thunder. Arguably, the decisive blow in the Monday Night Wars was struck on Thursday night.

Mathew Sforcina: WCW’s biggest mistake wasn’t so much a one off but the same mistake they kept making over, and over, and over again: Messing up the follow through. They didn’t follow through with Starrcade 97, they didn’t follow through with Goldberg, didn’t follow through with elevating new talent, didn’t follow through with Hart, the Horsemen reunion, the New Blood… WCW had the talent, the money and the ability to WIN wrestling. But they never followed through…

ECW

Jeremy Thomas: Going on TNN. It doomed the company by forcing them to spend a lot and placing them in a point where, when they got cancelled, there was no going back.

Michael Weyer: Not realizing they had to change when they got TNN, what worked for a small company wouldn’t for a national audience so kept right on going the same which pushed them down.

Mathew Sforcina: Heyman not getting someone, anyone, to share the load. Sure, the wrestlers pitched in with the side stuff, but once ECW got on TNN, he should have gotten help, found people to take over all the jobs he was doing and let him focus on just one or two.

AWA

Dino Zee: Nepotism/favoritism was its biggest mistake. Verne’s unwillingness to change with the times and give the fans a champion they wanted, and instead sticking with what had worked before with guys like Bockwinkel was no good. Then going with Larry Zbyszko as the World Champion afterwards and pushing Greg Gagne hard were moves that guaranteed that they’d never regain any ground on Vince or Crockett.

Michael Weyer: Not giving Hogan the title. Verne Gagne’s insistence that things were fine and they didn’t need Hogan on top was the beginning of the end for him. Ignoring the fan demand for this obvious superstar and letting him jump ship to WWF was the biggest mistake ever for Gagne, paving the way for more guys leaving and his “what worked in the ’70’s always will” leading to the AWA’s slow demise.

Mike Hammerlock: Putting crappy wrestling on national TV. AWA Championship Wrestling had public access production values, it played in front of what seemed to be a crowd full of corpses and it rarely aired a good match. It ran on ESPN and theoretically could have caught on, but the overall product felt like a throwback to the 1960s. Early on, Curt Hennig was the notable exception, competing in some major matches and showing a boatload of talent. Yet instead of Hennig, Rick Martel, Scott Hall, Leon White (Vader), the Midnight Rockers (Shawn and Marty), the Nasty Boys and the Destruction Crew (Bloom and Enos, aka Beau and Blake Beverly) leading the promotion into a new era, it bogged down around Larry Zbyszko and Jerry Lawler. Verne Gagne had the talent and the platform, but couldn’t figure out what to do with it.

Mathew Sforcina: Neither changing with the times nor providing an entertaining throwback product. If you’re going to stick to your guns and be old school, you better damn well be the best damn old school product you can be.

TNA

Jeremy Thomas: Using WCW as a road map of “what to do.”

Alex Crowder: When they made Hogan and Bischoff bookers or creative control whatever their role was, it really killed any momentum they were slowly building along with Hogan trying to make them go live on Mondays. Other than that, I think TNA could have better capitalized on their homegrown talents. Samoa Joe, Monty Brown, AJ Styles, and Christopher Daniels should have been the TNA counterparts to John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, and Edge. TNA just never went all the way with them like they should have.

Michael Weyer: Deciding that the same guys who helped put WCW out of business were the ones to give control to when trying to go head-to-head with WWE.

Greg DeMarco: Letting go of AJ Styles. AJ should have been pushed as the face of the company in 2013, and should have taken down Aces and Eights, and gone on to have a long run at the top. Instead they offered him less money, which led to him showing them exactly what they’re missing every time he steps inside a New Japan or Ring of Honor ring.

Mike Hammerlock: Putting Hogan and Bischoff in charge. That led to the ill-fated attempt to rekindle the Monday Night Wars, the switch to the four-sided ring, constant face-heel turns, an over-reliance on factions and the preference to push older stars over emerging talents. Why anyone thought implementing the WCW playbook was a good idea is a mystery.

Mathew Sforcina: Focusing on WWE. Be it measuring themselves against them, using their talent, constantly chasing them, TNA has spent their entire lives trying to prove themselves by taking on WWE rather than proving themselves by being a good product. Oh, and not pushing the Knockouts HARD didn’t help either.

WCCW

Michael Weyer: Not branching out as they could have. In the early ’80’s, the promotion was hot as hell with national syndication, could have spread more and quick but Fritz von Erich thought Dallas was good enough. When he did expand, the golden era of the promotion was over and by not striking when it was right, they set the stage for their demise. You can also throw in Fritz’s refusal to not let his boys be seen weak from Kerry’s drug problems to Mike’s near-death but kept back in the ring which led to so much tragedy.

Shawn S. Lealos: WCCW’s relationship with the USWA was the most damning thing because Jerry Lawler just crushed WCCW with his one-sided booking.

Steve Cook: Not nipping the drug problem in the bud is what killed that promotion. They weren’t going to come back from most of the Von Erichs dying no matter what they did.

Mathew Sforcina: I don’t wish to sound morbid, but every tragedy that befell the Von Erich family led to a mistake in the company, with Lance Von Erich the most infamous. It’s hard to pick one that was the death blow, so I’ll go with Pro Wrestling USA and be done with it.

Mid South

Shawn S. Lealos: the worst move Bill Watts made in the Mid South was to branch out and create the UWF because he couldn’t match Vince McMahon’s money and couldn’t afford the new large scale promotion. Even with solid booking by Eddie Gilbert, it wasn’t enough to save it after he branched out and went broke.

Mathew Sforcina: Yeah, UWF was never gonna work out.

NJPW

Ryan Byers: Their biggest mistake was probably focusing too much on MMA-influenced booking under the reign of Antonio Inoki in 1999 and the early 2000s. During that time period, shoot fighting promoted by groups like Pride and K-1 was becoming extremely popular, and Inoki – who was always a fan of mixed martial arts and in some interviews even claims he invented the genre by fighting Mohammed Ali – decided that professional wrestling needed to mirror MMA as much as possible. This lead to short, undramatic main event level matches; champions for the company such as Kazayuki Fujita, Tadao Yasuda, and Bob Sapp, who didn’t connect with audiences like NJPW homegrown stars did; and some of those NJPW homegrown stars getting sent off to be embarrassed in shoot matches, which in particular stunted the career of Yuji Nagata. It was during this period that the bottom started to fall out of the company’s business and they dropped into the doldrums that they could not claw their way out of until the Hiroshi Tanahashi era of the last couple of years.

Mathew Sforcina: Sending wrestlers into shoot fights and booking them depending on how they do there is still for my money the single stupidest booking strategy I’ve ever heard.

AJPW

Ryan Byers: All Japan’s biggest mistake comes from roughly the same time period (as NJPW’s). When company founder Giant Baba was alive, he ran the promotion with his wife, Motoko, and the story is that they would do a “good cop, bad cop” routine, with Motoko being the bad cop to the point that the wrestlers referred to her as the “Dragon Lady.” So, who did AJPW put in charge as its president when Giant Baba passed away in 1999? Yup, Motoko Baba. There is part of me that is a bit hesitant to call this a mistake, because I don’t know how the company was structured and it could be that there was no choice but to allow her to be president if she so desired, but I’m still going to call Motoko Baba becoming president a huge mistake because, at a minimum, she herself should’ve had the sense to step aside. Unsurprisingly, making the woman who all the wrestlers hated their one and only boss did not work out well, and differences of opinion with Mitsuharu Misawa caused Misawa to leave the promotion and take all but four of its stars with him to form Pro Wrestling NOAH. We’re now fifteen years removed from Giant Baba’s passing, and All Japan has still never come to close to regaining the “major promotion” status that it lost as a result of the NOAH split. In fact, I’m amazed it hasn’t died.

Mike Hammerlock: The Misawa split. After the death of Giant Baba, Misawa became the company president only for Baba’s widow to engineer his ouster. 24 of the 26 Japanese wrestlers on the roster left with Misawa to form Pro Wrestling Noah. From the moment forward, AJPW has been a decidedly minor league affair.

Mathew Sforcina: Yep, the Misawa split, whatever the circumstances behind it, the company has never recovered from that and probably never will, unless they get extremely lucky.

CMLL

Alex Crowder: This company holds onto their talent for far too long. If you look at the title holders and prominently pushed talent in CMLL, most of them are in their 40’s to mid 50’s. Most of the younger talent doesn’t get a true chance to shine until they reach their late 30’s or early 40’s. I feel like the company misses out on some potential talent that way. Atlantis is a big star for them and he is 52. You have Blue Demon Jr. who is 48 in AAA. Most of the luchadoras in CMLL are in their 40’s. Even Ultimo Guerrero despite being awesome is 42 years old, so that won’t last forever. Maybe, it is just my American perspective, but they have a lot of awesome talent and only so much of it gets a chance to shine. Honestly, the same could be true for Japanese companies. I mean look how bad of shape guys like Muta and Kobashi ended up in. Masahiro Chono I think will be wrestling sometime this year and the man is 51 years old and probably beat up. Foreign talent is equally as guilty as American companies for sending guys like Flair out there past their prime.

Mathew Sforcina: Letting AAA form. Antonio Pena was booker of CMLL, and he was getting frustrated at the old school and older generation wrestlers. Had they listened to him or at least calmed him down, they’d be unopposed. Which maybe would be a bad thing, but…

ROH

Greg DeMarco: Giving Jim Cornette a job. There are so many instances of Cornette nearly costing Cary Silkin the company. The biggest was their Big Bang iPPV, which took place right after the WrestleMania shows in 2010. They lost so much money they nearly closed up shop right then & there. He was also responsible for the OVW relationship and some of the company’s worst booking, ever.

Mike Hammerlock: Not getting on TV in 2004. It was the coolest underground promotion ever at that time. Samoa Joe was its champion, CM Punk was its emerging star and the roster was littered with outstanding talent. Yet the company had a mail-order focus and seemingly no one thought to pursue television back when the company had everything it needed to become the next big thing.

Mathew Sforcina: Cornette in 09 onwards. As much as I like Cornette, and as much as I believe the stuff he’s talked about in regards to stupidity with other people in the company, Cornette is not the guy you want booking in this day and age. Using ether as a non-ironic title change? Really? REALLY?

PWG

Greg DeMarco: Refusing to grow their own product. PWG is happy selling a building with no air conditioning an hour north of Los Angeles. The Van Nuys Armory is a better building and can hold more people. PWG doesn’t have to change to grow–they can still be a DVD/VOD only promotion and can still run a wrestling show mostly devoid of storylines and be a success. They could just be a bigger success.

Mathew Sforcina: I guess so, PWG’s been pretty smart about their run, but that venue could be upgraded, surely…

CHIKARA

Steve Cook: Too early to tell, but right now it seems like shutting down for a year without a better reason than Quackenbush claiming it was a storyline seems like a pretty big one.

Mathew Sforcina: The closing down angle probably had many solid, important reasons why it had to be done. But so far the company hasn’t recovered all that well…

So that’s what all the writers and myself thought. What about you guys?

Eric Minnesota is back!

As is NewLegacyInc!

And if you needed an explanation of the WWE UK thing…

And now we’ll handle some other questions, starting with Manu from last week.

Regarding HBK/Perfect at SSlam 93, you said, “They were already in trouble as they clearly didn’t have any chemistry, which is a notorious problem, you can’t predict who’s gonna have chemistry until you see it.”

Did WWE not try the match out at house shows first, like they did with Flair and Hogan, and see that the chemistry wasn’t there?

They did, all the way between King of the Ring and Summerslam, Perfect worked with Shawn either in solo matches or in tag matches leading up the Summerslam.

Now then, why didn’t they twig that the two of them didn’t work? Possibly they did work together well in these non-televised matches, perhaps if they’d let the two work together solidly all the way to Summerslam and didn’t get cute with the elimination tag matches in the last few shows they might have gone better. Or maybe one or both of the two men felt sure they’d get over the hump, they felt confident the kinks would be worked out. But you’d think in the 21 solo matches they had, someone would have noticed.

Or maybe Perfect was dazed from working Bam Bam the last few shows before the PPV, or perhaps the nerves were just too great. The fact is that they were fighting uphill from the get go, but because they didn’t actively suck, they got the go ahead regardless. Sometimes you roll the dice, and it turns up snake eyes.

Brad returns us to the last time the McMahon-Helmsleys ran the show…

I remember being at the Raw on January 10, 2000…
Triple H was feuding with Mick and they had an 8 man tag team match, with Triple H, X Pac, Gunn and Dogg…
During the match, for reasons either I can’t remember, or not explained, DX dropped off the apron and left Triple h by himself… I don’t remember there being any heat leading to this, even during that show. I’ve watched it since on youtube, and maybe it was a signal they weren’t happy with Steph?
Did I miss the buildup on this one?

Uh, yeah, the build up was the show. Here’s a recap of the show.

See, DX at that time were Hunter’s stormtroopers, his loyal henchmen. They helped him do his bidding, and helped run roughshod over the WWF. And then the moment Rock gets a couple pals together, suddenly Hunter is giving in? Forcing them to wrestle each other, then work again that night? Screw that and screw you! So they left him to the wolves.

They then made good on the Smackdown afterwards, where Hunter gave them a bunch of easy matches, handicaps and so on, and then they made up.

Huh, stuff happening on one show, paid off on another, and then development flowing from that… Never work now, of course.

Axl from Paris asks about a German.

Have you read the news about Tim Wiese being contacted by the WWE? It made the headlines here in Europe last month. If you don’t know who Wiese is, which would be understandable because he’s not the biggest football star ever, he is a 32 year old German former goalkeeper (retired this year), that had a very serious professional career (300 pro games in the German league, most of them for Werder Bremen, capped for Germany a bunch of times, was even selected in the German squad for the World Cup in 2010). He has become addicted to powerlifting recently, up to a point that he became some kind of a monster of a muscleman, which of course downgraded a lot his playing ability, so his career went downhill and he eventually retired. Now, he says that WWE approached him, offering him a tryout. This seems really strange, since the guy has zero wrestling experience, obviously is not a big enough star to puts asses in seats, except maybe for a house show in Bremen, and even if he has become really muscular, there are tons of wannabe wrestlers with that kind of physique. I’d also add that a guy that has played for ten years at that level is probably a multi-millionaire, so he would probably not go in the WWE for the money… You can find some details about that rumor (and a recent frightening selfie of the man) here, for instance http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2757901/Former-Germany-goalkeeper-Tim-Wiese-WWE-wrestler.html
So: is it a hoax? Is it true? Should we prepare ourselves to the spectacle of a German goalkeeper pinning Cena at Wrestlemania?

Probably not. I remember hearing about this a while ago, but didn’t pay much attention to it.

Now, the thing about WWE offering him a tryout, that’s totally believable. WWE often offers tryouts to models and sportspeople who they think have a look or possibly the strength/stamina for the company. WWE no longer just takes talent that know what they are doing and puts them on TV, they are also training people from scratch. And if you want people to train from scratch, professional athletes are a good place to start, since they clearly have dedication and training in place, and thus WWE just need to teach them how to wrestle, and then everything will be great.

As for Wiese specifically, reports say he was indeed offered a tryout, no more, but by the time the news circulated, it was essentially a dead issue, as WWE had moved on. WWE isn’t about to hold a door open indefinitely. Sure, if you have a reason why you can’t make a tryout for a few months because of something, ok, but if you blow them off or don’t show any real interest, they’ll drop you quick smart.

And it doesn’t matter how much of a star he is or isn’t in Germany. He’s European, and WWE is looking for as many international stars as they can get. The fact that Germans and Soccer fans might have heard of him before is gravy.

Ed pulls me to task for something I said a while ago.

You said in this week’s edition (9/30/14) that WWE will be in a bad fight when it comes to fans choosing between Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns ala the fight they had with Batista this past year. I thought about this and I think the biggest difference is that Batista never had the fan support Reigns currently does. Shouldn’t that make the fight less of an issue? Also it’s not been a secret that WWE sees Reigns as their next “It” guy so it’s not out of the blue like Batista was (I swear that didn’t start as a joke about Blue-tista but I’m happy it ended up that way). Plus WWE did experience all that and surely they’d plan it better this time i.e. having Bryan get screwed out of winning the Rumble thus setting up his Mania dance partner.

Of course, it’s entirely possible, assuming the reports are lies meant to make us surprised when he returns, that Bryan ain’t coming back at all, so it’s a mute point.

And while the fight won’t be quite as clear cut as Bryan and Batista was, and might well not be one on one for that matter, WWE is still going to have an uphill battle with Reigns if they aren’t careful, because Reigns has yet to show that he has that Top Guy Essence that someone who will get the God Push should have.

Cards on the table, if you go back, I’ve never been on the Reigns bandwagon, and always claimed he was going to flop. I do wish I’m wrong, but I maintain that Reigns hasn’t shown anything in of himself to warrant his positioning. It’s been WWE deciding well in advance that he’ll be the guy and thus he’s gotten the protection and the push wherein he looked like he was a world beater… Right up until the split and suddenly he was just OK.

Now then, will he be booed out of the building like Batista was? Probably not, he’s still fresh and new, but if WWE keeps booking him to not win matches and stuff…

I will grant you that the situation is a lot murkier than it was when I said that original quote. With the various injuries and the mild storyline progression they’ve had… Roman Reigns will probably get cheered when he wins the WWE World Title. Just, perhaps, not as much as someone else would have…

Tiny Momma Inflate asks for a list… I’ll try not to suck at this one.

You also made mention to Nassau Coliseum, my childhood nearby arena. As you may be aware, the main tenant of the building, the Islanders, are moving to the Barclays Center in 2015. I don’t know that the building will be closing at first, but you have to figure it’s on it’s way out. Can you make a list of the five biggest/most historic matches to have taken place there? I only ask that you don’t simply include all four matches from Wrestlemania 2, as you could easily argue that Wrestlemania matches are more historic than most others.

JBL pinned John Cena there, that’s pretty historic.

Actually, I managed a list without Wrestlemania on there.

5: Dusty Rhodes wins Bunkhouse Stampede, NWA Bunkhouse Stampede PPV, January 24th, 1988
4: Vince Russo wins WCW Title off Booker T, WCW Nitro, September 25th, 2000
3: Sheamus wins WWE Title off John Cena, Edge and Randy Orton, WWE Fatal 4-Way, June 20th, 2010
2: The Rock wins WCW Title off Chris Jericho, WWF Raw, November 5th, 2001
1: Brock Lesnar wins WWE Undisputed Title off The Rock, Summerslam 2002, August 25th, 2002

The 5th spot has a few options, several IC title changes, Cena losing, Wrestlemania… Take a look and decide for yourself.

Matt is, I suspect, thinking too much into things.

Great column. I enjoy reading it every week. I have a question for you that I have not been able to dig up an answer for anyplace else. Last week I was watching Wrestlemania 29 and noticed the CM Punk was wearing Undertaker’s colors on his tights. I have noticed this at other times as well, another wrestler wearing the color scheme of his opponent, but can’t think of other examples off the top of my head. So I have to ask, what’s the story/reasoning behind that happening?

The storyline is that you’re either doing it as a sign of respect, but more likely you’re playing mind games, you’re trying to piss your opponent off. You steal his preferred color scheme, he’s going to be pissed at you, he’ll get angry, and angry guys make mistakes, and you can capitalise on it. It’s just like stealing a taunt or a move, it’s to frustrate and get inside your opponents’ head.

The actual reason? 9 times out of 10, I bet you it’s just coincidence. There is a finite amount of general color schemes that are atheistically pleasing but not iconic enough with one performer, so there’s bound to be some overlap and you end up wearing similar colors. You try to avoid it, but if you only have the one clean pair of tights…

Caramel Fancy Pants MochaMocha Ballyhoo wishes to see a certain move back.

Do you recall the last time the “Torture Rack” was used on TV? I feel like it could be a great submission move for a big man, but most likely a heel. I could see someone like Roman Reigns, Big E Langston, or even this new Russian guy that will be on the main roster of WWE soon. The last time I remember it being regularly used was when Lex Luger used it.

Abyss sort of uses it, but he’s more a breaker as he drops with it, impact rather than submission, that’s the Argentine Back Breaker variation.

Luger is the most famous guy to use it, but the last guy to use it consistently was Ezekiel Jackson.

And like any move, it can get over if the guy doing it can do it well to anyone anytime, and it is pushed, if it gets wins, it gets over. Jushin Thunder Liger has a palm thrust as a finisher, because he beat guys with it. Shawn Michaels got a superkick over, because he beat guys with it. The Masterlock was over because Masters beat guys with it. Any move can get over and be effective, if you push it and it looks good.

Brian asks about the first Wrestlemania ever.

In looking through your counting questions last week that involved title matches at WM, what do you think occurred that made Vince feel okay not having a title match at the first event–but then never doing that again? Did he figure out that the celebs could make a “B” match into an “A” match, while at the same time the title match would stand on it’s own? If he did figure that out, why didn’t he think that for the first event? Sure, it was make or break, but I still don’t understand the value of “Hogan and T in the same match, but they’re teammates” being that much better if at all than “Hogan and T in seperate matches, and one is for the title”.

You’re looking back at the first WM as if wrestling was accepted and was big. You need to understand, Wrestlemania was a HUGE gamble, and the concept of a giant wrestling show like that was totally unheard of. And so to get the show over, Vince had to make it seem like Hulk Hogan, who was merely just popular at that point, was an equal star of Mr. T. Plus you couldn’t trust T with a match all by himself.

There wasn’t yet the expectation that WM has a title match because at that point Wrestlemania was still an unknown, and it needed to get put on the map. The main event was seen as the best option available, given the factors at play. Yes, a title match might have been nice, but the general public wouldn’t have bought the show for Hogan defending against Piper. Hogan and T teaming up? That they’d watch for…

Rahil asks about the very first wrestling show ever at the end of this week’s column.

the first ever wrestling show ?????

That’s not an easy question to answer, in that there was a gradual process where the shoot Greco-Roman wrestling shows that travelled France ended up as the WWE shows we’re ‘entertained’ with every week.

Wrestling began to be widely predetermined, according to wrestlers there at the time, by the 1880’s. So theoretically, the first wrestling show took place at some point then.

However, I would say that the first show that we would recognize as a wrestling show would be the first show of Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling that was the brainchild of the Gold Dust Trio, whom we’ve discussed before in this column. As for that show… Sadly I was unable to find records of when the Gold Dust Trio began. At least, assuming they deserve to be one…

And on that confusing note, I bid you goodbye for another week.