Ask 411 Wrestling: How Can WWE Fix Bray Wyatt?

Hey there, welcome to the only wrestling column written by a guy who only avoided coming dead last in the Australia Monopoly Championship last week due to someone else getting DQed, Ask 411 Wrestling!

Still, I can argue I’m objectively better at Monopoly than most everyone else who didn’t qualify. Even if I only qualified by an online quiz thingy.

Eh, enough about the weirdness of my life. Let’s get down to some wrestling!

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Zeldas!

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Nothing that cropped up really needed to be discussed, I think, given that I’d prefer not to begin going down the rabbit hole about discrimination and such any more than I have to. Suffice to say that while I’m happy, in theory, to discuss the topic, I’m just making it clear that I don’t in any way equate any of the incredibly mild forms of discrimination I’ve experienced with those who do struggle against it every day of their lives.

The Trivia Crown

Who am I? First of all, I’ve been called a god, a stripper, a former basketball player, an animal and a man of power. I’ve been recognized as a World champion by wrestling promotions outside of continental USA, but in the United States, I also was a World Tag Team champion alongside a former champion in WWE. In a somewhat infamous way, I beat Goldberg at something, but someone else almost lost his life because of it. I’ve feuded and teamed up with death, beat a tiger to win titles and was one of the original members of a famous stable that existed in the early 2000’s that originated from yet another stable formed by former members of an even bigger stable. One last thing: even if Wikipedia says otherwise, I have a direct connection with The Rock. Who am I?

DarthDaver had the answer, but to fill in all the gaps, I’ll quote the original email from Maraviloso

Who am I? First of all, I’ve been called a god (see the answer), a stripper (Peter El Stripper), a former basketball player, an animal (León, Spanish for Lion) and a man of power (Power Man). I’ve been recognized as a World champion by wrestling promotions outside of continental USA (IWA and WWC), but in the United States, I also was a World Tag Team champion (NWA-TNA) alongside a former champion in WWE (D’lo Brown). In a somewhat infamous way, I beat Goldberg at something (severely injured another wrestler with a kick), but someone else almost lost his life because of it (Scott Steiner). I’ve feuded and teamed up with death (Mil Muertes, a.k.a. Ricky Banderas), beat a tiger to win titles (Tiger Ali Singh, IWA World Title) and was one of the original members of a famous stable that existed in the early 2000’s (The LAX) that originated from yet another stable (4Life Kru) formed by former members of an even bigger stable (DX). One last thing: even if Wikipedia says otherwise, I have a direct connection with The Rock (both use The Rock Bottom as their finisher).

Who am I? Apolo.

Who am I? I main evented a double first event. I hold the record of having the most reigns of a specific WWE title. Although I share an obvious connection to one Hall of Famer, it was a different Hall of Famer who helped me at the start of my career. I once won a title by DQ, although it ended up being held up days later due to a match with someone else. A guy whose son is now wrestling, who once changed his name without really changing it, and who is a member of the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame, I am who?

Getting Down To All The Business

Joey Joe Joe Shabadoo starts us off with a question about me and Evolution Schematics. Hence why he’s front and center, since I’m nothing if not egotistical and vain.

Love the column, as always. I was re-watching the “Corporate Rumble” from ’99 (i think?), and I couldn’t help but notice that Kane, then a member of the corporation, kept getting called “Corporate Kane.” If (when?) you do another Evolution Schematic for Kane, how will you reconcile his being a member of the Corporation and the Authority, 15 Years apart?

I don’t think I’ll ever dip back into the ES well, I think Kane 3.0 was pretty much the best possible send off. Although maybe if I’m still here when Vince goes, I might redo his. But Kane’s, if I ever do do it again, it’ll be something of a total overhaul as I go all in on the notion he’s the smartest man in wrestling history.

Although that’s not really that big a stretch. When he was called Corporate Kane the first time round, as a member of the Corporation, the name was ironic, since he was an indentured slave, he wasn’t a member by choice, he was being forced to be part of the group under threat of being committed to a mental institution. So the name was a joke.

But you ever have a friend who gets given an insulting nickname, that they then embrace in order to take the sting out of it? When Kane joined the Authority, he’d come a long way in those 15 years, and so now he sees that being a suit is actually a good thing, so he took the name back and embraced it since he is now proud of being Corporate.

Or, you know, they totally forgot they called him that back in the day and it’s just a coincidence. One of the two.

Nightwolf wants to continue the gimmick theme, asking about a man Kane knows well…

One of the things I was most happy about in the WWE was the debut of the Wyatt Family. The promos were chilling and excellent and they show cased Bray Wyatt as a deranged cult leader. When they debuted and attacked Kane, I thought this was the start of something excellent. How ever they got a push the exact opposite of the Shield. When the Shield debuted, they were showcased as the unstoppable faction destroying the likes of: Ryback, Orton, Cena, Sheamus, Mark Henry, Big Show and even the Undertaker. How come the Wyatt Family didn’t really get a push like the Shield? I mean their only memorial feud was against the Shield, otherwise they kinda fell Wayside.

Because you can’t have two stables getting the exact same sort of push at the same time on the same show, so you have to pick who gets the giant push, and who gets the moderate one. Do you push the trio of cool heels including the guy you’ve long pegged to be the next John Cena, or the scary cultists who you’re not really able to send on PR cycles without breaking character or without being very careful where you send them?

Which is not to say you can’t push both at the same time, far from it. But you can’t have two heel groups destroying everyone the same way at the same time, else you weaken both groups. The Wyatts were nominally about control and mind changing. The Shield was just about beating everyone.

But mainly it was the fact that Roman Reigns was in The Shield.

Speaking of Wyatt, so now he failed to deliver destroying John Cena and The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. How do they make him relevant again? How can we believe that Wyatt is supposed to be the new Face of Fear?

I’m not sure, simply because, as I said last week, he’s so tonally different from everyone else in the company, I’m not sure he can fit in as the Face of Fear in the current WWE.

However, if you’re set on that path, the main thing you have to do is work out what, exactly, he wants. Causing fear is not an endgoal, it’s a tactic. You need to establish what, exactly, Wyatt wants. Is he a Hollywood Hogan leader, charismatic and says he’s out to take over but really just wants the gold? Is he a Raven style leader, either early Raven (genuine believer who wants the gold to prove a point) or later Raven (doesn’t really believe what he’s saying, and wants the gold just to keep the focus on his ‘message’)? Does he want to conquer and destroy, or does he just enjoy the game? You need to work out what the character is motivated by, then you can work on making him effective at it.

I think the best option is to establish that Wyatt wants to run things, he’s not out for personal glory as much as he wants to take control. That way, when you reunite the family (which you have to do) you can have him say how while they might have had moments of glory, they eventually crumbled without him, so they are now super loyal to Wyatt. Then he goes on a recruiting phase, where he hoovers up anyone not doing anything else. Have him corrupt his brother, Ryback, Ascention, have him amass an army by the time the Rumble rolls around.

Then Wyatt runs the damn Rumble. As in the entire match, from start to finish, Wyatt’s men are in control or fighting for it. Then when Wyatt wins and he holds the company hostage, recruiting more followers, then WM gets some stakes, as if Reigns or whoever holds the title does lose it to Wyatt at WM, he goes from army leader to true cult follower and takes over the company.

Beyond that though… Then you have to turn him face as the army collapses…

jayzhoughton has a couple of unrelated questions.

Chances of Dynamite Kid getting in the hall of fame while still alive. Chances of going in posthumously?

Alive, unlikely. He’s not exactly been a model employee, and the various interviews and such he’s given haven’t exactly been family friendly. Couple that with his current physical state, and the reasons for it… I don’t see WWE bringing him into the Hall of Fame like that.

Posthumously, I think eventually the British Bulldogs will get in, although not for a while. The team was a big deal in the day, and once enough time has passed for most people to forget that Dynamite Kid wasn’t a totally nice person, they’ll get inducted as a team. Maybe.

Does anyone know who Vince’s favorite (other than the money makers) wrestlers are? His favorites growing up?

He’s said in interviews that The Undertaker is his all time favorite wrestler, although long term there’s a case to be said for Shawn Michaels being the guy. That said, although there is something to be said for guys who make him money meaning he likes them, the flip side is that often the guys who get the chance to make him money are the guys he really loves. Sure, some guys are easy to fit in, Vince is a huge fan of Big Show, for instance, given how hard he went after him in 99, giving him a ten year contract and all that. But Vince really did/does love Bret Hart, for instance, or The Rock or Cena, and while the money they make him is great, he likes them as performers as well. Austin made him more money than anyone else, but he’s also a HUGE Austin fan, and it’s hard to divide the two. And obviously he’s fond of Triple H, clearly.

But in his own words, who his favorite wrestler is and why, and I quote…

”That would be The Undertaker because of his loyalty, his longevity, and his extraordinary commitment to his character. We have lots of fun creating fun. [Superstars] try to crack each other up from time to time, and we all have tried to get Undertaker to break character, and we can’t do it. He is such a professional and an extraordinary human being behind the character. He’s committed to his craft and has worked through his injuries.”

There isn’t anyone who’s a midcarder or job guy who Vince is said to be a fan of, since if he’s a fan of someone they’d move up the card, stands to reason. Although he did keep Freddie Blassie on the payroll for years due to how much he liked him.

But as a kid/teenager? Dr. Jerry Graham.

He wasn’t a bodybuilding god of a man, he was a dirty lying heel who was charismatic as all get out, a 6’3 300 pound giant who wore all red and drove a 59 caddy and lit his cigars with $100 bills. So that opened Vince’s eyes and really got him hooked.

Here’s Billy Graham discussing his ‘brother’.

And here’s a surprisingly interesting interview with Vince McMahon in, of all things, Cigar Aficionado magazine, back in 99.

Gimp asks a simple enough question.

Hey dude, so we all know by now that Samoa Joe has left TNA and went back to ROH. And we all know that they both do tv taping for weeks in advance. Well, this Friday night Samoa Joe was on TNA Impact and then later on that night showed up on ROH TV. My question is: is he the 1st person to do this since Rick Rude did it back in the attitude era? Or have there been others before Joe? I can’t seem to recall any. Thanks for the help and keep up the good work!

I’m going to assume that you don’t want to include the Raw/Nitro simulcast since that would be cheating somewhat.

Beyond that, I don’t believe there’s anyone else who’s managed the feat, simply because not enough TV shows that could possibly show the same guy air on the same night. Maybe when TNA moves to Wednesdays, we might get another occurrence.

If you extend it to appearing on two different shows in a week, Alberto El Patreon might manage it at some point and appear on Lucha Underground and ROH in the same week at some point. But then if you do that, then you also have to remember that Rick Rude actually appeared on THREE shows in one week, as ECW Hardcore TV had him on the show the week of his Raw/Nitro double shot.

But by all means, I’m happy to be corrected on this one by you, dear readers… Didn’t Shark Boy appear on a Raw unmasked one time?

Feels.

Alasdair has a question that is sorta fiddly but sort of isn’t.

Big fan of the column and keep up the good work.

So it looks like Daniel Bryan is going to be in a match for the IC belt at this Wrestlemania after winning the Championship last year. Is this the quickest that a wrestler has gone from winning the big belt to chasing for a midcard title? How many World Champions would later fall down the card and challenge for lesser belts and did any of them ever win the world championship again?

I’m not going to try and work out the quickest switch from World Champ to midcard guy, all I’ll say is that CM Punk went from being World Heavyweight Champion in September 2008, and was IC champ January 2009, so Bryan wasn’t the quickest.

But depending on how you count ‘lesser’ belts then hell, most every World champ has ‘fallen’ as they’ve chased the tag belts at some point.

However, if you just count singles titles in WWE and only with WWE Title holders, then it’s still a long list. In alphabetical order, (lesser title, and if they won the WWE/World title afterwards)

Big Show (US/IC, Yes)
Bret Hart (US, No)
Chris Jericho (IC, Yes)
Daniel Bryan (IC, No)
JBL (US/IC, No)
John Cena (US, No)
Kane (IC/Hardcore, Yes)
Kurt Angle (Hardcore, Yes)
Ric Flair (IC, No)
Shawn Michaels (European, Yes)
Sheamus (US, No)
The Miz (IC, No)
The Undertaker (Hardcore, Yes)
Triple H (IC, Yes)

Exactly half, unless I’ve forgotten anyone/any reigns, check below in the comments. So no, being demoted after being WWE champion isn’t a death sentence, you can come back again.

Rahil wants to know how much does this guy weigh?

Who`s been the thinnest and heaviest wrestlers in history ?????

The Heaviest is easy. That would be Happy Humphrey, who wrestled in the 50’s/60’s, who holds the record as he weighed, on average, 750lbs or 340kg in the units used by 99% of the world. On several occasions, Happy weighed over 800lbs/360kg, and on one occasion he weighed over 900lbs/410kgs.

He was over double me. That’s a big boy.

Yokozuna at the end of his life was shooting to overtake this record, but his last major match was the Heroes of Wrestling… ‘event’ where he was a mere 760lbs/345kgs. I know there’s a couple of guys out there angling to break the record, but so far no-one has been able to do so.

Lightest? That’s a little tricker. Well, it would be, if I didn’t go back to the same match I always go to in these circumstances, i.e. the kid who’s in the news right now for reacting to his dad fighting John Cena this week. Owen… Owens had a ‘match’ against Excaliber in PWG when he was 6 months old.

…

Twitter lets you search. I should have remembered that.

Anyway, Around 17.5lbs is a record I don’t think anyone can beat.

Matt asks, and I can’t answer, definitively at least.

I was watching old Survivor Series PPVs ($9.99!!!) and in the main event of 1993’s event the two teams were put in the close left and far right corners as opposed to the traditional far left and close right sides. Why don’t we see teams on these corners any more?

Well when there are four corner matches you see them, but that’s not what you meant.

I don’t have a factual answer, all I have is the logic that when you have set corners for the face and heel tag teams, it’s a lot easier for the camera people to know where you’re gonna go, how to film it, how to get good shots. By making the tag corners consistent, you make the camera shots consistent. Consistency is good, most of the time.

Or maybe Vince just wanted to make a statement about America and the left/right side of politics…

Brian asks about potatoes.

I have an opinion question for you. For wrestlers who have a reputation to work stiff, do people who are in matches with them tend to also work stiff or is it more that they stay with their style?

Depends on the people involved, and if they work snug or stiff and vice versa.

See, wrestling is like any job, the people you work with come in all shapes and sizes and have all sorts of attitudes. It’s just that in wrestling, instead of leaving passive aggressive notes about not refiling the coffee machine and/or letting the phone ring for a minute before answering, you get your nose busted open or something.

So, it comes down to the individual people involved and how they interact. If a guy has a rep for being stiff due to being green or something but if/when it happens he’s apologetic, he might just get one stiff shot back and that’s it. Or maybe not even that, some guys (myself included) really hate to actually hurt a guy, even as a receipt.

But likewise, some guys just work snug and actively encourage you to give it back to them, the sort of guy who will hit you hard but expects to be hit hard back in return so that the hits looks good. So you might respond in kind to him and he’ll thank you for it.

The worst people though are the types who are known for being stiff and sloppy and then will bitch and moan and BITCH if you stiff them back, or even just look at them oddly. Those types tend to get a lot more ‘accidental stiff shots’.

But in the end, it’s not a hard and fast rule, some guys don’t like to work stiff and won’t do it ever, some guys will encourage it, and most people tend to be in the middle ground, they don’t do it but if the other guy starts it they’ll come along to the stiffing party.

Moving quickly away from that unfortunate choice of words, Adrian from Ireland asks about Hogan in 98.

Did WWF ever make any serious overtures to Hulk Hogan during his WCW run? I ask because JR mentions before the Royal Rumble 98 that Hogan may show up. I see that may be just to bump the buy-rate, but surely if they backed a dump truck up to his house with loadsamoney he may have considered it .

He might have, but WWF didn’t so much make overtures as they did sit to the side and be the threat Hogan made to get a better deal from WCW.

Details are a little iffy, like most backstage gossip stories, but the basic story runs like this; at the end of 97/at the beginning of 98, Hogan’s WCW contract expired. He deliberately let it run out, not even looking at extension offers, instead waiting till his time was up and then working out nightly one off deals for TV tapings and such while his agent and Bischoff negotiated.

Now, at the time, there were two schools of thought. One said that Hogan was dragging WCW out, using the idea of WWF offering him a contract to jump ship as leverage to get a better deal from Bischoff. This is what happened.

But the other theory said that Hogan had cut a deal with WWF and would jump ship on the live Raw that Mike Tyson would debut on, and the WCW thing was to get a few last paychecks (five figures a night, supposedly) and get his face all over WCW right up until he jumped. This is the rumor Jim Ross briefly discussed in early January on Raw, and then on his 900 line report, back when that was a thing. And I quote (via the Torch).

“There’s been a lot of conversation on the internet, a lot of speculation with wrestling journalists in wrestling publications regarding Hulk Hogan and his alleged pending return to the WWF,” Ross began. “There have even been reports that place Hulk Hogan at the Royal Rumble on Jan. 18 in San Jose. I have heard and read that some have even deduced when he would be leaving WCW and how he would return to the WWF and even on what date he would arrive. I certainly don’t know everything that goes on in the WWF, but I do know a great deal of what goes on regarding wrestling talent and I can assure you that the WWF has yet to have any meeting with Hulk Hogan or his representatives regarding returning to a wrestling schedule in the WWF.

“Now, I am not trying to knock Hulk Hogan or put Hulk Hogan down,” Ross continued. “If Hulk Hogan were legally available to talk to the WWF, I’m sure those talks would happen. I’m sure those talks would be productive. And I’m sure that everybody in the World Wrestling Federation except maybe some wrestlers who would have to look over their shoulders, perhaps, would be very, very happy for Hulk to return to the WWF. But the reports on the internet and in the wrestling media indicating that a possibility exists that Hogan could be a surprise at the Rumble is absolutely not true. It is unfounded. I can assure you as I am recording this at this time Hulk Hogan will not be in the Royal Rumble nor do I expect him to be in this or perhaps any other Royal Rumble. I want to clear that up because there has been so much speculation on it and it seems to be the hot story. It may just have to do with positioning, it may have to do with getting someone’s attention, it may have to do with getting a better financial package. There are a lot of reasons these rumors have been started and are floating around out there now. But they do not concern the meeting with the WWF and Hogan personally or his representatives.”

Ross then went on to talk about a few other subjects, then concluded his hotline by returning to the Hogan situation.

“I suspect there are going to be some changes and developments in not only the Tyson situation… but I’ll also keep you apprised of anything on the Hulk Hogan situation as we will continue to get feedback from our people who work with the internet. There are a lot of active folks out there that certainly love to try to put two and two together and do a little amateur detective work with the knowledge they posses regarding the business. I’m sure we’ll be getting more feedback on that. It has been all over the internet, that thing about Hogan, and I’m suspecting we’ll hear more because I don’t know that Hogan has a new contract in WCW – don’t know that he does, don’t know that he doesn’t – but if he doesn’t have a new deal, then you are definitely going to hear more about Hulk Hogan and him coming to the WWF – simply because it is a very intriguing story, it makes for good copy, even though it’s probably based in fiction, it makes good copy because it certainly puts the pressure on WCW to do all they can to keep the game’s most noteworthy and famous wrestler in the world. We’ll see how it works out. In any event, don’t you think, though, when you stop to think about it whether Hogan stays in WCW or if some day he came to the WWF, I’ll tell you the guy who is going to be doing well – Hulk Hogan. He’s going to make a lot of money no matter if he stays or if he goes. And from what I hear he doesn’t need the money anyway. That’s another story for another time.”

This led to huge theories that, since JR didn’t say Hogan wouldn’t be at Wrestlemania, or the Raw after Royal Rumble, that Hogan HAD to be about to jump ship, even if he couldn’t legally talk to WWF or was telling people he was WCW for life, he was totally going to come back, since Tyson as a ringside enforcer would be silly and wouldn’t move the needle, but a Hogan/Tyson match, that would sell PPV buys!

So anyway, was Hogan going to jump? Probably not, he was almost certainly dragging WCW out. WWF wasn’t quite yet rolling in Austin money, so they couldn’t have afforded him without USA or someone loaning them cash, and that seems unlikely. Quite possibly WWF/Vince might have just thought about what to do with Hogan if he fell in their laps, but WWF didn’t aggressively pursue the man.

GFB asks about ratings.

We’re always talking about Monday Night Football’s effect on RAW’s viewership,but in the heyday of Monday Night Wars ( i guess 1996-1999 ) , did RAW and Nitro effected the viewership of Monday Night Football?

Not to any major degree. The numbers that you’re dealing with aren’t compatable, given that the combined Cable ratings that Raw and Nitro got combined would, very occasionally, be larger than the Broadcast rating it would get on ABC. But since the rating is a percentage of available viewers and the total Broadcast pool was so much bigger, even then a smaller number there would be more total viewers than the combined Monday Night Wars one.

That said, given that wrestling at the time was aimed at the 12-35 male demographic, it’s entirely possible MNF lost some viewers. But, there is, to my knowledge, no major incident or trend that would show that the Monday Night Wars had any major impact on the ratings for MNF. But, to be fair, I don’t have the ratings for MNF week to week. But certainly if there was a connection, someone would have proven it by now, surely.

And on that oh so slightly cop out answer, I bring this edition of Ask 411 Wrestling to an end. Thanks so much for reading. I know I say that a lot, but I mean it. The fact that you guys and girls and others choose to tune in each week and read my ramblings and bad jokes and such does mean a lot. Thank you so much for letting me try to entertain/educate/waste your time.

Same time next week?