Ask 411 Wrestling: How Long Has Broken Matt Hardy Been Building?

Hello, welcome to the only column (maybe) that’s a little annoyed that the Last Battle Of Atlanta being found hasn’t created more of a buzz, Ask 411 Wrestling! Given the historical nature of this column, of course I’m all over something like that, and you should be too! Although the problem is, now that it’s found, the biggest missing tape in wrestling is now, what, the WWF South American title tourney?

I assume you get that joke, but since the whole concept of Chandlers is to mark sarcasm, better safe than sorry.

Speaking of being safe and/or sorry, if you have a wrestling related question, it’s safe to send it to [email protected], and you won’t be sorry!

Probably.

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Zeldas!

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Lots of good discussion on Hogan, go check it out if you didn’t read the comments last week.

The Trivia Crown

Who am I thinking of?

That’s it.

Lots of good suggestions, but there’s only one wrestler who I was thinking of who is It, and that’s Chris Jericho. Partial credit for Kevin Owens, as suggested by Khal and Wicked.

Who am I? I’ve got a match being put up on the WWE Network right about now. I’m one of only a few people to be involved in a specific final thing at two specific different but related shows. I’ve had famous feuds with saints, gods and superheros. I’ve been shaved, I’ve been the boss, and I’ve been in print. I’m the best at what I did, according to WWE one time. Oh, and I’ve never lost in Columbus, apparently. Who am I?

Getting Down To All The Business

We start with 6153367748.

How did ko deserve the belt? It was handed to him, Wwe has thru professional wrestling out window, boxing is not scrip, why does professional wrestling have to be? As for Triple H, he is just like AJ, damn smart ass. Putting 3 and 4 wrestlers on one handing wrestlers belts, that is not wrestling, i rather watch gun smoke.

O… Kay.

In Kayfabe, he doesn’t, but he has just enough of a hook to claim with a straight face that he does. After all, if the match had been one fall, as originally announced, then when he pinned Cass, he should have won the belt then. And he totally could have pinned those other two, he just didn’t have the chance.

That is, of course, nonsense, but since Owens is a heel who you’re supposed to hate, that’s why he says it.

Now, as for why does pro wrestling have to be scripted, I’m not entirely sure how to respond to that. I mean, there’s the old line that MMA is Pro Wrestling without the predetermined outcomes, but at the end of the day, ALL of pro wrestling requires scripting in the sense that without cooperation of all parties involved, including the fans, then there’s no show.

Now, if you’re asking why is WWE scripted as it is, why does it this sort of thing, that’s a more nuanced question. At the end of the day, WWE has end goals in mind, in this case, almost certainly HHH V Rollins at WM, and they will therefore work backwards from there, or rather book week to week with that in mind. And Triple H screwing over Rollins here, it’s the kick off for that.

But yeah, Owens doesn’t deserve the belt. That’s the entire point.

Sam asks about unaffiliated third parties.

Much has been written about the Kliq’s locker room dominance in the mid-90s WWF locker room. Slightly less has been written about the group put together by Undertaker to push back against them, the Bone Street Krew(e?). I was wondering about people unaffiliated with both groups who not only flourished but actually seemed to have the respect of the leaders of both groups. Specifically, I’m wondering about Mick Foley, who of course had an excellent relationship with Taker but also seemed to get along well enough with Shawn. I’m thinking about their excellent Mind Games match (during a time where Shawn had zero compunctions dogging it if he didn’t like the guy opposite him) and the oft-repeated rumor that Michaels was lobbying for the Wrestlemania 15 main event to be Austin vs Mankind, which seems odd for a guy who wasn’t one of Shawn’s running buddies (and in fact threatened to quit the company over Montreal). So my question two fold:

1) how was it that Mick Foley was able to maintain a good relationship with such disparate factions of the locker room?

The idea that the BSK formed as an anti-Kliq is a bit of projection of wrestling logic onto the backstage scene. While the idea of the Kliq being formed to be a political force in terms of looking out for each other and pushing themselves is arguable, BSK was more a group of close friends, the two groups didn’t hate each other as such, while there might be conflict between members at times, it wasn’t two stables feuding. It was two groups of friends who liked to hang out with each other most of the time. But there was plenty of overlap. Scott Hall helped Savio Vega get into the WWF, Henry Godwin and Kevin Nash were in WCW together for a while, there was plenty of overlap.

BSK did have a rep for caring about the company, being protective of the company, but they weren’t political, more just watching out for people with a bad attitude. Which was often the Kliq, yes, but BSK didn’t form because of them directly. So then, with a guy like Foley, as long as he was respectful to the business overall, the BSK had no problem with him. And the Kliq didn’t mind anyone who wasn’t a direct threat and/or who could help them out. Foley was able to work well with Shawn and Hunter, and he was unlikely to become a major political player in the company, so he was cool too.

2) were there any other guys backstage who were able to succeed under the Kliq without pissing off Taker and the BSK? Thanks and keep up the good work,

Most everyone, really. If you pissed off BSK, chances were you’d either be pissing off the Kliq as well, or you were IN the Kliq. BSK would give you a talking to if you got into a brawl in a pub, Kliq would bury you if you outdrank them or whatever.

Sadly there is no major Kliq/BSK war to recap, really…

Travis asks about the money and percentages.

How direct are merchandise sales to a wrestler’s salary? I’ve been a big fan of Miz for years now but his recent talking smack interview with ol’ DBry was off the charts awesome and I was contemplating purchasing a Miz action figure for my desk at work and it got me thinking, how much of the purchase of one action figure actually goes to the Miz? Do the wrestlers see actual money from just one action figure sale, and can WWE track the sale if individual action figures to see who is selling and is that used in determining how over someone is? If I went and bought 10 Miz action figures would WWE even know and could that reflect a bigger push for miz?

It obviously varies from contract to contract in terms of numbers, but going back to Raven’s 2001 contract, the rule used to be 25% of net receipts go to the wrestlers involved in the product, divided up how the WWE judges to be fair. So if you buy a Miz action figure by itself, then Miz will get 25% of the net profit on the sale. If you buy a Miz and Maryse combo pack, then they’d split 25% of the net profit between them, and WWE decides if it’s 12.5% each or they view Miz as more important and thus he gets 15% and she gets 10% or vice-versa or whatever.

WWE does indeed keep track of all these sales in theory, each product has to be assigned to the people involved after all. And WWE does indeed keep tabs of sales, as stories have come out about WWE panicking over Cena’s merch dropping suddenly, and other such incidents. So yes, if Miz suddenly gets a uptick on merch sales, WWE will notice. They may well not do anything with this information, but they’ll have it.

So do go ahead and buy that Miz figure if you want. He’ll get a buck or two out of it.

HellloooNewman has a couple questions about getting all dressed up and going to house shows.

1 – As a wrestler yourself (*DRINK*) you may have some insight on this. There are times where a wrestler gets fully dressed in their gear for a match, but then never actually wrestles. For example, a tag team match where the guy/gal is never tagged in. Or there is some kind of talking angle which never turns physical. My question is, do wrestlers get annoyed having to completely gear up, to ultimately not even do anything?

Getting more esoteric with these things…

As for the question, depends on the wrestler, but generally no, you’re ok with it. You’re still getting paid, and you get a night off from having to bump or risk injury, so it’s ok. Although in WWE, there might well be a match taped earlier in the night for another show, or a dark match or something. But while most wrestlers love wrestling, the occasional night off from wrestling isn’t that bad, you take it in stride and enjoy it. Although if your gear is very complicated or messy…

2 – What was the deal with all the house show title changes in the early 90’s?!? It feels like they happened with incredible frequency. I think the WWF Tag Titles in particular swapped a half dozen times or so at house shows. Of Money Inc.’s 3 reigns, I think they only won/lost the belt on TV once or twice?

Were all of these cases of simply trying to prop up house show business, or were other factors at play?

Mainly propping up the business, yeah. House shows were a major part of the income stream, and thus when they began to shrink, you toss in a few title changes and send the message of ‘Anything Can Happen, Better Come Along!’ to your audience. For the most part, anyway. A couple of changes, like the Men on a Mission tag title changes had other factors, namely Pierre not being able to kick out of Mabel’s pinfall.

But overall, yeah, most of the title changes at the time were, in part at least, driven by a desire to push the house show market as being important and thus something you should pay for.

Yoxall has a typical ‘Book a dream card’ with a unique stipulation…

Can you fantasy book an entertaining wwe ppv featuring only wrestlers who wrestled in WWE but never held a title in the promotion? I’m thinking Sting to headline. Hacksaw would be on there. Good luck!

Jake Roberts stealing the Million Dollar Title belt doesn’t count, right?

Announcers: Howard Finkel (Ring), Jesse Ventura, Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross (Commentary)
Sting V Jake Roberts (Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal Last Man Standing)
Lou Thesz V Nick Bockwinkel (2/3 Falls)
Sabu V Hacksaw Jim Duggan
George ‘The Animal’ Steele & The Boogeyman V The Bushwhackers
Sin Cara V Bam Bam Bigelow
Doink The Clown V Dan Severn
Aja Kong V Kyoko Inoue V Becky Lynch V Kharma V Luna Vachon V Eva Marie Maria (Special Guest Referee: Mae Young)
Pre Show: Matt Striker’s Classroom with Tatanka and One Man Gang
Pre Show: The Sandman V Marcus Cor Von

I just want to see Severn get a joy buzzer on a handshake and turn it into an armbar that literally rips off Doink’s arm and beat him to death with it. That too much to ask?

Anyway, if you want to DQ Roberts for the Million Dollar Title, replace him with Paul Orndorff. But what of you, dear readers? What’s your card?

Lorenzo asks what a lot of people are asking.

Why are Darrin young and Titus O’Neal still on the main roster they suck as wrestlers why don’t they just bring up Samoa Joe and Bobby Rude a least they can wrestle

Joe may well be coming up soon, but Roode is there to be a lynchpin for NXT, at least for a while. I think the Dirty Heels will be reuniting soon and ruling over NXT for months. Although given just how good Roode’s theme is, maybe they will call him up sooner or later…

I’m legally obligated to include that when it’s brought up.

Anyway, as for why Young and O’Neil are still on the show, I suspect they have cheap contracts and given that Young gives WWE a fallback if they’re ever accused of not being LGTBI+ inclusive, I think provided he doesn’t do anything too stupid he’s safe. O’Neil… At this point I wonder, since Vince had to be talked out of firing him, Vince isn’t keeping him around just to make him suffer.

But at the end of the day he is tall and muscular, which as long as Vince is still around are both big, big ticks, so…

Robert asks how people know what other people are saying.

I’m watching the CWC and (if I counted right) there are 19 different countries represented. The men competing speak many different languages, which I’m sure makes communication during matches difficult. Are there certain code words, signals, etc. which are universal to all wrestlers? Do they come up with signals before the match with the help of translators? I’m just trying to figure out how they make things flow so smoothly while having no clue what their opponents are saying.

English is regarded by most people as the default lingua franca of the modern world, and it’s the same in wrestling, as no matter what language you speak, if you’re a wrestler, and you trained properly, you probably know most moves by their English name, or if the name isn’t of English origin, it’s the universal name for it anyway. A lariat is a lariat in any language.

And a lot of wrestling is gestures anyway, taps on legs, dropping down, feeding up and around… If you spend a little time planning the match backstage with a translator if needed, and the match isn’t too long and you’re good, you can go through the whole match without having to speak at all.

But yeah, at the end of the day, most everything you need to say in wrestling will be in English and wrestlers from most countries can get by with that in the ring. Absolute worst case scenario, whoever they have to do translations can feed the words into the ref’s ear and he can phonetically say whatever needs to be said.

Dusty asks if the Final Deletion’s run up is longer than anyone has suspected.

Hello Mathew. I randomly turned on the WWE Network the other day and decided to just watch whatever was currently showing. The show was Backlash 2009, which was a pretty good show that I remembered nothing of. One of the matches was Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy. What I found interesting was how much it felt like a prototype, version 1 if you will, of what would become The Final Deletion, Broken Matt, Willow, etc. My question is, was there any chatter back then that indicated that this was an idea the Hardys had back then, but got nixed by WWE? Thanks.

None at all. I certainly don’t remember any. I get where you’re coming from, the themes being explored of Matt Hardy’s jealousy and Hardy going a bit weird. But the thing is, the Hardy V Hardy feud in 09 wasn’t their idea.

This was a swerve for the sake of a swerve, as every man, woman, child, dog, single celled organism, figment of your imagination, and/or Anti-IWC IWC member had called Christian making his big return and being the man who had been attacking Jeff Hardy in the weeks leading up to the Rumble. But then once this knowledge reached critical mass, WWE changed the booking because it didn’t matter how on board everyone was with this idea, too many people had called it.

(Although before anyone says something: I am aware there’s a segment of people who believe this story to be a swerve in of itself, and that Christian’s return as a face to run ECW was always the plan. But Christian being the original plan to attack Jeff Hardy has always rung more true to me.)

So while Matt Hardy tapped into the same sort of feelings and concepts to feud with his brother a second time, to the best of my knowledge, Broken Matt Hardy is a new creation.

Speaking of what ifs, Sankalp wants to ask about if Ambrose had stayed champ all by himself…

Hi Matthew, I was wondering that if WWE would have kept Ambrose as sole champion after brand split, how would they have booked the main event scene? Listen I get it that there would be two no.one contenders and they will fight out to decide who will face champ but I don’t see it happening smoothly after one- two months and also how will other titles would have been distributed? What would have happened to the two midcard belts as they will be top prize at both brands.

Considering how rushed and by the seat of their pants it’s been, the generic answer to how WWE would have booked this would be “poorly and not well thought out”.

That said, it would have been fairly easy to work out with a little bit of forethought, and also given that you have guys like Flair, Steamboat and Arn on contract who remembered how this would go back in the NWA days.

Basically Ambrose and Charlotte and New Day, the Mens, Womens and Tag Champs, would appear on both brands, and each show would build up a challenger for their PPV, both for bragging rights and because if their guy beats the champ, then the former champ becomes exclusive to their brand, so if Rollins had beaten Ambrose then Ambrose becomes a Raw guy. While the IC and US titles were brand exclusive and pushed as being important, maybe you declare that they’re defended each week, or they always get the main event, or if anyone holds the title for 3 months they get a guaranteed WWE title shot or something. But yeah, the IC and US titles become the most important exclusive title, like how in the old days, if you were in the NWA, you’d have the NWA World Champ at the top but you’d also have your company champion.

So, ideally, you have the three world titles all become equal in status, you establish the IC and US titles as being important, and you justify having three of your strongest acts on both brands. Win/win/win.

Michael wonders just how long Vince’s memory is.

Simple question, with Vince working with Eric Bischoff post Invasion and even mending relationships with Macho Man and Ultimate Warrior before their deaths….is there ANYBODY with a permanent place on Vince McMahon’s shit list?

Not really, on the basis that Vince is many things, but at the end of the day he’s a businessman. No matter how much bad blood there is, if there’s money to be made, eventually, he’ll try and claim that money. Vince wants all the money, after all. So Madusa, Savage, Warrior, Bruno, eventually, if you’re willing to work with Vince and Vince sees the chance to make money, he will take it.

That said, guys like David Schultz who caused him major headaches, and then guys like Nailz who testified against him in court, guys like that are unlikely to ever come back.

As for Jeff Jarrett… He’s one that I’m not sure about. Yes, the one day extension thing really, really, REALLY stuck in Vince’s craw, and him setting up competition would you think cause him to be doubly hated… If/when Vince buys TNA’s tape library, maybe, just maybe, Jarrett might be welcomed back for Fall and Fall of TNA DVDs and the like.

Speaking of falling, Evil Jeff wants to take us back to Tank Abbott V Big Al.

Dear God, WHY?

I was watching Superbrawl 2000 and the Big Al vs Tank Abbot train wreck and I’m curious as to just who Big Al is/was? Did he have any sort of formal training as a wrestler (not the match featured any real wrestling moves)? Was/is he a running buddy of Tank’s that they brought in for the crappy angle?

It’s hard to work this one out, as looking for Big Al in WCW, you tend to find records on either the former 911 from ECW…

Or Al Green, Nash’s former tag partner and future The Dog.

Neither of whom is the same Al from the PPV, whose name is Alexander A. Gerke, according to profightdb. According to some sources though, Al is indeed a friend of Tank’s, you can apparently see him walking Tank to the ring in old UFC fights and also as part of the ‘Ultimate Tank Abbott PPV’ doing drunken commentary with Tank over his old fights.

So yeah, that’d be him then. No idea if he had any training beyond enough to get through the one match.

Also, was the actual finish of the match supposed to be Tank holding a knife to the guy’s throat? The camera cuts away pretty quick and Schiavone stumbles to make a lame explanation before they hastily cut to a backstage interview, but I can’t imagine Mr Abbot did that off his own back without being instructed.

OK, so it was a worked shoot that shot through…

See, the idea was supposed to be that Abbott would have a gimmick like the Sheik, who used pencils to cut open opponents, but taped up to look more intimidating. Abbott, either out of his own volition or because he was told by someone else, decides that’s too girly or something, and takes a knife out instead. The Tony line is a desperate cover. (Had Russo still been booking, it would have been a worked shoot line, since that’s what you would say if the Abbott thing was a shoot and thus by Tony saying that it would make it seem like Abbott was shooting and I’ve gone crosseyed again).

So Abbott was told to do something similar, but he took it too far.

Also on a related note, watching the hype video prior to the match Tank looks to be working pretty stiff on the random luchadores they have him attacking, was he a safe worker?

As safe as you’d expect, in that I don’t have any evidence that he actually hurt anyone, beyond the obvious in the Superbrawl match, but I also have no evidence that he was seen as a safe worker by anyone.

And on that copout answer, I bid you all goodbye, I have a Last Battle to watch. Later!