wrestling / Columns

Ask 411 Wrestling: How Many Titles Will Change Hands At Wrestlemania?

February 24, 2017 | Posted by Mathew Sforcina
WrestleMania 33

Hello, and welcome to a rather brisk edition of Ask 411 Wrestling. I am your answer person, Mathew Sforcina, and I’ve got an unexpected appointment tomorrow morning at a time I’m usually sleeping off writing this, so this may well be brisker than usual.

I would then pledge to make next week super long instead, but the thing is, I’m not here next week. For the next three weeks Boring Day Job has me on a longer shift and thus I’m not able to devote the time needed to do Ask 411 Wrestling justice. So, as usual, Ryan Byers will step in and totally show me up maintain the fort while I’m off working.

Thus, if you have a question, don’t send it to the usual email, instead, send it on through to [email protected] and he may well answer it. He’s got a good chunk of questions, but I’m sure he’d be willing to entertain some more.

Although I will say, when I come back, I have T-shirts now, and am thinking of doing some sort of giveaway contest thing… We’ll see.

Briskly to the BANNER!

Zeldas!

Check out my Drabble blog, 1/10 of a Picture! Finishing up ‘Tastes’ now. Mainly for the Umami one, to be honest.

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Short To Long Trunks: As usual, APinOz has the info I didn’t, on guys who went from short trunks to long ones.

Shawn Michaels; started out in WCCW with short trunks but wore longs from his AWA days onwards. Seemed to work okay for his career

Eddie Guerrero; wore short trunks earlier in his career but by the time he was AAA and then WCW he had long tights

Ricky Steamboat; wore short trunks up until about 1986 in the WWF

Butch Reed; wrestled as the Natural in WWF in short trunks, became an NWA tag team champion as part of Doom with long tights

Seth Rollins; short trunks in ROH, FCW and early NXT, now wears long and has been world champion

The Trivia Crown

Who am I? I’m on The List. My very first match in developmental was a loss to a guy who has worked for WWE, TNA and LU (Sort of). I was the first something to wrestle in WWE, at least when I debuted, that’s now changed. My first title reign in WWE (and ever, surprisingly), started when I beat a guy who’s held the title more times than anyone else. I’ve lost a title at a live event, a singles title in a tag match, and a tag title to two people who are no stranger to running things. A guy who shares something with the Hardcore title, I am who?

Jonah has the answer for us!

Who am I? I’m on The List(The List of Jericho). My very first match in developmental was a loss to a guy who has worked for WWE, TNA and LU (Sort of)(Montel Vontavious Porter). I was the first something to wrestle in WWE, at least when I debuted, that’s now changed(Jamaican). My first title reign in WWE (and ever, surprisingly), started when I beat a guy who’s held the title more times than anyone else(Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship). I’ve lost a title at a live event(w/CM Punk to Miz and Morrison), a singles title in a tag match(to Santino Marella), and a tag title to two people who are no stranger to running things(current SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan and former Director of Operations Kane). A guy who shares something with the Hardcore title(Mr. 24/7 on UpUpDownDown, the Hardcore title was defended under the 24/7 rule), I am who(WHO WHO WHO)? You are Kofi Kingston.

I won’t have a question for this week, as I won’t be here next week. But feel free to come up with your own questions and ask each other in the comments below. Get a big free for all going, why not.

Getting Down To All The Business

We start off with Arthur and talking about wrestling training, since I’m a wrestler and all.

I told you this was a brisk week.

1) I’m working on cardio and dropping weight. I started at 331lbs and I’m currently down to 308lbs. Do you have any other tips for someone prepping to get in the ring? Strengthening back muscles? Etc?

You have seen me, right?

Anyway, I’ve always maintained that cardio is the single most important thing you need as a wrestler, in that I’d rather a guy who can still throw clotheslines after 20 minutes rather than a guy who can throw poisonranas but only for 5 minutes. Not that you can’t use the second guy, just that having good cardio is important. So well done there.

Beyond that, something you might be overlooking is flexibility. A big part of wrestling is taking bumps, obviously, and having a good stretching routine going is very useful. The more limber you can be, the easier you’ll find bumping and doing some moves.

That said, since you’re not yet training as a wrestler, as said in a part of the email I didn’t publish, I’d keep cardio first and foremost, with flexibility second, then maybe do stuff like boxing and the like, stuff that requires coordination, but aim for an overall training regime, for now. When you do start training, assuming you’re in a good school, they should tell you what you need to improve on, what you should focus on.

But yeah, cardio. Best thing to build from.

2) Right now, I’m working with a restricted diet and cutting calories and watching portions to try and help drop weight. However, I know the training will be intensive, and on those days I should probably make sure I’m eating the right calories and enough of them so I don’t get sick or pass out, etc. while maintaining the energy to get in the ring. What would you suggest for those days?

OK, I’ll level with you, diet is not my strength. I mean, just look at me.

*1/100000th of a Chandler*

That said, your first few classes will leave you battered, bruised and tired as hell, regardless of what you eat. I can’t give specifics, especially as I’m not a dietician, but yes, assuming the first class will be physical (my first training session was 2 hours of discussion and such, different teachers have different styles and all that) you’ll want to make sure you’ll have the energy. Maybe not go full bore into bulking mode, but get some food into you, even if you end up throwing it up later. If you’re really worried, when you apply and set up the training, ask them what they recommend. The ‘sit down and shut up’ style of being a rookie has a place, but asking solid questions on what they advise to do as prep should be fine. Trainees taking interest and care about their bodies is a good thing, they should be more than happy to give you pointers there.

But in other aspects…

3) I have a couple of gimmicks in mind. One is more of a hit man, cold and calculating, silent but deadly type. The other is more of an obnoxious heel, possibly cowardly — big mouth, cheats to win, etc. I was wanting to know who would be your Top 5 Heels to Study that fall under those two archetypes? Current gen, I’m thinking Samoa Joe & The Revival would both make the list. I’m thinking in-ring mannerisms, guys who are good at drawing heat in the ring and could control a crowd with their body language, facial expressions, and interactions during a match.

I’ll level with you. Most wrestlers I know who are good and/or have good gimmicks, did not come in with those gimmicks in mind when they started. In fact, myself included, most of the gimmicks you come up with before you train, either suck or don’t work for you. I’m not saying that as a ‘You’re an idiot’, I’m just saying that as much as you think you know as a fan, while you do know more than some wrestlers will want to admit, you probably don’t know what you’re going to be good at in the ring. Have ideas, absolutely, ideas are good. Just be prepared to end up nowhere near them.

However, studying people is rarely a bad idea. So, silent and cold? You want guys like Ray Traylor in original Big Bubba Rogers and in Big Boss Man 98 phases, Robo-Shamrock as part of the Corporation, Heel Angle, Heel Dean Malenko, and most of Arn Anderson’s heel work. Awesome Kong too. And another guy who you can’t search for on the WWE Network, if you can do the separation thing.

Obnoxious heel, most of Tully Blanchard’s heel work, Ted DiBiase, JBL actually did well at that, Bobby Heenan’s in ring stuff… Honky Tonk Man too.

But overall? You should watch everyone who’s good. Even if you have no intention of ever working like them, if you can understand why they do what they do, not only might you find something that you can change to suit your needs, you also learn how best to help the other people in the ring do their thing. A big part of wrestling is knowing what to do to help get the other guy’s stuff over, and how to do it, so don’t limit yourself to just guys who you want to work like. If they’re good at wrestling, watch them. You’ll be surprised what you can pick up.

Jeremy asks if WWE is bold enough to do something.

Would WWE be bold enough to have Randy Orton chase the Universal Championship during the next 1.5 months and truly usher in the Era of Wyatt as co-champions?

Short answer is no, because WWE has put all their faith in “Brock/Goldberg 3: With A Championship” as the main event big money drawing supermatch. Spreading Wyatt to both sides is not where they’re going, given that they’re not going to go Orton/Goldberg/Lesnar or some such, and they’re sure as hell not doing Owens/Orton.

I think that what we might be getting is Wyatt/Orton/Harper, with Harper winning #1 contendership, Wyatt ordering Orton to reassert himself to keep Harper away, and then ending up in a three way big blow up, but no, while Orton using his Rumble win to jump over as Wyatt’s puppet works in terms of logic and some degree of logistics, Goldberg/Lesnar for the belt is locked in tight right now. Not unless Brock breaks his leg or something…

MJH takes issues with the WM betting field.

Q – Long time, first time (actually 4th or 5th time) question asker here. I was reading a post on the news board here and it made me want to ask you to do research for my lazy butt as a wresting fan. The latest gambling odds were posted and the favorite at even money for title changes at Wrestlemania was 6-7. Now unless that includes the tag titles as 2 and not 1, that seems way too high for me. I don’t even remember there being 6 title matches at Wrestlemania any time recent. Are they bringing back the Hardcore title with the 24/7 rule or something? Please tell me I am not crazy and 6-7 title changes at WM is way too high to predict.

Well let’s see. Ignoring NXT and the UK title, there are nine titles in WWE right now. On Raw you have the Universal, the US, Women’s, Tag. SD has the WWE, IC, Women’s Tag. And then the Cruiserweight belt.

So you’re expecting two thirds of them to change hands. That seems like a lot. And yet…

Universal will probably be Goldberg defending against Brock, you’d assume Brock wins there.

Raw Women’s, the assumption is that this is where Charlotte’s PPV Winning Streak Gimmick dies, so that’s a title change.

The US title will probably be Jericho/Owens, and Jericho wouldn’t win that, surely.

WWE Title, Orton over Wyatt.

So you’re up to four fairly safe title changes. So what you’re really betting on there is that out of the IC clusterfuck, the two tag belts, SD’s Women’s title, and maybe the UK belt, out of those, 2 or 3 of them well change hands.

I’m not sure I’d make that bet, it would depend on what matches there were lined up, but I can see the logic. Force me to bet now, I’d bet 5, in that I’d probably have the IC title change, but then the SD Women’s picture is murky, and having a tag title change hands seems likely…

So yes, I think the betting is high, but no, I don’t think it’s insane.

Plus, you know, I’m sure Vince is trying to work out if he can find a way to have Roman end up with a bonus title match on the show…

APinOz asks a question that is both reasonable and yet odd, for an Australian to ask…

Recently, we have seen Australian wrestlers TM61, Buddy Murphy and Emma break into the WWE through NXT. What is the background of these wrestlers? Are there more to come?

You’d think an Aussie would know. But all right…

Emma is originally from Melbourne, but travelled up and down the east coast of Australia training and wrestling, but she got her big break from training with Lance Storm in Canada, first in 2007 and then again in 2011, where she was part of the ‘World of Hurt’ series as Tenille Dashwood.

After having shoulder surgery to clear up a nagging issue, she got a developmental deal and became Emma. Basically she was one of the first crop of Australian women who made a name for herself in North America, and got the call up first.

Buddy Murphy was known as Matt Silva down here, another Melbournite, started wrestling in 2007 for PCW mostly. As I’ve said many, many times in here, I’ve met him in person once for like five minutes. But in Aussie wrestling, it was well known that his entire focus was on getting a WWE contract. And he did in 2013, and more power to him. He was a good looking, muscular wrestler with a drive to get to the WWE.

TM61 is originally from Perth, and the Explosive Pro Wrestling promotion, where TMDK, The Mighty Don’t Kneel/Torture, Murder, Destroy, Kill was and is a stable, with those two, along with Elliot Sexton, Jonah Rock, Marcius Pitt and Slex. The two currently in WWE teamed a lot and made a big splash in NOAH in Japan, as well as working in America and New Japan. They attended a tryout as part of WWE’s looking at popular/good indy wrestlers, and they got in.

None of these stories are unique or weird, except for the nationality I guess. But they all dedicated themselves to their craft and worked either through big promotions to get to WWE or straight there, and more power to them. Same as Royce and Billie Kay.

As for more on the way, maybe. WWE did hold tryouts here when NXT toured, did an article on it and everything. So possibly more will be coming, either to NXT directly or, I suspect, as part of the Asian Title tourney. Hey, Australia is part of Asia, sometimes.

Speaking of that, Nightwolf?

With the first U.K. champion crowned, the WWE plans on crowning the first Asian and Latin American Champions. My question is: What’s the long term plan for all of this? It seems like the WWE is planning their own versions of the territory systems in different countries. How do they manage all these wrestlers? Do they have them have their own t.v. show, do they bring them on NXT? Raw? Smackdown or what?

I’m not sure WWE knows what it’s doing, in terms of a long term plan.

I mean, there was the WWE Global Domination concept I kept banging on about for years in this column, which is sort of happening but not really. I mean, WWE claims otherwise, and there may well be truth to it, but the WWE UK thing was, if not completely invented, at the very least sped up to ruin ITV’s World of Sport Wrestling, as well as the UK indy companies that have been making headway. Beyond signing up a bunch of talent, and the theory of a weekly show at some point in the future, maybe, the plan right now is for the UK belt to be NXT’s midcard title.

It’s hard to predict how this all works going forward, but the basic idea seems to be to move into a territory, suck up a good chunk of the good wrestlers into deals where they can wrestle for small/non-televised companies, but WWE has first dibs on them, then seeing which guys make an impact and then bring them into the company proper. Now, this is fine short term, you can do a round of the various regions and get some good wrestlers from the current generation. But it’s not a long term solution by any means.

Now with the network, the Global Domination thing seems like it could work, since they have a network they can show everything on. You could absolutely have a UK hour, and a Latin America hour, an Asian hour, etcetc. Move guys around a bit, see who can get over multiple places… Sure, it’ll cost a bit, but WWE is now profitable for the foreseeable future thanks to various revenue streams, plus spending ten dollars here to stop someone else making twenty, that has some logic to it when you’re the biggest player in the yard.

But again, WWE doesn’t seem to know exactly what the play is here, this is all very much a feeling out process. At least it looks that way from the outside. Maybe it’s all fluffy ducks inside and I’m just further digging a hole for myself.

Yeah, like I had a shot.

Speaking of dreams that are shot, Jeff wants to talk about dream matches.

I read part of an interview with Sean Waltman recently where he criticized “dream matches” for failing to live up to their hype. My questions are (Feel free to use whatever criteria you want for “dream match,” it’s a pretty fluid term and all.)

1. On the whole, do you agree with this? Do you think that when we finally get dream matches that they fail to live up to expectations? Obviously there were some that failed (Goldberg/Lesnar 1) and some that didn’t (Styles/Cena), but in general, do you find yourself more often disappointed or not by these kinds of matches?

The issue with dream matches is that to qualify as a dream match, it usually means that the match can’t happen for some reason. That reason is usually because the two people involved work for different companies. The Revival Vs Cesaro/Sheamus isn’t a dream match really, because it might well happen soon, and thus it’s a match I want to see. Whereas something like the Revival vs the Broken Hardys, now that’s a dream match, since it’s unlikely to happen, for a while, at least.

And that’s why I think most dream matches fail, because by the time they occur, it’s usually years after it should have, years after the two people involved were on top of their game, and thus when it does happen, one or both have lost a step or two, or they’d been moved down the card too much, or having jumped ship removed some of their moveset or something. The dream match in your head is of the people in their prime, up against each other with no politics or issues. That rarely, if ever, happens in real life.

Thus yes, I do tend to think that matches that get hyped up as dream ones tend to fail, just because of insane demands from the audience, coupled with the issues that tend to lead to them becoming possible.

2. What dream matches do you think actually DID live up to expectations when they finally happened?

I think Rock/Hogan is the go to Dream Match that delivered, as what it lacked in technical perfection you weren’t looking for to begin with, plus the crowd really helped it, plus it was booked extremely well. AJ/Cena is another obvious one, Joe/Kobashi was excellent, Michaels/Angle, Angle/Joe… You could argue Hogan/Flair when it finally happened was pretty good, considering. But Rock/Hogan is the gold standard for dream matches that worked.

3. On the flipside, what dream match do you think failed the hardest at living up to its potential?

Michaels/Perfect was for a long time the Anti-Gold Standard, if only because of how much WWE pushed it as being the greatest match of all the times before it even took place. Sting/HHH was just… there, but then I’m not sure how much potential that had, all things considered.

Oh, actually, that’s a point. Sting V Hogan, Starrcade 97. That was pretty much a dream match that was built to flawlessly and then was nothing but flaws at the time. Especially given that anything beyond 45 seconds wasn’t really necessary.

Unless you want to include the InVasion as a whole. That works too.

What a Maneuver asks about someone sticking it to Vince during the ad break.

I remember watching the RAW episode from the night that TNA Impact premiered on Monday night opposite WWE. A commercial aired during RAW, asking us why we weren’t watching the live premiere of Monday night Impact. The commercial appeared to have been produced by TNA. So why would this commercial air on USA during RAW? Was this something that Vince McMahon would have approved of?

Ads for TNA Impact and Lucha Underground have appeared during WWE Raw, during the Monday Night ‘War’ 2.0 as well as the 20th Anniversary Raw, among others. And no, Vince wouldn’t have approved of them. But he had no way to stop them.

See, there are two ways to buy ad space on a cable network. You can buy an ad on the channel directly, and be shown on the network wherever it is broadcasting, if you have a national product or service. Or, you buy an ad on a regional basis, through a cable provider. This is usually done for more local products. Coca-Cola will buy an ad on USA, while Tennessee Loan Financing will buy an ad on Tennessee Cable. If you live in Tennessee, you see both.

WWE can apparently block ads on the USA Network directly, or there’s a contract clause or some such, I’m not sure of the specifics. But the cable companies? WWE can’t stop them selling ad space to whoever they like. LU only bought ad space on DirecTV, on the basis that since they were the only cable company that airs the El Rey Network where LU is run, it makes sense to advertise to people on that cable network since they can tune in. TNA, on the other hand, bought ads in a variety of places, including, apparently, the cable network that you watch Raw on.

Marco writes in from Germany, asking about Daniel Bryan.

First: When he joined WWE, why wasn’t he allowed to use the Cattle Mutilation? It’s one of the coolest moves on earth (I remember some bald-headed guy from Chikara, forgot the name, even doing a variation of it to a seated opponent which made me go “HOLY S–T!!!”), and it’s basically do-able (is that a word? Sorry, not a native speaker) against every opponent… So why cancel it?

Because WWE’s commentary ruined it.

*3/4 of a Chandler*

There’s two main reasons. The minor one is that while Daniel could in theory lock that in on anyone, given that he did lock it in on Takeshi Morishima one time, it’s still a hard move to do on bigger guys. Same as Jericho’s Liontamer, there’s a difference between ‘theoretically possible’ and ‘doable nightly’.

But the main one is that WWE prefers submission holds where you can see faces, so that you can sell the intensity of the hold and how painful it is. They like to do zoom ins and close shots of faces in agony and such. Cattle Mutilation, obviously, prevents doing so, mainly to the person taking it, although Daniel’s face isn’t too visible either. That’s why it was put in mothballs, WWE wanted a submission they could zoom in on, hence the Yes Lock.

Second: Let’s just pretend he’ll never return (I think he will, that Miz stuff is done just so they can throw him back in at any time, I’m sure about that, but let’s just pretend he will NOT)… He won’t get back in the ring, but he’s gotta get his revenge on Miz. How should WWE book it so it will be emotionally satisfying for us fans?

He’s not coming back. No way in hell, at a time when concussions are a focal point in sports, do they give Bryan a pass to wrestle anything beyond maybe, MAYBE, locking in a Yes Lock on someone. If/when Bryan’s contract comes up… I’m not sure what he’ll do, but Daniel Bryan will never wrestle in WWE again.

OK, focus.

Anyway, I would have thought the obvious route would have been Daniel swallowing his pride and drafting in his practically-brother-in-law John Cena to represent him at WM against Miz, play off that dynamic. But given that we seem to be getting Mizyse V Cenella at WM to give Nikki a send off…

The problem is, Bryan is the boss, in theory. So if Miz really presses his buttons so much, why doesn’t he fire him? He was IC champ before, so that’s why he was kept around, but now?

I suspect that it’ll grow more and more impossible for Bryan and Miz to get along, until say June, where Bryan snaps and tells Miz that he’s going to meet with Foley after the PPV and get Miz traded to Raw.

The June SD PPV is Money In The Bank. Miz won’t be booked, but a MITB contestant will be found in the preshow injured in the back. So they toss together a battle royal for the last spot.

Of course Miz wins that. And of course Miz wins MITB.

Miz spends months teasing cashing in, forcing Bryan to keep him around, less Raw get both world titles. Miz eventually cashes in, wins title, heads to WM as Champ, where Bryan brings in Cena after a long absence as his guy, Cena beats Miz to become 17 time world champ, maybe Bryan counts the pinfall.

And on that… interesting tableau, I bring this brisk Ask 411 to a close. Thanks for reading, see you all in a few weeks!