Ask 411 Wrestling: Is HHH vs. Sting Well-Booked?

Hello and welcome to Ask 411 Wrestling, where we are gearing up for Wrestlemania Play! We’re not actually doing anything special for it, we’re just gearing up for it mentally. You know, preparing our expectations of mediocrity, so that they can either be fulfilled (and thus we are smug in our correctness) or be shattered (and thus the show is good, or the show is so bad that we can MST3K it up). Best thing to do, if you like being right and/or pleasantly surprised in life.

…

Hey, WWE has boring intros, why shouldn’t I?

Got a question about boring intros? Send it to [email protected] and I’ll answer it!

And now, the thing that, if I ever tried to get people to start using #ask411 on Twitter, would actually trend, #BANNER!

Zeldas!

Check out my Drabble blog, 1/10 of a Picture! 100 words a day (plus titles) isn’t that much to slog through, surely?

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Feedback Loop

Punk Bailing: Well, this was a conversation starter, that’s for sure. As pointed out, I wasn’t commenting on if Punk was in the right or the wrong, but the fact that he left WWE, it was his choice. You can certainly argue if he had legitimate complaints, or if he was complaining too much, you can discuss that, but you have to remember that at the end of the day, Punk left the WWE, so chanting his name at WWE is a little pointless, since they aren’t able to bring him back any time soon.

Multiple Gimmick Champions: Didn’t help that I slightly misread the question. Still, APinOz has me covered.

Mike Rotundo/IRS (won the WWF tag team titles under both names)

Lord Humongous/Sid Vicious (won the Continental title as Lord H and of course the WWF and WCW title as Sid)

Fatu/Rikishi (Won WWF tag title under both gimmicks)

Cody Rhodes/Stardust (Tag champ under both names)

Dos Caros/Alberto Del Rio (CMLL champ under a mask, WWE champ as Alberto)

Tiger Mask II/Mitsuhara Misawa (Light heavyweight champ under the mask, greatest wrestler I’ve seen and All Japan champ without)

Black Tiger/Eddie Guerrero (NJPW Light heavy/WWE champ)

Big Scott Hall/Razor Ramon (AWA tag champ/WWF IC Champ – acknowledging that Razor and the NWO version of Scott Hall were pretty much the same)

So there’s that.

The Trivia Crown

Who am I? I once lost a tournament final to a guy who’s slowly losing his mind in WWE right now. I’ve teamed with, and fought against, a guy who might be coming into WWE soon. My debut match in WWE (which was neither my actual debut in the company nor the first time my character was on screen) had be overcome something almost but not quite boring. My first PPV match was an easy paycheck for me. My second PPV saw me abandon my tag partner, who I then attacked in the following week, in an assault that wouldn’t fly in today’s WWE. The day I was fired by WWE, I lost a match to someone who famously wasn’t fired by WWE for a while. I’m still on TV, and I am who?

Carl Rood has the answer.
Who am I?
I once lost a tournament final to a guy who’s slowly losing his mind in WWE right now. – Lost the Deeps South Heavyweight Championship Tournament to The Miz.
I’ve teamed with, and fought against, a guy who might be coming into WWE soon. – Samoa Joe in UPW.
My debut match in WWE (which was neither my actual debut in the company nor the first time my character was on screen) had be overcome something almost but not quite boring. – vs. Danny Doring (one letter off from Boring).
My first PPV match was an easy paycheck for me. – First Man Eliminated in a Survivor Series Match.
My second PPV saw me abandon my tag partner, who I then attacked in the following week, in an assault that wouldn’t fly in today’s WWE. – Kelly Kelly
The day I was fired by WWE, I lost a match to someone who famously wasn’t fired by WWE for a while. JTG
I’m still on TV, – In TNA
and I am who?
Mike Knox/Knux

Who am I? I’m linked with Chris Jericho (in the books) and Bret Hart (on-screen). Two of the most famous/popular women in wrestling were my managers at various points. I could have been screwed by Ric Flair at one point, but I avoided that. I’ve held gold a few times, although I only ever got Silver in my career Stateside. I have a roll, I’m a professional, and I look like Hulk, I am who?

Getting Down To All The Business

Warning, my internet has been sketchy while I’ve been writing this, so… Yeah.

William, as a fellow Aussie, gets first crack.

Long hair in wrestling – what are the reasons for a lot of men in wrestling having long hair? I know it seems like a silly question, and I have already assumed that it has to do with aesthetics, being able to mouth words and otherwise communicate with your opponent more discreetly during matches, and the way it helps in making a bump look high impact by throwing your hair around – but are there are other, perhaps more traditional, reasons for the long hair? And why is it becoming less common these days, in your opinion?

No, you’ve pretty much nailed it on the head, for the most part. Long hair can make you look more attractive, and help with disguising you speaking to your opponent, and looks better flying around. Those are the main reasons, although some people just have it because they prefer to have long hair.

As for it becoming less common, I think it’s a combination of long hair going slightly out of fashion generally, coupled with the fact that most people tend to think about looking good for TV and DVD and such in wrestling, and in that environment long hair is less useful. Long hair really helps sell the impact/mask the speaking for those in the back seats. When you’re focused on just the hard camera, it becomes less essential.

John Cena – I have been thinking more and more about John Cena lately, which is odd given that it is the first time in almost a decade that he hasn’t been in the main event for more than 6 months. I am thinking about his plans moving forward and how they can incorporate him into the show without either devaluing his character/imperviousness and whether a heel turn could be on the horizon. I personally don’t think they should turn him heel, and don’t think he ever will be heel, and I want to hear your thoughts on my opinion that John Cena will never turn because he isn’t a wrestler – he is a prop and a plot device. As a prop, he is the tangible and physical equivalent of high moral values, strength and perseverance. As a plot device, he is the checkered flag at the end of the race.

Would you agree that John Cena has become so established, perhaps more established than other wrestler in terms of overcoming the odds and being the franchise – that a wrestler beating John Cena clean is like a wrestler being a MITB winner, a RR winner, a king of the ring winner, and so on?

WWE certainly has sold him like that in the past. Witness how Punk kept being told that being WWE Champ was all well and good but unless he beat Cena (again), he wasn’t really a champion. John Cena as a more generalised version of The Streak certainly sounds good in theory, you can then proceed to make guys constantly by having them beat Cena wrestle Cena and look good in those matches before Cena wins in the end. I can see the logic there.

I just heartily disagree with it as the basis for a face character.

Professional Wrestling has a long list of tropes and concepts that have been developed over decades. Some of them should be taken behind the woodshed and shot, some already have, and many are very specific or limited in scope and useage. They don’t all make sense, they aren’t all logical, but at the end of the day, wrestling has one key element to it that all others devolve from.

You can argue for and against wrestling being a morality play, you can debate it being modern mythology, you don’t have to agree that wrestling is art or that it’s sport or both or neither. But at the very core of wrestling, I find it hard to believe that no-one would disagree that wrestling is about conflict. At its most basic, two people don’t like each other, plus a ring to settle it. At its most beautiful, two people with rich, deep history coming against each other on the grandest stage of them all, both representing more than just themselves, but the hopes and dreams of the fans and history and so on and so forth.

But it’s still about conflict. And the thing about conflict is that the Never Changing Status Quo That Cannot Be Truly Vanquished cannot be the good guy. Cena being this yardstick of humanity that never changes and exists just to be challenged and, if beaten, reverts right back to type… That doesn’t breed interesting conflict, that’s just screaming into the void.

I mean, I’m not saying you can’t have dominance as a face, that good guys have to be underdogs or anything. But what I am saying is that if Cena is to become the measuring stick against which everyone is to be judged, then he has to be tweener at best, which you can argue he is now, I suppose.

You can cheer for strong faces, and you can even cheer for steamrolling monsters. But to cheer for a Status Quo… I don’t see that as a great storytelling device. But that’s not stopped WWE any time recently, so who knows…

Also – has John Cena ever submitted? Not including I Quit matches or anything where he has done it out of mercy or guilt or to save someone else, etc?

In WWE? Three times, twice to Kurt Angle (No Way Out 2004, No Mercy 2003) and once to Chris Benoit on Smackdown, 4th December 2003.

But yeah, not in the past 10 years.

GeeSpotter wants to know who’s holding the scissors.

Cable is stupid. Anybody that still pays for cable is stupid. That being said, I have to watch a “special, 90min version” of Raw and Smackdown every week and it’s amazing how (stupid I am) much stuff I miss. How does Hulu or WWE decide what gets included in that 90min? PS, thanks for still paying for cable so I can read your full reports.

It’s WWE deciding it, since Hulu has stated in the past, when asked, that they’d prefer to show full episodes of Raw but the 90 minute edited version is the only one they are allowed to, given WWE’s contract with USA Network.

WWE is the one that appears to be making the shots, as they decide what is ‘crucial’ to the WWE Raw experience and thus edit out what they consider to be superfluous, which often is most of the matches. I don’t know the exact guidelines, but mostly you start with whatever segments the big names are in (Cena, HHH etc), then you put in anything important that happened without them (title changes, turns) and then whatever room is left, you put in whatever full segments fit. Something like that, at least.

Joey Joe Joe Shabadoo asks if WWE’s booking for Wrestlemania is stupid. And he’s not talking about Reigns/Brock!

By making/calling Sting the face of WCW, and labeling himself as the heart of WWE, hasn’t HHH painted himself into a corner? If Sting wins, the story the WWE has been telling since 2001, that they are superior to WCW, is gone. But if HHH wins, he’s the heel for most of the show, but also the hero for his match? It just doesn’t seem to make sense. Perhaps by the time you answer this, Fastlane will have happened and this will be rendered moot, but for now, it just doesn’t seem to play.

WWE, not making sense with their storylines? What a shock, that never happens!

… Like I need to Chandler that.

Anyway, the problem here is that the storyline makes sense on the level of the characters involved, but when you feed those characters into the overriding arc, you have problems.

Because on the personal level of HHH’s character, him claiming to be the heart of WWE is totally logical, because the character of Triple H believes that to be true, he thinks that as he’s been champ for so long so often and he’s stayed loyal and he’s married into the McMahons and he runs the show and all that, his character thinks he is WWE. And Sting as WCW is fine, given that (even ignoring the three other companies he’s worked for) he was the loyal one who never left and stayed true.

So far, so good. But then you feed those logical characters into the overriding arc, wherein Triple H is the evil authority figure running the company that is still nominally a face to the audience, and Sting is a face that is helping fellow faces combat the evil authority figure despite representing a company that has for over ten years being presented as the bad guy, or at least as incompetent and stupid by said face company.

Now if you could tell nuanced stories, if you were able to handle complexity in your storytelling, you could handle that, you can play both sides of the coin. But WWE seems to equate family friendly with simplistic, and so you end up with a simple Good/Evil storyline that keeps referring to the past and to concepts that flatly contradict all the other storytelling they’ve been doing.

But, in WWE’s defence, they can always go ‘Triple H is lying, he’s not actually WWE’s heart, he’s just egotistical’, they can take the easy option of just say one character is lying. Or, they can rely on the fact that the audience that HHH/Sting is aimed at are not the kids, since most of them don’t know who Sting is and all they know is that he’s against HHH and thus they cheer him, and the adult fans that this angle is aimed at know all the background and will fill in the blanks/block out the inconsistencies because Sting V WWE is finally happening, even if it’s not Taker like it should have been, according to them.

Or Cena, if you think about it.

Brian has a bunch of stuff to talk about.

3a. Bringing Derrick Bateman in as Dixie’s nephew turned out to give him a huge head start, then he took the ball and ran with it. If/when he makes a jump in the future to WWE (or TNA is purchased by them), will he have a hard time adopting a character not tied to the boss?

Yes and no. No, because WWE will probably just have him revert to Derrick Bateman since that is the name they own for him. Yes, more accurately, as the whole point of the gimmick is that he’s in a position of power and then his actions take him the rest of the way, so if you take that character and have him now without a power base, he becomes just another arrogant idiot without a hook.

Which isn’t a knock on him or the work he’s put in, the dude has been on fire ever since EC3 came onto the scene, but part of that is the fact that he’s gotten a push and a gimmick hook that allowed him to shine. Not sure WWE would give him either of those if he went back.

3b. If TNA was purchased and he came right with them, would he actually maintain the character?

That would probably be up to WWE and WWE alone. Assuming TNA owns the trademark, and assuming WWE bought the whole company as opposed to just buying the tape library, and assuming WWE brought him in either then or later on, then yes, the angry 1% coming in to kill the company that killed his playground could be viable. But on the other hand, Cena would call him Derrick and the whole thing could be pointless.

It’s up to WWE and what they want to do, like most things.

3c. People obviously grew sick of Dixie Cater, and in general, people are probably sick of heel GM types. However, in a scenario where TNA was purchased, could Dixie succeed as a single-show GM (ala the Vickie Guerrero/Teddy Long role)? Could WWE do a better job with her then TNA has?

I think Crazy Old Lady Dixie was pretty good considering everything. Could she work in WWE as strictly an on-air role? I don’t think she’d go for that, given that she owned TNA as opposed to a Eric Bischoff who just ran the competitor. WWE isn’t known for treating those who tried to kill it with red carpets and good useage, and so for Dixie to come on board… I don’t see her making that jump.

As for how WWE would use her, she’d be just like Vickie, made fun of, used as another layer of authority figure on a show with too many as is, under Steph who would have to be constantly over her to make sure the power structure remained visible… I don’t see it being all that spectacular, to be honest.

4. How could WWE have butchered such a simple thing as the gross overestimate of balls in the Royal Rumble entry “bingo” container?

The container in question.

A misguided prop hand and/or director who wanted more noise and more movement in the tumbler and assumed no-one would bother counting the damn things. Or WWE rules for the Rumble are future-proofed to have up to 60 entrants, but as a side effect there have to be 60 numbers in there, you are meant to just toss away any number above 30.

But basically it’s just meant to look better on camera.

5a. Here’s a reason to hate the Rumble this year that I have not heard: I don’t believe it set up a single rivalry or storyline for the other participants. Time will tell (I’m writing this on Feb. 5), but the brief Rhodes’ tease might be it. For example, Big Show and Kane (not that we want to see that again) aren’t site with each other. Miz and Sandow (please stop calling him Mizdow now that the stunt double gimmick is over) were already headed to a clash. Rusev had pick up Cena outside of the Rumble Match. With the “Road to Wrestlemania” idea a given, and no purpose to the first 40 minutes of a Rumble other than interactions, they’re going to need some non-title singles matches at Fast Lane and WM–why not write yourself a bunch of conflict-starters?

Because that’s hard work.

Anyone trying to book a Rumble after Patterson is going to have a hard time as Patterson was a genius when it came to having multiple stories and interweaving angles and wrestlers into the overall arc. Compared to that, most people’s efforts are going to suck.

But, that’s no excuse for just having guys come out for one spot, then toss them immediately to move onto the next one, or at the very least doing that but having Reigns toss each guy in turn to feed into the Reigns is God angle.

But I agree, the Rumble didn’t do much storytelling, and that doesn’t help matters.

Oh, and WWE is still calling him Mizdow, so we’re stuck until at least Wrestlemania.

5b. And then there’s Curtis Axel. In years past, similar occurances like Maven, Santino, etc. have given WWE a built in storyline to tun with. However, when Axel came out on Raw on 2/2, the announcers buried him immediately and made him out to sound crazy. Additionally, he didn’t call out Rowan. Worst of all–this happened AFTER HHH already promoed twice about the “controversy” and dictated the direction things would go in. I can only figure this out one way: the writers wrote this for Smackdown the week prior, which was supposed to occur follow the cancelled Raw, and when cut from 5 hours to 2, they bumped this and made no changes to it for the next week. How is any of this logical and professionally written? Why not have Axel face Reigns? Why bother doing this in the first place if you weren’t even going to pretend there was something there?

Because Axel worked with Triple H and didn’t get over, and he didn’t get over with Heyman, and thus he will never ever ever get over and thus there’s no point trying to fan the flames of him getting some reaction because he’s a lost cause, given that Triple H losing to him by count out due to concussion didn’t get him over so clearly nothing will.

…

But yes, not running Axel V Reigns at least once is just fucking stupid. Have Axel job in 15 seconds if you must, but that’s a gimme match.

5c. Side note: how can we possibly consider Rowan’s beatdown the move of a face? He was screwed by the Authority, not Curtis Axel. Beating up an opponent unrelated to them doesn’t hurt them. He took an innocent victim, so to speak.

Because Axel’s a bad guy, I guess, and that makes it okay because WWE mistakes the idea that they are writing for children with the idea that they have to write their faces AS children.

5d. Is it a surprise that no NXT superstars were in the Rumble?

Considering the level of attention and thought they put into the Rumble, no, not really.

6. Finally, a question from months ago, back during the Ambrose/Rollins feud. The “open challenge” match booking device is one that often requires a bigger suspension of disbelief then usual.

6a. Every time a cocky heel does it, we’re supposed to believe he’s so overconfident that it will be his downfall. Frequently, a rival, old rival, or simply a very big/bad dude shows up, and now the cocky heel is both suprised and nervous that a person on the roster answered the call. Sometimes, like with Ambrose, someone is returning from injury or just joined the company, but otherwise, how can the heel be suprised (in Kayfabe of course)?

Because they expected no-one to answer it because they are just such total badasses that no-one would dare challenge them. And/or because they didn’t expect anyone to be warmed up and ready. And/or they were hoping for some young punk to try and make a name for themselves and be a cupcake.

See, there’s a difference between logical and reasonable. When someone is a bad guy, it isn’t logical for them to make an open challenge and not have a plan in place, they should have an idea what’s about to happen. But it’s reasonable for an overconfident bastard to be so deluded that he thinks he can scare off anyone serious. Storytelling doesn’t have to be logical, just reasonable.

Both is awesome, but reasonable is the main thing.

6b. Why (in Kayfabe again) aren’t open challenges, particularly the ones with a championship on the line, more often answered by someone random, including heel on heel action?

The guy with the personal beef is the one most motivated to run to Gorilla first. Or, you can think about wrestling being a brotherhood, and while wrestlers don’t always get along, there are unspoken agreements between all involved. You don’t pull a shiv or gun or anything, you don’t use piledrivers, stuff like that. And one of those agreements is that when someone really has a beef with someone, you let them settle it, you don’t get in the way.

Plus that’s just common sense. I go out there and try and take someone’s title shot, both guys might beat me up, so why risk it?

And all heels agree to stay out of each other’s way unless there’s no option, since all heels are reasonable adults, as opposed to the five year olds that are faces.

I’m sure you’ve seen this, but if you haven’t, here is ‘Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling’, which is a TOTAL Rip-Off of The Evolution Schematic

And other cool stuff.

Ric Flair (… I doubt he’s THAT one) has a simple question.

Which promotion do you think had the best consecutive run of great PPVS?

Well so far GFW has a 100% success rate, so according to the stats as they have never put on a bad PPV they win.

But really, the problem is that great PPVs rarely come one after each other without just ok ones in there. I mean, WWE 2000 is my goto, and Wrestlemania wasn’t superb, and a couple of the PPVs in there were passable but not great. And WCW PPVs can be hard to judge, as after the nWo began most of their PPVs would be awesome, right up until the main events, and they’d suck, but overall the show would be good to great.

Personal opinion though, I’d say from Royal Rumble 2000 through to Wrestlemania X7, while not universally perfect on every card, was pretty much good-great for the entire run and that’s really hard to top. But maybe someone below has a longer run than 15 or so OK-Great PPVs in a row.

Evil Jeff asks about a specific WWE PPV.

just another quick one that’s come about due to watching all the older WWF events recently:

Survivor Series ’89 – what was the thinking behind splitting up The Hart Foundation and sticking them on different teams in different matches?

There were surely plenty of ‘singles’ Faces who could have swapped out so that Anvil and Bret could be on the same team, it just seems a little odd that they would do that with an established team

That was part of the aborted Bret Singles Push ’89. Vince always saw Bret as having potential, and he first tried to give him a push in ‘89, after Andre The Giant asked for a match with him in Milan, and Bret did a few circuits as a single’s guy. The Survivor Series match was pretty much the end of it, as after being paired against the guy he was feuding with, Dino Bravo, and finishing that up, it was decided that the midcard was too crowded, so Bret was put back into the tag division and won the belts to keep him warm until he could be pushed properly.

Connor wants to know how the hell Stan Hansen won the US Title.

why did Lex Luger drop the US title to Stan Hansen at Halloween Havoc 1990? only to win the belt back 2 months later at Starrcade? Luger had the longest reign up to that point at 17 months, it just didn’t seem right

Because Ole Anderson was booking and Stan Hansen was his buddy.

Hansen’s always had a very… relaxed attitude when it comes to wrestling and the showmanship, in that he has stated on many occasions he never dreamt of being a champion, but he recognized that being one/chasing one meant more money, and he liked more money.

So when Ole Anderson got control of the book in WCW in 1990, and he began to bring in guys who, to be diplomatic, were more experienced and whose track record of drawing was a few years prior, Hansen was one of those guys that Ole gave a good deal to. And Hansen wanted to come over and see if he could get over as is, and then being positioned to challenge for the US title, he liked that. Not so much because he would wear the gold, but because he was being used and focused on.

Plus, to extrapolate a little on Ole’s possible thinking, when a guy is champ for that long, you have to have him lose at some point or else fans stop caring. So by having Hansen, this giant brawling badass, win the belt then Luger wins it back, he proves he’s a badass of his own, while adding some mystery and such back to his matches since he could lose the belt at any time now, he lost it before after all.

Really though, after that long a reign, anyone winning is going to seem slightly anti-climatic.

Most of these questions are getting me grumpy. Let’s see if we can find some light-hearted stuff… Rahil?

Who is the person who attacked Batista on FCW TV 10.19.2008?

… Did I cover this before? I feel like I’ve covered this before.

Anyway, ‘Black Pain’ is now better known as Monster Pain, and he wrestles in his native Puerto Rico for World Wrestling League where he is the reigning, defending, undisputed and inaugural WWL World Heavyweight Champion.

Nightwolf is back for some T and some A . . . but not like that:

1. Name me your top 10 wrestlers that you would have loved to see Magnum T.A. wrestle against

In near alphabetical order…

Brock Lesnar
Daniel Bryan
JBL
Raven
Roddy Piper
Seth Rollins
The Miz
The Rock
Triple H
Massive Q

2. Speaking of Magnum T.A. before his horrible accident that led to his early retirement, I read that he was being groomed as the next NWA Heavyweight champion. My question for you is: Do you think if Magnum T.A. had gone to the WWF he could have been the one to replace Hulk Hogan as face of the company? I mean he had the look, and was really over with the fans in the NWA.

Not if Hogan was still around. I mean, if Hogan dropped dead from steroid overdosing ascended to a higher plane of existence and became a being of pure thought, and Vince had to scramble for a replacement, maybe, but the thing about Magnum was that he was down to earth as a hero. He drove a Harley, he was rugged but level headed, tough but human. He was an NWA version of Hogan. To become a WWF version of Hogan… I don’t see his style of charisma meshing that well with the WWF machine. But hey, he wouldn’t have been the worst choice for an attempt to become Hogan 2.0.

3. Can you tell me the exact point that Vince started using his family on T.V. in storylines?

April 13th, 1998. The night WWF finally beat WCW in the Monday Night Wars after 84, was the night that the McMahons began to be on air characters. Coincidence?

Well, yes. Since that was the night that was spent building to Austin V McMahon live on Raw, before Dude Love ruined it all.

Shane McMahon was pretty much first acknowledged as Vince’s son as he tried to talk Vince out of the match.

Mahmood finishes us up.

This a bizarre question, but for the sake of being bored, what is the most funnest/entertaining matches that I can watch in the network? not steamboat/savage or anything like that, just something I can switch my brain off for and enjoy. And a bit more obscure than usual? I know austin/ rock or hunter/foley are fun matches but I want matches that I didn’t watch. An example I could think of is Austin/Hunter at survivor series. Ridiculous fun match that I enjoyed watching and one no one talks about.

Well you can turn off your mind for almost any match.

There’s a bunch of old MSG cards in the Old School section, and they can often be pretty cool, fun little shows. But as for matches you haven’t seen… The first two matches on WCW Greed, Jason Jett V Kwee Wee and Kidman/Mysterio V Skipper/Romeo were pretty damn awesome. Hell, the undercard of a lot of WCW PPVs were great, and Spring Stampede 99 is one of the better top to bottom cards ever, starting with the best Non Hart/Pillman PPV opening match ever.

But after last week’s negativity, why don’t we all share some of our favorite obscure high energy matches that we can see on the WWE Network, or other means if you’re willing to do that?

On that note, that’s the end of the column, unless you care about title defences. See you all next week!

For Your Consideration

1964 here for you. 65 is next week because of that Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling video above.

Bruno Sammartino May 17, 1963 – January 18, 1971 2803 days

January 2, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Draw
January 4, 1964 Ron Cummings Win (Televised)
January 6, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Loss by DQ
January 7, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win by Count-Out
January 8, 1964 Bob Boyington Win
January 9, 1964 Klondike Bill Result Unknown
January 9, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
January 11, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
January 14, 1964 Tony Nero Win (Televised)
January 16, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
January 20, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win by Pin
January 21, 1964 Frank Hickey Win (Televised)
January 22, 1964 Killer Kowalski Draw
January 24, 1964 Killer Kowalski Result Unknown
January 27, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
January 28, 1964 Rocky Cookson Win (Televised)
January 29, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
January 30, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
January 31, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Draw

February 1, 1964 Jerry Graham Win
February 5, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Result Unknown
February 7, 1964 Hans Mortier Win
February 8, 1964 Duke Miller No Contest (Televised)
February 13, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
February 15, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win
February 17, 1964 The Giant Baba Win by Submission
February 19, 1964 Killer Kowalski Loss by DQ
February 20, 1964 The Great Kudo Win
February 22, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win by Referee’s Decision (Blood Loss)
February 24, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win by Pin
February 25, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win
February 27, 1964 Bulldog Brower Win
February 28, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
February 29, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win

March 3, 1964 Frank Hickey Win (Televised)
March 5, 1964 Luke Graham No Contest
March 7, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Result Unknown
March 10, 1964 Boris Malenko Win (Televised)
March 13, 1964 Hans Mortier Win
March 14, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win by Count-Out
March 16, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win
March 18, 1964 Killer Kowalski Result Unknown
March 19, 1964 Prof. Hiro Win
March 20, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win by DQ
March 23, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
March 24, 1964 Pedro Rodriguez Win (Televised)
March 25, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
March 28, 1964 Paul Rheinhart Win (Televised)
March 31, 1964 Hans Mortier No Contest

April 2, 1964 Boris Malenko Win
April 3, 1964 Hans Mortier Win
April 4, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win
April 7, 1964 Klondike Bill Win
April 8, 1964 Magnificent Maurice Win by Pin
April 10, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Loss by DQ
April 13, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win by Pin
April 17, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
April 18, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
April 18, 1964 Hans Mortier Win
April 22, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Loss by DQ
April 25, 1964 Hans Mortier Win
April 29, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win by Submission

May 1, 1964 Killer Kowalski Loss by DQ
May 2, 1964 Boris Malenko Win
May 6, 1964 Killer Kowalski Result Unknown
May 9, 1964 Bobo Brazil Win by DQ
May 9, 1964 Firpo Zbyzsko Win (Televised)
May 11, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Draw by Curfew
May 12, 1964 Magnificent Maurice Win (Televised)
May 12, 1964 Dave Morgan Win (Televised)
May 13, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Result Unknown
May 15, 1964 Hans Mortier No Contest
May 16, 1964 Matt Gilmore Win (Televised)
May 18, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Loss by DQ
May 23, 1964 Hans Mortier Win
May 26, 1964 Hans Mortier Win (Televised)
May 26, 1964 Klondike Bill Win (Televised)
May 26, 1964 Hans Mortier Win
May 29, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win

June 2, 1964 Mike Zeabes Win (Televised)
June 2, 1964 Max Mortier Win
June 3, 1964 Hans Mortier Win by Count-Out
June 4, 1964 Jose Quintero Win
June 6, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win 2/3 Falls Match
June 8, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win by Pin
June 12, 1964 Killer Kowalski Result Unknown
June 16, 1964 Lou Albano Win (Televised)
June 19, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
June 20, 1964 Bobo Brazil Win
June 22, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon No Contest
June 24, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win
June 25, 1964 Luke Graham Win
June 26, 1964 Freddie Blassie Loss by Count-Out
June 30, 1964 Jose Quintero Win (Televised)

July 1, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
July 3, 1964 Jerry Graham Win
July 4, 1964 Frank Hickey Win (Televised)
July 4, 1964 Lou Albano Win (Televised)
July 10, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win by Count-Out
July 11, 1964 Freddie Blassie Loss by DQ
July 13, 1964 Boris Malenko Win (Televised)
July 16, 1964 The Beast Win by DQ
July 18, 1964 Klondike Bill Win (Televised)
July 20, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
July 25, 1964 Bull Johnson Win (Televised)
July 25, 1964 Johnny Powers Win
July 27, 1964 Klondike Bill Result Unknown
July 30, 1964 The Beast Loss by Count-Out

August 1, 1964 Bob Boyington Win (Televised)
August 1, 1964 Freddie Blassie Win by Submission
August 4, 1964 Bull Johnson Win (Televised)
August 6, 1964 The Golden Terror Win
August 7, 1964 Killer Kowalski Win
August 8, 1964 Frank Hickey Win (Televised)
August 8, 1964 Buddy Bicon Win (Televised)
August 11, 1964 Lou Albano Win (Televised)
August 13, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win by DQ
August 15, 1964 Lou Albano Win
August 16, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
August 17, 1964 Freddie Blassie Result Unknown
August 18, 1964 Freddie Blassie Win
August 20, 1964 The Beast No Contest
August 21, 1964 Johnny Powers Result Unknown
August 22, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Draw by Curfew
August 23, 1964 Freddie Blassie Win
August 24, 1964 Freddie Blassie Loss by TKO 2/3 Falls Match
August 25, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
August 26, 1964 Dr Jerry Graham Win by Pin
August 28, 1964 Smasher Sloan Win
August 31, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win

September 1, 1964 Frank Martinez Win (Televised)
September 2, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win
September 4, 1964 Freddie Blassie Result Unknown
September 12, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
September 14, 1964 Freddie Blassie Win 2/3 Falls Match
September 15, 1964 Smasher Sloan Win (Televised)
September 21, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Win by Count-Out
September 23, 1964 Freddie Blassie Loss by Referee’s Decision (Injury)
September 25, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win by Count-Out
September 28, 1964 Smasher Sloan Win by Pin

October 1, 1964 Smasher Sloan Win
October 2, 1964 Johnny Powers Win
October 4, 1964 Frank Rodriguez Win
October 6, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win (Televised)
October 7, 1964 Dr. Jerry Graham Win
October 10, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Draw
October 10, 1964 Johnny Powers No Contest
October 14, 1964 Freddie Blassie Win
October 15, 1964 Robert Duranton Win
October 16, 1964 Johnny Powers Win
October 16, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Result Unknown
October 17, 1964 Freddie Blassie Win
October 19, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Win
October 20, 1964 Johnny Powers Win
October 21, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
October 24, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Loss by DQ
October 28, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win by DQ
October 30, 1964 Johnny Powers Win
October 31, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Draw

November 2, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
November 5, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Win
November 7, 1964 Bulldog Gannon Win (Televised)
November 10, 1964 Freddie Blassie Win by Submission
November 11, 1964 Freddie Blassie Win
November 13, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Draw
November 16, 1964 Gene Kiniski Win by Count-Out
November 18, 1964 Waldo Von Erich No Contest
November 19, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Draw
November 21, 1964 Freddie Blassie Result Unknown
November 25, 1964 The Golden Terror Win by Pin
November 28, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Win

December 2, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Loss by Referee’s Decision (Blood Loss)
December 4, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
December 5, 1964 Paul Adams Win (Televised)
December 7, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
December 11, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Win by DQ
December 13, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
December 14, 1964 Gene Kiniski Win by Submission
December 19, 1964 Gene Kelly Win (Televised)
December 25, 1964 Duke Keomuka Win
December 26, 1964 The Golden Terror Win
December 26, 1964 Gorilla Monsoon Win
December 28, 1964 Waldo Von Erich Win

So Far: 217 Successful Defences, 22 Results Unknown, 296 Successful Retentions.