Ask 411 Wrestling: Should Reigns Have Won The 2014 Rumble?

Hello, welcome to the only column that wonders if WWE realises they’ve just technically outed Darren Young’s character, Ask 411 Wrestling!

I mean, if we’re now saying that TMZ stories are kayfabe compliant, given the Lana/Rusev reveal, then that means that this is also kayfabe compliant.

So, yeah. Take that, Steph.

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And now, BANNER!

Zeldas!

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Brock Lesnar’s A Face: Brock Lesnar isn’t a face. Brock Lesnar isn’t a heel. Brock Lesnar is a force of nature, and is above heel/face discussion. Yes, he’s leaning more towards face than heel overall, but you can’t assign Lesnar a simple binary heel/face distinction. He’s a bit like Flair back when he was NWA champ, when he could be face or heel when needed on the turn of a dime. If Lesnar came out on Raw next week and killed The New Day, that would make sense. But if he came out and killed HBK and Flair, that would also make sense. Lesnar isn’t included in those sorts of discussions.

Bray Wyatt’s Promos: I’ll start liking Wyatt’s promo work more when he gets a damn mission statement.

Hogan Using Battlestar Galatica: It wasn’t the exact same arrangement, but in Hogan’s early runs in NJPW, he used this theme, which is roughly the same as the Battlestar Galatica theme.

The Trivia Crown

Who am I? I’ve interacted with Zeus, The Gobbledy Gooker and Who. Although most of my career titles were tag reigns, I have been a TV and a Heavyweight champ. One of my finisher names is a bit… Pornoish, while another shared its name with a wrestler. I share a connection to someone in the WWE Performance Center, but it’s not a blood relation (they left a while back). I’ve been Royal, A Traitor and a ‘Wrestler With A Job’. I’ve invoked a famous rule at least twice, and I now partly live one of my previous gimmicks. A guy who is famous a couple times over, I Am Who?

DarthDaver has most of it.

Who am I? I’ve interacted with Zeus (Not sure of this), The Gobbledy Gooker (Won Florida Championship Wrestling’s US Tag Titles from Hector Guerrero) and Who (Teamed with Jim Neidhart to win said titles – also Demolition feuded with the Hart Foundation). Although most of my career titles were tag reigns (With Demolition, and Russians), I have been a TV (Mid_South)and a Heavyweight (NWA Mid-Atlantic) champ. One of my finisher names is a bit… Pornoish (Barely Legal), while another shared its name with a wrestler (Crowbar). I share a connection to someone in the WWE Performance Center, but it’s not a blood relation (they left a while back) (Dakota Darsow). I’ve been Royal (Tsar Mongo?), A Traitor (As Crusher Darsow) and a ‘Wrestler With A Job’ (Blacktop Bully – Truck Driver). I’ve invoked a famous rule at least twice (Freebird Rule – With Demolition and Russians), and I now partly live one of my previous gimmicks (Likes Golf apparently – Was known as Mr. Hole-In-One). A guy who is famous a couple times over, I Am Who? You are Barry Darsow.

The Zeus thing I was thinking of was that Zeus beat him up once, and the connection in the Performance Center is Adam Pearce, the two are often compared.

Who am I? I was trained by someone with a real interest in seeing me succeed. Unless my face was hidden, I’ve always used part of my real name for my gimmick names, and even gave it to someone else as well. I’ve lost a loser leaves town match to someone I would later team with. I’ve interacted with My Goddess, I’ve stopped someone grabbing a flag, and my debut in the big leagues saw me beat a Hall of Famer and a current WWE trainer. My last match in WWE was a handicap match lost, all my managers have been female and I was once a machine. Who am I?

Getting Down To All The Business

Michael has a few unrelated questions to start us off.

1) A few “Ask 411”s ago, someone posted everyone who’s ever main evented a WWF/E PPV. Junkyard Dog was listed as having one main event appearance. What PPV was this? I know it wasn’t any of the Wrestlemania’s and, by the time the other known WWF/E PPV’s started, he either was past his prime and not a main eventer or was gone from WWF/E. So which PPV did he allegedly main event?

Sorry, sorry.

If you can’t or don’t want to watch that video, Junkyard Dog main evented the ‘very first’ WWE PPV, The Wrestling Classic, broadcast November 7th, 1985. Although Wrestlemania was the first major event in the WWE chronology, most people who saw that saw it on closed circuit at theatres and arenas. The Wrestling Classic was the very first event that was exclusively and solely available on PPV. The show itself was dominated with a sixteen man tournament, with the main event being the finals of the tournament, where Randy Savage lost by count out to give the tournament win to…

Well, take a wild guess.

2) I remember way back when, after the first HIAC, watching he highlights of the match and being stunned by not only how much HBK bled but that he was bleeding at all as I don’t recall him bleeding in WWF/E before. With that said, was this the first time HBK bladed in a WWF/E match? Not talking about his pre-WWF/E days, just sticking to his WWF/E tenure.

Darn, because there’s a famous match in the AWA where he and Jannetty bled like pigs that had gone past being stuck and were now locked at a fixed point in the universe.

But in WWE? It must have happened, but I can’t think of one off the top of my head. And I couldn’t locate one via Google-Fu. Readers? Can you remember one?

3) I’ve been reading for years in 411 about people complaining about Booker T not winning the title from HHH at Mania and how wrong this was due to the build to the match in which HHH played the race card. Personally, I think the world is too PC now and this is a bigger issue now than it was back then. I also feel this is mostly due to the general anti-HHH feelings that a majority of 411 commenters share and, if it was almost anyone else, it wouldn’t be an issue. Which brings me to my question and comparable angle: During one of Ric Flair’s NWA title runs he was embroiled in a heated feud with Jim Garvin. The brunt of the feud was around Flair wanting Garvin’s real life wife, Precious, and, one match had the stipulation that if Flair won, he got Precious with the overt implication she was going to be Flair’s sex toy. Flair won the match, tried to grab Precious, Ron Garvin intervened and eventually got into a feud with Flair that saw them trade the world title. Anyhow, is this angle really different than the HHH-Booker angle? Yes, I know one is about race which, especially today, is possibly the biggest divisive argument in the U.S. today and the other is about sex. But, if we’re getting all moral, and that’s what this is really all about, then isn’t Flair beating Garvin clean(he pinned him during a figure four) just as bad or is a stipulation declaring you can bang someone’s wife if you win a match somehow better?

Not defending either match results, just asking if there really is a moral difference or is it more anti-HHH blathering.

Yes, there’s a moral difference, even when you take into account the timeframes these occurred in. See, while Flair was the bad guy in wanting to get with Precious, he never insinuated that she was a lesser being, he never talked about how women don’t belong in wrestling, or beat her up or anything. He treated her with something vaguely resembling respect in his attempts to woo her. It was always a case of Flair wanting her to want him. Plus the follow up was important, as Flair got comeuppance with the Miss Atlanta Lively thing.

Compare that to the Triple H thing, where Booker T was belittled, where he was insulted, where Maven was lynched, and then Triple H won cleanly after a good thirty second gap between Pedigree and pinfall, where as Garvin withstood for a while. And then there was no follow up.

I mean, if Booker T had lost at Wrestlemania then won at Backlash that would have still been a bit suspect but it would have been defendable, if in the end the racist lost. But Triple H won that feud, hands down, no question. Flair won the match there but didn’t get his ‘prize’, and then moved into a feud with Ron Garvin that saw him lose the belt for a while.

Yes, the Flair/Garvin/Precious thing is sketchy. But it’s defendable. Triple H/Booker isn’t, no matter what people below will say.

The womanizer didn’t win in the long run. The racist won short and long term. That’s not the same thing.

Stephen had a big question, and a little one. This time, I answer the little one.

I read on the BOD that Reigns has been Vince’s project since day 1. It seems a shame that fans were desperate for him to win the 2014 Rumble, when it was down to him and Batista. Do you reckon Vince regrets not pulling the trigger back then, when the fans wanted it?

Not really, simply because Reigns was not at all ready to main event in 2014. Sure, he might have had a wave of support, but it’s hard to distinguish between Pro Reigns and Anti DAVE in the crowd, and Reigns/Orton is not a match that fills me with confidence on delivering, plus there’s still the Daniel Bryan factor. Reigns replacing Batista in the WM main event isn’t going to help that match and it sure as hell wouldn’t help Roman.

While I would have given WWE props for (selective) listening to the crowd and for pushing someone new, it would have been far too much, far too soon. Wrestlemania Play would have been a good place to have Reigns win the belt if they hadn’t botched his booking, which wasn’t so much time as it was just incompetence. So no, I don’t think Vince regrets that one too much.

Manslap talks turns, and one specifically.

Just discovered this column a few days ago, but have been poring over previous editions practically nonstop.

My question involves everyone’s favorite, Lex Luger. The only time I could ever really stomach the guy was during his Narcissist gimmick, mainly because I can never resist a conceited bastard. Of course this meant that the WWF had to turn him face, “burdening” him with the stupid “Made in the USA”, Lex Express ridin’, Stars and Stripes Forever All-American Lex Luger gimmick. I’m sure that he was meant as a replacement for Hogan, and although I personally can’t stand any unrealistically wholesome personality, I seem to remember that he was at least somewhat over in his new role.

Anyway (and my memory might be failing me), I don’t recall ANY build up to his face turn. I remember that one day he was staring at himself in a mirror, clocking fools with his bionic elbow, and the next week he was slamming Yokozuna on the deck of the USS Intrepid, wearing american flag undies and espousing family values while riding around the country in a stupid bus. Am I completely off base in thinking that there was absolutely no build up to his face turn? If so, what was done to foreshadow this seemingly completely inorganic 180 degree switch? If not, did they even bother to acknowledge or explain (after the fact) Lex’s change in ideals? I just remember it being all so abrupt.

There was no build up, beyond Luger and Razor Ramon having communication issues leading to brawling at several house shows, where Razor would get Lex DQed by attacking Bret Hart as Bret had Luger in the Sharpshooter, which would lead to Luger accidentally knocking Razor out with the steel forearm, then Luger and Razor brawling afterwards. But this wasn’t televised, the last televised match Luger had was against Owen Hart, where Luger was still the Narcissist, still cheating.

And afterwards, they basically used the same logic they used on the day when Luger slammed him, to whit, that USA is #1, God Bless America, USA, USA, USA! And so forth.

Basically Lex realised that while he loved himself, he loved America more.

Finally, piggybacking off my Lex questions, who do you think underwent the least-justified face-heel or heel-face turn? By justified, I mean a turn that had so little storyline rationale as to feel either completely forced or plain incomprehensible. This seems like a question that must’ve been covered in a previous edition of your column, and if so, it’s cool if you don’t have time to answer. Either way, keep up the great work!

Heel turn, would be the Goldberg one. I know it was a rush thing when the original plan fell through and they had to do something to try and live up to the hype they’d put out, but that just made so little sense for me.

Face turn? Luger’s is pretty up there. The problem is that while a heel turn can be yanked out of anywhere, just grab a chair and swing, face turns tend to require a little bit of time to do, and thus usually have some sort of logic involved. Orton’s 04 face turn sucked, but the storyline made sense. The Miz’s face turn probably would be my answer though, that was far too sudden and illogical.

What do you guys, girls, and others think?

Well I can always fall back on my poetry.

More Self Promotion!

And Botchamania.

Connor asks about a certain lady.

What was the point to Jacqueline? she was a capable wrestler but never had any sort of crowd heat or fan interest whatsoever

If you’ve seen the video from the UK only PPV where Jacqueline went topless, pretend I’ve stuck it here.

I’m getting bloody meta with those things.

Anyway, while heat and fan interest is debatable (she got reactions), the fact that she was a capable wrestler was mainly the reason for her big run in WWE (although who knows what would have happened if she had come in as Wynonna, Jeff Jarrett’s manager during his country music days), in that she was brought in, at first, to feud with Sable and, not to put too fine a point on it, lead Sable through this whole wrestling thing.

Often in wrestling you need wrestlers in the midcard who you’re not so much concerned about the reaction they get, but rather if they can put on good matches. Mechanics, they’re called, although like a lot of inside terms that now has a couple meanings thanks to Dawson and Wilder.

Anyway, you have teams and wrestlers who are solid hands, and who can be counted on to put on a good match and work with new/younger guys and girls to show them the ropes. Sometimes they might work a tag team, sometimes a feud, maybe even just a few matches. The Hollywood Blondes are the most famous examples of intended Mechanics who got too over, but the concept has been around for a long time. Finlay on Smackdown, Rhyno and Storm in NXT, you don’t care about their reactions, you have them there to build guys up and teach them.

Jacqueline was the same thing, except for women. Remember that WWE was brining back to the Women’s division after a few years of inactivity to get over the Madusa incident, and they needed a couple of solid female wrestlers to anchor the division while they found new ones to bring in. Jackie was the first major anchor for the division.

Brian wants to talk Sasha Banks’ theme. Ok then.

One more question for now. Sasha banks theme song is amazing; it’s a great fit for who she is and I would love to be in an arena where the full song plays out because they cut to a commercial or such after her introduction.

However they’re screwing up the way they’re delivering it. The opening techno beats fade in, which perhaps for a true recording of the song would be the way it would sound the best, but in an arena it just comes off sounding very weak and by the time the song hits the opening words Sasha and the other members of B.A.D. are already out there and she’s already doing her signature intro movie where she swivels her hips to the song.

Because the opening beats fade in it has little to no impact. They absolutely need to change one of two things: either make those opening beats much louder so they’ll be her signature (which I really do believe would work) or actually have the song start with the lyrics (“Had a dream I, didn’t make it . . .”)

I know this is really picky but some of the best superstars of all time ( Austin, Rocky) have an impact from the very first moment of their entrance, but I feel like they’re robbing that from Sasha. If possible please post sim videos that show how dampen the crowd reaction is until her song kicks into high gear.

Oops, my bad.

I can see what you’re getting at, although I can also see what she’s trying to do. The usual thing with music is to have a signature sound start is off to get your attention. The Glass Shatter is the iconic one, but now everyone has to have something, even Flair had to go add a Whoo to his theme.

But Sasha’s theme (that she herself sings, if you didn’t know) is an inversion of that, she seems to want the reaction for when she comes out, hence the muted opening, leading to the lyrics kicking in when she does her dance and that being the ‘start’ of her entrance.

That appears to be the logic, but I don’t think it is working. As for how to fix it, I’d not change the song, but just take a page from Flair’s book, and stick a short phrase at the start. Maybe a snide laugh and have her say ‘Like A Boss’ or her twitter ‘Bank on it’, then have the music play.

Connor asks about Radio Turner Edits.

why did Turner edit their wcw videos from the early 1990’s? very annoying, a 12 match card would turn into a 5 match card when you popped the tape in

Costs. You could save a few bucks by releasing the tapes as 2 hour tapes rather than splurging for 3 hours ones. Plus what are people going to do? It’s a captive market, as unless they somehow gained the ability to record live TV, they’d have to buy or rent the tape to get to see it, so it didn’t matter if your editing job was sloppy or the selection of what to cut made no sense, there was nothing the viewer could do about it.

Apart from not support you and watch a competitor, but what are the odds of that?

Don’t bother answering that.

Monkey has a couple questions about Gorilla Monsoon.

Hmm. Surely there’s a joke there.

…

Guess not.

Love reading your column, always a good read every week! First time asker, so I would be really grateful for your opinions on the below questions please:-

1) If Vince McMahon had been sent to jail as a direct result of the steroid trial in 1994 and say Gorilla Monsoon had taken over the running of the WWF with Linda, how do you feel that would have worked out overall for the business? Would Vince have been barking orders etc. from his cell and Gorilla would be running and overseeing his plans, or would it have been possible that Gorilla would have naturally stepped up to the mark and led the company in a different direction? In your opinion, would we have seen the Attitude era?

It wouldn’t have been Gorilla. The plan was for Jerry Jarrett to come in and run the ship while Vince was indisposed, or at least that’s what has been said by some people who should know (Jerry Jarrett) and not been denied by anyone who should also know.

So, if Jerry Jarrett takes over, what happens? Officially Vince can’t have any say, it’s illegal in America to run or operate a business while in prison. There are rumors that Vince had a code or was working on a system to run messages to Jerry, but at the end of the day, as long as Vince is out, Jerry is calling the shots.

Now, would that lead to a different direction for the company? Almost immediately there’s a change, as the minute Shawn Michaels or anyone else in the Clique tried a power play, Jarrett would point them to the door and make suggestions on where to go and what to do when they got there. I don’t think they’d be fired, but the Clique wouldn’t have had nearly as much power.

So once you factor that in, you have to assume Bret’s faction would be happier and have more of a say, which means it’s less likely Bret ends up looking to leave, and if Bret is around, he’d be kicking and screaming against Attitude…

I guess it depends on two factors, if Hall and Nash still bail at roughly the same time, and what Jarrett thinks of Vince Russo. Attitude began with the nWo, and Russo (and Shane McMahon) were the ones who really pushed for WWF to become ECW lite. So if WCW remains unchanged and Jarrett listens to Russo and Shane, then we still get Attitude.

But I don’t think Jarrett would let things get as bad as Vince did before he swung for the fences with Attitude, Jarrett would hotshot book long before that point.

So overall, we’d refer to it as the nWo Era, and WWF may never have regained the crown until WCW gave it up later on.

2) Had Gorilla not sadly passed away in 1999 and assuming that he kept in adequate health for many more years to come, where would you have seen his role going from 1996 onwards? It was good to see the confrontations between Gorilla and Stone Cold around that era – I’m guessing that maybe he would have stayed as a commentator and not president (due to good health).
In your opinion, how would he have fitted into the Attitude era?

Many thanks and keep up the great work!

Gorilla was 62 when he died, so he wasn’t a spring chicken, but ok, if he found the same fountain of youth that Highlander level rockers get, and remained healthy, what happens?

He probably remains president during 97, Slaughter only became commissioner (and the role only existed) due to Gorilla retiring from the position. So Gorilla is president until DX and Austin show up. Gorilla/DX would be an interesting dynamic, I’m sure Shawn and Hunter could think of stuff to do with bananas. The Gorilla/Hunter Manchurian Candidate Street Fight at IYH: DX would exist, and Gorilla/DX would conclude at roughly the same time as DX/Slaughter did.

And then comes Austin.

I would think that at first, Gorilla would stick to his guns and try to settle the peace between Austin and Vince, he’d play the reasonable authority figure, until Vince fires him for not screwing Austin at Unforgiven: In Your House on the Raw the night after. Austin then gives him a Stunner to send him ‘packing’.

He might then do commentary on B shows for a bit ‘in order to earn a paycheck’ and help train some of the new guys, until around Survivor Series, where he’d return with Shane as the two guys who are going to stand up to Vince and then Gorilla joins in the Screwjob and turns heel.

Gorilla gets the President role back, and he becomes the Corporation’s father figure, he does some managing and such, until XV, when after being disrespected he turns on Rock, evens the playing field for Austin to win, then gets fired one last time on Raw but gets to leave with his head held high and retires. He’d pop up a few times to do special commentary or interview someone, while working as a road agent until he retires, dies or ascends.

James wants to know what happens when Cena leaves.

If and when WWE moves on from John Cena will he be the first top guy to leave on good terms with none of the love/hate relationship we have seen between WWF/E and almost every other top or near top star like Bruno or Billy Graham or Hogan or Piper or Bret or Shawn or Austin or Flair or even the Rock since I seem to remember when Rock first started going Hollywood they wouldn’t let him use their name “The Rock” and he tried distancing himself from wrestling? Cena seems to be too linked to the positive image they want people to see for them to risk alienating him.

The Dwayne Johnson period wasn’t WWE complaining, it was Rock’s Hollywood management agency looking down at wrestling. The reps he signed up with felt that being known as Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was not good for his career, and eventually convinced him to drop The Rock if he wanted to be taken seriously, he bought into their argument since he was trying to do something no-one had done successfully before. Once he switched to a new agent though, he took the name back because he wanted to be The Rock, and what Dwayne wants, Dwayne gets.

Anyway, I don’t think Cena is going to move on unless he suddenly drops dead from a 11+ year delayed realisation he got stabbed and thus shouldn’t be walking around, or something. He may well pull back to a Rumble through WM and Summerslam schedule, but if Cena can talk, he can walk, and if he can walk he can AA people because Cena is not a human being as we understand the term, but rather is an amalgamation of all the hopes and dreams of children watching wrestling, as filtered through the idea of what adults think wrestlers should roughly look like and the idea of what adults think a wrestler shouldn’t act like.

But sure, if/when Cena leaves, it’s unlikely to have bad blood either way, Cena the person seems to have an intense and unbreakable love for wrestling, and WWE has an intense and unbreakable love for money, which Cena has and will continue to make them in sums large enough to take a spa bath in, if not actually go swimming in.

Cena loves wrestling, WWE loves Cena. Unless he merges with Nikki Bella or it comes out he made sweet sweet love to a manatee in college or something, he and WWE will remain on good terms for the foreseeable future and beyond.

NY Groover asks about The Ultimate Warrior in 96.

The year, he only needs 56 words for the question.

What do you think Vince’s original plans for the warriors 1996 comeback was? I just went back on WWE Network and it looks like after wrestlemania 12 he was put in a bunch of low-mid card feuds with no big storyline. There had to be some kind of cool plans if he had stayed in WWE.

Supposedly it’s a fairly simple cut and paste. Cut out Sid from the late 96 title picture, and paste Warrior in there instead.

This isn’t based on the flyer in the Self Destruction DVD, that was a mock up, but supposedly after the International Incident PPV, he was set to feud with British Bulldog, and then Vader presumably, and then he’d beat Shawn Michaels for the title and then drop it back to Shawn at the Rumble, all in the hopes of recapturing the glory he had once upon a time.

Of course, that all assumes they keep going with their initial plans after each step. Somehow I don’t see Warrior/Bulldog doing great business, but that’s just me.

And on a related note, we finish with Ron asking about Vader, a personal fav of mine.

Are there any stories or reasons why Vince and the WWE drop the ball with Big Van Vader? He had a awesome run in WCW and then he finally showed up in WWE with high expectations. But he didn’t do a whole lot… Then disappeared just before the Austin Era. Looking back, how awesome would Vader vrs undertaker be at wrestlemania 13? Somehow Sid got the spot Vader should gave been given, It’s unfortunate because he did amazing moves, had the best power bomb, and I never understood why he isn’t going down in history with more legendary status.

Yeah, Shawn Michaels didn’t like him.

*1/10th of a Chandler*

Vader was one of the toughest guys in the ring, but while he had his moments of losing his cool backstage, by most accounts he wasn’t that egotistical backstage. He wasn’t the sort to play politics, he wouldn’t go and bury people to the boss, he’d just turn up and do his job.

So you have a big guy who’s sort of stiff but basically a big softie who doesn’t play politics in a company that doesn’t have much of a track record with monster heel champions, and he’s up against a prima donna who doesn’t like getting hurt and plays politics so hard even Henry Kissinger is taken aback, but who is the closest the company has to a Hogan stand in and is the champ.

Who do you think is going to win in that contest of backstage dealing?

Hint: It ain’t the best big man in the business.

And on that note, see you all next week, where I’ll probably say Bam Bam Bigelow is the best big man in the business, just so I can hedge my bets.