Ask 411 Wrestling: What If Shane Had Stayed With WWE?

Hello there, welcome to Ask 411 Wrestling! Some big changes in WWE this week, although everyone is talking about a good match from Japan for better or worse. But forget both of them, let’s talk about obscure factoids and random matches!

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MITB 2013: Well, I guess my anger about how Sandow got screwed over on his cash in made me forget this PPV. So yeah, we’ve had all heels MITB and all faces MITB. So there you go.

Biggest Fall From Grace: Tammy Sytch is a good choice, I suppose, I felt that the question was less about morality as it was destitution. I dunno, it’s debatable, obviously.

The Trivia Crown

Who am I? I’m linked to Hulk Hogan via an award, Rey Mysterio via a title, and Katie Vick by a couple of steps. I’ve been a prescriber and an addict, although I lost the biggest match involving drugs of my career. (I didn’t mind too much though.) I helped end my first stable, although I wasn’t officially involved in the match. I had a one day reign once, I beat John Cena once, and I ended a title once. Of my three managers, one of them was the most important to me. A youthful guy who just wants some social media attention, I am who?

Jayden Devonshire had it mostly right, although I’ll sneak in the bit they missed.

Who am I? I’m linked to Hulk Hogan via an award (Flea Market champ), Rey Mysterio via title (Cruiserweight, Tag Team), and Katie Vick by a couple of steps (Katie’s ‘brother’ Scott was in the same stable in WCW). I’ve been a prescriber (Dr. Weisnberg) and an addict (herion addict gimmick in WCW), although I lost the biggest match involving drugs of my career. (I didn’t mind too much though.) (“Viagra on a Pole“ vs Shane Douglas, and he got with a couple Nitro Girls afterwards) I helped end my first stable (Raven’s Flock), although I wasn’t officially involved in the match. (Raven vs, Saturn) I had a one day reign once (WCW Cruiserweight title in March 2000), I beat John Cena once (Smackdown 2002), and I ended a title once (WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles). Of my three managers (Konnan, Tygress, Torrie), one of them was the most important to me (my wife- Torrie). A youthful guy (Kid-man) who just wants some social media attention (running gag on JBL show), I am who? Master of the Shooting Star, Billy Kidman)

Who am I? I’ve held a world title, a flag, and a hold on someone with an alliterative name. My last regular match in a company was a loss to a criminal. I’ve been a challenger who didn’t job to the champ in a specific arena, a challenger to escaping a move, a referee who overshadowed the match thanks to having fun, and a music ‘star’. I’ve main evented a company’s main show, I’ve won a tournament to get a vacant title, and I’ve been involved with a thousand magics. Who am I?

Getting Down To All The Business

Ron Gamble goes first because he’s Ron Fricking Gamble.

I have some things I’ve been wondering about for the past few weeks, and for some reason, I thought of you for answers.

Funny that.

1. Colby Corino was the last recruit of The Decade, but after his father Steve was replaced by Mr. Wrestling III, Colby kind of disappeared from ROH tv. Is he still with ROH? Also whatever happened to Steve? I miss his “SUPERKIIIICK!” call. It’s not quite the same when III does it.

To go with the last part first, Steve Corino’s still with the company, he’s doing promotional work for them and everything.

.@KINGCorino will be at BB&T Ballpark on June 14 to promote @ringofhonor shows on June 24 & 25 @CabarrusArena! pic.twitter.com/U4J0cjBvGh

— Charlotte Knights (@KnightsBaseball) May 27, 2016

I believe they’re just building to Best in the World 2016 where Whitmer and Corino will finally fight. The issue why this match hadn’t happened sooner was that Corino had neck surgery a while back, and thus he worked as Mr. Wrestling III while that healed, and now they finally get to the fireworks factory.

As for Colby, he was written out via Whitmer beating him down and kicking him out of The Decade back in February, which then led to Page turning on Whitmer. He’s still wrestling, as part of a stable called the Ugly Ducklings in PWX, along with Lance Lude and Rob Killjoy. I wasn’t able to find a source on his contract, but I suspect he’s not under contract to ROH right now, although him doing a run-in at BITW wouldn’t be totally unsurprising…

2. When someone leaves the WWWhatever and goes , it’s been said that TNA is getting scraps, leftovers, what have you, and their career is basically over. Yet, when someone goes the other way, it’s because Vince is going to make them a star. Mind you, AJ Styles, Kevin Steen, Samoa Joe, Prince Devitt, and others were well-known in the wrestling world before getting checks from VinceCo, so why is signing with the McMahons different?

Because WWE is the Big Dog, and thus signing with the Big Dawg is supposedly the peak of any wrestler’s career. The thinking is always that if you get to WWE, you have to be heading up and up, there’s no higher point than to sign to WWE. But if you go from WWE to TNA, then you’re taking a step down, because WWE is DA BIG DAWG and thus TNA is the sucky second place losers. Plus all the usual ‘TNA Sucks’ theories and concepts, not totally undeserved, that says that any company can puts out Shelly Martinez V Rebel on PPV cannot be considered a good place to work.

The McMahons, for better or worse, are on top of the mountain. Sure, more people are learning that you can do just fine at a little lower altitude, but there’s still going to be the stigma that until and unless you sign with WWE, you haven’t made it. No matter what the facts are, The McMahons are the top of the pile, and so they get the most attention. TNA is in the shadows, and thus must suck. And anyone else below them must be even worse…

3. One more. When Prince Devitt signed with NXT, he became Finn Balor. When Kana came to NXT, she became Asuka. When Kevin Steen came to NXT, he became Kevin Owens. Why, then, did Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Gallows, and Anderson, Austin Aries, Eric Young, and now possibly Bobby Roode get to keep their names?

There’s two different things here.

Styles, Nakamura, and Anderson were desperation (Gallows was his WWE name after all). WWE needed big names right away, and wanted to hurt NJPW a bit, so they went hard after Styles, Gallows and Anderson and Nakamura. Since WWE was a little desperate, and Styles especially was arguably the biggest wrestler WWE had never signed, they were able to negotiate their own names in.

(Besides, AJ’s giant tattoo makes it kinda hard to call him something else…)

As for the NXT guys, that’s due to a difference in philosophy. NXT is meant to be both a developmental and a touring company, and guys like Aries and Joe aren’t meant to end up in WWE, they’re the guys who keep NXT strong as a brand, so they can keep their own names so as to keep their brand strong and draw, and since they are still allowed to work indy dates in theory, there’s little point to change their names.

Joe’s the odd duck, since he was meant to be under a “work wherever but we’re priority” deal then he sold lots of shirts and ROH was going to feature him and thus he ended up on a full, proper deal, under his original name.

So yeah, either they had WWE over a barrel, or they’re not going to end up in WWE so they can keep their name.

Speaking of names, What A Maneuver wants a couple.

You’ve probably gotten this question before: Who portrayed Doink the Clown in Royal Rumble 1994 and in Royal Rumble 1995?

Ray Apollo, the main man to play the character after Matt Bourne left. Both years.

Speaking of questions with quick answers, Sam asks about the Curtain Call.

Great column and really like the amount of detail you go to – how do you find time to wrestle!

…

Quick question, we all know about the “curtain call” in MSG with Hall, Nash, HBK and HHH breaking kayfabe and the massive ramifications it had for both WWE and WCW. My questions is, what would have happened if it hadn’t been caught on film by the fan. Would the incident have been as big news pre-internet and would the same punishment for HHH have had happened etc?

Yes, because the film of the incident wasn’t known about until much later. The Curtain Call has been built up a bit since it occurred, what with the playing of the video on Raw coupled with the build up the Kliq has had in the telling and retelling of wrestling history.

But the scandal wasn’t that fans saw this break of kayfabe, it wasn’t the Proto-IWC that was up in arms, it was all the old timers and the general wrestling world, not the fans. It didn’t matter that it was an untelevised match, it was still a brick through kayfabe, in MSG, and a lot of guys in the business were upset. No-one was that concerned with the fans as such, beyond the general “they saw what they shouldn’t” logic.

Maybe the long term impact of the event might be less if the incident wasn’t filmed, sure, but the immediate impact had nothing to do with it being filmed, the shit came down onto Triple H at most days later, long before the footage came to light.

Speaking of footage that didn’t come to light much, Rahil wants to ask about XWF for some reason.

On wikipedia, it says Mabel (heavyweight), Nasty Boys (tag), Kid Kash (cruiserweight) and Christie Ricci (womens) were the final champions of the XWF promotion, who did they each beat and when, and were they only 5 house shows and 9 tv tapings for the XWF company as a whole ?????

There were two sets of TV tapings, a double shot on a Tues/Wed in November 2001, at Universal Studios, the later home of TNA. Each TV taping had 4 or 5 shows made out of them, and then there were 5 live events near the end of the year/in the new year, and then the company collapsed, although Jimmy Hart has the rights to the brand, he bought them in 2004. WWE has licensed at least one match from the set for a Hulk Hogan DVD, although that seems to have been a one off.

Anyway, as for the title holders, only two of them had any crownings/changings during the company’s existence.

XWF Tag Team Champions: The Nasty Boys beat The Road Warriors, The Shane Twins and Public Enemy The South Philly Posse in a four way match as part of TV show #8, taped on the second day of tapings.

XWF Cruiserweight Champion: In the third TV show taped, as part of the first taping day, Kid Kash won a battle royal that featured AJ Styles, Billy Fives, Christopher Daniels, Juventud Guerrera, Prince Iaukea, Psicosis and Quick Kick. The following day, as part of the 6th episode, Juventud Guerrera beat Kash to win the title. Then this title change was ignored, as Kash defended the title on the first house show, beating Josh Mathews on the 28th of December show, and the 29th of December show, and the 30th of December, and the 22nd of February 2002, and the 23rd of February show.

The Heavyweight and Women’s titles were invented for a couple of invasion angles in Puerto Rico and Memphis. You can see the full lineages here, but suffice to say they were hardly active belts.

Speaking of making stuff up, Aaron asks about the Nexus and The Undertaker.

Did the Nexus ever say why they helped Kane beat the Undertaker in the buried alive match at Bragging Rights 2010? I remember Otunga threatening Barrett by saying he would reveal why. But I don’t remember any follow-up. Was there a plan and it got aborted?

The attack was actually the result of a scrapped plan, as the original plan was for Taker to win the World Title at the event, but then Taker injured his shoulder, and since he’d already lost to Kane twice in a row on PPV, they needed to protect him for a third straight loss, hence the sudden Nexus beatdown. Taker went to have shoulder surgery and the thinking was that when Taker came back, the obvious Taker/Barrett program would be done, perhaps at WM.

But then Taker returned at WM 27 and they went the totally different route of Taker/HHH, obviously. By that point the Nexus was with Punk and it was all different, so it would have been a bit weird for Taker to go after Punk for something he wasn’t involved with.

So, this left the plot hole dangling as to why the Nexus attacked Undertaker. The Otunga hook was meant to set up the later Barrett/Taker program, but when that didn’t pan out they just moved on and ignored the moment.

It can be filled in easy, since Nexus attacked people randomly, so officially it was just another ‘random’ attack, and you can say that Barrett had a plan to get the World Title by manipulating who had the belt, maybe. WWE never explained it, and I doubt they’ll explain it now.

Speaking of inexplicable things, Someone Whose Name I’ve Lost, Sorry asks about a superfan.

This may have been answered already but… What is the story with the long haired guy that is at the front row of every ppv? I can find information or Twitter accounts for all the other regulars like Frank the clown, Lesner guy, sign/red hat guy, etc. But nothing for this guy does anyone know how he is front row for every ppv? Is he super rich? How does he get such good tickets everytime? I don’t think he’s a plant to liven up the crowd because he’s never excited, this is his face at all times.

The nickname he’s been given is ‘Samurai Cop’, for obvious reasons once you see this clip.

He is at every PPV and a lot of East Coast Raws after PPVs, accompanied by an older woman who, it is assumed, is his mother.

While he doesn’t draw attention like some other modern superfans like Rick The Sign Guy and Frank The Clown, nor is as memorable as other superfans like Vladimir and the ECW Front Row, he’s quite intense looking and once you know about him, you tend to spot him every time.

So it’s no real surprise a tiny section of the IWC is obsessed with him and want to know his deal. Could he possibly be some sort of WWE employee, given he tends to sit in the exact same spot in relation to the camera every time? Or is he just a superfan with rich parents?

Sadly I haven’t a clue, as he has not embraced the internet and his minimal overness. Perhaps you or someone you know knows Samurai Cop and can ask him to get on Twitter or Reddit or something and tell us how he gets such good seats? Beyond that I can only presume Mom is rich and he’s spoilt lucky.

Speaking of luck, Stu asks about a memorable, and painful, moment.

Was the panel in the Foley-Undertaker Hell In A Cell roof REALLY not meant to give in? The zip-ties holding that particular panel on were noticeably a completely different colour to the ones holding the others.

No, they were meant to give, just not like that. Foley went through the panel like it wasn’t even there, as you recall.

Have the network etcetcetc.

Anyway, the idea was meant to be Foley would take the chokeslam, land on the panel, and then the panel would break away and he’d fall through, as more a stop start affair. He’d bump on the cell, then take a flat bump onto the mat from a prone position. Instead, the cell panel just went away and he went all the way down from a standing position. In his book, Foley said that was both the best and worst sell of a chokeslam he’d ever done. Worst, since one foot didn’t leave the ground and it looked horrible. Best, because if he’d taken it ‘properly’, when the cell gave, he’d land high on his neck and, at best, be paralysed.

So yeah, it was meant to break, just not so fast and so suddenly.

Speaking of Foley, Nightwolf wants to talk about his latest interview with Shane McMahon.

1. So I was thinking about something while watching the Shane McMahon podcast with Mick Foley. If Shane had never left for those 6 or 7 years, how do you think things would have played out in the WWE? How would Raw storylines have played out? Do you think Shane would have been elevated to a higher position in the company? What are your thoughts on this?

It’s one of the big questions about WWE, what if Shane had stayed. It’s hard to talk about the individual sections independently, as I think the whole package needs to be examined, simply because we’re going to go back to two words and an acronym that long time readers of mine probably don’t remember given how long it has been since I brought it out.

The rumored plans that Shane was pushing for when he left was the ‘WWE Global Domination’ strategy, wherein WWE would have either official companies or at leat partnerships with each market in the world, there’d be a WWE Canada, a WWE Mexico, a WWE Europe etcetc. Readers have in the past said that this was fanciful and far fetched, which it may well be, but the thing is, what we’ve heard about WCW and ECW since Shane left keep pointing to this idea of Shane kept being set up to get a ‘company’ to run. Shane was meant to run WCW as a separate entity, but Viacom and then Tacoma put an end to that.

And then he was meant to run ECW as a small company on WWE.com exclusively. And then ECW got picked up by TV and PPV and Vince took it over because it was too big now.

Suffice to say, if Shane had stayed, Triple H’s position with NXT? That’d be Shane. May not have been NXT, maybe it would be a Cruiserweight brand, maybe there’d be a Raw brand, a SD brand, and a WWE.com exclusive Heat Brand or an MMA brand or something, but Shane would have been given the reigns of a ‘company’ to fly solo, ala Triple H now with NXT. Steph would still end up heading the same way up the ladder, as would Hunter, but there would be a certain level of competition between Shane’s whatever and the main show, as Steph would be spending time with Vince, working under him, while Shane would be making or breaking it on his own.

Eventually, there would come a moment wherein one of them would lose out. Steph would get her current role, and Shane would come in as new COO, or Hunter would get that role and Shane would walk. Or he’d just tune out and spend the last few years jerking off.

Shane left due to professional issues, which most people believe was seeing that StepHunter was coming to take ‘his’ spot. If he’d stayed, maybe he’d be forced out. Maybe he’d have won. Or heck, maybe he’d be Chief of Staff for Senator Linda now, it’s hard to say…

But Shane almost certainly would have gotten the reigns of something.

2. If you saw the podcast, you’ll hear Mick Foley ask Shane how he feels about Triple H. Shane seems hesitant before saying Triple H makes his sister happy. Foley calls him out on it, and Shane deflects it. You can clearly see Shane’s disgust for Triple H and he does a horrible job hiding it. What is the full truth behind why Shane hates Triple H?

That’s possibly a work, designed to subtly set up a Shane/HHH match at Summerslam for some percentage of the marbles. Now that I’ve covered myself, the supposed situation, the rumors and all that, say that HHH was the son Vince always wanted, and given that he’s wormed his way into the company and will probably end up running the company at some point, there’s plenty of reasons why Shane would dislike the guy who derailed his professional career and who ‘stole his place’ in wrestling history.

But that is all hearsay and guesswork. Maybe Triple H double dipped at Vince’s birthday party and Shane saw it or something…

3. Shane also says there are no hard feelings about Stephanie rising through the ranks of WWE. I would have to disagree with that statement. Shane McMahon is a 4th generation McMahon. He has 3 sons, and I’m sure he’d like it to pass through the 5th generation and so on. Do you think Shane feels Blackballed because Vince passed him over for Stephanie?

I’m sure he’s not at all upset and is more than happy for StepHunter to lead the WWE for the next generation.

*Chandler Meter Blows Us*

Moving on quickly, here’s a related question from Connor.

Why did WWE not do more with Test

There’s a few reasons, him not being a great interview, his name being stupid, being just passible in the ring, a stupid name, being all round just an average wrestler with a great ‘natural’ body and a good head of hair before he cut it and a stupid, stupid name, but I think the main reason is that the angle that should of, could of made him a star got ruined.

Russo began the Test/Steph romance angle, and it led to arguably Test’s best match against Shane in the Love Her or Leave Her match.

WWE Network yaddayaddayadda.

And it was all building to the wedding, and the moment that should have made Test. Except Russo then left the company. After a quick amnesia angle to buy themselves time, the new WWF writers got out of the wedding by having Triple H drug and marry Steph ‘against her will’, although retroactively with the later Steph heel turn I guess she was in on this at the time?

WWE Network rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb.

Now sure, this got Triple H traction and led to WWF 2000 being a huge huge year for the WWF and thus worked out well for all involved… Except Test.

Had the original plan gone through, had Test turn on Steph at the alter and join DX, had Steph been written out at this point since Russo didn’t see her as a good character… Test’s career would be very different, and so would the WWF as a whole.

Better for Test, sure. But for the WWF… Probably not.

Speaking of the company, William finishes us off with a question about WWE and gambling.

I have a question about gambling, believe it or not. As an Australian, I notice that many of the larger WWE events and matches are picked up by local gambling/booking agents much like you can bet on the winner of any other legitimate sport. From reading articles on 411, it seems like bookies in the US also take bets for the same. My question is therefore whether the WWE has any systems in place that restrict talent or WWE employees from betting on matches? For example, a WWE road agent could stand to make a hell of a lot of money for putting money on the main event of WM33 being a Rollins/Reigns/Ambrose three way match (which you can actually bet on here in Australia) if they know that it going to be the definite “lock” match for the event. In Australia, players or other official staff making a bet on something like that in a legitimate sport like rugby or cricket can result in a ban from the sport and sometimes even criminal charges. Are you aware of any gambling policies in place in the WWE?

Well first off, there’s a limit to how much you can make in gambling even if you know the results, given that to my limited knowledge of online bookmakers, they don’t take bets on if a match will or won’t happen, but only on results of matches, and even then, most of them use it as a novelty to get you to sign up, with limits on how much you can win on any one bet.

But on the other hand, there was a rumor that a TNA road agent would rake in money by placing large bets after each team meeting, so it may be possible.

Anyway, while the specific case of gambling based on results is not named, in the WWE Code of Business, there’s a passage which pretty much rules out gambling on WWE matches.

WWE Personnel should not engage in any activities, have any personal or financial interests, or have any other relationships which conflict or appear to conflict with their duty to be loyal to WWE or which might impair their exercise of independent judgment. i.e WWE Personnel shall not use information obtained through their engagement with WWE for personal profit, nor shall they disclose confidential information to outsiders.

As well as later on, there are confidentiality clauses. So if someone was discovered to be gambling on WWE results based on plans, WWE would easily go “You’ve used confidential information for personal gain, you are so fired”. Pretty open and shut, even if they don’t specifically mention gambling.

And on that damp squib of an ending, Ask 411 is closed for now, see you all next week!