Ask 411 Wrestling: Who Can Stop Brock Lesnar?

Hello, and welcome to the only column that is wondering if WWE is going to make The Miz the most decorated IC Champ in history to distract us from Cena passing Flair’s record, Ask 411 Wrestling!

I am your host, Mathew Sforcina, and 411mania is all nice and spiffy now, don’t you agree? Of course, with the new layout, it might take a couple weeks to get everything working fully in terms of getting what I want this column to be to you, the reader. But I will be using this fresh start to make a couple changes to the column, the most obvious and major one is that I am officially retiring the Fact/Opinion break up. Now, all the questions will be in one block, in order to stop having to split up emails and also, mainly, because I’m getting more and more questions that aren’t easily categorised, questions that are sorta fact but sorta opinion but neither really. In the event that this is totally unacceptable, I understand, may Victoria be with you, see you some other time.

If you choose to see the positives and rejoice in the death of the Total Opinion Week, you can send an email to [email protected] and I’ll answer it in-between Supercard sessions.

But while the site looks awesome and everything, BANNER still triumphs over all.

Zeldas!

Check out my Drabble blog, 1/10 of a Picture! That remains upgrade free.

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Foreigners: *rereads question*

…

I’d stop doing those sorts of questions since I invariably screw them up, but then I’d not get any attention if I didn’t screw things up, like the Savage Video Game timeline (my bad there). I left off an obvious 3 in Aksana too. But yeah, just delete all the Canadians there.

The Trivia Crown

Who am I? A former boss, I’m an 8 time holder of a specific WWE belt, although all my other WWE title runs were one offs. A once did Shakespeare, or at least gave a quote on camera. One belt changed names while I held it. I was once Commissioner, I once got dumped for a guy in a mask, and I once got tasered. An Iron Man, A Show, and apparently on a major public thoroughfare headed towards a possibly mythical location noted for its heat, I am who?

Matt Boogie has the answer.

Who am I?
-Boss of the Dudley Boyz in 2004
-8 Time Hardcore Champion
-1 time European, Cruiserweight, Tag Team Champion
-Quoted Shakespeare (“I shall, I do”) in Beyond The Mat
-WWF Hardcore Title became WWE Hardcore Title while he held it.
-ECW Commisioner in 2000
-Dumped by Molly for the Hurricane
-Tasered by Konnan in TNA
-ECW’s Iron Man
-Little Show (while with Big Show)
-Theme Music Highway To Hell

You are Spike Dudley!!

Maravilloso returns to challenge us all.

I am a wrestling PPV event. In me, there is a current member of WWE, a current member of TNA and several former WWE, WCW, TNA and ECW wrestlers. There were three wrestlers who, at one time or another, have had a connection with dogs, there were holy men, there was a feline, there was someone who, at two different times, had a connection with horses, there was a bull AND a bullfighter, and someone who had a connection to things in the sky and recording artists. There were three former WWE world champions, a WCW World Champion, two Triple Crown champions and a Grand Slam Champion. Four wrestlers in me are no longer with us, including a tag team, who lost something they loved that night. In the arena I occurred, two Wrestlemanias also took place and someone very active in wrestling with two major promotions got to make his professional debut in me. Who am I?

Getting Down To All The Business

So the first question of the new era goes to… (Insert fake name here). Goodie.

Stupid question but I figure I would ask someone smarter than me to be sure (aka you). We see several wrestlers wipe their feet before entering the ring. Is this a “respect for wrestling”, or something else? Is there someone who started this practice?

Yeah, it’s a respect thing, coupled with common sense cleanliness. It began back in the days when wrestling was part of travelling fairs, and the ‘ring’ would be in the middle of a field or some such. Thus walking to the ring would require you to walk through grass and mud, or stuff worse than mud. So, rather than track mud into the ring, you’d wipe your feet before getting in, like you would wipe your feet before you get in the ring.

Now it’s more about respect, since the ring is special your home, you take care of it, plus you don’t want to get dirt on your opponent and such. It’s very much just a respect/tradition thing. I don’t do it myself because I’ve worked as a whiny bully heel for so long that I got out of the habit. So I’m sure William Regal will give me a stern talking to if I ever get that far.

From wiping your feet to wiping away, Bill asks about Hogan post Yoko Crushing.

I was reading the 9.17.2014 edition of Ask 411 Wrestling and there were a couple of questions about Hulk Hogan during 1993 in the WWE(F) and it got me thinking. I don’t recall anything about Hogan on WWE programming, at the time, after his loss to Yokozuna, at KOTR. The only thing I recall is an interview with Luger after he slammed Yoko on the aircraft carrier that he’s been disgusted (or something to that affect) since what happened at the KOTR, with no real mention of Hogan at all. Was there any mention of Hogan leaving? Any send off? During the first Monday Night Wars episode there is a clip of Vince interviewing a somber looking Hogan (while Vince was overdubbed talking about Hogan leaving), was that about his leaving? Did Hogan work any dates for WWE after KOTR before he signed with WCW?

Hogan did work several more dates after King of the Ring. In the house shows leading into KOTR, he had tag matches, teaming with Brutus Beefcake to take on Money Inc with Sgt. Slaughter as the ref. In the house shows after KOTR, he continued to do that match a few more times. Then the WWF did a European tour that Hogan went on, where he wrestled Yokozuna a few times, winning by DQ when Fuji broke the pinfall attempts. His last match for nearly a decade in the WWF was August 6th, in Sheffield England.

As for send offs, his loss to Yoko at the PPV was the last time he was seen live on WWF TV until his return as part of the nWo. He didn’t get any real sort of send off, but WWF did show clips from his movie Mr. Nanny once or twice to promote the film, and they did shill a WWF magazine that came out in September with Hogan and Hart on the cover, but the closest Hogan got to a send off was in mid-October on Raw, where Savage shot on him in passing. (Skip to 2:35 for the relevant part)

Hogan and WWF didn’t part on the best of terms, after all.

Nightwolf is (mostly) about current events.

1. If the WWE did decide to resign Kurt Angle, would he be the only other legitimate contender to Brock Lesnar because of their history?

…

Seth Rollins is the Money In The Bank holder, and could use that to make his mark at any time.

Dean Ambrose is the craziest MFer around right now, and he’ll throw himself at Brock until one of them’s dead.

Roman Reigns is, like it or not, the next Chosen One, so he’s got as good a shot as anyone.

Vince can panic at any point and buy Pepsi in order to get CM Punk to come back.

HHH can panic at any point and put himself over Brock.

Randy Orton is the other side of the Cena coin, so he could do it.

Kane would be both wholly logical and totally unbelievable, but it’d piss people off…

The Undertaker is physically broken down, but the storyline of him coming back to crush Brock at WM is a viable one, albeit one that probably won’t happen.

He’d need a few months of pushing and rehabilitation, but Cesaro could absolutely have an awesome match with Brock, and The King Of Swing being the guy to upend Brock after how Heyman tossed him aside, that’s a hell of a thing.

And of course, there’s always that Daniel Bryan guy…

So no, Angle isn’t the only other choice. WWE has options. They won’t explore most of them, but they did exist.

2. If the WWE doesn’t resign Kurt Angle who would be your top 10 Legitimate contenders for Brock Lesnar( In my honest opinion I only see Roman Reigns or Batista but we all know Batista isn’t coming back)?

… See above.

And really I don’t think Angle is coming back as a wrestler. Maybe if WWE can convince him it’s for the best, he could be a hell of a trainer in NXT (Angle teaching the NXT 5/6/Large Number? Yes please!), but given how beat up he appears, I really am unsure he could pass their physicals. Use him as a trainer or an announcer, do the Hall of Fame induction and the DVD and then let him enjoy his life without killing himself no more, please.

3. The FBI ( Full Blooded Italians) is the second Stable behind the 4 Horsemen to feature the most Incarnations of the group ( 11 I think). Where any of the member actually from Italy? And how did Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli get involved with the FBI? That kinda seamed like an odd fit to me considering who was in the FBI during there ECW days

OK, let’s get the list.

“The Italian Stallion” J.T. Smith- American
“The Main Man” Tracy Smothers- American
“The Big Don” Tommy Rich- American
Big Guido- American
Big Val Puccio- American
Chuck Palumbo- American
Davey Piezono (Kid Kash)- American
Johnny Stamboli- American
Little Guido Maritato/Nunzio- American
Mabel- American
One Man Gang- American
Sal E. Graziano- American
Salvatore Bellomo- Belgian
Tony Mamaluke/Tony Luke- American
Trinity- American
Ulf Herman- German
Vito- American

However, that’s just where they are born. Although the gag began as ‘None of these guys are actually Italian’, most of them have Italian heritage. Both Guidos, Stamboli, both Sals, Tony, Trinity and Vito, while not being born in Italy, do have Italian heritage, I believe. Certainly Trinity was once known as Italian Finesse and her real name is Stephanie Finochio so if she’s as Italian as I am at least.

The F.B.I. with Chuck and Johnny formed in the WWE when Nunzio, who had been brought into the company as Jamie Noble’s cousin, got beat up by Rikishi and decided to bring his ‘family’ to get revenge. The following week, Chuck and Johnny ran out to help beat down Rikishi and the team was formed. Not exactly Shakespeare, but acceptable.

And you gotta remember, yes the F.B.I began with the gag of ‘No Real Italians’, or at least mostly since the first two members were 50-50, with JT Smith not being Italian but Big Val being Italian. But once Little Guido/Nunzio got involved, they moved into more your basic Italian stereotype group where it was mostly actual Italians. Plus at the end of ECW’s run, Guido and Mamaluke were a serious tag team.

So yeah, the group evolved out of the gag pretty quickly.

Alan has a couple of questions about short lived retirements.

A few years back, it seemed no sooner did Lilian Garcia “retire” only to be “back” on Smackdown as the announcer. So what happened there? I thought she got married and wanted to start a family and that is why she retired.

… So here’s a thing. Lillian Garcia is 48 years old.

I just found that an interesting fact, and wished to share it with you. Certainly doesn’t change anything, really.

Anyway, she retired on September 21st, 2009, and married her current husband a week later. At the time, she claimed she was tired of the road, and wished to settle down. That doesn’t automatically mean kids, but certainly it means enjoying marriage and finding a job that doesn’t require as much moving about. She kept at her singing career during her time away, and did some work as a reviewer/talking head for a Post-Raw show along with Maria Kanellis and some other people.

But a couple years after retiring she returned, claiming she ‘missed it’. And that’s somewhat understandable, in that you ask almost any former wrestler or person involved in wrestling, on some level, they miss it. It’s a hell of a drug.

As we all know, after Mick Foley was “retired” by HHH at No Way Out 2000, he went on to wrestle many more matches while of course the WWE had their typical amnesia and did not mention it once except the the fatal four-way match at that years Wrestlemania. So my question, is there any Kayfabe explanation as to how he could keep wrestling?

Sort of. I mean, WWE didn’t come out and say ‘Foley can break the contract now because of Reasons’, but you look at his first ‘match’ after Wrestlemania 2000, it was the match that didn’t happen on Raw against Randy Orton.

At the time, Foley and Bischoff were co-GMs of Raw, and the two arranged the match between Mick and Randy to determine which co-GM would quit. So when he walked out, he quit. And then he returned at the 2004 Rumble when Austin put him into the match at the last second, and then his feud with Orton went from there, and after that he began to make the occasional comeback.

So it becomes clear that a GM can overrule a ‘Must Retire’ clause in a contract, since three of them were able to let Foley wrestle. And a Plot Hole is filled.

Hmm… Interesting concept that.

That’s what we call foreshadowing, there.

OK, so this is MMA. But she’s a wrestling fan, the commentary is by a wrestler related to a wrestling themed group, and it’s funny, so there.

Joey Joe Joe Shabadoo asks about Kane and the mask.

Quick question for you that belongs in TOTAL OPINION – wouldn’t more people (myself included) buy into Kane if he referenced the fact that he (ostensibly, kayfabe) broke Daniel Bryan’s neck and put him out of action? I feel like that would get him much more heat than just putting back on a mask.

Except that technically he doesn’t. The last guy Bryan fought was Del Rio. The night after Extreme Rules, he fought and defeated Del Rio and that was Bryan’s last match so far.

But yes, they could have said that Kane did the damage, maybe tie it back with him taking out Punk and say how he’s cleaning up the place for the Authority. But clearly showcasing the Stephanie/Brie storyline was much more important than getting heat on a guy who could actually make you money wrestling.

And now he’s back out of the mask and back to the Corporate Kane character which is just more evidence that he’s the smartest man in wrestling history. They could have pushed him taking out Bryan more, but they chose, for whatever reason, to end that feud when Bryan went down, presumably when Bryan comes back they’ll choose someone more important than Kane to have Bryan fight. Maybe, you know, the Champ right now who killed Cena, like Bryan did, and who can’t be stopped and at Wrestlemania, the underdog will rise again and Brock Lesnar will end up fighting, and losing, the belt to our hero, John Cena.

Something Else (hey, that’s what he asked to be called) brings us back to Hogan.

Was Hogan turning at bash at the beach the best turn ever?

See, these sorts of questions, especially if you ask them within earshot of me, end up getting bogged down in definitions. In this case, how do you define best? Are you asking in terms of build up and as a storyline, was it the best told turn of all time? Not really, because that’s Mr. Wonderful turning on Hogan in 86. Do you mean in terms of the transition of the character? I’d say Stephanie beginning the McMahon-Helmsley Regime transformation was more stunning a turn around. Do you mean in terms of the turn itself, the physical action? Austin at Wrestlemania X7 holds that honor.

Do you mean in terms of long term impact to the business? Money made? Future influence? Do you want me to chart all of the above and try to come up with the definitive best turn? Because Hogan’s turn is one of the all time greats. But in my view, the single most important, profitable, impactful, influential, and flat out best turn of all time? The Montreal Screwjob, Vince McMahon turns heel.

After all, Hogan turning heel helped WCW get on top for a long time. But Vince McMahon turning heel won WWF the war, and created an entirely new concept in wrestling of the heel authority figure, and led to a lot of classic moments and a lot of money made, and still has an impact today. Hogan in black is a fashion choice. Mr. McMahon could return at any time.

Rahil has some ideas.

Thoughts on my DVD ideas for WWE:

Midget

A look at the history of Midget Wrestling would actually be interesting, a documentary on the subject, that’d be cool. But WWE would never do that, at least not to the degree the topic would warrant. They’d be too hung up on how awesome they are to give these little people a chance to shine and blahblahblah. I’d be interested in the concept, but not from the WWE. Besides, most of the good matches aren’t in their library anyway, just the ‘important’ ones.

Triple Threat

It’s a little abstract, although you could certainly fill a DVD with good matches, even without the Benoit/DDP/Raven and Benoit/HBK/HHH ones… Or the Joe/AJ/Daniels ones that you’d really need to complete the set if you want it to be definitive. Maybe once WWE buys the TNA library.

Fatal 4 Way

See, at least I can think of enough triple threats to fill a DVD set. 4 Way… I mean, I’m sure you can find enough matches, but while the triple threat is abstract but workable, this is just a concept with no real emotion behind it.

5 and 6 People Matches

See the previous one, and reduce the number of possible inclusions even more. No.

Diva`s

Well sure. I mean, they’re not going to do any more Lingerie DVDs, but women’s wrestling will get a DVD sooner or later. Hopefully it focuses on NXT though.

Ace takes us back to Bad News, before it was for ya.

Why did the WWF change Bad News Allen’s name to Bad News Brown? Was this a rib on his skin-color? Even as a kid I thought that Bad News Brown was kind of a racist name.

Unfortunately I was unable to find any information on this. Bad News has sadly passed on and Vince isn’t yet at the answering questions on Twitter stage, so chances are a solid answer will continue to elude us. But I suspect Vince probably just thought it sounded better or rolled better off the tongue or he just wanted a new name for him. Not every decision or choice has dark or sinister undertones. Sometimes in wrestling you just change something because you think it’ll be better the other way.

Also, what was with Piper doing the blackface at Mania VI vs Bad News? Again, was this a racially-based rib, or was Piper just trying to get a pop?

It was racially based, but not a rib. In his own words, Piper was pitched working with Brown at Wrestlemania, and Piper knew he’d have to talk about him a whole lot. And in Piper’s mind Brown was only so-so as a wrestler (his words) and so he was looking for stuff to talk about. And, in his own words…

Nelson Mandela was put in jail for 20-some years for political crimes. Every morning, he was the first man when the guard came to extend his hand to the guard. What a hell of a man. At the same time, Cindy Lauper had ‘True Colors’ out. In my mind, what I was trying to do — there is no difference. I needed material on Bad News Brown. I did something where I sang ‘True Colors’ and I did a thing about Nelson Mandela. But, they don’t seem to remember that. The thing I didn’t do so well was when I came down, I pretended to be Michael Jackson. I don’t quite dance like Michael does, I guess.

And then at the PPV he did the half-face paint deal to signify that he wasn’t racist, that he represented all races and on behalf of humanity he’d kick Bad News Brown’s ass. It was to try and get a reaction from a feud he wasn’t fully behind and wasn’t sure would work. And he has a point, it didn’t really work, but the face paint didn’t help at all.

Neal takes us, unintentionally, into murky waters.

I was watching RAW Flashback and they were in the Survivor Series 1993 era. It was 2 weeks before the show and they were still promoting the Hart family vs Jerry Lawler and his Knights. I know it got changed to Shawn Michaels, can you go over the real reason why Lawler was not there since they were still promoting him 2 weeks before the event.

Around that point, 2 weeks before Survivor Series, a 15 year old girl from Lousiville, KY, accused Lawler of sexually abusing her earlier in the year. Lawler was then indicted for the charge, and thus was immediately pulled from the WWF and Memphis wrestling for somewhat obvious reasons.

Before the case could come to court, however, the girl in question, who had been seen following Lawler to his hotel room on the night in question, admitted she had made up the accusations. Lawler was acquitted of all charges and quickly returned to TV once they were.

So that’s why it was so sudden, given that they didn’t want to mention at all he was up on statutory rape charges.

Connor wants to ask if Test is still dead what went wrong with Test.

I’ve always thought Test should have been the mystery man in the triple threat at Survivor Series 1999 to take the title instead of Big Show. the guy was crazy over and he had heat with Triple H.

Rewatching his Summerslam 1999 match with Shane Mcmahon, the guy was crazy over there too, but by March he’s in a tag team with Albert.

What do you think went wrong? Test could have been something so much more

Test being the third man at Survivor Series 99 is what a lot of people were thinking at the time, it was certainly something that was said a lot online at the time by people who had watched live, most people were thinking Test was the logical replacement.

Anyway, the problem with Test was that Russo left the WWF, right when Russo was going to make Test.

I know a lot of people are going to throw shade on me here, with the idea that Russo made anyone not a popular one, but the thing is, the whole Test/Steph romance was his angle, and as he’s said several times, he had an end goal in mind, which was somewhat the reverse of what happened, as his original idea was that Test was going to turn on Steph and leave her at the alter and join up with DX.

Without, I assume, the drugging and implied raping. Probably.

*Whatever the Inverse of a Chandler is. A Monica?*

While that may or may not have worked out, it was a clear direction for Test and would have led to him being pushed. But when Russo left, the WWF got a new writing structure and with new hands on the pen, the story changes, and the angle ended up just building up more heat for Hunter.

And sure, in the long run you can argue it was for the best, as Steph and HHH together was a pretty good duo and would lead to some awesome work and make everyone lots of the sweet sweet dollar dollar bills, while Test probably wasn’t going to become the next Austin, the fact is that he kinda got jerked around on the deal. He was as competent a wrestler as you need, and he did have a solid support at the time. But it was all downhill once the wedding got ruined. It could have been saved (like, say, a strong showing in the main event of Survivor Series) but that was the point it all went wrong for him.

Andrew goes in-depth.

To what degree do you believe WWE is knowledgeable of independent wrestling promotions, particularly more notable ones such as Ring of Honor, Chikara, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla?

Paul Heyman in an old interview with Ariel Helwani told stories of Vince McMahon living in a “bubble” of selective awareness to the world around him, including in regard to the pro wrestling industry, presumably. Setting Vince aside individually, I think it’s fair to theorize that other key figures in WWE other than wrestlers (ie. management and “creative”) are more than just aware of indie groups such as ROH.

Even if WWE doesn’t deem anyone other than TNA (at best) to be legitimate competition, I wonder if there’s perhaps WWE officials who monitor the indies, beyond talent scouting. Specifically, watching events on video or online and taking ideas from things like spots, angles, and generally taking notes on what gets over with audiences. Admittedly WWE has larger and more diverse crowds who aren’t all looking for technical wizardry, but that doesn’t mean they’re ignoring their “pure” wrestling viewers.

Furthermore I wonder if WWE’s in-ring trainers and agents perhaps look to indie wrestling video for training purposes. They’ve hired Sara Del Ray as a trainer, so perhaps at least she might reference some indie video. Indie vets like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan have firmly established themselves in WWE main event in the eyes of both fans and WWE officials, and with them has come WWE making public mention of Ring of Honor on their website and DVDs. As such it’s no doubt fair to assume that WWE sees at least some value in ROH in ways that the public doesn’t see.

In the end I leave you with two inter-related questions…

1. Do you think WWE analyzes independent wrestling promotions in the ways mentioned above?

I think it’s both much more professional and also a lot more informal than what you’ve suggested. Admittedly, I’m going on guesswork here for the first half, but the second half I’m more solid on.

As much as Vince McMahon is in a bubble, I think that it is safe to say that someone has the job of keeping tabs on the other wrestling companies, in terms of who is involved, if they are gaining or losing steam, if anything is going on that might reflect badly on them, I would someone is producing a report on that sort of stuff in case something comes up and they need to know how long CHIKARA’s been doing time travel or something. Vince probably rarely, if ever, looks at the report, but reports do exist. So possibly my name is on a file somewhere in WWE, but probably not. Yet.

However, I think the vast majority of the impact of other companies does not come from the top down but rather the other way around. Because no matter how much some wrestlers will say otherwise, the vast majority of wrestlers are first and foremost fans of wrestling. And so, they watch wrestling. They might not catch every DDT live event recap or what have you, but most wrestlers will watch indy wrestling. That’s how spots get stolen, lines get adapted, how wrestlers become known to higher ups when they are suggested by guys like William Regal and such.

At the end of the day, wrestling is everyone stealing everything from everyone else. Only Japanese Women truly invent anything.

*75% Chandler*

2. Do you think, given not just the past presence in Ring of Honor of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan but also that of older notable wrestlers (including WWE alumni such as Bobby Heenan, Mick Foley, Jim Cornette, etc.) that WWE might already be interested in acquiring Ring of Honor’s video library, if not the company as a whole in some capacity? I wouldn’t be surprised if, given ROH’s financial uncertainties, WWE is perhaps keeping an eye on them in that regard.

I don’t think WWE is going to be buying any other companies any time soon. Tape libraries, absolutely. If they can get a good deal on it, plus assuming guys like Steen and Zayn take off well, they’ll have motivation to buy ROH’s library. But not till ROH goes under, and/or Sinclair gets desperate for money or some such. Buying the company outright seems unlikely, in that anyone ROH has under contract that WWE would want, WWE would want to put them through developmental anyway, so buying their performer contract would be actively detrimental to their goal.

Plus WWE has what they want in a developmental program in NXT now. The Global Domination plan was before the Network was a thing, so now that NXT has a TV show that they can do for cheap and is popular, they have their place to rough off the edges of their new guys and train them in WWE style. They no longer care to have a wide range of talent, they just want lots of talent that can work their way.

And I get that, and while I don’t fully agree with it I certainly understand it and can see how it’s a positive. I’d prefer the Global Domination approach but that’s not gonna happen, so NXT as is is fine.

Manu asks about taping. Of fingers.

Brodus Clay has a shirtload of tape on his fingers – does he have issues with his hands? I know wrestlers tape their fingers for various reasons (blades, wedding ring substitutes, shirts and giggles, etc), but I’ve never seen it done as much as Clay does it.

Not according to him in an interview. In what was a pretty standard interview about his movie, No One Lives for a movie/comic book site, he was asked about who influenced him, and the first name he said was King Haku, and that he taped his fingers like he did. And if you look at Meng in his later years, when his afro was at its most gloriously insanely huge, he does indeed have a lot of tape on his fingers too. So there you go.

And with that factual question, I bring this new and improved Ask 411 Wrestling episode to a close. Feel free to leave your comments, be they complimentary, uncomplimentary, or neutral below. This is as always a work in progress and if I can improve it for you, the reader, then I will do so.

Probably. If I can be bothered…