Ask 411 Wrestling 11.15.06: Roddy Piper’s Lack of Titles, Chris Benoit’s Lack of New Titles, Intellectual Property, and More!

It’s time to Ask 411 Wrestling! I’m Steve Cook, and this week we’ve got…well, what we always have here. Lots of questions and lots of answers!

Before we get started, I’d like to thank everybody who writes in to this column and gives me material to use. I also appreciate the kind words offered by many of you about my stewardship of Ask 411 so far. I don’t get to personally respond to you guys very often due to work and other column writing going on these days, but rest assured that I do appreciate it. Unless you are a hater, in which case I don’t appreciate it. Don’t hate, appreciate, I always say…

A new addition to the column this week…I’ve noticed that some of you get a little bit uneasy when your question doesn’t appear in the next week’s column. It probably needs to be made clear that I’m not exactly up to date when it comes to putting questions in the column…with the number of e-mails currently coming in, they’re coming quicker than I can answer them. So in each column I will mention near the top how many Ask 411 e-mails are currently in my inbox. For future reference, I usually get around to doing about 25 e-mails a column, not including the corrections and added information.

Question E-mails still in the Inbox: 32

I will try to answer all questions within 2 weeks of them being sent in to me…I can’t promise that will always happen, but I will try my best to do so. And there will be some that slip through the cracks…again, that’s just how things go.

Corrections and Added Information

“Hey thanks for posting my question about the replica title belts. Due to that link you posted I found out the NWA World Title will cost me about $2000 for the real deal, 24k gold plated also. Ill send you a pic when I get one. Thanks again.” – Mitchell

Good deal, I look forward to seeing it soon.

“In regards to the ongoing debate about the Tournament of Champions that Jerry Lawler supposedly won by beating Hogan and Flair in the late 80’s, I have some info that might clear things up…

First off, no such tourney every took place. By 1988, Vince McMahon’s WWF and Jim Crockett’s NWA/WCW were in such heated competition that they would never agree to let their World Champions battle in the same tournament, let alone on the same card. I think this is a matter of people’s memories being a bit too fuzzy or just plain non-existant.

Starting off with Lawler… In December of 1988, Jerry Lawler unified the AWA World Title with the WCCW World Title by beating Kerry Von Erich in Chicago on the AWA’s PPV “Superclash 88”. To the AWA and WCCW (which has also been referred to as WCWA, though I’m not clear why) this made Lawler the “Unified World Heavyweight Champion”. The only problem was that Lawler got stripped of the AWA World Title a month later after not showing up for a title defense, which eventually led to the CWA (Lawler and Jerry Jarrett’s Memphis promotion, aka AWA Mid-South) to leave the AWA. A month later, Larry Zybysko won the AWA World Title in a battle royal. Eventually, Jarrett and Lawler bought WCCW from Fritz Von Erich and merged the two companies (CWA and WCCW) into the USWA where they continued to recognize Lawler as the “Unified World Heavyweight Champion” – a title which remained until USWA closed down in 1997. To add to all of that, sometime in the late 80’s – possibly right after he won the AWA title – there was an interview with Lawler in Pro Wrestling Illustrated. In it, Lawler mentioned that having previously beaten Flair (by DQ during an NWA World Title match) and Hogan (don’t know the result, but this was likely when Hogan was in the AWA) during previous appearances in Memphis in the early 80’s gave more credibility to his claim as the “Unified World Heavyweight Champion” of wrestling. So it was typical wrestling/carny stuff where Lawler was putting himself over for the marks of the time (including myself).

Another piece to the puzzle also comes from PWI in the form of an advertisement they used to run claiming a 3-way match between AWA World Champion Rick Martel, NWA World Champion Ric Flair, and WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan. I don’t recall all of the specifics of the ad, but I think it was for a special issue of PWI where they compared the 3 World Champs of the time. An interesting note is that this ad ran alongside the GAB 86 VHS ad for several years, long after Martel’s reign in 85 ended. Then you have to take into account the fact that in the late 70’s/early 80’s there were several key champion vs champion matches across the country, like Race/Backlund. All of these matches ended in a DQ/countout/schmozz, but the fact they happened also probably adds to people’s “memory” of a Tournament of Champions taking place.

A lot of info there I know, but hopefully it helps make the debate a bit clearer. Keep up the great job on 411!” – Jason

“Regarding Ricky Steamboats animals, I remember reading
a story about this several years ago – the details are
a bit sketchy and I don’t know even how accurate it
is, but it amused me, so anyway… Steamboat, during
his 1991 stint in the WWF, was briefly bringing out a
large lizard (possibly a komodo dragon) before
switching to a much smaller monitor lizard. The reason
being, so the story goes, is that one night they went
into Titan Towers (or wherever they kept it) only to
find their komodo dragon had escaped and seemingly
gotten out of the building. God help the residents of
Stamford, those things are LETHAL (and by lethal, I
mean potentially deadly) so they switched to a much
smaller, and safer, monitor lizard.

Also on the Black Knight thing, facially he looks a
lot more like Glen Jacobs than Jeff Gaylord (from what
you can see), but height and size wise, plus the fact
Gaylords career would more likely place him as being
in line to take this match, suggests otherwise.
Gaylord had been around a few years by this point too
whilst Jacobs was a rookie by comparison – would the
WWF really throw out somebody relatively green into a
PPV match when there was a ton of big guys on the
independent circuit they could have brought in?

Entrance music wise, Demolitions music was done by
Rick Derringer which may have something to do with it.
If Hogans ‘Real American’ music was also edited out of
the Anthology collection (and you’ll have to ask
someone who’s actually seen them) then there’s a link
there. The NWO music is just stock music that WCW
picked up, which probably has something to do with it.
And as per the popular belief, it did indeed feature
in a porno movie (not that I’ve seen it, but I DID see
a clip of one once that had Steve Blackmans first WWF
theme). Don’t know what the deal with Slicks is
though.

Oh, and the Harley Race vs Haku match from the Royal
Rumble was supposed to be fairly good, all things
considered. From the bits I’ve seen it certainly
looked perfectly alright, and it’s stuff like this
(plus the fact half my Royal Rumble tapes are
knackered) that’s encouraging me to get the Royal
Rumble anthology set next year. Here’s hoping they
don’t cut that out (or the Mountie/Koko B Ware from
1991 while we’re at it).

Regarding Hulk Hogan trying to bury the Warrior
because Warrior brought up the fact he’d beaten Hogan
in another company, Warrior wasn’t even the first to
say it – DDP introduced the Warrior, or hinted at him
appearing or something or another, and giving Hogan a
hint as to who was going to appear, told Hogan this
guy was 1-0 over him. So no hate for DDP then either?” – Chris Page

The topic of dead wrestlers got some response…I had forgotten about Rick “Quick Draw” McGraw dying while employed by the WWF in the mid-80s, multiple people chimed in on that including The Scootman…

“As far as wrestlers who have died while still employed by WWF, I remeber Rick “Quick Draw” McGraw. Back in 1986 or so he had a match on Superstars against Piper. It had something do do with McGraw being on “Piper’s Pit” and telling Piper he never wrestles. Piper said he’d wrestle McGraw with one hand tied behind his back. Piper kicked the crap out of him and I think dropped him on his head. The following week McGraw died, probably from something caused during the match. I know Piper mentioned something on the Pit after McGraw’s death saying, “You mess with RP, you die”. I’m sure this happened, it’s been a long time, maybe I’m going crazy.”

Did Piper actually say that? I do remember hearing that he piledrove McGraw on the floor in McGraw’s last TV appearance before his death.

Another name that came up frequently was Bobby Duncum Jr…I thought he had left WCW just before his death, but apparently he was still employed by them. He was off of television because he was recovering from an injury when he died from a prescription drug overdose in January 2000.

And it should be pointed out that the question was only concerning deaths in WWF, WCW & ECW…of course World Class Wrestling had several Von Erich deaths along with the passing of Gino Hernandez when he was main eventing there. There are many other ones, but those were the only in the big three that I know of not including referees like Joey Marella & Brady Boone. Though Boone did wrestle for a time so I guess you could count him too. Thanks to everybody who wrote in on that.

Crash Holly was mentioned by a couple of readers, but he had been released by the WWE months before his death.

“Last week you where asked a question about what I think is one of the most under rated angels of all time the fake Diesel and fake Razor Ramon. You said that the WWF used them “Out of spite, mostly… Also, they thought it would be fun to try to trick people into thinking they had re-signed Hall & Nash.” but I belive that the real reason was that they had sued WCW for copyright violation and had to prove that they were still going to use the gimmicks.

However I find the story line reason for theme being brought in beter, first after J.R. announsed they were coming back the WWF made it clear that is was not going to be Hall and Nash. When J.R. finaly reveled them on raw he cut a great promo where he said that Vince McMahon was the chairman of the WWF and had fierd him two times, and was trying to burie him now becouse McMahon did not want any one to upstage him as the top play-by-play man. J.R. thene reveald that he was the Executive Vice President Of Talent Relations and showed his power by bringing out two new wrestlers that he had hierd and hade given the Razor Ramon and Diesel gimmicks.

This was a varry big moment to the average fan at the time becouse until then both McMahon and J.R. had only bene shown as announsers and this showed that they were both powerful men in the company. they never tried to pass the new Razer and Diesel as Hall and Nash, and it set the seeds for the evil Mr. McMahon charicter” – rafff18

“I hate to correct anyone but, Ron Gamble may have
wrote that one little Trip piece but I believe the
piece the writer was speaking of involved a cartoon
that was weekly that was put in someones column for a
while. I remember the photoshop strip thing because
it was so funny that I actually saved a few before my
HD crashed.

The columns were before the now infamous 411/IP split.
He went over to IP with SK. What his name was, I
dont remember. I can tell you though he had a brother
that wrote for 411 as well.

The cartoons usually involed Trip using his incredible
wrestling to overcome any obstacle that was thrown in
his way. He had a tendency to talk in brutish
sentences and so on.

So whoever the guy was, He had the cartoon with Trips
in it. Wish I still had em but I didnt do a save of
my HD before I lost everything and by that time, the
dude had left 411. I keep wanting to say his first
name was Andrew, but beyond that I dont remember squat
about his name.” – Steve Ford

I think that you’re thinking of Jay Bower, who was one of my favorite writers back in the day even though his columns couldn’t be read in less than an hour. His brother Ken Anderson still writes over at IP…I used to like Anderson ok until his main purpose in life became shitting on anything and everything about TNA.

Electric Dave responds to the person who didn’t like him talking smack about Bob Holly…

“I deliberately focused on Bob Holly’s talent deficiencies because it annoyed me
how so many much more talented people they have fired over the years while he’s
had a steady paycheck. Matt Morgan, Gail Kim, Ron Killings, Kanyon. Seriously
these were all the youngsters Bill should be talking about Holly mentoring,
people with bright futures given a little encouragement. Here’s a question for
you; why was Christy Hemme fired? She had potential, a good attitude, she did
whatever they asked of her and she showed aptitude and an eagerness to improve.

But since it was brought up, I will refute the statement that Holly has
trainer/mentor all over him. He does not. His attitude to younger workers is
appalling. The man is a bully. Remember Matt Cappotelli? How about René Duprée?
Brock Lesner is the only person who I can think of who’s put Bob in his place
and fair play to him. You sandbag someone you’re supposed to co-opperate with in
a match because you feel so inclined, you deserve a broken neck. A real mentor
encourages his students like Al Snow and Dave Finlay. They don’t mistreat them.
And that’s all I got to say about that.”

Dave, I should get to your questions for the column next week.

The newest WrestleCrap staff member Jed Shaffer checks in to correct the Tazz/Tajiri question…

“In regards to this question that was asked:

During the ECW PPV Heat Wave 1999 title match between Tazz and Tajiri toward the end they pulled the camera waaay back and styles kept saying they would get pulled off the air if they showed too much.

Wassupwiddat??”

They were trying to put over the fact that barbed wire to the mouth is pretty hardcore, and Taz was sticking barbed wire in Tajiri’s mouth while applying the Tazzmission on him. Even ECW had their limits, by gawd.

Close, but not quite. The reason for the pullback wasn’t that it was being applied over his mouth … the barbed wire was around Taz’s arm and being applied over Tajiri’s THROAT. The resulting mess had Tajiri looking like he’d had his throat perforated, which was somehow over ECW’s limits.”

Well, I guess theoretically he could stick the barbed wire into Tajiri’s jugular vein, which would result in quite the bloody mess. Y’all make sure to go check Jed out at the WrestleCrap site in December. Good people over there.

“In answer to Chuck Stahlheber response to my suggestion of Hiro Matsuda. The angle was that Dusty Rhodes was chasing the US title held by Lex Luger of the Horsemen. Rhodes went to former wrestler Johnny Weaver to learn the sleeper hold (called the Weaver lock).

Luger’s manager, JJ Dillon, said that Rhodes was choking when Rhodes used the Weaver lock and brought in Hiro Matsuda as a sleeper hold expert. He had Matsuda give a demonstration on the difference between a sleeper and a choke. However, Matsuda refused to wake the referee up (back then it was required for wrestlers to wake up their opponents after the match). Johnny Weaver was doing commentary and went in to wake the ref up. Matsuda attacked Weaver and put him in the sleeper. Weaver bled from the mouth and his eyes rolled back before Dusty came in to break it up. Hiro and Dusty feuded for a few months to keep Rhodes away from Luger until Starrcade.

As far as Jerry B.’s assertation that about the DX invasion of Nitro on 4/27/98. The lighted marquee was a bit of trickery of the part of the WWF. WCW might have given away tickets to that event but the free tickets that was listed on the marquee was actually for an upcoming event at the Scope. The WWF edited the footage to make it look like it was for Nitro. (I think WCW sued over that footage.)

There was another reason for the fake Razor and Diesel. The WWF was suing WCW for trademark infringement over their use of Hall and Nash. They put new people in the Razor and Diesel roles to help their case.

And finally, the rules to the Beverly Hills Lingerie Battle Royal was that the wrestlers could be eliminated by being thrown over the top rope or being stripped down to their lingerie. The ladies involved were actually from POWW (Powerful Women of Wrestling), not GLOW. (Though several started in GLOW as McClane created POWW after leaving GLOW.) The AWA basically showed the entire PPV on their ESPN show and I have the match somewhere. I think everyone was thrown over the top to be eliminated but a couple lost their tops.” – Mike Gernard

Well, at least the fans didn’t have to see Peggy Lee Leather in her unmentionables for a whole match. That’d be enough to turn most of us queer, I’m thinking. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

“I recently read that Sting was supposed to kick out of the
leg-drop at 2, then take a second leg-drop which would be the
fast count pin. It was explained that Sting got confused and
forgot that he was supposed to kick out of the first one. I
find this a lot more reasonable then Hulk deciding at the last
second to screw Sting over when he had creative control and
could have said no anytime that he wanted.” – Johnny Sorrow

Johnny, you might be on to something here because the one thing I never understood about the whole scenario is why Sting didn’t think to kick out during the slower count. I still wouldn’t put it past Hogan to change things around on the fly because he likes to balk at putting people over, but that is a plausible explanation.

Here’s Stuart Carapola with some added info…

“-I think the Lawler/Von Erich/Hogan/Flair thing stems from a remark the announcer made at Superclash III, the AWA’s only PPV. During the main event between Lawler and Von Erich for the “Unified World Title”, I believe the announcer said that Lawler and Von Erich had both beaten Flair and Hogan. This was patently untrue, and nothing more than Southern territories doing what they did very well and very frequently: making crap up to build up their stars. Lawler definitely held victories over Hogan while he was in Memphis, and Von Erich has that NWA Title victory over Flair, but I don’t think Hogan ever worked in World Class, and though I’ve heard that there have been a very few (as in three or four total) Flair-Lawler matches, I don’t know what the outcomes would have been, but Flair never worked an extended stay in Memphis as far as I know. Also, Flair was the NWA Champion and Lawler was an AWA guy, so I don’t know that they would have ever crossed paths, and even if they did, Flair was strongly cemented in the NWA Title picture, usually as champion, so I find a Lawler victory over Flair unlikely, at least not a pinfall or submission victory. The best that Lawler can claim is that he beat Hogan as well as Von Erich, who holds a victory over Flair, which I suppose can be construed as putting him two notches above Flair. I just chalk it all up to Memphis-style creative storytelling. But the point is that all four men were not in the same place at the same time EVER, and something like this never could have happened.

-A major reason for the return of the Diesel and Razor Ramon characters with new wrestlers playing them was that the WWF had sued WCW for bringing in Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and, although they weren’t ever referred to as Razor Ramon and Diesel in WCW, the WWF claimed that the characters they portrayed were too close to what they were doing as their previous characters in the WWF. By continuing to use the gimmicks with new wrestlers, the WWF was trying to prove that the gimmicks were still of marketing value to them even though the men who originally portrayed them had moved on. Basically, it was being put forward in the same manner as Dick Sargeant replacing Dick York on Bewitched if you want a really bad Nick At Nite analogy.

-In regards to the one count, it is a very useful storytelling tool that is wisely not utilized very often. We’re conditioned to expect two counts out of nearly every pin attempt (aside from the obvious, conclusive three count), and we are therefore surprised to see a one count. This can be used to show that a wrestler is getting a second win to end all second wins. For example, a wrestler we’ll call Evil Bastard hits his opponent, Virtuous Babyface, with all his signature moves 20 minutes into the blowoff match, but even though EB is hitting the moves with gusto, VB keeps kicking out on a one. Now EB is put in a position where he says to himself “holy shit, this guy is kicking out of my best shots on a one count. What the hell do I have to do to keep this guy down?” I feel this is a much better use of the one count than having a wrestler kick out at one two minutes into a match. Plus, wrestlers can use a two count to get that last extra bit of breathing room that they wouldn’t get by kicking out at one. Gorilla Monsoon pointed that out occasionally.

-For Hogan-Sting at Starrcade, Bischoff said in his book (Controversy Creates Cash, available now at a Borders near you) that if he thought Patrick intentionally did a regular count, he would have fired him immediately. Apparently, Sting was supposed to kick out of the first legdrop and then get fast counted on the second, but the second legdrop never happenedw because Sting got caught napping and forgot to kick out of the first one, hence the normal count. I have no reason to believe that Bischoff would lie about that at this point to protect Nick Patrick. In a cute postscript, when you watch the commercial tape, they sped up the tape to make it look like Patrick did a fast count, but it’s so obvious that any idiot could see the editing.

-Lex Luger didn’t win the WWF Title at Summerslam 93 (which would have been the obvious ending) because they were looking to stretch the Luger title chase all the way out to Wrestlemania 10, where he would win the title. Problem was that after all the build up and hype, Luger didn’t get the title which totally deflated any fan support he had in much the same way Sting’s tainted victory at Starrcade 97 did for him, especially in light of the way Luger was celebrating what amounted to a meaningless victory as if he had just won the title. The tied finish of Royal Rumble 94 (which was rumored to be secretly used to test whether the fans would rather see Bret or Luger go over) seemed to more of less kill any hope of a title run by Luger.

-Okay, pulling the tights: in wrestling, the idea is to put the opponent’s shoulders down for a three count. It would, therefore, make sense to put as much weight as possible on the person’s shoulders as you can. By pulling the tights, you lift the person’s hips (which is everyobdy’s center of gravity) up off the ground. If done to a great enough degree, this will put the added weight that would normally fall on the hips upon the shoulders, and with that added weight, the opponent will be unable to lift his shoulders off the mat before three.

-Not a major star, but “Quick Draw” Rick McGraw died while working for the WWF, and there was this stupid rumor going around that Roddy Piper (who had suqashed and badly beaten McGraw up on TV the weekend before) had hurt McGraw so badly that he died from the injuries. This, of course, was not true.”

And finally, Manu Bumb…

“In the wrestling doco ”Beyond the Mat” Mick talks about this specific bump in great detail and gives an explanation. When he got chokeslamed the cell panel was supposed to slowly break away under his weight AFTER the move which would have resulted in him ”gently” falling down to the mat as it broke under his weight, obviously Mick and Co. misjudged the strength of the cell panel so when the bump happened the panel completely fell out from under him as soon as his body contacted it.”

I dont remember any of that, but since it was written in english and not katrina-speak, i’m willing to say it is possible. I just don’t remember them ever talking about HiaC in that documentary, just the mankind/rock “i quit” match, but i could be mistaken.

“I don’t think that the second bump in the match was planned. In Foley’s retirement match with HHH at No Way Out 2000, he took a similar bump that was clearly planned. The cage flung open like a door and zip ties littered the ring. I think something similar to this would have happened in the King of the Ring match had it been planned. Keep up the great work on the column.” – Charles Deck

I agree with charles, at least about NWO 2000. In mick’s second book (i believe second, either way, one of the two), he made a point to mention that he prides himself on the reality of his matches and the weapons used, but for that match, he went and talked to the WWE guy in charge of gimmicked objects, so that when he fell through the top of the cage and through the ring, it would all be planned, and (relatively) safe, because he didnt want to go through KotR again.

“The whole royalty thing is also why Jesse Ventura’s commentary has been deleted from everything but the WrestleMania Anthology set”

Ya know, i used to think that too, that jesse only appeared on the WM Anthology, but im 99% certain that ive heard him on other dvds recently. cant recall which, but im pretty sure ive seen it, which makes the ventura thing so much weirder. And for the record, I’m not talking about the WM special he did a few years back, but rather, the original matches back in the day.

“You might have a point, but they sure are mighty selective of which songs they do edit out. Jimmy wrote “Sexy Boy”, but I doubt that’s been removed from any WWE releases.”

I’m still trying to figure out why, during Judgment day 2003 (I believe…IC title battle royal), Booker came out at the live event (i was there…almost got run over by lesnar and his forklift) to his regular music, but on the dvd, he came out to his track on “wwe originals”. bizarre. i can understand them using it at the live show, to promote the new cd, but not on the dvd months later.

Does anyone other than booker….nevermind, not even the book has his original wcw music anymore. i think he was the last one, wasnt he? not counting flair. although ive seen dvds where flair’s music isn’t even the same as his live music. weird. and that is outside his original run in the WWE as the real world champ, when they actually used different music.

“I just have one question for you Steve, and it has to do with the Can-Am Connection tag team of Tom Zenk and Rick Martel. “

MY FAVORITE TAG TEAM EVER!!!!!! what? i was a kid. and I still remember Ventura saying, after tom left, that tito and rick should call themselves the “Mexi-Can connection”, and thats how i remembered martel was from canadia. random fact for ya.

“4. Out of spite, mostly. Hall & Nash were helping revive the WCW product and WCW had actually become more popular than the WWF after Hall & Nash’s departure. Also, they thought it would be fun to try to trick people into thinking they had re-signed Hall & Nash. Wrestling is a work first and foremost, and people in wrestling love to work the fans. They really, really do.”

I’ve also heard that it was a part of WWF trying to prove that Hall and Nash, while using different names, were using the same characters, ie, WWF’s intellectual property, and thereby hurting the WWFs business (kinda like how justin credible cant use that name outside wwe, or any trademarked things). No clue if thats true, or is thats just WWE spin on a horribly failed angle, like WWE justifying crapping on randy orton for a couple years so that edge could call him out and point out HHH is to blame. gotta love the season that never ends – lets them go back and justify anything, regardless of whether or not its valid.

“I don’t think you’ll see guys kick out at one in the WWE very often unless they’re really really big or they’re in a wristlock or something. My personal favorite “one count” was when Homicide kicked out of a Burning Hammer at one during the ROH show just after Dan Maff’s departure from wrestling. Just to bury him even more. But yeah, you don’t see nearly enough one counts. Or enough zero counts either.”

im pretty sure ive seen it within the past year. like say a guy goes for a quick cover early in the match, sometimes the ref will make the 1 count (barely) before the guy kicks out. maybe it was in another fed, but im fairly certain it was wwe. also, i vaguely remember hearing about a backstage meeting where vince said he wanted more 1 counts.

“Eddie winning the title was a shocking moment to me, and I think most of us were pretty much thinking that Eddie would never get a shot to be WWE Champion, the same way we thought Chris Benoit would never get a shot either. “

really? because i thought by the time it happened, everyone knew lesnar would be facing goldberg at WM. I would agree that the news that eddie WOULD win the title is shocking, but i dont think that’s what he was asking.

for me, one of the most surprising things was Bischoff showing up on raw. i didnt read any rumors about it, so when i found out, i was truely shocked. flair returning was another shocker, although that got leaked within days of the show (raw, charlotte, the night after survivor series in greensboro)

“It was one of Russo’s classic “worked shoots”. Russo was not officially named on the air yet, though his arm and voice appeared on TV like he was Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. It sounds cooler than it actually was. It was one of those things that since they were “shoots”, the announcers never discussed them again after they happened. So unless I missed a Hogan interview on Thunder or something, it was never really properly explained.”

Didnt russo lose power within a couple months? i think that contributed to why that storyline was never picked up again.

“Also during that event, during the DDP vs. Ric Flair strap match, DDP has Flair pinned, the referee has counted to two, then looks up and stops the match due to excessive bleeding by Flair. Why not just count to 3? Was someone supposed to come out (David Flair, perhaps?) and stop it but was late ala Hogan/Sid at Wrestlemania 8 and that ending was improvised? Just seemed really weird.

Having not seen this in years and not finding anything in detail on the Internet, I’m not sure. Anybody?”

I’m gonna call retardedness on this one. Kinda like when Kerry von Erich had Lawler in the claw hold, and was very obviously going to win, and the ref stopped it because Kerry was bleeding too much (this is on the “greatest superstars of the 80s” dvd). someone somewhere thinks its a good idea. that someone is not me.

“In 1993, when Vince was trying to re-create Hulkamania with “Lugermania,” why
didn’t he have Luger walk into Summerslam and destroy Yoko for the belt? Why the
crappy count out win? Wouldn’t having Luger pound the hell out of Yoko created
“Lugermania”?”

I’m calling retardedness again. whenever a face beats a heel champ, but doesnt win the title, it sucks. Kane beat HHH in a non-title match, and we were supposed to believe that his victory was worth something. BS.

“David asks about something from ECW…

“One follow up on Del Wilkes, He is selling cars in ALABAMA right now.- no word if he is still wearing the mask though”

WHERE????? I want to find him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mostly because i’ll be in bama for xmas.

…lashley and batista changing their finishers. someone wrote in, saying that they arent as strong as they were before wellness, and thats why. I say BS. Lashley can still do a standing, delayed veritical suplex (a la davey boy smith), which im guessing takes a lot more strength than a dominator. Hell, I could probably do a dominator. The other guy jumps, you just have to add to their momentum, which is fairly easy. if the man can do a gorilla press, he can do a dominator. as for the batista bomb – ive seen jushin thunder liger do a power bomb before. again, easy, with assistance from the other guy. remember at WM…..i dunno, 19 maybe? Taker vs Flair, taker tried to do a last ride, but the first try failed. I dont think that was because taker couldnt lift him, but rather, because flair jumped at the wrong time, so instead of having help, taker had to lift dead weight, weight that was moving downwards, in fact, which is A LOT harder than lifting someone that’s jumping up. trust me, I used to be a male cheerleader in HS, and for me (at the time, I didnt work out all, didnt eat meat, so i had NO muscle), i probably couldnt have done it with my girl if she hadnt jumped. its kinda like spotting someone doing bench presses. you dont have to be strong to do it, because they’re already using ALL their strength to keep the bar where it is, you just have to add a little bit more to lift the bar up.”

A lesser man would ridicule male cheerleaders. As always, thanks to everybody who wrote in. Here are this week’s questions!

On one episode of Monday Nitro, Disco Inferno was wrestling and was about to lose, when someone came out and stood near the entrance or started walking to the ring–I can’t remember the specifics exactly, but I remember whoever came out was not a regular wrestler at the time and was very odd. Then, a disco ball came down from the ceiling, Disco hit his opponent with it from behind and covered him for the win. As far as I know, this incident was never mentioned again and Disco immediately went back to his jobbing ways afterwards.

Who was the guy, and what was the point of this “run-in”? Was this ever followed up on? – Dabid

Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have started this one with something that stumped me. I remember Disco had a disco ball shown during his entrance, but I don’t remember him ever hitting anybody with it. If I was given a year I might come up with who would allign themselves with Disco at that point, but I’ve got nothing. Anybody?

When was a steel chair first used in wrestling matches and who used it….? its as much a part of the culture as the wrestlers, ring and everything else… – Larry Graham

I asked my good buddy Penguin, and he told me that the first time a steel chair was used in pro wrestling was in 1933. It was during a match pitting Otto Schwanz against Col. Schweitser in Berlin, Germany. Unfortunately Penguin’s DVD of the match was stolen and he couldn’t give me any further information on this. He blames Cryme Tyme for stealing it, but I have my suspicions…

Do you have any info if Jacqueline Moore a.k.a. Jacqueline formerly of WWE is still wrestling.or have any contact info . concerning her. I am a huge fan of hers. – MyBlackEscalade

Jacqueline is currently focusing on her acting career, but she has appeared on a couple of Hermie Sadler’s UWF/TNA house shows. Unfortunately I don’t have any contact info for her.

What ever happened to Stevie Ray from Harlem Heat? Did he quit wrestling? – hiphopshuvit

Stevie is now running a pro wrestling school in Houston along with his brother Booker T. Stevie handles most of the day to day work since Booker is obviously still an active wrestler. I believe that the Boogeyman either was or still is training down there as part of his coming back to WWE.

3 questions from Anthony…

“I was wondering I have watched wrestling since i was 4 I am now almost 30. I have this vague recolection of several matches ending with the heel scoring the win then he would proceed to beat the crap out of his opponent after the fact. then the ref would reversing his decsion because of the beat down. Did this ever happen or have i done to many drugs?”

This has happened before. I can’t really remember any instances off the top of my head because they were on Saturday morning shows and they tend to run together after so many years, but you’re not insane. Maybe some of our readers can remember specific instances…

“Can you give me some info on Super Dragon, I have seen him on tape and live and the guy seems ultra stiff. Why do some guys choose to wrestle that style? Why do there opponents allow it? Has SD ever hurt anyone? Have any of his opponents ever gotten pissed and shoot on him?”

Super Dragon mostly wrestles in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla since he is one of the six owners of that promotion, though he has made sporadic appearances in promotions like CZW. The strong/stiff style has become very popular in the indy scene in recent years…I think that it has become popular due to the breakdown of kayfabe and the popularity among indy wrestlers of the Japanese style of wrestling. See, everybody knows it’s predetermined now, but if you hit somebody really hard, even the most jaded of smart marks will pop for it. Dragon is one of the top practicioners of this style, and his opponents allow it because they either don’t mind it or they’ll give it back to him. I don’t know if any of his opponents have “shot” on him, but I know he’s pissed off many a wrestling fan and they’ve “shot” on him with very little success. His activities with the fans recently got him removed from the CZW roster, and probably keep him from being booked in a lot of wrestling promotions.

“Why does Lita have a bad reputation around the wrestling scene outside the obvious Edge, Hardy incident.? This is something I have heard since the mid 90’s.”

Oh God, not another Lita question…there have been many, many rumors about her sex life that are really better left unsaid here or I’ll open a gigantic can of worms. All I have left to say is…who are you to doubt El Dandy?

I’m sure some of you got that.

Ben is next on the clock…

“OK, this is more of an opinion question. Whose look do you think has changes the most over the course of his (or her, I suppose) career? Put another way, if you had a friend who had only been watching wrestling for about a year and was used to everyone’s current look, who would you show him old footage of to really blow his mind and make him ask, “Wait, *that* is ______?!”?

I might nominate Scott Steiner or the Undertaker (using old tapes of Mean Mark), but off the top of my head I’d probably say Johnny Polo/Raven.

Any opinion?”

Good question. PWI once did this cool thing where they showed different pictures of people over the years to show how much they’d changed…Raven would definitely be right at the top of the list for that because his personas over his career were complete polar opposites, and even in a single character he’d have completely different looks on a regular basis. Jeff Jarrett would also be a fun pick because of the long blond hair and goofy-ass outfits that make his TNA street clothes look tame.

Reinaldo has two questions…

What justification do or did wrestling bookers use when they put the title on themselves? (ie. Jeff Jarret in TNA, HHH on RAW, Jerry Lawler being a 1,253 time USWA champ)

The most common justification used by a booker for putting themselves over is quite simple…they won’t leave. If they spend all their time putting somebody else over and that person leaves, they’re fucked. Another common justification is that the booker is more than qualified to carry the company on their back, and they know how to accomplish their vision for the company better than other wrestlers would. It makes sense when you think about it, but bookers often abuse this reasoning and refuse to elevate somebody else who wouldn’t leave that has more talent than they do.

“Roddy Piper is regarded as an all time great. He is a legend and a hall of famer. But I always wondered why he was never a world champion. At one point and time, he was the most hated person alive, not heel, person. He was a main eventer and dominated the WWF, NWA, and WCW. Was it his choice or just the wrong circumstances(just like Charles Barkley and Karl Malone played in Jordan’s era. Piper wrestled in the time of Rhodes, Hogan, and Flair)?”

A combination of the wrong circumstances and the fact that he didn’t need the title. Back in the day, the WWF almost never had heel champions for any length of time…the company was known for long-running babyface champions like Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales & Bob Backlund, and Hulk Hogan followed in their footsteps. It’s how they did business back then. Piper would have had a better shot of becoming a world champion in the NWA, but he wouldn’t have achieved the same level of fame.

Stephen Lipenta has a legal question…

“My question is about intellectual property rights. Which
semi-established stars (ie CM Punk) that have signed with WWE have
retained the rights to their stage name? I’m nearly positive that Punk
will not be with the E within five years either be their or his
decision. Would he be able to retain his name on the indy scene?”

Off the top of my head, D-Lo Brown sticks out to me as a guy who has been allowed to keep the rights to his stage name (that isn’t his real name) after leaving WWE. There are probably others, but honestly, I think WWE only really enforces this right when the performer isn’t somebody they like very much or somebody that didn’t leave on good terms. The status of Punk’s name (should he leave WWE some day) will probably depend on where he would wrestle next. If it was TNA, I’d expect them to force him to wrestle under something stupid. It would be interesting if somebody tried this in court one day.

Jesse Nelson has a shitload of music questions…

“Were the Insane Clown Posse the first musicians to act as wrestlers?”

Hulk Hogan is the first musician I can think of to become a wrestler.

“What was the reason they were originally
let go of during their run with the WWF with the
Oddities?”

I believe it had something to do with money…ICP wanted some more and WWF thought they were giving them enough.

Did they fall out of favor in WCW, too?

I believe it was the same situation there.

“Were some of the members of the Misfits in actual wrestling
matches, or were they just Vampiro’s entourage for a
bit?”

I remember a cage match pitting Misfits lead singer Jerry Only against Dr. Death Steve Williams appearing on WCW Monday Nitro. That’s about all you need to know there.

“Was it Eric Bishoff’s idea to bring in musical
acts for WCW (I recall Megadeth and Kiss), and if so,
was it when RAW started beating them in the ratings?”

I believe that was a Bischoff idea, and even when it was proven that it did nothing to help the ratings, he kept doing it.

“Was Chris Jericho the first wrestler to have a really
legitimate music career, or is there someone I’m
forgetting about who has a more solid music
foundation?”

Well, there was Jimmy Hart, but I guess he wouldn’t really count as a wrestler…Jericho is the most successful wrestler in music that I can think of.

“Have you ever actually heard Randy Savage’s rap album?”

I heard the single, which was more than enough for me.

“I’d be interested in knowing if there is a certain era
in a particular federation you found as your favorite
wrestling period.

I’ve tended to lean towards WWF, so in the 80’s, it
was Wrestlemania III era (Piper and Adonis, Steamboat
and Savage, for example). And yes, some of this
involved cheesy gimmicks and manager stables of the
“bad guys.” But back then, when a wrestler turned, it
was usually quite shocking, as opposed to commonplace
now (also, champions held onto titles for a much
longer time, which means it meant something when they
lost them).

Second would be the late 90’s, everything involving
the NWO and DX/Monday Night Wars aspects, WWF and WCW
respectively, culminating in the deliciously surreal
dual broadcast, WWF takeover of WCW. Since then it
feels like WWE lost its edge because there’s nothing
against which it needs to compete.

Your favorite era in a federation, and what era or
federation would that be?”

I would go with your second answer, the late 90s in general. You had the Monday night wars with WWF & WCW…WCW had the NWO stuff and a really kick-ass undercard with the cruiserweights and luchadors, and WWF found it’s attitude, which made for compelling television on two channels every Monday night. And you also had ECW, which was making noise on a lower level and producing a lot of good wrestling and syndicated television. With the amount of things going on back then, the late 90s was truly wrestling nirvana.

Eric asks about Jack Black on Velocity…

While checking on new projects of some of my favorite actors, I came across Jack Black listed as a character named Ignacio on the Feb 11, 2006 edition of Velocity. Was it obvious that it was him to add star power or was he wrestling to train for his role in Nacho Libre which may have been filming at that time? – Eric

Unfortunately I had stopped watching Velocity long before this point. I looked at Cubs Fan’s recap of the show and I don’t see anything in there about Ignacio. Anybody remember seeing Jack Black on Velocity?

John Bryant has a question and an idea for a match…

“What’s the difference between a Lariat(like the Northern Lariat of Robert Roode) and a Clothesline? I asked Czonka the same question about the difference between a Yakuza kick and a Big Boot.”

The term “lariat” is more often used to describe a clothesline when the wrestler delivering the clothesline is from Texas. In real life, a lariat is also known as a lasso, which was often used by American cowboys. When I was younger, I thought that lariats were clotheslines with more force, and it still kinda makes sense because Stan Hansen’s lariats were better than any clothesline I’ve ever seen.

The Yakuza Kick is when the wrestler applying the kick is running towards their opponent. The Big Boot is when a wrestler runs into the kick.

“perhaps you guys can also evaluate my idea for a match. What TNA does is they take 1/4 inch steel and wrap it around the apron to expand the Apron. then they take the Ultimate X and set it up like normal then they take the 6-sides of steel and put it up, since the extra width on the apron made it easier to set up what with the Ultimate X already there in the first ever Prison Break match. let’s say they used this at Genesis for the AMW/LAX match for the tag titles. their are only 3 rules for the Prison Break match: #1: you must have the tag title belt in your possession when you exit the cage. #2:both members’ feet have to touch the floor w/ the tag titles in their possession #3: if one member from each team exits the cage. the 2 men left will fight it out in a singles match per a Referee already being inside the ring in case the scenario occurs”

Honestly, I think TNA already has too many matches with overcomplicated stipulations to consider adding more. Also, Fox probably has the term “Prison Break” copyrighted by this point if they’re smart.

Greg Waite has four questions…

1) Do you think The Undertaker needs one more title run? I think that should happen and it should be at least 6 or 7 months. (A respectable run to cap his career.)

Does he need it? Fuck no, he’s the Undertaker. Like I said earlier about Piper, some guys don’t need title belts to get over. At this point, Undertaker’s already over more than most of the roster and he hasn’t been close to winning the World or WWE titles in a long time. It doesn’t matter. With that being said, I think it probably will and I wouldn’t be offended by it.

2) Chris Beniot is my favorite WWE wrestler and it doesn’t matter to me if he’s a heel or a face. He really is an all-time great Superstar. My questions:

2a) Do you see him winning the World title once more or possibly the WWE title if he goes back to Raw? (He’s better on SD and they need the help.)

I think Benoit already had one good run at the top, and WWE doesn’t seem too interested in giving him another any time soon. Benoit’s good at the spot he’s at right now, because the US title level is where the young guys should theoretically be at, and he can help them get better by wrestling with them. That’s more important for WWE’s future than giving him another run at the top, and I don’t think Benoit will politick for it.

2b) How do you like him? Heel or face? Name one of his best moments. Mine is when he was a face and he dropped Big Show to his knees. He kicked him square in the nuts cuz Show told him that he couldn’t chop him down to Beniot’s size. Beniot backed up and kicked him in the nuts. I roared with laughter. Best heel moment: when he and Jericho had that feud and Beniot ambushed him in the back and crushed jericho’s stomach with that garage door numerous times.

Benoit works well either way, but I think people would prefer to cheer him. I wouldn’t go with a backstage segment as one of his finest moments, in fact I’d probably go old school and say that his finest moment was his feud with Kevin Sullivan in WCW. That was what cemented him as a big deal to me, and they had some hellacious matches.

3) Is there any chance of seeing Eugene becoming Nick Dinsmore and telling the fans off? He’s already over with the fans. It should have happened by now.

If it hasn’t happened by now, I wouldn’t expect it to ever happen.

4) I watched an old match with Cowboy Bob Orton and Jim Neidhardt. Harry Smith is Neidhardt’s nephew and Randy is Bob’s son. I think it’s time for Edge and Randy to form an alliance with Harry Smith. Remember Bob and Neidhardt were friends before Neidhardt turned on him. So WWE should have the next generation revamp it. It would be a great way for Harry to come in and help take down DX (2 of the guys who helped “screw” Bret.) – Greg Waite

Intriguing possibility, but I think WWE wants Smith to work as a babyface whenever he makes his official TV debut. I’m not sure if Smith has a lot of experience working as a heel or not.

Andy presents an interesting question concerning a former WWE Diva…

“Hey there, love the column. Have a question regarding Trish Stratus. A few years ago a buddy of mine showed me a clip of a prono movie that starred Trish Stratus. It looked a lot like her, but I always assumed that it was just a look-a-like and not really her. A few weeks ago my same friend told me about a sight that had the same movie (sliceoftheday.com). When I went on to the sight, you had to be a member to download, but the picture of it was the same he had showed me before. Have you ever heard of Trish being in a porno, not a Chyna porno, but a real one?”

I’ve never heard anything about Trish actually being in a porno…and something tells me that if she had been in one, any wrestling fan with an Internet connection would know about it and have it downloaded on their computer. So I hate to say it, but I’m 99.9999999999% sure it’s just a look-alike.

My favortie WWE event of the year is the Royal Rumble
who do you think should win the Royal Rumble and why? – Rick Funcannon

Brad has three questions…

1) I had heard that Jimmy Snuka’s son was wrestling. Is that true and is he any
good at all?

Jimmy Snuka Jr. is currently working in OVW as Deuce Shade, one half of The Untouchables alongside Dice Domino. I’ve only seen him wrestle a handful of times, but he doesn’t seem any worse than most of the people he’s been in the ring with. You can read about him in 411’s OVW/HWA Recap Extravaganza every week. 🙂

2) Who was Siva Afi?

Siva Afi spent most of his career wrestling in New Zealand and other areas surrounded by the Pacific Ocean like Hawaii, but he did have a run in the WWF. During 1986 he wrestled as “Superfly Afi” and teamed with Jimmy “Superfly” Sunka in the WWF. After that angle ended, he didn’t do very much of note other than replacing Tama in the Islanders for a brief time. Currently, Afi is reportedly serving time in prison in Ohio for aggravated burglary, kidnapping and robbery. He is also a born-again Christian. Because nothing says “Christianity” like kidnapping and robbery.

3) I remember a survivor series where the WWE had pumped up a returning start
and even said the person’s first and last name started with the same letter.
They showed a slihouette of the person and it looked like Razor Ramon. It ended
up being Jimmy SNuka, was that the plan the whole time or did Scott Hall bail
out?

Well, if it was Snuka’s surprise appearance at Survivor Series 1996, he was facing a team with the fake Razor Ramon on it. I don’t remember them teasing Scott Hall for that slot, or anybody really, other than just saying it was a mystery partner.

Gary McLoughlin has two questions…

“Firstly I remember that the WWE signed a lot of Japanesse and wrestlers who where stars in Japan in the mid 1990’s like The Headhunters, Hakushi, Taka, Takao Omori etc, these guys had a very short run before being released and the remainder where barely used. I was wondering why did the WWE scout and sign so many guys from Japan? and why did they do nothing with them?”

WWE was intrigued by the Japanese wrestling market, but had no real interest in promoting Japanese wrestlers on top of the promotion. Yokozuna was Samoan.Guys like the Headhunters, Omori, Tenyru and others were usually brought in for the Royal Rumble match because WWE needed to get some surprise talent from somewhere. Hakushi was very highly regarded in Japan, and WWE did actually push him for awhile in a feud with Bret Hart. As for Taka, his success in WWE was almost accidental…he was brought over to have a match with Great Sasuke at a PPV and put him over. Sasuke won the match, but the fans and WWE brass were more impressed with Taka’s performance than they were Sasuke’s. He then stuck around for a few years, having a better run there than most would have expected.

“My second question is what promotions did Hayabusa wrestle for in the United States? I know that he did one match with ECW and wrestled at an E3 conference, but is there any others that are going unoticed?”

Hayabusa wrestled briefly in something called the Florida Wrestling Federation from January to April 1995. These shows were his only other US wrestling appearances.

Kyle McCowin asks about the Haas of Pain…

In the 11/1 column you talked about the Stretch Muffler (Brock Lock) submission hold. Is this the same hold as the Haas of Pain that Charlie Haas used earlier in his career? I think I only saw it twice on WWE TV but I remember it being very similar. – Kyle McCowin

No, the Hass of Pain was different…I’ll try to describe it as best as I can. Basically the difference is that Brock sits on the opponents back and wraps his opponent’s leg around the back of his head, while with the Haas of Pain, Charlie kinda pulls the legs back so the opponent’s back is arched to the point that they have to quit, but he does not sit on the opponent while doing it.

Matt from Northeast Philly has several questions…

“What ever happened to the Men behind such great Gimmicks like, Lazer Tron, Alex The Pug, TL Hopper, Techno Team 2000, and Blitzkreig.”

One at a time…

Lazer Tron – Hector Guerrero still makes very occasional wrestling appearances, but for the most part is retired.

Alex the Pug – Alex Porteau returned to the indy wrestling scene in mid-2005 and has wrestled mostly in the South since then. The highest profile indy Porteau has appeared in since his return is Full Impact Pro, ROH’s sister promotion in Florida.

TL Hopper – Tony Anthony still wrestles in some Tennessee independent promotions to this day, the one he appears in most often would be Tennessee Mountain Wrestling.

Techno Team 2000 – Erik Watts left TNA in early 2005 and spent most of the year after that wrestling in Georgia Championship Wrestling. The last date listed for him on OWW is December 16, 2005, when he wrestled for Vince Russo’s Ring of Glory promotion. Chad Fortune now drives monster trucks, and was recently tapped to drive the Superman monster truck.

Blitzkreig – Jay Ross, the man behind the Blitzkreig gimmick, left WCW shortly after his debut there and eventually became a computer technician. He gave the gimmick to Jack Evans in 2004, but Evans only used it one time. After nearly breaking his neck in that match, one can understand why he stopped using it.

“and Finally. who were all of the Machines, and how many were there. including guest Machines. like Hulk and Piper.”

The regular Machines were Big Machine (Blackjack Mulligan), Super Machine (Bill Eadie) and Giant Machine (Andre the Giant). Guest Machines included Piper Machine (Roddy Piper), Hulk Machine (Hulk Hogan) and Crusher Machine (Crusher Lisowski).

Al Fucsko likes Roddy Piper and has a question about him…

“I STILL mark out for Roddy Piper, even in his current state, and with his DVD coming out in early November; I thought I would ask a question about my idol.

I know the sleeper is mainly viewed as Piper’s finishing move, but since I’ve been watching Roddy Piper footage from the 1970’s to 2000’s I have noticed that he rarely used the same finisher for very long. I see in the Carolina’s he used a swinging neckbreaker, but he also often used a running knee lift. In the WWF and WCW he used the sleeper, but I see in several WWF jobber matches he used the belly to back suplex, airplane spin, or a running double ax handle. Was this to play up his ‘unpredictable’ gimmick; that you never knew what he would come up with for a finisher? I think it hurt his career slightly by not having ‘the move’ that opponents had to look out for, like Valentine’s figure four or Hulk’s legdrop. What are your thoughts?

All are pretty lame finishing moves, but nobody ever accused Roddy of being Dean Malenko or Bret Hart. He’s still the best talker in wrestling history.”

A lot of wrestlers like to use different finishing maneuvers…just a few weeks ago we were talking about how Batista & Lashley have been using different finishers lately. The sleeper was definitely his calling card, but sometimes in jobber matches the wrestlers would use different finishers, and I honestly don’t remember when exactly he started using the sleeper as a finisher. I don’t think Piper’s wrestling had as much to do with his success as his talking ability did, so I don’t think his not having a “true” finisher hurt him much, if at all.

Larry H. from Michigan wonders about referee counts…

“I have a new question, sometimes during near falls the referee seems to hit 3 and keep going and the kick out is before 4. I’m guessing that the wrestler that was pinned messed up so they try to play it off but I swear I have noticed this many times over the years. I can’t remeber specifics, however I swear I saw it happen again on Impact this week in the Daniels/Roode match.
Is it just me or does this happen quite a bit.” – Larry H. from Michigan

You know, sometimes I notice this too. That might be the case sometimes, but other times when the referee hits the mat, it can make a sound resembling a count, and that throws off your hearing and you’re counting one step ahead. I think that’s probably what you’re hearing most of the time, because usually when the referee sees that the wrestler won’t get up in time, he’ll stop his count on his own and try to make it look like the wrestler kicked out. Nick Patrick will occasionally put his hand under the wrestler’s shoulder and lift it up.

RJEVH01 wants him some sweet, sweet Georgia Championship Wrestling…

“Do you think wwe will ever put out any dvds of georgia championship wrestling or where is the best place i could find them on the internet?”

The best you could hope for from WWE is a best of DVD similar to what they’re doing with the AWA DVD that’s coming out soon. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot, if any Georgia stuff available on the Internet, probably because TBS never did much of a job as far as selling their stuff went. It looks like we’ll have to rely on WWE to eventually produce something on the history of Georgia Championship Wrestling.

D asks a DVD question…

“Hi, I’m a first time writer so I’m not sure if anyone asked this or answered elsewhere. I want to know how come in some dvd’ss like HIstory of the WWE Championship, NWO Back in Black or the DX dvd they included the ring enterances to some or all matches but in the Brian Pillman Dvd or the Hulk Hogan Anthology they don’t. It’s not a big deal but sometimes the commentary tells the story of the match during the entrances or see and hear the crowd to tell how important the match really was.”

I think it mostly has to do with time considerations and how important the people putting the DVD together feel an entrance is. Also, it could have something to do with the music used for an entrance…if WWE doesn’t own the rights to a song, they might not bother including the entrance if it isn’t very important to the match.