Ask 411 Wrestling 12.24.08: The Victoria Edition – Sid, Montreal, Cross Promotion, Gymnastics and Buyrates!

Yes indeed, the time has come, and I shall now lead you through the darkness and into the promised land of salvation, truth, and those little chocolate mints you get in hotels, gift baskets and discount outlet malls. I am Mathew Sforcina, king of the Evolution Schematic and thus I am somewhat qualified to answer your questions about stuff. This week, I’ll be working off the system. Next week, I’m going to do it my way.

Thus, next week, I want you to send me questions direct, and I’ll toss in all of them, except that I’m only going to answer one question per person and delete the rest. And I’ll pick whichever question I want, which will probably be the easiest one. So sendy sendy to me. I reserve the right to cut off if I get deluged with more questions than even I can handle with my mighty robot brain.

Oh yeah, and Merry Xmas and all that. This week’s theme is Chiron Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton.

IMPROVED BANNER!

Banner compliments of Benjamin Colon. See more of his work at soulexodus.com. “Improved” by a friend of a friend at Stablewars.com, so check the site out.

Hey, wait a minute… DAMMIT! That’s what I get for using slav… I mean, cheap labor…

Cleaning Up will not be seen since I don’t care about what Chris mar or may not have gotten wrong. Next week I might need to address stuff, but for now, sorry, but no.

In Soviet Russia, 411 Ask You!

The answer to last weeks puzzler for Meng/Haku. Yeah, I didn’t get it either. He’s love because apparently some fans would bring signs stating that Meng Is Love just before he left. And biggest in the industry meant Andre, of course.

Since next week’s I intend to be arch-fiendishly difficult, we’ll start with an easier one this week.

I’m a specific PPV. I’m an edition of a somewhat famous series of them, held in a somewhat famous arena. I’m fairly well liked, despite several last second changes to the card (not even counting the two TBA’s they had going in). I had two inter-gender matches, and a tag title match with one side consisting of a former world champion and a future world champion. I had a segment featuring Future Hall Of Famers and a celebrity guest. I saw one memorable, if humorous, injury occur. A World Title match occurred that was a rematch from a free TV match some time before, that occurred in the same arena! I saw a title change that wasn’t really a title change, 2 out of 3 of the current WWE World Champions compete and the first AND last matches saw winners who didn’t REALLY win their matches. What show am I?

Question Time! Huzzah!

bashcrashwiley gets the honor of the first question I answer, and stumps me. Wonderful.

Hello! Long time fan & reader. I have a question about Sycho Sid. Although he gets a bad rap, in late 1996 Sid was on top of the WWF. If you watch his Survivor Series 1996 match against Shawn Michaels, the Madison Square Garden crowd is about 70/30 in favor of Sid. A few months later he main events Wrestlemania 13 against the Undertaker and then is seemingly written out of storylines until June of 1997 when he loses a 6-man tag team match and is never heard of in the WWE again. My question is what the heck happened? Sid was on top of the WWE, held the world championship twice, was way over and main-evented WrestleMania. What happened to the master and the ruler of the world after Wrestlemania 13 that led to his release in June 1997?

Well, let’s start with the facts. After WM, Sid was gone for 2 months, and returned as a face on the 12th of May 97 edition of Raw, pinning Owen Hart and then, as you say, was in a 6 man tag at KOTR (Sid/LOD V Hart Foundation), taking the loss and then, after jobbing to Taker on Raw, left the company.

As for why, no-one really knows, there’s no hard fact nor any real juicy gossip as to why. There was apparently a car crash Sid was in when driving with 2 Cold Scorpio, Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon, but it didn’t appear to be injury related. Sid may have been shown what his plans were and he didn’t like them, although he was big on being a face so that’s unlikely. Honestly, if I had to take a shot, it was probably just a changing of the guard. The WWF at the time was undergoing it’s shift to Attitude, and perhaps Sid just didn’t fit into their plans. After all, he was never a great talker, but yeah, it’s odd that he was just let go. Maybe financial reasons from Vince’s end? I’m sure the comment section will be filled with people calling for my blood on this one…

Next up is a man with a very nice name (even if it is misspelled).

My name is Matthew-

See?

I remember reading (possibly in this column) that after “The Montreal Screwjob” that the Undertaker was the one who actually forced Vince McMahon to go apologize to Bret Hart. Is this true? What’s the story here if it is true? Do you know what Taker’s opinion was of the screwjob and/or what his relationship was like with Bret before and after that happened?

Well, according to Dave Meltzer’s very detailed account that is for the most part taken as what happened, yes, Taker was the guy who went to Vince and told him to go apologize. I don’t recall anyone ever denying this, and it certainly fits with the personalities involved. Taker was and still is THE Locker Room Leader in the company, he’s the guy everyone respects and looks to for guidance (he’s the judge at Wrestler’s Court and so on), and he does seem to respect the business as much as it respects him, so I totally buy him being angry at the Screwjob and forcing Vince to apologize.

I’m not certain if Taker and Bret were friends, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were, but there is respect between the two, and Bret did say in interviews after leaving that he’s miss Taker, so they were probably good friends, but Taker was probably more concerned with Vince not doing right by the business, i.e. doing right by Bret.

Afterwards, I don’t think Bret holds any ill will towards Taker for continuing to work for the company, he doesn’t towards Foley, and while I’m sure Taker still dislikes the Screwjob, most people not named Bret and/or those who hate the WWE tend to think it was for the best, or at the very least, was a fortunate occurrence given that it accidentally launched Evil Vince and thus the WWF Attitude Boom.

But it’s hard to say, until Taker retires and hopefully writes his memoirs we’ll never hear his side of the story.

Matt had a related follow-up:

Do know what the plans were for Jerry Lawler’s involvement at Survivor Series 1993?

Probably the exact same thing as Shawn. His knights would have been defeated, a mess up would have led to a Piledriver and pin on Owen, and the Owen/Bret thing would have taken off. That part of the booking was already set, subbing HBK for Lawler didn’t matter that much.

Tron asks a somewhat fanciful question, although I don’t hold that against him.

I recall reading somewhere that in the late 80’s/early 90’s, WCW brass contacted Vince McMahon with the idea of a joint WWF/WCW pay-per-view. I also recall in the proposal that WCW had no qualms with their wrestlers losing every match. I have a few questions I know you’ll be able to answer: Was this just an urban legend or did it really happen? If it is true, how detailed was WCW’s proposal (Would there be champion vs. champion non-title matches? A build up of feuds on TV leading up to the show?..etc)? Did McMahon give it serious consideration? Or, as I believe, was this just a rumor that had more to do with WCW’s mediocre, watered down, WWF-wannabe circus, rather than any substantial proposal for a show that would seem to be completely unworkable?

It’s the first I’ve heard of it as a serious proposal, the Apter Mags during that time were always filled with fantasy match ups, Hogan V Flair, Funk V Andre etc, so I think that’s where it comes from, or maybe from some other source like someon’e feavored imagination or the excellent JJ Dillon Guest Booker DVD. But yeah, this sounds like a whacked out rumor for several reasons:

* WCW might have been badly run, but they weren’t stupid enough to let WWF beat them every match. At least, I hope they weren’t that stupid.
* Vince would never agree, beyond his dislike of Turner, he’d never take the risk of having WCW guys wrestle his guys, since it’d be damm easy for Flair to ‘accidentally’ mistime a knee drop and break Hogan’s leg or something, up and down the line.
* If WCW had made this offer, Vince would have been all over it, screaming it from the hilltops how WCW was ‘begging’ him to help. Even if he had to wait till he bought WCW.
* Vince was already working with ECW, and the guy only has so much time to help out other companies.

But yeah, this is pretty much 100% BS, far as I can tell.

Barry asks a question I thought I knew but didn’t.

Love reading the column. I don’t watch wrestling much any more, but do still keep up with it through the site. Anyway, my question…… back in the 90’s I kept seeing a guy that was in the PWI 500 a few times, named Jack Hammer. He looked like a cross between Goldberg and a Road Warrior. Anyway, back in the day I kept thinking the guy would be a star some day, but I never heard anything of him, nor can I find any information on him. Can you help?

Man, I was so ready to jump on this and say that Jack Hammer WAS Goldberg, but that’s not the case, although that was a name he toyed with (his mother I believe suggested it, and he then took it for his finisher). Instead, I found out that he worked for Dino Sanna’s WWWA promotion out of Pennsylvania, and he did indeed look like a cross between Goldberg and a Road Warrior.

So, I emailed Dino asking for info, and got some.

From 1996 to about 2001 Hammer was our World Champion. Also before 96 Hammer was Intercontinental Champion for 3 years and in 2002 to 2004 Hammer was one half of the Tag Team Champions. We lost track of him for a few years, and in 2005 Hammer returned for four events and we have not see him since. Hammer was one of the biggest and also one of the first wrestlers that worked for the WWWA when I formed the company in the 80’s. We all like to find him here in the WWWA I know that if Hammer returned once again he will become world champion.

Dino Sanna
WWWA Owner.

I then replied back asking a follow up (since I didn’t make it clear in the original mail about the question at hand), as to if Dino had any idea as to why Jack didn’t make it big. At the time of printing, he hasn’t responded (due to my not realising it till near the last minute), so I’ll leave my thoughts for next week, in case he does reply. But while you’re waiting, and you live in the area, go support WWWA since the owner was nice to me.

stronelis makes me happy by asking a very easy question.

Hey Chris quick Smackdown vs. Raw 09 question for you. On the superstar abilities, I know you earn them in career mode. But are you limited to only unlocking 6 per character? For example can you unlock 8 for a character and then choose the 6 you want or is it as soon as you hit 6 your character is set unless you restart career mode? Also is there anywhere I can go to find out how to unlock each ability? I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find a walk-through that covers this part.

Thanks for your help and love your articles.

Well, I’ll answer the second part first. Here’s now to unlock each ability, as copy/pasted from IGN’s guide of the game.

• Blood Shed – You and your opponents have to bleed ten times each. Rather tough to get and you have to encourage your opponent to beat on your face.
• Cage Match – Win any Cage Match in under 60 seconds by escaping the cage (rather than a pin or submission). Also tough to do.
• Dirty Pin – Get a five-star match rating against three different opponents who already have Dirty Pin.
• Durability – Win a match against an opponent who is rated 20 points above your overall score, but only after having at least one body part in orange health.
• Evasive Dodge – Win any special type of match (Ladder, Cage, etc.) against two different opponents.
• Fan Favorite – Successfully taunt ten times in one match.
• Hammer Throw – Earn any ability within your first ten matches in Career Mode, then whip an opponent into the corner ten times in a single match.
• Kip-Up – Win six different titles.
• K.O. – Get a five-star match rating against each of the four competitors in any title path. (Your star rating against the title holder is irrelevant for this one.)
• Ladder Match – Get a five-star match rating in a Ladder Match against either Jeff Hardy or Matt Hardy.
• Lock Pick – Survive the Walls of Jericho in any match against Chris Jericho.
• Move Theft – Beat twenty different opponents.
• Object – Use 50 successful weapon attacks in any number of matches.
• Outside Dives – Successfully land 25 attacks from the top rope in any number of matches.
• Possum Pin – Beat three wrestlers who already have Possum Pin.
• Referee Shield – Lose five times by DQ (just smack your opponent with a chair), then win a championship against a face.
• Resiliency – Kick out a pin at a two-count when you have at least two body parts registering red damage.
• Springboard – Win the Cruiserweight Title.
• Steal Taunt – Stop your opponent from stealing your taunt five times.
• Submission – Attempt seven struggle submissions in one match, then win the match via any method.
• Table Match – Put opponents through a total of 40 tables in any number of matches. The announcers’ tables do count.

As for the first part, sorry, but once you get one, you’re stuck with it, first 6 you get are the 6 you end up with. Save often if you want to avoid certain ones (my dirty dirty heel ended up with Fan Favourite AND Dirty Pin, which was kinda odd…)

Dom forces me to start looking up numbers.

love this column. I have been reading it for over ten years. Here are my questions…
What is the highest rated:
Nitro
Thunder
Smackdown
Raw
Impact
WCW PPV
WWE PPV
I hope you have those numbers handy. Also I was wondering if you had the worst rating numbers for those shows.

Oh boy. Well, going just by overall ratings and not any quarter hour stuff nor ‘real viewers’ or whatever system it is that gave Impact it’s best week ever a while back while it’s score was still the same…

Nitro: August 31, 1998 saw Nitro’s highest rating of 6.0. Lowest was 1.8, which they did on April 3, 2000 and December 11 that same year.

Thunder: 4.4 was Thunder’s peak, March 26, 1998. Surprisingly, Thunder’s lowest score was not near the end but near the middle, September 30, 1999 with a 1.2.

Smackdown: Easy, thanks to JP. Highest (so far) was 5.8, scored on April 28, 1999 (the debut specia;), December 30, 1999 and January 6, 2000. Lowest (so far) was 1.0, obtained September 8 and 15, 2006. So SD goes in pairs.

Raw: Easy, thanks to JP yet again. Highest rated one (so far) was 10th May, 1999, which got 8.1. Lowest (so far) was October 14, 1996, with a 1.8.

Impact: 1.2 is their highest (so far), which they have gotten on May 25 and December 14 in 2006, and on January 17, 24 and 31, March 6 and 13, October 30, December 4 and 11 in 2008. 0.6 is the record low, which they rated on November 19, 2005, April 1, 2006, and February 15, 2007. So far.

WCW PPV: Ok, with these numbers I know it doesn’t automatically work out, since it’s a measure of the percentage of available homes, and thus a 0.5 20 years ago is much more impressive than a 1.5 today, or something. Still, without accounting for inflation, The Bunkhouse Stampede, January 24, 1988 gets the nod with a buyrate of 3.5. The lowest, unsurprisingly, was Greed, the last WCW PPV with a 0.1.

WWE PPV: Again, without accounting for time, the highest is WM III, with a 10.2, although that may not be totally outside the realm of possibility. The lowest is WWECW December to Dismember in 2006, with the frankly disgusting buyrate of 0.22. Of course, if you included the WBF…

And Dom had a follow up-

My friend said that UFC has been killing the WWE in PPV buyrates for the last year. Is that true? If not I win a lucrative bet.

Well, I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to pay up, I think. The best Buyrates of 08 were released/complied recently, and they paint a bad picture for this bet:

1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6, 1,250,000
2. UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15, 1,010,000
3. Wrestling: WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul “Big Show” Wight, March 30, 670,000
4. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9, 625,000
5. UFC: Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2, 600,000
6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5, 540,000
7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000
8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000
9. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000
10. UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000

So UFC have 7 of the top 10, Boxing has 2 and WWE just has WM. And, worse still for the bet, UFC TV routinely draws less ratings than WWE, and thus UFC is, at the moment, getting a larger percentage of their viewers to buy their PPVs than WWE. On average they are drawing more and on a monthly basis they are beating WWE. 2008, UFC did better on PPV than WWE. Sorry.

My F’n Opinions

Dom has a final question.

In your opinion, who is the greatest wrestler of all time. When I say that, I mean overall, a guy that does everything (mic skills, in ring work, story telling, and psychology). This will also win another bet (hopefully).

Ok, so who was the real total package in the ring, is what your asking, which is good that you laid that out, because I have half a dozen answers to this question based on the half a dozen or so criteria that the question can mean. My answer for Greatest Wrestler ever when dealing with drawing ability (Flair) is different to my answer for the best wrestler ever in terms of charisma (Hogan), like it’s different for pure in ring (Angle), best promos (Piper), or just my favourite (Foley).

But under that definition that you have listed… Shawn Michaels. Flair would be a damm close number 2, but I just think that Shawn has a very, very, VERY slight edge in versatility, as opposed to Flair. But that answer might change in a day or two.

And finally, I discuss male gymnastics with Jones. Great, coz I don’t get enough jokes about me for thinking that Tori (the real Tori, not Ms. Wilson) was cute…

To elaborate my last question about how RVD would do in the Olympics, I specifically meant gymnastics. And on a broader topic, how would the more agile pro wrestlers such as John Morrison, Evan Bourne, Rey Mysterio circa 1997 do in competitive gymnastics, I mean is there really that much difference between taking bumps and twirling on a wooden horse?

A lot, actually. It’s easy to fall into a trap of thinking that athletes are universal, but if that were true, Brock Lesnar would be a football player right now. Gymnastics requires a lot of skill and control, with emphasis on stability and flexibility. While this is SOMEWHAT similar to wrestling, you can’t just pick up a wrestler, dump him on the uneven bars and expect a miracle. But then if you assume, as I have, that you would give them a lead up… If they trained, and worked hard, maybe they could do it. AJ Styles certainly could, given that he has trained somewhat. Rey definitely, Evan probably, John… probably not. But it would require a long time to get their bodies out of Wrestler mode and into Gymnast mode. You need to lose all that toughness for tacking bumps in order to get the flexyness you need. That said, Jack Evans would probably make a go of it, if I had to pick the guy I thought would do best at it. And yes, I know flexyness isn’t really a word.

Well, that’s all for now, so, get to sending, and I’ll see you all next week. Bye bye.

P.S: No, RVD hasn’t re-signed.