Ask 411 Wrestling: Who Was Booking The nWo Angle in 1996?

Hi. So, there was some scheduling issues I was not in control of, but completely understand, hence the long delay between issue 1 and 2. Shouldn’t happen again. At least not any time soon.

Perhaps I’ve gone on too long. Hey, look, it’s BANNER~!

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Feedback Loop

Due to the late posting of issue 2, I finished writing this before it went up. I need some of those double-tense verbs and nouns from The Restaurant At The End Of The Galaxy like “wioll haven”. Anyway, there’s no feedback yet from my perspective, but there will be before this gets posted. It’s all rather wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey.

You Q, I A

First up this week is [checks notes] Mathew Sforcina?!? Seriously? YOU’RE NOT GETTING THIS COLUMN BACK, MAN!

You’ve had a week or two, that’s enough. Now for obscure self-referentialism!

In-jokes for an audience of two – a proud Ask 411 tradition!

So “What if Trish joined the Horsemen” is a stupid question, no doubt. But back in 2004, just after she turned at WM and hooked up with Christian, suppose she transitioned to being a JJ Dillon/Baby Doll hybrid, with Christian as a Flair/Tully expy, and she got together a sort of Horsemen.

A) Who would you pick as the other three guys in this scenario and B) Do you think it would work? OK, Evolution was hogging the spotlight on Raw, but maybe a transition to SD?

I never thought I’d see that question re-purposed and made useful and intelligent. You magnificent bastard.

If it’s gonna have any chance at working, he’s gotta jump to Smackdown. With Evolution being the centerpiece heel stable on Raw, Trish’s group would end up being the nWo Black & White to Evolution’s nWo Hollywood.

But if you go over the roster for Smackdown at the time? Holy hell, man, the pickings are slim for heels to align with him. This was the era of JBL’s sudden push to the main event, and putting him in Trish’s neo-not-quite-Horsemen would overshadow Christian, whom I assume we want as the centerpiece. Rene Dupree was floundering in the midcard, and Mark Jindrak struggling to even get on the card. The Dudleyz were heels, but they seem like a weird fit. That leaves … Booker T? Angle didn’t make his in-ring return until SummerSlam, which, I could see him, I guess. But putting him with two former world champs feels like Christian would be low man on the totem pole in his own stable. But conversely, just dropping midcarders in there with no heat won’t do anybody any good. Nobody’s running from Christian, Mark Jindrak, Luther Reigns and Rene Dupree.

Now, if we could swap some people off Raw? Could turn Shelton Benjamin and have him adopt the “star athlete” gimmick a few years early. Maybe turn Matt Hardy heel too, just to avoid the Kane storyline. And then Tyson Tomko could still come in as the heavy. It’s not the best line-up, but it’s better than what Smackdown could produce at the time. Without a scenery relocation to Smackdown and a talent influx from Raw, though, I don’t see how this stable could be more than X-Factor 2.0.

Yeah, I went there.

But even with going to Smackdown, there’s still the JBL problem. Unless the idea is a slow build, Christian would be stuck no better off than he was without Trish’s theoretical stable, unless the JBL reign is jettisoned entirely. So … yeah, this seems like it’s doomed any way you slice it.

Next up is a question meant directly for me, sent from Scotland by Brillbo Baggins, who wants me to make mountains, so to speak.

Just wanted to thank you for picking up the Ask 411 ball. I have to admit that I somehow had had the wrong impression of you. In the past, for some reason I had assumed that you were some young writer that Mat was giving a leg up to occasionally. I didn’t realise you were a grizzled veteran who had been round the block a few times already! Anyway, I really enjoyed your first week as the full time host and particularly the Mama Benjamin shout out!

I wanted to ask you an opinion question that I previously asked Mat in a get to learn a bit more about you kind of way …

Who’s faces would you have carved on your wrestling Mount Rushmore? I’d be interested in as many different ones as you can be bothered to think of in terms of a North American/Japanese/International whatever you like.

I like these kind of getting-to-know-you questions. I could do with more of these.

Anyway, first, let’s go with overall importance to the industry, with no geographical restrictions whatsoever. The most important people ever, bar none, hands down, taking no arguments. And I’m sticking with in-ring competitors here, because including promoters muddies up the waters. I’d go with Gorgeous George, Rikidozan, El Santo and Hulk Hogan. You have the man most synonymous with injecting showmanship and gimmicks into the previously staid world of grapplers and hookers, the grandfather of Japanese wrestling, lucha libre’s messiah, and the man who was the face of wrestling’s golden era. Yes, you could argue there have been bigger stars (The Rock, Misawa), but for my money, none more important or influential.

Broken down by geography, I’d have to go:

United States: Gorgeous George, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, John Cena
Japan: Rikidozan, Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, Manami Toyota
Europe: Karl Gotch, Andre the Giant, Bruno Sammartino, William Regal
Mexico: El Santo, Dos Caras, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio Jr.
Canada: Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, Trish Stratus, Chris Jericho

Now, to go back to something I mentioned before, if we’re including promoters, the list changes. Enough so that I think a promoters-only list makes sense here. And because I know someone will challenge me about the specifics in the comments, let me be clear; I do not just mean “owner” here. I mean the most high-profile executive for the promotion.

Promoters: Sam Muchnick, Rikidozan, Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman

And one more to toss on the list: my personal favorite performers. My all-time, no-objective-criteria-considered, strictly-based-on-my-markout-factor Mount Rushmore:

The Undertaker
Bret Hart
Shawn Michaels
Steve Corino

I’m aware that one of these is not like the other, and that I’ve also refused to take a side in wrestling’s version of Beatles-or-Stones. But it’s who I love. The people whose matches I can watch over and over again without question. The people whose matches and angles still give me goosebumps now as a 40 year old man as they did when I was much younger.

And Corino won me over when he accused Dusty Rhodes of cutting the brake lines on Magnum TA’s car. Still my favorite insult in a promo ever.

Over to Kevin now, who asks about wrestling as a dream. In a metaphorical sense. Like, an aspiration. Look, these witty intros aren’t easy, sometimes.

Cool column. My wrestling knowledge only goes back a couple decades. I was thinking recently how in WWE today its so often talked about in interviews and even on TV of wrestlers who always dreamed of being a wrestler. You look at so many guys like Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Rollins, etc it is talked about how as kids they always watched and loved wrestling and dreamed of being in WWE. Same thing with the likes of Bailey and Sasha Banks. Looking back at history who are some of the wrestlers that has TV storylines of wrestling fandom and dreams? All I can think of is Edge and Christian. And yea Shawn Michaels had the boyhood dream, but they didnt really paint a picture of 10yr old hbk watching wwe and wishing he could be there someday. I’m sure its in part because previously a majority of talent were former football or other sports players that couldnt make there.

You don’t often see the whole “childhood dream” angle play out anymore, partly because it can be quite saccharine. I mean, people don’t go into wrestling because they fell ass-backwards into a job their cousin got them, right? This isn’t an assistant manager’s position at a book store. The commitment to become a wrestler, by virtue of itself, implies this is a dream vocation, the same way an astronaut or archaeologist or pro basketball player does.

And to really pull off that angle, you need a supernova-hot, white-meat babyface. Not a silent badass like Roman Reigns, not the loudmouth antihero like Steve Austin, not a psychotic madman like Cactus Jack … they have to be a true-north, Lawful Good babyface, and they have to have the crowd in the palms of their hands. That’s why Shawn Michaels’ “boyhood dream” stuff didn’t work so well; he was popular, but he wasn’t that popular (and also, he wasn’t relatable). Strangely, you know who I think pulled it off the best?

Hearing about Mick Foley’s homemade videos, jumping off the roof of his house, and seeing him in the audience for Jimmy Snuka’s jump off the cage, was used to humanize the Mankind character. They didn’t sell it as the “boyhood dream”, but instead used it to show this perceived madman came from an average home, was a goofy kid who loved wrestling (perhaps a little too much), and was maybe, just maybe, the deranged lunatic persona manifested for a reason. They were able to reference this later on when he won the WWE Championship, calling back to “Mrs. Foley’s baby boy” and how nobody thought he could be anything in the business.

They also used this kind of angle when AJ Lee debuted. They had footage of her meeting Lita at a signing event; AJ breaks down in tears meeting her idol, and it’s just so damned sweet and heartwarming. It was an attempt to paint AJ as a babyface that was both a fan and a wrestler, the fan who made good. It didn’t work nearly as well as they wanted. But it’s still a sweet little piece of video. Reminds you that these larger-than-life characters started out as people.

Gary moves us forward with a rather timely question about the Royal Rumble and going pillar to post, in a manner of speaking.

Just finished watching the Rumble match from 2001 and started on 2002. As you know Rikishi was number 30 in ‘01 and then number 1 in ‘02. I think it happened to Taker in ‘07 and ‘08 so my question is…

How often has number 30 one year been number 1 entry the year after.

A research question that won’t take me a month to research! Let’s list them out, shall we?

1988 – Junkyard Dog entered #30.
1989 – Demolition Ax entered #1, and Ted DiBiase entered #30.
1990 – Ted DiBiase entered #1, and Mr. Perfect entered #30.
1991 – Bret Hart entered #1, and Tugboat entered #30.
1992 – British Bulldog entered #1, and The Warlord entered #30.
1993 – Ric Flair entered #1, and Randy Savage entered #30.
1994 – Scott Steiner entered #1, and Adam Bomb entered #30.
1995 – Shawn Michaels entered #1, and Crush entered #30.
1996 – Triple H entered #1, and Duke Droese entered #30.
1997 – Crush entered #1, and The Undertaker entered #30.
1998 – Cactus Jack entered #1, and Vader entered #30.
1999 – Steve Austin entered #1, and Chyna entered #30.
2000 – D’Lo Brown entered #1, and X-Pac entered #30.
2001 – Jeff Hardy entered #1, and Rikishi entered #30.
2002 – Rikishi entered #1, and Booker T entered #30.
2003 – Shawn Michaels entered #1, and The Undertaker entered #30.
2004 – Chris Benoit entered #1, and Goldberg entered #30.
2005 – Eddie Guerrero entered #1, and Ric Flair entered #30.
2006 – Triple H entered #1, and Randy Orton entered #30.
2007 – Ric Flair entered #1, and The Undertaker entered #30.
2008 – The Undertaker entered #1, and John Cena entered #30.
2009 – Rey Mysterio entered #1, and Big Show entered #30.
2010 – Dolph Ziggler entered #1, and Batista entered #30.
2011 – CM Punk entered #1, and Kane entered #40.
2012 – The Miz entered #1, and Big Show entered #30.
2013 – Dolph Ziggler entered #1, and Ryback entered #30.
2014 – CM Punk entered #1, and Rey Mysterio entered #30.
2015 – The Miz entered #1, and Dolph Ziggler entered #30.
2016 – Roman Reigns entered #1, and Triple H entered #30.
2017 – Big Cass entered #1, and Roman Reigns entered #30.

Apart from Rikishi and Undertaker, the only other person it happened to is Ted DiBiase. Also technically Ric Flair, if you overlook that minor 16 year gap. And, just for kicks, Roman Reigns pulled off the inverse in the two most recent editions.

Also, totally useless factoid I noticed: between 2010 and 2015, the same three men went #1 in the exact same pattern twice: Ziggler in 2010, then Punk in 2011, then Miz in 2012, then back to Ziggler in 2013, Punk in 2014 and Miz in 2015. That’s just damned weird. That’s the kind of statistical anomaly that can only happen by accident.

Now we go to Jorge from Puerto Rico, who sent in a long list of questions a while back, and I’m picking them off one at a time.

During the NWO angle in 1996, who was booking WCW? It seemed that they just put matches together just for the heck of it? I just saw a Nitro in December 96 in which Regal faced Psicosis, with no storyline whatsoever. Most matches didn’t make any sense. I can see why the show was winning the ratings, because the NWO thing was something new, but someone had to know that people would get tired of the NWO and they had to plan or book for life after NWO. Did anyone ever take notice of this?

Your primary offender would be one Eric Aaron Bischoff. He wasn’t the only person responsible, of course, but Bischoff was the Executive Vice President of WCW, and therefore had the final saw as far as creative goes. Bischoff had monitors installed in the commentary booth, as well as backstage, that were tuned in to Raw. It was not uncommon for him to refer to those monitors and rebook Nitro while it was on the air in response to what was happening on Raw. Segments would be moved, dropped, or participants swapped out if Raw looked like it was going to have a hot segment. As a result of this mid-show deck-shuffling, matches being put on with seemingly no rhyme or reason weren’t uncommon. And because Bischoff was so singularly focused on the nWo, based on the results they were getting, he often let other storylines languish. A perfect example of this would be the agonizingly stupid Jeff Jarrett/Mongo/Debra angle, which went on for a good six months, filled with little more than accidentally hitting each other with a Halliburton briefcase and wacky-tag-partners-who-can’t-get-along schtick done with all the storytelling grace of a GEICO caveman commercial. There are phenomenal feuds that only went two, three months tops, and this thing, which was like watching your dad’s colonoscopy video, went on HALF THE YEAR simply because creative had nothing better to do for them.

And to answer your second question, no, they did not plan for this. Bischoff well and truly believed that the nWo would never get old. After all, the ratings weren’t suffering, and Raw wasn’t making any gains, so what proof was there that the audience wanted something new? And some of the plans that didn’t get off the ground would’ve taken the concept even farther past the breaking point. nWo Souled Out was meant to be a test balloon for running WCW and nWo as separate entities, much in the same way WWE would make Raw and Smackdown separate brands. This would be more seriously revisited in the final episode of Nitro prior to Starrcade 1997, when the show became nWo Nitro. With Thunder debuting, one “promotion” would get Nitro, the other Thunder, and voila! More of everything everybody wanted! Except, like Souled Out, nWo Nitro was ABYSMAL. And even with those two signs, the following year, he’d split the nWo in two, because … man, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

So, long story short, no. Nobody ever took notice. Bischoff had success planting one seed, and he thought that tree would forever bear fruit if he was just clever enough with how he pruned it. He couldn’t have cared less about the other plants in the garden … and that’s what led to his downfall.

Rahil Rajani wants to make like Doctor Doolittle.

Have any other animals been used in wrestling, apart from Jake`s snake, bulldog`s dog, sting`s crow and steamboat`s dragon ?????

Sure. Off the top of my head, there’s Koko B. Ware’s bird. Sforcina’s patron saint Victoria, during her run in TNA, was awfully fond of a tarantula. And then there was this one, however unfortunate things ended up:

I’m sure there are more, but animal escorts fell out of favor once the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling era wound down. Apart from Sting’s menagerie of birds (he also had a vulture!), they haven’t really been a thing in recent history. Any I’m forgetting, readers?

Now we go to Andrea, who’s curious about when somebody famous for cooking really started to simmer. Man, that was a tortured pun. I’m so sorry.

When did people start to realize that The Rock was GOOD, post-heel turn during the Nation of Domination period i get it, but can you pinpoint some promos/angles/matches that really showcased for the first time his talent?

It’s hard to pinpoint, because it really was gradual. But, gun to my head, I’d say his brief program with Steve Austin in November/December 1997. Following the heel turn, he was still one of the soldiers in the Nation, who were caught in the endless wheel of stupidity that was GANG WARZ. When Austin forfeited his Intercontinental Championship after the Summerslam injury, he interfered in the finals of the tournament to fill the vacancy, which just so happened to involve Faarooq. This put an Austin v Nation feud on the backburner … and when Survivor Series went down and the Hart family more or less left the promotion en masse, it made sense to bring back the Austin/Nation beef. Except that Faarooq was obviously not the long term investment, and Austin needed to be freed from the IC picture so he could begin his final ascent to the main event. And sitting there, in the Nation, was someone WWE was heavily invested in and wanted to be a homegrown superstar. Rock v Austin just made sense; Rock was really coming into his own as an egotistical, third-generation, finely dressed, upper-crust asshole. A brat to the manor born, to borrow a line from a song (name that tune, somebody!). The perfect foil for the blue-collar, hard-fighting redneck that was Stone Cold.

As for a specific moment, that gets a lot harder. If I had to pick one, the “Beeper 3:16” segment would be it. Rocky’s facial expression transitions from annoyed, arrogant indifference to shock and confusion so nicely, it’s just magical. It’s something you can’t teach; he just got it, and it showed. I know WWE’s mantra of “wins and losses don’t matter” can be rather frustrating these days, but this truly was a case where who won and who lost the feud didn’t matter; they brought out the absolute best in each other, and this feud, in my opinion, showed Rocky had finally hit on the formula that allowed him to turn the corner.

And we wrap up with frequent submitter Connor Watson, who takes us back to WCW’s darkest day, and a man famous for missed potential.

It always amazes me why WCW waited until 1991 to put the world title on Lex Luger? granted he was never as popular as Sting, but he had been chasing Flair since the Great American Bash in 1988, the same event 2 years later inside a cage would have been the culmination of an epic feud, but instead we get Luger against Barry Windham?

There’s a lot to unpack here, Connor. So, let’s start with 1988.

Luger didn’t get the title in ’88 because of backstage politics. Namely, Ric Flair didn’t want to drop it to him. Flair (per his podcast) was of the belief that Luger was still too green and pushed too soon by the promoters, and thus wasn’t able to learn what he needed to be a true main event talent. Mind you, this is what he says now; what he thought then may not have been as much of a left-handed compliment. So, you know, grain of salt or two.

But the 1991 situation was different. Flair was getting railroaded by Jim Herd on contract negotiations. This was of the time when Herd thought Flair should cut his hair, get an earring and become a gladiator named Spartacus, a plan Flair was reasonably less than enthusiastic for. He also wanted Flair to drop the strap to Luger, whom he believed the future of the company. Per Flair, he (Flair) had already promised the belt to Sting, whom he thought was due and would make a better face champion than Luger. Herd didn’t like that idea any more than he liked Flair (and, I’d wager, probably didn’t like it because Flair liked the idea), and basically told Flair “Luger and the haircut or GTFO”. Flair, his pride and self-worth too strong to take any more insults from a guy whose prior job was being a Pizza Hut executive, chose the latter option, and with only two weeks to go before GAB 91. This left WCW in an awkward position of needing someone to fill the gaping hole in the main event. Pulling someone like Sting or Arn Anderson would’ve disrupted the card further, so that was out. But Barry Windham wasn’t booked for the event in any way. He had a strong history of being an upper midcarder and, like Luger, was viewed as a guy who worked hard and had never taken that final step to the peak of the mountain. Also, he was a member of the Horsemen, so there was … some kind of continuity? Not the best, but it was something. And it gave Luger a strong heel to play off of, which was … important, I guess? … anyway, it was something, so that when they pulled off that wonderful double turn, … yeah, it really does start to fall apart when you pull at the threads. Anyway, that’s why it took that long for Luger to get there.

Okay, let’s hit that closing segment.

A Question I Want Answered!

Why do people get upset about star ratings?

You read a recap or a review of a show, and said reviewer rates a match. “HOW UNDER/OVER DARE THEY RATE IT LIKE THAT!” you proclaim.

Seriously. What’s the point of getting upset? So Meltzer broke his own five-star system for Omega/Okada. So he only gave one ECW match five stars, and it wasn’t Lynn/RVD or Guerrero/Malenko. What is the real-world impact of this? Nothing. This doesn’t negate your feelings or compel you to re-organize your preferences. For instance … here comes a hot take …

I find the Shawn Michaels/Ric Flair retirement match as boring as watching paint dry. I really do. I found the drama forced and contrived, and the in-ring action pedestrian at best, as I felt Shawn had to slow himself down to work with Flair. Conversely, I absolutely love Undertaker/Diesel from Wrestlemania XII. I get a true epic, clash-of-the-titans feel from it, love seeing Undertaker get manhandled in a way he never had before, and enjoyed Diesel getting cocky at the end in between powerbombs. Doesn’t mean you have to change your opinions because mine don’t align with yours. Star ratings are purely subjective. Nobody should let someone else’s opinion hold so much power over their own.

Yeah, I know, I’m saying this on the internet. Screaming into the void, but it’s just one guy’s opinion.

That wraps up this week’s installment. I still have no witty way to close this. Really need to work on that. Umm … bye?