Ask 411 Wrestling: Has The Undertaker Wrestled on Every WWE TV Show in History?

Welcome guys, gals, and gender non-binary pals, to Ask 411 . . . the last surviving weekly column on 411 Wrestling.

I am your party host, Ryan Byers, and I am here to answer some of your burning inquiries about professional wrestling. If you have one of those queries searing a hole in your brain, feel free to send it along to me at [email protected]. Don’t be shy about shooting those over – the more, the merrier.

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Brad is feeling a chill in the air:

The Undertaker’s recent appearance on WWE NXT reminded me of all the various domestic WWF/WWE TV shows he’s been on, beyond the obvious ones like RAW, Smackdown, Superstars, etc. I assume he’s appeared on every one since his debut. Could you list them all and remind readers of shows that have come and gone?

Just to define our time frame a little bit, as most reading this will probably know, the Undertaker made his WWF debut in November 1990. Defining the end of his run is a bit harder.

On one hand, Brad’s question references a 2023 appearance on NXT, so perhaps he really is asking whether Taker has been on every domestic WWE TV show to present day. However, in some respects it doesn’t seem fair to hold the guy to that standard, because he’s not been a full-time member of the roster for quite a while.

His last match was over four years ago now, and he’s not been what I would consider a full-time member of the WWE roster since 2010, wrestling just a small handful of matches (at most) per year between 2011 and 2020.

Believe it or not, I’ve actually found some TV shows that existed during Undertaker’s time in WWE that he didn’t appear on, at least if you exclude recaps and video packages that could air on just about any shows.

What shows wasn’t he on?

Saturday Morning Slam immediately came to my mind, which was a kiddie version of WWE programming that aired on the CW’s Saturday morning children’s block in 2012 and 2013. There was a lot of comedy baked into the show’s exclusive matches, which wouldn’t exactly have gibed with Taker’s persona at the time.

Another Saturday morning show that I can’t find record of Taker appearing on other than in recaps is WWF Mania, which was hosted by Todd Pettengill in the early and mid 1990s. The vast majority of the time, Mania was a recap show, but they did occasionally host an “exclusive” Mania match, and I can’t find record of any of those involving the Undertaker.

Taker has also never been on WWE Main Event, a show that originally debuted on Ion Television in 2012 and initially featured a-list talent but quickly became the company’s d-show. After it left Ion in 2014, it’s been on various streaming platforms and continues to present day.

I don’t believe that the Undertaker was ever on WWF Jakked or WWF Metal, which were the company’s sydnicated television shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s when they still produced first run matches for syndication. I also don’t believe that the Undertaker was ever on WWE Velocity, which was a Saturday night show on Spike TV that, along with Heat, basically took the place of Jakked and Metal when the company decided that syndicated shows weren’t going to feature original matches anymore.

Believe it or not, WWE did not team the Undertaker up with a female wrestler for its Facebook Watch exclusive series Mixed Match Challenge in 2018.

He’s also never been on current shows NXT Level Up or WWE Speed for obvious reasons.

What about the shows Taker has been on? In addition to the ones Brad already mentioned in his question, there’s been All American Wrestling (a Sunday morning show on USA), Action Zone (a show that replaced All American in the Sunday morning USA slot), Saturday Night’s Main Event/The Main Event (which I think everybody knows the backstory of), Prime Time Wrestling (USA’s flagship wrestling show in the pre-Raw era), Wrestling Challenge (a syndicated counterpart of Superstars), Shotgun Saturday Night (originally an “edgy” syndicated show from nightclubs that quickly became just another c-show with undercard talent), Sunday Night Heat (yet another show that started by featuring main talent but plummeted not long after), and ECW on SyFy (which again I believe everybody knows the backstory of).

I think that covers everything, barring programs like reality shows and others where in-ring wrestling is not the primary focus.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Stormi is under that hood:

There was a lengthy storyline in WWF in 1986 where was Andre the Giant was “suspended” from the company, and the Giant Machine arrived, which infuriated Bobby Heenan. On one Saturday episode, President Jack Tunney told Heenan that if he could prove that the Machine was Andre, then Andre would be suspended permanently. However, if it turned out that it wasn’t Andre, HEENAN would be suspended.

My question is, was there ever a payoff planned for this angle? The Machines just kind of fizzled out by the end of the year.

Yes, there was a payoff. Eventually, it was announced that Andre the Giant’s suspension had come to an end and, over time, it came out that the suspension ended because Bobby Heenan had become his manager and negotiated the resolution. That’s what set up Andre’s heel turn and the main event of Wrestlemania III.

The whole gimmick was that Andre was wrestling as a Machine because he was suspended and, when Heenan got him reinstated, the Machines went away because the gimmick was no longer necessary.

Donny from Allentown was mine before he was yours:

Have you ever heard the rumor that in 1992 once Vince McMahon called off/changed the Wrestlemania VIII Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair main event to inflate the buyrate he had Ric Flair & Curt Henning promise on camera to show photos of Miss Elizabeth in very private positions?

That’s not a rumor. It 100% happened on WWF television.

The whole storyline between Flair and Savage headed into Wrestlemania VIII was based on the Nature Boy claiming that he had been with Elizabeth before Savage was, including showing doctored photos of the two dating. Flair and Perfect claimed that they had other, more revealing photos of the lady and that they were going to show them on pay per view.

Tyler from Winnipeg is being fitted for a weasel suit:

How many times did Bobby Hennan show up under the ROH banner?

Not that many, all told.

Originally, the Brain was booked to appear for Ring of Honor for the first time on April 23 and April 24, 2004 in Minneapolis and Chicago (well, Chicago Ridge anyway), two cities that he obviously had quite a bit of history with. However, not long after this was announced, news of the Rob Feinstein scandal broke, which caused several bigger stars who had appearances scheduled with ROH to pull out. Heenan was one of those, even though Feinstein and the company split almost immediately when things went south.

Before Heenan canceled his booking, the company did shoot an angle on its February 14 show in Braintree, Massachusetts in which Bobby allegedly sent a mystery man as his representative to enter the tournament to crown the first ever ROH Pure Champion. The man in question wound up being CM Punk, who ultimately lost in the finals to AJ Styles. This was intended to set up the Brain managing the Second City Saints of Punk and Colt Cabana in an ROH Tag Team Title match in either Chicago or Minneapolis, with their opponents being the Briscoe Brothers managed by Jim Cornette.

However, once it became clear that RF was no more, Ring of Honor was able to reassemble things so that Heenan did work for them, doing a version of the originally intended angle.

On December 4, 2004 as part of a card called All-Star Extravaganza II, there was an angle between Cornette and Heenan in which Corny told Heenan that he wished he would just die already because he was tired of being called the number two manager in pro wrestling. This lead to a physical confrontation with Jack Evans and Roderick Strong getting involved on behalf of Cornette and Colt Cabana and Jimmy Jacobs getting involved on behalf of Heenan. Of course, this turned into a tag team match, playa, with the legendary managers each in a corner. (And the irony of Jim Cornette managing a wrestler like Jack Evans in light of his contemporary comments about AEW is not lost on me.) The managers mixed it up with one another at ringside, with Heenan’s team ultimately getting the victory.

Heenan also appeared for ROH on April 16, 2005 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, managing CM Punk against Mike Kruel, who was seconded by Prince Nana. This was the last ringside appearance that Heenan made for ROH, as he apparently decided that he just didn’t want to be in that role anymore. According to the May 2, 2005 Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the Brain also was not happy with some of the salty language that Punk used in his promo that evening, because “he’s from the mentality that if you are a professional you get over without swearing.”

Who knew Bobby Heenan and Danhausen would have so much in common?

Redmond is down for a spot of tea:

The British Bulldogs were my first favorite wrestlers. It always seemed to me that they were the most over babyface tag team in the WWF during their entire run – agree/disagree?

If we’re looking at the Bulldog’s WWF run, we’re looking at the period between March 10, 1985 and November 24, 1988. Were they the most popular team in the company for that entire three-and-a-half year period?

I’m going to go with no.

With all due respect to Redmond, these guys overlapped with the Mega Powers. They’re not going to eclipse the Mega Powers.

Bret is subject to change:

I was just watching Wrestlemania VIII the other day with Hogan versus Sid in honor of Sid passing, which I was sad to hear. But wasn’t the original main event supposed to be Hogan vs Flair? Why did they change that without no mention of it? I know Hogan was taking a break, but I think at the time it was the match that everyone wanted to watch.

I actually covered a version of this question back in December 2022 but figured I would link to the answer here again since there will probably be several people like Bret wondering about aspects of Sid’s career now that he has passed away.

Last week, I was asked if the Stunner was the best finishing move in wrestling history. Well, Ron wants to take exception with my answer:

I have to take issue with your response to Tyler of Winnipeg, who asked about the Stone Cold Stunner being the best finishing move in wrestling history. I agree with you that it’s up there, but the operative phrase in the question was “…in wrestling history”. There are way too many historic finishers that can’t be overlooked. Several are still used today, but they are booked as ineffective finishers. However, back in the day, these classic finishers would either put a wrestler out or cause a submission at the least. Two that readily come to mind are the classic pile driver and the figure four leg lock. During the 60s or 70s, these were true finishers that no opponent escaped or recovered from during any given match. However, over the years, they have been dummy-ed down to the extent that they rarely incapacitate anyone.

I respect your knowledge of wrestling and look forward to your articles every week.

This is a totally fair take, and I don’t have much to add except to say that in the 1960s and 1970s moves like the piledriver and the figure four were not necessarily “finishers” in the way that phrase is used in 2024. They were moves that were used by several wrestlers and were in fact portrayed as big ticket moves, which you could also say of holds like the sleeper.

However, they weren’t moves strongly associated with one particular wrestler which that wrestler is going to use to win 99% of their matches.

That is what I think of when I hear the word finisher used in a modern context, and that is what I based my answer last week on.

In a rarity for this column, I’m going to revisit a question that I just published a couple of weeks ago, which comes from Russ

I want to ask about an obscure match from WCW Saturday Night that featured Cactus Jack taking on an enhancement talent named Spider Brown. WCW Saturday Night shows of this era typically featured squash matches designed to highlight the star, letting them get all their signature moves in with little resistance from their opponent. Spider Brown wore blue tights and had stringy, shoulder-length gray hair – just the typical random opponent from that time period. Anyways, in this particular match, Cactus was running through his usual offense, clotheslining Spider over the top rope, then exiting the ring from the other side to deliver a running double axe handle on the floor. However, Spider saw him coming, and started gesturing as to put Cactus in a trance. It worked! Cactus stopped dead in his tracks, dropped his fists, and cocked his head to the side, waiting for what was to come next. Even the announcers were unsure of what was happening. Unfortunately, once Spider punched Cactus in the face, he snapped out of it and the beatdown was back on, ending in Cactus getting his hand raised in victory. Spider was back the following week, he once again tried his hypnosis trick on his opponent, but it was no-sold and Spider took another loss and the announcers made no mention of it. So my question is … What was the origin of this hypnosis spot? Was it just something Foley did to give Spider some sort of offense? I searched WWE Network but could not find this match, so if your super search ability can find it please share. Any internet search I try usually only results in brown recluse spiders, so if you want to use this question to write a synopsis of Brown’s in-ring career please do so.

When I originally addressed this question, I could not find any wrestler named Spider Brown or any name that I thought was similar to Spider Brown in any list of Mick Foley’s opponents. However, several people in the comments pointed out that Russ was probably asking about classic job guy Snake Brown. With that clarification, I was able to find some more information.

Who was Snake Brown? There’s not a ton of backstory floating around about the guy, but the short version is that he was an enhancement wrestler who mostly worked out of Georgia beginning in 1979 and continuing through about 1989. As Russ noted, he was noteworthy because of his rather voluminous hair, which almost looked like a version of Andre the Giant’s classic “afro.” He worked for most of the southern territories of the era, including in Florida, the Carolinas, and some in Texas. He also had a series of four matches for the WWF when they did a swing through Georgia and Alabama in 1985. Also, though I have not found much in the way of confirmation, I have seen some references to him managing Abdullah the Butcher under the name Rhama Brown in Southern Championship Wrestling, the territory that Jerry Blackwell started up in Georgia after GCW was taken over by the WWF.

Snake’s real name was Emmett Brown, and he passed away on April 29, 2019 at the age of 66 as a result of a heart attack.

Now let’s talk about the match that Russ remembers.

I have not been able to find any record whatsoever of Snake Brown wrestling Cactus Jack, and at least one person who commented on my original answer to this question said the same.

HOWEVER, I did find the below match between Brown and Captain Mike Rotunda, which was taped for WCW television on May 2, 1990 and aired on May 19.

Captain Mike is accompanied to ringside by his “first mate,” Norman, who was formerly known as Norman the Lunatic. Towards the end of the match, Brown goes to the arena floor, where he stands in front of Norman and spins around several times, putting Norman into a trance until Rotunda wins the match and snaps his buddy out of it.

This appears to very much be the behavior that Russ was describing in his question. However, I’ve not been able to find another match in which Snake puts his opponent into a trance. I’m not saying it’s not out there – I’ve just not been able to locate it if it is.

However, I will say that in watching other Snake Brown matches to answer this question, I did see Brown do the bit in which he would spin in circles and yell. Usually, it seemed to be a way for him to voice frustration that a match was not going his way. I have not seen another match in which it entranced a wrestler.

As a result, I am more inclined to say that this was more done to put over how “off” Norman was as opposed to it being the beginnings of a hypnosis gimmick for Snake Brown.

We’ll return in seven-ish days, and, as always, you can contribute your questions by emailing [email protected]. You can also leave questions in the comments below, but please note that I do not monitor the comments as closely as I do the email account, so emailing is the better way to get things answered.