Ask 411 Wrestling: How Often Does Darby Allin Wrestle Compared to Steve Austin?

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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Joe is clocking in:

Due to the high impact nature of modern wrestling, I was wondering about house shows and the number of matches a typical mid to high level wrestler would have a year now compared to yesteryears (80s, 90s). Like, how many matches does Darby Allin do compared to Steve Austin in his initial WWE run etc.?

Hulk Hogan claims he wrestled 400 days a year, which obviously untrue, is the number actually somewhat close? 200+?

Darby Allin wrestled 29 matches in 2024, a little over two per month. He wrestled 47 matches in 2023, roughly four per month.

Steve Austin in 1996, his first full calendar year as a member of the WWF roster, wrestled 178 matches, or almost 3.5 per week.

In other words, Austin in ’96 was wrestling more in a week than Allin is currently wrestling in a month, and that statistic is only slightly closer if you look at Darby’s ’23 as compared to his ’24.

Meanwhile, if we look at 1984, which was the year that Hulk Hogan returned to the WWF and was crowned the company’s champion for the first time, he wrestled 147 matches. In 1985, he wrestled 145 matches.

And, yes, this is pretty par for the course. Contemporary professional wrestlers are working significantly fewer dates than people in the same place on the card from 30 or 40 years ago, and they’re also making more money for it, too.

It’s a great thing for wrestlers, and I’m not going to begrudge them for being in a position where they can receive better pay for doing less work. However, I do wonder if it’s what produces the best in-ring product for fans, because wrestlers don’t seem to be developing the same level of fundamental skills.

Much like the Royal Rumble match, Jonfw2 is all about the numbers:

Since the infamous 83 weeks, has any non-WWE-owned wrestling company ever beat Raw in the weekly ratings? Meaning not that a show went directly head to head with Raw on a Monday, but at any time during a given week, has a show aired by a WWE competitor gotten a higher rating than that week’s Raw.

Technically yes, but there is a hyuuuuuuge caveat that you have to take into consideration.

This actually happened for the first and only time almost exactly a year ago as I’m writing this answer. In 2023, Christmas Day was a Monday, and there was an episode of Monday Night Raw that aired, but it was not a first-run program. Instead, it was a “Best Of” episode that compiled highlights from the rest of the year.

Two days later, AEW Dynamite did air a first-run show, and it did put up higher overall viewership numbers than Raw did.

However, comparing a clip show to a first-run show is apples and oranges and, perhaps even more importantly, we’re talking about something that aired at 8 p.m. on CHRISTMAS DAY, where television viewing is going to be way down across the board.

Without those extenuating circumstances, no, this has never happened. AEW is the company that’s had the best shot of doing it, but they’ve never been able to grab the brass ring. When Impact Wrestling was the legitimate #2 company in the country, Raw was being viewed by far more people than it is now, and Impact was doing well if they could get half the audience of the same week’s Raw episode. (We’ll not even talk about how badly they were decimated when they went head-to-head.)

Tyler from Winnipeg got his much less talented brother a job in Impact Wrestling:

What are your top three Dolph Ziggler moments?

At the risk of sounding like I’m trying to manufacture a “hot take,” Dolph Ziggler never really did that much for me. He had some good to great matches, but there were others who wrestled the style he was going for much better (Perfect, Michaels) so I’m far more likely to pop in one of their matches than I am his. Plus, he never really stood out to me as a personality, as during his heyday he was one of many guys on the WWE roster who seemed like they were all portraying the exactly same arrogant, sneering heel (Miz, Swagger, Kennedy, etc. etc.)

Probably the most entertained I’ve ever been by Dolph Ziggler is when Amy Schumer was telling jokes about having sex with him.

Despite all his rage, Night Wolf the Wise is still just a rat in a cage:

1. The Hell in a Cell match has been a staple in the WWE for nearly 30 years. I read that the concept of Hell in a Cell was inspired by the Last Battle of Atlanta match between Tommy Rich and Buzz Swayer. Is there truth to this claim?

2. Speaking of Battle of Atlanta I read that match was untelevised. And for years everyone believed that it wasn’t recorded. It remained that way for 33 years until WWE put in on the WWE Network. Why was that match hidden for 33 years?

3. Can you explain what the Last Battle of Atlanta match is for those who might not know?

I’ll take the last question first. The Last Battle of Atlanta was a match between Buzz Sawyer and Tommy Rich that blew off a feud that they had in Georgia Championship Wrestling on October 23, 1983 in the Omni. Specifically, it was a steel cage match, with the cage having a roof on it.

You are correct that the match was untelevised, which was totally normal for major blowoff matches in the territories. You didn’t put those matches on TV because your company made its money by selling tickets to live shows, and people are going to be less likely to buy tickets if they know they can just see the thing on TV a week later anyway.

It is also true that the footage of the match that was taken was lost for a while. It was lost because, in the territorial era, nobody gave a shit about retaining footage of matches because home video and streaming weren’t on anybody’s radar yet so footage of old matches was not seen as having much value. In fact, most territories regularly copied over tapes that they did have because they never thought they’d be able to monetize the footage and videotape was expensive and they were trying to save money.

Because of this, the footage of the Last Battle of Atlanta was kept but it was never actually labeled and just thrown into storage until WWE realized that they had it 33 years later when they were cataloging material that they had purchased in their acquisition of WCW.

WWE has claimed that the Last Battle of Atlanta was an inspiration for Hell in a Cell. However, this has been directly contradicted by Jim Cornette, who is the guy who came up with the idea of doing a Hell in a Cell match in the first place. According to Cornette on his podcast, War Games was more his inspiration for having a roof on the cage than the Last Battle of Atlanta was, even though there had been roofed cages in different territories for many years even before Sawyer fought Rich in ’83. (“Escape the cage” rules, which require there not be a roof, were primarily a WWF gimmick – other territories used pinfalls in cage matches.)

The other thing that Cornette has mentioned in his discussion of HIAC is that a Memphis cage match between Jerry Lawler and Randy Savage back in 1984 inspired another key element of the cell, which is the fact that it is large enough to encompass part of the ringside area. This was done in the Savage/Lawler match so that the Macho Man could hit his trademark axe handle from the top rope to the floor.

Also, it’s worth noting that the entire reason the Cell was created was to help get over the debut of Kane. Initially, the idea was that he would run in on a Michaels/Undertaker cage match, but Cornette suggested the modifications to the cage that turned it into the Cell because he didn’t think running in on a traditional WWF cage match would be anywhere near as impressive, since fans had seen wrestlers easily get into and out of their normal cages for decades. He wanted to build a structure that seemed impenetrable, only for Kane to then penetrate it.

We’re circling back to RayS:

I have a question that possibly you (and the commentators) might have fun with. Since they both consist of “larger than life” characters, how would you cast the Marvel and DC movie franchises using only wrestlers? Any character is fair game. For example, I’ve always thought if the ever made an Alpha Flight movie, the character Puck HAS to be cast to John Silver. Anyhow, whaddya think? Have fun.

For those who may have missed it, I first delved into this question a few weeks ago, starting with DC and indicating that I’d get to Marvel “next week.” I got distracted, so “next week” turned into “now,” but here we are.

As a reminder, when I began answering the question originally, I said that in order to keep this from running on for ages, I would limit myself to the main lineups for the Avengers and Justice League. Also, I’m not going to be duplicating any wrestlers, so if they were on the DC list in the original column, you’re not going to be seeing them here.

Okay, that’s not enough of that. Let’s see what I can come up with on the Marvel side of the coin:

Iron Man – Drew McIntyre: Iron Man is essentially an arrogant babyface who manages to walk the line and not be so arrogant that it flips him around to the other side and makes him a heel. In thinking about who from the wrestling world could best portray that duality, Drew McIntyre immediately came to mind. Plus, he’s got the sort of rugged good looks that could lead you to believe that he’s a playboy that still has the ability to kick some ass.

Captain America – Kofi Kingston: Probably the best character moment for Captain America came in the last episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier when Sam Wilson acknowledged that millions of people would hate him just because he was a symbol of America who just happened to be a Black man. Though not spoken about in every moment of every film, knowing that is running in the background is an integral part of the character. Kofi Kingston would absolutely get that, given that he’s often spoken about the dynamics of being both a Black man and a main event wrestler in WWE.

The Hulk – Darby Allin: I suppose technically we’re going with who is playing Bruce Banner, since the Hulk is really just a mess of CGI instead of being a dude in green body paint like he was during my childhood. So, we’re looking for someone who might not be the most physically imposing if you saw him on the street but can get very dangerous very quickly if provoked. That sounds like Darby Allin to me. Plus, there would be some humor in seeing that guy walking around in a lab coat . . . and, per our earlier question, we know he’s not wrestling that many mathces a year, so he should have plenty of time for filming.

Thor – Claudio Castagnoli: Token buff European guy. Bam.

Spider-Man – Dante Martin: This was a hard one to make a pick for, because Spider-Man works best as a teenage character, and there aren’t many wrestlers that I could come up with who could convincingly play that young. Plus, his physique works better for the wall-crawler than many more muscular wrestlers. Plus, perhaps casting Dante Martin an opportunity to bring Miles Morales into the MCU, which would be an extremely popular move.

Black Widow – Rhea Ripley: An emotionally detached Russian spy who has tons of baggage from her upbringing. Yeah, I can see Ripley having the chops to pull that off, and he may even be athletic enough to pull off some of her own stunts. Then again, that didn’t exactly work out so well for Lita when she tried to have her run as an action star.

I’ve always said Lev and let Lev, ya know?

I have been watching the Relieving the War series on Youtube by Wrestling Bios. Just watched the recap of WCW SuperBrawl 2000 and have a couple of questions. Who is this Big Al fella fighting Tank Abbott? Never heard of him before or since.

And why did Tank Abbott pull a knife to his throat after the match? Who’s bright idea was that?

WCW’s Big Al was Al Poling, a wrestler originally trained by Larry Sharpe’s Monster Factory who had been in the business in some form since 1990.

After spending several years as an indy guy, Poling’s first real break in wrestling came when he was brought into ECW in 1994 and became 911, the enforcer/bodyguard for that promotion’s version of the Dangerous Alliance stable. Though never known as a particularly good wrestler, ECW got 911 over to its core fans pretty well as being the large asskicker who never sold and laid out everybody quickly with the chokeslam. In fact, they would intentionally put boring matches featuring no-name wrestlers on cards so that the audience could start chanting 911 and then pop huge when he appeared to destroy everybody.

Eventually the 911 gimmick ran its course, and Poling started showing up in WCW, where in 1996 and 1997 he wrestled as an enhancement guy under several different names, including Tombstone and . . . Big Al. His opponents in this first WCW run included Lex Luger, The Giant, and Chris Benoit.

Somewhere along the way, Big Al legitimately became friends with Tank Abbott. In late 1999 / early 2000, WCW was looking for something for Abbott to do, and there was actually talk of bringing in MMA fighter Mark Coleman to do a wrestling angle with him, but this fell through and they decided to throw a bone to his friend Big Al instead, and he got the program. (This is per the January 31, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter.)

It turned out to be a one-match feud, in large part due to the infamous introduction of a knife into the match, which Lev noted. Whose idea was that? It was apparently Tank’s idea. According to backstage lore, Abbott went up to Kevin Sullivan, who was the booker at the time, and asked if he could use a weapon during the match. Sullivan, coming from a wrestling background, though he meant a chair or the ring bell. Abbott, not coming from a wrestling background . . . meant a knife. So, one of the more infamous late WCW moments actually occurred because of a miscommunication, as I doubt Sullivan was actually going to approve knife play on his show.

For what it’s worth, Abbott vs. Big Al finished in fifth place in the voting for the Observer‘s “Worst Match of the Year” in 2000. The four worse matches were Oklahoma vs. Madusa from WCW, Public Enemy vs. The Road Warriors from the Rodman Down Under pay per view, Scott Norton versus Steve Williams from New Japan, and the infamous Pat Patterson/Gerald Brisco Hardcore Evening Gown Match from King of the Ring.

It’s also worth noting that Al and Tank’s friendship continued after WCW, as Al would be in his buddy’s corner for some of his post-pro wrestling shoot fights, including in the brawl between the camps for Abbott and Cabbage Correira that occurred after their fight in 2003.

Finally, I’ll also throw out the fact that Big Al/911’s son has been wrestling since 2017. I’m not seeing a lot of dates for him this year, but he was on several Game Changer Wrestling cards in 2022 and 2023 as Big Vin.

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.