Ask 411 Wrestling: Is the Danhausen Character Working?

Welcome guys, gals, and gender non-binary pals.

Through Hel Stryer and brimstone . . . it’s Ask 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.

Hey, ya wanna banner?

Jon paid me human monies to answer this question:

What do you think of Danhausen’s run in the WWE so far:  Harmless fun or stupid slop?

It’s not what I personally want to see in mainstream professional wrestling on shows that are also trying to push serious feuds. I can get behind a promotion like CHIKARA or Osaka Pro where everything is goofy and not necessarily meant to be taken seriously, but I feel like a Danhausen-style character on a show where you also have Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi beating the crap out of each other cheapens what you’re trying to do with main event feuds. I just want internal consistency in whether I’m watching a comedy or a drama, just like I wouldn’t want an SNL skit to break out in the middle of Citizen Kane.

That being said, WWE is making more money than it ever has before and Danhausen merchandise is apparently flying off the shelves, so I would be hard pressed to say this wasn’t working even if it’s not my own personal cup of tea.

Triple T Ticking Time Bomb Tazz must be this tall to ride:

Vince McMahon seemed to build his empire on “larger than life” characters. Many of the wrestlers were really big, a lot taller than the average human. Andre “the Giant,” Psycho Sid, Diesel, the Big Show, the Undertaker, etc. Where are the “larger than life” guys today? Many of the guys look like everyday Joes or as Kevin Nash would say, “vanilla midgets.”

First off, even though WWE wrestlers may be somewhat shorter than they were a couple of decades ago, let’s not pretend that they aren’t physically impressive in other respects. Even though they’re not seven feet tall, you’re not going to tell me that guys like Bron Breaker and Bronson Reed aren’t monstrous dudes who would turn heads at an airport.

The reality is that you’re not seeing as many wrestlers in the 6’10” to 7′ range these days because the in-ring style of pro wrestling in WWE has evolved into something completely different than what it used to be. Fans expect speed, athleticism, and big bumps that fans in the 1980s and 1990s couldn’t even begin to imagine. (Unless they were watching joshi – all that stuff was happening in joshi.) The number of super tall, super heavyweight wrestlers who can meet those expectations is very limited.

R is seeking consistency in an inconsistent time:

I was just curious as I’m watching the 1996 Royal Rumble. Why were Vader’s eliminations negated? At first I thought they changed the rules in later years where a person eliminated couldn’t eliminate anyone. I know the following year, Austin won but it was played as refs didn’t see, but then I remember Hogan eliminating Sid in 1992 after being eliminated. Was Vader press slamming HBK over the top rope a botch? If so, then why wasn’t Austin’s negated as well since he was pegged to be in the final four?

This answer probably isn’t going to be as satisfying as you want it to be.

Wrestling promotions regularly apply rules inconsistently to reach the result that they want to reach. They didn’t want Vader’s eliminations to count that year, so they didn’t count. They did want Hogan’s elimination of Sid to count in 1992, so it did count.

Can wrestlers eliminate themselves from a battle royale, or do they have to be thrown out by an opponent? That’s also changed over the years, depending on what’s convenient. Are closed fists illegal, or can guys like Johnny B. Badd and the Big Show straight up uses punches as their finishers? Again, the answer is “whatever works at the time.”

Bryan is the Tim Gunn of Ask 411:

I just wanted your opinion on something. Do you think full time tag teams should be forced to always wear matching outfits? Even with the Midnight Express, Stan had the short tights and Bobby had the long ones, but I always remember they had matching colors. Do you think tag team wrestling would get more credibility if that was an unwritten rule? Doubles tennis won’t leg you compete with mismatched outfits. I don’t see why wrestling can’t follow the same format.

I do agree that a tag teams look more polished when they have either matching or complimentary gear, but “forcing” them to adopt such a look is a bit further than what I would go with. Though it’s a good rule of thumb, there are always exceptions where the mismatched look is more practical for some reason, whether that’s because the partners have different bodies that result in different outfits or color schemes being more flattering or whether it’s because the partners have radically different gimmicks and putting them in the same clothes wouldn’t work from that perspective.

I also think that saying matching outfits would help tag team wrestling “gain credibility” is a bit of a stretch. Fans are going to care much more about how well tag teams are pushed and the quality of matches they have than what comes out of their gear bags.

Donny from Allentown ask, “When you comin’ home dad, I don’t know when?”

From Wrestlemania to Wrestlemania XLII how many parent/child combinations have there been total that have competed? Now I don’t mean specifically on the same Mania but number of combinations total? In other words Bob Orton competed on Wrestlemania III and his son Randy Orton debuted on Wrestlemania XX and appeared on multiple manias following that. So they would count as one combination. How many total have there been? Also not counting Rocky Johnson or Stu Hart because even though they were parents they weren’t competing. Also, you can count dark matches and free for all matches.

In all, I was able to count twenty-three parent/child combinations that have competed on Wrestlemania, beginning very early in the history of the event and continuing until present day.

1. The first pair is Bruno and David Sammartino. Though you would expect this to be the opposite, the son actually beat the father to Wrestlemania here, as David had a singles bout with Ricky Steamboat on the very first Wrestlemania, while Bruno, who was semi-retired by this point, popped up on the second installment of the show in the battle royale that also featured NFL players.

2. Up next we’ve got another competitor on the first Wrestlemania, Mike Rotunda, who dropped the WWF Tag Team Titles on that show before competing on a couple of other installments as Irwin R. Schyster. His son, Bray Wyatt, made his Mania debut at Wrestlemania XXX, facing John Cena. He was on several more installments of the show before his untimely death in 2023.

3. Mike Rotunda didn’t just have one son who qualifies for this answer, though. He also begat Bo Dallas. Bo only ever made it on to Wrestlemania through the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale, which he entered every year from 2015 through 2019.

4. Jumping from Wrestlemania to Wrestlemania II, we’ve got the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, who was part of not just Mania II but also III, IV, VII, XI, XII, and XIII. His son, known as Davey Boy Smith Jr. in many places but David Hart Smith in WWE had two less noteworthy Mania matches, in the pre-show battles royale on Wrestlemania XXVI and XXVII.

5. The first father-daughter pairing on our list is Jim and Nattie Neidhart, both of whom have fairly prolific Mania careers. The Anvil was on every Wrestlemania from II through VII, while the Low Key Legend first appeared on Wrestlemania XXV in 2009 and, though she’s not made every show, she continues to pop on and off them, with her most recent Mania match being in 2023.

6. Though he was in a key position on the first Wrestlemania, Bob Orton Jr. didn’t have a match on the show until Wrestlemania III, his only match on the grandest stage of all. His son Randy Orton has had quite a few more Mania matches than the old man, the first being at Wrestlemania XX in 2004 and the most recent coming at Wrestlemania XLII just this year.

7. You probably don’t think of him as having a huge Wrestlemania moment, but Sika of the Wild Samoans did have a single in-ring appearance on Wrestlemania IV as part of that show’s battle royle. His son Rosey also has a single appearance in a Wrestlemania battle royale, coming in 2005 at Wrestlemania XXI. This match was actually on the pre-show, but it qualifies per the parameters of Donny’s question.

8. Oh, Sika has another kid, too. It’s Roman Reigns. Don’t know if you’ve heard of him. He first showed up in a six man tag on Wrestlemania XXIX and, like Randy Orton, continues to appear on the show until this day.

9. Sticking with Wrestlemania IV, that was also the Mania debut of Ted DiBiase, who came within a hair’s breadth of winning the WWF Championship that evening. He had a few sons who tried their hands at wrestling, but only Ted DiBiase Jr. ever had a Wrestlemania match, appearing on the 2010 and 2011 cards.

10. Going back to the Anoa’i family, let’s talk about Tama of the Islanders, who had previously been known as the Tonga Kid. He had a sole appearance on Wrestlemania IV in tag team action. His son is current star Jacob Fatu, who mad his Wrestlemania debut last year at Mania XLI, winning the United States Championship from LA Knight. Yeah.

11. Checking in next is Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig, who wrestled on Wrestlemania V, VI, VII, and IX. His son Curtis Axel first appeared on the Wrestlemania XXX pre-show in a four-way tag team match and was in several Andre the Giant Memorial Battles Royale after that.

12. Though he headlined numerous mega-cards for other promotions, Dusty Rhodes only wrestled once at Wrestlemania, in a mixed tag match on Mania VI. His son Dustin first appeared on Wrestlemania as Goldust on 1996’s Wrestlemania XII and had several more appearances during his on-again, off-again relationship with WWE, most recently wrestling in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale at Wrestlemania XXXIV.

13. Of course, Dusty Rhodes also gave us Cody Rhodes. Cody was first on Mania in a battle royale to determine the number one contender to the ECW Championship in 2008 and has advanced his career quite a bit since then, retaining the WWE Championship on this year’s Wrestlemania XLII.

14. Similar to Bob Orton who we discussed earlier, Jimmy Snuka had key appearances on early Wrestlemanias but didn’t actually wrestle there until Mania VI when he put over the ascending Rick Rude. His son, Deuce Shade (also known as Sim Snuka) has a single Wrestlemania match, appearing in the same ECW battle royale that we examined in connection with Cody Rhodes.

15. We’re not done with the Snukas. The Superfly also has himself a daughter, Tamina Snuka, who made her Mania debut at Wrestlemania XXX in New Orleans as she was one of fourteen competitors in the Vicki Guerrero Invitational for the WWE Divas Championship. She had several more Wrestlemania appearances after that including being one of very few wrestlers to appear on both nights of a multi-night Mania, which she did at Wrestlemania XXXVII in 2021.

16. It’s time for our third father-daughter pairing, with Ric & Charlotte Flair. The Nature Boy had what initially appeared to be a one-off Wrestlemania appearance on number VIII, but then he was back ten years later on Mania XVIII, kicking of a streak of five more Manias and even a (supposed) retirement bout on Wrestlemania XXIV. Meanwhile, Charlotte made her Mania debut at Wrestlemania XXXII and has had a heckuva run including being one of the first three women to have their match close a Mania show.

17. On to Wrestlemania IX, the world’s biggest toga party, which saw the Mania debut and sole in-ring appearance of Rick Steiner, teaming with brother Scott. Over thirty years later, the Dog-Faced Gremlin’s son, Bron Breaker wrestled at Mania for the first time on Wrestlemania XLI, which remains his only bout on the show due to injury issues.

18. One of Rick Steiner’s opponents in that match was Fatu, later known as Rikishi, who has wrestled on four different Wrestlemanias under three different gimmicks. He’s had two sons who have wrestled on Mania, one of them being Jey Uso, who has been on many Manias, beginning with a pre-show battle royale on Wrestlemania XXVII and building with a World Heavyweight Title victory on Wrestlemania XLI.

19. Of course, you know what our next father-child pairing is. It’s Rikishi and Jimmy Uso. He may not have a World Title win like his brother, but he still has plenty of Wrestlemania appearances. Wile I’m here, I’ll also mention that I was surprised to be reminded that Rikishi’s third WWE-contracted son, Solo Sikoa, has yet to wrestle on a Wrestlemania because he’s been too busy dicking around with a magical lamp.

20. And now we get to another pairing where the son actually made his Wrestlemania debut before the father, which is Brian “Grandmaster Sexay” Christopher & Jerry Lawler. Christopher’s Wrestlemania debut came at Mania XIV in a tag team battle royale when he was still part of the team of Too Much with Scott Taylor. Meanwhile, the King didn’t wrestle on the big show until Wrestlemania XXVII in 2011 when he wrestled (check notes) . . . Michael Cole? The less said about that, the better.

21. Speaking of fathers who wrestled on Mania before the son, would you believe that also happened with Shane & Vince McMahon? Well, it did. Shane-O-Mac first appeared in the ring at Wrestlemania XV to defend the European Title against X-Pac, while Vince’s first mania match came two years later at Wrestlemania XVII when he wrestled, coincidentally enough, Shane McMahon.

22. And we continue on with the McMahon family, as our next father-child pair is Vince & Stephanie McMahon. We talked about Vinnie Mac’s Mania debut above, and the Billion Dollar Princess’s first and only Wrestlemania bout was at number XXXIV, as she welcomed Ronda Rousey in to WWE, teaming with her hubby Triple H against Rousey and Kurt Angle.

23. Capping off our list is another father-son duo that has fought each other at Wrestlemania, though in this case I’m predicting that they will have at least one more Mania encounter before all is said and done. Of course, that’s Rey Misterio Jr. & Dominik Mysterio, the father having been a Wrestlemania fixture since XIX and the son debuting as the father’s tag team partner at Wrestlemania XXXVIII.

And that’s it, a complete history of parents and children who both competed at Wrestlemania . . . at least until the comment section tells me that I’ve somehow omitted something glaringly obvious.

I can’t believe Jase has me in this position:

What do you think is the most overly contrived move in pro wrestling? For instance, my pick would be the double stomp from the top rope, which requires the wrestler caught in the ropes to pull themselves up to take the move.

Yeah, it’s hard to beat that double stomp.

Other than that, it’s got to be the Canadian Destroyer. It’s not nearly as criticized as it was when it first debuted, but I don’t know how this one ever took off to the extent that it did. It’s so obvious that the guy taking the move is just doing a backflip on to his own head while the person “performing” the move is not really forcing them into it.

There’s a reason that when you see matches with guys like Kota Ibushi wrestling the blow-up doll Yoshihiko in DDT, Yoshihiko often “performs” the Destroyer. It’s because it involves almost no effort from the attacking wrestler.

That does it for this week. 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.