Ask 411 Wrestling: Why Didn’t Vader Return to WCW After Leaving WWE?

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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.

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It’s time! It’s time! It’s Brandon time:

How come Vader didn’t return to WCW after he left the WWE?

Because he legally couldn’t.

According to the October 12, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter, towards the end of Vader’s WWF run, there was frustration with the relationship on both sides, as Vader wanted a reduced schedule due to nagging injuries while the company wanted him to lose weight, which didn’t go well as he had to miss several shows due to blood pressure issues caused by a crash diet.

As a result of neither side being particularly satisfied with the Mastadon’s contract, they negotiated a deal under which Vader would be released but could not work for WCW.

Granted, he might not have wanted to work for WCW even if he could, because he didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms and didn’t have a great history with Hulk Hogan or Kevin Nash, both of whom wielded significant power there at the time.

Instead, Vader was off to All Japan Pro Wrestling, which represented a change for him since historically his home in the country had been New Japan. However, the same issue of the Observer that reported on Vader’s release speculated a return for NJPW might not have been the easiest for him because they had a strong working relationship with WCW at the time.

Eventually, Vader would jump from AJPW to Pro Wrestling NOAH when that company split off of All Japan, and NOAH was where he had the last significant run of his career.

Tyler form Winnipeg

Did Hulk Hogan ever do a shoot interview?

It depends on your definition of the term “shoot interview.”

Hogan never sat down with a Highspots or an RF Video and did a shoot interview in that sense, but he did numerous radio and television interviews after the death of kayfabe in which he talked about wrestling as though it were a work. Granted, the level of “shoot” in those interviews is questionable because the Hulkster always peddled his own version of reality, but at least in concept he did out of character interview with media outlets.

J is going behind the hood:

I’ve seen photos of early Gail Kim matches where she wrestled mostly under a mask but have never seen them online. Do you know if they exist in some form? I believe they originated out of Canada and wondered if that’s what got her noticed.

I wanted to see her matches before she came to WWF/E as I enjoy watching the differences between the early gimmicks and how their styles changed.

Yes, Kim’s first gimmick in pro wrestling was La Felina, and she wrestled under a mask, using a style heavily influenced by lucha libre. This came from her trainer, Rob Etcheverria, also known as El Fuego or Rob Fuego. He was a wrestler originally from Uruguay who immigrated to Canada and established a school there, training not just Kim but also former ROH valet Jade Chung and former TNA star Taylor Wilde, in addition to numerous other indy wrestlers.

Gail wrestled her entire pre-WWE as La Felina, though she did lose the mask fairly early on. Because of this, I was unable to hunt down any footage of her actually wrestling with the hood on, though you can find several pre-WWE matches of hers out there in the world. They include a bout in the middle of this show from Michigan indy AWWL and a few bouts from on demand service ClickWrestle.

However, her matches as La Felina were mostly before there was a lot of streaming of wrestling on the internet, and they were mostly for promotions that didn’t have television or even DVD distribution, so there’s not a ton of them out there. Also, a word of warning if you go out looking for more on your own – there are a couple of Mexican lucadoras who have also used the name La Felina, so any google search results have to be refined a bit.

Stu from Liverpool was raised in a barn:

Do we know if anyone has ever been hit and injured by one of Triple H’s entrance water bottles? Conversely, has a fan thrown anything into the ring from the outside and legit injured a wrestler?

No, I’m not aware of anybody ever being injured by one of Triple H’s water bottles. That would be pretty difficult to do given that we are talking about soft plastic bottles which, by the time they’re getting chucked to the crowd, are darn near empty thanks to the Game swigging from them and pouring the contents all over himself.

Regarding wrestler injuries from items fans have thrown, that is also pretty unusual. Granted, there are tons of stories of objects getting hurled into the ring, with the most dangerous ones probably being chunks of ice or batteries that were reportedly launched with some frequency back in the territorial days, particularly in the southern United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Also, in more recent times, wrestling at the Gathering of the Juggalos has been pretty wild in terms of grapplers having to dodge flying debris.

However, the only tale that I’m aware of involving a wrestling legitimately getting hurt by something thrown into the ring comes from the WWE on December 19, 2017 in Newark, New Jersey. The company was mainly there for a Smackdown taping, but at the time the cruiserweight-themed show 205 Live was also being produced and taped in conjunction with Smackdown. Kalisto and Gran Metalik won a tag team match taped for 205 Live against Brian Kendrick and Jack Gallagher via disqualification. Kalisto was down selling on the arena floor after the match, when a fan chucked a full bottle of water at him. It caught him right in the face, and the impact resulted in a cut on the inside of his mouth that required stitches to close.

Not the worst injury in the world, but still a good reminder of why civilized people don’t do this stuff.

Richard U. is dead inside:

What inanimate objects have been wrestlers? Which of these inanimate objects have been champions?

Well, there’s David Flair . . .

Seriously, though, let’s talk about inanimate wrestlers.

There have been a handful in the United States. Al Snow’s mannequin head, creatively named Head, may be the biggest example. At the 1998 WWF King of the Ring pay per view, Snow and Head wrestled too much (the future Too Cool) with Head getting pinned after Brian Christopher attached a bottle of Head and Shoulders shampoo to it, since your shoulders have to be down in order to get pinned.

The next year, at Backlash 1999, Snow successfully defended the Hardcore Championship against Hardcore Holly following a shot with Head, but the mentally unstable Snow believed that Head itself had become Hardcore Champion because it was on top of Holly when the pinfall occurred. Granted, the WWF never recognized Head as champion, but Snow acted as though it was and even “wrestled” a match against it for the damaged belt.

That match saw Snow using a taxidermied deer’s head as a weapon to score the pinfall over Head, but because the deer head was on top, Snow then considered it to be the Hardcore Champion. Oh, by the way, the deer head was named Pierre.

Oh, and Head became a playable character in the WWF Attitude video game.

In a similar gimmick, in WCW in 1998 Chavo Guerrero Jr. went crazy and started talking to a stick horse named Pepe. This eventually lead to Pepe teaming with Chavo in a handicap match against Lenny Lane on the December 12, 1998 episode of WCW Saturday Night.

That’s just scratching the surface, though.

The vast majority of inanimate objects who have been wrestlers have gotten into wrestling as a result of the Ironman Heavymetalweight Title, which is a championship promoted by Japanese wrestling company DDT and has rules similar to the WWE Hardcore or 24/7 Championships, though they have taken it to extremes that WWE never did.

On January 31, 2003, as Iroman Heavywmetalweight Champion Yoshihiro Sasaki was defending against Mikami, a ladder fell on top of Sasaki, with the referee counting a fall and declaring the ladder to be the new champion. The ladder’s reign was short-lived, as Shoici Ichimiya pinned it later the same night to bring the belt back to humanity. Thus, a long history of inanimate objections winning the championship began.

The ladder became a two-time champion on September 28, 2003, pinning Sanshiro Takagi for the belt but then deciding to voluntarily relinquish it about two-and-a-half weeks later. (Yes, the storyline was that the ladder chose to vacate the title.) However, the glory of being a champion was too much for the ladder to forego forever, and it entered the ring and won the title a third time on March 11, 2007, defeating Exciting Yoshida.

The second inanimate object to become an Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion was a hand puppet designed to look like a frog. The puppet actually had a name: Nikolai Gotchanski. A masked wrestler wore the hand puppet while wrestling, but the announcers and the other wrestlers acted as though the wrestler wasn’t there and the puppet was moving autonomously. Gotchanski pinned Danshoku Dino to win the title on January 12, 2004.

The next inanimate champion was Akihiro, a blow-up doll. You now, the kind of doll that is used for, shall we say, lewd purposes. Akiro beat the Karate Mummy (no, seriously) for the championship on October 7, 2007 and was beaten for the title on the same day by Nao Saejima. Years later, Akihiro would become a two-time champion on August 18, 2013.

It should be noted that Akihiro is probably only the second most well-known blow-up doll to become a wrestler. The more famous doll who you’ve probably heard of before is actually called Yoshihiko. The two of them are kayfabe siblings. Yoshiko would become an Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion for the first time on June 28, 2009. He would have additional title victories on August 9, 2009; August 23, 2009; October 25, 2009; August 18, 2012; January 3, 2013; June 23, 2013; December 23, 2014; November 28, 2015; August 28, 2016; March 20, 2017; May 29, 2018; July 12, 2020; February 26, 2023; March 24, 2023; March 30, 2023; March 31, 2023; November 9, 2024; and November 23, 2024.

A doll shaped like a chicken won the Ironman Heavymetalweight title on June 21, 2008, defeating Hidex and losing moments later to Izumi. Unlike prior doll champions, this chicken doll was not used for sex purposes . . . or at least I hope it wasn’t.

April 24, 2009 saw a poster win the title. Specifically, it was a poster promoting a wrestling show held by joshi company Pro Wrestling WAVE, which fell off the wall and on to champion Toshie Uematsu. The poster somehow managed to go undefeated for four days before being unseated by Bullfight Sora. However, the same night she won the championship, Sora was pinned by a doll in the image of pro wrestler Jun Kasai, which made yet another doll the champion. The Kasai doll won the championship back the next night at a house show but quickly dropped it.

The next item is by far the largest inanimate object we’ve talked about up to this point, as it’s a whole ass truck. Specifically, it’s the ring truck that transported the squared circle for Big Japan Pro Wrestling. The truck pinned Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion Yuuki on June 10, 2009 but lost the belt to Satoru the same day.

Just ten short days later on June 20, 2009, a desk became champion by defeating Bullfight Sora, who you may recall is the wrestler who had previously defeated the WAVE poster for the championship. The desk was defeated by female wrestler Cherry.

A second, unrelated desk won the title on June 29, 2009, ending the first reign of Yoshiko in the first instance of an inanimate object beating another inanimate object for the title. However, the fun doesn’t stop there. On the same show, somebody placed a dish on the desk, and it was there for more than three seconds, so the dish became champion. Then, somebody placed rice on the dish, making the serving of rice champion. (Or perhaps numerous individual grains of rice were simultaneously co-champions.) Then, somebody placed curry on top of the rice, making the curry champion. Then, somebody placed a pork cutlet on top of the curry, making the pork cutlet champion. Fortunately, human wrestler Yusuke Inokuma broke this pattern by taking the title off the cutlet.

After that bit of wackiness, we managed to go several years with only living things holding the title, though that streak was broken on June 23, 2012, when a ringside mat fell on top of champion Tsukushi, pinning her for the title. The mat was defeated moments later by Tsukasa Fujimoto.

Then, on August 3, 2012, some Yakitori chicken defeated Hiroshi Fukuda for the championship, followed by Ryuichi Sekine defeating the Yakitori and Sekine then being defeated by a beer. Yakitori chicken would have two additional reigns with the title, both of them on August 28, 2016, though this is not the same Yakitori chicken that won it in 2012. That would be ridiculous. A second beer won the title on August 3, 2019, though it was drank immediately thereafter.

Six days after he lost it to Yakitori, the aforementioned Fukuda was pinned by a chair for the title, though fortunately he was able to immediately win it back. Chairs would later win the championship on May 22, 2018 and June 12, 2019. On November 3, 2019, a chair won the title again and immediately lost it to a second, unrelated chair.

This next one is oddly specific. On June 23, 2013, the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship was won by a piece of paper with some calligraphy written on it. The artwork was titled Komyo and was created by a Japanese singer named Akihiro Miwa. The calligraphy held the title for almost two full months before dropping it on August 18, 2023.

Now we get really meta. The 1,000th Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion was the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship belt. Champion Sanshiro Takagi was knocked out by a rival while holding the belt, causing it to fall on top of him. A nearby referee counted it as a pinfall, leading to the first and perhaps only time in wrestling history that a championship belt has held the championship that the belt itself represented.

Staying on the subject of couture holding championships, wrestler Gota Ihashi lost the Ironman Heavymetalweight Title on November 18, 2015 to his own tights. He regained the championship on November 28 of the same year, only to lose it to his own underwear.

In 2016, the Ironman Heavymetalweight Title came to America for a stretch, when Joey Ryan won it in Japan and was allowed to take it out of the country. On August 18, 2016, the first inanimate object outside of Japan won the championship, as Ryan was defeated for the belt by Vince McMahon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This did not age well AT ALL, from either the Vince McMahon perspective or the Joey Ryan perspective.

The championship returned to Japan later in August, and on November 23, 2016, a crane holding a television camera won the belt by pinning Kazuki Hirata at a house show. The title changed hands numerous times on that card, and later in the show it was actually won by an email, with the email defeating Takuro Sepa.

Heading back to vehicles, a bus became Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion on December 4, 2016 by beating Chilean wrestler Guanchulo. No word on whether the bus is related to the ring truck that previously held the championship. Later on the same show, a pork bun defeated Toru Owashi for the belt. Owashi is one of the previous wrestlers who had lost the title to Yakitori chicken, so he has real issues with food. The same show also featured the title being won by a kotatsu, a style of Japanese table with a heater built into it.

The same kotatsu would go on to become a multi-time champion, winning the belt on February 4, 2017 and March 20, 2017, with the latter victory coming over fellow inanimate object Yoshiko, who by this point was a real legend of the division.

Later in 2017, Joey Ryan took the Ironman Heavymetalweight Title to the U.S. again, where Joe Hendry beat Ryan for it on April 1, 2017. No, I’m not calling Hendry inanimate. However, he did immediately throw the belt into a trash can, which the referee construed as a forfeit, making the trash can the reigning champion. Later on the same show, Joey Janela lost the title to the Invisible Man, and I’m not really sure if that qualifies as an inanimate object. On one hand, it’s not animate, but on the other hand there’s no object there, either.

Going back to Japan, a pair of disposable chopsticks pinned female wrestler Yuu for the title on September 24, 2017.

While we have already seen the Ironman Heavymetalweight Title win itself, what about another representation of a championship holding it? On December 15, 2019, the championship was won by a trophy when the trophy beat Masahiro Takanashi. The trophy was the one awarded to the winner of DDT’s annual D-oh Grand Prix round robin tournament.

On January 3, 2020, a kagami mochi, which is a traditional Japanese decoration used in New Year’s celebrations, appropriately enough became Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion by defeating the previously mentioned Toru Owashi.

In the latter part of 2020, the championship made its way to the United States again and was being passed around the AEW locker room when it wound up around the waist of Dr. Britt Baker. Baker also held a similar championship from Pakistan, the REW 24/7 Title. While backstage, she fell asleep reading a copy of the Young Bucks’ autobiography Killing the Business. When the book came to rest on top of her during the nap, a referee counted the pinfall and made the tome the new champion.

Back in Japan on February 28, 2021, the book lost the title to another book. Specifically, during a DDT show, Killing the Business was defeated by Lip Hip Shake a photo book featuring female wrestler Saki Akai. If you don’t know what a Japanese “photo book” is, it’s essentially a book full of pictures of an attractive woman or women (some more risque than others), a piece of culture that I’m surprised hasn’t been totally destroyed by the internet.

A stuffed animal won the championship on April 3, 2021.

Another oddity that you may or may not consider an inanimate object winning the title occurred on February 6, 2022. Reigning champion Mao was involved in a celebration of the fact that DDT’s YouTube channel had reached 100,000 subscribers. However, in the process of celebrating, a tablet displaying the YouTube account fell on top of Mao and pinned him. Though technically the tablet scored the pinfall, the official title history recognizes the 100,000 YouTube subscribers as co-champions. The subscribers would not be inanimate objects, though the tablet would.

A foot massage mat briefly claimed the title on Valentine’s Day of 2021.

This was followed up by an apple becoming champion on March 25, 2022 when reigning champion Lingling (not a wrestler but a member of the J-Pop group Bish) tried to crush the apple in her hand but then said she was giving up, which DDT officials decided was sufficient to qualify as a submission loss to the apple.

On October 22, 2023, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Hiromu Takahashi won the title on a DDT show. Takahashi is not an inanimate object (to my knowledge) but he took the title with him on an excursion to the U.S. and, while at a show in Las Vegas, he fell asleep with his yellow iPhone 14 laying on top of him, making the phone the champion.

Takahashi did get the title back before returning to Japan, where he was also recognized as the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. While he was celebrating in the ring after a match with his IWGP Jr. Title belt, he made the mistake of laying down with the belt on top of him, making the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship belt the Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion.

A Christmas tree pinned Toru Owashi for the championship on December 24, 2023.

A stuffed dinosaur named Stefan won the title on January 7, 2024 and a second time on June 28, 2024.

Joshi wrestler Maya Yukihi is known for bringing a whip to the ring, but, when she won the Ironman Heavymetalweight Title, the whip would be her undoing, as it wound up pinning her for the championship on March 10, 2024. The whip got a second reign as champion on June 23, 2024.

Another joshi wrestler, Unagi Sayaka, became champion on April 14, 2024. However, on April 19, she was attacked by Sanshiro Takagi, who began choking her with a package of eel meat acquired at a local grocery store. Sayaka tapped out, but the referee awarded the title to the package of eel and not Takagi. In case you’re missing the joke here, “unagi” is the Japanese word for the type of freshwater eel most commonly used in Japanese cuisine.

A sauna towel won the championship on June 21, 2024. A different towel won the championship twice in separate instances both occurring on June 29, 2024. There was another towel victory on February 2, 2025, which some sources recognize as being the same towel that won the belt on June 29, 2024, but I have a hard time believing that.

We’ve mentioned Sanshiro Takagi a couple of times in this rundown before. He’s a veteran wrestler and DDT executive. Later in his career, he started using a trademark weapon called the Mecha Fist, and the Mecha First became Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion on February 15, 2025.

Here’s another one that’s a bit stranger than the norm. Pokotan is a mascot for DDT, a guy dressed in a seal costume. Pokotan won the championship on a couple of occasions, but I didn’t mention it on this list because a guy in a mascot suit is not an inanimate object. However, on April 20, 2025, champion Sumire Uesaka (who is not a wrestler but a voice actor) got into a confrontation with Pokotan, who took the head of its mascot suit on and put it over Uesaka’s head. This caused Uesaka to become frightened and tap out. The head of the Pokotan mascot suit, rather than Pokotan as a whole entity, was then recognized as champion.

A toy hammer called the “Pico Pico Hammer” became champion on July 8, 2025.

A pillow became champion on September 20, 2025, when it was used to smother then-champion Pokotan.

While champion Mahiro Kiryu was at an autograph signing on October 8, 2025, a list of fans who purchased a Halloween portrait of her somehow wound up pinning her to become champion.

Then, we had a series of odd title changes at a show on October 12. Kiryu was first pinned by a contract that she signed for a future match for the International Princess Championship, a title of the Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling promotion. The contract was then pinned by a binder owned by TJPW ring announcer Rise Shirai. The binder was then pinned by a bottle of vitamin water. Ultimately, Kiryu did pin the vitamin water to regain the championship . . . which she still holds as of the time this article is being written.

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.