ASK WV (5/12/03): Hulk Hogan/Russo, DDT, Kayfabe, Pillman, *Updated*
» On Monday, May 12, 2003 at 5:48 PM EST Send your questions to: askwv@wrestleview.com.
Welcome to the first edition of "ASK WV." We received a lot of questions, but unfortunately we only had to pick ten of them. Plus many didn't follow the rules I had posted yesterday, which pretty much made is easy to eliminate some questions.
The following questions were answered by: Paul Nemer (Ryan Droste contributed on the Russo/Hogan question):
What has Sting been doing since the demise of WCW?
Sting sat out for the remainder of his Time Warner/WCW contract. Sting is a born again Christian, a very religious man. He's done a few shows with the WWA, tagged with Lex Luger. But other than that, he's enjoying spending time with his family and has said that he doesn't want to be full-time on the road again. Lately, Sting has told the WWA that he will no longer be able to work for them after May 2003, ...leading to speculation that he could join WWE in June. But that's only a rumor for now.
Why did the WWE replace King of the Ring with Bad Blood, a title of a previous house show?
The reason was because they wanted to split up PPVs for RAW and for SmackDown. Badd Blood was an In Your House PPV in October of 1997. It was the PPV where they announced the passing of Brian Pillman.
There was an angle in 1997 where Jim Neidhart joined D-Generation X for a short period of time, could you tell me exactly what happened because I missed it and never found out what did happen?
Shortly after the 97' screwjob, Neidhart was put into a storyline where he joined D-Generation X on Monday Night RAW. As he was officially announced as the new member of D-X and raising his arms with other members, Chyna low blowed him from behind and D-X beat him down. Shawn then spray painted "WCW" on Neidhart's back and that was it.
What happened and was said between Hulk Hogan and Vince Russo at the last WCW Bash At The Beach?
Vince Russo had been away from WCW for three weeks, and around Bash at the Beach time, he came back and booked Hulk Hogan to lose against Jeff Jarrett at Bash of the Beach 2000. Hulk Hogan refused to job, plain and simple. Vince Russo and Hogan started playing politics, but Hogan kept bringing up his creative control clause in his contract. This pretty much over powers Russo's or anyone else's bookings. (Which Hogan used many times.) Time for the match. The bell rang, Jarrett lays down and Russo signals for Hogan to pin him. Hogan pins Jarrett for the title and yells "This is bullshit." Hogan says something like "This is why the company is in the shape it's currently in." That's all it took to get Russo started. Russo tared Hogan a part on the microphone. Russo said that every since he came to WCW he's done nothing but deal with backstage politics. The reason he came back was for people like Booker T, MIA, Jeff Jarrett; the people who give a shit about the company, but there is a person that doesn't give a shit and that's the politician, Hulk Hogan. Russo says that Hogan can keep his title, it's called the Hulk Hogan Memorial belt. Russo says he has another title and awarded it back to Jeff Jarrett and said that the fans will get what they paid for. Russo makes a match between Booker T and Jeff Jarrett. At the end of the shoot, Russo calls Hogan a big bald son of a bitch and tells him to kiss his ass. This interview was not a legitimate shoot all the way. The interview between Russo/Hogan and the laying down was all planned as part of a work. However, Russo crossed the line when he did his "shoot" on Hulk Hogan which is the reason Hogan filed a lawsuit against Vince Russo in real life. Hogan claimed Russo went too far with the comments and ran down his character more than he agreed to let him do.
WWE has 3 big PPV's of the year, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and Survivor Series. Now my question is: will Raw and Smackdown come together for them big PPV's?
Correction, they have four. Royal Rumble also counts. Yes, RAW and SmackDown will join together for those PPVs.
What does DDT stand for?
Ok, I'll make this short and sweet. DDT for wrestling stands for nothing. Although it comes from the biological term Dichlor-Diphenyl-Trichoroethane. Now people often get confused with Jake the Snake's DDT. Jake Roberts named his DDT "Damien's Dinner Time", but this was only to fit his Jake "The Snake" character, which by the way came up with the name a while after he started doing the move. But like I said, it doesn't stand for anything in wrestling.
Please explain Kay-Fabe?
People often give a huge meaning to it and it confuses them even more. Put it this way. I'll explain what "Breaking Kayfabe" means and you'll understand "kayfabe." "Breaking Kayfabe" is when a wrestler acts out of character; exposes/reveals the unreal parts of professional wrestling. "Kayfabe" itself is the
act, the work. (Thanks to Chris for pointing out the confusion on the earlier post).
I heard about Steve Borden (Sting) became a preacher in some churches for an unknown reason, but has Shawn Micheals done the same thing? I once saw on Raw he had a "God Related" shirt on.
Yes. They are both born again Christians.
With HHH keeping so many superstars down, and refusing to drop the title to so many eligible and deserving people why doesn't he? Well I know that much, he and Stephanie have too much clout in the company. Here's where the question leads to my actual question. Is HHH ***** Vince's ******, or is Vince blind? Like HHH and Steph can only do so much, Vince has final say on storylines. How is it that Vince doesn't step up and say "Look Paul, you're gonna drop the title tonight or you're not gonna be working here anymore". I see a few possible solutions, either Vince thinks people love HHH and that he should be champ (thus making him blind), or, Stephanie basically owns her father, or lastly Vince isn't blind, but he actually thinks HHH deserves the success he has.
You know, it's a question that I ask myself all the time. I try to minimize it to a couple of answers, but I am still not sure what the correct answer is. The way I see it, Vince isn't as smart as before, that's my opinion, and I am voicing it. We can't say Triple H is engaged to the boss' daughter. Triple is engaged to THE boss, plain and simple. Sure Vince gets the last call, but it's Stephanie, she calls the shots too. Soon enough it's going to be her and Shane running the company (horrible thought, not for Shane, just the fact that Stephanie will have more power than ever). Let's look at facts. Ever since Stephanie joined the creative team, the ratings started to go down and they're still going down. Maybe Vince thinks Triple H still brings in a lot of business and is afraid to let him go, and/or his daughter is now engaged to this unjobbing wrestler and he doesn't want to do anything to damage any kind of relationship. This is the same thing as Shawn Michaels. Shawn would always fight toe to toe with Vince and always refuses to job and forfeits countless titles, and yet, Vince STILL ends up giving Shawn his way. Same is happening with Hunter, although I doubt he's fights with Vince. But why Vince sits there and doesn't do anything about it is beyond my knowledge. Like I said, he probably thinks everything is running fine. If Vince has gotten to a point where he thinks the "internet community" is a very small audience, then God help the WWE.
I have read about "shoots" in wrestling. I'm not exactly sure what qualifies as a "shoot" or not. In the late 1990's, I remember reading about Brian Pillman coming into an independent promotion and "shooting" on WCW. Was this a real shoot, and if so, what was said and why was it said?
A shoot is someone breaking a script and saying what's on his mind. It doesn't necessarily have to be on TV, it can be in regular interviews where a certain wrestler would comment on a wrestler or promoter.
There is also a "worked-shoot." A "worked-shoot" is when the shoot is scripted by the creative team.
Now, about the Pillman shoot. In the mid 90's, Brian Pillman got a "Loose Cannon" gimmick, where he does and says what he wants. Kevin Sullivan, who was booking for WCW at that time wanted to give Pillman a push and challenged him to a "I respect you" match. The match stipulation is pretty simple. They would fight until someone can't take it anymore and says "I respect you." Just like an "I quit match." They wrestled, and within two minutes in the match, Pillman takes the microphone and says "I respect you bookerman" and walked out of the match. Since Sullivan was a Booker for WCW, people thought it was a legit shoot, but it was just a plan that Sullivan and Pillman decided to go with. Pillman, Sullivan and Bischoff worked out a deal where they fired Pillman so he can continue his "Loose Cannon" gimmick in ECW. Pillman then goes to ECW and publicly shoots on WCW and Eric Bischoff, which fooled a lot of people. He stayed in ECW for a short while before heading to the WWF.
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