On Monday, September 26, 2005 at 12:11 AM EST Welcome to this week’s edition of the Armpit wrestling quiz. Since, for one week at least, the Monday Night wars are returning in October, I thought I'd make this week's theme the "Monday Night Wars."
Ironically, we are right around the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the wars, almost to the week. What is your fondest memory of the Monday Night wars? Where were you when they happened? I'll give you a chance in the quiz to tell us your experience. For me, the highlight was senior year in college: Fall of '97 through Spring of '98. How many historic wrestling moments happened in those 9 months? The Montreal screwjob. Austin's neck injury. Bret Hart's WCW debut. Sting-Hogan at Starrcade. Arn Anderson retires and Curt Hennig turns on the Horsemen. Mike Tyson does the infamous angle with Austin. Austin takes off as a top face. DX rises to the top. WCW cruiserweights tearing it up on Nitro. ECW puts on great PPVs. It was truly a great, wonderful time to be a wrestling fan.
Will it happen again? Can TNA breathe some life into this business and into WWE's monopoly that has made wrestling so incredibly stale these past 4 years? We shall see, but hearing that Jeff Jarrett won back the title sure took the wind out of my sail. He will be an albatross to that company as long as he and his father have anything to do with it. Sigh...
Last week's winner:
Wrestleview's own Stevie Knight Heat. Stevie would like to plug www.gillinghamfootballclub.com to see the greatest soccer team in the world.
Last week's answers: (Click here for last week's questions.)
Answer #1
-In his WWF farewell, Bobby Heenan was kicked out by Gorilla Monsoon, and in his final scene, gave a "salute" to WWF. The salute was what I was looking for (hence the Sgt. Slaughter hint), but I accepted anything that mentioned Monsoon throwing him out, which is how most of you answered anyway.
Answer #2
-Ric Flair made his modern day WWF debut on Prime Time Wrestling in 1991. Fantastic interview. The whole show was memorable, because Heenan's behavior leading up to it was some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen. That included him pretending to fire WWF employees who weren't prepared and him pushing another employee off a ladder.
Answer #3
-Hall debuted on Nitro before Nash did.
Answer #4
-Rick Steamboat showed up as the mystery partner of the late "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert.
Answer #5
-The masked man who pinned Tom Zenk at Havoc '91 was "Ravishing" Rick Rude. What a shot in the arm to WCW he was at the time.
Answer #6
-Chris Jericho's Raw debut saw him interrupt the Rock. That one is for the archives.
Answer #7
-Cactus Jack's ECW debut was against Sabu. It didn't live up to expectations, but the two had a match later on that definitely did.
Answer #8
-Havoc '96 saw the WCW debut of Roddy Piper.
Here are this week's questions. Please email your answers to Quiz@ArmpitWrestling.com. The first person to get all the correct answers to me will be declared the winner and have his/her name listed next week along with anything he/she wants to plug. Remember, once you win, you cannot win again for 3 more weeks.
Question #1
1. True or False: The debut episode of Nitro went head-to-head with Raw.
Question #2
2. For the first head-to-head week of Raw vs. Nitro, which program got higher ratings?
Question #3
3. By the Fall of 1996, Nitro was decidedly beating Raw every week. WWF's response was to bring in Rick Bogner and Glen "Kane before he was Kane" Jacobs, as part of an elaborate angle headed by Jim Ross. What were those two men's roles in this embarrassing WWF angle?
Question #4
4. Everyone hates to admit it, but one of the major reasons WCW grew to great heights was the unexpected and shocking heel turn of Hulk Hogan. Hogan turned heel and formed the nWo on which WCW PPV?
Question #5
5. When WWF gets insecure, they do dumb, embarrassing things (as you can see by these past few weeks). Which brings us to the Billionaire Ted skits. In these skits, WWF mocked WCW for having the old, immobile Hulk Hogan as their main eventer. Let me repeat that. WWF mocked WCW for having the old, immobile Hulk Hogan as their main eventer. And who just main evented SummerSlam?? Thank you. What WWF diva at the time participated in one of these skits, playing the role of a game show hostess?
Question #6
6. In 1997, Vince McMahon informed Bret Hart that he could no longer afford his expensive contract. You see, before Bret re-signed with WWF for all that money, he was the hottest free agent in wrestling. He ultimately chose WWF, and signed a contract for an obscenely lengthy time period. For how many years was Bret's new contract with WWF?
Question #7
7. 1998 was the year WWF caught up and surpassed WCW. Leading the charge was Steve Austin, the guy WCW fired because he was too bland to sell merchandise. Instead, Austin went on to sell more merchandise than any wrestler in history. As Bryan Alvarez wrote in Death of WCW, "Oops." Oops is right. The episode of Raw that finally beat Nitro in the ratings (after 80+ weeks of losing) was Austin's match against whom??
Question #8
8. WCW did have great success in 1998 too, as it was a year of record profits for them. Looking back, while 1998 was not WWE's best financial year, it was probably the peak of the Monday Night wars and wrestling in general. Jesse Ventura's election win was proof of that. A great victory for WCW was their high profile summer PPV, which featured which two NBA stars? (the match sucked, but the media hype around it was undeniable)
Question #9
9. In 1999, WCW sank to the bottom of the pit. Kevin Nash, Dusty Rhodes, and Vince Russo booked the company into oblivion, each at different intervals. Meanwhile, WWF was hotter than they had ever been. Frustrated beyond belief, the Radicalz (Guerrero, Malenko, Benoit, and Saturn) requested and received their release from WCW. When they debuted in WWF, which member of the Radicalz was immediately injured for real?
Question #10
10. Finally, in 2000, the WWF was at their peak. They coasted for most of the year, setting record after record. And their product was largely awesome, having shed the adult content and focusing on the wrestling and booking. It was the year of HHH, who stepped up to the plate and established himself as a major player. In WCW, it was more of the same. Eric Bischoff returned, and the tandem of Bischoff and Russo did make for one exciting week of WCW TV. During this brief time of the Bischoff/Russo era, Hulk Hogan began a feud with what WCW mid-carder?
#11
11. Very briefly, give a sentence or two describing your fondest Monday Night war memory.
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Please email your answers to Quiz@ArmpitWrestling.com. Results will be posted next week. Thanks to everyone for playing.
The Wrestling Professor
www.ArmpitWrestling.com
This week's features: A beginner’s guide to OVW, Heyman style. Plus, we’ve got 21 brand new backstage fight stories. Also, Brad Ravlin writes an open letter to Ric Flair. Then we take a look at who’s tougher, wrestlers or sports heroes. Please stop by the site today.