On Monday, December 5, 2005 at 2:37 PM EST Welcome to this week's edition of the Armpit wrestling quiz. I tell you, this is one incredibly frustrating business. Wrestling suffers year after year, and yet it doesn't have to be that way, but the people on top just make incredibly stupid decisions. Wrestling is "cyclical?" No it's not. It's just that the frequency of anyone in wrestling coming up with a good idea is so damn infrequent.
Eddy Guerrero's death affected WWE a lot, and the media did not give Eddy his due. But there's another guy who died last month who also affected WWE, and the media (very surprisingly) largely ignored his death as well. Who was this man? Peter Drucker.
Who was Peter Drucker? Just about the best management consultant of all-time. And if anyone in WWE would have read his books or articles, or would read them today, they'd see that the answers to their business woes were solved by Drucker long before they ever happened. Drucker was one smart cookie, and the automobile industry (among other industries) made billions thanks to him. I've read countless of Drucker's articles over the years, some dating several decades back. This guy understood management better than anyone, and WWE did everything in 2001-2005 that Drucker warned companies not to do, and WWE did everything in 1997-2000 that Drucker suggested companies do. The results speak for themselves. The best management guru today is Tom Peters, but the best of all-time is Peter Drucker. He's the Lou Thesz of management consulting, and WWE can learn as much from his work as they can from Eddy Guerrero's legacy. And that's the understatement of the year.
In honor of Drucker, this week's quiz will focus on some of wrestling's all-time worst business decisions.
Last week's winner:
Martin, with nothing to plug.
Last week's answers:
-The NWA PPV held the same night as Survivor Series '87 was Starrcade '87. The event was dubbed "Chi-town Heat."
-The main event at Starrcade '87 was Ric Flair vs. Ron Garvin.
-In that tag match at SS '88, it was Demolition who turned babyface when Mr. Fuji hit them with his cane. Fuji was then paired up with the new heels, the Powers of Pain. It was the battle of Road Warrior rip-offs.
-At SS '91, Ric Flair helped Undertaker win the title by sliding a chair in the ring, which Undertaker tombstoned Hogan on.
-Bret Hart faced Shawn Michaels for the WWF title at SS '92. And it was a **** match, too.
-Also on that show, Curt Hennig made his return to the ring after a several month hiatus.
-The special ref for Undertaker vs. Yokozua was Chuck Norris. Not to be confused with former WCW wrestler Charlie Norris. Remember him?
-Bret Hart wrestled Steve Austin at SS '96.
-In the finals at SS '98, Rock beat Mankind to win the vacant WWF title.
-Team Alliance featured exactly one WCW wrestler: Booker T.
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
People say the Monday night wars led to the depression we've been in since 2001. Nonsense. Had WWE handled the invasion angle properly, and made WCW and ECW their own entities after the angle had run its course after a record-setting 18 months, business would still be on fire today. It was the bad decisions on top, and nothing /*, that led to this depression. In WWE storyline in 2001, which WWE character "owned" WCW, and which WWE character "owned" ECW? (Hint: one was a boy, and one was a girl (well, she used to be))
Question #2
Bill Watts is no stranger to both good and bad business decisions. One of his worst was a rule he implemented upon his arrival in 1992 that banned certain moves. This rule particularly was bad news for WCW's cruiserweight division (called "lightheavyweight division" at the time). What was this God-awful rule?
Question #3
Some of the biggest stars during WWE's boom were Steve Austin, Mick Foley, HHH, Big Show, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, and Sean Waltman. What do these men all have in common? WCW had them all under contract at one point, and squandered them away. Of those guys, which one was directly fired by Bischoff because he was deemed too bland and unmarketable (as he was nursing an injury, no less)?
Question #4
In their infinite wisdom, WCW fired Ric Flair in 1991 while he was still champion. In other words, WCW handed WWE their potentially biggest feud ever, one that fans had been waiting 10 years for. (WWE blew it, but that's another story). Who was the genius in charge of WCW when they made the decision to fire Flair? (Not Ted Turner, I’m talking about the VP of Wrestling Operations.)
Question #5
WWE brought back the nWo in 2002. It wasn't a bad decision, because it could've worked. But it should've been done a year earlier, when it really could've meant something and set the world on fire. When Vince personally announced the return of the nWo in 2002 on TV for the first time, how did he do it? It was quite a memorable promo with a very good visual.
Question #6
True of False: Despite losing a ton of money and badly losing a wrestling ratings war, WCW spent half a million dollars for the band KISS to perform on Nitro.
Question #7
Which one of the bad decisions regarding Bill Goldberg did NOT happen?
A. WCW ended his winning streak.
B. WCW turned him heel.
C. WCW had him hand-cuffed and dragged away by police.
D. WCW made Goldberg wear a pink dress and dance with Liberace.
E. WWE made Goldberg wear a blond wig.
F. WWE changed Goldberg's music.
G. WWE changed Goldberg's black tights.
H. WCW made Goldberg punch through car windows with his bare arm, risking significant injury.
I. WCW lied about his winning streak, inflating his wins.
J. WCW piped in fake "Goldberg" chants, thus making seem like a corporate puppet being shoved down our throats.
K. WCW made Goldberg talk, despite his voice not matching his physical aura and despite he was getting over huge by not saying a word and despite WCW drew their biggest buyrate ever just months before with a guy who spent a year not saying a word.
L. WWE made Goldberg wrestle long matches, thus exposing his weaknesses and killing his drawing power.
Question #8
"Yeah, that'll put butts in the seats." That line is legendary in the Monday night wars for causing thousands of fans to change the channel to watch the opposition. Regarding the quote above, please tell me:
a) Who said it
b) What year it was said
c) What wrestler the person was talking about when he said it
Question #9
WWE is stingy these days. But they weren't quite stingy when they poured (and lost) tens and tens of millions of dollars into the XFL. That was one of the worst business decisions ever. Luckily for WWE, they only shared in half of the millions of dollars the XFL lost. What major media network lost the other half?
Question #10
This last question is a freebie. WWE made several bad decisions this year, between firing Matt Hardy, taking Jim Ross off TV, and asking Steve Austin to job to John Coachman. In your opinion, what was the single worst decision WWE made all year?
Security Code
11. Please write down this week’s security code in order to verify that you saw this quiz on WrestleView.com. This week’s code is “DEMOLITION CRUSH.” Any emails we receive that do not contain this code will not be eligible to win.
12. In case you win, please tell us how you'd like to list your name and plug. Due to time constraints, you will not be notified if you win, and instead will have to wait until next week when the winning name is posted. If you're playing just for fun and don't care about winning, you don't have to answer this question.
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: It’s the Wheel O’ Sleaze! We reveal backstage stories that are not necessarily well known, but they should be, because they are quite interesting. Then we open the mailbag for Ask the Armpit. We also take a look at the power of Morphoplex, wrestling’s newest major sponsor. And wrestling’s woes are GOOD for business? Come see why it just might be true. Finally, our TNA “supermark” examines the TNA website. Please stop by the site today.