On Monday, January 2, 2006 at 1:08 PM EST Welcome to this week's edition of the Armpit wrestling quiz. So TNA and Spike TV are counting on a 47-year-old to bring them to the Promised Land. Personally, I'd have saved that money and used it to lure Paul Heyman away from WWE so that he can take their very talented roster and work his magic on them. But when wrestling promotions and TV networks are run by people who don't understand wrestling, they spend gobs of money in all the wrong places (Sting, Jackie Gayda, Gail Kim, Vince Russo, Jeremy Borash, Dusty Rhodes, Tito Ortiz, Jeff Hammond, Johnny Fairplay etc, etc). And TNA wonders why they can't turn a profit.
But Sting is one of the few wrestlers WCW (read that: Ric Flair) made into a home-grown star. In honor of Steve Borden, this week's quiz is based on a man called Sting.
Last week's winner:
Mike Tedesco. In Mike’s words, he wants to plug “a ban on watching Friday Night Smackdown until Vince McMahon pulls his head out of his rear end.”
Last week's answers: (Click here) for last week's questions.
-Sgt. Slaughter's two sidekicks were General Adnan and Col. Mustafa.
-The tasteless remark about Hawk being dead was said by Johnny Nitro.
-Brian Pillman's widow is named Melanie.
-The first WWE tour of Iraq happened in 2003.
-Ric Flair was married twice, and is currently engaged again.
-The name of HHH's corpse was Katie Vick.
-The last high-profile Eddy vs. Rey match was on the Friday night SmackDown debut.
-WWE teased Bret's return at SummerSlam during that infamous Shawn Michaels promo where he gloated about Survivor Series '97 in Canada, and they played Bret's music. The crowd went apesh*t, but Bret never showed, and Shawn laughed in the ring. Earlier that month, WWE.com posted a picture of Bret shaking Vince's hand, so even the smartest fans at home were fooled by this one. Alas, the joke will be on WWE, because the tease pissed off fans, and pissed off wrestling fans don't spend money on wrestling.
-The magnets on Beefcake's face offended people because Beefcake legitimately had metal equipment in his face to repair the damage done to him via a parasailing accident in 1990.
-There was no real consensus on what you all thought was the most tasteless angle ever, but it was nothing before 2000. I guess you newer fans have either forgotten about or weren't around for the disgusting crap that happened in the 80s and 90s here and overseas.
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. That's our Dr. Keith Rule.
Question #1
Sting was always known as Sting. But the Ultimate Warrior was known as.... the Rock?? Yes. Sting and Rock were a tag team in 1986. Name this tag team.
Question #2
After the tag team with Rock, Sting went to work for Bill Watts in the UWF. He was part of a faction with Rick Steiner, Eddie Gilbert, & Missy Hyatt. What was the name of this heel group?
Question #3
As young kids who mainly favored the WWF, my friends and I were ready to embrace Sting as our new hero and watch the NWA because of it. But that wouldn't be, because Dusty Rhodes squandered his potential as only Dusty can. So who do TNA and SmackDown choose to be their booker in 2005? Dusty Rhodes. My head hurts. Anyway, after that match of the year with Flair at the first Clash, Sting stole the show at the Great American Bash '88 against Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson. He did a crazy dive... and the cameras missed it. Who was Sting's partner in that match?
Question #4
In 1989, Sting played second fiddle to Ric Flair, Rick Steamboat, and Terry Funk as the headline attractions. Well, until Halloween Havoc. It was Sting & Flair vs. Funk & Great Muta, in a match remembered for the cameras catching Flair deliver an elbow to the throat to Funk that missed by a mile; a rare blown spot by Naitch. What type of gimmick match was this?
Question #5
1990 was the year Sting got kicked out of the Horsemen, in one of the year's best interview segments on a live Clash of the Champions. I miss those days. When Sting was a Horseman, who did the 4 Horsemen consist of?
Question #6
When Flair left WCW, they went with Lex Luger. When Luger went with WCW, they went with Sting. Sting won the WCW title on a great card that was ruined by the debut of the incredibly ugly dark blue ring canvas that plagued and defined the Bill Watts era of WCW. It was so hideous looking that it actually dragged down the quality of the matches and sucked the crowd heat dry. Up until this time, during the Kip Frye WCW reign, they had a white ring canvas and the action was hot. Don't call me crazy for drawing this direct correlation of canvas colors and match quality, damnit. On what PPV event did Sting win the WCW title from Luger in 1992?
Question #7
Perhaps the only positive of the Bill Watts era in WCW was how he got over Big Van Vader as a legit monster and main event superstar. He did this by, get ready for this, having him pin Sting clean with his finisher. GASP! Who knew it was so easy to get someone over by using clean finishes? Well me, Giant Baba, Sam Muschnick, Larry Matysik, the Funks, Dave Meltzer, and everyone /* with a brain, for starters. On what PPV event did Vader pin Sting for the WCW title?
Question #8
The Sting-Vader series is terribly underrated, as they produced a few ****+ bouts during a time when WCW was at its worst. One such match was at Starrcade '92. In between this match, and the videos putting over how important it was to win "Battle Bowl," poor Ron Simmons' WCW title was booked as the most useless title in the promotion. Sting and Vader wrestled a tremendous match. What "title" were they fighting over? (Hint: it wasn't a belt, but a silly tournament Watts had put together.)
Question #9
The next Sting-Vader classic was at SuperBrawl '93, one of the greatest PPVs of all-time (sadly overshadowed by the death of Andre the Giant). This match was famous for Harley Race blading Vader way too deep. What type of gimmick match was this?
Question #10
Finally, we'll end with 2001. Sting wrestled his last match for WCW on the last ever WCW Nitro. Who was his opponent?
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 "SID JUSTICE." Any emails we receive that do not contain this code will not be eligible to win. Also, if you're attending any wrestling event or house show soon and are interested in handing out free samples of our hilarious debut Armpit publication, please let me know and we'll set you up.
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: The top 10 Armpit moments of 2005. We also have our first ever column of 2006, taking a look at the Bret Hart DVD. This is also a good time to send in your subscriptions for the new monthly Armpit publication that begins very soon. Please stop by the site today for a stroll down Memory (not Lenny) Lane.