On Monday, April 10, 2006 at 12:40 AM EST Welcome to this week's edition of the Armpit quiz. A few weeks ago we did a quiz on the pre-WrestleMania build of years past. Now that we are in that post-WrestleMania stage, it's time to do the same. This week's quiz is called, "The Party's Over: Post-WrestleMania Moments in History."
Last week's winner:
Terrance Theragood plugging the USAF.
Last week's answers: (Click here) for last week's questions.
-The Blue Meanie/JBL fight happened at ECW One Night Stand 2005.
-That Bret/Vince footage is from a movie called Wrestling with Shadows. That is the 2nd best wrestling movie ever made, behind Beyond the Mat.
-The guy who attacked Vince McMahon was Kevin Wacholz, known in WWF as Nailz.
-Squeegee Sid got that name from an infamous 1991 bar incident with Brian Pillman. Mike Graham (shame on him for selling his father's life's work to Vince) was also involved in that, and while that wasn't the guy I had in mind, I accepted that answer.
-2 Cold Scorpio saved Arn Anderson's life in that hotel fight, and he saved Sid Vicious from a very lengthy prison term.
-Of the guys listed, HHH has never been in a legit fight with Shawn Michaels.
-The 2 bullies who beat up Ken Shamrock were the Nasty Boys. Sags was the first wrestler to ever sign an autograph for me, as he waited for Knobs outside the Arena by the rental car. Sags was visibly pissed when us fans noticed him and darted toward him with pencils and notepads in hand. Nowadays, I'll bet he wishes those same fans would ask for his autograph.
-The Flair/Foley relationship started when Flair was WCW booker in 1990 and Foley felt he didn't give him a fair shake. Foley expressed this in his book, which Flair heard about (and likely never read) and got pissed, and gave Foley a receipt in his book in 2004. Foley naturally responded to that, and things came to a head backstage shortly thereafter, with Flair throwing a punch. The only reason this is funny is that it took Flair to reach his early 50s to get a backbone, and now that he has one, he vents out at people who don't deserve it and continues to kiss up to those who do.
-Flair had a brief physical exchange with Eric Bischoff a few years ago. I love Flair, but had that happened under my watch, he would've been fired for that behavior (as would have JBL, the Guerreros, and Bob Holly, among others, for similar incidents).
-Vader was trounced by Paul Orndorff, one of the toughest and manliest wrestlers to ever step into a ring (aside from his passing out on a live WCW PPV 6 years ago.)
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. We're not calling this the "Dr. Keith Rule" again until Keith subscribes to Sirius satellite radio, which is an inside joke that should be kept outside, but we're putting it inside anyway.
Question #1
1. If we liken wrestling to sex, then WrestleMania is the orgasm and April through July are the refractory periods. The thrill is gone, and like any good peak, a valley comes next. Well, that's just another myth in wrestling (like the one about how it goes "in cycles"). The fact is, the Spring and Summer have done very well in the past... whenever there was GOOD BOOKING. One of those years was 1988, when new WWF champ Randy Savage drew very well on house shows against what top heel after WrestleMania?
Question #2
2. 1987 was an even better year after WrestleMania. A whole new generation of fans saw 70,000+ fans, fell in love with Savage-Steamboat, and were immediately hooked for life. The Steamboat win was memorable, but like every Steamboat title reign, was short lived. Who took Steamboat's IC title not long after WrestleMania 3?
Question #3
3. The first half of 1989 was perhaps the best ever for the WWF until the Monday night boom period a decade later. There were two, sometimes three house show crews on the road, and all were drawing well. Hogan was packing them in on one end, and red hot heel Randy Savage was packing them in on the other. While this was all going on, Flair and Steamboat were having all-time classics but with a much smaller audience and financial results. Post-WM5 was nothing special, with the most notable event being the debut of Hogan's new top heel foe. He was... an actor. He was even on "Perfect Strangers," one of the most underrated sit-coms ever. But he was big, juiced up, and looked menacing (and terrible in the ring). With Savage and Sensational Sherri by his side, he was a fresh act and the angles were extremely well done. Who was this man?
Question #4
4. Post-WM6 in 1990 was not kind, as business fell off and Ultimate Warrior took the blame. Some of it was warranted, some of it was not. WWF changed his look seemingly every week, trying to find the right mix. At least they reacted to the business drop-off, unlike today when they arrogantly shrug it off and continue to make the same mistakes. Even with Warrior as champ, the focus was still on Hogan. Hogan's new foe was a guy they took out of the audience who happened to be huge. And he's also tough, as shown by his stubborn fight against cancer in recent years. Name this large man.
Question #5
5. With the departure of so many stars (and Pat Patterson, the booker) in 1992, post-WM8 was a very trying time for the WWF. The steroid and sex scandals were in full swing, and with no Hogan, Vince needed a superstar to replace him. And when Vince gets desperate, he turns to muscles no matter how much bad blood there is between them. What muscular superstar returned to the WWF at the end of WM8?
Question #6
6. A slim and trim Hulk Hogan returned at WM9, where he was challenged immediately for the WWF title by Mr. Fuji and Yokozuna. Yeah, that makes sense. If a guy you managed just won a long a grueling match and captured the ultimate prize in wrestling, wouldn't you immediately issue an impromptu challenge to Hulk Hogan? Hogan of course won the title, making Bret Hart look like a total loser. Hogan held the title until losing to Yokozuna at what PPV event?
Question #7
7. In order to combat the seasonal and traditional post-WM house show business decline, the WWF came up with a new idea: "The WrestleMania Revenge Tour." This tour would have lasers, lights, pyro, and everything a TV taping would have, except it wouldn't be on TV. I attended one of these house shows, and the special effects were nowhere near the hype. After what WrestleMania did the WWF run this revenge tour?
Question #8
8. I'm skipping '95 through '97, since those were my tough college years and I don't remember much. In '98, the months following WM14 were the turning point for the company, which was red hot following Austin's title win and angle with Mike Tyson. Austin's new foe was... Vince McMahon. The feud worked so well because Austin was hot and Vince had never been a heel before. He was fresh and great on interviews, even though he couldn't wrestle. What event in 1997 did Vince use as the catalyst for turning himself heel?
Question #9
9. Post-WM17 saw the collapse of the WWF, due in large part to Austin's heel turn. Hogan drew huge money as a face and a heel. But Austin's legacy in comparison to Hogan's will be that he drew more money as a face, but as a heel, the entire industry burned to ashes. ECW and WCW going under didn't help. Which company went out of business first, ECW or WCW?
Question #10
10. Post-WM18 in 2002 saw the Rock heavily into his movie career. WWE needed a fresh new heel, and fast. They took this guy from OVW, and made Paul Heyman his manager. Yes, he was Brock Lesnar. But Heyman wasn't referred to as his "manager." After all, says Vince, managers are so "'80s." Yeah, and so are big crowds, intense crowd heat, and record network TV ratings. In relation to Lesnar, what was Heyman's title?
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 "REY MYSTERIO." 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: Randy Orton responds to WWE about his suspension, and you’ll be surprised what he has to say. Then it’s the controversial “God” article. Please stop by the site today.