Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Monday, September 1, 2008 at 5:16 AM EST

The Wrestling Professor sent this in:

Welcome to the Armpit wrestling quiz for the week of September 1, 2008. Happy Labor Day.

This week’s quiz was inspired by Hillary Hogan, I mean, Hillary Clinton. Hillary did what in wrestling is called “Putting someone over without putting him over.” Remember Hogan-Warrior at WrestleMania 6? That’s a perfect example, and that’s what Bill and Hillary did last week with Barack Obama. In honor of them, this week’s quiz is called, “Get Over by Putting Me Over.”

Politics = pro wrestling. Never was that more apparent than last week, as we all saw booking and manipulation at its best at the Democratic National Convention, and we’ll see more of it this week at the Republican National Convention. Speech writers are wrestling writers, except they’re smart and know what they’re doing. Campaign managers are bookers, except they learn from history and are open to ideas that work. And politicians are pro wrestlers, and it’s no coincidence that there is a crossover between the two (except the crossing over is only one way, as I don’t recall any politicians becoming pro wrestlers).

Make no mistake about it: the Clintons want Obama to lose, and they will do everything in their power to make sure that happens. Their goal is for Hillary to run in 2012 against either an aged McCain or young Palin. If you don’t believe that, then you should know that political insiders are laughing at you the way wrestling insiders laughed at the marks in 1990 when Hogan “put over” Warrior. In both cases, the only ones they were putting over were themselves.

How will the Clintons undermine Obama’s campaign? The Clintons are ruthless politicians; they make HHH and Hogan look like college interns. Each and every word from their mouths is carefully crafted and scripted by a team of political consultants Hell bent on getting Hillary elected in 2012. This is not a knock on them, because they’re just doing their jobs. But please don’t think it’s anything but what it is, because again, politics = pro wrestling.

In public, Hillary will sing Obama’s praises and push her disenchanted voters to vote for him. But Bill, who has created a “loose cannon” gimmick for himself in the vein of Brian Pillman, and who has strategically distanced himself from Hillary, will be in the background, placing strategically crafted quotes that will be subtle in their knocking of Obama. You saw this last Tuesday with Bill’s “Candidate X and candidate Y” speech to the media. That is why Bill went so over the top in his praise of Obama at the DNC, because he has every intention of doing the exact opposite all throughout September in October behind his back. Hillary will not get the blame, and that’s why Bill has distanced himself from her. That way Hillary can be the model Democrat uniting the party in public, while crazy ol’ Bill ruffles feathers in the background.

Their goal is to cause dissension among Democrats, leading Hillary’s voters to vote Republican. Then Hillary can come back in 2012 and give the “I told you so” speech to her delegates. Hillary’s goal was to outshine Biden, making viewers wonder why Obama would possibly choose him over her as VP given her thunderous ovation and millions of voters. Her voters already saw the Biden choice as a slap in the face, and Republicans have done their job of adding fuel to that fire. It’s all masterful manipulation by all involved, and the people getting played as pawns are the viewers at home, and of course, the Obamas.

The Obama camp had no reason to turn the DNC into the Clinton Convention. The Clintons had no leverage, but they threatened him with the idea that he needed Hillary’s votes in order to win. They teased dissension, and Obama fell for the bluff. The truth is that Obama DOES need Hillary’s votes, but he could’ve gotten them by choosing a woman as VP. He couldn’t have chosen Hillary; she brings too much baggage with Bill and they would clash with the Obamas for the entire 4 years. But Biden was a slap to women voters, and he’ll regret that decision. If you’ve paid attention to the polls, Obama is losing because he doesn’t have the votes of older white women. That demographic almost always votes decidedly Democratic, and he’s lost them. Hillary knows it, and she’s going to exploit it. Well, that’s not entirely true. Bill will exploit it, and Hillary will put on the big fake smile in public. And Michelle will flash a big fake smile back at her (never showing her teeth; Michelle doesn’t show her teeth unless she’s sincere).

Who cares about all this, anyway? Isn’t this a quiz on wrestling, not politics? Yes, but remember what I said: POLITICS = WRESTLING. There’s a lot that pro wrestling should learn from politics in order to increase their business. The DNC, and the RNC this week, is masterful manipulation at its best. It is done every year for three reasons: it works, it works, and it works.

Remember when I suggested a few months ago that pro wrestling should hold its own conventions hyping future PPV main events? How they should bring in icons of the past (like the DNC did with the Clintons and Kennedy) to “put over” the new main event talent? It works in politics; most candidates get a 10 point jump in the polls following the conventions (this year will be different because there is no break between the RNC and DNC). In wrestling, instead of getting a bump at the polls, they could get a bump in the buyrate. But after suggesting this idea, no one has done it, and buyrates remain low.

Like I said, those in charge are not open to fresh, new ideas that aren’t their own. And they refuse to learn from history or learn from politics, which is a shame.

But Hogan and HHH, they know how to play the game better than most. I’ve never known two better politicians in wrestling, and thus, the bulk of this quiz is about them. Let’s finally begin, “Get Over by Putting Me Over.”

Answers from last time:

-SummerSlam ’97 featured an appearance by the Governor who owns her entire political career to Howard Stern: Christine Todd Whitman.

-SS ’98 featured the theme song “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC. In my opinion, that show had a huge buyrate in part because of the marketing of that song with that main event. Speaking of AC/DC, they are about to come out with a new album. And if you like AC/DC, check out the band Airbourne (they perform Mr. Kennedy’s theme song). They sound like AC/DC but with more youth and energy, and are a much needed shot in the arm for rock music.

-The referee at SS ’99 was Jesse Ventura. Wrestling = politics.

-The 3 teams referenced at SS ’00 were the Hardys, Dudleys, and Edge and Christian.

-In 2001, the Rock was off filming the Scorpion King. You know it eats away at Hogan and HHH that Rock made it in Hollywood as a real actor. Good for him.

-SS ’02 featured the long awaited return of Shawn Michaels. And think of all the classic matches he has given us since that time. He’s one of the all-time best.

-Ric Flair interfered at SS ’03, allowing HHH to win.

-Orton became the #1 contender at SS ’04 by winning a battle royal at the prior PPV.

-In the hype for SS ’05, Shawn Michaels spoofed the Larry King Show.

-There was legit heat between Booker and Batista stemming from a major backstage brawl between the two. That brawl stemmed from a variety of things, from Batista’s own growing ego and heat among the women involved with both men.

-SS ’07 was going to center around, but thankfully never did, the Jackass TV show. You know, Steve O, the guy who called all wresting fans dumb.

Here are this week's questions. Remember, the new rules are that you no longer need to submit your questions, and no winners will be declared. We're just doing this for fun and to honor the forgotten world of wrestling history.

1. WrestleMania VI was all about passing the torch from Hogan to Warrior. Hogan, not to be outdone, stole the spotlight from Warrior by making the post-match celebration all about himself, taking the attention away from Warrior. You know, just like the Clintons last week. And it worked. To Hogan’s credit, the match was excellent and he carried it all by himself, and it remains his best in-ring performance ever. For whatever reason, business fell during Warrior’s run. Perhaps fans resented Warrior for beating Hogan at a time when wins and losses meant more than they do now. Perhaps Warrior’s shortcomings were more apparent once he became champion. Whatever the case, it failed. In reality, why did Hogan take a sabbatical after WrestleMania VI?

2. After Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff decided to work together in mid 2000, they gave the impression they would push new talent. Hogan volunteered (how nice of him) to work with a certain mid-carder, stemming from comments made on the internet between the two. The idea was to elevate this mid-carder, but in reality, just as Hogan knew it would, it buried him. Name this mid-carder.

3. Here’s a perfect example of the theme of this quiz. In 2004, HHH green-lighted a title run by Chris Benoit. Benoit was a workhorse, giving great matches everywhere and bringing a sense of credibility to the title. An uninformed observer would think the WWE was really putting over Benoit as the next big star, just like an uninformed viewer would think Hillary really wanted her voters to vote for Obama. Did HHH allow this through the goodness of his heart? Hardly. He wanted the belt to be built up so that it would mean more once he eventually got it back, which he did. It was a huge ruse to get himself over more. And after he got the belt back, Benoit returned to mid-card oblivion while HHH has been a consistent main eventer just like he always has and always will. Who was the transition champion between Benoit and HHH?

4. Ahh, Kevin Nash. Remember the night he “put over” Hogan in the infamous fingerpoke title switch? That would set the tone for the entire year of 1999 for WCW, which was miserable. Nash was supposed to wrestle Goldberg that night in a rematch from Starrcade ’98. Why didn’t Goldberg wrestle Nash on Nitro this night?

5. That Hogan, he’s such a nice guy he volunteered to lose the WCW title to Goldberg on free TV in 1998 for the sake of the company and Nitro’s ratings. Goldberg got the pomp and circumstance of the title win and you’d think Hogan was passing the torch to the next big star. The reality was that Hogan saw WCW was about to sell out a huge dome (without his help) and he wanted to be in the main event so that he could take credit for it. And he’s right; years later, when you see the match and the sellout crowd, you wouldn’t have known it was sold out by the Nitro and WCW name and not by Hogan. But Hogan knows how to play the game. What city did this historic match take place in?

6. That Hogan, he can outsmart the best of them. When matched up with the Rock in a dream match at WrestleMania 18, he went in as the heel. But with the match in Canada, and with Hogan back in the WWF after being gone for over 8 years (and with some subtle psychology of his own), the crowd reacted differently and Hogan was the ultimate babyface. The Rock was taught a serious lesson by the true master of politics that night. Too bad Hogan’s fellow NWO member Scott Hall didn’t have the same skill. Whom did Hall wrestle on this show?

7. As he gets older, he gets wiser and even smarter. After written off for good by Vince McMahon, Hogan was back in the thick of things in 2005 after perhaps his finest moment. He totally stole the show at the Hall of Fame show, inventing the “sad” face that elicited the longest, most enthusiastic round of applause you’ll ever see from a crowd of wrestling fans. By “trying” to quiet the crowd, he only prolonged the applause, leading the McMahons to sign him to a new deal shortly thereafter. This man’s brain should be worshipped by all. He also stole the show the next night at WrestleMania, as his enormous pop during a run-in with Mohammed (whatever happened to him) and Daivari brought down the house and deflated the crowd. Because of that, Steve Austin received a very underwhelming response on the same show. What was Austin’s role at WrestleMania that year?

8. This last question is an exception to the rule, and yes, once upon a time HHH really did have every intention of creating a new star. In fact, he wanted to create a new star so badly just so that people could say, “Hey look, HHH cares about making new stars.” He doesn’t, but in this one case, he did. Batista went from nothing to a major star, and I credit HHH completely for that. The feud was so well done and slowly built, that by the time Batista finally did the turn with the powerbomb, the crowd exploded. The only sneaky thing I think HHH did was move Batista to SmackDown so that he would falter once he was on his own. And that did happen, until Batista feuded with the Undertaker, had some great matches that built his self confidence and ring work, and now Batista is a solid headliner on his own. When Batista turned on HHH, what famous gesture did he make with his hands?

Answers will be posted next time.

The Armpit
http://www.ArmpitWrestling.com
Pro wrestling/MMA's least trusted news source.