The Wrestling Professor's Weekly Quiz for November 5
On Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 3:25 PM EST The Wrestling Professor sent this in:
Welcome to a special “Election Edition” of the Armpit wrestling quiz for Wednesday, November 5, 2008.
This week the beat goes on with “Clash of the Champions - Part 3.”
We figure half of you are basking in glory right now and half of you are majorly depressed. Whatever your mood, this quiz is bound to make you even more depressed, as we examine how great wrestling used to be in 1989 compared to how pathetic it is today.
Answers from last time:
-At Clash #5, Sting and his teammates couldn’t make it to the ring for the main event because they were locked away backstage by current WWE writer Michael Hayes. I haven’t seen that Clash show in ages, but I remember watching it and thinking how lame it was. Almost 20 years later and Sting is still the subject of stupid booking in TNA. Can someone please tell me why you’ve got Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman, Gabe Sapolsky, Terry Taylor, Scott D’Amore, and Mick Foley all available to be booker, and TNA chooses Vince Russo?
-Rick Steamboat won the 3rd and final fall at Clash #6 when he had Flair in a chickenwing submission hold. He fell back and both men were pinned, but Steamboat got his shoulder up first. The replay showed that Flair had his foot on the rope, which the referee didn’t see. This led to their legendary rematch at WrestleWar ’89. In that match, they did the chickenwing spot again and it got big heat.
-Speaking of Clash #6, it was held at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, LA. And it was largely empty.
-The Flair-Steamboat Clash match featured Terry Funk doing color. He did a great job of getting both guys over. In an example of excellent, simplistic booking that UFC employs today, this set the stage for Funk’s heel turn on Flair at the WrestleWar show.
-At Clash #7, Lex Luger turned heel on Steamboat. It began the best period ever for Luger’s career. For a good while Lex was a very good performer, got great heat, and had good matches. He never reached that point again, but he deserves credit for his improvement and many people like to forget that when they look back at his career.
-Clash #7 also saw the debut of the Ding Dongs. The less said, the better.
-The Samoan Swat Team was managed by a 23-year-old Paul Heyman (who looked 38).
-At Clash #8, Funk was replaced by Dick Slater.
-The controversial angle at Clash #8 was when Funk came to the ring and tried to kill Flair by suffocating him with a plastic bag. Lots of people called TBS to complain about that one.
Here are this week's questions. Remember, the 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. Time for my all-time favorite Clash: Clash of the Champions #9: New York Knockout. Live from Troy, NY, this show had many memorable moments in wrestling history. One of them was Jim Cornette’s “Shot heard ‘round the wrestling world.” What was this shot?
2. Clash #9 was right about the time the Steiner brothers started to catch some major steam. On this show they wrestled two giants named Sid Vicious and Danny Spivey. Seriously, can you imagine being cornered by those four gorillas in a dark alley? Sid was pretty bad, but everyone watching him knew he had superstar potential. He became a star, but never quite like expected. He wasn’t a good athlete, but damn he looked impressive just standing there. He got injured in this match and was replaced by some unknown. Today that unknown is an enormous legend. Name him.
3. Remember I told you that Luger was a good worker during this period? Honestly, he was. At Clash #9 he had a great match with what up and coming youngster?
4. Of course the highlight of Clash #9 was the classic “I Quit” match between Ric Flair and Terry Funk. Just a tremendous brawl and a complete breath of fresh air from all the other Flair matches that year. One of my favorite all-time matches and a really fun time to be a fan. Someone cue the “Memories” song by Bette Midler. Funk submitted to the figure four, but the show-ending brawl continued the action. Who saved Flair from the post match attack by Funk, the Great Muta, and recently deceased manager Gary Hart?
5. Clash #10 started 1990 off with a bang-bang, that being of undercard wrestler Cactus Jack Manson. Young Mick Foley took sick bumps all year but still got looked over by bookers in favor of green, unathletic stiffs that Jim Herd thought were going to lead the NWA (now called WCW) to prominence. Most of the year was booked by Ole Anderson. He stunk, but on this show he turned in award winning performance when he kicked Sting out of the Horsemen. Sting got his revenge later in the show, but oops, what happened?
6. By the time Clash #11 hit in June, WCW was becoming as bad as 1989 was good. Flair had a booking stint that produced very strong ratings, but he was overworked and it showed in the ring. But it was Ole and especially Jim Herd who made WCW so bad in 1990, as Herd became much more hands on. This show’s main event was a stark comparison of Clashes past. Ric Flair did not wrestle Rick Steamboat or Terry Funk on this show. Instead he wrestled a new WWF signee and had perhaps the worst match of his career. Name the deceased wrestler who main evented with Flair on this show.
7. Clash #12 was a bit better, thanks in part to a blazing red hot crowd in Asheville, NC. I miss those old Carolina crowds. Having been written off by Herd as old news, a supercharged Ric Flair wrestled Lex Luger in the semi main event. He was awesome, as was the match. Just an excellent, heated, wild, fun match that makes today’s matches look like drying paint. It ended due to interference from a guy who was one of the few bright spots of 1990 WCW. Who was he?
8. 1990 can be summed up by three words: The Black Scorpion. It was Ole’s creation, and it all came to a head at Clash #12. For months Sting was being stalked by the Scorpion, whose identity was unknown, but whose voice would take over the arena when Sting wrestled, haunting him. On this night, Sting beat the Scorpion and unmasked him. Alas, there was a mask under his mask and we never found out who he was. Well, unless you read newsletters back then. Who wrestled as the Scorpion that night?
Answers will be posted next time.
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