Welcome to the March 3rd, 2009 edition of Ask WrestleView! If you don’t see your question answered this week, make sure to check back next week as I will always pull questions from past emails. Just because you sent it in within the last week does not mean it will never appear here on Ask WV.
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All questions were answered by WrestleView’s Chief Historian, Ryan Droste
Can you clear the air on the on going tension between Vince, and some of his former talents like “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Dynamite Kid and Bill Eadie (Ax)?
-Bryan Kelley
Well, I don’t think anybody knows the true story on what the rift is between Savage/McMahon. We’ve all heard the rumors. According to Bret Hart’s autobiography, back in 1994 Randy Savage called Vince McMahon drunk at 4 am to let him know he had signed with WCW. Vince was upset because Randy never gave him a chance to make a counter offer. Vince was reportedly very shaken up over the situation, and losing one of his longtime stars in such a manner. The good news is that the WWE is finally putting out the highly requested Randy Savage DVD anthology this May (Vince nixed the idea last year), so McMahon has at least lightened up on that front (how could he not, it’s going to make him a load of money). Now about that Hall of Fame…As far as Dynamite Kid, I think Tom Billington is just bitter towards the wrestling business in general. I don’t know of an exact incident that caused a rift between he and McMahon. Bill Eadie, now that is an interesting story. Eadie had a medical test done in the late 80s where it was revealed he had an irregular heartbeat. The last thing McMahon needed was a wrestler dying of a heart attack in the middle of the ring, so this is why he brought in Crush as the new third member of Demolition. This was to replace Eadie. Eadie was left under the impression that they were now going to be a three man group, he didn’t realize he was effectively being phased out. This was never fully explained to him, and he became somewhat bitter over the situation as you can imagine.
Since Vince McMahon owns the rights to WCW, why doesn’t he take smackdown and rename it WCW? If he did this then we would have WWE Champion, WCW Champion and ECW Champion and there would be no confusion to new viewers on the difference between WWE Champion & World Heavyweight Champion. It would also create a REAL sense of having BRANDS rather than show names as BRANDS.
Greg Bridgman – Floral, Arkansas
This idea was floated around somewhat back in 2001 when WWF purchased WCW. They were going to run WCW as a seperate entity, completely different roster and touring schedule (remember, this is before the brand split). However, after effectively burying WCW during the Invasion storyline, this was not a real possibility. The WWF at the time had conditioned it’s audience to hate all things WCW, and it would have never stood a chance. And after seeing how WWE has turned the ECW name into a joke in recent years, would you really want them doing that with WCW?
Hey Ryan,
My question is about what happened after the Undertaker’s last few title runs.
The Undertaker was supposed to get a lengthy run with the World Heavyweight title after he beat Batista for it at Wrestlemania 23 but he got injured.
He then won the title again at Wrestlemania 24 and held it for a few months before being stripped of the title.
Why was he not given the long run with the title he was promised even after he came back from injury?
Thanks,
Austen Allen
Undertaker simply requested time off during mid 2008 to heal some nagging injuries and spend time with his family.
At Spring Stampede 1997, Scott Steiner got arrested for hitting a cop, was that part of the storyline or was that a shoot?
I don’t recall anything like this happening as a shoot at Spring Stampede ’97. There was, however, an incident in the Spring of 1998 where Steiner received a large fine, probation and 200 hours of community service for threatening a George Department of Transportation officer. He reportedly threatened the officer and hit him with his truck after the officer told him a ramp to Interestate 575 was closed.
Where is former UWF/NWA valet Dark Journey these days? The last I’ve remember seeing her is when she was Tully Blanchard’s valet briefly in 1987. -Randy Sherman
Dark Journey (aka Linda Newton) has stayed completely out of the limelight since leaving wrestling in the late 80s. She is rumored to be working at a boutique in Los Angeles.
I seem to remember a rule that called for a disqualification when a wrestler was thrown over the top rope that was used in WCW. I think this rule was being used when WCW was a part of the NWA. Is this rule still being used in the NWA today? Sincerely, Rocky Dominguez
This was the rule in wrestling’s old days. It changed sometime in the mid 1980s and is not being used anywhere anymore as far as I know. I believe WCW/NWA held on to the old rule longer than WWF, as they held on to that “old school” mentality longer, while WWF was changing into more entertainment by the mid 1980s.
Did Bobby Heenan Join the NWO the week before Starrcade 1997?
Kind of. This was the famous edition of Nitro where towards the beginning, the nWo took over the announce booth for the duration of the show (remember, Bischoff wrestled Zbyszko at Starrcade for the rights to Nitro). After being kicked off the set, Heenan came back later in the show and begged for a spot in the nWo. They let him join their announce team for the rest of the show. The next week, after WCW had retained control of Nitro at Starrcade, Heenan came out and pleaded his case for his old announcing job back with the WCW team and rejoined them.
That’s all for this edition of Ask WrestleView.
In closing, don’t forget to check out my personal wrestling blog, Droste’s Double Shot. I have just published the first of a five part series counting down the top 50 matches in WrestleMania history. Check it out, comments and good spirited debate are welcome!