Scott’s Mailbag of DOOM!

Features, Q&A

– AKA, Scott Has Too Much E-Mail to Catch Up With One Post

Question #1! From Charlie Reneke.

So you’ve talked in your blog about Magnum TA and David Von Erich, guys that were to be champions until fate got in the way.  Well, there are three others I’ve always wondered about but never got confirmation on.  Since Meltzer is stuck in MMA land and doesn’t answer this type of stuff anymore, maybe you can help.

1. Dusty Rhodes as WWE Champion in the Summer of 1977.  Vince Sr. wanted it.  Vince Jr. too, but allegedly either Rhodes wouldn’t leave Florida or the Grahams wouldn’t let him leave.  Either way, I’ve heard stories about this, and given that the WWE historicly built the company around the babyface, Billy Graham’s title reign strikes me as ‘we had a plan but it fell apart’ and I’m guessing one way or another, Dusty was the plan.  So what of it?

2. Greg Valentine as the lame duck leading to Hulk Hogan’s title change.  In fact, apparently they DID change the title to Valentine in one of those stupid ‘german suplex and the heel gets his shoulder up’ things but there was no heat on him or something so they claimed the ref screwed up and handed the belt to Valentine instead of Backlund which somehow made the title be held up instead of simply given back to Backlund, then Backlund won the rematch in November of 1983 to win the ‘vacant’ title and lost it to the Iron Sheik the next month.  It certainly LOOKS like they meant to have Valentine be the lame duck for Hogan, but the fact that he would even be considered for such a spot is mindboggling.  Still… ref handing the title belt to the wrong guy leads to it being held up?  Something went wrong.  What’s the real story?

3. Ultimate Warrior in 1996.  Now, I’ve heard TONS of variations on this one.  It’s 100% confirmed to be true (and hell, the WWE even included an unused promotional card that listed the Warrior as WWE Champion in 1996 on the Warrior’s DVD.  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/survivorcharlie/100_2012.jpg I screen capped it for you and your readers).  My issue is the timing.  Everything I had heard was that the title would change hands at the Survivor Series.  BUT then, I heard that since Shawn had tanked the ratings and the Wrestlemania 12 buyrate was, more or less, considered a bust, that they wanted to move the title the night after the 1996 King of the Ring, which leads me to believe that Davey Boy Smith would have had a 24 Hour Title reign.  It’s a mess.  Help us sort it out.

1. Honestly, that’s the first I’ve ever heard of Dusty Rhodes as WWF champion, and I’ve sat through shoot interviews with Dusty and read most of his book, and you’d think he’d mention it somewhere. I can tell that Meltzer has said more than once that Vince Sr. planned out Billy Graham -> Bob Backlund WAY in advance as well, so Big Dust wasn’t in the cards there, either. Hell, Dusty didn’t even get the NWA World title until, what, 1980? Sorry, Charlie, I have to call bullshit on that one.

2. Yeah, that Valentine non-change was a weird one. However, it was 1981, not 1983, so your timeline is way off there. Plus the title was only held up in New York, as Bob defended it like normal everywhere else. Survey says: Just a silly controversy to build heat for the rematch.

3. I’ve always heard that it was a mere production error that led to "WWF Champion Ultimate Warrior" in 1996, but I confess I’ve never heard anything more on the subject.

Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful with those ones.

Question #2!

Hi Scott,

I throughly enjoy reading your blog.  i have a question that maybe can be posted on the blog.  I know you’re a big fan of the Rock.  Personally I cant wait til the dvd comes out.

With that said what do you feel is a match and promo that wwe left out that should be on it.  For match I would have like the Wrestlemania XX match with Rock and Sock Connection against Evolution.  It was such an entertaining match (Ric Flair "I dont think so mother—–!!!").  It turned out to be Rock’s final match at the moment, and it would FINALLY give me a reason not to buy the Wrestlemania dvd for other reasons (has a ppv in hindsight lost so much value than XX).

As for promo…mine is Rock’s promo in Toronto after beating Hogan at No Way Out in 03.  i loved "Hollywood" Rock and he was in great form.  mothercanuckers..lol eventhough that relates to Vancover.  That promo was golden.  what do you think???

That tag match from WMXX is on a level of entertainment all its own, and as a bonus ended up launching the careers of Randy Orton and Batista. People forget what a joke Evolution was in the early days, and it’s only now that everyone is big stars that they’ve become so much more important with hindsight. Anyhoo, I haven’t actually seen the new Rock DVD yet, but I’m going to continue to campaign for the Iron Man match against HHH to be included somehow, somewhere, until it happens. I also think his challenge of Chris Jericho for the Undisputed title at Royal Rumble 2002 is a lost classic, as well. As for promos, he did 800 million of them and they were all great, so I can’t even choose. Just pick 100 of them and you’ve got a great DVD.

Question #3!

Thanks to the miracle (?) of YouTube I have finally seen the match in which the Muta Scale for blood was invented.  Almost 20 years later, should that still be considered the scale for which all blade jobs are scored against.  What about the ones in matches such as Taker vs. Brock in Hell in a Cell or Eddie vs. JBL at Judgment Day ’04.  Just what are the goriest blade jobs and matches in wrestling history?

First of all, YES, it’s still the match used as the scale, because what sounds as bad-ass as "The Muta Scale"? NOTHING. But I mean, really, changing the standards of history because something newer and better came along is what the Nazis did, and you don’t want to be a Nazi, do you?

So having offended everyone now, my favorite blade jobs in absolutely no order…

17. Bret Hart "accidentally" cuts his forehead open with a razor blade against Davey Boy Smith at In Your House V, and proceeds to bleed so much that he stains Bulldog’s white tights into a deep pink.

B. Eddie Guerrero v. JBL. Holy shit that was a lot of blood. Eddie lost so much blood there that he actually messed himself up for weeks afterwards. Who would have thought that unchecked bloodletting could be BAD for you?

@. Kerry Von Erich hit a pretty good artery in his match against Jerry Lawler at Superclash III. Not a great match, but the blood streaming down his face at least justified the screwjob finish.

Question #4, which I actually got while writing this column.

Howdy Scott,


My name is Jarrod, I have been a VERY VERY long time reader. way way back when CRZ would do RAW and you’d do PPV reports on Rec.Sports.Pro.Wrestling. So, I value and respect your opinion.
I had a question, since you seem to get alot of them, but here is what I think is a good one for debate.
If you could bring any deceased wrestler or wrestling personality back, who would it be?
Personally, I’d have Gorilla Monsoon come back. Next in line is Eddie. I know theres that ‘other’ guy..you know, THAT guy, and I’m happy if you or anyone else says that they would like him back – I’m just thinking who would come back and add something.
But, yeah, your thoughts welcome – all the best.

You’d bring Gorilla back so the poor guy could have a whole new generation of abdominal stretches to bitch about? That’s just cruel for everyone.

Without a doubt I’d bring back Owen Hart, because he would have ended up as a multiple-time World champion thanks to talent dilution and the brand extension. I’d say he deserves the belt.

Question #5! (STOP sending me e-mail, people, so I can finish this column and go to bed)

Hey, longtime reader and bookowner. I have a question. From reading this:

"But then Shawn showed up in no condition to perform and HHH got to do the big fat J-O-B because he had basically vouched for Shawn and thus had to eat the punishment. That happened a lot to him back in the day."

I don’t even remember shawn being in that match. Also, wasn’t Triple H already married to steph? Why was he being punished? I thought taker going over was academic since it was just a timewaster fued until Triple H got back into the title picture (Rock/Austin obviously was going to exclude him at that WM).

I’m not trying to say you’re wrong or anything, but as a long-time taker mark, I don’t remember being that worried that hunter would win. What exactly went down with this? I’d love to hear anything you know that I don’t.

Looking forward to the Hart/Benoit book (as sad as it’ll be).

OK, here’s the story:

No, Shawn wasn’t in the match. Shawn was training for his comeback, which was supposed to be happening in 2001, but he was still very addicted to drugs and booze and all that good stuff. HHH (who would have been with Chyna at that point, but I believe cheating on her with Steph, which is why Chyna left shortly after) basically campaigned to Vince to allow Shawn back into the ring for a feud against HHH. So anyway, the idea is that HHH and Shawn are going to have a match at Wrestlemania X-7 and I forget what Undertaker was supposed to be doing. But Shawn was supposed to be at a RAW in February to set up that match, and he showed up too stoned to go on the air, so instead of HHH beating Shawn, it became HHH losing to Undertaker. I didn’t mean that HHH was supposed to beat Undertaker, sorry if you got that impression.

Question #6!

Don’t know if you’ve played Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 or not, but the legends "section" got me to thinking about what type of game I’d make or who I’d have in it if WWE allowed me creative control. The game would definitely contain most all legends or current wrestlers in the prime of their careers. For example, I’d have the 1996 version of Shawn Michaels or the 2000 version of HHH and so on and so forth.
What about you, Scott, what type of wrestling game would you make and what would your roster consist of?

My wants are easy. I want the roster of Legends of Wrestling in a game using the AKI No Mercy engine and a robust enough Create-a-Wrestler feature that I can make anyone from Ron Garvin to Jushin Liger without too much trouble. Give me that and I’m happy forever.

And finally, Question #7!

Hey Scott- another quick one. What’s your favourite ever announce team (2 or 3 man)? Least favourite? And is there a ‘dream team’ of announcers who never worked together but you think would’ve been great?

Regardless of how much I make fun of them over the years, no one got the storylines over and made me excited to be a wrestling fan like Tony Schiavone and David Crockett in the 80s. Which is why it’s so sad that Tony became such a joke later on.

Least favorite is easy. Trust me when I say that there will never be a greater trainwreck in announcing of professional wrestling than the horrifying three-person team of Bruce Prichard, Mike McGuirk and Pete Doherty. That Houston show on 24/7 was so bad to listen to that I actually turned the sound down at times to escape from it. A close second, only because they lack the entertainment value of sheer stupidity, was Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly on RAW in 98-99, when they were experimenting with multiple announce teams for each hour of the show. However, no Duke, no win.

I think that Vince McMahon and JBL would have been hilarious together for some reason. I have no reasoning to back it up with, however.

Good night!