How was the WWF
formed?
As NWA champion, Buddy
Rogers' bookings were
controlled by Toots Mondt, promoter in the Northeast. The other NWA promoters
were dissatisfied because Mondt rarely let Rogers defend the belt outside
the Northeast. Mondt and Vince McMahon Sr. wanted to keep Rogers and the
NWA title, but Rogers didn't want to lose his $25,000
deposit on the belt.
So Rogers lost the NWA title to Lou Thesz in Toronto on January 24, 1963.
Rogers was not recognized as the first WWWF champion right after losing to
Thesz. Instead, Rogers was awarded the WWWF title in mid April 1963, with
the explanation that he has won a (fictitious) tournament in Rio de
Janeiro.
He lost the title to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17, 1963. Rogers
would have likely had a longer reign as champion, but, he suffered a heart
attack shortly before the match with Bruno. This explains both the brevity
of the match (47 seconds) with Bruno and the subsequent disappearance of
Rogers from the ring. Some reports have Rogers almost had to be wheeled into
the ring, due to his weakened condition. Rogers retired after this match,
although he did return to the ring in 1967.
When did the WWWF become the
WWF?
The name change took place in mid 1979. The
change was purely a cosmetic one. Ownership and front
office personnel remained
unaffected. About this same time, the WWF phased out their North American
title and replaced it with what is today known as the
Intercontinental
title.
Who
currently owns and runs
the WWF?
Linda McMahon (Vince's
wife) is President
of Titan Sports (the WWF's parent company) while Vince
McMahon Jr. remains
CEO and Chairman of the Board of Titan Sports.
Vince Jr. was given control of the WWF by his father,
Vince Sr. Although
Vince McMahon Sr. died in May 1984, he had turned over
control of the business
to his son sometime around late 1982 or early 1983.
The most widely believed story is that McMahon Sr. divested his Capitol Wrestling
Corporation (under which he promoted the W[W]WF) in late 1982/early 1983.
McMahon Sr. then incorporated. Titan Sports as the WWF's new parent company
and gave half of Titan's stock to his son. Vince Sr. also gave 1/6 stock
each to Arnold Skaaland, Phil Zacko (who was the promoter in Philadelphia
and surrounding regions) and Robert Marella (aka Gorilla Monsoon). Upon receiving
their shares of Titan stock, Skaaland, Zacko, and Marella promptly sold them
to McMahon Jr. for $100,000 each, primarily out of their uncertainty of Vince
Jr's business skills. In return, Vince Jr. gave Skaaland and Marella guaranteed
10-year jobs with Titan. In May 1994, it was confirmed
that Vince McMahon
owned 100% of Titan.
When did the NWA become
WCW?
In November, 1988, Jim
Crockett sold Jim Crockett
Promotions to WTBS. Crockett promotions had been the
promotion most widely
associated with the NWA. In order to distance itself from the NWA, which
still existed as a paper organization at the time, WTBS began to change the
name of its titles and television programs from NWA to
WCW. The change took
place in late 1990.
By January, 1991, the WCW name was fully in place and the NWA name was all
but dropped by the organization.
Who owns and runs
WCW?
WCW is owned by WTBS and Ted Turner. The position
in WTBS most widely considered as being in control of the wrestling promotion
is the President in charge of Wrestling Operations. This title is currently
held by Eric Bischoff. With Nick Lambrose second in charge.
In recent years Jim Herd, K. Allen Frey and Bill Watts
have been in that
position.
When Ric Flair left WCW in
1991, why did he take the title belt with
him?
Flair owned the NWA
Heavyweight title belt
that had been in use since 1986. When Flair's contract
with WCW ran out on
July 1, 1991, they were unable to come to terms on a new contract. Jim Herd
wanted to cut Flair's salary and reduce his role in the company. When Flair
arrived in the WWF in September, 1991, he billed himself as the "Real World's
Champion" and used his NWA belt to back it up. The
ownership of the belt
and the right to be called the "NWA Heavyweight Champion" was taken to court.
Flair and WCW eventually settled the matter out of court in spring 1992.
The exact terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but WCW bought the
belt for a rumored US $28,000.
What was the NWA and how did
it get started?
The NWA was and is the
National Wrestling
Alliance. In 1948, a group of mid-western promoters joined forces as the
NWA with the idea of working together instead of working in competition.
Orville Brown was named the first NWA champion on July 14,
1948. It should
be noted that any attempts to trace the NWA World
Heavyweight title back
further than this are necessarily fictitious. The
organization simply did
not exist. Any attempt to trace a contiguous world
heavyweight title back
further than this is simply a combination of various world champions as
recognized by a number of different promoters and
commissions. The myth of
a NWA title history dating back to 1905 was perpetuated in early NWA programs,
which listed just such a title history, in an attempt to build credibility
for the title. It should also be noted that this history also omits Orville
Brown. The NWA's immediate predecessor as the most widely recognized world
title was the National Wrestling Association championship which was held
by Lou Thesz at the time of the formation of the NWA. A title unification
match was scheduled for November 25, 1949 between
Thesz and Brown and it is believed that Brown was
scheduled to win that match.
However, Brown suffered a career ending injury in a car accident prior to
the match. On November 27, 1949, Thesz was awarded the NWA title.
What is the NWA
today?
Today, the NWA still
exists, but in a very
different form. The only relation it bears to the NWA of 1948 to 1985 is
on paper. The NWA Board currently consists of Jim
Crockett, Dennis Coraluzzo
and Steve Rickard, although it has been rumored that
Crockett has been served
papers expelling him from the organization. Crockett is not currently promoting
wrestling. Coraluzzo runs a promotion in New Jersey.
Rickard promotes in
New Zealand. Also, Howard Brody runs an NWA affiliated
group in Florida.
Jerry Jarrett who promoted for USWA & MCW, now works with NWA promotes
for them in the south.
On February 24, 1995, Chris Candido lost the NWA title in Erlanger, KY to
Dan Severn. After the split with WCW and two tournaments which intended to
crown champions, this was the first time the NWA title
changed hands in the
ring in nearly two years.
What
happened to the
NWA?
The transformation of the NWA into its current
state took place simply because the promoters stopped
cooperating. Problems
in the NWA can be traced back into the 1970's but the
major changes came
in 1985. In an attempt to turn into a national promotion, Jim Crockett obtained
the WTBS wrestling time slot from the WWF in March, 1985. With this exposure,
combined with controlling power over the NWA title,
Crockett was able to
strong arm the other member promotions into complying with his requests.
Many of the other promotions ended up going out of
business or being bought
up by Crockett. Eventually, however, Crockett too ran into problems and sold
his promotion to Ted Turner. The Turner controlled WCW
continued, but with
the exception of using the NWA name in a co promotional effort with New Japan
Pro-Wrestling, the NWA essentially no longer existed
except as a paper
organization.
In 1992 and 1993, a number of promoters applied for
membership in the NWA
and some were accepted. Among these promoters was Dennis Coraluzzo, who became
an NWA board member and began demanding dates with the NWA champion. In the
ensuing legal struggle, WCW resigned its membership, but kept the "NWA" title
belt, which it had legal ownership of. Meanwhile,
Coraluzzo and the remaining
NWA promoters were left without any powerful members and without a
champion.
What is
United States Wrestling
Association (USWA)?
The Memphis area has been a hot area for wrestling
for decades. It has operated out of the Mid-South Coliseum since the 1950s,
originally under the operations of Nick Gulas and Roy
Welch. It became the
USWA in August, 1989 when promoter Jerry Jarrett began
copromoting the
Dallas/Fort Worth area. The area has thrived since the
mid-70s on the performance
of one man, Jerry Lawler. Regular stars include Lawler, his son Brian
Christopher, Bill Dundee and announcer Lance Russell.
Fred Deaton posts regular USWA TV show reports. Here is his description of
the promotion: "A very unique local promotion with local 'stars' and local
'story lines'. Usually involves a Mega Heel-good guy combo persona garnering
the attention, half cheers half boos; a time honored feud that never resolves;
gimmick matches; a place for new rising or older stars to change their routine;
and a 'local' rising young star moving up" (i.e. Sean now Shawn Michaels).
However the USWA ran into legal and money problems leaving them now defunct.
Promoter Jerry Jarrett however broke off and began MCW
(Music City Wrestling),
and took nearly the entire USWA roster.
What is
Extreme Championship
Wrestling (ECW)?
ECW began operating in 1992 as Eastern
Championship Wrestling. In August, 1994, the name was
changed from Eastern
to Extreme. It operates in Philadelphia, with spot shows in the surrounding
Pennsylvania area. The wrestling operations are currently handled by Paul
Heyman (manager Paul E Dangerously). Paul basically owns and operates ECW
with the help of Tod Gordon (who also finances the
promotion), however Gordon
is no longer associated with the company. It is
currently available
on the Sports Channel America syndication package and on AIN satellite. Current
top stars are The Sandman, Shane Douglas, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer
and more. ECW does not rely on the traditional face/heel structure. Instead,
uses high-impact, fast paced action to get its wrestlers over, with some
violence of course. Jimmy Snuka was the first ECW
champion, however Shane
Douglas is regarded as the first true ECW champ when it was re-named Extreme
Championship Wrestling.
What is
AJPW?
All-Japan Pro Wrestling is Shohei Baba's group
in Japan. Baba, a former pro baseball pitcher, joined the JWA in 1960. In
October, 1972, he left the JWA and formed his own group, AJPW. His group
continues to promote today, with a television show on
Nippon TV. The main
titles are the Triple Crown (unified United National,
International and PWF
Heavyweight titles), the World Tag Team title (unified
International and
PWF tag team titles), the World Junior Heavyweight title and the Asian Tag
Team title.
What is
NJPW? Is it different
from IWGP?
Kanji Inoki, a japanese
emigrant to Brazil,
was scouted by Rikidozan in 1960, and brought to Japan to join the JWA. He
later changed his name to Antonio Inoki. In 1966, Inoki made his first attempt
at breaking away from the JWA and forming his own group, Tokyo Pro-Wrestling.
In 1967, Inoki suddenly rejoined the JWA and Tokyo Pro
folded. In 1971, Inoki
was expelled from the JWA when it as discovered that he was planning a coup
to take over the promotion. Inoki subsequently formed his second group, New
Japan Pro Wrestling and ran his first card in March, 1972. The group has
now grown to be the largest and most popular wrestling
group in Japan. It
currently has a show on TV Asahi.
In 1983, New Japan created the International Wrestling
Grand Prix titles,
which are now the main titles of the group: the IWGP
Heavyweight title, the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight title and the IWGP Tag Team
titles.
What is
Lucha
Libre?
Lucha Libre is a phrase
that describes the
professional wrestling most commonly found in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Lucha
Libre is usually used to describe Mexican wrestling, which incorporates high
flying, acrobatic wrestling with a sense of live theater. Lucha Libre in
Mexico is often characterized by tests of Machismo. The Mexican wrestlers
will often apply what appear to be lame slaps to their
opponent's chest and
face not in an effort to "hurt" their opponent, but more so as an insult
to his manhood.
The phrase "Lucha Libre" is an idiom that best translates to English as "the
free fight". Derived from Lucha Libre is the word
"Luchadores", which refers
to the men that wrestle the Lucha Libre
style.
What's with all the masks
in Mexico?
The masks worn by the
Luchadores are inspired
by ancient Aztec traditions of masked warriors. The mask is considered the
most precious thing a Luchador has. When a wrestler loses his mask, he has
suffered the ultimate dishonor, the ultimate humiliation. Very few wrestlers
will make it through their entire career without losing their mask. Only
the true legends get to retire with their anonymity
intact.
El Santo (The Saint) is perhaps the most famous case of a Luchador retiring
without ever being unmasked. When he died in 1984, El
Santo was buried with
his mask on.
What's with all the midgets
in Lucha Libre?
Midgets are very popular in Lucha Libre. Exactly
why is unknown, but they usually work harder and have more high spots than
their American counterparts.
Also, it's very common to see midgets adopt the gimmicks, wrestling style,
face/heel status, and costume as their larger
counterparts. Further, midgets
also adopt the name of their larger counterpart and
transform it to the
diminutive; for example the "big guy" is Mascara Sagrada and his midget
counterpart is Mascarita Sagrada Jr.
What
happened to Cactus Jack's
(aka Mankind & Dude Love) right
ear?
It was accidentally ripped off on March 16,
1994 in a wrestling match in Munich, Germany against
Vader. During the match,
Cactus got his head caught between the top and middle
ropes. The tension
in the tightened ring ropes was enough to tear his right ear completely off
and badly tear his left ear. Part of the right ear was
iced and saved. The
left required 12 stitches.
Cactus continued the match for another two minutes before going to the planned
finish. Cactus was in good spirits afterwards with little damage to his hearing
and some trouble with his balance. Cactus returned to the ring April 17,
1994. He is now in the WWF as Mankind. He came back
September 22, 1997 in
Madison Square Garden and put hardcore in the WWF. He
currently does 3
characters, Mankind, Dude Love & Cactus
Jack.
Who
were/are the Four
Horsemen?
Over the years 14 different wrestlers have
been part of the Horsemen. They are/were: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson,
Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Butch Reed,
Kendell Windham, Sting,
Sid Vicious, Paul Roma, Brian Pillman, Chris Benoit , Jeff Jarrett, and Steve
McMichael. JJ Dillon, Ole
Anderson, Woman, Debra McMichaels & Hiro Matsuda have all served as
managers.
The Horsemen name was first used in January, 1986, with the original group
being Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Ole Anderson and Arn
Anderson.
Are Randy Savage and Miss
Elizabeth really married?
Not any more. They were
divorced in 1992.
"Macho Man" Randy Savage (real name Randy Poffo) and Miss Elizabeth (real
name Elizabeth Hewlett) were officially married December 30, 1984 in Frankfort,
KY. Their "Match Made in Heaven" was just a gimmick Vince McMahon used as
a draw for SummerSlam '91.
Who is
Charles
Austin??
In December 1990, Austin and The Genius (Lanny
Poffo) jobbed for The Rockers (Jannetty & Michaels) at a WWF television
taping at the Sun Dome in Tampa FL. Before the finish,
Jannetty executed
the Rocker Dropper on Austin. Instead of taking the
planned face-first bump,
Austin attempted a forward roll and wound up landing on his head, breaking
his neck. The match then finished when Jannetty rolled a limp Austin over
and Michaels came off the top rope with a splash for the pin. At the time
of the accident, doctors feared that Austin would be a
quadriplegic (paralyzed
from the neck down) for life. By mid 1994 Austin had
regained some feeling
in his arms and legs and can get around with crutches.
Austin sued the WWF,
Jannetty, and Michaels for US $3.8 million. Michaels was dismissed from the
suit by a judge.
On April 29, 1994, after a two-week trial and
deliberation, a Hillsborough
County FL jury awarded Austin US $26.7 million. The jury determined that
Titan Sports was 90% responsible (US $23.5 million), that Jannetty was 5%
responsible (US $1.3 million), and that Austin was 5%
responsible.
Did Vince McMahon get
indicted?
Yes. On Friday, November 19, 1993, the Brooklyn,
NY office of the U.S. Department of Justice handed down an indictment against
Vince McMahon and Titan Sports Inc. The indictment
contained charges of
conspiracy, possession and possession with intent to
distribute. No wrestlers
were indicted.
On July 22, 1994, after deliberating for 16 hours, the
jury found McMahon
and Titan Sports not guilty of the charges.
Were there charges of sexual
harassment filed against the WWF in
1992?
No. In 1992, former
ring-boy Tom Cole, former
referee Rita Chatterson and former TV announcer Murray
Hodgekins came forth
with allegations of sexual abuse by WWF employees.
Specifically named employees
included booker Pat Patterson, ring attendant Mel
Phillips, booker Terry
Garvin and Vince McMahon himself. Patterson, Phillips and
Garvin were dismissed
by the WWF as a result of the allegations. Patterson
subsequently returned
to his position.
Who owns the rights to
"Hulkamania", "Hulk Hogan" and
"Hulkster"?
Marvel Comics. Marvel came out with their
Incredible Hulk comic book character long before Vince
McMahon dreamed up
Hulk Hogan. When the Hulk Hogan character was created,
McMahon gave Hogan
the title "The Incredible Hulk Hogan". Marvel objected to the use of their
intellectual property. Specifically, Marvel objected to the use of all words
derived from their "Incredible Hulk" comic book
character.
Titan Sports and Marvel Comics worked out a deal: Titan recognized Marvel
as the owner of the Hulk-derived words and Marvel gave
Titan an exclusive
license to merchandise the Hulk-derived words. When Hogan joined WCW in 1994,
WCW obtained a license to produce Hulk Hogan merchandise. Presumably the
details were similar to the license the WWF
had.
How come so many wrestlers
change names so quickly?
Wrestlers change name,
appearance and style
quite frequently, and often it is a challenge just to keep up with who is
currently wrestling under what name.
While many times, name changes stem from attempts to get a better reaction
from the audience, there are times when a name change has it's roots in a
legal matter.
How many times has Ric Flair
won the World Title?
In July 1994, Ric Flair
said many times that
he was an 11 time world champion. This number was come to by recognizing
his 8 undisputed NWA title reigns, 2 WWF title reigns and 1 WCW title reign.
Flair has since held the WCW title twice more, bringing the undisputed total
to 13. However in addition to this, there have been a
number of disputed
or not widely recognized reigns, which are listed below.On March 21, 1984,
Flair was defeated by Harley Race in New Zealand for the NWA title. He regained
it on March 23, 1984 in Singapore. This switch was never recognized in the
US. On March 21, 1991, Tatsumi Fujinami defeated Flair in Tokyo, Japan. The
Japanese referee for the match counted a pinfall, while the WCW referee for
the match DQed Flair for tossing Fujinami over the top
rope. Flair defeated
Fujinami May 19, 1991 in St. Petersburg, FL to end the
dispute. On April
17, 1994, Ric Flair and Rick Steamboat went to a double pin finish. On April
21, 1994, (aired on TV May 21, 1994) Flair defeated
Steamboat to end the
dispute. It was never officially announced that the belt was held up, although
Flair gave the belt to WCW commissioner Nick Bockwinkel and said he wanted
it held up. There are also stories that Flair did title switches with Jack
Venano in the Dominican Republic and Victor Jovica in the Caribbean, similar
to the New Zealand/Singapore title switch with Harley
Race.
What is a wrestling ring made
of?
Wrestling rings vary more in composition than
they do in size. The ring posts are usually hollow steel, about 8 feet? tall,
and about 6 inches to a foot wide at the base. Several
layers of carpet or
plywood are usually placed under the ring posts to protect the floor of the
venue. The ring ropes are usually steel cables or rope
covered with a rubbery
plastic coating, or colored duct tape, or painted rope, or a painted garden
hose.The ring floor is usually a layered affair: a layer of canvas over layers
of padding over plywood, all on some sort of structural support.Two types
of structural support have been reported. One type is a very large and very
heavy center piece, usually made out of steel and semi
solid, which usually
(but not always) contains a spring of some sort in the
center. The other
type is similar to a deck with 20ft long 2x10s or 2x12s resting on joists.All
in all, a wrestling ring is very similar to a boxing ring except that in
a wrestling ring the ropes are much tighter and that the floor is generally
more heavily supported.
What is Kay
Fabe?
The term Kay Fabe comes
from ancient carnival
talk, appropriate as professional wrestling has it's
origins in the carnivals.
Kay Fabe practices were old tricks, from three card monte to cure all elixirs
and, of course, magic acts.
A kay fabe violator exposed the secrets behind these
practices. In wrestling,
the term has come to mean not exposing that the business is worked. In the
80s, Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, wrote a book entitled Kay Fabe,
exposing many secrets of the business.
What are some examples of
shoots?
Listed are some well-known shoots in
pro-wrestling:
4/15/25 - Stanislaus Zybysko defeated World Champion Wayne Munn.
3/2/36 - Dick Shikat defeated World Champion Danno O'
Mahoney
4/27/85 - Road Warriors vs. Larry Hennig & Jerry
Blackwell. Hennig and
Blackwell rough up the young Road Warriors, who, until
that time, refused
to sell moves for their opponents.
9/2/85 - Akira Maeda and Super Tiger (Satoru Sayama)
wrestled to a Double
DQ in 18:57. The ref stopped the match because he felt
both Sayama and Maeda
were getting out of hand.
4/29/86- Andre the Giant vs Akira Maeda (New Japan) Andre refuses to cooperate
with Maeda and Maeda takes him down with several vicious kicks to the legs.
1/15/87 - Bruiser Brody vs. Lex Luger (Florida) Brody
stops cooperating with
Luger, who gets himself DQed.
11/1/87 - Riki Chosyu, Masa Saito & Hiro Saito def. Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko
Takada & Osamu Kido. (New Japan) Maeda delivers a hard kick to Chosyu's
face, which breaks 3 bones in his cheek.
4/1/91 - John Tenta vs. Koji Kitao (SWS/WWF) Tenta and
Kitao, two former
sumo wrestlers, stop cooperating but never come to
blows.
How do I contact my favorite
wrestlers or promotion?
Since most wrestlers would prefer not having
their home addresses published, you can attempt to contact them through the
promotion they currently work for. Listed below are
addresses for some
promotions.
WCW
1 CNN Center 1241
Atlanta GA 30348
Phone: (404) 885-7174
WWF
E. Main St. Stamford CT 06902
Phone: 203 352-8600
Press Info: 203 353-2891
FAX: 203-352-8699
ECW
101 S. 10th Street
Philadelphia PA 19107
ticket info: 610-544-0421
offices: 215-928-9772
Who are the bookers for the
WWF and WCW?
The WWF's head bookers
Vince McMahon and Jim
Ross. Other bookers include Bruce Prichard (Brother Love), Jim Cornette and
others. All booking ideas must be ok'd by McMahon before they can be used.
WCW committee includes Kevin Sullivan, Terry Taylor (who does most of the
booking) along with JJ Dillon helping out. Kevin Nash also lends his ideas
and dislikes out. But all ideas must be ok'd by Eric
Bischoff before they
are used.
Are matches scripted, or do
the wrestlers make it up as they go
along?
Often times the beginning, and always the
end of matches are planned ahead of time by the bookers, and sometime the
wrestler plan a certain series of moves they will do
during the coarse of
a match, but otherwise they just wing it. They are told before the match
who is going to win, how they will win , and how long the match will last
and after that it is up to the wrestlers to decide the
pace of the match,
and what moves they will do.
What is the Kliq?
The Kliq is a group of five wrestlers [Kevin
Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman (Syxx), Jean Paul-Levesque (Hunter Hearst
Helmsley), and Michael Hickenbottem (Shawn Michales)] that became close friends
when they worked for the WWF.
Many of the other wrestlers didn't like the Kliq because the Kliq was
made up of the WWF's main wrestlers, that the Kliq had too much power over
Vince McMahon. The Kliq were notorious backstage for
usually veto'ing
WWF angles (esecially ones that had Kliq members
losing). The
Kliq's hand sign is and extended index and pinky finger. That same symbol
is now used by the nWo. From time to time, Shawn Michaels and the Wolfpack
flash the sign to each other on Monday Night
Shows.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, then send me some e-mail. Click on the banner, to go back to the main page. Disclaimer: I am in NO way affiliated with WWF, WCW, ECW, or any other related federation, organization, or federations. ©1999 PinkOzzy Productions. All Rights Reserved. 