It’s Time To Shake Things Up! Ian Hunter here, walking on out to some generic musical theme song with a plastic podium standing on the stage, getting ready for the cluster to end all clusters… the WWE Draft. I’ve never been a fan of the brand extensions, let alone the original spilt and all the chaos that followed in the wake. But this is about the only good idea WWE thinks it has going for it at the moment, therefore, it is the most hyped thing on the air (next to the Did You Know crap). So in tribute to the upcoming talk-fest we’re going to have to deal with on Monday, this weeks’ trivia is about the first WWE draft. But first, we need to answer last week’s questions.
1: B. Davey claimed that Dynamite was in a car wreck. Ironic considering that Davey himself was in one just months prior that almost ended his career, and decided to use that as the excuse. The two were at odds until the day Davey died.
2: D. I’ve never seen anyone use this “rule” since, but boy did they milk it while they could.
3. They were facing off against The Twin Towers, comprised of Akeem and The Big Boss Man. Why oh why they never got the tag titles is beyond me.
4. D. Crossing The Line 1999! The Dudleys actually vacated the ring in awe of what had happened, leaving Mustapha to go wild on New Jack with everything from a cheese grader to a hazmat sign.
5. Kaufman was having problems with Jimmy Hart. Hart hired the Assassins to take care of Lawler, who “turned on Kaufman” and set up the betrayal.
We got a lot of people who had four out of five, but none who got all five correct. Which means your memory (or at least your search engine) betrayed you! Oh well, it’s a brand new week with a whole new set of questions. Answer the questions and email your answers to TorchTrivia@gmail.com. We'll post the names of those who got ALL FIVE correct. Good luck to you all!
1. First, a write-in question. So the idea of a draft wouldn’t have even come up if not for the battle between Ric Flair (then the “co-owner” of the company) and the real owner, Vince McMahon. In a sense, you could blame Flair for the mess we’re in to begin with. But that would just be silly. When the draft took place, it was made to look like an actual changing of times was going to take place that would shake the foundation of the WWF down to its very core. We of course would later find out that this was not to be as the changes were minor and didn’t really do much to help either brand. If anything, it sparked complaints early on that a number of wrestlers who were supposed to benefit from the change were in fact left at the bottom of the roster again. What former WWF Champion didn’t even get the recognition of being a top 10 choice in the draft?
2. Next we’ll do another write-in question. At the time of the draft, every available wrestler was drafted no matter what their status was with the WWF. The only two names excluded from the list were Triple H under the knowledge that the champions would float between brands, and Steve Austin who was in limbo at the time. But there was one name on the list that was drafted without even being an active wrestler at the time, although he was employed as talent. Who was this?
3. Another write-in for you. In the midst of the fallout from the draft, a number of tag teams were broken up. In fact, the lackluster tag division can pretty much be traced back to the idea that a number of the tag teams that set the tag division on fire during the attitude era were now being forced apart for no better reason other than to prove the draft was an all mighty force. In the end of all the online draft chaos, only one tag team managed to stay in tact. Who?
4. Next will be a True/False question. The draft backfired on the company in a number of ways both short term and long term. Lita suffered her first major neck injury a week after she was drafted to Raw, and of course Brock Lesnar (who was drafted to Raw) ended up going to Smackdown for no reason WITH the championship. In fact, all the championships were originally supposed to float between both brands until the supposed “exclusive contract” crap came up. Suddenly all the belts were locked and a new championship was made for Triple H. So… true or false, the World’s Championship was split off from the Undisputed Championship to corrected this.
5. When all was said and done, McMahon took on Flair again in a No Holds Barred match to gain sole ownership of the company again. Which in retrospect means that everything they were doing before hand meant absolutely nothing since now there was no double-owner standard. Which in turn started the whole General Manager chaos we’ve all known to love and hate. Eric Bischoff was brought in to run Raw, while Stephanie McMahon was drummed up to run Smackdown. But Stephanie wasn’t the original choice for the on-air role. Who was?
A. Shane McMahon
B. Steve Austin
C. Eric Bischoff
D. Paul Heyman
E. Jim Cornette
LATEST PRO WRESTLING TORCH NEWSLETTER #1039 (17 PAGES)
This issue begins with a cover story by Wade Keller who attended Brock Lesnar's first UFC victory on Saturday night in the semi-main event in front of a record-setting crowd in his hometown. Keller's BBL looks at Lesnar's place in MMA and in what ways he seems more comfortable than ever... Bruce Mitchell's Memo examines the dilemma of Chris Benoit and the Hall of Fame... Sean Radican reviews the two latest TNA DVD releases... In-depth coverage of the TNA Hard Justice PPV including Keller's match report with star ratings and the newsletter-exclusive Roundtable Reviews... Jason Powell's "Page 2 Buzz" with scoops and insider analysis... WWE Newswire, TNA Newswire, and ROH Newswire with insider news, big story analysis, and notebook tidbits... Plus Keller's reports on Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, the Top 5 Stories of the Week, and more....
