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By Ian Hunter, PWTorch Trivia Specialist

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Ian Hunter here, walking on out with my Cobra and Pepsi logo tattooed body with the double-X on my fists and a brand new hunk of gold around my waist. I’ll admit it, after the draft I really saw no hope for the WWE because I was truly expecting it to be a flash-in-the-pan moment to garner ratings and whatever momentum they may have built from it would have crashed and burned. But hey, I’ve been wrong before. This past week was interesting. I’m actually curious about what may happen on Smackdown… but still not ECW. Though I was worried about the paper-champion comment from JBL, images in my head of JBL being champ and drawing a line down through the X’s on Punk’s hand in the form of an asterisk. So in tribute to the idea of Punk almost being a short-lived champion, this week's trivia will be about short title reigns. But first, we need to answer last week’s questions.


1: D. Sandman stayed at home over two months to milk the storyline. Even going so far as to talk to his friends and family with sunglasses on.

2: B. Tony Atlas outright refused to come stating that the story was too hot and didn’t want to be a part of it.

3: Sting lost the title to Rick Rude. Probably also one of the last great moments Paul Heyman had in WCW being the overactive manager on the outside providing distraction and even hitting Sting in the head with the old bulk-phone he used to have.

4: False. Bob really broke his arm in a match with Snuka. Later he would recant that his arm never fully healed until he left the company because “every time he would use it, he would bruise a healing bone, or break it again.”

5: B. Ironically enough, Hebner wasn’t in on the plan. When the event was over and it was revealed that Michaels was fine, Hebner threatened to quit on the spot for having been put through the situation. Indirectly because of the ensuing chaos, this is where WWF started to develop the “alert and response” system used by referees today in the event of real injuries.

Many people got four out of five, but no winners this week. But then again, what was I really going to give you as a prize for winning this week? A golden crutch? Eh, let’s move on. 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. Yokozuna. For most of the 90’s he held the record for the shortest title win and defense in WWF history. Winning the belt from Bret Hart at WrestleMania IX, only to lose it to Hulk Hogan a few minutes later. As story goes, Hogan wanted the championship again, but the company was backing Bret Hart as champion. Eventually McMahon caved to pressure and stuck the belt back on Hogan, but of course you can’t have two faces go against each other in those days (nor would Hogan “lower” himself to face Hart), so Yoko became the go-to champion for the switch. Of course, Yoko was given the belt back at King Of The Ring that year as Hogan was headed out the door again. Officially, how many days did Yoko hold the championship in his combined two reigns?

A. 250
B. 265
C. 270
D. 280
E. 285

2. Steve Austin officially holds the shortest reign of the NWA/WCW/WWE United States Championship in history. Ricky Steamboat suffered a back injury in a match with Austin earlier in the year and was faced with a hard decision of what to do with his career. Steamboat couldn’t finish the feud with Austin, so he was left with the only option of giving up the belt by forfeit at Fall Brawl. (Steamboat was later fired via FedEx by Eric Bischoff due to not being able to perform.) Austin celebrated, but not for long as then commissioner Nick Bockwinkle informed Austin he would have to defend the belt that night against the newly arrived Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who promptly came out and won it in the quick bad action sequence of a backdrop and a pin. Clocking in from the moment Austin takes the belt from Steamboat to the moment he gets pinned by Duggan, how long did Austin officially hold the belt for?

A. 2:10
B. 3:30
C. 3:44
D. 4:01
E. 4:11

Starcade 87’ officially brought an end to the UWF and everything Bill Watts tried to do to compete with McMahon at the time, as the company folded back into the NWA. Strangely enough, only one championship changed hands and was retired… the Television Championship. Holding the official shortest reign record of two minutes, the NWA allowed Nikita Koloff to celebrate in the ring with the belt, but the minute it got to the back it was officially non-existent. Koloff won the belt off Terry Taylor, who actually held a unique distinction with that championship. What was it?

A. He held the shortest reign of it in the UWF
B. He held the longest reign of it in the UWF
C. He held it more times than anyone in the UWF
D. He won it the most times and held it the shortest in the UWF
E. He won it the most times and held it the longest in the UWF

4. Verne Gagne holds a fond distinction of being the longest reigning AWA Heavyweight Champion with 2,625 days, as well as the shortest reign of only one week. But that was to be expected because until Nick Bockwinkle came around and replaced Gagne to be the AWA’s mainstay champion, Verne was the on-again/off-again champion of the company. At the time of his short reign, Verne was just getting out of a massive battle in which he walked out with two championships. The Heavyweight title, and the Omaha version of the same belt (which is a whole different trivia question in itself). He would end up losing both championships in the same match the following week to another wrestling legend, and future wrestling promoter. Who was this?

A. Ed “The Shiek” Farhat
B. Dory Funk Sr.
C. Fritz Von Erich
D. Stu Hart
E. Johnny Rougeau

5. The last one will be a write-in. Ever hear of a negative championship reign? The Freebirds have. In fact, they’re the only tag team in the history of professional wrestling to hold a negative title reign, and it was all due to tape-delay and bad circumstance. And wouldn’t you know it, it happened in WCW. In early 1991 Hayes & Garvin suddenly appeared on television with the tag team championship belts for no reason, despite the fact that they were set to face Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed) at Wrestlewar in a week for those very belts. Which they did and won. So what happened? WCW taped all their shows at least two weeks in advance to cut down on production and time constraints, and the week before the PPV a TBS control room operator aired the wrong episode. The Freebirds negative reign is marked at -6 days since they would loose the belts the following Saturday (or that Saturday, whichever way you’ll have it). Who did they loose the belts to?

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