By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

Original question: At the ECW Arena on December 9, 1995, Steve Austin and The Sandman were involved in a "triangle" match for the ECW Title, where Sandman won the match and the title. Who was the third man in the ring for the match?

(a) Mick Foley (Cactus Jack)
(b) Mikey Whipwreck
(c) Raven
(d) Tommy Dreamer

The answer is (b) Mikey Whipwreck, who was ECW champion coming into the match. As for the other choices, Raven (accompanied by Stevie Richards and Beulah) defeated Tommy Dreamer. Cactus Jack was not on the ECW Arena show, but he was on ECW TV a few days earlier in a brawl involving Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, and Stevie Richards.

From Torch Newsletter #365 dated Dec. 16, 1995, the match went down as such after Whipwreck was the first man eliminated: "After a ref bump, Austin pulled out a pair of brass knuckles and nailed Sandman with them. The referee then made a two count, but Sandman's foot was underneath the ropes, so he stopped the count. The referee went down when Sandman elbowed him. Sandman then picked up the brass knuckles and nailed Austin with them. Sandman then covered Austin and scored the three count. Everyone worked hard to make it a very good bout."

You might be wondering how in the world little ol' Mikey Whipwreck - the man who made it possible for Colin Delaney in WWE - ended up with the ECW Title.

Torch reader Sam Benedict explains. I believe the last "Extreme dancer" in that three-way-dance was Mikey Whipwreck, who Paul Heyman was effectively pushing as the "Underdog to Root For" in a dynamic against the drunken, chain-smoking badass The Sandman (very much in his element in ECW), and the pre-JBL "wrestling god" Steve Austin, who was fresh from his WCW discontent. Austin, in turn, was also obviously pre-Stone Cold, a persona that would owe a fair amount to Jim Fullington's Sandman character.

As for what happened in the fall-out, Torch reader Dusty Robinson has the answer. The Sandman lost the belt a month later to Raven, Whipwreck wouldn't win the ECW title again, and Austin would go to WWF later that month and become The Ringmaster. We all know what happened after that.

Checking on the responses, our winners for the Dec. 12 Torch Trivia question were Sam Benedict, Robert Rich (five in a row to take the lead!), groovy6626, and the East Coast Audio's Travis Bryant via email. On the free site reader comments, our winners are Russell Jaffe, Morbo the Great, Eric Gall, Joe Daoud, Jae Wiggz, David (three in a row!), Dusty Robinson (three in a row!), Curtis Setter (two in a row!), and Woosh.

Torch VIP members could have looked up the answer in the Torch VIP Appendix by searching the 1996 Torch back-issue section. Over 1,000 TV reports, Newswires, and columns are available for VIP subscribers.

Be sure to check back tomorrow morning for another installment of Torch Trivia.

RELATED STORY at PWTorch.com: Answer to Dec. 12 Torch Trivia with The Rock & Trish Stratus.

[The Sandman photo by Joe Borzotta (c) PWTorch]

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