Ask The Tart

First topic message reminder :

By popular demand (Miky), here is a v2 verson of my 606 thread "Ask Me Ref".

As stated on the 606 version, this isn't just for people to ask me questions (I do not consider myself to be the biggest wrestling genius in the world contrary to the impression you get from some of my posts!), it's for people to ask questions and ANYONE who knows the answer to provide it.

This is not an opinion thread, per se. It is for those random wrestling musings you may have had but never got the answer to.

So if there's anything you ever wondered about wrestling, and never knew who to ask, go for it.

Edit - KRD. The first 1000 or so Ask the Tart posts can be found here https://www.606v2.com/t28548-ask-the-tart-archive-1

He did call John Cena fans retards and got in a little bit of trouble. I think he's just busy doing things these days.

It's nice to be missed!

I still watch wrestling but I have lost my passion for discussing and dissecting it, partly because I feel like I've said and written everything I have ever wanted to say on the topic. Partly because I no longer have a job where I can spend much of the day on a wrestling forum! But also partly because I think WWE has strayed so far from what I look for in a wrestling product (with the notable exception of NXT).

Around last year's Wrestlemania I gave up wasting my time worrying about the mistakes they make, and I think the Network has helped in that there is just so much great archive content I can watch and enjoy. Why care about Triple H being a douche when I can spend all day watching him lose Hog Pen matches to Henry Godwinn?

I still co-present a weekly podcast but it's only a 20 minute show so it hardly consumes much of my life.

I love the work of Kevin Owens, Brock Lesnar, Charlotte and Sasha Banks, and I am mildly obsessed with Scott Dawson, but I'm not particularly invested any more. If my favourites get pushed, great. If they don't, I won't lose sleep.

I know there are other promotions, and I've heard good things about TNA recently, but at this moment in time I feel like I have enough wrestling in my life.

When is the next V2 podcast?

Adam D wrote:When is the next V2 podcast?

Funny you should ask!

There could very well be one next week!

Whose on?

At the moment, me!

Not sure if this is really a Tart question... but, does anyone know why the WWE were so anti the Paige/ADR relationship as to split them on the brands, try and break them up and (reportedly) threaten to fire Paige if they stayed together? I don't get it.

JoshSansom wrote:Not sure if this is really a Tart question... but, does anyone know why the WWE were so anti the Paige/ADR relationship as to split them on the brands, try and break them up and (reportedly) threaten to fire Paige if they stayed together? I don't get it.

Two issues at play I think. Number one is the people involved. Del Rio is considered a headache, mostly because he has managed to play them like a fiddle to make shedloads of money out of the promotion in the last couple of years despite being firmly stuck in the midcard and publicly calling them out for racism. Management feels threatened by Del Rio because he is savvy and experienced - and wealthy - therefore they can't control him the way they can control a wrestler who is thankful just to have a job. Del Rio has an opinion of his own worth, and has expectations of how he wishes to be treated. WWE struggles with that.

Paige has had her attitude questioned. The last thing they want is a "bad influence" making her more difficult to manage. On her own, she is potentially one of those young wrestlers who is just thankful to have a job and be part of WWE.

Issue number two, as mentioned above, is control. Encouraging the relationship, in their eyes, makes it more difficult to manage the pair. By trying to drive a wedge between Del Rio and Paige, the promotion asserts that it has the power. The relationship theoretically becomes more difficult to maintain - the strain of knowing that it is affecting their career prospects, being apart on the road, the paranoia that results - and both learn who is really in charge.

Is it unbelievably petty and mean-spirited? Yep. Is WWE unbelievably petty and mean-spirited? Yep.

What's the deal and significance of the buff Bagwell vs booker T match on Raw? What happened exactly?

Mr Tom wrote:What's the deal and significance of the buff Bagwell vs booker T match on Raw? What happened exactly?

After purchasing the carcass of WCW in 2001, Vince McMahon's grand plan was that he would turn Raw into Nitro, and split his now-bloated roster into two brands; WCW and the WWF, with Smackdown as the latter's flagship show.

The Booker vs Bagwell match was supposed to be a teaser to fans of what was to come, with its own WCW announce crew and on-screen graphics. Two problems: the wrestling wasn't very good (mostly due to Buff), and Vince had spent the last six years conditioning his fans to see WCW not only as the enemy, but an inferior product.

Maybe things could have been different had the match featured better wrestlers, or been received differently (the crowd in attendance was vocally unimpressed), but the conclusion was quickly reached that WCW as a brand was damaged beyond repair.

Vince instead rushed into the invasion angle to squeeze as much juice as he could out of his purchase, and a year later the brand split became a reality, albeit in a different form.

When did Hogan start getting pally and political with Nash and Hall? As far as I can tell their paths never really crossed until WCW. Was it simply because they were in the NWO together or were they a clique (not that one) before then?

Samo wrote:When did Hogan start getting pally and political with Nash and Hall?  As far as I can tell their paths never really crossed until WCW.  Was it simply because they were in the NWO together or were they a clique (not that one) before then?

You're right, they hadn't really crossed paths much before 1996. The only time Hogan had been employed by the same company as either of them would have been when Hall was first in the WWF in 92/93, but it's very doubtful they interacted much during that period as Hogan wasn't "one of the boys" at that point, making only a handful of TV and PPV appearances. Hogan departed the WWF right around the time Nash joined.

Ironically Hall had, a few years earlier, been featured in the AWA as a Hogan knock off, complete with blonde hair and moustache. That one didn't really work out.

When the Outsiders arrived in WCW and were partnered with Hogan as the NWO, they quickly became very tight, and surprisingly so. My assumption would be that, while there was probably some mutual respect, it's more likely the alliance was based on self-preservation and paranoia. Neither faction could really trust the other, and they knew it. They also knew the other would be a potentially powerful enemy. It's probably true to say that, at least in the beginning, neither Hogan nor the Outsiders knew who would win a political battle between them; both were influential in WCW's success, close to Eric Bischoff and canny backstage operaters.

In time, it quietly became apparent that Hogan probably had the slight edge, and the Outsiders took a back seat. If anything, it could actually be that the realisation generally helped their relationship; Nash and Hall had been such master manipulators in the WWF, they had to respect Hogan's aptitude in that same regard.

There was a period in 1998 when relations got really bad (leading to Bischoff firing Syxx from WCW), but by the end of the year they seemed to patch things up, and I've never heard them say a bad word about each other since.

WCW was such a shark tank that it was definitely better to be friends with the powerful wrestlers, even if you had power yourself. Hogan being the most powerful of all meant that even political animals like Nash and Hall, who would seem on the surface to be natural enemies of Hogan, were more content to be in his shadow than opposing him.

ADMIN wrote:2. Austin.
He’s widely regarded as one of if not the greatest ‘star’ to grace the industry. Whilst Hogan & HHH are often derided by the IWC for using their influence and power backstage, Austin seems above derision. Firstly what abuse of politics has Austin been guilty of, and why does he not fall into the Hogan/HHH category in the eyes of the IWC?  

Didnt Austin refuse to work with Hogan for WM18 so was put with Hall? Bulked at the idea of putting Hall over, so WWE had Austin win......then walked out on the WWF/E when he couldnt use the 'stone cold' name to licence something outside of the WWF/E

EIWF wrote:

ADMIN wrote:2. Austin.
He’s widely regarded as one of if not the greatest ‘star’ to grace the industry. Whilst Hogan & HHH are often derided by the IWC for using their influence and power backstage, Austin seems above derision. Firstly what abuse of politics has Austin been guilty of, and why does he not fall into the Hogan/HHH category in the eyes of the IWC?  

Didnt Austin refuse to work with Hogan for WM18 so was put with Hall? Bulked at the idea of putting Hall over, so WWE had Austin win......then walked out on the WWF/E when he couldnt use the 'stone cold' name to licence something outside of the WWF/E

I think there’s a view that Austin was more protective of his character than politicking to keep himself on top, he had a relatively short run on top, where he was making more money for the WWF than it ever had before, as opposed to the likes of Hogan & HHH who’s shenanigans lasted for decades and were to the detriment of making stars that could help carry the company ie Hogan with Bret after Mania 9

Is the ring apron really "the hardest part of the ring"?