July 8, 2005 All of my friends and family know that there are two time frames every week that they are not supposed to call me.  I'm always busy on Monday between 8:00 and 10:15 and on Thursday between 7 and 9.  These are the time slots that WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment, holds for it’s RAW and Smackdown shows (I don’t watch much Heat or Velocity since they are mostly recap shows and don’t really play into the storylines). I have been a fan of WWE, formerly WWF, for as long as I can remember.   I've rented and borrowed old tapes to catch up on most of the stuff that I missed out on.  WWE has always been my favorite, but I also watched WCW and ECW and even tried the new TNA product as well.  In this column, I’d like to go over some of my favorite, least favorite, and most memorable characters from these promotions in my memory. Stone Cold Steve Austin -  Stone Cold is by far my Dibiasi.  When Dibiasi left WWE, Austin, known then as the Ring Master, was left somewhat gimmickless and was just another bald guy wrestling in black tights.  So he started just being himself in the ring and fans ate it up.  He was a bad guy getting cheered.  At Wrestlemania 13, Austin faced Bret Hart in a submission match.  Austin lost, but didn’t tap out.  This gave him huge credit and made him legit in the eyes of the fans.  He really caught on when he won the King of the Ring by beating Jake the Snake Roberts and said, “Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!”  The Austin Era was born and nothing, not even a broken neck, could slow him down.  Austin is a legit bad ass and fans refuse to boo him no matter what he does.   Hulk Hogan -  Everyone knows Hulk Hogan.  I was a huge fan in the 80’s, just as every kid was.  When he won the belt numerous times, I was doing the flexing and hand-to-ear posing with him to “Real American”.  I thought his Ultimate Warrior -  This guy was awesome in McMahon, Chairman of WWE, when he deems necessary.  Nevertheless, this man was an awesome wrestler and a memorable character.  Nobody could pull off pink face paint and boot tassels like the Warrior. Bret Hart -  In all honesty, I was never a huge fan of Bret as a singles wrestler.  I liked him in the Hart Foundation with Jim the Anvil Neidhart.  But as a singles wrestler, his matches moved a bit slow for me.  I like technical wrestling, but his persona always rubbed me the wrong way.  Bret is most famous for being part of the Survivor Series Screwjob (see sidebar).  He was WWE champion at the time, but it was known that his contract was up and he was moving on to WCW after the pay-per-view.  He was set to face Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid, at Survivor Series for the belt in his home Canadian crowd.  He was supposed to retain the title, but Vince McMahon had the referee call for the bell early and awarded the belt to HBK.  Bret proceeded to spit on Vince and punch him before going on to WCW.  To this day, HBK, Vince, and the referee of that match, Earl Hebner, can’t go to Canada without hearing the chants of “You screwed Bret!”  Bret suffered a stroke about 2 years ago and hasn’t wrestled since.  I truly hope that he returns to health, patches things up with WWE, and makes some sort of return so he can enter the Hall of Fame.   I say this not because he was one of my favorites, but because his fans know that he deserves it. Kane -  Kane is Undertaker’s half brother.  He’s had to lose the mask because he lost a match and….gasp…he’s not burned.  They played out the angle to say that he was emotionally burned and blah blah blah.  It failed completely and now he’s just a huge, bald, scary guy who goes around terrorizing people.  Oh, and he’s a good guy right now. match over and over.  But his microphone skills are still some of the best in the business.   Kurt Angle -  If there was ever a heel that you love to watch, it’s Kurt Angle.   Kurt is the only Olympic gold medalist to ever grace the WWE.  He came back from a broken neck to win in Atlanta in wrestling.  Somehow, he got booed in his first WWE match and Vince played to that.  Kurt learned the business faster than anyone imagined.  He’s awesome on the microphone and he can make ANYONE look good in the ring.   Triple H -  I was a big fan of HHH about 5 years ago.  Unfortunately, he’s been crammed down our throats so much, it’s hard to get interested in him.   Also, there’s a bit of a conflict of interest with him as he’s married to Vince’s Legion of Doom - Hawk and Animal, also known as the Road Warriors, are the most dominant tag team in history.  They came to the ring donning face paint and spiked shoulder pads.  I remember being amazed by their power and thought that nobody could ever beat them without cheating.  Their finishing maneuver was an impressive move called the Doomsday Device.   Animal would sit his opponent on his shoulders and Hawk would deliver a clothesline from the top rope.  There isn’t a tag team today that could hold a candle to these guys.  (Pictured at top left) Mick Foley - Foley was underrated for the majority character for him and the character was a success, in general.  Foley ended up becoming a man with multiple personalities in WWE and he wrestled as Cactus Jack, Mankind, Dude Love, and lastly himself.  The Mankind character changed a lot over the years.  At first he was a deranged guy who pulled his hair out.  He turned into a lovable misunderstood guy that could wrestle like mad.  His feud and eventual partnership with The Rock was some of the best television I’ve ever seen. The Rock -  Rock is another one of those guys who only had to be himself to succeed.  He came out like a comic book character and the fans hated him for it.  He is the son and nephew of WWE legends, but the fans didn’t care.  He turned on them and joined with the Nation of Domination, a group of black wrestlers who felt they were being discriminated against (Rock is half black, half Samoan).  He eventually joined McMahon’s stable called the Corporation in an effort to take out Stone Cold Steve Austin in a feud that would be on and off for years.  Rock was good at playing a cocky bad guy or a funny good guy.  Now he’s a movie star, but when and if he returns to the WWE, he’ll return as still the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment. (See sidebar) I realize that this list could get long really quickly.  I’m not even halfway done with the names I was thinking of.  If this column gets a good response, I’ll write some more.  Still to come are HBK, Brutus the Barber Beefcake, Randy Macho Man Savage, and more.  Please sound off and let me know who your favorites were.   Until then, throw up a “T” for… T-BONE!

My Guilty Pleasure

The Bone Pile

favorite character of all time.  The first time I
remember seeing him was in WCW as Stunning
Steve Austin where he had a decent run as
Television Champion and had a successful tag
team with Brian Pillman as the Hollywood Blondes.  
He got hurt and WCW fired him.  He went on to
have a brief, but meaningful stint in ECW where he
had a series of bouts with the Sandman and Mikey
Whipwreck.  WWE saw his talent, brought him over,
and teamed him up with The Million Dollar Man Ted

NWO heel turn was refreshing in WCW, but it wore
out really quickly.  Truth be told though, I’m not much
of a fan anymore.  I respect what he’s done in the
wrestling business, but his style is dated.  A simple
legdrop isn’t enough to get the 1-2-3 on anyone
these days.  He’s still a huge draw but I’d like to see
him in more of a manager role, not wrestling.  I’ll
probably pass on his new reality show, “Hogan
Knows Best”, which is just cheap publicity for his
daughter Brooke’s singing career.

the 80’s.  He started his career as the Dingo
Warrior and trained with the wrestler known as
Sting.  Warrior was huge in WWE and held the
Intercontinental Championship for a long time.  At
Wrestlemania 6, he defeated Hulk Hogan to win
his first World Heavyweight Championship.  His
reign lasted for about 10 months and he kind of
faded away with a comeback here and there.  He
usually squashed his opponents when he did
make a return.  In real life, he changed his name
to Warrior.  He’s actually a little on the crazy
side.  He runs his own website expressing some
radical political points and he bashes Vince

Sting -  It’s kinda sad that he never went to WWE
because this guy was the man in WCW.  In the early
part of his career, he had short bleach blonde hair
and face paint.  In the later years, he looked like the
Crow.  No matter what part of his career he was in,
the fans loved him.  He was super athletic and had
great in-ring skills.  It took a long time for some
people to realize that his Scorpion Death Lock was
the same exact move as Bret Hart’s Sharpshooter.

Undertaker -  There is no character like
Undertaker, the Deadman.  He’s a legit 6’11”
and scary looking.  He’s gone thru several
character tweaks and one gimmick gone
wrong.  Luckily, the biker gimmick got
scratched and he’s back to being the
Deadman.  He’s been in the WWE for almost
15 years and he’s still undefeated at
Wrestlemania.  My favorite Undertaker gimmick
was his most controversial.  He formed a group
called the Ministry of Darkness and he
somewhat resembled Satan.  His music was
very eerie and he’d hang people on his symbol
(a T with nails forming an X around it).  

gone through so many heel and face turns
throughout his tenure, it’s hard to care about him
any more.  He had a WWE Heavyweight title run
that lasted for one day.  He beat Austin in a First
Blood match with help from Undertaker but lost it
the next night on RAW.  Kane’s character was
very cool at first.  He came out in a mask and his
body was completely covered by his suit because
he’d been “burned” as a child by a fire that
Undertaker started.  A few years ago, Kane

Ric Flair -  I’ve never been a fan of the Nature
Boy’s wrestling.  It’s the same match every
time.  Do some dirty moves, take a few back
body drops, get thrown off the top rope, clip
someone at the knee, work on the knee, and
put them in the Figure Four Leg Lock.  What I
am a fan of is this man’s microphone skills,
which is by today’s standards about 60% of
what is necessary in WWE.  This guy is old
enough to be my grandfather, but he’s still
wrestling.  I’d like to see him in a pure
managerial role because it’s painful to see him
taking those bumps and watching the same

If I were to get in the ring with him, he’d make me
look like a veteran.  He’s the kind of guy you
build your product around.  I saw him at a live
event and he easily put on the match of the
night.  It’s unfortunate that the main event wasn’t
half as good.  To top that off, everyone who has
met him that I know says he is the nicest guy and
very humble, despite how he acts on TV.  That’s
how good he is.

daughter, Stephanie McMahon.  Still, this doesn’t
take away from the man’s in-ring ability.  He’s
powerful, but quick and he’s a natural bad guy.  A
few years ago, he tore his quad during a tag
match.  He finished the match and even let Chris
Jericho put him in a submission move that hurts
the legs.  He had to be carried out of the arena.  
He was a bad guy at the time, but when he
returned, the fans had so much respect for him
that they cheered him.  He quickly turned on the
fans like he always does and resumed his position
as the #1 heel.  

World Wrestling Entertainment, or
WWE, is a professional wrestling
promotion, currently the largest in
North America. The company was
previously known as TitanSports, Inc.
and has previously done business as
the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, the
World Wide Wrestling Federation, and
the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

World Wrestling Entertainment is a
publicly-traded company, but the vast
majority (70%) of voting shares are
owned by Chairman Vince McMahon,
his wife, CEO Linda McMahon, his
son, Executive Vice President of
Global Media Shane McMahon, and
his daughter, Vice President of
Creative Writing Stephanie
McMahon-Levesque. As of 2005, the
headquarters of World Wrestling
Entertainment, Inc. are located in
Stamford, Connecticut at 1241 East
Main Street.

On April 23, 1999, the WWF
launched a special program known as
SmackDown! on the fledgling UPN
network. The show became a weekly
series on August 24, 1999. It has
remained UPN's most successful
program overall ever since.

Off the back of the success of the
Attitude era, on October 19, 1999 the
WWF's parent company, World
Wrestling Federation Entertainment,
Inc., became a publicly traded
company, offering 10 million shares
priced at $17 each. WWF announced
its desire to diversify into other
businesses, including a nightclub in
Times Square, film production and
book publishing.

Despite losing Steve Austin to injury,
the WWF continued to dominate the
ratings and become a pop culture
sensation due to The Rock emerging
as a pop culture icon and movie
actor, and Triple H becoming a
certifiable main eventer. The
defection of WCW talent such as Chris
Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero,
and Big Show bolstered the talent
roster, effectively killing off any
chance WCW had of becoming a
serious threat ever again.

In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration
with television network NBC,
announced the creation of the XFL, a
new professional football league, but
the league had dismal television
ratings and NBC pulled the plug after
a year.

In October 1996, Bret Hart signed an
unprecedented 20-year contract with
the WWF after considering, then
rejecting, a very lucrative offer from
the WWF's main rival, World
Championship Wrestling. Hart had
been with and had remained loyal to
the WWF since 1985, and had
emerged from wrestling mainly in tag
teams to become a popular and
respected singles star. Between 1991
and 1996, Hart won the WWF's World
Title four times and the
Intercontinental Title twice. He also
won the 1993 King of the Ring
tournament and was joint winner of
the 1994 Royal Rumble alongside
Lex Luger. The contract he signed in
1996 called for him to wrestle three
more years with the WWF and then
complete his career in a
behind-the-scenes writing and
booking position. Both sides felt that it
was a suitable and appropriate
expression of Hart's loyalty to the WWF
and its loyalty to him.

However, by the middle of 1997, the
WWF was in serious financial straits,
due mainly to WCW taking over as
North America's #1 pro wrestling
promotion. WWF owner and chairman
Vince McMahon informed Hart that
he wished to withdraw from the
contract and he encouraged him to
again seek employment with WCW.
However, as soon as the deal was in
place, and at the last minute,
suddenly McMahon claimed that he
could pay out the whole contract as
signed, and wanted Hart to stay.
However, when asked about his plans
for Hart's "Hitman" character, giving
McMahon an option to entice Hart
with interesting story ideas, the ideas
put out by Vince made it clear to Hart
that he was not part of McMahon's
longterm plans, and he elected to
sign with WCW. At this time, Bret was
still the WWF Champion, having won
the belt for a fifth time that August
from The Undertaker.

On November 1, 1997, Hart verbally
agreed a $3m a year contract with
WCW. As part of his WWF contract,
Hart had complete creative control
over his character in the last days of
his WWF tenure. Therefore, he had
the final say over what he would and
would not do and say.

He also had two major caveats: He
would not lose his WWF Title to
Shawn Michaels, and he certainly
would not lose it in his home country
of Canada. The legitimate backstage
ill-feeling between Hart and Michaels,
which had been bubbling for years,
meant that neither man was willing to
lose face in or out of the ring to the
other, but they agreed to work
together for the sake of the business.
Hart and Michaels, back then, had
radically different lifestyles and
attitudes out of the ring and had
clashed for real previously.

McMahon began seeking a way to
transition the title off of Hart. Michaels
was booked as the #1 contender to
Hart's title in the fall of 1997 however.
Of course, Hart took immediate issue
with the idea that he would lose the
title to Michaels, in Montreal, at the
Survivor Series pay-per-view event on
November 9, 1997. He did not believe
that Michaels would have offered a
loss in return had he stayed in the
WWF, and moreover he did not want
to lose to Michaels in Canada. Hart
had offered to forfeit the belt, but
McMahon was insistent that the belt
would go to Michaels at the
pay-per-view in Montreal.

McMahon tentatively agreed to end
the match in Montreal with a planned
disqualification finish, which would
involve various cohorts of both Hart
and Michaels "running in" and
disrupting the match. McMahon then
told Hart he could either make a live
speech on the November 10, 1997
edition of Raw and then hand the belt
back, or he could lose the title in a
match on December 7, 1997 at the
PPV scheduled for Springfield,
Massachusetts. After much
negotiation, Hart agreed to hand the
belt back on Raw.
(continued)

of his career.  I first remember him as a jobber
named Cactus Jack.  He eventually found some
success in WCW but was fired during a time of
budget cuts.  He was quickly picked up by ECW
where he cut the greatest promos I have ever
heard.  If anyone ever knew how to get into the
heads of the fans, it is Mick Foley.  WWE needed
a new opponent for Undertaker and saw an
opportunity in Foley.  They created the Mankind

After The Rock's first role in The
Mummy Returns, he reprised his role
as The Scorpion King in the 2002
movie of the same name. The movie
was generally panned by critics, but
was a box-office success, taking in
more than $90 million. His five
million dollar paycheck for The
Scorpion King earned The Rock a
listing in the Guinness Book of
Records for the highest salary for an
actor receiving top billing for the first
time. His next role was in The
Rundown, a formulaic action/comedy
which earned generally favorable
reviews from critics initially skeptical
of the grappler-turned-actor, but was
less financially successful.

In 2004, The Rock starred in a remake
of Walking Tall, as war
hero-turned-sheriff Chris Vaughn
(loosely based on Buford Pusser, the
real-life inspiration for the original),
who returns to the town where he grew
up and rids it of corruption with his
trusty two-by-four.

In 2005, The Rock will see more
exposure on the big screen as he
starred alongside John Travolta and
Uma Thurman in Be Cool (where he
was Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher's crew
members for blowing his trailer up
into pieces, while shooting the
movie), the sequel to Get Shorty, and
will star in Spy Hunter, a movie based
on the popular video game. He has
been approached to play the role of
Duke Nukem in a live action Duke
Nukem movie, and will star in a movie
based on the popular Doom video
game series, which recently finished
filming. Johnson will also star in the
live-action movie adaptation of the
Cartoon Network series Johnny Bravo.

One of The Rock's most anticipated
personal projects is the role of
Kamehameha, the warrior chief that
united the Hawaiian Islands and
governed them as the Kingdom of
Hawaii. A former Honolulu resident,
The Rock developed an admiration
for the king who became known as the
Napoleon of the Pacific for his skills
in warcraft and diplomacy. The Rock
signed to create the movie with
Columbia Pictures. Its preliminary
title will be King Kamehameha and
began the first stages of production in
Hawaii in 2003.