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Boo! Yea! Boo! Yea! Boo! Yea! Ian Hunter here. Just enjoying the sounds of the Madison Square Garden crowd disapproving of Cena's sudden entry and win in the Royal Rumble this week. Officially proving that it doesn't matter how big the company tries to get you over, it's the fans who decide whether you're relevant or not. Even I have to look at the footage and say "...the hell was WWE thinking?" Shock value aside, that was a slap in the face to a lot of fans and the Garden was very vocal about it. And while many of us longtime watchers could have seen that reaction coming, I'm not all that shocked because this hasn't been the first time the fans made a choice against the hopes and wishes of a promotion. So in honor of all those fans at the Garden who made sure Cena remembered they can't stand him, this week's trivia will be on fan reversals. But first, we have to wrap up our Rumble trivia.
1. D. Kurt Angle only took on Tazz as the opening match. He did not participate in the Rumble itself. In fact, Kurt didn't even get involved in one until 2002. (And many thanks for the correction on the Foley/HHH match.)
2. A. Jeff Hardy has never made a return at the Royal Rumble. Paul Wright did it in 2001 as a surprise return from OVW as The Big Show, Fifita did it the same year returning as Haku after leaving WCW a week earlier, Curt Henning came back as Mr. Perfect in 2002, and Dustin Runnels did it twice as Goldust in 2002 and 2006.
3. E. Lesnar took on The Big Show in a match earlier that night in fact to qualify. Yet another example of the company trying to pull a surprise while building a star at the same time.
4. C. Mick Foley came back at the Rumble as a surprise entrant after Test was taken out backstage. Steve Austin (at the time a Raw GM) ordered him out to the ring as a replacement.
5. C. Randy Orton was set to be the man at the end with Undertaker. Orton wasn't going to win it either, but rumor was that Michaels would be eliminated by Edge and Orton, only for Orton to mistakenly eliminate Edge later.
After three weeks of Rumble Trivia, we again have ONE winner, and it's a repeat. Curtis Shanks. If this were a real Royal Rumble... Michaels would be proud, Hogan would be jealous, and Austin wouldn't care, son. It's a brand new week with a fresh new topic, so let's find us some winners. 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. Most don't remember it well, but Jake "The Snake" Roberts initially entered the WWF as a heel. He took on names like Ricky Steamboat, Hillbilly Jim, Jimmy Snuka, even Andre The Giant for one match before he took a film hiatus. But fans were starting to cheer him, especially during his times in the Snake Pit, and he was eventually due to make a face change. This led to his feud with The Honky Tonk Man (who was being rejected as a face) where the two changed places and took their careers to better places. But there was another face that Jake took on before Honky that led to his change. However, few know about it because the audience was cheering on Jake and booing the face, and therefore the match never made it to air. Who was getting booed?
A. Rowdy Roddy Piper
B. Junk Yard Dog
C. George "The Animal" Steele
D. Jim Duggan
E. Hulk Hogan
2. For a good portion of the NWO initial takeover, Sting became what many of us refer to as a "Tweener." Which in the most basic of terms meant that he never really picked a side. We all know the story about the mythos WCW made Sting into. nWo made a fake Sting, real Sing felt betrayed by the people, he went into his "crow" phase that still to this day I just don't get the point behind, fake Sting followed, etc, etc. But fans got tired of the indecisiveness of his character and stopped caring until he Before he made his way to finally picking a side and going after the nWo with a head of steam, he would perform tests on wrestlers still affiliated with WCW by shoving them around the ring and then offering them a chance to hit him with the bat. Which of these wrestlers did Sting NOT give this treatment to?
A. Ric Flair
B. Big Bubba
C. Randy Savage
D. Chris Benoit
E. Lex Luger
3. One of the most famous fan rejections is that of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. With curly hair and a blinding white smile, Johnson came out as "Rocky Miavia", playing off the previous two generations of his family. But the fans became sick of the act and booed him with chants of "Rocky Sucks" and "Die Rocky Die". The chants continued for months, even with the WWF pumping canned cheering into the loudspeakers, and Johnson smiling as if he were still being cheered, it still didn't help his character. Johnson ended up taking two months off for an injury in the ring, and during that time the decision was made to make him a heel and join the Nation Of Domination, which would eventually rocket his career. Who was the last person to face Johnson as a face on TV before he became The Rock?
A. Flash Funk
B. Owen Hart
C. Savio Vega
D. Mankind
E. Steve Austin
4. Tommy Dreamer. The Innovator Of Violence himself at one point was absolutely hated by the fans in ECW, mainly due to the fact that Heyman was trying to get him over as a pretty boy at the start of his career there. Wearing an susperder-pant outfit that looked like a reject of Owen Hart's "High Energy" days, fans gave him the finger every time he wrestled no matter how well he performed. It wasn't until his feud with The Sandman that he managed to win the fans hearts. The initial end to the feud came when the loser had to be caned across the back for the audience to see, as inspired by the events of Michael Fay in Singapore. Dreamer lost and took several shots across the back by Sandman in front of the crowd (to which both later admitted it was one of the hardest things they'd ever done int he ring), Dreamer was finally accepted by the ECW audience, and canes soon became a staple in wrestling as we know it. Our question to you... how many cane shots did Dreamer take across the back?
A. 9
B. 10
C. 11
D. 12
E. 13
5. In 2001 the WWF tried its best to turn the biggest star of the company, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. After being a fan favorite for years (even when he was first taking on Bret Hart in 1996), the company tried to make a face change with him at Wrestlemania X-7 by teaming him up with McMahon to beat The Rock. While he did get heat, fans were still cheering him because they accepted that it fit the character. So later that night they teamed him up with Triple H as a team called the Two-Man Power Trip, but he still got cheers. When Hunter injured his quadricep, that nixed further plans, so they made Austin the head of the WCW/ECW "Invasion". But fans continued to cheer him all through the storyline. When the Invasion started to wrap up, WWF decided to swap Austin places with another wrestler and make him a face again. Who turned heel in the process?
A. Chris Jericho
B. Kurt Angle
C. The Big Show
D. The Rock
E. The Undertaker Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
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