By Ian Hunter, PWTorch Trivia Specialist

No chance! No chance in hell! Ian Hunter here, stomping my way out to the ring in a power suit filled with shoulder pads and a decade old song that just proves McMahon is no longer with the times. As if we needed his theme song to tell us that. This week he not only encouraged the acts of Regal, but supported them full heartedly. And why not? Vince is a guy who abuses power frequently, both on and off camera. So in honor of the frequent blackouts that gave me a headache, this week’s trivia will be about abuse of power. But first, we need to answer last week’s questions.


1: A. The lights went out in Lakeland, Florida. Eric Bischoff would later admit it was a mistake to blame the WWF, because he knew they couldn’t have pulled that off.

2: Hard Justice was the name of the PPV.

3: Steamboat was pinning both Austin and Pillman after a dive off the top rope.

4: D. Beth Phoenix got the last hit in the ring before the lights went down. Why the lights went out but not the power to the whole building is another mystery.

5: C. The Undertaker’s face was almost burned while trying to raise the lights, probably from someone not hitting the right button. The episode aired 7/11/98 for those of you looking for footage.


We don’t have any winners this week, which I guess we can just attribute to a technical difficulty in trivia. But hey, it’s a new week, so let’s see if we can get back on track. 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. We’ll start by going to the old ECW arena in what was one of the first public displays of Paul Heyman’s power in the company. Some called it power abuse, while others call it justification to the fans. In 1995, a specific wrestler was scheduled to be a part of a 3-Way Dance match, but decided to take a booking elsewhere instead. When the event came up and the wrestler was a no show, Heyman went on a rant in the ring to publicly (and really) fire that wrestler. Who did he fire?

A. Tazz
B. Chris Benoit
C. Sabu
D. Rob Van Dam
E. Dean Malenko

2. During the nWo takeover of WCW, Bischoff took a moment in time with Rowdy Roddy Piper and showed his true colors as the organizer behind the scenes for the group. And the minute a man in power turns evil in storyline, he has to abuse power. Bischoff made people’s lives miserable on camera. Becoming an on-air villain a good year before McMahon himself pulled the same trick in 1997. During his time as the “boss gone bad”, Bischoff mostly just scheduled matches and made sure the nWo was kept in a position of power, but unlike McMahon he rarely fired anyone on camera. Which of these people did Bischoff fire on air?

A. Bobby Heenan
B. J.J. Dillon
C. Ric Flair
D. Terry Funk
E. Tony Schaivone

3. Next one will be a write-in question. While we’re talking about WCW, let’s rewind a bit back to 1991. The company wanted to take Ric Flair into a new direction, and take a pay cut while they were at it. Suggestions were thrown out that Flair shave his head and fight as a warrior named Spartacus. Other suggestions went around for him to drop the title to Barry Whindam and Lex Luger, but Flair rejected both ideas. The back and forth disagreements continued until the end of June when Flair was fired from WCW… while he was still champion. Who was the abusive administrator that gave Flair the boot?

4. Now you can’t talk about abuse of power without talking about McMahon in general. One of the greatest moments of his abuse came when he officially started the “Kiss My Ass” Club. The “Invasion” angle was killed, and many WCW/ECW wrestlers were off camera for the time being, and so McMahon started the idea to humiliate those who left the company. Of course we know Regal was the first to join, but which of these people was NOT an intended member for the club?

A. Jim Ross
B. Shawn Michaels
C. Zac Gowen
D. Mick Foley
E. Shane McMahon

5. A second write-in question for you. Jeff Jarrett has to be one of the more recent shining examples of people having power go to their heads. Being a partial owner, booker, and for the longest time the lead champion, Jarrett had full run of the company and put himself into a main position he never would have gotten anywhere else. (Not even in WCW, who actively put the belt on him for no real reason at least twice.) Jarrett booked himself in his first TNA championship win against Ron Killings in November 2002, but it originally wasn’t supposed to be Killings. Another man wad to drop the belt to Jarrett, but absolutely refused and it cost him the title. Who was this?

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