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Torch Trivia
Torch Trivia: How much do you know about stripped titles? May 14, 2008 - 11:00:00 AM
Ian Hunter here, being wheeled out in a wheelchair, tugging at the heart strings of those who idolized Eddie Guerrero and milking every single penny she can out of it. I don’t know how the rest of you out there feel, but I for one am tired of listening to this poor actress come out week after week and play the role of Lita in a wheelchair while one of the best voices of the past five years is left to play road-nurse behind her fat can. You dig me playa? Adding to her role of Worst G.M. in WWE History, Vicky came out and stripped the Undertaker of his title earlier this month. And for what? We all know he’s just going to get it back anyway. So because of this poor storyline, this week’s trivia is on title stripping. But before you break out your dollar bills, we got last week’s questions to answer.
1: C. Sabu was publicly fired in the ring before the event began, as he was set to team up with Tazz to defend their tag titles.
2: B. Bischoff fired Dillon, who was assuming the on-air role of Commissioner, in late 1998 after the reformation of the Horsemen went downhill. (It should be noted, it was pointed out that referee Randy Anderson was also fired by Bischoff, but I wasn’t counting it since he did get his job back two weeks later.)
3: Jim herd was the man who fired Flair. Didn’t matter much, as Herd resigned from WCW in early 1992 (just one week after Flair won the WWF title).
4: E. Shane became a card-carrying member of the club at WrestleMania 22 after Shawn Michaels pulled the ol’ switcheroo.
5: Ken Shamrock was the first official TNA champion and was due to drop it to Jarrett. But he refused and was forced to give it to Killings. Shamrock left shortly thereafter.
We actually have winners this week. Stephen Shkuratoff, Brandon E., Terry Thacker, and Scott Sloan. Congratulations to all of you. I’d give you an award, but really, what award can you give to people who won a power-trip challenge? Go fire someone and be happy. It’s a new week and we got new questions for you. 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. Let’s kick trivia off with the mother of all reckless championship titles, the WCW World Championship. The ten pounds of gold once held a lot of distinction… when it was recognized as part of the NWA. But Flair’s split from the company in 1991 forced WCW to make a new championship, and fans clearly saw that the new (smaller) belt had little to no meaning in the company. Even when it went back to the original Flair version of the title, the belt lost respect in the eyes of the fans and never really regained the prestige it had in the 1980’s. From 1991 until the end of its run in 2001 with the WWF, the belt was stripped or “vacated” 12 times. Some people had the belt removed from them more than once. Our question to you, which of these people only had the belt stripped from them once?
A. Sting
B. Ric Flair
C. Chris Benoit
D. Sid Vicious
E. Bret Hart
2. Next will be a write-in question. The ECW Television title was at one time considered a greater belt than the ECW Heavyweight belt. Literally making and breaking a number of superstars along the way, it gave whoever held it the automatic gift of being on television every week no matter what, and the curse of having to defend that title every night he was on television. Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, 2 Cold Scorpio, Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Damn, Mikey Whipwreck, and Tazz are just some of the names that made the belt a mainstay. Of all the belts you’d think would be on TV today, the TV title would be part of ECW. But I guess when you have a roster of only 14 people, there’s really no point to having a belt that gives you automatic TV time. Aside from its early “Eastern” days, the belt was defended heavily and was only stripped from ONE person. Who was it?
3. Did you know that there was such a thing as the Six-Man Tag Team Championships? If you didn’t, you seriously need to be slapped. During the NWA’s heyday, there was a growing need to put titles on people who the territories couldn’t do anything with. The titles were born out of that problem in the mid 70’s in a tournament held in the Memphis territory and made their way around the NWA like any other championship. The titles were frequently retired as no one really wanted to be known as 1/3 a champion, but rarely vacated or stripped until the mid 80’s. Dusty Rhodes held one of the belts along with a two different tag teams, one of them being the Road Warriors who had to replace another team who left for better places and had the titles stripped before they left. Who was this tag team?
A. Demolition
B. Rock & Roll Express
C. The Fabulous Freebirds
D. Powers Of Pain
E. The Midnight Express
4. Ever hear of the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship? Yeah, most never have. In 1993 in the chaos of the WCW/NWA split, Rick Rude was planned to win the main WCW belt, but the results were made public and the NWA didn’t want to make Rude the champion. So after some long winded wrangling and story plotting, WCW made a version of the title that was in theory to be defended overseas. Rude became champion of this belt three times, but was eventually stripped of the belt after cheating a win against Sting. But Sting refused to take the title unless he beat someone that night. And of course since WCW storylines never make sense, it wasn’t Rude he had to beat. Who was it?
A. Ric Flair
B. Big Van Vader
C. Ron Simmons
D. Lex Luger
E. Hiroshi Hase
5. The last one will be a write-in. For most of the 1980’s, WCCW only had one championship belt… their Television title. Mainly because the NWA kept coming through with their own championships and the company kept changing them out periodically. A little trivia mixed into trivia, the TV title was only held by one of the Von Erich’s during its entire history, Kevin. Most of the time the title was vacated because people would leave for other territories, and then was put onto the next successor in line who was billed to win it. But the belt was only stripped off someone ONCE in its entire run from 1979-1987. Who was the belt stripped from?
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