By Wade Keller, Torch editor

New Ask the Torch Answers:

Josh asks: Hi, do you have back issues of your "Torch Talks"? If so, which ones? Are any in the "VIP Area" on the site? I really enjoy those, hope they are available. Thanks for your time.

WK: Torch Talks are included in the back issues we are currently offering to PWTorch.com readers. To learn which Torch Talks were conducted each year, click here: Torch Talks Listing for Back Issues.

Torch VIP members have access on the Torch VIP website (www.PWTorch.com/members) to over 45 Torch Talk installments with a wide variety of subjects including Jesse Ventura, Jim Ross, Road Warrior Hawk, Stan Lane, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette, Jerry Jarrett, Lou Thesz, Phil Mushnick, Eddie Guerrero, Eric Bischoff, Vince Russo, The Rock, Bill Goldberg, Sean "X Pac" Waltman, Ron Killings, and Hulk Hogan. The list is growing all the time as we continue to add more Torch Talks each month.

We also published Torch Talk Collection books in past years. There were three volumes but all of them sold out years ago. We are considering reissuing them in 2004.

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PWTorch.com reader Todd Fisher of Ramstein, AB, Germany asks; My question is in regards to Stacy Keibler. When WCW held their Nitro Girl search, was Ms. Hancock the pre-determined winner or was the contest legit? I know at the time she was a Baltimore Ravens' cheerleader with no involvement in wrestling that I'm aware of.

WK: I don't remember hearing any suspicions that the contest was fixed. I believe she won legit and then grew into her role as a full-fledged TV character after that.

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Sid (photo by Leonard Brand, PWTorch)

PWTorch.com reader Ray Morrison of North Bay, Canada asks: I was always curious as to why the Wrestlemania 8 main event was changed from Hogan vs. Flair to Hogan vs. Sid and Flair vs. Savage. It seems to me that Wrestlemania 8 would have been more successful if Hogan and Flair headlined the card. It is also funny that Savage was put in the title match while he had never really finished his feud with Jake Roberts, who left the company afterward. Can you shed some light on this topic?

WK: I was recently told by someone in the industry that Sid was promised in writing a the WrestleMania main event. I can't vouge for that being correct, but it's worth noting that may have been a factor. In general, though, I think Vince McMahon wasn't totally buying into Ric Flair as a WrestleMania-worthy draw at that point because he is such a size-mark. He had already run a lot of Flair vs. Hogan matches at house shows, so the match wasn't all that fresh anymore, either. I wouldn't put it past Hogan, either, to have maneuvered behind the scenes to exclude Flair from being in the main event since Hogan is insanely jealous of the respect Flair has that he'll never have when it comes to certain areas of contributing to the industry, so excluding him from the high-profile WM main event may have been one of his "What? Who, me? Nah!" political Tonya Harding shots that he'll never admit to publicly.

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Ricardo Romero asks: In regards to your last Keller's Take about T.NA, I am a Dish Network customer, and I searched up and down the past few weeks to find where I would purchase the Wednesday PPVs and cannot find anything? Nor could I find anything on the official website. Is it not available on Dish Network, or am I just missing it?

WK: TNA is not offered on Dish Network. All I've heard is that someone with decision making power has a bias against pro wrestling being part of the programming they offer. I can't think of any other logical explanation. You'll have to switch to cable or DirecTV to get access to TNA on your TV each Wednesday night. It's probably worth sending Dish Network an email letting them know you're not pleased with their decision.

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From the Ask the Torch Vault - June 8, 2000

Damon of Muncie, Ind. asks: Hey guys, I love the site and I have a few questions. First, whatever happened to Tekno Team 2000? They did the Shotgun Saturday Night show a few times when it was a new show. I think they became the Headbangers, but my brother doesn't think so. Also, what happened to the Slickster? He was a manager in the WWF back in the late '80s. He was a goof and we'd laugh big time when he came out. Finally, back a few Raws before WM13, the did an angle after a Bret Hart Cage match that ended in a schmoz where Bret started cussing out McMahon big time. F-words, I mean. Anyway, was that a shoot or a work? Did Hart even know the cameras were on? What was the deal with that?

WK: Tekno Team 2000 are not the Head Bangers. They wrestled in WCW initially, then got several tryout matches with the WWF, but never signed contracts. Erik Watts now wrestles in Japan. I don't know what happened to Slick. Can anybody out there help with that "Where Are They Now?" question?

Bret did know the cameras were on. It was a work, not a shoot. I wrote in the Torch cover story that week (issue 432, cover dated March 22.1997): "Inspired by Bret's real life frustrations behind the scenes with the WWF and Vince McMahon (which absolutely has been the case since his return last fall), the WWF turned Bret Hart into a virtual heel, albeit a somewhat sympathetic one, on the Mar. 17 Raw. Bret had become known as a bit of a whiner and a braggart and those traits bled through onto television in recent months. Rather than hold back those real emotions, the WWF is taking advantage of them."

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Got a question? Or got more details on a question I answered? Send to: askthetorch@pwtorch.com.

Note: I, along with other Torch staffers and contributors answer reader questions all the time at the VIP Forum message boards. If you aren't a Torch Newsletter subscriber, but are interested in signing up to get the Torch Newsletter delivered to your mailbox each week, plus gain access to the VIP Forum and other VIP features, and get added to the VIP Email Express mailing list - you can do so for as little as $18 U.S. for eight weeks. For more info, click here: Torch VIP Info Center.

Torch editor Wade Keller founded Pro Wrestling Torch in September 1987. He has been interviewed as a wrestling expert by dozens of TV and radio stations across the country; he has also been quoted in dozens of major newspapers and magazines across the world. Media entities that have featured Keller in stories covering wrestling include National Public Radio, Fox News Channel, ESPN Magazine, the New York Post, Entertainment Weekly, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post. He also hosted his own weekly two hour wrestling talk show on KFAN sport radio in the '90s. Over the past 16 years Keller has also interviewed, one-on-one, wrestling's top names for in-depth "Torch Talks" and feature articles including powerbrokers such as Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Jerry Jarrett, Bill Watts, Jim Cornette, Jim Crockett, Jim Herd, Paul Heyman, Terry Taylor, Kevin Sullivan, Jim Ross, and Vince Russo; top wrestling stars such as The Rock, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Rick Steamboat, Jerry Lawler, Bill Goldberg, British Bulldog, Road Warrior Hawk, Jesse Ventura, and Hulk Hogan; and legends such as Lou Thesz, Gordon Solie, Bruno Sammartino, Roy Shires, Terry Funk, and Verne Gagne.

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