Welcome to The Armpit wrestling quiz for the week of December 19, 2016.
With all the rich talent out on the indie scene today, and within the WWE and NXT locker rooms alone, Vince McMahon has decided to devote a significant amount of television time to… James Ellsworth. You can argue the gimmick has already run its course, but either way, the life of Ellsworth will never be the same. He’s now recognized by fans everywhere he goes, and he’ll be able to make decent money on the indie scene for many years to come.
The push of Ellsworth brings to mind other similar gimmicks of the past. The theme of this week’s quiz is “Jobbers-Turned-Stars.”
Congratulations to last week’s winner: Gage
Last week’s answers:
1) Alberto Del Rio is the son of famous luchador Dos Caras.
2) ADR got KO’d in a PRIDE fight by MMA legend Mirko Cro Cop.
3) ADR’s ring entrances were memorable because he drove to the ring in a fancy car and had Ricardo Rodriguez introduce him.
4) ADR’s WrestleMania 2011 rematch with Edge never took place because Edge had to retire due to neck injuries. And oh thank goodness Edge finally grew his hair long again.
5) ADR won the WWE title at SummerSlam 2011 after CM Punk had just defeated John Cena, but then got laid out by Kevin Nash. ADR then cashed in his Money in the Bank and pinned him.
6) ADR was fired from WWE in 2014 for bitch slapping an employee backstage for what he perceived as a racial joke.
7) On ADR’s first night back in WWE at SummerSlam 2015, he defeated John Cena for the US title.
8) Many felt ADR’s momentum was ruined on his last WWE run when he was paired with manager Zeb Coulter.
9) ADR’s recent fight with Tortuga Rafy was started when he felt Rafy touched Paige inappropriately.
This week’s questions:
- James Ellsworth is now a cult figure, but the first time WWE fans had a chance to lay eyes upon this man in the ring was only this past summer.Ellsworth’s in-ring rebut in WWE was being squashed by which monster on Raw?
- a) Braun Strowman
- b) Nia Jax
- c) Big Cass
- d) Rusev
- e) Big Show
- f) Kane
- Let’s go wayyyy back.Longtime WWE employee Steve Lombardi was recently let go, after having worked with the company for over two decades. Lombardi was a well-known job guy who was given a push as the Brooklyn Brawler in the late ‘80s and paired with the top manager at the time, Bobby Heenan. Perhaps the most famous angle on the old WWF Prime Time Wrestling show (since they rarely ran angles on the show) involved the Brawler knocking Gorilla Monsoon down with a stool. It was part of the Brawler’s feud with what talented, underrated mid-carder?
- a) Bret Hart
- b) Curt Hennig
- c) Terry Taylor
- d) Owen Hart
- e) Rick Martel
- f) Tito Santana
- Perhaps the prototype for the Ellsworth push is when ECW made a star out of a hapless rookie named Mikey Whipwreck.Nobody took Mikey seriously as a tough guy, but he got over in a big way thanks to his likability and ability to garner sympathy from always getting beaten. I was actually in attendance for Mikey’s ECW title win over the Sandman at the ECW Arena, and it was quite the magical moment. Which is true about Mikey Whipwreck?
- a) He had worked for ECW before, but under a mask
- b) He was part of the ring crew, and someone noticed him taking bumps and thought he could be a lovable loser whom fans would embrace
- c) He worked as a referee
- d) He had been a star in Japan previously
- Sean Waltman was a dynamic indie wrestler in the Minnesota area as the Lightning Kid, having great matches with Jerry Lynn in the old PWA.I remember trading tapes with a guy in that area who raved about that feud and sent me videos long before Waltman and Lynn later became stars. WWF eventually hired Waltman, who used a variety of names as a jobber before finally scoring an upset win on Raw in 1993 that made him instantly famous as the 1-2-3 Kid. Whom did Waltman score this upset victory over?
- a) Shawn Michaels
- b) Mr. Perfect
- c) Yokozuna
- d) Razor Ramon
- e) Ted DiBiase
- f) Crush
- Longtime WWF job guy Barry Horowitz came from the Steve Lombardi era, where he was on WWF TV almost weekly as the perennial cult favorite who always lost in squash matches.He did score a few wins here and there, and had enough of a name that he was given a push in the short-lived GWF on ESPN (the promotion that spawned Harlem Heat, Buff Bagwell, and the Patriot, among others) in the early ‘90s. What was Horowitz’s famous gimmick in the GWF?
- a) “Prime Time”
- b) “J.O.B. Squad”
- c) “Mr. Saturday Morning”
- d) “The Winner”
- The Mulkeys were one of the most popular jobbers of the ‘80s.In which promotion did they gain their biggest fame?
- a) NWA/Jim Crockett Promotions
- b) WWF
- c) AWA
- d) WCCW
- Duayne Gill was another well-known WWF job guy, but he received a big career break in the late ‘90s when he became a parody of one of that era’s biggest stars.What persona did Gill take on that became a short lived cult hit?
- a) “Duayne” the Rock Johnson
- b) Honkytonk Duayne Ferris
- c) Gillberg
- d) Fake Razor Ramon
- e) Fake Diesel
- One of the most talented job guys in early 90s WWF was Scott Taylor.He eventually made it at just the right time, right when the WWF was peaking in 1999 and 2000. Taylor formed a solid tag team that wrestled under what name?
- a) Too Cool
- b) Well Dunn
- c) Smoking Gunns
- d) Young Pistols
- e) High Energy
Please email your answers to [email protected]. We will randomly generate a number to determine the winner. For example, if the number is 25 and you’re the 25th person to email us with correct answers, you win. Winners receive a free copy of our brand new e-book, “The Armpit Wrestling Quiz Archives: Volume 1.” It features 128 quizzes we’ve written over the years and clocks in at 420 pages and a whopping 1,079 questions on pro wrestling history dating back to the 1980s. We’ll also announce your name here next week as the winner.
Answers will be posted next week. Have fun and good luck.
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