Eddie G

Welcome to The Armpit wrestling quiz for the week of September 26, 2016.

Thank you for the positive feedback we’ve received on these quizzes.  We continue with this week’s theme: “Cruiserweights in America – Part 2.”

Congratulations to last week’s winner: Megan from Iowa, who celebrated her birthday on September 19.  Happy belated birthday to Megan.

Last week’s answers:

-The WCW Cruiserweight title was originally called the Light Heavyweight title when it was created in 1991.

-Brian Pillman regained the WCW Light Heavyweight title from Jushin Liger in the opening match at SuperBrawl ’92.  That was an incredible ****3/4 match by the standards of that time, and the Milwaukee crowd at it up.  That show was also the PPV debut of Jesse Ventura, who rode to the ring in a Harley to a huge pop.

-In one of his first moves as VP of Wrestling Operations, Bill Watts inexplicably banned all moves off the top rope.  Watts was a genius in the early and mid ‘80s, but this decision showed that time had passed him by and he was completely out of touch.

-Brad Armstrong had to forfeit the title at Clash of the Champions XX due to a knee injury.  That poor guy was so talented and could never get a break.  So weird to see WWE promoting a show called Clash of Champions now, as any longtime NWA/WCW fan remembers those shows on TBS in the ‘80s and ‘90s and it was not a Vince idea.  That show was actually created for the sole purpose of hurting WrestleMania IV in 1988, which it certainly did.

-When WCW held a fan poll and asked if moves off the top rope should be allowed, fans overwhelmingly voted to Yes.  What a shock.  Can you even imagine how today’s product would look if that stupid rule was in place??  It’s hard to believe WCW management was so clueless to even allow Watts to make that dumb rule in the first place.

This week’s questions:

  1. Brad Armstrong’s forfeit of the WCW Light Heavyweight title spelled the end of that championship division until 1996, when it was brought back and rebranded as the Cruiserweight title.  Chris Benoit, whom history will overlook (for good reason) as possibly the greatest in-ring wrestler of all-time, made it to the finals.  Who ended up beating him to become the first Cruiserweight champion?
  2. The cruiserweights quickly became the in-ring highlights of the glory days of WCW Nitro.Their fast passed matches routinely beat the comparatively slow, prodding matches on Raw in the years that WWF was losing the Monday night war.  Dean Malenko, Ultimo Dragon, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Juventud Guerrera, Sean Waltman, and others lit up the undercards, although in frustrating fashion because WCW never capitalized on their success.  The shining moment was a ****3/4 classic at Halloween Havoc ’97, when Eddie Guerrero lost the title to what future WWE superstar?
  3. The Cruiserweight title became a joke in 1999, when guess who (Vince Russo) took over as booker and destroyed it.Gone were the great wrestlers, and instead we got Disco Inferno, Mike Sanders, and even Oklahoma (WCW co-booker Ed Ferrara doing a Jim Ross gimmick).  There were two women who held the title in WCW as well.  Name one of them.
  4. When WCW was purchased by the WWF in 2001, the title carried over and eventually became the WWF/WWE Cruiserweight title.However it was never taken seriously, and while not booked quite as poorly as the WCW Russo regime did, the great matches of the early Nitro days never returned.  Another woman even held the title during the WWE days.  Who was she?
  5. To show what a joke the Cruiserweight title had become in WWE, who was its last champion before the title was retired in 2007?  Hint: she was very recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Please email your answers to Quiz@armpit-wrestling.com.  On the weekend 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.  We’ll announce your name here next week, along with anything you’d like to promote (assuming it’s not X-rated or illegal).  It could be your name, blog, Twitter handle, or anything else you’d like us to mention.

Answers will be posted next week.  Have fun and good luck.

The Armpit

http://Armpit-Wrestling.com