Weekly Wrestling Quiz for December 5, 2016

Welcome to The Armpit wrestling quiz for the week of December 5, 2016.  It was a refreshingly slow news week, which was very welcome.  But we did have the WWE TLC PPV, and so the theme of this week’s quiz is “Ladder Matches.”

Congratulations to last week’s winner, who happens to be a repeat winner from the past: Megan.

Last week’s answers:

1) The NFL team that did NOT draft Bill Goldberg was the San Francisco 49ers.

2) Bill’s older brother, Mike Goldberg, was once the roommate of Ric Flair when both were students at the University of Minnesota.  I’d imagine Mike has some wild tales from those days.  Can you imagine your brother is currently the hottest babyface in pro wrestling, and your college roommate was perhaps the greatest wrestler of all-time?  That’s some great company right there.

3) WCW’s training school was called the Power Plant.

4) Goldberg’s famous WCW title win over Hollywood Hogan aired free on Nitro, defeating Raw in the ratings that week.  It was possibly the biggest moment in WCW history.  They were soundly criticized at the time for not saving the match for PPV, where it would’ve made millions and surely broken the record set by Hogan vs Sting months earlier.  But in hindsight it didn’t really matter given what happened.

5) There was fear the Toronto fans at Survivor Series would boo Goldberg, because he’s the one who gave Bret Hart a concussion with a stiff super kick at Starrcade ’99.  With all the super kicks we see these days (Young Bucks, for example), I’m surprised that doesn’t happen more often.

6) Goldberg injured his arm badly in December of ’99 by punching through a limousine in a backstage angle.  It remains one of WCW’s stupidest moments, and imagine the ground that covers.

7) At WCW Fall Brawl 2000, Scott Steiner had an excellent match with Goldberg while wearing a face mask.  The mask was worn because he was selling an injury from a TV angle in which Goldberg had hit him with a lead pipe.  A rare sign of continuity shown by WCW booking.

8) On his first Raw appearance in 2003, Goldberg got into a backstage altercation with Chris Jericho.  Jericho is quite the brave soul, starting fights with both Goldberg and Brock Lesnar and somehow surviving both without decapitation.  Detailed rundowns of both fights, by the way, are available in the Armpit’s Backstage Fights section.

9) At WrestleMania XX, both Goldberg and Lesnar were loudly booed by the MSG crowd because they all knew it was the final match for both.  They saw them as “selling out” and moving on, which didn’t sit well with them.  HHH once said Lesnar’s leaving was the “dumbest move ever,” which has to be the dumbest comment ever, because Lesnar has made a fortune as a result of his leaving WWE back then.

 

This week’s questions:

 

1. While everyone remembers the first ladder match of the modern era as the classic between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X, it was actually the second.The first also involved Shawn, and in 1992 he faced off against what Canadian legend (who had done a ladder match with Badnews Allen in Stampede and recommended the idea to Vince)?

 

1. a) Dino Bravo
2. b) Bret Hart
3. c) The Mountie
4. d) Lance Storm

 

2. But yes, the first ladder match everyone remembers is Shawn’s ***** classic with Razor Ramon.Without question it popularized the gimmick in the ‘90s, and remains one of the all-time great one-man performances in modern history.  It actually wasn’t their first ladder match together, as they did some on house shows prior to this.  It also wasn’t their last, as they were re-matched in 1995, again with a ladder, at which event?

 

1. a) Royal Rumble ‘95
2. b) WrestleMania XI
3. c) SummerSlam ‘95
4. d) Survivor Series ‘95

 

3. There were several ladder matches after that in the ‘90s, but the next major one to reach “classic” status was when three major tag teams cemented their names in WWE history in just one night.The Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian, and the Dudley Boys all stole the show (easy pickin’s on that night) at what major event in 2000?

 

1. a) Royal Rumble
2. b) WrestleMania XVI
3. c) SummerSlam
4. d) King of the Ring
5. e) Survivor Series

 

4. The ladder match later morphed into a TLC match (tables, ladders, and chairs).Which WWE wrestler (acting as Commissioner at the time) famously coined the phrase “Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, oh my!  Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, oh my!” to hype an upcoming TLC match many years ago?

 

1. a) Mick Foley
2. b) Vince McMahon
3. c) Eric Bischoff
4. d) Stephanie McMahon

 

5. Ladder matches in WWE today are now mostly limited to Money in the Bank (and the aforementioned TLC) matches.In MITB, a brief case is suspended above the ring, and the match ends when a wrestler grabs it after climbing with a ladder.  He then wins a WWE title shot at any time of his choosing.  The first ever MITB match was held at WrestleMania XXI, and it was won by whom?

 

1. a) Chris Jericho
2. b) Edge
3. c) Christian
4. d) Chris Benoit

 

6. More recently, we had a very memorable ladder match this year at ROH’s All Star Extravaganza.The Young Bucks, Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, Alex Shelley, and Chris Sabin turned in a ****3/4 barn burner that met all the high expectations people had for it.  The finish alone was worth the price of the PPV.  What was the main storyline of that match?

 

1. a) The Young Bucks were injured going into the match, so they were scared to do any high spots with the ladder
2. b) Sabin and Shelley teased dissension throughout the match
3. c) Kazarian was afraid of heights
4. d) Daniels felt this was his last hurrah at his age, and cut a memorable promo on TV vowing he wouldn’t lose the tag team titles

 

7. This isn’t a question, but a recommendation.Check out the ladder match from NJPW Dominion 6.19 this year between Kenny Omega (my pick for the best wrestler in the world right now) and Michael Elgin.  It’s a ****3/4 match and readily available on Dailymotion, and I strongly suggest you check it out.

 

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 25^th 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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