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PWINSIDER Q&A: STEEL CAGE QUESTIONS, WWE SIGNING UFC STARS AND MORE

Answered on 12/27

My question is about the WWF In Your House Final Four pay per view from February, 1997. The final four competitors were Bret, Austin, Taker, and Vader, but I was wondering how they were chosen. I *think* that I remember four way qualifying matches, but I cannot find any info on them. Was there a sort of tournament to decide who was in the finals, or was it just the one match for the vacant title? If there was a tournament, what were the results and was anyone eliminated by pinfall/submission (as all eliminations in the PPV main event were of the over the top rope variety)?

The Final Four PPV concept was created, in the storylines, because of Steve Austin winning the Royal Rumble despite having been eliminated by Bret Hart (because of a Mick Foley-Terry Funk brawl outside the ring, the referees were all distracted and missed Austin being thrown out).  So, the participants were Austin and the men he had "illegally eliminated" after getting back into the ring, which were Hart, Vader and Undertaker.  The match was to determine a Wrestlemania challenger, but when Shawn Michaels "lost his smile" and gave up the World Title, the match was changed into a title bout to fill the vacancy. 

Do you see WWE ever bringing back the old-school steel cage with the blue bars?

While WWE likes their current cage for TV and PPV, as recently as four years ago, the "blue bar" cage was used on non-televised shows.  I think we could see it return at some point.  The original reasoning behind the cage was, in part, because it was felt that the steal mesh cage didn't look good on television, and the other was because heavyweights like Hulk Hogan were able to climb the blue bar cage a lot easier. 

What advice could you give to an indy guy living in the UK, who would like to get noticed and hopefully a development deal with WWE?

Move to the U.S.  Seriously, the first thing you would want to do is work as much as possible and improve in the ring to the point where you at least have a local reputation where you are now.  If you can get on shows with U.S. talent, which will be seen by more people, even better.  If you get established, it will be easier for you to get a try-out match with WWE, or at least put together a North American tour working for some indy groups, so you can gain more experience.  Obviously, the best way to get noticed is to enroll in a school or join a promotion with WWE ties, or that have a track record of sending talent to WWE.  However, those promotions are in the U.S. 

With the rising popularity of the UFC, can you see Vince trying to hire some of the guys from the Ultimate Fighter seasons who weren't offered contracts?

Honestly, I don't see it happening.  For starters, most of the fighters on the show that make any kind of impact (even in losing) get brought back for a fight or two.  The fighters that succeed, obviously are sticking with UFC.  The fighters that don't make an impact and just lose and fade away aren't worth going after in the first place.  If Vince is going to go after anyone, his best bet would be to get an established UFC star with charisma, like when he had Ken Shamrock.

To your knowledge, when and where did the first cage match take place?

I always credited Fred Blassie for the first cage match, a chicken wire and wood cage that was called "Blassie's Cage" and used to end his legendary feud with The Sheik in Los Angeles in the late 60's. However, there apparently was a cage match (again, chicken wire was used) in 1937 in Georgia between Jack Bloomfield and Petro Rossi.  

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