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PWINSIDER Q&A: RIC FLAIR'S LAST OPPONENT, TNA'S 'OTHER' FEMALE CHAMPIONSHIP, WWE DRAFT LOTTERY AND MORE

Answered: 2/6

In regards to Ric Flair's last opponent; A lot of people think it should be a young guy to give the rub for being the one to retire Flair. Does anyone remember who the last person to fight Muhammad Ali, or George Foreman, or Roddy Piper, or Andre the Giant? I mean most people don't even remember that Hurricane was the last person to pin The Rock on TV. So, why would this give someone the rub, if no one remembers who retired any other famous wrestler, or boxer, or ball player?

First of all, George Foreman's last fight was a 12-round decision loss to Shannon Briggs (that I still say Foreman won), and Muhammad Ali lost to Trevor Berbick in 1981.  Roddy Piper's last match (to date) was the Royal Rumble, and Andre The Giant's last match was on December 4, 1992 at Budokan Hall teaming with Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura against Haruka Eigen, Motoshi Okuma and Masa Fuchi. In all four cases, none of those bouts were promoted as being "the last" for the person involved.  However, the point is that a match can give a wrestler "the rub" if promoted the right way.  Andre The Giant losing to Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania III was a "rub" to Hogan.  Hogan losing to The Rock gave him "a rub".  Given Ric Flair's stature in wrestling, whoever the last person is to beat him will be remembered, as long as the match is promoted in a big way (which WWE obviously will be doing). 

What are your thoughts on doing another draft lottery after WM in order to spice up the rosters? Who would you move to each brand and why?

I have no problem doing a draft lottery, however with so many wrestlers jumping from show to show with no real explanation, I don't really see the point anymore.  Still, it is a good way to at least mix up the undercards a bit and produce some new matches.  I would be tempted to take one of the following five and move them to Smackdown: John Cena, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy.  That way, each brand would have four main event babyfaces (with the one that moves joining Batista, Undertaker and Rey Mysterio on Smackdown). 

Where do you guys get your information for the "This day in history" columns? They are so detailed and cover such a long time span (some going back to the 1800's!) and territories that it seems improbable that you would get all that information from a single source.

Well, it is a single source, and it isn't.  Essentially, I've just saved a lot of books, magazines, results etc. over the years, going back to my pre-Internet days.  Dave Scherer dubbed it "The Bucktron" but in truth, it is just a filing cabinet and a lot of computer discs.  Ryan Martinez, who often does the history column, also has a number of resources he uses.  Truth is, just start collecting information (and the Net makes it a lot easier to do this) and you can have your own "Bucktron". 

How does the rating be effected by DVR. When you record the wrestling shows, does that still get WWE a rating for each record? 

From what I understand, only 15% of Nielsen homes (used to determine ratings) have DVR capabilities.  However, Nielsen does take into account "time shifted viewing" when coming up with their final ratings numbers. 

Did TNA have a women's championship before the newly created one? I remember at one time a guy one the title and it was dropped. 

Yes, in one of TNA's more misguided moments, they crowd a Miss TNA Champion, Taylor Vaughn, in a Lingerie Battle Royale.  She lost the title to Bruce (Alan Funk), who did a thinly veiled homosexual gimmick.  Okay, maybe not so thinly veiled.  I will spare you all the details, but he ended up being straight, gave his Miss TNA crown to April Pennington, and the crowd and title were never mentioned again. 

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