Welcome guys, gals, and gender non-binary pals, to Ask 411 . . . the last surviving weekly column on 411 Wrestling.

I am your party host, Ryan Byers, and I am here to answer some of your burning inquiries about professional wrestling. If you have one of those queries searing a hole in your brain, feel free to send it along to me at [email protected]. Don’t be shy about shooting those over – the more, the merrier.

Hey, ya wanna banner?

I don’t think the Bret sending in this question is the same Bret the question is about. If it is the same guy, his health issues are worse than we ever thought:

Why was Bret Hart allowed to wrestle Vince McMahon at Wrestlemania? I thought he cashed out his Lloyd’s of London policy and couldn’t wrestle anymore.

Heading into Wrestlemania XXVI with its Bret versus Vince match, Erich Bischoff of all people reported that WWE had been notified of the Lloyd’s of London policy after the Hitman returned to the company and after the the match had been set up, which resulted in Lloyd’s having to get involved to “approve the physical structure of the match.”

Bryan Alvarez in the March 9, 2010 issue of the Figure Four Weekly newsletter was able to confirm that Bischoff’s report was accurate and that there was a backup plan to do a tag team match in the event that Bret was not allowed to compete in singles action.

Then, in the April 5, 2010 Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that the unusual structure of the match, which saw Hart take no offense whatsoever from McMahon and which saw Hart avoid high impact moves, came about both for “medical and insurance reasons.” Meltzer did not explicitly refer to the Lloyd’s of London policy, but one can reasonably assume from the prior reporting that it was at least one of the “insurance reasons.” (As an aside, there was also reportedly a storyline reason for the way the match was structured, as it was meant to be a blowoff of Vince McMahon’s heel persona.)

So, there you have it. Bret Hart was allowed to wrestle at Wrestlemania XXVI despite his Lloyd’s of London deal because, apparently, Lloyd’s was actively involved in making certain that nothing would happen that caused them concern.

Big Richard ain’t heavy, he’s my brother:

I see that Ryan Nemeth said that he and Nick are the best brother tag team.

What is your list of the top 10 brother tag team? I am asking for real brothers, not pretend.

First off, Ryan Nemeth is delusional, and that’s not just because he thinks he’s in one of the best brother tag teams of all time when he is obviously not.

That said, let’s get to my list:

10. Mike & Ben Sharpe: The first major foreign heels in Japanese wrestling. Without these guys as rivals to Rikodozan, puroresu may not exist, at least in the manner that it does today.

9. The Usos: Thirteen year run as a dominant tag team in WWE. Development into a stable that was the centerpiece of one of the best long-term storylines in company history. Spinoff into viable main event stars, one of whom is now a former World Champion. It’s not recency bias – they’re legit.

8. The Dusek Riot Squad: From the 1930s through the 1950s, brothers Ernie, Emil, Rudy, and Joe Dusek were one of the top tag teams nationwide, traveling all over the place and winning a multitude of titles. There were also kayfabe family members Wally and Frank, but they don’t qualify as the question is worded.

7. The Hardy Boys: From very humble beginnings, Matt and Jeff Hardy became unlikely megastars, with Jeff even being a multi-time World Champion. They are perhaps one of professional wrestling’s greatest success stories, though that success eventually lead to a fair amount of tragedy.

6. Los Brazos: The Brazos are a huge professional wrestling family in Mexico, but the strongest team among them is no doubt El Brazo, Brazo de Plata (Super Porky), and Brazo de Oro who became so popular in the wrestling world that they eventually received an induction into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame.

5. Los Villanos: This is somewhat appropriate, because Los Brazos’ greatest rivals were another crew of brothers, Los Villanos. I ranked the Villanos ever so slightly higher because, while they were just as big of stars as the Brazos, it was the Villanos who won the most noteworthy match between the two crews, a mask versus mask trios match in 1988.

4. Los Guerreros: Man, lots of Mexican representation on this list. Mando, Hector, Chavo, and Eddy teamed in all manner of combinations (Eddy appearing the least due to the age gap). They were wildly successful just about everywhere they went and will go down as one of the greatest families in wrestling history.

3. The Steiner Brothers: If Rick and Scott Steiner only had their accomplishments in Japan, they would probably make this list. If Rick and Scott Steiner only had their accomplishments in the United States, they would probably make this list. They’ve got both, so they not only make the list but they also make it pretty darn high up the list.

2. The Von Erichs: The fact that the Von Erichs are still inspiring documentaries and major motion pictures forty years after the height of their peak in wrestling just goes to show you how enduring their legacy is.

1. Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk: The only pair of brothers to ever hold the NWA World Heavyweight Title and also one hell of a tag team on the occasions that they paired up. I’m not sure how you beat this one.

And now, since I’ve given my opinion on these things, I’m fully prepared for all the comments telling me how wrong I am.

Brendan is backing Bob:

We know that when the WWF moved from Bob Backlund to Hulk Hogan, that Backlund turned down the idea of turning heel. But let’s say he had said yes. How do you think McMahon would have booked him and would you suggest something different? It seems obvious to just have him turn on Hogan and set up a series of matches with a big pay off which was a standardmodel of booking in professional wrestling. But Bob Backlund had been champ for so long that the may have still had some fans that would cheer for him over the new guy, so it would seem that you would need to be creative to really create him as a heel or take time for his heel turn to build. But I’m not at your level of expertise in these matters.

I think that the way Bob Backlund was actually booked in his remaining time in the WWF can give us some insight into how he would have been booked had he decided to turn heel. After losing the WWF Championship on December 26, 1983, Backlund kept wrestling for the promotion through August 4, 1984. During that time, he did have a few rematches with the Iron Sheik, but his main opponents were the Masked Superstar, Bob Orton, and Greg Valentine. In other words, he wasn’t wrestling the top guy on the other side of the heel/face divide all that often, but he was wrestling the guys just below the top guy.

That’s what I suspect he would be doing as a heel as well. Tito Santana won the Intercontinental Title shortly after Backlund lost the WWF Championship, and a Backlund/Santana feud sounds like a great idea for the former WWF Champion, in part because of their styles matching well and in part because Tito was an attraction for the Latino fans in the crowd and they would likely be loyal to him even if he was wrestling the former beloved face of the company.

(One million points to anybody who understands why I linked to the match I did in this answer.)

Bryan was the dirt on cleanliness:

Do pro wrestlers ever go to laundromats. I’ve heard complaints from wrestlers about other wrestlers that don’t wash their gear. Do they ever go to the laundromat like the rest of us? It was my childhood dream when washing the rug to run into Bret Hart putting his pink and black into the dryer. Or do they clean it in the hotel sink?

I’m not going to say that pro wrestlers never go to laundromats, but from everything I’ve ever read or heard, it is far more common for them to hand-wash their gear in the sink or the bathtub. That’s because, even though it takes a beating in the ring, gear can be delicate in terms of washing, and it will be better preserved by a gentle hand wash.

In fact, one of wrestling’s greatest tragedies of the last five years began with wrestling gear being ruined in the wash. Joshi star Hana Kimura was one of the cast members of the reality show Terrace House in her native Japan in 2020, and one of the episodes featured her losing her temper with a housemate when he damaged her gear by placing it into a washing machine.

The episode is believed to have caused an uptick in cyberbullying directed at Kimura, which in turn contributed to her taking her own life on May 23, 2020 at the age of 22.

If you are in the United States and considering self-harm or otherwise in a mental health crisis, please call or text the three-digit code 988 to connect to professionals who are standing by to assist you.

Jonathan H. from Peterborough, England isn’t acting like himself anymore:

I’m not a big NXT guy but from what I understand while there Finn Balor transitioned from heel to face while holding the NXT title. I remember turns in the immediate aftermath of a reign, possibly as a result of the circumstances of losing the title but I’m struggling to think of many times it has happened during the title reign.

The one that does spring to mind is The Undertaker after gaining respect for Jeff Hardy during a Smackdown ladder match.

Are there any other notable examples of this in the title history of main US companies?

The most famous example that I can think of is Randy Savage. When he won the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania IV, he was one of the biggest babyfaces in company history, but by Wrestlemania V when he dropped the belt to Hulk Hogan, he had turned on the Hulkster and was fighting dirty.

CM Punk turned heel during the summer of 2012 while he was WWE Champion, setting up his match at the 2013 Royal Rumble against the Rock, which would be the end of Punk’s lengthy title reign.

You can make a case for Steve Austin having done this in 2001. He turned heel at Wrestlemania XVII, and it looked like he had become a face again briefly heading into the Invasion pay per view, though he flipped right back to being a bad guy when he joined the WCW/ECW Alliance at the end of that show. Whether you consider that a heel turn followed by a face turn followed quickly by another heel turn or whether you want to consider it one continuous heel run with a fakeout in the middle is up to you.

Those are just a few key examples of men turning while holding their promotion’s top championship. It’s actually not as uncommon as you might think.

Chris is worried about TA erasure:

I just watched a recording of the original broadcast of NWA World Wide from 10/18/1986. Four days prior was the serious car accident Magnum was involved in. The broadcast begins with Tony and David Crockett breaking the news of what happened. A few segments later, they talk about a recent match where Dusty Rhodes “broke” Tully Blanchards leg and show the footage. Magnum comes out to help Dusty, but Tony and David don’t even acknowledge Magnum. Why?

I think the precise answer to this question is lost to time, but the reasonable assumption is that, with Magnum being laid up the promotion didn’t want fans to think that he was going to be a large part of the forthcoming Tully/Dusty feud.

Tyler from Winnipeg is handling the truth just fine, thank you:

I remember watching “The Wrestler” movie in a theater and seeing Ron Killings have speaking movie lines with Mickey Rourke. Pretty sure this was pre-WWE for him, yes or no?

This actually turned out to be a more complicated answer than I would have expected.

The easiest way to answer it is to say that, no, this wasn’t pre-WWE because Killings had a stint with the company from 1999 through 2001 that a lot of people forget about, in which he was known as K-Kwik. He was involved in a tag team with the Road Dogg but lost his direction when Dogg was cut from the company and didn’t do anything of note after that. Obviously, that was many years before The Wrestler was produced or released.

However, I think that what the question is really getting at is whether the Truth was in WWE when he was in The Wrestler.

He was certainly part of the WWE roster when the movie was released. The Wrestler started running at festivals in September 2008 and received its theatrical release in the U.S. in December 2008, and Killings had his first match back in WWE after some time in Impact Wrestling on March 25, 2008.

Was he part of WWE when he shot those scenes? Probably not. The best information that I found was that The Wrestler was filmed between January and March 2008. In December 2007, Truth announced that he had negotiated a release from his contract with Impact Wrestling, where he had been part of the roster since the promotion’s debut in 2002. As noted, his first match back with WWE was in late March 2008.

Thus, it is most likely that R-Truth filmed his scenes for the movie during the brief window between his Impact Wrestling release and his new WWE contract being signed. Even if he filmed them while under WWE contract, it is most likely that he committed to the role before he signed there.

Tatankasaurus is going medieval:

My big question is . . . who portrayed the Lance Steels? Also, Lance Steel returned from 2019 – 2021 and most believe that was a different person entirely. Who were these guys?!

For those who missed it, this question is a spinoff of Ask 411 from a few weeks ago in which somebody asked me if there had ever been a wrestler with a time traveler gimmick, and I mentioned Lance Steel, a character in Chikara that was a knight from the Middle Ages brought into present day by a time machine. A second Lance Steel was later brought to present day from a different point on the timeline, and those two teamed together under the name Lancelot.

Several years later in 2019, the character of Lance Steel reemerged as a member of the heel stable the Crucible, in a story that I don’t believe was fully resolved before the promotion shut its doors in 2020.

So who were they?

It’s not 100% clear.

I have seen message board posts and rumors claiming that the original Lance Steel, who debuted in 2004, was actually Chikara original Hallowicked pulling double duty and wrestling under a second gimmick. However, I have not seen any solid enough confirmation of this that I would ever take it to the bank.

The identity of the second Lance Steel, who showed up in 2005, is actually pretty well known. He is an indy wrestler from Pennsylvania who has also wrestled under the names Niles Young and Neiko Sozio, with most of his non-Chikara exposure coming in Combat Zone Wrestling. (He also had some Chikara matches unmaksed as Niles Young over the years.)

Finally, the third Lance Steel is a real head scratcher. I haven’t even seen anybody begin to speculate as to who he was.

Of course, if anybody out there has an sources I missed, I’m glad to hear from you.

We’ll return in seven-ish days, and, as always, you can contribute your questions by emailing [email protected]. You can also leave questions in the comments below, but please note that I do not monitor the comments as closely as I do the email account, so emailing is the better way to get things answered.

For the second year in a row, the Nike Outdoor Nationals and USATF U20 Championships were held simultaneously at Hayward Field in Eugene.

There were a few champions from Oregon’s high school ranks, coming in the distance races.

Here are the top finishes for Oregon high school athletes this weekend at Hayward Field:

Nike Outdoor Nationals

The Franklin team of Zafer Courcelle, Rory Pedrick, Leaf McQuillen and Brennan McEwen (running as Mount Tabor Track Club) won the boys 4,000-meter distance medley relay in 10 minutes, 8.01 seconds. The team was seconds ahead of Adelphia Track Club of Washington, coming in second in 10:12.28.

Churchill rising senior Addison Kleinke was the runner-up in the girls pole vault with a 13 feet, 4.5 inches.

Marshfield’s Bodey Lutes finished second in the boys 800 meters, with a 1:47.74.

Jesuit’s Iman Foster was the runner-up in the triple jump, with a 40-11 on her fifth attempt. It’s a jump that moves her up to No. 2 all-time in Oregon behind McDaniel’s Maleigha Canaday-Elliott in 2024.

The Eagle Point Track Club team of Benjamin Levesque, Kaden Webb, Easton Raber and Logan Moreno finished second in the boys 4×100-meter relay with a time of 42.03.

The Corvallis Speed team of Jack Weisel, Cooper Gordon, Dylan Fiegener and Cole Fiegener finished third in the boys 4xmile relay in 7:32.45.

Central Catholic’s Joseph Donnelly, competing as a member of the Inner Circle Track Club, was third in the boys long jump with a 23-5.5 on his third attempt.

Sheldon alumnus Malachi Schoenherr, competing as a member of Nike Elite, finished fourth in the boys 3,000 meters with a time of 8:07.82.

Amity Track Club’s Jaxson Howard was fifth in the boys hammer throw with a 183-10 on his second throw.

Tigard’s Marissa Johnson, a member of Nike Elite, finished sixth in the girls hammer throw with a 166-6 on her fifth throw.

Crescent Valley alumna Emily Wisniewski finished sixth in the girls 5,000 meters, in 16:52.64.

The Forest Park Track Club team of Nicholas Ranalli, Rosie Gross, Ryan Hendrickson and Sophia Malinoski finished sixth in the mixed 4×400-meter relay in 3:40.34.

West Linn alumna Hayden Williams-Downing finished seventh in the girls javelin with a 144-7 on her third attempt.

USATF U20 Championships

Franklin alumnus McEwen won the men’s 3,000 meters in 8:22.98.

Williams-Downing finished third with a throw of 148-02. She was only a few feet behind champion Jenessa Ruder’s 151-11.

Oregon’s Maleigha Canaday-Elliott, a McDaniel alumna, finished third in the women’s triple jump with a 41-5.75.

Newberg rising senior Sophia Castaneda finished third in the women’s 400 meters in 53.16.

Kleinke finished third in the women’s pole vault with a 13-11.25.

— Nik Streng covers high school sports in Oregon. Reach him at nstreng@oregonian.com or @NikStreng

VICKSBURG, Miss.(VDN) — The Vicksburg 9th Grade cheerleading team wrapped up a five-day summer camp Friday with a high-energy showcase in front of family, friends, and supporters. The event marked the culmination of a week of intense training, team bonding, and spirited preparation.

The camp was led by Hype Athletics coaches Rogers Wesley and Kadajai Allen, who brought energy and expertise to each session. Tammy Hogan, Vicksburg’s cheer coach, continues to serve as a steady presence and guiding force for the young athletes.

Throughout the week, the team focused on sharpening their cheer fundamentals, building trust as a unit, and developing the school spirit they’ll bring into the upcoming season. Friday’s showcase, held at 1 p.m., gave the cheerleaders a platform to demonstrate their progress and celebrate their hard work.

The cheerleaders who participated in the camp included Skylar Spencer, Jamirrial Harris, Brooklyn Palmer, Dynastee Wilson, Kvianna Armstrong, Tonya Ates, and Camden McGloster. Each athlete showed strong dedication and represented Vicksburg with pride and enthusiasm.

The camp not only strengthened their skills but also laid the foundation for a strong team dynamic heading into the school year. The Vicksburg community applauds their efforts and looks forward to seeing them in action this fall.

See a typo? Report it here.

Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025).

© 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us).
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.

Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.

YouTube’s privacy policy is available here and YouTube’s terms of service is available here.

Ad Choices