Alright, I have re-opened the Mailbag section with the help of two individuals, Kayfabe and Grandpa. Hopefully, it will work out better this time, as the above individuals will handle the great BULK of the emails.

Here are the steps to take if you like your question answered in the Mailbag section:

1. Please check to see that your question(s) have not been answered on any other sections of the page. Take great note of the FAQ Part I and FAQ Part II as well as the mailbag archives at the bottom of the page. .
2. Send a legibly written question or comment to mailbag@rajah.com. Please limit yourself to only one question per person per email. This allows us to update the mailbag more frequently.
3. ALL email sent there may potentially be included in the Mailbag. If you do not want your response posted, do NOT send it there!
4. If a name is included, I will post it along with the email. If you do not want your name published, do NOT write it!
5. Remember, it is impossible that every email I receive get posted on this page. Only the best and most popular questions/comments will likely make it on.
6. Also remember, that questions will be answered by either Kayfabe or Rajah, so any personal remarks should be addressed accordingly. The following color scheme will be used:

Rajah - GREEN
Kayfabe - YELLOW
Vegas - AQUA

From: DaMan9721
Hey wassup Raj, Kayfabe, and Vegas!! I just wanted to clear something up. Kayfabe once replied that Buddy Rogers was the first WWF champion. That's not true. Buddy Rogers was the first WWWF champion. Bruno Sammartino was the first WWF Champion. Just wanted to give some light on the subject.

Yeah, but it's the same company. When the WWWF changed their name to the WWF, Sammartino was Champ, but everyone in the WWF today recognizes Rogers as the first WW(W)F Champion.

From: Davey
Hi sir, I am in doubt.After no way out, the very first raw we saw vince turn on trish status, putting her on a smelly bucket.Then later not about one or two weeks, I saw vince came out with Trish again.For those women fans here, if a guy treated u like that, will u be with him again? How come Trish is still with vince after Vince treated her like a toy & humiliated her like that.Why?

She stayed with him only so she could screw him over later on, which she did at Wrestlemania. She was in charge of giving Linda her medication, but didn't, and this led to Linda rising from her wheelchair and kicking Vince in the McMahon family jewels. Shane went on to win the match against is father, and Vince was left a loser, with no more Trish.

From: dawez4
hey rajah vegas and pete best damn site around...ok now i have seen wrestlmania 14 a million times because its my favorite and in the main event after austin comes out they show shawn hhh and chyna in the back and shawn says directly to the camera"THIS IS FOR YOU EARL"so who is earl and why does he say that? Help me out?thanx for your time.

He was referring to WWF senior referee Earl Hebner, who was hospitalized the weekend of Wrestlemania XIV. Had Hebner been healthy, he would have reffed that match, as he refs just about every TV and PPV main event match and has for years now.

From: Andy
Why do some wrestlers wear their titles to the ring while others carry theirs?

It's a matter of personal preference. Personally, I don't see why guys like Austin and The Rock wear theirs to the ring instead of dragging it along the ground. I guess they're too cool to put it around their waists. Dragging has attitude.

From: G. Sexay Rulez
Hey Rajah, Kayfabe, and Vegas.

I rented Royal Rumble 1995 recently and enjoyed it. There is only one problem about renting old PPV's, you don't get a recap of the storylines afterwards. My question is there was an "Undertaker vs. IRS" match where two "Druids" ran out. Who were behind the masks? Thanks for you time...

From time to time in the mid 90's the "druids" appeared several times, sometimes to act against the Undertaker and sometimes to wheel him down the aisle in his casket. They were never explained and never got heavily involved in any storylines. They were just an extenstion of the Undertaker character and were put out there to go along with his mysterious persona. They were never unmasked and there was never intended to be anyone specific behind the masks.

Although now that I think about it, during the angle you mentioned with The Undertaker and the Million Dollar Corporation, I think one or more of the druids that attacked the Undertaker may have been unmasked once as another member(s) of the Corporation (Kama, Tatanka, etc.) but I can't say for sure. The druids did appear during various other storylines throughout Taker's career and all other times they were never meant to be anything more than mysterious druids.

From: Mihir
I am a relatively new fan of the WWF (I started watching in the spring of '99 and stopped in the fall of last year). I still keep up with RAW/Smackdown! recaps, and I ordered Wrestlemania X-7, but I don't have an interest in watching the shows. I feel that the signal-to-noise ratio has gone way down, with recaps/plots/etc. drowning out the athleticism.

My question is this: what honest criticisms of the shows would YOU give? Is there anything you feel you'd take out, or put in?

I'm interested in hearing your opinions.

I think it's been well established that the formula the WWF has going for them is a successful one. With it, they've been able to attract millions of viewers and send wrestling into new heights of popularity. But that said, there are a few tweaks that could be made. I think a lot of fans are tired of the sometimes lengthy "Moments Ago" segments that appear multiple times every week on Raw and Smackdown. While that's not a major reason to watch or not watch the show, I think it can lead to people becoming disinterested and checking out what else is on TV. With the WWF's excellent production team, the video packages they put together are extraordinary and get the job of summarizing storylines and angles done. There's no need to see the same segment in its entirety two or three times per show when the production team will do a great job of recapping it and getting the main points across to the viewers anyway.

You talked about plots getting in the way of athleticism but I don't think that's the case. Intriguing storylines are what draws today's fan to the WWF and the WWF has to keep producing them in order to maintain their core fanbase. Storylines will always be an integral part of the show, and should be, but it's also important not to overexpose them. It's not good to have too much going on. Sometimes the simplest approach is the best one. The storylines should be fun and unpredictable, but they shouldn't be so at the risk of going too far and being too complex. The explicable should not be sacrificed for the unpredictability.

The WWF has done a good job of bringing their in-ring product from where it was two or three years ago (constant two minute matches on Raw) to where it is now (about five minute matches on average). They've enhanced their storylines with more in-ring action. I think more of an emphasis should be put on the matches and the action itself. With a two hour program, each match can only be so long, but it wouldn't hurt to hear the announcers try to explain what's actually going on in the match once in awhile. Sometimes we don't hear what a wrestler's motivation for winning is, or what his psychology during the match is, and how he's wearing his opponent down in hopes of defeating him. If a wrestler gets a clean win over an established wrestler, we don't hear that this should move him up the ranks and perhaps put him in line for a Title shot in the future. These are the little things that we ought to see more of.

I also love the new Sunday Night Heat format, but I think that show would be a good place to start "training" the current audience to the workings of a wrestling match. There are a lot of lower midcard regulars on Heat that are very solid wrestlers. Why not use them? Dean Malenko, Too Cool, Kaientai, X-Factor, Perry Saturn and more are all terrific underrated workers, but they're also over, and I'd love to see them involved in longer matches on Heat. Why not use Heat to showcase three seven to ten minute matches each week in between the guest host segments and all the other cool stuff they focus on Heat? Why not give Jericho and Malenko ten minutes to do a match one week? Then X-Pac and Test with the same amount of time the next week. Maybe Saturn and Al Snow. Or Matt Hardy and Christian. How about K-Kwik and Albert? Or Crash and Bull Buchanan. There are a lot of good matches that could be showcased each week that are given adequate amounts of time to showcase what a wrestling match should be. The only time we get to see anything longer than five minutes out of the midcard is on PPV, and that's not right. The main events turn from ten minutes on TV to twentyfive on PPV. Why? Why, are we as fans, supposed to think that wrestlers only wrestle one match with any serious length per month?

This is part of the reason people used to criticize WWF PPV's so much two years ago. They were used to seeing the D'Lo's and Edge's and Blackman's and Godfather's and Venis's on Raw for three minutes at a time. Then when they saw them for twelve minutes on PPV they got bored. If the WWF could condition at least half of their fans to get into eight or nine minute midcard matches on Heat, I think everyone would be a lot better off, the talent included. They don't always have time to showcase all their stuff with three minute TV matches, but this time would allow them to really show what they can do.

From: WWFFAN
Hey Rajah, just wanted to say I vistit your site at least once every day. Keep up the good work. I like your site better than WWF.COM

Just was wandering if the WWF would be interested in the services of Kurt Hennig. I think he would make a good canidate to do color commentary with JR, once Paul Heyman fufils his booking duties, or he could be used in the new WCW as a wrestler or color commentator as well.

There were rumors of Hennig signing with the WWF late last year. While I'd love to see him back personally, I don't think he's what the WWF is looking for. With their huge talent roster, they certainly don't need him, and in WCW I think they're going for a younger look. By this point, Hennig doesn't have a ton of name value left, so I don't think he has enough drawing power to significantly create interest within the new WCW. As for commentating, Heyman is doing just fine and if they want another commentator, Bobby Heenan should be the guy they go after, not Curt Hennig.

From: Frank
This is to all the Tazz (Does he spell it with one z or two. No one seems to spell it the same. Since the WWF uses two zz's I will as well.) marks out there. How do you not realize that unless he screws up royally he has a job FOREVER as an announcer? Plus he is on television more than any other WWF Superstar, compared to the wrestlers anyway because Michael Cole is on the most (All shows). Can you people say, "Jesse "The Body" Ventura?" I bet you can. He did crap in the ring, like Tazz now (Do not give me ECW rants please.), and yet he is immortalized in WWF history and to some extent WCW as well. Any true Tazz fan realizes that this is, was, and will be the best thing to happen to his career ever, period. Tazz knows this that is why he does not complain a lot or complain loudly. Of course he would rather be wrestling but so would I. In the now limited world of wrestling you take what you can get.

I don't know if the Ventura comparison is accurate since Jess was retired from active competition when he announced, but I know where you're coming from. The commentating spot has given Tazz a lot more exposure than he'd be having if he were a midcarder. Look at guys like Val Venis, X-Pac, Hardcore Holly, Eddie Guerrero, etc. They've all been in decent spots on the card but have they gotten anywhere near the TV time as Tazz? No. Sure, Tazz's job as an announcer is to put over the other talent, but he's creating a nice little niche for himself in the process. I'm sure that his character will eventually come to the realization that he should be wrestling, and once he does, he'll be a lot better off because he'll be a lot more over than he was before. The WWF is stacked right now and Tazz has found a decent spot as a commentator. I've heard him in several interviews and he seems to be satisfied with his position. He could be a lot worse off.

From: Gavin
hi there guys, Just wanted to know a bit more about the Goon, as a guy was asking about him in the last edition of the mailbag. From what i remember, he was meant to be a witness to the shawn micheals/british bulldog angle where shawn supposedly tried it on with bulldog's wife. I'm pretty sure that he was involved in that, or was it something similar? i just remember Bulldog or Vince saying they have a witness and out came the Goon. Now i cant remember anything coming of this as i recall the angle being dropped straight afterwards. Am i right?

I don't remember him ever playing a role in that angle. In fact I don't remember him ever being involved with much of anything that mattered. During the Bulldog/Michaels angle, the WWF did put together a video package that featured certain wrestlers, most notably Marty Jannetty, talking about Shawn's reputation as a womanizer (in the storyline), but unless the Goon appeared in that (and truthfully I don't think he did), I don't think he was involved with the angle at all.

All I remember about the Goon are his vignettes, him debuting, beating a few jobbers for a few weeks, then maybe taking a few losses, and disappearing forever.

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