Wrestling with the knowledge

Wrestling with the knowledge

After witnessing WrestleMania 23 on April 1, WWE fans around the world may be able to claim they've officially seen everything. But do they know everything, especially all things WrestleMania? Well, "The Ultimate WrestleMania Quiz," as seen in the April 2007 issue of WWE Magazine (on sale now), guarantees to stump even the heartiest WWE aficionado who engages in this anything-but-trivial pursuit.

Just prior to WrestleMania 23, WWE.com supplied copies of the publication to several WWE and ECW Superstars so we could test their 'Mania wisdom and retention capabilities. (In separate locker rooms, we might add; no one likes a cheater.) Of the participants who bravely grappled with all 15 multiple-choice questions, only four—ECW Original Tommy Dreamer and New Breed member Matt Striker, Raw's Edge and SmackDown's Matt Hardy—graduated at the top of their class. Even some of them, however, admitted their respective victories weren't easy.

"‘The Ultimate WrestleMania Quiz' is a good title, because it's hard as can be," noted Dreamer. "I think that if anyone got all 15 questions correct, they need to go outside a bit more. I don't know if Vince McMahon could take this thing…. It's a hard, hard quiz."

It was the degree of difficulty that appealed most to the smartass who excels at testing everyone's patience—your teacher, Matt Striker. Asked how he thought he fared on "The Ultimate WrestleMania Quiz," Striker sarcastically answered WWE.com with a question of his own: "How do YOU—capital Y-O-U—think I did? I'm a teacher. I have a 186 I.Q. and, on top of that, I have been in love with this sport since I was seven years old. This is not a quiz; this is recreation."

WWE.com wished Edge had been more relaxed, especially while he griped over pictures of Butterbean and Mike Tyson in the quiz. "What the hell is this," he asked, sarcastically looking over the publication's cover, "a wrestling magazine or a boxing magazine?" Eventually, Raw's Rated-R Superstar calmed down enough to sum up his test-taking performance with one word: "Perfect," he bragged. "As in anything I do, in any walk of life, I master it…much better than Chris Masters. Ha! See what I did there? Put that in there, that's cool."

"I'm a real wrestling historian, especially about WWE. This quiz was fun," said Matt Hardy, for whom one question particularly conjured up fond memories. "The question about the Shawn Michaels-Bret Hart WWE Iron Man Match [at WrestleMania XII] stood out most for me. It was one of my favorite matches growing up."

"What I enjoyed about this quiz is that it used spatial learning as well," Striker observed. "For instance, Question #9, which had several pictures of the Ultimate Warrior—who I have quite a history with; if you are a big fan of Byte This!, you might remember—that was rather interesting." No more interesting than the association method ECW's snarky educator utilized while jotting down his answers. Without spoiling anything, let's just say that Question #1 reminded him of Baseball; he tied Question #2 to a one-time White House inhabitant; and for Question #5, he thought of…NHL Center Jeremy Roenick? (Don't ask. We didn't get it, either.)

For Edge, Question #6 involved someone who guided him on his Rated-R road to the top. "Bad News Brown—God rest his soul, he passed away a couple of weeks ago—he wrestled and helped me a lot in the formative years of my career, so I know the answer to that question." As for other multiple-choice offerings like Question #8, he opined, "There are a lot of people who might not get that one. I, however, would."

And just how did everyone do on "The Ultimate WrestleMania Quiz"? "I'm one of the biggest, biggest wrestling fans. Still, being out [on the road] wrestling, I did forget some stuff," said Dreamer, who scored a very respectable 12 out of 15. "Some are trick questions…you've just got be an ultimate diehard."

Matt Hardy agreed, advising fans might want to "sit back and do a little research before they take the quiz." As for his 14 out of 15 score, he states, "I feel real good about it."

To no one's surprise, Edge wasn't so pleased. Actually, he was downright peeved with the quiz's rating scale, in which the number of correct answers correspond with an image of WWE Superstars past and present, plus their respective WrestleMania win-loss records.

"Undertaker counts as ‘15' [correct answers, equaling a perfect score], and I'm ‘12 to 14'…. What the hell is that?" he asked, looking quite annoyed. "Is that because he's 14-0 at WrestleMania, and I'm 5-0? I mean, I'm undefeated too, so I should be a ‘15' too. Somebody who's, like, 5-1 at WrestleMania should be ‘12 to 14'. And Tito Santana…. Arriba! That didn't work out too well for him, bless his heart."

Spoken like an overconfident Rated-R Superstar who had expected to become a two-time Money in the Bank winner at WrestleMania 23, and claims to have achieved a perfect score. Unfortunately, he ditched out with our copy of WWE Magazine before WWE.com could verify his answers. Therefore, we could only credit the one Superstar who genuinely accomplished that feat—ECW's very own "Head of the Crass."

"The rating scale—and the fact that there's a picture of Robert Goulet in the quiz as well—really caught my fancy," said Matt Striker. "I had all 15 questions correct, and it says here that I rank as ‘The Undertaker.' To be honest and humble, if I may, if I can ever hope to achieve half of what the legendary Undertaker has achieved, especially when it comes to WrestleMania, then I really will staple myself—not in the way that a hardcore wrestler does—in the history, in the annals, of professional wrestling."

Upon hearing the teacher's last comment, Tommy Dreamer simply observed, "Matt Striker has issues."

If there's one issue you should have, make it this month's edition of WWE Magazine, available where most writing instruments are also sold. Get one with an eraser.

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