Is Vince McMahon Dead and Other "World Wrestling Entertainment" Trivia Questions?

Answer a series of forehead-slapping anecdotal factoids. It's up to you to weigh each fact in each anecdotal factoid. They're tricky. One might seem like total B.S. until it's revealed to be strangely and disturbingly "True." Another anecdotal factoid might seem to contain all solid and verifiable facts until it's revealed to be yet one more big fat garden variety "Bald-Faced Lie." And here's the trickiest part: an anecdotal factoid might even be "Half-True"; in other words, a mishmosh of truths and bald-faced lies, where you don't know where one ends and the other begins, much like the usual slop served by Madison Avenue, Washington D.C., and the Internet in its entirety.

Category: Wrestlemaniacs Quiz

Decide for yourself, and mark "T" for "Truth", "F" for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" for "Half-Truth" in the blank slot next to each factoid.

The answers will be revealed on the next page.

1) __ The first Wrestlemania event happened in 1985. It included a tag team bout with Hulk Hogan and "The A-Team's" Mr. T against Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. The ring announcer was former New York Yankees manager Billy Martin. The time keeper was Liberace, who also danced in the ring with Radio City Music Hall's Rockettes.

2) __ Controversial baseball legend Pete Rose has fought wrestler bad guy Kane at several Wrestlemanias, each time losing to Kane's trademark piledriver move. At Wrestlemania XV, Rose entered the ring against Kane, this time dressed as San Diego Padres mascot "the Famous Chicken." And once again, Kane delivered a piledriver.

3) __ In June 2007, WWF founder Vincent McMahon was murdered after his limousine exploded. The FBI was called in to help investigate, but so far they've come up with no suspects. New York Post columnist Jerry Capeci, whose beat is organized crime, thinks that McMahon had crossed members of a Detroit Mafia family.

4) __ In 2001, a runaway blimp advertising "Wrestlemania IX" failed an attempt to land at the Oakland (California) Airport and crashed into an Oakland waterfront restaurant, killing a waiter. Both pilots died after they were forced to jump from the balloon's gondola into the Pacific.

5) __ A real-life feud between WWE champion Bret Hart and championship contender Shawn Michaels resulted in an event known in the wrestling world as "The Montreal Screwjob".

The Montreal match against Michaels was to be Bret Hart's last appearance with WWE before leaving to work for Ted Turner's competing franchise, WCW. Before the match, Hart told boss Vince McMahon that he didn't want to lose to Michaels in Canada, his home country.

During the match, Michaels trapped Hart in a sharpshooter hold; but, as Hart was about to break the hold, McMahon called for the bell and declared Shawn Michaels the new champion; thus, "the Montreal Screwjob."

A furious Hart spit on McMahon as the cameras were rolling, and gave the WWF founder a black eye backstage. This was the birth of Vince McMahon's hated "Mr. McMahon" character.

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Here are the answers for the Wrestlemaniacs Quiz.

Answers:

A reminder: "T" is for "Truth", "F" is for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" is for "Half-Truth".

1) T: It's true that the first Wrestlemania event included a tag team bout with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. It's also true that the ring announcer was Billy Martin and the time keeper was Liberace, who also danced in the ring with the Rockettes.

2) T: It's true that Pete Rose had fought Kane at several Wrestlemanias, each time losing to Kane. It's also true that Rose entered the ring against Kane dressed as the San Diego Chicken.

3) F: It's false that Vincent McMahon was murdered in real-life. As part of a WWE fictional storyline called "The Death of Mr. McMahon", the character known as "Mr. McMahon" got into his limo and it exploded. Since the "body" was never recovered, it's still inclusive that the character did die.

4) F: It's false that a runaway "Wrestlemania IX" blimp crashed into an Oakland restaurant. The accident itself was true, but the runaway blimp was emblazoned with the XFL football league logo. There were no fatalities in this real-life crash.

Vincent McMahon owns the XFL football league.

5) T: The story of "The Montreal Screwjob" is true.

SOURCES:

"Five infamous mania moments", Keith Loria, Wrestling Digest, URL: (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCO/is_6_4/ai_98249762/pg_3)

"WWE: Is faking Vince McMahon's death working?", Darren Rovell, CNBC, URL: (http://www.cnbc.com/id/19307528/site/14081545/?site=14081545)

"Runaway blimp", Michelle R. Smith, AP, URL: (http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/011001/upd_075-6307.shtml)

"Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart", Eric Cohen, About.com, URL: (http://prowrestling.about.com/od/thebiggestrivalries/a/shawnvsbret_2.htm)