Some interesting facts about the WWE and its stars

Why did the Ultimate Warrior keep leaving the WWF?

Well it’s been less about the Ultimate Warrior leaving, and more about him being tossed out on his ear. The first time he left, it was because he held Vince McMahon up for more money before he would perform at Summerslam in 1991. Vince paid it, and then promptly suspended Warrior for threatening to not show up. Warrior tried to get his release and was told he was under contract until 1992, conceivably while people in the office made rude gestures at him.

In 1992, Warrior was brought back in, only to be released for real in the weeks before Survivor Series 1992. It’s not 100% clear as to why, but the common belief is that Warrior failed a drug test, and WWE was on trial for steroids at the time. And then in 1996, Warrior made another comeback, only to be released again for no showing some shows, the cause for which WWE and Warrior have very disparate views of.

So yeah, Warrior was his own worst enemy during a volatile time. That pretty neatly sums it all up.

How many nationalities have held the WWF/WWE title since its conception?

If we’re counting anyone who was not born in the United States, and only the WWE Championship, and not the World Heavyweight Championship, here’s a list of the first wrestler from each nation to win the title:

Bruno Sammartino (Italy)Ivan Koloff (Canada)Antonio Inoki (Japan)Iron Sheik (Iran)Andre the Giant (France)Kane (Spain)Sheamus (Ireland)Alberto Del Rio (Mexico)

Why did Mickie James leave the WWE?

WWE released James, saying that they wanted to move the division in a new direction. Without getting too deep into things, James had been on the wrong end of a number of dangerous looking botches, and her character had taken a huge credibility hit after the whole “Piggy James” fiasco, so whatever the reason, the time was probably right to move on.

Who has better ratings? TNA now or WCW in it’s dying days?

TNA has pretty much averaged a 1.0 throughout its entire lifespan as on television. There have been fluctuations in either direction, but never more than half a rating point, and then it always creeps back to the average. WCW, on the other hand, averaged a 2.3 through its last year on television, which is actually a little bit better than the ratings that WWE Smackdown gets now.

Of course, there are all sorts of factors involved here, like cable’s growth in the years in between, the decline of wrestling interest and traditional cable viewers in general, and all of that jazz. So you could say that TNA’s 1.0 is more impressive than WCW’s 2.3. But in literal terms, WCW’s were higher.