A few weeks ago, my brother and I won a local wrestling trivia game for the second year in a row (Team name: Team WrestleCrap). Which got me thinking: What would have happened if actual WWE Superstars competed against us? After all, we just watch the stuff—those guys live it.
Well, a look back at the old NXT proves that we probably wouldn’t have much to worry about.
Back then, WWE NXT had a reality competition format where rookies competed in challenges and strived to be the last contestant remaining after 13 weeks (except Season 5, which outlasted the other four seasons combined and might still be going on).
Sprinkled among the asinine physical challenges was the occasional asinine mental challenge.
For example, Season 2 saw the final three rookies huddle over a buzzer for a game of WWE trivia.
Michael McGillicutty and Kaval each answered their share of fairly easy questions (Whose music begins with “You think you know me?”, Who was the first IC champ, etc.)
What’s notable is that Miz’s rookie (and therefore Michael Cole’s facvorite) Alex Riley didn’t get a single question right until the end. His excuse? He didn’t know any of that nerd crap, and he didn’t care.
The man could have been Michael Cole’s son, and not just because he looked just like him.
In fact, not only did he not get a single question right, but he only buzzed in once, for the question, “What mode of transportation did the Dynamic Dudes use to get to the ring?”
After Kaval was marked wrong for “surfboards”, Riley chimed in with “boogie boards”. Host Matt Striker had to call on a fan to provide the correct answer, skateboards.
“How would you surf down to the ring anyway?” asked Josh Mathews. The same way they skated: by carrying the board.
It wasn’t until the very last question that Alex gave a correct answer, stating that Triple H had won the WWE title the most times (to that point).
Thanks to Riley’s patented last-second magic, the final score of NXT trivia: Riley 200, McGillicutty 500, Kaval 700.
NXT Season 3:
For Season 3, WWE gave each contestants an air horn rather than having them share a buzzer. This proved a poor choice on the very first question, with every contestant (minus Aksana) blowing her horn simultaneously.
AJ made the mistake of identifying two theme songs in a row, prompting Cole to call her a nerd. This was, after all, the season they knew they were getting kicked off TV, so WWE had the announcers bash everything and everyone on the show at all times.
When he wasn’t being horrible to AJ for knowing the product and trying to win, Cole competed with Josh Mathews to be as bitchy as possible to Matt Striker, who heard the commentary on his earpiece.
AJ’s streak was snapped, however, when neither she nor any of the other competitors (especially Aksana) recognized the Legion of Doom’s theme.
When asked, Michael Cole said he knew what it was. Nerd!
Obviously, AJ won in a blowout, earning herself one immunity point and the endless derision of Michael Cole.
A few weeks later, with Maxine eliminated, NXT challenged its rookies to identify WWE Superstars’ bodies, a task usually reserved for the coroner.
By “bodies”, they meant pictures of wrestlers’ midriffs.
Naomi stunned the host by identifying Cody Rhodes’s waist before even getting to hear the choices.
She erred on the next one, however, jumping the gun and mistaking Kelly Kelly for Michelle McCool.
But she made up for it by correctly identifying this midsection as belonging to Maryse…
…after other rookies had guessed Melina and (once again) Michelle McCool.
As the contestants played along with the producer’s barely disguised fetish, the navels got trickier. This one stumped the rookies so badly, they actually waited to hear their three choices.
“Is it Tamina, Gail Kim, or Rosa Mendes?” asked Striker.
Maxine finally got to answer, guessing Rosa Mendes. She was wrong. That meant it was either Tamina or Gail Kim, and it sure as hell wasn’t Tamina.
Aksana immediately jumped at the chance to get on the scoreboard. And she got it wrong.
But she didn’t just get it wrong, she got it wrooong, because instead of guessing Gail Kim, or even Tamina, she guessed Michelle McCool.
It seems everybody wanted it to be Michelle McCool, but it never was. In other words, the opposite of 2025.
Often the contest amounted to “Name that waistband”. For instance, the only thing we could tell from this picture is that the guy wore blue and white tights:
“John Cena?” guessed AJ, who hadn’t dressed like that since 2002.
The correct answer was…
John Cena!? How?
And, more importantly, how the hell?
Later, Maxine correctly named Vladimir Kozlov to get on the board at last.
Last on the torso heap was Melina, whom Naomi ID’d, giving her the victory. But just barely, so Cole couldn’t make fun of her.
Weeks later, AJ bounced back to win the High School Photo challenge—
—not because she looked the most like a high school photo, but because she could name the most WWE Superstars based on their yearbook pictures.
Most were obvious (as the commentators were quick to note)…
…except apparently this black and white portrait, which Kaitlyn mistook for Cody Rhodes, and which none of the other ladies recognized.
I wonder if any of the rookies felt ashamed not being able to identify Jerry Lawler. After all, The King could have easily identified all these women in teenage photos (but they wouldn’t let him be a contestant).
The highlight of this contest was the airhorns all running out of gas halfway through the contest (except Aksana’s). That meant the crowd had to put up with tired, irritating squeaks for the rest of the segment (though home viewers, who could hear Cole’s commentary, were used to that).
The final airhorn challenge was a straightforward trivia game. What set this one apart, though, was that it was totally meaningless, as even the winner wouldn’t be immune from elimination.
The prospective Divas had new airhorns now, meaning that, like the first time around, everyone’s horn sounded exactly the same and no one could tell who rang in first.
Thus, the rookies tried to stand out by sounding their horn the longest, or the most frequently, or the highest up.
But apparently Matt Striker could tell who was first each time, because it was almost always AJ (the nerd).
Not all the questions were tough ones. Michael Cole was particularly unimpressed with AJ for knowing that Triple H was known as The Game. “I even know that,” said Cole, “and I know nothing about history!”
Besides berating the contestants and the show as a whole, the commentators also nagged the host.
“Matt get out of our shot”, said Josh. “They’re trying to shoot us!”
If only.
AJ won, 1300-100-0. Her prize?
Getting cut from the show.
NXT Season 4:
NXT Season 4 was the show’s first season entirely on the WWE website, meaning they had less reason than ever to entertain viewers. This season saw three trivia segments, each with a different twist.
First was Hot Seat Trivia, where the wrestlers had to answer questions while standing. Naturally.
Here, Matt Striker gave the rookies a topic, and they took turns giving answers without repeating.
The guys got through rounds one and two just fine…
…although Byron Saxton had the annoying habit of answering in the form of a question.
“What is The Big Bossman?”
“Who is Mark Henry?”, said Derrick Bateman, showing him up.
Brodus Clay got dinged for listing Diesel as a former King of the Ring, but it was nothing compared to what came next.
Given the category of cities that had hosted WrestleMania, Conor O’Brian responded…
…Well, would you like to guess how he responded?
Pittsburgh?
Anchorage?
Ulaanbaatar?
All of those would have been wrong, but they would have at least been cities.
And “California” or “Canada” would have at least been places.
But with all the confidence in the world, the site of WrestleMania that Conor chose was…
Pee-wee Herman.
Anyway, Bateman won.
Next came Out-Think the Fink, where contestants competed with ring announcer and wrestling trivia expert Howard Finkel.
Everyone got 30 seconds to answer as many questions as possible…
…and for an additional challenge, Matt Striker read the questions at a leisurely pace.
This meant that Finkel himself only got to answer two questions (three if he’d been a little quicker).
Johnny Curtis lucked out with shorter questions, getting to answer a whopping four. Three were wrong.
Derrick Bateman pandered to the Cincinnati audience, promising to hit it out of the park like Pete Rose.
Striker begged Bateman to get with the times, suggesting Chris Sabo .
Having previously cheated, the future EC3 had only 20 seconds to answer his questions. The first: “At which event did Kane first meet The Undertaker?”
His response: Badd Blood.
Despite being correct, this answer was marked wrong…
…because the question meant to ask when they first wrestled, which was WrestleMania 14.
Bateman recovered by answering a super-obscure question about Edge…
…recalling that he won his first title from Jeff Jarrett (at a house show in 1999, for a reign of one day).
Striker couldn’t even finish his third question, screwing Bateman over again, despite his protests about Badd Blood.
Byron Saxton got an advantage over Bateman, being granted the full thirty seconds. Just like Bateman, though, he got screwed.
Q: “Who shaved off Legion of Doom member Hawk’s mohawk on Monday Night Raw?”
A: “New Age Outlaws.”
Incorrect, said Striker.
Q: “At which event did Stone Cold Steve Austin return after a nine-month absence in 2000”
A: “SummerSlam”
Not only was it wrong, but Matt Striker ruled it was not even an answer. Jeez, even “Pee-wee Herman” was an answer.
The correct answer was either Austin’s cornerman gig at Backlash (five months after being run over)…
…or his first match back at No Mercy (eleven months after being run over).
Byron got only one of four questions correct, meaning he couldn’t out-think the Fink, either.
Brodus Clay got the Royal Rumble category. Tyrus started off his round with two incorrect answers, one of which was that Cactus Jack and Triple H had a no-holds-barred match at Royal Rumble 2000.
Idiot! It was a street fight, which was completely different.
Kidding aside, his third answer actually was wrong.
Q: “At which Royal Rumble event did John Cena make his surprise return following an injury?”
A: “SummerSlam”
Brodus did manage a last-second correct answer to tie his fellow rookies at one apiece, but it wasn’t enough to beat Howard Finkel’s whopping two answers, so no one earned immunity points.
With just three contestants remaining in the season, Brodus, Johnny, and Derrick competed in “Save Yourself” trivia, wherein the losers would get slimed.
This time, contestants could pick questions from a Jeopardy-like board.
See if you can get them right!
Lou Albano’s final championship tag team?
Headshrinkers in 1994? Well, yes, but the category is “80s”…
…so Brodus’s answer of the British Bulldogs was ruled correct.
Having gotten the question right, Brodus selects the 80s again. The clue? The year SmackDown debuted on TV.
Derrick Bateman spoke out of turn, answering 2001, but Johnny Curtis, who rang his horn first, answered 1999. And he was right!
Except, as Brodus bemoaned, the category was “80s”. What was a 1999 question doing in the 80s category?
So far, whoever put this game together was 0 for 2.
The contestants themselves then eent 0 for 2 on the next two questions before Johnny Curtis selected “Divas” for 300.
“Divas for 300”, repeats Matt Striker. “Me too”. Yikes, I hope not.
All together, Matt Striker managed to read seven questions in five minutes, with the wrestlers answering four correctly. They still beat Becky Lynch, at least.
Though Brodus Clay eked out a victory on this night, it was Johnny Curtis who ultimately won the season…
…yet he wouldn’t debut on WWE’s main roster (for all intents and purposes) for another two years…
…when he upset Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 29 in Pee-wee Herman.
I mean, East Rutherford, New Jersey.