My name is Ryan Welton, and I am a triviaholic.

I suppose it's the nature of somebody immersed in 1980s culture that facts are retained so easily. No, I don't think a knowledge of trivia resonates as actual intelligence, although those of us with a vast expanse of trivia abilities are often up on the happenings of the world.

We watched MTV from Day 1. We watched a ton of sitcoms and dramas and movies. We watched sports. We were born into the advent of headline news 24 hours a day. We were in our 20s when the Internet was born, and we hang out with people of like mind.

In 1991, my college friends and I, on a lark, entered the University of Oklahoma's College Bowl competition. Initially, we were going to enter as a novice team, thinking we might not stack up against the big boys. Heck, back in Henryetta, our "gifted" class -- if you could call us that -- entered Academic Bowl competitions, and we got our asses handed to us by the likes of McAlester and Coweta.

However, me and my Mr. Bill's-hangin-out-NTN-playin' crew decided to give College Bowl a try.

We won.

Not only did we win, but we dominated, beating a smug team of honors students 220-110 in the finale. Yes, I remember the score, and I remember our team name: 3D Warthogs From Hell.

That win catapulted us to the Big 8 competition at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., an atrocious little town, where we were forced to stay at a motel that rented by the hour. The per diem for us, granted by the university, was a whopping $26 per day for all of us.

But, that bought plenty of beer. We didn't fare so well in the conference tourney, getting stomped by a regional team from the University of Missouri-Rolla, a night after we drank until 4 a.m., much to the chagrin of our team captain.

What did we care; we already accomplished our goal.

Reason I revisit the glory days is because VH1 has a show that I think my current crew and I could do well on. It's the World Series of Pop Culture, a tournament featuring 16 teams of three people each, battling wits on questions of movies, music and television.

Thanks to a reminder from our assignment desk manager at the station, the venerable Dave Koester, I caught up on all four of this season's previous episodes online. Thank God for the Web, although VH1 makes it a bit tricky to find each episode.

Hosted by the wonderfully dry Pat Kiernan, these teams are competing for $250,000. Sure beats $26 per day from OU.

The tournament started in 2006, won by a team called El Chupacabra, a reference to FOX' hit show "The X Files." Like most reality television, I typically don't catch on until the second season. However, now that I'm caught up, I'm hooked. This show is a must-watch for any trivia buff.

What I've learned from watching the first four episodes online is that, unfortunately, I'm not as good with pop culture as I would think I am. Nope. In fact, it would take a ton of practice and reliving the entire 1990s to be able to compete at a high level. However, I documented each episode so far, noting how many questions I got right and wrong, and I'll do so throughout the entire series.

As far as putting together a team, I know of only one person for sure who would be both capable and interested -- Soonertoad. The man is a movies legend, and he can do well enough in music, depending on the era, that he would be a formidable two-category player.

Toad is also a sci-fi god. God with a capital 'G,' and I would literally put him up against anybody. On the other hand, 1980s music is a point of domination for me, as is current events (gossip) and reality television (Idol).

We would need a third player. My first thought goes to my boy Jake Dakota down in Dallas. He's strong with movies, general knowledge and television, but my hunch is that he wouldn't be terribly interested.

My friend and musical compadre Sharon would be good at this, too, even though I'm not sure she would be too interested or confident in her trivia abilities. Nevertheless, I think she'd be a sleeper; she and I always connected on elements of pop culture.

What would we call ourselves?

Every team comes up with a team name based on something obscure in pop culture. For example, Fragilay -- which defeated defending champs El Chupacabra in the first round -- is comprised of three black women who named themselves after the pronunciation of the father in "A Christmas Story," in the scene where they received a packaged labeled "Fragile."

He said, "Oooh, frag-eeee-lay."

That's the type of player, the type of team we're talking about here. Throw out stereotypes as to who you think would be good at what. These teams are all-around scary solid, and frankly, Fragilay so far is my pick to win this season's competition.

Well, they're at least my favorite so far.

In all the first rounds so far, only Wocka Wocka and Remo Leen Teen Teen swept their competition. In the WSOP, as we'll call it, one player from each team comes up to the mic to answer questions within a category. The loser of each category is axed until there is nobody left standing on one team or the other.

The team with survivors wins.

I'm proud to say that there hasn't been a single category in which I've not answered at least one question right -- including sci-fi categories. However, the only categories I've swept dealt with 1980s music and American Idol.

Therein lies the strategy. You have to send up the best player for that category right off the bat, knowing full well that you might be left behind for a category that doesn't suit you in the next round.

And, might I say, what really makes this show work, what makes it fun is Kiernan himself. He's a newsman from New York City's cable channel NY1, and hearing him read off lyrics to rap songs or announcing that the correct answer to a question was "sugar tits" is comically brilliant. He would make a great eventual replacement for Alex Trebek once his time on "Jeopardy" is through.

The competition has been going on for a few weeks now, but I'm caught up and ready to roll and test my wits in the World Series of Pop Culture.