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   - Well, things have been really busy here this semester. As I
   mentioned before, I have two undergraduate students working with me on
   two different research projects. I've had little time to give to
   wrestling-related ventures, and I don't know whether that's going to
   change any time soon. Some thoughts on recent events:
     * The quality of the wrestling in the WWF as increased dramatically
       since they've allowed Chris Benoit and, to a lesser degree, Chris
       Jericho to work longer matches. The Benoit vs. Austin title match
       with the ten German suplexes was great, and I also really enjoyed
       the Benoit vs. Angle cage match on Monday night. With that said, I
       can't be the only one questioning whether this "push" is really
       being executed all that well. The finishes in their headlining
       matches have been atrocious. Okay, Benoit got a fluke dirty pin on
       Austin in a tag match and they've pummelled Vince McMahon, but the
       important finishes have basically left them looking stupid. And
       nobody wants to support a stupid babyface. Speaking of babyfaces,
       at the King of the Ring that would be Steve Austin, who faces two
       opponents in one match. How they can possibly go into such a match
       without weakening Benoit & Jericho (to make us wonder whether
       they'll beat Austin) is beyond me. And weakened babyfaces is just
       what a title match needs, right, just what gets supported by fans?
       And lord knows if they can't beat Austin 2-on-1 after not beating
       him 1-on-1, any fan support they've generated will be severely
       decreased.
     * The timing of Benoit & Jericho being given more time coincided
       wonderfully with TV scheduled for Alberta. The fan reaction to
       those guys at those shows was great. But the appearance of some
       Hart family members on TV was terribly disappointing. Yeah, Bruce
       Hart wants to have connections to bigger organizations, which in
       North America sadly leaves no options other than Titan, but it was
       really sad to see him grab Stu's arm and wave it, a scene which
       made it completely clear that Stu had no clue where he was and
       what he was doing. And to play out the Montreal Survivor Series
       finish in Calgary, with the Harts in attendance, was so weird,
       with the only weirder thing being the total lack of mention of
       Owen in any way by anybody. Okay, it was also kind of weird to
       choose a Bret-bashing King of the Ring flashback. All in all, the
       show was beyond belief in this regard, but I was mostly just
       horribly sad for the Hart family. In the Stampede Wrestling e-mail
       newsletter, presumably written or approved by Bruce, they
       announced that "the Hart family" had made peace with Vince McMahon
       on this night, mentioning that only Bret still holds a grudge with
       Vince, in large part over the Montreal finish. In the Observer,
       Ellie Hart, who must forever be viewed as a disloyal sister of
       Owen for faxing the WWF legal team paperwork from widow Martha's
       lawyers, wrote a bizarre letter saying that Bret's animosity to
       Vince is all based in the Montreal finish. Maybe Bruce & Ellie
       have led a stange life filled of the pro-wrestling involvement,
       but they have to understand that to even suggest that Bret's big
       problem with Vince is Montreal is an abhorrent disservice to the
       memory of their brother Owen. The whole thing is sickening. One
       begins to understand Bret sadness that supreme tragedy which one
       would think would bring a strong loving family together actually
       ended up tearing his family apart, now to the point that some of
       the Owen-disloyal family members actually try to minimize the
       seriousness of the split (notice that "the Hart family" was hardly
       in attendance at the show; reports are that Helen was convinced to
       ask Stu to appear on TV because it might help Bruce's business,
       but then regretted the decision) and blame the one dissenter
       Bret's animosity on something other than Owen's tragic death while
       attempting a needless and pointless stunt.
     * And speaking of Calgary TV, wasn't it exciting to see the
       beginning of the WCW vs. WWF feud?! Yes, Lance Storm, who one
       would think should be a marquee player in WCW, ran in and attacked
       that most important of WWF superstars, Perry Saturn. Wow. After
       that and Hugh Morrus interfering in an equally meaningless way,
       one has to think that they are putting this thing together totally
       on the fly after all. Of the two extreme outcomes, "suck" now
       seems to have the advantage. No, I won't make a tawdry connection
       between one of the verbs in the last sentence and the appearance
       of a WWF-tarty-looking Stacy Kiebler on Smackdown yesterday. I
       guess at King of the Ring the whole thing will be unveiled.
     * I'm sad that Eddie Guerrero's trouble with painkillers has led to
       his enjoyable story line being dropped.
     * I've got a slew of new Japanese TV tapes to watch, including a few
       Pro Wrestling NOAH shows, and I may even get the time to watch
       some this Father's Day weekend, although those Fredholm integral
       equations are calling my name too. Add to that roughly 400
       unwatched tapes and I'm a sad guy. I'm hoping to get the online
       tape list fixed in the next week or two. The program I wrote to
       generate the HTML files containing tape details from my tape list
       files was lost in a hard drive crash last year, so online list has
       fallen into disrepair. The past few nights, I've been writing a
       little code here and there to create a better HTML generation
       program.
     * Nice to finally see Yoshihiro Tajiri in the ring instead of
       serving tea.
     * A student of mine (from a few semesters back) will be giving a
       talk at the university in July entitled "The Physics of
       Professional Wrestling." Not sure what he has in mind, but I'll
       surely mention it again after it happens.
     * I downloaded The Mummy Returns to check out the Rock's performance
       and to call his role a "bit part" would be to make light of parts
       that actually get 10% of movie time. Rock or his face maybe
       appeared for a whopping four minutes, yet the ad campaign for the
       movie would have you believe that he had a major role in the
       movie.
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