I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had the King of the Ring on this past Sunday, 06/24/2001. It would be charitable to call the build-up for this show a total mess. As Dave Meltzer joked in the Observer, "I thought that the WWF bought WCW, not its booking team." Things got even worse on Thursday. In the final Smackdown before the PPV, Steve Austin was all over the show talking up a storm and kicking ass. Meanwhile, his challengers Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho were given no time to make them seem like anything other than booking afterthoughts. They would go on to lose the tag team titles thanks to interference from Austin, with Benoit doing the honours as usual. The only positive I can possibly spin out of all of this is that maybe Benoit will get his revenge with a title win at the PPV; after all, the WWF has touted Benoit as a future world champion in its magazine. Back to Smackdown, the final item on the show saw Vince McMahon tell Austin that he wouldn't have ringside support from Vince during the title match and that if he loses the title his relationship with Vince is finished. Booking 101: when the colleagues of the heel abandon the heel, it generates babyface sympathy for the heel. Here's Austin already booked in the babyface 1-on-2 handicap position being further established as the babyface against two guys who can't lick a stamp unless they double team it. We bitched and moaned for years that WCW didn't push to the top these young guys who were obviously great workers, and then WCW finally tried it with Benoit but it was too little too late. Now the WWF is on one hand seemingly pushing Benoit & Jericho to the top, also about a year too late, but the "push" is one of those perverted set-'em-up-to-draw-a-shitty-buy-rate "pushes" that have always led to periods of great business in their wakes, right? It is just so damn crappy and disappointing, yet again. And Benoit, the team player, has been working through this so-called push period with a nagging injury. I guess that would indicated he isn't getting a reward on this PPV. Speaking of crappy and disappointing, we've got this story line with the Under Taker and his stalker to deal with too. At least they put a money player from WCW in the stalker role. I've read some cries for that role to be given to a young guy, but in reality with the WWF already mispushing two young guys and botching the WCW invasion story line by having should-be-a-superstar Lance Storm attack not-anything-resembling-a-superstar Perry Saturn, having Test teased as a big WCW convert, etc., it seems to me that putting an established WCW marquee player in the role was the right move to help jumpstart the faltering WCW vs. WWF story line. Now I've never been that big of a cheerleader for DDP, whose one strength, like Raven & Mick Foley, has seemed to be having sensible and credible garbage wrestling matches, but the fact is that whoever had the stalker spot should be in a reasonably extended program with Under Taker. Since we are talking about the Under Taker, Sarah Taker's husband, as Jim Ross called him, we know that whatever the great match rating level may be, the resulting Taker vs. Stalker matches will definitely end up Under. So I come away happy that one of the guys who could deliver great matches against Benoit or Jericho in the ensuing WCW invasion wasn't wasted in the spot with Under Taker. The problem that I have with how this angle has played out after DDP was unveiled is that WCW's status has been severely hurt by it. DDP was instructed not to mention WCW in his lengthy promo. Instead he talked about wanting to be made "famous" by Under Taker, always wanting to be in a WWF ring, etc. Like his WCW career was farm team stuff. Ugh. Instead of taking Under Taker's "I'll make you famous" catchphrase and saying that he, DDP, wanted to be made famous, DDP should have turned it around, saying that he's already famous, that he doesn't need Under Taker to make him famous, and that he was going to make Under Taker more famous because of what he'll do to him. He needed to say that while he was succeeding to great levels in WCW, he was for some reason sickened by Taker, that he took Shane's purchase of a company that failed thanks to management miscues as a chance to finally act out his longstanding animosity to the Under Taker without fear of management reprisals, in fact with management encouragement. Instead, DDP buried WCW without saying the letters, while the commentators buried it while saying the letters. That part is perfectly fine: the WWF commentators should be negative about WCW because they don't work for it. They did nothing to make anybody want to spend money on the show. WWF booking seems to be afterthought driven these days. Witness the "oh we better give Tazz a win on TV now that Tough Enough is going to air." Witness also the announcement on Heat that Michael Cole is sidelined following the beating he took from Austin on Smackdown and hence could not appear at the PPV; yet somehow there he was on WWF Metal on Saturday doing commentary and talking about the attack. It's WCW, folks. Now that I've vented, I'll say that as usual I ordered the show partly out of habit and partly because there were some matches that promised to be strong. Jeff Hardy vs. X-Pac, announced as an, ahem, afterthought, looked like it could be fun, perhaps one-dimensional, but fun. The main event promised to be great, just because Benoit was in it. And I have to admit that I was rabidly and insanely anticipating a title change to Benoit after the Smackdown job. {thinking-to-hard-mode on} Benoit winning the WWF Title? But that would turn Austin back, according to Vince, leaving a nonexistent heel side in the promotion. But that could help set up WWF wrestlers as the natural babyfaces in WWF vs. WCW matches. Or, hmmm, they could have Austin get dumped by Vince and picked up by Shane in WCW. But that would lead to everybody in WCW being in Austin's shadow. Shouldn't the early stages of the invasion feud be about one brand name vs. the other? {thinking-to-hard-mode off} Finally, Angle, the second-best wrestler in North America, would likely also deliver a strong performance. The catch there is that Angle would have to work three matches on one show, presumably saving himself as he went, which seemed to hurt the chances of greatness of the individual matches. I expected Angle to retain his crown in grueling tournament matches, or certainly make it to the tournament final, and then go on to lose to Shane because of the accumulated fatigue and WCW wrestler assistance, which in conjunction with the DDP vs. Taker "confrontation-not-a-match" would begin the WCW invasion. But, hey, I could be wrong. Here's the rundown. * DDP's music kicked up (why would the music guy play it if DDP doesn't work for the company? And was that DDP's usual music?). DDP started by saying that security needn't hit the ring, so of course they listened to the invader and didn't hit the ring. DDP hinted he had nude footage of Sarah Taker. Wow, DDP got to say "WCW." He also showed his ticket, which explained why security didn't oust him. Cool, if we buy a ticket to a WWF show, even a PPV, we can just hop into the ring and cut a promo. DDP sat ringside with a "Make Me Famous" sign and WWF security surrounding him. This had oh so many holes in it. * Paul Heyman explained that there were rumours that Chris Jericho and/or Chris Benoit had been negotiating with WCW before the show. He rambled on about "ramifications." Oh boy, would they really rush things? I half hoped that it was a swerve, with Steve Austin breaking up with Vince McMahon and then joining WCW. In any case, this reeked of breech of contract, since they could only negotiate with WCW if their WCW contracts were up, right? Would Shane really risk a contract interference suit? Oh, wait, it isn't supposed to make sense, right? * Kurt Angle beat Christian in a King of The Ring Semifinal: Slow to start, with the crowd chanting "Let's go Angle!" anyhow. They brawled outside the ring, bumping on the commentary table and ring steps. Everybody has to do it, I guess. Christian took a knock off the top turnbuckle into the guard rail (guard wall?). Angle did some nice suplexes. Angle was moving slowly, as expected given the tasks on his plate this night. Crowd was really into Angle. He sure would benefit greatly by Austin jumping, but that isn't going to happen. Austin represents the WWF brand just like Ric Flair and Goldberg best represent the WCW brand. Shane McMahon strolled out. Angle missed a moonsault, with McMahon ostensibly to credit. Christian did some nice stuff. Angle hit the ankle lock, but Christian made the ropes. Christian hit his Unprettier, but, as the referee counted, Shane pulled Christian off. The commentators sputtered. I thought the idea was that Shane wanted to prolong Angle's presence in the tournament this night to ensure that Angle was as tired as possible by the time Shane faced him. The commentators couldn't figure this out. Angle got the win mere seconds after Shane's interference. In the postmatch discussion, Jim Ross finally offered the idea that Shane wanted "Angle to extend himself." Good opener, but nothing special. * Coachman pushed the idea of a Benoit or Jericho jump to WCW during an interview with Austin, furthering the suspicion that it would be Austin, with or without title, who jumped. Paul Heyman also interviewed DDP, which led to some lame footage of DDP reading the paper in a cafeteria or something. Ooooh, somebody filmed DDP. DDP acted annoyed by the film footage. * Edge beat Rhyno in a King of the Ring Semifinal: Boy, Rhyno looked short in there with Edge. Jim Ross hyped it as spear vs. gore. Edge dropkicked Rhyno off the apron, with Rhyno landing on his side on the ground. That guy takes some stiff bumps. Edge atomic dropped Rhyno on the wall and then clotheslined him. More brawling outside the ring, with Edge controlling until Rhyno dropped him chest first on the wall. Rhyno exposed the second turnbuckle in one corner. Edge took a whip to the buckle chest first. Rhyno did the Shinjiro Otani kick across the face on Edge while Edge was sitting in the corner. The camera angle wasn't the same one that New Japan uses when Otani does the move, basically showing it head on because the impact is so amazing when Otani does it. Rhyno went to that time-honoured rib weardown move, the body scissors. Jim Ross called it one of the oldest moves in the business. Rhyno hit a splash off the top, but Edge kicked out. Jim Ross said the end was near for Edge. Jim Ross inexplicably mentioned that "Rhyno has a number of impressive wins over Chris Jericho," making me think "oh yeah, that loser in the main event." Edge rallied, but got caught climbing to the top. It ended up with Edge hitting a top rope sunset flip for a two count. The did a double spear spot. Rhyno accidentally gored the exposed turnbuckle (and you wondered why he undid the second turnbuckle?) and Edge scored a quick pin with the Impaler. * Dudleyz beat Spike Dudley & Kane to retain the WWF Tag Titles: The tag titles are so important that this match was put together during Heat when Spike challenged the Dudleyz. They played up the mystery status of Spike's partner. It's a favourite booking device to pair the bigger, power wrestler with the smaller, faster wrestler. This type of pairing can be fun because one match can have some nice work from the smaller guy and some horribly bad work from the bigger guy. Too bad Spike has abandoned the Dudley glasses; there's something comical about the prospect of Kane wearing a pair over his mask during an interview while Spike says that they have a bond approaching brotherhood. Kane tried harder than usual. There seemed to be absolutely no heat for this match after the pyrotechnics and initial minutes. Dudleyz laid out Spike and the crowd was nearly silent. Heyman did this big speech about women causing all the trouble for men. After a boring middle, Kane tossed Spike out onto the Dudleyz. Back in the ring, Kane nailed Buh Buh and Spike went for a cover for a two count. Spike hit the Dudley Dog for a two count, with D-Von breaking it up. Kane took a Whassup head butt. Spike finally took the 3D for the loss. Final couple of minutes were good. Kane laid out D-Von and put Buh Buh through a table. Will the Spike & Kane team continue? Who knows? * More footage of DDP, this time walking to his car! Ooooh. My brain wandered to a scenario of Under Taker seemingly stalking Kimberly Page, only to finally reveal with careful video footage that he's filming the action of a threesome with his wife Sarah and Kimberly, who do the lesbian kiss on camera to end the footage. Well, if Paul was writing it that's where it would go. In any case, DDP got all excited at this retarded footage. I thought the point of his stalking footage wasn't the invasion of privacy of this lame sort, but the fact that he was targeting the guy's wife and getting her on film in private locations at times. * Edge beat Kurt Angle to win the King of the Ring tournament: Kurt tried to talk Edge into dropping the match because he didn't stand a chance of winning, given his injured state. Edge attacked. Angle belly-to-belly suplexed Edge over the top rope to the floor. Yep, brawling on the floor. More suplexes from Angle. Angle missed a top rope belly-to-back suplex, with Edge flipping down into a schoolboy for a two count. Another suplex before Angle went back to a headlock. Crowd didn't know what to make of the headlock since it is hardly used these days on TV. Angle dumped edged to the floor. Angle totally dominated, which would usually signal that he was losing, but they might have been just building him up for the match with Shane. Edge finally caught Angle on top. Rana for a two count. They traded punches. Angle came up short. Edge did a much better job than usual of selling the damage he had accumulated over the course of the evening. Angle slam was countered, and a few counters later, Edge had Angle covered, but Christian had appeared at ringside, distracting the referee. Edge accidentally bumped the referee. Angle hit the ankle lock. No ref as Edge tapped. Shane McMahon came in and speared Kurt, running away. As the referee covered, Edge hit the Impaler for the pin. Very good match. Disappointing finish. "Shane McMahon screwed Kurt Angle." Afterwards, the interaction between Edge & Christian was tremendous. * Benoit & Jericho each evaded the WCW question, again suggesting to me that Austin would jump. As the next match came to the ring, they announced the next PPV is Fully Loaded on 07/22. Weird miscue again, as the print ads are already out for the show (in PPV guides and in their own magazines) calling it Invasion. Yeah, they want to build up an invasion angle before changing the name of the PPV, but then they should have been more careful with the print ads. It indicates a total lack of planning, yet again. * Jeff Hardy beat X-Pac to retain the Lightheavyweight Title: Nothing against Jeff, but why did they have Jerry Lynn drop the title without a PPV match and then not get the rematch on PPV? And nothing against Crash Holly, but why would they ever put him over Jerry Lynn on Metal? Jeff Hardy takes risks and does some spectacular stuff, but he doesn't have any of the rest of the inring package. In that sense, he reminds me of Sabu or even Rob van Dam. X-Pac hit a springboard cross body block off the corner onto Jeff on the floor. X-Pac dominated, dropping back to a headlock, which at this point had been used more on this PPV than in the past two years worth of televised WWF matches. I'm not complaining, but there needs to be some education to help a change of this sort. X-Pac missed the bronco buster. Jeff rallied. They flubbed a spot in the corner. Jeff drew the only pop of the match when he took his top off. X-Pac pinned Jeff, but the ref noticed Jeff's foot on the rope after the count, which led to the ref overruling himself. Jeff got caught on top, but recovered and hit his swanton for the pin. Spotty match. Not the sort of stuff that will get over like WCW's cruiserweights did at their best. * Austin called Vince McMahon and told him about the rumours regarding the Chrises. It seemed even more certain that Vince would get tricked into helping Austin retain the title and then Austin would jump to WCW with the belt, but I still couldn't believe that they would do it. Nonetheless, it was further suggested by the commentators putting over the idea of Benoit or Jericho jumping with the title as being huge news. Well, imagine the size of the news if the jumper was Austin. And now imagine if they would have developed this story line more slowly and gracefully on TV the last few weeks. One thing seemed certain: with all of the time spent hyping the potential WCW jump of one of the main event wrestler, something was going to happen at the end of the night. * DDP and Under Taker had their confrontation: DDP hopped into the ring after another exciting video showing him driving. Ooooh. DDP called out Under. Instead another clip of DDP walking to the ringside area aired. They showed DDP walking backstage and then going out to the ring. But I thought he bought a ticket. Why would he be backstage? Ah, what's one more hole? Anyhow, the camera turned around and Sarah Taker said that her husband, Under, was going to come to the ring now. DDP didn't back down from the fight. Under laid him out quickly, raining down blows in the mount position. DDP's guard is easy to pass, accprding to Jeff Blatnick. DDP rallied with a low blow. Under rallied with punches. Sable, er, Sarah came down to ringside, with camcorder in hand to film the beating. Under missed a punch by six inches, but DDP sold it. Ugh. They brawled around ringside. Okay, either DDP should get to steal Under's wife or he should have his own chick save him. DDP has to win, right? DDP chaired Under, but then got tackled over the commentary table. I hate to sound like a vampire, but if this was what they had planned they needed a bit of colour before it ended. I mean to say that it strained credibility for the commentators to call this such a hellacious beating. Taker totally controlled, Sarah filmed, and DDPed backed off. DDP bumped to the floor and ran. Sarah filmed him running away. That sucked. Did Dusty Rhodes book this? To call this atrocious would be kind. There is just no explaining the booking in this one, if one believes that booking should be geared towards generating business. * Kurt Angle beat Shane McMahon in a street fight: Believe it or not, it opened great, with Angle getting a waistlock and Shane trying madly to get out. They bounced around a bit, with Kurt never releasing the lock. Shane hit a dragon screw to rally. Kurt got down on his hands and knees, challenging Shane to work on the mat. At least Shane was immediately punked when he tried to go with Kurt. Nice suplexes. Kurt suffered a small cut over his right eye, but it bled a fair bit. One of Shane's first shots on Angle led to a black eye. Boy, the wrestlers who actually have talent must really be please when they get the pleasant task of working a match with wonder boy Shane. Angle schooled Shane. Angle got back in position, but Shane this time kicked Kurt in the ribs and started punching. Shane tried to do a Jeff Hardy spot off the guard wall, but it came off lame. He did another one, which was also sloppy and pointless, IMO. From a really good beginning to sloppy indy wrestling...good the brawling garbage be far behind. Shane pulled out his kendo stick. Rib shot, back shot, etc. Angle clotheslined the post and tumbled over the guard wall. Shane continued working on the ribs. Shane armdragged Kurt on the floor, with Kurt flying into the wall. More out of the ring stuff. Angle has no need to be in this sort of shitty match. Angle bridged out of Shane's pin attempt. Sweet stuff that you only see in All Japan Women tapes. Shane pulled out some plunder. Since Dusty seemingly booked the last confrontation, why not use his lingo? Garbage can lid shots for a two. Angle rallied, but Shane hit an ankle lock. How silly. At least Kurt kicked his way out right away. DDT on Angle. Shane put on a sharpshooter in the sloppiest manner possible. Angle used the kendo stick to knock Shane off. Punches by Shane. Match was better than it had any right to be, although most of what Shane did was kind of campy, like those matches with DJs, etc. They switched cameras awkwardly because we could hear Shane talking about a spot. Garbage can shots to Angle. He plopped the garbage can on top of Angle, who dutifully held it in place. Spot wrestling. At least Angle moved. Shane missed a shooting star press, which sounds better than it looked. The commentators started talking about the fact that they expected to see some WCW wrestlers. Angle dumped Shane. Angle took a suplex in the entryway. Punches in the entryway. Angle suplexed Shane into the set and he tumbled head first to the concrete in an unnecessarily scary spot. They did the spot again and Shane went through the "glass" wall. It was clear that he was supposed to crash through the first time, and when he didn't they just tried the spot again. Shards cut Angle and Shane. They tried to do another one from the inside of the set area out. And again. The wall wouldn't break, so Angle just forced Shane through. It was ridiculously like those lame indy matches. Putting on a match like this leaves the WWF no wiggle room to avoid criticism over the backyard garbage wrestling that mimics it. The commentators pointed out that a pinfall had to take place in the ring. Angle was covered in blood from the little nicks. He needs to work a match like this like he needs a hole in the head. Angle put Shane on a trolley and wheeled him back to the ring. In the ring, Shane kicked out at two. There was a little pool of blood where his head had rested on the mat. Match had intense drama, I guess, with horrible indyish spots, and it degenerated to being not much of a wrestling match. Angle used garbage can lid shots and an olympic slam for a two count. Angle catapulted Shane to the post. Angle whacked Shane with wood a few times. Angle slam from the top. Three count. No WCW wrestlers. I guess they are saving the angle for the main event. * Steve Austin beat Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho to retain the WWF Title: Given the lack of a quality presence for WCW in the previous two matches (one guy runs away and the other gets killed), it sure seemed like the Austin jump had to take place in this match. And that has good and bad possibilities. In a WWF without Austin, HHH, and Rock, guys like Angle, Benoit, and Jericho will benefit greatly. But there's a chance that Austin's jump would undermine the rest of WCW. We've surely seen that outcome many, many times over the years when one guy is way over compared to the rest of the crew. That doesn't mean that it would be the case this time. It would be weird to have an "invasion" led by the guy who just left the company. I still think it should basically be a brand battle at the start. But with all the hype over somebody jumping, the finish of this match seemed like it should be interesting. Okay, match opened with the Canadians doubling on Austin, who ran like crazy. In a prematch conversation with a guard, we learned that McMahon might well only arrive as the PPV window was closing. Fortunately for Austin, somehow it seems main events always manage to run right to the end of the broadcast window, almost like it is planned that way. Commentators went on and on about the WCW plot of a 2-on-1 on Austin. It was annoyingly clear that that wasn't the outcome. The match was pretty good early on, but I had trouble getting into it because the finish would surely involve something hokey with Vince. Jericho started pounding Benoit, even though Austin was in no way out of it. Stupid booking. Austin tried for a Thesz press, but Jericho hit a Lion Tamer. Benoit suplexed Jericho out of the ring. Heyman went on about Benoit being an undefeated former WCW champion. Well, he never defended the title. As they talked about Benoit's ten-time german suplex, I was reminded of the interplay on Metal this weekend. When Michael Cole was asked why it was a "german" suplex, he said, "well, because it was done first in Germany." Jericho got punked outside the ring, while Austin worked over Benoit. Jim Ross incorrectly called Jericho Benoit a few times. An obviously upset Heyman chimed in to describe the current situation in the match. Why should we care about those Chris guys when the best commentator in the world doesn't even stay focused enough to get their names straight? Austin worked over Benoit, which was kind of boring. Referee bumped. Benoit hit a stunner on Austin and had the pin, but the referee was out. Two count when the referee recovered. Benoit used a belt shot, but Jericho broke up the pin. Benoit & Jericho brawled outside, with Benoit getting posted so that Jericho & Austin could go 1-on-1 for a bit. Simplistic booking, really. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Austin struggled to escape a Lion Tamer. Notice that they've called it both that and the Walls of Jericho? Austin rallied with a sidewalk slam. Oh boy, they couldn't beat Austin 1-on-1, and now Austin manages to be in control most of the time when he faces them in sequence in this triangle match. Heyman referenced the Montreal Survivor Series and Ross said, "Some talk about it. Some of us lived it." Austin went for a sleeper. It became apparent in this match that Austin's offence is severely limited when he can't brawl outside the ring. Jericho got out with a suplex. They traded chops. In the previous brawl, each wrestler kept getting up after ridiculous amounts of punishment, while in this match one or two bumps was enough to lay out first Jericho and then Benoit for several minutes. Jericho's Lionsault met knees. Lou Thesz press followed by punches from the mount. Benoit chaired Jericho, but took a stunner. Jericho kicked out at two. Crowd wasn't really hot, with an obvious explanation. Austin hit a superplex from the top. Austin does a great groggy wobble. He hit a second superplex. He went for a pin. Whew, for a second I thought he was going to try for ten superplexes. Wait, he put Jericho up on top again. Benoit ran in. German suplexes. You know he had to do a bunch: 5. Low kick. Jim Ross continued to screw up the surnames. Didn't Tony Schiavone start to slip like that right when WCW started to falter? Lion Tamer. Benoit hit the crossface. Austin tapped. The referee broke it up and said the match had to continue. The crowd hated that, since the same finish ended a tag match on TV the week before the show. Didn't HHH lose the title once when he was beat by two guys at the same time? Benoit & Jericho paired off. Ric Flair drew a reasonable pop. Austin grabbed a chair, but took a bump. The other guys were out for a handful of minutes each after a normal bump, but Austin was ready to come back really quickly. Out of nowhere, Booker T appeared at ringside and laid out Austin, driving him through the commentary table. Jericho put Benoit in the Lion Tamer, but he reached the ropes. Benoit posted Jericho shoulder first. "He'll german you right out of your boots." Benoit got caught on top. Benoit took a slam off the top. Facecrusher. Sloppy Lionsault. Two count. They did the crossbody-tumble-to-the-floor spot. Austin was still laying on the floor. Jericho tossed Austin back in. Moonsault. Benoit saved. Headbutt off the top. Jericho pulled the referee out. Top rope belly-to-back suplex on Jericho. Austin crawled over to cover Benoit for the pin in a really sad finish. Great match, but I don't know where the finish leaves Benoit & Jericho in the eyes of the fans. Okay, so the big question coming out of this is "What the heck?" Why did they spend the whole PPV show building anticipation for a jump of some sort of one of the main event wrestlers and then not deliver anything in that direction? Why did they tease that Vince McMahon might make it to the main event on time and then not even have him appear at all? Why did they completely bury the invading forces? It's WCW, folks. Oh wait, WCW put the invading forces over to the point that the "home team" was uncool. And, jeez, now Austin couldn't be stopped by Jericho, Benoit, and Booker T in the same match. Vince McMahon is on the record saying that WCW will promoted as an equal to the WWF, but you couldn't tell that from this PPV. Disappointing show, to the say the least. I'm sure that some people will rave about the street fight, but it was so godawful sloppy and indyish so many times and it was such a high risk stupid use of Angle that it doesn't deserve any praise. - The PPV was followed by RAW on Monday night. Presumably they realized that they totally set up this PPV for failure and decided to develop the WCW invasion angle on RAW instead of the PPV, targeting the larger audience. That's fine and dandy, I guess, but it still doesn't explain why the PPV didn't deliver anything that they built up. And it can't wipe away the stench left on WCW's reputation. RAW's highlights, of a sort, included Mike Awesome debuting on TV to win the Hardcore Title from Rhyno after Rhyno won it from Test. He forced the referee to count. Jim Ross acted like he didn't know who Awesome was. Heyman didn't chime in. They didn't name him until after the commercial break. The old Vince would have beat up and fired the referee for counting the fall, but the new Vince just acted all steamed about it. Shane & Booker T showed up in WWF New York. The old Vince would have fired the security, while the new Vince just acted all steamed about it. Austin & Angle went over to the restaurant to attack the WCW guys. The show was pretty junky. Several "Invasion" PPV promos aired in the commercials. It's like WCW was at the end. When Austin, the one man show, arrived at WWF New York, Vince came into the ring to bring up the restaurant on the Titantron. No WCW guys in sight. Angle made some subtle facial gestures when Austin put himself over. Shane McMahon surfaced in MSG, as the WWF guys fell for the misdirection. The music guy, who would have been long-fired by the old Vince, played Shane's music and video intro. "Look at the WCW logo!" yelled Jim Ross, because the logo was on display in MSG. Of course a WWF employee showed it. Shane came out on the ramp, which makes one wonder how he got into the backstage area. Well, Booker T hit the ring, hit Vince with an axe kick, and scurried as the weakened WWF locker ran to the ring while the commentators freaked out. They plan to push the invasion angle as the main story line for the next few weeks. Apparently, it will build to a "Best of Seven" (or so) series at the invasion PPV, with one of the WWF's TV slots up for grabs. Speculation is that WCW may get RAW's timeslot, which seems insane. Given that the WWF is running without Benoit, HHH, or Rock, and many of the remaining guys are injured, it isn't a bad thing at all for them to reduce their TV output by two hours each week. And since largely the same creative team will be responsible for both products, they at least won't be burdened with writing more TV than they currently do. I'm really unsure about how this will develop. - Along with "The Mummy Returns" mentioned last week, I've spent a few minutes here and there checking out the undergound internet moviez scene. Any theatrical release becomes available for download just a couple-to-three days after the movie is released to theatres. Heck, some moviez are available before the film is even released to theatres, particularly for films that are touring film festivals. In exploring this world of huge downloads (a typical 100 minute movie gets compressed to fill a CD, or 650ish Mb), I wondered whether wrestling fans have fast enough connections to be interested in downloading very large awesome video quality digital copies of wrestling matches from Japan. So here's a question: Are you interested in downloading 100ish Mb files of highly-rated matches from elsewhere in the world? - I've uploaded a refreshed tape list. It doesn't include as much stuff as I've watched recently, but it's a start. There are 1187 tapes listed in detail. The list is searchable. Check it out. ______________________________________________________________________ If you have any feedback regarding my web pages, please send me e-mail. Don't forget to delete the leading "x" from my e-mail address; that "x" is my web spider spam guard. ______________________________________________________________________