______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - Well, it appears as though the interpromotional angle is helping the WWF in the short term. We'll have to wait to see if the Steve Austin turn, which dilutes the supposed interpromotional flavour of the angle, will help or hurt in the long term. The return of the Rock will sutely help as well in the short term. Nonetheless, I can't shake the feeling that this angle has degenerated really quickly into a typical WWF "factions" style story line. The care given to keeping the interpromotional feel alive just isn't there. Really, why are the ECW and WCW wrestlers still on WWF TV? And why is Paul Heyman doing commentary? He tried to explain it by saying that Stephanie & Shane McMahon wanted the commentary on RAW to be more balanced. But shouldn't the point in part of the interpromotional angle be that the outsider group has to fight and claw to get anything that they want? Steph & Shane shouldn't have the power to pick the WWF RAW commentator. They've explained that they've divested themselves from all things WWF, so it just makes no sense. It would have made so much sense to have added this stipulation to the Invasion PPV: if the WCW/ECW side wins a majority of the matches, then they get to have a commentator on RAW and continue appearing on WWF TV; if they lose, the WWF vanquishes them and proves its superiority. The build-up to the PPV should have challenged Vince's machismo to get him to agree to the lopsided stips, with him crowing that he'll squash things at the start. The fact that they've let things play out the way they have indicates that, even with Heyman cleaning up some of the obvious lame elements in the angle, the angle is still being put together on the fly, from show to show. Heyman has helped remove the impotent stigma from the invader side, at least to a degree, but even that doesn't matter any more, as the Austin jump really washes away the claim that this is WCW/ECW vs. WWF. - A few more words on digitized matches. Go to last week's update for more explanation, if you missed it. I've captured a fair number of matches at this point, and a lot of people have been downloading them. The high quality movie channels usually use a frame rate of 750Kb/s, but experimentation suggested to me that action-based films like wrestling matches benefitted from a slightly higher number (higher number = higher quality = bigger files), so I've gone with 1000-or-so as my setting. So, while those high quality movies are generally 100Mb per 15 minutes of film, my matches are closer to 100Mb per 12 minutes of action. My philosophy has been to capture highly-rated matches only. I've had numerous requests to capture WWF-this or WCW-that, but that's not likely, unless perhaps I have a rare copy of something in my tape collection, like early appearances of current stars. I'd like to use mIRC as a way to enhance match reviews of matches I've just watch, as well. I envision including a review of a particular tape on the web, with the great matches on the show being available to readers in electronic form. Anyhow, here's the current list of captured matches. Date of Match Match Details Comments on Match Comments on Movie File Date Added 1981/12/12 AJ Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka vs. Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. The annual All Japan tag tourney final, featuring the debut of Stan Hansen in the All Japan ring. A legendary match, which launched Stan Hansen's lengthy career in the promotion. * * * * 1/2 Size: 260,755,456 Duration: 30:00 Video quality is shaky, but it is watchable in a small window. This file is really only for historians. 2001/07/25 1986/08 AJW Bull Nakano & Condor Saito vs. Itsuki Yamasaki & Noriyo Tateno Yamasaki & Tateno were called the Jumping Bomb Angels; they visited the WWF for a run in North America. * * * * 1/2 Size: 164,038,656 Duration: 19:52 Video quality is decent, but a bit shaky. 2001/07/18 1990/11/17 UWFh El Gran Hamada & Kendo & Blackman vs. Brazo do Oro & Brazo de Plato & Brazo de Plata El Gran Hamada & Perro Aguayo worked against each other in the 1980s in New Japan as a special feud over a Mexican title belt. Hamada's major contribution to the style of lightheavyweight wrestling came from bringing a hybrid lucha libre style to Japan in 1990. Hamada's UWF created a blend of lucha libre, New Japan junior heavyweight, and comedy that later became the foundation for Michinoku Pro wrestling. This is a great match from the early days of the UWFh. * * * * 1/4 Size: 194,183,168 Duration: 24:31 Video quality is excellent. 2001/07/25 1991/04/20 AJ Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi Just one of the marathon six-man tags that defined All Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This match never aired on TV, but this commercial version of the match shows us 48 minutes of a 51 minute battle. * * * * 3/4 Size: 447,152,128 Duration: 55:45 Video quality is very good. 2001/07/17 1992/06/05 AJW Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs. Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita Four of the most amazing women wrestlers of the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s. Matches involving these women in any combination are always great. Hokuto is my personal favourite of all-time. * * * * 1/4 Size: 106,227,712 Duration: 12:45 Video quality is very good. 2001/07/17 1992/08/15 AJW Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada Regular tag partners and tag champions, Yamada & Toyota here faced each other in a hair vs. hair match for Toyota's IWA Title. This is a legendary match of the year. * * * * * Size: 146.159.616 Duration: 17:57 Video quality is very good. 2001/07/17 1996/10/10 MPro Dick Togo & Mens Teioh & Shoichi Funaki & Shiryu & Taka Michinoku & Great Sasuke vs. El Gran Hamada & Super Dolphin & Tiger Mask IV & El Gran Naniwa & Masato Yakushuji Many of these guys are familar. Taka & Sho Funaki are in the WWF now. Dick Togo was with them for a bit as part of Kaientai. Watching matches from this time period involving these guys will help you realize just how much they were and are wasted in the WWF. Shiryu is Kaz Hayashi. This match was part of the Dynamite Kid revival show. The Dynamite Kid match was sad to watch, but this bout just rocked, as did their similar show-stealing match on the first ECW PPV. Compare some of the moves and comedy to the stuff from Hamada's UWF years earlier. * * * * 3/4 Size: 317,566,976 Duration: 39:35 Video quality is excellent. 2001/07/25 1997/02/09 NJ Jushin Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani Liger was a god for many years in New Japan. Even with injuries grounding him and forcing a style change, he's remained, more often than not, the guy who delivers great matches. Otani is caught up in the current muck that is the New Japan booking formula of the new millennium. At this point in time, however, he was just the best damn worker in the world. His facial expressions are awesome. Liger defends the J Crown in this match. * * * * 3/4 Size: 137,388,032 Duration: 17:26 Video quality is excellent. 2001/08/05 1997/02/16 NJ Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto A J Crown defence for Liger. Kanemoto in some ways had to overcome the Tiger Mask gimmick, in the process also becoming one of the best workers in the world. * * * * 3/4 Size: 99,854,336 Duration: 12:15 Video quality is excellent. 2001/08/05 1997/11 NJ Jushin Liger & Kendo Ka Shin & El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa These New Japan juniors had numerous awesome six-man tags during this time frame. This is just one of them; I have never been able to pin down the exact date. * * * * Size: 72,411,136 Duration: 8:56 Video quality is excellent. This smaller file may be a good first choice to download if you just want to check out the divx video quality. 2001/08/05 1997/11/27 AJ Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Hayabusa This match from the annual All Japan tag tournament seemed a bit of a risk going in because of the potential style clash. It paired two of the best wrestlers in the world against two really flashy spotty garbagy wrestlers. For me it was among the first single that Japanese puroresu was going to follow suit with North American wrestling: I remember when Bret Hart was still on top in the WWF and everything was turning spotty around him...like Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle in the present WWF, it just seemed kind of sad to see a great wrestler surrounded by spotty guys. Through the awesomeness of Misawa & Akiyama, this match somehow held together as a great match with the incomparable All Japan build to the finish. * * * * 3/4 Size: 126,916,608 Duration: 15:31 Video quality is excellent. 2001/08/06 1997/12/05 AJ Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue The annual All Japan tag tourney final from 1997. An off-the-charts match. * * * * * Size: 183,762,944 Duration: 22:25 Video quality is excellent. The audio is ever so slightly out of sync, but I couldn't find an easy way to fix it. It is almost unnoticeable, but I'm a perfectionist. 2001/08/06 1997/12/08 NJ Shinjiro Otani vs. Kendo Ka Shin The annual All Japan tag tourney final, featuring the debut of Stan Hansen in the All Japan ring. A legendary match, which launched Stan Hansen's lengthy career in the promotion. * * * * Size: 90,597,376 Duration: ?:?? Video quality is excellent. 2001/08/05 Due to error on my part, the Yamada vs. Toyota match that I had on the fserve was incomplete. I had copied a test version into the fserve directory. I've cleaned that up. I also cleaned up the incorrect date in the AJ six man. In addition to the matches I've captured, I've got a few North American wrestling items on the fserve, at least for the moment. Many current theatrical movies are also up. ______________________________________________________________________ If you have any feedback regarding my web pages, please send me e-mail. 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