______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ The summer semester is over. Although I didn't teach this past summer, I was even more busy than usual because I had two undergraduate research assistants working with me. On our last day together, we submitted two papers, one joint-authored with each student. I'm teaching two courses in the Fall semester, so I'm pretty busy again, but I will try to find some time over the next couple of weeks to capture a few more stellar matches. The fserve has been very busy. ______________________________________________________________________ - WWF had SummerSlam on PPV this past Sunday, 08/19/2001. We should all give the WWF some credit. Leading up the PPV, it seemed like the WWF was taking advantage of the positives in the interpromotional program. The ability of Lance Storm and Yoshihiro Tajiri, the charisma of Rob van Dam, and, well, for lack of a better word, the status of Booker T have led to the WWF giving these guys reasonably protected positions on TV. I don't know why they finally let Booker T use his Bookend finisher, only at the same time that they've characterized him as a Rock imitator. Jerry Lynn continues to be in the dog house, and Mike Awesome seems to have joined him there. Perhaps the best positioned guys of all are HHH and Benoit, who will return to the ring just around the time that plans are to split up the promotions into separate entities with separate PPVs. It seems weird that the plan is to split things up relatively close to WrestleMania. I would think that the split would come after WrestleMania, so that they could stay apart for a year and then go interpromotional at the next Mania. It isn't like they've left all that much fresh ground with the fast-paced and nonsensical booking of this angle. Coming into SummerSlam, there sure seemed to be some good matches on tap. Putting the best worker in North America in the ring with the most determined worker (in Angle vs. Austin) seemed like a surefire hit. On the undercard, Edge vs. Lance Storm seemed promising for wrestling, Jeff Hardy vs. Rob van Dam seemed like it would contain ridiculous spots, and I was actually curious to see what would be left of Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon and even Booker T. They did a stupid angle on TV this week, with Austin whipping Tazz, and Tazz then pretending that he was unhappy with the Alliance. This tense storyline led to Tazz doing commentary and interfering in a pseudomatch to help Austin beat up Angle. The commentators acted like this was the biggest swerve in the world, when in reality none of the swerve was necessary to give the same result. Surely, Tazz could have just run in to the ring to beat up Angle with Austin. The idea seemed to be to suggest that Austin will sink to no depths of evil genius to screw Austin, but this was hardly genius. It seemed to foreshadow a screwjob of some sort at the PPV, which would be horrible news. I am so tired of Shane McMahon interfering like crazy in all of Booker T's confrontations with the Rock. On the Heat pregame show, Jackie & Molly & Lita beat Stacy & Torrie & Ivory. It was horrible. And there's a rematch tomorrow night. * Edge beat Lance Storm to win the IC Title: Really nice work to start out. Something about it seemed too "un-WWF" compared to PPV openers before the invasion, or maybe just before Lance's arrival. The crowd was pretty unreactive except for a couple of big moves. Heyman really pushed Storm. Both commentators pushed that this was a very big night for both companies, etc., but they still didn't add a stipulation to make it seem all that big to me. Storm dominated most of the match. Late in the match, Storm hit an abdominal stretch, which looked pretty weak because of the size difference. Storm always outsmarted Edge...until Edge caught Storm leaping into the ring with a powerslam reversal. At this point the crowd came alive a bit, perhaps because the offence turned into "punch, punch, clothesline." Big moves with reversals. Lance escaped a couple of power bomb pin attempts. Storm finally hit the half crab, but Edge crawled to the turnbuckles. The idea seemed to be that Edge would climb up the turbuckles and flip Storm into a reversal, but it didn't quite work. Edge still got the crab on. Christian ran in, speared Edge by mistake, and got laid out by Storm. Somehow, Lance ended up getting laid out by Edge for the pin, anyhow. Afterwards, Christian congratulated Edge before walking off alone. It's not like the title means anything (only the WWF Title does), and the match was good enough that Storm wasn't hurt by the loss. * Dudleyz & Test beat Spike Dudley & Acolytes: Michael Cole tracked down Test & The Dudleyz for an interview before the match. Test called himself the "cream of the crop." Due to a lack of rain, it was bad year for farming, I guess. I know the Dudleyz have their fans, but, man, this match seemed to suck huge on paper. I kinda wished that they had found a way to work Big Slow & Billy Gunn into the match. Test & Faaroq squared off. Oh, shit, no, I'm not going to try to describe this match. Long heat segment on Spike. Heyman really added something to the commentary in this match. Some people probably miss Jerry Lawler's comedy, but Heyman is my style, 'cause he frequently tries to explain or summarize story lines. Neither of them seems all that able to call moves, though. With everybody involved, Spike took a dive through a table and Shane McMahon used a chair to nail Bradshaw to set up the win. Shane's interference leading to a win is getting old after all of the Booker T vs. Rock build up. * X-Pac beat Yoshihiro Tajiri to win the WWF Lightheavyweight Title: Did you ever feel that there are just too many titles in this invasion feud? Heyman pushed that the winner of this match would be the unified champion. That doesn't mean the titles won't be split up again. Jim Ross announced that SummerSlam would be the last WWF PPV on DirectTV. I guess they couldn't come to an agreement on a new deal. That will hurt DirectTV. "X-Pac has had a great of success wrestling in the Orient as well." As if he worked in Japan yesterday. And like he worked in a major-league setting. It seems like X-Pac has become a bit rejuvenated because of the interpromotional angle, but I think that that impression is due more to the opposition he has faced. Tajiri is really, really good. I wish they didn't bother with the mist bullshit. X-Pac is the opposite of over. Tajiri hit some of his trademark spots in sequence. Jim Ross gushed about the sound of the impact of his baseball slide, when the replay clearly showed the noise was due to Tajiri slapping his pants, which are designed to help deliver those noises for his kicks. Tajiri did a great bridging German suplex. X-Pac hit a tope con hilo. Tajiri did more really great stuff. Albert strolled down to ringside, but Tajiri misted him. X-Pac hit the X-Factor for the pin. I know that this and the first match were good, but the finishes left me a bit sad. * Perry Saturn cut an embarrassing promo saying that Moppy was missing. He said that he and Moppy are in love. It was beyond brutally bad. * Chris Jericho beat Rhyno: Yet another indication of what a sick business pro-wrestling is: Stephanie McMahon, the daughter of the owner of this promotion, with a guaranteed position in the company because of that relationship, has decided to turn herself into yet another pro-wrestling cartoon character woman thanks to new breast implants. They pushed that Jericho has never beat Rhyno. Remember how Jericho was putting Rhyno over on TV leading up to Jericho's PPV main event match? Ugh. Rhyno took two bumps to the ringside floor, which seems scary for someone that thick. Thanks to Steph, Jericho's dive off the top was caught by spear. Big reaction. Rhyno put on a body scissors, a move that would mean something if he did it on TV. As it was, the crowd fell asleep. Airplane spin by Rhyno, followed by a Diamond Cutter, which was just called "a high impact move" by Ross. Well, it didn't seem likely that DDP would do the move this night against his opponents. Rhyno missed a big splash off the top, a spot that looked bad because the camera angle showed that he wouldn't have hit Jericho even if Jericho didn't move. Jericho rallied. He did the ugliest Lionsault ever for a two, with the crowd laughing a bit, even though they had been ooohing. He tried for another rope spot and slipped again. The crowd catcalled him. Heyman dove in as Ross was starting to be negative on Jericho and turned it around by saying that Jericho's equilibrium was shot because of the beating Rhyno had given him. Stephanie interfered when Jericho had Rhyno pinned. Jericho kissed Steph. He overshot a Lionsault on Rhyno, but scored a two count. Stephanie acted like she was puking, similar to my reaction to her breast surgery. Rhyno put the Liontamer on Jericho, but Jericho made the ropes. "Enzagoori" as JR calls it. Rhyno speared the corner, actually hitting nothing, with Jericho putting the Liontamer on. Rhyno tapped. Stephanie stormed off in a tantrum that looked so bogus. * Earlier on, Sean Stasiak, who Jim Ross tells us is "goofy as a pet coon," has decided that his tights are his problem. As he put it, "I don't even know what mecca means!" As the Rock arrived and did a funny interview with Steve Regal, Stasiak charged towards Rock out of nowhere, missed and hit a gate, tumbling to the floor. You know, the bumbling fool gimmick has been so successful in the past with so many guys, I'm sure it will work again this time. Hey, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Later on, he'd try to attack Rock again and fail again. The comedic twist in these sketches is that none of the other characters in these scenes act like they even notice Stasiak. The yuks are almost impossible to suppress. * Rob Van Dam beat Jeff Hardy to win the WWF Hardcore Title: Jim Ross called RVD "the most popular competitor in the Alliance." This was a ladder match. It's smart of them to put van Dam in Hardcore matches, 'cause it is a framework that plays to his strengths. The matches with Hardy are spectacular and don't expose how one-dimensional each guy is. The Observer reports that despite the reaction from the crowds, the decision-makers sre still undecided on RVD. Crowd chanted like crazy about their sexually transmitted diseases. Lots of spots. That pretty much summarizes the match. When the ladder was set up by Hardy, it seemed clear that the ladder they were using was too short for either guy to reach the title. Jeff missed a swanton. RVD missed a frog splash. RVD superplexed Jeff three rungs from the top of the ladder. Jeff hit a sunset flip on RVD off the ladder. Jeff ended up hanging on to the cable that held the belt. RVD started Hardy swinging, and in an ill-advised spot, tried for a spinning kick off the top onto the swing Hardy. There was no connection. RVD smartly laid there and Jeff, also smartly, let go and fell on RVD. Still, it seemed clear that that was supposed to be the pre-finish spot, with RVD climbing up and grabbing the belt afterwards. Instead, they did one more spot, with van Dam knocking Jeff off the ladder into the ropes and a nasty spill. RVD climbed up and snatched the title. Despite the positive reaction, I bet that more people in power will knock van Dam after this match. * Undertaker & Kane beat Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon to win the WWF Tag Titles: Undertaker & Kane dominated. It sucked. I think that conclusion necessarily follows from the first sentence. The only hope, really, is that Kanyon will get a bit of a star rub by being in the ring with Mr. Taker & Kane. Of course, when those two treat Kanyon like a glorified jobber, the hopeful outcome can't happen. As Kanyon & DDP tried to escape after their only rally, Kane & UT did a double zombie sit up. Taker & DDP brawled on top of the cage. Taker knocked DDP back iinto the ring and told Kane to let Kanyon go. Taker & Kane two-on-oned DDP, with Kanyon waving off DDP's pleas and disappearing. Shouldn't Kanyon have gone after Sara outside the cage to make one of the Undertaker & Kane come out after him? Instead, Kanyon looked yellow and stupid. Undertaker yelled at DDP: "Get your ass out of here, I'll let you live. You ever look at her [Sara] again, I'll kill you." DDP tried to climb out, but Taker choke slammed him back to the mat. Jim Ross explained that Taker was playing mind games. Total squash for Taker & Kane. Ugh. * Kurt Angle DQ Steve Austin, who retained the WWF Title: If there was any doubt that the outcome of this PPV would be Rock & Austin as champions, this match coming first seemed to solidify it. Putting the WWF Title in this slot meant that the outcome would be the one that the crowd didn't want and that the final match on the PPV had the ending that would make the crowd happy. With an hour left for the title matches, they of course played long hype packages to build this match up. Tremendous heat. Angle opened strong, but Austin got a break and started working on Angle's leg. Austin dumped Angle over the top. Austin used a few suplexes to help set up the excitment when Angle hit a series of German suplexes. Austin eventually hit a superplex. Austin hit a stunner pretty much out of nowhere and went for the immediate cover. Angle kicked out at two. He hit a second stunner, but Angle fell to the ringside floor. Angle took some post shots, blading from it. In some ways, this sort of match could help Angle's career, but he's so over now he you kind of feel bad that he has to be in this sort of shit. Angle took another post shot. Heyman kept saying that referee Earl Hebner should stop the match. Angle's blood was running like a faucet. A "snapped" Angle hit the ankle lock on the ringside floor. He dragged Austin back in the ring and put the hold on again. Austin reached the ropes, and Angle collapsed. After some more emotional stuff, Angle hit a moonsault for a two count. Austin hit the cobra clutch, which Jim Ross said Austin used when he was the Ringmaster. When Angle would kick out of Austin's pin attempts, Austin would sell it like crazy, in large part making the match. Angle scored a two after an olympic slam. Ref bump, new ref, two count again for Angle. Austin stunned the referee. Angle had Austin pinned, but no referee. Nick Patrick ran in, counted one, and announced that Angle was the winner by DQ. Angle put the ankle lock on Patrick. What a bullshit finish that was. No wonder they didn't put this match last. It was a tremendous match, as expected, until that atrocious finish. * Rock beat Booker T to win the WCW Title: Rock took the early lead, but Booker rallied and the match was reasonably even. Somewhere along the way, Shane McMahon uncovered a turnbuckle. Booker took a shot into the turnbuckle, but kicked out. With WCW referee Charles Robinson facing the other way, Shane snuck in to hit Rock with the title. Why does the ref have to have his back turned? Acolytes came out to lay out Shane. Booker got a two count off the Bookend. Heyman took to calling Booker "The Book." It was still pretty even. Rock hit the spinebuster and went for the People's Elbow for the big pop. Shane stopped the referee from counting to three. They can't decide how to book the referees. Rock gave Shane a Rock Bottom on the floor before going after Booker some more. Axe kick, spinneroonie. Rock nailed a Rock Bottom right after the spinneroonie. No surprise at all, that. I guess Nick Patrick is the only shady referee. Overall, this was a good PPV. It's tempting to judge these things by the old ECW PPV mentality. You know the drill: pretty much everybody worked hard and there was one great match (with that horrible finish). Unlike ECW shows, the booking was pretty much by the numbers, which is actually a good thing given the screwy stuff that we've generally seen from the WWF. That makes me look upon it a bit more favorably, I guess. - My fserve has been pretty busy in recent days. Go here for more explanation. 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 ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________