______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ Just got back from an international conference in Quebec City. Over the years, I've often raved about great food, so I'd be remiss if I didn't say that I really missed the Quebec food the first day back. There's something about the bread in the province of Quebec that just can't be matched. The European attention to meal times is also appreciated. Here in Ontario, it seems like food has to be served fast and meals have to move quickly, while in Quebec I think pretty much every one of my meals stretched out for a couple of hours. And in the fine restaurants in Ontario, I don't find the same attention to quality. Maybe it's just the variety of Quebec: besides the usual steak, fish, poultry, and pasta, there are always some exotic choices available, even at a buffet. From rabbit medallions to caribou steaks to the most wonderful crepes, it is a wonderful place. ______________________________________________________________________ - When the World Wrestling Federation was forced by court ruling to leave the WWF abbreviation to the World Wildlife Fund, Vince McMahon and any other key decision makers in a sense missed the boat when it came to renaming the mother promotion of the rebranded TV products to World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE for short. Based on the booking of TV the past couple of weeks, it sure seems like it would have been far clearer to fans who wondered how the split-brand TV shows would be booked to just revert to a mother promotion name of WCW. For a long while now, the heirarchy of the WWF roster has been quite carefully controlled by a few self-protecting and subversive wrestlers, and that was before the master of this fine art, Hulk Hogan, arrived and worked his magic as only he can. Okay, so the rare times that some young guy had the chance to get over, like Chris Jericho, or seemed already to be over with the fans, like Rob van Dam, things somehow came together in a way to minimize or totally undermine the chances of success. In Jericho's case, the WrestleMania storyline amazingly spent more time putting over the Stephanie vs. HHH feud than the world champion, who served as window dressing on TV leading up to the show. Some people suggested that Jericho's booking leading up to Mania was a compliment since he was quite clearly booked similarly to Ric Flair in the 1980s. Flair stayed over as a star even as his promotion tanked because of the very booking that the WWF emulated. The difference, of course, is that Flair was already accepted as a great star, while Jericho didn't have that same credibility. And with less television in the Flair era, there was also less chance of overexposure. In van Dam's case, a lot of attention was paid to how sloppy he can be, even though so many other guys who have had far less going for them have been pushed higher more quickly. But none of those other guys really had van Dam's potential to supplant one of the top guys. And that was the WWF's problem: there were only a few top spots, and the guys in those spots didn't wnat to lose the money that those top spots can bring. So each of those guys manufacture their own problem of self-preservation: one wants an opponent with whom one can draw some good money to up the bonuses, but one doesn't want an opponent who could come away from the marriage elevated to the point that he could take one of the top spots. And so, on occasion in the recent past, an intelligent viewer could easily think "WCW" while watching some of the shenanigans resulting from the above situation. The rebranding was supposed to alleviate the problem. In essence, the WWF would consist of two promotions and the PPVs would have dual main and co-main events. The guys who were suffering from the strategic booking manipulations of HHH, Steve Austin, and Undertaker, would seemingly have a better chance at getting into the meaningful pushed matches on PPV. Yeah, Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash were brought in, so the measure of manipulation increased. Amazingly, with those five guys each looking after his own interests, the younger better workers actually thought they might get a meaningful push. Anybody who might look at history and come to a contrary conclusion would be reminded that Vince McMahon doesn't tolerate egos -- the difference between the WWF and WCW is the management. That hardly explains the miscues with Jericho and van Dam. And then we get to the booking of the past couple of weeks. Speaking for myself, what was once the occasional hint of WCW-egos-crushing-the-great-workers was replaced by this-shows-feels-like-Nitro-near-the-end. Consider these bits of booking wisdom: * Steve Austin is sent away by Ric Flair, who announces that Austin won't be wrestling on the show. The commentators reinforce things by telling us that Austin has indeed left the building. Ratings plummet. In theory, it seemed like a fresh idea to set up an Eddie Guerrero vs. Steve Austin program. Unfortunately, they first ensured that they had the smallest audience possible to witness the angle. Let's see, in the current landscape a new program involving one of the egos gets one match to get over before being abandoned. If the first attempt at getting it over falls flat, it is pretty easy to blame on the lack of drawing power of the junior member of the program. Sorry Eddie. * On the same RAW, the Undertaker beat the crap out of van Dam, who kept on fighting. This set up the title match where van Dam almost beat Undertaker, but Flair screwed him with a restart. The commentators and ring announcer went so far as to actually say that van Dam won the title and then Undertaker won it back, even though that was clearly not the intent of the booking storyline. Okay, imagine for a second that HHH was booked in van Dam's spot -- right, this result would talked about to no end by the commentators, the wrestlers, and the whole thing would lead to a PPV match. What happened here? Well, van Dam's near-win was so important that it wasn't mentioned a week later by anybody who matters, if at all. Instead, in the interim, they set up a HHH vs. Undertaker PPV main event, as the egos continue to protect each other. This kind of lack of follow-up totally undermined the good workers in WCW: if the promotion doesn't care enough to hype last week's near-win, why should the fans? * On Smackdown, they announced that Hulk Hogan would retire at the end of the show. This angle had also been heavily hyped on RAW. Sure enough, Hogan came out and started down that road. He even went sleazy by bringing his dad's death into the storyline. Of course, Vince McMahon came out and announced that Hogan couldn't retire because he had contractual obligations. Hogan then said he didn't want to retire until he beat up Vince. * On RAW, after the attack by Eddie Guerrero, it sure seemed like Austin should be interested in getting at him. Heck, maybe they'd even let Guerrero get some licks in and keep the whole thing balanced to make it interesting. Hmmm, Chris Benoit showed up on RAW, playing babyface and eventually sitting at ringside when Ric Flair kicked him out. Lo and behold, in the main event, Austin ended up attacking Eddie and Benoit ended up attacking Austin. There might be merit to having Benoit as a heel, but they turned him heel in front of his hometown fans, who didn't want the angle and the way they did it made it sort of meaningless unless it leads to a program with Austin with Austin putting Benoit over at some point in the program. * On RAW, with Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit in the ring, Austin casually asks for a match with either of them but then zeroes in on a match against Ric Flair. Good lord, they are treating Eddie and Chris like they treated the nWo, when it comes to the Austin program. * Of course, the biggest event is that the booking team decided that Austin should wrestle Brock Lesnar on TV and lose the match. Austin thought that it was stupid to give that match away on TV at this point, and it sure did seem to do nothing to build up his already weak program with Eddie and Benoit. While we'll likely never know all of the details, Austin presumably decided that he was being undermined, so he just walked out on the promotion. There is some speculation in the Observer that while negotiating other booking possibilities, Austin was even wary of a Bret Hart style screwjob. Well, Austin's well-known complaints about the creative team are bang-on, of course, but one can question his level of professionalism. Then again, one could say that Vince established the level of professionalism in his organization when he mistreated Bret Hart, so he shouldn't complain when he gets bit in the ass. And the top guys have gotten away with manipulations for a long time now. The loss of Austin is immense. * On RAW, they killed the two owner story line by having Vince McMahon beat Ric Flair in a horrible match. They discarded the Ric Flair as servant story line because Austin walked out and proceeded to build a match that should maybe have taken place a year from now. Unbelievable. * Lastly, word is that Vince McMahon has once again hired Vince Russo to be a writer for the group. There is some question as to the level of control Russo will have, but his presence alone speaks to the limited consideration those in control, particularly Vince McMahon, have given to the reasons for WCW's downfall. WWE had King of the Ring this past Sunday, 06/23/2002. Of course, the Austin mess leading up to the show dominated one's thoughts. The PPV did seem to have a few good matches, and the requisite dogs. On Velocity on the weekend, the actually ran canned promos for the key matches, something they haven't done in a long time. Here's the rundown: * Rob van Dam beat Chris Jericho in a King of the Ring semi-final: My cable cut out, so I missed the first couple of minutes. When it came back, I think I could be forgiven for thinking that the match was at the twenty minute mark. There wasn't anything all that wrong with this match, but I had trouble getting into it. I think that Jericho has lost some spark, and I think he's been severely hurt by the "push" he's received this year. Actually, that's true of both guys. Even if both of them were used correctly beginning this day, it would take a few months to put the bloom back on them. It built to a nice final few minutes, with some good counters and near falls. Crowd chanted for RVD. Van Dam took a released German suplex, crumpling up like he usually does and giving Jericho a two count. Van Dam guillotined Jericho on the top rope, hit the split-legged moonsault and scored a two. Jericho tried for the Walls of Jericho, but van Dam rolled him up for a two. Van Dam tried to sling shot Jericho into an exposed turnbuckle, but Jericho dodged it. Van Dam took theturnbuckle bump, but only gave up a two count, even with Jericho using the ropes. RVD missed the frog splash, hit the lionsault, and got a two. The crowd really wanted RVD to win, which of course means that it is time for him to job for HHH or Undertaker on TV again -- because it would help get him over, wink, wink. The climbed to the top rope together. Van Dam sort of flubbed a kick, but Jericho crotched himself anyhow. Frog splash for the win. Good match. Jerry Lawler interviewed RVD afterwards, which could actually be a good way to help a new guy get over. Jericho attacked RVD and put him in the Walls of Jericho. Presumably, this gives RVD a reason when he loses to Brock Lesnar and sets up a rematch between these two at the next show. * Brock Lesnar beat Test in a King of the Ring semi-final: The absolutely stupid booking of Lesnar continues. In the first act of this match, Test dominated Lesnar with power moves. How retarded is that? Lesnar even gave up several two counts for Test's trademarked power moves. Is Test so valuable that Lesnar can't crush him? Apparently. * Jamie Knoble beat the Hurricane to win the Cruiserweight Title: They finally got a clue and used the Smackdown commentary team to hype this match. I guess it is it too late to start treating the two programs as separate entities, since they didn't bother to let the different commentary teams call each brand's matches. As with everything in the promotion, there's a lot of damage to undo. Knoble and Nidia do a redneck trailer park trash gimmick. I really like Knoble -- he reminds me a lot of Chris Benoit circa 1988 -- and during the prematch hype I hoped that they let him shine. Rey Misterio Jr. is in now, so there is the change to build the cruiserweight division into something if they take a bit of care. They should do a Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid style series with Knoble and Misterio, modernized only a bit, to establish the division. Unfortunately, they worked a style not unlike the failed Richard Morton lightheavyweight run years ago in WCW. The cruiserweight division has no chance of getting over if it doesn't offer something different. Isn't it amazing that the Kid vs. Mask matches from 20+ years ago stand out as having a different and advanced flavor compared to this match? Anyhow, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't what it needed to be. As expected, Knoble went over to win the title. * Ric Flair beat Eddie Guerrero: They worked a long match, and Flair is still a master of the game. Eddie spent some time working over Flair's legs, but then reverted to chin locks and the like. The commentators made Eddie seem like an idiot by saying that they couldn't understand why he didn't go back to the leg. Late in the match, they tried to do the two count spots that Flair & Steamboat made famous and that Eddie & Dean Malenko modernized many years laters, but something went wrong and they just moved on. Chris Benoit came down to ringside and put the cross face on Flair on the ground. These two young guys double teaming Flair isn't going to get them over. Inexplicably, Buh Buh Dudley came into the ring and laid out Guerrero. Flair crawled onto Eddie and got the pin as Benoit was chasing Dudley away. Good way to start pushing Guerrero and Benoit. Jerry Lawler called it an upset and said that Ric Flair's run may have begun. I love Flair to death, but this just isn't the right way to use him. * Molly Holly beat Trish Stratus to win the Women's Title: The storyline is that virgin Molly has a big ass. As Molly tried for the Fujiwara armbar, the commentators wondered whether Molly has ever wore a thong. That reminds me of the hilariously funny scene in "Undercover Brother" where the funky lead character gets whitified and listens to what he calls the Michael Bolton version of Cisqo's "Thong Song." I don't know if the version I saw of the movie was an internal screener, but that boom microphone drifted into a lot of shots; I presume the scene I mentioned is still in the theatrical version of the movie. Anyhow, the women tried to work hard, including stiff chops, but the commentary didn't really care about the athleticism. "Trish looks great in her purple ring attire." "Trish looks great in anything." As the match started, I was thinking that they might as well give Molly a "butt bomb" finisher, and they did. The commentators came up with goofy names for it. Molly ended up getting a screwy pin. The commentators were excited that the women's champion is a virgin. * Kurt Angle beat Hulk Hogan: In the pre-match hype package, they made it clear that this match is just a prelude to the Hogan vs. Vince McMahon match down the line. As a result, I figured that Kurt had to be a stepping stone for Hogan. Hogan still comes out to the nWo porn music. Jim Ross reminded us that Hogan's only other King of the Ring appearance was in 1993 in a "match surrounded in controversy" where Hogan lost to the WWF Title to Yokozuna. I won't detail this match, but you know that Angle has had four star and better matches on PPV every time out, including matches against opponents like Kane, and this match was nowhere near that good, which says all that needs to be said about Hogan. At least the had the sense to have Hogan tap to the ankle lock. Honestly, they need to use Undertaker and Kevin Nash the same way they are using Hogan. * Brock Lesnar beat Rob van Dam to win the King of the Ring: Van Dam had control for a couple of minutes with a rapid flurry of moves before Lesnar took over. Lesnar finally hurt himself by shouldering the ring post. RVD finally knocked Lesnar off of his feet. He even hit the five star splash, but Paul Heyman guillotined him on the top rope. In a cool spot, RVD fell on top of Lesnar and scored a two count. Lesnar rallied and scored the pin shortly afterwards with the F-5. They took all that time to come up with a name for his finisher, and that is it. Well, Lesnar gets a title shot at SummerSlam. * Undertaker beat HHH to retain the WWF Title: Before the match, HHH bumped into Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash. At first the nWo acted menacing and then they all hugged. Nash said the nWo would be there if HHH needed them later. Paul Heyman joined the commentary team for this match to basically push the idea that Brock Lesnar will beat the guy that wins this match. Once again, I found it hard to get into this match. Yeah, both of these guys are past their primes, but I don't think that is the entire reason. After all, in All Japan, Mitsuhara Misawa & company faced Toshiaki Kawada & company many times over the years where the roster changed very little, yet somehow I was always excited to see those guys square off yet again. In Undertaker's case, I just don't enjoy watching him because he sucks, even when he is apparently trying hard these days. In HHH's case, I've just never seen the greatness that some others have. To me, HHH is decidedly mediocre between the bells. So, this match featured a lot more selling by Undertaker than usual. It still wasn't great. Paul Heyman announced that Brock Lesnar laid out the Rock backstage after winning the King of the Ring. "Do you think the Rock is any match for Brock Lesnar?" I guess they are going to make the Rock the July stepping stone for Lesnar. With twenty minutes left in air time, they did a couple of two counts. HHH tried for a pedigree, but UT catapulted him into the corner. Earl Hebner happened to be in the corner, so he bumped like he was shot. Fortunately, the music guy cued up Rock's music and the Rock came out to chase Paul Heyman away and to talk to the commentary. The arena fans had no idea why Rock was angry at Heyman. According to Rock, he shook hands with Lesnar and that was that. The wrestlers got up again, but the referee was still dead. Gee, could Rock be counting a controversial pin? They brawled at ringside. "This is the epitome of vigilanteism." Huh? Undertaker attacked the Rock for no reason. As UT went for a chair shot, Rock attacked him. Rock went to chair UT, but missed and hit HHH instead. UT laid out Rock with a post shot. A bloody HHH was dumped back into the ring. UT hit the last ride. Nick Patrick ran in and counted two. UT punched Patrick. Rock came back in and laid out Undertaker with a Rock Bottom. As Rock walked away, HHH draped himself across UT. Hebner did his patented "crawl and count" routine, but UT lifted his arm at two. Hebner started rolling around again. Pedigree, but everybody lies down. HHH went over to get Hebner back to his feet. UT hit a low blow. Schoolboy with tights for the three count. What a crummy match. Two ref bumps, significant interference, and several should-be-pins before a screwy win -- feels more and more like WCW. Rock came back into the ring to beat up UT with the "People's Hands," according to Jim Ross. Of course, HHH laid out Rock. And UT laid out HHH with a choke slam. Hmmm, could there be a three-way match for the title in July? Overall, I don't really know how to rate the show. I liked that Hogan submitted to Angle. It appears that this PPV may mark the end of a cycle, since Austin is gone and HHH is out with an injury. There seems to be momentum in the company for the idea of putting over the young guys cleanly in a real attempt to create new stars. Isn't it sad that they pissed away two invasions and the promotional split without elevating a single person? And now most of the young guys have been marginalized by a long period of misuse. Still, if Hogan, Nash, and Undertaker are used the right way, some guys -- most notably Angle and Benoit -- should still manage to become draws. If the intention to switch the guard is honest, one thing is for sure: I wouldn't want to be Kane, nearly ready to return from injury. ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________