From: hekunze@water.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 10/04 Message-ID: <1990Oct4.233424.12311@water.waterloo.edu> Date: 4 Oct 90 23:34:24 GMT Distribution: rec Organization: University of Waterloo Lines: 119 Posted: Fri Oct 5 00:34:24 1990 - Early reports on the WWF Survivor Series (Nov. 22) PPV has a series of 8-man tag matches taking place with pinfall elimination rules as always. This time round though, they plan to bring back the survivors from the matches and somehow team them up in a final ultimate survival match. This probably is just an excuse to allow Hogan and the Warrior to be on opposing teams at some point and foreshadow WrestleMania. - This giant egg (containing King Kong Bundy??) that someone else mentioned was present at the most recent WWF taping was actually focussed upon during Kerry von Erich interviews. Could they be setting up a Bundy vs. von Erich angle? - One Toronto columnist says there's a rumour that Hogan and his wife Linda have broken up and that Hogan is now courting Brooke Shields. Right. - The NWA returns to Toronto on Oct 25th. I doubt that anything major will occur this close to their PPV, so I doubt I'll go. The ad in today's Toronto Star reads: Big Triple Main Event: #1 Lex Luger vs. Big Sid Vicious #2 Flyin' Brian vs. Black Scorpion (wonder who he'll be this night?) #3 Rock'n'Roll Express vs. Fabulous Freebirds Also Nick DeCarlo vs. Dr. X Tim Horner & Mike Rotunda vs. Master Blasters Z-Man vs. Cuban Assassin Juicer vs. Barry Horowitz El Gigante is also supposed to appear. Let's get serious here. Do they really expect to draw a crowd with this kind of card? If Jimmy Garvin is indeed unable to appear then there is only one 'big' match, since the Scorpion will no doubt be a PL. - Brady Boone is getting a minor push as the masked BattleCat in the WWF. - NWA casualty report: Robert Gibson is back. Jimmy Garvin is out. - Out of the NWA: The SST Into the NWA: The Juicer, J.W. Storm, The Youngblood Brothers, Moondog Rex. - The WWF is planning a card in Chicago the same night as the NWA's Halloween Havoc takes place there. I guess Vince figures the high-drawing Road Warriors will steal some of the crowd from the NWA and make the PPV look poorly attended. - The WWF will broadcast a SNME on October 13th. One report has Ted DiBiase & Virgil taking on Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes, but another has Dusty Rhodes taking on Randy Savage, with Dustin in the crowd at ringside. In this second scenario, DiBiase & Virgil come to ringside and eventually pummel Dustin, who juices, and then help Savage triple-team Dusty. Sounds alright, but will the juice get aired on NBC? Incidentally, there is talk that the WWF's live Main Event that sets up WrestleMania will be aired on FOX instead of NBC. - Finally, occasionally I pick up on of the wrestling magazines in the local shop just to see how I should be thinking of current angles. I got a kick of an article in the Winter 1990 issue of "Wrestling 90." The article is entitled "Big Splash! There's more to it than you think." Here's the excerpt I like (you must remember that I'm an Applied Mathematician...): "Let's get scientific for a moment. 'There are a few ways to look at the big splash,' says North Carolina based physicist Dr. Walter P. Gorsch. 'Dynamically, we must consider Newton's first and second laws of motion. The first: A body continues in its state of motion unless compelled by a force to act otherwise. The second: The rate of change of motion - acceleration, that is - is proportional to the applied force and occurs in the direction of the force. Essentially, it all boils down to the fact that force equals mass times acceleration, hence the famous formula F=ma. It goes without saying that these big men register very high on the mass side. So, their basic strategic problem is picking up enough acceleration to make the move as forceful as possible. It would stand to reason that Ultimate Warrior, who can gain more acceleration than, say, King Kong Bundy, should be just as effective with a big splash given a lesser mass. But since, on a practical basis, we're dealing with a small amount of space in the ring, acceleration is actually less of a factor and mass becomes far more relevant.'" Don't ask me why, but at this point I was already laughing hysterically. Yet the article goes on to become even better (worse?). They produce a table as follows: " WHO HAS THE BEST BIG SPLASH? In an attempt to discern the most effective big splash in the sport today, Wrestling 90 developed a formula: S = A1*(M*A2/F) in which: S equals the Splash Effectiveness Rating: the higher the rating, the more effective the splash A1 equals the Accuracy Rating of the wrestler's splash, on a scale of 5 to 10 as determined by a panel of Wrestling 90 editors M equals the mass, in pounds, of the wrestler A2 equals the Acceleration Factor, on a scale of 5 to 10, based on the wrestler's vertical leaping ability F equals the Flab Rating, and hence the tautness of the wrestler's body that impacts on his opponent, on a scale of 5 to 10 as determined by a panel of Wrestling 90 editors. Ten wrestlers who currently utilize the splash were rated and ranked. Our results: WRESTLER A1 M A2 F S RANK Bam Bam Bigelow 9 368 10 6 5520 1 Ultimate Warrior 10 280 9 5 5040 2 Tugboat 8 407 8 6 4340 3 Tony Atlas 8 247 9 5 3557 4 Akeem 7 468 7 8 2870 5 Kokina Maximus 8 340 8 8 2720 6 Rochester Roadblock 6 375 8 7 2572 7 Norman 7 380 7 8 2328 8 Kamala 7 360 6 9 1680 9 Buddy Rose 6 312 8 10 1500 10 " Well, this certainly impressed me. It also brings to light the big question of what other important mathematical rating systems can be created for other aspects of wrestling. I think it's time to consider changing my thesis topic. Herb...