Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 11/10 Message-ID: Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) Nntp-Posting-Host: jeeves.uwaterloo.ca Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 03:22:21 GMT Lines: 128 - The buy rate for Halloween Havoc was around 0.97, not at all near what the WCW brass was predicting for the show. One can put two spins on this. Firstly, the 0.97 is lower than they expected and they really played a lot of cards at this show (retirement match vs. Flair, Muhammed Ali in attendance) and, so, really misjudged things. Secondly, one might say that the 0.97 is still way above what the company was getting before Hogan came in (when buy rates dipped under 0.5 regularly despite having a more action-oriented product) and is above the 0.87 that was said to be the "necessary" buy rate for the Hogan PPVs to make the deal worthwhile on that front; still, they spent more on advertising for this show and brought in Ali and others, so the expenses were higher here, leaving the show at best, in this reasoning, at passable. Renewing Ric Flair's current contract, rumoured to be in the $400K range, for two more years, may or may not have a long term negative effect. In my opinion, it's unfair and short-sighted to weigh that in as an "expense" of the show, although if things plummet it may indeed hurt the company severely in the end. In all of this analysis, it's just expected that a great PPV buy rate is near 2.0, certainly above 1.5. Maybe that's just not the case any more. Maybe, especially in a time frame where there have been so many PPVs and Clashes, getting near 1.0 is the best that can be expected. It's too early to take this one event and questionably analyze it one way or the other and conclude the company is in trouble or doing okay. While I don't like seeing Hogan on top and I'm uninterested in a Hogan vs. Butcher main event, maybe enough people will to make it worthwhile for WCW. That was the case for a whole lot of years. My tastes are my tastes. - AAA, with the questionable help of WCW, aired their "When Worlds Collide" PPV this past Sunday. Though there were certainly some very nice spots in the show, at the end only the tag title match stood out as a particularly memorable match, IMO. I've seen a lot more from most of these guys and while this was a good show, in some strange way it was disappointing. I think the main event let things end on a flat note; while it might satisfy the blood-hungry, it was very anti-climactic on the wrestling side. - The original Fantastics, Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton, worked the last WCW Orlando tapings. In the 1980s, these guys got over by working their asses off to remove any "R'n'R Express imitation" stigma. Rogers was always one of my favourite workers and Fulton while not quite as good made up for it with unbelievable effort. - An interview with Bret Hart ran on this weekend's WWF shows with Hart essentially saying that he would not give up in his Survivor Series match against Bob Backlund. Hart meets Backlund in a match where victory is possible only with each man's signature submission hold (sharpshooter vs. chicken wing) and each man has a corner man (Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart, respectively) that can throw in the towel. This stinks of a screwy way to get the title of Bret. This kind of stipulation match could easily end with Davey Boy accidentally throwing in the towel or Owen throwing in Davey's towel. They've made it clear that Bret will have a pink and black towel and that Bob will have a white towel, so the ending will most likely depend on which towel hits the ring, not who threw it or how. Rumours persist that Bret will lose the title here and take a chance on the action movie deal that was first mentioned here a couple of weeks back. The local paper reports that he'll appear in an episode of the Canadian show "Lonesome Dove" as well as on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." - UWFi has a PPV on Friday, 11/11/94. No word on what the line-up is. - WCW has Clash of Champions XXIX on 11/16/94. Line-up has: - Hulk Hogan & Sting & Dave Sullivan vs. Avalanche & Butcher & Kevin Sullivan with Mr. T as special referee - Jim Duggan vs. Steve Austin for the US Title - Johnny B. Badd vs. Honky Tonk Man for the TV Title - Vader vs. Dustin Rhodes - Nasty Boys vs. Harlem Heat Steve Austin will debut Sherri Martel as his new manager/valet on this show. They've hinted that he'll have a big surprise for Duggan at this show; the question is will they make it mean something by having Sherri's presence give Austin the title? As a bonus, Honky Tonk Man will sing the US anthem. - WWF has Survivor Series on 11/23/94. The tentative line-up has: *- Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund for the WWF Title in a submission match (sharpshooter and chicken wing are the only way to win, with corner men Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart, respectively, having towels to throw in) - Undertaker vs. Yokozuna in a casket match with Chuck Norris as ref - Davey Boy Smith & Razor Ramon & Fatu & Barbarian & 1-2-3 Kid vs. Jim Neidhart & Owen Hart & Shawn Michaels & Diesel & Jeff Jarrett - Doink & Dink & Wink & Pink vs. Jerry Lawler & Queasy & Wheezy & Cheesy - Lex Luger & Adam Bomb & Mabel & Smoking Gunns vs. Tatanka & King Kong Bundy & Bam Bam Bigelow & Heavenly Bodies *- Alundra Blayze vs. Bull Nakano for the Women's title There is some doubt that Jimmy Del Ray will be able to work the show due to an injury. If he's not ready, at least they have a natural substitution by sticking I.R.S. in the spot. It's expected that Bull will win the Women's title at the 11/20 AJW Tokyo Dome show. - WCW has Starrcade '94 on 12/27/94. Tentative line-up has: *- Hulk Hogan vs. Butcher for the WCW Title *- Sting vs. Avalanche *- Dustin Rhodes vs. Vader - WCW has a Clash of Champions on 01/25/95. - Awards: I will post the ballot and first call for votes on the weekend. - Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request. Basically, all of the tapes in my video collection are available. My tape list is on the r.s.p-w ftp site (128.227.59.59) in the file herbtape.zip. I have made a total of five compilation tapes for the net: R.s.p-w 1, Japan 1981-1983, Japan 1984-1987, VideoMarinepiad I, and VideoMarinepiad II. If you are interested in details on any of these, just send some e-mail or browse the ftp site. The Three Fans of Waterloo (me, Gary Will, Curtis) got together today to watch some stuff on video. Unfortunately, it seemed like most everything disappointed. We enjoyed the SMW TV show from the 08/05 Night of Legends show (which I saw live in Knoxville during Fanweek), but ti went downhill from there. Ginsei Shinzaki vs. Great Sasuke didn't win over the house, nor did the UWFi World Tourney final with Vader vs. Nobuhiko Takada. We also watched some ECW and enjoyed the Mikey Whipreck TV title win and first defence. I've been sworn to silence otherwise, lest the "boisterous" ECW fans in the house get upset. Herb...