From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 09/28 Date: 1995/09/29 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 110911576 sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling - The WWF's In Your House took place on Sunday and was yet again the usual mixed bad we've become to used to. At least both major promotions are regularly giving us *something* good. In this case, the highlight was Jean Pierre Lafitte's somersault tope that saw him miss hitting Bret Hart and take the bump straight to the floor. Jim Ross even squeezed in calling it a "somersault plancha" amidst the prattle of his co-commentators who don't know the names of any moves. Bam Bam Bigelow and Davey Boy Smith worked about as good a match as you'd expect these inconsistent workers to do; nothing special, but nothing bad. Razor Ramon vs. Dean Douglas was Douglas' second attempt against an opponent who can put on a good match and he didn't deliver anything special for a second time. If anything, Douglas was the weaker guy in the ring this night, with lots of flubs. It seemed like they were setting up a triangular match between Ramon, Douglas, and 1-2-3 Kid. Savio Vega vs. Waylon Mercy was as bad as expected, even though Vega went over in somewhat of a surprise ending. Sid vs. Godwinn was also terrible and the commentators had a hell of time trying to make it sound good. And the main event, where to begin with the main event? Owen Hart was replaced by Davey Boy Smith for whatever reason. That's fine, but then they go and have the faces pin Owen Hart when he shows up. Not too long ago, seemingly everybody in the newsgroup bitched (me included) when WCW had non-participant Ric Flair pinned to finish a match. Now, people seem willing to forgive the WWF for doing essentially the same finish because, I guess, it fuels the story line. Sure, they did it to get people to tune in to RAW for an explanation of things and it must have made RAW an entertaining show. But if people spending $14.95 to see a PPV play a secondary role to people who tune in to a cable TV show, the WWF is screwing up it's priorities, IMO. I don't want to give the show a thumbs down because there was some good work in a few matches, but it's awfully close to crossing the line. - Today's "Globe and Mail" ran the following story in the daily "Social Studies" column: "Visible minorities in Ontario, says the demographic firm Compusearch, are almost three times as likely to be wrestling fans. Some details about professional wrestling, which has been called a cathartic ritual comparable to a bullfight or the ancient Japanese Noh drama, or just 'a male soap opera with sweat'; - Things we know: Wrestling, which has always been a poor man's sport, became a branch of professional entertainment in the last century; the good guys usually win; it flopped on radio. - The moral dimension: Conventional matches and wrestlers bore fans. When the first TV wrestling was broadcast in 1945, George Wagner caught the public's fantasy. He was a trained psychiatrist who played the arch-fop Gorgeous George the Human Orchid. He inflamed fans with his bleached-blond hair and a valet who sprayed Chanel No. 10 before a match. He cried and snivelled when he lost. The bad guys (heels, in the industry) are sometimes more popular than the good guys (baby faces). The heel chorepgraphs the match because he takes 'the bumps.' - Types of heels: the rulbreaker, the underhanded fop, the interfering manager, the nasty foreigner, the diabolic brat, the disloyal sibling, the braggart, the evolutionary throwback. Moral complexity is heightened when the good and evil wrestlers work together - the so-called Jesus-and-Satan-on-a-tag-team syndrome. (Canadian villains are someimtes popular in out-of-the-way U.S. cities such as Minneapolis but the famous Maurice (Mad Dog) Vachon was obliged to switch and become Algerian. - In a typical match: The referee fails to see many infractions. The announcer is a rigid moralist ('My goodness, it's like Pearl Harbour up there...This is most unsportsmanlike...If this happens again, we'll have to notify the commissioners'). The hero, realizing that the villain's moves have liberated him from constraints of good behaviour, becomes violent and may win. - The moves include: the spinning toe hold, two-fingered eye poke and the atomic elbow drop. Punches are pulled or missed; a wrestler will often stamp his foot to create a violent sound. A savvy fan is expected to know that, for instance, a certain foot clutch is the dreaded toe hold that will cause excruciating pain. - At stake: The reputation of the Free World, family values, unresolved grudges with foreigners. There is sometimes a championship on the line, such as the 'Northeast Intercontinental Title of Georgia.' - Great Acting: Professor Boris (The Great) Malenko, who died a year ago at 61, was one of the greatest villains of the 1960s and, later, a coach. Born Larry Simon, a Jewish wrestler from New Jersey, he also performed as the Nazi Otto von Krupp in the 1950s. His son, Dean (The Shooter) Malenko, is ranked No. 4 in the ECW - extreme championship wrestling leauge, one of about half a dozen on the continent. - Getting hurt: The blood is usually real. Experienced wrestlers have scar tissues on their foreheads where they've slashed themselves with concealed razor blades. To minimize carange, they fall on pads outside the ring and have breakaway chairs ringside. Fans are the big danger. Mad Dog Vachon, who has been stabbed with an umbrella and whose brother's throat was slashed by a 75-year-old fan, remarked: 'You try to be polite, but there people make you rude.' - Is there a downside?: Pro wrestling hasn't seen the drug and gambling scandals of other professional sports. However, most wrestlers' pay is not good and the medical and pension benefits are virtually non-existent. - Wrestling today: Currently, the most popular wrestler is Diesel, says The Wrestler magazine; the most hated grappler is Sid Vicious (no relation). Their respective epithets are Big Daddy Cool and Psycho Sid - dangerous and deviant. Other sources: Globe files, the books Carnival Culture, The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste, Wrestling to Rasslin' and The Whole Pop Culture." Later on in the column, they had the following "Thoughts du jour": "I'm going to pin you. I'll make you weep in your heart and cringe away. Look, I'm going to make you fall and faint away right in front of the Pharaoh." - An Eqyptian wrestler disses his opponent in a temple mural circa 1850 B.C. "What has 14 teeth and an IQ of 50? The first 10 rows of a wrestling match." - Joke among pro wrestlers. - The WWF has its WrestleMania special on FOX this weekend and on TSN in Canada on Monday. - There's lots of talk that the WWF will file suit to stop WCW from using Lex Luger, who they claim they still have under contract until 01/96. - The RAW vs. Nitro ratings war thus far looks like this (Draw your own conclusions): WCW Nitro WWF RAW Rating Share Live Rating Share Live 09/04/95 2.9 ? Y - - - 09/11/95 2.5 3.8 Y 2.2 3.2 N 09/18/95 2.4 3.4 Y 2.5 3.4 N - The WWF has the WrestleMania special on FOX on 09/30. This show will apparently be aired on TSN in Canada as well a few days later (10/03 I believe). - There will be a "UFC-style" PPV on 10/07/95. - The WWF has In Your House on 10/22/95. The tentative line-up has: - Diesel vs. British Bulldog for the WWF Title - Shawn Michaels vs. Dean Douglas for the IC Title - Smoking Gunns vs. Owen Hart & Yokozuna - Undertaker vs. Waylon Mercy - Razor Ramon vs. Sid - Hakushi vs. Skip That UT vs. Mercy match looks absolutely abysmal, but two matches show promise (yeah, I'm giving Douglas a third chance at bat, and if he can't deliver against Michaels he's outta there). - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/29/95. The tentative line-up has: - Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant (in a monster truck battle) - Brian Pillman & Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair & Sting - Randy Savage vs. Kamala - Diamond Dallas Page vs. Johnny B. Badd - Hawk vs. Kurasawa - Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn After Page's showing against Renegade and Badd's against Pillman, I feel like there are three promising matches on this line-up. - WCW has a PPV on 11/26/95. This show will apparently feature the return of Doom, Ron Simmons & Butch Reed. Tentative line-up has: - Manami Toyota & Mariko Yoshida vs. Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto The women's match easily has match of the year potential with those four in the ring, provided they are given enough time to do their thing and that the commentators don't kill the match. The women will work a re-match the next night on Nitro. - WCW has Starrcade on PPV in late December, with talk being that the show will feature WCW stars vs. New Japan stars in a series of matches where the winning promotion scores points for wins to determine which rules. This sounds promising, although the thought of Hulk Hogan vs. Shinya Hashimoto, say, leaves a lot to be desired. But heck, if it's preceded by Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Liger, as rumoured, and some stuff involving Shijiro Otani, Eddy Guerrero, Dean Malenko, El Samurai, Brian Pillman, Alex Wright, etc., it could be very, very good. There is talk that WCW will use a tape of the 11/13 New Japan Sumo Hall show to get the New Japan wrestlers over a bit before attempting to draw PPV buys with them. - Booking Prediction Tourney: I'll get results for In Your House posted by the weekend. - WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history, and other things. It looks like the page is averaging about 700 accesses per week. I've added the text of a post I made on the Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano series from 1989-1990; I've been asked by a few people if I still had it lying around. I'm working on a couple of other interesting things to add to the page. - 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. The VideoMarinepiad III home video is now available. I'm looking for somebody who can send me no worse than 1st generation copies of Smoky Mountain Wrestling weekly TV, dating back to some time in late April and continuing indefinitely. The same goes for USWA, starting with the SMW co-promotion, and running to present. Please send me some e-mail if you want to set up a trade arrangement. Herb...