- WCW held Halloween Havoc this past Sunday. The show left me feeling fairly mixed, although some of the people I've talked with were very happy with it. It reminded me of mid-1980s WWF show, not just because of some of the cast members, but more because of all of the angles. Jimmy Hart & Lex Luger turned heel, demolishing Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage with the help of the Giant & the Yeti (John Studd's trainee Ron Reis for the time being; this is apparently supposed to end up as Jose Gonzalez' role). Ric Flair did the expected and turned on Sting; even though it was obvious from the beginning of the show (when they announced that Flair had been attacked by Arn Anderson Brian Pillman and was doubtful for the match) what the story line would be, it was entertaining and well-done and does promise good matches for the future. That almost helps one overlook the story line inconsistencies, IMO. With all of these things and more happening, does anybody really remember that the Diamond Doll caved in and gave Johnny B. Badd a "10" for his work while Diamond Dallas Page was laid out? Angle overload. The best wrestling of the night was in the Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko vs. Blue Bloods match, with Benoit really shining. The Observer reports that this match was originally going to determine a challenger team for the Tag Titles and that they had already taped a match between the Blue Bloods & Harlem Heat. Clearly, there was a change of heart. Sabu vs. Mr. J.L. (introduced here without the "Mr.", making the name even more stupid) was another hodge-podge of high spots slammed together and called a match. It was really good, but with no pacing and a five minute time constraint, it's just impossible to tell a story. The Sheik limped out with Sabu, who ran to the ring, presumably to keep the camera off the Sheik's pained walk. Unfortunately, he hit an Asai moonsault just as the Sheik came in range and knocked him on his butt. The commentators had rambled on about how evil the Sheik was and this turned him and Sabu instant babyface. Had they shown some old clips of the Sheik demolishing things and throwing fire in the build up for the show, it would have added to this match, but they really didn't give the match the time it needed to be stellar. - This past week's Observer went on about the WWF's abysmal, IMO, In Your House PPV: Just as the cameras faded to black signifying the end of the In Your House PPV show on 10/22 in Winnipeg, a disgusted Vince McMahon threw down his glasses and his headset and said the words, 'horrible' as he started to walk to the back with Jim Ross while a pull-apart brawl with Bret Hart and Diesel was still going on in the ring. Seconds later, as the brawl ended, Diesel, the person McMahon had planned to build the company around one year earlier, was being booed out of the building, yet another in the long line of failed experiments in his quest to find the new Hulk Hogan. The virtually unanimous crowd readtion to Diesel after yet another unimpressive main event match seems to make it only logical that Bret Hart is destined to have a career similar to the man who his being compared with results in outbursts -- Ric Flair. Like Flair, Hart is the man picked to pick up the pieces time-after-time when experiments of creating new world champions that will be the next big thing in wrestling end up with declining box office figures. For McMahon, the crowd reaction was the crowning jewel of a two week period that he'd most likely love to take back. It was a two-week period that saw injuries to two of his key performers, the quitting of his top assistant, his babyface singles and tag champions being heavily booed after post-matches that weren't designed to elicit such responses, poor house show business at every stop, the debut of a character being groomed for the top echleon falling flat, and among the worst matches and worst overall PPV shows in company history." - 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 09/25/95 1.9 2.8 Y 2.7 3.8 Y 10/02/95 2.5 3.7 Y 2.5 3.5 N 10/09/95 2.6 3.8 Y 2.6 3.8 N 10/16/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.5 3.6 N? 10/23/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.6 3.8 Y? - It's expected that Kensuke Sasaki will win the WCW US Title from Sting in Japan on 11/13/95, in the first night of WCW vs. New Japan matches that will lead to Starrcade being interpromotional. Coming off of a story line that cast him as an idiot for falling for Ric Flair's ruse one more time, Sting is apparently nervous about following that performance with a title loss, even if it all sets up his regaining the title in the main event at Starrcade. - The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/19/95. Tentative line-up includes: * Bret Hart vs. Diesel for the WWF Title in a cage * Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldust * Bertha Faye & Aja Kong & Lioness Asuka & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Alundra Blayze & Kyoko Inoue & Sakie Hasegawa & Chapparita Asari * Shawn Michaels & Ahmed Johnson & Davey Boy Smith & Sid vs. Dean Douglas & Yokozuna & Owen Hart & Razor Ramon * Undertaker & Fatu & Henry O. Godwinn & Savio Vega vs. Jerry Lawler & Isaac Yankem & King Mabel & Hunter Hearst Helsmley * Hakushi & Avatar & Marty Jannetty & Barry Horowitz vs. Skip & Rad Radford & Jean Pierre Lafitte & Tom Pritchard The print PPV ads in my guide have the pictures for Survivor Series flipped with the pictures for WCW "World War III." I guess somebody thought "The Macho Man is WWF stuff, so these guys I don't recognize [Shawn Michaels & Diesel] must be this WCW stuff." Despite the embarrassing debut of Goldust at In Your House, the WWF apparently still plans to attempt to push him to the top level, with a win here over Bigelow and a match the next night on RAW against Shawn Michaels. - WCW has "World War III" on 11/26/95. Tentative line-up has: * a 60-man three ring battle royal (involving WCW wrestlers and wrestlers from New Japan) with the winner earning a title shot at the WCW Title * Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto vs. Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki The battle royal is being hyped as having a giant in every ring, which I guess means The Giant, El Gigante, and Ron Reis, who will apparently get a new gimmick once Gigante is able to work (visa trouble) as the Yeti. - The WWF has a PPV on 12/17/95. Tentative line-up has: * Davey Boy Smith vs. winner of Diesel vs. Bret Hart at Survivor Series - WCW has Starrcade on PPV on 12/27/95. Tentative line-up has: * Sting vs. Kensuke Sasaki for the US Title * Koji Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright for the IWGP Jr. Title * Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan * Lex Luger vs. Masa Chono * Johnny B. Badd vs. Hiro Saito * Eddy Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Otani * Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Liger - Awards: Okay, okay, so I've terribly slow to get the nominations put together. I'm a little more than halfway through the compilation, and I'll play around a bit more today and hopefully get them posted tonight. The plan on my end is to have another week or so for more nominations (and corrections, etc., to the current batch) and then we'll start the voting period. (Late note: it looks like the nominations won't be posted until tomorrow; they *will* be posted). - 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.