From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 11/30 Date: 1995/12/01 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 120659460 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling - WCW's World War III took place this past Sunday. I'd give the show a thumbs up, although not a overly strong one. The positives were: - the Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page match. For whatever reason, Badd is able to have really good matches with Page. Page has really tried to improve a lot this year and now has a good repertoire of spots. The angle with Kimberly, The Diamond Doll, was predictable, but reasonably well done. I enjoyed this match more than I expected. - the women's tag match. Although the first few minutes had me darn worried that they were going to have a terrible match filled with the typical posturing that the Japanese heels work into their North American matches, they turned it up and had a very good (but not excellent) match. Bringing out Mike Tenay to provide commentary for the match helped add a lot to the match, at least when he was allowed to speak. Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan were abysmal in this match (and throughout the night), easily rivalling Vince McMahon's and Curt Hennig's performances the week before. Tenay was better than Jim Ross the week before. - the Chris Benoit vs. Kensuke Sasaki match. Again, it wasn't quite as good as I expected, but Sasaki is not the greatest worker in the world, so a very good match is a definite plus. - the Ric Flair vs. Sting match. Some people will complain that they've seen it all before, but I won't. These guys have great matches; this wasn't their best ever, but it was a solid match and I definitely enjoyed it. The negatives were: - the battle royal. I hate battle royals, so I expected absolutely nothing from this. By their very design, battle royals don't allow workers to do any creative spots in the ring because there are just too many guys in the way. Sometimes guys work a spot or two on the floor or apron to add interest, but battle royals are filled with spots where everybody fakes straining will tangled in the ropes. It was a bit of a surprise to have Randy Savage win, but the final angle just made Hulk Hogan seem like a whining asshole. - the Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage match. This time, everything fits a logical story line: Savage submits here and then goes on to win the WCW Title, putting steam behind Luger's eventual WCW Title challenge; Sting comes in to talk Luger into releasing his submission hold, reversing an earlier angle. Still, the match was terrible. Luger stinks; he's had less than a handful of memorable matches in his whole career (the tag with Sting vs. Steiners and a few matches against Ric Flair). Randy Savage was injured and really has been lacklustre during his WCW stint. The Sting & Lex Luger friendship story line will hopefully deliver something interesting; otherwise, this somewhat well-done build-up will all be wasted. - the Jim Duggan vs. Big Bubba match. Bubba was a hot commodity when he came in and now he's reduced to this role. Duggan is just awful. This was the worst match on the show because it doesn't even further any interesting story lines. - the commentary. Tenay saved the women's match, but Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan were terrible the rest of the night. The funniest moment was when Schiavone chastised Heenan for not "doing his homework" before the show; none of these guys have done their homework for years, so nobody knows how to call a match any more. They missed a few of the little things in the booking; for example, in the battle royal, Hawk saved Sasaki from elimination and nobody mentioned that they were former teammates in New Japan, so Hawk was just saving his buddy. - The WWF and WCW have reportedly both changed their tag team champions. Sting & Lex Luger defeated Harlem Heat to win the WCW Tag Titles; coincidentally, there is talk that Sherri Martel is finishing up with the company. 1-2-3 Kid & Sid defeated the Smoking Gunns to win the WWF Tag Titles. - U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating whether there was witness tampering in the Vince McMahon steroid trial last year. Gene Okerlund took a cheap shot on the World War III PPV, mentioning this item and hyping the hotline. - After running for just under four years, Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling has folded amidst severe financial woes. - 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 10/30/95 2.5 3.6 Y 2.2 3.1 N 11/06/95 2.3 3.2 Y 2.1 3.0 N 11/13/95 2.0 2.9 N 2.6 3.9 N 11/20/95 2.5 3.6 Y 2.3 3.3 Y - The WWF has an In Your House PPV on 12/17/95. Tentative line-up has: - Davey Boy Smith vs. Bret Hart at Survivor Series - Razor Ramon vs. Goldust for the IC Title - Ahmed Johnson vs. Dean Douglas This will be Dean Douglas' final show with the company. - WCW has Starrcade on PPV on 12/27/95. Tentative line-up has: - Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage for the WCW Title The original idea of this PPV showcasing New Japan vs. WCW matches only has obviously changed; hopefully, the undercard will still feature some of those matches. - The WWF has the Royal Rumble PPV on 01/21/96. This show will mark Shawn Michaels' return to the WWF ring. The rumoured line-up has: - Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Title - Diesel vs. Undertaker - Awards: The final week of voting is over. Please submit your ballot by the end of Friday, December 1. I plan to do the tallying on the weekend, or at least a large chunk of it, so late ballots will not be accepted. I haven't looked at the recent batch of additional ballots, but any makeshift ballots, etc., will be discarded. You have to be able to follow the ballot submission rules to have your votes count. - WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history, Japanese wrestling stuff, and other things. - 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. Herb...