From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 12/08 Date: 1995/12/08 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 121428152 sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling { Sorry for being a day late with this; I wasn't near a computer yesterday. Herb... } - From the Observer's report on WCW's World War III, Randy Savage's title win "climaxed one of the best PPV shows of the year, and one of the strangest ever." Meltzer gave four of the matches *** or better, and gave the other three pretty bad ratings, but suggested that the battle royal would have been better live. I dunno about that final remark. The question is: Why did this show get pretty well panned in this newsgroup? I was called to task for even suggesting a mild thumbs up. For the record, the first round of the Observer poll was 69.3% thumbs up and 20.7% thumbs in the middle. Somehow, having good matches with guys like Benoit, Malenko, and Guerrero in recent times, and bringing in New Japan and All Japan Women talent hasn't gotten praise because that talent is "borrowed" (despite the fact that the first three guys will all apparently stay on with the company and the New Japan deal is an exclusive business arrangement). - It looks like the two tag title changes that I'd heard about last week were really just suggestions of future directions, since nobody else is talking about them happening or being taped. - I've had the chance to watch a bit of ECW TV from this past year. The shows were drastically improved by the presence of Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko; hey, feel free to apply that statement to other promotions too. I still don't see it as the best TV wrestling show, though; there's just too little new wrestling from week to week. I absolutely loved the Chris Benoit vs. Al Snow match and found Shane Douglas' revisionist history (the interview TV show) well delivered and suitably self-serving. I liked the bit where Benoit & Malenko destroyed the Public Enemy, with Rocco Rock in a wheel chair. Joey Styles was a lot better than a year before because he'd grown out of bashing other promotions as the key part of his commentary. The regular talent that I saw would be ranked Benoit, Malenko, Sabu, Shane Douglas, Rocco Rock, and Cactus Jack. I'm not at all sold on the other talent in the promotion: Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Mikey Whippreck, Johnny Grunge, and others, but that probably doesn't surprise many reading this. Everybody tries and everybody works hard, but I would only rave about the people on the first list above. At least at this stage. - 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. The WWF will be bumping the price of the In Your House PPVs to $19.95 starting with this show. - WCW has Starrcade on PPV on 12/27/95. Tentative line-up has: - Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage for the WCW Title - Ric Flair vs. Sting vs. Lex Luger in a triangular match to dtermine the number one contender to the WCW Title - A 7 vs. 7 series with WCW wrestlers vs. New Japan wrestlers, featuring: - Sting vs. Kensuke Sasaki for the US Title The other Japanese wrestlers on the show will presumably include Masa Chono, Masa Saito, Shinjiro Otani, Koji Kanemoto, and Jushin Liger, since those guys have had TV time on WCW Pro Wrestling. WCW contigent will be Alex Wright, Eddie Guerrero, Randy Savage, Johnny B. Badd, Sting, Chris Benoit, Lex Luger. The original proposed line-up had the following match-ups: - 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 which will like change. Still, this show had the potential to be the best of the year. It's a little weird that Sting, Luger, and Savage will all work twice, with Savage having to defend his WCW Title later (earlier?) in the show. - 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 - WCW has a Clash of Champions on 01/23/96. - WCW has a PPV on 02/11/96. - The WWF has an In Your House PPV on 02/18/96. - Awards: I've tallied votes in about half of the categories. Life took over before I could get into the more difficult to tally categories. I have come to a conclusion, however. There should be a skill-testing question the precludes participation in the awards voting; some people just don't understand that that tallying process is only bearable when it is as automated as possible. - 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...