From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 02/08 Date: 1996/02/09 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 138692703 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling - WCW has SuperBrawl on Sunday. Tentative line-up has: - Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage for the WCW Title in a cage - Hulk Hogan vs. Giant in a cage - Harlem Heat vs. Lex Luger & Sting for the WCW Tag Titles - One Man Gang vs. Konnan for the US Title - Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the TV Title - Public Enemy vs. Nasty Boys in a street fight - Disco Inferno vs. Alex Wright Public Enemy will be on the shelf after this show, as Johnny Grunge has been suspended after taking a joy ride with a WCW van, apparently during the Orlando TV tapings. I guess his talent at thievery is in the same ballpark as his wrestling talent. - The WWF has an In Your House PPV on 02/18/96. - Bret Hart vs. Diesel for the WWF Title in a cage - Smoking Gunns vs. Bodydonnas for the Tag Titles - 1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon in a baby bottle match - Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart (with Michaels' WM title shot up) - Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Duke Droese - Yokozuna vs. Davey Boy Smith - The Royal Rumble PPV was a tremendous success, getting a 1.1 buy rate. This translates into some 275K buys and give the company a much-needed injection of big money ($3.56-million). It signals the first positive turn for the company in the past year (see figures below), but the question remains: was it an anomoly or an actual turn-around? It's way too early to make any serious conclusions. All we can say, I think, is that the injection of cash will keep the company afloat until WrestleMania, after which real test -- Michaels' reign -- takes place. It's also nice that the pay-offs for the Rumble were presumably back up. Meltzer reports that the wrestlers were used to getting 3-10K for PPV shots and were dismayed to get $500-$900 at the December In Your House. So, moral goes up and the company has the cash to survive short term. This is good for us, since I don't think anybody who thinks about it wants only one national wrestling promotion in North America. - Former Quebecer Pierre Oullette will be joining WCW in the near future. It had long been rumoured that Pierre, who was out after serious hernia trouble, was thinking of switching allegiance from the WWF to WCW upon his return to active wrestling, due in part to the persuasions of Jacques Rougeau, his former tag partner. As those that read this regularly will recall, I had the pleasure (?) of attending a Rougeau show in Verdun last year; the show used several WCW stars and was promoted by Rougeau, Cookie Lazarus, and Tony Mule. Rougeau teased his return to wrestling at this show. His WWF retirement show had done tremendous business in Montreal. Rougeau has negotiated a deal with WCW, wherein it appears that he and Pierre will work as a tag team and get a sizeable chunk of the PPV revenue from Quebec for shows that they work. - Eric Bischoff has signed a contract extension to continue as WCW Executive Producer for another three years. - Since Jake Roberts got one of the loudest pops of all at the Royal Rumble PPV, he will be brought in to the WWF to play a role in the New Generation. - 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 11/27/95 2.3 3.3 Y 2.5 3.4 N 12/04/95 2.6 3.8 Y 2.4 3.4 N 12/11/95 2.6 3.7 Y 2.5 3.4 N 12/18/95 2.7 4.0 Y 2.3 3.4 Y 12/25/95 2.5 - N - - - 01/01/96 2.5 3.7 Y 2.6 3.8 N 01/08/96 2.8 3.9 Y 3.0 4.1 N 01/15/96 3.5 5.0 Y 2.4 3.5 N 01/22/96 2.7 - Y 2.9 - Y 01/29/96 2.8 4.0 Y 2.4 4.4 N - The PPV buy rates of the past year or so look like this (draw your own conclusions; the PPV universe seems to be about 23.5-million large, so a 1.0 buy rate, say, would correspond to 235K buys): buy rate revenue (millions) 95/01/22 Royal Rumble 1.0 $2.58 95/04/02 WrestleMania 1.4 $5.10 95/05/14 In Your House 0.83 $1.26 95/06/25 King of the Ring 0.65 $1.68 95/07/25 In Your House II 0.7 $1.08 95/08/27 SummerSlam 0.9 $2.37 95/09/24 In Your House III 0.7 $1.10 95/10/22 In Your House IV 0.4 $0.62 95/11/19 Survivor Series 0.57 $1.47 95/12/17 In Your House V 0.33 $0.68 96/01/22 Royal Rumble 1.1 $3.56 95/02/19 SuperBrawl 0.95 $2.8 95/03/19 Uncensored 0.96 $2.8 95/05/21 Slamboree 0.57 $1.46 95/06/18 Great American Bash 0.51 $1.32 95/07/18 Bash at the Beach 0.82 $2.37 95/09/17 Fall Brawl 0.48 $1.21 95/10/29 Halloween Havoc 0.6 $1.74 95/11/26 World War 3 0.43 $1.11 95/12/27 Starrcade 0.36 $1.04 WWF Average (past year) 0.76 $1.89 WCW Average (past year) 0.63 $1.76 WWF Average (last 6 months) 0.67 $1.63 WCW Average (last 6 months) 0.54 $1.49 - WCW has Uncensored on 03/24/96. - The WWF has WrestleMania on 03/31/96. The projected line-up has: - Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Title - Diesel vs. Undertaker - Huckster vs. Nacho Man with Billionaire Ted as referee There's some talk that the final match won't take place and that the WWF will blame WCW for shutting it down. - WCW has Slamboree on 05/19/96. - The WWF has In Your House on 05/26/96. - WCW has Great American Bash on 06/16/96. - The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/23/96. - The WWF has In Your House on 07/21/96. - WCW has Quake At The Lake on 07/07/96. - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/18/96. - WCW has Fall Brawl 09/15/96. - The WWF has In Your House on 09/22/96. - WCW has Halloween Havoc 10/27/96. - The WWF has In Your House on 10/20/96. - The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/17/96. - WCW has World War III 11/24/96. - The WWF has In Your House on 12/15/96. - WCW has Starrcade on 12/29/96. - 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. Herb...