From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 02/22 Date: 1996/02/23 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 140785087 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling { Due to a couple of power outs in the area in the past week or so, the news feed here has been erratic, desperately trying to catch up with the lost articles. } - The WWF had In Your House on Sunday. I've only seen the clips from Raw at this point, but I will get a copy of the show in a few days; I couldn't justify spending the money to see this show live. I've heard some good things about Owen vs. Shawn and Razor vs. 1-2-3 Kid, but that's it. The main event title match saw the Undertaker burst through a hole in the mat and stop Diesel from escaping the cage. Every time there's a screw job like this in a cage match (Barry Windham sneaking into the big cage in the NWA, people bursting through the ring in SMW, CWF and now the WWF, and even the simultaneous escape finish), it really hurts the gimmick. Cage matches used to be the way to decisively end a feud. Screw jobs of foreign objects (chairs over the tope, objects through the cage mesh) were added in and diluted the gimmick's power before creativity like this hurt it even more. Sometimes these things can work since they are attempted infrequently and they seem okay on a minor promotion's stage, but the clips on Raw were embarrassing. I suppose it doesn't help that it was the Undertaker bursting in amidst a cloud of smoke. Sigh. Oh well, the WWF is just spinning its wheels until the Shawn Michaels run starts anyhow. - Chris Benoit has signed a two-year contract extension with WCW. That locks him, Eddie Guerrero, and Dean Malenko in with the company for that period of time. - The Observer reports the text of a letter sent by Vince McMahon to Ted Turner on 02/08/96: "Dear Ted: Since there has been no response to my repeated request that you and your pro-wrasslin' company stop the practice of self mutilation, I can only assume based upon the last two weeks of Nitro that the practice of self mutilation (slicing oneself with a razor blade) is not only condoned but encouraged. As you know, Hulk Hogan has been bleeding all over the place the past two weeks. There have been numerous references on your wrasslin' programming that this weekend's double cage match will be so violent that one opponent will be 'bleeding to the point of no recognition.' This encouraged practice of self mutilation is disgusting, violent, potentially infectious, and completely contradictory to your testimony before Congress in June of 1993 and contrary to your 1995 participation of 'Voices against Violence.' Notwithstanding numerous unprecedented predatory practices against the World Wrestling Gederation, if you continue to promote self mutilation, I hope your stockholders hold you accountable for this unethically, guttural, potentially unhealthy practice." - The Observer also reports that Hulk Hogan is interested in bringing Diesel into WCW to work a program with him. There's a lot of talk that Diesel is interested since the guaranteed contracts of WCW for limited work are the best deal in North America right now. - 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 3.4 N 02/05/96 2.9 4.0 Y 2.7 3.7 N 02/12/96 3.7 5.3 Y - - - - 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. Line-up looks like: - Hulk Hogan vs. Arn Anderson, Kevin Sullivan, Ric Flair, and Loch Ness in four cage matches - Road Warriors vs. Sting & Luger in a street fight for the tag titles - Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the TV Title - Randy Savage vs. Brian Pillman - Shark vs. Giant - Konnan vs. Dave Finlay - 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 - Vader vs. Yokozuna - Huckster vs. Nacho Man with Billionaire Ted as referee - WCW has Slamboree on 05/19/96. - The WWF has In Your House on 05/26/96 (from Barrie, Ontario, not too far from here). - 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...