The power outs that I mentioned last week have seemingly crippled my news feed. Most of the external newsgroups are getting articles in a trickle and those articles are often a week old. To top things off, I screwed up with my e-mail and accidently deleted the group of messages I had on hold for responses. If you were expecting to hear from me in the past couple of weeks and haven't, you'll have to send e-mail again. Sorry. _________________________________________________________________ - A Current Affair ran its short piece on ECW last week, with the usual derisive, pro-wrestling-is-for-morons tone. They focussed on the staples of ECW - extreme violence, insane stunts, violent gimmick matches - something I bet will receive a negative reception in this newsgroup (if the articles ever arrive here...sigh). The timing was somewhat conincidental, since ECW had just switched to a no-blood format a few days earlier (something that will no doubt confuse people who latch on to catchphrase adjectives like "hardcore" and "extreme," especially since WCW seems to be the only promotion with some profile experimenting with the blade). It is reported in the Observer that Paul (E. Dangerously) Heyman feels that he can get by on "providing superior story lines and introducing untapped talent as he's done over the past year." Certainly, the reaction in rec.sport.pro-wrestling will be interesting. - The most recent Observer shows that a reasonably low number of people submitted votes on the quality of the WWF's most recent In Your House (currently 58.8% thumbs up), so it looks like a lot of people joined me in sitting out this round. As it appeared on paper, the only noteworthy match according to Meltzer was Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart. Despite the hopefulness of some in r.s.p-w, Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Duke Droese looks to have been an unmemorable mediocre (*1/2) match and Meltzer just ripped into the main event (*1/2 again), being highly critical of Diesel and the booking of the past many months that leave Bret Hart and the title incredibly weak. I haven't received a tape of the show and the source that was going to get me one has fallen through; as a result, I'd like an SP copy of an SP original of the show and will trade one two hour tape from my collection for it. Drop me some e-mail if you are interested. - The Toronto Sun reports some conversation with Shawn Michaels when he was in town recently. Michaels says, "[My mother] scolded me for what I did at the Royal Rumble when I pulled my pants down. She thought I pulled them down a little too far and I can assure you it will never happen again." - Talk persists that Diesel, Razor Ramon, and Bret Hart will leave the WWF after WrestleMania, all heading for WCW. It's really unclear whether these rumours are based on Vince McMahon's suggestion that WCW was talking with these guys and violating tampering laws in the process. It is known that Hulk Hogan wants to work a program with Diesel and that Diesel likely wouldn't turn down that offer at this time in his career. It is known that Razor Ramon doesn't like his program with Goldust and feels misused; there have been suggestions that a Razor vs. Goldust loser-leaves-the-WWF match will be added to WrestleMania. It is known that Bret Hart, despite having the reputation for being a strong company man, is not a member of the clique that currently has a large amount of booking influence; in fact, it's sort of funny that amidst all of his ciriticisms of Ric Flair over recent years, Bret Hart has become the WWF's Ric Flair. The rumours of all of these guys wanting out are claimed to be supported by the WWF's apparent desire to bring back the Ultimate Warrior. The Observer reports that the original negotiations in December with the Warrior fell through not because of money but because Jim Hellwig wanted to wear a testosterone patch and Vince McMahon would not agree to it. Current talk is that Vince wants UW in as a heel, since the heel side, with the exception of Vader, is incredibly weak. - The WWF has vacated the tag titles (Billy Gunn is recovering from a legitimate injury) and began a tag team tournament to crown new champions. Bracketing looks like this ("*"ed teams have advanced): Skip & Flip vs. Luke & Butch ---\ The Bodydonnas The Bushwhackers \ |-- --\ / \ Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid ---/ \ & Savio Vega & Tatanka \ |-- final Henry O. Godwinn vs. Marty Janetty / & Phineas I. Godwinn & Al Snow ---\ / \ / |-- --/ Hakushi vs.*Owen Hart / & Barry Horowitz & Davey Boy Smith ---/ The final will take place at WrestleMania. A "New Rockers" vs. Bodydonnas final looks the most likely and the most promising. - The Observer reports that Johnny Ace, one time flag bearer for the Sheepherders, later a Dynamic Dude with Shane Douglas all in the NWA, and now a fantastic regular foreigner for All Japan sent the WWF a tape of the 03/04/95 tag match from Budokan Hall where he and Steve Williams unsuccessfully challenged Mistuhara Misawa & Kenta Kobashi in a ***** classic match that aired over two half-hour TV broadcasts, but the WWF turned him down. - Talk continues that Bam Bam Bigelow will eventually surface in WCW, but likely not until later in the year. Trivia question: for whom and when did Bam Bam Bigelow perform his first pro-wrestling job (clean loss)? - WCW has Uncensored on 03/24/96. Line-up looks like: * Hulk Hogan vs. Arn Anderson, Kevin Sullivan, Ric Flair, and Lex Luger in four cage matches * Road Warriors vs. Sting & Booker T * Konnan vs. Eddie Guerrero for the US Title * Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page in an "I Quit" match for the TV Title * Randy Savage vs. Chris Benoit in a falls count anywhere match * Steve Regal vs. David Finlay * Madusa vs. Col. Parker * Loch Ness vs. Giant That final match scares me. - The WWF has WrestleMania on 03/31/96. The projected line-up has: * Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Title in a 60-minute marathon match * Diesel vs. Undertaker * Vader vs. Yokozuna * Huckster vs. Nacho Man with Billionaire Ted as referee * Finals of the tag team tournament (mixed reports that this will actually be part of the "Free For All" pre-game show) * Goldust vs. Diesel in a loser-leaves-the-WWF match for the IC Title (rumoured; there is also talk that the Ultimate Warrior will debut against Goldust at WrestleMania, contradicted by other rumours of UW coming in as a heel). That second match scares me. The marathon match is guaranteed to be fantastic unless the booking includes many atrocious run-ins by other title contenders. - 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 95/03/19 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 95/02/11 SuperBrawl 0.63 $1.86 WWF Average (past year) 0.76 $1.89 WCW Average (past year) 0.60 $1.66 WWF Average (last 6 months) 0.62 $1.49 WCW Average (last 6 months) 0.50 $1.39 - 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. - WCW has a PPV in 08/96. This was just added to the schedule. - 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. - 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.