From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 04/18 Date: 1996/04/19 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 148321552 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Over the next week or so, I'll whip up a conversion program that leaves this document a little more readble. Right now, I'm just dumping it as "text" in Netscape. Since I'm using a bullet image for line items and a few other standard in-line graphics, it's starting to get unreadable this way. Bear with me for the time being and come read the document on my home page to enjoy the pictures! ----- Wrestling TidBits --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is going to have be brief because I'm in the midst of working on a take-home final exam (I've actually finished a day ahead of schedule, but I should probably go over everything one more time instead of killing time here). On a positive note, now that the exam is out of the way, I can finally get caught up on tapes (the past many weeks of All Japan & New Japan, plus 22 other tapes that contain a mix of all kinds of stuff) - look for an updated tape list on my web page in the next week or two. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Image] TidBits is here all night long! Woooooo! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Action Picture of the Week [Image] The ersatz Four Horsemen of New Japan (left to right: Chris Benoit, El Samurai, El Gran Hamada, and Jushin Liger) have here just trounced a formidable team of Shinjiro Otani, Koji Kanemoto (both in the ring), Takasi Ishizawa, and Taka Michinoku. In the first fall Benoit pinned Kanemoto after a devastating tombstone piledriver off of the second ropes (same move that broke Akira Hokuto's neck years ago; it's never been tried again in All Japan Women). In the second straight fall Benoit powerbombed Ishizawa through the mat. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Image] Arn Anderson & Ric Flair conquer Hulk Hogan [Image] I received some supportive e-mail about my ramblings last week (regarding "move-based" vs. "character-based" wrestling). It's interesting that these thoughts surfaced just prior to the Pancrase PPV last Saturday. On that show, Ken Shamrock & Don Wilson did a great jobs of getting the moves over. When a non-descript competitor came to the ring, Shamrock would mention his strong moves and his weaknesses. During and after the match, they stayed tightly focussed on "technique" (as my Japanese friend calls it). If only the pro-wrestling commentators put so much effort into and were so knowledgeable about their craft. I also received some feedback about what "hardcore" means, with the majority of responses saying that it's a word used by people who are marks for a certain style while trying to maintain some distance from the mark label. [Image] The WWF has [Image] on 04/28/96. Line-up has: * Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel for the WWF Title * Bodydonnas vs. PIG & HOG for the Tag Titles * Goldust vs. Ultimate Warrior for the IC Title * Savio Vega vs. Davey Boy Smith * Vader vs. Razor Ramon * Marc Mero vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley * Undertaker vs. Mankind This last match will be dark and the second last match is not definite. [Image] New Japan's Tokyo Dome Battle Formation takes place on 04/29/96. My Japanese friend Masaki reports the line-up: * Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shinya Hashimoto for the IWGP Title * Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Genichiro Tenryu * Road Warriors & Power Warrior vs. Steiners & Scott Norton * Jushin Liger vs. Great Sasuke for the IWGP Jr. Title * Great Muta vs. Hakushi * Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan * Lex Luger vs. Masahiro Chono [Image] Hi Sunny! [Image] According to the Observer, The Road Warriors were miffed that Diesel & Scott Hall were coming in with big money contracts but they had just signed a contract sheet with the stipulation that they could only back out if they got a better offer. Since the WWF doesn't guarantee any money, they couldn't leave and wrestle there, so the choices were "earn money" or "don't earn money." [Image] The Observer also reports that the original plan for WrestleMania was for Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart to get two falls a piece going into the overtime, but that that was eventually reduced to no falls. Speaking of this, the Bret Hart interview on RAW regarding his loss was absolutely tremendous. Is it just me, or does he come of this whole story-line a stronger personality, who is easier to bond with than Michaels? [Image] The Goldust vs. Savio Vega controversy - Gorilla Monsoon has held up the IC Title pending a re-match - ends with basically the same finish that gave rise to Monsoon's involvement to begin with. I wonder if this will make any sense when it's over. [Image] [Image] ran unopposed on 04/08. The The PPV buy rates of the past six months (year or so) show that the WWF has an average buy rate of 0.75 (0.75) and average gross of $1.94-million ($1.74-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.55 (0.57) and average gross of $1.59-million ($1.59-million). The details are an interesting read. [Image] WCW has Slamboree on 05/19/96. Preliminary line-up has: * Battle Bowl, featuring a "blind draw" 16-man tag tournament with the winning teams then entering a Battle Royal for a the Battle Bowl ring. Announced matches thus far: o Hawk & Booker T vs. Animal & Lex Luger * No Hulk Hogan * Sting vs. Giant * Konnan vs. Jushin Liger for the US Title * Shinjiro Otani vs. Chris Benoit or Eddie Guerrero (presumably to decide the Cruiserweight title, which Otani already won in New Japan) [Image] The WWF has [Image] on 05/26/96. [Image] Antonio Inoki's World Wrestling Peace Festival takes place on 06/01/96 in Los Angeles. New Japan, WCW, AAA, and other promotions will be involved. [Image] Life as it should be... [Image] WCW has Great American Bash on 06/16/96. [Image] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/23/96. [Image] The WWF has [Image] on 07/21/96. [Image] WCW has Quake At The Lake on 07/07/96. [Image] WCW has a PPV on 08/11/96. [Image] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/18/96. [Image] WCW has Fall Brawl 09/15/96. [Image] The WWF has [Image] on 09/22/96. [Image] WCW has Halloween Havoc 10/27/96 from Caeser's Palace. It will be an outdoor show. [Image] The WWF has [Image] on 10/20/96. [Image] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/17/96. [Image] WCW has World War III 11/24/96. [Image] The WWF has [Image] on 12/15/96. [Image] WCW has Starrcade on 12/29/96. [Image] 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. I've begun restructuring things. The page will now store old editions of Wrestling TidBits, as space permits. I've also added some stuff to allow for the viewing of images that aren't included in other documents on my web pages. Space is becoming limited, so come check things out now. [Image] 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to return. E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca