From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 05/30 Date: 1996/05/31 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 157744469 sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Wrestling TidBits --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pictures of the Week This week's sole picture is a collage featuring Rey Misterio Jr. in action. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ - ] The WWF's In Your House show this past Sunday/Tuesday was somewhat disappointing. Quick results: * Smoking Gunns regained the WWF Tag Titles from The Godwinns, * Marc Mero pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley, * Shawn Michaels drew Davey Boy Smith with a double pin finish, * Savio Vega beat Steve Austin in a Caribbean strap match; Ted DiBiase must now leave the WWF, * Vader pinned Yokozuna (Yokozuna only lost 33 pounds while gone and will return to the clinic again), and * Goldust beat Undertaker in a casket match when Mankind interfered and helpd stuff Undertaker in a broken casket. The Mero match was the best of show, due mostly to Marc's work; he has a lot of potential. Michaels vs. Bulldog was a disappointment, a half-hearted match that merely set up a rematch for King of The Ring. Before the match, Michaels was served a summons for "Attempted Alienation of Affection" in a really weak angle that sounds like a Jim Cornette creation, but just didn't fly. The big news, of course, was that the power went out after the Mero match as Savio was heading to the ring for his match. The broadcast died for about an hour, during which time some cable companies managed to air a tape of Vince apologizing for the situation and pointing out that the lights were out in the building, so broadcast of the matches was pointless. In the meantime, as is typical WWF policy, the babyfaces were put over in every match while the inconvenienced arena audience got restless. Power came back on for the main event. In my market, anyhow, the original broadcast order was refunded and calls were made to all orderers asking if they wanted the encore performance on Tuesday. Had the pay-per-view just remained with those two matches, it would have been a thumbs up show, ignoring the inconvenience of the hour delay and the cost for two matches. Unfortunately, the encore aired three reasonably shoddy matches after the two from Sunday. Vega vs. Austin was the usual pointless strap match; I think the only strap match I've ever actually enjoyed was the Vader vs. Sting match from a few years ago. Strap matches are a poor gimmick because commentators are forced to blather on about "momentum" being "cut off" and the like, yet the finish always includes the face and heel going around the ring with both touching the turnbuckles (surely, they don't both "have momentum?"). This one had no special work to get past the gimmick. Vader vs. Yokozuna was pretty mediocre too, since Yokozuna is just incapable of working at his current size. Undertaker vs. Goldust was pretty bad and the ending was another terrible trip into the unknown, another reason to feel embarrassed for being a wrestling fan. I guess that, in the end, I'd give the show a thumbs in the middle, leaning towards a slight thumbs down because of the terrible main event on the encore and the disappointing main event match on the first broadcast. Without Mero's performance, the show was a definite thumbs down. [ - ] There's been a lot of excitement about Scott Hall's debut on WCW Monday Nitro this past week. I'm on Canadian tape delay (we get a one hour highlight show this weekend on TV, but I will be getting tapes of the full-length shows too) so I can't really comment too much except to say that there are way too many people coming to conclusions based on two walk-on interviews. [ - ] There's lots of talk still suggesting that "Blood Runs Cold" will be a three man ninja team, with Bryan "Crush" Adams and Hakushi being named as two of the three guys. The Observer reports that Adams says he's not going to WCW and that Hakushi going is unlikely. It also reports that David Ashford Smith (previously Yoshi Kwan and Chris Champion of the New Breed) will be one of the threesome. There's also talk that Chris Jericho will be brought in. But the biggest talk is that Ted DiBiase will surface in WCW as "Millionaire Ted," to lead the (ex-)WWF squad of Scott Hall & Diesel against WCW. The Observer had mentioned this idea before, but said that it couldn't happen for a while since DiBiase was under contract through September or October. So, of course, the talk now is that DiBiase worked out a deal to leave. [ - ] I had the opportunity to catch up on some tapes on the weekend. Highlights included Shinjiro Otani vs. Jushin Liger and Shinjiro Otani vs. Chris Benoit (Cruiserweight title win for Otani) from New Japan TV, Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuhara Misawa from All Japan TV, and three of the big ECW Arena commercial tapes from 12/95 to 01/96. The Otani vs. Liger match was incredible - really, all three of the matches listed were unbelievable, but Liger vs. Otani was the best of them by a hair, IMO. The ECW stuff continues to have highs and lows for me. Highlights included * Sabu vs. Scorpio 30-minute **** draw from 02/17, * ECW debuts of Rey Misterio Jr. and Rob Van Damme on 01/05, * Brian Pillman's interview on 02/17 (although Shane's "he's shooting" comment killed it), and * Although he didn't get to show much at all, I like the revamped Taz. The biggest lowlight was the Dudleys. I'm also still perplexed that with so many good-to-great workers passing through the ECW Arena, the crowd chooses to embrace, with customized chants, guys like Sandman, Hack Myers, or, to a lesser degree, the Dudleys. It's a given that Konnan is not the best wrestler in the world, but he's a hell of a lot better than Sandman, yet the fans brutalized him in their match, leading to the highlight of Konnan, who had been the recipient of a "Bye, bye, Konnan!" chant for minutes, sarcastically waving "bye" to the fans when he rallied. [ - ] On the 05/20 Nitro show, what the hell was Gene Okerlund talking about when he told Diamond Dallas Page that he lost the title shot because he got the pin with his foot on the floor. What an idiot. As many Canadian fans have posted, our one hour version of the 1.5 hour show lost the Eddy Guerrero vs. Ric Flair match. Sigh. [ - ] The World Wrestling Peace Festival takes place in Los Angeles on 06/01/96. New Japan, WCW, AAA, EMLL, and others are going to put on a joint card featuring: * Antonio Inoki & Dan Severn vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Oleg Taktarov * Chris Benoit vs. Alex Wright * Giant vs. Sting * Lex Luger vs. Masa Saito * Chris Jericho vs. Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Konnan in a triangle match * Akira Hoktuo & Lola Gonzales vs. Bull Nakano & Neftali * Dos Caras & Hector Garza vs. Gran Markus Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. * Octagon & El Ultimo Dragon vs. Heavy Metal & Psicosis * Atlantis & El Hijo del Santo vs. Silver King & Negro Casas * Great Sasuke vs. Jushin Liger * Craig Pittman vs. KGB * Mando Guerrero vs. Jim Neidhart [ - ] WCW has Great American Bash on 06/16/96. Line-up has: * Giant vs. Lex Luger for the WCW Title * Konnan vs. Sting for the US Title * Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Steve McMichael & Kevin Greene * Dean Malenko vs. Rey Misterio Jr. for the Cruiserweight Title * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Great Muta * Booty Man vs. Hugh Morrus * Kevin Sullivan vs. Chris Benoit [ - ] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/23/96. Line-up includes: * Shawn Michaels vs. Davey Boy Smith for the WWF Title * Smoking Gunns vs. Godwinns for the WWF Tag Titles * Ultimate Warrior vs. Jerry Lawler * The semifinals and finals of the King of the Ring tournament (that's all that Jim Ross said would air on the PPV) The KotR tournament brackets look like this: Ultimate Warrior --\ |-- None --\ Goldust --/ \ |-- Vader --\ Ahmed Johnson --\ / \ |-- Vader --/ \ Vader --/ \ |-- --\ H.O.G. --\ / \ |-- --\ / \ Justin Bradshaw --/ \ / \ |-- --/ | Jake Roberts --\ / | |-- --/ | Hunter Helmsley --/ | |-- KotR Bob Holly --\ | |-- --\ | Steve Austin --/ \ | |-- --\ | Savio Vega --\ / \ / |-- --/ \ / Marty Jannetty --/ \ / |-- --/ Yokozuna --\ / |-- --\ / Owen Hart --/ \ / |-- --/ Skip --\ / |-- --/ Marc Mero --/ Eyeballing things, it looks possible that Savio vs. Austin will take place, perhaps leading to a second tourney match without a winner (how else will they squeeze the first two rounds onto TV without any difficulty?). With that in mind, I'd lean towards a Vader vs. Mero final for the tourney, or at least that's what I'd hope for. On the bright side, at least the Ultimate Warrior won't end up the King of the Ring. Does anybody else smirk when they hear his "Warrior University" spot where he assures us that we have just as much chance of success in pro-wrestling as him (we certainly all have the same wrestling ability)? Originally, I had thought that they'd re-introduce Curt Hennig at the King of the Ring, since he has already begun watching Shawn Michaels' matches on TV. It's Japanese booking, but bringing Hennig back for the tourney and having him make it to the final before losing would make the point that, since he hasn't been active for so long, he's a real threat. It would appear that Goldust vs. Ahmed Johnson and Mankind vs. Undertaker could be added to the show. Both matches follow from recent storylines. [ - ] [RAW] beat [Nitro] on 05/20 with a 2.3 rating (4.5 share) against a 3.1 rating (4.7 share). It's important to note that Nitro was on earlier than usual. The Monday ratings show a pretty even battle to date. [ - ] The PPV buy rates of the past six months (year or so) show that the WWF has an average buy rate of 0.80 (0.75) and average gross of $2.09-million ($1.72-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. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 07/21/96. [ - ] WCW has Quake At The Lake on 07/07/96. [ - ] WCW has a PPV on 08/11/96. [ - ] WCW has Clash of Champions XXXIII on 08/14/96. [ - ] 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 from Caeser's Palace. It will be an outdoor show. [ - ] 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to return. E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca