From: hekunze@mercator.math.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 08/02 Date: 1996/08/04 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 172014131 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling { Apologies for posting this late. As it is, I didn't update the web page until Friday and then I just forgot to post this. My students wrote their final exam on Thursday night, so I just didn't have the energy to get things posted when I got home at 11pm. } [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Picture of the Week This week's picture is a collage featuring the incredible Mitsuhara Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue double tag title change from All Japan. This was Akiyama's first win over Kawada and the storyline of the match was built around that. It's an easy strong match-of-the-year contender. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ - ] Chris Jericho debuts in WCW at the 08/15 Clash of Champions. There is talk that WCW is going to dump lousy guys like Jim Duggan and V.K. Wallstreet when their contracts are up. [ - ] I received the following letter from Phil Lind, Vice Chairman of Rogers Communications, in response to my letter regarding the UFC being dropped in Canada. It's hardly an informative answer, so I'll be following it up with another polite inquiry. [ - ] There is talk that WCW wants to push Psicosis. [Tiger][ - ] Crush (Bryan Adams) is the wrestler that Clarence Mason is trying to bring in to the WWF. Since it was reasonable widely publicized that Adams was arrested on drug and weapon charges, the WWF can cover its butt by creating a storyline where the promotion doesn't want this ex-con. [ - ] On this coming week's RAW, Ahmed Johnson wins a battle royal to determine the challenger for the WWF Title on the live RAW following SummerSlam. I guess this is supposed to tease that Shawn Michaels will drop the title. [ - ] Jushin Liger's junior champion tournament kicks off this week. The draw looks like this: Great Sasuke ---\ (IWGP Jr., Michinoku Pro) \ |---\ / \ Masayoshi Motegi ---/ \ (NWA Jr.) \ |---\ / \ Jushin Liger ---\ / \ (British Commonwealth Jr., NJ) \ / \ |---/ \ / \ El Ultimo Dragon ---/ \ (War Jr. International, WAR) \ |--- winner / El Gran Hamada ---\ / (WWA Jr., Michinoku Pro) \ / |---\ / / \ / El Samurai ---/ \ / (WWF lightheavy, NJ) \ / |---/ / Shinjiro Otani ---\ / (UWA Jr., NJ) \ / |---/ / Negro Casas ---/ (NWA welterweight, EMLL) The first pair of opening round matches takes place on 08/02 and the second pair take place on 08/03. The semi-finals are on 08/04 and the finals are on 08/05. The tournament is billed as unifying all eight titles (!) to decide the one true junior champion. [Benoit][ - ] WCW has Hog Wild on 08/10/96. Line-up has: * Giant vs. Hulk Hogan for the WCW Title * Sting & Lex Luger vs. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash * Ric Flair vs. Eddy Guerrero for the US Title * Harlem Heat vs. Steiners for the WCW Tag Titles * Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan * Scott Norton vs. Ice Train * Madusa vs. Bull Nakano * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. El Ultimo Dragon The PPV takes place on a Saturday and will be preceded by a live two-hour Saturday Night show. Everybody is predicting that Hulk Hogan will not win the WCW Title on this show; I would think that they certainly have to put the NWO over strong to keep the angle alive, but I suppose there are ways to do that without giving Hogan the title. If you're wondering why WCW would suddenly hold a PPV on a Saturday night, just remember that Sunday is Hulk Hogan's birthday. I'm sure that's just a coincidence. [Liger][ - ] WCW has Clash of Champions XXXIII on 08/15/96. Tentative line-up has * Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair * Sting & Lex Luger vs. Harlem Heat vs. Steiners in a triangle tag match * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddy Guerrero * Chris Benoit vs. Giant * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis * Konnan vs. El Ultimo Dragon * Chris Jericho vs. Hugh Morrus * Jim Duggan vs. V.K. Wallstreet It's also expected that Doug Furnas will debut for WCW at this show. [ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/18/96. Line-up has: * Shawn Michaels vs. Vader for the WWF Title * Ahmed Johnson vs. Owen Hart for the IC Title * Godwinns vs. Bodydonnas vs. Smoking Gunns vs. New Rockers in an elimination tag match * Psycho Sid vs. Davey Boy Smith * Undertaker vs. Mankind in a boiler room match * Jake Roberts vs. Jerry Lawler * Marc Mero vs. Goldust Many people are reporting that this card will mark the end of the Undertaker gimmick. [ - ] The WWF has the sequel to the Big Event at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto on 08/24/96. Line-up has: * Shawn Michaels vs. Goldust for the WWF Title in a ladder match * Psycho Sid vs. Vader [ - ] Those that don't read rec.sport.pro-wrestling (and I know that that that describes a large chunk of the people that read this weekly) may be curious to know that this paragraph from last week: [Ron Simmons' debut] is a little funny because late last week local mat fan & ECW supporter, Sanjay Mohanta, was trying to convince me that Ron Simmons should be pushed into a feud with Steve Austin, saying that it would be better than having Austin waste his time with Savio Vega. I responded that Vega and Simmons are very close to the same level on my talent scale. Anyhow, Simmons' debut has Sanjay just shaking his head from side to side and sighing. gave rise to a post calling me "stupid" for saying that Simmons and Vega were both "poor" wrestlers. Now, if only I would have said that. For the record, I think they are both reasonably mediocre and could easily be pushed to the upper half of either major US promotion these days. Simmons' wrestling debut will be on the 08/12 RAW. [ - ] Also, in the past week or so, I've been involved in what could be called a conservative flame war in rec.sport.pro-wrestling. In short, I had the audacity to say that: * Sandman is a poor wrestler, * fans who only like blood and violence are vampires/ghouls, and * the ECW ringside fans that one sees on every shows are morons. The original discussion was based on the first point: Sandman's level of ability. I've seen at least 20-25 matches with the Sandman spanning from earlier this year back to 1990. His only abilities in all those matches were blading (often in plain sight) and brawling. I have nothing against either of these elements of pro-wrestling and actually think both have a place, but these are all that he delivers. Worse yet, the brawling is nonsensical. What do I mean by that? Well, it actually applies to many brawls (in ECW and elsewhere): wrestlers whacking each other with as many objects as possible without selling (see Kevin Sullivan) or building anything using some psychology; wrestlers dragging each other around the Arena or, worse yet, walking around the Arena because they both know where the next big spot is to take place and can't bother to do something logical to get to that location; you get the idea. For an example of great brawling, see Bruiser Brody in Japan. The things I've seen from him in other organizations have been a mix of good and bad, but in Japan he was always careful to deliver smart brawls. I would suggest that the above practices (blading in plain sight, not selling, brawling nonsensically) are bad whenever they occur. I think that's absolute. What do I mean by "bad?" I don't mean that people can't like things that are of bad quality. Think of the movies. Certain actors (Al Pacino, Robert Deniro) are pretty much universally viewed as good, and others (Pauly Shore, Leslie Neilson) are pretty much universally viewed as bad. That doesn't mean I won't sit down and watch a movie with Leslie Neilson and be entertained by it; it does mean that I know that it is a lousy movie, however entertaining. The same thing is true of restaurants. Personal tastes come into what types of movies you frequent and type of food you enjoy most, but when you say one of these things is "good" or "bad" you are saying something about it's innate quality. Personal disagreements occur, but mature, experienced adults can come to some sort of concensus on which things are in the "good" box and which are in the "bad" (think of the actors above or comparing TV shows (would anyone call "Melrose Place" good? I wouldn't, but I enjoy watching it with my girlfriend)). The same is true, I think, for pro-wrestlers. Certainly that's been established in the newsgroup over the years. Hulk Hogan, even though he was darn popular with the buying public, was pretty much viewed as lousy in r.s.p-w and rec.sport.misc before that. Dusty Rhodes, less popular with the public based on his ability to draw money, is similarly remembered as being poorly skilled. Ultimate Warrior, Sid Eudy, Jim Duggan. While people may enjoy watching these guys, I don't think anybody would buy an argument that they are skilled. Certainly, a huge majority of people in r.s.p-w would put the five above wrestlers in the "bad" bin. "Good" and "bad" have nothing to do with what a person likes or what is successful. It's quite possible for people to not care about the quality of things. They like what they like and that's the end of it for them. That doesn't mean that the quality differences don't exist. Further, I'm personally not particularly interested in further separating the "good" and "bad" wrestlers. Both the Ultimate Warrior and Jim Duggan are "bad" and both Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels are "good"; it's not as worthwhile to go further. It is worthwhile to separate the wheat from the chaff, but it's hardly as worthwhile to then sift through the wheat or chaff to separate them some more. In the case of pro-wrestlers, fans that have seen a large amount of wrestling from different promotions over some time period are likely better able to rate the merits of various pro-wrestlers. This is hardly a stretch. Every single fan has the power to decide what to support and what to enjoy, though. When you say something bad about anything ECW-related, you take a chance. The fans love that product so much that they pounce. Even though I've said time and time again that I find enough things in ECW for me to enjoy that I bother to get the tapes, people say, "you hate ECW." I don't, but I don't praise it blindly either. Somebody posted an article talking about a fictional match between Sandman and 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly, which I took as a knock on the ability of the latter two wrestlers. Somehow the observation that Sandman is not a good wrestler, something with which several follow-up posters agreed, was too much. "Can't I enjoy who I want?" Of course you can and I've never said otherwise. This whole discussion of what people enjoy is a red herring; it's irrelevant to the objective merits of the wrestler(s) at hand. It is perfectly fine to just want to enjoy pro-wrestling and not bother to think about quality at all (ditto movies or food), but it is silly to suggest that everybody is probably "good" to someone. But, of course, the egalitarian crowd can have none of that. Haven't you heard? All opinions are equal regardless of intellectual merit. This idea of equal mediocrity is prevalent in school systems and, no surprise, in society in general. News broadcasts have irksome "man in the street" segments where somebody, with no credentials mentioned, talks about a serious issue. Who cares? What authority does the person have? It's never explained because it's not important, apparently, or perhaps because it would remind us that people have different aptitudes. Still, if a teacher says that Johnny is above average, then that brands Joey as average or below. Surely not! Joey is just as good to some other observer and don't you suggest otherwise! I recall with laughter the news story saying that an entire class was rated "above average" by a grade school teacher. At least nobody was made to feel bad. Sandman has a cool, "hardcore" attitude and character, I'm told. Why does his character, popular with "hardcore" fans, make him "good" and Hogan's character, popular with a hell of a lot more people in the 1980s, still leave him "bad?" Because the people that call Sandman "good" are just saying that they like him and are not actually looking at his limited abilities. The big ability that everybody holds up in Sandman's case is brawling. As outlined above, ECW brawls are often nonsensical or one-dimensional, yet some people here will rave about any of them because they have blood, foreign objects, and some stunts. Fans of blood have long been called vampires/ghouls; I brought this term up when people said that Sandman was "good" primarily because he's violent. Finally, while several flamers extended it as an insult to all ECW fans, I did only say that I've come to the conclusion that the ECW ringside fans are morons. You can take that as imflammatory if you wish; in this case, I'm just expressing an opinion that is arguable. [ - ] [Nitro] beat [RAW] on 07/22 with a 2.6 rating (4.2 share) against a 2.2 rating (3.3 share). Nitro's two hour broadcast rating is averaged. This week's ratings were both lower than expected, with Nitro showing a sizeable drop from the recent stellar period and RAW being surprisingly weak for a live post-PPV show. The Observer reports that for overall TV viewership for the week ending 07/07, WCW drew 6.88 million homes on 175 stations while the WWF drew 4.20 million homes on 153 stations. The detailed ratings are a click away. [ - ] The PPV buy rates of the past six month (year or so) show that the WWF has an average buy rate of 0.89 (0.73) and average gross of $2.48-million ($1.79-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.60 (0.54) and average gross of $1.80-million ($1.28-million). The details are an interesting read. [ - ] WCW has Fall Brawl 09/15/96. Tentative line-up has: * Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael vs. Hulk Hogan & the man formerly known as Razor Ramon & the man formerly known as Diesel & the man formerly known as 1-2-3 Kid in a War Games match [ - ] 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. This is the first show that Jeff Jarrett can work. Tentative line-up has: * Sting & Lex Luger & Randy Savage & Giant vs. Hulk Hogan & the man formerly known as Razor Ramon & the man formerly known as Diesel & the man formerly known as 1-2-3 Kid in a War Games match This leads one to draw conclusions on the finish of the 09/15 show. It would be great if they did a Memphis finish of having Jarrett interfere to give the NWO the win, perhaps by hiding under the double ring? [ - ] 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. The Observer reports that there are very serious talks about doing the show live from Tokyo. [ - ] 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