From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 09/12 Date: 1996/09/13 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 180537661 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Picture of the Week This week's picture is a collage featuring the great Taka Michinoku vs. Super Delfin match from the Skydiving J tournament in New Japan. Although he still needs polish, Taka was incredible in this match, launching himself on the ropes for a springboard plancha near the turnbuckles, bouncing to the ropes on the other side of the turnbuckle, and then hitting the plancha on a moving Super Delfin (this sequence is in the collage). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ Aja & Kyoko ] [ - ] The big story of the week involves Sting and the NWO. Of course, these Nitro shows don't air in Southern Ontario until the weekend, so I'm limited to just say that I don't believe that this will lead to Sting turning on WCW. There seems little doubt that this is just a neat angle to perhaps have Sting surprise the NWO by working against them in the War Games - he could talk the talk and end up being the last guy to enter the cage for the NWO side, tease the anti-WCW position, and then attack the NWO guys. [ - ] The Observer writes about Davey Boy Smith being the fourth NWO wrestler. Smith had agreed to stay with the WWF months ago if he was given a strong push; the push never materialized and Smith found himself jobbing to Sid at every turn in matches that were extremely limited by, well, Sid. WCW was talking to Smith, okay since his contract with the promotion was up, and agreed to fly him to all shows, etc. "When Vince McMahon got wind, which was believe to have been on 08/28, that Smith was on the verge of making a deal with WCW, he made a phone call to Smith along with WWF attorney Jerry McDevitt and finally reached him the next day and was said to have been furious. The bone of contention was that Smith had apparently made a verbal agreement to continue with the WWF and sign a five-year contract even though he had not actually signed and that Smith's attorney had already signed a preliminary entering into contract several weeks ago. The latter basically was that the two sides agreed that Smith was staying but that all terms hadn't been agreed to so he wouldn't have been phased out on television while the details of the negotiations where still ongoing. Whether legal threats in regard to what would be perceived as going back on both the verbal agreement and the written agreement were made, as Titan was under the belief that it had a written agreement with Smith and obviously is going to enforce it, are not clear but by the end of the day both sides had agreed to terms and Smith signed the deal." It's reported that Smith accepted much less from the WWF than WCW was offering, but that he's put a hopeful spin on things, thinking that a face turn might re-ignite his popularity in the UK and Europe, where he has probably drawn well and earned a lot in bonuses. [ - ] Everybody is expecting Bret Hart to return to the WWF and work full time again. He is working a tour of South Africa, something he agreed to a long while ago because he wanted to see the land, but rumours persist that he hasn't actually signed anything more with the promotion. Certainly, Vince McMahon must feel that he has a definite agreement with Hart, who has been announced as appearing in a special interview segment for the 09/22 In Your House. They seem to have built up a Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin match, with Austin talking badly about Hart in recent times, but they've also hinted that Hart may come back as a heel, since Owen Hart and Brian Pillman are talking positively about him. It is known that Hart would only return if he's guaranteed another WWF Title run and that Shawn Michaels is willing to put him over. It's expected that all of this will lead to a WrestleMania match between the two. Many people have spoken about the WWF's sagging fortunes in the TV war over the past year, despite having a phenomenal world champion, and are suggesting that Hart's departure plays a role in this; I'm not sure about that, but it can't hurt to have Hart back. [ Aja & Yumiko ] [ - ] Glacier debuted this past weekend on WCW Pro. It was reasonably embarrassing, as you'd expect, but not as bad as some acts which over in the big two. [ - ] WCW has Fall Brawl Sunday. Tentative line-up has: * Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Sting & Lex Luger 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 * Giant vs. Randy Savage * Harlem Heat vs. Nasty Boys for the WCW Tag Titles * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Super Calo for the WCW Cruiserweight Title * Konnan vs. Juventud Guerrera for the Mexican Title * Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. * Scott Norton vs. Ice Train in a submission match It's unclear if the Giant's recent jump to the NWO will alter the top two matches above. It looks like the Steiners are still unable to work a PPV match, so they've stuck with the Nasty Boys. There's talk that AAA minis will work a match on this show. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 09/22/96. Tentative line-up has: * Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind for the WWF Title * Faarooq Asad vs. Marc Mero in the IC Tourney final * Smoking Gunns vs. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith for the Tag Titles * Undertaker vs. Goldust in a match that must end by pinfall * Mark Henry vs. Jerry Lawler * Jim Cornette vs. Jose Lothario [ - ] I had the chance to watch quite a few things on tape over the past week, thanks partly to tapes given to me by Sanjay Mohanta, and I know that Sanjay wants me to comment publicly about things, so I will. * ECW November To Remember, 11/18/95 o Don E. Allen & Tony Stetson vs. Buh Buh Ray Dudley, 1/4*. This was a nothing match. None of these guys can do anything particularly worthwhile. Buh Buh is apparently trying to through some topes into his matches, but he needs a lot more than a few highspots to make him any good. The fans like his act though and always ask him to dance. o Konnan vs. Jason, DUD. This wasn't even really a match; it was over in a split second. o Steve Richards vs. El Puerto Ricano, **1/4. I like Richards well enough and Ricano tries, so this wasn't bad, especially considering they were only given a few minutes. o Pit Bulls vs. Eliminators, ***. This was lengthier, with entrances and post-match running 16 minutes or so. These guys are pretty one-dimensional, so I don't know that they'll ever run into the **** zone with me, but this was one of the better matches I've seen with them. I've seen some of the follow-up stuff to this match, which really set up the story line between the teams. o Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis, ***1/4. This was really disappointing, considering who was involved. It was still one of the best matches on the show, but they are capable of much more. Misterio did a dive onto Psicosis from the announcer's nest and Psicosis couldn't make it back to the ring in time. This match was under Mexican Death Match rules, which I guess means they deliver a match *1/2 below their potential. This ran about 20 minutes, everything included. o Too Cold Scorpio & Sandman vs. Public Enemy for the ECW Tag Titles, ***. This ran 30 minutes, everything included, and I quickly found myself wishing that Sandman's ring time were cut to zero so that the extra time could be lumped back with the previous match. Two good wrestlers (Scorpio & Rock) and two dregs (Sandman & Grunge). o Bill Alfonso vs. Tod Gordon, DUD. This was perversely entertaining, I guess, if you are really into the promotion, but it hardly deserved the 18 minutes running time that the whole shebang was given. o Mikey Whippreck vs. Steve Austin, **3/4. Disappointing, again, partly due to time constraints; this match was only given 11 minutes or so. Mikey successfully defended his ECW Title, so give Austin credit for doing the improbable job. o Sabu vs. Hack Myers, **3/4. Hack's best match, to be sure, but nothing too spectacular. o Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk vs. Raven & Cactus Jack, ***3/4. Funk & Jack are great at doing the right thing at the right time and made this match for me. I'm still really disappointed by Dreamer. [ Mima Shimoda] * Just Another Night, 02/23/96. The idea of this tape, as Joey Styles puts it, is that "just another night in ECW" is better than most any night in another promotion. You've got to think that they could find a better card if that's the statement they wanted to make, since this was among the worst ECW shows I've seen. o J.T. Smith & Joel Hartgood vs. Bad Crew, DUD. A throwaway match. Smith beat of Hartgood and left him in the ring to get beat in a few minutes. o Steve Richards & Blue Meanie vs. Pit Bulls, *1/2. A reasonably disappointing match. Richards is great on the stick and has shown some good stuff in the ring on occasion, but this night was not a good one. Meanie is pretty lousy. Stevie had to revive Meanie at the end of the match. o Tod Gordon vs. Bill Alfonso, DUD. Same stuff as the previous tape. o Eliminators vs. Buh Buh Ray Dudley & Dances With Dudley, *1/2. I kind of wish they'd have put the Dudleys against Richards & Meanie, so that the Pit Bulls and the Eliminators could have worked against each other, because they at least click a bit together. o Sandman vs. Axl Rotten, **1/4. This wasn't anywhere near as bad as I'd have expected. That doesn't mean I'm revising my opinion of Sandman (or Axl!), since he still is usually the worst-skilled guy in the main events. This ran about 25 minutes, everything included. o Cactus Jack vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, *1/2. One of the bigger disappoints of the tape watching sessions. They did nothing interesting. Cactus made an LT joke and Bigelow said that Vince told him to job that night, but that nobody told him to job tonight, which I found to be a poor comment. o Sabu vs. Too Cold Scorpio, ***1/2. Hands down the match of the night, but not their best effort either. It's still a darn good performance. o Raven vs. Shane Douglas, **3/4. Douglas is over-rated, in every aspect. He did the same shtick here, spanking Kimona, who had her thong underwear on; Kimona didn't writhe on the mat, enjoying it, like she did in an upcoming show. It sends a good message to all of the kids that were in attendance this night. If ECW wants to do this sort of stuff at its shows, and I'm not against that at all, then they shouldn't allow kids in the building. They shouldn't air this sort of thing on television anyhow. * ECW Big Ass Extreme Bash, 03/08/96-03/09/96. The first night was in Queens, the second night in the Arena. According to Meltzer, the Queens crowd was unruly and chanted all sorts of crap at everybody except the Sandman. No surprise, then, that the matches from Queens are clipped to avoid the chants ("We want Mil Mascaras!" at Rey, etc.) Meltzer was at these shows live and wrote a long editorial about it, basically wondering if ECW can succeed outside of Philadelphia. The same wrestlers were on the two shows, yet the Queens show was "a depressing night," "a study of everything that can go wrong with the concept of presenting a hard-edged ultra-violent concept on television that encourages fans to participate." The Philly show was "an example of nearly everything positive about the same concept." o Chris Jericho vs. Cactus Jack (finish only) o Taz vs. Mikey Whippreck (finish only) o Buh Buh Ray Dudley & Dances With Dudley vs. Headhunters (finish only) o Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Misterio Jr. (2 out of 3 falls, highlights only) o Raven vs. Sandman, *1/2. This match ran about eight minutes from start to finish because Raven had gout in his foot. It was insane for him to even do anything. o J.T. Smith vs. Axl Rotten (finish only) This was the first of the ECW Arena matches. o Damian Stone & El Puerto Ricano vs. Bad Crew, DUD. This was terrible, really just a squash. o Buh Buh Ray Dudley & Hack Myers vs. Eliminators, *1/2. This was for the ECW Tag Titles. A bad match again, Hack & Buh Buh are both not noteworthy. o Chris Jericho vs. Taz, ***1/2. This was the first really good match. Jericho is a star. I thought so when he was in SMW, now here, and likely in WCW. Taz is darn good too. o Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Misterio Jr. (2 out of 3 falls), ****1/2. This was excellent, but too short. They did three falls in 15 minutes. Even with their workrate, that seemed short. I complained when Flair and Bobby Eaton did it on a Clash years ago and I'll complain here too. They pulled out a lot of great stuff, though, and had as much psychology as the time limit would allow. o Cactus Jack vs. Mikey Whippreck, ****. Another really good match. Mikey was on here and didn't flub much. Cactus was great. This was Cactus' last match in ECW and he really played it up. Afterwards, he called out the creative genius and the mastermind behind ECW (expecting Tod Gordon & Paul Heyman?), and Steve Richards & The Blue Meanie hit the ring. They did the Fargo strut out of the building. It was fun, but a bit longwinded. o Pit Bulls vs. Bruise Brothers, **. This was nowhere near the level of the previous two matches. o Sabu vs. Big Titan (highlights only) This was Big Titan's debut in ECW and the fans didn't like him according to Meltzer. Maybe that's why they only showed highlights. I've seen Titan vs. Sabu from Japan and they work reasonably well together, so I don't know why the fans wouldn't appreciate him. He isn't at the level of Sabu. o Raven vs. Shane Douglas, ***1/4. Raven was still suffering here, so they did a lot of interference in this match to help time pass. Kimona got spanked again. o Too Cold Scorpio & Sandman vs. Gangstas vs. Headhunters, ***1/4. This was one of those wild ECW brawls that actually turned out alright. I like the Gangstas and Scorpio. * ECW Massacre on Queen's Boulevard, 04/13/96. o J.T. Smith & Damian Stone vs. Buh Buh Ray Dudley & Big Dick Dudley, *. This match really only went a few seconds, but the whole segment lasted past 20 minutes. Buh Buh tried to do ring intros and didn't stutter at all until he hit "Let's get ready to R...R...R..." Devon Dudley debuted and used the f-word 15 times while talking to the Dudleys and the crowd. Apparently, Shane Douglas teaches the interview skills at the ECW school. In Douglas' case, if you removed the phrase "piece of shit" from his interviews, he'd have nothing left to say. o Hack Myers vs. Billy Black, *. When Black & Joel Deaton were teaming in All Japan, they had some great matches. Black pretty much stinks now. o El Puerto Ricano & Joel Hartgood vs. Eliminators, *1/2. A lopsided match. o Raven vs. Damian 666, **1/4. This was a little disappoiting, since Damian has been good on occasion when I've seen him. This match was not good. o Shane Douglas vs. Axl Rotten, **1/2. A reasonable match that surprised me a little. o Taz vs. Chris Jericho, *. This was supposed to be shoot style, but was laughable in that regard. This must have been the pre-cursor to getting Paul Varlans in the Arena and it just didn't work. o Brian Lee & Bruise Brothers vs. Tommy Dreamer & Pit Bulls, ***. This match clicked a bit. o Sabu vs. Mikey Whippreck, ***1/2. Mikey is getting better all the time. If he sticks with it, in a few years, he may be polished enough to be the second real ECW export to the big two (first being Public Enemy). o Too Cold Scorpio & Sandman vs. Gangstas vs. Headhunters, ***. This was the same match as the previous show, almost. This time around, the Headhunters walked out. * 05/11/96 TV, 05/18/96 TV, Kawasaki Legend. o Chigusa Nagayo vs. Shark Tsuchiya, **. A street fight between the ladies. Yes, I think that Chigusa has lowered herself a bit by taking part in this sort of stuff. o Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Hideki Hosaka & Hideo vs. Shoji Nakamaki & Toryu & Miguel Perez, *3/4. A reasonably terrible match. Nobody in this match has ever done anything that impressed me. Matsunaga and Nakamaki are the big names in the list. o Jason the Terrible vs. Nanjyo Hayato, ***1/2. A surprisingly good match. They tried to work a fast-paced Jr. style match and did a reasonable job at it. o Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson & Ricky Fuji vs. Crypt Keeper & Boogie Man & Freddy Krueger (highlights). This looked bad. o Ryuma Go & Samurai Max vs. I. Majin & Silver X, *1/4. These guys are pitiful. I've had the misfortune to see them several times and they are just terrible. o Taka Michinoku vs. Koji Nakagawa, ***1/2. Taka has a hell of a lot of potential and will be a star in the near future. He's still not as polished as other young stars, like Shinjiro Otani or Jun Akiyama, but you can see that he will be a great one. o Terry Funk & Mr. Pogo vs. Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka, ***1/2. This was the crazy gimmick match of the show. It was pretty wild, but, as Meltzer writes, "the wrestling looked like indie wrestling." I can see why the spectacle can leave a viewer transfixed, but in the end, the wrestling was quite poor. o Head Hunters & Super Leather vs. Horace Boulder & Gladiator & Hisakatsu Oya, *1/2. This determined the first street fight six-man champs. The match showed what a bad brawl is all about. o Cactus Jack vs. Wing Kanemura, ****. Another crazy gimmick match. Once again, Cactus did all the right things at all the right moments. There was broken glass everywhere when this was over and both guys were all cut up. o Kamikaze & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Wild Shooter vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Shoichi Funaki & Tetsuhiro Kuroda, 3/4*. These guys are all too young to be any good. o Chapparita Asari & Yumi Fukawa vs. Aki Kanbayashi & Kaori Kakayama, *. This match really gives an indication of the quality of workers in FMW. Asari stood out so much compared to the other women. Yet, in All Japan Women, Asari is a midlevel performer at best. It says something when a midlevel performer from AJW can come onto a packed show and give one of the two best wrestling performances of the show (along with Taka). o Combat Toyoda vs. Megumi Kudo, ***1/2. Despite Yoyoda's excellent match at the V* tourney in All Japan Women, she's not particularly good. This match was good primarily because they actually tried to wrestle a lot of the time instead of just slicing and dicing each other like the men do. Afterwards, Atsushi Onita came in the ring to revive them, since he's the star that wants the spotlight in the main event. In short, then, the 03/09/96 ECW Arena was excellent, but the other three were not too special. The FMW show was good. [ - ] [Nitro] ran unopposed on 08/26 with a 4.3 rating (7.2 share). Nitro's two hour broadcast rating is averaged. 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 0.71 (0.67) and average gross of $1.95-million ($1.71-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.60 (0.54) and average gross of $1.82-million ($1.61-million). The details are an interesting read. [ - ] WCW has Halloween Havoc 10/27/96. Tentative line-up has: * Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage for the WCW Title * Ric Flair vs. Scott Hall for the US Title * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko for the Cruiserweight title in a two out of three falls match. * Jushin Liger vs. El Ultimo Dragon for the eight unified Jr. Titles This is the first show that Jeff Jarrett can work. [ - ] 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to: Masaki Aso. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to return. E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca