From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 10/17 Date: 1996/10/18 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 190318904 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm still pretty overloaded with work (thesis writing is a challenge), so my e-mail responses have been very few again this week. Unfortunately, this workload translates into a sparse TidBits this week. I will have a richer edition next week. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ Akiyama vs. Williams ] [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on Sunday. Line-up has: * Vader vs. Sid for a title shot at Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series * Undertaker vs. Mankind in a buried alive match, where the loser is the person dumped into a grave on the set (reminiscent of the Cactus Jack vs. Vader match at Halloween Havoc years back) * Marc Mero vs. Farooq for the IC Title * Steve Austin vs. Savio Vega * Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs. Smoking Gunns for the Tag Titles [ Kawada vs. Patriot ] [ - ] As had been reported everywhere, Bret Hart has apparently been offered a very lucrative deal with WCW, "a three-year-deal to Hart worth supposedly close to $9 million" reports the Observer. You've got to think that Vince McMahon wouldn't go ahead with the story line he has pursued (Steve Austin constantly challenging Bret to return to the ring, etc.) if he didn't have (at least) verbal confirmation from Hart that he was staying with the promotion. The Observer suggests that it is indeed possible that Bret has made no commitment to the WWF, but that Vince is desperate to maintain the appearance of having top flight stars in the fold. It's hard to believe that Bret Hart, who has always said that going to WCW was a step down, at the age of 39, would even have to think twice about a deal as rich as the above, a deal that the WWF cannot hope to meet a third of the way. [ Muto vs. Fujinami ] [ - ] WCW has Halloween Havoc 10/27/96. Tentative line-up has: * Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage for the WCW Title * Harlem Heat vs. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash for the Tag Titles * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko for the Cruiserweight title in a two out of three falls match. * Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit vs. Barbarian & Meng * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddy Guerrero for the Battle Bowl ring * Jushin Liger vs. El Ultimo Dragon The "two out of three falls" stipulation has apparently been said on TV, although I haven't heard it. The Liger match is still unannounced, so I'd guess it isn't happening. The Ric Flair vs. Giant match has been scrapped. Flair has claimed he needed surgery for a while now, but WCW apparently thought he might just be unhappy with his situation and actually got a second opinion. Flair looks to be out until the end of the year and talk is that his wrestling schedule will be reduced, with him taking on a star attraction role. There is talk that he'll become the manager of the Four Horsemen and that Jeff Jarrett will be his replacement in the group. [ - RAW ] this week had a good main event with a weak non-finish to hype the PPV show. This coming week's live RAW will feature Curt Hennig's return to the ring. [ Sasuke & Delfin ] [ - ] It seems likely that I'll find time on the weekend to start watching the past year or so of ECW TV on tape. I'll probably have some comments next week. [ - ] [Nitro ] beat [RAW ] on 10/07 with a 3.5 rating (5.4 share) against a 2.1 rating (3.0 share). Nitro's two hour broadcast rating is averaged. The Observer reports that the ratings in the final 15 minutes of each show were 3.7 to 2.0 in Nitro favour (for the Chris Benoit vs. Rick Steiner match against the Sid vs. Goldust match). The detailed ratings are a click away. [ Akiyama vs. Kobashi ] [ - ] The PPV buy rates of the past six month (year or so) show that the WWF has an average buy rate of 0.53 (0.65) and average gross of $1.39-million ($1.69-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.60 (0.57) and average gross of $1.82-million ($1.69-million). The details are an interesting read. [ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/17/96. Tentative line-up includes: * Shawn Michaels vs. Vader (or Sid) for the WWF Title * Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart [ - ] WCW has World War III 11/24/96. Current plan is to have a 60-man three-ring battle royal as they did last year, with Hulk Hogan being stripped of the title and the winner of the match becoming champion. [ Misawa vs. Williams ] [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 12/15/96. [ - ] WCW has Starrcade on 12/29/96. The show will be from Nashville. [ - ] 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