From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 04/03 Date: 1997/04/04 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 230604439 Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) Organization: University of Waterloo Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have to apologize for not having all that much to say this week. My PhD thesis defence is this coming Monday morning, so I'm obviously a bit pre-occupied. Assuming all goes well, I will try to have a longer edition next week (or definitely the week after), with more video discussions, etc. I also have to apologize for falling way behind in answering e-mail. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pictures of The Week [Manami Toyota] [Mima Shimoda] Once again, due to e-mail requests, this week's pictures focus on Manami Toyota and Mima Shimoda. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ RAW ]this week continued the Bret Hart story line. This was a taped show, so it had a flatter feel than the live shows of previous weeks. Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart were having a pretty good match for the European title when Bret came down and stopped them from fighting. Bret delivered another great speech, talking about his history with each of the other two and the role that the American fans played in getting them to turn on each other. Owen Hart cried and really helped to make this segment into something special. They left together. The main was Bret Hart vs. Rocky Maivia for the IC Title. They really let Bret school Rocky before Bret finally snapped and put the figure-four on Rocky around the ring post (which can look pretty contrived when he's putting it on, but usually looks damn cool). Steve Austin charged ringside and broke it up, with the crowd and the commentators cheering him on; can the possibly be dumb enough to try to turn Austin into a face or will they hopefully just leave that as his status in this feud? Smith & Owen came down to ringside too, before the Legion of Doom showed up and chased people off. The LOD are the oddballs in this scenario, showing up because they will face Smith & Owen at the In Your House on 04/20, but clearly not fitting into the ability level of the Bret, Smith, Owen, and Austin. The other angle on the show saw Mankind throw fire at the Undertaker. It looked pretty good in the freeze frame shot, but I'm still not looking forward to their match. [Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Arn Anderson] Hiroyoshi Tenzan leaps at Arn Anderson [ - ]WCW has Spring Stampede on Sunday. Tentative line-up features: o Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. Steiners for the WCW Tag Titles o Akira Hokuto vs. Madusa for the WCW Women's Title o Dean Malenko vs. Chris Benoit for the US Title o Prince Iaukea vs. Steve Regal for the TV Title o Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage in a no DQ match o Public Enemy vs. Steve McMichael & Jeff Jarrett o Harlem Heat, Lex Luger, and Giant in a four corners match to determine the next contender for Hulk Hogan (the person that wins the first pin fall gets the title shot) o Rey Misterio Jr. vs. El Ultimo Dragon There are two matches on this list that look just outstanding. Scott Hall will likely be replaced by Syxx. [ - ]As usual, All Japan's annual Champion Carnival has had a few interesting results. On 03/28, Kenta Kobashi pinned Mitsuhara Misawa after a lariat. On 04/02, Steve Williams pinned Mitsuhara Misawa. It would seem that they are trying to create contenders for future Triple Crown title matches. [ - ]Apparently, Rob van Dam, who was [Kensuke Sasaki vs. Lex Luger] backstage at a recent WCW Nitro show, has been offered a contract by the promotion. There is a lot of thought that he, and perhaps others, will no longer work for ECW after their first PPV. [ - ] WCW comes to Montreal, Quebec, making a rare visit to Canada, on 04/11/97. Planned matches include: o Hulk Hogan vs. Jacques Rougeau o Giant vs. French Canadian Pierre in a "patch match," where each wrestler wears an eye patch o Harlem Heat vs. Faces of Fear o Lex Luger vs. Steve McMichael o Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko Several matches with local wrestlers will also be added. [Jushin Liger vs. Chris Benoit] [ - ]New Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 04/12/97. Featured line-up includes: o Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoyi Ogawa for the IWGP Title o Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki for the IWGP Tag Titles o Antonio Inoki vs. Tiger Mask I (Satoru Sayama) o Jushin Liger vs. Great Sasuke for the J Crown o Great Muta vs. Masa Chono (match is billed as "The World of Darkmen") o Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Manabu Nakanishi (Kurosawa in WCW before returning to New Japan) o Satoshi Kojima & Junji Hirata vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Nishimura o Shiro Koshinaka vs. Ishikawa o Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan (match to be taped for WCW TV) o El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani [ - ] ECW has their first PPV on 04/13/97, airing from the ECW Arena from 9pm to 11:55pm. Tentative line-up includes: o Sabu vs. Taz o Terry Funk vs. Sandman vs. Stevie Richards in a triangle match for a title shot against Raven later in the show o Shane Douglas vs. Pit Bull #2 for the TV Title o Dudleys vs. Eliminators o Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Lee o Rob van Dam vs. Louie Spicoli o Great Sasuke & Gran Naniwa & Gran Hamada vs. Dick Togo & Taka Michinoku & Terry Boy The affiliated (?) ECV is also rumoured to be trying to get on PPV. [ - ]The WWF has [In Your House ] on 04/20/97. Tentative line-up features: o Undertaker vs. Mankind for the WWF Title o Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs. Legion of Doom for the WWF Tag Titles o Bret Hart vs. Sid o Honky Tonk Man's new find (Disco Inferno?) vs. Jesse James o Goldust & Marlena vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Chyna It is doubtfult that Honky Tonk Man's new find will be Disco Inferno, since he reportedly had a no complete clause in his WCW contract. [ - ] [Nitro ]beat [RAW ] on 03/31 with a 3.49 rating against a 2.69 rating. The detailed ratings are a click away. [Shiro Koshinaka vs. Sting] Shiro Koshinaka gets ready to roll up Sting [ - ]The PPV buy rates of the past six months (year or so) show that the WWF has an average buy rate of 0.55 (0.54) and average gross of $1.42-million ($1.41-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.70 (0.65) and average gross of $2.05-million ($1.92-million). WrestleMania scored a 0.77 buy rate, which roughly equates to a gross of $2.14-million; that's a decline from 1.3 and 1.4 buy rates in the past two years respectively. The scary thing is that the buy rate for what is traditionally the biggest bought show of the year in either promotion barely beats the past six months average figure that WCW has amassed. I get over how the tides have turned. The details as they stand are available. [ - ]The WWF has [In Your House ] on 05/11/97. [ - ] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/08/97. [ - ]The WWF has [In Your House ] on 07/06/97. [ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/03/97. [ - ]The WWF has [In Your House ] on 09/07/97. [ - ]The WWF has [In Your House ] on 10/05/97. [ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97. [ - ]The WWF has [In Your House ] on 12/07/97. [ - ]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. I will be adding a tape update some time this weekend. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to: Masaki Aso. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to return. E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca