From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 04/17 Date: 1997/04/18 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 235634573 Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) Organization: University of Waterloo Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to everybody who sent congratulations in e-mail. Many people asked what the future holds. The Math Faculty has hired me as a Lecturer for the summer - I'll be teaching two courses - and it looks like I'll be around here until next April. Things have been a bit frantic the past week. Despite getting through my defence unscathed, I'm not out of the woods yet. I've got a lot of things on my plate, all with a deadline of the end of this month: editing my thesis into final form, finishing a reading course required for my degree, editing a paper into final form for re-submission for publication, getting a grip on the two courses I'm going to teach, and writing lectures for those courses. As a result, I've had little time to watch the ever-growing pile of tapes. The person who originally agreed to trade me the ECW PPV is now silent to e-mail; if anybody reading this would like to trade, please drop me some e-mail. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pictures of The Week [Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada] [Johnny Ace gets power-bombed] This week's pictures are of Kenta Kobashi. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ - ]Of course, the biggest story this week is ECW's debut on PPV this past Sunday with a show entitled Barely Legal. Obviously, I haven't been able to see the show since it was not broadcast in Canada. Not surprisingly, early reviews on the net are generally positive. The question, though, is whether the promotion managed to draw a large enough buy-rate to make future PPV shows viable and perhaps even convince stalwart detractors to carry those shows. The debut shows of Pancrase, UWFi, UFC, EFC, and AAA all managed to meet or surpass 0.24, but building from that initial curiousity buy has usually been tough. With an available universe of approximately 17-million people, a 0.24 buy rate translates into 40800 orders for the show. Very preliminary figures peg the buy rate at about 0.15 or about 25500 orders; this second figure would correspond to roughly $200K net for the promotion. The Observer reports that ECW plans to increase the weekly schedule from two shows to three, which would seem to indicate that the mood was optimistic before the PPV. [ RAW ] this week was a superbly put-together package of pre-taped matches under the pretense that they were live. Clearly, the WWF has learned that a live product makes all the difference in the world. This show was, to me, the weakest of all of the two hour RAWs. The two hour show has offered us longer matches than we've seen in recent years. This is a great thing because it forces the promotion to showcase the good wrestlers if it wants to put on a good wrestling show. Guys like Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Steve Austin, etc., benefit from this change. However, this week was not a week where the good wrestlers were showcased and it made for a pretty bad TV show. It is now clear that after that handful of excellent workers, the WWF has relatively few workers who are solid enough to deliver longer matches. We've seen this on recent PPVs, too, and I wonder what the effect on future PPVs will be when audiences see that point driven home again and again. [ - ] All Japan's Champion Carnival tour ends this Saturday night. Current standings have Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi tied for the lead with 19 points, having fought all of their tournament matches. Akira Taue & Stan Hansen are also done, both with 18 points. Mitsuhara Misawa fights Johnny Ace tonight in their final tourney match; if Misawa wins, he will also have 19 points. The final on Saturday will either feature a singles match between Kawada & Kobashi or, if Misawa wins tonight, a mini-tournament final. [ - ] Tiger Ali Singh has won the second WWF Kuwaiti Cup, so I guess the expected big push is upcoming. By all accounts, Singh is not a particularly good wrestler. [Outsiders] [ - ] WCW was in Montreal, Quebec, on 04/11/97 for a show promoted by Jacques Rougeau. Rougeau made the move to WCW specifically for this sort of opportunity and it's clear from the results that WCW agreed to make him happy. In the main event, Jacques pinned Hulk Hogan in a non-title match. The co-main event saw Pierre Oulette get a DQ victory over the Giant in a patch match, where each wrestler had to wear an eye patch. It was weird seeing the promos for this card on the Canadian broadcast of Nitro; the French Canadians played babyface and really made fun of Hogan and Giant. [ - ] Quick results for the New Japan Tokyo Dome show from 04/12/97: o Naoya Ogawa beat Shinya Hashimoto with a choke sleeper in 9:25 in a non-title match o Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki beat Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura in 15:31 to win the IWGP Tag Titles o Antonio Inoki beat Satoru Sayama, wrestling as Tiger King, by submission in 6:46 o Jushin Liger pinned Great Sasuke in 20:08 to retain the J Crown o Great Muta pinned Masa Chono in 14:08 in a match is billed as "The World of Darkmen" o Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Manabu Nakanishi (Kurosawa in WCW before returning to New Japan) by submission in 14:29 o Satoshi Kojima & Junji Hirata pinned Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Nishimura in 10:18 o Shiro Koshinaka pinned Takashi Ishikawa in 11:16 o Chris Benoit pinned Kevin Sullivan (match to be taped for WCW TV) in 9:17 o El Samurai pinned Shinjiro Otani in 13:51 [ - ] A reader wrote in to the Observer this past week, asking numerous questions about Monday Nitro, amongst them being, "Why did Prince Iaukea set the chair back up on the ropes when it was falling? Does he enjoy getting chairs kicked in his face?" Dave Meltzer replied, "He had been studying tapes of Rob van Dam's opponents from ECW. He figured then a whole bunch of guys would then rave it was the greatest match of all-time." [Funk Masters of Wrestling] Sing it, Terry, sing it. [ - ] Sanjay and I had lunch together again today. After last week's write-up on the IWA-FMW bath house matches, he somehow had the impression that I actually enjoyed the shows. He said I could share our lunch-time conversation with you, if I wanted. He was talking about not letting his kids, should he ever have any, watch IWA/FMW until they are 14 or 15 years old and I commented that showing them those tapes would be a case of excellent parenting (sarcasm). Think about it: today's youth is already disenchanted with the job market prospect, feeling some sense of entitlement but no desire to work hard; showing kids IWA/FMW tapes can send the reassuring message that no matter how untalented you are, there's always some sort of job available. Oh well, Sanjay asked me to continue watching the bath house tape. Yes, it goes from the ridiculous to the inane. After the bath house matches comes a tag match involving IWA wrestlers, in particular the supremely untalented Shoji Nakamaki, who somehow manages to give the awesome Mr. Pogo a run for his crappy-wrestler money, and the Crypt Keeper, with another stupid gimmick. This time around, some fans have donated their house to the match, presumably because they want the house demolished. The wrestlers brawl all through the two-story house, destroying furniture, tossing TVs around, and bleeding all over everything. There is a lot of "banging the opponent's head into the wall" type stuff, amidst the other stuff, highlighted with Crypt Keeper sticking his opponent's head in the toilet and flushing like mad; if only they'd both been sucked down the drain (ah, the symbolism!). Sanjay sure likes to torture me. Here I am, having slaved away this term to complete my Doctorate, amassing a hell of a lot of good wrestling on tape; yet the only wrestling I've watched on video the past two weeks has been IWA/FMW crap. [ -] The WWF has [ In Your House ] on Sunday. 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. Steve Austin o Honky Tonk Man's new find vs. Jesse James [ - ]FMW announced the line-up for the 04/29/97 Yokohama Arena show. The show marks the eighth anniversary of the promotion and will feature the retirement of female wrestler Megumi Kudo. Line-up for the show as announced by FMW on 04/05/97 includes: o Megumi Kudo vs. Shark Tsuchiya for Shark's WWA World women's & Independent women's Title in a no rope, barbed wire, electrified, bomb, barricade, double hell death match. o Atsushi Onita & Masato Tanaka & Wing Kanemura vs. Terry Funk & Gladiator & Cactus Jack in a Texas Tornado Street Fight o Hayabusa vs. Mr. Gannosuke in a mask vs. hair match o Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Super Leather [ - ] New Japan has a major show on 05/03/97 in the Osaka Dome. Line-up includes: o Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoyi Ogawa for the IWGP Title o Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima for the IWGP Tag Titles o Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kengo Kimura o El Gran Hamada & Super Delfin & Great Sasuke & Norio Honga & El Samurai vs. Dick Togo & Mens Teoh & Hanzo Nakajima & Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto [Four Horsemen] After pushing the NWO story-line in New Japan, the promotion also wants some WCW/NWO guys to appear. Slated to be on the show are Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Syxx, Marcus Bagwell, Scott Norton, Sting, Lex Luger. It has been announced that eleven WCW/NWO wrestlers will appear. [ - ] [ Nitro ] beat [ RAW ] on 04/14 with a 3.45 rating against a 2.2 rating. The detailed ratings are a click away. [ - ] 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). The details as they stand are available. [ - ] WCW has Slamboree on 05/18/97. Tentative line-up has: o Ric Flair & Roddy Piper & Kevin Greene vs. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash & Syxx [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 05/11/97. Tentative line-up has: o Undertaker vs. Vader for the WWF Title o Ahmed Johnson vs. Faarooq & Crush & Savio Vega It's hoped that Brian Pillman will be able to return for this show. [ - ] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/08/97. [ - ] WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/15/97. Tiger Mask takes on Mens Teoh in a bloody battle. [A batter Tiger Mask] The WWF met with the Michinoku Pro contingent to see if they can strike a deal to have them work a WWF PPV show. [ -] The WWF has [ In Your House ] on 07/06/97. [ - ] WCW has Bash at the Beach on 07/13/97. [ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/03/97. [ - ] WCW has Hog Wild on 08/09/97. [ - ]The WWF has [In Your House ] on 09/07/97. [ - ] WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/14/97. [ - ]The WWF has [In Your House ] on 10/05/97. [ - ] WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/26/97. [ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97. [ - ] WCW has World War III on 11/23/97. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 12/07/97. [ - ] WCW has Starrcade on 12/28/97. [ - ] 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