I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ Apologies for the relatively slim pickings. Things have been the incredibly hectic here the past week, following a relaxing weekend in Montreal. I'll try had to have an expanded version next week with new pictures. _________________________________________________________________ - WCW had Slamboree on Sunday. I didn't see the show live, but I did watch it on tape today. The final two matches were supremely anti-climactic from a wrestling standpoint, but that's the WCW formula in recent times. Very quickly, * Steve Regal beat Ultimo Dragon to win the TV Title in an exceptional opener. They were wonderfully stiff with each other and somehow managed to deliver a match that had played to both of their strengths by the time it was over. Regal looks a little pudgy these days, but he still manages to be a great worker when he has the right opponent (here or in New Japan). Dragon was screwed by Sonny Ono, which I guess will lead to a Dragon face turn. At the start of the match, the brain surgeons at ringside chanted "USA" and held up signs saying "USA." * Madusa beat Luna Vachon in a nothing match. "Madusa is the future of women's wrestling." Sure, and Lee Marshall is the future of wrestling commentary. Ugh. * Rey Misterio Jr. beat Yuji Yasuraoka in a very good match. * Mortis & Wrath (Brian Clark's name, finally) double-teamed Glacier in a nothing match, with the world karate champion (a sport I do not follow) making the save and delivering a great kick on Mortis. * Dean Malenko beat Jeff Jarrett to retain the US Title. Better than I expected, since I anticipated a style clash between the two of them, but these guys are not the best opponents for each other. At the finish, they tried to make it seem that Steve McMichael throwing a groggy Jeff Jarrett into the ring lead to Jarrett losing to the Texas cloverleaf, but it came off weakly. * Chris Benoit put over Meng in a death match that really should have been promoted as a submission match, IMO. All of the discussion about the stipulation in the promotion of this match was meaningless when it became clear what they were delivering. Benoit is great to watch, but no matter how hard they try to push Meng, and no matter what the truth is about his relative toughness, it's pointless because he's been exposed over the years as a lumbering big guy with some power but no charisma and no true star potential. It was a waste of Benoit to have him job clean, although the finish was good based on how the two wrestlers have been promoted. * The Steiners beat Konnan & Hugh Morrus. The Steiners don't do much for me any more, if they ever really did. This match dragged and had a rather predictable booking pattern to it. After the match, Konnan turned on Morrus, who had dropped the fall in the match. Konnan will join the NWO. * Steve McMichael beat Reggie White, using a second Haliburton briefcase to get the the knockout blow. Incredibly poor match, with lots of blown spots and lots of embarrassing misses, etc. The crowd seemed to get into it, but it was darn bad. * Ric Flair & Roddy Piper & Kevin Greene beat Scott Hall & Kevin Nash & Syxx, with a brutal triple pin victory that has to be the result of egos losing ground to common sense and money-making booking. The match was pretty much a joke, with Flair being the only member on his side to actually do anything, and he didn't do all that much. Still, it was great to see Ric back in the ring. The match was filled with more machismo spots than a typical Mexican lucha libre bout, except here those spots were just ego-stroking. Bad wrestling, bad finish, the crowd loved it. In the end, I'd give the show a thumbs in the middle or a slight thumbs up, but despite the star power on top, I think it would be better to watch the card in reverse order, because the opener was so strong and somewhat forgotten by the end. RAW this week focussed on the Hart Foundation vs. Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels story-line (what else is there?). This story-line is becoming over-exposed as the wrestlers sound like they are delivering the same interviews every week. They tried to spice things up this week. For some unknown reason, Owen Hart & and Davey Boy Smith offered Shawn Michaels & Steve Austin a title match next week. So, Shawn & Steve fought, leading to Michaels picking Ken Shamrock as his partner for next week and Austin picking Harvey Wippleman as his partner. It was left unclear what the actual title match would be next week. Vader, injured in his match against Shamrock, was unable to appear in the King of The Ring qualifying match, so they used Hunter Hearst Helmsley in his spot, exposing the lack of talent depth in the promotion, since Helmsley had already been eliminted last week. The explanation for all of this came off poorly. They ran a pre-taped interview with Mankind, calling him Mick Foley and using the name Cactus Jack at the end. Bret Hart challenged Shawn Michaels to a match at King of the Ring, saying that if he didn't beat Michaels in ten minutes, he'd never wrestle in the US again. In addition, the Hart Foundation members will each be handcuffed to a ring post. The winner of this match gets a title shot at SummerSlam. So, egos are not defeating business sense only in WCW. I was half-expecting Bret to say he'd also have one arm tied behind his back, wear a blindfold, and have to hop on one foot. The wrestling on the show was rather weak. - The local paper had a blurb on Marc Mero, writing the following. "Wildman Marc Mero didn't want to throw gas on the fire that rages in the WWF-WCW war, but he is bullish on his current employers. "'I had five great years in the WCW and nobody is going to take that away from me,' said Mero, who was in Toronto this week at the Canadian Cable Television Association convention. "Mero, a native of Buffalo, has been out of action after surgery to repair serious damage to his left knee. "'But when it's all said and done, I'm glad I made the decision to come to the World Wrestling Federation,' he added. "The WWF is a wrestling organization, it's not a TV station. It's a wrestling company. I feel it's a lot more professional (than Ted Turner-owner WCW). I think (WWF) is going to help my career in the future.' "Mero admits he loves being part of the ongoing battle between the companies and that grappling fans are benefitting. "'It's the best time to be a wrestling fan right now,' he said. There's some great wrestling going on. "'I watch their (WCW) show as much as I watch ours. I left a lot of good friends there. I keep in touch with them. We talk about the business and their personal lives, just like any friends would.'" - Reports are that the Patriot will join the WWF after the current All Japan tour. - - RAW 04/21 with a 3.38 rating against a 2.75 rating. Next week, the shows return to head-to-head combat, and it should be expected that Nitro will resume its weakly trouncing of RAW. 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. - New Japan has a major show at Budokan Hall on 06/05/97, featuring: * Shinya Hashimoto vs. Keiji Muto for the IWGP Title * Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Masa Chono & NWO Sting for the IWGP Tag Titles that Kojima & Nakanishi won on 05/03/97 * Tiger King (Satoru Sayama) vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi (the two had a famous series of matches in late 1982 and early 1983 when Sayama wrestled as Tiger Mask) * Riki Choshu & Tadao Yasuda vs. Kengo Kimura & Takashi Ishikawa * Top of the Super Junior tournament final match * Tatsumi Fujinami & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi OharaJunji Hirata & Takashi Iizuka vs. Hiro Saito & Hiroyoshi Tenzan - All Japan Pro-Wrestling has a major at Budokan Hall on 06/06/97, featuring Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuhara Misawa. - The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/08/97. Line-up has: * Undertaker vs. Faarooq for the WWF Title * Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart vs. Legion of Doom for the WWF Tag Titles * Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart for a WWF Title shot at SummerSlam. Bret will never wrestle in the US again if he can't beat Michaels in ten minutes. The four Hart Foundation members will each be handcuffed to a different ring post. * Steve Austin vs. Brian Pillman * King of the Ring Title Tournament semi-finals and final: Quarter Finals Semi Finals Finals Ahmed Johnson Ahmed Johnson Hunter Hearst Helmsley Hunter Hearst Helmsley (replacing Vader) Hunter Hearst Helmsley Crush Goldust Goldust? Jerry Lawler Mankind Mankind? Savio Vega I am surely not alone in dreading the re-match between Ahmed Johnson and Hunter Hearst Helmsley. In describing their match on RAW last week, the Observer wrote, "match was brutal, and I don't mean violent." Indeed. - WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/15/97. - 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. Tentative line-up has: * Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Title - WCW has Hog Wild on 08/09/97. - ECW has its second PPV on 08/17/97. - The WWF has In Your House on 09/07/97. - WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/14/97. - FMW has a major show in Kawasaki Stadium on 09/28/97. The scheduled main event has Atsushi Onita facing Wing Kanemura. - 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. - 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'm way behind on tape watching and I haven't had time to respond to tape-related e-mail. Apologies to anybody who has contacted me, but things are just too hectic for me these days. ______________________________________________________________________ Thanks to: Masaki Aso. ______________________________________________________________________