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   images!
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   I will find time on the weekend to catch up on some tape watching! If
   all goes well, I'll hopefully have a much-needed update to my "tapes"
   page some time next week. I'll also try to resume the pictures next
   week. 
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   RAW this week seemed much the same as last week. The talent dearth in
   North America is hitting the WWF hard and much of the "new" talent
   that enters the promotion is nothing to get excited about, IMO. The
   one bright spot was the announcement that Great Sasuke would face Taka
   Michinoku at the In Your House PPV on Sunday, which hopefully signals
   a much-needed influx of talented workers from Michinoku Pro Wrestling
   in Japan. With Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and Marc Mero sidelined, and
   workers like Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, and Vader wrestling at less
   than full health, the promotion has suffered tremendously when it
   comes to work quality. Look at some of the new arrivals:

   The Nation of Domination (Faarooq, Ahmed Johnson (injured), D.Lo
   Brown, and Kama Mustapha). The Disciples of Apocalypse (Crush, Brian
   Lee, and the Harris Twins). Savio Vega's Puerto Rican contingent
   (Vega, Miguel Perez, and two other unimpressive-looking wrestling, as
   Puerto Rican nurtured wrestling talent tends to be). Top ECW guys
   (Sabu, Van Dam, and others), who can't beat established WWF prelim
   guys, and are pushed as feuding with the USWA, the few wrestlers from
   which are not particularly impressive. The Lightheavyweight division
   is pushed as offering great high-flying action, but to this point
   showcases small guys, mostly established jobbers, but all not offering
   a different style. The Hart Foundation has several excellent wrestlers
   in it, but seems to offer little great wrestling as well because, with
   the exception of Steve Austin, there's nobody to wrestle.

   This week, Jim Cornette brought out the Head Hunters, who are solid
   garbage wresters but nothing special in a more rounded product style.
   Brian Christopher wrestled Scott Putski in a lightheavyweight match
   that was just a heavyweight match featuring smaller wrestlers. Putski
   is not good, so it is suprising that they would bring him back (he had
   not signed a contract at the time of his last appearance) and push
   him. Christopher can be good, but he wrestles a traditional
   heavyweight style more-or-less and it kills the lightheavyweight
   division and Christopher to package him the way they are.

   The Undertaker story line dominated hour two of RAW, with Paul Bearer
   delivering a lengthy script about the Undertaker's childhood, saying
   that UT had set ablaze his father's funeral home, killing his parents
   and younger brother Kane. Later, Undertaker addressed the claim by
   saying that his brother had played with fire, leading to the tragedy.
   Somehow, this revelation is supposed to explain Undertaker bowing in
   servitude to Paul Bearer and hoping that his fans can forgive the
   news. It makes no sense. But there's more! When Undertaker was
   attacking Bearer at the end of the show, Bearer was yelling "Kane's
   alive!" or something to that effect, which I guess means that they've
   decided to double-up the Undertaker gimmick and bring in a brother for
   him. Of course, those that watch closely will remember that Undertaker
   debuted under the name "Kane the Undertaker" years back at Survivor
   Series, so there's surely more at work here, a biblical Kane & Abel
   story, no doubt. I'm unenthused since none of this will deliver any
   good wrestling anyhow.

   But after confirmation of Sasuke & Taka coming in, the PPV on Sunday
   just got a whole lot better.

   - The story with Shawn Michaels and the WWF is not settled yet.
   Obviously, the WWF is not all that certain about Michaels return to
   the fold, developing a story line that will place Steve Austin &
   Mankind together as a tag team. Michaels apparently doesn't believe
   the WWF is a safe working environment for him and, along with his
   attorney, has continued to meet with Vince McMahon to dicuss things.

   - Reports are that Buddy Landel had a tryout with WCW, with the idea
   of bringing him in as an NWO Nature Boy. Despite the fact that Buddy
   could work the microphone, this sounds like a terrible idea. But as
   you have that thought, realize that the WWF just gave Van Hammer a
   tryout. And Men On a Mission's Oscar was saying that MOM would be
   returning to the WWF. Was I saying something about a talent dearth
   earlier?

   - The Observer reports that there were some serious problems backstage
   at the 06/23 RAW show. Rob Van Dam was scheduled to work against
   Double J Jesse James with a double count-out booked as the finish. Van
   Dam apparently didn't appreciate a top ECW star being booked as unable
   to beat a WWF prelim wrestler and remarked that "it would be like Bret
   Hart going to ECW and losing to one of their job guys. Several WWF
   officials, Gerald Brisco in particular, found it insulting that Van
   Dam would compare himself to Bret Hart and there were a lot of
   complaints about Van Dam thinking he was much bigger of a star than he
   really is. It nearly killed the ECW/WWF deal completely [aside: the
   deal is that the WWF will let ECW appear on RAW to hype their second
   PPV] buy Paul Heyman's ability to play both sides looks to have saved
   it."

   - The WWF has In Your House on 07/06/97. Tentative line-up has:
     * Undertaker vs. Vader for the WWF Title
     * Bret Hart & Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart & Brian
       Pillman vs. Steve Austin & Goldust & Legion of Doom & Ken Shamrock
     * Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
     * Great Sasuke vs. Taka Michinoku

   This show got a whole lot better with the addition of the Michinoku
   Pro wrestlers. I'm now looking forward to it more than the WCW show a
   week later, an infrequent occurrence since WCW started showcasing the
   Cruisers, Mexicans, and the other handful of great wrestlers in the
   group and the WWF started having so much trouble with injuries to the
   great workers.

   - WCW has Bash at the Beach on 07/13/97. Tentative line-up has:
     * Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman vs. Lex Luger & The Giant
     * Diamond Dallas Page & mystery partner vs. Scott Hall & Randy
       Savage
     * Kevin Sullivan vs. Chris Benoit in a retirement match
     * Jeff Jarrett vs. Steve McMichael for the US Title
     * Ric Flair vs. Roddy Piper
     * Glacier & Ernest Miller vs. Wrath & Mortis
     * Lizmark Jr. & Hector Garza & Juventud Guerrera vs. Villano IV & La
       Parka & Psicosis

   Well, this is a pretty lousy show on paper. Besides the trios match
   and watching Benoit retire Sullivan, there is nothing worthwhile.

   - Apparently, the injuries to Sid, Doug Furnas, and Dan Kroffat,
   thanks to a car accident, were all more severe than first reported.
   Sid suffered new injuries to his back and is out indefinitely. LaFon
   will be out of action for a month. Furnas may need much longer to
   return, having suffered a broken vertebra in his back.

   - Chris Jericho won the WCW Cruiserweight Title from Syxx on the
   weekend.

   - Speaking of weekends, I was in Montreal for the long weekend (Canada
   Day holiday) and came back to several tapes of TV wrestling. Having
   gone over the tapes in the past couple of days, it's frustrating to
   hear how poor the commentary remains in both groups. Little things
   annoy me. Commentators in both promotions cannot say "enzuigiri,"
   instead delivering "enzugori" or something like that. Jim Ross says
   "Michinoko" instead of "Michinoku," etc. I thought with Madusa
   retiring in WCW that the frustration would subside a bit, since "Akita
   Hokoto" wouldn't be referenced by anybody any more. Sigh.

   - - RAW 06/30 with a 3.36 rating against a 2.5 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 0.59 (0.52) and average gross of
   $1.51-million ($1.32-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of
   0.69 (0.66) and average gross of $2.10-million ($1.95-million).

   The details as they stand are available.

   - All Japan Pro-Wrestling has a major show at Budokan Hall on
   07/25/97. Line-up has:
     * Mitsuhara Misawa vs. Akira Taue for the Triple Crown
     * Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs. Steve Williams & Gary Albright for
       the Double Tag Titles

   - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/03/97. Tentative line-up has:
     * Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Title

   - WCW has Road Wild on 08/09/97. Tentative line-up has:
     * Lex Luger vs. Giant

   - ECW has its second PPV on 08/17/97. Tentative line-up has:
     * Sabu vs. Sandman

   - The WWF has In Your House on 09/07/97.
   - WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/14/97.

   - FMW has a show in Kawasaki Stadium on 9/28/97. They have announced
   that Ken Shamrock will appear, and it now seems like he will face
   Vader.

   - 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.

   - FMW has a major show in Kawasaki Stadium on 11/28/97.

   - 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.
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   Thanks to: Masaki Aso.
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