From: "Herb Kunze" Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 07/10 Date: 1997/07/11 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 256366769 Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) Organization: University of Waterloo Reply-To: "Herb Kunze" Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Watch for a tape update before the end of the weekend. I'll have at least 40 new tapes added to the list. I'll also be revamping the site a little bit. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ - ] The WWF had an In Your House PPV on Sunday, a show which provided a much-needed element of something different, IMO. What were the "somethings" different, you ask? Easy: skilled lightheavyweights and a crowd that rabidly supported the top heels in the promotion. [ Great Sasuke debuts ] Starting [ Great Sasuke kicks Taka Michinoku ] with the best first, the second match on the show featured the debut of the Great Sasuke in WWF Lightheavyweight competition against fellow Michinoku Pro wrestler Taka Michinoku. It's my opinion that the Michinoku Pro style is strongest in tag or trio matches, but they did put on a very good match that was clearly much more special than anything else the division has offered to date. The crowd was a little sedate at the start of the match, which had a bit of submission style wrestling that we already know goes over the head of a fanbase that is just learning to accept the tap out. But a devastatingly stiff spin kick from Saskue into a crumpled Taka's face opened up the crowd and set the match a little more on fire. Besides a speed that hasn't been seen in the lightheavyweight matches on RAW, these guys also delivered a few tremendous highspots, with Taka's swan dive plancha being the most impressive this night. The match ended, too quickly [ Taka Michinoku swan dives ] I thought, with a wonderful tiger suplex by Great Sasuke. I was disappointed that they weren't given more time, but hopefully that was only [ Tiger Suplex ] because this was a one-hour-and-fifty-minute show. The big question now is: who can compete with these guys in a lightheavyweight division? Back to the beginning now. The opening match featured Hunter Hearst Helmsley against Mankind in a hard-worked bout. Helmsley worked harder than usual, which only places him a notch above fair in my books, and Mankind worked at the same level as usual, taking one particularly hellacious bump on the floor (a slam that saw his calf hook the steel ring steps). The match was a good opener up until the awful, uninspired finish. Sure, they cut away to Mankind & Helmsley brawling a couple of times during the show as a way to try to redeem the finish, and, sure, it does set up a falls count anywhere style (or other gimmick) match between the two of them, but it left a bad taste as the opener. [ Tombstone ] Second-from-the-top was the title match, with Undertaker defeating Vader in a good match for the Undertaker (placing it at ** tops). Vader tried to make it interesting. They flubbed a tombstone reversal spot, which would have looked spectacular and would have made the finish stronger. Vader did go up for the tombstone. This match was not embarrasing, except for Paul Bearer's stupid "murderer" cries. With Bearer and Undertaker separated, Undertaker's booking no longer relies on the supernatural elements that defy belief, so it almost seems like Bearer has become the bigger cartoon character of the two now. Finally, the Hart Foundation came out to a heroes welcome, going on to defeat Steve Austin & Goldust & Ken Shamrock & the LOD. It was a very well-booked match, playing to the strengths of everybody involved and masking the problems that some of these guys have right now. The ring introductions sucked up ten minutes, which was a little infuriating. Seeing that the "Americans" were going to get booed anyhow, [ Owen pins Austin ] they might as well have come out together, however uncooperatingly, instead of each getting their own entrance. In a way, it did add to the atmosphere, but it sucked a lot of time from the match. Owen Hart was "injured" by Austin and taken to the back. Steve Austin was "injured" and also taken to the back. They both came back. Owen ended up getting the pin on Austin with a cheap schoolboy. The Harts celebrated afterwards, filling the ring with friends and relatives, in front of a very hot crowd. What I find funny is that there are some people who complained that this show looked weak on paper when I thought it was the strongest looking show from the WWF in a while. The earlier line-up was far worse, IMO. Originally, the show had Sid vs. Vader and Undertaker vs. Ahmed Johnson, two matches guaranteed to be *-at-best stinkers. Instead of that, we got one match involving two of these four guys that was actually as good as could be expected. That freed up time for other things. Taka vs. Sasuke was always a show stealer. Helmsley & Mankind showed at King of the Ring that they could work a solid, if unspectacular (with the exception of the requisite insane bump or two from Mankind), match. The main event had potential, but depended on the booking and the health of the good workers in the match; it was never a write-off. Four matches on the show: one looked great, one looked good, one had lots of potential, and one looked weak but replaced two that looked much weaker. I think that's a good-(but-not-great-)looking show. Anyhow, this show is an easy thumbs up. Indeed, it's the easiest thumbs up from either of the big two in what seems like a long while. Besides the quality of this show, the show deserves praise because of what it set up: Davey Boy Smith vs. Ken Shamrock, Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin, Sasuke's presence. [ RAW ] was also a much better show that the past couple of weeks. Many of the top players were back for the show because they had worked the PPV the night before. The Edmonton crowd had the same energy as the PPV audience, really helping the story line parts of the show. The hightlight of the show, of course, was the Great Sasuke vs. Taka Michinoku re-match, again way too short for what these guys can deliver. Sasuke used the Space Flying Tiger Drop and once again looked quite spectacular. They were reasonably careful not to bury Taka Michinoku, since Vince has to realize that nobody he's used in the lightheavyweight division can compete with these guys. Brian Christopher did guest commentary and used the racial slur "japs" when talking about the competing [ space flying tiger drop ] wrestlers. Vince was clearly embarrassed and chastised Brian, who continues to come off as a bush league hick to me, surely not the effect they are going for. Christopher had the nerve to suggest that he could work with these guys; if they push that match, it will be a rocky start for the division. It continues to seem like a big mistake to push Christopher as a lightheavyweight when he does nothing different from the heavies. On this and the previous night, Jim Ross continued to butcher the word "enzuigiri." Mankind and Steve Austin continued their story line in entertaining fashion. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith won the tag tourney over Faarooq & D.Lo Brown, with a count out win. It says a lot about Kama Mustapha that after just one appearance in the ring a decision was made to push D.Lo ahead of him. They left it up in the air as to who Austin's partner would be in next week's title defence. They did say that Shawn Michaels would be on the show, which will air from San Antonio. [ Sunny ] The highlight of the second hour was the Brian [ Sunny ] Christopher lightheavyweight division match against a jobber. The wrestling was nothing at all, really embarrassing since Christopher and Lawler had gone on when Sasuke & Taka were wrestling ten light years ahead of either Lawler's ability level. No, the highlight was Sunny guest ring announcing and announcing the winner in a spectacular dress. Unlike previous weeks, this show was mostly a positive episode. They pushed several good matches for SummerSlam, Sasuke & Taka worked, and they seemed to set up a good show for next week, with the exception of the Putskis vs. the Lawlers. [ - ] WCW has Bash at the Beach on Sunday. Tentative line-up has: o Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman vs. Lex Luger & The Giant o Diamond Dallas Page & mystery partner vs. Scott Hall & Randy Savage o Kevin Sullivan vs. Chris Benoit in a retirement match o Jeff Jarrett vs. Steve McMichael for the US Title o Ric Flair vs. Roddy Piper o Glacier & Ernest Miller vs. Wrath & Mortis o Lizmark Jr. & Hector Garza & Juventud Guerrera vs. Villano IV & La Parka & Psicosis The Observer reports that the original plan was for Curt Hennig to be Diamond Dallas Page's mystery partner before turning on Page to join the NWO. Raven was also slated to join the NWO. And Konnan was also supposed to join. [ - ] Rumours persist that Eric Bischoff will launch into some Lucha Libre PPVs in the not too distant future. [ - ] It also seems likely that the WWF will take on a share of USWA and use it as a training ground. As I've said time and time again, there just doesn't seem to be any new talent in North America that is ready for the leap to the big two and the WWF is surely feeling the crunch, recycling so many poor wrestlers in recent weeks in the face of injuries to the good workers (and, no, that doesn't include Sid). [ - ] The Observer reports that WCW has let a dozen wrestlers go, including Craig Pittman, Michael Wallstreet, Nasty Boys, Jim Duggan, Joe Gomez, Ice Train, and Nancy Sullivan. I can't think of any reason to keep any of these people around; good move! [ - ] I had the chance to catch up on some tape watching on the weekend. First off, I managed to get through several more tapes of All Japan and New Japan TV, bringing me up to the end of May. The Champion Carnival final, featuring the "first to win two matches" series between Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Toshiaki Kawada was absolutely incredible. As individual matches, they were all stellar, and taken as a whole because of story line, the event was incredible. I know that there are people who think the top tier of All Japan is stagnant, even with the inclusion of Jun Akiyama in the mix, but it seems that there is a reason for this. Just like the NWA/WCW had (and has) trouble replacing Ric Flair with any heir, and just like All Japan Women cannot push the current crop of youngsters to the level of the previous generation's stars, All Japan cannot hope to find wrestlers who can work at this level. Enough sermonizing. Other highlights included Great Sasuke vs. Jushin Liger from the Dome show and anything with Shinjiro Otani, who is as close to a god as any wrestler can be. With good news, however, there often comes bad news, so it's no surprise that with good wrestling, there's also unadulterated dreck. Yup, Sanjay Mohanta pleaded with me to watch some more garbage wrestling. It seems that he and Oliver Postlethwaite are getting deeper into this nonsense and that Ollie is a more willing partner than I ever was. Ottawa beware! Anyhow, I did watch a little bit of garbage. Tokyo Pro had some absolutely horrible wrestling featuring, who else, Mr. Pogo. If Shinjiro Otani is the closest thing to god that a wrestler can be, Pogo remains the closest thing to the stuff you wipe of your shoe on the nearest curb. Sadly, reports are that Pogo will actually reutrn to wrestling in a couple of weeks, not that what he's been doing for the past many years can be considered wrestling anyhow. In the Tokyo Pro matches, he used lots of weapons and cut people and did no wrestling. Also on the card, was a stupid tag match with Axl Rotten, Shoji Nakamaki, and others that I know, but don't have the heart to remember right now, in a gimmick match that saw six massive balloons hoisted over the ring. The balloons were filled with thumb tacks; at a prescribed time, the balloons exploded and rained tacks down onto the, ahem, wrestlers. A couple of slams and power bombs later, the tacked wrestlers left the ring. Oh yeah, Abdullah the Butcher, ahem, wrestled Sabu in a terrible match on another tape. What did you expect? Thankfully, I saw a few more good things. The real highlight for me was a wonderful set of commercial tapes from Michinoku Pro. In the hopes of getting pumped up for Great Sasuke vs. Taka Michinoku, I was fortunate enough to watch, nay, completely enjoy, these tapes, which came to me direct from Japan. One tape focused on Taka Michinoku vs. Tiger Mask from late 1995. In a tag match on 09/25, Taka ripped off part of Tiger Mask's mask, setting the stage for a single feud. I saw full matches between the two from 11/23, 12/11, and 12/17, and some clips from other dates. The matches were wonderful, each building on the previous match as they began to reverse moves and then reverse the reversals as they "got to know each other." The matches ranged from ***1/2 to close to **** and were thoroughly entertaining. The real highlight of the tape-watching was a great mixed trios match, with Kendo & Great Sasuke & Mima Shimoda vs. Super Delfin & El Gran Naniwa & Sakie Hasegawa. An easy ****1/2 bout, this bout one-upped the classic Michinoku Pro style match. I'm not going to go into detail here yet; if you are curious, check in again on the weekend (Sunday to be safe) for more or wait until next week. [ - ] [Nitro ] beat [ RAW ] on 07/07 with a 3.4 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: o Mitsuhara Misawa vs. Akira Taue for the Triple Crown o 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: o Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Title o Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin for the Intercontinental Title o Davey Boy Smith vs. Ken Shamrock for the European Title o Goldust vs. Brian Pillman o Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a gimmick match o Disciples of Apocalypse (Crush & Brian Lee & Harris Twins) vs. Los Boricuas (Savio Vega & Miguel Perez & Jose Estrada Jr. & ?) o Hawk & Animal vs. Godwinns Well, add a lightheavyweight match with Great Sasuke vs. El Gran Naniwa to this show and I'm super happy; unfortunately, it seems like they are building Sasuke vs. Brian Christopher, which can only be a fraction as good. Still, this show promises the return of the WWF Title to a good worker and two promising secondary matches. Shamrock has adapted to the pro style very quickly and I expect them to have a well-rehearsed match that plays to his strengths. Hart vs. Austin should be incredible. You've got to think that Smith & Hart will win the tag titles on RAW next week from Austin & partner only to lose both singles titles here, while Bret wins the WWF Title. There are dogs on the show too, of course. LOD vs. Godwinns gets worse every time we see it. DOA vs. Boricuas seems terrible too. I'm sure Sanjay & Oliver would disagree, though, since Sanjay swears that Perez & Estrada (as "Crypt The Keeper" in IWA) have worked many ***** matches. [ - ] WCW has Road Wild on 08/09/97. Tentative line-up has: o Lex Luger vs. Giant [ - ] ECW has its second PPV on 08/17/97. Tentative line-up has: o Terry Funk vs. Shane Douglas for the ECW Title o 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. [ - ] WWW: My home page is at http://math.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@math.uwaterloo.ca