From: "Herb Kunze" Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 07/17 Date: 1997/07/18 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 257701204 Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) Organization: University of Waterloo Reply-To: "Herb Kunze" Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've performed a partial update on my tape page, adding New Japan and All Japan TV tapes. I'll be adding other Japanese stuff and North American stuff over the next few days. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ - ] WCW had Bash at the Beach this past Sunday. It was the same old formula for the promotion: a strong undercard and a lousy main event. The highlights of the show were the Chris Jericho vs. Ultimo Dragon match and the trios match. With two excellent matches like that, it is hard to give anything but a thumbs up to the PPV. But the finale was such a poor match, even with Hogan submitting, that I want to demote the rating to a very slight thumbs up. A quick run-down: o Wrath & Mortis beat Glacier & Ernest Miller: a mixed bag. It's hard to [ Mortis kicks ] believe that Mortis is Kris Kanyon; he shows an incredible amount of promise. I don't care much for the martial-arts superhero gimmicks, but I'm enjoying watching Mortis improve. That he improves in this mix is pretty surprising. Ernest Miller looks great when he delivers kicks, but can't do anything else. Glacier & Wrath are too s..l..o..w for me, like Sid & Undertaker, but with a couple more flashy spots. Not a bad opener, but nothing special. o Chris Jericho beat Ultimo Dragon to retain the Cruiserweight title: a great match. It was nice to see Jericho lifted to a [ Asai moonsault ] higher level by Dragon. There was one screwed-up spot - a dropkick off the top turnbuckle - that the commentators did a good job of covering up, although they talked about it too much. The match built to nice action at the finish. Excellent. o Steiners beat Great Muta & Masa Chono: the idea is that the Outsiders don't want to defend against the Steiners and rooked them into signing this contract. They had to win to earn a title shot. They did. It was the usual thing. The Steiners have been too sloppy and careless for years now, Masa Chono has to rely on psychology because of injuries, and Keiji Muto is always a wildcard when he's working as Muta. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't special. o Lizmark Jr. & Hector Garza & Juventud Guerrera beat La Parka & [ triple tope ] Psicosis & Villano IV: they pushed the technicos as a trio of second generation wrestlers. The commentary was poor; the match was good. With Terry Taylor booking, the Mexicans have to take every opportunity to shine to secure their future when Kevin Sullivan gets back in the booking mix. People that complain that lucha libre style matches are choreographed should try to explain the lumbering action of Sid, Undertaker, or Giant, which looks even worse in that regard. This was another excellent match, seemingly clinching the thumbs up for the show. o Chris Benoit beat Kevin Sullivan: Sullivan retires after this match, so that already makes it a plus - it improved things [ Benoit flies ] for the future. Jacquelyn got involved a lot; her boob job is atrocious, competing with the WWF's women. They did the stupid finish where, in an arena filled with steel chairs, there just happens to be a wooden chair under the ring. Pretty much all of the touches that were Sullivan's stunk, Jacquelyn was wild, and Benoit was great, but the match was nowhere near what Benoit is capable of. At the end, the commentators said that hopefully Benoit will now move on to winning the titles he deserves. o Jeff Jarrett beat Steve McMichael, retaining the US Title: Steve's wife, Debra, turned on him, which I think was the only point of the match. I wish McMichael had a retirement match. o Randy Savage & Scott Hall beat Diamond Dallas Page & Curt Hennig: [ Savage flies ] Hennig turned on Page, but didn't seem [ Kimberley ] to join the NWO. Page got the stuffing beat out of him. The real highlight of the match was Kimberley. It just seemed like the wrestlers were more interested in the non-wrestling-related aspects of the match, which was strong on story line. After teasing that Page's mystery partner might be Sting, it was a disappointment to the crowd to have Hennig come out, despite his supposed status in the business. Interestingly enough, the WWF had similar problems the next night on RAW with their mystery partner story line. o Roddy Piper beat Ric Flair with his sleeper submission: Flair carried [ Flair sleeps ] another stiff to a mediocre-to-good match. Piper seemed much, much worse than the Junkyard Dog at Clash of Champions XI on 06/13/90. Somehow the match didn't seem as bad as that one, though. o Lex Luger & Giant beat Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman: an absolutely [ Hogan submits ] horrible match, that should leave us [ Fake Sting ] all embarrassed to admit we are wrestling fans for the next week or two, thanks to all of the mainstream publicity the match got. Nothing happened. Kevin Nash hit the ring dressed as Sting and whacked the Giant. Hogan submitted to the backbreaker at the finish, which was the matches only saving grace. It was horrible, knocking the show down to a very slight thumbs up. [ RAW ] this past Monday was not as good as last week's show, but it was still better than the prior weeks. The highlight of the show was the Taka Michinoku vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri match. Taka did a credible job of carrying Tajiri to a reasonable match, but I sure hope that Tajiri was in for one night only. The commentators claimed that the promotion was scouring the earth to bring us the best lightheavyweights in the world. Even if you accept that the WWF can't bring in any New Japan or high-quality Mexican talent, there are still a lot of guys better than what they have brought us thus far, with the exceptions of Taka and Great Sasuke. Rumour has it that Taka has signed a one-year contract with the promotion. They really pushed the upcoming PPV, which has so many stipulation matches you've got to think that Jim Cornette played a role in the booking. The Patriot, Del Wilkes, debuted on RAW this week. He was officially fired by All Japan for claiming that he needed surgery on his elbow when he really wanted to steal the time for his WWF try-out. There is a lot of talk that Johnny Ace won't be far behind. All Japan is going to be in trouble when it comes to foreign talent. Patriot is an excellent addition and Ace would be an even better one. Lowlights of the show were plentiful, but for me the worst two moments were Sid reappearing at the beginning of the show with the tease that he might be Austin's mystery partner and the Putski vs. Lawler match. When Ivan sang pre-match, you could hear a pin drop until the light round of boos kicked in. The finale of the show was the tag title match, which featured tag tournament winners Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart facing Steve Austin & a partner of his choice. Besides the Taka match, this had the only good wrestling on the show, even though this match was really built around story line. Austin wrestled alone, got pummelled, and was then joined by Dude Love, previously known as Mankind. Dude & Austin went on to win the titles and shake hands, with Dude Love dancing with some "groupies" in the ring after the match. My impression is that Dude Love was a funny one-time thing, but I'm not sure how this will get over; to his credit, if anybody can keep the idea fresh and get the character over, it has to be Mick Foley. [ - ] I've updated the main point of access to my wrestling-related web pages. The change adds a section for match reviews, where I can include summaries and pictures from excellent matches I've watched on tape. The first match to be reviewed is a Michinoku Pro match (first mentioned last week) between Super Delfin & El Gran Naniwa & Sakie Hasegawa vs. Great Sasuke & Kendo & Mima Shimoda. The URL is http://math.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze/wrestle/Reviews.html [ - ] The Observer really raved about the past In Your House from Calgary, calling it one of the best shows in the WWF's history and amongst the best PPVs ever. [ - ] New Japan is apparently planning to split up the J Crown, which already only has seven titles in it. The WWF Jr. Heavyweight Title that is bundled into the crown will just disappear as the WWF as ordered a brand new lightheavyweight belt. [ - ] Also out of WCW are the Amazing French Canadians. There is talk they may wander back to the WWF. It's possible that some of the terminated talent will hang around on a per match basis. [ - ] This weekend's Shotgun show aired some clips of the tanning competition in LA at a WWF show: [ Sunny & Sable ][ Sunny ] [ - ] In a recent correspondence with a Japanese colleague writing a book related to pro-wrestling, I was asked the following question: Which was the best-match do you think in Japanese PURORESU? Why do you like it? My answer: I really loved the Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue one hour match from 05/07/95 and the 01/19/95 one hour draw between Kenta Kobashi and Toshiaki Kawada. There are just so many to choose from that I would feel terrible just picking one. Here is a list of many matches that I particularly loved: 08/05/82 Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid 04/21/83 Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid 08/22/85 Jaguar Yokota vs. Lioness Asuka 01/28/86 Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu 07/11/86 Dump Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo 11/07/86 Dump Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo 02/26/87 Chigusa Nagayo vs. Lioness Asuka 06/05/89 Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Genichiro Tenryu 01/31/90 Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano 01/04/91 Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto 04/25/92 Kyoko Inoue vs. Manami Toyota 04/30/92 Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai 08/15/92 Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada 04/11/93 Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki 07/29/93 Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi 07/31/93 Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka & Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Sakie Hasegawa & Takako Inoue & Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue 08/31/93 Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi 12/03/93 Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 04/16/94 Great Sasuke vs. Chris Benoit 05/21/94 Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 06/03/94 Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada 07/08/94 Jushin Liger vs. Great Sasuke 08/24/94 Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue 11/20/94 Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota 01/19/95 Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada 01/19/95 Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 01/24/95 Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 03/04/95 Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace 05/07/95 Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue 06/09/95 Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue Now, if I have to pick one match, I think that it should be something that had a tremendous impact on the sport and was a great match. Maybe the best choice, then, is the Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask match from 04/23/83. It ended a series of incredible bouts and set the stage for a rejuvenated junior heavyweight division that was then lead by Jushin Liger. The style of Tiger Mask gave birth to so many great wrestlers and we still see the impact of it today in Japan, and now even in North America. [ - ] As has been reported time and again on the net, the WWF's Monday Night RAW is WAR show will be moved to the 9pm-11pm slot beginning August 4. If RAW fails to draw a good rating from 10pm-11pm, it may be chopped to one hour. [ - ] It looks like ECW is going to face a bit of a test in the near future. They've lost Raven and Steve Richards to WCW, Brian Lee to the WWF, and will possibly lose the Pitbulls to the drug police. [ - ] [Nitro ] beat [ RAW ] 07/14 with a 3.5 rating against a 2.55 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; stipulation: if Bret does not win the title, he will never wrestle in the US again o Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin for the Intercontinental Title; stipulation: if Austin does not win the title, he will kiss Owen Hart's butt o Davey Boy Smith vs. Ken Shamrock for the European Title; stipulation: if Smith does not win, he will eat a can of dog food after the match o Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a cage match o Disciples of Apocalypse (Crush & Brian Lee & Harris Twins) vs. Los Boricuas (Savio Vega & Miguel Perez & Jose Estrada Jr. & Jesus Castillo) o Hawk & Animal vs. Godwinns o Sid vs. Vader o Free For All: Goldust vs. Brian Pillman; stipulation: if Pillman does not win, he will wear a dress the next night on RAW. In addition to all of the Hart Foundation match stipulations, Jim Neidhart will shave off his goatee if any one of the Hart Foundation members loses his match. They stupidly made a big deal on RAW out of the stipulation in the WWF Title match. Vince McMahon paraphrased the stipulation as "...if you lose the match..." but Bret corrected him with "...if I don't win the title..." Well, how stupid are the babyfaces in the WWF? All the Undertaker has to do is get disqualified and Hart will never wrestle in the US again. It seems likely that Pillman will lose to Goldust straight away to lose that stipulation, so that fans will believe that the others might be enacted as well. In the end, the top two stipulations seem like the ones that won't be used. Surely, Bret gets the title and the Undertaker moves into a feud with his badly disfigured "brother." Boy, I hope they add a lightheavyweight match. The show would look very strong on paper if they did that. There is still some possibility that an ECW match will be added to the show, but that relationship may be on the outs right now. [ - ] 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 [ - ] New Japan Pro-Wrestling has a major show at the Nagoya Dome on 08/10/97. Line-up has: o Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masa Chono for the IWGP Title o Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki for the IWGP Tag Titles o El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani for the J Crown o Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami o Great Muta vs. Naoya Ogawa o Don Frye vs. Cal Worsham (both are UFC veterans) o Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto [ - ] 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