I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ Pictures of the Week This week's new pictures are likely the final ones in the series featuring Manami Toyota and Mima Shimoda. _________________________________________________________________ RAW this week was big on hype for this Sunday's PPV, but small on wrestling. Bret Hart's punishment for assaulting Vince McMahon last week will be dealt with after the PPV, when a new commissioner will be instituted. Jim Ross hinted that the commissioner would be somebody who had previous involvement with the promotion and somebody who would surprise the fans. Hmmm. Bill Watts? Nah. Bruno Sammartion? Nah. Terry Funk? Nah. Almost every match on the show had a non-finish leading to hype for the PPV. In that sense, the show was very focussed. The PPV line-up has some bright spots, so the hyping of it wasn't too bad. Still, it would be nice to see some great wrestling. The Taka Michinoku appearances of weeks gone by are sorely missed. Bret Hart lost to the Patriot in a match that did nothing to get the Patriot over as a superstar. To casual fans, the commentary buried him as a nobody: "he's been wrestling in Japan for the past few years, never wrestling anybody the caliber of a WWF superstar like Bret Hart" (paraphrased). To fans that are aware of Japanese wrestling, the commentary was directly insulting. Patriot has worked in All Japan, alongside Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, and Jun Akiyama, to name just a few, all of whom are a notch up the list of greatness in comparison to Bret Hart (as great as I think Bret is). The lightheavyweight match this week featured WCW's Extreme Team jobbers, Devon Storm & Ace Darling, against each other in a two-minute farce. Storm can do a variety of moves, but suffers from the lack of dimension that plagues Sabu. - All Japan Pro-Wrestling had a major show at Budokan Hall on 07/25/97. Brief results: * Mitsuhara Misawa beat Akira Taue, retaining the Triple Crown * Steve Williams & Gary Albright won the Double Tag Titles from Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace * Hiro Hase & Jun Akiyama beat Jinsei Shinzaki & Johnny Smith It was reported in the Observer that Hase said that "if Shinzaki was a poor wrestler, he wouldn't want to wrestle him but since he's a so-so wrestler, the change [from Maunakea Mossman] was okay." - The WWF has SummerSlam on Sunday. Line-up has: * Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Title; stipulation: if Bret does not win the title, he will never wrestle in the US again...oh yeah, Shawn Michaels is the special referee and he also will never wrestle in the US again if he does not call the match fairly * Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin for the Intercontinental Title; stipulation: if Austin does not win the title, he will kiss Owen Hart's butt * 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 * Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a cage match * Disciples of Apocalypse (Crush & Brian Lee & Harris Twins) vs. Los Boricuas (Savio Vega & Miguel Perez & Jose Estrada Jr. & Jesus Castillo) * Hawk & Animal vs. Godwinns * 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. - Rumours abound that the Nasty Boys & Paul Roma will be joining the WWF shortly. - As has been rumoured for a long while now, the WWF is going to undergo several changes, apparently having decided that some current business practices are not necessary. Firstly, the weekly live Monday Night RAW shows will be switched to bi-weekly live shows, followed by a taping for the subsequent week. The cost of running live every week is too great for the perceived benefit. Additionally, the WWF will be scrapping the In Your House PPVs immediately, replacing them instead will longer, more expensive shows. To keep the major shows special, it's expected that the promotion will increase their price tags. The new TV format is effective 09/08/97 (live RAW this week, taped RAW the next). - ECW is mad at everybody. They've filed suit against WCW for the use of Raven and Stevie Richards as characters developed in ECW. Scott Levy (Raven) claims that he has ownership of the Raven gimmick. There is also the issue of Raven supposedly signing a release that kept him out of the ring until October, yet he began working in WCW recently (although not in the ring). WCW has been cocky in the past when bringing in talent that had over gimmicks elsewhere, but they surely seemed to have learned their lesson in that regard, so it would be surprising if present actions were without strong legal support. ECW is also upset with the WWF about the Steve Austin home video that features the "Steve-A-Mania" sketch from ECW, claiming that the promotion had no permission to use it. - From the Observer, "There's a locker room joke that the guys rib Ron Simmons with. They bend over and ask Simmons to kick them in the kidneys so they can put on 30 pounds of muscle like Ahmed Johnson did after he had his kidney injured." - WCW has Road Wild on 08/09/97. Tentative line-up has: * Hulk Hogan vs. Lex Luger for the WCW Title * Giant vs. Kevin Nash * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Curt Hennig * Ric Flair vs. Syxx * Chris Jericho vs. Alex Wright * Konnan vs. Rey Misterio Jr. The screwed-up, one-hour-long, Canadian Nitro still calls the show "Hogg Wild." - New Japan Pro-Wrestling has a major show at the Nagoya Dome on 08/10/97. Line-up has: * Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masa Chono for the IWGP Title * Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki for the IWGP Tag Titles * El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani for the J Crown * Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami * Great Muta vs. Naoya Ogawa (Antonio Inoki referee) * Don Frye vs. Cal Worsham (both are UFC veterans) * Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto - ECW has its second PPV on 08/17/97. Tentative line-up has: * Terry Funk vs. Shane Douglas for the ECW Title * Sabu vs. Sandman * Dudleys vs. Gangstas for the ECW Tag Titles * Taz vs. Chris Candido for the TV Title * Tommy Dreamer vs. Jerry Lawler The Observer reports that the tag title match listed here will definitely not take place. - WCW has a Clash of Champions on 08/21/97, live on WTBS. Tentative line-up has: * Scott Hall & Randy Savage vs. Giant & Diamond Dallas Page * Ric Flair & Curt Hennig vs. Syxx & Konnan - I flicked on the TV this morning to check the news headlines and saw the opening promo for Maury Povich's talk show. It may have been a rebroadcast. In any case, guests were revealing their fantasies to friends or family members and then living them out for a moment. One young woman wanted to be a pro-wrestler after being a fan for four months. They brought out the WWF's Rocky Maivia (introduced as "World Wrestling Federation champion Rocky Maivia" by Maury) who said that he had trained her a bit. Next, from Parts Unknown, came Dr. X, Tom Prichard under a hood, who proceeded to take two bumps for the guest and give up a quick pin. Pretty embarrassing. - - RAW 07/28 with a 3.4 rating against a 2.9 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 0.75 (0.70) and average gross of $2.14-million ($2.09-million). The recent Bash at the Beach PPV from WCW scored a major buy rate victory. Even with the price tag of $750K for Dennis Rodman substracted from the gross, the company has to consider the remaining gross a better than average intake. The details as they stand are available. - The WWF has a PPV 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 a PPV on 10/05/97. - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/26/97. Tentative line-up has: * Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper * Giant vs. Kevin Nash * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage - 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 a PPV 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. ______________________________________________________________________ Thanks to: Masaki Aso. ______________________________________________________________________ If you have any feedback regarding my web pages, please send me e-mail. Don't forget to delete the leading "x" from my e-mail address;