I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ I apologize for my absence last week, but things were really out of my control. The destination-online webserver is no more, so I was left without web space; as you know, my university account is on a machine devoted to research and people will notice the traffic that this page draws. In any case, Anthony Shubert has been kind enough to give me some space on the www.withauthority.com web site, so this will be my new home. There will not be any updates for the next two weeks, as I will be on vacation far away from net access. There's a lot to recap after missing last week, so forgive me if I talk about things that are now a little dated. I'm looking for a copy of the ECW PPV. I would like an original or first generation copy at worst (maybe somebody taped two copies on daisy-chained VCRs?). Drop me an e-mail if you are interested in a trade; I won't get back to you until after the vacation. Finally, I'm going to start playing around with animations on my web pages. I'll likely be trying out animated gifs and some java stuff in the near future. I didn't have time to do anything fancy for today, but I did include a four-frame Rey Misterio tope. Nothing too crazy yet... _________________________________________________________________ Picture of the Week Here's a picture of Sable. _________________________________________________________________ - WCW had Road Wild on 08/09/97. There really wasn't much good about the show on paper going in, but it did seem to promise good matches with Diamond Dallas Page against Curt Hennig, Steiners vs. Nash & Hall, Ric Flair vs. Syxx, along with one potentially great match featuring Chris Jericho vs. Alex Wright. But the choice of venue really takes away from the show. On the one hand, they had some spectacular shots from the air. On the other hand, the high flying wrestlers were crippled by the ring set-up. The wrestling was weak enough to make this a thumbs down show, but I think it was largely due to the ring set-up limiting the booking of the guys that can fly (most of whom didn't even get booked for the show). Results: * Harlem Heat beat Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton: this was a actually a good opener, designed to get Jacquelyn over as Heat's new manager/valet. The problem is that the match quality didn't get much higher than this match. Finish saw Norton get pinned. * Konnan beat Rey Misterio Jr. in a Mexican death match: it was good for what it was, but this is not the kind of match that I want to see Rey Misterio work. WCW has totally screwed up everything with Misterio, a shame since he really could have been something, IMO. He's still great to watch, but the promotion has no idea how to book him. * Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael beat Jeff Jarrett & Dean Malenko in an elimination tag match: stupid angle number one. Jarrett avoided the ring for a long time before tagging in and holding McMichael on top of him to get himself pinned. This left Malenko to fend for himself, which didn't last long. There were some wonderful exchanges between Malenko and Benoit. At least Malenko won't get saddled with Jarrett as a partner. The plans were to put him together with Benoit, but plans change by the day. * Alex Wright beat Chris Jericho to retain the Cruiserweight title: this was still the best match on the show, but it was not the great match it seemed like it could be. The were hindered by the ring set-up and were a little sloppy. Wright shows a lot, IMO, and deserves to be packed in with the good workers. * Ric Flair beat Syxx: Flair looked pretty weak throughout the match, making it a sad experience for me. He ended up crotching Syxx and getting the pin. * Curt Hennig beat Diamond Dallas Page: the biggest disappointment on the show. Despite the very good matches he's been involved in, I'm still not so convinced about Diamond Dallas Page being in the upper echelon. This match did nothing to help me see the light. They worked very poorly together, flubbing a lot of moves. I'll get flamed for this, but it was like watching ECW. Page juiced, although everybody claimed it was hardway. That didn't help either, since the cameras then pulled back to the mountain tops to play down the blood. I definitely don't want gruesome close-ups of gaping, bloody wounds, but I don't see why they have to take the other extreme. * Giant beat Randy Savage: this was a nothing match, only good because of the clean finish. * Steiners beat Kevin Nash & Scott Hall by DQ: after all of the crap that the Steiners have endured thanks to the chaotic WCW booking of Kevin Sullivan, surely Terry Taylor was planning to build towards a title switch now that the Steiners had Ted DiBiase in their corner. Even in the show opener, the new manager (Jacquelyn) played a key role in earning the win for her team. Well, the Observer reports that the plans were indeed to change the tag belts in this match, but that Nash & Hall argued strongly against doing it and were placated. Sigh, it's funny that as North American wrestling finally improves, both in WCW and the WWF, the promotions are increasingly saddled with huge egos that don't do what is right for business. * Hulk Hogan beat Lex Luger to regain the WCW Title: Another example of egos. Surely, after the great job they did showing WCW celebrate on Monday Nitro when Luger won the title, they should have prolonged the good feelings here and continued to get the title over. Worse yet, the finish was booked at the last second (not by Terry Taylor) and featured the commentators being fooled for the tenth time by a fake Sting. How stupid are they? It was great the first time and should never have been a PPV finish again thereafter. The PPV ended on a really sour note. Rey dives, animated gif With all of that said, I'm not so sure that Road Wild was any worse than SummerSlam the week before. I suppose that the Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin match was shooting to be the best match on either show, but the injury near the finish hurt that match, leaving the shows approximately equal when it comes to match quality. Still, I gave SummerSlam a milds thumbs up and Road Wild a thumbs down. Why? The finishes on Road Wild were more atrocious and WCW came out of the PPV with poor matches on the horizon, while the WWF situation improved by having Bret Hart take the belt from the Undertaker. - WCW had a Clash of Champions tonight live on WTBS. Here's a rundown: * Steve McMichael beat Jeff Jarrett to win the US Title. McMichael is nothing as a wrestler, so this is a disappointing result. Eddy Guerrero interfered, with the intention of helping Jarrett, but his actions backfired. * Raven pinned Stevie Richards after a DDT. Raven wanted a no DQ match. They tried hard, but it was a sloppy, short match. * Alex Wright beat Ultimo Dragon to win the TV Title. Earlier in the show, they ran a live interview with Wright to establish him as the heel for the match; I guess they weren't sure that the Nashville fans wouldn't decide to boo the Japanese guy. This was a pretty good match. Apparently, according to a sign directly at ringside, Sting lives in my basement. Alex won with a German suplex after a good final few minutes. This was a strong match. * Chris Jericho beat Eddy Guerrero to retain the Cruiserweight Title. This was another strong, although short, match. Eddy is great in his new role. I watched some older New Japan stuff this past week with Eddy working as Black Tiger and am pretty stoked at how great the guy is. I was disappointed that they didn't switch this belt too. But Eddy did attack Chris after the match, presumably to set up a longer (!) match for an upcoming PPV. * Psicosis & Silver King & Villanos IV & V beat Lizmark Jr. & Hector Garza & Super Calo & Juventud Guerrera when Psicosis pinned Calo after a top rope leg drop. This was a super match. The sequence of topes was great, especially Juventud's dive, which saw him try to reach the ceiling again. It was great that they gave Psicosis the pin. * Ric Flair & Curt Hennig beat Syxx & Konnan when Hennig pinned Konnan with a fisherman suplex. I liked that they dropped any cutesy name for the finish and went with the traditional Japanese name. Match was so-so. There was a confusing spot when Hennig accidentally tossed syxx into Flair's knee, as if to set up a screwy finish and a turn of some sort, but it was just a swerve. Hennig refused to say whether he was in the Horsemen. * Scott Hall & Randy Savage beat Lex Luger & Diamond Dallas Page when Hall pinned Luger after DDP had accidentally hit Luger with the Diamond Cutter. The whole match was a heat segment on Page, who finally hit the hot tag so Luger could come in and deliver weak clotheslines. The finish was actually pretty good. This was turned into a title match, which made little sense. Afterwards the NWO celebrated, but the microphone cut out, replaced by a strange droning sound. Sting appeared in the rafters with a vulture on his arm and a kid's voice chimed in talking about deceit burning up Sting's soul and requiring retribution. It was a total rip-off of James O'Barr and the Crow, but, heck, they've been ripping off that character for a long time anyhow. The lights turned off and when they came back on the vulture was on the ring ropes, with the NWO acting scared. Almost as hokey as any Undertaker sketch. Overall, the show has to get a thumbs up. There were three good matches, and the show never dragged, except possibly during the Dinner & A Movie segment. Still, it seemed better than the PPV! RAW over the past two weeks has had very good main events, but not much of note underneath. Last week, Shawn Michaels faced Mankind in a spot-filled match that was pretty darned good. Rick Rude debuted as Michaels' bodyguard, getting involved in the finish. All of this was pretty good. After dumping Ahmed Johnson from the NOD, they took in Rocky Maivia. Everything involving the NOD, DOA, and Boricuas is incredibly sloppy with no selling. This past Monday, the main event featured Shawn Michaels & Hunter Hearst Helmsley against Undertaker & Mankind. That latter team is pretty unbelievable given the story lines of recent years, but when the talent roster is thin and many people are injured, you've got to improvise. It was a good match largely because of Michaels' performance. The Observer reports that Michaels' knee is worse than anyone thought and that he'll only be used on major shows because he will likely not be able to work a house show schedule. Anyway, in the ring he was absolutely fantastic. The finish saw him whack Undertaker with a tin foil chair shot with Undertaker blading in plain site of any fan who is slightly in the know. This was made embarrassingly worse by them replaying the chair shot and blading in slow motion afterwards. It was reminiscent of the 1985 20/20 piece where they showed punches not connecting in slow motion replays. Taka Michinoku was sadly missing. Apparently, Great Sasuke has returned to Japan with no mention of the WWF, since they didn't offer him a deal in the end. They did offer Taka a contract, but he has not signed as yet. The match against Brian Christopher hurts Taka's credibility, although that's something that could be quickly rectified with a more balanced match. Christopher still has no place in the lightheavyweight division. Brian Pillman continues to lose while wearing Marlena's dress. But they've revealed the direction of this angle. Pillman claimed that Dakota, the daughter of Goldust & Marlena, was really his lovechild. He challenged Goldust to a match with the stipulation that Pillman will retire if he loses but will get Marlena for 30 days if he wins. Marlena agreed to the match, leading one to think that she wants to go with Pillman. It's been a while since we've seen that angle in one of the major promotions, um, since, oh yeah, Debra McMichael turned on Steve. The match is set for Ground Zero. Ken Shamrock beat Sultan this week. I received some criticism last time out when I suggested that the WWF has completely blown it with Shamrock. I stand by that. When you see what New Japan has managed to do with Naoya Ogawa and others before him or what other Japanese promotions do to protect the guy with the unique, legit fighting style, it's frustrating to see the WWF book Shamrock like he's just another wrestler (which he sadly is now). The funny thing is that the WWF had this guy who they could have kept isolated and used to get over submissions as a legit way of beating top stars, thus creating a way to reduce injuries and work more restholds with meaning into their matches, but they blew it. Meanwhile, WCW has nobody that could be promoted as having anywhere near the legit submission knowledge that Shamrock has and, yet, through determined booking, they are doing a better job of getting the tap out and various submissions over. - The Observer reports that the groupies that jump Dude Love are actually Dude's wife and a former girlfriend of Shawn Michaels. - Reports are that TSN may carry WCW Monday Nitro on midnight Thursdays. I've e-mailed them requesting confirmation of the rumour, but they have yet to respond. CHCH, the Southern Ontario station that now airs the butchered one-hour version of Nitro, will be dropping the show in September. - New Japan Pro-Wrestling had a major show at the Nagoya Dome on 08/10/97. Quick results: * Shinya Hashimoto beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan to retain the IWGP Title. The match was originally supposed to see Masa Chono get the title shot, but Chono injured his ankle working the WCW World Wide tapings and has had to pull out of matches. * Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima lost the IWGP Tag Titles to Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki * Shinjiro Otani beat El Samurai to win the J Crown * Tatsumi Fujinami beat Riki Choshu * Great Muta beat Naoya Ogawa (Antonio Inoki referee) * Don Frye beat Cal Worsham (both are UFC veterans) * Koji Kanemoto beat Jushin Liger - The Observer reports that Steve Regal may be history with WCW after causing a lot of trouble on his flight back from the G-1 Climax tournament in New Japan. - Long-time members of the newsgroup will remember Curtis Desjardins, who posted as Fluffy the Wonder Bunny for a while. Although I haven't heard back from him, the lucky bugger was planning on attending the 08/20/97 All Japan Women Budokan show. The show featured Aja Kong going to a half-hour draw against Manami Toyota in Aja's retirement match. Aja will continue to wrestle freelance with the various promotions in Japan. In a devastating blow, IMO, Kyoko Inoue announced that she would also work freelance like Aja. Yumiko Hotta defeated Kyoko to win the WWWA Title. What was once the single greatest promotion in Japan has crumbled due to an inability to create new stars who could measure up to the steller crop from the late 1980s. - In very sad news, Plum Mariko, a regular with JWP in Japan died on August 16th. A day earlier, she had wrestled a typical tag match, taking some severe bumps. She died from brain damage. This is the first time a wrestle in Japan has died from injuries credited to a wrestling match; she was only 29 years old. - - RAW 08/18 with a 4.0 rating against a 3.2 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 (0.67) and average gross of $2.12-million ($2.02-million). The WCW numbers a bit lower than last week. The inflated Bash at the Beach buy rate was not corroborated by independent sources. The details as they stand are available. - New Japan has a major show in Yokohama on 08/31/97. Partial line-up has * Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kensuke Saskie for the IWGP Title * Shinjiro Otani vs. Koji Kanemoto for the J Crown * Naoya Ogawa vs. Scott Norton * Riki Choshu & Genichiru Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Great Muta & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito - All Japan has a show at Budokan on 09/06/97. Partial line-up has * Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama for the Triple Crown * Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga - The WWF has Ground Zero on 09/07/97. Line-up has: * Bret Hart vs. Patriot for the WWF Title * Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker * Steve Austin & Dude Love vs. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs. Godwinns vs. Legion of Doom * Brian Pillman vs. Goldust (Pillman quits if he doesn't win, wins Marlena for 30 days if he does win) * Brian Christopher vs. Scott Putski * Savio Vega vs. Faarooq vs. Crush They've been trying to give the Patriot some credibility as a title contender by giving him pins on top guys. It's what they should do, of course, and I really did like the Patriot when he worked in All Japan, but he's a lot different in the US, in WCW a while back and now in the WWF. I think when he gives interviews he rubs me the wrong way, and it's more than the jingoistic stuff he spews because of the current story line. - 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 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