I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ Two weeks in St. Lucia did me a world of good. To anybody considering a trip to the Caribbean, if you like the oceans, snorkelling, or diving, you would surely love St. Lucia. I'm teaching 1A Calculus this term, but I should have no trouble returning to my weekly schedule, updating every Thursday. I didn't quite get this update into the shape I wanted. On Sunday, I'll be adding an animated GIF file devoted Ground Zero. _________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had Ground Zero this past Sunday. It received the usual praise from known WWF cheerleaders and the usual knocks from known WWF critics. This time around, I'm more on the side of the critics, with my explanation to follow. First a quick run-down (click on the "Ground Zero" image to see a large ~700K animated gif of the show): * Brian Pillman beat Goldust to win Marlena's "services" for 30 days: In their previous match-up, these guys didn't work that well together, and this match was no different. Pillman looks bad when he starts hobbling because of his ankle trouble, but he still took a risky dive into the guard rail from the top turnbuckle. The match was messy and sloppy at times. Finish saw Marlena try to hit Pillman with her purse, with Pillman blocking, getting the purse, and nailing Goldust for the pin. Screw job #1. Afterwards, Jerry Lawler revealed that there was a brick in Marlena's purse, which was a nice touch, and might lead to the revelation that Goldust knew nothing about the brick, questioning Marlena's allegiance in this angle. This storyline is mildly fun, but these guys just do not click in the ring. * Brian Christopher beat Scott Putski by countout: Apparently, the WWF has offered a contract to Taka Michinoku, who remains the only bright light in the lightheavyweight division (although Jerry Lynn, not under contract, was very good on TV), but Taka has yet to sign. It's frustrating to see them promote this match as a lightheavyweight match, since it has been clearly established over the years that the lighter guys (and the women, too, for that matter) need to work differently than the heavies to get over...neither of these guys fits that bill, although I do like Christopher well enough. Anyhow, Putski is just terrible and this match was not good. Putski has signed a contract with the WWF, which means we won't be rid of him any time soon. When they started hyping the lightheavyweight division, they went on and on about scouring the world for the best talent and now Putski gets a contract. Sigh. Anyhow, the mach ended early when Christopher went for a plancha on Putski, who had been dumped to the floor, with Putski's left leg twisting badly at the knee. His patella looked to be in the wrong spot afterwards and he needed to be stretchered out. I'll probably be criticized for being heartless, but at least we won't see Putski for the next two months, and maybe Vince will be able to come up with a better idea for a lightheavyweight headline feud. * Savio Vega beat Crush & Faarooq in a triangle match: Easily one of the worst matches of the year. Between the flubs, both major and minor, and all of the hesitation and strolling around that guys did, there wasn't much of a match. The person that gets the pinfall wins. They teased some momentary alliances in the match, only to have somebody backstab somebody else. At one point, Savio went for a swinging neckbreaker on Faarooq, who flipped himself the wrong way, making the move look so stupid, while the commentators sputtered, realizing how bad this match was. It was like watching indy wrestling or ECW without the effort that wrestlers put in in those promotions: everything was sloppy, poor, and lazy. Finish saw Savio hit Crush with the spin kick while Faarooq was out of commission. After this pretty bad beginning to the show, the commentators already sounded disheartened, particularly Vince McMahon. * Max Mini beat El Torito: Max Mini is Mascarita Sagrada with a new name. El Torito was once Espectrito. Strangely enough, in December of last year, Espectrito lost a hair vs. hair match against another mini named Torerito. Espectrito then became Mini Vader and even worked some WWF spots with that gimmick. Now he's El Torito. The mantra for the commentary this time was "world's smallest athlete," which must have been repeated thirty times by Jim Ross in describing Max Mini. They had the minis do the "bite the ref in the butt" shtick, which didn't upset me as much as you might think, since it was done once and then they started working pretty hard. If that ropes in fans of traditional midget style and converts a few into workrate fanatics, I'm not going to complain. It's a far cry from Dink and his cohorts. Max Mini sat on Jerry Lawler's lap and put his crown on, much to the King's dismay, for a photo op for RAW. Max Mini went over, of course. This was the first reasonably good match on the show, although it was nothing stellar. Despite the match being reasonable, it was still a darn poor show at this point and the commentators were struggling throughout. At one point, Vince, surely wishing the night was over said "We're boring" in the midst of his commentary. * Headbangers beat Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart, Godwinns, and the Legion of Doom to win the Tag Titles in a four corners match: I could have sworn that at some point in promoting this match they had strayed from the stupid WCW rules that allow partners to fight each other, but that rule was in effect after all. This match was terrible when the LOD or Godwinns were in the ring. It wasn't even good when the other two teams were in. The crowd started a very loud "Boring!" chant, which hasn't happened on any PPV show in recent memory, giving you an idea of how bad things were (exacerbated by all of the preceding matches). Headbangers won the title, which is a risk, since they have limited star power at this point. * Bret Hart beat Patriot by submission to retain the WWF Title: They ran an excellent package on Patriot prior to the match, showing him in All Japan. Vince, of course, ruined whatever star quality that was supposed to give Patriot by repeatedly saying that he's never faced competition at the level of the WWF's. Regardless of the (lack of) truth of that statement, it makes no sense to make it. They worked a slowly building match, which was hurt a bit by not having a prolonged period at the finish with all of the hot moves. The interference spot in the middle saw Davey Boy Smith get involved, only to be held off by Vader, who is forging an alliance with Patriot, which should be an excellent team (particularly against Smith & Owen). I wish that spot had not been in the match, since there had been enough screwiness before it. The commentators didn't do a good job in telling the story of the match: the punishment that Bret delivered on Patriot's leg early in the match came back to haunt him at the finish, when he wasn't strong enough to fight off a sharpshooter reversal. This was a good world title match. * Shawn Michaels and Undertaker went to a no contest finish: Remember in 1994 when ECW had the great storyline with Mikey Whippreck winning the TV title in a fluke and holding on to it week after week because his opponents kept getting disqualified? I thought it was a great storyline idea but that it didn't fit into the ECW product well because people did not get disqualified in other matches for doing far worse. Mikey's matches ran under their own set of rules. In this match, sure to get raves from fans of "hardcore wrestling," we had the exact flipside to that. Earlier on in the show, we had a countout loss (Putski) and a disqualification for the use of a foreign object (LOD using Godwinns' bucket); wrestlers have been routinely DQed for laying out a referee in WWF matches. In this match, a match never advertised to have any special stipulations, all of those actions took place with no DQ in sight. The commentators sputtered as a second referee came in to replace a knocked out first referee, and when a third replaced the second, arguing that the referee was letting things go on. It just didn't fit in. It would fit in in ECW, and in fact had better wrestling spots and less sloppiness than the great majority of matches in that promotion, but it was out of place here without special stipulations. That said, Michaels was just incredible, putting on a show that elevated his status and even made the Undertaker seem okay. It was a great spectacle. They kept brawling through all sorts of actions that would usually end a WWF match, with Commissioner Slaughter even getting involved by saying that the match should continue when he has routinely frowned on such actions week after week. Finally, somebody noticed that the PPV time was almost up, so they sent in a final referee to signal for the bell and throw the match out. All in all, with the exception of the last two matches and the minis match, the bouts were incredibly sloppy for the WWF. The commentary was weak throughout. The ending was flat. I've got to end up on the thumbs down side here since there isn't even a ****+ match to point at as the show saver. - On January 8, 1998, WCW will begin broadcasting a weekly Thursday night wrestling show on WTBS. TBS, seeing the success that TNT has had with Nitro ratings, wants a piece of the pie. Speculation has it that the Nitro show will focus on the NWO while the TBS show will focus on WCW. Both shows will likely feature longer matches to reduce the amount of talent needed for each broadcast, which I suppose is the only positive thing people worried about television oversaturation can say. RAW over the past three weeks has been a mixed bag. The first two shows that aired during my vacation were taped shows, which usually lose something energywise. Besides that usual lack of energy, these shows were hurt by incredibly uncreative run-in finishes in most matches. I guess the success that the promotion is enjoying now combined with injuries to so many of the wrestlers leads to a state of complacency, where nobody has to job on television. Hopefully, this was just a two-week lack of focus and not a longer term direction for the company since we have seen this pattern kill business for many promotions over the years; rebuilding takes a lot more time and effort than killing. There was absolutely nothing good on TV these two weeks with the single exception of a Taka Michinoku vs. Jerry Lynn match. This past Monday Night RAW was live and somewhat hot after the PPV the previous night. The key announcement was that the WWF was going to hold an Intercontinental Title tournament, with the bracketing: Quarter Finals Semi Finals Finals Brian Pillman Brian Pillman Dude Love Goldust Owen Hart Owen Hart Ken Shamrock Ken Shamrock Faarooq Ahmed Johnson Rocky Maivia I'd guess that the final will be Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock since that match has been taking place at the houses to strong reviews. Austin was told that he would have to forfeit the IC Title and present the belt to the tournament winner, so he hit the Stone Cold Stunner on Slaughter in protest. This was a good, heated segment. Tony Anthony debuted as the third Godwinn, Uncle Cletus. This was sad. Brian Pillman showed up in some video segments filled with overworked double entendres to imply he and Marlena were sleeping together. Max Mini beat Piratita Morgan, with the commentators never once getting Morgan's name right. They ran another poor triangle match as the main event, with Hunter Hearst Helmsley going over Savio Vega & the Patriot. - New Japan had a major show in Yokohama on 08/31/97. Quick results: * Shinya Hashimoto lost the IWGP Title to Kensuke Sasaki * Shinjiro Otani beat Koji Kanemoto to retain the J Crown * Naoya Ogawa beat Scott Norton * Riki Choshu & Genichiru Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami beat Great Muta & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito - All Japan had a show at Budokan on 09/06/97. Partial line-up has * Mitsuharu Misawa beat Jun Akiyama to retain the Triple Crown * Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki beat Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga when Hayabusa pinned Shiga - WCW has Fall Brawl on Sunday. Tentative line-up has: * Horsemen vs. NWO in a War Games match * Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Guerrero for the Cruiserweight title * Jeff Jarrett vs. Dean Malenko * Steve McMichael vs. Konnan * Alex Wright vs. Ultimo Dragon for the TV title * Wrath & Mortis vs. Barbarian & Meng Whomever of Jarrett & McMichael is the US champ at this point will defend that title. This card already looks above average and will hopefully improve with the addition of lucha libre match. - The WWF has One Night Only on 09/20/97 in England. The show will be the sixth event ever to air on PPV in England; it runs three hours. * Shawn Michaels vs. Davey Boy Smith * Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley * Legion of Doom vs. Godwinns * Vader vs. Tiger Ali Singh * Rockabilly vs. Flash Funk * Headbangers vs. Savio Vego & Miguel Perez The PPV main event was planned to be Steve Austin challenging Bret Hart, but that's clearly not in the cards now. Bret vs. Vader is the likely substitute. Undertaker vs. Ahmed Johnson was also on the show, but Ahmed may not be ready by then, although his Intercontinental title tournament match takes place in MSG two days later. Bret Hart was on TSN today on "Off The Record" (first broadcast was last night) to plug the show and discuss sports-related things along with other guests. He made the point that travelling to foreign countries and being lumped in with the American wrestlers as an American leads to a certain form of treatment by the locals. When he says that he's Canadian, he gets much better treatment because Canadians have an international reputation for being kind, soft-spoken people, unlike the loud, brash American stereotype. He plugged the above PPV and mentioned that it would be available in Canada, saying first "free for all on TSN" before the host of the show chimed in and said on "Viewer's Choice Canada." In any case, this show should be available somehow to Canadian viewers, although it would be a late addition to the VCC roster, missing their print deadline. - FMW has a show in Kawasaki Stadium on 9/28/97. Line-up has: * Atsushi Onita vs. Wing Kanemura * Gladiator vs. Masato Tanaka * Shark Tsuchiya vs. Aja Kong * Ken Shamrock vs. Vader - The WWF has Badd Blood on 10/05/97. Tentative line-up has: * Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker in a cage match where the cage has a roof * Intercontinental Title tournament final * Bret Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs. Patriot & Vader in a flag match * Faarooq & Rocky Maivia & Kama vs. Hawk & Animal & Ken Shamrock * Brian Pillman vs. Dude Love in a falls count anywhere match - All Japan Women is on the verge of dying. Wrestlers have not been paid in a while and seem to finally be abandoning ship. Following Aja Kong's retirement, former WWWA champ Kyoko Inoue also left the company. Now, Mariko Yoshida has announced she is leaving. Youngsters Rie Tamada, Yoshiko Tamura, Misae Genki, and Tiny Mouth have also left the promotion. Rumours abound that Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita are not far behind and that Chapparita Asari is also leaving. Speculation is that Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue may well each create small promotions using the AJW stars that are leaving AJW. - Wayne Bloom (Destruction Crew in AWA, Ersatz Minnesota Wrecking Crew in WCW, and Beverly Brothers in the WWF, all with Mike Enos) is apparently looking for work with WCW. So is Rick Martel, who apparently looked so good that they signed him. Perry Saturn has left ECW to come to WCW; it had been widely reported a while back that the was no longer interested in teaming with John Kronus, his Eliminators partner. Big Bubba is back wrestling under his real name, Ray Traylor, and cancelling his NWO membership. There is talk that Ice Train will return. - The booking scene in WCW gets even more confusing as Kevin Sullivan returns to the back rooms. Terry Taylor seemed to have had some good ideas, IMO, although egos sometimes screwed up the plans, but now with Sullivan returning, the power struggles will get even worse. - Reports continue that TSN will carry WCW Monday Nitro on midnight Thursdays and perhaps even on Wednesday afternoons. - Although I have not seen the show yet (tape is in the mail), ECW's second PPV venture, which got a rather poor review in most places it seems, seems to have drawn about a 0.25 buy rate according to Request, with other estimates as low as 0.18, with any figure in that range being a substantial drop from the first show. ECW claims that the two shows will end up with comparable numbers of buys. - Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon should be back in the WWF by October. Mark Henry is in Calgary training with Bret Hart and others in the hope that the WWF will be able to get some sort of return on their huge ten-million dollar investment in what looks to be a dud. Yokozuna is still trying to lose substantial weight before returning; he suffered a heart attack scare recently. Steve Austin is expected to be out of action for at least two months. When he returns, he'll have to modify his style to avoid taking bumps on the back of the neck. - Shawn Michaels & Hunter Hearst Helmsley are being paired up after Michaels complained about being saddled with Rick Rude. The idea went over with Vince since the WWF badly wants to get some new wrestlers elevated to the top echelon and associating with Michaels might be a good way to do that. - As mentioned last time, Steve Regal may be on the sidelines for a while. The Observer reports that he "accidentally urinated on a flight attendant which caused an emergency landing of the flight from Tokyo to Detroit in Alaska [...]. He won't be deported, but he may not be allowed to fly for one year which would mean WCW couldn't very well use him so his status is very much up in the air". - Eric Bischoff has been trying to get Konnan's renegade Promo Azteca group and EMLL to work together for interpromotional PPVs that WCW would broadcast, but those plans don't seem to be working out as the hatred between the parties involved is too great. On 08/29, CMLL champion Steele, Head Hunters, and Kevin Quinn all no-showed the EMLL show in Arena Mexica and instead did a run-in at the nearby Promo Azteca show. This is mildly interesting because the Head Hunters had made a couple of WWF appearances, first at the 1996 Royal Rumble, and second at a recent RAW show led by Jim Cornette. If they join up with Konnan, it's possible that they could appear in WCW, although WCW has made it clear that they are not looking to recruit any new tag teams. I'll take time to mention that this might end Sanjay Mohanta's "wonderful" booking idea for the WWF (not that it was going to happen anyhow). You see, Sanjay has a very strong desire to marry garbage wrestling with the more legitimate and skill-based wrestling fare. The idea was that now that Brian Pillman has brought into question the identity of Goldust's daughter's father, a blood test could take place. The test would rule out both Dustin & Pillman and the quest would be on to find out who the real dad is. A blood sample taken at a typical Head Hunters match would lead to the revelation that one of the Hunters is Dakota's real father and the feud would begin as both claim paternity. Or something like that. - The Observer reports that "serious consideration was given to an angle where High Voltage would beat Steiners for the belts as a fluke" after the Steiners won the titles from Hall & Nash. Of course, Nash pushed the right buttons to cancel his team's title loss. - - RAW 09/08 with a 4.3 rating against a 2.2 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. - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/26/97. Tentative line-up has: * Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper in a cage * 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. ______________________________________________________________________