I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ Picture/Animation of the Week This week, I've put together two animated gifs with some highlights from the awesome Shinjiro Otani J Crown title win over El Samurai from 08/10/97. The match aired the 09/13/97 New Japan TV show. It's an easy **** bout, as one might expect from these two. The first gif (800K) features what looked to be the finish of the match. After 14-or-so hotly contested minutes, with the requisites high spots and great work, Samurai set Otani on the top turnbuckle, facing the fans, climbed to the top rope, and delivered a reverse DDT from the top (Sting's Scorpion Death Drop or Henry Godwinn's Slop Drop). This looked absolutely tremendous. Samurai had been using this move to beat opponents recently, so it seemed to be the finish, but Otani did manage to get his foot on the bottom rope. Otani rolled out of the ring and acted like he was dead. Samurai had trouble throwing him back in the ring, since Otani let his legs fall out from under him a couple of times. Finally, when they got back in the ring, Otani rallied, lifting Samurai on the top rope (facing the ring this time), and attempting to go for a top rope Frankensteiner. Samurai slapped him away twice, with Otani tumbling to the mat and getting up just a bit slower each time. Tremendous work. The third time, Otani held on despite getting punched and managed to hit the Frankensteiner. He followed it up with a "swan dive" DDT and then got the pin with a pretty Dragon suplex (pretty because he puts out that little extra effort of bringing onto the top of his head and his tiptoes). The post-match realization that he has won the J Crown was one a wonderful way of getting over the toughness of the match. This tail-end segment is document in the second gif (2.6Mb). I've surely crossed over the size line with this second file, haven't I? Let me know. _________________________________________________________________ - WCW had World War III tonight. Historically, the main event on this show is very difficult to carry on television screens, and this year's main was no exception. Overall, I'd give the show a thumbs up, since there were a few good matches, with Rey Misterio vs. Eddie Guerrero being great, but not as good as the previous PPV match because of a couple of minor flubs. Quick rundown: * Meng & Barbarian beat Glacier & Ernest Miller: I made popcorn during most of this match, being disappointed that the show didn't start with the usual high workrate opener. Nothing special at all. * Perry Saturn beat Disco Inferno to retain the TV Title: The match was a fair bit erratic. I find Saturn to be weak on transitions. There were some good spots. Disco tried hard and they tried to give him an edge. In the end, Saturn reversed a Disco cross-body into his armbar submission. * Yuji Nagata beat El Ultimo Dragon: The first very good match. These guys are two of the best kickers in North America. They worked a balanced match, but the finish came off weak. Dragon had put Nagata to sleep with the Dragon Sleeper, but Sonny Onoo distracted the ref from catching the tap out. When Dragon went after Sonny, Nagata got up. Dragon went for a backdrop suplex, but Nagata kicked off Sonny and Dragon ended up taking the bump, with Nagata getting the pin. The finish didn't come off as smoothly as described. * Steiners beat Steve Regal & Dave Taylor to retain the WCW Tag Titles: Good match. I like Regal & Taylor when they try to work hard; they did a pretty good job here. Steiners got the pin after Rick made the hot tag, worked over the Brits, and hit the top rope bulldog on Regal. * Raven beat Scotty Riggs: No DQ of course. They did a lot of chair spots, with Riggs trying to match his injury on Raven. It wasn't bad, but it was fairly choppy. Riggs is a good worker. Raven is inconsistent because of his character. The finish saw Raven DDT Scotty three times, all the while pleading with him on the microphone, saying he didn't want to do it, but Scotty refused to join him. Afterwards, Hammer carried Scotty off with the rest of Raven's flock. * Steve McMichael beat Alex Wright: Why did they add Steve vs. Bill Goldberg if Goldberg's groin pull was going to keep him out? Oh well. Steve hit Goldberg with a steel pipe in the back, setting up this substitution. It was short. * Eddie Guerrero beat Rey Misterio to retain the Cruiserweight Title: A great match, but not quite as good as their last PPV match. Rey flubbed a couple of spots, but they recovered seamlessly. The match was still state of the art, with all of the usual great spots. There were many close counts and the crowd was hot for the match. Eddie pinned Rey after a frog splash. * Curt Hennig beat Ric Flair to retain the US Title: I found this suprisingly good based on what these guys have shown us in recent weeks. It was a mix of old school with some brawling spots. Flair used a chair creatively on Hennig's knee. The story had them each work on the other's knee. Finally, after numerous chair spots, Flair put the figure four on Hennig, who reached back and grabbed the title belt, whacking Flair's knee and face with it, knocking him out for the pin. The both sold the match well. * 60-man, three-ring battle royal: About as bad as you would expect. They tweaked the rules a bit for the 60-man, three-ring battle royal, allowing wrestlers to move from ring to ring during the match, stopping the match when each ring hit less than or equal to five wrestlers to pool all wrestlers in one ring for the finish, and, in a silly move, allowing eliminations by being thrown to the floor in any manner (not just over the top rope). At the end, it was all five NWO vs. five WCW. Kevin Nash never showed. It boiled down to Scott Hall vs. Giant & Diamond Dallas Page. "Sting" came down from the rafters, with everybody but the commentators knowing it was Kevin Nash. He helped Hall win, attacked Giant, teased an attack on Hall, and unmasked as Nash, as the moronic commentators complained about being fooled once again. - The Bret Hart saga continues to be the top story in the wrestling world. In the November 17 issue of the Observer, a whopping seven pages documented the events that led to the spectacle at Survivor Series. That anybody could digest this info and still think well of Vince McMahon is beyond me; yet , as I surfed the web in my office last week, I managed to find the usual cheerleaders still supporting Vince. Highlights: * Hart was earning around $1.5-million per year with the WWF for the three in-ring years he agreed to last October. His contract would run for seventeen more years as a front office player, with booking connections. It should be well-known that Bret was the subject of an intense bidding war last year; this deal was the result. Bret's contract included a clause that gave him "reasonable creative control" over his bookings, with the intent being to allow Bret to control the booking of the end of his run so he goes out remembered the way he wants to be remembered. * Hart agreed to turn heel at the behest of McMahon, with the proviso that he turn face at the end of the three-year run. Bret came up with the Canada vs. USA shtick since it probably does allow for a logical face turn at the end. * In March, 1997, Vince approached Bret about cutting his salary by more than half and deferring the payment of the rest of the money until later. This seems to be another indication of the potentially serious financial trouble facing the promotion. Bret, of course, declined. Who would risk getting hurt and possibly never getting the money owed? * The "One Night Only" PPV was originally supposed to see Davey Boy Smith retain the European title over Shawn Michaels, but for whatever reason, that finish was changed. The explanation was that they could draw a strong buy with a rematch later on. But reading this careful description of the past year, it becomes clear that Shawn Michaels was likely beginning a small power play, as you'll see. * On September 22, 1997, McMahon told Bret that the WWF was going to intentionally breach his contract because they couldn't afford it. He told Bret that he should go to WCW. At this point, Bret's relationship with the promotion was, for all intents and purposes, over. Surely, he'd have to drop the title at some point prior to leaving. * The proposed finish for the Survivor Series PPV was Bret & Shawn going to a no-contest because of interference by the Undertaker. This would lead to a match at the 12/07 show with Bret dropping the title to Undertaker, with the Royal Rumble featuring Shawn challenging Undertaker. When Bret and Shawn spoke about this scenario, Bret made it clear that he would job for Michaels before leaving the promotion, but Michaels said he would not lose a match to Hart. * The next proposed finish had Hart losing the title to Shawn at Survivor Series, but winning it back on 12/07. Anybody with a brain has to doubt that Bret would be given the title back once he lost it, and Bret was doubly doubtful since Shawn had said he wouldn't job to him. Besides, Bret didn't want to lose the title in Canada. * The next proposed scenario saw Hart and Michaels having a rematch on 12/07, with Hart losing the title then. Hart just did not want to lose to Michaels. Remember that Michaels and Hart had a history of being at odds. Michaels caused Hart a lot of personal grief with his suggestion that Hart & Sunny were fooling around. There have also been reports Shawn created the racial story line involving the defacement of the Nation of Domination's locker room, pinning the blame for that act on Hart in the RAW segment where it took place, all without Hart's knowledge. Does "reasonable creative control" include saying "I'll lose to anybody but him?" * On October 24, Vince claimed that the financial situation in the company had changed and that everything was fine. Hart could be retained and his salary could be paid. As per his contract, Hart had to make a decision by 11/01. Who do you trust? * On 10/31, Eric Bischoff called Hart and offered him a two year deal with an option for another year. Bischoff would make an even more lucrative offer the next day. In between, Hart contacted McMahon, who told him to trust him and stay with the WWF. He wanted Bret to drop the title to Shawn at Survivor Series, promising that Bret would get it back. McMahon told him that Hart could get an extension to his deadline for giving notice, but said he couldn't deliver it in writing because he was going out to a movie. Hart called the proper person in the company and was unable to get anything in writing. * McMahon got a hold of Hart again on 11/01 and laid out a new scenario for Hart's future which amounted to Hart dropping the title to Michaels at Survivor Series, Michaels winning a four-way match on 12/07 over Hart & Undertaker & Ken Shamrock, and Michaels winning a ladder match over Bret at the Rumble. On RAW, Bret would declare that if he couldn't beat Michaels that night he would retire and then he would go on to regain the title. So, he effectively had to give three wins to Michaels to get one win, with that one win being questionable because of Michaels' comments. * After accepting Bischoff's offer, Hart offered to lose the title in many ways to many people, but not to Michaels and not at Survivor Series. Lots of stuff happened between the two, with Hart being adamant on this one point; McMahon tried to table other offers, all seemingly designed to have Bret lose the title to Michaels with a promise of something to follow, a promise that could easily be broken, Bret had to fear. * The match took place. Afterwards, Earl Hebner, who Hart had selected as referee because he trusted him immensely, raced from the building to a running car and headed out of town immediately. It is suggested that his job was at risk if he didn't do the finish Vince had planned. * As I suggested last week, the ref bump spot was the pre-planned spot of the match. It's suggested that Michaels was in on the doublecross, as we all would speculate. * An excerpt: The Aftermath: The officials left the ring immediatley. McMahon went into his private office in the building with Patterson and a few others and locked the door behind him. Hart, in the ring, flipped out on the realization of what happened, and began smashing the television monitors left behind until Owen, Smith and Neidhart hit the ring to calm him down. The four had an annimated discussion in the ring, all looking perturbed. Finally, Hart thanked his fans, who for the most part left with the air let out of their sails, gave the "I love you" sign to the fans and finger painted "WCW" to all four corners of the ring, which got a surprisingly big pop, and went back to the dressing room. He first confronted Michaels who swore that he had nothing to do with it. Michaels, obviously afraid Hart would punch him out right there, told Hart that he gets heat for everything that happened but this time it wasn't his fault and he was as mad as Hart about the finish. He said he didn't want to win the belt that way, was disgusted by what happened, and to prove it, would refuse to bring the belt out or say anything bad about Hart on Raw the next night. Hart said that Michaels could prove whether he was in on it or not by his actions on television the next night. The entire dressing room was furious at McMahon by this point. The feeling was that if Hart, having worked for the company for 14 years and not missing shots due to injuries the entire time, and having made McMahon millions of dollars throughout the years, could get double-crossed this bad, then how could any of them trust anything he would say or do? People were saying that how could anyone trust anyone ever again and that it was an unsafe working environment. For three years, after the steroid trial and all the bad publicity, McMahon had worked feverishly to change his legacy in the industry as not the man who ran all the other promoters out of business, not the man who marketed pro wrestling to young children while pushing steroid freaks, not the man who tried to destroy wrestling history and create his own, not his worked Harvard MBA, worked billion dollar company, a man who was so vain as to give himself a huge award in Madison Square Garden as "the genius who created Wrestlemania," not the man who at one time tried to monopolize every aspect of the business for himself, but instead as the working man's hero, coming from humble beginnings, fighting those ruthless rich regional promotors and through nothing but guts, guile and vision, became the dominant force in this industry and taking it to a new level. And now, against all odds, the generous friend trying to help all the small regional promoters, acknowledging the past history of the business, fighting against Billionaire Ted, the man who was stealing all his self-made creations while wasting his stockholders money because of some alleged petty vendetta because the WWF would never be for sale, stealing his patented ideas of Monday night wrestling, was hanging in there and would outlast his enemy again and somehow in the end come out on top. Three years of a facade, that was largely working to a new generation wrestling fans who saw him as their underdog hero. The man who to a generation that didn't know better created pro wrestling, Hulk Hogan and localized interviews and rose this grimy little industry from carnival tents to major non-smoking arenas and who was the friendly face in the Father Flanagan collar who every Monday night epitomized the world of pro wrestling, was flushed down the commode. Even though he was so good at hiding who the old Vince McMahon was to the point only those who had deal with him for many years remembered about not letting your guard down, when the pressure was on, the old Vince returned. Only this time it was in a situation where those who didn't "know" him were truly "introduced" to him for the first time. Undertaker was furious, pounding on his locked door and when he came out to talk with him Undertaker told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to apologize to Hart. He went to Hart's dressing room, where Hart had just come out of the shower. Smith answered the door and Hart said he didn't want to see him. Vince and son Shane McMahon came in with Sg. Slaughter and Brisco anyway. Vince started to apologize, saying that he had to do it because he couldn't take the chance of Hart going to WCW without giving back the belt and he couldn't let Bishoff go on television the next night and announce Hart was coming while he was still his champion and said how it would kill his business. Hart shot back that he had no problem losing the belt and told McMahon that he was going to dry off and get his clothes on and told McMahon "If you're still here, I'm going to punch you out." Hart called McMahon a liar and an piece of shit, and talked about having worked for him for 14 years, only missing two shots the entire time, and being a role model for the company and the industry and this was his payback. McMahon tried to say that in 14 years, this was the first time he'd ever lied to him and Hart rattled off 15 lies over the last year alone without even thinking about it. Those in the dressing room watching were stunned listening to Hart rattle them off, and McMahon not offering a comeback. Hart got dressed and twice told McMahon to get out. Hart got up and a scuffle started with them locking up like in a wrestling match, Hart breaking free, and throwing a punch to the jaw that would have knocked down a rhino. One punch KO in 40 seconds. McMahon growled like he was going to get up, but he had no legs. Shane McMahon jumped on Hart's back, and Smith jumped on Shane's back pulling him off. Not realizing there would be trouble, Smith had already taken off his knee brace, and hyperextended his knee in the process of pulling Shane off. Hart nearly broke his hand from the punch. McMahon's jaw was thought to be fractured or broken. Hart asked Vince if he was now going to screw him on all the money he owed him and a groggy Vince said "No." He told Shane and Brisco to get that "piece of shit" out of here and glaring at both of them, told them if they tried anything they'd suffer the same results. In dragging McMahon out, someone accidentally stepped on his ankle injuring it as well. November 10, 1997 - When the wrestlers fully realized what had happened, Hart turned into almost a cult hero, and McMahon's image took an incredible tumble. Hart himself remarked that while he had his problems with McMahon in the late 80s, that when Phil Mushnick wrote all those scathing articles about him during the 90s, he defended McMahon, even though he deep down knew most of what was written about him to be true. According to two WWF wrestlers, roughly 95% of the wrestlers in the company were planning on boycotting the Raw taping that night over what happened. But as the day went on, the talk simmered down, Hart told those who asked him that since they had children and mortgages, that they shouldn't risk breaching their contract and should go. However Owen Hart, Smith, Neidhart and Mick Foley were so upset they all flew home, missing the tapings both this night and also in Cornwall, ONT, the next night. Many were saying they could no longer work for someone who would do something like that. While rumors abounded about Hart, Smith and Foley all quitting, at press time it appeared none of the three truly knew their future but that they all had a bitter taste in their mouth for the company. They weren't the only ones. Most of the wrestlers were there and with none of the Hart family around, McMahon gave his side of the story. He portrayed it as if Hart had agreed to drop the title in Montreal, but when he got to the building he said he was a Canadian hero and an ICON and refused to drop the title and said Hart said he would give the belt to McMahon on Raw the next night and refused to ever drop it. Reports were that by this time few if anyone in the dressing room believed a word of it. Most of the wrestlers by this time knew Hart was more forced out than voluntarily leaving over money, although knowing he had signed a great money deal. Most of the heat was on Michaels, with the belief that Michaels was younger and more in Vince's ear and there was a lot of bitterness because it wasn't a secret by this point that Michaels had told people on several occasions that he would never do a job in the territory. Harsh stuff, as the truth often can be. This past week on RAW, Vince McMahon inexplicably spent two segments of the show, roughly 16 minutes, addressing the issue in the form of a Q&A session with Jim Ross. I say "inexplicably" because there's really no reason to belabour the issue as far the WWF's future with its fans is concerned, or is there? What points did Vince try to make: * Bret took a three-year, $3-million per year deal with WCW that requires him to work 125 dates. Mentioning this twice was surely supposed to make Bret a heel. Vince also mentioned that he "sold out," but that there was nothign wrong with that. * He "allowed" Bret to punch him. Strangely, after that laughable admission, followed up by an even more humourous "no more free shots" remark at the prospect of he and Bret ever dealing with each other again, Vince suggested that he could still file assault charges against Bret, apparently because Bret did what he was "allowed" to do. * "Bret screwed Bret." Vince was trying to help Bret Hart. * Bret did not merit his WWF salary. This suggestion is completely and decisively debunked in the Observer story mentioned earlier. Bret most assuredly brought more than his salary into the WWF coffers. * Bret let down the profession. Vince mentioned the phrase "time-honoured tradition" as a mantra, repeating it at least a handful of times, completing ignoring the "time-honoured tradition" of not breaching contracts. At points, it seemed like Vince was talking to his current crop of wrestlers, rather than the fans. The message, laughable as it was, really made no sense. I can't imagine that fans who aren't "in the know" care about any of this all that much. The title change looked fishy. So what? Screwy finishes occur in wrestling and are usually promptly forgotten by fans. Some small percentage of fans might be upset by what occurred. Why waste 16 minutes of a 90 minute program on comments directed to them? The majority of fans, including me and most people reading this, will still order WWF shows that promise good wrestling or feature the guys that they like. No matter what kind of prick I think Shawn Michaels is, he delivers a heck of a great PPV match when push comes to shove, and I like great matches. If he self-destructs or kills the promotion because of his ego, I'd kind of like to see that too. A number of wrestlers are unhappy with Vince about this. You've got to think he's trying some spin control. Perhaps the funniest thing that might come out of Vince's interview is the fact that there are going to be some people on the net who believe what he says. Hey, my parents still believe the pro-wrestling lie, and they thought Vince was an a-hole during this segment. Bret Hart was scheduled to be on "Off The Record" on TSN this past Wednesday to discuss the issue. The show was still being hyped earlier that day, but when it reached broadcast time, they ran a re-run episode featuring Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, and Honky Tonk Man. RAW this past Monday was a weak show. Besides the Vince interview, they furthered the Marc Mero vs. Butterbean match, the Goldust vs. Vader match, the Michaels vs. Ken Shamrock match, and the Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley match. They had a horrible lightheavyweight title tournament match, which, much like the Richard Morton vs. Mike Graham match from WCW years back, did a lot to kill the division. Jim Cornette quipped that the wrestlers were avoiding the high risk moves because they both wanted to win, or something like that. The WWF has really started off on the wrong foot with this thing. The lightheavyweight tournament standings are: Quarter Finals Semi Finals Finals Aguila Aguila Super Loco Taka Michinoku? Taka Michinoku Taka Michinoku? Devon Storm Scott Taylor Scott Taylor Eric Shelley Brian Christopher? Brian Christopher Brian Christopher? Flash Flanagan During the show, Rick Rude appeared with Degeneration X as usual. Nitro this past week started with an embarrassing blow to the WWF. Rick Rude debuted as an NWO spokesthingy. He trashed Shawn Michaels for claiming to be a world champion when he hadn't beaten Bret Hart. He trashed Vince McMahon for ringing the bell when Bret Hart had not given up. He talked about wrestlers abandoning the Titanic. This was a strong segment when it comes to burying your opposition and I'm sure Vince was extremely unhappy. The best Monday Night match once again featured the Cruisers, with Eddie Guerrero & Dean Malenko delivering great performances. Nitro is much faster paced than Raw. Matches with poorer workers are kept very short and often include one or two fast spots. Matches with good workers are fast-paced. I like good, slow-building, long matches, of course, but RAW generally delivers poor long matches, especially the last couple of weeks. - The WWF has Degeneration X In Your House on 12/07/97. Tentative line-up has: * Shawn Michaels vs. Ken Shamrock for the WWF Title * Vader vs. Goldust * Marc Mero vs. Butterbean * Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley * Brian Christopher vs. Taka Michinoku for the lightheavyweight title in the tournament final - WCW has Starrcade on 12/28/97. Tentative line-up has: * Sting vs. Hulk Hogan for the WCW Title - New Japan has its annual Tokyo Dome show on 01/04/97. Announced line-up has: * Riki Choshu's short retirement matches * Noaya Ogawa vs. Don Frye * Tatsumi Fujinamai & Osamu Nishimura vs. Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi * Yuji Nagata vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan * Shinjiro Otani vs. Great Sasuke * Koji Kanemoto vs. Kendo Ka Shin - - RAW 11/17 with a 4.1 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 details as they stand are available. - 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;