I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had Degeneration X In Your House on Sunday. We all know the story of 1997: WCW has a strong undercard and weak, story-line driven main events, while the WWF has a weak undercard and strong main events. The DX PPV would be the first WWF PPV to challenge the theory, in two opposing ways, by attempting to add a new element to the undercard and by attempting to continue the strong main event pattern in the absence of several strong workers. Firstly, here's the quick rundown: * Taka Michinoku beat Brian Christopher to win the lightheavyweight title tournament final: A reasonably strong match and the first strong opener from the WWF in a long time. Taka showed his versatility, drawing a pretty good match out of Christopher, who is misplaced in this division because he does so little that his different from the heavyweights. Viewed in isolation, the WWF has added a nice new element to the mix, even though it seems like there are only three noteworthy wrestlers in the division (these two & Aguila). Viewed in comparison to WCW or New Japan, say, things look weak: Christopher just doesn't cut it...the style isn't different enough from the heavies...an average WCW Cruiserweight match or New Japan Jr. Heavyweight match will smoke anything that the WWF has to offer as yet. While I credit the WWF for trying to add the new element, they've been completely incompetent when it comes to bringing in noteworthy talent and pushing the right guys. I was aghast to see Taka Michinoku lose to Flash Funk on WWF Shotgun (Canadian Superstars) last weekend when they knew they were going to use him to carry the new division. Anyhow, Christopher bit his lip and bled from the mouth. The finish came a bit out of nowhere, with Christopher missing the Tennessee Jam top rope leg drop and Taka hitting the Michinoku Driver II for the pin. This was the only truly clean finish on the show. * Jesus Castillo & Jose Estrada & Miguel Perez beat Chainz & Skull & Eight Ball: Let the filler begin. A total waste of time. Nobody sells well in this group. Nobody executes anything well. It's sloppy, boring wrestling. Miguel sold a fake knee injury, Vega got involved, Miguel got the pin. * Butterbean beat Marc Mero by DQ in a four round tough man match: More garbage. Signs in the crowd asked "Who booked this crap?" and "Who booked this?" throughout the show. Mero has lost all the appeal he once had. He's done one moonsault on TV since the gimmick change. He's still a competent wrestler, but we've come to expect a lot more from him than he now delivers. This farce didn't have anything to do with wrestling. If it drew paying customers, then it might still be worth doing; but, the crowd was pretty darn quiet, so I tend to disbelieve that supposition. Mero hit Butterbean with a wooden stool for the finish. Two crappy matches in a row. * Goldust & Luna did a bit of their shtick. This wasn't a match, but it ate up enough time to warrant mentioning. It was trash, with Goldust reading Dr. Suess in various voices and Luna dragging him out like your typical dominatrix. Tasteless and stupid...and it can hardly lead to any good wrestling. * Billy Gunn & Road Dog beat Legion of Doom by DQ to retain the WWF Title: More wasted time. Legion of Doom suck. They do nothing and are every bit as bad has Hulk Hogan and the gang. When Hawk jumped off the apron, never really going airborne, and landed on his feet after double-clotheslining the champs, the commentators acted like he was Taka Michinoku. Mildly embarrassing. The finish was out of the mid-1980s, with Henry Godwinn coming to ringside, using the slop bucket without the referee seeing it, the LOD getting the bucket and using it, and the referee seeing that and DQing them. Bad match. Gunn & Dog took some good bumps, but it was not enough to redeem the match. * Hunter Hearst Helmsley beat Sgt. Slaughter in a boot camp match: Slaughter took a few of the bumps that were his repertoire during his final run. Other than that, it was a nothing match, totally pointless. Helmsley is one-dimensional and bland. It's a shame if he gets pushed as something special when he can't even get over with all of the attachments (Chyna, Shawn) they've given him. This wasn't embarrassing, but it wasn't good. The famous boot camp match between Slaughter & Pat Patterson in MSG would compare as a far better match by today's standards, and that match took place in April 1981. Surely there are some new style elements that should make quality wrestling in this era stand out compared to sixteen year-old matches. The finish was more screwy nonsense, with loads of interference by Chyna, all "legel" under the match rules but screwy nonetheless. * Jeff Jarrett beat Undertaker by DQ: The re-debut of Jarrett in the WWF was a major non-event. Putting him in against the Undertaker was the first strike, since he has little chance of showing anything against a gimmick wrestler, and booking the match as they did was the second. After a very short time period of Jarrett mostly looking totally unimpressive, Kane came to the ring and nailed Jarrett for the DQ. Kane & UT stared down before Kane left. UT then choke slammed Jarrett, who, even though he got his hand raised when the dust settled, came out looking completely weak. * Steve Austin beat Rocky Maivia to retain the IC Title: A non-wrestling, pseudo-garbage wrestling style match. Austin drove his pick-up to the ring and ending up backdropping D.Lo Brown onto the hood and windshield. After that one cool-looking spot, they brawled a bit here and there, before Austin stunned the ref and then Rocky, with a second ref making the count. A short match due to Austin's nagging injury, it was filled with mostly action, but other than the D.Lo bump, nothing was particularly noteworthy. It would be very sad if Austin was reduced to wrestling this type of match. Austin looked a touch out of shape compared to his pre-injury state; those Budweisers are hitting the table muscles. * Shawn Michaels beat Ken Shamrock by DQ to retain the WWF Title: Maybe Shamrock has a hearing problem we don't know about, 'cause for some reason in both of the major matches between these two, Michaels has called spots loud enough that you hear them without barely trying. I don't recall that happening when Shamrock was in with other stars. The match was a sad RAW main event type match, complete with loads of interference and a cheap DQ finish when the champ was on the verge of losing. This was several notches below the typical effort that Michaels delivers at PPVs. The noteworthy occurrence of the match, however, was Owen Hart surfacing to attack Michaels in what was supposed to look like a shoot attack. Owen pretended to go after Shawn's eyes, madly poking his fingers into Shawn's forehead. It was a hot angle that would have had a richer effect if the main event had been longer and better, with a less screwy ending. Because of all the screwy finishes -- four uninspired DQs out of eight matches and screwy endings to three others!, I was leaning towards giving the show a thumbs down. It surely deserves that when judged by the wrestling on the show. Still, putting Taka in as champion is a good thing and the return of Owen promises one great main event in Shawn's future, something that seemed unlikely with the depleted roster. Is that enough to offset the likelihood of a Mero vs. Butterbean rematch? Put me down for a very mild thumbs in the middle, bordering on down. RAW this past Monday was a live show following on the heels of the DX PPV. While I found parts of the show entertaining, it was never more clear that the thin talent roster makes it difficult to put on a two hour event with good matches. A lot of time was spent talking, which is actually better than seeing most of the WWF crew wrestle, if you get my drift. This time, lengthy interviews from Michaels, Austin, etc., had to be supplemented with equal verbosity by Vince McMahon himself, finally returning to TV. McMahon told Austin that he would have to defend the IC Title against Maivia. At the end of the show, Austin said he wouldn't, forfeiting the title to Rocky, knocking Rocky out with the Stunner, and leaving with the belt. This suggests that Austin needs more down time to recover, a bad thing for the promotion, which desperately needs him back in the fold. LOD faced Godwinns. Heaven forbid one of those teams loses, so Kane came to the ring and hit Hawk with two tombstones and a choke slam (Hawk got up after the first tombstone). Road Dog & Billy Gunn accompanied the Godwinns, which seems to suggest that they'll be facing the LOD again for the titles, a sad prospect. They also gave a speech. Taka Michinoku was introduced as new lightheavyweight champion. A masked wrestler came to ring, clearly Brian Christopher, and eventually attacked Taka, so it looks like we are stuck with that marriage for the near future. The Interrogator "worked" a match with a new gimmick: he's a big, slow-moving, cross-eyed shmuck with big hands and a claw finisher, now named Kurrgan, which was the sound my stomach made as it turned during this match. Shawn Michaels gave a tasteless interview and then started a strip poker game at ringside with Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna. Eventually, Owen Hart would attack Shawn. Disciples of Apocalypse faced Boricuas in another crummy match. Jeff Jarrett was set to face Vader and maybe redeem himself after the nonsense of the previous night. Instead, it seems like they are doing everything possible to not get Jarrett over; this time, Goldust got Vader to chase him off and Jarrett got a countout win. So, now Jarrett has screwy wins over Undertaker and Vader. Apparently, everybody realizes that Marc Mero has no appeal any more. The answer is to have him use "smart" terms like "jobber" and "jibroni" prior to his squash, dropping the real name of his opponent. The match doesn't happen when Sable parades around in a swimsuit. On the Canadian version of the show, they didn't show Sable in her swinsuit, instead cutting to crowd shots. They also didn't show Degeneration X laying waste to the Headbangers and Owen Hart coming in, instead sloppily splicing in the Ken Shamrock promo that has run over recent weeks. Nitro this past Monday was an okay show, but it suffered from the lack of any Cruiserweight style wrestling. Ray Traylor beat Konnan after the lights went out and back on, with Konnan mysteriously laid out. Steve McMichael beat Barbarian. Dean Malenko beat Prince Iaukea, whose winning streak is over. Chris Benoit beat the newset Raven's nest member and challenged Raven, who was not there. Hugh Morrus & Randy Savage went to a no decision after the lights did their thing again and Savage was laid out, this time wearing a Sting face mask. Disco Inferno won the TV Title in a reasonable match against Perry Saturn, likely the best match Monday night. Buff Bagwell beat Lex Luger by countout. Scott Hall vs. Diamond Dallas Page ended predictably, with NWO run-ins. At least they often give us a finish before the run-in on PPV. They hyped Starrcade very well during the show. - After some pleading from Sanjay "Headhunter C" Mohanta, I sat down tonight and watched a match he's been asking me to mention here. "Watched" isn't really the right word, since I hit the fast-forward button a few times, but then "match" isn't really the right word either. The garbage (he would say "spectacle," but that is surely a disservice to all spectacles, including the tasteless ones) this time around featured Mistuhiro Matsunaga against Kendo Nagasaki in a piranha death match. Yes, the unskilled sickos of Japanese garbage wrestling placed a fish tank filled with a few inches of water and piranhas in the middle of the ring and built a death match around it. There was the requisite barbed wire, tables, and chair shots, but the majority of the match was like a bad battle royal, with one wrestler straining to stuff the other in the fish tank while he struggled not to get dunked. Stupid doesn't begin to describe it. Eventually, a bladed Matsunaga took the dunk into the tank, with Nagasaki throwing one of the barbed wire boards on top as a cover and laying across it to trap Matsunaga. The other wrestlers chased Nagasaki off, surely worried that the piranha might catch some sort of disease. The entire segment ran about twenty minutes, but I watched it in ten, tops. C, you've wasted another ten minutes of my life. - I forgot to mention that Louie Spicoli turned up on WCW television last weekend. It was noteworthy for two reasons. On the WCW Saturday Night broadcast, Louie wore a T-shirt proclaiming himself the real innovator of the death valley driver (tell it to Etsuko Mita). Anyhow, Dusty sputtered for the whole match, constantly misreading Louie's shirt, "...it says survivor..." and the like. Sort of funny in a perverse way. On the Sunday show, he faced Keith Sheara in an unmemorable squash that probably only had me laughing. A few years ago, Keith Sheara worked as a jobber in ECW and Dave Scherer made the claim that Keith was named after him, sort of like the jobber Davey Meltzer that was used at times to take a jab at the Observer editor. Scherer and I had an exchange over this, since then, as now, Keith spelled his name Sheara. The memories had me laughing. - WCW has Starrcade on 12/28/97. Tentative line-up has: * Sting vs. Hulk Hogan for the WCW Title * Kevin Nash vs. Giant * Eric Bischoff vs. Larry Zbyszko with TNT's Nitro on the line. * Ric Flair vs. Curt Hennig in a cage match - 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 12/01 with a 3.8 rating against a 3.0 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. ______________________________________________________________________