______________________________________________________________________ If you are on the web and you aren't reading this on my web page, click here or here to make the leap. There are other items to browse. I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ FLASH: Today's (01/15/98) update will likely be postponed until tomorrow. I'm sorry about this; but, I've had a near catastrophic problem with my OS/2 drive, where I do most of my work, and have decided the best solution is to set things up from scratch with the partitioning that I've always wanted. With my computer temporarily down, I'm only able to insert this flash from the office. Thanks for your patience. In next week's edition, I'll begin my second set of high quality still images from around the world. You can send requests to me if you want, but there's no guarantee I'll listen or respond to them. I want to showcase things I like and things I think make a good image; but, I do like to know when my choices are in line with the readers of this page. _________________________________________________________________ [rm.gif] Movies of The Week Feedback from last week was positive, although I think the larger movie file may have crossed the line for some. This time around, I'm limiting myself to roughly two-minute long clips; file sizes are close to 500K. Why not click on a movie file while you read the rest of the text that follows? The first movie comes from the 10/10/97 Michinoku Pro show and features incredible 6-man action involving Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji vs. Dick Togo & Mens Teioh & Shoichi Funaki. You can watch a two-minute clip from the middle of the match; the clip showcases an incredible double-team by Togo & Teioh. Togo hits a german suplex, the opponent rolls through to his feet, Teioh hits a backdrop suplex - it's a really cool sequence. Some other notes: Funaki was Taka Michinoku's regular tag partner in late 1995 and early 1996, and appears here in the blue-and-white tights, bare chest, and face paint...the Observer suggests that Funaki may come to the WWF; Teioh also wrestled as Terry Boy years back, after Terry Funk, of whom he was a fan. The second movie comes from the 06/26/90 New Japan match pitting Pegasus Kid vs. Owen Hart. Kid, of course, is Chris Benoit under a mask. I hope this movie clip satisfies a long-time request from a reader to see Benoit in the mask. This was one of several * * * * 3/4 matches involving these two in New Japan. The two-minute clip brings you the final moments of the match. Benoit does a tope, knocking Owen between the vertical bars of the guard rail, in a cool spot. Owen hits some great suplexes and moves more like a cat than he does these days. The top rope belly-to-back superplex at the finish looks spectacular. - It seems like I let the spirit of the season put me in a good mood while watching the December PPV offerings from both WCW and the WWF. While I hardly raved about matches like Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley or Steve McMichael vs. Bill Goldberg, giving them both DUDs on my score sheet, the Observer had come back with ratings of - * * and - * , respectively. In last week's edition, I talked about the quality of the shows both promotions gave us in 1997, with some of the discussion being based on Observer match ratings. Just so that ratings all come from one source, I'll represent the tables below, with tweaked averages after changing the December ratings. I'm also able to add more buy-rate information to complete the tables. Date Show Buy Rate Gross Average Match Rating Peak Match Rating matches >= * * * * 97/01/25 Souled Out 0.47 $1.31 1.13 * * * * 11% (1 of 9) 97/02/23 SuperBrawl 0.75 $2.29 2.78 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 10) 97/03/16 Uncensored 0.8 $2.44 2.18 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 7) 97/04/06 Spring Stampede 0.58 $1.77 2.19 * * * * 1/4 12.5% (1 of 8) 97/05/18 Slamboree 0.6 $1.88 1.83 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 9) 97/06/15 Great American Bash 0.6 $1.88 2.19 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 9) 97/07/13 Bash at the Beach 0.78 (1) $2.44 2.67 * * * * 1/4 22% (2 of 9) 97/08/10 Road Wild 0.77 (2) $2.41 1.75 * * * 0% (0 of 9) 97/09/14 Fall Brawl 0.53 $1.83 2.47 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 8) 97/10/26 Halloween Havoc 1.1 $3.52 1.89 * * * * 3/4 11% (1 of 9) 97/11/23 World War III 0.56 1.84 1.33 * * * * 11% (1 of 9) 97/12/28 Starrcade 1.8 5.76 0.84 * * 3/4 0% (0 of 9) Average 0.78 $2.45 1.93 3.81 5.7% (6 of 105) Footnotes: (1) WCW claims 1.01; (2) preliminary figure never finalized Date Show Buy Rate Gross Average Match Rating Peak Match Rating matches >= * * * * 97/01/19 Royal Rumble 0.6 (1) $1.80 1.54 * * * 0% (0 of 6) 97/02/16 In Your House 0.61 (2) $1.27 2.45 * * * * 1/4 20% (1 of 5) 97/03/24 WrestleMania 0.77 $2.14 2.03 * * * * * 12.5% (1 of 8) 97/04/20 In Your House 0.5 $1.04 1.50 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 6) 97/05/11 In Your House 0.6 $1.27 1.19 * * * 1/4 0% (0 of 8) 97/06/08 King of The Ring 0.46 (3) $1.54 1.69 * * * * 12.5% (1 of 8) 97/07/06 In Your House 0.59 $1.32 2.90 * * * * 1/4 40% (2 of 5) 97/08/03 SummerSlam 0.79 (4) $2.31 1.64 * * * 0% (0 of 7) 97/09/07 In Your House 0.45 $1.67 1.75 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 7) 97/10/05 Badd Blood 0.64 $1.87 1.43 * * * * 1/2 14% (1 of 7) 97/11/09 Survivor Series 0.89 $3.14 1.64 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 7) 97/12/07 IYH Degeneration X 0.44 1.63 0.81 * * * 0% (0 of 8) Average 0.61 $1.99 1.65 3.77 7.3% (6 of 82) Footnotes: (1) WWF claims 0.8; (2) WWF figures; (3) WWF claims 0.5; (4) preliminary figure never finalized RAW Sunny was a taped show this week, which always means that the show doesn't have the energy of live weeks. This time around, they tried to pack more wrestling into the show than they have in recent weeks, but with the roster as depleted as it is, that is not necessarily a good thing. Indeed, the highlight of this week's RAW was Sunny's lollypop-licking ring entrance and subsequent match introduction. They continued to push Steve Austin in a way that doesn't reveal his limitations, although it is wearing thin after all this time. This time around, he stunned everybody in sight, to help hype the Rumble, which he will likely win. The current plan is to have Austin beat Michaels for the WWF Title at WrestleMania, which explains why they have been very careful not to ask Michaels to do anything against his wishes (in the hopes that he won't screw up a second WrestleMania plan). There's always the chance that, if Austin doesn't heal up as everybody is expecting, they will switch to a Michaels vs. Owen Hart main event. Jim Cornette brought out Howard Brody & Dennis Coraluzzo as representatives of the NWA and then announced that the winner of the next match would be proclaimed the NWA North American champion. Thanks to Jim's interference, Jeff Jarrett beat Barry Windham to get the title. This was supposed to be a return to classic, athletic wrestling, but it stunk. You've got to think that they are trying exceptionally hard not to get Jeff Jarrett over. They said that some other stars from the old NWA will be surfacing in the WWF. Word has it that the Rock'n'Roll Express will show up, but that seems like a stupid direction. I assumed that creating an NWA North American title forged the way for NWA Champion Dan Severn to show up, so that the WWF can be playful and have a WWF vs. NWA (as opposed to NWO) feud. Owen Hart seemed to be getting hotter, beating Savio Vega, and getting beat up afterwards. Goldust was absolutely embarrassing, wearing flashy clothes, with his face painted black, and sporting a huge afro, to face Flash Funk. Just keep thinking: intellectual programming, that's what Vince says. Mike Tyson seems a lock for WrestleMania, as Don King did a nonsensical plug. There is a lot of talk that Tyson will work against Ken Shamrock. Tyson has do something that does not require sanctioning (similar to how the Butterbean appearance in 1997 was not billed as a boxing match), so maybe he'll only work as a referee or play a role in the main event. The ending of the show was sort of campy, with Shawn Michaels in the ring, dissing the Undertaker, and a casket getting delivered to ringside. We were to assume that Hunter Hearst Helmsley was in the casket; but, he and Chyna came out on the stage to warn Shawn. Shawn mugged for the camera, about the same as Hulk Hogan did when he unwrapped his head as an XMas gift a couple of weeks back, before being pulled into the casket with the Undertaker. At the taping, the lights went out and when they came back on, Undertaker was in the ring alone, holding the title. Maybe that was dropped to placate Shawn. Also at the taping, Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie did an interview, with Cactus saying that he was going to bring barbed wire to the WWF in 1998; with the political climate what it is, I guess that idea was dropped. Nitro was live, as always. They played up the Sting vs. Hulk Hogan match from last week's Nitro, saying that they couldn't show the finish of the match on TV because of the NWO's legal maneuvering. The whole story line is designed to draw a good rating for the debut of Thunder tonight. This is only the second time that they've gone off the air during a match, and, as expected, after fans being educated to not having to deal with that, there was a huge outcry, both to the TNT switchboard and on the net. The wrestling on the show had only one or two highlights, most notably the great Juventud Guerrera vs. Psicosis match to determine who will face Ultimo Dragon tonight for the Cruiserweight title (Juventud). The plan is to have the title bounce around a bit and to let all of the strong Cruiserweight players get wins over each other to establish some sort of parity in the division. This builds to the much-anticipated round robin month-long cruiserweight tournament later in the year. The story lines are apparently being handled by Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko, who have some experience with how New Japan handles its junior heavyweight tournaments. They talked about the debuts of new wrestlers in 1998 and then gave us John Nord (who beat the Barbarian) and Rick Martel (who beat Brad Armstrong) in totally uninspiring and unexciting debuts. In weeks to come, Jim Neidhart and Davey Boy Smith will debut in WCW. The other highlight of the show was seeing Bret Hart and Ric Flair confront each other to lead to a match between the two of them at NWO Souled Out II. Flair said that ten years ago, he could have a great match with a broom, but that now he needs somebody whose heart is in it. I'm heartened to see that Bret Hart's first WCW match will be a * * * * affair. Hey, this might be the first WCW main event at that level in close to a year! The only strong main event I recall from 1997 was the Randy Savage vs. Diamond Dallas Page brawl. They also started teasing some rifts in the NWO. - WCW had the debut episode of Thursday Thunder tonight. Very quickly, it was similar in style to Nitro, minus the dancing women. The wrestling highlights featured a good match between Chris Jericho and Ric Flair, with Flair winning with the figure-four and Jericho snapping again. Juventud Guerrera beat El Ultimo Dragon to win the Cruiserweight title in a great match, as the chaos in the division that I mentioned earlier starts to grow. I can't wait for the tournament. - New Japan had its annual Tokyo Dome show on 01/04/97. Quick results: * Kensuke Sasaki beat Keiji Muto to retain the IWGP Title * Shinya Hashimoto beat Dennis Lane * Masahiro Chono beat Shiro Koshinaka * Shinjiro Otani beat El Ultimo Dragon to retain the IWGP junior heavyweight title * Kendo Ka Shin beat Koji Kanemoto * Yuji Nagata beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan * Don Frye beat Naoya Ogawa * Tatsumi Fujinamai & Osamu Nishimura beat Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi - The WWF has Royal Rumble on 01/18/97. Tentative line-up has: * Royal Rumble for a title shot at WrestleMania * Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Title in a casket match * Goldust vs. Vader - NWO Souled Out will take place on 01/24/98. Tentative line-up: * Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart * Larry Zbyszko vs. Scott Hall It's rumoured that some NWO Japan wrestlers from New Japan will appear. - Apparently, there is a plan in WCW to have Juventud Guerrera lose his mask to Mortis. - The WWF's Sunny was asked how she would improve the WWF. Her answer was to get rid of everybody over 300 pounds. I knew I liked her for a wrestling-related reason. - On 01/26/97, Mitsuharu Misawa defends his Triple Crown against Jun Akiyama. That should be better than any North American match in January. - - RAW 01/05 with a 4.3 rating against a 3.4 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 0.63 (0.61) and average gross of $1.99-million ($1.75-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.92 (0.78) and average gross of $2.97-million ($1.99-million). The details as they stand are available. - The WWF has In Your House: No Way Out on 02/15/98. The ad for the show features a close-up of Kane's face, and there is talk that his opponent at the show will be Vader. - The WWF has WrestleMania XIV on 03/29/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 04/26/98. - All Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 05/01/98. Shoehi "Giant" Baba has said that he would like to use WWF wrestlers on the show and, perhaps jokingly, asked reporters what matches they'd like to see. There's apparently been no serious contact between Baba & Vince McMahon over this. - The WWF has In Your House on 05/31/98. - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/28/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 07/26/98. - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/30/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 09/27/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 10/18/98. - The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/15/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 12/13/98. - 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; that "x" is my web spider spam guard. ______________________________________________________________________