______________________________________________________________________ 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! _________________________________________________________________ Apologies for being a day late with this update. As I mentioned yesterday, I had some serious trouble with the OS/2 side of my system at home. It was not altogether a bad thing, since I finally did manage to re-partition my system the way I always should have had it. I've re-installed, restored, and reconfigured everything; the only losses (yes, I had back-ups, but sometimes things still go awry) were my e-mail archives. If you are awaiting e-mail from me in response to mail sent before today, please e-mail me again, since chances are good that your mail fell into the bit bucket. _________________________________________________________________ [rm.gif] Movies of The Week Bison Kimura retired on 01/11/98. Bison was a very strong worker in All Japan Women from the late 1980s through to the mid 1990s. Her best stint was likely when she teamed with Aja Kong in 1991, but she was always great. Here's a movie clip of Bison Kimura & Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota & Esther Moreno. It runs around two minutes and, thanks to some compression experiments, comes in at around 460K. Just for reference for those who have never seen these women before, Aja Kong is the largest women in the ring, wearing white. Bison wears a leopard skin sort of outfit with one leg free. Manamit Toyota is in an all-black outfit. Esther is the dynamo. Thanks to my system problems, I won't be starting the next still image collection until next week, probably with a large first offering. RAW was a "low-quality wrestling," "high push for the Royal Rumble" sort of show this past Monday, which wasn't such a bad thing, except that they failed to deliver on the Rumble order of entry draw that was hyped all show. Oh well, at least it was a live a show with good energy. From a wrestling standpoint, the show featured a poor four corners match with the New Age Outlaws beating the Godwinns, Truth Commission, and the Headbangers. They abandoned the idea of having Kurrgan do only run-ins to try to get him over, apparently thinking he'd learned a little; he won a horrible handicap match. Ken Shamrock & Mark Henry faced D.Lo Brown & Rocky Maivia in a non-match to lead to Henry's joining the NOD, just like Ahmed Johnson did it before him. Vince has got to try to get some return on his investment in Henry; it makes one wonder why, if money was the issue, Vince didn't breach this crazy contract instead of Bret's, but that question answers itself. Jim Cornette brought out the Rock'n'Roll Express; I don't think Morton & Gibson can be pushed on the national stage any more. Cornette interfered, just like last week. This NWA angle is pretty weird so far. Mankind and Goldust (dressed as Dude Love) had a non-match. The Lightheavyweight division was further marginalized, as Taka Michinoku & Scott Taylor faced Los Boricuas in a bad match which could not showcase the strengths of Taka. That's it for actual wrestling: nothing good. From a story line standpoint, they did a great job of pushing the Rumble match, with Steve Austin still stunning anybody and everybody. They hyped a draw for the end of the show, which saw all of the wrestlers in the ring, a powder keg which quickly exploded to end the show. Shawn Michaels & Hunter Hearst Helmsley did a bit with Owen Hart, where Owen jumped into their limo's sunroof, and they drove off, only to return later without Owen. Goldust did an embarrassing bit dressed as Sable for Marc Mero. Kane rescued Undertaker from a DX attack. Cactus Jack did an interview revealing that Chainsaw Charlie was really Terry Funk, with whom he's had numerous death matches over recent years. They showed some garbage wrestling clips, perhaps to test the water. There was a Mike Tyson plug again. Tyson will appear on the live RAW next Monday and be at the Rumble. It's interesting to note that WCW was interested in Tyson as well; indeed, both groups had been trying to work out something for many months. When Tyson made a meal out of Evander Holyfield's ear, WCW was informed by higher ups in the Turner organization that Tyson, and boxing in general, was now viewed negatively. Of course, it's the fallout from that gross incident in boxing that leads to Tyson & Don King negotiating a deal with the WWF; how else are they going to make any money in the short-term future? It's not the first time that the WWF and WCW were going after the same sports celebrity; last time around, WCW beat out the WWF to get Dennis Rodman to work with them. The WWF had wanted Rodman to work as Goldust's valet and later team with him for a match. The Observer reports, perhaps tongue in cheek, that the plan for WrestleMania is to use the sleeziest celebrities it can find to further establish the WWF's position when it comes to pushing the boundaries of taste. Still, the WWF has received a lot of mainstream pub from the Tyson association; I guess bad pub is better than no pub. - The WWF has Royal Rumble on Sunday. Announced 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 * New Age Outlaws vs. Legion of Doom for the WWF Titles * Mike Tyson will appear The plan is to have Steve Austin win the WWF Title at WrestleMania, so he's surely the guy to win the Rumble. If he does not win, that has to be interpreted as a very sad statement on his current health. In promoting the match, they've called it an hour long match, which seems to indicate that the plan, at least at that point, was to return to two-minute intervals, a scary prospect given the talent roster. I'd expect Kane to cause the Undertaker to lose his match to Michaels, leading to a Kane vs. Undertaker match at WrestleMania. They seem to be hinting at a Kane & Undertaker tag team, but it just seems natural for them to have a short program first before moving into a tag team. In 1995, the Royal Rumble drew a 1.0 buy rate. In 1996, it drew a 1.1. In 1997, though, it only managed a 0.6. With Mike Tyson appearing and the strong hype for the show, not breaking the 0.6 mark this year would surely cause a huge hit to morale. With Tyson appearing on the live RAW the next night, one wonders what will happen when Nitro once again beats them in the ratings (there is no reason to expect any other result). Nitro was a mixed bag. It's sort of interesting to see them take into account that they have a second weekly show on Thursday; angles get geared to that. It doesn't seem like that difficult a thing to plan out, but with the egos in the company and the history of confusion in the simpler 1997, it'll be interesting to see when the first serious flub happens. From wrestling standpoint, the show had a couple of good moments. Bill Goldberg won a squash, leaving the ring with a slightly bloody mouth. I don't know why, but Goldberg's primal screams get a great reaction from the crowd. Marty Jannetty debuted, facing Black Cat and going over. They talked about his past tag team success. With the arrival of Bret Hart, the company seems to be far more open when talking about wrestlers' backgrounds. In a really strong match, the best of Monday night, Chris Benoit beat Dean Malenko. Booker T beat Perry Saturn to retain his TV Title; Rick Martel saved Booker from a screw job, with Booker winning after a restart. Afterwards, Martel asked for a title shot, presumably to win the title that they were going to give him a week earlier. Booker looked very good as a singles and Saturn looked nowhere near as sound. Lex Luger beat Hugh Morrus; the match was only there to set up a tag match for Thunder. Steve McMichael beat Chris Jericho; Jericho went nuts on the microphone afterwards and beat up Rey Misterio Jr., who came to the ring for his scheduled match against Juventud Guerrera. Juventud then took advantage of Misterio's condition and quickly put him away. Kevin Nash & Scott Hall beat the Steiners in a screwy main event to get the tag titles. From a story line standpoint, Bret Hart and the debuting Jim Neidhart had a verbal duel, leading to showdown in the ring. Ric decked Neidhart with brass knuckles and did the figure-four around the post, like Bret Hart did in 1997. I hate that move because it requires too much obvious cooperation with the victim grabbing the aggressor's foot before the move is put on. Bret vs. Ric has been a great, albeit rushed, story. The splintering of the NWO continued, with focus being put on Randy Savage vs. Kevin Nash in particular. Savage interfered in the main event, seemingly wanting to hit his elbow drop on Nash, but instead hitting a Steiner when Nash moved. Thunder WCW had the second episode of Thursday Thunder yesterday. Like Nitro on Monday, the show had one great wrestling match. The show was marred by serious video trouble throughout the second hour, luckily leaving that one great match essentially intact (with only one interruption). The rebroadcast also had the video problems, since TBS had no way of getting an unaffected copy of the show in the interim. The wrestling highlight of the show was a 10-minute-or-so match between Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera. It was a great match, with only one silly spot: with Misterio laid out on the ring apron (head and feet pointing to ringposts), Guerrera charged him along the apron, Misterio raised his legs and propelled Juventud into the post. Now, that spot has been done before without annoying me, but this time around their timing and contact was just way off and even the commentators, who don't even seem to pay attention to the matches, sputtered. Rey went on to win the match and the Cruiserweight title; he'll face Chris Jericho at Souled Out. You've got to think that there'll be yet another title change there just to establish all of the tournament players. The main event on the show was Randy Savage & Kevin Nash facing Lex Luger & Diamond Dallas Page. And "injured" Page was laid out right at the start. The story was the lack of cooperation between Savage & Nash. When Luger got Nash up in the Torture Rack at the end of the match, Savage went up for a double sledge, Nash moved, and Savage hit Luger, looking quite disappointed about it. Hogan continued to get a lot of interview time. There's a lot of talk, of course, that Hogan has an out in his contract and is technically working for WCW without a contract right now. Many people have suggested that Hogan is going to the WWF and the WWF has even said nice things about him on TV to hype their hotline. Still, as far as making money from wrestling goes, he's got absolutely no reason to leave WCW. There is no way that the WWF could offer him what Eric does. On top of money, he has creative control of his story lines. What else is there? The NWO seems to make oodles of money from their shirts and other gimmicks, so it just seems impossible that Hogan can do better financially from wrestling alone. It's no secret that Hogan was hoping to get a regular TV show on TNT, which rejected the project. Could the offer of a show on USA, a show that would probably be cancelled in short order, make up the difference? It just seems ludicrous. No, you've got to think that Hogan isn't going anywhere. Notice that the talk that he could leave helps increase his price with WCW, something that the WWF would do its little bit to encourage, just like Vince seemed to want to get Eric to spend a big pile of money on Bret Hart. The problem with hoping that WCW outspends itself is that the company is managing to draw great ratings and solid buy rates. There were people in 1984 who expected the WWF to outspend itself and, in fact, they almost did, before the real fire lit up many months after the fabricated one. - NWO Souled Out will take place on 01/24/98. Tentative line-up: * Giant vs. Kevin Nash * Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart * Larry Zbyszko vs. Scott Hall * Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Chris Jericho for the Cruiserweight Title * Chris Benoit vs. Raven * Booker T vs. Rick Martel for the TV Title The show actually has some promise, since three matches look strong on paper, and, heck, Booker vs. Martel could even surprise us, since we haven't seen the once Flair-level awesome Martel in a competitive match yet. - Johnny Smith & Wolf Hawkfield won the All Asian Tag Titles in All Japan, beating Jun Akiyama & Takai Omori on 01/09/98. Hawkfield wrestled in the promotion previously as The Lacrosse, but is likely better known to readers as Jungle Jim Steele in WCW. Believe it or not, the guy who delivered those incredibly unwatchable matches in WCW has improved tremendously in All Japan. He's still not great, but he's shown desire to learn. - On 01/26/97, Mitsuharu Misawa defends his Triple Crown against Jun Akiyama. - - RAW 01/12 with a 4.6 rating against a 3.5 rating. I'm not going to keep track of the WCW Thunder ratings, but the opening week drew a huge 4.0 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 0.63 (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. Mike Tyson will play a role in this show, probably as a referee. - The WWF has In Your House on 04/26/98. - All Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 05/01/98. Bruce Pritchard is heading over to Japan to talk with Shoehi Baba about using WWF wrestlers on the show and will also try to set up some sort of talent exchange. Hiro Hase has said that he would like to face Jun Akiyama on this show. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________