______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ Pictures of the Week I'm calling the 76 pictures from last year my 1997 series and consider the pictures below the beginning of my 1998 series. Posting still images invariably leads to tons of e-mail asking for pictures of the valets and female managers in North American pro-wrestling. To offset that, I hope, I've decided to make this first batch of 40 pictures have a large number of pictures that fit that bill. If you want to contact me about this part of TidBits, please keep in mind that I do not e-mail images. I've revamped the Pics page to include the pictures below and the movies of recent weeks. See that page for an explanation of the file naming standard I'm using. There are not many sites on the net that put out high quality wrestling pics (are there any?); I'm going to try to have pictures from all around the world. I've decided to take an open approach: text description of the picture, the source/date of the picture, and the name of the picture (from which the promotion can be determined) will all appear in the margin of the image, instead of being dropped onto the picture. I will put a small water mark on the actual picture. I know these pictures will get ripped off by some people who will crop them, put them on their own pages, and claim them as their own, but I trust image collectors who are regular readers of this page will know that this is the place to get original, high-quality scans. To view any of the pictures, click on the thumbnail. Michiko Omukai Dick Togo & Mens Teioh vs. Taka Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki Great Sasuke Chris Benoit vs. Tiger Mask El Ultimo Dragon vs. El Gran Naniwa Jushin Liger Great Sasuke vs. Tiger Mask Psicosis vs. Rey Misterio Jr. Kimberly Kimberly Kimberly Kimberly Kimberly Kimberly Kimberly Chyna The Kliq Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker Sable Sable Sable Sable Sable Sable Sable Sable Sable & Sunny Sable & Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny _________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had the Royal Rumble this past Sunday. Overall, it didn't come off as a strong show, really having only one strong performance (by Shawn Michaels). The finishes on the show were absolutely atrocious, bringing back memories of Dusty Rhodes at his creative worst. The show has to get a thumbs in a middle at best, once again bordering on down. Quick run-down: * Vader beat Goldust: Dustin Rhodes is starting to look so much like his father, it's become scarier than his gimmick. The match was a throwaway, disappointing since both guys used to be able to do so much more. The finish was cute: Vader went up for a Vader Bomb, Luna jumped on his back, and he hit the bomb anyhow, with Luna riding him down. The show could have gone either way from here. * Max Mini & Mosaic & Nova beat El Torito & Battalion & Tarantula in a Mexican minis trio match: Sunny refereed. The minis were way off their usual form, relying far too much on the same spots, instead of mixing it up. They went back to fast arm drags way too many times. The crowd died (acutally, that happened partway through the first match). Even the multiple tope spot was off, with the recipients up and waiting way too long before getting hit. I wonder whether this match was thrown together at the last minute, giving them no time to put anything good together. A second flat and disappointing performance in a row. * Rocky Maivia beat Ken Shamrock, retaining the IC Title: Rocky has no credibility and it hurts Shamrock's gimmick to have matches like this. Rocky draws heat with his "Rocky Sucks!" chants, but he still can't deliver much of anything in the ring (the comparisons months ago of Rocky vs. WCW's Prince Iaukea still seem to hold water, IMO). Rocky has added exaggerated facial expressions (a la Hogan) to his routine, which also don't work for me. There are people who praise Rocky because of his facials and his charisma and despite his lack of wrestling development, going so far as to call him a good wresler. Well, the exact same comments could be made about Bill Goldberg, but nobody would dare to call him a good wrestler. Anyhow, heading into the finish, the match had little going for it, and then they really struck out by dipping into Dusty's bag'o'tricks. Rocky hit Ken with brass knuckles and put the weapon in Ken's tights. Ken survived the pin attempt and got his own cover on Rocky after a belly-to-belly suplex, with the referee counting three and awarding the title to Shamrock. Of course, Rocky then claimed he was hit with brass knuckles, the referee discovered them in Ken's tights, and the decision was reversed. It was a horrible finish 15 years ago and it still stinks now. I guess they were trying to play into the "Ken is still adapting to the dirty tactics that he might encounter for the first time in the WWF" shtick, but it came off like a major cheap finish. * New Age Outlaws beat Legion of Doom, retaining the WWF Titles: A total waste of time. In the previous match, Jim Ross went orgasmic while talking about the WWF not being the "senior circuit," pointing out that we only see "young" wrestlers in the promotion; then he switched modes and said, "up next, the Road Warriors." Uh-huh. They stunk up the joint again. Billy & Jesse tried to do something, but it's just impossible with those opponents. The finish was another disaster, made worse because it followed the IC Title nonsense. Hawk was handcuffed to the ringpost while the Outlaws were DQed. * Royal Rumble: After a few years of bad Rumbles, you've got to wonder why we all have memories of these matches being good. This year's effort (a misnomer) did nothing to help clarify that contradiction. There were just way too many guys involved that had no chance of winning the event. There were just too many guys involved that can't do anything in the ring. At one point, with nine wrestlers in the ring, D-Lo Brown was the best worker of the bunch; now, I like D-Lo well enough, but that's a pretty bad situation. The Rumble is usually booked around story lines, often somebody's marathon effort. The closest they came to that this time was mentioning the next night on RAW that Blackjack Bradshaw had stayed in for a long time. This time, the story line was built around the Nation of Domination fighting amongst themselves, not a bad third-level story line, if you get my drift, but certainly not of enough interest to get the spotlight. Mick Foley appeared as Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love, underscoring the dearth of talent this year. As Cactus Jack, he and Chainsaw Charlie did some garbage wrestling spots. I loved Terry Funk to death years ago, but I find it incredibly sad to watch him prostitute his legend this way. Kurrgan was the "big man" that people had to team up to eliminate; his stink killed the match for a few minutes. With Austin injured, the only worker they could have built the match around was Owen Hart. I fully expected that Owen Hart would draw a low number, deliver a venomous interview directed at Shawn Michaels, and then fight like a devil to outsurvive everybody until, finally, he and a late-entry Austin were the only two left. Austin, protected to this point, could then work a few careful spots with Owen before dumping him. Well, no, instead, Owen barely had any presence in the Rumble. He was attacked by Jeff Jarrett before he could even enter the ring; the thought of Owen being demoted to feuding with Jarrett is depressing. As a result, no strong workers were in the ring for any length of time. Austin, of course, came in late and bested Faarooq & Rocky Maivia & Dude Love, who comprised the other three of the final four survivors. * Shawn Michaels beat Undertaker, retaining the WWF Title, in a casket match: Michaels did the unthinkable. In his two main event matches with Undertaker, he somehow managed to create two strong matches; it helps that they were both gimmick matches, but it is still a feat. This time around, as with the Badd Blood cage match, the finish completely marred what to that point had been a great bout. After a strong match, everybody ran in and tried to take out the Undertaker. The lights dimmed and Kane entered the ring to help Undertaker or...yep, as everybody expected, Kane turned on Undertaker and caused him to lose the match. Afterwards, Kane rolled the casket onto a carefully laid out tarp, doused it with gas, and lit it on fire, which at least gave a dramatic shot for the closing. Despite the appearance of the minis in a muddled match, the show really lacked something with Taka Michinoku not appearing. Mike Tyson was in attendance for the show. What a choice for a hero. All he did was cheer at the right moments and confusedly say that he liked "Cold Stone." RAW was a live show, following on the heels of the Royal Rumble. The show was pretty much built around Mike Tyson appearing in the ring, as throughout the show they showed clips of him horsing around or talking with different wrestlers. As you might expect, with the Tyson hype at full power, the actual wrestling on the show was pretty much nonexistent yet again. The DOA & NOD (Faarooq & D-Lo & Kama) went to a no contest in a crummy match (don't act so surprised). Marc Mero pinned Tom Brandi after hitting a low blow. The Quebecers returned, getting a DQ win over Chainsaw Charlie & Cactus Jack. It was a short, bad match, but Pierre did his somersault tope, that looks spectacular because he's still so fat. Terry Funk did one of his lame springboard cross body presses (sounds better than what it is). Blackjack Bradshaw lost in his bid to unseat Jeff Jarrett from the NWA North American throne. The Rock'n'Roll Express interfered freely, looking damn old. After the match, Blackjack Windham turned on Bradshaw, and apparently joined up with the crew that cheated to steal his NWA North American Title shot. The idea of bringing tennis racquet screw jobs back to wrestling has already run its course with me. In a bizarre short match, Owen Hart & Taka Michinoku & the Headbangers beat Los Boricuas. Ahmed Johnson returned, facing Rocky Maivia; okay, Ahmed can leave again. Billy Gunn & Roaddog beat the Godwinns. The wrestling might have been poor, but it was hardly the point of the show. At the end of the show, Vince McMahon and Mike Tyson each came to the ring to a chorus of mostly boos. Vince asked who Tyson's favourite wrestler was and Tyson said, "Bruno Sammartino," which must have embarrassed Vince a little, but it could have been worse, like when Tyson followed that up with "Nikolai Volkoff." Before it could get too bad, Steve Austin hit the ring and got in Tyson's face, doing a great job on the microphone. Tyson shoved Austin after Austin fingered him, leading to a melee, with Tyson's entourage holding him back and McMahon screaming "You ruined it!" at Austin. The idea, pushed through the show, is that Vince didn't quite have a deal worked out with Tyson, and that Austin's actions killed the deal. Afterwards, backstage, Tyson & his crew were hearing none of McMahon's apology and instead said they wanted Austin. Tyson, showing that he's not only a barbaric, convicted rapist, but an unintelligent one at that, challenged the "faggot" Austin to come to him. In some ways, it was a strong angle: the WWF got a lot of media coverage because of it and Austin will hopefully get the name recognition rub from it. At this point in the war for the WWF, any pub is good pub. On next week's show, Owen will face Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the IC Title, accepting HHH's challenge this week. The match won't take place as scheduled, but Owen will end up with the title anyhow, a waste, since he could be booked to not need the title to stay over and be a post-wrestlemania feud for Shawn Michaels. Nitro was a mixed bag again, from a wrestling perspective. To combat the Mike Tyson appearance on RAW, they pushed a Hulk Hogan vs. Giant match as the main event of the show, even cutting promos during the show to build to the main. From a wrestling standpoint, the show easily beat out RAW again. Even the opener was better than any wrestling on RAW, with Rick Martel beating Eddie Guerrero. I loved Martel in the mid 1980s, when he was a Ric Flair level wrestler, and absolutely hated his final "Model" role in the WWF. He's returned to his roots, working a style similar to what he worked all those years ago. I don't know if it will carry over, but he looks and moves great. This was the first competitive match for Rick and its completely unfair to come to any conclusions after it because he was in with one of the best. Let's wait and see how his match on Saturday with Booker T goes. It was a good show opener. Chris Benoit beat Marty Jannetty in a good short match. Afterwards, Raven's crew came in and Marty helped Chris chase them off. The Steiners beat Konnan & Buff Bagwell, with Scott never tagging out; a long time ago, the Steiners said that they would never turn on each other and feud. Booker T beat Mortis, who deserves a good role. Lex Luger got a DQ win over Scott Hall; I knew enough not to pay too much attention to this match and ruin what had been a good wrestling experience to this point. Hulk Hogan did a clean job for Giant. A bad match, as always. Story line was the issue here, as Randy Savage continued to seem close to a turn. Sting came in as well. Thunder this week seemed to be the best show of the weekly bunch of live shows. There was a strong lucha tag match involving Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Super Calo against La Parka & Silver King that turned into a four against four melee when Psicosis & El Dandy & Lizmark Jr. & Juventud Guerrera ran in. Great stuff, although they got my hopes up into thinking an eight-man lucha match would be added to Souled Out II. Dean Malenko faced Marty Jannetty in a match that didn't seem to click, although it got better as time went on, with Malenko eventually getting the cloverleaf on. Eddie Guerrero faced Rey Misterio Jr. and seemed to dominate the injured Rey until Chris Jericho hit the ring to get Eddie DQed and protect his own title shot on Saturday in the process. Eddie got miffed at Jericho while Chris Benoit, Jericho's scheduled opponent, snuck into the ring. The Jericho vs. Benoit match was good, with Benoit looking awesome and Jericho looking pretty good, although he got a little too caught up in his gimmick. Eventually, Benoit went for the Crippler Crossface, but Jericho tapped out before the move was even on, mumbling that he had to protect himself for his title shot on Saturday. Raven hit the ring afterwards and they went to commercial just to annoy me. A tape aired showing Rick Martel being attacked by Perry Saturn & Billy Kidman when he entered the arena; they threw him through a door. Martel faced Saturn late in the show in a good match. I'm still not convinced that Martel will add enough new elements to his great style of years ago, but I'm enjoying getting to watch him act like a legitimate athlete again. Ah, nostalgia. I'm still positive about his Souled Out match. The main event was Giant against Scott Hall. Giant wore trunks instead of his normal gear and look massive. Eventually, he got the choke slam on Hall, but Nash made the save and taunted Giant to hit him and thus sacrifice the $1.5-million he'd put up. They really confused me this show, since I thought that WCW put up the money on behalf of the Giant; yet, they kept talking like it was Giant's money now. Anyhow, he didn't hit Nash, instead bending the ringpost left and ring while at ringside until the ring collapsed. Scott Hall, standing in the ring, did a good job of acting way off balance while the ring wobbled. - NWO Souled Out will take place on Saturday. 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 * Steiners & Ray Traylor vs. Konnan & Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton - On 01/26/97, Mitsuharu Misawa defends his Triple Crown against Jun Akiyama. - - RAW 01/19 with a 4.6 rating against a 3.9 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. Tentative line-up: * Vader vs. Kane * Steve Austin & Owen Hart & Raod Warriors vs. Shawn Michaels & Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Billy Gunn & Roaddog * Ken Shamrock & Ahmed Johnson & Chainz & Skull & Eight Ball vs. Rocky Maivia & Faarooq & D-Lo Brown & Kama Mustafa & Mark Henry * Taka Michinoku vs. Pantera for the Lightheavyweight title * Chainsaw Charlie vs. Goldust - The WWF has WrestleMania XIV on 03/29/98. Mike Tyson will play a role in this show, with speculation rampant that he'll actually work a match against Steve Austin. This seems off the mark since the WWF wouldn't have had Austin win the Rumble if they were not going to deliver on the title match stipulation. - WCW has SueprBrawl VIII on 02/22/98. Tentative line-up * Scott Hall challenging for the WCW Title - The WWF has In Your House on 04/26/98. - All Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 05/01/98. - 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. 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