______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ Pictures of the Week Twelve new pictures. Go to the Pics page to see the full selection, with thumbnails or without. To view any of the pictures, click on the thumbnail. Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue Ultimo Dragon & Heavy Metal & Rey Misterio Jr. & Psicosis Andre vs. Killer Khan Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) Harley Race Yoji Anjoh vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki Chyna Chyna Chyna Sunny Sunny _________________________________________________________________ - NWO Souled Out took place this past Saturday. It was the first easy "thumbs up" show in a long while from either company, IMO, and one of the first WCW cards in a while to have a strong match in the upper half of the card. Quick results: * Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Super Calo & Lizmark Jr. & Juventud Guerrera beat La Parka & Silver King & Psicosis & El Dandy: this was an unadvertised lucha match that seemed to be set up on the preceding Thunder show; I even mused about the possibility of such a match at the PPV. A wonderful opener. They paired up at first, like in a traditional lucha match, with each rudo/technico pair doing a few spots before trading off to a new pair. Those marriages broke down quickly, though, since they weren't given that long. They did a sequence of topes. Compare the execution here to the WWF minis at the Rumble: these guys didn't get up and stand there waiting for the next dive, instead trying to sell being shaken up, half-rising, staggering, etc. Much cleaner and less-contrived. The finish was a bit disappointing, since Chavo was given the pin over Psicosis; my wife, a casual observer, wondered why the weakest man pinned one of the stronger men. Oh well. The crowd was really into the match, popping for spots like mad. * Chris Benoit beat Raven: they finally delivered this match and it was good, but a disappointing waste of Benoit, who can do so much more. Raven's style is crippled in WCW, which actually requires some quality elements from him. They did the requisite chair spots. I just like watching Benoit in any style match because he is so damn good. Benoit hit a headbutt onto a chair that was lying on Raven's head, knocking both guys out for a bit. Benoit eventually put on the crossface, Raven smiled from the pain, and Raven tapped. I was happy to see the submission finish and happier still in the hope that Benoit can move on to better matches. Dean Malenko ran in and helped Benoit chase off Raven's Flock. Don't get me wrong: this was a good match and the show at this point was really strong, but I just don't like the way Benoit is used. * Chris Jericho beat Rey Misterio Jr. to win the Cruiserweight Title: The story was that Rey's knee was injured even before the match. As the match wore on, with all of the expected good stuff, Rey's knee took some pounding here and there and he started hobbling occasionally and selling the knee after hitting cool spots. Rey's work was great in that regard. The finish was excellent: Rey went up for a top rope frankensteiner, but Jericho leaped off the turnbuckle and ended up with his Lion Tamer Boston crab on Rey, who had to tap out. Afterwards, Jericho obliterated Rey's knee. Talk is that Rey really needs time off for knee surgery and may be out for a handful of months. That's sad in some ways, since it means he won't be able to be part of a Cruiserweight tournament in that window. On the other hand, it means that he can return fresh after the tournament has played out. I really liked the clean finishes up to this point; the show had an exceptional beginning. * Booker T beat Rick Martel to retain the TV Title: A good match. I liked Martel a lot prior to his WWF stint and he's returned to that style, so my viewing of him gets coloured by nostalgia still, I think. Anyhow, they did a solid job. The story line was that Martel, the veteran, was working over Booker's back to set up his Quebec crab finisher. Even when the match seesawed back and forth, Martel would always return to the back. His offence came across as a little dated, following the opening matches of this show, but compared well against what was to follow or most WWF heavyweight matches. Eventually, Booker managed to hit the Harlem Hangover and get the pin. Martel teased a turn, as he'd done during the match, but ended up congratulating Booker. Strong show to this point. * Larry Zbyszko beat Scott Hall by DQ: Larry came out with Dusty Rhodes to counter Scott Hall's Louie Spicoli. Dusty had his shirt buttoned up the whole way, which made me wonder at the start of the match, but I quickly forgot as the crowd heat actually made the match mildly entertaining. The wrestling was pretty much nonexistent and Larry's "shooter" gimmick is inconsistent with his ability, but, boy, is he over! Anyhow, this was a nothing match until the finish. Larry, playing possum, got Hall in his chokehold, so Louie & Dusty hit the ring. Larry held Hall and Dusty wound up the elbow, but hit Larry instead. At this point, the commentators sold it like an accident and the crowd didn't clue in either. When Dusty then attacked Larry and revealed that he himself was wearing an NWO shirt under his other shirt, the commentators and fans went berzerk. Tony Schiavone acted like he'd been shot, saying that "[his] kids play with [Dusty's] kids." I guess they play dress-up. It was a good angle. * Steiners & Ray Traylor beat Konnan & Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton: More story line fluff. They seem to be building to a Steiner split as Scott has been hogging the limelight recently. This time around, Rick Steiner & Ray did all of the early work, if you can call it that, with Ray being in for the heat building spot. Eventually, he hit the hot tag to Scott, who got the pin. This match just seemed to be in the wrong place on the card; there was nothing wrong with letting the story line simmer slowly. It was another nothing match. * Giant beat Kevin Nash by DQ: They tried. But they can't really do anything. Nash tried a bad looking tope. It was nowhere near as bad as I'd expected, but that doesn't make it good. It was fair. The finish was all story line: Nash threw hot coffee in Giant's face, hit a low blow, and then went for the power bomb. Of course, Giant's probably never taken that move before and he took a bad bump because of it. The trainers ran in, put cotton on his eyes, and wrapped his head up. The commentators played up the wickedness of the bump. It was kept short and, because they tried, it wasn't painful. * Bret Hart beat Ric Flair: Surprised to see this second-last. They did everything you'd expect and just about the only complaint anybody can make about the match is that everything was pretty much as expected. The match built well, with the expected heat and great interaction between the two. The finish seemed a bit abrupt, making me wonder if they had to hot tail it because the show was going long and there was one match to follow. I wondered further if they put this on second-last because they might otherwise be left with too little time. It wasn't a great match; I don't even think it was memorable. But it was solid and good. * Lex Luger beat Randy Savage: This was a Nitro-style main event. With less than ten minutes to go, they did a group of lame spots, with no time to build. Luger got Savage up in the torture rack, the NWO ran out, Sting ran out, Luger racked Nash, Sting scorpioned Hogan, you know the routine. I guess this was supposed to be a victorious WCW ending, but it came off as the same stuff we see on TV every week at least once or twice, so the show ended poorly, I thought. They also did an interview segment wherein Roddy Piper announced that Hulk Hogan and Sting would battle at SuperBrawl for the WCW Title. After the great buy rate the first PPV match drew, they'd be stupid not to go for a quick return. The show had to get a thumbs up without reservation. Of nine matches, five were good or better and none of the remainder stunk or embarrassed. That remainder included two memorable angles (Dusty's turn and the Giant's bump). Nitro was a three hour show, condensed to two hours for Canada. Worse yet, they interrupted the day time broadcast of the show in Canada on Wednesday to air Wayne Gretzky's Order of Canada ceremony live, meaning that interested viewers had to carefully track down the rebroadcast time. I was pretty busy with work while the show was on this week and, truthfully, not all that much on the show was able to distract me from that work, so I feel like the two-thirds we got in Canada, at least, was not that great a show. The highlights, story line wise, were that JJ Dillon outlawed the "jackknife power bomb" from WCW. It's unclear to me if that's any different than outlawing all power bombs. Of course, Kevin Nash did one anyhow when he faced Ray Traylor, leading to him being carted out in cuffs, since JJ said that WCW would pursue the possiblity of criminal prosecution against anybody that does the move. This makes no sense to me. Sure, it's a good idea to try to make something out of the Giant's near-injury. And it's been an historic thing in wrestling to have a move that is banned so that the heels can do it to get heat (the piledriver, over the top rope, etc., have all been used this way). But you've got to think that this decision, presumably made at the 11th hour, will quickly be reversed. Davey Boy Smith debuted, beating Steve McMichael. The Steiners story line continued its slow brew. Savage's split from the NWO was also furthered. RAW was a weak taped show. Mark Henry & Ken Shamrock had a non-match, that became a brawl in no time. Jeff Jarrett & Barry Windham beat the Road Warriors when, you guessed it, Barry hit Animal with the tennis racquet to get the screwy win. This was bad, as nobody looked good. It wasn't as bad as the Rock'n'Roll Express vs. Road Warriors match on Shotgun the week before, which made all of the guys look absolutely ancient. Goldust vs. Vader was quickly interrupted by Kane (well...he wasn't quick when he interrupted...oh, you know what I mean). Billy Gunn & Roaddog got a DQ win over Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie in a garbagy nothing match; man, watching Terry continues to depress me, particularly since I'd dubbed some of his old All Japan matches this weekend. El Pantera beat Brian Christopher in a match to determine who faces Taka Michinoku at No Way Out. Pantera is okay, but his offence looks weak in North American matches. Still, he's a better opponent for Taka than Christopher is. The match was nothing special. Quebecers lost to Headbangers in another nothing match. Throughout the show they had hyped Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the European Title as well as an interview with Don King. Well, both items were totally disappointing. Owen ended up facing Goldust, who dressed as HHH, in a weak match, beating him and getting the title anyhow. Let's see: Helmsley loses the belt without jobbing, Shawn loses the European belt in a mock job, Steve Austin gives away the IC Title, Shawn Michaels robs Bret Hart of the WWF Title. Have there been any legit heavyweight singles title changes in the past few months? A nonsensical canned interview from Don King ended the show. He promised that he and Vince would work out something to get Tyson at WrestleMania; of course, they will. If they hadn't already worked something out, none of this would have been on TV. - After defeating Ric Flair, Bret Hart moves into a match against Curt Hennig. At least they are being careful to put Hart in against guys who he can draw good matches out of. - Funny line from the Observer, regarding the WWF's training camp: "The training camp did [Kurrgan] at least some good. Two weeks ago he was wrestling like Giant Baba when Baba was 60, and now he wrestles like Baba did when he was 55." - Debra McMichael has been let go by WCW. This ends a long period of rumours of her managing Ric Flair. - The grumbling continues among a lot of the Cruiserweights in WCW. There is a feeling that their new age moves and style have played no small part in the success of the WCW product (true for me!), but that there's no room for advancement. Unfortunately, if this grumbling bespeaks any real unhappiness, it can't be acted upon, since Eric was careful to lock all of them into reasonably long contracts. Besides, is the WWF actually believed to be a real option to answer those complaints? - On 01/26/97, Mitsuharu Misawa retained his Triple Crown against Jun Akiyama. On 01/25/97, Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada regained the Double Tag Titles by beating Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace. - A quick comparison of some 1997 year-end awards: Observer winner Rec.sport.pro-wrestling winner Best Wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa Shawn Michaels Best Tag Team Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama Eliminators Best Feud Steve Austin vs. Hart Foundation Steve Austin vs. Hart Foundation Best Match Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker Best Promotion New Japan WWF Best TV New Japan WWF RAW Best Show WWF Canadian Stampede ECW Barely Legal - - RAW 01/26 with a 4.7 rating against a 3.5 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. No Way Out - 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 - WCW has SueprBrawl VIII on 02/22/98. Tentative line-up * Sting vs. Hulk Hogan - The WWF has WrestleMania XIV on 03/29/98. Bets continue to favour Tyson working as a guest referee in a Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin main event. - 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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