______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ I've added a tape list search option on my tapes page. I took half a day on Saturday to learn and play around with perl (downloading perl502b for OS/2 to play with things locally) and this basic script is the result. While I'll hopefully be able to find time to add (many) more options later on, I thought it was important to get basic search capability on the list. The script searches through my detailed tape list files and puts together a table of output that resembles the detailed lists themselves; the only difference is that a tape number column is added. The tape number links to the appropriate detailed data file. Output is sorted by date and match. Please send me any feedback. Things I'm thinking about adding (no promises): * specification of sort field, * specification of date ranges, and * searching on star ratings. Right now, the "database" of matches, interviews, and other tape list entries includes just under 50000 items. I can't believe that I've entered that much data over the years. I'm sure that searches will reveal some formatting errors with my tape data, errors that just creep in over time. _________________________________________________________________ [rm.gif] Movies of The Week I was planning to put together another batch of still images for this week's TidBits. But long-time wrestling fan and former video-watching partner, Seoul Man Curtis Desjardins e-mailed me from South Korea with fond memories of the following movie clip. I couldn't resist digging through the tape archives, back to 03/29/86, Memphis, and I've put together this ten-minute movie clip of a comedic highlight from the time period. Despite the length, the clip is only just over 1.5 megabytes large; since the clip isn't about fast-paced wrestling action, it's not as important to have a lot of frames. Give it a look and see if you don't laugh too. Without further ado, here's The Bill & Buddy Show. Next week, I'll return to high-quality still images. _________________________________________________________________ RAW was a live show, once again with no memorable matches. The show was about hyping WrestleMania, with two major story-line developments breaking: the Undertaker returned to challenge Kane for a match at WrestleMania, and Mike Tyson seemingly joined DX. While many are going to extol the virtues of those two developments, in the end the show didn't really deliver any meat with the potatoes. The problem is, in part, a pattern of falsely promising Steve Austin in a main event match and never delivering. This week, Austin was slated to take on Kane, hyped for the whole show, but the match didn't take place because Austin was superkicked by Shawn Michaels. This set up the Undertaker's return, so we were supposed to be happy at the end of the night. Maybe that would be the case if the promotion hadn't failed to deliver on many previous Austin matches. Boy, Austin must be in rough shape. As far as I can tell, there is no truth to the rumour that on the next RAW Austin will face Jesus Christ & God in a Holy Trinity triangle match, with pews and altars legal. They might just advertise it anyhow. WCW has followed suit down this stupid road of advertising/hyping main events that don't happen; it's as if the promotions want to kill the golden goose. Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie interrupted a New Age Outlaws title defence, a good thing, since the challengers were Skull & Eight Ball, who looked even worse than usual. Marc Mero beat Tom Brandi; Luna helped, so Sable came in and a fracas erupted. Owen Hart and Mark Henry had a short match, ending with Chyna interfering. Taka "We Have No Idea How To Use Him" Michinoku & The Head Bangers beat the Rock'n'Roll Express & Barry Windham. The Tyson angle played out. Stealing from the recent NWO turn of Dusty Rhodes, Tyson wore a DX shirt underneath his visible attire. Michaels & Tyson teased a fight, Michaels ripped off Tyson's shirt, and they hugged and celebrated while the commentators questioned how Tyson could be the enforcer referee at WrestleMania. Tyson was booed out of the building before the turn. Tyson then left the building (shown on TV), and was not around when DX attacked Austin at the end of the show. This leads one to believe that Tyson is a plant, a mole who will, of course, deliver a knock-out punch on HHH at WrestleMania, where, with Austin winning the title and shaking his hand, he'll have to get his only babyface reaction since he appeared in the promotion. Steve Blackman got a DQ win on Kama in a bad match; Ken Shamrock came in, which might lead to a tag team. I'm sure the idea is to elevate Blackman, but this looks like it will bring down Shamrock. In a totally nonsensical angle based on WWF story-lines, Jeff Jarrett voluntarily returned to his Double J gimmick, the same one that he so thoroughly trashed when he returned. Robert Fuller was brought in as Tennessee Lee to manage Jarrett, who returned to the Figure Four as a finisher, beating Flash Funk. They never mentioned Jarrett's NWA North American Title, although Jarrett did wish the NWA luck. It came off as a last-second idea, or, at best, an idea that nobody thought through. If they were planning for him to ditch his new character and return to his old one, they might as well have had him lose the title last week, thanks to Cornette's interference, to better explain his schizophrenic abandoning of the NWA. It seems like they try to make the WWF's NWA look crappy at every turn: tennis racquet DQs, old wrestlers who basically stink these days (the R'n'R Express have blown some of their "trademark" tag maneuvers, perhaps on purpose). One possible conclusion is that they want fans to think the 1980s wrestlers and product style sucks, so that they'll apply that to WCW's upper echelon players. Finally, the Steve Austin non-match of the week didn't occur. After the ambush, Kane & Paul Bearer did a long-winded interview, basically bringing up the "passing" of the Undertaker. Undertaker appeared after a flash of lightning. The visual effect was tremendous. The promise of this feud is depressing. It was a strong show when it comes to pushing WrestleMania. But it was a horrible show when it comes to actually including some good wrestling along the way. Nitro Hitman is a Herb? was a brutally truncated show in Canada, this week. We only received eighty minutes of the three hour broadcast. Of course, when they edited the show together, they let all of the good wrestling drop out. As a result, we saw all of the repetitive NWO interviews, building to the three final events of the show. Rick Steiner rejected Scott's offer to be in the NWO and received a beating as a result. Bret Hart beat Brian Adams by DQ when Curt Hennig interfered; it's sad that they couldn't give Bret a win over Adams, who doesn't merit a high profile in the NWO (maybe a notch above Vincent, if you get my drift). Besides, Hart's marriage is with Hennig. In the main event, Sting & Randy Savage faced Hulk Hogan & Scott Hall in a match that ended with the predictable NWO interference. Week-in and week-out they deliver these finishes on TV. It's like they didn't learn a thing from the Dusty The Booker era. In another sad development that has to piss off the younger, good workers, Ed Leslie debuted as an NWO guy, saving Hogan. What we saw of this show was horrible. If anybody can explain the sign displayed on TV just as Michael Buffer was announcing the main event (see inset, right), please let me know. Thunder was another mixed bag, filled with way too much talking for my tastes. In the first hour of the show, we saw only three matches. Bill Goldberg squashed Vincent, Eddie Guerrero quickly pinned Prince Iaukea, and, in a good, pretty short match, Juventud Guerrera pinned El Dandy. Konnan came out to deride Juventud, since they will wrestle at Uncensored. The rest of the first hour was devoted to the Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage saga, as Hogan tries to show that he's the focal point of the promotion even without the title. Brian Adams offered to take care of Savage in hour two. I should mentioned that it was nice to see Brian Hildebrand (referee Mark Curtis) return after his bout with cancer. Scott Steiner squashed Chase Tatum, using a camel clutch type submission they called the Steiner Recliner. Curt Hennig beat Jim Neidhart when Rick Rude interfered to lead to a fisherman suplex pin. Chris Jericho beat Ciclope in a match that might have had some promise, except they had no time and Ciclope totally missed a somersault tope early on. Dazed, Ciclope was sloppy in the remaining minute. Dean Malenko ran in to attack Jericho. Scott Norton was punching Renegade senseless when Giant came in and powerbombed him; he choke slammed Renegade and warned Kevin Nash in an interview before being led off. Raven was to face DDP. They brawled stupidly to the back, where Chris Benoit surfaced from behind the curtains and joined in (there's a triangle match at Uncensored). This started an impromptu triangle match. As usual, the sound brawling from Benoit, who's such a complete package that he's the best brawler in the business as well as a top New Japan junior style worker, helps elevate the brawling to something beyond the no-sell, nonsensical stuff that's the norm in the genre. A new member of the Flock debuted (Ron Reis?), helping Raven destroy his two opponents. Hopefully this means that Raven comes up shortest at the PPV. Finally, Brian Adams was to face Randy Savage with less than ten minutes in the show. Savage ended up infuriating Hulk Hogan when Elizabeth called him (Savage) the real man, so it turned into a one-on-two, with Savage cleaning house. When Adams managed to sneak in and bearhug Savage, Liz came in and raked his eyes, so Savage still maintained control. Eventually, Ed Leslie, who the commentators don't have a name for, but Hogan calls the Disciple, came in and stopped Savage. The NWO ran in en force and destroyed Savage until Sting made the save. This show reminded me a lot of RAW from Monday. It was a strong show if you focus on how well they hyped the Uncensored PPV. From a wrestling standpoint it was pretty much a throwaway. Only Juvi's match had any real quality. I just know it's possible to hype a PPV well and have good wrestling on a show. - All Japan had a big show at Budokan Hall on 02/28/98. Quick results: * Mitsuharu Misawa beat Johnny Ace to retain the Triple Crown. This was Ace's first Triple Crown title challenge. Misawa has defended the title successfully eight times, which is a record. * Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue beat Steve Williams & Gary Albright - Kaz Hayashi on Nitro last week (faced Ultimo Dragon) was Shiryu from Michinoku Pro, wrestling without his mask. That was his TV try-out with WCW. It will say a lot if they don't offer him a contract after that performance. - The Observer confirms what was mentioned here last week: it seems likely that John Tenta will be signed by the WWF, with speculation that he will be groomed to challenge Steve Austin for the WWF Title. - Alex Wright is ready to return to WCW. - WCW has Uncensored on 03/15/98. Tentative line-up has: * Sting vs. Scott Hall for the WCW Title * Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage in a cage match * Bret Hart vs. Curt Hennig * Kevin Nash vs. Giant * Lex Luger vs. Scott Steiner * Eddie Guerrero vs. Booker T for the TV Title * Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho for the Cruiserweight Title * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Chris Benoit vs. Raven for the US Title * Juventud Guerrera vs. Konnan Gee, could this show be so heavily packed with marquee matches to dampen the draw for, or at least post a competitive buy compared with, WrestleMania two weeks later? - The WWF has WrestleMania XIV on 03/29/98. Tentative line-up seems to include: * Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson as a ringside enforcer * Undertaker vs. Kane * Terry Funk & Cactus Jack vs. New Age Outlaws for the Tag Titles * Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the European Title * Rocky Maivia vs. Ken Shamrock for the IC Title * Taka Michinoku vs. Aguila for the Lightheavyweight Title Pete Rose and Gennifer Flowers will appear as celebrity guests. The line-up is a little unstable. As injuries continue to plaque many of the wrestlers, it's unclear if there will be a shake-up in the card. Vince apparently wanted the tag title match to be a barbed wire bout, but the PPV outlets balked. - - RAW 03/02 with a 4.8 rating against a 3.8 rating. The detailed ratings are a click away. - PPV buy rates and revenue (in millions) for the WWF and WCW are presented in the following table. WCW WWF Past 6 Months Past Year Past 6 Months Past Year Average Buy Rate 0.89 1.09 0.64 0.63 Average PPV Revenue $2.85 $3.73 $1.93 $2.26 The 1998 PPV summary sheet looks like this: Date Show Buy Rate Gross Average Match Rating Median Match Rating Peak Match Rating matches >= * * * * 98/01/18 WWF Royal Rumble 0.97 (1) $3.62 2.38 * * 1/2 * * * 1/2 0% (0 of 6) 98/02/15 WWF IYH No Way Out 0.45 $1.67 1.46 * 1/2 * * * 1/2 0% (0 of 6) WWF Average 0.69 $2.31 1.92 * * 1/4 * * * 1/2 0% (0 of 12) 98/01/25 WCW Souled Out 1.02 (2) $3.81 1.92 * * * * * 11.1% (1 of 9) 98/02/22 WCW SuperBrawl 1.5 (3) $5.60 1.68 * 1/4 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 10) WCW Average 1.26 $4.71 1.79 * 1/4 * * * 3/4 5.2% (1 of 19) Footnotes: (1) WWF claims 1.03; (2) WCW claims 1.1; (3) preliminary figure Detailed data is available. - New Japan has a major show in the Tokyo Dome on 04/04/98. Line-up has * Antonio Inoki's retirement match. Since the majority of wrestlers in the company don't want to be involved with this, the tournament to decide Inoki's final challenger includes Naoya Ogawa, Kazuo Yamazaki, Don Frye, David Beneteau, Yoshiaki Fujiwra, Brian Johnston, Igor Meindart, and Kazayuki Fujita. They've lined up all of these guys with shooting reputations so that one of them can eventually put Inoki over. To let the losing shooter keep some face, they are acutally going to hold the semi-final and final of the tournament on this show as well (allowing fatigue to be a factor in the eventual loss). The quarter-final matches take place on 03/22/98. There's already a strong rumour that Inoki will start up a new promotion, the World Martial Arts Alliance, after "retiring." * Kensuke Sasaki vs. Tatsumi Fujinami for the IWGP Title * Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Osamu Nishimura for the IWGP Tag Titles * Jushin Liger vs. Kendo Ka Shin for the IWGP Jr. Title * Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yuji Yusaroaka - The WWF has In Your House on 04/26/98. - All Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 05/01/98. Baba has suggested that he might use Vader or the Undertaker from the WWF; he's also suggested that we should not be surprised if no WWF guys appear. It's expected that FMW's Gladiator will work this show; he's the only outsider from the group that worked the February tour that is pretty much a definite for the show. Line-up has: * Mitsuhara Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada for the Triple Crown It seems to be widely expected that Kawada will win the titles. - WCW has Slamboree on 05/17/98. - 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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