______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ I'm hoping to have a tape update on the web some time this weekend. I will be teaching a third-year course on ordinary differential equations this Spring term; about 30 applied math majors are currently enrolled. In e-mail to many people, I promised that I'd try to write up something about "transitions," "psychology," and the like, but the long weekend took its toll on me and I didn't get to it. Rather than do a half-assed effort this evening, I think it's better if I formally promise it for next week and put a bit of time into it on the weekend. Promise. _________________________________________________________________ Press Clippings of the Week I didn't have the chance to put together any new collectible images for this week, but I did scan a couple of things I came across in my readings this week. Inoki nWo The first (left) image comes from the Toronto Sun and features the reunion of Antonio Inoki and Muhammed Ali at Inoki's retirement bash two weeks ago. The second (right) image comes from the May 1998 edition of PC Gamer magazine. In a special "Scoop!" story in that magazine, they discuss the development of "Monster Truck Madness 2," with the caption "Monster trucking + pro wrestling = gaming goodness." I particularly like the caption on the image above. Click on either thumbnail to see the blown-up picture and read the caption. _________________________________________________________________ RAW was a live show, with lots of excitement promised through their hotline. Maybe I was soft this week, but even though RAW and Nitro (what aired here) offered no quality wrestling action, I found both shows to be enjoyable. It's extra surprising considering just how bad some of the stuff was, particularly things on RAW. Quick rundown: In actual wrestling (or what tries to pass for it these days), Boricuas Savio & Jose lost by DQ to Eight Ball & Skull when DX came in and laid out the DOA members. This was a chain match with the expected really crappy effort from everybody; the DOA guys are horrible. Afterwards, DX laid out the Boricuas, too. Jeff Jarrett & Taka Michinoku also went to a DQ when Club Kamikaze (Dick Togo, Shoichi Funaki, Mens Teioh) interfered. Up to that point, Taka was being manhandled by Jarrett, who squashed Aguila last week, to reinforce the message that the lightheavies' offence is meaningless against a heavyweight. Quebecers lost to Terry Funk & Too Cold Scorpio, who was brought out as Funk's new partner, complete with name change. It was like a time warp back to 1992 when Too Cold debuted as Ron Simmons' mystery partner, basically heating one hot move (the firebird/450 splash). It seemed like this match had the same point. The only difference is that Scorpio has been exposed since that time to honest, serious fans as not having the ability of that initial promise; his career path speaks to that. I guess that giving him some spotlight is meant to entice the WCW workers (you know who) to consider greener pastures. Ken Shamrock & Steve Blackman went to a double DQ with the Midnight Express, Bumbling Bart & Boring Bob. They continued to tell us that Blackman is in his rookie year in the WWF, a small lie I know. Owen Hart challenged anybody in DX who had the "kahunas" (he presumably meant "cajones"). Billy Gunn took him on in what could possibly be a good match, but wasn't this time out. Finally, in the angle that dominated the show, Vince McMahon was in the ring to actually challenge Steve Austin for the WWF Title. In yet another case of not delivering the much-hyped main event, and this main event was more hyped than any other in recent RAW memory, Dude Love came out to interrupt the pre-match festivities, to some boos from fans who knew the screw was coming, and in a weak, weak, weak, angle hit the mandible claw on Austin, which I guess makes Austin vs. Love the main event of the upcoming In Your House. Nitro this week was a three-hour show, condensed to two hours for Canada, once again. There was little good on the show from a wrestling standpoint. They did do a good job of heating issues for the PPV. Quick run-down. Dave Finlay (spelled Finley) lost to Scott Steiner via the recliner; Steiner now has the silliest ring name in wrestling: "Big Poppa Pump." Lenny Lane lost to El Ultimo Dragon via a dragon sleeper. This was probably the best match that aired here from the Monday shows, but it was nothing special; it was sort of nice to see Lane draw great heat from fans that knew him. Chris Benoit crossfaced Glacier. Tony Schiavone rambled on during this match, saying "like Goldberg, Glacier was undefeated when he first came into this sport." What the? Lex Luger beat Buff Bagwell by DQ when Eric Bischoff interfered. Big Poppa Pump came in along with his brother the Dog-Faced Gremlin, leading to a brawl with The Total Package and Buff the Stuff, The Real Total Package. Jeez, what's with all the nicknames? Bill Goldberg beat Rocco Rock with the jackhammer. Diamond Dallas Page beat Roid from High Dosage, errr, Rage from High Voltage. Rick Steiner beat Konnan. Sting & Kevin Nash had a match that went to no announced decision, ending with Randy Savage hobbling to ringside, seemingly leading to a win for Nash. Liz was really taking good care of Savage, who was nursing his wounds. Bret Hart came out because he hates adults having fun, errrr, no, he hates it when people get screwed. The NWO came out. They had what could graciously be called a clusterf... brawl. Thunder was the usual two-hour live show this week. A couple of potentially good matches were hindered by time restrictions. The show had a strong-on-paper main event from a name standpoint. Quick rundown. Rick Steiner beat Buff Bagwell by DQ when Scott Steiner ran in along with Lex Luger; this sets up a match for Spring Stampede. Bill Goldberg beat Barry Darsow with the Jackhammer. Golberg gets a US Title shot on Nitro on Monday. Booker T beat Rick Fuller. Chris Benoit got a DQ win over Scott Norton when Vincent interfered as Benoit was putting on the crossface. Norton no-sold a clothesline to the post outside the ring, but he did go up for two German suplexes. Curt Hennig beat Super Calo with the Hennigplex. Chris Jericho beat Chavo Guerrero Jr. with the Lion Tamer when Eddie stopped Chavo from reaching for the ropes. Prince Iaukea came out to attack Jericho. Eddie told Chavo that their deal, whereby Chavo has to listen to Eddie, could be broken if Chavo manages to beat Dragon on Sunday; he screwed up the mic work, saying Jericho's name in place of Dragon's. Brian Adams faced Giant in a match that degenerated into an NWO run-in, with Giant & Roddy Piper holding the NWO off. Saturn beat Silver King in a one-minute squash match. At 10:04pm EST, the main event ring entrances started as Thunder wnet into its first-ever overtime broadcast. Sting & Bret Hart faced Kevin Nash & Randy Savage in a match that had no finish announced. After some mediocre-at-best action, Savage blocked a Stinger splash with a cast to the face and then went up for the top rope elbow. He had enough time to get re-married to Liz before Hulk Hogan & Disciple finally came down for the run-in, knocking Savage off his perch; poor Randy stood up there waving his arms forever, like he was trying to fly. Hogan & Disciple tried to destroy Savage, banging his arm into the rod that links the turnbuckles to the ringpost. Kevin Nash broke it up, the NWO ran in, and we went off the air. - - WCW has Spring Stampede on 04/19/98. Tentative line-up has * Roddy Piper & Giant vs. Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash in a bat match * Sting vs. Randy Savage? for the WCW Title * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Raven for the US Title * Davey Boy Smith vs. Curt Hennig * Booker T vs. Chris Benoit for the TV Title in a match with no time limit * Chris Jericho vs. Prince Iaukea for the Cruiserweight Title * Scott Steiner & Buff Bagwell vs. Rick Steiner & Lex Luger * Bill Goldberg vs. Saturn * Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. El Ultimo Dragon They continued to push the possibility of Randy Savage showing up for his title match, although they seem to have been building for Kevin Nash as a replacement. Try to imagine big Kev choosing to take on Sting for the title and not assisting Hogan the way he should in the bat match. They've also suggested that Hulk Hogan and Diamond Dallas Page might take the spot. - The WWF has In Your House: The Unforgiven on 04/26/98. Line-up so far has * Steve Austin vs. ? for the WWF Title * Undertaker vs. Kane in an inferno match (loser must be set on fire) * Luna vs. Sable in an evening gown match (loser must have gown ripped off) * LOD 2000 vs. New Age Outlaws for the WWF Tag Titles * Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley * Jeff Jarrett sings - All Japan's annual Champion Carnival ended as follows: Wrestler Wins Losses Draws Score Mitsuharu Misawa 8 1 3 19 Jun Akiyama 8 1 3 19 Toshiaki Kawada 8 2 2 18 Kenta Kobashi 8 2 2 18 Stan Hansen 8 3 1 17 Steve Williams 8 3 1 17 Johnny Ace 12 Gary Albright 10 Akira Taue 8 Takao Omori 6 Wolf Hawkfield 4 Giant Kamala II 4 Jun Izumida 0 This leads to a final match between Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama on 04/18. Akira Taue finished so low because of his injury, mentioned last week. - All Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 05/01/98. Line-up has: * Mitsuhara Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada for the Triple Crown in a no time-limit match * Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen & Vader * Jun Akiyama vs. Hiro Hase * Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith vs. Jado & Gedo * Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue vs. Headhunters * Jumbo Tsuruta & Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi * Maunakea Mossman vs. Daisuke Ikeda * Steve Williams & Gary Albright vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara * Akira Taue & Takao Omori & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Gladiator & Hideki Hosaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda * Giant Baba & Hayabusa & Kentaro Shiga vs. Giant Kimala II & Ryakaku Izumida & Jinsei Shinzaki * Satoru Asako vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru Kaz Hayashi from WCW (Shiryu in Michinoku Pro) will be taking part in the annual "Best of the Super Junior" tournament in New Japan. Yoshihiro Tajiri, who has appeared in the WWF is no longer set to be in the tournament. - Apparently, Mick Foley's weakest character, Dude Love, is going to be around for a little while. - RAW beat Nitro 04/13 with a 4.6 rating against a 4.2 rating. This marks the first victory for RAW head-to-head in a year-and-a-half or so. Considering that Nitro hyped a Hulk Hogan vs. Sting match for a chunk of RAW, maybe this will lead to the right people finally re-evaluating Hogan's stock. Then again, Hogan can spin things in his favour, as well, since he was absent from the building. It will be very interesting to see if this is just a blip (like people said the first Nitro victory was) or if a new pattern has emerged. Why do I think all of the WWF cheerleaders who said "Neilsen ratings don't matter" are suddenly going to say they matter? RAW's rating built to a huge peak for the Vince McMahon vs. Austin finale. Considering that that match was not delivered and that what was delivered was hugely disappointing, maybe whatever curiousity was created will have been crushed. It's hard to say. 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 1.11 0.95 0.63 0.64 Average PPV Revenue $3.86 $3.15 $2.26 $1.93 I have not lumped in the WrestleMania figures in the above table, since I'm waiting to hear how the numbers settle. To balance things, and because it's easy to recalculate, I have included the WM figures in the 1998 PPV summary sheet. I've also added the Uncensored figures; it's amazing that the much-hyped Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage issue, along with a packed undercard, was only able to draw the same buy rate that a less-packed SuperBrawl did. Here's the 1998 summary sheet: 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 7) 98/03/29 WWF WrestleMania 1.78 (4) $7.7 1.81 * 1/2 * * * 1/4 0% (0 of 8) WWF Average 1.07 $4.33 1.86 * * 1/4 * * * 1/2 0% (0 of 21) 98/01/25 WCW Souled Out 1.02 (2) $3.81 1.88 * * * * * 11.1% (1 of 9) 98/02/22 WCW SuperBrawl 1.1 (3) $4.12 1.68 * 1/4 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 10) 98/03/15 WCW Uncensored 1.1 $4.12 1.69 * * 1/2 * * * 3/4 0% (0 of 9) WCW Average 1.07 $4.02 1.76 * 1/2 * * * 3/4 3.6% (1 of 28) 98/03/01 ECW Living Dangerously 0.23 $0.42 1.56 * 1/2 * * * 1/4 0% (0 of 8) Footnotes: (1) WWF claims 1.03; (2) WCW claims 1.1; (3) preliminary figure; (4) preliminary figure; Detailed data is available. - WCW has Slamboree on 05/17/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 05/31/98. - WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/14/98. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________