______________________________________________________________________ The new-look web site is up and running. Besides the navigation buttons, I've added an archive of my old TidBits posting, running back to 1990. I'll add a search engine for the TidBits in the near future. I've also added a short tape update and I've put the 1997 R.s.p-w awards results in my awards archive. Sorry to be slow in getting this update out, but at least it's a long one! It's been a busy week trying to get the details worked out, so I apologize to people waiting for e-mail responses. ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ - I've got to start with my weekend. After catching up on New Japan & All Japan TV (great stuff from the juniors in NJ), I sat down to watch the ECW WrestlePalooza PPV. It was easily the worst PPV we've been given in years. Yes, that most definitely includes NWO Souled Out and the WWF's 1995 King of the Ring. Both of those shows had severe problems, of course. The NWO show had a horrible atmosphere and some terrible wrestling, but it still had a * * * * match and a 1.125 star average match rating. The KotR had Mable go through to the final, killing the meaning of the tournament, but it still had a 1.25 star average match rating and peaked with a * * 3/4 match. Compare that to WrestlePalooza with its pitiful 0.64 star average match rating and * * peak rating. Ugh. The best workers by far on the show were Justin Credible and Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow was saddled with New Jack, who was knocked out during his match. That didn't stop the security guys from literally carrying/dragging New Jack up the steps to the second level of the arena so he could shakily dive to the ground level. Poor Bammer had to pretend he had no idea where New Jack was during all of this. Afterwards, he had to carry an unconscious New Jack back to the ring, dumping him over the guard rails they had to pass en route. Horrible. Sabu vs. Rob van Dam, hyped as a match of the year in the lead-up, once again exposed the one-dimensionality of both wrestlers. The Dudleys faced Sandman & Tommy Dreamer in a tag title match that easily earned a negative star rating. The main event was Shane Douglas vs. Al Snow for the ECW Title. With Snow being on loan from the WWF, it didn't seem like he would win the title despite the great build-up throughout the PPV. In the end, they had a match planned where Snow would work over Douglas' injured arm. But the fans didn't react to that in the first couple of minutes, so, the Observer reports, Douglas changed the match on the spot and began calling a new match on the fly. Sure, he was gutsy to ignore his physical problems during the new match, but all of the psychology of the build-up went out the window. They celebrated at the end as though this were a Ric Flair vs. Rick Steamboat classic, which it most decidedly was not. I was recently called to task for supposedly changing my opinion on Sabu over the years. A selective sample of my writings showed that I gave high match ratings to some Sabu matches (vs. Funk, Snow, Jerry Lynn, years back) and called him exciting. While cleaning up my web pages, I reviewed the 04/20/95 TidBits, which discusses Sabu a bit and summarizes my thought on him during the time period of the above-mentioned matches. In that article, I commented that Sabu had nothing to learn in ECW and that working for New Japan would help him develop in the areas in which he was weak (transitions & psychology). Of course, he quit New Japan because he thought they were misusing him and has been stuck in the single dimension ever since. After WrestlePalooza 98, I watched WrestlePalooza 97 on tape. More drudgery. Chris Candido faced Terry Funk for the ECW Title in the best match on the show ( * * 3/4 ), but the match was disappointing. Jerry Lawler turned up during the Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven match, in which they did the old "lights turn off and somebody appears in the ring" gimmick that's so hokey. Lawler said that the ECW Arena should be built out of toilet paper, considering what's in it. Sabu faced Taz in a bad match. Afterwards, Taz took a challenge from Shane Douglas and won the TV Title. The Dudleys challenged the Eliminators in the final match of the show. Perry Saturn was out with his knee injury, so it was a two-on-one. Saturn showed more guts than brains by getting involved a few times, including hitting a top rope leg drop for the pin. I felt it was important to mention that I watched the miserable ECW PPV, since I came away from Slamboree and RAW thinking those were two excellent shows. It's always possible that a bad experience made good experiences seem great. - WCW had Slamboree on Sunday. I thought it was a very good show, an easy thumbs up, and likely the best PPV of the year so far from any group. Quick rundown: * Dave Finlay beat Chris Benoit to retain the TV Title: A really good match and an excellent opener. Tony Schiavone said that we were watching "two brawlers that can wrestle." Funny, I thought I was watching two wrestlers that can brawl. Great psychology and transitions, with Finlay working over the neck during his offensive runs to set up his tombstone piledriver finisher. After lots of neck work, he moved to the back. Benoit went for a tope suicida, but Finlay swung a chair at his head to set up the neck work. When Benoit finally got his german suplexes in, Finlay charged the ropes as Benoit was going for the third suplex, with Benoit taking the top rope in his injured neck. Excellent. Of course, the finish had to include Booker T, who came out to distract Benoit. The only question was whether that distraction would work. It did. I'd love to see a rematch between these guys. Including entrances, they were given close to 20 minutes. * Lex Luger beat Brian Adams: Bad match. Luger stinks. He won with the rack. As a sign of the goodness of the show, including entrances, they were only given eight minutes. * 15-man Cruiserweight battle royal to determine challenger for later: Chris Jericho came out to do the ring introductions, standing back near the entranceway. He was hilarious with the intros, giving the odds of victory for each wrestler. I was expecting Dean Malenko to be the fifteenth wrestler introduced, with his name either not being on the cue card or being on the back of it. But Dean was not announced. They stupidly said that eliminations could be over the top rope to the floor, through the ropes to the floor, or by pin or submission. This was silly since all of the eliminations were over the top rope. In order, the eliminations were Evan Kourageous, Johnny Swinger, Super Calo, Silver King, El Grio, Marty Jannetty, Villano IV, Lenny Lane, Damian, El Dandy, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Psicosis, Billy Kidman. That left Ciclope and Juventud Guerrera. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Juvi eliminated himself and Ciclope unmasked to reveal Dean Malenko. * Dean Malenko beat Chris Jericho to win the Cruiserweight Title: The match started immediately after the battle royal. They only went nine minutes, but with the battle royal going 13 minutes the whole segment seemed long enough. Great match, with Dean appealing to his father at the end before getting the texas cloverleaf hold on for the submission. * In a really funny segment for a few seconds, they went to the "Vinnie Mac Cam" outside. They were waiting for Vince McMahon to show up all day and popped outside now because a limo was there. Vince didn't surface. Tony said that "if Jim Ross jumps out and carries his bags, you know it's Vince," which is a long-standing jab at Ross. They ended up wasting about 20 minutes on the Eric vs. Vince stuff, which was too long for me, since the humour wears up sooner than that. Still, other than those segments the show was all wrestling, so it does compare well to other shows (the WWF typically wastes that much time just by re-showing the video packages used to hype the matches). And to WCW's credit, they actually put some effort into details: the limo, having Doug Dillenger carry a laminated pass for Vince with Vince's picture on it, having security guys stand at the doors with a sheet of paper with pictures of Vince, Steve Austin, DX, etc., on them. * Diamond Dallas Page beat Raven in a bowery death match (covered cage): garbage wrestling. They had garbage cans filled with objects inside the cage. It was ECWish in that respect, even including an exploding VCR shot. But along the way, they managed to insert a tiny bit of chain wrestling and include a little bit of psychology, so I found it more bearable than the usual garbage fare. Raven used the Diamond Cutter but didn't get a pin because only DDP can do the move correctly. During the match, the riot squad turned out to include Billy Kidman & Horace Boulder. Reese came out to help open the cage. Hammer turned up and stopped Reese by using the STOP sign and handcuffing him to the guard rail. DDP hit diamond cutters on Horace and Kidman. After the match, a third riot squad member came in and handcuffed Raven to the cage in a spread eagle position. The riot squad member unmasked as Mortis and then took that mask off to reveal somebody who didn't look that much like Kris Kanyon any more. He destroyed Raven and walked out. Apparently, the security had the keys to all of the handcuffs. * Bill Goldberg beat Perry Saturn to retain the US Title: jackhammer. Eleven minutes. * Eddie Guerrero beat El Ultimo Dragon: a slow building, great match. Sadly, they drew a very slight "boring" chant early on, but they were professional enough to ignore it and draw everybody in by midway. It built into a really good match, the third one on the show. Dragon put on a dragon sleeper, but Eddie grabbed the rope and flipped over into his own dragon sleeper. Great spot. When Eddie was arguing with Chavo on the apron, Dragon went for a spin kick and accidentally hit Chavo, sending him into the guard rail. Eddie hit the frog splash for the pin. Afterwords, Chavo snapped, attacking Dragon and telling him he blew Chavo's one chance to be free from Eddie (the match stipulation if Eddie lost). Eddie seemed shocked to see Chavo snapping and even tried to stop him a little. * Eric Bischoff beat Vince McMahon by forfeit: A waste of 6 mninutes, but the live crowd seemed into it. Eric came out. They announced Vince McMahon and nobody came out. Again. Michael Buffer did the intros. The crowd counted to ten. * Bret Hart beat Randy Savage: okay match, but nothing great. Buffer did the intros and screwed up Hart's, saying "This is Bret!" stretching out the first name and never getting to "Hart," which was probably on the next line of the cue card. Bret grumbled at Buffer, notably mouthing "asshole." Savage had a knee brace on. They went into the crowd for no reason, hit the hockey boards twice, and then came back. Weird. When Piper was distracted by Liz, Bret hit him with an object. He tried to hit Savage, but was blocked. Savage got the object and, as he was going towards Bret, Hogan interfered, leading to Savage submitting to the sharpshooter. Piper overturned the decision the next night. * Sting & Giant beat Scott Hall & Kevin Nash for the Tag Titles: Sting did some really weak-looking atomic drops, apparently having taken lessons from Lex Luger. Sting vs. Hall had a good pace to start, but the match turned into nothing. Loud "let's go Wolfpac" chants. Giant tried a top rope splash, but missed. Hall turned on Nash, hitting him with the belt. Nash was pinned by Giant. Sting looked confused after the victory. RAW was a live show this week. It was a another tremendously well-scripted show. While the WWF has nowhere near the talent depth of WCW, the story lines have been developed much more cleanly in recent weeks. While the actual wrestling has been nonexistent for the past couple of weeks, this time around they seemed to make a legitimate attempt at delivering some wrestling...unfortunately, the wrestling was pretty lacklustre. After the continuing Vince McMahon vs. Steve Austin (& Dustin Runnels) story was furthered, with Vince once again being tremendous on the microphone, we had the debut of Val Venis. You only get one chance to make a first impression. The first time I saw Sean Morley in EMLL, where he wrestled as Steele, I was impressed. He was green, to be sure, but he showed real promise and seemed like a stand-out up-and-comer. Although it wasn't quite as strong, I had a similar feeling to when I first saw Jun Akiyama, Shinjiro Otani, and Owen Hart, for example. All the goodness of that first impression were squashed by this match...Venis showed that little. He beat Too Cold Scorpio with a top rope splash called the "Money Shot." They even gave them a fair bit of time to show us nothing. Terry Funk faced Marc Mero after is was revealed that Sable is contractually bound to Mero despite her current displeasure. For two weeks in a row, Funk looked incredibly old. Mero was doing okay, but thanks to Sable's distraction Funk was able to hit a DDT on Mero for the pin. In a horrible match, LOD 2000 lost again to the Disciples Of Apocalypse, this time facing Chainz & Skull. Sunny wasn't there. Of course, Skull & Eight Ball did the switch for the finish. This is leading towards a six man match next week, when Darren Drosdov debuts as the LOD member. Throughout the show, Jerry Lawler was leading a bodyguard to the ring, with the bodyguard being covered by a blanket. At the beginning of hour two, he was unveiled as Al Snow. Whoopie. He wanted to talk to Vince, apparently not getting the memo that reminds people to say Mr. McMahon. Just like a small fraction of fans might chant "ECW" at times, a small percentage chanted "Head!" Nothing would come of Snow being at ringside. Dustin Runnels faced Dude Love, following a challenge made by McMahon earlier in the show. If Dustin wins the match, he gets the title shot; if he loses, he doesn't get paid for a month. Of course, Runnels ended up losing, giving him time to heal up his knee. The Head Bangers faced Kaientai in a horrible job. Taka Michinoku & Bradshaw ran in for the finish. Kaientai wore street clothes this time out; last week, Shoichi Funaki & Mens Teioh wore their Japanese ring outfits. Terribly disappointing use of the Michinoku Pro guys. Rocky Maivia & Owen Hart challenged for the WWF Titles. Road Dog & Billy Gunn were accompanied by DX and Rock & Owen were accompanied by the NOD. The extras were sent back to the locker rooms, but they came out for the finish. This was the only match with some good work. Stone Cold Steve Austin faced Pat Patterson & Gerald Brisco in a street fight. Earlier in the show, Patterson was upset with Austin, saying "I don't suck!" Yuk yuk. At the start of this match, Jim Ross pointed out that Patterson does some read-end work at the Brisco body shop. Yuk yuk. You gotta love that cerebral homosexual humour. Sgt. Slaughter was the surprise referee in this match. Austin got worked over by everybody. Patterson had an object in his trunks and lovingly reached deep into his tights, making sure to be right in front of the camera. Eventually, Austin rallied and started stunning everybody. Outside the ring, a masked fan hoped the guard rail and chaired Austin. Guess who? Yup, Vince McMahon. Dude Love shows up too, as Austin is thrashed as we go off the air. Good story line useless wrestling. Nitro was a one hour show this week, airing in Canada on Thursday. It opened with Eric Bischoff reminding us that Nitro is 98-2 over the past one hundred weeks in the head-to-head battle with RAW. He also said he was 2-0 in the ring, including his "victory" over Vince McMahon on Sunday. In the opening match, Perry Saturn beat Psicosis in a disappointing match. Juvdentud Guerrera beat Damian, screwing up his firebird splash at the finish. Goldberg beat Glacier, so he's now 89-0. The set up a Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper & Randy Savage match for Great American Bash. Hmmm, that's in mid-June, so it now seems unlikely that they are going to stretch out Goldberg's streak until then to put him in with Hogan at 99-0. It does seem likely that they'll have him at 99-0 for the Bash; there is some speculation that he'll go against the Ultimate Warrior. At the end of the show, Sting came out to spit on Giant, effectively saying that he wasn't joining Hogan's NWO branch. While Sting was being destroyed, Nash showed up with a lead pipe to save him. Sting teaming with Nash? You know the old saying: "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." It looks like Giant might go solo as the tag team champion. Browsing the newsgroup, it seems like a lot of people find Eric's challenge of Vince McMahon a cheap shot. It's so silly to get excited about it. The WWF was doing the "DX attacks WCW" skits with WCW not answering the DX guys on camera since the WWF could manipulate the footage. There's no merit in answering the DX guys anyhow since it would only serve to legitimize them and raise their stature. Eric's challenge effectively bypasses the DX guys, making their skits obsolete and upping the ante. Thunder this week featured a lot of talking, as has become usual. In wrestling matches, Yuji Nagata lost to Ernest Miller. Chris Jericho beat Super Calo. Fit Finlay beat Jim Neidhart. Jim Duggan beat Brian Adams by DQ. Perry Saturn beat Hammer when Raven interefered. Horace Boulder beat Juventud Guerrera with help from Reese. Dean Malenko beat Chavo Guerrero in a good short match. Lex Luger beat the Giant when NWO Sting interfered. The commentators acted like they didn't remember that the NWO had an imposter Sting, but they at least quickly decided that this was not the real Sting. A lacklustre show except for the Chavo/Eddie, Benoit/Booker, and Dean/Jericho feuds being developed slowly. Japamania On the left, you'll see the cover and some pages from a new book released in Japan. The book is called "Japamania" and discusses the appeal of things Japanese around the world. There are various chapters on anime, for example. Kou Ogawa wrote the puroresu portion of the book and interviewed me a bit for material. I had been under the impression that I was merely giving him some idea of what a dedicated foreigner can get out of the sport, but as it turns out, the seven page chapter on puroresu has four pages devoted to the interview with me, including a list of some of my favourite puroresu matches. It was pretty surprising to get my free copy in the mail and discover that my name appear in the margin for several pages. - Today's Globe & Mail had a length column on the current success pro-wrestling, focusing primarily on the WWF, since Canada is still dominated by the promotion. Here's the text of the collumn (thank goodness for scanners). Backstage, the wrestler paces, awaiting his entrance cue. His body is primed, bathed in oils and the sweat of 100 fisted pushups. The drums beat and lights swirl as his name is announced. From inside the arena, a roar rises, lusty and inchoate - an explosion of jeers, cheers and whistles erupting with savage fury. The curtain parts and out he steps, flanked by bodyguards. He has a bear's build and a bear's gait, a combination of power and grace. He is wearing the look, a fierce and steady glare designed to intimidate. Once, in the parlance of the game, he was a "face," a good guy battling the "heels," or villains. But now he's been "turned" - he has a new story line scripted by the game's oumers; they've given him a thug's profile, made him a wrestler audiences will love to hate. Arms raised, the howling mob strains against the barricades, hurling abuse - rude fingers, obscene cat calls, insulting placards. The music revs. He climbs into the ring, preening, prowling, taunting the crowd. The mad chorus swells And at the corner of his lips, a smile forms: Everyone's having fun. White on black, the bestselling T-shirt of the year - more popular than anything associated with Garth Brooks, Michael Jordan or the Rolling Stones - reads "Austin 3:16." Austin is Stone Cold Steve Austin, the muscular 33-year-old Texan who is the reigrong champion of the World Wrestling Federation; John 3:16 is a chapter-verse citation from the New Testament: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The verse was much quoted by Jake (The Snake) Roberts, a once-besotted heel who (the story goes) turned good, found Christ and abandoned the bottle. Two years ago, Austin trumped Roberts in the ring and, in the post-match interviews, heaped scorn on his vanquished opponent. "You thump your Bibles and say your prayers and look where it got you. You read your psalms and talk about John 3:16. Well, Austin 3:16 says, `I just whipped your ass.'" The line, Austin says, was "completely ad-libbed. But it's become a great trademark, like `He stopped loving her today' was for [country singer] George Jones." Austin also claims authorship of his Stone Cold nickname, which he conceived while watching a TV special on serial killers. Whatever its origins, that kind of speech - raw, heretical, in your face - is the lingua franca of pro wrestling, now one of the world's most popular forms of entertainment. It's the kind that will be frequently heard tonight by a projected crowd of 18,000 at the WWF's Don't Trust Anybody event at toronto's SkyDome; the 10-match card will finish with Austin putting his championship belt on the line against Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Hint: don't bet on Hunter.) And let's be frank: however gymnastic some of the wrestlers may be, and however well-defined their steroid-laced torsos may be, these are not exactly athletes and this is not exactly sport. There is more athleticism in three minutes of any NBA basketball game than in a whole evening of matches mounted by Vince McMahon's WWF or its arch-rival Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling. This, folks, is pure theatre - roles rehearsed, blows choreographed, outcomes pre-determined, its productions timed as precisely as a Cape Canaveral lift-off, the entire package as carefully scripted as anything on stage at the Stratford Festival or Edmonton's Citadel Theatre. Except pro wrestling is a lot bigger - huge, in fact, a genuine cultural phenomenon that crosses age, gender and even class barriers. In arenas and on television, it is doing gonzo box office, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. Millions more derived from various licencing and merchandising operations. Wrestling was once considered the poor man's ballet, the human equivalent of stock-car pileups staged in fetid sports palaces. But now, our blood lust for gladiatorial combat, however fake, has been married to slick mass-marketing techniques and showbiz razzmatazz. And in arenas across Canada, and from Singapore to San Francisco, Berlin to Boston, cash registers are ringing. If a society can be defined by its amusements and diversions, the growing popularity of wrestling speaks volumes about our own. WWF telecasts - originating from a 5000-square-metre state-of-the-art facility at Federation headquarters in Stamford, Conn. - are now beamed via satellite to more than 105 countries in 10 languages, drawing more than half a billion viewers a week. Three million of those are in Canada alone, where ratings last year were up 200 per cent. In the SkyDome, the last four WWF events have yielded more than $12.5-million in gross revenues. The orgainzation's Wrestlemania XIV, staged in Boston in March, and featuring disgraced boxer Mike Tyson as a "special enforcer," was the highest-grossing non-boxing event in pay-per-view history, with 700,000 subscribing house-holds at $34.95 (U.S.) a pop. Turner's Atlanta-based WCW, with its own comic-book cast of faces and heels, including eighties' icon Hulk Hogan, its current champ, and WWF defector Bret (The Hit Man) Hart, claims comparable numbers. Competing head-to-head on prime-time cable television in the U.S., the WWF's Raw is War (on the USA Network) and the WCW's Nitro (on TNT) routinely grab a combined 10 rating - for cable channels, an impressive draw. (A smaller entity, Extreme Championship Wrestling, based in Philadelphia, provides an even bloodier diet of grappling; its contestants have been known to assault each other with barbed wire and wooden canes, and to lacerate their own foreheads by crushing beer cans.) The Worid Wide Web is bursting with wrestling sites, fantasy leagues, and gossip-stuffed newsletters in which fans argue the merits of the characters' plot lines. Their various twists are pursued with the same fervour attached to actors in As the World Turns or General Hospital. And like the daytime soaps, fans can phone 1-800 numbers for updates. To broaden mainstream appeal, promoters are paying increased attention to women. Once relegated to subservient roles as valets or managers, and treated like chattel property, more women are now stepping up to fight. Soon, predicts Rocky (The Rock) Maivia (the third generation of a pro wrestling family), women will be challenging men in the ring. Already, according to one story line, Marvellous Marc Mero and his wife, the pneumatically enhanced Sable, are feuding and, after trading blows, will soon "separate." In the WWF, most "books" (story lines) are approved by McMahon, its CEO. It was McMahon who turned modern wrestling into a serious, big-dollar enterprise. Acquiring his father's company in 1988, he began a campaign of aggressive expansion across the continent, defying the tacit gentleman's agreement not to invade other promoters' turf. Today, McMahon's Titan Sports Inc., is a billion-dollar entertainment empire, employing 350 people as well as 100 wrestlers. "I consider Vince McMahon a genius," said Carl De Marco, the 33-year-old president of Titan's Canadian arm. "He's constantly saying to us, `Be different. Be cutting edge. Be creative. Be new.' Vince is way ahead of his time." (For now, the WCW has no formal presence in Canada, but has apparently agreed to stage four cards next year at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, now under construction.) It is evidence of just how different McMahon can be that, not unlike New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, he has begun to write himself into the scripts. Last fall, he drew fan fury when, during a match in Montreal, he instructed the referee to change the ordained outcome, making then-champion Bret Hart lose. Embittered, Hart soon jumped to the WCW - for a reported $3-million - taking many adherents with him. "I don't know any other business where the boss doesn't have to put his foot down sometimes," McMahon said of his decision. "Bret didn't want to do things my way. But I pay the cheques and it's my risk." Now, giving a chance to vent spleen, McMahon has begun acting as aguest referee - he'll perform that role tonight in Toronto, adjudicating the grand finale between Austin and Hunter. According to Peter Maurin, co-author of It's Only Wrestling, a self-published book on the industry, McMahon will eventually step into the ring as a fighter, taking on Steve Austin - and lose. McMahon, of course, is not unfamiliar with controversy, in 1994, he was indicted on charges of conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids: he was acquitted. But as Maurin notes, even if McMahon did not traffic in steroids, "he certainly condoned" their use in the 1980s, when Hulk Hogan and many other WWF wrestlers owed their massive musculature to chemicals. Now, says WWF referee Jim Kordera, McMahon's policy of frequent and random drug test for steroids, marijuana and other illegal substances, has dramatically cleaned up the game. But no testing regime is foolproof and the physical architecture of many wrestlers still Iooks suspiciously inflated. Apart from De Marco, who was eight years old when he saw his first professional wrestling card at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens and has never missed a math there since, Titan Sports is strictly a tamily affair He and his wife Linda, co-CEO, and their children Shane and Stephanie, oversee a sports entertainment colossus that annually earns $650-million in merchandising revenue and licencing fees - even before television, videos, publishing and internet revenues are factored in. McMahon credits its success to "the product itself," a unique, interactive hybrid of sport, entertainment, soap opera, music and special effects. Far more interesting than the numbers or the owners, however, is the crowd psychology of wrestling itself. In some respects, it harks back to Shakespeare, who created characters that spoke in the vernacular and became verbal targets for the murmuring masses. Another theatrical antecedent is 19th-century melodrama, with its sharp delineation of good and evil, heroes and villains that elicited cheering or booing. In fact, for most wrestling audiences, participation - the chance to stomp and chant and fling invective is more engaging than the actual fight. Although wrestling has a kind of cult status among the intelligentsia, it seems to speak principally to the proletarian class. There's something intrinsically empowering about it, a chance for the economically disadvantaged and the politically disenfranchised to give displaced voice to their rage and frustration. Here, they can pretty much say what they want, careless of social niceties. Wrestling is the last bastion of political correctness, where name-calling, sexism and racial prejudice are given carte blanche. Here, subversiveness is welcome. The house rules can be broken with impunity, just as the wrestlers do when they pretend to take the fight outside the sanctity of the ring, while the referees feign helplessness. The WWF's new slogan, written in a graffiti-like scrawl, is "Attitude." Or as McMabon said: "We are the bad boys. We make the old Oakland Raiders look like Sunday school teachers." Equally fascinating is the extent to which wrestling mirrors the moral ambiguity of the modern age. Although though the good guy-villain categories still apply, the line between them is increasingly blurred. "Society's attitude has changed," said referee Kordera, a native Torontonian. "Ten years ago, Steve Austin would have been the most hated man in wrestling. Now, people don't want to see a nice guy go out there and win. They ant to see a guy go out and kick ass, beat the hell out of somebody." Nor is it uncommon for wrestlers to execute a turn: heels become faces or faces become heels, depending on who they fight, and how they are positioned. Often, these shifts are accompanied by new identities; when one story line fades, a name transplant can help invigorate a career. Stone Cold Austin, for example, now sports a shaved head, but when he fought for the WCW he wore long blond hair and was known as Stunning Steve Austin (his real name is Steven Williams). Fans accept these character changes as readily as movie buffs buy Harrison Ford or Tom Cruise in a new cinematic role. There, too, after all, viewers must suspend disbelief. "So wrestling is fake," said Maurin, who teaches sociology at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ont., and communications at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. "So what? Everything else on TV is fake, too. So is Melrose Place and 90210. Wrestling fans know it's fixed, but the play's the thing, just like Romeo and Juliet. You know they're going to die, but you go anyway, to see a new interpretation or a new actor." Maurin didn't mention Jerry Springer's racy TV talk show, but he might have: the connection between his abusive audiences and bizarre guests bears more than a passing resemblance to what happens at most wrestling matches. "It's entertainment," De Marco agreed. "What these guys do with their bodies, flinging from the top ropes, skidding on concrete floors, that's sports entertainment. That's where things are going. People want to be entertained." The wrestlers, of course, know exactly what it is and what they're paid to do. "It's not quantum physics going on here," said Maivia, a University of Miami graduate, former CFL football player and the WWF's Intercontinental champ. "It's a physical soap opera with weekly story lines. What does The Rock feel about the Iraqi crisis? Well, who the hell really gives a shit. It's just the theatrical presentation that makes it interesting." For the bigger stars, the pro circuit is a lucrative grind. "I'm on the road 250 days a year," said Austin, who has a wife and three daughters in San Antonio. "And we get paid by the gate. So I'm out there to raise hell and let people have fun." For now, he's on top, but Austin knows his time there is finite. "Things are goin' good right now," he said. "And you got to get it while you can." - The WWF has In Your House on 05/31/98. Tentative line-up has: * Steve Austin vs. Dude Love for the WWF Title (Vince referee) * Rocky Maivia vs. Faarooq for the IC Title * Legion of Doom vs. Skull & Eight Ball * Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Billy Gunn & Road Dog vs. Owen Hart & D-Lo Brown & Kama Mustafa * Vader vs. Kane - It's reported that the WWF wants to hold WrestleMania in the Toronto next year. The catch is that they would like to hold the show at the new Arena, which should be completed by then. Reports are that WCW has already signed an exclusive deal with the new Arena, so the WWF may be out of luck. Keep in mind that the WWF had an exclusive deal with Maple Leaf Gardens years back and then switched to an exclusive deal with Skydome. WCW wanted to break into Canada with a Hulk Hogan vs. Bret Hart PPV main event, but was only able to get Maple Leaf Gardens, which they decided wasn't worthwhile. Does this mean that WCW will prolong the Bret Hart vs. Hulk Hogan deal until much later this year? - RAW beat Nitro 05/11 with a 4.7 rating against a 4.3 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 1.05 0.89 0.93 0.74 5/TR> Average PPV Revenue $3.71 $3.02 $3.58 $2.55 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 2.2 (4) $9.52 1.81 * 1/2 * * * 1/4 0% (0 of 8) 98/04/19 WWF IYH Unforgiven 1.75 * * * * * 14% (1 of 7) WWF Average 1.21 $4.94 1.83 * 1/2 * * * 1/2 3.6% (1 of 28) 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) 98/04/19 WCW Spring Stampede 0.7 $2.62 2.4 * * 1/2 * * * * 20% (2 of 10) WCW Average 0.98 $3.67 1.92 * 1/2 * * * 3/4 7.9% (3 of 38) 98/03/01 ECW Living Dangerously 0.23 $0.42 1.56 * 1/2 * * * 1/4 0% (0 of 8) 98/05/03 ECW WrestlePalooza 0.64 1/2 * * 0% (0 of 7) ECW Average 1.13 * 1/4 * * 1/2 0% (0 of 15) Footnotes: (1) WWF claims 1.03; (2) WCW claims 1.1; (3) preliminary figure; (4) possibly WWF figure; Detailed data is available. - New Japan has a big show on 06/05/98. Line-up includes: * Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Shinya Hashimoto for the IWGP Title * Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Don Frye * Jushin Liger & El Samurai & Kendo Ka Shin & Yuji Yasuraoka & Hayato Nanjyo vs. Koji Kanemoto & Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Masakazu Fukuda & Shiryu in an elimination tag match Gee, which match makes me salivate? I saw Don Frye in the Antonio Inoki final match tournament matches this past weekend. He is a tremendous heel. - WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/14/98. Tentative line-up includes: * Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper & Randy Savage - 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. Jerry Springer is expected to be involved in the show. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________ Pictures of the Week Five new pictures. Go to the Pics page to see the full selection, with thumbnails or without. Kimberly Page Kimberly Page Kimberly Page Kimberly Page Akira Hokuto marries Kensuke Sasaki ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________