______________________________________________________________________ I've fixed the few little glitches I noticed on my pages. Let me know if you encounter any others. The biggest glitch was that I had to make sure that the page was viewed in the proper framed environment, or else clicking on links yielded java errors. For years now, I've tried to avoid having any advertisements appear on my pages. But, there is a price for unlimited free space, so I've had to acquiesce. ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had In Your House: Over The Edge on Sunday. As one would expect, the show had a pretty exciting, hard-worked, and well-executed main event, but the rest of the show was pretty bad. It's hard to give a glowing thumbs up to a show that drags (at times badly) until the main event. At the same time, though, the main even was well-crafted, so I don't want to give it a thumbs down. Still, the bad far outweighs the good, so mark me down for thumbs in the middle, bordering down. Run down: * Legion of Doom beat Skull & Eight Ball: Worst possible match to start the PPV with, featuring four guys that can't work at all. There's no point in trying to figure out which of the four is the best or which is the worst; frankly, it's wasted time when they are all this bad. Sunny accompanied the LOD to ringside, so her "personal situation" (the reason for her absence from RAW in recent weeks) has apparently cleared up. Darren Drosdov & Chainz were also at ringside. The booking was predictable based on the build-up TV. Unfortunately, the sloppiness and bad work was also predictable; it was sort of comedic. One of the Harris twins had an offensive sequence near the beginning of the match (and, yes, please do interpret "offensive" both ways) consisting of a bad neckbreaker and a worse-looking leg drop. Jim Ross stumbled through commentary trying to explain why nothing was connecting and nobody was selling. Throw in a bad piledriver. Just a horrible match. The finish saw the DOA side do the switcheroo deal, but Drosdov made a difference, leading to an LOD pin. I can't believe they booked this to run 15 minutes, including the ring entrances. * To give us an idea of how thin the talent roster is in the WWF, throughout the show they killed time in loads of different ways. Of course, they showed some summaries of recent feuds to build to matches and they did interviews with many guys and elaborate entrances for some. After the first match, Rocky Maivia came out to insult the Milwaukee crowd. After a couple of minutes, Faarooq came out to attack the Rock, "injuring" him in the process with a piledriver. The Nation of Domination came out and yelled for assistance before finally moving Rock and putting a neck brace on him, etc. Six-and-a-half minutes killed. Later on, they announced that Sgt. Slaughter was going to hold Rocky to his contract to wrestle Faarooq for the IC Title regardless of his injury. * Jeff Jarrett beat Steve Blackman: Bland match. Jarrett debuted in 1985. Blackman debuted in 1988 at the latest (he was in Calgary in June, 1988). Sure, Blackman hasn't been active after dropping out of sight after his WWF jobber stint, but they billed this as a somewhat-rookie against a veteran. Blackman used his kendo stick, but Jarrett kicked out. Tennessee Lee whacked Blackman with the stick and Jarrett got the pin. Just over 14 minutes with intros. Not a good start to the show. * Marc Mero beat Sable: They played the hype package in which Mero told Sable she could find anybody to wrestle him at this show, and, if that person beat Mero without Sable's assistance, he would release her from her contract. If Mero won, she would have to leave the WWF. Of course, when she came out to wrestle Mero, I wondered how she would beat him without her own assistance, but that's a subtle point in logic. The segment turned into a bad soap opera, with the crowd catcalling, as Mero asked when things turned sour. He said he would let her go, and signalled for the bell, lying down in the ring, presumably to give her the win. Of course, he ended up rolling her up for the pin himself, laughing as she walked out of the WWF. Remember when Dusty lost the loser leave town match and returned as the Midnight Rider under a hood? The commentators pretended not to know who the Rider was even though he openly used Dusty's moves. I can't wait for Sable to return as a masked valet, with her purchased chest being the giveaway. At least they kept it really short, going four minutes, including intros. * Dick Togo & Shoichi Funaki & Mens Teioh beat Taka Michinoku & Justin Bradshaw: This was a special added match that, of course, was the best match on the show to this point. Thankfully, the finish was also predictable; in this case, that's a good thing. There's just no reason to put Bradshaw in this mix. After a melee start, the match turned into a heat segment on Taka. They did some good offence and got a good reaction, but all five Japanese guys (Kaientai, Taka, and Wally Yamaguchi) lose credibility every second that Bradshaw stands out there and makes them look like midgets. When Taka made the hot tag, Bradshaw cleaned up one-on-three until Kaientai did the showboating lucha spot where two guys hold the opponent's arms while the other jumps on his back and poses. Bradshaw shrugged them off. Jim Ross talked about Gulliver's Travels and the Lilliputians just to further bury the Michinoku guys. I can't believe how badly the influx of three extra Michinoku Pro guys has been handled: Taka squashed Funaki, Taka beat Dick Togo without any fanfare or build-up in an okay match, Bradshaw manhandles them completely. At least they did the right finish: Dick Togo hit a top rope senton on Taka and got the pin. I'd love to see any pairing from the Japanese foursome given twenty minutes on a PPV. This match went 13 minutes with entrances. * Rocky Maivia beat Faarooq to retain the IC Title: Sgt. Slaughter came out at the start and blew his lines, saying that if Rocky didn't come out in ten seconds that he would "represent and, uh,....give Faarooq" the IC Title. Rocky did come out at the nine second mark. They sold it like he was the walking dead and he sold his injuries (neck from earlier and leg from the start of this match) for abour six minutes before cracking and not selling anything any more until after the match. From that perspective, whatever psychological story they were hoping to tell crumbled. Even the commentators threw out the earlier story line, saying that the key factor in the match was age. Huh? What about that ten minutes wasted on the earlier angle and subsequent interviews to get over Rock's injury? Faarooq has a habit of getting sloppy and did slip up a couple of times during this match. It was passable, though. The finish was confusing. The referee counted three, but Rocky had put his foot on the rope at the two count. They had the wrong camera angle for the live shot, so it seemed weird. Rocky then got the pin using the ropes. Faarooq gave him two piledrivers after the match before being chased off by the Nation. Degeneration X hit the ring too. 13 minutes, including entrances. * Kane beat Vader: The loser had to unmask. The commentators tried to build interest in Vader unmasking, but who really cares? Earl Hebner was back to ref this match. Even with his involvement in the Bret Hart deal, it was good to see he's recovered. To make a long story short, Vader played Dean Malenko here and Michael Cole played Gene Okerlund. More or less. Vader was still out of shape. Kane screwed up some stuff, most noticeably a kick-to-the-face spot. Vader tried hard, missed a moonsault, and lost to a tombstone. Afterwards, Cole interviewed him, saying that he must be dejected that he didn't get his revenge. Vader looked forlorn and admitted that he wasn't up to winning this night, saying that he "ain't nothing but a piece of shit, a big fat piece of shit." Sort of surprising to hear the profanity. Vader then strode off to find his smile, er..., to head home. Maybe he'll come back repackaged. 14 minutes. * They did a tribute to Maurice Vachon and Da Crusher, Reggie Lisowski. The segment seemed to be a chance for Jerry Lawler to do his shtick, which in this case was all in really bad taste. He ripped off Vachon's false leg and swung it at Da Crusher. Crusher hit him with horribly weak punches but Lawler sold anyhow. It looked really bad and small time. But, hey, it filled another 10 minutes! * Owen Hart & D-Lo Brown & Kama Mustafa beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Billy Gunn & Road Dog: Again, they did the right finish. Unfortunately, there was a 20-minute match before that finish. Jim Ross said, "Kama, boy, he's a big impressive-looking guy." Well, okay, but he can't wrestle. There was a justifiable, mild "boring!" chant throughout most of the match. The match was a lengthy heat segment on Road Dog. That means that the Nation got to show off their offence. The problem with this idea is that Kama has useless offence, D-Lo has no credible offence, and Owen didn't get in the ring enough during this lengthy segment. Finally, Dog tagged in Gunn and everything broke loose. It was pretty good from here on. As the melee was going on, Gunn & Helmsley piledrove D-Lo on the title and went for a pin, but Owen broke it up. The referee was distracted through all of this. Owen hit the pedigree on the title on Helmsley and pinned him, which gives their issue some new life. The right finish to a lucklustre match. 25 minutes, including entrances. * Steve Austin beat Dude Love to retain the WWF Title: Vince was the referee, Pat Patterson was guest announcer, and Jerry Brisco was guest time keeper. The match started with about 37 minutes left in the PPV. Well, the ring intros and entrances ran 13-and-a-half minutes! They were entertaining for a few minutes, but got old long before they ended. Undertaker came out to watch Vince McMahon, adding another long ring entrance to the lead-in. Austin stomped Dude's false teeth, signalling the end of the feud. When they were brawling outside with no concern over returning to the ring, Pat Patterson announced "this is a reminder that this match is no disqualification." They did a sloppy neckbreaker spot on the floorw. Patterson announced the match was under falls count anywhere rules. They ended up brawling in the car junkyard set-up at the back (which advertised Brisco's Body Shop). Austin bladed. Dude suplexed Austin on the floor and then missed an elbow off the top of a car. They went back to the ring. Patterson tripped Austin. Dude exposed the turnbuckle and banged Austin in several times before going to a chinlock. Austin rallied. Patterson passed Dude a chair; he hit a DDT on the chair for a two count. Austin blocked a chair shot and nailed his own baseball bat swing chair shot. Dude accidentally chaired Vince. Patterson decked the replacement referee who hit the ring to count out Dude. Dude got the claw on, but Undertaker stopped Patterson from counting a pin, choke-slamming him through a commentators' table. Ditto Jerry Brisco. Austin hit the stunner and counted to three uses unconscious Vince's hand. Good main event because of booking and some of the brawling. RAW was a live show, following the Over the Edge In Your House PPV. Of course, Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon was what the show was all about. The show opened with McMahon firing Dude Love. Keep in mind that that doesn't include Cactus Jack or Mankind. Opening match saw Legion of Doom & Darren Drosdov face the Disciples of Apocalypse in an outdoor street fight that was interrupted by the arrival of the Undertaker. No finish was ever announced. The "match" was absolutely horrible. Undertaker was yelling for McMahon. Val Venis beat Papi Chulo, which they tell us means "Pimp Daddy." Venis put on a camel clutch and grinded his crotch into Chulo while the audience started a "faggot" chant. Venis has had three chances to impress (two RAWs and a Shotgun) and he's a major disappointment. Venis will be heading to Mexico this weekend to lose his mask; he wrestled there as Steele, and, believe it or not, looked green but absolutely great when I first saw him there. McMahon confronted Undertaker, who wanted a title shot. McMahon said that the new number one contender would be decided in a match featuring Undertaker against Kane this evening on RAW. Steve Blackman lost to Marc Mero in a King of the Ring first round match. Mero debuted Jaquelyn from WCW as his new valet. They pronounced her name jac-kwe-lin. The "kwe" part sounded weird. In other King of the Ring first round matches, Jeff Jarrett beat Faarooq, and Mark Henry beat Terry Funk with a power slam. Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Road Dog & Billy Gunn faced Owen Hart & Rocky Maivia & D-Lo Brown in an elimination tag match. The eliminations came very quickly, until we went to a commercial break, which of course contained no eliminations. It came down to Owen vs. HHH, which Owen of course should win in order to solidify his position as number one contender to the European title. But no, Ken Shamrock returned, running in to attack Owen. When everybody else came in, Dan Severn showed up to help Shamrock. They stared down afterwards, with Severn walking away. It looks like they are going to use Shamrock's heat in an attempt to warm up Severn. Taka Michinoku faced Shoichi Funaki for the WWF Lightheavyweight title. Sigh, they only had 3:00, in which they buried Funaki. I just don't get the point of bringing in Kaientai. Kane beat Undertaker to earn the number one contender spot. Mankind surfaced to screw up Undertaker. So, we have two unpromising feuds falling out of RAW: Undertaker vs. Mankind, and Steve Austin vs. Kane. It will be a miracle if Austin gets a good match out of Kane. They ran a promo clip for "The Edge," who will be Adam Copeland. A lot of people are expecting a lot from Copeland. The King of the Ring tournament brackets look like this: Qualifiying Round ______________________________________________________________________ Quarter Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Semi Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Ken Shamrock Ken Shamrock (06/08 TV) Kama Mustafa ______________________________________________________________________ Mark Henry Mark Henry (06/01 TV) Terry Funk ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Jeff Jarrett Jeff Jarrett (06/01 TV) Faarooq ______________________________________________________________________ Steve Blackman Marc Mero (06/01 TV) Marc Mero ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Rocky Maivia Vader ______________________________________________________________________ Hunter Hearst Helmsey X-Pac ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Dan Severn Dan Severn (06/08 TV) D-Lo Brown ______________________________________________________________________ Owen Hart Owen Hart (06/08 TV) 2 Cold Scorpio ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Hmmm, there's actually a chance of Ken Shamrock vs. Dan Severn in the main, but I doubt it. That could be a huge match if they did it right. The chances of that are slim, though. Next week's show features some more KotR matches (results listed above). Austin & Undertaker vs. Kane & Mankind gets heated up. Nitro on 06/01 was a live three-hour broadcast that aired in full on TSN in Canada. Nitro is not recovering the ratings dip caused by the show's preemption and RAW's new story line. On this night, the show had its ups and downs. The show was built around whether Sting would stay with WCW, join NWO Hollywood, or join NWO Wölfpac. The Wölfpac group of Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, Lex Luger, Konnan, and Curt Hennig gets huge babyface pops, but the slow build-up of this story throughout the show just didn't seem to work. It's interesting to note that the WWF and WCW have totally opposite views about how to make good television. As reported in the Observer this week, Vince McMahon makes sure the commentators and the wrestlers all know precisely what will happen on the show; this allows the commentary to focus on the story lines and explain things as clearly as possible. In WCW, Eric Bischoff likes the commentators to be wrestling-savvy fans, clueless when it comes to the story line elements of the show. This explains why story line explanations are sometimes jumbled as the different commentators go from memory of previous weeks. On this night, it seemed clear that the commentators only knew that Sting would make his decision. They had no idea which way he would go. Watching the final minutes of the show closely, it appeared that many of the wrestlers also didn't know which way Sting was going to go. It made the commentators' reactions real, but the cost (the inability to hype things with focus) is sometimes just too high. Wrestling-wise, the signs of so many people being injured are really starting to show. The first two hours of the show featured only three matches each. Ernest Miller beat Jerry Flynn. Raven & Saturn beat the Public Enemy. Man, Public Enemy is just so crappy (although not quite as bad as the LOD); Paul Heyman making people believe they were good was one of the greatest cons in recent wrestling history. Alex Wright beat Chavo Guerrero Jr. when Chavo tapped out in a split second after Alex applied the STF. I guess the idea is that Chavo wanted to be 100% when he faces Eddie. The Eddie-Chavo stuff is great. Hour two had Konnan beat Lenny Lane. Lane is getting a little colour with his gimmick of loving his abs. Fit Finlay beat Eddie Guerrero when Chavo came in the ring to talk with Eddie. It was good while it lasted. Chris Jericho beat Juventud Guerrera in a good match with a bad finish: Reese interfered to attack Juvi. I guess they are going to move towards that Juvi vs. Reese match that seemed to have been abandoned. Hour three opened with another really good Chris Benoit vs. Booker T match. In the best of seven series, Benoit now leads 3-1. Diamond Dallas Page beat Scotty Riggs. Goldberg beat La Parka. Goldberg urged Parka to chair him, Parka did, Goldberg did not sell, immediately spearing Parka instead and then going to the jackhammer finish. 94-0. It looked like La Parka injured his left knee or thigh during the spear take down. Along the way, they aired a funny segment with Chris Jericho looking for evidence that there was a conspiracy against him, seeking legal advice from the library of congress. Jericho came away with the info he needed to convince JJ Dillon he's been wronged. We don't know what it is yet. Finally, we reached the much-hyped main event of Kevin Nash & Randy Savage against Hulk Hogan & Giant. The usual crap, with Hogan using the title belt for the DQ. Sting descended, came in the ring, and opened his coat to reveal a white NWO shirt. Hogan & Giant celebrated. It was cut short by Sting clotheslining Hogan and fumbling with the white-on-black shirt before ripping it off to expose a red-on-black Wölfpac shirt. The crowd reacted with loud cheers. There is a lot of talk that Kevin Nash wants to bring Ric Flair back as a member of the Wölfpac. Thunder was a good show this week. The show opened with match five in the best of seven series between Chris Benoit & Booker T. With Benoit leading 3-1, the result seemed fairly certain. Sure enough, with Benoit seemingly in control of the match, he decided to confront Stevie Ray, who was at ringside for the first time in the series, leading to Booker T hitting a top rope missile dropkick for the pin. Reese beat Hammer when Horace Boulder hit Hammer over the head with a STOP sign. Afterwards, the flock laid into Hammer until Juventud Guerrera came to the ring and cleared a few flock members away. Juvi confronted Reese, but was pulled out of the ring by Hammer before he could get squashed. Alex Wright and Eddie Guerrero went to no decision when Chavo Guerrero Jr. came into the ring to talk to Eddie. They are pushing Chavo as a psycho. Earlier on, Giant declared Brian Adams his new tag champion partner and challenged Lex Luger to face them with any partner. Luger came out and said that he wanted Diamond Dallas Page to be his partner. Fit Finlay beat Psicosis in a short but good match. They mistimed a slide through the legs spot off the ropes. Glacier beat Saturn when referee Mark Curtis took a bump, a replacement referee came in, he turned out to be Kanyon, and he laid Saturn out. Curt Hennig announced that Konnan would fight Goldberg at the Bash PPV. Hennig said that he needed two weeks to recover from his knee injury; you know, he has jobberitis of the knee. Konnan said he would take the spot for his fellow Wölfpac member. Hennig dropped a few not-so-subtle subtle remarks to suggest that he was screwing with Konnan. Talk has always been that Kevin Nash didn't want to be saddled with Hennig in his group, so this might lead to the Wölfpac declaring that Hennig is ousted because he screwed a member of the brotherhood. Silver King faced Dean Malenko in what could be a great match if given the time. In 1990, Silver King was a UWA regular and a member of El Gran Hamada's UWF when he toured Japan. He was absolutely awesome at this time. He can be incredibly fast; flashes of this were shown during this short match. Before it could get off the ground, Chris Jericho came in with an official NWA rule book that he found at the Library of Congress. Somehow, the NWA rules are going to apply to WCW. He said that the "Ed The Strangler Lewis" clause said that a champion has first right of refusal. Since he never accepted a match with Malenko, he claimed that the result was voided and that he deserved the belt back. JJ Dillon didn't appear when Jericho called him out, so he just demanded that Dean give him the belt. Dean, of course, whacked him upside the head and left with the belt. Disco Inferno lost to Raven. Hugh Morrus lost to Goldberg. 95-0. Let's see: WCW Saturday Night, Nitro, Thunder, WCW SN. It looks like Goldberg goes into the PPV at 99-0. I can't believe that they'd blow match 100 on Konnan. Maybe he won't appear on one of the SN shows. That way, he could earn win 99 over Konnan and appear on Nitro the next night for match 100 against a real name. Brian Adams & Giant faced Lex Luger & Diamond Dallas Page, apparently for the WCW Tag Titles. The match consisted of a long heat segment on Luger. Bad stuff. He finally made the hot tag, Sting came out to lure Giant away from the ring, and Adams was pinned with a diamond cutter. They celebrated as though they had won the titles. Of course, Double J Dillon phoned in to say that Giant did not have the authority to declare a new partner and book a defence on Thunder. Giant will face Sting at the Bash to decide the Tag Titles; the winner can pick a partner to be co-champion. Dillon didn't comment on the Jericho situation. - From the Observer, regarding last week's RAW: It was funny when Maivia vs. HHH were having a * * 1/4 match at best how Ross was going crazy about them being two of the best young wrestlers in the game and of course, they're in the WWF. And he should, since the WWF has managed to create the market perception that they've got all the good young talent and these are two that fall into that category. But it was funny because seeing Raw after Nitro, and seeing Kidman and Juvi, who are both like eight years younger than HHH have four times as good a match with five times as much heat, but since WCW doesn't focus on its young guys who can work, WWF is still seen by people and able to promote itself as the one having the best young wrestlers when clearly the opposite is the case. - Vince McMahon was interviewed for a Toronto paper (the WWF was in town on 05/23 with McMahon debuting his referee gimmick). McMahon said, "Five years ago we were foundering and we were looking for some direction, a creative direction. We made a decision, a conscious effort. I look in the mirror and I know I have an attitude from a human standpoint. I'm very aggressive. I know that. I'm truculent, I know that. We decided to be who we are and we've done that." And later, "Ratings have been down in baseball. Television ratings are going in the toilet for the NHL in the U.S. and that's with Fox giving it a tremendous push. NBA ratings on TNT are down." He said that the hero in a white hat versus the villain in a black hat doesn't work anymore. "The '80s was a cartoon. We had to evolve in terms of sophistication. Life is a shade of grey depending on who we deal with and who we are. Why shouldn't that be reflected in the WWF? It gives our characters more depth to be able to do it that way. It's more realistic." - Koji Kanemoto won the New Japan Top of the Super Juniors tournament yesterday, beating Dr. Wagner Jr. in the final. - Sylvester Ritter, the Junk Yard Dog, age 45, was killed in a single car accident earlier this week. In the mid-1970s, Ritter attended the Green Bay Packers training camp. He started his pro-wrestling career in 1979 as Big Daddy Ritter, working in Western Canada and in Japan. His status was built in Mid South, where he slimmed down to 235 pounds, with a solid physique, and took on the name Junkyard Dog. He was booked by Bill Watts as the enemy of Bad Leroy Brown, with the JYD name being taken from the Jim Croce song. Watts also created his gimmick: he would come to the ring with a dog collar and chain attached to his neck. His entrance music was Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." He was Watts' top draw for four years before walking out on Watts in 1984 to jump to the WWF. It was a mixed blessing, since his weight had already started to balloon in 1983. With the weight gain came a reduction in stamina and ability. Prior to the weight gain, he was a draw that couldn't work all that well, but could at least be booked in reasonable matches. From 1984 on, during the period of major exposure in the WWF, he was generally viewed as one of the worst wrestlers in the business, to the point that he was tagged with the modified nickname Junk Food Dog. He developed a reputation amongst wrestlers as being impossible to have a good match with. Most recently, he appeared in the ring at ECW's WrestlePalooza PPV to be recognized as a legend. His wrestling work had been reduced to some indy spot shows where his name value would draw some local fans. - Last week, I made a remark about the top WWF guys not fitting in well with the All Japan style. This led to a bit of e-mail asking me to elaborate, or better yet to talk about the styles of different promotions. That's a tough-sounding task and I didn't want to put together something without putting a fair bit of thought in it, but I did find the time to put together the following discussion. When talking about styles, it's interesting and, I would argue, essential to realize how the sport has evolved. Let's pop back to 1980. At this time, the WWWF, run by Vince McMahon Sr., was in bed with New Japan, and WWWF talent appeared in the promotion with some regularity. The Japanese products at this time looked a lot like their North American counterparts: although there were some great workers in the mix, matches generally featured plodding, elementary work. Size was an issue, with Seiji Sakaguchi, Andre the Giant (who could actually move then), Stan Hansen, Ox Baker, Antonio Inoki, and others headlining. Inoki was feuding with Stan Hansen over the NWF Title in New Japan. All Japan was similarly challenged, with some great Americans coming in (Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Harley Race), but uninspired main event stars, like Abdullah the Butcher, attacking the Japanese hero (in this case, Jumbo Tsuruta) or the honorary Japanese hero (Terry Funk, who was great back then). Matches were simplistic. Think about it: speed was turned way down from today's faster standard, moves and variations were limited (a simple vertical suplex was incredible), and highspots were pretty much nonexistent in both major promotions in Japan. New Japan relied a lot on importing major names and giving them headline-status matches. In 1980, honorary Japanese Stan Hansen would battle Antonio Inoki or Bob Backlund; Hulk Hogan would battle Dusty Rhodes. The product styles were pretty similar and very primitive. In North America, the 1980 product was also very primitive. Without getting into too much of the business goings-on of the various times (see Japanese Men's History for some of that discussion), several things occurred over the intervening years that really changed the styles of New Japan and All Japan as well as their booking philosophies. Some key items (I'm sure to forget something) were * the creation (and success) of the New Japan junior heavyweight division in 04/81 with Tiger Mask I (Satoru Sayama) & Dynamite Kid, and in 1989 with Jushin Liger, * tours of Mexico by Japanese youngsters, who would add topes to their repertoire, along with visits by Mexican stars, and, much later, Japanese tours of Mexican troups (Hamada's UWF) working a modified lucha libre style (both the gymnastic element and the machismo element), * the shoot kick by Akira Maeda on 11/19/87, leading to an interest in "real" fights, giving birth to many worked (pre-planned) and shoot (legitimate fight) promotions, and forcing the worked pro-wrestling groups to adapt by adding shoot elements to their worked matches, * All Japan Women always pushing the envelope by creating new, exciting moves that would later be adopted by the men, * the elimination of screw jobs and blading in All Japan and the refocusing of the booking on conservative, purely competition-based, athletic matches, and * the surfacing and cult success of garbage wrestling promotions, promotions that focus on bloody, ultra-violent, gimmick matches. These developments have led us to a landscape in Japanese wrestling that features numerous styles, often consisting of a mix of various older style elements. Let's look at this landscape in 1998. New Japan has many different style components. One of the most clearly-defined styles is the shoot style segment dominated by Japanese judoka Naoya Ogawa and foreign heel and former Ultimate Fighting Champioship star Don Frye. So far, the promotion has been rather careful to keep the segment of shoot fighters isolated from the pro-wrestling mix. Shinya Hashimoto, the most talented of the heavyweights, has worked great matches with Ogawa. Kazuo Yamazaki, with a history as a shoot fighter through the late 1980s after originally being used as a New Japan junior heavyweight, can also cross over. Yoshiaki Fujiwara, the king of the armbar submission (to the point that the move, the wakigatamae, has been called the Fujiwara armbar for years), and author of a shoot fighting or strong technique book, can also easily cross over, although age is now a barrier. To give an idea of how carefully protected this segment of the promotion is, for Antonio Inoki's retirement match earlier this year, the tournament was fleshed out with other UFC or shootfighting veterans, to avoid combining fighters that won't mix. No North American promotion is as careful when it comes to using "outsiders" with a different style. New Japan Junior style has become a mix of high spots, lucha libre, technical exhibitions, and shooting. It's the perennial favourite style with foreigners, and I'm no exception to that rule. Every other junior or cruiser or light heavyweight style doesn't compare to what the top New Japan juniors deliver. WCW comes closest because many of the players in the Cruiserweight division are former NJ junior stars (Eddie Guerrero as Black Tiger, El Ultimo Dragon, Chris Benoit (not packaged as a cruiser)). It's a diverse style mix, as listed above, with lots of speed, speed, speed, throughout, and very sensible action (no topes just for the sake of doing topes). The attentive reader will know that the above two style elements of New Japan are my favourites. The heavyweight scene is muddied by too many bad wrestlers. It's a slow and plodding style most of the time. Hashimoto is the only real exception, since he manages to pull strong matches out of weak opponents more often than not. He does this by having very stiff, realistic bouts. Due to the deal with WCW, New Japan is also in the midst of a NJ vs. NWO struggle. Story lines have taken over, which explains why mediocre foreigners can make a dent in this group (see Michael Wallstreet, NWO Sting, or Big Titan (Razor Ramon II)). All Japan's strength is its heavyweight scene, which focuses on legitimate ahtletic competition and dangerous moves moreso than any other promotion in the world. The dangerous moves are key to All Japan: every (major) wrestler has established key moves that the audience buys as devastating because of literally years of history. Matches are usually long, consisting of slow building, with stiff tight action, to a lengthy climax, with loads of hot (increasingly dangerous) moves and lots of false finishes before the ending. Everything is stiff, psychology is incredibly important, and the moves...the moves are the thing. Absolutely everything is about the legitimacy of the moves, and that legitimacy is based on history in the promotion. If you sit down to watch a series of bouts between the same pair of wrestlers, watching in chronological order reveals how moves are countered and modified as the match-ups continue. In this sense, somebody new to the promotion, watching on tape, may actually not understand the significance of some spots in a match because they don't have the history of the earlier matches. With the recent Dome show, Shohei Baba has opened up the door a bit to allowing outside wrestlers to work in the promotion. All Japan style is the hardest style in the world to work; physically, no style is more punishing. It's become difficult to find and nurture new talent that can meet the standards of the previous generation. Michinoku Pro is on its death bed, but from a stylistic standpoint, it's worth mentioning here. In 1990, when El Gram Hamada toured Japan with some UWA wrestlers under his own UWF banner, fans for the first time saw full blown (and stiffened) lucha libre on Japanese soil. The fallout of the success of those tours was the creation of Michinoku Pro wrestling. The style is toned down New Japan junior style with a lot of lucha libre influences, including the standard machismo standoffs and humour. Fast pacing and style difference from New Japan helps hide the deficiencies of the stars of the groups. While Great Sasuke and Super Delfin get praised, their strenghs are not as diverse as the New Japan junior strengths. The same is true of Taka Michinoku (who is actually better than Sasuke or Delfin) or Kaientai. I really love the machismo and humour elements of this style. Garbage wrestling is the final style that has numerous promotions built around it. The strength of this style is that anybody can do it; there's no skill required, just a lack of self-concern. Barbed wire explosive death matches, baseball bat matches, pirahna death matches, thumb tacks, etc. Increasingly more insane, the style has its cult followers. Let's jump to North America and look at the big two and little one. The first big difference in promotion styles is that while the japanese groups are ability or competition driven more often than not, the North American groups are all about story lines, issues between wrestlers. The tacit implication is that the wrestling itself won't draw, but the issue will. That's why all of the groups have heirarchies that aren't based on actual in-ring ability. WCW contains two primary styles: a slow and plodding heavyweight division, and a fast and exciting Cruiserweight division with a style similar to the New Japan juniors on a good day. Occasionally, they stray into garbage wrestling (Raven vs. anybody) or shoot style stuff (Goldberg vs. Jerry Flynn). The heavyweight division is top heavy with the plodding, slow stuff, but there are some workers underneath (most notably, Chris Benoit vs. Booker T in their current series). They've toyed with a lucha libre element now and again, but really just use those wrestlers as cannon fodder for the two dominant styles. WWF contains two primary styles: a moderately boring and slow heavyweight style, and a garbage wrestling heavyweight style. They are toying with a lightheavyweight division; even though the division contains four former Michinoku Pro wrestlers, the style of the division is nonexistent. I'd rather say that it's impossible to discuss the style of the division until they get a grip on it than say (the truth) that it consists off haphazard high spots and a Michinoku Driver. The garbage wrestling heavyweight style has been forced upon them because of injuries to Steve Austin and it is serving them well. Really, wrestling style is not an issue here, as numerous matches have ended without decisions; it's really all about the stories, and right now there is one great story. ECW has one primary style: really sloppy garbage wrestling. They've occasionally had visitors who have worked great matches in other styles (the Michinoku Pro guys at Barely Legal, for example), so we have to give them credit for bringing in other styles when they could. Nowadays, they can't and the product style is just one sloppy, brawling, garbage match after another. Just like the garbage wrestling promotions in Japan, the promotion has its cult followers that blindly ignore the style deficiencies. Discussion: first thing first. Last week, I said that with the exception of Vader and Ken Shamrock, nobody in the WWF could fit in to the All Japan style. Does that make a little sense now? Vader has a history in New Japan and, better yet, in shoot fights in UWFi. Ken Shamrock has a great reputation from Pancrase and the UFCs. They both have credible dangerous moves that would let them be plopped into the All Japan mix without effort. Nobody else fits the bill. Yes, Undertaker is a popular gimmick character in Japan. And maybe Undertaker vs. Kane or Mankind would get a reaction from some fans, but it wouldn't fit into the All Japan style and certainly wouldn't sell tickets to All Japan fans. I find it more than a little bit interesting that WCW and New Japan don't seem all that different from a style comparison standpoint. It's no secret that Eric Bischoff tried to mimic the successes of New Japan in WCW. The big failing is that the cruisers in WCW have never been given due credit for their contribution. In New Japan, they were given their own shows and were allowed to headline cards with the heavyweights working mid-card matches. In WCW, that respect isn't there. - Discussing the "Bruiser Brody Memorial (Best Brawler) Awards," the Observer writes, Without question the two [brawlers] that stand above the pack are Mick Foley and Chris Benoit. To me, and this is a knock at several guys in ECW, hitting guys with objects and not selling it, missing moves and throwing horrible looking blows but using a lot of juice and breaking some sticks and tables along the way with no semblance of building a match is bad brawling, not best brawling." - WCW is apparently going to abandon the Universal Studio tapings for World Wide Wrestling; that show will instead become a compilation of clips from the major cable shows. - New Japan held a tournament, starting yesterday, to determine the new IWGP Tag champions. The tournament final is set for tomorrow night, with Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (of the NWO) facing Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi. The line-up looks like this: * Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Shinya Hashimoto for the IWGP Title * Masa Chono & Hiro Tenzan vs. Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi for the IWGP Tag titles * 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 It's expected that Hashimoto will win the title. - Rey Misterio Jr. should return to WCW this month. - WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/14/98. Tentative line-up includes: * Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper & Randy Savage * Roddy Piper vs. Randy Savage (immediately following above tag match) * Sting vs. Giant to decide the WCW Tag Titles * Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho for the Cruiserweight Title * Booker T or Chris Benoit vs. Fit Finlay for the TV Title * Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. * Bill Goldberg vs. Konnan - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/28/98. - RAW beat Nitro on 06/01 with a 4.35 rating versus a 3.7 rating. There is a lot of speculation that Ultimate Warrior will be unveiled by WCW to bring the ratings back in their favour. 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 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) 98/05/17 WCW Slamboree 1.92 * * 1/2 * * * 1/4 0% (0 of 9) WCW Average 0.98 $3.67 1.92 * * 1/4 * * * 1/2 6.4% (3 of 47) 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. - WCW has Bash at the Beach on 07/12/98. Dennis Rodman will work this show. - The WWF has In Your House on 07/26/98. - WCW has Road Wild on 08/08/98. - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/30/98. Jerry Springer is expected to be involved in the show. - WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/13/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 09/27/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 10/18/98. - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/25/98. - The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/15/98. - WCW has World War III on 11/22/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 12/13/98. - WCW has Starrcade on 12/27/98. - 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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