______________________________________________________________________ Sorry to be a day late with this update. I'm also a bit behind in responding to e-mail. Sigh. Midterm marking sucked up some time, but I've also been dealing with new job prospects as my postdoctoral fellowship runs to a close. This week, I received a contract offer from a nearby university and mailed in my acceptance. This means that my e-mail address will change in September as I begin an assistant professorship there. This week has slim pickings. I will update the PPV stats and try to have a long update for next week, with new pictures. ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - WCW had the Great American Bash this past Sunday, 06/14/98. Despite a few small disappointments and the naggingly poor main events, there's no way that the show deserved anything other than a thumbs up, thanks to another great undercard. Run down: * Booker T beat Chris Benoit to earn a TV Title shot later in the show: An absolutely terrific match; this was the replacement "Best of Seven" series final after the debacle on Thunder last week. From the standpoint of a wrestling match telling a story, without all of the soap operatic trappings of traditional North American story lines (see WWF), this was probably the best NA match of the year so far, although the commentators missed the boat in connecting what had happened in the previous matches to what they delivered here. This wasn't Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano, but there were reversals to reversals of moves that worked in the first match of the series. While that subtle stuff made this a stellar match and Booker T's crowning achievement, the basic match story had Benoit attempting to take Booker T's legs away from him. He missed a dropkick to the knee, but hit a great dragon screw leg whip. Booker countered a backdrop suplex by turning it into an elegant body press. The commentators spent a lot of time pushing Benoit during the commentary, giving away the finish. The crowd was incredibly hot for the match because Benoit is that good at luring them in. Booker tried the sunset flip out of the corner that won an earlier match, but Benoit put on the brakes to counter that "known" move, instead delivering vicious chops to Booker's chest. The crowd "Woooh"ed for every chop all night, to the point that one would have to say that Ric Flair was the most over wrestler of the evening, without even being on the show. That's a sad state of affairs, but this was Baltimore, after all. And it's not as sad as the crowd delivering that same reaction at an ECW PPV; at least Flair has an association with WCW. Booker ended up winning with the missile dropkick. The best opener of the year, easily. 21 minutes with intros. * Kanyon beat Saturn: Being a day late with the update means I've had the chance to see what others have posted to the newsgroup about the PPV. It's less of a surprise that some people didn't appreciate the subtle elements and tremendous work of Benoit vs. Booker (saying "we've seen it all before"); the surprise is that people praised this match as being on the same level or better. That's the influence of ECW, IMO. This match mirrored that one ECW match per ECW show that actually tries to dispense with the bloody, sloppy brawling. I would call this match ECWish in that most spots were heavily choreographed with little flow, sense, substance, pacing, psychology, or transitions between the spots. It was a stunt man exhibition more than a wrestling match. I think Kanyon has a lot of potential, but I'd like to see him become substantially more than the next Rob van Dam or the next Sabu. The match started when Mortis came out; no, wait, that's not Mortis! Kanyon sneaks in and surprises Saturn. The Flock came out and ended up getting kicked out. The lack of psychology was overly evident as Saturn did a lot of goofy submissions with no build-up and with each submission focusing on a different body part. Saturn debuted the triple jump moonsault in WCW. Yay. They did hit all of their spots with only a little hesitation and sloppiness, but it still came off as amateurish, particularly compared to the opening match. The crowd could not have cared less, starting a mild "boring" chant. Two Morti came out at the end, one for each side. Kanyon hit the reverse Russian leg sweep for the pin, which actually got a pop from the crowd, probably because they were glad the match was over. Afterwards, one Mortis unmasked as Raven and Saturn was destroyed. 20 minutes with intros. * Chris Jericho beat Dean Malenko by DQ to win the vacant Cruiserweight Title: The match focused on the story that Jericho was unfocused; unfortunately, that meant that his wrestling uptput was reduced. Jericho faked a post shot, hung himself in the tree of woe, and then dodged a baseball slide to finally take offence. Dean works so quickly. Jericho taunted Dean about his deceased father and Dean "snapped," leading to a DQ and a brawl out of the building. Disappointing efforts with some glimmers of brilliance. Does the belt change hands? See Nitro. But not in Canada. 20 minutes with intros. * Juventud Guerrera beat Reese: Juvi tried to make it interesting, but Reese sucks. Juvi survived a 10 count. Hammer showed up and chaired Reese. A bad-looking rana for the three count. According to WCW Magazine we can thank Sting for bringing Hammer into wrestling. 12 minutes with intros. * Chavo Guerrero Jr. beat Eddie Guerrero: Good storyline built around Chavo's knee. The crowd didn't get into the match at all, to the point that Eddie pointed around the building and then at his butt. Chavo won with a fantastic DDT. 19 minutes with intros. * Booker T beat Fit Finlay to win the TV Title: They mentioned the extended time limit up front. T hit a plancha at the start. Really good work by Finlay. The match was a bit slower because Booker had to wiped from earlier. Fans were still a little out of the match. They screwed up the tombstone piledriver at the finish, but handled it like professionals, working a few more spots before doing a brutal piledrier finish. Good match. 18 minutes with intros. * Bill Goldberg beat Konnan to retain the US Title: Just another Goldberg squash. Apparently, Hennig had pushed for the finish of him and Rude turning on Konnan during the match, leading to a DQ loss for Goldberg. That finish was the plan at one point, as horrible as it sounds. Goldberg squashed Konnan in short order. Hennig laid Konnan out afterwards and revealed that he was wearing a white-on-black NWO shirt, so Kevin Nash got his wish of kicking Hennig out of his group. Nobody cared about the turn. What did Hennig's jump to the Wölfpac accomplish, anyhow? Worse yet, talk persists that they will turn Scott Hall back to the Wölfpac upon his return. * Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart beat Roddy Piper & Randy Savage: Michael Buffer screwed up Bret's catchphrase, saying he's "...the best there ever was..." The exact same mistake was made by Pat Patterson when he introduced Vince McMahon. Piper & Savage cooperated. The match was a long heat segment on Piper, with several missed tags. Generally bad stuff. Hogan clotheslined Hart by mistake, a spot that will no doubt be pieced together with other minor blunders a half-year from now when Bret turns. Bret got the submission with the sharpshooter on Savage. Afterwards, Savage and Piper had a short tussle with Piper putting the figure four on Savage's bad leg. 20 minutes with intros. * Sting beat Giant to decide the WCW Tag Titles: Since there was no way they could the PPV on the previous note, this match got the headline spot. Giant smokes on his way to ring. Giant was introduced by Buffer as being from the "original New World Order," which means that Sting is from the "extra crispy New World Order." Sting tried the scorpion death lock. No luck; Giant powered out. Scorpion death drop. Nope; two count only. After a third death drop, he got the three count. Who will Sting team with? Watch Nitro! 12 minutes with intros. On an extremely positive note, they gave a remarkable amount of time to the guys that can actually work. That's part of why it has to be seen as a good show, IMO. RAW RAW this week was a live two-hour show. It opened with Vince McMahon doing an interview that drew good heat because he talked about Steve Austin. Sable returned to introduce Vince, clearly violating the "loser leaves the WWF" stipulation of her previous match. Rocky Maivia beat Vader in a KotR opening round match, as Vader continues his stint in the overweight dog house. Mark Henry showed up to set up the loss. Darren Drosdov beat Jeff Jarrett when Marc Mero gets involved; you see, Mero and Jarrett will meet in the KotR. They are being careful not to push Drosdov too hard; apparently, it was okay for him to job to that superstar Chainz last week, but a stiff like Jarrett should be booked to lose a screwy match. Val Venis is not Darren Drosdov, though, so he gets s quick win over the superstar Chainz. In the only memorable moment of the match, while Chainz is down, Venis takes the time to pull open his trunks, look down, and smile at his manhood. It wasn't a good moment, but it's probably a first in a wrestling match. With all those thrusting mannerisms in the ring, many of which draw a "faggot" chant from the crowd, how long will it be before it is revealed that Venis actually made porno movies for gay men? Dustin Runnels beat Marc Mero in a screwy match. X-Pac lost to Hunter Hearst Helmsley when Owen Hart got involved. Owen Hart & Mark Henry went to a DQ with Ken Shamrock & Dan Severn, who had no chemistry together. Everything that is great about Shamrock is missing in Severn. They did a tag team royal rumble to decide who would get a title shot at a later unnamed date. Kane & Mankind went over. Finally, we were supposed to get a cage match with Steve Austin & Undertaker against Kane & Mankind. Paul Bearer locked himself in the cage for safety; Undertaker came up through the ring, a good angle the first time we saw it (actually long before the WWF did it). Bearer bladed to get over how savage the Undertaker was. Austin destroyed Mankind. Kane, apparently having lost his brains in the fire that disfigured him, tried to break in the cage from the roof, it's obvious weak spot, right? Well, it conveniently removed him from helping Mankind. Austin then went up on the cage, too, to lay into Kane as we went off the air. The King of the Ring tournament brackets look like this (my guesses are in yellow). Qualifiying Round ______________________________________________________________________ Quarter Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Semi Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Ken Shamrock Ken Shamrock (06/08 TV) Kama Mustafa ______________________________________________________________________ Ken Shamrock Mark Henry Mark Henry (06/01 TV) Terry Funk ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Ken Shamrock Jeff Jarrett Jeff Jarrett (06/01 TV) Faarooq ______________________________________________________________________ Marc Mero Steve Blackman Marc Mero (06/01 TV) Marc Mero ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Rocky Maivia Rocky Maivia (06/15) Vader ______________________________________________________________________ Rocky Maivia Hunter Hearst Helmsey Hunter Hearst Helmsley (06/15) X-Pac ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Dan Severn Dan Severn Dan Severn (06/08 TV) D-Lo Brown ______________________________________________________________________ Dan Severn Owen Hart Owen Hart (06/08 TV) 2 Cold Scorpio ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ I'll still go with Owen Hart & Hunter Hearst Helmsley screwing each other out of victories in their tournament matches; it's just going to happen later than I expected. Nitro Nitro was a two-hour show in Canada again this week, featuring a lot of talk. In the three wrestling matches on the show, Chris Benoit beat Fit Finlay in a great match, Sting & new partner Kevin Nash beat Harlem Heat, and Diamond Dallas Page beat Randy Savage. Wrapped around all of this (and the Benoit match was easily the best match on Monday night TV) was a lot of soap operatic stuff that bored me silly. Benoit & Booker T respect each other; this upsets Stevie Ray. Steve McMichael recovered from his injury and returned to help Benoit fend off Stevie. IMO, the WCW bookers (Terry Taylor, Kevin Sullivan, and Dusty Rhodes) have been making a mistake trying to "out-soap-opera" the WWF in recent weeks, with turns aplenty and lots of interview time on TV. The WWF has to resort to creativity above in-ring substance because of their talent roster; WCW shouldn't try to mimic that formula since they always seem to fail when they try. Thunder Thunder was the usual two hour show this week. With all of the turns, they need to re-do the show intro. Lacklustre show to say the least. Steve McMichael beat Mike Enos. Fit Finlay beat Brad Armstrong. Giant beat Disco Inferno. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan retained the IWGP Tag Titles, by getting DQed against Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart; sheesh, the IWGP Tag champs can't even beat a crappy North American team. Konnan beat Alex Wright. Chris Benoit beat Eddie Guerrero in the only match with promise...that promise wasn't delivered. Public Enemy beat Sickboy & Scotty Riggs in an ECW-style street fight, which means nobody sold anything and if they did they only sold it for two seconds. Garbage. Godlberg beat Reese. - The local paper had an interview with Bret Hart, who was in town to promote the Molson Indy auto race. Hart said, "I get people telling me I don't look happy, which isn't true. The money has been great. In the scheduling, I've played a limited role. I've had 14 matches since Dec. 1. But that will change." It's suggested that Hart will feud with Sting in July and later work his much-anticipated program with Hulk Hogan. "It's such a big company and it has such a huge number of stars, they don't need just to Bret Hart right away. I've been told that from the beginning. I was told not to worry, to take my time." Hart goes on, "We are treated like real athletes. We have a trainer. We have a therapist there who will rub you down and stretch you out...someone to tape your wrists and ankles. They look after their stars here. Vince McMahon never did any of those things. Really, we were circus animals. I'm glad to be away from that." - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/28/98. Line-up has: * Steve Austin vs. Kane for the WWF Title * Mankind vs. Undertaker in a hell in the cell cage match * King of the Ring tournament semi-final and final matches - Kenta Kobashi beat Toshiaki Kawada to win the Triple Crown on 06/12/98. Kawada had just won belt from Mitsuharu Misawa on 05/01/98. - RAW beat Nitro on 06/15 with a 4.3 rating versus a 4.0 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 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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