______________________________________________________________________ Well, my students wrote the final exam on Tuesday and I had it marked by the end of Wednesday. They earned a 74% average, higher than the last year when I taught the same course. I'm crediting the improvement to the fact that this was their first exam and they were more than a little nervous about what they might encounter. Many students told me they spent the three or four days prior to the exam studying only for it. Last year's group didn't have an exam schedule that allowed that sort of focus. They did really well on a challenging exam. I'm still a little behind with things thanks to tweaking my exam and then dealing with the marking, etc. Next week, I'll have a larger TidBits installment. ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 08/03/98 was a taped show that aired in prime time in Canada. It was the usual mix of unspecial wrestling and some interesting story line developments. In the opener, Golga beat Marc Mero when Giant Silva chokeslammed Mero. Sable came out with Golga. In a pitifully bad moment, Kurrgan & Silva brought Luna Vachon to ringside, with Kurrgan singing the "Miss America" victory song. The BrawlforAll turned into a bigger nightmare as Dan Severn removed himself from the tournament, which I guess ackowledges that it was a mistake to put him in, only to be replaced by the guy he beat, Kama, who went on to beat Too Cold Scorpio on this show. The tournament appears totally unplanned: the commentators have no clue, the brackets are never announced, guys drop out, losers get put back in. This might be the bracketing: First Round ______________________________________________________________________ Quarter Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Semi Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Finals ______________________________________________________________________ Steve Blackman Steve Blackman (06/29 TV) Marc Mero ______________________________________________________________________ Justin Bradshaw Justin Bradshaw (06/29 TV) Mark Cantebury ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Savio Vega Savio Vega (07/09 TV) Brakus ______________________________________________________________________ Savio Vega (bye) Hawk draw (07/09 TV) Darren Drosdov ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Bart Gunn Bart Gunn (07/16 TV) Bob Holly ______________________________________________________________________ Bart Gunn (07/30 TV) Steve Williams Steve Williams (07/23 TV) Quebecer Pierre ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Dan Severn Dan Severn (07/16 TV); Dan withdraws; Kama back in Kama ______________________________________________________________________ Kama (08/03 TV) Eight Ball 2 Cold Scorpio (07/23 TV) 2 Cold Scorpio ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ They announced that Steve Williams had suffered numerous injuries, including a knee injury, in the match with Bart, which is bad news. I sure hope Williams has a locked contract so that Vince can't dump him without pay for getting injured. Vince really blew this investment; Williams honestly had nothing to gain from a tournament created to get "unover" guys over. Kane & Mankind beat New Age Outlaws. They'll have a cage match rematch at SummerSlam. Road Warrior Hawk beat Jeff Jarrett with a neckbreaker when Double J & Tennessee Lee continued to have communication problems. Darren Drosdov & Southern Justice ran in, which I guess sets up a horrible six-man for SummerSlam. Hunter Hearst Helmsley beat X-Pac when Chyna helped HHH get the win. Taka Michinoku & Val Venis faced Dick Togo & Shoichi Funaki. Sigh, Taka turned on Val immediately, and those nasty Japanese wrestlers dragged the handsome, blond American stud to the back to do some "choppy, choppy" stuff. Horrible. Just a horrible idea. Taka now has nobody to work against, not that they were doing anything useful in that direction anyhow. But who are the four-man Kaientai team going to work against? Venis & Bradshaw in 4-on-2 handicap matches? D'Lo Brown faced Dan Severn, but Ken Shamrock ran in to interrupt. Afterwards, Edge knocked D'Lo over. Since Venis is doing well with Rick Rude's 1980s gimmick, Tiger Ali Singh re-debuted using Ted DiBiase's 1980s gimmick. On the Sunday Heat show, he got a woman to eat dog food. Tonight, he got a large woman to take some of her clothes off. His delivery is stiff and he doesn't have the wrestling ability to be anywhere near what Ted was to the 1980s WWF. They tried to push him as coming from a wealthy family, not mentioning that his dad and uncle were involved in a real estate scam/scandal not that long ago. Undertaker & Steve Austin beat Rocky Maivia & Owen Hart in a rematch from Sunday Heat. Undertaker pinned Owen. Everybody came in. Nitro Nitro on 08/03/98 aired in full in Canada. Truthfully, I was marking my final exams while the show was on; it aired from 3:00-6:00pm EST on TSN on Wednesday. I can't really comment too much on the show, other than to say that the Cruiserweight matches with Chris Jericho vs. Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera vs. Eddie Guerrero were very good, getting me to take a break from grading exams. Nothing else on the show had the same effect. I can't stomach the Jay Leno stuff and I could care less if Travis Tritt is going to sing at the PPV on the weekend. Thunder Thunder returned to WTBS on Wednesday night. Imagine this: while grading final exams, I listened on and off to TSN's Nitro for three hours and followed it up with listening to Thunder for two hours that night. Five hours of WCW in a day is too much for any sane person. Two hours is too much...that must be why the first 1:50-or-so of WCW PPVs is usually great and then the rest sucks. Anyhow, I finished grading papers at around 8:30, so I managed to watch more of this show, although I didn't take any notes. They continued to push the idea of Dean Malenko as guest referee in the Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera title match. IMO, they did some things right in this story, provided that they follow through at the PPV. On Nitro, Juvi lost to Eddie Guerrero. On Thunder, Juvi lost to Psicosis, with unsolicited help from Chris Jericho. Surely, then he should win the title. That lets Dean & Chris do their thing without a title involved while Juvi has two natural contenders in waiting, both of whom will deliver excellent matches. It's a bit Japanese in style. Whenever somebody has a Triple Crown shot in All Japan, if he's going to win the title he does some strategic jobs in the days leading up to the win. Other than this, the show was pretty pointless, showing that Jay Leno clip another dozen times. - WCW has Road Wild on 08/08/98. Tentative line-up has * Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno & Kevin Eubanks vs. Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff & Disciple * Scott Hall & Giant & Scott Norton & Curt Hennig vs. Lex Luger & Sting & Kevin Nash & Konnan * Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera for the Cruiserweight Title with Dean Malenko as referee * Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner * Raven vs. Perry Saturn vs. Kanyon The main event is being billed as a tag match with Eubanks & Disciple in the two corners. - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/30/98. Tentative line-up has * Steve Austin vs. Undertaker for the WWF Title * Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Rocky Maivia for the IC Title in a ladder match * Mankind & Kane vs. New Age Outlaws * D'Lo Brown vs. X-Pac for the European Title * Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock - The WWF was in Toronto last weekend, playing the Skydome. As a result, there was a fair bit of hype in the local media. Firstly, Owen Hart & Tiger Ali Singh were guests on TSN's Off the Record on Friday night. The show was a half-hour commercial for the WWF, with absolutely no substance except for the announcement that beginning in October TSN would carry RAW live. The reason isn't so much that wrestling/WWF is popular on the network, although that is how they spun it. In reality, TSN lost the NHL's national cable rights to CTV Sports Net, leaving Monday nights open for something else. Hopefully, they'll put Nitro on in RAW's old midnight slot, so that Canadian fans can get their wrestling fix out of the way in one night. The show was sort of funny, only because Tiger Ali Singh was already being pushed as a Ted DiBiase Million Dollar Man clone and the fans soundly rejected him. Owen would speak and get a respectful response from the crowd. But the crowd booed Singh every time he opened his mouth; it was bad heat because nobody cared about him at all. Michael Landsberg made a point several times of correcting himself when he called "Edge" "The Edge" by mistake, since Titan can't bill him as such. The swing through Toronto featured Toronto mayor Mel Lastman doing plugs on the Canadian Superstars syndie that airs in the area. He did some horrible spots, reading from a monitor and inviting people to donate blood. The WWF kicked in 500 free tickets for people that gave blood. The Globe and Mail ran the following story: Mayor turns from `heel' to `face' The crowds booed and jeered as the diminutive figure walked down the red carpet to face his opponents, the menacing Tiger Ali Singh and Canadian good guy Owen Hart, superstars in the constellation known as the World Wrestling Federation. But he held his own. Just 5 feet 5, the tiny mayor of Toronto didn't quiver or flinch. "Every time he fights, he wins," host Rudy Blair told the throng of wrestling fans who gathered outside the Skydome. In the scripted world of professional wrestling, it isn't hard to turn a villain into a hero, or a "heel" into a "face," to use the comic-book lingo of wrestling fans. So Mighty Mel Lastman finally turned the crowd around. After all, only a hero would square off with two professional wrestlers twice his size -- just to get people out to give blood. So the boos turned to cheers and the showman mayor won the day. In fact, the blood theme was quite a hit. "You guys want to see blood, not give blood, right?" Mr. Blair yelled at the crowd. "Yes!" came the thunderous response. "Well, today, we'll give blood and tomorrow you'll see blood." Louder cheers. The event was part of a blood drive thought up by Mr. Lastman in a bid to get more young people to give blood. The World Wrestling Federation agreed to give free wrestling tickets to tomorrow's triple-threat match pitting Stone Cold Steve Austin against the Undertaker and Kane. The first 250 people who showed up at the Skydome donor clinic yesterday won tickets for two. Some people slept overnight outside the stadium to be among the first to donate blood. The mayor's gesture drew deep gratitude from diehard fans. "Mr. Lastman, you're a hero to wrestling fans all over the country," Tom Fatsis, 21, said, leaping to his feet as the mayor walked into the clinic. "I want to thank you," he continued, grabbing the mayor's hand and shaking it hard. Later, as he sat in his chair waiting his turn to roll up his sleeve, Mr. Fatsis explained the lure of professional wrestling. Like the prepubescent female fans of the Spice Girls, these young men talk about their idols with a reverence bordering on awe. "It's the story, the angles, the believability," the York University student said, indignant at the suggestion the wrestlers are similar to caftoon characters. "They're not. Not at all like cartoons." His favourite is Stone Cold Steve Austin. Mr. Austin's fan base at the moment is so overwhelming, Mr. Fatsis says, that he will likely win tonight's match at Skydome against Kane and the Undertaker. Mr. Fatsis likes Mr. Austin because "he doesn't give a damn whether he's in there and gets a good guy or a bad guy. He's there to get the job done." Others use the same tough language of their favourite fighters and imitate their menacing demeanour. Michael Amemic, 20, likes the Undertaker. A graphic-design student Mr. Amernic drew two posters of his hero hoping to get them autographed. "He's a big, scary, intimidating guy and I'd do anything to meet him," Mr. Amemic said, explaining he was dressed just like the Undertaker in black bandana, black sleeveless T-shirt and black jeans. Mr. Amernic's girlfriend, Jillian Peplinksi, also 20, was less impressed. "Wrestling is soap-opera for guys," she said. Both Mr. Amernic and Mr. Fatsis said they had never given blood before and confessed they wouldn't have come were it not for the prospect of free tickets to tomorrow's Highway to Hell tour. The mayor said he hoped the young people who showed up yesterday make it a regular habit. "Many of them have never given blood before and we've got to get them involved. And we are. Today it was mostly young people who have never given blood before." The clinic was part of Mr. Lastman's campaign to raise 10,000 pints of blood over 12 weeks. The results from the Toronto show: HHH DQ Rocky Maivia, Outlaws b Mark Henry & Kama, Tiger Ali Singh b Scorpio, Taka Michinoku b Scott Taylor, Edge b. Pierre, Mankind b. Terry Funk by submission, Ken Shamrock b Owen Hart, Val Venis b. Kurrgan, X-Pac b. Jeff Jarrett, Steve Austin b Kane to win triple threat match. - Sunny (Tamara Sytch) was fired by the WWF after failing to get counselling for what the promotion felt was a substance abuse problem. She's reportedly going to hang around in ECW. - Preliminary reports are that the WWF's Fully Loaded PPV drew the worst buy rate of 1998 thus far. As I've said time and time again, the WWF is a one-man show, with Austin as the only draw. At Fully Loaded, Austin's issue was pretty stupid, so a low buy rate would not be a surprise. Speaking of Fully Loaded, the Observer had the following to say about Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley, which I rated at a rough * * * : Rocky Maivia (Duane Johnson) retained the IC title going to a 30:00 (well, 30:04) draw with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Paul Levesque) in a 2/3 fall match. This was probably the longest match of either man's career and under the circumstances they worked real hard and did a good job. It's a real risk in today's environment booking a match this long unless you have a super worker, or preferably two super workers, in there. The match had its weaknesses because it went so long and didn't have one super worker, but it was still world's better than when ECW has sent its guys out there for too long matches. The first key spot was when Mizark Henry came out and gave HHH a splash on the floor. Billy Gunn ran out to run henry off. Maivia hit HHH with a lariat but HHH kicked out. Maivia hit a nice swinging neckbreaker for a near fall. There were loud boring chants as Maivia held a chinlock. He choked him with the camera chord and hit a nice float-over DDT for a near fall. HHH finally started a comeback with a high knee, but was cut off by a hot shot. It was clear at this point the two men were out there too long because the crowd was losing interest, which says more about fans tastes than about the work of the two because they were doing very well. Kama came out for a teased run-in, but the Outlaws blocked him. Brown then came from another direction and was on the top rope, but HHH swept his leg and he wound up crotched on the top rope. As Helmsley turned around, Maivia hit him with the rock bottom (uranage) for the pin in 20:21. It was the exact same finish as the X-Pac vs. Brown match earlier in the show. I should mention that the fact they were going long was telegraphed only a few minutes into the match when Jim Ross talked about keeping track of the time limit. Since they never talk about time limits, it didn't make the result obvious, because they could have done one of those 29:59 pins, but it did make it clear to everyone they were going the distance. For realism, when they go long, they need to bring up the time limit (when the bell just rings out of nowhere with no discussion of the time limit in the announcing the finish comes across as totally lame), but probably not until they are already 20:00 in. Anyway, in the second fall, Maivia monkey flipped HHH into the dreaded Spanish announcers table, and the table didn't break. He used the people's elbow for a near fall. Brown got on the apron but Chyna pulled him off backwards into the guard rail and decked him with a forearm. X-Pac then did a run-in and used whatever that sort of power bomb like move he's now using as his finisher on Maivia, but Maivia kicked out for a great near fall. Maivia then hit the ref with a chair when HHH moved, and Chyna gave Maivia a low blow and a DDT on the chair leading to HHH scoring the pin in 5:02. This left actually just 2:24 for a deciding fall. With the original ref carted out, the fall started with no ref and HHH went for a pin. Earl Hebner ran from the back almost as fast as he ran out of the ring in Montreal to count, bu Maivia kicked out. At the 2:00 left call, the crowd died. The usual reaction to that call is a surge of intensity. They really didn't do a good job in the last 2:00 as compated with most matches of this type. Maivia used a Samoan drop for a near fall, which Ross noted was shades of his grandfather (actually I probably saw more Peter Maivia matches than all but a few people still living or at least semi-coherent in this universe and can't recall him ever using that move, but later Samoan wrestlers did use it as a trademark). They tried to time the finish where HHH would hit the Pedigree and the bell would ring, although they missed by about four seconds. After the match the Nation attacked HHH, but the rest of DX made the save. * * * 1/4 - More from the Observer. Editor Dave Meltzer was asked what he would consider the top five PPV matches from WCW and the WWF. The writer listed Michaels vs. Ramon from WM X, Undertaker vs. Mankind Hell in the Cell, and Hart vs. Austin from WM XIII as his top three WWF bouts. Meltzer wrote: In recent years, the WWF's advantage in having the greatest match you've ever seen is that it has used far better wrestlers in its main events. From a technically awesome wrestling standpoint, Misterio Jr. vs. Guerrero has guys who are more versatile but they were in a prelim match and limited to 13:00 so I couldn't rate that as highly as say Austin vs. Bret Hart at Wrestlemania which was for all real purposes the main attraction on the biggest WWF show of the year and went more than 20:00 with far more hype going in. Realistically from a pure wrestling standpoint, the Malenko vs. Dragon matches are almost impossible to beat, except they don't have the hype going in or even during so others are going to be more memorable. In addition, some styles are better kept shorter. My opinion is Misterio Jr. and Ultimno Dragon's best work is about 17:00, and Benoit is also in that figure. Hart's best work would be about 25:00 and surprisingly so is Cactus Jack's and Michaels would probably be around that time as well. At their working peak, Misawa and Kobashi's ultimate match would be 40:00 and Kawada and Kobashi in Osaka put on the best 60:00 match I've ever seen. I think at his peak Flair's ultimate match would be 35-40 minutes with a guy like Steamboat. I'd agree the single greatest WWF match I've ever seen was the Ramon-Michnels ladder match from Wrestlemania X, and I'd also put Austin vs. Hart second. The one match I wouldn't have on the list is Undertaker vs. Mankind as it wasn't a match, just two insane bumps and thumb tacks that detracted from the match, and great matches stand the test of time and now only a few weeks after that match, while it may end up being as memorable as any of the others, my opinion on it is that it isn't holding up as a great match although it was an awsome spectacle, once you think about the reality of what the match really was. Misterio Jr. vs. Guerrero was awesome, probably the best mid-card major promotion match of the past ten years (although Misterio Jr. vs. Juventuid Guerrera had a mid-card match on an ECW show in Philadelphia that was even better) and the first PPV Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis match was very close to that level, but I'd rate it below, and maybe this is memory because when you watch 1980s matches now you have to judge them against the standard of their time, but I'd rate at least four Flair-Steamboat matches from 1989 ahead of it, with the best probably being New Orleans followed by a non-TV match at the Capital Center and then Nashville and Chicago, and the Funk-Flair I Quit match from that same year along with a few of the War Games seem to stand out. What would also be interesting is to try and have people pick the greatest match ever from All Japan (and so many come to mind here), New Japan, All Japan Women, Rings, AAA, ECW (it's interesting because realistically the two best matches ever in ECW were Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis and Misterio Jr. vs. Guerrera 2/3 fall matches from Philadelphia), Mid South, etc. Even though it wasn't a WCW match, the Love Machine & Guerrero vs. Santo & Octagon match had to be one of the five best matches ever on a PPV show produced by WCW and I'd pick it as the single best match ever produced on a WCW show that Flair wasn't a participant in. My feeling is judged against the standards of its time, that the Jaguar Yokota vs. Lioness Asuka match from around 1985 was the most ahead of its time match and the Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada hair vs. hair match was probably the best live match I've ever seen. Finally a little more sanity when discussing that Undertaker vs. Mankind cage match. And the two Japanese women's matches Meltzer mentions at the end were truly amazing. In particular, Yokota vs. Asuka was so amazing because it took place on 08/22/85, was better than almost any men's matches of the period, and help up as a great match five or six years later judged by the standards of the 1990-1991. - Eric Bischoff is attempting to put the screws to the good workers when it comes to signing new contracts. Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Chris Jericho all have on the order of a year left in their contracts with WCW. It's no secret that the first three, anyhow, have been pretty disgruntled with the way they've been handled. Even with the offer of raises and the threat of not being pushed in their final year (like they've been pushed up until now), nobody has signed an extension yet. It's expected that Chris Benoit, in particular, may be a lost cause for reasons that we all know too well. Morale is still in the toilet in WCW, particularly after the horrible Nitros that put so much time and effort into putting Hogan over again. (And why they wasted the Bagwell turn like they did is yet another mystery of life.) The company continues down the road to self-destruction, pissing off the above guys that make fans of wrestling order their shows, whlie bringing the Ultimate Warrior in in the very near future to headline for enormous pay-offs. - New Japan has a big show at the Osaka Dome on 08/08/98. It's expected that Masahiro Chono will win the IWGP Title from Tatsumi Fujinami. The show also features the crowning of the first ever IWGP junior heavyweight tag champions, as Koji Kanemoto & Dr. Wagner Jr. face Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa in the tournament final. - RAW beat Nitro on 08/03 with a 4.9 rating versus a 4.2 rating. The detailed ratings are a click away. I still haven't managed to update them; but, hey, I've updated the PPV figures. - PPV buy rates, revenue (in millions), and match statistics for the WWF, WCW, and ECW are presented in the following 1998 summary sheet (the PPV draw(s) are listed, as well as the quality matches): Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * WWF 98/06/28: King of the Ring Steve Austin vs. Kane Undertaker vs. Mankind 0.85 $3.86 1.72 * 1/2* * * * * 1/2 Undertaker vs. Mankind 11.1% (1 of 9) 98/05/31: IYH Over the Edge Steve Austin vs. Dude Love 0.65 $2.90 1.06 1/2* * * * * 1/2 Steve Austin vs. Dude Love 12.5% (1 of 8) 98/04/26: IYH Unforgiven Steve Austin vs. Dude Love Kane vs. Undertaker 0.85 $3.78 1.75 * * * * * Steve Austin vs. Dude Love 14.3% (1 of 7) 98/03/29: WrestleMania Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin Kane vs. Undertaker 2.20 $9.52 1.81 * * * * * * 1/4 Michaels vs. Austin Cactus & Funk vs. NAO 0.0% (0 of 8) 98/02/15: IYH No Way Out HHH & NAO & Vega vs. Austin & Owen & Funk & Cactus Kane vs. Vader 0.45 $1.67 1.43 * 1/2 * * * 1/2 HHH & NAO & Vega vs. Austin & Owen & Funk & Cactus 0.0% (0 of 7) 98/01/18: Royal Rumble Shawn Michaels vs. Vader Royal Rumble 0.97 $3.62 2.38 * * 1/2 * * * 1/2 Royal Rumble Max Mini & Nova & Mosaic vs. Battalion & Torio & Tarantula 0.0% (0 of 6) Last 6 1.00 $4.23 1.67 1.67 3.88 6.7% (3 of 45) 1998 1.00 $4.23 1.67 1.67 3.88 6.7% (3 of 45) 1997 0.61 $1.84 2.18 1.81 3.792 27.9% (6 of 21) Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * WCW 98/07/06: Bash at the Beach Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Karl Malone 1.6 $7.21 1.81 * * 1/4 * * * * Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman 11.1% (1 of 9) 98/06/14: Great American Bash Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper & Randy Savage Sting vs. Giant 0.8 $3.52 1.67 * * 1/4 * * * 1/2 Chris Benoit vs. Booker T 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/05/17: Slamboree Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. Sting & Giant 0.72 $3.20 1.92 * * 1/2 * * * 1/4 Chris Benoit vs. Dave Finley Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko Eddie Guerrero vs. Ultimo Dragon 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/04/19: Spring Stampede Sting vs. Randy Savage Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash vs. Giant & Roddy Piper 0.72 $3.20 2.40 * * 1/2 * * * * Ultimo Dragon vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. DDP vs. Raven 20.0% (2 of 10) 98/03/15: Uncensored Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage Sting vs. Scott Hall 1.10 $4.12 1.69 * * 1/2 * * * 3/4 Raven vs. DDP vs. Chris Benoit 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/02/22: SuperBrawl Hulk Hogan vs. Sting Outsiders vs. Steiners 1.10 $4.12 1.67 * 1/4 * * * 3/4 Juventud Guerrera vs. Chris Jericho 0.0% (0 of 10) 98/01/25: Souled Out Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair Giant vs. Kevin Nash Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage 1.02 $3.81 1.92 * * * * * Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Super Calo & Lizmark Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera & La Parka & El Dandy 11.1% (1 of 9) Last 6 1.01 $4.23 1.87 2.21 3.71 5.4% (3 of 56) 1998 1.01 $4.17 1.87 2.04 3.75 6.2% (4 of 65) 1997 0.77 $2.45 1.96 1.98 3.813 5.9% (6 of 102) Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * ECW 98/05/03: WrestlePalooza Shane Douglas vs. Al Snow Sabu vs. Rob van Dam 0.24 $0.45 0.64 1/2* * * Mikey Whippreck vs. Justin Credible 0.0% (0 of 7) 98/03/01: Living Dangerously Shane Douglas & Chris Candido vs. Al Snow & Lance Storm 0.23 $0.42 1.56 * * * * * 1/4 Buh Buh Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley vs. Spike Dudley & New Jack vs. Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney 0.0% (0 of 8) Last 6 0.24 $0.44 1.13 1.25 2.625 0.0% (0 of 15) 1998 0.24 $0.44 1.13 1.25 2.625 0.0% (0 of 15) 1997 0.22 $0.38 2.10 2.50 3.583 10.0% (2 of 20) Longer-term data is available. The data now runs back to 1991. A table of wrestlers who have delivered quality matches is also online. - All Japan goes to Budokan Hall on 09/11/98, with Kenta Kobashi defending his Triple Crown against Akira Taue. - WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/13/98. Tentative line-up has: * Goldberg vs. Giant for the WCW Title Lots of talk of Ric Flair returning to WCW for this show to reform the Horsemen with Steve McMichael, Chris Benoit, and Dean Malenko as members. Although they've clearly tried to make Arn Anderson the veteran glue that held the Horsemen together over the years, never even mentioning Flair by name in the current story line, it appears that Flair is now interested in returning. - 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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