______________________________________________________________________ Flash:Next update on Monday morning, 09/28. I'm running into some problems with my internet connection. Apologies for not posting an update last week. As I've mentioned here before, it seemed likely that my net access would get muddled when I switched jobs. Everything should be on track now. As a way of dealing with the new work location, I bought a laptop/notebook. I haven't quite configured it the way I would like, but it should help me sneak in some update minutes over lunches and the like, so I would expect that I'll have some longer, more analytical offerings again in the near future. Thanks for your patience in putting up with things here in recent times; I appreciate the e-mail. Ah, e-mail. This weekend, I'll upload a tape update that won't be anywhere near as long as I would like. I have over 170 unwatched tapes, now. Sigh. Anyhow, when I shoot the update to the web, I'll also be changing the e-mail graphic's link so that it points to an address that will be accessible to me. ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - WCW had Fall Brawl on 09/13/98. There's only one possible way to rate this PPV: thumbs down. The wrestling on the show was horrible. Some of the explanations for the story lines were nonsensical. The undercard was among the weakest in WCW this year. There were things that would have been great on TV, but that don't translate well to PPV. About the only good thing I can think to say is that they did set up some future story lines. Run down: * Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart beat Disco Inferno & Alex Wright: Maybe if Neidhart stayed out of the ring this could be an okay match. It wasn't. Increasingly, WCW matches just feature guys going through the motions and mailing in their performances. Why bother to put Smith & Neidhart over at this stage of their careers? Smith, as a singles wrestler, maybe. But Neidhart? The finish should have had Disco & Alex pin Neidhart. Give the young guys credibility and build to Smith going solo for one last run. Instead we received a circa 1986 WWF match. Frustrating, putting me in a bad mood from the start. * Chris Jericho beat a fake Goldberg: This was tremendously funny. Jericho had his crack security team with him for his Goldbergesque entrance. He got lost a couple of times, finally came out, and found that his fireworks were duds. Goldberg turned out to be a shorter lookalike who did Goldberg's mannerisms and lost in short order. It was really funny. On Nitro, it would have been one of the best segments. On a PPV, it stunk. * Ernest Miller beat Norman Smiley: Ugh. Smiley is good. Miller just stinks. Why they are pushing him when he can't interview and can't wrestle is beyond me. The commentators seemed to be playing a game: how many times can we say "three-time world karate champ" during this one bad match? A "boring" chant sprung up. Miller has one move, a spin kick off the top turnbuckle. He blew it here, not connecting. At least Smiley had the sense not to lie down. A half-hour into the PPV proper and I'm totally bored. Rumour in Japan has it that Jackie Chan will work a match against Miller at Starrcade, perhaps explaining Miller's new character and push. * Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner ended with no decision: Okay, Scott came into this match with his back problems still troubling him, so we knew it would be short and that it would be bad. But WCW had backed itself into a corner by saying the match would take place or Scott would be suspended for life. Not even five minutes in, Buff Bagwell took a pathetic-looking bump against the post and collapsed on the apron, sadly parodying his very real traumatic accident from earlier this year. The crowd chanted "bullshit." Paramedics came out and Eric showed up. Buff was carted out on the stretcher. Now, the two primary participants in the match were still perfectly fine, but apparently there's something about Scott & Buff's relationship we don't know 'cause they threw the match out. Obviously, living up to the promise of a match that wasn't delivered the last time it was promised is less important than having the wrestlers involved follow a stretcher out to an ambulance. Maybe I'm being too tough here, but it seemed weird when the match was stopped. Of course, it was all an angle, as Scott & Buff leaped out of the ambulance and attacked Rick. This angle served to make Buff's very real injury inconsequential, which is very sad since it could have been used to push him to a new level. Scott & Rick will have another PPV match at Halloween Havoc; right now, this feud has to be considered for "Worst Feud of the Year." * Juventud Guerrera beat Silver King: A nice ten minute match. Juvi flubbed Manami Toyota's roll over spot. They did a backwards superfrankensteiner. It ran too short for me, particularly since when it was over, the show was one hour underway and only ten minutes were good. * Saturn beat Raven to liberate the Flock: The usual cluster that these guys have. Saturn does some nice moves, but so many times they mean little because there really isn't a wrestling match underway. The Flock brought out a table and it looked like they were going to help Raven. Kanyon freed himself (he was handcuffed at ringside), hit his Flatliner, and re-cuffed himself, but Saturn kicked out. Finally, Kidman climbed to the top rope and hit a dropkick on Raven, and Saturn did the death valley driver on Lodi off the apron and through a table onto the floor before hitting one on Raven for the pin. Kidman gets his freedom and hopefully leaves this cesspool -- the Raven division -- and moves on to better things. * Dean Malenko DQ Curt Hennig: This could have been the show saver, but Hennig is another guy that mails his matches in these days. Arn came out and we got the usual TV ending. Despite all of the "We want Flair" chants, they were saving Ric for TV the next night. Why deliver him at the PPV, show stills on Nitro the next night, and try to pump up the buy rate for the replay? * Konnan beat Scott Hall: Hall is doing his drunk gimmick. He does it better than Hawk. The match was nonexistent. * Wargames was won by Diamond Dallas Page: They announced that Wargames could end by pinfall at any time, as opposed to in the past when it could only end once all the wrestlers were in the cage. That was an annoying announcement. Since they didn't plan to use it anyhow, why mention it? Diamond Dallas Page & Bret Hart started out, delivering a good five minutes. Stevie Ray came in and sucked all of the heat out of the match (could have stopped this sentence just before the "all"). Sting, Piper, Luger, Nash were next. When Piper came in he attacked everybody. You see, Wargames features three teams, but it's really every man for himself since the winnder of the fall gets a title shot. The coin tosses between rounds determine which team gets to send in another wrestler; that choice is made by the captain of the team. So, Stevie was in there doing Hogan's bidding, so the commentators say. Questions abound: (1) If it's every man for himself, why would any captain choose not to go in first? Is the shot at the world title so unimportant that he's willing to lose a chance at earning it? (2) If the first person to win a fall over anybody gets the shot, wouldn't an underling lie down for his captain? Why didn't Hogan go in, shake hands with Stevie, and have Stevie submit so that Hogan gets the win? (3) Why, when Hogan slapjacked everybody, didn't he just pin somebody before UW came in? After all, the match could end before UW showed up. You get the idea: this was booked in a place where nobody thinks. For all of the reality that Ric Flair brought to his Nitro appearance this week, this match brought total fakeness to wrestling. So, Hogan sneaked into the ring a minute early and laid everybody out. UW (actually Renegade) showed up in a cloud of smoke, got slapjacked, disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and then came running out the back (while the first UW was under the ring). Hogan left the cage and locked the door with UW inside. The commentators and booking played it up like he couldn't get out at Hogan. In a normal cage match, that's true. In this match, there was a huge gap between the two ring aprons, so Warrior could have scooted in there, slipped underneath the ring, and come out. Instead, they decided to have him kick a piece of the cage loose, since that looked so cool on WWF PPVs. He chased Hogan away. Page recovered and got the win with a diamond cutter. Poor Page will now have to wrestle Goldberg; that in itself isn't a bad thing, but Page will lose and be booed in the process. He's already been getting boos for verbally assaulting the Wölfpac in the lead-up to this PPV. Overall, this was just a really bad show. RAW RAW on 09/14/98 was a live show. In the worst-kept secret in pro-wrestling this week, everybody knew that Ric Flair would be returning to WCW on Nitro. Couple that with advertised Nitro main event of Goldberg vs. Sting and you come to the conclusion that the WWF needed a strong show maintain viewer interest. Not surprisingly, then, this episode of RAW offered more wrestling than usual, an intriguing main event, and a titillating diversion. Road Dog faced Jeff Jarrett in a match that led to Jarrett whacking his guitar's neck down on Road Dog's neck. They sold this like it was a big deal injury, wheeling the Dog out to an ambulance. I just don't know if anything will be able to get Jarrett over. Buoyed by his strongest match ever at SummerSlam, Rocky Maivia moved up the ladder, facing Kane on TV and actually getting in some offence. Although I've called Rocky (& Helmlsey) mediocre in the past, and I still maintain that opinion, it's nice to see okay-to-good wrestlers get a chance to move up. WCW routinely fails to do this. Rocky strikes me as being about the same as Scott Hall: a good supporting character, but never a hall of fame superstar. The match ended when Mankind interfered. Mankind, faced bruised from the unseen sledgehammer attack by Kane, ran around this show with a sledgehammer, in fact challenging Undertaker to a match later. Staying with the Rock, there are going to be people who see the reaction that he got on this RAW or see the "Rocky sucks" chants earlier in the year as an indication of how over he is. When judging "overness," I think the important questions to ask oneself is (1) would another wrestler placed in the same position get a similar reaction, and (2) is he responsible for selling tickets? The point is that once people have paid to come to an arena to see wrestling, they are going to react to the wrestlers to some degree. What gets them to the Arena? In the WWF, it's Steve Austin. Guys that get a reaction underneath Austin need to be considered in that light. Remember a couple of years back when Shawn Michaels was getting great babyface pops? When he was given the WWF Title, he didn't draw well as champion at all. He ended up being viewed as a poor babyface wrestler because of it. The same with Sting in WCW/NWA. Now, while wrestling is enjoying an upturn in popularity, and both companies have guys who can draw money working in key spots, Sting gets a great reaction and Michaels gets a great reaction (when he surfaces for commentary). The Observer makes similar comments about Diamond Dallas Page: "While he is not a great worker and it is almost a joke how overpushed he's been due to connections, the fact is that he has not only been smart but has worked very hard to make himself a celebrity in this field by doing the interviews that others blow off and doing the charity appearances while others get drunk in their hotel rooms. He's had the opportunity from his push to become one, but is not someone that people tune in specifically to see. In this industry, making yourself a celebrity to the media which filters to the mainstream ends up being a lot more important than being a good technical worker or even the immediate fan reaction to you over the short haul." You've got to agree that Page, like Rocky & Sting, gets a good pop, but that that is just because the fans are already in the building, having spent their money because somebody else drew them there. Interestingly enough, the Halloween Havoc PPV will have Page vs. Goldberg in a title match and Hulk Hogan vs. Warrior in an anticipated rematch. With weeks to hype the show, you've got to expect a very good buy rate because of the lure of Hogan vs. Warrior. The question is whether people will interpret a good buy rate as a measure of Page's drawing power against Goldberg. Owen Hart lost to Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Owen is so misused. Undertaker and Mankind had a garbagy brawl. A dumspter of stuff was wheeled out and used for weaponry. Eventually, Undertaker tombstoned Mankind on a chair and was going to destroy him when Rocky emerged from the dumpster, took out Undertaker's knee, and dragged Mankind to safety. Why didn't he come earlier? What was he doing in the dumpster all that time? Oh well. It was still kind of fun. Gangrel DCOR Edge. Do you see a pattern here? Yup, where are the clean finishes? Edge did a plancha but Gangrel moved. With Edge lying at ringside, laid out becaouse of the miss, Gangrel pour some tomato juice in his mouth and spritzed it all over Edge. Gangrel said something like, "My blood runs through your veins. Eternity is forever." I'm glad he clear that up; until now, I've though that Eternity is watching a 4:00 Steve McMichael match. Mark Henry faced both X Pac & Chyna in a handicap match. It was a pointless match, really, with Henry catching Chyna's body press and turning it into a power slam. I do give the WWF credit, though, for taking the unover guys, namely Jarrett & Mark Henry, and putting them into programs with the over guys, namely DX. There's always the risk that the unover guys will pull the over guys down (like the Oddities with Sable or the LOD with Sunny). Jackie lost to Sable in an evening gown match. No match, just a chance for Jerry Lawler to scream and make viagra jokes. Sable destroyed Jackie, whose silicone implants popped out at the finish, shown on replay in slow motion without TSN catching it. Afterwards, Sable removed her own evening gown because, Jim Ross tells us, she's proud of her body. During this segment, the camera froze on a woman in the crowd who looked a lot like Terri Power. There have been rumours for a while that the WWF was planning on recreating a women's division. Something tells me it will resemble GLOW a lot more than it resembles AJW, if you get my drift. Steve Austin faced Ken Shamrock in the big money main event. This pairing seems to be Austin's only other potentially huge program; with the first meeting being on TV, you had to expect screwiness, particularly in the form of Kane & Undertaker. Sure enough, the unholy twosome ran in, ruining an okay match. Mankind & Rocky Maivia ran in at the finish. This whole thing may well elevate Rocky to the next level, so that he can be a legitimate challenger for Austin down the line. Earlier in the show, Vince McMahon announced that at the Hamilton In Your House on 09/27 (one hour away from here), the triangle main event with Undertaker vs. Kane vs. Austin for the WWF Title would have the stipulation that Undertaker & Kane could only win by beating Austin. The commentators went into a tizzy, saying that McMahon would do anything to get the title off of Austin, that it was so unfair, that he'd strip him of the title if the fans would allow it, etc. They missed the boat. They either needed to mention that McMahon wanted Austin hurt in this two-against-one triangle match or that he wanted him humiliated in it. As it stands, he actually helped Austin's chances of keeping the title. Beforehand, friendly brothers Kane & Undertaker might well have just laid down for each other so that one of them could win the match and the title. Now, Austin goes from a bad situation where he could lose the title without losing the fall to a better situation where he has to be beaten to lose the belt. Jim Ross, in particular, was really careful in the previous Austin vs. McMahon confrontation to explain why things that seemed silly actually made sense; I was disappointed that he missed the boat here. As McMahon's involvement in the story line strengthens again (he was responsible for the Austin vs. Shamrock match, too, since he just wants Austin to lose the title, again), I'm wondering if it's being scripted by somebody different. The Observer reports that RAW is being written by Vince McMahon, Vince Russo, and Ed Ferrera. Also on the show, Marlena, called Terri Runnels, returned in a vignette showing her under the cover doing the Lewinsky to the Big Valbowski. Dustin Rhodes was in the ring saying some "Hail Mary"s. The also aired a Steve Regal vignette, where he chopped down a tree and was called "Steve Regal, a man's man," which is going to draw a homophobic reaction, one would think. On 09/11, a special one-hour RAW took place. Kaientai-DX jobbed to DX. Justin Bradshaw beat Droz by cheating; when Bradshaw's in the ring, you need a scorecard to keep track of Jim Ross' use of "ornery Texan" and "Brama bull." Disciples of Apocalypse and Golga & Kurrgan went to a DQ. Vader beat Dustin Rhodes. Rocky Maivia & Mark Henry faced the Headbangers, but Chyna attacked Henry. Jeff Jarrett faced Edge. Finally, RAW will air live in Canada starting in November, not October as WWF Canada head Carl DeMarco said on "Off the Record." Because of the more riqsue content on the show these days, the Tuesday afternoon rebroadcast will be edited to 90 minutes weekly to trim out the questionable material. Nitro Nitro on 09/14/98 aired as a 90-minute show in Canada. Only two matches aired on the show. Lex Luger faced Scott Hall in a match that deteriorated into nothingness because of Hall's condition. It says a hell of a lot about the industry that each promotion would take a guy with a known addiction problem and make a rehab angle out of it. In Hall's case, it seems likely that the explanation will be that he felt so bad about turning his back on his Wölfpac friends he turned to drugs for solace. After rehab, he can explain and turn back. Anyhow, it was interesting only because the faces and heels, including Eric Bischoff, all came out to talk to Hall, and they and the commentators acted very serious. It's another case where WCW and the WWF do the same story line, but WCW delivers the angle better, likely without getting any credit. I'll get flamed for that sentence, but over the years it has been the case that, for whatever reason, the WWF gets assessed with a softer standard by most. The other match that aired in Canada was the main event of Sting vs. Goldberg. It was surprisingly okay and really heated. The finish sucked, with Hulk Hogan coming down and kicking Sting, with both Goldberg and the referee missing it. That led to a Goldberg win, so they at least delivered a finish, unlike the Shamrock vs. Austin match on opposite. Besides the two matches, the show included loads of interviews. Bret Hart officially removed himself from wrestling temporarily, apologizing to his fans, blasting Hogan who he promised to make miserable in the future, and seemingly dropping the US title. In the best segment in wrestling in a long time, Ric Flair returned to WCW this night. And there can't be a better place than Greensboro for that to take place. To start the segment, JJ Dillon and Arn Anderson had a little discussion. Arn then brought out the "other three" Horsemen, Steve McMichael, Chris Benoit, and Dean Malenko, who he raised up to the Horseman level in his interview. He acted like that was all he had to say before calling out Ric Flair. The biggest pop of the year came out of the standing crowd and Flair looked noticeable moved by the reaction. It was great to see Benoit and Malenko keep their chiselled faces in the ring. It was so astounding that the commentators were at a loss for words. My wife even paid attention and commented on the incredible reaction and atmosphere. It was real. Flair's emotion in his speech was real. The story line is a mix of reality and angle, but Flair was just phenomenal at making it real. He acknowledged that this might be his last run and suggested that he was going to make Bischoff miserable in the process because he can't allow himself the luxury of failure. Eric Bischoff came out, saying that Flair would never wrestle in his company, on his TV. Flair called Bischoff an asshole, which came through uncensored on TSN, in a shock. He called him a son of a bitch, as well. Except for Arn saying positive things about McMichael, this was an absolutely wonderful and truthful segment. It's apparently the case that Flair isn't under WCW contract, so he could pull a Brian Pillman and turn up in the WWF after getting exposure on WCW TV. That's extremely doubtful, though. Chris Benoit also hasn't signed a contract renewal. Eric Bischoff has told Benoit, Guerrero, and Malenko that he'll push them now as a sign of good faith in the hopes of them signing new contracts. Earlier on, Bischoff had told them they wouldn't be pushed until the signed new contracts. Reports are the Benoit will stay with WCW if the Horsemen story line is successful. On 09/07, Nitro aired as a two-hour show in Canada. We saw Bull Pain lose to Konnan. Lenny Lane lost to Wrath. Scott Steiner beat Evan Kourageous. Juventud Guerrera beat the returning Hector Garza in the best match on the show, although it was only okay. Garza looked a little confused. Stevie Ray beat Dave Taylor. Curt Hennig face Dean Malenko in a cage match. Eric Bischoff came out, unlocked the cage, and the heels were getting ready to slam the door on Malenko's head when Arn Anderson ran in for the save. Goldberg beat Scott Putski in a terrible match. Finally, Roddy Piper & Diamond Dallas Page faced Sting & Lex Luger. The finish of the show had the Ultimate Warrior appear in the ring after a cloud of smoke had filled the ring. The poor wrestlers had to work all night in a ring with a trap door in one spot. Some guys, notably Konnan, took bumps on the trap door and suffered injuries. In case you are wondering, the recent demotion of Terry Taylor and Kevin Sullivan has led to the changes that we see in Nitro and the WCW product in general. For example, since they were really high on Meng, his push has pretty much ceased. The Observer reports that "the brains behind the writing of Nitro at this point appear to be mainly Eric Bischoff, former child actor Jason Hervey, Hulk Hogan, and Kevin Nash." Earlier on, the Observer said, "Bischoff is booking Monday and Thursday, largely on the advice of Hogan and Nash." Thunder Thunder on 09/10/98 was a weak show. In the opener, the only good match on the show, Juventud Guerrera beat Silver King, with King going bonkers after the match. This set up their PPV match, but nobody cared. I really liked Silver King many years ago when he was one of the key guys, along with Ultimo Dragon without the gimmick, who formed El Gran Hamada's UWF, a lucha libre group of UWA wrestlers from Mexico touring Japan and creating a new style. Wrath & Chris Jericho had a non-match. This was very funny, with Jericho saying that since he was TV champion and WCW was a TV company he was more important than Goldberg; surely, then, Jericho deserves a similar entrance. He had two fat guys act as his security staff as the camera followed him to the ring; unfortunately, he ended up going through a door that led out into the parking lot. Funny stuff. Perry Saturn faced Kanyon. Steve McMichael beat Curt Hennig by DQ when Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko came in. Lex Luger & Bret Hart beat Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart in a poor, weird match. Disco Inferno lost to Konnan. Goldberg beat Rick Fuller. Stevie Ray faced Kevin Nash, leading to the usual ending. - The Enquirer reports that Jim Carrey got so into his Andy Kaufman character for the film about the comedian's life that he started taunting Jerry Lawler in the same way that Kaufman did. The report says that Lawler lost it and actually attacked Carrey. - During my drive to work each morning, beside one spot of the highway stretch that I travel there's a strip joint with one of those advertising boards upon which you can fix letters to spell out a message. While stopped at the red light at the neighbouring intersection this morning, I noticed the place for the first time and saw the sign: "Oil Wrestling / King Kong Bundy / Sept 27". Hey, don't ask me. - The Observer ran its occasional report of how the ratings are affected by segments that focus on individual wrestlers. The idea is to call the first quarter hour rating of RAW/Nitro the base level and then see if the rating goes up or down in the next quarter hour, pinning that increase/decrease on the wrestler(s) who were the focus of the segment. In this way, since the beginning of the year, the Observer had tracked the ratings effects of all wrestlers in the big two. There are some obvious flaws with the idea, namely (1) who a wrestler works against can affect his effect, (2) what's on opposite on RAW/Nitro has an effect, and (3) hype in a segment for directly upcoming stuff can affect things. I'm sure you can think of other complaints. Anyhow, the figures are fun to consider even with the inherent flaws. Here's a subset of the results, listing everybody that has an average of two-tenths of a ratings point increase or better. The first column is the increase/decreas in tenths of a rating point, the second is the number of up-down-even appearances (which gives a measure of how stable the figures are for some people), and the final column is wrestler name. Average Increase/Decrease Summary Wrestler 3.91 9- 1- 1 Roddy Piper 3.61 13- 4- 1 Randy Savage 3.57 28-16- 0 Hulk Hogan 3.44 26-11- 2 Kevin Nash 3.20 7- 2- 1 Rick Steiner 3.13 21- 7- 1 Giant 2.78 23-11- 3 Steve Austin 2.75 7- 1- 0 Ric Flair 2.65 17- 7- 2 Bill Goldberg 2.46 18- 8- 2 Lex Luger 2.32 24- 7- 3 Mick Foley 2.26 18-12- 1 Rocky Maivia 2.19 15- 9- 2 Vince McMahon 2.15 10- 9- 1 Eric Bischoff 2.08 24-10- 5 Undertaker 2.00 8- 3- 0 Marcus Bagwell 2.00 8- 3- 1 Stevie Ray - New Japan is running a tournament to determine challengers for the WCW Tag Titles. The tournament final takes place on 09/21/98. New Japan somewhat embarrassingly announced that Sting & Kevin Nash were the champions after they had lost the belts. - The WWF has In Your House on 09/27/98. Tentative line-up has * Undertaker vs. Kane vs. Steve Austin for the WWF Title The day before this show, WWF wrestlers are making guest appearances all over. The New Age Outlaws, for example, will be at the Scarborough Walmart. Scarborough is part of Toronto; my parents live there. - The WWF has In Your House on 10/18/98. - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/25/98. Tentative line-up has * Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior * Goldberg vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW Title * Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner - Nitro beat RAW on 09/14 with a 4.5 rating versus a 4.0 rating. The detailed ratings are a click away. I still haven't managed to update them; but, hey, I've updated the PPV figures. - Preliminary figures for SummerSlam have it at a 1.48 buy rate, which is a huge success. Bash at the Beach's buy rate finally settled down to 0.93. - 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 98/07/26: Fully Loaded Steve Austin & Undertaker vs. Kane & Mankind 0.5 (WWF claims 0.95; WCW claims 0.34; 0.5 independent figure) $2.23 1.81 * 1/4 * * * 1/4 Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley 0% (0 of 8) 98/06/28: King of the Ring Steve Austin vs. Kane Undertaker vs. Mankind 1.1 $4.99 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 0.96 $4.18 1.60 1.46 3.79 6.4% (3 of 47) 1998 0.96 $4.1 1.69 1.61 3.75 5.7% (3 of 53) 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 98/08/08: Road Wild Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno 1.14 $5.15 0.61 * * * * 1/2 Juventud Guerrera vs. Chris Jericho 0% (0 of 9) 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 $4.4 1.70 2.17 3.67 5.5% (3 of 55) 1998 1.03 $4.29 1.72 1.91 3.72 5.4% (4 of 74) 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 98/08/02: Heatwave Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow 0.23 $0.42 3.08 * * 1/4 * * * * Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka 16.7% (1 of 6) 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 0.23 $0.43 1.69 1.58 3.08 4.8% (1 of 21) 1998 0.23 $0.43 1.69 1.58 3.08 4.8% (1 of 21) 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. - 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. - The WWF has Royal Rumble on 01/24/99. - The WWF has In Your House on 02/14/99. - The WWF has WrestleMania XV on 03/28/99. - The WWF has In Your House on 04/25/99. - The WWF has In Your House on 05/23/99. - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/27/99. - The WWF has In Your House on 07/25/99. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________ Pictures of the Week More for the Who's Who. Kevin Nash Sabu Scott Hall Undertaker ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________