______________________________________________________________________ There was an update last week, but I didn't update the links to point to it. Sigh. Click "Previous" above to check it out. If my day goes as planned tomorrow, I'll finally be fixing the e-mail link to point a good address for wrestling e-mail. ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 10/05/98 was a taped show. I didn't find it to be as good of a show as the past few weeks have generall been, but it was still better than a typical Nitro in that window. Part of the reason is that the shows have only hyped the PPV main events in the past many weeks, so there's less stuff to clutter up the story lines. I think the Undertaker/Kane/Austin/McMahon story line drifted back into the realm of stupidity this week, with Austin attacking McMahon in his sick bed, partly because McMahon overacts every time out. The show opened with X-Pac losing the European title back to D'Lo Brown in a surprisingly boring match. The Head Bangers challenged and then beat up the Insane Clown Posse, who can disappear as soon as they wish; I don't know why white guys try to rap, or, for that matter, sing. Marc Mero beat Vader, who really should pack up and head home. But, hey, at this point, what other options does Vader have? If the WWF wants to waste the big money they pay Vader by having him job at the end of his career. I, for one, hope they don't manage to demoralize him to the point that he quits and saves them the money. Throughout the show, they jumped over to a live feed of Vince McMahon in a hospital bed being treated for the ankle injury that he suffered at the hands of Bret, er.., Undertaker. It's not an accident that the Undertaker attacked the same ankle that Vince broke when he and Bret tussled after Survivor Series. It's not a coincidence that just before Bret Hart's documentary airs in Canada and gets released on video elsewhere Vince decides to revive a story line that was feuled by reality. Owen Hart delivered a sad interview, saying that he was dejected that he had injured Dan Severn the previous week. Apparently, he's not going to take it any more. Severn did get shaken up by that bump last week, but escaped the planned angle alright. Kane faced Ken Shamrock. For all of the criticizing we do about Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, and others, I don't get how Kane doesn't get lumped in with them. Man, he sucks. He's embarrassingly like a green indy wrestler who has no idea what he's doing in the ring. He looks totally lost a lot of the time. Match had some flubs and confusion. Finally, Undertaker came out and accidentally (nudge, nudge) shook the ropes, causing Kane to get crotched on the top turnbuckle. Apparently that part of his body escaped the fire that scarred his face, 'cause he was limp on the turnbuckle. Shamrock suplex him for the pin. Val Venis faced Gangrel. Indy wrestling with gimmicks. Neither guy has any polish, and I'm not talking about Scott Putski. Gangrel takes some good bumps, though. Terri Runnels doesn't look as good as she used to. Gangrel came out with Christian (Cage, Jay Reso in real life), who is now identified as Edge's brother. Ah ha, you see, the vampire guy bit the brothers, but Edge somehow managed to escape his spell. And they all became wrestlers. Val gets the cheap win while the vampire and his victims brawl at ringside. Afterwards, a letter from Goldust is delivered to Venis. Al Snow, who is now definitely back in the WWF after losing a "loser must leave the WWF" match but then winning a "loser who has left must leave again if he loses again" match, faced Jeff Jarrett. Sgt. Slaughter wanted Al Snow to lose the match, but he used the head to win. The head gimmick still seems to small time to me, but I have this sinking feeling that there will be WWF fans at ringside soon madly shaking their styrofoam props. With a whole lot of kooky interference, Road Dog beat Mark Henry. Yawn. Earlier in the show, Mankind had visited McMahon had the secret hospital location. Now, we cut to the hospital again to find that Steve Austin has infiltrated the place dressed in a doctor's gown. He attacked McMahon, used a defibrillator on him, and stuck an enema tube up McMahon's rectum, or so they have us believe. Word has it that through creative editing of this taped show, they were able to splice McMahon's reaction onto the body of his body double, Pat Patterson. Finally, Undertaker beat Rocky Maivia. Kane tried to make it a loss for Undertaker, but he was thwarted. Since Rocky has a title shot slated against the WWF champion, you've got to come to the conclusion that Undertaker will win the belt. Rocky & Undertaker stand even right now, with one win a piece. On tomorrow's RAW, they will strip Hunter Hearst Helmsley of the IC Title. Although, early reports had it that there would be a tournament for the vacant title, possibly beginning tomorrow night, I've heard other reports that they will just through some unused second-string guys into a battle royal at the PPV next week. Nitro Nitro on 10/05/98 aired in full in Canada, but something went wrong with my programming and I missed the broadcast. The rebroadcast overnight didn't air as advertised on TSN, which routinely preempts Nitro for baseball or other things. Thunder on 10/08/98 continued the string of generally lacklustre WCW product. Kanyon beat Prince Iaukea. Buff Bagwell seemed to split with Scott Steiner after Scott dissed Buff's mother. It's just unbelievable that they are going to turn Buff face now in an inconsequential way after pissing away the perfect opportunity to build up his return from the neck injury as something significant and meriting babyface attention. It's just another example of how unfocused and unsharp WCW's booking is. Chris Jericho challenged Bill Goldberg to a match, with the commentators pointing out the Goldberg wasn't in the building this night. After getting a couple of good wins on other TV shows, Jerry Flynn lost in short other to Meng, who means absolutely nothing to the company, which puts Flynn in his place, I guess. Meng has resumed his superman gimmick, attacking Chris Adams when Chris came out for his match. Who cares? Wrath, Adams' scheduled opponent, came out and attacked Meng. They had one of those terrible brawls that anybody considering putting these guys together would expect, anybody who doesn't have the book that is. At one point, Wrath got a chair and was going to hit Meng, who bent over the shot. Wrath stood there, time stood equally still, Meng stood up, Wrath realized he screwed up the spot, Meng bent over again, Wrath hit him with a crummy chair shot. Ugh. After that, I'm really stoked for their PPV undercard match, aren't you? Yet another example of why my interest in the WCW product has waned so substantially. The Horsemen arrived and were told that they had to leave by legal order. They said that Dean Malenko was not ordered to leave, but he left as well. Really, they should have had Steve McMichael singled out as the guy that Eric Bischoff wasn't kicking out. They've got to build to McMichael being kicked out of the group since the fans just don't buy him as a member, despite his real life friendship with Ric Flair. Talk persists that Bret Hart is being considered as an eventual fourth Horseman. The Horsemen left the arena. El Dandy faced Tokyo Magnum. Lee Marshall said that these were two of the premier Cruiserweights in the world, which just kills that division as fast as having Billy Kidman buried by Scott Hall. Worse yet, Tony Schiavone suggested that Dandy wouldn't make weight as a Cruiser, which is pointless to bring up. In reailty, these two should be jobbers in a separately treated Cruiserweight division. The laughter erupted on the speaker system and the commentators had to pretend that they didn't know where it was coming from. It's a promotion for the new "Chucky" movie, yet another bit of silliness in WCW. Of course, the match had no result, since Scott Norton came out and squashed both wrestlers. Norton had the IWGP Title with him, which really should set up for a major program with Bill Goldberg in a few months if WCW wanted to exploit their relationship with New Japan. But that's not going to happen, is it? Eddie Guerrero came out with Hector Garza and Damian to ask El Dandy to join up with the LWO, the Latino World Order. Will any LWO member ever win a significant match? Yeah, that's what I thought. Tony Schiavone mentioned that Mark Curtis was going to go under the knife shortly and wished him well, really heaping praise on him. I met Brian Hildebrand when I went to SMW Fanweek in 1994 and he's a really goood guy. Best wishes from me too, Brian. Saturn beat Scott Putski. In a surreal moment, Disciple delivered an interview complaining that Hulk Hogan uses his influence to get untalented wrestlers work in WCW. He told the crowd that Horace Boulder was Hulk Hogan's nephew (true) and nobody cared. It was actually funny in a sad way, particularly since it was followed by a match involving two of the most untalented wrestlers in the company, Disciple vs. Horace. There were loads of blown moves, leading to a pathetic Apocalypse finisher. Disciple is another guy who is eating up microphone and ring time when so many other guys could be used. Chris Jericho came out to give the first interesting segment on the show. Jericho called Goldberg "Greenberg" and challenged him to come out. The music started playing, complete with the chants while no fan's lips moved. Jericho got the ref to ring the bell and raise his hand, claiming he had a win over Goldberg now. Dean Malenko, who left earlier with the Horsemen, came to the ring saying that he wasn't barred from the building and that he planned to wrestle tonight. Muddled story line. Eric Bischoff brought out the Barbarian as a ringer, but Dean managed to beat him. Raven & Diamond Dallas Page had an impromptu match when Raven complained that DDP gets all of the breaks that Raven deserves. DDP pinned Raven, of course. At 10:02pm EST, the main event kicked in. Michael Buffer told us that the main event featured two men that hate each other's guts. The match featured Stevie Ray vs. Lex Luger. When Luger finally had the rack ready, Scott Hall turned up. Hall had appeared earlier, acting drunk, in a segment from a nearby bar. This lured Kevin Nash out of the building to go after Hall. In this segment, they killed the drunk gimmick as a ruse, with Hall acting perfectly fine and delivering a normal interview. You see, he acted drunk just play mind games. Yeah, that fits into the previous story lines well. Tony Schiavone plugged that one of the biggest stars in Hollywood would be at Nitro on Monday. Chucky? Jackie Chan? I guess Chucky since they said that this star had a new movie coming out shortly. - You know, I missed the flagship WCW show this week through the tape screw-up and I really didn't care all that much. WCW's production values are through the roof, but pretty much everything else about the TV shows just stinks. The only exceptions seem to be the Horsemen, Chris Jericho, and Billy Kidman, who always deliver worthwhile segment. When WCW signed up all of the Mexicans, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddy Guerrero, with several established greats on that list, along with a few up-and-comers, I still enjoyed a large part of the product because the undercards were so strong. But that's fallen to the wayside in recent months. Yeah, Hulk Hogan and the gang still dominate the main events and end every show with a bad match, but for whatever stupid reason they've decided to fill the undercard with guys that don't deserve the exposure. Who wants to hear Scott Steiner, Stevie Ray, or Ernest Miller deliver sometimes lengthy interviews week in and week out? That's a big difference between the WWF and WCW for me. The WWF pretty much only lets guys who can speak do longer interviews. The guys who can't speak either have the commentators explain their issues for them or are just given a catchphrase to get them over. Even with all of those green guys filling out the WWF roster and WWF TV, week in and week out WCW has much lamer interviews fill their TV time. Part of the problem is that the WCW commentators are less prepared for their TV broadcasts, partly by design because Eric likes those surprised reactions, but the bigger problem is that the issues are so screwed up and unbelievable that even good commentators wouldn't be able to explain them well. Ultimate Warrior is tanking because of the way they used him: the long incomprehensible interviews, the horrible smoke gimmick that insults everyone's intelligence (one week, the smoke knocks everybody out, the next week it's no problem to sift through, etc.). Really, it's not enough that UW's input will kill the quality of one match on the show; no, we have to have a trap door in the ring so that the guys that might do a high spot find their actions hindered. - Later in the year, perhaps at Survivor Series, speculation is that the Head Bangers will team with Maralyn Manson to face Insane Clown Posse and a third partner. - Another thought comes to mind. Years and years ago, when Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior had their PPV match, a lot of people praised the match as being excellent. It was the best job that Hogan has ever done carrying somebody, I would say, but it was hardly great. Criticisms surfaced afterwards, pointing out how carefully choreographed the match was. Looking at the current landscape in wrestling, that criticism seems to merit broader application these days. The WWF, stuck when it comes to finding new talent because Eric's shrewd contract work since 1996, has signed a lot of green guys and uses them routinely in undercards. Theses guys suffer from the same symptoms that we used to find only on the indy scene or in the occasional important PPV match like UW vs. Hogan: their matches have to booked out really carefully and rehearsed routinely to be passable. So, the question that comes to my mind is should a match with those characteristics be praised on the same level as a more improvised match? Should the wrestlers involved in those two types of matches really be compared as near-equals? Part of what made Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, and Bret Hart, for example, so great is that they could adjust what they were doing in response to the crowd's reaction or lack thereof. Yeah, finishes and key spots could be laid out in advance, quickly, but the flow of the match could be thrown together in the ring. Even wrestlers that I think are amazing, with Shawn Michaels leaping to mind first, didn't have the panache of the three guys mentioned above in handling unexpected reactions or lack of crowd involvement. Yeah, D'Lo Brown vs. Val Venis was a good match, except for the last five minutes, and I really like D'Lo as a worker and think he's more well-rounded than the other new young guys in the WWF. But neither wrestler compares to the unused talent in WCW. - The WWF has In Your House on 10/18/98. Line-up has: * Undertaker vs. Kane for the WWF Title with Steve Austin as referee * Mankind vs. Ken Shamrock * Val Venis vs. Goldust - 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 * Scott Hall vs. Kevin Nash * Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner * Konnan vs. Eddie Guerrero * Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman for the Cruiserweight Title - Vader has been released by the WWF, finally. Talk is that the release bars him from working for WCW or New Japan. One phone report suggested that Vader was looking at All Japan after having worked the dome show there on 05/01, but I can't see him work that style as a foreign regular at this stage of his career. Other reports had ECW wanting him, but not being willing to pay for him. - My copy of Arn Anderson's book arrived on Friday. So far, it's been a very enjoyable read. I'll say a bit more once I've finished the book. - In talking about the WWF's Breakdown In Your House PPV, the Observer wrote, "The third theme, which is not a problem, but more of an observation, is that in 1996, while the WWF was in a sense asleep at the wheel, WCW scoured the world and signed up much of the best young (and old as well) talent out there. Now in hindsight they wasted them, and now is the time they desperately would have needed fresh awesome workers like La Parka to become this generation's Dusty Rhodes but with a workrate, but instead it will never happen. Over the last year, it has been the WWf scouring the independent scene, aggressively signing up guys to these developmental conrtacts and this PPV was more in the theme of trying to establish Edge, Gangrel, Bradshaw, Darren Drozdov, Val Venis, and D'Lo Brown as major league players, let alone the highly successful Rocky Maivia, as the top player for the future. Some will make it and some will flop. Most are nowhere near fready, but most also show a lot of potential to someday be ready. With the exception of Maivia, none, and that includes Venis who is a cult favorite, had the potential to be what the guys WCW squandered should have been. But the WWF hasn't squandered any of them at this point, although they didn't do Edge and Gangrel any favors putting them on PPV in matches that weren't hyped and they did lose although were attempted to be protected by the nature of those losses. But their first appearance established neither of them as players either and even with the protection, because of the lack of reaction to both, ended up flattening both of them out." - RAW and Nitro pretty much tied on 10/05 with a 4.5 each. According to the Observer, though, statistics suggest that more people watch Nitro in a group, so RAW has to win the ratings war by 0.2 or else more people saw Nitro that night. Weird. 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 98/07/26: 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. It's expected that this PPV will feature the Jackie Chan vs. Ernest Miller match. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________ If you have any feedback regarding my web pages, please send me e-mail. 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