______________________________________________________________________ I have straightened things out so that I have an e-mail account that I can dedicate to wrestling e-mail. This weekend, I will upload my entire web site again, so that all pages point to a legit address. I'm almost back among the living. Apologies for the inconsistency of this page and my site in recent months. With the new job, I'm teaching three new courses at a new university, which necessarily generates a huge hit on my spare time. Throw my baby daughter into the mix and I hope you can understand how crazy things are for me. ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 10/12 was a live show. TSN had advertised the two-hour broadcast at midnight on Monday night, but ended up airing a one-and-a-half hour show instead. The full two-hour show aired overnight Tuesday. The truncated version was like a "joined in progress" broadcast, with the first half-hour of the show tossed away, starting with the Sable vs. Jackie confrontation. Over all it was a good show, highlighted by the heel turn of Ken Shamrock and the continuing build of Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon. The obvious weakness was that they tried to do too much, leading to a lot of really short matches. The show opened with the Legion of Doom challenging for the tag titles, as angles seemed to be discarded or, at best, changed severely midstream. Hawk came out with Animal & Darren Drosdov, who wrestled as the LOD while Hawk did commentary. Hawk dismissed his earlier addiction angle as something he just kicked. Earlier, Billy Gunn dismissed whatever NAO split angle they might have been planning, saying that he was still in DX. The DOA came out to attack Hawk & the LOD. The Head Bangers came out to attack the NAO, with Road Dog blading in the melee. All of this was booked to hype two tag matches for the PPV on Sunday, with neither match looking like it will be any good. But they at least tried to hype something other than the main event. In the first match of the IC Title tournament, Ken Shamrock faced Steve Blackman. They said that Blackman was still recovering from his knee surgery (true), but then Blackman leaped over the top rope into the ring and hit a good dropkick at the start of the match. Shamrock drew boos from the crowd, with his heel turn long overdue. Of course, Shamrock hit the ankle lock for the submission. In a weird spot, the Blue Blazer ran in and attacked both guys briefly, particularly stomping Blackman's knee, before running off. Shamrock reapplied his ankle lock, with the commentators pushing his "mental breakdown." They pushed Goldust's return by airing clips of him thrashing Scott Hall and Roddy Piper. In a second tournament match, with bracketings never announced and the commentators saying that they hadn't been clued into who was in the tournament, Val Venis faced Marc Mero, with Jackie in tow. They finally have their new Women's title belt. Match stunk, but Jackie and Terri Runnels had a tussle afterwards. Terri sure looks older than I remember; thinking back to my youthful university student days, if my friends and I went out to a strip club and a Terri-lookalike was there, I'd ignore her because of how scraggly she looks. You've got to wonder if they purposely want a burned-out look for her before her expected return to Goldust. Returning from a commercial break, Sable & Jackie had their confrontation. Jackie has the strands of Sable's hair extensions tied into her own pony tail. They brawled; it was lame, unless you're hard up and were hoping for one of the women to pop out of her outfit. In the next tournament match, Mankind faced Mark Henry. Oh man, can Mankind draw anything out of Mizark? Chyna came out to help us ignore Mark a bit. Mark did some power stuff, all of which still looked bad and slow. Mankind did a good sell job, but Mark is clueless, like Kane without the gimmick. Mankind ended up winning with the mandible claw wearing his sock on his hand. Well, Rocky Maivia, let's see what you can do with him on Sunday. Chyna got in the ring and chastised Mark Henry for the lawsuit and Henry said it was out of his hands. In the final first-round match of the IC tourney, Jeff Jarrett faced X-Pac. The match had a little more action than anthing earlier on the show, but it had a stupid ending. Jarrett opened his guitar case (having usually just brought his guitar out without a case in earlier weeks) and found Al Snow's head inside, acted stunned, and was was rolled up. Snow came out to celebrate. Silly. Steve Austin, having arrived in a cement truck, poured cement into McMahon's Corvette, with the windshields shattering. Austin did an in-ring interview afterwards, effectively solidifying his feud with McMahon. I put the two-hour broadcast and the one-and-a-half hour broadcast in separate VCRs and play them simultaneously. In this way, whenever it seems like TSN did some sort of editing with the show, I can pop from one broadcast to the other and check on them. I find it funny to see what they let through and what they edit. This time around, the rebroadcast of the show blipped Austin's "bastard" and "ass" references, even though the show also aired in the middle of the night and even though Billy Gunn's "Mr. Ass" reference aired without problem. I'm glad TSN is looking out for me. McMahon came out in a wheel chair to confront Austin, telling him that he'd be teaming with Rocky Maivia tonight to face Undertaker & Kane. Give the WWF huge credit for doing their utmost to elevate somebody to the next level. There's something about McMahon saying he had balls the size of grapefruits and Austin would be picking the seeds out of his teeth that seems unseemly to me. In the first IC Tourney semi-final, Ken Shamrock faced Val Venis, attacking him before the bell. A lacklustre match. I guess the problem with having guys wrestle a couple of times in a tournament like this, along with adding the surprise main event tag, means that matches will have to be short. Shamrock used the ankle lock for the win. Goldust came out afterwards as an injured Venis lay on the mat, still selling his leg. Goldust laid into Val. Okay, I've seen his return...maybe he can leave again? Goldust hit a field gold on Venis' crotch. In the second IC Tourney semi-final, Mankind faced X-Pac. Mankind did a good job of maintaining his smaller opponent's credibility. Shamrock came out and chaired Mankind's ankle so X-Pac could get the roll-up win. After the match, Shamrock attacked X-Pac and laid into Mankind too. Hunter Hearst Helmsley came down to ringside. X-Pac said he'd continue in the finals. It was weird that the final immediately followed the semis. It would have made more sense to insert the tag main event here to balance the rest time for the guys, but, hey, this is pro-wrestling. X-Pac got a good pop for crawling to the ropes to break the ankle lock. Shamrock reapplied the hold and pulled X-Pac centre-ring for the victory. The camera work suggested that HHH & Shamrock would be programmed as soon as HHH is ready for it. In the main event, Rocky Maivia & Steve Austin teamed to face Undertaker & Kane. It seems certain that Rocky will get to drop the baggage of the Nation of Domination, which will leave those guys floundering, but will help Rock, to be sure. Match had excitement, but Kane just sucks. Undertaker ain't great either. It's always sad to see a tag match where the two best workers are on the same side. Paul Bearer came out. Match ended with the "surprise" reappearance of the Big Boss Man, who looked to be in better shape than ever before. After being a total waste of space in WCW, it will be interesting to see the WWF put him in a position where he means something to his promotion. You've got to wonder what effect that will have on the guys in WCW that have low morale because of the lack of upward mobility in that company. Nitro Nitro on 10/12 was the usual live three-hour show, and this week I managed to tape it correctly. The first hour was filled with PPV hype, which, for the first time, actually seemed really focused. They are doing a great job of hyping Halloween Havoc as having several major marquee matches (Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior, Diamond Dallas Page vs. Goldberg, Bret Hart vs. Sting, Scott Hall vs. Jevin Nash, and Steiner vs. Steiner). Tony Schiavone continued his usual excellent job of hyping the main events on Nitro as important matches, often at the cost of the prelim and midcard matches, also as usual. The show opened with Eric Bischoff pushing his feud with Ric Flair, similar to how the WWF promotes Vince McMahon vs. Steve Austin. First match was Wrath vs. Lodi in a squash. Wrath pretty much stinks, but he is putting some effort into differentiating himself from the other big stiffs that populate wrestling these days. It still doesn't make him good. Meng came out, and, just to show how important this undercard feud (and likely PPV opener) is, they cut to flashbacks from last week almost immediately. Dale Torborg finally got away from the race course long enough to get a "surprise" win over Kendall Windham. They said this was his most impressive win to date; how many has he had? He didn't look good. They took a chance after this match, having the Ultimate Warrior confront Sting, hinting at their start together. Sting challenged Hulk Hogan, so UW came out and babbled, with the audience turning on him a fair bit. UW offered to tag with Sting tonight to fight Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart. The reunion of the Bladerunners is hardly reason for excitement. Hulk Hogan came out to answer the challenge, accepting the bout. The Horsemen arrived in a limo, with Eric going nuts, saying that they had to leave, that they couldn't enter the building. The owner of the building came out of the limo and said he was taking the Horsemen into the building to sit in his skybox. It was a pretty good segment. Bischoff doesn't overact as badly as Vince McMahon. Alex Wright beat Fit Finlay by cheating. I find it funny when Alex speaks German and then criticizes the American fans for not being able to understand him. In a lucha libre trios match, Super Calo, Chavo Guerrero Jr., and Psicosis faced Damian, La Parka, and Villano V. Gee, do you think this could be the best match on the show? Chavo got the pin on Damian with is DDT. Eddie Guerrero came out and said that "they" keep making the Mexican wrestlers fight each other. He recruited Psicosis into the Latino World Order. It seems like a mistake to dilute the NWO group name so much, by giving a variation to guys who will never be players. Buff Bagwell came out with his mom in answer to Scott Steiner's ramblings. Steiner ended up cheap-shotting Bagwell. Juventud Guerrera beat Prince Iaukea. Billy Kidman & Disco Inferno got involved. Kevin Nash & Scott Hall did an angle, leading to Kevin's car chasing Scott's car out of the parking lot. Chris Jericho beat Raven, which is a result that is good to see. Rick Steiner did an interview, but Chucky laughed at Rick's interview skill, with Gene Okerlund and Rick treating the doll like it was real. This was a really bad segment. Please don't tell me that Chucky will play a role in the Steiner vs. Steiner match finish. Eric Bischoff went to the skybox to get Flair & the Horsemen thrown out. In the end, Eric was dragged out while fans cheered. This segment served a good purpose, no sarcasm intended. Goldberg beat Giant by countout. Stevie Ray interfered in the no DQ match. It looked like Goldberg would lose after a choke slam, but Diamond Dallas Page broke up the pin and Goldberg rallied to chase the Giant off. The main event tag match saw Ultimate Warrior & Sting face off against Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart. It was a bad match with a bad ending. The NWO Hollywood group ran out, smoke filled the ring, UW was dumped from the ring, and, when the smoke cleared, Sting had a bat and was clearing house. Warrior whipped the NWO members with Hogan's weight belt. Lame. Hogan sells like a grandmother. Giant was equally inept. Thunder Thunder on 10/15/98 was mostly filler. Van Hammer beat Sick Boy. Konnan beat La Parka. Fit Finlay beat Scotty Riggs. In the best match on the show, Kidman beat Kaz Hayashi. Both of these guys have tremendous ability and desire. Only Mike Tenay knows what to say during these matches. Kayashi used a top rope jawbreaker and a brainbuster for a near fall at the end. They did the double dropkick spot that Jushin Liger first used years back and that Brian Pillman adopted. Then they went to near falls, until Kidman finally hit the shooting star press. Best match of the week on TV. Afterwards, Sonny Onno attacked Hayashi. with Kidman saving him. Who do you put on to follow such a good match? In WCW's case, Ernest Miller is an obvious choice. He's as clueless as Mark Henry or Kane. Miller called anybody out and a fan jumped the rail and met with some kicks and the WCW security guys. This was the first-ever interesting Miller segment, and it had nothing to do with him. Prince Iaukea lost to Chavo Guerrero Jr. The Thunder main event was Dean Malenko vs. Stevie Ray. They went to a commercial almost immediately. Stevie Ray stinks. You had to feel badly for Malenko just because he had to be in the ring with this stiff. The ending was completely predictable. Dean hit the Texas Cloverleaf and Vincent ran in for the DQ. Scott Norton came out as well. The rest of the Horsemen made the save. The crowd booed the DQ loudly, but cheered a fair bit when the Horsemen came in. Arn Anderson delivered a great interview. Ric Flair followed it up. Ric, Dean, Chris Benoit, and Arn Anderson look great standing together, but Steve McMichael just doesn't belong. Flair said he was going to run the company and take Eric Bischoff's job, which has to be the way they plan to take the angle. Man, that sounds like it could be great. - I had the chance to watch a little New Japan and All Japan TV on the weekend. As the end of the year approaches, I got to thinking about the "Feud of the Year" award category. I know that everybody is going to vote for Vince McMahon vs. Steve Austin. I guess it depends on how you weigh the criteria that should be considered for the award. That feud helped maintain Austin's position, I guess, but it really only had focus for two or three RAW episodes at this point in the year (and there was at least one really great show). It didn't deliver much in the way of great wrestling, with Austin vs. Dude Love being the highlight, I guess, but drifting into heavy garbage wrestling. The traditional All Japan favourite in this category is Mitsuharu Misawa & co. vs. Toshiaki Kawada & co. which still delivered some good matches, but it has drifted out of the top spot, to be sure. Some people like to go with broader feuds, like NWO vs. WCW, DX vs. NOD, and the like, but there hasn't even been a broad selection this year that delivered loads of great matches. That's what came to my mind as I watched another set in the series of incredible matches featuring Jushin Liger & El Samurai & Kendo Ka Shin vs. Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa. They've split the threesomes into singles and tag matches too, and every match that has aired on TV has been at least * * * 1/2 , and these guys have worked countless untelevised matches that were in the same ballpark, I'd bet. The emotion in the matches has also been great, as the feud has been quite heated. Right now, nothing else in 1998 can touch these guys, IMO. Austin vs. McMahon may be growing new legs and Eric Bischoff vs. Ric Flair is just starting out, so those might grow into something significant in the next month or two, but there just isn't enough time left in the year for those feuds to build up a comparable list of quality matches. - 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 4.00 5- 2- 0 Kanyon 3.91 9- 1- 1 Roddy Piper 3.61 13- 4- 1 Randy Savage 3.20 12- 1- 2 Ric Flair 3.16 30-20- 0 Hulk Hogan 3.16 28-12- 3 Kevin Nash 3.00 8- 3- 1 Rick Steiner 2.94 22- 8- 4 Giant 2.89 6- 1- 2 Arn Anderson 2.83 20- 8- 2 Bill Goldberg 2.80 29-13- 4 Steve Austin 2.71 3- 3- 1 Warrior 2.30 21-10- 2 Vince McMahon 2.29 21-10- 2 Lex Luger 2.27 19-15- 3 Sting 2.20 11- 4- 0 Marcus Bagwell It's weird to see so the WCW names dominate the top part of the list so much. The bottom of the list is filled with all of the WWF junky guys (from bottom up, everybody with a -2.00 or worse): Chainz, Brian Christopher, Mark Canterbury, Bart Gunn, Dennis Knight, Taka Michinoku, Bradshaw, Ultimo Dragon, Skull, Eight Ball, Val Venis. Looking at the list of the guys with positive ratings effects, I've got to ask the question: Who's better than Kanyon? - While everybody was reporting that Giant wanted to leave WCW for the WWF, word is now that he's signed a renewal with WCW. The Observer writes, "Somehow my feeling is that if he were to go [to the WWF], he'd have to greatly adjust his lifestyle because the WWF is pretty much keeping Shawn Michaels home nowadays because nobody wants to be around him until he gets his ego under control and with all the potential Giant had to be one of the great attractions of this era, he's hardly the proven commodity that Michaels is and unless he gets himself in shape and shows some interest in improving, he never will be." - Word now is that Vader can work in New Japan, which seems to be his only real option. The problem there is that Eric Bischoff, who dislikes Vader, could put some pressure on New Japan not to use him. - 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 * New Age Outlaws vs. Head Bangers for the Tag Titles * Ken Shamrock vs. Mankind for the IC Title * D'Lo Brown vs. X-Pac for the European Title * Rocky Maivia vs. Mark Henry * Val Venis vs. Goldust * Legion of Doom vs. Disciples of Apocalypse - 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 * Sting vs. Bret Hart * Scott Hall vs. Kevin Nash in a bar fight * Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner * Konnan vs. Eddie Guerrero * Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman for the Cruiserweight Title - RAW beat Nitro on 10/15 with a 4.8 rating versus a 4.7 rating. The detailed ratings are a click away. I still haven't managed to update them. - 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) I'll update the figures for next week. 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. Don't forget to delete the leading "x" from my e-mail address; that "x" is my web spider spam guard. ______________________________________________________________________