______________________________________________________________________ I'm still having trouble keeping to a regular schedule with web updates. I guess I'm feeling the pressure of having to perform at a really high level for my new one year contract in the hopes that I'll be the obvious prime candidate for a permanent position when it is advertised. The academic readers that visit this page know what I'm talking about, no doubt. Even though I'm only teaching two courses this term, they are meaty: a third-year partial differential equations course and a fourth-year topics course. The topics course is meant to serve as a window to current research, so I'm talking about fractal-based methods in analysis. It's a lot of effort to build a course at this level from scratch, particularly when there's no way a single text book (or even any text book!) can be used. Although I have a large number of lectures prepared in advance thanks to the XMas holidays, there's still assignments and tests to build, and I've been working hard these past couple of weeks writing a fractal image compression/decompression program that not only does the compression/decompression but also demonstrates a little of what is actually happening. That's the last topic we'll cover in the course, and it would be nice if students were able to see the mathematical ideas we'll develop in that chunk of the course actually turn into reality. ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - WCW had Souled Out this past Sunday, 01/17/99. The show was as miserably promoted as any show in recent memory. They announced the main event a week before the show. They really only pushed two matches to build the show. If asked, diligent fans might have caught one other match on the show. The show featured a few other matches that followed logically from the TV shows building to the PPV, but they never bothered to hype those matches. They announced a cruiserweight match on WCW Saturday Night the night before the PPV. What a mess. So my expections were low, especially given that no promotion delivered a good PPV in the second half of 1998. Well, talk about a pleasant surprise. The show ended up being the best PPV in recent (past half-year+) memory. It's the first easy thumbs up in all that time, and, in hindsight, there's a noticeable reason why: the NWO, back to being the rebellious anti-WCW scourge that they were two years ago, didn't have much presence on the show. No Hogan. No Steiner. No Horace, Vincent, Nash, Norton, etc. This seems like a recipe for a good show. Run down: * Chris Benoit beat Mike Enos: Okay, my thoughts were that this wasn't a PPV level match. Yeah, Enos has improved a lot thanks to ethic and some New Japan work. The commentators spent way too long talking about other crap and not talking about the match. The wrestlers worked stiffly and the crowd was lured into the match. Enos did a great backbreaker counter to the crippler crossface. Benoit is so good at making anybody look awesome. Enos is far from his worst opponent, but I still found myself praising Benoit when Enos look so good. Benoit chopped the crap out of Enos' chest and the crowd just loved it. The finish seemed a little off, with Benoit supposed to hit the crossface off a clothesline. It didn't work like that the first time, so they did another clothesline spot. A really good opener, but not a special or memorable PPV match. This would have been an awesome Nitro match. * Norman Smiley beat Chavo Guerrero Jr.: This was a match that was obviously on the PPV based on the lead-in TV, but it never got hyped. Some of the wrestling looked weak, like the indyish new stars in the WWF, but Smiley's mat wrestling was great. I'm reminded of the Koji Kanemoto vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. Best of the Super Junior tourney in New Japan last year, where Koji turned Wagner into a star in the division by putting over his mat wrestling so strongly. I'm don't know why I'm reminded of that match, since WCW will never get Smiley over like that. They built to a superplex spot by Smiley. The heat was okay-to-good, with Smiley's wiggle dance being over. Smiley did the Gori especial and Tenay explained why it was significant. When Chavo went for a leg scissor take down, straddling a standing Smiley's waist, Smiley did his wiggle dance. It was sort of a gay spot, but the crowd laughed. They blocked each other's finishers, before Smiley tossed sawdust ashes of Pepe into Chavo's face and hit the chickenwing for a submission. Wow, two submissions in two matches. Except for the stupid bit with Pepe's ashes, this was a very good match. * Fit Finlay beat Van Hammer: I thought the show was going to repeat the earlier PPV efforts by WCW. I don't know why they decide to stick a cold match of this sort (or Scott Norton last time) on a PPV. If they need to fill time with a cold match (i.e. one with no heat built up on TV), then they should pick a match with some workers who will draw the crowd into the bout. Thankfully, this match was really short, and Finlay at least worked his ass off. But David Copperfield couldn't pull a watchable match out of Hammer's ass. * Bam Bam Bigelow beat Wrath: Bigelow did as good a job as anybody of carrying Wrath. Match was still mediocre at best. "The pattern begins?", I wondered. * Lex Luger beat Konnan: Konnan's pre-match speeches are dirty, and it's funny because you know that no decision-makers in the promotion actually understand what he's saying. Luger is such a dud. Konnan finally hit the Tequila Sunrise, but Liz came out and sprayed him in the face, so Luger got the win. * Chris Jericho beat Perry Saturn: The advertised stipulation was that Jericho would be off TV for 90 days if Saturn won and Saturn would have to wear a dress on TV for 90 days if Jericho won. When the show started, the announced that the stipulation had changed to "the loser must wear a dress for 90 days," which I guess means that Jericho has finally signed his contract renewal or the promotion has decided to bury him on TV in preparation for his leaving. Match was pretty good, but the finish was clear right from the start, when Scott Dickinson, who has a feud with Saturn, came to the ring as the ref. Saturn blew a few a spots and nailed a few as well. Jericho was great. The finishing sequence was tremendous, before the actual finish of a Dickinson fast count after a pin reversal. This was a good match. One had to wonder whether a typical WCW pattern was in effect: pretty good opening stuff (true here), really dull middle (dull, but not really dull, here), one moment of goodness later on (this match), and then junk. Was the junk to come? * Billy Kidman beat Rey Misterio Jr. & Psicosis & Juventud Guerrera in a four corners match: They went right off the scale. This is the first match of the year contender in North America. Sure, the match had the occasional logic flaw because of the stupid rule that Kidman could lose his title without losing the match, but that was its only small flaw. The work was stellar, almost as great as the New Japan juniors can be on their best night. Loads of fast, great action, topes, and the like. Psicosis did a couple of incredible topes. Kidman took a bad bump on the floor on his sore shoulder and seemed hurt at the end when Rey tried to lift his arm. Kidman won with the shooting star press on Juvi. They did a few subtle things in the middle of the match to add to the Kidman vs. Rey program. I can't praise this match enough. I was incredibly pleased that it appeared third from the top. * Ric Flair & David Flair beat Barry Windham & Curt Hennig: Ric Flair can do no wrong, he is so over. For the first seven minutes, the heels sold like crazy for the Flairs, even David. The heat was incredible. Finally, Ric got pummelled and had to make the hot tag to David. All hell broke loose. The referee was distracted, so Arn Anderson came in and whacked Hennig with a tire iron. As Hennig fell to the mat, he pulled David with him, and David got the pin. Afterwards, the full NWO ran in. Benoit came out, but the Horsemen were outmatched. I was glad that Mongo didn't show up. The NWO killed the Horsemen. Ric was handcuffed to the ropes and David was whipped by Hogan. He was also spray painted. Ric yelled profanities at Hogan. It was a tremendous scene, and I almost believed that the WCW vs. revitalized-NWO feud will be really hot. Certainly, the Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan feud could be something if it were booked right. This match was nothing special at all, with David clearly out of his element, but showing a few small sparks, but the heat was wonderful and the post match attack was memorable. * Goldberg beat Scott Hall in a ladder match: At the start of the PPV, the showed Goldberg laid out in the locker room, selling his knee. A real knee injury crept in and had to be introduced into the story line; this would be a test of Goldberg, to see how he handles a real injury when he has a main event. Ladder matches are a weird spectacle. This one didn't have as many crazy spots with the ladder as other matches have, but it had great heat and tension. And the gimmick of having the stun gun as the prize and having the winner be the person to first use the stun gun really added something new to the finish of the match. There was all this heat, tension, and drama building to getting the stun gun off the its hook. Then there was a second climax as the wrestlers tried to use the stun gun. I never would have expected it, but they put together an absolutely great finish for the match. Hall had the stun gun, but Goldberg avoided his lunges, and hit a spin kick to disarm Hall. Goldberg got the stick. Having seen that lunging wasn't the best tactic, Goldberg tossed the stick high in the air towards Hall, who lifted his arms to catch it. Goldberg hit a spear before Hall could catch the stick. Goldberg hit his jackhammer, got the stun gun, and zapped Hall. Excellent clean finish that helped Goldberg get his heat back. Afterwards, Bigelow charged the ring to attack Goldberg, and Hall zapped both of them. RAW Due to a combination of workload and increasing disinterest with the majority of what the promotion is delivering on TV, I think I'm going to abandon the lengthy descriptions of RAW. Don't get me wrong: I do find some of what the WWF airs on RAW to be fun, it's always well-produced, and it's perversely fun to watch the boundaries of good taste sink ever lower while wondering when outside forces will make the company change direction. With all that, though, the promotion delivers so little actual good wrestling action that I always come away from the show thinking that wrestling fans just aren't the target audience of the promotion (and, heck, they make a big deal that they are "sports entertainment"). On 01/14/99, for example, RAW opened with an entertaining, but long-winded, 22 minute segment with Mankind basically establishing some future story lines. More and more, the philosophy seems to be to get the guys in front of the crowd, have them swear a bit, but completely minimize the wrestling. And the wrestling is the primary reason that I'm watching the shows. On RAW this week, once again, the wrestling was secondary. The co-main event featured Jerry Brisco & Pat Patterson against Chyna. The banter between Brisco & Patterson throughout the show was great. They were hilarious in the ring as well, with Patterson still a better worker than most of the WWF roster. Chyna wore her butt-revealing shorts, since WWF women are really only there to titillate. She did a double crotch claw. Brisco threw powder into her face and the stooges then patted her butt and breasts (edited off the prime time TSN broadcast). She won the match, of course. This sort of bit would be awesome if it were one piece of a diverse show (like Chris Jericho in WCW), but the WWF product is becoming increasingly homogeneous. Whatever happened to Taka & Kaientai DX? Papichulo? In some ways, I feel badly for not liking the product more. The TV is entertaining, largely because one wonders when the pressure will make them change things. But the same kitsch that appears on TV, and is okay there, appears on the PPVs, and definitely isn't okay there, for me at least. It's like when Chris Jericho faced the fake Goldberg on PPV. That sucked for a PPV, but it would have been entertaining on Nitro. The WWF and WCW have delivered bad PPVs in the second half of 1998, in no small part due to being too cute and ignoring work and workrate, with apologies to the exceedingly small number of wrestlers who do deliver time in and time out in that area. The big thing that bugs me from a story line standpoint in the WWF is that it is totally unclear who calls the shots. At one point, Vince McMahon called out of the shots, screwing guys, putting them in bad positions, etc. Sgt. Slaughter was commissioner, but he was a Vince stooge, so that still made sense. Then Shawn Michaels was Vince's stooge; it still made sense. But when Michaels turned, everything broke down. Vince made himself number 30 in the Rumble. Shawn made him number 2. Vince apparently can't overrule Shawn. Then Vince creates a Corporate Rumble on RAW, with the winner being number 30 in the Rumble, and Vince seems prepped to win. Who calls the shots? Vince or Shawn? The answer seems to be neither. Or, wait, are we supposed to conclude that with Shawn injured, the commisioner is history and Vince is back in charge? Why doesn't he just make himself number 30, then? Why have a match? And if the match goes wrong, why not just make himself number 30 anyhow? It all doesn't matter, because, suddenly, Mankind puts together his own PPV main event with the Rock at the Rumble. If the champ can specify which matches he wants and what stipulations he doesn't want, as Mankind did with the Rock, why was Steve Austin put into matches that had him screwed (like Austin vs. Undertaker & Kane)? It all makes no sense. And you only have to look at relatively recent story lines to get this confused. Nitro The highlights of Nitro, for me anyhow, continue to be the cruisers, Ric Flair, and Chris Jericho. The cruiserweights that have been focused upon are delivering the best wrestling in North America on a weekly basis. No bullshit, just a lot of a great wrestling. And I'm liking the subtle development of a program between Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman. Having a great match on the show helps me to ignore or persevere through some of the crap that fills a large part of the remainder of the TV show. Yeah, I still leave the room when Hulk Hogan or Scott Steiner get a long interview. - The WWF has Royal Rumble on 01/24/99. Line up has: * Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia in an "I Quit" match with no stoppage over blood * Royal Rumble for a WrestleMania title shot I honestly don't know that they've officially announced any other matches for the show. It seems like they are relying on the lure of the Rumble to carry the buys for the show. This time out, after a hot PPV angle, Ric Flair & all of the Horsemen (damn sad to see Steve McMichael out there) attacked the NWO at every turn. Flair has stayed incredibly over despite being put in bad positions time and time again. That's a measure of his greatness. Take somebody that is supposedly over, like Goldberg or Rocky Maivia, do a handful of the things to him that were done to Flair in recent years, and you'll be left with nothing. The show aired in edited form in Canada this week, but we did see the David Flair vs. Eric Bischoff match and the main event. Nothing special, of course. It will be pretty interesting to see how Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair at SuperBrawl goes, in finish and in buy rate. - Sable was on Off the Record last week, hyping the WWF's February RAW and the Royal Rumble. The show was far worse than most of the other wrestling appearances, as host Michael Landsberg, who usually does an awesome job, had the soft gloves on this night. It didn't help that WWF Canada head Carl DeMarco and some fan were on the show. Neither contributed anything positive. The fan went on about how the WWF has something for everybody, talking about how they have the makings of a really strong women's division. I laughed so hard I cried. Sable acknowledged that she has a "no bumps" clause in her contract, which was the only mildly interesting revelation on the show. Landsberg talked about the WWF pushing the boundary, asking how far was too far. DeMarco and Sable delivered the same old stale responses: change the channel if you don't want to watch, monitor what your children are watching, and the WWF does nothing that other shows like NYPD Blue do. Landsberg, who is usually so sharp, dropped the ball here. The response that that stonewalling merits is easy: demographic breakdowns of the ratings show that a huge number of teenagers and younger watch RAW, period. That makes it different from NYPD Blue and the like. That also means that the WWF might have to take responsibility for what they put on the air. Kids shouldn't drink or smoke, right? Are parents take sole responsibility for ensuring that this is the case? No. We expect shop owners to help. Interestingly enough, Carl DeMarco and TSN representative David Rosenblum were on Jane Hawtin Live on Wednesday night talking about the current direction of the WWF. Edge joined in the discussion later on. Early on, Don Teel, the president of the Winnipeg Teachers Association in Manitoba, Canada, was brought on as a phone guest to discuss his recent letter to TSN. As detailed in the Observer this week, Teel & other teachers & principals have been seeing a significant increase in horrendous behaviour amongst youngsters. Students have been grabbing their crotches and telling others to "Suck it!" among other things. In the first half of the show, we were treated to all of the usual claims: 1. RAW's focus audience is the male aged 18-35 demographic. Somebody on the panel said that kids under 18 made up 20% of the RAW audience. Okay, let's look at the ratings demographic breakdown of a randomly selected week of RAW. Taken from the Observer, the 12/14/98 ratings break down as follow: + 18-24 aged males: 388000 + 25-54 aged males: 1743000 + 55+ aged males: 447000 + 18-24 aged females: 300000 + 25-54 aged females: 928000 + 55+ aged females: 170000 + teenagers 12-17: 1134000 + kids 2-11: 650000 So the teenage viewership works out to 31%, at least on that week. 20% is a false figure, without a doubt. 2. RAW is for the adult fan; the WWF's weekend entertainment is for younger fans. Canadian Superstars was replaced by Shotgun on the local channel that airs the WWF on Sunday afternoons. Shotgun usually amounts to one or two new matches, with a whole load of highlights from RAW. The "Suck it"s are beeped out, but the signs are still zoomed in on. Is that modifying the product to make it okay for younger fans? I guess the argument is that they downplay a lot of the sexual stuff. Still, there are rumblings that the show will be dropped by the only local station that airs it. The reason: complaints and concerns over content. 3. RAW is sports entertainment and should hence be judged on the same metre stick as other "action adventure" series. The problem that I have with this argument is that other TV shows with potentially offensive content, like NYPD Blue (that Carl DeMarco loves to compare the WWF's product to) clearly do not target children in any way. The WWF can't have it both ways. They can't push the boundaries on sex (with the way the women are portrayed), violence (hardcore matches), tawdry characters (Val Venis, Godfather), and profanity while stocking Toys'R'Us with loads of action figures and clearly targeting children in other ways. You can't have it both ways. Edge said that a kid can turn on a soap opera or 90210 and see lovemaking. That isn't really true, but in any case I'd suggest that he won't see three "hos" offered in trade, he won't see women ripping lingerie off each other with breasts popping out, he won't see simulated S&M, and he won't see men jiggling women's breasts. 4. the WWF's booking of women is geared towards attracting more female fans. Edge pointed out that Sable beat up her boyfriend for mistreating her and that Chyna is a powerful female character. Every woman in the promotion has gotten over or been used to get "her man" over by stripping. When a particular case of questionable stuff was brought up, the WWF reps were quick to say that the WWF world represents all of our world, good and bad, so, yeah, there might be some things that are less tasteful than others. Yeah, in our world, every woman is a stripper with silicone implants. As you can tell, I was getting a little pissed off with the evasive dodges that these guys were spewing. You'd think they were promoting apple pie by the way they were talking. I would not be irritated at all if they admitted the truth: they are knowingly producing a product that is pretty much totally unfit for children while at the same time targeting children in most every way as a key part of the revenue stream because they can get away it. They can get away with it because a lot of people that could influence change and mount pressure on them don't even realize what they are promoting. If they said that I'd at least appreciate the honesty. Worse yet, only a couple of callers questioned them on anything. Most of the callers just said, "My buds and I watch the show every week. We love it." Carl DeMarco made a point of saying that the WWF was going to do a batch of public service announcements entitled the "Get It" series. I gathered that the basic idea was that they would point out that wrestling isn't "real" (which DeMarco basically said in those words) and fans or critics need to be educated to "get it." He said "so, you get it!" to every fan than praised the WWF. Well, at the half-hour mark, I started camping on the show's 1-800 number. I got through with fifteen minutes to go, and, after explaining myself to the switchboard person, was told that my call would be placed on the "to air" panel, or something like that. The girl I spoke with said I had some very good points and that my name would be put on the list to air, that that queue was short, and that I should make the air. Of course, I didn't. They only aired calls from two more cheerleaders before the show went off the air. The girl I had spoken with came on to tell me that I had reached the top of the queue but the show ended before I could get on air. Oh well. - The WCW/NBC deal has cooled now that the NBA strike has been worked out. There's a chance that something will happen after the NBA season ends. - Giant will be heading to the WWF, perhaps debuting as early as the 02/14/99 PPV. His contract with WCW expires on 02/09/99. He'll play the role of the WWF's giant enforcer, which explains why Kane is being dumped from that role already. Working idea on his name is "Titan." The Observer says that Chris Jericho is now at the top of the WWF's "must have" list. - In this week's Observer, Dave Melzter discusses the Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa match from New Japan's Tokyo Dome show. It seems like the match was a faked shoot, with Ogawa destroying Hashimoto. Meltzer compares it to the famous Akira Maeda shoot kick from 1987, where Maeda kicked Riki Choshu in the face (and, man, Choshu's face was swollen instantly and bones were broken by the stiff kick). Meltzer writes, "...and you can see similarities although the situations were entirely different to the US over the past year as well as the coward being the one who actually prospered from his cowardice act." Speaking of things involving Bret Hart, it's expected that he'll be out until mid-February. It was originally going to be Hart's story line that he kidnapped Kimberly Page, to heat up the feud with DDP, but that story line was given to Scott Steiner in the interim (and began at this week's RAW). The reality is sad: Kimberly is going to get a face lift and needs an excuse for her disappearance. - Konnan & Rey Misterio Jr. both signed three-year contract renewals. - I knew there were other reasons I didn't really like Diamond Dallas Page. He's working to get Erik Watts in WCW and to get Hammer a push. - "Dateline NBC" will have a feature on pro-wrestling on 01/27/99. - Locally, the WWF is really hyping the 02/08/99 RAW from SkyDome in Toronto. Of course, they are claiming that there aren't many tickets left, etc. There are some promotional ads running to hype RAW and some local businesses. - I've updated the PPV figures through to the end of 1998. This makes for an interesting assessment of the year gone by. The WWF's PPV revenue stream recovered dramatically in 1998, as the match quality dipped. Percentagewise, we received half the * * * * matches that we received in 1997. In reality, as the roster thinned, the WWF ended up delivering one third more matches on PPV, so while the 6 * * * * matches of 1997 were replaced by only 4 * * * * matches in 1998, the percentage hit was greater. WCW's PPV revenue stream increased substantially as well in 1998, but the match quality situation isn't quite as clear cut. Average and median match ratings did drop, but the peak rating increased ever so slightly, thanks to the cruiserweights. Without that peak match per show, WCW's averages would be bad. WCW delivered 10% more matches in 1998 compared to 1997 and delivered one less * * * * match. Percentagewise that was a big hit. Clinically comparing the two companies' performances in 1998, the gross revenue and buy rate per PPV are close, with the WWF getting the slight nod in each, particulary the gross, although the difference shrinks in the second half of 1998. The (mean,average,peak) match rating triplet for 1998 for the WWF is (1.60,1.63,3.65) and for WCW is (1.54,1.73,3.73), so WCW gets the nod in two of the three, and all three figures only differ by a hair: From a business standpoint, WWF is a hair in front, and from a wrestling quality standpoint, WCW is a hair in front. Going into 1999, there's some weirdness. WCW's major event, Starrcade, was the first PPV in a while to soundly beat the WWF's PPV of the same month. I'd expect that to turn around in January again, since the Royal Rumble traditionally does so well and WCW's Souled Out, despite being the first strong show from either company in months, was very poorly hyped. - 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 98/12/13: Rock Bottom Undertaker vs. Steve Austin Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 0.78 $3.48 1.34 * 1/4 * * * 1/4 Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0% (0 of 8) 98/11/15: Survivor Series WWF Title tournament 1.45 $6.44 0.68 3/4* * * * Mankind vs. Steve Austin 0.0% (0 of 14) 98/10/18: Judgment Day Undertaker vs. Kane 0.89 $3.99 1.61 * 1/2 * * * 1/2 X-Pac vs. D'Lo Brown 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/09/27: Break Down Steve Austin vs. Undertaker vs. Kane 0.86 $3.85 1.69 * 3/4 * * * 1/2 Rocky Maivia vs. Ken Shamrock vs. Mankind 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/08/30: SummerSlam Steve Austin vs. Undertaker 1.48 $6.57 2.06 * * * * * * * 1/4 Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Rocky Maivia 12.5% (1 of 8) 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 0.99 $4.43 1.55 1.59 3.417 1.8% (1 of 56) 1998 1.02 $4.42 1.60 1.63 3.65 4.0% (4 of 101) 1997 0.61 $1.84 2.18 1.81 3.792 8.0% (6 of 75) Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * WCW 98/12/27: Starrcade Kevin Nash vs. Bill Goldberg 1.15 $5.11 1.78 * * * * * * 1/2 Billy Kidman vs. Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera 11.1% (1 of 9) 98/11/22: World War III Diamond Dallas Page vs. Bret Hart BattleBowl Hulk Hogan vs. Warrior 0.55 $2.45 1.54 * 1/2 * * * 3/4 Diamond Dallas Page vs. Bill Goldberg 0.0% (0 of 7) 98/10/25: Halloween Havoc Diamond Dallas Page vs. Bill Goldberg Hulk Hogan vs. Warrior 0.78 $3.48 1.70 * * * * * 1/4 Diamond Dallas Page vs. Bill Goldberg 0.0% (0 of 12) 98/09/13: Fall Brawl Wargames 0.70 $3.11 0.19 DUD * * * 1/2 Perry Saturn vs. Raven 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/08/08: Road Wild Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno 0.93 $4.15 0.61 * * * * 1/2 Juventud Guerrera vs. Chris Jericho 0.0% (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 0.95 $4.25 1.19 1.46 3.75 3.6% (2 of 55) 1998 0.93 $3.96 1.54 1.73 3.73 4.5% (5 of 111) 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 98/11/01: November To Remember Sabu & Rob van Dam & Taz vs . Shane Douglas & Bam Bam Bigelow & Chris Candido 0.2 $0.42 1.68 * * 1/2 * * * 1/2 Toshihiro Tajiri vs. Super Crazy 0.0% (0 of 7) 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 0.22 $0.43 1.55 1.33 2.92 5.2% (1 of 19) 1998 0.23 $0.43 1.56 1.5 3.00 3.7% (1 of 27) 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 In Your House on 02/14/99. The plan is to have Brian Christopher & Scott Taylor get married on this show (yes, to each other). - 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. ______________________________________________________________________