______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had the Royal Rumble PPV this past Sunday, 01/24/99. The promotion leading into the show focused on the two main events: the Rumble itself and the WWF Title match. We had little idea what to expect of the undercard, although a diligent TV watcher would have expected certain matches. It turned out the WWF Tag Title match of Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett vs. Ken Shamrock & Big Boss Man that I would have expected was bumped to the next night's RAW and the tag champs appeared in singles pairings instead. The Rumble match usually makes for an entertaining hour, and I suppose this year was no different, but without a star to carry the match this turned out to be a relatively boring Rumble from a wrestling perspective. Overall, this show didn't measure up to the strong Souled Out show from WCW a week earlier, which marks a change from recent patterns (although those recent patterns compared bad shows from both companies). The show left me flat because of the obvious screw jobs in the two main matches, and, face it, the show had no other matches of note. Rundown: * Big Boss Man beat Road Dog: The reaction for Road Dog's ring entrance was tremendous, but the crowd was flat for most of the match, with the low blows standing out as pops. They even did a bearhug spot, just in case the crowd had the notion of staying awake for the bout. Jerry Lawler was on another planet, or using his work ethic as a metre stick, at one point saying, "a dropkick from Road Dog! He's pulling out all the stops!" Road Dog has reinvented himself somewhat as a garbage wrestler, and this match reinforced that he should stick to that. Maybe it was just too long (16 minutes with intros), but it was pretty boring. I'm not saying it was a bad match, just long and boring for what we got. * Ken Shamrock beat Billy Gunn to retain the IC Title: The story was that Billy's leg was hurt, but he was going to work the match anyhow. Shamrock went after his leg. After a triple bump (including the referee), Val Venis came out and DDTed Shamrock, with Gunn getting a two count. Gunn went to the top, and everybody with at least a two-digit IQ could see the finish coming. He missed whatever he was planning to do, landed on his legs, his bad leg gave out, and Shamrock hit the ankle lock. Again, this match was too long (20 minutes) for the story they had and the ability they have. The fans lost interest a lot. But, I guess we can see the future, since the tag champs went over. Looks like Shamrock & Boss Man will drop the titles on RAW, and I guess Shamrock moves into a singles program with Venis. * X-Pac beat Gangrel to retain the European Title: Even though he's been the best worker in the company to get loads of air time, X-Pac couldn't pull a great match out of Gangrel, who is too "indyish" in his work. This match was indy style stuff, with no psychology and no transitions and a lot of repetition. X-Pac must have hit four spinning heel kicks, which is usualy a singular big spot for him. Even Jerry Lawler had to to make a remark about the number of times X-Pac went to that kick. There was a weird spot where referee Teddy Long counted three on X-Pac after Gangrel reversed a cross body block, but the match continued while the commentators sputtered and the brain surgeons in the audiences chanted "You fucked up!" Was this a miscue (most likely) or the beginning of some weird angle for Teddy Long? There are plans to give Long a story line. To give you an idea of how much faith they had in Gangrel pulling something out, this match went 10 minutes with intros. * Sable beat Luna to retain the WWF Women's Title: Sable (& Marc Mero) wants to take on a more legitimate image, instead of being part of the T&A sideshow. There was a time period where this match wasn't going to be on the PPV. Too bad. It was a strap match, the stupid kind where the winner has to drag the loser to all four corners, touching the turnbuckles. Of course, it had the same finish as every strap match in history. But first, Shane McMahon came out to announce that Sable wasn't even going to work. Luna had tapped her back with light smacks a couple of times on Heat, and the back injury meant that she couldn't work. Sable came out and said she was going to work. She sold her back injury on the way to the ring, but pretty much forgot about it as soon as she got in the ring. What an actress. The surrounding story was that Shane had been embarrassed by Sable a few times, so he was pulling for Luna to win. Boring match. Sable knocked Luna over and then started running to turnbuckles without even making an effort to drag Luna around. Finally, they got in the spot where the heel has the face on her back and walks to every turnbuckle, not knowing that the face is also tapping the buckles. Before they could reach the fourth turnbuckle, they ended up in the centre of the ring, worked the one spot of the match where Sable did a somersault to get off of Luna's back. Shane distracted the referee. Luna went for the fourth corner. Terri Poch stopped her. Sable hit the fourth corner. Somehow, amidst all of the this, the referee didn't see a stop in the "momentum" of the wrestlers in touching the turnbuckles. Bad match. If the women don't show skin, they are boring. This is the new revitalized WWF Women's division. * Rocky Maivia beat Mankind in an "I Quit" to win the WWF Title: Mankind had watched the legendary "I Quit" matches of a decade ago (Terry Allen vs. Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk) to help build this match. I couldn't tell. Mankind did a selfless job of putting Rocky over at ever turn, and Rocky didn't even return a fraction of the favour. The match turned into a sick sacrifice by Mankind that I'm sure some will love, but those same people really don't give a crap about Mick Foley. They started with pretty good garbagy brawling stuff. To me, Chris Benoit is an awesome brawler, but Mick Foley is an awesome garbage wrestler, and I see a clear difference. Rocky climbed a ladder up into the second level of seating in the crowd, like he was going to do anything up there except flex an eyebrow. Mankind followed him, and everybody braced for something sick. Sure enough, Mankind took a bump off the apron of the balcony onto a set of speakers. The backs of the speakers sparked on cue as the guy in the back pressed the button. The commentators said Mankind crashed into an electrical circuit board and might have been electrocuted, which was ludicrous. They showed a replay which made that claim even more stupid. Shane McMahon came out and suggested that a doctor should stop the match, but Rock said he wanted Mankind to quit. Rock did the corporate elbow across Mankind's face after covering the face with a chair and handcuffing Mankind. It got stupid here. No rules means you can handcuff your opponent. Rock then delivered a few sick chair shots, but a bleeding Foley said, "You'll have to kill me" instead of quitting. Even the commentators were pleading for Mankind to quit. Mankind was gushing at this point and heading down the aisle. Rock delivered a slew of sick chair shots that made me wonder why I was watching this crap. Frankly, Mick Foley doesn't have to do this shit to entertain me, but I guess he wanted to to do something for the vampire fans. Foley was knocked out, legit. When Rock asked him if he would quit, sticking the microphone in his face, Mankind's voice, obviously recorded, came over the speaker system saying, "I Quit! I Quit!" which, in hindsight, was a sad way to end this match. It seems like they've now added a screw job to the "I Quit" match, using an old Mankind interview in place of Mankind really giving up. Some people are going to praise this match, even though it didn't hold a candle to the other "I Quit" matches mentioned above in large part because Rock did nothing, and some people are going to praise Mick Foley for his performance, but this was the kind of sick shit I hope we never see again, like the cage bump at the Hell in the Cell match. I'd like to see Foley sell realistic, even stiff and brutal-looking work, but I don't want to see him maim himself; I feel that way because I actually care about Foley. I don't give a crap if Sandman, the Dudleys, Balls Mahoney, and the ECW gang bang their brains out with chairs; unlike Foley, they have no other noticeable talents. * Vince McMahon won the Royal Rumble: Yup, we paid $30 to watch Mankind kill himself and Vince McMahon masturbate his egomaniacal ass off. Sigh. Match started with Steve Austin vs. McMahon, but they did nothing. As Austin was pounding McMahon, Golga came in and was dumped. Vince & Austin proceeded to brawl out into the crowd, up into a women's washroom. The commentators explained that since the wrestlers weren't tossed over the top rope, they were still in the match. Austin was laid out by the Corporation, who were waiting in the washroom. There were long cutaways to Austin being stretchered out and loaded into an ambulance, which drove off. We missed some ring entrancews because of this, but the directors of the show know that the wrestling is secondary. The soap opera is the thing in the WWF. Well, 25 minutes later, Vince McMahon came back to the ring, but ended up sitting at the commentators' table until the end of the match. Austin showed up again five minutes after that and did a minimal amount of work in the ring. Yeah, he was ready for this match. I liked him when he could work, but now he's just a swearing Hulk Hogan. That's a bit harsh because he has an injury, but it is also a true judgment of his in-ring product. There was some real crap with the Undertaker taking Mabel, a whopping surprise entrant, off to be another member of the Undertaker's anchor...er...ministry. Duane Gill came out as Gillberg, which will help make Bill Goldberg an even bigger star. Finish saw it come down to Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon. Tell me you wouldn't have guessed that from the start. I was just wondering how they would keep McMahon out for so long...I had figured on a false injury claim by Vince. Rock came down to ringside to distract Austin, who fell for it, and Vince dumped him over the top. The post match celebration was perversely funny. The same people who will praise Vince's positioning at this show will bitch about Eric Bischoff getting in the ring. Oh, near the end, Owen Hart and Steve Austin were two of the few guys left, and, of course, they didn't touch each other. Ever since the injury, Austin has refused to work with Owen. Here's a stat sheet for the Rumble, listing everything I can think to list. # Wrestler Time of Entrance Time to Get to Ring Total Wrestlers Eliminated Elimination Number Elimination Time Eliminated By 1 Steve Austin 00:00 n/a 9 29 56:33 Vince McMahon 2 Vince McMahon 00:00 n/a 1 n/a n/a n/a 3 Golga 01:35 27 sec 0 1 2:16 Steve Austin 4 Droz 03:15 <24 sec 1 7 16:02 Mabel 5 Edge 04:26 10 sec 1 8 16:32 Road Dog 6 Gillberg 05:56 40 sec 0 2 6:48 Edge 7 Steve Blackman 08:07 7 sec 0 4 15:42 Mabel 8 Dan Severn 09:35 15 sec 0 3 15:41 Mabel 9 Tiger Ali Singh 11:00 <40 sec 0 5 15:46 Mabel 10 Blue Meanie 12:49 10 sec 0 6 16:01 Mabel 11 Mabel 14:18 64 sec 5 9 17:00 Acolytes run in 12 Road Dog 15:52 7 sec 3 12 26:51 Kane 13 Gangrel 18:23 19 sec 0 10 19:16 Road Dog 14 Kurrgan 19:40 8 sec 0 13 26:53 Kane 15 Al Snow 21:04 13 sec 0 11 22:16 Road Dog 16 Goldust 22:44 9 sec 0 15 27:06 Kane 17 Godfather 24:29 49 sec 0 14 26:58 Kane 18 Kane 26:06 39 sec 5 16 27:37 Kane 19 Ken Shamrock 27:57 49 sec 0 17 33:20 Steve Austin 20 Billy Gunn 29:44 7 sec 0 18 37:00 Steve Austin 21 Test 31:20 12 sec 0 19 43:21 Steve Austin 22 Big Boss Man 32:50 35 sec 2 28 52:20 Steve Austin 23 Hunter Hearst Helmsley 34:25 11 sec 1 25 48:55 Steve Austin 24 Val Venis 35:58 7 sec 0 24 48:46 Hunter Hearst Helmsley 25 X-Pac 37:37 9 sec 0 20 43:28 Big Boss Man 26 Mark Henry 39:14 16 sec 0 22 47:27 Chyna 27 Jeff Jarrett 40:51 26 sec 0 21 44:56 Big Boss Man 28 D'Lo Brown 42:35 29 sec 0 27 52:11 Steve Austin 29 Owen Hart 44:53 16 sec 0 26 51:41 Steve Austin 30 Chyna 46:35 26 sec 1 23 47:36 Steve Austin Besides pointing out the usual period length inconsistency, what can one say about the data. Mabel wins the slowest ring entrance award, but he did attack guys backstage before going to the ring, so runner-up Godfather might deserve extra attention. Road Dog, Steve Blackman, and Billy Gunn had the fastest entrances, with Gunn being noteworthy because he was selling his ankle injury. Golga, Gillberg, and Chyna had the shortest ring time. Austin, Kane, and Mabel eliminated the most wrestlers. RAW RAW on 01/28/99 was a live broadcast following on the heels of the Royal Rumble PPV. The show didn't air live in Canada, preempted instead for a juniors Hockey game, even though RAW brings in bigger ratings. The supposedly unedited show aired on schedule at midnight. The show opened with another near-20-minute interview segment, this time annoyingly discarding the outcome of the Royal Rumble. You see, Vince McMahon doesn't want to face Rock at WrestleMania, so he filed papers removing himself as number one contender but leaving him the right to pick the opponent for the Rock at WrestleMania. Cut to Steve Austin in Shawn Michaels' house drinking beer, where Michaels says that Austin will be the number one contender to the champion at WrestleMania. Well, shit, that was a pretty crappy way to turn things around. Oh, and Vince & Austin agreed to a cage match at the 02/14/99 PPV with Austin putting his WrestleMania spot on the line. In other spots, Hunter Hearst Helmsley said that he doubts Rock made Mankind submit, so I guess the had to acknowledge how bad the recorded "I Quit"s turned out. HHH & Rock had an "I Quit" match as the main. Michael Cole called them two of the most talented youngsters in the sport. Surely not based on match ratings. Maybe based on catchphrases and gestures. HHH said "I Quit" to save Chyna, who was being attacked by the Corporate team. Afterwards, Chyna nailed HHH with a low blow and Vince came out to hug Chyna. Blue Meanie appeared as Bluedust. It's so sad to see the Oddities with George Steele, but it got worse as George Steele actually "wrestled" Droz, at least doing the quick job. Drug-dealing Droz laid into Steele afterwards until the oddities ran in. Oh god, I can't believe I'm thinking this, but I'd rather see Hulk Hogan or hear a Scott Steiner interview. Mankind showed up, stealing the Rock's $100K bonus from the security guards. He tossed a few bills into the crowd. He exposed the finish from the night before. It actually isn't a bad angle, but now both Rumble main event finishes were turned into crap. Rock & Mankind will have an empty arena match on Halftime Heat on Sunday. Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart won the tag titles from Ken Shamrock & Big Boss Man, as expected. It really seemed like they were giving the tag titles to Debra, trying to shift the "stripping babe" status from Sable to Debra. Thanks to Brisco & Patterson, the champs had imbibed a concoction that should diminish their sexual desire. Can you believe that this was a match story line? Even Debra stripping to a brad didn't distract the champs. But a black Blue Blazer ran out and laid out Shamrock so Owen could get the pin. Kane attacked X-Pac after X-Pac invited the disgruntled Corporation member into DX. Val Venis faced Test, with Ken Shamrock interfering in retaliation for Venis showering with Shamrock's fictitious sister. Shamrock's chair shot led to a pin by Test. Billy Gunn saved Venis, returning the favour from the PPV. Venis thought that Gunn had attacked him with the chair, so he attacked Gunn. I see a triangle match coming. As the second-to-last match on the show, Road Dog teamed with Al Snow to face Edge & Gangrel in a hardcore tag match. The match had inexcusably bad camera angles early on. Garbagy brawling that some will love. "Hardcore" used to mean "serious," while now it means "garbage." Dog pinned Gangrel. Dog & Snow agreed to a two out of three falls match for the Hardcore title and were attacked by Undertakers' goons afterwards. Man, this Undertaker angle sucks. You know, people praise the WWF story lines, but other than the hot bastard owner vs. rebellious wrestlers deal, the story lines are pretty messy. After an episode like this RAW, I feel like they are just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Every segment has to have umpteen story line revelations or twists. And all of that is at the expense of any actual good wrestling. Only the main event lasted more than four minutes! Nitro Nitro on 01/25/99 aired in full in Canada on tape delay. It was a good show, with a lot of positive signs from wrestling talent, I thought. WCW finally did a little bit right when it comes to giving their show some celebrity rub, having Chuck Norris and Jean Claude van Damme at ringside separately. Both have gotten to know Goldberg, who is doing a movie and is also starting to get over huge again now that he's being booked correctly again. Wrestling highlights saw Bam Bam Bigelow & Scott Hall have a good ladder match with lots of wrestling-based spots, Bret Hart beat Booker T to retain the US Title, Goldberg beat Scott Norton, and Ric Flair & co. face the NWO. All of these matches were a lot longer than usual, and a few of them were quite good. The ladder match had a Goldberg run in, which drew tremendous heat. At this point, the WWF should reevaluate the Gillberg deal, 'cause with Goldberg getting his heat back it will now definitely have the wrong effect from their perspective. Bret Hart was awesome; he's just always in the right place in the right position for everything. I really hope that 1999 sees the promotion use him. The Observer muses that Hart had to pay the price for all of the things he said about the current WCW regine during Hart's WWF tenure. Hopefully, the egos won't prevail and Hart will get his rightful spot in the promotion in 1999, so that he can solidify his much-deserved accolades as the North American wrestler of this decade. Goldberg and Norton had a match that was better than anybody could have expected; it was actually a good power wrestling style match with a few really good spots and absolutely tremendous heat, unheard of this side of Steve Austin. Some NWO underlings ran in and Goldberg dismissed them. Afterwards, the stars at ringside came in the ring and celebrated with Goldberg. Great work by WCW. The main event saw Hulk Hogan & Scott Steiner & Kevin Nash face Ric Flair & Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael. I liked that the Horsemen came out second. I also wished that McMichael would be brutally butchered, leading to an exit from the Horsemen, but that's just a day dream. Scott Steiner's interviews suck, but they are better than watching him wrestle. I was keen to see any of three NWO members sell for Benoit. After a short melee, Benoit sold for Steiner, and Benoit did a hell of a job. Benoit's rally led to tremendous crowd response. Shit, doesn't anybody hear what they could have here?! The Nash got to pound Benoit. Again, Benoit was amazing. The match was actually engrossing at this point because Benoit is that good. McMichael was in for a few seconds before Benoit came back in. And, you know, Benoit actually made Hulk Hogan look good. The frustrating part is that Benoit only minimal offence in on each of the heels. While the story line was that Flair was anxious to get in the ring and the match was meant to build the crowd's anticipation of that, I didn't want to see Benoit play punching bag. I guess that given the choice of Benoit or McMichael in that role, they made the choice that would make the match better. Hogan whipped Benoit with his belt. Benoit's hot tag attempts were cut off. One good point of having Benoit get pummelled was that the commentators had to spend some time talking about how good he is. Had he only been in sporadically, we have had to listen to them push McMichael. Finally, Benoit made the hot tag to Flair. The ring cleared, with Flair getting the figure four on Hogan. Souvenir salesman Eric Bischoff (his menial task for the evening) passed a foam finger with a 2x4 attached. When the heels then tried to lay into the Horsemen, the entire locker room came out, heels and faces alike, to beat the NWO back. They did a high angle camera shot of the melee, with the NWO backing off. Even the lucha libre guys and cruiserweights played a role in holding them back. As the NWO was backing down the aisle, Goldberg came out and singlehandedly made a few of the NWO guys bump in sequence as we went of the air. - The local TV stations are running ads for the Toronto RAW on 02/08/99. The radio station, the only one in Canada to air Howard Stern's show, is running a promotion where the winner gets tickets to RAW. They are billing it as the "Redneck Dream Date," with the women in the two potential ticket-winning couples having to have a catfight to see which couple gets the tickets. And you thought all of that mainstream press might sway the popular stereotype of the knuckle dragging wrestling fan. - One thing comes through already on WCW TV. After beating the WWF's PPV buy rate in December and then delivering a good PPV with Souled Out in January, morale among the workers is finally increasing. One can see hints of it among the good workers. Apparently, the new regime is finalizing the Nitro show a few hours in advance instead of booking so much on the fly (as was the case in the recent past), so the wrestlers are happy to get their matches and know what their role will be long in advance of the show. Regarding the PPV, I really liked that Cruiserweight title match was third from the top. I also like that Rey Misterio Jr. was given substantial offence in his match & confrontation with Lex Luger. Returning to the old formula also seems to be good for unmuddling story lines. Having one NWO and one WCW is a good idea, however hastily they returned to the formula. And, boy, did they ever just return to it: Disco Inferno is exacly in the late Louie Spicoli's spot. Speaking of Nitro (above), the most recent WCW Magazine (which I buy to send to Japan) talked about the backstage set up for the show. I've sent the magazine off, but they talked about the amount of snacks, soda, and water that the wrestlers and crew go through each Monday, which the numbers being huge. They said that the promotion caters to the specific quirks of the wrestlers. Thre are deviled eggs for Giant, a candy dish for Eric Bischoff and others, etc. - On 01/22/99, Toshiaki Kawada beat Mitsuharu Misawa to win All Japan's Triple Crown, breaking a (Kawada's) bone in his hand in the process and being forced to give up the title since the injury will take three months to heal. - The Observer used ratings data to figure out which wrestlers generate on average ratings increases and decreases when they are the focus of a television segment. Piecing together the data for the past year and limiting the results to wrestlers who made a dozen or more appearance during the competitive Monday night broadcasts, the results were interesting (wrestlers listed alphabetically). Big ratings draw: Arn Anderson, Steve Austin, Big Boss Man, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Bill Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, and Sting. Small ratings draw: Marcus Bagwell, Chris Benoit, Eric Bischoff, Terry Funk, Giant, Juventud Guerrera, Billy Gunn, Bret Hart, Hunter Hearst Helmlsey, Chris Jericho, Kane, Konnan, Lex Luger, Road Dog, Rocky Maivia, Steve McMichael, Marc Mero, Shawn Michaels, Diamond Dallas Page, Perry Saturn, Scott Steiner, and Undertaker. No ratings effect: Brian Adams, Animal, Paul Bearer, D'Lo Brown, Christian, Droz, Edge, Gangrel, Goldust, Golga, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Eddie Guerrero, Scott Hall, Owen Hart, Hawk, Head Bangers, Curt Hennig, Mark Henry, Jacqueline, Kidman, Kurrgan, Dean Malenko, Rey Misterio Jr., Raven, Stevie Ray, Sable, Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock, Giant Silva, Al Snow, Rick Steiner, Barry Windham, and X-Pac. Small ratings decrease: Steve Blackman, Booker T, Faarooq, Godfather, Kaientai, Luna, Scorpio, and Scott Norton. Big ratings decrease: Bradshaw, Mark Canterbury, Chainz, DOA, Bart Gunn, Bob Holly, Jeff Jarrett, Dennis Knight, Debra McMichael, Taka Michinoku, Tiger Ali Singh, and Val Venis. Keep in mind the usual caveats. The ratings success of a wrestler depends in some part on whom they are programmed with. But if you take the average effect of the wrestler over the year, during which most wrestlers have a few different programs, the big negatives and big positives can't be explained away with that sort of excuse. Of course, the success of a wrestler depends on how he is used by the promotion. In many ways, then, the results above indicate how merited current pushes are and who deserves a better push than he's getting. It also indicates which wrestlers in the roles they've had over the past year actually make viewers turn on the show and which wrestlers make viewers change channels. The myths that are debunked by the above results are several. Most notably, the casual fans who might switch to or away from a program are attracted by the old guard. The majority of the big draws are old farts, riding past successes. Almost all of the guys spend more time talking that wrestling, so it seems that those fans don't care whether they see actual wrestling. The Observer points out that of the small draws only five are under 30: Rock, Giant, Jericho, Bagwell, and Guerrera. WCW had four of the five last year, but loses one (Giant) in the very near future. And Jericho is also a potential loss. The myth is that the WWF develops new young stars. The record shows otherwise. - Speaking of Giant, he dropped 30 pounds a few weeks back and then added all the weight back on in short order. The WWF has been cracking down on fitness issues, with the Vader the most noticeable casualty, although Blue Meanie was hired thanks to the success of Ralphus in WCW, so it is no secret that the WWF is worried about Giant and wants him to drop weight for his debut in the promotion. Solution? The Giant had liposuction on his gut. - Also of interest to me is the average match ratings on major shows for 1998. Wrestlers had to appear on three major shows to be included. The Observer reports that the top 25 singles wrestlers based on average big-show match quality are (in order): Mitsuharu Misawa, Koji Kanemoto & Jushin Liger (tie), Jun Akiyama, Ultimo Dragon, Satoshi Kojima, Kenta Kobashi & Shinjiro Otani (tie), Billy Kidman & Toshiaki Kawada (tie), Great Sasuke, Ilioukhine Mikhail, Chris Benoit, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Hunter Hearst Helmlsey, Kazuo Yamazaki, Keiji Muto, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Shiro Koshinaka, Rey Misterio Jr. & Kendo Ka Shin (tie), Eddie Guerrero & Mick Foley (tie), and Masa Chono & Hayabusa & Maunakea Mossman (tie). Averages on the list from 4.04 stars for first place down to 3.08 stars for last place. Congratulations to former WCW wrestler Ultimo Dragon and WCW wrestler Billy Kidman for being the only guys to break the top ten based on North American performances. If you look for other North American wrestlers, you find that the WCW has five wrestlers in the top 25 while the WWF has two. Again, the WCW entries speak to the strength of the younger guys in the promotion. - Terry Taylor left the WCW booking committee last week and started up with the WWF booking team this week on RAW. I'm sure his influence was minimal this week, but we might see some effect due to him in the near future. Taylor was widely credited for doing a good job with WCW, but with so many egos overruling his plans or changing them live, and with the pressure of winning the ratings battle, the job strain was just too great. As with the Janie Engle (Funk) jump that never happened, there is some (but less) worry in the WCW camp that Taylor leaves with inside knowledge of long range plans of the promotion. Actually, in this climate, they don't even have any real long range plans. - Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero have all signed their renewals with WCW after first reaching a verbal agreement. There is still a lot of speculation that Chris Jericho may just be holding out in the short term in the hopes that the risk of losing him to the WWF will lead to WCW upping the ante in the long term. - The Dateline NBC wrestling segment didn't air on Wednesday. - Speculation is that Shawn Michaels' in-ring career is over. - Kaientai is history with the WWF. Mens Teioh is already back in Japan after being released. Dick Togo will be released at the beginning of March and will also return to Japan. Shoichi Funaki is apparently staying, since he's moved to the US. Taka Michinoku asked for his release but the WWF didn't give him one. They feel that he's the most-likely candidate to plucked up by WCW, so they talked him into staying with the plan being that he'd be loaned to ECW. - The WWF has In Your House: Valentine's Day Massacre on 02/14/99. Line-up has * Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon in a cage match for Austin's title challenge spot at WrestleMania * Billy Gunn vs. Val Venis vs. Ken Shamrock in a triangle match for the IC Title * Road Dog vs. Al Snow in a two out of three falls match for the Hardcore Title The print ad for the show features Vince McMahon holding roses and looking evil. - WCW has SuperBrawl on 02/21/99. Line-up has * Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair for the WCW Title * Bret Hart vs. ? for the US Title * Lex Luger & Kevin Nash vs. Rey Misterio Jr. & Konnan * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Scott Steiner Speculation is that Sting, left out in the cold after the NWO shake-up, will reemerge at this show as a WCW wrestler to take on Bret Hart. However, not that long ago, there was a lot of talk of running a Bret Hart vs. Chris Benoit program, which would be something that could serve both wrestlers amazingly well at this point. - 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 99/01/24: Royal Rumble Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia Royal Rumble 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 99/01/17: Souled Out Bill Goldberg vs. Scott Hall Ric Flair & David Flair vs. Curt Hennig & Barry Windham 1.83 * 1/2 * * * * Billy Kidman vs. Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Psicosis 11.1% (1 of 9) Last 6 0.82 $3.66 1.20 1.33 3.75 3.6% (2 of 55) 1999 1.83 1.5 4 11.1% (1 of 9) 1998 0.93 $3.96 1.54 1.73 3.73 4.5% (5 of 111) Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * ECW 99/01/10: Guilty As Charged Shane Douglas vs. Taz 0.2 $0.42 1.68 * * 1/2 * * * 1/2 Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Super Crazy 0.0% (0 of 7) Last 6 0.22 $0.42 1.93 2 3.42 5.3% (1 of 19) 1999 0.2 $0.42 1.68 2.5 3.5 0.0% (0 of 7) 1998 0.23 $0.43 1.56 1.5 3.00 3.7% (1 of 27) 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 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. ______________________________________________________________________