______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ I'm looking for a good quality copy of the ECW PPV from this past Sunday. In a tougher request, I'm also looking for the entire run of 1988 and 1989 Observers to complete my Observer collection. Can anybody help? Quick story: Lectures are winding down; I teach for two more weeks, and then the students tackle their final exams. My fourth-year course dealt with practical uses of fractal-related ideas. In recent lectures, we've been discussing fractal image compression. I whipped up a program under Windoze that displays an input image and steps through the compression process, displaying various mathematical things along the way to link it into our coursework. A second program takes the "fractal code" and decompresses it to produce an approximation of our initial image. Anyhow, when I was testing my code, I used a scan of Jushin Liger as a test image. The real test image that everybody in the field uses is a picture of a Playboy playmate named Lena. No joke. Early researchers just scanned the pic and used it. Later researchers, wanting to compare results, used it as well. This Playboy pic appears throughout the literature, and when Playboy found out they said it was okay since the picture is reproduced everywhere for research reasons. Anyhow, in class, I hooked my laptop up to a projector and ran a demo on the screen. We went through various Lena compressions and decompressions. Then one student asked a question which led me to want to use another image. Well, Liger was at the ready, so I popped it up. One student exclaimed, "Jushin Thunder Liger!" I never expected that. Just in case he tracks down this page on the web, hi Jason. ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 03/22/99 aired live on TSN in Canada. Gee, I bet the show followed the typical RAW formula: 15-to-20-minute opening interview segment, 2:00-4:00 matches throughout the show, ~10-minute main event. One thing is certain: nobody can suggest they watch RAW for the wrestling; that's just an indefensibly ridiculous position. I find it funny when people e-mail me to say that RAW was a great show (even though the actual wrestling was nonexistent) and then criticize WCW's Nitro because they thought there wasn't enough good wrestling on Nitro. As I've said, they are both wrestling products, but we are often guilty of measuring their quality in totally different ways. Whatever makes your case, I guess. I make no apologies for judging all wrestling from a work/workrate perspective. This time around, Vince & Shane McMahon & Rock did their interview bit. Shane challenged X-Pac to a match this night. Rock hit his catchphrases. Vince announced Austin vs. the Big Slow Paul Wight with referee the Rock. Man, it drives me crazy that WCW and WWF main events are all about the referees. Mankind asked to face Rock, with the winner being the referee tonight. The heels refused. Well, this week Shawn Michaels makes the matches again; okay, he just makes one match. Mankind vs. Rock thanks to Michaels. If Michaels wanted to screw Vince, which you figure he would after the Corporate attack, why wouldn't he just make Mankind the referee in the main? Why would Shawn know that Vince was going to make Rock the referee? I mean, wouldn't Shawn be thinking that he needed to specify the main event referee instead of thinking that he needed Mankind to fight Rock to determine which of the two is the referee? It made no sense to me. Did Vince call Michaels to let him know his secret announcement of the referee this night, just so that Michaels could screw him? And if Vince does contact Michaels or Michaels as commissioner somehow gets to know special announcements that seem like on-the-fly deals at RAW in advance, why doesn't he always thwart Vince? Since the interview segment had only run 14:30 by this point, Steve Austin hit the scene driving a Coors Light truck. Why does he drink "Steveweisers" if he always drinks and now drives Coors Light stuff? Austin hit his catchphrases and sprayed the Corporate members with beer from the truck. The ringside fans got sprayed with beer. How wonderful. This first segment ran 19:43, right on schedule. First match saw Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart face Gangrel & Edge for the titles. They recapped the title match from last week against Public Enemy, again planting a small seed of a WWF vs. ECW feud, should they ever decide to go that way. They showed Jim Ross at a "JR is WAR frat party," which I guess is a jab at the Nitro parties. Michael Cole told us that this was the biggest RAW in history, this week anyhow. He sounded embarrassingly like Tony Schiavone, over-hyping things. The Brood interchanged team members freely, with Christian stepping in sometimes. "This is virtually three on two." Thanks, Michael. Public Enemy ran in at 2:25. The crowd died. Everybody got dumped. The lights turned red, turned off, and Debra was covered in "blood" when the lights came on. "How heinous." Road Dog came out. The crowd yelled the catchphrases. It's really amazing to see how the crowd gets into ring entrances. Unfortunately, at least on TV and a lot of the time at PPVs, there's nothing between the bells. If RAW doesn't target children, why does Road Dog say "...and children of all ages..."? Road Dog faced Billy Gunn in a title vs. title match. Road Dog went for a hip toss off the rope, but the greatest natural athlete in the WWF decided to take a drop toe-hold bump instead, which looked really funny. Michael Cole said "nice take-down by Road Dog." Uh-huh. It's rare to see that sort of mistake among guys this good. Gunn's punches look really bad. That was the case when he worked with Bart in the Gunns tag team and it is still the case now. Guys like Gunn and Rob van Dam just shouldn't throw punches. The timing just seemed funny a lot of the time in this match. Of course, as any idiot could predict all of the relevant WrestleMania participants ran in. The melee resulted in a no contest decision. Time was 3:35. The finish made me feel like the booker was on autopilot before WrestleMania. Pat Patterson & Jerry Brisco were attacked by the Legion of Doom during a commercial. The Blue Meanie challenged Shamrock. This got over well with the live crowd (sarcasm). Meanie's voice kept cracking. Ryan Shamrock came out; oh, he was calling out Ryan. Meanie planned to spank her, but Ken Shamrock came out. Goldust ran in. In three seconds, Ken had the ankle lock on Goldust. Meanie used a chair to break things up. Sable came out. She undulated. In a warm-up match for WrestleMania, Sable faced Ivory. They barely made contact. Terri Runnels & Jacqueline came out. Sable gave the camera a lot of butt shots. She hit a power bomb for the win. What a sad excuse for wrestling, as bad as GLOW. 2:18. It made me remember that internet mark who was "Off The Record" saying that WWF had actually built a legitimate women's division with good wrestling. Tori ran in; Sable tied her in the ropes. Tori broke free, hit a few punches (that looked bad, but the camera purposely stayed on the other side of them so we could get a crotch shot of Sable), and Sable left the ring. Sable undulated before her power bomb and again outside the ring to taunt Tori. Is that her new gimmick? If it is, she needs some practice. It surprisingly revealed that she has probably never worked in a strip club. Mankind faced Rock to determine the main event referee this night on RAW in a match that Shawn Michaels added to the RAW line-up before he could have known that Vince McMahon would name Rock as the referee in the main event. Whew. Rock still covers his breasts. Did the surgery go awry? Will he become a new oddity? I've had a few people push me in e-mail over "unfair" criticisms of the Rock. For the record, in the ring he's a mediocre-to-good worker whose biggest weakness is that he can't sell well. He's got a great character, does good interviews if you are into catchphrases, and will be a huge babyface draw down the line. But in the ring, he's hardly special. In 1998, his average PPV match rating was 1.86 stars. So far this year, he's got a 3.75. His best-received matches were all garbage wrestling matches. I can't rate those 'cause to me they don't require much skill. His seemingly strong performances in recent months have all been against Mankind, have all been garbage wrestling matches, have all featured pretty bad selling by Rock, and have all had tremendous bumps or spots by Mankind. I'm thinking Rock could have been replaced by the proverbial broom with no effect, and, hey, the broom might have sold better even though it wouldn't have had an eyebrow to flex a "rudy poo candy ass" line to deliver or a corporate elbow to deliver. To me, Rock is like Lex Luger in the 1980s. Luger is a franchise star now because Flair and a heavy push made him a star. He had a few other good matches outside of matches with Flair, usually gimmick matches or matches against other great workers; he's a reasonably articulate interview and he was pushed as a star. Rock is the same, with a heavy push, Mankind, garbage wrestling, and catchphrases making him. It has nothing to do with ability. Rock isn't bad, but he's hardly great. Back to the match. No surprise that the Big Slow Paul Wight came out. He choke slammed Mankind, which meant that Mankind was the winner. Wight acted like he didn't expect that decision, 'cause he screwed himself. Rock wondered what the Big Slow was thinking. This match negligibly broke the RAW pattern, since it actually went a whopping 6:36. Kane faced Goldust. They recapped the Chyna storyline. That sure seems like a winner. Michael Cole: "This should be a good one, folks." What the hell is he smoking. Goldust turned out to be Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who attacked Kane with a flame thrower and beat the crap out of him and some referees. Bob Holly interrupted JR's frat party, with Holly & Steve Williams brawling throughout the fraternity. They broke a fish bowl. Yeah, this is the way to use Williams. Williams hit Holly with a bag of frozen peas. The WWF has learned a lesson from ECW: if a guy can't get over based on talent, either because he has none or because the fans don't want it, put him in garbage wrestling matches to try to get him over with fans whose limited attention span means they need to see a foreign object shot, a sick shot, or blood with frequency to stay tuned to the match. Isn't that the idea of the Hardcore Title? Shane McMahon faced X-Pac in the parking lot. Shane took a bump. Any idiot could have predicted that Shane's friends would surface and attack X-Pac. Since nobody believes that Shane has a chance against X-Pac at WrestleMania, I guess the idea was to do an angle that gave him a chance. So, I was expecting some sort of injury angle. Instead, X-Pac really got jostled for 20 seconds before Shane and goons raced off in their cars. I guess the real point was that we should expect Shane's friends to be involved in the WrestleMania match. Ken Shamrock & Big Boss Man & Test faced Undertaker & Bradshaw & Faarooq. Hey, do the Acolytes still go by their previous singles names? Henry Godwin became Midian. Mabel became Viscera. Oh no, Michael Cole called them Bradshaw & Faarooq. I expected their new names to be Gonorrhea & Syphilis or something like that. Along the lines of Al Snow's gimmick, they could say that they want the audience to clap and could use a Boston crab as a finisher. The lights dropped off at 1:50. Personally, I was happy that we didn't have to see any more. In the main event, Paul Wight faced Steve Austin, with Mankind as referee. Before the match, Vince did a pre-match interview. When Paul Wight is your main event wrestler, you've got to do something to stretch time. WCW had the same problem. With Vince's talking and the ring entrances, they managed to kill 8:44. "This is the biggest match in the history of RAW." Match ran 9:30. It was hardly a great match or even a good one, but Austin did his best. Next to Rock, Austin, or even Mankind, Wight seems to have no charisma. The Big Slow had his hair pulled back into a pony tail. He chopped Austin a couple of times, just to confirm that Ric Flair is over, even in Albany. Austin hit a low blow and ended up taking a tumble over the barrier. Wight sold a lot for Austin, but his selling consists of stumbling and waving his arms. Mankind broke up an out-of-the-ring choke. Austin removed the buckle cover while Wight caught his breath. The Stunner was countered by a shove into the exposed buckle. Wight hit an elbow drop and lectured the referee, who hit him. Wight turned into some punches from Austin. Austin went for a second Stunner, but Wight tossed him away. Austin is like Atsushi Onita now. He does mostly lame brawling, is injury-plagued, and has one in-ring move. Wight press-slammed Austin and dropped him on the floor. Paul Wight no-sold a cornerpost bump. Austin took a bump into the post. Mankind couldn't get them back in the ring, so he threatened them with a chair. Wight tossed Austin back in the ring, but was so lazy that he had to walk around two sides of the ring to get to the stairs to make his own way back into the ring. Austin dodged an elbow drop, hit some punches, and got caught in a bearhug. Austin punched his way out, got caught again, punched his way out, hit a Thesz press (oh, does that mean he has two moves?), got a two count, hit two chair shots to the knee, hit two chair shots to the head, hit the Stunner, got the pin. Wight kicked out immediately at three and attacked Mankind. Rock came in and attacked Austin. I guess this built the issues for WrestleMania pretty well. I actually had people e-mail me to say that RAW had a clean job in its main event. I think it's pretty sad that North American wrestling fans have been conditioned to accept a match like this as a clean job. The e-mail argument was that Wight lost cleanly, cough, cough, but it didn't hurt his potential drawing power because of how it was done. Uh-huh. Real clean jobs in wrestling that don't hurt the drawing power of the losing wrestler happen all the time in Japan. The idea is that the wrestler's in-ring performance is so great, that his fighting spirit is so strong, that it doesn't matter that he lost this time out. They don't deliver a "clean" job where the referee thwarts one wrestler at every turn, hits that one wrestler, ignores illegal chair shots, and then counts a fall. Was Flair's title win over Hogan a clean job? Tally time: total bell-to-bell match time was 26:22. I don't know how those Indiana University researchers got a 36-minute average last year. In order for that number to be the average, you'd have to achieve it if not surpass it a few times, right? Nitro Nitro on 03/22/99 was the usual three-hour live show, this week being the live annual show from Club La Vela. After a quick recap of last week's event, the show opened with Van Hammer vs. Bull Pain. I think it's a good thing to have some preliminary matches on TV, 'cause greener guys need a chance too. But I never want to see Hammer again. The crowd started a "boring" chant right off the bat. The wrestlers teased a slam in the pool, which actually drew some positive heat. When they went back into the ring, the crowd booed and lost interest again. What a horrible, boring match. Nothing like winning over the live crowd early. Match ran 5:00. Rey Misterio Jr. talked to us about partying and then offered Billy Kidman a rematch at Spring Stampede. Well, that makes it a PPV worth watching already. They played some music and showed wrestlers with bikini-clad girls, using the old "sex sells" idea. Yawn. I guess it's unreasonable to watch a wrestling TV show for wrestling in the 1990s. Disco Inferno hit a funny line, saying that he had seen a girl in a wet t-shirt contest who was heavier than him. They replayed the Konnan video with Disco Inferno inset. I still think it's funny. The "Oil of Olay" bit cracks me up, and now we actually know the words to the song. So this is what the first hour of Nitro is like under Kevin Nash. This must be the first Nash Nitro to air in full in Canada. Boy, that first hour is tough to deal with. I guess some people will defend the goodness of recapping angles and storylines. I suppose that the recaps mean that there's a greater chance of continuity in storylines, but it was pretty painful for a fan like me, who just wants to see good wrestling. They did a couple of little things to build for this show, like Fit Finlay checking that Rick Steiner was on-site for their match. The only other match in the first hour was a lucha 8-man, with one wrestler wearing a Mil Masaras match and clearly resembling Disco Inferno. Match was sort of fun but way too rushed. It ran 5:34. Disco ended up hitting his chartbuster on a few guys before pinning one. When the lucha guys did a sequence where they each missed a splash-type maneuver, the commentators treated it as comedy. The opposed show opened with some Ric Flair stuff, followed by an interview with Dusty Rhodes. Oh man, Dusty is just what Nitro needed. Flair came out for an interview. Raven interrupted immediately, asking for a title shot. Ric said that Raven & Kanyon could wrestle Benoit & Malenko. Raven said that Kanyon wasn't there (he's working as an advisor on the Jesse Ventura movie filming in Toronto). Ric Flair said that everybody's name would be put in a hat and the name that was drawn would get a title shot on this show. Weird to hear him mention Sting. I guess the Stinger is returning soon. Fit Finlay faced Rick Steiner. I had understood from interview build-ups that Rick wanted to get into the "hardcore" stuff, so I expected that edge to this match. Thankfully, they stayed in the ring and just worked pretty stiffly. At 2:40, we went to a commercial break that lasted three minutes here. Don't know how long it ran on the live show. Steiner won with a top rope bulldog at 6:02+commercial. Vampiro faced Juventud Guerrera. Vampiro has had a few good matches in Mexico, but I don't expect much at all from him. Last week on TV, Vampiro had "Crow-like" eye make-up on, but on Nitro he now had a clean face. Vampiro outpowered Juvi, so the match was pretty lacklustre. Juvi did a couple of nice spots and hit a tope. At 4:26, we went to a commercial break that lasted three minutes in Canada. Things seemed mistimed, since Vampiro had just spent a minute or more begging off outside the ring; just as he came in, we went to a commercial. That left a good impression to viewers. Better that we had seen him leave the ring, a commercial, and then Vampiro back in the ring when we returned. Ric Flair was really over in this match, with loud yells for all chops. Juvi was pretty great. Something tells me this might well be the best Vampiro match we see. Crowd broke into a "boring" chant. They'd rather see two-minute matches, interviews, and breasts. When people talk about the current popularity of pro-wrestling, they are being very imprecise. They screwed up a spot at the end, with Vampiro moving when he should have stayed still. Vampiro knocked Juvi off the top. Juvi rallied and hit the Juvi driver for the pin. Okay, so they saved Vampiro's debut for so long so he could job to Juvi in a TV match in front of an unappreciative crowd. I don't get it. (Don't get me wrong, 'cause I'm glad that Juvi went over.) Match ran 8:27+commercial. They introduced Miss Nitro, Julie Williams. She came out in jeans and a tank top. She was so unexcited to be Miss Nitro. Egad. To get Hogan & Nash over as faces, they came out with a bunch of bikini-clad women. Sex sells. Time for the NWO's Miss Spring Break contest. They picked a winner based on an applause metre. They mentioned that one of the girls had disappeared. The crowd chanted "Show your tits!" I didn't know Sanjay made it down to Panama City. Nash told Sanjay, "I would but it's kind of cold out here." David Flair came out with Tori, whose heel got stuck in the walkway. Tori stripped down to a bikini. Ricky pushed Miss Nitro so Nash threatened to power bomb him. They picked Tori. Nash said, "Sable, eat your heart out." Damn skippy. Hardcore Hak faced Goldberg. Hak was wrapped in rubber barbed wire and was accompanied by Chastity. Goldberg got a good reaction coming out. Hak attacked Goldberg and laid into him with out-of-the-ring brawling. Crowd chanted "Goldberg." Hak is so talented. Goldberg started no-selling at the 45 second mark. Hak dumped Goldberg, who got back in and powerslammed Hak. Hak bulldogged Goldberg on a chair and started caning Goldberg, who no-sold, shrugging Hak off. Another powerslam, a spear, and a jackhammer. Match ran 3:00. Good to see Hak go down quickly. I still don't understand why they bothered to spend any contract money on him, and it is stupid to spend money on Hak and Vampiro and then have them job so early on in their stint, but from a quality wrestling perspective, who could be sad? Bret Hart did an interview, saying that he has been misused over the past year in WCW. He mentioned that he beat Ric Flair when he (Bret) debuted. He talked about Hulk Hogan, beginning the build for their match at Halloween Havoc. He talked about Goldberg, who he'll face at Nitro next week in Toronto as I mentioned weeks ago. It was a good interview. Bret could be such an important player if they let him be. Bret would be a WCW wrestler with a catchphrase if anybody but him could say it correctly; I'm not sure what's so hard, but everybody else screws it up. Vince faced Horace Hogan. Horace did a horrible double axe handle off the apron onto Vince. Pathetic. Stevie Ray was involved in the finish, nudging Horace into a school boy by Vince. Brian Adams came out. Does anybody care? Somehow it still managed to go 3:52. This is an example of where I'd like to see a WWF-style 2:00 match. Rey Misterio Jr.'s number was chosen from a drum to determine Ric Flair's challenger this night. A lot of the wrestlers were gathered around ringside. Boy, it's so important to get a title shot that many wrestlers hung around backstage. Ah, Ric said that Rey wasn't supposed to be in the draw, so all of the jobbers around ringside were there because Ric was dodging real challengers. Dean Malenko & Chris Benoit faced Raven. They double teamed him while the referee did little to stop them. A minute in, they were back to working somewhat honestly. Is this supposed to get the champs over? Man, no wonder Dave Meltzer seems to suggest that conscious effort goes into ways to kill the chances of Malenko & Benoit getting over. Raven kept refusing to submit to Malenko's cloverleaf and Benoit's crossface. Benoit reminds me in some ways of Jumbo Tsuruta, who I've been watching on tape (more below). Both of them are so credible with everything they do/did that it becomes really easy to suspend disbelief. Perry Saturn came in and attacked the Horsemen, since they refused to pin Raven. I guess we had a tag match at this point. The crowd was pretty silent, which was actually an improvement. Scary. This foursome could have a better PPV match than the Hennig & Windham bout. The commentators were tremendously annoying, continually pointing out that Saturn coming out to aid Raven made no sense. Heenan said the fans were stunned by what they were seeing, and Tony said that they didn't know what to make of it. I guess that the idea was that Malenko & Benoit could dish out offence for a long time to show what they can do. But their strength is in interacting with their opponents, not just throwing them around. Saturn made the hot tag, Raven came in, a melee erupted, and Saturn ended up putting his Rings of Saturn on Benoit. Malenko & Raven came in with one title belt apiece to use as a weapon. The referee signalled for the belts. Dusty style finish, as the Horsemen keep the titles, but fans were at first led to believe that the belts switched. Match time was 9:55. This wasn't so great, but a PPV match falling out of this has potential. In a US title tournament match, with no brackets shown, Chris Jericho faced Scott Steiner. I guess Steiner goes over. It's bad enough that Meng was put over Bam Bam Bigelow last time out. I don't know why every WCW booker or committee thinks that Meng has something to offer. Scott Steiner talked about "hoochies" and said he'd be the "missionary man" for any of the freaks that wanted him. People actually echoed the tail end of his interview, as the catchphrase era finds another star who is mediocre in the ring. They brawled more than wrestled. The crowd chanted "in the pool" when they brawled outside the ring. Match was okay, but definitely not special in any way. Steiner kicked Jericho low and put on the Recliner for the submission. I guess that everybody thinks Jericho is leaving. Match went 5:16. Main event had Ric Flair vs. Rey Misterio Jr. There's little hope of this match popping a big rating in opposition to Steve Austin vs. Paul Wight, but it surely had to be a better match. They played up Rey's quickness. In the first two minutes, it was already better than Austin vs. Wight. Ric dumped Rey, and Arn tried to attack Rey but failed. Outside the ring, Rey ducked under a Flair cothesline, but ended up running into an Anderson clothesline. Referee was Charles Robinson. The crowd seemed to be chanting "Ric Flair sucks!" but the crowd noise level was turned down so we couldn't make it out. It seemed like they did that on and off all night. Flair got a few two counts. Rey rallied and hit a facecrusher. Rey seemed hindered by the baggy jeans. Rey hit a top rope frankensteiner. As Robinson was counting, Arn pulled him out of the ring. For some reason, Robinson raised Flair's hand. No real decision announced. They did announce that Flair was still the world champion. Weird finish. Match time was 7:35. Tally time. In previous weeks, when TSN had only aired partial shows in my neck of the woods, I received a bit of e-mail saying that the figures are much more even if one calculates the average match time per hour of the two shows in their entirety. Well, this is the first week I can do that. Nitro's on-air bell-to-bell match time (excluding portions of matches that took place in commercials, since I'm counting bell-to-bell wrestling we see) was 54:41. For comparison purposes, multiply that by two-thirds to get 36:27. In order words, Nitro delivered 10 minutes more bell-to-bell wrestling per two hours. And keep in mind that the average hour of TV time really only amounts to 45 minutes of broadcast time, so 5 minutes per hour is proportionally more significant. Or Nitro delivered 38% more bell-to-bell wrestling than RAW (scaled to a per hour stat). I'm not sure I'd call that close. - The WWF has WrestleMania XV on 03/28/99. Tentative line-up has * Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia for the WWF Title with Paul Wight or Mankind as referee * Paul Wight vs. Mankind to determine the referee for the main event * Billy Gunn vs. Ken Shamrock vs. Val Venis for the IC Title * Undertaker vs. Big Boss Man in a Hell in the Cell match * X-Pac vs. Shane McMahon for the European Title * Sable vs. Tori for the Women's Title * Road Dog vs. Bob Holly vs. Al Snow for the Hardcore Title * Kane vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley * Bart Gunn vs. Butterbean I guess Road Dog & Billy Gunn should be interchanged. - On Tuesday, Chris Benoit was on the "Off The Record" panel along with a female curler and a male amateur wrestler. In the first segment, they talked about hockey, but Benoit did say that in any sport there's always somebody waiting in the wings to take your spot. He said that while he might get totally bent out of shape over the politics or what happens in the dressing room, when he gets in the ring he still delivers his best performance because he really loves what he does. "I love wrestling, but when I go in there to negotiate, or whatever, it's a business." In the second segment, they talked about sportsmanship and related issues. No real wrestling content. The third segment was about wrestling. "Sex sells." The question is "should you use sex to sell" your product? Is there a problem for the Nitro Girls? The two guys said no, but the woman said that one needs to be careful to avoid sending the wrong message. She doesn't like pushing the women based on their sex appeal. "Do you consider wrestling a sport?", she asked. "Yes I do," said Benoit. Right on. The curler conceded that she had the same problem with all cheerleaders. They showed Sable Playboy pics. Benoit said he didn't think that the Nitro Girls desensitize men to "real" female athletes. The poor woman was double-teamed by the guys. She seemed a bit anal about the matter, with her back going up when the amateur wrestler talked about the audience for Nitro Girls, Sable, and beach volleyball being inherently different than the audience for women's hockey because the female hockey players are completely covered with equipment. The final segment had the usual word association game. Benoit plugged Nitro in Toronto, mentioning all of the Canadians that will be on the show. * Kevin Nash: "Innovative" * Eric Bischoff: "Somewhat of a genius." * Vince McMahon: "Got a lot of respect for what's he done. He's made the necessary changes to stay on top." * Chris Jericho: "I've got a lot of respect for him. He's a close personal friend, and he's one of the wrestlers that has completely done it on his own." * Bret Hart: "Legend." They talked about Hart. "ML"=Host Michael Landsberg. "CB"=Chris Benoit. ML: There's good legends and there's bad legends. CB: He's a great legend. ML: Are they misusing him in the WCW? CB: Totally. Totally. ML: It's a real art, isn't it, taking a guy who's a great wrestler physically and making him worthwhile within your organization? CB: Wrestling is an art. It's a form of art. And Bret Hart is one of the few men out there than can go out there and actually... ML: Sorry, Chris, I've got to cut you off. We've got to go... In a side note, the WWF offered Michael Landsberg a chance to be a WWF TV commentator, but he had to turn it down because TSN wouldn't let him work both jobs, and he didn't want to leave his TSN position. - New Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 04/10/99. Line-up has * Keiji Muto vs. Don Frye for the IWGP Title * Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami for the IWGP Tag Titles * Atsushi Onita vs. Masa Chono in a garbage wrestling match - WCW has Spring Stampede on PPV on 04/11/99. Tentative line-up has: * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Billy Kidman for the Cruiserweight Title * US Title Tournament final - I had the chance to continue watching the old Japanese tapes I started writing about two weeks back. The next tape in the series jumps around a bit. The first show on the tape is an All Japan show from 07/28/89 that I'd already seen before. I'll just mention that the main event of Stan Hansen & Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu & Kabuki was a nice * * * * affair. After that we jumped to stuff I hadn't seen before, starting with the New Japan show from 11/24/89. The show featured a couple of bad matches with the Russians mentioned last week; the Russians were pretty much on their last legs in New Japan by this point and this show was pretty lacklustre. We jumped aread to the 01/25/90 New Japan and All Japan shows that aired on 02/03 TV. Of course, I'd already seen the Jushin Liger vs. Akira Nogami bout. This match was part of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight tournament and was a solid effort. I guess it would be memorable because Liger did a somersault dive from the top turbuckle onto Nogami, who was lying on the floor, sort of a Super Astro or Super Calo deal. In other matches on that show, George Takano attacked Super Strong Machine post-match, ripping his mask off. I was so unexcited by this angle. Takano was awesome as the Cobra, but he pretty much stunk as a heavyweight. In the 01/25 main, Big Van Vader beat Masa Chono in a good match. It was nice to see both guys with the wear and tear of the past ten years taken away. All Japan aired a couple of tag matches that had their moments but weren't up to my expectations because Kabuki and others were involved. We next hopped to 04/27/90. New Japan had a show in Tokyo's NK Hall. TV aired the tag battle of the superheavyweights, as the commentators called it, of Bam Bam Bigelow & Van Vader vs. Riki Choshu & Koji Kitao. The fans popped loudly for the American wrestlers and cheered them when either was in with Kitao, who they hated. They still popped for Choshu, though. The crowd noise made the match seem great, but it was only a * * * 1/2 affair. Kitao was way out of his league. Vader worked without the mask on. Bigelow was that old Bammer who could move quickly and bump tremendously. Match had a long heat segment on Kitao, with the fans generally favouring the Americans. "Big-e-row!" "Vader!" Neat to hear the names chanted. Finish saw Vader & Bigelow do simultaneous splashed on Kitao after a double suplex. Choshu was then held back by Bigelow, while Vader hit another splash for the pin. They splashed Kitao again and he had to be carried off. The finish got a babyface pop. Afterwards, Bigelow & Vader walked through the crowd and the fans cheered as if their favourite heroes were next to them. It was great. The co-main event on 04/27 saw Keiji Muto & Masa Chono face Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito for the latter's IWGP Tag Titles. Muto at this point already had a bad left knee, but he didn't come in with it wrapped, so I figured that it wasn't bugging him. Sure enough, though, the knee went out early in the match, making me worry that the match would crumble and suck. Masa Saito was still amazing at this point, sadly remembered by American fans as a salt-throwing stereotypical Japanese heel because of how he was used in the US. The fans knew abnout Muto's knee trouble, so they even showed him preparing before the match, with some indication that his knee was a concern. Hashimoto immediately kicked at the knee at the start of the match, but Muto seemed hurt already, tagged out, did some stretches, and really just seemed to be doing a solid job selling the injury. Chono was absolutely incredible in this match. Maybe it's because I've been suffering through his recent performances in New Japan - due to injury, he's been reduced to a wrestler who relies totally on psychology because the body can't do much, and like every wrestler captured in that description, his matches miss something - in any case, here I was awestruck by his quality. After some tags on each side, Muto was back in. The champs manhandled him, double-teaming on his knee. Muto was limping badly. Chono really had to carry the bout for his side. Muto is another wrestler who long-time American fans will remember for his Great Muta stints in the US, without ever realizing how great he was on his best days. I guess one quickly realizes what an honour it is to see matches like this regularly or on tape. Late in the match, Saito hit his great backdrop suplex on Muto, who managed to tag out. After some great near falls and exchanges, Muto hit the moonsault on Saito for the title change victory. This was a solid * * * 3/4 match. The next All Japan TV show aired matches from the 04/13/90 WWF & All Japan Wrestling Summit in the Tokyo Dome. On the one hand, it was nice to get really clean copies of these matches, but realistically all of the matches were on the low end of the scale, so this was a pretty depressing show. Even the great-on-paper Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask (Misawa) bout was really lacklustre. For pure WWF matches, like Jake Roberts vs. Big Boss Man, what could the Japanese fans have been thinking? The 05/05/90 New Japan TV show aired matches from the 05/05 card. Kensuke Sasaki faced Masahiko Takasugi. Match was nothing special. I received some flames in e-mail two weeks back for calling Atsushi Onita "crap" the week before while discussing the Kensuke Sasaki vs. Atsushi Onita match from this year's January dome show. The flames generally argued that Sasaki was unprofessional for not selling for or trying to have a real match with Onita as was the booking plan. I don't really argue that, although I think it was clear from my words that I don't think anybody could have a good non-garbage match with Onita. Remember when Hogan was set to face Vader in WCW and people (not me) were starting a "Shoot, Vader, shoot!" plea on the net? I have to confess that while I didn't get into that idea, my reaction to Sasaki not wanting to work with a crappy wrestler like Onita was somewhat similar. By being stuck in the ring with Onita, Sasaki was either being insulted or punished by booker Riki Choshu. If Choshu felt strongly about how Sasaki handled the situation, he would reprimand him in some way. My whole point was that Onita sucks, plain and simple. He's a wrestler with no physical athletic skill who made his name through charisma, bad garbage-wrestling matches (pardon what is oh-so-close to a redundancy), among a fanbase that can ignore his lack of skill. That's the same description, minus the "garbage" part, that I would give Hogan. That's the same description with "no physical athletic skill" replaced by "limited wrestling skill" that I would give Steve Austin. That may get me in trouble, but it is a highly-defendable statement. Sanjay had the nerve to say that Sasaki blew it because he actually had the chance to learn something about wrestling from Onita. That's a laughable statement to me. Sasaki is hardly the greatest, but he's been involved in many really good or better matches involving a reasonably diverse list of opponents. He can't be the slug that Onita is and have the record that he does. At the same time, I'm not a member of his fan club in the least. Sanjay's line reminded me of the time when Hiro Hase came to WCW and the official spin was that he was going to learn something about wrestling. Like WCW at any time could have taught Hase anything. The 05/05 show had that great Jushin Liger vs. Shiro Koshinaka match that I've seen a few times before. Great * * * * bout. Koshinaka got a great win with a dragon suplex. The main event on the show was Masa Chono & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masa Saito & Riki Choshu. The bout was supposed to be a tag title defence, but Muto's knee was screwed a few days earlier in the title victory match and he had to step out of this match, making it non-title. Match opened with Hashimoto facing his former tag champ partner Masa Saito. Shinya kicked Saito's chest with Saito selling a little and then asking for more. It was actually close to comedic. The match was pretty good, but the TV show went off the air before we got to a finish, which was weird to see on Japanese TV. On to 06/09/90 New Japan TV, which aired matches from 05/28/90 in Osaka. The opening match on TV was Vader vs. Koji Kitao. As I mentioned above, the Japanese crowds hated Kitao. It was really weird to see Vader lay into Kitao while the crowd cheered. When Kitao hit a comeback spot, the crowd booed very loudly. They even started "Vader!" chants. Vader threw some really stiff fists and backfists at Kitao's face whenever they were in the corner. The crowd gave babyface pops. You know, after watching this stuff, it's even clearer that Vader has lost several steps, 'cause he was great back then. He beat Kitao after a standing collision. Hot off their win a month earlier, Muto & Chono defended the tag titles against Hiro Hase & Shiro Koshinaka. The challengers had most of the match early on, with Hase looking great. Finally, Muto came in and did all of his hot moves. Hase dumped Muto, blocked an attempted tope, and ended up hitting a tope of his own. After some more exchanges, Chono hit the STF on K3shinaka, but Shiro managed to make the ropes. Hiro ended up making a hot tag a little thereafter and went nuts. The crowd was very hot. Hase got an exciting 2.75 count off a Northern Lights suplex. But Chono recovered, hit an enzuigiri and tagged in Muto, who did all of his moves, ending with a moonsault that Shiro was cut off from stopping. Really good match. The TV main was Riki Choshu vs. Shinya Hashimoto. It was good. The ending is something fading American stars should learn from: Choshu lost cleanly to Hashimoto after a competitive match. After the match, Hashimoto shook Choshu's hand and held up Choshu's arm, with Choshu slapping Shinya lightly across the face. All Japan TV from the same weekend featured Stan Hansen vs. Toshiaki Kawada (both guys kicked the crap out of each other so badly, that they were all marked up), Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Davey Boy Smith (the match seemed weird, since it was all spots; they did no transitions...weird for All Japan). On the 06/23/90 New Japan TV, an interesting match featured Keiji Muto & Masa Chono defending the IWGP Tag Titles against Shinya Hashimoto & Kensuke Sasaki. Sasaki was still pretty green at this point. He looked out of place with the others, largely because his moves had no polish to them. Muto had suffered a loss to Hashimoto recently, so he ended up getting the moonsault win by pinning Hashimoto. In North America, in a tag match featuring three stars and a rookie, the rookie always does the job. The TV main had Big Van Vader & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Stan Hansen & Riki Choshu. There was a storyline here, as Hansen & Choshu couldn't get along and broke up after the match. I only mention the match because it was neat to see recent All Japan tag partners Vader & Hansen on opposing teams. The 06/23 All Japan TV show is of course a legendary episode. I was overjoyed to watch it because it was the one obvious show that everybody should see that I had never seen. First match was for the Triple Crown, with Terry Gordy defending against Stan Hansen. The match was good, with the crowd heat being awesome. The ring entrances and intros left me tingling in anticipation of the match. Watching this old stuff, I was really into Hansen again. Match opened with Hansen getting whipped into the corner, but stumbling out with a vicious lariat. Gordy rolled out of the ring immediately and groggily 'cause the Japanese fans would only have accepted a pin after such a blow. Hansen tossed Gordy back in the ring and tried to set up another lariat off the ropes. Gordy countered with a DDT, getting a two count. Gordy looked really good. Match wasn't great, as they did some crappy kicking and punching spots that did nothing for me and seemed to make the fans lose interest. Every time they went out of the ring, one wrestler would dump the other back in and get back in himself, with the fans popping huge because they didn't want a count out. After a few count out teases, Gordy went for a clothesline but ended up getting hit with a stiff lariat for the pin. Match was sort of simple but the fans were so into it and I was fast becoming a Hansen mark again, so I liked it a lot. I loved hearing the fans chant "Hansen!" when he won the titles. Steve Williams came in after the match to attack Hansen. Williams & Gordy totally destroyed Hansen, which was a great way of making them heels. To this point, Williams & Gordy were still getting a good amount of cheers in their matches. But, of course, the real reason to get excited about this TV show is that the matches were from 06/08/90. That date should seem important to anybody considering great matches of the 1990s. The TV main was the legendary Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta bout, the match where Tsuruta passed the torch to Misawa, basically setting the stage for Misawa's run as inarguably the best single wrestler of the 1990s. The match was as great as anybody who has heard about has been led to believe. Very early on, Tsuruta was knocked out of the ring by a baseball slide. Misawa went for a tope, but instead floated over onto the apron and then launched himself into a dropkick, landing on the ringside floor. When they both got up a few seconds later, Misawa hit an elbow that sent Tsuruta over the guard rail. Two more elbows sent Tsuruta off the apron to the floor. Misawa then hit a tope. Finally, Tsuruta manahed to get back in the ring, shaking his head to sell the effects of Misawa's offence. Nobody really expected Misawa to win the match. Backstage, Baba had made the decision before the show. Now was the time to pass the torch. They worked off a surfboard-type spot at that point, each reversing the move on the other after a minute or two. Maybe it was just my excitement, but I thought I could fell the tension in the air, sense the emotion of the crowd. Misawa put a hammerlock on Tsuruta. After a little bit of maneuvering, Jumbo found his way to the corner and Misawa had to break. Big moment: when Jumbo turned around in the corner, Misawa slapped him before backing up. The crowd "ooooh"ed. Jumbo looked surprised. Misawa looked intense. The commentators got a lot louder. They locked up, backed to the ropes, broke, and Misawa slapped Tsuruta again. Tsuruta took the advantage, hitting his jumping knee on Misawa. Anybody who has seen a lot of All Japan from the 1980s gets a special feeling when they hear Akira Fukuzawa yell "jumping knee!" Back to the outside, Jumbo whipped Misawa into the guard rail and then tossed him back in. Applause from the fans. A double-arm suplex and then a sleeper. He let go of the sleeper, pancaked Misawa, and kicked him a bit. Tsuruta sent Misawa to the ropes, tossing him up in the air for another pancake, but Misawa countered it with a dropkick, sort of like Sean Waltman managed to do in his younger days. Misawa hit a missile dropkick and started going to work with some kicks, ending with a top rope splash that got him a two count. A cross-body by Misawa saw Tsuruta drop him throat first across the top rope. The momentum changed. Tsuruta hit a piledriver for a two count. A Thesz press got another two. A few more two counts followed. The crowd started a small "Misawa!" chant that would become the chant of the 1990s. Tsuruta went tot he top, but Misawa caught him. The superplex was stopped, though. Tsuruta ended up hitting his jumping knee from the top rope after all. Two count only, with the tension building, the chant growing. Power bomb by Jumbo. Another two count. Misawa starts his decade of matches where he takes enough punishment to kill him in every match. Misawa hit a backslide for a surprise two, sprung to his feet, and managed to hit an elbow on Jumbo, with both wrestlers falling over. Tsuruta actually crawled out of the ring to recover. Misawa hit a baseball slide dropkick on Tsuruta and then climbed to the top rope. Plancha! A Misawa German suplex was countered, but Misawa still got a roll-up. Two count. Splash off the top, but Jumbo got his knee up. Two count by Jumbo. "Misawa!" Jumbo put on the Boston crab, but he was way too close to the ropes. Jumbo hit a lariat for another two. Jumbo hit another stiff lariat for another close two. "Misawa!" Jumbo went for his backdrop suplex, with Misawa kicking himself off the turnbuckles so that Jumbo caught some of the impact of the move. They stumbled to their feet. Misawa hit his German suplex for a two count. Misawa's power bomb attempt was countered with a backdrop that got Jumbo another two count. Jumping knee. Jumbo signalled for the lariat. He whipped Misawa into the corner, with Misawa launching himself out for a cross body and Jumbo nailing him with an elbow to the head. Jumbo went for another jumping knee, missed, and ended up crotching himself on the top rope. Misawa went for a vertical suplex, Jumbo countered it, Misawa dropped down behind Jumbo and went for a German suplex, Jumbo flipped his body in mid-air and ended up landing on top of Misawa. Two count, but Misawa was already rolling the pin over, three count. This was one of the most incredible matches I've ever seen. Wow. On the 06/30/90 New Japan TV show, Keiji Muto & Masa Chono defended against Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito. Solid match. Boy, the crowd was into Muto. Champs retained when Chono pinned Saito with a sunset flip. They also aired a * * * * ten-man tag. We jumped to the 10/18/90 debut show of SWS, the Super World Sports group that Genichiro Tenryu led. Tenyru & Kabuki beat Jeff Jarrett & Bob Orton Jr. It was weird seeing Jarrett from these days in this environment. Work was solid. This match was part of a tag tournament to crown the first SWS Tag champs. The Japanese wrestlers went over and faced George Takano & Shunji Takano in the final. The Takanos' semi-final match also aired. George Takano was incredible as Cobra in New Japan years earlier. The Takanos as a team had a great match against the Footloose in All Japan a couple of years earlier. They ended up winning the tournament. I guess they had a guest commentator on the show, 'cause during a match the bottom of screen read "Exciting Announcer" with some kanji characters underneath. They also aired a singles match between Jeff Jarrett & Naoki Sano. Sano was still the awesome wrestler who worked against Jushin Liger, but he didn't seem as awesome in the ring with Jarrett working with him. In a terrible injustice, Jarrett actually went over with a crucifix. - Just a week or two after mentioning that Chyna with her hair up looked like Nicole Bass, word is that the WWF has signed Bass to a developmental deal. - Although speculation was rampant that Eric Bischoff was setting the stage to leave WCW, he has signed a three-year renewal. Ditto Disco Inferno, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Heenan. It's expected that Bischoff will put a lot of effort and money towards keeping Chris Jericho. - 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 99/02/14: St. Valentine's Day Massacre Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 1.2 $5.33 1.28 * 1/4 * * * 3/4 Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0% (0 of 8) 99/01/24: Royal Rumble Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia Royal Rumble 1.57 $6.97 1.83 * 1/2 * * * 3/4 Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0% (0 of 6) Last 6 1.13 $5.01 1.42 1.33 3.46 1.9% (1 of 54) 1999 1.39 $6.15 1.52 1.38 3.75 0.0% (0 of 14) 1998 1.02 $4.42 1.60 1.63 3.65 4.0% (4 of 101) Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * WCW 99/03/14: Uncensored Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan 1.83 * * * * * 1/2 Billy Kidman vs. Mikey Whippreck 0% (0 of 9) 99/02/21: SuperBrawl Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan 1.1 $5.27 1.89 * * 1/2 * * * 1/4 Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Kevin Nash Scott Steiner vs. Diamond Dallas Page 0% (0 of 9) 99/01/17: Souled Out Bill Goldberg vs. Scott Hall Ric Flair & David Flair vs. Curt Hennig & Barry Windham 0.78 $3.64 1.83 * 1/2 * * * * Billy Kidman vs. Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Psicosis 11.1% (1 of 9) Last 6 0.84 $3.84 1.41 1.58 3.71 3.6% (2 of 18) 1999 0.94 $4.46 1.86 2 3.625 5.6% (1 of 55) 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) 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 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. ______________________________________________________________________