______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ I have one week of lectures left. I'm still working on putting together a good final examination. I'm hoping that I'll have the chance over the weekend to watch the latest New Japan and All Japan TV I've received. ______________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had WrestleMania on PPV this past Sunday, 03/28/99. I should say upfront that I feel increasingly unable to appreciate the WWF product. I'm amazed and impressed by the reactions that some entrances and catchphrases get. I'm unmoved by the less-than-skillful garbage wrestling (pardon the redundancy) that they seem to be moving towards across the line. People e-mail me to complain that wrestling is about more than just work and workrate. I agree completely, but those things are the underpinnings. If a product just has good characters, but the work and workrate suck, I don't feel like I'm watching wrestling. If a product has great storylines, but the work and workrate suck, ditto. Everybody that e-mails me to explain their view of wrestling, criticize mine, or point me to a web site that offers an explanation seems to judge the WWF by some unique standard, seemingly whatever standard makes a lot of the WWF "good." Usually, that standard involves an appeal to great storylines. So I find myself looking for great storylines, or, more precisely, looking more closely at WWF storylines because I expect them to make up a greater percentage of my enjoyment. Everybody seems to admit that the wrestling isn't so great from a work and workrate perspective. Maybe I'm a dinosaur. At least for now. On to WrestleMania. I don't think there was a good wrestling match on the show from my perspective. There were some good wrestling moments. There were a few memorable spots outside of the work/workrate framework. The main event delivered the desired finish, however contrived the whole thing was. The undercard was mostly poor and uninspired. Matches were mostly short, entrances were long and supplemented by video features. Here's my rundown. The best work/workrate moment of the show, albeit from a nonwrestling moment, was "America the Beautiful" sung by Boyz II Men. I mean that tongue in cheek of course, but, truthfully, when they showed the summary video at the end of the PPV, the Boyz II Men open was the most memorable thing on the show for me. * Bob Holly beat Al Snow & Billy Gunn to win the Hardcore Title: A tremendous reaction for Gunn's entrance music, but Gunn's "Suck It" routine was cut off by Al Snow. I wondered what the fans would do, since that's Gunn's best spot. Near the start, Gunn took a really amateurish spin bump off a clothesline, launching himself way too early for the bump. That's two bumps in a week that Gunn has blown. Al Snow pulled out a hockey stick from under the ring. Michael Cole explained that Philly Flyer must have left it around when the crew was setting up. Uh-huh. There was also a concessionaire's drink tray under the ring. And a broom. At least there wasn't a watermelon. They whacked each other with objects. Whoopee. The crowd was quiet a few minutes in, giving minor reactions at best. A small "ECW" chant was audible, but it didn't seem like the production crew turned down the sound like WCW did two weeks earlier. Michael Cole called Billy Gunn the "best athlete pound for pound" in the WWF. Uh-huh. Snow used head on both and then pulled out a table. The first pops were for a chair shot by Gunn on Holly. He then hip tossed Snow into the table, and hit his "Fame Asser" (what a horrible name...) on Snow, but Holly got a quick pin on Snow. Big boos for the finish. I'd like to believe that the fans were booing the match or the style of match, but I know better. Gunn lost the title without losing the match. Match ran 7:07. At least the knew that garbage wrestling matches should be kept short. Wrestlers can only hit other wrestlers with objects with neither rhyme nor reason for only so long before it gets stale. * Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart beat D'Lo Brown & Test to retain the WWF Tag Titles: Test? Test? Debra wore a thong. The bout was damn short but it was actually okay because Test stayed out of it. It could have been embarrassing, but now was only sort of embarrassing because this was hardly a tag title match worthy of PPV status. Test was distracted, and D'Lo was double teamed and pinned. Test & D'Lo traded some really lame punches afterwards. Bad match, but it could have been so much worse. It only ran 4:03, which adds to that "sort of" embarrassment. * Butterbean beat Bart Gunn in a BrawlForAll match: They had judges at ringside, including Gorilla Monsoon. Bean knocked out Bart in short order. The commentators sold it as Bart being gutsy for taking that punch. The San Diego chicken came out and was knocked out by the boxer referee. Embarrassing. Match ran 0:53. * Mankind DQ The Big Slow Paul Wight: There was no reaction for the Big Slow entrance, while Mankind got a great pop. Boring match. Mankind took a bump over the stairs. Three minutes in, Mankind put on the mandible claw. Wight dropped himself back onto Mankind in the first memorable spot of the show. That bump seemed worse than many other spectacular bumps that Foley has taken. Wight choke slammed Mankind through two chairs. The ref DQed him. Vince came out to berate the Big Slow, who, living up to his name, doesn't seem to understand that his job is to protect Vince's interests. Wight ended up punching Vince, perhaps since Vince suggested that he was getting fat already thanks to eating too many Big Slaws. Instead of focusing on Mankind being stretchered out, the attention was split between that and Vince being helped out. The big slow replay showed Big Slow punching his own hand as clear as day. Vince had him arrested for assault. Match ran 6:54. * Road Dogg beat Val Venis & Ken Shamrock & Goldust to retain the IC Title: Dogg's entrance was way over. In this match, wrestlers would be eliminated, with the survivor being the champion. With that in mind, why would anybody tag in before it got down to two guys? Goldust & Val were in a minute or two in and went straight to near falls, with absolutely no build. The low blow got a pop. Goldust & Val were laid out by the other two. Shamrock came in, hit the ankle lock, but Val made the ropes. This match had some good moments of wrestling, with no build to them and no real context given to them. Val limped out after Ken, selling better than you know who. Both guys were counted out. That killed the match. Shamrock came back in and laid out both Goldust & Dogg. I thought this was a good match until this really uninspired elimination and follow-up. Ryan Shamrock grabbed Goldust's leg, Goldust got distracted, and Dogg got a quick pin. Goldust dumped Ryan. Bad last minute or two. Match ran 9:53. * Kane DQ Hunter Hearst Helmsley: The San Diego chicken attacked Kane; it turned out to be Pete Rose, who was tombstoned again. Boy, that was so funny. I guess it was a cute little touch, but those touches have a different effect on shows with good wrestling quality and shows with bad wrestling quality. Match had boring work 'cause HHH can't carry anybody. Michael Cole praised Kane: "He does it all in the ring. He climbs the top rope with the best of them." It was so bad I almost wished Dusty Rhodes & Lee Marshall were doing commentary; almost. Kane did an absolutely lame missed splash in the corner. The timing was just way off. Chyna came out. Each wrestler countered the other's finisher. Chyna tossed the steel steps into the ring. They did a drop toe hold on the steps. Kane backdropped HHH off the second step onto the ringside floor. Kane choke slammed HHH. Chyna asked him to let her use a chair. She chaired Kane. Who didn't see that coming? The promotion becomes ever more like ECW with all of these turns. Kane no-sold the chair shot, but HHH chaired him twice and hit a pedigree on the chair. HHH & Chyna left together. Kane sat up. Match ran 11:36. It sort of felt like hours and minutes, not minutes and seconds. * Sable beat Tori to retain the WWF Women's Title: I can't take these women seriously as athletes, but that's not why they are there. Tori's outfit reminded one of Giant Gonzalez' outfit years ago. Sable undulated. Match was really, really bad; it might as well be GLOW. Sable did some sort of tope. Michael Cole added to his hyperbole: "[Sable's] a tremendous in-ring wrestler." They tried to do the Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat two-count spots, but had none of the ability, so it was sort of funny to watch. Tori cross body blocked the referee across his waste or knees. Nicole Bass came in. She seemed to be there at the wrong time. Sable hit her power bomb for the pin. Bad, bad, bad. Match ran 5:06. It was excruciating. * Shane McMahon beat X-Pac to retain the European Title: Shane's friends were at ringside. Pat Patterson & Jerry Brisco attacked X-Pac, but he outsmarted them. Test was at ringside interfering rather freely. He posted X-Pac's crotch. X-Pac persevered. He was so good that the match was almost watchable. Shane missed a bronco buster and sold it as if his crotch hit the buckle even though the camera angle showed that not to be the case. Combined with Wight's punch to the hand and the women's match, the PPV seemed to be turning an amateur hour of sorts. HHH & Chyna came out. Chyna distracted the referee. HHH pedigreed X-Pac in a surprise. I guess the idea was that we were supposed to be happy that HHH & Chyna were back together in DX, but then we were swerved when they turned out X-Pac. I told you this was ECW. They worked out that story and delivered two crappy matches to make the point. The Outlaws saved X-Pac. Match ran 8:52. * Undertaker beat Big Boss Man in a Hell in the Cell match: Boss Man handcuffed Undertaker to the fence. A light "boring!" chant erupted. Boss Man used his night stick onb Undertaker, who fell, breaking the handcuffs. Undertaker bladed. Michael Cole was stuck in a commentary loop, repeatedly telling us that "no superstar who has been in the Hell in the Cell with the Undertaker has ever been the same. Remember Shawn Michaels. Remember Mankind." I swear he said this exact same thing several times. The crowd was silent except for light cat calls. Nobody gave a damn. Boss Man bladed. Undertaker hit the tombstone out of nowhere. Thank god it was over. We sure can't thank the lord of darkness for this piece of crap. The brood was lowered down to the top of the cage. They ripped open the cage, dropped in a noose, and attached it to the cage. Undertaker put the noose on Boss Man. The brood floated back to the ceiling. The cell went up thanks to Paul Bearer, and Boss Man was hung by the noose. It was attached to a harness he was wearing, so it was sort of stupid. Cole: "Is it symbolic, King?" I guess he was trying to say that the hanging wasn't real. Here this guy gets hanged, but it's more important to cut away to footage of the rage party. When we came back, the ring was clear. We were never told that the Boss Man was alive. Match ran 9:00. * Steve Austin beat Rocky Maivia to win the WWF Title: Vince came out to referee. Shawn Michaels came out with a WWF referee. "Only one man can appoint an official at WrestleMania," namely the commissioner. Well, why did Shawn bother to have Mankind work against the Big Slow to determine the referee? Why didn't he just appoint Mankind? Isn't the story that he was beaten to a pulp by the Corporation? Wouldn't he want to screw Vince? Okay, maybe Mankind wanted to fight for his dream of reffing at WrestleMania. Why, then, would Shawn come out with a WWF referee to work this match? Wouldn't he bring out somebody who would tilt things against Vince? I guess not. He just wanted a fair match. I don't get any of it. What I do know is that this crap and the entrances killed 12 minutes. Rock & Austin brawled into the fans imnmediately. They walked into the crowd, punched each other a bit, walked back to ringside, walked into the crowd on the other side, Austin was backdropped on the light supports, and then they walked back to the ring. I told you this was ECW. It was garbagy brawling. Not even that good. Austin took a suplex on the floor. Oh yeah, they left the ring right away. Austin can only do one or two moves in a ring these days, so they had to hit the floor and do garbage stuff as quickly as possible. Austin elbowed Rock on the announcers' table twice, breaking the table. Back into the ring and right back out. Finally, they got back in. Rocky hit the rock bottom for a two count. The referee was chaired by Austin. Rock used the chair on Austin's bad knee. Two count. They dropped to a head lock. Maybe they were ahead of schedule and needed to kill a minute or two 'cause nobody in the WWF works off a headlock. Sure enough, they didn't work off the headlock. They rested for a minute or so. Austin got to his feet and punched right out of the headlock, Rock rock bottomed the referee. It was a no DQ match, so hitting the referee was okay. Stunner. No referee to count. Vince came in and decked the referee. Vince and Rock laid into Austin. Mankind came out. He decked Vince. School boy for a two count. Thesz press. Rock rallied. Rock bottom. Corporate elbow. Missed it! Rock bottom attempt. Stunner. Three count. Earl Hebner and Austin had a beer afterwards. Austin decked Vince in the ring and hit a stunner. Match ran 16:57, the only match to go over 10 minutes. It felt like a 1980s Hulk Hogan match in an ECW framework. Overall, I can't honestly give this show a thumbs up. While they delivered the "right" result in the main event, the show was pretty bad from a wrestling perspective. Four bad matches preceded the main event. The only highlight in those matches was X-Pac's work. Although the broadcast time for the PPV was about 2:50, we only received 1:20 of bell-to-bell wrestling, with only one match going over 10 minutes. It was structured like RAW without the opening interview and with the match lengths scaled up a bit. Maybe I'm crazy for ordering a WWF show or watching their TV show in the hopes of seeing a great wrestling match. It sure seems that way. But I'm the kind of fan that watches whatever wrestling I can get my hands on, all in the hope of seeing some great wrestling. Even the knowledge that the WWF doesn't put any focus on delivering one great match per show, say, didn't stop me from ordering the event because it did seem like some matches could have been good. In the end, I think the matches would have trouble breaking * * * , and definitely wouldn't approach the * * * * mark. Of course that means that I'll get loads of e-mail praising the storylines and downplaying the need for good in-ring wrestling. Before the show, people were e-mailing saying the main event, Hell in the Cell, Hardcore, and IC Title matches would all be great. Now those same people will turn around and e-mail me to say that it doesn't matter that those matches weren't great. Somebody will surely suggest that they were. RAW RAW on 03/29/99 aired live in Canada on TSN. Following WrestleMania, likely the most successful PPV ever, the show seemed pretty hot. The show opened with Steve Austin giving Rock credit for "one hell of a fight," continuing the set-up for Rock's eventual face turn. Austin said that he was going to relinquish the title, calling Vince out. When Vince came out, Austin said he wanted the old WWF Title belt back; it sits on Vince's mantle. Vince said no. Vince said that if Austin laid his hands on him he'd be fired on the spot. Austin answer was that Vince's stomping of Vince at WrestleMania was "sufficient provocation" for Austin to attack Vince. Vince whacked Austin with the new WWF Title belt; Austin promised a retaliation during RAW. They showed all of their scantily women. Opening segment went 15:00, right on schedule. Now to the two-minute matches. Sable & Jacqueline faced Ivory & Tori. Maybe I missed something on Heat, but I don't know why Sable & Jackie & Terri Runnels are together. Ivory did a sad giant swing. Barely a minute in, Sable whacked Jackie with her title belt. Sable undulated at Tori. Tori challenged her. The lights dropped. Match time was a whopping 1:24. Undertaker's music started, and the Brood came to ring. They walked in because Viscera was with them. Somehow Tori was smart enough to get out of the ring, but Sable wasn't. Undertaker wanted Sable to raise the dead. Undertaker told Vince that he could snap "her head right off her shoulders." Vince, having a rough night, came out and ran off because he was worried about his daughter Stephanie, who was backstage. If he was so concerned about her welfare, why did he bring her to the arena? I guess because Undertaker had gone to his house last time. Still, you'd think there's a better choice. The commentators didn't connect the dots for us, and this segment came off weirdly. X-Pac came out to berate HHH & Chyna. He said that Degneration X would not die, that the Outlaws would come out each week and say "Suck It." Whew, wouldn't want to take away their whole act. X-Pac said Hunter's "ass is grass and I'm gonna smoke it." Undertaker called Vince to hint that he had kidnapped Vince's daughter. They never explained how the daughter was taken when Shane was supposedly watching her. The Big Slow Paul Wight, released by the police, faced Test. Oh boy, this should be a marathon match. They showed Big Slow punching his own hand again at WrestleMania. Choke slam in 0:24. Big Slow said he was on a mission. Vince sent goons off to find his daughter. Steve Williams challenged Bob Holly for the Hardcore title, following on the heels of their frat house brawl a week ago. I like Williams a lot, and I hope the WWF succeeds in getting him over. Even though he's lost several steps compared to his All Japan peak form of a few years back, he's still got the potential to deliver better work and higher workrate than almost anybody in the promotion. After Williams powerslammed Holly on table, Al Snow came in and headed him. Holly got the pin at 3:57. Rock faced Billy Gunn in a battle of the two best natural athletes in the WWF, as Michael Cole tells us. Cole pushed Rock's performance the night before, again apparently preparing for a babyface turn down the line. Gunn drew a great reaction coming out. Match had some good spots, but was hardly a classic or even memorable like a match between two supposedly great wrestlers would be. Rock did his own commentary, but Gunn cut him off. Rock Bottom came out of nowhere, followed by the elbow for the pin. Match time was 5:19. Gangrel faced Ken Shamrock. Shamrock kept asking Gangrel where Stephanie was. Ken slammed Gangrel's head into the steps. Well, that's what it was supposed to look like, but Gangrel ended up smacking the stairs with his hand. Michael Cole said that Gangrel tried to block the shots but couldn't. For a second I thought that Cole was going to say something smart by acknowledging how bad the spot looked. Work was okay, but Gangrel is still unpolished even though he's been in the biz for so long. Ken's rana spot was really flubbed. The brood ran in to save Gangrel, who submitted at 5:32. Shamrock was bathed in blood, but managed to get Christian to admit that Stephanie was in the basement. When searching the basement after the commercial break, Shamrock was unable to find her. Road Dogg came out to his Pavlovian reaction. And, yeah, my comment last week was tongue in cheek. I had several people e-mail me to say that the "...and children of all ages..." bit is from a circus intro. Of course it is. I know that it has nothing to do with Vince McMahon targeting this mature product at children becaues he doesn't do that. He told us so. Goldust challenged Road Dogg for the IC Title. Dogg got a small pop for telling Goldust to "suck it." At 0:35, Ryan Shamrock came out. Her appearance was so pressing that she was only able to get one button on her blouse buttoned up. Blue Meanie sent Ryan to the back. Who would listen to the Meanie? Meanie came in at the three minute mark. Dogg bulldogged Meanie into Goldust's crotch; boy, that seemed like an ECW spot. Goldust rallied, Meanie hit Dogg with the title, and Goldust got the pin and won the title. Ugh, another title change in four minutes. Match went 4:07. Goldust ran down fans who didn't believe, who didn't dream. When Michael Cole said "what the hell is he talking about?", Jerry Lawler said, "I'm not even going to ignore that." Ken Shamrock found Stephanie in the basement. We returned to an emotional reunion, with Vince thanking Ken while calling the Ministry "rotten bastards." Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart faced the Legion of Doom. The LOD tried to do their old shtick of taking over quickly with power spots. They have no credibility any more. Did we ever learn how Hawl survived falling from the Titantron? How the LOD dropped Droz and came back together? Don't send me e-mail; I don't really care. Owen looked good a couple of times, but really had nothing to work with. Only heat was a "nugget chant." Animal did a horrible comeback. The LOD dumped JJ and went to work on Owen with their devastation device as JR calls it. JJ whacked Animal with a guitar, though, so the champs kept their belts. The whole thing took 2:48. The old WWF Title belt arrived at the arena. Vince and Stephanie hugged and acted emotional. Vince said that he'd always be indebted to Austin. He said that he didn't give a damn about Austin's title, that the trauma of the night was over, that the belt would be given to Austin. When Vince and Stephanie left, Shane said that he wasn't going to let the night end this way. "DX member X-Pac" faced Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Man, the WWF is rightfully rubbing it in WCW's face that they can win the ratings battle even with this main event. Don't get me wrong. It's a better match than Austin vs. Big Slow. X-Pac was great. HHH even seemed a bit better than his usual level of mediocrity. The matches are weird because of the reduced match times. A minute in, it was like they were already near the finish, with X-Pac selling like he'd been in a 20-minute battle. I can't get into the matches psychologically. At the 2:25 mark, they were both lying on the mat, spent from the exertion of the marathon bout. X-Pac was great. I know I said that already, but it's a rare thing on Monday night to notice how great a wrestler is in either promotion. Chyna came in and clotheslined X-Pac for the DQ at 3:32. She lowblowed him. HHH laid into him. The lights dropped, and Kane came out. I guess we've got our PPV tag co-main event, folks. When the red light came on, only HHH was in the ring. Shane snuck in and whacked Kane, excaping before Kane could retaliate. HHH whacked Kane with a chair. Kane sat up. He was in such a hurry to catch Kane that he lumbered up the ramp. Shane McMahon called out Steve Austin, acting like he was in charge. Shane called out the Rock, who was sporting Austin's title belt on his shoulder. Rock hit his catchphrases. Austin ran out. They brawled, straight into garbage wrestling. Austin stunned Shane. Rock whacked Austin with the title belt. The Corporation came in and laid into Austin while Chyna helped Shane out. You guessed it, the Big Slow came out, cleaning house on the Corporation along with Austin. Hey, I was flamed a bit for comparing Austin to Atsushi Onita last week. People misunderstood, thinking that I was comparing both wrestlers as they are today. Not at all. Compare them at their drawing power peak. For Austin, that is now. For Onita, that's years ago. Each guy was a physically broken man who could no longer handle the travails of a legitimate wrestling style; unbelievable charisma and garbage wrestling let the fans of each guy look past his physical failings. Tally time: 26:55. I'm getting e-mail from people who say I shouldn't bother noting the total bell-to-bell match time, as if the actual in-ring wrestling on a wrestling show is now somehow unimportant or meaningless. Well, it is important to the person who puts together this web page every week, so I'm still doing it. Nitro Nitro on 03/29/99 was a three-hour live show from the new Air Canada Centre in Toronto. This was the first Nitro ever to take place in Canada, so TSN of course aired it in prime time on Tuesday night (RAW aired at 9pm EST on Monday, since RAW draws bigger ratings for TSN). The first hour of the show was weird because the commentators kept saying that Nitro would go on the air at 9pm. Yeah, WCW has been facing a lot of criticism over how the 8-9pm hour has been handled. I guess the answer for complaints over this first hour of Nitro is to just say that Nitro starts at 9pm; then we don't have a name for the show we complain about. The show opened with recaps of storylines and past event and the playing of Konnan's music video. Konnan came out, hit his catchphrases, and ended up having an imprompt match with Vincent. Boring bout that ended predictably with Konnan beating Vince with the Tequila Sunrise submission at 5:36. Hulk Hogan jabbered on, the commentators jabbered on, and we had a special interview with Diamond Dallas Page, who indicated that he was turning. You see, all of the WCW babyfaces used to complain that it was impossible to play that role since the NWO heels played their role by being cool and acting all babyfacelike, in the 1990s sense. The solution is to switch everybody from heel to face and vice-versa. What a mess. Wrath beat Kenny Kaos in a way-too-long match with the meltdown at 8:49. Can you believe that match time? That's just what they need to do to get Wrath over again. They aired more NWO videos of David Flair, Tori Wilson, and Kevin Nash. These things are annoying because apparently none of the players ever watch Nitro to see what the others are saying about them and somehow manage to miss all of the rebroadcasts of these pieces as well. Ric Flair did an interview. The fans wanted to cheer him but he put the bad mouth on Canada and got a Pavlovian reaction instantly. Flair may be showing the signs of his age these days physically, but he has done a tremendous job in turning himself and Hulk Hogan. Diamond Dallas Page came out, with Flair setting up a match between DDP and Hogan this night. Hogan came out and got a strong reaction again. Sigh. First match in the opposed show was Scott Norton vs. Rick Steiner. Now that's a match I've really waiting to see. Steiner delivered four post shots, which half-sold. One top rope bulldog later and the match was over. Match ran 7:11, but had a commercial break. Norton lifted his shoulder at the three. Boy, that "who is the leader of the NWO B&W?" story line should heat up after Vincent and Norton lose in such pedestrian ways. Booker T beat Chris Adams. Adams is back to his flag trunks, leaving behind the judo garb. Match was nothing special, but Booker T drew a good reaction. T won with the missile dropkick in 7:24. Chris Jericho beat Jerry Flynn in 4:35. Jericho tried to make the fans hate him by iinsulting Canada. I still think he rules. In a super moment, Bret Hart came out for an interview. The fans were rabid for him, and Bret ate it up, delivering a super interview. Bret ended by challenging Goldberg again, saying that Goldberg is laying challenges at Steve Austin when Bret Hart has beaten Steve Austin every time they've met. The crowd popped for that line. Awesome. Bret hit all the buttons, unveiling a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. Goldberg stormed the ring, speared Hart, and both men laid there. Bret got up and revealed a steel plate attached to his gut. Awesome angle from start to finish. Too cool. Bret then said, "You can go ahead and respect that. Hey Bischoff and the WCW, I quit!" He stormed off to the locker room, with Eric Bischoff running behind. The local press made a big deal of this spot, treating it as though it was a legitimate quitting rather than the angle it was. He told the Toronto Sun that what he said was on Nitro was "pretty much legit." Continuing, Bret said, "I've been here for a year and they really haven't done anything with me. I don't think things are going to get any better, I really don't. I'll never go as far as to say I will never wrestle again. They have me under contract and I can't work for anybody else. I can't show up in the WWF or anything like that. There is a lack of consistency and continuity with anything they do with me. They put me in with some really lame guys." Can't argue with that last bit. From a confusion standpoint, this segment was a bit like the WWF "who creates the matches?" problem. I mean, if Ric Flair is the president of the promotion, to the point that he forced Hulk Hogan into a match with Diamond Dallas Page on this show, why did Bret Hart tell Eric Bischoff that he was quitting and why did Bischoff run after him and ask what he was doing? Buff Bagwell faced Norman Smiley. There was a time when Buff was one of the most promising younger wrestlers in North America. Now all he can do is have a good look, brawl a bit, so some uninspired wrestling, and work the microphone. He could be a star in the WWF. I actually meant that in the good way. This match was nothing special, although Smiley is extremely competent. Smiley momentarily used the stump puller, which somehow had my name attached to it years back in r.s.p-w. Bagwell ended up getting the win with the blockbuster in 7:30. Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko defended the Tag Titles against Rey Misterio Jr. & Billy Kidman. Could this be the best match of Monday night? Could this be the best match of the Sunday night and Monday night? Well, in fact, it was the best match we've seen since Rey Misterio Jr. beat Kidman for the title. While I loved the in-ring potential of this match, it sure looked like another braindead effort to bury Benoit & Malenko. The backstage complaint that Benoit & Malenko are midgets who won't get over sure will be alleviated by having them work against substantially smaller guys, right? God forbid that we actually have Benoit's credible offence beat bigger guys to give the champs credibility and shut up the complainers. Oh, the main complainer is the booker, so that's not going to happen. In some ways, this could be a good thing. Maybe they'll restrict the tag team division to the workers as a way of letting them have some sort of headline status. It's maybe a bit early to get nervous about this. The worst fear for Benoit & Malenko fans became a reality as the champs lost the tag titles. That means that the tag champs will be fighting each over the Cruiserweight title at Spring Stampede. But, argh, you've got to feel for Benoit & Malenko. Anyhow, the match itself was awesome. Raven & Saturn interfered, so I guess Benoit & Malenko are moving into a program with them. The plan is to put the tag belts on Raven & Saturn, so maybe they'll have a three-team program for a little while. Those matches could be pretty good. Match ran 12:23. Hulk Hogan faced Diamond Dallas Page. They tried to make it interesting, but neither guy has any credibility with me, so they couldn't win me over. Ric Flair got involved here and there. As if we haven't seen enough interference backfire with the NWO B&W, Steiner & Bagwell, and Cat & Sonny story lines, they decided to go with the failed interference finish! How novel! Flair accidently chaired DDP when Hogan reversed a whip. Two referees were involved. Hogan ended up getting the pin at 12:50. Blah. Tally time: 66:18. Taking that as a three-hour total, gives 22:09 as the hourly average, which means that Nitro still gets the nod, since RAW only had an hourly average of 13:30. Overall, it was a real mixed bag of show. One awesome wrestling match and one tremendous angle with Bret Hart. Those two memories supplanted any memories that RAW had left me. I would guess that Nitro left a better taste in the mouth of Toronto fans than the RAW several weeks ago; that RAW delivered a whopping 17 minutes of wrestling. You know what Nitro does a terribly poor job of? Continuity. Nowhere during the show did they explain why Arn Anderson got involved in the Thunder main event last week. Shouldn't that be of primary concern to Ric Flair? Maybe he'd talk about it. Maybe Arn would address it. But no. Don't let anything get any momentum. - WCW came to Kitchener, Ontario, on Tuesday, 03/30/99, to the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. That's a five-minute drive from my apartment in Waterloo (Kitchener-Waterloo is a twin city). I took some notes at the show. Before the show, rumours from the crazy fans who went to Nitro in Toronto the night before was that Nitro for next week would be taped here tonight. Yeah, right. That's why the programs listed no upper echelon wrestlers as appearing. Oh yes, the programs were actually the WCW Magazine with a single sheet insert listing wrestlers who would be appearing on the show. They charged $8 for that. I entered the arena to see the WCW Saturday Night set all set up. I guess the guys spreading the Nitro rumours were disappointed. "Security" checked signs before the show. They actually came around and asked people if they had any signs with them; if somebody said yes, they said that they needed to see them because obscene signs were verboten. The kids behind me had a sign that said that some wrestler was "gay." I didn't read the sign, but the security guy immediately said that "gay" was a banned word and said he had to seize the sign. Crazy. The stage set up cost WCW about one seventh of the seating in the arena, maybe a bit more. I estimated the crowd at 5000 plus/minus 200. There was a lot of buzz over Bret Hart "quitting WCW" the night before. A lot of the kids were mumbling about Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, and Ric Flair not being here this night, complaining actually, so the security told them that when he was last in the locker room area those guys weren't here, but they may well show up later. Uh-huh. My seat was centre-ring in the first set of bleachers. There was a huge pop when the lights dropped and the spotlight came on. David Penzer welcomed us to the WCW SN taping. He told us to make a lot of noise before each match if we wanted to get on camera; we would respond after he did his countdown. For the safety of the children in attendance, we (1) shouldn't throw stuff, (2) shouldn't use laser pens, (3) shouldn't hop the rails, and (4) shouldn't stand on our chairs. "We are serious about this," he said, so violators would be ejected and arrested. To keep everybody in the building for the whole taping, the night would end with a draw to give away three Nintendo 64 systems. David announced that Rey Misterio Jr. would face Juventud Guerrera tonight. That received a big pop. Cool. On to the matches. I used my watch to give time stamps through the night. So keep in mind that ring entrances and exits along with Penzer's spiel are all lumped into the times and that the times are the actual hour on the clock, not the duration of the matches. 1. Booker T beat Erik Watts to retain the TV Title: Ring entrances started at 7:07. Booker T got a big pop. Watts did his sloppy rana. Working the opener in this environment was easy work; the fans reacted to anything. An axe kick got a two count. Booker T did a sloppy spinning heel kick. Watt got in some offence. T got the pin after a missile drop kick. Time 7:13. 2. Scotty Riggs beat Bull Pain: Pain played heel, so I guess we were supposed to cheer Riggs. I felt the people around me think pro-wrestling is a shoot. Okay, one guy used the word "bump," so I might be wrong. The ring wasn't really well microphoned. I remember the hearty sounds of the SMW ring when I was down there. Riggs used a flying forearm for the win. Time: 7:18. 3. Kenny Kaos beat Bobby Duncum Jr: Duncum got a pop in my section. "He's winning. I guarantee it." Yikes. I noticed there were seven cameras in the arena. Boring match, as neither guy seemed to know what to do. The crowd started to lose its energy. I saw a sign that read "Norman Smiley, You're my Daddy." That was the highlight of the match. Kaos won with the splash. Time 7:27. 4. Chris Adams & Mike Enos beat Disorderly Conduct: Hey, this match had two "Mean Mike"s in it. Bobby Heenan will have fun doing the commentary. Enos did a move that started like a fisherman suplex, but after lifting up his opponent, Enos just dropped to his knees, I guess delivering a shoulder breaker. Enos took a good double suplex bump. Sign: "Enos Envy." Adams finally got the tag and hit a back suplex with a bridge for a two count. Enos came back in, hitting a cool power slam, an over-the-top belly-to-belly suplex, and finally a power slam off the second rope for the pin. The last move came off sloppily, so they'll probably use the camera angle opposite to my line of sight. Time: 7:37. 5. Vince beat Barry Horowitz: There was a significant pop for the "N...W...O" sample that aired before Vince's entrance. When Vince came out of the Saturday Night smoke, there was a groan from the crowd. Vince drew the opposite of good heat, winning with the armbar submission. Barry Horowitz got a big pop. Stevie Ray came out. I can't understand him when he talks on TV; I had no hope over a house mic. Hogan made him the boss, sucka. They almost came to blows, but Stevie decided to talk to the camera instead of chasing Vince off. Time: 7:42. 6. Prince Iaukea beat Lenny Lane: The crowd chanted "Jericho!" Lane's offence looked good, but Iaukea's looked weak. Iaukea missed an enzuigiri; the guy next to me told his girlfriend that Iaukea missed an enzugoori. You see what Jim Ross is doing? Iaukea hit a cross body out of nowhere for the pin. Time:7:49. 7. Chris Jericho beat Kaz Hayashi: Jericho got the biggest pop thus far. He did his Nitro shtick, turning on Canada at the end. During his putdown interview, he accidentally referred to Kitchener as Kingston, but corrected himself. Kingston is on the other side of Toronto, en route to Montreal. Kaz was great. He took an awesome release german suplex bump. He did his tope. Jericho finally hit the tamer for the win. The crowd was rabid over Jericho. Man, WCW is totally missing the boat on this one. Time: 7:59. 8. Rick Steiner DQ Fit Finlay: Finlay was stiff and a great worker to see live. Lots of subtle stuff. Both wrestlers got a good reaction. My section liked Finlay a lot, but they also barked a lot for Rick during the match. Finlay "snapped" and used a chair at the end, leading to the DQ. 9. Jerry Flynn & Meng DCOR Hugh Morrus & Barbarian: I had a big Meng fan on one side of me. I didn't know they existed. He also liked Hugh Morrus, calling him "Vaderesque." The fellow on the other side was a huge Jerry Flynn fan. They did a heat segment on Flynn, who finally hit the spinning heel kick and made the hot tag. They paired up, with all four men tumbling to the outside and brawling for the DCOR. Lame finish because the brawling had no intensity at all. Crowd booed. Time: 8:17. After the match, Jimmy Hart cut a promo, complimenting Toronto and Canada. He said he managed the Hart Foundation (cheers), Hulk Hogan (mixed bag), and Ric Flair (mostly boos). Jimmy asked "acting commissioner" Doug Dillenger to sanction a no DQ rematch later this night, and Dillenger said okay. David Penzer said if he knew Dillenger were acting commissioner this night, he would have treated him more nicely. At this point, they took down the "WCW" sign over the SN entranceway, as we switched to taping for World Wide Wrestling. We also sunk into an abyss of several consecutive bad matches. 10. Wrath beat Disciple: Wrath got a medium pop. Disciple did a face promo, 'cause we are supposed to cheer him. People booed the promo unmercifully; it was funny because Disciple was going on about how he loved Canada, etc. A "Brutus!" chant sprung up. I never wanted to see a squash more. Wrath hit his meltdown. Brutal match. Disciple sucked the life out of the crowd, with many people asking why he even had a job. Time: 8:30. 11. Barry Darsow beat Villano V: Darsow wasn't dressed in his golfing garb, so I guess that gimmick is dead. Poor Villano. Darsow yelled that he was going for the mask, but nobody cared. I was thinking that if he unmasked Villano, Villano might get a push. Did you know that Villano is pretty much the last masked wrestler left in Mexico? Tony Schiavone would agree. By this point, I was quite friendly with the guys around me, who were asking lots of questions (you know, we all get asked lots of questions). When Darsow went for the mask, I wondered out loud whether that really was Villano V under the mask, saying that I needed to know. The guy next to me said that maybe it was really Villano IV. Someone else said it might be Villano II. It was more entertaining than the match. Darsow got the win with his arm submission. Time: 8:37. 12. Van Hammer beat Chris King: King wrestles for the local ICW indy that operates out of Cambridge, Ontario. They billed him as being from Calgary. His ICW character is called "Gothic Knight," and he has a cool entrance in that setting, with smoke, full knight garb, a sword, and a scantily-clad wench. Here, he just had normal tights on and looked like a juiced-up stiff. Hammer was horrible, but still got the win with his power slam type move. Time: 8:45. 13. Billy Kidman beat Lash Laroux: Kidman was way over. Really good match, albeit a short one. Kidman used the shooting star for the win and got a standing ovation from the crowd. Time: 8:55. 14. Bobby Duncum Jr. beat Kenny Kaos: This was a "special" grudge rematch of the earlier match. Not good again. Kaos hit a top rope leg drop for a two count. Duncum got a sloppy roll-up with his feet on the ropes for the pin. Time: 9:03. 15. Bobby Blaze beat Johnny Swinger: Blaze won with the northern lights suplex. Boring match. The crowd was spent. Time: 9:10. 16. Jerry Flynn & Meng beat Barbarian & Hugh Morrus: This was an anything goes rematch of the earlier DCOR bout. Flynn was getting pummelled, taking great punishment. The rest of the guys looked uninspired. My section started lots of cheers for Flynn. You wouldn't believe the pop in my section after Flynn scored the pin on Morrus. Time: 9:18. 17. Rick Steiner beat Fit Finlay: Another "special" rematch. Everybody in my section really liked Finlay. Some people talked romantically about Finlay's short title reign. Steiner hit a top rope bulldog for the win. Time: 9:25. 18. We had a "special" interview with La Coocaracha, still Disco Inferno in a Mil Mascaras mask. It was funny because Juventud Guerrera came out with Cooca. Juvi said that Cooca could only speak Spanish, so he (Juvi) would have to translate. Of course, Juvi's English is hardly good. Juvi said that Cooca is not Disco Inferno but that he is a big fan of Disco. The interview wasn't filmed. People started booing loudly because Juvi was not understandable. Suddenly, Konnan's music kicked up ("Oil of Olay all day every day"), and Konnan came out. He hit his catchphrases and everybody responded. He then said, "Juvi, that was atrocious. Nobody understood you." He told Juvi that he should stick to wrestling because he's a great wrestler. The crowd was laughing. Juvi was laughing. The whole thing was obviously so bad that all everybody, fans and wrestlers alike, could do was laugh. Of course, this led to a quick impromptu Konnan vs. Coocaracha match with no referee. Konnan unmasked Cooca as Disco Inferno and then challenged him to fight like a man. Fans in my section were chanting "Arriba la rasa, suck my kielbasa." I closed my eyes and felt like I was in the ECW arena. Time: 9:34. 19. Ernest Miller beat Norman Smiley: Norman got a huge reaction, the best of the night. WCW is missing the boat on him. The things he does do he does very well. Before the match, the teenagers behind me got up and lifted their shirts, with a letter on each of their chests spelling out SMILEY. Norman saw it and pointed at them, so they were stoked. He did the wiggle. When he was on offence, the Cat made fun of Smiley's wiggle and dancing; he did a great job of handling the, ahem, cat calls. He stinks, but he has a good personality. Onno interfered, colliding with the Cat. Norman got a school boy for a two count, but then went after Onno. Norman turned into a kick and was pinned. Everybody booed, and it wasn't a good boo. Time: 9:45. 20. Perry Saturn & Raven beat Scott Armstrong & Silver King: They put the "WCW" sign up again just for this match, taking it down afterwards, so I guess that this is a Saturday Night bout. Saturn & Raven got the second- or third-biggest pop of the night, behind Norman Smiley and Chris Jericho. Actually, Billy Kidman should also be in that list. Saturn hit a top rope leg drop on Silver King, who was suspended between the second and third ropes. It was a sloppy spot and the referee had to check on Silver King. King rallied. They did a heat segment on Raven. Raven took a whip into the guard rail, the kind were he goes in airbound. Match had some good moments, with Raven using the evenflow DDT on Silver King to get the win. Time: 9:58 At this point it was time to cheer and boo on cue for David Penzer. 21. Chavo Guerrero Jr. beat Chip Minton: Minton stinks. Chavo couldn't do anything with him. I saw my favourite sign in the crowd: "El Dandy: Not to be Trifled With." Chavo used the hurricane DDT for the win. Time: 10:07. 22. Sick Boy beat Super Calo: Sick Boy had his hair dyed blond and put into corn row braids. He tried to do a few good spots, and Calo was amazing. Calo did the Super Astro tope. Sick Boy won with the Hunter Hearst Helmlsey's pedigree, which made the kids in my section say that he wasn't allowed to use that hold. Time: 10:13. 23. Scott Norton beat Jason Anderson: This was a squash. Jason tried to get some offence in, but Norton no-sold everything from clotheslines to dropkicks. My section was cheering on Jason, constantly yelling that he had Norton where he wanted him. Afterwards, I told the guys beside me that this match was a quite a roller coaster ride, 'cause I really didn't know which way it was going to go. People were laughing. I think we were all getting tired. Time: 10:18. 24. Rey Misterio Jr. beat Juventud Guerrera to retain the Cruiserweight Title: Great match. They did their topes and a lot of the quick spots that we've seen them do before. Juvi was amazing, but he did blow one spot, falling out of a powerbomb when he was trying to flip through it. In a really funny spot that clicked with the crowd, when Rey was laid out in centre ring, Juvi ripped off his elbow pad and threw it into the crowd, signalled left and right, and then did his version of the Rock's Corporate elbow. Rey kicked out promptly. Juvi hit the Juvi driver, went for the pin, but got up at the two count. He climbed to the top for the firebird splash, but Rey struggled to his feet and knocked Juvi, who crotched himself on the buckle. One top rope frankensteiner later, the match was over. Time: 10:30. Overall, I think I learned that TV tapings are a drag for me. My attention span is greater than the average fan's, so I found myself turned off by seeing so many 6-7 minute matches that didn't build much of anyting. Kidman and Jericho had okay matches. Smiley was fun because the crowd loved him. The main event was great, albeit still a bit short for me. I think the Rey vs. Juvi match was not taped. - 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: * Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair for the WCW Title * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Billy Kidman for the Cruiserweight Title * Saturn & Raven vs. Dean Malenko & Chris Benoit * US Title Tournament final * Konnan vs. Disco Inferno That main event is what they've been setting up on TV. The Observer reported that the original tentative plan was to have Ric Fliar & Diamond Dallas Page & Booker T vs. Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash & Dusty Rhodes. - The Globe and Mail, "Canada's National Newspaper," ran a Canadian Press story on the WWF. The story refers to a situation in Nelson, British Columbia. Lewd WWF behaviour prompts school memo School officials are warning parents to tune into broadcasts from the World Wrestling Federation before they let their children watch the show. John Roos, principal of A.I. Collison Elementary School, sent a memo to parents after several complaints from parents about a distrurbing playground incident. Mr. Roos said a Grade 1 boy was imitating a WWF wrestler when he walked up to several girls on the playground, pointed to his genitals and said: "Suck on this." "The kids themselves told me, 'Oh well, that's on WWF,'" Mr. Roos said. "I went home and watched for a while, and I have to tell you I was somewhat surprised." The memo was sent home to notify parents of the content of the show, Mr. Roos saod, adding: "It's not our place to tell parents what to do." Children don't understand the lewd behaviour they see on the pprogram and then imitate, he said. Mr. Roos also believe violent shows are responsible for an increase in aggression on the playground and in society in general. In February, a Winnipeg school banned wrestling moves and gestures and asked children not to wear promotional shirts or bring wrestling merchandise to school. The local school bourd complained to the wrestling federation and TSN about the "violent and sexually driven" shows. The Sports Network is one of the stations that carry WWF. Spokesman David Rosenblooom said the station is allowed only to broadcast a national feed, which means that when wrestling is on at 8 p.m. in Toronto it's on at 5 p.m. in Nelson. He encouraged people to let TSN know if they have concerns about programming. - Still dealing with the WWF's bad boy image, the Observer had a long discussion of a situation dealing with the "FOX on Sports" show on the FOX News Network. Apparently, the show lined up Vince McMahon as a guest, saying that they would also have Phil Mushnick in the studio. Vince said that he was anxious to confront Mushnick in person. Mushnick, of course, is a New York Post columnist who has been extremely critical of the WWF (and WCW to a lesser degree). Mushnick was largely responsible for reporting about the steroid and child sexual abuse of the WWF years ago, leading to all of the changes that we experienced during and after that time. In the current WWF RAW magazine, they actually run a column listing some criticisms that Mushnick has made along with letters that Vince has sent to him in response. Well, when push came to shove, Mushnick was actually going to be on the phone to argue with Vince, but Vince ran a power play, saying that he wouldn't go on if Mushnick was put on the air. The show caved, so Vince ended up going on the show without any critics (they had lined up a child psychologist and others to address the issue) to take shots at his product. The hosts were unprepared, having planned to moderate a discussion between people who could argue each side. Poor Mushnick was actually on the phone before this and was later told that he wouldn't be put on the air. What a joke. Vince, worried that his image would be impacted, has released his official version of what happened, which of course flies in the face of everything the FOX guys said really happen. And finally, still on the same story, the Observer had the following discussion of this matter. There were two major newspaper stories from this past week about the direction of the WWF. In a story that ran nationwide on the Knight-Ridder chain on 3/21, they brought up the increased ratings along with the angle where Kaientai went to castrate Val Venis, where Sable appeared with nothing but body paint on her boos, Godfather coming out with ho's and talking about the big business WWF is doing (I was interviewed for this piece in late January so the stats used were from about two months ago). The 3/19 Rochester, NY Democrat ran a major front page story based on the WCW house show there, but leading into the WWF house show on 3/21. Peter Roche, the VP for behavioral health with the family service of Rochester said: "We may know that it's acting, that it's fake, but I'm not sure an impressionable child makes that distinction. To many young people, this is real. They see the piledriver, or they watch a wrestler respond by grabbing his own genitalia, and they think these are appropriate responses to disagreements with friends. I hear parents say that it's OK to let their kids watch as long as they are with them, and explain things to them. But is a child really going to listen to his parent about inappropriate behavior when he is at a match and there are 10,000 people in the arena flipping off the wrestler or grabbing their genitals? And the worst-case scenario is if the parent is engaging in that sort of behavior in front of the child. There is a powerful sanctioning of that behavior that takes place among young, impressionable children in those situations." It also quoted area wrestling fans defending it and a legendary high school coach saying that kids imitating pro wrestlers behavior in high school is not quite epidemic but it is a problem. I also need to clear up a quote I have in the story when bringing up that years back (1960s and 70s) that children under 14 were not allowed to attend matches in Madison Square Garden and said I would advocate a return to those restrictions. I don't believe in a governmental restriction when it comes to children attending pro wrestling. Parents have to decide how to raise their children and with all this pub it shouldn't be a secret what WWF is about today and if parents willingly bring their kids to shows as so many do and it appears most have fun together, I don't know what more can be said about the subject. What I do believe is that if WWF or ECW or WCW for that matter wants to promote pro wrestling as adult entertainment or at least entertainment unsuitable to young children, it is their right, just as it's the right of a strip club to exist, but a strip club isn't allowed to open its doors to people under age. But if that's their direction and it makes for a profitable business, they have that right, and people have the right to aiticize them for the contradictions in what they market toward and what they claim they write toward. What I meant was that they did have those guidelines in the past, and if the companies wanted to produce a product unsuitable for children under 12 and McMahon came very close to saying that's what Raw is Sunday on Fox, they could avoid a lot of controversy by instituting those guidelines at their matches. But no organization today will willingly do that. The ethics behind promoting what they themselves call toward entertainment written for an adult audience knowing so many kids are watching with the attitude McMahon admitted on the Fox show that it is a problem that so many kids watch Raw, but basically saying, it's not our problem, and aiming so much merchandising at kids are basically the same as the tobaoco companies for so many years who gave lip service to not wanting kids to have access to cigarettes (and even worked within a system that had legal guidelines in that direction) but in reality were marketing directly toward them. I only want to say one thing about this issue this week. I get e-mail from people who don't think any criticisms are warranted. That's something that I would argue, but it still isn't really the heart of the matter. Justified or not, criticisms are being made and will only grow. The matter that WWF defenders and critics alike should think about is what will happen if too much negative attention is put on the promotion. - 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 0.73 $3.48 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 0.85 $3.91 1.67 1.92 3.71 3.6% (2 of 55) 1999 0.87 $4.13 1.85 2 3.583 3.7% (1 of 27) 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. ______________________________________________________________________