______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ The teaching portion of my courses is done! My fourth-year class does not have a final exam; the students did projects and presentations instead. My third-year PDEs class has a final exam next Friday. I've already composed the exam and written up solutions, so the remaining bit of course-related work I have to do involves grading the projects, office hours for the PDEs students, and grading their final exam. Over the summer, I'm a research term. I've already been devoting Fridays (at least) to research and am on the verge of having a paper ready for submittal. Things are darn good. And, hey, I've been finding time to watch Japanese wrestling on tape! ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 04/05/99 was a taped show, which started ever moreso like a soap opera, and, not to do anything halfway, like the cheesiest soap opera in the world. The show opened with clips of an interview with Vince McMahon (with his daughter Stephanie) that presumably aired on Heat (which doesn't air in Canada). Vince said that the Undertaker believes he is this character that was created for him. He talked about the recent story line, explaining how the Undertaker's actions were threats directed at Vince and Stephanie. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but when Undertaker said that he "and she" will be in charge of the company, he was apparently referring to Linda McMahon, as the story line is supposed to be that Linda has been lured to the dark side and has turned on her family. I told you this was a cheesy soap opera. Hey, when the story lines don't even have to have a hint of athletic connection, that sure opens the flood gate, but it also makes me wonder if I'm even watching wrestling. First match saw Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart defend the tag titles against X-Pac & Kane. X-Pac started and was great. Owen & JJ were actually quite good (the are not consistent). The whole match was a heat segment on X-Pac. At the 3:00 mark, the sadomasochistic crowd started chanting "We want Kane, " which just goes to show how far removed I am from the casual fans of today. At 4:00, X-Pac and JJ did that time-warp thing, selling like they had been in a 30-minute classic and were just too fatigued to make a tag. You know, I watched a bit of Japanese wrestling over the weekend, so selling like that was really brual. At 5:00, X-Pac made the hot tag. Kane came in and did power moves, with the champions bumping like pinballs. Bronco buster on Owen by X-Pac, choke slam on JJ, and Kane press slammed X-Pac on JJ for the win. This was actually a really good TV match, although a bit embarrassing because the belts changed hands in such a short match. But when we get a match to start RAW, no less a match with a clean finish, who can complain. Thinking back, this was probably the best RAW match since the garbagy ladder match between Mankind & Rocky Maivia. Don't get me wrong, this match (or that ladder match) was nowhere near as good as the tag title change or cruiserweight title change on recent WCW Nitro shows. Match ran 5:57. Vince, obviously worried about Stephanie's well-being, had put her in the safest place he can come with: backstage at the arena. The soap opera's first scene ended, with some incidental wrestling taking place. In a post-match interview in the locker room, X-Pac stood alone saying that as long as Kane is in the ring when they have to defend the belts, they are unbeatable. The Corporation came out without Vince. Oh, it looks like the 15-20 minute interview segment was bumped to second spot on the show, and here I thought the formula had changed a lot. They aired footage from a week ago, with everybody stomping Steve Austin and Big Slow Paul Wight making the save. They seem to have dropped the Paul Wight part of his name now, just calling him Big Slow. Tonight, Big Slow will face Rock & Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who has pretty much been renamed "Triple H." Apparently, we are supposed to care about HHH & Rock teaming for the first time. If they were great wrestlers facing other great wrestlers, I would care. But they are HHH & Rock, who are good on their best days, against Big Slow, who may be Big and Slow, but while he's Plenty, he ain't Good. Rock hit all of his catchphrases. Rock carried the "skulled" WWF Title to the ring. Boy, the interview segment only ran 9:15. Soap opera, scene three. Vince told Shane that he just wanted to get through the night, that Shane shouldn't provoke Austin and Big Slow. We're supposed to believe that Vince would sit in a locker room in the back of the arena with Stephanie and four policemen, but without a monitor. And given that he was not even bothering with the product this night, putting Shane in charge instead, because he was so concerned for Stephanie's safety, why did he even bother to come to the Arena? I think that there were safer options if he was really scared. Ivory called out Terri Runnels & Jacqueline, making PMS jokes. She challenged Terri Runnels, calling her a priss. PMS came out. Wow, that WWF women's division is just awesome. Terri entered the ring. Both women were in heels. Jerry Lawler orgasmed when Terri squatted throught the ropes. Ivory ripped Terri's shirt off. Terri, that free spirit, wasn't even wearing a bra to support all that silicone. Before we could see Terri's boobs, the Undertaker came out. The heel is the guy who stops us from seeing the naked chick. Remember in the old days when a woman would be compromised in some way and the babyface would rush to the ring to cover her with his robe or jacket? Undertaker threatened Stephanie. Vince, even though he didn't have a monitor backstage to hear Shane, this time heard the Undertaker's threat. He told Jerry Brisco & Pat Patterson to get more security. Undertaker said that Stephanie would become one with his ministry, breaking her father's heart as she accepts the lord of darkness as her saviour. Okay, there's no devil worship in the WWF, and Undertaker uses a "symbol" not a "cross." I need a chart and a clipboard to keep track of this stuff. Otherwise, I get confused when people ask critical questions. Al Snow asked the crowd "What does everybody want?" The crowd answered "Wrestling!" That's my WWF joke of the week. Al Snow faced Bob Holly. They showed a clip of Al Snow whacking Steve Williams last week, so I guess we can expect interference again this week. Al Snow did a somersault tope that almost connected with Holly. Al Snow picked up a chair. The referee stopped him because this "is not a hardcore match." Meanwhile, they were outside the ring for 1:10 with no COR. Jerry Lawler questioned how one could call Al Snow an athlete. Hey Jerry, pot, kettle, black. Al Snow won. Steve Williams ran in and hit several awesome backdrop suplexes to send a message. Match ran 4:07. New Age Outlaws came out. They hit all of their catchphrases to a great reaction. Then they wrestled. They faced the Brood team of Gangrel & Edge. The commentators said that the Brood had seen one of the their own sacrificed, but I didn't see that. Snip, snip. I've just realized why I liked this WWF show much more than usual: the sound mixing was very different. Most of the time, I could barely hear the commentary but I could still here the ring and crowd noise. The work wasn't particularly great in this match, but then I think Gunn, Gangrel, and Edge are overhyped by WWF fans. Gunn hot tagged and, ugh, threw punches. They still haven't improved. They used a camera angle that showed the punches from behind. Pin came at 5:07 when Gunn pinned Edge after a Fame Asser. We flashed back to last week's episode of "As the Undertaker's Story Line Stinks Up the WWF," recapping the kidnapping of Stephanie. Ken Shamrock faced Viscera. Ugh. Viscera tried to go up for a belly-to-belly. The ministry ran in. I think they ran in this time because Viscera was already in the ring. Usually, they walk in. That's because Viscera's gravitational field doesn't allow them to escape his immediate neighbourhood even if they run. This time, he was in the ring so they were sucked in towards him. With this story line, match, and cast of characters, there should be emphasis on "sucked." Match, as it was, ran 1:18, although they didn't ring the bell for the DQ. Shamrock was dumped into the trunk of a car and driven away. Val Venis faced Mankind. Match was okay. Poor Mick Foley. At the peak of his popularity, he desperately needs time off to heal. Foley stopped the money shot. Mankind won with the socko claw at 4:43. It was better than usual for WWF TV. Soap opera, next scene. The lights flickered in the locker room, as Vince & Stephanie acted nervous while extra police stood guard. The Godfather Kama Mustafa came out with three hos. Wrestlin' ain't easy, so he sticks to pimpin'. Godfather faced Goldust. Well, there's no question that the wrestling quality went steadily downhill this show. In e-mail I was asked to construct the best eight-match WWF show possible; I really don't believe that it is possible to construct eight good WWF matches without reusing X-Pac a few times. This match stunk. Match ran 2:40. In the main event of the show, the Big Slow faced HHH & Rock. Shane McMahon introduced the Corporate members. The ring entrances took forever. HHH & Rock tried. They bumped for Big Slow. Chyna came in and did what could politely be called one of the worst low blows in history, which Big Slow sold. Ugh. That was the DQ at 4:30. They double-teamed Big Slow, who did his staggering version of selling. These three supposed superstar wrestlers were in the ring and not one of them can sell their way out of a paper bag. That's what it felt like. He went down after a belt shot and then didn't move as they stomped him. He didn't even move for the elbow. Austin came out, decking the heels. The Big Slow might not be able to take on all of the corporate guys, but Austin sure can. They eventually paired off, with Big Slow hitting a choke slam on HHH. Rock made it out with Austin's WWF belt. After the corporate team left, Austin called the Giant up the ramp and told him to pull the Titantron down. There was noise of straining metal. Austin burst through the screen and tossed Big Slow a Steveweiser Coors Light. Austin then used a metal rod to tear apart the screen of the Titantron. Tally time: total bell-to-bell time for the night was 28:23. Better than usual, still nowhere near the 36-minute average that the Indiana University researchers tallied. What made a difference for me, anyhow, this week was that the show actually had one pretty good, albeit too short, match. It's still a stretch to call this good wrestling; that's why so many people point out that RAW is "fun" not "good wrestling." Nitro Nitro from 04/05/99 airs in Canada overnight tonight in two-hour edited form. Even after the Nitro in Toronto last week and with the PPV rolling in on Sunday, TSN doesn't bother to give Nitro a stable slot. Oh well. Thunder was on on Wednesday this week, but I opted to tape it so that I could watch the "new look" Nitro before, as was intended. I find when I watch the shows out of order I'm even harder on WCW than I usually am. - Regarding my write-up for the WCW Saturday Night taping I attended last week (which aired this past Saturday), I made a couple of changes. I guess it showed people that I don't really follow out-of-the-ring stuff much at all, since instead of saying that David Penzer was doing the announcing work I credited it to Gary Cappetta, who we haven't seen in a long time. I've also always had a mental block when it comes to Al Greene & Bull Pain, so I used the latter name when the former was in a match. - 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 * Hardcore Hak vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - The Observer reports that Bret Hart came up with that cool Nitro angle he did with Goldberg. He pitched it to Eric Bischoff, who liked it. Kevin Nash didn't like it, and, despite Eric saying that Nash would have total booking control, Nash did not have the pull to kill this idea. Up to the last minute, Nash wanted to change the angle. He wanted to attack Bret in the aisle afterwards and leave him laying, with the idea being that the two could have a program with Nash cast as the evil booker for smart fans who already think he is just that when it comes to Bret. Bischoff wanted Bret to do an anti-Canadian interview before the angle so that crowd would know he was the heel and Goldberg was the face. Bret argued that the point of the angle should be to rehabilitate Bret, to give the company a chance to get some value out of the money they are paying him by erasing the past year from people's mind and immediately making Hart a player again. That worked. Of course, WCW has done nothing with it since. - Scott Hall has reconciled with his wife Dana, with the couple remarrying. It appears that Scott Hall will return on a much lighter schedule in the hope that he doesn't get sucked into that vicious spiral again. - The Observer reviewed WrestleMania this week. Maybe I'm reading to much of myself into things, but it sure sounds like Dave Meltzer is also having an interesting time coming to grips with the new direction of pro-wrestling in North America. "If a wrestling show is constituted by the quality of the matches from start-to-finish then this was a thumbs down show with only two good matches tops out of ten," with the two matches being the Austin vs. Rock main event which Meltzer rated * * * 1/2 and X-Pac vs. Shane which Meltzer rated * * 3/4 . All other matches were one star-ish at best, with the women's match getting - * * and Boss Man vs. Undertaker getting a DUD . I'll add the details to the PPV chart by next week; I'm a little rushed this week. Continuing, "If it's based on surprises, booking and angles, it's a thumbs up. If it's based on crowd reaction to either and both, it wouldn't be a thumbs up since only the main event had good heat and that's with a super hype job going in. If it's based on presenting well produced television, it would be the best wrestling PPV of the year." I tend to agree with that assessment, and, since I judge things by wrestling quality first and foremost, I ended up on the thumbs down side, particularly because I'm less able to appreciate a garbagy main event. What's funny is people in e-mail who criticize the wrestling quality of the WCW product but then somehow turn around and find a way to praise WrestleMania. Continuing from the Observer, "For wrestling, ECW's show last week blew this one away and its top two matches were equal to the main event on this show, its bad matches weren't as bad and overall it had a better undercard. WCW's was the best show of the month when it comes to start-to-finish wrestling and blew the other two shows away for crowd heat. Strangely, WCW is the promotion that seemingly is dying when ti comes to momentum and the ratings do tell that story." - I had the chance to catch up on recent All Japan and New Japan TV. The 01/31/99 New Japan TV show opened with a solid Shinjiro Otani vs. Jushin Liger match. Every time I see Liger these days, I wonder if I should consider him more strongly as the best wrestler of the 1990s, a title I'm thinking goes to Mitsuharu Misawa without question. I guess that thought is influenced by having watched some of the old stuff on tape (that I've talked about in recent weeks). Seeing how Liger has adapted to always be a top guy delivering amazing matches, it is hard to dismiss him and pick Misawa. Otani put a sleeper with a body scissors on Liger, but released the hold because they were near the ropes. He was going to climb to the top, but Liger knocked him off the apron with a palm strike. Liger went out and delivered a brainbuster suplex on the floor. Otani took a hell of a bump, because the brainbuster in Japan alway has the illusion of the wrestler landing on his head. On rubber legs, Otani made it up to the apron. He managed to hit his swan dive (springboard) drop kick on Liger, who was charging him off the opposite ropes. A dragon suplex by Otani was blocked for a split-second, so Otani dropped it into a german suplex for a two count. He tried for the dragon again, couldn't get it, drop Liger chest first into the turnbuckle, and hit his sleeper again, dropping to the mat. Liger made the ropes. Chops in the corner. Whip reversal, with Liger charging in with a palm strike. That's a great move; the way Liger has developed it as a serious move is incredible. Liger bomb, two count. Liger tried a top rope suplex, but Otani turned it into a body press. Otani then hit his swan dive spin kick for a two count. He missed a swan dive drop kick. Liger hit an enzudropkick off the top. Brutal power bomb by Liger, two count. Liger went for the palm strike again, but Otani ducked under and hit a release dragon suplex. Swan dive dropkick. Spinning power bomb. Three count. Tremendous match. Another mildly noteworthy match on this show was Yuji Nagata vs. Kensuke Sasaki. Poor Nagata was never used properly by WCW. This was a very good match. Nagata tried for all kinds of leg submissions. Sasaki would counter or escape and then go for some power moves. The match had a good balance as a result. Nagata cracked and finally started hitting forearms of his own, including a flying forearm/elbow off the ropes. Sasaki staggered, but didn't fall down. When Nagata rose to his feet, grimacing, Sasaki nailed a clothesline. A powerslam of the ropes. When Sasaki was running off the ropes, Nagata kicked him in the leg. Down went Sasaki; Nagata went back to the leg. He used a figure four variation. They eventually got back up, with Nagata using lots of suplexes. Enzuigiri, twice. Sasaki hit a desperation clothesline. Nagata dropped through a suplex attempt and hit a spinning heel kick. But Sasaki rallied with a clothesline and the northern lights bomb for the pin. Really good match. On the 01/24/99 All Japan TV show, Toshiaki Kawada challenged Mitsuharu Misawa for the Triple Crown. There's something about All Japan Triple Crown title matches: I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and get a bit tingly in anticipation, 'cause the matches very very rarely let me down. Especially when it's Kawada & Misawa. They started very slowly and tentatively. Kenta Kobashi was doing guest commentary. After the sort of stuff we get to see in North America these days, it is even more of a change to see a well-worked match that starts with spots centred around arm, head, and leg holds. Psychology of this sort is all but lost in America. About three minutes in, things did get a bit tense, as they started trading elbows (forearms). Each guy backed up a step, but then whacked the other guy. After Misawa hit his big elbow, Kawada came off the ropes with his yakuza kick, and both guys sort of fell to the mat for a second to sell each other's big move. Misawa knocked Kawada out of the ring with another elbow and then pulled out an elbow suicida (a tope through the ropes, hitting a forearm). When Kawada came back in, Misawa went to school: elbows, back suplex. Misawa went to the top for a cross body, but Kawada caught him with a kick while Misawa was in flight. Misawa rolled to the floor. With Misawa standing on the apron, Kawada ran across with a yakuza kick, sending the champ flying into the guard rail. He hit another such kick on Misawa outside the ring, sending Misawa over the guard rail. Kawada went back in the ring. When Misawa rolled back in, the crowd applauded lightly. Kawada: chops; kicks to the face, including a couple of stiff ones; leg drop; more kicks to the head; power bomb attempt. Misawa countered the powerbomb with a rana, but Kawada took control again. German suplex by Kawada, no, Misawa blocked; Kawada released the hold, hit a spinning back fist to Misawa's head, Misawa stumbled, Kawada hit the suplex. It's important to mention that the usually stiff All Japan style led to Kawada whacking Misawa's head so hard here that Kawada actually broke his forearm on the blow. He felt his arm after the punch and then just went straight to the suplex spot and kept working this incredible match. The injury made him vacate the title, taking a bit of the juice out of Vader's title win and the build to Vader vs. Misawa later this year. Anyhow, Misawa seemed to land on his head, but, no, he landed on his shoulders and rolled through to his feet. Misawa rallied, although Kawada tried a few things. Misawa held the back of his head a lot, no doubt a bit unsteady because of that back fist. Big two count off a tiger driver. Kawada did get some licks in on Misawa's leg. In fact, when Misawa hit another tiger driver, he spent some time stretching his leg to get over the soreness of the knee. He limped around afterwards. Misawa tried a tiger driver off the apron, but Kawada blocked, taking the bump for an elbow instead. Misawa followed with a somersault body press. Back to the ring. Misawa got a two count. Elbows, tiger suplex. Kawada got to his feet, the crowd oooohed, Kawada crumbled to the mat. When Misawa went for a spinning elbow, Kawada ducked under and ended up hitting his own back suplex. Misawa got to his feet pretty quickly, but Kawada kicked his leg, which gave out. Kawada hit his high kick to the face. Two count. Figure four blocked with a kick. Kawada again kicked Misawa's leg. Take down, leg stretch. More attacks on the leg. Misawa rallied, though. Elbow, tiger suplex, no, Kawada tossed him. Kicks to the leg. Stretch plum (Kawada's abdominal stretch variation). That move hasn't drawn a submission from a name in so long that nobody could have believed it if that was the finish. Rope break. Stretch plum again. The intensity was great at this point. Power bomb attempt by Kawada. Misawa blocked. Kawada kicked him in the face. High kick in the corner. They traded elbows. Misawa went to the top, selling the leg a bit as he climbed. Missile dropkick. They got to their feet at around the same moment, with Kawada reacting first by kicking Misawa's leg out from under him. More kicks, so stiff. Figure four. Kawada needs some bridge work; that toothless grimace is awesome. Rope break. Misawa hit the spinning elbow. He charged for another one. In a great exchange, Kawada hit the yakuza kick, Misawa hit the elbow, and Kawada leaped up for the high kick. Both guys tumbled. Kawada hit another high kick. Reverse spin kick. Two count. But closer. Crowd ooohed. Vertical suplex, no, Misawa reversed. Kawada took a light bump, though, and got right back to his feet. They traded blows. After an exchange, with counters, Misawa hit a German suplex for a two count. Misawa went for the tiger driver. Kawada backdropped him, hit a spin kick, and followed with a brainbuster suplex. Two count. Kawada went for a power bomb. Misawa blocked with his weight, but Kawada got him up. Earlier on in the match, much earlier in fact, Misawa had countered Kawada's powerbomb with a rana. He tried the same thing here, but Kawada just dropped him straight on his head. It was a sickening bump, Foley-like, but unlike the great majority of Foley's sick bumps, this one at least was built to, occurred in isolation, won't have to be one-upped next week, and was the all the more effective and memorable because of it. Both wrestlers lay there afterwards. Kawada covered after a few seconds, two count. Kawada picked him up, barely able to stand up himself. High kick. Picked him up again. High kick. Misawa sold the accumualted shots like he was dead. Kawada limped fiercely, as though he had broken his leg by kicking Misawa so hard. A hobbling Kawada hit a brainbuster suplex, leaping off his feet after pulling Misawa up. Three count. Absolutely tremendous match. Kawada lay thre afterwards, holding his forearm from the earlier break. They wrapped it in ice. Misawa acted like he was dead. They showed the ambulance leaving the building. - Continuing the old Japanese TV tape watch on the weekend, I moved on to the next tape, which started with the All Japan 11/17/90 TV show. The showed aired opening matches from the annual tag tourney. As people who read this page regularly know, I've become disenchanted with much of what is happening in North American wrestling, so I'm relying ever more on these tape watching moments to satisfy my desire for good in-ring wrestling. I was off to a rocky start this time out, and I'm not talking about Maivia. The show opened with the all-time classic match of Giant Baba & Andre the Giant vs. Dick Slater & Joel Deaton. Oh lord, this was a horrible match, rating in the negative stars. The fans sort of got into seeing legends like Andre & Baba, with the same thing happening when an increasingly old-looking Dory Funk Jr. appeared later, but the match was abysmal. Andre couldn't do anything. Baba was barely able to lift Deaton up for an atomic drop. Horribe stuff. So, I'm thinking it's all uphill from there, and it was, but only gradually. The second match was Masa Fuchi & Johnny Ace vs. Giant Warrior (Butch Masters) & Nitron (who was in the NWA as a bodyguard before this time). Warrior & Nitron did a Road Warriors gimmick, complete with funky hairdos, face paint, and ribbons tied around their arms. This match was really bad as well. It's pretty rare to see two consecutive negative star matches from All Japan. At least it only went 4 minutes. Oh yeah, the decrepit teams won the above two matches. As I was getting ready to throw in the towel, my fortunes changed: Mitsuharu Misawa & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi. Oh yeah. Kikuchi was such a punching bag at this time; I guess he didn't stop to think about what he was doing to his brain cells. The other three would all have to be considered among the greatest wrestlers of the 1990s. Kawada & Misawa looked great against each other. Kawada ended up pinning Kikuchi with a power bomb. Terry Gordy & Steve Williams beat Dynamite Kid & Johnny Smith when Williams powerslammed Smith. Stan Hansen & Dan Spivey beat Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk. Dory looked really old. Hansen was great in beating the tar out of the Funks. Spivey was just sort of there. Hansen lariated Dory for the pin. The final match on the show was Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue against Abdullah the Butcher & Giant Kamala II. What a match. Seriously, though, Abby did so much more than usual, it was actually not a bad match. He went up for bumps. This was probably one of the few good performances I've seen from him. Of course, the Japanese team went over. New Japan TV from the same weekend started with Hiro Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Super Strong Machine. Now, nobody is going to accuse Machine & Goto of having the market cornered on in-ring talent, but somehow this match turned out to be very good. It's yet another example of a match where Sasaki, even when he was relatively green, played a reasonable role in a match that turned out to be very good. I'm not a cheerleader for the guy, but I'm still reeling from e-mail that flamed me for calling Atsushi Onita a piece of crap when, according to the e-mailer, Sasaki has never had any talent. This match was weird because Hase & Sasaki lost. It became clear afterwards, though, since Hase & Sasaki went on to win the tag titles, so in typical Japanese fashion created some contenders along the way. Machine pinned Sasaki when he countered Sasaki's powerslam by turning it into a body press. Well, maybe that description is off; in any case, the powerslam attempt collapse into a press by Machine. Keiji Muto & Masa Chono faced Tiger Jeet Singh & Masanobu Kurisu. Oh man, could Muto & Chono, in their working days, possibly pull a good match off against these two garbage wrestlers? Somehow they managed to make it watchable. Muto, in particular, was great, all stoked up after hitting his hot tag. I don't even have to say how bad Singh & Kurisu were, do I? Singh accidentally hit Kurisu with a chair at the finish, and Muto managed to use a facecrusher for the win. Animal Hamaguchi pinned Tatsumi Fujinami in the next match. Weird finish. Throughout the match, Hamaguchi had worked over Fujinami's back. At the finish, then, Fujinami hit a backdrop suplex, but then laid there, holding his back for a second before just lying there. Hamaguchi covered for a two count with a very mild kickout. Hamaguchi just covered again and got a three count. The story was that Fujinami's back went out. It was like a mercy victory, where everybody knew that Fujinami was in trouble. The main event had Riki Choshu & Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito vs. Big Van Vader & Bad News Brown & Larry Cameron. Neet to see Brown & Cameron again, particularly the late Cameron. Match was all action and mostly darn good. Finish saw Choshu pin Cameron. A week later on TV, All Japan was still running tag tourney matches. There were a few things at the * * * level, but nothing that truly stood out. The stand-out stuff was on the New Japan TV show of 11/24/90. I've seen this show before, but, boy, is it an incredible show. In the opening match, Jushin Liger challenged Pegasus Kid for the IWGP Jr. Title. Kid was Chris Benoit, of course. Benoit had won the title from Liger in August of 1990. This match was the usual one incredible move after another, all pieced together with great transitions and psychology, state of the art then, still holding up now. Liger was still at the point in his career where he did his somersault tope. Benoit took an absolutely breathtaking bump off a top rope backdrop suplex, but rallied and hit his own top rope superplex. After a tombstone, he went for a top rope leg drop, but missed. Liger hit his tombstone, followed it with the shooting star press, and recaptured the title. What aired on TV of this match was just amazing. Match is an easy * * * * 1/2 . Following that work of art, Hiro Hase & Kensuke Sasaki challenged Keiji Muto & Masa Chono for the IWGP Tag Titles. Somehow, they managed to top the previous bout. Again, one great move after another, with great performances by all four guys. Hase & Sasaki won the belts when Hase used the northen lights suplex to pin Muto. Not to flog a dead horse, but if you picked the three greatest workers in your world and dropped Onita into a tag match with them, requiring him to have the same amount of ring time as Sasaki did here, the result would be a match rated at least two stars lower than this bout. And that's using Onita at his peak drawing power. This was a * * * * 3/4 match. I swear that if these matches were to take place on North American soil tomorrow, we'd be talking about them like they were the best matches we'd ever seen. It's amazing how well the great Japanese matches of nine years ago still hold up, especially compared to the North American products. In the main event, Riki Choshu retained the IWGP Title, beating Shinya Hashimoto. After the previous two bouts, it was amazing that these guys were able to lure the exhausted crowd into their match and draw great heat by the end of their bout. After watching this show, I flipped through old Observers just to see if I was out to lunch. Sure enough, the Observer wrote, "no question about it, for heat, intensity, and wrestling, this was the best wrestling television show of the year." On to 12/01/90 TV. All Japan headlined with a * * * * match between Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue and Steve Williams & Terry Gordy. But on the undercard they aired Giant Baba & Andre the Giant vs. Giant Warrior & Nitron. I think if a match involves three guys with "Giant" in their names it has to suck. This match was like watching Kurrgan & Giant Silva vs. Paul Wight & Giant Gonzalez. Just painful to witness. Giant Warrior Butch Masters was so careful with Baba that his chops looked sad and the usually respectful All Japan audience booed. They acutally booed all of the offence of the Americans. Baba & Giant basically no-sold everything that the Americans did because the fans were booing. It was a joke. The Americans still sold the pathetic offence that was delivered against them. I can't stress too much how bad this match was. Take the worst American Andre the Giant match or Sid match and you are halfway there. In the end, I thought it was so bad that it should be a cult collectible. It's that rare to see something this bad. Did I mention that it ran 11 minutes? We see a lot of bad 2- or 3-minute matches in North America these days, but 11 minutes? Ugh. Baba did go up for one body slam, but kicked out of the pin. Andre pinned Giant Warrior after the single worst move-resembling-an-elbow-drop that I have ever seen. I'm not sure I can find the words to describe it. Masters was whipped into the corner into Baba's raised boot and fell backwards. Andre was standing there, raised his arm, spread his legs more and more, sort of squatting sideways, before finally falling the foot or so his ass was above the mat. I have never seen a match like this before. On the New Japan TV show, Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito faced Keiji Muto & Masa Chono. Hashimoto blew out his knee in the first couple of minutes, so he didn't really do anything else. The match was still pretty good. The show over all was lacklustre, ending with an uninsipired main event of Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ryuma Go. - The Globe & Mail, Canada's national newspaper, ran an editorial on the weekend that talked about the problems in Winnipeg and Nelson with schoolchildren copying WWF gestures and slogans. The point of the editorial was that every year there seems to be a movement to demonize some television show that children watch. From South Park to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, we've had people rail against TV shows in Canada. The editorial took a broad view of the issue and seemingly described pro-wrestling (talking about the WWF specifically) as the flavour of the year for this sort of complaining. It's not worth reprinting. What was clear from the editorial is that the writer had not watched any recent episodes of RAW. I actually laughed when I read the editorial because that fact was so obvious to any reader who has seen RAW. The editorial was also funny because the G&M, once the bastion of good journalism, actually said that Power Rangers had "marshal-arts." There has already been a letter to the editor in response that raised exactly this point. Talking about the "trailer park" style of the WWF, which pushes sex, profanity, and the like, and mentioning that "occasionally, there's some wrestling," it was a good letter. Still on this theme, ESPN had a special on pro-wrestling. ESPN doesn't air in Canada, although TSN often picks up certain shows from the network. A reader sent me a partial transcript, particularly dealing with kids and pro-wrestling. My favourite line was Vince McMahon saying, "Compared to afternoon soap operas, we're Sunday school teachers." That's just so wrong on many different levels. The defenders of the WWF and WWF reps themselves like to say that parents have sole responsibility for what their children watch, so parents are responsible for all bad things that fall out. In the ESPN story, Phil Mushnick hit that nail on the head, stating correctly that the WWF wouldn't exist at its current level without children, that everything they do is marketed at children. For naysayers, considers how society treats pornography. The distributors of printed porn get in trouble if they sell the products to children. Porn on film is treated similarly: movie theaters can't let kids in, video stores have separate adult shelves in closed-off areas, etc. Even TV porn channels that kids could seemingly stumble upon if parents subscribe to the channel are morally above the WWF: those channels do not market their sleazy (but fine for adults) products at children. You don't go into toy stores or t-shirt stores seeing the latest Jenna Jameson doll or Buttman t-shirt. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________