______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - Discussion of Owen Hart still dominates. A few more bits of information that may weigh into your thought process when you consider the past couple of weeks: * As Jerry Lawler pointed out and as is likely the case, the crew that set up Owen for his stunt in part consisted of outsiders hired by Vince McMahon. I've received e-mail from a few people who want to deflect all liability from the WWF to those riggers. In the Observer this week, it was mentioned that the stunt was supposed to poke fun at Sting, as we all would have guessed (the old "give a midcarder the gimmick of a star in the other group" idea). That's not a complete understanding, however. The WWF wanted Owen to descend to the ring and release himself when he was a few feet above the mat. Instead of dropping to his feet ready to do battle, Owen was supposed to fall flat on his face, playing the comedic spoof of a superhero. With that in mind, then, it is clear that the WWF's request required a rigging different from all others we've seen before -- where wrestlers stood in the ring and removed their harnesses. The fact that this stunt was substantially more dangerous than any other wire descent stunt used in wrestling can't be blamed on the outside crewmembers deciding to go with a more dangerous set-up. * The Observer mentioned that having a single release button precluded the possibility of having a safety hook like Sting always had when he did his stunt (or like rock stars have when they do similar stunts). I think everybody has to accept that this stunt was not the same as every Hollywood/circus stunt (no net, no second wire) or other entertainment stunt (no safety hook, no second wire, no stunt man). It's dishonest not to categorize Owen's stunt as extremely dangerous in comparison to other wire stunts where guys are hooked up until their feet touch the ground. * Sable filed suit against the WWF for $110-million (US). This story broke at the end of last week, actually making the cover of the Toronto Sun. Wrestling-related scandal is big news. Sable claims that the WWF decision makers wanted her to be involved in a lesbian story line and that they wanted her to reveal her breasts on TV at RAW last week. She claims her refusal led to her removal from the WWF product mix. Her lawsuit argues that, among other things, her contract was breached. I hardly think we have enough facts or logical inferences at this point to conclude anything about this situation, but, if evidence to support her allegations surfaces, it paints a picture of Vince McMahon in one important sense: lack of respect for the letter of his employees' contract. Sable's claim essentially seems to be that she was asked to do something that wasn't part of her contract with the promotion. All we know for sure is that her contract says she won't bump. She also seems to be arguing that her contract was lopsided in Vince's favour and that she signed it under duress. It's unclear what exactly she was contracted to do for the WWF. The fact that she worked some (pseudo) wrestling matches doesn't mean that she was contracted to be a wrestler. She may well have agreed to do things outside the scope of her contract (the bikini contest, "wrestling," etc.). That wouldn't give the WWF the right to punish her for refusing to do other things outside the scope of her contract, as she alleges they did. Even if they asked her to do what she said, she still needs to argue convincingly that her refusal was the reason she was demoted, so to speak. But this ties in to Owen Hart's death in a way. Several readers don't want to accept that charges of WWF liability are reasonable. Above, I've mentioned that the WWF's requirements for the stunt led to it being unreasonably dangerous. That's point one. It's also important to question whether the WWF had the right to ask Owen to perform such a stunt to begin with; that is, was performing such a stunt part of Owen's contract? In the past year, the WWF has changed its product flavour to include a lot more of this sort of stuff. But reports are that Owen was still working on a long term contract signed before that time. Surely, Owen's contract didn't include any thoughts of stunts of this nature (they just weren't part of the WWF at the time the contract was composed). I think that is what the comments from various Harts are about. The fact that Owen agreed to do the stunt is irrelevant. He already felt like he was being punished by being used as the tool to poke fun at WCW. Employees fear reprisals for refusing to do what the boss asks. The contract is meant to pin down what the boss is allowed to ask you to do. When asked to do something outside your contract, whether you refuse (like Sable, allegedly) or accept (like Owen, inferred) is less important than the fact that the employer had no right to ask in the first place. In the past, I've been flamed on contract issues by WWF cheerleaders who support the WWF against Bret, Owen, and Sable. I see the three cases as decidedly different based on our knowledge of the circumstances surrounding each wrestler. We knew almost everything about Bret's doublecross, we know a lot about Owen's death and can logically infer many other things, and we know reasonably little about Sable's situation. Somehow, I guess that that doesn't matter to people who view the world through WWF-coloured glasses. * The Observer writes, "If McMahon were to say he had a split second decision to make under enormous pressue, and maybe he made the wrong one, or even defend it as the right one but seeing the other side, it would be a lot better than what happened with all the double-talk defending it. The night before the funeral when so many in wrestling were at the bar swapping Owen stories and the subject came up, WWF officials were very defensive and now trying to sell the line that they really didn't know Hart was dead until one hour after it happened (there were people backstage who knew almost instantaneously) and they were holding out hope for him, that was the reason the show continued. [...] But they could have at least shown the respect to wait more than seven minutes before continuing filming their variety show." * The Observer writes, "In this case there was a death under very suspicious circumstances that called for an immediate police investigation, which was postponed until a wrestling show could end and the people who witnessed the death were kept in the dark as to whether it was a crash test dummy or a real life person largely because they didn't want to lose complete control of their ability to move and heat the crowd." * The Observer also mentioned that the WWF could have stopped the show with zero threat of a lawsuit from the companies carrying the show. And related to that, "A professional stunt, that had literally zero reason to be done in the first place other than to mock succesful characters on the other side in a promotional war, being done by a complete amateur stunt-man. A company still trying to rationalize the black eye it put on the profession by its handling of the situation with stories that get more contradictory as the week goes on. And every promoter I spoke with during the week not understanding why Titan was taking so much heat because `do you know how much money they'd have lost had they stopped the show?' (comparatively little; they may have insurance for just such situations and if they don't, the show could have always been rescheduled for two days later since the replay slots had already been booked). And some other things aren't lost on people, such as the replay on Tuesday being canceled, however, the replay on Sunday (which draws far more buys) wasn't. House shows several days later were postponed due to the situation, yet the live show wasn't nor were the television tapings the next two nights. "Nobody can legislate against bad judgement, nor should they. Fact is, WWF has had, at least from a business standpoint, far more good judgement than bad over the past few years, although there was certainly some negligence in the system leading to the death of Pillman (not that Pillman himself isn't ultimately responsible for his actions) in hindsight and complete negligence in the death of Hart." * In my write-up two weeks ago, I mentioned that stunt men were interviewed by Canadian newspapers. Meltzer mentioned that the stunt man of note was Steve Lucescu, who apparently is "one of the top stuntman and stunt coordinators in North Americas" "who has performed and coordinated stunts for more than 180 movies." He was the fellow that said Owen had no business doing a dangerous stunt like that, that stunt men need ten years experience before being put in that spot. * Last week, I mentioned that Martha Hart was upset that the 05/31 RAW had aired funeral footage even though she had asked Vince not to air any because she doesn't like his program. Newscasts aired footage. Vince wrote a letter in response to the column quoting Martha in the Calgary Sun: For the record, giving Martha Hart the benefit of the doubt in her time of grieving, I spoke to Martha after the death of Owen on approximately five occasions. At no time during any conversations did she ask me not to show footage from Owen's funeral. However, in fairness to Martha, she did indicate to Carl DeMarco (President of Titan Promotions --Canada, and, longtime Hart family friend) at one time, that she would prefer that the World Wrestling Federation not show the funeral footage. However, in a subsequent conversation, DeMarco explained to Martha that since she invited all other media to the funeral services and even to the burial, it would only be appropriate that the WWF s3ow footage of Owen's funeral so that Owen's fans could say goodbye. Giving Martha Hart the benefit of the doubt, she may have forgotten that she changed her mind and addressed the situation with DeMarco and not me. I don't know why Mrs. Hart would publicly raise the issue of who paid for Owen's funeral. It was the WWF's expressed intention to Rob Wintonick of the McInnis and Holloway Funeral Home to pay for all funeral expenses. However, unbeknown to us, Mrs. Hart directed the funeral home that she would pay certain expenses. Incidentally, the WWF also paid for items such as: Limousine services, transportation of the body, flowers, service folders, video screen, public address system, buses, signage for buses, arm bands, catering, housekeeping, lawn cleanup, ladies and men's clothing, sunglasses, hairdressing, obituaries, a Canadian flag. The WWF also paid $152,200 US for transportation expenses for WWF talent and personnel. Also, your article stated that Mrs. Hart instructed our flowers to be removed from the funeral home. Enclosed please find a rendering from our creative department to the local florist. In the funeral home, our flowers were indeed present. However, the WWF logo had been removed and Owen's initials, OH, stood in its place. I can only assume this was at Mrs. Hart's request. It is unfortunate that Mrs. Hart feels violated in any way, although her grief, which we share, is understandable. Out of respect for Owen and the wonderful human being that he was, I do not want to engage Martha Hart's allegations in a public forum. I simply am writing so that you will have the facts. Vince McMahon Chairman, World Wrestling Federation In isolation from all of the other facts and occurrences surrounding Owen's death, I guess nobody would question the content of Vince's letter. I probably would still wonder about a few things, but give him the benefit of the doubt (for example, why mention the amount of money spent transporting people to the funeral? It's like he's saying that he expected to be able to air footage if he spent that much. Why engage her allegations in a public forum and then say he does not want to? The list goes on). In combination with the facts and occurrences surrounding Owen's death, I'm much less prone to grant him the benefit of the doubt. * More quotes from Bruce Hart were in the Observer, which talked about Alex Marvez' column. The Observer wrote, "[Bruce Hart stated that] `I suspect (WWF management) was high-fiving each other after the (Monday night) show and saying they got the job done,' and the story noted Hart didn't believe all the interviews were sincere. `They came out smelling like a rose. That's the way we (most of the family sat together watching the show, although Bret walked out early and sat on the front porch by himself) all saw it. It was damage control and a bunch of crap where they say they were celebrating the life of Owen Hart. Nobody alluded to how needless and senseless the whole (stunt) was.'" The Observer mentioned that the WWF gave its wrestlers a strict message about aspects of Owen's death which they were not allowed to discuss on camera or in public. Similarly, WCW told the wrestlers that only Gene Okerlund and Jimmy Hart were allowed to talk about it. * Finally, the Observer reported that, "In regard to the RAW show the next night, virtually every wrestling fan loved it and with very few exceptions, virtually everyone I spoke to within the business saw it as crass exploitation and were pretty vehement about the phoniness of parts of it. There was also a very weird unease feeling among many in the WWF about having done that show on Monday, and then going to Moline, IL, the next day for this week's Raw taping and it was business as usual with nothing said at the show about anything ever happening." - Before talking about the RAW & Nitro episodes of this week, I want to mention something I didn't have the time do put in last week;'s update. After the death of Owen Hart and the WWF's reaction to it (facts of which have been detailed here the last two weeks), I wondered whether my love for the sport (and when it is at its best for me, it is a sport) was forever dampened. On the weekend after Owen's death, I had to reserve some time to rehabilitate my attachment to the sport that has had me as a fan for over 20 years. So, I pulled out video tapes. First off, I relived some of the great Owen Hart memories I discussed in my first write-up on Owen. During his time as the lead babyface in Stampede, he was just so incredible; this sport that he himself said he didn't want to be involved in at the start was obviously a love for him by this point. I think his time on top in Stampede was his career high point. But the best match I ever saw him in was the 06/26/90 match against Chris Benoit (Pegasus Kid) in New Japan. That match was state of the art. I'm reminded that I captured a two-minute run of the match last year and included a link in an update. That movie is still online; click if you want to see it (Real Movie player plug-in required): Pegasus Kid vs. Owen Hart. I also managed to catch up on New Japan pro-wrestling TV. The junior heavyweights in that promotion work such an awesome no-bullshit style that watching them couldn't help but bolster my spirits. I'm warn out by the WWF's continuing trend towards total profanity, vulgarity, breasts, and garbage wrestling (that is, when they even try to have what could be called a "match" in the ring). I'm asked why I still watch. The answers are X-Pac, Mick Foley's interviews and his ability to be the only guy to deliver garbage wrestling which somehow seems worlds more sensible than what others manage to do, and occasionally interesting developments that promise to actually deliver some potential strong wrestling (like the current build to a Hardy Boyz vs. Brood match). Those are isolated goodnesses, like WCW cruiserweight matches that have no wider meaning in the promotion. Really, the only promotion-wide reason to be hopeful, for me anyhow, is the idea that WCW might actually do a good job with the young vs. old angle and get some of the great workers over. So many things can be done wrong that a large number of them probably will be, particularly given the company's history and the egos involved, but for the moment it is fun to optimistic; I would say that I need to be optimistic because it seems likely that, as more Owen Hart news comes to light and expected lawsuits break with expected responses, I'm going to get a whole lot more depressed about what wrestling has become in North America. On to New Japan. It was a mixed bag. The TV shows building up to the 04/10/99 Egg Dome show had a lot of appearance by Atsushi Onita. Fans were throwing garbage into the ring, something I'd never seen before in New Japan or All Japan. They built up his match against Masa Chono without ever having Onita wrestle, so they at least realized that he's got nothing to offer in that regard. It also became apparent leading up to the show and after the fact that he had nothing to offer as a draw either. Kensuke Sasaki was involved in a few very good matches, which was a pleasant surprise. On 03/17, Koji Kanemoto beat Jushin Liger to win the IWGP Jr Title in a great match. It was wonderful. At the Dome show, Kanemoto retained the title by beating back Shinjiro Otani's challenge in a really good match. I just love these guys. Wrestling like this and the Hart vs. Pegasus match is a work of art; it isn't something that you increasingly feel the need to apologize for, that continually raises perople's eyebrows when they learn you are a fan, that engenders a strange sense of (lack of) morality in its most loyal fanbase. It's a work of art, darn it, and Owen Hart was a hell of a great artist. RAW RAW on 06/07/99 aired overnight in Canada on TSN. RAW opened with Vince McMahon dressed in his brawling gear walking to the ring. This show was billed as revealing who the Greater Power, mentioned a while back by the Undertaker and appearing for the first time last week, was. The betting money was on the GP being Vince, of course. Why? Because no other wrestler was prepped to fill the spot and no outside person seemed to be ready either. Remember when WCW unveiled the newest fourth Horsemen to be Paul Roma? Well, nobody wants that sort of reaction to occur again. So, it had to be Vince. We'd have to see if any sense was made of past story lines. Well, Vince came out and said that he was going to fight the Greater Power this night because Vince isn't afraid of anybody. Forget that, 'cause Vince did, as 30 seconds later he was already saying that he was going to fight Shane McMahon in a "no holds barred, winner takes full control of the WWF" match. Vince mentioned that he and Shane each had 50% of the company stock. Before we could say, "that took twelve minutes," we were back from a commercial to see the Corporate Ministry come to the ring without Shane. That was a "smart" fan moment, to make us think that Shane was the GP. Undertaker did a quick interview introducing the "Higher Power." Ooops, making a religious reference like that when we know that there is absolutely no religious imagery involved in the Undertaker's character. A hooded figure skulked to the ring. Shane McMahon came out on the ramp, saying that he told us he wasn't the Greater Power. He described the GP: cold and calculated, a master of psychology, yadda yadda yadda. Shane said he wanted Vince to unveil the GP. Vince came up on the Titantron to say he didn't want to come out. Hey, that trick worked so well for Shawn Michaels a few weeks back, it was time to use it again. Of course, the GP then unveiled himself to be Vince. Vince explained that there was no price he wouldn't pay to teach Austin a lesson he'd never forget. Is anybody going to suggest that the RAW scripters are awesome after this farce? If WWF history started after Owen Hart died, then this all made sense, I guess. But if we go back to any time before that, it is as bad as any WCW story line. One week continuity is hardly good scripting. The questions are easy to ask. Man this was stupid. And it returned us to the same feud on top that worked in 1998. It gave me the impression that the WWF braintrust has no new ideas, just like WCW. And if Austin knew that the GP was Vince, and we were led to believe that he knew the GP's identity, why didn't he just say so? And why did Vince act like he was revealing this big surprise to Austin, when Austin has known it for a week? This is crazy. The previous night's Heat was like an episode of 90210; well, it seemed like Austin delivered that many stunners at the end. And this night's RAW turned into a major soap opera, with one match in the first hour; it was a soap opera along the lines of Dallas when a whole season turned out to be a dream. Anyhow, Linda & Stephanie McMahon came out to announce that they each had 25% ownership of the company and that the two men each had 25%. Then when the two men were fighting so fiercely, tearing the family apart, why didn't the women come out to stop things with their combined majority share? Linda announced that the women were throwing their shares behind Steve Austin as new CEO, so it's now WCW with Austin's Ric Flair against McMahon's Eric Bischoff. Apparently, the decision to back Austin was made at a board meeting earlier in the day, with Vince saying he was never notified. How would the women know to do this if they didn't know who the Greater Power was? Austin announced that he would fight Undertaker for the title at a later date. At King of the Ring, he'll fight both Shane & Vince in a handicap match. Tonight, the Union members had their choice of match and opponent. Shane would have to face X-Pac & Kane tonight. Rock would get to fight HHH, who would have to have his leg put in a cast. First match took place at the 40-minute mark. WWF! Unbelievable! Gangrel & Edge faced the Acolytes for the tag titles. Match was nothing special because the Acolytes are so bad. Bradshaw sold for two seconds after a couple of moves, which I think might be a record for him. Simmons blew another spot; I think he now blows one spot per match. Finish was obvious, with the Hardy Boyz coming out to screw up the Brood. Gangrel ended up getting pinned at 3:21. I hope that sets up a tag match for a PPV. Hardy Boyz vs. Brood could be the best match on any WWF PPV. That was the wrestling for the first hour! The Union had to come out to announce their match choices. It seemed like this revealed that going with Vince as the GP was only ever an option and the real plan hadn't been determined, 'cause Ken Shamrock stopped his issue with Jeff Jarrett so that he could have a Lion's Den match with Vince McMahon. Big Slow said he wanted a title match against the Undertaker. He lived up to his name, 'cause he could have made the match have a gimmick that strongly favoured him winning the title, but he just made it a title match, period. Test asked Stephanie out on a date; she accepted. X-Pac & Kane faced Shane McMahon. If Austin really wanted to do them a favour after they were screwed, wouldn't he give them a title shot. Hey, if Austin calls the shots now, where does that leave the commissioner? Can Shawn still put matches together? Does the CEO or the commissioner put together matches? Shane got pummelled until two fans at ringside jumped the rail and got involved. Of course, this was the Mean Street Posse, who just happened to pick this night to get ringside tickets to RAW. What luck! Pat Patterson & Jerry Brisco ran out to pummel them. That let Shane escape reasonably unscathed while the posse got thrashed. Since I like round numbers, I'll call the match 2:00. Debra was interviewed backstage. She was supposed to face Nicole Bass for the WWF women's title, but said she didn't have to defend her title until 30 days had passed. She then changed her mind and said that she would have a bikini match against Nicole for the title. HHH faced Rock in a "cast match," where each wrestler wore a cast. Undertaker ran in to screw up Rock's victory at 1:23, kid. Big Slow made the save. I sometimes get criticized for not detailing the events of RAW matches, but how do you detail one- or two-minute matches? Debra faced Nicole Bass in a bikini contest. Puppies....Cujos....Woooo. I'll leave the conclusion to you. Godfather faced Billy Gunn. Jim Ross announced that if a Corporate Ministry member interfered in the remaining key matches, that member would be fired. Oh man, I hoped that Viscera would just stumble out to ringside. If only we had some warning, we could have started an internet fund to pay off somebody in the locker room to prank Viscera. Match was nothing, even though Billy Gunn, er, Mr. Ass is the best natural athlete in the universe. Road Dogg came out; don't act surprise. He laid out Gunn, who was leg dropped by Godfather for the pin at 3:14. Droz & Prince Albert were interviewed backstage. They puked. It was charming. I flipped channels as I wrote this up on Wednesday night; Jerry Springer had a guy on who likes to puke on his parnter while they are making love. I'm just bringing that up for your consideration. Al Snow faced Droz in a hardcore match. They brawled into the sports bar all so that they could do the western cartoon spot of sliding a guy along the bar. It was as depressing as most hardcore matches are, running 3:00. Vince McMahon faced Ken Shamrock in a Lion's Den match. Yeah, don't believe it. Jeff Jarrett came out to whack Ken and Vince put an ankle lock on an unconscious Vince for the win at 0:07. I guess this was a neat way of letting Vince get out of this program again; Ken can freak out that JJ screwed him and just forget about Vince. Big Slow faaced Undertaker for the WWF Title. Jim Ross announced that this would be the most physical, biggest, and slowest match-up of the night. Okay, he didn't quite say all of that. Match was sad, but what can you expect from these two. I can't even begin to try to call it. It did reveal why we had no real wrestling all night. They had gimmicked the ring so that when Big Slow hit the Slow Stopper on Undertaker, UT would break right through the ring. The referee stopped the match. Time was 6:51. Tally time: 19:56 of bell-to-bell wrestling. The WWF has finished running King of the Ring qualifier matches on Heat. The tournament bracketing is as follows. (Total match time to date is 16:10.) Qualifier ______________________________________________________________________ Quarters ______________________________________________________________________ Semis ______________________________________________________________________ Final ______________________________________________________________________ Semis ______________________________________________________________________ Quarters ______________________________________________________________________ Qualifier ______________________________________________________________________ Billy Gunn Road Dogg Billy Gunn (05/30 Heat, 2:04 pin) Road Dogg (06/06 Heat, 0:54 pin) Viscera ______________________________________________________________________ Godfather ______________________________________________________________________ Jeff Jarrett Chyna Ken Shamrock (05/30 Heat, 2:54 SB) Chyna (06/06 Heat, 2:17 pin) Ken Shamrock ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Val Venis ______________________________________________________________________ Big Slow Al Snow Big Slow (06/06 Heat, 0:59 pin) Bob Holly (05/30 Heat, 1:22 pin) Droz ______________________________________________________________________ Bob Holly ______________________________________________________________________ Test Big Boss Man Kane (06/06 Heat, 3:03 pin) X-Pac (05/30 Heat, 2:37 pin) Kane ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ X-Pac ______________________________________________________________________ Nitro Nitro on 06/07/99 aired in full Wednesday afternoon on TSN. The show opened with Randy Savage and his entourage arriving in their limo. Savage brought everybody ice cream! Oh no, that container that was taken out of his trunk seemed to contain excrement. Savage rambled on about being the master of mind games. I'm omitting the easy jokes, but rest assured that I thought of several. We jumped to ringside, with Hardcore Hak already coming to the ring. What? No "Last Week" video clips. I guess they don't want us to remember what happened last week; that would mean that they might have to book shows logically. Hak was accompanied by Chastity, who was sucking on a lollipop. You see, that's an inside joke, because, nudge, nudge, Chastity did an oral sex scene in a porno movie and all of the "smart" fans watching know it. Eric Bischoff was doing commentary again. Last week, he did a great mix of shoot comments and story line development, being much less annoying than he's been in a long time. This time around, he started out criticizing Hak's gimmick, which I guess was a way to try to get his gimmick over a bit. The hang up in starting the match was that Hak was smoking a cigarette. JJ Dillon came out to tell him to stop smoking, but Hak didn't respond. Eric Bischoff hit the ring and politely asked Hak to put it out. Bischoff stopped secutiry from getting to Hak after Hak blew smoke in his face. Bischoff smacked him. Man, I love Bischoff! He's a role model. Hardcore Hak faced Prince Iaukea. Bischoff explained he got involved not because he has any authority (he said he didn't) but because he hates smokers. Chas hit the fire extinguisher. Hak got a table, put Iaukea on it, did a somersault onto him, and the table didn't break. He whipped him into the table and got the pin. Hugh Morrus & Brian Knobs came in. Kidman made the save, clearing the ring. That was great to see. Morrus attacked Kidman from behind. Shit. Kidman & Hak got pummelled a bit. Don't tell me we'll get a tag hardcore match with Kidman sucked into the crap?! Match ran a whopping 1:34, but I'm sure everybody cared about it a lot. The played a recap from last week after all. As the next match was getting set, Eric Bischoff talked about Vince McMahon being the "Higher Power" in the WWF. Weird that the character is the "Greater Power" yet the Undertaker also called him "Higher Power." Scotty Riggs faced Lenny Lane. Bischoff criticized Riggs' gimmick as being an unoriginal ripoff of Paul Orndorff. Bischoff joked that Vince was being sued for $110-million. The commentators spent most of their time talking a bucket of shit. I bet you thought I'd mention a wrestler after that line. Lodi came out. Lenny Lane pulled down Riggs' trunks, flashing a side of the ring. Is this a family promotion? At least the crowd wasn't chanting for butt cheeks. Riggs stopped late in the match to check out his reflection in the mirror. He almost got pinned because of it. Nobody cared. Lodi may still have been at ringside. The camera ignored him. I wished I could ignore this match. Lane did a neat power bomb for a two count. Lane caught Riggs' foot, ducked under an enzuigiri, and ended up with a reverse power bomb for a two count. Riggs managed to get the pin with a famouser. You know, give a midcarder the finisher of a guy in the other promotion. Match ran 6:21. After the match, they showed Ric Flair pitching to Chris Benoit, calling him "The Man"-in-waiting. If only the people writing the story lines believed that. It ended up with Perry Saturn showing up asking for a tag title shot and Flair saying that Flair & Benoit would get a tag title shot this night. Randy Savage came out to challenge anybody who had the kahunas to face him. Sting came out, I guessed to accept the challenge. Savage tried to use catchphrases that were stupid sounding. He also used "smell what I'm cooking" which sounds just as stupid as everything else he said. Sting said "It's shoooooow time" which sounded weird given Paul Wight's name in the WWF. Kevin Nash came to the ring for a confrontation for Randy Savage. To make a terribly long and boring story short, a female contortionist came out of Nash's luggage and dumped Savage's container of crap onto Savage. It was just so funny. It was great story line stuff, making another hundred thousand television viewers call their cable companies to order the PPV on Sunday in the hopes of seeing these guys lock up. Diamond Dallas Page & Bam Bam Bigelow faced Chris Benoit & Ric Flair for the WCW tag titles. Benoit was awesome and intense, as always. Just build the whole company around the guy and I'll be in heaven. Flair, who rumours say is thinking about retirement, looked a bit more inspired than usual in this match. Being close to Benoit does that. After some Horsemen dominance, match had a long heat segment on Benoit. Nobody works better than Benoit, at least it feels that way most of the time he's doing anything (hitting moves, bumping, selling, etc.). You had to figure that Flair was going to screw Benoit based on the young vs. old story line. Sure enough, Flair acted like he was desperate to tag Benoit, but when Benoit finally reached the corner Flair pulled his hand back. When Flair walked away, Arn Anderson, looking miffed, got on the apron to take Flair's place. I'm thinking that they'll use Anderson to talk for somebody like Eddy Guerrero, who should be pushed as a young superstar but can't speak well. As anybody would expect, Perry Saturn came out to be Benoit's partner. Anderson disappeared. Saturn made the hot tag, hit a few moves, and capped it with the death valley driver on Page for the pin at 12:26. Yes, Page laid down; I enjoyed that. Kanyon came out. As expected, he turned on Saturn and the Freebirdish team of Page & Bigelow & Kanyon was formed. You see, I told you Kanyon laid down on purpose last week. This was a really good match. It builds to the rematch at the PPV, giving that show its first match that actually has promise. Silver King & La Parka & Damian & Halloween had a fourway match that was under hardcore rules. Match had some good wrestling in it and lots of weapon-assisted moves. I probably would have liked the match a lot more had it not been in the hardcore framework. And if Tony Schiavone ever figures out that laughing during hardcore matches does nothing to get them over that might help the garbage wrestling at least have some sense of realism. I don't know why, really, bu Mick Foley is the only guy on the planet who can make garbage wrestling seem sensible and real most of the time. So, this was a bout with some good moves, horrible commentary, and lots of garbage. La Parka pinned Damian with a powerbomb through two chairs at 7:15. Ernest Miller came to the ring. He dissed Scott Norton. Norton actually realized that his NWO B&W buddies didn't save him last time around. Is Miller getting over? No. So, why don't they finally throw in the towel on him? Horace Hogan came out to answer Miller's challenge this week. Miller used a crowbar again, getting the pin at 2:00. The Observer mentioned that "crowbar" is a 70s wrestling term for stiffs that can't work and hurt their opponents with every move. The NWO B&W came out at Norton's request. Roddy Piper did an interview, calling Buff Bagwell out to the ring. Piper seemed to be criticizing Bagwell, but I guess his "Reality Check" t-shirt was supposed to let us know he wasn't. He asked Buff lots of questions. Buff answered with "I wasn't born yet" and "This isn't 1975" and the like. Old vs. young. You know, Nitro is still tough to sit through without doing something else on the side, but this old vs. young thing is the first sign of hope for the promotion (and, given that the WWF has gone all garbagy and pushes the two McMahons as the top stars, perhaps for all of North America) since the Cruiserweight division was first formed and made us all daydream. Piper said that when he wins at the PPV, he'll pass the ball to Bagwell and Bagwell better not drop it. Huh? If only I could understand that. I guess when Piper is the president he'll give Bagwell a chance to elevate himself. Yeah, I guess that's what we were supposed to think. Just to make sure that another hundred thousand viewers order the PPV on Sunday, they did another Nash vs. Savage angle. You know, it is good that they are trying to build up the main event for the PPV, but I have to make tongue-in-cheek remarks like that because neither of these guys has anything left to offer other than using their reputations to put over the young guys. Randy Savage's women, sitting in his limo, asked Kevin Nash to join them for a good time. He stupidly gor in the limo only to learn that Savage was driving. I think Savage should have said, "Hello Stephanie!" Anyhow, a hummer rammed the limo three times, with Nash smashing out the window and then collapsing without getting out of the car. Did Savage just total his own limo? Or was that Nash's? I'm confused. Oh well. They added some expense to the promotion of the PPV. And I'm sure this angle will get those buys up there! Bobby Duncum Jr. faced Rey Misterio Jr. It's so stupid to put these guys in the ring together, what with Duncum being so tall and gangly. I guess they are trying to get him over one last time. If you've been reading my ramblings for most of the year, you know that when I see Duncum I think "tope" and start laughing. Curt Hennig joined the commentary team. Konnan came out with Rey, but went off to hang with DJ Ran. The commentators spent their time talking about Kevin Nash's condition. Duncum on one knee was as tall as Rey. He still sold a lot for Rey, spending a lot of time on one knee. They renamed the "bronco buster" the "rough rider." That's what makes this a family show. Curt Hennig & Konnan had a duel of wits. Stealing one from Heenan, they were both unarmed. Rey hit the rough rider on Duncum and then went for the rana finisher, but Hennig climbed on the apron and whacked Rey before he could pull Duncum down. DQ ending at 4:20. Konnan made the save. "Rap is a bunch of crap" said Hennig on his way out. The replayed the hummer/limo collision, with Tony Schiavone wondering who was driving the hummer. The difference between WCW and WWF commentary is that if a WWF commentator brings up a dangling story line element like this, it is because the writers have something in mind. Sometimes, that idea changes and the dangling element drifts away without mention again, but it is pretty rare in the WWF. In WCW, when the commentators bring up dangling elements, they are really poking holes in the story lines because you know nobody has thought about the question before. So, don't expect "Who was the hummer driver?" to be this week's "Who's the greater power?" Anyhow, the women ran off when they locked Nash in the limo, so any one of them could have been driving the hummer. The Steiners came out for a promo. This being a family show, Scott told us how great he is as "pushing the pink." Rick Steiner apparently realizes how having an abbreviated nickname helped DDP and HHH, so he's now DFG. There were no confrontations or anything, just the Steiners singing their own praises. Great use of a segment, that. Tony asked for the fifth time who the driver of the hummer was. The plan in WCW is to put together an old vs. young story lines, but it won't be exactly what you expect since some guys who we should all hope would be on the old side won't be. The plan is for the old side to be DDP, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, and Bam Bam Bigelow. The Observer also includes Roddy Piper in the list, but that doesn't seem to be the way they are going. Anyhow, Nash isn't on there. Wonder why? So, I guess if they are going to reveal a hummer driver, it will be one of the guys on the list. You see, they were trying to eliminate the young Kevin Nash. Disco Inferno came out to criticize Buff Bagwell for not looking Roddy Piper in the eye and saying he was a sad old man. I guess Piper may be in the old group after all. This led to Bagwell coming out for an impromptu match against Disco Inferno. Match ran through a commercial break. The final bits were good. During the match, Tony Schiavone told us that a very important medical update was available on the internet, but apparently when that message was relayed to Tony the actual content of the update wasn't. The traded nice moves near the end. The commentators didn't really care, so why should we? I want to know who was driving the hummer. Buff hit the blockbuster for the pin at 5:18 of what we saw. The second-to-last segment featured Spice dancing for a few seconds before we headed off for another commercial. I'm sure nobody switched to RAW during this last quarter. Randy Savage faced Sting in the main event. Match opened with all of the women taking turns on Sting. If you have a dirty mind, that sounds like a RAW story line. The reason that Savage's entourage always gets involved is that Savage can do so little these days that the women have to contribute to the action. Match was garbagy crap for the most part, with the women getting involved, Savage leveling the referee, and a new ref coming out to ring the bell. The new ref was also tossed. Hey, I can't wait until Meat goes for a top rope move and gets knocked down to the ringside floor by his opponent so that Jim Ross can say that somebody tossed Meat off. The Steiners came out to help pound Sting. Lex Luger ran in for the save, chasing off everybody. I bet you think he's not going to turn on Sting. What was the content of that pressing media conference that Luger & Liz were going to call anyhow? Who knows? Match was DQ at 4:13. Tally time: 43:27 of bell-to-bell wrestling that we saw. - WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/13/99. Tentative line-up has: * Kevin Nash vs. Randy Savage for the WCW title * Roddy Piper vs. Ric Flair for the presidency of WCW, again * Diamond Dallas Page & Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn for the tag titles * Scott Norton vs. Ernest Miller * Rey Misterio Jr. & Konnan vs. Bobby Duncum Jr. & Curt Hennig * Hardcore Hak vs. Brian Knobs in a hardcore match * Rick Steiner vs. Sting * Buff Bagwell vs. Disco Inferno The plan is to pass the presidency on to Piper. Piper championed Dean Malenko two Nitros back and Buff Bagwell this week, so I guess he'll be the catalyst for getting the young guys pushed against the old guys. The final match on the list will apparently lead to Roddy Piper being part of the "old" crew, since it puts Bagwell in an opening match. On Thunder, they announced that Ric Flair had reversed the tag title change on Nitro because Saturn was not an official participant in the match. Hopefully, they'll figure out a way to use Tank Abbott in that situation. They signed him to a three-year deal and, now that they've used him on TV, they need to give it momentum before it dies. - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/27/99. - New Jack was found not guilty of assaulting Eric Kulas, the green wrestler who he brutally butchered with an X-acto knife. Anybody who has seen the video of this incident has to question whether this is the right decision. - 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 99/04/25: Backlash Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 1.06 $5.09 2.28 * * 1/4 * * * * 1/4 Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 12.5% (1 of 8) 99/03/28: WrestleMania Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 2.3 $12.04 1.13 * 1/4 * * * 1/2 Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0% (0 of 9, no shoot) 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 1.39 $6.56 1.43 1.38 3.58 1.9% (1 of 53) 1999 1.53 $7.36 1.61 1.56 3.81 3.2% (1 of 31) 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 99/04/11: Spring Stampede Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sting 0.6 2.86 2.31 * * 1/2 * * * * 1/4 Juventud Guerrera vs. Blitzkrieg 11.1% (1 of 9) 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 0.82 $3.8 1.88 2 3.88 5.8% (3 of 52) 1999 0.8 $3.81 1.97 2.13 3.75 5.6% (2 of 36) 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 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. ______________________________________________________________________