______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had King of the Ring this past Sunday, 06/27/99. On the live Heat preceding the PPV, Shawn Michaels came out and made an adhoc match between Ken Shamrock and Vince McMahon. Vince had already made a match with Big Boss Man vs. Midian & Viscera. When Vince protested, Michaels said he could name a suitable substitute in the match against Shamrock, but Vince was a little out of luck because he had booked the lower-level Corporate Ministry flunkies in the handicap match. Michaels said the only suitable substitute would be Shane, which Vince agreed to and Shane fretted over, once again suggesting that Vince would win the ownership of the company and abandon the son he frequently sacrifices. In those two matches, then, Big Boss Man was belted and pinned, with Viscera splashing him afterwards and D'Lo Brown & Mark Henry making the save. The commentators said that Vince's plan of "setting the Big Boss Man up for failure" itself failed; that made a lot of sense since Boss Man lost the match and got pummelled. In the Shane vs. Shamrock match, Steve Blackman came out and whacked Shamrock, working over his kidneys and ribs. Shane snuck in a kick as well. Shamrock spit blood. Match ran 26 seconds. The commentators were a bit off throughout Heat, I thought. Besides the earlier weirdness, during Val Venis vs. Prince Albert they got confused about Droz's interference. "It's anything goes, folks." On the other hand, "The ref's back was turned" so he missed the interference. When the Godfather saved Val, we were told that "Val Venis was one of the Godfather's best customers." Huh? I thought Val was a porn star not a run-of-the-mill john. As for the PPV itself, it didn't deserve a thumbs up. I ended up placing it in the middle, bordering down, although I'm probably begin generous. There was just way too much screwiness in the matches, making me feel that the bookers wanted certain results but didn't bother to even think for a second about nonscrewy ways of getting them. It felt like WCW when Dusty goes nuts. Sometimes, it is possible to look past crappy finishes when the overall wrestling is strong, but that was hadly the case on this show either. To top it off, the show went off the air 20 minutes early, so it wasn't like the reliance on story lines killed so much time that the wrestlers couldn't deliver a few longer matches. Quick rundown: * X-Pac DQ Bob Holly: These guys formed a championship tag team, although nobody thought it was worth mentioning. I would rather have seen them face each other back then than now. Holly is crappy these days because he's "hardcore." I find "he's hardcore" to be an excuse for poor wrestling. Holly used a chair at 3:02 of a total nothing match, using the chair for no reason other than the bookers wanted X-Pac to go over and have an "injury." I think WWF bouts should just have entrances, that one key spot in a match, and a finish. Oh, that's what they do have. Road Dogg saved X-Pac. Terry Taylor interviwed Holly postmatch, with Holly mentioning Big Slow. * Kane beat Big Slow: You had to be pretty daft not to know the finish for this match after Holly had foreshadowed it. Match ran an enormous 6:38. Because of it's length, I think it is only fair to call the match pretty carefully. Punch. Punch. Punch. Punch. Kick. Clothesline. Elbow. Kick. Kick. Enzuigiri. Punch. Punch. Double kick to the face (that was completely embarrassing). Kane's clotheline. Two count. Punch. Punch. Punch. Choke. Jawbreaker. Kick to referee by Slow. Low blow. Holly in with a chair; no, Kane chokeslammed him. Big Slow rallied: punch, punch, turnbuckle, punch, kick, missed punch. Kane: choke, choke, choke that lasts for minutes. Crowd: snore, snore, snore. Kick. Chair to head of Big Slow. Three count. This was a brutally bad match. * Billy Gunn beat Ken Shamrock by referee stoppage: Shamrock, injured by the previous attack by Steve Blackman, came to the ring still spitting blood. Referee Teddy Long tried to talk him out of the match, but Gunn attacked. Gunn worked on Shamrock's back and ribs. Shamrock sold his injury well. Shamrock's rana was countered with a powerbomb. The referee stopped the match at 3:38, ruling that Shamrock couldn't continue. At this point, I was totally in love with the finishes; the best part is that it would only get better. * Road Dogg pinned Chyna: Dogg sold a couple of spots for Chyna in the first few tentative minutes. She hit a low blow, kicks, forearms, and a choke before Dogg sent her out over the top in an exaggerated spot. Outside the ring, Hunter Hearst Helmsley pulled Dogg off of Chyna and pummelled him a bit while the ref discussed the latest research regarding the safety of breast implants with Chyna. With Dogg back in the ring, Chyna got a one count. She got a two count after a DDT. She mocked Dogg's sassy knee drop. She put on a sleeper. Dogg countered with his own. HHH put Chyna's foot on the rope to get the break. Dogg went after HHH, and Chyna got a two count off a schoolboy. The referee bumped. HHH used a chain, arranged the pin, and the Dogg kicked out at two. Shawn Michaels came out to stop HHH's interference, sending him to the back. Chyna went for a low blow, but Dogg pulled out a metal cup that apparently didn't protect him from the earlier low blow which he sold. Chyna sells her arm being hurt. This was a cup that was only effective on its second hit, I guess. Dogg used a pumphandle slam to get the pin at 13:18. To underline things, Jim Ross said, "We can all say that we saw Chyna get it doggy style." * Hardy Boyz beat Christian & Edge: This match was added after their Heat match earlier in the evening turned into a schmozz after one minute. This match would have no interference and would determine the number one contenders for the tag titles. Match was good. I didn't really get into Chyna vs. Dogg, which was by default the best match of the night to that point, so I guess I thought this was the best match to this point. Edge did a wicked spear off the second rope on a charging Hardy; that bump was replayed several times and put on RAW as well. There's a difference between the WWF and Nitro. Remember when Benoit did his head butt off the top of the cage on Thunder? We never saw that again. This match ended when Gangrel spit his V8 into Edge's face, leading to the pin at 4:51. Afterwards, the Brood reconciled, although this was surely the beginning of a babyface turn for Edge, anyhow. * Billy Gunn beat Kane: Seeing Kane once in a night is more than enough for me. Match ended when Big Slow came out and chaired Kane, who was pinned at 5:30. * X-Pac beat Road Dogg: X-Pac sold his neck and arm from the earlier "stinger." He missed his bronco buster and held his neck and arm. Dogg went for the pumphandle slam again, but X-Pac flipped through the pick up and got the pin with the X-Factor at 3:08. Short match, but not bad. At least it had a clean decision. My head was hurting from the finishes in every other match to this point. And you just knew that more screw jobs were on tap for remaining matches. * Undertaker beat Rocky Maivia to retain the WWF Title: Ever since he had his breasts liposuctioned, Rock's nipples have looked odd. HHH had challenged the winner in this match. Undertaker knocked out the referee before the bell rang. As a result, I don't think a bell ever rang. Oh well. Rock hit the rock bottom straightaway but there was no referee to count the fall. A second referee came out, but he was KOed by Paul Bearer. A choke slam got a two, as the first referee recovered. The brawled down the aisle. They walked. The referee didn't count them out even though this match was under normal rules. They walked around. It was like an Austin title match. The WWF Title matches in recent memory are interchangeable. They punched each other a bit and walked down the aisle. UT suplexed Rock on the carpet before they got back in the ring. A lot of time had elapsed, and the guys seemed to try hard, but they sure didn't do much to this point. Undertaker tried a rope walk, but ended up getting crotched. Rock took a sip of water and spit it on UT. Back outside the ring. The went out into the stands, right in front of one of the cameras. They walked back to ringside. Man, is this ECW? All of this walking around is annoying because it really just stretches the time. Undertaker was whacked into the ring bell. In a key spot, Rock tried to chair UT, but UT held up the ring bell and the chair bounced back into Rock's head. Bearer used his shoe on Rock. DDT by UT for a two. Facelock. Rock used a samoan drop for a two count. They did a double clothesline spot. Rock got up and punched the Undertaker down. Rock hit a DDT for a two count. The poor referee bumped yet again. Rough night. Rock hit the people's elbow but the referee was napping. Low blow on Rock. Bearer gave some ether to UT, but Rock hit a clothesline and used the cloth on UT. HHH ran in, pedigreed Rock, and left the ring. Both wrestlers were out. UT got up at nine (the referee had recovered). Undertaker covered Rock for a two count. Undertaker hit the tombstone on a Rock for the pin. Match wasn't bad, but the wrestling was minimal and the whole booking was way too screwy for my tastes. Match ran 19:15. * Billy Gunn beat X-Pac to win the King of the Ring tournament: Gunn went after X-Pac's neck. Slow match. They did a headlock spot. Gunn hit the famouser for a two count. Gunn complained. X-Factor got a two. Bronco buster. Gunn was crotched on the top turnbuckle, but somehow managed to turn it into a positive, hitting the famouser off the top rope for a the pin at 5:37, only the second clean match of the night. * Shane McMahon beat Vince McMahon & Steve Austin in a ladder match for ownership of the WWF: They aired a recap of the Austin vs. McMahon story line. It ran five minutes, making it longer than four of the matches on the show. Just a thought. Throughout the show, Vince teased that Shane was unable to be part of this match. I figured it as Vince's way of screwing Shane out of his 25%. It seemed to make sense. HHH was going to be Vince's "suitable replacement," with Shawn Michaels setting a precedent earlier on Heat. When HHH was kicked out of the building after the title match, Vince called somebody on the phone and told him to get back to the building. Surprise, surprise, he called Steve Blackman out to an awesome crowd response of deafening silence. We saw a shot of Shane McMahon's locker room on GTV, with Shane laughing that they fooled Shawn Michaels. Michaels caught Shane trying to leave the building and brought him out to be part of the match; he also kicked out Blackman. Whew. Opening spot saw Vince & Shane both go down for an Austin clothesline. Austin destroyed both guys for a bit. When they got the upper hand, Vince went for the ladder while Shane choked Austin. They walked around. At the entranceway, they had built a house of cards out of ladders, carefully tied together, and with a chain on one of the standing ladders. Shane climbed on top of the structure, with Austin going after him. They both dropped down to the floor. Austin rammed the McMahons into the supporting ladders, until all but one of the ladders on one side were knocked down. He grabbed the chain on the remaining ladder and pulled, with the "house" coming down on top of the McMahons. Don't think it is a coincidence that the McMahon's took the risk of the big stunt on this PPV. Austin took a ladder to the ring. Throughout the match, Lawler pushed Shane as being gutsy for persevering. I figured it as another way to make him the babyface when Vince screwed him. Austin destroyed Shane, elbowing him through the announcers' table. Vince knocked Austin off the ladder onto the English announcers' table. Vince took a ladder into the ring and climbed it, touching the briefcase, but Austin came in with a low blow and knocked Vince off the ladder. The McMahons were destroyed some more. The McMahons took a set of amateurish (amateur-looking) bumps, playing garbage wrestlers for the day. I'm sure some people will be inspired by it. Vince knocked over the ladder as Austin was climbing it. Vince & Shane tried a piggy-back move to get the ladder; that was funny. Austin hit two stunners. He climbed the ladder for definite victory, but the briefcase moved higher, out of reach. Austin interrogated the guys at ringside, none of whom controlled the mechanism. Vince almost got the briefcase; his hands were on it. Austin came in. Shane dumped both of them. Shane climbed the ladder and got the briefcase. Match ran 17:53. I don't understand why if Vince had the briefcase mechanism guy in his pocket the briefcase didn't lower a bit when Vince went for it near the end. I guess we are supposed to believe that that was the lowest the cable would go, so Vince's guy could only raise the briefcase to thwart Austin. When this sort of finish has been used in the past (cages go up, etc.), people have complained about it. Something tells me more people won't complain this time around. I was a bit surprised that Shane was given the win. I still expected Vince to somehow screw Shane out of all of the shares on RAW the next night. If not, if the McMahon's stay unified, then the promotion returns to an old formula. Total PPV bell-to-bell match time was only 1:23:50, and the show went off the air 20 minutes early. Here's the final summary of the 1999 King of the Ring tourney 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 ______________________________________________________________________ Billy Gunn (06/27 PPV, 3:38 stop) Road Dogg (06/27 PPV, 13:18 pin) Godfather ______________________________________________________________________ Jeff Jarrett Chyna Ken Shamrock (05/30 Heat, 2:54 SB) Billy Gunn (06/27 PPV, 5:30 pin) Chyna (06/06 Heat, 2:17 pin) Ken Shamrock ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Billy Gunn (06/27 PPV, 5:37 pin) ______________________________________________________________________ Val Venis ______________________________________________________________________ Big Slow Al Snow Big Slow (06/06 Heat, 0:59 pin) X-Pac (06/27 PPV, 3:08 pin) Bob Holly (05/30 Heat, 1:22 pin) Droz ______________________________________________________________________ Kane (06/27 PPV, 6:38 pin) X-Pac (06/27 PPV, 3:02 DQ) Bob Holly ______________________________________________________________________ Test Big Boss Man Kane (06/06 Heat, 3:03 pin) X-Pac (05/30 Heat, 2:37 pin) Kane ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ X-Pac ______________________________________________________________________ - Some more bits of information related to Owen Hart: RAW RAW on 06/28/99 aired on Monday night on TSN as usual. The show opened with the Corporate Ministry, complete with gloating McMahons and Hunter Hearst Helmsley, coming to the ring. I expected the CM to splinter as one McMahon screwed the other out of his share in the company. While I expected Vince to be the villain, perhaps mentioning some sneaky paperwork during the day after the PPV win to kick his son to the curb, after the ending of the PPV I also thought it was possible that Shane would screw Vince. But that would leave Vince as a babyface of sorts, and that didn't seem like a reasonable direction. Shane had been positioned as the used member of the McMahons right through to the PPV, so he made more sense as a babyface, and that would be a reasonably fresh direction. For the first time in a long while, I was actually curious to see how the 20-minute RAW opening interview would play out. Boy, was I disappointed. The CM stayed together. Vince & Shane gloated together. Nobody mentioned that, based on the stipulations of the PPV match, Shane was now exclusive and full owner of the company. I felt like they wanted to save that revelation for a future show to stretch things out a bit. Maybe that will make sense. HHH returned as a loyal member of the CM. Vince announced that HHH would face Undertaker at the next PPV. Like that would happen with both of them in the CM. Big Boss Man came out to tell everybody that he loved them, getting an embrace. Lord, we are right back to where we were a long time ago. This is apparently creative booking. I hope that Shane pulls a swerve on Vince in the next week or two. To make matters totally stupid and confusing, Steve Austin came out saying that he knew he might get screwed at the PPV. As a result, he signed a special match for this RAW, giving himself a title shot against the Undertaker with Austin getting the title in the case of an Undertaker DQ. Does that make sense to anybody? Let's see. Austin was CEO last week and still couldn't manage to just say his selected stipulation would hold at the PPV. The McMahons, with 50% of the company, demanded their own stip. The commissioner ended up deciding how the stip would be decided. This time around, Austin, a corporate nobody, outsmarts the villainous McMahons, who have total control of the company, because he signed a match before losing his control. Couldn't the McMahons, who now run the show, just say "forget it," change the match, or at least kill the stipulation that works against them? Apparently not. Oh, I know: Austin booked the match by signing a contract that the McMahons couldn't change, while the stip negotiation was done to get a contract signed. Ah. That doesn't explained why booked/contracted matches have been screwed with in the past. I remember when Shawn Michaels just decided that the loser of a certain bikini match would be the winner, for example. This whole thing made no sense. The worst part was that it was the final step in the process of returning the WWF to the exact same state it was in not so long ago: Austin would be champion and the evil McMahons would be trying to get rid of him. Sigh, I like to more forward, do something different, unless the wrestling is so great that it doesn't matter if the formula doesn't change. First match saw Ken Shamrock faced Steve Blackman, the silent warrior. Yeah, you think I called him that because he keeps attacking Shamrock and walking off without comment, but it's really because of the great reaction he got when Vince announced him as a PPV main event replacement wrestler the night before. This match was a weapons match, which means we shouldn't expect any wrestling at all. Cool. Into the steps, pull out some martial arts gimmickry, you get the idea. Blackman made Shamrock spit some more red stuff. If I were lewd, I would suggest that Shamrock & Gangrel may be paired even though Shamrock is obviously having trouble swallowing. I don't think a bell rang to end the match. I can't even remember if one rang to start it. I don't even think that anything I would call a match happened. Let's call the whole affair 2:45. Billy Gunn did his King of the Ring victory interview. He tried to explain that he was half of the tag team champions because he was part of a six man tag with the tag champion Acolytes, with his side winning the match thanks to Gunn. That's so stupid, it's funny. I guess they are just trying to give him something to boast about. HHH & Chyna came out, with HHH saying that Road Dogg & X-Pac are taking all of the Degeneration-X gimmick money. HHH offered Gunn Chyna to help look after those two, so I guess we'll be getting a half-mixed tag match at the next PPV. Rock came out to attack HHH. On this week's GTV segment, Test & Stephanie McMahon came out of a hotel and got in a car together, prompting Jerry Lawler to burst over what they must have been doing in the hotel. Meat faced Chaz Warrington, who has abandoned the Beaver Cleavage gimmick after one RAW appearance. Match was a throwaway. Chaz tried to do an inverted death valley driver, a move that looks really scary when it is done right, something Chaz didn't manage to do, getting the pin at 2:00. PMS must really be wondering what good Meat is. Bob Holly did an interview, once again insulting Big Slow, but also insulting Kane, his opponent for the night. Before they could do anything, okay, okay, that's a bad choice of lead-in because these guys can't do anything, Big Slow came out to choke slam Kane, getting his loss back from the PPV. Holly got the pin at 1:35, only to get choke slammed by Kane. This way, you see, everybody gets to leave with something. You've got to love the screw job booking mentality. Rock faced Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Match was another throwaway, with Billy Gunn, who is no longer the Ass Man, as HHH called him earlier, but the Ass King, ran in to whack the Rock at 1:40. Hey, don't get upset; they did break the two-minute mark in earlier matches. Godfather faced Edge. You know, RAW Magazine has Godfather on the cover, and, just in case you don't "get it," they reveal that he's really Charles Wright, that he's not a pimp, etc. Hey, it doesn't matter if his character is a pimp, that he has hos, that the hos show their butts, etc. That's acting! Since Godfather is friends with Val Venis -- isn't it a bad idea for a pimp to be friends with a john? Makes it hard to break the john's legs if he doesn't pay or gets rough with a ho. No friends? Hey, pimpin' ain't easy -- that means he's enemies with Droz & Prince Albert. It's the age-old "a friend of a friend is a friend and an enemy of a friend is an emeny" thinking. Bingo, Droz & Albert ran in before these guys could do anything (see earlier joke). How do you hurt a pimp? Sure enough, Albert & Droz tried to pierce one of the ho's tongue. Maybe on PPV they'll go for a nipple or...let your mind wander. Edge saved her. Godfather & Edge chased off the villainous piercers. Edge gets some friendly ho treatment. Gangrel, of whom I made one gay allusion earlier, happened to be in the stands and looked upset that Edge was getting comfy and cozy with some hos. I rest my case. Match ran 2:05. Billy Gunn faced Justin Bradshaw. This match was for the tag team title belt that Gunn took last week. If that makes any sense to you, you are a member of the target audience, which includes a negligible percentage of wrestling fans. Hmmm, who could interfere in this match. Ummmm, X-Pac sure could use a little rehab after losing the tourney main at the PPV. And, hey, if X-Pac interfered, I'm sure Chyna & Road Dogg could run in to give us a taste of that awesome half-mixed tag match at the next PPV. The only question was whether Gunn would be pinned, albeit screwy. Sure nuff, Gunn did a flip bump for a Bradshaw clothesline after X-Pac showed up, getting pinned at 3:07. Ivory & Nicole Bass came to the ring together. In case you haven't thought about it, these two may be lesbian lovers. There's a Howard Stern or Jerry Springer lesson in there: lesbians are good for ratings. WCW hasn't learned that lesson completely, hence Lenny Lane & Lodi. Ivory called out anybody from the audience. An oriental plant came in. No, not a bansai, a woman from the audience. She looked a bit like Malia Hosaka, when she tackled Ivory and showed some butt shots here and there, professionally pulling down her clothes immediately, I thought it might also have been Kimona from ECW. Who knows? Who cares? We don't need a name if the skirt is short enough, right? She got laid out. Jeff Jarrett faced X-Pac, 'cause the King of the Ring loser deserves a title shot at the secondary belt, dontcha know. Debra has a "Show Me Your Puppies" t-shirt that will become popular in school yards, although it surely isn't marketed at children and if any children get them it will be because negligent adults bought the shirts for them. They tried to exchange some moves, but the crowd and Jerry Lawler were calling for the westminster kennel dog show. Billy Gunn came out to interfere. X-Pac was guitared and then famousered, with Jarrett getting the pin at 5:02, the record time for the night thus far. Road Dogg & Chyna made the requisite appearance. Undertaker faced Steve Austin for the WWF Title. Brawl, brawl, Undertaker sucks. Brawl, brawl, Austin isn't much better these days. Chinlock, will he sleep, ha, bet not. Double clothesline. Will they get up? Sure. Zombie sit up. Stunner, stunner, pin. 12:02. Undertaker went nuts on Austin afterwards. I was bored. The crowd was chanting Austin's name. Tally time: 30:16 of bell-to-bell wrestling. They never even bothered to reveal who raised the briefcase at the PPV. They didn't even mention it. Nitro Nitro on 06/28/99 aired as a two-and-a-half-hour show on TSN on Wednesday afternoon. TSN picked up the premiere of a new judo program on ESPN and aired the half-hour show in place of a half-hour of Nitro. I didn't cry. Interestingly enough, or maybe not, one of the judo commentators was Neil Adams, who, if I'm not mistaken, is the brother of WCW wrestler Chris Adams. So, something was surely cut from Nitro, hopefully everything with Master P I was thinking as the show started. The show opened with Ric Flair, a bleached blond David Flair, and United Center owner Bruce MacArthur pulling up in a limo. Bruce and Ric praised David, with Ric announcing that David would get a world title shot this night and begin his first run as world champion. Yikes. In the show opener, Steve Regal & Fit Finlay faced Perry Saturn & Chris Benoit. For some reason, Regal & Finlay are not friendly. First, they bring in Sid, then Regal, and Too Cold Scorpio is rumoured to be coming. They've got a few other guys that also have well-known problems, mostly with drugs. What is wrong with company. During the entrances for this match, the commentators talked about the dance contest later tonight with Disco Inferno facing Ernest Miller. Man, I could feel the channels changing, and I wasn't even watching the show live. It was announced that Benoit & Saturn had a tag title shot at the next PPV and that Bagwell & Malenko have a tag title shot this night. The match went to a commercial with nothing much having happened. The remainder of the match was all right, but nothing special (although, I find watching Benoit against anybody pretty special). Match ran 9:00 (what we saw) before Saturn used the Death Valley Driver on Regal for the pin. After DJ Ran got all up in my area, asking which section of the building was the rowdiest. The deafening silence was a wonderful response. Backstage, Ric Flair & Roddy Piper continued to be totally uncool, getting all excited about David Flair. Hammer showed up to announce that he's been on a roll lately and wanted a title shot. Piper said sure, giving him "Steiner," with Arn Anderson having the presence of mind to say, "Rick Steiner?" so we actually which bad match was coming up later on. Back from a commercial, Gene Okerlund reminded us that Randy Savage is an old turd who can't do anything in the ring any more, hence the ladies, and that he recently injured Charles Robinson because Savage can't take his own top rope elbow bump on his hip any more. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Asya, and Charles Robinson came to the ring. They called Piper to the ring. Heaven forbid they come out together to make the entrances shorter. Piper criticized Howard Stern, saying that Howard wanted to get in the ring with him but that he'd kick his ass. He blamed Howard for the state of the youth of today. Uh-huh. Piper said that David Flair vs. Nash would be a lumberjack match. Piper praised David Flair and called Kevin Nash "the giant of our sport." Yeah, the giant who booked himself into the top spot so he could get whopping 0.45 and 0.43 buy rates, amongst the lowest in company history and a half to a third of what the WWF manages to draw. The giant who can't do anything in the ring and can barely walk (forget run). Flair invited Randy Savage out so he could apologize to him. Macho Man came out with Sid and the women. Ric Flair announced that Robinson would referee the title match tonight, that he & Piper & Anderson would be some of the lumberjacks, and asked Savage & Sid if they would also be lumberjacks, burying the hatchet for tonight. Was this a way of lumping Savage into the "old" group? The Observer reports that Savage wants nothing to do with the young vs. old angle because he doesn't want to put on the old side. Savage & Sid agreed. Flair said he would relegalize the elbow, over Robinson's protestations. You see, the elbow is banned. It was legal in the world title match on PPV because Nash wanted it to be legal, but it is still banned outside of that match. I had to explain that since nobody actually saw that PPV. This banning of the elbow angle was a way of giving Savage an excuse for never doing the move that he can no longer do. Whew. Later, they would add Diamond Dallas Page, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Kanyon as more lumberjacks. Lodi & Lenny Lane continued to build their stupid homosexual alliance. You know, I was always entertained by the gay gimmicks in lucha libre, but with WCW running this ship, I just know that this story line is going to be brutal. Lenny Lane's acting was absolutely brutal. Who talked them into this? Lodi faced Eddie Guerrero. Tony Schiavone suggested that Lodi & Lenny Lane may be "together," if you get his drift. Boy, not only do they think their audience is filled with homophobes, they think it is filled with stupid homophobes. Guerrero looked good, of course. When does his contract run out? Something tells me he might become the new number one draft choice with the WWF after Jericho goes. After some nice stuff from Eddie, he went to the top for the frog splash. Lane came in, with he and Lodi in a position, to beg Eddie not to jump. Eddie splashed for the pin at 1:26. Eddie did a limp wrist gesture as he headed down the aisle, just in case somebody hadn't picked up on this story line. Hak came to the ring. He bitched about Ric Flair not liking his style of match. And they say Flair is insane. Ha! If hardcore match disdane makes a man insane, take down my name. Bam Bam Bigelow came out in answer to Hak's demand that Flair come out. They had a short match, cough, cough, that had limited hardcore flavour to it, showing that Hak sucks if he isn't taking a sloppy but insane bump or whacking somebody with a cookie sheet. Kanyon & Diamond Dallas Page got involved. Hak used his kendo stick. DDP hit the diamond cutter while the referee was daydreaming, with Bigelow covering for the pin at 4:44. Back from a commercial, Stevie Ray & Vincent & Horace & Brian Adams faced Curt Hennig & Barry Windham & Kendall Windham & Bobby Duncum Jr. in what looked to be a horrible match. As we could see from the start, Curt Hennig is managing to become a babyface based on his current "Rap is crap" story line. The Observer reports that Hennig will tape a segment with Willie Nelson, insulting him, so that he will be hated by rap fans and country fans. They want Master P and the No Limit Soldiers to be the faces; instead of giving in to what the fans want to cheer and boo, they will ruin the whole thing (not that it is particularly good). What they fail to understand is that it isn't country music fans who are cheering Curt Hennig. But, hey, this is WCW and they just have to waste some more money. This match was so lame that I don't even want to think about it. Barry pinned Vincent at 7:56. Disco Inferno faced Ernest Miller in a dance contest. Well, actually, Ernest Miller danced and then attacked Disco. And wouldn't you know we had a match! Ernest slipped in a reference to Jerry Flynn during his prematch rambling, so the finish was pretty clear. Sure enough, after the usual bad Miller match, Jerry Flynn ran out, with his interference causing Disco to give up the DQ at 6:03. Flynn challenged Cat to a match at next week's huge Georgia Dome Nitro, adding some much needed star power to that show. They replayed the footage of Ric Flair & son & company arriving at the arena. It merited a whole segment. It's not like people are switching channels to that sports entertainment XXX porno wrestling stuff, right? Buff Bagwell & Dean Malenko faced Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon for the WCW Tag Titles. Arn Anderson & Ric Flair came out to be extra commentators. Somebody has realized that Arn & Ric can talk, that Ric doesn't have to be insane? Nah. Bigelow was in the champs' corner. Flair announced that Arn Anderson would referee the Nash vs. David Flair main event. Before the match, Malenko looked like he'd rather be in Chyna, er, anywhere. Maybe I was reading too much into his usual stoic expression, but you've got to figure that the young good workers have to feel a bit like they are on the Titanic and they aren't the king of the world. Hey, maybe they'll all go to New Japan as regular foreigners at a cheaper rate than New Japan now pays to get Michael Wallstreet & NWO Sting. Everybody wins! Dean was great early on. To his credit, DDP tried to keep up, which is more than most of the old guys give. The champions have a gimmick where any two of the three can defend the titles and, most annoyingly, they can change that duo during matches. Who thought of that horrible idea? Bagwell doesn't have much more than a look, it seems. And a cool finisher. He's competent enough, sort of like HHH or Rock, but, similarly, leaves me thinking he can't carry great matches. Back from a commercial, there were some good moments as the match picked up. It actually turned into a good match. Bagwell had his run and then got worked over. He finally made the hot tag to Malenko. It turned screwy here. The referee bumped after DDP made a last ditch save. Buff hit the blockbuster on Kanyon, DDP and Bagwell went out over the top, Malenko put the cloverleaf on Kanyon, Bigelow broke it up, double diamond cutter, referee recovered, pin at 16:29. Good match. I don't like the threesome deal for the finish, but it was somewhat forgiveable because the match was good. The "Rap is Crap" tour kicked off with the debut of the video on Nitro. It was really an 1980s kind of thing. Scott Putski faced Sid Vicious. Was this match bad? Oh yeah, you bet it was a whole new level of badness. Sid & Randy Savage spent a lot of time playing to the camera, which meant we had to seem them a lot longer than anybody wanted to see them. Match went forever. Hard to believe they would put this match at this length (4:43) at this spot on the show. They just want to lose the ratings battle, don't they? In the final match of the night, Kevin Nash faced David Flair in what Tony Schiavone earlier called a "defining moment" for Nash. Sigh. It was a lumberjack match with the earlier-mentioned lumberjacks and Arn Anderson as referee. One is led to believe that Hammer vs. Rick Steiner for the TV Title will take place at the PPV, although nobody from WCW bothered to mention that that was the case. All of the lumberjacks attacked Nash in the ring at the start, with referee Arn Anderson pretending he had something in his eye. David Flair had atrocious tights on. After Nash was laid out, David came in to put the figure four on. He got a two count before Nash sat up and started pounding him. Nash did his spots. All of the lumberjacks came in. Sid did his horrible sell job for Nash's punches. It was around 3:30 into the match at this point. Nash was given the taser by David Flair (okay, we were supposed to believe that he had to take it from him). He tasered everybody. Nash picked up Gorgeous George and took her away. Torrie Wilson just walked with them, smiling. George screamed. The camera angle captured her butt. Back in the garage, Torrie got in the limo, Nash tossed George in the limo, and, oh..., wait, in the distance, there was the hummer. Using his bionic vision, Nash noticed that the driver of the hummer was wearing Sting's face paint. We saw it clearly, using the bionic camera zoom. Nash got in the limo. Savage & Sid (holding the title belt) ran down to stop Nash, but we assume he got away with the abduction of George. Surely, it will be revealed that that was Lex Luger in Sting paint in the hummer. Maybe it will be NWO Sting back from New Japan. And, hey, don't be upset at how unfocused this product is: at least David Flair is still undefeated! Wooooo! Tally time: 45:55 of bell-to-bell wrestling. Reports were that Shane Douglas would debut on this show, facing Too Cold Scorpio, but Douglas wasn't in the building. - The local paper reports that Sid Vicious' deal with WCW is essentially for just Nitro and PPV appearances. That is, they've spent a wad of dough on yet another guy who won't do house shows. - The WWF's official reason for cancelling the show in Hamilton, Ontario, is a "scheduling conflict." Either you believe that the tickets weren't selling like they wanted them to or they don't know how to schedule their own events. Your choice. Speaking of which, when WCW was in Toronto for Nitro, they announce that they would be back in the Air Canada Centre on September 1. But apparently, they've booked Port Huron, Michigan, for that date. What a company, treating their fans with such care. - There was an AP article headlined "Wrestling giants in $1B battle" that made the rounds this past week. The story had no new content, talking about the rise and fall of WCW, Owen's death, the animosity that Vince McMahon feels for Ted Turner, etc. - Apparently, lawyer and cardplayer Johnnie Cochran had come out strongly in favour of the Hart family in their lawsuit against the WWF and others over Owen Hart's death. Cochran said that even if the riggers were at fault in setting up the stunt that killed Owen, the finger of blame/negligence would point back at the WWF. - The WWF is trying to sell the Debbie Reynolds hotel that they bought in Las Vegas. The original idea was to turn it into this major wrestling attraction, with all of th glitz and tawdriness that one would expect. The official story is that the building is too small for what they want to do, which of course makes one wonder why they bought it (did they buy it not knowing what they wanted to do?). People suspect that the WWF has learned that there is something wrong with building that they didn't know about when they bought it. - WCW has Bash at the Beach on 07/11/99. Tentative line-up has: * Sid & Randy Savage vs. Kevin Nash & Sting * Curt Hennig & Bobby Duncum Jr. & Barry Windham & Kendall Windham vs. Rey Misterio Jr. & Konnan & Swole & Brad Armstrong * Bam Bam Bigelow & Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon vs. Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn for the WCW Tag Titles * Roddy Piper vs. Buff Bagwell * Ric Flair vs. Dean Malenko * Van Hammer vs. Rick Steiner for the TV Title - WCW reportedly offered Chris Jericho $2.5-million over three years, but the Observer suggests that the promotion has given up on trying to keep him. They wanted to put him in the young vs. old feud, which the Observer points out is really just another midcard program, a way of moving Roddy Piper and Ric Flair lower on the cards. The Toronto Sun, however, suggests that Jericho may stay in WCW after all. Sure. - Savage is fighting requests to be involved in the young vs. old program because he doesn't want to be on the old side. Disco Inferno turned down the idea of a program with Van Hammer. - 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 99/06/13: Great American Bash Kevin Nash vs. Randy Savage 0.43 2.05 0.75 3/4* * * * 1/4 Chris Benoit & Saturn vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon 0% (0 of 9) 99/05/09: Slamboree Kevin Nash vs. Diamond Dallas Page 0.45 2.15 1.75 * * * * * 1/4 Raven & Saturn vs. Rey Misterio Jr. & Konnan vs. Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko 0% (0 of 9) 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 0.75 $3.51 1.73 1.89 3.71 4.8% (3 of 63) 1999 0.68 $3.24 1.73 1.88 3.58 3.7% (2 of 54) 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. ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________