______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 07/05/99 (a taped show) aired live in Canada on TSN. The show opened with Steve Austin coming to the ring to address Undertaker's "first blood" challenge for the next PPV. The interview went something like "...ass...ass...sonofabitch...bitch...ass, " but the fans liked it. Vince McMahon came out with the revelation that the WWF isn't big enough for the both of them, that one of them has to leave. If he wants that, why not just fire Austin? Yeah, well, Vince decided to offer a new stipulation for the PPV match, because he's so sure that UT will win. And, hey, is anybody excited at the prospect of another Undertaker vs. Austin PPV main event? Vince said if Austin lost the match he would have to agree to never challenge for the WWF Title again. If Austin won, Vince would never get involved in Austin's dealings again, "neither you nor any of these people will ever see Vince McMahon again." Austin accepted, of course. The commentators pitched the deal as "all of nothing" for Austin and McMahon. Great storylines? On Canada's Movie Network, they started rebroadcasting "The Sopranos" tonight; now that show has great storylines. The Rock did an interview telling us that he is "genetically electrifying" and that he would lay the smack down on Hunter Hearst Helmsley's roody poo candy ass, if you smell what the Rock is cooking. Maybe the claim that he "emits electricity" somehow explains why his nipples look so weird. In the first match, the Hardy Boyz challenged the Acolytes for the WWF Tag Titles. The Hardy Boyz bumped well for the Acolytes, and that bump-taking will hopefully get them over. Faarooq somehow managed to come close to flubbing a neckbreaker spot as the recipient of the move; I swear he flubs that move more than any other guy with experience. The Boyz used a cane shot and a tornado DDT for the upset win at 4:27. Back from a commercial, Godfather faced Gangrel. Based on their tag match loss on Heat, Droz & Prince Albert had to come out dressed as hos. Godfather came out with a couple of women, invited Val Venis out, and then called out Droz & Albert, calling them the two newest members of the ho train. Droz was having fun being dressed as a woman, grinding a bit and having shaved his legs. Jim Ross said that Droz liked the attire. Gangrel attacked before the bell. Match was usually bad when they showed the, er, action instead of the hos, lasting 1:20 before Godfather hit a legdrop. At that point, Droz & Albert & Gangrel attacked Venis. Edge & Christian came out to complain with Gangrel over attacking Venis. Test faced Joey Abs of the Mean Street Posse, who now have their own entrance music instead of being history with the promotion after losing a match with a loser leaves the WWF stipulation. Test tackled him on the ramp, tossed him in the ring, and they had a short match. Joey is another mediocre-at-best worker, but the work hardly matters in this environment. At 1:53, the Mean Street Posse ran in while Shane held Stephanie on the ramp, forcing her to watch her boyfriend get pummelled. You know, I really wish we could see Linda McMahon every week too, involved in loads of storylines. For some reason, though, Shane let Stephanie loose so she could tend to her battered beau. And doesn't Stephanie have any friends that she can get involved in the show? And they say this isn't a family show. In a weird WCWish deal, Heat and RAW still air commercials telling us that the special Steve Austin 3:16 magazine that has been available in stores here for a couple of weeks will be available soon. Back from a commercial, Chyna & HHH were telling the police that X-Pac & Road Dogg vandalized Chyna's car. Would the police look like buffoons for another Monday night? Al Snow faced D'Lo Brown in a Hardcore Title match. They brawled backstage in the usual way. Midian interfered, but since anything goes in the hardcore "style" that was perfectly legal. The commentators pointed out how all of the earlier stuff (objects, low blows) were legal because anything goes, but Jim Ross was upset by the interference. Go figure. Al Snow did a careful splash off a lift through a table for the win at 5:10. The police were looking around for Road Dogg backstage. Val Venis faced Road Dogg. They had a pedestrian match while the commentators talked about the charges levied at X-Pac & Road Dogg. Me, I was wondering how long it would take the police to get out. Sure enough, a few minutes in, the police came out with a handcuffed X-Pac to handcuff Road Dogg and take him off. Match ran 1:38. Mr. Ass & Chyna watched on backstage, saying that they were forced to play dirty. The police carted off the villains -- and wasn't it nice that they had "POLICE" stenciled on their black t-shirts? They should do this for everybody; it would help the audience. "COMMENTATOR" for Jim Ross. "PUPPIES" for Debra. "ACTRESSES PLAYING HOS (NOT PROSTITUTES)" for the hos. "WRESTLER" for X-Pac; they could probably just get one shirt with that word on it. "MARK CALAWAY THINKING HE'S THIS CHARACTER THAT VINCE CREATED" for Undertaker. "GLEN JACOBS THINKING HE'S THE BROTHER OF THIS CHARACTER THAT VINCE CREATED." On the backside of those shirts, they could write, "WE ADMITTED THEY AREN'T RELATED, BUT WE'LL CALL THEM BROTHERS AGAIN, ANYHOW." Hey, this is fun. Chaz faced Jeff Jarrett, with Jim Ross wondering who Chaz knows in high places. At 1:20, Debra climbed on the apron to distract Chaz, with Chaz' former mom, now his girlfriend, Marianna, coming around to break it up. Chaz stopped to see that his girlfriend wasn't going to get mauled; after all, Sting was recently attacked by dogs. That let Jarrett get the pin at 1:47. Afterwards, JJ & Debra were planning a guitar smashing, but Glen Ruth, the other half of the old Headbangers team, came in for the save. They aired a commercial for Fully Loaded. It only hyped HHH & Chyna. Hey, wasn't HHH going to get a title shot against the Undertaker on this PPV? Now, Undertaker faces Austin, right? Why does the commercial just hype HHH & Chyna, then? I know it doesn't matter because people order the WWF product for reasons other than any individual match, but it seemed like HHH was going to be given a main event spot this time out. I'm not complaining. Oh wait, we've got Undertaker vs. Austin again...I am complaining. Edge came to the ring. He came through the crowd again, yet another indication that the face turn isn't far off. And if you need another one, he faced Big Boss Man, who JR called "villainous." At 2:22, Edge hit the spear for the pin. Boss Man handcuffed Edge to the rope and beat him up a bit, knocked out the referee, was stopped by Christian for a second, handcuffed Christian, and beat both guys up. HHH did an interview saying that he would be WWF champion come hell or high water. Hmmm, I think they should make the First Blood match a Last Blood triangle match. When you bleed, you're eliminated. Ass beat Meat. Meat now wrestles in his underwear, which is surely the new ingredient to make him a superstar. Chyna joined Ass. This was another throwaway match, running 1:39 before "ultra-agressive" Billy Gunn used the famouser for the pin. After the match, Chyna decked Jacqueline and the heels used black spraypaint to spray NWO, er, DX on their backs. JR: "This spraypainting idea is original, isn't it?" JR suggested that the spraypaint might be the same paint that was used on Chyna's car. Big Slow & Bob Holly vs. Kane & X-Pac was up next. Since X-Pac was carted off to jail, he wasn't around to save this match. I don't know about you, but I was hoping that Slow & Kane would lock up for five or six minutes again, hopefully doing another double foot-to-the-face (okay, foot-to-the-air) spot. It was like a parejas increible match with Holly & Slow together. Man, this was exciting. Holly lectured Slow before the match. Big Slow threw some "ham-like" rights and lefts. Kane vs. Slow...it just doesn't get better than this! Misawa-who? Slow tagged in Holly after a powerslam. Holly got in 20 seconds of offense, tops. Undertaker & Paul Bearer came out, with Slow walking into the ring to stare at them. Behind him, the match continued, with the ref nonplussed by Big Slow standing in the ring. Kane choke slammed Holly for the pin at 2:33. He then clipped Slow, and UT & Kane destroyed the Slow One. It was awesome. Kane has been lured over to the dark side by the evil supernatural forces of his wicked brother. Oh, wait, Vince told us that Undertaker is just Mark Calaway playing a character. Where does that leave Kane, anyhow? Who knows? Who cares? This is drama, man. They double suplexed Big Slow. Kane walked off. Undertaker chaired Slow, who did an incredibly blatant blade job right away. This is wrestling! HHH faced Rock in a cage match, the kind of cage match where you have to escape the cage to win. HHH came to the ring with Chyna. Rock came to the ring with deformed nipples. You'd think with all of the plastic surgery contacts that the WWF has for breast purposes that they'd be able to fix the Rock up with somebody. JR called the Rock a "magnificent athlete." The cage was chain link, not that metal huge-square atrocity. Match was all punches. Rock tried to climb out at a corner, but HHH hooked his feet and Rock whacked into the turnbuckle. These guys aren't great workers; they are mediocre-to-good at best. HHH, in particular, doesn't have that much to offer to me; Rock at least has huge charisma. Chyna passed HHH some handcuffs, but HHH couldn't attach the Rock to the cuffs. HHH tried to climb out. It's annoying to see them try to climb out when the door is right there. Yeah, it sets up an exciting bump. Match was very slow. As Rock crawled to the door, Chyna knocked out the ref and did the Terry Gordy door-slam on Rock's head. Chyna then pulled HHH out of the ring. Rock followed. They brawled on the ramp. Chyna got involved. The stumbled around. HHH tried for a pedigree on the floor, but ended up getting slingshotted into the cage. Rock tossed HHH back into the cage and climbed in after him, with the referee recovering at that point. Rock then stumbled to the corner and tried to climb out, when the door was right there. Sigh. HHH didn't go for the door, instead opting to pull Rock back down. Rock made it to the top of the cage. No. He stopped and did an axe handle off the top rope. There were some good exchanges during this portion of the match. But the inanity of these guys always forsaking the door was annoying. HHH made it out over the top, but Rock caught him by the hair. Rock and HHH sat on top of the cage and punched each other. For some reason, HHH, after chairing Rock, decided to climb down inside the cage. Why he didn't go down the outside is beyond reasoning. HHH crotched himself, got tied in the ropes, and went for the door. Rock did the slow descent on the cage wall, while HHH went to the door in a slow crawl. The old photo finish, with Rock getting the win at 13:55. Good match, despite some stupidity. Billy Gunn ran out to attack the Rock. Tally time: 36:36 of bell-to-bell wrestling, which must be close to a record. We still don't know who raised the briefcase at the PPV. Nitro Nitro on 07/05/99 aired in full on TSN on Wednesday afternoon. The rumoured main event was Sid vs. Kevin Nash for the WCW Title, and Bret Hart was hyped as making his first wrestling show appearance since Owen's death. I should mention the god-awful vignettes involving Kevin Nash & Randy Savage on Thunder last week. I don't want to go into them at all, since it was painful enough to see them, but they deserved mentioning because of how bad and unproductive they were. And, wow, Megadeath was slated to appear. If rap is crap, what does that make heavy metal? First match had Juventud Guerrera vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. in what promised to be a great match that nobodym including the commentators, cared about. Juvi mocked Chavo by pretending to ride a stick horse. Just so we know that we shouldn't pay attention to these guys, the commentators didn't bother to explain that. Just like they didn't explain the LWO stuff when Eddy reappeared. The commentators hyped Bret Hart's interview later in the show, which seemed a bit weird, but we'll have to see how the interview goes down before judging things. Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan once again declared that Sting was driving the hummer, although Heenan pointed out that there have been other Sting impersonators in the past. Still, Schiavone said that the famous reflection in the mirror was definitely Sting. Sigh. Match was good, with some really sweet exchanges. Juvi countered a double axe handle with a foot to the face. Juvi rolled through a power bomb, tried his own, got taken down with rana, and the guys went through several near falls. Juvi hit the driver and then went for the firebird splash, but Chavo popped up (too quickly) and took him down. Chavo couldn't hit the tornado DDT. And then, just to make sure that we know that these guys are jobbers that we shouldn't give a crap about, Sid & Randy Savage came out and laid out both guys. Sid powerbombed Chavo. Savage did his elbow on Juvi, hitting hard. What a bastard. He can't take the brunt of that bump himself any more, brutally injures Charles Robinson, and keeps doing the damn move because his ego can't let him take his proper place in the promotion. Bastard. Sid wore the WCW Title, that he borrowed last week. Sid did some bad mic work. Savage to the microphone, said nothing, and Sid started ranting again. It was horrible. The fans didn't really give a crap. Nash came up on the giant screen, with Torrie Wilson looking all sexy behind him. When Thunder ended last week, Savage had Torrie. Now she's with Nash. Does that make sense to anybody? Nash said that George was getting dressed right now. She came out with a Nash t-shirt on. The interview was just brutal. Finally, they got to the point: Sid challenged Nash for a match tonight. Even if you think that building up Sid vs. Nash is a good idea, the way that they've been doing it has been pathetic. Call the match 7:11. Back from a commercial and after DJ Ran got out of my area, Gene Okerlund interviewed Ric Flair, with David Flair standing there as well. Ric announced that Scott Steiner had failed to defend the US Title and would have to be stripped of the belt. Sigh, what a sad way to do that. Ric announced that since David Flair beat Kevin Nash by countout last week, he's the obvious number one contender for the WCW Title, so Ric awarded the US Title to him. Oh lord. Sopmehow, Charles Robinson managed to get a hold of the US strap, and he walked out with it now, giving it to David as balloons fell from the ceiling. It was so said. Flair drew little heat from the crowd coming out, in Atlanta, sigh, because Nash is such a great booker. Buff Bagwell came out and said he wanted to have the first title shot at David's US Title. Buff ridiculed Ric Flair and tried to steal Ric's thunder. Hey, wasn't Buff primarily feuding with Roddy Piper, while Dean Malenko was primarily feuding with Ric Flair? Wouldn't it have made sense, then, to have Dean come out and challenge Ric for pushing his son? Well, we got Buff and that's just tough. El Vampiro Canadiense faced Rick Steiner. Boy, they really must see a lot in the money they put into Vampiro. They held him off TV for a long while as they developed a way to use him effectively, and here he is jobbing for Rick Steiner in a whopping 1:19. Why? Can you believe that they are going to push Van Hammer but they've totally buried Vampiro? Okay, so Juvi complained about Vampiro after their match at Club La Vela, but that doesn't mean that they should throw away the money they spent on him. Afterwards, Lenny Lane & Lodi did some more really badly acted, really sad homosexual stuff. TSN did something strange here, as the segment ended with a clip of Edge entering the ring on RAW. TSN then blipped that and replayed the last minute or so of the Lodi/Lane skit. And here came the Bret Hart segment. First, before a commercial and the interview with Bret, they aired a short video clip of Bret Hart's short time in WCW, reading the text of Bret's Calgary Sun column to Owen Hart. Certainly, Bret should be given much more latitude than the WWF when it comes to talking about Owen's death or arguably using Owen's death for his own wrestling-related pruposes. It still seemed a bit weird at this time, although it was all sensitive and all that. The weirdness came because the interview with Bret was clearly placed to rival the opening segment of RAW, which means it was obviously hoped that it would maintain a rating. Bret's interview, just him in the ring alone, seemed to be similar to his RAW interview where he announced he was staying with the WWF for the rest of his career: it seemed like Bret was told he could go in the ring and say whatever he wanted. Well, call me a mark for Bret Hart's style, but this interview seemed honest and legitimate to me. I could feel Bret's emotion, sense his inner turmoil. More than once he had a look in his eye that suggested to me that he was tired and so sad. A single tear streamed from my right eye, I've got to say. Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff & Bret Hart have met to discuss the possibility of Bret returning to WCW to be a hero, since he can't return as the heel he was before Owen's death. When Bret said he hadn't decided his future yet, I believed him. Eddy Guerrero's wallet was stolen some time earlier. Eddy complained to Doug Dillenger about it, saying a masked wrestler took his wallet and asking Doug to round up the masked men so that Eddy could pick out the villain. Ernest Miller faced Jerry Flynn in a kickboxing challenge. Oh man. Maybe if isn't wrestling, Miller might actually look good. This was so stupid. Anyhow, after lots of boring stuff, Miller punched Flynn when he wasn't supposed to and got DQed. Match ran 5:00. And all of the viewers that had stayed on through Bret Hart flipped channels long before this crap. Lodi faced Hammer. Hammer sucks. Man, WCW has so much bad stuff. Sigh. Lenny Lane was their to support his man. Match stunk, with Hammer using his cobra clutch slam for the pin at 4:09. Roddy Piper came out to talk with Gene Okerlund. Piper brought out somebody dressed like Sting. The fake Sting shook his head "no" when asked if he was ever in the humvee. But I saw him beat up Rick Steiner after bursting out of the hummer. Piper whacked the fake Sting and unmasked him to reveal some unidentified guy. This display was apparently meant to show how anybody could be made to resemble Sting, so Tony Schiavone finally decided that the real Sting may not have been helping Randy Savage after all. JJ Dillon came out with Judge Mills Lane, who was born at night, but not last night. Mills Lane says "get it on" a few times too many. He'll referee a taped fist match between Piper & Bagwell at the PPV. That's what we needed to see. Konnan & Rey Misterio Jr. faced Fit Finlay & Steve Regal. Master P is nowhere to be found, but luckily Konnan & Rey have BA Brad Armstrong, Swole, and Chase Tatum with them. Now, that is a force to be reckoned with. Match was so short it isn't worth talking about. All four wrestlers deserve better than this. Yikes. The Cowboys came out to end our misery at 2:28. El Hijo del Nature Boy, David Flair faced Buff Bagwell for the US Title. Now, everybody had to expect a title change, so I was guessing they'd find a way to avoid one. David can't do anything. Just to address the readers who e-mailed, yes, I was quite aware last week that David Flair is not undefeated. I remember when Ric sacrificed him to Meng, too. Last week, I was just caught up in the excitement of the moment, having funny wanting to be like Dave. Could WCW depress me any more? Ric Flair & Arn Anderson got involved. Dean Malenko came out to help Buff. But Dean is a buffoon who can't help anybody, as Roddy Piper snuck in while nobody was watching (and, hey, look at the ratings before you flame that) to whack Buff with a loaded right hand. Yup, David got the pin on Buff in 3:17. Doug Dillenger gathered up a few luchadors and got them to form a lineup for Eddy Guerrero. Eddy said that the masked man who stole his wallet was unmasked when he stole the wallet. So, the luchadors unmasked one at a time while Eddy commented on their looks. He then said none of these guys was the right man. Hak & Chastity came out to announce that Hak wanted to have a hardcore PPV match in a junkyard against anybody who wanted it. Yay! We get to see Hak at the PPV. Bam Bam Bigelow & Kanyon & Diamond Dallas Page faced Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn. Before the match, DDP said his new catch phrase: "You love me, you hate me, you'll never forget me." In reality, he could leave today and I wouldn't miss him tomorrow. This wasn't a tag title match, because tag titles matches only allow the heels to use all three guys. Got it? Match was darned good. Benoit was awesome. What else is new? Lots of good stuff, with Benoit hitting the top rope head butt for the pin at 7:19 of what we saw, which doesn't seem to bode well for a title change at the PPV. Goldberg made an appearance, saying "I'm back!", after Megadeath did something they said was music. Kevin Nash faced Sid Vicious for the WCW Title. Michael Buffer said Sid is rated by wrestling fans as one of the all time greatest big men in the history of wrestling. You see, that's another reason why we can be embarrassed to be wrestling fans. Nash said that Savage and the women should disappear if Savage ever wants to see George again. Tony Schiavone approved, 'cause he likes hostages and kidnapping. The crowd was excited with this top drawing cards in the ring, chanting "Goldberg!" Wow, Nash threw some punches! He hit some clotheslines! My wife said, "What a stupid match." Savage ran in again. Two on one, the ref still allowed it to continue. NWO Sting came to the ring and pummelled Nash, with the commentators thinking it was the real Sting. Real Sting came in for the save. Match never ended, call it 3:55. Real Sting whacked NWO Sting. But Nash didn't know that there were two Stings, so he powerbombed the real Sting before walking off. TSN cut away immediately. It seemed choppy, so I'm guessy there was another minute after this. Tally time: 34:38 of bell-to-bell wrestling. That's just pitiful. - Of course, the biggest news pertaining to WCW is the loss of Chris Jericho to the WWF, although I'm sure no decision-maker in WCW feels that it is that big of a deal. Yeah, they did decide that they wanted to keep him, offering him a good deal, no doubt better than his downside contract with the WWF, but you've got to believe that Jericho made the right decision. In the WWF, there's no guarantee that he won't end up a midcard guy who doesn't get over, who works a lot more than he would in WCW and gets paid less. But the crucial element that decided his status in WCW was the people at the top of the company, something he really couldn't control. In the WWF, his status will be decided much more by his own ability to turn on a crowd, something that he undisputedly has. He signed a three-year deal with the WWF. Jericho, unlike some other guys, doesn't have a family depending on every dime he gives them. He can make a decision to go to the WWF, taking a chance that his natural ability will be enough to make him a huge star, disregarding the financial and travel hit he takes if his shot fails. - Scott Steiner's accumulated back injuries may be enough to force him out of the business for good. He certainly is going to be taking an extended leave from WCW. As a result, the promotion was expected to crown a new US champion on Nitro this week (if you've already read the above review you know if that went down). The bookers are very high on Ernest Miller, with Meltzer mentioning that Miller is teaching Eric Bischoff's kid karate, despite always laying in subtle jabs at his "brutal" matches, and the plan at one point was to put the strap on Miller for a feud with Disco Inferno. Oh boy. The other possibility, which might even serve to tie up a storyline, would be to put the title on Buff Bagwell. - We should note that WCW's much-publicized celebrity deals with Master P and Dennis Rodman may well have fallen apart already. Like every celebrity who the promotions bend over to bring in, P decided he was worth a lot more than his initial appearances established him to be worth. As a result, the usual power struggle occurred and the deal seems to be dead. If only Eric Bischoff would apply the same reasoning to the egotistical demands of a few obvious wrestlers in the group. - I've received a lot of e-mail in recent weeks from people who say that I'm obviously not a wrestling fan so I should just stop watching the shows from WCW and the WWF. In case it isn't clear from my writings in recent months, there are reasons for a fan like me (work/workrate conscious) to watch both promotions. In the WWF, X-Pac is just great. Mick Foley's interviews are wonderful, and he's still the only guy who can somehow do garbage wrestling sensibly. The push of the Hardy Boyz is a new good thing because they bump so well and show the signs of wanting to improve. And when Chris Jericho comes in he'll pull the best matches ever out of mediocre-to-good guys like Rock and HHH. In WCW, Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, Juventud Guerrera, Billy Kidman, Dean Malenko, more cruisers, Booker T, and others are reasons to watch. The pain of watching WCW is that you have to enjoy the good or great matches in isolation of anything happening in the promotion because the company is just so screwed up. Guys like the Hardy Boyz don't hold a candle to the WCW guys mentioned above, yet the WWF will manage to get them over because they will actually try. - The Observer mentions that Ric Flair is supposed to be out of the ring to recover from a back injury. Even though he's supposedly shelved, he still managed to appear at every show where we was booked, perhaps not to wrestle but at least to appear. The guy is such a pro. In Auburn Hills, MI, Randy Savage was to face Buff Bagwell, with both wrestlers refusing to lose to the other. Flair was there and and volunteered to run-in at the finish, turn the match into a three-way, and let Bagwell pin him. Flair was apparently very excited about a young vs. old story that would include him, Hogan, Piper, and Savage together as an old side, but Savage balked, of course, and the angle is already struggling. Flair didn't even mind if he would have to do the jobs for his side. And at Nitro last week, "there was a lot of heat backstage. Bagwell was complaining because he was asked to do a job for Sid in a dark match after the show ended, and Malenko was mad because when they do tag matches, Bagwell is the one who gets all the glory but he's the one who does all the work and looks bad in the finishes." - The Observer mirrored most of my complaints of the WWF's King of the Ring PPV. Dave Meltzer was equally incredulous that the show ended 20 minutes early when so many matches that could have been good were kept so short. He suggested that they purposely toned down the show because it was the first one after Owen Hart's death, noting that the dangerous bumps were all but eliminated and done much more carefully. He also laid into Big Slow vs. Kane, giving the match - * and writing "In a spot right out of an Ernest Miller Nitro match, both guys went for high kicks at the same time, which would have been tricky with good wrestlers and anyway, both missed by about a foot and both fell down." And talking about Nitro the next night, Meltzer wrote that Benoit & Saturn vs. Regal & Finlay was "easily the best match on the show and better than anything on the WWF PPV the night before as well." - Raven is still out with his rotator cuff injury. I wonder if they'll bring him back with a coherent storyline involving Kanyon and Bigelow? Yeah, right. While he's out, Raven is also having the fat sucked out of his breasts. - David McLane, who longtime fans will remember as the mastermind behind GLOW, is apparently going to get back in the wrestling business with a women's promotion, riding on the tails of the success that the WWF has had with various silicone-enhanced unskilled women. - The Observer reports that Sid is earning $500K per year in his two-year deal with WCW, although Sid himself is telling people that he's pulling in $1.5-million per year. The Toronto Sun reported that Sid's deal only requires him to appear on Nitro and at PPVs, although he has been on Thunder as well (but not at routine house shows), so don't think he isn't doing well per appearance. They give deals like this to guys with "drawing power." Sid, Hogan, Nash, Savage, etc. They've got drawing power. I wonder which one will use his power to draw the chalk outline around the corpse of WCW when it dies. - ECW & TNN have announced that they have reached an agreement for ECW to have a one hour show on the network on Friday nights. There was talk that Rob Van Dam's love of marijuana might have thrown a wrench into the mix at the eleventh hour, but I guess things were ironed out. The first new show is scheduled to air on 08/27/99, but they will air a background show the Fridays beforehand. - 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 in a taped fist match with Judge Mills Lane as referee * Ric Flair vs. Dean Malenko * Van Hammer vs. Rick Steiner for the TV Title * Hak vs. ? in a hardcore match - The WWF has Fully Loaded on 07/25/99. Tentative line-up has: * Steve Austin vs. Undertaker in a first blood match: If Austin wins, Vince will never get involved in his business and we will never see Vince again (whatever that means). If Undertaker wins, Austin will never challenge for the WWF Title again. No explanation of what happens if there is a DQ, but I guess this match stipulation precludes that possibility. * Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley * X-Pac & Road Dogg vs. Billy Gunn & Chyna * D'Lo Brown vs. Midian for the European Title * Big Slow vs. Kane * Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Blackman * Test vs. Joey Abs Hey, just putting Kane vs. Slow in a rematch is enough to make me want to order. I hate watching bland, mediocre matches. I either want to see awesome bouts or brutally bad bouts. I hope they give these guys the right amount of time for a real tour-de-force. - The Observer points out that Chaz dropping the Beaver Cleavage gimmick and working without a strong gimmick "appears to even more send the message that if you're in the WWF and you don't like your gimmick, you just don't do it and everything is fine. It's a form of subtle Owen Hart damage control for the public and also dumping a bad gimmick at the same time." - Terry Taylor wants to recreate the WWF lightheavyweight division yet again, but nobody expects anything to come out of the desire. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________