______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ Thanks for all the offers regarding the ECW PPV. First on the scene got a positive response. ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 08/02/99 was a taped show that aired overnight on Monday on TSN. The show opened with the Acolytes challenging Undertaker & Big Slow to a tag match. Bob Holly strolled out to say that those two weren't at the arena yet, so he would take them on. Of course, he was squashed. Edge faced Gangrel in a bloodbath match. Despite Jim Ross praising the quality of work that these guys delivered in this match, I wasn't buying it. The match had some terribly stupid spots based on the gimmick of the match. And at times the work itself was contrived to the point of being too cooperative. Edge has potential to be a drawing card for the group, but I don't see much in Gangrel. Match ended when the lights went out, the Brood music played, and Gangrel was bathed in blood by Christian. I hate it when the light and music guys are in on the finish. Anyhow, Christian & Edge are apparently still together. Well, they are brothers you know! Match ran 7:41, which seemed like a RAW record. Shane McMahon did an interview. Vince made wrestling. HHH will beat Steve Austin. Test will be made to stay away from Stephanie. Test came out to say that he was going to make his way through the Posse to get to Shane. Al Snow kept talking to his dog. Is that Steve McMichaels' rat, Pepe? Big Slow & Undertaker faced Road Dogg & Kane. Road Dogg must be in the toilet to end up in this spot. Horrible "action" from Slow & Undertaker & Kane. Kane may have lost a lot of weight, but he sure hasn't picked up any ability. And Slow just gets worse and worse by the minute. The Observer writes, "For a guy who had potential to be a total phenom because of his size and athletic ability, Paul Wight has lost virtually all that athletic ability and his work gets worse by the month." Oh boy, that's sure to get me some e-mail. Anyhow, this comedy match ran 6:18, with Kane getting planted. Acolytes tried to run in but Holly cut them off. Billy Gunn & Rock traded witticisms. Jeff Jarrett faced D'Lo Brown in a title vs. title match. In a good match, thanks mostly to D'Lo, we ended up with a new IC champion and a planned PPV rematch. Jarrett blamed Debra for the loss; see, D'Lo was the first guy who just ignored Debra's breasts. Wow, if the WWF set the rules for the world, to this day you wouldn't know that men could do that. Match ran 6:13. Steve Austin came out for an interview. He'll beat HHH. Undertaker & Big Slow came out, with Undertaker saying he wanted a title shot this night. Austin said sure. HHH was quite upset over all of this, since he's supposed to get that title shot at the PPV. I guess he doesn't want to face Undertaker. Big Boss Man faced Viscera. They used a table. They used a fire extinguisher. They used a stick. It still blew chunks. Match ran 3:16 with Vicera going down, down, down. Test faced Rodney of the Mean Street Posse. Test raised Rodney in a hammerlock, getting a submission at 2:29 and injuring the doofus who was supposed to leave the WWF a long time ago. Steve Blackman faced Val Venis. Blackman isn't much of a worker. He somehow managed to do a northern lights suplex, but other than that the match had nothing. Ken Shamrock ran in, chased Blackman, caught him, beat him up a bit. They were separated, so Blackman of course just walked casually away so Shamrock could attack im again. Ugh. Match ran about 2:48. Undertaker faced Steve Austin. Well that was supposed to happen, but there was practically no time left and HHH just wanted to be part of the party. It turned into a brawl of sorts, with other guys coming out. Tally time: 28:45 of bell-to-bell wrestling. They had me hoping for the first two matchs, but it returned to the usual formular in the second hour. Nitro Nitro on 08/02/99 was the usual live show, this time airing in full on Wednesday afternoon on TSN. Once again, Scott Hudson replaced Tony Schiavone. The Triad came out at the start of the show, doing their catchphrase shtick that nobody gets into. They announced that they would face Harlem Heat tonight. Diamond Dallas Page mentioned Chris Benoit, and the Triad then did their mother jokes. DDP made himself look like an idiot by saying that David Flair had more talent than Benoit. I was guessing that set up a match for later this night. Harlem Heat came out to face Bam Bam Bigelow & Kanyon in a nontitle match. No, would WCW really start Nitro with a victory that fans might actually want to see, perhaps building up interest in a PPV match? Hey, why didn't the ring have the WCW logo on the mat? They took a while to lock up. Booker & Kanyon started off. The crowd really loved Booker T; that's so nice to see because the crowd really has no reason to like the guy other than he's a good worker. Bigelow can be good. But Stevie Ray sucks. Like so many big, sucky guys, he really should only work tag matches. For whatever reason, Ray's bumps were bothering me this night, as I think I've been overloaded with shitty big guys by the big two North American promotions. The crowd seemed to be chanting "DDP sucks." The match totally lost its heat when Ray was in there. Booker & Kanyon were the only guys that did a few nice things. Bigelow hi a top rope headbutt, but Ray made the save. Bigelow did a weird-looking standing dropkick kinda thing. Double tag led to Ray cleaning house. For 30 seconds of that, he could be bearable. All four guys came in. Ray saved Booker from the Greetings from Asbury Park. Side kick on Kanyon, missile dropkick, no, DDP interfered, no, Chris Benoit cut off DDP, dropkick hit, pin on Kanyon (again) at 8:00. Benoit challenged DDP to a match this night. "It is my time." Yeah, if only Benoit could say the same stuff to Hogan or Nash. Very good opener, and, heck, it set up a PPV match and a TV match that actually had me hopeful. Sting came out for an interview. Hey, I was hoping he'd explain why he let Benoit get screwed so badly last week. At least Flair had motives that explained his incompetence. Maybe Sting would explain why he teamed with Hulk Hogan last week even though his fans booed the idea. Sting announced that he didn't like the way the tag match turned out last week and said that Sid Vicious & Rick Steiner would have to fight Sting & a partner. Let's see, Goldberg will face Steiner at the PPV, so...yup...Sting announced Goldberg as his partner. The crowd was chanting for Goldberg, and Sting listened to them. Well, okay, he said he was asking Goldberg to be his partner. Wow, is this show actually going to make sense? Forget that things don't make sense in the broader scheme of things...like why Sid has joined with Nash when Sid was Macho Man's righthand man in killing Nash...we have to start small: sense on a whole Nitro show. Sting announced that he'd be back out at 9pm to find out if Goldberg would join him. Wow, I was sure that will pop a big rating for the first opposed quarter hour. By the way, Hulk Hogan was injured in last week's tag match when Sid managed to incorrectly deliver an atomic drop. Hogan ended up jamming his knee. I'm not a mean-spirited guy, but I smiled at the thought of Sid then facing Nash, Savage, etc. Go for the atomic drop! Really, our only hope seems to be that the old farts get injured at the same time. Ernest Miller came out for an interview. For some reason, the crowd actually seem to be into the WCW product, as Miller managed to draw good heat. Miller called out Lenny Lane & Lodi. Lenny & Lodi switched lollipops on the way to the ring. Are they gay or brothers? I thought we knew but they had a sign saying, "when Lenny and Lodi are in town, someone is going down." I'm just saying. Ernest dumped Lodi and killed Lenny in 1:35. Jeez, I was hoping that Bagwell would find another cute way to confuse Cat so that Lenny could get the upset like Evan Karagis did last week. But I guess the natural blow-off to that scenario would be Cat going over, and we know that isn't going to happen. Hulk Hogan came out for an interview. He was hiding his limp; Scott Hudson said he was 100%. What a wrestler, what a talent, working while injured! He's a role model. Hudson said that "roar" for Hogan was deafening. The pop sounded weaker than the one Harlem Heat was getting during their match. Hogan called Nash "Kevina" again. That's so cool. Hogan has shaved off the black shadow portion of his beard. He hyped his match with Nash at the PPV. He mentioned that he bled last week ('cause the WWF has made blood the game again and Hogan wants to be known as a player) and was so hot that he said he'd "shoot with this thing." Oh, man, he's so cool. He said he'd even take on Nash this night. By this point, I'd already started to lose interest in the show, but thoughts of Benoit still kept me watching the show live (on tape, as it were). As the first hour closed down, Sting came out to find out if Goldberg would team with him. Scott Hudson told us to throw the remote across the room. I wonder why he'd want us to do that? Sting's new catchphrase is "showtime": "Bill Goldberg, is it or is it not SHOWTIME!?!" Luckily, there was a camera man backstage to catch Goldberg leaving his locker room. Bingo, Rick Steiner lured Goldberg into a boiler room, with Sid laying out Goldberg. They locked him in the room. Sting made it back there, but not in time, instead getting punked two-on-one. Sting had a momentary rally, but ended up trying a Stinger splash that launched him into a choke slam. Goldberg kicked his way out, ran to the ring, and chased off the heels. The heels walked off. Goldberg yelled "why wait?", but the heels didn't seem to want any of him right now. Scott Hudson said that tag match would take place later tonight. At least they did something to heat it up. Of course, at least a third of the TV audience switch over to RAW. Because WCW really wants to win the ratings war, the next match was Disco Inferno vs. Evan Karagis. Okay, Karagis was hot after his win over Ernest Miller, so if they didn't use Evan this week, I'm sure people would complain that they missed an opportunity to take advantage of that victory. Karagis has nothing to offer. Disco is okay; I could take him as shtick amongst a batch of great matches, but now that WCW has so many bad matches, I find I don't care for Disco much at all. They did manage to do a little bit near the end, with Disco winning at 4:20 after his Last Dance. After the match, they aired a video with David Flair & Torrie Wilson. David mentioned that Charles Robinson was his referee and said that he only had to defend the belt every 30 days. Hugh Morrus & Jerry Flynn faced Dean Malenko & Shane Douglas, of the Revolution. When Douglas debuted two weeks back, he said that he and his buds would take back WCW "tonight." Two weeks later, he's fighting the First Family. The bookers want these guys to be seen as impotent. If they get over, it will be by accident or because the promotion just won't be able to deny the fans what they want. And when you hear the pops for Chris Benoit you know what the fans want. They mentioned that Fit Finlay was severely injured by Morrus. Finlay took a brutal table bump on 07/25 with the table actually severing tendons and breaking his leg. It could be a career ending injury. Of course, that means that they'll have to just switch off the Hardcore Trophy to somebody else. And, surely, that won't be done in a sensible way. Match was a heat segment on Malenko. The referee missed the tag, but the faces hit another one. Hart accidentally whacked Morrus with the stolen Hardcore Trophy, and Douglas hit a fishermanbuster on Flynn for the pin at 7:37. Dean Malenko took the Hardcore Trophy, saying that he would return it to Finlay. Hopefully, they'll just deep-six that title. Douglas jammed his face in the shout to yell "The Revolution." This idea worked in New Japan, but something tells me that WCW will find ten ways to screw it up. They aired the "Crush 'Em" video for Goldberg. That was a whole segment. Rick Steiner came out, grabbed Scott Hudson, dragged him into the ring, and hit a belly-to-belly suplex on him. I guess he was upset that Hudson wondered aloud why Rick uses garbage wrestling tactics. This was so lame. Security came in to hold off Steiner. Well, the commentary for this show would surely go down the toilet now. Eric Bischoff replaced Scott Hudson on commentary. Bobby Duncum Jr. faced Perry Saturn. Bischoff tried to push Saturn and Benoit, but that doesn't mean anything. Curt Hennig came out before the bell rang. Hennig & Bischoff talked about Chad Brock. Hennig said Saturn was actually from Uranus. Saturn laid out Duncum, called Hennig a redneck and called him into the ring. See, Hennig didn't come off looking like an idiot because he went straight in the ring for the match. Match was nothing, with Saturn finally rallying and ready for the Death Valley Driver when the Windhams ran in for the DQ. Call it 4:36. Dean Malenko & Shane Douglas came off as impotent yet again, running out after the attack went on for a bit. Eric tried to explain that there were no monitors in the back. That's why they used "seeing the monitor" as an angle not that long ago. Sigh. Currently, the plan is to have Douglas screw Benoit & Malenko & Saturn, instead joining up with Barry Windham & Curt Hennig & Dustin Rhodes to form a redneck version of the Four Horsemen managed by Ric Flair. Now, that's sure to make Benoit & Malenko & Saturn viewed as even more inept. Diamond Dallas Page faced Chris Benoit. Really good match. I get e-mail asking me why Benoit is so awesome, from people who think Rock and HHH rule no less. Sigh. Anyhow, this was more evidence. He ended up hitting the headbutt off the top. David Flair's attempted interference was foiled and Benoit got a roll-up pin on Page at 7:50. That was great, but then the retardedness started: Kanyon & Bam Bam Bigelow came out to attack Benoit. They beat the crap out of him. That makes the Revolution look so stupid, again. Randy Savage came out for an interview. Miss Madness came out to beg for her job back. Sadly, she was the only wrestler who drew incredible heat on Thunder last week, clearly primed for a babyface persona, so they of course brought her out here to act all wimpy for the Macho Man and kill whatever chance she had of meaning something. You've just got to love WCW. If somebody in the WWF got that sort of reaction by fluke, they'd run with it so much more likely than not. Anyhow, Savage kept her fired; for a second, I figured this was the start of an angle to turn the singles match against Rodman into a tag match where the women could do the wrestling. Dennis Rodman came out, flanked by Swoll & 4X4, which was never explained. It is that sort of stuff that makes WCW second-rate from a story line perspective. Anyhow, they said words like "ass" and "bitch" which all got blipped. Rodman knocked Savage over. Nobody cared. Afterwards, the commentators pushed the idea that the censors really had to work hard protecting the TV audience but on PPV anything could go. El Vampiro Canadiense faced Eddie Guerrero. Vampiro had Insane Clown Posse and Raven with him. Guerrero was great. Vampiro was pretty goof. Match was still not much. Raven dumped Eddie off the top rope so Vampiro could hit his Nail in the Coffin for the pin at 4:41. The commentators were pushing Vampiro like crazy. Rey Misterio Jr. & Konnan came in immediately for the save. That made the Revolution look like even bigger morons. Hulk Hogan came out to do commentary for the main event. Bobby Heenan left the ringside area, 'cause he was worried about what might happen. That was a whole segment. Sting & Goldberg faced Rick Steiner & Sid. Hogan was praising Goldberg, weird, since he was sort of bashing him on that Larry King interview a few weeks ago during Goldberg's holdout. Hogan was asked which guy in the ring was his toughest opponent; he said Sid was. Lordy. Sting got whacked into the turnbuckle by Steiner, with his knee seemingly injured. Well, Sting would have been lower on my list of old fart injuries, but I wasn't concerned. Match sucked. Steiner grabbed a chair, 'cause that's his new shtick. Hogan decided that that wasn't cool, so he went in to break things up. Out of nowhere, Kevin Nash surfaced and powerbombed Hulk Hogan through the commentator's table, and they aren't even Spanish! Yawn, this made me very interested in their PPV match. This crap ran 6:08 Tally time: 44:47 of bell-to-bell wrestling. You know, I don't think they ever even mentioned that Sting vs. Sid was added to the PPV. In a rare occurrence, RAW actually had more bell-to-bell wrestling per hour, but Nitro still had the better wrestling matches. That's actually a big deal, 'cause RAW had a couple of good matches for once. - WCW has Road Wild on 08/14/99. Tentative line-up has * Hulk Hogan vs. Kevin Nash for the WCW Title * Sting vs. Sid Vicious * Dennis Rodman vs. Randy Savage * Bill Goldberg vs. Rick Steiner for the TV Title * Harlem Heat vs. The Triad for the Tag Titles * Konnan vs. El Vampiro * Buff Bagwell vs. Ernest Miller * Miss Madness vs. Madusa - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/22/99. Tentative line-up has * Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the WWF Title with Jesse Ventura as referee * D'Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett for the IC Title * Rocky Maivia vs. Billy Gunn - The third and final WWF-related Off The Record aired this week on Tuesday on TSN. I'm not going to bother with a RealMovie (as I did with the two shows last week) or even with a transcript. This episode was a total fluff piece with no legitimate content. To understand how inane the show was, consider that when asked to offer a single word description of Vince McMahon, his children came up with "honest," and host Michael Landsberg didn't question that. I felt like I was in a Calvin & Hobbes strip on "opposite day." Stephanie mentioned Phil Mushnick, not by name, and said that Phil refused to talk with Vince about Phil's demonification of Vince. Interestingly enough, when they were both set to be on the same TV show, Vince pulled a power play to get Phil dropped. Oh well, family should stick together. Regarding last week's show, the Observer reports that Carl DeMarco (who got his WWF job after being Bret's business manager) arranged for Bret and Vince to meet because he wanted to mend fences. "DeMarco approached Bret about a face-to-face meeting with McMahon when McMahon came to Calgary for the funeral, and Bret said specifically he couldn't speak at all about Owen on advice from lawyers and didn't know why the tow should meet in the first place. Whether DeMarco never told McMahon that Bret couldn't talk about Owen isn't clear, because if he didn't, McMahon's perplexed reactions to a lengthy conversation where Bret never talked about Owen isn't that outlandish, other than it being borderline tasteless to use that as personal demage control on television to circumvent the real issues of the death. If McMahon did know, that's a different issue." He also wrote, "[Vince] claimed Bret took advantage of of Martha being in a vulnerable emotional position and that all the actions taken by Martha and the rest of the family rested on Bret's shoulders, which is something anyone who has the slightest bit of knowledge of that family would know to be ridiculous." And finally, "Bret Hart, who was aware of the basic gist of what was said but not quite the depth of how strong McMahon went after him, didn't watch the show, but before it aired said that no matter what was said, he wasn't going to comment on it. It appears, by the portrayal of Bret, that McMahon was using his past differences with Bret to change the issue at hand to the now completely trivial and tired issue in comparison of the finish at Survivor Series from the issues involved in a major lawsuit and his company's handling of the situation after the death, and perhaps goad Hart into a very public out of control response which would again focus the issue of Vince vs. Bret rather than the real issue. While this is classic Titan tactics in situations like this if you look at the company's history in past controversies, it's really sad, to the point of being sick, when they are used on a family member of someone deceased." - The following column appeared in the local paper: "Criminal charges will not be filed in the death of professional wrestler Owen Hart, who fell to his death during an aerial accident in Kansas City, Mo. "Jackson County Proescuter Robert Beaird said yesterday there is no basis for an involuntary manslaughter charge against the rigging co-ordinator. "Hart, known as The Blue Blaze, fell from a cable May 23 while being lowered into the ring at a World Wrestling Federation event at Kemper Arena. The 34-year-old wrestler fell 78 feet when his harness release opened early. The impact ruptured Hart's aorta, and he bled to death. "Hart's widow and children have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the WWF, the city amd 11 others." - Sable, er, Rena Mero was on Howard Stern this week. Besides the continued revelation that Howard would like to "bang" her, we didn't really get much out of the segment. Rena seemed perfectly happy to leave the wrestling world behing. Her second Playboy shoot is in stores now. - The Observer called "Fully Loaded" the best pro wrestling PPV show in three months, playing up the relatively clean finishes (by today's standards) and the generally good level of wrestling on the show. But rest assured that Big Slow vs. Kane managed to earn a whopping - * just as their King of the Ring tour-de-force scored. - Road Dogg signed a five-year contract extension with the WWF. - People have been e-mailing me to ask who I think the wrestler of the 1990s is. The only choice, of course, is Mitsuharu Misawa, with some ordering of Jushin Liger, Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, Toshiaki Kawada, and Kenta Kobashi rounding out the list in some order. Bret Hart wins for North America. Anyhow, that's not the point I wanted to make. Out of curiousity and because I thought it might be nice to post a full list for the year-end issue, I wrote a program that sniffs through my tape list data for matches in a specified rating and date range, tallying the results by wrestler. Keep in mind that my tape list contains Observer ratings when available, my own when not. I also think it bears mentioning that the North American house show matches are generally not at PPV quality level, while the Japanese house shows often have many great matches. Anyhow, for the 1990s, every WWF and WCW PPV is represented. Most of the TV is represented. Almost all of the New Japan & All Japan TV is represented. So, I ran the program, looking for * * * * or better matches from 01/01/90 to present. It tallies singles matches and tag matches separately, 'cause it is easier to have a fluke great match as part of a tag team. I guess the results from this query help explain my world view of pro-wrestling, why I think certain wrestlers are awesome. Without further ado, here's the summary results. At the end of the year, I'll include a fully-detailed and current version of these results. I've tried to be careful to lump all of a wrestler's names together into one tally. Everybody with ten or more high-quality matches in the 1990s is listed in this table in descending order, subsorts determined by singles matches. Wrestler * * * * + matches total:single/tag Mitsuharu Misawa 97:31/66 Kenta Kobashi 90:30/60 Toshiaki Kawada 80:27/53 Jushin Liger 72:41/31 Manami Toyota 62:25/37 Akira Taue 58:10/48 Shinjiro Otani 55:22/33 Kyoko Inoue 50:18/32 Aja Kong 49:12/37 Koji Kanemoto 42:18/24 Bull Nakano 36:11/25 Chris Benoit 34:25/09 El Samurai 34:14/20 Toshiyo Yamada 34:07/27 Jun Akiyama 33:05/28 Akira Hokuto 31:13/18 Keiji Muto 30:16/14 Steve Williams 26:09/17 Mima Shimoda 25:00/25 Great Sasuke 24:13/11 Hiro Hase 23:08/15 Yumiko Hotta 23:07/16 Jumbo Tsuruta 22:06/16 Takako Inoue 22:01/21 Etsuko Mita 22:00/22 Shinya Hashimoto 21:13/08 Tatsuhito Takaiwa 21:03/18 Cactus Jack 20:16/04 Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 20:01/19 Sakie Hasegawa 19:06/13 Eddy Guerrero 18:13/05 Sabu 17:14/03 Rey Misterio Jr. 17:12/05 Shiro Koshinaka 17:10/07 Masa Chono 17:07/10 Johnny Ace 17:01/16 Bret Hart 16:14/02 El Ultimo Dragon 16:13/03 Steve Austin 16:09/07 Masa Fuchi 16:02/14 Bison Kimura 16:02/14 Vader 15:13/02 Shawn Michaels 15:13/02 Stan Hansen 15:07/08 Kendo Ka Shin 15:01/14 Dynamite Kansai 14:05/09 Mariko Yoshida 14:04/10 Yoshinari Ogawa 14:01/13 Kaoru Ito 14:01/13 Rick Steiner 13:00/13 Super Delfin 12:05/07 Riki Choshu 12:04/08 El Gran Hamada 12:00/12 Genichiro Tenryu 11:05/06 Suzuka Manami 11:03/08 Kensuke Sasaki 11:03/08 Dick Togo 11:02/09 Scott Steiner 11:00/11 Ric Flair 10:08/02 Sting 10:05/05 Taka Michinoku 10:04/06 Mayumi Ozaki 10:01/09 I would argue that the results of this process justify or least explain why I hold the opinions that I hold. Consider the following points. Of the 62 guys listed, only 11 are actively wrestling in North American promotions (although, admittedly, Bret Hart's current status is up in the air). Two other guys, Shawn Michaels & Steve Williams, are retired and under contract but not working, respectively. WCW has eight of the 11 guys under contract, although I would argue that half of them have their greatest matches behind them, ECW has one, and the WWF has the other two. In other words, only two of the current WWF roster have delivered 10 or more * * * * or better matches in the 1990s, and I would argue that both of the wrestlers (Austin & Mick Foley) have only delivered garbage wrestling classics. The moral of the story is: (1) for great wrestling matches, look to Japan; (2) for infrequent great matches with young wrestlers, look to WCW; and (3) for great garbage wrestling, look to a couple of guys in the WWF. Keep in mind that if we had access to match quality stats for house shows, the Japanese contingent on the bigger list would likely all climb up the rankings, while the North American group wouldn't be able to hold their current positions. Next, based on quality of matches delivered this decade, the best wrestler actively wrestling in North America is Chris Benoit. The best wrestler in the WWF (by the same measure) is Mick Foley, although one might make a case that Austin deserves consideration because Mick's numbers are boosted by his Cactus Jack antics earlier in the decade, while Austin's numbers are almost all generated from more recent actions. But neither comes close to Benoit overall, despite Benoit's misuse leaving him in a bit of a rut in the past couple of years. There's little doubt that the wrestler of the 1990s is Mitsuharu Misawa. And, bingo, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, Jushin Liger, and Manami Toyota are all also to be considered. Akira Hokuto, who I also considered above, only comes in 16th on this list, but I'm betting that's just because I didn't see enough of her (and, hell, one can never see enough of her) and because she retired when she married Kensuke Sasaki. The other wrestlers that fill out the top ten in the table above -- Akira Taue, Shinjiro Otani, Kyoko Inoue, Aja Kong, and Koji Kanemoto -- are largely praised amongst video watchers. I personally don't enjoy Taue that much and just want to notice that his numbers are high largely because of tag matches. Finally, moving lower through the list (not posted), passing Dean Malenko, Owen Hart, Psicosis, Arn Anderson, Chris Jericho, Curt Hennig, Rob van Dam, and Bam Bam Bigelow, we finally hit the guys who have only had two matches at this level. In that company, we have Ultimate Warrior, Diesel, Al Snow, X-Pac, Lex Luger, Kevin Sullivan, Billy Kidman and Rock. And at the one great match level, we run into Hulk Hogan, Sid, Yokozuna, DDP, Sandman, 911, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley. I'm just making the point that people who e-mail me praising Rock and Hunter Hearst Helmsley, while wondering why I praise Chris Benoit, need to understand that I'm looking for great matches to form an opinion of greatness about somebody. Maybe you can tell me what Rock & HHH matches I've missed that move them up in this table. The are mediocre between the bells. At least in Rock's case, you can point to him only being active since 1996, but Hemlsley has a couple more years on that at least, so what is his excuse? In other words, if my opinions of the quality of matches that the wrestlers currently active in North America deliver disagrees with yours, you'll at least see that my views are supported by what I've seen during the 1990s and I'd ask you to point out what I've missed that makes guys like HHH and Rock in-ring wrestling machines. - 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 99/06/27: King of the Ring Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon 1.13 $5.41 1 3/4 * * 1/2 Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon 0% (0 of 10) 99/05/23: Over The Edge Steve Austin vs. Undertaker 1.1 $5.28 Owen Hart dies 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 $6.69 1.46 1.4 3.55 2.4% (1 of 41) 1999 1.39 $6.69 1.46 1.4 3.55 2.4% (1 of 41) 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. ______________________________________________________________________