______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ Last week, shortly after putting the update on the web on Thursday night, I ended up heading to the hospital because I couldn't move. If you remember, I had some rib trouble. A sneeze made it severe; it looked like I was going to give birth to an alien the hard way as the rib was bulging out of my chest. The doctor told me not to worry. I was suffering from severe back strain. Painkillers and rest. Anyhow, I've been a bit out of it. ______________________________________________________________________ - WCW had Road Wild on this past Saturday, 08/14/99. I had the daydream that the main event, Hulk Hogan vs. Kevin Nash, with the loser retiring, ended up a double DQ with both guys declared losers and both having to retire. It was revealed that referee decided to shoot under pressure from the young workers. Sometimes all you've got is a dream. Overall, I had to give the show a thumbs down, or at best a thumbs in the middle bordering down. The early portion of the show wasn't bad, but as is the norm with WCW the later portions were so bad that a bad taste was all that remained by the end of the show. Rundown: * Rey Misterio Jr. & Eddie Guerrero & Billy Kidman beat El Vampiro & Insane Clown Posse: I don't like matches with nonwrestlers, and that's how I look at the Insane Clown Posse. ICP should stick to indy wrestling. There was an "Eddie" chant at the start, so I'm sure he'll get pushed now. Ha! Poor Eddie had to sell for ICP. He went for a tag, but was cut off. Heat segment on Eddie. ICP's offense looked totally amateurish. Eddie finally heat a top rope superplex on an ICP member and tagged in Rey. Raven pulled Rey out and sent him to the stairs. Heat segment on Rey. Poor Rey had to sell for ICP. Vampiro did a throwaway powerbomb on Rey. Rey hit a splitlegged moonsault on an ICP member and hot tagged Kidman. Everyone came in. In a sloppy spot, Vampiro kicked an ICP guy, with Kidman hitting the shooting star for the pin. Mundane opener, which built to nothing. Why didn't they put this together to build to a singles match with Vampiro? Match ran 12:23. * Harlem Heat beat Kanyon & Bam Bam Bigelow to win the Tag Titles: Kanyon & Bammer have a Mortis & metal entrance theme. Stevie Ray screwed up his first interaction with Bammer 20 seconds in. Poor Booker T; what a great reward for his wonderful growth as a singles wrestler. Robinson refereed the match. The commentators tried to explain his history, with Tony Schiavone saying "one would guess that is a logical explanation." Yeah, a logical explanation in WCW! Right! Heat segment on Stevie, that just sucked because Stevie apparently developed negatively the same degree that Booker developed positively during their separation. Booker finally tagged in. Good stuff for a bit, with Booker getting pounded. He tagged in Ray. Booker was dumped. Diamond Dallas Page came out. Bammer bumped Page, Booker hit the missile dropkick, Bammer wa spinned. Match ran 13:10. * Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko & Shane Douglas beat Curt Hennig & Barry Windham & Bobby Duncum Jr.: The commentators talked about Chad Brock forever. That's obviously a big money feud. Perry Saturn did a bad inbterview to explain why his side was here for this match ("to prove some things", but never explaining what things). The commentators explained that the Revolution have the backing of the front office, which of course explains why they were in a six-man with the rednecks. I'm coming to the conclusion that Douglas has nothing to offer. Malenko put the cloverlead on Hennig, but Kendall Windham cam in to break it up. Perry hit the death valley driver on Barry Windham for the pin at 11:06. Barry, that professional, popped right up afterwards. * Buff Bagwell beat Ernest Miller: Buff may say he's the stuff, but he doesn't have the stuff needed to carry Miller. The crowd didn't let Cat talk; but that's his whole act! You know the finish: collision with Onno, rollup at 7:32. Cat sucks. The best part of this thing came afterwards, when Onno mocked Buff's posing. * Chris Benoit beat Diamond Dallas Page to retain the US Title: DDP's shtick on the microphone sucks. Nobody cares. Robinson was the referee, which made a lot of sense. They didn't even bother to have a short story line to show that Robinson was rehabilated or repentent. DDPed contolled early on. They did a couple of quick pin attempt spots. Benoit went for a quick roll up and then flipped himself into a pinning position so that DDP could also get a two count opn him. I swear that DDP being there for that segment was purely incidental. Give DDP credit for pairing himself against guys that make him look so much better than he is. The strange thing is that most everybody ackowledges that that is what DDP does, but nobody wants to admit the same thing for Rock & HHH in the WWF. Compare DDP's match record in the past three years to those guys and then explain the conclusions that are generally accepted. Anyhow, Benoit can make anybody look great. Benoit got belted by DDP with Robinson's belt. Benoit rallied for a big pop. Kanyon interfered, with DDP getting a two count. DDP & Kanyon collided. Bigelow did a lame splash. Two count. The Triad miscued. Swandive headbutt on DDP for the pin at 12:14. The finish was atrociously chaotic, but at least Benoit got a reaonsable clean pin by 1999 standards. * Sid Vicious beat Sting: Put on your safety gear, because the show started rolling downhill super quickly at this point. Sid is a supreme talent. Sting put Sid in the corner an dsid so obviously jumped up on the turnbuckles when Sting kicked him. Sid then flipped himself over, again so blatantly. Horrible! They walked around the ring. Horrible squared. Four minutes in, it felt like hours of torture had passed. At the five minute mark, it was time to rest. Chinlock by Sid. They "worked" off the chinlock. There are guys that actually can work great matches off a chinlock, but these two are not among them. Sting did an accidental head butt to Sid's crotch (a spot, BTW, that also occurred more than once in the US Title match). Sting was running the ropes, but tripped over Sid and tumbled badly. They both got up, Sting slammed Sid, and they returned to the rope running spot. Sid hit the foot to the face. Sid climbed up to the top. What the hell was he going to do? Look for his ego? Sting caught him, suplexed him off the top. Sid popped up quickly. Sting hit two splashes in the corner, but was caught in a chokeslam on the third attempt. Clean pin at 10:25. Bobby Heenan said, "Look at the power of this man, the ability to suffer through this pain." I swear that when he said that I had to rewind the tape afterwards to make sure that's what he said. I had heard "the fans" in place of "this man." I though Heenan was being truthful. * Goldberg beat Rick Steiner: At the start, Steiner took a great bump on his head. I'm guessing that was an accident. Punching, with stiff blows by Goldberg leading to bumps by Steiner. Low kick by Rick. Steiner removed the knee pad from Goldberg and used it as a weapon. Tony Schiavone explained that since the pad came into the ring as legal protection for Goldberg, it was not an illegal foreign object. Argh. Steiner put the brace on his arm and attack Goldberg's knee with elbows. The brace was finally discarded by Steiner, but the referee didn't toss it out, so Steiner picked it up and used it again. At the five minute mark, Goldberg had enough and did his whole act: spear, jackhammer, pin at 5:39. * Randy Savage beat Dennis Rodman: What were they thinking, trying to make Rodman the face in this feud in front of this crowd? Rodman made himself a heel in his WCW interviews, but he was still supposed to be the face. The driver of the humvee was supposed to be out to protect George, but, no, they said that the driver was backstage protecting George. Still, the mere fact that they mentioned the driver suggested that they were finally going to deliver something on that arc, right? Wrong. Rodman: "Where's my bitch?" Savage: "Tonight, you're my bitch." The crowd cheered Savage, of course. Rodman was on offense early on. the psychology of the match was all wrong. Rodman hit numerous moves before decking the referee. A new referee came out. The crowd chanted "Randy!" Macho man knocked out a WCW camera man and used a 35 mm camera as a weapon for a two count. Savage decked the referee. Savage knocked out yet another referee. At this point, I was hoping to be knocked out. Savage was backdropped out of the ring. Total crap. They walked around. They walked backstage into the trash area. I know, I know, the trash area was in the ring this night by this point. Savage threw Rodman into the portapotty, locked it from the outside (huh?), and then flipped it over. Rodman was laughing. When the door opened, liquid and sludge flowed out. The crowd chanted "bullshit!" which I'm sure the braintrust will interpret as a good reaction. Look, anybody can do this hardcore crap! The came back out on the rampway to loud boos. Fourth referee was taken down. George came out. Rodman put a sleeper on Savage. George gave a chain to Savage. Referee five came in. George low blowed Rodman, Savage chained him, and the referee counted the pin at 12:03 of hell. This was just horrible. I wrote that in upper case on my notes. With that said, you know that Rodman did absolutely no preparation for the match, no training, no real planning. Still, he delivered the same level of hardcore crap that lots of guys who get raves delivered. * Hulk Hogan beat Kevin Nash to retain the WCW Title: This match was career vs. career. Michael Buffer called them "two of the most famous names in the history of the sport," which immediatel zoned me out. Hogan's entrance put the nail in the coffin. At this point, my notes just say "same finish as always, 12:24." RAW RAW on 08/16/99 was a taped show. Here's a newsflash: I'm not part of the target audience of RAW. The soap opera, er, wrestling show?, opened with Hunter Hearst Helmsley coming out to show off his biggest skill: working the microphone. While I've been down on HHH's in-ring skills, his microphone work in the past year, minus the whiny "it's about me" and "I'm gonna shoot" stuff, has been pretty darn good. This time around, HHH buttered up Chyna and then asked for his number one contender's spot. Well, anger surfaced on both sides, and Chyna, stupid Chyna, was goaded into putting her title shot on the line. At least last week HHH was forced into putting his shot on the line. Road Dogg faced Al Snow. Match was a throwaway, with Bossman coming in and clubbing everybody, with Dogg somehow pinning Snow in the carnage at 1:54. Undertaker & Big Slow came out for an interview. It was depressing. I like watching wrestling matches, but I have a hard time not zoning out during the matches involving these guys. Their talking segments have no hope of keeping me tuned in. Suddenly, Chris Jericho comes out to pyro and music, jarring me back to the show. Jericho called Undertaker the personification of boredom. I love Chris Jericho. Shoot interviews that aren't supposed to be seen as shoot interviews. HHH faced Chyna. I dunno. Something it just wrong with Chyna being in the ring with guys. Did you know that Jim Ross called Chyna "the greatest female athlete I've ever seen" (or something close to that) in one of the tabloids that has a story about Chyna's tough life. He obviously has never watched any Japanese women's wrestling. Let's see: Chyna, Akira Hokuto, Chyna, Akira Hokuto. Tough choice. Anyhow, this wasn't much of a match. HHH sold for his girlfriend. Mankind ran out, whacked HHH into the steps, and Chyna pinned him at 3:38. They had to put Chyna over or she'd come out of this looking like an idiot for agreeing to the match. Mankind asked Chyna to put the number one contender's spot on the line against him, if she had the ovarialogical fortitude. Within the mere minute or two of mic work, Mankind reminded the world that nobody can compete with him on the stick. Test faced Steve Blackman. I wish Steve Blackman would find a way to work without being in front of the camera, sort of like his interview last week. Before anything could happen, Shane McMahon out to destroy Test at 1:24. Ken Shamrock ran out to save. Both Shamrock & Test were laid out with kendo stick shots. Kane & X-Pac faced the Acolytes for the Tag Titles. X-Pac's work was really good. Kane is faster than he was. I still don't know that the improvement that people rave about is so immense. Really, hasn't Test, for example, improved more, by, gasp, adding more moves and smoothness to his arsenal? Bradshaw was pinned at 7:25, a long match for RAW. Bob Holly introduced his cousin, Crash Holly (Erin O'Grady). The segment seemed to die, but they sweetened it. Crash & Bob got into an argument about which one is the real superheavyweight. They started brawling. Let's see if the WWF is different from WCW: will they switch directions in response to the flat response? Mankind faced Chyna for the number one contender spot. Since Shawn Michaels was the one who forced this match, it was now okay for Chyna to lose. Chyna used a low blow right in front of the referee, but this is ECW, er, the WWF, and that just doesn't matter. I mean, did they stop that episode of 90210 when Kelly lowblowed Dylan? HHH came out onto the ramp, the mere sight of him up there upsetting and distracting Chyna, so that Mankind could use the Socko claw for the win at 2:06. HHH attacked Mankind. As everybody got excited, Michaels came out again to announce that Mankind was the number one contender. Shane McMahon came out. Shane said that since he's the owner of the WWF, he was going to put together a triangle match between HHH & Mankind to finally settle the number one contender spot. Who makes the matches in the WWF? Does it matter? Michaels said he would "grant" Shane that match. Who knows why? But Michaels added he would be the second referee to Shane's first. This made little sense, but RAW moves at a pace, so we didn't have time to worry about it. Billy Gunn came out. He talked about his butt. Rock came out. Rock did the best part of his act: working the microphone. He was the reason that Gunn's butt is in its current state. It ended up with Gunn using the kendo stick, that was still lying around, on Rock and then pushing Rock's cheek against his own butt cheek while the commentators yelled that Rock's lips were pushed against the butt. Bingo, on Sunday their match is a "Kiss my Ass" match. Steve Austin came out to do commentary for the main event, which featured Mankind vs. HHH for the number one contender's spot. At the commentary table, Austin said he didn't know who dropped the cinder block on his head last week. He apparently is now less concerned with who raised the briefcase. Match was mostly brawling. Chyna got involved. They did a double pin finish, with each referee counting down one guy at 9:34. So, they were both declared winners and the PPV main event became a triangle match. Tally time: xx:xx of bell-to-bell wrestling. Nitro Nitro on 08/16/99 was the usual live show, with TSN this time airing a abridged two-hour version overnight on Wednesday. The commentators started telling us that Sid Vicious has a 55-0 record; they never stopped telling us this contrived factoid. And, hey, Hogan vs. Sid was the main event. Tonight, it would be all about Sid. Oh, yay, that is just what I needed. Opener was Juventud vs. Lash Laroux. They didn't have time to do much at all before Sid came out at 2:39 for the no contest finish. Just in case you haven't figured it out, Juvi & Lash are jobbers not worthy of being cheered. That's what Juvi gets for having the nerve to have the charisma to actually get over last year. Bury the bum. Sid said that he would accumulate more wins in 2000 that anybody in the history of pro-wrestling. "Goldberg will be obsolete." He said he'd do "this" all night long until Hogan gave him the title belt. So, time to get ready for crappy match after crappy match, with Sid interrupting every one of them. Can you imagine the booking team sitting down to decide the events for Nitro this night? "Um, why not have Sid walk in to interrupt every match after one or two minutes?" "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea! Nobody will flip to RAW if we do that!" What sort of drugs are these guys on? Steve Regal faced Scotty Riggs. At 1:29, we got a no contest as Sid came to the ring to kill the match. Don't tell me that Sid is going to speak every time he interrupts a match! Thank goodness that TSN edited the show! I love TSN. During every commercial break on TSN, they aired a promo for "Universal Soldier II." You'd think if WCW wanted to reestablish Goldberg's sagging appeal, they might be pushing the fact that he's in a movie, that he was away from wrestling to be in that movie, etc., rather than having him hug Hulk Hogan and having his name mentioned by Sid. I'm just saying. Ernest Miller faced Mike Enos. Did you know that Enos has "somewhat of a win streak" on Saturday Night? Yeah, well this match sucked again, following the usual Cat formula of sucking. Onno distracted Enos so Cat could hit the kick for the pin at 2:12, strangely announced as being 3:39. Ah, they are on a different time scale than we are. That explains why they are having so many two minute matches; they think they are four minutes long. What, no Sid? Back from a commercial, Sid laid into La Parka & Silver King backstage. Just so you know, those two guys are jobbers who can't handle Sid two-on-one even though they were in that hardcore free-for-all. Sid said, "Now, Hogan, now maybe you'll listen," as if Hogan would care about those Mexican jobbers. Hell, we've been conditioned to not give a crap about them, so why would Hogan care? Lenny Lane faced Rey Misterio Jr. for the cruiserweight title. Lenny & Lodi had a sign saying "we dive with Greg Louganis" just in case you might still be wondering about their gayness. Lane managed a moonsault to the floor. They moved well for the two minutes they had. Sid Vicious interrupted the match at 2:32. Sting came in for the save. Hogan came to the ring. He can't run in because of his knee, so they tried to keep the camera off his lame jog. Sid, who wanted Hogan so badly, walks away. Now, WCW is making its heels look like dorks, too. Oh, wait, Sid took a microphone. He and Hogan traded verbal witticisms. Hogan has Austinified himself: he'll "train, say his prayers, and kick [Sid's] ass!" Man, I was excited. Hogan vs. Sid later tonight. I guess that match being created was supposed to be the outcome of the run-ins by Sid, but the commentators told us that was the main event before Sid even did any run-ins. So, Sid didn't get anything more than he had before the show started by running in on all those matches. WCW strikes again. Disco Inferno faced Chris Benoit. Match opened with a barrage of kicks. That would be okay if they had 15 minutes to run, but this is Nitro and they don't. Benoit hit a lot of chops as well. His chops are cool compared to punches and kicks from others because the impact of the chops is totally apparent. They leave a mark. Anyhow, they finally got to some wrestling, when, after some chops in the corner, Disco tried a suplex or atomic drop and Benoit flipped through backwards, immediately hitting his own german suplex. That was nice. He also did three snap suplexes just prior to hitting his swandive headbutt to the shoulder of Disco for the pin at 6:17. Barry Windham faced Goldberg. As Goldberg, the heel star of "Universal Soldier II" is in the ring, Tony finally took the opportunity to hype the movie! Yes, "First Daughter" with DDP in five scenes with two lines managed a great rating on TBS on the weekend! What a movie! He was in a movie! This Goldberg guy? Who cares. Doesn't this sort of thing have to be intentional? Goldberg speared everybody, jackhammered Windham. Match ran a whopping 0:40. If only they would have given him that sort of match when he returned. Horace Hogan & Scott Norton & Vincent faced Harlem Heat in a nontitle handicap match. This was bad. And it ran for 7:10 or so. It was bad. Brian Adams walked in to attack the NWO guys. He did a standing dropkick, but that didn't excite me. Hey, did I ever mention that Adams & Billy Jack (Haynes) managed to deliver a great match when they feuded in Portland in the late 1980s? Anyhow, Horace was pinned after the interference apparently didn't warrant a DQ. Afterwards, Adams walked back to a KISS limo. Yep, they are going to go with that idea. Rick Steiner faced Brian Knobs for the TV Title. This was a brawling style match, sort of. Neither guy has much skill, so it was pretty bad. They did some garbagy stuff. "This is every bit of the match we thought it would be," said Tony. And that said it all. Match ended at 4:38 with a top rope bulldog after Knobs had been accidentally whacked by Jimmy Hart. They showed footage from Dennis Rodman vs. Randy Savage at the PPV, calling it a "great match." And that said it all. Sid faced Hulk Hogan for the WCW Title. Tony told us that he's never seen a challenger this determined to win the title. Hey, Tony, how about Hogan on Saturday? Wasn't he determined? When the commentators say stupid crap all the time, it makes the product seem stupid. And if the product actually is stupid that just compounds things even more. Anyhow, this was a definite match of the year contender. Ha, ha, got ya. Sid took away Hogan's momentum, while Heenan told us that nobody could take away Hogan's momentum. I think all WCW Title matches should have the loser retire! Hogan popped up after a leg drop. I hate this crap. It's 1985 all over again. Sid took punches from Hogan, selling them like Big Slow and Kane would. Hogan used evil tactics: back rake, chair to the back. Sid used a poke to the eyes to come back. What a match. I mean, they called this "what? A match?!" Tony said that Sid's record was 55-0, but the championship committee needed to be consulted to determine if Sid's run-in beatings this night should be added to that tally. What kind of drugs is Tony on? They brawled outside the ring, with no countout. It was so horrible. I lived through this crap once in my life; I really want it to be over. There are people who I used to read articles from in the usenet newsgroups who were big Hogan marks in the 1980s but didn't like him much in the 1990s even though he was exactly the same. Now that he's the same yet again, I hope they all remain consistent and praise matches like this like they praised all of Hogan's crap in the 1980s. I'll stand by my track record of total disdain for Hogan. You know the routine: a batter Hogan hulked up, got cut off, hulked up again, hit the three punches, the high kick of the ropes, and the leg drop. Rick Steiner ran in to break things up. Sting came in. Sting & Sid paired up. Hogan leg dropped Steiner. Cover. Pin at 10:35 on somebody who wasn't even in the match. Did anybody out there enjoy "Twin Peaks" as much as me. Remember the weird sequence with that giant butler? "It is happening again. It is happening again." That was just about how I felt. Tally time: xx:xx of bell-to-bell wrestling. - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/22/99. Tentative line-up has * Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Mankind for the WWF Title with Jesse Ventura as referee * Big Slow & Undertaker vs. Kane & X-Pac for the Tag Titles * Rocky Maivia vs. Billy Gunn * Shane McMahon vs. Test * Steve Blackman vs. Ken Shamrock in a weapons match * D'Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett for the IC Title They made the title match a triangle match because Austin is still suffering from his leg injury. Even though Mankind is nowhere near ready to return, he can probably take a few bumps to brighten up the match and take some of the work that Austin would have to do. Still, it seems like the match will have to have a heavy serving of HHH in it. I'm expecting a garbagy main event despite Jesse Ventura's proclamations. Chris Jericho is also expected to make his WWF PPV debut on this show. - New Japan has announced that Bill Goldberg would debut in Japan on the 01/04/00 Dome show. - On Thunder on 08/19/99, Rey Misterio Jr. dropped the cruiserweight title to Lenny Lane, with some help from Lodi. I guess that signals that Eddie's turn on Rey is not going to happen any time soon, if at all. Oh, BTW, when I mentioned that the fans chanted "USA" to encourage Eddie Guerrero & Rey Misterio Jr., "the Mexicans," in my words, I got a lot of e-mail pointing out that those two come from the US. Of course, that's right. I was being sarcastic. The promotion has tried hard to position Rey & Eddie alongside the lucha libre stars, er, jobbers, with so many story lines putting them together. The fans have no reason to know that these guys are not just two more slightly better pushed Mexican guys, yet they seemed to know anyhow. It's another case of WCW not understanding/respecting their fans. Also on the show, Perry Saturn & Chris Benoit set up a tag match against Sid & Rick Steiner for next week. Oh boy. And Sid is now counting every run-in powerbomb as a victory. - In TV Guide, Sting explained that WCW's ratings were down because the promotion insulted the fans with their storylines over the past year. - Backstage in WCW, things continue to be ruled by all of the things that shouldn't matter. Ric Flair was asked to job for Shane Douglas even though Douglas just arrived and is hardly over at all. Flair volunteered to job for Benoit and even Kidman, but said he wouldn't job for Douglas. Flair wants to be taken off TV and just finish out his contract at house shows. Flair's wrestling obligations end in February, but he has one more year on his contract as a company rep. Also, after looking at the Nitro ratings the week of Hogan's face turn, Eric Bischoff already wanted him to turn heel again the next week. That shows you what sort of planning goes into what WCW delivers. Anyhow, Hogan argued that he should try to go full babyface first to see what that brings, which explains the return of the red & yellow ring outfit. Hogan's face turn, a desperation idea to begin with, also mucked up the plans for Bret Hart, who has been training to get in shape for his return in the near future. Bret can only be positioned as a babyface because of Owen's death, but turning Hogan removed the most obvious program from possibility, it seems. They could go with a face vs. face sportsmanship-based sort of deal, but I don't know if WCW could pull that off. - Backstage in the WWF, things are starting to be ruled by the things that shouldn't matter. Steve Austin & Debra are now an item, so Austin demanded that Debra not be on the road when Austin isn't on the road. Those nights get lonely, don't you know. Austin has also refused to work TV (let alone PPV) matches against Jeff Jarrett or Billy Gunn because neither of them is over enough. Look what happened to Ric Flair in WCW when he agreed to work with guys before they were over (like Bagwell, for example). Instead of elevating those guys to the next level, Flair reduced himself to their level. I think one can argue that Austin is jsut protecting his character, but the result is the same: the bookers or scriptwriters in the WWF are restricted from doing certain things. It's also well known that the Rock has let his status go to his head a bit, which explains why he had to put HHH over, among other things. And don't forget HHH's reknowned ego; and, guess who they are going to push to the next level? Yup, HHH. It isn't a stretch to observe that the WWF locker room is at the initial stage of turning into something resembling the WCW locker room. Now, that will take a year to happen. But at some point, you are going to have a batch of midcard guys who can't get over because the small number of established guys refuse to put them over or even work with them. The big difference, of course, between the WWF and WCW is that Vince McMahon will do whatever it takes to make that changes happen, even if it pisses off the current big stars. WCW should start making changes now to remedy its situation so that it can begin to build for the time when the WWF has locker room trouble. - Dustin Rhodes is expected back in WCW any day now. - To its credit, WCW is scouring North America and once again signing a lot of good, young indy talent to developmental deals with the Power Plant. - 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) (I'll update the figures next week): Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * WWF 99/07/25: Fully Loaded Steve Austin vs. Undertaker 1.4 $6.7 1.75 * * * * * 3/4 Steve Austin vs. Undertaker 0% (0 of 9) 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 1.37 $6.64 1.47 1.5 3.55 2.3% (1 of 44) 1999 1.39 $6.69 1.51 1.5 3.58 2% (1 of 50) 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. ______________________________________________________________________