______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 09/06/99 aired overnight in Canada on TSN. The show opened with a match. Well, not really. They said a match was going to open the show, but then Rock had his entrance and spoke for a bit and Mankind had his entrance and spoke for a bit. Suddenly 7:00 were gone. Their opponents were Kane & X-Pac, but X-Pac never came out because he's upset that Kane saved his narrow butt last week after he told Kane to let him get destroyed. Anyhow, we were pretty much into two digits in minutes before the match even got started. And then it was a lame-o handicap match. Wouldn't you know that Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who proves that mediocrity can rise to the top in the WWF, strolled out to be Kane's unlikely partner. Parejas increible! Chyna came out with a sledgehammer. I know I'll get loads of e-mail telling me how awesome Kane was in this match, how much he's improved. Heck, the commentators even said that he has improved, so it must be true. All I know is that Rock & Kane did a godawful rope whip reversal that looked like something guys in their first day at wrestling school might be able to pull off in a bad moment. Wouldn't you know that Kane had Rock in the choke, but HHH ran in and whacked Kane with the sledgehammer, thereby ensuring that his nemeses kept the WWF Tag Titles, which made a whole load of sense. Kane was pinned at 4:28. Afterwards, HHH hammered Kane a couple more times. Undertaker & Big Slow came out as well. Jeff Jarrett faced Jacqueline, in preparation for his PPV match against Chyna. Since everybody believes that JJ doesn't stand a chance against that woman Chyna, he had to be given a squash win over another woman. Only in the 1999 WWF. JJ pounded Jackie, who submitted at 1:13, and took a guitar shot for her trouble. I, for one, had instant increased interest in that PPV match. Edge & Christian faced the Acolytes to determine the number one contenders to the tag team titles. One of these teams looked a lot better than the other. Guess. Anyhow, in an upset, Edge knocked Bradshaw over so Christian could get the surprise pin at 3:15. Okay, so does that mean that Edge & Christian get to face Rock & Mankind for the tag titles at the PPV? Lord knows that they need somebody who can make the battered Mankind look good. That's why Undertaker & Big Slow will challenge for the titles this week on Smackdown. Oh boy. And maybe the awesome Dudley Boyz will work their way into things. Now, those guys, they can work. In the washroom, that awesome GTV stuff, geared to those viewers that Vince McMahon once preached he no longer wanted to insult, continued, as Big Slow & Van Venis were standing at neighbouring urinals. Val, perhaps hoping to become a gay porno star as part of a heel turn, looked at Big Slow's johnson, laughed, and said, "they call you the Big Slow," presumably because Big Slow was urinating at such a lazy pace. Insulted, Slow immediately shook himself dry, whacked Venis into the toilet stall wall, and then washed his hands. Notice the order of those events. Meat was interviewed, announcing that everybody knows that he's really Sean Stasiak. In answer, the Mean Street Posse attacked him, establishing that Sean Stasiak matters diddly-squat. Val Venis came to the ring to challenge the Big Slow. Apparently, if you eyeball a guy's rod while at the urinal, you're the babyface if he gets pissed, so to speak. And people say that pro-wrestling is homoerotic. Slow got a pin at 1:41. Steve Blackman came in to whack Venis. Pretty soon, they'll have to call Blackman something other than "lethal weapon," 'cause he's been punked too many times. Speaking of Blackman, he was one of several lowcard guys who appeared on Jakked, the renamed Shotgun show. They tried to have a few longer matches (by WWF standards), and it was just hilarious to see how bad some of these guys are when they have to go longer than 2:00, carrying a match against a jobber. Backstage, the Acolytes attacked the Dudley Boyz. Does anybody else find that pairing of teams funny? Speaking of the Dudley Boyz again, they faced Stevie Richards & Blue Meanie on Sunday Night Heat. Well, it was pretty darn horrible. As a highlight, Meanie ran the ropes and kicked his partner Richards in the face, drawing blood. Howard Finkel came out to stop new ring announcer Lilian Garcia from brutalizing yet another ring introduction. She has made so many mistakes since she started that you've got to wonder if it isn't intentional. I guess Ken Shamrock was in the next match, because Finkel freaked out and Shamrock ran out to chase him. Chris Jericho appeared on the screen and told Shamrock they would meet on Thursday. With that announcement, Shamrock decided to forfeit his match tonight, I guess, since nobody even remembered that he was supposedly going to be in a match. HHH & Billy Gunn set up a main event match for this night, with more people seemingly caring about Rock than either of them. Test led his team of Test & The Stooges to a victory over the Mean Street Posse, with an assist from Sean Stasiak. Test hit a big elbow off the top for the pin at 2:04. Bob Holly & Crash Holly faced the Hardy Boyz. Ooops, they seem to have settled on New Brood as a name, since you can't have two teams of Boyz in the same promotion, I guess. Match wasn't as good as you might hope. Bob Holly got the pin at 4:50, but Crash ended up with a bloodbath, Bob laughed, and those daffy cousins started fighting with each other again. I love that gimmick. More, more. Al Snow came to the ring dressed as Avatar. He acted like a super hero, momentarily thinking he had Owen Hart's gimmick. Then he snapped out of it, with brutally bad acting, and started going a bit nuts. Finally he started barking, I guess thinking that he had Rick Steiner's old gimmick. No, no, no, we all know that he now thinks he's that Taco Bell dog he was carrying around for a few weeks. Is this an example of the great storylines in the WWF? Will Vince Russo get all excited about his creativity in this regard in an upcoming RAW Magazine editorial? I can't wait. D'Lo Brown faced Steve Blackman, with Mark Henry out to do guest commentary. Mark Henry doing commentary is almost as funny as Mark Henry wrestling. Blackman hit a kick. There, that's his arsenal. They teased that Henry would distract D'Lo so Blackman could whack him, but Val Venis showed up and laid out Blackman. D'Lo got the win at 3:15. Venis ran off with Blackman's lethal weapon bag. D'Lo did a moonsault off the top; well, Henry kind of held him for a second, so that it looked like an inverted slam. Oh, that feud is going to be something. Poor D'Lo. HHH faced Billy Gunn for the WWF Title. These guys are so talented. Everything they do has such quality. Anyhow, the WWF can seemingly do no wrong, so I'll get even more e-mail telling me how great this match was. Lord. In reality, they missed several moves or, at best, executed them sloppily. Yikes. It wasn't horrible, but it was hardly crisp. They did a goofy screwy ending, but HHH ended up getting a pedigree win. He seems like such a credible champion after this 7:18. Kane came out to attack HHH. Could that possibly be the horrible PPV main event that they have planned for Unforgiven? If so, rename the show Unforgiveable and get it over with. Tally time: 28:04 of bell-to-bell wrestling. You know, I'm pretty sure that they plugged a hardcore women's match between Tori & Ivory for RAW, but we never saw it in Canada. I'm thinking it took place, but TSN, the proud partner of the WWF in Canada, decided that they weren't all that proud. And the WWF, the purveyor of sports entertainment and action adventure that doesn't insult the intelligence of their fans, likely decided to deliver yet another classic butt thong bonanza, because that is what women's wrestling is all about, right? I think I get it after all. Nitro Nitro on 09/06/99 was once again edited, this time to one-and-a-half hours, this time airing only once during the week, overnight on Wednesday. TSN airs RAW three times, sometimes four times, per week, even claiming to deliver a version that is clean enough for the school children who might tune in. Nitro never gets that level of attention. Hey, I'm not at all saying that it should. I'm just saying that as a specialty channel, TSN might consider not having all of its eggs in one basket. They should consider picking up Stampede! You know, when they edit the show so much I sometimes think that there's no hope that the story lines will make sense; then I realize I'm watching WCW and [insert your own punchline]. First off, when they replayed the original humvee incident on Thunder last week, it was a white humvee that rammed Kevin Nash's limo. So, they actually got something right, and I was out to lunch for questioning that last week. I will suggest, though, that if a pretty attentive and serious fan like me doesn't remember something that WCW is playing up as a story line element, maybe it warrants a replay at the time that it becomes an issue again. Bret Hart returned for an interview at the start of the show, with Tony Schiavone acting all crazed and excited about it. As Bret started talking, my wife commented that his eyes are still sad. Bret said he wanted to fight Hulk Hogan. My wife: "But that will be a shitty match." Hogan was booed when Bret called Hulk maybe the greatest of all time. Bret said he wouldn't come back until he gets that one match. The original plan was for Bret to face Hogan at Halloween Havoc, but, as mentioned below, WCW has booked the Air Canada Centre in Toronto for their November PPV. It would seem like that might be a great showcase event for Hart, who will get a huge reaction in Toronto. Hulk Hogan came out for an interview. He tried to explain away the events of the previous week: he didn't know that Savage was in his locker room, and he doesn't know what Lex Luger's agenda is. Hogan said he drives a white hardtop and a black hardtop humvee, but that the one that rammed Nash's limo was a white hummer with a black ragtop. Oh, who cares. It's like an old Infocom game: > HIT NASH WITH THE WHITE HUMVEE Which one? The white humvee with the white hardtop or the white humvee with the black ragtop? > HIT NASH WITH THE WHITE HUMVEE WITH THE BLACK RAGTOP As the white humvee with the black ragtop hits Nash, Randy Savage runs off and the limousine crumples. The driver of the humvee is unseen, and his identity becomes the seed for a really bad story line. Is that a dated reference for the DOOM generation? It was nice of Hogan not to address Bret Hart's challenge. Barry Horowitz faced Al Green. Tony Schiavone said that WCW fans should tune in next week to hear more details on how by watching Nitro and Thunder a WCW fan can become a millionaire. If they want the fans to explain any of the story lines, it's an unwinnable offer. At 2:20, piano music came up, as it did last week, a piano came down from the ceiling, and Sid came out. Rob Kellum, who worked as Gorgeous George in Memphis debuted as the pianist. Sid power bombved the wrestlers. Call the match 3:05. Sid did his usual constipated and long-winded interview. The Goldberg chants that we hear when Sid does this bit are mostly piped in. Sid said nobody takes him "serious." Seriously, Sid. They still spell millennium incorrectly. At this point, there was only one hour left on the Canadian version of the show. Johnny Swinger faced Prince Iaukea. The Dead Pool, having lost Raven, is going to expand by adding the incomparable talents of Scotty Riggs, Evan Karagis and, it seems, Prince Iaukea. The crowd chanted "boring" and then seemed to chant "we want Sid!" El Vampiro & ICP came out to screw Swinger out of the match, with Iaukea getting the pin at 4:36. I'm so glad that this match made the cut with TSN. WCW has apparently offered Vampiro a five-year contract. Vampiro told Iaukea that he owed the Dead Pool one. They showed footage of Buff Bagwell signing autographs earlier in the day, with Berlyn showing up to watch him, and Bagwell making jokes at Berlyn's expense. Berlyn, in German, told Bagwell "Look at yourself. Instead of training, you seek the praise of your fans. I will destroy you." They aired a new Berlyn video that pretty much just showed his head rotating, while the lyrics to his music said "Achtung. Achtung." Buff Bagwell faced Steve Regal. Gee, I guess Bagwell needs a win before he loses at the PPV. Sure enough, before anything much can take place, Bagwell got the blockbuster win at 2:33. Bagwell beat a foreigner! Oooh, could he follow that up at the PPV? Juventud Guerrera & Blitzkrieg & Psicosis faced Billy Kidman & Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Eddie Guerrero. Hey, Juventud turned on Psicosis in Mexico on 08/26 when Psicosis lost his mask to Rey Misterio (Sr.). But here was Psicosis with his mask on, alongside Juvi, with Juvi in Billy Kidman's clothes. What could be going on? Chavo had long tights on. I've lost track: how many of these guys want out of the promotion? Maybe a correct answer to that could earn you one million dollars! The match was a bit confusing early on, largely because the commentary was so inane. Match picked up when Ediie tagged out after the initial heat segment. Loads of great stuff. Kidman ripped the t-shirt off of Juvi. As all of the wrestler were going just nuts on each other, El Vampiro & ICP came out. Blitzkrieg nailed a tope on his partner, Juvi. Psicosis somehow managed to keep control until he tried to powerbomb Kidman. Tony Schiavone still acted like he's never seen Kidman flip through a powerbomb. Eddie hit the frog splash for the pin at 8:15. Great match. They teased some dissension between Kidman & Chavo. Dean Malenko faced Chris Benoit for a shot at the WCW Title. Apparently, this match was taking place because of earlier events that never aired in Canada. The US Title seemed like it had no value, since Benoit didn't qualify as the natural challenger for the WCW Title. Maybe they'll split up the Revolution since it is pulling down Benoit. Shouldn't this match be for the WCW Title? Anyhow, the winner will get a title shot on Nitro next week, the day after the PPV. That had me thinking that Benoit, who will lose the US Title at the PPV to Sid in the current plan, would get to rehab himself after that loss by putting on a strong show against the world champ the next night. The execution, timing, and work was almost as good as HHH vs. Billy Gunn. Ha ha ha ha. Match was really pretty, but you know what had to happen: Sid had to stroll out to interfere. I was annoyed as it was that as Sid came out the wrestlers had to act like it was the 18-minute mark of a 20-minute match. Sigh. Sid barely hit a punch on Benoit, who backdropped Sid out of the ring. Sid walked off, but first did some talking. Benoit vs. Malenko ended with no decision at around 4:18. In the main event, Sid & Rick Steiner & Diamond Dallas Page faced Hulk Hogan & Goldberg in a cage match. This was just horrible. The one thing they did right was let Goldberg finally get in the cage after being attacked by the Triad and lay out each heel with one of his trademark moves. The fans wanted to see that. But, otherwise, it was really lame. Hogan did the lamest high kick ever on Sid. And Sid sold it like it was great. Oh boy. Sting came in to join the face side, over Lex Luger's protestations. Somehow in the mess that was this match, Hogan hit a leg drop on DDP, covered him, and got a two count, with the bell ringing and the ring announcer, outdoing Lilian Garcia, saying that the winner was Hulk Hogan. What the heck!?! Time was 4:45. Luger came in the ring to talk with Sting about Hogan, I guess. We couldn't hear any of it, but Luger got upset at Sting's dismissive response, walked over, and punched him. Sting punched back, and that was when we faded to black. Now that was nutty. Tally time: 27:42 of bell-to-bell wrestling. - ECW on TNN had its first real show last Friday, 09/03/99. You know, I've been getting a lot of e-mail from people who tell me that now that ECW reaches their TV, they can look to that promotion to deliver both the best storylines in wrestling and the best wrestling in wrestling. While reading the Observer before the show debuted, I had similar thoughts, believe it or not. Meltzer mentioned that Paul Heyman smartly wanted to differentiate himself from the other products with national exposure. That's always been Paul's angle, right? While garbage wrestling shaped the company in its early years (yeah, yeah, I know people are going to say that you can't ignore the contributions of Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Rey Jr., and some others), they would be competing with the WWF, which suffers from the same lack of talent that only leaves garbage wrestling, profanity, breasts, and butt thongs as ratings draws. Good wrestling is what WCW has the talent to do, but the lack of brains to deliver. So, ECW certainly could try to go in that direction. The Observer reported that Heyman planned to have longer matches that focused on in-ring action. Sounds good. Heyman doesn't want Hardcore Hak back as Sandman. Sounds good. The Dudley Boyz are gone. Sounds great. Nothing was worse than the twenty minutes wasted on their ring intros every PPV. Heyman doesn't want Public Enemy back. Way to go. But, oh yeah, Axl Rotten is coming back. Ugh. Balls Mahoney & New Jack are still around. Ugh. I dunno. I suspect that I'm gonna find the ECW product to be the same roller coaster ride that I found the WCW product to be many months ago. (These days, of course, the workers in WCW have been so neglected that the product is in the toilet. At least those many months ago, the workers were placed against each other to fill out undercards. Still an irresponsible misuse of their talent, but at least we had some great matches.) Because the ECW show airs on Friday night and I update this page on Thursdays, I don't think I'll do detailed reviews of the TV show unless it becomes a real ratings challenger for the big two. The debut of ECW on TNN (on 08/27) scored a 0.94 rating, with the network basing all of their figures on the debut scoring a 1.9. I should mention as well that I will be able to watch the syndicated ECW TV show thanks to tapes from my parents, of all people. Believe it or not, because they do not have cable, they get (rather crisply, I might add) a TV station from Buffalo by antenna that airs the show; that station is not on cable in Canada. So, every month or so I'll be getting a tape of the TV shows. Reports are that the second TNN ECW show, the real debut show, scored a 0.9 rating. The real debut show featured the commentary of Joey Styles along with colour man Joel Gertner. The show opened with Taz beating Yoshihiro Tajiri, who depresses me in his Great Muta style role. That match ran a half-dozen minutes, with Taz getting the win, of course. I don't see the appeal of Taz. I guess he gives a pretty good serious interview, but his in-ring ability isn't great. Heyman is great at playing to the strengths of his talent, though. (My long-time criticism of ECW is that a lot of the guys on the roster have no real strengths other than a willingness to risk their bodies. That's not wrestling to me, 'cause it requires no training, no skill.) The Observer suggests that Heyman wants Rob van Dam to rise to stardom after the promotion has had national exposure for a little while, rather than debuting the product with van Dam on top. That seems sensible, so I can live with Taz as champion for now. But his matches will not be showstoppers unless his opponent is great. The storyline of the ECW TV show was that the Dudley Boyz had one last match in ECW, a tag title shot against Balls Mahoney & Spike Dudley. As you think about that foursome in a tag match, reconsider my parenthetical comment above. In a total garbage match, the Dudleyz won the tag titles. Joey Styles went into a tizzy, saying that the Dudleyz would embarrass ECW by appearing on Monday Night RAW to hand the ECW Tag Titles to Vince McMahon. Hey, Vince can't be on RAW! It was weird to hear him talk about the Dudleyz going to the WWF, when they had been on Smackdown the night before. Anyhow, everybody watching should have known where this story line was going (and that's not a bad thing). Even with my half-assed viewing of ECW over the years, I fully expected Tommy Dreamer, the hero of the promotion, to get involved somehow in returning the titles to the fold. Sure enough, Buh Buh Ray called out Dreamer and eventually lured him into the ring. The crowd was so hot for the product in general and the little historic recaps added even more to the effectiveness of the angle. I thought that the story line was well done. The wrestling was another matter. Dreamer took two bumps on his back, which may be better than we know it to be, but he basically got destroyed two-on-one. These ECW tag matches that are free-for-alls hide the fact that the wrestlers don't have enough talent to actually have merely good tag matches. Witness the Dudleyz' wrestling debut on Heat against guys that should have been somewhat familiar for them to work with. Anyhow, Raven surfaced, hit a DDT, and he & Dreamer won the titles. Joey Styles tried to make it clear that these guys were archenemies. The problem is that the WWF also has tag champions right now who are former foes, but I'm sure ECW will play it differently. The ending was hot. Overall the wrestling on the show was just as lacklustre as anything else put on TV in North America, but there was a better sense of direction than WCW has, anyhow. - Raven got out of his WCW deal, which paid him $275K per year, to take a $150K per year contract with ECW. Kidman, who makes $300K per year, had also voiced his desire to get out of his WCW deal, as mentioned last week, but he could only hope to earn as much if he went to the WWF and was used well. ECW has no hope of matching that salary figure. That's why we won't see Kidman, Rey Jr., or Konnan in ECW any time soon, unless they get so upset with WCW that money really doesn't matter. There is now talk that Buff Bagwell, who will be defeated by Berlyn at Fall Brawl as Buff's stock starts to plummet after he didn't catch on during his push, wants out of his WCW contract. The contract expires in early 2000, and word is that Buff is holding out on a renewal. - Psicosis lost his mask in Mexico to Rey Misterio (Sr.). Juventud Guerrera acted as Psicosis' corner man and turned on him for one of the falls. We should expect to see Psicosis lose his mask in WCW in a meaningless match. - WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/12/99. Tentative line-up has * Hulk Hogan vs. Sting for the WCW Title * Barry Windham & Kendall Windham vs. Harlem Heat for the Tag Titles * Chris Benoit vs. Sid for the US Title * Rick Steiner vs. Saturn for the TV Title * Lenny Lane vs. Kaz Hayashi for the Cruiserweight Title * Berlyn vs. Buff Bagwell * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Goldberg * Dean Malenko & Shane Douglas vs. Hugh Morrus & Brian Knobs * Eddie Guerrero & Rey Misterio Jr. & Billy Kidman vs. El Vampiro & Insane Clown Posse The plan is to pass the US title to Sid and have him go unbeaten for a long run building to Sid vs. Goldberg. Just the decision that will turn me even more against the braintrust of WCW. See, many good workers are on this show. Look at how WCW is pushing them now. That's sarcasm, in case you're impaired. The Observer reports that less than two weeks before show time, during a period when PPVs have usually been instant sell-outs, WCW had managed to sell only 2200 seats. - ECW has Anarchy Rulz on 09/19/99. Tentative line-up has * Taz vs. Masato Tanaka for the ECW Title * Rob van Dam vs. Johnny Smith * Jerry Lynn vs. Lance Storm * Sabu vs. Justin Credible * Super Crazy vs. Little Guido vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri Gee, on the surface that looks better than either the WCW or the WWF show will look on paper. The question is whether the good but erratic workers in ECW will be able to hit the timing and execution marks this night and whether they resort to a heavy dose of garbage wrestling. - The WWF has Unforgiven on 09/26/99. Tentative line-up has * Chyna vs. Jeff Jarrett for the IC Title * D'Lo Brown vs. Mark Henry for the European Title - The current WWF story line between Undertaker & Big Slow is supposed to be the big attempt at getting Slow over as a killer. The long term plan is for Slow to headline WrestleMania, but only if he finally gets over. They are hoping that Undertaker can give him the rub. - A few weeks back on RAW, they mentioned that Davey Boy Smith was returning to the promotion and that a special interview with Smith by Jim Ross would be airing shortly. That has been held off because the interview touched on many topics that are legally sensitive surrounding the lawsuit by the Hart family over Owen Hart's death (or, in WWF parlance, "incident"). Now don't for a second think that the WWF has lured into the fold for public relations reasons a guy who doesn't know anything else except being a wrestler, who desperately wants one last run, who has too much animosity with WCW to have that run there, and who just by chance can feed the opinion that the WWF is being good to the Hart family. No, no, no, and I'm sure that interview will not be used to manipulate those few Pavlovian WWF fans who actually remember that Owen Hart died on 05/23 and how the WWF handled things in the two weeks and more thereafter into even more fervent cheerleading. And, hey, the WWF wants to hire back Jim Neidhart because of his awesome skill and definite connection with fans worldwide who get it. Me cynical about the WWF's motives? Pshaw. Anyhow, Davey Boy Smith was interviewed in the Calgary Sun, the paper which publishes a weekly column by Bret Hart. Smith said many derogatory things about Bret, so we can see where this one is going. He mentioned, as readers e-mailed me, that Bret said if he saw Diana Smith strolling down the street while he was driving he would run her down. Bret did not respond to the accusations because Martha Hart's lawyers have told the family that they need to keep quiet about all things WWF. Bret did meet with the editor of the Sun to address Smith's claims and question why the newspaper would print them. It's really sad to see what has happened to the lives, first and foremost, and the careers of the members of this great Canadian wrestling family. - The Observer mentioned in passing that Lanny Poffo is still under contract with WCW for $75K a year. - I had the chance to catch up a bit on New Japan and All Japan TV. I currently have over 250 unwatched tapes, probably bordering 300 by now. On the top of the "must watch" stack sit New Japan, All Japan, a small group of Japanese women's tapes, and a bit of Ultimo Dragon Gym (Toryumon) stuff. I did manage to watch the past three ECW PPVs some time last week, but didn't think there was any real interest in detailed comments on those old shows. New Japan 07/03/99 TV opened with Don Frye & Masa Chono against Satoshi Kojima & Keiji Muto in a suprisingly great match. Chono's injured body usually preclude him being in the kind of match that I love; Muto is great when he's "on," but I don't find him to be so very much any more; Frye isn't polished enough, it seems to be; and Kojima just isn't enough to hold the match together. Negatively conditioned from North American wrestling, I guess, that's what I felt going in. I was glad to proved wrong, as Frye was just great, looking better than I ever remember him looking. In the next year, he should appear in North America. He could do a great program with Goldberg or Shamrock. Frye & Chono miscued, with Kojima getting the surprise pin on Chono. If only WCW would learn from New Japan. NWO Sting came in afterwards to attack Kojima; he also attacked a reported backstage, yelling at him in English. This match makes me think of the perennial favourite response to a lot of the negative stuff I write about the WWF & WCW (and even ECW, for that matter): you have to acknowledge that [criticized person] put forth a lot of effort. Sure. From day one, everybody praised the ECW locker room for the effort they put out. A lot of the time these days, that's also true about major WWF shows. Shane McMahon tries really hard. It's also true that the old farts on top in WCW don't really try too hard. And some of the younger guys, due to morale problems, may well not put forth as much effort as we might like to see. But none of that says anything about match quality. Guys like New Jack, Mark Henry, Hardcore Hak/Sandman, Kane, Undertaker, Big Slow, Hogan, Sid, etc., can deliver as much effort as they please, but they still pretty much never deliver * * * * matches do they? The WWF has had one match at that level during all of 1999. WCW had had two matches at that level on PPV and one on a Nitro. Okay, maybe looking at peaks isn't fair. Then explain why the average PPV match rating for each promotion is a paltry star-and-a-half. That doesn't jibe with the "effort = quality matches" equation. Effort is great. It is needed for a match to be at the * * * * level. Trying is better than not trying. But at the end of the day the promotion that everybody tells me is filled with guys who try delivers the exact same average PPV match rating as the promotion that everybody tells me is filled with old farts who don't try and young guys who are lazy because of morale issues. Why should we praise one over the other when the outcome is so close to the same: really mediocre wrestling? Back to Japan, the difference in this match is that the effort that was apparent here turned this into a really great match. The remainder of this TV show was filled with other * * * ish tag matches, so it was hardly bad (twice as good as your average North American PPV, after all), but nothing stood out as particularly memorable. Okay, Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara won the IWGP Tag Titles from Kensuke Sasaki & Shiro Koshinaka. It was amazing that this match was any good since the new champions suck. On the 07/10/99 New Japan TV show, Koji Kanemoto defended the IWGP Jr. Title against Minoru Tanaka in the opening match. Kanemoto is just wonderful; there was a period where he didn't click as well for me as Shinjiro Otani, but I've really come to appreciate his skill. Here, he worked against Tanaka, who wrestles strong style in BattleArts. He did a great job in the New Japan Jr. heavyweight tournament and is a really good worker. Tanaka hit a pescado, which is neat considering his usual style. Tanaka applied all kinds of cool submissions, with great transitions. The move sequences were sort of like some of the stuff that Ken Shamrock does in the WWF, except a lot quicker and a lot better taken by Kanemoto than Shamrock's usual opponents. When Tanaka put on a sleeper, for example, Kanemoto dropped to a sitting position and tried hitting kicks to Tanaka's head. On the third kick, Tanaka dropped the sleeper and grabbed the incoming leg in an ankle lock. After each rope break by Kanemoto, they would do one or two moves, leading to another submission spot and another rope break. Kanemoto's selling of his knee injury after the submissions should be watched by every WWF fan who e-mails me to tell me that Rock (or Shane, heaven forbid) sells well. Kanemoto was dragon suplexed (going over and landing face-and-stomach-first) and kicked to the head in brutal fashion. Tanaka dragged him to his feet, with Kanemoto acting the limp noodle. He tried for another dragon suplex, but Kanemoto got out, and hit two slaps and a spin kick. When he tried for his tiger suplex, however, Tanaka rolled around into an armbar submission. Sepctacular. Koji put a half Boston crab on Tanaka, standing like Chris Jericho at times. They traded slaps, with Koji hitting a big one off the ropes a la Liger. Koji then lifted Tanaka into a suplex position, but dropped him into a power bomb bump that looked great. One moonsault later, we had a successful title defense and another * * * * match to Kanemoto's credit. Next up, Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa faced Jushin Liger & Dr. Wagner Jr. Only 4:30 aired. Otani did his awesome kicks across Wagner's face in the corner. Otani is just awesome. Recall that comment about the kind of selling we are used to in North America? Lesson 2: watch Otani. Liger is just so amazing. When you think of what he's delivered between 1989 and now under that mask...wow. Liger & Otani paired off in the ring, while Wagner pummelled Takaiwa outside. Otani took control inside, hit a swan dive spin kick, and went for the cover, but Wagner came in for the save. After some interaction, Takaiwa & Liger were in the ring. Otani hit the swan dive dropkick to the back of the head and a Liger bomb for the pin. At this point, the show deteriorated, with two "horrible" * ish matches (one involved Michael Wallstreet). The final match ( * * * ) had Shinya Hashimoto & Tadao Yasuda & Meng & Yuji Nagata vs. Keiji Muto & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Scott Norton. The match only ran 13:37, and they booked it quite smartly: tags were pretty frequent, so new guys were constantly coming into the ring to do one or two spots only. It was weird to see the guys that can work well used that way, because it didn't take advantage of their ability. But it did mask the lack of depth of the American wrestlers. If you watch the way that Norton and Meng were used here, you'd start to understand why New Japan is able to get pretty untalented tough Americans over. Meng had big hair. Hashimoto pinned Tenzan. Over to the 06/27/99 All Japan TV show. The first match in the show was actually just the final 5:00 of the Yoshinari Ogawa PWF Jr. Title defense against Kntaro Shiga. Shiga had a really bony physique, but shows a lot of promise. The crowd was into this match because they wanted the upset title change. Shiga did a neat rolling DDT off the ropes, similar to what Rock does, except the opponent turns around instead the DDTer floating around. Shiga rolled through a backdrop suplex and hit a german suplex. Shiga showed good fire, but his execution on a reverse atomic drop and a bridging suplex left something to be desired. Nothing really wrong with it, but it just looked ugly, sort of like most Akira Taue moves. Shiga hit a spinning/tornado DDT out of the corner for a two count, with a great pop. Ogawa whipped Shiga to the corner, with Shiga jumping up on the second turnbuckle and bouncing himself back towards a charging Ogawa. Shiga turned in midair, grabbed a headlock on Ogawa, somehow swung his own body around once more, and ended up with a DDT in a startlingly awesome move where his feet never touched the mat. He did another neat DDT variation off the turnbuckle, holding Ogawa's arms while hitting the move. Ogawa looked like he was hugging his own neck as he went down for the bump. Of course, Ogawa rallied with a backdrop suplex with a bridging pin for the win. Really, really good. Also on the show, they aired 5:00 of Mitsuharu Misawa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Vader & Maunakea Mossman. Looked good, but not special. And Vader faced Bart Gunn. If there was any doubt that Gunn is nothing special, you only had to watch this match. He hit a dropkick to Vader's lower belly. He relied a lot on clotheslines and punches. Vader went up for a vertical suplex. Vader really carried the action. Gunn climbed to the top turnbuckle, stumbling along the way, but finally making it, and dove off, I guess trying to hit Vader at ringside with a shoulder tackle on the way down. As it was, he got out far enough, but seemed to totally miss him, which made the crowd make a sound that I don't think was particularly positive. This just seemed so atypical for All Japan. Vader got the win with a power bomb. Finally, they aired the last few minutes of Jun Akiyama vs. Masahito Kakihara. On the 07/04/99 All Japan TV show, Mitsuharu Misawa & Masahito Kakihara faced Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue and Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori faced Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga. Both matches were okay, but in the first match the crowd didn't seem too into Kawada vs. Misawa, which was the upcoming singles title showdown. Kakihara was great, as always. In the second match, Kobashi wore a nose guard that was a leather strap with a Mankind-style nosepiece. Final bout had Vader beat Jinsei Shinzaki. A disappointing show, and things were about to get worse, but that will have to wait until next week. - PPV buy rates, revenue (in millions), and match statistics for the WWF, WCW, and ECW are presented in the following 1999 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 99/07/25: 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 99/07/11: Bash at the Beach Kevin Nash & Sting vs. Randy Savage & Sid Vicious 0.41 1.95 0.75 1/2* * * * 1/2 Chris Benoit & Saturn vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon & Bam Bam Bigelow 0% (0 of 7) 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 0.62 $2.96 1.55 1.71 3.5 1.9% (1 of 52) 1999 0.64 $3.06 1.59 1.68 3.57 3.2% (2 of 61) 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. - The WWF has No Mercy on 10/17/99. - The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/14/99. - WCW has a PPV (BattleBowl?) on 11/21/99. This show will take place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. It's expected that Bret Hart will play a major role on this show. - The WWF has Armageddon on 12/12/99. - The WWF has Royal Rumble on 01/23/00. - The WWF has No Way Out on 02/27/00. - The WWF has WrestleMania on 04/02/00. - The WWF has Backlash on 04/30/00. - The WWF has Judgment Day on 05/21/00. - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/25/00. - The WWF has Fully Loaded on 07/23/00. ______________________________________________________________________ Thanks to: Masaki Aso. ______________________________________________________________________ If you have any feedback regarding my web pages, please send me e-mail. 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