______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ - WCW had Halloween Havoc on this past Sunday, 10/24/99. This was the first PPV put together by Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara, although one could argue that the stage was set for the show before they took control, so they couldn't exercise full control. Still, the finishes and the general flavour seemed to reveal some key changes: more garbage wrestling, more third party involvement in matches to build more convoluted (and, no doubt, confusing and soon to be contradictory) storylines, commentary that focuses a bit more on the match at hand than in the past and lends credibility to the younger guys, more "inside" angles, and the beginning of pushing some new or previously floundering guys. I think that the latter items are good things, but I'm unsold on the first couple of items. Overall, this show was better than the WCW PPVs of the past many months, in no small part because you could feel that a lot of the wrestlers had fires in their bellies for the first time in a long while. To me, that has been the key difference between the WWF product and WCW's product, and I've been saying so for a while now. I think that a TV audience can spot that halfheartedness. Was this a "thumbs up" show? It had the ending that fans wanted, it had some good wrestling, but I still ended up feeling like it was a "thumbs in the middle" deal, bordering neither down nor up. Rundown: * Disco Inferno beat Lash LeRoux to retain the Cruiserweight Title: At first I wasn't so sure the crowd (not to mention me) would get into this match. But it turned into a good opener. I felt positive about the new team because they gave LeRoux a shot on a PPV. In the past, a lot of good workers have been given one shot at the Cruiserweight Title, only to never appear on PPV again. But you could sense by the commentary in this match that this time around they might actually be mentioning Lash LeRoux again. He's hardly the best wrestler that has been given a Cruiserweight shot, but he's fresh and he does show some promise, although the accent is tough to swallow. Match ran roughly 8:00 before Disco hit his chartbuster for the win. Lash attacked Disco after the match, dropping him on the title belt * Harlem Heat beat Billy Kidman & Konnan and Brian Knobs & Hugh Morrus to regain the Tag Titles: This was a street fight under falls count anywhere rules. They had two referees, which signalled the finish to me. Rey Misterio Jr. & Konnan were stripped of the tag titles prior to the show, we were told, because Rey Rey suffered an injury that forced the situation. Still, Konnan & Kidman came out wearing the title belts, with the commentators awkwardly trying to explain things. Match was garbage wrestling. I felt bad for Kidman and Booker T. Knobs chaired Morrus. Jimmy Hart interfered. Booker went after him. They brawled into the graveyard, with the First Family getting split up, one in the ring with the Animals and one on the set with Heat. There's your finish, folks. Kidman was press slammed onto a standing chair, which seemed like a dangerous spot. Backstage, Stevie Ray bumped onto a stack of empty boxes, which made a lot of sense. Konnan was put through a table by a Morrus moonsault. Heat used a mummy prop to knock down Knobs for the pin. In the ring, Kidman pinned Morrus. The two referees conferred. First win got the titles, so Heat became the new champions. Match ran maybe 6:00. Konnan sold an arm injury after the moonsault. Kidman & Torrie acted concerned. * Perry Saturn beat Eddie Guerrero: This was a really good match. They did a little bit of garbagy stuff outside the ring, which I could have lived without. But there was a lot of great wrestling, too. They did some neat mat wrestling spots. Saturn worked on Eddie's knee. Saturn hit a moonsault off the ropes for a two. He did another one across Eddie's knees. Eddie hit a brainbuster and the frog splash; well, no, the splash missed. Saturn tried a springboard spot, but Eddie dropkicked him out of the air. Eddie was crotched on the top rope. Superplex. Saturn tried for a splash mountain spot, but Eddie rolled over and hit a superplex in a great sequence. Ric Flair came out. DQ at 11:16. Flair hit crowbar shots on Eddie and Kidman, who came out. Torrie Wilson came out, too. Flair kissed her, and she acted like she liked it. Flair left the ringside area, then came back to get his rolex, which Eddie had left with Bobby Heenan. It was nice to see Flair treated with some respect by the writers, but this was a really bad finish to a great match. It was hard to believe they went that long for that finish. This match reminded me somewhat of the Chris Jericho vs. X-Pac PPV match that I still get e-mail about. In each case, the match body was actually quite good (although this match was better by a half-star), but the finish dragged each match down by one star. In this case, really, couldn't they have a decision before Ric Flair ran in? * Buff Bagwell & Jeff Jarrett brawled in an impromptu segment: Bagwell said he had a problem with the two new writers and with Jeff Jarrett, bringing Jeff out for a short brawl. Luger came out. He wanted to guitar Jarrett, but JJ ducked and Bagwell took the shot. The guitar didn't break, so Luger broke it over the ring post. * Brad Armstrong beat Berlyn: The match was sort of boring. Four minutes in, it felt like an hour to me. Berlyn tried for his neckbreaker, but Armstrong grabbed the top rope, so Berlyn took the bump and Armstrong got the quick win. For some reason, though, Berlyn's music played as Berlyn assaulted Armstrong postmatch. Match ran 4:23. * Rick Steiner beat Chris Benoit to regain the TV Title: Benoit came out first. That sucks. Steiner controlled early. Benoit rallied. He hit a superplex. Steiner barely sold Benoit's stuff; he just sort of moved a little more slowly. He dodged the crossface, leaving the ring. Benoit dove on him. They brawled outside, with Benoit taking a bump against the steps. They miscued a dropkick when Steiner halted running out of the corner and Benoit went up. The commentators had to acknowledge that he didn't get all of him. Steiner worked on his knee. Benoit's comebacks always came to nothing. The commentators pushed Steiner so much, I almost fooled myself into thinking he'd lose. Steiner kicked Benoit and hit a pretty release german suplex for a two count. He started with his insulting slaps. Another german suplex. Benoit hit a DDT and some chops. Benoit did three german suplexes for a two count. Steiner whipped the referee into Benoit's elbow. Steiner went for a chair. Benoit ducked the chair and suplexed Steiner. Then he did a Rob van Dam style chair spot. He went for the top rope head butt but Steiner tossed the chair into him. Dean Malenko came in. He chaired Benoit. The referee recovered and counted the pin. Malenko & Benoit had earlier declared that they were leaving the Revolution. Malenko hugged Saturn as he left the ring, so we were led to believe that the Revolution decided to screw Benoit. At first, I was a little miffed that Benoit lost, but he deserves more than the TV Title anyhow, and Vince Russo is on record saying he wants to push Benoit. IMO, separating Benoit from the Revolution is the first essential step in pushing him, so I was actually sort of happy about this result. Match ran 12:49. * Lex Luger beat Bret Hart: Bret Hart limped to the ring because of the bat shot to the ankle on Nitro. His selling is just awesome, beyond compare. Match was all Bret, which signalled the result. The did lots of outside-the-ring stuff, which was becoming a pattern. Lix tried to get involved. Luger finally started working on the ankle. It bears mentioning again that Bret's selling was just incredible, and I'm not talking about the ECW wrestler. Luger hit a half crab for a submission. At this point, you had to conclude that they have something planned for Bret. 7:45. * Sting beat Hulk Hogan to retain the WCW Title: As Hogan's music came up, Tony Schiavone said the "challenger always comes out first." Not in the TV Title match, jerk. Hogan didn't come out. Angle alert. After the whole damn "American Made" song finished, Sting's music came up and he came to the ring. They then started "American Made" again, which had me ready to smash my TV. Hogan finally strutted out in jeans. Hogan stood face-to-face with Sting. As the bell ran, Hogan lay down and Sting covered him for the pin. The commentators stammered over this five second match, but we immediately cut to hype for Sid vs. Goldberg. The fans in the arena seemed really happy with this "match." I didn't get it. Hogan did this "shoot" interview on Nitro saying that he'd win the title again no matter what the backroom guys said. Then he plays the patsy. The commentators unfortunately kept talking about Hogan after the Sid vs. Goldberg hype, killing the angle a bit. * Goldberg beat Sid to win the US Title: Earlier in the show, Goldberg beat Sid bloody, so Sid came to the ring with blood already on his face. They pushed that Sid didn't have to defend the title because of the prematch attack, but did so anyhow because he's a tough mother. As Goldberg walked the aisle, the Outsiders attacked him and then walked off. Sid attacked. Goldberg rallied pretty quickly. Sid started bleeding again. Goldberg lifted him on his shoulders and dropped him. Sid was gushing. Sid moved just about the same as Kane when it comes to speed. I guess WCW cheerleaders will be emailing me to say that Sid is the most improved wrestler of the year. Hey, he made it to this match instead of playing softball. The referee finally stopped the match due to blood loss. The old Dusty Rhodes Starrcade finish. At least there was a lot of blood this time. Rick Steiner came in. Sid wanted to continue, but then stumbled to the back with Steiner's help. Match ran 7:13. * Diamond Dallas Page faced Ric Flair: This was turned into a strap match. Everybody had to have a gimmick. Really, Page is at his best in garbagy matches, just like Mankind. In this match, thankfully, victory would come in the usual ways, instead of by dragging your opponent around the ring. Charles Robinson was the referee, which seemed wrong. They brawled all through the crowd. Damn, I don't want to see Ric do that stuff. Finally, they were back at ringside. Flair kissed Kimberly. DDP attacked him and took control. Flair bladed. They did some spots on the commentary table. Flair hit a low blow in the ring. Flair drew tremendous heat. He chop blocked DDP. Figure four at 10:30. They teased the Dusty Rhodes blackout finish. DDO headbutted Flair in the groin. Diamond cutter for a two. The referee stopped instead of counting three and signalled for the bell anyhow. Before a weird finish could be explained by the referee, DDP hit the cutter on him. David Flair came out with a crowbar. Kinberly disarmed him. DDP used the crowbar on Flair's groin. He hit the cutter on Dyvid. Elbow to the groin. Ric did a stretcher job. He was attacked by the Animals near the ambulance. They loaded him in the ambulance and drove it away from the arena. Torrie filmed the whole brawl. Match ran 12:52, with no decision ever announced. * Goldberg beat Sting in a nontitle match to win the WCW Title (?): The commentators said it was a nontitle match. Goldberg was still covered in Sid's blood. The live crowd wasn't clued in to the match being nontitle. Charles Robinson was the referee again. Hey, he recovered rapidly from that diamond cutter. They brawled outside. Goldberg clotheslined the post. Back in the ring, Sting hit some of his splashes. He got a two count. Sting speared Goldberg, but Goldberg pretty much popped back to his feet. Goldberg tried a spear, but ended up in the post. Sting hit some splashes. They did a tremendous leapfrog spot, with Goldberg then hitting an awesome spear. While the match was really short (I didn't time it, but it was 5:00 or so), that one spot drew a phenomenal reaction. The live crowd was into seeing Goldberg win the title. After the jackhammer pin, Goldberg was announced as the new champion, and the commentators acted extremely befuddled. Sting laid out the referee afterwards. RAW RAW on 10/28/99 was another post-Russo show, with the promotion tried again to bolster HHH's sagging chances at getting over despite the whole company bending over backwards to make it so. The show opened with the New Age Outlaws asking Vince McMahon for a tag title shot. Vince said that Edge & Christian have earned a title match on RAW tonight, presumably by losing the TIT to the Hardy Boys. They could have at least given the Hardys the title shot to make that whole tournament seem like it meant something. Hunter Hearst Helmsley showed up, complaining that he had to fight Mankind, so, for some reason, Vince decided that the Outlaws could face Steve Austin & Rock. Godfather came out for the opener. They like to start shows with Godfather because, even though his matches stink and he's not over at all during matches, his entrance is over. Godfather couldn't find his women, so he tracked them down with Mark Henry, who then accompanied him to the ring. Godfather faced Viscera, who had Mideon with him. The level of talent in the ring was awe-inspiring. Mideon was sent back, and Viscera asked Godfather to put the hoes on the line. For some reason, and there must be a reason 'cause it makes no sense to just be this stupid, Godfather agree to a "winner take hoes" match. So, if Godfather, like, won, he'd leave the ring exactly as he came in. And this guy is supposed to be a, um, businessman. No wonder pimpin' ain't easy for him. Viscera told Henry that he'd let him play with the hoes 24-7, and, before you could say "revealing the finish," the match was over with Henry turning on Godfather to get the hoes. Viscera officially got the win with a splash at 2:11. Hollys faced Christian & Edge for the Tag Titles. Give the Hollys credit for trying to make the most of their push. Match was way short, which is a way to make everybody here show some promise, I guess. Before much could happen, Brian Christopher & Scott Taylor ran in for the DQ at 3:14. I'm not really sure who got DQed, since everybody fought with everybody, so maybe it was really a no contest. Hardys came in too, with Hardys & Edge & Christian posing on the turnbuckles after clearing away the others. I guess they can't decide which of those two teams should be faces and which should be heels. Fabulous Moolad & Mae Young came to the ring with a special announcement. Hey, are they friends again? I guess they forgot that were feuding. Moolah intended to announce her retirement from wrestling, but Ivory came out and crashed the party. She ended up dumping Mae Young, who has taken more and better bumps than a lot of the guys. Somehow, an impromptu match against Moolah took place, with Ivory getting the pin in a horrible 0:24. Mae Young was standing in the ring, holding the top rope, right beside the pinfall, but apparently just couldn't make the save. Prince Albert faced Big Slow. Albert went to a lot of trouble to tell Slow that he (Albert) is not the Big Boss Man. You see, Slow, whose real-life father died a few years ago from cancer and whose WCW wrestling-storyline father died as well, was fooled into thinking some other father died of cancer. The Observer spent a couple of sentences pointing out how tasteless and pathetic it was for the WWF to have Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler act shocked and saddened during that angle, using the exact same lines that they used when Owen Hart died. Before anything could happen in this match, Big Boss Man came out on the ramp and delivered a stupid and tasteless interview, the gist of which was that he had stolen Slow's father's watch. I don't think the match even went a minute. Chyna & D'Lo Brown faced Chris Jericho & a mystery woman from the audience in an "intergender" tag match. The mystery woman was instantly recognizable as Stevie Richards. Why is Chyna a face when she's not with HHH? Poor Jericho has been stuck with Jeff Jarrett's program. The Observer wrote, It's pretty well been decreed, at least temporarily, that Jericho is being slated for a mid-card role and they've been disappointed by his work. There have been a lot of excuses thrown around as to why Jericho isn't working out like they expected, 90% of them are what I call oldschoolisms (you know, the weather was bad or it's late in the month so the money is tight and that's why we didn't draw rather than admit the most simplest of things - what was booked nobody was interested in) but the answer is simple. Look at how he's been programmed in the ring from day one. If you're programmed as "one of the guys you become just another one of the guys, which is the slot he's being taken as being in. He didn't beat Road Dogg or X-Pac clean in major matches, and in developing a mid-card guy, results don't matter but in developing a top of the card superstar, they have to beat everyone but the other top of the card superstars. Hughes hurt a lot, and, presumably with the exception of the Road Dogg match in England (which people talked of highly; I've yet to see the tape), he hasn't had a match the calibre of the matches he used to have in WCW, but by and large, that's also only a minor part of the perception to the audience. He'd easily overcame that if he was beating the big boys. His failure to get any W's against top guys is why the people don't take him as a top guy. Him getting more aggressice and wrestling a more athletic style may very well help, but his perception has absolutely nothing to do with what he is and isn't doing inside the ring. He's still not going to get heat inside th ring because fans come to WWF to see the soap, and the fans do respond to his interviews like he's a recognizable player. After opening verbally duelling Rock and Undertaker, and then finally debuting on a PPV against X-Pac and not winning, how can anyone see that as anything but a guy going down and nobody wants to get into a guy they see as not working out. Excuses on why his matches in teh ring haven't gotten heat miss the entire point that is so obvious even glancing at WWF television the past few months. With the exception of Rock and Austin, nobody gets heat in television matches anymore. Austin basically gets heat for everything he does and Rock gets heat in his key spots but not throughout. Even Foley doesn't get that much heat in the ring in his television matches. Anyhow, so Jericho now moves into this crappy feud. On Heat, he even lost to D'Lo Brown clean in the middle. Misuse of great wrestlers in North America is a sad given more often than not, but we usually still get to see those great wrestlers deliver some great albeit meaningless matches. Not with Jericho since he jumped. Anyhow, this match was no different. Before much could happen, Richards was pedigreed at 2:43 for the pin. Jericho beat up Richards afterwards. Really, Steve Blackman got the same quality push. Mankind faced HHH for the WWF Title. Mankind attempted some mat wrestling, which drew a chorus of silence. Hey, what's that stuff he's doing? Where's the sock? Mankind actually came close to victory late in the match, using the mandible claw. As the referee let HHH's arm drop once and then a second time, Val Venis ran in for the save, whacking Mankind with a chair. Al Snow saved Mankind. Will this madness really elevate Snow & Venis? No, come on, really? Match ran 7:27. Buh Buh Ray Dudley faced Kane. Dudley stole Kane's voicebox thingie. This crap ended when D-Von ran in for the DQ. As Kane was getting demolished, X-Pac finally made the save, with the Dudleys running off because they are afraid of the guy, I guess. Match ran a whopping 3:24. Davey Boy Smith faced Test in a cage match. Ah, Smith is slipping down to mid-card status, I see. This match was built around two spots, neither of them being performed by the crippled Bulldog. Test hit the elbow drop from the top of the cage, which was a cool spot. Remember when Chris Benoit did the head butt from the top of the care in WCW. We never saw a replay and it was never mentioned again. Somehow, I think they'll be replaying this elbow drop for a couple of weeks on all WWF shows. The Mean Street Posse ran in to attack Test. Instead of entering the ring through the cage door, which I guess was supposed to be closed to make that entrance impossible, Shane McMahon ran in, climbed the cage and hit a splash onto the Posse. No finish was announced. Bulldog just left. Shane and Test raised each other's hand as the heels ran off. Stephanie was in the ring as well. It ran 3:55. New Age Outlaws faced Rock & Steve Austin in the main event. Match was not much, although still has intensity despite his body crumbling. Finish raw HHH came out, taking Austin away from the match. While the referee was distracted, X-Pac came out and nailed Rock, with Gunn getting the pin at 9:40. Yes, X-Pac & Gunn & Road Dogg & HHH are back together as DX. I sure hope they agree beforehand on how the gimmick money will be split up. I had the same feeling I had when WCW tried to recreate the NWO phenomenon several times after it had faded. Tally time: 25:15 of bell-to-bell wrestling, none of it particularly good. Nitro Nitro on 10/25/99 followed on the heels of Halloween Havoc, promising to explain and likely cloud the world title situation. Sure enough, the show opened with Sting calling JJ Dillon to the ring to complain that his title loss the night before was unfair. JJ said that Sting was absolutely correct, that Goldberg should not be the new champion. He also said that Sting was stripped of the title because he attacked the referee after the match. WCW will run a 32-man tournament to crown a new WCW champion. 32 men!? Tony Schiavone tried to explain that the PPV main event was a big screw job on the fans by pointing out that he said the match was a nontitle bout from the get-go. The first match on the show was Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Norman Smiley in a tournament match. Bammer challenged Smiley to a hardcore match because he knew that Smiley was a great "scientifical" wrestler. Before Smiley could protest too long, Bigelow loaded up the ring. Smiley had donw a postmatch interview saying how tough he was, so this was sly comedy, not that it worked for me. Smiley, wearing a garbage can on his head, ran into Bigelow, knocking him out. Smiley even got to do his dance before getting the pin at 1:24. Hey, is this that other Monday Night show? The Filthy Animals came to the ring to talk about kicking Ric Flair's butt. They showed a video tape of them dumping Flair somewhere. The Revolution hit the ring, well Saturn & Malenko anyhow. As they brawled with the Animals, Torrie Wilson backed off and ended up getting carried away by Asya and Shane Douglas. Curt Hennig faced Lash LeRoux. Before the match, Hennig complained that the new guys want to get rid of the old wrestlers. Disco Inferno came out to do commentary, saying that LeRoux gave him a good fight at the PPV. Hennig, set up for LeRoux's finisher, whacked the referee for the DQ at 2:24. Disco ran in to check on LeRoux, getting a chair shot from Hennig for his trouble. Jeff Jarrett interrupted the Nitro Girls search to cut a promo. He's the "chosen one." He (and Hennig earlier) called the new creative team the "powers that be." Anyhow, JJ tried to heat up a match with Luger. They aired an interview with Sid, done after the PPV. Sid said he'd be back. Damn. Perry Saturn faced Eddie Guerrero. Right around here, my tape of the show had some problems as serious flutter struck the video. Sigh. Fortunately, then, this was a Russo-match, going a mere 3:40 before Saturn got the win. David Flair came out to whack Eddie with Ric's crowbar, setting him up for a submission loss. Saturn advanced in the tournament. Backstage, the Revolution has holed up in a storage room, saying what a great hiding place it was and that the Filthy Animals will never find them. I guess the Animals don't watch the monitors. Sigh. As Benoit left the storage area, Chris Benoit whacked him with a chair and locked the storage room's steel mesh door. He garbaged it up Malenko. The Outsiders came to the ring. Throughout the show, they did little bits with these guys. Essentially, the new bosses wanted the Outsiders to wrestle. In the segment prior to this one, Nash said he'd strip naked so that the show would be taken off the air so that they wouldn't have to wrestle. Before he could bore us too much with an in-ring interview, Nash was interrupted by Goldberg, who was up in the stands. Goldberg warned them that they were next. Randy Savage & Gorgeous George came to the ring. Hmmm, maybe those Canadian reports were wrong. Savage did his usual interview, but ended by saying that he was going to pass the torch to the next superstar of the millennium. He didn't name that superstar, mind you. Madusa faced her special mystery opponent. The opponent turned out to be Meng. Oh lord. Well, this sucked. 2:33, Tongan Death Grip. The idea is that the new creative guys only want her to be a T&A show, and, since she's fighting it, they hosed her by putting her in the ring with Meng. Evan Karagias came out to help Madusa out of the ring. Dean Malenko came out to challenge Benoit to a last man standing match. Lex Luger faced Rick Steiner. Jeff Jarrett came out to do commentary. Jarrett said earlier that he didn't hit Elizabeth with the guitar, so he strolled over to Liz to see if he could straighten out things. Well, Luger came out. Steiner followed. Jarrett whacked Steiner by mistake. Steiner followed a retreating Jarrett to the back. Luger got back in the ring for the countout victory at 3:00. It was sort of funny because Liz was also knocked down in the melee. As Luger was helping her up, he realized the count was eight, so he dropped her to the ground and climbed in the ring. Liz wasn't happy about it. Kidman faced Konnan. Despite being buds, they came to blows pretty quickly. Harlem Heat hit the ring. Eddie Guerrero & Rey Misterio Jr. came out, too. Shouldn't Eddie be laid out by that earlier crowbar shot? I guess not. Amidst this noise, Kidman got a pin at 1:53. Konnan & Kidman made up afterwards, thanks to Eddie. The Animals challenged Heat to a title match. Buff Bagwell came out. He said he wasn't going to do any more jobs, that he wasn't laying down for anybody any more. Ron & Don Harris, with bald heads, come out in suits and pummelled Bagwell. You see, the scriters have goons to keep the wrestlers in line. Chris Benoit faced Dean Malenko in a last man standing match. They came out in jeans and brawled. They went outside and brawled. Benoit has the same intensity as Steve Austin in the WWF. Even in a match like this, Benoit is great to watch. But unlike Austin, who can only work these garbagy matches, Benoit can work so many different styles so credibly. In this match, he slipped in a superlex and his series of German suplexes, which Malenko countered with a kick to the crotch. Benoit was dumped and hit with a baseball slide. More brawling outside. I'd rather see these guys work matches with 80% wrestling and 20% brawling, but, I'm really just happy to see them get some time and, hopefully, a push, particularly Benoit. Back in the ring, Malenko went for a suplex, which Benoit countered, Malenko countered, and Benoit countered again. They hit double clotheslines. Benoit got up just at 10, with Malenko a split second behind, but it was enough for Benoit to get the win. The Filthy Animals came out. Benoit was surrounded. No! The Animals went after Malenko and Benoit walked off. As the Animals laid into Malenko, Shane & Saturn came out with Asya, holding Torrie. In the end, the Revolution drove off with Torrie, while Rey & Eddie followed them in another car, leaving Konnan & Kidman behind to go after the world tag titles. Brian Knobs faced Sting. No bell ever rang to start the match. Sting batted Knobs beforehand and got the cover. Was this really a match? I'm gonna be a stickler and call the match time 0:00. Bret Hart was interviewed. He has a hairline fracture in his ankle. Bret said that he was going to prove he's not a quitter; keep in mind that he submitted to Luger and Sting over the past week or so. Harlem Heat defended the tag titles against Billy Kidman & Konnan. Boy, Stevie Ray sucks. Match wasn't great, although Kidman & Booker are pretty damn good. The new creative team obviously watched the Heroes of Wrestling PPV a few weeks back. They decided to bring back that suplex-double-pin finish, this time with Stevie suplexing Kidman, but Kidman lifting his shoulder so that Stevie gave up the pin at 5:07. New tag team champions. Boy, you never know what will happen when you watch WCW Monday Nitro. The Observer mentioned that Kimberly delivers lines much better than most of the women in wrestling. I'm not so sure of that, though. It does look like there will be a bit of a contest between Kimberly and Torrie Wilson to be the number one babe in the promotion, and aren't they both far more attractive than all of the other women involved in this business? Diamond Dallas Page faced David Flair. How can they have a match with Flair? Easy, don't have a match. In the WWF, they were never hindered by having to use nonwrestlers. David removed his robe, revealing his crowbar. Get your mind out of the gutter. Flair whacked Page with the crowbar, while Kimberly reacted in horror. Flair walked off, Page hit the ambulance. No bell ever rang. Are they both out of the tournament? Well, at least the new scripters make sure to let the babyfaces get their revenge ASAP. That was a huge failing in WCW this year, yet it is such a simple idea. Bret Hart faced Goldberg in the main event. Hey, it seemed like they were building up that tag match with the Outsiders, and I was guessing that they'd fight the Harris twins in another "bookers get the bad boys in line" piece, but that never came, at least in Canada. It sure does seem like they are building up to a feud with the new scripters against a batch of wrestlers: Outsiders, Hogan, Madusa, Hennig, Brad Armstrong, and Bagwell. The entrances took forever. And they don't even have any catchphrases. Hart has done an absolutely tremendous and incomparable job at selling his leg injury. Nobody comes close to him. He reminds me now of all of those sorts of little things he did in the WWF through his 1990s run there. There is no question that he should be the North American wrestler of this decade. He has to get the nod easily ahead of Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin, among other contenders. The story here was that Hart's ankle was fractured, but he kept trying. He punched Goldberg in the corner, but Goldberg knocked him down. Goldberg went after the bad leg. Hart popped up and guarded his leg by backing into the corner a bit. As Goldberg kept working on the leg, Hart kept refusing to submit. Goldberg asked the referee if he'd stop the match; hey, that's what happened at the PPV the night before. Bobby Heenan even hoped that the referee's heart would be "big enough" to stop the match. Hart said, "I ain't stopping nothing." Goldberg whipped Hart to the corner, with Hart sort of stumbling heavily into the turnbuckle. On a second whip, Hart collapsed to the mat in mid run. Hart managed to get a sleeper on Goldberg, who backed into the corner. The referee was in the corner, but ran out just in time. Whew! No ref bump. Oh wait, Hart held on to the sleeper and Goldberg snap mared him over, taking out the referee. As Hart was dumped, Sid & the Outsiders ran in to attack Goldberg. Hart didn't see any of this action, nor did the ref. They did power moves on Goldberg, with Sid hitting a power bomb. Hart crawled in, covered Goldberg, and got the pin at 7:52 to win the US Title and advance in the tournament. And, so, the crowd favourite to win the WCW Title is eliminated from the tournament. Hey, maybe they'll actually use the tournament to elevate others, since Goldberg doesn't really need it. Brackets and results from this show (1024x768 resolution helpful to avoid scrolling): GROUP 1 GROUP 2 1st Round 2nd Round 3rd Round 4th Round 1st Round 2nd Round 3rd Round 4th Round Bret Hart Lex Luger Bret Hart (Nitro, 10/25) Lex Luger (Nitro, 10/25) Bill Goldberg ______________________________________________________________________ Rick Steiner ______________________________________________________________________ Perry Saturn Diamond Dallas Page Perry Saturn (Nitro, 10/25) NO CONTEST (Nitro, 10/25) Eddie Guerrero ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ David Flair ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Norman Smiley ? Norman Smiley (Nitro, 10/25) Meng (Nitro, 10/25) Bam Bam Bigelow ______________________________________________________________________ Madusa ______________________________________________________________________ Billy Kidman Brian Knobs Billy Kidman (Nitro, 10/25) Sting (Nitro, 10/25) Konnan ______________________________________________________________________ Sting ______________________________________________________________________ It looks like Bret Hart should make it through Group 1, and either Sting or Luger should make it through Group 2. Do you suppose that the four group winners will have their matches on the next PPV in Toronto? Then you'd have to figure that Hart is going over for the title. That would make a lot of sense from many perspectives. It would explain the submission losses from the past week. It would also change the face of the company to the opposite of what it has been for much of 1999 by putting a champion who can wrestle in the top spot, if only momentarily, in anticipation of a Goldberg title win at Starrcade. - ECW has November to Remember on 11/07/99. Tentative line-up has * Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka for the ECW Title * Tommy Dreamer & Raven vs. Justin Credible & Lance Storm for the Tag Titles * Jerry Lynn vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri * Rob van Dam vs. Taz for the TV Title - 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 win the WCW Title on this show. - The Observer called No Mercy the "probably [the WWF's] strongest overall PPV show this year," saying that it was "paced by what may have been the best American match of the year." Indeed, Dave Meltzer writes, "Edge, Christian, and the Hardy Boys took a big step toward being recognized as something more than people in the pack, garnering a standing ovation for their ladder match which featured a series of creative and high risk spots built around the ladder." My first thought upon reading that praise is that I agree with most of it. The spots were spectacular, as mentioned last week, but, like the Mankind Hell in the Cell match, this was more a stunt man show than a wrestling match. That doesn't make it any less of a must-see, but it does tone down the match of the year rhetoric, IMO. In the detailed review, Meltzer wrote, "It was more a collection of spots as opposed to a match, but the fans loved it once they realized the risks the guys were taking to entertain them. The crowd reaction was more to an exhibition of stunts as opposed to drama of a wrestling match." Later, he wrote that on RAW the match was "put [...] over as the greatest ladder match in the history of the WWF (that was a major slap in the face of Shawn Michaels, and don't think that was part of the intentions). I don't mean to knock the match, because it was tremendous, and I think it's great that guys who work that hard to have a great match are given recognition and a chance to be elevated from it (remember the great job WCW did in never once mentioning after the face such legit classics as Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Jr. at Havoc in 1997 and Blitzkrieg vs. Juvi earlier this year and how much those matches did to elevate the participants) but the two Michaels-Ramon matches had intensity of a classic wrestling match with tremendous spots involved while this was fans not into it as a match but loving it as a demonstration of guys doing great high spots and taking very dangerous bumps with no intensity or importance as to the oucome, only importance to how dangerous and impressive the spots themselves were." - On 08/15/99, New Japan aired matches from the G1 Climax tourney final in the second consecutive night of TV on the tourney. Despite sagging popularity and the same inability to create new heroes that haunts its North American partner, New Japan still managed to attract viewers for the special. The special opened with clips of earlier matches. The first new tourney match saw Hiroyoshi Tenzan face Masa Chono. Chono has nothing but timing and psychology left. He reminds a lot of Steve Austin, in that they both were once great athletes, but are now hampered by injuries. They've also both resorted to some garbagy stuff in the past year to stay over. New Japan has apparently figured out that the young guys need wins over the old guys to build for the future, so Tenzan got the pin here. Only six minutes aired and it wasn't great, but it was okay. Keiji Muto faced Satoshi Kojima. In his pre-match interview, Muto said, "I am number one. I am top. I am champion." The match was disappointing, better than a typical North American midcard match, but not living up to the work/workrate expectations of the G1. Kojima has had some great moments already, and he's still young, so they will hopefully get him over stronger and make something of him, but in this match he submitted to the figure four. They needed Muto to remain in the tournament to make the main event. Manabu Nakanishi faced Shinya Hashimoto. Nakanishi worked in WCW. He hasn't improved much, although he has improved. Event though I'm sort of down on him, you've got to keep in mind that he's much better than Kane or Stevie Ray, who people in e-mail defend against my barbs. Hashimoto added to his tough 1999, here, having had his reputation demolished in the match Naoya Ogawa earlier in the year and then losing here. Nakanishi did some power shtick at the start of the match, including getting Hashimoto up for the torture rack. Nakanishi looked blown up from the exertion of being on offense for a few minutes. Luckily, Hashimoto took control. Hashimoto has pulled great, memorable matches out of middling performers (sort of like Bret Hart in North America), even when he was slated to lose, but this wasn't one of those matches. Nakanishi kept coming back with power and, I guess, indomitable will. They screwed up an ipponzei late in the match, as Nakanishi had no clue which way to go. Nakanishi finally went after Hashimoto's knee, which was sore from the previous night. Nakanshi wrapped Hashimoto's leg around his (Nakanishi's) neck and started stretching him, with Hashimoto holding out for a while before submitting. He sold the knee great afterwards and raised Nakanishi's hand in victory. Next up, Keiji Muto faced Yuji Nagata. Nagata was so underused in WCW. He has really shined on New Japan TV this year. In this match, though, they worked around trying for submissions. There was a lot of mat wrestling, and a lot of it was good, but the build was too slow for the time that they were allotted. This would have been great if there were many minutes of near falls and hot moves at the end, like a classic All Japan match. It ended with Muto dropkicking Nagata's knees a few more times before finally getting a great figure four on him for the submission. The tournament final saw Manabu Nakanishi face Keiji Muto. Muto tried to make it good; you could tell he had his working shoes on. But Nakanishi wasn't ready for this spot. Unlike Muto, who worked matches of different styles in the two days of TV, Nakanishi's matches were all the same. You start to realize why they aired only short clips on the first night. It was like watching several nongimmick Kane matches in a row. Like pulling teeth. Still, Muto lifted this to the okay range again. The Observer pegged it at * * * 1/4 which is equal to what Meltzer gave the ?? match at the No Mercy PPV. Nakanishi won with the torture rack. The crowd seemed to pop for the finish, but it didn't seem like Nakanishi can be the future of this company. - 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 99/09/26: Unforgiven Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Davey Boy Smith vs. Mankind vs. Rock vs. Big Show vs. Kane 1.6 $7.68 1.03 * 1/5 * * * 1/2 Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Davey Boy Smith vs. Mankind vs. Rock vs. Big Show vs. Kane 0% (0 of 9) 99/08/22: SummerSlam Test vs. Shane McMahon 1.61 $7.73 1.53 * * 1/4 * * * 1/2 Mankind vs. Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley 0% (0 of 13) 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 1.32 $6.32 1.56 1.75 3.5 2.0% (1 of 49) 1999 1.44 $6.91 1.5 1.59 3.56 1.4% (1 of 72) 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 99/09/12: Fall Brawl Kevin Nash & Sting vs. Randy Savage & Sid Vicious 0.33 1.58 1.58 3/4* * * * 3/4 Lenny Lane vs. Kaz Hayashi 0% (0 of 9) 99/08/14: Road Wild Kevin Nash & Sting vs. Randy Savage & Sid Vicious 0.54 2.59 1.25 * 1/4 * * * 1/4 Chris Benoit vs. Diamond Dallas Page 0% (0 of 9) 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 0.46 $2.2 1.40 1.29 3.54 1.9% (1 of 52) 1999 0.6 $2.84 1.55 1.53 3.56 2.5% (2 of 79) 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 99/09/19: Anarchy Rulz Masato Tanaka vs. Taz 0.2 $0.42 1.875 * * * 1/4 * * * 3/4 Mike Awesome vs. Taz vs. Masato Tanaka 0.0% (0 of 8) 99/07/18: Heatwave Taz vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri Rob van Dam & Jerry Lynn vs. Lance Storm & Justin Credible 0.2 $0.42 2.125 * * 1/4 * * * 3/4 Rob van Dam & Jerry Lynn vs Lance Storm & Justin Credible 0.0% (0 of 6) 99/05/16: Hardcore Heaven 0.2 $0.42 1.75 * * 3/4 * * * * 1/4 Rob van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn 12.5% (1 of 8) 99/03/21: Living Dangerously Taz vs. Sabu 0.2 $0.42 1.53 * * * * 1/2 Rob van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn Taz vs. Sabu 0.0% (0 of 8) 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 0.2 $0.42 1.90 2.75 3.92 4.5% (1 of 22) 1999 0.2 $0.42 1.40 2.17 3.58 2.3% (1 of 43) 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 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. Don't forget to delete the leading "x" from my e-mail address; that "x" is my web spider spam guard. ______________________________________________________________________