______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ - Both WCW and the WWF were Toronto last weekend. The WWF had a house show in Toronto's Skydome on Saturday night and WCW had its Mayhem PPV in Toronto's Air Canada Centre on Sunday night. As a result, there were a lot of promotional events throughout the city. It was also my mom's birthday on Saturday. So, I drove in to Toronto for a visit, but made a pitstop first at a pizza joint to see Chris Benoit. A load of fans came to see him, with many people in the line talking about attending both Toronto shows for a big wrestling weekend. I really only wanted to get my mom a signed photo, but, just to see if it would get a reaction, I also brought along a Gong magazine with a photo spread of a Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero match from New Japan. Benoit was really gracious with the fans in line ahead of me. He invited around the table for photos with him, getting security guys to snap the shots. He even put one guy in a mock submission hold. Anyhow, I got up there, said hi, and said I had dug through some Gong Magazines to find a reasonable shot of him to get autographed. He was surprised to see some photos from Japan and explained to the girl sitting with him (assistant? friend?) that this was a match from Japan. I told him it was my mom's birthday and I largely came out to get a signed photo for her, so he signed one to her, wishing her a happy birthday. My mom was really pleased, 'cause Benoit has been among her favourites for years. The picture is already framed. Okay, on to the PPV. Overall, it was yet another thumbs in the middle sort of show. I thought it had more good stuff than the typical WCW show of recent months, but the middle of the show was just so sad, with one uninspired effort after another, that it dragged the whole show down big time. In that sense, it was like a WWF PPV, at least the most recent one, although this show was sadder still, because a lot of these undercard matches had been well-hyped. On to the rundown. * Chris Benoit beat Jeff Jarrett in a semi-final match: They had a new grid of TVs over the entranceway, sort of like the WWF's Titantron. Benoit had a Canadian flag on his butt. The photos he was signing and giving away for free at the above-mentioned event were shots of him in his old Four Horsemen tights. The start of this match had simply awesome work by Chris Benoit. They did an incredible top rope superplex. The match had tremendous heat, something that would be missing from all of the non Bret Hart matches to follow. They went outside. Benoit ended up getting crotched against the post. The crowd chanted his name. Jarrett went on offense and got some quick near falls. He looked worlds better than any WWF match I can remember from his most recent run. He did a jawbreaker to get out of a sleeper. Bobby Heenan called Jarrett a superior wrestler. Benoit hit the medley of German suplexes for a two. Creative Control came out. Sigh. Benoit fell out of the ring. He hit a crossbody, but Jarrett countered it for a two count. They did some wonderful chain wrestling. Benoit hit the headbutt. Creative Control spoiled the pin. The crowd booed loudly. Dustin Rhodes came out of the crowd and saved Benoit. The guitar came in the ring. The referee was occupied. Benoit totally nailed Jarrett with the guitar, with Jarrett bleeding hardway from the shot. Benoit got the pin at 9:25. They attacked Benoit. This was a really good opener. I wasn't really bothered by the shenanigans at the finish because they didn't change the finish that would have occurred when Benoit had JJ covered after the headbutt. Backstage Jarrett attacked Disco Inferno who was getting ready to come out for his match. * Evan Karagias beat Disco Inferno to win the Cruiserweight Title: Tony Marinara told Inferno to get up after the beating by JJ. He sort of pushed Disco to the ring. Evan attacked him in the aisle. Marinara did commentary. I find him annoying. Match was hard-worked, but there were lots of flubs and it was sort of simple because Karagias isn't good. Disco dumped Evan out of the ring. Madusa helped him up. Poor Madusa is just too old to play her sexpot role; did you know she had her first boob job in 1988? Man, wrestling sucks in some ways. Disco came out with a double axehandle, but Karagias dropkicked him. The went back in. This was like an ECW match, in that the action didn't really build, it was disjointed, it was sloppy, but it was apparent that both guys put out a lot of effort. 6:00 in, a boring chant sprung up. As Heenan talked about how focused Disco Inferno was, Disco left the ring to try to sex up Madusa. Heenan looked like an idiot. Marinara also went after Madusa. Evan attacked Marinara, and Disco accidentally chaired him. Evan came in with a crossbody for the pin at 7:59. Backstage, Vince Russo told Jarrett that he had until the end of the night to prove himself. Shit, screwjob coming up. * Norman Smiley beat Brian Knobs to win the new hardcore title: Jimmy Hart wheeled out some plunder. Norman was dressed like a hockey goalie. As he was attacked, Norman screamed. Garbage wrestling. It didn't go long, but it still got bad quickly. Knobs removed Norman's protective gear, and they started walking around. They went backstage and did the usual crap. They brawled into a food area. They went into an elevator, which I guess was supposed to be a unique hardcore spot. It sucked. When the elevator opened again, Jimmy Hart swung his chair. But the wrestlers had reversed positions, so Hart whacked Knobs and Norman got the pin at 7:27. Afterwards, Knobs seemed to dump Hart. The show had gone bad. * Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn & Asya beat Billy Kidman & Eddie Guerrero & Torrie Wilson: This was an elimination tag match. It promised some good action and managed to deliver on that front, but it was also largely about the women and storylines, so it wasn't anywhere near as good as it should have or could have been. They seem to be doing a gimmick where Perry Saturn delivers a goofy piece of the Revolution interview every time out. Not sure where that's going. Torrie even tried to cut a promo before the match. Saturn and Kidman hit topes early on. A fan with a Canadian flag was carted off. Torrie & Asya fight. At just under 3:00, Kidman was pinned because he and Eddie were both trying to look after Torrie, who had seemingly injured her ankle. Storylines took over. How could you take one of the greatest workers on the show and give him barely two minutes of ring time? Ass backwards. This is meant to lead to Kidman leaving the Filthy Animals, who honestly have only been positioned as jobbers (despite having the tag titles). Konnan came out, checked on Torrie, and then walked off. Billy was also gone. If he was so concerned about Torrie, why would he then leave? Asya suplexed Eddie. Eddie was great. He hit a rana on Dean at the 5:00 mark. This match was on WWF Surivor Series time, which sucked, since these guys can actually wrestle. Asya got more offense in on Eddie. Saturn superkicked her by mistake. Eddie hit the frog splash and eliminated her at 6:30 or so. There was a chant at this point, either of "puppies" or "Rocky," neither of which showed respect for the wrestler, but either of which showed that the fans had been totally lost since the opening match. Death Valley Driver, but Eddie kicked out. Shane was doing commentary and tried to make that kick out a big deal, even though the other commentators were nonchalant. The big elbow missed. Eddie hit a rana for a two count. Saturn got the Rings on for the submission at just over 10:00. Torrie was all scared, but still snuck in a low kick. Saturn hit her low, which just seemed weird, and got the pin at 11:15. * Buff Bagwell beat Curt Hennig in a loser must retire match: Just before the match, Jeff Jarrett attacked Bagwell backstage. The new creative guys had to use the same angle as two matches before. Jarrett came to the ring and said he'd eliminate Curt Hennig. For some reason, the bell rang. Buff came out to save, selling the earlier attack like the Rock would (which means not at all). Hennig attacked Bagwell. They did a headlock spot at 5:00, so the crowd did a light "boring!" chant. Hennig carried the offense, but Bagwell hit a blockbuster out of nowhere. The fans applauded Hennig afterwards, as if they honestly believed he wouldn't be on Nitro the next night. Match ran 8:14. * Bret Hart beat Sting in a semi-final match: Bret came out wearing a Wayne Gretzky shirt. Have you seen their commercial? Maybe it only airs in Canada. It's pretty funny. They basically just shoved and brawled for a few minutes. At 3:30, Sting hit a low blow. Sting was all confused, like he wanted to work the match as a babyface, but the Canadian fans weren't about to cheer him when he was facing Bret Hart. Sting did a splash on the commentators' table. Lex Luger came in with the baseball bat. He went for Bret, but he hit Sting's leg, or so we were supposed to believe. Hart laid out Luger. The referee gave Bret Hart the DQ win, but Bret asked for the match to continue. Sting applied the Scorpion, but Bret managed to power into a reversal, I guess because of the injury to Sting's leg, and put on the sharpshooter for the submission at 10:12. This was not as good as I'd expect from a 10-minute Bret Hart match, but I'd be willing to lay the blame on Sting, since he seemed out of it. * El Vampiro beat Berlyn in a dog collar chain match: Steve Williams & Ed Ferrara came out with a bottle of barbecue sauce. They are calling Ed "Oklahoma." It was still tasteless the second time around. It was also still funny in spots, but, for me, the tastelessness overruled the comedy. The story is that Williams was released by the WWF at the start of November. They had told him that he need to work an FMW show, despite his injury, but he didn't want to breach his loyalty to All Japan. That gave them cause to can him. He is apparently into this angle because, among other things, he blames Jim Ross for cutting off his storyline in the WWF because Ross didn't want to do the crazed heel commentator deal. Since Russo and Ross were always in each other's hair, that left Russo the opening to get Williams canned. In the end, it seems like Williams blames Ross more for his failed WWF run than he blames Russo. Anyhow, this match sucked. Berlyn dumped the referee. The Wall basically worked over Vampiro, and pretty much worked the early part of this match. I'm not sure that the words "work" and "match" really apply. Wall put the collar on, choke slammed Vampiro (why do all of the big piece-of-crap wrestlers use that move?), and went for a cover, but Berlyn pulled him off. They traded words, with Wall walking off. Somehow, Vampiro got a camel clutch with the chain across Berlyn's neck for the submission. I didn't note a match time, but can say that it was less than 6:00. Steve Williams went into the ring and destroyed everybody. * Meng beat Lex Luger: The Powers That Be forced Lex to be in the match even though he claimed that his neck was injured by Bret Hart earlier on. The commentators deduced that this was a ruse so that Luger could wear a neck collar in the ring to avoid the death grip. So, instead the death grip was put on all viewers of this match. There was a sign in the crowd from a delusional fan, reading "Meng = ratings", but I think he had inadvertantly folded the bottom piece over so we couldn't read the word "death" underneath. There was no heat at all, the story of most of the matches on this show. I can't wait for wrestling to take its downturn, 'cause it might actually become wrestling again. Liz sprayed Lex by mistake, Meng removed the brace, Meng hit the death grip, and Meng got the pin at 5:20. * Scott Hall beat Booker T: Earlier on, they announced that Rick Steiner had to forfeit the TV Title to Hall because Steiner was unable to appear (having been powerbombed through the stage by Sid). Both the US & TV Titles were on the line. Booker looked great. Hall didn't. Shouldn't this match have meant something? Rhetorical question. It was a total nothing match. It sucked huge. Jeff Jarrett screwed Booker for some unknown reason. I guess Booker is causing the Powers That Be trouble because of his new female friend. Match ran a measly 6:05. Midnight did make the save. She throws great looking punches and has huge thighs. How long before she gets huge implants? * David Flair faced Kimberly: Tony said this was one of the "marquee match ups" on the show. What the hell? Kimberly came out in a sexy top with spaghetti straps, revealing that she couldn't be wearing a bra. She really worked it while walking to the ring. She kicked him low, he decked the referee. She cowered. She begged. She crawled towards him. It was like Sherri Martel & Ultimate Warrior all over again. She reached up to unbuckle his pants. We were supposed to believe that this married sexpot was going to perform oral sex on the young Flair in the ring on a PPV to avoid him attacking her. Vince Russo has a family, but he sure must have been messed up by women earlier in his life. Anyhow, Kim pulled out David's protector and hit him low again. She choked him, swinging around madly, with the camera working hard to get a boob shot. Kanyon ran in. Flair laid him out with the crowbar. DDP came in and laid out Flair. Oh no, is DDP back? Arn Anderson saved David, who hit him with the crowbar. Arn was stretchered out. The fans barely cared about any of this marquee match. No bell ever rung, I believe. Somehow, all of this will bring Ric Flair back, I guess. * Goldberg beat Sid in an "I Quit" match: Bobby Heenan kept pushing that neither of these guys would quit. After an initial burst by Goldberg, Sid took control. Goldberg actually drew a "Goldberg sucks!" chant, which means that Vince Russo has apparently not quite figured out how to push him either. Goldberg put on a choke, which knocked out Sid. The referee called the match even though nobody quit. Now, that sucked! The whole point of this gimmick match is that you get to hear the heel cave in and yell, usually in a begging voice, "yes, I quit!" Goldberg didn't want the win, but he got it at 5:26. * Bret Hart beat Chris Benoit to win the WCW Title in the tournament final: Dean Malenko came out to attack Chris Benoit. Dean was dressed as a Canadian fan. Bret was offense early on. Benoit countered a rope whip with a tombstone. He did the headbutt. This match was really good, despite all of the shenanigans, but it certainly would have been better without any of them. It wasn't as good as their Nitro match. Hall & Nash came out. They pulled out the referee. Hall hit a fallaway slam on Benoit. Since the plan was to put Hart together with Hall & Nash, you have to think that all of these supposedly unwanted interactions between Hart & the Outsiders, all of which strangely benefitted Hart, will be revealed to be part of some master plan when Hart turns heel. I would love to see Hart vs. Benoit as a headline program then. Anyhow, who knows if that will happen. Goldberg came out to spear Nash. Hall chaired Goldberg. Hart beat up Hall. Benoit recovered and the Outsiders retreated. Back to the wrestling match. Mickey Jay came in to referee. As Goldebrg attacked the Outsiders in the aisle, they showed that over the match in the ring. That was lame. Finally, they put up a split screen. Benoit went after Hart's ankle. Figure four, rope break. Hart rallied, but sold his leg. Backbreaker for a two count. Top rope superplex. Russian leg sweep for a two count. A series of german suplexes. A dragon suplex, no, counter, crossface, awesome escape. Bret hit the sharpshooter for the submission at 17:47. Afterwards, they hugged. This was a really good match, but all of the surrounding stuff bugged me too much. RAW RAW on 11/22/99 aired overnight on TSN in Canada. The show opened with Mankind & Al Snow dropping a quickie 3:00 match to the Hollys. Bob Holly just signed a new contract with the WWF. WCW was interested in getting him. It sure is sad to watch to Mankind these days. The Observer reports that Mankind will finally take a long vacation and that Foley has said he realizes he only has a year or two left in the business. They did a lot of talking the DX vs. McMahon & co. feud. It sure seems like that will end with Test joining DX. They've said they've got a new member, Test has done some subtle heel teases, etc. Kurt Angle faced Mark Henry. The crowd booed Angle. He laid into Henry for not "pulling through for the good old US of A." Angle put on an armbar, which Henry pretty much no-sold. Henry lifted Angle and dropped him. They caught the same "WWF is Immoral" sign in the crowd. Angle got a suplex win on Henry in less than 2:00. Backstage, Vince McMahon rammed the DX limousine with his car. That was a good angle. Vince tried to break into the DX locker room afterwards. Godfather faced Chris Jericho. That same fan at ringside held up a sign saying "WWF is Porn." I wonder where this angle is going. Godfather's entrance is so over, but his in-ring work is pitiful. Poor Jericho gets to work with the worst wrestlers in the company. Jim Ross immediately reminded us that Godfather beat Jericho last time they faced each other on RAW. Jericho tossed a particularly shapely ho at the Godfather outside the ring. The hos attacked Jericho. Jericho hit a lionsault for the pin at 2:01. JR: "I guarantee you: beating the Godfather is not easy." The police showed up to take down Vince McMahon. They arrested Vince, handcuffing him. At that moment, of course, DX burst out of their locker room, with HHH whacking Vince. The cops broke things up and took Vince away. Edge & Christian faced Dudley Boyz. Match was pretty messy, with Edge & Christian getting the pin after a superplex by Christian while sitting on Edge's shoulders. Vince arrived at the police station. We saw Stephanie's bridal shower. How stupid. Jeff Hardy faced X-Pac. Hey, X-Pac finally had the chance to have a good match. Terri Runnels kept flashing her bra. After some interference, Jeff hit the senton bomb, but Road Dogg made the save. DX ended up getting up the pin for X-Pac at 3:33. Way too short to be anything worthwhile. At the bridal shower, Mae Young smashed into the cake, as she seemed to build an issue with Moolah again. Big Slow faced Kane. Yes! My favourite pairing of 1999. These guys have the capability to deliver a match as bad as anything we've ever seen. You've got to hand it to Big Slow. He was in the doghouse for so long because he couldn't keep his weight down; even liposuction didn't help. But he stuck to his guns, kept his fat together, and finally the promotion had no choice but to put him in the top spot even though he has no self-discipline whatsoever. Forget about losing the weight, Big Slow, we'll just let you wrestle in a t-shirt. Tori watched on. They kept cutting to her concerned expression, so we couldn't fully appreciate how bad the match was. Viscera came out to take Tori away. Inside the ring, the two big stiffs had each other ready for choke slams. Kane rescued his woman, only to be counted out. Viscera stumbled into the ring, taking a slam from Viscera. Match went a measly 3:07, but it was still among the worst TV matches in recent memory. HHH did an interview, essentially reminding us that he challenged Vince McMahon to a match at the December PPV. Shane come out and said that Vince would accept the match. DX tried to four-on-one Shane, but Test, Patterson, Brisco, Hardy Boyz, and Acolytes (who were to face HHH later) all ran in. Too Cool faced Val Venis & British Bulldog. During the entrances, Jim Ross asked the fans to write to the WWF's sponsors to thank them for supporting the show. He said this was a countermeasure to fight a protest write-in campaign. It's no secret that Coke just dropped their contract with the WWF. Val walked out as Bulldog got destroyed by Too Cool. The Posse hit the ring to save Bulldog. What a mess. Rakishi Fatu ran in to attack the Posse. He did the butt drop on the Posse. Rakishi danced with Too Cool afterwards. Big Boss Man & Prince Albert faced Rock. Rock announced that his partner would be the people. Rock did okay for a few seconds, but by the 45 second mark Jim Ross was already calling the match "carnage." By 2:00, JR was alreadyy astounded that Rock could kick out. I hate matches like that. Could you imagine a match in the 1980s between name wrestlers where that sort of commentary or match development would be accepted? Is this progress? Backstage, Mick Foley & Al Snow watched on. Foley came out to stand in Rock's corner, with Rock tagging him in at 2:50. While Foley put out the title contending Big Boss Man with the socko claw, Rock hit the elbow on Albert. The Toronto Sun, in reporting the results from the WWF Skydome show last weekend, called Rock's pair of finishing moves the "Smackdown" and the "People's Elbow." You figure it out. Foley looked sad. Like Terry Funk, Jake Roberts, and others before him, he's holding on only by using his mind in the ring. Match ran 3:54. Rock sort of stormed off, instead of celebrating with Foley. They showed Vince McMahon finally being realized on bail from jail. It sure was nice of that police station to let the WWF camera man film all of those segments. HHH faced Acolytes in a handicap match. I'm not sure who was handicapped in this match; maybe the viewers? They brawled around ringside. Jerry Lawler said "This is bad" but he didn't mean it the way I would. The commentators said that HHH was trying to run away, which made him seem weak. They walked all over the place. There was no heat. At 4:00, Lawler said the Acolytes should mercifully pin HHH. The referee and a replacement referee were dumped. Match was no DQ. Earl Hebner came in. Finally, the Acolytes miscued, with Bradshaw clotheslining Faarooq. HHH tried to run away. As he went up the ramp, Vince McMahon came out with a chair and whacked HHH across the back. He tossed HHH off the stage onto a table, sort of similar to the bump that Rick Stainer took from Sid. The commentators said HHH landed on the concrete, but the camera shot of him lying there revealed that to be nonsense. They also said it was a 15 to 20 foot drop. Yeah. Sports entertainment finish, with no bell ever ringing. Nitro Nitro on 11/22/99 continued the attempt to build momentum in the promotion. At least there's some potential for goodness now that Bret Hart is the champ. In Canada, TSN aired a 2:30 version of the show. The show opened with Bret Hart coming to the ring; hey, the title belt even had his name on it! Bret dedicated his title victory to Stu. Bret offered Bill Goldberg a title shot at Starrcade; the fans delivered a slight boo at the realization that the challenge wasn't for this night of television. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash came out. Oh lord, it seems possible that they are still planning to have Bret Hart turn and join up with the Outsiders. You know that they can't screw Goldberg out of the title at Starrcade in a routine way. Scott Hall wore a t-shirt from the Landing Strip, a strip club near Toronto's airport. Hall & Nash could disappear tomorrow. The fallout was that the Outsiders challenge Hart & Goldberg to a tag match. At least they did all of that in 9:00. Before Hart could leave the ring, Jeff Jarrett snuck into the ring and guitared Bret. Jarrett used "slapnuts" as an insult; Russo had to fight with the standards and practices department to get permission to use that word on TV. Jarrett left with the title. Curt Hennig was interviewed; he said he wouldn't wrestle for WCW again, but that he wanted to see his fans. Tony Marinara & two goons talked about attacking Disco Inferno. Lex Luger told the Power That Be that he wanted to arrange for Meng vs. Liz tonight. Creative Control faced Billy Kidman & Konnan for the WCW Tag Titles. Okay, if the Powers That Be control things, surely the referee would just find the first opportunity to rule against the Animals and pass the titles to Control. Tony explained that he didn't know which of the Control members was Patrick and which was Gerald. "We've been told that neither one wants to be called Patrick." That's so funny. Kidman got demolished in the first minute. Russo sure seems to have positioned the Animals as jobbers, despite holding the tag titles. Kidman hit a bulldog for a comeback. The crowd supported the Animals. They showed Eddie Guerrero & Torrie Wilson in the locker room. Kidman left the ring to go challenge Eddie over Torrie, abandoning Konnan. In-ring action was atrocious. Control got the pin on Konnan at 3:14. Backstage, Kidman attacked Eddie in the locker room. Goldberg told Bret to take of Jarrett tonight and said that he would take care of the Outsiders, teasing that he had a partner in mind. They showed a limousine arriving, suggesting that it contained Goldberg's partner. Jeff Jarrett faced Bret Hart. JJ came out with Creative Control, with JJ wearing the WCW Title. Creative Control didn't wear the tag titles. Bret lends the promotion credibility. Bobby Heenan called somebody "Jeff Hart." Jarrett dumped Hart, and they brawled outside, with Hart taking lumps. They did some stuff on the commentators' table. Back in the ring, JJ got some two counts. Did anybody believe that he could win? JJ put on the sleeper. Bret whipped JJ to the ropes, and they did a double clothesline spot. Bret started his comeback. Punches, russian leg sweep, elbow off the ropes, two count. Backbreaker, two. JJ rallied with a clothesline off the turnbuckles. They did a wonderful sunset flip with a drop down counter. More near falls. Finally, Hart tried for the sharpshooter, but JJ kicked off. Control tried to go after Hart. The ref stopped them. Why? During this, Dustin Rhodes snuck into the ring and knocked out JJ with a belt shot. Bret took the cover for the win at 8:30. Billy Kidman faced Eddie Guerrero. Torrie Wilson came out with Kidman. The commentators announced that Arn Anderson was fired. I think the crowd chanted for puppies. They went out of the ring straightaway. This should be a match of the year, but they had to make it all story and give it just a few minutes on TV. Key spot saw Eddie accidentally headbutt Kidman in the crotch during a leapfrog. Eddie asked the referee to stop the match, but Kidman yelled not to stop it. The commentators missed it. The Revolution came out to destroy Konnan. Kidman stopped Kidman from hitting the shooting star because she wanted to tell him about Konnan. That allowed Eddie to dump Kidman and hit the frog splash for the pin at 4:37. Boy, the Animals really looked strong this night. Meng faced Liz. Well, Luger had a forklift bring a cage containing Liz to the ring, as Liz protested. Liz had locked herself in the cage to protect herself. Meng tried to break the cage. Liz cowered. Lex came in the ring to give Meng the key. Meng put the death grip on Luger. As Meng pulled the cage apart, Sting came in to bat Meng. Match ran 1:25. Sting opened the cage and then walked off. Liz ran from the ring and walked to the back. Backstage, the Outsiders acted all drunk. They did a horrible SNME-type skit with Jim Duggan. Funny how "horrible" and "Duggan" have fit so naturally together in the same sentence for so many years. Ryan Shamrock debuted, hanging out with the Maestro backstage. Lash LeRoux faced Disco Inferno. Disco did no prematch stuff, with the idea being that he wanted to get the match over with in the hopes of escaping Tony Marinara. The match continued with wiseguy lumberjacks. Ringwork was good action, albeit a little sloppy. LeRoux got the pin at 2:27. Afterwards, Disco was thrashed. LeRoux saved him by using a chair. Disco & LeRoux put Marinara in a body bag. Disco walked off looking like he was sorry for surviving. Spice faced Tigress. They made Ivory look like Mitsuharu Misawa. "This is great!" yelled Heenan. Spice sold an eye rake like she was badly hurt. Finally, Sky, a new Nitro Girl, came to the ring to help. No, she whacked Spice with her loaded purse. They did a makeover on Spice, painting her face with make-up. I don't even want to call this a match. Meng did an interview challenging Sting. With Spice still in the ring, Curt Hennig came out. He said bye. Roddy Piper came to the ring. He started cutting a promo against the Powers "To" Be, until his microphone died. Piper ran (that's a generous description) to the back. Piper burst into Russo's office. Luckily, cameras were everywhere. Russo laid into Piper: one hip, pushing 50. He told him to go spend time with Hogan & Flair. Piper said he had a contract, so Russo made him a referee. Booker T faced Buff Bagwell. Creative Control came out to attack Buff. Curt Hennig ran in to stop Control, just so that he himself could lay into Buff. Hennig is now a flunky for the Powers That Be. The lights dropped and Midnight hit the ring. She knocked down one Control member and Booker took the other. Backstage, Russo welcomed Hennig to the family. Asya faced Madusa. Evan Karagias & Perry Saturn accompanied the women. They immediately brawled outside the ring. Asya was tossed in the ring, and, as Madusa crawled in, time stood still. Poor Madusa had to gesture to Asya to come over and kick her in the head coming in. This was so sad. Why is women's wrestling like this in North America? As Asya put a head scissors on Madusa, Saturn nailed Evan outside the ring. Madusa submitted at 2:20. Dean Malenko faced Chris Benoit in a flag match. Dean Malenko said that he would capture and burn the Canadian flag. Sigh, shouldn't Benoit get a win over a "star" if they want to push him as a topflight guy? The crowd did a "USA" chant. I don't know why they put Benoit in this spot. Tony Schiavone announced that the winner would be the guy that captured his own flag. Benoit brought Malenko's gasoline cannister into the ring. This match was such a mess. Malenko finally climbed to the top rope and grabbed the Canadian flag. The commentators then announced that Malenko was the winner. Match ran maybe 4:00. With Malenko laid out, Saturn climbed to the top rope, grabbed the US flag, tossed it into the oil drum as well, and set about putting both flags on fire. Before he could, Bret Hart made the save. He gave Chris the Canadian flag. They waved the two flags. What a mess. They can't saddle Benoit with being Bret Hart's little buddy. Juventud Guerrera met with Russo. They started his visa trouble angle. The idea, as widely reported, it for Juvi to end up with a transvestite bodyguard. Meng faced Sting. Meng attacked. Meng is horrible. I don't see him as being any different from Kane, for example. Liz stood at ringside. She had offered Sting any help he might want, but he said he didn't buy her story. Sting hit a couple of splashes. Lex Luger surfaced at ringside to talk with Liz. Sting took out Luger. Meng hit the death grip on Sting for the surprise win at 2:34. I just don't get it. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash faced Goldberg & Sid. Sid was Goldberg's surprise partner. The commentators explained that the two of them have formed a bond out of mutual respect. Sid is in line for a big babyface push, which is just what we need. Match was not good, but it at least had some heat. The commentators called the Outsiders the premiere tag team in the promotion. The WWF commentators call the New Age Outlaws the best tag team in WWF history. Why do these great tag teams have not one great match to their records? Hall took the spear. Sid hit the powerbomb. Nash made the save while the referee had his back turned. Match ran maybe seven minutes. They pushed Nash vs. Goldberg afterwards. Now that's a match we need to see. - Chris Jericho's appearance on "Off the Record" on TSN on Friday was highly unnotable. He was part of a panel discussing all kinds of stuff, none of it particularly interesting to the purpose of this page. Carl DeMarco (WWF Canada president) and Christian were on CITY TV Friday night, working a call-in show. It was also pretty lame, with callers asking about how they got into wrestling. They said that Edge was in the crowd during a taping of the Dini Petty show (a Toronto talk show), when Bret Hart was on as a guest. Edge asked Bret how he could become a pro-wrestler. That led to Edge joining Ron Hutchinson's school in Toronto, indy work, and the eventual discocery. - Entertainment Extra aired another piece on Sable on Friday night. Nothing new as far as we are concerned. They also hyped a segment for Monday's show, dealing with Hulk Hogan. Hogan is working his storyline, telling the show that the new creative team wants him out because he's 46 year old. "Is Hulk Hogan fighting age discrimination?" Tune in. Shoot me now. - The local paper had an article talking about the "WWF The Music Volume 4" CD. They said it sold 215000 copies, enough to hit number 4 on the charts, outselling Backstreet Boys, Foo Fighters, and others. The story had a lot of wrestling content, but nothing new to anybody reading this. - - 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. ______________________________________________________________________