______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had Armageddon on 12/12/99. I really didn't have a lot of interest in this show going in. Everybody had to anticipate Stephanie McMahon turning on her family; the question was exactly how would they play it out. The undercard had a few matches that were given minor angles for development, but they all seemed to suck on paper. The WWF Title match looked to be horrendous and likely very short. And the women would probably deliver more butt thong shots. Here the company is more successful than ever before, yet the product has no wrestling content. In the end, then, it's no surprise that I didn't come away thinking too highly of the show. * Dudley Boyz won a battle royal: Match had Dudleyz, Edge & Christian, HeadBangers, Hardy Boyz, Rodney & Pete Gas, Acolytes, Too Cool, Godfather & Mark Henry. If one team member was tossed out, the other member was eliminated as well. The Posse kept pulling the switch with Joey Abs. Battle royals generally suck on PPV, and this one was no different. At less than 2:00, the Posse was gone. Less than 90 seconds later, Headbangers and Mark Henry & Godfather were gone. 90 seconds later, Too Cool was gone. 80 seconds later, Edge & Christian were gone. In between all of these rapid eliminations, nothing really happened. Lots of punching and rope grabbing. 90 seconds later, D-Von was tossed out. 45 seconds later, Matt Hardy & Bradshaw both went out but the referee missed the landing, so he ruled that the match should continue. The commentators were a bit confused about whether the remaining two guys would duke it out, or whether all four were still involved. A minute later, Faarooq was tossed out, but the referee missed it again. All four came in again. Bradshaw bumped for a missed dropkick. One minute later, Jeff took a high bump over the top for the loss at 10:54. Jeff will do anything to get over. I hope he survives to be a headliner against Jericho in a few years. There were loud boos for the decision, as the Hardy Boyz already got a strong reaction coming out. * Kurt Angle beat Steve Blackman: Really boring. The crowd even started a "boring" chant. Neither of these guys are interesting right now. Bad match, but it only went 7:18 before Angle got a suplex win. * Miss Kitty won the Women's Title, beating Barbara Bush & Ivory & Jacqueline in a four corners evening gown match: For some reason, they decided to put the match in a swimming pool. So, these four women chased each other through water trying to rip each other's clothes off. Unlike Big Slow, they at least had an excuse for lumbering around. Jackie was first gone in 0:53; her bra barely contained her. BB Bush was next out, merely a few seconds later. Everybody wore a butt thong. Ivory tried to rip BB's bra off on the platform, but she was unable to deal with the hooks. It seemed like she was supposed to rip it off, with BB covering herself up. Time stood still for a few seconds, before Ivory finally gave up. The crowd booed. Ivory was pulled back in the pool by Kitty. Kitty undressed Ivory for the win at 2:57. What a mess. The scary part was that the pull was beside a guard rail, with fans all jammed up to see the match. Of course, the fans at the rail were largely young boys, all screaming for breasts and watching these semi-naked women bounce around. There's something wrong with that, and don't say that the WWF bears no responsibility. Anyhow, Kitty cut a promo afterwards, saying that she promised she'd go naked. She ended up stripping to her bra and panties, jumping in the pool, and then taking her bra off on the platform. Tony Garea & Sgt. Slaughter covered her up. So, the WWF has crossed another line on North American wrestling PPV. The scary part is that those kids were right there at the guard rail. I have no problem with adding nudity and all of the sexy stuff to the package, but if you are going to promote this sort of product, you should have building security stop kids from getting into the building. I'll get e-mail telling me I'm overreacting to a pair of boobs, but the WWF product as it stands will really lead to some serious heat if any journalist ever decides to examine this crap closely. I wonder if the cable companies will get upset. They made sure to present it as performer breaking the rules and the promotion trying to stop it. * Hollys beat Rakishi Fatu & Viscera: Oh lord, this sucked. I don't know how anybody could call this anything else but crap. Viscera kicked Rakishi so the Hollys got the win at 4:23. * Val Venis beat British Bulldog & D'Lo Brown to win the European Title: D'Lo hit a nice dive early on. Bulldog has nothing left. He grimaces just standing there, and it isn't part of his gimmick. When he does his trademark suplex or powerslam, he looks like he's been stabbed with a knife. It's really scary that he feels like he has to do this. As a result, Bulldog stayed out of it pretty much, and the match was all D'Lo vs. Venis, with D'Lo clearly being so much better. They did a nice superplex spot, with D'Lo countering it with a sunset flip. Finally, D'Lo hit the frog splash on Bulldog and Venis hit his money shot splash on them, getting the pin at 8:37. * Kane beat X-Pac: This was a cage match, with Kane having to win by pin or submission, but X-Pac also able to win by escaping. Early on, it was bad, but what would you expect? Kane never has a good match, and, as the Observer says, X-Pac is the best worker in the world who never has a good match on PPV. X-Pac worked really hard, but this match had some incredibly stupid spots that annoyed me enough to rate it down. At 4:23, the New Age Outlaws ran out with bolt cutters to cut the chain on the cage door. They slammed the cage on Kane's head and tossed some stuff into the cage for an unconscious X-Pac to use when he recovered. The referee chased them off. From this point on, the door to the cage sat wide open, yet X-Pac would constantly try to climb out. It bugged me. Maybe you'll argue that because the door was locked originally, it was not a valid escape route even when it became unlocked. So, X-Pac handcuffed Kane to the cage and chaired him a few times. Instead of just walking out the door, he started to climb over the top. Kane ripped himself free, walked out of the cage, stood in X-Pac's descent path. Of course, X-Pac sat himself on Kane's shoulders, which seemed like a good idea for a spot to somebody, I guess: you see, his feet didn't touch the floor. As Kane walked back to the door of the cage, X-Pac didn't even try to grab at the cage and pull himself free. If he could somehow have fallen off of Kane, he'd have won the match, right? He sat there. Worse yet, when they got to the cage doorway, Kane leaned forward and poor X-Pac had to launch himself into the cage between the ropes. You really had to suspend your disbelief during this segment, if not the whole match. Kane hit his clothesline from the top of the cage, followed it with a tombstone, and got the pin at 8:30. It really wasn't that bad, due to X-Pac, but it was unbelievable. * Chris Jericho beat Chyna to win the IC Title: It showed the same weaknesses as their previous match: Chyna is green. Jericho chaired a table nowhere near hitting Chyna. He kissed Kitty. My first thought was that that would be a fun pairing. Chyna's ringwork was really green. She tangled herself in the ropes in slow motion. Jericho worked on her thumb. The match had good heat, but once again it was mostly due to Jericho. He uncovered the top turnbuckle, only to get slingshotted into it later. He did a superplex, with Chyna landing on top. Finally, Jericho hit the lion tamer for a submission at 10:19. They learned from last time, not leaving them out there long. Afterwards, Chyna shook his hand and congratulated him, which seemed to be the beginning of a double turn. After the reaction that he drew last time out, I guess they learned that he should be a face. * Rock & Mankind DQ Road Dogg & Billy Gunn: Match was sort of boring, with Rock actually showing the most fire, which surprised me. They went 16:16 before Al Snow ran in a second time getting the DQ. I couldn't believe they ran that long for that finish. Neither could the crowd. Rock got to his moves on Dogg & Snow after the match, making the crowd a bit more happy. I was still perturbed. * Big Slow beat Big Boss Man to retain the WWF Title: Slow ran out and started fast, which meant he was blown up in a minute. Thank god he was wearing a t-shirt to hide his gut, 'cause it must have been heaving in and out. Speaking of heaving, this was an awful match, but it was at least really short. Albert was choke slammed on the commentary table. Boss Man used the steps on Slow. Nobody in the crowd for a second bought Boss Man as a contender. Slow was posted and laid out on the floor. Jim Ross said, "Big [Slow] is motionless on the floor." Change on "on the floor" to "in the ring" and you describe all of his matches. Crowd chanted "boring" at 2:30. The wrestlers took this as their cue to go home, so they ended the match at 3:12 with a choke slam. What a world title match. * Hunter Hearst Helmsley beat Vince McMahon in a hardcore match: Vince used powder at the match open and started punching HHH. Stephanie, in a ringside seat for this match alone (you didn't expect her to suffer through the undercard, did you?), cheered her daddy. The crowd was pretty quiet. Just to show how easy this hardcore stuff is, Vince & HHH walked around. They walked all over. It was a good move, actually, because it they at least got some crowd response as they walked through sections and fans yelled and mugged for the camera. They walked some more. Finally, they were back at ringside, and Mankind brought out some weapons in a cart. Vince did object shots on HHH for a while. This match was just way too long for what they had to offer. They went back to a garage door they had already brawled in front off before. This time, it went up. The commentators said that somebody must have opened it, teasing a nonexistent runin. They brawled in the back, and the fans watched on the screen. Suddenly, HHH did a David Copperfield and disappeared completely. Vince went out in the parking lot looking for him. I changed channels looking for wrestling; I hear there was a wrestling PPV this night. The referee told Vince that HHH "took off." Out of the blue, HHH, in a car, drove at Vince, who jumped over the guardrail long before the car could hit him. The commentators wondered about whether the car had hit Vince, only admitting it wasn't close after the fourth replay. They brawled in the parking lot. HHH slammed Vince on top of a limo. It would have been cool if a celebrity or the Godfather and a semi-clad ho came out of the limo to see what the racket was about. They walked back in. From the parking lot all the way to the arena set. With only a couple of brawling shots along the way. Horrible crap, that. It's the World Walking Federation. HHH climbed a scaffold, trying to escape Vince's pipe. Vince followed him. Vince took a Nestea bump into a "bunker," which was clearly filled with mattresses. He bladed. HHH walked to ringside to berate Stephanie. She said she hates him. HHH dragged Vince to Stephanie, then back into the ring. HHH tried to use Vince's lead pipe, but instead went for his sledgehammer. The referee bumped, but got back up. As HHH teased killing Vince with a sledgehammer shot to the head, and while the commentators said he couldn't possibly do it, we were supposed to actually think it possible, I guess. Well, Vince kicked HHH low and piped him a few times. Vince got the sledgehammer and was going to whack HHH, but Stephanie, now in the ring, wanted to do it. Vince passed her the weapon. HHH disarmed her after she failed to hit him; he then whacked Vince in the gut. Pin by HHH at 29:47, a ridiculous length for what they could do. Afterwards, Stephanie looked worried about Vince, and HHH threatened to whack her. Of course, she laughed, he laughed, and they hugged and kissed. Everybody knew the finish, but they correctly did it anyhow. Too bad they had nothing else on the show to make this a worthwhile event. RAW RAW on 12/17/99 followed the Armageddon PPV the night before, no doubt playing up the McMahon family breakdown that occurred at the PPV. The show opened with Chris Jericho coming out with the IC Title around his waist. He cut a promo about him bringing credibility to the promotion, as the commentators stammered about Chyna shaking his hand the night before. X-Pac came out to challenge Jericho and an impromptu match took place. Chyna & Kitty strolled out to ringside to watch the match. Match had more good action than most RAW shows of the past many months, but it was really short, and they once again had little interest in making something of the best possible pairing that can be made from the WWF roster. Pathetically, at the 3:00 mark, Jericho hit the Walls of Jericho. X-Pac tapped, but Chyna was distracting the ref. She came in, shoved the referee, and Jericho got the DQ win at 3:24. Are they going to run with the storyline that Chyna wants Jericho to never get a deserved victory, thus tarnishing his title reign until she gets a rematch? Backstage, Shane McMahon confronted Stephanie & HHH. Shane lectured her about screwing with her family, which was pretty funny. She wore more make-up. Mark Henry faced Godfather. I had to catch the rebroadcast of the first half of the show on TSN, and they didn't show Godfather's entrance. Darn, but then I didn't expect to miss the ho entrance, since Godfather is never on WWF TV before 10pm; hey, that's what Vince says, right? They also didn't show Mark Henry's interlude with Mae Young, and they even blipped Jim Ross' commentary when he mentioned it during the match. Man, Godfather is the worst. Mae Young ran in to distract Godfather so Henry could get the win at 1:46. What a bizarre idea. Vince McMahon arrived at the building. He sledged his way into the DX locker room. Vince called out HHH. TSN played "press the mute button" and "show crowd shots," but it hardly affected the message. Stephanie came out, wearing loads of make-up and leather pants. Stephanie had to solidify her heel turn, 'cause talking is what wrestling is about these days. Stephanie said she loved Andrew, but she wasn't ready to get married....so she got married. Selective old angle recall: Stephanie reminded Vince that he had Stephanie abducted a year ago, burned her teddy bear, and strapped her to a cross, er, symbol, for a satanic ritual, er, wedding to the dark side. She married HHH to hurt Vince. As she walked up the ramp to HHH, Steph tried to switch he butt, but she doesn't have it. They kissed. This is wrestling. But, damn, the WWF production is just awesome. Vince & Shane left the building. Rock sure gets a loud pop, and his prematch routine is over. I sure wish he was a better than mediocre wrestler. Rock & Mankind faced the Dudley Boyz. Rock stuttered his "It doesn't matter..." line. Rock & Mankind got a DQ win at 3:00 because the Dudleyz had a chair in the ring. HHH said that the tag match was "no DQ"; Rock invited HHH down to the ring. Dudleys attacked them from behind. My screen faded black to a commercial. Back from the commercial, the match was still going on, with a dozen chair shots outside the ring. Buh Buh came away bloody, but did manage to dominate for 30 seconds in the ring. Outside the ring, the Dudleyz tried to kill Mankind before going back into the ring. The headbutt to the groin by D-Von was blipped by TSN in the afternoon. This is the long match that the promotion decided to finally deliver? Shit, who needs the Dudleyz? Buh Buh missed a senton and sold it like Big Slow sells punches, in other words, brutally. Mankind's mule kick to the crotch did get past TSN. Hot tag, people's elbow on D-Von, Buh Buh pulled the refere out. HHH & Steph came out again. A fake referee came out with the Vince McMahon mask on, counting the pin on Mankind at about 6:00 of what we saw. The referee was unmasked as Mankind. Afterwards, Rock pinned Buh Buh for the "official" win maybe a minute later. The Mean Street Posse congratulated HHH & Stephanie. They have to fight the Acolytes. At this point, I switched to my botched overnight tape of the show. Miss Kitty was in the mud pit and Tori jumped in to face her. Butt thongs. The commentators said they were in chocolate pudding. X-Pac came out in a wetsuit. Tori pulled him in, he landed on her, Kitty got the pin in maybe 2:00. Afterwards, Kane tossed X-Pac in the pudding, and the New Age Outlaws attacked Kane. They now call Miss Kitty the Cat. Cat threw Lilian Garcia into the pudding. Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross debuted a Steve Austin talking doll that didn't talk when they wanted it to. Ooops. "Folks, it really does work. It's a great gift idea." I'll wait for the Miss Kitty, er, Cat keychain. Guess the shape. Acolytes thrashed the Mean Street Posse. At the 1:00 mark, the Acolytes walked out of the ring after killing the Posse. I don't think a bell rang. Lawler then explained that the doll didn't work because they forgot to put a battery in it. Hardy Boyz faced Edge & Christian in a cage. Jerry Lawler made a point of saying that the only match that could top the ladder match these guys had is a cage match. What about a straight old wrestling match? Nope. These guys aren't polished enough. The crowd was dead silent, so Jim Ross told us they were in awe. Like "Aw, no nude women tonight. Aw, no profanity." Jeff tried a senton off the top of the cage. The crowd liked that. I thought it was insane. Jeff will apparently do anything to get over. Everybody calls him the next Shawn Michaels already; let's hope that he wakes up and limits his crazy bumps so he won't end up like Shawn Michaels did. Edge did a dive off the top of the cage as well. Since the rules were that the first escape won the match, the dives made no sense. Christian & Matt Hardy were both knocked off the cage at the same time, so the referee decided that the match had to continue. Jeff Hardy flipped over, but Christian ended up catching him on his shoulders. I guess they liked that stupid spot from the previous night. Edge tossed himself out of the cage for the win at 5:32. Athletic spot wrestling. Billy Gunn & Road Dogg came out. Gunn kissed his kids at ringside. Nice of him to bring his kids along so they can yell "Suck It!" Makes every daddy proud. They faced Kane in a triangle match. The idea of the night was that HHH & Stephanie were in control of the live show and were thus putting together matches that served their purposes. Kane hit the clothesline on Dogg and chokeslammed Gunn. NAO got a double pin win on Kane at 2:43. Jerry Lawler did the doll demonstration. Big Slow lumbered out. He faced both Big Boss Man & Prince Albert in a handicap match for the WWF Title. That weird symbol came up on the screen again, this time during Boss Man's entrance. Why don't they just ask the video guy who gave him the symbol tape? Or why he aired it? Boss Man gave up the pin to a choke slam at 2:00. Boss Man is the worst. Stephanie decided that the show needed a Tag Title match, so, with HHH agreeing to let her do what she wanted, she put together a match with Billy Gunn & Road Dogg against HHH & Test, saying that HHH had a partner with whom he had something in common. Yuck, yuck, get it, they both banged her. Well, that's what we are supposed to think, right? Outlaws attacked Test straightaway, laying him out outside the ring. Test was cheered on by Stephanie. HHH finally dragged Test overto the corner and made the tag. Of course, all three DXers destroyed Test, while Stephanie acted all evil. She slapped him. Her overacted facials are too much for me. They all did the DX celebration. Nitro Nitro on 12/13/99 continued to make me wonder about the supposed genius of Vince Russo. The story now (and, truthfully, since he joined the company) is that the big turnaround will take place at Starrcade, when everybody expects that Bret Hart will turn heel, essentially playing Shawn Michaels' role from Montreal. It sort of makes you wonder what stages Russo thinks he has set in building to this moment, even though we see a few obvious ones. The weird thing is that Russo was on Dave Meltzer's Eyada show and on WCW.COM saying some weird things. He said, for example, that babyface vs. babyface matches are tough to market on PPV and that people usually don't order them because they wanted heated rivalries with faces vs. heels. That confuses me: on the one hand, Starrcade will be the turnaround, and on the other hand it is expected that few people will order the show (babyface vs. babyface main). Maybe that explains why this week's Nitro did little to hype Starrcade. It seems like Vince Russo will try to manufacture a success story out of Starrcade, like the WWF has tried to do or done so many times. The show opened with The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iaukea facing the Maestro in the battle of the bad wrestlers with annoying gimmicks. Iaukea has absolutely no real Prince mannerisms down. The match was a paltry 1:55 squash with Iaukea going over (having lost his debut on Thunder last week). And these goofs took at least two or three times the time for their entrance. Bret Hart & Goldberg set up a match with the Outsiders. They have the nerve to call the Outsiders the greatest tag team in wrestling history even though they've never had a great match. Sort of reminds you of that other promotion's greatest tag team in wrestling history. Spice faced Madusa in a really match. Evan Karagias was getting his swerve on with Spice, so a jealous Madusa set this match up. Of course, Evan got in the ring. In a surprise, Spice charged everybody and somehow laid herself on top of Madusa in the ropes for the pin at 1:08. This is so lame. The edict came down that men can no longer attack women in any way. That means that Madusa will have to squash Evan at the PPV. Curt Hennig faced Buff Bagwell. Roddy Piper was the referee. Guess what? Yep, the match sucked. Piper was told that he had to "do the right thing" by putting Hennig over, which seems like something he frankly shouldn't be upset about given that he has heat with Bagwell. Oh wait, that was another booking era, so we don't care. Piper sure doesn't, since he gave Bagwell the quick count win at 4:55. Jeff Jarrett faced Chris Benoit in a bunkhouse brawl. Boy, this really made me look forward to the PPV. Benoit always works hard, so this was okay. The key spot was Benoit going for the swan dive headbutt off the top of a ladder. Jarret moved. Dustin Rhodes had come in. Jarrett hit Rhodes with a guitar. Benoit missed the headbutt, and Jarrett got the win. I was hoping this meant that Jarrett would lose at the PPV and that Benoit would win, but it isn't even certain whether Benoit vs. Scott Hall will take place at the PPV because of Hall's injury. Tank Abbott faced Meng. Well, that completely killed Abbott. There was a chance that people might have forgotten his one earlier appearance, so they still have done the outsider angle, but they burned that bridge here. Shit, you could tell that these writers have WWF experience, 'cause that is the one angle that the WWF could never do right either. They brawled into the aisle for the 1:28 countout. They kept brawling everywhere backstage throughout the show. I don't know why these supposedly smart writers believe that Meng means something to fans. Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn & Asya faced Harlem Heat & Midnight. It was funny because Midnight could get in offense on the guys, but they weren't allowed to touch her. Stevie Ray is so brutal. Midnight took a bump as Ray was being pinned. Booker T looked after her instead of saving him. Pin that Stevie didn't really want to give up at 4:40. In the funniest bit on the show, Rhonda Singh, dressed in Nitro Girls garb, entered the ring and took over a dance segment. It was funny largely because of her facial expressions. Steve Williams faced Sid Vicious in a suplex vs. powerbomb challenge. Match stunk yet again. And you wouldn't guess that El Vampiro showed up to screw around in the finish, leading to Sid hitting a powerbomb on Williams at 2:12. And, oh my god, they actually tried to get a move over! Backstage, Sid sold Nash's powerbomb, as a doctor checked him out. Lex Luger & David Flair faced Diamond Dallas Page & Sting. Hey, it's probably worth mentioning that these guys will have important PPV singles matches at Starrcade. Well, I think that would be pretty important to hype and that the finish should somehow serve that hype, but the compant thought better of it. David Flair used his crowbar, Liz placed Sting on Luger, and the match was over at 3:00. Now that, that, made me want to order the PPV! Bam Bam Bigelow faced Evelyn Champagne King, er, Chris Champagne Kanyon, who definitely does not make my love come down. Match was nothing special. I barely have the interest to write anything about this show. Not a good sign. Kanyon pinned Bigelow with his Flatliner at 4:08. Disco Inferno & Lash LeRoux faced Big Vito & Johnny the Bull. This was a body bag match, which of course meant that they never practised putting on the body bag. Man, these heels suck. LeRoux kind of put Vito in a body bag. Vito had to lie there forever. Match ran 5:10. Afterwards, the Italians bagged Lash and promised to throw him in the river. Don't worry though. I'm sure they'll let him go, despite all of the trouble that this guy has caused, so that they can have a PPV match on Sunday. What great writing! But wait, later when they open the body bag Norman Smiley was inside. How? Who knows? Paul Orndorff faced Creative Control. Orndorff was fired as coach/trainer at the Power Plant because he did too good of a job with Midnight, who keeps thwarting the PTB. Orndorff got the surprise win at 3:04 when Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko got involved in the finish. The idea is to put together a traditional force of old farts like this to feud with the PTB. I guess Piper and Hogan will fit in here too. Curt Hennig faced Roddy Piper. This was a chair match, which seemed like yet another way to avoid giving a finish. I guess the official verdict was that Hennig was counted out at 1:16. Finally, in the main event, Goldberg & Bret Hart faced the Outsiders for the Tag Titles. Bret Hart was attacked earlier in the night, so he was backstage selling his leg. Goldberg had to go it alone. Every time this story line happens, the guy that doesn't come out turns shortly thereafter, right? This time around, Hart finally limped out. Match was watchable, but hardly memorable, and definitely not something that said "greatest tag team in wrestling." With all four guys in the ring, Hart was whacked in the knee by Nash and pinned as Goldberg obliviously did his finishing moves on Hall. New champions at 6:20. - On 12/18/99, TSN aired a Canada-only "Best of Starrcade" one hour special. The show aired Roddy Piper vs. Hulk Hogan from 1996, Eddie Guerrero vs. Diamond Dallas Page from 1998, Hulk Hogan vs. Sting from 1997, and Bill Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash from 1998. - WCW had Starrcade on 12/19/99. Now, we went into this show with the idea, planted by Vince Russo himself, that this show was supposed to deliver the launching pad to greatness for the promotion. Given how totally crappy pretty much everything in the promotion has been for so long, it's easy to get caught up in what was noticeably better on this show and just ignore that by and large it still wasn't a great or even really good show. The improvements were pretty obvious from the get-go: everybody seemed to try to really hard, working harder than we've ever seen across the board on a WCW PPV in 1999. Effort is a good thing, but it alone can't make a show great, as evidenced by ECW and WWF PPVs, which have had good effort for a long while now. Unlike ECW shows, Starrcade at least didn't put guys out there twice as long as they are capable of. Unlike WWF shows, there was more actual wrestling on the show, and even the garbagy or spotty stuff at least had selling and even, gasp, accumulated selling. I guess I found it comparably good most of the time, but since I haven't thought very highly of most of what we've been given on PPV this year, that still doesn't mean much on an absolute scale. Rundown: * Big Vito & Johnny the Bull beat Disco Inferno & Lash Leroux: Vito started on Lash, always cutting off his comebacks. They worked really hard, really quickly, and quite stiffly, signalling a positive change from past shows. Still, with Big Vito & Johnny the Bull in there, it wasn't particularly good. It was better than I expected, though. Disco was tagged in to a good little pop. The Bull went on offense, but couldn't do anything, and he did it much more slowly. They two-on-oned Disco. Vito came back in. This is a good team for Vito, 'cause he actually looks like he has ability when compared to Power Plant grad Johnny the Bull. A scary thought. A huge change in this show was that the PPV commentary always focused on the match at hand. Scott Hudson joined Tony Schiavone & Bobby Heenan for commentary, adding something refreshing to the mix. Really, Tony should have been kicked off the show. The Italians did a double powerbomb/slam spot on Disco. Disco accidentally "last danced" Lash for the loss at 9:48. Afterwards, Disco was chloroformed, body bagged, carried to the back, "unbagged," and dumped in the trunk of the car, which then drove off. The bagging/unbagging was weird. Still, this was a positive opener, given where we had been in 1999. * Chris Benoit came out to announce that Scott Hall couldn't work the show because of his knee injury. As a result, Benoit was given the US Title. He made an open challenge to work a ladder match for the title against anybody. This was weird because the pregame show guys had already talked about Benoit's open challenge 45 minutes earlier. * Madusa beat Evan Karagias to win the Cruiserweight Title: The pregame show guys announced that this match would be Madusa vs. Spice, even promising a catfight, saying that Evan refused to right a woman. Well, he fought her. I guess Vince Russo got approval to do man vs. woman stuff on PPV, anyhow, because Evan was allowed to perform offensive moves on Madusa. Madusa opened with a cross body out of the ring onto Evan. Evan decked her and then missed a moonsault. Madusa hit a dropkick off the ropes. She was slammed off the top a la Ric Flair. They tried to do the Rick Steamboat/Ric Flair bridging pin escape, but it didn't work out, so the referee just stopped counting at two. They did the bridge 20 seconds later, while the commentators said that the ref must have seen a shoulder go up. They really had no business letting these two try to do a spot like that. Guillotine on Madusa, who tumbled to the floor. Evan hit a plancha. "Boring!" sprung up, which was too bad, because they were working hard. I save my own internal "boring!" chants for guys like Sid and Nash, who don't do anything. Spice, who had come out with Evan, called him over during the match. Angle alert. Sure enough, she punched him in the gonads, Madusa hit the German suplex, and we had a new champion at 3:33. It seemed like it went longer because they did squeeze a lot into the match. * Norman Smiley beat Meng to retain the Hardcore Title: Garbage wrestling, round one. They just pounded each other with objects. It was terrible. They went backstage. Norman ran away, diving through a curtain over a set of tables. He was tangled in the mess. Fit Finlay & Brian Knobs attacked Meng. Finlay whacked a "lead pipe" across Meng. They left Meng laying. Smiley resurfaced, kicked at Meng to make sure he was out, covered him with a hand, got the three count at 4:31, and ran off. Afterwards, Meng choked the referee. At least it was short. * Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn & Shane Douglas & Asya beat Jim Duggan & Mike Rotunda & Rick Steiner & Kevin Sullivan: Jim Duggan would have to renounce the US on Nitro the next night if he lost, and the Revolution would have to be janitors for 30 days if they lost. The Varsity Club came out as Duggan's mystery partners, with Kimona as their cheeleader. The camera tried to get a shot of her butt in the ring. No explanation was offered for Rick Steiner's return from his injury at the hands of Sid. The more things change, I guess. Douglas did commentary. Now, I find myself on the side that thinks that Douglas doesn't have much left, but his commentary stints have really done a good job when it comes to getting over the Revolution's story lines. This match was brutal, as Jim Duggan was in there most of the way. It was weird, as the commentators even wondered why he didn't tag. Finally, everyone came in. Asya was put in the tree of woe. Suddenly, the Varsity Club all attacked Duggan, while at the same time beating up the Revolution. I guess they were pissed that Duggan didn't tag? I guess that somebody figured that this turn would get them over as a group. I'm guessing that they are the packaging that will be wrapped around Steve Williams. Douglas went into the ring to get the pin on Duggan at 5:04. Great match times, these. * El Vampiro DQ Steve Williams: The Misfits put Oklahoma in a shark cage so that he couldn't run off if Vampiro won. If Vamp won, he was supposed to get give minutes with OK. That stip always leads to the face winning on a fluke, the heel manager getting some licks in, and the face just making the comeback at the end of the extra time. Doc laid out the Misfits. He hit all kinds of power moves, but still didn't look anywhere ready to work All Japan, if you get my drift. For no apparent reason, Doc tossed the referee. The five minute overtime started immediately. OK wanted to get in because Vamp was laid out. Doug Dillenger finally opened the cage. How did he get the key? Anyhow, OK went in, doing his own commentary for a few seconds, which is just about how long it stays funny. He did the Garvin Stomp on Vamp, which actually made me laugh. The Misfits resurfaced and eventually they and Vamp laid out OK. I guess that this will lead to a split with Williams, who will go to the Varsity Club. Hopefully, it kills Oklahoma. * Creative Control & Curt Hennig beat Harlem Heat & Midnight: The match was to determine which team was the number one contender to the tag titles. Before the match, Stevie said he wasn't watching Booker T's back. Booker & Midnight did the match themselves. Midnight shows so much natural ability, unlike all of the other musclebound women in the sport. They drew heat on Midnight. Stevie Ray came out, but Booker told him off. Hot tag. Stevie talked to the referee, as Hennig hit a loaded punch on Booker. While the pin was counted, Stevie & Midnight argued outside. Ray walked off in disgust. Match ran 7:54. * Jeff Jarrett beat Dustin Rhodes in a bunkhouse brawl: They started in the back during the prematch interviews. They walked into the arena. They brawled in the aisle, including some spots around a wheelbarrow. JJ was slammed into the wheelbarrow. Dustin used a bullrope and cowbell on JJ. He powdered JJ's eyes. Dustin then duct taped the referee to the ropes. Curt Hennig came out to free up the referee and interfere a few times. Jarrett hit a sleeper on Dustin for a chorus of boos. There's a move that doesn't work any more. On the third arm drop, Dustin lifted his arm back in the air and gave the finger. Dustin hit the shattered dreams on Jarrett. Hennig pulled the referee out. Dustin pulled in Hennig. Shattered dreams on him too. They brawled down the aisle. Jarrett picked up the guitar he had left there at the start and whacked Dustin with it for the win at 11:22. * Diamond Dallas Page beat David Flair in a crowbar on a pole match: Anything with David Flair is a joke. He crowbarred Page before the bell. The ref wanted to call the match, but Page said no. Flair controlled for a few minutes. It was bad. Figure four. It was really bad. David finally went for the crowbar, but DDP ducked and hit the diamond cutter for the win at 5:45. He did the move again, this time off the ropes. As he was about to crowbar Flair's crotch, the Flair groupie ran in to save him. * Sting DQ Lex Luger: This was the battle for Liz. Sting gave Liz a new spray can backstage. She slapped Lex. Hard work for these two, but it still was hardly good. Liz came in and tried to spray Sting, but the can he gave her had silly string in it. He swerved her. He hit a reverse atomic drop on Luger, with nothing but air. Clothesline, splash off the top, two count. Two stinger splashes, scorpion. No, Liz came in with the bat. He tried to talk her out of it, and she seemed to be leaving. But, no, Liz ended up whacking him across the face and upper chest with the bat. Afterwards, she put Sting's wrist in between the folding parts of a steel chair, and Luger stomped his arm and batted it. Sting didn't move again, selling that he was unconscious. "I don't think we're going to see Sting for quite a while." Sting was carried out. Match ran 5:25. * Kevin Nash beat Sid: This was a power bomb match. The first person power bombed would lose, as a way to avoid doing a pinfall job. Bobby Heenan said that "Nash has power bombed men well over 500 pounds." What the heck? They brawled outside. Man, do these two suck. Sid did the world's weakest chair shot on Nash. Sid was on offense. He was just way too slow. The crowd seemed bored. Sid tried to start a "power bomb" chant, but the crowd said nothing. Sid ended up doing a lameass power bomb on Nash, but the referee missed it. Jeff Jarrett ran in, guitared Sid, swept the ring, and Nash tried twice to power bomb Sid. But Nash's back was sore and he couldn't hit his own move. So he just told the referee that he did it, explaining that that was why Sid was laid out. The ref believed him, of course, signalling for the bell at 7:08. So, in this match which was designed to avoid a pinfall loss, they even avoided a clean power bomb loss. * Chris Benoit beat Jeff Jarrett to retain the US Title in a ladder match: Benoit was so fast and awesome from the get-go. He hit a superplex and then went for the ladder. Benoit bled near his eye or from his nose. They did a lot of creative and new spots, with the crowd applauding the stunts. The selling and accumulated selling, by Benoit in particular, was great, setting it apart from all of the other ladder matches. I'm not saying that it had stunts to rival those matches, but those matches had wrestling sensibility. Benoit climbed the ladder, touched the title belt, but instead hit the headbutt off the tope. He then climbed the ladder and took down the belt. The commentators called it a match of the year candidate. And in WCW it was. Match ran 10:21. * Bret Hart beat Bill Goldberg to retain the WCW Title: The shook hands. At 3:03, Goldberg hit a gorilla press power slam. Referee Billy Silverman bumped and was replaced by Charles Robinson. The match was no DQ. The refere bumps were more accidental, though. They brawled outside. Charles bumped, with Johnny Boone replacing him. Spear missed in the corner. Bret did the figure four around the post, but it was sloppy. "Goldberg!" chant. And it seemed real. Figure four in ring. Reversed by Goldberg. Hart's selling was grea. Goldberg hit stiff punches in the corner. Boone bumped. Spear. Piper came out to referee, looking like he just had an enema. Bret put on the sharpshooter, with Piper signalling for the bell before the move was even fully applied. Piper walked off with the title. Bret followed him. Piper gave him the title belt, and Bret looked confused. - There's been a lot of press in Canada given to TSN's wrestling broadcasts. Now, wrestling, particularly RAW, draws huge ratings for the channel, so there's no chance of them dropping the product. But push finally came to shove and the network has announced that starting in February 2000 it will no longer air wrestling during afternoon time slots. TSN will continue to air RAW at 9pm EST on Mondays, with a midnight repeat. Nitro will also be bumped to a late night slot only. TSN identifies RAW as being unsuitable for viewers under 18 years of age. Canada's airwave regulator, the CRTC, received 31 complaints about WWF wrestling on TSN in the past 16 months. - 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. - WCW has Souled Out on 01/16/00. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________