______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! _________________________________________________________________ Apologies to any WithAuthority readers who couldn't find me last week. The site is undergoing a major make-over and my pages will disappear there effective mid-March. TWC is now the only place to find me. _________________________________________________________________ [rm.gif] Movies of The Week It's causing widespread discussion: Vince McMahon was on TSN's Off The Record this week to discuss the WWF. I believe there's an erroneous transcript floating around, but nothing's better than actually seeing and hearing the real thing, right? Talk shows seem to convert to RealMedia files well. For wrestling clips, there is a lot of motion to capture, but "talking heads" have much less motion. As a result, the 20-odd minutes of a half-hour show takes only three megabytes of space, only 10 to 15 per cent more than the audio! I was incorrect in last week's article. I said that Dok Hendriks, Marc Mero & Sable would be on Off The Record last Friday, when Dok was in fact on with Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Chyna. Mero & Sable guested on the Canadian shopping channel. Anyhow, here are the RealMedia files for the shows. Remember, the movies stream now, so you can check these out without having to download a whole file. * Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Chyna, & Dok, Friday, 98/02/20. * Vince McMahon, Tuesday, 98/02/24. * Vince McMahon, Wednesday, 98/02/25. I'll discuss the segments a bit below. _________________________________________________________________ - WCW had SuperBrawl VIII this past Sunday. All in all, I think the show deserves a very mild thumbs up, even though I find it didn't reach my expectations. As usual, the undercard was good and the main events were not. Run-down: * Booker T beat Rick Martel to win the TV Title: A pretty good opener. Booker has turned into a really solid singles wrestler. He and Martel worked well together. Even though the match was fairly balanced, the crowd was behind Booker. I'm unconvinced that Martel can get over in the new wrestling environment of the 1990s; despite that fact that I like his old style, I just don't see it leading to any success for him. Finish was good: Booker went up for a top rope move, perhaps the somersault leg drop, but Martel got out of the way, teasing that he might in fact retain. After a quick reversal and run off the ropes, Booker hit the Harlem sidekick for the pin. It was announced a bit later that Martel suffered a knee injury during the bout. * Booker T beat Perry Saturn to retain the TV Title: Not as good as the last match. The story was that Booker was wiped out after his title victory and Saturn took advantage of his condition at every turn. Since the match was all Saturn's offence, it was more disjointed than the first bout. Finally, Booker rallied and hit a Harlem sidekick to win this match as well. * Disco Inferno beat La Parka: The crowd was not into either guy, with small chants of "boring" springing up now and again. What they did was good, though. Parka hit a couple of topes. They had a really stupid spot with a chair at the finish. La Parka apparently wanted to hit a top rope move on Disco, who was sitting in the chair acting dazed. Disco got out of the chair, catching La Parka on the top rope and seemed to be going for a superplex, but there was little chance of that. They jockeyed for position, with Disco stepping back onto the mat and eventually tossing La Parka off the top. La Parka took a stupid-looking face first bump on the chair, really landing on his feet, bending his head down to the chair, and slapping the chair hard. Sigh. One chartbuster later the match was over. Still, the PPV was good to this point. * Bill Goldberg beat Brad Armstrong: Goldberg has a fourth move now, added to his list in the past week. He presses his opponent and then drops him into a powerslam. This was a squash. It was really short and really intense, but it seemed severely out of place. * Chris Jericho beat Juventud Guerrera to retain the Cruiserweight Title and win Juventud's mask: Great match. I was nervous at the start, since Jericho did a lot of gimmicky stuff, including a funny spot where he lay on the ground outside the ring, acting knocked out while the referee counted, but sneaking looks into the ring when the ref wasn't looking. Sometimes entertaining, but it can't make a match. Luckily, the turned it up, leading to a false finish: Juventud hit the 450 splash, but Jericho grabbed the ropes on the third count. A celebrating Juvi had to be told that the match was going to continue. Jericho hit a schoolboy roll-up immediately, teasing that cliche reversal of decision, but Juvi kicked out. They ended up going a few more minutes with lots of wonderful close pins and for a moment it wasn't completely clear that Juvi was going to lose. Of course, Jericho did get the Lion Tamer on by countering a rana. After the match, Juvi reluctantly took his mask off and revealed his face. While the match was great, the importance of Juvi losing his mask was never really made clear in recent WCW TV, despite all of the efforts of Mike Tenay, and during this match, the commentators seemed more interested in hyping the main events. * Davey Boy Smith beat Steve McMichael: Bad match. Mongo really stunk. At one point, he jumped off the apron to deliver a double sledge onto a crawling Davey Boy Smith. It's impossible to describe how bad he mistimed every movement. Mongo ended up punching a post. Davey worked the wrist over a bit and finally hit a keylock armbar, getting a submission. Afterwards, McMichael claimed he never said yes to the referee while he was being asked if he wanted to quit. * Diamond Dallas Page beat Chris Benoit to retain the US Title: This was the match that disappointed me. There were a lot of good moments just watching Benoit do his stuff, but Page is not a good opponent for him. That really says something, since Benoit can work a good or better match with anybody. This was a good match, but it was far less than Benoit is capable of and even delivered in recent memory. After flipping backward while trying to hit a backslide, Benoit was immediately snapped into a Diamond Cutter. Not a bad finish. I'll live if I never have to see Benoit vs. DDP again. * Lex Luger beat Randy Savage in a no DQ bout: Luger came out with taped up ribs, selling the angle from Thunder. He tried for a gorilla press early on and his ribs hurt too much to pull off the move. They brawled around a bit. Savage seemed to work hard, as has been his routine in recent times, but Luger was also up (down?) to his recent standards, so there was nothing good to speak of here. Thankfully, there were no atomic drop or clothesline sprees from Luger. Luger did get Savage up for the rack, but Liz made the save. The NWO came out and Luger and Savage both swatted them away, which was the interesting story line part of the match. Luger then got Savage up in the rack and the NWO didn't save him. * Kevin Nash & Scott Hall beat Steiners for the WCW Tag Titles: Originally, Scott Steiner was going to face Buff Bagwell in a match on this show, but booking on the fly in the past week gave us this match instead. The Outsiders were accompanied by Dusty Rhodes in an Outsiders T-shirt; boy, I though wearing black was supposed to make one look thinner. Rick Steiner started the match and, after a couple of minutes, cleared the ring of both Outsiders. The Steiners then did their usual thing in the ring, ending with Rick in a crawl and Scott standing over him. That's when Scott turned on Rick, laying him out and encouraging the Outsiders to get the pin. Rick didn't stay down from Scott's assault, though, instead rallying for a couple of minutes before being put away with the Outsider Edge. Scott awarded the titles to Nash & Hall and the three of them traded the "Too Sweet" hand gesture. There was no match here to speak of. * Sting beat Hulk Hogan to win the vacant WCW Title: Sting entered from the same entrance as all of the others wrestlers, a big mistake, IMO. I thought they'd realized that that was the deflating moment of the Starrcade main event when, in the Nitro rematch, they had Sting come down from the ceiling into the crowd to make his way to the ring. No fancy stuff here, though. The match was what you'd expect: lots of weak brawling stuff from Hogan, Sting trying for some Stinger splashes. Blah. The assigned referee was knocked out and newly reinstated Nick Patrick came to the ring to take over. Of course, he called it fairly and Hogan acted shocked. At some point, Hogan delivered a low blow to Stinger's stinger. The match, as it was, completely detiorated. The NWO came out and were vanquished by Sting. Savage came out and whacked Hogan over the head with the NWO spray can. Sting went for the pin, winning the title. Afterwards, he took the spray can and painted "WCW" on Hogan's torso. Even though the final two (maybe three) matches were soap operas with little to no wrestling, the card opened strongly, Juvi vs. Jericho turned into a great match, and Benoit was just great to watch, even though he's had better opponents to pull a match out of. RAW was a taped show this week. The show opened with the Legion of Doom challenging Road Dog & Billy Gunn for the tag titles in a totally forgettable match. The LOD ended up losing and then started to fight with each other. Despite the suggestion that this would lead to a feud between the long-time partners, it seems like this whole story-line is a way to bring back Paul Ellering. Isn't it weird that WCW and the WWF would both run story-lines that split up their long-time tag partners? Ken Shamrock beat Jeff Jarrett in a non-title match (JJ holds the NWA North American Title, of course) when Jim Cornette's interference backfired. Afterwards, Jarrett mumbled that he and Cornette should separate. Skull & Eight-Ball & Chainz lost to Recon & Sniper & Kurrgan in one of the worst matches in recent memory. Anybody that thinks Brian Lee has any potential would reconsider after this match. Absolutely horrible match. Kurrgan won with the claw, which he let slip off during the close up, making the whole thing look totally stupid. Taka Michinoku faced Barry Windham. Herb screamed, "Why!?!?" After making Taka look totally inept and ineffectual for a few minutes, the lights dropped and Kane came out, tombstoning Taka and challenging Kane to a match next week. Any bets that that match gets hyped for the whole show and consists of a chair shot with two minutes left in broadcast time? Goldust lost to Justin "Call me Stan" Bradshaw. Goldust was decked out in Dusty Rhodes' old WWF gear and even sported fake scars and some belly-welly padding. He tried the bionic elbow, but it didn't have an effect. He tried the flip, flop, and fly, but that didn't work either. Bradshaw pinned him with a clothesline. Steve Blackman beat Rocky Maivia in a surprise upset after NOD interference went awry. The NOD left Rocky alone in the ring. The Head Bangers beat the Rock & Roll Express to win the NWA Tag Titles in a forgettable match. Cornette's interference again cost his men. It was fun to see Tommy Young come out as the referee for the match. Years ago, Young was badly injured in an in-ring collision when the arena lights accidentally went out. He's back with the proviso that he can't take any bumps (which was his specialty). Owen Hart beat Marc Mero in the main, an okay match. Afterwards, Sable & Luna get into it, with Mero & Goldust also getting involved. This will apparently lead to a mixed tag match. Nitro was a three hour show, once again condensed to two hours for Canada. In March, TSN will begin broadcasting the full three-hour Nitro show. What aired here: * Lex Luger faced Curt Hennig in a match that barely got off the ground when a blond-haired Scott Steiner came into the ring to help destroy Lex. * Diamond Dallas Page beat Hammer. * Kaz Hayushi lost to Ultimo Dragon in a good little match. * Chris Benoit beat up Raven until the Flock came in after Benoit's rolling German suplex series. Diamond Dallas Page came to the rescue. * Chris Jericho beat Lenny Lane with the Lion Tamer. * Rick Steiner beat Vincent with a suplex. * Booker T beat Renegade with the Harlem sidekick in a bad match. It sounds like Renegade comes out to Marc Mero's theme music. * Eddie Guerrero beat Disco Inferno with a frog splash in a good match. * Bret Hart came out to challenge Brian Adams, put him in the Sharpshooter, and was assisted by Ric Flair in chasing off Adams & Curt Hennig. Flair delivered a great interview, putting Hart over. * Sting was taken out by Scott Hall and the rest of the NWO, who got their revenge for SuperBrawl. Thunder this week was the usual mixed bag. Maybe it's just that I see an edited version of Nitro on TSN, but it does seem like Thunder is a more focused show each week. Anyhow, this week we saw Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit beat Booker T & Dean Malenko when Booker was pinned after a Frog Splash. Dean had Jericho in the Texas Cloverleaf at the same time, but Eddie & Booker were legal. So, both challengers at Uncensored effectively put the champs in losing positions. Brad Armstrong lost to Fit Finlay. Davey Boy Smith beat Dave Taylor. Bill Goldberg beat Rick Fuller. Yuji Nagata beat La Parka thanks to interference by Disco Inferno. "White Thunder" Scott Steiner beat Marty Jannetty; Steiner's ring intro was done by Marcus "Buffer" Bagwell and was sort of funny. Curt Hennig lost by DQ to Jim Neidhart (whose name is still spelled Niedhart) when Vincent & Brian Adams came in; Smith made the save. Raven was to face Kevin Nash, Big Sexy The Workrate...er...Giant Killer, but he decided that Raven's rules would be battle royal style, which meant that the Flock members ran in and were discarded by Nash. Nash eventually powerbombed Lodi twice and was then carted off. Lodi was carrying a "Pamela fears Tommy" sign earlier in the evening and had Pi*r^2 written on his chest, so the mathematician in me warmed up to him for three or four seconds. Chris Benoit & Diamond Dallas Page went to a no contest when Raven interfered. Page proved again that he's the one guy that can't have a great match with Benoit, although this match was better than the PPV bout since it played to Page's strengths a bit more. They flubbed a hip toss early on. Benoit seemed to break Page's nose, dropping him straight on his face; in slow motion, Page's neck takes a wicked whiplash. Anyhow, the camera zoomed out to the nosebleed seats, pun intended, and the commentators ignored the injury as is WCW protocol. When Raven ran in, they accidentally flashed a full-facial shot of Page. Along the way in the commentary they mentioned that WCW was dropping the over the top rope DQ rule. Also, in an inspired moment, while the camera was on Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Larry Marshall at the commentator's desk, a football was tossed from the crowd and beaned Larry in the head. - All Japan has a big show at Budokan Hall on 02/28/98. Line-up features * Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Johnny Ace for the Triple Crown * Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Steve Williams & Gary Albright for the Double Tag Titles - Michinoku Pro's Kaientai DX, consisting of Dick Togo & Shoichi Funaki & Mens Teioh, are reportedly heading to the WWF. Funaki was Taka Michinoku's regular tag team partner in Michinoku Pro for a stint and the two were just a phenomenal team: Midnight Express timing with super-modern moves. - As mentioned above, TSN's Off The Record was a wrestling hotbed this past week. On Friday's episode (98/02/20), Hunter Hearst Helsmley, Chyna & Dok Hendriks were the guests. They discussed the Bret Hart situation, with Dok saying that everybody had heard enough about it and wanted to move on. HHH said he had nothing against Hart, that Shawn was crying in the locker room not because he was afraid of Bret but because he was in shock over what had happened. HHH also did a good job dissing Sunny, saying that she thought she was more important to the WWF than she actually was (look in a mirror, HHH). Chyna confirmed that Luna & Sunny got into it backstage (indeed, Sunny missed her promotional shots in Toronto). HHH also said that DX hadn't really crossed any lines and they always look to the fans for feedback. They also joked that Chyna had testicles. Helmsley came off okay. On Tuesday's show, Vince McMahon spent the whole show talking about the Bret Hart deal. He said that a year after signing Bret to that lucrative contract, he realized that his company had agreed to a deal that was not good for it. According to Vince, Bret was no longer physically able to deliver; Vince tried very hard to classify his product style as physically demanding and WCW's as lazy (main event matches, natch). The strange thing is that anybody can look back at 1997 and see that Bret was involved in the most * * * * or better matches in the WWF. Combine this with only missing a handful of dates in his WWF career and you have to wonder what Vince was thinking in making that statement. Host Michael Landsberg then challenged Vince, saying that Shawn Michaels is injury-prone and misses many more dates. Vince danced. He reiterated that he "let" Bret punch him once. It was interesting to watch. My wife, who isn't a wrestling fan but lives with an addict, was wandering around the apartment saying, "Yeah, sure!" and "Yeah, right!" the whole time. On Wednesday's show, Vince & Michael talked about other WWF stuff. Vince tried to paint himself as the financial underdog against Ted Turner's deep pockets. Landsberg suggested that, at one time, Vince was the tyrant in wrestling, closing down small promotions across the US. Vince wouldn't have any of it, talking about being an independent wrestling promoter. Apparently, the game is unfair when a wrestling promotion has direct links to television networks, etc. It was a pretty interesting show. All in all, Vince came off as fairly likeable, but too smooth with the tricky stuff. The only news of note from Vince was that ECW wrestlers appearing in the WWF ring was improbable and that Ahmed Johnson was history with the WWF. - In discussing the No Way Out WWF PPV, the Observer wrote, "The company's lack of talent depth was exposed once again with a poor undercard, and a main event promised surprised that fizzled, which to a lot of people killed what was an entertaining match before it ever started. As something of a consolation prize for the fans given the change, with Michaels, who no doubt was expected to carry the match and logically provide a memorable ending, out of the picture, they turned it into an ECW/FMW style garbage match, announcing the afternoon of the show that it would be a non-sanctioned no DQ match, and the wrestlers used garbage can lids, chairs and tables to make up for the limitations of the various main eventers." And later, when reviewing the main event: "Hard chair shots. Basic FMW/ECW style although really not as good as most FMW main events of the same style. The work was better than most ECW bouts of the same style but there were none of the memorable psychotic spots that people remember and leave an impact." - The Observer also devoted a lot of space to a discussion of the unhappiness of the WCW Cruiserweights and mid-carders. As has been said time and time again, the guys are unhappy because they see no way to advance their own status. It's compounded by the promotion pushing people because they are friends with the movers and shakers. Diamond Dallas Page got the push because he was friends with Hall & Nash, and in fact got over because those two were willing to put Page's finisher over big-time. Now, Page, who reportedly has Eric Bischoff's ear, wants to get Raven over. They plan to ride Chris Benoit's ability to that end. The Cruiserweights are darn unhappy, though. The Observer writes: "Eddie Guerrero actually went to Eric Bischoff trying to get a release from his contract but was turned down and actually snapped at, although Bischoff did later apologize. However, with the exception of Rey Misterio Jr. and maybe one other wrestler who I don't believe has actually signed a deal, virtually all the wrestlers are under contract for nearly two more years and it's doubtful Bischoff would release them since most would wind up with Titan Sports. None of the Mexicans have been happy for all the reasons everyone would figure, but an added reason is that at least as is planned, Juventud Guerrera is supposed to lose his mask to Chris Jericho on 2/22 at the Cow Palace. There were a lot of problems in October leading up to Halloween Havoc when the plan was for Misterio Jr. to lose his mask to Eddie Guerrero, which ended up not happening when Eric Bischoff had a change of heart after a lot of pleading by Misterio Jr. 30 minutes before the show. Apparently Guerrera wasn't happy about losing it being that it's a family heirloom and that his father has wrestlerd for more than 20 years and never lost his similar mask (you kow, all the stuff that Mike Tenay says on television is actually a shoot) but agreed to do so, being led to believe they'd build it up right for a few months and him getting a major focused push and a decent length title reign before dropping it so it would mean something when it happened, perhaps in a mask vs. hair match with Jericho since Jericho's hair would create a lot of interest as well." And later: "The Malenko-Benoit-Guerrero group feel that no matter how hard they work and how much crowd heat they get, there is no upward mobility. The resentment of after being told for so long to be patient and wait their turn, then seeing Brian Adams show up and on his first day, immediately get into an angle involving Bret Hart and the NWO, combined with having wrestlers who just arrived and even though they are talented, are getting no heat, being put over them either on television or on road shows and being put in higher profile angles. Malenko went to Bischoff this past week asking about the cruiserweight tournament which they shelved a few months back and saying that he didn't see a light at the end of the tunnel and wanted to know what if any future plans there were for him and Bischoff told him that he and the others were great workers but that they don't put asses in the seats, which when word got around, made a lot of people hot because they have elsewhere and never have gotten the chance in WCW to be positioned to do so. Internally, this has all become almost a confirmation of the long said proviso that the only way to get to the top in WCW is to first fo to the WWF and be made a star there, and then WCW will make you a main eventer stealing you back." - But the funniest remark from the Observer this week had to be "Raven is so much better than I thought he was last year. Either that or Benoit is so much better than Sandman." - Along with Ahmed Johnson, the Sultan and Scott Putski are also out of the WWF. - WCW has Uncensored on 03/15/98. Tentative line-up has: * Sting vs. Scott Hall for the WCW Title * Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage in a cage match * Bret Hart vs. Curt Hennig * Kevin Nash vs. Giant * Eddie Guerrero vs. Booker T for the TV Title * Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho for the Cruiserweight Title Do my eyes deceive me or is there a possibility of having a strong match or two on the upper half of the card? - The WWF has WrestleMania XIV on 03/29/98. Tentative line-up seems to include: * Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson as a ringside enforcer * Terry Funk & Cactus Jack vs. New Age Outlaws for the Tag Titles * Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the European Title * Rocky Maivia vs. Ken Shamrock for the IC Title * Taka Michinoku vs. Aguila for the Lightheavyweight Title * Justin Bradshaw vs. Jaff Jarrett for the NWA North American Title * Undertaker vs. Kane Pete Rose will appear as a celebrity guest. - - RAW 02/23 with a 4.6 rating against a 3.2 rating. The detailed ratings are a click away. - PPV buy rates and revenue (in millions) for the WWF and WCW are presented in the following table. WCW WWF Past 6 Months Past Year Past 6 Months Past Year Average Buy Rate 0.82 0.96 0.63 0.63 Average PPV Revenue $2.61 $3.09 $1.87 $2.15 The 1998 PPV summary sheet looks like this: Date Show Buy Rate Gross Average Match Rating Median Match Rating Peak Match Rating matches >= * * * * 98/01/18 WWF Royal Rumble 0.92 (1) $2.94 2.38 * * 1/2 * * * 1/2 0% (0 of 6) 98/02/15 WWF IYH No Way Out 0.45 $1.67 1.46 * 1/2 * * * 1/2 0% (0 of 6) WWF Average 0.69 $2.31 1.92 * * 1/4 * * * 1/2 0% (0 of 12) 98/01/25 WCW Souled Out 1.00 (2) $3.20 1.92 * * * * * 11% (1 of 9) Footnotes: (1) WWF claims 1.03; (2) WCW claims 1.1 Detailed data is available. - The WWF has In Your House on 04/26/98. - All Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 05/01/98. During the February tour, the promotion is giving various outsiders try-out matches. Paul Heyman has approached the promotion about getting some ECW workers on the show. Paul wants Shane Douglas to be put over somebody who will deliver a good match, and in return has offered anybody for jobs. The Observer reports that odds are slim of Baba accepting the offer. - WCW has Slamboree on 05/17/98. It was originally going to take place in Toronto, with a Hulk Hogan vs. Bret Hart main event, but Eric Bischoff believes that the slow build that led to the great buy rate for Sting vs. Hulk Hogan is the way to go. As a result, Bret vs. Hogan in Canada will happen later in the year. - The WWF has In Your House on 05/31/98. - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/28/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 07/26/98. - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/30/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 09/27/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 10/18/98. - The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/15/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 12/13/98. - Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request. ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________