______________________________________________________________________ I start my new job at the University of Guelph next week. My UofWaterloo e-mail account might disappear at a moment's notice, but my Guelph account isn't up-and-running yet. There will likely be an unavoidable period of no e-mail. Hopefully, I'll be able to update this page next week. When I get the new e-mail account, I'll have to re-upload the whole web site so that all of the "e-mail" icons point to the new account! As a result, I'm putting off the tape update until that time. I don't want to upload 1000 files twice (because of all of the interconnectedness/linking that is done on the tape pages, I basically have to upload everything each I time I update the list). ______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 08/24/98 was a live show. Faced with WCW's Monday Nitro recapturing the ratings lead, RAW was a packed show this week, with loads of stuff to keep viewers watching. The problem for me was that there were only two reaonably clean finishes (BrawlforAll and Southern Justice vs. New Age Outlaws). The run-in finishes became old and repetitive very quickly. Regarding previous RAWs, the Observer writes, "RAW has missed the mark the last two weeks after a run of great television." Dave Meltzer also suggests that the WWF has forgotten what got them to the position they were in during those weeks: "The pink super soaker was one of a number of ideas on the show, such as the Runnels stuff, the Sable & Oddities stuff and most notably the deal where the fake Clinton called up and did that flat comedy byplay with Lawler that showed WWF is trying to be too cute for its own good and losing what got them to this level." At the start of the show, Undertaker and Kane seemed to solidify their union by coming out together. They beat up Paul Bearer and Mankind. In the opener, Ken Shamrock faced Dan Severn in a confrontation that should not have been given away on free TV. Now that I've seen that they have no electricity in a worked match, I'm bored by the idea of pairing them up. Maybe Shamrock will get me excited about a program between the two, but giving these few minutes away really deflated the idea. The finish was a DQ when Owen ran in, followed by Steve Blackman. Afterwards, Shamrock, having lost it, suplexed Blackman, and Blackman retaliated with his own suplex. Kurrgan faced Marc Mero. The match ended when Jackie attacked Sable and Mero low-blowed Kurrgan, who got the DQ win. Kurrgan looked horrible as always. Sable is suffering the "Sunny syndrome" of being brought down by being involved with a horrible crew (in Sunny's case, the LOD). Just when you think you've got the "run-in, DQ" pattern down, they delivered the New Age Outlaws versus Southern Justice. Behind the back of the referee, the wrong Outlaw used a piledriver to get the pin. This time we get a finish first and then a run-in, as Jeff Jarrett came out. Jarrett actually came out during the match, so that he could act all rough and tough to show off his new equally-boring image. He shaved the camera man's head after the match; you see, X-Pac had urinated in JJ's boots and Jarrett was mad that the camera man showed his feet. In a surprise hyped-at-the-start ratings-grabber match, Kane faced Mankind in a Hell in the Cell match. Mankind took a bump off the side of the cage through the Spanish commentators' table. Once they got in the cage, it was locked, and Mankind was near death, Steve Austin came out from under the ring and started pummelling Kane. Undertaker went wild trying to get in the cage, climbing on top and poking a whole through the mesh. The cage was raised by Vince McMahon, with the idea being that he doesn't want to confrontation to happen until the PPV. Kane was stunned twice. No result was ever announced. We go to commercial and when we return Mankind is gone from the ring. No result is announced, but if there was one it would be another run-in DQ. Val Venis vs. Taka Michinoku didn't air on the Canadian broadcast I taped. Of course, it ended in a run-in by Hunter Hearst Helmsley and another DQ finish. In the second-last match on the show, X-Pac faced Gangrel. David Heath is a pretty good worker and shows potential to be something, although the gimmick is a little much for me. As long as he doesn't start biting people who then join his army, I'll be okay. Match went a whole minute and a half before Jeff Jarrett came out, predictably, to hit X-Pac with his guitar and cause the DQ because of the run-in. Finally, Bart Gunn faced Justin Bradshaw in the BrawlforAll final. The Observer now reports that the Gunn vs. Kama match was likely a shoot despite looking funny. Interestingly enough, when Gunn was approached about being in the tournament, because of his tough man experience he figured he'd have a strong chance and didn't want to be involved because he didn't want to injure any of his coworkers. In particular, he knew that the promotion had big plans for Steve Williams and he felt that he would draw heat from the highers-up if he embarrassed somebody on whom the promotion had spent so much money. "There was so much overplayed about how Jim Ross was protective of Williams in the commentary after the shocking KO but didn't give Gunn credit to where Gunn was legitimately upset after being riled up by the boys as to how management was going to rob him of the match unless he scored the KO (although in watching, by the judging standard, Williams was ahead until he was injured). The arguments between Gunn and Ross on TV were planned ahead of time, but they did represent true problems Gunn had with Ross and Ross' reactions." In the final match, Gunn quickly KOed Bradshaw in the first round of their match. All in all, it felt like 1985's Dusty Rhodes booked the finishes on this show. Nitro Nitro on 08/24/98 aired in full in Canada, but was once again a poorer-quality product than the episode two weeks back. Admittedly, I was working on some lectures for September while Nitro was on, so I didn't give it my full attention. I can't imagine giving three hours away to Nitro each week; it's just not good enough to warrant that. Wrath returned to beat Mike Enos. Kaz Hayashi returned from Japan and, while he did get pushed in the commentary here and on Thunder, he ended up losing to Dean Malenko in seven minutes in a really good match. Konnan beat Jim Neidhart. In the angle of the evening, Booker T returned, was amazingly declared number one contender to the US Title, and had his match against Bret Hart scheduled for this evening. Stevie Ray stumbled through another bad interview, basically saying that Booker was being pimped by JJ Dillon, I think. Heaven forbid Stevie Ray and Warrior ever have an interview confrontation. Later in the show, then, Bret Hart came out for the match and Booker T didn't show. We cut to the back after a commercial break to find that Booker is sprawled on the ground holding his knee while Stevie Ray yells at him, supposedly encouraging him I guess. Ray goes to the ring and confronts Hart for beating up his brother. I can't believe they are giving Ray this push and this interview time. Ugh. Actually, I can believe it. Anyhow, the NWO black and white guys come down to ringside and Stevie Ray ends up joining them. Steve McMichael beat Sick Boy in their 247th match. After all that practice, it still stinks. Scott Norton killed Rick Fuller; they are builing Norton up as a monster, finally, I guess for Goldberg. Lex Luger torture racked Brian Adams in a depressing contest that I didn't watch much of. The Warrior returned for another unintelligible interview. He ran to the ring and shook the ropes just as he always did years ago. And just like years ago, he was totally blown up from the exertion. He's started his own revolution, you see, called "One Warrior Nation" or OWN for short. That's so cute it's stupid. Curt Hennig and Chris Jericho went to a draw in a TV Title match. It was a record short ten minutes. Giant saved Jericho from a post-match thrashing. This is supposed to lead to Jericho joining NWO Hollywood, but Jericho is apparently strongly against it. Good for him. The main event was Hulk Hogan & Giant against Kevin Nash & Goldberg. During a boring match, Lex Luger and Curt Hennig come out and the match apparently became a six man. That's fortunate for the original four, since we can now have a finish, as Goldberg jackhammered Hennig for the pin. Afterwards, Team WCW: Diamond Dallas Page, Warrior, and Roddy Piper came out and the commentators yammer about what a great team they'll be in Wargames. Thunder Thunder on 08/26/98 was a mixed bag again. In the opener, Wrath destroyed Scott Putski. Wrath looks to be in better shape, but he's still a poor wrestler. At least Putski is in his proper role. Mike Enos beat Bull Pain. Enos looked good, I thought. Ernest Miller beat Disco Inferno, kicking him in the back of the head before the bell and getting the pin. Ernest tells us that WCW wanted him to become a wrestler, but he's really a three time world Karate champion. This was as effective as Jeff Jarrett's new edge. Konnan beat Silver King. Silver King is just another guy who has been misused in WCW; he was one of the awesome lucha libre stars that got me hooked on that style of wrestling years ago. During the match, the commentators discuss how the winner of the Fall Brawl Wargames match will get a title shot against Goldberg. They incredibly claim that it is a chance for guys that don't get title shots to finally get one. Huh? Methinks everybody involved has had title shots, except Warrior, but that's just because of his recent arrival, right? They particularly talked about a title shot being Konnan's dream. Seems to me he had that dream realized a couple of PPVs ago. Weird. Kaz Hayashi beat Evan Kourageous in a good performance. The commentators pushed Hayashi again, as they seem to have some cruiserweight plans for him. Kaz vs. Juvi would be great. Lodi challenged Saturn, which turned into the usual mess that nobody cares about. Scott Norton beat Jim Neidhart, no-selling any offence that Jim snuck in. Chris Jericho beat Alex Wright in a good match. Curt Hennig beat Hammer, who came out to Vader's old WCW entrance music. In the main event, Diamond Dallas Page beat Stevie Ray by DQ when Vince came in. Giant also came in, but Konnan saved DDP. - The WWF has SummerSlam on Sunday, 08/30/98. Line-up has * Steve Austin vs. Undertaker for the WWF Title * Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Rocky Maivia for the IC Title in a ladder match * Mankind & Kane vs. New Age Outlaws for the WWF Tag Titles * Jeff Jarrett vs. X-Pac in a hair vs. hair match * Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock in a Lion's Den cage match * Golga & Kurrgan & Giant Silva vs. Dick Togo & Shoichi Funaki & Mens Teioh & Taka Michinoku * Sable & mystery partner vs. Jackie & Marc Mero - After SummerSlam, Afa Anoia will return to the WWF with another Samoan tag team. - Lex Luger has signed a three-year contract extension with WCW. - John Bobbitt supposedly offered to re-marry his ex-wife Lorena on a WWF PPV. - Excitement in All Japan as the long-standing teams of Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama both seem to have crumbled. It will be interesting to see what new teams get formed. Fans of North American wrestling might not understand why this is interesting. In All Japan (and in Mexico), singles feuds are built through small confrontations in tag (& trio) matches. Main event matches on a tour are mostly of this type, building for the key singles matches. - Jim Hellwig's debut as the Warrior in WCW was held off until 08/17 because the WWF had a court case regarding trademark claims slated for 08/14. The WWF wanted to block Hellwig from appearing with the make-up, UW's look, and the Warrior name. The judge refused the WWF's request. WCW was still wary though, issuing orders to everybody that they not use the word "ultimate" in the confrontation on Nitro. Of course, that didn't happen, did it? It's well-known by now that the Warrior ended up going 12 minutes over his allotted time. It drew a huge rating so nobody complained, but the remainder of the show had to be re-booked on the fly. - Apparently, the idea with Eddy Guerrero is to have him form a group of misused renegade wrestlers, like Silver King, La Parka, and Psicosis. Wonderful idea, just like the Four Horsemen rebirth could be, except that for either idea to succeed, the group at hand has to get wins over some top guys; they have to be seen as competitive. - All Japan goes to Budokan Hall on 09/11/98, with Kenta Kobashi defending his Triple Crown against Akira Taue. - WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/13/98. Tentative line-up has: * War Games: NWO Hollywood (Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart & Scott Hall) vs. NWO Wölfpac (Kevin Nash & Sting & Lex Luger) vs. WCW (Diamond Dallas Page & Warrior & Roddy Piper) (the wrestler that earns the victory for his team will get a title shot at Goldberg at Halloween Havoc) * Scott Steiner vs. Rick Steiner There is talk of adding a Giant vs. Goldberg title match to this show. It might be Giant vs. Meng. Since the Goldberg vs. Meng Nitro match did a great rating, some WCW officials have decided that Meng might be a bit of draw. Talk about brain-dead. Wargames can now end by pinfall, which just sucks. - Nitro beat RAW on 08/24 with a 5.1 rating versus a 4.7 rating. The detailed ratings are a click away. I still haven't managed to update them; but, hey, I've updated the PPV figures. - WWF's King of the Ring buy rate has been adjusted upward from 0.85 to 1.1 as the remainder of the cable systems reported in. WCW's Road Wild did okay on PPV, scoring a 1.14. That's better than the WWF's shows of late and 10% above the 1998 PPV buy rate average for the promotion. - PPV buy rates, revenue (in millions), and match statistics for the WWF, WCW, and ECW are presented in the following 1998 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 98/07/26: Fully Loaded Steve Austin & Undertaker vs. Kane & Mankind 0.5 (WWF claims 0.95; WCW claims 0.34; 0.5 independent figure) $2.23 1.81 * 1/4 * * * 1/4 Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley 0% (0 of 8) 98/06/28: King of the Ring Steve Austin vs. Kane Undertaker vs. Mankind 1.1 $4.99 1.72 * 1/2* * * * * 1/2 Undertaker vs. Mankind 11.1% (1 of 9) 98/05/31: IYH Over the Edge Steve Austin vs. Dude Love 0.65 $2.90 1.06 1/2* * * * * 1/2 Steve Austin vs. Dude Love 12.5% (1 of 8) 98/04/26: IYH Unforgiven Steve Austin vs. Dude Love Kane vs. Undertaker 0.85 $3.78 1.75 * * * * * Steve Austin vs. Dude Love 14.3% (1 of 7) 98/03/29: WrestleMania Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin Kane vs. Undertaker 2.20 $9.52 1.81 * * * * * * 1/4 Michaels vs. Austin Cactus & Funk vs. NAO 0.0% (0 of 8) 98/02/15: IYH No Way Out HHH & NAO & Vega vs. Austin & Owen & Funk & Cactus Kane vs. Vader 0.45 $1.67 1.43 * 1/2 * * * 1/2 HHH & NAO & Vega vs. Austin & Owen & Funk & Cactus 0.0% (0 of 7) 98/01/18: Royal Rumble Shawn Michaels vs. Vader Royal Rumble 0.97 $3.62 2.38 * * 1/2 * * * 1/2 Royal Rumble Max Mini & Nova & Mosaic vs. Battalion & Torio & Tarantula 0.0% (0 of 6) Last 6 0.96 $4.18 1.60 1.46 3.79 6.4% (3 of 47) 1998 0.96 $4.1 1.69 1.61 3.75 5.7% (3 of 53) 1997 0.61 $1.84 2.18 1.81 3.792 27.9% (6 of 21) Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * WCW 98/08/08: Road Wild Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno 1.14 $5.15 0.61 * * * * 1/2 Juventud Guerrera vs. Chris Jericho 0% (0 of 9) 98/07/06: Bash at the Beach Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Karl Malone 1.6 $7.21 1.81 * * 1/4 * * * * Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman 11.1% (1 of 9) 98/06/14: Great American Bash Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper & Randy Savage Sting vs. Giant 0.8 $3.52 1.67 * * 1/4 * * * 1/2 Chris Benoit vs. Booker T 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/05/17: Slamboree Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. Sting & Giant 0.72 $3.20 1.92 * * 1/2 * * * 1/4 Chris Benoit vs. Dave Finley Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko Eddie Guerrero vs. Ultimo Dragon 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/04/19: Spring Stampede Sting vs. Randy Savage Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash vs. Giant & Roddy Piper 0.72 $3.20 2.40 * * 1/2 * * * * Ultimo Dragon vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. DDP vs. Raven 20.0% (2 of 10) 98/03/15: Uncensored Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage Sting vs. Scott Hall 1.10 $4.12 1.69 * * 1/2 * * * 3/4 Raven vs. DDP vs. Chris Benoit 0.0% (0 of 9) 98/02/22: SuperBrawl Hulk Hogan vs. Sting Outsiders vs. Steiners 1.10 $4.12 1.67 * 1/4 * * * 3/4 Juventud Guerrera vs. Chris Jericho 0.0% (0 of 10) 98/01/25: Souled Out Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair Giant vs. Kevin Nash Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage 1.02 $3.81 1.92 * * * * * Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Super Calo & Lizmark Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera & La Parka & El Dandy 11.1% (1 of 9) Last 6 1.01 $4.4 1.70 2.17 3.67 5.5% (3 of 55) 1998 1.03 $4.29 1.72 1.91 3.72 5.4% (4 of 74) 1997 0.77 $2.45 1.96 1.98 3.813 5.9% (6 of 102) Show Data Match Rating Data Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >= * * * * ECW 98/08/02: Heatwave Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow 0.23 $0.42 3.08 * * 1/4 * * * * Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka 16.7% (1 of 6) 98/05/03: WrestlePalooza Shane Douglas vs. Al Snow Sabu vs. Rob van Dam 0.24 $0.45 0.64 1/2* * * Mikey Whippreck vs. Justin Credible 0.0% (0 of 7) 98/03/01: Living Dangerously Shane Douglas & Chris Candido vs. Al Snow & Lance Storm 0.23 $0.42 1.56 * * * * * 1/4 Buh Buh Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley vs. Spike Dudley & New Jack vs. Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney 0.0% (0 of 8) Last 6 0.23 $0.43 1.69 1.58 3.08 4.8% (1 of 21) 1998 0.23 $0.43 1.69 1.58 3.08 4.8% (1 of 21) 1997 0.22 $0.38 2.10 2.50 3.583 10.0% (2 of 20) Longer-term data is available. The data now runs back to 1991. A table of wrestlers who have delivered quality matches is also online. - New Japan is running a tournament to determine challengers for the WCW Tag Titles. The tournament final takes place on 09/21/98. New Japan somewhat embarrassingly announced that Sting & Kevin Nash were the champions after they had lost the belts. - The WWF has In Your House on 09/27/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 10/18/98. - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/25/98. - The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/15/98. - WCW has World War III on 11/22/98. - The WWF has In Your House on 12/13/98. - WCW has Starrcade on 12/27/98. - The WWF has Royal Rumble on 01/24/99. - The WWF has In Your House on 02/14/99. - The WWF has WrestleMania XV on 03/28/99. - The WWF has In Your House on 04/25/99. - The WWF has In Your House on 05/23/99. - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/27/99. - The WWF has In Your House on 07/25/99. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________ Pictures of the Week More for the Who's Who. Kevin Nash Sabu Scott Hall Undertaker ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________