______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ After mentioning e-mail requests that I continue reviewing RAW and Nitro from a work/workrate perspective last week, I was e-mailed several requests that I try hard to talk about Japanese things/tapes as much as possible. Be everything to everyone, I guess. This past week, I did manage to find the time to watch some stuff on tape, so there is a discussion of old Japanese stuff in this week's update. ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 03/08/99 aired in 90-minute edited form on TSN in Canada. Even the rebroadcast aired in edited form. On its web page, TSN lists RAW as airing at 9:00pm EST on TSN on Saturday night, so we may yet see the full show. But the Toronto Star's online TV guide lists Tennis and an old World's Strongest Man contest from 9:00pm to 11:00pm, so we'll have to wait and see. It's no secret that TSN is having trouble dealing with the sleazy product that the WWF is now delivering. Worse yet, WWF Canada prez Carl DeMarco has come off looking the fool several times in recent weeks when he tries to placate the product's detractors only to have Vince McMahon launch another salvo through DeMarco's back. Truthfully, even without Vince stabbing him in the back, DeMarco has always said at leaast a few really stupid things every time I've seen him. Surely, though, if 30 minutes were to be edited from RAW, any questionable stuff would hit the cutting room floor and all of the wrestling would survive, right? The offensive stuff (profanity, breasts, gestures) would be cut out, right? Perhaps not, since, if the guy holding the scissors is a wrestling fan, the WWF's version of in-ring wrestling is actually among the most offensive aspects of the current product. The problem is that 30 minutes isn't much less than the average amount of in-ring wrestling each week, so quite possibly no in-ring wrestling would survive the cut! I have no idea what they cut out, but here's what we saw. The show opened with the requisite interview segment involving all of the usual players. While watching the UFC this past Friday with long-time wrestling historian Gary Will, I had to endure a couple of hours of teasing as Gary pretended (I hope) that the Rock was the best thing going in the WWF. Gary's rudy-poo candy-ass actually let the truth slip out by noting that the Rock delivers all of the entertainment on the WWF show because he's funny and because the rest of the product is horrible. For a second, I did smell what he was cooking. Anyhow, Mankind was told he'd have to fight Steve Austin this night and then he might just make the cut as WrestleMania referee. Paul Wight would referee the Mankind vs. Austin match. Wight came out wearing a baggy jersey in an attempt to hide his girth. It was a week later and we still weren't told whether Kane & Chyna were ejected from the Corporation after the Kane vs. Austin match. I guess that's not important enough to mention. And Vince still owes us a surprise too. First match saw Owen Hart face D'Lo Brown in a street fight. Nothing worth speaking of, really, although it at least wasn't bad. Jeff Jarrett came out, tossed his guitar in, D'Lo intercepted, Owen got whacked, Owen bladed, they showed the blood. 4:35 or so. Longer than usual, but still pitiful. But then Pavlov looks for a reaction, not an attention span. Road Dog & Billy Gunn teamed up to face Bob Holly & Al Snow. Yeah, those WWF interviews are really toned down. "Let's do this doggy style" and "suck it"s all over. The story was that Holly & Snow couldn't get along. Of course, it was a short story. When Gunn came in, he went to the one move he just doesn't do well: a punch. Snow banged Holly, who was pinned at the two-minute mark. The lights dimmed and the ministry ran into the ring, attacking everybody. Okay, Viscera walked. Can you believe how many anchors they've strapped to the Undertaker? Jim Ross, introduced as "Good Ol' J.R.", came to the ring to explain his actions from last week. He invited Michael Cole to the ring. Ross laid into the stupid gimmick that had been given to Steve Williams. He laid into Michael Cole as well, kicking Cole in the crotch and reclaiming his spot at ringside. Backstage, Vince told Terry Taylor to get rid of Ross and take his place. That confrontation, with Ross calling Terry Taylor the Red Rooster, led to Steve Williams coming out to get Jim Ross to head to the back. Neat to see Williams and Taylor together. Ken Shamrock faced Goldust, who came out with Ryan Shamrock and the Blue Meanie. At the one-minute mark, Meanie kissed Ryan. Shamrock hit a belly-to-belly on Goldust at the 1:15 mark for the win. What a match. Chyna came out to face Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Chyna had her hair pulled up and tied into a pony tail. She looked scarily like Nicole Bass. Apparently, Chyna is still in the Corporation, but I don't know how. The lights dropped and Kane's music played. Kane walked in and HHH attacked him. Kane threw a fire ball in Chyna's face, HHH went to check on her, Kane dumped HHH, and Kane then checked on Chyna. Are we giving Chyna a reason to have some more plastic surgery? The Undertaker was arrested. Don't know how they caught him and don't know why he was heading to jail, since that apparently had to end up on the cutting room floor. Mankind faced Steve Austin. Paul Wight was the referee. Rock was at ringside. Ring entrances lasted 4.8 minutes. Two out of four of these male superstars have had fat sucked out of their bodies recently as a way of gaining a particular shape. "This is more like a street fight than a wrestling match," said Terry Taylor, which just about describes the entire WWF in-ring wrestling product, doesn't it? I described it to Sanjay as an imitation of ECW-style garbage wrestling and he got pretty excited, but I don't see how that can be argued. The cameras spent a nonnegligible amount of time showing the Rock speak as a guest commentator. Wight wasn't a factor through the whole match. After all, to follow the wrestlers around, Wight would have to be capable of moving quickly, and he no longer is (and one starts to wonder whether he ever was). Mankind & Austin garbage wrestle well together, so the bout was okay excepy for a long chinlock spot by Rock. I guess that spot was designed to let Wight act as a ref for a minute. Wight looked blown up just standing there under the lights. One of the funniest moments of the bout was when Austin hit a cover and Wight actually ran around to be in position to give the count. Note: never book Paul Wight to run. The Socko claw was countered by a stunner which was countered as well. Wight counted Austin out and raised Mankind's hand, which means Mankind is the second referee at WrestleMania. Wight then choke slammed Mankind. Match ran around nine minutes. McMahon came out, with Austin going after him. Rock attacked Austin, with Austin knocking him out. Wight and Vince dragged Rock back. It sure seems like they are setting the stage for Rock to turn face, but that's probably a swerve. Nitro Nitro on 03/08/99 aired as a 90-minute show on TSN in Canada. I've received e-mail telling me how bad the three-hour US version of the show was, but I can only review what I saw. Our show opened with Lizmark Jr. coming to the ring and Chris Jericho coming out afterwards. Hey, if Jericho goes to the WWF does Ralphus leave his job on the WCW crew to go with him? They had a dog collar match, since this is Uncensored week in Nitro. Ugh. The dog collar never really came into play as a tool for violence, as the commentators really spent their time putting over how it grounded Lizmark, who by the way is one of the last remaining masked Mexican wrestlers. Well I'm sure Tony Schiavone would agree. During the match, we learned that Goldberg and Ric Flair will have a match later in the show based on a confrontation that we didn't see. Of course, Jericho won. When we went to commercial, Bret Hart did a promo telling us to join him in Mississauga at a Pizza Pizza restaurant for pizza. This was such an important message that it aired twice. Back from commercial, the Arn Anderson & Ric Flair discussion from last Thursday aired again. I can't believe they aired the whole damn thing again. Apparently, we're supposed to see this to understand a development at the PPV, but I'm not sure what the point is. This was followed by a commericial and long-winded NWO segment with Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash talking with Tori & "Mrs. Robinson." Boy, I needed to see this drivel. The opening credits for Nitro rolled. Gene Okerlund was in the ring telling us that there were two hours to go, even though there was only one hour left in what would air in Canada. Goldberg was set to come out for an interview. Would we see the confrontation that Tony Schiavone mentioned earlier? Out came David Flair & Tori Wilson. Just to clear something up, Tori and all of the other fake-breasted blondes in pro-wrestling are not my type in the least, but I would readily concede that Tori puts all of the WWF women to shame in looks and delivery. Goldberg's music kicked in and...we went to a commercial. Bret still wants to have pizza with me and he told me about it twice again. Goldberg came to the ring. He ended up putting his hands on David Flair. Ric Flair saw this on the monitor backstage and came in for the save, only to be press slammed. Ric then created the match. Oh god, I guess Flair's desire to turn heel are going to make things in WCW even more senseless. The Flair vs. Goldberg confrontation had great intensity because it was the first time they've clashed, but let's get to some wrestling. 40 minutes in and we'd had one half-assed dog collar match. Back from a commercial, Scott Norton faced the giant killer, Rey Misterio Jr. My first instinct when Scott Norton came out was "boy, I wish we could hear some interviews," but I figured it would be good for the soul to see Rey beat Norton, even it was a fluke victory. Rey wears jeans a la Konnan. The size difference was ridiculous. Norton tossed Misterio around, with Rey getting in no offence whatsoever. The crowd was dead silent. Nobody gives a crap about Norton. Norton picked Rey up after a power bomb. Oops. Norton hit a one-handed press slam and again picked Rey up. Rey kicked Norton low and covered him for the quick three count. Boy, this giant killer gimmick is a great idea, much better than wasting Rey in great cruiserweight matches and giving that division some respect. Bret Hart faced Van Hammer. Boy, that's just the kind of match we need to see Bret in to care about him. Why does Hammer have a job? Bret drew a good reaction just coming out. He could be over in a second if they decided that it should be so. I hate it when politics hurt a good wrestler. When Bret put on the figure four, Tony Schiavone said that Hammer would have to turn it over because he was "a long way from the corner of the ropes." Do they even pay any attention to what they are saying? Hart actually gave Hammer a good bit of the match to make things interesting, but since Hammer has no name value it meant that this jobber actually had a reasonable match with Bret. They explained that Bret was taking his time with Hammer because he felt that he had him. That prompted Heenan to say that taking your time is a dangerous thing that can backfire. Why not mention Scott Norton's loss? Oh yeah, the commentators don't actually pay attention. During the match, the commentators talked about the top five rankings in each division. Didn't know they were doing that again. Some fans were chanting boring. Hammer hit his cobra clutch slam, but only got a two count. After a missed enzuigiri (called an "enzugoori" of course) by Hammer, Bret put on the sharpshooter for the win. This match wasn't particularly good, but it was much better than expected. Hammer stinks, but he's better than somebody like Test. Ric Flair faced Goldberg. Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash were doing commentary. Luckily, we didn't have to endure an entrance for those guys in Canada. The heels poked fun at Flair & Goldberg. It's impossible to be a face in WCW because the heels act so cool to go for their own babyface reaction. Goldberg pressed Flair, dropping him into a power slam. Match had really good heat. Flair did all of those UFC-illegal spots again. Goldberg played Nikita Koloff. All Japan booking philosophy would have Goldberg beat Flair after an even contest to set up a title match after a Flair title win at the PPV. WCW booking philosophy would likely have run ins and a screwy finish. Flair put on the figure four, with Goldberg reversing it. While Goldberg no-sold Flair's chops, he at least hobbled around a bit even a couple of minutes after the figure four spot. When Flair kicked his knee as a follow-up move, Goldberg hopped around and limped as he walked. Despite all of the criticism levied at Goldberg, he sells better than the Rock. Hey, I always get flamed when I write that, but I figure if I keep giving examples the mountain of evidence will silence the flamers. Goldberg missed the spear, tackling a turnbuckle instead. The NWO commentators sucked. Goldberg no-sold a vertical suplex and hit a spear on Flair. The NWO goons ran in. Goldberg got to beat up a few secondary NWO guys before Hogan, Steiner, Nash, and the gang laid him out. Flair low blowed his way past the NWO guys, finally being outnumbered. The show went off the air during the melee. It was disheartening. It would be nice if this situation and the professed respect by Goldberg for Flair led to Goldberg joining up with a non-Mongoed Horsemen, but that's just not going to happen, is it? - WCW has Uncensored on 03/14/99. Tentative line-up has * Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan for the WCW Title in a first blood cage match * Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko vs. Barry Windham & Curt Hennig for the tag titles in a lumberjack strap match * Scott Hall vs. Booker T for the US Title * Kevin Nash vs. Rey Misterio Jr. * Stevie Ray vs. Vincent in a street fight * Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Hardcore Hak vs. Raven in a triangle street fight * Perry Saturn vs. Chris Jericho in a dog collar match * Jerry Flynn vs. Ernest Miller & Sonny Onno The hype for this PPV has been silly. They keep telling us to go on the web to find out the stipulations in matches. Somehow, they've decided that in order to be a family-safe product, they should just sweep the bad stuff under the rug. They should have been straightforward. Tell us that WCW puts on 12 PPVs per year and that Uncensored is the one PPV that is specifically targeted at the adult segment of their fanbase. This show isn't really for kids, they could say, but rest assured that we are letting our fans know that the bar for violence, blood, and other things is raised on this show and that the remaining shows each year will be safe for kids to watch and families to order. I think the answer to the internal struggle they are going through, namely, how does WCW compete with the WWF when it can't be as raunchy on TV but wants to put on a raunchy PPV, is to be the opposite of the WWF in building to the show...be honest. If there are any brains left in the booking department at WCW, I hope they use this show to get out of the current Flair pickle. Flair's run as boss can't leave us with the thought that he was impotent. Here's a storyline thought that I think would be neat. When Ric got in as boss, he knew that he'd never beat Hogan for the title first time out because Hogan would have NWO interference to save his butt. As a result, when David was approached by the NWO about joining them and screwing his dad out of the title, David and Ric discussed things and David, feigning arrogance and disdain for his dad when he met with the NWO the next time, agreed to join. This led to David zapping his dad at SuperBrawl and that horrible screw job and NWO celebration. But, with the mole in place in the NWO, the Uncensored battle between Flair and Hogan could be a different story. Surely, the NWO will call about David to be involved in screwing his dad. He'll agree. He'll know the plan. He'll tell his dad. The moment of the screw will come. The screw will be thwarted, by David, by Chris Benoit, by Dean Malenko, by Ric. Ric Flair gets the title. The NWO is left outsmarted. The next night on Nitro, Ric crows about getting the belt and beating the NWO at their own game, David crows about how stupid the NWO was to think he'd turn on his dad and how it was extra-sweet to bad Tori Wilson in the deal, Benoit & Malenko stand front-and-center with the Tag Titles, and the Horsemen come out of what should have been the end of Flair's run as boss as the heroes of the day, strong, potent, with titles and brains. - The WWF has WrestleMania XV on 03/28/99. Tentative line-up has * Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia for the WWF Title with Paul Wight & Mankind as referees * Billy Gunn vs. Ken Shamrock vs. Val Venis for the IC Title * Undertaker vs. Big Boss Man in a Hell in the Cell match * X-Pac vs. Shane McMahon for the European Title * Sable vs. Luna for the Women's Title * Kane vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley * Bart Gunn vs. Butterbean - I had the chance to watch a little more wrestling on video tape this past week. At last count, I had 210 unwatched video tapes. Yikes. I decided to dive into some tapes that my Japanese friend Masaki has sent me over the past two years or so. The first tape had All Japan and New Japan TV from 04/89-05/89, some of which I'd seen before, but most of which fell just inside a timeframe in which I was missing tapes. Highlights of the tape included once again watching the debut match of Jushin Liger from 04/24/89 and his title win a month later. Liger's debut match was against veteran Jr. heavyweight wrestler Kuniaki Kobayashi, but things were a bit off in the match, perhaps because Keiichi Yamada was getting used to working under the hood. The 04/24 show also featured matches with wrestlers from the former Soviet Union. The matches generally weren't good, but it is interesting to note that that Salman Hashimikov, who beat Bam Bam Bigelow on the 04/24 show, went on a month later, a month after his debut as a pro-wrestler, to win the IWGP Title, likely still a record for a major world heavyweight title. Who did he beat? Well, on 04/24 the IWGP tournament semi-final and final matches took place. Vader beat Tatsumi Fujinami in one semi-final, a pretty good match. Shinya Hashimoto beat Victor Zangiev in the other semi, not a great match. The final, then, turned out to be another pretty good match, with Vader beating Hashimoto to win the title / tourney final. Lou Thesz was special referee. Nothing great in the Tokyo Dome tourney, mind you, but it was still sort of fun to sit through again. This show, minus the Liger match, was released in North America on video with Nick Bockwinkel doing English-language commentary. On the All Japan side, on 04/18/89, the Footloose, the team of Ricky Fuyuki & Toshiaki Kawada, defended the All Asian tag titles (the secondary tag title in the AJ ring) against the team of Dan Kroffat & Tom Zenk in an okay match. On the same show, the famous Triple Crown was created when Jumbo Tsuruta triumphed over Stan Hansen in a good match. With the passing of Shohei Baba, Jumbo recently announced his retirement from pro-wrestling. When he was taken down by Hepatitis B in 1990, I really missed him. He was such a natural wrestler, delivering great long matches in the old style that could tell wonderful stories, sort of like Bret Hart or Ric Flair in their heydays and like so few wrestlers nowadays. Jumping ahead to 05/14/89, Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas faced Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid. A really good match, although the finish was off. At this point, Dynamite Kid had returned to his 1981 weight, but he didn't have his 1981 ability, having wasted most of the 1980s on the WWF. I felt a bit depressed when my wife asked about the match and I responded by talking about where each wrestler is nowadays. It was also weird seeing Johnny Smith in the AJ ring on this show because of his weird "Hari Krishna" style hairdo. And, hey, did Kabuki always suck, or what? (rhetorical question) At the end of 05/89, New Japan was still putting on matches with their Japanese stars against the wrestlers from the former Soviet Union. Generally bad or okay-at-best matches because the Russians just couldn't work. Some might argue that the emergence of the UWF along with the use of the Russians in New Japan helped create a lot of the style changes that we would see in the 1990s. In All Japan, on 06/05/89, Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta had a great battle for the Triple Crown, with Tenryu winning the titles. This match actually came in sixth in the Observer year-end awards poll. I'd seen the match before - it's one of those obvious * * * * * matches that stick with you for a long while after watching. But it was great to watch Jumbo in such an awesome match. All Japan was great in 1989. On that same 06/05/89 show, Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat faced Ricky Fuyuki & Toshiaki Kawada in a * * * * 1/2 classic, with Kroffat & Furnas finally winning the All Asian tag titles. It was amazing to watch the Japanese crowd pop for the offence of Furnas & Kroffat. They popped for moves back and forth; that's the reaction that is missing when I watch North American wrestling these days. The Pavlovian reaction for catchphases, ring entrances, and breasts is the opposite of popping for moves. While promoters and some cheerleading fans will argue that popping for characters, catchphrases, and breasts still gets fans to spend money on or tune in to the product (all true), there's something more virtuous about delivering a wrestling product where the fans actually love the wrestling. I guess that's why I so enjoyed watching Billy Kidman in the second half of 1998 or why I enjoy watching those Bret Hart matches nowadays, even though he seems to be misused; the fans get into the matches, into the moves, even though they have no reason to care, and thanks to some commentary and booking, they have reason not to care. I don't recall if Kroffat was already booking the Kroffat & Furnas tag matches, but it sure seemed like it. Kroffat became famous for putting together the most intricate finishes in tag team wrestling. The great thing about either of the above two matches is that if either of them were to take place in North America today, they'd be highly-praised amazing bouts. The tag match, in particular, was better than any North American tag match I've ever seen (and that does include some great bouts) and totally blew away anything that has happened in 1998-1999. To put things a bit more in perspective, a month later on TV the Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith faced Fuyuki & Kawada and the match wasn't anywhere near as good as the Furnas & Kroffat tag match, and that sure wasn't the fault of the Japanese wrestlers. On this same show, from 06/25/89 TV, I got to see the Rock wrestle in Japan. Don Muraco really had no clue what he was doing in an All Japan ring, teamed with Terry Gordy & Stan Hansen against Jumbo Tsuruta & partners. Muraco's offence looked weak and his selling looked really bad. In 05/89, a UWF special aired on Japanese TV, airing matches from the 05/04/89 Tokyo Dome showby the promotion; the UWF was easily the major success story of 1989. The promotion had been reformed by Akira Maeda on 05/12/88; on that re-debut show, Maeda faced Kazuo Yamazaki, who was always one of my favourites regardless of his setting. In this world of worked shoots, Yamazaki was great. The match on 05/12/88 aired in part on this special; about 13 minutes of the 25 minute bout aired. It was weird to watch from the modern perspective, where we have the UFCs and imitations, along with Pancrase and other Japanese groups. It was strange to see flying kicks used in a supposed shoot, but the fans were really into it. Maeda hit a reverse spin kick on Yamazaki and then dropped him into a choke sleeper for the win. This bout received a few votes for match of the year in 1989 in the Observer, but I didn't get into it as much as great matches mentioned earlier (matches which did come in ahead of the UWF bout in those same Observer awards). Later in the year, on 11/10/88, Maeda would lose against Nobuhiko Takada, who knocked him out with a series of high kicks. Highlights of this bout aired. They also aired highlights of Takada vs. Bob Backlund from 12/22/88, and, holy moley, if Takada wasn't an awesome worker! In the five minutes or so of selected highlights, Backlund actually looked good, speaking volumes about Takada. Looking in the 1989 Observer yearbook, this bout actually came in tenth in the match of the year awards. With Backlund? Crazy. I can't judge from the great highlights that aired. Backlund seemed to break his nose. The 04/14/89 Maeda vs. Yamazaki match was stopped due to blood when Yamazaki gushed. We jumped back to the 01/10/89 Maeda vs. Takada rematch, which placed twelfth on the match of the year poll in the Observer. You know that Takada was one of the best junior heavyweight workers in New Japan before the UWF reformed. Even in this pseudo-shoot framework, his greatness was so clearly evident. He lost this bout to Maeda, surrendering to the Boston crab. Finally, then, we arrived at the 05/04/89 matches. Masaharu Funaki faced Yoshiaki Fujiwara, of the armbar fame. Funaki delivered crazy flurries of kicks every time the wrestlers were standing. Fujiwara has really never delivered any great matches, but I like him anyhow because he has this aura of being able to kill a guy if he wants to. Here, Fujiwara won with an ankle lock submission. We flashed back to 08/13/88, with Nobuhiko Takada facing Kazuo Yamazaki; this was the 18th best match of the year in the Observer poll. They each tried for ankle lock submissions during the match. The work was great. In a pseudo-shoot setting, Takada actually hit a dragon suplex. Yamazaki kicked out and ended up delivering a bunch of kicks and spin kicks before hitting a german suplex for a great near fall. A couple more kicks and Yamazaki got the pin. Only nine minutes of the 17 minute bout aired, but they were great, and these guys struck me as being the best two workers in the genre at the time. Their rematch on 02/27/89 was also good, but by this time the UWF had fallen off of the Observer vote-getting list. This time, of course, Takada got the win, with a classic achilles tendon ankle lock submission. With the flashbacks out of the way, we moved into their third bout on 05/04/89. Yamazaki took a stiff spin kick and almost suffered a knock out loss. The highlights were great. Yamazaki ended up getting in a barrage of kicks, ending with a great knock out blow. Flashback again to 08/13/88. Maeda faced Gerard Gordeau, who looked severely handicapped because he was wearing kickboxing gloves. Gordeau took a brilliant german suplex, seemingly on his head, but managed to deliver a great kick as Maeda moved in. Gordeau tapped out to a great ankle lock. Finally, in the Tokyo Dome main event of 05/05/89, Akira Maeda faced Chris Dolman. In round four, Maeda shot in for a take down attempt, but ended up lifting the huge Dolman up and over for a power slam. Crazy. He then slapped on an ankle lock for the win. This was a really neat two-hour special, which I enjoyed a lot more than a typical RAW or Nitro, but the holes in the shoot style of the UWF were exposed given the education that we've been given over the years. Most of the finishing sequences or finishes themselves seemed contrived based on today's standards. Back to All Japan, on 05/20/89, Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas faced the Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith again. This match was marked by a crazy bump off the top rope to the floor by Dynamite Kid, who really had no sense to be doing that sort of stuff at this point in his life. It was another solid match. The only other notable item on the final tape I watched was the beginning of the feud between Jushin Liger and Naoki Sano. You can read about it on the Info page. I sat through the matches again because that series of bouts still sticks with me as the best half-year program in pro-wrestling history. I guess that Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat, also in 1989, would be on the list as well, but no other North American pairings come to mind for delivering such great matches in a high-profile setting. Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero in ECW? What about the WWF? Nothing from the current product for sure. - New Japan has a Tokyo Dome show on 04/10/99. Line-up has * Keiji Muto vs. Don Frye for the IWGP Title * Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami for the IWGP Tag Titles - As expected, Vader won All Japan's Triple Crown on 03/06/99. - There's a lot of this "any press is good press" mentality when people talk about the current success that the WWF is enjoying. From Vince's article in the New York Daily News, which featured a blend of cockiness, lies, and half-truths, ridiculing anybody that would dare to question his sleazy product, to pseudo-news TV shows running stories, to the Politically Incorrect discussion mentioned here last week, to articles in the newspaper (The Toronto Sun just ran a full-page opinion piece by long-time writer Steve Simmons, who occasionally writes about wrestling-related events, wherein Steve struggled with the messages that the current WWF product send his kids, whether he should stop them from watching it, what obligation the different players in this issue have, etc.), the current flavour of pro-wrestling is generating much discussion. The opinion that I've always expressed on this page is that the WWF is trying to have its cake and eat it too. The product that they deliver has no element that should be marketed at children. I enjoy bits of the current product and find a lot of things lacking; it's just like the Hulk Hogan era for me. Whether it's the current era or that Hogan era, there are certain elements of the product that just don't belong when a large part of the viewing audience is children. When Hogan did a race-baiting angle or the Gulf war angle, we decried it as tasteless, something that was bad for the children viewers to see, and something that was not good wrestling. I think the exact same criticisms can be levied at so much of what the WWF does these days. The flames I get in e-mail, mirroring the defences that Vince & co. put out include * The WWF does nothing worse than NYPD Blue. But NYPD Blue doesn't have chlidren as 35% of their viewing audience. * The WWF does nothing worse than 90210. Looking at the Indiana University report, mentioned here recently, that's hardly true. I don't think that every four minutes of 90210 features a crotch chop. I don't think anybody has ever jiggled a female character's breasts on camera or had a transvestite perform oral sex on them. * RAW is for the adult audience. Weekend programming is for the kids. The WWF is responsible by airing shows for each audience. What does responsible mean? I would say that responsible means seeing that 35% of your audience during the raunchiest hour of programming is children and cleaning up that hour accordingly. That's my opinion. Still, look at the weekend shows. We used to get Superstars here, now we get a Canadian version of Shotgun; the show airs Sunday afternoon. The show usually features 10-12 minutes of "new" content. The remaining 35-or-so minutes are highlights from RAW. Look at any recent RAW episode and tell me honestly that 35 responsibly-selected child-ready minutes can be selected fromt the show. It's impossible. What ends up happening is that parts of RAW air with words beeped out, gestures still in place or sometimes "censored", signs still clearly visible, etc. This is the best that a responsible company can do? I don't buy the argument. It is the best they can do because they don't care about what they are airing. If the WWF were responsible, we wouldn't see any kids on RAW TV tapings. They wouldn't even let kids into PPV broadcasts. They might have kid-versions of house shows and adult house shows, advertising them as such. That would be honest and responsible. They are neither. * Parents should look after what their kids watch. I agree with this, of course. If the WWF were honestly responsible and wanted avoid the problems that may well be coming down the road, they would openly state that their product isn't for children. They would not let children unaccompanied by parents into their shows. They would inform all parents coming in with children that the shows are not acceptable for children. They wouldn't launch an ad campaign that tells us to "get it," and argue that the children watching the show do "get it," but their complaining parents don't get it (as WWF stars & Carl DeMarco have on Canadian TV). The ad campaign would tell us that a large number of parents regrettably let their children watch this adult program and that adults who like the show as it is should endeavour to make sure that children don't watch the show. We have the same expectations for cigarette use, say. And with cigarettes we do hold the manufacturers and distributors responsible when the adult product gets in the hands of kids. The promotion can't get away with saying that parents have full responsibility for kids watching the show when the promotion itself airs a supposedly child-friendly version of the product that is an obviously and badly cut up version of the Monday night show. Isn't that show really aimed at getting children to watch RAW? In the Observer this week, Dave Meltzer writes about "the WWF's steroid problems which resulted in some bad publicity in 1992, although not to anywhere near the extent of what is about to happen." The Sun's wrestling reporter says that "next month, a few of the sponsorship deals will expire for both groups. Who renews will speak volumes about whether sponsors agree with the WWF's approach or that of WCW." - Apparently, the Sable issue of Playboy has down tremendous sales. I made a pit stop at a magazine shop I frequent and spoke to the boss. He told me that the Sable issue had sold out already. He called Kitchener News, the supplier for the area, and they said they might be able to get him 10-or-so more copies. He called around town and learned that his colleagues were also all sold out. Better yet, he phoned some contacts in Toronto; they were also sold out and were getting calls from places in the US looking to track down extra issues. While that gave one impression, I then stopped at a corner store to pick up the newspaper. I noticed that they had a couple of copies of the magazine on their shelf. The corner store right across from where I live had none. I still would bet the issue is doing huge sales and might well sell out before the month is up. - 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 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 1.13 $5.01 1.42 1.33 3.46 1.9% (1 of 54) 1999 1.39 $6.15 1.52 1.38/FONT> 3.75 0.0% (0 of 14) 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 99/01/17: Souled Out Bill Goldberg vs. Scott Hall Ric Flair & David Flair vs. Curt Hennig & Barry Windham 1.83 * 1/2 * * * * Billy Kidman vs. Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Psicosis 11.1% (1 of 9) Last 6 0.82 $3.66 1.20 1.33 3.75 3.6% (2 of 55) 1999 1.83 1.5 4 11.1% (1 of 9) 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 99/01/10: 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 0.22 $0.42 1.93 2 3.42 5.3% (1 of 19) 1999 0.2 $0.42 1.68 2.5 3.5 0.0% (0 of 7) 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. A table of wrestlers who have delivered quality matches is also online. - 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. ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________