______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ I've got a tape update almost ready to go. It should surface in a day or two. ______________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had Backlash on PPV this past Sunday, 04/25/99. Overall, I came away from the show feeling that it was a thumbs in the middle sort of event. It was better than WrestleMania (and in fact was likely the best WWF PPV so far this year) but it still didn't have much great wrestling and had some noticeable weaknesses of other WWF shows in recent times: the crowd heat was pretty much nonexistent, except for breasts, catchphrases, ring entrances, and the main event; the undercard wrestling was uninspired; Mankind still hasn't found an opponent who can work with him to present a balanced match, turning his efforts into a stunt-man show again; non-wrestling-related story lines were too prevalent; and there was a strong reliance on garbage wrestling and outside interference. The one big positive was the return to a focus on putting on longer matches; that's a double-edged sword, though, since that exposed the lack of heat and lack of good wrestling. Here's the rundown. * Midian & Justin Bradshaw & Faarooq beat Gangrel & Edge & Christian: When I saw these guys cart out to the ring, I muttered "oh god," even writing that as the opening line of my notes. The match contained a long heat segment on Edge that was as dreary as anything. The crowd was numb. He made a hot tag (although it couldn't be called that with this crowd) and the last couple of minutes actually had a few good near-fall moments. Viscera lumbered down to ring side, doing the first walk-in of the night, splashed Christian against the ring apron, tossed him back in the ring, with the pin coming at 11:38. Because of the length of the match, I don't think I'd call it a good opener. It would have been an okay match, surprisingly enough, had they trimmed away the middle five minutes. * Al Snow beat Bob Holly to win the Hardcore Title: Apparently, "hardcore" implies "falls count anywhere." Snow bled two seconds in from a belt shot. Snow used a hockey stick, bashing Holly's shoulder with it ten times; of course, Holly was lying on the mat and Snow was so clearly hitting the mat with the stick that this come off as amateurish. Snow pulled out a table from under the ring, with two frying pans and a baking sheet tumbling out as well. This prompted Lawler to say, "Tell me, why do they keep tables under the ring, or, like, cooking utensils?" Indeed. These garbage wrestling matches in the WWF and WCW can be pretty stupid from that perspective. It would have been better for one of the guys to just come out with a container holding the props for the night. Holly whacked Snow with the hockey stick. Snow was suplexed on the concrete; hey, a wrestling move. They brawled to the back, that lame sort of brawling where one guy just walks where the other guy takes him. The crowd booed. Holly tried to use a sink that happened to be lying in the backstage area near the loading bays. Snow fired on him with a (fire?) hose, and Holly ended up dropping the sink, which shattered. They walked off into the parking lot. For me, this match had way too much walking around with one wrestler willingly being led by the other. They brawled up the steps and ended up in a dumpster, where Holly got a two count. The tried to walk into the TV truck, but ended up on top of a car. Finally, they walked back to the ring. Okay, so they wanted to have several venues for the match, but the way they got to each them and then back to the ring was so uninspired, so contrived. Back in the ring, Snow panned Holly and went to the top while Holly was on a table. Holly rallied, used the pans on Snow, and hit a superplex off the top through the table, which probably made fans of something other than wrestling orgasm. The ref counted for a double knock out, even though the commentators said such a finish couldn't occur. Funny to see the WWF make a WCW mistake like that. Holly got a two count. Snow grabbed his wooden head and whacked Holly for the pin. Some people will think this was a good wrestling event. Match time was 15:28. * Godfather beat Goldust to retain the IC Title: The Blue Meanie came out with Goldust. Godfather teased that he had no hos with him, but of course he did. He didn't offer the hos to Goldust because "my girls don't want no scrubs," quoting TLC. The match amounted to comedy with Goldust & Meanie. At least it was really short, running just 5:20 before the DVD finish. They don't call Godfather's lame DVD a pimp drop any more (they never did on Canadian TV). The hos were the only people over in this bad match. * New Age Outlaws beat Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett to become the number one contenders to the tag titles: The Outlaws got a good reaction for their entrance. For four guys that seem to be pretty competent, none of these guys have delivered a good match in the current year or longer. Would this be the time that they all surprise me? The crowd wasn't into them much during the match, as Debra's puppies were the two most over items near ringside. They did a heat segment on Road Dogg. Owen's work was great. I wasn't so enamoured with the rest of them. Gunn & the referee traded "you suck" barbs when the referee allowed the beating on Dogg to continue. Dogg ended up being distracted by the puppies. Owen put the sharpshooter on Dogg, while Jarrett tried to put the figure four on Gunn. But no, Gunn knocked JJ out of the ring and hit his famouser on Owen for the win. Afterwards, Billy Gunn mooned the crowd "for old time's sake." If they are doing things for that reason in the WWF, why not have a few good wrestling matches on a PPV and abandon the modern garbage wrestling trend? Match ran 10:36. After the match, they did a soap opera interlude with Shane McMahon. * Mankind beat Big Slow Paul Wight in a boiler room match: This was probably filmed ahead of time. They changed the rules, with the first man out of the boiler room being the winner. Hey, that way nobody has to lie down. It was more garbage wrestling; good thing, too, since I was forgetting how much I like that sort of thing. Mankind broke a window on Big Slow's head, with his own hand getting cut. Big Slow bladed. Mankind took a lot of punishment. Big Slow didn't do much. There were no really crazy bumps, but there were some crazy ones. They broke more glass; that's just what they needed to glorify. Wight stumbled into a bunch of small long pipes, fell, and the pipes fell on him. Mankind crawled to the door, left the room, and was declared the winner by Teddy Long. Test & Big Boss Man immediately attacked Mankind. Big Slow resurfaced and chased Big Boss Man while Mankind sockoed Test. Big Slow was so slow throughout this match. Match ran 7:41. * Hunter Hearst Helmsley beat X-Pac: Chyna came out with HHH, with her ass cheeks hanging out. They worked a balanced match for the first few minutes. At 4:00, X-Pac missed a bronco buster spot. Both wrestlers started selling like they had been working hard for 20 minutes. JR said the match should possibly have been stopped because X-Pac's neck was worked over. That was weird, like X-Pac can't handle five minutes of ring work if his neck gets a few shots. I thought that made X-Pac look weak rather than the match seem awesome. HHH worked over the neck, as the match turned into an underdog deal for X-Pac. He missed a few neck shots by a mile to protect X-Pac. I guess we sere supposed to think that X-Pac's neck was brutally injured when the missed bronco buster snapped his neck back. I don't think it worked. It certainly didn't work for the live crowd, who were totally out of it, with small "boring" chants popping up during HHH's offence. Can't blame them, since HHH is a bland worker. HHH did head locks, sleepers, and the like, killing the crowd with each move. Raise your hand if you think the WWF audience is conditioned to receive those moves and stay interested? Somehow, I think that there aren't any hands in the air as people read this. X-Pac rallied, but Chyna distracted the referee. X-Pac snuck a low blow in on HHH. They went out of the ring. X-Pac went back in the ring, tried a baseball slide, but ended up hitting the referee, who was outside the ring. Chyna entered the ring, low blowed X-Pac, did the scorpion death drop on X-Pac. What could happen next? You got it, Kane came out. He choke slammed HHH, then Chyna, and laid them in opposite corners, walking off. When X-Pac recovered, he bronco bustered HHH, then Chyna, and then turned into a pedigree by HHH for the win at 19:21. JR got pretty excited, saying "What a hell of match." I think it must look different on a small monitor. It was okay, but it went too long for what they can do with this match story line with HHH's ability and with this audience. * Undertaker beat Ken Shamrock: The crowd was dead from the previous match, both from that match body and from the ending that they didn't want. This match drew mild "boring" chants throughout. Shamrock went for UT's legs. The idea was that Shamrock was going to be the first guy to get the Undertaker to submit. So he went for leg locks and arm locks, so of them pretty cool, and one arm lock almost as cool as Kendo Ka Shin's. Raise your hand if you think the WWF audience was at all interested in leg locks and arm locks? Bingo. I enjoyed Shamrock's work a lot, probably more than anything else this night, but the crowd was more interested in starting a "We have Ryan!" chant. One lame spot: outside the ring, Shamrock laid Undertaker's ankle across the ring steps and then used chair shots on it. Unfortunately, Undertaker's ankle was so obviously safe inside the triangle formed by the step and the chair that this looked incredibly lame. But he kept doing it and the camera angle never changed. Undertaker rallied with the sweet science: eye gouges, punches, elbows. The "boring" chant got even louder. In the lame tribute-to-shoots spot of this pseudo-shoot-style match, Undertaker ended up in Shamrock's guard and proceeded to land punches on Shamrock. What a joke. Shamrock reversed this into an arm lock. All in all, this was a neat style of match for Shamrock, but Undertaker couldn't fit in and the fans didn't care. There was a weird two count for Undertaker. Ken torpedoed Undertaker's leg, hit a rana, got a two count, and then went for an ankle lock again. Undertaker kicked out of it! Finally, Justin Bradshaw came out and was knocked down by Shamrock. Then came the cool armlock mentioned earlier, with Shamrock hitting a cool armlock to counter a chokeslam. Big deal, though, 'cause Undertaker ended up using his tombstone for the three count. Undertaker sent Bradshaw in to bat Ken, with Bradshaw choking Ken out. Match time was 18:49. * Steve Austin beat Rocky Maivia to retain the WWF Title: This was changed into a "no holds barred" match, which means that was dramatically different from a "hardcore" match. Yeah, right. This was really the only match that had prolonged heat, the story of the WWF. They destroyed the set. Rock took some bumps, which made it seem good. They had the same problems as the earlier hardcore match, walking around and the like, but it wasn't as bad because they really only brawled in one out-of-the-ring location. While Rock took bumps and grimaced and groaned appropriately to sell them, there was no accumulation of the damage in his selling. 100% Rock took a shot, groaned and grimaced, and 100% Rock got back up, repeated a few times. They walked back to ringside and the did a Spanish announcers table spot, which has gotten old. Shane took a chair away from Austin and tossed it to Rock. The Rock did his own commentary, then took a camera and did his own camera work, which was hilarious, except that the camera video looked like a camcorder instead of the well-polished image that the ring cameras usually send. I didn't get why the video feed looked different from that one camera. Anyhow, in a great spot, Austin popped into frame and stunned Rock while he was using the camera. Back in the ring, Austin was shoved into Shane, Rock hit the Rock Bottom, Shane put Rock's arm across Austin, and counted a two count. Shane acted like he could have DQed Austin or maybe the commentators gave me that impression 'cause it is in my notes, but if this was a "no holds barred" match, couldn't Austin just lay out Shane? Shane got the belt and was set to whack Austin. In a spot that Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder both saw coming, Shane ended up belting Rock. Austin went for the cover, but Shane only counted two, left the ring, fingered Austin, and back down the aisle. He was brushed aside by Vince McMahon, who walked to the ring accompanied by Earl Hebner. Shane & Vince had a confrontation, with Vince belting Shane. Rock used the belt on Austin, with Earl counting a two. Austin hit the stunner, Earle counted three, and the match was over at 17:10. After the victory, Vince tossed the skulled title to Austin's feet and walked off. Boy, I guess they'll unite to fight that evil Undertaker & Shane McMahon. Strange bedfellows and all that. I've received e-mail from people saying how great this match was, and I agree that Rock did more than usual, but I don't think I can say that this was an awesome match. As the in-ring celebration was on, Stephanie McMahon was in her limo as the Ministry approached. The driver was told to leave, and, as he drove off, we switched to a camera shot from inside the limo, with the screen going down to reveal that the driver was the Undertaker. Stephanie screamed, probably wondering how that cameraman got in the back of the limo with her. Tally time: 1:46:03 of bell-to-bell wrestling. That's so much better than recent WWF figures, a full half-hour more than Capital Carnage, for example, and just a few minutes shorter than WCW's Spring Stampede. RAW RAW on 04/26/99 was a live show following on the heels of the Backlash PPV the night before. The show opened with a statement regarding the tragic mass murder at Columbine high school. While there's no direct link between the WWF and the actions of the deranged murdering teenagers, the statement came across as pretty hypocritical. My wife read the statement as it scrolled up the TV screen and then said "but now we're going to deliver the same tastelessly violent, profane, and sexual show we deliver every week." The show opened with Rocky Maivia coming to the ring for a rehabilitating interview. He blamed Shane McMahon for the loss the night before. Shane, HHH, Chyna, Big Boss Man, and Shane's friends came out. The fallout saw Rock punch HHH, Chyna punch Rock, Rock punch Chyna, Boss Man hit Rock, and everybody lay into Rock for a few seconds. Afterwards, Rock asked Shane to fight him, questioning the quality of his testicles, and Shane, overacting as always, said yes. Well, there you go. The show actually opened with Vince McMahon fretting over the welfare of Stephanie. Of course she'll be okay: It's not like this was the first time that the Undertaker has kidnapped her. And I'm sure that the police were investigating. Opening segment ran roughly fifteen minutes. Edge & Gangrel faced X-Pac & Kane in a nontitle match. A throwaway bout. Based on their PPV win, the New Age Outlaws get a title shot at the WWF Smackdown! show on Thursday night on UPN. That special is available in Canada on WSBK for those that get it and on TSN. It might be interesting to see how TSN censors things. Match ended in 2:36 when Kane chokeslammed Edge. After the match, Kane received a blood bath. Kane, apparently thinking that X-Pac was involved, did a pseudo-chokeslam on X-Pac over the barricade. I get e-mail telling me how the Brood is an example of a band of great young wrestlers. I don't know how anybody comes to that conclusion after all of these 2:00 squashes and lame PPV matches. Undertaker demanded that Vince get Steve Austin to deliver papers granting him controlling interest in the company. Steve Austin hit the ring for his post-PPV promo. Vince interrupted to say that he needed Austin's help. Austin at least didn't cave in right off the bat, reminding Vince of how he continually screwed Austin in the past. Austin told Vince to kiss his ass. Their confrontation was a good scene. The storyline of Undertaker kidnapping Stephanie and blackmailing Vince was silly. Val Venis lost to D'Lo Brown in 3:22 when Nicole Bass distracted Venis. The story is that Bass has a jones for Venis. Afterwards, Ivory jumped on Bass and got tossed aside. Hunter Hearst Helmsley faced Billy Gunn, who came out to some new music. Can a heel turn be far off? At 6:42, HHH pedigreed Gunn for the win. Road Dogg was arguing with Chyna at ringside. Match was okay. Mankind & Big Slow Paul Wight faced Big Boss Man & Test. Boring match, but, hey, look who was in it. Mankind won with the socko claw on Test at 4:38. Afterwards, Boss Man attacked Test to teach him a lesson. Godfather faced Jeff Jarrett & Debra's puppies. Godfather said he'd make it a title match if Debra joined the ho train should the Godfather win. JR actually said that Godfather's rap is tongue-in-cheek because he really does treat the women nicely. At 1:00, Val Venis came out to check out the puppies. At 1:27, Nicole Bass came out, scaring Val away. At 1:40, the Godfather got the pin. We didn't really see any of the match. Owen Hart showed up and led Debra away. Justin Bradshaw faced Ken Shamrock, motivated by the PPV the night before. Before a match could start, Faarooq ran out to attack Shamrock. Test came out to save Shamrock. I guess Test has quit the Corporation. They cleared the ring, but Shamrock decided to use his bat on some ringside paraphernalia. Shamrock passed the bat to Test, I guess doing Sting's old routine. We cut to the back to see Shane McMahon preparing for his match (and I bet everybody really believed that there would be a match). Rock faced Shane McMahon. Shane came out on his on; Rock actually got to pound on Shane for 27 seconds before Shane's friends came in to get bashed. JR said that this would be one of the shorter matches in Rock's career. He obviously doesn't watch the clock on RAW, 'cause nearly every match is this short. Rock Bottom just after the minute mark. Rock set up for the elbow, but HHH came in. Chyna ended up hitting Rock with an important blow. HHH used the pedigree. The refere argued with Shane & HHH while Chyna pounded Rock. Referees ran in but were restrained. No bell rang to end the match, but we'd have to call it 1:27 or so. Shane ended up holding up HHH's hand. I guess we'll get some more Shane vs. HHH matches with the face/heel structure reversed. The Ministry showed up at the arena with Stephanie, who was screaming up a storm. Surely, the police will stop this criminal act! Well, no, this is Monday night wrestling. After a commercial break, we came back to a lot of crowd shots. I guess TSN didn't want us to see something. TSN was running commercials saying that they would be airing the Smackdown special on Thursday night. Presumably whenever RAW plugged it being on UPN, TSN blocked that transmission. Heaven forbid Canadian fans learn that they can watched the uncensored show on WSBK. X-Pac came to the ring to call out Kane, 'cause the guys just needed to talk, right? X-Pac was attacked by Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart, with no puppies. Kane came out and cleared the ring. Kane apparently didn't find the opportunity to shower in the past 90 minutes. Kane choke slammed X-Pac. Boy, we've got to tune into Smackdown to see how this gets resolved. The anticipation for the great wrestling action is killing me. Kane carried X-Pac out to the back. The guy working the lights was earning his keep tonight. After fading to black and bringing up red for Kane's entrance, he had to fade to black and bring up blue for Undertaker's entrance. And, you know, the lights for RAW are usually white: the WWF is so American with the red, white, and blue lighting motifs. Stephanie was carted out on a cross, er, symbol. TSN let it through; I was in shock. We've missed most of the symbolifying rituals in Canada, and I've felt cheated because of it. The commentators said how terrible this was, but they did nothing to stop it. JR: "This is so unnecessary." Glad to agree, JR. Undertaker: "I am not to blame for what is about to happen here." I guess he meant the cat calls. "Paul, let the ceremony begin." Crowd chanted "Austin! Austin!" Paul Bearer did a spiritual reading: "Dearly Unbeloved, we gather here this evening to witness an asinine moment in wrestling history, the marriage of Stephanie Marie McMahon and the Undertaker." Ken Shamrock ran in, only to be splashed by Viscera. Bearer even said that Stephanie would "bear [Undertaker's] offspring." The Big Slow Paul Wight came out, but met with a baseball bat. Bearer announced them the unholy union of darkness. Austin ran out. He laid out everybody, clearing the ring. Midian took a sick chair shot. JR: "I guarantee you he didn't do this for Vince McMahon. He's done this because it was right." Stephanie hugged Austin, who didn't return the gesture. Vince ran in, finally, with Stephanie running to him. JR played it up like Stephanie had been reunited with her long lost dad. It was soap operatic to the max. Tally time: 20:25 of bell-to-bell wrestling. Nitro Nitro on 04/26/99 aired as a three-hour show on Wednesday afternoon on TSN. The show opened with a camera shot of the mental hospital where Ric Flair supposedly is undergoing testing. Now, maybe I misheard but I could have sworn that on Thunder last week they said that Flair was held for three days and then released. Yet there he was in the hospital. He hit a funny line, calling one of the shorter mental patients "Triple A." Overall, though, this was an absolutely horrible segment. One almost believes that they are purposely trying to kill Flair's appeal again. Sigh. One week after Ric Flair was institutionalized, Charles Robinson has learned that he is in charge of WCW; Ric apparently designated him vice president and with Flair gone... But wait, no, Roddy Piper hit the ring for the show open and announced that he's in charge while Flair is away. Piper reinstated Randy Savage. Piper declared that Diamond Dallas Page will face Sting tonight. DDP came out and argued the point, but Piper said that the match would take place at 9:00pm. Out of all of this mess, they did one thing right. The commentators now had a banner match up to plug for 9:00pm in the hopes that WCW wouldn't lose its audience. Brian Adams faced Konnan. Match was boring. Konnan isn't great except for the one or two times he's motivated, and Adams is just Adams. Konnan hit his submission hold and the NWO Black & White hit the ring at 5:07. For some bizarre reason, Raven came out to face Scott & Steve Armstrong in a handicap match. Raven said that the Horsemen laid out Perry Saturn. Raven totally dominates the Armstrongs, who have trouble getting along. The fans really cared about this match, he wrote sarcastically. Raven brought in a chair. He hit his DDT and went for the pin. Oh, but the errant Armstrong hit him with the chair and the DDTed Scott covered Raven for the win. The commentators said this was a huge upset win, the biggest win in the history of the Armstrongs. Yeah, they beat one guy. Wow, what a great team. How many guys would Raven have to face before the odds were in favour of the other side? Match time was 3:56. Charles Robinson came out after talking to Ric Flair on the phone. Apparently there's a live feed from the mental hospital all night long. Robinson aid that Sting vs. DDP would still take place tonight but that he was in charge. Roddy Piper came out, they tussled. Robinson fired Piper as security carried the angry Scot away. My head was reeling after all of these developments. Sting challenged Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW Title. Although TSN probably pads commercials into the show differently than the live TNT broadcast, the ring entrances started here at six minutes to the hour. It sure seemed like the first time they did something right. Match was actually quite good. Sting tried for the scorpion death lock early on, but DDP made the ropes. As DDP tried to retreat down the aisle, Sting walked up behind him and they garbaged it up a bit with some lame out of the ring brawling. You know, this was the sort of brawling where there was no real struggling to stop things. Sting grabbed DDP by the hair and walked him back to the ring. Apparently, DDP was so out of it that he just went along. Okay, Sting did whack him into the guard rail once more for good measure, but this stuff annoys me ever more because it has become so prevalent. As much as I hate to say it, Bam Bam Bigelow & Hardcore Hak did a much better job of pretending that there was some struggling going on when they did their out of the ring stuff at the PPV. At a PPV past, Rock & Austin did that horrible bit where there walked into one side of the crowd, walked back to the ring, and walked out into the other side of the crowd. Okay, I've ranted enough. Back in the ring, Sting did an accidental head butt to the groin. Somehow, DDP had the upper hand one minute later, not even hinting that his boys were hurt. Page took control with elbow drops to the abdomen that looked like elbows to the groin to the untrained eye. He got a few two counts. Finally, he snapped and dragged Sting over to the post so that he could do his Bret Hart imitation. He introduced Sting's leg to the post and tried for a crotch shot, but Sting kicked him away. DDP scurried back into the ring and tried for the Diamond Cutter on Sting, but Sting held the top rope. Sting rallied with a few reverse atomic drops and a facecrusher. Sting hit a splash off the top for a two count. DDP took things back outside. He's like Austin; he can do so little in the ring that he has to make his matches have a large percentage of garbage wrestling. Back into the ring, with Sting recovering. Page hit a powerbomb for a two count. Sting got a two count off a schoolboy. DDP hit a clothesline and got a two off a small package. Sting hit a piledriver, with Page leaving one arm free, waving it around, to make the move mildly interesting. They did a double reversal on a tombstone piledriver, with Sting getting a two count. The crowd was pretty rabid for the near finishes, standing everywhere. DDP tried for the Diamond Cutter, but Sting hit the Scorpion Death Drop for the pin at 19:45. Well, not only was this a good or slightly better match, it delivered a clean finish. That's the sort of the stuff I'd like WCW to do to make themselves different from the WWF. They also didn't interrupt the match for a commercial break. Ric Flair talked to Charles Robinson, saying that "that was great." But during the opening segment, the hospital nurse said that Nitro wouldn't be on this week, so how did Ric see it? Oh well. Flair told Robinson to announce Sting vs. Goldberg for the WCW Title at Slamboree. Ah, so my next question is answered before I could ask it. You see, Nash somehow managed to avoid passing the title through himself to get it on Goldberg. I wonder if they'll explain why Nash now doesn't get a title shot for protecting Ric from losing the title to Hogan that night on Nitro. Is Ric "crazy," so he no longer feels the need to live up to his word? Maybe his insanity will amount to him forgetting that he was a heel president for a few weeks and he'll come to back to put together matches that the fans actually want to see. Rey Misterio Jr. challenged Psicosis for the Cruiserweight title. Two title changes in a row? Methinks so. This was a good match to put on after Sting vs. DDP. Totally different style, guaranteed to be excellent. Regular Nitro viewers will be into things and anybody who stayed with Sting vs. DDP or saw the title change while flipping from RAW might wonder what they do next. In the end, I'm just in heaven at the prospect of seeing two good matches in a row on TV. There's no real point in detailing this whole match. I will say that while the WCW Title match was better than I expected, this match wasn't as good as I would have hoped. Psicosis seemed to think twice about taking a rana from the apron to the floor, so they did a weird bump. Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko came out, apparently to cut a promo regarding the Tag Titles. Whoops, they eneded up geting knocked down by Rey. Back in the ring, Rey hit a DDT as a counter to a powerbomb to win the title in 5:18. Benoit & Malenko came in to destory Rey, dropping him on his knee and banging him around a bit. Billy Kidman didn't come out to save him. Those autograph sessions are a pain, or maybe its the chicks. I gotta tell you that I really liked these two segments of Nitro. I was busy with some research ideas when the show started and only put things aside as Charles Robinson did his bit, so I guess I didn't really endure the first hour as it was meant to be endured. Sure, the title change was a last-minute deal designed to make the show more interesting than recent weeks, but, hell, if they didn't deliver a good match with it. Kevin Nash came out. Surely, he was going to pissed about not being in a title match at Slamboree. Bingo! Fallout was that Nash wanted to face Goldberg, Sting, and Page in a fourway match tonight to decide the title. Why would Sting agree to that? I guess that face paint seeps into his brain. Before we can figure things out, Ric Flair talks to Charles Robinson on the phone, telling him to make that match happen. The clip from the hospital was sort of funny because the other patients were trying to wrestle, and Ric Flair got a muscular nurse to wrestle him. Bam Bam Bigelow squashed Erik Watts in 1:11. I like that result. Everybody smile. Later this evening, Mikey Whipwreck & Hardcore Hak & Brian Nobbs & Horace Hogan will fight in a fourway hardcore match to determine who gets to have a hardcore match with Bigelow at Slamboree. Sting came out to accept the challenge from Nash for a fourway match. As we went to a commercial, they already had a graphic for the bout, with Tony Schiavone calling it a four corners match. Booker T faced Meng for the TV Title. At least we knew that the title wasn't going to change hands here. Nobody can be that crazy. Mind you, I know there is a Meng fan in the world; I sat next to him at the WCW Saturday Night taping in Kitchener. But surely he's the only one. After a pretty boring match, Stevie Ray came out, used his slapjack on Meng, and Booker T got the win after 5:35 of drudgery. Every time Meng even comes to the ring, I wonder why, why, why he has any place in this or any other wrestling promotion. Rick Steiner ran in to attack Stevie Ray afterwards, with Booker T pulling him off. They showed some surgery footage from Hulk Hogan's knee surgery. It seemed like Hogan might have actually had some minor stuff cleaned up in his knee, but this is story line stuff to buy Hogan his absence from WCW TV at a time where he thinks the ratings are dipping. If he's not there when the ratings go south, then surely they went south because he wasn't there, right? Anyhow, during the surgery clip, I kept hoping that the "beep, beep, beep" of the heart monitor would change to a solid tone. Now that's an angle I want to see. Ric Flair told Charles Robinson to make the title match tonight a no DQ match. He also announced a Rick Steiner vs. Booker T TV Title match for Slamboree. Scott Hall showed up in patient's garb. Huh? Mikey Whipwreck & Horace Hogan & Brian Nobbs & Hardcore Hak had a fourway hardcore match. Ah, Schiavone called this a four corners match, but all four guys were in the ring the whole time, so I guessed that meant that the main event would also be a free for all. Garbage wrestling. They went to a commercial break right after Nobbs did his pit stop on Horace. That was the first time that they interrupted a match for a commercial. They used garbage cans. A drink called "Surge" is a sponsor, so they used a huge Surge cooler as a prop as a well. Mike Tenay said that WCW had a hardcore division. It won't be long before we have a title belt. Match was junky. While Horace and Mikey did a bit in the ring, Hak went around ringside setting up tables and evading Nobbs. Chastity fire extinguished Horace. Hak missed Horace and ended up going through a table. In the ring, Nobbs used a garbage can to block a fire extinguisher shot. Hak set up another table in the ring, climbed a ladder, and hit a somersault on Mikey. Nobbs smashed the ladder on Mikey and got the pin at 8:02 of the action we actually saw. Scott Steiner faced Randy Savage after cutting a promo. Savage was accompanied by Gorgeous George's breasts. Savage bumped into Robinson and Robinson DQed him at 1:21. At least it was short. Madusa attacked Robinson, who was stripped to his underwear. They also showed a video of Gorgeous George training for her match against Charles Robinson. She was wearing short shorts and a spandex top. Doesn't she know she can't wear that many clothes if she wants to get over? Sting & Diamond Dallas Page & Kevin Nash & Goldberg had a four corners match for the WCW Title. Match was underway after a commercial break. Even though they called it a four corners match, it was a free for all tornado-style match. DDP stayed outside the ring, with the idea being that he could break up a potential win if need be. Of course, when Goldberg went for a pin on Sting, he got a two because Sting kicked out. I guess DDP knew that Sting wasn't beat. The commentators said that DDP had the advantage after 2:30 of broadcast time. Huh? They guy had wrestled a 20-minute match earlier this night. Match was chaotic. I wouldn't call it good. Sting put the Scorpion on Nash as Goldberg speared DDP. Sting released the hold only to be speared. Nash & DDP were out. Jackhammer on Sting. Two count, with Randy Savage coming in to break it up. No DQ meant it was okay. Ugh, that crap bugs me. In the end, Savage threw some knucks to Page, who used them on Nash and hit a Diamond Cutter for the pin at 7:51 of air time. So I guess we are back to Page vs. Nash for the Title at Slamboree. Since Nash did the job to Page here, something that will no doubt be hyped leading up to the PPV, we should expect the title change. The question is how they will get the title off of Nash and onto Goldberg. Tally time: 58:06 of bell-to-bell wrestling. - WCW has Slamboree on PPV on 05/09/99. Tentative line-up has * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kevin Nash for the WCW Title * Ric Flair vs. Roddy Piper for the presidency of WCW * Perry Saturn & Raven vs. Rey Misterio Jr. & Billy Kidman vs. Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko for the WCW Tag Titles * Gorgeous George vs. Charles Robinson to determine whether Randy Savage gets reinstated * Booker T vs. Rick Steiner for the TV Title * Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Brian Nobbs - 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 99/03/28: 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 1.37 $6.38 1.33 1.25 3.46 0.0% (0 of 54) 1999 1.69 $8.11 1.37 1.33 3.67 0.0% (0 of 23) 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 99/04/11: Spring Stampede Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sting 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 0.85 $3.91 1.67 1.92 3.71 3.6% (2 of 55) 1999 0.87 $4.13 1.85 2 3.583 3.7% (1 of 27) 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 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. ______________________________________________________________________