______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ I'm a day late in getting this on the web due to problems with the web server. Sorry. I'm also way behind in responding to e-mail. ______________________________________________________________________ - When I was a kid, every Saturday at noon, no doubt spurred on by the CRTC's Canadian content rules for Canadian broadcasters, I'd get to see Calgary Stampede Wrestling on TV in Toronto. It's not like the promotion was planning on touring Ontario, and the PPV and video market didn't exist, so getting to see the product regularly on TV was true serendipity. We also were able to see products from the NWA (Mid-Atlantic Wrestling) and the WWWF at that time, but I remember being most excited to watch Stampede Wrestling. Jumping to my years as a University undergraduate student, 1985-1990, I was always sure to catch TSN's Stampede Wrestling show on Monday afternoons. I even posted weekly updates in rec.sport.misc (r.s.pro-wrestling didn't even exist back then). As I think back to all of those years of Stampede Wrestling, focusing upon the non-Japanese stars that were cultivated in the promotion, that were trained in Stu's dungeon, a half-dozen of great names stand out: * Tom "Dynamite Kid" Billington: born in 1958, broke in in 1975, debuted in Calgary in 1978. * Davey Boy Smith: born in 1962, broke in in 1978, debuted in Calgary in 1981. * Brian Pillman: born in 1962, broke in in 1986 in Calgary. * Bret Hart: born in 1959, broke in in 1977 in Calgary. * Chris Benoit: born in 1966, broke in in 1986 in Calgary. * Owen Hart: born in 1965, broke in in 1986 in Calgary. On Sunday, May 23, during the WWF's Over The Edge pay-per-view event in Kansas City, Owen Hart, playing the role of the Blue Blazer, a goofy spoof of a super hero, died after falling 18 metres (50 feet) from the rafters into the ring. He leaves behind his wife Martha and two children, Oje, 7, and Athena, 3, as well as the huge extended Hart family based in Calgary, all of whom will no doubt miss Owen most. His fans will also miss him greatly. Looking at those stellar Calgary Stampede Wrestling stars listed above, and realizing that the promotion has just been reborn this year, sadness has to weigh heavy in the hearts of all long-time wrestling fans. Only two names on the list survive as active wrestlers; the tragic stories of the remainder are well known: * Dynamite Kid suffered a near-career-ending injury to his back in 1986 in Hamilton, ON. He was never the same after that injury and is now bedridden, essentially crippled in his late 30s. * Davey Boy Smith took a bump on the trap door that WCW built into its ring for the failed return of the Ultimate Warrior. That bump exacerbated problems Smith had been having with his back after a career filled with back and knee problems. He suffered a spinal infection that became life-threatening, but antibiotics managed to get things under control. Despite his positive attitude, it is believed that his career is over at the age of 36. * Brian Pillman died of heart failure on 10/06/98 at the age of 35. He was found dead in his bed in a motel in Bloomington, MN. His last televised match on Monday Night RAW was on 09/22/98 against Owen Hart. In recent years, it seems like not much times goes by before new tragic news breaks about a wrestler who we all know. Add to the above short list Louie "Spicoli" Mucciolo, Rick "Rude" Rood, Art "Love Machine" Barr, and others I'm sure to have missed. I in no way wish to discount the losses of the other wrestlers on the list, but Owen's death struck me the hardest of the rash of wrestling deaths and tragic incidents over the past few years, perhaps because I was witness to his entire career, perhaps because he was my age, perhaps because he had such great ability, perhaps because of the circumstances surrounding his death, and likely a combination of all these factors. Despite knowing that the promotional complicity in the wrestling drug culture played a role in many of the deaths of recent years, somehow it still seems relatively "easy" to suggest that the wrestlers involved were grown-up men making grown-up choices which led to their downfall. But Owen's downfall had nothing to do with that seedier side of pro-wrestling; it was due to faulty equipment or sloppy usage of the equipment, pure carelessness. Even though I saw the Calgary Stampede product on television, it was only years later that I tracked down various tapes of the promotion. Looking through my tape list, my first video memories of Owen Hart are from mid-1987. At the time Owen Hart was the Stampede North American heavyweight champion, the major singles title in the promotion. He was embroiled in a feud with Bad News Allen (Coage), an Olympic medalist in judo who turned that success into a reasonable career as a pro-wrestler and who went on to become Bad News Brown in the WWF, refusing to allow the WWF to trademark the name Bad News Allen. Backtracking, though, Owen broke in on June 7, 1986. Two months later, he and Ben Bassarab were Stampede International Tag champions. Ben Bassarab was an incredible worker in the style of Dynamite Kid. I saw him once at Maple Leaf Gardens around this time, at a time when we'd often see Western Canadian talent on the undercards; he was amazing. At the end of August of that year, Stampede North American champion Wayne Ferris, better known as the Honky Tonk Man, jumped to the WWF and vacated the title. A title tournament began. Owen and Bassarab lost the tag titles to the Viet Cong Express (one of whom was Hiro Hase) on 10/03/86, since Owen was set to become a singles star. On 10/25/86, Owen won the British Commonwealth Midheavyweight Title, the secondary lighter-weight title in Calgary, beating Les Thornton for the title. On 10/31/86, Makhan Singh (Mike Shaw, a veteran wrestler who played roles in WCW and the WWF) beat Owen Hart in the tournament final to determine a new champion. Owen would beat Makhan for his first title run on 01/19/87 (now holding both the major singles title and the secondary midheavyweight title), lose the title back on 01/30/87, and regain it on 04/10/87. Which brings us to mid-1987 and the video memories. Bad News was a great heel. I remember well when he cut a promo accusing Owen Hart of avoiding him: he came to the ring with a chicken picked up at the grocery store, complete with a little title belt around its waist, ripping the chicken up before the interview was finished. Makhan Singh joined into the feud. It was amazing to see Owen, a year-or-so into the sport, have solid * * * 1/2 matches with Singh. Mike Shaw was never in matches of this quality again. During this time period, Stampede was also visited by Keiichi Yamada (who would go on to become Jushin Liger) and Hiro Hase, in their formative years. Owen successfully defended the title against Bad News, Makhan, The Angel of Death (Dave Sheldon) and other veterans, like Jerry Morrow and Ron Starr. They did the classic heel-turns-face-turns-heel deal with Starr. While a heel, Starr challenged Owen for the title. Kerry Brown & Duke Myers ran in, with Starr turning face, upset that they cost him his title shot. This led to a tag match, with Hart & Starr facing Brown & Myers and Starr turning on Owen. By August 1987, Owen was teaming with Keiichi Yamada and Hiro Hase in various tag and six man matches. The heels were journeyman and the matches never aired in full on TV, but those faces sure showed all the signs of greatness. In mid-August, Owen lost the midheavyweight title to Gama Singh in a good match. A week later, Owen was set to regain the title when Bad News Allen ran in to screw up his chances. In September 1987, Owen did his first tour with New Japan, where he became an instant hit. Keiichi Yamada had finished up his stint with Stampede and was also on the tour. On 09/14/87, Owen and Yamada had a tremendous * * * * match. And on 09/22/87, Owen had a great match with Kuniaki Kobayashi, challenging unsuccessfully for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title, which Kobayashi had won by beating Nobuhiko Takada in a tournament final. He also worked some tag matches, teaming with Mark "Rollerball" Rocco, the English star who was the first Black Tiger in New Japan, to face Keiichi Yamada and his partner, in one case Nobuhiko Takada and in the other case Keiji Muto, both bouts being * * * * affairs. Those were the tour matches that aired on TV in Japan. He returned to Calgary in early October; they played a highlight tape of his Japan tour on Stampede TV. He moved immediately into a North American title feud with Jason the Terrible (Karl Moffatt). Owen held on to the title through early 1988, feuding with Jason the Terrible, Makhan Singh, and Steve DiSalvo. In early 1988, Jason turned babyface, so the natural tag matches ensued. He lost the North American title to Makhan Singh again on 05/06/88 and, in June, went on another tour with New Japan, this time winning the the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title from Hiro Hase on 05/27/88. Hase had made history on 12/27/87 by winning the IWGP Jr. title in his very first match in the New Japan ring. So, Owen worked the tour as Jr. champ, having a great televised match against Keiichi Yamada before losing the title to Shiro Koshinaka in a televised bout on 06/24/88. One can't go to far in stressing how great Owen was during this time period. His interviews were a bit stilted, but his ringwork was just tremendous. Owen himself said that he never wanted to become a pro-wrestler, despite the fact that his huge family was so entrenched in the business. His father, the legendary Stu Hart, was by all accounts an awesome athlete, who played for the Edmonton Eskimos from 1938 to 1939. As with many footballers over the years, Stu was also into wrestling. By 1940, he had left football behind and had become an amateur wrestling national champion and a likely candidate for Olympic gold. That medal run was halted by the cancellation of the Games due to World War II. Stu laboured on, preparing for the 1944 Games, again a strong candidate for gold, but the games were again cancelled. At this point, Stu, who had met Helen Smith in New York and married her, decided to return to Calgary and start a wrestling promotion of his own, which he did in the late 1940s. It is no secret that Helen was never a fan of the wrestling business, but she thought this love of Stu's would dwindle in a few years. They had 12 children, eight sons and four girls, with everybody somehow becoming entrenched in pro-wrestling. The women married wrestlers and the men either wrestled, refereed, or promoted the sport. In Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows, the award-winning documentary by Paul Jay which documents the events in Bret Hart's WWF career in the year leading up the infamous double-cross in Montreal, Helen gave a strong sense of her lack of love for the industry that engulfed every aspect of her life for the past 50 years. In a Saturday Night magazine interview in 1993, Owen said, "I wanted to be a physical education teacher. I wrestled only to appease my father. I was compelled to get into the ring. Once I started, there was the pressure of having the Hart name -- I was expected to be good." Yep, Stu Hart began the long process of training his son for greatness when Owen was just four years old. He wrestling prowess earned him amateur championships, and, as the youngest of the Hart brothers maturing at a time that the business was becoming so athletic, the demands on him were great. In 1984, Stu sold his promotion, which ran under the Foothills Athletic Club company name, to the WWF. Remember, that was the time period where Vince was just starting his expansion as the the phenomenon of Hulkamania, initially a marketing myth, started to become reality. Indeed, reports say that Vince McMahon very nearly came close to going broke in those early days. But the WWF couldn't draw in Western Canada. Stampede had established itself by pushing much smaller wrestlers and better athletes than other promotions in North America, and, given what the WWF was pushing in the early-to-mid 1980s, the fans just weren't conditioned for the new product. Stu Hart reopened the promotion. Stampede was viewed as a "farm system" for the WWF. Stu didn't put Owen through the grueling training sessions in his basement, the dungeon. Owen reportedly was the only Hart son who openly joked with and pranked his dad. In Wrestling With Shadows, Bret talks about being scared of his dad and respectful of his authority, but Owen was able to tease the man. We return to 1988. Shortly after returning from Japan, Owen Hart joined up with the WWF, where his brother Bret was already teaming with brother-in-law Jim Neidhart, who had also cut his teeth in Calgary Stampede using a strongman gimmick with a nickname of "The Incredible Hulk." As the Hart Foundation, Neidhart & Hart quickly became a top tag team in the WWF, likely one of the legendary teams in North American wrestling, with Owen beginning a long run of wrestling with his brother's shadow, so to speak, in the eyes of promoters and most fans. Owen came in to the WWF as The Blue Blazer, an acrobatic wrestler perhaps modelled after some Japanese junior heavyweight wrestlers. It was a post as a midcard jobber, but at least it was anonymous. I actually may have the timeline slightly wrong. My memory is that Owen worked a short stint as the Blue Blazer in the WWF before returning to Calgary. Certainly, he worked in Calgary in 1989 before the promotion closed up shop. In 1989, Owen worked against Johnny Smith (now a perennial All Japan midcarder who smartly avoided North American competition) and "Lethal" Larry Cameron, who died of heart failure after a match a few years later. He even worked against the Dynamite Kid in August, 1989, when Dynamite was back down in weight and unable to leave the business he loved. Somewhere in all of this, he had a try-out match with the NWA. It even aired on TV. I remember Owen hitting a tope and generally just being awesome. I went to sleep thinking about Ric Flair vs. Owen Hart matches, Ricky Steamboat vs. Owen Hart matches, and the like, happy as a baby. But Owen ended up back in the WWF, back as the Blue Blazer, back as a midcard jobber who showed a few flashy spots, but who never delivered a great match. It was a disappointing outcome for his fans. Perhaps he wanted to stay close to home, close to his family. The ongoing joke in rec.sport.pro-wrestling, which existed by this time, was that Owen would take it easy in North American for most of a year before going off to Japan for a tour or two where he could show his stuff. He had a lacklustre New Japan TV match against Jushin Liger on 02/25/90. But on 06/26/90, he had an absolutely tremendous * * * * 3/4 match against Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit), who was already establishing himself as a top challenger to Jushin Liger's IWGP Jr. heavyweight title. I remember the Observer at one point saying that the Benoit vs. Owen matches were too good, if anything, that the moves were too crisp and polished. These guys blended together like Flair and Steamboat before them. Later on in the same tour, he had TV matches against Shiro Koshinaka and Keiji Muto, neither match being that noteworthy. Unfortunately, he laboured on as Blue Blazer in generally sad matches for those of us who knew what Owen could do. I remember getting loads of e-mail from WWF fans who wondered why I was so high on the guy when they saw him as a jobbing gymnast. In 1991, Owen went to Japan for the junior heavyweight tournament tour. I have a handheld of a tag match with Owen & Flying (Too Cold) Scorpio against Negro Casas & Black Cat. It was a nice * * * 1/2 bout. On 04/17/91, he faced Pegasus Kid in a * * * * 1/4 tournament match, and on 04/28/91 he once again faced Jushin Liger in a * * * * 1/2 classic. From that point on, he pretty much languished in the WWF, in my opinion, with great memorable matches being few and far between. When Bret embarked on a solo career, Owen teamed with Jim Neidhart as the New Hart Foundation and later teamed with Koko B. Ware. His misuse continued until 1994. In 1993, he actually won the USWA title from Papa Shango as a temporary champion who would lose the belt back to Memphis star Jerry Lawler. At the 1994 Royal Rumble, Owen teamed with his brother Bret against the Rougeau Brothers, with Owen turning on Bret to lead to their brother vs. brother match at WrestleMania. That singles match was easily the best WWF match of Owen's career, if not the modern-era WWF, rivalled only by the first Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match (which took place on the same card, setting a pay-per-view quality record for the WWF to that point) and the Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin WrestleMania match. The WWF toured Japan in mid-1994, using various Japanese talent on the shows, but the matches were still just WWF-style bouts which hugely disappointed the Japanese audience and tape collectors like me who tracked down handhelds. In 1995, Owen Hart was saddled with Yokozuna as a tag partner, setting a pattern of always being teamed with a partner for whom Owen had to carry the action of their bouts. Owen & Yokozuna won the tag titles. At the end of 1995, the Harts put together a tribute to Stu Hart; on the show, which aired on Calgary TV in edited form, Owen challenged unsuccessfully for Razor Ramon's Intercontinental title. At the February, 1996, In Your House pay-per-view, Owen Hart faced Shawn Michaels in a * * * * match that was built around Owen Hart hitting an enzuigiri on Michaels after their RAW injury angle. Not long thereafter, all of the crap that led to the Montreal doublecross of Bret Hart started going. Bret had been signed to a 20-year contract with the WWF, which would feature him working in the ring as WWF champion for the majority of the next three years before going into the front office for the remainder of the contract run. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith & Bret Hart were put together, with Brian Pillman & Jim Neidhart, as a Canadian troupe that played heels in the US and babyfaces in Canada. Owen's story lines revolved around Bret's character for the most part. On RAW on 05/26/97, Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith lost the tag titles to Shawn Michaels & Steve Austin in a * * * * 1/2 classic tag match. Owen still held the Intercontinental title. The tag titles were vacated, though, and a tag tournament took place, with Owen & Smith recapturing the titles on 07/07/97. It was a tumultuous period, with the champs losing the titles a week later to Steve Austin & Dude Love. On 08/03/97, at SummerSlam, Owen Hart faced Steve Austin. Owen lost the Intercontinental title, but the real story of the match was Austin's injury. Owen executed a piledriver on Austin, but Austin's head was protruding below Owen's legs. Austin's legs and arms went numb right after the spot, and he feared his neck was broken by the bump. Owen stalled as long as he could, looking terribly concerned about Austin's condition, and somehow Austin managed to recover enough to literally drag himself by his hands to get a roll-up on Owen eight minutes before the match was scheduled to end by a Stone Cold stunner. Austin was in bad shape getting out of the ring and heading to the hospital. By all accounts, Owen was devastated by his role in the injury, since the Harts prided themselves on the quality of their ringwork. Austin held a grudge after this accident. Steve Austin had to take a leave of absence because of the injury. In October, Owen Hart won the vacant Intercontinental title. A month later, at Survivor Series, the doublecross of Bret Hart by Vince McMahon, Earl Hebner, and Shawn Michaels took place. Also on that show, Steve Austin beat Owen in a nothing match. Austin's neck was still in bad shape, to the point that he shouldn't have been in the ring, and Owen was recovering from a concussion. The Austin vs. Owen match was professionally done. After the doublecross, both Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart wanted to leave for WCW along with Bret Hart, who categorized Vince McMahon as the ringleader of a circus with the wrestlers being circus animals. Smith was perturbed enough that he bought his way out of the remainder of his contract with the WWF. Owen was reportedly assuaged enough to stay in the promotion. He had a longer run left on his contract and presumably was convinced that it would be good for him to toil out of Bret's shadow. And, of course, with the doublecross complete, Owen had a natural issue that could elevate him to headline status. Hindsight being 20/20, there can't be a fan in the world who doesn't wish that Owen had found a way to get out of his deal with the WWF at this point. After agreeing to stay, it seemed like Owen vs. Shawn Michaels was a definite possibility in early 1998. But at the Royal Rumble in 1998, Michaels faced the Undertaker and took a bump over the top rope, cracking his back on the casket at ringside for in a career-ending injury. Michaels managed to drop the title to Steve Austin in a lacklustre match at WrestleMania. On the same show, Owen challenged unsuccessfully for the European title. In order for Owen to be a headliner in the WWF, his story lines would have to intersect with Steve Austin's story lines, since Michaels was now gone and Austin was on fire. But Austin, holding the grudge from the earlier accident, refused to work with Hart. The WWF had such a short roster that Austin refusing to work with Owen effectively cut Owen's legs off. He couldn't be built into a main eventer because he'd have to meet up with Austin. Owen spent most of 1998, in my mind, working hard to help establish the current crop of WWF stars, who sadly all surpassed him in status because nobody was holding them down. By the end of the year, he was paired with Jeff Jarrett, a second generation wrestler who used to be over with his "double J" gimmick in his previous WWF run, but who was not getting over at all with the new crowd of non-wrestling fans. Even when Jarrett was paired with Debra McMichael, since women played a key role in the WWF product in the past year or two, he still didn't get over. Since Owen played a role in establishing other stars (Hunter Hearst Helmlsey, Rocky Maivia, Ken Shamrock, and others), he and Jarrett were put together. It seemed like a chaotically-booked story line, though, with the Blue Blazer resurfacing along the way, being exposed at different times as being Owen and Jarrett, with a black Blue Blazer also appearing. Somehow, out of all of this, Owen & Jarrett had a tag title run and remained a tag team, while Owen also worked the super-hero spoof as the Blazer. Reports are that Owen didn't like coming down from the rafters on a suspension wire. He and his wife were concerned with safety, perhaps shaken by the Austin injury, which likely explains why Owen was content to flash us with glimmers of his brilliance during the 1990s in North America. All of this, of course, brings us to May 23, 1999, to Over the Edge. Earlier in the day, Owen had practised the stunt he was slated to do on the pay-per-view. He was supposed to be slowly lowered to the ring, arms outstretched to show off the Blue Blazer outfit's feathers, releasing himself just above the ring. The suggestion is that Owen was asked to do the descent gimmick as a knock on Sting, who did the gimmick in WCW. You see, WWF superstar Steve Austin uses the Stunner as a winning move, so WCW midcarder Disco Inferno uses the same move. WWF superstar Rock uses his People's elbow as a finisher, so WCW midcarders like Kaz Hayashi and Juventud Guerrera use the move as a finisher. WWF stars routinely kick out of leg drops and escape from figure fours. You get the idea. If a star in the opposing promotion successfully uses move X, give move X to a loser in your promotion. For no real reason, then, Owen climbed into the rafters to descend on a cable. After falling to his death, Owen was eventually taken out to a standing ovation, as the fans realized that this wasn't an angle. Jim Ross drove home that a real tragedy had occurred. Inexplicably and with total insensitivity, the pay-per-view continued even though many of the wrestlers were obviously emotional wrecks. At the Hart House in Alberta, Stu was gathering with a chunk of his family for the traditional Sunday dinner. When they first heard that Owen had fell into the ring, they thought it was an angle that worked. Then Vince called. Stu was quoted as saying that Vince had to explain to him how something like this could happen, that he deserved an explanation since he has lost a son: "Vince is covering his butt and he's got good reason to because somebody didn't do his job." Initially, every news station that I have access to ran a story on the tragedy. Many stations ran an interview with a fan or two that were in the arena. They said Owen hit his head on the turnbuckle as he fell to the ring and that the fans in the arena thought at first that this was part of the story line, only realizing something was amiss when the paramedics that came to ring seemed to actually be real paramedics. One station interviewed a women who was going to play one of the Godfather's hos (Godfather was slated to defend his title against Owen). She said Owen wished them a good match after his interview and then went off to get into position for his descent. When he fell, she said that people came running backstage saying not to go out, that there had been a terrible accident. TSN ran an interview with Jesse Ventura, who said that an accident had to happen given what wrestlers were doing these days compared to when Jesse was involved. On Wednesday night, Jesse talked about the tragedy on the Tonight Show. Vince McMahon told the media that he thought that Owen had accidentally unlatched himself. He said that the show went on because Owen would have wanted the WWF to continue to entertain his fans. I found this explanation wanting. He also suggested that this stunt would never resurface in the WWF. In a strange twist of fate, given Bret's criticisms when he left the promotion a year-and-a-half earlier, Vince mentioned that the WWF competes with Hollywood for entertainment dollars and this was just a circus-like stunt gone wrong. We'd hear the word "circus" out of more mouths as the days wore on. Viewer's Choice had the option of pulling the plug on the show upon realizing that a wrestler had died. Brand director Bill Cuters phoned the WWF immediately after the incident and was quoted as saying that "everybody was so upset I guess automatic pilot took over," his way of explaining why the show went on. One columnist suggested that it was more like the "automatic banker" taking over. The images of the Hart family grieving in Calgary, of Bret Hart hugging his mom and sitting stoically with his dad, of Davey Boy Smith, Bruce Hart, and Ross Hart consoling the women were tough to watch. Ross Hart was interviewed by the CBC, with snippets airing on different news programs. The gist of the Hart postion, also voiced by Ellie Hart, was that pro-wrestling had become something other than pro-wrestling in recent times, that the ratings war pushed the promotions to do more crazy things and the fans to demand more crazy things. I guess Carl DeMarco is right: it isn't about men in their underwear trading holds any more. And who feels good about that today? Perennial Stampede Wrestling commentator Ed Whalen was interviewed on TV and in the newspapers, having known Owen Hart since he was born. He said that pro-wrestling is going to get a lot worse before it gets better again. He talked about Owen being a professional, one of the best ever in the game, a gentleman, and a great father and husband. The idiots also came out of the woodwork. On the internet, it was suggested that Owen may have committed suicide. A total moron phoned in to a radio talk show in Toronto saying that when he spent his money on a pay-per-view event he expected to see whatever happened in the ring; he was upset that the cameras didn't show Owen die. WCW released a short, polite, respectful statement and immediately let Bret Hart out of his commitments, the most notable of which was a Monday night appearance on the Tonight Show to have a confrontation with Kevin Nash. The WWF posted a polite statement on the opening page of their web site and removed Owen Hart's biography from the site. They also put on a RAW tribute show, or so they would say, with 10 matches announced and wrestlers doing out of character canned interviews that were wrapped around the matches. I suppose the interviews fleshed out this wrestler named Owen Hart who all of the current casual fans had seen on TV, letting us know that he played an important part in wrestler morale in the locker room and that he was a prankster. But some of the comments seemed out of place, with my wife actually finding some of the comments offensive to Owen's family. Jim Ross plugged Owen's "favourite charity" for those that wanted to make donations and mentioned that his wife, Martha, was grateful for all of the fan support. But it came off like a promotion trying to make good after continuing a show that should have been stopped the night before, like a promotion that was looking for good will to avoid a heavy lawsuit. I was offended by Steve Austin being the last guy to hit the ring to drink a beer in memory of the guy he hated, the guy he kept down. Maybe the show went over time and Austin had really planned to say something that would be heartwarming, to bury the hatchet so to speak, but that didn't materialize, and, as the "tribute" went off the air, Austin's mouth was filled with a Steveweiser and mine was filled with a decidedly more bitter taste. Every newspaper reported that Owen was going to leave wrestling in two years when his WWF contract ran out. He had been saving his money all of these years so that he could afford to quit and spend time with his family. Chris Jericho was quoted as saying, "What happened was really a mirror image to a circus going wrong, with someone falling off the high wire or falling off the trapeze. That's the way you can sum up what we do. We're almost a live-action circus act." The Globe and Mail interviewed Abdullah the Butcher (Larry Shreeve), who talked about wrestling having a long history of using suspension cables, usually for cage matches, where a manager was suspended above or beside the ring. Bret Hart seemed to suggest that he might be finished with pro-wrestling. "This whole family's been driven by this profession. Now, wrestling's such a black spot -- I don't know as a family we'll ever find any fun in it." Going on, "I'm sure Vince is devastated but wrestling is (supposed to be) body slams and falls -- it's never meant sailing into the ring. The fans have become almost like wild dogs -- they seem to clamour for more and more." Further still, "[Continuing with the show] seems pretty insensitive... the wrestling business doesn't seem to have much honour or appreciation for the wrestling." Davey Boy Smith, who it is rumoured wants to work towards returning to the WWF, said, "Everything was fine, but something went wrong. Vince McMahon didn't force Owen to go...you can't point the finger at Vince." This makes me think of Jesse Ventura's remarks, saying that wrestling is very competitive, that if you refuse to do something for whatever reason there are ten guys lined up to do it instead of you, likely stealing your spot. Helen Hart: "I'm angry at wrestling itself for relying on more and more shock and outrageous things. They're running out of ideas." Ellie Hart: "Frankly, wrestling was getting so far out and my poor brother Owen was a sacrifice for the ratings, that's how I look at it. They kept on getting more far out with the gimmicks and angles. We figured sooner or later somebody was going to end up with a tragedy because of the direction wrestling was taking with both WWF and WCW." The homocide detectives reported that the cable did not break, but by Wednesday they believed that Owen's costume became entangled in the release mechanism, leading to the premature release of his safety harness. Stu Hart isn't ready to swallow that, saying that it's a convenient explanation and that Owen can't defend himself against it. Paul Jay, the director of Wrestling With Shadows said, "It always seems to be the wrong person who gets it. This was almost like a circus accident." He said that in footage that ended up on the cutting room floor Owen talked about his family. "He said there's always been a feeling of invincibility. The Harts were the Harts and nothing happens to the Harts. This will shake the family very much to its roots." He mentioned that the growing lewdness of the North American wrestling product offended the Harts. "The Harts, they kind of demonstrate what wrestling could be and should be and always was when they controlled it here with Stampede Wrestling." In fact, one news story reported that Owen, like Bret, didn't let his kids watch wrestling on TV. And so, here we are a few days after the death of Owen Hart. I'm sure most fans feel sad that somebody involved in the sport died under such circumstances. Some might even realize how sad this was for that legendary Canadian family they've heard or read about. I certainly feel both those sadnesses, and several more. I feel terribly sad for the Hart family, for Stu and Helen, who have the tragic experience of outliving their youngest son, for Owen's wife and kids who lived so long without Owen being around with any regularity only to face the rest of their lives without him at all. I feel sad that Vince McMahon didn't have the sensitivity and decency to stop the pay-per-view when it was immediately clear how serious the accident was, that his circus performers didn't have the gumption to ask or tell Vince to call the pay-per-view off, that "the show" continued to go on the next night, with commentators talking about wrestlers needing to get into the ring to get over Owen's death and wrestlers delivering canned, thoughtless platitudes that formed an unfitting "tribute" which was capped off by an acknowledged enemy of Owen delivering a limp, in-character gesture. Finally, in composing this article and revisiting the past of Stampede Wrestling, a past which offered so much hope for the future of this industry, I'm sad as a fan of pro-wrestling, a fan who has seen four of six of the non-Japanese greatest of the great wrestlers produced by Stu's promotion, several of them so great that they have been treated as honourary Japanese, come to such tragic ends. Usually, when somebody puts a lot of effort into writing an article on the life and death of an athlete or entertainer, he tries to end with a point of hope for the future. With each drug-related death mentioned earlier, many people talked about hoping that the industry would learn something from it; survivors understandably clung to the idea. But I've come up short in this regard. I see no beacon of hope. Too many people have lost too much for stupid reasons. - The WWF had Over The Edge on this past Sunday, 05/23/99. Over all it was a thumbs down show, but show quality was a much lower concern coming out of this tragic pay-per-view. In the pre-game show, they aired the bit where Austin symbolified Undertaker. I still don't know why he did it; wouldn't Austin just beat the crap out of Undertaker? Maybe handcuff him and kick his ass? How did the Undertaker get his voice to come over the PA system? Isn't he just Mark Calaway playing a role? Quick run-down: * X-Pac & Kane beat D'Lo Brown & Mark Henry to retain the Tag Titles: "D'Lo sucks!" chant early. D'Lo & X-Pac had the best interactions of the night. Kane & Henry had the worst. Henry press slammed Kane, who no-sold and hit his own clotheslines. Kane did a dropkick, which if we are going to start keeping track was the second thing he did in the WWF ring that required some athletic ability. Kane no-sold everything. Henry crotched X-Pac and then missed a lame-ass splash on X-Pac. D'Lo hit his power bomb, but Kane saved. D'Lo missed a high spot, so we had a double tag and the two stiffs came in. Kane slammed Henry, tilt-a-whirled D'Lo. Henry caught an X-Pac plancha and killed him outside. Kane did a reversed suplex. Kane even did a tope onto everybody outside of the ring. Kane clotheslined Henry for a 2 count. D'Lo saved. Bronco buster on D'Lo. Henry splashes X-Pac, but Kane caught Henry and choke slammed him for the three. This was a really good opener despite Kane's no selling and the general lack of ability of Kane & Henry. Match ran 14:48. * Al Snow beat Bob Holly to retain the Hardcore title: Before the match, Holly told us he would "take an implementary destruction," whatever the hell that meant. Hardcore sucks. They brawled to concession stands; at least they were real. Ross mentioned Tupelo, which had two famous concession stand brawls. Six minutes in, the crowd didn't care at all about the match, totally unlike the first bout. And they say wrestling doesn't matter. Holly kicked out of the Snow plow. Snow kicked out of a DDT on a chair. Holly set up a table. It ended with Snow powerbombing Holly on the table at 12:55. * Owen Hart fell to his death. The whole show changed from here on, as the energy was sucked out of most of the wrestlers (the human ones) and the commentators. * Val Venis & Nicole Bass beat Jeff Jarrett & Debra: Jarrett was in no condition to wrestle. Debra had no business being out there either. A terrible match, but you can't hold it against them. Venis won with the money shot at 6:04. Nicole kissed him and he liked it. Nicole was bleeding from her shoulder. Originally, Sable was supposed to be in this match with Venis, as the early story lines showed, but she is now too good to get in a ring, so they built a story line to switch off to Bass. * Billy Gunn beat Road Dogg: Boring match. Dogg was in no shape to be out there. I kept wondering why exactly these two guys were such a great tag team. Surely, never having a good match couldn't be a big factor. Gunn used a hammer on Dogg. The match was flat. Gunn used the Famouser for the win at 11:12. * Mankind & Ken Shamrock & Test & Big Slow beat Midian & Viscera & Acolytes in an elimination tag match: The Corporate Ministry is Completely Meritless. Ken eliminated Bradshaw with the ankle lock. He then hit the ankle lock on Faarooq, but Boss Man pushed the rope in to Faarooq. Shamrock refused to break, suplexed the referee, and got DQed. The crowd chanted "bullshit!" Test was already gone as well. Big Slow's choke slam was call the Slow, er, Show Stopper. Given that I want Big Slow to be stopped, I got excited when they talked about a Slow Stopper; then I realized it was the name of the move. Boss Man walked off. Slow followed. Slow ran him back to the ring, and Boss Man couldn't think of anything do to except lumber back with Big Slow. If only one of those Cobb County convicts had figured this out: they could have grabbed this prison guard by the back of the head and run towards a prison exit. Big Slow is so talented that he and Boss Man had to drop to a head lock spot for a minute after all of that exertion. Now, that spot was a show stopper. Eventually, Big Slow and Viscera got into it and punched each other to the back. I love elimination matches where the majority of guys don't get pinned and don't submit. I've figured it out now. Big Slow was getting so slow, the only thing he could do was take it to the limit and actually stop...hence, the slow stopper. Big Slow's punches are just the worst. No decision was given, but the commentators guessed that Slow & Viscera were eliminated. I figured the match would end before those guys could lumber back to the ring anyhow. Mankind hit the socko claw to win it for his team at 15:01. * Rocky Maivia DQ Hunter Hearst Helmlsey: Before the match, they announced that Owen Hart was dead. I bet there was a lot of deliberation over whether they should make such an announcement. Newspaper reports said he was dead at the scene. They announced was dead and they then played the footage of Rock being sledged while in a coffin. That was tastful juxtaposition. Hunter Hearst Helmsley attacked Rock's arm, taking the cast off. Chyna interfered freely. Rock came back with some kicks and a DDT. Rock's selling of his arm injury was among the best he's done, so the match had that going for it. The commentators kept pushing the idea that the referee should stop the match because of Rock's injury. The referee took a chair away from HHH, who decked him and got DQed. I didn't note a start time for this match, and I can't be bothered to check now, but it ran less than 13 minutes. Why would HHH dominate the match and lose it? Isn't that Shamrock's gimmick? Rock chaired HHH, who bled. Rock did his spots before HHH & Chyna rallied. Mankind came out to help. * Undertaker beat Steve Austin to win the WWF Title: Vince McMahon was injured on Heat, so Shane McMahon and Pat Patterson came out to be referees. Undertaker used the slow stopper on Pat right away to eliminate him as referee. If Austin hit Shane for a DQ, he's lost the title. Untertaker & Austin brawled to the entranceway, where most of Austin's matches take place. Austin banged Undertaker's head through the stained glass windows. I really like that they've now introduced glass as a weapon. Wrestling in North American was missing that. I don't understand why an impartial referee like Shane would generally maintain the standards of refereeing. The wrestlers walked around, fighting a little here and there. Austin stunned UT, but Shane counted two and stopped. Undertaker chaired Austin, no, Austin whipped Undertaker into Shane. No referee. Jerry Brisco finally came out dressed as a ref. He would have been on sooner after Pat's demolition, but I guess he had to get that referee's shirt on. Undertaker attacked Jerry. You see, he attacked Pat before the bell rang, so there couldn't be a DQ. Now, he attacked Jerry during the match, but apparently that didn't merit a DQ. This made loads of sense. Vince limped out. He's my hero. He's the wind beneath wings. The wrestlers did a double clothelines spot. Vince counted. Both wrestlers did sit ups at eight. Stunner. Vince counted two. Shane stopped him. Vince went after Shane, Austin stopped Vince to complain about the counts, Shane tackled Vince, they all fell in a heap, and somehow Undertaker landed on top of Austin, with Shane counting a Big Fast three count. Messy match. RAW RAW on 05/24/99 was a live show following on the heels of the Over The Edge PPV tragedy the night before. It was billed in advance as a two-hour tribute to and celebration of Owen Hart. The show opened with all of the WWF talent and crew coming out for a ten bell salute to Owen Hart. They then played a tribute to Owen Hart on the Titantron. It was short and to the point, quite well done. I suppose I was still stinging from the fact that they continued the show and had the nerve to say that that was what Owen would have wanted. His family didn't want it, but I guess Vince knew Owen better? The show featured various WWF wrestlers talking about Owen Hart, with most of the words being thoughtless. I can't believe how many times people told Owen's wife and kids how great Owen was. Mick Foley seemed to have put some thought into what he said. Jeff Jarrett and Road Dog were also heavily moved but obviously unready to talk about the matter. Nothing was worse than having midcard guys admit they barely knew Owen and say something stupid about him. Meanwhile, many top guys were noticeably absent. It underscored how Owen had been blocked from the top echelon. They actually announced that ten matches were planned on this "tribute" show. Why not make it a real tribute? Why have the show go on? Why bother to deliver the awful matches they did? It all made no sense to me. First match had Jeff Jarrett vs. Test. Jarrett told us that Owen was never a nugget. Jeff just shouldn't have been out there, even if psychologists for the night, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, said it was what he needed. Match sucked, as it obviously would. Jarrett used the Sharpshooter for the finish at 2:40. X-Pac & Kane faced Edge & Gangrel. It ended when X-Pac got the pin on Gangrel at 4:03. The Hardy Boyz faced Taka Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki, who were flown for exactly what reason? This was a squash, but at least the action was good. The Hardy Boyz have a lot of potential. Match ended at 3:20 when a Hardy pinned Funaki. Ken Shamrock faced Bob Holly. Shamrock hit the ankle lock faster than I can type this paragraph after a couple of glasses of nice chianti. Match ran 1:48. Billy Gunn faced Mankind. Gunn told us that if we weren't down with Owen Hart, he had two words for us. Remember when the heel used to flash his butt for a split-second for cheap heat? Gunn mooned everybody forever and, with true professionalism, didn't pull his trunks up when he was bumping. Mankind put the claw on Gunn who was on the apron, the referee counted to ten, and Mankind was declared the winner by COR. Match ran 2:09. D'Lo Brown & Mark Henry faced the Acolytes. Wow, a match where only one guy sells. The Acolytes had some problems, leading to Brown getting the pin on Bradshaw at 4:00. Road Dog faced Godfather for the IC Title. Well, not really. They got in the ring, having done the important part of their acts: the entrance. Then they walked off to smoke marijuana. That's what they said. Al Snow faced Hunter Hearst Helmsley. HHH used the pedigree to bury Snow at 3:42. Big Slow beat Godults in 1:02 with the choke slam. Val Venis lost to Rock in 55 seconds. After all of this, Steve Austin came out to drink a beer in honour of Owen in a scene that should have offended any fan in the know. Tally time: 19:57 of pointless bell-to-bell wrestling. Nitro Nitro on 05/24/99 was a three-hour show that opened with a three-bell salute to Owen Hart and a statement of condolence. Before talking about the events of the show, it is probably important to jump to a report in the Observer which discussed a meeting that Eric Bischoff had with the wrestlers before the 05/17 Nitro show. Apparently, Hulk Hogan bent Bischoff's ear and convinced him that the company should be built around ten guys, the guys that put asses in the seats, believed by the Observer to be Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sting, Bret Hart, Roddy Piper, and Goldberg. Hey, shouldn't Lex Luger be in there? Oh, that bodes well for the future. Most of those guys don't work house shows, so the house shows will continue to be viewed as second-string shows by fans who go hoping to see the TV stars. The Observer also reports that Bischoff told one or more of the second-string guys that the promotion tried pushing the younger guys but the ratings fell. The obvious question is when exactly did the promotion push the younger guys? I'd like to see that TV. First match on Nitro saw Chavo Guerrero Jr. lose to Van Hammer in 3:02. Well, that boosted my spirits. Hammer's gimmick has changed: he was a peace-loving hippy, but people don't want peace, he told us, they want violence, so that is what he'll give us from here on in. Disco Inferno was interviewed. For a moment, there seemed to be something positive happening. Disco criticized Savage for attacking the younger wrestlers and trying to keep them down. What's neat about that is that as everybody talked about the "younger" wrestlers on and off during the show, they tacitly admitted that the top guys are old. Anyhow, Ernest Miller came out to confront Disco, and the two started brawling, with Disco getting whacked after Sonny Onno grabbed his foot. So, Disco, having challenged one of the top old guys ended up getting whipped by another opening act. Ernest Miller & Scott Norton had an impromptu nonmatch. El Dandy faced David Flair, with Dandy of course having been bought off by Ric Flair. The match was brutal. David Flair is not a wrestler. He's just like Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon, and other nonwrestlers who get in the ring and embarrass everybody who loves wrestling. If he were serious about becoming a wrestler, he would have spent some time in training. Word is he hasn't even walked into the Power Plant. It is evident. Arn Anderson interfered and David used a lame figure four for the win at 1:25. They had a cruiserweight battle royal to determine who would get a title shot against Rey next week. For some stupid, stupid reason, Hugh Morrus ran in and starting whacking everybody. Rey Misterio Jr. came out to attack Morrus. Why, why? Match ran 7:57, more or less. Diamond Dallas Page & Bam Bam Bigelow came out to help Ric Flair by attacking Roddy Piper, saying that Flair owed them and they wanted a tag title shot. Flair gave them the match at the Bash. Page & Bigelow will be getting the titles at that show. After a commercial, Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko bitched at Arn Anderson, since Flair had hardly looked after Horsemen interests. It appears that Benoit & Malenko will be separating from the Horsemen. It also seemed like they may even split the team. Chris Benoit faced Buddy Lee Parker. Benoit beat him in 3:38. This was interesting because Dean & Chris had talked about not getting their shot, about being held back. Here, at the end of the match, Dean pointed out how the crowd reacted so well to Benoit, saying that the fans want to see guys like Benoit. It almost seemed like they were building up a young guys vs. old guys story line, which is what they should do, more or less, but the key element has to be the young guys beating the old guys clean at the end of programs that feature no other clean wins (i.e. the young guys should not lose cleanly). Rick Steiner defended the TV Title against Buff Bagwell. Steiner was DQed thanks to his brother's interference at 4:48. Sting & Lex Luger came out separately to hold off the Steiners. Can't wait for that tag match and the Luger turn. Konnan & Curt Hennig got into a scuffle. Hennig is the only old school guy who will likely put over a new star cleanly. Hugh Morrus faced Rey Misterio Jr., set up by the earlier run in. Okay, it wasn't really a match, as Kidman and Konnan got involved before a bell rang. The point? Who knows? Hulk Hogan did an interview, among other things criticizing the "XXX porno wrestling on the other station." Hogan promises to change the business when returns. How envigorating. Kevin Nash was laid out by Randy Savage and the chicks. I should mention how depressing Thunder was last week for that very reason. All of the young guys were killed by Savage and three women. Sigh. And I just don't believe it's building to a real, good old vs. young program. Main event had Ric Flair & Diamond Dallas Page & Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Roddy Piper and two mystery partners. The mystery partners seem to be Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko, who stroll out, Dean in street clothes, and side with Piper over Ric's protests. Of course, Benoit was in for the first few minutes and was awesome. He actually got a lot of offence in initially, before getting cut off and pummelled. Malenko seemed to disappear. Just as Benoit made the hot tag to Piper, Raven & Perry Saturn ran in. So, Benoit had the pleasure of collapsing on the apron while Flair & Piper brawled to build to their match and the remaining four wrestlers brawled out of the ring to build to their tag match. Benoit did get up and stomp Flair a bit. Match was a DQ at 5:52. Benoit should have pinned Flair in a surprise. I hope it goes that way. Tally time: 26:42 of bell-to-bell action. Now, that was a great show, wasn't it? Crap. - In the mixed tag match on last week's Nitro, Charles Robinson suffered a collapsed lung thanks to Randy Savage's elbow. Since Savage is getting older, he doesn't take as much of the bump on his knees and hip as he used to. - There was a funny response to a letter in the Observer this week. The letter writer asked about Vince McMahon admitting the Undertaker was just a role played by Mark Calaway, a role that he'd come to believe was real. The question was to explain Kane. The Observer response from Dave Meltzer went: Kane is really Glen. I think he was once the Unahomber. As a child, he was in a fire that killed both his parents. Except his real father was Paul Bearer, who raised him from the age of nine. Mark was also raised by Paul Bearer after his parents died in the fire. However, even though they lived in the same house as children, Mark thought Glen had died for 20 years until he showed up in St. Louis the day after Brian died. Brian really died. Mark's parents really didn't. Nor did Glen, nor did Mark really think Glen died. He knew that was just a clever wrestling storyline. Nor did they live in the same house. Anyway, Glen told Paul that Mark set the fire that never took place. Mark wanted to kill Paul for sayng he murdered his parents because Glen used to fool around with fires and was the one who set the fire. Paul was having an affair with Mark's mom and was actually Glen's father. Mark wanted to kill Paul for that one. Glen and Paul set Mark on fire and choke slammed him into his mother's bones after they exhumed the grave. Eventually Mark got so mad that they fought each other. But that was really a promotional stunt by Vince to draw a buy rate for Wrestlemania so Mark hated Vince. So because he hated him so much, he and Glen got together to be his bodyguards. But they got yelled at because Vince was an ungrateful asshole so they destroyed Vince's ankle. Actually that was because why? The same reason Paul Wight, Vince's top enforcer, turned face to get away from Vince being such an asshole and because Rock was such an asshole and was back with him two weeks later, in the role of Vince's top enforcer and running in to help Rock. Anyway, as it turned out, after spending a year fighting Glen because he'd killed his parents, Mark admitted he was the one who killed his parents and burned his brother. And the police show up to arrest wrestlers every Monday but nobody ever questions him. And Paul loved those parents and Glen, his son. So now, Paul and Mark are back together. And [Raw scripters] Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara's attention to the minutest detail make them the greatest script writers on television. - WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/13/99. Tentative line-up has: * Kevin Nash vs. Randy Savage for the WCW title * Roddy Piper vs. Ric Flair for the presidency of WCW, again * Diamond Dallas Page & Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Raven & Perry Saturn for the tag titles - 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 99/04/25: Backlash Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 1.06 $5.09 2.28 * * 1/4 * * * * 1/4 Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 12.5% (1 of 8) 99/03/28: WrestleMania Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 2.3 $12.04 1.13 * 1/4 * * * 1/2 Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0% (0 of 9, no shoot) 99/02/14: St. Valentine's Day Massacre Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 1.2 $5.33 1.28 * 1/4 * * * 3/4 Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0% (0 of 8) 99/01/24: Royal Rumble Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia Royal Rumble 1.57 $6.97 1.83 * 1/2 * * * 3/4 Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0% (0 of 6) Last 6 1.39 $6.56 1.43 1.38 3.58 1.9% (1 of 53) 1999 1.53 $7.36 1.61 1.56 3.81 3.2% (1 of 31) 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 0.6 2.86 2.31 * * 1/2 * * * * 1/4 Juventud Guerrera vs. Blitzkrieg 11.1% (1 of 9) 99/03/14: Uncensored Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan 0.73 $3.48 1.83 * * * * * 1/2 Billy Kidman vs. Mikey Whippreck 0% (0 of 9) 99/02/21: SuperBrawl Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan 1.1 $5.27 1.89 * * 1/2 * * * 1/4 Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Kevin Nash Scott Steiner vs. Diamond Dallas Page 0% (0 of 9) 99/01/17: Souled Out Bill Goldberg vs. Scott Hall Ric Flair & David Flair vs. Curt Hennig & Barry Windham 0.78 $3.64 1.83 * 1/2 * * * * Billy Kidman vs. Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Psicosis 11.1% (1 of 9) Last 6 0.82 $3.8 1.88 2 3.88 5.8% (3 of 52) 1999 0.8 $3.81 1.97 2.13 3.75 5.6% (2 of 36) 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 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. ______________________________________________________________________