december 1996 notes

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JAN. 6, 1996 WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: GUESS WHO WON THE NWA TITLE AGAIN, FINAL JAPAN ATTENDANCE FOR 1995, WHAT IS A TIGER DRIVER AND MORE
BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
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Wrestling Observer Newsletter
PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 January 8, 1996

STARRCADE '95

Thumbs up 152 (78.4%)

Thumbs down 18 (09.3%)

In the middle 24 (12.4%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Eddie Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Otani 113

Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage 26

Jushin Liger vs. Chris Benoit 25

Triangle match 12

WORST MATCH POLL

Johnny B. Badd vs. Masa Saito 93

Lex Luger vs. Masa Chono 28

Triangle match 26

*Kensuke Sasaki vs. One Man Gang 13

*Votes from fans who attended the show live

Based on phone calls, letters and fax messages to the Observer as of Tuesday, 1/2. Statistical margin of error: +-100%

In 1989, after perhaps the most memorable year of a storied career, after a Starrcade at the Omni in Atlanta, there were more than whispers within World Championship Wrestling about its biggest star, Ric Flair. Flair, who had turned 40 that year, came off a series of memorable matches, particularly with Rick Steamboat and Terry Funk in the first full year of Turner ownership of what was once Jim Crockett Promotions. While the year had some outstanding shows, many would be considered right near or at the top of any list of the greatest PPV shows ever, and numerous matches that are still fondly remembered today, it's the man on top in pro wrestling who gets too much credit and takes too much blame. Despite a memorable series of headline matches, from a financial standpoint, the year was a failure, as it turned out, would every year of Turner ownership be, but nobody knew that at the time. The company's star, who got double heat because he was also the booker and doing both jobs wasn't doing him or anyone any favors, was said to be too old, not marketable to children and all that good stuff, and the company's fortunes were going to turn around the minute Sting or Lex Luger got put in the top spot. I heard it many times about the "six-time" (as he was referred to then) world champion, that after they got the belt off him to Sting, there would be no No. 7 and he'd never tie Harley Race for that all-time record that everyone talked about then and nobody even cares about today.

Six years later, Flair is champion again after a Starrcade that showed both how much and how little this business has changed. Hogan's still on top. Savage is still Hogan's understudy. Just like at Starrcade '89, Sting and Luger, when left to work with each other, can't get any heat and now that both are in their late 30s, nearly the age Flair was when people were saying he's too old and needs to retire, it turns out they were never the future for anyone. Flair was still leading both in a triangular match, doing basically the same moves and spots as he did so many times over the past eight years. But the undercard, featuring performers like Eddie Guerrero, Shinjiro Otani, Koji Kanemoto, Chris Benoit and Jushin Liger showed how much wrestling has changed. Not only a more modern work style and the generation gap between today's wrestling and yesterday's announcers who are left to not get it over because of a lack of understanding of how to call it, but of a melting pot due to videotapes of styles from different parts of the world converging in of all places, Nashville, TN, where the fans grew up watching the likes of Jackie Fargo, Tojo Yamamoto and Jerry Lawler. Now Flair is the veteran living off 20 years of a name, still a good performer and psychologist, but all but his most ardent fans have come off the belief he's the best thing going today, although his title win at the time was probably the best thing for the company.

Starrcade '95 on 12/27 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium was a show carried by a strong undercard, but perhaps the most lasting memories were Flair coming out with the WCW title (a decision, ironically enough, made largely by Hulk Hogan for reasons that nobody would ever believe, and something even Flair himself wasn't told about until just before show time) and the return of juice as this wrestling war gets more bizarre by the day. WCW reinstated blading, with Flair bleeding heavily at the finish of his match with Randy Savage, as a reaction to Bret Hart bleeding on the WWF PPV show ten days earlier.

As it turns out, not surprisingly, everyone is claiming the Hart situation was actually not planned nor a blade job, although the WCW reaction was both. Hart needed four stitches to close an "L" shaped wound above his hair line, and had small snippets of broken glass lodged in his head. The WWF has not changed its policy, at least as of this week and as of the last PPV show, when it comes to blading and blood on its shows, although, like everything in today's wrestling, every policy is subject to review in a reactive wrestling war. The belief is that small pieces of broken glass from the Ahmed Johnson/Jeff Jarrett plaque angle early in the show were on the floor and that opened Hart up. Of course, given the point of the match, what the videotape certainly appeared to show, the reactions of the announcers, the nature of which a taped showing of the match was promos on Raw this past week and the gimmick of having Diana Smith in the corner as her husband and brother are battling in what turns into a bloodbath makes this one very coincidental accident if that's what it was.

As with last year, Starrcade sold out the 8,200-seat arena roughly one hour before show time, with 6,018 paying $83,855.

Flair won what was billed as his record setting 12th world heavyweight title (at the very least the real number is 14) beating Savage due to interference and distractions from three wrestlers--Arn Anderson, Brian Pillman and Benoit, and one manager, Jimmy Hart, while a befuddled referee had to pretend to not be able to see what was right in front of his eyes and or hear ring noise or crowd noise. As matches go where American versions of a major world title changes hands, this was among the worst in recent years, with one of the worst finishes.

Although the wrestling was weak in three of the final four matches and the announcing was awful, it couldn't damper a strong undercard and probably WCW's best PPV show overall of the year. I really felt sorry for Tony Schiavone because it appeared from the early matches that he had done his preparation and basically was shouted down by Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan from the get go and it seemed after the third match when they started making fun of him, he simply quit. This left them to ignore all the moves and psychology for the rest of the show and in particular, in the Sting-Kensuke Sasaki match, they totally butchered the match and viewers weren't explained what the two were attempting to do with it which is too bad because they had a good match although most of the key points were kept secret.

A. In a match that started at 6 p.m. (it was announced on television and in all ads that the show was beginning at 6:30 p.m. which pissed a lot of fans off), Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkenberg) pinned Dave Sullivan (Bill Dannenhauser). *

B. American Males (Marcus Bagwell & Scotty Riggs aka Scott Antol) beat The Blue Bloods (Steve Regal aka Darren Mathews & Bobby Eaton) when Riggs pinned Eaton. Much worse than you'd think with Eaton really looking bad. 1/2*

1. Jushin Liger (Keiichi Yamada) pinned Chris Benoit in 10:29. While not at the level of most of their matches in Japan, this was an excellent opener with stiff action and great moves back-and-forth. Liger played subtle heel. Liger doesn't fly like he did before he broke his ankle, but is still one of the best mat wrestlers around. They traded great near falls with Benoit using his killer power bomb followed by a head-butt off the top rope when Kevin Sullivan came to ringside. He distracted Benoit, allowing Liger to hit a sloppy huracanrana for the pin. ****

2. Koji Kanemoto pinned Alex Wright in 11:44 by dropping his face on the top turnbuckle (the old Vinnie Vegas snake eyes) followed by a jackknife (well, that is the name for it) cradle. Fans were chanting "USA' which is hilarious considering what country Wright is from. Kanemoto put on a wrestling clinic here, particularly some of the fastest toe holds (both a spinning drop toe hold and an incredibly fast spinning toe hold) seem since the days of Satoru Sayama. Wright used some nice flying head scissors and a dive over the top. After a slow period, Kanemoto unleashed some great kicks and a plancha. Kanemoto took over and hit the moonsault but pulled Wright up. Wright came back with several near falls and the two then traded big moves and near falls until the finish. For his age, Wright has turned into a great performer and Kanemoto has improved tremendously in being able to carry a match over the past year. ***3/4

3. Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) beat Masa Chono in 6:41 via submission with the torture rack. The crowd was really into Luger as a face. I think the reason the heel turn didn't work was because he turned on Hogan, who most fans don't like, and Savage, who most fans associate with Hogan and thus also don't really like. Not nearly as bad as I expected. Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan were making fun of Tony Schiavone as the two were doing their finish. *1/4

4. Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero) beat Masa Saito via DQ in 5:52. Diamond Doll came out as a WWF Sunny knockoff doing gymnastic routines out of fitness pageants (which she competes in). She got into a lame put-down battle with Sonny Onno which ended up doing her no favors. Onno, who was at ringside for every Japanese match, interfered freely in this one. The styles clashed as Badd is a high spot wrestler and Saito, at 53, is pretty much washed up relying on facial expressions and at that age after 30 years in pro wrestling, obviously isn't fond of taking big bumps. They chopped each other hard but Saito doesn't sell well which exposed Badd's weaknesses. They did a lame over-the-top DQ finish which made no sense, as why couldn't Saito do the job as it's not as if he's a key performer in New Japan today? After the match, Badd went to do a somersault plancha, but Saito was totally out of position and didn't seem to have a clue it was coming and Badd hit an airball, although didn't appear to be injured. 1/2*

5. Shinjiro Otani pinned Eddie Guerrero in 13:43 of the match of the show. They started slow. Otani (spelled Ootani with a first name in the pre-match graphic but the announcers didn't ever say it) left people's jaws hanging with his springboard dropkick, springboard plancha and springboard spin kick and pretty much from a performance standpoint stole the show. Guerrero came back with a Frankensteiner off the top and a BT bomb for near falls. The best subtle maneuver of the show was Otani dropping down and doing the Oleg Taktarov heel hold, the whole psychology of which was naturally lost on everyone except Guerrero who sold it great before making the ropes. Otani wound up with a bloody nose and mouth, but came back with a springboard dropkick off the top rope to the back of Guerrero's head which even brought Rhodes into the match. After a series of cradles reminiscent of Guerrero's matches with Dean Malenko, Otani wound up on top for the three count. I'm told that most fans live expected Otani to win because they knew it had to end up 4-3 and knew that neither Savage nor Sting were going to do the job. ****1/4

6. Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) pinned Hiroyoshi Tenzan (Hiro Yamamoto) in 6:55 with the elbow off the top rope. Either Savage's back and arm injuries are so bad which makes him so limited, in which case he needs to take time off to heal because he's doing nobody any good this way, or he needs to get out because he didn't do a thing and had a 24-year-old guy with limited experience carry the match for him. Fortunately Tenzan (spelled Tensan and nobody knew or cared about his first name) did a much better job than you'd think under the circumstances, even letting Savage kick out from both his mountain bomb (of course the announcers had no clue) and head-butt off the top rope finishers before missing a moonsault. Savage did one sloppy move that Tenzan had to sell for way too long while he climbed for the winning elbow. 3/4*

7. Sting (Steve Borden) made Kensuke Sasaki submit to the scorpion in 6:52 to win the World Cup by a 4-3 margin. Sasaki hit his Northern Lights bomb finisher (of course the announcers had no clue) and Power strangle (of course no clue despite him using this as a finisher on every television match). Sasaki let Sting get out of his two finishers and the announcers just babbled, missing the entire point of the match. Then he used his reverse ipponzei finisher, which Schiavone called an armdrag take-down. He went for a scorpion but Sting powered out. Sting made a big comeback with a clothesline and facebuster before winning via submission with a scorpion. ***

After this came the presentation for WCW winning the World Cup. All the wrestlers in the previous match except Savage came out, with nobody explaining why Savage was there. Benoit was there and looked like he had no clue what he was supposed to be doing since he's a heel from Canada out there as part of Team America during an American flag waving ceremony.

8. Ric Flair (Richard Fliehr) won the triangle match over Sting & Lex Luger in 28:03. The rules of the match are that the person who scores the first pin or submission regardless of over who is awarded the win, which is a rule that is lame to begin with because it would make no sense for anyone to ever tag out. Schiavone even made that point. Flair's presence heated the crowd, but in most ways this match was a total disaster. Way too long and boring with a horrible finish and a dead crowd for the last 10:00. Flair started with Sting for 10:30 and they the same spots you've seen a million times between the two which are always good. It got good heat and was good action although nothing close to the level they were at in Norfolk. The only key spot was when Sting had Flair pinned, Luger ran in to make the save for Flair against his "best friend" because if Sting had won, Luger would be denied getting the title shot. Then Luger tagged in, so Flair wrestled Luger for 7:25 and carried him to an acceptable portion of a match in which Flair put Luger in position to be a total face although he crowd was split. Then, after months of build-up of what will happen with Sting vs. Luger and 18:00 of anticipation here, Flair tagged Sting. The two shook hands. The fans booed. The two started talking and the fans went to sleep. The match 10:08 with little heat. The key spot was Luger doing a blatant low blow on his "best friend." Finally Sting made a comeback doing the Stinger splash, but missed a second attempt, and Luger put him in the rack. As this happened, lo and behold, Sting's legs knocked out the ref. Flair then clipped Luger in the knee and he tumbled out of the ring. Flair then threw Sting over the top rope. When the ref revived, he counted both out of the ring and awarded Flair the victory. Even though Flair was the lone person playing heel in this match and the finish was the ultimate lame screw-job, there was a huge babyface pop for the finish. Jimmy Hart, who was Luger's manager against Chono, but not in this match (those coherent WCW storylines strike again), then came out to congratulate Flair for basically screwing the guy he managed. *1/2

9. Flair beat Savage in 8:41 to win the WCW title. Hart was in Flair's corner which makes sense since Hart is with Luger, who is feuding with Flair and was screwed by Flair, and the Dungeon of Doom, who hate the Four Horseman. I think they just needed someone who wouldn't screw up in distracting the ref while three guys did a run-in as that was the lame idea for a finish, perhaps to protect or pacify Savage while he dropped the strap. Paul Orndorff came to ringside at one point wearing a neck brace just to keep that angle in people's heads. Savage didn't do much I guess because he's limited by his physical condition, but Flair worked well enough to make it watchable. Flair is like watching the old knuckleball pitcher who can still fool the batters, in this case he knows all the tricks of working the crowd, but in performance, seeing Flair do his routine after all the young fireballers that worked underneath was anti-climactic even if his name and presence are such that the crowd gets into him. This was a nothing match except for the title changing. Hart distracted the ref and Flair went to use the megaphone. Savage got it away from him and used it, and Flair juiced heavily. Savage then hit the elbow off the top, but Hart distracted the ref so he couldn't count the fall. At this point, Benoit and Brian Pillman hit the ring and Savage took care of them as well. Then Arn Anderson hit the ref and KO'd Savage with an object while Benoit, Pillman and Hart distracted the ref. Flair got the pin and after all that, got the biggest babyface pop of the show. After the match the Horseman, in particular Pillman, continued to destroy Savage with Pillman whipping him with the title belt and spitting right on the camera lens, and left the ring to loud cheers. *1/2

C. If that wasn't bizarre enough, the final match took the cake as Kensuke Sasaki retained the U.S. title, or lost it, to One Man Gang (George Gray) in an unannounced match. The storyline was that Sasaki wouldn't defend the title in the U.S. which is why the Sting match was made non-title after previously being for the title. So it makes perfect sense that he works as a heel underneath, then as a babyface here, defends the title in an unannounced match for no reason when the announced title match is made non-title because he refused to defend the title in the United States (Nashville must be like parts of California which go from being part of the U.S. to being considered by many as a foreign country depending upon who is in the ring at that particular moment). So this finish where the title changed hands should also make perfect sense. This match was said to have been far worse than anything else on the show. Gang used the 747 splash and the ref counted the pin, however Sasaki kicked out just before the three count. Gang grabbed the belt and raised his own arm. The ref took the belt from Gang and re-started the match, and Sasaki came back and pinned Gang and was announced as the winner and left with the belt. However, we were told Gang won the title in this match and that the match finish where Sasaki got the three count and was announced as the winner and left with the belt was done to pacify the Japanese because Sasaki is a big star in Japan and losing this match would mean he lost two matches on the same show, one of which was to a bum. The thing about him losing the title is explained that nobody in Japan (or the U.S. for that matter) cares about the U.S. title to begin with so I guess in Japan they'll just ignore he had the belt or make up their own storyline of him vacating the belt while in the U.S. they can re-edit the footage of this match and claim Gang beat him for the title. This was taped and the belief is that they'll simply cut off the tape with Gang holding the belt if it airs on television. Gang is listed as U.S. champion and scheduled to defend the title against Konnan on the 2/11 PPV show from St. Petersburg. DUD

Other show notes: WCW officials were so happy with the undercard that Sonny Onno (Eric Bischoff's Japanese liaison) and Masa Saito negotiated the next day and came to an agreement to use Japanese talent more often on PPVs in 1996 and also to do a World Cup again next year.

At the entrances, there were signs saying that all signs were going to be confiscated, although they did allow people with Pro-Hogan signs in. Some fans managed to sneak their Pro-Flair signs into the building.

Akira Hokuto was at the show with a camcorder taping the matches.

They passed out Hogan merchandise to the fans near ringside. The Hogan lookalike fan, who is a guy originally from Detroit who moved to Atlanta and calls himself Roddy Hogan, was moved around by WCW officials several times before the show as they wanted him in a position to be on camera as much as possible.


Final 1995 attendance figures in Japan (we'll cover the United States in a few weeks and also have a rundown of the biggest drawing cards of the year--Keiji Muto was the No. 1 drawing card in the world in 1995) saw All Japan run 138 shows and draw 442,850 fans or a 3,209 per show average, a slight drop (-4.5%) from its 1994 average of 3,359. In 1992 and 1993 the group averaged in the range of 3,800 per show. New Japan drew 1,084,066 fans in 164 shows (that's including shows that are really New Japan shows but weren't New Japan in name such as Anton Promotions, Heisei Ishingun and a few late year UWFI shows) for an average of 6,610 fans per show which is probably the highest average per year for any promotion that runs a regular (as opposed to once monthly) schedule in at least the recent history of wrestling. It's a whopping 42.9% increase over averaging 4,627 in 1994. The company averaged about 5,000 in 1993.

FMW's claimed figures for 1995 were 153 shows and 401,094 for a 2,622 per show average, a drop from 3,294 average last year. However, FMW began greatly inflating its announced attendance publicly after Atsushi Onita retired in May because the decline was so drastic, so there is little accuracy in the announced average and the decline was far more severe.

UWFI ran eight shows this year, with an average per show dropping from 15,812 to 7,825, or a 51% decline, which probably tells the story on why they are only in business as a worked rival group of New Japan. In 1994, Rings ran 13 shows averaging 5,909, while in 1995 it ran 12 shows and averaged 5,506 (-6.8%). Michinoku Pro increased from 121 to 134 house shows, and increased its average attendance from 908 to 934 (+2.9%). Pancrase ran ten events both years, but its average per event dropped from 7,950 in 1994 to 5,525 in 1995 (-30.5%). Basically between those three, and the fact that Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi also went out of business in 1994, it says that the shootwrestling fad is showing a real decline in Japan even though interest in UFC events is huge.

All Japan women went from 224 events and a 2,180 per average in 1994 to 247 events and a 1,744 per average in 1995. Roughly half of the 20% decline is pretty much just taking the one Tokyo Dome show out of the average.

Announced figures by IWA and JWP are generally greatly exaggerated, although it is believed that IWA averaged about 1,200 per show doing 81 house shows.

Overall attendance in Japan (not including North Korea) increased from a reported 3,193,150 to 3,291,181 or a marginal three percent increase, but that's with an increase to 35 companies (that's including offshoot groups like Heisei Ishingun as a separate company to get 35 although there really were at most 21 serious companies in Japan last year) and an increase from 1,170 shows to 1,345 and with more stadium shows this past year than ever before. Overall the story of 1995 in Japan was that New Japan had a banner year but none of the other companies showed any kind of significant increase, most declined and overall you'd have to say the big shows were successful but overall the business day-to-day was in decline. It's really an expected evolutionary pattern as the entire industry goes from being a day-to-day business to a business built around major shows with minimal excitement stemming from anything not considered major.


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MAJOR EVENTS WRESTLING CALENDAR 1/5 TO 2/5
1/5 WWF Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum (Bret Hart & Undertaker vs. Yokozuna & Owen Hart)

1/5 ECW Philadelphia ECW Arena (Sandman vs. Konnan)

1/6 WWC Bayamon, PR Hiram Bithorn Stadium (Colon vs. Mabel)

1/8 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Charleston, SC (Hogan & Savage vs. Flair & Anderson)

1/15 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Miami Knight Center (Flair vs. Sting)

1/20 AAA Chicago International Ampitheatre (Konnan & Aguayo vs. Cactus Jack & Sabu)

1/21 WWF Royal Rumble PPV Fresno, CA Convention Center (Bret Hart vs. Undertaker)

1/22 WWF Monday Night Raw tapings Stockton, CA Civic Auditorium

1/22 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Las Vegas Caesars Palace (Hogan vs. Gang)

1/22 All Japan Women Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium (Toyota vs. Hotta)

1/23 WCW Clash of Champions Las Vegas Caesars Palace (Flair & Giant vs. Hogan & Savage)

1/23 WWF Superstars tapings San Jose, CA SUREC Arena (Bret Hart vs. Diesel)

1/24 RINGS Tokyo Budokan Hall (Maeda vs. Yamamoto)

1/26 WWF New York Madison Square Garden (Bret Hart vs. Diesel)

1/28 WWF Philadelphia Core States Spectrum (Bret Hart vs. Diesel)

1/28 Pancrase Yokohama Bunka Gym (Rutten vs. Frank Shamrock)

1/29 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Canton, OH Civic Center

2/5 WCW Monday Nitro tapings Lakeland, FL Civic Center


RESULTS
12/16 Palm Coast, FL (Coastal Championship Wrestling - 250): Snake Watson b Cuban Assassin, Damien Leigh & Slick V b Dragon Slayers-DQ, Don Fonte b Black Heart #1 (Dave Johnson), Ray Taylor b Dante Apollo, Lord of Discipline b Mike Thor-DQ, Wranglers b Grave Diggers

12/16 Central City, KY (Tri State Wrestling Association): D.C. Timber b Tommy Sledge, Mad Man Pondo b Roy McCoy, Matt the Lumberjack b Ox, Bob Ralston b Danny D, Yoshi Kwan (Chris Champion) b Killer Khan (not original)

12/17 Mexico City Arena Coliseo (EMLL): Escudero Rojo & Reyes Veloz & Rey Bucanero b Yoshihiro Tajiri & Olimpus & Alacran de Durango, Ciclon Ramirez & Mr. Niebla & Mascara Magica b Espectro Jr. & Cadaver de Ultratumba & Arkangel, Vampiro Canadiense & Hector Garza & Brazo de Plata b Fishman & El Satanico & Apolo Dantes-DQ, Emilio Charles Jr. & Bestia Salvaje & Felino & Negro Casas b Dandy & Pantera II & Shocker & Silver King, CMLL lt hwt title: Dr. Wagner Jr. b Atlantis to win title, Mask vs. mask: Astro Jr. b Metalico (unmasked as Jose Mercado)

12/23 West Allis, WI (Mid American Wrestling - 400 sellout): Bouncer Bullinski b Ninja, Billy Joe Eaton b Farmer Vic, Trevor Blanchard b Flash, Ax Future b Big Daddy Dave-DQ, Waverider Craig b Waverider Mike, Virgil b Frankie DeFalco, Spymaster & Col. Blatnik b Love Brothers

12/23 Central City, KY (Tri State Wrestling Association): Medic b Playboy Derrick, Ox b Danny D, Bob Ralston b Yoshi Kwan-DQ, Tracy Smothers & Medic b Ox & Ralston, Pat Tanaka b Steve Doll

12/25 Tijuana, Nortecalifornia (AAA - 4,250): Genghis Khan & El Hijo de Enfermero won four corners tag team match over Pandilleros I & II, Venum & Thunderbird and X-Men I & II *1/2, Torero & Rey Misterio Jr. b Jerry Estrada & Negro Azteca-DQ **1/2, Killer & KGB b Konnan & Tinieblas Jr. 21:11 **3/4, Mexican hwt title: Pierroth Jr. b La Parka 24:44 ***1/2, No rope barbed wire street fight over the top tornado death match: Ultraman & Leon Negro b Psicosis & Halloween ***

12/25 Nashville (USWA - 860): Miss Texas b Cory Williams, Frank Morrell b Gene Johnson, USWA tag titles: Tommy Rich & Doug Gilbert b Tracy Smothers & Jesse James Armstrong-DQ, Unified title: Jeff Jarrett b Brad Armstrong, Lumberjack strap match: Jarrett b Bob Armstrong, PG-13 b Rock & Roll Express

12/25 Jonesboro, AR (North American All-Star Wrestling - 360): Rikki Burton b Ricky Steele, Samantha Pain b Debbie T. Wild, Giant Warrior b Brickhouse Brown, Spellbinder (Del Rios) b Pat Tanaka, Colorado Kid NC Bill Dundee

12/25 Vancouver, WA (Championship Wrestling USA - 150): Double Destruction Twins b Ole Olson & Sumito, Ritchie Magnett b Col. DeBeers-DQ, Dane Rush DCOR Bruiser Brian, Bart Sawyer b Buddy Wayne, Handicap match: Billy Jack Haynes b Lou Andrews & Jesse Barr-DQ

12/25 White, GA (Power Slam Wrestling - 140): Big Huff b Rob McBride, John Arden b Demand of Destruction, Kissing Bandit b Spoiler, Ken Arden b Bubba Humphreys, Ardens & McBride b Huff & B.Humphreys & Cowboy

12/26 Anaheim Arrowhead Pond (WWF - 6,500): Isaac Yankem b Marty Jannetty, Goldust b Bob Holly, Henry Godwinn b Brooklyn Brawler, Savio Vega b Hunter Hearst Helmsley-DQ, Cage match for WWF title: Bret Hart b Diesel, Ahmed Johnson b Rad Radford, Fatu & Barry Horowitz b Skip & Bob Backlund, Razor Ramon b 1-2-3 Kid, WWF tag titles: Smoking Gunns b Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith, Undertaker b Yokozuna

12/26 Louisville (USWA - 1,200): Smoky Mountain Massacre b Cory Williams, Miss Texas b Brandon Baxter, USWA title: Tex Slazenger b Massacre, USWA tag titles: Tommy Rich & Doug Gilbert b Jesse James Armstrong & Tracy Smothers-DQ, Lumberjack strap match: Jeff Jarrett b Bob Armstrong, SMW title: Jerry Lawler b Brad Armstrong to win title, PG-13 b Rock & Roll Express, Unified title: Jarrett b Brian Christopher

12/26 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Real FMW - 1,400): Daisuke Taue b Takeshi Sato, Emi Motokawa & Katsumi Hirano b Kyoko Ichiki & Tudor the Turtle, Barbed wire board match: Hironobu Kikuzawa b Shinya Kojika, Head Hunters b Seiji Yamakawa & Yuichi Taniguchi, Falls count anywhere glass street fight captains fall match: Kikuzawa & Flying Kid Ichihara & Tarzan Goto & Mr. Gannosuke b Keizo Matsuda & Keisuke Yamada & Takashi Okano & Shoji Nakamaki

12/27 Las Vegas (WWF - 3,600): Fatu & Barry Horowitz b Skip & Bob Backlund, Isaac Yankem b Marty Jannetty, Goldust b Bob Holly, Henry Godwinn b Brooklyn Brawler, Savio Vega b Hunter Hearst Helmsley-DQ, Cage match for WWF title: Bret Hart b Diesel, Ahmed Johnson b Rad Radford, Razor Ramon b 1-2-3 Kid, WWF tag titles: Smoking Gunns b Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart, Undertaker b Yokozuna

12/27 Memphis (USWA - 1,300): Miss Texas b Downtown Bruno, USWA title: Tex Slazenger b King Cobra, Hair vs. hair: Koko Ware b Smoky Mountain Massacre (Bill Stapleton), USWA tag titles: Tommy Rich & Doug Gilbert b Jesse James Armstrong & Tracy Smothers-DQ, PG-13 b Rock & Roll Express-DQ, Lumberjack strap match: Jeff Jarrett b Bob Armstrong, SMW title: Jerry Lawler b Brad Armstrong to "win title," Unified title: Jarrett b Brian Christopher

12/27 Evansville, IN (North American All-Star Wrestling - 285): Rikki Burton b Jason Lee, American Riders NC Rough Riders, Gator McAllister b J.T. Harley, Bonecrusher Lewis b Bill Dundee, Colorado Kid b Giant Warrior

12/28 San Diego (WWF - 3,500): Fatu & Barry Horowitz b Skip & Bob Backlund, Isaac Yankem b Marty Jannetty, Goldust b Bob Holly, Henry Godwinn b Brooklyn Brawler, Savio Vega b Hunter Hearst Helmsley-DQ, Cage match for WWF title: Bret Hart b Diesel, Ahmed Johnson b Rad Radford, Razor Ramon b 1-2-3 Kid, WWF tag titles: Smoking Gunns b Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart, Undertaker b Yokozuna

12/28 Glenolden, PA (ECW - 400 sellout): Taz b Don E. Allen *, El Puerto Ricano b Koji Nakagawa *3/4, Bubba Ray Dudley & Dances With Dudley b Bad Crew **, Hack Myers b J.T. Smith *, Eliminators b Pit Bulls **1/4, ECW TV title: Too Cold Scorpio b Johnny Grunge **1/4, 911 b Bruiser Mastino (Mantaur) DUD, Falls count anywhere: Tommy Dreamer & Mikey Whipwreck b Raven & Steve Richards **3/4, Sabu b Rocco Rock **1/2, ECW title: Sandman b Cactus Jack ***3/4

12/28 Rosarito (AAA - 500): Pandilleros I & II & III b X-Men I & II & III, Damian (Ultraman) & Halloween b Leon Negro & Torero-DQ, WWA welterweight title: Rey Misterio Jr. b Psicosis, Konnan & La Parka & Tinieblas Jr. b Pierroth Jr. & Killer & Jerry Estrada

12/28 Madisonville, KY (North American All-Star Wrestling): War Machines b American Riders, Giant Warrior b Brakus, Bonecrusher Lewis b Stinky Hale, Gator McAllister b Hillbilly Roy, Colorado Kid & Bill Dundee b Brickhouse Brown & Pat Tanaka

12/29 Rego Park, NY (ECW - 1,140 sellout): Taz b Koji Nakagawa *, Hack Myers b J.T. Smith 3/4*, ECW TV & tag title: Mikey Whipwreck b Too Cold Scorpio to win both titles **1/2, Eliminators b Pit Bulls **1/4, Raven b Tommy Dreamer **3/4, Bruiser Mastino b El Puerto Ricano 1/2*, Bubba Ray Dudley b Blue Meanie (Brian Rollins) *, ECW title: Sandman b Raven **3/4, Gangstas b Public Enemy ***, Sabu b Cactus Jack ***

12/29 Mexico City Arena Coliseo (EMLL): America & Kundra b Pegaso & Angel de Plata, Escudero Rojo & Reyes Veloz b Olimpus & Ultimatum, El Hijo del Solitario & Aguila Solitaria & Kato Kung Lee Sr. b Arkangel & Rey Bucanero & Halcon Negro Jr., Dandy & La Fiera & Pantera II b Kahos & Felino & El Hijo del Gladiador-DQ, Shocker & Atlantis & Silver King b Negro Casas & Emilio Charles Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr.

12/29 Dallas Sportatorium (CWA - 800/heavily papered): Vito Mussolini d Al Jackson, Greg Valentine b Killer Brooks, Guido Falcone b Action Jackson, Sam Houston & Johnny Mantell & Bobby Duncum Jr. b Rod Price & John Hawk & Valentine-DQ, CWA title tournament final: Chip the Firebreaker b Scott Putski to become first champion, CWA tag title: Bo Vegas & Devon Michaels b Hawk & Price-DQ

12/29 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Tokyo Pro Wrestling - 1,200): Musashi Oiyama b Makoto Gundan I, Bloody Bruise A & B b Masuda & Shunne Matsuzaki, Lee Yongpyo b Yoshiro Ito, Kim Duk b Apollo Sugawara, Great Kabuki & Benkei b Bruiser Okumura & Hiroshi Hatanaka, Masashi Aoyagi b Kishin Kawabata, Ryo Myake & Takashi Ishikawa b Mr. Pogo & Toru

12/29 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Big Japan Pro Wrestling - 1,000): Kobayashi b Dangerous Uchida, Tag tourney--Yoshiaki Yatsu & Masanobu Kochi b Goro Tsurumi & Crusher Takahashi, Kendo Nagasaki & Seiji Yamakawa b Masuda & Kishin Kawabata, Shoji Nakamaki & Daisuke Taue b Masashi Aoyagi & Segundan I, Barbed wire board street fight: Hironobu Kikuzawa b Shinya Kojika, Bruiser Okamoto b Yuichi Taniguchi, Tourney final--Nagasaki & Yamakawa b Taue & Nakamaki

12/29 Kennett, MO (North American All-Star Wrestling - 440): Samantha Pain b Debbie T. Wild, Giant Warrior b Hillbilly Roy, Rikki Burton b J.T. Harley, Colorado Kid b Gator McAllister, Bill Dundee b Brickhouse Brown, Kid won Battle Royal

12/29 Forest City, NC (Pro Wrestling Federation): Flaming Youth b Gladiator II, Baby Huey b Inferno, Equalizer b Sweet Brown Sugar, Terry Austin & Scotty McKeever & George South & Austin Steele b Chris Hamrick & Star Ryder & Randy Sledge & Italian Stallion

12/30 Osaka Castle Hall (New Japan/Anton Promotions - 8,000): Yuji Nagata b Tokimitsu Ishizawa, Osamu Nishimura b Kenichi Yamamoto, Five rounds match: Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) d Kuniaki Kobayashi, Masahito Kakihara b Daisuke Ikeda, Bull Nakano b Akira Hokuto, Yoji Anjoh b Hiroshi Hase, 2 of 3 falls: Antonio Inoki & Nobuhiko Takada b Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara

12/30 Reading, PA (ECW - 250): Sabu b El Puerto Ricano, Bad Crew b Dances with Dudley & Bubba Ray Dudley, Mikey Whipwreck b Koji Nakagawa, Public Enemy b Gangstas, Pit Bulls b Eliminators, Sandman & Too Cold Scorpio b Cactus Jack & Raven, Tommy Dreamer b Steve Richards, Hack Myers b J.T. Smith-DQ

12/30 Yardville, NJ (NWA - 500 sellout): Ace Darling b Ric Ratchett, Bobby Blake b Akita Kaos, Harley Lewis & Ghetto Blaster won three-team tag match over Gino Caruso & Blue Thunder and Glenn Osbourne & Rockin Rebel, Bad Attitude b Lost Boys-DQ, Inferno Kid b Damien Stone-DQ, North American title: Tommy Cairo b Derrick Domino-DQ, Cousin Luke (Gene Petitt) b H.D. Ryder-DQ, Sabu DDQ Devon Storm ****

12/30 Jonesboro, AR (North American All-Star Wrestling - 310): Samantha Pain b Debbie T. Wild, Rikki Burton b Justin Lee, Giant Warrior b Charlie Parker, Gator McAllister b Hillbilly Roy, Colorado Kid & Bill Dundee & S.Pain b Brickhouse Brown & Dirty Little Dave & Wild

12/30 Brighton, TN (American Wrestling Alliance - 125): Dennis Lee b White Phantom, Derrick King b Fabulous Rocker, Chris Gray b Paul Patton, Spanish Fly b Kenny Valiant, Rebel Connection b Brad Dustin & Tony Long, Tim White b Justin Williams, Danny B. Goode b David Denton

12/30 North Wilkesboro, NC (TNT Explosive Wrestling - 94): Brian Bruise b L.A. Valentine, Willie Clay & Gary Royal b Tim Jackson & New One Man Gang, Billy Simmons b Tim Blaze, Grave Digger & Kevin Kirby DDQ Dream Warriors, Rick Link & Vladimir Koloff & Royal b Harlem Gangsta & Bone Crusher & Assassin #2

12/31 Jeffersonville, IN (Nightmare Promotions): Sean Venom b Mercenary, Tornado Taz b Sgt. Blade, Bill Dundee b Gary Jones, Dundee & Danny Davis b Phantoms-DQ, Mike Samples b Bonecrusher Lewis-DQ

1/1 Atlanta Omni (WCW Monday Nitro tapings - 6,000/3,619 paid): Bobby Walker b Buddy Lee Parker, Joey Maggs b Disco Inferno, WCW TV title: Johnny B. Badd b Diamond Dallas Page ***1/4, Randy Savage b Arn Anderson *1/4, Steve Regal b Chris Benoit **3/4, Lex Luger & Sting b Super Assassins (Warlord & Barbarian) *1/2, WCW title: Hulk Hogan b Ric Flair-DQ *1/4

1/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 2,100 sellout): Mighty Inoue & Mitsuo Momota b Masao Inoue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Steve Doll b Kentaro Shiga, Takao Omori b Maunukea Mossman, Rusher Kimura & Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta b Ryukaku Izumida & Haruka Eigen & Masa Fuchi, Tamon Honda b Bobby Duncum Jr., Jun Akiyama b The Lacrosse (Jim Steele), The Eagle (Jackie Fulton) & Johnny Ace & The Patriot (Del Wilkes) b Satoru Asako & Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa, Stan Hansen & Gary Albright & Rex King b Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa, Patriot won Battle Royal

1/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (IWA - 2,150 sellout): Takeshi Sato & Daisuke Taue b Satoru Shiga & Tudor the Turtle, Kyoko Ichiki b Emi Motokawa, Keizo Matsuda b Katsumi Hirano, Hiroshi Itakura & Akinori Tsukioka b Mr. Gannosuke & Hironobu Kikuzawa, Tiger Jeet Singh b Keisuke Yamada, Tarzan Goto & Flying Kid Ichihara b Leatherface (Rick Patterson) & Takashi Okano, Barbed wire match: Shoji Nakamaki & Cactus Jack b Head Hunters

Special thanks to: Ric Gillespie, Lou Pickney, Georgiann Makroplous, Chuck Langermann, Walt Spafford, Bob Garst, Paul Hilchen, Jeff Cohen, Chris Zavisa, Ron Rivera, David Millican, Sarah Moore, Dan Parris, Brian Falzarano, John Butler, Robert Littlepage, Steve "Dr. Lucha" Sims, Jesse Money, Scott Hudson


JAPANESE TELEVISION RUNDOWN
12/16 JWP: 1. Hiromi Sugo & Rieko Amano beat Kaori Nakayama & Yukari Ishikura of FMW in 11:19. *; 2. Plum Mariko & Commando Boirshoi beat Saburo & Fusayo Nouchi in 12:23 when Boirshoi pinned Nouchi with a uranage off the top rope. **; 3. Hiromi Yagi (JWP) & Yumi Fukawa (AJW) beat the AJW team of Rie Tamada & Yuka Shiina in 15:52 when Yagi pinned Shiina. Yagi looked the best of the four. **; 4. In a street fight, super heel Devil Masami doing her Undertaker gimmick beat Mayumi Ozaki in 30:38 after a series of power bombs. It's pretty much impossible to watch a 30:00 match where one person is on offense virtually the entire match. Highlight was Masami using a bullwhip and chasing Ozaki into the stands, through the aisle, into the mezzanine, into the upper deck, and then throwing her off the upper deck (about a seven foot drop so it's not a dangerous drop). Pretty disappointing. *1/2; 5. Kaoru & Hikari Fukuoka won the JWP tag titles beating Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka in 26:21 when Kaoru tope'd Kansai and in the ring, Fukuoka pinned Suzuki with a sunset flip off the top rope. The match was excellent but it lost something because the crowd was dead. ***3/4

12/16 NEW JAPAN: 1. Masa Chono beat Yoji Anjoh in 5:39 with a submission hold that looked something like a full nelson. This match had great heat since both guys have a lot of charisma. **1/4; 2. Tokimitsu Ishizawa beat Kazushi Sakuraba with an achilles tendon submission in 7:17. It looked more like a Pancrase match than a pro wrestling match. DUD; 3. Yuji Nagata beat Kenichi Yamamoto with a boston crab in 7:14. Yamamoto looked bad here so Nagata had to really carry things. *1/4; 4. Kazuo Yamazaki beat Osamu Nishimura in 3:55 with a Fujiwara armbar. It was really stiff and heated while it lasted, but too short. **; 5. Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi Ohara won a non-title match over Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata when Koshinaka pinned Hirata after a power bomb and german suplex in 12:36. Nothing special. **; 6. Keiji Muto pinned Hiroyoshi Tenzan in 9:09 after a leg whip, a dropkick off the top rope, a Frankensteiner off the top rope, a moonsault and finishing with the figure four. Both guys pulled out all their trademark moves and the past had very good heat. Muto was flying all over the place this time. ***1/2

12/23 NEW JAPAN: 1. Hashimoto & Hirata retained the IWGP tag team titles beating Chono & Tenzan in 18:08. The match had excellent heat, particularly picking the crowd up when Hashimoto delivered his heavy kicks when he made the hot tag. Hirata lacks charisma and he's nothing special, but the place goes nuts waiting for Hashimoto's hot tags so they are an effective team. Hirata went for the Machine suplex and Chono low blowed him and put on the STF, but Hirata made the ropes. Finally Tenzan accidentally clotheslined Chono and Hirata pinned Tenzan with a Liger-bomb. Chono and Tenzan did the break-up afterwards. ***3/4; 2. Koji Kanemoto pinned Jushin Liger with a rolling senton off the top rope in a non-title match in 14:19. This was also an excellent match with the two trading near falls on each other with very good heat. ***3/4; 3. Muto retained the IWGP heavyweight belt beating Koshinaka with the figure four in 14:22. The first half of the match was nothing special, but it built into yet another excellent match. This was one of the better TV shows of the year. During the last few minutes the two reversed each others' patented spots, then they executed their patented spots but had the other kick out of them. Muto kept going back to leg whips which are probably the most over move in New Japan since they were the key move Muto used on Takada in the biggest match of the year. The leg whips set up the winning figure four. This was exactly what a world title match should be, similar to the Hart-Smith match at the last In Your House in that you get a great finish with the champion going over but the match is so strong and worked so competitively that the challenger in doing the job actually ups his stock. ****1/4


EMLL
Yet another Monday night television show hit the airwaves on 1/1. Galavison's Lucha Lunes (listed in one TV Guide with an 8 p.m. Pacific time start, in another at 9 p.m. which would put it head-up with Raw & Nitro, so naturally it means it started at 10 p.m.) debuted. The show's open called it AAA Lucha Lunes, so naturally the show consisted of three EMLL matches from about two weeks back from Arena Coliseo.

The 12/29 Arena Coliseo main event had the "upset" finish in a trios match was Shocker, who they seem to be pushing as their answer to Rey Misterio Jr., although he's not in his league, teamed with Atlantis & Silver King to beat Negro Casas & Emilio Charles Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. when Shocker made Casas submit in the third fall.

Lizmark suffered a broken eye socket bone (similar to Undertaker's injury) on the 12/25 show at Arena Coliseo but is expected back on 1/9.

In the bio of Kahos released after he lost his mask on the 12/15 year-end show (by the way, the only thing reported about the attendance for that show was it was a big disappointment for such a loaded show) it said he wrestled in the mid-70s a Rey Halcon and in the late 70s as Astro Rey (current EMLL wrestler Astro Jr. is the son of Kahos), losing his mask in 1979 to Dos Caras. Apparently when Antonio Pena wrestled, for a brief period he used the name Kahos, and when he gave the gimmick up, he suggested to this guy to take the gimmick.


AAA
The 12/25 Tijuana show drew 4,250 for the no rope barbed wire street fight tornado over the top match with Leon Negro & Ultraman beating Halloween & Psicosis. With no ropes, it's impossible to do high spots so at the beginning fans didn't know how to take it. It got wild with the introduction of a flaming barbed wire baseball bat and a lot of parents put their hands over their kids eyes since Tijuana shows draw tons of kids. Ultraman got his back badly burned and they all had deep cuts in the arm from the barbed wire. Negro & Ultraman won, although the post match was better than the match. Psicosis jumped off the top of the cage (the barbed wire set-up was similar to an SMW barbed wire cage set-up) which was at least six feet high to the floor with a senton onto Negro through a table. The foreign heels (Pero Ruso, KGB, Black Poison and Barbara Blaze) then crucified Negro on the back wall of the building (does that sound familiar?) until Konnan, Rey Misterio Jr. and Lady Victoria (attacking Blaze) made the save. Misterio Jr. did a move on Psicosis which wound up with Psicosis taking a bump off the balcony. They are concentrating more on using independent Southern California wrestlers who are cheaper because they don't have to fly them in than the Mexico City stars. Victoria and Blaze, both Billy Anderson/Jesse Hernandez students from Southern California, are doing a womens feud. Blaze has been managing KGB the past few shows, and when Pierroth Jr. defended the Mexican heavyweight title against La Parka, Pierroth Jr. said that he just met Blaze and she's already his girlfriend and she came out to manage him. Parka then came out with Victoria. The two had a surprisingly good match (***1/2) which shows how great Parka is when he cuts the clowning since Pierroth blows. They did one near fall after another with Parka doing great dives. The women got into it when a new masked guy from Southern California called Black Poison who they are pushing as a non-selling monster, did a run-in, clotheslining Victoria and giving Blaze powder which she threw in Parka's eyes to lead to the pin. Earlier Poison didn't sell a pool stick shot by Konnan and clotheslined both Konnan & Tinieblas Jr. and both were pinned in the third fall of a tag match against KGB & Killer. The rest of the tour saw 12/26 in San Quentin draw a sellout 3,000; 12/27 in Escondido draw a sellout 3,000 and 12/28 in Rosarito draw 500. Halloween, Damian (Ultraman), Misterio Jr. and Parka went on to sellout Compton, CA on 12/29 and draw flies in Bakersfield the next night. Misterio Jr.'s ankles are really bad as on the Tijuana show he was jumped by Negro Azteca and Jerry Estrada with chair shots to the ankles and knees and sold them the entire match. His limited comebacks were just chair shots and he didn't do any high spots. Next show is tentatively 1/18 with Halloween vs. Leon Negro mask vs. mask, Psicosis vs. Ultraman for the WWA welterweight title, Octagon & Konnan & Parka vs. Pentagon & KGB & Pierroth Jr. and X-Men vs. Pandilleros.

La Aficion newspaper came up with their awards (for this promotion only) naming Konnan Wrestler of the year, Perro Aguayo as Best Babyface, Cien Caras as Best Heel, Perrito Aguayo as Rookie of the year, Latin Lover & Heavy Metal as Tag Team of the year, Villanos as trio of the year and match of the year was a tie between the Parka vs. Estrada match in Mexico City and the Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis match in late September in Tijuana.

There was a joint AAA/CMLL show on 1/1 in Mexico City with Santo & Atlantis & Mascara Sagrada vs. Mascara Ano Dos Mil & Universo Dos Mil & Blue Panther on to with AAA guys like Black Cat II, Ravana, Duende, Mascarita Sagrada and Jerrito Estrada on the undercard.

Weekend television continued the year-in-review.


JAPAN
Basically a quiet week besides the 12/30 Osaka Castle Hall show which drew about 8,000 fans (15,000 capacity) for the show promoted by Antonio Inoki. The tickets were the most expensive for any wrestling show ever in Japan, with $500 ringside down to $50 for the cheapest tickets so that probably kept some people home. Overall the show was said to have been pretty dead. The main event was weird as Inoki teamed with Nobuhiko Takada against Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki. It was billed as Takada's big comeback match from the "knee injury" suffered in the 10/9 match with Muto at the Dome. When the match started, the ref asked Inoki if he wanted it to be a one fall match or a two of three, and Inoki said a two of three. Yamazaki, who hadn't done a job since joining New Japan, then said he wanted a single match with Inoki, and Inoki responded back that he would take on all three wrestlers by himself and told Takada to join his former teammates. Takada refused and stayed in the corner while Inoki worked virtually the entire match by himself. Inoki pinned Yamazaki after a choke sleeper in the first fall, but Yamazaki came back and pinned Inoki after a kick to the head. Takada finally tagged in during the third fall and threw his fast and stiff kicks but did little else, and then tagged back out. Fujiwara caught Inoki in the Fujiwara armbar but Takada made the save. Inoki ended up winning via submission with the octopus over Fujiwara to take the match. Kind of strange since most figured it would be Takada making an impressive comeback that should have been pushed leading to the 1/4 Tokyo Dome match with Muto. The biggest surprise was in the Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi match, which went to a five round draw. Satoru Sayama, the original and legendary Tiger Mask (1981-83), put the hood on for the first time in ten years and unlike his match at the Fukuoka Dome with Jushin Liger where he stunk the joint out by doing nothing but standing and sparring, never going to the mat nor flying, he went back to his Tiger Mask pro wrestling style with flying moves and did his signature spots against one of his most famous rivals from his heyday at the age of 38, which shocked everyone. In the other key matches, Masahiko Kakihara beat Daisuke Ikeda of Battlarts with a facelock in a dead match, Bull Nakano pinned Akira Hokuto and Yoji Anjoh surprisingly won via submission against Hiroshi Hase with a ground cross (similar to figure four). Nakano-Hokuto was the best match on the show but the crowd was quiet as they didn't come to see womens wrestling and given the line-up, probably came to see shoot style more then traditional Japanese pro style. They didn't pop big until the two women started with the chairs and piledrivers on a table. Anjoh-Hase had good heat.

1/28 Pancrase at Yokohama Bunka Gym which will be the first PPV show in the U.S. (for March airing) has Bas Rutten defending his world title against Frank Shamrock, Minoru Suzuki vs. Guy Mezger, Ken Shamrock vs. Yoshiki Takahashi, Masakatsu Funaki vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa, Jason DiLucia vs. Katsoumi Inagaki and prelims.

All Japan and IWA opened the 1996 season at Korakuen Hall with shows on 1/2, both of which sold out. All Japan headlined with the annual heavyweight Battle Royal, this year won by The Patriot. IWA headlined with Cactus Jack (now a babyface) & Shoji Nakamaki beating The Head Hunters.

Very light schedule with a few indie shows at Korakuen Hall during the week. Tarzan Goto promoted a show of his own using IWA talent calling the group Real FMW and headlining with a falls count anywhere glass street fight captains fall match where the team billed as Real FMW (Goto & Mr. Gannosuke & Flying Kid Ichihara & Hironobu Kikuzawa) beat Team IWA (Takashi Okano & Shoji Nakamaki & Keisuke Yamada & Keizo Matsuda). After the match, Hiroshi Itakura of WAR, who WAR announced had retired from wrestling, showed up and threw Ichihara off the balcony. Kikuzawa is involved in a weird feud with Big Japan owner Shinya Kojika, who wrestled for All Japan through the early 80s (Great Kojika). They did two barbed wire street fights with three minute time limits with Kikuzawa winning both just seconds before the bell. Nakamaki attended the Tokyo Pro show on 12/29 at Korakuen Hall and attacked Great Kabuki which leads to a match on the 1/15 IWA show with Nakamaki & Cactus Jack against the Tokyo Pro team of Kabuki & Benkei.


USWA
The move to Wednesday on 12/27 upped the house to 1,300 fans and $9,100, or more than triple what they did just a few weeks ago when they hit rock bottom with a $2,700 house and 340 fans. In the headline match, Jeff Jarrett retained the Unified title over Brian Christopher due to outside interference of both Jesse James and Brad Armstrong. The gimmick is that Jarrett didn't see or know they interfered and simply covered Christopher after they did their damage, and in fact after the match joined with Christopher in running both of them off. Jerry Lawler returned to action and won the SMW title from Brad Armstrong, while PG-13 beat Rock & Roll Express. Those were also the same finishes as 12/26 in Louisville before 1,200 fans and $9,200, while both 12/25 and 12/30 in Nashville they drew nearly 900 fans for similar matches.

Nashville nearly had a riot on 12/30 because apparently a fan hit Tracy Smothers, and he swung back and it wound up with the police coming and a mob of nearly 100 fans waiting for Smothers outside the dressing room and a lot of fans throwing things at him.

In Louisville, after the PG-13 vs. Rock & Roll Express match, they did a brawl all the way to the basement of the Louisville Gardens which I'm told was a great dressing room brawl, which ended with up Smothers & Jesse James Armstrong involved and leaving PG-13 both bloody.

Moondog Cujo quit, so Koko Ware took his place on the 12/27 hair vs. hair match against Smoky Mountain Massacre, with Massacre now bald. Heel ref Gene Johnson also quit midway through his win with Frank Morrell where the loser would no longer be allowed to ref. Johnson lost in Nashville, then no-showed the rest of the week with them announcing that Morrell won by forfeit and thus Johnson is fired.

Ware is a heel this go around feuding with Christopher. On television, he gave jobber Tony Williams three brainbusters (which he's now calling birdbusters), gave them to two other jobbers trying to break things up and gave Williams another one on the floor until Christopher ran him off. Christopher then had a television match against Smothers, which ended by DQ when Ware interfered.

Tommy Rich is in full-time so apparently he's left Bert Prentice's promotion.

It appears Downtown Bruno has turned babyface as they announced a match between himself and Scott Bowden. The two had an interview confrontation with Bowden calling Bruno trailer park trash and said he was nothing but a flunky in both the WWF and the USWA. Massacre ended up jumping Bruno.

Line-up for 1/3 was Bruno vs. Bowden, Massacre vs. King Cobra, Miss Texas vs. Debbie Combs for the USWA womens title, Christopher vs. Ware, Smothers & J.J. Armstrong defending the USWA tag titles against Rich & Doug Gilbert and if Rich & Gilbert lose, they have to leave town so I suspect a title change since Rich just started full-time and Gilbert doesn't have any Japan tours, Tex Slazenger vs. Lawler for the USWA title, Rock & Roll vs. PG-13 in a death match and a Royal Rumble, with the winner of the Rumble, with the betting line being Christopher, going to the WWF Royal Rumble in Fresno.

At the arenas in mic work, when Tommy Rich yells at Tracy Smothers he points out that SMW (which Smothers and the Armstrongs are said to represent) no longer exists.


ECW
The New York City debut at Lost Battalion Hall in the Rego Park section of Queens on 12/29 drew a reported sellout 1,140 fans which was a legit turnaway crowd. With tickets priced at $35 and $20, the gate was said to be close to $30,000 would be by far the all-time record for the company. ECW will return to the same building on 2/3 and is already talking about moving to a larger building, the Roseland Concert Hall in Manhattan in March. The main negative from what we heard were the building had no elevated seating so it was difficult to see, and even worse when they brawled outside the ring. The crowd was really heated overall and the show had a lot of blood. Paul Heyman opened the show cussing out WWF, WCW and Steve Austin, who was scheduled in the main event title match against Sandman and missed the show. Heyman said that the tirade was part work and part shoot. He wasn't at all mad at Austin, who he knew was very ill with a strep throat and couldn't work the date. But he said the tirade against WWF was both to heat the crowd up, and also as a receipt for the WWF telling him that Tom Prichard couldn't work the show because he was booked on the WWF tour of California before Heyman booked the Heavenly Bodies for the weekend in early December. As it turned out, Prichard didn't even work the WWF California tour and had never been announced in California for those shows. Heyman was aware of the Heavenly Bodies being unavailable at least in enough time to book The Gangstas to take their place against Public Enemy on the show. They ended up with a Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer match in which the winner (Raven) would get the title shot at Sandman (which Sandman won). In addition, Mikey Whipwreck won both the TV title and the tag team title from Too Cold Scorpio in a singles match with both belts at stake. Cactus Jack interfered in the finish and Whipwreck picked Jack to be his new partner. Jack most likely will start with WWF on its TV leading up to Wrestlemania (after the February PPV show) but until that time they are doing an angle where Jack tries to bring Whipwreck into Raven's group but Raven doesn't want him, Whipwreck doesn't want to join, and Jack is caught in the middle by both. Gangstas beat Public Enemy in their match and after the match, with the crowd chanting "Please don't go" at Public Enemy, Johnny Grunge flicked his fingers as to indicate it's all about making money and the crowd turned on him big-time with chants like "You sold out," "Get the F*** out" and the like. So much for understanding that a guy like Ted Petty, who is 43, has been in this business forever without ever having a chance to make serious money and begrudging him for his one last chance after the guy cut his head off and did dangerous stunt work for two years to get the chance. The main event was Sabu vs. Cactus Jack. Ref Pee Wee Moore from Japan was in with Sabu since New Japan is off right now, he told the fans that Cactus Jack wanted an NCAA rules match with points for takedowns. 911 came out and chokeslammed Moore and reffed the match, but he was slow in getting down for the near falls and it hurt the match. Fans were upset since it was advertised as a death match but ended with the first pinfall, although the bout itself was really wild. Missy Hiatt also debuted on this show doing a gimmick where she was being really nice to Steve Richards supposedly because she wants to date Raven.

The 12/28 show in Glenolden, PA drew an overflow crowd of 400. The undercard was said to be disappointing but the main event with Sandman beating Cactus Jack was a great brawl.

The 12/30 show in Reading, PA drew a crowd estimated at 250. Sabu worked the opener and then drove two hours to Yardville, NJ to work for Dennis Coraluzzo in the main event that same night. Bubba Ray Dudley juiced hardway from a vicious chair shot to the head in a match with Bad Crew. Public Enemy beat Gangstas this time.

Gangstas will face Public Enemy in their farewell show on 1/5 at the ECW Arena. Also Whipwreck defends the TV title against Scorpio along with the previously announced Sandman vs. Konnan and 911 & Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Eliminators matches.

Koji Nakagawa from FMW was in for the weekend putting over Taz, Whipwreck and El Puerto Ricano.

Heyman is talking about making a deal with MSG cable to get the Queens show to run as a two-hour special sometime in February.

Among those Heyman is talking with or about bringing in are Ultimo Dragon, Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam (to work with Sabu) and Juventud Guerrera (to work with Misterio Jr.). Shane Douglas will be back although WCW has expressed interest in him believe it or not which just expresses the point made when talking about the WWF skit on Monday night.

There is some dissension among the wrestlers because they are mad that Sabu gets to work for Dennis Coraluzzo while the rest of them are told they can't because the promotions are at odds.

Cactus Jack passed out ginger bread cookies to the fans. His gimmick since he's supposed to be King of the Hardcores, which he hates, is to do things on television that those fans perceive he'd never do. He shaved his beard and mustache off and was almost unrecognizable on his interviews on this past week's television.

There were several complaints at the Glenolden show about Austin and the Bodies no-showing and those who asked for refunds were told that since ECW provided suitable replacements (J.T. Smith and Eliminators) that they wouldn't be given refunds.


HERE AND THERE
NWA ran 12/30 in Yardville, NJ with the Sabu vs. Devon Storm rematch. The match was said to be **** with insane spots making up for the lack of psychology and bad finish. Both were injured during the match. Sabu's shoulder went out earlier that night working the ECW show, and went out a second time when he caught Storm who did a moonsault over the post to the floor. Storm was badly injured when he slipped while trying an Asai moonsault and landed on his head on the floor. Storm got up and continued the match and they ended doing a double knockout finish, which wasn't the planned finish but Storm was out. Sabu went to moonsault both Storm and his manager The Master through a table but the table didn't break. When Storm got back to the dressing room, he didn't know his name, couldn't remember anything about the match and actually talked about getting ready for the match. Even people told him his match had already taken place, it didn't sink in, and so they sent him to the hospital and the X-rays determined a concussion, a huge lump on the back of his head and a sprained wrist and had blurred vision. By the next day, he began remembering certain points of the match and our reports are he'll be out of action a few weeks. He just recently returned to action after tearing a bicep and he's only in his early 20s.

Chip the Firebreaker become the first Confederate Wrestling Association champion beating Scott Putski in the tournament final on 12/29 in Dallas. Believe it or not, at that show they announced that they were taping a PPV show on 1/5 at the Sportatorium and were raising the first four rows of ringside to $100 down to $25 and claimed Ken Norton Sr. would be there and said that Ray Mancini and Chuck Norris (they'll probably bring in that Indian from Minnesota) might be guest celebrities. Supposedly the PPV will air on 2/22 (they were having meetings to finalize all the details on 1/2) and be headlined by a football match with High Voltage & Putski & Marc Valiant & Steve Cox vs. Chip & John Hawk & Rod Price & Alex Porteau & Bull Pain. In the match, you get three points for a pin (you know, field goal), and seven points for throwing an opponent over the top rope.

Ian Rotten and Mad Man Pondo are doing three shows on 1/5 in Jasper, IN (Pondo vs. Rotten in a Taipei death match), 1/6 in New Albany, IN (Pondo vs. Rotten in a barbed wire thumb tacks broken glass mouse trap match) and 1/7 although I don't know where that'll take place. Also on the tour will be Luna Vachon, Lady Vendetta, Bull Pain, Dutch Mantel and Steve Keirn.

Billy Jack Haynes is back wrestling for Sandy Barr in Vancouver, WA (across the river from Portland, OR). Haynes was scheduled to team with Jimmy Snuka on the 12/25 show against Jesse Barr & Lou Andrews, however Snuka no-showed and it was made a handicap match which Haynes won via DQ. Barr defended the Championship Wrestling USA title against Haynes on 12/31.

Bert Prentice's North American All-Star Wrestling had its best week in its short history grossing $10,952 on five shows--two in Jonesboro, AR and one in Evansville, IN, Madisonville, IN and Kennett, MO. Terry Golden is out of action for six weeks with a broken tailbone. The group's top star and co-owner Colorado Kid will be going by his real name, Mike Rapada, starting this week. Expected in during February are Honkytonk Man, Dutch Mantel, Tracy Smothers, Ricky Morton, Butch Reed and Sapphire. They used a jobber on one of their spot shows called Stinky Hale, no doubt a knock on USWA booker Randy Hales.

Tom Robinson does a wrestling segment on WPWA, a small station in the Philadelphia area on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on pro wrestling.

Rich Turcsany of 203-375-0488 is looking for wrestling talent for interviews on his cable access show.


WCW
Monday Nitro from the Omni in Atlanta on 1/1 (6,000 fans/3,619 paying $42,840) was probably more noteworthy for what was said than what was done. Randy Savage pinned Arn Anderson in 7:57 after a ref bump, Anderson pulled out Knux, Savage beat him to the punch and got them and KO'd him with them and then put the Knux back in Anderson's trunks. Not good (*1/4). Steve Regal pinned Chris Benoit in 5:42 when Benoit missed a plancha and Regal rolled him into the ring for the pin. This was a totally different style match than ever seen before in the States combining European style with UFC style (takedowns and head-butts straight down) street fighting tactics. Really stiff but too short and no build for the finish (**3/4). Brian Pillman, Anderson and Benoit did an interview with Pillman yelling at both of them about losing their matches. Pillman only said one thing to nearly cost him his job in this interview when talking about how well Benoit performs with naked women in the limo. At this point Kevin Sullivan and Zodiac came out but the Giant pulled them away. Anderson then told Pillman that their job is to protect Flair and not to be starting wars with people they don't need to like Orndorff and the Dungeon of Doom. Lex Luger & Sting beat Super Assassins (Warlord & Barbarian) in 5:48 when Luger racked Barbarian while Sting scorpioned Warlord. This was actually the second best match of the TV show which is scary (*1/2). During the match Craig Pittman (whose legit great amateur credentials have now been exaggerated to five-time world champion) asked Steve McMichael to manage him and was turned down. At this rate the next guy he'll be asking is Chris Cruise (who, by the way, wore a diaper on television on one of the cable shows that aired this past weekend). Hulk Hogan beat Ric Flair via DQ in a title match in 7:54. It was all Flair could do is carry Hogan to the level of match he used to have with JYD. Jimmy Hart came out midway so Flair could get the same advantage spot (Hogan goes after manager, attacked from behind) he's done for the last 15 years. Hogan made the superman comeback and hit the legdrop when Anderson ran in and hit Hogan with Knux. Hogan didn't even go down and pop up, he just turned around and beat up Anderson, Pillman and Benoit, got the Knux and had all four Horseman begging off. The Giant then did a run-in with a stool but Savage got the stool away from him and Hogan beat him up as well. The Horseman scattered and Giant wanted to go back but Zodiac (apparently starting his long-anticipated and highly-awaited face turn) stopped him muttering that Hogan was his friend. Didn't they do that angle already last year? And didn't they forget it a few weeks later? Then Hogan & Savage did their closing interview challenging Flair & Anderson for 1/8. Hogan re-arranged all the planned booking at the last minute again as the original plans were for Flair vs. Sting and Luger vs. Savage on 1/8 and to do disputed finishes to lead to rematches the next week in both instances. Anderson & Pillman were supposed to face Sullivan & Hugh Morris in another angle. It appeared on television to be a mixed crowd reaction between Hogan and Flair with both getting cheered but more boos at Hogan, but told live it was decidedly pro-Hogan. It sounded like they booed like crazy during the Hogan interview and superman comeback, though.

On none of the weekend shows did they acknowledge anything about the Kensuke Sasaki vs. One Man Gang situation nor was the U.S. title ever mentioned.

The comments by Eric Bischoff as he watched Raw were probably more noteworthy. Early in the show Bischoff gave away that the Smoking Gunns won the Raw Bowl and that it wasn't any good and then called it the Toilet Bowl and McMichael started going on about it being the Kitty Kat League. After a sign was aired on Raw that said WWF was where the bigger boys play, he responded that WCW was where the biggest boys play. WWF did a skit on Raw where they had guys dressed up like Ted Turner, Bill Shaw, Harvey Schiller in "Billionaire Ted's Wrassling Warroom with a very old skinny guy dressed to be Hogan and a guy dressed to be Savage complaining how they need more action in their matches and showed clips of Ramon, Michaels, Diesel, etc. and showed Hogan and Savage's face cringing when they showed them doing their finishers. The Hogan character said he was too old and his feet don't leave the ground and that he was too old to be doing new moves (earlier in the show during one of the bumpers they showed the Hogan character asleep) and when Ted asked them what they could do to improve, the Hogan character started cupping his ear and doing lame poses and WWF started 1996 with its new slogan, "The New Generation, Still on top of the hill, not over the hill." Most who called here thought the skit was hilarious. Even those in WCW. The one thing that should comfort everyone that doesn't like all the name calling (as if this is something unique in wrestling and you don't see it in every phone company commercial) is they should realize that if Hogan or Savage were to call Vince tomorrow, they'd be on top there the next day (and visa versa with top WWF talent), and that some day if WWF survives, Hogan and Savage will be back there and they'll all be best friends again. Hogan and Savage prove that. Bischoff then came back during a promo for the movie that followed Nitro which was set in the land of myth and fantasy and he said that must be Stamford, CT, and then also said that the numbers talk and everything else walks. Supposedly WCW will do something on 1/8 to respond to the WWF skit.

TV ratings for the weekend of 12/23 saw Saturday Night do a 2.7, its best mark in nearly one year, but Sunday Main Event did a 1.4 and Nitro unopposed by Raw did a 2.5 (Savage vs. Flair for the title), which is roughly the same as it's been doing with competition, although Christmas night ratings are traditionally weak.

Bash at the Beach in July has been moved tentatively from Huntington Beach to Lake Tahoe and will instead be called Quake at the Lake.

Pillman guest hosted a talk show on WLW, a powerful 50,000 watt station out of Cincinnati doing his heel character. Almost everyone who called wanted to kill Hogan.

During the week, Rick Steamboat (or more importantly, Rick Steamboat's lawyer) got wind of last week's Gene Okerlund message (and for the record, Okerlund never used the word rumored when talking about WCW honoring Steamboat at the 1/1 Omni show). On this week's Okerlund message, he was forced by lawyers to say that Steamboat wasn't going to be honored at the Omni and that Steamboat was in no way associated with WCW, but didn't go so far as to admit that he made it up. Okerlund also said on the hotline that despite what you read, nobody on the hotline is censored when it is well known the company regularly censors Mark Madden. Madden came within a hair's breath of being fired because he brought up the crowd reaction to Hogan in Charlotte, but was saved by the lawyers because he had done his segment early for approval of the booking committee and nobody had bothered to listen, so it was felt if they fired him for something he said when nobody listened ahead of time and everything he says is subject to censoring, that it wouldn't hold up in court.

TBS Saturday Night did a year in review, which just brought back how terrible the product really was for the first nine months of the year. The attention to detail still hasn't improved as they aired skits with Sonny Onno, this time as Kensuke Ishikawa, the Japanese representative of WCW in the re-instating Flair skits.

Add Konnan vs. Psicosis to the 1/23 Clash in Las Vegas.

As of press time it appeared Public Enemy will use that name in WCW and start off doing a program with Nasty Boys.

Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero are all under WCW contract through the end of August.

Supposedly there was actually discussion of having Guerrero upset Flair and win the title similar to how Flair made Steamboat in the late 70s in the Carolinas.

Tentative plan for the 2/11 PPV in St. Pete is Flair defending against Savage and Hogan vs. Giant in a double main.

For the week ending 12/17, WWF television had more viewers than WCW. WWF, on 154 stations, did a 5.9 aggregate rating adding up all syndication and cable, while WCW, on 175 stations, did a 5.6.


WWF
Aside from the skit on Raw, the biggest news was the announcement of Vader in the Royal Rumble. The two sides haven't signed a contract or even agreed to all details although they've come to an agreement that Vader will start at the Rumble and be in as a regular. He'll continue to work major Japan shows. Vader has already left for Japan for the Tokyo Dome show and is also booked against Antonio Inoki on 3/3 in Los Angeles--the same city as Wrestlemania--on the multi-promotion show that, ironically enough, WCW is helping promote. There are lots of details to be worked out regarding worldwide merchandising rights, etc. Vader was wanting to do the deal but for various reasons (a scheduled shoulder surgery date on 1/9 being the main one), was leaning against coming in at the time, but Vince McMahon worked hard all weekend because he wanted a bombshell announcement for the 1/1 show and Ultimate Warrior wasn't going to be it. The Warrior deal is dead. Warrior was supposed to come in for interviews and never showed up and the two sides had other big problems having to do with Warrior wanting a guaranteed contract with astronomical figures and there were also policy problems that might force WWF into having a major double standard if he was brought in. Jake Roberts hasn't answered but Titan was hopeful he'd be in. We were told Rick Martel wasn't even asked. Dan Severn hadn't responded as of the weekend. We're told he wanted to do it, but wasn't sure if it was the right career move and last word we got was that he was leaning against it but hadn't gotten back to Titan. The deal with Dory Funk, whose name was announced over the weekend, is that WWF is attempting to open up a relationship with All Japan similar to WCW's with New Japan and Funk would be the liaison. Funk would be in the Rumble along with All Japan's Takao Omori. Bam Bam Bigelow is also being brought in for a one-shot deal and Tatanka was announced as being back in, which probably means the case in Southern California has been settled because there was a lawsuit involving Tatanka and Jimmy Del Rey (we know about the case but have only heard rumors about the details of what it actually is) and Titan wasn't going to bring Tatanka back (they aren't bringing Del Rey back either way) until the case was closed.

For the week of 12/23, Mania did a 1.5 rating and Action Zone a 1.7.

Speaking of McMahon, I want to change an opinion stated last week. In regard to his complaints about WCW on the Internet, I think he's got a lot of gall complaining about WCW offering huge sums of money at Public Enemy or about the business tactics WCW is using on him because I remember when the shoe was on the other foot and McMahon was doing it to Verne Gagne et al (not that Verne didn't deserve it, but it's still what goes around). However, he does have the right to complain about steroids. Even though steroids were one of his key weapons in making money and running the rest out of business in the 80s, he has paid a price and has done a very good job of cleaning his company up and spent millions to do so and he has the right to complain today if his competitors are pushing athletes that are being boosted by the use of illegal drugs. He can complain to a point, because if the same guys were in his company, he'd be pointing them out as examples of drug free athletes, or at least he would have and did in 1992-93.

On the 1/8 Raw they'll air footage from a Royal Rumble press conference earlier that day from Fresno where Shawn Michaels will no doubt announce he's in the Rumble. At least as of this point the plan is still for Michaels to win the title from Hart at Wrestlemania.

Xanta Klaus (John Rickner) has already been fired because he was told the gimmick wasn't working (after all of one television taping although with a seasonal deal like that, it sounds to be if they should have known that going in) and worked the NWA show on 12/29 throwing out presents to fans, like chocolate with cigarette butts in it, Barbie's with a penis put on the Barbie and other tasteless and tacky things like that.

WWF will be doing a Slammy Awards thing to promote Mania on 3/30 (night before the show) from Anaheim.

Razor Ramon is complaining long and loud about his program with Goldust. The babyfaces in the clique hate the gimmick and unfortunately have taken it out on Dustin Rhodes the person rather than accepting him as someone saddled with a bad gimmick who is just trying to do his job. Granted, the angle is really lame. Ramon is trying to get the program switched to working with Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

At the weekend house shows on the West Coast, Bret Hart-Diesel matches saw Hart climb the cage and Diesel go out the door with Hart hitting the floor a split second before Diesel. Diesel got the majority of cheers in most cities. Got mixed reviews of the matches. The other key stuff is Ramon over 1-2-3 Kid very quickly with Goldust watching and rubbing his nipples and crotch and salivating watching Ramon; Undertaker over Yokozuna and Smoking Gunns over Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart. Smith re-injured his knee on the 12/27 Las Vegas show and missed the rest of the tour.

Bret Hart vs. Smith from In Your House airs on the 1/8 Raw show. Some are complaining about showing PPV matches on Raw (Helmsley vs. Godwinn from the same show aired 1/1), however In Your House was probably viewed in about 90,000 homes, and Raw is usually in 1.6 million homes, so you might as well give the other 95% of the fans a chance to see one of your best matches of the year.

Weekend crowds were topped by 6,500 fans and $111,000 on 12/26 in Anaheim, with 12/27 Las Vegas, 12/28 San Diego and 12/30 in Seattle all doing in the $50,000 range and 12/29 in San Bernardino did $25,000.


THE READERS PAGES
Pete Skwiers of 13944 Ashurst St., Livonia, MI 48154 is looking for a tape of the 11/6 Raw show.

Craig Cohen is selling tapes of his wrestling radio show which concentrates on ECW and PPV shows. For more info, write P.O. Box 652052, Miami, FL 33265.

Vince DiPalma of 1233-33 Melville Rd., Farmingdale, NY 11735 publishes a Sports Merchandise newsletter that deals with pro wrestling for $1.25 per issue.

Tri-State Wrestling promoter Shelby Adcock is looking for talent for upcoming shows. Men, women and midgets. Either phone 502-754-9414 or send photos and a video to Tri State Wrestling, 609 N. 2nd St., Central City, KY 42330.

Timothy Vachula of 27 Scammell Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201 is looking for USWA merchandise, a Hasbro 1-2-3 Kid figure, Mexican or Japanese masks, Incredible Strange Wrestling tapes, Saturday Night Main Event shows, Calgary Hit Men merchandise, an autographed photo of Sabu, Mexican magazines and a tape of the match in which Oro died.

Tom Manicone of 23 Knox Terr., Totowa, NJ 07512 is looking for the 10/17 ECW show and will trade any PPV for it.

Michael Joy of 55 Harvard Ave., Gloucester Heights, NJ 08030 has Joel Goodhart's wrestling radio show tapes for sale or trade.

Corey Sandgren of 8440 W. 35th, St. Louis Park, MN 55426 is looking for WWF Hasbro figures.

Lalo Productions is looking for fans to take part in a New York local wrestling TV shoot and for wrestlers, valets and announcers. For more info call 917-944-4931 or write to 131 Moore St. #10-H, Brooklyn, NY 11206.

Bill Anderson of 115 35th Ave. N., Fargo, ND 58102 is looking for tape lists.

Herb Dierking of 1949 S. Manchester #35, Anaheim, CA 92802 is looking for a regular supplier of ECW tapes, the WCW shows in Japan and a regular supplier of New Japan tapes.

Ron Rivera of P.O. Box 3099, Fullerton, CA 92634 has AAA masks of La Parka for $25 and other AAA merchandise, action figures and videos including tapes of AAA Tijuana house shows which in some cases includes backstage footage for $18 per show.

Kirk Beattie of 105 Fitzwilliam Rd., Toongabbie, New South Wales 2146 Australia is looking for original or first generation tapes of All Japan, New Japan and All Japan women.

Ken Verret of 505 Gouaux Ave., Houma, LA 70364 is looking for tapes of ACW wrestling in West Virginia.

Lewis Curry of 1607 N. Port St., Baltimore, MD 21213 is looking for magazine articles on the Kentucky Butcher.

Don Lueft of 1020 Kennett Way, West Chester, PA 19380 is looking for WWF house show tapes 1993-95.

Julio Vega of 92-16 74th St., Woodhaven, NY 11421 is looking for New Japan, ILPW and old NWA and ECW videotapes.

Scott Decker of P.O. Box 5600, Hamden, CT 06518 is looking for the May '95 WCW show with Cactus Jack vs. Sandman with Shane Douglas as ref from Florida.

Steve Markakis of 522 SW Cherry Hill Rd., Port St. Lucie, FL 34953 would like to hear from fans in Central and South Florida concerning live indie shows.

James Smith of 6817 N. Wayne Ave., Chicago, IL 60626 has ECW, WCW, All Japan and New Japan tapes for trade.

Grant Miller of P.O. Box 792, Warrendale, PA 15086 puts out a shootwrestling newsletter covering UFC, EFC, WCC, GAME, Rings and Pancrase with $6 issues for $7.

Another shootwrestling newsletter covering the same basic groups is available from Jeff Osborne at 1112 W. Illinois St., Evansville, IN 47710 for $1.75 per issue in the U.S. and $2.50 per overseas.

Peter Schaar of H.Schaarstraat 11., 1544 WE Zaandijk, Netherlands is looking for good photos of Japanese, Mexican, USWA, ECW, NWA and SMW wrestlers.

Craig Prendergast of 1113 Norwalk Rd., Philadelphia, PA 19115 has wrestling photos for sale.

Mat Marketplace of P.O. Box 2371, Jamaica Plains, MA 02130 has a list of merchandise including masks and dolls from Mexico and Japan for a SASE.

Robert Olsen of 3706 S. Hereford Ln., Philadelphia, PA 19114 has Japanese tapes for trade.

Thomas Fillius of 609 Heston Rd., Glassboro, NJ 08028 is looking for 70s and early 80s Georgia Championship Wrestling, Florida, CWA and Continental.

Mike Breitweg of P.O. Box 14818, North Palm Beach, FL 33408 is looking for tapes of Bill Watts' UWF with the Blade Runners.

Chris Travers of 60 Aldborough Ave., St. Thomas, ONT N5R 5H2 is looking for video lists.

Bob Cook of 7193 Totem Ave., North Port, FL 34287 is looking for videos of Terry Funk and Billy Graham both matches, angles and interviews.

Mark Markley of 13310 17th Ave., NE, Seattle, WA 98125 is looking for a tape of the 10/7 ECW house show and any music or concert videos of The Ramones.

Brian Heffron of 2117 S. 13th St., Philadelphia, PA 19148 is looking for 1993 videos of Van Halen.

David Millican of P.O. Box 422, Munford, TN 38058 has the lost ten years of USWA shows for trade and is looking for old Continental tapes with Eddie Gilbert.

Tony Brown of P.O. Box 50, Bassett, VA 24055 will be in Japan from 12/29 to 1/7 and can pick up merchandise for anyone needing any.

MCMAHON

Is it just me, or am I not the only one having a lot of mixed feelings over the economic difficulty facing Vince McMahon and the WWF, which at least in part stems from the very aggressive competition that he is facing from WCW. On the one hand, I'm unhappy with the Hogan-driven WCW which in many ways is like the WWF of a few years back. The last thing I want is for WCW to be the only major professional wrestling organization left in America. I'm also pleased at the efforts that McMahon has made in changing the direction of the WWF such as pushing better workers and aggressively dealing with the steroid problem. Recently I've often been pleased with the product the WWF has been putting out, something which rarely if ever occurred before 1995.

On the other hand, I can't help remembering Vince McMahon's War of 1984 when he himself did to other wrestling promotions what WCW is attempting to do to him. I remember how he marched into the San Francisco Bay Area by buying the AWA's time slot and forcing the promotion off local television. Who can forget Black Saturday when we turned into TBS and found that the WWF had taken over the time slot of Georgia Championship Wrestling? McMahon moved into established wrestling territories all over North America by using methods that the other financially less well heeled promoters couldn't deal with.

But what I remember most about 1984 was Vince McMahon's incredible arrogance in doing this, and his lack of respect for the quality of every other promotion. So for Vince McMahon to now complain, as he's doing, that WCW is trying to drive him out of business and that they show no regard for wrestling fans is the absolute height of hypocrisy. McMahon is simply in a fight with a better-financed adversary who is using the same basic battle plan and tactics McMahon himself used to come into national prominence more than ten years ago. Part of me simply believes that McMahon is getting what he deserves.

Jon Karesh

Foster City, California

MONDAY NIGHTS

Is there any doubt competition benefits the consumer? As a result of the Monday Night Wars, we are seeing PPV calibre matches and can't miss shows every week. Seeing Hulk Hogan booed out of the arena and hearing Hogan sucks chants gives me goose bumps I was so excited. I'd like to see Hogan every week on Nitro just to see the bewildered look on his face. As pathetic as WCW is, and it's most entertaining stuff happens by accident, at least it has given Vince McMahon a much needed wake-up call. We may be witnessing the end of family entertainment and the advent of hardcore wrestling in the WWF. A wise business move? Probably not, but the success of UFC and ECW gives hope that a harder edged wrestling product can be more than just niche-based and small scale. In Your House was tremendous. Just reading the signs at ringside was worth the purchase price. If the change of direction doesn't work, well, at least it will be fun to watch for a few months.

Joe Fiore

Nahant, Massachusetts

DM: Competition definitely benefits the consumer in the short-run. However, it the long-term or end result is a serious weakening of the WWF, that benefits nobody except perhaps Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner, not the fans and certainly most of all not the performers.

SEVERN

Dan Severn proved a lot by winning the Ultimate Ultimate. He legitimized himself as a real ass kicker who also does worked fights for entertainment. He proved to everyone that wrestlers can beat the top martial artists for real. He beat men heavier than himself twice (Paul Varelans and Tank Abbott) who were probably stronger than him but he subdued both of them easily. I still don't like the judging and I'm a huge Patrick Smith fan. He would have run in the WCC in the strikers division.

We still need to see how Royce Gracie could handle himself with the new and improved lot of fighters. If there had been judges, Ken Shamrock would have beaten both Oleg Taktarov and Royce Gracie in the superfights.

Eric Nakamura

Giant Robot Magazine

Los Angeles, California

ECW

For all those who have written during the past year and criticized ECW based on the television show, I encourage them to visit the ECW Arena to make a judgement. I've been a fan since its inception and have not agreed with or enjoyed everything that they have done, but I can say watching wrestling in that building is the most fun I've ever had at a wrestling show. The atmosphere is unreal. The chants the fans come up with are truly hilarious. One thing I've never been able to figure out is how a wrestler could blow colored mist during a match. I can understand at the beginning, but not during a match.

Erik Cohen

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

DM: They keep a packet that sprays in a color in their trunks and put it in their mouth right before it's time to blow.

I chose ECW performers for Worst Manager, Worst Match and Worst feud. I voted Paul E. Dangerously the worst manager. I can't distinguish between Paul E. Dangerously the manager and Paul Heyman the person. He trashed a dedicated wrestler like Sabu, ripped off his employees and fans, exposes the business like nobody else, and has created a group of fans who ruin other promotions' cards by chanting crap real fans don't understand or care about. Mr. Fuji may be bad, but he's neither a plus nor a minus because the WWF doesn't build angles around him. The ECW fire episode was the worst match. I was a cheap gimmick needlessly endangering wrestles and fans. Beulah vs. Francine in the worst feud. ECW degrades women by using non-wrestlers in a feud for so-called hardcore wrestling fans. I almost voted ECW as the worst promotion, but they have great matches and I can't deny WCW that honor. But ECW does more of a disservice to the image of pro wrestling that something like Incredibly Strange Wrestling, which is outrageous and fun and doesn't take itself seriously.

Robert Rothaas

Shady Side, Maryland

The ECW show on 11/25 in Salisbury Beach, MA was an exciting taste of hardcore action for New England fans. I firmly believe that if they were to get TV and go to an arena closer to Boston or Providence they could draw crowds that would make it more cost effective than doing shows in Florida. However, I was disappointed to see that the advertised Too Cold Scorpio vs. 911 match didn't take place. No signs were posted. No announcement was made at the show. No refunds were offered. They simply ignored the fact that the match was even scheduled. The biggest work in wrestling may be the notion that ECW is any different from WWF or WCW in this regard.

Jeff Souza

Seekonk, Massachusetts

BAD ANNOUNCING

I was really perturbed at the comments made by Dusty Rhodes during the Chris Benoit vs. Eddy Guerrero match on the 11/18 WCW Saturday Night show. When Tony Schiavone was talking about how the two may revolutionize pro wrestling with their style, Rhodes got very defensive and started talking about what a stupid statement that was and belittled their chances against heavyweights like Sting and Hulk Hogan. Good idea, Dusty. Got to perpetuate the myth that a big man will always beat a little man, no matter how talented the little man is. I guess Dusty Rhodes doesn't watch UFCs. I wasn't surprised he would take this tact, given his own girth, but at least Schiavone didn't come back with the tired old "size of the dog in the fight" cliche that Michael Hayes made famous.

In an unrelated matter, when scanning the list of rookies, I noticed that Juventud Guerrera wasn't on the list. I thought that both he and Perro Aguayo Jr. were rookies.

Mark Coale

Colora, Maryland

DM: Juventud Guerrera began wrestling in 1993, so isn't eligible for the award. He placed fourth behind Jun Akiyama, Bobby Blaze and the Smoking Gunns that year.

Please add to your horrible commentary of the weekend, the performance of Dr. Alfonso Morales, Jesus Zuniga and Andres Maronas on the Galavision show that was taped on 11/3 in Tezuitlan, Puebla. They paid almost no attention to either match and helped make the Octagon vs. Pentagon match come over on television as dull and lifeless. I can see why Pena wants to get rid of Morales on the AAA show as he doesn't take it seriously at all. On the other hand, they were really good on the EMLL commentary.

Steve Sims

Santa Monica, California

About your continuous bashing of TV announcers for not knowing the moves, one question. How could somebody know what a huracanrana or a Northern Lights suplex is if the person can't speak Spanish or Japanese and therefore wouldn't understand the commentary, or doesn't have a buddy in those countries taping the matches for him and explaining the moves?

You can call a move anything you want. The Harlem Hangover is the same as Bull Nakano's somersault legdrop. The only reason the Undertaker's piledriver is a tombstone piledriver is because it is executed by him. Nobody would call it a tombstone piledriver if Jerry Lawler did it. So give the commentators a break.

Trivia question. What does Sabu actually mean? To be honest, he doesn't even know himself. It's the word for Soap in Thai.

Robert Edlhauser

Vienna, Austria

DM: As far as learning names for the moves, part of the job of a professional in any profession is to stay up to date on that profession. Announcers who don't show their lack of professionalism. If the announcers don't know what to call a move, they should either call someone up who does, ask the wrestler, or make a name up and have everyone use the same name consistently throughout the promotion. That's being a professional. Last I checked, Joey Styles was doing his commentary in English so these terms are now part of American wrestling, unless one doesn't want to acknowledge ECW as being part of the American wrestling scene, which would be even farther behind the times than not knowing the names of moves that are now being done every week on American television. As for Undertaker, he was given that finishing maneuver because it already had the name tombstone piledriver and not the other way around. Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, Satoru Sayama and Bret Hart used the move as the tombstone piledriver in Canada and Japan many years before Undertaker was a pro wrestler.

American wrestling announcing sucks. With the exception of Jim Ross, Joey Styles, Mike Tenay and Chris Cruise, none of the announcers today have a clue. I will compliment Eric Bischoff for at least trying. The rest seem to have attended the Mick Karch school of broadcasting, and flunked.

Ahmed Johnson's finisher is the Tiger-driver. Dean Malenko has used both the Tiger-driver and Tiger bomb. The moves are not interchangeable. The move Dan Kroffat uses is the Tiger-driver. Mitsuharu Misawa uses both the Tiger-driver and Tiger bomb.

When Misawa was wrestling as Tiger Mask, he began using a power bomb by hooking the arms and also began using a german suplex by hooking the arms, which became known as the Tiger suplex. The Tiger bomb was developed in a match against Toshiaki Kawada. Misawa used the Tiger-driver and Kawada kicked out. Misawa did it again, but instead of landing on his butt, dropped to his knees and draped his body over Kawada's legs. Jushin Liger has never used either the Tiger-driver or Tiger bomb. The Liger bomb is when he hooks the waist and lands on his butt with a power bomb.

I think what WCW is doing with Dean Malenko demonstrating and naming the moves is great, but will the WCW announcers watch their own show or care? Even Styles, who is the best commentator around, is getting moves mixed up. He always mixes up tope and plancha. He has called the Doctor bomb, the Liger bomb, the Tiger bomb, the Pyramid bomb, stretch bomb, splash mountain and jackknife all as power bomb. The holds have specific names and should be called that. The splash mountain is also called the Niagara Driver in Mexico and the BT bomb in New Japan.

As far as the jackknife goes, does anyone know that the jackknife's first usage as a finishing hold was the move Kenta Kobashi uses where he does a power bomb and then flips over into a leg cradle, and not the move Diesel uses.

Matt Obbema

Buena Park, California

DM: It doesn't matter if the move name is consistent with the same move elsewhere in the world or the correct Japanese application. The Japanese technically confuse vertical suplex and brainbuster, which they use interchangeably although they are different moves. They, like the American announcers, all pronounce suplex as it is spelled but the correct pronunciation of the word is the pronunciation "su-play" that Gordon Solie, Bill Watts and almost nobody else used as it was a French term for an amateur wrestling throw and in amateur wrestling it is pronounced correctly. The Niagara Driver in Mexico is the splash mountain in Japan, but not the Niagara Driver in Japan. What does matter is when announcers don't even take the time to learn wrestlers signature moves and even finishing moves. Any move leading to either a teased (near) fall or teased (near) submission needs to be known and called by the announcer called and called consistently within the promotion by all announcers within the promotion the same name so the fans register and learn the move and are taught to pop for the significance of the move. If not, the most spectacular and dangerous move in some arenas will get the reaction of a resthold, and if that's the case, it's stupid for the wrestlers to risk their bodies for a move that isn't over with the audience they are playing to. Once educated to almost any move, no matter how pathetic or unrealistic, the audience will react to it. Witness how over moves like the claw used to be over years ago. Announcers who fail to call the significant moves or points that are key to the story of the match are shortchanging the wrestlers in the match and the match itself, not just showing their ignorance to fans who have kept up with an ever changing profession. If a move isn't called and given a consistent name, it will take longer for fans to learn and react to it as a tease for the ending of the match. When announcers are talking over near falls or not giving names to holds wrestlers are using for near falls or as spectacular and high-risk moves, for all the good it is doing the wrestlers in constructing the match, they might as well be holding restholds because in the story of the match, that's how it comes across to the fan at home. If a guy does a triple flip dive out of the ring and the announcers are talking about Hulk Hogan's next PPV match, to the fans at home, the move didn't register and wasn't exciting or a big deal because the announcers weren't even excited about it and didn't even bother to mention it.

It occurred to me that the Sting-Luger situation is almost identical to a scenario that happened in the old Knoxville territory in 1981.

In that angle, the Sting role was played by Barry Windham, Lex Luger was played by Wayne Ferris, Blackjack Mulligan was Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Holliday was Jimmy Hart. Oddly enough, the part of Kevin Sullivan was played by Kevin Sullivan. If I remember correctly, Les Thatcher did a better job of explaining that angle and getting it over than all 900 of WCW's announcers put together.

Speaking of which, recently on the Prime Network, while calling a Chris Benoit squash match, Chris Cruise mentioned that Benoit must have learned the snap suplex from his mentor, the Dynamite Kid. Well, you would have thought that Cruise had spit on Gene Autrey or something. Dusty Rhodes flew into a rage, admonishing Cruise for even mentioning the Dynamite Kid and saying that the true masters of the snap suplex were Joe Blanchard and Dory Funk Sr. Cruise just sat there, practically emasculated, and once again the focus was taken off the action in the ring. If I were Eric Bischoff, I'd be upset the man I give four hours per week of television to seems to be on a one-man crusade to sabotage any newcomers getting over and the product itself--a product everyone else in the company seems to at least be trying to improve.

I think it's about time Virgil Runnels goes back to Florida and headlines bar shows with Nasty Ned and Vern Henderson.

Also, I do recall Frank Dusek mentioning on South Atlantic Wrestling that Sam Houston and Jake Roberts are brothers, and just recently, Jack Reynolds did so on Deep South.

Richard Sullivan

Forest City, North Carolina

DM: There was even more to the Rhodes/Dynamite Kid thing that you saw on television. Rhodes was furious at bringing up Dynamite Kid, claiming that nobody knew who he was (forgetting that the period Dynamite Kid was a national star was the same period most of today's washed-up WCW wrestlers were in their WWF prime). Of course among today's fans, Dynamite Kid would hardly be as recognizable a name as, say Joe Blanchard or even Dory Funk Sr., who was a prime mover in this industry during his time and his sons were wrestling legends as well, but passed away nearly 23 years ago. In every industry, and wrestling is no different, there are people who were very successful in the past and pretend the world doesn't move forward and refuse to acknowledge changes. In the entertainment world which pro wrestling is part of, the minute someone has the attitude that they know the business, that is the most sure fire sign that time will quickly pass them by. Rhodes is one of those who is resentful of a changing profession and you can tell it by his commentary. The great mystery is what he's still doing on the air.

Jim Ross should get credit for his improvement as an announcer. It's a shame that he doesn't get enough air time doing play-by-play after seeing his Ross Reports on Action Zone. I feel he has enough knowledge of modern day wrestling to call matches himself. You've been critical of his reports in the past but his recent segments on the All Japan women were very informative. Not only did he succeed in getting the women over to the point that WWF fans may have actually cared about the match, he even mentioned some facts that Observer readers may not have known about. I was surprised when Ross brought up Aja Kong's past feud with Alundra Blayze, which tied in perfectly with the match at Survivor Series. I was even more surprised when Ross mentioned what Lioness Asuka was doing during her retirement, although he probably should have explained what a "Crush Gal" was. Americans have no idea what a legendary team they were. Who would have thought that both WWF and WCW would end up using All Japan women as pawns in their promotional war? I hope this exposure on U.S. television will get the attention of American programmers and finally get them on television in this country.

The ECW TV show is still the best, but it's starting to get silly in spots. The Steve Austin skit with the black wig was hilarious, but the Bubba Ray Dudley idea is as stupid as the character. His Porky-Pig stuttering is far too cartoonish for a group like ECW. He made me laugh the first time, but Paul Heyman is starting to get out of control with the gimmick. It seems like he's replacing everyone who leaves with another Dudley character. I'm not against him trying to make his shows more entertaining, but if the skits and characters overshadow the wrestling then it becomes overdone.

Ramon Lores

Flushing, New York

I disagree with two statements in the Observer during the last year regarding moves. A Tiger driver isn't the same as the Liger bomb. The Tiger driver is a double arm power bomb. Liger does more of a normal power bomb. They end up the same way but the starting position is different. A splash mountain isn't the same as the Niagara Driver. If you watch you'll see Kyoko Inoue never puts her opponent into the Razor's edge position where Dynamite Kansai does. I'm a call the moves correctly fanatic.

Bernhard Steger

Vienna, Austria

DM: You're right about the Tiger driver and Liger bomb. The Kyoko Inoue finisher and Dynamite Kansai finisher are different moves, but the move name used for the Kyoko Inoue finisher is in Mexico the name of the move used for the move that's the Dynamite Kansai finisher so that's the confusion.

WCW

I attended the WCW taping on 11/27 in Salem, VA and was very displeased with the amount of money I spent for what I saw. During the actual taping, Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael were focused on a big screen TV set-up to receive Monday Night Raw. Maybe this could be the reason Bischoff's announcing is so bad. They seemed to be more involved in what was going on with the competition than their own matches. If the commentators aren't paying attention to their matches, what do the fans think?

I thought WCW was a family oriented promotion. I found it rather amusing when Gene Okerlund told everyone to grab a brewsky and head up to the stands, and he also discussed what bar Ric Flair would be at that night. I felt this wasn't appropriate because more than one-third of the crowd were children.

Why is it that Hulk Hogan has to put himself over in every angle that goes on in WCW? Doesn't he know that he's a has-been?

Michelle Goins

Ronceverte, West Virginia

Does WCW care what it puts in its international shows? Recently a Randy Savage interview that aired here featured the following. Savage interrupted the interview to ask where the toilet is. Savage asked Gene Okerlund how his golf game is going. Savage asked Okerlund if he has any crimes to confess and then started screaming, "Look, a bloody glove," and pointed at Okerlund. The interview ended with Savage saying Sting needs help in the toilet because his doctor told him not to lift anything heavy. They don't tour here and we don't get PPV here so they must not care what they air.

Lindley Mathieson

Reservoir, Victoria, Australia

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ECW
The New York City debut at Lost Battalion Hall in the Rego Park section of Queens on 12/29 drew a reported sellout 1,140 fans which was a legit turnaway crowd. With tickets priced at $35 and $20, the gate was said to be close to $30,000 would be by far the all-time record for the company. ECW will return to the same building on 2/3 and is already talking about moving to a larger building, the Roseland Concert Hall in Manhattan in March. The main negative from what we heard were the building had no elevated seating so it was difficult to see, and even worse when they brawled outside the ring. The crowd was really heated overall and the show had a lot of blood. Paul Heyman opened the show cussing out WWF, WCW and Steve Austin, who was scheduled in the main event title match against Sandman and missed the show. Heyman said that the tirade was part work and part shoot. He wasn't at all mad at Austin, who he knew was very ill with a strep throat and couldn't work the date. But he said the tirade against WWF was both to heat the crowd up, and also as a receipt for the WWF telling him that Tom Prichard couldn't work the show because he was booked on the WWF tour of California before Heyman booked the Heavenly Bodies for the weekend in early December. As it turned out, Prichard didn't even work the WWF California tour and had never been announced in California for those shows. Heyman was aware of the Heavenly Bodies being unavailable at least in enough time to book The Gangstas to take their place against Public Enemy on the show. They ended up with a Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer match in which the winner (Raven) would get the title shot at Sandman (which Sandman won). In addition, Mikey Whipwreck won both the TV title and the tag team title from Too Cold Scorpio in a singles match with both belts at stake. Cactus Jack interfered in the finish and Whipwreck picked Jack to be his new partner. Jack most likely will start with WWF on its TV leading up to Wrestlemania (after the February PPV show) but until that time they are doing an angle where Jack tries to bring Whipwreck into Raven's group but Raven doesn't want him, Whipwreck doesn't want to join, and Jack is caught in the middle by both. Gangstas beat Public Enemy in their match and after the match, with the crowd chanting "Please don't go" at Public Enemy, Johnny Grunge flicked his fingers as to indicate it's all about making money and the crowd turned on him big-time with chants like "You sold out," "Get the F*** out" and the like. So much for understanding that a guy like Ted Petty, who is 43, has been in this business forever without ever having a chance to make serious money and begrudging him for his one last chance after the guy cut his head off and did dangerous stunt work for two years to get the chance. The main event was Sabu vs. Cactus Jack. Ref Pee Wee Moore from Japan was in with Sabu since New Japan is off right now, he told the fans that Cactus Jack wanted an NCAA rules match with points for takedowns. 911 came out and chokeslammed Moore and reffed the match, but he was slow in getting down for the near falls and it hurt the match. Fans were upset since it was advertised as a death match but ended with the first pinfall, although the bout itself was really wild. Missy Hiatt also debuted on this show doing a gimmick where she was being really nice to Steve Richards supposedly because she wants to date Raven.