This is beginning to really look the same each week. WWF wins, Nitro sinks lower. You know, these recent WCW ratings are just like the ones that Kevin Sullivan was getting, and that is NOT good. It's especially good since Russo claimed Sullivan was digging this company into the ground. Well congrats to you too Russo, as you are now in the same boat as Sullivan. In fact, you are now in the same league as Sullivan. Both of you can now shake each other's hands because you have both ruined WCW.
I haven't seen RAW "shoot for the moon" lately in their ratings. A 5.8 is ok for them in the first hour, but the old RAW was pulling 6.4s, and so forth. 6.6 is a strange rating because I expected higher with the Lita and Stephanie match. Apparently, many viewers took time off from watching RAW, and returned for that Main Event. Of course, I'm not worrying about RAW's ratings, because once Stone Cold returns, the ratings will be there.
Only the first hour of Nitro defeated Heat this week, so I guess Jim Ross can use that as bragging rights.
On the lower end of the stick, the final WCW Saturday Morning show EVER got a very weak rating. Of course, who knew that it would be the last Saturday WCW show ever? All I can do is shake my head because what was once a great tradition of Saturday Night Wrestling, turned into a recap show, and then turned into a Morning recap show. It's all apart of Time Warner's cost cutting, and this wouldn't be happening if someone didn't have to change the show from what it was. FINGER OF SHAME to those who ruined this show.
ECW on TNN, of course, defeated the final WCW Saturday show with their strong 1.0 rating this week. However, the two WWF lower end recap shows were slightly up. Oh darn, no bragging rights for ECW on the soon to be TNN laced WWF. Maybe next week?
The people who produced "Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed" did this one, trying to reveal the secrets of wrestling. I'll agree with several wrestling writers who reviewed this two years ago in that this video is way behind its time. Maybe if this was revealed when the Monday Night wars were heating up in 1995, or even during the late 80s/early 90s, it would have been good there. However, it was put out when everyone knew it was fake, and everyone could easily see how the moves were done. Big minus for this.
The show itself...well, the host was terrible. He kept saying crap like "how do they get away with this? They don't know the secrets" about how fans are misled by the industry. Argh! What a dumbass. His commentary, throughout the video, made this hard to watch at times. Also, there were 10 masked wrestlers for this show. They are masked because by revealing the so called secrets, they could get into trouble. Oddly enough, Eric Loy send word that Mike Modest was one of the masked wrestlers. If you saw "Beyond the Mat", you will see that Modest had a tryout with the WWF. Apparently, the real reason why Modest wasn't called back to the WWF was because of this special. How odd. There were a few wrestlers who seemed familiar, but I'm not sure. They were all masked and their voices were altered. Some of their made up gimmicks were kinda cool though.
First off, we had the "Basic Moves" revealed!!! The punch, the kick, bodyslam, and two more moves were discussed in depth. Oooooh, that was new. Please. WAY behind its time. Then they went on to the part called "the Sell". No, it's not the Cell, which was an interesting movie by the way. They discussed how important selling a move was, and the stupid commentator really had a fun time with this one.
They then shot off on various topics, like the Booker, special moves, and so forth. What bothered me were a few things....like the Bookers giving out signs. It's very true for indy shows, but this show was aimed at the Big 2 federations. Sure, both the WWF and WCW do plant signs, but not the whole crowd's. Also, they showed the crowd plants, like a little boy who had his autograph book torn up, or the Granny who was pushed over. Those were very stupid, and again, more utilized by the indy scene.
They went on about the foreign objects... First, the trophy. Who the hell hits someone with a trophy these days anyway? They showed how it was sawed and then glued back for the "sell". Next, was the salt. OH MY GOD, salt don't powder like that! Well, duh! If it were salt, many wrestlers would be suing the wrestling industry right now. Then, we had the chair, and from what they said, it's 100 % real. Yeah, especially when you purchase thinner, and lighterweight chairs which are like getting hit with a cookie sheet. The theory behind the chairshot, with the chair being completely flat, was pretty cool though.
They then went to the tables, and showed everyone the "secret" of the tables. NO, they are NOT sawed down the middle. They use a table is made out of compressed sawdust, and when thrown exactly down the middle, you get the table effect. See, this is good stuff for the new age of wrestling. Hehe, speaking of tables, the late great Ravishing Rick Rude once said, while commentating on ECW, that "those are some solid oak tables". Oh, bless his heart!
They showed the blood of wrestling, which is pretty informative in the new age as well. For an NBC special, they showed this blading close up. Not usual of NBC folks. Also discussed, is the referee. I don't know about you, but the hand signals between the ring commentator and the ref are misleading. Rather strange stuff right here. Communication between the ref and wrestlers was discussed, and the "secrets" of distracting a ref was also discussed. Finally, moves like the leg drop, Frankensteiner(mis-pronounced in this video), and the piledriver were shown, and how to execute them without hurting the opponent. The Frankensteiner, by the way, was one of the most poorly executed ones I've ever seen.
Last Word: Yuck! This was a BAD documentary or special on Pro Wrestling. WAY behind it's time here, and very badly produced too. The narrator of this whole thing was absolutely terrible as well. Somethings could be informative, but most of it was already known by wrestling fans. Maybe if you were an adult or little child who didn't know a thing about Pro Wrestling, then maybe this is your tape. Otherwise, stay away from this!
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@That's all for today. Not much going on in the wrestling world right now. Some rumors here or there, but nothing real solid to discuss. Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow with WCW Day. So until then, go check out the Backyard BBQ!
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Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.