WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER

EDITION NUMBER 15

28TH MAY 2001

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www.oocities.org/wrestlingglobe

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IN THE WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER THIS WEEK

LATEST NEWS

RUDO RAMBLINGS - TRIPLEMANIA RESULTS AND STRANGE NEWS ON VAMPIRO

THE PURORESU RUNDOWN

OWEN HART TRIBUTE - TWO YEARS ON

T & A (Trivia and Answers)!

THE DANGER ZONE - LOOKING AT THE JAPANESE PROMOTIONS TODAY

SPECIAL COLUMN LOOKING AT KURT ANGLE

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LATEST NEWS - by Matt Singh

Hi Globe subscribers, here's this weeks news…

World Wrestling Federation

Jim Ross has stated that he expects Tommy Dreamer to sign for the group within the next few weeks, and Dreamer may given the chance to try his hand at booking some angles and/or storylines.

Triple H's torn leg tendon was originally thought to keep him out of the ring for 3-4 months, but after having surgery, 6 months is thought to be closer to the recovery time needed. Even so, Triple H may return to TV before that time, and maybe also as a babyface.

Mark 'Undertaker' Calaway is not happy about his top line feud with Steve Austin coming to an end, and didn't appear at the last Smackdown taping, although this was due to his mother having surgery and not because he was mad at management.

Juventud Guerrera was backstage at last weeks Smackdown taping, but he probably won't be offered any sort of contract.

Last weeks Smackdown pulled a 3.9 final rating. The Parents Television Counsel (PTC) had their plea rejected as it pertains to the lawsuit the WWF has filed against them.

Apparently the company is interested in signing David Flair and sending him to OVW. One question...why?

Its expected that Yoshihiro Tajiri's first program will be with William Regal. Tajiri and Regal may initially begin a feud with Grandmaster Sexay and Steve Blackman, and split up during it.

Ken Shamrock spoke with WWF creative staff last week and is said to be keen to make his return to television, although there is no word on when this will be.

Booker T is close to signing with the WWF to wrestle in WCW, and the same goes for Diamond Dallas Page. Despite what you may hear elsewhere, Bill Goldberg probably won't sign for the WWF. Scott Hall was rumoured to be in negations with the company, although this is only a rumour, and after infamous clique dealings, this would be a bad move.

Elsewhere

In addition to Kanyon and Disco Inferno, Shane Helms is now accepting Indy bookings as well. If anyone is interested in booking, visit www.dasright.com/bookings.

Jado, Gedo and Masato Tanaka will all work for Atsushi Onita's new promotion on 9th and 10th June.

The UK promotion WrestleXpress is said to be trying to work out a PPV deal with an as yet unnamed source, and it is likely that the 20th October show will be televised in some shape of form.

The Tammy Sytch auction at www.ebay.com has been revealed as a fraud.

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RUDO RAMBLINGS - by Martin Walton

An absolute ton of news to get through this week, the main stories being on the pain in the ass that is Vampiro, El Hijo Del Pierroth and results from AAA's biggest show this year.

In EMLL news, mega flop El Hijo Del Pierroth is just about finished with EMLL. It was claimed he suffered a serious injury at a show last Friday but that's just the traditional way of a Mexican promotion sending a guy packing.

In AAA news, full results from TripleMania IX in Acapulco before a crowd of 10,000 are as follows:

MAIN EVENT: El Cobarde and Sangre Chicana beat Pirata Morgan in a "Triangle Dog Collar Hair vs. Hair vs. Hair Match" (nothing special).

SEMI-MAIN EVENT: Octagon/Mascara Sagrada/La Parka Jr./El Alebrije defeated Cibernetico/Mascara Maligna/Abismo Negro/Electro Shock (nothing more than a comedy match).

CUARTA: Latin Lover beat Heavy Metal/Perro Aguayo Jr./Hector Garza to win the TripleMania Cup (said to be very good).

TERCERA: Los Vipers (Psicosis, Maniaco, El Mosco, and Histeria) defeated Los Vatos Locos (Picudo, Silver Cat, Espiritu, and Nygma) in an Extreme Match to retain the Mexican National Atomicos Titles (Charley Manson made an appearance afterwards and embraced Psicosis).

SEGUNDA: Pimpinela Escarlata/May Flowers/Polvo De Estrellas beat Blue Demon Jr./Hijo Del Solitario/Oscar Sevilla (replacing El Zorro).

PRIMERA: Octagoncito/La Parkita/Mascarita Sagrada 2000 defeated Rocky Marvin/Mini Abismo Negro/Espectrito Jr.

Elsewhere, the big story this week is the behavior of Vampiro. Vampiro was set to work two Toryumon shows promoted by Ultimo Dragon last weekend in Mexico City. Anyway, a Mexican newspaper reported that Vampiro turned up on Friday and was rude to fans and basically refused to wrestle in the main event match. He instead sat on the apron throughout the match and only tagged in a couple of times. Things apparently got much worse the next night, as the show was set to start at 5pm, but Vampiro was no where to be found at that time. His place in the main event was taken by Ricky Marvin, which meant the match was changed to Atlantis/Villano 111/Ricky Marvin vs. CIMA/Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera. To make matters worse, Ricky Marvin injured himself in the first fall, which meant he couldn't continue. However, Vampiro suddenly showed up at 8pm and was forced to go out and take his place in the match for the third and final fall. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way as Vampiro strolled around ringside signing autographs for fans instead of getting into the ring. The newspaper goes on to report that Ultimo Dragon was quoted as saying that he never wants anything to do with Vampiro every again after his actions. Here is where it becomes even stranger...Vampiro's agent and friend Bob Barnett then suddenly comes out and declares that Dragon has no problem with Vampiro and that the two spent some time together at the after match party. Barnett then announced that Vamp is going to be working Toryumon shows in Japan next month. Then during this weekend, Ultimo Dragon comes out and says that he has no problem with Vamp at all, which is puzzling considering his actions. Only in Mexico would something as crazy as this happen. There was another big Indy show in Tijuana last Friday; the results were as follows:

Lizmark Jr., Mr. Niebla and Negro Casas defeated Satanico, Ultimo Guerrero, and Black Warrior

Scorpio Jr. and Emilio Charles Jr. defeated Damian 666 and Halloween

Brazo de Plata, La Fiera and Principe Arandu defeated Coco Rojo, Coco Verde and Coco Blanco via DQ.

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THE PURORESU RUNDOWN - by Andrew Evans

The big media coverage of the PRIDE 14 event that was held this weekend is not actually the Fujita vs. Takayama main event, but Vanderlei Silva's squash of Shungo Oyama in 30 seconds. The Fujita vs. Takayama match saw Fujita win via referee stoppage a couple of minutes into the second round after applying a choke sleeper on Takayama. After being destroyed, Takayama did not appear to talk at the post-match press conference. He will also be in hospital for up to a week, to have more surgery on an old waist injury (hernia perhaps) that he suffered as a kid and had surgery on many,  many years ago.

PRIDE 15 on 29th July in Saitama at Chiinama Super Arena, has the re-match between Vanderlei Silva and Kazushi Sakuraba as the main event headline.

In a business move that is so ironic and sad at the same time, RINGS owner Akira Maeda is going to talk with PRIDE matchmaker Antonio Inoki about borrowing some of Inoki's guys to use for RINGS' 10th anniversary show this August at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo. There are major whisperings that Kiyoshi Tamura of RINGS is about to leave the group because he is currently not under contract, and instead become a freelancer and start wrestling for New Japan or All Japan or whoever makes him the best offer.

The brand new Tiger Mask character in Osaka Pro Wrestling, called Tiger "S" Mask (the 5th Tiger Mask historically), is actually a character that has the TM mask but wears a Hanshin Tigers (famous baseball team in Japan) outfit. On the days that Osaka Pro runs shows, if the Tigers are winning before TM 5 goes out and wrestles, he will be booked to win the match. If his team is losing before he goes out for a match, he will job in the match. It's a comedy gimmick.

On Tuesday at an FMW show in Sapporo at the Tsukisame Green Dome (6,500 seats), Kintaro Kanemura beat Jun Kasai in 16 minutes and announced that he would retire the WEW Hardcore Title for good. Kanemura claims he will no longer be involved in death match wrestling in FMW (which means he'll still do death matches in Big Japan) and will do "straight wrestling" in FMW. The main event of the show was a 160-miniature-landmine bombs death match, with Hayabusa beating Tetsuhiro Kuroda to win the WEW Singles Title in 19 minutes. The "special referee" was Kodo Fuyuki. The building was configured to seat 4,750 due to the bombs, and they sold out the building with that configuration.

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that they would start expansionary business into China, starting in June. New Japan plans on running a Chinese rally in Autumn of 2001, and in exchange bringing over some Chinese workers to Japan to work a Tokyo Dome show in October. New Japan's last show in China was in 1990, which drew 4,000 paid.

Big Japan ran an angle where John Zandig & Jun Kasai invited Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (freelancer) to join their CZW Japan group and do an "overthrowing" angle of Big Japan Pro Wrestling. It appears that when Matsunaga returns, he will introduce a new death match concept - a "needle hell" death match.

(Credit all information: www.puroresupower.com)

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OWEN HART TRIBUTE - TWO YEARS ON - by Ian Hamilton

"Heaven needed a superhero, so they called for the Blazer."

Around two years ago it was...Sunday May 23rd, the day before I started my GCSE exams. I knew I had my first exam the following morning, so I decided to stay up late to "revise" my English Literature text "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Around half an hour before the PPV was due to start (12.30am, taking the time difference into account as a UK resident), I gave up reading the damn thing, and decided to go to bed.

As I went upstairs, I went over the card of "Over The Edge" in my mind, and the last guy who I thought about before I went to sleep was Owen Hart...

My alarm woke me up at around 7am, but I had been awake since around half six. After I had washed myself, and gotten myself ready for my exam, I switched on the TV, and saw a picture of Owen Hart on the news.

"Strange" - I thought - "the UK rarely takes wrestling seriously, and the last time that a wrestler was on the UK breakfast news was when Hogan 'retired' from wrestling to become the US president."

The sound on the TV was too low for me to make out what was being said, but as they cut to an interview of Owen Hart - from a long time ago (he even had long hair then!) - I knew something was wrong. I missed the rest of the news bulletin, but I switched on "Teletext" (like a news service on your TV) and highlighted in the middle of the news index was the words "Wrestler killed in arena fall".

I had put two and two together, but I prayed that I had come up with five. I punched in the numbers 3-1-2 to get more information, but as the page rolled round, my head told me that I had indeed come up with four.

I forget the specifics of what was on pg312, but it basically told me that Owen Hart had fallen to his death. My heart - which had risen somewhat whilst I was waiting for the page to come around - was now right in my mouth.

I had recorded Over The Edge overnight, and I grabbed the tape out of my VCR and took it upstairs, where I rewound it, and then played it - using the fast forward button.

After the Al Snow/Hardcore Holly match, we saw a vignette of the Blazer, which had clips of Owen coming down from the ceiling on a cable. Little did I know then that that particular stunt would cost him his life.

For some reason, the WWF kept the on-screen image for the Godfather/Blazer match on the screen, and then went to a pre-taped interview with Owen Hart. After that, I then saw JR telling us about the accident.

By now it was nearly 8am, and I stopped the tape, with tears filling in my eyes, before running out for the bus.

Getting to the exam hall seemed to be taking a long time today, and when I got there, the first guy I saw was one of my mates who had gone with me to Newcastle - where the WWF (and Owen Hart) were there just six weeks earlier.

Coming back home, I went on the 'net as soon as I could, and I checked my mails...I was subscribed to a fair few wrestling newsletters, including TRN, WOL and TBR. Each and every one of them had a special tribute to Owen Hart.

Reports stated that Owen Hart had broken his neck on impact...others said he had suffered serious internal injuries. Whilst a mixture of these may be true, I go with what Blake Norton said, "It doesn't matter what bone broke first."

A report after the incident stated that "A crime lab in Kansas City determined Hart fell at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour and the impact on a turnbuckle ruptured Hart's aorta, causing him to bleed internally."

I was numb for the rest of the day. To paraphrase one reporter, "Wrestlers are meant to be invincible. They're not meant to die young."

Part of the shock - I suppose - was the fact that I had only seen Owen Hart LIVE and in person around six weeks before hand.

I know people will criticise me for this, but when a member of your family dies, you're in shock because "I only saw him/her <some> weeks ago."

Sure, the match that Owen Hart had at Newcastle on April 2nd wasn't a main event, but - especially as the WWF rarely tours thee UK - this felt like it was. Teaming with Jeff Jarrett, Hart managed to sneak a win against the team of Edge and Gangrel, in what was Owen Hart's last ever win outside of North America (Hart lost in a triangle match with Jarrett, against the Outlaws and Edge/Gangrel, the next night in Birmingham).

And for that, I am grateful that I saw Owen Hart wrestle live. And the other 12,000+ who attended that event should be too.

The outpouring of grief in the weeks after Hart's death saw the WWF put on a classy tribute on the next night's RAW...but then blow it up big style by showing the footage of the funeral - even after Martha Hart asked the WWF not to.

The upcoming WWF game - WWF Attitude - was dedicated to Owen Hart, and had the Blue Blazer secret character taken out of the game, as a mark of respect for "The Black Hart".

A children's hospital in Calgary was inundated with donations in the memory of Owen Hart, as the Harts asked that this would happen, instead of being buried under a flood of flowers.

Around a year after his death, I have managed to get my hands on some of Hart's best work, including his matches against Chris Benoit, Jushin Liger and Bret Hart. The Bret Hart match (at WrestleMania 10) is - in my view - the best ever match that I have seen on a WWF pay-per-view in my eight years of watching the WWF.

Sure, the "Attitude" era of the WWF means that we will probably never see action like this again, but that match showed us that neither of the Harts had any limitations whilst they were inside a wrestling ring.

When the WWF made their next appearance at the Kemper Arena - for a Smackdown taping - you could tell that none of the competitors (who were with the company in May) were truly comfortable working in the same arena that one of their comrades had died in.

So it was probably common sense that the WWF decided not to return to the Kemper Arena any more...and the next time it was used for a big wrestling event was on 4th October 1999...when WCW came to Kansas.

In a match which was the longest in the history of Nitro, Chris Benoit and Bret Hart fought for over 20 minutes - which would be considered a marathon in today's fast-paced wrestling world - in front of a crowd that was silent. Sure, most of them hadn't seen most of the moves that Benoit and the Hitman were displaying in the ring, but the ovation and the "Owen" chants meant that - despite the fact that they were WCW fans - the crowd knew a damn good wrestler when they saw one.

Shame the bookers didn't though.

Owen Hart did get his push, with the most notable one coming in the mid 90s, when he was involved in a family feud with Bret Hart, which ended when Bret defeated Owen in a cage match at Summerslam '94. As I said before, if you can get a hold of WrestleMania 10, the opener between Bret and Owen is worth the 15 bucks.

And after that, Owen Hart's next memorable program was with HBK, which quickly became HHH, a month or so after Montreal 97. From then on, Owen Hart's WWF career began to fizzle out, with a few titles coming after Bret Hart's famous departure from the WWF.

Reports stated that Owen wasn't pleased with the fact that he was given an ultimatum to choose between a feud with Jarrett (over Debra) or returning to the Blue Blazer gimmick. But, given the way that Owen was, he never showed it on camera. His ring work was always 100%... even when his physical condition wasn't. The match at Montreal (v Stone Cold) proved it.

Those of you who have read Mick Foley and The Rock's autobiographies will know what a prankster that Owen Hart was. He enjoyed his jokes, even if they meant that he would get heat with some of the guys backstage who just didn't "get it". And I know for sure that, since May 23rd 1999, the atmosphere backstage in the WWF has never been the same.

Everyone who knew him...worked with him...loved him...will know how big a void has been left in their lives since that fateful night in May.

One poignant quote that I remember from the RAW tribute was from Paul Bearer. A slight adaptation from an original from Winston Churchill:

"He will not grow old, like we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn. After going down in the sun, and in the morning, we shall remember him."

Just days before the second "anniversary" of Owen's death, I was watching a match from the first Over the Edge Pay Per View. Those of you with the DVD, or a copy of the original PPV to hand - listen to the start of the Dude Love/Stone Cold match.

Jim Ross: "And he's wearing a blue blazer." (later on) "I didn't say he was the Blue Blazer, I said he's wearing a blue blazer."

I don't know about you, but that seems a bit suspect, that JR brought up an old angle again? Bearing in mind the Blazer only resurfaced in the Winter of 1998/9, was the Blazer thing held over Owen's head as punishment whenever he dared step out of line? Makes you think, doesn't it?

The WWF settled a lawsuit last year from the Hart Family. However, the lawsuit still remains, with many more people still seen as "guilty" in the eyes of Owen's family. The lawsuit asked for "fair and reasonable damages" - which, no doubt, will be high. (The WWF paid something in the region of $7m, which put a big dent in WWFE's profits last year. The figure is set to rise, once all of the other parties have been tried in court).

However, no amount of money will ever replace Owen Hart.

No amount of cash will replace Owen Hart, the husband.

No amount of cash will replace Owen Hart, the son.

No amount of cash will replace Owen Hart, the father.

And no amount of cash will definitely bring back Owen Hart... the entertainer.

Rest in Peace Owen...we still miss you.

Owen Hart - May 7, 1965 - May 23, 1999

by Ian Hamilton - www.onesunderland.com

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T & A (Trivia and Answers!) by Andrew Evans

1. Which Mexican wrestling legend's name translates into English as "The Saint"?

2. Who was the original manger of Demolition?

3. Michael DePaoli is the real name of which former ECW wrestler?

4. Who runs the Osaka Pro promotion in Japan?

5. In the WWF, who was spoken about as, "The only person to go from a referee, to a wrestler, and back to a referee"?

6. What was the tag team name of Axl and Ian Rotten in ECW?

7. Bob Backlund's WWF Heavyweight Title was held up in December 1979, and also in November 1981. Which two men did he defeat to win the title back after those two occasions?

8. Who fought at NWA Starrcade 1985 in an "I Quit, Steel Cage" match for the NWA US Title?

ANSWERS ARE GIVEN AT THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER!

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THE DANGER ZONE by Martin Walton

Some 5 years ago, the Japanese wrestling scene was on fire with just about every promotion doing great business and producing some superb matches. These days, Japanese wrestling is currently in a very mixed state. Some of the larger promotions are still doing good business, while some are really struggling and many of the smaller Indy promotions are on the verge of bankruptcy. So over the course of the next couple of weeks in The Danger Zone, I thought I'd take a look at the current top 6 promotions in Japan and assess their current status and future prospects.

NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING

Formed: 1972

Belts and Current Champions:

IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuyuki Fujita.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Minoru Tanaka.

IWGP Tag Team Titles: Satoshi Kojima/Hiroyoshi Tenzan.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: Jushin Liger and El Samurai.

Current top 5 stars: Kazuyuki Fujita, Keiji Muto, Masa Chono, Kensuke Sasaki and Riki Choshu.

Current status: New Japan are still the No.1 promotion in Japan and have been since the incredible momentum they gained from their inter-promotional series against shoot style promotion UWFi in 1995. Unfortunately, the group has slipped since their glory days of the mid 90's. NJPW is still doing relatively good business in Japan, but poor booking and general lack of organization combined with the poor Japanese economy has seen live attendance's fall quite dramatically in the last couple of years. Head booker Riki Choshu constantly pushes his protégé Kensuke Sasaki ahead of more talented workers such as Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata, and often relies too heavily on washed up veterans like Masa Chono and Keiji Muto. The move into the PPV market has led to moderate success with every PPV so far turning in a small profit.

Future: Mixed. The inter-promotional series with All Japan originally increased interest in the promotion but the switch to a submission style has led to a very negative backlash amongst hardcore New Japan fans,  although the elevation of shoot fighter Kazuyuki Fujita was welcomed by most. Much depends on whether up and coming youngsters such as Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan are ever fully elevated up into the top tier.

BIG JAPAN PRO WRESTLING

Formed: 1995

Belts and Current champions:

Heavyweight Title: Kamikaze.

Hardcore Title: Kintaro Kanemura.

Junior Heavyweight Title: Men's Teioh.

Tag Team Title: Men's Teioh and Daisuke Sekimoto.

Top 5 stars: Jun Kasai, Zandig, Mad Man Pondo, Shadow WX and Wifebeater.

Current status: Much like FMW, Big Japan has recently lost two big stars in Tomoaki Honma (he left in a pay dispute) and Seiji Yamakawa (he's apparently retiring after fracturing his skull in a match against Zandig). Big Japan owner, The Great Kojika, will struggle to replace his two big draws and their inter-promotional series with New Jersey based Combat Zone Wrestling is starting to wind down. FMW wrestler Kintaro Kanemura makes occasional appearances in Big Japan in order to defend his Hardcore Title.

Future prospects: Not good. Big Japan has a small army of loyal supporters who will always stick with the promotion. However, the popularity of hardcore wrestling peaked some 6 years ago and it's very unlikely that Big Japan will ever progress from the high profile Indy promotion spot that it currently occupies.

PRO WRESTLING NOAH

Formed: 2000

Belts and Current Champions:

GHC Heavyweight Champion: Mitsuharu Misawa.

Current top 5 stars: Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama, Vader, Akira Taue and Yoshihiro Takayama.

Current Status: NOAH is currently just edging out All Japan for Japan's No.2 promotion spot. Top star and owner Mitsuharu Misawa received a very public backlash by abandoning All Japan last year, and this has led to disappointing attendances and TV ratings for NOAH so far. Early signs were positive when Jun Akiyama and Kenta Kobashi were pushed as the top two wrestlers in the promotion, while established veterans like Misawa and Akira Taue pushed themselves into the background. Unfortunately, Kenta Kobashi went down with chronic knee problems (double surgery on both knees), which resulted in Misawa panicking by pushing himself as the No.1 star while entering in a flimsy inter-promotional series with New Japan splinter group Zero-One.

Future: Good. Although TV ratings have been disappointing so far and the loss of Kenta Kobashi was a big blow (Kobashi is out for approximately a year), the promotion is starting to elevate a host of young talent such as Yoshihiro Takayama, Takao Omori, Naomichi Marufuji, Takeshi Morishima and Takashi Sugiura. The majority of those youngsters should be able to carry the promotion for years once the likes of Misawa, Vader and Taue fade away.

Next week, I'll take a look at All Japan, FMW and Toryumon

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SPECIAL COLUMN LOOKING AT KURT ANGLE - by James McGill

There has been a change. Compare today's wrestling landscape to the Attitude era in '97-99. Sure, PPV's are probably at a higher standard, but there has been a noticeable decline is storylines and more importantly, humour. Despite all the venom directed at Vince Russo, and there's little doubt he deserves the majority of it, it can't be denied that shows were vastly more entertaining when he was at the helm. Now things are... boring. The words 'stale' and 'boring' have been used alarmingly often in the past year or so, and I apologise for repeating something that's been said by countless people before. Nevertheless, to me it's not the feuds themselves that are boring, it's the actual personalities of the wrestlers. The writers seem unable to achieve the correct blend of comedy and wrestling. With Russo the comedy element probably overwhelmed actual wrestling content, and since he departed this has reversed completely.

Although it seems to be an unwritten internet law that you must refrain from criticising Chris Benoit, there can be no doubt that his mega push (and that's what it's been; he's feuded with Rock, HHH, Angle and Jericho already in little over a year in the WWF) has definitely subtracted from the entertainment value of the product. Benoit's complete lack of charisma isn't the only cause. Rock was getting stale before his disappearance and the fans were clearly favouring Austin during the build-up to Wrestlemania; HHH has been the dominant heel too long; Jericho has become incredibly stagnant on the mic, and Austin himself has only started to become more interesting in the last week or two. Since Mick Foley retired the entertainment levels on Raw and Smackdown! seem to have plummeted. There are few genuinely entertaining wrestling personalities in current times, but there is one man who stands head and shoulders above the rest of the pack and that is the self-proclaimed Olympic Hero, Kurt Angle.

Since his debut at the 1999 Survivor Series, Angle has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top of the WWF. When hearing that an Olympic wrestler was joining the WWF my initial reaction was a total lack of interest. I expected some boring grappler whose entire moveset would consist of rest-holds. When his debut against Sean Stasiak produced the dreading 'Boring' chant after about three minutes my views were re-enforced, but when he stalked out of the ring, grabbed the mic and demanded that he be shown some respect in response to this indignity, things began to change. A month into his WWF tenure and he was clearly the highlight of the show. His arrogant claims of greatness, the urging of the crowd to follow his three I's, the constant reminders that he is indeed an Olympic gold medallist, and the oft-mentioned undefeated streak which ended in dramatic fashion when Tazz destroyed him at the Rumble. (Yes, I KNOW it wasn't officially ended until Rock beat him on Raw, but I still say Tazz won that fight!) These were the things that cemented his status as the most amusing man in wrestling. The fact that he could follow up his boasts with great matches certainly helped, and since that first match I don't think I've heard a 'Boring' chant directed at him yet. On the contrary, almost all his fights are conducted with major heat. His incredible mic skills have the crowd totally riled up for all his matches... nobody gets cheap heat quite like Kurt. I actually groan whenever he comes to the ring and doesn't pick up the mic. As well as this, his interaction with various backstage workers are usually hilarious.

Kurt Angle is the complete package. He has charisma, he's funny, and he's a great worker. However, I still feel the WWF hasn't taken advantage of his talent. His four month title reign was incredible only because he remained champion for such a length of time without managing to beat anyone! All his victories were tainted, and it never did his credibility any good. Look at the last person who held the WWF Title for such an extensive period, HHH. After his long reign he was established as the number one heel in wrestling. The thought of him going back to the mid-card after losing to the Big Show in a three-way at the same event in which Angle debuted was absolutely unthinkable. Yet this is what happened to Angle after he lost his prized championship at No Way Out. The Benoit feud which followed his defeat seemed to be a way of getting Benoit over rather than helping Angle in any way. His mic time declined rapidly during this feud, mainly because of the fear that he would have absolutely murdered Benoit during a verbal war, thus ruining any credibility Benoit had gained during this period.

There seems so much potential with the Angle character, and the fans are just itching to cheer him. Against Benoit there were a number of pro-Angle chants, and it's been the same throughout his stay in the WWF. The pop he received when defeating Rocky for the title was unexpectedly large, but I feel that it would be a mistake turning him face. He would definitely lose his edge, and by directing his verbal abuse away from the crowd and the face opponents and towards the heels, he'd basically become a one-dimensional face ala The Rock. He wouldn't be able to whine and complain anymore, he'd have to moderate his arrogance and more importantly, he wouldn't be as amusing to watch. So, with HHH on the shelf for six months, it seems pretty obvious that Angle must be elevated into the number two heel position. I'd rather he didn't have to align with Austin and McMahon at this stage because I'm frankly sick of every major heel having to have some involvement with Vince. However, if he does join Vinnie Mac, let's hope the Steph-Angle relationship begins again. The ending to the original storyline still bothers me. After all the intricate storytelling, HHH basically winning a squash was particularly disappointing. Anyway, if the WWF capitalizes with Kurt during the absence of Triple H, perhaps this time he'll remain in the upper echelon of the roster where he truly belongs.

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TRIVIA ANSWERS by Andrew Evans

1. El Santo. 2. Johnny V. 3. Roadkill. 4. Super Delfin. 5. "Dangerous" Danny Davis. 6. Bad Breed. 7. Bobby Duncum and Greg Valentine. 8. Tully Blanchard and Magnum TA.

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