Hello again. I'm back to try and brighten up your weekend before the PPV, and maybe I can persuade you to hit me with an e-mail at the same time.

WCW Superbrawl Revenge

I didn't buy the PPV, but from what I've read so far the reaction on the internet is more positive than negative. WCW is a lame duck promotion right now (kinda like Kurt Angle is a lame duck champion), with them getting ready to go dark in April they're not inclined to go with any big storylines that they'll actually follow through on. I'd expect a few big angles and storylines right away once they come back from their dark period. And with Eric Bischoff coming to the booking forefront after the dark period, I'd think that he'll incorporated a heel stable (kind of like the nWo). I doubt he'll call them the nWo, for obvious reasons, but I wouldn't be suprised to a see a group of this kind.

Anyway, back to the PPV and my predictions.

World Heavyweight Title: Kevin Nash v. Scott Steiner

I SAID: Nash

THEY BOOKED: Stenier

Jeff Jarrett v. Diamond Dallas Page

I SAID: Page

THEY BOOKED: Jarrett

Cruiserweight Title: Rey Mysterio Jr. v. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

I SAID: Misterio Jr.

THEY BOOKED: Chavo

Commissionership: Lance Storm v. The Cat

I SAID: The Cat

THEY BOOKED: The Cat

Tag Team Titles: Mark Jindrak and Shawn Stasiak v. Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo

I SAID: The champs

THEY BOOKED: The champs

The Tally

So, out of the matches that I actually predicted, I got 2 out of 5. Okay, so I'm shit with predictions. Maybe I can do better with my Now Way Out predictions later in this column.

WCW Crusierweight Tag titles

Continuing the WCW commentary, and something which is close to my heart. Right, this is a good and bad idea, but I feel the bad outweighs the good, which is always a good way of saying that I hate the idea. What it's meant to do is showcase the skills of the best "wrestlers" in the promotion and give these guys air time and a stage to perform. What it succeeds in doing is making the gap between the cruisers and the heavyweights even bigger. Don't get me wrong, I hate the idea of having people like Scott Stenier destroy cruiserweights on a weekly basis, but you have to go one way or another. Why have Kidman and Chavo (supposed crusiersweights) battling heavyweights, and then try and push those two as credible and top class crusiers? Having them out classed (?) and destroyed by the "big men" is no way to get them over in a weight class of their own.

WCW have a decision to make pretty quickly. Do they want Kidman as a cruiserweight or a heavyweight? If they want him as a cruserweight, they should put him in a feud with Chavo, give the both of them plenty of air time to get themselves over, and eventually put the cruiserweight strap around Kidman cruiser-like waist. If they want Kidman as a heavyweight, they should make sure he doesn't fight cruisiers (at least for a while), and build him up as a credible heavyweight. This swapping and changing of cruisers and heavyweights is damaging to the company and the wrestlers themselves. WCW can't have the best of both worlds just yet.

With the announcement that Christian York and Joey Matthews are almost certainly going to the WWF, another crusierweight related problem has reared its ugly had for WCW. I'm sure these two would have been one of the crusierweight teams in the tournament and they probably would have received quite a big push (though probably not as big as the one they'll eventually receive in the WWF), so in trying to create a good crusierweight division they've lost two great cruiserweights.

WCW and the WWF treat the less weighty guys very different to each other. The name tells it all. WCW call them crusierweights, but in the WWF they're known as lightheavyweights. If any name is more derogatory, I would say it's the WWF one. The division compares the lightweights to the heavyweights in the name alone, whereas WCW's division sounds and should be more separate from the heavyweight division. Exception to the rule though, as the WWF's lightweight division is more successful then the WCW one. Okay, maybe not if you include old history, as it was the WWF who originally copied WCW's cruierweight concept. The WWF manage to keep a good division going, as well as keeping the lightweights over against heavyweights (see Malenko, Dean; 2 Hotty, Scotty). If you compare that to the WCW crusierweight division, every time they put a crusier (or even worse, cruisers) against a heavyweight, the heavyweight (cough*Scott Stenier*cough) always seems to wreck the credibility of the crusierweight (see the Scott Stenier decimation of three, four or whatever is was cruisiers on a Nitro a few weeks ago).

Instead of worrying about how the WWF copied their original concept, maybe WCW should focus on copying the WWF's present concept.

Puroresu Strong Style Wrestlers are too clumsy

These comments are probably going to rile up the puro-elitists among us. But first I want you to remember that I too am a big puroresu fan. I may not have seen as much puro as I'd like to (has anyone?), but I thought I'd express this opinion anyway, as it's something which nobody on the internet ever seems to touch on.

Puroresu strong style wrestlers are too damn clumsy. First of all, I condone the general rule that your average Japanese wrestling match (and no, I'm not talking about the garbagy stuff), and Japanese wrestling on average, will be better than North American wrestling. Japanese wrestlers in the past have innovated innumerable new moves and holds, which in turn (although not all of them) have been passed down (or across) to North American wrestling. Anyone who's anyway knows that if you want to see REAL wrestling these days, the best place to see it is tape traded tapes of puroresu. Japanese matches, on average, are far longer than your average North American match, but is this really an excuse for all the horrific injuries and botched moves which have resulted in serious injuries that have occurred in Japan? By this point, the elitists among us are throwing Austin/Owen, etc at me, but think about it. I did when I came across this (hyperlink: on the Death Valley Driver Video Review message board. The topic's all about Ganso Bombs, and when and where they've been performed. If you don't already know, a Ganso Bomb is a piledriver with a tombstone ending, only the guy peforming it puts his opponent into a powerbomb style position before executing it. The most famous one of the one Kawada did on Misawa in AJPW a couple of years back. Kawada picked up Misawa into a powerbomb, dropped him down so that Misawa's legs down were literally hanging in mid air with his legs still wrapped around Kawada's head, and then literally dropped him on his head. No one knows for sure whether Kawada did it on purpose (as the two of them really didn't like each other), or whether it was a genuine botched spot. Either way, it's pretty embarrassing.

Here's a list of all the Ganso Bombs (or so called Ganso Bombs, that may be just botched spots) in Japan:

Kawada v. Misawa - January 1999

Bruiser Brody v. Giant Baba - 6/8/83

FMW Joshi match (someone on the DVDVR board bought this one up)

But Japan aren't the only one's guilty of the infamous Ganso Bomb. They may have had some of the most deadly, but it was American wrestling legend Thesz who invented the Ganso Bomb by mistake. It's only fitting that a move invented by mistake is being performed every now and then by mistake. Another one that North American fans will probably remember is where Kevin Nash dropped The Giant on his head, following a Jackknife power bomb attempt. But as it was a Jackknife powerbomb attempt, can it really be called a Ganso Bomb? I'm sure there have been others in both Japan and North American (and even Mexico, too), but whatever some people may say, I stand by my statement that Austin/Owen was NOT a Ganso Bomb.

WWF No Way Out Predictions

Yep, this is going to be dangerous. Last time I tried this I got 2 out of 5, so read next week to see how badly I do this time. I'm really looking forward to this PPV. I haven't been watching much WWF TV for a few reasons, but PPVs are something I always look forward to, regardless of how much TV I've seen. This one has real potential in so many different ways. There's also the potential for certain things to suck, but we'll get to that.

WWF HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
KURT ANGLE VS. THE ROCK
The build-up to this one has been poor, with the exception of the Kurt Angle shoot promo, so I'm not particularly looking forward to this part of the show. Should be your average WWF world title main event with plenty of brawling, a good bit of mat stuff and a table spot or two.
Verdict: Hahaha. The Rock.

2/3 FALLS MATCH
TRIPLE H VS. STEVE AUSTIN
This is what I'll be most wildly anticipating on the show, and something I can't wait to get my teeth into. A feud more than a year in the making, and plenty of bad blood between the two should make this one great. Also, the changing stipulations make it more interesting than your average Austin/Triple H match, and I'm pretty sure we'll get to see all three stips. Why not? Whatever anyone has to say about Austin since he's returned, I really think he's doing well. His interview routine maybe getting boring (just like The Rock's), but his matches with Angle, Benoit and Triple H since returning have been good. I expect Austin to prove his many critics wrong in this one.
Verdict: AUSTIN, AUSTIN, AUSTIN.

FOUR WAY, IC TITLE MATCH
CHRIS BENOIT VS. X-PAC VS. EDDY GUERRERO VS. CHRI JERICHO
This has REAL potential to be a, you know, wrestling match. I hope to see plenty of mat wrestling to make up for the lack of it in some of the other matches. Should be a good one, although I don't see why they have to put all four in one match.
Verdict: I've got a gut feeling that Eddy Guerrero will take this one.

TABLE MATCH, TAG TEAM TITLES
EDGE/CHRISTIAN VS. UNDERTAKER/KANE VS. THE DUDLEY BOYS
They've stacked the odds again, and put a load of top guys in one match. Maybe they want a short undercard to spend a long time on the top two matches. Works for me. I'm thinking they'll be some kind of angle and a run-in that'll prevent Undertaker and Kane from winning the titles. Remember that the WWF will want to protect the UT and Kane as much as possible if they don't win the titles. You've got a real style clash or two in there, so it should be an interesting one.
Verdict: Edge/Christian take it after some interference of some kind.

HARDCORE TITLE MATCH
RAVEN VS. THE BIG SHOW
Weird one for The Big Show, but, as TV has taught us, this is shaping up into a good little feud. I'm pleased to see Raven getting the ball to run with, and I don't mind watching TBS when he's not in total BIG SHIT mode.
Verdict: Raven, for whatever reason.

LIGHTHEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
DEAN MALENKO VS. MATT HARDY
We should have some more wrestling. As long as they don't try and pro-long an already boring feud, this should be a good 10 minute match, which showcases both guy's huge talents. Let's hope they go with this.
Verdict: Matt Hardy going over and ending Malenko long run as Lightheavyweight champion.

JERRY LAWLER VS. STEVIE RICHARDS
As much as I like Lawler, he seems to have a fetish of wrestling ex-ECW wrestlers. I really don't know what to expect in this one, but let's just hope there's not too much interference.
Verdict: Stevie Richards grabs it, probably through interference.

STEPHANIE MCMAHON VS. TRISH STRATUS
Okay, I really don't care nor have a clue as to what will happen in this "match." Let's just hope they make it quick, kinda like getting an injection from your doctor.
Verdict: Yikes. I dunno, Steph.

That's all for this time around. Enjoy the PPV, and I'll see you all as soon as possible.

Matt Wilson
ShootAngle.com