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 _____       ___
|  _  |     |   \        The UK's Independant Voice in Wrestling
| |_| |     | |> |       Issue 149 [] March 7, 1998
|  ___|     |   <        http://homepages.which.net/~james.phillips
| |         | |> | ________________________________________________
|_| O W E R |___/ O M B                    Edited by James Phillips


OK, first off apologies for Powerbomb's absence over the  last  two
weeks.  There are several factors which contributed  to  this.  Two
weeks ago I was unwell and in bed all  week without the strength or
desire to put together a newsletter.  Last week,  on   my  day  off
(Thursday) I was attending the Guardian Direct Cup,  a  new  tennis
tournament which was held in London's Battersea Park, and therefore
unable to produce Powerbomb.

But I have spent the last week  digging  up  the  latest  and  most
reliable news, as I have done for nearly  two  years now.  And just
to let you all know how dedicated I am, I am actually writing  most
of this newsletter whilst travelling on a train to London typing it
on a tiny Psion S5 palmtop computer, and that isn't easy.

If you are looking to get daily wrestling news from your telephone,
then call the  excellent Figure  Four  International  Hotline.  The
number to call is 0897 555231 in the UK (One pound/min), In  Canada
call 1-900-677-2226 ($1.99/min),and in America 1-900-737-1118 which
is also $1.99 per minute.

Our web site is currently out of  action,  but  should  be  up  and
running again tomorrow at
                        http://homepages.which.net/~james.phillips/

___________________________________________________________________
                         UNITED KINGDOM NEWS
___________________________________________________________________

 - The two biggest stories to come out of my homeland over the last
   few days are that our satellite provider, Sky  TV  will  not  be
   carrying the forthcoming WWF Mayhem in Manchester show, which is
   being held at the Nynex Arena in Manchester.  The other piece of
   news is that have begun showing the full  length  Nitro  (Albeit
   still two weeks out of date).

   Starting last night, WCW Monday Nitro was shown on  TNT  at  the
   later starting time of 9:00.  This is great  in several ways, we
   now get the complete show and not a daft one hour edit which  in
   recent months has become innapropriate, and it starts after  the
   9:00 watershead meaning that restrictions on sexual and  violent
   content are slightly more relaxed, although that is not such  an
   issue with Nitro, which is often far  cleaner   than  Raw.   One
   problem.  Monday Night Raw on Sky Sports kicks off at 10:00, one
   hour into Nitro.  This means that us people here in the  UK  now
   have a head to head war of our own.  Whilst I understand that in
   America it is possible to record   one  cable/satellite  channel
   whilst simultaneously watching another,  only  the  most  modern
   equipment can do that over here, and as my Sky  receiver  is six
   years old, I had to pick which show to watch.

   I conceive that the people who will lose out the  most  on  this
   are the British fans.  For many years we haven't had WCW pay per
   views available in our native tongue,  and   now  we  are  being
   forced to pick and choose which 'Monday' night show we watch.

   More of a slap in the face is that someone has decided that  the
   only way  for  us to see the Manchester event is by going to the
   arena.  This is a huge problem in  itself,   I  live  170  miles
   (274km) from Manchester, and I certainly  don't  relish  driving
   that far and i'm sure it will be the same for many  others.   No
   justification has been given for the lack of a TV showing of the
   Mayhem in Manchester, although there is a   lot  of  speculation
   that the first UK pay per view, One Night  Only  didn't  perform
   very well in the buy rates, and now they are without  Davey  Boy
   Smith who could really draw over here, perhaps they  don't  want
   to risk a live pay per view.

___________________________________________________________________
                       WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION
___________________________________________________________________

 -  This Monday's Raw tapings saw some  interesting  dark  matches,
   with various new faces appearing, including Brakus, who did make
   some appearances a few months ago, but has more recently been an
   ECW fixture, he was beaten by Savio Vega; Sean Morley, a  former
   regular in Japan who pinned Matt Hardy;the returning Duke Droese
   and Paul Diamond, and the man  they apparently  have  some  very
   high hopes for, Adam Copeland. There has been nothing said about
   whether all or some of these men will join  the  promotion  full
   time, although you can safely assume that  you  will  be  seeing
   more of Brakus, Morley and Copeland.  I personally haven't  seen
   Morley or Copeland in the ring, but a lot of people  are  saying
   that they are looking  impressive.  Diamond may come  back,  but
   he almost certainly won't be  using  his 'Kato'  or  'Max  Moon'
   gimmicks that he once wore in WWF.

 - 'Match Classic' on Raw this week was  an  appalling  match  from
   1986 between Jimmy Jack Funk and  Blackjack  Mulligan.  Mulligan
   got an easy victory, and fended off  an  attempted  attack  from
   Funk after the match.  If these Match Classic's are to continue,
   someone needs to chose some decent old matches and not  more  of
   the same old rubbish that we have been treated to over the  last
   few months.

 - The wrestling television shows all performed well in the ratings
   this week, with Monday Night Raw gaining a composite  viewership
   of 3,675,000 (3.75), based  on hourly ratings of 3,724,000 (3.8)
   and 3,626,000 (3.7).  Nitro gained  predictable victory, with  a
   massive   4.75   Nielson rating,  which  equates   to  4,655,000
   households watching.  Raw also didn't do too badly at the arena,
   there were 15,600 in attendance for a gate of around  a  quarter
   of a million dollors  and reportedly  sold   $180,000  worth  of
   merchandise.

 - Several World  Wrestling  Federation  superstars  are  presently
   on the sidelines with injuries. Road Dog Jesse James injured his
   shoulder at a recent house show and will probably only  be  seen
   behind the microphone this  side  of  Wrestlemania.   Owen  Hart
   sprained his ankle at the Raw tapings,  and  he  probably  won't
   be back until the end of the month, his Wrestlemania match  with
   Hunter Hearst Helmsley is not in jeopardy however.

___________________________________________________________________
                     WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
___________________________________________________________________

 - To start off the WCW news section on an ominous note, the fourth
   annual WCW Uncensored pay per view takes place next Sunday,March
   15.  I don't really see this years pay per view being any  worse
   than last years, but I said that last  year.  Luckily  there are
   no ridiculous triple stacked cage matches this time around.  All
   things considered, this isn't a good lineup for a pay per  view.
   The matches worth watching are:

    > Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage in a steel cage match.   Although
      it has been said many times that Hulk Hogan can't wrestle, he
      can usually pull off an acceptable match on pay per view, and
      Savage can always be depended on to do  his  best.  The  only
      potential downfall of this is that it is a  cage  match.   So
      long as it is a standard cage and not several stacked on  top
      of each other, this one should be great.

    > Scott Hall gets his long awaited World title shot against the
      new champion Sting. Hall has never been a brilliant wrestler,
      but he is at least over and that should help in  this  match.
      Sting  isn't too bad, and has certainly gained in  popularity
      since the inception of his Crow gimmick.  However  I  suspect
      that this match will end with an NWO run-in.

    > Bret Hart vs. Curt  Hennig  ought   to  be  a  decent  match.
      Although Hennig isn't as sharp as he was five  years  ago, he
      is still capable of carrying Hart through this one. Hopefully
      this match will get quite a  lot  of  time  dedicated  to  it
      because these two men have worked very well together  in  the
      past, Summerslam '91 being a good example.  This  could  turn
      out to be the best match of the show.

    > The Giant vs. Kevin Nash. This all started back at Superbrawl
      when Nash powerbombed The Giant, allegedly  injuring  him  so
      badly that WCW had to ban the powerbomb.  Obviously,  that is
      all only  partially true,  but  these   two  'big  men'  will
      assemble a decent, albeit slow paced match.

    > The popular Television champion, Booker T will be putting his
      belt on the line against someone other than Rick  Martel  for
      once! The opponent being Eddy Guererro.  My only worry  about
      this is a potential clash of styles.

    > In the Cruiserweight title match, Chris Jericho will  wrestle
      Dean Malenko. This will probably be very similar to all their
      other matches.  Jericho has certainly turned his performances
      up a few notches since his heel turn, so this once  could  be
      very good.

    > Diamond Dallas Page, Raven and Chris Benoit are  involved  in
      a three way match, so long as it doesn't feature   a  lot  of
      pointless brawling and one man sitting in the  corner  whilst
      the other two fight, expect a very good match.

 - WCW are about to embark on some further cost cutting excersizes.
   Last year they released a large number of mid-card wrestlers  to
   save money.  Now they are about to release   only   four people.
   Vincent,  who has done very little other than walk  around  with
   the New World Order and do an occasional job on television is on
   his way out (Possibly back to the World  Wrestling  Federation),
   and two UK wrestlers, Dave Taylor  and  Lord  Steven  Regal  are
   soon to be gone.  Regal has not been used in any large role with
   the promotion for a few months now, and after an  incident  on a
   flight from Japan to America last year, they used him even less.
   Regal and Taylor will both probably wrestle either in  Japan  or
   the German CWA promotion.  Also, Bobby  Walker, who  was  rarely
   seen on the flagship programmes is also gone.

 - Tony Norris, aka Ahmed Johnson is apparently having difficulties
   convincing World Championship Wrestling that he  is  worth  them
   signing.  Norris left the  World  Wrestling  Federation  several
   weeks ago amongst rumours that he was fired because  when  asked
   to job to Kurgan he refused. In the WWF, Johnson did very little
   of any worth.  He was constantly on the sidelines with  injuries
   and  when   in  the ring  he   was  regularly  giving  opponents
   legitimate injuries from pathetic hits with a plank of wood.

 - In some independant news, the IPWA are back and will be  holding
   a show at The Secret Cover, 8786 Richmond Hwy (Rt.1), Alexandria
   Va, on March 17 with a bell time of 8pm. The main event features
   the return of former World Wrestling  Federation  champion,  The
   Iron Sheik as he wrestles Cueball Carmichael.  Also on the card,
   Lance Diamond vs. IPWA Champion, Jimmy Cicero, Julio Sanchez vs.
   Steve Corino, Otto Schwanz vs. CW Anderson, Christian  York  vs.
   Shane Shamrock, and Big Slam vs.  Corporal  Punishment.  Tickets
   are $10 in advance or $12 on the door.

 - ECW Television report, written by  Powerbomb  ECW  TV  Reporter,
   John Courville:

    > At the beginning all the wrestlers and managers were  in  the
      ring, and Paul E. dedicated the show to Louie Spicolli.  Paul
      E. stated that "just as some other organization  says,  so we
      say, once you're ECW, you're ECW for life."  They then  did a
      ten bell salute.

    > Joey Styles started to  do   an  interview  with  the  Triple
      Threat, but the mic was quickly taken away from him by  Shane
      Douglas  and they  bragged  about  how   inferior  all  their
      competition would be at the pay per view. Sunny was with them
      and stated that she knew who Lance Storm's partner would  be,
      but would not tell because it was a "mystery."  Candido  went
      nuts  because she  wouldn't  tell  him  and  he   had  to  be
      restrained.  Francine and Sunny had a brief scuffle before it
      was broken up and Bam Bam carried Sunny back to the  dressing
      rooms.

    > The first match was Taz taking on Brakus for  the  TV  Title.
      This was a pretty good match and Brakus showed that he  could
      sell some moves.  Taz started off fast trying for  an  armbar
      submission followed up by several cross-face  forearm  shots.
      Brakus  then  came  back  and   hit  two  impressive  looking
      powerbombs.  Mr. Wright helped put a table in  the  ring  and
      Brakus was going to try to powerslam Taz through it, but  Taz
      turned it around and ended up suplexing  Brakus  through  the
      table.  They went back and forth, but after a  failed gorilla
      press slam by Brakus, Taz slapped on the Kata Hajime and made
      the bigger man tap out.

    > There was some hype for  the  Tommy  Dreamer/Justin  Credible
      match and they teased that Beaulah may come out  with  Justin
      instead of Tommy.  The second, and last match,  pitted  Lance
      Storm against Chris Candido.  This was an excellent match and
      Storm has a lot of great moves and good speed. With a  little
      more experience he could start to rival Rob Van  Dam  in  the
      great performance category.  The match was pretty  fast-paced
      and Candido had the lion's share of the offense.   Chris  has
      bulked up a little, but it does not seem to have affected his
      speed or performance any.  During   the  match,  Joey  Styles
      teased that there may be something going on between Storm and
      Sunny and that's one of the reason's Candido is  so  paranoid
      and nearly off the wall. At one point they ended  up  in  the
      front row of the audience, but got back in the ring  for  the
      rest of the match.  Every time Storm was able to  take  over,
      he  seemed to make a little mistake that allowed  Candido  to
      come back and take charge again, so the match  really  flowed
      nicely.  The end  came when  Candido  attempted  a  top  rope
      superplex, but Storm turned it  around  and  hit  the  Blonde
      Bombshell, Candido's own move, a top rope powerbomb, and  got
      the upset win.  They finished off the show hyping the Taz/Bam
      Bam match for the TV Title at Living Dangerously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Powerbomb will return to your mailboxes on  March  14  Until  then,
visit our site on the web for  the  latest  insider  wrestling news
every day at             http://homepages.which.net/~james.phillips
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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=A9 1996, 1997, 1998 James Phillips.
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