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http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/

Friday news update: HHH vs. Shawn before huge gate tonight; Osaka Raw
notes; Smackdown ratings; Smackdown interesting edits; 10th
anniversary of huge match; TNA & MLW on Sunshine, Stern, Austin, Siki,
Snow and more

by Dave Meltzer

hsmeltzer{at}juno.com

With the Raw crew in Japan, the Raw tour for the weekend actually ends
late tonight with the final show at the Saitama Super Arena with HHH
vs. Shawn Michaels as the main event, plus Chris Jericho vs. Chris
Benoit, Kane vs. RVD, Flair & Batista vs. Dudleys, Randy Orton vs.
Matt Hardy and Molly Holly vs. Lita. This show will set the WWE's
all-time gate and attendance record for a Japanese show. The WWF
participated in several Tokyo Dome events in the early 90s that would
have done more business, but they were not WWF promotions, but WWF
wrestlers on All Japan or SWS shows. Raw will be live from the Rose
Garden in Portland on Monday, which will be the first company TV
taping in that city in so many years that I can't even venture a guess
as to when the last was, although probably back in the 80s if ever.

The Smackdown crew opens up tomorrow night in Regina, Saskatchewan,
with a Sunday show in Saskatoon, the city where Bret Hart won his
first WWF title from Ric Flair, Monday house show in Vancouver and the
Smackdown tapings are Tuesday night in Tacoma. We're looking for
reports from all of those shows, with results, estimated attendance
and highlights to dave{at}wrestlingobserver.com.

For Sunday night on the site, we'll be taking poll results on the
Pride PPV event (taped 2/1) headlined by Mirko Cro Cop vs. Ron
Waterman.

Wrestling Observer Live on Sunday night will be a tape of the very
well received show from last week with Ricky Steamboat and Les
Thatcher. Since the show went head up with the Super Bowl, we're
rerunning it this week so everyone can get a chance to listen, plus
I've got to cover the Pride PPV on Sunday. The show airs from 8-10
p.m. Eastern time and 5-7 p.m. Pacific time on the Sports Byline USA
radio network. You can check out a station in your area carrying the
show at www.sportsbyline.com or listen live on their web site, on this
web site, through Sirius Satellite radio Ch. 122 and with football
over, we should be on Clear channel 610 AM out of St. Catherines, ONT
which at night should be easily accessible in Toronto, Detroit,
Cleveland, Rochester, Buffalo and anywhere in that part of North
America, or at www.610cktb.com which seems to be the best way to
listen for those of you with web TV.

--WWE results from earlier today at Osaka Jo Hall: Rico & Lita b Matt
Hardy & Molly Holly, Kane b Hurricane, Ric Flair & Batista b Dudleys
to keep tag titles, Randy Orton b Chris Jericho with the RKO to keep
the IC title, Austin gave stunners to Christian and Bischoff. Hardy
attacked Austin but the Dudleys came out and gave hi ma 3-D. Then
Austin, Jackie Gayda, Stacy Keibler, Dudleys and Hurricane all came
out to drink beer. RVD & Shawn Michaels b Test & Christian and HHH
pinned Chris Benoit clean with the pedigree. (thanks to Keith Lipinski
and Japanese sources)

--Smackdown did a 4.1 rating on the overnights last night, which is
right at its season average, but a huge drop from the 4.8 from last
week. It had strong opposition with network sweeps, as the first new
episode of Friends in quite a while did an 18.4, a Friends rerun did a
16.2 and Trump's Apprentice show did a 14.0. On CBS, the Survivor
All-Stars did a 13.7 and CSI did a 20.1.

--A couple of interesting notes on last night's Smackdown. The entire
Cat vs. Tajiri match, which saw Akio & Sakoda do a run-in and Orlando
Jordan make the save, ending with Cat and Jordan dancing together in
the ring, was edited off the show because of time constraints. Also,
because the segment got over poorly live. Also, when Brock Lesnar was
running down all the people he'd beaten, mentioning Hogan, Rock,
Angle, etc., his mentioning (as well as Guerrero's) that he had beaten
Undertaker was edited off the show, and it's interesting also to note
that he never mentioned HHH Okay, house show, so I guess that means it
never happened. (thanks to Joel Lowitt)

--For those in the Washington, DC area, Smackdown airs at 9 p.m. on
Sunday night on UPN-20 (thanks to Mike Mahoney Jr.)

--Ads for the 3/2 Smackdown tapings in Savannah, GA are built
completely around Guerrero (thanks to Jonathan Weber)

--Jeff Gagliardo noted that yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the
match which really put ECW and three-way matches on the map, the
February 5, 1994, match from the ECW Arena with Sabu vs. Shane Douglas
vs. Terry Funk

--TNA Xplosion debuts at 10 p.m. Eastern time tonight on the Sunshine
Network. MLW will be airing at midnight on the same station. MLW
features C.W. Anderson & Simon Diamond vs. Samoan Island Tribe for the
tag titles, Sonjay Dutt vs. Jack Evans vs. Puma vs. Chasyn Rance in a
four-way, plus Low Ki vs. Chad Collyer.

--The National Latino Media Council in today's Broadcasting & Cable
roundup said that Latinos in the U.S. are severely underrepresented by
Neilsen. Looking at the weekly Galavision ratings for wrestling in the
newsletter, I don't know about underrepresented,by judging from the
ridiculous variances, I'd say the ratings are less than scientifically
accurate. (thanks to Trevor Hunnicutt)

--Trish Stratus was in Toronto last night for the annual Siemens Conn
Smythe Sports Celebrities Dinner and auction benefiting Easter Seals.
It's one of the biggest fund raisers of the year in that city. Stratus
had committed to the event, and kept her commitment even though WWE
was booked for the Raw tour of Japan this week.

--Sable mentioned on Byte This that she would be appearing on Howard
Stern soon.

--Speaking of Stern, this morning, Howard Stern mentioned the incident
on David Letterman where a snow boarder was injured doing a stunt, and
said that at least David did the right thing, not like the WWF, when
he stopped the taping and didn't continue on with the show. It was in
reference to the death of Owen Hart, but he apparently said it in a
way where I'm guessing many listeners wouldn't have known what he was
referring to. (thanks to Clancy Gilpatrick and Keith Lipinski)

--Today's Oregonian (www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian) had an
article on Austin previewing Raw on Monday in Portland. It was a good
article, in that it talks about many issues in Austin's life where he
said would have killed careers of most wrestlers, but he's been able
to survive. Austin said that he got scared straight, when it comes to
ephedra, after his scare before last year's Wrestlemania and said he
hasn't touched anything with ephedra in it ever since. Austin said he
would consider wrestling if he felt he could have a good match with
the right person.

--Tonight in Tijuana has Santo & Negro Casas & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs.
Los Villanos III & IV & V as the main event, plus Super Porky, Damian
and Halloween in the semi. Rayo is also booked for the main event in
Arena Mexico, so somebody is getting a no-show. (thanks to Kris
Zellner)

--Monster Pro Wrestling from Wednesday night in Edmonton before 130
fans: Brady Roberts b Kris Knight, Matt Richards b Big Jess, Bobby
Sharp & Princess Patricia & Winston Flynn b Sexy Samantha & Tom
MacDonald & Evan Inferno, Maxx Power b Insane Irishman, Gary Williams
won three-way over Synn and King Lau, Johnny Handsome b Massive
Damage-DQ, Dan Severn NC Steve Rivers. Steven vs. Massive Damage
headlines the next show.

--Regarding yesterday's mention of Sweet Daddy Siki, Dan Lovranski of
LAW noted that he thinks it's a cool record cover and has two of his
three albums. They were mostly country songs, a lot of which were
Merle Haggard songs. Her third album was on the Periwinkle label, not
Arc, and is just called "Sweet Daddy Siki." Lovranski said his
performances were a lot better than anything on the WWE Originals
album. Siki has been doing karaoke shows in Toronto for nearly 20
years, every Saturday afternoon at a bar called The Duke of York at
Queen at Leslie streets in the East End of Toronto. He said Siki looks
great and can still sing, but doesn't ever want to talk about
wrestling.

--Al Snow will be headlining a show in St. Mary's, OH at Memorial High
on 2/21 for Midwest Championship Wrestling. The show, promoted by
former wrestler Jim Lancaster, will include an induction ceremony for
the Midwest Hall of Fame where they will be honoring Snow, Lancaster,
Bobo Brazil, Mighty Igor, Fred Curry, Mickey Doyle, Bobby Golden,
Larry Wilson, Carl Ben Patrick, Patriot, Sam Cody, Roughhouse Ruffin,
Rick Lancaster, Lisa Crockett and Luis Martinez. Igor's wife and son
will be there to accept the award. Neither Curry nor Martinez will be
there and he is looking to get in touch with Martinez if anyone can
find him.

--Tony Brown at tonyjapn{at}webtv.net is looking for a tape of last
night's St. Louis Wrestling special on the Fox station in the market.

--James Storm will be headlining a benefit show on Sunday in Columbia,
TN at Grand Slam USA. All tickets are $5 to benefit the family of
Juanita Williams, a long-time fan in the city who passed away on 1/29.
This is to help the family pay for the funeral and outstanding medical
bills. Also on the show will be Athena, managing Hot Rod Biggs in the
main event, plus Scott Hudson and Synn from TNA.

--Intense Championship Wrestling on Saturday night in Cincinnati at
the Intense Arena

--Women's Extreme Wrestling airs all month on Fox Sports Digests 1,2,3
as well as Sunshine Network. InDemand 2 is doing all-day passes on 2/8
and 2/9 on Backyard Babes 3: Behind the Scenes.


--- Internet Rex 2.29