by Dave Meltzer
AJPW BUDOKAN HALL
(September 6, Tokyo, Japan)
Attendance: 16,300 sellout
Highlights: In an excellently worked match but somewhat taken down by the lack of heat, Mitsuharu Misawa retained the Triple Crown pinning Jun Akiyama in 24:57 using a Tiger driver (****). In the other top matches, Steve Williams & Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama beat Tamon Honda & Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue in 17:30 (**), and Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki of FMW beat Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga in 20:32 (***1/2).
wwf one night only
(September 20, Birmingham, England)
Attendance: 11,000 sellout
Highlights: Shawn Michaels captured the European title from Davey Boy Smith in 24:00 with outside interference from Rick Rude, Chyna and Hunter Hearst Helmsley on the first WWF PPV show in England (all North American-based WWF PPV shows air in England on free television). Bulldog was originally scheduled to win the belt via pinfall, but when Michaels refused to put Bulldog over, the finish was changed to build for a future rematch where Michaels would lose, that of course never was going to take place. In a match where the crowd reaction was split, more in favor of Undertaker, Bret Hart retained the title winning via DQ when Undertaker refused to stop choking and punching Hart on the ropes in 28:00. Head Bangers retained the WWF tag titles beating Savio Vega & Miguel Perez in 14:00. Due to disputes in negotiations with the leading cable companies, the show wasn’t cleared in much of England, and overall reports are that in the places it was cleared its buy rate was disappointing, well below the level of major boxing events.
NJPW budokan hall
(September 23, Tokyo, Japan)
Attendance: 12,800
Highlights: It was a show based around wrestlers against UFC fighters as New Japan’s Shinya Hashimoto beat Zane Frazier, a Vale Tudo veteran of matches in the U.S., Brazil and Japan including a KO win within seconds in a shoot match against Kendo Nagasaki at 1:05 of the third round(1/4*); Naoya Ogawa beat Brian Johnston in 11:14 (1/4*) in the latters’ pro wrestling debut, and Don Frye won his rematch against former national freestyle champion and New Japan rookie star Kazuyuki Fujita in 6:02 (**1/4). In the pro wrestling matches on the show, Great Muta & Masahiro Chono defeated IWGP tag team champions Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki in a non-title match when Muta walked out and Keiji Muto returned, but then joined the NWO and pinned Sasaki after a moonsault in 17:30 (*1/2) and Shinjiro Otani retained the J Crown pinning Tatsuhito Takaiwa.
FMW KAWASAKI BASEBALL STADIUM
(September 28, Kawasaki, Japan)
Attendance: 40,000
Highlights: Atsushi Onita pinned Wing Kanemura in 17:41 of a disappointing no rope barbed wire electrified dynamite land mines time bomb death match. In apparently one of the great tag matches of all-time, Kenta Kobashi & Maunukea Mossman of All Japan beat Jinsei Shinzaki & Hayabusa from FMW in 21:30. Masato Tanaka won both the Independent and Brass Knux titles from The Gladiator in another great match. Vader beat Ken Shamrock in a UFC rules cage match in a match Shamrock was scheduled to lose, however the finish came early at 7:17 because Shamrock began coughing up blood from a previous injury. In other key matches, Terry Funk retained the so-called NWA Texas heavyweight title pinning Hiromichi Fuyuki in 12:23, Shark Tsuchiya won the vacant WWA and Independent womens titles pinning Aja Kong in 18:25 and Mr. Gannosuke & Hisakatsu Oya retained the FMW World Brass Knux tag titles beating Gedo & Jado in 15:02.
MPW ANNIVERSARY SHOW
(October 10, Tokyo, Japan)
Attendance: 6,000
Highlights: A solid very good show climaxed with Great Sasuke pinning Taka Michinoku in 28:12 with a german suplex (***3/4). The basic Michinoku style six-man tag saw Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji beat Dick Togo & Mens Teioh & Shoichi Funaki in 18:44 (****1/4) while Undertaker was brought in for a match with Jinsei Shinzaki with Undertaker going over in 12:08 (*) and the original Tiger Mask, without the hood wrestling as Satoru Sayama, beat 1979-80 Mexican rival El Satanico in 6:38 with an armbreaker (*1/2).
KPW PRIDE ONE
(October 11, Tokyo, Japan)
Attendance: 37,000 (30,000 paid)
Buy rate: 8.0
Highlights: A poor show ending with the “funeral” of mythical shooting legend Nobuhiko Takada as he was easily handled by Rickson Gracie losing to an armbar in just 4:47. Dan Severn and Kimo went to a boring 30:00 draw in which Severn would have won the match on points but both men’s reputations as shooters in Japan was damaged in the process while unheralded Akira Shoji held Renzo Gracie to a 30:00 draw in a match that Shoji probably would have garnered had their been judges although it was a close match and the best match on the show, which included at least a few worked matches.
aJPW 25th anniversary show
(October 21, Tokyo, Japan)
Attendance: 16,300 sellout
Highlights: Mitsuharu Misawa retained his Triple Crown beating Kenta Kobashi in 32:55 of another Match of the year type performance (****1/2). In perhaps his worst major singles match of his career, Toshiaki Kawada pinned Yoshihiro Takayama in 18:22 (DUD) while Akira Taue pinned Johnny Ace in 16:54 (***3/4).
NJPW final power hall in fukuoka
(November 2, Fukuoka, Japan)
Attendance: 40,000
Highlights: A largely disappointing show with the exception of some of the junior heavyweight matches. The main event was anti-climactic with IWGP tag team champions Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono beating Tatsumi Fujinami & Genichiro Tenryu in 21:33 when Chono made Fujinami submit to the STF (*3/4). Shinya Hashimoto beat former K-1 and Vale Tudo competitor Hubert Numrich of Germany with a facelock in 1:04 of the second round (*). In the actual top drawing match on the show, IWGP heavyweight champion Kensuke Sasaki scored his first singles victory of his career against mentor Riki Choshu in 11:34 using Choshu’s lariat as the finisher (**1/4). In other mixed matches, Naoya Ogawa beat Holland kickboxer Erwin Vreeker in 3:19 of a terrible match (-*1/2) and Don Frye beat Kazuo Yamazaki in 12:21 (**1/2). Shinjiro Otani retained the J Crown pinning Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) in 19:28 in easily the best match on the show (****1/4). The other strong juniors match saw the first ever teaming of the two biggest junior heavyweight stars of the modern era, Tiger King & Jushin Liger as they beat Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa in 14:18 when Liger pinned Takaiwa after a super fisherman buster (***3/4).
aJPW real world tag league final
(December 5, Tokyo, Japan)
Attendance: 15,500
Highlights: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue won the tournament for the second consecutive year, once again beating Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama in the finals at 30:52 when Taue pinned Akiyama after a high kick in an early candidate for next year’s match of the year (*****). To create a rematch of the 1996 final match, also a match of the year calibre event, both teams were 7-1-1 in the round-robin, finishing ahead of Gary Albright & Steve Williams and Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace, who tied for third with 6-1-2 records.
NJPW super grade tag tournament
(December 8, Osaka, Japan)
Attendance: 6,500 sellout
Highlights: IWGP tag team champions Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono captured the tournament beating Shinya Hashimoto & Manabu Nakanishi in 23:33 when Muto made Hashimoto submit to the figure four leg lock (****). Hashimoto & Nakanishi made it to the finals beating Kazuo Yamazaki & Kensuke Sasaki in 15:24 when Hashimoto made Yamazaki submit to a Fujiwara armbar as both teams tied for second place at 5-2 records during the round-robin (***3/4). Shinjiro Otani retained the J Crown pinning Kendo Ka Shin after a dragon suplex in 14:16 (****).
pancrade yokohama bunka gym
(December 20, Yokohama, Japan)
Attendance: 5,500 sellout
Highlights: Masakatsu Funaki won the King of Pancrase title for a second time beating protege Yuki Kondo with an armbar in 2:20. NHB star Igor Zinoviev made his Pancrase debut going to a 13:00 draw with Osami Shibuya, but suffering a cracked right wrist in the process.
ufc ultimate japan
; (December 21, Yokohama, Japan)
Attendance: 5,000 (heavily papered)
Est. buy rate:
Thumbs up/down/middle:
31 (28.2%), 56 (50.9%), 23 (20.9%)
Best match: 29 - Conan Silviera vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, 14 - Frank Shamrock vs. Kevin Jackson 14
Worst match: 32 - Vitor Belfort vs. Joe Charles, 9 - Maurice Smith vs. Randy Couture
Highlights: Arguably UFC’s weakest show to date viewed by its largest audience with network television coverage in Japan but overall a live promotional flop with heavy papering. Randy Couture captured the UFC heavyweight title beating Maurice Smith via decision after the 21:00 time limit expired with neither man seriously damaging the other but Couture having more control and more aggressiveness. Frank Shamrock became the UFC’s first under-200 champion beating Kevin Jackson in just :14 with an armbar. Kazushi Sakuraba, a pro wrestler from the Kingdom promotion won the UFC’s weirdest tournament to date beating Conan Silviera in 3:45 after the two had a match earlier in the show that Silviera initially won via ref stop but it was then overruled. In one of the most controversial fights in UFC history, boxer Vitor Belfort didn’t throw a punch the entire fight in beating hand-picked opponent Joe Charles in 4:04 with an armbar.
47 – 1997 Pay-Per-View Drawing Cards
Based on buy rate points in total for the year having appeared in PPV main events. The number in parenthesis is the age of the wrestler as of 1/1/98.
Wrestler / Pts / Shows / Avg
1. Hulk Hogan (44) - 6.65 / 7 / 0.95
2. Undertaker (32) - 4.24 / 7 / 0.61
3. Bret Hart (40) - 4.05 / 6 / 0.68
4. Steve Austin (33) - 3.43 / 6 / 0.57
5. Roddy Piper (46) - 3.34 / 4 / 0.84
6. Shawn Michaels (32) - 3.09 / 5 / 0.62
7. Lex Luger (39) - 3.01 / 4 / 0.75
8. The Giant (26) - 2.83 / 4 / 0.71
9. Kevin Nash (39) - 2.02 / 3 / 0.67
10. Sting (38) - 1.90 / 1 / 1.90
11. Ric Flair (48) - 1.73 / 3 / 0.58
12. Maurice Smith (36) - 1.67 / 4 / 0.42
13. Ken Shamrock (33) - 1.52 / 3 / 0.51
14. Scott Hall (38) - 1.49 2 / 0.75
14. Randy Savage (45) - 1.49 / 2 / 0.75
In approximate total revenue generated, Hogan’s 6.65 total points works out to about 1,862,000 total PPV buys or about $52,042,900 in total generated revenue or about $21,858,000 for WCW; $4,163,000 for the middle-men (Viewers Choice and Request TV) and $26,021,450 for the cable television companies (TCI, Time Warner, Cablevision, et al). If you want to figure his actual worth to WCW as a PPV box office attraction, take the WCW non-Hogan PPV revenue average and multiply it by 12 (the number of PPV shows WCW produced). Then figure the difference between the revenue they actually generated and the revenue they would have generated without him by multiplying the non-Hogan PPV revenue number over 12 shows, divided by two because he had opponents who deserve credit for the increase over the average as well.
The 1997 value of Hulk Hogan on PPV to WCW was approximately $5,617,000. In other words, if Hogan’s deal still is 25% of the company gross on all PPV shows he appears, that is almost a perfect formula this year when figuring out what his name meant as a draw, as the actual perfect figure would be he increased revenue 25.6% per show which actually means if Hogan’s figure still is 25%, the company is actually not making any extra profit by having Hogan work the shows over the course of the year either as whatever extra he’s drawing he would be getting himself and also there is little doubt they spend more money in advertising on the PPV shows he appears on so that cuts down the profit margin.
But taking everything into consideration, if Hogan earned $5 million last year in WCW it was money well spent. If he earned $6 million, it probably still was money well spent, although any more than that wouldn’t be.
Taking the same formula into account, Undertaker’s value to the WWF on PPV would be negligible as the shows he headlined drew no better than the shows he didn’t, which would apply for Austin and everyone else on the list except for Hart, Piper, Michaels and Sting. Those were the only five wrestlers who could make any claim to have actually drawn added money on their own on PPV in 1997, and in the case of Michaels, the figure is almost negligible as well.
By the same formula, Hart’s value to WWF for the year on PPV alone based on his raising the buy rates on the shows he appeared would be $1,422,500, thus when all the arguments are said and done on that subject he was not overpaid last year even in comparison to the salary structure of the other headliners in the company as his PPV revenue increase over the average paid for almost his entire salary, and that doesn’t include his value when it came to house show attendance, television ratings or any sale of his merchandise since his contract was such that he actually didn’t receive any cut of his merchandise or get any kind of bonus for appearing, let alone main eventing on PPV, even if the PPV show did well.
Piper’s value would be $408,500; Michaels’ value would be $123,300 and Sting’s would be $2,059,600 even though he only worked one match all year. Based on the respective earnings of the five names (Hogan, Hart, Piper, Michaels and Sting) who made any difference in the company average buy rate and considering what each earned during the year, the most underpaid of the five, despite the fact he probably earned about $1 million and only wrestled one PPV match all year, would be Sting.
48 – 1997 Final Match Quality Ratings
Based on major show matches covered in the Observer during 1997, based on having three or more singles or tag team matches on major shows this year. Ranking for respective years in parenthesis.
Singles
(1997 / 1996 /+-)
Steve Austin - 3.04 (20) / 2.63 / 0.41
Marcus Bagwell - 1.81 / ----/ ----
Chris Benoit - 3.00 / 3.79 (10) / -0.79
Masahiro Chono - 2.30 / 2.93 / -0.63
Riki Choshu - 2.58 / 2.70 / -0.12
Crush - 0.33 / ---- / ----
Shane Douglas - 1.67 / ---- / ----
Ultimo Dragon - 3.80 (10) / 4.13 (5) / -0.33
Tommy Dreamer - 1.92 / ---- / ----
Faarooq - 1.05 / ---- / ----
Ric Flair - 2.19 / 2.75 / -0.56
Don Frye - 1.94 / ---- / ----
The Giant - 0.75 / 1.33 / -0.58
Glacier - 0.67 / ---- / ----
Goldust - 1.45 / 1.86 / -0.41
Eddie Guerrero - 3.75 (12) / 3.39 (15) / 0.36
Billy Gunn - 0.42 / ---- / ----
Bret Hart - 3.79 (11) / 3.20 (19) / 0.59
Owen Hart - 2.31 / ---- / ----
Hunter Hearst Helmsley - 2.00 / 1.92 / 0.08
Shinya Hashimoto - 2.73 / 2.94 / -0.21
Curt Hennig - 1.75 / ---- / ----
Hulk Hogan - 0.40 / 0.70 / -0.30
Prince Iaukea - 2.08 / ---- / ----
Jeff Jarrett - 1.33 / 2.00 / -0.67
Chris Jericho - 3.21 (19) / 2.94 / 0.27
Ahmed Johnson - 0.88 / 1.88 / -1.00
Koji Kanemoto - 4.38 (1) / ---- / ----
Toshiaki Kawada - 3.45 (15) / 3.50 (13) / -0.05
Kenta Kobashi - 4.38 (1) / 4.31 (1) / 0.07
Shiro Koshinaka - 2.67 / 3.39 (15) / -0.72
Jushin Liger - 3.96 (6) / 3.88 (9) / 0.08
Lex Luger - 0.75 / ---- / ----
Rocky Maivia - 1.45 / ---- / ----
Dean Malenko - 3.39 (17) / 3.44 (14) / -0.05
Mankind- 2.53 / 3.05 (20) / -0.52
Steve McMichael - 0.54 / ---- / ----
Shawn Michaels - 3.58 (14) / 4.00 (7) / -0.42
Taka Michinoku - 3.69 (13) / ---- / ----
Mitsuharu Misawa - 4.23 (3) / 4.17 (3) / 0.06
Rey Misterio Jr. - 3.43 (16) / 4.14 (4) / -0.71
Keiji Muto - 2.04 / 3.54 (12) / -1.50
Scott Norton - 1.13 / ---- / ----
Naoya Ogawa - 1.46 / ---- / ----
Shinjiro Otani - 3.97 (5) / 4.25 (2) / -0.28
Diamond Dallas Page - 2.32 / 2.36 / -0.04
Roddy Piper - 1.50 / ---- / ----
Psicosis - 3.83 (7) / ---- / ----
Steven Regal - 2.08 / ---- / ----
Sabu - 1.58 / ---- / ----
El Samurai - 4.04 (4) / 3.30 (17) / 0.74
Kensuke Sasaki - 3.00 / 2.54 / 0.46
Great Sasuke - 3.83 (7) / 3.96 (8) / -0.13
Randy Savage - 2.67 / 2.00 / 0.67
Ken Shamrock - 2.81 / ---- / ----
Syxx - 2.83 / 2.67 / 0.16
Tatsuhito Takaiwa - 3.83 (7) / ---- / ----
Akira Taue - 2.92 / 4.05 (6) / -1.13
Taz - 2.06 / ---- / ----
Hiroyoshi Tenzan - 3.29 (18) / 2.46 / 0.83
Tiger King - 1.08 / ---- / ----
Undertaker - 2.59 / 2.55 / 0.04
Vader - 2.75 / 2.50 / 0.25
Rob Van Dam - 2.75 / ---- / ----
Savio Vega - 0.25 / 1.83 / -1.58
Alex Wright - 1.63/ ---- / ----
Kazuo Yamazaki - 2.69 / 2.11 / 0.58
Tag Teams
(1997 / 1996 / +-)
Fujinami & Kimura - 2.57 (8) / ---- / ----
Hall & Nash - 2.44 (10) / 1.85 / 0.59
Godwinns - 0.25 / 0.85 / -0.60
Owen Hart & Bulldog - 2.17 / 2.67 (10) / -0.50
Harlem Heat - 2.25 / 2.08 / 0.17
Hashimoto & Nakanishi - 3.06 (5) / ---- / ----
Kawada & Taue - 3.57 (2) / 4.38 (2) / -0.81