[Fire-Babe]

Sitting in the Columbus airport with Seamus after waking up at 3:30 for an 8 a.m. flight. (I had the alarm set for 5 but...)

I've already been invasively scanned, groped, AND my hands swabbed for bomb residue. So things are looking good

(Seamus went right through. Jerk.)

I guess there's nothing to report other than that right now. I figured you all would have fun with that.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Mar 29, 2012 6:14:49 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

I've already been invasively scanned, groped, AND my hands swabbed for bomb residue.

What about when you got to the airport?

[Fire-Babe]

Har.

I didn't even get dinner first.

At least she was cute.

Anyway, we are here, and if I could post pictures from my phone of the view outside the window I would (I sent them to Moose and Dev though, so they can). We are doing nothing tonight except picking up my friend Kerstin at the airport. The hotel does NOT get Spike TV so no Impact tonight, but I think Jim is okay with that

[Road Warrior Shark]

Mar 30, 2012 11:12:28 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

The hotel does NOT get Spike TV so no Impact tonight, but I think Jim is okay with that

Jim is probably ok with it being Friday instead of Thursday too.

[Pun]

Mar 30, 2012 11:12:28 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

...and if I could post pictures from my phone of the view outside the window I would (I sent them to Moose and Dev though, so they can).

Post them to Facebook from your phone.

[Fire-Babe]

I meant to post that THURSday night, but it didn't post for some reason.

And i have a dumb phone. I can't post from that to Facebook.

Getting ready to go to Dragon Gate. This should be an adventure as we aren't sure what the parking situation is, AND reading reviews of the venue on line (Deauville Beach Resort) makes me wonder exactly how great a place this is

[Jack Quinn]

at least its not the Du Burns Arena

[Fire-Babe]

Up early because it's a full day. Axxess, then ROH, then HOF show.

Kerstin got her "please don't dress like wrestling fans" e-mail on ...FRIDAY. After we were all here. SO, it's off to like Marshall's today for something more appropriate to wear (Seamus brought only shorts and a pair of sweat pants. I have jeans that are kind of nice and could probably pass...but seriously WWE? Send that shit out BEFORE everyone is probably here.

DGUSA last night was a lot of fun. It was Kerstin's first indie show. She watches Monday Night Raw, and that's it (I've been trying to get her to come to chat...she is good with the snarkiness). I have results jotted down, but it's all the way over there and I'm the only one up so far.

The Important is that in the Johnny Gargano/Chucky Taylor v. Ricochet/Some Guy match (couldn't catch his name...he was Japanese though): Ronin lost. AND, after the match, Chucky T super kicked Johnny Gargano!!! Nooooo!! Why CHUCKY WHY?

I thought it might happen. At one point, Johnny was down and Chucky T rolled him out of the ring with his foot. That MAY have been after Johnny wouldn't let Chucky hit someone with Johnny's championship belt. Anyway, he did that, and I thought..."Uh-oh."

Then later, Johnny had the pin on someone (and when I say that, it's because the camera guy was in front of us much of the match so I couldn't see what was actually happening), and Chucky pulled him off and tried to get it, but failed.

So at the end, the award the belt to The Other Guys, and then go to do the handshake, which Chucky refuses, attacking Shima (?) and then super kicking Gargano. BOOOOO!

The other thing of note is that I did get my picture taken with Johnny and Chucky, and Johnny let me hold the belt It's very heavy. While I think my friend Kerstin for pointing him out, she got a little annoying telling him like 6 times "She's been talking about you all day." Which I totally did not. I talked about other things....really....

[Fire-Babe]

Yesterday was busy. Axxess in the a.m. It was...okay. If you were a kid it was of course awesome, or a fan of standing in line for autographs. I am neither We did get our picture taken with Hunico and Camacho (as ... I'm not sure why. Jim just got in that queue for some reason. I'll have to ask). Saw lots of folks from afar though. Young Randall had a huge line, as did Vickie and Swagger. Walked through the displays and Seamus took my picture next to all the women's championship belts. They also had matches during the show, so we saw Zach Ryder and Drew McIntyre put on a quick 5 minutes. We also watched Teddy Long and John Laurenitis answer questions from fans. The announcer had some on cards but Laurenitis went out in the crowd to take questions, which I'm not sure was in the script. He did get asked basically when he was going to stop being so terrible at his job Then Mae Young was invited out, but we didn't have time to wait for her entrance because we had to get to ROH.

ROH was ... I liked Dragon Gate better. It started out awesomely, because JIMMY JACOBS wrestled a surprise first match with El Generico!! Woot! I believe I was the only one cheering when he won. And looked awesome doing it.

In the middle of the fourth match, I think, they had to stop it because they lost power to whatever was supplying the link to iPPV watchers (according to DevSop). This was handled VERY awkwardly, and fantasy bookers we are, Jim and I thought of at least 3 million ways. They had Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilley bitch at each other ad lib a bit (which wasn't too bad) and then they restarted the match. Truth Martini came out and rambled and was removed from the ring. They taped a couple of promos with the announcers in the crowd and... INTERMISSION.

I think that we were close to that anyway, as the first match afterwards was Kings of Wrestling v. Young Bucks which would have been a good match to close the first half with. Anyway, they went on through the card and despite me not liking either of them really, the Richards/Elgin match was good (Richards retained).

They didn't let the Briscoes talk. I was disappointed, because I thought Kerstin would either love it or hate it. (Probably hate...more on that in chat )

So, we ran back to our hotel to change into "appropriate attire" (or what we could manage at least) for the HOF show. That was pretty nice. The full list of who inducted who is probably posted already. They had EVERY Horseman (including JJ) speak after being inducted, so that took a while. Flair....He got emotional, but ... I dunno, I get the sense that this is the emotion not of someone who is reflecting on a career and all the good times and all that stuff, but someone who sees where he is at, and is desperate not to be there, if that makes any sense.

Mike Tyson's speech was a train wreck. Well, first, note to the tech staff, microphones need to be adjustable, or at least have a rehearsal where people know to move them so we can hear them, because that was an occasional issue throughout. HBK and HHH inducting him was hilarious. His speech was...well, he was bobbing and weaving so much that you could only hear about every other word anyway. I think he was just nervous or excited, but it was definitely not good. Or so bad it was good, you decide.

Christian and Edge get the "Stupid Wrestlers Making Firewoman Cry" moments of the night, and Edge got the longest section of time I think. Christian talked about growing up and how they both wanted this life, and the conversation where Edge told him he had to retire. Christian told him he just won WM27, keeping the belt, what better way to go out. Christian relayed a story where Edge said he had to be successful at this because he didn't want his mom to worry about financial stuff anymore ::sob::

Then Edge came out and OMG CUT HIS HAIR!! (Christian teased that though as his first line was "Somebody got their haaaair cuuuuut." He was very humble and gracious thanking, I think, everyone he ever met. He did include both Hardys, Matt specifically once, Lita, and Vickie. He talked about his mom again, who was in the rows of family and wrestlers in the front. He talked about the look on her face when he bought her a house...

Stupid Edge.

So, then we came back to the hotel.

So, today is ... we have to switch hotels (long story, but not an unplanned switch) and then ... OMG I'M GOING TO WRESTLEMANIA!!!!

(Interesting side note. Kerstin has never even SEEN a Wrestlemania or any PPV. She only watches MNR, usually on Saturday mornings. She said "It's just like the Raw supershows they've been doing, only bigger, right?"

Yes...sure...that's EXACTLY what it's like..... )

[Angle]

Nice write-ups thus far, Fire. So, any Jericho sightings yet?

[Fire-Babe]

Not unless you count in the ring last night. I am trying to restrain my inner geek otherwise I'm sure I would have been arrested for stalking. Of course, maybe I do have him stuffed in my luggage right now, but then admitting that would be like handing police the evidence, now wouldn't it

(Did I mention getting my picture with Chucky T and Johnny Gargano and him letting me hold the belt? Did I? )

Anyway...

OMG I WAS AT WRESTLEMANIA!

Say what you want about the in ring performances and booking decisions. Vince & Co. know how to put on a show. I took tons of pictures, as did Kerstin and will be posting those somewhere, but WOW.

WOW.

Very exciting being in a stadium with 78K people all shouting and cheering and ... Okay, before I get to that.... I am used to if I mention pro wrestling, or RAW, or WWE, or anything related to it, getting a lot of blank stares. Most folks know of it from when they watched it on Saturday afternoons (if they're older) or just in passing and that's it. Literally (not figuratively) EVERYWHERE we've gone there have been folks talking wrestling. EVERYWHERE. The McDonalds we stopped at on our way to Axxess. The hotel lobbies. EVERYWHERE. It has been surreal.

I think I enjoyed the show itself being here. At home there would have been snarking at the party (or on chat) and at the stadium was just able to get into the moment. The ONLY thing: I did find myself missing the announcers. However, WWE has a new (to me) thing where you can buy a headset kind of thing that lets you hear what they're saying. And apparently it's good at all shows, so if I went to lots of shows it might be worth it.

I was disappointed as hell in the Daniel Bryan/Seamus match, and there better be a reason. I haven't been able to check Internet rumors, so our working assumption is that ending makes sure someone is in decent enough shape to do a match tonight at Raw, so I guess it's rematch time.

I was really surprised by the ending to Cena/Rock but... I feel like I can't stop saying WOW, but really, the chants in the crowd (not NEARLY as 90/10 as Rick says in his front page, but definitely 75/25 in favor of Rock).

I don't know what else to report, since I'm sure most of you watched it. It was pretty cool, and if I get the opportunity to do it again, I will I just have to 1. talk Seamus into it, and 2. pay off the bills from this one

[Fire-Babe]

also...

We are 12 rows behind the announcers tonight. Signage to be determined. If I can't get back online before them I'll text them to Dev and Moose (if they haven't blocked me from their phones by now! )

[Fire-Babe]

Okay...signage:

Jim has an orange sign that says "It's Spelled SEAMUS." I have a neon yellow one that says "I H8 CLOUDS" and if our ink holds out I might put either punshouse.com on the back or NO! NO! NO!

[Fire-Babe]

And....that is that.

Sitting at the Ft. Lauderdale airport at some ridiculously stupid hour of the morning. Seamus is off getting coffee. We couldn't find the aloe we bought for our sunburns yesterday. We found it this morning. Rather...TSA found it this morning. In Jim's carry-on.

And of COURSE it's more than three ounces.

So, silly us, we laugh. They laugh. They invite Seamus over to the little booth. They test him, his shoes, his bag for explosives.

*sigh*

Anyway, he's off getting coffee.

So Raw was last night. I did manage to get my sign "I H8 CLOUDS" on the jumbotron when they introduced the MKG or whoever sang Cena's song at Wrestlemania but apparently none of ya'll saw it. Boo.

The crowd was electric, as well it should be. They did nearly blow the roof off when Rocky came out and I realized at that moment that I had actually NEVER seen the Rock live until the night before at Wrestlemania. I know many don't like him here, but regardless of what you think about his wrestling or how hackneyed his gimmick, he seriously has the crowd eating out of his hands with every word. He knows how to work a room.

Backing up, I think we missed the first dark match, but did get to see the filming of Superstars. I'd post spoilers but I don't actually remember. Usos got a nice pop. I was hoping to see Tyler Black/Seth Rollins but alas....

I'm sure most of you watched it, so I don't have to recap it, but I will say this (and I think I said it on OO). I have seen a wide variety of wrestling this weekend, from Dragon Gate to Wrestlemania, and for my friend Kerstin, this was her FIRST live wrestling experience. (The only thing missing was like PWO in the UAW hall-level.) One thing we realized is that pro wrestling is like no other entertainment event, in that the audience is TRULY part of the show. Our participation is key. Even rock concerts where singing along is encouraged, usually just the one song, and regardless of what the audience does, they tend to just go through their set list. Pro wrestling is different, and interaction with the crowd is both expected and I would argue necessary. We HAVE to cheer the faces and boo the heels.

But.

What works in one size venue is stupid and counterproductive in another.

Both Wrestlemania and Monday Night Raw were full of the indie-chants we heard at DG and ROH, and even though most of the time it was while the crowd was bored before the show started, they did it during the matches as well, as you may have heard. (I am particuarly sick of the whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooa.)

I also don't know how well it came across on television, but there was quite a few times where people would chant names of wrestlers who were not in the match, and would not even BE in the match. The most frequent one of these was Daniel Bryan, but there were others, and for that REALLY the WWE has only itself to blame, given the crappy way he was booked at Wrestlemania.

And "Yes" has become the new "What."

(CM Punk looked like he was trying not to laugh during his match when the crowd was "Yessing" his punches on Henry).

Also, and I know Cena isn't popular here either, but what SHOULD have been a good moment where Cena puts over Rock, was absolutely ruined by the crowd chanting for Brock Lesnar. There's two problems here. One obviously is "leaking" the signing, which ruins the surprise, but the other problem is fans not waiting for the pay off. We should be chanting 'ROCK-Y ROCK-Y ROCK-Y' even if we know Lesnar is coming. (Which I was kind of hoping he wasn't. And then I was hoping that Rock WOULD come out and Rock Bottom Lesnar.

But then I am not a Lesnar fan.

Other things...the crowd absolutely shit all over A-Train's new gimmick (name to be edited in later after I'm fully caffeinated and remember). It was a little frustrating, but that and Lesnar's return points to what I think is an adjustment in the way WWE has to deal with the Internet. Thanks to the Internet, everyone KNEW who A-Train was, and so they chanted "A-TRAIN" and "He's not A-sian *clap clap clap-clap clap*"

All of which is fine I guess at an indie show...and I guess fine here...I dunno, maybe I'm just cranky. It's early. We got to bed at around 1:30 and got up at 4:30.

Only other thing to add is that after Brock left, they did a post-match six-man tag team with Orton/Sheamus/Big Show v. Rhodes/Kane/Bryan, with Bryan getting the HUGEST pops and "yes-yes-yes." Bryan and Sheamus started it of. Sheamus asked Bryan if he wanted to give AJ a kiss for luck and they goofed off with that for a bit. Bryan decided not to, and then they started. Sheamus/Bryan got the bulk of the work during the match, and all six men were having fun with the chants. Big Show would get the crowd going with the 'yes yes yes.' Bryan tagged Rhodes in and then the crowd chanted for Bryan and he tagged him back in for a bit before continuing on. I think they were calling the match themselves with the ending in mind and 'go have fun' as their rule on how to get there.

Sheamus pinned Bryan. Of course

After that Sheamus and Orton meandered around the crowd slapping hands. The others may have too, but I didn't see them from where we were, and the camera was mostly on those two.

Then Daniel Bryan got his moment in the ring. He said last night (Wrestlemania) was probably the worst night ever in his wrestling career but all the chanting, etc. he really appreciated and gave us his thanks and said that we may have talked WWE into giving him a new T shirt

Okay...that's the energy I have right now for this. Hopefully I'll see you all in chat tonight.

Because I'm sleepy and PMSing and what not, and therefore sappy and emotional, I think the only thing that would have made this weekend better would have been having you all with us. So someone win the lottery so we can make that happen.

[Batman]

Man, I'm envious-- sounds like one hell of a weekend.

Regarding the crowd being annoying-- I sympathize, but it is what it is. I mean, I remember being pissed that the crowd turned on Rocky when he faced Brock at Summerslam all those years ago. It just seemed incoherent to turn Brock a face right at that moment.

But the truth is, even if I don't always *agree* with the crowd, I'm glad they don't always play sheep and go along with what the writers want. It makes Pro Wrestling unlike any other form of entertainment, like you said.

For example, it sounds as though they aren't going to be able to keep Daniel Bryan heel much longer, and I'm happy about that.

Thanks for sharing your awesome WM experience, Fire.

[Fire-Babe]

Apr 3, 2012 13:40:49 GMT -5 Batman said:

Man, I'm envious-- sounds like one hell of a weekend.

It was. And even my occasionally grumpy about such things like spending money husband said we could go again. Not for a few years though

Regarding the crowd being annoying-- I sympathize, but it is what it is. I mean, I remember being pissed that the crowd turned on Rocky when he faced Brock at Summerslam all those years ago. It just seemed incoherent to turn Brock a face right at that moment.

But the truth is, even if I don't always *agree* with the crowd, I'm glad they don't always play sheep and go along with what the writers want. It makes Pro Wrestling unlike any other form of entertainment, like you said.

Oh, I think I would agree with you there. I don't GET why some fans cheer some things (much like they would not get why I cheer some things) but what REALLY annoyed me with that is that supposedly Brock wasn't an option to cheer. It was a Cena/Rock moment (or was being played that way) so either WWE needs to stop with the "leaks" so that way those moments aren't ruined, or folks should play along a little.

Which...neither will happen

And I'm glad someone enjoyed these I seriously meant what I said earlier about the only thing missing from the whole weekend.

For example, it sounds as though they aren't going to be able to keep Daniel Bryan heel much longer, and I'm happy about that.

Thanks for sharing your awesome WM experience, Fire.[/quote]