A departure this week: instead of my normal column, I’d like to share some of my experiences in LA for WrestleMania 21 and Raw.
Buddha (the leader of the bWo) and I departed my home in Albuquerque Friday night, and arrived at our hotel in downtown LA around 11:00am Saturday. After a night on the town in Hollywood, we headed over to the Staples Center at around 10:30am to confirm the time the doors would open and to take a look around. The 10-minute walk was nothing in the beautiful LA morning sunshine. It was no doubt a good omen that Buddha’s surname is Staples, just like the arena.
We saw several WWE-faithful, all sporting t-shirts and hats from their favorite performers or events. Several carried replica championship belts. The best one I saw was a young man carrying the Million Dollar Championship belt – very nice. Everyone there was excited for the show to begin, and there was a real sense of community. We all walked right up to each other and began polite conversations. The entire window of the Staples Center gift shop displayed a Hall of Fame promo, in front of which we both got good photos.
Since we had about four hours before the doors opened, we headed across from the arena to a hotel for lunch. A young lady at the table next to us was on a cell phone talking about how her friend was one of Undertaker’s torch bearers for his Hollywood-like entrance. Ironically, that same young lady was one of two standing with Nunzio, Akio and others during the Luther Reigns/Big Show segment from SmackDown this past Thursday.
While we stood in line outside the arena, the Staples Center employees kept getting heel pops. They’d open a door for a brief moment, fooling us into thinking it was time to enter, and the crowd would cheer. Then they’d close the door again, and the crowd would boo. When some employees came outside to make an announcement about a change in seating configuration, “Anyone sitting in sections 216 and 217 needs to check with the box office”, the employees actually got the “what?” chant! This was going to be a raucous crowd…
It was very cool to head to our seats well before the event began. Checking out the sets, lighting rigs, and the ring itself helped to build the excitement. The crowd did the requisite “Whoooo!” calls as we got closer to the curtain rising on the Hollywood edition of WrestleMania.
The live show kicked off with the combined-roster battle royal, during which William Regal got a nice chant, and both Snitsky and Chris Masters botched their “slingshot-over-the-rope” elimination move. Having the Raw guys in Red t-shirts and the SmackDown guys in blue t-shirts was not only a nice touch, but it help us to differentiate between the two teams. Rosie’s Raw shirt was more like a bib. They hit a nice moment in the middle of the battle royal – everybody sided up with their own brand like two armies facing off. Booker T took home the victory for SmackDown.
As the show went on the air, the crowd went nuts for Austin’s trailer. Quite the pop for the Rattlesnake, indeed. He seemed oddly at home in the Gladiator get up.
The Eddie-Mysterio match was just the right amount of action and fun to get the crowd cranked up. Rey’s mask was bugging him, and I noticed the new design was scrapped by the Tuesday night TV taping. Very good opening to the show.
When JBL met HHH backstage, it came through in the arena that HHH is the bigger star (naturally), and when he punked out JBL and Flair hit the “Whoooo!” on OJ, the crowd popped in support of the Raw guys.
The Money in the Bank Ladder Match was flat out awesome. Buddha and I couldn’t help but marvel at some of the incredible moves, especially the stuff Benjamin pulled out of his hat. My comment was, “Tonight is Shelton’s coming out party!” I was 2 for 2 with my predictions at that point, but my perfect streak was about to end.
I felt there was no logical reason for Eugene to suddenly show up and get mic time at the biggest event of the year, but I’ll let that one slide. The crowd started chanting for the Orange Goblin (as Scott Keith would call him) as soon as Hassan and Daivari interrupted the kid. Trust me when I tell you – the ROOF blew off the Staples Center when Hogan appeared! Whether you like Hogan or you don’t (and I don’t), you had to see that the live WrestleMania crowd was filled with Hulkamaniacs. After he took out the trash, the crowd stayed hot for no less than 10 full minutes of Hogan’s posing. Even when he finally left, the crowd was all twitter-pated. It was a special moment to be a part of.
I’m a Randy Orton mark, and I hoped against hope that he could be the one to end the streak. Of course that was not to be, but the match was fun and exciting. I liked how ‘Taker pulled a Phantom of the Opera and floated to the ring. That looked really cool. This match had some convincing near-falls, not the usual “I know that’s not the finish” spots. Randy’s reversal of a chokeslam into the RKO was sweet, and I started marking out, hoping for the big win. Also, Cowboy Bob actually sporting the cast and using it as a weapon was ingenious, and very funny. I was disappointed in the ending as an insider because I was hoping they were truly going to “make” Orton that night, but I enjoyed the match as a fan.
Everything was moving nicely at that point. The crowd was hot, and seemed happy to see lucky number 13 for ‘Taker. So Vince decided to cool us down by throwing out the waste-of-time Women’s Championship match next. Buddha and I were predicting either a heel turn by Lita or Christy, or the return of V1, or both. Instead, we got a nothing match during which everyone went out for nachos. Trish is a great women’s wrestler, but just how was she expected to carry a neon-green rookie with limited skills to anything watchable? What a shame that Jazz, Gail Kim and even Nidia are out of the big leagues, and Victoria and Molly are ON THE RAW ROSTER, yet we got Trish vs. the former Juggie Girl.
Fortunately, the next match was the only match on the card that had a shot at reviving the crowd, and they did that in spades. Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels put on a clinic, and provided us a match-of-the-year candidate. Neither Buddha nor myself had a clue how Vince would book this one, so it was very exciting when they got down to the nitty-gritty. Multiple near-finishes, reversals, and changes in momentum made this the crowd-pleaser of the night. The clean submission victory for Angle was well received in the arena. Kurt got face heat at times, and Shawn got real heel heat when he hit the low blow on Angle.
I was just a bit surprised that with all the heel build-up for this match (Marty Jannetty and Sherri Martel getting beat up, et cetera), that Shawn didn’t get the blow-off victory, but HBK explained that the next night on Raw. I was hopeful that making HBK tap in the middle of the ring might make an immediate impact for Kurt. However, it didn’t seem that way on the first SmackDown following Mania when he was just one of six guys vying for the first shot at John Cena’s new bling bling. His line about being arrested for stealing the show was great, though!
Based on Austin’s pop when he appeared on the Tron at the top of the show, we just knew the Piper’s Pit segment would be hot. Piper made me laugh by controlling the crowd’s idiotic “what?” chants. When will that damn thing die already? I didn’t guess Carlito would be the one to eat the first Stunner anyone’s seen in a while, but he did well in that position. I liked his involvement, in fact. Piper held his own with the Rattlesnake, and I was almost surprised to see him eat a stunner as well. I guess that’s Austin though, right? The crowd was just under Hogan-esque for Austin, and the roof blew off the arena for the second time of the night with this segment. Regardless of his criminal record or his “taking-my-ball-and-going-home” attitude, this crowd was red hot for Stunning Steve, and welcomed him back with gusto.
Just as the Trish-Christy match did earlier, the next segment forced us right back down to Earth, after floating on air from Piper’s Pit. I can’t understand what the Hell Vince was doing here! First of all, it took the ring crew some time to convert the mat into a sumo ring, completely removing the ropes, turnbuckles, mat and ring apron. This left a different mat below the top one and the four corner posts. Next, then affixed the colored cloths to each post, as we watched in wonder. I’m sure the ppv audience got to enjoy a nice video montage or something, but the live crowd was dying a slow death here. I never knew what this match was supposed to accomplish anyway. Three times it appeared they were about to begin, and then they didn’t. I guess this was authentic or something, but I don’t know sumo, so WWE needed to educate me first. Then, the match itself was slow and clumsy, and it ended rather abruptly. It certainly wasn’t as entertaining as I thought it might be, especially considering the way Akebono manhandled the jobber on SmackDown three days before Mania. More nachos? Sounds good to me…
JBL and Cena didn’t have a chance of reviving the crowd this time. Their match was acceptable, and in fact fine, but there was no way those two could do what Angle and Michaels did earlier. Their match was fine, and I was surprised to see Cena win, knowing that Big Dave was taking home the Big Gold Belt later in the evening. I fully expected JBL to raise a shoulder before the 3 count after taking the FU, so that was a mild shock. Still, those two are NOT the workers to perform CPR on the deceased crown following the sumo nightmare. HHH was in absolutely no jeopardy of being upstaged by that match. As great as Cena is at promos and connecting to the people, I think he needs to start stepping it up a notch between the ropes. The crowd popped for his win, and I’m glad to see Vince putting faith in the young crew this year. Hopefully Cena can deliver.
The Hall of Fame thing was nicely done, and it was certainly a cool nostalgic moment to see some older faces. Orndorff was really showing his age! I guess Jimmy Hart continues to ride Hogan’s coattails – can’t see him in the Hall. Bobby Heenan deserved it last year. I don’t place Hart in Heenan’s league, but oh well. Kudos to Cowboy Bob, as noted by Buddha, because he was still selling a neck injury from his involvement in his son’s match earlier on the card. Now THAT’S a professional wrestler!
Batista plowed through all of HHH’s tricks, interference from Ric Flair, and an awe-inspiring live Motorhead performance to drill the champ with the Demon Bomb and take home the gold. Very well executed, considering neither of these men is a technical marvel at this point. Exciting and captivating, with a clean finish. It was all you could ask for from the main event of a supercard. HHH’s Mysterio-like entrance (although slower, of course) from under Motorhead’s stage was a great visual, and it made him seem like a big deal as champion. Which of course made Batista seem that much more impressive in defeating him.
Overall, it was a wonderful experience, and I’d gladly pay to see another Mania. We had a lot of fun just being there live, and it was also a very good event. I can’t wait to see the ppv and experience WrestleMania 21 from the other side.
Raw the next night was also tons of fun. When we saw on the Tron that they scheduled a Trish-Christy rematch, we both assumed that NOW we would see either the heel turn or the return of Matt Hardy. I even wore my V1 t-shirt in hopes of an appearance by the Sensei of Mattitude! No such luck, however…
HHH coming out first was a bit of a letdown – I think most of the crowd assumed Big Dave would come out in a $5,000 suit and sunglasses, with the gold over his shoulder. Oh well.
Seeing 3 of the 6 competitors from Money in the Bank go at it again was awesome. Vitamin C are still both favs of mine, but dammit, Mt. Benjamin is really coming into his own. It’s time for the bookers to capitalize on his athleticism and charisma – get him into a prolonged feud with somebody. That shouldn’t be difficult to come up with, should it? The man is the Intercontinental Champion, for Pete’s sake! Somebody talented needs to challenge him. Perhaps after the draft lottery…
HBK did a very good job of selling the ankle from Kurt’s submission finish from WM 21, at least until he got physical with Daivari and Hassan. By the way, Hassan has been doing a whale of a job on the mic in my opinion. He got good heel heat both nights, and anybody who interrupts him or rescues his victim is guaranteed a huge face pop. In fact, that would be a very good way to elevate a mid-card face like Hurricane, Val Venis, or even Dancin’ Stevie Richards. The crowd popped huge when it became obvious that we will someday witness Angle-Michaels II. I for one can’t wait; they tore it up at Mania.
Two more Money in the Bank competitors squared off next, as Benoit took on Edge. This was a very good match, with Benoit doing a masterful job selling the injury, and eventually scoring the pinfall victory. The crowd loved Benoit here. Hopefully they’ll build Edge up better than this before he capitalizes on his title opportunity.
The Maven-Dean-Austin segment worked VERY well live. Austin got another monster pop, of course. Nova was funny and clever here, “Do you happen to have a glass? Let me just work off a few of these calories…”
I was completely disheartened with how easily Batista defeated Randy Orton in the show’s main event. It makes no sense to me to job RKO so definitively after the valiant struggle he mounted against Undertaker the previous night. I guess he’s on the outs with the Clan McMahon or something. I agree with making Batista look like the invincible champion until he gives the belt back to it’s owner, HHH. However, I question the wisdom of squashing Orton in the process. It was nice to see Big Dave standing on the middle ropes with the big gold belt held aloft for all to see. Great ending visual for the show.
Overall Buddha and I had a blast in “his” arena on back-to-back nights. It was a fantastic experience, and now that I’ve been to 2 of the Big 4 WWE pay-per-views, I’m anxious to hit The Royal Rumble and Survivor Series at some point. WWE proved that they still have the ability to build exciting storylines and deliver punchlines via strong matches. However, they also demonstrated shortsightedness and lazy booking on some of the matches on the biggest show of the year as well. Here’s to hoping they stick to plan A in the future.
Next week I’ll return to my standard format.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
p.s. – Why is the last “S” silent in Arkansas, but not in Kansas?
