Cutie Mickie and I.
What a difference two weeks makes! I’m currently back from a semi-vacation in New York City and New Jersey, and I feel like I’m catching up to just catch up. I was able to incorporate pro wrestling during my semi-vacation, which I wasn’t expecting to on such a grand level. After being completely unsure if it was going to happen, I bought two tickets to WWE RAW at Madison Square Garden.
I purchased the tickets for three reasons:
1. Trish Stratus’ last match on RAW against Mickie James. My two favorite female wrestlers of all time, in one of my favorite storylines of all time, making history, how could I not be there?
2. Lilian Garcia singing a Patriotic song on September 11th in NYC. I’ve always enjoyed her work, and I knew what this would mean to her and the entire area for her to be there and perform.
3. I needed to enjoy my night and yet still remember and honor what happened, and being anywhere but the Garden while WWE was in town, I couldn’t comprehend the logic in that.
One hundred and thirty six dollars later, I had a great time being in a place considered holy by wrestling fans and talent. Cameras can’t capture how loud the atmosphere really is, the various chants, and accurately the passion and history of the Garden fans and the WWE.
ECW wasn’t as well received as maybe the WWE would have wished. NY fans understand this isn’t the ECW of old. The ECW alumni however still received good reactions, especially Sabu and RVD.
Lilian Garcia will always be over at MSG when she sings. Well done by Lilian and the WWE. She was definitely “on” and this could easily be put in her press kit when she releases her new album.
Though it was nice to see Ric Flair walk into the Garden, it is truly sad the only thing WWE has for him after working a good program with Mick Foley, is to job to Umaga. Why not give him a Garden classic match? Who knows if he will make another MSG appearance before he retires. Also, it never fails how Kane’s pyro always surprises you, no matter how much you expect him to come out.
We were treated to having Roddy Piper making a surprise appearance with The Highlanders, getting a hot reaction from the crowd, making it a nice highlight to everyone’s evenings. No matter what, Piper can still work a crowd and was the only reason anyone paid any attention to The Highlanders or the Spirit Squad. No one was chanting “Johnny!” or “Robby!” — it was all “Piper” even if he wasn’t in the match. If WWE was willing to invest, making Piper their permanent manager would be a good move if WWE wants the fans to care about the tag team division.
Edge and Lita’s promo worked for me because it’s been a while since anyone’s poked fun at Cena’s “word life” rap lifestyle. He’s no Christian when it comes to being funny, but he still commands a presence he didn’t have going for him a year ago.
The actual six-man tag itself was electric with Randy Orton, Edge and Johnny Nitro versus Jeff Hardy, Carlito and John Cena. The most over and hated at the same time guy of the night was John Cena. Cameras truly can’t pick up and appreciate how much Cena is hated and then loved by the women and kids. You really just have to be in a place like MSG to really hear how Cena gets a loud, differing reaction. I’m not Cena’s biggest fan but I don’t know if I’ve ever “first hand” heard someone get such a loud ‘Let’s Go Cena’ and ‘Cena Sucks’ chant at the same time. Carlito also got a good chant at times and I think WWE is doing a wise decision to invest in him as a tweener/face. The action was good and even when Cena wasn’t in the ring, fans just wanted to chant at/about him.
The Vince/Shane skits worked for History’s sake and the Stephanie/Triple H nudge-nudge hint got applause from the crowd to work that in, but it was all very disappointing how it ended up. More on that later.
My personal main event was Trish Stratus versus Mickie James. I’ve read a review saying how disappointed they were in MSG’s reaction but they were mistaken. It got a good reaction from start to finish. Great action and effort by the ladies, and at the end, the shaking the hand and hug, ‘breaking kayfabe,’ as well as Trish’s thank you speech, got a great reaction in MSG. There were “thank you Trish” and “please don’t go” chants all around, as well as a standing ovation. A great and classy moment I’m glad I didn’t miss.
The actual main event was a let down and you could feel in the air. What was ultimately history by having Vince McMahon main event the Garden, felt cheapened with the pre-attack by Cade and Murdoch. I understand McMahon had to get one over DX before the PPV, but it didn’t take away the disappointment for a lack of a fair or decent ending for the night. If they wanted the attack, it would have been more beneficial to do it during the match instead of before.
The Whole F’ing Show and I: thank you for being good to your fans.
My fun night at the Garden wasn’t my only experience with professional wresting on my trip. On Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting Rob Van Dam in Little Ferry, NJ at MVP Collectibles. The turn out was smaller than I would have imagined but I assume it was because of the location. However, we all got a good amount of time with him and he was a class act all the way. Thank you RVD for your message to my sister and for being one of the best moments of my vacation.
Finally, the day after RAW I got to meet my hero, but it wasn’t without folly. I stayed in NJ with a friend during my trip, which is a pain when you are depending on the NJ Transit to get to the City. That was fine since I left very early just in case I’d end up getting lost. Everyone was telling me how tricky it was to take public transportation up to Whitehead, NY where the Mickie James signing was. Three people who worked for the New York Metro Trains gave me three different directions so I went with one and ended up in Bronx. Getting extremely frustrated I was going to miss it, I bailed a bus and the bus directions to get to that area, and called the only taxi I had on my phone. Luckily, he got there and $50 later and 30 minutes before I ended, I made it. I’m sure I was stressed out looking when I got there and I was hoping it wasn’t going to totally translate into being stressed out when I got up to talk to her. The signing guys were impressed to the lengths I had come for the signing. Mickie was a sweetheart and just as gorgeous in person as she is on TV. I almost didn’t know what to talk about and she talked about how she used to wrestle in NC and asked if Bambi was my real name. She thought it was cute, which definitely made me more at ease. I told her how MSG was crazy and her response was, “wasn’t it wicked?” She also said that was her first time wrestling the Garden, and then we posed for our cute photo shown above. Thank you Mickie for being a darling, it was a pleasure to meet you and next time it won’t be under such stressful transit nightmare circumstances on my part.
I came back to North Carolina yesterday, just in time for Unforgiven. I could talk about the whole PPV, but the reason ultimately why I got it was for Trish Stratus’ last match with Lita at Unforgiven. I thought they did a good job with it, considering how limited Lita is in the ring anymore, it looked like she gave more of a effort with this match. Trish had an incredible white outfit on, great energy and so did the hometown crowd for her. I never would have guessed the finish would be the sharpshooter but the crowd got up and gave her a outpouring of respect for it. I couldn’t think of a better way to end her career if this is truly it. Thank you Trish for everything, you got a standing ovation somewhere in North Carolina as well for your last match.
Always remember, for things to change, you have to make movement. Thanks for reading and for all the feedback, feel free to contact me anytime at Bam@4sternstaging.com.
