NYC!
Susan was a HUGE Ric Flair fan back in the 80s (she's from Flair Country) and was excited that we were getting to see him.
We got to our seats by manuevering through the ridiculously crowded halls at MSG. Everyone was in good spirits and excited and there were Wooo's aplenty! The bad part if that they confiscated everyone's signs! There were hundreds of them in a dumpster. We later figured out that adozens were allowed in, so it wasn't editing for content but rather for space. MSG isn't really all that big and too many signs would make it hard to see and look bad on TV.
We got to our seats just as the opening dark match started; Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore v. Deuce and Domino. We were still getting settled by the time it was over. Jimmy Wang Yang is our boy! We sat in between a pair of HUGE dudes, Lara spent most of the night cuddled close to me because she was being forced from her seat. ;-) The Randy Orton fans next to us were, thankfully, good-natured guys as opposed to the jerks we sat near at RAW. We chatted with them through the night about things ranging from Wrestlemania to Ronnie Garvin. Before the show, the arena was filled with a chorus of "Let's go Giants!" We'll see :-)
The show got under way and the air was filled with smoke from the pyro. The first match was MVP and Ric Flair. I thought Flair might get heat seeing as MVP is the type of smug character that New York fans tend to like. Boy, was I wrong; this is Ric Flair we're talking about! He got a huge reaction and delivered a "farewell to MSG" speech, mentioning that his first match at MSG was in 1976 "...before most of you were born".
When he put on the figure four, he got as big a pop as you can hear!
The next up was Jericho v. JBL. Lara and I weren't all that into the match because we could care less about JBL. JBL pounded Jericho viciously, connecting hard with many of his kicks and even busting Y2J open. Jericho lost by DQ when he attacked JBL with a steel chair, but the post-match beating Y2J gave him (including choking JBL with a cable) made Lara and me agree that these two will probably have a strap match at WrestleMania.
Then, the music for Lara's created vampire wrestler hit, but for some reason Ashley came out :-) A funny but pointless skit where Ashley asked Maria about posing for Playboy. Maria asked the fans if she should do it. Lara informed me that I was not allowed to agree :-) I don't like to say it, but Santino Marella is funny.
World heavyweight Champion Edge was up next against Rey Misterio. Although he is the sneaky, cheating, lying bad guy, Edge got a huge pop and was cheered all through the match while preeminent good guy Rey was booed. I guess that's NY for ya!
The last singles match was for the WWE Championship and the one we had been waiting for. Lara's favorite, Jeff Hardy, challenged Randy Orton for the title. Jeff hit a lot of really cool moves, including Whisper in the Wind. But, the match was kind of disappointing and Orton won with a boring RKO. Meh. We were upset, and it turns out many people were too. Ater all, with John Cena out of action until after Wrestlemania, this meant the Rumble could only be won by Triple H or Batista, both pretty boring prospects in that it was so predictable.
Then, it was Royal Rumble time!
We knew 25 of the 30 entries, so 5 of them were to be surprises. Lara was hoping for her hero Roddy Piper to show up, but i told her she shouldn't get her hopes up. Piper retired many years ago and showed up on TV once every few years, but hadn't actually wrestled in many years since his recovery from cancer.
It started out with HBK and the Undertaker, two entrances that I know Lara was looking forward to :-) The match was great, and there were lots of memorable moments. Tommy Dreamer got a huge response from the MSG crowd and chants of "ECW" went throughout the building. When Batista threw Tommy out, the crowd turned on him. Great Khali came out, and the whole place filled with the chant of "You can't wrestle!". I bet they wouldn't say it to his face! (considering he's over 7 feet tall, it would be pretty hard!) Mick Foley was there as well, which was a rare treat as he wrestles maybe once a year now and is one of our favorites.
Then, Superfly Jimmy Snuka came out to a huge cheer! Lara got an intrigued look on her face; after all, Snuka was Roddy Piper's biggest rival! The next entrant's music played, and wouldn't you know it was bagpipes announcing "Rodwy" Roddy Piper! Lara lost her mind. She had been upset because she thought she'd never see him wrestle live, but here he was! He was only there for a minute, but it was enough to totally make the trip and the cost worth it for her :-)
The other surprises were Chavo Guerrero and Elijah Burke. not awesome surprises, but there. We anxiously awaited who number 30 would be. Was it Big Show? Maybe even Hulk Hogan? NO ONE was expecting that it would be John Cena! Even the Cena-haters forgot to boo him in the excitement of his arrival. The match quickly came down to Cena, Triple H and Batista. Lara was somewhat pulling for Batista, as his winning might mean Jeff would get another shot. But, Batista was eliminated and we both pulled for Cena! After a seesaw fight, Cena tossed Triple H out and won. We were ecstatic! The place exploded, and even though Cena got a lot of heat from the crowd, it was without a doubt the best Royal Rumble Ive ever seen, and the only one in person!
As we left MSG, we danced around and I had my John Cena ringtone playing. A group of fans from NY heckled, but when we told them we were from Boston, they understood :-) they weren't looking forward to their gloating Philly friends. All in all, we had a godo time and some great memories.
We got to our seats by manuevering through the ridiculously crowded halls at MSG. Everyone was in good spirits and excited and there were Wooo's aplenty! The bad part if that they confiscated everyone's signs! There were hundreds of them in a dumpster. We later figured out that adozens were allowed in, so it wasn't editing for content but rather for space. MSG isn't really all that big and too many signs would make it hard to see and look bad on TV.
We got to our seats just as the opening dark match started; Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore v. Deuce and Domino. We were still getting settled by the time it was over. Jimmy Wang Yang is our boy! We sat in between a pair of HUGE dudes, Lara spent most of the night cuddled close to me because she was being forced from her seat. ;-) The Randy Orton fans next to us were, thankfully, good-natured guys as opposed to the jerks we sat near at RAW. We chatted with them through the night about things ranging from Wrestlemania to Ronnie Garvin. Before the show, the arena was filled with a chorus of "Let's go Giants!" We'll see :-)
The show got under way and the air was filled with smoke from the pyro. The first match was MVP and Ric Flair. I thought Flair might get heat seeing as MVP is the type of smug character that New York fans tend to like. Boy, was I wrong; this is Ric Flair we're talking about! He got a huge reaction and delivered a "farewell to MSG" speech, mentioning that his first match at MSG was in 1976 "...before most of you were born".
When he put on the figure four, he got as big a pop as you can hear!
The next up was Jericho v. JBL. Lara and I weren't all that into the match because we could care less about JBL. JBL pounded Jericho viciously, connecting hard with many of his kicks and even busting Y2J open. Jericho lost by DQ when he attacked JBL with a steel chair, but the post-match beating Y2J gave him (including choking JBL with a cable) made Lara and me agree that these two will probably have a strap match at WrestleMania.
Then, the music for Lara's created vampire wrestler hit, but for some reason Ashley came out :-) A funny but pointless skit where Ashley asked Maria about posing for Playboy. Maria asked the fans if she should do it. Lara informed me that I was not allowed to agree :-) I don't like to say it, but Santino Marella is funny.
World heavyweight Champion Edge was up next against Rey Misterio. Although he is the sneaky, cheating, lying bad guy, Edge got a huge pop and was cheered all through the match while preeminent good guy Rey was booed. I guess that's NY for ya!
The last singles match was for the WWE Championship and the one we had been waiting for. Lara's favorite, Jeff Hardy, challenged Randy Orton for the title. Jeff hit a lot of really cool moves, including Whisper in the Wind. But, the match was kind of disappointing and Orton won with a boring RKO. Meh. We were upset, and it turns out many people were too. Ater all, with John Cena out of action until after Wrestlemania, this meant the Rumble could only be won by Triple H or Batista, both pretty boring prospects in that it was so predictable.
Then, it was Royal Rumble time!
We knew 25 of the 30 entries, so 5 of them were to be surprises. Lara was hoping for her hero Roddy Piper to show up, but i told her she shouldn't get her hopes up. Piper retired many years ago and showed up on TV once every few years, but hadn't actually wrestled in many years since his recovery from cancer.
It started out with HBK and the Undertaker, two entrances that I know Lara was looking forward to :-) The match was great, and there were lots of memorable moments. Tommy Dreamer got a huge response from the MSG crowd and chants of "ECW" went throughout the building. When Batista threw Tommy out, the crowd turned on him. Great Khali came out, and the whole place filled with the chant of "You can't wrestle!". I bet they wouldn't say it to his face! (considering he's over 7 feet tall, it would be pretty hard!) Mick Foley was there as well, which was a rare treat as he wrestles maybe once a year now and is one of our favorites.
Then, Superfly Jimmy Snuka came out to a huge cheer! Lara got an intrigued look on her face; after all, Snuka was Roddy Piper's biggest rival! The next entrant's music played, and wouldn't you know it was bagpipes announcing "Rodwy" Roddy Piper! Lara lost her mind. She had been upset because she thought she'd never see him wrestle live, but here he was! He was only there for a minute, but it was enough to totally make the trip and the cost worth it for her :-)
The other surprises were Chavo Guerrero and Elijah Burke. not awesome surprises, but there. We anxiously awaited who number 30 would be. Was it Big Show? Maybe even Hulk Hogan? NO ONE was expecting that it would be John Cena! Even the Cena-haters forgot to boo him in the excitement of his arrival. The match quickly came down to Cena, Triple H and Batista. Lara was somewhat pulling for Batista, as his winning might mean Jeff would get another shot. But, Batista was eliminated and we both pulled for Cena! After a seesaw fight, Cena tossed Triple H out and won. We were ecstatic! The place exploded, and even though Cena got a lot of heat from the crowd, it was without a doubt the best Royal Rumble Ive ever seen, and the only one in person!
As we left MSG, we danced around and I had my John Cena ringtone playing. A group of fans from NY heckled, but when we told them we were from Boston, they understood :-) they weren't looking forward to their gloating Philly friends. All in all, we had a godo time and some great memories.