The WWE House Show Notes

The WWE House Show Notes

The Monday Night Raw roster had a house show in Chattanooga last night. It was my first live wrasslin' event in a while. Probably since my buddy Barry's show last year, at the National Guard Armory.

A few notes:

• The Evil Hippy and I met my brother-in-law down at the McKenzie Arena about a half hour before bell time. He assured us before hand that the crowd would be small, especially with gas prices being what they are. He was right, as the 9,000 seat (or so) arena was maybe a little more than 1/3 full.
  
• Despite the small crowd, it was loud in the arena. Good acoustics, I guess. I'd imagine if you could fill the place, whether it be for wrestling or for basketball (it's where UTC plays their games), it's gotta be hopping place if you can fill it.
• Still, with the crowd so spare, it gave the three of us the opportunity to spread out. They don't make seats for three 6'3"+ guys to sit side by side.
• Howard Finkel was our ring announcer. That's a treat anytime The Fink shows up. If I were to win the lottery, one of the things I do is get The Fink to come to my house and announce, every now and then, "Here is your winner....And NEW Heavyweight Champion of the World....."
• Early on it was announced that Ric Flair wouldn't be performing, as advertised. That was disappointing. Refunds were offered for those who wanted one.
• The show opened with Eugene and Rob Conway. Typically, I'll root for the heel at a live show, and I put my support behind Conway, who we decided was this generation's Buff Bagwell.
• Also, say what you will about Eugene and his retard gimmick, the guys sells every bit of it, and the crowd at the show Ate It Up. It may not be as over everywhere, but the crowd just loved it last night.
• Probably the best match of the night, for me, was the Tajiri/Chris Cage contest. Kinda think Tajiri really popped Chris Cage with a crescent kick, on accident. Good 10 minute match from a couple of cruiserweights.
• The future is the past in the WWE, apparently. Real World Alumnus Mike "the Miz" Mizanin wrestled last night, against some dude who called himself the Stinkin' Freakin' Deacon, or something like that. The Deacon's gimmick was a cross between the Bezerker's and Brooklyn Brawler's, and he headbutts the turnbuckle 19 times, and licks the top ring rope. That's what he does. We joked "we just saw a preview of the main event for Wrestlemania 24 right there...."
• I've never been more bored with a match than I was with the Tag Team title match. The WWE let their only good tag team go when they let the Dudleys go. Why even have Tag Belts if you're not going to do anything interesting with them?
• Gyp? 2.75 for about 7 ounces of soda. I think, ounce for ounce, that may be one of the worst prices I've ever paid for a non alcoholic drink.
• Carlito ripped on Chattanooga, and especially on UTC, for changing from Moccasins to Mockingbirds, to keep from offending Indians. "How many Indians are there," he asked, "like five?"
• Chris Masters is an ever bigger waste of time in person. Dude's not only boring and uncharismatic, he's dangerous in the ring. There were a couple of cringe-worthy spots in his match with Shawn Michaels. If I were Michaels, I'd have thought long and hard about working a program with Masters. Somebody on a message board said it much better than I could have, when they said that Bret Hart in his Shawn Michaels Hatingest days was less of a danger to Shawn Michaels than Chris Masters is on a day-to-day basis.
• You should have heard the crowd pop when Michaels hit the ring. He was arguably the company's biggest heel leading up to the PPV a couple weeks ago. Dayum.
• Trish Stratus wrestled. That was cool. She tagged with the diva search winner Ashley in a match against Victoria and Candace Michelle. Ashley is already twice the wrestler than most of the women on the roster.
• You know, I thought the crowd popped when Shawn Michaels came out. I hadn't heard anything until John Cena's music hit.
• He wrestled Kurt Angle. This was probably the most fun of the night, if only because Bill, Jeff and I were cheering Angle on, much to the horror and consternation of the three small boys in front of us. Angle had Cena in the Ankle-Lock submission, and I was yelling for Cena to tap out. The small boy in front of me leveled me with a look more hate filled than just about any I've ever taken in my life.
• He and his family left midway through the Cena/Angle match, and we couldn't figure out if we as a group had just pissed them off, or if they'd decided the match was over after a near-three count by Cena, and they were trying to beat traffic.

All in all, a good show. Had a good time. It's a stress reliever to go someplace and yell for a while. I was telling Bill that it's been a while since I've been able to do that.

I remember the weekly NWA-TNA shows back when we lived out near Nashville. Wednesdays were a favorite day of the week, back then, if only so that I could go relieve stress by hollering at the top of my lungs for a couple of hours.