Living in New Hampshire you get a few opportunities per year
to take in a live WWE show. This year Smackdown came to Verizon Wireless Arena
in Machester, NH. This is a quick fifteen minute drive for us at Recreate
Wrestling. Let me tell you we had a blast.
The night started off well. When each of us got out of work
we headed to Manchester . When we arrived we stopped in Jillian’s, near where we parked,
to grab a quick beer before the show. While we were there I had to use the
restroom. What you have to love about wrestling fans is we just don’t care. As
I stood at the urinal the gentleman next to me just starts talking about the
show. We talked about how the crowds have been in Manchester over the years.
What I found was we both attended Backlash 05 a pay per view where Hulk Hogan
wrestled in a tag team with Shawn Michaels. The crowd that night was absolutely
on fire and we both agreed. The conversation quickly changed when I noticed the
shirt he was wearing. Now, me, I had the Daniel Bryan YES! YES! YES! Shirt my
girlfriend had ordered me weeks ago. The man was wearing a Z-Man shirt. Yes
Z-Man Tom Zenk a guy who had a pretty serious WCW run before the promotion
really exploded in the 90s. I had to say
how cool it was to see that shirt. You don’t get more random than that. To be
honest I believe my brother even had a Z-Man action figure.
When we got into the arena I have to say it just feels like
home being around wrestling. After a quick argument with other fans about which
seat was belonged to who, NXT started. A guy next to us had dropped a few f
bombs and a dad in front of us asked him to stop because he had his son with
him. The man apologized for using such foul kind of language. As a wrestling
fan for twenty plus years it’s so easy to see how much the product has truly
changed. In the 90s vulgar language was just expected. In the PG era fans just
shouldn’t be swearing in the audience with children around. I do remember a
moment at a house show in 2007 where I believe the match was between Matt Hardy
and MVP. There was a man in the audience extremely intoxicated swearing and
yelling. We were far enough away where the wrestlers would never hear it.
Either way the man was taking shots at Matt Hardy. I didn’t really care too
much but a father with his 9 year old son wasn’t too pleased and asked the man
to stop. Well being drunk the man didn’t. The next time he swore the 9 year old
stood up and told the man he was going to kick his ass. Talk about a shocking moment!
We all actually applauded the kid. But again look how the product has changed.
The show as a whole was a pretty average Smackdown episode ;
nothing too crazy. I have to admit it would be nice to get some of the chants
we had going. Here’s a few examples:
During a match with Michael Mcgillicutty we started
to chant: “ Joe Henning.” Too many of
the younger audience have no clue what we were talking about. In all honesty
would WWE please to let him wrestle under that name?
When Damien Sandow was in the ring we started chanting “Rick
Martel. “ I mean seriously Sandow pink?
When Cena came out we started chanting “Rocky SUX! “
Also, Cena’s dad was in the audience. Now a little side
story: my buddy got married back in
September and the justice of the peace was the older John Cena. I have to say…
what a great guy. Extremely nice; even brought a replica title for everyone to
take picture with. Our section and another desperately tried to get “CENA’S DAD”
chant, just couldn’t get it going. I feel like chants as a whole in wrestling
just aren’t as good anymore. I remember going to an ECW event in 2000 and you
could get any kind of chant going. It stinks those days have come and gone.
When we were exiting the show I had a chance to see a bunch
of wacky wrestling shirts. There was a fan with “I love the Warrior” shirt as well
as a Barry Horowitz tee shirt. The best thing about going to a wrestling show
is the other fans. We live in a world where your average wrestling fan is
blackballed by everyone else because they just don’t get it. They don’t
understand what makes us love this form of entertainment so much. When a
wrestling fan meets another there is the automatic bond that can’t be broken.
Where can we see a guy wearing a Barry Horowitz shirt and someone actually know
what he is referring to.
RE-CRE-ATE
Dan Venus
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