2009 Running Pro Wrestling Thread

The best part of it was the wrestlers seemed to be far less caring as well. They weren't afraid to pie-face you (like what happened to me from Bubba Ray Dudley) or to spit on you (Bubba Ray again).

One of my best memories was seeing the Sandman climb the ringside railing, with the fans holding him up and then pop his beer open at the crescendo of Enter Sandman, chug a beer, pop another one and then wait for another chorus to pour the beer into a spectator's mouth. I saw him ask once if the kid was 21. Funny stuff.

 

Wait, wait. You have a personal experience of actually getting into it with Bubba Ray? This you need to tell. I've seen the clips of the Sandman's antics of climbing up in the seats with fans, pounding his beer and smashing it on his head while fans screamed.

 

I have three separate incidents with Mr. Bubba Ray Dudley.

On one occasion I remember seeing a sign from Sign Guy Dudley that said "Bubba Ray = King Heel"

When the boys came to Tampa, I made a sign that said "Bubba Ray = Shit Heel." I was seated second row right by the entrance.

Sign Guy saw it, he yelled at me "You idiot he's the King Heel." Gertner walked by and kinda looked at it with a look of "you're so going to get it".

D-Von walked by and didn't acknowledge it but Bubba Ray sure as shit saw it. He comes over with this title belt strapped round his shoulder, takes my sign, rolls it up and proceeds to beat me, my brother and my friend Chuck on top of our heads with it.

Next night in Kissimmee, I have front row seats, smaller signs this time though. I had a sign that read Bubba Ray's Still a Shit Heel. He see's it and smacks me upside the head with it (I have this one on Fan-Cam).

Next time they come, I have front-row seats in Tampa. I am admittedly under the influence of something not alcohol, but I decided to bring a sign that read "Bubba Ray Hides Behind Atlas Security"

Atlas Security being the hired thugs to control the crowd in case you got froggy and decided to jump the railing.

Well, I wasn't holding the sign but you know who knew who came up with it. He comes over before his match and spits right in my face and then pie-faces me. My glasses go three rows back. He spit in my brother's face, my friend Chuck's face, my friend Dave's face and my friend Shawn's face. My friend Chuck spat back in his face and I thought my brother was legit going to jump the rail and wail on Bubba Ray. At this point I was a bit shaken up, I never expected that kind of reaction just to get me kicked out and attain their Hall of Fame heel status.

Needless to say we continued to drink well into the event and then Taz was fighting Tajiri. We got a treat of Taz landing in our laps and his subsequent "Move, brother!" right before Tajiri Moonsaulted over the railing from the middle rope and into Taz bringing out a righteous chant of "EC-DUB! EC-DUB! EC-DUB!"

Great memories!

That was my last interaction with Senor Bubba Ray, although he has seen me at a few WWF/WWE shows ringside and has thusly ignored me.

 

That is absolutely spectacular. Scary situation, though. I've never had a personal interaction with any wrestlers, but today's house shows are much more controlled.

 

That was part of the charm of ECW. One guy there was telling me to "sue" ECW for that. I was like dude, it's all a part of sitting ringside. You expect to get berated etc. especially if you heckle the wrestlers.

 

Especially in ECW. Today, if you sit front row, you might get heckled by some wrestlers, you'll get some high-fives or something of the sort. In ECW, no one was safe, wrestlers fought through the crowd and everything. It was the ultimate fan experience.

 

And they also used stuff the fans handed them. Although this was much more prevalent in early ECW when fans were expected to bring weapons with them to the arena.

I'll never forget the keyboard that New Jack used. A fan brought it to the venue in Tampa and it wound up in NJ's weapons bin. He took it out, set it up on the turnbuckle said, how do you spell, "FUCK YOU" he typed it out and then smashed somebody with it. Keys went flying as New jack grooved away to Natural Born Killaz.

 

I loved the original ECW. Strongest core base of fans of any wrestling orginization ever, I'd say. They had their groupies...a good number of fans who would drive from state-to-state to watch the shows. I remember talking to a group of them who traveled up and down the East Coast and many of the wrestlers knew them by name, and this was before the TNN show. Very interactive and fan-friendly, but then again it's pretty impossible for WWE to match it because they've become a worldwide force, more so since 2001. I feel most WWE wrestlers (besides Randy Orton) are as accessible as they can be, given the circumstances and the ridiculous schedules.

ECW was a great time in wrestling. And then, at the same time, you had WCW and WWF putting on some excellent shows (WCW much less so post-1998, but they would always lure the diehards for a little while with their innovative crusierweights)

It's why I wish TNA would put out a good product and for ROH to step up with some kind of national television deal, even if it's as weak as ECW's Friday night timeslot on TNN.

 

I was beginning to really like the whole TNA product, but losing Christian Cage was possibly one of the worst things that could have happened. The guy was a star in TNA and they let him get away because they basically refused to give him the title run he wanted.

That and they've basically buried all their young stars by the Main Event Mafia which is an absolute joke.

 

The thing about the Main Event Mafia is WCW booked almost the same exact storyline during its dying days. But in that case it was the Millionaire's Club vs. The New Breed instead of the MEM vs. Frontline.

Not good when you are copying a promotion that went from first in the world to out of business in less than three years.

TNA has the talent to put on a great show. They need to get a square ring, cut the shitty old wrestlers (a problem which plagued WCW as well), and start building up the young talent with interesting characters and enticing storylines. That's how you draw fans. I remember going to a TNA PPV a few months ago and actually seeing Road Dogg vs. Billy Gunn - in 2008! Inexcusable.

 

Anyone else seen The Wrestler movie yet? I caught it when I was traveling over the holidays in Canada. Rourke's performance in it is solid, very solid. Tomei looks great for her age and all and it was fun to see the cameos by wrestlers who are legit pros in the film.

I won't spoil anything about the movie, but if I had to rate it with four stars being the best, I'd give it three.

 

TNA is strong in the sense that they have a lot of great, young wrestlers.

A lot of the MEM really doesn't have a lot of time left. Sting probably only has a few years left, Kevin Nash will be finished any day now, Booker T has already flirted with the idea of retiring on several occasions and Scott Steiner is constantly injured nowadays and no "juice" is going to fix that. Kurt Angle is still in the prime of his career and while I disagree with his decision to leave WWE, I still respect his ability in the ring.

TNA has plenty of young talent to work with, yet they are burying them under the big guys whom everyone recognizes.