2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

The Rock is confirmed for the Raw after Wrestlemania.

 

Pretty sure there were several. But there was one that was either in Tampa or Orlando. You can never forget those kind of matches.

Much like my first ECW house show. Held in the Kissimmee Ag Center (basically a friggin cattle auction hall). WE got there late. There's a line around the friggin building. We're standing there waiting to get in and we hear if you don't have a ticket, we're sold to capacity.

Luckily we had tickets. We picked a spot where we could stand/sit and enjoyed a madhouse of extreme that will always be one of the reasons why ECW, in it's Hey(man) day will always be my favorite promotion.

Damn, I miss those days.

 

Is that the one where Bubba Ray took your sign or whatever?

 

That was not the one. But there were two signs grabbed and then used by Bubba Ray to hit me over the head.

Then there was him spitting in my face trying to get me to lose my front row tickets.

He was the ultimate heel.

 

He was one of the best for a very long time. And then he turned into Bubba "Get the Tables!" Ray.

 

Thank you Vince.

 

In hindsight, one of my big regrets in life is being a college-aged wrestling fan in the greater Philadelphia area in the mid-1990s and not going to an ECW show. Would've loved to have been in the belly of that beast for a night.

 

I came into it after Raven had left so I missed the BWO days etc.

But man, I still have vivid memories of RVD vs. Bam Bam Bigelow at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

I remember seeing Candido with Tammy Lynn Sytch (Sunny), The Franchise and the rest of the Triple Threat. At one point we chanted "Sunny Swallows," Candido grabbed the mic, threatened to leave if we kept chanting it. The chant grew in voice and he takes Sunny and leaves to the back, only to be thrown back through the curtain by whomever he was wrestling that night.

The pop when Sandman came out and the whole damn place singing "Enter Sandman"

The insane dive from New Jack off the top of a panel truck through a table and D-Von.

The rise of the "New Fuckin Show" Jerry Lynn.

The Taz chant of "Taz is gonna kill you" to Dastardly Danny Doring.

The awesome Angry Amish Roadkill.

The blood, sweat and sometimes tears of laughter that Tommy Dreamer put into the company night in and night out.

Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka.

I could go on and on.

 

I went to college out of state, so I don't remember every angle. Just remember watching it on Channel 57 out of Philly around 1 a.m. on Saturday nights during the summer, and the cheesy commercials hawking their tapes of ECW shows during the breaks. It was definitely a guilty pleasure.

 

I remember first watching an ECW show late on a Saturday night in the summer of 1994. First thing I saw was Sabu diving through someone on a table, while Joey Styles yells out "OH MY GOD!"

I was hooked right away. I remember thinking, "Man, I've been watching this WCW shit in which Hulk Hogan's fighting Brutus Beefcake for the 10 millionth time, and all I see are clowns dancing around the WWF, and now here's something that absolutely rocks."

I never got to an actual ECW house show, although a couple came to my area. I always had to work, or had other plans, to my everlasting regret. A friend of mine went, and said it was the best wrestling show he'd ever been to, and that was including WWF pay-per-views.

And I've never seen a crowd closer to rioting than when Buh-Buh-Ray would insult them. Even if they were supposed to be smart fans, they looked like they were legitimately going to kill him.

 

Being in DC, we were just on the fringe of ECW's hotbed. They never really toured south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Except once.

They played Nation in southeast DC (near where Nationals Park is now) and I just had to go. It was toward the end of the ECW run. No Raven. No New Jack. (wouldn't have really mattered, there were no balconies) But there were the Dudleys, Dreamer and Sandman. Felt need for homework before the night of the show, so I bought the Metallica CD to learn the second verse of "Enter."

 

Funny thing about Pillman. As Mick Foley tells the story, a lot of wrestlers thought that Pillman was either a heck of an actor, or legitimately nuts.

I can't find the Youtube clip now, but there was one out there that showed the infamous, "Pillman's Got a Gun" episode where Austin tries to break into his house. Only, it was a B-Roll tape, where it showed them setting everything up behind the scenes.

At one point, you see Pillman asking the writers if they want him to hide the gun or just wave it around, and after the scene ends, Pillman's wife, who was screaming because of Austin, starts laughing, and you hear Austin in the background asking one of the guys he beat up if he was alright.

Pretty intriguing to see behind the scenes stuff, but in a way, it kinda lessens the initial impact of the scene.