Thursday, April 30, 2009

WrestleMania: Day 4-Monday, April 6th


For the finale, we attended RAW at the Toyota Center on Monday. While waiting in line, I spotted a familiar face. It was Downtown Bruno. Some of you may remember him as Harvey Wippleman from his time in the WWF. I started to holla at him, but I didn't want him to get swarmed by all the people because he was on a mission. I noticed he was carrying a bag that appeared to contain some food in it. Could it have been Vince's dinner?


In the dark matches, prior to RAW, Evan Bourne defeated Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston defeated Shelton Benjamin.



The Colons, Primo and Carlito, had another great lumberjack match on RAW with Miz and Morrison.





Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat stole the show with another incredible performance in the 10-man tag match. He received a huge pop from the crowd, that were chanting, "You still got it!"



Everybody was caught off guard with the return of "The Animal" Batista. When his music hit, the place went crazy!


With the close of RAW, came the end of our wrestling adventure. It was now time to leave Houston, Texas, and head on back. With that being said, Houston is a great place. I really enjoyed my visit and there are lots of nice folks over there.

Let's see: Booker T's Legends Convention, 3 WrestleMania Axxess Sessions, Ring of Honor PPV, 2009 WWE Hall of Fame, The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania, and Raw the night after. It doesn't get any better than that. Wow! I still can't believe I was there!

I would like to thank all of you for coming along for the ride. I hope you enjoyed my AWESOME journey. There truly is nothing like WRESTLEMANIA!!!


D-Rock-Good Call

Special thanks to Ricky Murphy for all the great photos

Sunday, April 26, 2009

WrestleMania: Day 3-Sunday, April 5th-Part 2


As we were walking toward Reliant Stadium, we noticed there was already a sea of people waiting in line to get inside. Check out who else we spotted making their way to check out the show. Apparently, the "dark side" are also some big fans of Double Double E.


Once we made it inside, it was on like Donkey Kong! This place was HUGE!




It wasn't long until the pre-show match began, pitting The Colons, Primo and Carlito, against Miz and Morrison to unify the tag belts. This was a very good opening match. It really got the crowd going. Speaking of the crowd, we had a group of very opinionated New Yorkers sitting behind us that shared their thoughts loud and often. So there was never a dull moment, to say the least.



Then, it was time to get this party started! The countdown was over! So after the lovely Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls sang her beautiful rendition of "America the Beautiful" it was going down! This is what we had been waiting for. A fireworks extravaganza followed. What a sight it was. Woohoo! Way to kick the show off with a BANG! Oh yeah! Thankfully, there were no injuries this year, that I'm aware of.




The Money in the Bank match was great. I just wish CM Punk would not have won it two years in a row. I know, I'm being a hater, but I can't help it. Maybe he will cash it in and somehow rob either Cena or Triple H of their belts so he can turn heel. Also, Kofi Kingston was very impressive in the match.

Up next, was a performance by Kid Rock, which is always a treat. He performed a medley of songs, that consisted of Bawitdaba," "Rock N Roll Jesus," "Cowboy," "All Summer Long," and "So Hott." During "So Hott" all the Divas started making their way down for the special 25-Diva battle royal to crown the first-ever "Miss WrestleMania." To be honest, I couldn't really tell who was in the match because they were not introduced. However, I couldn't help, but notice there was one that was slightly larger and more manly than the rest.



Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat proved that he's still got it with a great showing against Chris Jericho, in the three on one handicap elimination match while teaming with fellow Hall of Famers, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, who were accompanied to the ring by "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. I was thinking that Frank Shamrock was going to jump in at the end since he was sitting with Mickey Rourke.

The Extreme Rules match between the two siblings, Matt and Jeff Hardy, delivered with all of the the high flying action and spots that we've come to expect from them. Matt connected with a pretty sick Twist of Fate on Jeff to win the match.

The only part of the Intercontinental Championship match between Rey Mysterio and JBL that I liked was Rey's Joker mask. I thought that was cool, but the match was way too short and JBL quit.... Alrighty then.

Then, it was time for one of the best matches ever. The Undertaker versus "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels. Wow! Words cannot even begin to do this match justice. You've got to watch this match, but to actually be there in the crowd of over 72,000 fans and witness this epic encounter of these two is something that I will never forget. It was unbelievable! Everyone's eyes were glued to the ring and fixated on every move. Back and forth....Back and forth. Some were cheering for Taker, while others were rooting for HBK, but they all knew they were seeing something special. When Taker fell on his head, not only did I think the match and his streak had come to an end, I thought his career was over. Boy, did that look bad! At one point, after Michaels kicked out of the tombstone, I glanced up at the screen above us, and seen the camera shot of Taker's face. His look was priceless, because in all my years of watching Taker's matches, I've never really seen him get shaken up and show this level of concern. That was a Kodak moment to the fullest that really helped with telling the story of this instant classic.



Of course, The Undertaker got the win and remained undefeated at WrestleMania, extending his record to 17-0, but at certain moments, during the match, I was saying, "Hey, Michaels may do it." This match should have ended the show because it set the bar so high, that neither of the championship matches could really follow it.



The triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship that followed, featuring Edge, The Big Show, and John Cena had its moments. Cena ended up winning the match and becoming the new champ. After seeing all of the look-a-likes during Cena's entrance, I thought we could possibly be seeing another moment like Edge did a couple years ago with Hawkins and Ryder, but that didn't happen. I guess that's why they call Edge "The Ultimate Opportunist" and John Cena the No-Limit Soldier. I mean, "The Chain Gang Soldier. My bad. Make Em Say Uhh! Nah, Nah, Nah!




What an awesome moment it was to hear the glass shatter and to see "The Texas Rattlesnake" Stone Cold Steve Austin's beer bash. Oh Hell Yeah!


The show ended with Triple H battling Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. I thought Triple H's entrance was very simple and cool. However, this match just didn't thrill me. I don't think I was alone because the crowd was dead. I'm not sure if everyone was still give out from Taker and HBK from earlier or what, but this match just lacked a lot. This past Monday's match between the two was much better in my eyes. Maybe it was because at Mania, within the first few minutes, both men had connected with their finishers. I was also surprised that Rhodes and DiBiase didn't make an appearance and try to interfere. This wasn't the best match to end The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania on, but I think I saw one of the best matches of all-time in The Undertaker/Shawn Michaels wrestling clinic.




To actually be there and experience WrestleMania was a dream come true.


The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania-Good Call


That was Day 3.

But wait, there's more. Raw on Monday!

Thanks to Ricky Murphy and Kim Gray for all the great pictures