WWE in Peoria 7/29/11 recap
I apologize for taking my good sweet time getting this up, it's been a long ten days, haha.
So after spending days slowly getting ready for it (sign making, buying memory cards... yes, plural. The first one I bought was 4GB and thus unreadable on electronics older than 2008 (which meant neither my computer or camera would do anything with it) so it was basically a waste of $10! The second was 2GB and much, much better. Both computer and camera could read it, so I was pleased), the day arrived. I ended up waking up at 6:30 AM because it was storming sooooo badly... but by the time of the event, it was nice and clear.
After getting grief for wanting to leave at 5 PM (which worked because someone got lost... twice), I arrived around 6 and found my way to the merch table. I wanted at least five things: Miz's shirt, CM Punk's shirt, and Zack Ryder's shirt, the program, and a collectors cup. They had it all but Zack's shirt -_- I had been wearing a Pepsi shirt on my way there, so it just seemed fitting to put Punk's shirt on over it once I had it :P
Almost the instance I made my way into the crowd to wait for the doors to open, the woman nearest me struck up a conversation which... cool. I spent the next while chatting with her and her son, tried helping her keep him from running off before the doors opened. He wanted to go up these elevators my civic center has that doesn't really go anywhere, just takes people up a few floors so they can see out over the room. She told him that kids weren't allowed, but he kept noticing kids who DID get on it and kept asking why they could go on, but he couldn't. Lol. Finally I told him doors were opening in about five minutes and he wouldn't want to move, he calmed down briefly then.
Her: He's excited to see Cena. If Cena's here, tonight, anyway.
Me: *confused look*
Her: A couple years ago, Cena was advertised but wasn't here. He was devastated.
Me: Ohhh. (The 2008 event, when Cena was scheduled for a charity thing in New York on the same day as the Peoria date. The little boy was also excited to see Rey Mysterio at this event. Uh, you can't have it all?)
She eventually had him run over to the table to get me a bag to hold my stuff since I had forgotten to earlier and it was getting a pain to hold between the posters, the shirt and the program.
Her: I don't like that one guy... that one Mexican... uhhh.
Me: Sin Cara?
Her: No, that other guy, with the cars... *ponders*
Me: Oh, Alberto.
Her: Yeah, him.
*a few moments later*
Her son: I like him!
Us: Who?
Son: Alberto Del Rio!
Me: Oh, he's doing that on purpose now, since you said you don't like him. Haha.
Her: Oh, probably.
Finally, the doors opened, we said our byes and split up, me to the floor and her to upper bowl (awkward lol).
Peoria Civic Center, love it I do, but its seating confuses me. Always has, probably always will. Keep in mind I originally thought due to the seating chart that we were going to be sitting OPPOSITE of the entrance ramp, in the corner basically. After asking a guard where to go to get to my section, he directed me down and I found my way easily from there. We had seats 13, 14 and 15. When I got to the end of our row, where I thought we were going to sit, the seats were labeled 1, 2, 3. OUR seats were on the other end, next to the entrance ramp! I facepalmed and decided to wait for Rodney to come because I had given him seat 15, thinking that if I was 13, short little me could see over people easier than directly in the corner... lol. So he was next to the ramp. Best laid plans of mice and men...?
Cheri was laid out with a back injury unfortunately, so Rodney had brought his brother instead. They arrived right as the show began-- instead of beginning with the nation's anthem like they always do, they had members of the National Guard in the ring and they began with their oath to the nation and THEN the anthem. Once they left the ring, Rodney and his brother moved down so I could have the seat closest to the ramp (eh-heh-heh) and the first match began.
Chris Masters vs Jack Swagger. Was an alright opener, Chris would win with the Masterlock. He was just in front of me when R Truth rushed out and beat him down. Zack Ryder (!!!) ran out for the save, just for Miz to come out and he and Truth double teamed Zack (Kinda funny, when they were beating him down, I started booing... then it hit me "What am I doing?! I LIKE Miz!" lol) until Alex Riley rushed down. They fought back and forth, Miz even got planted into the wall next to me until finally the fighting rolled into the ring and Truth and Miz rolled to safety after a bit. Alex then challenged them to a tag match against him and Ryder. They didn't seem too willing at first, started to leave but finally agreed.
Ryder wrestled most of it, taking abuse from both Miz and Truth, until finally Alex got the tag. He and Miz fought back and forth for awhile, Truth got involved and when Ryder tried to stop him, Truth threw him over the top rope (I was at a bad angle to see this but it looked like Ryder was on the top turnbuckle when he was tossed over). Miz then hit Skull Crushing Finale on Alex and they won. As Alex and Ryder left, I reached out and slapped Alex on the shoulder. XD He was so sweaty and warm o.O Ha.
The next match was Primo vs Tyler Reks. As Primo walked past, he slapped my hand :3 Two in the first hour! Woo, lol. If only Alex and Zack had switched places earlier, I could've said I've touched both members of DZP. Oh well. XD Tyler railroaded Primo a bit but he eventually won with the Back Cracker.
Kofi Kingston vs Alberto Del Rio came next. Sign Guy was in attendance just a section over from me, getting ADR a bunch of heat... ADR went to his section, grabbed his hat and stuffed it into the briefcase :O lol. Sign Guy wasn't beaten though, he had a second hat that he put on smugly. Haha. ADR then went on with his destiny speech. Not a bad match, Alberto would win with the usual armbar. Afterwards he demanded first that the referee hold his hand up in victory, then ordered him to go bring his briefcase to him. The referee was only inches away when his grip slipped and the briefcase hit the mat (Let's not mention that earlier during his promo, the briefcase fell over on its own and ADR didn't seem that fussed lol). Alberto stepped towards him and the ref wisely dashed out of the ring. See what happens when Ricardo isn't around?!
Divas time as our event hostess (I just started typing hoe... Oops. *awkward cough, sheepish grin*), Eve, came out. She was in the process of talking about a contest (Rodney started trying to encourage me to try to get called up for it. I told him point blank it was gonna be a dance contest and he would not want me up there lol) when Brie Bella came out (No Nikki! Weird only seeing one of 'em!) and talking about how Kelly Kelly stole her title and she was challenging her for it tonight! So Kelly came out and accepted, Eve left the ring and their match began. At one point, K2 was down and Brie slipped out of the ring and grabbed the diva's belt. Kelly started yelling SHE HAS MY BELT! and Eve started stalking her around the ring, got the belt back and Kelly returned her to the ring, won the match.
With that over with, Eve returned and called for a dance contest for the people of Peoria. The winner would get to go to the back and hang out with a wrestler. They wandered around and picked some people out of the crowd. An overweight man, an overweight woman, a blonde chick, and a kid... either a pre-teen or in his early teens. The man went first and he did pretty good-- got a good amount of cheers. The blonde chick went next and she totally bombed, lol. She didn't even finish the dance, just waved it off a couple seconds into the music. The woman was third and, lol, she motioned Justin Roberts over and started dancing up on him for a bit. She still got boo'd heavily. When it was the kid's turn, he started breakdancing and moonwalking, and got heavy cheers. Justin announced it was down to the first guy and the kid... based on the audience's second set of cheers, Justin determined the kid as the winner and we went into intermission.
Once it returned, David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty faced off against Santino and Vladimir Kozlov in a non-title match. Santino slapped my hand as he entered, and as he left. Yay! lol. Santino had his 'super-Cobra' or whatever on the whole match, lol. Most of the usual comedy stuff, and eventually Koztino won. The less Otunga the better, lol.
Evan Bourne vs Dolph Ziggler next. Dolph, upon coming out, started talking about Evan not deserving a US title shot and all of this, going from the ramp in front of me to the ring. Just before the match could start, though, Dolph started yelling at the audience near where Sign Guy was sitting because they were chanting heavily against him (I couldn't make out what they were saying, though. Sound echoes and crap in that arena), then left the ring and started talking into the mic once more. "You want me to leave?" People yelled yes, and he continued, "Really? You really want me to leave?!" Another loud YES! and he was directly in front of me when he looked down like someone had just kicked his puppy, shoulders slumping and everything, haha. After a minute, he yelled "I DON'T CARE!" and rushed back into the ring. Once the match did get going, it was really pretty good. Dolph would win.
Then... it was main event time. CM Punk vs John Cena. Hearing Cult of Personality was so awesome, even better was seeing Punk, of course, lol. It resembled MitB a lot-- kids and some women (not me obviously!) chanting for Cena, everyone else chanting for Punk. Fair amount of rest holds, too. After a bit, Cena threw Punk up into the Attitude Adjustment but he wiggled free. Punk tried GTS but that didn't hold either, they both went for clotheslines and were down on the mat when ADR ran down with his briefcase. Both men were up by then and he looked back and forth between the two, confused as to what to do, before eventually targetting Punk with his briefcase. He then went to hit Cena too but was dodged; received a GTS and an Attitude Adjustment for his trouble. The match ended by DQ. We then got another title off, with Punk going to the top rope with his, before rolling out of the ring and leaving.
As he was heading up the ramp, a guy who had been sitting a few seats down from us started edging his way up to the ramp-side seat with his two kids in the hopes of getting a minute with Cena, so I grabbed my drink and moved aside for him. Once they were in position, he turned back to me and asked if I could take a picture of the kids with Cena if Cena should agree to it. I said sure and took his camera.
Guy: *also wearing a Punk shirt* I don't like the guy, but the kids do so...
Me: I feel ya *plucks at Punk shirt*
Guy: *grins appreciatively*
So we were waiting there, Cena was off on the other side of the aisle close to the steel steps, signing autographs and whatever for the fans on that side. Finally he wrapped up and headed towards the ramp. The guy yelled Hey Cena! when he was right in front of us but he just kept power walking on by, didn't even look over at my side at all. =/ The guy wasn't thrilled. I felt bad for him, and the kids. Nothing could be done though, so I returned his camera, grabbed my stuff and followed Rodney and his brother out to the steps. We said our farewells and split. As I waited for my ride, I overheard a boy wandering by ask why Rey Mysterio wasn't at the event.
There are pictures here. The lighting sucked, so they're not the greatest, but some are good, if I do say so myself.
So after spending days slowly getting ready for it (sign making, buying memory cards... yes, plural. The first one I bought was 4GB and thus unreadable on electronics older than 2008 (which meant neither my computer or camera would do anything with it) so it was basically a waste of $10! The second was 2GB and much, much better. Both computer and camera could read it, so I was pleased), the day arrived. I ended up waking up at 6:30 AM because it was storming sooooo badly... but by the time of the event, it was nice and clear.
After getting grief for wanting to leave at 5 PM (which worked because someone got lost... twice), I arrived around 6 and found my way to the merch table. I wanted at least five things: Miz's shirt, CM Punk's shirt, and Zack Ryder's shirt, the program, and a collectors cup. They had it all but Zack's shirt -_- I had been wearing a Pepsi shirt on my way there, so it just seemed fitting to put Punk's shirt on over it once I had it :P
Almost the instance I made my way into the crowd to wait for the doors to open, the woman nearest me struck up a conversation which... cool. I spent the next while chatting with her and her son, tried helping her keep him from running off before the doors opened. He wanted to go up these elevators my civic center has that doesn't really go anywhere, just takes people up a few floors so they can see out over the room. She told him that kids weren't allowed, but he kept noticing kids who DID get on it and kept asking why they could go on, but he couldn't. Lol. Finally I told him doors were opening in about five minutes and he wouldn't want to move, he calmed down briefly then.
Her: He's excited to see Cena. If Cena's here, tonight, anyway.
Me: *confused look*
Her: A couple years ago, Cena was advertised but wasn't here. He was devastated.
Me: Ohhh. (The 2008 event, when Cena was scheduled for a charity thing in New York on the same day as the Peoria date. The little boy was also excited to see Rey Mysterio at this event. Uh, you can't have it all?)
She eventually had him run over to the table to get me a bag to hold my stuff since I had forgotten to earlier and it was getting a pain to hold between the posters, the shirt and the program.
Her: I don't like that one guy... that one Mexican... uhhh.
Me: Sin Cara?
Her: No, that other guy, with the cars... *ponders*
Me: Oh, Alberto.
Her: Yeah, him.
*a few moments later*
Her son: I like him!
Us: Who?
Son: Alberto Del Rio!
Me: Oh, he's doing that on purpose now, since you said you don't like him. Haha.
Her: Oh, probably.
Finally, the doors opened, we said our byes and split up, me to the floor and her to upper bowl (awkward lol).
Peoria Civic Center, love it I do, but its seating confuses me. Always has, probably always will. Keep in mind I originally thought due to the seating chart that we were going to be sitting OPPOSITE of the entrance ramp, in the corner basically. After asking a guard where to go to get to my section, he directed me down and I found my way easily from there. We had seats 13, 14 and 15. When I got to the end of our row, where I thought we were going to sit, the seats were labeled 1, 2, 3. OUR seats were on the other end, next to the entrance ramp! I facepalmed and decided to wait for Rodney to come because I had given him seat 15, thinking that if I was 13, short little me could see over people easier than directly in the corner... lol. So he was next to the ramp. Best laid plans of mice and men...?
Cheri was laid out with a back injury unfortunately, so Rodney had brought his brother instead. They arrived right as the show began-- instead of beginning with the nation's anthem like they always do, they had members of the National Guard in the ring and they began with their oath to the nation and THEN the anthem. Once they left the ring, Rodney and his brother moved down so I could have the seat closest to the ramp (eh-heh-heh) and the first match began.
Chris Masters vs Jack Swagger. Was an alright opener, Chris would win with the Masterlock. He was just in front of me when R Truth rushed out and beat him down. Zack Ryder (!!!) ran out for the save, just for Miz to come out and he and Truth double teamed Zack (Kinda funny, when they were beating him down, I started booing... then it hit me "What am I doing?! I LIKE Miz!" lol) until Alex Riley rushed down. They fought back and forth, Miz even got planted into the wall next to me until finally the fighting rolled into the ring and Truth and Miz rolled to safety after a bit. Alex then challenged them to a tag match against him and Ryder. They didn't seem too willing at first, started to leave but finally agreed.
Ryder wrestled most of it, taking abuse from both Miz and Truth, until finally Alex got the tag. He and Miz fought back and forth for awhile, Truth got involved and when Ryder tried to stop him, Truth threw him over the top rope (I was at a bad angle to see this but it looked like Ryder was on the top turnbuckle when he was tossed over). Miz then hit Skull Crushing Finale on Alex and they won. As Alex and Ryder left, I reached out and slapped Alex on the shoulder. XD He was so sweaty and warm o.O Ha.
The next match was Primo vs Tyler Reks. As Primo walked past, he slapped my hand :3 Two in the first hour! Woo, lol. If only Alex and Zack had switched places earlier, I could've said I've touched both members of DZP. Oh well. XD Tyler railroaded Primo a bit but he eventually won with the Back Cracker.
Kofi Kingston vs Alberto Del Rio came next. Sign Guy was in attendance just a section over from me, getting ADR a bunch of heat... ADR went to his section, grabbed his hat and stuffed it into the briefcase :O lol. Sign Guy wasn't beaten though, he had a second hat that he put on smugly. Haha. ADR then went on with his destiny speech. Not a bad match, Alberto would win with the usual armbar. Afterwards he demanded first that the referee hold his hand up in victory, then ordered him to go bring his briefcase to him. The referee was only inches away when his grip slipped and the briefcase hit the mat (Let's not mention that earlier during his promo, the briefcase fell over on its own and ADR didn't seem that fussed lol). Alberto stepped towards him and the ref wisely dashed out of the ring. See what happens when Ricardo isn't around?!
Divas time as our event hostess (I just started typing hoe... Oops. *awkward cough, sheepish grin*), Eve, came out. She was in the process of talking about a contest (Rodney started trying to encourage me to try to get called up for it. I told him point blank it was gonna be a dance contest and he would not want me up there lol) when Brie Bella came out (No Nikki! Weird only seeing one of 'em!) and talking about how Kelly Kelly stole her title and she was challenging her for it tonight! So Kelly came out and accepted, Eve left the ring and their match began. At one point, K2 was down and Brie slipped out of the ring and grabbed the diva's belt. Kelly started yelling SHE HAS MY BELT! and Eve started stalking her around the ring, got the belt back and Kelly returned her to the ring, won the match.
With that over with, Eve returned and called for a dance contest for the people of Peoria. The winner would get to go to the back and hang out with a wrestler. They wandered around and picked some people out of the crowd. An overweight man, an overweight woman, a blonde chick, and a kid... either a pre-teen or in his early teens. The man went first and he did pretty good-- got a good amount of cheers. The blonde chick went next and she totally bombed, lol. She didn't even finish the dance, just waved it off a couple seconds into the music. The woman was third and, lol, she motioned Justin Roberts over and started dancing up on him for a bit. She still got boo'd heavily. When it was the kid's turn, he started breakdancing and moonwalking, and got heavy cheers. Justin announced it was down to the first guy and the kid... based on the audience's second set of cheers, Justin determined the kid as the winner and we went into intermission.
Once it returned, David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty faced off against Santino and Vladimir Kozlov in a non-title match. Santino slapped my hand as he entered, and as he left. Yay! lol. Santino had his 'super-Cobra' or whatever on the whole match, lol. Most of the usual comedy stuff, and eventually Koztino won. The less Otunga the better, lol.
Evan Bourne vs Dolph Ziggler next. Dolph, upon coming out, started talking about Evan not deserving a US title shot and all of this, going from the ramp in front of me to the ring. Just before the match could start, though, Dolph started yelling at the audience near where Sign Guy was sitting because they were chanting heavily against him (I couldn't make out what they were saying, though. Sound echoes and crap in that arena), then left the ring and started talking into the mic once more. "You want me to leave?" People yelled yes, and he continued, "Really? You really want me to leave?!" Another loud YES! and he was directly in front of me when he looked down like someone had just kicked his puppy, shoulders slumping and everything, haha. After a minute, he yelled "I DON'T CARE!" and rushed back into the ring. Once the match did get going, it was really pretty good. Dolph would win.
Then... it was main event time. CM Punk vs John Cena. Hearing Cult of Personality was so awesome, even better was seeing Punk, of course, lol. It resembled MitB a lot-- kids and some women (not me obviously!) chanting for Cena, everyone else chanting for Punk. Fair amount of rest holds, too. After a bit, Cena threw Punk up into the Attitude Adjustment but he wiggled free. Punk tried GTS but that didn't hold either, they both went for clotheslines and were down on the mat when ADR ran down with his briefcase. Both men were up by then and he looked back and forth between the two, confused as to what to do, before eventually targetting Punk with his briefcase. He then went to hit Cena too but was dodged; received a GTS and an Attitude Adjustment for his trouble. The match ended by DQ. We then got another title off, with Punk going to the top rope with his, before rolling out of the ring and leaving.
As he was heading up the ramp, a guy who had been sitting a few seats down from us started edging his way up to the ramp-side seat with his two kids in the hopes of getting a minute with Cena, so I grabbed my drink and moved aside for him. Once they were in position, he turned back to me and asked if I could take a picture of the kids with Cena if Cena should agree to it. I said sure and took his camera.
Guy: *also wearing a Punk shirt* I don't like the guy, but the kids do so...
Me: I feel ya *plucks at Punk shirt*
Guy: *grins appreciatively*
So we were waiting there, Cena was off on the other side of the aisle close to the steel steps, signing autographs and whatever for the fans on that side. Finally he wrapped up and headed towards the ramp. The guy yelled Hey Cena! when he was right in front of us but he just kept power walking on by, didn't even look over at my side at all. =/ The guy wasn't thrilled. I felt bad for him, and the kids. Nothing could be done though, so I returned his camera, grabbed my stuff and followed Rodney and his brother out to the steps. We said our farewells and split. As I waited for my ride, I overheard a boy wandering by ask why Rey Mysterio wasn't at the event.
There are pictures here. The lighting sucked, so they're not the greatest, but some are good, if I do say so myself.