(no subject)
On July 30th, I was writing BtB. There had been this niggling feeling deep inside for a few days by this point, Ricardo is one of a handful of wrestlers I have tweets sent directly to my phone, and he hadn't tweeted since Friday. For him, that was a bit unusual, and even if he wasn't on TV, I looked forward to seeing his tweets about flying out to Raw, or what have you, because it meant I'd have an interview or something to look forward to.
But that week, there had been nothing from him, so I decided, before I wrapped BtB up for the week, I would get online and search his handle on twitter, see if anything had been said about him lately. Four minutes earlier had been made the first tweet about it: Ricardo Rodriguez released from WWE. It was a screen name I'd never seen before, there was no other mention of it, so I thought hell no, it has to be a joke, right? I gave it a few minutes, refreshed and... WWE.com linked to it on their account. The rest of the night is kind of a blur. I finished BtB, I choked down some supper, I cried bitterly for a few hours, stayed numb the rest of the night. I had all kinds of crazy thoughts running through my head. I wanted him happy, and it disgusted me that WWE wasted him, and the tweets he had been making for months leading up to this made me feel even worse. But underneath all of the hope for his regaining some happiness, and getting to do what he wanted in his craft, I was stuck with the sinking feeling that I may never get to see him compete again, because I still am a bit of a novice on the indy scene.
Fast forward a few weeks. September 13th. I'm writing EuM this time, and I decide again to search Ricardo's twitter handle, see if I missed anything relevant to add to the story. This time, it had been about 30 minutes earlier... the announcement that Ricardo was coming to Lasalle, Illinois, to compete for a fed I'd heard of once before (Dreamwave Wrestling), a few years ago, and hadn't thought much of, mostly because Lasalle is a little town up north, an hour and a half drive away. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I couldn't pass this up. After all, if I could take a bus in the worst temperatures of the winter and stay in a hotel with a broken furnace just to see WWE back last March, God knows somehow I could find my way to frickin Lasalle... especially after it was announced that there would also be autograph signings and photo ops with the guests, which as it turned out was also Evan Bourne.
I had NO Idea what I was doing from the start... when I ordered my ticket online, I was told that I could print off my Paypal receipt and use that to get admission to the event. Ok, swell, except that I don't have a printer, and Mom's doesn't work... so I ended up having to go to the library and figuring out how to print it off of their computers, which I'd never used before. New experiences all around!
So finally, after weeks of anxiety and nervousness over something going wrong mixed in with Well hell, I'm going to meet Ricardo Rodriguez, the day came. Mom and I went to Lasalle, explored the town a little (charming, tiny little place that made home look like a metropolitan area lol), and eventually went to Walmart. What I thought was going to be a quick in-and-out type thing, where we'd look at a few things and then leave, turned into an hour and a half visit where she kept looking at EVERYTHING from toys (bugging me about grandkids) to furniture... I did walk away with this, however, so it wasn't all bad.
All hundred episodes for less than $20! Not bad at all!
So finally we left Walmart and, after I changed clothes and collected my things, heading to Knights of Columbus. Everything I read said doors were opening at 6:30... I arrived at 6:15 just to find that everyone was already inside, and the initial autograph signing/photo op was ending (There were two, one for VIP who had bought front row tickets IE: me, and another during intermission for everyone else). So I watched them leave the ring, confused, and headed that way just to see what was going on. Ricardo and I were staring at each other for a bit, then the guy standing next to him said hi to me, so I started to ask him if the autograph signing was over, then I looked closer and realized I was talking to Evan Bourne. EFF, haha. Turned out they were outside to take a picture with this woman who couldn't get in the ring, and once they were done with that, they did leave so I resigned myself to waiting till intermission.
My next issue was finding a seat, I finally had to ask a worker and he helped me find a seat by the entrance, so I still had a decent enough view of the ring. And I wouldn't be surprised if I end up on the DVD a couple of times, I'll figure THAT out when I buy it... haha.
I had JUST sat down when the preshow match began. I have to keep this all in mind if there's a next time, to go earlier so things aren't so rushed and weird, haha. After that, the actual show began and Daivari was in the first match! It was cool to see him again, I can't even remember how long it's been, heh.
Ricardo's match was third, and it was so good to see him compete, haha. His opponent, Bucky Collins, had an entourage, including some little jerk who was mocking him for "just being a ring announcer", so of course he announced Bucky to the ring. Blech.
So Ricky came to the ring and one of Bucky's entourage took a sign from a fan that was pro-Bucky and was waving it close to the ropes by where Ricardo stood, so Ricardo did the only logical thing: Took the sign and kicked it. Delcardo trademark abusing of annoying fan signs continue! lol
Ricardo had to keep fighting off the entourage, but he did manage some cool offense against Bucky-- his kicks, and a moonsault, among others... and finally he managed to incapacitate the entourage and defeated Bucky so yay!
Evan Bourne's match was the sixth match of the night, and despite low ceilings, he successfully hit his SSP off the top to win. Then it was intermission time so I collected what I needed and headed downstairs. Initially, when I got down there, the line was long, about ten people ahead of me, and I thought ok I have time to watch other people do this, see how it all goes... but nope! Ended up no one realized you had to pay extra for autographs and pictures so guess who went from 10th in line to 1st? Yeah... this girl. And I had no idea what to do. FANTASTIC! Haha. So I walk up to the table and Ricardo's right there, watching me, and I tell told the guy manning all of this that I want his autograph and picture, and Ricardo said something-- I think he was surprised-- then the guy asked me if I had something to be autographed or if I wanted to have one of their printed out pictures autographed... and I pulled out the mini Chimaera poster that I received when I bought Ricardo's action figure and glanced between the two of them. "Is this ok?" while sliding it over to Ricardo. He autographed it then, exclaiming, "Wow, I haven't seen one of these in years!"
So it was picture time and Evan was standing between me and Ricardo which, oh boy, but he budged away so I could join Ricardo... then Ricardo told me I had the camera, and I realized I had to give the guy who took the pictures it, which oh God, I didn't know a damn thing about how this was run, HAHA, so I handed it over, realizing that it was still turned off... so he thankfully figured that out but my camera automatically goes into sleep mode, you have to press the "ok" button again to wake it up, so he STILL couldn't get it, I had to leave Ricardo's side for a second time just to get it to revive, then give it back to the camera guy, feeling more than a little ridiculous, RETURN to Ricardo's side (He felt so warm, considering it was freezing that weekend! I really didn't mind holding onto him for a few more seconds while the guy fought with my ridiculous camera!) and finally the picture took... I reclaimed my camera and I think Ricardo knew I was feeling silly and just wanted to bolt because he spoke up and said, "Wait, let's make sure it took" so I checked and it looked fine, told him as much, looked at him once more and told him thanks, which he reciprocated, we exchanged smiles, and then I bailed, pausing outside of the room to catch my breath and go WTF did I just do... HAHA.
Back upstairs to ringside, where I wanted to sit down and stare at the picture and autograph just to realize some kids had taken my seat. Umm. So I told 'em, prolly a little briskly, "I was sitting there" and they rushed off so I was able to sit down and do just that for awhile. Well, by then, I was still kinda shaky and felt like I needed to do something to burn some of it off so I decided to visit the merch table. First I saw this
then I saw that
And I decided why not, and left with both. Who knows, I may get to see Johnny compete live again some day too! Yes! I'm pretty sure he was who it was that I first heard about Dreamwave Wrestling from back in 2012 or so... And now I have something to watch while passing out treats for Halloween, haha.
So went back to my seat and intermission ended and the first match back was... Michael Elgin against GW Beck. My first time of seeing a current ROH guy in action, although at the time his work VISA issues had just been handled, and I didn't even know he was allowed back in the states yet, that news broke while I was driving to Lasalle, lol.
Then they had an "all the titles on the line" tag match, and I was introduced to Darin Corbin, who apparently has control over time and so he and his opponent were doing slow motion wrestling. Ridiculous, most hilarious thing ever. Especially when two of the commentators started speaking veeeeeery slowly but the third no-sold it and, once "time" was normal again, he said that something had happened to the other two's mics, but he wasn't sure what. Haha.
The final match was a cage match, and for the first time ever, I got to see crew putting together a cage. While they stalled for time, a wrestler I didn't know came out and shot what sounded like a retirement promo due to neck injuries and got kinda pissy when the crowd was more busy talking amongst themselves than actually listening to him, heh. He left, and we all resumed watching the crew struggling to put the cage up. They had gotten the bottom half connected to the ring alright, but the top half was giving them trouble. They almost overbalanced with one side of it in their hands, and once they finally got it up, we applauded them. I was just glad no one died by the time they got it up, heh. Then the match finally started, Nick Brubaker vs Christian Rose and they actually kicked one of the ceiling tiles out trying to do a move off of the ropes... and it ended when Christian Rose's valet betrayed him and helped Nick to victory. The woman next to me, who was one of two women through the night who helped me get things straight because they knew what the hell they were doing at these events, had the best reaction at this and her son was teasing her the entire way. Haha.
The show ended just before 11, which gave me just enough time to make my way over to KFC and get some food, since I didn't trust myself enough to eat before the event, not wanting to get sick on Ricardo, haha. All in all, it was a great time and I'd like to do it again. Maybe when Bad Influence comes in December... but definitely going to try the day after my birthday, if the weather's alright and if they get someone cool as a guest
A lot of my pictures ended up too dark but I have a few more pictures of Ricardo's match here at this link http://s82.photobucket.com/user/ayumidah/library/Lasalle%20No%20Escape%202014
But that week, there had been nothing from him, so I decided, before I wrapped BtB up for the week, I would get online and search his handle on twitter, see if anything had been said about him lately. Four minutes earlier had been made the first tweet about it: Ricardo Rodriguez released from WWE. It was a screen name I'd never seen before, there was no other mention of it, so I thought hell no, it has to be a joke, right? I gave it a few minutes, refreshed and... WWE.com linked to it on their account. The rest of the night is kind of a blur. I finished BtB, I choked down some supper, I cried bitterly for a few hours, stayed numb the rest of the night. I had all kinds of crazy thoughts running through my head. I wanted him happy, and it disgusted me that WWE wasted him, and the tweets he had been making for months leading up to this made me feel even worse. But underneath all of the hope for his regaining some happiness, and getting to do what he wanted in his craft, I was stuck with the sinking feeling that I may never get to see him compete again, because I still am a bit of a novice on the indy scene.
Fast forward a few weeks. September 13th. I'm writing EuM this time, and I decide again to search Ricardo's twitter handle, see if I missed anything relevant to add to the story. This time, it had been about 30 minutes earlier... the announcement that Ricardo was coming to Lasalle, Illinois, to compete for a fed I'd heard of once before (Dreamwave Wrestling), a few years ago, and hadn't thought much of, mostly because Lasalle is a little town up north, an hour and a half drive away. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I couldn't pass this up. After all, if I could take a bus in the worst temperatures of the winter and stay in a hotel with a broken furnace just to see WWE back last March, God knows somehow I could find my way to frickin Lasalle... especially after it was announced that there would also be autograph signings and photo ops with the guests, which as it turned out was also Evan Bourne.
I had NO Idea what I was doing from the start... when I ordered my ticket online, I was told that I could print off my Paypal receipt and use that to get admission to the event. Ok, swell, except that I don't have a printer, and Mom's doesn't work... so I ended up having to go to the library and figuring out how to print it off of their computers, which I'd never used before. New experiences all around!
So finally, after weeks of anxiety and nervousness over something going wrong mixed in with Well hell, I'm going to meet Ricardo Rodriguez, the day came. Mom and I went to Lasalle, explored the town a little (charming, tiny little place that made home look like a metropolitan area lol), and eventually went to Walmart. What I thought was going to be a quick in-and-out type thing, where we'd look at a few things and then leave, turned into an hour and a half visit where she kept looking at EVERYTHING from toys (bugging me about grandkids) to furniture... I did walk away with this, however, so it wasn't all bad.
All hundred episodes for less than $20! Not bad at all!
So finally we left Walmart and, after I changed clothes and collected my things, heading to Knights of Columbus. Everything I read said doors were opening at 6:30... I arrived at 6:15 just to find that everyone was already inside, and the initial autograph signing/photo op was ending (There were two, one for VIP who had bought front row tickets IE: me, and another during intermission for everyone else). So I watched them leave the ring, confused, and headed that way just to see what was going on. Ricardo and I were staring at each other for a bit, then the guy standing next to him said hi to me, so I started to ask him if the autograph signing was over, then I looked closer and realized I was talking to Evan Bourne. EFF, haha. Turned out they were outside to take a picture with this woman who couldn't get in the ring, and once they were done with that, they did leave so I resigned myself to waiting till intermission.
My next issue was finding a seat, I finally had to ask a worker and he helped me find a seat by the entrance, so I still had a decent enough view of the ring. And I wouldn't be surprised if I end up on the DVD a couple of times, I'll figure THAT out when I buy it... haha.
I had JUST sat down when the preshow match began. I have to keep this all in mind if there's a next time, to go earlier so things aren't so rushed and weird, haha. After that, the actual show began and Daivari was in the first match! It was cool to see him again, I can't even remember how long it's been, heh.
Ricardo's match was third, and it was so good to see him compete, haha. His opponent, Bucky Collins, had an entourage, including some little jerk who was mocking him for "just being a ring announcer", so of course he announced Bucky to the ring. Blech.
So Ricky came to the ring and one of Bucky's entourage took a sign from a fan that was pro-Bucky and was waving it close to the ropes by where Ricardo stood, so Ricardo did the only logical thing: Took the sign and kicked it. Delcardo trademark abusing of annoying fan signs continue! lol
Ricardo had to keep fighting off the entourage, but he did manage some cool offense against Bucky-- his kicks, and a moonsault, among others... and finally he managed to incapacitate the entourage and defeated Bucky so yay!
Evan Bourne's match was the sixth match of the night, and despite low ceilings, he successfully hit his SSP off the top to win. Then it was intermission time so I collected what I needed and headed downstairs. Initially, when I got down there, the line was long, about ten people ahead of me, and I thought ok I have time to watch other people do this, see how it all goes... but nope! Ended up no one realized you had to pay extra for autographs and pictures so guess who went from 10th in line to 1st? Yeah... this girl. And I had no idea what to do. FANTASTIC! Haha. So I walk up to the table and Ricardo's right there, watching me, and I tell told the guy manning all of this that I want his autograph and picture, and Ricardo said something-- I think he was surprised-- then the guy asked me if I had something to be autographed or if I wanted to have one of their printed out pictures autographed... and I pulled out the mini Chimaera poster that I received when I bought Ricardo's action figure and glanced between the two of them. "Is this ok?" while sliding it over to Ricardo. He autographed it then, exclaiming, "Wow, I haven't seen one of these in years!"
So it was picture time and Evan was standing between me and Ricardo which, oh boy, but he budged away so I could join Ricardo... then Ricardo told me I had the camera, and I realized I had to give the guy who took the pictures it, which oh God, I didn't know a damn thing about how this was run, HAHA, so I handed it over, realizing that it was still turned off... so he thankfully figured that out but my camera automatically goes into sleep mode, you have to press the "ok" button again to wake it up, so he STILL couldn't get it, I had to leave Ricardo's side for a second time just to get it to revive, then give it back to the camera guy, feeling more than a little ridiculous, RETURN to Ricardo's side (He felt so warm, considering it was freezing that weekend! I really didn't mind holding onto him for a few more seconds while the guy fought with my ridiculous camera!) and finally the picture took... I reclaimed my camera and I think Ricardo knew I was feeling silly and just wanted to bolt because he spoke up and said, "Wait, let's make sure it took" so I checked and it looked fine, told him as much, looked at him once more and told him thanks, which he reciprocated, we exchanged smiles, and then I bailed, pausing outside of the room to catch my breath and go WTF did I just do... HAHA.
Back upstairs to ringside, where I wanted to sit down and stare at the picture and autograph just to realize some kids had taken my seat. Umm. So I told 'em, prolly a little briskly, "I was sitting there" and they rushed off so I was able to sit down and do just that for awhile. Well, by then, I was still kinda shaky and felt like I needed to do something to burn some of it off so I decided to visit the merch table. First I saw this
then I saw that
And I decided why not, and left with both. Who knows, I may get to see Johnny compete live again some day too! Yes! I'm pretty sure he was who it was that I first heard about Dreamwave Wrestling from back in 2012 or so... And now I have something to watch while passing out treats for Halloween, haha.
So went back to my seat and intermission ended and the first match back was... Michael Elgin against GW Beck. My first time of seeing a current ROH guy in action, although at the time his work VISA issues had just been handled, and I didn't even know he was allowed back in the states yet, that news broke while I was driving to Lasalle, lol.
Then they had an "all the titles on the line" tag match, and I was introduced to Darin Corbin, who apparently has control over time and so he and his opponent were doing slow motion wrestling. Ridiculous, most hilarious thing ever. Especially when two of the commentators started speaking veeeeeery slowly but the third no-sold it and, once "time" was normal again, he said that something had happened to the other two's mics, but he wasn't sure what. Haha.
The final match was a cage match, and for the first time ever, I got to see crew putting together a cage. While they stalled for time, a wrestler I didn't know came out and shot what sounded like a retirement promo due to neck injuries and got kinda pissy when the crowd was more busy talking amongst themselves than actually listening to him, heh. He left, and we all resumed watching the crew struggling to put the cage up. They had gotten the bottom half connected to the ring alright, but the top half was giving them trouble. They almost overbalanced with one side of it in their hands, and once they finally got it up, we applauded them. I was just glad no one died by the time they got it up, heh. Then the match finally started, Nick Brubaker vs Christian Rose and they actually kicked one of the ceiling tiles out trying to do a move off of the ropes... and it ended when Christian Rose's valet betrayed him and helped Nick to victory. The woman next to me, who was one of two women through the night who helped me get things straight because they knew what the hell they were doing at these events, had the best reaction at this and her son was teasing her the entire way. Haha.
The show ended just before 11, which gave me just enough time to make my way over to KFC and get some food, since I didn't trust myself enough to eat before the event, not wanting to get sick on Ricardo, haha. All in all, it was a great time and I'd like to do it again. Maybe when Bad Influence comes in December... but definitely going to try the day after my birthday, if the weather's alright and if they get someone cool as a guest
A lot of my pictures ended up too dark but I have a few more pictures of Ricardo's match here at this link http://s82.photobucket.com/user/ayumidah/library/Lasalle%20No%20Escape%202014