25 years in the making
Wrestling gets a dedication section. 2015 and some of the Wrestlemania build was been kinda so-so. Seeing Roman Reigns earn his stripes was cool, even if the fans ended up turning against him after Triple H got the belt, but NXT has been pretty hot. Joe. *u* We've been watching the Breaking Ground show, which is a great behind the scenes look at NXT superstars. The Edge and Christian Show can be secretly kayfabe breakingly hilarious and I wasn't expecting that at all. But it can also be dreadfully self indulgent. Take the good with the bad, much like a lot of WWE.
Finally got into Lucha Underground after a lot of talking up by Jason. I watched the first half of Season 1 through a marathon before PAX week and there was a lot of good stuff. o.o Rey coming in Season 2 got me super hype so I've been in at the ground level there. Sexy Star is probably my favorite just because she awesome and isn't afraid to mix it up with the guys. Fenix is also hella, too.
Also got into NJPW again after just watching WK9 last year and got suckered into a subscription to NJPW World. WK10 was pretty damn good and with the intrigue of Nakamura, Styles, Anderson, and Gallows jumping on top of the damn fine wrestling and English commentary and getting to know the talent a bit better, I'm still on board, two months later. Between that and Lucha Underground, WWE is almost a little hard to watch. The beginning of summer and work kind of put a damper on my keeping up with it, so I think I'll take a break for a few months until closer to WK season again.
But that's didn't stop the Wrestlemania hype train.
We failed at getting good tickets on the pre-sale so the Wrestlemania Party with a free NXT show seemed like the way to go. I got off, the weather was clear, so Jason and I day tripped to the Cowboy Stadium in an attempt for Wrestlemania tickets. We split up and he started his tradition of being able to snag our seats while I ran the money. Success. :D
As we celebrated and tornadoes started forming in Dallas, we fell into the very impressive arena and walked onto the football field in triumph after exploring our seats and the tunnel. It was a really great time and I'm happy we got to share it. We were about six rows of people back during the NXT show that was General Admission and it was super awesome. I discovered that I loved Alexa Bliss, seeing Asuka in person was awesome, the Hype Bros are great, and Tye Dillinger's "10" getting the crowd into it were some of the amazing parts of being at an NXT show live. Also amazing to "WHAT" along with Stone Cold and see Billy Gunn make a run in.
Absolutely unforgettable night. :) After a long road back, we all made it back safe and sound and ready for Wrestlemania. Over the next few months, Jason would acquire all of our needed tickets for Wrestlemania weekend. :) It's a lot of money, but this is what we planned on and arguably have waited for since we've been wrestling fans. I was super duper excited and honestly, the hype still lives on.
After all the the planning, meetings to get on the same page about hotel rooms (the first one we picked, a mile from the stadium, ended up being the one), all the ticket purchases, getting everything in order at work, the weekend was finally upon us.
Because of late dogg tradition, Piccolo ended up working the day we left but headed over as we were still putting finishing touches on packing. He had a bit of a health scare earlier in the week and after some tests and other things, while some things were up in the air, he didn't have any heavy restrictions (minus that alcohol was discouraged), so the crew was ready to rock and roll as planned.
TX always has an interesting sampling of adult beverages, so we stopped at a Total Wine on the way in and I bought way too much stuff (that's still in my fridge) and because of the Triple H Title Plate Hype, talked Jason into heading downtown to check out the Superstore.
Superb call as we managed some free parking and walked into the place as it was quieting down. Spencer and Piccolo gave up and headed back to the hotel. Jason and I were MAD HYPE. We were so excited to be there and we snapping a bunch of pictures with all of the banners and things before heading upstairs to check out the store.
Ran into Drew, Gretchen, and James and talked to them for a while before it was time to close up shop, buy a bunch of stuff (haha, hello another $400 from Jason) and head back to the hotel. The hotel, being so close, was all decked out in Wrestlemania stuff and I was ready for some food tourism.
Boston's sounded great from the take out menu left at the volunteer desk, so we had that and I feel so bad that we've never had it before! Uhhhh, pizza so good. Boston Cream Pie so good. Wings so good. Highly recommended and I'd love to go again.
Next day was nothing but Takeover so I budgeted our time (a thing I'd be doing all weekend) and had us swing by Round One. Besides Spencer, we all pretty much had our own thing to be excited about. Piccolo tore it up at SF4 and Star Wars Battle Pod, Jason got his karaoke on, and I played some of the new rhythm games. I thought it was a great time. :)
Talked us out of stopping at the hotel on the way back and just tore straight to the arena. I thought I missed my chance for an NXT Takeover Dallas shirt, but thankfully, I got it. (And then it showed up on the shop, lol)
So many people. *.* Such a long line. It was only 9,000 people, but the arena was small and there really wasn't a bad seat in the house. Even though it's a new venue, the arena was from the 50's and you could tell. But still...massive, massive hype.
And the show absolutely delivered. Every match (well, Aries/Corbin was just average) was off the chain hype. The crowd was insane with loud chants and even chants we've never heard before. "FIGHT FOREVER, BOTH THESE GUYS" It was a treat to be a part of it live. Spencer even got into Balor (I wish there was a regular demon entrance and not the chainsaw, but whatever) and is taking his son to the NXT House Show back home with us. I don't even have to talk about how amazing it was to see Nakamura live. And Zayn absolutely brought it, too.
The show was so amazing, we went back to the hotel, gassed out, and pretty much immediately put it back on. I could watch it again right now and be completely okay with that. By the time Asuka/Bailey was on, everyone was tired, so I turned out the lights and crawled into bed, too.
Axxess/Hall of Fame day was next. Jason was going at usual speed and we needed an extra camera battery, so Piccolo and I walked to Wal-Mart (a bit of a mistake) for some food and to strike out at the battery. We swung by the Stadium Pro Shop before they got absolutely devoured on the day of the event. Piccolo got me McDonald's and I won some more. @.@
We walked back in time to go and we left the Nature Boy alone to his own devices while we went down to check out all of the sweet wrestling swag. The line to get in was very winding and it almost took 30 minutes or more just to get through it. They kept us entertained with the WWE Network, but once we finally got to the entrance, the music was pumping (Dean Ambrose) and the hype was huge.
Jason was getting a decent pop in his Million Dollar Man outfit and I was pretty excited about checking out the Elimination Chamber. As we walked by, Ted Dibiase himself was taking pictures in the Chamber. *.* We fell in line and thankfully Jason got noticed a little bit before Dibiase's session ended. They brought him to the front of the line and he got pictures and some words with the Real Million Dollar Man. Dibiase even took a picture of his own on his own phone and Jason waited for us as we saw Darren Young and stepped into the chamber.
It was a one of a kind moment and really nothing more fitting for Jason's first Wrestlemania. We took in some of the other sites like belts, NXT matches (horray Nakamura and Alexa Bliss :3), and the whole memorabilia area. Seeing some of that stuff in person was so fantastic. Warrior's Gear, Shango's stuff (and even a poster from the event here that completely changed the day of!), the old WCW letters, more belts, and countless more cool things. We missed another Nakamura match while we were in the gallery, but who cares, we saw Takeover live.
It was getting close to time to go, so we mounted up and dropped Piccolo back off and got back to head to the Hall of Fame. $20 parking was kind of gangster, but, we only paid $5 for Axxess, so I call it a wash. While I won't go out of my way to go to the Hall of Fame ceremony again, it was cool to be there and I was there when Sting announced his retirement. Charles Wright is one of my all time faves, so it was great to see him inducted. A lot of cool stories, but it is a long ceremony. A nice look behind the curtain.
With Sting's retirement, though...I teared up, I'll be honest. We'll never get to see him take on the Taker...but things happen for a reason, I suppose. The people sitting behind us were pretty disrespectful and drinking a lot and I wanted them to shut up. That transitions well into Jason's friends that we met up with after the show. Danny is all right, but Preston is just a bit above a piece of shit. Mouthy kid with all of the worst male traits. He gets away with a lot because he's decent looking and charismatic, but I really hate the choices that he makes. It came to a head after Wrestlemania where I threw a lime at him for a dumb ass rape joke he was making. I swear.
We took them back to their hotel and stopped at Whataburger on the way, with the club crowd starting to roll in a bit after we got there. I wanted a pic of the Wrestlemania logo on the Omni, but it's a weird location so that didn't pan out too well. I was very ready to go at any time and the plot thickened as Azzy showed back up with Spencer a little bit before we got back.
Ric will be Ric. We watched the end of Constantine and I was pretty much ready to call it a night while they were still Netflix and Chilling. They left shortly there after and Ric didn't come back until the next morning. He landed on the couch and slept as we walked to Sherlock's for lunch.
Everywhere was pretty packed with all of the Wrestlemania crowd, but thankfully sherlock's is huge and has multiple rooms. We sat on the quiet side, got a fun waitress (that Preston kept flirting with) and was soon joined by Paul and his group. It was a lot of fun to chat and make predictions before the show. We had to hustle out because the kitchen had a long turn around but we made it back to wake up Spencer, get the tickets, and start walking to the show.
I'm still excited just thinking about the walk to the arena. A lot of people offering rides (feels like a great gig if you could keep the profits) and the crowds were starting to get thick. By the time we got up, maybe about the same time as doors, there were thousands of people around the stadium. We entered one of the least crowded entrances (there were long lines everywhere else) by the Pro Shop and got in easy. They were demolished and we got to walk through the Club area on the way to our seats.
It was so amazing to see the stage, the rig, the ring and the crowd start to fill up in person. We got to our seats as Ryback and Kalisto were coming out because there were SO MANY people there. As I sat, a blue light that colored the crowd was shining right into my eyes. This wasn't going to fly. I needed a hat. Thankfully, Jason needed an AJ Styles hat that they were selling.
I was going to try to snake back to the pro shop side of the arena to get the hat where I saw it but that was NOT happening. Way, way waaaaaaay too many people. Some hallways were at a complete standstill. Like the most crowded convention, doubled or tripled. 100,000 in one building isn't a joke. I gave up and tried a closer pro shop and they had it and the lines were much shorter, so I managed to score it during the undercard Divas match. And arguably the last "Divas" match. :'D
Settled in and got ready for the main card. It speaks for itself but seeing the HiaC spot was INSANE live. Some of the entrances looked radically different from our seats (like Taker's had a portal like quality, the money effect was more awesome in person, and I prefer Stephanie's address live versus on tape) and unless they were in a hold, it was pretty easy to watch the ring versus the giant screen. But it was great having the option! Speaking of the screen, the crowd prompts are simultaneously awkward, embarrassing, but also sometimes sadly needed.
What a show. It was a very long one, but after it was all over, there was still a feeling of surreal-ness. Once we finally filtered out of the arena, got some tasty tacos from Rollin Stone, had the aforementioned incident, missed seeing Cass (:C), was super glad to not be driving (JEEEEZ), and walked back to the arena still under the glow.
Woke up and we saw a Gino's East on the way to Sherlock's on Sunday so I was pretty determined to eat there. Walking was a little tiring and the food was quite as on point as I would have hoped. Like there was less cornmeal dust or it had been frozen before or something. But it was still tasty! Just not as mindblowing for all involved as I would have hoped.
Walked back and got ready for Raw. Paying $20 for parking just seemed easiest and we were getting ready for the most crazy crowd of the year. We were a bit farther away for Raw than the Hall of Fame but it was not a problem. It didn't take long at all for the crowd to start going crazy. Travel package, eeeeeeeey, we want some Bo Train, and Beach Ball City were in full effect. Amazing stuff. A lot of cool debuts and I'm really glad we got to hear the full Enzo and Cass entrances and chant along. :3 Raw's been going in an interesting direction, so I hope it stays that way!
Of all the shows to not stick around after, I wish we would have hung around the arena a bit more (New Day Rocks over car horns is amazing) but it was still an A+ way to end the weekend.
But, in true Nature Boy fashion, Ric wanted a little something else. He disappeared into the night and as we were packing up the room, he reappeared with Azzy, requesting fornication in the room. I wish I was making this up. We declined and while we were loading up the car, he probably did anyway.
This is where the squad splits up and Jason and I headed to Super Chix since it was close and spicy chicken is spicy. Dozed off and on the last stop before leaving Texas, found TROPICAL SPRITE REMIX. It's baaaaack. Ugh, and it tastes just like it did. So delicious. I bought like six bottles. >_> Hell of a lot better than the Mountain Dew Black Label that we encountered. And the new 1893 Pepsi, for that matter.
Made it home and that was the weekend. In the days after, we're still under the glow of the show. It's been a couple months and it still doesn't feel real. Just for the buzz and the surrounding events, it's tempting to check it out in Orlando next year to try to see Amanda, but I don't think that's feasible.
Wrestlemania...it's fever.
Finally got into Lucha Underground after a lot of talking up by Jason. I watched the first half of Season 1 through a marathon before PAX week and there was a lot of good stuff. o.o Rey coming in Season 2 got me super hype so I've been in at the ground level there. Sexy Star is probably my favorite just because she awesome and isn't afraid to mix it up with the guys. Fenix is also hella, too.
Also got into NJPW again after just watching WK9 last year and got suckered into a subscription to NJPW World. WK10 was pretty damn good and with the intrigue of Nakamura, Styles, Anderson, and Gallows jumping on top of the damn fine wrestling and English commentary and getting to know the talent a bit better, I'm still on board, two months later. Between that and Lucha Underground, WWE is almost a little hard to watch. The beginning of summer and work kind of put a damper on my keeping up with it, so I think I'll take a break for a few months until closer to WK season again.
But that's didn't stop the Wrestlemania hype train.
We failed at getting good tickets on the pre-sale so the Wrestlemania Party with a free NXT show seemed like the way to go. I got off, the weather was clear, so Jason and I day tripped to the Cowboy Stadium in an attempt for Wrestlemania tickets. We split up and he started his tradition of being able to snag our seats while I ran the money. Success. :D
As we celebrated and tornadoes started forming in Dallas, we fell into the very impressive arena and walked onto the football field in triumph after exploring our seats and the tunnel. It was a really great time and I'm happy we got to share it. We were about six rows of people back during the NXT show that was General Admission and it was super awesome. I discovered that I loved Alexa Bliss, seeing Asuka in person was awesome, the Hype Bros are great, and Tye Dillinger's "10" getting the crowd into it were some of the amazing parts of being at an NXT show live. Also amazing to "WHAT" along with Stone Cold and see Billy Gunn make a run in.
Absolutely unforgettable night. :) After a long road back, we all made it back safe and sound and ready for Wrestlemania. Over the next few months, Jason would acquire all of our needed tickets for Wrestlemania weekend. :) It's a lot of money, but this is what we planned on and arguably have waited for since we've been wrestling fans. I was super duper excited and honestly, the hype still lives on.
After all the the planning, meetings to get on the same page about hotel rooms (the first one we picked, a mile from the stadium, ended up being the one), all the ticket purchases, getting everything in order at work, the weekend was finally upon us.
Because of late dogg tradition, Piccolo ended up working the day we left but headed over as we were still putting finishing touches on packing. He had a bit of a health scare earlier in the week and after some tests and other things, while some things were up in the air, he didn't have any heavy restrictions (minus that alcohol was discouraged), so the crew was ready to rock and roll as planned.
TX always has an interesting sampling of adult beverages, so we stopped at a Total Wine on the way in and I bought way too much stuff (that's still in my fridge) and because of the Triple H Title Plate Hype, talked Jason into heading downtown to check out the Superstore.
Superb call as we managed some free parking and walked into the place as it was quieting down. Spencer and Piccolo gave up and headed back to the hotel. Jason and I were MAD HYPE. We were so excited to be there and we snapping a bunch of pictures with all of the banners and things before heading upstairs to check out the store.
Ran into Drew, Gretchen, and James and talked to them for a while before it was time to close up shop, buy a bunch of stuff (haha, hello another $400 from Jason) and head back to the hotel. The hotel, being so close, was all decked out in Wrestlemania stuff and I was ready for some food tourism.
Boston's sounded great from the take out menu left at the volunteer desk, so we had that and I feel so bad that we've never had it before! Uhhhh, pizza so good. Boston Cream Pie so good. Wings so good. Highly recommended and I'd love to go again.
Next day was nothing but Takeover so I budgeted our time (a thing I'd be doing all weekend) and had us swing by Round One. Besides Spencer, we all pretty much had our own thing to be excited about. Piccolo tore it up at SF4 and Star Wars Battle Pod, Jason got his karaoke on, and I played some of the new rhythm games. I thought it was a great time. :)
Talked us out of stopping at the hotel on the way back and just tore straight to the arena. I thought I missed my chance for an NXT Takeover Dallas shirt, but thankfully, I got it. (And then it showed up on the shop, lol)
So many people. *.* Such a long line. It was only 9,000 people, but the arena was small and there really wasn't a bad seat in the house. Even though it's a new venue, the arena was from the 50's and you could tell. But still...massive, massive hype.
And the show absolutely delivered. Every match (well, Aries/Corbin was just average) was off the chain hype. The crowd was insane with loud chants and even chants we've never heard before. "FIGHT FOREVER, BOTH THESE GUYS" It was a treat to be a part of it live. Spencer even got into Balor (I wish there was a regular demon entrance and not the chainsaw, but whatever) and is taking his son to the NXT House Show back home with us. I don't even have to talk about how amazing it was to see Nakamura live. And Zayn absolutely brought it, too.
The show was so amazing, we went back to the hotel, gassed out, and pretty much immediately put it back on. I could watch it again right now and be completely okay with that. By the time Asuka/Bailey was on, everyone was tired, so I turned out the lights and crawled into bed, too.
Axxess/Hall of Fame day was next. Jason was going at usual speed and we needed an extra camera battery, so Piccolo and I walked to Wal-Mart (a bit of a mistake) for some food and to strike out at the battery. We swung by the Stadium Pro Shop before they got absolutely devoured on the day of the event. Piccolo got me McDonald's and I won some more. @.@
We walked back in time to go and we left the Nature Boy alone to his own devices while we went down to check out all of the sweet wrestling swag. The line to get in was very winding and it almost took 30 minutes or more just to get through it. They kept us entertained with the WWE Network, but once we finally got to the entrance, the music was pumping (Dean Ambrose) and the hype was huge.
Jason was getting a decent pop in his Million Dollar Man outfit and I was pretty excited about checking out the Elimination Chamber. As we walked by, Ted Dibiase himself was taking pictures in the Chamber. *.* We fell in line and thankfully Jason got noticed a little bit before Dibiase's session ended. They brought him to the front of the line and he got pictures and some words with the Real Million Dollar Man. Dibiase even took a picture of his own on his own phone and Jason waited for us as we saw Darren Young and stepped into the chamber.
It was a one of a kind moment and really nothing more fitting for Jason's first Wrestlemania. We took in some of the other sites like belts, NXT matches (horray Nakamura and Alexa Bliss :3), and the whole memorabilia area. Seeing some of that stuff in person was so fantastic. Warrior's Gear, Shango's stuff (and even a poster from the event here that completely changed the day of!), the old WCW letters, more belts, and countless more cool things. We missed another Nakamura match while we were in the gallery, but who cares, we saw Takeover live.
It was getting close to time to go, so we mounted up and dropped Piccolo back off and got back to head to the Hall of Fame. $20 parking was kind of gangster, but, we only paid $5 for Axxess, so I call it a wash. While I won't go out of my way to go to the Hall of Fame ceremony again, it was cool to be there and I was there when Sting announced his retirement. Charles Wright is one of my all time faves, so it was great to see him inducted. A lot of cool stories, but it is a long ceremony. A nice look behind the curtain.
With Sting's retirement, though...I teared up, I'll be honest. We'll never get to see him take on the Taker...but things happen for a reason, I suppose. The people sitting behind us were pretty disrespectful and drinking a lot and I wanted them to shut up. That transitions well into Jason's friends that we met up with after the show. Danny is all right, but Preston is just a bit above a piece of shit. Mouthy kid with all of the worst male traits. He gets away with a lot because he's decent looking and charismatic, but I really hate the choices that he makes. It came to a head after Wrestlemania where I threw a lime at him for a dumb ass rape joke he was making. I swear.
We took them back to their hotel and stopped at Whataburger on the way, with the club crowd starting to roll in a bit after we got there. I wanted a pic of the Wrestlemania logo on the Omni, but it's a weird location so that didn't pan out too well. I was very ready to go at any time and the plot thickened as Azzy showed back up with Spencer a little bit before we got back.
Ric will be Ric. We watched the end of Constantine and I was pretty much ready to call it a night while they were still Netflix and Chilling. They left shortly there after and Ric didn't come back until the next morning. He landed on the couch and slept as we walked to Sherlock's for lunch.
Everywhere was pretty packed with all of the Wrestlemania crowd, but thankfully sherlock's is huge and has multiple rooms. We sat on the quiet side, got a fun waitress (that Preston kept flirting with) and was soon joined by Paul and his group. It was a lot of fun to chat and make predictions before the show. We had to hustle out because the kitchen had a long turn around but we made it back to wake up Spencer, get the tickets, and start walking to the show.
I'm still excited just thinking about the walk to the arena. A lot of people offering rides (feels like a great gig if you could keep the profits) and the crowds were starting to get thick. By the time we got up, maybe about the same time as doors, there were thousands of people around the stadium. We entered one of the least crowded entrances (there were long lines everywhere else) by the Pro Shop and got in easy. They were demolished and we got to walk through the Club area on the way to our seats.
It was so amazing to see the stage, the rig, the ring and the crowd start to fill up in person. We got to our seats as Ryback and Kalisto were coming out because there were SO MANY people there. As I sat, a blue light that colored the crowd was shining right into my eyes. This wasn't going to fly. I needed a hat. Thankfully, Jason needed an AJ Styles hat that they were selling.
I was going to try to snake back to the pro shop side of the arena to get the hat where I saw it but that was NOT happening. Way, way waaaaaaay too many people. Some hallways were at a complete standstill. Like the most crowded convention, doubled or tripled. 100,000 in one building isn't a joke. I gave up and tried a closer pro shop and they had it and the lines were much shorter, so I managed to score it during the undercard Divas match. And arguably the last "Divas" match. :'D
Settled in and got ready for the main card. It speaks for itself but seeing the HiaC spot was INSANE live. Some of the entrances looked radically different from our seats (like Taker's had a portal like quality, the money effect was more awesome in person, and I prefer Stephanie's address live versus on tape) and unless they were in a hold, it was pretty easy to watch the ring versus the giant screen. But it was great having the option! Speaking of the screen, the crowd prompts are simultaneously awkward, embarrassing, but also sometimes sadly needed.
What a show. It was a very long one, but after it was all over, there was still a feeling of surreal-ness. Once we finally filtered out of the arena, got some tasty tacos from Rollin Stone, had the aforementioned incident, missed seeing Cass (:C), was super glad to not be driving (JEEEEZ), and walked back to the arena still under the glow.
Woke up and we saw a Gino's East on the way to Sherlock's on Sunday so I was pretty determined to eat there. Walking was a little tiring and the food was quite as on point as I would have hoped. Like there was less cornmeal dust or it had been frozen before or something. But it was still tasty! Just not as mindblowing for all involved as I would have hoped.
Walked back and got ready for Raw. Paying $20 for parking just seemed easiest and we were getting ready for the most crazy crowd of the year. We were a bit farther away for Raw than the Hall of Fame but it was not a problem. It didn't take long at all for the crowd to start going crazy. Travel package, eeeeeeeey, we want some Bo Train, and Beach Ball City were in full effect. Amazing stuff. A lot of cool debuts and I'm really glad we got to hear the full Enzo and Cass entrances and chant along. :3 Raw's been going in an interesting direction, so I hope it stays that way!
Of all the shows to not stick around after, I wish we would have hung around the arena a bit more (New Day Rocks over car horns is amazing) but it was still an A+ way to end the weekend.
But, in true Nature Boy fashion, Ric wanted a little something else. He disappeared into the night and as we were packing up the room, he reappeared with Azzy, requesting fornication in the room. I wish I was making this up. We declined and while we were loading up the car, he probably did anyway.
This is where the squad splits up and Jason and I headed to Super Chix since it was close and spicy chicken is spicy. Dozed off and on the last stop before leaving Texas, found TROPICAL SPRITE REMIX. It's baaaaack. Ugh, and it tastes just like it did. So delicious. I bought like six bottles. >_> Hell of a lot better than the Mountain Dew Black Label that we encountered. And the new 1893 Pepsi, for that matter.
Made it home and that was the weekend. In the days after, we're still under the glow of the show. It's been a couple months and it still doesn't feel real. Just for the buzz and the surrounding events, it's tempting to check it out in Orlando next year to try to see Amanda, but I don't think that's feasible.
Wrestlemania...it's fever.