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Wrestlemania Experience

Hey Scott, been a big fan for a long time. I live 2 miles from the Meadowlands, so figured going to one of the Axxess events and WrestleMania was too good to pass up, and figured I'd give you some info on what went down.

I went to the Saturday 1:00 Axxess event at the Izod Center, and got VIP tickets for a Randy Orton meet and greet (I'm an Orton mark, sue me). We got there and took a walk around the concourse and they had some cool exhibits - a bunch of title belts on display, an opportunity to climp the Money in the Bank ladder with a cardboard cutout Dolph Ziggler,

HHH was the first VIP signee from 1-2:30, so we waited in the crowd and they interviewed Jerry Lawler and watched some matches (mostly NXT wrestlers and divas) until it was time to line up to meet Orton at 2:30. When it was time to meet Orton, he signed an 8x10, shook his head, said hello and good luck, and got a pic with him. He was friendly enough and showed genuine appreciation (at least as much as you can while signing autographs for 300 people).
Afterwards we got a tour of Raw behind the scenes, and Sgt Slaughter was there to greet us on the set of where they normally interview people. He was friendly and was actually talking to a US army member in front of us, which was pretty cool. We got to see Vince's actual office, the "office" backstage area that they use to film backstage segments, the men's locker room, seamstress room, and makeup room. At the end we got to visit the gorilla position and got to take a picture on and walk down the Raw ramp (they set up a lot of stuff since Raw is taking place there on Monday anyway).

There was about an hour left, which included more matches, and then CM Punk and Paul Heyman came out (dressed in suits, obviously on their way to the Hall of Fame right when this was finished). They talked some smack to some girl on some guy's shoulders giving them the finger, and kept referencing to her during their 15-20 minutes out there. It was your basic Q & A session, but you can tell they really enjoyed it. The afternoon ended with a Heath Slater VS R-Truth match.

The next day was Wrestlemania. We got to our seats around 5:30, with the pre-show starting at 6. Right away there was a large "Cena sucks" chant. Our seats were in section 233, which wasn't bad, except one of the giant pillars holding up the Statue of Liberty above the ring was directly in my line of sight of the middle of the ring, so I found myself looking up at the video screen a majority of the night. $240 to watch on a giant video screen! Pre-show was pretty boring, until the IC title match, which was also pretty boring, but at least it was a match.

The opening was pretty strange with no "America The Beautiful", and the 6 man tag match started things off. Sheamus got a decent pop, Orton's pop was one of the biggest of the night, and The Shield winning also got a pretty big reaction. Ryback/Henry was whatever.

Bryan got probably the biggest pop of the night after the match doing his "YES!" chant. Jericho got a big pop, Fandango got a bunch of "you can't wrestle" chants until the match actually started. Next was P. Diddy and everyone in my section was booing him hard.

The biggest reaction during Del Rio/Swagger was a loud "We want Ziggler!" chant. Otherwise, the match was pretty heatless. When Del Rio detained and we realized Ziggler wasn't cashing in, there was booing.

We had heard a rumor that Living Colour was going to be playing CM Punk down to the ring since they were playing the Irving Plaza the night before, and it was awesome. Punk easily was the most over wrestler the entire night and got the biggest pop based on his entrance. The Undertaker entrance, especially at a Wrestlemania, is awesome to experience live. Easily this was the match of the night, as I knew Taker would win, but they even had me expressing some doubt at the outcome, which is really all you can ask for an Undertaker match at Wrestlemania.

HHH vs Brock was HEATLESS. I mean, you could hear a pin drop during the first 15 minutes of that match. Clearly they should have just kept the 8 man mixed tag, even if for a 30 second match, because the crowd was nowhere near ready for this one. Especially since everyone knew HHH would win, there were some loud "boring" chants. The crowd started getting into it a little more once Brock F-5'ed HBK, but otherwise we couldn't care less about it. The entrances were more interesting than the match.

They introduced the Hall of Fame class, and then literally 10 seconds later, Cena's music hit to massive boos. I was expecting a video package beforehand, but I mean we did get a video package hyping it in between every other match on the card, so at least they did us that favor. Rock came out and was the clear face, at least based on entrances.  The match was great to experience live, and based on that I felt it was better than last year's match. However, not sure how it played out on TV. Cena won, and once again, boos rained down on Cena. Cena and Rock shook hands to even more boos, and then show's over.
Overall I had a good time, as Wrestlemania was something I always wanted to experience live. I included some pictures, not sure if you can post them in the blog but if you can, feel free. Just felt I would share my experience being there.Inline image 1Inline image 2Inline image 3Inline image 4Inline image 5Inline image 6Inline image 7Inline image 8

Comments

  1. Five hours of wrestling and not a single company-altering event happened. Cena should not be walking out of Wrestlemania as the conquering hero and new WWE champion in 2013. The Rock shouldn't pass the torch (which is what that bullshit on the stage was) to a 36-year-old that has been with the company for eleven years and been in the main event and/or championship match of every Wrestlemania since 2005. Triple H should not be cleaning pinning the biggest sports-related draw that the company has just so he and his butt-buddy can wank each other off in the middle of the ring and have a "Wrestlemania Moment™" as Cole would say, and did so at least a dozen times last night. Undertaker keeping the streak alive does NOTHING. Each year it's the exact same match between him and his opponent. Finisher, near fall, finisher, near fall, finisher, near fall OH MY GOD HE KICKED OUT OF THE TOMBSTONE, finisher, near fall, another Tombstone, pin. Then the Undertaker acts dead, comes back to life, looks around, drops to his knee and does the pose while the lights turn purple and thunder booms, and finally his record appears on the entrance stage. It went from "wow, he's undefeated at Wrestlemania... eight wins, no losses!" to "How many wins is 'Taker going to be able to rack up?!" to "Somebody is going to come along and put an end to the streak, thus getting a HUGE push out of it!" to being the biggest foregone conclusion match of the year... and it's at Wrestlemania! Holy shit.


    I feel so bad for Rhodes and Sandow. They were blatantly screwed in favor of P. Diddy and a bunch of video packages. I wonder if they'll at least get the standard Wrestlemania six-figure bonus out of it?

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  2. I wonder if you could've asked an usher for a seat change. I remember reading about several people last year who told an usher they couldn't see the ring due to the ring pillars and got moved to a place where they had a better line-of-sight, some even getting better seats than they paid for.

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  3. you shook his head? Did he say anything?

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  4. Imagine if Hollywood Hogan came out and betrayed Rock and Cena ended up joining the nWo? That's what I was hoping for.

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  5. ROFL WHERE IS THAT FROM? ITS NOT THE FIRST TIME, I'VE READ THAT

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  6. FFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN

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  7. It's a crime that WWE purposely sold seats with obstructed views for hundreds of dollars without noting so on the ticket. The same exact thing happened last year with the palm trees in each corner holding up the canopy, so to go through the issues they did last year and do it again this year is shameful. Thankfully with next year's show in the Superdome, they shouldn't have that issue, but I'm going to get tickets that aren't in the corners of the building just to be safe.

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  8. Anybody know how much they charged for those upper bowl seats? That stadium is huge, I can't imagine being that far away and trying to see the show. I bet if you measured out the line of sight from some of those seats it would work out to being like a block away. You'd have to get a better show staying at home, right?

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  9. I was at Axxess on Sunday and our Q&A was with Ron Simmons. He teased leaving without saying Damn and of course came back and said it. The lines to get any kind of autograph were crazy long. We waited 30 minutes for Sin Cara and still found out there was more of a wait so got food. The only problem was there was nowhere to sit and eat, so people were on the floor. The only matches were with NXT guys.


    We were near you in 231 and thankfully weren't obstructed. The wrestlers looked pretty tiny and must have been super small to those in the 300s. I think the upper bowl seats were $75, It was odd for them to have Lillian come out and then NOT sing the anthem. I was frustrated that Howard Finkel was there for the Hall of Fame guys. If the Fink is in the building, at least let him announce the main event. Big "Sexual Chocolate" chant for Mark Henry, which feels really awkward to chant in public, especially in front of your kids.

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