MANIA WEEKEND REVIEW
- 04/03/2006 (11:27:58 pm)
- A Fan
…..
Thanks to WF member MrWrestleMania for this nice review:
Well just returned home from a three day trip to Chi-town for WrestleMania weekend!
My trip began Friday morning when we left home in Indiana and begun our 4
hour trip. Way back in September (yes, September) my dad and I ordered a
WrestleMania travel package from WWE. They were offering different packages,
all different prices. We end up buying the cheapest one (silver package),
but still received tickets to all the events for Mania weekend -- just not
as good of seats. Although, we had no clue on where we would be sitting all
weekend until we arrived at the hotel. They kept all your information until
the arrival day.
Surprisingly I really didn't see that much "city advertising" for Mania
except for these street light banners. I was really surprised.
My trip began Friday morning when we left home in Indiana and begun our 4
hour trip. Way back in September (yes, September) my dad and I ordered a
WrestleMania travel package from WWE. They were offering different packages,
all different prices. We end up buying the cheapest one (silver package),
but still received tickets to all the events for Mania weekend -- just not
as good of seats. Although, we had no clue on where we would be sitting all
weekend until we arrived at the hotel. They kept all your information until
the arrival day.
Surprisingly I really didn't see that much "city advertising" for Mania
except for these street light banners. I was really surprised.
Once we arrived at the hotel we really had nothing planned for that night.
So, we figured we would maybe hit a couple local signings. Figuring it would
be impossible to go to all we had to pick one, which was the 'Divas Do New
York' DVD signing at Best Buy with Trish and Torrie. We get there around
maybe an hour before they are to arrive and the line is already stretched to
the back of the building. Keep in mind that Chicago is given the name "the
windy city" for a reason. I think it was some 40 degrees and it began to
rain here and there while waiting in line and of course with no overhead. As
expected, it took the longest time to finally get in and even longer to
reach the table. Both Trish and Torrie were very nice in person and were
willing to sign whatever you had. But, as always, there has to be security
rushing you at all times therefore making the expierience seem like a whole
maybe 20 seconds? But, I will say it was definitely worth it. I ended up
getting a WrestleMania 22 T-shirt, Divas 06', and Divas 04' magazines
signed.
Saturday came and that meant WWE Hall of Fame, but before that Mid-day
Madness, which was short of "madness." All that was was basically a big
rush, strict autograph signing. It was held at our hotel, which was full of
WWE travel package buyers, which made it conveinient. They held two
different ones with the large amount of people, but you were only able to
attend one, which was the one on your ticket. In our session was Josh
Matthews, Todd Grisham, Goldust, Chris Masters, Chris Benoit, Teddy Long,
Kristal, Chavo Guerrero, Bobby Lashley, and Mickie James. Security kept
getting on me for having them sign more than one item. I believe it was
three times they said something to be personally and the last he just came
up to me and I said "Got it, I'm done" and he comes up to me and stares me
striaght in the eye and says "I know." Hahaha I mean it wasn't like the
whole damn table of Superstars were waiting on me. The line was just stopped
at times and I wasn't just going to stand there and not have them sign more
than one thing, come on now. I had the chance to sit down and talk with both
Lashley and Mickie since they were doing only pictures and since they were
having camera troubles; my luck. I mentioned to Mickie that I met Trish the
night before and she looked at me real well.. "pshycoly" (is that a word?)
and said "Did you tell her I am going to beat her up?" I laughed and then
Lashley said, "Well I personally like Trish better as the women's champion."
Mickie looks at Lashley and again with the psycho stare just stares at him
and has the look like "I can't believe you just said that!" Lashley begins
to laugh while Mickie continues to stare. Throughout all this I was in
between the two, haha. Both are really great in person.
After that we went back to the room and rested up for the Hall of Fame
ceremony. The theater was in walking distance from our hotel which saved us
a good $15 parking. It was nice to see all the fans dressed up (well.. most)
to honor the career of a short few of the business. Our seats were right
under the balcony on the main floor. About 15 minutes before things started
they began to bring in both current and past Superstars of the company. It
was interesting to see everyones family or girlfriends -- also interesting,
a rare appearance by Moolah and Mae Young! Everyone received some kind of
welcome from the fans as they came in and sat down. By the way, how many
kids is Stephanie have in her!?
The ceremony itself was all in all a good show. It was slow here and there
at times, but in my opinion it was a well put together event. By far my
favorite inductee was surprisingly Sensational Sherri. Yes, I know Bret Hart
was there. Sherri was absolutely awesome, she had the crowd going and was
interacting. From her stories to her loud screech she really stood out as a
crowd favorite. I remember one time a fan yelled something, I guess
disrespectful at her, and she immediately stopped what she was saying and
looked over in the direction of the fan and said something along the lines
of "You can shut up. You payed for your ticket and now we have your money,
so you can sit there and be quiet, this is my time." I hadn't really known
much about Sherri and never realized the hundreds of things she had done for
the company until this weekend. She gained my respect, that's for sure. The
induction of Eddie Guerrero I thought was good and done right with his wife
and kids there. There was a lot of emotion going through the theater with
this induction, I even got a little teary-eyed. I could hear this girl
absolutely bawling behind me. It was a very sad moment. The induction of
Bret Hart was of course the highlight of the night. I forget how many years
Bret had been out of the company and hadn't made an appearance, but it was
definitely cool to actually be there in person to witness this. Bret seemed
very pleased to be there. Interestlingly, I found it funny that they had
Michaels sitting back some and never showed him once. The crowd just sat
back and took in everything and listened to his classic stories and what he
had to say knowing this could very well be the last time we see Bret. I
think it's safe to say that. Very good, solid show. Something I will never
forget. We left with a nice program and a medal coin.
So, we figured we would maybe hit a couple local signings. Figuring it would
be impossible to go to all we had to pick one, which was the 'Divas Do New
York' DVD signing at Best Buy with Trish and Torrie. We get there around
maybe an hour before they are to arrive and the line is already stretched to
the back of the building. Keep in mind that Chicago is given the name "the
windy city" for a reason. I think it was some 40 degrees and it began to
rain here and there while waiting in line and of course with no overhead. As
expected, it took the longest time to finally get in and even longer to
reach the table. Both Trish and Torrie were very nice in person and were
willing to sign whatever you had. But, as always, there has to be security
rushing you at all times therefore making the expierience seem like a whole
maybe 20 seconds? But, I will say it was definitely worth it. I ended up
getting a WrestleMania 22 T-shirt, Divas 06', and Divas 04' magazines
signed.
Saturday came and that meant WWE Hall of Fame, but before that Mid-day
Madness, which was short of "madness." All that was was basically a big
rush, strict autograph signing. It was held at our hotel, which was full of
WWE travel package buyers, which made it conveinient. They held two
different ones with the large amount of people, but you were only able to
attend one, which was the one on your ticket. In our session was Josh
Matthews, Todd Grisham, Goldust, Chris Masters, Chris Benoit, Teddy Long,
Kristal, Chavo Guerrero, Bobby Lashley, and Mickie James. Security kept
getting on me for having them sign more than one item. I believe it was
three times they said something to be personally and the last he just came
up to me and I said "Got it, I'm done" and he comes up to me and stares me
striaght in the eye and says "I know." Hahaha I mean it wasn't like the
whole damn table of Superstars were waiting on me. The line was just stopped
at times and I wasn't just going to stand there and not have them sign more
than one thing, come on now. I had the chance to sit down and talk with both
Lashley and Mickie since they were doing only pictures and since they were
having camera troubles; my luck. I mentioned to Mickie that I met Trish the
night before and she looked at me real well.. "pshycoly" (is that a word?)
and said "Did you tell her I am going to beat her up?" I laughed and then
Lashley said, "Well I personally like Trish better as the women's champion."
Mickie looks at Lashley and again with the psycho stare just stares at him
and has the look like "I can't believe you just said that!" Lashley begins
to laugh while Mickie continues to stare. Throughout all this I was in
between the two, haha. Both are really great in person.
After that we went back to the room and rested up for the Hall of Fame
ceremony. The theater was in walking distance from our hotel which saved us
a good $15 parking. It was nice to see all the fans dressed up (well.. most)
to honor the career of a short few of the business. Our seats were right
under the balcony on the main floor. About 15 minutes before things started
they began to bring in both current and past Superstars of the company. It
was interesting to see everyones family or girlfriends -- also interesting,
a rare appearance by Moolah and Mae Young! Everyone received some kind of
welcome from the fans as they came in and sat down. By the way, how many
kids is Stephanie have in her!?
The ceremony itself was all in all a good show. It was slow here and there
at times, but in my opinion it was a well put together event. By far my
favorite inductee was surprisingly Sensational Sherri. Yes, I know Bret Hart
was there. Sherri was absolutely awesome, she had the crowd going and was
interacting. From her stories to her loud screech she really stood out as a
crowd favorite. I remember one time a fan yelled something, I guess
disrespectful at her, and she immediately stopped what she was saying and
looked over in the direction of the fan and said something along the lines
of "You can shut up. You payed for your ticket and now we have your money,
so you can sit there and be quiet, this is my time." I hadn't really known
much about Sherri and never realized the hundreds of things she had done for
the company until this weekend. She gained my respect, that's for sure. The
induction of Eddie Guerrero I thought was good and done right with his wife
and kids there. There was a lot of emotion going through the theater with
this induction, I even got a little teary-eyed. I could hear this girl
absolutely bawling behind me. It was a very sad moment. The induction of
Bret Hart was of course the highlight of the night. I forget how many years
Bret had been out of the company and hadn't made an appearance, but it was
definitely cool to actually be there in person to witness this. Bret seemed
very pleased to be there. Interestlingly, I found it funny that they had
Michaels sitting back some and never showed him once. The crowd just sat
back and took in everything and listened to his classic stories and what he
had to say knowing this could very well be the last time we see Bret. I
think it's safe to say that. Very good, solid show. Something I will never
forget. We left with a nice program and a medal coin.
Something I want to point out.. Notice the white orb to the right of this
picture. Eerie if you ask me.
MANIA DAY! After 7 months of waiting and counting down it was finally here,
wow! A "big time" dream of mine was actually coming true! The day began with
waking up early and attending the annual 'Bacon, Bagels, and Biceps Brunch'.
I believe they said there were around 2,000 people there; it was packed.
This was held at the Stephens Convention Center, which was right across the
street from the hotel. Ticket prices in my opinion were very overpriced for
what it was. Sure, they fed you (which was eh -- decent), but that was about
it. After eating you were treated to a hour or so Q&A with both RAW and
Smackdown! Superstars. No one REAL big attended which was a letdown. Jamie
Noble, Orlando Jordan, Mr. Kennedy, Tatanka, Animal, Rob Conway, Trevor
Murdoch, Maria, Tyson Tomko, and as a special guest Sensational Sherri
showed up. Sherri again, WHOOO! The breakfast was hosted by both Josh
Matthews and Joey Styles. Joey was great, he kept the crowd laughing. When
people would ask him questions that he would answer bitterly truthful he
would always say something along the lines of "What can they do to me? Take
me out of Mania?" At the time he wasn't scheduled for anything Mania-wise,
but obviously later got to call the hardcore match between Edge and Foley.
He told us at the brunch to chant "WE WANT JOEY!" at Mania and maybe they
would give him a role. Looks like it worked. Again, a very overpriced ($125)
event. We weren't even treated to an autograph session. We left with a
brunch cup and a Mania 22 old-fasioned alarm clock of all things.
After resting up for a bit we headed over to the arena about three hours in
advance. Bad idea. Sure there was the tour there out in the parking lot and
merchandise, but everything was so packed already you could barely move
throughout the tent. And yes, it was cold and rainy, which of course added
to the excitement! The lines to go into the arena were crazy! Daylights
savings time screwed with everyone a little thinking the doors would open at
4:30 instead of around 5:30. We finally get in and find our seats, which
were great for Mania! Section 111, which was directly across from the
cameras on first part where it begins to go up from the floor. Our tickets
said that they were $200 seats. Instead of writing on the whole night, I'll
instead briefly list the matches with word associations off my opinion..
Cena vs. Triple H -- very split crowd; nice entrances; biggest match of the
night
Mysterio vs. Angle vs. Orton -- nice match; fast paced; don't see Mysterio
keeping it very long
Taker vs. Who? - I wonder..
McMahon vs. Michaels -- second biggest match of the night; well put
together; very solid; crowd favorite
Edge vs. Foley -- brutal; would of liked to have seen more 'big time'
moments or stipulations; still great though
Money in the Bank 2 -- amazing, that's it; better than what I was expecting
Benoit vs. JBL -- ehhh
Boogeyman vs. Booker -- could of been better; seemed just like another
Smackdown! match
Trish vs. Mickie -- it was time for a title change; this psycho gimmick for
Mickie is working
Show/Kane vs. Carlito/Masters -- nothing big really
Torrie stripping/hitting Candice -- didn't expect anything; just enjoyed
seeing them strip each other ha..
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d157/wwe071/VINCEASS.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d157/wwe071/CENAFU1.jpg
I would give the show a 8.5/10 in the end. Could of used things like extra
stipulations here and there to add more to the matches. All in all it was a
great experience and was definitely a "big time" moment in my life that I will never ever forget as a wrestling fan.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d157/wwe071/CENAFU1.jpg
I would give the show a 8.5/10 in the end. Could of used things like extra
stipulations here and there to add more to the matches. All in all it was a
great experience and was definitely a "big time" moment in my life that I will never ever forget as a wrestling fan.
And yes, Jeremy was in Chicago fans......
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