"Priest! Priest!"/ "ECW! ECW!"
This sure was one hell of a weekend. I went to two very big shows, that I had been looking forward to quite a bit.
The first was on Saturday when me, Ariana, Alan and Steve P. went up to the Mohegan Sun Casino for the Judas Priest concert. We wound up getting to the Casino with plenty of time to kill before the show, so we went around and gambled a little bit (I only spent about $30 this time b/c I know I suck at gambling, and of course I lost everything). Ariana only lost about $5 total, and Steve was the only one to make a profit (a whole SIX dollars! lol).
After wasting our money, we decided to eat at Bubba's BBQ (the same place we ate last time). The food was pretty good once again. And after that, we were off to the show.
Queensryche was the opening band. Believe it or not I don't really know any of their stuff. I've heard OF them and I also know that "Operation Mindcrime" is their best known album, but I honestly didn't remember anything off it (as I prob only heard through it once back when I was at Fordham). They wound up being decent though. The sound could have been a little better but they were solid.
Then Judas Priest hit the stage and proceded to kick ass. This show was almost as good as the last time we saw them here (which was quite a feat b/c if u remember I ranked that among the top 5 shows I've EVER seen). The only reason it wasn't just as good was they played 2 songs I didn't know too well, plus they omitted playing the Sentinel and the Green Manaleshi. They did play Exciter though, which was very cool. And once again Rob Halford did an AMAZING job with "Victim of Changes." Oh also, this show was just a tiny bit longer than the previous one, lasting just under two straight hours. So yeah, all in all it was a very kick ass show.
****
The next day was even more crazyiness. I didn't get a chance to rest b/c in the morning I went to church, then to a Retirement party for Ariana's old boss from her church (which was nice and we scored free food there, heh), and then we headed downtown for the Main event of the weekend as we met up with Henry & Maryellen for the ECW- One Night Stand PPV at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Despite the outrageous ticket prices for the show, it seems the old ECW faithful turned out in full force. As we walked toward the end of the line to get in it, we saw tons of people either dressed up as wrestler's, carrying title belts, or breaking out the old ECW shirts from like 4-8 years ago, lol. I was part of the latter, heh.
Speaking of t-shirts though, Henry & Maryellen decided to create their own LWO (Latino World Order) shirts, which came out pretty cool. I know Henry had mentioned for the longest that he always wanted one of those, so I found it amusing when I showed up to the line and they had those suckers on. But as I said, they came out pretty good and it actually wound up being the perfect weekend to wear them, as it was the weekend of the Puerto Rican day parade, heh.
Our seats in Hammerstein were decent. Not the best (due to a pillar that could block your view depending on what angle u looked down at everything and also since we were kinda high it was hard to see one of the corners outside the ring, but thankfully the wrestlers did not go there very much). Also for some reason they put the large screen TV VERY high up and since we were on one of the balcony's (but not the very top) the roof blocked our view of the screen. So anytime we wanted to see the screen we'd have to duck sideways almost under our seats. So that was kind of annoying, but in the end was only a minor gripe.
But yeah, as for the show itself- it was probably one of, if not the best wrestling show I've ever been to. Even better than Wrestlemania 20 (with the exception of the coolness of me being there to see Benoit win the World title). But from top to bottom the whole card was solid. Every match was good. Some were a little shorter than I would have liked, but they were really cool for while they lasted.
The card wound up looking like this:
-Lance Storm defeated Chris Jericho thanks to outside interference by Justin Credible (making a one night reformation of the Impact Players)
-Super Crazy def. Tajiri and Little Guido (Nunzio) in an Elimination Style 3 way dance. It was cool b/c Tajiri came out with Mikey Whipwreck and the Sinister Minister and Little Guido came out with the ENTIRE FBI (Full Blooded Italians)- including JT Smith and Tracy Smothers.
-Rey Mysterio def. Psicosis in an extreme lucha libre style match. The match was cool, if also criminally short, especially for how these two can go. But I'll chalk that up to the fact that Mysterio was working with a leg injury.
-The Raw and SD "crusaders" came out and started talking trash. It was great b/c the entire time that JBL tried to talk the entire audience chanted "Shut the F**K UP! ::clap clap clapclapclap::" Then RVD came out for a "shoot" promo that was pretty cool, and that transitioned right into-
-Sabu def. Rhyno- pretty decent match especially considering that Sabu was taped up all over b/c on Friday night he had just went through an insane Barbed wire match. The finish to this match was pretty sweet with Sabu crashing down on Rhyno through a table with a chair to his head..
-Chris Benoit def. Eddie Guerrero- the crowd was really into this match and hell who could blame them. Sadly this match was also kinda short (prob around the 11 minute mark) so they couldn't go as nuts as everyone knew they could. So I'm sure many people would say the match was a disappointment, but hey it wasn't their fault, and hell, it WAS cool while it lasted.
-Mike Awesome def. Masato Tanaka- this match was a later addition to the card (I believe it was only added like 2 days before the show). And thank god it was b/c believe it or not this match absolutely STOLE the show. These two guys put on one hell of an entertaining match. They smashed each other constantly with chairs, each guy got put through tables multiple times and it was just stiff and brutal as all hell. Towards the end of the match they had the whole audience chanting "THIS MATCH RULES!!"
-Paul Heyman came out for a promo and ripped into Eric Bischoff, Edge and especially JBL. Line of the night was directed to JBL when he said "if you wanna shoot, then how about this? The ONLY reason you were champion of SD for over 10 months was b/c Triple H didn't want to work Tuesdays!"- (BURN!!)
-The Dudley Boyz def. Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman- the whole night the WWE wrestlers were coming out to their WWE entrance music and the other guys were coming out to either new stuff or variations of their old themes (b/c when WWE bought out ECW they did not pick up their licenses to use all the real music the wrestlers used- which explains why you don't hear the theme music in the Rise & Fall of ECW DVD). So when Tommy Dreamer entered to a rip off of Alice & Chains "Man in a Box" I was just thinking "oh crud, it's not gonna be the same for the Sandman to not come out to Metallica's "Enter Sandman." But thank god WWE decided to shell out a few extra bucks b/c as soon as they announced the Sandman, we all heard the opening notes to "Enter Sandman" and the crowd went INSANE. As for the match itself, it didn't get underway right away, as there was tons of interference by the BWO, Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney, Kid Kash and more. But after they were all cleared away, the match was typical insane brawling between the 4 men which ended when the Dudley's Powerbombed Dreamer through a FLAMING table. So that was pretty sick.
-Then the show came to an end with Steve Austin coming out and challenging the Raw and SD crusaders to come to the ring and fight all the ECW guys. They did, and it was just a HUGE 30-40 man brawl. It was crazy and lots of fun to see. It ended with the WWE guys getting beat and then Mick Foley dragging Eric Bishoff to the ring and having a bunch of the wrestlers do their finishers on him. A fun end to a great show, where the last scene was Tommy Dreamer in the ring alone thanking everyone in the crowd for their support.
-I know I've neglected to mention many things that happened during the show (like wrestler run-ins and appearances) but this isn't a wrestling recap column. For that- head over to OnlineOnslaught.com or something, heh.
-But yeah I'd also be remiss to not mention how AWESOME the crowd was that night. We were all truly in our old form. Cursing out certain wrestlers "F**K You Bischoff!" "SHUT THE F**K UP!!"(to JBL) "She's got Herpes!" (to Lita) "SIT THE F**K DOWN!" (to anyone in front of us who stood and blocked our view) Singing "Angle takes it up the ass, doo-da, doo-da! Angle takes it up the ass all the doo-da day!" Chanting "We Can't See Shit!" from the balcony when the wrestlers went out of view from us (and which the wrestlers actually listened to us and moved more to the center when we did that, which was cool) plus PLENTY more. The crowd was just INTO it and it was great to see and be a part of. It was also fun to introduce both Ariana and Maryellen to it, since they never watched ECW back in the day, let alone have been to an ECW show. And that's what made this cool- it was as close to an ECW show as we could have imagined. Yeah there were some small WWE influences but for the most part- pure ECW. And hell not just pure ECW, but kind of a dream ECW show, b/c they actually got to talk trash right to their "enemies" faces and even beat up the Raw and SD guys. So yeah it was just awesome and well worth the money spent. If they decide to make this an annual thing, I would totally go again and I think so would many other people, cuz all I've read and heard are rave reviews about the show as a whole. So yeah props to them. And a final big Thank You to Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon for making that night possible.
"E-C-W! E-C-W!"
The first was on Saturday when me, Ariana, Alan and Steve P. went up to the Mohegan Sun Casino for the Judas Priest concert. We wound up getting to the Casino with plenty of time to kill before the show, so we went around and gambled a little bit (I only spent about $30 this time b/c I know I suck at gambling, and of course I lost everything). Ariana only lost about $5 total, and Steve was the only one to make a profit (a whole SIX dollars! lol).
After wasting our money, we decided to eat at Bubba's BBQ (the same place we ate last time). The food was pretty good once again. And after that, we were off to the show.
Queensryche was the opening band. Believe it or not I don't really know any of their stuff. I've heard OF them and I also know that "Operation Mindcrime" is their best known album, but I honestly didn't remember anything off it (as I prob only heard through it once back when I was at Fordham). They wound up being decent though. The sound could have been a little better but they were solid.
Then Judas Priest hit the stage and proceded to kick ass. This show was almost as good as the last time we saw them here (which was quite a feat b/c if u remember I ranked that among the top 5 shows I've EVER seen). The only reason it wasn't just as good was they played 2 songs I didn't know too well, plus they omitted playing the Sentinel and the Green Manaleshi. They did play Exciter though, which was very cool. And once again Rob Halford did an AMAZING job with "Victim of Changes." Oh also, this show was just a tiny bit longer than the previous one, lasting just under two straight hours. So yeah, all in all it was a very kick ass show.
****
The next day was even more crazyiness. I didn't get a chance to rest b/c in the morning I went to church, then to a Retirement party for Ariana's old boss from her church (which was nice and we scored free food there, heh), and then we headed downtown for the Main event of the weekend as we met up with Henry & Maryellen for the ECW- One Night Stand PPV at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Despite the outrageous ticket prices for the show, it seems the old ECW faithful turned out in full force. As we walked toward the end of the line to get in it, we saw tons of people either dressed up as wrestler's, carrying title belts, or breaking out the old ECW shirts from like 4-8 years ago, lol. I was part of the latter, heh.
Speaking of t-shirts though, Henry & Maryellen decided to create their own LWO (Latino World Order) shirts, which came out pretty cool. I know Henry had mentioned for the longest that he always wanted one of those, so I found it amusing when I showed up to the line and they had those suckers on. But as I said, they came out pretty good and it actually wound up being the perfect weekend to wear them, as it was the weekend of the Puerto Rican day parade, heh.
Our seats in Hammerstein were decent. Not the best (due to a pillar that could block your view depending on what angle u looked down at everything and also since we were kinda high it was hard to see one of the corners outside the ring, but thankfully the wrestlers did not go there very much). Also for some reason they put the large screen TV VERY high up and since we were on one of the balcony's (but not the very top) the roof blocked our view of the screen. So anytime we wanted to see the screen we'd have to duck sideways almost under our seats. So that was kind of annoying, but in the end was only a minor gripe.
But yeah, as for the show itself- it was probably one of, if not the best wrestling show I've ever been to. Even better than Wrestlemania 20 (with the exception of the coolness of me being there to see Benoit win the World title). But from top to bottom the whole card was solid. Every match was good. Some were a little shorter than I would have liked, but they were really cool for while they lasted.
The card wound up looking like this:
-Lance Storm defeated Chris Jericho thanks to outside interference by Justin Credible (making a one night reformation of the Impact Players)
-Super Crazy def. Tajiri and Little Guido (Nunzio) in an Elimination Style 3 way dance. It was cool b/c Tajiri came out with Mikey Whipwreck and the Sinister Minister and Little Guido came out with the ENTIRE FBI (Full Blooded Italians)- including JT Smith and Tracy Smothers.
-Rey Mysterio def. Psicosis in an extreme lucha libre style match. The match was cool, if also criminally short, especially for how these two can go. But I'll chalk that up to the fact that Mysterio was working with a leg injury.
-The Raw and SD "crusaders" came out and started talking trash. It was great b/c the entire time that JBL tried to talk the entire audience chanted "Shut the F**K UP! ::clap clap clapclapclap::" Then RVD came out for a "shoot" promo that was pretty cool, and that transitioned right into-
-Sabu def. Rhyno- pretty decent match especially considering that Sabu was taped up all over b/c on Friday night he had just went through an insane Barbed wire match. The finish to this match was pretty sweet with Sabu crashing down on Rhyno through a table with a chair to his head..
-Chris Benoit def. Eddie Guerrero- the crowd was really into this match and hell who could blame them. Sadly this match was also kinda short (prob around the 11 minute mark) so they couldn't go as nuts as everyone knew they could. So I'm sure many people would say the match was a disappointment, but hey it wasn't their fault, and hell, it WAS cool while it lasted.
-Mike Awesome def. Masato Tanaka- this match was a later addition to the card (I believe it was only added like 2 days before the show). And thank god it was b/c believe it or not this match absolutely STOLE the show. These two guys put on one hell of an entertaining match. They smashed each other constantly with chairs, each guy got put through tables multiple times and it was just stiff and brutal as all hell. Towards the end of the match they had the whole audience chanting "THIS MATCH RULES!!"
-Paul Heyman came out for a promo and ripped into Eric Bischoff, Edge and especially JBL. Line of the night was directed to JBL when he said "if you wanna shoot, then how about this? The ONLY reason you were champion of SD for over 10 months was b/c Triple H didn't want to work Tuesdays!"- (BURN!!)
-The Dudley Boyz def. Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman- the whole night the WWE wrestlers were coming out to their WWE entrance music and the other guys were coming out to either new stuff or variations of their old themes (b/c when WWE bought out ECW they did not pick up their licenses to use all the real music the wrestlers used- which explains why you don't hear the theme music in the Rise & Fall of ECW DVD). So when Tommy Dreamer entered to a rip off of Alice & Chains "Man in a Box" I was just thinking "oh crud, it's not gonna be the same for the Sandman to not come out to Metallica's "Enter Sandman." But thank god WWE decided to shell out a few extra bucks b/c as soon as they announced the Sandman, we all heard the opening notes to "Enter Sandman" and the crowd went INSANE. As for the match itself, it didn't get underway right away, as there was tons of interference by the BWO, Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney, Kid Kash and more. But after they were all cleared away, the match was typical insane brawling between the 4 men which ended when the Dudley's Powerbombed Dreamer through a FLAMING table. So that was pretty sick.
-Then the show came to an end with Steve Austin coming out and challenging the Raw and SD crusaders to come to the ring and fight all the ECW guys. They did, and it was just a HUGE 30-40 man brawl. It was crazy and lots of fun to see. It ended with the WWE guys getting beat and then Mick Foley dragging Eric Bishoff to the ring and having a bunch of the wrestlers do their finishers on him. A fun end to a great show, where the last scene was Tommy Dreamer in the ring alone thanking everyone in the crowd for their support.
-I know I've neglected to mention many things that happened during the show (like wrestler run-ins and appearances) but this isn't a wrestling recap column. For that- head over to OnlineOnslaught.com or something, heh.
-But yeah I'd also be remiss to not mention how AWESOME the crowd was that night. We were all truly in our old form. Cursing out certain wrestlers "F**K You Bischoff!" "SHUT THE F**K UP!!"(to JBL) "She's got Herpes!" (to Lita) "SIT THE F**K DOWN!" (to anyone in front of us who stood and blocked our view) Singing "Angle takes it up the ass, doo-da, doo-da! Angle takes it up the ass all the doo-da day!" Chanting "We Can't See Shit!" from the balcony when the wrestlers went out of view from us (and which the wrestlers actually listened to us and moved more to the center when we did that, which was cool) plus PLENTY more. The crowd was just INTO it and it was great to see and be a part of. It was also fun to introduce both Ariana and Maryellen to it, since they never watched ECW back in the day, let alone have been to an ECW show. And that's what made this cool- it was as close to an ECW show as we could have imagined. Yeah there were some small WWE influences but for the most part- pure ECW. And hell not just pure ECW, but kind of a dream ECW show, b/c they actually got to talk trash right to their "enemies" faces and even beat up the Raw and SD guys. So yeah it was just awesome and well worth the money spent. If they decide to make this an annual thing, I would totally go again and I think so would many other people, cuz all I've read and heard are rave reviews about the show as a whole. So yeah props to them. And a final big Thank You to Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon for making that night possible.
"E-C-W! E-C-W!"
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