Martin S. sends the following arena report:
We arrive at the arena with limited merchandise available, but they did have the Slapnuts shirt, so who am I to complain? We had front row seats, right next to our favorite trio, the Patron Saint, who acted cool, calm and collective, but tired; Tony, who was friendly and took a photo with a friend; and Madden, who received some of the loudest heat to start the show with. We had several signs, amongst them "Madden Ate My Lunch", "Jarrett Fears Tom Petty" and "Lance, We Hate Yanks Too." My friends' signs were "Steiner for P.M.", "Australia is Flair Country" and "Josh" and some others. Before the show started, they had promos running on the screen and the screen got according reactions. And now in no particular order...
Dark Match between Rey and Skipper: Highlight was Skipper jumping on the ropes to attempt a move, almost stuffing up and the crowd laughing. However, he gets his balance, showboats and still manages to do the move. He was quite funny.
In a match that probably won't be shown on TV, Kwee-Wee vs Johnny the Bull, who seriously stuffed his ankle, 'cause the match was over in about 10 seconds.
The ring stuffed up and there was a ten minute wait, so Penzer and Pamela entertained us, and to their credit got the crowd into it and the wait wasn't all that long. What else, oh, moment for me was in the lumberjack match, cause Lance read it and just gave us this half-smile :-). Kidman was funny cause after he got beat (before his match, I think during the Booker match), he walked past us and then the commentators wanted to shake his hand and he gave Madden the finger. Ric Flair was overly awesome to see in person. Booker was much more over then I initially thought. Scott Steiner "Aussie Aussie Aussie... ASSHOLE!" I can't remember everything. Goldberg tripped over nicely when entering through the crowd. David flair nodded and smiled at my yelling friend which made us happy. I'll try and post some of the photos on the 'net.
But it was great 'cause Nitro seems to be going back to a wrestling based program! Oh and Sanders when he handed David a koala and goes "take this kangaroo". And Jeff Jarrett was pretty cool, too. Like I said, I was just happy to see them all right there, in person and they finally answered my prayers of giving Douglas a push.
Some questions need to be raised though. Why is Konnan still on my TV screen? Why does Rey wear those silly horns when wrestling? Why does Steiner's freak look like she's about 45? Oh and Pamela reminds me very much of this stupid character in the show "Becker" she's the biggest bimbo of em all.
Anyway, I thought it was well worth the money spent and although unsure how it came off on TV, it was great in person. The crowd was very much into it and the atmosphere was great.
The Good: Seeing all the people I wanted to see Booker, Douglas, Jarrett, Sting, Nash, Flair, Awesome, Crowbar, etc. and not having to see the people I don't care about anymore Hogan, Macho, for that matter Russo (on TV that is) and whoever else is Hogan's friend.
The Bad: Johnny the Bull's ankle, Tygress after getting hit with the guitar and having the Harris Boys in front of me in the Lumberjack match. Oh, and Konnan.
The Ugly: Stupid fans who threw crap into the ring afterwards. The night was great, so why do it?