Krow
12-08-2012, 01:36 AM
Went to this show tonight. Heard about it just two days ago. For $15, it was a hell of a show. Virgil (with invisible Ted DiBiase), Bobby Lashley, The Patriot, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Jimmy Hart, Tommy Dreamer, Shane Douglas, Jim Neidhart, and Bret Hart were all there. I burned past everyone in line to snap a quick shot with the Hitman. Sure, I probably got hosed paying for a photo op, but now I have a photo of me shaking hands with him. Childhood: vindicated.
The undercard was pretty good, with a few solid matches and some good workers. You could definitely see who had experience and who didn't. Lashley was a last-minute replacement for Carlito, and came in halfway through the opening battle royal to clean house. A couple developed talents put on some decent matches. I practiced my best Bobby Heenan-esque commentary skills during the matches.
In-ring photo ops at the intermission after the original Hart Foundation cut a promo. Seeing Jimmy Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Bret Hart in the ring together, it kinda made me think of what it might have been like back in the early 80s in the house shows, when these three were together as the original Hart Foundation. Pretty damn cool.
Patriot and Hammer and two other guys took on a group of heels from the battle royal earlier. One of the heels' managers/non-competing wrestlers looked like an overweight Curt Hennig with a goatee. Valentine closed out the match with a figure-four, and then after the match struggled to put Hennig-2 in to one. Valentine looked rough, but still did his part. I had to laugh at the heels calling the Patriot "Pat Riot" to try to get his attention. It just struck me funny.
Being so close to Pittsburgh, you were waiting for The Franchise to come out, and he delivered a very heartfelt speech. He talked about the Jaffa Shrine, and how he grew up in Pittsburgh, following the tradition of Terry Bradshaw, Willie Stargell, Mario Lemieux, Dave Stewart, Bruno Sammartino. His mom and dad told him, from when he was a little boy, that "there are those who bleed black and gold, and then there are those who pretend to bleed black and gold." The crowd's eating out of his hand at this point. "I bleed black and gold. And you all...you all pretend to bleed black and gold." Cheering turns to booing instantly, and The Franchise shows he still has it.
Tommy Dreamer comes out, and it feels like an old ECW event. Good psychology by Douglas (with a funny interaction with the ref added in), and the fighting eventually spills out into the arena. Dreamer takes a bump over a railing from six or seven rows up, and they work back to the ring. Dreamer disappears, brings back a trash can and a...well, an iron chair. I don't think they'd figured out how to forge steel when they'd made this chair. A couple spots with the chair and trash can, and a heel tag team comes out to try to take out Dreamer. Dreamer fights them off, and dropkicks a tree-of-woed Franchise with a trash can, closing out the night.
Great show. What really struck me, though, was when I looked over during a couple of the better matches, and saw Bret on stage, watching the younger guys perform. If that was me in the ring, I would remember that sight for the rest of my life. In a way, it made me sad, though. If he could Bret would still be in that ring to this day. And I wish he was. Instead, he's stuck in the prison that is the world outside of the ring. I wanted to stop and maybe talk to him for a few minutes, but given the frenzy that was that place, I'd have better luck stapling water to a tree, as the saying goes.
I still got my picture, though.
Pictures and videos incoming, after I get some sleep.
The undercard was pretty good, with a few solid matches and some good workers. You could definitely see who had experience and who didn't. Lashley was a last-minute replacement for Carlito, and came in halfway through the opening battle royal to clean house. A couple developed talents put on some decent matches. I practiced my best Bobby Heenan-esque commentary skills during the matches.
In-ring photo ops at the intermission after the original Hart Foundation cut a promo. Seeing Jimmy Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Bret Hart in the ring together, it kinda made me think of what it might have been like back in the early 80s in the house shows, when these three were together as the original Hart Foundation. Pretty damn cool.
Patriot and Hammer and two other guys took on a group of heels from the battle royal earlier. One of the heels' managers/non-competing wrestlers looked like an overweight Curt Hennig with a goatee. Valentine closed out the match with a figure-four, and then after the match struggled to put Hennig-2 in to one. Valentine looked rough, but still did his part. I had to laugh at the heels calling the Patriot "Pat Riot" to try to get his attention. It just struck me funny.
Being so close to Pittsburgh, you were waiting for The Franchise to come out, and he delivered a very heartfelt speech. He talked about the Jaffa Shrine, and how he grew up in Pittsburgh, following the tradition of Terry Bradshaw, Willie Stargell, Mario Lemieux, Dave Stewart, Bruno Sammartino. His mom and dad told him, from when he was a little boy, that "there are those who bleed black and gold, and then there are those who pretend to bleed black and gold." The crowd's eating out of his hand at this point. "I bleed black and gold. And you all...you all pretend to bleed black and gold." Cheering turns to booing instantly, and The Franchise shows he still has it.
Tommy Dreamer comes out, and it feels like an old ECW event. Good psychology by Douglas (with a funny interaction with the ref added in), and the fighting eventually spills out into the arena. Dreamer takes a bump over a railing from six or seven rows up, and they work back to the ring. Dreamer disappears, brings back a trash can and a...well, an iron chair. I don't think they'd figured out how to forge steel when they'd made this chair. A couple spots with the chair and trash can, and a heel tag team comes out to try to take out Dreamer. Dreamer fights them off, and dropkicks a tree-of-woed Franchise with a trash can, closing out the night.
Great show. What really struck me, though, was when I looked over during a couple of the better matches, and saw Bret on stage, watching the younger guys perform. If that was me in the ring, I would remember that sight for the rest of my life. In a way, it made me sad, though. If he could Bret would still be in that ring to this day. And I wish he was. Instead, he's stuck in the prison that is the world outside of the ring. I wanted to stop and maybe talk to him for a few minutes, but given the frenzy that was that place, I'd have better luck stapling water to a tree, as the saying goes.
I still got my picture, though.
Pictures and videos incoming, after I get some sleep.