House Show Stories

[Zeeboe]

Anyone have any interesting, or funny ones? I've only been to three in my life, and one of my favorite stories, and favorite memories as a wrestling fan took place in July of 1997 when the WWF came to my hometown of Austin, Texas for a house show. In one of the matches, Bret Hart teamed with his brother Owen to take on Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mankind in a tag-team battle.

Despite the fact that the Hart Brothers were the "heels", and that I was an American, and a Texan, I was still a huge fan of The Hart Foundation. I was fourteen then, and in my mind, the Hitman character did not change at all. From my point of view, it was most of the American wrestling fans who made the "heel turn".

Needless to say, I was the only Hart fan in the arena. I wore a Bret Hart t-shirt, a Bret Hart baseball cap, and some Bret Hart sunglasses. I held a big pink sign that said in black text: "Hitman 3:16", and I waved a medium sized Canadian flag.

I was in the front row, and I was cheering very LOUDLY for the Hart Brothers, and was screaming things like "STONE COLD SUCKS!", and whenever the fans booed Bret, I'd yell at the top of my lungs, "DON'T LISTEN TO EM' BRET!". When the people began an "Austin" chant, I'd chant back, "AUSTIN SUCKS! AUSTIN SUCKS!". When Owen was getting hurt, and needed to tag-out, I'd chant, "WE WANT BRET!". If the fans chanted "USA", I'd chant "CAN-NA-DA! CAN-NA-DA!"

Looking back, I was very lucky that I didn't get anything thrown at me, or get cursed at, or get assaulted....

All my cheerleading for the Hart Foundation did not go unnoticed by Bret Hart. He was just across the ring from me, standing on the apron, as Owen wrestled. Bret looked right at me for what seemed like the longest time. Realistically, he probably only watched me for about ten seconds. He didn't say or do anything though, but he had a small smile on his face.

Years later, I read some of Bret's old comments on his website from 1997, and read how he actually really hated being a bad guy. He mentioned how he still had some American wrestling fans, and that if you listened carefully, you could hear them in the audience on Raw, and that he was very grateful for all the American wrestling fans who still cheered for him during his heel run.

I like to think he generally appreciated it whenever American fans were cheering for him, so it made me happy that I was able to let him know he was still appreciated, and that I got a small smile out of him.

[Team Sheep]

I went to one last night and the main event was Jeff Hardy & Undertaker vs Matt Hardy & Umaga. I got fucking shafted. No pyro in Cardiff either, fucking sucked. Dunno why I bothered 2 weeks after being at Mania.

[CSL]

Yeah, the house shows over here tend to blow big time

I always enjoy/seeing pictures of when guys mess around or whatever and do little things you'd never see on TV (i.e Edge wearing facepaint, Umaga wearing Orton's tights over his own, Jericho forgetting his IC belt and wearing the old Light Heavyweight title instead etc etc)

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>SD actually did a house show at my college's basketball arena 4 or so years ago...it's a pretty small venue and it still didn't even sell out, I doubt they'll ever be coming back. Anyway, John Cena came out wearing a custom-made jersey from the local minor league hockey team that has since gone defunct. Danbury Trashers 4tw</font>

[Team Sheep]

The best bit was when the Honey Monster came out.

[Nicky Fives]

I've only been to 1 house show, back in 1998. I was only 9 at the time but I can remember Al Snow came out in a local Hockey team's jersey and the crowd popped big time. He wrestled Big Boss Man (R.I.P.) and Boss man ripped the jersey off, wiped his face/nose with it, threw it on the ground and stomped on it..... a couple of drunks hopped the rail and tried to jump him, but he fought them off.... it got him major heat.

[Chavo Classic]

I remember Cena had to namedrop Kieran Dyer at a house show in Newcastle to get a pop. It reeked of desperation

[Dave Youell]

May I present, The ULTIMATE UNDERWARRIOR

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[Team Sheep]

I remember Cena had to namedrop Kieran Dyer at a house show in Newcastle to get a pop. It reeked of desperation

Christian said some thing about Beckham and the World Cup at a show I was at in Wembley before. Obviously memorized it off a piece of paper about 10 times before he came out.

[Xero]

Yeah, the house shows over here tend to blow big time

I always enjoy/seeing pictures of when guys mess around or whatever and do little things you'd never see on TV (i.e Edge wearing facepaint, Umaga wearing Orton's tights over his own, Jericho forgetting his IC belt and wearing the old Light Heavyweight title instead etc etc)


You think YOUR house shows blow? The majority over here are jobber fests. At least you get the top names constantly.

[Xero]

ROFL at Taker.

[Rammsteinmad]

What's this about Jericho wearing the old Light Heavyweight Title?

[Anybody Thrilla]

Pretty sure I've told this story here before, but anyway....

I was in the second row for a WCW house show, I think in 1998 (right before Jericho jumped to WWF). The match was Chris Benoit vs. Billy Kidman. Anyway, remember when around that time, Billy Kidman would reverse an attempted powerbomb into a facebuster in pretty much every match he was in? During the whole match, I kept yelling "DO NOT POWERBOMB KIDMAN! HE WILL REVERSE IT! DO NOT POWERBOMB KIDMAN!". The people around me were laughing, but I thought the wrestlers were ignoring me.

Finally, Benoit set Kidman up between his legs for a powerbomb. I yelled "NOOOOOOOOOO!" and Benoit looked RIGHT at me before picking Kidman up and absolutely rocking him with a powerbomb, no reversal. It was amazing. I knew they had called that spot just for me.

[.44 Magdalene]

Holy shit, anybody know where that YouTube was at? I saw Taker do that exact same thing during that same matchup in Texas.

[.44 Magdalene]

Also, my girlfriend got to high five HHH after that match.

[parkmania]

The coolest story I have was when I was at a house show for CWA back in the mid to late 80's. Jerry Lawler was fighting "Playboy" Buddy Rogers, in a match where Lawler had both arms tied behind his back, but Rogers had a bag over his head so he couldn't see. At one point, Lawler gave the high sign to the ref, and he very casually walked to a turnbuckle, turned away from the action, and started tying his shoes. Meanwhile, Lawler slipped his arms out of the ropes and proceeded to beat the holy hell out of Rogers for a good 2 minutes, then slipped his arms back in the ropes. The ref finally turns around and counts the fall. Rogers is un-blindfolded and sees Lawler still tied up.


Yeah, it's not much of a story, but it was cool seeing the guys acknowledge that we were all in on a secret.

[Impact!]

I always enjoy/seeing pictures of when guys mess around or whatever and do little things you'd never see on TV (i.e Edge wearing facepaint, Umaga wearing Orton's tights over his own, Jericho forgetting his IC belt and wearing the old Light Heavyweight title instead etc etc)

Someone post these pics

[bigdaddysuperfreak]

I was at Raw one where this really hot chick flashed her boobs at the crowd. My wife was at the smackdown taping when Droz got fucked up.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Did DX encourage her to flash?

[bigdaddysuperfreak]

Did DX encourage her to flash?
Nahit was everyone in the audience, she was wearing this skin tight leopard print one piece that made her look hot as hell. Im pretty sure she went to the show just for the attention.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Leopard print, huh? I didn't know Raw was around in the 80's.

[Team Sheep]

Holy shit, anybody know where that YouTube was at? I saw Taker do that exact same thing during that same matchup in Texas.

Looks like it was in Cologne, Germany. He did the same thing at the show I was at on Monday.

[bigdaddysuperfreak]

Leopard print, huh? I didn't know Raw was around in the 80's.
It was right before I started posting here, actually I met people there that told me about TPWW. Yep and leopord print spandex can be super hot.

[Halbowsky]

I was at the MSG KLIQ farewell. I remember when Triple H came out and everyone was confused. Then he hugged HBK, Diesel, and Razor. This was before I had a computer and I had no idea that HHH was a part of the KLIQ (although I remember reading about the backstage KLIQ in the Pro Wrestling Torch).

[Mr. Nerfect]

Over here, whenever the WWE does a show in Brisbane, they hold a thing called a "Brisbane Cup," where the winner gets a shot at the WWE/World Heavyweight Champion later that night. I remember Mark Henry won the first one, and I think Rey Mysterio won another one.

Just a random story I personally heard about a RAW house show in London just the other night: Carlito & Primo were defending the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against the now SmackDown! team of Mike Knox & Charlie Haas. Anyway, what was noticeable about this match? Of all things, people noticed how charismatic Charlie Haas was. He was playing a heel role, and was getting right into things, and was interacting with the crowd.

I've never subscribed to the "Charlie Haas has no charisma" thing, but it still feels noteworthy to me.

[Bad Company]

I've only been to two WWE house shows in New Zealand.

First one in April 06, I got to see an amazing card.
Gregory Helms, Kid Kash, and Jamie Noble in a triple threat. Was a great match.
MnM vs Londrick. Melina, mmmmmmmm.
Benoit v Booker in an epic match.
Undertaker vs Angle vs Henry in a match where Henry was smart enough to stay the fuck out of the ring. Another great match.
And a few more, including getting to see Road Warrior Animal, which was a nice touch.

I then went to another one in Feb 07.
Saw CM Punk who was getting the best pops in the house absolutely jobbed out to Snitsky, the crowd was pissed.
Benoit v Chavo in another classic.
MVP coming out to massive heat, except for my brother who had his MVP sign. MVP slapped his hand and held out the sign. He then got squashed by The Undertaker.
Sabu and Dreamer vs Elijah and Cor Von, another great match, awesome to see Sabu and Dreamer.
RVD vs Lashley vs Holly, well, at least I got to see RVD.

[Chavo Classic]

Just a random story I personally heard about a RAW house show in London just the other night: Carlito & Primo were defending the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against the now SmackDown! team of Mike Knox & Charlie Haas. Anyway, what was noticeable about this match? Of all things, people noticed how charismatic Charlie Haas was. He was playing a heel role, and was getting right into things, and was interacting with the crowd.

I've never subscribed to the "Charlie Haas has no charisma" thing, but it still feels noteworthy to me.

Holy crap! I was just going to mention the same thing. At the Liverpool show he was great too. Of course the Colons got the majority of the offence and spots, but Haas was great working the crowd.