FanPost

First Experience: WWE Live House Show

I have been watching Professional Wrestling for most of my life, and until yesterday, I have never been to a big promotion show. I didn't know what to expect from a house show and unsuccessfully tried scouring the internet for hints before I went. So this write up, I will try to build a decent picture for anybody else in the future who, like me, wants to get a feeling for whats to be expected. I will also be providing pictures in link form so you can click them if you want to see.

The night started out by us taking the MAX rail downtown to save on parking and the hysteria of hair pulling frustrations of Portland traffic. The trip only took 15 mins to get to the recently renamed "Moda Center". Thats right guys, no longer is it called the "Rose Garden". My friend, who I will no longer be calling by his real name since he has recently joined are great community, now goes by user Pimpcy. He and I had dinner at Burgerville once we got down town. If your ever in the area, I urge you to go try it immediately. It will NOT let you down, I promise.

We got there early, only to find out, it doesn't matter if your early or not, a line, is a line, and its the longest line at that. Just show up a few mins before it starts because you will make it easier on yourself. There was however at least one thing to do that was outside while we waited. There was a big metal cutout of Mark henry matching him in exact weight that people could try and lift up that was sponsored by Doritos. I however don't like people staring at me while I make a fool of myself, so I just stood back and stared at other people who were making fools of themselves. One guy actually lifted it! He got a mild golf clap reaction and we left to go inside.

Now, I had no idea what to expect before going in. I couldn't even remember what the Moda Center looked like because last time I was in there was for Winterhawks Hockey game years before. I skipped out on $7 small sodas and $9 hotdogs to go find our seat. I mentioned this in a thread last night, and I am still curious, I would love to see an updated chart on Merch sales. RVD stuff seems to be flying of the shelves. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY either had RVD, Daniel Bryan, and of Course John Cena shirts. Anytime I went close to a merch table, it was RVD! RVD! RVD!

We found our seats, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There was no giant Titantron, but a small ramp with small TV screens on both sides. Old school style barriers separating the ring from the crowd. I couldn't figure out where the time keeper was, but there was a couple folding chairs inside the barrier where Brad Maddox sat for the entire show.

The show kicks off with Brad Maddox coming out and welcoming us to the show. Lying to us that he infact is from Portland and is a huge fan of the Trail Blazers. Nobody bought the lies and he got many boos, especially when he announced that John Cena was not going to be there for the night due to injury and we could all leave to get refunds. I didn't believe him at first, I thought he was just trying to get some heat drawn to himself, but then remembered the reports I had read earlier. He than announced that instead, we were going to have a #1 contender Battle Royal to determine who was going to fight Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event, and that match was to take place.... NOW.

Daniel Bryan comes out first with a HUGE pop, followed by the others, Christian, Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, RVD, R-Truth, Big E Langston, Rollins, Ambrose, Reigns. The match starts. I'm thinking, Holy Crap! I went from never seeing anybody in real life before, to a ring full of my favorites wrestlers within 5 mins. Definitely overwhelming feeling of markness going on. Daniel Bryan and RVD both got the same amount of chants with an almost equal amount of pop. the match wittled down, the shield doing what they do best. The shield vs everybody that was fighting for themselves. Eventually everybody but Daniel Bryan and Ryback was eliminated and those two went at it. Daniel Bryan being the eventual winner and getting a shot at the World Heavyweight title later on in the night. He cant win it at a house show could he? A note from the first match. Ryback looks a lot smaller when standing next to Big E. Langston. Big E. is seriously a big fucking man!

Next up, Kane comes out. Holy shit its Kane! Mark out meter went into the red. He's huge too! No Kane pyros. I didn't expect any either, but I have always wanted to witness that so I still hoped for that surprise. Nope. Now the Wyatt Family comes out. I will tell you this much, the entrance was nowhere near as good as what it looks like on TV. Actually kinda disappointing, however they did get a good reaction from the crowd. Portland loves the Wyatts. Kane went on to have a pretty short, but sweet match with Luke Harper. It ended with Bray Wyatt and Eric Rowan interfering causing a DQ with them beating down Kane until he over came them and left being the last one standing.

Holy Shit its Kaitlyn!! Its really her! SPA, shes here! It's my turn with her! She looks just as lovely as she does on TV. Kaitlyn, I love you so much. A.J. comes out while i'm still marking out about Kaitlyn on Twitter. The match was actually pretty good and everything was smooth as from what I could tell. AJ finished Kaitlyn with her Black Widow Submission. Looks pretty cool in person actually.

R-Truth comes out with a nice pop. his intro is pretty damn entertaining live. He is a great performer. Ryback is next with a mix of cheers and boos. Little kids have some weird liking to him. All the Ryback chants I heard was from the little guys. For some reason I cant remember much about this match, I may of had to step out or was on twitter. Apparently reports say that it was an upset victory by R-Truth getting the roll up 1-2-3 victory.

Next we have Christian, RVD, and Mark henry VS. The Shield. Now I remember this. Very fun match. Shield doing what they usually do. Rollins making fun of RVD and rolling around in the ring. Mark Henry hit the Worlds strongest slam on Rollins and that set up RVD's 5 star frog splash for the victory. Holy Shit, That splash looks sooo fucking awesome in person. Even from where I was sitting in the way back. Huge reaction too.

Dolph Ziggler comes out with a nice reaction. Here he has a match with Big E. Langston who got NO reaction from the crowd. I might as well could have walked out and would of had the same reaction. It was terrible. Earlier in the night, the crowd was to use twitter and texts to vote on the stipulation of the match, that ended up being a no DQ match. That consisted of Kendo sticks, and the steel chair that Maddox was using to sit ringside the whole night. The chair was set up in the turnbuckle and Ziggler went head first into it. Ouch. Head first. The chair went flying too. Looked bad. Take it easy on Ziggler's head please. Ziggler eventually hit the Zig-Zag for the pinfall.

Now, Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman come out to MASSIVE boos. Infact the heat was so massive that it took Heyman 5 mins to finally make a whole sentence that we couldn't even hear. It was Vickie type heat. At one point I started laughing because the boos were so long and loud. Get the point? Yeah it was awesome. Finally CM Punk comes out and we get the match underway. It was your normal match, Heyman running from Punk everytime he chased him, and CM Punk gets the victory.

Finally the Main Event. Daniel Bryan comes out and the crowd goes nuts like one would expect. It is for the World Heavyweight Championship. He cant win it can he? It was a pretty good technical match like you would expect. Daniel Bryan's suicide dive looks dangerous in person. Infact he puts a certain amount of intensity in it that I cant compare it to anybody elses. Daniel, it looks fucking awesome, but please, don't hurt yourself. After a long great match, Alberto hits Bryan with a microphone getting the DQ while he was in, what looked to be the No lock, or Yes lock, what is it now? So Bryan is declared the winner without getting the belt like I had predicted.

The time I had that night was incredible. There is nothing funner than going to see WWE in Person. I sat 5 rows from the very back and still had a blast. I wish there would have been a few cameras there so we could get a closer look at what was going on, but still it wasn't bad. They had the entire upper deck closed off, so for $50 bucks (including fees) I got 2 tickets, sat the furthest away, and it was still great. I found out that night that they were coming back in December for a Smackdown taping. I will be most likely attending that show and will look forward to doing a write up, with or without spoilers, for the event. I've already started saving so I can get better seats. Can anybody give me an estimate on Floor ticket prices? Anyway, thats my evening and If you have never been, I strongly encourage you to go, even if it is just a house show, its worth seeing.

Thanks for reading guys, and I look forward to reading everybody else's adventures. I will be back in December bringing you Smackdown. Until then.

Oh! for those who may be wondering, PTP didn't wrestle that night but D Young unsurprisingly got many blessings from the Portland Crowd on the Tweet-to-TV thing they do during the show. One of them reading specifically:

"Big props to Darren Young, we all love you"

Indeed we do.

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