Seeing Wrestling Live

[masterded]

Do you go to any local promotions shows?

What is the last show you saw? How was it?

Next Show you are going to?

Best show you have seen live?

 

 

Do you go to any local promotions shows? I got to F1rst Wrestling whenever they have a show (I think I have been to the last 9). F1rst Wrestling is ran by Arik Cannon. The North Star Express are always on the shows a good young Tag Team called Minnesota Ground and Air are usually the highlights. Usually their is someone who is above the regulars in popularity, maybe an ROH guy like Aries or Black. It is a fun show held most times in F1rst Avenue (the club in Purple Rain).

 

 

What is the last show you saw? How was it? Last Show I saw Live was F1rst Wrestling: The Return 09. It was a great show with some very fun matches. But what made it great was the main event. Lynn vs. X-Pac. Two guys having a match in their hometown that clearly were happy to be there. It ended with everyone standing and clapping for quite some time. Including all the other wrestlers coming out of the back. Then X-Pac cried.

 

 

Next Show you are going to? F1rst Wrestling and I think Heavy on Wrestling are holding an all woman (and 2 men) show on the 31st of this month that I am going to.

 

 

Best show you have seen live? Either Sumerslam 99 or the last ROH show in Minnesota as it is the only ROH show I have seen live.

[CQI13]

Do you go to any local promotions shows? I have not yet, but probably should. This kid from my high school (one year ahead) wrestles in one. I might get a group together and go some time.

 

What is the last show you saw? How was it? RAW house show, first week of January this year. It was very enjoyable. The go home sequence with the Cena/Orton match had some unexpected wrinkles due to a fan throwing a beer at Orton, who was taunting him from the turnbuckle. Some aim too, hit him perfectly. (And yes, his abs glistened that much more afterwards).

 

Next Show you are going to? Probably that local show if I can find out when he's wrestling.

 

Best show you have seen live? I'd have to say Jericho's return RAW. Great reaction live. And the section they had for the fans in attendance only was hilarious (The "One night in every town they work" DX Reunion vs Umaga & Kennedy).

[BHK1978]

Do you go to any local promotions shows?

 

Back in the early to mid 1990's I used to go to a lot of local shows but for some reason I just stopped going. In fact looking back at the people who used to wrestle around my area in the that time is actually a whose who of wrestlers. I saw HHH, Perry Saturn, Scotty 2 Hottie, Justin Credible and many others before they became name wrestlers.

 

What is the last show you saw? How was it?

 

The last show I saw may or may not be considered independent. It was the Ring Of Honor PPV that was held in Boston in September. The show was great live but when I watched it on PPV I found it boring. I am not sure if it was because the live crowd was awsome or the fact the ROH did not know how to film wrestling the right way.

 

Next Show you are going to?

 

Not sure like I have said I have not been to a local show since about 1997. And I am not sure if I will go to another one again.

 

Best show you have seen live?

 

I am not sure if one stands out to me. I mean, I have been to all the big four ppv that the WWF has held. Maina (In Hartford) which sucked, the Royal Rumble in NYC (where Cena returned), multiple King of the Ring Tournaments, a couple of Summer Slams, and one Survivor Series. But in all honesty none of them were really all that great.

 

One show that did stand out to me was when WCW/NWA came to Boston and they had the Main Event of Lex Luger vs Ric Flair. Well the place was so small that Lex could not find it and the Main Event ended up being Sting vs Flair and the match was great. The card also had Doom vs Steiners, The Road Warriors fought some might have been the SST. This show was great for me because I never had the chance to see these guys live before this point as the NWA/WCW never ventured this far North during that time due to Vince blackmailing the arenas in the North East saying if you want the WWF to come to your arenas then you can not work with the WCW/NWA. So I guess to me that was my favorite card.

[BurningHamster]

Do you go to any local promotions shows?

 

Yes. EPW Perth have reasonable little thing going here in Western Australia. Their wrestling is alright, entertaining enough. For an indy I think their production isn't bad.

 

What is the last show you saw? How was it?

 

Hell or Highwater 09 which was maybe a few weeks ago now. It was pretty good for what it was ... the wrestling is rather WWE inspired, so a bit short on technique and high on interference and storylines. The main event was a very entertaining brawl all over the (soon to be demolished) building featuring Bobby Marshall who is a decent enough wrestler whose appearance and overuse of the scissor kick makes me think of him as being half Booker T half Mark 'Jacko' Jackson.

 

Next Show you are going to?

 

Beats me, depends on when I can talk someone in to going along to something with me.

 

Best show you have seen live?

 

That would have been the NWA-Pro show that came to Perth a while back. It was basically the EPW guys plus a lot of US Indy names (Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Rocky Romero, Joey Ryan, Karl Anderson, X-Pac). X-Pac beat Danielson which kind of bothered me and Waltman was over in a weird way .... kind of half nostalgia for the late '90s and half people just wanting to see if he sucked. He sold like a mofo but his offense was pretty lame. It was pretty much the only time that major US indy workers have come to this side of the country. Anderson and Joey Ryan won me over that night, they were so funny as arrogant American heels I couldn't help but cheer for them beating on the local team.

 

Never been to a WWE show and I regret not going when Guerrero and Benoit were still around due to me being on the poor/cheap side at the time. I don't think you could pay me to watch a WWE show at the moment ...

[AfRoMaN36]

I haven't gone to any local shows. Was gunna go to a ROH show where Tammy Sytch was signing autographs, but I chickened out.

 

Last show I went to was years ago. I haven't been actively following wrestling in the last few years. It was a RAW in 2005. The first show since Austin returned from his walk out. Man, he got the pop of the year. I can safely say I was the first one to get up and cheer once I saw his titantron starting. I would have been pretty red in the face if it turned out to be an advertisement or something. The show was okay, but it was all about Stone Cold.

 

The show before that was a pre Wrestle Mania RAW house show and it rocked. RVD faced D-Lo Brown and they had the match of the night. I also had a huge crush on Stephanie McMahon at the time and she was there though I had to try and play it cool since my sister and her boyfriend were with me.

 

I have been more open to new ideas lately though, so an independant show may be in my future. I know nothing of where CHIKARA holds their shows, but I've seen some clips, and if I ever hear that they're holding a show in the NY area, I'll be there. Tickets shouldn't be very pricey either.

[BHK1978]

I know nothing of where CHIKARA holds their shows, but I've seen some clips, and if I ever hear that they're holding a show in the NY area, I'll be there. Tickets shouldn't be very pricey either.

 

You can go on their website they have were they are going posted there. I kick myself in the ass because I always wanted to see CHIKARA live and the one time I had the chance to go nobody wanted to go with me (because my friends are WWE/TNA marks who would never pay to see indy guys wrestle). And I did not want to go by myself. So I did not go to the show and I regret it everytime someone brings up CHIKARA.

[AfRoMaN36]

You can go on their website they have were they are going posted there. I kick myself in the ass because I always wanted to see CHIKARA live and the one time I had the chance to go nobody wanted to go with me (because my friends are WWE/TNA marks who would never pay to see indy guys wrestle). And I did not want to go by myself. So I did not go to the show and I regret it everytime someone brings up CHIKARA.

 

I prefer going alone to wrestling shows. So I don't have to hold back my inner nerd.

[Tha Black Phenom]

I've only been to two shows so far, an ROH show and a WWE house show, both last year. Both shows were magical.

 

The ROH house show featured Kevin Steen and El Generico in the main-event, and I shook Jerry Lynn's hand. Also got a pat from Steen at the end. I started a huge "BLOODY WANKER" chant at Nigel McGuinness too.

 

The house show was great as well, a lot of superstars had travel issues so they couldn't make it(which included Kennedy and Umaga, twas a bummer for me) and Cena also couldn't make it because I think he was shooting his movie. But they made up for it with a steeeeeel cage in the main-event, Triple H vs. Orton(H's pop was just deafening). I believe it was during the NHL playoffs, so Carlito showed up with a Philly Flyers jersey to piss us off, haha. And Y2J made the night memorable before his match by telling Snitsky to "brush his teeth" in french.

 

And decent timing, because I'm heading off to WWE Breaking Point this September as well. My friend meant to come, but he changed his idea when he saw it was just submission matches.

[Vladamire Dracos]

Do you go to any local promotions shows?

 

Heck yeah. I've gone to Northwest Wrestling Alliance (NWWA) and West Coast Wrestling Connection (WCWC), and would love to go to DOA Pro Wrestling (DOA), Suquamish Championship Wrestling (SCW), and Pro Wrestling Beyond (PWB), as I'm familiar with their talent and promoters (and friends with some of them). I'd like to get down to a Supreme Pro Wrestling (SPW) show down in Northern California too.

 

What is the last show you saw? How was it?

 

It was a NWWA show last year, before half their roster and head booker left to start DOA. It was a damn good show that had a blend of (future DOA) talent like J-SIN Sullivan, Wage Reichten and Wade Hess, Nate The Great, and Quiz, and a few hands up from SPW like Virgil Flynn, Mike Hayashi, "British Messiah" Timothy Thatcher, "Rock chick" Christiana Von Eerie, and "Big Ugly" J.D. Bishop. The main event was supposed to be Sullivan and Pete Storm (a rangy, Bruiser Brody-esque rookie trained by Buddy Wayne and Brian Alvarez) versus The Illuminati team of Wage and Wade (with "The Devil" Derek Drexl as their manager). A twist led to the match becoming a Hardcore Tornado Tag Match between the Illuminati team and Sullivan/J.D. Bishop for the NWWA tag team titles. Nice bloody brawl that saw Wage and Wade win the tag titles. Match of the night though was Virgil Flynn versus Mike Hayashi, two of the top homegrown talents from SPW for the North American Wrestling promotion's Light-Heavyweight title that ended in a time limit draw and drew the fans into the match. Another highlight match was Thatcher versus "The Craze" Paul Raze, a fairly tight technical encounter that saw The British Messiah get the win.

 

Next Show you are going to?

 

I don't have any lined up, but if I get the chance any of the above promotions are first picks.

 

Best show you have seen live?

 

Same answer as the last show I saw. Sadly work and distance has prevented me from going to more.

[BHK1978]

The ROH house show featured Kevin Steen and El Generico in the main-event, and I shook Jerry Lynn's hand. Also got a pat from Steen at the end.

 

Steen and El Generico are great! The show that I talked about above is the show that they won the Tag Team Titles!

 

Vladamire Dracos,

 

Do you live in the Portland area? I know back in the 80's and 90's that place had some real good wrestling going on up there.

 

And what is DOA Pro Wrestling? Are they good what is their style (hardcore)?

[Vladamire Dracos]

Steen and El Generico are great! The show that I talked about above is the show that they won the Tag Team Titles!

 

Vladamire Dracos,

 

Do you live in the Portland area? I know back in the 80's and 90's that place had some real good wrestling going on up there.

 

And what is DOA Pro Wrestling? Are they good what is their style (hardcore)?

 

I live down south of Portland, out in Southern Oregon. That's part of the reason I have trouble getting to shows, most of it is held in the Salem/Eugene/Portland area or up in Washington (depending on the promotion), so I usually have to make a special trip to go watch.

Yeah, wrestling was good then, but when it started to catch fire in the nineties Oregon switched to a more heavily regulated system and nearly killed the region. Regulation was lifted in the late nineties/early 2000's though and things are picking up again. We still have a few notable names from that era around though, guys like CW Bergstrom, The Grappler (Len Denton), Col. DeBeers, Ritchie Magnett, Buddy Wayne, Billy Two Eagles, Bryan Alvarez, to name a few. We had Sandy Barr and Buddy Rose up until their deaths, which helped out greatly as they were quality trainers and got a lot of the boys in the business right. We also picked up some veteran guys like Dr. Luther (trained in the Hart Dungeon and traveled the world), Lil Nasty Boy (also trained by the Harts and traveled extensively), Terry Bull (worked for IWA-MS before it got popular and Big Japan), and Ron "Iron Buddah" Sutherland (wrestled in Mexico for CMLL and in the Southwest/Midwest), so the region is recovering and we have about a dozen or so promotions of various qualities running in the Northern Oregon/Western Washington area today.

DOA Pro Wrestling is an edgy, cult promotion. They do focus on hardcore (mostly in their main event scene), but are flexible enough that they have guys who can do high flying (like Azul Angel) or technical styles or even fairly realistic martial arts (like their current heavyweight champ Aaron Bolo) without disrupting the flow of their shows. Their top talent is easily Thunder, a guy built like a Road Warrior (and has teamed with LOD's Animal) who can wrestle an entertaining power-based match and can also do Asai Moonsults and sentons and do hardcore (his last big hardcore match being a Tai-Pai Deathmatch against the LNB trained Wade "ByGod" Hess that was perhaps the most brutal match I've ever seen outside of CZW/Japan, let alone the Pacific Northwest). A lot of their talent was trained by Playboy Buddy Rose and Col. DeBeers or have similarly high quality, but less well known to outsiders, pedigree. They also have close ties to SPW, which has some of the best talent in the NorCal area bar none (the Carny and his APW crew can't hold SPW trainer J.D. Bishop's jockstrap, sorry to say).

As far as in-ring product is concerned DOA is the top promotion in the region in my opinion, with Bryan Alvarez's home promotion, Tulalip Championship Wrestling a close second (most of the talent there having been trained by Buddy Wayne with a focus on getting into their sister promotion OVW. Yes, that OVW). If we were talking popularity-wise though, I'd have to go with WCWC, who've run more shows in their time over a wider area, although with slightly less quality talent (they do more of an 80's style family friendly entertainment product, think WWF before the more overly cartoon characters or Attitude), with Portland Xtreme Wrestling coming in second to them (due to Matt Legit's constant pimping of the promotion to all that will listen and the fact that they're willing to run shows one after the other at a breakneck pace along with the fact that they have more well known names like Bergstrom and Two Eagle on their cards).

In the other indy-related thread here in the Pound I posted links to DOA's YouTube account (where they post interviews and segments hyping their events) and Matt Legit's, where you can find a treasure trove of videos from all the promotions he's worked for (but mostly PXW), along with classic stuff from the 70's all the way into the 90's, salvaged from (in most cases pre-VHS) fan recordings of Don Owens promotion's shows. Those tapes (and now those YouTube videos) are the only existing records of those cards in most cases, as Don was a cheapskate and taped over and/or threw away what they had for TV after it aired rather than keep it.

[Jericho Rules]

Do you go to any local promotions shows?

 

Nope, but I plan on going to watch one eventually. It should be fun.

 

What is the last show you saw? How was it?

SmackDown/ECW House show. It was pretty good. I had a lot of fun at it. Miz and Morrison were hilarious. Edge mocked a bunch of fans. Overall, a pretty good time haha.

 

Next Show you are going to?

Raw house show. I'm pumped for this. I'm looking forward to seeing all the Raw stars. But frig, Chris Jericho is now on Smackdown, so I won't see him unless he's still the tag champ by then. That ticks me off haha.

 

Best show you have seen live?

I've only seen WWE/WWF live. So I'm limited in my experience of live shows. Only been to 3 my entire life. With that being said, I'd love to see ROH live. (Considered driving to Ontario to see them live when they were there.) I'd also like to see TNA eventually. However, for the best show I've ever seen, I have to go with a house show for the WWF that I went to in 1995. It was my first live event, and the card was stacked.

 

Got to see Goldust before he debuted on screen. Saw Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Lex Luger, Yokosuna, Owen Hart, Sid, Diesel, and all the rest. (Except for The Undertaker). The whole card was great from top to bottom. With the best match probably being Owen Hart vs. Shawn Michaels. Definitely an awesome match.

[BHK1978]

Col. DeBeers is still wrestling? He has to be in his 90's by now! Does he still do his racist gimmick?

[Vladamire Dracos]

Col. DeBeers is still wrestling? He has to be in his 90's by now! Does he still do his racist gimmick?

 

Not regularly, he usually works as a manager when he works at all. The last match I remember him having was a couple years ago at one of those old tyme wrestling reunions/fan fests where he teamed with Rose and I think Cowboy Bob Orton in a six man match. He's still younger than Tito Carreon, now that guy is old!

[BHK1978]

He's still younger than Tito Carreon, now that guy is old!

 

Wow that dude is around my father's age! That reminds me of Bobo Brazil who wrestled into his 70's (I think it was his 70's maybe a little younger).

[Vladamire Dracos]

Wow that dude is around my father's age! That reminds me of Bobo Brazil who wrestled into his 70's (I think it was his 70's maybe a little younger).

 

He's 79 now, but how many people could say they did a plancha off the ring apron at 73? He trained a number of the boys in the lucha style up here and ran a promotion called Azteca Pro Wrestling out of his gym until the government shut him down. Sad thing is I doubt the match was recorded, which is one of the great tragedies of our local scene up here, lots of great wrestling and talent but little of it is saved for posterity or known of outside the area.