House Shows/Live Events thread

[Baby Shoes]

I was just posting stuff til my people arrived. Heading to bed now but I will probably post a recap tomorrow.

 

[Super Leather]

Going to the WWE house show at the Oracle Arena tonight. Main event is supposed to be Bray Wyatt vs. D-Bry vs. the Miz. Stoked!

 

[Baby Shoes]

A friend of mine from Australia scored tickets to the Phoenix show I think. I don't think he'd make a scene.

That's interesting. Were they coincidentally visiting people here? I just sent visitors from Australia back a few weeks ago. Need to go myself but that flight seems brutal.

Here's my show recap:

Got into the venue, which I only ever have been to once when going to see Dave Chappelle back in 2015. Coincidentally, that show was the same day as Wrestlemania 31. I was not sure how the venue would play out for wrestling since it is a concert space but the intimate space was awesome.

Walking in, the ring was down where the pit would be in front of the stage and a couple rows of seats were set up on the stage along where the "entrance ramp" was. As I had heard from NXT shows, I could hear the video board playing something with Shinsuke's music and then they were showing Asuka's NXT exit. There was a huge line for (presumably) the lone merch stand but nothing jumped out as needing to get. When I went to Takeover and the Rumble last year they had a couple city specific shirts, which is normal for a big event. No interest in paying the marked up prices on the normal shirts, especially when WWEShop had them on sale the same day. Plus I have too many damn wrestling shirts anyway.

Got to our seats which were much better than I realized from the seating chart. We were basically in the second row of non-floor seats but had a direct shot to the ring, looking very close.

First up was Keith Lee vs. Damien Priest. Priest probably showed the most personality I've ever seen from him, which includes his time in ROH. In the intimate setting, he was very audible in the ring and was essentially cracking jokes during the feat of strength spots with Lee. This match actually made me a bigger Priest supporter than I had been. The downside of once people realize the intimate setting and laughing along with the wrestlers in the ring, is everyone in the crowd thinks they need to make jokes too. Most of them unfunny. The best were probably some kid from the family that I saw when waiting to go in where even the three year old had at least gold chains. So you knew they were legit anyway. Of course the kid innocently making funny comments led to some guy later in the show trying to start a "This Kid's Awesome" chant because wrestling fans.

As for the match, a lot of fun spots from the big men and audience interactivity - the new North American Champ gets the win.

Jesse Kameaa came out for the next match and I think she was the one that used to do that weird nerd gimmick but now she seems to be doing kinda what Vanessa Bourne was doing when she was getting used. They gave her a mic for a really rough promo where she talked about being glad to move from Phoenix and was rambling about Candace LeRae. It was weird to the point I thought someone missed their music queue for Candice to come out but then she introduced her tag partner, which was Dakota guy. Some guy behind me yelled DAKOTA SUCKS to which I replied YOU SUCK but I don't think he caught it. Candice was out next, followed by Teagan Nox who charged the ring and went ham on Dakota. Basically a paint by numbers women's tag. Jesse definitely needs more work but they gave her time to mix with the established crew. A guy near me that kept throwing out desperate for attention comments all night made some cringy comment about needing to wrestle like men or something that escapes me. It was really awkward. Nothing super memorable but the babyface team went over.

I had been talking to someone in my group how I hoped we at least got Garza to show up because I knew Jordan Devlin (who I was hoping for) and Lio Rush were booked for 205 Live that night. Shortly after saying that, Garza's music hit. I tried to get others to agree to join me in joining Garza with the pants rip but I was surrounded by cowards.

I was curious who would face Garza, since he's been shoehorned as a Cruiserweight and they were off doing TV elsewhere. That brought out Shane Thorne.

Garza does his kiss routine ringside and some guy popped up. I couldn't tell if the guy or Garza chickened out of doing it but people were laughing. This prompted some guy that I've seen at other events around town to pop up and start trying to convince Thorne to do the kiss spot with him. Thorne does an awesome reluctant heel spot and then does it and sells it like he made a big mistake while Garza does a grossed out reaction in the ring. The crowd popped pretty crazy for it. Garza did not take this opportunity to rip off his pants. Before starting the match, Thorne then tried to get the female ring announcer to do the kiss spot and she punched him in the mouth.

These two worked well together because Shane is a little slept on and I love Garza. One of my buddies brought his wife. Between the kiss spots and the spots in the match where Garza and Thorne were spanking each other, she had some questions. This made me long for the pants ripping even more. Sadly that spot didn't happen until about thirty seconds before Garza took the win.

One of the guys in my group went up to the bathroom. I had told them walking in about Dorian Mak's uncle outside. Apparently Dorian Mak approached him in the restroom to tell him that he was his uncle. Glad buddy has a proud uncle. After I had posted earlier I had heard how some lady at his work is in love with Mak, uncle calls him Yeti because of how big he is and he had to be explained to that he is a heel and what that is, which he was telling the rest of the group.

Kushida came out next, which excited me as he was another not previously advertised. I was curious who they booked him against since he doesn't really have anything going on for TV right now and was pleasantly surprised when the Undisputed Era theme hit. I was not expecting to see Roderick Strong vs. KUSHIDA, which I think was probably the match of the night. The two went back and forth and had a good match. When it was really quiet, some guy yelled at Roddy to go back to Ring of Honor. This was met to almost no reaction although
one guy near me had said to the person with him "Who wishes that on someone?" At one point Roddy went over the rail to go to someone else in the crowd. I was surprised they kept the spotlight on it so thought maybe it was planned. I saw someone's recap on Reddit where a guy claimed that some guy yelled to Roddy about his "hot wife" and Roddy went in on him and stuck his hands in his tights when the guy tried to get a handshake. Seemed odd.

After the match, we got a vignette for BABATUNDE. He was walking down some graffitti hallway that I presume was in the venue, when two kids rushed him for autographs. He signed and talked about how he is excited to be making his touring show debut and no better place than Phoenix. I know he worked Saudi Arabia and the Florida loops, didn't realize (or validate) that information but they managed to get a cheap pop.

Dorian Mak's long awaited Tron video came up next. I just saw a picture of this guy the other day. I don't remember if it was him or somewhere else but he is the guy that looks like Christopher Daniels ate all the steroids. I also learned today he is former NXT Legend Dan Matha, so there is that too. His tag team partner was introduced and it was Austin Theory, which was another surprise to me since I'd heard the hype on him since prior to his joining WWE. After they were both in the ring, Mak got on the mic. He started off by criticizing how quiet the crowd was, which I often feel at shows in Phoenix but then I let out a WTF laugh when suggests the crowd gets a blood test because they probably have Low T. My friends advised me not to rebut by shouting my personal medical history out at Mak.

I did spot uncle and his crew making a scene maybe about twenty rows behind me. I was confused by how small the signs he had been making got but then I remembered they were actually telling people they couldn't bring signs over a certain size in, so they probably whittled them down on the way in. Mak made a comment about one of the two reasons he was even at this place was to wrestle in front of his uncle Chris and then he did something to put over Theory. He actually wasn't too bad on the mic, outside some of the stupid lines. Theory did some generic heel work on the mic before they were interrupted by the Broserweights entrance video.

Broserweights worked a fun match while still getting the audience to care about two guys the bulk of the audience did not know. Nothing super special but a fun showing. Riddle and Dunne worked the crowd after the match, Dunne taking the finger snapping pictures with people around the ring.

The ring announcer got in the ring and told people time for intermission and plugged the sale of Matt Riddle and Undisputed Era signed photos and a mystery bag that guaranteed 3 shirts but everyone's would be different. Those items could've been interesting but I didn't feel like fighting the crowds.

Prior to intermission wrapping, the ring announcer was trying to get some life out of the crowd and really seeming to fight getting the response they wanted.

Intermission ended with Cameron Grimes coming out. I really feel like I should've come to the show in his top hat, leather vest and underoos combo. Maybe next time. Cameron was the matchup for Babatunde. Babatunde comes out and throws Grimes around after a posedown. As seen by the end of his TNA run, Grimes can play the goofy heel really well, so it was fun. The match started going way longer than I expected but it led to Grimes actually getting the win after coming off the top with his Stomp finisher. They had this weird lingering moment with Babatunde looking remorseful in the ring after his loss which was almost reminiscent of a guy losing in his last shot or retirement match. I really had the urge to get a THANK YOU chant for Babatunde. It was super odd.

This led to one of the two advertised matches of the night, Rhea Ripley defending her championship against Bianca Belair. This match was interesting because both were super over during their entrances. I don't know if people got tired or just weren't decisive on who they wanted to cheer for but during the match were several spots where the audience was the most quiet I had heard it all night. I like both these two and have been hyped for their Portland match but I really hope this match isn't what they have planned for that show. Though not awful, this may have been the biggest letdown of the night. Rhea goes over but if this is what they are do next weekend, probably will be the weakest match of the night.

I think prior to the main event was the awkward moment where the lady ring announcer told some guy in the front row people were just trying to have a nice time, and it didn't seem like a joke, so no idea what happened there.

DIY had their music hit, which was good due to the rumors that Ciampa was hurt. Both seemed to be moving fine, as I know they had said Johnny's touring schedule had been lessened too. O'Reilly and Fish came out and were doing yapping at DIY. Humorous pre-match spot was Fish tossing his t-shirt in disrespect at DIY. When they were going to give it to someone in the crowd, UE went bonkers, leading DIY to play keep away before Ciampa handed it to a child in the crowd. This led Undisputed to throw a temper tantrum. Fun match with both teams going full speed. They found a way to work the same spot from Worlds Collide where Johnny joined Ciampa on the self-congratulatory apron spot, which the crowd ate up. As it seemed like the match was heading home and DIY had the upperhand, Roddy and the unadvertised Adam Cole ran out and put boots to DIY. This led to the Broserweights coming out too.

Undisputed had the upper hand and Adam Cole was bragging in the ring but then Velveteen's music hit and he came out with a steel chair. Dream cleared out the UE, which led to Cole being in the ring with all five babyfaces. Cole started trying sucking up to the faces by doing their signature poses, which was pretty funny. The final pose he tried to do was the Rick Rude hip swivel for Dream. Dream started doing it back before nailing him with the super kick leading to all the faces hitting their finishers. At this point, the babyfaces were hanging out and Ciampa and Gargano made makeshift headbands off of Dream's shirt that he tore off. Gargano tried doing the hip swivel, which led Ciampa to try. He played along like he couldn't stop until Dream took off his weight belt and spanked him. You could tell all these guys liked each other and were playing around. There were moments where it was probably the most "out of character" I felt I've ever seen Dream, even seeing him in dark segments before. They were trying to get Dunne to do it, which off course he was disgusted by and Riddle kept doing it unsolicited with much enthusiasm. They got some crowd participation for the group to assist Dunne.

DIY then wanted to close off by doing a record hip swivel and get the whole building but they decided they wanted to call out Scotty 2 Hotty. Dream ended up going to the back. After a minute or so, he came back out and then they hit Scotty's theme. Scotty came out acting reluctant and did some spots in the ring teasing walking away. He did a worm, they did the whole room hip swivel and called it a night.

That was my third NXT show, first house show for them. Had a great time and loved the use of the smaller venue. High recommendation if you get a chance.

 

[muzzington]

A friend of mine from Australia scored tickets to the Phoenix show I think. I don't think he'd make a scene.

That's interesting. Were they coincidentally visiting people here? I just sent visitors from Australia back a few weeks ago. Need to go myself but that flight seems brutal.

He moved over there with his girlfriend over two years ago now and really likes it.

Sounds like he got a good show.

 

[RedJed]

Went to what ended up being the unofficial tenth anniversary show of sorts for NXT last night at a house show in St. Paul, MN. NXT actually started on Feb 23, 2010 at a combined NXT/SD taping in Milwaukee that I ended up attending as well back then (this was the show headlined by Bryan/Jericho). So yesterday was the legitimate ten year anniversary to the exact date.

While it didn't feel super special (although Ciampa and Co. did a post-main event speech talking about the anniversary) there was certainly some greatness on this one. Opener was strong work with Dijakovic and Priest. Good 10-12 minutes of work.

Also, Rik Bugez (why did they change his name???!!) shined in a match with the former Sam Shaw, now known as Dexter Lumis. Lumis has an eerie entrance theme similar to a horror soundtrack. Bugez's shtick is perfect for house shows and I can see him getting way over once he gets the ball to run with. He did a air guitar jam out session with the ref and ring announcer after the match that got the crowd way into the act.

Rhea Ripley was incredibly over in there with Chelsea Green, and Keith Lee and Balor had a fun but short match for the NA title that had a fuck finish with Dijakovic running in to save Lee from a belt shot by Balor that never happened. Ref saw him holding the belt in the ring after taking it from Balor and immediately called the DQ. There was some awesome spots here and there in this match, and hope they do a full longer match on TV soon with these two.

Then came the main, 8 man tag w/ UE vs Ciampa/Dream/Broserweights. Dream looked so less clunky in this match compared to the NXT show last Weds. All in all a hot main for sure.

Added some random vid clips from the show on my YouTube page, check them out if you wish (click banner below)

 

[King Kamala]

I'm Facebook friends with dude who runs a lot of conventions in Rhode Island and he posted an autographed ticket stub (by Big Show and HEADBANGER THRASHER!) from a WWF house show at the Warwick Musical Theatre from Summer of 1999. I knew WWF ran their in New Generation doldrum era and maybe WWE or NXT has ran there in the past 15 years (current doldrum era?) but it seems odd as hell WWF would run their in the midst of Attitude era.

WWF House Show « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database

Internet Wrestling Database

www.cagematch.net

Hard to think of anything better/worse than a B WWF house show from 1999. Would we get more excited for Gangrel/Taka Michinoku, Mark Henry Vs Chaz (wait, that's Mosh. Why was Thrasher hanging around!?), or Blue Meanie Vs MEAT?

Merry Christmas @Baby Shoes and @Laz !!!

Edit- Oh I guess 1999 was farewell season for Warwick Musical Theater and that's probably WWF paid their respects...also bringing this horrible memory might cause Baby Shoes and Laz to get pissed at me all over again!

 

[Baby Shoes]

Warwick Musical Theater is where I attended my first ever wrestling/WWF show. Headlined by Macho Man vs Mr. Hughes. I will always put respect on that name.