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Help Me Find an Event? WWA in Dublin 2002
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20-03-2011 12:14pm#1
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I can raise you all one better; comments on their card in Belfast the night before and Dublin. Bear with the odd typo and error but overall you get the vibe
LOOPING THE LOOP
WWA in Belfast and Dublin
True to form, there had to be a brave and hardy soul that was lacking wrestling action so badly that he had to go to both cards. So, on the Tuesday afternoon, I made for Connolly Station and boarded the Enterprise ( I must say it is as comfortable a train as one can expect; roomy seats, blinds and curtains on the windows and full air conditioning in all seats, Kudos to Irish Rail and Northern Ireland Railway) that got me in to Belfast Central. From there to my accomodation, where as owner and editor-in-chief, I afforded myself the luxury of a B+B, unlike the hotel I stayed when in London, I slipped into my Rock Barby T-Shirt and biggest kicking boots, ate some Sirloin Steak ( for a fiver + a free pint of Stout, eat at the Bontanic House bar) and then hailed a taxi ( Well, the expenses covered that much, I'll be damned) that took me towards Belfast's Oddesy Arena. On the way, I had a great chat with the taxi driver, who is a rare one; he is a wrestling fan through the show on Talksport Radio. He was interested in what I was doing and as he dropped me off at the arena, I felt something good about the trip. I don't know what it was; maybe it was the impressive look to the building and it's setting beside the River Lagan; maybe it was the friendly buzz to the incoming crowd or the landscaped gardens at the entrance. But one thing I did know that night was that I was feeling good.
So the building itself, it's only two years old and it is a purpose built arena. Inside has a large lobby area with plenty of room to move around, loads of concession stalls and food points. There is also Beer sales, a welcome addition to any entertainment venue; there is also the additional benefit of bringing drink into the arena that not everywhere allows. As regards the hall itself, it is pretty much what you will see on TV with no bad seats but it is quite small in comparison to the typical Raw venue, I believe it seats 7,000 or so. Mind you, with about 4,500 in the venue, it made for a good atmosphere inside. My own seat was ringside, my sixth time for a front row seat at a wrestling event and for a moment, the excitement got to me. Only a moment though, then I realised I was working.
The card on for the night was quite good, with a cruiserweight contest starting off the evening between Psycosis and Juevvo Guerra. I thought the belt looked odd, maybe, it was the "US Heavyweight Champion" logo on the belt. I am not going to talk about the matches now, but I can talk about the ref with the WCW logo ( Get your own shirts ) or the Bret Hart fans sitting beside me ( Shout to Jimmy D who was sitting beside me ) or lots of things, so here's a few Belfast comments to ponder over.
I must say, the Belfast fans were very lively, with loads of chanting of all sorts of things. Bret got the old " Bret screwed Bret" vocals, Stevie Ray was reminded of his Bro's name, loads and loads of "What"'s. For the most part, they were very happy and were willing to react to heel and face pops. It helps that the arena is purpose built for crowds and as such it is well speced for acoustics. Buff as a face, amazingly, it worked well, thanks to Stevie Ray's diss the crowd effort, including a comment about needing police to go to school, Ouch, that's gotta hurt real bad!
Dublin on the other hand was a completely different live experience. For a start, the Point was a sell out, and a long queue outside the arena made for some damning at first, but thankfully, it moved quickly enough. Inside, it is a different story altogether. The Point was built in 1859 as a Goods depot for trains and is a granite structure. It looks cool outside, it has poor acoustics generally but wrestling seems somewhat special in it, possibly because of the tight balconies inside. The people inside were bananas for action, more so than those in Belfast, but chanting was less common in here. One oddity was the pop Gangrel got in Dublin when he was playing the heel over Luna, possibly because she looks so goddam angry. Buff also got pop, but less so than last night. Probably due to Stevie not dissing the crowd as badly.
Other things that I found interesting was watching the spots and seeing how tight they were in relation to each night, or indeed if there was anything different in them, which there was is the tag team match between the West Hollywood Blondes and Konnan and Nathan Jones, indeed this was substantially altered with a lot of work with some towel choking disappearing in Dublin and a different lead to the goozle by Nathan Jones, this time on Lodi.
Grandmaster Sexay is still the zany hip-hopper that we loved in 2 Cool, and he brought some tight work with Disqo, who is a heel by his natural charisma alone; the matter of his ****e work in WCW helps this. Still, he done the job well, no doubts he is working the tour as a booker.
The main event was good, with Road Dogg working the crowd brilliantly as he always could; JJ is a natural heel and the pair are well suited to each other. Even Norman Smilie was OK in the hardcore, not bad for a Different Strokes drop out.
Possibly the best working was the cute way that they made it feel like a TV taping. OK, we all know it takes more than 2 cameras to do it properly, but it added to the spectacle, as did the giant video screen and pyrotechnics. As well as that, the commentary idea helped put over the event as TV, as well as pushing Heel/Face characters. Commentary was provided by Jeremy Boresch ( wonder if he is anything to do with Paul Boresch, the legendary WWF promoter?) and Konnan, with Disqo providing the second half colour. Also the PPV pop in Dublin was a good idea to help sell tickets in May for the return tour, when the WWF will also be touring the islands. Allegedly.
But the best event of the tour for me was the slip by Buff ( I think ) that told us that the wrestlers were staying in the Hilton. Well, I needed no more encouragement so myself and a few lads went off to the hotel, which is 5 minutes from the Oddessy, and settled into the Bar there. And we waited and waited till 11:30, when the bodies poured in to the lobby. There they were; Buff, Stevie, Crowbar, Dogg and the man himself, Bret hart. The fact that he stood in the hallway for over 90 minutes talking to fans says a lot about the man,; the way he talked afterwards to myself and the other lads about absolutely anything, it was so cool. You name it, he talked; Owen, Vince, Bishoff, Stu. Dammit, he even bought us a drink. Alone, this was the highlight of the two nights.
So all in all, a good two nights work, and all I can say is that I wish them all the best in the coming months.0 -
I remember Lawler leaving just before this happened, seriously gutted by that, and the fact that Road Dogg told the crowd not to chant "D Generation X and the WWF" - he did it another way, but the crowd just kept chanting the WWF speech lol
It's funny, I used to hate DX and Triple H, and even though they were heels you couldn't help but adore the New Age Outlaws
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv_Q9mVYLKw
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