Miami Meltdown - Raw Recall

Miami Meltdown – Raw Recall

So Monday rolled around, Wrestlemania had finished, and some may think that my WWE experience was over. Oh no, my friends. Arguably the best was yet to come as Raw was being held at the American Airlines Arena that Monday evening.

I’m not just saying this due to the events that followed, but I was probably just as excited for Raw as I was for Wrestlemania. The first Raw after the big one is normally a great show where almost anything can happen. Well that’s the hope. Did this Raw equal the hype? Put it this way, it was PAINfully good.

Before the show, I had a feeling that the crowd would be hot. But, I had no idea how hot. I’m going to go on a limb here and say that the Miami crowd was one of the smartest ever. Right off the bat there were screams of Yes, echoing out of the American Airlines Arena.

Raw starts with a ‘can you smellll, what the rock is cooking?’ and one of many huge pops ensues. The Rocks promo is interrupted by chant after chant that I’m sure that it’s the reason that Raw ran over. Nevertheless, it’s still an amazing promo from The Great One. The highlight surely being when The People’s champ promised his people that he will be WWE Champion at least one more time.

Now, I’m sure there are some people who will not like this. Because if The Rock does become WWE Champion, he will obviously not appear regularly. I imagine die hard wrestling fans will be against the fact. I am not one of these. The Rock is clearly one of the biggest draws in the industry, still. And if the WWE championship is being defended every few months, it could bring back prestige to the belt.

After the rock left, we had an action packed Raw. I would like to go into a lot more detail about it. But, once again time isn’t on my side. If you want to know what happened either watch it or check out the results.

With five minutes left in the show John Cena comes out. He cuts a promo on how he now respects The Rock. However, nobody listened. They were shouting one thing ‘We want Lesner’. Earlier in the weekend, it had been rumoured that Lesner had signed. So hopes were high.

However, for every second that passed in John Cena’s promo, my high hopes dwindled. That is until John Cena called out The Rock. A wish that was unfulfilled. Here comes the pain and Brock Lesner walks out, to what was one of the biggest pops I have ever heard. He makes his way down to the ring and gets face to face.

THEN THEY SHAKE HANDS! I feel sick. However, that sick quickly disappears when Lesner picks up Cena and delivers a thunderous FU. To maybe an even louder pop. Then we go off air. Wow, what a show. The atmosphere was electric. A great wrestling send-off to a great weekend.

Until next time, enjoy the show.

Daniel Morris.

Miami Meltdown - Wrestlemania, YEStlemania

Miami Meltdown: Wrestlemania, YEStlemania

Apologies for how late this post is. Because I’m a good few days behind, you have probably already read a couple of recaps, but do me the solid and read this as well. You never know, I may give you a cookie. 

So on Sunday, a few of you may know that I went to watch Wrestlemania. And surprise, surprise, it was outstanding. I keep using these grand adjectives to describe this holiday and I feel their value depleting. 

However, you have to believe me, if you get the chance; you need to go to Wrestlemania. It is arguably the greatest four hours of my life. 

We arrived at the stadium rather early, due to the fact that we still had to go to the will call desk and collect the tickets. That being said, everywhere was already packed with fans, hanging out, drinking, chatting and just having a generally good time. 

At this moment in time, I want to give a special shout out to wrestling fans in general. Throughout the whole week, I have been majorly impressed with the spirit shown by wrestling fans of all ages. There was a festival atmosphere felt throughout the trip and whether you were at an event, in the hotel lobby or walking down the beach, if you seen another Wrestling fan, you knew you could strike up a conversation. Truly a great feeling. 

So around five O clock, we made our way into the stadium. We got to our seats and we’re amazed how close they were. Huge props to Mama and Papa Morris for our seats as they were the Row behind the Premium seats and incredibly close to the action. Can somebody say, Greatest Christmas present ever? 

We went and chatted to our friends for a bit then headed back to our seats to wait for the show to start. When the show started, a wave of atmosphere had taken over the whole crowd and we were immersed then.  I’m not going to run down the whole show, due to time constraints and the fact that you know the results anyway. Or I imagine you do. 

 The World heavy weight championship match has gotten a lot of stick of a lot of people. But, I didn’t hate it. If you wanted an immediate ‘WTF??’ reaction from the fans, then it certainly did the business. 78,000 fans jumped up at that moment screaming and shouting. To me, that’s a great start to the show. 

I also enjoyed both the IC match and the Kane vs. Orton match. Now I think both could be done better and they may have wanted Big Show to beat Cody in record time instead, but both were decent and didn’t feel out of place on the card. 

However, they were both completely overshadowed with what was to come. The End of an Era Hell in a Cell between HHH and The Undertaker. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was looking forward to watching my first ever cell match. I really was. However, nothing could have prepared me for how good it was. It felt like the whole crowd had turned twelve again, cheering and booing every single action. The match was so great; you can tell it took a lot out of the crowd. Asking for something big to follow it. 

Sadly, that was too much to ask for the Team Teddy, Team Johnny match. I thought the Team Teddy, Team Johnny match could have been done better, with Mr Ziggler getting more time, but to be honest, he could have gotten fifteen minutes and I would have still wanted more. 

We were still a bit dead for Punk vs. Jericho, which, started of slow. However, the match picked up pace and when it got going, it really got going. By the end the crowd was back to its best to watch CM Punk reclaim the WWE title. 

After a funny Funkosaurus skit, we had arguably the most high profile match of all time. The Rock vs. John Cena. Now, I was looking forward to the match yes. But, I was certain Cena was going to win. This was something that prevented me from really investing in the match. That is, until the end when I had my first proper mark out moment since Edge won his very first WWE title. 

 

The Rock winning was unbelievable. But, in reflection, the whole event and trip has been unbelievable. As you will see when I talk about Raw. 

Until next time, enjoy the show.

Daniel Morris.

Miami Meltdown - part 2

Miami Meltdown – Part 2

Howdy team. I was hoping to get at least five parts of Miami Meltdown done before I come back home. But that’s not going to happen. Finding the time to write this in the morning is getting a bit redonkulous. However, Josh is snoozing so I’ll try and get this part done as quickly as I can. 

Today’s Miami Meltdown will cover both the Friday and Saturday of our trip. Okay so Friday was an easy day for us. We chilled out and caught the train to downtown, which was pretty cool. However, in the night we decided to head to Kevin Nash’s Miami Party situated at Ocean 10 on South Beach. 

Yes, you heard me right Kevin Nash’s Miami Party. At first I wasn’t a huge fan of the party as it just seemed like a glorified photo op with superstars. However, when the night grew, said superstars got up and mingled, which is when the party turned pretty awesome. There is just something amazing in seeing wrestlers outside of the ring. I had to double take a lot of the time and realize ‘Holy Crap DDP is just chilling over there’. 

Anyway, the Saturday rolled around and we headed to Deauville Resort for the Wrestlereunion convention. For those of you who don’t know. Wrestlereunion is like an independent Wrestling Legends convention that is held throughout the year. However, they do this one smartly in the same place as Mania. And it was the best value for money I have ever seen. 

You pay 20 dollars to attend. However, that money goes towards one of the signings or photos. So I paid 30 dollars to get my picture taken and get an autograph with The New Age Outlaws. The rebellious teen in me was truly happy. Then we mingled, yes mingled with various Wrestling Alumni, chatting to Colt Cabana and thejohnreport.net’s own, John Canton. 

That wasn’t all folks, in the afternoon; we were treated to a wrestling show with past stars. We seen The Outlaws get bitten on the ass by Rick Steiner, Vader stiff work the heck out of two jobbers and the Honky Tonk Man, show us that he can still move with the best of them against Tito Santana. 

However, the final match was an 8 man tag featuring such legends as The Outlaw Ron Bass, Gorgeous Garry, B. Brian Blair and Leaping Lanny Poffo. To say it was an instant classic was a bit of an overstatement, with the highlight being Gorgeous Garry’s wedgie. 

Overall though, the show was great. 

This leads me to the highlight of yesterday, the Hall of Fame.  I was already astronomically excited, due to the fact that it would be Edge who’s being inducted into the Hall of Fame. The whole night was terrific. If there is one thing I love about the WWE, they definitely know how to put on a show. They take something plane like a Hall of Fame Ceremony and spruce it up to the max, with video packages, music and special guests. 

JBL definitely had potential to steal the night away from the inductees, with a cracking induction speech for Ron Simmons. I know JBL sucked in the ring, but man he can talk. Then we had Mil Mascaras, who struggled a bit with the language barrier. 

Next were the Horsemen. It was great to see Flair up on stage again. However, everybody was there for Double A. Who gave a terrific if not a tad long, induction speech. Next we had, DX come out to introduce Tyson, who was his expectedly chaotic yet comical self, calling Dusty Rhodes 70s black. 

The Usos and Rikishi were out next to except the award on behalf of Yokozuna. A fitting tribute to a man who is probably overlooked in the wrestling world. 

The main event was next; Christian came out to introduce Edge. His video played, highlighted by Foo Fighters’ Walk, and then the man himself came out, supporting a new do. He talked about his life, his career and everything, I want to write so much about this moment, but I just don’t have time today. When I get back home, I may do a full recap of Edge’s Hall of Fame speech. I definitely owe the man that much. 

Needless to say, when the man was being inducted, I shed a tear. It was an emotional tribute to a great night which has made me too excited for Wrestlemania today. 

Until next time, enjoy the show.
Daniel Morris.