Post by JimRiga on Jul 22, 2021 17:45:27 GMT -5
My first house show (and only WWF/E show) was in June 1995 just days before the King of the Ring. It was at the Royal Albert Hall in London during an untelevised European tour.
I went with one of my pals and his older sister. We were sat in the 8th row and it was on a raised area, so we had a great view of the entrances and in ring action.
First match was Jean-Pierre Lafitte vs Duke Droese.
As the first guy out, JPL got a huge reaction and was booed out of the building and as the first babyface to appear for the evening Droese got the pop of his career! Can’t remember much of the match, but JPL won with a leg drop from top. I remember being disappointed he didn’t do the cannonball instead, but house show.
Next matches before intermission was Adam Bomb (who seemed quite over) pinning King Kong Bundy with a roll up and then throwing little bomb things out to the crowd, Alundra Blayze pinning Bertha Faye with a German suplex (which I thought was an impressive move to hit on such a big woman) and a tag match. There were two tag matches, but I can’t remember which order they were in. One was somewhere in the first half of the show and the other was the first match after intermission.
One tag match was the Smoking Gunns vs The Blu Brothers I believe and I think the Gunns won and the other tag was Men On a Mission vs The New Headshrinkers. I managed to go down to the aisle at this point and reach out for the wrestlers as they made their entrances and managed to rub my hand across the massive arm of Mabel as he walked down the aisle weighing 495 pounds and hailing from Harlem, New York and was not really surprised to find he was all oiled up. Just as I moved my hand away, he thrashed his arm out to throw off all the other hands on him as he stayed in character. When the Headshrinkers came out, I managed to put my hand all over Sionne’s arm and shoulder and since he was walking very slowly, I rather liberally rubbed all along his oily chest as far as I could reach, just for good measure! Hey, it was my first wrestling event, I was a bit over excited! Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind anyway as he was laser focused on heading to the ring. M.O.M won when Mabel laid across the man better known as The Barbarian with his feet on the ropes.
Then came the top billed matches. First up was Shawn Michaels vs IRS. As much as I hated Shawn Michaels back then he was still entertaining of course and he played to the crowd and kept stalling the match to the annoyance of the smartly dressed taxman. In the end the match concluded rather inevitably with HBK picking up the win with some Sweet Chin Music back when I believe it was still just called the superkick.
Kama came out next and as he came past me in the aisle, I shouted out his real name to him (don’t worry I don’t behave like this anymore!) and I swear he turned his head back a bit.
Undertaker came out with Paul Bearer who was the only ringside talent on the show since he was such a big part of the Undertaker’s whole presentation. Obviously, Taker won with the tombstone.
The final match was Bret Hart vs Hakushi. I can’t remember, but I’m sure it was a good match. Bret won with the Sharpshooter, but I do remember being surprised that Hakushi didn’t have his Japanese symbols stamped on all over, which at the time I really thought were actual tattoos (damn, they worked me on that one!). I guess I never bothered to check if they were always the same.
I went to the merch stand at some point and got a Diesel baseball cap for £8 and some Bret Hart shades for £5. After the show, we went out to the back and waited by the wrestlers’ coach. Soon enough, the evening’s performers came out in their plain clothes and with baggage and took their seats on board and I noticed Taker went past Paul Bearer and sat next to Kama, which I thought was cool as I didn’t know about BSK back then.
All in all a decent evenings entertainment for a first time event, but I’ve only been to indie shows since.
I went with one of my pals and his older sister. We were sat in the 8th row and it was on a raised area, so we had a great view of the entrances and in ring action.
First match was Jean-Pierre Lafitte vs Duke Droese.
As the first guy out, JPL got a huge reaction and was booed out of the building and as the first babyface to appear for the evening Droese got the pop of his career! Can’t remember much of the match, but JPL won with a leg drop from top. I remember being disappointed he didn’t do the cannonball instead, but house show.
Next matches before intermission was Adam Bomb (who seemed quite over) pinning King Kong Bundy with a roll up and then throwing little bomb things out to the crowd, Alundra Blayze pinning Bertha Faye with a German suplex (which I thought was an impressive move to hit on such a big woman) and a tag match. There were two tag matches, but I can’t remember which order they were in. One was somewhere in the first half of the show and the other was the first match after intermission.
One tag match was the Smoking Gunns vs The Blu Brothers I believe and I think the Gunns won and the other tag was Men On a Mission vs The New Headshrinkers. I managed to go down to the aisle at this point and reach out for the wrestlers as they made their entrances and managed to rub my hand across the massive arm of Mabel as he walked down the aisle weighing 495 pounds and hailing from Harlem, New York and was not really surprised to find he was all oiled up. Just as I moved my hand away, he thrashed his arm out to throw off all the other hands on him as he stayed in character. When the Headshrinkers came out, I managed to put my hand all over Sionne’s arm and shoulder and since he was walking very slowly, I rather liberally rubbed all along his oily chest as far as I could reach, just for good measure! Hey, it was my first wrestling event, I was a bit over excited! Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind anyway as he was laser focused on heading to the ring. M.O.M won when Mabel laid across the man better known as The Barbarian with his feet on the ropes.
Then came the top billed matches. First up was Shawn Michaels vs IRS. As much as I hated Shawn Michaels back then he was still entertaining of course and he played to the crowd and kept stalling the match to the annoyance of the smartly dressed taxman. In the end the match concluded rather inevitably with HBK picking up the win with some Sweet Chin Music back when I believe it was still just called the superkick.
Kama came out next and as he came past me in the aisle, I shouted out his real name to him (don’t worry I don’t behave like this anymore!) and I swear he turned his head back a bit.
Undertaker came out with Paul Bearer who was the only ringside talent on the show since he was such a big part of the Undertaker’s whole presentation. Obviously, Taker won with the tombstone.
The final match was Bret Hart vs Hakushi. I can’t remember, but I’m sure it was a good match. Bret won with the Sharpshooter, but I do remember being surprised that Hakushi didn’t have his Japanese symbols stamped on all over, which at the time I really thought were actual tattoos (damn, they worked me on that one!). I guess I never bothered to check if they were always the same.
I went to the merch stand at some point and got a Diesel baseball cap for £8 and some Bret Hart shades for £5. After the show, we went out to the back and waited by the wrestlers’ coach. Soon enough, the evening’s performers came out in their plain clothes and with baggage and took their seats on board and I noticed Taker went past Paul Bearer and sat next to Kama, which I thought was cool as I didn’t know about BSK back then.
All in all a decent evenings entertainment for a first time event, but I’ve only been to indie shows since.
