TNA & More

They say that theres nothing like being there live, and TNA proved that to be true to a sellout 1,300 fans yesterday evening at the Historic Maryland Theatre in downtown Hagerstown,MD.

I know my children, ranging in age from 18 to 4 yrs old, had a great time- my youngest son, Donavan, in between waving around the toy belt I got him, kept telling me that it was "his turn"- as in, his turn to get into the ring & wrestle. My 6 year old, Dalton, also waved his belt around, screaming his lungs out, especially during the match featuring his favorite tag team, The Motor City Machine Guns, who were managed this night by one Eli Martin, a really cool guy who I know from different area events, and a "follower" of this blog.

As for the matches, they were all entertaining, featuring many of the promotions better performers, most notably Kurt Angle ( as a special referee), Samoa Joe, & Jeff Jarrett.

Jarrett, as previously noted, is a owner of the group, but that didn't stop him from playing his villanous role to perfection in the main event, as he challenged Mr Anderson for the TNA title with Angle, the ex husband of Jarrett's current wife, as referee.

I particularly enjoyed this match, as I watched as Jarrett got the entire building to hate him, even preposturously reacting to one fans sign which read "JARRETT IS A PARROT". JJ  even had ring announcer Jeremy Borash, on the house mic, inform the Hub crowd that he, in fact, WASN'T a parrot. Classic.

I've done hundreds of small town wrestling matches over the years, and, no matter how hard the guys work, it just doesn't quite have the same feel as when the "big leagues" roll into town. There was alot to learn from watching last nights card for the local independent boys- and there were alot of them there ( thanks to those who went out of their way to say hello to me) but the biggest lesson was, while the TNA crew worked hard & put in a great effort, they all worked VERY safely with each other. In other words, hurting yourself or your opponent isn't necessary to having a good, exciting match.

TNA is a great live event promotion, and having been to 3 of their events since Labor Day, I can assure you that I will attend again when they are within a reasonable driving distance.
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For those of you in the area that didn't get their fill of wrestling last night, IPE Wrestling will be in Ranson,Wv this saturday night...my understanding is tickets are $10 for adults & $5 for kids, which is more than fair.

Not all independent promotions are worth your time or money- in alot of cases, the people you ride to matches with on a given saturday night could put on a better match than many of their alleged "wrestlers"- but I assure you, IPE does not fall into that catagory. Everyone works hard, and most are very accessible to the fans ( personal note: "good guy" or "bad guy",I'm always accessible to talk & chat with fans who stop by my table during intermission; if you have the decency to be nice to me, why wouldn't I return the favor?)

Unfortunately, not all fans are friendly; some are so passionate that they can't be, which I understand to a degree; but for those of you who not only allow, but encourage, young children to call vulgar names & gestures towards anyone, much less adults, I implore you to spend your money on parenting lessons, not wrestling tickets.

I'm no angel & I'm certainly not Super Parent, but I do not allow my kids to swear, at the matches or not at the matches- yelling & screaming is enough. Attending the matches can be a great way to get out your aggressions, but try to keep it in check a bit- its a poor refelction of you as a parent to allow your kids to behave this way. I'm off my soapbox now....

We close with a fan related story from many years ago, which happened during the fall of 1995 in Clear Spring,Md. A few of you may care enough about previous blogs to recall my recollection of working with one Brutus Beefcake, so without further terms of endearment towards The Man With No Talent, I give you this antecdote:

During the final moments of the match,the late Neil Superior was chasing me around the ring, as Beefcake went to cut Switchblade's rat tail off with scissors ( The Barber, was one of his 1,000 gimmicks) I was to retreat to the locker room, but as I was running, I noticed my exit was blocked off by fans who had come down from the bleachers and surrounded ringside. I had to call an audible, so to speak, so I decided that I would use the other exit, which would mean I would have to cut left & run thru between the ringside seats & bleachers, to reach my destination. So, as I did this, halfway thru, I get nailed in the side of the head with a wicked punch which landed directly on my right ear. I staggered ( as most would) & looked up, ripping off the championship belt I had won earlier that night. Tommy Ecton, one of "us", came charging out & literally stopped me from nailing the guy with the strap- NO!!!! SHANE NO!!! he bellowed. When I looked up, however, I noticed the guy was getting his ass handed to him by two of our own, Don "Gutterboy" Wilt & his brother, the incomparably crazy Scott.

Little did this fan know that, sitting right behind him where two guys who wrestled earlier that night- The Wilts had wrestled as a masked tag team that night, so no one would have known they wrestled the opener, then sat in the bleachers with their family afterward!

Of course, the off duty police officer who was, believe it or not, a high school classmate of mine, came back to the locker room, while I cussed about the fan hitting me. His response was "I thought it was all part of the show"....typical. He did, however, asked me if I knew the two guys who kicked MR Fan's ass, to which I replied, yeah..."The Masked Executioners....I never saw their faces until now!!!"

Moral of the story: Don't ever hit a wrestler-you never know whos sitting behind you.

( No one was seriously hurt in this incident, by the way.....I heard the guy who hit me recently started eating solid foods again....:)

ps- thanks again, guys for watching my back....back then, this "thing of ours" meant something!

Until next time....
SSS