WHEN WRESTLEMANIA CAME TO TOWN (1 of 4)

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WHEN WRESTLEMANIA CAME TO TOWN ( 1 of 4)
BY KEVIN KELLAM ( written on Sunday March 23 2008)

It's only 7 days away, WrestleMania is apon us...

It may not feel like past WrestleManias with the epic hype and pefect match-ups, but it is still 'Mania. It is still the biggest wrestling show of the year. It is still the show that has every wrestling fan talking, and it's usually the show that has some non-wrestling fans talking too.
I have been a wrestling fan and by default, a WWE fan for as long as I can remember. And WrestleMania is the only event that has the ability to generate a child-like fun response out of me, maybe you could say it gave me the 'shakes'.

I GOT THE MANIA SHAKES!
The Mania Shakes was a semi-retarded/insane dance I started to sparadically as the countdown to Wrestlemania 22 began. It started when I first watched Mania 21, and the voiceover began , the camera swept over the Windy City skyline, zooming out the letters "C H I.C A G O". I would be watching RAW and think what I was seeing was building to Mania, I would do 'shake'. I would read about a possible Mania 22 match up that got me excited, I would do the 'shakes'.

To describe the Mania Shakes, makes it look more like physical tourette or seizure of some kind. I would simply cringe my face tight with eyes closed like a kid about to go over that big drop on a rollar coaster. I would clinch my fists and hold them in front of me like I was tearing a peice of paper. And my body as whole shake and shiver, as I grizzled the word "mania" from out behind my clinched teeth. This was something that you might commonly see a 6 year old boy whose all hyped up on coca-colla and surgar, doing all time. I did it almost every time I thought of this weekend of wrestling.

And now I have just confirmed how much a loser, I am.


GETTING TICKETS or a Ticket? OR ANY TICKET?! PLEASE!

When Mania tickets became available in 2006, I wanted to be line but I had to work that mourning. So Pete Kreten and I spoke about getting tickets together...or in reality, he would get them and I would pay him later. But I like a dumb mark, did not figure into it the people traffic at the dirty Evergreen Plaza on that Sataurday when tickets went on sale, or the fact the Ticketmaster was only letting people buy 2 tickets each at that location. Pete ended up going with his dad to WrestleMania 22, which at first, it devastated me. It angered and devastated my nerdy heart when Pete called me later and told me he could only get a ticket for himself and his dad. I wasn't mad at Pete or his dad, whose welcomed me into his livining room so I could scream at their TV, on many occasions. I made a joke around this time to Mr. Kreten about a dad taking his kid to "wrassl'n show" to see some old grizzled Chicago wrestler like The Crusher. I was happy for the father/son tag team making it to the big show....but

I was devastated rather by the situation that hit me like a brick:
WRESTLEMANIA IS COMING TO MY TOWN, AND I DO NOT HAVE A TICKET!

At first , I reconciled with myself.I was still going to see some great wrestling on the weekend of March 30,2006, Ring of Honor was coming to town to do a double shot, and I had tickets to both nights. It was going to be biggest ROH shows the company had put on that point.
Colt Cabana had nearly year-long blood fued with the viscous Homicide, and it was going to be settled during these two shows. Plus Bryan Danielson was set to take on the great Canadian technian, Lance Storm. And little company from Japan called Dragon Gate was sending over 6 wrestlers who were supposedly to be 'show stealers', more about them later. I still had that to look forward too.

But I was still bummed and the Shakes stopped...only for a little bit.

IT'S ALL ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW IN THIS TOWN

Chris "Pooch" PuchMelter who yoy know as regular contributor to Rumble Radio, was at the same time in the same pleight as myself. So what were WE going to do? We were both convinced that we needed to go to Mania, and spending a couple hundred dollars to do it, was going to be apart of it. And also we know something about Chicago, that not everyone outside of Chicago knows. In Chicago, if you know someone special , you can at the right times milk that someone to get something special. Pooch and I needed to milk real hard on someone's utter to get the glorious milk....or WrestleMania tickets. Sorry that analogy went south real quick.

Pooch found a connection through a fellow wrestling fan, he knew someone who had a handful of extra tickets and wanted to sell them. Before I moved forward with the all important negoiations, I had to get an idea of what tickets were going for on the 'Net. The tickets in question were good seats, about 5 rows off the floor , and were just to right off the entrance way.
And I was hoping I could the Mania ticket for something between 175$ to 400$. I was saving my money and working 3 or 4 days a week at crappy conveince store ,helping middle age men with their gambling addictions in the form of scratch-off lotto tickets. I earned this money, I was young (still am) , and I wanted this fun weekend to share with my buds. I was going to spend whatever was needed.

Pooch made the call, and got the price and set up the meeting for the official transaction.
We met about three weeks before the show on a Friday. It was right after Pooch finished his usual rock 'n jock show on WXAV. As are most important things involved my wrestling life, they go down at the WXAV studio. Before the meeting, I made a the withdrawl and my cash was counted , wrapped, and ready. I forked over 225$ dollars for my ticket to my Latino ticket dealer, who graciously accepted my money. It felt like time stopped, and everything was in slow motion when he opened that familiar Ticketmaster envelope. He showed me the ticket, and made sure I knew where it was in the arena and if this was the ticket I was ok with buying. I noddded with a shit-eating grin on my face. I took the envelope, and opened it, even though it was just opened prior. The smooth plastic-like paper touched my finger tips, the ink was bold and black on a light blue and white background. I felt the shakes coming, but I held them in.
Until I had a private moment in the hallway of the studio...breathed in, the goosebumps rise in my arms, and I wispered to myself:

"I WAS GOING TO WRESTLEMANIA 22!"


---------------
Tommorow in Part 2 : Rumble Radio comes out of the closet and on air in BIG TIME style, ROH delivers 5 stars , a chair riot, and bloody bandannas...plus more fun from
"WHEN WRESTLEMANIA CAME TO TOWN"

THURSDAY MARCH 27TH 6-9PM CST / 7-10 PM EST
RUMBLE RADIO presents MANIA OF WRESTLING 3 : MY FAVORITE MANIA
3 HOURS OF AWESOMENESS!

Pat Creed's Armchair Booker - WrestleMania XXIV Part One

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name, as you know, is Pat Creed. What do you know? I'm gonna be the guy to kick off the Rumble Radio Blog. My goodness, what a treat for you folks. In case everyone didn't know, I am the show's resident "arm chair" booker. And why wouldn't I book WrestleMania the way I think it should be? And that's exactly what I am going to do. I'm going to start it out with the main events from both Raw and SmackDown - the title pictures. I'll just tell you what I think they matches should be, why they should be, and why it works better than what is going on now in WWE. So let us begin...

WrestleMania XXIV Main Event
WWE Heavyweight Championship
Edge (c) vs. The Undertaker

I'm sure you're thinking, "Great job, Pat. We know that this already is a match at WrestleMania." I would say to you, I know. Let's be honest, we all know that this will not be the last match at WrestleMania...even though it should be. Let's face it...who hasn't wanted to see Edge get his ass kicked by the Undertaker since Edge demolished 'Taker last May. I mean, Edge is the biggest asshole the business has right now, and who is the biggest good guy the business has ever seen? The Undertaker. We saw last year at WrestleMania 23 how we should never doubt the Undertaker when he says that he deserves the main event spot. His match with Batista was much better than the John Cena-HBK main event. It was pretty bogus that they didn't give him the main event spot last year - they should not disgrace him again this year.

So, as already stated, the back story is there. Edge put the Undertaker out of action for four months cashing in his Money In The Bank, screwing Taker out of the belt for the first time. Then, Edge gets hurt. While Edge is hurt, Batista regains the title and starts back up in his excellent feud with the Undertaker when he comes back. They have a few more great matches leading up to a Hell in a Cell at Survivor Series that Taker has won. Out of nowhere, here comes Edge and costs Taker the gold for the second time. Then, at Armageddon, he screws Undertaker out of the title by having the Edgeheads debut and by picking up Taker's scraps and winning the World Title, thus, screwing UT for time number three. Skip a few months to No Way Out where Undertaker wins the Elimination Chamber and gets his shot at the World Champion at WrestleMania - its set - almost a year in the making - Edge vs. Undertaker, one on one.

And we come to the event. Does it need any hype? I mean, Edge is FINALLY the champion at WrestleMania, he can't lose the belt there. (Side note: Edge's insanity for that belt is some of the best character work in a really long time. He craves the belt...he must have it all times.) And of course, Undertaker is 15-0 at WrestleMania. Both men have SO much on the line, it is only proper that they get the main event slot. Not to mention, SmackDown hasn't had the main event spot sine WrestleMania XIX. So it should be Edge vs. Taker, main event.

As for who goes over...I'd give it to the Undertaker. The fans always need to go home feeling good at WrestleMania...there's no better way to do it than Undertaker winning the belt in the main event in Orlando.

WWE Championship Match
Triple Threat
Randy Orton (c) vs. John Cena vs. Batista

"You are clearly stealing WWE's ideas and just tweaking them." You may be right, but I had this idea way before they had the idea for theirs, so they are stealing my idea. Don't believe me? Ask Peter...he's my witness. For this one, I need to take you all the way back to 2002...(cue Wayne's World time warp music)

The inaugural WWE Draft had just taken place and the world was getting used to split brands...and getting sick of the Hulk Hogan nostalgia. Right after the draft happened, you must remember that SmackDown was the better show - Kurt Angle, the Rock, HHH, Chris Jericho, etc. All the big title feuds happened over there - so for the only time (storyline wise) SmackDown was actually more important than Raw. But it was during this time on SmackDown that three nobodies showed up - Randy Orton, John Cena, and Dave Batista. As the time went on and WWE matured, actually allowing young stars to get rubs and get to the main event, it was clear that these three were the real deal. Everyone had them pegged - these three would be the future of WWE.

It's been over five years now since they debuted in WWE. Suffice to say, the future is now. These three guys have made there way up from shitty gimmicks (2 "blue chippers" and a false deacon) and have risen to the top of the WWE. The entire way, people were salivating over the matches between these three. Cena vs. Orton, Orton vs. Batista, Batista vs. Cena. Everyone wanted to see these guys go at it...but it never happened.

Well, let's start after the Rumble of this year. John Cena comes back and cashes in his Royal Rumble victory at No Way Out - a match he loses. Cena should have lost this match by Orton cheating someway, i.e. low blow, chair shot, something...but Cena's shoulders should have been counted down on the mat. I should mention that for this to work, Raw should not have had an Elimination Chamber at No Way Out. WWE should have promoted Orton vs. Cena as the WrestleMania Main Event one month early. Anywho, Ortons cheats to beat Cena. Orton can come out on Raw the next night saying that he has beaten everyone WWE has had to offer - show clips of him beating Undertaker, HHH, Cena, Michaels, Flair, etc. There's no one left for him to take on...cue: Batista. Orton has never beaten Batista. Batista wants a shot at Orton at WrestleMania. Cue: Cena. Cena never got screwed by Orton, so he deserves another shot. Out comes William Regal to announce that Batista and Cena will go through a series of matches to decide who will become Number One Contender.

They both win them all, so Regal announces that Cena vs. Batista will take place on the next Raw...and Orton is the special referee. Well, before the match even starts, Orton lays them both out, leaving them both bloody. Orton declares himself the winner of the match and will therefore have to face nobody at WrestleMania. Next week...out comes Regal: "Orton, SmackDown has a major main event planned for WrestleMania and I refuse to play second fiddle to them. Therefore, after your actions last week, the Raw WrestleMania Main Event is set - Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Batista!" Crowd pops huge, and Raw has an AWESOME main event. The three future stars of WWE all in the ring at once fighting for the WWE Championship.

Yet again, as for the match...Any of the three are OK, but only one sticks out as the real winner. If Orton wins, the guy no one thought would win, keeps it a surprise, but he's faced all the faces on Raw. If Cena wins, same old boring shit that he had with the belt last year. So that leaves Batista. But Batista isn't all that good as champion either. In fact, Batista with the belt would probably be more boring than Cena. So who would I have as the man walking out of WrestleMania XXIV with the WWE Championship? Well...you'll just have to wait for Part Two of the Armchair Booker with Pat Creed!

Part Two will probably be up over the weekend or next week sometime. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! DO YOU AGREE, DISAGREE, HAVE A BETTER IDEA?! I want to know!! Please leave feedback here or send it along to wxavrumbleradio@yahoo.com or leave it at the MySpace at www.myspace.com/rumbleradio! If I think you can out-book me, a prize is absolutely coming your way. Whether it be DVDs, tickets, or any number of Rumble Radio memorabilia, YOU WILL WIN A PRIZE! So be sure to tell me why my idea sucks, and how you would change it. Let's have some fun with this eh?! More details are sure to follow...