I'm pressed for time right now, so this won't be in organized order. I want to post something about last night because it was downright amazing. I was at the Hall Of Fame to along with Caroline's comedy show hosted by Peter Rosenberg and MVP. No I didn't want to go to the mark party of Kevin Nash and a bunch of old timers. Anyway since I have to hit the road to go to Mania soon, I have to get right into it.
I'm not sitting in nosebleeds but I'm in the 200's section for the Hall Of Fame. I'm with my friend Pete, who lives in Miami. We get into this mini press box, where we literally have TV's right in front of us. Since I'm a huge college basketball fan, it was the perfect spot. I had something to watch during Maria Menounos and Donald Trump's speech. Anyway one cool thing before the HOF is they showed the entrance way where the wrestlers came out.
There were huge pops for Ricky Steamboat, Jim Ross, Bret Hart, and Mean Gene. We got a sequence of Damien Sandow looking at the camera like he had a problem with it, then Regal was right next to him looking at him with a disdained look. Regal's facial expressions have always been amazing. Another huge highlight was when Iron Shiek came out. They put the camera on him for a literally a minute and he just kept talking into it. He was number one a lot and motherfucker. The crowd was going wild for it. Shawn Michaels and CM Punk chants were the loudest when they came out. No surprise both of those guys are over.
Mick Foley
The main reason I went to the Hall Of Fame was for this man. Foley was in my top ten of all time and I have nothing but respect for how he put his body on the line. Terry Funk kept it short and sweet, because he knew that Foley was going to go on for a while. Foley was very passionate and humble talking about how Jimmy Snuka's super fly splash off the cage inspired me. Foley is such a great story teller that everyone had their direct attention to it.
He gave Shane Douglas a shout out, which was cool. Douglas is obviously not liked in the company, but the fans appreciated him. He put over Jim Ross huge because Ross commentary made him an even bigger star. Then he began to speak about the street fight with Triple H at MSG, which people popped big for. Everyone loves that match and who can blame them, it was an all out war.
The best thing from the speech was for some reason, Foley wanted to end his career elbow dropping Chris Jericho. He always considered Jericho a close friend and remembers him from the mid-90's working in ECW. Jericho goes on stage and literally lies on the stage. CM Punk comes up and acts as the ref. Foley elbow drops him and covers him for the three count. Crowd went wild and everyone was loving it. Foley was as good as expected and it was great to see him inducted in his hometown.
Trish Stratus
The second main reason I came was for Trish, even though Lita is my all-time favorite diva. Stephanie McMahon inducting her was a bit dull, but whatever. Whenever Lita was mentioned, everyone started cheering loudly. Lita should have inducted her, that is all that needs to be said. Trish comes out and looks absolutely gorgeous. It's funny how Stephanie kept emphasizing best diva of all time. Even though it's true, she is doing her best for people to forget about Sunny.
Trish's speech wasn't as good as Foley's but she kept everyone's interest. She talked about the brutal work load coming up and training with Ron Hutchinson, who trained Edge, Christian, Victoria, and Gail Kim. There was literally a gang of people in section 106 that had "We came here for Trish" shirts and a huge Canada flag. She talked about how much the woman's division evolved in her era. As a joke, she pulled out a large piece of paper on the people that she wanted to thank. It was reminiscent of the 1004 holds paper, which was funny.
She put over the match that she had with Mickie James, which to this day is the last great thing from the women's division. Then she gave a shout-out to her husband Ron, who got major heat. New Yorkers are jealous of that man, including myself. Trish seemed surprised by it, but eventually announced she was pregnant. A big pop for that and we all cheered Ron to end the induction. It was an all-around a great speech and another heart warming moment.
Booker T
They had the "We Coming For You" part in his video package. Everyone kept screaming Hulk Hogan after that. Stevie Ray got a decent reaction, which was better than I expected. He talked about the struggle growing up and how they always tried to keep working out. Eventually, he took responsibility to why Booker went to prison. It got pretty emotional but the crowd was really respectful and Ray was interesting to listen to. It was the right inductor for Booker T, as he came out.
Booker was talking about his WCW days a lot and how he always kept trying to climb the mountain. Even when he beat Disco Inferno for the TV title, he held that with great honor. After he said that, he chuckled a bit like everyone else. He mentioned some stories with William Regal how they wanted to fight each other from the minute they saw one another. Once again, Regal's face was just priceless. Booker paid huge respects to Arn Anderson, who helped him truly develop.
We even got a mention of Stone Cold-Booker T supermarket brawl, which got a mini YES chant (the crowd was rowdy all night). He brought up some Goldust moments, then did one more "KING BOOKAH" part. I stopped wrestling when he was doing that gimmick, but man that sounded great. We got a Spinarooni at the end as well. Booker's speech was a bit shorter than the first two, but once again it delivered. Other than the one asshole that chanted "Woo Woo Woo, you know it" when everything was quiet, it was another great speech and I already had my money's worth.
Bob Backlund
Other than John Cena, there weren't many people that got more heat than Maria Menouenos. At first, nobody reacted to her which was nice at least. Eventually, she kept going on and on which wasn't a good idea. The issue with this speech is she didn't really tell any stories. It seemed like she was rattling off every single statistic. I even yelled out when it was quiet, stop using Wikipedia for your speech. She deserved to get booed, despite looking gorgeous. Unlike the first three inductors, their weren't any stories and people just stopped caring.
Backlund came to the stage and was easily the funniest guy of the night. Backlund was never a great talker, so he yelled a lot. He kept screaming Never Give Up and how you have to keep on trying. John Cena should take some notes on how to cut corny promos like this because Backlund was having people laughing. He kept saying Mr.H rather than Triple H, which had him laughing.
It wasn't a great memorable speech, but Backlund had everyone laughing. It was a cool moment, which ended by Vince McMahon coming out and tried to calm down Backlund. Even when the music hit, Backlund kept talking and running around the stage. Nobody was going to top the energy that Backlund showed.
Donald Trump
Forget Maria Menuenos, this was ten times worse. Trump's video package got booed and every mention of him was booed. Vince got a great pop when he came out and was trying to put over Trump. Nobody bought into it, which had Vince saying "You aren't even going to give him a chance". Vince worked the crowd great here and went back and forth with us. Trump came out and it was honestly five minutes of attacking him. I don't remember him saying much, but he mentioned that he wants to fight Vince at Wrestlemania 30. Randy Savage chants were being chanted loudly. This was a fun mess, I was honestly watching Michigan vs Syracuse for most of the time.
Bruno Sammartino
The main event is here and Arnold came out to induct him. People were loving Arnold and talking about how huge the crowd was. He brought up how much Bruno can lift, along with how he can still lift 400 pounds. Arnold wasn't bringing up anything meaningful, but everyone loved him for who he was. I heard a few "Get In The Choppa" chants, which was hilarious. Anyway Bruno came out and I don't think one person was sitting down.
Despite not knowing his story, Bruno was fantastic telling his life story. Based off interviews, I always thought Bruno became a bitter old man. He proved me totally wrong and was completely humble. He brought up the fight against the Nazis growing up and how he could have died on more than one occasion. Bruno went through more than one sickness growing up and kept battling it by simply using his heart. Using pain killers or any kind of prescription drugs was never an option for him until he grew older.
This was just flat out amazing to wrap off the great ceremony. Bruno was so humble that nothing truly stood out from his wrestling career, but his whole life story just showed why he is such a legend. The ceremony ended with both of them hugging. This was truly a touching moment. Hopefully one day, we get to see Ultimate Warrior and Vince do the same.
Overall this was a ceremony full of great speeches. Other than Trump and Maria, you wouldn't want to fast forward a thing. If you can watch it anywhere, please do. You will enjoy it so much like I did based off this class full of legendary performers and charismatic people. Foley was the biggest highlight for me as a fan, but Bruno had me in awe. Backlund was hilarious, while Booker and Trish were true feel good moments. Don't remind me about Trump please.
MVP- Peter Rosenberg Show
If you follow MVP on twitter, you probably saw him promote a show at Caroline's as a Q & A event. It was hosted by Peter Rosenberg with Sam Roberts around. Both guys are widely known for their wrestling interviews and radio personalities. The event started 35 minutes late because MVP struggled to get a cab and Hall Of Fame didn't end till 11:40.
The event started off right away with Jay Lethal coming out right after MVP. They started off with Macho Man stories for about 20 minutes. They reenacted a Macho Man-Jake Roberts moment when the snake bit Macho Man. If you've seen Lethal do the impression, you'll realize how great he does it. Everyone was in tears of laughter with Lethal's act. MVP talked about how Macho Man brought him up in the wrestling business and how humble he is for that.
Some random Indy guy that MVP knew started cutting a promo, which led to MVP saying he's wearing a wrestling shirt that means he hasn't been laid in about a year. Lethal took offense to that, which led to MVP saying "My bad, AJ told me about that one when she was at my hotel". He was on fire all night with jokes and his stories on the road. His main drink combination was Jameson then an Amstel Light.
He got into the Chris Benoit feud and how much of an influence Benoit had on him. Benoit was so close to him and became a mentor for MVP. He fought some battles in the back for him and kept telling Stephanie how talented he was. Eventually, the big push happened and he was grateful for it. He put wrestling Benoit at WM 23 right up there with wrestling Flair at Royal Rumble. It was an awesome event hearing his story, which led to more guests. I didn't catch his name, but he was a former Smackdown creative writer in 2006 and was there for a bit.
He wrote out MVP's debut and how he didn't know why MVP's gear made him look like a Power Ranger. He thought he was getting ribbed on, but Johnny Ace thought he looked like a true superstar. It was brutal looking back on it. Eventually, Carlito showed up with Mickie James and Serena. MVP kept talking about Mickie's ass and how growing up he had a poster of Mickie on his wall. Major " OHHH" chants were heard, but Mickie played it off cool.
A few TNA jokes here and there about how the only major highlights came to mind was Lethal-Flair segment. It was pretty monumental and it drew a lot of attention. Other than that, they made a few Aces and Eights joke. The former SD creative writer talked about how Mike Knox was such a monumental reveal at TNA that had everyone laughing. I wish I caught his name because he was funny talking about how he was a huge Flair mark, how much intimidated he was of Batista, and making fun of Vance Archer's tramp stamp. Also, mentioned how Stephanie was dumb and untalented. That was pretty out of nowhere.
My train was at 3 am to go home from the city so they finished it up. There were about 50 people at the event. Carlito didn't talk much, but he mentioned how he didn't mind spitting apples in people's faces. Then he had a hair off with Sam Roberts, who if you google has a similar hairstyle to Carlito. Then for some reason, Luke Gallows and Mike Knox show up. Everyone starts screaming OH SHIT as a joke, as Gallows was laughing already. MVP made a joke right away , which had them putting up that stupid pose they do for Ace's and Eights.
It was a hilarious event that gave everyone a deep look into the business. MVP did discuss his future and how he met up with Triple H at the Hall Of Fame. He was there to see Booker T inducted, as Booker had a huge influence on him and a big reason why he lives in Houston. MVP said he's going to talk to Triple H a few weeks to see. Other than that, he discussed why he got de-pushed was mainly for the weed violations. He got caught about eight times, even though Johnny Ace said weed violations don't affect your push. He got heated for a bit, but eventually let it go. He admitted that he could have bought a new car if it wasn't for those weed violations.
Overall though, it was a night to remember. I got to head out now for Mania, so I had to cut it short a bit. I'll answer any questions below tomorrow and for the rest of the week. Hopefully everyone enjoys Mania.
I'm not sitting in nosebleeds but I'm in the 200's section for the Hall Of Fame. I'm with my friend Pete, who lives in Miami. We get into this mini press box, where we literally have TV's right in front of us. Since I'm a huge college basketball fan, it was the perfect spot. I had something to watch during Maria Menounos and Donald Trump's speech. Anyway one cool thing before the HOF is they showed the entrance way where the wrestlers came out.
There were huge pops for Ricky Steamboat, Jim Ross, Bret Hart, and Mean Gene. We got a sequence of Damien Sandow looking at the camera like he had a problem with it, then Regal was right next to him looking at him with a disdained look. Regal's facial expressions have always been amazing. Another huge highlight was when Iron Shiek came out. They put the camera on him for a literally a minute and he just kept talking into it. He was number one a lot and motherfucker. The crowd was going wild for it. Shawn Michaels and CM Punk chants were the loudest when they came out. No surprise both of those guys are over.
Mick Foley
The main reason I went to the Hall Of Fame was for this man. Foley was in my top ten of all time and I have nothing but respect for how he put his body on the line. Terry Funk kept it short and sweet, because he knew that Foley was going to go on for a while. Foley was very passionate and humble talking about how Jimmy Snuka's super fly splash off the cage inspired me. Foley is such a great story teller that everyone had their direct attention to it.
He gave Shane Douglas a shout out, which was cool. Douglas is obviously not liked in the company, but the fans appreciated him. He put over Jim Ross huge because Ross commentary made him an even bigger star. Then he began to speak about the street fight with Triple H at MSG, which people popped big for. Everyone loves that match and who can blame them, it was an all out war.
The best thing from the speech was for some reason, Foley wanted to end his career elbow dropping Chris Jericho. He always considered Jericho a close friend and remembers him from the mid-90's working in ECW. Jericho goes on stage and literally lies on the stage. CM Punk comes up and acts as the ref. Foley elbow drops him and covers him for the three count. Crowd went wild and everyone was loving it. Foley was as good as expected and it was great to see him inducted in his hometown.
Trish Stratus
The second main reason I came was for Trish, even though Lita is my all-time favorite diva. Stephanie McMahon inducting her was a bit dull, but whatever. Whenever Lita was mentioned, everyone started cheering loudly. Lita should have inducted her, that is all that needs to be said. Trish comes out and looks absolutely gorgeous. It's funny how Stephanie kept emphasizing best diva of all time. Even though it's true, she is doing her best for people to forget about Sunny.
Trish's speech wasn't as good as Foley's but she kept everyone's interest. She talked about the brutal work load coming up and training with Ron Hutchinson, who trained Edge, Christian, Victoria, and Gail Kim. There was literally a gang of people in section 106 that had "We came here for Trish" shirts and a huge Canada flag. She talked about how much the woman's division evolved in her era. As a joke, she pulled out a large piece of paper on the people that she wanted to thank. It was reminiscent of the 1004 holds paper, which was funny.
She put over the match that she had with Mickie James, which to this day is the last great thing from the women's division. Then she gave a shout-out to her husband Ron, who got major heat. New Yorkers are jealous of that man, including myself. Trish seemed surprised by it, but eventually announced she was pregnant. A big pop for that and we all cheered Ron to end the induction. It was an all-around a great speech and another heart warming moment.
Booker T
They had the "We Coming For You" part in his video package. Everyone kept screaming Hulk Hogan after that. Stevie Ray got a decent reaction, which was better than I expected. He talked about the struggle growing up and how they always tried to keep working out. Eventually, he took responsibility to why Booker went to prison. It got pretty emotional but the crowd was really respectful and Ray was interesting to listen to. It was the right inductor for Booker T, as he came out.
Booker was talking about his WCW days a lot and how he always kept trying to climb the mountain. Even when he beat Disco Inferno for the TV title, he held that with great honor. After he said that, he chuckled a bit like everyone else. He mentioned some stories with William Regal how they wanted to fight each other from the minute they saw one another. Once again, Regal's face was just priceless. Booker paid huge respects to Arn Anderson, who helped him truly develop.
We even got a mention of Stone Cold-Booker T supermarket brawl, which got a mini YES chant (the crowd was rowdy all night). He brought up some Goldust moments, then did one more "KING BOOKAH" part. I stopped wrestling when he was doing that gimmick, but man that sounded great. We got a Spinarooni at the end as well. Booker's speech was a bit shorter than the first two, but once again it delivered. Other than the one asshole that chanted "Woo Woo Woo, you know it" when everything was quiet, it was another great speech and I already had my money's worth.
Bob Backlund
Other than John Cena, there weren't many people that got more heat than Maria Menouenos. At first, nobody reacted to her which was nice at least. Eventually, she kept going on and on which wasn't a good idea. The issue with this speech is she didn't really tell any stories. It seemed like she was rattling off every single statistic. I even yelled out when it was quiet, stop using Wikipedia for your speech. She deserved to get booed, despite looking gorgeous. Unlike the first three inductors, their weren't any stories and people just stopped caring.
Backlund came to the stage and was easily the funniest guy of the night. Backlund was never a great talker, so he yelled a lot. He kept screaming Never Give Up and how you have to keep on trying. John Cena should take some notes on how to cut corny promos like this because Backlund was having people laughing. He kept saying Mr.H rather than Triple H, which had him laughing.
It wasn't a great memorable speech, but Backlund had everyone laughing. It was a cool moment, which ended by Vince McMahon coming out and tried to calm down Backlund. Even when the music hit, Backlund kept talking and running around the stage. Nobody was going to top the energy that Backlund showed.
Donald Trump
Forget Maria Menuenos, this was ten times worse. Trump's video package got booed and every mention of him was booed. Vince got a great pop when he came out and was trying to put over Trump. Nobody bought into it, which had Vince saying "You aren't even going to give him a chance". Vince worked the crowd great here and went back and forth with us. Trump came out and it was honestly five minutes of attacking him. I don't remember him saying much, but he mentioned that he wants to fight Vince at Wrestlemania 30. Randy Savage chants were being chanted loudly. This was a fun mess, I was honestly watching Michigan vs Syracuse for most of the time.
Bruno Sammartino
The main event is here and Arnold came out to induct him. People were loving Arnold and talking about how huge the crowd was. He brought up how much Bruno can lift, along with how he can still lift 400 pounds. Arnold wasn't bringing up anything meaningful, but everyone loved him for who he was. I heard a few "Get In The Choppa" chants, which was hilarious. Anyway Bruno came out and I don't think one person was sitting down.
Despite not knowing his story, Bruno was fantastic telling his life story. Based off interviews, I always thought Bruno became a bitter old man. He proved me totally wrong and was completely humble. He brought up the fight against the Nazis growing up and how he could have died on more than one occasion. Bruno went through more than one sickness growing up and kept battling it by simply using his heart. Using pain killers or any kind of prescription drugs was never an option for him until he grew older.
This was just flat out amazing to wrap off the great ceremony. Bruno was so humble that nothing truly stood out from his wrestling career, but his whole life story just showed why he is such a legend. The ceremony ended with both of them hugging. This was truly a touching moment. Hopefully one day, we get to see Ultimate Warrior and Vince do the same.
Overall this was a ceremony full of great speeches. Other than Trump and Maria, you wouldn't want to fast forward a thing. If you can watch it anywhere, please do. You will enjoy it so much like I did based off this class full of legendary performers and charismatic people. Foley was the biggest highlight for me as a fan, but Bruno had me in awe. Backlund was hilarious, while Booker and Trish were true feel good moments. Don't remind me about Trump please.
MVP- Peter Rosenberg Show
If you follow MVP on twitter, you probably saw him promote a show at Caroline's as a Q & A event. It was hosted by Peter Rosenberg with Sam Roberts around. Both guys are widely known for their wrestling interviews and radio personalities. The event started 35 minutes late because MVP struggled to get a cab and Hall Of Fame didn't end till 11:40.
The event started off right away with Jay Lethal coming out right after MVP. They started off with Macho Man stories for about 20 minutes. They reenacted a Macho Man-Jake Roberts moment when the snake bit Macho Man. If you've seen Lethal do the impression, you'll realize how great he does it. Everyone was in tears of laughter with Lethal's act. MVP talked about how Macho Man brought him up in the wrestling business and how humble he is for that.
Some random Indy guy that MVP knew started cutting a promo, which led to MVP saying he's wearing a wrestling shirt that means he hasn't been laid in about a year. Lethal took offense to that, which led to MVP saying "My bad, AJ told me about that one when she was at my hotel". He was on fire all night with jokes and his stories on the road. His main drink combination was Jameson then an Amstel Light.
He got into the Chris Benoit feud and how much of an influence Benoit had on him. Benoit was so close to him and became a mentor for MVP. He fought some battles in the back for him and kept telling Stephanie how talented he was. Eventually, the big push happened and he was grateful for it. He put wrestling Benoit at WM 23 right up there with wrestling Flair at Royal Rumble. It was an awesome event hearing his story, which led to more guests. I didn't catch his name, but he was a former Smackdown creative writer in 2006 and was there for a bit.
He wrote out MVP's debut and how he didn't know why MVP's gear made him look like a Power Ranger. He thought he was getting ribbed on, but Johnny Ace thought he looked like a true superstar. It was brutal looking back on it. Eventually, Carlito showed up with Mickie James and Serena. MVP kept talking about Mickie's ass and how growing up he had a poster of Mickie on his wall. Major " OHHH" chants were heard, but Mickie played it off cool.
A few TNA jokes here and there about how the only major highlights came to mind was Lethal-Flair segment. It was pretty monumental and it drew a lot of attention. Other than that, they made a few Aces and Eights joke. The former SD creative writer talked about how Mike Knox was such a monumental reveal at TNA that had everyone laughing. I wish I caught his name because he was funny talking about how he was a huge Flair mark, how much intimidated he was of Batista, and making fun of Vance Archer's tramp stamp. Also, mentioned how Stephanie was dumb and untalented. That was pretty out of nowhere.
My train was at 3 am to go home from the city so they finished it up. There were about 50 people at the event. Carlito didn't talk much, but he mentioned how he didn't mind spitting apples in people's faces. Then he had a hair off with Sam Roberts, who if you google has a similar hairstyle to Carlito. Then for some reason, Luke Gallows and Mike Knox show up. Everyone starts screaming OH SHIT as a joke, as Gallows was laughing already. MVP made a joke right away , which had them putting up that stupid pose they do for Ace's and Eights.
It was a hilarious event that gave everyone a deep look into the business. MVP did discuss his future and how he met up with Triple H at the Hall Of Fame. He was there to see Booker T inducted, as Booker had a huge influence on him and a big reason why he lives in Houston. MVP said he's going to talk to Triple H a few weeks to see. Other than that, he discussed why he got de-pushed was mainly for the weed violations. He got caught about eight times, even though Johnny Ace said weed violations don't affect your push. He got heated for a bit, but eventually let it go. He admitted that he could have bought a new car if it wasn't for those weed violations.
Overall though, it was a night to remember. I got to head out now for Mania, so I had to cut it short a bit. I'll answer any questions below tomorrow and for the rest of the week. Hopefully everyone enjoys Mania.
