eddyfate

You can get all the "Get Over" essays to date here.

( Returning The Gold Watch )

Author's Note

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last essay. This one is more controversial and involves some factual information, so opinions and fact-checking are appreciated. You can find all current "Get Over" essays here.

( Did We Kill Benoit? )

Prologue

I just got back from watching one of my best friends wrestle his last match to about 50 people in Aberdeen, Ohio. Just ten weeks before, I was watching Wrestlemania 25 with tens of thousands of people in Houston, Texas. Over the past few years, wrestling has gotten a lot of attention (admittedly mostly negative), and more and more of my acquaintances want to talk to me about professional wrestling, so it's been on my mind off and on for a while. I decided to try to encapsulate some of my thoughts into an essay, which quickly became a series of essays that I'm calling "Get Over." Consider these all to be works in progress.

( Wrestling Is For Idiots )

Author Note

As a note, I have this article in a few places, and I'm compiling a lot of information and data (as well as some corrections). At some point once all the articles are done, I'll give them a final rewrite and put them somewhere for consumption. Just wanted to make a note that I am certainly taking comments and critiques into consideration, even if you don't see them in this version of the article.

Friday morning I am heading up to Cincinnati (by car) to go see monkeegoth (aka Ric Byrne) wrestle his last match. It'll be nice to see the Old Country(tm) again, as well as monkeegoth and his family. Plus, some of the guys on the card I remember from when they were training in HWA, so it'll be cool to possibly reconnect with them.

It's hard to believe that it's been eight years. Crazy.

... when you're watching Raw, and you're more interested in the cross-dressing wrestling than the world champion.

Many moons ago, back in the dark days before the apocryphal Brand Split, I did some breakdowns of Raw on the nGo list. Times changed, dinosaurs died, and I stopped doing the breakdowns. Now that I've been playing with Twitter, I'm finding it easy to jot down quick notes at wrestling events in my iPhone. Plus, a few people have been amused at IMing with me during Raws in the past few weeks, so I decided to start a Twitter account to post my random thoughts during wrestling events.
It might be a regular thing, and it might not, but if y'all are interested, I just finished up 115 tweets on tonight's Smackdown.

http://twitter.com/efwrestling

(Note: Part of the reason for the separate account is so I don't flood my LJ with spoilers.)

Shamelessly stolen from the nGo list, which was itself shameless stolen from somewhere else.

( Things wrestlers should know by now )

WHO BOOKED THAT CRAP?!

Edit: For those who want a reference and don't mind spoilers, here's the writeup for the PPV.

Ric Byrne PWI 500 2008 Ric Byrne was number 460 on Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 500 wrestlers in 2008!

Congratulations, monkeegoth. It's a well-deserved honor.

There is too much -- let me sum up.

* Went to see the ECW live show/Smackdown tapings last night. A lot of fun -- more intimate than most WWE live shows I've seen, but still bigger than, say, HWA.

* Stupidly busy at work, between a bajillion projects and trying to prep for GenCon. My schedule for GenCon is hella packed, so my feeble plans to possibly get a game together for fun fell apart.

* Tomorrow is the last day of our Primetime Adventures game, Verona. Our Producer has started an Actual Play thread with a ton of commentary from the group.

* My friends are far more creative than I. While oakthorne is working on one of his novels and emprint is working on a new game design, any free time I get seems to be spent reading stuff for work or zoning out to the television. I've been kicking around resurrecting one of my fiction projects, but just when I think I have an hour a week to work on it, that hour goes to something else. I am an envy burrito.

* I got a 3G iPhone a couple of weeks ago, and I'm totally in love with it. Somehow I became a Mac cultist when I wasn't looking. I think it was the free cookies and juice.

To the Flame finished uploading, so back to work.

Due to an unfortunate cancellation, I have one SummerSlam ticket available for $50. If someone likes wrestling and will be around GenCon on Sunday evening, drop me an email at eddy (dot) webb (at) gmail (dot) com, and I'll sell it to you.

Did you know that monkeegoth has an extensive Wikipedia page?

Well, now you do.

Congrats, Ric. You're an internet celebrity now. ;)

Sorry for the delay -- was exhausted after the event, and then yesterday was driving and work.

The day of the event, we wandered around the mall looking for a new Bluetooth headset for my cell phone, had lunch, and the rest chilled and watched TV or napped while I worked. Then it was off to Wrestlemania!

Non-spoiler stuff that happened:

* TNA Wrestling had a truck right across the street from the Fan Axcess tour, promoting their events. Even when we left, it was still there playing video clips.

* We passed five parking lots with people holding cardboard signs to some flavor of "Parking: $10." One guy was bright enough to stand in front of a lot which clearly has a sign that said "No Trespassing" behind him.

* There were a number of planes that were flying overhead advertising stuff, including one that gave you a discount on car audio installation if you brought your "ticket stubb," and another that said "Come to our gentleman's club. WOOOOOO!"

* We were picked up by one of those club cars that carry people to and from the parking lot. The guy said "Hey, I'm heading back, want a ride?" I didn't know until we were done that this was code for "Hey, I want to make some money, give me five bucks after I drive you 500 feet."

* We got to the event an hour and a half early. Which was just enough time to divide into two teams and stand in line for merchandise and an ATM before standing in line for food and beer.

* The infamous pyro accident happened in the row directly across from us in the Citrus Bowl. One of the same guide lines did fall into the row directly behind us, but only after the pyro shot off. If you're curious, this was the pyro after the last match of the night was concluded.

Results

( Cut for spoilers )

End result: 35% correct (compared to last year where I got 75%). Still, it was a good show (despite the technical difficulties and the almost being on fire part), and I'm glad I went again. Wrestlemania just has a great energy about it with 75,000 people.

That night we went back, grabbed some food at a fast food place that escapes my mind at the moment, and fell asleep. The next morning Ric had to fly out early, and we drove around 11. I did some work in the car, got home, did some more work at home, then read for a while before calling it a night from being sore and exhausted.

I can't wait to do it again in Houston.

Spent the day going through Universal Studios theme park in Orlando (including four hours accidentally going through Universal Studios Islands of Adventure). We walked from 9am until 5pm, and were damned exhausted afterward. The rides were awesome (even though I once again proved that roller coasters tear up my motion sickness, even when I'm on meds), and apparently Mick Foley was in the car ahead of us on the Spider-Man ride. We came back to the room and took a nap and watched TV before we broke open Ric's copy of the WWE DVD Board Game. Tomorrow will likely be me doing a little bit of work on Sunday morning/afternoon before going to Wrestlemania proper.

This afternoon I left work around 1pm (after dropping off Puck to an excited office for kristnitori to babysit), and we drove down to Orlando. We got to a... shall we say less-than-reputable Days Inn, and had a quick dinner to TGI Friday's and shopping for supplies at Super Target before we headed back to the room so I could do some work. Before we head out to pick up Ric from the airport, here are my predictions for the card at Wrestlemania:

* Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship: Triple H to win.

* World Heavyweight Champion Edge vs. Undertaker: Undertaker to win, but Edge will retain the title (likely by DQ or interference).

* Floyd "Money" Mayweather vs. Big Show: Mayweather by a cheap win (it's a no-DQ fight).

* Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Career Threatening Match): Most everyone is calling this as Ric's final match, and I agree. Shawn Michaels to win clean.

* Money in the Bank Ladder Match: MVP to win.

* SmackDown vs. Raw: Batista vs. Umaga: Batista to win.

* 24-Man Battle Royal - Winner faces ECW Champion: C.M. Punk to win (yes, I'm biased, but I really think that's how it will pan out). Forgot that C.M. Punk is in the MitB match. Doh! So I have no idea, and will arbitrarily choose Elijah Burke to win, with Chavo to retain later.

* Finlay vs. JBL - Belfast Brawl: Tough call, but I predict Finlay to win.

* BunnyMania Lumberjack Match: Ashley & Maria vs. The Glamazon & Melina: Ashley & Maria to win.

I've changed my "wrestling" icon from Chris Benoit to CM Punk.

( Cut for those who may be tired of hearing about this )

Copied and pasted from PWInsider.com. The WWE.com page can be found here

WWE STAR CHRIS BENOIT, HIS WIFE AND FAMILY FOUND DEAD IN ATLANTA
by Mike Johnson @ 6:04:00 PM on 6/25/2007

We are still awaiting further details, but PWInsider.com is extremely saddened to report that former WWE and WCW World champion Chris Benoit and his wife, former WCW and ECW personality Nancy "Woman" Benoit were both found dead today in Atlanta, Georgia. Obviously this will be a huge developing story in the days to come but at this point, we'd like to express our deepest condolences to the Benoits' family, friends, and fans at this time.

A meeting is currently ongoing at WWE TV and it is expected that tonight's three hour Raw will now be dedicated to Benoit's memory.

6:09 Update: WWE.com issued the following statement this afternoon:

"WWE is sad to report that Chris Benoit and his family have been found dead in their home. Police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Tonight's Raw will be a tribute to Chris and his family."

Update: Wikipedia article and Atlanta-Journal Constitution article.

As a note, there is a lot of speculation and rumor flying around right now. Some of it is pretty ugly. I ask all of Benoit's fans to take it all with a grain of salt, and wait until the police investigation is completed before drawing any conclusions.

The past several days have been a blur.

Friday was a dance between a problematic computer upgrade at work, funeral leave, and staying on top of a complicated situation in my Mage LARP, as well as keeping tabs via greebotrill of the status of our Canadian visitor, HM.

Saturday was running the final game of my Mage LARP before stepping down, then scarfing down food before rushing home to meet up with our Cincinnati visitor, RF. Then there was socializing.

Sunday started with a bit of a lull, which was nice because it took me forever to get moving in the morning. Soon, however, greebotrill and garchangel returned with HM. Then RF met back up with us from his hotel room, and we all had lunch with mrogre and banzaigrrl. We then headed back to our house, and chatted out wrestling and sci-fi until we left to go to Judgment Day.

The event itself was entertaining. The seats were fantastic - we were very close to the floor, and faced the ring and tron. The card was average overall, but that's to be expected considering there's a ton of injuries post-Wrestlemania, and a glut of firings recently. (If you watched the PPV and saw a group of people holding a Canadian flag at the beginning or for Edge and Benoit's entrances, that's us.) We drove to get dinner at Denny's, and I crashed late, only to be woken up by my cell phone because I got a text message at 3am and I didn't turn it off while it was charging.

Today has been finishing up the computer migration at work, while trying to stay on top of a few things that need to get done today. Tonight will be more socializing with RF and HM before they leave on Tuesday, and probably watching Raw tonight. Since Friday my exercise and writing routine has gone to shit (but I did try my best to stay on my diet). Once I spend a couple of nights getting those kick-started again, I think I'm going to sleep for a few days.

So, the Judgment Day PPV is this Sunday in St. Louis. greebotrill, garchangel and I are all planning to go, as well as a guest driving down from Cincinnati and one from Toronto. It's part of a deal we struck with RF in Cincinnati after Wrestlemania to try to attend wrestling events that are central to both of us, and our other guest is also a huge wrestling fan that I've known for years. They're both coming down Saturday-ish, so we'll get to hang out for a weekend before watching what the WWE does now that they have had a couple of key injuries.

In a sad coincidence of themes, a co-worker of mine was suddenly killed last week (he was hit and killed by an SUV while riding his new motorcycle), and his funeral is this Saturday as well. And somewhere in there I'm running a Mage LARP, the wrap-up to a storyline I started eight months ago.

It's going to be a very conflicted weekend.

Let me preface with a few disclaimers. First, I haven’t been keeping up with wrestling much since the start of the year (as the Kevin Federline crap and the firing of Paul Heyman soured me for a while on the product). I watched about a week’s worth of TiVoed episodes prior to Wrestlemania just to get up to date on the storylines. Secondly, although I’ve had my moments of being the jaded fan, in general I’m a big mark that simply enjoys wrestling, and my tastes tend more towards the mainstream than towards the “smart marks,” which means that I might like this show better than I normally would simply because it’s Wrestlemania. Finally, I’ve been to about half-a-dozen WWF/WWE live events in my life, ranging from Raw tapings to house shows.

greebotrill and I flew down on Saturday, and were picked up by RF (the one who bought the tickets for us). He drove up from Cincinnati, got the hotel room, and then came to pick us up, where we were later joined by JR (and I don’t mean Jim Ross). And we learned that driving in Detroit sucks. Everything’s one way, people can’t drive for shit, merging is apparently something only out-of-towners do, and traffic consists of less moving and more sitting. An 18 minute trip from the hotel to Ford Field took two hours there and an hour and a half back. If I don’t ever return to Detroit I won’t be upset (although we did find a Chinese buffet that served decent sushi for really cheap).

( Match thoughts and predictions – cut for spoilers )

In the end, I’m very glad I went. It’s probably not the best Wrestlemania ever put together, but it’s better than what I’ve seen over the past few months. But really, it’s not about the size of the crowd or the quality of the matches. Between my last trip to see the HWA PPV live (a crowd of maybe 40 people) and this one, something important has come out of it.

I’m glad to be a wrestling fan again. Not a “smart mark,” not a bitter or jaded fan to spends more time bitching about wrestling than enjoying it, but an actual fan. And for that, Wrestlemania 23 will always have a special place in my memory.