September 11, 2004

Unforgiven

Well Tomorrow is the 12th, that means it is officially time to start geeking out in a very WWE style manner.

You see I live in the "wonderful" state of Oregon and this anti utopia in the past used to be a very prominent and from what I understand a very good wrestling territory. Some good local events, lots of talent coming in and out, Oregon was a spec on the map, slowly as the territories dried up so did the scene in Oregon. It was slowed but not dead, local promotions still ran shows once in a while, the then WWF would come to town once in a while and good times were had by all. I am not 100% clear on the true story as to why the Oregon Boxing and Wrestling commission all of a sudden changed the rules but they did, and times got tough and they stayed tough from about 1993 through to 2003. Eventually the commission was basically overturned and the laws were set up in a manner in which wrestling would be viewed as an entertainment not a sport, this means no more excessive medical examination demands, no more ridiculous rules for wresting (No gouging eyes, no pulling hair or whiskers, no twisting ears, no going over the top rope, no intentional elbows, no putting someone through a table... ect...).

So basically what happened was Oregon was good, wrestling was good, then Oregon turned bad while wrestling went through a boom, Oregon got screwed out of a lot of events/money while fans got screwed out of a lot of fun times while Wrestling rode high, Oregon, Oregon smartened up and now there can be fun here for those who might enjoy it. To be honest if you ask me what the straw that broke the camels back as far as the state voting to let wrestling back in was, I would have to tell you the fact that WrestleMania XIX was held in Seattle Washington in Safeco Field and it was a huge moneymaker and a success, Oregon saw the dollars and the fact that Washington was doing something that they weren't and that changed all the rules.

Still with me? Sorry I rambled there, I find it difficult to concentrate on writing about the dark times in Oregon as it really strikes me as just dumb as can be, for the longest time the only thing you would hear from the state on the subject was that they didn't feel that the Wrestling industry was something the state of Oregon felt was appropriate for people to view. This manner of thinking does nothing but fill me with anger, it's the whole "If I don't like something or deem it suitable then you can't/shouldn't be involved in it either" train of thought. I freely admit that the wrestling industry has gotten to a point where it really is no longer on the whole a "family friendly" show, the show has grown up and now has a target audience of about 12 - 35 give or take, I'd go so far as to say actually more like 16 or 17 to 40 honestly and again obviously the target audience is primarily male, so yes maybe it's not exactly something the state of Oregon should be officially endorsing, but there is a big difference between not endorsing something and all but banning it.

So anyway, times are good now, Wrestling is back and in a big way here, Tomorrow the first ever WWE PPV show from Portland Oregon is going down, it's called Unforgiven and I actually got a ticket not much could keep me away at this point and thats a good thing, where WWE PPV shows come into play I've had some bad luck lets see if I can remember my entire live event history real quick, this should be fun.

In 1993 I was at the last WWF show in Portland for about 10 years. I was about 12, my brother took me, we had pretty decent seats, I don't remember everything about the event but I do remember that the main event was supposed to include Randy Savage, halfway through the show they announced plane issues have kept him away and instead we were going to a 20 man over the top rope battle royal instead. I was kind of bummed as Randy was one of my favorites, but jazzed because the battle royal is like the little brother to my all time favorite WWF match the Royal Rumble. I remember very clearly that the last two men in the ring were Yokozuna (RIP) and Crush, at the time the storyline was that Yoko had never been taken off of his feet by anyone him and Crush fought back and forth doing as good a job as they could while still keeping with the never going off his feet storyline, Crush knocked Yokozuna back into the ropes where he leaned and then in a burst of speed Crush clotheslined Yoko over the top rope, Yoko flipped backwards over the rope and landed on his feet for a man of his size that is damned impressive. What bothered me a lot 10 years later is the fact that on the WWE website when they talked about this event they said Randy was there, but he was not I really wanted to send a note to the site to have them correct it but I wasn't willing to search all over for a feedback address for them and there were none posted in any of the main pages on the site, I did look for one I just did not do a meticulous search.

After that show in '93 I saw nothing until '96 when WWF Raw Went to Seattle Washington, I believe that was in the Key Arena.

Between '96 and '03 I say 5-6 Raw tapings (including one early on in like 96 that was 5 or 6 episodes shot in one day) 1 Smackdown taping and I believe 2 house shows, I also attended in Seattle a WCW PPV called Spring Stampede. Out of those one of the Raw tapings was up by Detroit Michigan, the house shows were in Grand Rapids Michigan, and the Smackdown was in Columbus Ohio, everything else was up in Washington, mostly in the Seattle Key Arena. in 2004 I attended the WWE Raw show that came was held in the Portland Rose Garden and it was great.

I also had a ticket (a floor ticket) to WrestleMania XIX at Safeco Field in Seattle, but me and my friend were driving down the day of the show and surprise surprise the car broke down, not only did it break down but it did so in the one spot between here and there where my cell phone had no digital signal which mean no incoming calls and little to no outgoing call reception on top of the reception issues no one we knew was home at all so yep we missed the show.

WOW, I wrote way to much crap on this, I'm afraid to even publish it, normally I would go through and edit myself and make this dribble actually resemble real writing. Honest I'm not a huge dumbass even if it looks that way, this is just a rough draft and I'm too lazy to go through and put my jumbled thoughts together in a coherent style.

I almost forgot, I want to put in what I think is going to happen tomorrow while I'm thinking so I Can come back and compare.

World Championship match: Randy Orton Vs. HHH, This is a toughie, Randy is doing a good job of getting over and being taken seriously I can't see them taking the belt away from him just yet he still needs it to help push him. I dont' necessarily see this being a "clean" win though.

World Tag Team Championship match: La Resistance Vs Tajiri and Rhyno, The tag division right now is a tough thing to read, La Reistance is already an established and proven team, I think it's time they dropped the belts to help create another solid team if for nothing else than for the sake of the division. Tajiri and Rhyno in singles competition haven't had a whole lot of consistant luck but as a team they work pretty damned well, partly because their styles are different and they work well together but also because when you see those two out there together and your a long time fan of the business you can't help but hear in the back of your mind a chant of ECW ECW and that is some magic that cannot be justly explained, I say the WWE needs to keep these two together, give them the belts have them hold onto them until they are solidified as a duo, perhaps even bring in some more ECW blood and have a faction start up. I might be getting ahead of myself but I do believe these two can help bring attention to the tag division which in turn would help any other teams that form up get some recognition and then we might have a viable title scene again.

Shawn Michaels Vs. Kane, I'm going to go with HBK on this one, it's a revenge thing. This ones not going to be clean I'm sure, the only way I see Kane coming off with a victory is if Lita does a turn and actually helps him win, although I pray that they do not take the story in that direction. The Kane/Lita storyline is already painful and repetitive, if they want to surprise me and make the storyline halfway enjoyable they will not have Lita do the 180 but instead have Kane slowly bend start to actually care about Lita which in turn may not turn him into the ultra good guy but it will scew him more into the SCSA middle of the road not good not bad guy type character, at which time it will of course allow Lita to either admit to loving Kane back or jump ship and turn on Kane in some way at that point. Ok so I forgot to factor in the baby but hey, I'm going to have to draw a line somewhere and I sure have no idea how they are going to weasel out of this one.

Chris Benoit & William Regal Vs. Batista & Ric Flair, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this match has the potential to be the show stealer or if not it can be a damned close second. The only realy X factor here is Batista and he has shown a ton of improvement and what seems to be a very impressive willingness to push himself and work hard, he is going to be in the ring with 3 spectacular wrestlers if anyone can make him want to push himself to have his best match ever it will be them. Even though it pains me I'm going to have to pick Batista and Flair (I'm a very big Benoit mark).

Woman's Championship Match: Trish Stratus Vs. Victoria, This is a tough one to call as well, there is like no build up to this match at all Victoria wasn't even on Raw last week. I am thankful at least that these two should be able to put up a semi decent showing for the womens division, this is either going to be a no contest type ending or I'm thinking perhaps Stevie Richards will come out in his drag gimmick and help Victoria pick up the belt here, which of course can lead into finally doing SOMETHING with the Stevie Richards in drag story they have been teasing for what has been way too long.

Intercontinental Championship Match (Ladder Match): Christian Vs. Chris Jericho, I talk a good game around the CLB Christian but the fact is the talk I do much like most other people about him is in fact because his character is so fun to pick on and mess with, he does his job well. The real facts are both he and Chris Jericho are extremely talented workers and this match is likely to be the Highlight of the Night! Please Vince give them plenty of time, don't rush this one let them work their craft the audience should eat it up like candy. For the outcome of this one I really will only be guessing but I'll say Jericho (unless Edge gets involved then it is more likely to be Christians night). What I would like to see here is Jericho getting the belt, that would be nice as I believe he deserves much more credit than he gets in the company, a push with the IC belt could help, ultimately it could turn into a three way struggle between Edge, Christian, and Jericho on a future PPV bout along the way maybe even add in another competitor or two (perhaps someone the likes of Shelton Benjamin, or The Hurricane) and really push the IC belt as its own entity and not just second best title.

Thankfully no Diva Search crap is scheduled, while I'm on the subject if I have to pick one of the two remaining girls to be involved with the WWE for a year I really hope it's Christy, a little bit of acting 101 and she could be a decent addition to the show, especially if she is willing to actually work at it. She sure has an energy that could be beneficial.