The Importance of…4.10.09: My Trip to Houston

Posted by Mike Chin on 04.10.2009

A look back at this columnist's first live Wrestlemania weekend.

A bit of a departure from the normal column format this week. I know some others have already documented it, and that 72,000 others lived it, but last weekend marked the first time at Wrestlemania, and I wanted to take this week's column as an opportunity to recount the journey.

I got to the airport early Friday morning to fly to Houston, and caught my first glimpses of the weekend ahead—DX t-shirts, sprinklings of wrestling chatter at the gate and on the plane. Once I arrived at the Houston Hobby Airport, I was off to George Bush International to meet up with my best friend of 16 years, flying in from our hometown. It was at that second airport where I saw the signs of ‘Mania all the more clearly—replica championship belts over shoulders, more t-shirts, the ringing of the first "Wooo"s of the weekend.

We caught shuttle to the Hyatt, chatting it up with other fans along the way. More Wooos in the hotel lobby and more paraphernalia at every turn. Went out to catch dinner at a nice Italian place. My buddy and I originally became friends on the school bus, when I brought in a WWF magazine with Hulk Hogan on the cover. He stopped watching by the end of 1996, and so I was all too eager to reintroduce him to my world over food that evening. From there, we were off to our first session of Axxess. We were too late to catch the live Smackdown taping or any of the autograph sessions, but made a decent time of it taking pictures in the Hell in the Cell display and playing trivia games.

Caught the Metrorail to Reliant Center on Saturday and immediately got into one of the autograph lines. This worked out well—got into the Hawkins & Ryder line, only for them to be replaced by Roddy Piper and Chavo Guerrero halfway through our wait. Talk about your upgrades! About 45 minutes later, I was shaking hands with Hot Rod. I only talked to the guy for a minute or so, but man, did he come off as a friendly dude. I told him I thought he was the best talker in wrestling history. He asked me if I Was starting my won career in the ring. Not sure if that time in the gym is starting to pay off or if he was just being friendly. Regardless, it was pretty surreal to talk to a true legend, and to get my first autograph of the weekend from someone I admire so much. I don't mean to sell Chavo short, because he was very friendly guy himself, but holy crap, I shook hands with Roddy Piper!

Next up was the Midday Madness autograph session. We waited for a little over an hour in the first line, before moving into the second line—easily 400-500 people long (probably longer). Ended up throwing in the towel after 15 minutes, and went back to the hotel to get in some gym time (And what a sorry excuse for a gym that was, even by hotel standards). From there, we threw on our suits to head over to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

I have mixed feelings on the HoF ceremony. On one hand, it was pretty great ot be in the same room with all of those greats, and the better part of the current roster. It was great to hear Stone Cold, Vince, Steamboat, Flair, Kevin Von Erich and all the rest. But I was a bit put off by a giant clock hanging in the back of the auditorium, doing its best to relegate each inductee to five or six minutes a piece at the podium. I realize they had to get the film ready for TV that night, and wanted for it all to fit on one DVD in a month's time, but come on. I could listen to Steamboat and Austin for an hour a piece, and when this event is designed to, in many ways, punctuate their careers, it seems a shame to limit them so. In any case ,after the HoF were off to grab a late dinner, then had out to Houston's mid-town area—by far my favorite part I saw of the city—for a night at the bars.

Sunday morning, we walked a couple miles to The Breakfast Klub, a charming little place that specializes in odd combinations like chicken wings ‘n' waffles. I wholeheartedly recommend this place to anyone visiting Houston. From there, it was back to the Metrorail for one last stop at Axxess. As every autograph line filled, we hopped into line for Sgt. Slaughter. We figured he'd probably be gone by the time we got to the front of the line, and just hoped he would have a good replacement. And boy did we hit the jackpot again. After an hour and a half or so of waiting, Sarge stepped down. I was close enough to see one of the two men coming out next—Nick Bockwinkel. All the better, Harley Race was following right after him. The only disappointment there was that the staff asked us not take any photos—only to get autographs. Thanks to some hidden camera work form my boy, I did still get some decent shots with each of these greats. Better yet, I got to talking with Bockwinkel about his old AWA days. Race was a little less conversational, but it was still cool to shake his hand, get his signature.

From there, it was on to the main event. We loaded up on hot dogs, pretzels and beer before we found our seats, in hopes we wouldn't have to get up again. Lo and behold, we misread the tickets and sat in the wrong location. So, we piled up our feast and wound up finishing off most of it in the hallway before we braved the crowds again to find our real seats. And wouldn't you know it—we thought we were supposed to sit on the first upper level; turned out our seats were on the ground. This is the closest I've ever sat for a wrestling show—and it was Wrestlemania!

On to the matches, I won't go into too much detail, because I realize this has been covered up and down all over the internet already.

-I was totally miffed that the Colons-Miz and Morrison match got relegated to the pre-show. I'm happy I still got to see it the same as any other match, but felt it was a real insult to the fans who bought the PPV.

-MitB was sick as always. How about Kofi Kingston? How about Mark Henry making the ladder match his own? And how about CM Punk (who, over the course of the last year and half, ahs scaled his way to being my favorite current performer) becoming the first ever repeat MitB winner? Great moment.

-I really didn't need the Kid Rock performance—much less 3-4 songs, or however many he performed. I would have much rather we got individual entrances for the divas.

-The battle royal sucked, but who really expected otherwise? I've read others saying ‘thank God Tris hand Lita didn't come back for this mess.' I would contend that if Trish and Lita had come back, we might have seen a different match. Regardless, it was fun for what it was, and the live crowd was digging Santina.

-The Hardy Boyz match was a fun spotfest. I was expecting a bit more, and got my hopes up when a fleet of security walked by to stand over by the stage—hopeful the guys would be coming our way, but it never materialized.

-I liked the idea of the Mysterio-JBL squash, but there was a little boy sitting in front of me, all decked out in Mysterio gear, and I couldn't help sharing in his disappointment that he only got to see his hero in the ring for about a minute.

-Not much I can say about ‘Taker-Michaels that hasn't already been said. Fantastic drama and build, awesome selling, some real surprises on the close two counts. Crowd was hella into this one with conflicting chants. Easily a four star plus match, and the best of the night.

-The triple threat was about as good as you could have expected. Some fun spots, and, come on, you didn't honestly think anyone other than Cena was leaving ‘Mania 25 with that belt, did you?

-The Triple H-Orton match was the letdown of the night, and I have to agree with the critics that it may have been the most disappointing ‘Mania main event ever. There were so many opportunities for interference, between the McMahons and The Legacy, and yet all we got was a plodding, barely average match up between the two. I had visions of Orton winning, and CM Punk cashing in his title shot right then and there for a nice poetic finish. It wasn't to be. We hung around long after the final bell, sure that something more would have to happen, but it turned out the show was, in fact, over.

It was a long, crowded ride on the Metrorail back to the Hyatt, complete with changes afar more physical contact than I'm comfortable with. Regardless, we got back to the hotel OK, to the sound of even more wooos, capping off one heck of a weekend.

That's all for this column. Next week, we take a look at the importance of attire. See you in seven.