So if we take fan stories seriously there had to have been at least 3 million in attendance who saw Foley get tossed off the Cell. 17,087 according to wiki (followed by a 20 minute rabbit hole dive). Anyways have you ever been in attendance to anything major? Holy shit chant? Hell just go with a title change or say big match.

I've been at less than 10 wrestling shows in my life. So it's slim pickings. I guess Sheamus' MITB... not the cash in, the actual MITB.

Feb 14, 2021 23:04:46 GMT @ness said:

I've been at less than 10 wrestling shows in my life. 

Which ones?

Anyways have you ever been in attendance to anything major? Holy shit chant? Hell just go with a title change or say big match.

I've been to 60-70 shows. Seen so much cool stuff that I'm bound to forget a few things. What follows is a mix of Holy Shit spots and memorable/important moments

Sandman returns to ECW. GOAT live wrestling moment. GOAT live event moment, period.

Diesel puts Bret through a table at Survivor Series 95. Bret would recapture the WWF Championship a few minutes later.

Marty gives Skip a top rope powerbomb, also at Survivor Series 95

Aries beats Joe for the ROH Championship

*I was also in the building for the first two ROH title changes - Ki winning a 4 Way Ironman and Xavier stupidly beating Ki two months later.

Multiple Paul London ladder spots against Michael Shane at ROH Unscripted

Ki kicks Daniels in the head. Doesn't sound like much but in that moment I thought Daniels was legit knocked out due to the way he sold it.

Cheetah Master hits Prince Nana with a Superfly Splash from atop the cage at an ECWA show

Teddy Hart & Jack Evans vs. Homicide & B-Boy at JAPW had multiple cage dives and a "lights out" Jim Neidhart appearance

Christian York Sabu's an asai moonsault by smashing his leg on the guardrail at an MCW show. I later get an up close look at his bruised & bloody leg.

Aries/Bryan finishing stretch at ROH Survival of the Fittest

AJ/Bryan fighting over this submission at another ROH show. Hard to explain, but very cool, and had the crowd going wild.

World Championship is held up after a HHH/Edge/Benoit Raw match with a wonky finish

Angle/Cena at No Mercy 2003 had dueling chants and lots of nearfalls. That's when I knew Cena was destined for superstardom

Ric Flair vs. Jerry Lawler!!! at a 2004 Raw.
 
RVD vs. Sabu at a 1999 ECW Arena show was basically 30 minutes of dueling chants alternating with "Holy Shit" chants

*All 8 or 9 of the ECW shows I attended had a few legit "Holy Shit" chants but I don't remember the reason for many of them. Same goes for a bunch of ROH/Indie shows. It got to a point where every broken table or halfway decent dive would generate a "Holy Shit" chant.

*I also saw a bunch of forgotten minor WWF title changes live during the Attitude & Ruthless Aggression Eras. 

Feb 14, 2021 23:27:14 GMT Baker said:

Feb 14, 2021 23:04:46 GMT @ness said:

I've been at less than 10 wrestling shows in my life. 

Which ones?

Random FL ECW show in 2000. Rhino was TV champ and I think World was Justin Credible. I think Rhino may have cut a promo about being TV champion and no TV.

Random SD! houseshow in 2002. Kurt was bald and World Champ Taker wasn't on the card.

An NXT houseshow that they billed as the first one outside of Florida. I believe the main event of Cesaro/Neville was taped for a Best of NXT DVD.

Money in the Bank 2015... Sheamus won the case and it may have been the first time Brie stuffed her tittahs in a match to do the twin swap.

Honestly that might be it sadly.

Feb 14, 2021 23:41:46 GMT @ness said:

Feb 14, 2021 23:27:14 GMT Baker said:

Which ones?

Random FL ECW show in 2000. Rhino was TV champ and I think World was Justin Credible. I think Rhino may have cut a promo about being TV champion and no TV.

Very cool. Never would have guessed you went to an ECW show.

Feb 14, 2021 23:44:10 GMT Baker said:

Feb 14, 2021 23:41:46 GMT @ness said:

Random FL ECW show in 2000. Rhino was TV champ and I think World was Justin Credible. I think Rhino may have cut a promo about being TV champion and no TV.

Very cool. Never would have guessed you went to an ECW show.

Yeah I didn't really know what ECW was until it was basically dead. Heard a ton, but I was mostly a WWE only guy.

The Wyatt Family vs The Shield at Elimination Champber 2014 was great. The showdown and chanting This is Awesome before during the staredown was maybe the most memorable part because *at the time* it was a huge deal between two really prominent factions. The match had a few good spots as well that got the attention of the crowd but I don't know anything beat the initial reaction to them facing off.

I've only ever been to a couple of shows.

WCW Monday Nitro October 2000
The holy shit spot came after the show when a naked Juventud Guerrera managed to evade the police at the Sheraton Hotel. Otherwise it was the dying days of WCW, it wasn't a bat-shit crazy show but they weren't setting things alight either. In fact, I remember Jeff Jarrett who was a major turn-off for me actually stole the show with his Sting impression. Sting even came down from the rafters, which was a rare sight especially after Owen.

WWE SmackDown: Revenge of the Undertaker Tour August 2004

A live event with a rock solid card which included a nice double main in Eddie/JBL and Angle/Taker. The latter was slightly disappointing, they relied a lot on some Luther Reigns shenanigans for the match and it wasn't a patch on their 2002 or 2006 efforts. Eddie/JBL on the other hand actually had some great near-falls and despite knowing better, for a second I thought we were going to see a massive title change. That's right, Bradshaw was involved in the best match I've seen live.

I'm seriously jealous of Bake's experiences. That Sandman return especially is one of those moments that's gone down in PW folklore.

I remembered Pete going to that WWE house show but didn't know he got to see his beloved WCW live. Very cool.

A few more memorable/quasi-important moments I saw live...

Ric Flair brawled with HHH in the dark "match" of an otherwise forgettable August 2002 Raw taping. It got the biggest reaction of the night. What's even better is my friends and I went to a nearby establishment after the show where we heard people WOOing in the streets of Baltimore all night long.

On a similar note, Sgt. Slaughter got a huge ovation and chants for breaking up a brawl at a WWF show when he was working as an agent. What makes it even cooler is The Sarge had a match (against Test I think) the next time WWF came to Baltimore. That cannot have been a coincidence. It had me thinking WWF actually paid attention to their crowds back then and booked the towns accordingly.

I was also at the WWF Smackdown taping where Arnold Schwarzenegger brawled with HHH.

Saw Marc Mero lose a "Retirement Match" to Gillberg in November 98. Mero actually stayed retired! This was his last WWF match.

Ahmed slams Yoko at Survivor Series 95

Alex Shelley wrestling as Kevin Nash against Chris Sabin in MCW was hilarious and great. Shelley > Kane when it comes to being a Fake Diesel.

Teddy Hart in CZW. He came out a bunch of times and got a superstar reaction every single one of those times. Some people loved him. Others were haters. But everybody cared. Throw in his shoot "Loose Cannon" persona and that's why Teddy is my favorite wrestler EVER to see live.

Tajiri/Psicosis at a 2000 ECW Arena show was one of the best matches I ever saw live at the time.

Seeing Muta & The Midnight Express live at ROH shows was very cool. Never thought I'd get the opportunity to see those legends live.

ECWA 2002 Super 8 was a lot of fun. Got to see a lot of good matches featuring future stars with AJ/Xavier being the best of the bunch.

ECWA booked a Matt Cappotelli looking dude with the hilariously generic name of Buck Wylde. He never did anything of note before or after this one "Holy Shit" spot where he hit a 450 Splash off a platform (think the ECW Arena's 'Eagles Nest') through a table.

Tom Brandi getting DAT HEAT at 98-99 MCW shows with Shane Douglas-style quasi shoot promos.

While it meant nothing to me (or anybody else in the building) at the time I saw Lucha legend El Hijo del Santo at a WWF Super Astros taping.

I was in the building for Hacksaw Jim Duggan's WWF debut at a Valentine's Day house show in 1987. Just discovered that within the last year or two.

Teddy Hart was amazing.

Like I'm just imagining him going to thanksgiving gettoegethers at the Hart House and doing moonsaults and backflips off the gazebo for no other reason than why not?

The Big Show/Brock Lesner superplex spot.

Feb 15, 2021 19:48:44 GMT Ed said:

The Big Show/Brock Lesner superplex spot.

So jealous.

Feb 15, 2021 17:56:10 GMT @ness said:

Teddy Hart was amazing.

Like I'm just imagining him going to thanksgiving gettoegethers at the Hart House and doing moonsaults and backflips off the gazebo for no other reason than why not?

And then throwing Hart family pets off the gazebo roof as his entry point to training cats to do moonsaults.

Feb 15, 2021 17:56:10 GMT @ness said:

Teddy Hart was amazing.

Like I'm just imagining him going to thanksgiving gettoegethers at the Hart House and doing moonsaults and backflips off the gazebo for no other reason than why not?

I don't want to keep harping on this, and I know it's cliche, but you really had to be there to get the full Teddy Hart Experience. It is unique in the annals of those 60-70 wrestling shows I attended. The whole atmosphere changed when Teddy showed up. Whether they loved or hated him, everybody had an opinion on Teddy. There was genuine crowd investment when he showed up. Plus, with Teddy, anything really was possible. Heck, you didn't even know if he would show up! So Teddy merely showing up was An Event in and of itself.

And I'm not alone in thinking this. There was an ancient PW poster in the Before Times named AmDrag or Fork or something like that whose stories of seeing Teddy live in Jersey All Pro mirror my own Teddy Tales. The best example I ever saw of TeddyMania coming across on tape is a wild Teddy vs. Trent Acid match from 2004 CZW that I sadly missed seeing live for reasons I forget.

*Just a few more involving Joey Matthews being awesome + some wild and/or surreal moments at the ECW Arena. Then I'll give this thread a rest.

-A 2004 3PW show at the ECW Arena featured 3PW Champion Joey Matthews vs. Daniels vs. Styles vs. Sabin in a match dubbed "the five star four way." That pompous name actually wasn't too far off the mark. This is the match that sold me on Joey Matthews after years of being meh on him. He wasn't just an awesome heel in this match. He provided the template for what a heel should have been going forward. Being a bad guy wasn't enough to generate heel heat anymore now that wrestling audiences had become too smart for their own good. The new heel "sucked" at wrestling because they weren't flashy. Joey Matthews eliminating TNA/Indie darlings Styles & Sabin with a rather pedestrian Double Arm DDT infuriated the "smart" fans in attendance. The ECW Arena (myself included) let out a collective groan when Joey hit Daniels with that same basic Double Arm DDT. Then Daniels kicked out! HUGE pop! And probably some "Holy Shit" chants, too. Daniels then went on to defeat "boring" Joey Matthews and win the 3PW Championship to another big pop.

The whole thing was brilliant. Matthews had completely reinvented himself from a boring workrate guy doing dated 1998 high spots into a new kind of heel. Within a year he'd be in the midst of a good WWE run as one of half of MNM. He also wrote the book on how to be a heel going forward. Sadly, the only wrestler who seemed to have read the book Joey wrote that day in Philly would be ROH Jimmy Rave.

-I was at the Dudley Boyz final ECW Arena show in July 1999. Word had leaked that they were heading to WWF. The always hostile ECW Arena hated the Dudleys even more than usual that night. To their credit, Bubba & D-Von did not back down. Instead, they instigated a crowd which was already out for blood. Out of those 60-70 live shows, this was the only one where I felt genuinely uncomfortable. It really did feel like a riot could break out at any moment. It didn't. But we got something even more unexpected. JUSTIN CREDIBLE GOT FACE REACTIONS AT THE ECW ARENA!!! for confronting the Dudleys. The fact that the Dudleys got the ECW Arena fans to cheer for JUSTIN CREDIBLE would be enough to make them first ballot entries into the Heel Hall of Fame even if they had done nothing else of note in their entire careers.

-The wildest thing that ever broke out at a wrestling show I attended would also involve the Dudleys at the ECW Arena some 7 years later during a 2006 TNA house show that took place a night or two before WWE One Night Stand 2. Ironically, the once-hated Dudleys were now treated as returning hometown heroes. The New Age Outlaws were in the old Dudley role of hated heat seekers. And this happened...



Chairs whizzed by my head. Many fans were struck by the flying chairs. The New Age Outlaws told everybody to "fuck off" and simply walked out. AMW was also involved in the match. They disappeared, too. This chair shower caused the main event to have no finish.

-And finally the most surreal moment I was ever a part of at a wrestling show. Back to the ECW Arena in October '99. It was the same show with RVD/Sabu and Sandman's return. Apropos of nothing, the ECW Arena crowd just started randomly chanting up a "Hardcore Holly" chant. I've always considered that the ultimate testament to the greatness of 1999 Hardcore Holly. You know you're doing a great job when hundreds of people in the biggest "homer" crowd pro wrestling has ever seen start chanting for a lifelong WWF midcarder for no real reason. 

Feb 15, 2021 22:07:13 GMT 🤯 said:

Feb 15, 2021 19:48:44 GMT Ed said:

The Big Show/Brock Lesner superplex spot.

So jealous.

When BROCK LESNER was the best. THE NEXT BIG THING!

WM 9 Yoko beat Bret then Hulk came out and beat Yoko

Royal Rumble 97 Austin was eliminated but the ref did not see it and he came back in the ring and won.

WM9 was where bodyslam was born when he first witnessed LIVE Hogan slam Yoko.

Wikipedia entry FULLY EDITED.

Wrestlemania 18 - Icon vs Icon. Nuff said.

I also attended a house show in Toronto the night before Lance Storm debuted on Raw. He did the same spot with Jericho and Rhyno that was on that episode. We got a sneak peek 24 hours early and all us Canadians geeked out hard.

EDIT: Scratch that, Storm debuted by attacking Perry Saturn. At the house show, Jericho and Rhyno were having a match when he interfered. Jericho had Rhyno in the Walls of Jericho and Storm super kicked him and ran away, giving Rhyno the win.

Been meaning to ask for a while and this seems like the perfect place to do so. Yo bodyslam give us some Mid South stories.

Feb 16, 2021 0:51:30 GMT Baker said:

Been meaning to ask for a while and this seems like the perfect place to do so. Yo bodyslam give us some Mid South stories.

I grew up with Mid-South and Houston Wrestling which were pretty much one in the same but Houston also had its owns tv show to go along with the Mid-South tv show.  I guess the biggest Holy Shit moment was during the feud with North American Champion Dick Slater (with Dark Journey) and Jake The Snake Roberts. They had several matches and rematches around the loop. The NA title got held up after Jake beat Slater with a DDT. The problem was the DDT was banned. Thus the need for a rematch two weeks later. During the 2 week build up word got leaked that Jake was going to the WWF. One of the Houston reports caught wind of it and attempted to out the business with a article in one of the Houston news papers about not to expect Jake to win since he's on his way out.  Watts found out and decided to put the title on Jake in Houston to protect the business. The a few days later Slater won it back and Jake was off to the WWF.

Feb 16, 2021 0:40:39 GMT RT said:

Wrestlemania 18 - Icon vs Icon. Nuff said.

Psh. Lame. 

Who even remembers that? 

Feb 16, 2021 16:53:40 GMT UT said:

Feb 16, 2021 0:40:39 GMT RT said:

Wrestlemania 18 - Icon vs Icon. Nuff said.

Psh. Lame. 

Who even remembers that? 

Whoa, pal. I for one will NEVER... EVER forget Jazz becoming the last woman to ever successfully defend the WWF Women's Championship at a WrestleMania.

I was eye-level with the top of the HIAC at 97 Badd Blood, and was on the side Shawn fell off of. One of the craziest things I ever saw.

That's the true "holy shit" moment.

Other cool/memorable moments:

[*]I saw Jericho's first World Title win (No Mercy 2001)
[*]Cena drafted to Raw (2005)
[*]Sting debut at Survivor Series
[*]Braun Strowman debut (cool to reflect on now) on Raw
[*]Punk turns heel in 2012

Once again the infamous Canadian Thanksgiving TV tapings of Oct. 1992 which saw:

Doink's debut
Yokozuna's debut
Bret Hart win the WWF title from Ric Flair

Main crazy big spot thing I seen live was Homicide rupturing Corino's eardrum. Corino was down in pain after that match for like 15 minutes unable to stand on his own. During the match Cide crashed nearby us after hitting a tope through the barricade and he spit the blood from his mouth and the rest of the night I was covered in a mist of his blood. This was the first deathmatch / bunkhouse brawl I seen live and I realized right away I am not ok seeing people bleed like that in front of me. Or seeing spots like Cide landing on the guardrail neck first that close.

Can hear me scream for the X-Breaker later on that night.

End of the night Low Ki KO'ed Maff legit with a kick to head too to end the show.

I also the AMERICAN BADASS stall his bike halfway down the ramp coming out second, have to walk it to the back for an intermission while the guy he was fighting just hung out in the ring until they could get it working again and redo the entrance during a smackdown taping.

At the Raw the night before this, WWF debuted the get the out F out, and I was at the first WWE show, which was weird going into and seeing everything say WWE instead of WWF.

WrestleMania 31
Sting vs Triple H
Randy hits the RKO on Seth
Seth Rollins Winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship


SummerSlam (2013)
Randy Orton cashing in on Daniel Bryan


Impact One Night Only: Cali Combat (2018)
Moose vs Alberto Del Rio...A match that nobody saw, but I'm glad I did. These 2 men fought all over that building. Refs getting knocked out, chairs flying, fans fighting around the wrestlers, Refs and Wrestlers breaking up fights, Moose and Del Rio bleeding. This match had it all. The only thing it was missing was tables. It was so good that after the match Del Rio got on the mic and said that was the best match he had ever had. He Also said that Moose was underrated and a future Heavyweight Champion.

I was there when Punk beat Del Rio for the title which was also Cena/Rock 1!

House Show I had front row seats and I was wearing a Miz shirt and Miz won his match, posed on the turnbuckles and LOOKED ME RIGHT IN MY FUCKING EYES WITH A SMILE! HOLY SHIT 4 ME MIGHT NOT BE HOLY SHIT 4 U!

Wrestlemania 10

Bret vs. Owen were chock full of holy shit spots in a technical wrestling sense. Less flashy than something like Pillman vs. Liger, but probably the best match I had ever seen up to that point. Owen pinning Bret is one of the biggest holy shit spots ever. I think the shock factor has been lost a bit in time with the great career Owen had after that, but prior to that, Owen was barely a step above jobber. NO ONE expected him to win. It was also a time where top guys were protected even more, so NO ONE expected Bret to lose. It all makes sense by today's standards, but it was truly shocking in 1994. "Wait, Bret got pinned?" Was the reaction from pretty much the entire audience.

Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon was also chock full of holy shit spots being the first ladder match. Spots that are totally taken for granted today, well, it was the first time we had seen any of them, so it was all mind blowing. I suppose Shawn jumping off the ladder for a sort of Superfly Splash was the biggest spot of the match, and now that I think about it, probably the highest place I had ever seen a wrestler jump from. It was higher than the top of the blue cage, right?

ECW House Show 1998

Sabu. That's it. Just seeing him live. One gigantic holy shit experience. This event was at my local rec center, so we got first row tickets, and Sabu did a triple jump leg drop from inside the ring onto a table on the floor that was about four feet away from me. When Sabu would land on his ass from leg drops, on the floor, it never made sense to me how that wouldn't crush all sorts of important things, while also folding his spinal cord, but Sabu was indestructible, the hardest man alive. Also, just the fact that Sabu wrestled house shows like it was Wrestlemania, there was no difference in his style whether it be a Pay Per View or a house show at a fucking rec center. Absolute god. 

ECW Hardcore Heaven '99

RVD vs. Jerry Lynn, one of the most famous ECW matches was that night, a match Paul E. replayed quite a bit on Hardcore TV, so it must have been one of his favorites. There's a famous spot where Jerry Lynn is crotched on the top rope, RVD does a chair assisted drop kick to Lynn's head that sends him off the top and onto the floor, which would be cool enough, but Lynn landed wrong, and by wrong I mean he landed on his face. This happened on the side of the ring I was at, and you could hear a sickening thud onto the thin mats that were covering the floor. Holy shit. That whole match was just various holy shit moments.

ECW Second First TNN Taping

My only trek to the Madhouse of Extreme. This was supposed to be the second TNN taping, but Paul E. scrapped the first TNN show thinking it sucked, aired a historical clip show as the first episode instead (The RVD vs. Lynn match was one of them, TNN was not pleased by a clip show), and then this second TNN taping became the first. It's most famous for Raven's return, which the electricity from that moment is one of the greatest experiences I've ever been a part of, in any live experience ever. I KNOW it sounds sentimental and even cliche, but ECW crowds were just different, man. And it was never more apparent than when they served moments like that.

This was also the Dudley Boyz last appearance before going to the WWF, and after YEARS of drawing some of the biggest heat ever, they finally broke character (after the cameras went off, had to protect their god tier heel reputation) and said goodbye as themselves. And off to the WWF they went, where I assumed it would horrible and they would be back in 6-8 months. But good for them, it went well. 

That was my last wrestling show.

Damn wish I could have seen Bret vs Owen live. What a match that was.

Feb 19, 2021 1:16:36 GMT c said:

Damn wish I could have seen Bret vs Owen live. What a match that was.

Birthday wish?