Thursday, January 29, 2015

#TBT WWE Survivor Series

Once upon a time Adam, Mr. Socko, and I took a road trip to WWE Survivor series in St. Louis. Let's rewind to Sunday, November 23rd, 2014


Even a gloomy, cool, misty day couldn't sour our excitement for attending our first ever Pay-Per-View event. We timed our arrival fairly well. Parked at Union Station, grabbed a bite to eat and then started walking to venue just minutes before the doors were to open.

The next part of our adventure seems to have been blocked out of my memory. We proceeded to wait with 100's and then 1,000's of WWE fans for the doors to open. The clock kept ticking and we kept getting colder and wetter. Ridiculous, just ridiculous. Eventually the doors opened. At least more than 30 minutes past the advertised time.

The plan was to circle the concourse and see if there was any swag we needed to purchase. We were then thrown another curveball. Upon entry, an uninformed security guard at our entrance was forcing fans to relinquish their posters or tear them down to 1' x 2'. WHAT?!??! WWE events ALWAYS have posterboard sized signs.

As evidenced below we begrudgingly tore our craft projects... I mean, signs in half to meet the "regulations". I couldn't help but bring Dolph Ziggler's noodle-hair to life with some curling ribbon.


So, we made it inside the venue with our scraps of posterboard and before we circled the concourse and hit the restroom, I hear the bell ring, which indicated the start of the event. What in the world?!?!? Only a few hundred people managed to even make it to their seats. As we made our way to our seats, they were introducing the TV announcers and shortly after the pre-show match began.

Here's the view from our seats, which we found on our own. A gaggle of people in front of us managed to claim seats in the wrong section, which created quite the confusion later in the evening. I'll be honest, I'm not sure who is actually wrestling in this pic. I do know that I didn't have one iota of a problem seeing their facial expressions from our seats.


I thoroughly enjoyed the event, but having been newly reintroduced to the WWE, I wasn't quite in-tune with the storylines or the historical events to come. I was well aware that it was hella cool to see Dean Ambrose bust out tables and chairs when facing Bray Wyatt. He setup the next Pay-Per-View event, TLC (Tables, Ladders, & Chairs), perfectly when he celebrated his win over Wyatt at the top of a ladder, but left us wanting more when he didn't launch off of the ladder onto his defeated opponent.


I'd say the photo below is a pretty good representation of my emotions during the match above. Yep, I was having fun. Safe to say that Adam was too.


Now for my "what's going on?" moment. The casual and new wrestling fans had no clue what the significance of Sting gracing the WWE universe with his presence was. I still don't fully understand, but know that he only ever wrestled in competitive organizations like WCW. He also has a really good intro to his walk-in music.


The only thing truly on schedule with the event was that it ended by 10:00pm. Hoping to bypass the long lines for the restrooms, we hoofed it back to Union Station in hopes of using their facilities. Doors locked. Denied! Our only option was the Hard Rock, where we go sucked in to buying an appetizer for the ride home. I was apparently crazed at this point and Adam... well... was Adam.


Luckily there was only one hitch in our giddy-up traveling to and fro. The car charger we had for our phones would not work in the outlets in the front of the car. Determined to find the cause, I tried the charger in the trunk of the car during a gas stop. Eureka, we had power, and a true backseat driver, as our directions were be shouted from the rear of the car.

As we plowed through the rain on our way to St. Louis, it occurred to me that a fuse may have blown in the front of the car. Enter co-pilot Adam. After taking inventory of my glovebox, he took to reading the car manual aloud. Who needs an audiobook when you have Adam around? Next stop was a gas station where I could park under an overhang, so as not to get wet while playing musical fuses in the fusebox under the hood of the car. With Adam's direction and my kung-fu grip fingertips, we found the blown fuse and replaced it with an unused one.

We technically got back home the next day. I honestly don't recall if I went to work the next day or not. I do remember rewatching the Survivor Series in hopes of seeing our torn-in-half signs on the TV. If you pull out your magnifying glass, you can see our white Dolph Ziggler poster in the upper-left of the photo below, just above the orSer, in the #SurvivorSeries.


Who knows, maybe someday Adam and I will make our way to a Wrestlemania, WWE's Superbowlesque event.

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