Category Archives: Columns

AS I SEE IT: The world’s most famous Bingo Hall is back in business

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AISIAS I SEE IT: The world’s most famous Bingo Hall is back in business
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com

Call it Viking Hall, XPW Arena, Alhambra Arena, The Arena, Asylum Arena, or the current name, 2300 Arena…but by whatever name you call it, the ECW Arena is having its first wrestling weekend in nearly 2 1/2 years.

If you go to any of the shows this weekend, it will look much different inside than the Arena you remember. It’s bigger, it’s brighter, it’s nicer, it’s cleaner, the bathrooms work, the concessions will be expanded (and that’s the beginning of the planned updates). The classic entrance to the Arena will eventually be no more. A new entrance has been built on the Swanson Street side of the building. A new lighting system will be installed, the notorious issues with sound will be dealt with as walls and ceilings will be re-done for acoustical purposes. The 2300 Arena is expanded to cover the old Forman Mills (RIP) as well as the traditional ECW Arena space.

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AS I SEE IT: Reactions to the passing of the Warrior

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AISIAS I SEE IT: Reactions to the passing of the Warrior
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com

It’s safe to say that Wrestlemania 30 weekend was an emotional roller-coaster…in ways hoped for and expected, and in ways that no one would have expected.

Between the emotional highs of the WWE Hall of Fame and the speechs of Jake Roberts and Scott Hall… the once in a lifetime meeting in the same ring of Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and Stone Cold Steve Austin… Daniel Bryan’s Wrestlemania 30 wins against HHH and in the main event…the storyline emotional stunner of The Streak ending… and the very tragic real life passing of Jim Hellwig, the Ultimate Warrior, only 24 hours after what turned out to be his farewell appearance; Wrestlemania weekend provided an emotional roller-coaster likely never to be duplicated again.

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Hitting the Ropes: Saying Good-bye to WrestleMania, New Orleans, the Streak,…and the Ultimate Warrior

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HTR_3Hitting the Ropes: Saying Good-bye to WrestleMania, New Orleans, the Streak,…and the Ultimate Warrior

As I was flying home Monday morning from New Orleans, heading to Washington DC, I thought back on a memorable and thrilling WrestleMania weekend.  Most of my friends stayed in town to go to Monday Night Raw at the Smoothie Center.  The Raw after WrestleMania is always a great show; however I chose to skip it this year.  It was time for me to head home.  I’m 40 years old now and being away from my 2 young children is hard on the entire family.   My wife is nice enough to “let” me go to WrestleMania ever year but I need to be respectful and come home the next day.  So my yearly trip is now a few days shorter.  But honestly I’m not sure how much more excitement I could have handled.

New Orleans and WrestleMania XXX were collectively magnificent.

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AS I SEE IT: Thoughts from WrestleMania XXX

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AISIAS I SEE IT: Thoughts from WrestleMania XXX
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
http://pwbts.com

Ever think Brian Danielson would win the WWE World Heavyweight Title…and have it not be the primary subject of discussion from a Wrestlemania 30?

Nope. Not me.
Everyone who writes about wrestling from the mega-sites like the Wrestling Observer and PWinsider.com to the smallest message board figured they’d be writing about Brian Danielson this morning.

ROH Ringside – Issue #18

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ROH RingsideROH Ringside – Issue #18

One of the many things that I was interested in seeing when I first got into Ring of Honor was the debut of Samoa Joe. I had heard and read about his twenty one month Title reign, and how he carried the company on his back during the pedophile scandal (look it up on the Internet, if you want more information on it, because I didn’t really know a lot about it, nor do I really care). Samoa Joe was brought in by Christopher Daniels to fight with Low Ki, in the Low Ki/R.O.H. – Prophecy feud. This brought up Samoa Joe’s first match with Low Ki himself.

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AS I SEE IT: The Events of Wrestlemania 30 Weekend…Indy Style

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AISIAS I SEE IT: The Events of Wrestlemania 30 Weekend…Indy Style
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com

Well, the event schedule for Wrestlemania 30 is going to be a busy one.

I’m not referring to the WWE-sponsored events, which are many; but the events by outside promoters, which (as always) are even more. For those of you reading who want to wrap themselves up of WWE for three days or more in New Orleans, to each their own…enjoy.

But since PWBTS promotes independent wrestling, I’ll share a few with you of the latter in this week’s column. You can also check out updates on all of these events every day on PWBTS.com.

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AS I SEE IT: Thoughts on Daniel Bryan “occupying” RAW

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AISIAS I SEE IT: Thoughts on Daniel Bryan “occupying” RAW
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
http://pwbts.com

From last week’s column:

“Unless tonight brings Hulk Hogan’s announcement (using the rationale that the host of Wrestlemania XX give him the right) that he’s making a match for Mania with HHH vs. Bryan, I don’t know how they avoid turning fans off once and for all.

To me, the only thing that works is Hogan making the HHH vs. Bryan match for Wrestlamania 30; and making it the opening match as a qualifier for Bryan to join Batista vs. Orton in the main event if he wins. But even if we do get HHH vs. Bryan, how do you make fans believe there’s not going to be one more screwjob finish [in that match], with The Shield, Kane, Stephanie McMahon and the 101st Airborne rushing in to interfere?”

Well….it didn’t quite happen THAT way, but the end result wound up the same. I think.

Daniel Bryan has his match with HHH at Wrestlemania 30. Presumably that results in his insertion in the main event.  The way they GOT there was typical WWE, somewhat overthought, with a large helping of that campiness that WWE has been known for over the years.

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Bob’s Random Rumblings: “Yearly Review – 3PW 2002″

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Random RumblingsBob’s Random Rumblings: “Yearly Review – 3PW 2002″

Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling was created by the Blue Meanie and his then girlfriend, porn star Jasmine St. Claire. They ran their first show on February 15th 2002. Every show in 2002 would run at the ECW Arena. Next year there would be an issue regarding the venue, but we’ll get to that when the time comes.

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GUEST COLUMN: “The Top 5 Steel Cage Matches in Professional Wrestling History” by Shawn S. Lealos

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Steel cage 2TNA Lockdown just took place, the one TNA event each year where every match takes place in a steel cage. While the event has a couple of matches that might be amazing, here are five cage matches from the history of the WWE, WCW and NWA that rank as the best of all time.

5. Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko (WWF Showdown at Shea 1980)

This match was the culmination of one of the hottest feuds in all of professional wrestling, as Larry Zbyszko had been billed as Bruno Sammartino’s prize pupil for many years until frustration led him to the point that he laid out Sammartino with a chair. Zbyszko immediately became the biggest heel in the world and that led to this, the biggest cage match of all time at this period in wrestling history.

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AS I SEE IT: Chicago raised hell last week on RAW

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AISIAS I SEE IT: Chicago raised hell last week on RAW
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
http://pwbts.com

Well, RAW was not Punk.  As predicted, the fans of Chicago raised holy hell. All night long.

The week before, fans had set up #hijackRaw on Twitter, designed to encourage fans to raise hell at RAWs. This was set up especially at Chicago last week to tell WWE they want to see CM Punk back, and that they want an end to the Daniel Bryan being the WWE version of South Park’s Kenny, with “The Authority” doing something to “kill” Daniel Bryan each and every week.

Since WWE knew Punk wasn’t going to be there, they did themselves no favors last night by not squashing the rumor. No matter what they tell you, they knew the Punk story was put out there by Meltzer. They ignored it, they fed into it by not debunking it, and had three hours of people chanting for someone who wasn’t there.

Dozens of signs were clearly visible, and the chants started from the moment the 8:45 insert promo for RAW was aired.

Paul Heyman’s killer promo at the beginning of RAW may have helped for a little while, but also came off a bit like mocking Punk and the fans at the same time.

For a lot of the show, fans were either chanting for Punk, or sitting on their hands. Some matches has so little crowd response, you could heard a cricket fart. As one example, I felt bad for Christian and Sheamus. Their match was right match, wrong place, wrong time. The Wyatt-Shield match and the Usos-New Age Outlaws matches were about the only thing that got the crowd into any part of the show not involving Danielson or (potentially) Punk.

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