Post by rnrk supports BLM on Apr 6, 2018 14:22:29 GMT -5
Didn't sit in the crowd, I was watching from this sorta elevated platform space accessible by ladder, lying on my chest. You could also see backstage from here, with crew scrambling to get things in place for special entrances and the like. I wasn't hidden or anything, plenty of other folks walked by and acknowledged me. That said, I also didn't get this plum spot through any special arrangement, I just wandered over and decided to watch from here and everybody was cool with it.
Anyway, there was rampant speculation beforehand from the crowd around me about whether Cena vs Taker would actually happen, since Cena was added at the last minute to the World Title Elimination Chamber match(?!). Shawn Michaels was also in it, coming out of retirement with the stip that it'd be his last match for real if he didn't win, though this was known beforehand. He still had long hair, which I took to mean this was somehow taped before he got his haircut, even though I was watching live in person. Bret Hart was special guest announcer for this match, and started out giving a speech about himself, HBK, and Undertaker, and everything their generation achieved, only it was long and rambling and drifted off away from the other guys into being purely indulgent self-aggrandizing blather from Bret about how great he is, and guys were making their entrances all this time and eventually just decided to politely ignore him, and the cage went down and the match started while he was still talking. I don't remember if Bret ever actually shut up, but he stopped being audible at some point. Michaels was the last guy eliminated (not by Cena, he was in and out of the match pretty fast which furthered speculation he'd still be wrestling Undertaker later in the night), and Bret came in the ring and it was obvious the intention was for Bret to raise Shawn's hand and congratulate him on his career before the two headed off into the sunset, only Bret still had his mic and wouldn't shut up with his ramble about his career, and all the while HBK is sitting there trying to sell that he's devastated he lost but reconciling himself to the idea that his career is over, only even he can't help do a "Jesus, this guy is full of himself" eyeroll at Bret as things roll on.
Some other matches happen, but they're not important, and then everything's done except Cena/Undertaker. And there's clearly disarray backstage with even the people working there not sure if Undertaker's actually showing up, and they're airing random Undertaker/Cena hype video packages to try to keep the crowd pumped up, one after another, and at first they're into it but then you can see people starting to get antsy that it's all videos and no one's actually making their entrances yet. Then apparently someone backstage gets the bright idea to send out strippers to dance on the entrance platform to keep the crowd happy, which gets a momentary pop before the entire stadium descends into stunned silence as they realize how inappropriate this is for a PG product. Stephanie McMahon comes out and has the confused strippers hustled backstage and explains to the crew through gritted teeth that they're a family product and this is unacceptable, looking like she's doing her best to stay calm when she's clearly f***ing enraged by the whole mess.
Finally, Undertaker's entrance starts, and there's a huge pop as everyone waits for him to come out. I hear this very meek, polite, Texan-accented "Excuse me, sir." from my left, and I turn and I see Undertaker in full regalia (he looks like his modern decrepit self, but he's wearing his '90s purple gloves and wide-brimmed hat) climbing up the ladder to my platform, and I scoot out of the way so he can walk past me. And I marvel for a moment that such a big star is still so humble, and then I realized; as he approached, Undertaker saw me and other grown adults marking out like kids for his entrance theme, and his humility was him realizing how old and tired he is, and how incapable he'll be of living up to memories of his prime. And as I thought this, I saw Undertaker making his way towards the stage to make his entrance, which from some reason required him to climb two more ladders, and he was steadily limping and hobbling more and more the closer he got, until he could barely walk by the point where he was on the actual ramp.
And I thought to myself, "This is going to be a complete train wreck."
Then I woke up.
---
On the bright side, there was no sign of Michael Cole anywhere, so this was probably still a better show than the real one will be on Sunday.
Anyway, there was rampant speculation beforehand from the crowd around me about whether Cena vs Taker would actually happen, since Cena was added at the last minute to the World Title Elimination Chamber match(?!). Shawn Michaels was also in it, coming out of retirement with the stip that it'd be his last match for real if he didn't win, though this was known beforehand. He still had long hair, which I took to mean this was somehow taped before he got his haircut, even though I was watching live in person. Bret Hart was special guest announcer for this match, and started out giving a speech about himself, HBK, and Undertaker, and everything their generation achieved, only it was long and rambling and drifted off away from the other guys into being purely indulgent self-aggrandizing blather from Bret about how great he is, and guys were making their entrances all this time and eventually just decided to politely ignore him, and the cage went down and the match started while he was still talking. I don't remember if Bret ever actually shut up, but he stopped being audible at some point. Michaels was the last guy eliminated (not by Cena, he was in and out of the match pretty fast which furthered speculation he'd still be wrestling Undertaker later in the night), and Bret came in the ring and it was obvious the intention was for Bret to raise Shawn's hand and congratulate him on his career before the two headed off into the sunset, only Bret still had his mic and wouldn't shut up with his ramble about his career, and all the while HBK is sitting there trying to sell that he's devastated he lost but reconciling himself to the idea that his career is over, only even he can't help do a "Jesus, this guy is full of himself" eyeroll at Bret as things roll on.
Some other matches happen, but they're not important, and then everything's done except Cena/Undertaker. And there's clearly disarray backstage with even the people working there not sure if Undertaker's actually showing up, and they're airing random Undertaker/Cena hype video packages to try to keep the crowd pumped up, one after another, and at first they're into it but then you can see people starting to get antsy that it's all videos and no one's actually making their entrances yet. Then apparently someone backstage gets the bright idea to send out strippers to dance on the entrance platform to keep the crowd happy, which gets a momentary pop before the entire stadium descends into stunned silence as they realize how inappropriate this is for a PG product. Stephanie McMahon comes out and has the confused strippers hustled backstage and explains to the crew through gritted teeth that they're a family product and this is unacceptable, looking like she's doing her best to stay calm when she's clearly f***ing enraged by the whole mess.
Finally, Undertaker's entrance starts, and there's a huge pop as everyone waits for him to come out. I hear this very meek, polite, Texan-accented "Excuse me, sir." from my left, and I turn and I see Undertaker in full regalia (he looks like his modern decrepit self, but he's wearing his '90s purple gloves and wide-brimmed hat) climbing up the ladder to my platform, and I scoot out of the way so he can walk past me. And I marvel for a moment that such a big star is still so humble, and then I realized; as he approached, Undertaker saw me and other grown adults marking out like kids for his entrance theme, and his humility was him realizing how old and tired he is, and how incapable he'll be of living up to memories of his prime. And as I thought this, I saw Undertaker making his way towards the stage to make his entrance, which from some reason required him to climb two more ladders, and he was steadily limping and hobbling more and more the closer he got, until he could barely walk by the point where he was on the actual ramp.
And I thought to myself, "This is going to be a complete train wreck."
Then I woke up.
---
On the bright side, there was no sign of Michael Cole anywhere, so this was probably still a better show than the real one will be on Sunday.
