Best live experiences watching wrestling.

[The Natural]

This topic inspired me by the late, great Dean's Road Reports and my great friend, NikoBaltimore today.

As you know I have Cerebral Palsy which affects everything I do and I get tired four times quicker doing the same thing as someone without. I get stiff quick sitting, standing and travelling so it limits things.

My first live wrestling show was in April 2015. Originally it was a Monday and it wasn't a RAW taping so I thought I'd get a shitty lineup. The card was moved to a rare matinee. I kept checking the names listed and Daniel Bryan was there so I hoped the dreaded card subject to change didn't come into effect. To see the GOAT in Daniel Bryan at my first ever live wrestling show meant the world with how much I love him, two days later he was pulled off the tour. The roster then had to go to another show which John Cena and Rusev was on. Shame both weren't there.

Bray Wyatt's entrance were an experience as head of the Wyatt Family in April 2015 and as The Fiend in November 2019. Seth Rollins the WWE World Heavyweight Champion was booked for November 2015 but badly did his knee in a few dates before required surgery vacating the belt so we got Ric Flair and Kevin Owens. Cool getting one of the GOATs in Ric Flair. I kept wanting to see Luke Harper but he also injured his knee before the April 2016 house show I went to. Never did regrettably. I got to see Chris Jericho's last UK match in November 2016 for seven years till AEW All In 2023. At the fourth time of asking I finally got to see my favourite women's wrestler ever Sasha Banks in November 2016. At the same show I completed my NXT Four Horsewomen bingo card with Becky Lynch. Missed out on seeing Daniel Bryan in November 2019 as it was the RAW roster and not Smackdown.

The last house show I attended was November 2021 was awesome, Smackdown and we had a dream match in WALTER vs. Cesaro. Totally delivered. Other shows were supposed to but it was turned into tag matches involving Sheamus, Finn Balor and Drew McIntyre. WALTER rarely did house shows then, ditto Bron Breakker and Tommaso Ciampa. People who had RAW tickets were rightly pissed.

Thanks for reading xxx.

Edited October 26, 2023 by The Natural

[Teflon Turtle]

I like this topic. I have two stories to share. One is not necessarily "best," but it is memorable and I find it funny.

"Best" would probably be the first WWF show I ever attended, around age 4 or 5. I've been a lifelong wrestling fan, and my dad took me to most of the WWF shows that came to our area from the time I started watching wrestling up until I turned 14 or 15. My dad went out of his way to make that first show special, so the older I get the more I appreciate it. It was just a house show, but we got second row seats. Given the time period, it would've been near the start of the Undertaker gimmick...seeing him come out live as a young kid was terrifying, especially being so close to the entranceway. My dad also took a bunch of photos at the show, as best he could. To this day I still have photos of Randy Savage running around ringside (he was chasing off Jake Roberts), and a cool one of his hat lying in the middle of the ring. 

On to "memorable," without further ado:

How Teflon Turtle Got Busted Open Hardway at Over the Edge '98

Honestly, I don't remember much of anything about this event itself other than I was very excited to get tickets to a PPV for my birthday. My dad again. Of course the main event was great, rest of the card forgettable in retrospect.

The real fun happened as the show ended. As people stood up and were filing out of their seats in our row, a couple of older women badgered past my gangly-preteen self and put a shoulder in to me to get out of there first. One of them hit me hard enough to knock me backwards - my seat, already raised, caught me from falling over entirely. But: it turned out that there was a jagged metal piece on the underside of my seat's hardware, which unbeknownst to me at the time had pierced one of my calves as I lost my balance. I didn't notice it at first due to the impact of being knocked backwards registering more. But, as my dad and I were leaving the arena, I started wondering why my calf felt wet. I looked down and sure enough, my calf was dripping blood and it was flowing down on to my sock. We wound up grabbing a bunch of napkins from a concession stand to soak some of it up/so I could keep pressure on it while we drove the couple of hours home.

I wound up not needing stitches, but had nice little scar from it for quite a few years.

(He's hardcore! He's hardcore! )

[caley]

A late Vince Russo-era WCW Nitro live from my hometown seemed an impossibility, but here it was. My friend's dad had box seats to the arena, so he assured me early on that we had seats. The day of the show, my brother and my cousin and I were shopping around downtown, we swung by the arena to see the big WCW trucks unloading equipment and the like, and while we were standing there, a number of wrestlers showed up and were walking across the parking lot, behind metal fencing: Rick Steiner, Kevin Nash and everybody cheered and yelled at them, in order for them to turn around, wave, nod etc. Tank Abbott showed up and everyone went silent, one kid was like "Shhh, he's dangerous" which I thought was quite funny, my brother looked around like 'I'm not scared' and yelled "Tank Abbott!" Tank turns around, glares, stalks over a few feet then yells "Did you all come here to see Three Count dance?!" to massive cheers before going in. My cousin, after this bit decides there's no way he's missing out on this (Because it wasn't my sky box, I didn't feel like I could invite him and my brother) and buys two tickets for them, basically last row, back of the arena seats. So we hung around near the arena, followed Jeff Jarrett around for a bit until the hotel security guards shooed us away, got lied to by Dave Penzer ("Is Bret Hart gonna be here?" "Oh yeah, everyone is here!") and just about half an hour before the show a big guy in a suit came up to us and asked if we had tickets and were sitting together, and I was like "I'm in a box, but they're sitting together" and he hands my brother and cousin a pair of tickets "Compliments of Mr. Goldberg". So my friend shows up and I'm up in the skybox with him (TERRIBLE seats that are adjacent to the entrance so you can't see the screen which is an absolute necessity at a Russo-booked show...the main event was Goldberg putting Midajah through a table backstage shown on said screen) and I scan the crowd for my brother and cousin and they are DIRECTLY behind the announcers desk for the show.  All night long they are on camera (If you watch that show...and I don't know why you would, for a show with Sting, Rey Mysterio, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, PCO, The Great Muta etc. etc. it is a TERRIBLE show...there's a kid directly behind the announcers who does the RVD pose for the cameras, that's my cousin!), they almost got run over by the Harris brothers doing a run-in, a chunk of table almost hit my brother (Though for him, the most memorable part of the night was when the one kid came up to them and told them that ICP was going to be there and if you chanted ICP's name all night they would come out and bring you candy like some demented Juggalo Santa Claus, I guess, and the kid kept chating ICP all night even though they were not there). My mom remembers later that night, checking on my cousin who was wide-awake and staring at the ceiling and he said "Best night of my life Auntie Liz!" I saw said cousin this past summer, he's married with children now, and 23 years later, he stil brought up that night and how he was telling his daughters about it.

 

[twiztor]

hoo boy. in chronological order. Been to a few more events than this, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

6/15/97. WCW Great American Bash. i didn't go to this event. but my friend had convinced me that his dad was going (it was plausible, as said dad had gone to nWo Souled Out in January) and that we could go with him. so i wore my homemade Macho Man shirt and hung out at/around their house all day. well, by the time 6pm rolled around, i knew we weren't going and i was crushed. i shouldn't have been- this friend is a habitual liar, so it should have been a lesson for me. Instead, he's still one of my best mates, and every event below (save the last two) he was present for. Plus, it was still a good day.

5/25/99. WWF Raw. my first live event, i was 15. took place 2 days after Owen Hart died, but aired on tape delay a week later. the Acolytes won the tag team titles. i believe this was the first appearance of the "Higher Power" in person. of course, he remained hooded, so we didn't know that it was Vince McMahon at the time.

10/19/04. WWF Taboo Tuesday. went with 3 friends. my friends are loud, but i tend to be less so. i remember there was a family behind us where the mom asked me slightly before the show was starting if we were going to be loud and distracting. i remember answering that maybe my friends would, but we wouldn't be rowdy and that i'd be mostly quiet. i should mention that i (and my friends) was a Snitsky defender, so i was possibly a bit animated in my vocalization of his persecution. the mom called me out on it, but it was all in fun.

4/11/05. WWE Raw. i don't remember much about this, except that the marquee outside advertised "Randy Ortoz". i still refer to him as such on occasion. i remember using a camcorder to make a record of this. i wonder if someone still has it?

4/2/06. WrestleMania 22. the most memorable part of this weekend was going to a strip club the night before called "Heavenly Bodies". turns out, it was a bikini bar, so the ladies can only strip down to their bikinis. We were disappointed and ready to leave until we found out that it was "50¢ You Call It" night, so all drinks only cost a half dollar. WELL, let me tell you that we all drank a LOT of alcohol that night. one of my friends BARELY got out of bed the next afternoon/evening to make it to 'Mania. for real, all of us (including him!) thought he would still be too sick, but he made the trip. Also, i remember enjoying the Trish/Mickie James and HHH/Cena matches, the latter of which is noteworthy since i had historically given Cena zero credit.

4/1/07. WrestleMania 23. just one friend with me this time, as it was a longer trek. pretty uneventful, but i remember it for cruising 7- and 8-Mile in Detroit. I made it a point to seek out a White Castle, since i had never been to one. the hotel clerk gave us simple directions, and it went something like this:
clerk: so you go down this road, take a right at <whatever> street. you know what a 'Michigan U' is?
me: yeah, of course. right at <whatever>. what's next?
clerk: <gives the rest of the directions>
me: (5 minutes later, in the car with my buddy): what the hell is a 'Michigan U'?
i legitimately have no memory of the actual in-ring product whatsoever

9/1/18. All In. 
front row of the upper deck. this is the event that reinvested me into current wrestling. 4 months before this, i had zero idea who most of these people were, except for what i would glean. mainly from this board. but i started watching BTE. started scouring YouTube for whatever i could see of Kenny Omega and Okada from NJPW. went on a Pentagon Jr. deep dive. I literally can't give this event enough credit for jumpstarting my love. Could not ask for a better crash course.

8/26-27/23. NWA 75.
look, i typed out a whole Road Report in the NWA thread, so you'll have to read that yourself. 

[Gorman]

Not counting attending my first show and a bunch of pay-per-views, I think the coolest things I've seen as a fan were when the World title changed hands. I've witnessed four of them:

• Steamboat beats Flair at Chi-Town Rumble
• Yokozuna squishes Hogan at King of the Ring 93
• Kane beats Austin at King of the Ring 98
• Moxley destroys Punk at Cleveland Dynamite (August 22)

I also have to mention the Undertaker-Mankind match at SummerSlam 96. Not only did it result in my dad's outrage against Paul Bearer (Dad wasn't a big fan, but that got him), but two of my friends, "Handsome" Frank Stalletto and "Beef Stew" Lou Marconi, served as Undertaker's druids.

Edited October 27, 2023 by Gorman

[Zakk_Sabbath]

My old man taking me to my first WWF show in 2001 is one of my fondest memories in life, hands down, and my first ROH show in 2003 probably has a lot of historical value in retrospect (I was there for Steve Corino, but jeez that Samoa Joe kid really impressed me!) but in terms of the actual show, it's going to be really difficult for anything to top Grand Slam I for me. WCW only ever came here once (and I got the 'Eh, on a Monday?') so getting to see Sting... I touched on it a little in last week's AEW TV thread with his retirement now looming, but boy, what a special moment (on top of Omega/Danielson which is I think probably the best match I've ever seen live).

Edited October 27, 2023 by Zakk_Sabbath

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

2 hours ago, Gorman said:

"Beef Stew" Lou Marconi

That guy's always had heat with me because my dyslexic brain first processed his name as "Beef Stew" Lou Macaroni, and I thought "that's great, go for the double food pun", then I realized it was "Marconi", not "Macaroni", and I've held a seething grudge for like 28 years. Damn you, "Beef Stew".

[Dolfan in NYC]

Spoiled by living in WWE's home market, but:

- Austin-Bret, Survivor Series 96  (Honorable Mention HBK-Sid on the same card)

- HHH-HBK-[Name Redacted] at Mania XX.

- Bayley-Sasha at Takeover Brooklyn

- Cactus-HHH at Rumble 2000

Those are the best matches.  

The best live experience was the story I've told a few times here.  Summer 1993, I got to see WWF live at the James L. Knight Center. Had decent seats as there couldn't have been more than a thousand people there.  It was  headlined by Yokozuna vs. Crush for the WWF Title. Quick Googling said they were running this to build up Yoko(!) to face off against Luger at SummerSlam, where Lex was the heavy favorite (lol).  

Anyway, the match ends as it normally did.  Crush getting beat after a Banzai Drop.  But the crowd had been restless throughout a pretty lackluster show, and essentially turning on the whole face/heel dynamic.  This was one of the first times, I'd head a crowd vocally cheering for the heel. 

Yoko did his post match victory gimmick where he hit the Drop again on the face to make him seem more scary.  So he did and I guess he was bored too because the crowd face popped BIG for the second drop.  And he started actually talking back, breaking character because Yoko did not speak a word back then.  The crowd was cheering "ONE MORE TIME... ONE MORE TIME..."  

Yoko:  "Yeah??  You motherfuckers want one more???"

Us: "YEAH!!! ONE MORE TIME!" 

Yoko:  "Fuck yeah.  Let's do it." 

Crush (who'd been selling) sees Yoko going up and says "Rod, what are you doing?"

Yoko:  "These fuckers want one more, so we're doing one more!"  

Crush: "ugh...fine."

BANZAI!!!!

I'd been a fan for years long before (see my Mania thread for the "Slick looks like a cricket!" moment to see when I became a fan for life).  But this was the first moment I ever got to see behind the curtain and see the characters become the performers. 

Brian rolled out of the ring and got out of dodge quickly after that third drop.  Rod stayed around and shot the shit for a couple of minutes with us.  That was the best moment I've ever had as a fan. 

[zendragon]

I saw HHH v Austin at a house show in 98 that I've heard both men talk about being so loud they could barely hear each other in the ring. I don't think Austin took a single bump and HHH ate seemingly endless clotheslines. Its a good example of not needing to so to much if you know what your doing. Some fans in the upper deck brought a bed sheet sign that read "graduates of Stone Cold U) 

[Just Dave]

I can tell you what it wasn't; Wrestlemania 27. 

The first AEW Dynamite in Atlanta was pretty dope. The energy felt more like a rock concert than a wrestling show. AEW was new enough that everything they did still had that counter culture energy. I am, at heart ,a contrarian, so I loved being amongst my people. The fact that it was an absolute banger of a card also helped. Tag Team battle royal (even though it was won by the Jacksons), Omega/Hangman vs. the Lucha Bros, Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb, and Cody moonsaulting Wardlow off of the steel cage... all dope. Mox came right by our section on his entrance. Everything about that show ruled. The return trip to Atlanta (Gwinnett, but close enough) sucked ass. I shouldn't say that. I got a Punk match and a Danielson match. But Cody was fully on his bullshit by that point and he insisted upon going over Andrade in a street fight. Just nowhere near as fun. I did get to boo Adam Cole, which was great. There was a handful of guys in the next section over who looked like they were gonna post very angrily online when they got home because some guy called Adam Cole "black and gold bitch" in front of them. I won't venture an actual guess as to who on this board I think that was, but we all know I'm thinking it. I'm looking forward to AEW's next trip through here. 

Honorable mention; Indy Megashow "Come Hell or High Water" here in Atlanta. First time I saw "Stroke Daddy" Starks. I got to see Mil Muertes live, who is a favorite. Met Tony Schiavone. Saw Matt Cross. Thunder Rosa. Hangman Page. Was a good time. 

[Log]

Top experiences for me have definitely been taking my kids to shows. Seeing them get so into it was such a special experience.

But personally, for great wrestling, two shows stick out. One was Badd Blood, the first Hell in a Cell. We had sixth-row seats right behind the announce table. So, when Michaels had his fall, we had a great view. The other show, I was running camera for. It was the Impact with the Josh Alexander/Mike Bailey epic. It was so cool being on a hard cam for that. Literally had one of the best seats in the house for it.

For pure fun, I'd go with Survivor Series 98. Yeah, not a great show, but me and some friends got mighty tanked for it and had a blast. We still talk about that trip.

I got to see Hogan at the height of Hulkamania for my first show. I got to see Andre live. I saw Liger at Starcade 96. I saw The Shield debut. I met Flair after an NWA house show. I've been lucky to see some cool stuff.

[AxB]

In 1994 or 95 I think, I went to an All-Star show. The main event was an eight man tag (all of the guys in the match had had singles matches earlier in the show, obviously). Robbie Brookside, Doc Dean and two other guys vs four other guys, one of whom was called Japan's Mean Machine. Threw a very hard Lariat, liked to yell Ask Him when he put holds on. He disappeared off UK shows shortly thereafter. Never thought much more of it for a little while, until I started buying Puro tapes, and there he was in New Japan. He wasn't called Mean Machine any more, he was called Satoshi Kojima now.

There was a tiny indie show I went to a year and a half ago, where they'd booked WARHORSE to do the talent seminar/ work the show double shot that the big indie names do. It was in a primary school, drew well under a hundred people. One of whom, randomly, was actual WoS legend Kendo Nagasaki (without his mask). I recognised him, nobody else seemed to. I approached him during intermission, quietly told him I was a big fan, loved his matches and had read his book. He shook my hand. I didn't squeeze at all. Neither did he.

Fit Finlay, he has a soft handshake too. But his hands are fucking huge. When he makes a fist, it's like the size of a housebrick.

[The Natural]

Cool reading your experiences watching wrestling live. Thanks for sharing everybody.

[StuntmanCrowley]

Ive been to so many wrestling shows, i definitely need to revisit this thread when i have more time, but the one moment that sticks out to me above all is seeing Akiyama v Kingston at Full Gear 2022 Zero Hour.

I'm a massive Eddie Kingston fan, in and out of the ring and just to be present when seeing a personal favorite achieve something he wanted his whole career, was just, amazing in so many ways.  The match itself was amazing and one of my favorite from the night, but the reaction of fulfillment, exhaustion and elation in Kingston's face after it was over was ust incredible.  Seeing someone who you respect conquer a milestone like that is something else.  Definitely one of, if not my favorite live wrestling memory.

[jm29195]

I've always considered myself extremely blessed to have seen so much quality wrestling from all over the world, despite living in the UK.

The first show I went to see was WWE, May 2004, at the Birmingham NEC. First match I saw was Edge vs Batista, but the card also had HBK vs Flair on it, which totally stole the show, and the main event was HHH vs Benoit.

Later that year, I got to see the first Raw and Smackdown tapings in the UK, which had an amazing crowd for the Regal/Eugene Dusty Finish title switch, and the next night a hardcore match with Hardcore Holly walloping JBL with a cricket bat.

Then in 2005, I got to see The Wrestling Channel International Showdown at Coventry, including Misawa wrestling, Joe vs Punk, and Styles vs Daniels in the main event.

 

The sequel to this, Universal Uproar, also at Coventry was in November, and included Cabana vs McGuiness, a rare Foley match as part of an 8 man tag, Low ki vs Homicide, and the main event was Doug Williams and Jun Akiyama vs Go Shiozaki and Kenta Kobashi!

In 2006 I saw a couple of the early 1PW shows at Doncaster, No Turning Back, which had Sabu, Abyss, Jeff Jarrett and Masato Tanaka amongst many others on there

Also ROH's debut tour of the UK in 2006, the second night, which had Roderick Strong vs Bryan Danielson and an absolute sprint of a match with Sydal and Richards vs the Briscoes, and Danielson wrestled again against SUWA!

And in October 2006, an IPW show at Broxbourne with Pac vs El Generico.

Then in 2008, we got to see the NOAH UK debut, with Zack Sabre Junior in the dark match, a brilliant
KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards and main event of Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji vs Go Shiozaki & Kenta Kobashi.

From 2009-11 I managed to get to several of the Dragon Gate UK shows at Broxbourne, which were all immense!

Also managed to see El Generico again at a random indy show in 2011 in Wales, and Ultimo Dragon of all people, at a show in Penzance in 2016!

When NXT and NXT started touring, it was brilliant to see at the Plymouth Pavilions,  The Revival against American Alpha, Asuka vs Nia Jax, and main event was Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura vs Austin Aries and Samoa Joe. In 2019 at the same venue,  got to see Kasius Ohno vs Ilia Dragunov which was just epic.

And then finally this year, we got to see Shingo vs Will Ospreay and the Jericho run in at Rev Pro at the Copper Box, and All In at Wembley Stadium the next day. Enough said!

Looking back at it all, I'm so lucky to have had so many awesome memories and experiences, particularly experiencing them with my Dad when I was younger and now my own boys these days. Couldn't ask for a better selection, although I'd certainly be up for going to see Wrestlemania if they ever bring that over here!  

Thanks everyone for posting your own memories, it's been good to see them all and spark my own!

 

 

 

[Octopus]

Quake by the Lake was probably the best show I’ve been to. It was a crazy stacked show. The very long Walls of Jericho on Mox was a pretty big moment that slowly you felt the entire building getting more and more excited as it continued. Rush & Andrade vs the Lucha Bros was maybe my favorite match seeing live.

The F1rst Wrestling (local company) shows are fun. Early on they were smaller but I got to see Quackenbush vs Claudio when I really loved Quackenbush. I was very much looking forward to this match. 

Before that in one of the very early shows there was an entire event hyping Sandman. The show was even called Enter Sandman. Greatest entrance ever. Everyone was singing and he was smashing beer cans in his head. Then the match started and Sandman was so clearly drunk and already blown up. Horace the Psychopath had to basically Regal his Goldberg. A nerdy ref came out to try and enforce rules and the cooler ref through him out of the ring to yell, “no, this is ECW style!” Everyone was sad. Same show we got to see Jerry Lynn vs Arik Canon which was sweet.

Now the F1rst shows are like parties, especially the Wrestlepalooza events. They have a band or mc and also burlesque dancers. I saw Komander doing his rope running before he showed up on Dynamite and a very good Joey Janela vs Brian Kieth match.

One of the Wrestlepalooza shows had The Great Sasuke vs Shane Strickland. Sasuke couldn’t really do anything but neat mystical type force pushes that made Strickland sell gut pain. Sadly most people didn’t know what was going on but it was cool seeing a legend. Same show had Colt Cabana vs Kikutaro and Proud and Powerful vs The Rascalz.

RoH came to St Paul and I got to see Morishima vs Austin Aries. The 2.9 kick out when Aries did the same combination he put Samoa Joe down with was absolutely wild. Roderick Strong & Christopher Daniels had a great match.

I saw WWE Judgement Day that had Cena vs JBL, a house show where Ric Flair had a long promo about hating the Minnesota Vikings, and a different (or maybe the same?) house show or probably Smackdown (?) where after the show a bunch of people were leaving and Rey Mysterio’s music hit and we ran down the rail side and Rey gave someone (I don’t remember) a 619 and everyone was high-fiving. That 619 was maybe my fav moment. I don’t remember it fully and have no pictures, but it was amazing.

[Curt McGirt]

So you're telling us the Great Sasuke is finally broken? I never thought I'd hear it, and he'd still be doing tope con hilos inside barrels until his body literally exploded. 

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

I think it's the evolution of being able to see wrestling where I lived when it was such a scarce commodity forever.

Going to my first local show at the Essendon Ukranian Club in 1999 to interview one of the headliners for a wrestling newz website, who told me and my friend flat out that he'd never go to the Big 3 because he saw it as selling out. He later ended up wrestling on a WWA PPV and feeling lied to but also not convinced he ever got paid. Anyway, it was a terrible show from top to bottom.

Then we got an overseas show at Rod Laver Arena. The original Superstars of Wrestling PPV (Rodman/Hennig) and it was probably better than it had any right to be. 

Then we got WCW Thunder - again, a really good show that had no right to be that good, even if the main event is just a tribute act to the 94 Rumble. Fun times.

Then WWE finally toured in 2002. I remember covering the press conference to announce the show - Vince, Mark Henry and Stacy Keibler were there. I opened a door for Vince and got a "thanks, pal" and I've never forgot it. The night before the show I did a 10 hour shift packing gift bags to get a free ticket to the VIP function before the show. I gave it to my uncle as a birthday present, which he then used the opportunity to pick a fight with Rikishi for a wet fish handshake and get asked to leave after making inappropriate comments to Torrie Wilson. Good choice by me. Show was....so/so. Had a good opener (Rey/Kidman vs WGTT) and Edge/Jericho was fun. The main event was something to see. 

Then getting to go to the US in 2017 for Wrestlemania weekend. Still remember the thousands of people meeting in downtown Orlando, and walking to the stadium in the stinking hot weather. I remember the 20 odd beers completely being sweat out in the two mile walk. I remember going to Hogan's Beach House for karaoke, getting drunk, and deciding I was going to slam his 900 pound sign on the side of the freeway, not being able to dislodge it from the concrete and tearing every muscle in my back, before the sign died a few days later. I remember Swerve Strickland before he was Swerve at a CZW show. I remember having a conversation with two old guys in the lobby at intermission.....and not even realising it was the remains of Kevin Sullivan and Shane Douglas. I remember Brandi Rhodes having a death match with....I think Ryback and it was really good? I remember Zack Sabre Jr and Quackenbush having an absolute epic match unannounced at Chikara and it being the best match I've ever seen live.

 

[NikoBaltimore]

I've been fortunate to go to so many shows in my life from WWF/WWE to ROH to local indies to AEW.  Trying to pinpoint the best times is hard because fun was had for many different reasons.  But I'll try to narrow it down.

-First show I went to was in '94 for a house WWF show which was really fun.  Then the next year my dad took me to Superbrawl V which might have been not much of a show but cool to check out.  Both of those stand out because it was a time period for Baltimore and the arena that I still think super fondly of.  Whether it was wrestling, Orioles games or even the one CFL Stallions game there was something about it as a kid that I just loved.

-No Mercy '03 was the first one I went to with my then girlfriend/now wife which she loved.  A sign we made got on TV and I still remember how split Baltimore was for Cena/Angle.  It was deafening and made me think it gave the company the idea that he could work as a face if they wanted to.  Not sure what happened to that Cena fella though.

-ROH TV tapings when they were at Du Burns Arena was fun.  Best one was when some friends joined for the first and only time.  They loved the Briscoes and at the after show party we hung out with them for a while.  I told the story a few times but you just can't beat doing shots with them and Mark acting incredulous I would dare drive a Honda and not a Dodge.

-AEW's first Dynamite show was something else.  Walking into the Capitol One Arena and seeing the setup I immediately got emotional thinking about how all that's happened with ROH and indy wrestling led to them being on TV.  It's a feeling I'll never forget and we were treated to some cool-ass moments.  From seeing Jay and Silent Bob in the crowd to Mox driving Kenny through a glass table to Nyla possibly winning in her hometown.  It really set the tone for what AEW TV is about and I loved every bit of it.  I do wish I paid attention to the fact that Kevin Smith was actually there for the whole show while Mews ducked out after their part of the show.  Had I known I could have headed down and gotten a selfie with him as he was leaving.  I mean he was happy doing that with others so why the hell not?

-Then there's the first Grand Slam. I went into detail recapping the whole thing before but it's super rare for me to have a true sense of mindfulness where everything just magically worked all at once.  That's exactly what happened during Danielson/Omega.  It made me really glad I went by myself as having the time to process everything just felt so, so right.  If I wanted to I could have left and felt completely satisfied with what I experienced.  But I stayed throughout and got the lovely bonus of seeing Suzuki live so yay me.

Edited November 1, 2023 by NikoBaltimore

[Zakk_Sabbath]

1 hour ago, NikoBaltimore said:

Then there's the first Grand Slam. I went into detail recapping the whole thing before but it's super rare for me to have a true sense of mindfulness where everything just magically worked all at once.  That's exactly what happened during Danielson/Omega.  It made me really glad I went by myself as having the time to process everything just felt so, so right.  If I wanted to I could have left and felt completely satisfied with what I experienced.  But I stayed throughout and got the lovely bonus of seeing Suzuki live so yay me.

I'm so glad to see Grand Slam I make someone else's list. I think my post here the next morning may have been the longest I've ever made.  @Just Davemade a great point above about AEW still being new enough to feel like counterculture at the ATL Dynamite he went to, and in a way, I think Grand Slam I may have been kind of the culmination of that; I imagined it was like what ECW fans must have felt like at Barely Legal, and thought about Paul Heyman's speech in Beyond The Mat about making it to 'the dance.' It's interesting to read you talk about taking in the show with a sense of mindfulness, because I was (coincidentally) the polar opposite, and felt pretty ungrounded in an 'Am I dreaming?' way - I know that sounds hyperbolic, but I really think 20 or 30 years from now when we're talking about this show on the DVDVRMB microchip implant, I'm going to look back on it as every bit as important to my fandom as some of the stuff from when I was a kid.

[Zimbra]

The 2nd or 3rd live show I went to was a WWF house show when I was 10 or so and my dad got us front row tickets.  So I got my head licked by a Bushwhacker and got to see my favorite wrestler, Big Boss Man, wrestle in the big blue cage.  Against, Nailz, but still.

Also there was a Skinner/Dragon match that wasn't too great shakes, but they did a spot where Skinner gets hit and swallows his chaw that my dad thought was about the funniest thing he'd ever seen.  Every time I mention wrestling to him he brings it up.

I also had front row seats to an ECW house show and got to touch Tajiri, so that was neat.

[zendragon]

Kinda in reverse but its been cool to see people from my local indies end up on TV

[BrianS81177]

I *almost* saw Undertaker break character at a house show. It was him and Austin vs Owen and Bulldog in the main event. Austin and Owen are in the ring, Owen does something and then does his "woo" thing where he would raise both his arms in triumph. As soon as he does a very full, very large cup of soda hits him flush in the face. Austin immediately starts belly laughing, Taker puts his head down so his hair is hiding his face but you could see his shoulders moving a little and he was gripping the top rope very tightly obviously trying not to break. Owen, to his credit, milked it for all it was worth.

[southofheavy]

Every show that Ring of Honor ran at the Joe Dumars Fieldhouse in Detroit from 2005-2009. 

I could've walked to every single one of those shows. Dragon Kid's Dragonrana is a whole other thing when you see it live. So's Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer falling off the top of a cage. 

[JohnnyJ]

Back in 07 I happened to be living in NYC while ROH was putting on great shows. I had the seats I liked at the Manhattan Center and ROH would always make sure I got those seats like I was Vladimir. Great Friday/Saturday night wrestling a walk from my apartment is just about as good as it would ever get.