WrestleFanFest: Backstage News (Part 1)

Tons of Backstage News From The Huge WrestleFanFest

Nick Dylan sent this report: Hi-I live in SF and just came back from this 'event' and one word can sum it up; Disappointment.

Out of the card that was posted as of 1pm today, only 2 of the matches actually took place, with the rest being somehow rearranged or just not happening at all. The main event ended up being Steve Corino vs The Sandman. The only advertised matches that took place were Team 3-D vs the Steiners and Gail Kim (with TNA belt in tow) vs Tracy Brooks vs Unknown local women's wrestler.

The sound was horrible, with pretty much everyone's entrance music sounding the same and garbled. I arrived at 4pm and everyone was talking about how Hall, Nash and Angle all cancelled, then the next rumor (which turned out to be true) was that Sid pulled out. Angle wasn't scheduled to wrestle, but Sid, Hall and Nash were the main event, so people sounded disappointed before the show ever started.

The promoters did not announce that certain people were not going to be there, and I guess they hoped that people wouldn't notice, but we surely did. When they announced the main event, a collective groan, along with a trail of people making their way to their cars ensued. Oddly enough, the National Anthem was not played, which is a first for wrestling matches at least in the past 20 years that I have been going to shows at the Cow Palace. There were maybe 300-350 people who stayed for the wrestling matches, with 75% of them being the VIP ticket holders who get seats in the first 4 rows. Although, I paid general admission, and I was in row 7, and it was much easier to see. Security was even asking people to move up closer since our side was in the camera shot. The ring bell was some guy behind the curtain, banging two pipes together, no joke!

With the card in complete disarray, the promoters needed to get creative in a hurry, but seemingly did not. The hardcore rules match didn't get in the least bit violent, with the closest thing to hardcore was the top turnbuckle being taken off and a guy being whipped onto it. Sometime around 9:15pm there was a 32 man battle royal that was added with guys that came from the local indy fed's like All Pro Wrestling and Big Time Wrestling. There was so much weight in the ring that it looked like it was going to break at any moment, with the center being about 8-12 inches below the border of the ring. The biggest pop of the night came from this match directed toward a rail-skinny asian guy with a afro. This guy was being tossed all over the ring, showing little or no offense, but kept on going and never giving up. After about 10 minutes, the crowd was going nuts for the guy with chants of, "Asian guy! Asian guy! Asian guy!" and "Screech! Screech! Screech!" (The Saved by the Bell character), and everytime anyone hit him or did anything to him, whomever hit him was booed unmercilessly. Sadly, he was last guy eliminated, but it breathed some life into the card.

...to be continued...