ZAH
ZAH Special Report: WWE Live Event -- Moncton, New Brunswick -- thoughts, video blogs, and pics!!
By ZAH
May 4, 2008 - 2:05 AM

For those who didn't read my column on Friday....wait a second, you didn't read my column on Friday?  What the f*ck?? 

Anyway, I won two free tickets to the WWE live event that took place last night right here in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada and I picked up the tickets on Friday afternoon.  The seats weren't so good, actually...but they're freebies so I didn't really give a shit.

In the picture below, take a look at section 29.  It's in the nosebleed section, but it's better than nothin', right?

It was a Smackdown/ECW live event, which at first thought doesn't sound like such a big deal.  But y'know what?  I was stoked.  I've always thought that while RAW had the bigger stars, Smackdown and ECW had the future superstars.  But not only that...but CM f*ckin' Punk was showin' up!!  So yeah...I was definitely excited.  Plus there was a chance that I was going to also see Kofi Kingston, Natalie Neidhart, and Jimmy Wang Yang!!  How could you NOT like that??

The guy I went with is a very CASUAL fan of wrestling. He doesn't watch more than once or twice a month when a PPV is on and only if his wife is asleep, and he hasn't watched regularly since the late 90's.

Video Blog #1

Video Blog #2

Here are the pictures.   Let me stress that I was far away from the action and my camera REALLY sucked ass from that distance.

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The line-up at the Moncton Coliseum (surprising, actually):

The ring set-up pre-show:

View from my seat:

Eve Torres was a "host" during the evening.   She gave away front row seats to this lucky family.  

F*ckers.

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Matt Hardy vs. MVP -- United States title match

The pop for Hardy was massive.   MVP got tremendous heat, too...primarily for his massive stalling techniques, which I found quite amusing.   Not their greatest match, but absolutely nothing wrong with it, either.   The crowd enjoyed it so that's all that really matters, right?

1:19 of Hardy vs. MVP

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Video Blog #3

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Kofi Kingston vs. Matt Striker

You could totally tell that nobody knew just who in the hell Kingston was, but by the end of the match the crowd was totally into him.   He's a future superstar, imo.   He's got tremendous charisma and has tremendous talent.   Enjoyable match that the crowd, while silent for the most part, really didn't shit on at all.

Striker pulling a "Superfly" Snuka, for some reason...

Striker selling Kingston's "kick finisher" for a solid two-three minutes:

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WWE tag team champions John Morrison & The Miz vs. Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore

This was a very entertaining contest.   The women were VERY into the tag champs (annoyingly so) and the babyfaces had the crowd very excited, similar to how Londrick gets the crowds to react.   Good stuff.

For whatever reason, John Morrison decided to channel the late Rick Rude:

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Diva "Best Body" contest: Kelly Kelly defeated Cherry, Natalya, Lena, and Maryse

Maryse, being from the area, probably actually won but it's not like they're gonna put the heel over like that.   It was really dark and the vast majority of my pictures didn't turn out.   Nothing really lost, though...I didn't really care either way.

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Kenny Dykstra vs. Ted DiBiase Jr

DiBiase came out to his father's "money money money" theme music, which was a little odd since he was playing the babyface.   What was odder was that Dykstra got the win.   Very basic, headlock-centric match.

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Finlay & Jamie Noble w/ Hornswoggle vs. Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins

I cannot tell you just how big the reaction was once people realized that Hornswoggle was with Finlay.   Wow.   This was a fun match.

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Video Blog #4

This is CM Punk's entrance. I was a little puzzled as to why WWE's big Money In The Bank winner was the curtain jerker out the intermission.

He came out with a little kid that was chosen to be his "manager" for the night. Mike Knox eyed the kid and scared him...immediately making me a fan of Knox.

CM Punk vs. Mike Knox

Oh wait...Armando Estrada just popped in to make it a triple threat match!   Who joined the festivities?   Chuck "K.O." Palumbo!!

CM Punk vs. Mike Knox vs. Chuck "K.O." Palumbo

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Kane & Big Show vs. Chavo Guerrero & Bam Neely

I was quite impressed with three things:

1. Just how unbelievably huge both Kane and Show are.   Wow.

2. How awesome Chavo is at garnering cheap heat.

3. Bam Neely's ability to sell.   He didn't get in much offense, but he bumped quite well and made Kane's offense look believable.

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Edge vs. Batista -- no DQ match

All night long, people were encouraged to text their preference of main event match: 2 out of 3 falls, falls count anywhere, or no DQ match.   The greatest thing was that the first 15-20 minutes was nothing but Edge stalling.   Here's some of his cheap heat with the Canadian crowd:

Edge's cheap heat

This ended up being an over-30-minute main event and a great end to the night.   The Edge-Heads interfered, but Batista still found a way to win causing the crowd to go bonkers.   Fun stuff.

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Video Blog #5

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Got something to say?   You can let me know either by e-mailing me at Zah@worldwrestlinginsanity.com , hitting me up at ZAH Nation (found on the Insanity Message Board ), or look me up on Facebook as ZAH Insanity and letting me know that you'd like to participate (and then join the Insanity Facebook page ).      

Take care.