by J.J. Botter

I've recieved a lot of feedback from folks who attended Wrestlemania, so I thought I'd round up a few of the best letters and publish them here for everyone to read.  Maybe it'll give you a new perspective on some of the things I didn't cover in my Axxess and Mania recaps.

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Hey, I just got home from Wrestlemania and I thought I'd share some of my experiences. 

Stood behind Ottman and Tenta and the "legends" booth, yelled "SHOCKMASTER!!!", and Ottman turned around and smiled yelling "Hey, that's Kayfabe" Then says to Tenta "They're kayfabin' on me!" Pretty funny, they both turned around and smiled for a cool picture. 

Saw "Squire" Dave Taylor talking with Sean Morley near the back of the Boyardee arena, interesting I thought, I was hoping for a blue-bloods reunion, but to no avail. 

D-Lo and Chaz were on the webcast show, and they were totally putting themselves in the dog house as far as I was concerned, they were talking about how they hated being with Singh and they wanted out of the gimmick, Raven made fun of them for having turbans with chin straps, and suggested they get bigger turbans. When asked about the main event at WM, Chaz said Stone Cold was gonna win because the rock has to go make a movie, Tazz was laughing so hard he had his head down on the table, Cole lost all control of the show and declared "I've just lost my job" to which I shouted "Dejavue all over again Cole!!" It just continued to deteriorate until mercifully it was over, but i suggest we wont be seeing Lo-Down for a real long while. 

At the airport today saw Moolah and Mae, they were absolute sweethearts and signed our books and posed for pictures with us, i asked Mae if she was really OK after her Dudley table bumps and Moolah stepped in and said "Yeah, after about 2 weeks" Their favorite match from the card was Benoit Angle, they loved it. They were awesome. 

Then we saw Sean O'Hare, also very cool (and HUGE), took pictures and talked about the WCW deal, he said everyone in the booth that they showed at WM has a deal and that as far as he knows everyone else has been let go! Ouch. We told him congratualations and that we were glad he's be sticking around, he said he was just glad to still be workin. Very cool guy 

Talked to the boom-camera operator for the WWF and he said that ALL of the WCW crew has been fired and that when WCW starts tapings again, the WWF crew will be doing all of them. After Smackdown tapings on Tuesdays they will have to move right to another town and set up to do the WCW tapings on Wednesday. That's 3 brutal days and nights, plus 2 pay-per-views every 6 weeks as well making it 4 day stretches. Ouch for them. 

Then saw Scotty 2 Hotty and his wife, He was very cool, but did seemed down, asked him about his neck and he said that he is working out light with it now, but it is still very hard. Was very nice to take a picture with us and sign our book. (Almost didn't recognize him without the hair puffed up) 

Saw Droese as well, and he said that last night he officially retired the dumpster gimmick for good. Told us that Doink last night was Ray Licachelli and that Kim Chee was Steve Lombardi. 

Finally, met the manager of the Iron Shiek, told us that Shiek won because the WWF didn't plan a winner, it didn't matter to them, but it was decided Shiek would win because he really couldn't get thrown out of the ring. He told us quite a few interesting stories. Aparently Moolah and the Shiek HATE each other because years and years ago they were driving together and the Shiek lit up a joint, Moolah told him to get out of the car with that, and he said "it's my car, you get out" and he actually kicked Moolah out of his car and left her stranded. He was in the Astrodome around 1pm and saw Austin & the Rock and Triple H & The Undertaker both doing run throughs of their matches and finishes in the ring at the same time. (With of course Pat 
Patterson choreographing). Apparently Kamala is a currently a truck driver. Tenta owns a few strip clubs down in Florida on top of his wrestling fed. He had a million other stories as he was waiting in the same gate as me to get on the same plane as me for about an hour, but those were the most notable, he said Shiek is dirt poor and will do anything for his set price of $800.00 a day, he said, wrestling cards, autograph signings, birthday parties, or even just have him put the Camel Clutch on your grandparents, he'll do whatever you want, I laughed. 

Thanks for your time, hope you enjoyed these small tid-bits, and hope you enjoyed Wrestlemania weekend as much as I did. 

James Trepanier 
Windsor, Ontario 
:) 

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Nice article recapping the event.

What about the fantasy announce booth?? That's the first thing I did when I got there. Did the first TLC match. That was a lot of fun. I did the same thing as you by taking pics rather than waiting in line. We went to Axxess Sunday and it was packed! Lineup to get in was at least 3000 ppl long. I loved all the damaged vehicles on display. Very impressive. The best way to sum up Axxess for me is like a kid in a candy store. Just amazing.

Mike Berkis
Winnipeg, MB

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Jeremy:

Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed reading your account of Wrestlemania weekend. It's funny because I also went to Axxess Sat. night and ended up eating wings at Hooter's afterward. I too grew up watching wrestling at the Summit (some main events I saw included Hogan v. Boss Man in a cage, Hogan v. Savage and Demolition v. The Powers of Pain) and I now live in Waco. After the Austin Raw in July, I went to the wrestlers' hotel, and about midnight, Vince, Shane and Stephanie all came in. Their appearance was quick, but they were all very cool and my picture with Vince sits on my desk in a frame. Anyway, as a newspaper reporter, reading your account makes me wish I had tried to get a media pass. Thanks for sharing it. 

Peace,
Jason Embry
Waco, TX 

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Hi J.J.

I thought I'd add a couple of observations from someone lucky enough to be there also. I hope they are of interest.

I was seated at the bottom of Level Four directly opposite the Titan Tron (Level Four is effectively the first level of seating above the floor and the tier directly adjacent to the floor - which is mainly the left and right of the ring anyway). Incredible location for $50. 

Firstly the fans around me were much better behaved - nobody was drunk even at the end, although there were a few kids/teenagers who "marked out" a bit at times. 

The ring view was pretty good for a $50 ticket - but the sound? At least where I was the ring mikes we not rigged the to PA at all which was weird (you realize how much of the selling is actually down to the sound). Also the picture resolution of the big screens was very bad - you couldn't really see the blade jobs in last match at all. 

Your are completely right about the crowd reaction to the last match. At the start the Rock was the clear heel in our section and as the match went on people just got confused (I guess without JR telling them what to think, they couldn't spot the turn). But more seriously, why did the WWF ever think they could really turn Austin at his home show - especially with a second show in Texas the next night on which to start his heel run. 

Two other things leapt out to me:

(1) The incredible pop Chyna got :(

(2) The reaction to the Angle - Beniot match. In our block people were making comments like "Wow its like a real wrestling match" and really applauded the opening stuff on the mat. I'm sure the WWF could run with this. Oh doesn't Angle have massive heal heat?

Best wishes

Phil Stubington

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