by J.J. Botter

In case you couldn't tell from reading my Live Axxess Report, we had a great time attending the WWF's fan festival on Saturday night. However, the defining moment of the weekend would come on Sunday, as we attended Wrestlemania XVII live and in person at the Reliant Astrodome. In this report I'll try to give you a detailed first-person perspective on what it was like to attend the show.

We left our house (which is only about 10 minutes from the Astrodome on a good non-traffic day) at 5:00pm. The parking situation for the show was a bit sticky; there's a ton of construction going on in the Dome area for the new Reliant football stadium and parking garage. There were only 14,000 parking spots available in the Dome lots, and those were filled up by 3pm. Luckily, Gallery Furniture had arranged for Metro, the Houston bus/transit system, to have shuttles available to take people to the show from various park and ride lots around town. We headed to the nearest park and ride and finally found a spot to park. We picked up our round-trip ticket for the shuttle rides for $3 and got on the first bus we could. The bus trip to the Dome took about 10 minutes, and when we arrived we were able to go straight to the specified entrance for our ticket type. They had already opened the doors, so we walked in and experienced the full Wrestlemania atmosphere for the first time...and it wasn't a good one.

I'm not really sure who decided to only allow three entrances to the floor seating areas, but whoever did it should lose their job immediately. The lines to get down to the floor seating area were absolutely ridiculous, and we waited about 30 minutes before actually getting down to the floor area to find our seats. This experience did nothing to restore my faith in wrestling fans, as most of the people in the line were loud, obnoxious drunks. Heat started during this time, though none of us really cared. I went backstage at this point, and saw some of the WCW guys taking promotional photos for later use by the production teams. There wasn't a lot to see and I didn't want to bother anyone, so I went back to my seat on the floor.

The Astrodome setup was unreal. Having seen it on Saturday night, I knew what to expect, but seeing it surrounded by the huge mass of people made it that much more special. There were 16 huge lights on the perimeter floor that basically provided color backdrops for the ring and also served to showcase just how big the crowd was. When I went to Nitro last December at the Dome, they had the entire arena divided into four sections and only used one of them, so this was the first time I'd been able to see a true wrestling crowd fill up the place...and it was impressive. The fans were already getting excited, and popped for every single match preview they showed on the mini-Tron. By the time Heat was over, however, we were ready for the show to begin.

Once Wrestlemania began, it was obvious that we were witnessing something special. The crowd was electric for most of the night, and it reminded me a lot of the legendary Wrestlemania III crowd that saw Hogan defeat Andre The Giant. It was an incredible experience, and it's not something I'll soon forget.

When the Austin heel turn happened, it became increasingly obvious that the Houston fans had absolutely no idea what happened. They STILL popped for the Austin win, and seemed more confused than anything that he was drinking beer with McMahon after the match. Now that I've seen it on tape, I can see how the TV audience would know exactly what happened, but in Houston many people had no clue what was going on. Once The Rock got up to walk back to the locker room, many people still booed him - even further proof that they had no idea that the "biggest heel turn ever" had just gone down.

After Rock walked through the curtain, I took my media pass and headed backstage for a few minutes. I knew I couldn't stay long because I didn't want to make an idiot of myself or bother anyone after such a long show, but I *had* to see what the atmosphere was like following such a huge performance. The Rock and Austin were talking over the match, and the general feeling is that both of them were immensely proud of what they had just done. Once things calmed down a few minutes later, I approached both of them and had them sign my ticket stub. At this point, I should have asked them how they felt about the match or how they felt about the crowd response or 500 other smark questions that were floating around in my head, but I couldn't. It was almost like I was 10 years old again and meeting Hulk Hogan at an autograph signing. I was speechless, and all I could muster was a simple "thank you" to two of the biggest stars in wrestling history. I turned around, and noticed Vince McMahon standing to my left. Before I could even think about what I was doing, I shoved my ticket stub in front of him and asked for the autograph of the man who has become the sole proprietor of big-time wrestling in America. He signed it as well, and I turned silently around, not even comprehending that I had just met the three men responsible for the latest wrestling boom. I left the backstage area and went to find my friends, still in shock/mark mode. 

We caught the shuttle home, and talked the entire way about the show and how good it was to see live wrestling again. I couldn't help but think that I had just done the coolest thing I'd ever done in my life - I'd met Stone Cold, The Rock, and Mr. McMahon...all in the span of about 1 minute. Not only that, but I had a piece of memorabilia that many people would KILL to own. I immediately thought about putting it up in a giveaway for Rantsylvania.com, but then decided that to give away something so full of memories would be stupid. I had it framed, and it now sits on my desk as a permanent reminder of the show I'd seen and the spectacle I'd been a part of.

Back in 1989 when my grandfather took me to my first wrestling event at the Summit, I never knew that I'd follow the sport of kings as closely as I do now. And even once I became a "smark," I never thought I'd get to attend a Wrestlemania event. And EVEN THEN, once the tickets were in my hands, I never thought I'd get to see as good of a show as the WWF delivered on Sunday night. Of course, never in my wildest dreams would I imagine leaving with a ticket stub signed by the three biggest names in wrestling history.

All in all, it was a good day. I'll be expounding more on my thoughts about the matches themselves at my new BlogSpot journal, so if you're interested in hearing what I have to say about the matches themselves be sure to check it out. I'll also be relating some more of my stories from backstage at Axxess on Saturday, so keep checking it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks to Dave and Denny at Wrestleline for letting my compile my thoughts in these two reports - I've enjoyed it immensely and hope I get to do it again soon. I'll see you next Monday for Sunday Night Heat!