What was your first live wrestling show?

[stevieg1980]

 

 

TNA House Show, Olympia, Liverpool, June 2008.

 

TNAs 2nd UK show (this was the 2nd night at the Olympia).

 

Matches that stand out where-

 

Joe v Booker

Leathal v Williams v Dutt

Rhyno v Abyss

LAX v Machine Guns

 

The Machine Guns match was the best match ive seen live.

I was at this one too, it was actually the first night. Also featured Gail Kim & Doug Williams v James Storm & Awesome Kong and AJ Styles vs Bobby Roode.

 

The second night things were switched around - Joe vs Abyss, Booker vs Rhino, Styles vs Lethal vs Doug, Kim vs Kong, LAX vs Beer Money, and the Guns vs Petey & Sonjay. The Guns match opened the show and there was a lot more buzz than the night before, it was definitely one of my top 20 matches I've ever seen live, real adrenaline rush. Next night at the SkyDome they wrestled Storm & Roode and that was almost as good. They went over, too.

I remember being in the pub next door watching Italy / Romania during Euro 2008 before the show and also this overexcited bloke constantly climbing on the wall of a house and dropping double axehandles on random people and then whoooing at them. Surprised he didn't have the crap kicked out of him.

 

Also during the show there was one guy who got named by someone in the front balcony as Paul Heyman due to the ponytail and cap combo who was annoying everyone at the bar and was walking round the Olympia doing random stuff. He got pointed out during the main event as trying to get onto the front row and getting a large cheer from our section when security removed them.

 

These were two great shows with a few strange characters around them and I always thought the best match over the shows was Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong.

Edited July 16, 2015 by stevieg1980

[Egg Shen]

Outside of a couple of 'tribute shows' that were the thing in the mid-late 90's, my first propper show was the WWE in Sheffield on the Attitude Adjustment tour. This was the card with a couple of no marks headlining:

 

 

 

Me and forum veteran Silky Kisser were at that show

[Fanny Pack]

 

 

TNA House Show, Olympia, Liverpool, June 2008.

 

TNAs 2nd UK show (this was the 2nd night at the Olympia).

 

Matches that stand out where-

 

Joe v Booker

Leathal v Williams v Dutt

Rhyno v Abyss

LAX v Machine Guns

 

The Machine Guns match was the best match ive seen live.

I was at this one too, it was actually the first night. Also featured Gail Kim & Doug Williams v James Storm & Awesome Kong and AJ Styles vs Bobby Roode.

 

The second night things were switched around - Joe vs Abyss, Booker vs Rhino, Styles vs Lethal vs Doug, Kim vs Kong, LAX vs Beer Money, and the Guns vs Petey & Sonjay. The Guns match opened the show and there was a lot more buzz than the night before, it was definitely one of my top 20 matches I've ever seen live, real adrenaline rush. Next night at the SkyDome they wrestled Storm & Roode and that was almost as good. They went over, too.

Cheers for the heads up man, it now makes for a far superior story to tell that was at the 1st UK TNA show.

 

There are some fan cam vids on YouTube of the show.

 

From having a nose on YouTube i forgot to mention that Angle promo were he sort of bashes WWE whilst everyone thunderously chants TNA. Sad lookin back at what TNA is now. Actually its not, F TNA.

[rockbus]

My first show was this. I was desperate to go to Summerslam but it didn't happen, so my dad took me to this a few months later instead. In hindsight I'm not complaining. Hart vs Flair main event was epic, and not some thing I think was repeated all that much, especially on TV.

 

WWF @ London, England - Earls Court - February 4, 1993

Virgil defeated Repo Man

Rick Martel defeated Max Moon (sub. for Marty Jannetty)

Bam Bam Bigleow defeated the Big Bossman

The Nasty Boys defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Ted Dibiase & IRS via disqualification

The Headshrinkers defeated the Bushwhackers

The Undertaker defeated Papa Shango

WWF World Champion Bret Hart defeated Ric Flair

[JNLister]

That was actually Flair's last run -- he'd already done the loser leave town match with Perfect but did this UK tour and then Germany the next week before leaving.

[Slapnut]

Mine was a Wrestlemania Revenge show at Cardiff's CIA in 2006. I can't remember the whole card, but it went something like this:

 

Carlitos vs. Matt Striker

Big Show vs Kane

RVD vs Shelton Benjamin

Edge & Chris Masters vs Ric Flair & Shawn Michaels

Umaga vs ???

John Cena vs Triple H

 

There was more but my memory is clearly worse than I thought. It was Cena's birthday and after the show everyone came out to celebrate and Flair did a really good speech. A cake ended up in someone's face, it may have been Coachman.

 

There's a video floating around somewhere of a group including Cena and a bunch of others drinking afterwards in a Cardiff bar. Umaga chops the shit out of a Spirit Squad member.

[truthofsin]

My first event was an arena show from World Wrestling Superstars in Germany, 1993. Always thought it was in Berlin until recently, and now i'm pretty sure it was actually in Munchen, which was only about an hour from where we living anyway.

Main Event: Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules Hernandez (Warrior used Black Betty as his theme)

Leilani Kai & Peggy Lee Leather vs. Bambi & Candi Devine

The Warlord vs. Butch Reed

Jake Roberts vs. Greg Valentine (w/Madusa)

Those are the matches i remember.

Edited July 17, 2015 by truthofsin

[dopper]

 

Outside of a couple of 'tribute shows' that were the thing in the mid-late 90's, my first propper show was the WWE in Sheffield on the Attitude Adjustment tour. This was the card with a couple of no marks headlining:

Me and forum veteran Silky Kisser were at that show

I was there too. The main event was really good and Prince Naseem's appearance in front of his hometown crowd was cool, he was a huge superstar at the time. Better show than the No Mercy UK ppv which I then went to a few weeks later.

 

My first ever show was at Scunthorpe Baths Hall in 1987.

I vaguely remember seeing Big Daddy and a link I saw on here a few years ago showing hundreds of Big Daddy matches from the 80's showed that he tagged with Greg Valentine that night.

[DoinkBrah]

WCW Halloween Havoc Tour in 1993 at the Cardiff arena.  My uncle surprised my brother and I with tickets when we were visiting family.  10 year old me totally lost it that day haha.

 

Hollywood Blondes vs Bagwell and Scorpio, Steamboat vs Maxx Payne, The Nasty Boy vs Arn Anderson and Johnny B Badd, Dutin Rhodes and Sting vs Rick Rude, Sid Vicious and Vader vs The British Bulldog and Flair vs Regal!

 

Amazing card looking back on it.  Got my WCW and Sting T Shirt from it still and a programme knocking about the house.

Edited July 17, 2015 by DoinkBrah

[Ian 86]

For me it was the infamous Wrestlexpress show.

 

If by some miracle you aren't familiar with it, the background basically was some kid decided to put on a super show and promised some big names.  The wheels came off (quite spectacularly) and respected British promoter Scott Conway stepped in to salvage the show - out went Hulk and in came Horace but we did still get Corino and Sandman.  More importantly the venue moved from 'somewhere up north' to Dagenham Leisure Centre in the heart of deepest darkest Essex, conveniently local to a pre-driving age teenage me who could now attend.  This was 2001 I think and the draw of Sandman and Steve Corino was too much to ignore. 

 

For more of the background, check Ian's Indy Wank thread and even more stuff in this old thread.

 

The show itself ended up being a bit hit and miss.  From what I remember the first half was slow and clunky with lots of clotheslines used as finishes, but the second half picked right up - Corino vs Sandam, Fleisch vs Storm, and Alex Shane vs Scott Parker ('Solid Gold', not the midfielder with floppy hair).  At least, I think there was a Shane vs Parker, I'm struggling to remember now but the Storm vs Fleisch match I do remember and was absolutely incredible!

 

Can't remember the full card or much else about it tbh but as a first show it was pretty cool.  It's not every show that you get a full Sandman  entrance and Jodie doing a moonsault off the wall.  I do remembering questioning the logic of Alex Shane trying to get over the new New School faction after a Steve Corino match - everyone was firmly Team Old School after seeing the King in action.

 

Here's the show

 

[Maikeru]

I really want to know who the ring announcer was for my first live show, in Belfast on April 15th 1992 (part of the European Rampage Again tour). It was a bloke, but definitely not the Fink. Obviously wasn't Mike McGuirk (who was with the other crew on the tour who did the televised show in Sheffield). 

If you were at the Dublin show on the 16th, the Glasgow one on 17th or the Birmingham one on the 18th, you'd have seen the same crew. 

I'm thinking it could have been Tony Chimel, but not sure if he was announcing that early on. I don't *think* it was Mel Phillips, but can't be 100% sure. 

[big7thletter]

WWE Survivor Series tour November 2008 in Cardiff, Wales

The Hardys defeat Mark Henry & Montel Vontavious Porter

The Great Khali defeats Ryan Braddock

WWE United States Title Match

Shelton Benjamin (c) defeats R-Truth

 

Finlay defeats Jack Swagger

 

Maria & Michelle McCool defeat Maryse & Natalya

 

WWE Tag Team Title Match

Carlito & Primo (c) defeat John Morrison & The Miz

 

The Brian Kendrick defeats Kung Fu Naki

 

WWE Heavyweight Title Match

Triple H (c) defeats Vladimir Kozlov by DQ

 

No Disqualification Match

The Undertaker defeats The Big Show

[pitseleh]

My first memory of seeing live wrestling was at either a Butlins/Pontins resort. I remember seeing there was only two matches with live commentary from a redcoat. This must of been in 2000/01.  One of the heels was a tall guy resembling Bryan Clark called Body Count. I also remember seeing a babyface who wrestled in gear similar to Billy Kidman's when he joined The Flock. One wrestler used a Tiger Driver '91 as a finish, which looked devastating, if not extremely unnecessary for the type of family crowd they were catering to.  I was older enough to know that it was pre-determined, but not older enough to enjoy the pantomime nature of these kind of wrestling shows. 

I also remember being taken by my dad to the NWA UK Hammerlock shows that were being running at the leisure centre in my small town in Hampshire. The first show consisted of more foam-finger kid-friendly wrestling, but with the added bonus of having some gimmick matches. I saw a table match which was worked like a regular tag match until one team grabbed a table from the back, put their opponent through it was no build or false finishes. The other gimmick match was an underwhelming battle royal consisting of everyone who wrestled during the show. One of the wrestlers worked with a 'George Of The Jungle' gimmick and I gotten his autograph during the intermission. I, proud to have just met a wrestler and an actor, was quickly let down by my father explaining that was not in fact Brendan Fraser wrestling in the Andover Leisure Centre. Cheers Dad.

The next time the same promotion came to my neck of the woods was later in the year. The big selling point this time was that legendary wrestler Jake 'The Snake' Roberts would be wrestling. Having just hit my 10th birthday, I was still not aware of online wrestling rumours and news sites, so when I came to the venue expecting Jake Roberts of 1991 WWF fame, I was shocked to see Jake Roberts of 1999 Beyond The Mat fame. He wrestled a tag match wearing dirty trackies and a scruffy t shirt. He started the match as the legal man and after minutes of stalling, he got in a brief shine (if you can call it that) segment consisting of running the ropes and hitting a few jabs. He then tagged in his partner and spent the rest of the 15 minutes slumped in the corner. He eventually got tagged in, hit the DDT, got the win and laid out the snake on the heel wrestler. A year later, after discovering the wrestling rumours and news sites, I found out that Jake was arrested for mistreating and starving that very snake I saw crawl over his opponent.

The next time I attempted to see a wrestling show would be all the way in 2006 when Dad surprised my brother and I with tickets to the Raw house show in London later that year. We decided against going, as I thouight I was too old to be liking wrestling and the only adults who liked it wear nerds and virgins. My dad sold the tickets and let me keep the money, which I spent on a Red Hot Chilli Peppers live CD. I choose to buy a below average Red Hot Chilli Peppers live album rather than see Shawn Michaels wrestle in person. Still hurts, that one. 

 

[SuperJohnny]

WWF @ Belfast, Ireland - King's Hall - April 16, 1992
Tatanka pinned Kato
The Big Bossman pinned the Berzerker
Virgil defeated the Warlord
The Bushwhackers defeated the Brooklyn Brawler & WWF Tag Team Champion IRS
Rick Martel pinned Kerry Von Erich by using the ropes for leverage
The Undertaker fought Sid Justice to a double count-out

[Project Nim]

Summerslam 92, got a ticket and travel package from a record shop in St Helens. I think my main non wrestling memory was approaching the stadium where by the side of the road a blonde lady was fellating a gentleman looking very pleased with himself.