Colin’s WrestleMania 29 Diary
For most wrestling fans WrestleMania 29 is not an event that is overly fond in the memory. Featuring three big matches dominated by part-time superstars and rematches from SummerSlam and the previous year’s WrestleMania there wasn’t too much excitement around the event going in to it. For me however WrestleMania 29 will always be one of my favourites as I got to experience it from the stands inside MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
The timing of this ‘Mania was absolutely perfect for me as I got to knock the top two things off my bucket list; visiting New York City and attending WrestleMania, and the experience was everything I could have asked for. The entire city was buzzing for the event in the days prior to it as banners were hung in the streets, press conferences were taking place, the Empire State Building was lit in the colours of the WrestleMania logo, and it seemed like everyone was a WWE fan.
Within the hour of my arrival in the City I was stopped several times for my Daniel Bryan shirt with fans starting “NO” chants in the middle of the street out of nowhere. Random guys offered high fives and one stopped to tell me “Bryan Danielson is the man, respect man for the support”, while I was crossing the street. Elmo even started a “NO” chant in the middle of Times Square when he seen me. It seemed like you couldn’t escape the WrestleMania hysteria and this continued all weekend with the various shirts I had on. Recognizing another wrestling fan was an opportunity to geek out for a few seconds in public, and everyone wanted to enjoy it. It was such a crazy yet friendly atmosphere, and totally alien to the way we would react in the UK.
On the day of the actual event, we hopped on to the rail system that only serves the stadium and neighboring arena and essentially arrived in a wrestling fan’s paradise. Everywhere you looked people were dressed up as Goldust, DX, Daniel Bryan (this guy should not have been wearing such tight y-fronts in public), Macho Man, IRS, and just about every other superstar you could think of. It did appear that a large percentage of people were hammered even at this early stage of the day. We saw the woman who very publicly embarrassed her husband for cheating on her, fellow Scots who had made the trip, old fans, kids, families; such a wide range of people. The car park was full of people having BBQ’s & their own little WrestleMania party in the shadow of the stadium.
We walked round the full stadium, picking up a few t-shirts and hot dogs on the way. We were stopped by security at one point as Jimmy Hart had just pulled up in his car and entered the arena (dressed in his performance gear even though he wasn’t on the show). Round the back of the stadium I actually found Bob Backlund, the man who just entered the Hall of Fame the night prior, selling pictures and posters featuring himself. I was so nervous when I approached him I just handed him the ten dollars and got the most awkward picture possibly ever taken of me (Just look at that stupid face).
Finally after entering the security gates I joined a never ending queue for merchandise that lasted well over an hour to buy a few more t-shirts and a rather lovely hat. My dad helped himself to $10 bottles of Bud from the drinks stalls (and was hilariously ID’d despite being 50), and we went for out seats. Everywhere in the stadium there were “NO” chants breaking out, it was clear that Daniel Bryan’s star was rising at this event but I doubt many people thought he would be in the main event of this show a year later. Our seats weren’t very close, but we still had a good view of the ring and there are big screens around for when you want to see in close. Plus the atmosphere is not really relative to your seats I would imagine, and that’s really one of the most important things.
t was clear early on however that WWE were struggling for time. Soldiers came out on stage for America the Beautiful but quickly left as this performance was cut at the last second. (This and a match was cut but we still had three full length John Cena vs The Rock Promos) A promo package on Hurricane Sandy aired as the main show kicked off to a totally cold opening with Sheamus making his entrance. The show is incredibly smooth on TV, but you notice the jagged edges while watching it in person. All of the early matches delivered for me, and I was having the time of my life. Jericho vs. Fandango was a little sloppy, but overall the fans around me seemed to love both competitors. After the World Title match the crowd was clearly anticipating a Dolph Ziggler cash-in on Del Rio and you felt the excitement building. Suddenly the lights went dark and Alberto exited to a chorus of boos. I can only imagine from the following night’s reaction to the actual cash-in what it would have been like in a packed MetLife.
P-Diddy came out for a pointless performance, which myself and thousands of others took as an opportunity for a bathroom break (which were disgusting by the way).
But before you knew it Living Colour appeared on stage and kicked in to playing Cult of Personality as ‘The Best in the World’ CM Punk entered to by far the biggest reaction of the night. The audience went absolutely crazy for his entrance and was definitely the most over guy on the entire card. Then came the most amazing entrance of all time, The Undertaker’s walk to the ring sent chills down my spine. I recorded the entrance and you can actually see the picture shaking as my hand was. These chills were eradicated however by the towering bursts of flames from across the arena, and the greatest match I have ever, and probably will ever, see live began.
I was firmly in Punk’s corner and at points I genuinely thought the streak would end. When Punk hit the GTS an Undertaker bounced off the ropes and immediately hit the Tombstone Piledriver I have never felt a moment like that and it will stick in my mind until the day I die. It was incredible. CM Punk hit a top rope elbow on to the announce table and I genuinely thought he had broken his leg in half. The match still continued and ultimately led to the final victory in Undertaker’s 21-0 winning streak. This should have been the main event.
The next two matches involving Lesnar, Triple H, Cena, and The Rock were good but could not compare to the classic that Punk and Taker just gave us, and the crowd were far too exhausted to really get in to them. There was also a feeling of inevitability of the result as it was clear in the build up who was going over. We left as Cena pinned The Rock, and managed to avoid waiting hours on an available train to get back to the city. When we arrived we wandered back to the hotel with a (disgusting) McDonald’s, only stopped by a homeless man who had spotted my CM Punk shirt and decided to yell “CM Punk got his ass whupped!”. Thanks dude, but it did seem like everyone that was still out in the city had watched the show.
I’m glad I picked this WrestleMania to go to despite some mixed reviews from fans. I got to see my childhood heroes perform; Kane, Undertaker, The Rock, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Brock Lesnar. I got to see the young stars I admire now fighting to climb the ladder to the top of the card. And most importantly to me I witnessed the man that had inspired me for 3 years, who had grabbed my attention and imagination, and put his heart and soul in to what turned out to be his final WrestleMania match.
To me this will always be one of the most special WrestleMania events. The people of New York were fantastic, and the entire weekend was everything I could have hoped for. It reminded me of what wrestling should ultimately be about; fun. There’s was no worries about booking, character development, work rate, or anything that we discuss every day on Twitter. All of that faded away and was replaced by the feelings I had as a kid watching my first WrestleMania in 2000. Every wrestling fan needs to experience WrestleMania in person for this joy, its absolutely worth every single penny.
