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Chapter 3 - Seeing it live
I enjoy sitting down Sunday nights with a beer in hand watching the football on TV. I love going to a match, sitting with thousands of other fans cheering my beloved West Tigers to victory. I enjoy putting on my favourite Def Leppard CD, and singing along to those well-known tunes such as Pour Some Sugar on Me, Love Bites, Animal, Let’s get rocked, I love standing two rows back from the stage, singing those well-known tunes along with the thousands of other fans at the concert. Whether it’s a sporting event, a concert or even the theatre (yes I have been cultured enough to see the likes of Phantom of the Opera), seeing something live with the added atmosphere just makes things better.
Saturday October 11th 2000 my good friend Rhonda, her young son Zac and I packed ourselves into her car, and drove the 4 hours from Wellington, NSW to Sydney. This was to be our very first live wrestling show. For a couple of years Rhonda (and Zac) and I had been swapping, ordering and taping PPV’s for each other, and the three of us were very excited when we found out the wrestling company WCW was coming to Australia. Now all three of us preferred to watch WWF/E, however we were not going to miss an opportunity to see a live major company professional wrestling event!
We stayed at Rhonda’s sister’s house and after a quick coffee and refreshing shower we then drove to The Sydney Entertainment Centre for the WCW Thunder show. After arriving at the stadium, and finally finding a park after 10 minutes we walked to the front of the stadium where we had to line up outside, waiting for the doors to open at 6:30pm. Standing there amongst thousands of other wrestling fans, my first thought was finally I am amongst my fellow people. Standing there seeing everyone in the favourite wrestlers shirts, with their signs or dressed up, the buzz and excitement in what we are about to see, I had already thought the $65 dollar tickets were well worth the money. Front door would open, and after the bag checks, it was off to the squeeze of the merchandise stands where we bought a program, and a Sting mask for Zac. We then bought our expensive $20 stadium hamburger and chips, before finding our entrance door, and waiting until they opened at 7:30pm.
The first thing I noticed once the doors opened, was that the ring looked a lot smaller in real life than it did on TV, then again they say TV adds 10 pounds, so the same must occur on wrestling rings. Up in the nose bleed sections I was pleasantly surprised that the ring wasn’t that far away, and the wrestlers didn’t look like ants moving around a toy wrestling ring, although I did wish I was up the front with the rest of those lucky people. The roar of the crowd (or the jeers) when someone’s music hit, reading everyone’s signs and seeing everyone’s smiling faces, showed me that there was 10,000+ other people who had been waiting for this day as much as I had.
Many times we hear commentators state that TV doesn’t do justice to us fans in appreciating the size of some of these wrestlers (Big Show, Khali etc), but when Kevin Nash waked through those curtains, I finally understood what these commentators were talking about. I would later be just as in awe of the size of superstars such as Brock Lesner, The Undertaker, Kane, Mark Henry and of course the Big Show when seeing them live.
Now as mentioned, at this time I didn’t watch a lot of WCW, so while there was a few wrestlers I did know such as Jeff Jarrett, Goldberg, Book T, Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash and of course Hacksaw Jim Duggan, there were quite a few I hadn’t heard of yet I. That didn’t affect my excitement of the night, my appreciation of what the wrestlers did in the ring, or my enjoyment of the sports entertainment that is known as wrestling. It did give me my first glimpse of future stars such as Billy Kidman and Chavo Guerrero, as well as future great Rey Mysterio. What this night also did, was give me (and Rhonda and Zac) a taste for live wrestling which we would continue to feast on over the next couple of years. Highlights for the night included seeing Zac wear his Sting mask for most of the night, watching Rey Mysterio fly around the ring, Goldberg’s strength and power and absorbing the atmosphere that you never get to feel watching it at home on the TV.
I would like to pause just for a second and talk about Zac Pulbrooke. Unfortunately, Zac has become one of many young men who have tragically lost their lives due to falling asleep at the wheel while driving. On Saturday the 4th of September 2010, after a 21st birthday party planning night, Zac left his mum’s house to go home so he could get some sleep before work the next day. Living just over an hour away, Zac believed he was able to do this drive, even though it was very late at night. He had done this drive many times, so felt even though it was late, he could get home safely. However, he didn’t make it, crashing only 10km’s away from where I live. It was a tragedy that still saddens me today, as he was turning into a great young man who had his whole life ahead of him. As you will see in this chapter I have some great and fond memories of Zac on our wrestling excursions, and wish to thank him for those. One of my fond stories I have of Zac was due to our yearly wrestling excursions, a rumour began where Rhonda and I worked. The rumour was that Zac was actually my son, and that these yearly excursions were all part of my child support payments. Considering Zac was 8 when we first met it did give the three of us many hours of fun playing to those rumours. I was and still am very proud to be known in some circles as Zac’s fake dad.
After the WCW show we were back down to Sydney in October 2001 for the “World Wrestling all-stars” tour.  The World Wrestling all-stars was a short lived company that came about during the ending of WCW and ECW, and just before the start of TNA. We were sitting close to the entrance ramp, (the closest we would ever get in a major wrestling event), and even managed to catch Road Dogg’s bottle of water...well wore some of Road Dogg’s bottle of water. The night was a wrestling tournament to crown the very first World Wrestling Allstar (WWA) champion. The final match was held inside a steel cage, my first and only cage match I have seen live, and had Brett Hart at ringside as a guest announcer. Both Road Dogg and Jeff Jarrett used Bret’s Sharpshooter during the match, before Jarrett finally coming out on top.
Just like our first live wrestling experience, the wrestling stars involved on the night were a mixture of wrestlers I had watched during their run with the WWF/E, as well as those high profile names from the now ended WCW. On this night while he didn’t actually wrestle a match, I got to witness Brett Hart apply his Sharpshooter on Jeff Jarrett to end the night, one of the many highlights of a great night out.
WWA Title Tournament 2001
October 26, 2001 in Sydney, Australia
Jeff Jarrett______
                  |Jarrett______
Nathan Jones______|             |
                                |Jarrett___
Battle Royal______              |          |
                  |Buff Bagwell_|          |
Battle Royal______|                        |
                                           |Jarrett__
Psicosis__________                         |
                  |Lenny & Lodi_           |
Juventud Guerrera_|             |          |
                                |Road Dogg_|
Konnan____________              |
                  |Road Dogg____|
Road Dogg_________|
Note: Bagwell won a battle royal to advance to the second
round. Guerrera beat Psicisos, but was injured so Lenny Lane
and Lodi replaced him to create a triangle match.

On the 10th of August 2002, as The Rock would say “Finally the WWE has come to Melbourne” for the WWF/E World Global Tour. For me this was a dream come true, as it was something that in all of my years of watching the WWF/E, they had never toured Australia before. To put it into perspective, my previous wrestling trips was like going to watch the “Australian Meatloaf” tribute show, while the artist would look like and sing all of Meatloaf’s well known songs, perform and display many of Meatloaf’s mannerisms, and it was a great show, it just wasn’t really Meatloaf. Seeing Meatloaf live in Australia in 2011 was a fantastic show, and a bucket list item crossed off. The WWF/E to me was like seeing the real Meatloaf concert!
Now to get to this show and to be a part of the 56000+ record attendance at the Melbourne Colonial Stadium (now known as Etihad Stadium), Rhonda, Zac and I had to travel near 12 hours to get from Wellington, NSW to Melbourne, Victoria (as any true wrestling fan would). A mixture of cars, buses, trains and scary taxi drivers got us to Melbourne late on the Friday night. A restful day of shopping, and sightseeing in Melbourne, before off to the Stadium for the show. The only disappointing thing was that once we arrived at the show we found out that Hulk Hogan would not be performing. One of the few wrestlers I did not get to see live, which will always go down as a disappointment on my wrestling viewing career.
Prior to our trip to Melbourne, I did design and make three wrestling signs for our trip. A great part of the atmosphere of seeing a wrestling show live is reading all the signs made by us fans. Now without blowing my own trumpet too hard, my signs tend to be the best at each show. One sign for each of us, with Rhonda having The Undertaker’s, Zac having The Rock’s, and I had a sign for ‘The Hurricane’ Gregory Helms. I think that I still have these somewhere collecting dust and spider webs in my garage.
There were 9 matches on the card that night with the main event being a triple threat match between Triple H vs. Brock Lesner vs. The Rock. Seeing the Rock deliver the Rock Bottom and people’s elbow live will always be a highlight , as was seeing Triple H perform a “people’s elbow”. Brock Lesner looked huge, especially when he stood next to Paul Heyman. As mentioned many times by commentators, TV just doesn’t do any justice to appreciating the size of these athletes. The crowd nearly blew the roof off when The Rock grabbed the mic and started his “Finally, The Rock has come to.....” A quick side note to all future wrestlers who attend Australia, Melbourne is pronounced Mel burn Not Mel born.
Other highlights of the night for me include hearing “Jericho’s a wanker” chants, and then when Jericho said he “doesn’t even know what a wanker is”, Edge then went and gave him a visual explanation! Edge climbing up the scaffolds around the ring, while taking his own video of the night and Rikishi delivering his classic stink face (speaking before about things that are bigger in real life.....). Seeing some of my favourite wrestlers live for the first time including The Hurricane, Edge, Jericho, The Rock, Kurt Angle and Triple H was something up till that moment I didn’t think was ever going to happen in Australia. This is still one of the best things I have seen, experienced and been a part of (obviously with the exception of marrying my beautiful wife Kristina, and my kids), and I was glad to experience it with Rhonda and Zac. The only downfall was the early start and 12 hour trip back home the next day!
Results
• Rikishi defeated Rico in a Kiss My Ass match
• Mark Henry & Randy Orton defeated D-Von & Batista
• Jamie Noble (c) (w/ Nida) defeated Hurricane Helms to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship
• Chavo Guerrero & Hardcore Holly (w/ Maven) defeated Billy & Chuck (w/ Rico)
• Kurt Angle defeated Test
• Lance Storm & Christian (c) defeated Billy Kidman & Rey Mysterio to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship
• Edge defeated Chris Jericho
• Torrie Wilson defeated Stacy Keibler in a Bra and Panties match
• The Rock (c) defeated Triple H and Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) in a triple threat match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship

(for more go and buy Stop Telling Us It's Fake : A Wrestling Fan's Journey)