I Know What You Did Last Monday- My experience at AXXESS/WM18
    Submitted by Brendan Campbell on Tuesday, March 19, 2002 at 6:42 PM EST

    EMAIL/READER NOTE: The lateness of the column is due to lack of sleep as well as no chance to post the column before this time due to there not being an open spot on the site at the time this column was finished! Also there are a few people out there who wrote some rather lengthy emails about girls and such. I did read them, but put them aside into a separate folder to respond to when I had more time as you spent so much time writing to me. Some of these are from my column 2 weeks ago. I've been really busy, but I will write back to those of you who wrote those emails in so no worries and I hope, no grudges! There are also some people who want me to address certain issues in the column, and I`ll do that next week with the normal format!

    Hello and welcome to the latest edition of "I Know What You Did Last Monday." Today I have a very special column for you as I will talk about my experience at Wrestlemania 18 LIVE and how my trip to AXXESS went on Saturday! Anyway, let's get onto the column as I'll skip over the `girls' issue this week and move right into the wrasslin! This is a special edition because it's the show right from the eyes of the People's Writer himself! Enjoy!

    The People's Writer at Wrestlemania 18



    WARNING: The following report on WWF Axxess contains vulgar language that Kurt Angle would use. Please be forewarned not to read this if the words, dang, crap or screw may offend you. Thank you.

    Well before we get to this, how about we talk about one of the WORST events I've ever been to in WWF AXXESS. Now I'm sure you've all seen the hype on TV, the hoards of happy fans shaking hands with wrestlers who are all over the place, happy to be amongst their fans! And live commentary with real commentators! Well let me tell you, that does happen for about 10% of the people there!

    Axess to me was basically a way for the WWF to get more money out of fans coming from all around the world and for those in Toronto itself. Seriously! Anyone who reads this knows I'm a positive writer most of the time, but when things are TOO much, then I go off onto them. This was too much. WAY TOO MUCH. I mean was the price to much? $40 Canadian_so what, about $2 American? But still, not that much if you met all the stars, and got to shake hands and get tons of pictures_but it is to much if you do NOTHING.

    Let me explain. You get into a line up when you first arrive. You better be happy there because that's the way you're spending your ENTIRE Axxess experience! Now the gates for the event opened at 12pm right? So we're all out there freezing our butts off (Okay, maybe just me and my friend since we're so `cool' we didn't wear coats_oh, we were cool alright!) Anyway, so we waited as the line started from the early hours of the morning. By the time noon hit the line up was out into the parking lot. There were THOUSANDS of people there_okay WWF, how about a LIMIT on tickets being sold? Fans can't have fun if they can't do ANYTHING.

    So after waiting for just about an hour and a half in line, the doors opened. Now you'd figure the WWF would be ready for us right? WRONG. First thing most people did was head upstairs to the autograph booths. Now this upstairs had four corners like most places and in each corner was ONE booth!! Now don't get me wrong, I mean I didn't expect the roster to show up, but FOUR stars for THOUSANDS of fans? Nuts to that!

    So we got into one line up and it filled right away. It was like pouring water into tubes, the line up became full in minutes. Security was there and stopped the section once it was full and started a new section. The section I was in was first so we got the superstar who came out from 12:00-1:30, and the other group had to wait until 1:30 to get the star who was out until 3pm_so much for fan fun eh? We had to wait in line to meet a star who NOBODY knew who it was_like it's more fun that way they think!?

    Vince- "Hey, should we tell them who they're in line to meet, I mean they did spend ALL that money to come_nah, screw that, they DID already pay, so who cares now!"

    So here I am in line for someone I don't know who. There are four other corners already full. Downstairs people are either filing into the ring area, or to the commentating booths. So I wait. Then I thought I'd go up and see if anyone was out. I mean we did already wait outside, they SHOULD be at the dang table ready right? No. So I go out of line while my buddy holds my spot and then I go up and check. Nobody is there yet. I thought I'd go over to the other booth to check out if anyone was at that one yet. I go, but security stops me from going to check.

    Let me tell you, security has to keep things under control I understand, but they are VERY power-tripish at this type of events. So here I am, saying alright, no problem! I head back to where my buddy is but a guard cuts me off and says I cant go back there. I said my friend was in line. He said that I had to go ALL the way downstairs and up the other way in order to get back to that section_ass. Anyway I go down, then up and security is blocking off the #1 section that I was in before and the #2 was already full. I tell the guard my friend is in line, he said too bad, I can't go up there. I was like this is pathetic! They don't show this crap on the commercial now do they?

    FINALLY after 20 minutes of guards telling me to get out of the way I told a WWF staff member that my friend was in line and if I could go up to get back in. He told me "Well how do I know you were there? How about you come with me, point him out, and if the people behind you guys don't vouch for you I throw you all out?" I was like "Um, what?" then he started heading back to the front to check on something, so I just went up halfway with him, then stopped saw my friend and got back in line. Wow, thanks for this amazing time so far WWF!

    Anyway, so now I'm back in line and it's 12:30, a half an hour after the doors open and the time is ticking away at this `wonderful' fan experience and still NOBODY has come out. FINALLY I hear the person come out_Triple H? No. Rock? No. OH MY GOD ANGLE!? No. No, see, at this WONDERFUL event that we paid so much for and took a chance getting into a line that we had NO idea who was there we had wasted almost an hour for TRISH STRATUS!! Now sure, some people think she's hot, but SCREW THAT!

    She isn't big enough to make us wait in line. So we left the line and went downstairs. We couldn't get to the ring area because it's blocked off once fans fill it. So we checked out this charity photo thing where we had to pay ANOTHER $10 to get our picture taken with a superstar?! MORE money!? Sure it's charity but take 10 of the damn 40 I wasted on this stupid event in the first place and let me have my dang picture!

    So who was it? Rhyno. He seemed nice from when I saw people going up there. But $10 and more of a line up? No thanks. We walked over to commentating. Lined up and people are doing WHOLE matches here so we ain't waiting for that.

    Now let me make something clear, something they don't show you on TV is the fact that 75% of this event is commercial. By that I mean they had booths pushing products on us. School things, Rogers cable deals, things like you'd find at dang career day at school!!

    So we go around and NO stars are just `walking' around. No we walk around like 8 times and the only thing good about the event are the really beautiful booth girls that are there. But still, not worth the money.

    Eventually we heard Hogan was upstairs. Get in line? No thanks, it was over a 3 hour line up as soon as it was heard and not even half would get autographs. Then the NICEST person at Axess let me take a picture of him. Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson were signing autographs on the far side at a table. I didn't get in line, but just was going to take a picture of them. When a pair of fans moved after a signing, Patterson looked at my camera and did the `point-gun' thing and smiled. I snapped the shot and was happy. I thought "Now THAT was nice." It sounds stupid, but that's what should have been going on. Wrestlers just being happy with the fans, walking around. I mean they have a roster of what? 75? Why not let a BIG chunk walk around? Why not have 12-16 autograph booths upstairs? No. 4 will be enough. 1 per thousand people.

    Before we left (An hour and a half early) we found a booth that gave away free slushee's_small little cup samples. Well I shouldn't say free, I mean I basically paid $40 for the damn thing and go figure, it gave me a brain freeze. $40 for a brain freeze eh? Well it's true, anything CAN happen in the WWF, to bad no lifetime dreams were formed at this event, just lots of nightmares and an empty wallet.

    The day wasn't a total loss. We left early and went and saw RESIDENT EVIL the movie! AMAZING movie! If you love the games or not, go see this movie! PERFECT I thought, it had it's flaws, but overall a GREAT experience unlike something else I just spoke of.

    But now, after FINALLY getting that off my chest, on to Wrestlemania!

    This event was incredible. I can't even put words to it at how fun it was just to be there with it happening even if my seats were 5th deck of a totally packed SkyDome! It's funny because in our newspapers around here today it says "WWF breaks SkyDome record with more fans than World Series!" Well duh! When 30,000 people are sitting on the baseball diamond, it's kinda hard to play a game of ball eh?

    Either way, the show was fantastic! The matches were really good for what they were hyped up as and you knew everyone put their hearts into this show. I'll try and go over everything as I remember_first there's a LITTLE complaining, just a bit though.

    The show started at 8pm, 7:30 was written on the tickets as we got to hear from Fink and a preview 6-man tag match between Rikishi/2 Cool 2000 VS Storm/Perfect/Test. Either way, the gates opened at 5:30. TONS of time right? HELL NO! There were 68, 000 people outside in BITTER cold weather waiting for the security to file people in SLOOOOOWLY and then search everyone. I understand percussions but DAMN this took forever, 4 guards for about 15,000 people at our gate were doing the searching. People were getting really annoyed and I can't blame them as we didn't get to our seats until 7pm. That took forever, believe me!

    Highlight of the wait outside was when 2 pretty nerdy guys held up the girls they were with (I don't think their g/f's, but who knows!) on their shoulders and these girls started making out for about 2 minutes. It was nuts! A puppies chant came about, but they shook their heads. That was funny though, got our minds off the cold for a while, but once they stopped all the guys in the crowd had no blood running through their upper bodies, so it was colder if you know what I mean!

    Anyway, once inside we got to our seats and realized the view wasn't that damn bad. Once the 6-man tag started we realized how the Canadian crowd always is as we boo whoever the hell we want too. We TORE AN NEW ASS into Rikishi. We just hated him. Don't ask me why, I know he isn't great, but wow!

    Anyway, the show started and we were all pumped, then Saliva started singing_okay, well I'm glad THAT happened. So after they killed the crowd the show was underway with an IC title match. Sweet match from there, but the fireworks did the same thing they've done all the time and they made the WHOLE STADIUM white, as it was hard to see.

    Now there was a TV screen set up in front of our section. A big screen so we could see everything right? Aw, thanks WWF! Wait wait, oh did they not notice there was a HUGE SPOTLIGHT AIMED RIGHT AT US?! So yes, the whole show we had a huge light glaring right at us. Well at least I got to work on my tan.

    After the IC title match we have the Euro title match. I thought it was a really good match! Christian was hilarious and it had a great finish with the whole reverse finishers and all, then Christian whining some more! Good match over all, even though the crowd was pretty dead during it.

    Now I'm not sure if that is because the stadium was SO big, but the crowd sounded REALLY quiet a lot of the time. I'd go with it being a big place so it's harder to hear how much cheering is going on. I mean think, about 18,000 fans normally is a HUGE ovation on RAW, but with 68,000 people, it's a small area that can't REALLY be heard. So while most people would get HUGE pops, you didn't really realize it.

    Then we move on to one of the BEST moment's of the night. The Rock promo. Now first off Canada is TOTALLY pro-Hogan. Honestly, I was cheering for the Rock the whole night cause I'm a Rock fan, so that's what I do. Let me tell you I did expect him to be bood, but NOT this much! He was basically hated here! My god! It kinda pissed me off that people bood him THAT much, but still_it was Hogan's first match in Canada for over a decade and if he had been fighting Austin or Triple H it would have been the same and they'd have been hated.

    Anyway Rock had the BEST promo of 2002 in my opinion! That was great! "What up G?" Coach is now one of my favourites! That was great! And Rock had the priceless comeback "What up G?" WHAT IN THE BLUE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" And the ultimate was him kicking Coach away "GET OUT OF HERE YOU SICK FREAK!" That was the best. I was on the floor. To classic!

    Then we have the Hardcore title match which would provide us all with entertainment through out the night. Nice finish with Spike winning it. Maven REALLY got a big pop for who he is and all. I mean seriously, he was probably so in awe that he was fighting there_imagine the guys backstage who are under contract not at the show? It's a good thing Maven has a normal size head and good attitude that he's liked backstage or else!

    Then out of ALL the singing that went on, this was the one I didn't mind. Drowning pool's new song that highlighted the Jericho/Steph/Triple H feud actually caught the feel of the feud PERFECTLY! I want to download that highlight real as it was great but the music once again killed the crowd.

    Backstage we then saw Hurricane win the title in hilarious fashion after Al Snow with a HUGE smile on his face plowed through all those boxes! Great showing as he flew in, pinned Spike then flew away! That had the crowd laughing.

    Then the moment I was waiting for. Kurt Angle made his way down and ripped into Canada for their gold medal troubles at the Olympics! Hell, I'm Canadian but I loved it. The "You Suck" chants were some of the biggest of the night! Angle is REALLY over everywhere! The match with Kane was great, even though the finish seemed a little off! Nice to see Angle pull out the win!

    Once again the comedy relief of the hardcore title livened up the fans! Believe me, with the singles matches without gimmicks there weren't THAT many pops during matches so it sounded kinda dead, these backstage things really brought the crowd up at times. Hurricane spying on the Godfathers Hoe's, that was great.

    Flair VS Taker let me admit was WAY better than I thought it would be. These two put their all into it, and even though we were cracking jokes at how Taker couldn't lift Flair to do the Last Ride, he did a good job through out the match with Flair at their age and came out with a good one. 10-0, so props there to Taker, but he really no sold the chair and pipe shots_coulda worked on that.

    The crowd loved the Booker T interview, and Edge got a REALLY big pop. This guy is totally going to be a top player in the WWF in a year or two. His theme song is also on my list of favourites! The match was really good between these two, and the finish was great! Overall one of the matches of the night here!

    And then backstage Molly beats Hurricane and the crowd loved it! Skipping ahead it was CLASSIC when Christian decked Molly out with the door, then pinned her to leave Mania as a champion, even though Maven would roll him up and take off in Christians taxi as champion! Classic all night Hardcore feud. Great job with that!

    They really spread out the main events as I didn't expect to see Austin/Hall this soon. AWESOME match I thought with these two, even though Austin really beat them both down. Great stuff all together with an ORIGINAL Austin ending with TWO stunners one, right after the other! Great entertainment, although I thought Hall may win it!

    Then the tag team match came on. Out of 68,000 fans, 67, 998 people HATED Chuck and Billy, the two that didn't were my buddy and me. We cheered them the whole time and it was great. We thought during it that we should have made head bands with our names on them for the show. But we're going to do that for RAW when it comes in May!

    The biggest shock of the night came next when Hogan and Rock started. I had thought this would be the main event, but nope, it was coming up next. The fans were SO pumped, you could feel it. Hogan came out, then Rock. The fans loved it but HATED The Rock. I swear, we cheered him and I'm sure about 20,000 people did too, but you can't hear that many people! He was just booed like CRAZY! Either way, to be there live for this match was amazing. No words can put into it the feeling that the building had. It was classic. I give credit to both these men. Hogan for passing on the torch, and Rock for making this match as great as it was by selling the little offence Hogan does have and making it a real match. Both men put on a great showing.

    Then after the match the Wrestlemania turn happened. This year, Hogan turned face. The n.W.o beat him down and the people around us were pissed cause they liked Hogan and wanted him to stay n.W.o. Rock came back down to slightly more cheers and saved Hogan. Then Hogan did his posing which was a classic moment and in the end this whole segment was amazing. The pops were SO loud and Wrestlemania should have ended with that to me. I'm saying this because I was there, and the feeling after it was just like the show had ended.

    Then the womens title match. What? Yes that's right. The WWF booked this match after the `match of the century.' Why? I don't know. The fans didn't care and Jazz won so REALLY the match had no point.

    The main event was great. I felt REALLY bad for these two men as honestly, I can tell you from being through the Hogan/Rock match that the fans were EXHAUSTED! We couldn't cheer anymore if we wanted too. They didn't get a lot of pops and nobody was really into it. People actually started LEAVING during it? I mean this is Wrestlemania and it costs a lot to get tickets and people on the floor were leaving! It was nuts! Great match, and good finish and all, but wow_we were totally burnt out. So sorry to Triple H and Jericho for that!

    Overall the show was amazing. Everything that happened was great and I think it was one of the best Wrestlemania's ever. It was a FACE PPV as all basically good prevailed in most parts. Backlash lives up to it's name and is where the heels get their revenge at most points!

    In my opinion though, this was greatly done and all the wrestlers deserve a lot of credit for doing so well! I can't wait for tickets to go on sale this Saturday for RAW in May. I'm aiming for some good seats at that one!

    A RAW quick note:

    Now it's getting REALLY late on Monday night. 3:22am right now to be exact and I'm kinda getting tired and I have class in about 6 hours so I'd better speed this up. I won't do a RAW review or anything like that I just wanted to say that this RAW was one of the best RAW's I've seen in a while personally! I mean it set up everything great, and I cannot WAIT until the draft now! I mean the start of RAW was classic as Rock/Hogan have the most amazing chemistry together and it was just a great show all around. Next week will be one for the ages if the draft turns out! Also we could see the end of Steph on TV! BIG Raw next week!

    What do the people have against their champion?



    Okay, now I've noticed this since The Rock came into the WWF, and it has always been around. People hate The Rock. Do they hate the character? Do they hate Dwayne? Do they just hate that he's so popular? Or do they love to hate him?

    I don't know.

    I mean that, I honestly couldn't tell ya! To me, I think the Rock is hilarious. He's great in the ring even though he doesn't have the BIGGEST amount of moves, he's entertaining as hell in there. He has amazing promo's even if he does repeat things at times. Why wouldn't he? They're popular! I mean, it's not like he just says "What!?"

    Rock is an Icon. There is no denying that. He made wrestling sports entertainment basically. He helped the WWF stay afloat during the year of no Austin, the year people thought the WWF would drop down. He is a great heel and a great face. Not many people can pull off both. Now there's a question, do the fans just want Rock to go heel? I don't think so.

    I just don't think WWF fans are ever happy. Triple H won the World Title last night and EVERYONE wanted that basically. I checked this board when I got home and saw that people were bitching because he beat Jericho even with a bad leg so they screwed up him being hurt as an angle_..WHAT?! Screw that. Not all fans are like this, but internet fans will NEVER be happy and only know how to bitch. I know this. I've seen it. It's a fact.

    The Rock is hated and people want him to go heel so they can cheer him as a heel. Well, why not cheer him as a face? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, anyone can boo anyone! The Rock was booed a lot in Canada this week, but that doesn't bug him. I don't really get why people hate The Rock so much as he is an entertaining guy_is it that he's so big that he shouldn't be so loved? Is he becoming stale with his face run? Well when he goes heel, everyone will just WAIT for the moment when he turns face again or complain at how bad of a heel he is. How he used to be able to win cleanly, but now needs to cheat to win.

    Why do the fans hate The Rock? Well a lot don't. But since this weekend in Canada it'll be interesting to see what happens when the WWF hit's the states again_if this reaction keeps up we may get our wish of a heel Rock! Yup, the fans wish will come true, well that is until it happens and we wonder why the WWF had the Rock join the n.Wo. Or whatever does happen, because the people_The Rock's people_are only happy when they get their way, and because their way changes every time they get what they wanted, the people are just never happy.

    The Tournament of Icons: Round 2



    Well the first round was a shocker to say the least! It was a close race for one match, and the rest were pretty much blown out of the water. The winner's are_.

    Shawn Michaels beat the Rock to advance.
    Andre beat Sting to advance.
    Bret Hart beat Bruno to advance.
    And Steve Austin beat Hogan by ONE vote to advance.

    Before round two people were asking where Flair was in this tourny. Well in the first votes for who would be in it Flair JUST lost out to Bruno for the spot. It was close, but if Flair had of gone in, he could have taken it all! But still_.here is round 2! Remember, this is for who did the most for wrestling! Who brought the WWF to a new level, who helped keep the WWF going on its rise to the top during his time, who brought Wrestling up a notch, and was the man of his time_not just the biggest name.

    Bret Hart VS Andre The Giant
    Steve Austin VS Shawn Michaels

    Alright, well email your votes to BrendanAngle@hotmail.com and we'll see who moves to the finals for next week!

    Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this edition of last Monday!! Email thoughts and comments to BrendanAngle@hotmail.com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can! Hope you all have a great week!

    Until next week,

    The People's Writer
    Brendan Campbell




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