rnUllfe BY NATE WAGNER STORY BY NEALOdERMEYER
t—
WCW offers surreal
night of alcohol,
sweaty wrestlers,
rowdy fans and
mind less fun
Cheering fans surround the action of
WCW Monday Nitro as Goldberg throws
I. M. Smooth into the ropes.Goldberg
went on to pin Smooth easily, adding
to his winning streak.
Riley Peterson and I start The Official Pro Wrestling
Experience in similar fashion to The Official Thursday
Night Downtown Experience: With two double shots of
vodka, talking about die evening to come.
I want to see Sting. Riley wants to see blood.
While walking to Pershing, I feel a littie sick to my
stomach. Is it nerves or the double vodkas?
The old man at the door looks at our DN press pass
es, looks up at us and asks “Journal Star?”
We pass Crowbar and Daffiiey signing autographs in
the hall, where grown men cut in front of children. The
media seating turns out to be an empty 300-seat section
with cameras and lights.
But first, I see the face paint from across the room. I
see the long black coat It’s STING!!
Actually it’s Jason Kolbo from Lincoln in full Sting
attire. He had camped outside for tickets.
Announcer Dave Penzer attempts to warm up the
crowd. Some guy throws out some free T-shirts. The 10
people who caught them think he’s cool. The other 4,000
don’t
Riley buys his first and last beer for $3.50.
In the bathroom, a drunken man stumbles in and
WHOO!s in Ric Flair fashion. The kid dt the urinal next to
me runs out in fear.
Then, by the ring, the build, the eyebrow... but he
shouldn’t be here! THE ROCK!
Nope. It’s Joe Erdkamp, one ofthe event staff. A friend
of his hooked him up with the job. I asked him if he was
even interested in wrestling. “A little, but I’m more inter
ested in acting,” he says.
Oh, well never mind then. I’ll find someone else.
"In our own way, we all kind of look like wrestlers,”
Dilmr coiic
The media section is a surreal, isolated realm that is
more like watching IMAX wrestling than a live event.
Much of the night is spent watching the big television
screen. It’s a shame the fans at home are missing this.
They have to stare at a much smaller screen.
Many fans hold up their home-made signs. Other
fans hold up their children.
The first live segment includes the unfortunate
return of the character Oklahoma, whose sole purpose is
to taunt us, the horde of identical Husker fans. Sid Vicious
rushes out to the ring in tight stonewashed jeans and a
denim vest. This is what the fans want.
We go to a commercial, and the Nitro Girls come
back. DJ Ran wants to hear us say "Ah-WOOO!” I see
them, and for some reason I can’t help but think of the
Village People. Should I be worried, or should they?
Up there, in section 7... that shaved head, that group
of friends... it’s WADE GOERING, the guy who punched
my best friend in high school! Along with many others in
attendance, he is a WWF fan who just wants to watch
wrestling. And drink beer.
So Elbe Skipper, one of the three American members
ofTeam Canada, takes on Crowbar for the Saskatchewan
Hardcore IntemationalTitle. Because of interference and
crowd hatred of all things Canadian, he can’t win S.H.I.T.
The Cat comes to make fun of announcer Mark
Madden for being fat. Making fun of fat people actually is
quite funny.
At this point, I’m pumped, adrenaline flowing. The
show is going great Either that, or it’s the double vodkas.
I spot Sting in the audience, along with a Jesus and L
Kent Wolgamott They’re not together.
Three Count, the wrestling boy band, comes out to
face Diamond Dallas Page and Kevin Nash. These two
old-timers could
murder puppies
and still get a
huge crowd
reaction, and of
course, they do.
Get a huge
crowd reaction,
that is. No one
wants to see a
good match
here. The fans
want to see a
slaughter and
finishing moves.
A special tin
gle goes down
my spine when I
watch someone
get Diamond
cut. On
Thursday night, I
Diamond-cut
my friend Brian
to show off for a
WCW truck driving through town. He got a special spine
tingle, too.
Reno wrestles next. He’s Italian, and he has a gam
bling gimmick. Ironically, the Jung Dragons are Asian,
and they have a kung-fu gimmick.
Next is the inevitable Goldberg match. The crowd
goes insane, but it takes all of 75 seconds to end.
Goldberg spent more time walking up the ramp than he
did wrestling. And he gets the biggest response of the
night. Maybe it’s because he breathes smoke while stand
ing in big sparklers.
The poignant DJ Ran plays “Smack My Bitch Up,"
while the Nitro Girls dance in cages.
Amber Peterson’s boyfriend bought her a ticket to the
show. I ask her how it feels to be one of the only women in
the building. She scans the area as she replies. “I’m not
the only girl here... ”
acott bteiner makes his way to the nng tor the mam
event. Steins taunts the fans, and they respond by hold
ing up their middle Angers and children.
Steiner wins and then all sorts of stuff goes down. So
much that for the first time in a while I snap out of media
zone and get excited again. What a Anish! I’m ready to go
HOME' No! There’s still another hour or two for the taping
of WCW’s Wednesday night show. And there’s still that
something about sitting in the media section that doesn’t
seem real. The cameras show what we see: one angle of
everything. And so the next 90 minutes are a blur. Blame
it on the section, the length or the Jack Daniels Lynchburg
Lemonade. But there was no longer any point for me or
most of the crowd.
The Jung Dragons (the Asians) wrestle Team Canada.
The crowd chants “USA.” What? Then Alex Wright wres
tles Buff Bagwell, and the crowd chants “Let’s go
Huskers!” Riley yells for them to stop. "You’re confusing
the wrestlers!”
Marilyn Patzlofif is a door guard. She tells me that the
main difference between a wrestling show and a regular
Pershing event is the level of alcohol consumption.
She has worked backstage, where she got to see a lit
tle more of what went on. "To be honest, I wasn’t
impressed,” she says. “To me, it’s a show. It’s not
wrestling.”
TOP: Jeff Jarrett, a 14-year veteran of
professional wrestling, makes an
appearance on WCW Monday Nitro to
wrestle Konnan, armed with his trusty
guitar that doubles as a weapon.
CENTER: Beer-toting WCW Nitro fans
Clint Tress and Brian Boyce cheer dur
ing Monday Nitro held at Pershing
Auditorium. Fans drank beer and
flailed signs in favor of or against the
daunting wrestlers.
BOTTOM: Kevin Nash holds Shannon
Moore of 3COUNT in the comer by chok
ing him with his boot. Nash and
Diamond Dallas Page went on to beat
3C0UNT for the Tag Team title but had
to give back their title belts because of
an error they made in pinning the
wrong man last week on PayPerView.