Garth 0 Report post Posted June 3, 2003 Commentary Every Cloud Has a silver lining June 3,2003 I get asked many times, if wrestling is still fun or if it has become a job just like any other. I usually say that it is both. There are times at which this is the greatest job on Earth and times where it really tries your sanity. This weekend was both, a perfect example, if you will, of the aforementioned cloud and silver lining. The cloud of this job is of course the travel. I’ve gone on about the trials and tribulations of life on the road many times so I will spare you the details and just hit the key point. I HATE FLYING! It’s not that I have a fear of flying, I just hate the airline industry and being at their mercy day after day. This week it is more like day after day after day after… Check this out: I left home on Saturday it took me 2 flights to get to Portland, OR. Sunday I took 2 more flights to get to Albuquerque, NM. Monday it was 1 more flight to San Diego for RAW. Tuesday will be 2 flights home to Calgary. I’m home about 20 hours then it is 2 more flights on Wednesday to get me to Newark, NJ where I will catch our charter flight to England on Thursday. The charter flight stops once for fuel so it’s really like 2 more flights to get me there. We arrive 3:30 Friday morning and work that night. Saturday morning we have another flight to get us to New Castle for the Insurrection PPV. We work Saturday night and fly back Sunday. Sunday is the “2 flight” refueling flight to Miami. We arrive Sunday afternoon and work RAW on Monday. Tuesday I then have my final 2 flights to get me home. All tolled that brings me to 16 flights in 11 days and next Monday is the only one of those days I will not be spending part of my day in the air. My sister in-law works as a flight attendant and she doesn’t even fly that much. I’ll be lucky to return home next week with even a grain of sanity. That’s a pretty cloudy week, but thankfully there was that silver lining. Our show on Saturday was in Portland Oregon, and it was the first WWE show in Portland in 10-years. The state of Oregon has always had a very strict athletic commission whose strict policies made it unfavourable for us to run event there. Those policies have changes and this past Saturday was an incredible show. With such a long absence the people of Portland were starved for WWE Entertainment and showed up in droves. We had just over 15,000 people in the Rose Garden Arena Saturday night and man did that make for a hot crowd. A huge hot crowd is what we all live for. All the travel, the aches and pain don’t seem to matter much when you step through that curtain to 15,000 screaming fans. Matches are easier, bumps don’t hurt as much and it’s what makes doing this job the greatest job on Earth. The only hard part of the night was trying to keep our match short enough. When you work in front of a crowd like that it’s so tempting to have a long match. You’re having fun and the crowd is into everything so you don’t want your match to end. Everyone wants to wrestle a 30-minute match. We had 9 matches that night so it shouldn’t take a mathematical genius to realize that if we all wrestle for 30-minutes you end of with one hell of a long show. (about 5-hours with intermission) I don’t care how big of a wrestling fan you are, no one wants to watch a 5-hour card. This leaves some of us having to try and keep our match under 10-minutes. I was in one of those matches and I’m proud to say we were likely the only match to pull it off. We ended up with a 3 ½ hour show, which in my opinion is too long but what can you do. We love doing our job. With any luck last Saturday won’t be the only silver lining of this, far too cloudy, week. If I can find one more, I might just make it home, not too much the worst for wear. Here’s to finding your own silver linings, Lance Another good read from storm, go check out his site the poll at the moment is worth taking a look at. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LooseCannon25 0 Report post Posted June 3, 2003 Good stuff by Storm again.......the travel life he has is living hell though. With that being said im going to MExico tomorrow.....kinda excited Anyway back to business. it seemslike Portland got a good show and i would never mind 3 and a half hours for a show, but i think hes right when he says 5 hours would be a bit too much. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheFranchise 0 Report post Posted June 3, 2003 New Castle????????? I thought that Insurrection was in Newcastle Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Dynamite Kido Report post Posted June 4, 2003 I don’t care how big of a wrestling fan you are, no one wants to watch a 5-hour card. ummmm....Lance......I would dig that!!!!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
