Wednesdaymania 23: Global Wars Lewiston

So, I went to a show!

And it was AWESOME.

My day started early - I woke up around 9AM, got myself ready and watched the thermometer rise to over 50℉ (~10℃). Had some coffee, got my ticket situated, and threw on a green flannel shirt. I figured "Meh, it's the 50s, I'll be fine". I was wrong, but more on that later!

So noon rolls around and Z shows up at my doorstep with our recently married Wrestling Friendos and we're heading out from the midcoast area to Lewiston. That's about a 1.5 hour drive. What's wrong with this picture?

The gates don't open until 5:30PM.

So we're in Lewiston, waiting around. We grab some pizza at a microscopic Pizza Hut and head back to the Colisée to wait it out.

Like I said - we were really, really early.

There's a school just down the road, and we just kinda... sat there... watching a bunch of parents pick up their kids and turn around in the Colisée parking lot. Eventually, though, we got bored and went for a brief walk around the building. Lewiston is pretty rough right now - it's not as awful as I was warned, but it's clearly not getting the funding it needs, and we were seeing some pretty run-down tenement-style buildings and wonky park fences as we wandered. At this point, the Friends were ahead of Z & me, and one of them pointed out a white SUV passing us.

"That was Cody (Rhodes)"

And it was! Unfortunately, Z missed the sighting, and all I saw was the rear bumper. I did, however, notice a trio of guys unloading bags from another white SUV. It wasn't until I watched the latest Being the Elite ("Possessed") That I realized that they were SCU! SCU! Which was pretty cool. We got back to the car and hung out for a bit - you'd expect the Colisée to be a Pokemon Go Gym or Pokestop, but no such luck. We did have one more sighting: Cheeseburger wound his way into our section of parking lot in yet another white rental car. I think he hadn't yet figured out where the other wrestlers were parked. That was pretty cool, too :) (He eventually went around the back where the others were). I ran out of Pokeballs around the same time most of us ran out of room in our bladders.

It turned out to be a $10 bathroom break, because by the time we got back from the nearest Hannaford, they'd cordoned off one of the entrances and were charging for parking. Boo.

Anyway, we eventually started wandering the parking lot. There was a trio of people also wandering the lot, one of whom was holding a Daryl Takahashi doll, which was awesome. We got to talking and they turned out to be from Halifax and had driven over 7 hours to come to the show. Their friends and family were very concerned about them being in Lewiston. Unfortunately, I'm dumb and didn't take pictures or names from them, so Z actually had to find the gentleman by accident on Twitter looking up pictures later!

So Giantofold & friends, thanks for hanging out with a weird sextet of weirdos from the midcoast while we waited for several hours in ~5℃ without coats.

Of course, waiting outside for hours and watching the weird podcast guys with their stand microphone get let in before you is always hard on the bladder, so after we got inside, we all needed the bathrooms. Thing is, they were doing meet-and-greets with the wrestlers everywhere, so we ended up passing Kushida and Naito on our ill-fated attempts to find our seats.

It was really hard, guys. It's hard to find your seats during the Meet & Greets. It's also hard to focus on anything when it's wall-to-wall people (or at least, that's what it felt like to me). I never used to have severe social anxiety, but once I hit middle school, it started creeping in. At this point, even family gatherings, which I used to love, have become difficult for me. So of course I went and acted like an butthole to Z, who'd paid my entire way. Because I'm a butthole.

Anyway, the first picture I took inside the Colisée was of the bathroom stall because I didn't want to take pictures of wrestlers without their permission (and I didn't have $30-$40 to spend on pictures!).

"Smoke ganja be free ☮"
Poetry.

Interestingly, the first attempt we made to get to our seats got us directly in the way of Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks. Seriously, if you think these guys are poised and awesome on tv, they're incredible up close. I would vote for Cody Rhodes no matter what party he ran on. What. The. Heck. The man is a wall of charisma.

We quickly realized this was the line for their $40 Meet & Greet. Which we had neither paid for nor (in my case) could pay for. I had exactly $15 in my pocket. Which wasn't even enough for a t-shirt.

Regardless, we eventually found our seats. Right next to the ramp and right behind the ring. Perfect for getting close to wrestlers! We'd traded seats with our friends, because this was one of their's first show, and we wanted them to be able to get as close as possible! It helped that we were the innermost four seats on the second row. Then a huge guy sat in front of the friends we'd switched with and I groaned. Of course the guy in front of our first-timer friend would be a giant in every regard. Fortunately, there were workarounds, and our friend got to enjoy the show!

In my case, well... here's what it looked like before people really started getting seated:

Yeah baby, 2nd row all the way!

What I didn't realize, however, was that I'd be on the hard camera. Fortunately, I'm about three feet tall (exaggeration, I'm 5'3"), so you mostly see my head, but still. If you see someone with a notebook in their mouth, that's me. So much for internet anonymity.

Anyway, you guys want to know about the show!

Our first match was a Dark Match. We cheered the ref. We cheered the announcer. We cheered the ring crew. We cheered on the wrestlers!


RETROSEXUAL ANTHONY GREENE VS RYAN NOVA

I didn't know who either of these guys were, but RetroAG is working with Limitless, a promotion out of Maine, so of course I'm rooting for the heel (but quietly, because I'm a Mark and I'm supposed to cheer for the face, who was Ryan Nova).

Sadly, this is the best picture I took of this match!

If you want a better look at what Greene looked like coming out to the ring (with his Hunnies), then behold this link.

This was a really good match! Both of these guys were fantastic, and the generally chilly (and sparse) crowd warmed up to them really fast. I had a guy next to me who was whining for the first few matches about how he hated good sportsmanship? Whatever. People suck.

Good match!


FLIP GORDON VS ELI ISOM

I had no idea who Eli Isom was until the day before we went to Lewiston, but he's good. He's really, really good. And I'm a huge Flip Gordon Mark, so this was going to be awesome no matter what!

I had to futz with this a bit, so hopefully you can tell that this was after Flip won.
Also, the crowd went nuts for Flip.

Seriously, y'all, Flip Gordon is incredible.


SCU VS THE BOUNCERS

I was both dreading and looking forward to this match. I don't like big-man fights. I'm just not a hossfight kind of person! Yet: these two played really well of Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky. Seriously - there was a moment where one of the Bouncers was gnawing on one of the SCU guys and the ref told him to knock it off. "I can't bite him, I ain't got teeth!" the bouncer replied.

Great time. SCU gave Maine a shoutout (or shoutdown as they tend to). When they said Lewiston was the worst town, I hollered "We know! We're sorry!" And Kazarian popped Z by talking and acting like Razor Ramon, taking off imaginary gold and demanding that the ref & ring crew be very careful with it.

This move looked painful. I loved it.

SCU!

CHEESEBURGER VS JEFF COBB

A little background: Cheeseburger is a twig. Jeff Cobb is a mountain. That is all. Also, this match was incredible and hilarious! Cheeseburger tried gripping Cobb's leg to hold him still and nearly ended up being thrown across the universe. It was amazing.

Cheeseburger atop his teammates!

Jeff Cobb looking like a million bucks

slightly blurry with TypeQQ's head in the way.
'Sup TypeQQ?

For reference, the dude on the left is Cheeseburger.
And that's kinda...
It's a David & Goliath match.

But you knew from move 1 that David was not winning.
And he didn't.
Or rather, Cheeseburger didn't :P

Fun as heck!


DALTON CASTLE & THE BOYS VS THE KINGDOM

The Kingdom has a connection to Maine via Matt Taven, who is from this state. And boy has Taven got something special. Wrestling is one of the few things Maine tends to get right - we produced Scotty 2 Hotty, Fandango, and Matt Taven. We educated D-Lo Brown. It's a pretty darn decent state, when you get down to it.

We boo'd the crap outta Taven (he was a heel) and he still came out victorious. It was great!

Also, I did not remember that Castle's Boys made Mario sounds when they fought.

Taven is a beast!

Now, there was one other part to this match that was highly notable: one of the Boys went below the ring and vanished for a bit, but when he came up, he had a Freddy Kreuger sweater on and was acting like his hand was possessed. Unfortunately, the guy in front of me had his phone in the way so I couldn't take pictures of this bit, but it was amazing. The Boy went bananas on the Kingdom and could've won the match for the Dalton Castle team, but... Castle was terrified of what was happening.

"What have you become?! Get that off!" He cried to his Boy. The Boy began panicking and throwing the sweater off and the two shared a moment in the ring. It was awesome. Everything rocked about this match!


THE BRISCOES VS CODY & HANGMAN PAGE

Oh man. I hate the Briscoes, but I would sit through anyone else just to see Cody & Hangman!

Now, sadly, I didn't get many (read: any) pictures of this match because once it started, it was a million miles an hour and the guys in front of me were in the way too much. Part of that is because the lovely Brandi Rhodes began menacing the Briscoes with a chair. Meanwhile, the Briscoes actually showed up to wrestle (which I haven't seen in a while). It was amazing.

Little did we know, however, that in the blue-and-white men's room & locker room area, Cody was fighting another battle.

The man is literally possessed. Uh. Kayfabe. In Being the Elite. By HHH. I think.

Regardless, I'm so glad that his knee waited to tear after he'd left the state, though the fact that we were less than a block away from a hospital definitely might have benefited him...

During this match, the power briefly went down. We'd heard rumors that Marty Scurll could've been backstage, so there were many whoop-whoops from the crowd, but alas, it was not so. The power had merely gone out. It was pretty cool how quickly fans got their flashlight apps running, though!

It absolutely broke TypeQQ's heart that his beloved Hangman lost to the Briscoes, though :P

(I wasn't exactly chuffed myself. Still don't like the Briscoes, even if they can be incredible wrestlers...)


JUICE ROBINSON VS CHRISTOPHER DANIELS

I. Love. These. Guys.

It was impossible to choose who to root for! Unfortunately, I couldn't get any clear pics of Daniels' face, so... enjoy.

That's the best one I have of Daniels. It makes him look like Kazarian...

Best pic on my camera, no joke. I only touched it up a tiny bit!

Amazing match, crowd was on fire, 10/10


SILAS YOUNG & BULLY RAY VS THE YOUNG BUCKS

Huh. I just realized that the Elite lost their matches. Both of them.

Also, this is the match where I nearly lost my voice. I gave Bully hell.

Another pretty decent pic!
Too bad it's of Silas :P

I wish people would take their stupid hats off at shows...

The Colisée went nuts

They asked us at the start of the show not to throw "pets or first-born children" into the ring.
People could still chuck streamers though.

Pretty sure this guy's pics are much better than mine.

But Which Jackson?

The power went out during this match, too, but by this point, people were 100% prepared.

Energy in Maine is notoriously dirty, unfortunately. It's too bad there weren't more generators prepared to take up the slack.


MAIN EVENT:
LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON VS  CHRIS SABIN, JONATHAN GRESHAM, JAY LETHAL, & KUSHIDA

This is the match everyone was there to see. It brought us to the dance. 8 geniuses, 1 ring, 0 holds barred.

Without further ado, I present the best pictures I took during this match:

Most of these will involve Evil, because he's Z's favorite.

Also one of the easiest guys to take pics of!

Sanada

Bushi

NAITO!

Sanada Again

100% Swag.

Jay freakin Lethal!

Here we see Sabin, Kushida, & Lethal with Gresham's kneepad.

LOS INGOBERNABLES

Sanada v Gresham to start.

Sabin v Evil

Gresham's called the Octopus for a reason, guys.

Brawl to the outside with Sabin & Naito!

More Evil for Z

More Kushida for our friend ;)

More Sanada because I wanted to

I told you he was called The Octopus for a reason!

Of course Naito's final address sent us home happy.
He's a boss.

¡Los Ingobernables Siempre!

What a fantastic show!

Now, they basically tossed us the second the show ended, which was kind of annoying, since a lot of us had to meet back up and run to the bathrooms again.

We concluded the evening with burgers at a half-renovated McDonalds and I wound up home just after midnight. I could have lived in the moments between bells, though. I could have happily stayed in my seat, crammed between Z and the guy next to me, watching these amazing people in the ring forever.

If you get the chance to go to an ROH show (or any other wrestling show) do it.

That's all for me today!

Go Enjoy Something!