First of all, if you are in the Baltimore area, I highly recommend using the Metro trains to get to the event. Parking is free at most stations and for a total cost of $6.20 round trip my Son and I were able to make it to the Arena from Western Maryland in about 30 minutes. Well worth the time and savings in both gas used and parking fees.

We get to the arena about an hour and half before showtime, and the lobby of the arena is PACKED. I’m guessing most folks arrived early as an ice storm was on its way, and nobody wanted to take a chance on sliding around I-95 during rush hour?? The crowd seemed pretty quiet compared to the group gathered before Backlash. Maybe it was the cold temps keeping things quiet, but there wasn’t the usual Ric Flair “Woooooo” that seems to always be present prior to the show. Folks just kind of standing around waiting to get in, no real excitement in the air. The gates to the seating area finally opened an hour before showtime and being complete marks, we immediately head over to the souvenir stand. After dropping $60 on T-shirts and a hat for my son (1 Triple H Shirt, 1 HBK shirt and a DX baseball cap) we head to the floor to take our seats. Great seats by the way, 4th row, just to the left of the announce table.

The crowd still seemed unusually quiet. No spontaneous chants, no “wooooo”. Finally the warm up match started with Kung Funaki vs. some jobber from England. I got a good laugh as a portion of the crowd began chanting “USA, USA, USA” for Funaki? What? I guess as long as the heel is foreign the “USA” chant can be used for any face, no matter the nationality?

ECW was on first and it was a lot of fun. I’m not a huge fan of the Sci-Fi networks only wrestling program, but this got the crowd on its feet. Folks still love The Hardy Boys. Matt Hardy got one of the biggest pops of the night. Tons of signs for both Hardy Boys, mostly held by teenage girls who screamed constantly whenever a Hardy was in the ring. I was shocked at the huge heat Matt Stryker drew live. It was “good heat” and he played it to the max. Hornswoggle was worth the price of admission for me, but then I’ve been a mark for Hornswoggle since his debut. The crowd was on its feet for a good portion of the show, and whatever worries I had about a dead crowd were soon laid to rest.

The conversion from ECW to Smackdown was fairly quick. I was fascinated watching the ring crew scurry around changing the ring apron and ropes.

Onto Smackdown. When Jeff Hardy came out with the title to start the show, it was amazing, the fireworks, the confetti, the noise, noise, noise (sorry watched “The Grinch” last night) was deafening. The crowd was super hot for Hardy’s title win. The place really felt electric….that was up until we learned that the main event would be Hardy vs. Kozlov. Talk about a turd in the punchbowl. I guess everyone was hoping it would be Hardy vs. HHH, or Hardy vs. Edge, or Hardy vs….well just about anybody else. Kind of a deflated reaction to say the least.

The card was okay, nothing spectacular; if you want details, check out the “news” portion of TWNP. One thing to note. When we attended “Backlash” and other house shows, the evening ran about 2 to 2 and half hours. With this taping, because of ECW things kicked off at 6:45 and ran until about 10:30, basically 3 and half hours. Folks were pretty excited through the night, but let’s face it, even as a die hard wrestling fan, I was getting kind of pooped out after 2 and half hours. Throw in a fairly boring Carlito match, and a women’s match and I was ready to pack it in. Plenty of folks left right after the main event, so they didn’t see the “dark” match of Undertaker vs. The Big Show in a steel cage. I was a little worried watching this match. The Steel Cage was obviously one they carry around the country to use for practice or dark matches only. This thing was held together by some old looking iron “T” bars; it was bashed and bent, and just looked like it wouldn’t stand up to 300lb and 400lb men slamming into it. There were times I thought this thing was going to come crashing down on the first row when Big Show slammed into it. I would say the beat up cage definitely added a new element of excitement to the match, I was just hoping neither man would get hurt. I hope Show and Taker are up to date on their tetnus shots??!

I do know Vince is trying to make his wrestling product more “kid friendly” and it seems to be working as about 30% of the audience was under 15. Tons of kids everywhere, which was cool, as my 10 year old son fit right in. But maybe pass the “family friendly” memo onto Big Show who threatened to “Slap the S**t” out of a “F**king B**ch” during the match. I got a good laugh out of it, but there were plenty of folks around me who seemed “displeased” to say the least. (I figure if you are taking your kids to watch good old American violence…you shouldn’t get too upset if things venture into “R” rated territory now and again).

So overall it was a great time. Say what you will about the current wrestling product from WWE, but they have yet to disappoint me when seeing a live show. These guys are at the top of their game, and put on one hell of a show.

I’m out of here for a couple weeks, and wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.