Welcome to another edition of Kay's Korner.
As 2007 came to a close and I mean literally to a close, I just could not resist writing about my 'Last Raw of 2007' experience. For those of you that watched Raw on the last day of the year of 2007, I just want to tell you that I was there. I watched the last Raw of 2007, live and in person on December 29, 2007, and I loved every single minute of it! I had my best friend Tammy with me and while I could just go on and on about how great it was, how special it was, & how meaningful it was to me; that would really just kind of dull the experience. I wanted, excuse me, let me rephrase myself, needed, to give you more of an idea what it was like in Greensboro, NC that night but better yet, why don't I just take you on a little journey of mine that started back in September 2007.
I live in Sevierville, TN while my best friend lives in Hays, NC. Now, for those of you that are not familiar with those particular geographic locations, my best friend and I are approximately (while taking into account traffic which can vary from trip to trip), 4 hours from each other. Time spent together is very much limited now while 'back in the good ole' days', we were spending at least 3 evenings together (watching wrestling, no less!) Now, we are lucky to get a few hours in over the holidays with a few two hour visits in between. I have to be honest, the distance between Tammy & I is the most that it has ever been, but it has definitely brought us even closer (as if that was possible!).
Now, Tammy was at my house visiting for the weekend at the same weekend that the Greensboro tickets are on sale. We are sitting around in our pajamas (no less) and had been talking about purchasing the tickets for several weeks now. (Now, I'm not going to go completely in detail about how I turned my best friend into a wrestling fanatic because that is definitely a column in the making. Let's just say that Greensboro, NC has a very special meaning as far as wrestling goes and one day soon, I'm totally going to tell you the entire story.) Our husbands are out and about while we are left at home with two kids and internet access.... what are two girls to do?
Well, the kids were playing together rather nicely and we decided just to see what kind of tickets that we could get 'if' we were going. To be totally honest, we both knew that we were going but we still had to play the 'game'. The first thing we attempted to do was call Ticketmaster. We kept getting a busy signal. For an hour and a half, we were getting a busy signal. We were starting to get very frustrated. We finally decided that the telephone was not the way to go. We had gotten on ticketmaster.com and thought we had really good tickets. As we started to attempt to buy the tickets, my dial up decided to start causing problems due to how long it was taking it to load. We lost what we thought were good tickets. Tammy looked at me and said, "Let's try one more time....."
Folks, I'm here to tell you that sometimes if you wait just that little bit, it can make all the difference in the world. We hit Section 111 Row B. We knew exactly where these seats were and we wanted them so bad that we could taste them. Like a well-oiled veteran tag-team, she called out the numbers to her card while I frantically keyed them in. We wanted those tickets, we had to have those tickets, and by stars, we were going to get those tickets!
Sure enough, we got those tickets!
Time seemed to slowly creep by and slowly but surely time went by. Before I knew it, it was the first of December and I still had not told my husband that I had tickets for Raw in Greensboro, NC on December 29, 2007. I am going to be honest and tell you that my work knew about it before my husband did. I know, that is so wrong on so many different levels that it is not even funny, but if you have read any of my columns (and if you haven't, I strongly suggest that you do!), then you know that as much as I love wrestling, my husband hates it with an equal passion. I decided to wait as long as I possibly could because the longer I waited; the less I would have to hear him bitch about it. I did eventually break down and tell him the first weekend of December as I really and truly needed to. (Hey, he is my husband!) To my surprise, he really took it rather well. (Hey, I'm brutally honest with my husband. I straight up told him that I would rather hear him bitch for a few weeks than hear him bitch about it for a few months. I have to say that he actually kind of respected that. It wasn't that I was hiding it from him; it is just that I know exactly how he feels about wrestling because I hear about it on a regular basis).
Christmas came and went so quickly that I could hardly believe it. We left TN on December 23, 2007 heading for Richlands, VA for my mother-in-law's family get together. Then we left that family reunion and headed for NC. (Three states in one day is pretty tiring people; we are talking about 7 hours minimum in the car.) We spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas morning with Gary's family. I left on Christmas knowing that I would be back on December 28, 2007.
Now, I just want to say that as an extra bonus, I got to see my mom and my niece on their shared birthday which is December 28. Neither one of them knew that I was coming but my dad did and bless his heart, he tried his best not to tell mom and to his credit, he did not. (My mom got kind of irritated by it but my dad did keep my coming down a secret, just like I had asked. Thank you very much dad!) I spent the night at my parent's house that Friday night and left around 1:45 pm (after bankrupting my nephew J.D. at electronic Monopoly).
I was meeting Tammy at her mama's house due to the fact that she had to work for a while that day. Tammy’s mom was watching her son Cody and while he knew we were going to see wrestling, he seemed to be okay with us leaving. It was almost as if he couldn’t wait for us to leave so that he could have his Ma-maw to himself.
We finally hit the road and while driving, we started reminiscing about the trips to Greensboro, NC before this one. I have to say that we didn’t run out of anything to talk about which is something that Tammy & I have never had a problem with. It was just really nice having some one-on-one girl time without screaming husbands and children around to take our attentions away from each other.
As always, we stopped at Chili’s to eat which is right near the Greensboro Coliseum. We sat there enjoying some really good food and some really good company. We really didn’t think that it could get any better than that until the manager slipped us a piece of paper. She told us that it was a survey on our server and if we filled it out (without the server seeing it) we would get our meal at 50% off. Needless to say, eating at Chili’s for less than $7 and having an appetizer to boot made the night even more exciting.
We finally left Chili’s and decided to go ahead to the Greensboro Coliseum which was just right down the road. After paying the ‘outrageous’ price for parking, we found a really good parking space and slid right on in. We always like to get there early to see the other fans getting pumped up as they are getting out of their cars. We sat there for a few minutes taking the environment in before finally going inside.
Now, as I have said before, we have been there and done that so much that we knew the drill by heart and then some. We found a nice cushy bench inside and sat down. They weren’t going to open the doors to the Coliseum until 7:15 so why just stand there when we could sit? We sat there watching the fans line up and enjoying chatting as only girls can. Finally the line started to move letting us know that they had finally opened the doors. We walked up the steps and started the long trek to the inside. Here’s one amazing thing that every wrestling fan that has never been to a live show needs to know to keep from going crazy, if nothing else.
Wrestling fans will talk to anybody and everybody. You can try and have a conversation with the person that you came with but the fans around you are listening and they will talk to you. It’s actually a very friendly environment that sometimes can get on your nerves. Tammy and I were just chatting away and we had interjections from what we like to call ‘know it all’ fans who really don’t know what they are talking about. It’s all good because at least we did have some entertainment on the way in.
We found our seats (but then again, having already been there several times, we knew where they were.) As we sat down admiring our seats, I couldn’t help but notice the young man sitting next to me. Thru conversations that lasted thru the night, I found out that his name was ‘Dre’ and that he was 8 years old. He was such a great person to be sitting next to and he talked to me the entire night.
Having been a childhood fan myself, I knew exactly the excitement that he was feeling. We absolutely had a great time with Dre and I really wish that I would have thought to take a picture with him. He was so excited at times and man, that kid can dance just like Jeff Hardy, which he did every time Jeff’s music hit. When Melina’s music hit, he jumped up and started hitting me and his mom (seated on the other side of him) on the arm saying, “She’s going to do the split… she’s going to do the split!” He was such a great fan and he knew just about as much as I did about wrestling. (Come on now, I’m 36 and he’s 8! He knows some but not all!)
The one thing that really and truly sticks out in my mind was when Vince came to the ring. Dre yelled out, “Vince likes cocks!” Mom, who I understood at that moment to not watch wrestling, asked her son what he had said. I decided to intervene on my young friend’s behalf because he is young. (He really and truly thought that when DX started the whole ‘Vince likes cocks’ thing that they were talking about chickens.) I quickly told mom what the ‘real’ deal was and while she seemed satisfied with the answer, she really didn’t care much for her son saying that and I can completely and totally understand that.
The night went on and the crowd was just so pumped for Ric Flair. Come on now peeps, NC, SC, VA, & GA are definitely Flair country. Don’t doubt it. It really & truly is the absolute truth. Flair has done so many amazing things in his career in those areas that to not say that would be a travesty! All night long the ‘Woo’ chants were all around the Coliseum. For those of us in attendance, it was an amazing experience.
The show went on and at the end, there’s always a special match that is not televised. We got to see Chris Jericho & Jeff Hardy against JBL & Randy Orton. After the match, Chris & Jeff stayed for a good 30 minutes hanging out with the fans around ringside. They took pictures and happily signed autographs which always bring a smile to my face. It is moments like that, that warm the heart and make you more of a wrestling fan.
Tammy & I left the Coliseum and headed to an undisclosed location. I’m not trying to hide anything about what happened after that but what happened is a special moment that is between Tammy and I. I will tell you that we didn’t leave Greensboro until 1:30 am and that we had the time of our lives. Tammy said it best when as we were (finally) leaving Greensboro back to her house, she said, “This is just like the good old days when it was just me and you doing our wrestling thing.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself and while a small part of me is dying to tell you what happened, I am going to refrain from it. What happened afterward was extremely special for Tammy and I so I’m just going to savor that as one of the many of ‘Tammy & Kay’s moments.’ I (See Tammy, I can keep secrets I could have told that one little thing that I'm dying to tell but I didn't!)
That’s it for this edition of Kay’s Korner. Thank you so very much for stopping by in my ‘neck of the woods’. I really hope that you all have enjoyed reading this column as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Any and all feedback is welcomed (and very much encouraged)! Just send it to lilwrestlegrl@yahoo.com and if you would, please put Column Feedback in the subject line. I don’t check my e-mail every day but rest assured, if you write me, I will write you back! Until next time, may God keep you all safe and blessed!
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