There’s only one place where you can see grown men beat the hell out of each other without getting bruised and girls roll around in their lingerie for the fun of it. That place is, of course, the WWE. The traveling road show of mayhem made a pit stop in Milwaukee Monday night for its “Raw” program. The crowd was as diverse as the activities that took place during the live TNN telecast to the millions (“and millions”) of viewers across the country.
The crowd was an interesting hybrid of families, drunk hillbillies and even a few intellectuals who dissected each match while referencing legendary wrestlers of sports entertainment’s past. The event itself proved how far wrestling has come in the last 10 years.
Forced to drop the “F” which stood for “federation” in the original “WWF” — due to legal wrangling with the World Wildlife Fund — the new company title is the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). Apparently, the legal systems are siding with cute animals instead of wrestlers who act like savage ones.
The new WWE events are more of a spectacle than they were in the past. Pyrotechnics, concert-quality sound, and elaborate lights have replaced a simple ring surrounded by blue mats.
The wrestlers are quite a bit different as well. Raw brand superstars like Triple H and Kane eat as much protein in one meal as the typical college student does in a year. Current WWE champion Brock Lesnar is the human equivalent of a diesel truck. The former NCAA champion from the University of Minnesota was not at this particular event, but there was plenty to keep the crowd busy.
53-year-old Ric Flair kept the crowd busy with his trademarked “Whoo!” throughout the evening, as he pulled double duty and wrestled in two matches. In his first match of the evening, Flair challenged the newly crowned “Raw champion” Triple H to a match. Unfortunately, Flair ended the match with his face slammed into the mat as he was pinned by the excessively muscular Raw champion.
In one of the high points of the night for the males in attendance, Stacy Keibler wrestled Terri in a “lingerie pillow-fight match.” Dressed in very little, the two divas battled it out on a mat of red velvet with a small bed in the middle of the ring. After a victory by Terri, Keibler knocked out her conqueror, covered her in a sticky tar-like substance and poured feathers all over the fallen diva. The crowd roared in approval at the ridiculous sight.
Earlier in the evening, Test, a mammoth wrestler, part of a group that calls itself the “Un-Americans,” tried to burn the American flag in the middle of the ring. Fortunately, a massive Texan named Bradshaw stormed the ring and prevented the traumatic event from occurring.
In the night’s main event, Ric Flair re-emerged in a tag team with Rob Van Dam to wrestle Triple H and Chris Jericho. When Triple H tried to use his title as a weapon against Van Dam, Triple H ended up getting knocked out when the title belt was kicked into his face.
Van Dam then made a leap off the top rope as he executed his “Five-Star Frog Splash” and scored the pin against Triple H.
As the crowd roared and deafening music filled the Bradley Center, the fans raced out of the arena to make their way home. With Labor Day over, most were headed back to their daily wrestle with school and work, but the WWE Raw event provided them with an opportunity to lose themselves for a few hours in a spectacle of entertainment.
