Thrilla In Manila: My Smackdown & ECW Experience

Several months ago, I learned that the WWE was going to have a live show in my hometown—Manila, Philippines.  And the great part was, that I would be home in time for it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t exactly spoiling to buy a ticket to the show as soon as I learned.  At the time, two of my major favorite wrestlers, Triple H and Jeff Hardy, were on the show.

But there was an impending draft in the WWE so, even though they were initially in the lineup of superstars who were coming, I decided to wait to decide if I was going to buy a ticket until after the draft.

True enough, the top guy on the show, Triple H was drafted to Raw.  Still, I was having second thoughts.  I mean, Jeff Hardy was still there.

Jericho and John Morrison ended up in Smackdown after the draft, and the top heel mainstay, Edge is also there.  But I guess I needed more pushing. 

I got that when I read an article here in b/r, written by AkD.  It was about his “adventure” watching a Smackdown and ECW Live show, which was being taped for TV at the Madison Square Garden.

He was so ecstatic about it, that I could not help but feel…well, jealous.  I wanted to experience that, too.

So, then after a month of contemplation, I decided I wanted to go.  Luckily, information about the event was readily available in the Internet.

The only choice left that I gave myself was whether to buy a ringside ticket or a VIP ticket, which was half the price and five rows behind the closest seat to the ring.

Now, my number one favorite of all the wrestlers today is none other than “The Legend Killer”, “The Viper”, the Third Generation Superstar, Randy Orton. 

And, since he’s on Raw, I didn’t see any reason why I would want to buy a ringside ticket and decided to buy a VIP seat ticket instead.  So I asked my dad to get me a ticket.  (I already paid him back by the way.)

And then several weeks before I was to fly home, I learned that not only was Smackdown coming but ECW, too. 

Little did I know that it was going to be a whole lot more of a steal at the night of the show itself…but let’s not jump too quickly on that part.  There’s still a lot more areas to cover before that.

Then, I started looking for people I can hang around with at the night of the show through the Internet.  I posted an announcement on all four of my most active social networking accounts—MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and Twitter—asking everyone who’d read to contact me if they were going.

And true enough, I found one in Mijiata.  There were actually two, but the second one came at a later date, or rather at the exact date of the event itself.

So, then, everything was ironed out.  I’m flying out of Canada in two weeks, I got my tickets to the Smackdown and ECW show secured a month ago, and I’m in contact with possible company.  I packed my bags and got everything ready.

A couple of days before my flight, something unexpected happened.  This was a week prior to the event.  The top heel superstar on Smackdown, Edge, got injured. 

Learning that, naturally, it made me sad.  He was one of the reasons I wanted to watch the show.  I like heels better, although I support some faces as well.  I just think heels are more interesting and…yeah, I lurrrve bad boys. *wink* 

Mijiata was more affected than I was.  When she learned about it, she kind of has gotten in to a mild depression. Well, that’s what she tells me.

But, although it was a massive loss for us that Edge wasn’t going to make it.  We rest to the fact that we would still have Jeff Hardy. 

So anyway, I left Canada on July 6 and got to Manila on July 8 (Yes, that’s why I wasn’t around).  I stayed in contact with my cohorts via mobile phone since I didn’t have Internet access at that time.

Then, Mijiata told me the night before the event that Jeff wasn’t coming either!  What a travesty that would’ve been! 

We tried to verify it to no avail, until finally I was as depressed as Mijiata upon learning of Edge’s absence.  Imagine how I’d have felt if it was Raw and it had been Orton.  Jesus!

In trying to verify the news, Mijiata called the promoter, the ticket seller, and the WWE itself.  The promoter got pissed off because people keep calling them. 

The ticket seller have no idea what they were talking about, even going as far as telling Mijiata that Edge was going to be in the main event against Jeff Hardy and CM Punk when he was recovering from a surgery just two days ago. 

A certain Adam (no, not Copeland) from the WWE provided assurance that Jeff was going to be in the show.  And all was right in the world again, at least for me.  Mijiata still wanted Edge.

Another guy Mijiata had in contact with was Kervin.  The night before the event he told her that some WWE Superstars were going to be at a local afternoon variety show the next day.

Mijiata asked me if I want to watch it live too.  Of course I did.  But, we haven’t decided for sure if we were going to do it until the next morning.

And that, my dear friends, is when it all happened…the longest day of my friggin’ life. 

It was July 10, at 8 in the morning.  I woke up really excited, packing my bag with paraphernalia I may or may not need like an extra poster board, and markers of different sizes and colors. 

I looked at my outfit for the day: My Jeff Hardy “Immune to Fear” shirt, and a pleated skirt like what former WWE Diva Ashley Massaro used to wear. 

I was having second thoughts about wearing the skirt because I was thinking I might not be able to move freely if I wear that, as, knowing myself, I would probably be running and jumping around during the show. 

So I decided to substitute the skirt to a pair of gray pants that looked kind of like what Jeff Hardy wears (only his is black).

Then I received a message from Mijiata, the first of many throughout the day.  I forgot what it was about, but I asked her if we were going to the variety show.  I still wasn’t decided, but if she wanted to go then I would just tag along.

It was already 9 a.m. then.  I knew if we were to get in the show that we needed to be there at least by 10.  She told me though that Kervin was going to reserve seats for us.  So I agreed, and proceeded to take a shower. 

I have never taken a quicker shower in my life.  It only took me approximately 10-12 minutes, and then I had to dress up as fast too.  I decided to just pack my Jeff Hardy shirt and wear a black tank top instead.  That would later prove to be prudent as the day went on.

It was almost 11 a.m. when I got to the studio and met Kervin who was still on a queue to get in the show.  We waited for Mijiata and she arrived 5 minutes after I did.  We waited for a bit longer, to no avail, as the studio was already full. 

We still decided to wait for the wrestlers to arrive outside.  Unfortunately, we missed their arrival as well.  I could not help but laugh at our misfortune.

Anyway, we still caught a glimpse of Evan Bourne and Christian Cage on their way out.  I even got a picture of Christian, only his head was almost in the car already.

After our failed variety show attempt, the three of us, Kervin, Mijiata, and myself decided to head straight to Araneta Coliseum.  It was only around 2 p.m. then and the show was at 7.  But what can I say?  We were THAT excited.

We wanted to ‘scout’ the venue, hoping to find a way to be able to sneak in backstage and see the wrestlers since there was no scheduled meet and greet that was known to the public. 

(Later, we learned that there was such a thing, only around 30 ‘privileged’ people were going to be involved.)

Anyway, we were walking around the venue when Kervin saw a couple of guys he knew.  Kervin introduced the two to Mijiata and me.  They were Ryan and Jay and they are as nuts about wrestling as we are.  The boys talked for a while.  A really long while. 

Finally they let Kervin go, and we left, continuing our reconnaissance mission on the venue.  We saw a merchandise stand outside our entrance gate, where we bought a couple of shirts. Two “Edge Rise Above” T-shirts. One for me, and one for Mijiata.

She has not withdrawn money from her ATM Card yet, so I bought it for her and she paid me later that night.  And then we moved on along again.

We found two men talking near the VIP and Ringside entrance with some kind of pass strapped around their necks, so we talked to them.  While we were talking to these men, Ryan and Jay came around again and decided to hang with us. 

We asked the men if there was some way we could get a pass.  They said it was impossible since even they were restricted to go to places other than where they were supposed to be. 

They did, however, tell us where the Superstars’ bus was going to pull in. They told us they were coming through the South Gate. 

So being the nutcases that we were, we headed to that gate and sort of camped out there.  We were going to wait for the bus and maybe for a chance to meet them in person.

Waiting outside the gate too, was a Canadian guy, named Satch.  The guys asked me to talk to him and ask him if he was with the WWE.  So, being me—whatever that means—I went and talked to the guy. 

He wasn’t with the company, but apparently he knew a certain superstar from way back.  I’m talking about Chris Jericho.  We talked to him for a while and learned that he and Jericho’s dad were friends from before and he knew Chris since he was a kid.

We had no way to verify this, but we thought: “What the heck? What have we got to lose if we believe this guy?”

He showed us a note that he wrote to Chris and had told us that he’d been trying to ask the arena’s security not to let him in, as the place was really off limits to outsiders, but to just hand his note to Chris when he arrives.  He’s gotten no help from them though, much to his chagrin.

Fortunately for him, he found us! The nice people that we are –all five of us, Ryan, Jay, Kervin, Mijiata, and myself decided to help him.  Somebody suggested we make a sign for Jericho so he can see it from the bus on its way in. 

I told them I had a spare poster board and some markers so they had me write, “Chris Jericho, Satch is here.” in huge bold letters. 

Ryan promised to jump in front of the bus carrying the sign so Jericho would see it.  We waited for hours waiting for the bus, and finally it arrived. 

But it was too high and the curtains were closed that we couldn’t even see anyone inside the bus.  I think we saw Swagger and Tiffany though.

Will we ever get to help Satch? Will he ever get in contact with Chris Jericho?  Find out next episode as the saga continues!