Al The Killer and I found our seats along with our contest winner Thalia and Dannielle just in time for the taping of ECW. The previous night Bobby Lashley had won the ECW World Title in an elimination chamber match and it was announced that he would be defending the title against the former champion The Big Show in the main event. First up though was a tag team match featuring the other participants in the elimination chamber match. The villainous Test and hardcore Holly took on the high flying fan favorite Rob van dam along with Anarchy Music’s favorite wrestler, CM Punk. Punk did an interview with us recently and if you haven’t read it yet, then check it out HERE. One thing is for sure about Punk, the crowd LOVES him. There were constant chants in support of him before, during and after the match and it is becoming very clear that he will be THE breakout star in 2007. Just as Punk was about to make Holly tap out in submission to his Anaconda Vice maneuver back-up for the heels came out and jumped our boy. Sabu, an injured wrestler with a long-time friendship with Van Dam ran and helped the pair clean the ring of the bad guys.

Another interesting segment was featured the Vampire themed Ariel against the blonde bombshell Kelly Kelly. Ariel’s boyfriend Kevin Thorne was sent to the back to avoid outside interferance, and Kelly was able to roll up Ariel for the win. However, immediately after the match Mike Knox, wh had been Kelly’s boyfriend until leaving her alone in the ring the previous night against Ariel and Thorne came to ring with roses and begged Kelly for forgiveness. She hesitated, then accepted his apology but Knox then immediately turned on her and his finisher, The Idolizer. The crowd cheered for CM Punk, but one of the commentators Tazz was the first one in the ring to help the medics with Kelly. It appeared that she was really hurt as I saw her hours later with a neck brace on as she was leaving the building.

As mentioned, the main event was Bobby Lashley vs. The Big Show. The highlight of this match was when Lashley lifted his opponent up and slammed him to the crowd, not an easy task considering that The Big Show stands 7 feet tall and is well over 500 pounds! We didn’t know it at the time, but The Big Show announced the following day that he was leaving the wrestling business to try to get over some nagging injuries and to pursue other ventures. After the show Bobby was nice enough to spend time talking with fans, and I snapped this picture of Thalia with the ECW champ!

After a brief break we went live on the USA network for Raw. As World Champion John Cena walked to the ring to speak and the crowd went absolutely nuts. Cena is insanely popular with the women in the crowd as they lost their minds with everything he did or said. The kids in the crowd also love Cena, so the few people who don’t like him (like Al and myself) were completely drowned out by the cheers. Johnny Nitros manger melina came out to talk about Cena’s upcoming match with Kevin Federline on New years day, giving cena the chance to sneak in a few Britney jokes before “The Masterpiece” Chris masters ran out to attack him and a special master Lock challenge match was set up for later in the evening between master and Cena.

It was announced that wrestling legend Rowdy Roddy Piper was going through an ordeal with cancer, and a tag team match between The highlanders and Cade &Murdoch was done in his honor. The Highlanders (with their Hot Rod t-shirts) won the match and the crowd gave its approval. We all respect piper and hope he makes a full recovery.

After the wrestling Diva Victoria demolished Candice Michelle we went to an old folks home, where Cryme Tyme were rapping Christmas carols to old folks, with the words changed making the songs about robbing “Whitey” and crack heads. After the team stole all the jewelry and watches from the old folks the live crowd cheered and laughed at the skit. Cryme Tyme is a team that I simply do not get and I’m not sure why robbing old people makes them good guys, or positive black role models. Just as I thought this along came Shelton Benjamin, one of the most talented wrestlers on earth, who also happens to be black. He cut a promo voicing exactly what I was thinking about how the Cryme Tyme guys are not good role models for black people and how the fans shouldn’t cheer them and the crowd booed Shelton out of the building. I was cheering my head off because, not only is he right, but the man is one hell of an athlete that deserves support. Shelton then defeated the talented high flyer Super Crazy in a far too brief match that I went nuts for. At the end Shelton’s former tag team partner Charlie Haas joined him in the ring and it appears that we have a reunion of The World’s Greatest Tag Team. YES! I will add that we met Cryme Tyme after the show and they are both very nice guys who are friendly and playful with fans. Therefore, it will be bittersweet when The World’s Greatest Tag Team eventually gives them the beat down (unless Cryme Tyme beats them, but this web site won’t condone Shelton Benjamin ever losing a match).

Cena and Masters then had their Master Lock Challenge match. Basically, masters puts Cena in his Full Nelson hold and if Cena can’t break the hold (and no one ever has) Masters will become the new World Champion. The ref took a tumble and didn’t see Cena break the hold, but by the time he came to Cena had Masters in the STFU and Master was tapping out. Then out comes The Samoan Bulldozer Umaga, who will be facing Cena for the World Title at the January 7th Pay Per View New Years Revolution. Cena and Umaga brawled all over the arena as security desperately tied to keep them apart. Each time that Cena broke free of security and pounced on his opponent the cheers from the crowd got louder and louder.

After a match between Carlito and Viscera and Eugene going nuts after watching two hot chicks from the crowd kiss, it was time for the main event. Degeneration X members HHH and Shawn Michaels teamed up with Matt and Jeff Hardy to take on Edge, Randy Orton, Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury. The live crowd hates Edge with a passion, which is why he’s so great. The good guys are only ever as good as the bad guys they’re facing, and Edge is a great bad guy. Half the crowd was wearing DX merchandise so it was pretty apparent that they would support them, but it was actually Jeff Hardy who got the biggest cheers in the match. He is the current Intercontintental Champion but clearly the fans would support him in an even bigger role in the company. Some problems with the lighting seemed to distract not only the fans, but the wrestlers themselves, but it didn’t distract Kenny who was a member of the Spirit Squad until the previous week when DX beat them and put an end to the team. Kenny ran in to help beat down on DX and all hell broke loose. In the chaos edge speared Matt Hardy and won the match, then his team left Kenny alone in the ring verses DX. Kenny was kicked in the face by Michaels and given the Pedigree by HHH and the crowd cheered their heroes, ending the show.

No matter what you may think of pro wrestling, something just happens to you when you are at the live event. For a few hours you forget about everything and become a part of the battle of good verses evil. I, of course, always cheer for the evil side, but that’s not the important part. The point is that if you have ever watched wrestling in the past and WWE brings it’s show to your town, you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to scream your lungs out and immerse yourself into the spectacle of sports entertainment. It’s a hell of a lot of fun.

I would like to thank my friend Chris at WWE for making this happen , and Thalia for joining in on the fun as our contest winner. WWE Raw can be seen every Monday night at 9pm EST on USA, while ECW is on Tuesday nights at 10pm EST on Sci-Fi.