Text: Daniel Johnson
Photos: Daniel Johnson
Living in Southern California has several advantages. For instance, no matter where you are in Southern California as long as you have a few hours and $15 to spare you can get to Hollywood. Not to mention all the combination fast food places there are such as Pizzalato where you can get a pizza and a gelato hence, Pizzalato.
However, one disadvantage that living in Southern California has is that if you're a wrestling fan, shows run by bigger companies are few and far between. Sure, there are some respectable indys here and there, but with World Wrestling Entertainment only making it to the West Coast a few times a year, Ring of Honor having most of its shows on the East Coast, and Total Nonstop Action seemingly stuck in Florida, attending a major live event is a rare occurrence. Therefore when I heard that WWE was hitting Venice Beach on there way to Summerslam, the biggest party of the summer, I couldn't wait to go.
Actually, in all honesty I did have some reservations. Living in Riverside, California at the time it would take an hour and a half train ride and a one hour bus ride to get there. Still, with my Saturday schedule left wide open and an excuse to go to the beach for the first time in over a year, it was an opportunity I could not pass up. So I set out while it was still dark with my trusty digital camera and an enthusiastic expression on my face.
Yes, with over four hours of travel including walking and waiting periods it would be a long time before I would get to see the prelude to the biggest party of the summer. So after I narrowly made my train I decided to take pictures of my Wrestlemania XIX DVD.
Oh, like you have anything better to do with your spare time? Actually, I brought my Wrestlemania XIX DVD along as Torrie Wilson and Maria were scheduled to sign autographs. Knowing how unpredictable autograph signings can be and reading that only a limited number of people, who got special bracelets prior to the event, could get autographs, I didn't want to risk not having an item to sign that had something vaguely to do with the divas. Hell, it was better than bringing my Road Warriors DVD. At any rate, one bus ride later and I had finally arrived at beautiful Venice Beach.
Now as colorless and empty as this picture may be, growing up in metropolitan Massachusetts where the beach is always just a hop, skip, and a jump away I could not resist the charm of the beach. Not to mention the fact that I found out the bracelets needed to get the Divas autographs were only available to the first 50 to 100 people (depending on who you ask). Although I saw a gigantic line and possibly had a sliver of a chance to get an autograph, following my lengthy travel I decided to forgo the autograph offering. I mean think about it, which would you rather do, wait hours in line to meet two hot women for a few seconds or swim alongside dozens of them?
So after a lengthy swim I went back to where the WWE festivities were to take place. I was immediately surprised to see that alongside Jimmy Hart, the host of the event was WWE's Christian. No, not the Christian who used to tag with Edge, but rather a new announcer, who's skills lie somewhere between that of Todd Pettingill and Michael Cole.
While someone with Christian's talents may not be the most entertaining person to watch I'll say this, the man knew how to point. Just look at him go.
Now some of you may be wondering, what exactly hosting the prelude to the biggest party of the summer entails. Unfortunately while it is always good to see Jimmy Hart his duties were fairly standard as he encouraged kids to go onstage and play games such as blowing up beach balls and putting on wet t-shirts. Okay, while these games may at first sound like they were catering to an audience full of NAMBLA members, it was all in good fun and yes the kids did wear clothes beneath their wet t-shirts. Aside from these activities other games were played such as trivia contests and fans trying to one-up each other in impersonating WWE superstars. Even one of the local street performers got in on the action (far left in the picture) whose gimmick I can only assume was that of a golden cowboy.
I also enjoy that picture as it looks like Jimmy is about to drop a deuce. After this went on for sometime the divas arrived at the autograph table. While not a particularly big fan of either Torrie Wilson or Maria, this did lead to my highlight of the day. When the crowd failed to rush to the autograph table fast enough (probably because most of them did not have bracelets) Jimmy Hart whipped out his megaphone to hurry them along.
Yes, this is by far my favorite photo of the day. Even Christian doesn't take away from it as his "Oh Snap" look only enhances Jimmy's action. I mean not to toot my own horn, but I'd nominate it for a Pulitzer Prize for Photojournalism. I mean the 1970s had the Vietnam War, the 1980s had famine and AIDS in Africa, and the 1990s had whatever the Hell the 1990s had. So why can't the Photojournalism world of the 2000s belong to sweaty guys on the beach?
Unfortunately, despite the fact that most of those in attendance did not have bracelets, there were more than enough fans willing to admire the divas from afar. With a healthy dose of "Marry me Maria" screams, I was first able to get a shot of the diva garnering far less attention, Torrie Wilson.
Following brushing elbows with my fellow attendees, not to mention a near trampling I was able to score a shot of Maria.
I love the look she has in this one, with a slight "WTF" undertone. She probably would have had a similar look if I was able to get an autograph, looking at me in all my bedhead glory. After battling my way through the masses of fans I trudged my way close to ringside for the first match, which Jimmy Hart and Christian had been promoting for roughly two hours. With a match like Daivari vs. Val Venis, who could blame them? Actually, while neither is a marquee name like the Rock or "Stone Cold" Steve Austin they were not bad choices to open the card as Daivari was able to get a rise out of the vehemently pro-American crowd. Not to mention that Venis with his porn star shtick always manages to illicit a reaction.
Perhaps the biggest treat of the event was that with only three matches scheduled at an hour apart a piece, the wrestlers were given more breathing room to work their matches. This allowed for the event to have more of an old school wrestling atmosphere then what is typically presented on today's WWE programming. After Daivari paraded around in his turban for several minutes and threatened the audience, Val Venis came out to a warm welcoming.
In turn Daivari complained about Venis' reaction and once again encouraged the audience to boo him. All the time he did this Daivari made sure that Venis was far out of his way and that the referee was between them so that he would not be attacked.
After several minutes of hyping up the crowd Daivari and Venis finally locked up and got a nice pop from the audience. This led to a slow back and forth between the two, with Daivari getting an early advantage by putting Venis in a headlock.
The rest of the match was fairly straight forward with a nice series of moves that were enhanced by the slow pace of the match. In this way while there was no jumping off of twenty foot ladder and through tables, every spot in the match was there for a reason. Even some simplistic chops by Venis added to the story being told as Venis got revenge for the pounding Daivari had been giving him.
Finally, after a good showing Venis ascended the ropes for his finishing move, the Money Shot. However, prior to taking flight, Venis made an unexpected move by leaning forward, puckering up his butt cheeks, and letting out a giant fart that ensured that the first three rows of the audience would be returning home from their day at the beach covered in fecal matter.
Actually, that didn't happen, but the pose that I caught him in was too tempting to pass up. However, Venis did win at Venice, which was then followed up by some more games hosted by Jimmy and Christian. Also, during the interim between this match and the next on the card featuring Chris Masters vs. Chuck Palumbo, Maria got inside the ring to cut a promo. What was peculiar about this was that Maria's microphone was turned off so that while the camera could pick up what she was saying, the fans at Venice Beach could not. The only logic I can see in this is that the production crew did not want to distract the audience from watching Jimmy and Christian play different games with kids. I guess if you think about it, it makes sense I mean who wants to watch a luscious WWE diva when you can see a bunch of ten year olds in wet t-shirts.
Yeah, that boom mic is in an unfortunate place. Anyway, onto Chris Masters vs. Chuck Palumbo or as I like to call it Resthold-apalooza. While Daivari vs. Venis benefited from having a slow pace match, which had interesting bursts of action here and there, Masters and Palumbo kind of just went through the motions on this one. Here, Masters attempts to put Palumbo in his finishing move the Masterlock as the referee and a giant head watch on.
As the match wore on, I was saddened by the fact that Palumbo would not be able to surpass my favorite Palumbo moment. Back when WWE first absorbed WCW, a friend and I went to an autograph signing that featured Palumbo. While just about every other wrestler there had some sort of fan based, Palumbo just seemed to be there. This led my friend to yell "Chuck Palumbo's gay!" What? Sorry if its offensive, but these were less politically correct times. I mean come on! It was 2001 for Pete's sake! Although anyone could yell a derogatory comment like this, the reason this memory sticks out is because of the glare we received from Chuck Palumbo as we were just a few feet away from the autograph table. Oddly enough he seemed to spot us when we went to Smackdown later that night with the same glare. Okay, maybe I'm just paranoid or maybe Chuck Palumbo has been crafting his revenge plan these past six years. You be the judge.
Anyway, Palumbo scores somewhat of an upset over Masters and goes onto celebrate with the palm trees.
During the interim between this match and the main event featuring Chavo Guerrero vs. Jimmy Wang Yang, attendees were "treated" to an appearance by Tattoo, a local radio host. There was also some other local radio host, who appeared earlier in the show. I only bring this one up because I was disappointed that when Lillian Garcia announced Tattoo, some generic DJ came out instead of the midget from "Fantasy Island."
Onto the main event. Jimmy Wang Yang was introduced first and was met with a decent crowd reaction. Posing for the fans with a smile on his face and a cowboy hat on his head you could just about tell exactly what he was thinking from his cheerful demeanor, "Damn I'm glad I'm not jobbing on Smackdown! tonight."
As Chavo entered the ring and the match began, the pair took part in a contest filled with high risk maneuvers and aerial offense. Actually no, they didn't as in keeping with WWE's safe style rules only the most simplistic moves off the top rope were performed. Because of these limitations these two otherwise capable high flyers stayed grounded for the majority of the match.
Still, the limitations faced by Chavo and Yang were not enough to make the match a borefest as in between plenty of tie ups and restholds some fast pace action took place as can be seen here where Yang lunges after Chavo.
However, despite Yang's efforts the fact that he is barely a blip on WWE's radar and that Chavo was going into a high profile match with Rey Mysterio Jr. at Summerslam, it was pretty obvious that he was losing this one. Here, Chavo gives Yang the Three Amigos, a move taken from his uncle, Eddie Guerrero's repertoire.
Not long after this Chavo was able to hit yet another move borrowed from Eddie as he nailed Yang with the Frog Splash. WWE then made sure enough to send the fans home happy by having the only heel victory of the night be the last on the card as Chavo got the big W over Yang. Although in all fairness to the WWE Yang did rebound after his win and pose for the fans.
All in all while the wrestling left something to be desired at points, the event was enjoyable. After all how often do you get to be yelled at by Jimmy Hart on his megaphone at the beach?
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