Swaggerville journal 2/2 - Raw

I'm glad people appreciate this bizarre little project. One of the problems with writing every day is to try to have something to write about. Luckily, a couple of things were in my favor.

First, I'm a huge wrestling fan. I enjoyed it when I was younger and thought that it was real. I enjoy it now that I know matches are scripted and choreographed. In some ways, it's more impressive.

Second, WWE Raw was in Denver this week. Raw, for those who don't know, is wresling's weekly exhibition. Every Monday, Raw is broadcast live from a different city. This week it was in Colorado.

Third, thank God for snow. Every month or so, wrestling has major events (formerly known as pay-per-views). Usually the episode of Raw that comes after a ppv is really good. There's a lot of fallout from the last ppv and preparation for the next one. The last ppv "Royal Rumble" was last week and it ended controversially. The episode of Raw after the Rumble was scheduled to be in Hartford, CT. Of course, it snowed on the east coast last week and that resulted in the cancellation of Raw. So, as a result, the first Raw after the Rumble was in Denver. 

So, today I bought a ticket to watch Raw. The seats weren't great, but I was in the building, and that's what mattered. It was my first time going to the Pepsi Center by myself as well.

Without getting involved in wrestling minutia, I noticed a couple of things from my night.

The pyrotechnics are deafening.
The slaps are loud enough that I could hear them clearly.
I'm not sure if the Denver crowds are a lot less loud than their New York counterparts, but I have no evidence to the contrary.

One of the things that really stuck out to me was something I didn't know happened until it was too late. For those who don't know, I'm hearing impaired. For the last 20 years, I haven't been able to hear out of my right ear. As a result, I have trouble with deciphering the direction of a sound, even when I can hear it. If someone's on my right side saying something, and I'm not expecting it, they may as well not exist. While I was watching a match, a lady talks me on the shoulder and tells me one of the ushers had been trying to get my attention. Of course, the lady was on my right side and there were a few kids between us, so it took me a while to figure out what she was saying. By time I caught what she was saying and got up, the usher was gone. Of course, it's not the first thing that I've missed because of my hearing. Won't be the last, sadly.

But the night went well. The show was great. The matches were predominantly good. Seeing some of the "behind the curtain" things, live, was also fun. It was nice going out on my own.

Thanks for reading. I don't think I'll be going anywhere tomorrow night. So we'll see how I'm able to find content tomorrow night.