Ticket (Stub) Master

Shortly after publishing Card Subject To Change earlier in May, I noticed nine ticket stubs from old wrestling events neatly tucked away in an envelope for some reason.

Let's find out what I've been hanging on to all these years, shall we?

SmackDown Taping - Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Results: WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero over Danny Basham, WWE Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Classic over Funaki, Miss Jackie won a bikini contest, Rey Mysterio over Rene Dupree, The Undertaker and Booker T went to a no-contest.

Bulldog's Notes: It must be my old age setting in, but I don't remember attending this event AT ALL! Perhaps I stole this ticket stub from someone else? Seriously, I don't remember any of this show taking place. There were also in-ring confrontations between JBL and Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker and Paul Heyman, and John Cena and Booker T, but again - I don't recall this at all.

Monday Night Raw Taping - Monday, May 5, 2008

Results: WWE Women's Champion Mickie James over Beth Phoenix in a Lumberjill match, Paul and Katie Lea Burchill over Jon Cutler, Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho over John Morrison and The Miz, Randy Orton and CM Punk went to a no-contest, John Bradshaw Layfield over the so-called "Canadian Bulldog" David Hart Smith*, the entire ECW roster over Triple H and Mr. Kennedy.

Bulldog's Notes: Now THIS show I remember! It was the first time since WrestleMania 6 that I attended a show with my old man (who isn't a wrestling fan at all, but was kind enough to join me for the night). Bulldog Sr. was amazed that they let a woman (Katie Lea) wrestle a man. I was amazed that JBL finally ended the WWE career of the fake Canadian Bulldog and had him stretchered away (appropriately enough it happened in my home town to boot!). This was the first time I'd seen ECW's CM Punk and Kofi Kingston in live action, and was duly impressed by both.... And not listed in the results, but Carlito's Cabana had Rowdy Roddy Piper as his special guest on the show, and Piper ended up making a shoot comment about Santino Marella being pulled over on a DUI charge the previous weekend. The main theme of the show was Raw General Manager William Regal kept turning the lights out during key matches, which angered the fans but pleased Vince McMahon. A pretty damn good Raw, looking back on it now.

* Yes, I was Canadian Bulldog a a good five years or so before David Hart Smith tried to use the nickname in WWE. I was so bitter, I wrote a scathing editorial about it, ordering WWE to change Smith's moniker. A week later, he was written off of television. Bulldog gets results!

The 2nd Annual Rethink Rumble - Thursday, March 17, 2011

Results: No idea (see next section).

Bulldog's Notes: This was a charity event outside of Toronto run by The Magen Boys, whom I profiled in an earlier article. Nothing of consequence happened, wrestling-wise, but there were a ton of cool names from the past, including The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, Virgil, Tatanka, Highlander Robbie, One Of The Bushwhackers, Jason Sensation and, making his Toronto-area wrestling debut.... Dustin "Screech" Diamond!!!

No, I swear I'm not making this up! Diamond teamed with DiBiase's crew of Really Fake Doink, Bushwhacker Luke and Some Hairy Guy. See???

Needless to say - a good time was had by all.

Monday Night Raw Taping - Monday, December 22, 2008

Results: Shawn Michaels over Kane, Kofi Kingston over Manu, Mickie James and Melina over Layla and Jillian Hall, John Bradshaw Layfield over Rey Mysterio by disqualification, Randy Orton over Batista by forfeit, Chris Jericho over CM Punk, John Cena and Trish Stratus over Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix.

Bulldog's Notes: This may have been the most recent Raw I've attended live. Trish was already retired by this point, and this was her in-ring return.... Four of the singles matches (Michaels-Kane, JBL-Mysterio, Orton-Batista and Jericho-Punk) were part of a mini-tournament, with the eventual winner getting a shot against John Cena at the Royal Rumble.... Michaels was temporarily working for JBL and slapped his "boss" in order to get Mysterio disqualified.... The Punk-Jericho match was great, especially for TV, and far better than their eventual WrestleMania clash.

WWF House Show - Friday, April 23, 1999

Results: Al Snow and Tori over D-Lo Brown and Ivory, The APA over Skull and 8 Ball, Droz over Gangrel, WWF World Tag Team Champions X-Pac and Kane over Big Boss Man and Test; WWF Hardcore Champion Hardcore Holly over Val Venis, The New Age Outlaws over Edge and Christian and Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett, WWF Intercontinental Champion The Godfather over Goldust, The Undertaker and Mideon over Ken Shamrock and Mankind, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Big Show over The Rock and Triple H.

Bulldog's Notes: Whoa, this sounds like one hell of a house show. Unfortunately, I don't remember most of it. Can you imagine a Stone Cold/Big Show vs. Rock/HHH match today? It could practically be a WrestleMania main event, but back then it was fairly typical Attitude Era fare. Sadly, this show was one month to the day that Owen Hart passed away :( I could be wrong, but I believe I met him (for the second time) at a pre-show press event in the hype leading up to this house show.

SmackDown Taping - Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Results: Joey Mercury and Melina over Booker T and Sharmell, WWE Tag Team Champions Road Warrior Animal and Heidenreich over Johnny Devine and Ruffy Silverstein, Funaki and John Bradshaw Layfield went to a no-contest when Batista interfered, Rey Mysterio over Simon Dean, Randy Orton over Chris Benoit.

Bulldog's Notes: Another show I'm struggling to remember. Strangely, my most vivid memory if from the Animal and Heidenreich jobber squash match.... Orton vs Benoit was a rematch from the previous year's SummerSlam (one year minus a day later, in fact).... There was a segment to promote the Rey Mysterio/Eddie Guerrero "custody of Dominick Mysterio" ladder match.... The dark match or Velocity tapings before Raw featured the Toronto debut of one Misterrrrrrr..... Anderson (who, surprisingly, did the same shtick, but he was called Mr. Anderson at that point; not Mr. Kennedy). Strange how these things go full circle.

SummerSlam - Sunday, August 15, 2004

Results: Rob Van Dam over René Duprée, Bubba Ray, D-Von, and Spike Dudley over Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman and Paul London, Kane over Matt Hardy for the right to marry Lita, John Cena over Booker T, WWE Intercontinental Champion Edge over Chris Jericho and Batista, Kurt Angle over Eddie Guerrero, Triple H over Eugene, John Bradshaw Layfield over The Undertaker by disqualification, Randy Orton over Chris Benoit to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

Bulldog's Notes: The crowd here in "Bizarroland" Toronto actually booed World Champion and fellow Canadian Chris Benoit in his match with Randy Orton, and the same happened to hometown boy Edge in his triple threat match. Very very strange.... The Cena-Booker match was part of a Best of Seven series.... There was also a Diva Dodgeball match shown as a pre-tape in the back that showed, among others: Trish Stratus, Stacy Keibler, Victoria, Michelle McCool, Maria, Christy Hemme, Molly Holly and Nidia.

International Championship Wrestling - Saturday, December 19, 1998

Results: Not sure (see below).

Bulldog's Notes: This was the beginning of a touring company that planned to hold monthly spot shows in the Toronto area. I know this because I was brought in to help the public relations effort (and would have done more with them had they lasted beyond this show and another the following evening in Toronto suburb Mississauga). The lineup was actually quite impressive at the time - Tatanka, King Kong Bundy, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, The Bushwhackers, Bruiser Bedlam and Dan "The Beast" Severn were among the talents here.... Literally the only result I remember is Valentine upending Severn to win the ICW strap (and then losing it the following evening back to Severn).... Having said that, I have a ton more "backstage" memories of the show, which I promise to share in depth another time.

Unforgiven - Saturday, September 17, 2006

Results: Super Crazy over Shelton Benjamin (dark match), WWE Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro over Jeff Hardy, Kane and Umaga went to a double countout, WWE Tag Team Champions The Spirit Squad over The Highlanders, Triple H and Shawn Michaels over Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon and The Big Show in a Hell in a Cell match, Trish Stratus over Lita to win the WWE Women's Championship (in Trish's final match on the active roster), Randy Orton over Carlito, John Cena over Edge in a TLC match to win the WWE Championship.

Bulldog's Notes: I could be mistaken.... but I believe this was the last time a pay-per-view was held in Toronto. Has it really been eight years? Wow. This was a massive show, and one of the most fun live events I've ever attended. The Hell In A Cell match was insane (with HHH shoving Shane's head up Big Show's ass - yes, seriously), Hardy vs Nitro was phenomenal and the main event TLC match is a personal favorite to this day.... I distinctly remember thinking that Carlos Colon would play into the Randy Orton-Carlito match, given that Orton was resurrecting the "Legend Killer" gimmick at the time, and Colon (Carlito's father) was shown in the audience a few weeks before. He didn't show.... As psyched as the crowd was for hometown hero Trish to win her final match (and for the championship, no less), they were equally upset that Cena defeated hometown heel Edge in the main event. I mean, people were still pissed an hour after the event ended as we were all queuing up to take trains and subways out of the city to the suburbs. I recorded one of my first podcasts live after the event, and I remember people saying how much they hated John Cena. AND THIS WAS IN 2006! Still, a phenomenal show, one I would go out of my way to track down on WWE Network, and it was even better seeing it live.

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