Never underestimate WWE house show fun

My iconic photo of Liv Morgan signing an autograph for a young fan.

If you want to find out how wide spread the reach of the WWE is, just post a photo of Liv Morgan on Instagram from a house show.

On October 2, I attended the Sunday Stunner WWE house show at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon as a ticket buyer. Before that night, the last WWE house show I attended was back in August of 2009, when I reviewed one for the Medicine Hat News that was held at The Arena in Medicine Hat.

The last previous time I attended a WWE live event as a ticket buyer was way back in late 1993 held at the old Winnipeg Arena, where the main event was a WWE title match between The Undertaker and then champion Yokozuna. Life often makes it hard to keep up with interests the older you get.

With all that noted, I went to the house show on October 2 in Saskatoon just to have fun. Morgan at the time was the WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion, and she was on for the second last match of the night.

After getting a pinfall win over Sonya Deville, Morgan circled the ring and went up the entrance way signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans. I took a picture of her with the camera on my mobile phone signing an autograph for a young fan at ringside.

I thought the photo was cool one, so I posted to Instagram with a share to my Facebook account. When I got home after the show, I posted the photo to Twitter.

Liv Morgan gets a pinfall win over Sonya Deville.

After I posted the photo to Twitter, I already noticed a copy of that photo was already taken from either my Instagram or Facebook feed and shared on various different WWE fan accounts on both Instagram and Twitter going viral in the process. My actual own Twitter post of the photo had 44 retweets and 518 likes.

I didn’t watermark the photo, because I wasn’t thinking about it potentially getting lifted off one of my social media accounts. I also wasn’t working the event as a photographer utilizing my digital SLR cameras I would use to shoot the hockey and football games I cover.

When the dust settled, I was just happy that a whole tonne of people enjoyed that photo I took with my mobile phone camera.

Overall, the house show was the best two-and-a-half hours I spent on the entertainment front in a long time. The fact I was in the second row from ringside also helped with the experience, because you get a great opportunity to interact with the WWE talent.

With that said, I would have enjoyed attending that event regardless of where I sat. Still, I was really happy with the $147 in Canadian funds I spent on my seat that was in the second row from ringside.

Sonya Deville became one of my favourites in the WWE.

WWE live events now have a different feel from the ones I used to attend from my childhood through to my teenage years from the mid 1980s through to the early 1990s. In those days, I remember a large part of the crowd consisting of the beer drinker who wanted to see blood, which was an old school style pro wrestling fan.

As strange as this sounds, the WWE card in Saskatoon on October 2 was the most clean thing entertainment wise I’ve gone to in the last 20 years. The majority of the audience was a mix of the comic book buying more geek type crowd and parents who brought their children. From my seat, I was pretty much surrounded by parents with their children.

Out of all the events I’ve been to in the last 25 years including the massive amounts of sports events I’ve worked, the alcohol that was consumed at the Sunday Stunner event in Saskatoon was very limited. It was by far the driest event I’ve been to in the last 25 years.

Plus, everyone in attendance was aware that WWE live events are shows with storylines that lead to decided outcomes. When I went to WWE live events in my youthful years from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, matches were played out like they were athletic contests with undecided outcomes.

Knowing that the October 2^nd WWE live event in Saskatoon was a show with storylines that had decided outcomes, the heckles that happened were in good taste and fun.

Sami Zayn addresses the crowd in Saskatoon on October 2.

I thought the best lob I shouted out was for Deville. In the United States, Deville runs a donut making company with long time best friend Mandy Rose, who is WWE NXT Women’s Champion. The company is called DaMandyz Donutz.

After Deville entered the ring, I shouted out, “DaMandyz Donutz for everyone.”

Deville was working her match as the heel or bad gal. She immediately went into her bad gal character pointing at me and yelling for me to shut up.

When the crowd started booing her after her tirade, Deville broke character leaning in to where I was to thank me for the shout out for her donut making company and added an I appreciate you comment too.

That is one of the best parts of a house show is the WWE talent can interact with the crowd in a way they can’t if the event is a live broadcast event like a taping of WWE’s weekly, RAW, NXT or Smackdown shows or a pay-per-view event.

After Montreal, Que., product Sami Zayn was done his two matches for the night, he went out of character giving a great speech to the crowd saying the show they did the night before in Regina and that night in Saskatoon were the first time in his life he had visited Saskatchewan. Zayn talked about how great Canadian WWE crowds were and thanked the fans in attendance for their support.

One of the biggest rushes of energy for me came when Calgary, Alta., product Natalya came out for her match with B-Fab. Natalya is the niece of pro-wrestling icon Bret “The Hitman” Hart, and the Hart family’s ties to Canada run deep.

Natalya sets to blow a kiss to some friends at ringside.

Hart famously won the WWE title for the first time on October 12, 1992 at the SaskTel Centre, which is still viewed as one of the building’s all-time greatest moments.

Natalya can often act as a coach in the WWE’s women’s division and B-Fab was working her first main roster matches during the stops in the two Saskatchewan centres. After Natalya gained a submission victory with the “Sharpshooter,” she helped B-Fab, who had an outstanding performance, up and the two hugged.

That is the other great thing about house shows is WWE talent can try different things to see how the crowd reacts as a test to see if those things could be used for a broadcast event. That included the members of Maximum Male Models trying to hit members of Hit Row with a loaded fanny pack when the referee wasn’t looking.

Still, the night belonged to the kids. I got a kick out of how excited the two little guys that were sitting next to me got during the main event when Drew McIntyre landed his “Claymore Kick” and tag team partner Sheamus connected his “Brogue Kick” on members of Imperium.

That helped the team of McIntyre and Sheamus to take victory in that bout. On a side note, the members of Imperium are spectacular as heels, especially in a house show setting.

With all that said, the joy of those two kids seeing their heroes in McIntyre and Sheamus prevail was priceless.

Sheamus meets the fans after his WWE match in Saskatoon.

Hart once said pro wrestling should be something you should be able to bring your kids to. “The Hitman” would have loved the WWE show in Saskatoon on October 2 because lots of kids who are young and young at heart had a great time.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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