Monday, April 21, 2025

AEW Collision: April 17, 2025 BOSTON

After a wonderful weekend of watching professional wrestling I finally find myself with the time to write about attending AEW Collision at the MGM Music Hall Fenway in Boston, Massachusetts.


When AEW announced the double shows, Dynamite on the 16th and Collision on the 17th I was tempted to go to both, but Boston is a long drive and it's not feasible, plus work.  Ultimately I wanted to go to Collision on Thursday as I had never been to Collision before but have been to Dynamite numerous times before.  I thought it was going to be a taped Collision as it airs on Saturdays, and it would be perfect to watch it live as it's normal time slot conflicts with WrestleMania 41 Saturday, however leading up the event it was announced that it would air live on Thursday.

When tickets went on sale after looking over what was available on the presale I chose the Mezzanine box seats as the price point was the same as the front row of the mezzanine seating behind the boxes and the pictures looked good.  And boy where they ever!  More on that later.

I left the house at noon and picked up Mikey at his place, first stop was The Brook, the casino in Seabrook, NH he has a free slot play and Mikey likes to spin the reels.  After a quick pay window trip for him we drove to Encore just outside Boston where he had another free slot play, I wasted $20 myself at this stop.  However the main focus for me is that they have a Shake Shack and I love me a shack burger!  We don't have them in Maine.


I had prepaid for parking a couple months back on the Park whiz app, $25, parking at the same lot that night was $65 so if you ever go to Boston and you know in advance buy parking as far ahead of time as you can.  It was a short walk over to the MGM Music Hall at Fenway which we got in line about 6pm.


MGM Music Hall at Fenway opened in August 2022 and features the main floor and two elevates seating areas that can hold 5009 people for concerts.  My daughter and I attended Mitski in concert at this venue in February 2024.  

Doors opened at 630pm and we headed to our seats, this is when we found out that our box seats had a special entrance where you had to show your ticket to get a wrist band, had a private bar with lounge area and bathrooms and our seats had table service.  There were 4 seats in the boxes and can move around and are quite comfortable.  





As you can see from the images we had an amazing view and I would not hesitate to sit here again for any show at this venue in the future.

Before the live Collision, we had two Ring of Honor matches, then 7 matches on Collision and no post live show matches.  I was really hoping for an FTR match because they typically on wrestle on Collision and they are my favorite tag team, but alas they were on a "one week suspension" for their actions on the last episode of Collision. 

Ring of Honor Taping:

The Frat House: Griff Garrison & Cole Carter with Preston Vance and Jacked Jameson defeated the Spanish Announce Project: Serpentico and Angelico

8 Man Tag: Mark Briscoe, AR Fox, and Top Flight: Darius & Dante Martin with Leila Gray defeated Shane Taylor Promotions: Shane Taylor, ROH Pure Champion: Lee Moriarty, and The Infantry: Sean Dean & Charlie Bravo 

AEW Collision Live

Kevin Knight pinned Lance Archer with Don Callis


NEVER Openweight Champion: Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander defeated Tomohiro Ishii and Rocky Romero when Romero turned on Ishii 


Post match: Trent made his return, he and Rocky joined the Don Callis Family and attacked Ishii with a wrench

2 on 1 Handicap Match: Megan Bayne with Penelope Ford defeated Ashley Vox and Rebecca Scott pinning both at once



Open Challenge: TNT Champion: Adam Cole pinned Claudio Castagnoli


La Faccion Ingobernable: Rush, Dralistico, & The Beast Mortos defeated Kevin Mathews, LSG, & Rosario Grillo

Nick Wayne pinned ROH World Television Champion: Komander with Alex Abrahantes to win the Championship




Kris Statlander & Julia Hart defeated TBS Champion, New Japan Strong Women's Champion, and RevPro Undisputed British Women's Champion: Mercedes Mone and Harley Cameron with Statlander pinned Cameron



Post show Mercedes Mone cut a promo about being in Boston.  Harley Cameron then bought out her pupped Mini Mone and entertained the crowd. No Tony Khan appearance tonight at all.

After the show I bought an AEW Collision logo shirt and enamel pin at the merchandise table.  I don't need a new t-shirt but I just really like the simple design.  We hit the road after stopping at the 7-11 in Saugus, MA for a big gulp and stopped again at the Circle K in Kittery, ME to fuel up and grab a monster peach tea.  I got home just before 2am, another successful wrestling adventure. 

I have no regrets going on Thursday and not Wednesday, even though Wednesday had Osprey vs. Takeshita.  We got some great wrestling matches, and a title change when Nick Wayne won his first major singles championship.

In the tag team match, Ishii and Takeshita squared off, and during a shoulder tackle I have never heard two people slam into each other that hard and no sell it that I can think of.  Smack from the impact was wild!!!

I can't imagine I'll see AEW live again this year, but rumor has it that ROH Final Battle will be Massachusetts this December.  I've also heard rumors of TNA running Bound For Glory in Lowell, MA in October, and WWE running John Cena's Last Match December 27th at TD Garden in Boston with a PLE called Ruthless Aggression.  

Some potential cools shows at the end of the year. 

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.

Until next time!

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Wrestle/Indie Mania Week of Shows!

It's WrestleMania week! I loved going to Philadelphia last year and attending all the IndieMania shows of GCW's The Collective, Stardom, WrestleCon and the WrestleCon Supershow at the ECW Arena.  Looking at the schedule of events this year I really do wish I was going to be in Vegas to catch these shows.

As I sit here typing this I am watching AEW Collision, with my girls Jamie Hayter and Billie Starkz battling in the Owen Hart tournament.  The show is in Springfield, Mass and my buddy Mikey is there and I'm jealous.

With over 80 shows schedule for the week, I'm going to list the Wrestling shows that I am going to try to watch this week:

Monday April 14th 
Monday Night Raw - Sacramento, California

Tuesday April 15th
NXT - Orlando, Florida

Wednesday April 16th
AEW Dynamite - Boston, Mass

GCW: WWE ID Championship Tournament

Thursday April 17th
AEW Collision - Boston, Mass, I am attending this show!

DEFY Wrestling: Living Proof
The match I'm looking forward to on this card is the Rock n' Roll Express vs. Midnight Heat

Stardom: American Dream 2025 in Sin City

WrestleCon Supershow

West Coast Pro Wrestling: Vegas Vacation

GCW: Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 13
A very stacked card but I'm looking forward to these matches the most:
Barnett vs. Gabe Kidd
Pete Dunne vs. Timothy Thatcher
ZSJ vs. Jonathan Gresham
Charlie Dempsey vs. Shinya Aoki

Progress Wrestling: Chapter 179 Las Vegas

Friday April 18

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling

DDT Pro Wrestling

WWE Friday Night Smackdown

GCW: Joey Janela Spring Break 9
LOADED CARD!!! This is the show I am the most excited about!

No Rope Barbed-Wire: Joey Janela vs. Sabu
JCW World Championship: Masha Slamovich (c) vs. Suzu Suzuki
GCW Tag Team Championship: Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku & Dominic Garrini) (c) vs. Alec Price & X
GCW Career vs. Mask: Atticus Cogar vs. Fuego Del Sol
Wagner Family (Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal) vs. Los Desperados (Gringo Loco, Jack Cartwheel & Arez)
Matt Tremont vs. Minoru Suzuki
Megan Bayne vs. Bozilla
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. 1 Called Manders
Mance Warner vs. Gabe Kidd
The Senior Scramble: The Warlord vs. Mike Jackson vs. Tommy Rich vs. Doug Gilbert vs. Ricky Morton vs. George South

WWE 2025 Hall of Fame

Saturday April 19th

NXT Stand & Deliver

GCW: Effy's Big Gay Brunch 10

GCW vs. TJPW vs. DDT

WrestleMania 41 Saturday

GCW: JJSB Clusterfuck Forever

Sunday April 20th

FSW Future Legends Women's Tournament

WrestleMania 41 Sunday

Monday April 21st

WWE Raw After WrestleMania

Tuesday April 22nd

NXT Live from Vegas

So much fantastic wrestling going on this week!

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.

Until next time! 

Monday, March 31, 2025

40 Years of WrestleMania

Forty years ago today, March 31, 1985 the first ever WrestleMania emanated live from Madison Square Garden in New York City.  This blog post is going to be about my experience and history with WrestleMania.


Growing up my dad was a fan of wrestling and we would rent all of the Wrestling tapes at the video store that we could find.  My first time watching WrestleMania was the Coliseum Home Video VHS tape.  In fact that is how I watched the first 3 WrestleMania's.


WrestleMania IV was the first time I watched the event live on PPV and I have watched WrestleMania live every year since then.  WrestleMania IV was the Tournament to declare a new WWF Champion after Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase screwed Hulk Hogan out of the title on the Main Event in February of 1988.

I stayed with my Dad every other weekend and on Sunday's he would bring me home.  On this Sunday we instead went to his friend Roland's house where a big group of their friends had gathered to watch the PPV.  I was the only kid and I was given the coveted front row center seat.  I rented WrestleMania IV the most because it was two VHS tapes and such a long show it was like getting two for the price of one.

WrestleMania V through XI I watched at my Dad's house with him and my half-brothers.  WrestleMania XII & XIII I watched with my friends at their houses.  WrestleMania XIV my buddy Jay and I attended live at the then called FleetCenter, now called TD Garden in Boston.
  

We had tickets in the front row of the balcony, Jay picked them up.  This was our second wrestling show at the FleetCenter having attended WCW Monday Nitro in June 1997.  Sadly, I did not bring my camera to the show.  At that time I did not have a good camera, no zoom and I didn't think I would get any good pictures.  I should have brought it.  To be there when "Stone Cold" Steve Austin won his first World Championship is something special and the biggest wrestling show I had ever attended up until then.

When WrestleMania XV rolled around I was married and living in my apartment and I hosted my first WrestleMania watch party.  Every year, except for 2, I have hosted the WrestleMania watch party at my house.  I'm going to just chat bout certain WrestleMania's from this point on.

WrestleMania 2000 (16) WWE featured a special WrestleMania All Day Long.  Beginning at noon and running for 8 hours this event was live footage for axxess, highlights and recaps of the first 15 WrestleMania's with exclusive interviews.  Of course I spent the extra $15 for this 8 hour preshow. 


What was extra fun was beginning at 6am on ESPN Classic they aired 6 hours of classic wrestling, so I watched 16 consecutive hours of wrestling and it was a great day indeed!

In the summer of 2007 rumors began swirling that Ric Flair was going to be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008.  So my buddy Jay and Rood and I bought Silver packages from WWE to attend WrestleMania XXIV in Orlando, Florida.  These packages included tickets to the Hall of Fame, Mania, and more.  



What we didn't know at that time, is that it would be the Last Match of Ric Flair...at that time.

You can read these two blog posts all about our trip to Orlando that year: 



Although similar the posts are different, written at different times and have some shared and some different information.

Later that year after a my basement flooded and destroyed my wrestling collection, I was given a tour of then WWE Headquarters Titan Towers, you can read about that here: My Tour Of Titan Towers

During that tour they gifted me a complete DVD Collection of WrestleMania and when I rewatched WrestleMania 1 I was shocked to see this event was complete with all of the pre and post match interviews.  The Coliseum Home Video release only had a few of these from the top matches.  That was very cool to discover.

In 2019 Jay, Mikey and I traveled to New York City for WrestleMania weekend, however we did not attend any WWE Events and instead only went to Independent shows, and New Japan Pro Wrestling at Madison Square Garden.  The links are below for that weekend if you want to check it out.

IndyMania April 3 - 8, 2019
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

We took the train back to Jay's place in New Bedford, MA and watched WrestleMania 35 at his house to close out the weekend.

WrestleMania 36 was in 2020 and was taped at the Performance Center due to the Covid -19 Pandemic.  This was the first time that WrestleMania was a two night event and it has been every year since then.  I'm not a fan of two nights of WrestleMania I like having the show one night, it makes it more special in my mind.

WrestleMania 40 in 2024 was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mikey, Bradford, and I made the drive to the City of Brotherly love to once again take in IndyMania Weekend.  Those links are below:



What was special this year was we watched WrestleMania 40 night on live from the ECW Arena, on closed circuit TV, just like the original WrestleMania.  


 
For many years we had a tradition of making big sandwiches for WrestleMania, just huge sandwiches that we would eat all night.  In 2009 & 2010 I filmed videos and posted them on YouTube, links below:



I think this year one on of the nights we need to bring the Big Sandwiches back.  Even though WWE is not my favorite brand of wrestling, I will never miss a WrestleMania. 

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.

Until next time!