John Seager's 30 for 30: Day 15

A Cunning look back of 30 days which have changed my life over the past 30 years

Day 15:  14^th March 2004 – WHOOOOOOO!!!!!

Evening all,

Growing up, one thing that i loved to watch – apart from Knight Rider, Airwolf and Thomas the Tank Engine – was American Wrestling and in particular WWF Wrestling, now known as WWE. i remember watching the greats from the early 90’s, The Ultimate Warrior, Koko B Ware, The emergence of The Undertaker and the immortal Hulk Hogan.

Whilst watching this there would be one time which i would stay up and watch – even though i had to go to school – was Wrestlemania. It had everything, the stars, the glamour, the razzmatazz of the USA and great matches which i will remember to this day.

 After watching Wrestlemania 19 in 2003, there was an advert for next year’s Wrestlemania which was being held in New York City.  And after watching the advert i looked at my brother and said:

“We are doing this next year”.

It was also a time where holidays for me are a time for me that don’t usually happen. My last holiday was when i went to Cornwall with Fulston Manor back in 2000. I had a good time then but my last family holiday for me was back in 1997 on a trip to Spain.

So we spent the next year working and saving for the holiday. By November it was all paid off and we were going to Wrestlemania.  The months flew by and then all of a sudden it was time to go.

me, Stephen, Anthony and Dave 

Once we got there, my brother, myself and 2 friends who we met though a play by mail football game but wanted to go to Wrestlemania as well, spent the weekend enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City, including taking a visit to ‘ground zero’.

It was a surreal atmosphere there, at the time though it was partly turned into a tourist site and mostly a building site. But being there really gives you a sense of understanding of what happened there in 2001.

 In the evening though it was time for the main event of the weekend. Once we got into the arena the atmosphere was so electric i have never experienced anything like this before. I also found weird that there were a lot of ‘British’ people who attended the show. It did feel that we were not the only ones who decided to do this for a holiday.

All ready to go. 

Throughout the night, we watched some quality entertaining wrestling matches. Personnel highlights for me include; seeing John Cena win when he was popular with the adults and not the kids, seeing ‘The Rock’ at a Wrestlemania event – even though it was low card match i am still a massive rock fan, Taking the mickey out of Brock Lesnar when it seemed that he was leaving the WWE trying out for the NFL and Seeing the return of the Undertaker as his proper ‘Dead Man’ image. When he came out the roof could have been blown off Madison Square Garden.

But the main image i have from this night was seeing two excellent matches involving Eddie Gurrero and Chris Benoit. Both of their matches were really excellent to watch and at the end when Benoit won his world title, both men celebrated inside the ring.

Benoit and Guerrero with their titles from that night. 

The reason why i enjoy this photo is that both men have died and to see them celebrating when WWE was on the way up is really sad to see. Both men are missed in this industry today.

After the evening festivities, it was time to hit the sack and reflect on something totally magical and personally for me something to tick off on my bucket list.

But little did i know that in a few months time i would have to do this all over again.

To be continued....