I'm not exactly sure how many I've been to. I'll try to list all of them,

When I was a young kid, I went to a couple of Central States Wrestling (Kansas City territory) shows and got to see guys like Bulldog Bob Brown and Rufus R Jones.

I also got to go to a WWF house show. I think it was early 1988 because it was just before Wrestlemania IV.

After that, I didn't get to go to another show until 1998, sometime before Goldberg won the WCW World Championship. I remember in the main event, he fought Bam Bam Bigelow. The match lasted only a few seconds.

I went the the WCW Slamboree PPV in 2000. It was the one where David Arquette, Jeff Jarrett and DDP fought for the WCW World Championship in the triple tier cage from Ready to Rumble. This is the one we went to where the guy working the cage tipped us off to where the wrestlers were staying. We went to the hotel and got to meet several of them.

If you want to read about the show and results, here is a link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slamboree

I went to WWE Raw in Omaha in Feb 2004. Here is a link to a summary of the show.
http://rajah.com/base/node/155

That night, we went to a Fozzy (Chris Jericho's band) concert. Stone Cold showed up with Bubba Ray, Randy Orton and Mark Jindrak.

The very next night, I was at the Smackdown taping in Kansas City. Here is a link to the recap.
http://rajah.com/base/2004/199

I went to Smackdown in March 2006. Here is the link for that show.
http://rajah.com/base/node/5051

I went to the WWE New Years Revolution PPV in 2007. Here is the link.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Revolution_(2007)[/url]

I was supposed to go to the show in KC on May 23, 1999 (the show where Owen died) but it was the day of my graduation and so my parents decided I couldn't go at the last minute.

Syd Lexia wrote:

I have to say live WWF events, in the post-2000 era, are dreadfully boring. You don't get to hear the announcers' commentary, and the actual wrestling is so incredibly poor that's just not fun to go to.

I think it all depends. Sometimes the shows are awesome, sometimes they can be very lacking. The biggest thing you have to get used to is not having the commentary. When I was a kid, it was great and I didn't think about it because I was in awe. I was a kid. But the first hosue show I went to when I was older, it just seemed very ackward not having commentary. The more shows I went to, along with going to quite a few sporting events, I got used to it.

Also, it really depends on the show. If you get to see a hell in the cell or TLC match, it is going to be a little more neat than a straight up match. I would also say that at least most of the shows now days do a good job on showcasing the top talent where if you went to an old house show back in the day, you would pretty much get to see either jobbers, or midcarders putting over talent, or you would get to see developmental talent (which can be cool). But you didn't get to see as much in the form of story line progression, main fueds, and top stars who only do televised shows. So in that regard, the shows have got better.

On the other hand wrestling in general isn't as good. The weekly tv shows are stacked so when you get to a PPV, it seems less important. Also, by that time, you have already seen most of the featured matches in some form, be it special rules, special tag team, triple threat, non-title, etc. They shove different matches with the same people all month only to supposedly have some resolution at the PPV. In some cases, the fued continues and we get another month of the same crap to set up the following PPV. I think it makes all of the shows a lot less spectacular.

But at least at live events, you get the interaction. At one show, we actually started a USA chant that the whole crowd eventually joined in on. Plus you get to interact with wrestlers during the show and meet them after the show. It's still pretty fun for me.

Cattivo wrote:

Yeah, even before then Syd, I lamented the inability to hear the announcers during the show. It's not like being at a sports event where you can just look up at the scoreboard or the jumbotron for the score and stats for what's happening at any moment.

Don't you feel like the atmosphere makes up for it. Interacting with the crowd, starting chants, booing wrestlers, actually getting to yell WHOOOOOO! when Flair gives someone a chop, saying "WHAT?" along with Stone Cold, chanting You Suck during Angle's music, etc are all things that you don't think of when you are at home, but become as memorable as some of the traditions at sporting events once you are doing them at a show.

Also, all of the bonus stuff you get to do with a live show. Getting to meet wrestlers, or when I got to go watch Jericho's band after Raw. None of that would have ever happened if I had stayed home and watched.

Personally, I think the commentary should be broadcast on the radio so you can listen on headphones or an earpiece while you are there. I know a lot of people who do that at sporting events. Maybe if you could do it at wrestling events as well, it would help.

Cattivo wrote:

Yes, the atmosphere did make up for that somewhat, but once the product started to deteriorate in 2001 or so, there became no reasons to go anymore. I was never able to interact with them myself. I usually had pretty good seats, but it was near impossible to get ringside seats - and believe me I tried. I remember getting to the local ticketmaster office early in the morning the day they went on sale to be first in line so that the seats I got were the best possible. The closest to interaction I got was seeing the Fink run into a 7-11 that my friends and I had just visited after a show and were driving away from. The radio broadcast would have been a great idea.

If you ever go again, or even if you don't go but a show comes to town, ask around and find out where the wrestlers stay. They usually hang out in the lobby for a while when they get there meeting fans and signing autographs and such.

Cattivo wrote:

Oh yeah, that reminds me that at many events I went to, numerous fans would come early to wait at the entrance for the arrivals of the wrestlers. So, I suppose I could have seen some of them, but that would have entailed coming way early and wasting a lot of time.

Well, you don't really see much before the show and really don't see a whole lot after the show if you are waiting by the entrance. Most of the people waiting there are so intent on catching a glimse of these guys that it is borderline obsessive. And after all is said and done, you maybe get a ref or a ring announcer or maybe if you are lucky, some midcard talent to come give an autograph. I like fucking with them. You run up yelling that some wrestlers are on the other side of the building and they all take off running.

You have better luck either finding out where they stay or waiting to see if any come back out to the floor after the show. Sometimes, they even come out during the show down to either side of the ring entrance and sign for people. It's usually by the stairs so people can come down and get autographs.