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World Wrestling Entertainment returned to Madison Square Garden on Friday 2/27 for their "Road to Wrestlemania" live event. The show was built around the Hulk Hogan Appreciation Night theme with the ring ropes in red and yellow and a special event t-shirt (oddly enough, in black and white, I guess for the NWO) which listed important Hogan events in MSG, including defeating "The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase" in 1979. Well, sort of, he did, but not quite, as the gimmick wouldn't be born until late 1987.
Before the show started, they did a live voting via text messaging as to whether Brie Bella would be allowed at ringside when Paige challenged WWE Divas champion Nikki Bella later that evening. They also encouraged fans to send Tweets and Instagram images using a special hash-tag for the event and played a number of them on the screens before the show and during intermission.
Before the show officially began, Bad News Barrett appeared on the screens to deliver some bad news and that was that that he was going to get his IC title back.
After the national anthem, Triple H appeared on the screen and delivered a babyface promo promising that the WWE stars would do what they do better than anyone in the world in the ring tonight and closed with his "Are you ready?" DX-era catch phrase. The crowd didn't know how to react to that, since this is the guy tormenting their heroes every week on TV.
*WWE Intercontinental champ Bad News Barrett defeated Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose in a three-way when Barrett nailed Ziggler with a Bullhammer. Dean nailed Dirty Deeds and stole the IC title again. Barrett got a lot of reaction on the mic saying that the fans were dumb because they thought Ambrose was the new champion, but stealing doesn't make you a champion. From an athletic standpoint, one of the better matches on the show with some great near falls. Big reaction for Ambrose's entrance.
A Seth Rollins promo from backstage aired. He said tonight, he and Kane were facing Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns. So, they changed it and swapped Orton and Reigns from where they had been advertised. He said that he knew New York was dying for a real champion since all they had were the Knicks and that soon, he would be that man. Promo was good.
*WWE Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Tyson Kidd defeated The New Day when Tyson pinned Xavier Woods. Kidd cut a promo on a fan saying, "No, I don't need Natalya's permission to be out here." No real reaction to New Day. They were pretty dead in the water, although the crowd got behind them when Big E. cut a promo. Solid match with some really good action.
*WWE Divas champio Nikki Bella pinned Paige with the Rack Attack. Brie easily won the fan balloting to allow her to stay at ringside. That either means a lot of NYC loves Total Divas or someone has failed to get Paige over. The idea the babyface didn't win the fan poll blew my mind. Fans actually did the "Yes" chant when it was announced she could remain. Brie interfered which allowed Nikki to hit the Rack Attack. They were working hard but you could tell portions of the crowd wanted nothing to do with it.
Chris Jericho came out for an episode of The Highlight Reel. He got a nice reaction coming out. The Reel felt like a stand-up routine of someone doing their greatest hits as he put over that he whipped out "Madison Square Jericho", led the fans to cheer that he should replace The Authority in running WWE, told a story about sitting in the crowd watching his dad play for the New York Rangers when he was four and being mad his dad didn't wave to him in the upper levels of the Garden and whipped out his old long, verbally insulting "Trashbag Ho" line about Stephanie McMahon, but let the fans say the "Ho" part before quipping that he can't say that anymore as now they are PG. The crowd laughed for that one. Luke Harper came out and shoved Jericho after a staredown, so Jericho challenged him....
Chris Jericho pinned Luke Harper with the Codebreaker. Good match. Harper looked really good here and the crowd really believed he was going to pin Jericho with a sit-down powerbomb as it looked awesome and all the villains had won thus far.
*John Cena defeated WWE United States champion Rusev by DQ. Rusev and Lana did a long promo running down the United States and declaring that Cena would never, ever get a title shot again. HHH popped up on the screen and said he's been listening to Rusev all day but they are in MSG and they are in America, so John Cena would get his title shot right now. Seriously, did I miss a turn? Cena came out to his usual big mixed reaction. This wasn't as good as Fast Lane but they worked hard. In the end, the referee was bumped and a second referee ran in as Rusev attempted to cover Cena. Rusev ended up using a chair to try and set Cena up for the Accolade but the original referee caught it and DQ'd him. This was the first WWE event at Madison Square Garden since 2011 that didn't close with Cena in the main event. Throwing out the Smackdown brand split house shows (since Cena couldn't appear on those), this was only the third MSG event since 2005 that didn't headline with a Cena bout. One of those events was a Raw taping headlined by HHH vs. Vince McMahon and the others were house shows headlined by CM Punk closing the show in steel cage matches.
*R-Truth pinned Fandango. What you would expect from a bout coming out of intermission.
*Randy Orton pinned Bray Wyatt. Big reaction for Orton's return to MSG. They spent a lot of time working a slow, logical and methodical style. Orton was ridiculously over, which meant the crowd allowed them to do that style, where they likely would have crapped on someone else in the same position. The finish saw Bray go for Sister Abigail and Orton slip out and nail the RKO "out of nowhere." Interesting they have Bray lose clean as they are building him for The Undertaker bout at Wrestlemania. OK bout but the crowd being so into it probably made it seem much better as they were into all the near falls.
After this came the Hogan Appreciation Ceremony, which was pretty damn awesome.
As they set up for the ceremony, there was a loud "Hogan" chant in the Garden.
The Hogan Appreciation ceremony began with the introduction of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart, who was a surprise. Hart came out to his classic tune "Eat Your Heart Out Rick Springfield" and welcomed everyone. He said it meant a lot that when he and Hogan arrived, they saw red and yellow lights, that the ring ropes were red and yellow and that he could see a lot of red and yellow shirts. Hart said that he and Hogan have been friends for 30 years and he'll never forget the first night he was in MSG and said that all of this means the world to him and thanked the fans.
The NWO's music hit and out came Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. It was the first time Hall was in Madison Square Garden since losing to Triple H in May 1996 and having the mic cut off on him as he tried to say, "Say Goodbye to the Bad Guy" on his last night before returning for the Kliq curtain call that became infamous. Hall took the mic and said that when they went down to WCW (which the crowd booed), they ran with Hulk Hogan and did the old WCW survey. The crowd booed the mention of WCW and gave a huge ovation for the NWO. Hall said it was, "One more for the good guys."
Nash took the mic and said that when they left and went down South, "the angle was that they were invading" and no one knew who the third man was. He said that the third man could only be Hulk Hogan and that Hogan made the NWO, then introduced him.
Hogan came out to a huge ovation and posed on the stage before coming to the ring. He thanked everyone but as he was about to continue, out came Ric Flair to a thunderous ovation. Flair entered the ring and went nose to nose with Hogan, smiling. MSG loudly chanted, "This is awesome."
Flair then cut a long promo, saying that he and Hogan ran in different parts of the world, and that when Flair finally had the courage to leave "The NWA, WCW" and come to the WWF and faced Hogan, it was like nothing he had ever seen. Flair said he faced Ricky Steamboat, Sting, The Rock N' Roll Express and others, but no one had the charisma that Hogan did. It should be noted there was a sizable "Randy Savage" chant in response to that.
Flair said that Hogan was the most charismatic and the best of all time. He talked about the first time he wrestled Hogan in MSG and how afterwards, he and Hogan took The China Club (a landmark New York nightclub of that era) "to the next level", which Hogan then tried to "sssh" Flair about.
Flair then said that when his son died, Hogan called and was there for him and he said that what he's learned in life is that he can always count on Hulk Hogan and he can count on Vince McMahon. They hugged and it was obvious Flair was crying.
Flair then sent it to a special video package which featured comments from The Rock, Shawn Michaels, The New Age Outlaws, Bret Hart and others about Hogan. Some were new interviews and some were from WWE archival footage, interspeced with classic Hogan clips.
Out came Triple H accompanied by one of the Senior Vice Presidents of Madison Square Garden and one of the building's long-time photographers. HHH said that he brought them out so the fans wouldn't boo the guys they didn't know. He said that he wasn't out here as the COO or The Authority or The Game or even HHH, but as the little kid that saw Hulk Hogan wrestle. He praised Hogan for being the best champion ever in The Garden and put him over for all he's done for WWE.
MSG then presented Hogan with a portrait of a shot that was taken of Hogan in the ring at the first Wrestlemania, which Hogan seemed genuinely taken aback about.
Hogan said that when he would come to MSG, he always knew what was going down but tonight he didn't know anything and was so touched and shocked at everyone and everything tonight. He thanked all the fans and WWE and said he wanted to make it clear that HHH was the reason he came back home. He said HHH reached out to him and held the doors open for him and he wanted everyone to know how much he appreciates it and appreciates being home.
Hogan said he debuted here in 1979 against Ted DiBiase and Vince McMahon Sr. gave him the Hulk Hogan name and that day in 1979, he never could have guessed all these years later, how much NYC would mean to him.
They aired the Hogan video set to "Forever Young" from the Hulk Hogan birthday celebration a few months ago on Raw.
BREAKING: #WWE AND @TheGarden raise banner celebrating 30 years of @HulkHogan. Photo by @realbobhasley #PWInsider pic.twitter.com/sl1zvPo7oS
— PWInsider.com (@PWInsidercom) February 28, 2015Triple H then said they had one more surprise and that was that since they are in Madison Square Garden and Hogan is the greatest champion ever, he should be celebrated like the other champions. They then raised a banner celebrating 30 years in MSG of Hulkamania. The crowd went nuts for this.
The fans chanted for "One More Match." Flair took off his jacket and acted like he wanted to fight Hogan. Hogan joked that he and Flair could do that and then said about one more match, "I guess I'm going to have to talk to the boss."
They closed out the ceremony with a Hogan posedown and then Hogan and everyone took photos with the artwork. All of this was filmed with multiple cameras, so one would assume it will be released and/or utilized by WWE down the line.
A really classy, special moment and something was really nice.
*Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan defeated Kane and Seth Rollins. Rollins received a main event heel level reaction when his music started. Reigns, like John Cena before him, received a lot of cheers from women and children and boos from men. Bryan received a nice reaction but not a top level homecoming, although there were lots of "Yes" chants. They had a nice main event. In the end, Reigns was going to spear Rollins but Kane ate the spear. The referee was distracted by Bryan and Kane fighting. Rollins went to nail Reigns with the Money in the Bank briefcase but ate the spear and was pinned.
Overall, a solid show. No "must see" bouts but for a show aimed at young families, it was fairly well paced with only one bout (Truth-Fandango) sort of stalling, but that's sort of the position it was in as the popcorn bout.
Notes:
They aired a special video dedicated to "Conor the Crusher" and it brought down the house as fans chanted Conor's name towards the end and then chanted, "Thank you Conor" after. WWE sold out of most of the Conor bracelets that raise money for the Conor's Cure charity that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon launched following his passing.
Eden Stiles handled the ring announcing. She does a good job.
I am shocked they didn't bring Howard Finkel in for the Hulk Hogan ceremony. I mean, he was THE announcer that declared Hogan the WWF champion when he defeated the Iron Sheik. How that attention to detail was missed and they didn't think to tap Howard is beyond me. But, of course, I always complain he doesn't announce the MSG shows (and I guess I am now, too)..
The show was 3/4th full (so in the 12,000-14,000 range) but obviously not a sellout. The company had a lot of radio ads running in the week leading up to the show on all the major sports radio stations.
No return date announced and for those wondering, nothing announced for Summerslam.
Scattered CM Punk chants before and early on in the show, but nothing sizable.
They sold signed photos of Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton at the show. Lots of Sting merchandise as well.
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