Rumble on the campus
By EDDIE HUGHES
It was a rumble all right.
World Wrestling Entertainment couldn’t have come up with a more
fitting name for Sunday’s Royal Rumble at the Save Mart Center.
WWE world heavyweight champion Triple H defended his title against
Randy Orton in the Royal Rumble at the Save Mart Center yesterday.
Photo by Joseph Vasquez. |
There were five matches before the main-event, a 30-man brawl that started
with two wrestlers and ended with one. Another wrestler entered the ring
every 90 seconds. And then they fought. They fought until only one wrestler
was left — Batista.
It was the second time the Royal Rumble has been held in Fresno. The
event was at Selland Arena in 1996, when Shawn Michaels was the last man
standing.
Fan Justin Roes, who sat in a ringside seat, said he has attended too
many wrestling events to count since he became a fan at age 2.
“Some guys have baseball, I’ve got wrestling,” Roes
said.
WWE events have a different type of atmosphere than most baseball games,
and not just because the outcomes are predetermined.
During Sunday night’s madness, there was blaring entrance music
for each WWE superstar. There were fireworks that left that familiar smoky
Fourth of July smell snaking through the arena.
WWE electrifies the near-capacity at the Save Mart Center for
Sunday's night Royal Rumble. Above: Batista celebrates his
2005 Royal Rumble victory. Below: Edge rests on rope after
a forearm to the head. Photos by Joseph Vasquez
|
There were fans screaming, yelling, cussing and chanting — sometimes
cussing while they chanted.
There were enough homemade signs being held up around the arena to warrant
the opening of a store that sells only poster boards. And at least a couple
of those signs must have been made at the last minute, because they had
misspelled messages written on them.
One sign being held up by a fan during the first match in the near-full
arena read, “I hope you loose.”
Neither wrestler in the ring loost, but Maven won.
Another sign said, “Tripe H Day.” Tripe H didn’t participate
in the event, but Triple H beat Randy Orton in singles competition for
the world heavyweight championship.
Those messages — as well as several that were spelled correctly
— weren’t enjoyed by everyone. A few fans who had their view
blocked by all the poster boards being held up yelled, “Put your
sign down” throughout the event.
Inside the ring, there was blood, athletic maneuvers and drama.
Fans stood most of the three-hour event, not wanting to miss a single
dramatic entrance, punch or scripted outcome.
It’s no secret that the outcomes are predetermined, but that doesn’t
take away from the fans’ excitement.
“You know it’s staged, but at the same time people get into
it,” Fresno State grad student Fernando Elizondo said. “It’s
like a real-life soap opera.”
The storylines are there. Each week, wrestling storylines develop and
take twists and turns to draw interest from the fans.
“I just equal it the same to someone who watches Desperate Housewives,”
Elizondo said.
WWE refers to its product as sports entertainment. Sunday’s pay-per-view
event brought in all the excitement of a shoot-em-up, beat-em-up action
movie and maybe even with a better storyline than most.
Yes, rumble was definitely an accurate description.
|
