TORONTO — So many memories packed into a single day. It must be WWE Elimination Chamber.
This is the thing that gets people when I say it — I don’t go to these events for wrestling. I mean, I do, but really it’s secondary.
It’s even more true these days when the special is available on demand when you get home, with a way better vantage point than you get from the press box at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
No, it’s about the people, the laughs, the connections you make, the poor waitress that can’t keep up with the demands of the wrestling crowd hours before the big show.
And it’s about changing your plans on the fly.
The SlamWrestling.net approval for media access didn’t come in until late on Thursday, so it was hard to offer it up to the crew last minute, and we elected that I should go, despite the fact that I probably watch the product the least out of everyone.
But I am the best at shaking hands and kissing babies, and passing out business cards. These events are as much about making connections for media as it is the show, if not more so. Content is here and gone, but that person you meet might be just the right one to open a door in a week, a month, a year.
Since it was a later decision, I had to decide whether to keep my originally scheduled programming for Saturday — donating blood. I did, #156 for me, and I posted my copy of Keith Elliott Greenberg’s new book, BIGGER! BETTER! BADDER!: WRESTLEMANIA III and the Year It All Changed, alongside my arm with the needle poked in it. Give blood if you can.
Then it was off to the Smash Wrestling show at the Rec Room, which is right across the street from the Rogers Centre. I was plenty early for the show, with a 2 p.m. bell-time, so got a chance to see so many friends, often the unsung heroes who do the refereeing, the camerawork at ringside, the announcing. I got a little time with Raj Dhesi (the former Jinder Mahal) for a short story later this week on the site.
The plan was to watch the show until media call time … but then Big Daddy Donnie DaSilva and Jimmy Korderas walked in.
For long-time readers, they’ll know that Big Daddy Donnie was a columnist here on the site (though we never reposted them after our move), and Korderas is a former WWE referee who has become a media figure talking about wrestling, first on Aftermath and now on HugePopRadio.com, with Donnie, available on Toronto’s TSN radio station.
Steve Aringtaru, Greg Oliver, Jim Korderas and Big Daddy Donnie DaSilva before WWE Elimination Chamber in Toronto on Saturday, March 1, 2025.
They were going to a bar to meet some other wrestling-related media people, and I was game, even if I never saw a moment of the actual Smash Wrestling show (I’m sure it was great). Slam’s own Boris Roberto Aguilar was there, and I hadn’t seen him since he broke his ankle, then Bob Kapur came later, plus I met (and re-met) lots of fans who were local and from abroad.
They had me at bar. There was a new beer to try, Madrí Excepcional, so I was extra happy.
Then there was the not-so-long walk in the cold to the media entrance for WWE Elimination Chamber, sharing stories along the way.
From there, it was a bit of a blur, meeting names I knew about, like Sean Ross Sapp and Chris Van Vliet, but hadn’t met (Chris insisted we have met, but that was before he was a star), and many I hadn’t. Even putting a face to the name of our WWE media contacts was worth the trip.
Wrestling media are a special breed, for good or for bad, but I enjoy hearing about their journeys, what they are hoping to accomplish at the show. I’m not a post-a-short-video guy throughout the show, nor a dude who needs to tweet out every moment … otherwise I might have X’d out that announcer Lillian Garcia came up to the press box to watch the show for a while.
It had been more than a few years since I was in the media box at the Rogers Centre, but the staff at the building are always top-notch, and hopefully the Blue Jays will be more competitive this coming season.
There are memories all around the building for me too: Blue Jays games including a 1992 World Series loss; Argos games; the 100th Grey Cup Argos win with my late father-in-law; concerts (Springsteen, Yes, Santana to name but a few); even the Toronto Sun‘s 25th anniversary was at the massive venue and was a rockin’ good time. WrestleMania VI in the nosebleed seats with the amazing wave during the Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase match, the tiers of the SkyDome going in opposite directions (it was the first thing I looked up on Netflix’s WWE collection). I interviewed Dwayne Johnson when he was just Rocky Maivia, his first-ever wrestling interview, in early 1997 in this building, and then talked to him again as he was becoming The Rock. There was the chat with WWF World champion Bret Hart the night before the infamous Survivor Series.
Oh, there was wrestling tonight as well?
If you want that, go read Nick Tylwalk’s report.
TOP PHOTO: The view from the press box at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, at WWE Elimination Chamber on Saturday,, March 1, 2025. Photo by Greg Oliver
RELATED LINKS
