OTTAWA — The WWE wrestlers aren’t the only ones on a road trip this weekend through Ontario and Quebec. SLAM! Wrestling’s “Bloodthirsty” Bob Kapur and photographer Mike Mastrandrea are hitting each town too. Follow Bob’s travels here each day. In this installment, find out what happened in Ottawa at the WWE Supershow Saturday night.
11am: Started the day later than expected because I was on the phone with the insurance company — got into a minor car accident last night. Hint for other drivers: if you don’t check your blind spot, You can’t see me. But don’t fret, SLAM! Wrestling faithful… the Bobmobile may be scarred and banged up some, but it can still go… it’s like the Terry Funk of cars. It’s going to take more than that to keep me from a weekend wrasslin’ road trip.
1139am: Pick up Mike Mastrandrea and our buddy Jay and we’re off. After a quick stop for lunch, it’s Ottawa or bust.
1147am – 431pm: Fun discussion on the way included which old-school WWF/WWE wrestlers should have had an LJN figure made of them back in the day, or deserve a Classics figure now. Consensus is that we would buy ones of the Goon, Jimmy Jack Funk, and Lord Alfred Hayes. Iron Mike Sharpe, too.
Uneventful drive down, except for one scary moment when Mastrandrea spit his gum out the window, not realizing it would blow back into the face of a biker coming up behind us. A few dirty looks, but no violence ensues thankfully.
453pm: Ottawa has way too many one-way roads. We had to circle the block twice to get to the entrance. Luckily, the hotel is near the University of Ottawa campus, so the lucky co-eds get a couple of chances to catch a glimpse of me.
After checking in and watching a bit of TV, and nearly dying in the sweatbox of a room thanks to Mastrandrea fiddling with the thermostat, we head out to Kanata for the show.
622pm: The Scotiabank Place arena has a horrible layout. When you come in, you have to fight through the lineup to the only merch stand in the building before you can go into the seating areas. If you choose to avoid the line and go in directly to the seating, they block you off from going back to the merch table! It’s like some complex hedge maze of ropes to get through the lobby. Idiocy.
708pm: Dammit. Dropped my fresh hot jumbo pretzel on the ground. Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?
730pm: The show begins!
- The Great Khali vs Dolph Ziggler. Khali got a huge babyface reaction. Ziggler stalls in the early stages, running from Khali several times. The big man gets hold of him, and in relatively short order, hits the Tree Slam for the pin.
- ECW General Manager Tiffany is in the top tier stands and asks a fan for a trivia question for a seating upgrade to ringside.
- Seamus vs Goldust. Seamus gets some cheap heat by dumping on the Ottawa Senators. Goldust answers his open challenge. Goldust surprisingly over, given that the many kids in the audience certainly wouldn’t have seen him in his first WWE stint. Seamus doesn’t know how to drop a convincing elbow — he landed three of them, each looking worse than the last. Anti-climactic finish with Seamus catching Goldust in a swinging backbreaker drop out of nowhere. Meh match.
- Alicia Fox, Jillian Hall and Natalya vs Bella Twins and Gail Kim. They should pay Natalya more for these matches for having to carry the load for her team. Thankfully, she worked most of the match for her team. The Bellas got beaten down for most of the match. Eventually, Gail got the hot tag in, she cleaned house and put Hall away with her arm-pull-face-kick combo. Crowd wasn’t really into this one except for Gail.
- Carlito vs Evan Bourne. Bourne with a huge reaction. Carlito looks a lot skinnier now, almost like an emaciated Ricky Ortiz. Carlito with a very aggressive streak dominates for most of the match. Bourne rallies back, and after avoiding a superplex and hitting one of his own, pins Carlito after a Shooting Star Press that has the fans standing.
- Hart Dynasty vs Cryme Tyme. Cryme Tyme really have the crowd behind them here against the two Canadians. Hungry, after my ill-fated pretzel debacle, I chose this match to get a replacement. Or some beer nuts. Cryme Tyme won before I got back to my seat. The little girl beside me didn’t know the finish. Idiot.
- The Miz vs Kofi Kingston for the US Title. Kofi is another big favourite with the kids. This one is a preview for Sunday’s PPV match. Based on this match, which was pretty bad, that may be the match where you leave the TV room and head to the kitchen to get some nachos or something. Hopefully, tomorrow these guys don’t botch a simple legdrop like they did twice tonight. Kofi wins with a Trouble in Paradise spin kick to end this drudgery.
- Tiffany comes out to do the ring announcing for the next match for the ECW Championship. William Regal vs Tommy Dreamer vs Christian. Fun comedy to start as the crowd does the yay/boo taunts much to Regal’s dismay. The match is standard three-way fare with one man generally on the floor while two others fight it out. Decent match highlighted by a Tower of Doom suplex spot. In the end, Regal hit Dreamer with his running knee to the head, sending the ECW Original to the floor. Christian came up from behind and hit Regal with his Killswitch for the win.
- Big Show and Randy Orton vs Triple H and John Cena. HHH had won the night’s award for biggest pop during his entrance, but Cena stole it. Match starts with Orton doing whatever he can to avoid being in the ring with Cena. He tags in only when Big Show has Cena hurt and then adds on the damage. Cena finally gets free and tags HHH, but he gets flattened by the Big Show. The dastardly pair have HHH hurt, and cut off his attempts for a tag. Several minutes of HHH getting beaten down. He desperately makes the tag to Cena after fighting back. Cena cleans house. In the closing minutes, Cena and HHH hit a double vertical suplex on Show, and exit him from the ring. A HHH whip sends Orton into the waiting arms of Cena, who hits Randy with the Attitude Adjustment for the pin. Nothing of note happened after the match.
Fun show overall.
1056pm: Back to the hotel, then out to the streets to experience the night life of Ottawa. Women a-plenty all around — I may have to move here.
1111pm: Too underdressed for any of the nightclubs (tie-dye wasn’t considered classy enough… I know, I don’t get it either). Settled for a diner for an all-day breakfast special. And then back to the hotel to crash.
“Bloodthirsty” Bob Kapur’s ramblings will take him to Montreal for the Breaking Point PPV tonight, as well as Monday Night Raw in Toronto and the ECW/Smackdown taping in Hamilton. Be sure to follow his travels here on SLAM! Wrestling. Email Bob at bobkapur@hotmail.com.
