Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Ben Johnson

When WWE comes to Rockford for an event, I try my best to make it there because is a rare occasion that they come there every year. Adding to that, I am about a half hour away from Rockford while I am about an hour from Chicago. When I was younger, they would come to town at least a couple times each year. On Saturday, WWE had a RAW house show so Stacey and I decided to go and bring along with a good friend of mine of the last 15 years.

I said this last year and I’ll say it again: Going to a WWE event always gives a fan the best value for the money. You can pay $15 and get two to three hours of entertainment and the best part about all of it is that you never go home dissapointed.

Sean, Stacey and I arrived to the Metro Centre at around 4:30. We always go early to meet the wrestlers and get autographs along with other fans. We had to wait a good half hour before anyone arrived. The ones that came to sign autographs were Brie and Nikki Bella, Natalya (Got a picture with her) and John Morrison (Sucks). David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd were with Natalya but did not stick around to sign autographs.

John Cena was the last one to stop by and he ended hugging a few girls and threw some headbands towards us. If I didn’t have a camera in my hand, I would have had a chance to get one of them. Edge got out of his car with a Quebec Nordiques shirt on. A few fans made some Blackhawks chants and I ended up asking why he wasn’t wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater because he is from Toronto. We also saw Santino and Wade Barrett.

The first match of the night was Mark Henry vs. Zach Ryder in which Henry won about five minutes. The match was short but the crowd was completely going nuts for Henry. He’s been in the WWE for almost 15 years and never have I heard such a loud cheer for him. I couldn’t believe it but a really cool thing to see.

Edge came out for a short promo and started ripping on Rockford. Pretty funny. Next up was The Great Khali vs. William Regal. I went to take a piss during this match. As soon as I got back, Khali pinned Regal. Sean and Stacey told me I didn’t miss much. Moving on. Santino Marella as the special guest referee for the Alicia Fox vs. Eve Torres match? About time a divas match was worth watching. Alicia Fox isn’t too bad of a wrestler either.

Evan Bourne vs. Edge. I read the reviews of this match and everybody said the same: Best match of the night. Lots of action. Bourne looked to hurt himself towards the end of the match. Seeing Evan Bourne wrestle in person is pretty sweet. I am really praying he gets a chance to be in the main event. He deserves it. The shooting star press finishing move is one of the coolest moves to watch in person.

The Uso brothers vs. The Hart Dynasty. Good match throughout. Jay and Jimmy Uso are really good against Hart and Kidd. I don’t want WWE to screw up this storyline. Next up is the triple threat U.S. Title match between Miz, Morrison and Ted Dibiase Jr. An OK match at best. I may be in the minority here but I really am liking Ted Dibiase Jr. His character is just like his dad’s but I think it could still work because most fans in this generation including myself didn’t really get a chance to see his dad wrestle.

Last match of the night: Sheamus vs. John Cena in a lumberjack match for the WWE Championship with the NXT guys being the guys outside the ring. When Cena’s music hit, the crowd went completely nuts. My ears were hurting a bit during this part. There were few boos for Cena. The match was actually pretty good. The NXT guys ended up getting beat up by the WWE guys like Bourne, Henry, Hart Foundation, etc. The crowd went nuts after the match.

Overall, a very good show. All three of us were getting exhausted about halfway through the show, but we hung in there. It was basically dark in the arena and we actually had to step onto the concourse to get some light to wake ourselves up. We saw a lot of wrestlers up close and met a few such as the Bellas and Natalya. Another very good experience for me at a WWE event.

Stacey and I at ringside.

The Great Khali saluting the fans.

Brie and Nikki Bella walking towards us to sign some autographs.

Natalya Neidhart and myself.

Here is the proof guys. If Lovie says it, it must be right. Right?

Just another example on why Chicago is the center of the delusional universe.

Coming up next week here on the webiste: An interesting article on a member of the Chicago media who really pisses me off. Stay tuned.

Now that the Blackhawks celebration has cooled off for yours truly, it’s time to get back to business: Writing crappy articles followed by comments by crappy people like ourselves on the crappiest website in the history of the internet.

I plan on having an interesting article (rant) sometime next week along with a few comments on the Bulls free agency search, maybe a dumb wrestling article and something on the Bears.

And speaking about the Bears. Just a little over a month until the Bears start training camp. Who’s excited? Oh that’s right. Nobody. Eh. I am excited for football to start but the results the Bears may bring? Not so much. We’ll see though.

Last year was Patrick Kane. This year is Jonathon Toews. Another good cover by EA Sports. Although it’s a bit weird seeing two players from the same team go on the cover of a video game. Usually, companies put players from different teams on the cover. It should be a good game. A lot of new features including broken sticks, passing sticks to other teammates and kicking pucks.

Tom Ricketts hired a stat guru to help in evaluating talent in future trades, free agent signings, and drafts. Could this be the beginning of the end for Hendry?

I cannot believe it. WE ARE THE STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!

I have been waiting for this day for a long time.

I have been waiting for this day since rooting for Roenick, Chelios and Belfour. Seeing Roenick cry after the game almost made me shed a tear.

I am so happy right now. I cannot describe what’s going on. I stuck around through some tough days with this team. Seeing all the likes of Eric Daze, Joceyln Thibault and Rene Borque was a bad time for the Blackhawks but I stuck around.

My statement stood corrected when I said the Blackhawks will only go far as long as Antti Niemi is the goalie. And it did.

June 9th, 2010 will be one of the greatest days of my life.

I will be at the parade Friday morning in Chicago. If anybody is going, please let me know and we will celebrate this one together. Especially a good friend of the site MadCityMac. If you’re reading this Mike, you should seriously consider making the trip down here. We don’t know when we might celebrate a championship again.

Just when everyone thought the Blackhawks were going to roll right through the Flyers in this series, it has now turned into a fight. Even after the 2-0 start in the series, I knew that this wasn’t going to be easy. Yet the so called “experts” kept saying that the Blackhawks were going to win easily. Predictions don’t mean shit. Teams still have to play the games.

The Blackhawks are close to being fucked. All they had to do was win at least one of the two games on the road and they didn’t. They even played like crap the first two games of the series and still managed to win both of them. That shows you how good of a team this is. Now they need to start playing like one.

So we’ll see what happens Sunday night as well as Wednesday night. I am not a pessimist. I am a realist and the reality is that this team is in trouble.