For the first time in I don’t know how many years (but back when it was the WWF, not the WWE), I went to a wrestling Pay-Per-View party. Last night was the Royal Rumble. Every month, my friend Tim has a get together on the night of the Pay-Per-View and invites everyone over to watch it. I used to go to these parties quite often. Many of my friends are big wrestling fans and in college, they eventually got me into it. More than the wrestling was the fellowship - tons of people show up for the PPVs, a good time to see people that I didn’t see often and just have a good time with everyone. The wrestling events, RAW, Smackdown and the PPVs, were fun, but I eventually I stopped watching them. It just wasn’t something I enjoyed or felt comfortable watching anymore, plus I was getting “old” and the “late” nights weren’t for me any more.

Last night was a friend’s birthday and everyone was getting together at the PPV, so I decided to go. Lots of things have changed (beyond just the name), since I last watched it, while some things are the still the same. It’s still as fake and “soap opera-y” as always, and I got a good chuckle out of that. To my surprise, some familiar faces were still around, such as the Undertaker (isn’t he a senior citizen by now?), Edge, the Hardy Boys, Chris Benoit, Booker T (er…King Booker, now) and Ric Flair. Kane was still around, though without his mask, which was a surprise to me. Gone was The Rock, but in his place was John Cena. Gone was one of my fave wrestlers, Rikishi, but his brother Umaga was in his place. My fave tag-team was the Dudley Boyz (and let’s not forget the Duchess of Dudley-ville, the one and only Stacey Keebler), but they’re not around anymore. Also missing was Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Big Show. To my surprise, Hardcore Holly and Rob Van Dam were still around, and HBK (a.k.a. Shawn Michaels) was added to the lineup. Isn’t he a senior citizen too? MIA, though still around from what I heard, are Triple H, Jericho and Kurt Angle. I think they’re all hurt or taking time off.

Not something I’ll be getting into again, but it was still fun, especially watching my wrestling-crazed friends.