[Mota]

Well, just got back from Philly today. It was a long weekend.

Cool thing that happened, is that we basically bumped into The Rock on the way back from the WWE World show. He was staying at the hotel (Ritz-Carlton) beside ours, and was going to the Wolf gym across the street, right off Broad St. The bodyguard (2 of them) essentially body checked my son out of the way. The Rock was pretty inconspicuous, with a hoodie pulled up. No one else had any idea it was him.

My son ended up coming back a few minutes later to see if he could get a pic during the exit, but Dwayne actually went out through the back door, a few people leaving the gym confirmed that he had already left.

Night 1 was pretty good. The Sami Zayn / Gunther match was incredible. The main event was much, much too long. I think they said there were 22 minutes of intros and several minutes even after the bell rung before there was any action at all. But it was well received overall. The first real Rock match since 2013 was a special treat. Every crowd enjoys booing him at first, but he's so good at what he does, that it's hard to keep booing.

Night 2 was much better. MITB cash-in was crazy over. The crowd went nuts. You might hear the chants "turn the light off" or "we can't see" in the first third of the show, there were some production lights around the top that were pointed right at the stands, and it was quite blinding. The crowd was getting so pissed off that they eventually started chanting "Chris Benoit" and "Vince McMahon". The huge pop that happened just as LA Knight was about to win was because the lights were finally turned off. Unbelievable response to the main event for this one. It was another long match, but all the interference actually played off well with the live crowd. I think the pop when Cody won is the loudest pop I have ever heard at a wrestling show. I turned around to my son after the show was over and just said "Not bad, but not that much happened". LOL. It was certainly an important weekend in terms of storylines for the company, and almost all the major championships changing hands.

I wasn't really too excited about going, it was really for my son, but the storytelling has definitely improved over the VKM time. I'm going to keep watching.

Also, drivers in Philly like to honk their horns. A LOT. Our hotel was right off Broad St. and it continued until about 3am every night! Why so horny?

Update #2: And it was cold. So cold. It wasn't just the temperature, it was crazy windy up in the nosebleeds. I was wearing my winter jacket. I'm fron Northern Ontario, and I don't get cold. But I was shivering like crazy by the end of the show.