Black Saturday
Well, this is just completely unacceptable.
I went to turn on CMLL wrestling on Galavision. And to my horror, I discovered it has been replaced by the rival promotion, AAA.
Imagine if you turned on your television tonight looking for Game 1 of the World Series, but instead found the Brockton Rox playing Elmira.
AAA is terrible. AAA doesn't even deserve to be called AAA. It is more like short-season Class A ball.
CMLL is populated by fierce gladiators who engage in mortal combat; valiant warriors who give their blood, sweat and tears in pursuit of glorious victory. AAA is a bunch of grown men prancing around in tights in a poorly acted farce.
As I type this, some awful Mistico impersonator dressed in gold is botching every single high-flying move he attempts. If Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka is watching this at home, he no doubt weeps.
If CMLL isn't back on the air tomorrow morning there will be hell to pay, believe me.
*****
So, went to the WHL game between Seattle and Everett at Key Arena last night, in which Seattle rallied from 2-0 down in the second and won 3-2 on a Ryan Gibbons goal with 1:38 left. Colorado draftee Chris Durand was the star of the night, with two goals and an assist on the game winner.
This is one bizarre setup for a hockey game. Key Arena is, well, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a dump, but it is certainly nondescript. The entire upper deck is draped off with black Carolina Hurricanes-style drapes.
Urban legend in Seattle has it that when Key Arena was remodeled, Ackerly, the billboard magnate who owns the Sonics, insisted the floor space take on dimensions far too small to fit an NHL-sized rink, out of apparent fear of competition. The city of Seattle went along with this plan, brilliantly depriving themselves a shot at another big-league tenant.
Now, whether the Ackerly part is true, I don't know, but the "too small for hockey" part is on the money. They have to roll up all the lower-level seating from the blue line and in on one side of the building to cram in a WHL-sized rink. So not only is there no upper-deck seating, but there is no seating on the lower level from one side of the red line and on. And on top of that, most of the people in attendance were sitting in the cheaper seats in the higher rows of the lower level, leaving big blocks of empty seats down low.
So I was expecting one of the worst hockey experiences ever, but turned out pleasantly surprised. At every other sporting event I've ever attended in the area, the people bring sleeping bags and pillows and promptly fall asleep for three hours.
But this was an actual hockey crowd, not a Seattle sports crowd, which yelled at the ref, knew the game they were watching, and actually got into it. Better yet, half the crowd was rooting for Everett.
So, after going to see the Mariners, Sonics, Huskies, Rainiers, and Sabercats (R.I.P.), I've finally found it: a Seattle sports crowd that doesn't slip into a coma during the game. Never thought I'd see the day.
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