From the second I stepped into the arena, to the half-hour walk back to our hotel in the blistering heat while carrying our four folding chairs. Every second was beyond anything I had ever imagined. Not just Punk/Cena, not just Daniel Bryan’s MITB Contract win, not just the iconic ending. Every moment. Every part of it. Everything.
Money in the Bank wasn’t just the highlight of the wrestling year for me. It was a night that I will never forget, and most likely the kind of experience that I will never have again. This post is going to be long, full of (sweaty, ugly) photos, and probably gratuitously sentimental. BUT FUCK YOU GUYS, IT’S NEW YEAR’S EVE, AND THIS WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE.
Favourite Moments of 2011 (#6): Daniel Bryan wins his MITB contract
I couldn’t find a good quality version of this on Youtube so I just uploaded my own terrible 8 seconds of footage. ENJOY~
I feel like this almost pales in comparison to his world title win (which I wrote about here!!!!!) but I came up with this list before TLC took place so it’s staying.
I might be alone here, but I had absolutely NO idea that D-Bry would be winning the MITB contract. To be honest, he was one of the last guys I was expecting to go over. It was the biggest surprise of the night for me, made only better by the high-5 I got from Colt Cabana afterwards (TRUE STORY!!!)
I marked out so hard when he grabbed the briefcase and he deserves all of his accomplishments and I can’t gush about him and his work enough. I’m so happy to say that I was there to witness this :’)
I have finally had enough time to sit down and properly go through my photos and videos from Sunday night. It makes me both really happy and really sad, but I’m trying to focus my energy mostly on the really happy part. I still can’t believe that I was there and that I witnessed such an amazing show in a city that I have wanted to visit my entire life and that I met one of my freaking idols (and that he was the most friendly guy ever!). I’ve had four flights since I left Chicago, and I have spent every one of them just thinking about everything that happened. I have had no more than 3 hours sleep a night for the past week, but I feel more awake and more energetic than I ever have in my life. I just feel different.
On the 17th of July 2011, I finally felt like I belong.
I have been to wrestling shows at home. I’ve been to crappy indy shows in Adelaide and I save up for front row seats at WWE’s annual Australian tour every single year, and don’t get me wrong; I love it. I just had absolutely no idea what I was missing until now. I’ve always recognised that wrestling isn’t quite as popular in Australia as it is in the States, but I didn’t realise how striking the difference actually is.
I walked out of my hotel in Chicago on Sunday evening to grab something to eat before the show and was blown away by the sheer number of people in wrestling shirts walking the streets. There were kids sitting at tables outside Subway making signs for John Cena and excitedly explaining the brilliance of the Punk/Cena storyline to their parents. A few metres away, parents were the ones excitedly explaining the great storylines of their childhoods to their own kids. Chili’s was full of guys dressed up as Zack Ryder immitating Ric Flair at the bar, threatening to riot if Cena walked out champion. There were CM Punk chants breaking out on the footpath, in Target, in the hotel lobby.
I have never experienced anything like that before, and honestly, it was really confronting at first. Maybe American fans are just far more flamboyant and vocal about their passion than Australians. Maybe it’s a Chicago thing. I don’t know, I just know that it was an entirely different atmosphere to any wrestling show I have ever been to before. I made friends with complete strangers, and by the end of the night I felt like I had known them for years. People from around the world (including myself) had flown for hours and hours to get to this show. This wasn’t WrestleMania, this wasn’t SummerSlam, this wasn’t even the Rumble! This was just an overachieving lower-tier-PPV during WWE’s off season that somehow managed to remind me why I love this industry. Why I skip uni to watch Raw live every Tuesday morning. Why I spend too much money on shirts and tickets and the occasional action figure. Why I have kept this blog for three years now. This was my ultimate catharsis.
So here is Punk celebrating his title win (and knocking Del Rio the fuck out) from my perspective. If I never get to experience anything like this ever again, I will still be forever grateful that I got to belong, even for just one night. Especially on a night that may have revolutionized the entire wrestling industry. And you know what? Even if it comes to a point where people one day look back on this feud and this storyline and decide that it was completely fruitless, and that none of the things that it promised to deliver actually pan out, they will be wrong. Because it was revolutionary. It was. It revolutionised my love and my passion for professional wrestling, and for that, I will be eternally thankful.
Impostor Cena was staying at my hotel! We bumped into each other down the hallway on my floor and he smiled at me and 10 seconds later it hit me that I had just possibly walked past John Cena. They smiled EXACTLY the same.
I have been debating whether or not to post this all day, because it is undoubtedly the most revolting photo of me that has even been taken. But seriously, who cares? LOOK AT THE MAN STANDING NEXT TO ME. I met Colt Cabana last night, and it was beautiful, and everything felt perfect. He was the most friendly guy ever. I’m still in shock.
I just wish I could go back. So, so badly. Hopefully I will be home (aka at the hotel) in time for Raw tonight. I need to know what happens.
We are checking nothing but four folding chairs onto the plane today. This is taking way too long.
You needed to show your ticket to security if you wanted to take them (to prove you were in the first two rows), so Colt gave his ticket to someone sitting further back who he heard talking about how cool they were. Beautiful man :’)
But I will try anyway because a) I need to be up at 5, and b) I feel like if I try to put everything I’m thinking about tonight into words, I won’t do it justice. I will never be able to do it justice. Every preconceived idea I had was blown away. I really, really fucking love professional wrestling. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. Good night <3
