There's been a number of good ones, but since this question does also involve wrestling events, I gotta go with the Triple H/Benoit Iron Man RAW from Pittsburgh. While most of the diva stuff was forgettable, the pops for Rhyno and Tajiri, the Steelers chant, nabbing a t-shirt from the t-shirt gun, not to mention the damned good Benoit/H match (and subsequent insane cheering for Eugene) all made it my most memorable. Oh, yeah, and there were autographs afterwards!
We're the middle children of history...no purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our great war, our defining crucible, is a spiritual war.
That's easy: The 1984 Orange Bowl, Miami 31, Nebraska 30. The Dolphins-Chargers epic that I was also at that was exactly two years prior is right there as well but I can't even describe the atmosphere or the noise levels in the Orange Bowl the night the Hurricanes upset the Cornhuskers.
My dad would usually have tickets to some sort (usually Dolphins playoff tickets and/or Orange Bowl tickets) pinned to the Xmas tree, and both games I just mentioned were tickets that I plucked off a branch. So both of these warrant mentioning both for epic and sentimental reasons.
"He's too much of gentleman to assume that the lady he is with would have a disease and he's man enough to raise any offspring that should arise. HE IS AL WILSON."[-DEAN~, 7/22/05]
For pure joy in my heart - Game 2 0f the 1984 LCS from Wrigley Field in Chi - Cubs won (and choked and blew the next three)
For insanity and also history, WM at the Rosemont Horizon - the year it was in three places - Wrestlemania 2
There were only a few matches, but we watched the rest on the big screen. We had the Battle Royal with Andre (and The Fridge) and the Bulldogs Vs The Hammper and The Zodiac. The rest of the matches were on Long Island and LA. It was fun though. My only Wrestlemania.
1st game of the season after the Houston Rockets won their 1st championship. They gave everyone in attendance replica rings. Plus the Rockets won that night and I was a huge Rockets fan at the time.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
God bless the men of 2nd Bn, 127th Inf, 32d "Red Arrow" Brigade, WI Army Nat'l Guard...good luck, and come home soon.
Sports: 2004 World Series, Gm. 4...I see the Red Sox win a world championship...and see my best buddy's reax (he's a Boston-born lifelong member of Red Sox Nation...bastard even dragged me in.)
Honorable mention to 1994 NFC Wild Card Playoff game @ Lambeau: Packers hold Barry Sanders to -1 rushing yds. in the first non-strike postseason game in Green Bay since the Ice Bowl.
Sports entertainment: WWF No Way Out 2002, Milwaukee: Hogan, Hall and Nash walk back into the WWF, reforming the nWo. Mark-out city, baby.
Sports: I haven't been to many Red Sox games, but my favorite was the fourth of July game last year (or maybe the year before) against the Blue Jays at Fenway. Derek Lowe started and got shelled early, but he stayed tough and the Sox came back to win. From a baseball standpoint, the best game was probably the day where Mark McGwire (still with the A's) hit three home runs off of Jamie Moyer. But I was a Sox fan, so I really didn't care.
Wrestling: I went to the last WWF show in the old Boston Garden, right before they tore it down. Tatanka beat Bam Bam Bigelow, Diesel beat Sid to keep the WWF Championship, and I got a fake WWF Title belt. I think I had it for two years before one of my dogs ate it.
"He is the most overrated piece of crap in the league. He bitched and whined after he got his ass beaten in New England last year, so the NFL changed the rules. Then he got his ass beaten in New England again. Every year he's the top MVP candidate. Every year he's supposed to be the best. Every year he's going to carry the Colts to the Super Bowl. And every single year he goes to New England and gets his ass beaten. And his brother's a whiny little bitch." -A friend of mine, on Peyton Manning
It wasn't a wrestling show OR a Soccer game either... it was a basketball game surprisingly.
Game 5 of the NBA 1996 finals. I was living in Seattle at the time and my roommate had 4 free tickets he had won on a radio call-in contest. The Seattle Supersonics were two games behind Chicago and that damned Michael Jordan. It was a home game and we'd won our first game of the finals two days before so we were pretty excited at the chance to knock Jordan and the 'Dream Team' down to earth. I remember the Sonics winning by 12 and the whole arena exploded. It was louder then a Hogan pop it seemed.
That was a great game and a pretty damn cool thing to get to go to for free on top of it.
Too bad those damned bulls went on to win at home a couple of days later taking the series 4 to 2. This was the season where they only lost ten games for the season. I suppose they deserved the championship, but damnit, I wished Seattle had stepped up and showed them what's what.
WrestleMania X7 in Houston at the Astrodome. I kinda regret trying to take good photos with a bad camera all night and not just enjoying the show. Put it was an amazing experience and it still makes me feel good that I attended one of the greatest shows in the history of wrestling.
I went to Old Timer's Day at Yankee Stadium in 1991. My first time at the Stadium.
What made it great was that it was a present for my grandfather's 75th birthday. He got to see all his favorite players with his wife, his kids and all his grandkids. I'd never seen a guy so happy. DiMaggio was there, Mickey, a big ceremony honoring 50 years of Phil Rizzuto... Skowron, Bobby Richardson, it really felt like they brought out anybody who's ever put on pinstripes and was still alive. Joe D, of course, wore a suit. I don't have a lot of childhood memeories that haven't been ruined by time and context. But this was before my parents got *really* screwed up, my uncle was still on his first wife.
After the exhibition, the 1991 Yankees lost to the White Sox 4-2, and I got a really bad sunburn because we sat in the upper deck.
Actual Sporting Event: My Flames won the Cup in 1989 (I was 4) and I started going to games with my dad the next season. After the first game, I was hooked. My personal favorite game EVER was a 10-0 drubbing of the Ottawa Senators in 1993. Nothing the Sens did ever worked...
Sportz Entertainment Event: 2001 RAW from the Saddledome. Benoit vs. Austin for the WWF Title in the main event, and a ton of great wrestling. Plus, Lance Storm made his WWF debut running in on a midcard tag match and starting the InVasion.
Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals at Madison Square Garden. 54 years of frustration gone in one joyous moment. No More 1940. Now I can die in Peace. "Mark Messier, come get your Stanley Cup !" No other game I have attended since than has ever come close.
Switching from a tight Man to Man to a loose Zone...
Originally posted by gugs From a baseball standpoint, the best game was probably the day where Mark McGwire (still with the A's) hit three home runs off of Jamie Moyer. But I was a Sox fan, so I really didn't care.
If that was Red Sox vs. A's, it was Zane Smith who gave up the 3 home runs to McGwire. Best game was probably Providence vs. Georgetown in January of '87. Hoya Paranoia rolls into town, Pitino almost gets into a fight with John Thompson, and Providence wins in the last 3 seconds on a jumper from Pop Lewis in the corner. Last row behind the basket and I remember it like yesterday. Providence ends up beating Georgetown again a few months later to go to the Final Four. Worst moment is September of '91. Boston comes back from the grave and gets from 11 1/2 back to within a 1/2 game. Luis Rivera scores the go ahead run on a Pascual Perez wild pitch in the bottom of the 8th. Reardon comes in, gets the first two, then gives up an 0-2 home run to Roberto Kelly into the net. Matt Young comes in in the 10th, walks everyone, Red Sox collapse for the rest of season.
I used to attend the first and last game at Busch 2 every year, so in 1998 I was there for #1 off of Ramon Martinez, a grand slam on opening day, and #69 and #70 off the Expos the last day of the season. (We're talking about McGwire, of course.) #70 was amazing; the whole ballpark exploded, people around me were hugging, and the ovation lasted literally two or three minutes.
Brian Jordan, who had been the Alpha Cardinal the past two or three years, stepped in after Mark and took three strikes in a row to end the inning; he was replaced in the field in the top of the next frame, meaning that at-bat was his last few seconds as a St. Louis Cardinal. I don't think John Ulett announced him; if he did, the stadium was so loud you couldn't hear it.
The only Cardinal playoff game I attended, Game One of the NLDS against SDP back in 1996, was an even better atmosphere - electric throughout. This was the first playoff game at Busch 2 since 1987, so Redbird Nation was JACKED IN. Busch 2 could still seat 55,000 at the time and every red seat was filled with a red shirt - it was amazing. Not a great game, mind you (Cards 3-0 win on a Gary Gaetti homer,) but an incredible experience.
Probably the best sporting event I have ever been to was a minor league playoff game between the Hampton Roads Admirals and the Roanoke Express. Went to three overtimes before the Admirals finally pulled it out. Saw the most amazing save I have ever witnessed at any level of hockey. Darryl Paquette, the Admirals goalie had went behind the net to play the puck, and a Roanoke forward crashed into an Admirals defender knocking them both down at the right side of the goal, blocking Paquette. The puck went back right between the face off circles and the Roanoke player hit a little shot that should have went directly into the net, but Paquette dives, over the right corner of the goal, and over the two downed platers to make the glove save. Totally awesome.
As far as Sports Entertainment goes, I would say the RAW IS OWEN show at Savvis. Sad night, but something I shall never forget.
-Watching Ron Dayne break the single season rushing record my freshman year at Wisconsin. The crowd just went balistic when he passed it (they had handed out these little Ron Dayne towels earlier in the night, and after he broke it, everybody held them up, and Camp Randall was just a sea of white towels. It was really special to see). Then to top it off, that was the same night it was announced that Wisconsin had won the Big Ten and would be playing in the Rose Bowl.
-Four years later, watching Wiscosin overcome just about every crappy thing that could happen to them (including having their quarterback, Jim Sorgi, choked out), in the middle of the freezing, pouring rain, beat Ohio State, the #1 team in the country, and then storming the field and celebrating with the players.
-Honorable mention to Lee Evan's 5 TD game v. Michigan State which was one of his first real games back, and just a treat to watch.
I don't really have any wrestling ones. None of the wrestling shows I've attended have been particularily "memorable" (unless you count the time Scott Norton beat the crap out of Ernest Miller). Fun yes, but nothing that ranks in my pantheon of great life moments.
Tonight I wanna ruin my life, I wanna throw it all away, In a spectacular way
If wrestling counts, I saw Bret Hart winning his first WWE title (over Ric Flair in Saskatoon). I also saw Raw and SD tapings in Calgary and Edmonton which featured Austin/Benoit main events and the Lance Storm run-in which marked the debut of the Invasion angle.
As for real sports... um... I went to a Saskatchewan Roughriders game once. It was pretty fun, I guess. And I went to a hockey game featuring Saskatchewan-born NHL players against WHL players (this was during the last hockey strike). That was pretty fun too. I guess.
Living in Winnipeg, I haven't bore witness to any sporting event that ended in anything but heartbreak. The Jets were perennially awful and the Bombers have been disappointing since 1990.
I did see the semi-final of the 1999 World Junior Hockey Championship, when Canada beat Sweden. The old barn was rocking that night.
On a pro wrestling note, WrestleMania X-8 was pretty cool.
Unfortunately I live in Alabama where nothing happens professional sports-wise. There is plenty of good Auburn and Alabama stuff but none of my "friends" who go there have ever hooked me up with a ticket. So the best sporting event was when I visited Boston and went to a Red Sox game. It wasn't an important game and Nomar was injured and Pedro wasn't pitching that day but just being in Fenway Park was special, especially considering the only Major League ballparks I had seen previously where Atlanta Fulton County Stadium and Three Rivers Stadium.
I did go to a WWE ppv once, but it was horrible, it was Armageddon (don't remember what year). It had the end to the infamous Jericho/Kane coffee feud, Billy Gunn nearly killing Chris Benoit in an IC title match and six man Hell in the Cell where Rikishi fell into the truck of hay. Really the only good match of the night was the opener that was like 7 minutes between Eddie/Malenko/Saturn and Hardyz/Lita. Haven't been to another wrestling show since then. I do remember seeing a pretty good DDP/Benoit vs. Raven/Saturn main event on a Thunder once before that though. I also went to another Raw before that and remember having a good time, but since I don't remember a single match I guess it wasn't THAT great.
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I am astonished that it recognized my face with the makeup on. It even recognized the Misfits skull but didn't get any matches. It didn't recognize my friend's face at all.