
Wrestling fans roll out welcome mat for return of WWE


So far, more than 2,500 wrestling fans have smacked down $33, $43, $53 or $63 to take in Sunday's afternoon card at the Aitken University Centre - the WWE's first appearance here in five years.
Let's hope no one gets hurt.
That's because the wrestlers who'll be bouncing off turnbuckles on the 1 p.m. card at the AUC will be back on the mat that night for a 7:30 p.m. show at Harbour Station in Saint John.
It's part of the Wrestlemania Revenge Tour that also hits the Moncton Coliseum the night before.
The Fredericton and Saint John shows were just updated Tuesday, so here's the lowdown in case you're still sitting on the fence - or in this case, ropes - about getting tickets.
Fredericton will feature a Smackdown tag team match pitting Batista and Matt Hardy against Edge and MVP. Edge is actually Adam Copeland from Orangeville, Ont. He was trained by, among others, Sweet Daddy Siki and Leo Burke from the old Atlantic Grand Prix wrestling circuit, but I digress.
In a two-on-one handicap match, The Big Show will take on Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder.
There will also be a ECW championship match between Kane and Chavo Guerrerro, and a WWE tag team championship match pitting Jimmy Yang and Shannon Moore against John Morrison and The Miz.
"Other superstars to be featured,'' according to the release out of WWE headquarters in Stamford, Conn., include Finlay (Hornswoggle vs. Chuck Palumbo; CM Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin; Ted DiBase Jr. vs. Kenny Dykstra; and Kofi Kingston vs. Mike Knox.
Both Fredericton and Saint John will have Smackdown Live Event host Eve Torres and include a Diva Best Body Contest with Kelly Kelly, Layla, Lena Yada and Natalya.
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The Big Show, in case you're not familiar with him, returned to the WWE after a 14-month hiatus. He's seven feet tall, 441 pounds and a self-proclaimed "biggest athlete on the planet; a raw-boned b**tard that breaks things and moves the immovable objects.''
But the bigger they are ... In February, The Big Show had his nose broken by a punch from WBC welterweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. on the Pay-Per-View "extravaganza" No Way Out.
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Congratulations to Rob Hennigar on winning the male BLG Award - the first men's hockey player to do so - and the $10,000 post-graduate scholarship that goes with it.
Most of you only got to watch Hennigar perform on the ice during his four years with the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds. I watched too, of course, but as a reporter I also got the chance to talk to Hennigar on numerous occasions. When you play as well as he did, you tend to draw a crowd.
He could easily be called Humble Hennigar. He was proud of his personal accomplishments - who wouldn't be? - but I never once got the sense he would put himself above the team.
After the V-Reds lost 3-2 to Alberta Golden Bears in the national final, he arguably took the loss harder than anyone.
"Rob's beating himself up in there,'' I was told outside the dressing room, "because he couldn't play the way he wanted to play.''
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Last Thursday - and part of Friday - featured the longest game in the American Hockey League's 72-year history. The Philadelphia Phantoms beat the Albany River Rats 3-2 in the fifth overtime period. Losing goalie Michael Leighton must have looked like a drowned Rat afterwards, stopping a whopping 98 of 101 shots.
Only a few hundred of 1,809 fans stayed until the end at about 12:45 a.m. ET - five hours and 38 minutes of actual time.
Fark.com's take: AHL playoff game goes five overtimes, making it seem only slightly longer than an entire Toronto Maple Leafs season.''
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Sean Fitz-Gerald of the National Post, on the noise level inside Montreal's Bell Centre for Game 7 of the Canadiens-Bruins playoff series: "(Like) a fighter jet during takeoff, with a locomotive under each wing and Celine Dion at the controls."
Montreal fans haven't been as noisy lately...
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At first, I wasn't a big fan of having hockey analysts at ice level between the benches. The players have a job to do, after all.
But Pierre McGuire, stationed between the benches for NBC, was in the right place to hear the exchange between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers benches in Game 2.
McGuire said, "Hal Gill just said to (super-pest Sean) Avery, 'You just weren't hugged enough as a child. That's why you've got issues.'"
Funny but not quite true. Al Avery, Sean's father, has taken exception with remarks Don Cherry has made about Sean and told Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons: "You want to know who his elders are? His dad is a school teacher who works with special-needs kids. His mom works for the government. He has a younger brother. We're good people.''
Bruce Hallihan can be reached at 458-6442 or hallihan.bruce@dailygleaner.com. His column appears each Thursday.




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