Darkstar Diaries: Entry 4 by Darkstar Shady

Dear Diary,

I had a great time on Friday, because I finally got to another WWE show when my friend invited me for SmackDown here in Sacramento. This was a bit of a different experience than the first two WWE shows I’ve been to.

Firstly, I was up in a loft suite. Second, I was with people who were not primarily wrestling fans. My friend who invited me said he had been a fan years ago but hadn’t actively watched in years; the two people who treated us to the event had been to a show before, and it sounded like they were at least passingly familiar with some of the wrestlers, and the husband watched a bit on occasion. 

We got to the arena early and had a special entrance—plenty of time to be seated for any dark matches even after hitting the bar. After explaining the idea of dark matches and what Main Event is, we were treated to MFT vs. Fraxiom and Chelsea Green vs. Lainey Reid. I loved getting to see Chelsea’s entrance and her wrestling live! We were up on the hard cam side and had a big view from the (shorter than usual) entrance ramp all the way through the stage. 

Once we got to the actual show, everyone was getting really into it. My friend was a little surprised that there’s no live commentary in the arena, so that was a bit of an adjustment.

Trick Williams had the most insane aura in person. The crowd was going wild for his entrance and everyone with me was feeding into it. He’s got such a command over the crowd and within seconds everyone in our box was yelling “Whoop that trick” right on beat. 

It was fun feeling like the expert, leaning over to explain things between moments to catch up on storylines. Some moments didn’t need explaining, though. My friend absolutely popped for Nikki Bella, who he said was a long time favorite of his.

It was a ton of fun, but there was a little downside to the loft we had. You could hear the crowd and see the show great, but at times it felt like we were not a part of it. The chants didn’t deafen us, the crowd didn’t vibrate our seats. Hell, the pyro didn’t even scare me the way it did the last few shows when I sat out in the crowds. 

It didn’t matter though. The real magic of WWE came at the end of the show, and during the post show. The two who had invited us talked about being a fan of someone, and when Cody Rhodes came out, that happened to be the guy. Going into what was supposed to be a faceoff, my friend said “I hope you know Randy Orton is my boy.” 

Cue an impromptu match, and by the end of it my friend said “okay I’m a Cody Rhodes guy!”

Two punt kicks later and Cody was talking to the crowd about how much Sacramento meant to him and his career, and how he loved this city like his own hometown. Cody said he couldn’t wait to come back and he wants to bring a PLE to Sac. I can only fucking hope. 

That wasn’t the magic though. The magic was all three people I was with were completely captivated by Cody. We stayed just to watch him shake hands and take selfies and greet everyone he could reach as he left the ring. 

“He makes me feel things.”

"He just gets it.”

"He deserves this spot that he is in.” 

Those are just a few of the things that were said as we watched him leave. 

The magic of WWE wasn’t just the show or the experience for me. It was getting to watch three non-fans fall in love with the theater of it all. The magic was hearing my friend say he’s “all in” for WWE again and that he had an incredible amount of fun.

I love wrestling and wrestling content creation. I love being a part of a network and having all these people to talk wrestling with. I love being among wrestling fans, but it was so refreshing to experience a show alongside people newly discovering their love for the product.

Until next time, 

Darkstar Shady