Screaming fans with signs and posters overhead, flashing lights, explosive pyrotechnics,
and over-the-top-rope action by larger-than-life wrestlers. Yes, this looks
like a scene from any World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) event on TV. But this
is not TV. This is WWE live - right here at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
On December 5, Passport to Smackdown! hit our shores with wrestlers from the Smackdown! faction of the WWE parent company in their own brand of sports entertainment, with body-slamming-double-dropkicking action, chiseled pectorals, bulging biceps, all coupled with a story line twisted enough to rival even the boldest and most beautiful soaps.
The 10,000 strong, full-capacity crowd got to experience all the action and the fun of being in a live WWE event. Fans cheered when the good guys, or baby faces, like John Cena and Ultimo Dragon made their way down to the ring, and booed their hearts out when the heels (the baddies) made their entrances.
The lighting and pyrotechnics displays added to the escalating excitement of the evening as wrestlers Chris Benoit, the WWE champion Brock Lesnar, Rikishi, Rey Mysterio and the massive 7-foot-2, 500-pounder Big Show, treated fans to a night of sports entertainment they would never forget.
And true to any WWE Smackdown or Raw event, the night kicked off with Ric Flair, who incidentally is from the Raw faction, but was brought on as a replacement for the injured Kurt Angle, coming out to butter up the fans - instantaneously endearing him to the crowd.
Cutting him short, Smackdown! general manager, Paul Heyman, came out to a loud chorus of boos, and the two got into a shouting match which ended with Flair giving Heyman as good a bashing as the conniving ex-manager of [Brock] Lesnar deserved. A peeved Heyman then set up a match between Flair and one of the largest heels in wrestling, A-Train.
The wrestlers pulled no punches as they executed their finishing moves, like Lesnar's F5 [on Benoit], Mysterio's 619, and the most impressive of the night - Cena's FU, where he carried the gargantuan Big Show on his shoulders with a fireman's lift, and slammed him on to the ground.
It was truly a visual spectacle for the many trigger-happy-camera-toting fans; standing up on their feet, ready to snap whenever a wrestler set up his opponent for his finishing move.
The audience was even teased with [what was supposed to be] a title change between Lesnar, and his challenger [Chris] Benoit, when the latter made Lesnar "tap-out" or submit with his finishing manoeuvre, the Crippler Crossface. But in a cruel twist, the referee had been knocked out cold and completely missed the champion's submission. The match later ended with Lesnar successfully defending his WWE championship title by running the title belt into Benoit's head, much to the dismay of the fans who responded with loud "You tapped out" chants to egg Lesnar on.
So after the last body had been slammed and the last arm, raised in triumph, the 3-hour long Passport to Smackdown! promised all the action and fun for those who packed the stadium. And for the fans who paid up, almost $350 for some, to experience in the flesh what they see on TV, what they got was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Well, at least until these behemoths of a wrestler layeth the smackdown on us again.