#RoyalRumble

I had flown into Salt Lake City, Utah from Las Vegas after covering another convention there – I had flight delays and had never been here before. Primarily, I was here to cover the coveted Sundance Film Festival – something I’ve wanted to do my entire adult life and now I was getting the chance.
I had missed the first couple of days of the festival but still had a long week ahead. Though I had no official Sundance business today I was so obsessed with getting my credentials that after getting my rental car and checking into my hotel, I went over to Sundance headquarters to pick them up along with my screening tickets (& it almost cost me dearly)
Being the over-achieving masochist that I am I had also signed on to cover Slamdance, the independent film festival that was running concurrently – and today I had BIG business with them so getting THERE should have been my priority….and after managing to finally secure parking and getting a bus over to Main St. in Park City and walking up the hill to their headquarters….I made it to the press office…..just as they were closing –

Day 1 – Jan 25th

WWE Royal Rumble Watching Party – Deer Valley Resort – Park City, UT

You could say it was meant to be – The big business I had with Slamdance tonight was that I had an invitation to watch WWE’s annual Pay-Per-View event the Royal Rumble WITH some legendary wrestlers. Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) was in town along with Jake “The Snake” Roberts & Scott “Razor Ramon” Hall to promote & screen a documentary they had produced called The Resurrection of Jake The Snake about Jake’s as well as Scott’s recovery & redemption after years of troubling times through the help & support system that DDP had provided. The initial screening was the previous evening while I was still in Vegas but their were still more screenings & tons of press ahead. Since the Rumble was taking place while they were in town, they decided to have a watching party with the crew, friends, a few journalists and a few selected fans. I knew it was gonna be special and intimate but I had no idea really what to expect – all I knew was that I was excited and I better get my ass to where it was.
Like I said it was like it was meant to be because I couldn’t have written this any better – When I arrived at Slamdance headquarters the press office was already closed, I had missed registration and I really didn’t know where this Rumble party was actually taking place and it was 15 mins to start time.
I knocked on the press office window anyway asking for mercy and it came in the form of Slamdance press agent Melanie Marquez (Mel to us all by the end of the week) who became my Guardian Angel.
Not only did she unlock the door and let me in, she knew exactly who I was, recounted our email correspondences verbatim, stuck around to make sure my credentials were in order and processed and when I asked “Hey btw, where is this party with the wrestlers?”  she replies – “Oh that’s where we are headed right now, you can follow us” –  I thought she was gonna lead us to one of the screening rooms down the hall, instead she says it’s in a private cabin up in Deer Valley!
I told her I had parked and rode the bus (& I never would have found it on my own anyway) and without batting an eye she said “Cmon, you can ride with us” and just like that I was off to experience an unforgettable evening.

When we arrived I couldn’t believe it – I had been so busy with Vegas and planning for this trip that I hadn’t bothered to look further into it – All I knew was that the invitation made it clear that no alcohol would be served nor was I to bring any in respect to both Jake and Scott’s recovery, which is totally fine with me as I’ve never been a big drinker and naturally wouldn’t wanna do anything to make anyone regret inviting me.
Entering on the bottom floor we were asked to remove our shoes and then as we walked upstairs to the living room to reveal exactly what any Super Bowl party or sporting event watching party you’ve thrown or attended at your friends house looks like – This wasn’t some corporate event or some bullshit you had to RSVP to, this was the real deal.

As you can see, sitting on opposite couches were Jake & Scott, flanked by family & friends – Jake’s daughter Codi in the kitchen cooking up a storm, a healthy, delicious gluten-free meal along with snacks, brownies and refreshments. Their were a few other wrestlers there too, notably Sinn Bodhi who wrestled as Kizarny in WWE from 2006-2009.
I grabbed the only open seat on the floor and that happened to be right next to Jake. The show had already started but the actual Rumble match hadn’t yet.
Their was a second TV in the kitchen for the overflow and crew that’s with the guys all the time but for guys like me, naturally we wanted to watch with Scott & Jake.

After introducing myself to Jake, almost immediately WWE Diva Paige (who is one of my favorites) enters the ring and instantly Jake & I are talking like old friends. He seemed impressed by my knowledge but I was quick to just listen and it was surreal listening to him tell me about his expereincens with her & her family. She’s British & Jake ran his own wrestling promotion in the U.K for a few years in the early 2000’s.

I grew up in Arkansas and Texas in the 1980’s and was an obsessive of the Mid-South wrestling territory that Jake’s father promoted and for which Jake was a huge star in. He was always one of my favorites and my dad’s absolute fave, way before his run in the WWE. Some of my fave memories as a child are of my parents taking me to Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, AR for their monthly shows and if Jake was on the card, my dad was sure to take me. And here I am chatting with him as a guest in his home.
Now I was happy to have done just this all night, however it soon became clear why this area was open when I arrived because where I was sitting I couldn’t really see the screen, reach the food or socialize with the group so I grabbed a spot a few feet from Scott Hall.

Full disclosure: I kinda missed out on Scott Hall’s career – When he debuted in the WWE in 1992 I had turned 18 that year and foolishly decided that in spite of watching wrestling every week since I was 8 that I was now a man and somehow wrestling didn’t fit in with that & proceeded to not watch a single second of programming until early 2001.
So yes, sadly I missed out on the entire Attitude Era, the Monday Night Wars etc. I’ve seen alot of it retrospectively and can talk intellgiently about it but I’ve still never really watched any of the WCW stuff. I caught the tail end of his Razor Ramon gimmick in 1992 which I loved because it’s directly from Scarface, my all-time fave movie.
For whatever reason he & I just hit it off, so much so that by the end of the week we were photo bombing each other’s pictures and giving each other shit like old classmates, he was just that real & cool.

A few minutes before the Rumble match began one of the guests (whom he along with another gentlemen I dubbed “The Zumbas” because they indeed were awesomely wearing Zumbas) suggested to make things even more exciting, that everyone put in $10 and draw numbers. Now to those unfamiliar with the Rumble, what makes it so unique and exciting is that 30 participants draw lottery numbers that are unknown to anyone and those that drew numbers 1 & 2 start the match and then every 90 seconds another wrestler enters based on the number he drew. How you are eliminated is that you have to be thrown over the top rope and both feet hitting the floor. This continues until their is a single winner. So by spending $10 on a number if your guy drew that number and wins, you just won $300 bucks!
We all couldn’t be more excited anyway but this was an added excitement that made it even more super fun.

Something else the WWE likes to do during this unique match is to take advantage of the element of surprise by bringing back a few of the old stars that really creates an element of suspense and it’s perfect to do so as they aren’t required to work a traditional match. Speaking of which……where’s DDP???

I was so caught up in everything that I hadn’t noticed that Dallas wasn’t here: I had met his fiance’ Brenda, several of his Yoga employees including the director of the documentary Steve Yu but no Dallas. So I asked around, “Hey, where’s Dallas at?” totally clueless – “Hey Scott, where’s Dallas?” when right then it hit me:
I looked over at Scott and cocked my head to the side and said “Wait, is he in Philly? (site of the Rumble) and Scott continues with his poker face.
Page was the 14th man in the Rumble & when his music hit, the house EXPLODED in cheers!

And once he was in the ring, he wasn’t a dud, he looked bad ass & was putting the other wrestlers in his signature “diamond cutter” left and right – the WWE were putting him over like rover! The house shook with excitement & pride & I couldn’t have been more proud to have been a part of it.

A Bit about the Match

Besides Dallas’ surprise entry and few appearances by some of the older wrestlers the match itself wasn’t that spectacular and quite frankly I felt it was poorly booked and a lot of opportunities were squandered (if you’ve seen the match you know that the Philly crowd agrees with me and basically turned on the whole match).
But other than the obvious, what made this truly the most amazing wrestling experience of my life was that Scott & Jake held nothing back – This wasn’t a bunch of marks sitting around prodding them with incessant questions about their careers or wrestling in general – nobody asked them anything – they didn’t have to!
Because they were a constant running audio commentary laugh factory! Jake kept us in stitches the whole time and Scott especially, had non-stop running commentary and told story after story without being prompted. Besides having two Hall of Famers between me giving invaluable insight, the main thing I walked away with was the commaraderie – it was truly unique, unexpected and unforgettable – The whole house was full of characters and made for one of the greatest nights ever.
An entertaining & vital new revenue stream for retired wrestlers is to do spoken word tours – people just wanna hear these guys talk and tell stories and their willing to pay money for it. I’ve seen Jim Ross & Mick Foley’s shows (twice) and Jake has a few shows already booked & if your reading this I hope you’ll go but let me be clear, that won’t be telling the stories we heard – they were home among friends and we were getting the good shit (plus we were being served food!).

My endless thanks to Jake, Scott, Dallas & Steve Yu, for having me – the film’s publicist Kim & her staff – Codi for making all the food, Lauren for providing the beats & to Mel for getting me there – thank you all for an unforgettable evening.

Stay tuned for more as we cover the screening of The Resurrection of Jake The Snake + Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang, the Slamdance Awards & more.

Photos – 

Roy Turner
WWE Archive