And just where are the Mulkey brothers these days?
I'm not as rabid a fan as years ago, but I figured it was worth checking out the WWE Raw show since it was downtown, and the whole scene (both in and out of the ring) is always an interesting sociological experiment.

I will say, though, that the experience really deserved having Crow and Tom Servo, or at least a Sklar brother next to me. Nonetheless, it was still an entertaining time, if only because I think at times, it turned into I Love the '80s and I Love the '90s (even though Chris Jericho wasn't around).

The '80s part came in the form of this Peter Gabriel song being the theme song for the upcoming Wrestlemania. Very strange, since it's usually some hard rock song by a band who was in nursery school when the above song hit the charts. The other part came when this guy suddenly appeared, and the middle schoolers nearby looked on in utter confusion, whereas I was getting a tad nostalgic.

The '90s part kicked in a bit when the crowd was surprisingly lively for this guy, who was on the "other" show that no one ever sees. There were a lot of the usual suspects as well who have been with the company for a while, plus an ECW chant when this guy wrestled (he also got the second-best pop of the night). Plus, he showed up at the end of the program to set up next week's big matchup (and wish everyone a nice day).

The matches weren't anything spectacular for the most part, but the Triple H-Ric Flair showdown was fun for nostalgic purposes -- thankfully it was a clean finish and no sledgehammers were involved. And the whole idea of a tournament was good, if only because there were at least the concepts of solid matchups.

Finally, I got to see for myself the oddly mixed reaction for the current WWE champ, the proof that most rap music is bought by kids in the suburbs. A good portion of the crowd went nuts for him, but there was a good amount of booing for him as well. He does have charisma, but he still pales in comparison to The Rock, for instance.

One last note, I guess today's kids don't need cigarette lighters to produce light when the arena is darkened. Instead, I saw a ton of backlighting from everyone's cell phones. A rather surreal look, to be sure.