Rasslin’ was so much fun. I mean, ridiculous and blatantly fake, but still entertaining. What a spectacle.

It’s a very blue-collar, salt-of-the-Earth sport, and the storylines make it like nothing so much as a soap opera on steroids. Literally.

So we arrived in time for a little pregaming in the Omni Hotel bar; I counted John Cena items on the fans (who look pretty much as you imagine them). Our waitress was suitably snooty when we told her we were there for the Rumble. Then we headed downstairs to the atrium to join the amazingly long lines to get into the arena. Befriended the drunken redneck hipsters (yes, there is such a thing) in front of us by talking about wrestlers we have loved.

We got into the arena a little after the designated start time of 8 and thus missed the Divas Tag Team match, bummer. But K got to see most of the match with his personal favorite, some Canadian dude named Christian.

Then there were three more matches for what seemed to be interchangeable titles. The ECW Championship vs. the WCW Championship vs. the U.S. Championship? I dunno. I’m sure they all mean something to someone. I just picked my favorites at random and hollered for them.

The Rumble itself is this weird event where two guys take the ring, and then a new guy (or girl) comes out every 90 seconds. You can be disqualified only by being thrown over the top rope and having both feet touch the floor, and the last guy in the ring wins. At one point there were like seven guys in there throwing “punches.” My bet with K was that I took the even wrestlers (the guys announced second, fourth, sixth, etc.) and he took the odds, and the one who had the loser pays for Medieval Times.

It was looking really good for me for a while; I kept getting the big names while K got the second-rate characters, but then this dude (“Edge”) evidently “came back” after being away with an injury and won it all, so I now am on the hook for an outing to MT. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

On Monday night Eliott and I had dinner at this taco place up the street from me that’s been open for ages but which I had never tried, Original El Taco. Great margaritas, great chips and salsa, meh tacos. I’ll stick with Taqueria del Sol and Bone Garden Cantina.

Last night came the news that, as expected, the Thrashers traded away Kovalchuk. We got more for him than the bucket of pucks I expected, but things are still looking dodgy. One of my co-workers says they have two years to start winning before the NHL moves the team to Winnipeg.

Tomorrow night Amy and I are going to the game against the Panthers, as her buddy Steve is in town to cover it for his newspaper. It will be the first home game with the new roster, so I’m excited to see how it goes.