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Carolina reporter reminices about painful memories

Posted: Aug 31st 2006 By: mikeiles

I think I might be having flashbacks.

Not those good flashbacks you have from time to time, but frightening, scary and sometimes painful flashbacks that involve suplexes, figure-four leg locks and more than a few pile drivers.

See, I was a child of the ?80s and a lover of all things wrestling. I was crazy for Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. I watched with rapt attention when Jake "The Snake" Roberts destroyed his opponent, let his pet snake out of the bag and made it crawl on the unconscious victim. (OK, that sounds bad, but is literally true with a literal snake and a literal bag.) And I always wanted to be the wrestler Sting when I was a kid, just without the face paint, but with the spiked hair.

Since I was a wrestling nut, the rest of my buddies were also wrestling nuts. I like to take credit for the fad in my small town because, well, no one I went to school with lives around here to dispute it. Anyway, when there was no wrestling on TV and no way to watch our favorite top rope artists and muscle-bound crazies, we would act out our own matches in the front yard.

Legs were twisted, arms were bent, headlocks were engaged and full nelsons employed. For myself, I had the most powerful full nelson in the history of playground full nelsons. No one could escape once I got my hands locked and no one was safe from the full nelson ? or, as I called it, the Immense, Immediate Neck Bender of Doom!

I can remember Ric Flair and his obligatory "Whoo!" echoing from the television during a main event. I remember how, back then, the WWF (now known as the WWE) sucked and the only group to watch was the NWA wrestlers like Sting and The Steiner Brothers. It was a short time in my childhood, but a formative one.

So, back to the flashbacks. The WWE (which now does not suck and is the biggest game in town) is hitting the streets of Anderson and bringing along some pretty big names with it. This Saturday, nine matches will take place in the Civic Center of Anderson, under the lights and in the square circle.

We get to see the World Heavyweight Title Match between Batista and King Booker. Fans also get to see the U.S. Title Match pitting Finlay and Bobby Lashley. And there is even a Tag Team Title Match that brings Paul London and Brian Kendrick up against KC James and Idol Stevens. I don?t know who any of these guys are, per se, but they have to be pretty good to compete for these coveted titles.

But I am waiting on one match featuring a dude that still gives me nightmares: The Undertaker. This cat is one big feller and could scare the bejebus out of "Unscareable Larry" (who was just this kid from 5th grade who wasn?t afraid of bees). He will take on Mr. Kennedy, who I assume is no relation to the New England Kennedys, but hopefully has a Boston accent and hates Fidel Castro.

Tickets are $21 to $41 and seats are still available. You need to get them now, watch the show and tell me what happens. I can?t go. I just got over my Undertaker nightmares from 16 years ago.