The 8pm Show:
JR's speech at the 8:00 p.m. show was more or less the same as the 4:00 p.m. show based on what the correspondent recapped. They were extremely entertaining and personal stories and the Gramercy Theater is one of New York's most intimate venues making it that much more special. There were a few hundred people in the venue and thankfully only one "shouter." The VIP section was only half full (about ten people maybe) and they were offering upgrades at the box-office. Some may be interested that JR, on a few occasions, made fun of the fact that drinking is what got him fired.
Since the 4:00 p.m. recap on your website focused on the monologue, I'll focus on the Q&A, which admittedly got a little rowdy. It was very disorganized and the host (the ESPN personality) sort of enabled this as he kept giving the microphone to the more inebriated members of the audience, frustrating the remainder of us (and JR as well). Most of the time, the questions didn't even make sense. One person had the audacity to use this valuable time to talk about Texas Longhorns Football (that didn't make the crowd happy either).
About half way through the Q&A, Mick Foley showed up and it was good timing as the Q&A was getting a little chaotic and it reeled everybody back in. While JR and Mick were honest about some of the more hotter topics in wresting (Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, the current "creative" system in WWE), they sort of ducked a couple questions. One person asked straight up who they felt was the most underrated and overrated question. This got an applause from the audience because it was simple pertinent question for once. And neither of them really answered it. (JR did say William Regal as a man who will get no complaints from the locker room if he gets into the Hall of Fame).
Also, one person brought up the lack of black WWE Champions (he stressed the WWE belt specifically). It was a good question that had the audience intrigued and they talked about WWE not being racist but never really answered the question. Too bad.
Overall, it was a great time and well worth the $27 I paid for it. I recommend it to any wrestling fan if it is coming to your hometown and hopefully they learn from this and make the Q&A session a little more organized.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
