Tuesday night Keith (a friend from work) and I went to see the WWE/ECW live at the Garden. A long time friend of his, Jen Hagopian, is the WWE catering coordinator. So whenever they come to town, she hooks Keith up with tickets. Jen had told Keith recently that when one of the wrestlers, C.M. Punk, had heard she was friends with people that worked on Rock Band, he’d insisted on meeting them the next time WWE hit Boston. Seizing the opportunity to pimp Rock Band to the wrestlers and divas of the WWE, Keith and I got a bunch of shirts, hats and pins to pass out, as well as a PS2 bundle for C.M. Punk. He’d only been able to play the game occasionally at a friend’s house, but longed for some downtime to pick it up and play it on his vacation. Bundle and shwag in hand, we headed off to the Garden.

We arrived at the Garden and Keith called Jen to have her meet us at the back security gate. She quickly arrived, and after hugs and handshakes, she gave us both backstage passes and we walked into the Garden through the loading gate entrance. As soon as we hit the halls of the backstage area, the Garden transformed into a surreal WWE village, which even included a dancing leprechaun (though he wasn’t really dancing so much as pacing back and forth while talking on his cell phone, while completely in costume). Wrestlers and Divas dotted the halls and every few feet there was some other station that was for food, makeup, clothing, press, photos, etc.

The first person we met was Balls Mahoney of ECW who kindly greeted us and complimented us on the greatness of Rock Band. Surprised and impressed by his warm reception, we happily moved further down the hallway. Chavo Guerrero was in the hall talking to Lena Yada. Once introduced, Lena excitedly told Chavo what Rock Band was, how often she played the game, and which songs were her favorites. But Chavo didn’t need her info, as he too was a fan of Rock Band. Oblivious to the fact that she was preaching to the choir, Lena continued chanting our praises. After hand shakes and chatter, Keith mentioned we’d brought some shwag. Chavo’s face lit up and he exclaimed “Do you have any shirts?! Do you wanna take some pictures with me wearing a shirt?!” He was already peeling his shirt off as we reached into Keith’s courier bag to get a shirt. Jen had a tough time figuring out Keith’s camera, but even through over five picture attempts, Chavo remained pleasant and enthusiastic. As we continued to walk down the halls, several superstars noticed the PS2 bundle and excitedly asked where we were setting up the Rock Band demo. They all seemed disappointed when I told them we weren’t actually there to do a live demo. (Maybe that’s something we should do at some point in the future).

At the end of the maze of crowded hallways Jen led us to the WWE/ crew dining area. After grabbing some food, Keith and I sat down at the only empty table, making sure to stay out of everyone’s way. Sgt. Slaughter, Kane, Undertaker, The Great Kali and a slew of others too numerous to mention wandered about, grabbing food and taking in the Red Sox game as well as the previous night’s RAW. A few minutes had passed when Taz and Joey Styles sat down at our table. Not wanting to bother them while eating, Keith and I kept our conversation to ourselves. Taz noticed the Rock Band shirt I was wearing and asked if we were affiliated with the game. We explained our role in the process and he told us his kids play the game non-stop. We then spent the next twenty minutes talking to Taz and Joey about music, games and the behind the scenes aspects of being WWE commentators. I asked if Taz if the commentators playful razzing of one another ever turned ugly on the air. He said yes, and stated that he had even been guilty of ripping on other commentators while broadcasting live. After a small dramatic pause, he explained that such incidents end with a call to Vince McMahon’s office. I then asked “Do you ever get called to Vince’s office for something good?”, to which Taz quickly replied “NO! If you DON’T hear anything, you’re doing a good job.”

After Taz and Joey were finished going over scripts and eating they got up and politely said goodbye. No sooner did they leave, when we were introduced to Shelton Benjamin and Batista. Shelton was definitely the bigger fan of our game, while Batista was more a fan of Keith’s Bruce Lee t shirt. Shelton told us he plays Rock Band so loud that it annoys his neighbors until they bang on their ceiling with a broom. Keith smiled and said “…We’re sorry… And you’re welcome…” Sorry for having Rock Band suck up his time and annoy his neighbors, but happy that we’d helped make a game he enjoyed so much. Batista told us he was a big fan of Rock Band and videogames in general. We talked with him for a while about games, Bruce Lee, and wrestling before he eventually was pulled away on business.

Jen introduced Keith and I to Big Show and we hit it off right away. First he said he was honored to meet us, and we all just started talking. He told us how he’d played Rock Band with his daughter all the time, but that his fingers were too big for him to play expert well with the tiny guitar buttons. (it should be noted he’s 7+ feet tall and his fingers are roughly two and a half times bigger than an average persons. Meeting him was like shaking hands with an oak tree.) Apparently his daughter rubs it in by playing expert while looking over her shoulder at him instead of facing the television. He loved the fact that we worked in the gaming industry, as he’s a huge gamer (no pun intended). He asked us if we could help him get the pre-order only weapons code for Army of Two since he’s currently addicted to it. As the conversation continued, he offered Keith and I his phone number and e-mail address. Keith politely stated that we didn’t want to bother him, and that he could contact us through Jen. Big Show looked down at both of us and insisted we accept his offer, thanking Jen for introducing him to his new friends. After taking his information, he told us he was looking forward to hooking up on XBox Live and playing games together. Keith and I were speechless, but tried to play it off, even as our geek-o-meters reached maximum capacity.

After Big Show left we were introduced to Chuck Palumbo, who “surprisingly” was also a fan of Rock Band. He was also really into motorcycles, so Keith informed Chuck that his father-in-law was Eyvind Boyesen, motocross pioneer and founder/ owner of Boyesen Engineering. They hit it off well, and Keith told him about a new Boyesen bike part that just came out for Harleys and Chuck was pretty excited about it.

We eventually left the dining area to head out to the arena and watch the wrestlers rehearse some of the nights planned skits. We passed Vince McMahon in the halls and neither Keith nor myself were stupid enough to even try to make eye contact. Big. Well dressed. Intense. Scary. He shot Jen a passing glance as he passed that we’d hardly noticed, and suddenly Jen stated that it was time for Vince to eat as she sped off back to the dining area to get him some food. It was plainly displayed on the faces of everyone around us that VINCE MCMAHON IS THE BOSS.

Seeing the rehearsal for the upcoming event (which included live animals) really brought home how hard everyone involved works to pull off the WWE live show. From the camera crew to extras, everyone went over the finishing touches in preparation for the night. It’s interesting to note that it wasn’t the wrestlers that messed up their lines when it came time for the real show, but the extras. So if you ever wondered how acting talent stacked up: extras < wrestlers.

The matches were mostly amazing and it was certainly more special seeing them after having just met everyone backstage. We had good seats too, since Keith and I had earlier made friends with the audio guys and decided to just sit with them. When the event ended, we went backstage again. Justin Roberts (the ring announcer for Smackdown) meekly came up to us and pointed to my shirt asking if we worked for the company that made Rock Band. When we told him we did, he went on about how while recording lines for the next WWE game (Smackdown VS Raw 2009), in between takes he'd played Rock Band and was trying to get good at multiple instruments.

MVP came by to say hi to us near the end of the night. He also enjoyed Rock Band and liked the amount of music available for it. He then scanned Keith’s jacket, and seeing no Bad Brains pin, decided we weren’t worth talking to. Keith quickly put MVP in his place as he started to walk away, letting him know his personal history with the Bad Brains. MVP immediately turned around and all was forgiven. He and Keith got into a long talk about the hardcore/punk music scene back in the day. Since I wasn’t alive for the 80’s punk scene, I talked to Tommy Dreamer about his upcoming European Tour and Rock Band. Apparently there’s a British cake of some kind that every wrestler backstage couldn’t wait to have again once they got back to Britain. Matt Striker echoed a sentiment that a few wrestlers had about Rock Band over the course of the night. He stated he’d bought the game, was excited about it, but couldn’t figure it out and returned it. Said he apologized, but had to be honest with us.

Before we left, Deuce, Domino and Cherry (the 50’s themed wrestling team) walked by us. Deuce and Domino stopped Keith and said “Cool Jacket!” They were both wearing studded leathers as well. They gave us a quick hello and let us know that they too liked Rock Band.

It was a really great night. For those curious, you can see pictures of me with Chavo and CM Punk on my MySpace and Facebook accounts.

-Razlo