 The Life and Times of Shane Helms Entry #42 Sunday, June 10th, 2002. I know, I know, it's been since February that I updated the Diary! What's a superhero to do? :) Well, several people have offered to do my site for me, I guess that finally after doing my own website by myself for over 5 years (which is 5 years longer than anyone else) I might need to consider letting someone else do the duty for me. That will be hard for me because even with the "sometimes" lack of updates, I've always felt the appeal of my website was that I did it all myself. What to do, what to do? But anyway, what has happened since February? LOL Here we go! March of the year 2002 was without a doubt one of the best months of any year of my career! It started with the Asian Tour. I would be remiss if I didn't state that one of my career goals has always been to wrestle in Japan, so when it was announced that the WWE would be going to Japan, I was just going crazy hoping that I would be on the card. And thankfully I was! I was even happier when I found out that I would be wrestling Funaki, who was making a return to his homeland! Now the plane ride was long. And when I say long, I mean long! But the airline that we flew with, Singapore Airlines, turned out to be the best airline that I have ever flown with. We all had a personal TV that had a bunch of movies, TV shows, and music. They gave us slippers, they gave us eye covers, and more food than you could eat (which I think was a ploy, because [1] eating makes you sleepy, and [2] how can a person complain about anything with food in their mouth). And I don't even want to get started on the stewardesses . . . but I will. :) They were all Asian, completely gorgeous, and in great shape, which is becoming a rare commodity in the various airlines that I frequent, trust me. Now don't get me wrong, I love all varieties of women! But if you are a stewardess, and the aisle is 24" wide, yet your ass is checking in at 28", there is gonna be a problem. See, I'm an Aisle seat type of guy and I don't really enjoy being woke up with some ladies ass hitting me in the face. Well, not on an airplane anyway! Hey now! :) LOL We flew in to Tokyo, and were put on a bus to Yokohama, which is where the event was to be held. Now, I've seen a ton of Japanese wrestling tapes, and usually the crowd is very reserved and will only clap or cheer for various highspots or signature stuff that whatever wrestler(s) they are watching do. Not this crowd! This crowd was wild! Edge -vs- Regal was the first match out, and they both came back talking about how great the crowd was. This made the locker room get even more excited. But, I was feeling a little nervous. Usually, I never get nervous. I dreamed about wrestling so much as a kid that I normally feel very comfortable when I'm performing cuz I'm just living out my dreams. But something was tugging at me. Remember when I said how excited I was when I learned that I would be wrestling Funaki. Good, keep that in mind. Now I've wrestled Funaki a dozen times in the USA. Each time I was the good guy and he was the bad guy, you know, the whole babyface/heel thing, which was made easier by the fact that I was the hometown boy (USA) and he was the Eeeevvviiiilll (Indeeeeeed) foreigner! Boooooo, hisssssss! Well this time was different. I was gonna be the invading foreigner and he was gonna be the returning hometown boy who'd made it big! Not to mention the fact that we was going to be accompanied to the ring by his Kientai partner, Taka Michinoku, also a returning hero. So I was torn between what I thought I should do. Do I go out there and play the heel or do I do what's made me successful in the WWE so far and be the crazyass superhero? Funaki came to me and told me (as only Funaki can), "Don't worry, they watch." Meaning that this audience was familiar with the WWE product and that they know what we are all about. I was still uncertain. I talked to Dean Malenko about this. Why Dean? Well, for those of you who don't know, Dean has made a trip or two to Japan in his day. LOL. So anyway, Dean says to me, "Do your stuff. They came to see the WWE, so give them what they came to see." So I decided that even though I was facing the hometown hero, I was still gonna be the WWE's resident superhero and give them all the accompanying shenanigans that The Hurricane is prone to! My music hits, "Stand Back! There's a Hurricane Coming Thru!" The ovation is unbelievable! It's one of the biggest and loudest ovations I've ever received. I see more Hurricane signs than I've ever seen! I see people with homemade Hurricane masks! This is awesome! I get in the ring, do my spin, and pyro goes off on all four poles, people are still standing and cheering! I go to all four corners, because I'm thinking, as long as they are cheering and snapping those photos, I'm gonna give 'em a show. :) Then, Kientai's music hits! The whole place just erupts! I can actually feel the screams! Out they come. Taka and Funaki start jumping up and down, I look around, and the whole place is jumping up and down with them! It's like the world's largest House of Pain video! And I must admit that I couldn't help but smile as Funaki soaked in all the cheers and adulations that he so deserves! Match time. We lock up. I'm surprised and almost distracted as a small "Hurricane" chant starts. We struggle, do some mat wrestling, counters and reversals that end up with us both popping up in a face off. The crowd eats this up. Everyone immediately went to the feet and started clapping and cheering in a show of respect that sounded, to me, even louder than our entrances. I'm in awe of this crowd. I go to shake Funaki's hand, but he pokes my in the eye. The crowd boos loudly. Funaki has turned them! You go boy! He starts stomping and kicking me down. Crowd keeps booing. Funaki turns to the crowd and yells something in a foreign language (I'm guessing Japanese, LOL) and the boos grow louder. Time for some superhero action! I pop up and we go at it again, now with fists-a-flying! A small but audible U-S-A chant starts, I'm thinking, what is this Rocky IV? This is incredible. The match continues as we give the crowd what they are giving us, 110%. Funaki throws me outside where Taka takes advantage to the distracted referee who just happens to be Wally Yamaguchi (sp?) the former manager of Kientai. I take advantage of a Funaki mistake and start my big comeback. Boom! Bang! Zamm! The cape comes out and The Hurricane flies! But Funaki ain't going down that easy. He comes back with a rollup, while using the ropes for leverage that almost spells the end for me. Funaki attempts a bodyslam, I slide behind and hit him with "The Eye of The Hurricane!" But wait, the ref is distracted by Taka. I send Funaki crashing into Taka, and then roll Funaki up from behind for a pin attempt which he reverses and using a handful of tights, takes home the victory! And the crowd which was just booing Funaki is now once again cheering! They are standing and showing their appreciation for his performance. As he leaves, I make my way to my feet, my music hits as I start to exit, and the crowd gives me an appreciative ovation as well. I wave to them to let them know that it was my pleasure, and it was, more than they will ever know! That night several of us hit the town in Tokyo! No details needed! LOL The shows in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were awesome as well, with great crowds and great experiences in the respective cities. I won't go into detail about those though, because as you can see, this Diary Entry is "Gettin a little lonnnnnngg!" (Inside Joke) But I will say that I had just a great time in both of those cities! Next topic: WrestleMania X8. Where do I start? Well, in the weeks leading up to "Sports Entertainment's" biggest event of the year, I must admit that I was a little bit disappointed because I wasn't on the card. Trust me, everyone wants to work at Mania! But I was cool, because I felt and feel that my best in the WWE is yet to come. So, what a surprise WrestleMania turned out to be! Not only do I end up being a part of the event, I win the WWE Hardcore Championship to make it even sweeter, making me the first person to ever hold both the WCW and WWE Hardcore Titles. How bout dat? A frying pan, courtesy of the "no-longer Mighty" Molly ends my reign as champion, but not before I expose the "Hurri-wood" to the Godfather's Hoe's, and the world! LOL Toronto has always been good to me, what a great wrestling city! The Draft, to me, has changed the face of wrestling for the perceivable future, and for the better in my opinion. I will miss my friends on the RAW team, namely Matt, Jeff, and Lita, whom I travelled with almost every week, but I still have a lot of friends on the Smackdown side, so everything's cool. I honestly think that two separate shows is just what the WWE needed. More time for storylines to evolve. More time for guys you haven't seen on TV in a while to make some noise. And time for some guys that you've never seen at all to come forth. It's a good time to be a wrestling fan. Now onto a story about how "Devon Dudley Saved the Day!" Just how exactly did he save the day you wonder? Well, DDP and I were riding in the Arizona desert somewhere in between Yuma and Tucson. Now you've heard the expression "Stuck between a rock and a hard place," well we were about to get stuck between a rock and "NOPLACE." See, DDP had been driving most of the loop, which is scary in and of itself, but on this particular night he asked me to drive. So I jump behind the wheel, while DDP sets up his laptop so that we can watch Gladiator on the way. Neither of us thought about getting gas before we left Yuma! So there we are riding along on this long-ass drive, watching Gladiator, and just BS'ing as we usually do. Then Page says something about gas. Gas? I look down, and in unison we both realize that we are in trouble. LOL But wait! I see a sign for Gas/Food. Sweet! Actually, it wasn't sweet at all, because this Gas Station looked to be abandoned in the early 70's. $#!*@%!!!! We take off again, the needle is in the red when we see a Rest Area. We pull in and Page walks up to an 18-Wheeler to ask the guy if there is a station nearby (normally truckers know every nook and cranny of any area there are in) but the guy is apparently scared to death of Page and won't even roll his window down. LOL In retrospect, that was pretty funny. :) We decided to pull over to avoid running the car completely out and DDP starts calling some of the boys, while I get on the phone with some numbskull from AAA who insists on asking me 100 questions that have absolutely nothing to do with the situation at hand. So while I'm taking the AAA Survey From Hell, Page gets a hold of Devon who is only about 30-40 miles behind and is about to pass a gas station! Hot damn! I tell that lady from AAA to go and experiment with herself (that wasn't exactly what I said, but I'm trying to keep this PG-13) and we wait as Devon comes to the rescue! Thanks a million bro! April was a lot of fun as I got to team with Rikishi on several house shows to take on Chuck and Billy for the WWE Tag-Titles. The matches were really great and saw Rico receiving the Hurri-Stinkface, which doesn't even come remotely close to the impact of Rikishi's Stinkface, but it sure was funny! The weird thing was, I think Rico liked it! I must now mention my Canadian fans! I mentioned earlier that in Japan I received one of the loudest ovations of my career right? Well that is true, but for some reason (and to be honest I don't care why) I get a bigger reaction in Canada than I do anywhere else in the world! From Quebec City, to Halifax, to Montreal, to Calgary, to Toronto (who may be hating some Hurricanes right now, LOL) to Saskatoon, the Canadian Faction of the Hurri-League really show their support for me, and like I've always said, the crazier the fans get, the crazier I'll get, so I've been getting pretty rowdy in Canada lately. Thank you!!!! Quick Fact: I've had 15 different Tag-Team partners since coming to the WWE! Seen quite a few good movies lately. Spider-Man being the best of the bunch! I was there opening night in full support of my fellow superhero. We gots to stick together, you know? Tobey Maguire surprised a lot of people, myself included, by really nailing the role of Peter Parker, and Kirsten Dunst did a great job, great kiss scene too! The Scorpion King was another good movie and I thought Rocky did an awesome job! I saw this one opening night as well and showed up wearing a Japanese Scorpion King shirt that Rocky himself gave me as a gift, I thought that was very cool. But the opposite of cool was Kelly Hu, who is absolutely smoking HOT!!!!!! Diz-amn! Now, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones didn't get "opening night" treatment from me because in all honesty I'm still reeling from how bad The Phantom Menace was! But Clones was good and I liked it. I will put it in 3rd place behind Empire and New Hope, while being better than Jedi and The Phantom Disgrace. But can everyone just agree that we are all waiting for Anakin to turn into Vader and just go lightsaber silly on everyone else! Eminem's new CD is great from start to finish! No comic news this time as I am working on a comic section to the website. Several comic artists have sent me pictures of The Hurricane that are simply awesome! Too good in fact not to be given their own separate place on the site. Look for that coming up! Now, for the record, I picked Lennox Lewis to take out Tyson, but Maven, for whatever reason thinks that the sun rises and sets on Iron Mike! So, be that as it may, I will enjoy collecting the money that Maven now owes me. Cuz apparently, Tyson just wasn't "tough enough." :) Finally I got quite a few pics to add to Fandom that aren't up yet, but I wanted to get this Entry up, so look for those pics within the next 2 weeks (I hope). Until then, everyone stay cool! Your Crime Fighting SuperHero, Shane Helms |