Ok I'm not sure if this could be exactly classified as a "fan experience"since I didn't actually meet HBK but I felt that people might enjoy reading this anyway.

I'm a big wrestling fan and Shawn Michaels is my all-time favourite wrestler.unfortunately I don't have cable to watch Raw and Smackdown and PPV's but one of my best friends does and I sometimes get tapes off him.As well as that there are less opportunities to see the WWE live in Australia compared to North America.
Smackdown came to Australia,specifically Melbourne in 2002 and it was such a huge success that the WWE decided to hold more tours here. I think it was April when I found out that Raw would be coming here and I was ecstatic because that would mean that I might get a chance to see Shawn Michaels wrestle along with many other fine men and women on the Raw roster. Anyway we ordered the tickets in May(my cousin spent many few hours on the interent in the morining to order some tickets for us)and the event was slated for August 2nd,2003 at the Sydney Superdone,mere days before my birthday.

In the weeks before Raw would be coming,they had advertised what the matches would be.I saw HBK's name there but alas he wasn't to wrestle-he was scheduled to accompany Nash and RVD in the tag-team main event against HHH and someone else I can't remember at the moment-I think it was either Kane or Randy Orton-I thought "oh well,at least I'll be able to see hbk even if he doesn't wrestle"

On the Raw telecast before they would be coming to Sydney,Triple H sustained an injury.Because of the injury he would not be able to come to Australia and wrestle-I read in an interview with him that he still wanted to go to be a part of it somehow but the doctors advised against it for fear he would worsen the injury on the long flight here.

With HHH unable to make it,they would have to change the matches somehow to accomodate it.I thought to myself "this could mean that I get to see HBK wrestle to make up the numbers!" I wanted to be surprsed if he did end up wrestling,so I made sure not to look up anything on the interent about what the other shows on the tour would feature,in case it gave away that he'd have to wrestle.

The day finally came that I'd been waiting for for ages-I was going to see Raw Live!My dad,my brother,my cousin and uncle,my best mate Andrew(ironically HHH is his favourite wrestler,lol!) and I all piled into my dad's van and we drove off to the Superdome.

We got there and after about an hour of waiting we were let into the arena itself.After the usual waiting and playing of a few videos,the show took off,with Howard Finkel talking to us and introducing Stacy Keibler,who began to talk to the crowd,until she was interrupted by Bischoff.I was having a great time and was stil thinking of what the matches would be like.Anyway Goldust interrupted Bischoff and he and Stacy gave him the Shattered Dreams which was hilarious.Soon after Rodney Mack came out and attacked Goldust,which prompted the very first match of the night.

I was having a great time and I hadn't even seen him yet-there was Test and Val Venis,Trish and Spike versus Victoria and Stevie Richards and Scott Steiner and Christian.

Once again Howard announced that there was to be another Tag-team match.Evolutions music hit and Randy Orton and Ric Flair came out,met with a big "WOOO!".This was a good sign for Flair to be there in his glittery robes-like Shawn,he wasn't meant to wrestle on the tour originally.

Next Rob Van Dam made his way into the ring to a huge cheer and "RVD"chants.That got me thinking-"I wonder who RVD's tag partner is going to be?"After Rob's music finished there was a brief pause before his tag team partner's music and video were to be played.

"Oh,oh Shawn!"It was Shawn Michaels!!!I stood straight out of my seat and began to cheer like crazy and HBK got a HUGE cheer for the crowd as we realised it was him.He came out fully decked out in his stripper entrance gear and posed at the ramp,all the while I was cheering like crazy and in between the cheers frequently saying "Oh my god,oh my god,oh my god"I was so overcome.He entered the ring and did his classic HBK pose to our side first and I cheered even louder.

The match was great-there were many "HBK HBK"chants during it as he and Rob battled Randy and Naitch.Eventually RVD and Shawn would get the win when Rob hit the 5 Star Frogsplash on Randy and HBK delivered Sweet Chin music to The Nature Boy.The match ended and there were a good many more cheers as the crowd went nuts again.Once their match was over,there was a brief intermission and then the matches continued and I continued to have a great time watching Hurricane versus Kane,Booker T vs Y2J and The Dudleyz versus La Resistance in a table match.

It was a great experience and one of the best days of my life,if not the best day of my life.I had a great time and got to see my favourite wrestler of all time,the HeartBreak Kid Shawn Michaels and I'll never forget it.Considering that I wasn't sure if I'd get to see him wrestle it made me feel even more happier at having been surprised the way I was.HBK was a total class act-he didn't have to wrestle but he did and not only that wore his entrance gear to the ring and had a great match.

When we got home,we went straight to bed,we were very tired.The next day mum told me that dad had said to her:"It was well worth the price to see the look on Cody's face when Shawn Michaels came out."

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