merridia | Jun. 26th, 2023

Forbidden Door was amazing, Pride was amazing, this three-week old pack of Lifesavers Gummies that I'm eating while I watch BTE is amazing, everything is amazing and good and pure and precious and god and the bible, the end.

BUT FOR REAL.

I got into Toronto at like three in the stupid morning after a whole bunch of flight delays in Calgary and immediately crashed, then spent a few hours on Saturday hanging out with the people from my dorm room, no two of whom are from the same country. There was drag brunch. It was so great, and then I popped down to the arena for Collision, which was a ton of fun. I was a little wary of what the atmosphere would be like given how shitty and toxic the whole fandom surrounding CM Punk has been online, but as a staunch Punk booer sitting next to a fervent Punk cheerer, the whole thing just felt... great? Great energy, great vibes, not antagonistic at all, and my #1 greasy kiwi even won the main event, to boot. Popped my ass off for all the New Japan guys showing up for the ROH tapings before and after, ELP got my first big voice blowout of the trip the instant his music hit.

THEN SUNDAY HAPPENED AND I'M STILL PROCESSING IT. I went to see Across the Spider-Verse a second time to kill a couple of hours beforehand because I was too amped up (movie's still great, by the way!), and then Forbidden Door was just amazing, beginning to end. As much as Omega/Ospreay deserved to main event over Danielson/Okada, if that had ended the show, I might have accidentally run straight into midnight traffic afterward out of sheer adrenaline, so I do think this was ultimately the right call. When Kenny kicked out of the One Winged Angel, I just started... screaming? Like, not 'woo'ing or a single scream of excitement, just screaming and screaming and unable to stop for way too long, and combined with getting to shout KAZE NI NARE for Suzuki ahead of the cool-down match afterward, my throat is in decidedly rough shape today and I have absolutely zero regrets about anything. I gotta unpack the whole night more, getting to be a part of something SO big is still a little bit beyond my ability to comprehend just yet.

As I walked back to the hostel after the show, it started to pour rain and thunder and lightning and I got absolutely drenched, which was honestly also amazing after two days of the humidity making me sweat out every single drop of moisture in my body and I was just smiling and laughing like a crazy person on my way through the streets and yeah, I might already have a new contender for best night ever??

Wrestling, man. It'll change your life.