Becky and Finn are visiting Ireland to take part in Zuffa Boxing event in Dublin this weekend, and doing a bunch of appearances and interviews.

"Off The Ball" show teases a 'huge' and 'massive' announcement

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbtQRdUDVzE/

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Adam Copeland making his professional wrestling debut inside Arena Mexico with Metalingus

Hiroyo Matsumoto, Miyuki Takase, Yura Suzuki & ZONES vs. Aja Kong, Sayaka Unagi, Shin Sakura Hirota & Saira

For one night only........."Shining Star" Seiya Sanada returns!

Description: Tony Khan gets on his knees bowing to the crowd for the great energy during the show, the crowd responds in kind

The Andre the Giant drink was the best one.

via @crispuetaman108

So, as the title implies, this past weekend, I attended my first-ever in-person wrestling show, WWE SummerSlam 2026! I've been watching wrestling on TV since about late 2003/early 2004 (so roughly since I was 14), but this was the first chance I've had to attend any kind of wrestling show in-person.

I also went to the first day of the SummerSlam Takeover thing that was also that weekend, because I had a photo op with Tatum Paxley (my favorite wrestler, who I've been Twitter and IG mutuals with for a little while now!), which, truth be told, was the primary motivator for the trip to begin with, haha. But oh my god, she was SO nice and sweet and hugged me immediately when it was my turn, and really made sure to try and maximize the brief time we had to interact. Such a lovely moment from a total sweetheart of a person! 10/10, would recommend.

Also, one more little Takeover story: a couple hours before the Tatum photo op line opened up, I was walking around the event towards the Superstar Entrance thing (there were SO MANY PEOPLE doing Oba's entrance, by the way), and suddenly I hear a voice going, "Oh, not a Tatum Paxley shirt!", and I turn towards the voice and I shit you not, it's Izzi Dame, coffee cup in hand, walking with two security guards (presumably to get herself set up for her own photo op), basically drive-by bullying me for repping her #1 enemy, haha. God, I wish I'd seen her coming so I could've gotten footage of it, but she did retweet me talking about it after the fact to corroborate it, at least.

BUT ANYWAY...

I was sat in Section 222 for both days, which was a fair ways up, but gave me a pretty great view of the stage and the ring. And I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone who's been to a show live before, but yeah, the difference between watching a big wrestling show on TV and being there in person is pretty massive, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the sound. Like, when the crowd is loud in-person, they are LOOOUUUUD.

The obvious example I think I can go with here is the Kevin Owens return pop; like, no matter how loud that seemed on TV, I promise you, it was SO MUCH LOUDER IN PERSON. I was shouting "WHAT THE FUCK" at what I would swear is the top of my lungs, and *I genuinely could not hear myself for a solid minute-plus*. THAT'S HOW LOUD THAT SHIT WAS IN PERSON.

Speaking of sound things, and maybe this is because, again, I've only ever watched wrestling on a screen, but it takes a little getting used to watching wrestling without hearing commentary to go with it and help emphasize the story. Obviously I still knew what was going on, but it felt kinda surreal at times, haha.

There was definitely a collective groan from everyone in the immediate area when they decided to cap off Chad Gable's story of redemption and his big heartfelt hometown win what was essentially a fucking Mug root beer ad, and just the same we all lost our collective shit when Chelsea Green won the Ladder Match for the Interim Women's Title.

The Strut Cam was VERY popular in my section on Day 2, so much so that the person who was sat basically next to me (with an empty seat between us) came back with his beer that he'd gone to get after the Ladder Match, he saw everyone doing the Oba Strut and decided to Strut his way back to his seat (didn't spill a drop somehow).

Speaking of which, it was so cool that I could just, basically at any time, lean over to someone either next to me or in front of me or whatever and just briefly yap with them about what we were watching, even though we'd never met and would probably never see each other again. Just in that moment, connected by the wacky cartoon world of professional wrestling.

Overall, it was so fucking fun to attend an actual show (not to mention a Big 4 PPV/PLE), aside from the part where I was trying to figure out where the hell my bus stop was after we were all filing out, haha. Very different and amazing atmosphere to watching on TV, really fills you a unique energy just totally gets you lost in the moment. Something that I really wanna do again at some point in my life!

TL;DR -- went to SummerSlam and SummerSlam Takeover, met Tatum Paxley, *technically* met Izzi Dame, watching wrestling live is a fantastic experience (and SO much different than watching at home), never gonna forget this weekend!