'Balls ... Balls' the crowd shouted outside The Dunk
1:20 PM Tue, Apr 10, 2007 | Permalink
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The big game in this town starts at 7:30 p.m., and some of its most intense fans were lined up in the cold at 6 a.m., hoping to meet their favorites, guys with names like CM Punk, Balls Mahoney and Tommy Dreamer. Opening Day at Fenway Park has captured Boston and much of New England today, but a little corner of Providence is captivated by tonight's wrestling matches at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. 
Holding glossy photographs, replica championship belts, even small dolls, about 30 fans stood behind The Dunk this morning trying to get the wrestlers' attention. "Balls...Balls," the crowd shouted as a driver in a small sedan waited to turn into the lot. Balls Mahoney, with a thick, tattooed arm jutting from the driver's side window, waved, then delighted the group by sticking out his pierced tongue. Balls made them even happier when he walked over to the fences and portable barriers to sign their autographs. "A lot of wrestlers have a passion for what they do and care about their fans," David Strycharz, 21. That was his explanation why he and two friends, Mary Kolek, 24, and Stephanie Stevenson, 22, all of Chicopee, Mass., were willing to stand for hours in 39-degree cold. Strycharz was carrying a sign autographed last night in Bridgeport, Conn., by wrestler Shane McMahon, son of World Wrestling Entertainment's chairman Vince McMahon. 
Strycharz, Kolek and Stevenson watched the matches in Bridgeport, then drove up to Providence today and posted themselves outside The Dunk by about 10 a.m. Kolek had taken the day off from her job at the Big Y supermarket in hopes of meeting wrestler CM Punk. It was a surreal scene behind The Dunk. Providence Bruins players, sticks in hand, mixing with the beefy wrestlers and two of World Wrestling Entertainment's so-called "divas" -- Layla, a brunette with dark glasses, and Kelly Kelly -- a tall, thin blonde. The women were treated like Hollywood startlets when they reached across and through the fencing to sign glossy photographs of themselves. This isn't the Saturday afternoon wrestling I watched as a kid. By early aftenoon, wrestler Tommy Dreamer , another Kolek favorite, was among a steady stream of ring heroes driving down West Exchange Street and turning into the parking lot. The vigil was paying off. "They're all coming in now," said a voice from the crowd. Eager fans like Dino Ruggiero, 23, of Providence, butted heads with staff members trying to keep people from running up to the wrestlers' cars before they could get into the safety of the fenced parking lot. Ruggiero came with a suitcase full of replica belts waiting for autographs and G.I.-Joe like dolls molded to look like the wrestling stars. He also had a chair, which came in handy trying to reach over the fence. And he had a fold-up table, covered in autographs. Why bring a table? He figured nobody else would ask the wrestlers to autograph a table. 
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20 something year olds lining up for autographs ??????????? taking a day out of work to try to meet a celebrity ????????????? only 1 word comes to mind.........pathetic.
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