Sunday was the night! Lizzy and I went to the WWE RAW wrestling matches at the Prudential Center. I bought tickets from D&G tickets and they delivered! We were second row ringside. The trip was awesome. We took the train up to Newark and walked the couple blocks over to the Prudential Center. When we got there, we entered into the building and no lines for us, we walked right to the floor seating section. Did I mention the seats were amazing!?! We got there about fifteen minutes early and the place really filled in as the wrestling began.
Watching the athleticism of the men and women in the ring was spectacular. As fake as wrestling is, there is no doubt that most of the people in the ring are talented athletes. By most I'm excluding some of the guests, like that ogre from NY, Snookie (who by the way did not show up at the Jersey venue).
Lizzy's eyes were as wide as saucers the whole time. WWE RAW truly is amazing entertainment. The performers kept the entire center hopping and involved. The wrestlers all did their rounds, slapping hands as they went by but poor Lizzy kept getting passed over. I sent her to the crowd control fence when Randy Orton and John Cena went by. She disappeared behind the crowds and I could only keep track of where she was by her bright pink shoes. She would come back and say daddy, they leaned right over me and were inches from me, but they didn't slap my hand. The last wrestler of the night to walk by was Triple H, Lizzy ran to the gate followed by a ton of other people. I saw Triple H hug one of the children, but did not even ask Lizzy if she slapped his hand for fear that, though so close to her heroes, she did not get to slap hands with any of them.
When the matches were over Lizzy and I went to the concession stand. They didn't have any crowd control or any Triple H shirts in Lizzy's size. She was bummed, but I got her a 'I Was There' shirt, a Randy Orton Necklace and a WWE yearbook instead. As we walked back to the train station, she seemed tired and a little cranky. When I asked her if it was everything she expected, she said, “Yes and no.”, she didn't give anymore details than that, the wind completely fell out of my sails. I went from being super dad to the guy who killed the Easter Bunny in just three words.
We were a block from the station when she looked up at me in some strange realization and said, “Daddy, Triple H hugged me.”, she continued walking. I slowed our pace and looked down at her, “Triple H? The Game? Hugged you?”, my mind raced to remember as he went by. I saw him hug a child, but behind the crowd could only see the blond hair and Lizzy was wearing a cap. I thought about the fact that I had to tell Lizzy to pick up her cap that had fallen behind the crowd control gate and my mind put it together, Lizzy was the child that was hugged, that was her blond hair, her hat must have flown off. She wasn't tired, she was in shock, the biggest wrestler of the day hugged her. Her young mind was trying hard to embrace the event, the unlikeliness that she would be the only child in the whole arena that was hugged by the man that would be taking on the Undertaker at Wrestlemania, the man who was The Rock's nemesis (when I used to watch wrestling in my college days), the no doubt future Hall Of Famer. The shock was starting to wear off and her face changed from the tired/shocked look to a look of awe. As we got to the station, Lizzy asked to see the shirt that I picked out at the concession stand for her. She admitted, it was excellent. The train ride was filled with Lizzy texting to her sister about the great time she had, all the wrestlers and 'The Hug'.
When we got to our station, we found the rear passenger door of my Escape wide open. Lizzy in her excitement had forgotten to close it when we left earlier that day. Luckily nothing was stolen.
The only downside of the night was trying to get food. Lizzy was in the mood for a Nathan's hot dog. She never got one. The, as of yet, unanswered letter I sent to Nathan's, that night, follows.
I don't like to bitch in an email, but what I saw this evening was a disgrace. Let me start off by saying, I normally go to your Monmouth Mall location and they do a good job. Tonight I went to the WWE event at the Prudential Center for my daughter's 9th birthday. The people in front of us came back with Nathan's and after seeing them with it, my daughter proclaimed she was hungry and wanted a Nathan's hot dog. The people in front of us commented on how long it took them to get their order. A 10 min. intermission came and my daughter and I bee lined for the Nathan's. I asked my daughter if she would rather have pizza, but she insisted on a Nathan's hot dog. When we got to Nathan's, all of the lines were between seven and nine people long. We got in line and eight minutes later were still in the same spot. A lady several lines to the left demanded to see the manager and complained that she had been waiting ten minutes and the lines hadn't moved. The manager yelled to an employee to get her, her order. The pizza place had funneled through every customer, even the ones who had shed from the Nathan's line and had NO LINE. I asked my daughter once more if she wanted pizza, but she really wanted a Nathan's. Someone came and said that the intermission was over. My daughter and I went back to our seats, missing the first couple minutes of the match that she wanted to see most(She was wearing Randy Orton gear from head to toe). We didn't get a hot dog and ended up grabbing food at a deli on the way home.
I don't want to tell you how to run your business, but somebody obviously has to. I managed a deli and now run a successful small business. If I was half as inadequate as the manager there, I would have been reprimanded or probably even fired on the spot. If you know your restaurant is at an event center filled with children, at dinnertime and the intermission is coming, maybe, I don't know, be prepared. At least serve some people. The manager seemed completely uncaring and the staff looked like statues. I was not the only one who was cursing Nathan's. As we left the line, empty handed, and went back to our seats, there were at least 50 other people in line who left grumbling the same time we did, not to mention the many who got in line after us and left in disgust, before we had the sense to.
Sincerely a former customer,
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