Last weekend, Ultimate Wrestling East was supposed to return to action after a 3 1/2 month hiatus, the middle part of a three week flurry of wrestling in the home district. In Your Face Wrestling had their scheduled show the week before, and last night, the WWE made its final visit of the year to Albany's Times-Union Center.
So what happened? No one's really certain, but a notice appeared on UWE's Facebook page the night before the show that said the Sept. 28 card was cancelled, and that they were now aiming at returning in January, meaning a scheduled card that was tentatively set for November 16 is also off the board.
There are a number of factors involved. One factor might be regarding the availability of a ring announcer. Brian Cady, a local radio personality who handled the ring announcing duties, was dismissed from his day job in August in the wake of a phone scam that somehow fooled him and embarrassed his station. Another would be the availability of some of the talent. As I had noted back in June when UWE had their last show, the plan was to move the cards to Saturdays for the two autumn shows, the better to avoid conflicts with the NFL (most of the wrestlers, obviously, may be football fans), although Saturday night wasn't exactly a safe bet, either, not with several college games on the bill on cable. Saturday nights usually means some of the talent are working for other independents and might have scheduling issues.
And, then, let's factor in roller derby. The Albany All-Stars, an all-female roller derby league, had their season opener last night, competing with WWE for fan dollars and attendance. Their next event is November 16, which would've put it right in competition with UWE, as well as pro & college hockey.
For some of us who are tired of the recycled soap opera of WWE and/or TNA (right now, they're two sides of the same rusty coin), the extended vacation of UWE only goes to prove that singer Tom Petty was right 32 years ago. The waiting is the hardest part.
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