WWE kicks off WrestleMania party
John Powell - Cineplex Entertainment
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Orlando, Florida - The WWE started off its WrestleMania 24 celebrations with two events on Thursday night.
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| The WWE rocks at the block party. (Photo: John Powell, Cineplex Entertainment) |
The annual THQ Video Game Challenge has buttons mashing and the WWE Street Party had heads banging in Orlando, Florida.
The massive block party invaded Wall Street Plaza with rock music, tasty food and beverages as well as a special WWE band consisting of ‘Mouth of the South’ Jimmy Hart, Hillbilly Jim and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler.
Earlier in the evening, the House of Blues hosted the 6th annual THQ Video Game Challenge. Featuring the ‘Smackdown versus Raw 2008’ video game, the best players in the world lock horns for gaming bragging rights. When they were done, some of the WWE superstars themselves went head to head in a tournament to dethrone last year’s champion Elijah Burke.
In the finals of the ‘WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008’ international videogame tournament, four finalists competed in a live championship match at the House of Blues. With WWE talent Matt Striker and Todd Grisham as the feuding hosts, Darren Lavocah of Leicester, England, was the victor and as such he won a championship belt as well as tickets to the Hall of Fame ceremony and front row tickets to WrestleMania. The other three finalists all won tickets to WrestleMania as well.
In the Superstars tournament, Elijah Burke became a two-time champion of the Video Game Challenge by defeating fresh-faced ECW Superstar Kofi Kingston.
"This was very vindicating, if you will. It seems that every year, there’s something different, something that stacks the odds against yours truly,” a victorious Burke said.
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